I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  Since we’re in the middle of a holiday weekend, I thought I’d include a piece about finding real estate investments.  Throughout the early 2,000’s the rage was flipping houses as the housing market just kept going up, up, up…  Now, we’ve had a subsequent crash, and with mortgage rates at record lows, now could be the time to think about real estate investing again.

 First, you must increase the odds by finding more deals. Who is more likely to get a cheap apartment building, an investor that simply looks through the listings, or the one that uses ten resources?  Here are the ten: 

1. Talk. Let people know you are looking and sometimes the properties will come to you. There are a lot of owners out there who want to sell, but haven’t yet listed their property.
2. Use the Web. Go to a search engine and enter the type of real estate you are looking for, along with the city you want to invest in. You never know what you might find.
3. Drive around looking for “For Sale By Owner” signs. Owners often don’t want to pay to keep the ad in the paper every week, so you won’t see all properties there.
4. Find abandoned properties. That’s a pretty clear sign that the owner doesn’t want to deal with the property. He might sell cheap.  Here is another option: 
5. Find old “For Rent” ads. Call if they are a few weeks old. Landlords are often ready to sell, especially if the haven’t yet rented the units out.
6. Talk to bankers. You might get a foreclosed-on investment property cheaper if you buy it before they list it with a real estate agent.
7. Offer someone a finder’s fee. There are people that always seem to hear about the good deals. Have such people coming to you.
8. SearchEviction notices. If your local papers publish eviction notices, or if you can get the information at the courthouse, it can be useful. A landlord who just went through the procees of evicting tenants is a likely seller.
9. Look for Old FSBO ads. If you call on two-month-old “For sale By Owner” ads, and they haven’t sold, they may be ready to deal. Owners often give up the effort, but still would love to sell. Help them out!
10. Advertise. “Looking for investment properties to buy,” might be sufficient to generate a few calls.

 REAL ESTATE INVESTING THROUGH ETFs

If buying real estate isn’t for you, you can still play the real estate sector using ETFs.  Here are a few to consider:

•  Cohen & Steers Global Realty Majors ETF (GRI)
• Direxion Real Estate Bear 3X – Triple-Leveraged ETF (DRV)
• Direxion Real Estate Bull 3X – Triple-Leveraged ETF (DRN)
• Dow Jones Wilshire REIT ETF (RWR)
• First Trust S&P REIT Index Fund (FRI)
• iShares FTSE NAREIT Industrial/Office Index Fund (FIO)
• iShares FTSE NAREIT Mortgage REITs Index Fund (REM)
• iShares FTSE NAREIT Real Estate 50 Index Fund (FTY)
• iShares FTSE NAREIT Residential Index Fund (REZ)
• iShares FTSE NAREIT Retail Index Fund (RTL)
• PowerShares Active U.S. Real Estate Fund (PSR)

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ALTERNATIVE ENERGY PLAYS

The boom in alternative energy stocks has given rise to a boon in alternative energy ETFs. More than a half-dozen funds launched in the past few years, and more are on the way.

The newest wrinkle is funds that focus on specific technologies. Today’s Company Invest pick is “TAN,” an ETF that provides access to the solar energy market.   This fund offers exposure to the global solar energy market and a very inexpensive expense ratio of 0.65%.

We are always looking for pullback stocks to buy at Company Invest and TAN has experienced quite a correction here recently.  It is always better to buy stocks or ETFs when they are on sale, instead of grabbing them at the top of rallies.

IS “TAN” A BUY?  COMPANY INVEST TECHNICAL TAKE

The chart looks very favorable for a winning trade, or even a longer term investment right now in TAN.

“A” is the 7-day Relative Strength Index (RSI), a measure of a stock or ETF’s strength against its recent pricing.  The RSI is giving two buy signals: One it is sitting in oversold territory (20.88) that it hasn’t been in since the end of August.  The last time the RSI was this low, TAN gained 36%!   Also, the current RSI has a bullish divergence (higher low), while at the same time the price is making lower lows.  This is a powerful foreshadowing of a reversal.

“B” is the candlestick pricing chart of TAN.  It has corrected from $9 to the $7 range and a higher low (compared to the August low) looks to be setting up.  Today’s candlestick was a spinning top, which indicates indecision, and more importantly the selling occurred on very light volume.

“C” is the recent selling bars as TAN corrected.  Look at the massive selling peak that took place last week with those huge red selling bars.  Now contrast that with this week’s selling volume.  This tells us the selling may be over.

“D” is the MACD histogram, a wonderful predictor of momentum change.  There is a bullish divergence between the histogram bars and the price.  If TAN can get over $7.50 it will be extremely bullish, as that would confirm the histogram’s directional change.

“E” is the slow stochastic momentum indicator.  Yet another bullish divergence is setting up here.

Company Invest Bottom Line: Grab 100 shares here and put a stop at $6.77.  That way if TAN breaks the August lows, you are safely out.

If you just getting started with online trading and need a discount broker, consider Tradeking.  You can click their ad at the top of the page to fill out a quick and easy application, or, if you want to switch from a high cost broker to enjoy $4.95 a trade, .

Despite Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve’s $600 billion effort to prop the stock market and economy, it looks as if a correction is in order now.  Now would be a good time to pause, take profits and sell a portion of your long positions, or, if you are aggressive, why not make money when the market goes down?   You can do that by shorting stocks, buying put options, or, our preferred method, buying inverse ETFs.

We know that the market goes down much faster than it goes up because fear is a powerful thing, especially when coupled with money.  Right now the early signals indicate a 5 to 10 percent correction looming in the S&P 500.  And when the S&P 500 goes down, 3/4 of all stocks go down with it so take heed.  If you want to stay in your long positions, that’s fine.  Use a 5 to 8% trailing stop (whatever you are comfortable with).  A trailing stop is a wonderful tool offered by most online brokers.  It is a variable selling point and is great when you’ve already made money and want to lock in your profits.  If you put a 5% trail in, your selling point is always 5% lower than the current bid for the stock or ETF you are in.  That way, if the price keeps going up, so does your stop, however, once it corrects 5%, your shares are automatically sold, and your profits are locked in.

Today’s pick is QID.  QID is a reverse ETF which moves in the opposite direction of the QQQ’s (technology ETF).  That is when the technology sector is going down, QID is going up.

Looking at the chart there are several encouraging signals:

“A” is the slow stochastic momentum indicator.  It has been oscillating in oversold territory since early September!  We think this time the stochastic line has a great shot of going all the way up to 80 (overbought).  If that happens, QID will rally bigtime!  There is a powerful divergence between the stochastic and the price channel.  Look at the severely downsloped price trendline (red), compared to the stochastic lows (green line).  The stochastic line is flat to slightly sloping upward, indicating a change in trend.

“B“is the price chart for QID.  We had a powerful white candle on Friday (typically a selling day) and QID had a positive week overall.  More importantly, are the 3 and 10 day Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs).  The green and red arrows in the chart indicate buy/sell signals generated when the 3 day EMA (blue line) crosses up or down through the 10 day EMA (red line).  As you can see this technique gives wonderful stock trading signals.  The last signal (SELL) occured at the beginning of September.  Since then QID has gotten a 36% haircut! As of Friday’s close the 3 day EMA is EXACTLY the same as the 10 day and is just about to cross to the upside.  Monday could be an EXCELLENT entry point.

“C” is the MACD histogram.  Look at the massive bullish divergence between the histogram and the price channel.  This is a powerful buy signal.

“D” is the ADX indicator.  You get a buy signal when the green line crosses up through the red line (heading that direction but hasn’t happend yet).  However, the ADX line (black line) gives early signals.  The ADX line measures trend, and the trend has been up since early September, however that line is now rolling over and sloping down.

Bottom Line: Look for an entry point Monday and buy 50-100 shares of QID with a stop $1 below your entry point.

UPDATE: We had two wonderful stocks here in X (US Steel) and DGP (Double Gold ETF).  Hopefully you took profits and sold all of your shares now.

ERY:  We recommended it last week, but our stop of $29.20 was triggered.  However, ERY rallied hard on Friday and we really like it again as a trade.  Look to re-enter on Monday.

WHAT IS A MUTUAL FUND?

A mutual fund is an open-ended fund operated by an investment company, which raises money from shareholders and invests in a group of assets, in accordance with a stated set of objectives. Mutual funds raise money by selling shares of the fund to the public, much like any other type of company can sell stock in itself to the public. Mutual funds then take the money they receive from the sale of their shares (along with any money made from previous investments) and use it to purchase various investment vehicles, such as stocks, bonds and money market instruments. In return for the money they give to the fund when purchasing shares, shareholders receive an equity position in the fund and, in effect, in each of its underlying securities. Benefits of mutual funds include diversification and professional money management.

Our Take: Recent studies have concluded that the over 85% of mutual funds CANNOT beat the annual return of the S&P 500.  So much for professional money management.  In addition, mutual funds are expensive, with front end commissions and several “hidden fees,” that the average Joe has no clue about.  And your performance is dependent on the fund manager buying and selling the right securities at just the right time.  And fund managers do not get bonuses due to good performance; they get bonuses only based on the amount of dollars coming into the fund.  So all their efforts go into getting as many people to buy into their funds as possible.  Also, very few of the strategies on this site can be applied to mutual funds.

WHAT IS AN EXCHANGE TRADED FUND (ETF)?

An ETF is a fund that tracks an index, but can be traded like a stock. ETFs always bundle together the securities that are in an index. Investors can do just about anything with an ETF that they can do with a normal stock, such as short selling. Because ETFs are traded on stock exchanges, they can be bought and sold at any time during the day (unlike most mutual funds).

Their price will fluctuate from moment to moment, just like any other stock’s price, and an investor will need a broker in order to purchase them, which means that he/she will have to pay a commission. On the plus side, ETFs are more tax-efficient than normal mutual funds, and since they track indexes they have very low operating and transaction costs associated with them. There are no sales loads or investment minimums required to purchase an ETF.

Our Take:  We love ETFs.  ETFs charge a fraction of the fees of mutual funds and can be traded just like a stock.  And online broker’s offer very reasonable commissions ranging from $4 to $10 per trade.  Additionally, ALL of the trading strategies you read about on CompanyInvest.com can be used on ETFs.

MORE REASONS TO BUY ETFs

There are two main reasons we love ETFs at CompanyInvest.com:

#1: ETFs have much lower fees than mutual funds.  Over time this can be very significant.  Consider the following example:

Investor A has a portfolio of four of the leading mutual funds with an average expense ratio of 2.16% (Typical of a mutual fund portfolio).  He initially invests $1 million.  His  portfolio yields a 10% annual return.  After 30 years, his portfolio grows to $9.6 million.  Not bad right?

Investor B has a portfolio of four of the leading ETFs with an average expense ratio of 0.19% (Typical of an ETF portfolio).  He also initially invests $1 million.  Let’s assume his portfolio also yields 10% a year.  After 30 years, investor B’s portfolio grows to $16.5 million!

So over a 30 year period, with identical annual rates of return, Investor B has accumulated nearly $7 million more dollars than Investor A.  And that is ALL due to higher fund expenses and other fees over time.

#2 ETFs can be traded just like a stock. This means you can buy and sell them whenever you want, and you can also short them (and make money even when the market is trending down).

ALL of the strategies we suggest on Companyinvest.com can be used with ETFs; but very few with mutual funds.  Once you learn to trade and incorporate trading strategies such as the ones taught on this site, you can beat the S&P 500 100% of the time; not 15% like the mutual funds.

Bottom Line: Participate in mutual funds if your company offers a matching contribution to your 401k program.  But consider opening a ROTH IRA (all the major online brokers such as Scottrade, Etrade, Tradeking, and Sharebuilder) offer them.  You will get much more bang for your buck and if you use the strategies discussed on our site, your annual return can be more like 20% per year, instead of the 10% used in the example above.

In today’s environment where Central Banks are intervening, Quantitative Easing is the buzzword, currency manipulation is ongoing, there is much volatility in World currencies.  Should you trade currencies? How can you?  One way is to use ETFs.  The following is a short list of currency ETFs you can buy/sell:

• US Dollar                              UUP
• Australian Dollar               FXA
• British Pound                      FXB
• Euro                                        FXE
• Japanese Yen                      FXY
• Chinese Yuan                      CYB
• Canadian Dollar                 FXC

Forex Trading is another option.  Forex trading online is a fast way to use your investment capital to it’s fullest. The Forex markets offer distinct advantages to the small and large traders alike, making Forex currency trading in many ways preferable to other markets such as stocks, options or traditional futures. Here are seven reasons why you’ll want to look into Forex Trading online.

1 – Forex is the largest market.
Forex trading volume of more than 1.9 billion, more than 3 times larger than the equities market and more than 5 times bigger than futures, give Forex traders nearly unlimited liquidity and flexibility.

2 – Forex never sleeps!
You can execute forex trading online 24/7, from 7AM New Zealand time on Monday morning, to 5PM New York time on Friday evening. No waiting for markets to open: they’re open all night! This makes Forex trading online a very attractive component that fits easily into your day (or night!)

3 – No Bulls or Bears!
Because Forex trading online involves the buying of one currency while simultaneously selling another, you have an equal opportunity for profit no matter which direction the currency is headed. Another advantage is that there are only around 14 pairs of currencies to trade, as opposed to many thousands of stocks, options and futures.

4 – Forex Trading online offers great leverage!
You can make the most of your investment resources with Forex trading online. Some brokers offer 200:1 margin ratios in your trading accounts. Mini-FX accounts, which can typically be opened with only $200-300, offer 0.5% margin, meaning that $50 in trading capital can control a 10,000 unit currency position. This is why people are flocking to Forex trading online as a way to highly leverage their investments.

5 – Forex prices are predictable.
Currency prices, though volatile, tend to create and follow trends, allowing the technically trained Forex trader to spot and take advantage of many entry and exit points.

6 – Forex trading online is commission free!
That’s right! No commissions, no exchange fees or any other hidden fees. This is a very transparent market, and you’ll find it very easy to research the currencies and the countries involved. Forex brokers make a small percentage of the bid/ask spread, and that’s it. No longer any need to compute commissions and fees when executing a trade.

7 – Forex trading online is instant!
The FX market is astoundingly fast! Your orders are executed, filled and confirmed usually within 1-2 seconds. Since this is all done electronically with no humans involved, there is little to slow it down!

Forex trading online can get you where you want to go quicker and more profitably than any other form of trading. Check it out and see what Forex trading online can do for you!

The greenback has been the key to nearly the entire 70% rally the market has seen since March, 2009.  Simply put, when the dollar goes down, stocks have went up, and visa versa.  This is especially true with commodities.  We at companyinvest.com expect a multi week pop in the dollar because the fed may want to increase its value right before it revs up the printing press to print more dollars to buy treasuries with (quantitative easing).  Further QE, should the fed do it, will crush the value of the dollar.

The following chart is the weekly chart of UUP (which is an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF)) representing the dollar’s movement.  Weekly charts are useful because they are longer term and could illustrate investments of weeks to months in duration.

On the chart you can see the RSI “A” is nearing “30″ which is extremely oversold.  Stocks and ETFs can stay oversold for prolonged periods of time, but this looks to be a decent entry point.

“B” is the weekly candlestick.  It’s a red candlestick, indicating the ETF lost value last week, however it is a “spinning Top,” which illustrates indecision.  It shows that during the week UUP traded both higher and lower than where it opened and closed.  This could mean UUP is ready to reverse.  A “Spinning top” sort of looks like a plus sign.  Compare that with the previous weeks red candles. Do you see a difference?

“C” is important.  “C” is a long term trendline of price support going back to early 2008.  Notice this week’s candle tagged that support line and bounced off of it.

“D” is the MACD.  Watch its final print next Friday, 10/22 and see if the histogram “blue bars” put in a shorter bar.  If so, that is a directional change and a buy signal.

“E” is the slow stochastic. Notice it went from below 20 to back above, and now it’s back dowm below 20 again.  That’s a bullish signal.  When the black line crosses up through the red line you could potentially have 1 to 3 months of buying before the black line gets all the way to “80″ again (overbought).

Bottom Line:  You can buy UUP here for a longer term trade, but instead I would look at buying either DZZ (short gold), DUG (Short Oil services), or MWN or QID (short midcap stocks, and short tech).

Seasoned investors know all about “shorting” the market, but many newer investors do not.  When you “short” a stock, you borrow shares from your broker, immediately sell them (with the hope they will go DOWN in price).  Then if they do go down, you buy them back a lesser price, return the shares to your broker and you keep the difference.

(e.g., You short 100 shares of Alcoa (AA) at $13.00 per share.  In a week, the price of AA drops to $10/share.  You’ve just made a profit of $3/share or a quick $300 profit.)

If this sounds complicated, don’t worry. There are dozens of “short” ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) around that you can trade.  An ETF is similar to a mutual fund, but can be traded like a stock (you can buy and sell shares intraday).

Today’s Company Invest pick is MWN.  MWN is a triple-leveraged ETF that is short the “midcap stocks.”  It seeks a return that is 300% of the inverse (or opposite) of the price performance of the Russell MidCap index.  Simple put, when the broader market goes down (S&P, Russell), this fund will go up fast.

You can see from the chart that MWN has taken a beating lately since the market has been rallying.  That is a good thing.  You want to buy stocks or ETFs AFTER they selloff, or when no one wants them.  It’s like buying wholesale instead of retail.

COMPANY INVEST TECHNICAL ANALYSIS

“A” shows the 3-day RSI in an oversold state.  This is a buy signal for a short term trade.

“B” shows the stock price sloping down, while the stochastic lines “D” are looking like they will slope up at the same time.  That is a positive divergence and another buy signal.

“C” Is the MACD histogram.  This is a nice predictor of trend change. As you can see, the blue bars have been getting smaller and are headed for the zero line. The last two times this happened (see other green arrows), the stock rallied by several dollars both times. Look for the bar to break above zero soon.

Finally, “D” is the slow stochastic, a measure of momentum. The best signals occur when the lines enter oversold territory (<20), go back above, then go back down below 20 again.  As you can see, this has happened.

Company Invest Bottom Line: At $13 a share, MWN is hard to pass up.  Grab 100 shares and put a $1 stop in.  That way, the most you could lose is $100, while you could easily make $500-$1,000 on the upside.  A great risk/reward play.