While many self-directed investors understand that managing their own money can involve a great deal of responsibility and work, many do not realize the important skills they need to commit to mastering in order to succeed.  Certain investors want to “dabble” or learn to trade with what they often characterize as “fun money” however losing […]

Introduction Whether you are Warren Buffet or an ordinary do-it-yourself investor, doing your homework is vital to managing your investments successfully.  Almost all of the experts we’ve talked to have consistently told us the same thing: investors need to do their due diligence before making investment decisions.  Given the risks associated with investing, the advice […]

FCAC – Savings & Investment Section In this section of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada website, (FCAC) you can find a wealth (pun intended) of information on getting started with investing. Through this page you can learn about: Setting your saving and investing goals Government saving and investment plans Investing: understanding the basics Common […]

Today I came across a great educational tool for individual investors curious about online investing.   The investing online resource center (IORC) was designed to to be a source of noncommercial information about investing online and was created by the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA).  While it is still online, the IORC does not seem […]

Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSA) Many of you are probably familiar with the saying: “the only sure things in life are death and taxes.” Well, as of January 2009 there’s been a little ray of hope as far as those taxes are concerned.   In February of 2008 the Canadian Minister of Finance (Jim Flaherty) announced […]

Defining a market is as simple as picturing a boxing ring with two opposing opinions representing the fighters.  One of these opinions places a bet on an increasing value of a share price while the opposing side wagers that the share price will decrease in value.  This is the simplest way to visualize the market: […]

Below is a list of “on demand” educational seminars and webinars from a variety of Canadian discount brokerages on a variety of investing-related topics.  To access them, simply click on the video links.  As this list will be constantly reviewed and updated, check back for more links/videos. Title Category Length Company Host url Description Registration […]

Learning Objective – Discount Brokerage Education Resources: To understand the different educational resources currently being offered by Canadian discount brokerages Introduction Increasingly, Canadian discount brokerages have begun to recognize that retail investors require tools and resources in order to support them in managing their own trading activities.  Fortunately for retail investors, the quality and diversity […]

With so many people talking about technical analysis and using stock charts to help make trading and investing decisions, here are some good tutorials to get your feet wet with some of the key concepts and terms used in technical approaches. Top marks go to the folks at Interactive Brokers for preparing this handy introduction […]

Ever wondered how shorting a stock works? A couple of handy tutorials help explain this often misunderstood approach to trading: The first is a bit of a technical explanation prepared by Interactive Brokers on how a short sale works: http://www.interactivebrokers.com/images/flash/shortsale/index.html   A simpler version prepared by the Khan Academy can be found here:

This tutorial prepared by the Investment Industry Regulation Organization of Canada (IIROC) is a great introduction as to how stocks are actually traded: http://investorguide.iiroc.ca/en/

Even though this video is very old, it is an amazing “investment” of your time to watch it. It’s an old cartoon of how the New York Stock Exchange works.

It almost seems so obvious that businesses should know who their customers are. In the real world, many small businesses can get to know their customers’ buying habits and taste, and they even might get to be on a first name basis with them. As companies get bigger, they don’t see customers per se, they […]

Most people know of a co-worker, a friend or even a family member who is actively involved in the stock market – maybe that person “made a killing” or “lost their shirt”. The greatest feature of the stock market is also its greatest hazard: namely that anyone with capital can participate. One of the biggest […]

What makes a market? If there’s one thing that you can guarantee about the stock market, it’s that everyone has an opinion. At first blush, it seems fairly obvious that with so many different people participating in the market, there’s bound to be differences of opinion. What many observers and inexperienced investors/traders don’t do, however, […]

A convenient way of thinking about trading Most people believe that in order to be successful in business, you have to be profitable, and for the most part they’d be right.  The primary “goal” is quite easy to measure – are you profitable or are you not? If you talk to any salesperson or sit […]