Tag: Picking

Resume Writing Service – 10 Critical Tips on Picking the Best Writer

When you want a resume that will get your phone ringing with calls from hiring managers who are salivating to interview you for jobs you’d die for — how do you know who to hire?

The resume writing industry is not regulated. The internet is crawling with wannabe and would-be resume writers who’d love to take your cash and give you a garbage resume in return, written in broken English on a template, like thousands of other resumes they crank out daily in resume mills for $99 each.

Or maybe they’ll take one you already have and just re-key it into another format. You may be laughing, but hey, it happens every day to folks who aren’t thoughtful and wary of web advertising and careful how they pick a resume writer. Your resume is one of the most important documents of your life. It should represent you extremely well.

The good news? There are great writers out there, waiting for your resume assignment. You can find one using these steps. Follow these tips and you can’t fail.

1. Read online ads analytically and critically. Don’t believe assertions that aren’t backed up by believable proofs. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Beware especially of pushy advertising based on dark emotions, garish graphics, and strange formatting. And guarantees that are so good they’re obviously ridiculous. Nobody can guarantee you’ll be hired based on a resume, even if a master writes it.

2. Understand what pricing is reasonable and customary in the legitimate resume industry. Be ready to pay a fair price for value received. The most frequent victim of a resume scam is someone whos’s trying to get something for less than it’s really worth. Remember, the cost of your resume is an investment in your future success.

3. Interview the writer on the phone. Listen to how they speak and ask them questions about their background, like how they became a resume writer, who they have written for, and what their process is. Trust your feelings. If the person sounds credible and intelligent, great. If they don’t sound like someone you’d like to introduce you to your next boss, move on.

4. Review some sample resumes. Start with the writer’s own resume. Then check out a couple they have written for others. Would you hire the individuals who are represented by the samples? If not, why expect someone to hire you based on that writer’s work?

5. Don’t use an online resume mill. You are not like everyone else. Your resume can’t be done well by someone who pops them out like biscuits. Get a real writer — someone who makes a living by writing based on specific research. Probably someone with a degree in English or writing.

6. You can’t really completely hire out the responsibility of creating your perfect resume. Expect to stay involved and provide lots of answers to the writer’s questions.

7. The writer should be doing research and you are the only source of all the detailed data they will need to represent you well. Expect (and check for) a rational, organized process. The writer should have you fill out forms and send any old resumes. They should also interview you by phone and ask you a lot of relevant questions. They should be able to explain what they do and why they do it.

8. What questions are they asking you? To write well for you, the writer needs to gather specific kinds of information. They should be asking you questions like these:

What important qualifications does the job require?

What are your best and highest qualifications?

Tell me about the high points of your career.

Is there anything we should keep in the background?

What about you stands out that will help win the job?

Describe your best skills and greatest expertise.

Do you also have minor qualifications that are relevant?

Are there personal traits that make you a good fit?

What have you accomplished that you’re proud of?

Can we express any of your qualifications numerically?

How did you develop your particular skills?

What do people in your field find impressive?

Have you accomplished things in those areas?

Is there any special language that is frequently used in your field?

And so on.

9. Does the writer offer all the documentation and help you need? There’s a lot more required to get a job than just a resume. Do they also write your cover letters, follow up letters, references sheet, and salary history? Do they offer you an elevator speech to help you promote yourself? Do they coach you on how to use all parts of your job change documentation to your best advantage?

10. What are the writer’s special qualifications? Have they written for people like you? Do they have experience with writing persuasively, perhaps with some form of marketing? Do they speak about resumes to groups? Do they have experience as a hiring manager so they understand how people who make staffing decisions think?

When it comes to your resume, quality control is up to you. The best assurance of quality in your resume is in the skill and integrity of your resume writer. You deserve a writer who’s a cut above — the kind who’d be chosen by a CEO or other executive. Check your writer out carefully. Don’t settle for less than one who truly captures exactly who you are professionally and how you’re qualified for the job you want.

Stock Option Trading – Fundamental Flaw in Fundamental Analysis and Stock Picking

Clinging on to Fundamental Analysis and stock picking software, only keeps you stuck in trading equities. Trading this way, compounds concentration risk in one asset class and fails to adequately diversify risks across Equities, Bonds, Currencies and Commodities. There’s much more to stock option trading, than stock itself.

I cite Benjamin F. King’s study, quoted repeatedly since 1966, because it remains valid and has yet to be disproved to the point of dismissing its logic.

Market and Industry Factors, Journal of Business, January 1966: ” Of a stock’s move …

  • 31% can be attributed to the general stock market,
  • 13% to industry influence,
  • 36% to influence of other groupings, and the remaining
  • 20% is peculiar to the one stock.”

There must be a more compelling reason for you to trade stock other than just for the movement, if only 20% is unique to the underlying equity in question. Consider this, in context of the Fundamental Analysis or stock picking software that you bought on a per $1 basis. For each $1 dollar you spend, you “outsourced” the analysis at a cost of 80 cents, only to receive back 20 cents worth of work. Shouldn’t the 80:20 rule of “outsourcing” be the other way round? The problem is that you are still stuck with 80% of the work, to analyze price movement! Plus, the more you use FA techniques/stock picking software, the more trading capital is stuck in equities alone.

Now, you can say “special” research papers help you pick stocks. Let’s have a look at some of the more common fundamental metrics in these research subscriptions:

1. Dividend Yield: the problem is in the variability of yields as firms are in different stages of their business development. A Mature company that dominates in a well established sub-segment/sector is going to being able to afford a different dividend yield; versus, a Young company in a growth-oriented field; versus, a Small firm in a growing area that may not be able to afford a dividend payout. Bear in mind there is nothing special about firms that pay a dividend.

A company that gives away a portion of it’s retained earnings – which is what a dividend is – effectively gives away part of its valuation, which means it is not worth as much as a company that does need to give investors candy to commit capital to it. So, a dividend paying stock has to be far superior to a non-dividend paying stock for reasons other than the dividend. If it is not, there’s no point looking for dividend paying products to trade, there are plenty of non-dividend paying Indexes to trade.

2. Price/Book Ratio: the problem is this metric varies across industries and from company to company, as the asset base and capital structures of companies change over time. It lacks cross sector applicability and accounting complexity arises from a firm’s capital structure as it changes due to acquisitions/divestments/CAPEX for new product lines; or, product line cut-backs, as recently seen in the restructuring of major US car companies.

3. Price/Cash Flow Ratio (the cousin of the P/E): accounting laws on depreciation vary across Asia, Europe and US. As accounting rules are driven by tax codes, which change considerably across regions despite adoption of global accounting standards, there is a lack of uniformity in homogenizing a fundamental ratio that will fit as a common benchmark across geographies.

These metrics fail to help you compare say a Dell parented in the US to an Acer parented in Taiwan; but, is listed as an ADR in the US, even though both are competitors in the same sector as computer manufacturers.

Furthermore, the current dislocated cost of capital in credit markets, impairs the ability of corporations to optimize the operating cost of their balance sheets. In essence, corporations are left with the working capital cash flows remaining on their balance sheets, as testament to their financial strength. Do not waste your money on Fundamental Analysis software or research paper subscriptions.

As there is a fundamental flaw in fundamental analysis and stock picking, how do you select trades? Trade the options of a broad-based Equity Index to replace single stock exposure. To replace Fundamental Analysis, use the Relative Strength measure based on Point & Figure methods.

What is Relative Strength? It is nothing more than taking one price as the Numerator, divided by another price as the Denominator, then multiplied by 100. RS = (Price 1 / Price 2) x 100. Typically, RS calculations use daily closing prices. Though simple in its mathematical construction, RS is ingeniously powerful when it is applied not only within a sector; but, across sectors and between asset classes.

Let’s start of within a sector. For example, if you choose 2 semiconductor stocks trading at different prices, how do you know if one stock is outperforming the other in the same sector, when the 2 stocks have price changes at different rates; plus, the sector’s price itself is also changing?

SOX = Semiconductor Sector Index, trades up from 452.24 to 467.81.

Numerator1: Price1 = BRCM 33.15     RS1 = 7.33     Price2 = 33.80     RS2 = 7.23

Numerator2: Price1 = TSM 9.91      RS1 = 2.19      Price2 = 13.43    RS2 = 2.87

Common Denominator: SOX Price 1 = 452.24   Price 2 = 467.81

BRCM’s RS1 = (33.15/452.24) x 100 = 7.33. BRCM’s RS2 = (33.80/467.81) x 100 = 7.23.

TSM’s RS1 = (9.91/452.24) x 100 = 2.19. TSM’s RS2 = (13.43/467.81) x 100 = 2.87.

BRCM’s price rises from 33.15 to 33.80 and TSM’s price also rises from 9.91 to 13.43. Simply because BRCM is a larger stock, does that mean it benefits from the SOX trading up? No, the RS reading (RS1 compared to RS2) shows BRCM’s RS reading dropped (7.33 down to 7.23) against TSM’s RS reading, which increased (2.19 to 2.87). RS confirms TSM as the outperformer rising in price strength versus BRCM’s weakened price. RS is constructed on pure price rules. Using an Index as the denominator, acts as a much more durable benchmark and is structurally more reliable, compared to any “magical” TA indicator; or, combination of income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements touted in stock picking programmes.

You can replace BRCM or TSM with Indexes or ETFs. Using Indexes with Relative Strength enables a common denominator to compare Equities against Bonds, Commodities and Currencies, to crossover into asset classes other than stocks to trade. It’s not that Relative Strength is infallible. But compared to the fundamental metrics cited above, Relative Strength fails the least. Break the mould on what you learnt about stock option trading.

Is there an example of an optionable and consistently profitable portfolio that trades using Relative Strength across multiple asset classes? Yes. Follow the link below, entitled “Consistent Results” to see a retail online option trading portfolio that excludes the use of single stocks and Fundamental Analysis, using broad based equity Indices, Commodity ETFs and Currency ETFs. There is no need to trade FX directly. Just trade the options of Currency ETFs.

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