that sort of thinking will lose you money in the end. Betting that an ace will show up on the turn or the river in order to complete your straight is a bad idea. You might get lucky once in a while, but to be successful you have to play the odds. As often as not, you’ll turn uIt’s a clich? but it’s a valuable lesson. If you fail plan you are planning to fail. It’s a basic business maxim and one that every trader and investor should follow. And yet most do not. Most minor investors run around following the markets, jumping on the latest stock pick from online or television investment gurus like Jim Cramer and Jim Shepherd without a plan or an idea of where they want to go.

People are then shocked when their picks don’t perform as they had wanted or, worse yet, lose them money. They then flip the stock quickly, realizing little gain once fees are taken into account or even losing money. Emotions like anger and fear cloud judgments. Without the structure of a plan, bad decisions are easily be made. The only way to make money is in cool, emotionless planned buying. Set plans and goals and then act on them. And it all comes from research.

Investing is a lot like playing Texas Hold ‘Em. You might have a gut feeling about a company or a stock -- that undefined intuition that makes you think that the stock is ready to take off — but don’t listen. Like poker, that sort of thinking will lose you money in the end. Betting that an ace will show up on the turn or the river in order to complete your straight is a bad idea. You might get lucky once in a while, but to be successful you have to play the odds. As often as not, you’ll turn up

rom online or television investment gurus like Jim Cramer and Jim Shepherd without a plan or an idea of where they want to go.

People are then shocked when their picks don’t perform as they had wanted or, worse yet, lose them money. They then flip the stock quickly, realizing little gain once fees are taken into account or even losing money. Emotions like anger and fear cloud judgments. Without the structure of a plan, bad decisions are easily be made. The only way to make money is in cool, emotionless planned buying. Set plans and goals and then act on them. And it all comes from research.

Investing is a lot like playing Texas Hold ‘Em. You might have a gut feeling about a company or a stock -- that undefined intuition that makes you think that the stock is ready to take off — but don’t listen. Like poker, that sort of thinking will lose you money in the end. Betting that an ace will show up on the turn or the river in order to complete your straight is a bad idea. You might get lucky once in a while, but to be successful you have to play the odds. As often as not, you’ll turn u

izing little gain once fees are taken into account or even losing money. Emotions like anger and fear cloud judgments. Without the structure of a plan, bad decisions are easily be made. The only way to make money is in cool, emotionless planned buying. Set plans and goals and then act on them. And it all comes from research.

Investing is a lot like playing Texas Hold ‘Em. You might have a gut feeling about a company or a stock -- that undefined intuition that makes you think that the stock is ready to take off — but don’t listen. Like poker, that sort of thinking will lose you money in the end. Betting that an ace will show up on the turn or the river in order to complete your straight is a bad idea. You might get lucky once in a while, but to be successful you have to play the odds. As often as not, you’ll turn u

then act on them. And it all comes from research.

Investing is a lot like playing Texas Hold ‘Em. You might have a gut feeling about a company or a stock -- that undefined intuition that makes you think that the stock is ready to take off — but don’t listen. Like poker, that sort of thinking will lose you money in the end. Betting that an ace will show up on the turn or the river in order to complete your straight is a bad idea. You might get lucky once in a while, but to be successful you have to play the odds. As often as not, you’ll turn u

that sort of thinking will lose you money in the end. Betting that an ace will show up on the turn or the river in order to complete your straight is a bad idea. You might get lucky once in a while, but to be successful you have to play the odds. As often as not, you’ll turn up a deuce.

Stocks too. If a company feels right, but the numbers don’t add up, or they have a record of making poor decisions in slow markets or the stock price is very volatile then walk away. Conversely a good company that had one problem that they fixed but which drove down their share price might be a good bet.

But as the best poker players will tell you the best way to win is to eliminate emotion. That is where planning is important. The markets are volatile, especially today. Prices soar and crash and an investor can be quickly drawn into bad decisions. That’s where drawing up a plan helps.

For example, you have discovered Techno Whiz America Inc (TWA), a company that is leading the way in some technological innovation that only some computer geeks on Digg.com have heard about and have patented something that will change the way we use, say, telephones. The company looks sound and has posted consistent profits in the last year. But because this technology is so new the company stocks are ridiculously low. They are currently trading at $4 a share. You do your homework