Ravenscraft Investments 2013

Ravenscraft Investments 2013

As I adjust to the year year, it's time to do a little house cleaning with social media.
I am going to be de-linking some of my connections soon.
For those of you that would like to keep checking in with me on investing and business, keep coming here:  http://ravenscraftinvestments.blogspot.com/
and on Twitter here:  https://twitter.com/mrravenscraft

For Raven's Holistic Massage click here; https://www.facebook.com/RavensHolisticMassage

For my Facebook friends I will be stopping my twitter feed so friend me there if you haven't yet.



Ok now lets move on and check in with the markets......

Here is a 16 March 2012 snapshot vs                  11 Jan 2013

NYSE      13,233                                                  13,488
Nasdaq     3,055                                                      3,126
S&P500    1,404                                                     1,472
Oil            $107.16                                                 $93.77
Gold         $1,661oz                                              $1,662oz


Well it looks pretty cut and dry that with the exception of oil we are flat with next to no gain in these markets. This does not take into consideration the wild market fluctuations during this time-frame that are the new norm in the world on investing.

If you look at cycles the stock-market is overdue for a normal correction. Add the end of the QE program this year and the fact that we are printing money like crazy, and you have a pretty negative mix for the stock-markets. 


Of the choices above I am long Gold and Oil, and short the markets. I still feel the only stocks for me if any would be dividend paying stocks of 4% or higher.


My advise would be caution and to do your research this month.Decide what you should change if anything. This is not a bad time to keep a nice cash stash to pick up good deals throughout the year.

And for any trades or positions you take make sure to hedge and buy yourself some insurance. (Ex. if you go long oil or gold buy a put option to protect yourself from a down market)


To get that leverage play on any direction look into options. The positions I take in options, the most I can loose is the initial investment. This is more conservative, but you still get to take advantage of that leverage.

1 Options of stock (100 shares)
1 Options of commodities (specific to futures, Ex. gold is 100oz) 

DISCLAIMER: Options Trading Is RISKY.  Only speculative
money should be used as losing is a real possibility.  Further,
Past Performance is NOT necessarily an indication of future
results!