Saturday, April 19, 2008

What Risks?

Still stock trading involves numerous risks if the investor is not careful. Stock trading remains imbued with several risks all the time.

Every investment in the stock of an individual company comes with these risks:
Market Risk
This is the risk of investing in the stock market in general. The stock market as a whole will rise and fall over time based upon investors' collective view of how desireable it is to own an investment in stock. Your company may be doing poorly, but the value of the stock is going up because the stock market in general is going up. Conversely, your company may be doing very well, but the value of the stock drops because of inflation, rising interest rates or some other factor which is causing investors to prefer another type of investment. All stocks are affected by market risk. The history of the financial markets suggests that investments in stocks are most likely to beat inflation over time. That’s one reason that so much new investment has been pouring into equity mutual funds in recent years. Yet, if there is one thing that the market reverses of the recent past have taught us, it is this: Investors can’t take stocks for granted.

Industry Risk
This is risk that affects all companies in a certain industry. Utility companies, for example, are often viewed as relatively low in risk because the utility industry is a mature industry operating in a predicatable environment with relatively little change. In contrast, internet and other technology industries are usually viewed as high in risk because the industry is changing so quickly and unpredictably. All stocks within an industry are subject to industry risk.

Regulatory Risk
Virtually every company is subject to some sort of regulation. Regulatory risk is the risk that the government will pass new laws or implement new regulations which will dramatically affect a business.

Business Risk
Refers to the risks unique to an individual company. Products, strategies, management, labor force, market share, etc., are among the key factors investors consider in evaluating the value of a specific company.

With good money management, you`ll be able to limit your risk. But, there is a kind of risk that can`t be minimized, and that`s "market risk”. This is the risk that the market might not be there tomorrow. Just by putting money in the market you are putting it at risk, so make sure you only trade with money you are willing to lose. This isn`t to say that you are going to lose all your capital - it`s just to say that you need to be able to focus on trading well, not trading to make money. See, you can only do this if you work with money you can afford to lose.

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