ATTENTION: finance and investment professionals, and business students

The International Research Association
announces the $13,750,000 Scholarship Program for candidates
with an undergraduate or graduate-level business degree, and current university students.
You may bypass the first two Levels of the LIFA exam and sit directly for the Final Level III exam.
Level III registration and enrollment is FREE.

Click to enroll ->>> http://www.the-ira.org/scholarship/waiver.php?ct=16&r=46295

(CFA and LIFA exam comparison table is below)

LIFA Exam vs. CFA Exam
The LIFA Litmus Test: Do our policies serve the candidate's interest or our interest?

	LIFA Exam	CFA Exam
How much are the registration and enrollment fees?	FREE (No Required Textbooks)	$1,120.00 plus Required Textbooks and/or Self-Contained Volumes. Total cost for 3 levels can exceed $6,000 if you fail the exams.	Basic exam registration and enrollment fees should not be expensive. Furthermore, fees should not be collected to pay huge salaries of bureaucrats who then also require candidates to buy textbooks or self-contained volumes from them. We believe that no candidate should be prohibited from taking an exam because of excessive costs and fees. The International Research Association is very sensitive to this problem, maintaining budgetary constraints with minimal bureaucracy.
May I bypass the first two exams and sit for the third through your Waiver Program?	Yes	No (discontinued)	The CFA Program offered a waiver program previously, but it is discontinued. The LIFA Exam Waiver Program is available, allowing candidates to bypass the first two exams, saving candidates valuable years. You may sit for the Level III LIFA exam now, not 2 to 5 years from now. We believe that no candidate with sufficient knowledge to pass the LIFA exam should be prohibited from taking an exam because of arbitrary time delays between exams.
Are my exams graded by an independent, third party?	Yes, Thomson-Prometric	No	Like the CPA exam, the leading designation for accountants in the United States, all LIFA exams are graded by an independent body, ensuring complete objectivity. There is no chance of grading bias because of human interpretation or judgments. The LIFA exams are graded by Thomson-Prometric, utilizing a secure electronic exam tabulation system. The LIFA Program offers exams 200+ days each year, at thousands of secure locations worldwide. Prometric exam centers provide test-takers with a consistent, quiet, and comfortable testing environment. A poor testing environment should never be allowed to impact your exam performance.
How many days a year may I choose to sit for an exam?	270+	2
How many locations may I choose from to take the exam?	3,500+	174
If I fail an exam, how long must I wait to retake that exam again?	Any Level: 45 days	Level 1: 6 months Level 2: 1 year Level 3: 1 year	If LIFA candidates are ready to sit for an exam, they are allowed to set their own exam schedules.
When I pass an exam, how soon can I take the next Level?	Any Level: 15 days	6 months to 1 year
If I fail an exam, must I retake the entire exam, including the sections I passed?	No	Yes, you must take the entire exam again, even the subjects you passed.	Like the CPA exam, once a LIFA candidate has displayed a mastery of a given subject, that candidate does not have to retake that subject.
Am I required or strongly encouraged to buy additional products or services from you for exam preparation?	No	Yes	The International Research Association believes there are inherent conflicts when a testing administrator requires purchase of additional products and services for its own exam that many candidates do not need and/or cannot afford. Accordingly, the International Research Association does not offer any exam prep material. We invite you to confirm any of this information.

If interested, click on the link below to enroll:
http://www.the-ira.org/scholarship/waiver.php?ct=16&r=46295

---

Tips for the CEO Candidate

Think you're ready to step up to the top job? Get in line—there's plenty of competition. Here's advice for ascension from top recruiter Gerry Roche, of the executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles.

You've been laying the groundwork for years—acquiring a broad array of skills and proving your executive mettle at multiple levels in your company. You've got your eye on a top job, and you know that's where you belong.

But you're also fully aware that competition for the C suite is stiff—and that readiness, enthusiasm, and an admirable track record aren't enough to guarantee anyone a senior leadership position. So how do you improve your chances? Gerry Roche, senior chairman of Chicago-based executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles, offers potent guidelines that often are overlooked by leaders bent on occupying a top rung on the corporate ladder.

1. Balance what they seek with what you need

Executives eyeing a corner office can boost their chances of success by understanding and accommodating the way in which many organizations select their most senior managers—however flawed that process may be.

Just like "succession committees often assume that the president and COO positions are the best routes to CEO," Roche says, many firms promote all their senior executives up a relatively straight ladder. There is a glitch in this type of thinking, he says, because "the talent and training required to be an effective CEO aren't necessarily the same as those needed in the presidential or chief operating officer roles."

A good CEO is the captain of the ship, Roche notes. "His or her major responsibility should be to establish a compelling vision and set direction for the whole organization. The fundamental job is planning, whereas the president and COO jobs center on doing. These are opposite talents."
Yet many succession committees still favor the president and COO routes to the corporate helm, perhaps owing to traditional assumptions about how managers and executives should pay their dues as they wend their way to the top of their organization. Aspiring senior leaders, Roche maintains, have little choice but to accommodate these realities while also systematically building the expertise they'll need to excel as chief executives.

How does one achieve this delicate balance? "Make sure your work history contains a combination of line and staff responsibilities that provide you with experience at both the conceptual and action levels," Roche says. "Run a major business sector, with a tour in corporate planning, finance, or mergers and acquisitions to round out your experience."
Roche explains, "There are two conspicuous promotions that characterize any successful business career." The first is to take on responsibility for getting work done through others. "If you're in sales, move from selling to managing salespeople; if you're an auditor, work toward the chief auditor role." The second promotion is from a functional role to a general management role. "Get into a position where all the vital elements of the business report to you: production and manufacturing, product development, marketing, sales, finance, and staff. It's better to run a profit center—even if it's relatively small—than to stay in a functional silo."

2. Take charge of your own professional development

You can't always count on your firm to provide assignments that will give you the ideal mix of experiences. Instead, Roche says, "you have to take the initiative in your own professional development. Tell your boss that you've got more talent than your current job absorbs. Ask for opportunities to manage a new division or take on additional product or industry experience."
Of course, conversations about professional development can seem delicate if your boss is in the role you seek or also has his eye on it. But in Roche's view, "you have to live with that paradox. It's fatal if you don't send the message that you're interested in moving up. But it can also be dangerous from a competitive standpoint if you do express interest—and your boss views you as a threat."
There are two conspicuous promotions that characterize any successful business career.
— Gerry Roche, Heidrick & Struggles
You should also strongly shape your annual reviews so that development opportunities occupy center stage. "Insist on an annual review that has meaning, meat, and substance," Roche says. "Ask your boss, 'What do I have to do to get ahead? What are my shortcomings, and how can I address them? How can I build further on my strengths?' Your boss should suggest specific kinds of training or particular stretch assignments that will help you fill gaps in your skills and make you more promotable."

Roche acknowledges that effective reviews are difficult to do, especially because many people find it painful and awkward to talk about weaknesses. But the "healthy friction" that such conversations generate is vital for any executive's development. Adds Roche: "If you don't get the honest feedback and ideas for taking action that you need in your annual reviews, move on to another company. You don't want a boss who glosses over your areas for development."

3. Excel in your current job

Even with the right background and development plan, "too many aspiring leaders spend way too much time and energy campaigning for their next job when they should be knocking the ball out of the park with their current job," Roche says.
Politicking and posturing may be an unavoidable part of the game plan, but you also need a solid element to your candidacy—and that element has to be stellar performance in your current role.
Roche cautions executives against letting the lure of a top position distract them from delivering top-notch performance here and now. "Even if you're working in a division that's not currently on the succession committee's radar screen," he says, "you can still improve your chances of joining the C suite by doing a great job with what you've got."

"Consider Jack Welch in his earlier days at General Electric," Roche says. "He took GE's plastics division—which was not the most popular part of the company's portfolio—and made it a strong performer. He inherited a nag, and he turned it into a thoroughbred."

4. Know when it's time to campaign elsewhere

In some firms, there are enough obstacles to the top that an aspiring leader has little choice but to look outside—to companies that offer brighter hopes of advancement. The pyramid structure that typifies most American corporations creates an unavoidable bottleneck. "It's hard to get to the top, and no corporation can absorb all the individuals who are striving to get there," Roche notes.
The key is to recognize—and act on—signs that it's time to move on. If the current leadership has more than a decade left in the workforce, "that's one clear signal that you've got a long wait ahead of you," Roche says. "Another sign is that you're in charge of a division whose budget is getting cut or that is not a part of the company's overall growth strategy.
"You have to ask yourself which divisions are the 'hottest'—which are getting the most R&D dollars. And if the market that your division sells to is drying up, you may want to think about looking outside."
Though you may feel disloyal leaving your company for greener pastures, a savvy boss will understand and support you in this effort. Roche cites the time he recruited Larry Bossidy—the "number-two guy in position to lead GE"—to take the helm at Allied Signal. When Roche phoned then-CEO Jack Welch to apologize about "stealing" Bossidy, Welch replied that "half of my face is crying; the other half is smiling. Larry is good enough to run any company in the world, and deserves to."

5. Don't rely solely on recruiters

Skilled executive recruiters, Roche says, can provide a much-needed boost to an aspiring senior leader because "they know who all the number-two people are out there." But seasoned business leaders seeking an opening in the top ranks don't necessarily have to rely on recruiters to get there. "All high-level, high-performing executives know each other," Roche says.
To find opportunities, he adds, "draw on that network. Attend industry forums and other gatherings where your peers gather. Write a column for a business publication that will get your name out there. Do whatever it takes to make sure you're visible and authoritative externally."

Courtesy - Lauren Keller Johnson - Harvard Management Update

BE PREPARED...

Once Tom, Dick and Harry were going in an auto. They met with an accident and all three of them die.

Yama DharmaRaj was waiting for this moment. He asks Tom and Dick to go to HEAVEN. But, for Harry, Yama had already decided that he should be sent to HELL.

Harry is not at all happy with this decision. He asks Yama as to why this discrimination is being made. All three of them served the public. Similarly, took bribes, misused public post etc. He felt that there should be a formal test or a concrete way to decide this, and should not be just based on opinion.

Yama agrees to this and asks all three of them to appear for English test. Tom is asked to spell "INDIA" and he does it correctly. Dick is asked to spell "ENGLAND" and he too passes. It is Harry's turn and he is asked to spell "CZECHOSLOVAKIA".

Harry protests that he doesn't know English. It is not fair that he is given a tough question and thus forced to fail.

Yama agrees to conduct a written test in Hindi (to give another chance assuming that Harry should at least feel that Hindi is ideal).

Tom is asked to write "KUTTA BOLA BHOW BHOW". He writes it easily and passes.
Dick is asked to write "BILLY BOLI MYAUN MYAUN". He too passes.
Harry is asked to write "BANDAR BOLA GURRRRRR....." Tough one. He Fails.

Harry is not happy. Being a history student, he preferred only to be tested in History.

Yama says this is the last chance and he would not take any more tests. Tom is
asked: "When did India get Independence?". He replied "1947" and passed.

Dick is asked "How many people died in it?". He gets nervous. Yama asked him
to choose from 100,000 or 200,000 or 300,000 (clue). Dick catches it and says
200,000 and passes.

It's Harry's turn now. Yama asks him to give the Name and Address of each of the
200,000 who died. Harry accepts defeat and agrees to go to HELL.

MORAL: IF YOUR MANAGEMENT IS DETERMINED TO SCREW YOU, ANTICIPATE IT AND BE PREPARED TO ACCEPT IT. THERE IS NO ESCAPE.

Impact of Job Change

A taxi passenger tapped the driver on the shoulder to ask him a
question. The driver screamed, lost control of the car, nearly hit a
bus, went up on the footpath, and stopped centimeters from a shop
window.
For a second everything went quiet in the cab, then the driver
said:
"Look mate, don't ever do that again. You scared the daylights out of
me!"
The passenger apologized and said,
"I didn't realize that a little tap would scare you so much."
"Sorry, it's not really your fault. Today is my first day as a cab
driver.", the driver replied. "I've been driving a van carrying dead
bodies for the last 25 years."

Maintaining Relationships

People often wonder why some people have such great friends and manage to keep them...If you manage to apply the following in your life, the same couldworkfor you:

In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in highesteem. One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said, "Do youknow what I just heard about your friend?" "Hold on a minute," Socrates replied. "Before telling me anything I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter test." "Triple filter?" "That's right," Socrates continued."Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say. That's why I call it the triple filtertest. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that whatyou are about to tell me is true?" "No," the man said, actually I just heard about it and..." "All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's trueor not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what youare about to tell me about my friend something good?" No, on the contrary..." "

So,

"Socrates continued, "You want to tell me something bad about him, butyou're not certain it's true. You may still pass the test though, because there's onefilter left: the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?" "No, not really." "Well," concluded

Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?"

This is why Socrates was a great philosopher ; was held in such high esteem. If we are able to protect our friends and those we love in this manner, we cannot be influenced by outsiders in having bad notions about them.

The difference between "sitting" late and "working" late

It's half past 8 in the office but the lights are still on..PCs still runnning, coffee machines still buzzing..and whose at work..Most of them??

Take a closer look.. All or most specimens are 20-something male species of the human race..look closer..again all or most of them are bachelors..and why are they sitting late?

Working hard? No way!! Any guesses??

lets ask one of them..Here's what he says.."Arey yaar, whatz there 2 do after goin home..idhar to net hein, AC hein, phone hein, khaana hein, coffee hein.. to jam ke khaao, jam ke piyo(burps), jam se chatting/phone karo aur thak jaane par ghar jaao...aur boss bhi kush that i am working late...(burps) aur khaane ka paisa bhi bachtaa hein."

This is the scene in most software companies and other off-shore offices. Bachelors "time-passing" during late hours in the office just bcoz they say they've nothing else to do..Now what r the consequences.. read on..."working"(for the record only) late hours soon becomes part of the company culture. With bosses more than eager to provide support to those "working" late in the form of taxi vouchers, food vouchers and of course good feedback,(oh, he's a hardworker..goes home only to change..!!) they arent helping things too..To hell with bosses who dont understand the difference between "sitting" late and "working" late!! Very soon, the managers start expecting all employees to put in extra working hours.

My dear Bachelor bhaais let me tell you, life changes when u get married and start having a family..office is no longer a prioroty, family is..and thats when the problem starts.bcoz u start having commitments at home too. For your boss, the earlier "hardworking" guy suddenly seems to become a "early leaver" even if u leave an hour after regular time..after doing the same amount of work, People leaving on time after doing ther taks for the day are labelled as work-shirkers..Girls who thankfully always leave on time are labelled as "not up to it". All the while, the bachelors pat their own backs and carry on "working" not realising that they r spoiling the work culture at their own place and never realise that they wuld have to regret at one point of time.

So bhaai log, what's the moral of the story.??

Very clear, LEAVE ON TIME!!

Never put in extra time unless really needed. Dont stay back un-necessarily and spoil your company work culture which will in turn cause inconvenience to you and your colleagues. There are hundred other things to do in the evening.. Learn music..Learn a foreign language..Try go-karting... Get a girl friend, take her around town. And for heaven's sake net cafe rates have dropped to an all-time low(plus, no fire-walls) and try cooking for a change.

Take a tip from the Smirnoff ad: "Life's calling, where are you??"

This message is dedicated to all those colleagues who stay back in office for everything other than work.

DCA: It Gets You in at the Bottom

Today we're going to let you in on a hot tip for surviving a sinking stock market.

Industry players and pundits try to convince us that they can tell when the market will hit bottom. Knowing who to believe is just as difficult as it is for them to actually pick the bottom! What's an investor to do? In this article, we’ll explain a little-known technique that will help protect you in a falling market and let you ignore the futile attempts of those who think they can predict the market's behavior. There is only one proven investment technique that, regardless of economic conditions, can consistently get investors in at the bottom. Read on to find out what it is, and why it is important.

What Is the Bottom?

When a security or market sinks to its lowest price level in a given time period, it means they have hit bottom. Whenever the markets plummet, people get excited about getting in, but they want to do so only after securities have bottomed out - when price levels begin a steady rise after hitting bottom. Since everyone wants to know when that will happen, CEOs, media types and analysts all try to forecast the upturn, which signifies that the bottom has indeed been established. Because no one wants to be the last to call the bottom in case price levels tank further, we are bombarded with confidence-building words from every level of industry, including the industry watchers, that prices are unlikely to continue their downward trend.

Much of this commotion comes from the "buying on the dip" mentality left over from the previous bull market in the 1990s when many made a lot of money buying cheap at every dip and riding the recovery. On the other hand, investors in a bear market feel "things can't possibly get any worse" and that "logically" the market can only climb up.

The Game

Calling the bottom has become such a worldwide pastime - it would make veteran investors like Warren Buffett, John Bogle and Peter Lynch chuckle (read more about these great investors here) - you'd think there was a cash prize for predicting it. To illustrate, here are a handful of past bottom calls as well as the figures that followed.
- Boston Globe, Aug 12, 2000 - "…at these undervalued prices…we're not selling any stock at these prices". (On Monday, Aug 14, the S&P 500 closed at 1491. Four years later on Aug 12 2004, the S&P fell a further 29% to close at 1063.)
- Wired Magazine, Dec 4, 2000 - "Fred Siegel, president of investment management firm Siegel Group, believes that it is unlikely that the Nasdaq will drop more than another 200 points." (The Nasdaq fell over 1,000 points shortly after Siegel made his prediction.)
- Forbes, Aug 8, 2001 - Intel CEO Craig Barrett said "the computer industry has bottomed out". (In less than a month the Philadelphia Semiconductors Index fell another 20%.)
- Market guru and former hedge fund manager Jim Cramer of TheStreet.com said it best in Jan 2001: "I get paid to call bottoms. I don't see one yet, but in my 18 years of trading I've never called one exactly right yet. I don't see why this time will be any different."

The Way In

The truth of the matter is that if hedge fund managers, mutual fund managers, private investment managers, market gurus, CEOs and analysts can't pick the bottom, neither can we. But don't despair, there is a means to protect yourself in the long run from the effects of a bear market as well as ensure your injection of capital into the market when it is extremely close to the bottom.

The technique is called dollar-cost averaging (DCA), and it is one of the simplest and most useful investing techniques around. DCA is simply putting a set amount of money each month into an investment such as a stock, index fund or mutual fund. Most banks will even set up a monthly automatic-withdrawals service. DCA is also ideal for the investor who doesn't have that big lump sum at the start but can invest small amounts on a regular basis.

Why DCA Is So Effective?

The markets, even though they have bad days or even bad years, tend to go up over time - during the past century, U.S. equities markets appreciated each year by a near 11% average. When you invest a set amount of your money each month, you buy fewer shares when the market is high and more shares when it's low. For example, your fixed investment might buy 10 shares when the price is low and only five shares when the price is higher. DCA therefore lessens the risk of investing a large amount in a single investment at the wrong time (i.e. at an inflated price), and in a falling market, the average cost per share becomes smaller and smaller. This lessening average cost per share will help you gain better overall profits as the market increases over the long term.

Example

Let's suppose that you just got a bonus and now have $10,000 to invest. Instead of investing the lump sum into a mutual fund or stock, you decide to use dollar-cost averaging and spread the investment out over several months by investing $2,000 a month for the next five months. This averages the price over five months, so some months you may buy fewer shares, each at a higher price, and some months you may buy more shares, each at a lower price.

If the market is lower this month, you may lose money on the shares you bought last month, but this month you receive more shares, which, in the future, will help offset any losses. With DCA, you are able to take advantage of any low during these five months, guaranteeing you to invest at the very bottom because when it comes, you are simply doing what you do every month.

Once the market turns around, which it is likely to do in the long term, you'll be ahead. The best part is you didn't have to do any predicting! If you were to try to forecast the bottom, you could miss it altogether and risk putting your entire $10,000 in at a bad time.

What About Timing?

Many people ask, "Isn't it more profitable to buy as much as you can when the market is at its lowest and sell everything when it is at its highest?" Of course it is, but any professional investor will tell you that you pretty much need supernatural powers to get a correct prediction. No one knows when the bottoms and tops will happen exactly, and no one can stop surprises from happening. This is why so many professionals preach dollar-cost averaging as an optimal strategy regardless of what the market is doing: DCA smoothes out the bumps of the market over the long term.

Conclusion

Next time you hear of a forecasted bottom, you can be confident that he or she is no more insightful than you no matter who the individual is. No person can predict market behavior. But you can be rest assured that if you use dollar-cost averaging, you are being prudent. DCA not only offers protection from market swings but also helps you can take advantage of the ever-elusive market bottom.

When Fear and Greed Take Over

There is an old saying on Wall Street that the market is driven by just two emotions: fear and greed. Although this is an oversimplication, it can often be true. Succumbing to these emotions can have a profound and detrimental effect on investors’ portfolios and the stock market.

In the investing world, one often hears about the juxtaposition between value investing and growth investing and although understanding these two strategies is fundamental to building a personal investment strategy, it is as important to understand the influence of fear and greed on the financial markets.

There are countless books and various courses devoted to this topic. Here our goal is to demonstrate what happens when an investor gets overwhelmed by one or both of these emotions.

Greed’s Influence

So often investors get caught up in greed ("excessive desire"). After all, most of us have a desire to acquire as much wealth as possible in the shortest amount of time. The Internet boom of the late 1990s is a perfect example. At the time it seemed all an advisor had to do was simply pitch any investment with a ".com" at the end of it, and investors leaped at the opportunity. Buying activity in Internet-related stocks, many just start-ups, reached a fever pitch. Investors got greedy, fueling further greed and leading to securities being grossly overpriced, which created a bubble. It burst in mid-2000 and kept leading indices depressed through 2001. For more on the dotcom bubble and other market crashes, see Greatest Market Crashes.

This get-rich-quick mentality makes it hard to maintain gains and keep to a strict investment plan over the long term, especially amid such a frenzy, or as Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan put it, the "irrational exuberance" of the overall market. It’s times like these when it is crucial to maintain an even keel and stick to the basic fundamentals of investing, such as maintaining a long-term horizon, dollar-cost averaging and avoiding getting swept up in the latest craze.

A Lesson From "The Oracle Of Omaha" It would be remiss to discuss the topic of not getting caught up in the latest craze without mentioning a very successful investor who stuck to his strategy and profited greatly. Warren Buffett showed us just how important and beneficial it is to stick to a plan in times like the dotcom boom. Buffett was once heavily criticizeed for refusing to invest in high-flying tech stocks. But once the tech bubble burst, his critics were silenced. Buffett stuck with what he was comfortable with: his long-term plan. By avoiding the dominant market emotion of the time, greed, he was able to avoid the losses felt by those hit by the bust.

Fear's Influence

Just as the market can become overwhelmed with greed, the same can happen with fear ("an unpleasant, often strong emotion, of anticipation or awareness of danger"). When stocks suffer large losses for a sustained period, the overall market can become more fearful of sustaining further losses. But being too fearful can be just as costly as being too greedy. Just as greed dominated the market during the dotcom boom, the same can be said of the prevalence of fear following its bust. In a bid to stem their losses, investors quickly moved out of the equity (stock) markets in search of less risky buys. Money poured into money market securities, stable value funds and principal-protected funds--all low-risk and low-return securities. In fact 2002 saw the largest amount of outflows, about US$40 billion, from the equity markets since 1988, a year after one of the worst stock market crashes in history, and a record $140 billion flowed into the bond market.

This mass exodus out of the stock market shows a complete disregard for a long-term investing plan based on fundamentals. Investors threw their plans out the window because they were scared, overrun by a fear of sustaining further losses. Granted, losing a large portion of your equity portfolio’s worth is a tough pill to swallow, but even harder to digest is the thought that the new instruments that initially received the inflows have very little chance of ever rebuilding that wealth. Just as scrapping your investment plan to hop on the latest get-rich-quick investment can tear a large hole in your portfolio, so too can getting swept up in the prevailing fear of the overall market by switching to low-risk, low-return investments.

The Importance of Comfort Level All of this talk of fear and greed relates to the volatility inherent in the stock market. When investors lose their comfort level due to losses or market instability, they become vulnerable to these emotions, often resulting in very costly mistakes.

Avoid getting swept up in the dominant market sentiment of the day, which can be driven by a mentality of fear and/or greed, and stick to the basic fundamentals of investing. It is also important to choose a suitable asset-allocation mix. For example, if you are an extremely risk-averse person, you are likely to be more susceptible to being overrun by the fear dominating the market and therefore your exposure to equity securities should not be as great as those who can tolerate more risk.

Buffet was once quoted as saying, “Unless you can watch your stock holding decline by 50% without becoming panic-stricken, you should not be in the stock market.” For more on asset allocation, look at Asset Allocation Strategies and Five Things to Know about Asset Allocation.
Easier Said Than Done Keep in mind this isn’t as easy as it sounds. There’s a fine line between controlling your emotions and being just plain stubborn. Remember also to re-evaluate your investment strategy and allow yourself to be flexible to a point, and remain rational when making decisions to change your plan of action.

Conclusion

You are the final decision-maker for your portfolio and thus responsible for any gains or losses in your investments. Sticking to sound investment decisions while controlling your emotions, whether it be greed or fear, and not blindly following market sentiment is crucial to successful investing and maintaining your long-term strategy. But beware: never wavering from an investment strategy during times of high emotions in the market can also spell disaster. It’s a balancing act that requires you to keep your wits about you.