Author: Investa

So, our extended community quarantine (ECQ) is extended for two more weeks.

How are you?
Still hanging in there?
Or cabin fever is starting to strike?

Staying at home is the sacrifice we can all do so we can save ourselves, our families, and our fellowmen from this distressing COVID-19. However, seeing the same walls and doing the same things for 24 hours, 7 days a week can take a toll on us, especially to those extroverts. So, how can we survive this new normal? How can we maximize our day so we can get out of ECQ with our minds still intact? Here are some simple ways on how to stay sane and productive during this crisis.

1. Wake up and get up

We are currently living in unusual and uncertain times, so congratulate yourself for simply waking up. If you want to take your day up a notch, get up immediately and stay away from the bed. Avoid scrolling through your newsfeed while in bed. Avoid answering emails while half-awake. The longer you are in bed, the more sluggish you will feel, and it will be so hard to jumpstart your day.

2. Have your quiet time

After moving away from your sleeping place, find a private spot to have your quiet time. You can meditate, pray, or read a book that can feed your soul. The world is currently full of anxieties, thus it is important that you get in tune with yourself before you face today’s challenges and discouraging news. It is also important to make gratitude a habit. Reflect on your life and look for things that you want to be thankful for. This simple practice will definitely help you find the bright side during these dark times.

3. Exercise

The Department of Health is encouraging us to work together so we can flatten the curve. But with our current routine of eat-sleep-repeat, it seems that we are fattening our curves! Thus, we need to get fit. Don’t worry about closed gyms. We can always get our fitness classes on Youtube. Thousands of mobile fitness apps are also available. Exercise is a good way to combat cabin fever for physical activity releases endorphins which gives us a happy feeling.

4. Take a bath

After sweating your heart out with your home workout, treat yourself to a nice bath. Relieve yourself from the summer heat while washing those worries away.

5. Cook great breakfasts and make good coffees

There is something about breakfast that is so comforting. A plate of pancakes, eggs, bacon, and one hot coffee can be your little hugs in these heartbreaking times. So, start your day with your favorite breakfast. You can feel energized while also getting comfort from a home-cooked meal.

6. Groom yourself

It is so hard to jumpstart our work from home (WFH) because we have that concept of our home being a no-work-zone. However, WFH is our new normal, thus we need to do our best to adapt.

One way of triumphing over sluggishness is power dressing. Make your home your workplace by simply wearing your office clothes. It may seem ridiculous at first, but it is an effective way to trick your mind into being productive and finishing your tasks for the day.

7. Get some work done

Now that you are done with your pre-work rituals, it is time to get actual work done. Before you fire up that laptop, make a to-do list first. This simple list can guide you throughout the day. It is an effective tool to stay on track and avoid the temptations of binge-watching on Netflix.

8. Take breaks

Be careful not to wear yourself out during ECQ. Our health is still our priority during these times. To avoid fatigue, try working on 30-minute intervals. That is working uninterruptedly for 30 minutes, take a short break, then continue again for 30 minutes until all items on your checklist are all crossed out. During breaks, stand up and do some stretches. Also, do not forget to hydrate yourself, okay?

9. Learn something new

It is so tempting to work non-stop during ECQ because our laptops are just an arm away. Notifications can ping anytime. However, we must set at least an hour to do something that is non-work related. Let’s take this opportunity to learn something that we are passionate about. What is that thing that you have been wanting to learn? What is that thing that would make your heart alive again?

Go online and you will see many institutions that are offering free lessons during the quarantine period. Study that musical instrument. Learn how to dance. Practice how to cook or sew. Make that furniture. Learn about the stock market. Now that we have all the time in the world, pursue the thing that you have been putting off for a long time.

10. Sleep

Though you are currently working from home, do not be pressured to be overly productive. Our sanity, our health, and our survival must be our priorities. After finishing all your tasks, do not be guilty to watch Netflix and chill. Or better yet, just sleep. Take this once in a lifetime opportunity to take back all those sleepless nights. Tomorrow is another day, another battle. But for now, enjoy your bed, have a peaceful sleep, and forget all the discouragements for a moment.

Make this extended ECQ worthwhile by joining in Investa Online Summit. Whether you want to learn something new or you just want to improve your investing skills, Investa Online Summit has invited top entrepreneurs and master traders to teach you on how to boost your income, how to build crisis-resilient businesses, and how to make winning trades so you can protect yourself and your family from market crashes.

Join Investa Online Summit now!
For more details, visit www.investagrams.com/investasummit

We hear it time and time again, “Busy ako eh, wala akong time para matuto mag-invest sa stocks.”

A familiar phrase to all of us traders trying to get our family, friends, or colleagues to begin their journey in the financial markets. I’m sure we know more than a handful of people who actually do want to begin investing, but their time really is a hindering factor towards their goal. Well, throughout the past few years we’ve been doing our absolute best to develop features that can solve this problem.

First, we started with the InvestaWatcher. We understood that not everyone has the time to monitor the markets because of either school or work responsibilities. This is a legitimate concern because if a stock you’re holding suddenly plummets and you’re not aware, you wouldn’t be able to cut your losses and protect your capital. In contrast, if a stock you’ve been watching for days, weeks, or even months suddenly reaches your entry price and you’re not watching the markets, then that’s a huge missed opportunity.

This is why we developed the InvestaWatcher, so you can receive real-time price and news alerts of the stocks you are watching. So whether you’re in school, work, or wherever you are, you will receive price and news notifications in real-time. We’ve helped a ton of people with this feature, but there was another problem to be solved. There were also a lot of people who didn’t have the time to go through all the stocks in our market during the evening to create a trading plan because of a lack of time after going home from work.

Second, we developed InvestaScreener. Going home after a long day can drain you to the point that many just want to spend time with their family and recharge their batteries, which is totally fair and understandable. However, due to this many are unable to prepare for the market the next day and create a trading plan.

This is the sole reason why we developed the InvestaScreener, so our users don’t need to go through a tedious process when creating their trading plans. You don’t have to go through all the stocks in our market; simply use our screener and enter your strategy to filter out the stocks that fit your parameters. A lot of time can be saved by using the InvestaScreener, and a lot of time has already been saved.

However, there are people who aren’t able to use the screener to the best of its ability. The usual reasons are they either don’t know how to use it, don’t have a concrete strategy, or are subjective when they do their screening. We identified the concern, and we began developing a solution.

This is why we created the InvestaPRO, to automate further the entire screening process. We developed an algo-based generated watchlist through our proprietary formulas to create an objective-based watchlist for everyone. We also developed a ranking system that scores the stocks based on the parameters, and of course, those at the top of the list are the high priority stocks to take a closer look at.

With the InvestaPRO we have greatly decreased the time needed to go through the screening process, all you need to do is pick a watchlist you would like to check among our pool of watchlists and see the results instantly. We created a few free filters so that all our users can experience InvestaPro for themselves, here you can filter out a few bottoming out and momentum names.

However, the premium watchlists are much more selective and make sure to get the best results. There may be times that the premium watchlists captures more stocks in the watchlist because of the additional filters, but it also makes sure to be selective and only choose the best out of the group.

As we continue to push towards our vision of impacting the lives of 10,000,000 Filipinos, we will also continue to strive towards a trading environment suitable for the ordinary Filipino. The Investa Team will continue to do its best to identify possible chokepoints that stop people from starting on their journey and find ways to solve the problem via real-time automation. Hopefully, the InvestaPRO has added value to your trading as well.

For those of you who are curious on how to access or use the InvestaPRO, you can view our tutorial here.

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As we all know, the stock market is the ultimate equalizer of wealth.

Partaking in the financial markets, regardless if you’re a day trader or a long term investor, can multiply your wealth to levels you didn’t even imagine was possible. Well, if you do it the right way at least.

There have been countless traders who made their fortunes by trading the markets, but there have also been MILLIONS who have lost a tremendous amount of wealth through common trading mistakes.

Through time, there have been three bad practices that have led to the financial disaster of traders:

1. NOT CUTTING LOSSES
2. OVER SIZING
3. OVER-TRADING

 

In this article, we’re going to be focusing on the third one: OVER-TRADING.

We’ve all experienced this at some point in our trading journeys; you get a loss or go through a series of losses, and it’s getting on your nerves. You’re at a pretty bad drawdown for the month, but you can’t accept being in the negative. You feel the urge to begin trading even more, to churn the motor faster, to increase your position size per trade, every chart you look at shows an opportunity, you go for Grade C setups. You fall for the urge and eventually, end up losing even more.

Sucks right? We know, we’ve all been through it. The urge to want to gain back all the losses in a short period of time is a strong force that can persuade us to do things we know is wrong. Over-trading is also another form of revenge trading, but probably even worse. Of all the symptoms, the worst would probably be going for Grade C setups; meaning you trade stocks you normally won’t but nevertheless still go for it. When you’re unable to find Grade A setups, you start settling for low probability trades which will most likely just lead to more losses.

If you don’t stop there, it gets worse. You incur more losses from taking Grade C setups, so now you’re even more frustrated compared to before. You now begin to increase your position size in the hopes of getting one home run winner to regain all your losses. Sure, you may get lucky a couple of times. However, if you do this consistently over a long period of time, we all know it isn’t going to go well.

There’s a reason why over-trading is one of the culprits for the financial ruin of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of traders, it’s because we all go through it at some point. And those who have the psychological fortitude and intense discipline are those who are able to avoid over-trading consistently. So now, what’s the best thing to do if you’re at a drawdown?

Mark Minervini, a well known Market Wizard, and Mark Ritchie II, respected Momentum Master, both agree that it’s best to lower down activity during periods of underperformance. The reason why it’s best to both decrease your churn rate and lower down your position size is because you’re in a losing streak because you’re most probably out of sync with the market. So the focus during these losing periods is to focus on Grade A setups with a controlled position size until you get the “feel” of the market back on your side.

In contrast, the best time to ramp up exposure and increase your churn rate is when you’re winning, also for the simple fact that you’re experiencing this winning streak because your strategy and psychology are at sync with the market. As if you’re sailing the open seas, you want the wind to be at your back. You want to be one with the market and be trading at the heels of previous profitable trades.

The logic here is you’re trading your most and your heaviest when you’re winning and you’re trading your least when you’re losing. Just like a basketball player having a good shooting night, it’s as if you’re shooting the basketball in the ocean, you can’t miss. However, when he’s having a bad game, he could always focus on other things like assisting the ball or rebounding. Same goes with trading, when you’re having difficulty nailing down profitable trades then the focus should be protecting your capital and confidence.

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In one of our previous articles, we talked about how trading or investing in any financial market isn’t all about the potential upside. There is also the potential for major financial ruin if you’re not aware of the risks involved. If you haven’t read our article on the importance of risk management, you can access it here: The Importance of Risk Management. Now let’s learn an important part of risk management – Stop loss strategies.

To keep it simple, a stop loss is basically a point in a stock’s chart where you will cut your losses with no questions asked. It’s placed at a point where the trade idea is invalidated. We’ll give some examples so you can better visualize it.

Also, it’s important for you to know that there are only a few brokers here in the Philippines that offer an automatic stop loss order. So if your broker doesn’t have this feature, you will need to manually cut your losses so it’s important to find a way to keep an eye on the market from time to time throughout the day. So now the question is, what are some basic stop loss strategies you can use?

Basic Stop Loss Strategies

Percentage Stop Loss Strategy

This basically means you’ll cut a stock that is showing a loss once it hits your chosen % threshold. William O’Neal, the author of How to Make Money in Stocks and one of the greatest investors of our time, said that his max % threshold is 7-8%. Mark Minervini also shares the same sentiment. Here are some examples:

Price Structure Based Stop Loss Strategy

Whenever you’re buying a stock you usually buy on either a bounce of support or a break of resistance. So if you bought on the bounce of support, then your stops should be a few points below the support area. Conversely, if you bought at the break of resistance, then your stop should be placed a few points below the breakout point. If you don’t know the concept of support and resistance you can check out our YouTube channel where we discuss it in depth. Here are some examples:

 

Previous Candle Low

This simply means you place your stop below the low of the previous candlestick. This strategy is usually done by shorter-term traders in order to cut losses in a much faster way. However, you may be prone to selling a position prematurely by only using this strategy in all scenarios. Here are some examples:

That’s about it! So always remember, having stops in place isn’t enough to ensure that your losses don’t get out of hand. What’s important is being DISCIPLINED enough to sell the stock once it hits your stop loss, NO QUESTIONS ASKED! The three strategies above are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to setting stops effectively. Now the rest is up to you to continue studying more you can about the markets and finding ways to continuously refine both your buying and selling strategies.

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Want to achieve Financial Success? Do not start with saving.

On an individual level, the Philippines is one of the countries with the lowest rate of financial literacy.

Even if we don’t base it on statistics, using our own eyes we can see that there are a lot of people who aren’t managing their finances effectively. If we zoom in on the problem much closer, we are sure that all of us know that our nation is suffering from poverty as well. Learning about financial literacy and proper handling of your personal finance may not solve the concern regarding poverty in our country, but it’s a great first step towards financial success.

MINDSET HELPS YOU ACHIEVE FINANCIAL SUCCESS

So now what do we do first? Should we learn how much of our income should we set aside, learn how to lessen our expenses, or begin investing for the future? Well, none of those are actually the first step. The first step is to believe with your mind, heart, and soul that proper handling of your personal finance is a PRIORITY. You should also set in stone that achieving FINANCIAL SUCCESS and FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE is a must!

A lot of people try to begin on their journey towards financial freedom but meet unnecessary challenges too early. The main reason for this is a lack of self-discipline, and that lack of discipline comes from not having clear and set out goals or objectives. However, once you make it a priority to manage your finances the best way possible, those little bumps along the way that many others experience will likely disappear. Always remember, you find ways to achieve the things that are a PRIORITY to you.

PLANNING FOR FINANCIAL SUCCESS

The next thing you will need is a set of clear and decisive goals. As with anything we would like to accomplish, we will need something to motivate us. When you set out goals it need not be purely long term; make goals for the short, medium, and long term. By doing so, you can reward yourself with every short and medium-term goal achieved to keep you motivated to reach that long term goal. Write these goals down on a whiteboard or write it on a piece of paper then stick it up on your wall to see every day.

Once you’ve done the two essential things mentioned above, then you can do these nitty-gritty things that will help you achieve financial freedom.

SAVE

We’re sure this didn’t shock you, but it is essential on your way towards financial freedom. The problem is many of us fail to save in an OBJECTIVE manner. We think that as long as there’s a little bit of money left in our bank accounts that means we’re saving enough money. The first thing we will need to do is allocate a percentage of our income to savings, this is the #1 priority!

You don’t have to save 80% of your income, even saving as little as 10% to 20% of your income on a consistent basis over the long term is already enough to get you started. It’s definitely better than blindly just spending all of your income without properly allocating any money for your savings.

Most importantly, the proper equation is not income – expenses = savings. The proper thing to do is INCOME – SAVINGS = EXPENSES. By following the proper equation there should be no reason why you won’t be able to save a specific amount per month.

LOWER EXPENSES

Let us get things clear from the get-go, we’re not saying that you shouldn’t enjoy life or buy things you want. However, if you really want to achieve financial freedom then you will need to make some sacrifices and focus on the things you NEED.

Here’s one great way to think about how you can lower your expenses significantly. Let’s say you’re someone who’s an avid buyer at Starbucks, but you want to lower down your expenses. Ask yourself, “Do I really need this cup of coffee worth 160 pesos?” We all know the answer, you can probably live without having to buy a cup of coffee from Starbucks every day. Or if you really need coffee to jumpstart your day, can’t 3 in 1 coffee or a cup of coffee from 7/11 do the trick?

When you think about lowering your expenses focus on areas where you can be more practical. Find ways to look for cheaper alternatives to the things you’re already doing. Most importantly, if you don’t really need it, then find the strength not to impulsively spend on things and just add it to your savings.

CREATE AN EMERGENCY FUND

This is not something you need to begin doing immediately, you can do this after six to eight months of consistently saving a portion of your income. Now, remember, your emergency fund is SEPARATE from your savings. So if you keep your savings in a bank, you should open a separate bank account solely for the placement of your emergency fund. Why? It’s because this fund, as the name suggests, is for EMERGENCIES ONLY! We need to take out all forms of temptation to use our emergency funds unless it is really needed.

So what’s the best way to build up an emergency fund? If you’re saving 20% of your income, you can begin to allocate 5% of that to the emergency fund. So you will be saving 15% of your income then the remaining 5% will go to the emergency fund. By not buying the things you don’t actually need yet, you can also place that excess cash in the fund.

So now, how big should your emergency fund be? A good emergency fund is one that is equal to the amount of six to twelve months worth of salaries. Given that, it won’t be easy growing your emergency fund. However, by putting a portion of your income to your emergency fund consistently, you should be able to accomplish this in 18 to 24 months.

INVEST

Let’s say you’ve found a way to lower your expenses significantly, you’ve saved a good amount of money, and your emergency fund is stacked and ready. What’s the next thing you can do? The next thing you can do is to INVEST your money. So, what is investing? This is basically making your money work for you. There are many things you can invest in, there’s stocks, bonds, currencies, treasury bills, mutual funds, UITFs, and the like.

So what’s the advantage of investing your hard-earned money rather than just placing it all in the bank? If all you do is put your savings in a savings account, the value of your money is actually depreciating due to INFLATION. This is when the prices of goods go higher, and due to the low-interest rates of savings accounts your money is actually losing value relative to inflation.

By investing your money in places like the stock market, you can potentially make a bigger return on your savings which should be enough to combat factors like inflation. Now the question is, how do the above-mentioned investment options work? Know more about the investment that fits your needs and learn about effective investment strategies so you can build your wealth. Join Investa Online Summit this June 27!

For more information, visit www.investagrams.com/investasummit

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