Advice from a broker is a eulogy for your money. There are no customers? yachts. Geeze, Louise, am I being too hard on brokers and financial planners (they are cut from the same cloth)? Let?s do a little historical study.

Do you remember back in 2000 when you had more money in your account than you do now? Uh oh, touched a nerve, did I? Did your broker or financial expert call you to tell you it was time to sell or did he say you should buy more because the stocks were cheaper? The latter was the story from the big boys in New York. They had stock to sell.

Did any broker or talking head on TV ever say that ?CASH IS A POSITION?? No! If any broker ever said that to customers he would be fired on the spot and the TV geniuses can?t because the station advertisers would cancel. What would ole ?You can?t afford to be out of the market? Chuck Schwab say? Brokerage companies don?t make money when your funds are in a money market account.

Then what should an investor do?

You must have an exit strategy. Anyone can buy. The pitchmen can give you a thousand reasons why to buy almost any equity. If you look back in history it is always the financial genius who sold that made the millions. You don?t have to be Edward Lefevre, Gerald Loeb or Richard Wyckoff to protect your hard earned retirement money.

There are many good selling methods. On the Internet go to Google or any search engine and type in ?stock market exit strategy?. There are literally millions of web sites that have exit strategies you can buy or get free. My word of advice is to find a very simple one. Here is where the KISS formula (Keep It Simple Stupid) is important.

The final step is up to you. You must act when the strategy says sell. When all is said and done the key to success in the market is not buying; it is selling. Do not give back your profits and never allow big losses in your account. If your broker won?t work with you get another broker and insist on limiting losses and protecting profits on any position you may have. That is the key to stock market success.