Carnival of Investing – Super Bowl Edition

The world of sports shares many common aspects with investing; such as analysis, strategy, performance, discipline, statistics, winners, and losers. Of course the financial stakes are often higher in investing than sports but there’s still a lot we can learn from watching teams and coaches prepare and play their game. What better place to look for examples than one of the premier sporting events in the world, the Super Bowl!

The Super Bowl is known for it’s commercials and halftime show. On the commercial front, this carnival is made possible by Money Smart Life. If you enjoy your visit here, please subscribe to my feed for daily updates on personal finance in your life. You can also check out the Investing section of the site. Stay tuned for the halftime show coming up later.

Rookies
The great thing about new talent is watching the rookies grow and develop. Here is some advice for rookie investors hoping to someday come through with a “big play” in the financial Super Bowl.

Andy presents How to invest with a low budget posted at Money Walks. Remember rookies, everyone starts somewhere. You can’t be a star without being a rookie first.

Ed Mamula presents Ed Mamula.com; It Has to Hurt a Little posted at Book-Smart and Battle-Scarred Trading and Investing. You’ve gotta take some hits to learn to play with the big boys!

FMF presents Charles Schwab Agrees with Me – He Loves Index Funds and Says You Should Concentrate on Your Career posted at Free Money Finance. Index funds may not be very exciting for the new investor but they’re smart.

The Chef presents Investing into Intangible Assets posted at Recipe For Financial Freedom. Even though an athlete may not be the fastest or strongest, they can still play an important role through qualities such as leadership, communication, or determination. Although an early investor’s net worth may not be very high, don’t forget to figure in the intangibles.

Fantasy Football
No football season would be complete without a fantasy footall league to help you track and trade your favorite players. Having the right tools to analyze this year’s top picks can make or break the season. The same can be said about screeing tools for investing. Read about “seven scientifically based fund selection criteria and reports on the capabilities of free on-line website tools to do screens using these criteria.” The Skilled Investor presents On-line screening of mutual funds and ETFs: minimum requirements posted at THE SKILLED INVESTOR Blog.

Coaching
We’re all the coach of our own investments. Here are some strategies and tips we don’t want to forget as an investing coach.

FIRE Finance presents Investing – Asset Allocation – Part 1 posted at FIRE Finance. What coach would recruit a star running back but no quarterback? This lopsided offense would have no balance. So why would an investor stick to only one asset class?

jim presents Why You Should Rebalance Your Portfolio posted at My Retirement Blog. A good coach makes adjustments at the end of the season to prepare for the next. Rebalancing your portfolio will help keep your money team on top.

William Wallets presents Use Limits Orders When Buying Stocks! posted at A Financial Revolution. A seasoned coach knows the proper tools to use in different situations. This article discusses when to use limit orders instead of market orders.

The Dividend Guy presents Watching Dividend Payments Grow posted at The Dividend Guy Blog. When a coach wins a Super Bowl like the Colts did this season, reinvesting their success into the team should help make it even better next year. The same with investing, plowing your gains back into your portfolio can help you leverage the power of compound growth.

Dominic presents Online Compound Interest Calculator posted at Trader Knowledge. A coach needs numbers and statistics to help assess where they are and project where they could be. Use this compound interest calculator to determine where you could be years down the line.

Trent presents Macbeth’s Take on the Employment Report posted at Stock Market Beat. Scouting your opponent is part of being a being a good coach. Part of being a good investor is scouting the financial environment you’re working in. This article reminds us to look for trends in market reports.

Michael K. Dawson presents Investing in China Railways posted at The Time and Money Group.

Kevin presents Use Prosper and get a 312% Increase over a CD Ladder for Your Emergency Fund posted at RateLadder.com. A coach’s plan doesn’t always go as expected. Having a failed play with no backup plan in the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl could spell disaster. As an investor, having an emergency plan is key.

Dan Melson presents The High Cost of Waiting To Buy A Home posted at Searchlight Crusade. Any coach knows the value of home field advantage. Dan talks about the cost of not investing in your own home field.

Referees
Everyone loves to hate the ref. Not a Super Bowl will go by without one coach or the other challenging a call. They don’t always get it right but without them the game would turn into a brawl the likes of which we haven’t seen since the Ron Artest debacle.

Max presents Forget Day Trading Forex posted at RecycleMoney.com. Without regulations to referee the Forex markets, Max argues that Forex trading is not a wise move.

Leon Gettler presents Sarbanes-Oxley: is that really a wolf at the door? posted at Sox First. Calling a game too tight can slow down the pace of play and frustrate the players. Does Sarbanes-Oxley slow down the American markets, read this article to here Leon’s opinion.

Analysts
Sports analysts are full of projections and opinions on the pre-game show, Sports Center, sports talk radio, and in the newspaper. They offer insights into the game and sometimes make ridiculous claims or predictions. The world of investing is also flush with analysts and the Super Bowl of Investing is no different. This week we have insight and analysis on market conditions and individual stocks from several sources.

H.S. Ayoub presents Government Contract Could Set Hollis-Eden Stock Soaring posted at BioHealth Investor.

Brian Schumacher presents Charts of the Week – CLRT and AZL posted at $$ Trade 4 Cash $$.

Spencer Hill presents Hill Asset Management February Market Outlook posted at Hill’s Personal Finance.

wcsinvestor presents Reasoning about Two Sub-prime Lenders posted at Worst-case Scenario Investing.

Paul Smith presents Quick Analysis of 0 -10c stocks with PE under 10 posted at Investing using Fundamentals on the Aussie StockMarket.

Silicon Valley Blogger presents Mad Money Mayhem For Stock Pickers posted at The Digerati Life.

Frugal presents The Coming 2008 Headline News – Long ADM (Archer-Daniels-Midland) posted at 1stMillionAt33.

Halftime Show
There were several submissions to the Carnival of Investing that had interesting content but were not directly related to investing. These articles are provided for your reading pleasure as the Carnival of Investing Halftime show.

Bryan C. Fleming presents Million Dollar Savings Club Update: Week 5 posted at Bryan C. Fleming.

Murad Ali presents The importance of keeping business cash on hand posted at The New Business World.

Martin presents A Different Approach to the Emergency Fund posted at Money Blog Site.

Sagar Satapathy presents Americans: World’s Worst Savers posted at Debt Consolidation Lowdown.

Final Analysis
One final lesson to leave you with as we wrapup our coverage of the Carnival of Investing Super Bowl edition. Peyton Manning was awesome on Sunday night but a key reason the Colts won the Super Bowl was because of defense. You can’t win with just offense. Invest wisely and grow your money but don’t forget to play defense too.

We’ve come to a decision on the MVP of the game, it’s you, the readers! Thanks for reading the Carnvial of Investing Super Bowl Edition! If you had a good time, please subscribe to my feed for daily updates on personal finance in your life.

Ben Edwards, the founder of Money Smart Life, saved up enough to buy a Nintendo back when he was 12 years old. When he used the money to buy shares of Wal-Mart stock instead, he knew he wasn't like the other kids... His addiction to personal finance has paid off for his family and now he's helping you to afford the life that you want. Check him out on the web at Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook.

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