Head’s up, 7-up

Robyn has been out sick. Here’s some reading to keep everyone in good form:

Jim Cramer…Seriously?

JC fits into my file folder of Money Villians. Entertaining, but not to be trusted. Watch the stocks he recommends on air jump…(and then secretly crash a few weeks later).  Highly entertaining… especially for the brokers/brokerages making commissions off of each of these trades.

More soon.

Financial Crusader Term of The Week(ish) – Market Cap

Market Capitalization (Large Cap, Small Cap, Etc)

Market capitalization refers to the market value of a company. If all the shares outstanding are multiplied by the current price per share, you have the market cap of the company.

So, when some dude at the bank (or wherever you get your financial advice) tells you you should “diversify your portfolio”, the Dude means you should invest in a range of different sized (in terms of value) companies.

Simple stated, in North America there are 3 main categories: Large Cap ($5 billion and up), Mid Cap ($1 billion to $5 billion) and Small Cap (less than $1 billion).
So, Microsoft has a Market cap of about $305.6 billion (large cap–some might say giant cap), and Wendy’s has a market cap of about $4 billion (mid cap).

To complicate things, there are different sub categories: Value, Growth and Blend. We’ll talk about those later. But, if life depends on you picking the right mutual funds RIGHT NOW, go with Blend, in Small, Mid and Large.

Dude at the Bank Diversifying means owning small cap, mid cap, and large cap stocks (or mutual funds—see upcoming article) in both growth and value (or blend…which is, yep, you guessed it, growth + value!!…I like to call it “grawlue”).

Than again, if life depends on you picking the right funds right now (RIGHT NOW)…you might want to hire a financial planner. But make sure to ask them a lot of questions. Find out how they make money. Remember, you are trusting them with your money, not giving them your money.

Definition for market capitalization at Free Dictionary, and Investor Words.

Disclaimer: The advice and views on nakedfinances.com are solely those of the writers of nakedfinances.com. Please consult your own broker/advisor before taking any action on any financial issues mentioned. We at nakedfinances.com are all for research and education. Never trust just one person/blog/writer for all of your financial planning questions.

Mutual Funds, Target Funds, 401(k)s, Roth IRAs, and other exciting investment thingies.

So… who wants to learn more? Leave a comment to vote for an article on any of the above investing thingies. I’m reworking the family’s asset allocation (i.e. do we invest in 100% stocks, or a mix of stocks and bonds, and what kind of stocks –small, medium, large?…or short, tall , grande and venti, to gen-xy slang it up a bit), and will write an article on these seemingly dull subjects if I get enough requests.

And in the spirit of full disclosure… I had to look up those starbuck sizes. Thanks quicksilverweb.

(I may spend a lot of time in coffee shops, but I bring my own mug, and don’t really like the burnt-tasting sbux blends. Lately, Coffee Society has been my hipster-spotting, homework-doing swill source. If the library would just let me eat & drink there, I wouldn’t need a rotating favourites list of coffee shops.)

Up next: Financial Crusader Term of The Week