What and When to BUY or SELL


I am starting a series of articles which will deal with “How to invest in stocks efficiently” . This post is Part 1 .

There are two important questions which you have to answer when you want to buy shares ? They are “What to buy” and “When to buy” ?

You may be familiar with Fundamental Analysis , Fundamental Analysis answers the question “What to buy” ? . It a study of companies Financial statements , cash books , markets study to find out the future prospects of a company. It answers the question “Will this company be a good buy for long term” ? , “Will it be more valuable than what it is now ” etc etc ”

But !! , Even though you have picked up some excellent companies for your long term investments , That’s not the end of the story . Now the biggest challenge and question you have is “When to buy it” ?

You should not just go next day and buy the share , that’s not the right approach . There can be a price area where buying is best in terms of risk/reward .

Technical Analysis is the study of charts , price and volume patterns and other indicators derived from price and volume . Technical Analysis gives us hint on what can happen in future , understand that it only gives you chances, not a guarantee . So everything should be taken with crossed fingers , Decisions taken on basis of TA only increases your risk/reward scenario .

I will give you an example :

Reliance is a very good long term Investment (do your own analysis to find out why, but it is :) ) .

On Feb 1 2009 , Ajay and Robert want to invest Rs 1 lac in Reliance for long term . Both of them understand that Reliance is truly long term buy . Ajay invests in Reliance on Feb 1 , because share is going up and he feels its a good time to enter other . He buys the stock at Rs 1360 . After some days Stock starts falling and reaches around Rs 1,150 . Roberts buys the stock at that time .

see the chart here

Here you can see that Robert has got the stock at 15% lower price , which means his profits will always be more than Ajay’s by that much . What did Robert do ? Robert used simple Technical Analysis concepts and entered in the stock with better prices , It does not mean it will always happen , but there are good chances for getting better price .

In the above case of Reliance , there is no significant price difference , but there can be cases ,where there can be drastic differences , and it would be really worth to use basic Technical Analysis .

Dont be scared , I will tell you some very basic things of technical Analysis in some of next post .

Watch out for second part soon .

Please share any real life example which happened with you , May be we all can try to find out what could have been done to make a better entry or exit from stock .

cheers :)

Manish

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  • jagoinvestor
    Sridhar

    You can also use informed Traders channel on Youtube to learn : http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=InformedTra... (esp lessions 10-70)
  • Kr. Sridhar,

    If you plan on making a career out of TA, then I think taking a course is a good option. However, if it is something that you would like to pursue on a part time basis, or something you want to use for your personal trading, then I would suggest to use internet for learning. In general, these are available from multiple sources totally free. Key to have learning discipline and dedication. Doing by example is the best value to learn TA. Take 5 to 10 stocks use your rudimentary TA skills and follow them to see if you making right calls. You may also checkout these two sources (1) On this blog >> Categories >> Technical Analysis; and (2) Jagoinvestor's Blog. Between these two you should be able to learn basics to start with.

    Good Luck!!
  • jagoinvestor
    Fair value buying is also ok . But still TA will score over it when it comes to timing . Even if prices reach fair value , the decline can still continue for long , because no one can tell when will emotions and sentiments change .

    Even TA will never give you sure shot call . Its only TA will score over Fair value buying . It also depends how much time would you like to give . If you are a very long term investor . Fair value buying is suggested .

    Manish
  • kr.sridhar
    can somebody let me know a good "Technical Analysis" book. I would like to take a course on technical analysis. I am at Chennai, India. Can you please suggest me some good institute which teaches TA course? Thanks.
  • This was a good read.
    Regarding when to buy: what are thoughts on, instead of technical-based timings, how about fair value. I know its subjective, but beyond that what are your thoughts?
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