Part V

Investing Resources

Top 5 Ways to Make the Most of Investing Resources

• Always emphasize quality over quantity. Accessing more coverage of the financial markets won’t necessarily make you a better investor. In fact, the opposite could occur as you find yourself bombarded with conflicting and often hyped opinions.
• Beware the influence of advertising. Media outlets that totally or largely rely upon advertising for their livelihood are less likely to provide objective, informed coverage. The fact that they cater and develop content to suit and appease advertisers is not in your best interests.
• Understand the mass media’s agenda. When covering investments, more often than not, radio, television, and print media focus on the very short-term and extreme events. When stocks drop sharply and there’s bad news, you’ll find more screaming headlines, which can cause you to make emotional, knee-jerk decisions.
• Seek out investment newsletters and investment books that educate and inform. Avoid those professing to predict and prognosticate and those boasting of stellar past forecasts.
• Tread carefully in the online world. Although websites and blogs can offer you access to more information quickly and at less cost, much of what is online is ad-focused and promotional in nature.

Go to www.dummies.com/extras/investing to access the Cheat Sheet for Investing For Dummies, 7th Edition.

In this part …

• Wade through the ocean of investing sound bites, trivia, advice, and opinions to evaluate the reliability of a given source.
• Filter the best from the rest as you read investing magazine articles, blogs, or books; peruse Internet sites; use software; watch television; or listen to the radio.