Before you invest or pay for any investment advice, make sure your brokers, investment advisers and investment adviser representatives have not had run-ins with regulators or other investors. You also should check to see whether they are registered or licensed.
This is very important, because if you do business with an unregistered securities broker or a firm that later goes out of business, there may be no way for you to recover your money even if an arbitrator or court rules in your favor.
Most investors-even some professionals-tend to be "off" in their timing, they buy things when they are hot, not when they are cold. But for the greatest benefit, it should be the opposite. The media doesn't help much when it comes to this buying approach, and let's face it; greed and fear play a large part in most peoples' investment decisions.
