Invest & Manage Money

Keeps Your Enterprise Going During Financial Crisis!

2009-01-30T10:32:00.000+08:00

All over the world, millions of people are being affected by the financial crisis directly or indirectly as it has influenced the day to day activities of business people as well as consumers.

To be able to maintain ones business and ensure its growth, small and medium enterprises should ensure that they are in a position to retain the supply of the products and services offered so as to be financially better off.

However, with the decreasing purchasing power of consumers it is difficult to sustain the quantity to be supplied or produced since there is an overall reduction in the demand for products and services.

Developing business and gaining new clients is becoming difficult. Some of enterprises who are the sole provider for a product or service are taking advantage of their monopolistic situation to increase the price. But, such practice will not be in their advantage for too long as consumers will shift to substitute product or service offered at a much lower price unless in some cases such as basic and staple products.

Just looking at one side of the coin will not solve your problems. Entrepreneurs should begin by reviewing their selling price and offer their products or services at affordable and attractive cost. That is with discounts so as to be able to cover their running cost. Although at the beginning they may lose in terms of profit margins, but after a new month they can make profit due to the continuing supply of their products or services.

Apart from price of the product or service, the cost incurred by the company also forms part of the expenses to be taken into account. To be able to sustain a recurring profit, without wasting time entrepreneurs should start analyzing their expenses and attempt to decrease the cost of production and look for substitute of quality raw materials at reasonable price.

At the same time, multi-skilling of the personnel may prove to be very helpful as it avoids the entrepreneur from employing more than the required number of employees. Thus, saving in terms of the salary paid in case of excess personnel.

In addition, transportation and internal expenses such as electricity or energy cost used to operate machinery are considered as running expenses. A reduction in these expenses through subsidies can prove to be advantageous for the entrepreneurs as it will allow them to reduce their cost of production thus making the quality products and services; available to consumers at cheaper prices.

However, the assessment of the value chain process consisting of the different players and partners such as retailers, wholesalers or even exportation partners prove to be a huge cost which could be bargained.

How Small and Medium-sized Businesses Can Use E-commerce Effectively

2008-12-29T21:35:00.001+08:00

With the growth of China's e-commerce, a number of foreign e-commerce sites optimistic about the development of China's B2B market have arisen, with EasyTrade.com being the most distinctive. There are still many problems that may be encountered by Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that utilize e-commerce. Understanding these problems will help your company to navigate them successfully. Below are several areas that e-commerce SMEs need to know about:

1.E-commerce for SMEs and the implementation of an overall plan: Before entering into e-commerce, companies should first try to understand what mechanism they will use to achieve their goal. That is, their business model, or to put it simply: what will you sell? To who? How will you sell it? How will you arrange the sale?

2. Selecting the target market and seizing the right opportunities: The target market is businesses who are servicing groups of customers. You need to determine the customers and the area or region you will service in order to decide on the kind of products you will use, and how you will carry out sales promotions as well as what characteristics you want in your web page design. E-Commerce is not like the traditional one-way marketing model, it is a two way marketing model, so your objective must be understanding whether your product is suitable for the various conditions of online consumers.

3. Strengthening website promotion and establishing a good corporate image: a corporate website is like a city, and the users of the site are like the city's population. Just as the urban environment and level of service in a city determine the city’s population, the population of a website depends on how you construct the site and the services that are offered. As a result, designing your site to promote e-commerce is necessary. There are many ways to promote a site, and these ways can be roughly divided into two categories. First, you can make use of traditional media such as newspapers, television, business cards, promotional t-shirts, product packaging and promotional websites. Second, you can use internet resources to promote the Website, placing links to the website on frequently visited websites, discussion groups, and e-mail.

4. Selecting the best methods of distribution and payment to cut down on costs and risks: The method of distribution and payment are two of the main problems facing e-commerce, and a company is unable to make definitive decisions regarding these issues on their own. You must adopt a flexible way to solve these issues. Cash on delivery is the payment method that is currently being used the most. You need to provide 3 options for delivery: EMS, UPS, and self delivery.

5. The establishment of an efficient information-gathering system: In the information age, whoever is the first to acquire information will be the one who succeeds in the market. For SMEs to successfully implement e-commerce, they must establish an efficient information-gathering system. Adopt a design for your website, establish a good database, collect information, analyze information, understand the market needs, trends, and the circumstances of self run businesses, how well the products are received online, etc. Thus, you can optimize the resources at your disposal, first and foremost in reducing costs and improving your results.

6. Providing top quality service and establishing a stable customer base: Nowadays, customers demand personalized service, and with network services you can provide customers with a brand new tools: tools that are available around-the-clock, updated in real-time, and interactive; tools that can analyze information and solve problems. These characteristics cater to the demands of the modern customer. Therefore, more and more enterprises are finally considering using e-commerce for marketing, making customer service and e-commerce inseparable.

The development of e-commerce has profound and far reaching consequences, as people enter into an even greater information era. In this virtual space, a virtual society has been established, and along with it a new era of growth, an era where the idea of buying goods online will become commonplace. E-commerce is a completely new, ever-changing field, and with the rapid development of new techniques, enterprises need to continuously develop strategies and tactics to adapt accordingly.

http://www.articlesbase.com/international-business-articles/how-small-and-mediumsized-businesses-can-use-ecommerce-effectively-695895.html

The Power of Technical Analysis

2008-10-20T09:44:00.002+08:00

Technical analysis is the study of share prices. By researching the past performance of a share, we can gain an insight into how it will likely perform in the future.

To fully appreciate the power of technical analysis it is important to understand the basics. There are three key principles upon which technical analysis is based:

Everything is discounted and reflected in market prices.
Prices move in trends and trends persist.
Market action is repetitive.

Let’s examine each principle in detail.

The first and most important principle is that everything is discounted and reflected in market prices. All knowledge, regardless of type (fundamental, political, economical, psychological or other) is already reflected in market prices.

It can be time consuming studying fundamental information such as company financial statements, earnings and P/E ratios in an attempt to determine the potential for a share to rise in value. The real value of a share at any point in time is determined solely by supply and demand, as reflected in trades made at the stock exchange.

Technical analysts do not care what the underlying forces of a shift in supply and demand are; instead he or she is interested in what occurs to the price.

If demand is greater than supply, prices will increase. On the other hand, if supply is greater than demand, prices will decline.

The study of market prices is all that is necessary to make money from the stock market.

The second principle on which technical analysis is based is that prices move in trends and trends persist.

The supply and demand balance sets a trend in motion. Once in motion, a trend remains intact until it ends. For example, if a stock’s price is moving up, it will continue its rise until there is a clear change in direction.

It is far easier to follow the trends, rather than fight them. The old Wall Street adage, “the trend is your friend” is true because, once begun, a trend is likely to continue once it is in place. A trend will usually give us warning that it is about to change direction. The warning can sometimes last a day or longer, so it is important to become familiar with recognising the signs.

The final key principle on which technical analysis is based is that market action is repetitive. Certain patterns appear time after time on charts. These patterns have meanings that can be interpreted in terms of probable future price movement. Although not infallible, the odds are in the analysts’ favour. Common reversal patterns include Double Tops, Shooting Stars, Doji’s and Head and Shoulders.

These patterns, when seen during an uptrend (bull run) consistently identify a likely trend reversal, i.e. a fall in share prices.Human nature is such that it tends to react to similar situations in consistent ways. As a rule, people will act the same in the future as they have in the past.

Since the stock market is a reflection of the actions of people, technical analysts study it to determine how people will react under certain conditions and thus, how share prices will move. Technical analysts analyse the recurrence of similar characteristics in an attempt to identify the likely future price direction.

As you can see, technical analysis can be defined as the study of individual share prices and the overall market based on supply and demand. Technical analysts record, usually in chart form on a computer, historical and up-to-date price and volume activity and deduce from that pictured history the probable future trend of prices.

Author: Daniel Kertcher

Source from:http://www.articlesbase.com/wealth-building-articles/the-power-of-technical-analysis-605090.html

Plan for Success

2008-10-20T09:34:00.003+08:00

To be a successful investor or trader, a written investment plan is a must! In fact, most broking firms will not allow its professional traders to trade money without a trading plan!

Each and every trader must submit their plan and have it approved to be able to start trading money on behalf of clients. The trader is then judged and compensated for how well he follows his own plan and how well he does financially. If he violates his own plan, he may be subject to immediate dismissal!

So it’s crazy for us non-professionals traders to start trading without a plan, especially when things don’t go our way, and they won‘t always go our way, you can be assured of it!

Now, before we begin to write our plan, take just a moment to think about your true investment
objective. What do you want to accomplish with this trading account? Simply saying, “ I want to make money
” is not an investment objective. You have to have a specific objective, like, “To outperform the All Ords by at least10% annually”. That’s an objective.

Then you must decide what type of industry and sector of shares you are going to invest in. The energy sector, the housing sector or the retail sector are unlikely to outperform the All Ords. That means you might have to look at the more volatile,but more rewarding sectors, like the computer sector, telecommunications, etc.

This will likely give you lots of volatility in your portfolio and you’ll have to accept it or don’t get involved in that sector in the first place.

There are 7 necessary ingredients in your investment plan:

Reasonable investment objective.What growth factor do I want to achieve?
Be realistic. Are you actively trading or long-term investing?

Risk tolerance statement.What industries, sectors and types of shares will I invest in?

Diversification plan.How many different types of companies do we buy on average? Between 10 –20 should be a maximum.

Price range of the shares we buy.Do we buy $30 shares, or only the sub $10 shares? Do we invest only in Australia, or overseas too?

A defense strategy.How much price decline are we willing to accept? Be sure to use a Stop-Loss!

Contingency / Repair plan.What do we do in a potential large market correction? How do we prevent and/or repair large market losses?

Timeframe.How often do we, or will we, re-assess our investment strategy? It should be reviewed every 3-6 months and updated if and when the market conditions change.

To help tailor your investment strategy, try asking yourself these questions:

1. Do I usually average down in price, or do I take a small loss?

2. How many shares do I buy and sell everyday and do I diversify well?

3. What is the usual size of my trades? 500 shares, 1000 shares, or even more?

4. When do I take my profits? When I’m up 10%, 20%, 50% or more?

5. If I have a profit in a stock, do I hold it overnight?

When you have considered all the above aspects, you will be well underway to finalising a very valuable and effective investment plan. Armed with this plan, you are now in a superb position to manage your investment capital the way you want it managed, as opposed to just shooting from the hip.

Adopt a professional approach and you will be a successful investor!

Author: Daniel Kertcher

Sources From:http://www.articlesbase.com/wealth-building-articles/plan-for-success-605099.html

All About Swing Trading

2008-09-20T20:34:00.000+08:00

The style of trading that involves implementation of individual investors looking for quick gains is known as Swing Trading. This type of trading rolls your money within one to four days and swiftly builds up your equity. This type of trading is similar to the day trading in which you are likely to gain over a short period of time. It is thus, not a long term investment trading.

Swing trading plays the general upward or downward trend. In this type of trading, Swing traders hold a stock for a period of time, usually between three to four weeks, and trade the stock on the basis of the oscillations between the profit and the loss.

To be successful in Swing Trading you must know how it actually works? You must know how to pick the right stocks and choose them properly. You can earn dollars in swing trading by keeping a sharp eye on the fluctuations that swing the market way. You have to move the stock quickly when it is showing the potential in one way or another.

Swing Trading is quite beneficial when the market is in momentum and strong. It is up to the swing traders to reach their profit zone faster by participating in the runaway gap in the market momentum.

Swing Trading enjoys many advantages over the brief price swings in one way or the other and also is the best for the part-time traders. While sitting at home, restaurant or any place, you can enjoy the benefits of swing trading. You need not have to stay glued to your computers for hours. Like day trading, you need to have to be focused to watch minutely the changes in quotes. Like day traders, swing traders do not gamble on stocks rising or falling by fractions of points, they in fact buy fewer stocks and pay lower brokerage and earn bigger gains.

Also, Swing traders get the major share of the profit whereas day traders only get the few percent out of their profit. It is because in day trading, the major portion of your profit is eaten up by the brokers.

To comprehend what this trading is, you first need to understand what up/down trends are. In Up Trend, Swing trader usually buys the stick when it has gone down for a couple of days, so that he can take the maximum profit in future. Likewise, in Down Trend he tries to sell out the stock which he has purchased during the up trend. Thus, the opposite action is taken in a downward trend

It should be noted that Swing trading is the better way for the investment to achieve lucrative results together with the added advantage of freedom. This type of trading is carefully designed for those who wish to have maximum profits and who do not wish to stick to their computer all the time. Also, swing trading fulfills the need of the individual investors who have the financial constraints in terms of the professional institutions that may have.

At last, swing trading is the best option to hold out your profits. It is a great trading for the one who is new in this field of stock trading and still leaning how the stock market works. Also, it is less risky than any other trading.

Author: josh wright
http://www.articlesbase.com/currency-trading-articles/all-about-swing-trading-567431.html

6 Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

2008-09-03T09:43:00.001+08:00

1. Learn great customer service skills.
Advertising guru Clyde Bedell said “good selling is serving”. You cannot sell anything without great customer service skills. Service and sales go together. They are linked – if one goes up, the other goes up and vice versa. Your customers need your expertise, so do not be afraid to make suggestions. Learn what questions to ask so you can get the right information from customers to help them make a purchase.

2. Leave out the hype.
Do not include hype like “this cream will take away all your wrinkles” in your brochure printing or any other kind of marketing material. All of your marketing materials should be free from hype, a.k.a. lies. No one likes to be lied to and when you make outrageous claims, you just seem like someone to distrust from the beginning. Consumers are smart and they will see through your hype. Most customers do not want whatever you are hyping anyway. They just want something that works. On the other hand, if you can support an outrageous claim, by all means use the claim. Just make sure you show clear supporting evidence to back up your claim.

3. Identify your unique selling point (USP).
Your USP is what differentiates you from the competitors. Do you have the fastest delivery time in town? Do you only use organic ingredients? Give consumers a reason to do business with you over your competitors.

4. Create a database of customer information.
Keep your customers’ names and addresses or phone numbers in a database so you can follow up at a later date. It will also help you to remember their names the next time they come into your store. By taking the time to learn your customers’ names you will not only foster goodwill with that customer, but you’ll develop a deeper relationship which will keep the customer from going to a competitor.

5. Create a referral program.
Do not be afraid to ask for referrals – many people who are happy with your service and product will be happy to refer you to their friends and family. If you think “there is nothing in it for them” then create a referral program. You can give people an incentive for sending referrals your way, like a discount on a future purchase or a free item. Some businesses use cash to reward customers. Whatever your reward, make sure it is something appealing that will motivate people to tell others about you.

6. Find a marketing partner.
Try to find a business about the same size as yours that you can partner with to cut down on marketing costs. You can each display the other business’s brochures in your respective stores or you can run a joint ad in the newspaper and split the ad costs in half. If you can find a business with products or services that complement yours, you can share mailing lists and marketing costs to reach both target markets.

Author: Lynne Saarte
http://www.articlesbase.com/online-business-articles/6-marketing-tips-for-small-businesses-540926.html

Treating Day Trading Like a Hobby Versus a Business

2008-09-03T09:38:00.001+08:00

First, let’s start off by understanding that there is no such thing as a day trading hobby. Traders must have superior trading habits that come from knowing their strategies and their trading. Trading discipline and making only quality trades is something that comes from experience that can only be created from an active role in the financial markets. The active, professional trader is far more profitable due to experience and knowledge from consistent trading than the hobbyist investor will ever be.

Hobbies don’t make money
If you’re trading for a hobby, you’re likely to be in a position where you’re willing to accept losses. If this is your position, then more power to you, as you’re able to do something that most people can’t, while accepting any possible losses. Hobbyists do not need to pay as much attention to trading structure or even trading success, but should be willing to pay the price for both in limited gains or even losses. Trading as a hobby is difficult, as the time constraints and limited reason to produce profits will make many traders unprofitable.

Like a business
To maintain a balance between enjoyment and profits, traders should instead focus on producing profits much like a business, using proven techniques and strategies to produce profits – not for fun, but for profit. Life-changing results and financial freedom do not come from enjoying a hobby, but running a business that produces consistent profits, whether selling lemonade or buying and selling derivatives.

Short term trading
Day traders and swing traders are much like the day to day entrepreneurs who go to work to build their business and their bankroll. Day traders work around the clock to be the first in and the first out of a position – much like businesses work to be the first in their marketplace. The time advantage is something few hobbyists can parallel, as the amount of time to produce profits is more in the range of the day trader or swing trader than in the small time trader who wants to have fun and possibly make money.

How to treat this like a business
Full-time day trading is easy to view as a business as it requires all the time and complications of running a business, while the bottom line is entirely dependent on the profits generated from the said business. A professional trader is much like an entrepreneur or a salesman on commission; the amount of time put into the business is nothing compared to the profits that come out of it. Whether you are a hobbyist or full-time day trader, core trading skills and a handle on the basic fundamentals will always prove profitable.

http://www.articlesbase.com/day-trading-articles/treating-day-trading-like-a-hobby-versus-a-business-498046.html

Tips To Help You Invest In Fine Wines

2008-08-09T21:40:00.001+08:00

Investments come in many different forms, such as stocks and bonds, race horses, baseball cards and many others. When looking to start an investment in something, it is always best to think slightly out of the box.

If you want to invest in something that will be fun and laid back, then consider investing in fine wines. The best wines command high prices, especially if they have aged over a number of years. This article will teach you how to invest in wine efficiently.

Before you start purchasing any ol' bottle of wine you will want to learn everything you can about wine. There are a few ways you can go about this. You can choose to do it on your own. Gather up some books and learn the basics on how vintage wines are made, everything from genetics of the vine to the climate.

All of this will be important when choosing your fine wines. You can also employ the expertise of someone called a sommelier, which is a person who purchases high-end wines for restaurants and clubs. Having a sommelier at your beck and call can be handy after you have begun investing as well.

Once you have retained all of the knowledge you feel you will need to be successful in investing in fine wines, you can then move on. You can choose to travel to different wineries or simply investigate them by phone or online. By doing this you will learn all about their reputations as well as their quality of vintage wine.

This should help you choose which area you will be collecting from and investing in. It is best to stick with one area so that you can become an expert. Consider investing in wine from outside the country, such as French wines. Of course you won't be traveling to France, or will you?

Just like with every other kind of investment, investing in fine wines requires you to take caution in certain areas. If a wine has a high price tag, it doesn't necessarily mean it is a vintage quality wine; it may just be popular at the moment.

This doesn't mean it isn't worth investing in; it just depends on your tastes. Also remember that many new wines are not meant to be aged, and may only last for a year or two. Once you notice all of these things and learn what you can, you will be on your way to a great wine investment!

http://www.articlesbase.com/investing-articles/tips-to-help-you-invest-in-fine-wines-492859.html

Learn Currency Trading - 3 Essential Character Traits You Need to Win

2008-07-30T23:08:00.000+08:00

Enclosed you will find 3 character traits that come together which will give you forex trading success. If you want to win and learn currency trading the right way, you need to have them so lets see what they are...

1. A Willingness to Take Responsibility
Think someone else can make you rich? If you believe this then you are going to lose because only you can make yourself money and this comes from doing your homework. Forget all the people selling simulated back tested track records with their robots and full proof systems and get down to doing your homework. You need to learn forex trading yourself so you can acquire the next key trait.

2. Confidence
If you want to win you need to have confidence in what you are doing and that comes from getting the right education and you need confidence to overcome your emotions when you start to hit a losing period ( all traders have them and they last for weeks or months) so you need to keep executing your trading signals when these periods occur and stay on course and if you have confidence you will likely have the next trait.

3. Discipline
Most traders have heard the word but don't understand how important it is and lack it. They can't follow their system, chop and change it and engage in behaviour that soon sees them wiped out. Discipline sounds easy to achieve but is hard, as you have to battle against your gut instinct and carry on trading when the market takes your money and makes you look a fool! This is tough, even for seasoned veterans, let alone novices.

FACT:
The Markets Don't Defeat the Trader he Defeats Himself It's a fact anyone can learn to trade and this was proved in a famous experiment, when Richard Dennis taught a diverse group of people with no experience, to trade in just 14 days and they went on to make hundreds of millions of dollars!Dennis taught them a system but more importantly the confidence in it to trade it with discipline and this story of the turtles is one any trader should read. The market takes money off 95% of traders yet, a savvy 5% pile up big gains year after year. They many not be the cleverest or have the most complex trading systems - but they do understand the key is - trading a logical method, with discipline. If you understand the link between the two, then you can enjoy forex trading success.

Author: Monica He
http://www.articlesbase.com/currency-trading-articles/learn-currency-trading-3-essential-character-traits-you-need-to-win-500586.html

Cutting Cost Tips Every Small Business Owner Should Know

2008-07-23T09:22:00.002+08:00

Develop a Clear Mission Statement
One of the most important steps is one most business owners consider obvious – but few truly do thoroughly. Make sure that your business plan is simple, clear, and workable before you invest your capital. Have you planned out the next five years intensively? In how much detail? The more narrowly, specifically, and intelligently you articulate your business mission, the easier it will be for you to construct a cost effective budget and to keep your company in the black.

Search for Used/Free/Discounted Equipment
When you're establishing a new company, you need not indulge in purchases of state-of-the-art furniture, Aeron chairs, and a slate of the latest company iPhones. Indeed, you can save yourself tremendous upfront capital by finding great deals on used/give-away office furniture and equipment. Businesses selling used or cheap equipment are becoming more widespread, and there are many resources online. For instance, Craigslist, a national internet site, posts hundreds of ads for used/cheap furniture every day.

You can also remodel used furniture yourself to save money. An old beat-up wooden table, for instance, can be transformed into a semi luxury furnishing with just a little sanding and painting. You can also call offices in your area to find out whether or not they might let you have or lease furniture at a discounted rate.

To keep costs low, figure out exactly what you need, and only get those items. Psychological studies show that shoppers who make lists and stick to them spend less.

Reduce Your Use of Mail: Increase Your Use of Email
While the US Postal System, FedEx, and other major carriers do a grand job delivering for small businesses, these services can get quite expensive, particularly if you use them regularly or ship bulk materials. Cutting out paperwork can make filing easier, save on staff resources, and cut your postage costs.

If you do convert your business records and transactions to “virtual transactions,” however, be sure to keep duplicate records. You can get accounts through sites likes Yahoo! and Google to store business emails online for free. You should also create a ghost copy of your hard drive to back up critical data.

Negotiate Costs with Vendors and Clients Whenever Possible -- Don’t Be Shy
Just because your small business doesn’t qualify for bulk discounts doesn’t mean you can’t use your status as a “lean and mean” organization to your benefit. You may be able to get better deals on supplies by paying early, agreeing to a long-term contract with a supplier, or simply by hard-nosed negotiating. Frankly, one of the best ways to get a good deal is simply to ask. Know your market’s prices before you make offers – you obviously want to neither insult vendors nor overpay. To bone up on how to negotiate better, read books on the psychology of negotiation. Dr. Robert Cialdini’s book “Influence” is a classic in the field.

Shop for Insurance
A good insurance plan can not only protect your business from potentially catastrophic contingencies but can also give you leverage to grow your company. Research what you minimally need before you shop policies. Business owners can choose from literally dozens of types of policies, and every business owner’s needs will be different. Talk to several neutral sources before pricing plans.

Limit Your Energy
UseWith oil prices spiking and the energy markets uncertain, you can’t afford not to consider the costs of fuel and power. There are many ways to reduce your consumption of energy without compromising your business model. Use fans instead of central air to keep your building cool during the summer. Replace traditional light bulbs with energy efficient bulbs (those odd, corkscrew-shaped bulbs you see at the hardware store). Energy saving bulbs can slash your energy costs, and they last much longer, too. If possible, do business out of your home to reduce the amount of gas you burn driving to and from the office.

Budget Conservatively
As a small business, you likely don’t have a huge margin of error. Budget brutally and honestly. Figure out your company’s assets and its anticipated liabilities. It’s natural to be optimistic about the future of your business. However, if you set your expectations at a modified level, you'll have a far greater chance of staying within budget and thus succeeding. Be mindful of the fact that you may have to survive several months without making a profit in order to get your company up and running. Budget both your personal and business expenses carefully in preparation. You can use a number of support systems to improve/refine your budget as you go, including professional accounting consultants and top end software.

Learn From Other Successful Small Business Owners
By forging relationships with other like-minded entrepreneurs, you will simultaneously network and get feedback on key tactical issues which may arise as you move forward with your business plan. You may be entitled to a multitude of excellent tax write-offs. You may also qualify for discounts at bulk big box retailers like Costco and Sam's Club. Subscribe to trade journals to find discounts and tips to get around fees and other business hassles.

Barter For Services
By trading for discounts you not only save money, you also build brand loyalty with potential vendors. If, for instance, you are starting up a web graphic service, you can likely trade your expertise for discounts on shipping, equipment, and other future favors. You may also be able to offer additional services to your clients to lower costs and build relationships.

Author: Mark M Madson
http://www.articlesbase.com/small-business-articles/cutting-cost-tips-every-small-business-owner-should-know-491684.html

Five Ways To Raise Money For Young Investors

2008-07-16T09:20:00.000+08:00

Sometimes it seems just to hard when you are starting out on your investing career. Here are some great ways in which you can kick start your investing so you can begin sooner rather than later.

1.Sell something. You must have something around your home that you don't use any more. We buy so much junk these days you probably have plenty to get rid of. That second television that you don't watch, or even that second car that sit's in the drive. Maybe you have a spouse that sit's around doing nothing, you could sell them (just kidding).

2. Borrow money. If you have a good eye for opportunity and are great at risk management, then there is no reason why not to borrow money to invest with. As long as the return on your investment is higher than the interest you are being charged, everything will be OK. As I just mentioned, you would be best to buy into an investment that is completely protected. There are plenty of strategies around that offer complete capital protection, you just have to know where.

3. Equity. So you own your home or even part of your home. Then don't let that equity sit there doing nothing. Get a Line Of Credit against it and put that money to work hard for you. Imagine doing covered calls on a share portfolio of $100,000 every month. That will bring you in about $3500 every month for just one phone call.

4. Parents. No, they are just not there to feed you till you are 18, they are there to lend you money when you are 30 and want to invest. You'll have to go to your parents with a business proposal and to make it even more fair, you'll even offer them a percentage of the profit you make from your investment. This can be sometimes used as a last resort. If it's property you want to invest in, there is a greater chance your parents will lend you money as they can see something tangible that you are investing in.

5. Get a raise at work. This may be the quickest way for some. If you are good at your job then you can confidently walk into your bosses office and explain why it is time you were given a raise in slary. Ensure you have a list of strong and valid reasons on why you should get a hike in pay. Take the time to negotiate properly and fairly. Many people often can get a pay rise of $5000 to $15000 just by asking for it.

6. (I know, this is a bonus tip) Get a new job. If you are stuck in rut where you work now why don't you consider moving on. Do you look at the job pages often to see how much your position is worth to other companies? The right employer may be offering twice the salary that you are on now for exactly the same job. If you don't look, then you will not find it.

These are just a few ways on how to get some quick money together to help kick start your investing career. Don't feel you have to wait till you have a big cash pool before you can start investing. Often one or two thousand dollars is enough to get started with in shares and property. With Internet Marketing, you can get started with one or two hundred dollars.

Don't just talk about investing, get out there and do it now.

http://www.articlesbase.com/investing-articles/five-ways-to-raise-money-for-young-investors-482968.html

Exclusive: No ice at the North Pole

2008-07-02T11:35:00.003+08:00

It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year.

The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic – and worrying – examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have melted away by the summer.

"From the viewpoint of science, the North Pole is just another point on the globe, but symbolically it is hugely important. There is supposed to be ice at the North Pole, not open water," said Mark Serreze of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado.

If it happens, it raises the prospect of the Arctic nations being able to exploit the valuable oil and mineral deposits below these a bed which have until now been impossible to extract because of the thick sea ice above.

Seasoned polar scientists believe the chances of a totally ice-free North Pole this summer are greater than 50:50 because the normally thick ice formed over many years at the Pole has been blown away and replaced by huge swathes of thinner ice formed over a single year.

This one-year ice is highly vulnerable to melting during the summer months and satellite data coming in over recent weeks shows that the rate of melting is faster than last year, when there was an all-time record loss of summer sea ice at the Arctic.

"The issue is that, for the first time that I am aware of, the North Pole is covered with extensive first-year ice – ice that formed last autumn and winter. I'd say it's even-odds whether the North Pole melts out," said Dr Serreze.

Each summer the sea ice melts before reforming again during the long Arctic winter but the loss of sea ice last year was so extensive that much of the Arctic Ocean became open water, with the water-ice boundary coming just 700 miles away from the North Pole.

This meant that about 70 per cent of the sea ice present this spring was single-year ice formed over last winter. Scientists predict that at least 70 per cent of this single-year ice – and perhaps all of it – will melt completely this summer, Dr Serreze said.

"Indeed, for the Arctic as a whole, the melt season started with even more thin ice than in 2007, hence concerns that we may even beat last year's sea-ice minimum. We'll see what happens, a great deal depends on the weather patterns in July and August," he said.

Ron Lindsay, a polar scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle, agreed that much now depends on what happens to the Arctic weather in terms of wind patterns and hours of sunshine. "There's a good chance that it will all melt away at the North Pole, it's certainly feasible, but it's not guaranteed," Dr Lindsay said.

The polar regions are experiencing the most dramatic increase in average temperatures due to global warming and scientists fear that as more sea ice is lost, the darker, open ocean will absorb more heat and raise local temperatures even further. Professor Peter Wadhams of Cambridge University, who was one of the first civilian scientists to sail underneath the Arctic sea ice in a Royal Navy submarine, said that the conditions are ripe for an unprecedented melting of the ice at the North Pole.

"Last year we saw huge areas of the ocean open up, which has never been experienced before. People are expecting this to continue this year and it is likely to extend over the North Pole. It is quite likely that the North Pole will be exposed this summer – it's not happened before," Professor Wadhams said.

There are other indications that the Arctic sea ice is showing signs of breaking up. Scientists at the Nasa Goddard Space Flight Centre said that the North Water 'polynya' – an expanse of open water surrounded on all sides by ice – that normally forms near Alaska and Banks Island off the Canadian coast, is much larger than normal. Polynyas absorb heat from the sun and eat away at the edge of the sea ice.

Inuit natives living near Baffin Bay between Canada and Greenland are also reporting that the sea ice there is starting to break up much earlier than normal and that they have seen wide cracks appearing in the ice where it normally remains stable. Satellite measurements collected over nearly 30 years show a significant decline in the extent of the Arctic sea ice, which has become more rapid in recent years.

By Steve Connor, Science Editor

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/exclusive-no-ice-at-the-north-pole-855406.html

Reduce Credit Card Debt

2008-07-01T12:12:00.002+08:00

A whopping 19-percent of credit card holders say they have a balance of more than $5,000 and 9-percent say they carry more than $10,000 in credit card debt. That’s according to a new survey from Gallup. The survey questioned 1,021 US adults about their credit card use. The good news is, 43-percent of American credit card holders say they always pay off the full balance on their cards each month and another 17-percent say they usually pay their full balances each month. Credit card holders reported keeping an average balance of $3,848 in credit card debt. If you’re among those with high debt and are ready to start paying more than the minimum try these tips.

Get Some Help from Oprah
Give Oprah’s Debt Diet a try. Step one of the Debt Diet requires getting to the bottom of this question: how much debt do you have? Download the chart, fill it out and you’ll be on your way to losing some of that debt you’re carrying around.

Try Plastic Surgery
No, we’re not talking about nose jobs or lipo. This is about those credit cards. Sure they’re cute and convenient, but they might be the gateway to more debt.

Pay More Than the Minimum.
CNN Money has a really cool debt calculator. Plug in your balance, interest rate and when you’d like to have the debt wiped out. Then they’ll tell you how much your payments need to be to make that happen. This is a great way to find out when you’ll conquer your debt mountain.

Lower your rates
It probably sounds about as fun as that dental appointment, but calling your credit card companies really can help. Ask for a lower rate. Check out Cardtrak.com for a long list of credit cards offering 0% on balance transfers. If your debt isn’t earning interest, chances are it will be paid off in a lot less time.

Author: Nathan Richardson
http://www.articlesbase.com/debt-consolidation-articles/reduce-credit-card-debt-463289.html

4 Ways How to Make Money From Home

2008-06-18T10:27:00.000+08:00

Tired of having to spend hours commuting between work and home everyday? Tired of having to hear your boss nag at you each day for doing something he does not see eye to eye with? Well, why work for someone when you can make money in the comfort of your own home? Consider home based businesses as an alternative to the usual 9 to 5 jobs that your friends and family may have. Sometimes, the amount of effort and overtime perspiration put in may not always justify the low pay they receive. Compare that to home based jobs that pay you according to how much you work, and realize that there are actually multiple benefits to working from home. As such, 4 ways how to make money from home will be discussed to see how these opportunities can be suitable for you.

Freelance Designing
This will be the job for you if you are keen to pursue a career in designing or have a good portfolio that is able to impress many. Some websites offer you work in different fields such as graphic designs, web designs or even animation creations. So, depending on your interests and strengths you can choose to work for projects that will help to advance your career in the future.

Freelance Writing
If you are passionate about writing and creating original articles and content, freelance writing is a job that allows you to do just that. This job allows you to improve the command of the language, as well as increase your knowledge about a particular subject as you conduct research about the event you are about to write on. Most correspondence will take place through emails and you are will be paid on per project basis.

Home Tutoring
Think of offline jobs as a way to earn big bucks. Home tutoring is one good example that many have invested in to make thousands per month. What better way to earn money than let past experiences work for you? This refers to using knowledge and experiences gained through schools when you were younger that will allow you to impart the relevant knowledge to your students. If you enjoy working with children and have extra rooms in your home to accommodate them, then tutoring children will be a form of work that allows you to earn good money from home.

Customer Service
If having good communication skills is what most people would describe you as, then you are very much wanted in this field. Customer service work requires people who enjoy interaction with others and are able to handle difficult clients over the phone or internet. So, if you feel that you possess these qualities, start by impressing your employer with your strong persuasive skills and manage your client relations well to excel in your work.

These are 4 common ways many housewives and retirees invest in to earn money during their spare time. There are thousands of other online and offline businesses available on the internet. So start researching and finding the right business to make money from home now!

Author: Arthur Maxwell
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/4-ways-how-to-make-money-from-home-448678.html

How To Avoid Mistakes When Investing In Shares

2008-06-07T18:21:00.001+08:00

The promise of making a lot of money has been heard by many, and many have found out that it just is not as easy as they had heard. They lost money - sometimes a lot of it. They then turned away from the stock market and ended up totally disillusioned about it. The truth is, they may have been somewhat confused about it in the first place. They may have thought it would come to them just like it did to others - without knowing the why or the how. Here are some strategies that you can use in order to help you to avoid the common mistakes that others have made.

Get A Realistic View
By looking at the market with your eyes open, you can come to understand not only the profit possibilities, but also the possibility of losses. The truth is that the higher the possible gain there is, that it is always associated with the increased likelihood of loss. The safer investments always bring a lower level of profit, and the safest investments have attached to them the lowest levels of profit.

Understand The Market
One of the greatest benefits that you can have to help you avoid a lot of potential pitfalls in your investments is to understand the principles of investing. In other words, read all you can about the process, how to judge a good stock, etc. The more you know about it yourself, the wiser you will be able to invest your funds - and hopefully see a profit. You will also be able to develop a worthwhile investment strategy - both for the short term and for the long term.

Diversify
It is smart investing to place your available investment funds into a minimum of 6 different kinds of shares. Some suggest that you go as many as 20 in order to diversify safely. Spread your investments into different kinds of stock (sectors) that are not related. This way if one type of market does not do well, then the other ones should. This enables you to still make money from some of your investment.

It is usually a good idea to diversify into more than just the stock market - at least until you really understand what you are doing. The smart investor will take a portion of their investment money and put a percentage of it into secure investments like trust funds which are solid investments, and possibly also bonds, which are the most secure, but do provide less interest.

Seek Counsel From Professionals
Unless you have money to just throw away, it would be a real good idea to seek help from someone who understands the market better than you do. There are professionals out there, financial advisors, brokers, etc., that are more than willing to help you build a solid portfolio for your investments. Their expertise can spare you a lot of unnecessary loss, and get you on to the right track to some solid profit.

Make Your Investments For The Long Term
While there is different thinking about the markets and how to invest, the general idea is to make your investments for the long term. Experienced stock market experts tend not to watch the market everyday, but only check on it once a month and many of them only quarterly. Watching it everyday leads to a lot of anxiety - since the market normally fluctuates a lot from day to day. Overall, though, it generally moves upward.

http://www.wonderoffice.com/wonderoffice/finance/stock-market-investing/how-to-avoid-mistakes-when-investing-in-shares.html

Technical Analysis

2008-05-27T10:24:00.002+08:00

Technical analysis uses a variety of charts and calculations to spot trends in the market and individual stocks and to try to predict what will happen next. Technical analysts don't bother looking at any of the qualitative data about a company (for example, its management team or the industry that it is in); instead, they believe that they can accurately predict the future price of a stock by looking at its historical prices and other trading variables. Technical analysis assumes that market psychology influences trading in a way that lets them predict when a stock will rise or fall. For that reason, many technical analysts are also market timers, who believe that technical analysis can be applied just as easily to the market as a whole as to an individual stock .

Critics of technical analysis, and there are many, say that the whole endeavor is a waste of time and effort. They point to academic studies like Burton Malkiel's "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" as evidence that there is no possible way to predict future prices using historical prices . Others contend that if any such systems were found to be successful, those who practiced them would be wealthy beyond their wildest dreams, and yet there aren't any billionaire technical analysts (yet).

Technical analysts use dozens of different quantitative metrics in order to predict stock prices. In this section, we'll introduce you to some of the most popular ones and explain to you what they're all about, but first here are a few key terms you should know about:

Support Level: The level that the technical analyst believes a stock price will not fall below (also sometimes called a "floor")

Resistance Level: The opposite of a support level, the level that the technical analyst believes a stock price will not exceed.

Breakout: If a stock surpasses the resistance level or falls below the support level, it is said to be a "breakout."

Advance-Decline Line: The total number of advancing issues minus the total number of declining issues, added to a cumulative total.

Moving Averages
Perhaps the most commonly used variable in technical analysis, the moving average for a stock is the average selling price for the stock over a set period of time (the most common being 20, 30, 50, 100 and 200 days). Moving average data is used to create charts that show whether or not a stock's price is trending up or down. They can be used to track daily, weekly, or monthly patterns. Each new day's (or week's or month's) numbers are added to the average and the oldest numbers are dropped; thus, the average "moves" over time. In general, the shorter the time frame used, the more volatile the prices will appear, so, for example, 20 day moving average lines tend to move up and down more than 200 days moving average lines.

Relative Strength
Technical analysts use what is called relative strength in order to compare the price performance of one stock to the entire market. The relative strength of a stock is calculated by taking the percentage price change of a stock over a set period of time and ranking it on a scale of 1 to 100 against all other stocks on the market. For example, a stock with a relative strength of 90 has experienced a greater increase in its price over the last year than the price increases experienced by 90% of all other stocks on the market. Some technical analysts like stocks with high relative strength rankings, believing that stocks which have recently gone up are more likely to continue going up. Other technical analysts believe that a very high relative strength can be an indication that the stock is overbought and is ready to fall. Relative strength is really a "rear view window" metric, measuring only how the stock has done in the past, not how it will do in the future.

Momentum
Momentum investors seek to take advantage of upward or downward trends in stock prices or earnings. They believe that these stocks will continue to head in the same direction because of the momentum that is already behind them. The idea relies on the belief that there are a large number of lemmings in the market who will buy whatever stock is already hot. Momentum investors do not necessarily believe that momentum stocks will do well in the long run, but they do think that in the short run people will continue to buy them as they have in the immediate past. This therefore involves a lot of market timing which of course entails a substantial amount of risk . Both moving averages and relative strength can be used in order to determine momentum.

Charts
Charts are the main tool that technical analysts use in order to plot their data and predict prices. Technical analysts may use several different types of charts in order to conduct their tests, including line charts, bar charts, and candlestick charts. Most of the time, analysts use these charts in order to look for patterns in the data.
Some of the more commonly used patterns include:

Cup and Handle: A pattern on a bar chart that is in the shape of the letter "U" over a period of between 7 and 65 weeks. Once the stock price reaches the second peak of the "U", technical analysts believe that the price will fall as investors who bought at the previous peak start to unload their shares.

Head and Shoulders: A chart formation in which a price exhibits three successive rallies, the second one being the highest. The name derives from the fact that on a chart the first and third rallies look like shoulders and the second looks like a head. Some technical analysts consider it a sign that the stock will fall further.

Double Bottom: A chart formation that looks like a "W". Technical analysts aim to buy at one of the troughs and ride the stock higher.

Bollinger Bands
Bollinger bands on a chart have three lines in them: an upper band, a lower band, and a band at the moving average. The upper and lower bands are placed precisely at two standard deviations above the moving average and two standard deviations below the moving average respectively (standard deviation is a mathematical measure of volatility). Bollinger bands will expand and contract as the market for the stock becomes more or less volatile. If the stock price reaches the upper band, then the stock is thought to be overbought; if it reaches the lower band, then it is thought to be oversold.

Volume
Not all technical analysts focus exclusively on price. Many of them think that volume is often times a better indication of where a stock is heading. Volume is simply the number of shares of a stock that are traded over a particular period of time (e.g. 1 day or 30 days). Some technical analysts calculate moving averages for volume, the same way others do for price. Volume is important because it tells how active the stock was during a particular time, which can in turn affect a stock's price. For example, if a stock falls precipitously but volume was exceptionally light that day, this is not necessarily an indication that the stock has fallen out of favor with the market, since the move was caused by a relatively small number of sellers.

http://www.investorguide.com/igu-article-446-investing-strategies-technical-analysis.html

Splits and Buybacks Explained

2008-05-09T08:56:00.000+08:00

Splits
A corporation whose stock is performing well may opt to split its shares, distributing
additional shares to existing shareholders. The most common split is two-for-one, in which each share becomes two shares. The price per share immediately adjusts to reflect the change, since buyers and sellers of the stock all know about the split (in this case, it would be cut in half). A company will usually decide to split its stock if the price of the stock gets very high. High stock prices are problematic for companies because they make it seem as though the stock is too expensive. By splitting a stock, companies hope to make their equity more attractive, especially to those investors that could not afford the high price.

Stocks can be split two-for-one, ten-for-one, or in any ratio the company wants. (The less common "reverse split" is when the number of shares decreases, for example one-for-two.) To illustrate what happens when a stock splits, let's look at a simple example. Say you own 100 shares of stock in XYZ Corp. that are priced at $100 per share. XYZ decides that $100 per share is too high of a price for its stock, so it issues a two-for-one stock split. This means that for every share that you previously owned, you now own two shares, giving you 200 shares. When the stock splits, the price will be cut in proportion to the split ratio that was chosen by the corporation (in this case, to $50 a share). If you compare the amount of your investment before the split and the amount after the split you will notice that they are equal (100 shares x $100/share = $10,000; which is the same as 200 shares x $50/share = $10,000). So, in effect, nothing has changed from your perspective.

But although technically nothing changes for the investor during a stock split, in reality often times there are changes. Not only does the split tend to increase demand for shares by making the shares more accessible to small investors, it also usually garners favorable media attention. This tends to cause the price of a stock that has split to increase after the split. The split is interpreted by some as a sign that the company's management is confident that the stock's price will continue to rise. Of course, there is no guarantee that this will happen.

Buybacks
A buyback is a corporation's repurchase of stocks or bonds that it has previously issued. In the case of stocks, this reduces the number of shares outstanding, giving each remaining shareholder a larger percentage ownership of the company. This is usually considered a sign that the company's management is optimistic about the future and believes that the current share price is undervalued.

Companies may decide to repurchase stock for many reasons. They may be attempting to improve the price to earnings ratio by reducing market capitalization, or they may want to offer the stock as an incentive to employees . It's important to note that when a company's shareholders vote to authorize a buyback, they aren't obliged to actually undertake the buyback. Some companies announce buyback plans as a sign of confidence, but it's meaningless unless they actually go through with the repurchase.

http://www.investorguide.com/igu-article-820-stock-basics-splits-and-buybacks-explained.html

Measuring a Stock's Risk

2008-05-01T14:14:00.000+08:00

Basically, stocks are subject to two types of risk - market
risk and nonmarket risk. Nonmarket risk, also called specific risk, is the risk that events specific to a company or its industry will adversely affect the stock's price. For instance, an increase in the cost of oil would be expected to adversely affect the stock prices of the entire oil industry, while a major management change would only affect that company. Market risk, on the other hand, is the risk that a particular stock's price will be affected by overall stock market movements.

Nonmarket risk can be reduced through diversification. By owning several different stocks in different industries whose stock prices have shown little correlation to each other, you reduce the risk that nonmarket factors will adversely affect your total portfolio.

No matter how many stocks you own, you can't totally eliminate market risk. However, you can measure a stock's historical response to market movements and select those with a level of volatility you are comfortable with. Beta and standard deviation are two tools commonly used to measure stock risk.

Beta
Beta, which can be found in a number of published services, is a statistical measure of the impact stock market movements have historically had on a stock's price. By comparing the returns of the Standard & Poor's 500 (S&P 500) to a particular stock's returns, a pattern develops that indicates the stock's exposure to stock market risk.

The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index generally considered representative of the U.S. stock market and has a beta of 1. A stock with a beta of 1 means that, on average, it moves parallel with the S&P 500 - the stock should rise 10% when the S&P 500 rises 10% and decline 10% when the S&P 500 declines 10%. A beta greater than 1 indicates the stock should rise or fall to a greater extent than stock market movements, while a beta less than 1 means the stock should rise or fall to a lesser extent than the S&P 500. Since beta measures movements on average, you cannot expect an exact correlation with each market movement.

Calculating your portfolio's beta will give you a measure of its overall market risk. To do so, find the betas for all your stocks. Each beta is then multiplied by the percentage of your total portfolio that stock represents (i.e., a stock with a beta of 1.2 that comprises 10% of your portfolio would have a weighted beta of 1.2 times 10% or .12). Add all the weighted betas together to arrive at your portfolio's overall beta.

Standard Deviation
Standard deviation, which can also be found in a number of published services, measures a stock's volatility, regardless of the cause. It basically tells you how much a stock's short-term returns have moved around its long-term average return. The most common way to calculate standard deviation is to figure the deviation from an average monthly return over a three-, five-, or 10-year period and then annualize that number. Higher standard deviations represent more volatility. In statistical terms, 68% of the time the stock's range of returns will fall within one standard deviation of the average return, while 95% of the time the stock's range of returns will fall within two standard deviations.

Consider this example. Assume you own a stock with an average return of 10.2% and a standard deviation of 15%. 68% of the time you can expect your return to fall within a range of -4.8% to 25.2%, while 95% of the time you can expect your return to fall within a range of -19.8% to 40.2%. (This example is provided for illustrative purposes only and is not intended to project the performance of a specific investment.)

These two measures can provide important information about a stock's volatility. If your portfolio is riskier than you realized, you might want to take steps to reduce that risk. When investing, you might want to take a look at a stock's risk first

by Roger Wohlner
http://www.investorguide.com/igu-article-823-stock-basics-measuring-a-stocks-risk.html

Watch for Slowing Growth

2008-04-25T22:39:00.000+08:00

Reports of slowing growth or earnings declines can severely punish a stock's price. So you aren't surprised by this type of news for your stocks, look out for these three warning signs when you review financial reports:

Accounts receivable growth
Accounts receivable represents amounts owed to the company by customers for goods received. Receivables typically track sales, so as sales increase, receivables increase and vice versa. When accounts receivable start to increase significantly faster than sales, find out why. Some possible reasons include the company is not following up with slow paying customers, customers are withholding payments due to product dissatisfaction, customers don't have cash to pay bills, or the company is providing longer payment terms to increase sales. All of these situations can forewarn of potential problems.

Lower gross margins
Gross margins represent the profit made on products before considering overhead, marketing, and research and development costs. Declining gross margins mean either that the company is cutting prices to maintain market share or production costs are increasing and the company can't increase prices to compensate. Both are warning signals for future earnings shortfalls.

Cash flow
Reported earnings are based on numerous accounting decisions, which can change over time. Cash flow, however, measures how cash has flowed in and out of the company's bank account. Thus, it is often viewed as a better gauge of results than reported earnings. If net income is increasing but cash flow is decreasing, this could be a sign of a potential problem.
Just because a company experiences one or more of these red flags doesn't mean it will necessarily have sales or earnings disappointments in the future. However, if you find these situations, review them carefully to ensure there is an appropriate explanation.

by Roger Wohlner
http://www.investorguide.com/igu-article-829-stock-strategies-watch-for-slowing-growth.html

History of the April 22 Earth Day

2008-04-22T14:30:00.003+08:00

Earth

Michael Jackson- The Earth Song

In September 1969, at a conference in Seattle, Washington, U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson announced that in the spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on the environment. Senator Nelson first proposed the nationwide environmental protest to thrust the environment onto the national agenda.” "It was a gamble," he recalls, "but it worked." Five months before the first April 22 Earth Day, on Sunday, November 30, 1969, The New York Times carried a lengthy article by Gladwin Hill reporting on the rising tide of environmental events::

"Rising concern about the environmental crisis is sweeping the nation's campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war in Vietnam...a national day of observance of environmental problems...is being planned for next spring...when a nationwide environmental 'teach-in'...coordinated from the office of Senator Gaylord Nelson is planned...." Senator Nelson also hired Denis Hayes as the coordinator.

Each year, the April 22 Earth Day marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. Among other things, 1970 in the United States brought with it the Kent State shootings, the advent of fiber optics, "Bridge over Troubled Water," Apollo 13, the Beatles' last album, the death of Jimi Hendrix, and the meltdown of fuel rods in the Savannah River nuclear plant near Aiken, South Carolina -- an incident not acknowledged for 18 years. At the time, Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V8 sedans. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. Environment was a word that appeared more often in spelling bees than on the evening news. But Earth Day 1970 turned that all around.

On April 22, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment. Denis Hayes, the national coordinator, and his youthful staff organized massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values.

Mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting the status of environmental issues onto the world stage. Earth Day on April 22 in 1990 gave a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide and helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

As the millennium approached, Hayes agreed to spearhead another campaign, this time focused on global warming and a push for clean energy. The April 22 Earth Day in 2000 combined the big-picture feistiness of the first Earth Day with the international grassroots activism of Earth Day 1990. For 2000, Earth Day had the Internet to help link activists around the world. By the time April 22 rolled around, 5,000 environmental groups around the world were on board, reaching out to hundreds of millions of people in a record 184 countries. Events varied: A talking drum chain traveled from village to village in Gabon, Africa, for example, while hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., USA.

Earth Day 2000 sent the message loud and clear that citizens the world 'round wanted quick and decisive action on clean energy. Earth Day 2007 was one of the largest Earth Days to date, with an estimated billion people participating in the activities in thousands of places like Kiev, Ukraine; Caracas, Venezuela; Tuvalu; Manila, Philippines; Togo; Madrid, Spain; London; and New York.

Founded by the organizers of the first April 22 Earth Day in 1970, Earth Day Network promotes environmental citizenship and year round progressive action worldwide. Earth Day Network is a driving force steering environmental awareness around the world. Through Earth Day Network, activists connect change in local, national, and global policies. Earth Day Network’s international network reaches over 17,000 organizations in 174 countries, while the domestic program engages 5,000 groups and over 25,000 educators coordinating millions of community development and environmental protection activities throughout the year. Earth Day is the only event celebrated simultaneously around the globe by people of all backgrounds, faiths and nationalities. More than a half billion people participate in Earth Day Network campaigns every year.

More Details On:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day#History_of_the_April_22_Earth_Day
http://ww2.earthday.net/

Evaluating Potential Stock Investments

2008-04-14T14:52:00.000+08:00

With thousands of stocks to choose from, developing a systematic approach to
evaluating stocks can make it easier to make your selections. The first step is to narrow the options from the thousands of possible choices to ones most likely to meet your objectives. That typically involves screening companies based on criteria important to you. For instance, if you are interested in growth stocks, you might look for earnings growth over a certain percentage. Or for value stocks, you might look for companies with low price/earnings ratios or low price-to-book values.

Once you've narrowed the list, evaluate each company's financial information, comparing it to industry and market information. Some factors to consider include:

Historical prices
It's often useful to review a stock's historical prices and trading volume for at least a one-year period. This gives you a feel for price volatility, the pattern of the stock's movements, and how much interest investors have in the stock.

Earnings per share (EPS)
EPS equals the company's net income after taxes divided by the average number of common shares outstanding. You'll typically want to look for companies with steadily increasing EPS.

Price/earnings (P/E) ratio
This equals the company's share price divided by earnings per share, and is generally considered indicative of how the market values a stock. Review the company's historical P/E ratio, the P/E ratios of other companies in similar industries, and the P/E ratio of the market as a whole. Typically, companies with higher growth rates command higher P/E ratios.

Return on equity (ROE)
ROE equals the company's net income divided by shareholders' equity and is viewed as an indicator of how well a company utilizes shareholders' money.

Price-to-book value
This ratio is calculated by dividing share price by book value, which equals a company's assets less its liabilities, per share. This ratio is typically relevant when evaluating companies with significant assets. Companies with low price-to-book values are often viewed as value stocks.

Price-to-cash-flow ratio
This ratio equals a company's share price divided by cash flow per share. Cash flow equals earnings plus depreciation, amortization, and other non-cash expenses. This ratio can be helpful when evaluating companies with significant noncash expenses.

Price-to-sales ratio
This is calculated by dividing share price by annual sales per share and can be useful when evaluating companies with little or no profits.

Payout ratio This ratio is calculated by dividing dividends per share by earnings per share and indicates the percentage of profits the company is distributing to shareholders.

PEG ratio
This ratio equals a company's P/E ratio divided by its expected earnings growth rate and is generally useful when evaluating growth stocks.

The decision to purchase a stock can't be made solely from a review of financial ratios. You should also evaluate subjective factors, such as the quality of management, prospects for the company's industry, and where the company stands in relation to competitors.

by Roger Wohlner
http://www.investorguide.com/igu-article-828-stock-strategies-evaluating-potential-stock-investments.html

Buy and Hold Stock Strategy

2008-04-10T17:43:00.002+08:00

"Buy and hold" doesn't exactly sound like some brilliant investment strategy let alone like any path you want to
take where investing your hard earned money is concerned. But, historical data tells us that the buy and hold strategy works with equities - given a long enough timeline. Long-term investment strategies tend to look ahead in decades and the buy and hold approach works with stocks as long as you have a decade or two to play with. If not, market fluctuations including the appearance of bears, inflation, and overall downturns will cause many to dump their stocks within the first 2-5 years.

When you actually implement a true and effective buy and hold strategy with your stocks then there can be, will be, and even should be periods of time when you are losing money in a fiscal year. Yet, when the long haul is a path you can comfortably take with your finances, then the buy and hold approach will almost surely net you around 10% a year on the initial investment with minimal, if not acceptable, risk. Of course, this is with a typical "buy and hold" portfolio, such as those created by insurance companies or pension funds.

Traditional "Buy and Hold" Portfolio

A mutual fund is a typical investment tool used by pension funds, insurance companies, and ordinary investors to help build wealth while minimizing risk. A typical mutual fund will decrease risk by diversifying the portfolio between bonds and equities (stocks). Naturally, the rate of return on any mutual fund over a period of time will depend upon its composition, or how the funds are allocated. The specific needs and financial position of the investor must be taken into account when choosing a mutual fund. However, the "traditional" buy and hold portfolio would typically include 60 percent of stocks and 40 percent of bonds - or a 60/40 portfolio.

Again, the actual mutual fund to choose and its corresponding asset allocation will depend upon the needs and situation of the investor. Where long-term investment growth is concerned with minimal risk, the 60/40 is a standard mutual fund option for an investor that has proven itself over the decades. The stocks in this traditional buy and hold portfolio will fuel growth and lead to potential capital gains in the future. If the stocks payout dividends, then there is a steady revenue stream too in addition to the (hopefully) appreciation of the basic amount invested.

The bonds in a traditional portfolio provide a reliable revenue stream that can be used to supplement income. This brings a sense of stability to the portfolio as bonds tend to have far less risk and they provide a stream of income in the form of interest payments. Of course, the revenue generated can be predicted accurately and is therefore limited and will not provide the sort of growth opportunities that stocks can provide. Younger investors will probably be better off with a portfolio featuring more stocks and greater growth opportunities. Older investors nearing or already in retirement will probably prefer portfolios with a greater percentage of bonds and their more reliable revenue streams and a lower proportion of stocks and their associated risks. Therefore, the traditional 60/40 buy and hold stock strategy may yield an average of 10 percent per year over a long enough timeline, but it may not be the correct proportion for you or your financial needs.

The best way to maximize your long term investment returns is to optimize your buy and hold stock strategy. While the particular percentage of equities and bonds in your portfolio will vary according to factors relating to age and financial situation, the composition of those stocks also needs to be looked at carefully in order to get the largest returns on your money. To do this, you will need to understand the difference between growth and value stocks.

Growth Stocks

When you think about growth stocks, think about younger companies that have carved out a significant market position and are poised to make even bigger gains in the future: Google and Apple are both good examples of growth stocks. Basically, companies that have rising sales, solid profits, and a dominance of some kind in their markets. Generally, companies that rank high on the S&P 500 Index would be considered growth stocks.

Value Stocks

Value stocks are essentially what their name implies: a value for money. Essentially, value stocks are so because the associated companies aren't doing well now but they are in a good position to do much better in the foreseeable future. Therefore, their stock prices are actually low but a spurt of tremendous growth is very possible which could cause spikes in share prices in the not-so-distant future.

There are a number of reasons that could be causing poor performance in the present time period. Poor management is a common problem that causes poor performance but can be readily fixed in a number of cases. New competition is another factor that can result in a short term loss of market share and profitability but may very well not be an issue a year or two from now. Some value stocks that have posted major turnarounds in recent years are Coca-Cola and Hewlett-Packard.

The reason why growth and value stocks are so important to your buy and hold strategy is that value stocks traditionally outperform growth stocks - over the long haul. While it would not be advisable to place of all your stock investments into value stocks, it would be wise to split the allotment. Therefore, invest half of your money into growth and the other half into value stocks. In the long run, this should lead to a higher overall average return while not significantly increasing your risks.

The buy and hold stock strategy is nothing new in the world of finance. Nor is it a radical concept to differentiate between value and growth stocks and realize that value stocks can be purchased at a bargain and sold for a mint if you find and buy them at the right time. However, there is naturally a greater risk when buying value stocks. After all, the company's stock prices may never rise again and the current prices may actually be overvalued given the condition of the business. However, by balancing your stock investments between both growth and value stocks, there is definitely a greater potential for growth than in a portfolio featuring only growth equities. The buy and hold strategy will work given a long enough timeline, but it will work even better when you take the time to modify it to your particular needs and diversify it properly.

by InvestorGuide Staff

http://www.investorguide.com/igu-article-954-stock-strategies-buy-and-hold-stock-strategy.html

Market Timing Strategy of Buying Stock

2008-04-05T18:33:00.002+08:00

If you ask around long enough, you are bound to hear just about every conceivable system possible used for playing the stock market. Some people just point to the history books and contend that the market has averaged growth of around 11 percent a year when you go back 4 decades - therefore, it makes sense to buy the stock and hold it. Eventually, "buy and hold" stock strategists contend, you cannot help but make money on your investment. Others try to pick "value stocks" which happen to be performing poorly today but which should be able to turn things around in the near future and thus greatly raise stock prices. Market timing is still another stock buying strategy which looks at a number of complex factors when purchasing equities.

Market Timing Fundamentals

Many people do not have the ability to be patient for years at a time without touching their money. For people not looking to sit on their stocks as advised in the standard "buy and hold" strategy, market timing is a good option to consider! This is because market timing strategies for buying stocks do not advocate buying stock and just sitting on it for year after year. Indeed, market timing investors do not wait out the lows and sell only when prices are sufficiently high to make a decent return on investment - they avoid the lows altogether and only aim to sell when prices are at their peak.

At the heart of the market timing strategy for buying stocks is a deeply-held belief that stock prices are predictable. Going even further, those who believe in market timing also assert that trends in the broader markets can be applied to more specific ones, and specific stocks, in order to accurately predict price fluctuations. A large amount of analysis and research is
used to predict market fluctuations and the prices of specific stocks. Two primary forms of analysis, fundamental and technical, are favorites of market timing strategists and are used together in many cases to help predict the prices of specific stocks.

Fundamental analysis essentially concentrates on all information and processes fundamental to the operation of a specific business. This includes any financial statements pertaining to earnings and other accounting variables. Other variables factored into when conducting fundamental analysis include: competitors and percentage of available market; management; debt structure; asset allocation; sales; growth potential; and earnings. While fundamental analysis may not be the only form used, many investors make use of at least some fundamental analysis before making stock purchases.

Technical analysis does not look at the management team, market, or any other subjective matter. Instead, this method of analysis tends to prefer looking at historical prices for stocks of specific companies - and uses that data in conjunction with other variables of buying in order to make a decision. The end result is to be able to predict future patterns of prices on specific stocks. However, no proof has been provided illustrating any link between historical prices and how they perform in the future. While the market timing strategy does not make exclusive use of one method, a mixture of both or one or the other investment strategy is
used to predict future stock prices.

Pros of Market Timing Stock Strategy

There are certainly a large number of investors who swear by the market timing strategy for buying stocks. Such people tend to be big fans of technical analysis which seeks to draw correlations between current market conditions and those which affected historical stock prices. It is not uncommon for a great deal of spreadsheets, charts, and graphs being generated when trying to employ market timing as strategy for purchasing stocks. All of these are generated in order to identify any potential trends in the market that may indicate a significant shift in share prices. However, aside from looking very busy and investing a lot of effort, there are a few pros to this investment approach for stocks.

Cons of Market Timing Stock Strategy

The most fundamental problem with the market timing stock strategy is that it remains pure fantasy, at least according to most investment experts. After all, if anyone truly could predict the rise and fall of stock prices with any degree of certainty, then we would all be billionaires because such a strategy could be documented and replicated. But even Warren Buffet does not ascribe to this approach and neither do most investment professionals. There are almost an unlimited number of market and world variables that may ultimately affect stock prices.

Another big negative with the market timing strategy is the fact that it generally involves a large number of transactions, especially when compared to the buy and hold method. Buying and selling all those stocks requires commissions which can start to take a larger and larger chunk of profits - especially when the market doesn't react in the way you predicted. In order to really be effective, a market strategy tends to require a larger capital investment. This allows the investor to purchase a larger number of stocks and thus not need to make as large of a return on the sale price in order to still make a profit.

The differences between bid and asking price can also eat into the profits of a struggling market timing investor - also known as the bid/ask spread. An investor may bid a price for a certain stock and be told that it is available, but by the time the actual transaction is made - the asking price actually charged by the exchanges may be higher. Again, the difference may seem insignificant but it can make a large difference between a good and a bad day in the life of a market timer.

Although market timing is an approach that millions of investors pursue every day on exchanges around the world, the truth is that it tends to carry more risk than reward. With the erosion of profits due to transaction fees and the bid/ask spread, market timing tends to require larger investments of capital in order to be worthwhile. While no investment strategy for buying stocks has proven to be risk-free and a sure thing, there are other options that tend to be safer investment alternatives.

by InvestorGuide Staff

http://www.investorguide.com/igu-article-980-stock-strategies-market-timing-strategy-of-buying-stock.html

Stock Strategies:Short Selling

2008-04-03T14:25:00.002+08:00

Stock Strategies
Short Selling
by InvestorGuide Staff

Short selling (or "selling short") is a technique used by people who
try to profit from the falling price of a stock. Short selling is a very risky technique as it involves precise timing and goes contrary to the overall direction of the market. Since the stock market has historically tended to rise in value over time, short selling requires precise market timing, which is a very difficult feat.

Here's how short selling works. Assume you want to sell short 100 shares of a company because you believe sales are slowing and its earnings will drop. Your broker will borrow the shares from someone who owns them with the promise that you will return them later. You immediately sell the borrowed shares at the current market price. When the price of the shares drops (you hope), you "cover your short position" by buying back the shares, and your broker returns them to the lender. Your profit is the difference between the price at which you sold the stock and your cost to buy it back, minus commissions and expenses for borrowing the stock. But if you're wrong, and the price of the shares increase, your potential losses are unlimited. The company's shares may go up and up, but at some point you have to replace the 100 shares you sold. In that case, your losses can mount without limit until you cover your short position.

Here are a few reasons why short selling might make sense:

Some investors are better at identifying overpriced, bad companies than underpriced, good companies.
Brokers and analysts focus on what to buy, not what to sell, so the good news is more widely known than the bad news. When an analyst issues a sell recommendation on a stock, they find it much harder to get information from the company's investor relations department, and the analyst's firm would never get an opportunity to raise capital or float a bond for the company, so they focus more on good news than bad. If you discover bad news, it might not yet be totally factored in to the current price of the stock.
Many institutions just won't do short selling, leaving unexploited short selling opportunities from which you can benefit.
A portfolio which includes both long and short positions in stocks which tend to move together will generally have lower volatility than one which has only long positions.

But short selling is not as easy and profitable as it may sound; there are a lot of caveats:

As we mentioned, there's unlimited downside potential (i.e. if the stock price keeps rising, you keep losing). Most short sellers set a limit to how much they're willing to lose, but then they become vulnerable to a short 'squeeze', in which long investors buy shares as the stock rises and demand delivery. As short sellers buy to cover their losses, the price continues to rise, triggering more short sellers to cover their losses, etc. This is a risk especially for small, illiquid companies. The danger is that even if the stock is overpriced, it may become even more overpriced, and you will have to buy it at some point to cover your position. When you sell short, you're not just betting on what the stock is worth, you're betting on what the market will be willing to pay for the stock in the future.
You're fighting the trend of the market, which is, in the long run, up. When you buy a stock that you're confident is greatly undervalued, you should feel content to wait as long as it takes for the dividends to start rolling in (provided you have a sufficiently long investment horizon). When you're on the short side, however, you will eventually need to buy the shares back, at whatever the market price happens to be; and while you wait and wait for the speculative bubble to burst, the rest of the market will probably continue on its upward trajectory.
SEC rules allow investors to sell short only on an uptick or a zero-plus tick. In other words, you cannot sell a stock short if it is already going down. This rule is in effect to prevent traders known as "pool operators" from driving down a stock price through heavy short selling, then buying the shares for a large profit.
Money from a short sale isn't available to the seller, but is escrowed as collateral for the owner of the borrowed shares. You aren't earning interest on the money (although big institutions sometimes do, in the form of rebates).
You have to pay any dividends that are earned (since in effect you have a negative number of shares).
You pay the (usually higher) short term capital gains tax on your profits, regardless of how long you held the short position.
Another company could acquire the company you're shorting, possibly at a significant premium, which would drive up the share price.
Sometimes shares aren't available to short.

While we don't recommend short selling for the above reasons, you may decide to include it in your overall strategy. If you do, consider mitigating the risk by setting strict quitting prices (say a 20% loss per investment). If it reaches that limit, resist the temptation to hang on, thinking it's even more overpriced now. Successful short selling is all about timing, which makes it more like technical analysis than fundamental analysis.

Some short-sellers target the following types of companies:

Small cap companies that have been driven up by momentum investors, especially companies that are difficult to value.
Companies whose P/E ratios are much higher than can be justified by their growth rates.
Companies with bad or useless products and services.
Companies riding the latest fad.
Companies that have new competition coming.
Companies with weak financials (bad balance sheet, negative cash flows, etc.).
Companies that depend too heavily on one product.

http://www.investorguide.com/igu-article-827-stock-strategies-short-selling.html

Earth Hour

2008-03-29T17:41:00.004+08:00

What is Earth Hour?

Earth Hour, run by WWF,the conservation organisation, is a global climate change initiativewhich calls on individuals and businesses around the world, to turn offtheir lights for one hour on Saturday March 29 2008between 8 pm and9pm.

The aim of the campaign is to express that individual action on a mass scale can help change our planet for the better.

The event itself willclearly demonstrate in participating cities, the connection betweenenergy usage and climate change, showing that we as broader communitycan address the biggest threat our planet has ever faced.

more details on :http://www10.earthhourus.org/

The Basics Of Short Selling Stocks

2008-03-27T15:42:00.001+08:00

Shorting or short selling refers to the selling of a contract, a bond or stock or a commodity that is not directly owned by the seller. When practicing short selling, a seller is committed to purchase the stock or commodity previously sold.

Short selling stocks means to take the stock from a broker on loan and sell it off to someone else. This is done so that the seller buys back the stock, when the price falls. The shares are returned to the broker from whom they were initially borrowed. The shorting profit or the difference in price goes to the seller. Short selling of stocks is a technique used by investors to capitalize on a probable decline in the stock price.

To understand this better, let us consider a company, say, ABC whose shares currently sell at $12 each. A short seller borrows 50 shares of ABC and then sells those shares to someone else at $12 per share, for a total of $600. Now, if in future the price of shares of ABC falls to $10 per share, this short seller would then buy back those 50 shares at $500 ($10 multiplied by 50 shares), send back the shares to the original owner/broker and make a profit of $100.

Short selling is risky, if the price per share goes up instead of declining, as expected. Suppose the price per share of ABC goes up to $15 per share, then the short seller will have to cash in the previously sold 50 shares at $750, return the shares to the original owner and incur a loss of $150.

Shorting is a transaction done on margin. Most brokers do not agree to short selling stocks below $5. This enables the investors and short sellers to indulge in the high-risk trading of stocks.
Some of the following market situations help to predict a fall in price of stocks: -
- Market indexes coming near the prior resistance levels.- Market trend showing technically overbought levels.- Restlessness before the announcement of a state抯 government.- Market vulnerability during scandals.

Large volume selling of stocks often result in short-term high profits. However, there are certain guidelines to be followed for successful short selling. They are:
- All stocks are not Shortable. Generally, brokers inform a seller whether a stock can be used for short selling or not.
- Sellers must open a margin account for short selling. This depends on the minimum balances and cash reserves. Sellers are required to sign a contract agreement with the brokers to open a margin account. This agreement clearly states that a seller will follow the rules and regulations stated by the broker.
-Target bad-performance, overpriced companies, since the probability of a fall in the share price involves lesser risk.
- Traders and short sellers should use stop orders to protect their capital from loss. Generally, brokers prevent a seller from suffering loss more than the principal.
They may either compel the seller to quit the transaction or they may deposit funds to increase the seller capital.

The short selling of stocks involves a lot of discipline. Sellers need to be proactive, alert and disciplined when shorting stocks.

http://www.wonderoffice.com/wonderoffice/finance/stock-market-investing/the-basics-of-short-selling-stocks.html

Fundamental and Technical analysis

2008-03-21T14:55:00.001+08:00

The fundamental and technical analysis are widely used for share traders but use of these analysis differs from traders to traders.
First of all lets see what these analysis means –

a) Fundamental Analysis –

The name itself indicates that this analysis is totally based on companies’ fundamentals. Fundamental analysis is used for long term analysis and long term returns.Following are the few fundamental terms used to forecast and analyze the companies’ future growth and based on this analysis transaction of shares will be done.

¨ Companies expansion or planning in coming future.¨ Management processes and planning¨ Meeting of Board of directors ¨ Declaration of yearly financial statements¨ Study of past performance of the company.¨ Study of quarterly, half yearly and annual reports.¨ Companies involvement in foreign investment/collaboration, political or economic involvements, etc.Depending on these factors and many others, fundamental analysts prepares certain share market and share trading related terms which will be used to forcast the company growth and prospects. The terms like¨ Whether the share prices are overvalued or under valued, ¨ Working capital ratio, ¨ Return on equity ratio, ¨ Debt equity ratio etc.

Based on these terms and other fundamentals, the analysts predict the movement of share prices that is either bullish or bearish in coming future.Basically fundamental analysis is meant for long term investments and not for day trading or short term investment. So traders planning to invest for long term in share market then they must go for fundamental analysis.Always good fundamental companies give good results and returns for share holders in long term.

b) Technical Analysis -

As fundamental analysis made for long term investments, likewise technical analysis is made for day traders and short term traders. Technical analysis is nothing but study of charts, support and resistance levels, technical indicators and other parameters which are useful to analyze the share price movements in short term or in day trading.

http://daytradingshares.com/basics_share_market_trading.html

Learn Share Trading and Processes

2008-03-21T14:49:00.000+08:00

Share Trading –
Buying and Selling of shares is called share trading.Mainly there are two ways of doing share trading.
¨ Online Share Trading.
¨ Offline Share Trading.

¨ Online Share Trading –
Doing share trading with help of computer, internet connection and with trading/demat account is called Online Share Trading. If you would like to do online share trading then you should have a computer, internet connection and online trading account.
¨ Offline Share Trading –
Doing share trading with the help of broker or through phone is called Offline trading.
In other words trading will be done by another person on your behalf based on the instructions given by you, and then the other person can be a broker.The broker will do buying and selling of shares on your behalf depending on the instructions given by you. If you want to do offline share trading then you need to open the demat account. (provide link for procedure to open the demat account)

http://daytradingshares.com/basics_share_market_trading.html

Important terms in share market and in share trading

2008-03-21T14:38:00.003+08:00

Open - The first price at which the stock opens when market opens in the morning.

High - The stock price reached at the highest level in a day.

Low - The stock price reached the lowest level in a day.

Close - The stock price at which it remains after the end of market timings or the final price of the stock when the market closes for a day.

Volume - Volume is nothing but quantity.

Bid - The Buying price is called as Bid price.

Offer - The selling price is called offer price.

Bid Quantity - The total number of shares available for buying is called Bid Quantity.

Offer Quantity - The total number of shares available for selling is called Offer Quantity.

Buying and selling of shares - Buying is also called as demand or bid and selling is also called as supply or offer.First selling and then buying (this only happens in day trading) is called as shorting of shares or short sell.

Share Trading - Buying and Selling of shares is called share trading.

Transaction - One complete cycle of buying and selling of shares is called One

Transaction.Squaring off - This term is used to complete one transaction. Means if you buy then have to sell (means square off) and if you sell then you have to buy (means square off).

Limit Order - In limit order the buying or selling price has to be mentioned and when the share price comes to that price then your order will get executed with the mentioned price by you.

Market Order - When you put buy or sell price at market rate then the price get executes at the current rate of market. The market order get immediately executed at the current available price.

Stop Loss Orders - Stop loss orders ("stops") are limits set by traders at which they will automatically enter or exit trades - an order to buy or sell is placed in the market if price reaches a specified limit. A stop loss order is set to limit a trader's potential loss. The stop loss is placed below the current price (to protect a long position) or above the current price (to protect a short position).

http://daytradingshares.com/basics_share_market_trading.html

Is FOREX Trading the Greatest Business Opportunity...EVER?

2008-03-12T14:58:00.002+08:00

FOREX Trading is the greatest home-based business potential available today, and maybe even in history. Let me show you why.

We just want to be clear about who this article is being written for. Anyone looking to start a home based business, or career, without risking a lot of money, but who is willing to put in the time necessary to achieve his or her goals.

FOREX Trading vs. Real Estate

One of the more popular home based business opportunities is real estate.
Let's take a look at some of the more unappealing parts of the real estate business.

Real Estate:

Amount of Money Needed to Begin:

Regardless of what the infomercials have to say, it costs a great deal of money to get into the real estate business. Even the "No Money Down" systems expose you to an amazing amount of risk.

Whether you put money down or not, you are responsible to pay for the "product" you are purchasing.

If you are unable to find a way to produce revenue from your investment quickly, you will be paying a mortgage payment. It only takes a few months of mortgage payments to turn "No Money Down", to "Some Money Down", to "No Money Left".

Amount of Time Needed to Begin:

Another lie repeated on infomercial after infomercial is that it only takes a few hours a week to begin making money in the real estate business.

We don't want to speak for anyone else, but whom do they think they are kidding. So, let me get this straight...

• looking for a home online
• speaking to a realtor
• driving around your neighborhood
• speaking to a mortgage specialist
• and all of the other things you have to do on EACH AND EVERY HOUSE

All of these, combined, will only take me a few hours a week?

We think we are starting to see why such a large majority of home based businesses fail. It's misleading to believe a halfhearted attempt will lead to success.

Amount of Knowledge Needed to Begin:

In order to succeed in the real estate business you have to obtain a wealth of knowledge. How do you fairly value a home? How long will it take to fix, and sell, a home? How much should lumber cost? How long does it take to install a sink?

Those are the simple questions. Zoning laws, contract laws, and tax laws are just some of the more complicated topics that you'll need to understand.

The fact is, we can continue writing about the knowledge you need for days. Obviously, in order for you to succeed in real estate you need a wealth of information.

Amount of People Needed to Begin:

Unless you are completely familiar with all aspects of the real estate business already, you will run into one of a few problems:
• The amount of time it would take you to become familiar with all sides of real estate.
• The amount of money it would cost you to FAIL at the real estate business.
• Most likely, the amount of money it would cost you to build a team of people who are willing to "share" their knowledge with you.

Experts don't come cheap, and without them you are helpless. In our opinion, this is one of the greatest shortcomings of the real estate business.

Your success, ultimately, lies in the hands of others. We can't stress this enough...you financial future is dependant on the performance of a complete stranger.

FOREX Trading;

Amount of Money Needed to Begin:

Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada. $0.

If done right, you should not risk any money when learning to trade the FOREX. Again, we guess it's only fair for us to explain. Without getting too technical, we want you to understand one very important point.

Whether you are trading with $1,000,000 or $0, the information and technology available to you is identical. You can acquire the skills and knowledge necessary free.

Not only is this uncommon in relationship to other home based business, it's also unique in relation to other trading markets (There will be an entire article explaining the benefits of the FOREX markets vs. any of the other markets).

Amount of Time Needed to Begin:

Before diving into the answer, specifically, we think it's important that you understand another concept unique to the FOREX. Twenty-four hours a day trading. That's right, FOREX markets are trading 24 hours a day, from Sunday afternoon to Friday afternoon.

How does this help in answering the question at hand, how much time is needed to begin FOREX trading?

As we've mentioned earlier, in order to break into the real estate business requires a major commitment of time. Most of which has to happen between 9 AM and 5 PM. The fact is, you can't speak to a realtor at 3 AM. Everything you do has to be around somebody else's schedule. That means that 40 hours of work could take you 4 weeks.

Those same 40 hours, while learning FOREX Trading, might only take you 2 weeks. All you need is a computer and an internet connection. In addition, since there is substantially less needed to learn in order to succeed at FOREX Trading, 40 hours of work will put you much closer to success then it would in real estate.

Amount of Knowledge Needed to Begin:

As a FOREX trader you only need to acquire the knowledge that will be necessary for you to make money trading.

Why does this matter?

Let me answer this with an example. Why do my plants need water? Actually, we don't know. To be more precise, none of us actually cares. However, we do know that if we don't water them, they die. That fact alone gives me enough reason to water my plants.

This concept holds true in the FOREX markets. With all of the information available worldwide, it's easy to get caught up in the non-important factors. Like, why do my plants need water? However, all you need to know are the exact steps to take in order to succeed. Like, water your plants.

This drastically limits the amount of time you must invest in learning to trade the FOREX.

Amount of People Needed to Begin:

Well, to attempt FOREX trading takes only you. To succeed at FOREX trading takes you and an educator. Combining these two pieces creates one of the simplest puzzles around.

Imagine trying to learn 2 + 2 = 4 without the guidance of a teacher. None of us would ever grasp this simple subject if left alone. In fact, we wouldn't be able to communicate at all without the examples set forth to us by our parents.

Our entire lives are molded by the quality of the education and guidance we are provided. This holds true in FOREX Trading.

With an elite FOREX Trading Course, you are on the path to successful FOREX trading.

Ultimately, YOU determine your success. However, getting the right foundation and ongoing support will put all the odds in your favor.

Author: Eddie Yakubovich

http://www.articlesbase.com/currency-trading-articles/is-forex-trading-the-greatest-business-opportunityever-16449.html

From Beginner To Forex Trader

2008-03-12T14:51:00.000+08:00

When you begin to investigate this business of day trading a plethora of information comes at you. Type in day trading, do a search and you get close to a million choices. That's a lot of info to sieve through. So where do we start?

There are some basic necessities that you must have before you can begin. A fairly good computer is a must. The prices are going down and the power is increasing all the time. So these days you can pick up a new machine for about $800 that will do the job. A high end trading machine with all the bells whistles will set you back about $1500. One thing you must consider is how many monitors are needed. I recommend 2 because you can't go wrong with screen real estate in this business. Believe me it won't go to waste. This will push up the price a little, but it is well worth it. Make sure you get a flat panel LCD which comes standard when you buy a new machine. Remember your eyes. Don't try and save a couple of bucks by purchasing an old fashion flickering monitor. Hours in front of the screen can be a daily occurrence in this business. Computer auctions are a good option.

The second item is a fast internet connection. There are many options available here, but do not go below ADSL. The speed of the information coming to your computer is very important. Finally, on the hardware side, make sure your setup is comfortable. The desk should be at the right height and a swivel type reclining business chair is really nice.

Now you are all set, so what do we trade? There are 3 basic categories to choose from. These are stocks and options, futures and commodities and foreign currencies.

Let us look at stocks. There are thousands of them. Then there are the exchanges such as The New York Stock Exchange for the big boys then there is the NASDAQ for the internet type younger companies. We also have pink sheets for stocks with low trading volume. How do you decide which stocks to trade. There are various software packages that screen stocks for whatever parameters you input You can screen for gapers, which are stocks that have gone up or down by a fairly large amount when compared with the previous days close. Then there are lows and highs, unusual volume, earnings reports, other reports that affect the stocks price, sector performance and on and on it goes. It can be a daunting task deciding "how" if you want to trade stocks. What about options? They are too specialized for the beginner in my opinion. Learn something simple and then you can graduate to options if you so desire.

Futures and commodities on the other hand offer the trader a much smaller basket of goods to choose from. I would stay out of commodities if you are just learning. Commodities such as grains, orange juice, coffee and pork bellies etc. require the trader to acquire knowledge about the peculiarities of the commodity. For instance, when is the end of the grain harvest? How has the weather affected the harvest, and a host of other variables. There is an easier way!

When we take a close look at foreign currency trading we see some decided advantages compared to the other instruments already mentioned. Foreign currency trading, commonly called forex, involves the buying and selling of one currency against the other. One of the huge advantages of forex is its' liquidity, which is the volume of transactions measured daily, weekly or annually. The liquidity in forex is second to none. This is important because it means when you trade you will almost always get your fills. Can you imagine buying a stock and it starts to dive and you can't get rid of it because of lack of liquidity! This would not happen in forex trading. Another advantage is its high daily range. This means every day the currencies increase and decrease in price enough to allow the trader to have opportunities for trades every day.

The forex market also gives you flexible work hours. All around the globe the same currencies are being traded from almost sunrise to sunrise. You can literally choose when you want to trade. It is ideal for learning and practice if you have a current job and want to transition to trading over a period of time, or if you want to just trade on the side. One of the biggest advantages of trading foreign currencies is the leverage it gives the trader. This means you can start with as little as US$2000 or sometimes less and start to trade right away. Another advantage is that you can focus on one or two pairs of currencies and really learn to trade them very well because you will get to know them so well. You do not have to wonder which stock should I going to trade today.

Finally the opportunity exists for you to be trained by experts on all aspects of forex trading for a very reasonable price. You do not need to try and reinvent the wheel. It has all been done for you already. Researched, experimented, tried, tested and proven to work. Click on the link to find out how!

Author: Robert Williams

http://www.articlesbase.com/currency-trading-articles/from-beginner-to-forex-trader-17999.html

Forex Day Trading - a Great Way to Lose Money Quickly

2008-03-04T17:43:00.000+08:00

Forex day trading is very popular but is simply one of the best ways to lose money. If you have been considering a forex day trading system then read on and you may change your mind.

So Why Doesn't Forex day trading work?

The reason is the data is unreliable and volatility is random and support and resistance within a few days is meaningless.

If you think about the above its obvious why:

Millions of traders trade trillions of dollars and to try and predict what this huge mass of opinion will do in such a short time span is impossible.

But I have seen forex trading systems with great track records of gains...

Sure you have but there not real, there done KNOWING the closing prices!

You never see one audited which has traded real dollars over a long period of time, what you normally get is one of these - here is the CFTC disclaimer:

"CFTC RULE 4.41 - HYPOTHETICAL OR SIMULATED PERFORMANCE RESULTS HAVE CERTAIN LIMITATIONS. UNLIKE AN ACTUAL PERFORMANCE RECORD, SIMULATED RESULTS DO NOT REPRESENT ACTUAL TRADING. ALSO, SINCE THE TRADES HAVE NOT BEEN EXECUTED, THE RESULTS MAY HAVE UNDER-OR-OVER COMPENSATED FOR THE IMPACT, IF ANY, OF CERTAIN MARKET FACTORS, SUCH AS LACK OF LIQUIDITY. SIMULATED TRADING PROGRAMS IN GENERAL ARE ALSO SUBJECT TO THE FACT THAT THEY ARE DESIGNED WITH THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT. NO REPRESENTATION IS BEING MADE THAT ANY ACCOUNT WILL OR IS LIKELY TO ACHIEVE PROFIT OR LOSSES SIMILAR TO THOSE SHOWN".

So put the above on and you can make up anything you want with past data.

Vendors of course do and rely on the greedy naïve investor (or both) to spend a few hundred bucks and think he is on the way to seven figure income. Of course they get a reality check of a thumping great loss.

Forex scalping and day trading systems that make huge claims that never stand up in real time trading.

If you want to lose go ahead and join the day traders - if you want to win you will understand you need to trade the odds over the longer term.

UNDERSTAND THIS

Forex trading is hard enough with reliable data and you would expect it to be, with the rewards on offer -but it's a fact that anyone can learn to trade and anyone can enjoy currency trading success.

All you need to do is get the right forex education, trade with discipline and this anyone can achieve.

If you are serious about making money, forex trading offers you life changing profits for those traders willing to learn the right way and approach forex trading with the right mindset to succeed.

Author: Kelly Price

http://www.articlesbase.com/day-trading-articles/forex-day-trading-a-great-way-to-lose-money-quickly-283288.html

Forex Traders - The Inside Scoop

2008-02-29T22:55:00.000+08:00

Forex traders make up a unique group of investors who are willing to think outside of the box. They are a group of people who understand that with inherent risk comes the possibility for great reward. A person who has mastered the ability to balance that risk with wisdom and patience can make a substantial amount of money trading forex. One important key to success is having the ability to access the most current and the best forex trading information. The development of streaming data on the internet has made this access possible.

Forex traders of all skill and experience levels are discovering the value of forex trading simulators. Nearly all of the major trading platforms now offer some sort of simulator that allows the investor to become a student and place forex trades with play money. These games, while fun, provide a valuable training ground where forex traders can try out new strategies and methods. The simulators allow them to track the success or failure of the trades that they have made. Even more important than the successful trades that they make in the simulator are the failures. This is a place where new forex traders can learn from their mistakes without suffering personal financial loss.

One of the most exciting features of an online forex trading platform is the freedom that it gives a forex trader to work ahead of time. Through automated forex trading, an investor has the ability to set up forex trades in advance by naming his/her price. The trading platform keeps track of current quotes, and when the quote reaches the price that the trader has predetermined the trade is made automatically. This feature allows forex traders who work other jobs to be active in the market on a daily basis.

Day trading forex is becoming more popular and it would not be possible without the information that streams over most online forex trading platforms. While it is fascinating to step back and see how much the world of financial investing has changed because of increasingly reliable information technology, it is even more interesting to stop and think about what new developments are on the horizon, some of which forex traders may not have even yet considered.

http://www.wonderoffice.com/wonderoffice/finance/currency-trading/forex-traders-the-inside-scoop.html

School Consolidation Loan Basics

2008-02-27T16:02:00.002+08:00

Because of students that are having trouble with their school financial obligations, debt consolidation companies came into existence. They serve as medium or an option on how to deal with the students woes. These types of programs help ease the students multiple monthly bill payments. For most students, they resort to these programs of repaying their financial obligations.

To start, make a list of all your loans, the names of your lenders, the interest rates on each of you loans and debts, the amounts you owe on each of those debts and loans, and the amounts of your monthly payments on each of you loans.

If you make this list in such a way that it is formatted for you to easily see those numbers/amounts, you can readily determine how much you are paying monthly at the moment.

By now you should be able to determine if what you are currently making (income) can meet your monthly payments. If not, there are other options. Like, get another job, a part time job to augment your finances. Or think of other sources of income. If that one is not possible, and your actual payments exceed what your monthly budget is, then probably it is time to consider about School Consolidation Loan.

A school consolidation loan can be easily obtained. But, always shop around for the best- meaning, which program that can reduce your monthly payment and also reduce your interest rate.

The best school consolidation loan is the one that is from the federal government programs. If you go to the website of the US department of Education you can find a lot option on which you like and which type of loan program that suits you and where you can qualify. To name a few, Direct Consolidation Loan which I think is the best. So try going through the Federal Consolidation Loan Program.

You can also make your application online.

Always bear in mind that if you do a school consolidation loan during the grace period, you can lock in an interest rate that would be at least half percent lower than the current repayment rate. There are also a lot of lenders that provide discounted rate if you sign up for their electronic payment program and make a consistent on time payments for some period of time that will specify.

Some programs grants some immediate payment relief if you ask for deferment or forbearance.Reminder: When filing out a school consolidation loan application, always make sure you have all the necessary documents and fill up everything that is needed to be filled to avoid delays.

To lessen your burden and to simplify your debts and school loans, and get it more manageable, take a school consolidation loan.

But before getting into these programs, be sure to do a due diligence or research in finding the right company to handle and negotiate your loan. This would make save more money by reduce interest payments and avoid the other pitfalls of a school consolidation loan.

http://www.wonderoffice.com/wonderoffice/finance/loan/school-consolidation-loan-basics.html

Openness is not Enough

2008-02-21T14:34:00.001+08:00

This article is written as a sequel to the article Economic Justification of Increase International Trade published about month prior to this. In that article I discussed many of the common arguments that I hear about why free trade is hurting the economy and I explained the economic theory behind the opposing view of those arguments. I was in no way saying that these theories hold at all times, but was merely stating that the economic theories to illustrate to the non-economists that I hear using these articles may understand better why free trade is important, but this trade must come under the correct circumstances for an economy to experience increased growth from removing trade barriers.More...

In recent years countries have put a focus on becoming more open to international trade in hopes to reap the gains of access to larger markets providing technological improvements, cheaper imports, and higher net exports. In theory this should be the case, but in reality this theory only holds when under the correct circumstances. People see the economies of countries like China and India opening their borders and experiencing growth rates of more than 10% each year and believe that all they need to do to experience these gains is to open their borders and sit back and watch as their economy begins to grow. Obviously there are a few problems with this, and countries must not blindly open their borders without a well developed plan for growth and that plan must begin with sound domestic reform.

Both China and India developed their economies under closed borders and slowly began removing trade restrictions. Why must this be the case?

1. Requirements to participate in international trade
2. Developing countries often want to export low-value goods (agriculture and other low-skilled labor products)

Since the 1970's there have been many reforms to the requirements of countries for them to participate in global trade. These reforms include:

* Social safety nets
* Administrative reforms
* Labor market reforms
* Technological assistance
* Training programs
* Financial transparency
* Monetary policy
* Banking regulations

A typical developing economy also spend about $150 million on a World Trade Organization agreement which is $150 million that the nation DOESN'T have to spend on their physical infrastructure, instituting technology, and education, which are the critical to have well established before opening borders to trade.

Can opening borders too early hinder development?

Poorly developed country are likely to export agricultural and low-skilled labor goods. These goods are likely to be subject to protectionist policies in the countries that they would like to export them to, such as tariffs or even government subsidies to protect domestic production of those goods. This could easily lead to even less economic growth because of opening to trade too early. This is why it is critical for nations to develop their economies under closed borders, and only after they have better developed their human capital, built a stable infrastructure, and implemented advanced technologies to catch up to the rest of the world that they can experience the benefits and growth of international trade.

Author: Chris Schmitz
http://www.articlesbase.com/international-business-articles/openness-is-not-enough-268047.html

Discover the Simple Secrets to Niche Marketing Fortunes

2008-02-14T21:51:00.000+08:00

It's just one of those hard, cruel facts of life that the big boys have all the money they need to advertise and sell their products and us little guys are on advertising budgets that are so small they probably don't add up to what the big boys spend on paper clips in a month. Competing with the big boys isn't feasible... or possible, for that matter. So what are we little guys supposed to do?

Niche marketing is our answer. We can't advertise our products and services to the world at large but we don't have to be able to do that to be able to make a pretty decent living... thanks to the Internet.

Niche marketing is selling specific products or services to a limited audience. One person with a computer, an internet connection and a good idea can go into business for himself on the Internet and target the people who would be most interested in what he has to sell and do all of the above on a very limited advertising budget.

Finding the right niche for what you have to sell isn't really all that difficult. Just think about who the people are who would be most interested in what you have to sell. For example, if you have concocted a shampoo formula that will take chlorine out of a person's hair, you can't compete with giant companies that sell shampoo but you can narrow your market down to a niche and target sales to those who have swimming pools. You buy a domain, get some web hosting, and build a website to advertise your product JUST to people who have swimming pools.

In essence, niche marketing is selling a product or service to those who want or need the product the most.

Deciding on what product or service you will promote in a niche market should be based on a simple principle. There should be a demand for your product or service. You want to offer something that people actually need, something that will make their lives better, make them feel better physically, make them look better, or help them solve a problem.

Once you have chosen a product or service to market, researching to find the right niche for your product or service is the next most important part of beginning a niche marketing program. The things that you need to know are where they spend their time online, and what makes them tick from a personal and business point of view. There is niche marketing software out there that can help you learn these things about your potential niche market.

The next thing you need to learn as you research your online niche market is what you can reasonable charge for your product or service. The best and most effective was to do this is to visit sites that advertise products or services similar to what you have chosen to sell. It should be easy to see if they are giving away a service or selling the product at a price far lower than you would have to charge.

If you can determine that there are people out there who are willing to spend money to buy what you are selling and you can identify those people then you have a niche marketing product or service that can make money on the Internet. Sometimes it takes re-framing your product or service to make it more attractive, better or just different than what others are selling it for. Research is the key to successful niche marketing.

Author: Brian Terry

http://www.articlesbase.com/marketing-tips-articles/discover-the-simple-secrets-to-niche-marketing-fortunes-252616.html

Is The FOREX The Market To Trade Your Way to Riches?

2008-02-07T20:24:00.000+08:00

Ever watch the news and see the ending FOREX trades of the currency markets? They're usually based on how individual currencies traded against the dollar. FOREX is the abbreviation for the Foreign Exchange market. FOREX is a market where the value of individual currencies from all over the world are traded. The currency market today began in the 1970's as currencies that were historically tied to the gold standard, or the price of gold, were decoupled and allowed to float.

So instead of a dollar having a gold based value, it's value is now determined by the other currencies in the world. FOREX can be an investors paradise as it's as close to a free trading market as you can get. Almost anyone can invest in FOREX because it's simply the trading of 1 currency for another.

So how does this work? Let's say that you believe the United States market is going to be suffering from inflation. That is, the value of the dollar, over the next year or so is going to go down....and all 100 dollars of your savings is in US dollars.One way to trade the FOREX would be to trade your savings in dollars for a currency you believe will be more valuable or stable like the EURO as an example. For this example, let's say one dollar is worth 2 Euros and remember this is an example only. So the trade is 100 US dollars for 200 European EUROS.

Next, let's say your right and inflation does hit the US hard and the value of the dollar drops by 10%. Be aware that when talking about currency we're talking not about the number of dollars and other currencies but the value of those currencies. That is, what it can buy or it's actual worth.So in our example, if you kept your savings in US dollars it would now be worth only 90% of the value it held last year. Because you have your savings in EUROS however and that market has remained stable, the VALUE of your savings has been protected. The reason is that the FOREX trading markets will adjust the value of the dollar because of the inflation and raise the value of the Euro appropriately. So in this example, a US dollar would be worth about 1.8 Euros.

To complete the example, your savings of 200 EUROS could be traded back into US dollars. Because of the inflation however and the value of the dollar went down so you can now trade your 200 EUROS for about 110 US dollars.

Almost anyone can invest in FOREX, and there are strategies for investors who look for long term and short term gains. For those of you who are interested in forex trading, the very first stop is to get some good training and understand the markets. Unlike the private markets where stocks, bonds and commodities are traded, FOREX is currency which belongs to the individual governments. Currency manipulations by governments is not uncommon, while decisions they make can dramatically change the value of their underlying currency.

While many people and currency dealers can make it sound easy, the only thing easy in making any investment is losing your money. It's important to remember that currency dealers make their money through commissions and usually not on the investment they're selling. The example we used above, although very simplistic, had a number of risk factors and additional costs we didn't consider. Things like trading costs, and the assumption that one government held their currency completely stable, which is not usual, while another did not.

Many people involved with FOREX say a lot of money can be made trading currency. They're correct of course, but you can also lose a lot of money also. So get training, learn the markets and trade smart.

Author: Abigail Franks

http://www.articlesbase.com/currency-trading-articles/is-the-forex-the-market-to-trade-your-way-to-riches-40103.html

Day Trading Systems Why you are Guaranteed to Lose

2008-02-07T20:05:00.000+08:00

Day trading systems are popular and you see lots of track records of huge profits the problem is none of them have a real track record - there all simulated in hindsight and NEVER traded for real. The reason for this is day trading is based on logic that simply doesn't work.
The problem with day trading is the reliability of the data.The time span is simply to short and to think that you can predict what millions of traders will do in a few hours or a day is ridiculous.

All these traders are motivated by different goals and the majority are ruled by greed and fear - trying to measure that in a short time span is impossible

Volatility can and does take prices anywhere in a day making support and resistance meaningless and you can never get the odds on your side - Period

Of course if you can't get the odds on your side you are going to lose longer term - it really is that simple.

The fact is every day trading track record you see has a disclaimer similar to the one below which is a standard CFTC one - read it carefully.

"CFTC RULE 4.41 - HYPOTHETICAL OR SIMULATED PERFORMANCE RESULTS HAVE CERTAIN LIMITATIONS. UNLIKE AN ACTUAL PERFORMANCE RECORD, SIMULATED RESULTS DO NOT REPRESENT ACTUAL TRADING. ALSO, SINCE THE TRADES HAVE NOT BEEN EXECUTED, THE RESULTS MAY HAVE UNDER-OR-OVER COMPENSATED FOR THE IMPACT, IF ANY, OF CERTAIN MARKET FACTORS, SUCH AS LACK OF LIQUIDITY. SIMULATED TRADING PROGRAMS IN GENERAL ARE ALSO SUBJECT TO THE FACT THAT THEY ARE DESIGNED WITH THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT. NO REPRESENTATION IS BEING MADE THAT ANY ACCOUNT WILL OR IS LIKELY TO ACHIEVE PROFIT OR LOSSES SIMILAR TO THOSE SHOWN".

So we have a track record that really doesn't mean anything at all.

Anyone can do a track record in hindsight knowing the closing prices but the problem with forex trading in the real world is - you have to trade without this key knowledge!

You may ask yourself the obvious question which is - if the system is so good why is the vendor selling it? Or - why don't they show me a track record audited of the trades that they have done.

Well now you know the answer.

Vendors don't normally trade the systems ( and most of them are not traders but simply marketing organizations) because they know day trading doesn't work - but they know hyped copy will sell the system. They simply appeal to the naïve and greedy investor looking for an easy quick buck and he gets a hard lesson from the markets for his trouble.

If you want to trade then you need to have the odds on your side.

This means trading longer term valid data.

You can forex swing trade looking for trades of a few days to around a week - or follow the long term trends, looking for trades that last weeks or months.

The choice is yours on which time frame you choose but you will have the odds on your side which you don't have in forex day trading and will have a chance of enjoying forex trading success.

Author: Monica Hendrix

http://www.articlesbase.com/day-trading-articles/day-trading-systems-why-you-are-guaranteed-to-lose-286813.html

The Sub-prime and Other Frauds – Penalties Coming

2008-02-04T16:15:00.000+08:00

I have been wondering, as I am sure you have as to how long it would take the government to take action against the mortgage brokers who are responsible for at least a portion of the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage industry. After following several newspaper accounts for this information it’s finally happening, and there will be more to come. The problem with this market is the lack of regulation of mortgage brokers. We regulate banks, Savings and Loan companies and the like but the brokers are not. The reason given for this is that they are not the lenders but only sales people.

Watch for more finger pointing and playing the blame game. The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York has announced that a David Goldwasser, a mortgage and loan broker in Rockland County has pled guilty to defrauding Key Bank of New York City and First Union Bank of Port Chester New York of almost $500,000. Mr. Goldwasser admitted in court that he had submitted application for loans for other parties but also for a company that he had a financial interest in. He admitted that he had submitted financial documents that were false including false tax returns and bank and brokerage statements. He could receive up to 30 years in prison as well as be required to make restitution for the full amount.

Another case pending of a slightly different type concerns a man referred as being a “rogue mortgage broker” of Port Washington NY. Jacob Milton is accused of stealing another person’s identity. Our site http://www.1-800BadCredit.com has numerous articles warning of the danger of this happening. It is the largest growing crime wave in the United States according to both the FBI and the U.S. Postal Service. If you think you are not a candidate read on.

Mr. Milton is accused not only of stealing the identity of the unnamed individual but of buying two homes in his name and leaving him more than $1 million dollars in debt. Now due to the announcement by the police other victims are emerging. Some of these are claiming credit card fraud and other types of fraud. Police believe there could possibly be hundreds of victims.

This type of fraud happens every day in every city and could happen to you. Here’s what is interesting, Mr. Milton is the director of a major mortgage company with offices throughout New York. Not exactly the kind of guy anyone would suspect.

As to potential mortgage fraud by unscrupulous brokers it remains to be seen as to the amount of prosecution. Don’t hold your breath on that one. The membership of all the mortgage broker associations in the United States represent less than 10% of the entire industry. But that’s still enough to create havoc in the banking world. Many of the brokers feel little or no responsibility because they bundle the loans placing a few bad ones in with the good ones apparently feeling things will balance out. They take their money and move on.

There have been instances of outright fraud though. The Orange County Register (California) ran an article recently about a mortgage broker who submitted fraudulent loan forms for a legal Mexican family who couldn’t speak English. Now this family is losing their home and of course the mortgage broker who packaged it for them is nowhere to be found. A similar case is being investigated here in Phoenix. In both cases the brokers were only interested in their commission from the deal.

Now I know someone is going to say that mortgage brokers are the fall guys and someone else is really the bad guy. We have mortgage brokers on our website. Most mortgage brokers do a great job. All the brokers on our website are major companies who really care about the industry. It’s the small “Johnnie Come Lately’s” who have caused the most problems. They have no investment in the overall health of the industry, and are only out for the “fast buck” it seems.

Everyone bears some responsibility for the problem. A broker only sells what the people have been asking for years: the lowest payment with little or no down payment. However just a few years back it was IMPOSSIBLE to get this type of loan. It may be necessary for the banking industry to go back to the way they did 20+ years ago and require a down payment commensurate with the loan possibly more people would not be able to own their own homes, but the financial institutions wouldn’t be in trouble either. The Arizona Republic carried a lead article this morning (10/23/07) stating that Rep. Barney Frank the head of the House Financial Services Committee has introduced a bill to require the banking industry to do just that.

The real root cause of sub-prime is investment-banking fraud. It is bad business to design any product that encourages people to cheat. The fraud (or lapses in judgment if you prefer) this time around is in the hundred of millions of dollars so it must be prosecuted and fixed in this author’s opinion before our country suffers the mother of all financial collapses.

Simply put the solution is so simple, maybe that’s why no one can see it. The system as we have it now is about pushing limits of production and volume sales. Also it’s about making credit available to people who 20 years ago couldn’t qualify. That part has been successful. Home ownership has grown by giant leaps that no one can argue is a totally bad thing.

But as success grew the industry threw caution to the wind and made some foolish decisions. The investment banking folks and the large subprime wholesalers got careless and forgot past lessons of maintaining loan volume and extending credit without adhering to good business guidelines.

Risk in the lending business is easy to measure.

· Mortgages are at least 5 or 6 thousand years old
· A safe mortgage investment formula was calculated a long time ago
· The formula computed at 80% Loan-to-value is a good risk if the borrower has reasonable credit.
· It’s no more complex than that.

But risk increases dramatically every time you change the formula.

· Increase the loan to value (Inflated prices are another problem)
· Sell adjustable rate loans for the first five years just to make a sale
· Due to the inflated prices longer term loans are offered
· The last thing is people with extremely poor credit being offered credit on homes they cannot
afford.

All these factors combined have made a package that can blow up in our face. We must have a common sense approach.

Author: Dewey Kearney

http://www.articlesbase.com/banking-articles/the-subprime-and-other-frauds-penalties-coming-255946.html

Beware of Affiliate Theft and Fraud!

2008-02-04T16:12:00.000+08:00

While good affiliates can make you money there are some that can cost you a lot so beware of affiliate theft and fraud that are increasing day by day. Merchants more then ever need to monitor the actions of their affiliates to defend themselves against fraud and prevent them from stealing your income. As long as you do your online business you to need to be cautious to save your hard earned money.

You must be aware of what type of frauds your affiliates may be capable of and then determine what type of preventive measure could be taken to arm yourself. You need to perform careful screening of all your affiliates because you may have hundreds or even thousands of people signing up for your affiliate program and all they could not be honest and serious. There may be frivolous hobbyists, spammers and sophisticated con artists which require to be weeded so that you are left with serious marketers to work with.

The different types of frauds your affiliates may be capable of are Spammers, Malware, Fraudulent and Fake Transactions and Typo squatting. Spammers are those affiliates who involve themselves sending unsolicited e-mails featuring a net marketer’s product and also create difficult situations for the legitimate e-mailers to separate themselves. Some affiliates even use adware specifically designed that is unknowingly installed on a person's computer to steal traffic from legitimate affiliates by replacing their links with new ones. The result is that the legitimate affiliates do not get their fees for their work and they keep on going with their work and when they come to know about it they had already made a hair tearing loss! Fraudulent and Fake Transactions are performed by the online fraudsters by signing up as affiliates making large purchases employing a stolen credit card or may opt for creating scripts to generate phony clicks, leads, or transactions.Typo squatting is another way against which you should keep yourself well armed. It is also known as URL hijacking. Person involved in such illegal job are called Typo squatters who manipulates the URL the website address of affiliate program. They register several variations of a high traffic domain names and then sign up for that same merchants affiliate program to sell them which brings them the revenue which is rightly the earnings of the owner of the affiliate programs.

Once you are aware of the types of frauds and armed with certain screening tips like checking out for anyone inactive website of the affiliates that mark them as spammers, the optimized content that must relate to your products and services and the measure of loyalty to follow the policies surrounding the use of content from your site you are sure to safe from being cheated.

Author: bob123

http://www.articlesbase.com/banking-articles/beware-of-affiliate-theft-and-fraud-261650.html

Pay Off Debts And Enjoy Your Golden Years

2008-01-30T15:35:00.000+08:00

Financial planning and financial management are essential arts for you to enjoy life to the fullest. Borrowing money has become the order of the day. But of course, they also need to repay them and sometimes we see multiple loans being repaid at the same time.
So it is essential to have in place a sensible debt management system. Such a system would go a long way in helping the debtor manage his finances. Not just do you need to responsibly repay all your dues, you also need to be able to afford your daily expenses. The main aim of such a debt management system should be to reduce the amount repayable. This can be done only on the interest paid on a loan. Earlier on, people tried to solve these issues on their own. But you are not alone and professional help is available.

If you have already borrowed considerable money, you will have difficulty raising new credit. Being unable to repay one's loans may be a major headache. It can cause a person many sleepless nights. Thus, it is best to take the help of experts rather than end up defaulting on the loans.

Companies that provide debt help are a major blessing at such times. There are many ways in which a person can be assisted with their debt. The most popular tool is the debt consolidation loan. These loans take into account the person's current financial standing and help cancel out the debts in the long run.

However, it is important to realize that these companies can only help provide a solution. They cannot remove the loans or debts that have to be repaid. A complete debt help package where there are professionals to guide you in managing your finances and counselors to help you control impulsive spending are very popular in the world of today. In essence, these people will induce discipline as well as make your loans more manageable.

As if credit related worries were not enough, we find that people are also increasingly worried about retirement planning. At such times they start thinking about retirement planning. Thinking ahead for the future is a good thing. One must remember that expenses are not likely to reduce just because one stops working.

One must understand that one will need a certain amount of money to run the household and pay fixed expenses. And for some it becomes a question of being able to continue the same lifestyle post retirement as well. Along with calculating the costs of running a household, one should begin to put away a small amount regularly and create a savings nest for the future.

The pension amount should also be taken into consideration while doing these calculations. Also, any gratuity that may be received from the employer must be taken into consideration. It is also astute to remember that your expenses after retirement will not be identical to the ones you have today. For instance you could have significantly increased medical expenses. One should probably be like the ant who saved for a rainy day, and not be like the grasshopper who played all through summer and then starved in winter.

Author: Ajeet Khurana

http://www.articlesbase.com/personal-finance-articles/pay-off-debts-and-enjoy-your-golden-years-255249.html

Top 5 Jobs Which Require Life Insurance

2008-01-24T16:04:00.000+08:00

Life insurance is an important aspect of everyone's lives and is something which everyone will have to face at some point in time throughout their lives. This point may come sooner rather than later for some individuals because of the job they perform on a daily basis.

While some individuals start everyday by putting on their suits and racing to get to the coffee shop for their morning coffee, others are strapping on their work boots and preparing themselves for a day of excruciatingly hard labor. As scary as it may sound, there are many individuals who are willing to put their lives in danger every single day when they get up and go to work.

The following is a list of the top 5 jobs which are considered to be the most dangerous jobs in the world. Individuals who perform these jobs are highly recommended to have a life insurance plan incase (god forbid) anything goes wrong on any given day. These are the 5 occupations which made the list:

Police/Detectives - Police Officers face life threatening situations almost everyday. They are highly trained to defend themselves and are equipped with protective equipment at all times. Life insurance and disability insurance are crucial for individuals working in the field of policing.
Airplane Pilots - Believe it or not, airplane pilots require life insurance because they are dealing with such powerful machines which have been known to have mechanical glitches. Airplane pilots are also highly trained in their field to make sure they do their best to fly safely.
Construction Workers - Construction workers are somewhat unappreciated for the amount of hard work they do everyday. They not only put their lives in danger from all the machinery they are expected to operate, but they also face many factors which will affect their health in the long run. Overexposure to sun, heat and excessive lifting are just a few of these factors.
Farm Workers - Much like construction workers, farm workers are at high risk of injury or death due to the fact that they are constantly operating heavy machinery. There are hundreds of farm work related deaths a years and thousands of injuries for individuals working in farm fields. Life insurance and disability insurance are important for individuals in this occupation.
Fire Fighters - It is a known fact that fire fighters put their lives on the line everyday to save the lives of others. Knowing the potential consequences and performing the job anyways indicates that these workers deserve the highest level of respect from others. Individuals who have chosen careers in firefighting are also likely to have a life insurance policy.

Is your job dangerous? Is your life on the line everyday? Maybe not, but there are many other factors other than your occupation which may indicate you need life insurance. Life insurance is a plan which will ensure your loved ones are taken care of incase anything happens to you. Wouldn't you like to know your family would be looked after should this type of situation occur?

Author: Bill Mason

Top 5 Ways to Save Money on Your Auto Insurance

2008-01-24T15:51:00.000+08:00

Auto insurance is one of those must-haves in life. In most states, it is required by law that you carry at least the minimum coverage. There's no way around this, so you might as well take advantage of the money-saving tips below to make the most of your insurance experience

Tip Number One: Consider Your Vehicle's Value

Let's face it, automobiles depreciate (or lose value) very quickly. When you drive your vehicle from the car lot brand new, the "new" value goes down suddenly to a "used" value. No matter how well you take care of your car, the value will decrease tremendously over a short period of time.

If you've paid off all debts owed on your vehicle, find out from your previous lender the estimated book value. If this amount equals the same or less than what your collision insurance premium is going to cost you, then there's no reason to carry collision coverage. You would basically be paying the total value of your car each year, whether you have an accidentor not. You can save tremendously on your auto insurance premium by leaving off the collision if this is the case with your vehicle.

Tip Number Two: Avoid Traffic Tickets

Speeding tickets or moving violations are the number one causes of high insurance rates. When you drive at high speeds or disregard traffic rules, you are considered an "at-risk" driver, and your insurance rates are raised for several years as a result. Driving safely and following the rules of the road will keep your insurance rates at a low and enjoyable amount.

Tip Number Three: Know Your Coverages

There are some coverages that may not be necessary, depending on where you live or the type of vehicle you own. For example, if you live in a large city where auto theft is common, then theft insurance coverage might be wise. However, if you live forty miles from the nearest town on a high mountain where theft is very rare, then there's no need to pay the additional premium for this type of coverage.

There are many coverages which are optional, but still helpful. You'll need to carefully examine each coverage to decide if it's needful or not. If your insurance company offers you "full coverage", find out exactly what's included. It might be cheaper to pay for only a few of the options separately if you don't need all of the included coverage. This will depend on your needs, car value, etc.

Tip Number Four: Auto Insurance Deductibles

Although high deductibles often get a negative response from consumers, they can actually work to your advantage and save you tons of premium money each year. The concept behind a deductible is to place more of the responsibility on the driver and less on the insurance company. In turn, your premium can be substantially less each year.

A $1,000 deductible amount seems extremely high, but if it saves you $200 per year on your insurance premium, it's well worth it! Keep in mind that the deductible will be due only if you do have an accident where insurance is needed. Otherwise, you get to enjoy the lower premiums year after year.

If you select a policy with a high deductible, you might want to put some of your premium savings into an emergency fund, so you'll have some or most of your deductible if an accident does occur.

Tip Number Five: Insurance Comparisons

Another way to save money is to make comparisons before signing on for insurance. You'll not only want to compare policy options, but also insurance companies and pricing.

Note of Warning: Be careful not to sign up too quickly if a very low price is being offered. Get some references if possible, or ask around to find out if someone else has had experience with the company. Some companies who boast low prices offer the worst customer service, and take a very long time to process claims, so use caution at all times.

Utilizing online resources is a great way to compare California insurance companies. You might also find discount offers online which provide additional savings.

Author: Kelly Jensen

http://www.articlesbase.com/insurance-articles/top-5-ways-to-save-money-on-your-auto-insurance-25676.html
When choosing an insurance company and selecting your coverage, use these simple tips to save money on the premium while also getting a great plan to meet your needs.

Your Free Home Based Business Opportunity Found

2008-01-11T14:39:00.000+08:00

The good thing about working from home is that you can do many more things that you want from life than if you let some jerks run your personal life and emotions at some dead end job. If you like to paint, you can turn your skills into a home based business. If you are a marketing guru, that will work as well. But the one thing that holds a lot of people back when they are looking for a home based business opportunity is money, actually two, the second is fear of being independent. This has been a personal world problem for many of us the last few thousand years.

Many of us feel or felt, now or in the past that in order to start a company, we are going to need a lot of financial backing; something that most people simply cannot come up with. Even though this is true in some aspects, there are also many free, and very cheap, home based business opportunities that you can try out.

Think about it, why do you need to spend a lot of money on start up costs? You more than likely have everything that you need right in front of you or in within easy searching distance. A little search work, so easy to do and even fun, can open whole new worlds of joy, interest and excitement for you. Isn't that lots better than being bored to death at the same job, you frequently don't like, for the next 40 to 50 years? Please don't say no.

Generally speaking, the first thing that people do when they are searching for a home based business opportunity is search the internet. There are hundreds of sites that will promise you the world for no money at all; the bad thing about these sites is that they actually sound like good opportunities. The problem is that the majority of these sites are simply scams that are meant to dupe you out of your money. Sorry, that's the truth. To take this even further, these scams ruin it for the legitimate companies that are available.

So obviously, the best way to find a free home based business opportunity is to do your homework. One of the best opportunities available is affiliate marketing programs. This is a great way for anybody to start their own home based business with no start up costs at all. This involves getting paid by affiliates for driving traffic to their site. Eventually you may need to start putting money into your business to be more successful, but you can get started with relatively few problems at all.

Another free home based business opportunity that many people take advantage of is filling out online surveys. This is a legitimate way to make money from home, but you must be aware of all of the scams that are out there. The only way to do this is by searching through all of the available companies, doing your triage or due diligence, and then choosing the ones that are most reputable. Finding ratings for survey sites is not difficult because there are a lot of people that are interested in this home business opportunity. Usually, the best ones are free.

Finding a free home based business opportunity is not impossible. In order to be successful, you will want to watch out for scam artists so you do not end up losing valuable time and money and, most importantly, your burning fire hope for better things in your heart.

http://www.wonderoffice.com/wonderoffice/business/home-business/your-free-home-based-business-opportunity-found.html

Silver Investing: Four Tips for Success

2008-01-04T17:33:00.000+08:00

Investing in silver is a great way to make money. But of course, just like any type of investing, there are no guarantees. You need to know what you are doing and what the market is all about before you can get too involved. This is the only way to make sure that you give yourself the best possible chance to benefit from silver investing.

Here are four tips that will give you some direction when investing in silver. As a beginner, these will assist you in getting started. And even if you have silver investing experience, you can use these tips to assist your strategy.

1. Take a close look at the market before you decide that silver investing is right for you. As you probably know, investing is silver is different than investing in stocks, bonds, etc.

2. If you are not sure how investing in silver works, touch base with a professional who can help you with the buying and selling process. Then once you know what silver investing entails you can handle things on your own.

3. Open a silver account. Most Swiss banks offer these accounts. They allow you to instantly buy and sell silver just like you would anything else. This is perfect for beginners because of its simplicity.

4. There are many internet gold currency providers that give you the chance to buy and sell silver as well. After all, investing in silver is quite similar to gold.

As you can see, silver investing is not impossible to get involved with. Although this type of investing is not right for everybody, there are many benefits that you can get from buying silver. Just remember, you should learn about the silver investing market before you get started. After all, would you buy a stock if you did not know anything about the company? The more that you know about silver investing the better chance you have of making money. And with popularity increasing, there is plenty of information available on silver investing.

http://www.wonderoffice.com/wonderoffice/finance/investing/silver-investing-four-tips-for-success.html

Promoting your Business With Craigslist is a Great Idea

2008-01-02T14:19:00.000+08:00

Do you know how many businesses there are in the world? I don´t know either but I would imagine that there are so many that it would take a long time to count them all. You would probably fall asleep because by the time you reach one hundred thousand six hundred and twenty eight, you would be so tired of counting that you would just fall over. More and more businesses spring up out of nowhere every month while numerous flop over and die out. For these new business that are trying to make money and stay in business, the best thing to try and do is let people know about your new company. The only way you can do this is by properly reaching people who are looking for your type of service. Not just a couple people either, you want to have thousand and millions of people see your new company right. There are lots of ways to effectively do this and help your new business succeed. You can post flyer's, pass out business cards, or you can use Craigslist.

Marketing is the best way to showcase and sell anything including a new business. Posting flyer's is cool but who really looks at flyer's any more and takes them seriously? Not to many huh? Passing out business cards is a good strategy but too many people loss these cards before they think about using your service. If you want a super great way to market your new business then you should probably think about useing Craigslist. Craigslist is a wonderful way to let people know about your company.

We live in a society today that is dominated by technology. Therefore, most individuals have the Internet or have access to the Internet. You might be wondering how this relates to Craigslist. Craigslist is an Internet website service that is a great way to show people what you and your company is all about. Promoting your business is real easy using Craigslist because you can post an add about your company in several different categories when using this service. There is a “Service” section, a “Help Wanted” section, a “Services Needed” section and a whole bunch more in which you can market your business. The best part about this is that doing this, you don´t have to shell out any dollar bills to post this information. So by promoting your business using Craigslist, you can write what you are all about in numerous categories for nothing at all.

The real advantage of using Craigslist is the number of people who look om Craigslist everyday. Millions of people search Craigslist for a variety of different reasons. Countless numbers of them look for business information just like your new business you are trying to promote. So instead of only targeting the few hundreds of people you can reach with flyer's and business cards, you can grab the attention of millions by using Craigslist.

Starting and promoting a new business is hard because you have to bank on the idea that people want to use your service. If you don´t attract enough customers, more likely than not, you will go under. By letting as many people as you can know about your business, the better chance you will have in succeeding. Promoting your business with Craigslist is one of the best way to attract people to your new company.

Author: Jeffrey Dunbar

http://www.articlesbase.com/business-ideas-articles/promoting-your-business-with-craigslist-is-a-great-idea-279397.html

Eliminate Consumer Debt if you Want to be Rich

2008-01-02T14:13:00.000+08:00

The first step to take to increase your savings is to start reducing your expenses. So what is the first expense you must reduce and eventually eliminate? It is the interest expense you pay on consumer debt.

While taking on a reasonable amount of consumer debt is necessary for you to afford a car and a house, you must avoid taking on too much for too long a period.

Why? Because a 5%-6% interest rate may seem small but over an extended period of time, it compounds to a huge amount of money. You will find yourself paying tens of thousands of dollars in installment payments every month just to see that the principal sum you owe go down by a couple of hundred dollars.

For example, let's say you bought a $250,000 apartment and took a $200,000 mortgage at 6% stretched over 30 years. If you just paid the minimum installment payments every month, how much would you have paid in total interest?

The answer: Using a financial calculator, you can see that you will pay $1,173 in monthly installments for 30 years. That's a total of $422,280 in installment payments! You would have paid a total of $222,280 in interest to the bank. That's like buying two apartments and giving the bank one!

If You Took a $200,000 Loan Over 30 Years at 6% Interest, You Would Pay a Total of $222,280 in Interest...Even More than the Loan Amount Itself!

So besides paying the minimum required monthly installments (like your bank wants you to), you must constantly PAY MORE to further reduce and eventually eliminate your principal sum...or you will wind up donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to your bank over the long term!

When our spending is uncontrolled, our expenses always tend to rise up to match our level of income. No matter how much we earn. If we earn $2,000, we will find a way to spend over $2,000 and end up broke.

When we start earning $10,000 a month, we believe that we deserve a grander lifestyle, a flashier car, dine in exclusive up-market restaurants. Very often, the $10,000 we earn a month will be spent and we will end up having to start from scratch over again.

This pattern has been repeated by many intelligent people I know, some of them being my close friends. When unmanaged, whatever additional income we earn seems to disappear without a trace...doesn't it?

It is not how much you earn that will determine your wealth. More importantly, it is how much you are able to save and invest!

Author: Adam Khoo

http://www.articlesbase.com/wealth-building-articles/eliminate-consumer-debt-if-you-want-to-be-rich-263294.html

Ensuring Success in your Home Business

2007-12-26T20:59:00.000+08:00

Ask yourself some important questions. You want to know your purpose for being a business owner other than money. That one is a given. You should want to create awareness about something that is important to you and you enjoy. Give something of your knowledge back to the public and make them love it as much as you do. This will create the sales you need to keep going. The more money you make the more time and resources you will have to put back into it.

Always give the customers more than they ask for. You want them to return and buy again. The best way to ensure sales is to give the customer what they want. Be apart of a community with the people you want to do business with. Join the groups they congregate in. You want to be able to be a friend that provides advice and helps out.

Speak to your friends and gain their trust. This will ensure that they will listen to your recommendations and will trust your instincts on this topic. The point is to make sure the people that are buying from you are not just buyers but trusted friends. They will be who brings you the most business.

Word of mouth is the most powerful tool you have and is the hardest to get. This will let others in your community know that you are real and a person. Other questions to ask your self are as follows.

* What percent of your overall marketing will be done online or through other means?
* How much time do you expect to spend and dedicate to marketing?
* What strategies are you willing to use to succeed?
* Will you invest in your own business and yourself? * Will you have contests to get consumers? * Are you willing to invest in e-books, books, or reports in your related field?

Whether this costs money or time? * Will you subscribe to newsletters that give you the latest on your business genera? Will you be willing to make your own newsletters for free to sends to your consumers that will keep them informed? * Are you willing to invest in advertising?

If you are willing to do what it takes to be successful then set up a plan. Assign a date to get all the things you need in order. You need to be willing to do what it takes to be your own boss today. If you want to succeed at business you must invest and put time into your self. Give yourself the credit you are due. Your persistence and loyalty will pay off in success for sure in time.

Author: Gaetane Ross
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-opportunities-articles/ensuring-success-in-your-home-business-24008.html

How Do property Investors Find Cheap Property?

2007-12-23T17:57:00.000+08:00

Cheap property doesn't always make a profit for an investor. The question we should actually be asking is: ‘How do I find properties that are being sold at substantially less than market value?'.

The first step is to find an area where future demand will be greater than the supply. How? Find out where there is to be new rail and road links. A large company moving to an area will bring jobs. People will need to move to the area to fill the vacancies and the demand for suitable housing will grow. Many large cities now have plans for area regeneration. Buying in the areas will cost a lot more when regeneration has been completed.

The next step is to decide on what type of cheap property to buy. If the demographics show a lot of elderly people living in your chosen area, then perhaps single storey accommodation will be in demand. If there are a lot of young people then perhaps the demand will be for apartments.

Once you have decided on both the area and type of property, you need to compile a list of what's available. This can be done by using online resources such as www.findaproperty.co.uk. Other sites such as www.investalist.co.uk specialise in cheap property for refurbishment or development so may cut out some of the work for you.

When you have a good idea of what is available, you will need to see what the average property is costing in your chosen area. A great resource for this is www.upmystreet.com. They will also have a lot of other information such as the locality of schools and shops.

Finally you will need to visit the area yourself. Make a shortlist of properties to go and view. Take a pencil and paper so that you can write down the telephone numbers of agents from their For Sale boards. This is an excellent way of finding out if it really is a cheap property as well as supply and demand issues. The agents are generally only too pleased to help if they think they may be getting some business.

Finally nobody, especially property investors ever pay the asking price. You will need to put in an offer. This is an art in itself and will be the subject of a future article from us.

Author: Andrew Stefanczyk

http://www.articlesbase.com/ask-an-expert-articles/how-do-property-investors-find-cheap-property-30504.html

Childcare Finances - Some Money Basics

2007-12-14T14:59:00.000+08:00

Sole proprietor, Inc, LLC, - What does it all Mean? Your childcare is a business. While you may not need to formally create a legal business, there are options to consider if you have an especially large operation, or employ more than one person. From a legal standpoint, different types of entities provide limited liability. This is something you would want to discuss with a lawyer. Different entities also provide different tax advantages and disadvantages. The type of entity really depends on the business and how many people own the business. An accountant should be able to advise you on the best entity for your situation. What can you deduct on your taxes? Any why would you want to? Each time you claim something as a deduction on your taxes, you reduce the amount of money the government can tax. By reducing that amount, you can reduce how much tax you pay, letting you keep more of your money.

A simple rule of thumb to remember is any ordinary and necessary business expense is deductible. Keep in close contact with your accountant, and find one if you don't have one. Regular meetings or discussions with the accountant will help in working through what is considered ordinary and necessary for your business. Be sure to keep in mind all the expenses you incur when doing business - ie., don't forget things such as mileage on your vehicle. Trips to the bank to deposit your weekly daycare income, for instance, is an ordinary and necessary business expense that is deductible.

Who has time to file receipts after a day with the kids? Even though resting from your busy day sounds better than filing you receipts for groceries that week, stay on top of your paperwork and make sure you keep records of all the money you spend on your business. From the IRS point of view, the more records and documents to substantiate your position, the better. Invoices, receipts, credit card statements, bank statements and cancelled checks are all good evidence of the expenditures incurred. There are also several accounting programs - available at any store that sells computer software - that are inexpensive and work great for tracking expenses and providing useful financial reports. Several online companies sell software specifically for childcare providers. Be sure to set up a filing system for your records. It doesn't need to be fancy, as long as it makes sense to you and you can find your records once tax time comes around. Keep work and personal expenses separate Having a separate checking and savings account for your business will make keeping track of your finances a lot easier. Sure, you have to balance another checkbook, but you'll know that all money in and out of those accounts has to do with your business. Also, consider getting separate credit cards for the business. When you use all of these accounts exclusively for business, it is much easier to put all your records together, rather than trying to separate out what is business and what is personal. Ahh, taxes. Where do we start? Tax laws are so specific to your state and city, that it's hard to give even general guidelines. You may want to check with a local accountant or state and local tax authority to find out if there are any special rules, permits or taxes that you may need to run your business. Paying your taxes quarterly might be an option, so you can spread the payment out over the year instead of paying it all at one time

Author: Melissa Newby, Ms, Bob Sawicki, Cpa

http://www.articlesbase.com/home-business-articles/childcare-finances-some-money-basics-1637.html

The Great Misconception of - "Get Rich Quick" on the Internet!

2007-12-14T14:52:00.000+08:00

Anyone that has looked for an internet business opportunity has been lied to several times with the promise of - "Get Rich Quick".

Today, we are going to put an end to this misconception once and for all!
The truth is there are only 3 ways to get rich quick:

1. Inherit wealth.
2. Win the Lottery.
3. Steal it, Rob a Bank, etc.

The odds of any of these happening to most of us are minimal at best. So how do the rest of us get rich quick? Unfortunately, we don't, that is not to say that we can't become rich. It is sad that the internet is full of so many empty promises. The World Wide Web offers so much potential, opportunity, and it is such a terrific marketing medium that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for those that are willing to work at the eCommerce process.

The key is that you can not allow yourself to be duped by the get rich quick scam artists. These people provide you with money making systems that will fail or only allow for a small portion of the people involved to make money. The get rich quick scams have literally painted the internet with a broad stroke perception that it is all a scam! Nothing could be further from the truth; the internet is full of legitimate business opportunities and is the only marketplace in the world that allows the average person the opportunity to create wealth with minimal investment. It has literally leveled the playing field for everyone.

The key to making a fortune online is developing a sound business plan around a legitimate internet business opportunity. Getting to that pot of gold on the other side of cyberspace is built around a simple 4 part concept that all viable internet business opportunities do well:

1. Pick a profitable niche that you are passionate about.
2. Create a web site that embodies that niche.
3. Get targeted traffic to that web site.
4. Convert that targeted traffic into paying customers.

Every successful internet marketer has been able to implement this concept effectively. Your focus should be on long term profitability not short term gain. To develop the types of web sites that make thousands of dollars a month takes time and hard work. There is not a magic system that will automatically create a five figure income, immediately. Can you make money right away? Yes, the internet is one of the few markets that provide you the opportunity to become profitable from day one.

Just remember, you will not get rich quick and that wealth comes in time. If you want to make money online you need to build your business on the foundation of the 4 step concept mentioned above. Rome wasn't built in a day and your internet empire will not rise to prosperity overnight. It will take perseverance, dedication, and hard work. Don't let the get rich quick scam artists fool you, if you want to create a profitable internet business opportunity stick with the 4 step concept.

Author: Mark Williams

http://www.articlesbase.com/home-business-articles/the-great-misconception-of-get-rich-quick-on-the-internet-1644.html