here, i will give everyone a tidbit for making money in the coming months. retail stocks are taking a beating. analyst after analyst is talking trash on them and is either downgrading or recommending against buying them. bear in mind, the market always corrects itself. and stocks tend to come back UNLESS there is a real static reason for the drop. opinions are not static reasoning. so here is my tip. take some money. invest into 2-3 retail oriented stocks. if you go to yahoo finance you can pull up plenty of info to find the ones you like. try to find one that offers dividends and has a nice double digit growth year to year. then look at the company. ask yourself, are they a popular brand, are they positioned strongly in malls near you, are they always crowded or are the stores you have seen overwhlemingly slow (cough cough GAP cough cough). have they stayed on top of recent fashion trends or have they created them?
and the best way, check out what teenagers and early 20's people are wearing and where they shop. they buy on average, 30% more clothing that those of us in our 30's and 40's. if they are spending a ton in certain stores, you can almost rest assured that many others are too. that means earnings will either come back, or go up (barring any tragedies). which makes it a fairly safe bet.
you want an example? ok, here you go:
5 years ago, aeropostale had a terrible earnings period. analysts downgraded it and told clients to sell it. it went from 18 down to 5 bucks a share. had you been smart and realized it was an opinion to sell based on some peoples opinions due to a single bad quarter, you could have bought in there. the stock, within 4 months, traded at 21. a $16 per share profit. a smart man could have made a great deal. i wasnt, i listened to my broker at the time. i have never used a broker since.
sorry for the long post. some might find it interesting i hope.