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The Woman Who Made It on Wall Street

Sallie

Women are the foot soldiers of the business world, but they are rarely the generals. So it’s worth asking why no female has been as successful in scaling Wall Street as Sallie Krawcheck, Bank of America’s (BAC) wealth management chief. While other women struggle to avoid the “glass cliff,” she barely walks into a bank before she is groomed as a future CEO.

Krawcheck is best known for the kind of media adoration you can’t buy—for instance, that famous cover story from Fortune magazine, “In Search of the Last Honest Analyst.” But her rise began well before—and was speedy. In six years Krawcheck went from junior banker at Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette to chief executive of research firm Alliance Bernstein. She clocked just two years at Citigroup (C) before becoming CFO in 2004. Nine months after a falling-out with Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit in 2008, she was back in the game with a better deal: Bank of America wooed Krawcheck, just 45, to run its mammoth brokerage. And within six weeks on the job, she was named as a possible successor for its departing CEO. But as successful as she has been in winning over the media, interviews with former colleagues show Krawcheck has been just as effective in winning over her peers, too. Her rise has not been flawless and is still not assured after her troubled turn as Citi CFO. But it is very real.

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10 rules for Rookie Day Traders

1. The three E’s: enter, exit, escape

Rule No. 1 is having an enter price, an exit price, and an escape price in case of a worst-case scenario. This is rule number one for a reason. Before you press the “Enter” key, you must know when to get in, when to get out, and what to do if the trade doesn’t work out as expected.

Escaping a trade, also known as using a stop price, is essential if you want to minimize losses. Knowing when to get in or out will help you to lock in profits, as well as save you from potential disasters. 

2. Avoid trading during the first 15 minutes of the market open

Those first 15 minutes of market action are often panic trades or market orders placed the night before. Novice day traders should avoid this time period while also looking for reversals. If you’re looking to make quick profits, it’s best to wait a while until you’re able to spot rewarding opportunities. Even many pros avoid the market open.

3. Use limit orders, not market orders

A market order simply tells your broker to buy or sell at the best available price. Unfortunately, best doesn’t necessarily mean profitable. The drawback to market orders was revealed during the May 2010 “flash crash.” When market orders were triggered on that day, many sell orders were filled at 10-, 15-, or 20 points lower than anticipated. A limit order, however, lets you control the maximum price you’ll pay or the minimum price you’ll sell. You set the parameters, which is why limit orders are recommended. (more…)

Crash of the Titans

For many, many years, Merrill Lynch had good reason to be “Bullish on America.”

With more than 15,000 brokers and $2.2 trillion in client assets Merrill Lynch was the world’s largest brokerage. It clawed its way to the top and revolutionized the stock market by bringing Wall Street to Main Street.

But in September 2008 – at the height of the financial crisis, it ceased to exist as a separate entity when it was acquired by Bank of America

The world, the company, the Street was in shock.

How could this American institution collapse almost overnight?

In his meticulously researched new book, Crash of the Titans: Greed, Hubris, The Fall of Merrill Lynch and the Near-Collapse of Bank of America, Greg Farrell reveals it all in never before reported detail.

In this guest author blog Farrell shares how his book came to be and if you continue on, you can read an excerpt from Crash of the Titans.

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