Have you been investing in the stock market? Are your stock picks not performing as well as you had hoped? If you are not using a combination of fundamental and technical analysis when you are making investment decisions, this may explain why you are not maximizing the profits you are looking for.

But it can be difficult to know the best way to make money. The stock market has been very unstable and so beginning investors especially may be unsure how to look at different performance reports objectively. Of course, a good financial adviser is the best person to help you make decisions but forewarned is forearmed and being as informed as possible can only benefit you in the long run.

The different financial markets are ever changing. Some stocks which have long been considered sure fire investments are suddenly losing money and bottoming out. This must have come as a very great shock to the people who had invested in them. The hope is that by using a combination of two different schools of financial analysis, this will not happen as often or as seriously to investors.

The two schools of financial analysis are fundamental analysis and technical analysis. One, fundamental analysis, tends to look more at the company itself and its financial health. They use a variety of different accounting reports and financial information sources in order to assess the viability of a given company and determine whether it would make a good investment. This is good, but it tends to overlook exterior influences which can affect any company.

Technical analysis is more outward looking and reviews the behavior of the market overall. It looks at information such as volume and price of the shares being traded. It tends to overlook a lot of the internal financial information when it is making its decisions.

If you are looking to invest in the stock market, a good adviser is your best money making tool. They can use a combination of fundamental and technical analysis and help you figure out which areas of the market to invest in.

For more from Mike Swanson go to his free technical analysis website.