Do you have a financial planner? Does one of your friends have a financial planner? Maybe you take your advice from your broker. As I have said countless times before a broker will make you broker. And a financial planner wont do any better. I know. You thought they would.

Lets look at the real reason investors choose to take advice from these so called experts. Once they get you into their office or sitting with you at the dining room table or kitchen table you are doomed. Mr. F.P. has come prepared with beautiful slick color brochures and will have a presentation that will utterly confuse, bedazzle and befuddle. You will sit there and be afraid to ask a question because you know it is so dumb. You cant say no or you will be admitting how dumb you are. And he knows that.

It is not that he is a liar. (I hope.) It is that all financial planners and brokers are taught the Wall Street method of making money. Unfortunately it doesnt work.

The basic things that have been pounded into their heads are false. Lets look at the big three: Do Research, Dollar Cost Average and Buy and Hold. There are others, but these you will hear from every broker and financial planner because that is what the big brokerage companies and mutual fund families want. They want your money and they want to keep it even when the stocks or funds you own go down. In fact, buy some more.

Research is like blowing in the wind. You will be inundated with green sheets, blue sheets, red sheets, slick full color glossies, videos, etc., etc. Think about this. If you can obtain this information then so can everyone else. Everything that is known about a particular stock is reflected in the last price. Morningstar will sell you a beautiful package about a company, but it is worthless. What you really want to know is will it go up after I buy it?

Of course, if it goes down you will be encouraged to buy more to average out your price so that when it heads up again you will make a fortune. Yes, and pigs can fly.

If it does go down your advisor may say to hold on as the market always comes back. He doesnt tell you it may take 20 years or that the company might go out of business. Buy and Hold is the greatest myth of Wall Street. No one ever tells you to sell. Have you been told you dont have a loss until you take it? Please!

You got that advisor because you have not admitted to your self that you cannot pull the trigger. When you have a stock or fund that is falling you dont want to sell. You have to take charge of your money. Just you.

When you look back at the performance of most financial planners from 2000 to 2003 you know you can do a better job. Always ask to see what they did then. If they lost money you dont want them. Dont let them compare their performance to the S&P500. Thats smoke and mirrors.

You can do better. Just do it.

Al Thomas

Albert W. Thomas has spent most of his life in the field of finance. In 1965 he founded an insurance holding company, Security Dynamics Investment Corporation, after having been an agent and General Agent for several life insurance companies. In 1970 he became cofounder and president of Real Life Estate, Inc., that marketed a unique real estate and life insurance package.

After he became interested in commodities he bought a seat for his personal trading on the Chicago Open Board of Trade, which is now known as the MidAmerica Commodity Exchange. Later he became a full time trader and also acted as a commodity broker for a few select clients. By fellow floor traders Al is considered to be an excellent technical analyst much of which is outlined in his book IF IT DOESN'T GO UP, DON'T BUY IT! It became a best seller on Amazon.

In 1981 he sold his membership on the Exchange and with his wife, Carolyn, lived full time aboard their 41' ketch, the Aumakua (which means guardian angel in Hawaiian). They sailed in Florida and the Bahamas for two years.

He founded World Trading Group in 1984 that grew to the seventh largest introducing commodity brokerage firm in the U.S. with 35 offices from coast to coast, Alaska and Canada. It was sold in 1992.

Al is a graduate of Northwestern University with a B.S. degree in Commerce and is a member of MENSA. He is now president of Williamsburg Investment Company that syndicates his weekly financial column since 1999 to more than 300 newspapers and writes a financial market letter called Over My Shoulder that is quoted in Barron?s and many other publications. A 3-month trial subscription is available on his web site. He is a regular guest on several financial radio talk shows.

His favorite pastime is fishing.

Mr. Thomas is available for speaking engagements. Please call 321-453-5300 for more information.