Mourad Haroutunian, BA, MA
Mourad joined Profit Confidential as a financial writer. He has worked for several media companies across three continents, in many different languages, and on various platforms, all with a single factor in common: news. It was Bloomberg where Mourad fell in love with stock market writing, Proactive Investors where he became fascinated with U.S. and Canadian equities, and MT Newswires where he felt at one with speed and real-time reporting.
Addicted to online reading, Mourad has a passion for personal finance, world politics, and intercultural relations. He holds a BA and MA in journalism and mass communication.
Mourad likes to explore every corner in the cities he lives in or travels to by driving highways and walking down the streets and alleys. Away from the digital world, Mourad enjoys spending time with his little son and daughter.
Get to know Mourad…
What was your first stock market investment?
My first investments were really unforgettable moments in my life. I was closely watching a friend who had invested a bulk of his savings in an amazingly quickly appreciating blue chip. He bought the stock at $9.00 and saw it rising to $10.00, then swiftly plunging to $5.00 within a few weeks. At that time, I decided—with my below-zero stock trading knowledge—to invest $5,000, thinking the stock couldn’t drop further. I made a $50.00 gain in my first trade and you can’t imagine how excited I was. I decided to stay away a bit to see how things would be going. However, repeated chatter by my friend and others that the price would definitely go up to $6.00 prompted me to re-invest the $5,000. That was a catastrophe. The stock never went up again and I sold it a year later at $3.00, losing $2,000. The stock then nosedived to $0.30 on the heels of the 2008 financial crisis. The lesson: don’t listen to amateurish projections and more importantly, eradicate your stock trading illiteracy…
What is your investment philosophy?
Stick to the trading ABCs that most experts advise: invest only the amount of money that you would not need in the coming two years; every investment you purchase should not exceed five percent of your portfolio; when you are 25 years old, put 75% of your portfolio in stocks and the rest in low-risk securities; and flip that ratio when you are 75 years old (but make it 50%:50% when you are 50 years old). One more basic tip that I like: don’t wait until the share price goes down beyond 10%—sell it.
Dow Jones Industrial Average Tracks Oil Rally, Climbing Import Prices The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened higher on Tuesday as rallying oil prices and climbing import prices overpowered any disappointment from Alcoa Inc.’s dismal kickoff to earnings season. At 9:35 a.m. in New York, the Dow Jones index…
NASDAQ Erases Gains Ahead of Earnings Season Start The NASDAQ Composite Index turned lower ahead of the close on Monday as investors brace for the corporate earnings season that starts with results from aluminum producer Alcoa Inc (NYSE:AA). The tech heavy gauge traded higher earlier in the day…
Silver Prices Best Performing Precious Metal Today Silver prices jumped on Monday on declines in the U.S. dollar and bets the Federal Reserve will be cautious when increasing interest rates. The silver price for May delivery gained 3.9% to $15.98 a troy ounce on the Comex division of…
Weaker USD, More Dovish Fed Boost Gold Prices Gold prices rose to the highest in nearly three weeks, boosted by a weaker U.S. dollar and more cautious Federal Reserve. The gold price for June delivery rose 1.3% to $1,259.40 at 11:40 a.m. on the Comex division of the…
Big Rally Coming for Gold Prices A trader is betting more than $2.0 million that gold prices could appreciate 10% in one month. The bet on SPDR Gold Trust (ETF) (NYSEARCA:GLD)—the exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks gold—was made on Thursday, when bullish trades outpaced bearish ones. CNBC reports…
Dow Jones Industrial Average Rises Ahead of Earnings Season Start A recovery in the U.S. dollar against the Japanese yen helped the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) to open higher on Monday as investors brace for the corporate earnings season that starts with results from aluminum producer Alcoa…
U.S. Economic Collapse Coming An economic collapse in the U.S. is not a myth. One more permabear analyst affirms that a U.S. recession is “virtually inevitable,” echoing Donald Trump’s pessimistic view on the U.S. economy. Albert Edwards of Société Générale says his recession indicator is now "flashing red"…
Repeated Dovish Fed Comments Boost Gold Price Gold prices extended gains for a third day in five after Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen repeated that any rate hikes by the Fed will be gradual. A gloomy outlook for quarterly corporate results has spurred risk-averse investors to pour…
U.S. Stocks Gain on Sharp Oil Recovery, Fed Remarks The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 152 points on Friday, helped by a strong recovery in oil prices and Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen’s upbeat comments on the U.S. economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped to as high…
Osama Bin Laden, the global instability maker, was a gold bug, documents have recently revealed. A few months before his 2011 death, the leader of the Al-Qaeda organization had predicted the gold price would double to $3,000 a troy ounce, which has not happened thus far. In 2010,…
Dow Jones Industrial Average Brushes Good Data The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) tumbled on Thursday as a fresh slump in oil prices and a sharp drop in the U.S. dollar against the yen overshadowed a positive report on U.S. jobless claims. At 2:39 p.m. in New York,…
Gold Prices Soaring After Fed Minutes Gold prices spiked on Thursday as investors speculated the Federal Reserve would be dovish on hiking interest-rates given global economic headwinds. The gold price for June delivery rose as much as 1.8% to $1,245 a troy ounce before trimming gains to $1,242.40…
Lower Dow Jones Industrial Average Weighs on Sentiment The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fell on Thursday despite a positive report on U.S. jobless claims that indicated a healthy labor market in the world’s largest economy. Investors continued to assess minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee and…
The end of the ever-mounting real estate markets in Toronto and Vancouver will be “bad,” a BMO economist said of Canada’s current housing bubble. “Odds are that if this kind of price growth (especially Vancouver) continues, it will end badly,” Robert Kavcic, a senior economist at BMO, said…
Gold Prices Slipping After Fed Transcript Gold prices fell on Wednesday as equities strengthened following a recovery in oil prices, but price moves were stopped as investors eyed the minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve's March policy meeting. The June gold price slid 0.5% to settle at $1,223.80…
Silver Prices Snaps Two-Day Decline The silver price appreciated more than one percent on Tuesday, snapping a two-day decline, as risk-averse traders hurried to buy safety-haven investments and sell risky assets like stocks amid a global stock-market selloff. The May silver price rose to as high as $15.22…
Gold prices restored their allure on Tuesday as renewed global economic and geopolitical concerns prompted cautious investors to turn back to safer assets. The June gold price rose to as high as $1,238 a troy ounce before trimming gains to $1,230, up 0.9%, at 11:44 a.m. in New…
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) dropped sharply on Tuesday, tracking global stock markets, amid renewed concerns about negative interest rates and oil’s recent rout. The Dow Jones index fell 0.7% to 17,609.14 at 9:47 a.m. Twenty-seven stocks were declining, while three were advancing. The S&P 500 dropped…
Poor Outlook for Toronto Real Estate Market The overpriced Toronto real estate market could join the Vancouver real estate market in an upcoming correction that could occur very soon as the oil rout continues to weigh on many aspects of the Canadian economy, according to Capital Economics. “Housing…
The gold price retreated for a second session on Monday after a dovish Federal Reserve official projected more and faster interest-rate hikes than the market is expecting. The gold price for June dropped 0.3% to finish at $1,219.30 a troy ounce. Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren, who is…
From: Michael Lombardi, MBA