Free Fund Trade Rule Eased by Fidelity

Investors prefer investing across different mutual fund families since a single family rarely has top performers in all of the available fund categories. Mutual fund supermarkets are a solution that allow investors to accomplish this goal.

Investors can choose many funds from different families, but still own them in one brokerage account through fund supermarkets. Investments can be tracked easily with consolidated reports from the broker.

Some of the best no load, no-transaction-fee (NTF) funds from different categories such as UMB Scout International, Matthews Asia Pacific Tiger, and American Century Equity Income can be accessed by investors to construct diversified portfolios.

As investing styles come in and go out of favor, any single fund is unlikely to stay as the top performer for all times, however well managed it is.

For example, domestic funds in the small cap growth category, which led the pack in 2010, have gone out of favor in 2011 while large cap growth funds have emerged as leaders.

By providing access to funds investing in different styles, regions, or countries, fund supermarkets allow investors to employ active management strategies such as style rotation or country rotation that can help to reduce losses and increase returns.

One of the common gripes investors have about fund supermarkets is the long holding period required to qualify for commission-free trades of certain no load funds... more so in volatile markets where stock price changes that would normally take several months or years to materialize transpire in just a few days.

Fidelity Lowers Minimum Holding Period Requirement

Responding to investor's preferences and concerns, Fidelity has reduced the minimum holding period required for commission-free mutual fund trades in Fidelity's FundsNetwork from 180 days to 60 days.

Fidelity has leapfrogged the competition in providing a less onerous holding period requirement for commission-free mutual fund trades. Ameritrade (AMTD) for example requires 180 days while Schwab (SCHW), E*Trade (EFTC) and Scottrade require a 90-day holding period.

It remains to be seen if competitors catch up to Fidelity's less stringent terms.

Fidelity's rule change significantly improves the attractiveness of style, region, and country rotation-based portfolios like AlphaProfit's Fidelity no transaction fee (NTF) growth model portfolio that helps investors invest in the right mutual funds at the right time.

Strategies like style, region, and country rotation can be applied more frequently due to the reduction in required minimum holding period.

When small investors make changes after start up, the lower minimum holding period requirement considerably reduces their possibility of incurring bothersome brokerage commissions in their accounts.

Sam Subramanian PhD, MBA edits AlphaProfit's Premium Service Newsletter that is 12-time winner of Hulbert Financial Digest #1 rank. He blogs on topics like Mutual Fund Picks for 2012 and Fidelity Investments Newsletter.

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Investing Basics for Beginners

Investing money is a way for individuals to save toward their goals, whether it be retirement, a child's college education, or some other financial goal. Beginning investors need to take time to determine their goals and learn some basic concepts of investing before jumping right into making an investment. Successful investing takes much research, time, and patience. As beginning investors start to have some success in making money through investments, they will develop a degree of skill. However, there is still a degree of risk involved even the most seasoned and skilled investors. Finding the answers to some basic investing questions will help make the efforts of beginning investors more successful.

How much money do I need to make an investment?

One common misconception by beginning investors is that they must have a large sum of money to make an investment. The truth is, many investments can be made for as little as hundreds or perhaps a few thousand dollars. One way to begin investing small is through dividend reinvestment plans or direct stock purchase options. Investors may be able to invest in a company's stock options by paying a minimal start-up fee, often as little as $25 or $50 and making an initial investment. Once the money begins adding up, it can then be transferred to a brokerage account, where the investor will be able to begin investing larger sums of money.

What are the different types of investing?

Once investors determine that they have enough money to make an investment, the difficult part is often deciding where to invest their money. There are many different options for investors; some of the most common investment options are mutual funds, bonds, futures, and real estate.
Mutual funds - A way for individuals to invest without having to manage their investment "hands-on" is through investing in mutual funds. Mutual funds are investments that are handled by a fund manager. This fund manager invests the pool of money, contributed to by several individual investors, in the financial marketplace. The funds may be invested through closed or open-ended funds. Closed funds have a set number of shares that are distributed to the public and are traded on the open market; whereas open-ended funds to do not a set number of shares. The trader will re-invest into new shares for the investor. The shares are overseen by a professional money manager who is trained to select investments that will provide the largest returns to the investor.
Exchange traded funds - These funds, known as ETFs, are pools of investor money that is invested in similar ways to mutual funds. However, since ETFs are designed only to track certain indexes and much of their management is computerized, their maintenance costs and fees are generally much lower.
Bonds - When investors purchase bonds, they are buying an interest in a company or corporation. The companies issues bonds, which is a loan from an investor. In turn, the company agrees to pay this investor back at determined intervals with interest. Investing in bonds can be a fairly secure investment. Unless the company goes bankrupt, the investor is almost certain to receive back at least the minimum amount of his investment. These interest payments at set intervals can be a source of steady income for retired couples or others wishing to create a type of investment where they can generate consistent returns. The interest earned on bonds can be tax exempt with some types of bonds.
Real Estate - Real estate can a good investment when the timing is right but often requires a lot of work. One easy way for investors to enter the real estate market is through a real estate investment trust, or REIT. Investors become part owners in the investments of the REIT such as malls, park garages, hotels, or other real estate ventures. REITs often pay out high cash dividends to investors because the REIT pays no federal income tax in return for paying out 90 percent or more of their profits to shareholders in the form of dividends. Another way of making money through investing in real estate is through purchasing properties, improving the properties through repairing them or adding amenities, then selling them at a profit; or renting the houses to tenants and receiving a monthly income from the payments.
Futures - Futures trading is the marketplace where buyers from around the world buy and sell futures contracts. A futures contract is an agreement to receive a product at a future date with a set price. Once the price is agreed upon, the price is secure for the next year regardless of the changes in the market. Some common futures markets include commodities, currencies, stock indexes, interest rates, and other alternative investments such as economic indicators. The rewards of this kind of investing can be great but so are the risks. Therefore, futures should be left to the most experienced investors.

Should I diversify or stick with one investment?

Most professional investment advisors will confirm that diversification is the key to a successful investment portfolio. Investors who spread their investments out through several avenues reduce their risk of losing all of their assets should the investment fail. While it may be tempting to dive right in and start investing large sums or money, beginning investors should balance the potential profit against the risks they are exposing themselves to in the investment marketplace.

Using the services of a professional investment advisor

A professional investment advisor can provide beginning investors with the basic information needed to start an investment portfolio. An investment advisor sometimes is also a financial planner and can help with all financial matters. Some investment advisors are paid a percentage of the value of the assets managed, while others charge an hourly fee or are paid on a commission basis.

For investors who would like to avoid these fees, the best strategy is to do some study and start with mutual funds or ETFs offered by reputable companies.

See beginning investing at Money Saving Tips for a complete guide on beginning investing covering everything from real estate and stocks to gold.

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Investing - How To Choose The Best Option

Investors are increasingly forced to choose from a proliferation of investment options. They also have to deal with contradictory advice on how to achieve their financial goals and how to invest the savings they have accumulated during their lifetime. If you consider that there are more than 7 000 mutual funds available in the United States alone, and thousands of insurance products worldwide, making the choice that will satisfy them ever after is daunting, to say the least.

No wonder people so often ask the rather general question: Which investment is best? The first part of the answer is easy: No single investment is 'the best' under all circumstances for all investors. Personal circumstances, goals and different people's needs differ, as do the characteristics of different investments. Secondly, one asset class's strength in certain circumstances could be another's weakness. It is therefore important to compare investments according to relevant criteria. The art is to find the appropriate investment for each objective and need.

The following are the most important criteria:

the goal of the investmentthe risk the investor can handleliquidity requiredtaxability of the investmentthe period until the financial goal is reached last but not least, the cost of the investment.

THE GOAL

Goals determine the characteristics sought in an investment. You will be in a position to choose the most appropriate investment only when you have decided on your short-, medium- and long-term goals. The following generic goals are normally involved:

Emergency fund

Emergency fund money should be readily available when needed, and the value of the fund should be equal to about six months' income. Money market funds are excellent for this purpose. While these funds do not perform much higher than inflation, their benefit is that capital is saved and is easily accessible.

If you already have a ready emergency fund covering more than six months' income, you could consider a more aggressive mutual fund

Capital protection

If your primary aim is capital protection, you will have to be satisfied with a lower growth rate on the investment. Those above 50 are normally advised to be conservative in their investment approach. While this may for the most part be sound advice, you should also keep an eye on the risk of inflation, so that the purchasing power of your money does not depreciate. It is not the nominal value of the capital that should be protected, but the inflation-adjusted one. At an annual inflation rate of 6%, $1 million today will buy the same as $156 255 in 30 years' time. A 50 year-old with %1 million would therefore have to lower his living standard substantially if he only retains the &1 million until he was 80.

Income

Conservative investments like those listed above should form the normal basis for providing an income. Because of inflation risk, investments should be structured so that they can at least keep up with inflation. This means that at least a percentage of the investment source providing the income should be made up of other asset classes like property and equity mutual funds. The percentage would differ according to individual and economic circumstances.

Investors fortunate enough to have their basic budget provided for by a conservative fund could consider increasing their income with commercial property funds and tax-free income from dividends paid out by listed shares.

Capital growth

If an investor's primary goal is to achieve capital growth, the real rate of return should be higher than inflation. This implies greater risk to capital in the short term. Investors aiming at capital growth should not be apprehensive, as they will reap the rewards in the long term.

The history of equity prices over the past 100 years proves equity investments to be the best performer, followed by property. This does not mean you should buy either of these investments blindfolded. Wait until the quality shares in which you are interested are trading at inexpensive price levels.

RISK

The investment with a history of the highest growth is not necessarily the one to choose. The Standard Bank's Gold Fund increased by 178% during the period 13 August 2001 - 24 May 2002 (284 days). Judging only on the growth of the fund during this period, it performed exceptionally well. But would it be the right investment for a retiree? During the 805 days following this, the same fund experienced a negative growth rate of 44%! The problem with an investment that decreases by this percentage is that it will not reach its previous peak by increasing again by 44%. This is because the growth this time will take place from a lower base, so in fact the investment would have to increase by approximately 80%.

LIQUIDITY

Hard assets like Persian carpets, works of art and antique furniture may be good investments in the long term, but unfortunately they are not very liquid. The same is true of certain shares in smaller companies. Money market funds, on the other hand, are very liquid, but the returns may not always be as good as those from other investments. The need to liquidise the investment quickly is therefore also a criterion to consider when evaluating investments.

TAXABILITY

The taxability of an investment has a considerable impact on its value to the investor. When comparing the returns on different investments, the return after tax has been deducted should be used. The investor should always ask what will be left in his pocket after tax deduction.

PERIOD

Conservative investments with no potential for high returns are suitable for shorter periods, while investment-objectives with longer time horizons aspire to achieving higher returns. Money market funds are suitable for periods of one or two years. Income and conservative asset allocation funds for three or four years and flexible asset allocation funds, commercial property funds and value equity funds may be chosen for longer periods, dependent on the economic and interest cycle and the propensity of the investor to accept risk.

COSTS

The costs involved in an investment are normally things like administrative cost and commission. The percentage of the costs to the investment amount directly affects the value of the investment. Many of the currently available investment products are structured in such a way that investors can negotiate commission.

CONCLUSION

No investment strategy blueprint is going to be perfect for everyone's circumstances. Investment opportunities should therefore be examined critically before any decision is made. It should also be kept in mind that there are different companies managing specific funds under the investment categories referred to above. Some are more effectively managed than others. Investors should therefore research investments as well as the managers thoroughly before investing. Otherwise, they could appoint professional asset managers to do so on their behalf. Time spent determining the type of investment you really need is time invested in your future financial well-being.

Dr. Manus Moolman has done extensive research on the issues of investing and wealth creation. He is dedicated to assist anyone, from laymen to professional traders, to invest successfully and become rich.

Want to contact him? Then please visit his website at: http://www.myebroker.info/.

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Tax Lien Investing - Tips That Can Make You Rich

As the real estate market fails to recover, more and more people are looking at alternative investment strategies to make some money. One of the most interesting alternatives is proving to be tax lien investing. While this may seem like a way to take advantage of the misfortune of others, it is really nothing more than grabbing opportunities to make money in an environment where this can be very challenging. If you are tired of eking out a living at a moderate paying job, this could be your ticket to financial freedom. Here are some tips you can use to increase your success.

Focus on Smaller Areas

If you constantly look for tax lien investing opportunities in major metropolitan areas, you will rarely get the kind of deal that can really make you rich. You can practice enormous volume in these areas if you have enough money, but few do when they get started. By focusing on the smaller counties, you will have much less competition, especially from investors like yourself who are bidding from outside the local area. This requires a bit more research, but the profits can make it well worth your time.

Work When Others Aren't

One of the biggest keys to success in any field is to make sure you're working when others are taking a break. Well, this is true in the field of tax lien investing as well. When others are taking their lunch breaks or have already left a sale because it's late in the day, you can make your mark. Also, make inroads with the personnel. Check for liens that went unsold or for those properties that were successfully bid upon, but the bidder failed to ever come up with the money. These are common situations and they can lead to a great opportunity for anyone willing to seek them out.

Do Your Research

You will always come out ahead of the competition if you put more into your tax lien investing than others. This means doing research. It means looking at the properties in question before the auction arrives, knowing the location, and figuring out mathematically how much you can afford to spend on a particular piece. Those who go in with only their own personal budget in mind are flying by the seat of their pants. They will only make good money in this field if they happen to get lucky. You can take luck out of the equation by doing your homework.

You should consider tax lien investing as an alternative to the real estate market. Don't let a solid opportunity pass you by, visit http://www.civicsource.com/.

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Don't Be Swayed, Stick With Your Plan

Once you have an investment plan, a solid, proven winner for an investment plan; it is important, if not critical that you stick with it.

A good plan is just like preparing dinner:

• Figure out what you want
o Stocks, ETFs or funds
• Check the ingredients
o Which group of stocks or funds or ETFs
• Do some research for the best recipe
o Method of Analysis
o Back test to find the best strategies
• Prep time
o How much time do you have to develop your strategies
• Cooking time
o How much time and how often to manage your investments
o Minutes or hours a day or a week or even just monthly

Consistency in an investment plan doesn't mean buy something until someone dies: you or the stock.

Consistency in an investment plan means developing a plan based on a recognized means of analysis like relative strength momentum or alpha with a variety of tested sell signals and perhaps even a signal for when it is time to take a pause and exit the markets entirely.

If you create a plan with half a dozen different groups and for each group you have two or three strategies you will achieve both diversification and a strong degree of safety.

Now you have an investment plan you can stick with. Why? Because:

• It is based on your personality
• It is formed with your time constraints in mind
• It is aimed directly at your own objectives
• It consists of stocks or ETFs or funds that you are willing to consider (yes you can add more groups whenever you want)
• It has strategies back tested for both buying and selling

It is important in creating your groups to settle on not just one but to have two or three trading/selling strategies for each group. Why?

Experience says that instead of going with just one strategy for each group, narrow your back testing down to two or three strategies. Switching from one strategy to another can be advisable because frequently one will perform better than the other depending upon the economic climate.

One strategy may be better in volatile markets while another, for example, may excel in stable markets. Thus by having a few strategies for each group you don't have to self-guess what is best in today's market; your strategies will tell you, plain and simple. And when they tell you what to do, it is a lot easier to stick with your plan and not be swayed by your emotions, the news or your neighbor.

Author Raymond Dominick is the designer of Dynamic Investor Pro investment software for stocks, ETFs and mutual funds. He has been investing in the markets since his teenage years. An experienced business manager and journalist, he has been a registered investment advisor representative, also a professional photographer who loves escaping to the wonders of Glacier National Park in Montana.
View his software at: http://www.dynamicinvestorpro.com/

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Re-Thinking Wealth Building

An article was recently published by Reuters entitled: "The New American Dream is Renting to Get Rich." The thesis of this article is that home ownership is not the fast-track to wealth that it used to be. It also makes the point that many people would be better off renting and investing their surplus income in wealth-building investments than by sinking all of their income into owning a home. The article also went on to explain how many people who had purchased homes during the boom lacked the financial resources to pay for building wealth through other investments, and became solely dependent on their home equity for their net worth.

This serves as an excellent backdrop for a deeper discussion on what wealth really is, and what wealth building is really about. A useful first step in changing the way we think about wealth is to take the dollars out of the equation. Instead of thinking about our personal wealth in terms of a dollar value, we should think of it in terms of what we own and what is produced by those assets. In order to help articulate the difference between asset types that comprise our wealth, we like to separate wealth in to three tiers of assets. The characteristics of your wealth portfolio in terms of where the assets land on the wealth tiers exerts a high degree of influence on how your personal financial future will unfold.

Tier 1 Assets:
Tier 1 assets are physical assets that generate real cash flows. Examples of these assets are mines, energy exploration contracts, income producing real estate, and other such physical property. The reason for positioning these assets in the top tier is because their physical nature and residual cash flows make them the most dependable and least volatile. For most people, it is not always practical to have full ownership of physical assets such as this, so it can make sense to invest in companies that own and operate these types of physical assets and pay out a significant portion of earnings to investors.

Tier 2 Assets:
Tier 2 assets are fully owned business enterprises. The reason why these assets are ranked below physical, cash producing assets is because their returns are typically more volatile. The upside of volatility is that it frequently exhibits greater growth characteristics, but the downside is that it frequently carries more risk. By fully owning a business enterprise, it allows you to exhibit a significant degree of influence on its financial success. Many people build their wealth with Tier 2 assets in the form of a business and diversify into Tier 1 cash producing, physical assets.

Tier 3 Assets:
The third asset tier holds investments where the returns are completely dependent on market sentiment in regard to the asset value. Metals such as gold and silver fall into their asset tier, along with growth stocks that don't pay dividends. Home equity is also a tier 3 asset, and this is where its danger lies. When the value of an asset is completely dependent on the sentiments of other people in the marketplace, there is an omnipresent risk of value collapse if market sentiment turns south. Almost every market bubble takes place in Tier 3 assets, as people purchase with the expectation that others will purchase for perpetually higher prices.

The way to apply this construct to our personal investment portfolio is to determine where our wealth fits on the asset tiers. Unfortunately, most people have an extremely high percentage of their wealth concentrated in Tier 3 assets that fluctuate in value based on market sentiment, and rely completely on value increases from that same market sentiment to deliver their future returns. When your wealth is concentrated in Tier 3, you will be highly exposed to collapsing bubbles that destroy market valuations as people shift out of a 'buying frenzy' into a 'selling frenzy' that collapses asset prices.

The most prudent advice for 21st century wealth building is to push your wealth as far up the ladder of asset tiers as possible. If you own Tier 3 assets that are highly volatile, seek to shift more of them toward Tier 2 assets that you can influence or Tier 1 assets that are more stable. By and large, assets in lower tiers tend to be more volatile, offer the potential for higher short-term profits, and involve higher transaction costs. Many people who are successful in building businesses would be well advised to diversify their wealth portfolio to include more Tier 1 assets that produce stable cash flows without the necessity of their direct participation.

As prudent investors, we should seek to build our wealth around vehicles with strong fundamentals. We should also seek to minimize the proportion of our assets that exist at the lowest tier. We should also be mindful to avoid the temptations of "easy money" from Tier 3 assets that are experiencing temporary price spikes. Attempting to speculate on the movement of volatile assets is an inherently risky business. In the end, our best opportunity for long-term prosperity comes from sticking to fundamentals and building a high-tier wealth portfolio.

Sincere Thanks,
Douglas J Utberg, MBA

Founder - Business of Life LLC:
http://BusinessOfLifeLLC.com/

Subscribe to "The Business of Life" Newsletter:
http://businessoflifellc.com/featured/newsletter-info/

"Business, Life, and Everything In-Between"

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How Apple Sways the S and P 500 Index

The Wall Street Journal recently had a couple of articles on Apple that I found interesting and thought I'd share with you. These articles basically show the tremendous outsized impact that Apple shares have had on the S&P 500's performance over the past few days as Apple's stock has risen higher and higher.

But, before I go on, let me give you some background on Apple, for those of you who don't follow stocks actively, or Apple specifically. Apple shares traded mostly flat from 1985 to 1999. In late 1999 and early 2000, Apple shares started rising, from about $26 in January 2000 to $200 in January 2008, gaining about 30% annually. Then shares dropped to $90 during the mortgage banking crisis, but rebounded stronger than ever; to the $515 level they're at now. That's an 80% gain every year over the past three years. And on January 25 (2012) Apple became the largest company by market capitalization as it pulled ahead of Exxon Mobil. And since then, Apple shares have surged even higher, giving Apple a market cap of about $480 billion: making it more valuable than Microsoft and Google combined, that's pretty darn amazing!

Okay, so now that you know Apple sports the largest market cap, let's get back to the Wall Street Journal articles I read. The Journal interviewed Howard Silverblatt, a Senior Index Analyst at Standard & Poors and a rapid-fire Brooklyn resident who is perhaps best known as a sort of high priest, historian and keeper of the S&P 500 stock index. Howard's the guy who meticulously tracks and manages data on the index and has a wealth of information on his fingertips. When asked about Apple, Howard's take was that Apple's stock surge over the past few years has had a rather meaningful impact on the performance of the S&P 500 index as a whole, and more specifically on the technology sector within the S&P 500. According to Howard's data:

Apple's market cap accounts for 3.8% of the total market cap of all S&P 500 companies. That's pretty amazing in itself, because if all the stocks in the S&P 500 were equally treated, Apple would only account for 0.2%: but Apple's pulled far ahead to garner a 3.8% share

So while the S&P 500's technology sector gained 9.8% from its October 2007 high, it would have been down 4.1% had Apple not been in the Index: so Apple has disproportionately skewed the Index, which can be misleading if investors take the Index's performance at face value and assume it accurately depicts the average performance of all companies in the Index.

And while the entire S&P 500 index is down 13% from October 2007, it would have been down an additional 2% without Apple.

And, year to date over the past two months of 2012, while the S&P 500 has gained 8.2%, gains would only have been 7.7% without Apple.

Interestingly, according to Howard, Apple is still not the record breaker: that distinction is still held by IBM, which accounted for 6.3% of the S&P 500 index from 1981 to 1983. In the early 1980s, AT&T accounted for over 5%. IBM and AT&T are still in the Top 10 at #4 and #7 respectively, and IBM still holds 1.85% of the Index. And just fyi, the top 10 now are, in order, Apple, Exxon Mobil, Microsoft, IBM, Chevron, GE, AT&T, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble and Wells Fargo.

On the tech-heavy Nasdaq, Apple has an even higher 16.6% weighting - more than Google, Intel and Amazon combined. Now, the Nasdaq is heavily followed by tech investors so it's important to strip out Apple and see how the rest are doing.

So when comparing corporate earnings and stock market trends, apples to apples, it may just make more sense to toss out Apple! Because it's gargantuan size clouds the overall picture of earnings and the profit margins for other American corporations. So many stock analysts at major firms like Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Wells Fargo and UBS, are now looking at overall market trends sans Apple to get a clearer picture of how the rest of the economy is doing. And more so within the tech sector - as David Kostin of Goldman Sachs points out, the tech sector will likely show an earnings increase of 21% for the fourth quarter of 2011 with Apple, but only 5% without it: 21% with Apple versus 5% without it - that's pretty stark! So Apple, as you can see, has significantly distorted the overall economic outlook, for the better. Apple is way ahead of other companies in terms of revenue and income performance; but many other companies are struggling to meet analyst expectations but that is not easily apparent in the aggregate because of Apple's outsized positive influence.

And, cuing to my Dividend piece in an earlier show, Apple has a cash hoard of about $100 billion, and while it does not currently pay dividends, it's becoming an investment fad because many are rushing to buy Apple thinking, and hoping, that it will start paying out dividends sometime soon. And you know how investment fads tend to work out! Think tech in the 90's and real estate in 2005.

Apple's done amazingly well and many expect that it will continue to do so, perhaps it is now a crowded trade, perhaps it's too much in the limelight, no one can really say. If you already own Apple shares, I am really happy for you, and want to suggest that you also calculate your overall stock market gains without Apple to get a more realistic picture of how your portfolio has performed.

So how does all this matter to you? It matters because I want you to know that you cannot always take the Index as a whole at face value and assume it represents the average performance of all 500 companies in it. You should always watch for special circumstances that may have overly influenced performance, positively or negatively, and review performance without these outliers to get a clearer picture. Moreover, though we're talking Indexes today, always look for the outlier effect in all your analyses. For example, with mutual fund performance; a manager's great performance may be attributed to just a few well-timed and lucky picks.

Visit http://onthemoneyradio.org/ for weekly commentary and money advice that covers the entire financial spectrum which also airs on my weekly radio show, "On The Money!"

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Steven L. Pomeranz, CFP is a 29 year investment management veteran and host of "On The Money!" which airs on NPR station, WXEL in South Florida. He concentrates on serving high net-worth individuals and has been named one of the Top 100 Wealth Advisors 2007, by Worth magazine (October 2007 Issue), honoring America's premier financial and wealth strategists.

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Investing in International Equities

So you've set up your online share dealing account, and understand all the associated risks and benefits of such a venture. If you're looking into injecting a bit of added excitement into your online investment portfolio and investing in international equities looks very tempting indeed.

Trading in international equities may look like a glamorous option to leap into feet first, but there are a number of things that you will need to think about before deciding whether investing abroad is the right option for you.

Trading on the international stage, some key considerations.

1) Fluctuations in currency exchange rates may affect the value of returns or the capital value of your investment

2) Investment performance could be impacted by political and overall stability of the country, as well as local markets.

3) Your investment ventures are likely to be subject to the taxation rules of the country you are invested in.

If you think that investing on the international stage may be the right option for you the best place to start is by do some research of your own, in addition to any information provided to you by you online share dealing account provider. Information could prove invaluable especially if you are treading unfamiliar territory.

If you choose an execution only online share dealing account option you will retain sole responsibility for managing your investments. However, if you are unsure about the risks and potential of any investment venture you may want to speak to an independent investment advisor before proceeding.

Investing in international equities could bring the opportunity to invest on any one of up to 16 stock exchanges world-wide- so there is certainly a good scope for diversification potentially reducing overall risk to your investment portfolio. However, you should be aware that there is no guarantee that you will see a return on your investment or that you will get back all of what you put in. As with other investment options it is important that you consider all the risks involved, in order to ensure that your investment choices are well suited to your own circumstances and investment objectives.

Trading on a non-UK stock exchange can be complex for the novice. Nevertheless, trading in international equities does present the chance to diversify and add a little colour to your portfolio. Treated with due care and backed up with a good deal of research you may yet find the exciting opportunity that you were looking for.

John T Hughes writes for Share Dealing Account, a leading online source of information on share dealing accounts in the UK.

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Making Use Of Abandoned Farmland With Ethical Investments

Eco Business has reported the recent announcement of Japanese government plans to introduce certain legislative changes making it easier for abandoned farmland to be consolidated for use in renewable energy projects. The approach of the Japanese government toward abandoned agricultural land will create new opportunities for ethical investments in the country and it will be interesting to observe whether the initiative will be adopted elsewhere.

The problem of abandoned farmland exists in many countries for a range of different reasons. For example, agricultural land could have been abandoned on the basis of soil erosion or productivity loss, often the result of over-exploitation and unsustainable agricultural management. Another reason is human migration from rural to urban areas, a relatively modern-day phenomenon. Whatever the reasons, land abandonment is a serious problem in our world of finite resources and needs to be approached in a sustainable manner. Considering the growing global energy need and the problem of climate change, ethical investments in renewable energy projects present as one of the most efficient and environmentally-friendly ways to address the issue of abandoned agricultural land.

The Eco Business website on 12 February 2012 disclosed that the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries proposed law changes to simplify the approval and notification procedures prescribed under several statutes in order to provide opportunities for renewable energy projects such as solar and wind farms on abandoned agricultural land. According to the ministry's estimates, approximately 170,000 hectares of farmland could thus be used for the generation of electricity from renewable energy sources. And whilst current legislation has certain provisions enabling the construction of power generation facilities in abandoned farmland, there is a shortage of land suitable for large-scale renewable energy facilities, such as panels for photovoltaic power generation.

Making use of abandoned farmland for renewable energy projects is in line with the energy policy of the Japanese government. In May 2011, BusinessGreen reported that Japan was aiming to generate at least 20 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2020, doubtless prompted by the Fukushima nuclear power plant incident earlier in 2011. The planned legislative changes are likely to facilitate achievement of Japan's renewable energy targets, at the same time making the country less reliant on nuclear energy.

If the Japanese parliament adopts the new legislation as planned, interesting ethical investment opportunities will emerge in the Land of the Rising Sun. The simpler procedures will create an additional incentive for private companies to invest in solar and wind energy projects and the establishment of power generation facilities will in turn create job opportunities. It would surely follow that other governments should consider emulating the Japanese example and enable investments in renewable energy projects on abandoned farmland. This could help revitalise local economies in targeted areas with the added benefit of helping the country in question to meet its renewable energy targets.

The Japanese approach toward abandoned agricultural land can be seen as an alternative to another ethical investment option, namely the use of abandoned agricultural land for bioenergy crops. This is yet another way to make use of agricultural land with ethical investments since growing energy crops on abandoned lands provides environmental benefits without leading to food-fuel competition for land, one of the major concerns of environmentalists when it comes to biofuels. Of course, with energy crops there are a range of factors to be taken into consideration, such as climate, soil type and so on. In consequence, in places where the appropriate conditions are not present, wind and solar farm projects could become a viable alternative to crop-based biofuels. In any case, governments should create the appropriate legal prerequisites in order to enable investors to make use of abandoned agricultural land, as is expected to happen in Japan.

Looked at from the perspective of this global issue of abandoned farmland, ethical investments in the renewable energy sector can help boost local economies, create job opportunities and contribute to climate change mitigation. In a nutshell, and regardless of whether it comes to wind or solar farms or to growing energy crops, governments as well as eco-minded investors should not let any land go to waste.

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Start Investing With Little Money

In today's economic environment, I have become a firm believer in blue-chip dividend-paying stocks as strong investment strategy no matter how much or little you have to invest. Interest rates on bank accounts, CDs are abysmal and will not keep up with inflation. Real estate is risky and time-consuming. Tenants who don't pay rent or unrented lots can quickly mount up expenses. Small businesses fail. Gold and precious metals are volatile. Growth stocks just as much. Blue-chip stocks, while not exciting, are not as prone to large market movements, and their dividend payments can help make up for market downturns in the long term, especially if one cost-averages down. Sure, you can buy mutual funds, but why pay someone to manage your funds when they are not guaranteed to do any better or worst than anyone else.

So, these are the stocks I like the best:

1. AT&T (T). They are part of an oligopoly on in the cell phone market, and have local monopolies in the cable business. Their dividend is very aggressive for a bell-weather stock at around 5%. They have been raising their dividend and still has room to grow compared to its 2007 levels.

2. Verizon (VZ). I like this stock for the same reason as T. High dividends, strong business, and it isn't going anywhere. Owning both of these stocks might be redundant however.

3. Abbot Labs. (ABT). It is part of a strong sector, pharmaceuticals. They have been raising their dividend for decades. It is currently at a nice 3.5% as of this writing.

4. Pepsi (PEP). Pepsi has been around forever and has been raising their dividend almost as long.

5. iShares Russell 3000 Index Fund (IWV). Although I don't like funds, Market ETFs tend to do better than buying stocks at random. It'll give your portfolio diversity. You do not need a lot of money to buy any of these. $100 is more than enough. Buy shares as you can, average down when the price drops. Make sure you reinvest the dividends. It can take time, but once you get plenty of shares, the dividend reinvestments will grow your investment, even if the market isn't performing. I also like tax-free municipal bonds, but am not familiar enough with them to recommend them strongly.

One of the best ways to invest your money that is less risky is to start an online business. You can start one with as little as 100 dollars down and you could be easily making 2000-3000 dollars a month. These businesses require little attention and you can literallyy make money while you sleep because the internet never sleeps.

Here is a great place to learn how to create your first online business. You can use this to create a residual income and start towards annual income of over 100,000. Check out http://www.makeamillionguide.com/

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Staying Invested in Silver

Traditionally silver has always paled in comparison to its counter metal, gold. However, in current times more and more investors are turning to investing in silver while giving gold a skip over. In the current scenario huge profits can be made by staying invested in it. Investing in this white metal negates the impact of inflation on your wealth assets in the long term. It is also relatively easy, even for small investors to make investments in silver as opposed to gold, which requires a higher purchasing power. Another reason why investors opt for it is to diversify their investment portfolio.

The popularity and demand for it results from many factors. The high conductivity of silver makes it a popular metal in many industries. It is greatly sought metal in industries like engineering, electronics and internet technology. The superior conductivity of silver renders copper inferior in this regard. Silver also has uses in dentistry and the pharmaceutical industry, as it is known for its toxic effect on bacteria, fungi and algae. It is also a popular metal in the jewellery industry. The sleek and cool look of the metal as opposed to the flaunty look of gold makes it an even more popular metal in the jewellery industry. Thus the demand for it comes from varied and diverse sources. Even if demand from one or two of these industries slackens the other industries will more than make up for the loss in demand. As the demand for silver does not come from a single source, it is unlikely that the silver demand will fall dramatically. The silver demand is relentless but the actual amount of silver is fast getting depleted. As opposed to gold, silver has yet to exhaust its all time high value.

Silver has some intrinsic value that protects you from inflation and is real money throughout the process. It has a ready acceptability as a form of currency which adds still more appeal to the metal. The positive silver prices in the current economy mark a happy profit for silver investors in the coming months. In spite of the renowned volatility of prices on silver, investors are still opting to make investments in the white metal. The silver price has shown a positive trend in the silver industry, leading to enormous profits for investors.

Investing in silver can be done through purchasing stocks of silver mining companies, shares or directly purchasing physical silver in the form of silver coins, bullions and bars.

The author is a knowledgeable columnist in silver market, mining & stocks, who frequently writes articles related to silver prices, silver spot price including tips on investment in silver. Please visit silverprices.com for more details.

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Stock Trading School - A History of Bubbles

When it comes to investments, it's all about bubbles, isn't it? This is what has been witnessed by countless investors over the years. Every generation would have its own bubble, and investors would soon jump onto the 'bubble bandwagon'. Once the bubble burst, a new bubble would signal a new investment opportunity - and lo and behold - everyone jumped onto the new one. Here's a look at the last three bubble bursts the economy has experienced:

The Housing Bubble

The bubble of housing markets burst in 2007 after a huge expansion that began as early as the early 1990s. Investment gurus insisted that the household market would keep growing very strongly, and that interest rates and real incomes were very favorable. However, sometime before 2001, the Federal Reserve cut the interest rates to keep the economy going. Before anyone knew it, home sales were increasing even before they were being constructed. In 2003, these conditions resulted in a tight housing market and low interest rates.

This resulted in a homeowner boom, with a lot of credit options for prospective investors and buyers. However, this sort of a trend was bound to end at some point, and interest rates rightly began to rise during the beginning of 2004. At the end of 2005, price appreciation began to sink. Investors began to pull out of the market, but builders had just begun to meet the demand and increase their supplies.

Supplies began to increase more and more, and soon, the amazingly buyer-friendly mortgage plans stopped as well. As 2006 ended, house prices were down, and the market sank even deeper, as toward the end of 2007, lenders tightened their credit. Thus, the bubble of housing markets finally burst in 2007. However, a new bubble came up to replace this one- oil.

The Oil Bubble

Just before 2008, oil prices were going up, up and up. The year 2007 saw oil prices shooting up by more than $100 per barrel. Now, oil has always been a little controversial. Ever since oil prices started rising, investment experts pointed out that it was due to problems in the Middle East, random market triggers, and everything else under the sun, except reductions in oil supply. However, the fact was that oil supplies were reducing, and not only was the oil bubble going to burst soon and prices going to drop, but the world was actually going to go into an energy crisis. Naturally, when the bubble did burst, everyone was shocked and awed. The truth, however, is that 2008 triggered the oil dip, and prices will keep dipping as oil reservoirs become empty across the world.

The Silver Bubble

This is the latest bubble that burst for investors- the silver market. In fact, this burst is so recent that investment experts are still arguing whether it is going to result in the crash of the silver market or not. The massive dip in silver prices has got some relief in small climbs in the silver market in Asia, but only time will tell if silver will rise from its recent downfall.

However, one thing is for sure- whichever bubble bursts now will definitely be replaced by another one- and the wheels will keep spinning over time.

Have you ever wondered how professional traders navigate Stock, Futures, Options and Forex markets? TradingPub provides Free online trading education as professional traders share from their experience, tools and techniques. If you would like to expand your option trading education be sure to join us for one of our free online events.

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Prices on Silver to Mount 300 Percent in 5 Years

Silver is one of the precious metals on the earth as well used in many industrial applications. It is next to gold in its popularity, it is also called as poor man's gold because silver prices compared to gold. Its preciousness is invincible because of its ongoing demand and ever-increasing popularity. Those, who can't afford to invest in gold, they can dream of storing money by investing in silver. From the market research, it is expected that the prices on silver will increase up to 300 percent in near future. However, the latest report unveiled that silver prices are hopping at 33.75 an ounce with a slight fluctuation witnessed over several years.

India and China's net silver imports have climbed a new record in 2011. Some time ago China was the leading exporter of silver, but it has become the silver importer where up to 70% of China's silver demand is because of increased usage industrial sectors.

China is the third most important producer of mined silver in the world. It is a key consumer of silver where the country's largest part of silver is mainly consumed by manufacturing sectors.

Chinese silver mining has witnessed a significant growth and development in 2012 because of technological strides in exploration as well huge growth in the production. This has proved to be great for the country because it has brought a wide scope in the indigenous market.

Silver is being used in manufacturing of home electronics and electrical appliances, as well as in several kinds of silver-based solders. It's a transparent metal where you can easily see several reasons for increasing demands in China, especially industrial and jewellery areas.

Up to 70% of China's industrial uses include the manufacturing of solar batteries, water purification systems, cell phones, circuit boards, plasma TVs and radio frequency identification devices. A large portion of silver is also used in the production of jewellery, coins and other artefacts.

With a span of times, China has emerged as the top consumer of silver in the world as well witnessed a notable growth in 5 years. In 2011, the demand for silver soared because of ongoing demand for silver in industrial sectors as well in the domestic market, particularly jewellery industry.

One big reason for ever-increasing demand for silver is its valuable importance as a precious metal next to gold. It is considered an asset for those who are interested in getting good returns from their investment in near future.

The author is a knowledgeable journalist in silver market, mining & stocks, who frequently writes articles related to silver prices, silver spot price including tips on investment in silver. Please visit silverprices.com for more details.

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Survive the Coming Depression

There is a worldwide mood change to pessimism. I am a follower of the new science of socionomics that follows societal mood swings as they wax and wane. Find out more about this new study and the Elliott wave principle at my website - an important source of information you need to survive the coming Greater Depression. The crash that started with the year 2000 dot com stock mania bubble bursting is coming on strong and won't bottom until 2016.

The mood of the people is getting downright nasty. In a recent poll, 54% said they think there is further downside to the recession. Wealth can evaporate into nothingness. Real estate deflation has reached 50% in some areas. Trillions of dollars are gone. Poof! Stock and bond markets are jittery and topping. A FLASH CRASH drops the DOW 998 points in minutes.

The real top in stocks was the year 2000 dot com mania bubble climax top and crash. We have been living on both borrowed time in addition to borrowed money. We are 11 years into the Greater Depression. The bottom won't be until 2016 or so and then the economy may flatline for years if governments try their Keynesian monetary tricks again. The cure to credit inflation is always a nasty credit deflation - Austrian Economics says it happens that way every time. Stability will only return when there is private gold backed money. Don't let government control the money. Still - Cash is KING in deflation. Don't forget it.

You can plan on a 90 per cent drop in the price of most assets. Why? All the governments in the world put together cannot stop the deep destructive deflationary depression coming our way.

What is deflation? It is the popping of the crazy credit mania bubble climaxing an 80 year Kondratiev wave of inflation leading to deflation. This is also called a Kondratiev long wave. Nikolai Kondratiev gave his life for it. See story at site.

The only cure for inflation is a deflation. All credit inflations end in a credit deflation crash. You can expect a 90% drop in most asset prices and 50% unemployment into 2016 -2018. Sorry! Austrian economics says so.

This economic SEA CHANGE will be devastating if you are not prepared ahead of time. Hurry before it is too late! Save yourself and your family so that you can stay out of the soup lines and tent cities.

Copyright 2012 - by Delwyn Lounsbury - THE DEFLATION GURU

Use of this article allowed with attribution back to: http://www.deflationeconomy.com/

Free 90 page download "What Is Deflation?" eBook at: http://www.deflationeconomy.com/

Deflation. What is deflation? How to survive and get rich in the deflation economy and Greater Depression. Hurry! Time is running out to get prepared.

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How to Invest and Save Big Money in 2012 and Beyond

Wondering how to invest and where to invest money in mutual funds in 2012 and going forward without paying heavy sales charges, expenses, and fees? Here we spell it out for you so you can put your money to work and invest with confidence.

How much does it cost to invest $10,000 in a typical stock fund? This depends on where you invest your money. In a fund company that charges a 5% load (sales charge) it could cost you $500 up front just to invest your money. Then it could cost $200 a year for fund expenses, increasing as the value of your account grows. For a $100,000 rollover from your 401k you could be looking at $5000 off the top and $2000 a year plus perhaps $1500 a year in management fees for your "advisor" who handles your account. These are examples of how not to invest in 2012 and beyond.

The secret to how to invest money in funds is to put all of your money to work by avoiding sales charges called "loads. The secret to where to invest is to go with a fund company that offers funds that have no sales charges or extra fees; and also has low expenses. The one thing you can control is your cost of investing. The lower your cost the higher your net returns.

Here's how to invest and really put your money to work in stock funds and bond funds: go with NO-LOAD INDEX FUNDS. Here's where to invest: with Vanguard or Fidelity, the two biggest fund companies in America. How much will a $10,000 stock fund investment cost you vs. our first example? Zero for sales charges and maybe $25 to $50 per year for expenses. For a $100,000 rollover you could save $5000 up front plus $1750 a year in expenses plus $1500 a year for extra management fees!

Just search for NO-LOAD FUNDS on the internet and you will see names like Fidelity, Vanguard, and T Row Price. If you are not quite sure how to invest with them give them a call. Don't be afraid to ask questions. All fund companies want you to invest your money with them. That's how they make a living.

Investing money in 2012 and beyond could get tricky. You can not predict the markets, but you can control your cost of investing if you know where to invest and how to invest to get your money's worth.

Author James Leitz teaches investment basics, stocks, bonds, mutual funds and how to invest in his investing guide for beginners called INVEST INFORMED. Put Jim's 40 years of investing experience to work for you and get up to speed at http://www.investinformed.com/. Learn how to invest.

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Investors Behaving Emotionally - The 7 Key Mistakes To Avoid

Today I want to look at how emotions can influence an investor when making decisions on their investments.

This subject has been discussed in depth over the years and is now known as Behavioural Finance. Essentially, the concept behind this is that whenever emotions get involved, investors can get hurt (not physically, of course!).

As long ago as 1934, Graham Benjamin, author of "Security Analysis", said:

"The investor's chief problem, and even his worst enemy, is likely to be himself"!

So what are the main mistakes that investors make when they let themselves be ruled by emotion? Well, there are quite a few.

Let's look at some of the main ones:

1. Hanging On To Poor Performing Shares

Some people simply hang on to losers! This is to do with loss aversion when they don't want to sell as they hate admitting they were wrong. Secondly, they don't like to abandon all hope of recovering the original capital sum invested.

Others have an emotional attachment to shares they inherited from their parents and may have a lot of money in one sector (which means they are not diversified).

2. Overconfidence

Investors quite often feel that they can beat the market, even when this has not worked in the past. When the overall market increases, an investor can look at their gains and attribute this to skill, and think that they can repeat this in all market conditions.

Overconfidence can also keep investors from meeting their investment goals as they could well invest too little due to overestimating the possible future returns.

3. Believing In Last Year's "Hot Stocks"

Of course, certain funds or shares can give a stellar performance over a short period. Some investors then feel that they must pour more money in to make the most of this great performance.

They could then be buying something that is now very expensive, but greed is a powerful emotion and they could well be fearful that they will miss out if they stop buying now.

Many investors find themselves doing this. This is what Erik Davidson, Managing Director of investments for Wells Fargo Private Bank had to say:

"In all other areas of life, we want to buy more if prices go down. With investments, people buy when prices go up."

4. Not Having An Investment Philosophy

Over the years investors can amass quite a large collection of shares and funds with no overall investment philosophy.

This means there is no discipline to their investments, so the 'obvious' risk to them is that their asset allocation (how much they hold in stocks, bonds, property and cash), is totally out of line with their comfort zone.

Of course it will be quite usual that they only have stocks and shares with no balancing investments (such as bonds). This often means they are taking too much risk.

Also, lack of diversification can be a big issue. Some, wanting to have say UK equities, decide to buy several UK Equity funds run by different fund managers, thinking this means they will have diversified.

What they miss is that the managers running these funds will quite often be buying the same companies totally defeating the investor's objective!

5. Not Matching Their Investments To Their Goals

Some investors simply amass more and more wealth without stopping to think what it is they want to achieve from this.

So, how long is it since you took time out to really think about what you want?

Have you ever done it?

To get you thinking about this, if you did not have to work from today, how would you fill your time?

It really is worth sitting down and thinking hard about what you need to do to lead the life you want, and then building your own financial map and resulting strategy to get there as safely as possible.

6. Following The Herd

It is perfectly normal to be prone to this, however it could really damage your wealth.

Do your remember the tech stocks boom of 2000?

Valuations of these companies were totally unrealistic, but millions of investors were sucked in to invest their hard earned money because others they knew were doing it.

7. Timing The Market

Some investors think that they can wait for the stock market to fall to its 'bottom' and then buy while shares are cheap. They stay out of the market waiting for 'the moment to buy'.

By being out of the market, the risk is that the investor will miss the big rises that really boost performance.

As an example of how important this is, if you take the years January 1986 to December 2010, here are the annualised rates of return based on missing certain periods:

Totally invested - 10.18%Missed best 5 days - 8.54%Missed best 15 days - 6.46%Missed best 25 days - 4.75%

Source: Dimensional Fund Advisers

The chance of investing at the right time is so small it is simply not worth the risk. Our view is if you constantly wait to invest at the right time, it will never arrive as how will you know when the right time to invest is?

Studies Demonstrate The Investor Behaviour Effect

So, typically, what is the effect of this emotional behaviour on an investor's money?

We'll finish here with a study conducted by American research firm Dalbar, that looks at rolling periods of 20 years, and how an average investor in mutual funds compares to the Standard & Poors (S&P) Index.

S&P Index - 9.14%Average Equity Mutual Fund Investor - 3.27%

This was the result of the 20 year period ending 31/12/2010, but shows a typical 6% behaviour gap that has been repeated in their various studies over time.

So this is why we believe in a buy & hold strategy - it works.

Quotes by Albert Einstein and Nils Bohr are perhaps relevant:

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

"Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future."

It is vital for a successful investing experience to eliminate emotion from your decisions. The evidence is there to see - it can really harm your wealth!

Review how you invest your money. Are you making some of these mistakes by letting emotion rule your decisions?

Ray Prince is a fee based Certified Financial Planner with Rutherford Wilkinson ltd, and helps UK Resident Doctors and Dentists plan to achieve their financial objectives. Just visit http://www.medicaldentalfs.com/ where you can request your free retirement planning guide.

Rutherford Wilkinson ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

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The Steps To ETF Investing

Buying and selling ETFs isn't as difficult as many people suspect. What regularly gets everyday people in trouble is going around the strategy in reverse. Most individuals rush out in to the investments and not have a strong financial savings foundation.

Investments must start off with that basis of savings for you to fall back on, any time an emergency shows up. Without the foundation, making any investment strategies is just too dicey. Think of the following as providing safety netting which will catch people in cases where their own financial situation changes or worsens. Having such a protective netting allows anybody to ignore those investments and live off of the emergency savings they have built up. This allows the invested money to do what it is supposed to do, continue to grow untouched.

Once you have built up a substantial safety net, it's time to start putting money to work in the markets. The first thing to do is find out what exactly to invest in. There are several options to choose from like stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or possibly exchange traded funds. Each asset offers it's good and bad points but yet a number of these investment opportunities will fit any strategies. Lets assume the person makes a decision to actually make an investment by using a blend of exchange traded funds or ETFs. It's best to have access to a reference point around that discusses how you can acquire ETFs. Something to refer to whenever challenges surface. As they start to get more and more at ease with all the exchange traded funds info, making money through ETFs will only get easier as they move forward.

Now that they have identified that they want to invest in ETFs, it's time to find a very good discount broker to help in making your investments. Like any company, a range of discount brokers make a specialty of out of different investing options. Having a trading account through a broker which does not specialize in exchange traded funds is actually an awful idea. A couple of remaining things to watch out for is the quality of consumer support, lower price commissions and straightforward investing software.

Great customer care is really important when it comes to a low cost brokerage service. Remember this is your hard earned cash and dealing with any kind of difficulties needs to be as quick and / or uncomplicated as possible. Sure there will probably be a couple of bumps on the way, however they need to be easily fixed through with a simple call. Keep support services under consideration long before adding your cash in any sort of trading account.

Next worth addressing is affordable commission fee costs. I'd want to save on each buy and sell order and have average trading resources instead of spending more on a simpler, easier to use software platform. This most likely is not a factor for all of us. Especially if this describes someones first time with an on-line brokerage service. First time users may wish to go the straightforward trading resources route over the most inexpensive pricing. All of this will depend upon their own experience level.

Low fees still have their relevance, though. Every instant anyone creates a transaction, it will cost money. The more transactions they make, the more cash has to be generated in order to break even. For someone that is generally more of a trader then an investor, simply finding the lowest cost brokerage service is just about the best solution. Alternatively, for anyone basically performing a handful of home-based trades every year, that individual may possibly be fine having a more expensive commission rate from a discount brokerage that provides, for instance, better analyst tools. Find a broker that matches your specific comfort level.

Lastly, investment resources. The center of each and every discount brokerage will have to be trading tools. You may not fully grasp ways to use the application the very first day, the instruction explaining ways to use the specific tools need to be readily available and simple, to help you understand. If not, than customer support should be good enough to walk you through the procedure bit by bit. If you happen to be new at all to ETF trading, take some time researching what pretty much everything actually does at first, prior to you making that first investment.

Before making your first investment in ETFs, build up a sizable emergency savings account just before jumping directly into investing your money. Once it's accomplished it's time to progress and create the accounts with the brokerage service. Just don't forget customer satisfaction, affordable cost as well as good quality stock trading tools and equipment.

Michael Fredricks is a financial planner and freelance writer for personal finance sites on how to invest in ETFs and other topics. His most recent contribution was for http://novelinvestor.com/.

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The True Value of Investing

Warren Buffett, a popular investor and one of the world's wealthiest people once said: "Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago."

And you can have your spot under the shade too - through careful and prolific investments.

Though the current economic conditions may still seem unstable, the benefits of investing rings true in any market, and in any time.

Making investments means putting your money in something that would make it grow. Simply put, it's also equivalent to making your hard-earned money work for you. Unlike saving your money in a bank, investing is focused more on getting returns.

Starting to invest though, is more than just about having the money. It is not just about knowing where to concentrate investing either.

First and foremost, it is about strategizing. Know what your objectives are - is it for education, retirement or business? According to Robert Kiyosaki, it can also be for three reasons: to be secure, to be comfortable, or to be rich. Whichever it is, your objectives would be your primary guide in building your investment portfolio.

Investing is not about random allocations or deciding based on popularity lists. You should choose your investments carefully, and go specifically with what works for your financial goals. Warren Buffett's investment portfolio isn't exactly what you would call an 'all-star cast', but it works really well for him.

Remember as well that when you invest your money, you look at it as being a part-owner of a company. You become part of its development and you benefit from its growth. Understand as well, that the world's top investors didn't get rich just by putting some money aside to let it multiply. Monitor your investments, and analyze their movements.

Investing is also about timing, and taking calculated risks. There may be instances that you have to hold off on putting in more money into an investment or you may have to completely let go (selling) of it. Either way, these are part and parcel of the process of investing.

And in comparison to savings accounts, your diversified investments offer both short and long-term financial benefits. It gives you the security of having an 'emergency fund' that you can take out of when necessary, and still maintain growth. It also allows you to widen your horizon when it comes to future plans.

More importantly investing also helps you lay a solid foundation for your family's financial stability, and a comfortable retirement for yourself.

Sharlene Mercier of SoHo Realty is a licensed real estate professional with over a decade of experience, who's dedicated to guiding you through the real estate process.

Our goal is to provide the most efficient real estate services in the Greater Houston area. We understand how the ins and outs of the real estate world work, and we aim to help you every step of the way.

We assure you that more than just thorough and professional guidance, you can expect SoHo Realty to deliver customer service with a passion as your dedicated partner in the real estate industry.

We aspire to be your 'Realtor for Life'!

For more information, please visit our website at http://www.sohorealty.net/

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The Great Paradox: Why Stocks Aren't Getting Respect

Investors love to imagine their decisions are based on logic and foresight. But by using inconsistent arguments, investors have fooled themselves yet again, and created what I call the "Great Paradox."

For example, stocks have become the Rodney Dangerfield of investments: They can't get no respect. Despite corporate earnings increasing 125 percent since 2009, many investors remain skeptical of the outlook for stocks. Bloomberg News reported recently that valuations for U.S. equities have been stuck in a remarkably long-running slump that hasn't responded to this surge in profits, suggesting that investors don't trust the growth to continue.

That lack of trust is evident in the low Price-to-Earnings (P/E) ratio of the S&P 500, currently less than 13 times the 2012 earnings forecast. Compare that to the average historical P/E ratio of 16.4 times. If investors valued companies in the S&P 500 according to the historical average P/E, the S&P 500 would be 30 percent higher. But no such luck.

Corporations proved their flexibility and adaptability during the Great Recession. Corporate profits have been very strong, rebounding much faster than GDP. Corporations now run leaner than they did a few years ago and will benefit greatly from any economic tailwind. Yet many remain skeptical that this profit resurgence will be sustained.

On the other hand, bonds have performed extraordinarily well in recent years - so well, in fact, that many (myself included) see limited remaining upside. There's not much of anywhere for long-term bond prices to go other than down, since those values run directly inverse to interest rates, which are currently nearly as low as they can be. Meanwhile, despite a worsening fiscal government outlook, U.S. Treasury bonds have done so well over the last 30 years that they have outperformed stocks. The last time that happened was prior to the Civil War.

Still, investors have poured billions into bond mutual funds over the last five years, and have removed billions from stock mutual funds. According to data aggregated by TrimTabs, investors have removed money from U.S. stock mutual funds in each of the last five years, including approximately $100 billion last year alone. Meanwhile, investors have added money to bond mutual funds in each of the last six years, including more than $110 billion into bond mutual funds last year. Investors seem to think that bonds will continue to appreciate indefinitely; at the same time, they distrust that current corporate earnings will continue. They have fallen into the Great Paradox.

Call me crazy, but I believe fundamentals matter. As Warren Buffett observed, "In the short term, the market is a popularity contest. In the long term, the market is a weighing machine."

There's no reason to think stocks won't perform well in a slow-growth economic environment and even better in a good environment. And unlike for bonds, being a strong performer isn't an anomaly for stocks. For those with a sufficiently long-term perspective, clinging to bonds isn't a position that makes sense. As Jeremy Siegel, finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in Philadelphia, told Bloomberg News, "The rally in bonds is a once in a millennium event, but it's absolutely mathematically impossible for bonds to get any kind of returns like this going forward whereas stock returns can repeat themselves, and are likely to outperform. If you missed the rally in bonds, well, then that's it." (1)

Why are so many people tempted to keep favoring bonds and avoiding stocks, ignoring solid reasons to do the reverse? One reason could be herd mentality. As my colleague Benjamin Sullivan observed, many investors follow the crowd, buying overvalued stocks when the financial media and Main Street are optimistic about the market, and shunning stocks when prices ebb, despite the fact that it makes more sense to buy low and sell high.

Think about it. Should you buy stocks when everyone thinks the world is ending - say in March 2009, when the S&P 500 closed as low as 677 - or when everything is Pollyannaish - say in October 2007, when the S&P 500 closed as high as 1565?

Though the timing is difficult to pinpoint, one should to try to buy near the height of pessimism and sell or reduce close to the height of optimism. As legendary investor Sir John Templeton once said, "Bull markets are born on pessimism, grow on skepticism, mature on optimism, and die on euphoria."

Investors may also be tempted to let past performance overly determine their expectations for future behavior. However, while it's smart to glance in the rearview mirror from time to time, looking only backwards and ignoring the path ahead will inevitably lead to messy smash-ups.

No one can forecast exactly what the market will do in the short term. But there's no reason for the excessive pessimism that investors seem to apply only to stocks. This summer, Burton G. Malkiel, a professor of economics at Princeton, wrote in The Wall Street Journal: "We have abundant evidence that the average investor tends to put money into the market at or near the top and tends to sell out during periods of extreme decline or volatility. Over long periods of time, the U.S. equity market has provided generous average annual returns. But the average investor has earned substantially less than the market return, in part from bad timing decisions." (2)

Uncertainty is frightening, and it isn't surprising that investors are tempted to cut and run at the first sign of trouble. Investors have clearly lost confidence in stocks in recent years. But post-recession, it seems many investors have gone a step farther than caution. I suppose two bear markets during the same decade are enough to make investors jumpy. Meanwhile, investors pile into a bond market with limited upside and considerable downside.

Warren Buffet made the following analogy: "I'm going to buy hamburgers for the rest of my life. When hamburgers go down in price, we sing the 'Hallelujah Chorus' in the Buffett household. When hamburgers go up, we weep. For most people, it's the same way with everything in life they will be buying - except stocks. When stocks go down, you can get more for your money, but people don't like them any more. That sort of behavior is especially puzzling." It's not only puzzling; it's costly.

Hockey legend Wayne Gretzsky put it best when he said, "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been." The puck has spent the last five-, 10-, and 30-year periods making money for bond investors. I suspect the next five, 10, and 30 years are going to be in stocks' end of the rink.

Sources:

1) Bloomberg, "Say What? In 30-Year Race, Bonds Beat Stocks"

2) The Wall Street Journal, "Don't Panic About the Stock Market "

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The Best Way To Incorporate Real-Time Data In Excel

Excel can be used to get inside historical data in order to dig out important averages, trends and totals. Many efforts have been placed to put real-time data in Excel to handle the quick collection of information. Integrating this data into Excel allows you to create a spreadsheet that contains up-to-date stock prices, currency exchange rates or sales figures.

Excel has features that are useful for real-time data which makes placing real-time data in Excel very beneficial to many establishments. Though many attempts failed to make this data compatible with past versions of Excel, there were manual attempts that allowed this data to be usable in other versions.

Excel's Research task is the easiest way to get real-time data results. It is a new feature in Excel 2003 that enables every office application to draw in information from online dedicated services. Its setback is you won't be supplied with data you want, since you are limited to few groups of free services or several groups of premium services that need subscription payments.

Web Query is another feature that enables Excel to pull out information from the Web. While the research task can only be used in Excel 2003, web queries started in Excel 2002. A web query functions by enabling you to get a hold of data from any web page table. An example is going directly to Yahoo financial to acquire stock quotes or going to related sites to acquire currency exchange rates. The setback on web queries is that they are inconvenient to configure as well as delicate. Meaning, even extremely small alterations in the source pages can entirely bewilder your query thus making it unfeasible to refresh your spreadsheet to acquire more fresh information.

An effective approach many are also taking is creating a spreadsheet that is supported by a dedicated web service. A web service is identified as a miniature program that you can contact in the web. The thing that makes it different is that the web service doesn't perform on your computer but instead operates on a web server in a random place on the internet.

There are web services that offer software tools that empower Excel to perform real-time data exchange and sharing. They allow Excel users to publish and subscribe to data from internal sources, data vendors or the internet.

Unlike before when there are limitations in what you can do with real-time data in Excel, now there are tools that even allow you to incorporate third party or your personal real-time data feeds into Excel. Aside from the added data management, you can now share this data among different Excel users as well.

John Conejos is a market analyst who relies on accurate real-time data to enhance efficiency of his investment decisions. He wants to share about the tools that aid him in data management and analysis. Now you can catch up with market changes as well as better manage real-time data. Visit Derivative Trading Systems and try its tools and services for FREE.

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The Elliott Wave Theory And The Predictability Of Human Psychology

For anyone with even a passing interest in stock markets and trading the name Ralph Nelson Elliott is usually a very familiar one. An accountant working at the turn of the last century Elliott's theory, known as the Elliott Wave Theory, proposed that stock market trends and patterns were, to a certain degree, all very much the same.

If you take one stock market chart for something like oil, and you remove all information relating to any timeframe or values, and you place this next to a trading chart for something completely different, what you will notice is that they share significant similarities.

The reason for this, so Elliott Wave Theory suggests, is that stock markets are heavily controlled by human psychology, and human psychology is fairly predictable. For example, if you tell someone not to think of a pink elephant they'll be unable to do anything but picture such a thing, and if you offer to show someone your holiday photos they'll suddenly recall an urgent appointment. We are a pretty predictable bunch at heart.

Knowing this fact, and combining it with the mathematical principles of the Elliott Wave Theory, it is possible to observe trends in the stock markets, and foresee changes in advance of them occurring.

The basic principle of the Elliott Wave Theory is simple. Over a period of minutes, hours, days, weeks, months or even many years, stock markets and similar trends will follow a cyclical wave pattern, most usually considered to consist of three progressive waves, broken by two correctional waves.

So the first wave will be a progressive increase in stock value, followed by a slight correctional decrease. The third wave is usually the most significant and longest period of growth, followed by another corrective decrease before the fifth, usually positive growth period. This five point wave can often be seen whether you examine market trends over the very short term, intermediary term or even long term. In this way it has often be considered to be a fractal based theory.

There are a number of ways in which knowledge and application of Elliott's Wave Theory can be used to both predict stock market trends as well as to provide a certain degree of reassurance during times when values may be decreasing. Understanding that these decreases may well be correctional, and be preceding a subsequent growth period can provide a distinct advantage when trading both over the short and longer term.

One of the problems with the Elliott Wave Theory is that it can be difficult to identify the patterns accurately enough to make significant decisions. However, by following a few simple rules and guidelines, Elliott wave theory can become an extremely powerful tool that can probably tell us more about what is actually happening in the market than any other technical indicator.

R.N. Elliott identified 13 basic wave patterns, visit Kenny's Elliott Wave tutorial pages to learn more about them and the successful application of Elliott Wave Theory in today's financial markets.

This article was written by KennyM of http://www.tradersdaytrading.com/ - A traders guide to stock market trading and how to start day trading - successfully!

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Things to Know About Tax and Financial Spread Betting

Spread betting is one of the most useful financial instruments that many investors utilize in order to gain income. Among the basic things that you need to know about this is the treatment for tax and this derivative as well as the specific limit order and other strategies that are applicable in order to make sure and maximize profits.

On the one hand, when it comes to the aspect of tax, it used to be treated as a gambling. This is why for a long time; earnings and income from spread betting are all taxable, most especially in several countries or markets. In United Kingdom, it is no longer being considered as a form of gambling primarily because there is a scientific and logical way of predicting rather than just relying on intuition and luck. Hence, since it is no longer treated as such, then the earnings that an investor gets from such transaction are already a legitimate source of income that can be levied with tax.

It is in this regard that an investor really needs to know the mechanics of how a government regulates tax and financial spread betting. It must also be noted that these taxation policies on this product limit vary from country to country. Therefore, this must be given apt attention, most especially if an investor is transacting with multi-levels of financial transactions like in the international market. Aside from that, knowing how the tax are being treated in a specific market is part of building the tactics and strategies of a good financial spread better.

On the other hand, when an investor already knows how his or her income will be treated with the next policies and guidelines on tax and spread betting, it is essential think about the most appropriate plans as well.

There are actually several options that an investor can do in order to pursue gaining profits from various financial instrumentalities. Among the most famous options easily available are the various orders, which are generally defined as instruments that are used to protect the profits and positions. One example of this is the limit order, which is an order that dictates the limit of the trade. Further, there are also various kinds of orders that an investor can choose from. They may want to choose those simple or even complex orders. The most common types of these positions are in the form of buy orders and sell orders.

As a conclusion, all traders must know the most basic things about financial betting such as the tax and spread betting as well as the limit order and other orders that may be utilized in order to ensure profits or earnings.

There are many other important factors involved in this investment product. IndependentInvestor.co.uk is a top resource for broker reviews as well as the Spread Betting Limit Order and Tax and Spread Betting. Learn all the tips and strategies to develop a profitable portfolio.

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Why It Is Better to Buy From Locally Owned Companies Than Corporate Companies

Many consumers refuse to buy any goods, products or services from any small businesses. They prefer to buy from the big "professional" corporate companies due to all the advertising and marketing they do. People are automatically presented with an image that the company is very reputable and professional since they are advertised everywhere. What they do not realize is that advertising costs millions of dollars every year and the only way a company can spend that much is if they are profiting that much and more. Ever wonder why the cost of goods and services so high? Everything costs more because everyone has to be paid for their work and still profit. Sadly, people are naturally are intrigued by certain companies because of image. It is all about presentation. We don't see what goes on behind the scenes really, but only what we are presented with. Huge corporations profit millions of dollars and do not spend the money we have brought in to them back into our local stores and businesses. This is why so many businesses stores are struggling to keep their doors open.

If we think about it carefully, we would know it is better to spend our hard earned money at family or locally owned businesses since we are helping people earn a living and survive. That means they will take the money they had profited and spend it at our stores, helping us make a living. If everyone did that we would not be in a recession right now. It would be the circle of life and everyone would be surviving just fine. In addition, a locally owned business is more likely to work with you and help you in hard times with refunds or correcting the prices because they want to earn and keep your business. Big corporate companies do not care and refuse to work with you because of company rules. It is extremely hard to get anything done when there is no way to ever really talk to an owner or someone who has the authority to help you. You are usually given the run around and told that there is nothing that can be done for you. That is how the big companies got to where they are and making millions off of your hard earned dollars regardless if it is fair or not.

There are many reasons to why it is important to put your money in the right places. Help small businesses by buying from them instead of big corporate companies that take the profit and the money is never seen again. Do not question why a lot of companies do not advertise all over, they obviously do not make a lot of money off of your purchases because they give you better prices and services. Due to not ripping everyone off, they are not able to advertise all over the television or radio. If you are worried, look up the company or business online. Go to Google or Yahoo to read real reviews from real people. It is amazing what you can find out from real people. See the whole big picture than just what you are painted from the outside. See what is real than what you are wanted to see.

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What Is Financial Spread Betting, And Why Should I Be Interested?

First of all, it is important to be aware that whilst they share certain characteristics and principles, spread betting and financial spread betting are two different things. But in order to understand what financial betting companies are offering, it is worth being aware of what financial betting is, in a simpler to understand case study.

Let's imagine that a premiership football team are taking on a little known local football team. Clearly the bookies would find that very few people would bet on the little local team, making the betting system very uneven, and offering very miserly odds which wouldn't make anyone very much cash.

Betting the spread evens up the odds a good deal by offering people the chance not to bet on who will win, but on what the difference will be between the scores. Let's say that the bookie offers a spread bet of five points. This means that you can either bet on the premiership team beating the local team by five or more goals, or on the local team losing by less than five goals.

So the final score comes in and the premiership team score 9 and the local team scores 5. For those who bet on the local team team, the spread of 5 points added to their score of 5 makes a total of 10, which beats the premiership team's score, which means that even though you may have bet on the team which lost, by using spread betting you still win.

It's a little like that in financial spread betting, because you can still win big profits even when the financial markets are going down. You can also choose to spread bet over a short period of time, or over longer periods, and you can even choose to end your bet early if things look good but you suspect they're about to turn around.

What financial spread trading companies allow you to do is to trade, not just on the fact that stocks or shares will rise, but on how much they will change, regardless of the direction. By betting a certain amount of money per point difference you can then make a significant return if you decided to bet above or below the markets current value. This also means that you don't actually have to own anything. With financial spread betting, you don't actually own any commodities or securities such as stocks or shares - you are betting on the change in the market, not on the market itself.

This also means that there are huge tax benefits to be enjoyed, because you are not buying the underlying assets there is no Capital Gains Tax to worry about, and no Stamp Duty, making it a tax free way to make significant financial gains quickly. However, there is a word of warning which all reputable financial spread trading companies should make clear, and that is that with a spreadbet it is possible to lose more than your initial stake. Therefore it carries a big risk, and isn't for the fainthearted.

Visit Kenny's website at tradersdaytrading.com to learn more through an interactive financial spread betting tutorial and get more information on some of the best Financial Spread Betting companies and where to spread bet.

This article was written by KennyM of Tradersdaytrading.com - A traders guide to stock market trading and how to start day trading - successfully!

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