The Jeffrey And Tracey Info Emporium

Whether your aim is to make a quick couple of hundred dollars for pressing bills or whether you are thinking about a long term wealth creation program, there is one thing that you can do right now to immediately resolve those needs.

Making easy money can literally transform your financial life. It seems wrong on some level to want that….easy quick money. In fact some would immediately perceive it to be dishonest by virtue of the simple fact that its quick and easy money. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is actually easy money, rapid windfalls, or rather a succession of rapid windfalls that lead to long term wealth. Any millionaire will tell you that this type of money is responsible for most of their coffers.

Average everyday people see this type of money as dishonest for many reasons. The biggest is that they expect that there is some catch. However, what we teach, is that this “Type” of money, we call it capital gains, is the only solid path to wealth. This sort of wealth…$1 million dollars or more can be manufactured creatively within a specified number of months. Not a couple of months, but within a reasonable time frame.

Making easy money through the mechanism of a succession of rapid capital gains is precisely the thing you should be doing whether its on a small scale using small ticket investment objects or whether you are at the level of knowledge where you know how to trade in real estate which is elementary with several pieces of information that you need to know. Either way, making easy money is absolutely the fastest, legal and ethical way to see your dreams come to fruition.

To your rapid success
Martin Thomas(c)

Martin Thomas is a professional investor. 5 years ago he was a broke insurance salesman but then he was given a book that changed his perspective. The book was given to him without hype by a friend. The book was passed to him with a simple knowing nod. The book taught him how to make his first million in under 14 months. The book can be found here
http://www.opportunity-investor.com

Before entering the world of investing, it is important to
honestly analyze your present situation. Doing so will allow you
to effectively manage your own money in a way which maximizes
returns while limiting unwanted risk. Questions to consider
include:

What is my investment goal? How much time do I have to attain
this goal?

Methods of saving for a down payment on a house differ greatly
from saving for retirement. The reason for this lies in the
factoring of time. Over short periods of a few years, individual
companies and the stock market as a whole can experience
dramatic fluctuations which in no way represent longer-term
trends. Because of this possibility, a smaller percentage of
your portfolio should be allocated into stocks as the time for
cashing in your investments draws near. Conversely, the longer
the time period you have to invest, the more aggressive your
portfolio should seek higher returns.

How much do I initially have to invest? How much can I afford to
consistently add later?

Einstein described compounding as “The Eighth Wonder of the
World” and for good reason. Being able to earn interest on your
interest allows investments to increase exponentially faster
than with simple interest. A one-time investment of $5000
earning 10% interest compounds to a total of over $54,000 after
25 years. Using simple interest, it would take over 95 years to
reach the same amount. Naturally, the larger your initial
investment and the more you can afford to add later on, the more
you can expect to gain in returns.

Am I carrying any high-interest debt, such as on a credit card?

Before saving for future events, you should consider your
present finances. Paying off any high-interest loans function as
an “automatic” return. Writing a check to Visa to pay down your
debt may not feel as satisfying as starting a nest egg, but by
eliminating those 22% interest payments, you have effectively
“made” a 22% return. Although you need not completely eliminate
your debts, getting such payments into a reasonable area should
be a more pressing priority. This fiscal reckoning is also a
good time to examine budgeting and expenditures. Look for
unneeded or overpriced purchases, and consider the feasibility
of paring them down and saving the extra money. Unused gym
memberships, that $5 whipped mocha-hazelnut cappuccino, and
extra cable channels all add up. The true cost of these and all
other purchases involves understanding the “time value of
money”, but for now it should suffice to say that $5 added to
the previously mentioned investment account compounding 10% for
25 years turns into $54.17.

What is my risk tolerance? What will my investing style be?

These questions lead us to selecting individual investments.
Consider your investment timetable for when you’ll need the
money, recognizing that more conservative selections should be
made the shorter the window. Everyone’s risk tolerance is
different; while one person may feel comfortable with small-cap
biotechs another may need a blue chip to feel equally sound.

Analyzing the risk to reward ratio here is a good first step.
The more risk you take on, the more you should expect to get in
return if your investment pays off. The inverse is also true:
the more stable an investment, the less return one should
expect. Government-backed I Bonds pay over 6%, but involve tying
up money for years in order to fully benefit from them. While
this gives you one target, the average return of the broader
market indices is about 11% per year. There are two primary
schools of thought about investing: growth and value.

Growth

Growth investing is a higher-risk strategy which focuses on
finding smaller companies poised to rapidly grow earnings.
Stocks here tend to be micro-caps or small-caps, and the
occasional mid-cap (under $10 billion). In their younger lives,
many of the well-established companies of today found themselves
considered here (Think of Apple Computers (AAPL) or Starbucks
(SBUX)). Growth companies can be found in many different
sectors, although such companies often have similar traits. A
growth company usually has a unique product or service to offer
which can fundamentally change how business is done. When found
early enough in their growth cycles, these companies have the
potential to return enormous profits to investors.

Value

Value plays usually are found in larger companies, although the
strategies used to find them can be applied to smaller
corporations as well. Looking for value stocks is similar to
looking for values in a store: find a good product at a price
below what you would normally expect to pay. These bargains are
often found in the form of companies which have been unfairly
beaten down through overselling. Finding value stocks usually
involves using a discounted cash flow model (DCF) to find a
company’s intrinsic value. This is the form of investing
advocated by Benjamin Graham, and popularized by Warren Buffett.

GARP

GARP, or Growth At Reasonable Price, is a combination of the
above forms. As the name implies, the focus is finding growing
companies trading at reasonable prices. Quick measures of this
include the PEG ratio (Price to Earnings to Growth) and Forward
P/E. Although not a specific style, GARP is utilized by many
investors because of its flexibility. The average, diversified
portfolio will have many GARP-type stocks in it.

Once you know your goals, the amount your going to invest, your
relatively debt free and know your risk tolerance it’s time to
look at the market and start thinking about selecting stocks.

Getting Started: Learning the Market and Selecting Stocks

If you were going to spend several thousand dollars on a
refrigerator or television, you would thoroughly research the
market for those goods to find the product which best suited
your needs. Investing is no different. Before buying into a
company, you should be well-acquainted enough with it to give a
short presentation. Knowing the basics of how a company
operates, what it sells, how it makes money, how much money it
makes, and what kind of growth the company is expected to
experience are all crucial questions that any investor should be
able to answer.

Developing a better understanding of the stock market is a long,
but hopefully rewarding, process. Immediately investing in
stocks with real money, however, is equivalent to taking a test
without being introduced to the material. Formerly called “paper
trading”, beginning investors would normally spend several
months tracking their stock picks without having real money on
them.

Thanks to technology, you can now find sites that automate (for
free) the process of tracking price changes for you on the
internet. Simulated investing is a risk-free way of beginning to
understand market fluctuations and the forces driving them.
Examining these trends will payoff in the future, as an
increased understanding of the stock market can only help you on
your path to building wealth.

Once you become comfortable picking your own stocks, you can
still continue to “paper trade” online, as it offers the
opportunity to explore and experiment with other investing
styles. Gordon Gekko, the famed villain in Wall Street played by
Michael Douglas, said “Information is the most valuable
commodity I know of”. Ignoring for a moment that the movie ended
with indictments for insider trading, the statement is true: you
will not regret being an informed and intelligent investor.

The market is constantly changing, but by learning the ropes of
investing you too can pull off a “One Up on Wall Street”.

Everyone knows the old joke about the
brokers having yachts, but the customers don’t.
There is more truth than fiction here. Why don’t
the customers have yachts too? There must be
something wrong.

The reason you gave your money to some
brokerage company was to have it grow and make
income for you - but it hasn’t. Why? No, they
are not stealing at least overtly. Your broker
is doing the job he was taught to do - have
you open an account and help (?) you buy a
stock or fund.

When a person becomes a broker he must
pass certain tests given by regulatory agencies.
Once passed his brokerage company gives him two
manuals. The first is a list of the
regulations. Never break those rules or he is
fired. The second manual is how to open
accounts and get customers to “invest”. There
is no third manual (the most important) on how
to make money for customers and how to protect
customers money from loss.

The broker might think he knows how to invest
(he doesn’t), but he definitely is never taught
how to protect peoples portfolios when their
stock heads down. If the investor is ever going
to have his yacht he must learn the latter.

Brokers are taught the ten basic rules for
customers. They are the Ten Commandments. They
should be called the Ten Lies of Wall Street.
In a nut shell they are 1. Do Research, 2. Buy
and Hold, 3. Dollar Cost Average, 4. Diversify,
5. Buy A Good Stock and Put It Away, 6. You
Can’t Afford To Be Out Of The Market, 7. Never
Try To Time The Market, 8. Rearrange Your
Portfolio With Age, 9. Your Broker Will Watch
Your Account and 10. The Market Always Comes
Back.

Brokers and financial planners espouse
these platitudes as fact and they do it without
thinking. Each one can be proven to be wrong
and only lead to loss of capital.

Brokerage companies are there to make money.
They don’t do it by investing their money, they
do it by investing your money. They are service
companies not investment companies. Each time a
trade is made whether it is a profit or loss
they make money by providing that service.
Brokers are salesmen and it is their job to
generate income for the company or they will be
fired. The company could care less whether you
make or lose. Just send more money and trade.

If you want that yacht you must learn not
to follow those Ten Commandments.

Al Thomas’ book, “If It Doesn’t Go Up, Don’t
Buy It!” has helped thousands of people make
money and keep their profits with his simple
2-step method. Read the first chapter at
http://www.mutualfundmagic.com and discover why
he’s the man that Wall Street does not want you
to know. Copyright 2006 All rights reserved.

Anson and Quigley were close friends.

They were joint owners in a small company that ran a sight seeing boat doing harbour tours in a city popular with tourists.

The business had been growing nicely from its fitful start some nine years ago. In fact they had sold the initial boat and upgraded to a character wood vessel that was much admired by their many clients as it plied the waters of this lovely harbour city, stopping here and there to point out and admire the local architecture or attraction.

The boat was very expensive and they and their wives had gone on the hook to the bank to finance it but they were confident it would pay off very well.

Even though Anson and Quigley were close friends, they did not share common views on personal finances.

Anson was by far the more cautious but when he broached the subject of protection from any potential catastrophic event, Quigley would shrug off any of Anson’s suggestions and say that he was quite content with the coverage of their insurance package and change the subject.

Anson would drop the subject but set his own plans in motion.

Murphy was aboard their boat one day and of course that was the day that if anything could go wrong, it went wrong huge!

An elderly passenger had come aboard and was enjoying the day when, on disembarking, he caught his shoe on a gangway cleat and pitched himself clean over the side guard chain and into the water between the boat and the dock. On the way down he hit his head on a piling.

They rescued the passenger promptly but sadly the hit on the head proved damaging to the extent that the poor old gentlemen suffered brain damage and was confined to a wheel chair.

You would be right in expecting that the elderly gentleman and his goading and expectant relatives would drop the writ promptly and they did.

The long and the short of it was that the settlement exceeded their insurance by a very large amount.

When the prosecuting attorneys did their examination for discovery to expose the partners assets outside the business they found that Quigley had a fully paid for house, a sizeable investment portfolio, a piece of investment property, a large motor home, an antique car and a stamp collection which over the years had become Quigley’s pride and joy and was now worth a tidy sum.

They took it all. Even the stamp collection.

When they looked into Anson’s affairs they found that his house was mortgaged to the hilt. The second mortgage was held by a company domiciled in Panama and duly registered in all the right places.

Anson had been making payment as required.

He had a few thousand in his checking account, a used car and that was pretty well it.

There was nothing more to see or attachso they gave up on trying getting anything more out of Anson.

The old gentleman’s fall had cost both partners equally in business assets but when it came to the private stuff, Quigley was wiped out and Anson survived almost unscathed.

When it was all over, Quigley asked his friend just what he had squirreled away, where and how.

Anson reminded Quigley of how often he had tried to steer him the right way and how Quigley had ignored him.

They are still friends but probably won’t go into business together again and every now and then they meet at the local pub and hoist one together and Quigley looks at his friend— and wonders.

Epilogue:

Anson had enlisted the aid of an accountant he knew of who specialised in offshore financial planning.

No one knows for sure whether he owns that ranch that he visits often in Mexico, or that investment portfolio in the Turks and Caicos or that hefty bank balance in a well known Swiss bank.

No one knows for sure because nothing is registered in his own name.

Question:

Which one are you?

Anson or Quigley?

The author has been involved in the financial arena for most of his adult life, latterly as the CEO of a successful financial services company which he sold a decade ago to devote his time to advising a select group of clients in prudent and cautious uses of offshore structuring. He has traveled extensively among many offshore jurisdictions over a span of 25 years and acquired hands on experience together with high quality contacts and resources in the better jurisdictions. He provides consulting services and can be reached at http://www.offshoreandprivate.com

Every morning the trader sits down at his computer to begin the
day, and the dilemma faced is always the same - finding a stock
or two or three to make a buck on for that day. This really
shouldn’t be that hard, but for some traders it is. Let’s see if
we can break it down and maybe make it a little easier.

First let’s start with a few basics about your work habits. The
markets open at 9:30 EST, right? WRONG! Trading these days
starts at 7 A.M.! That’s the very early morning action. Then you
have what some traders call the official pre-market trading that
starts at 8 A.M. following that is the official market opening
at 9:30 A.M. EST. This means that if you have been sleeping in,
you could be missing some very interesting early morning trades.
However, a word of caution here - pre marketing trading also has
a higher element of risk attached to it because of a lack of
liquidity.

Okay, so now that I have gotten you out of bed, you can start
scanning the pages of Wall-Street Journal, Independent Business
Daily and… WRONG again! Oh sure, you may find a trade or two
in one of these publications, but in all too many cases that
news is going be too old to trade. In addition, the news in
those publications, or the reaction by the stock, is going to
show up in other places.

The first thing you may want to do in the morning is check the
after hours action from the day before. This information can be
found a number of places. I use the NASDAQ home page under the
Extended Hours Trading link found on the left side of the page.
This will give you a list of the stocks that were most active in
after hours for the day before. In most cases these stocks are
moving on news released after the close. These links as well as
others can be found at www.TraderAide.com.

While you are on the NASDAQ page make sure you take note of the
Pre-Market Most Active list. This is going to be another great
source of potential stocks for you to consider. An additional
source on the NASDAQ page is the NASDAQ-100 Pre-Market Heat Map.
This is especially useful right at the beginning and for the
first hour of so after the beginning of the 5 A.M. premarket
trading action. In both cases, after-hours movers and pre-market
movers, the action is usually news related.

An excellent source of this news is MarketWatch. You can find it
in a hundred other locations on the net, but I find the
MarketWatch site easy to use and even more important, easier to
search. It is also less likely to be full of non-trading” news
that you really don’t need to trade.

A few of the things you want to be looking for include events on
stocks that take place nearly every day, such as: analyst
up/downgrades; earnings reports’ and FDA actions which could
include approval, disapprovals or merely making comments on
application.

I also suggest you watch Bloomberg TV early in the morning,
before the 5 A.M. premarket trading begins. I prefer Bloomberg
to CNBC at this time in the morning because of their
presentation of the futures and the news streamer on the bottom
of the screen. Once the pre market opens I suggest you change
over to CNBC simply because they have, what appears to be, a
much larger audience. On CNBC the stocks reported on or
mentioned are often sent up or down, offering excellent trading
opportunities in many cases.

Once the markets opens, almost all real-time quote systems have
an element built into them that will give you at least the top
ten most active on the three main exchanges, both gainers and
losers. Also, they may have a more advanced “screener” of some
sort. With RealTick by Townsend Analytics, Ltd, it’s called
Hottrend Realtime Radar. You can leave this running throughout
the day. Stocks that show unusual volume compared to their
historic volume patterns will show up automatically on the
Radar. It is available for both NASDAQ and NYSE traded stocks.
Check with your supplier to see if this feature, or something
like it, is offered.

Last but not least, you want to be checking your Dow Jones news
feed for the latest breaking news starting at about 6:30 A.M.,
New York time. Sorry “West Coasters, but as the bank robber said
when asked why he robbed banks, “Because that is where the money
is”.

Happy trading!

No permission is needed to reproduce an unedited copy of this
article as long the About The Author tag is left in tact and hot
links included. Questions and comments can be sent to Floyd at
floyd@TraderAide.com.

Copyright 2006 Michael Saville

Mutual funds are very popular. In fact, they are the one of the most popular investments on the market today. What does that mean in numbers? There are over 10,000 different funds with over $4 trillion in investments!!

Why are they so popular? For some, it is because of their great returns. Others like funds because they are easy to buy and sell. Still others like them because they are diversified and less risky.

A mutual fund raises money from investors to invest in stocks, bonds, and other securities. It is a package made up of several individual investments. When those investments gain or lose value, you gain or lose as well. When they pay dividends, you get a share of them. Mutual funds also offer professional management and diversification. They do much of your investing work for you.

Mutual funds have been around since the 1800’s, but didn’t become what we know today until 1924. Even then, they did not become a household word until the 1990’s, at which time the number of people owning them tripled. A recent survey shows that 88% of all investors have at least some of their money in mutual funds.

A mutual fund is a special type of company that pools together money from many investors and invests it on behalf of the group, in accordance with a stated set of objectives. Mutual funds raise the money by selling shares of the fund to the public, much like any other company can sell stock in itself to the public. Funds then take the money they receive from the sale of their shares (along with any money made from previous investments) and use it to purchase various investment vehicles, such as stocks, bonds, and money market instruments.

In return for the money they give to the fund when purchasing shares, shareholders receive an equity position in the fund and, in effect, in each of its underlying securities. For most mutual funds, shareholders are free to sell their shares at any time, although the price of a share in a mutual fund will fluctuate daily, depending upon the performance of the securities held by the fund.

Most investors pick mutual funds based on recent fund performance, the suggestion of a friend, and/or the praise bestowed on them by a financial magazine or fund-rating agency. While using these methods can lead one to selecting a quality fund, they can also lead you in the wrong direction and wondering what happened to that “great pick.”

Despite the distinctive characteristics of mutual funds - performance, management philosophy, & investment objectives - your specific selections should be chosen within the context of your overall financial plan. Examining features such as past performance are not where your studies should begin. The point of departure is you; your financial priorities; your resources; your approach to investment diversification; your willingness (or lack thereof) to accept market volatility; and your time horizon for a particular investment.

Total Returns are fun to look at and brag about, but simply looking at a fund’s total return for the past year is not necessarily a good measure of a fund’s quality. For example, investors often talk about how well a specific fund did last year and how happy they are with that performance — say a 16% return in an equity income fund. Well, in a given year that may or may not have been a good return for an equity income fund. That fund may have under-performed many or most other equity-income funds for the year. Returns should always be measured in context with how other similar “categorized” (e.g.. equity income funds, growth funds, small cap funds, etc.) funds have performed. So don’t get overly excited by a funds total return until you see how it compares to other similar funds over the same period.

As it is often said, past performance can’t predict future results. But when comparing performance of funds, it is also wise to look beyond the results of one or two years. Most experts suggest that a larger “window” of 5 to 10 years gives a clearer picture of historical performance. Has your fund or the one you are considering performed well over this longer time horizon? Any fund can have one good or one bad year, but if you are investing for the long term, you want a fund that has a consistent track record. While that record doesn’t guarantee future results, it gives you an indicator that may be to your advantage.

Michael Saville has over twenty five years experience in providing finance and investment advice. He has written a free five-part short course on ‘no load mutual funds’ which is available at http:///buy-mutual-funds.com

You’ll want to opt for the no-load or institutional share class instead. If you’re a no-load investor who is determined to buy a fund that’s primarily broker-sold, go through a supermarket and opt for the D shares.

If you are using a broker or planner, the decision about whether to opt for the A, B, or C share class boils down to your own time horizon and, to a lesser extent, how much you’re investing. If you plan to invest for the long haul–say, 10 years or more–the A shares will invariably make more sense for you than the B or C shares. That’s because A shares’ lower ongoing expenses will offset the higher fee you’ll pay to get in. At Morningstar, we believe in long-term investing, and that’s why we tend to recommend A shares over B or C shares; if you’re a Morningstar.com Premium Member, you’ll notice that our Analyst Reports of broker-sold funds typically apply to the A shares, too.

So should you ever use B or C shares? Possibly, if you expect to hold a given fund type for a short period of time. If you plan to own a fund for just a year or two, for example, you may want to opt for C shares, and if your time horizon is in the neighborhood of five years or fewer, B shares may be the way to go. Morningstar’s Cost Analyzer tool can help you determine the correct share class given your anticipated time horizon and the amount of money you have to invest. (Cost Analyzer is available to Premium Members of Morningstar.com; for a free trial membership, click here.)

Protect Yourself: Know Your Rights and Ask Questions
Many brokers and planners work hard to select the correct share class for their clients, but you should also be aware of unscrupulous practices in this area. B and C shares carry higher expenses, and part of those fees, called 12b-1 fees, go straight to the broker each year. Thus, some brokers might be inclined to recommend B or C shares even if they’re not the best deal for their clients. Some fund shops–including Franklin–have stopped selling B shares altogether.

To help ensure that you get into the right share class for your needs and time horizon, it never hurts to ask your broker why he or she is recommending a certain share class of a given fund. What assumptions is he or she making about your holding period? Does he or she have a financial incentive to recommend one share class over another?

Also be sure to ask whether your total investment with a given fund family qualifies you for a discounted sales charge. These breakpoints often kick in when your total investment across the fund family reaches $25,000 or more, and they can save you substantial amounts of money. And even if you don’t meet the minimum asset level yet, you may still be able to qualify for the discount if you sign a “letter of intent” that states you plan to invest enough money to qualify for the discount within a specified period of time (usually one year). Some brokerage firms have recently gotten into trouble for failing to provide these bulk discounts, so your broker should be well aware of the issue and able to tell you whether you qualify.

Brian Dylan,
http://www.blueairnews.com
http://www.my-credit-directory.co.uk
http://www.my-credit-cards.co.uk

Recently, one late winter night, my four-year old son and I counted stars with one another. After a few minutes, he pointed to the bright moon and asked, “Why doesn’t the moon have covers?”

“Covers? What do you mean?” I inquired. And in his own boyish terminology, he launched into a long description justifying the moon’s requirements for blankets to protect itself against the weather’s elements. To me, his ideas were plausible and thoughtful.

As an investor, it may serve you well to consider your portfolio’s protection. Have you protected your investments during this year’s volatile cold snap and will you have the necessary diversification to enjoy a potential market re-heating? The following may assist you in all types of markets.

For individual stock investors, a defensive posture served them well during the recent bear market. By employing “tight” stop losses, they created downsize protection. Even if the sell price seemed undesirable at that particular time, building a cash position with such proceeds allowed investors a chance to re-enter the market at lower levels. Risk of principal still existed in such scenarios and this strategy will not guarantee you a positive return. For many, this strategy is not proper.

If your portfolio is growth oriented, no income generation necessary, it is important to keep focus on your pre-determined investment philosophy. Even so, you should not ignore the short-term. Pay close attention to market behaviors and stick to your plan. I would speculate investors of Enron had long term goals, but little or no exit strategy. It is better to know and profit, than buy another’s high price and blow it!

According to the 2001 book entitled Are You Normal About Money? by Bernice Kanner, seventy-two percent of mutual fund investors never read the accompanying prospectus. I admit the literature can be boring, however it can be extremely insightful as well. Look at the portfolio holdings and determine the primary sector allocations. You will also develop a good idea of the fund’s turn-over ratio by reading the prospectus.

You should be aware of the driving forces behind all your funds’ returns. Are your funds allocated in strong positions and equally strong sectors? Or, is the money manager hanging onto the dreams and ideas of yesterday, hoping that six-dollar stock will return to eighty by year-end?

It is a good idea to evaluate your portfolio periodically and ask yourself “Why do I own these positions?” Time passes and your goals either change or come to fruition. Seasons change and you should adapt accordingly, why not institute diligent tactics for your savings? The thought you put into such procedures may help protect your net worth.

Wardlaw’s belief is that familiar life elements best illustrate practical investment strategies; not typical investment jargon. With that philosophy, the author assists financial planners/advisors, brokerage firms, periodicals, and other investment information syndicates create informative and entertaining articles. For comments and questions, please contact the author at tools2invest@yahoo.com or visit http://www.tools2invest.com

Online Trading - It’s Easy to Get Started ! By: Steve Loughlin

You’ve read the ads :

+ Work in your underwear and make thousands a week ! + Fire your
boss and start trading stocks online… + You don’t have to be a
brain surgeon to trade online and make a fantastic living! Hype
or Truth?

Believe it or not - it’s true!

Learn the skill of trading online and you can work from your
computer in your underwear. Personally, I like sweats and my old
blue bathrobe …

Get good enough and you will be able to fire your boss! And, no
- you don’t have to be a brain surgeon to trade online and make
a very good living. Some of the most successful traders have
come from all walks of life: farmers ,teachers, truck drivers,
stay-at- home moms, doctors ,nurses, executives,waitresses,
pilots - you name the job, and someone doing it has been able to
learn the skill of trading and make a fine living doing it.

So how do you get started trading online? What do you need to
learn to make money trading? How much money do you need to trade
forex or stocks or the eminis?

All good questions…

The first piece of advice I would give a new trader is: Read,
Read, Read. Read anything and everything related to trading
,trading systems, technical indicators - whatever! Read trading
books, read the ads for new trading systems or trading software,
read about brokerage services and real time quote services. If
you really want to learn the skill of trading, you will have to
immerse yourself in everything concerned with trading…

With so much information available to help a person learn to
trade - you can literally teach yourself to trade online with a
lot of help from the internet. Some of the best trading
information and trading books are only available online - you
won’t find them at the bookstore. And, just about everything
online is immediately down-loadable in e-book format. No waiting
for the mail or UPS to deliver your book.

O.K. So you begin your trading education by reading.

As you start to learn and feel confident about trading the first
thing you’ll need to decide is just what you want to trade. And,
what you decide to trade will determine how much money you will
need to get started.

Product to trade can be broken down as follows:

Stocks.

If you want to actively day trade stocks, SEC rules say you must
maintain a minimum of $25,000 in your trading account. This can
be a somewhat expensive way to start trading and without the
benefit of leverage.

Stock Indexes.

These are the e-minis. You can trade the DOW, S&P, RUSSELL,
NASDAQ. You’ll be able to open most accounts to trade the eminis
with as little as $2,000. Trading the eminis gives you fantastic
leverage. Example: trading just one contract with your $2,000
account will enable you to control anywhere from $50,000 to
$75,000 worth of index.

Commodities.

Open an account with as little as $500 with some brokerage firms
and you’ll be able to trade commodities like: corn, pork
bellies, wheat, sugar, coffee - just about anything that is used
to produce our food supply. Like the stock indices, you again
have tremendous leverage. A little amount of money, controlling
a much larger amount of product.

Forex.

Forex is the trading of world currency pairs like the Euro vs.
U.S. Dollar in a 24 hour market. Like commodities, you can open
an account with many brokerage firms with as little as $500 -
and like commodities, you again have excellent leverage.

Once you know what you want to trade, the rest is easy.

To trade actively, you’ll need a quote service to supply real -
time quotes and charts. Choose from a handful of very good
services and get started online in minutes.

The final step is to open and fund your trading account with a
brokerage firm. What you are trading will determine what company
you choose to open your account . Some handle only stock trading
- others commodities and e-minis.

You now know what you will trade, you have a real time quote
service supplying you with quotes and charts to track what you
are trading and you are signed up with a broker that will act as
your banker and handle the transactions in your account. The
broker will also supply a order entry system to place your
orders electronically.

The only costs you’ll have are trading commissions, a cable or
DSL monthly connection charge for your computer ( a must for day
trading) and your monthly charge for your quote service.

It’s fast. It’s easy. It’s inexpensive. And, if you learn the
skills - a lot of FUN!

Global exchange traded funds are not as complicated as the name implies. Below are some easy steps to creating a successful and profitable ETF portfolio. For anyone who is interested in any type of investing is it important first create and maintain a rainy day fund. This is 6 months of income placed into a money market account or placed in saving bonds.

This type of account will allow you to be more confident in all higher risk investments because you have money set aside in case of emergency or financial loss. It is extremely important to have separate portfolios. One portfolio will be your conservative securities.

The second will be your growth securities. The goal of your core conservative approach is to preserve your initial investments and growth in those stocks is secondary. The growth portfolios is higher risk, more speculative, and intense growth is the ultimate goal.

Additionally make sure your diversify all of your portfolios. This is important because you want your portfolios off set each other. For example if one is in decline the other should be increasing. This is especially important if unexpected or a decline in the market becomes a reality. Many people think that different parts of ETFs or capped ETF (small or large) can offer their portfolio security. This is simply not true. The goal is always to have investments, equally balanced between low and high risk.

A good example of this is currency trading. When the US dollar is decreasing it can be beneficial to have some investments in other metals and currencies like Swiss Franc or Australian dollars. Or when inflation increases you could have investments in wood, gold, or Treasury bond. When politics go south in one country it is helpful to have investment in other developed countries to compensate.

When choosing companies to invest in make sure you look for the following characteristics. Make sure you pick a country that is stable and have a strong government which controls both government and corporations. Make sure the legal rights within the country are sound and not prone to subjectivity.

Double check the countries guidelines with regards to contracts, corruption, due process and rule of law. Make sure the country’s economy is displaying discipline and their currency is strong. Also take into account what is the political climate as well as what is their relationship with the United States.

Most financial experts would advise that a great way to minimize risk is to buy countries not stocks. Instead of picking up a couple of Japanese stocks you could buy Japanese iShares which spreads your investments and therefore the risks over 225 companies. It is also important to re-balance your portfolio. Once at year you should review your investments and make the necessary changes to make your risk in certain countries is not too high.

You can do this by selling stocks that are doing well and getting stocks which are under performing but have the potential to grow. In a volatile market do not hold out for top dollar, if your stocks are at a good price, sell them and make a great profit!