Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Discover Forex Daytrading

A day trader is any trader who makes several trades per day, buying, selling, entering and closing out a trade in the same day. Forex daytrading is the same thing, only instead of trading stocks, forex traders buy and sell currencies.

Forex day trading is usually referred to as simply forex trading, but all day traders, whether they trade in stocks or currencies, attempt to increase their return by taking advantage of small price (stock) or rate (currencies) changes. Unlike buying stock in a company and waiting over the years as the company grows and the stock value increases, maybe even waiting on retirement to sell the stock or planning to leave it to children or even grandchildren, forex daytrading is not an investment that you make and then leave it alone to let it grow over time. It will not grow, exchange rates fluctuate too quickly.

Forex day trading requires an investment of time as well as money. Time must be taken to educate oneself in forex daytrading.

Until internet forex daytrading became so popular, only large financial institutions and corporations were involved in trading foreign currencies. Some people trade forex as a hobby and some make a career out of it. Forex daytrading professionals are intelligent well-educated people. They understand the trends and charts that make forecasting possible.

Forex day trading is similar to trading in the futures market, except that the liquidity is higher and the trading costs are lower. Also, because there is no central physical market, like the NYSE, forex daytrading can be carried out at all hours of the day and night. There is always a bank open somewhere in the world. In the world of forex day trading there are no exchange fees, no commissions paid to brokers, and low transaction fees. All of the fees and commissions reduced profitability for conventional traders in the futures market.

Sign on to any computer, go to any website search engine and type in forex daytrading, forex trading or simply forex. Most of those websites that come up offer platforms for trading. Some simply offer information. Others offer forex day trading education. This is where the forex trader lives, online, not on the floor of the NYSE. Forex daytrading can be risky or profitable, exciting or frustrating, but never, never boring.

Learn about our recommended resources for forex daytrading at http://www.forex-trading-reference.com

Make Money Forex Trading by Utilizing Volatility

Traders in the forex market are now a savvy lot. Almost everyone in the forex market nowadays are self trained in reading charts, or a user of some form of high technology software to trade the forex market. Some have graduated from using simple technical analysis to the new fangled sophistication of neural network forecasting and artificial intelligence. But yet a great majority of these professed experts fail in their trading, losing money from their trading rather than making profits. Why is it so?

The answer lies in the devil within. The traders who win are those who are capable of executing their trading plans with discipline and precision, and more importantly, they can cope with the VOLATILITY of forex trading.

Theory is if you can identify volatile movements, even if they are small, and execute trades with these volatile movements, buying on the lows and selling them at the peaks, you stand to make big profits. However, in practice, many volatile movements are too fast and tiny to be identified in time to be traded profitably. Where larger volatile movements are identified, it is error in judgment and the speed of execution of the trades that reduce the amount of profits.

When I was conducting research into writing a report on how a trader can recoup his losses after a horrendous period of bad trading, I was pleasantly surprised by a veteran trader who told me he was a profitable trader from day one of his starting trading. This is by no means a false claim, because this flamboyant trader has always been known both for his tremendous skill in trading and for being anything but decent about his skills and his ability to make the correct calls in the market.

Being surprised, I asked him what was his profession before he became a professional trader and a trading coach. His answer added to my surprise, because he said, " I was a professional poker player and the runner up in the Australian poker championship!".

Therein lies his great success as a forex trader as well, because as a poker player and a champion player at that, he was accustomed to taking calculated risks.

The secret to trading his style was to take calculated risks in his forex trading.

For example, if you have identified a trade, and you have placed a trade, do not place your stops too near the entry price because the odds favor the stops being hit most of the time. Rather, you can assess the odds and probability of the stops being hit before you place them. Again, when a trade presents itself, and you can compute that the odds of winning is in place rather than losing, it is then that you can increase your trades.

If you desire to win big, learn to compute the odds of winning, and like the successful poker player, bet big when the odds are in your favor and stay away from a trade where the odds indicate you will lose. This is where forex traders will measure their risk-reward ratios for their favorite trade setups and can identify which trade setup will result in bigger profits and with lower risks. This is a skill that you ought to learn to become more profitable.

Like to see how a professional trader uses the power of computing risk and reward to 3 of his most powerful proven trading strategies to trade the forex? With the Forex Trading Machine course, you will learn 3 major trading setups which will let you quickly identify accurate trade setups where you can have the odds of winning heavily in your favor rather than losing. Discover how you can grab hold of this course and special bonuses from my blog at Make Money Forex Trading and get a free trading video or visit http://forex-trading.cashflowpc.biz/ for free articles and lessons on forex trading.

Starting An E-Commerce Business

The development and expansion of the Internet has made business opportunities, once only available to the wealthy, available to nearly everyone. In the past, opening a business was a huge commitment in terms of finances and risk. Traditional business owners had to quit the their current jobs, obtain bank financing, and sign leases before they even made a penny. Its easy to see why 95% of them failed within five years. Today, business opportunities are available to anyone willing to put in the time and effort to learn about the world of e-commerce. Best of all, you can start an e-commerce business with minimal funds and very little risk. This guide will take you though the steps necessary to start your own e-commerce business.

Find Your Niche

The first step to creating your own e-commerce business is to find you niche. Examine your hobbies and interests for potential business ideas. If you love soccer, consider selling soccer supplies or team uniforms online. You may also consider opening a business that is similar to your current job. For example, as a nurse you may know a lot about medical supplies and how hospitals obtain them. You could start a medical supply business. Your contacts and industry knowledge could give you an advantage over a competitor who does not know the inner-workings of hospitals the way you do.

Research The Demand

Now that you have a few business ideas, its time to research the demand for your products or services. If you plan to sell to the general public, youll want to find out how many people are looking for your products or services. As a small business owner, you will not have the marketing funds to create a demand for a product. The products you sell, must already be in demand. A great way to determine product demand is to see how many people are searching for a specific product. Overture has a wonderful keyword tool (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/) that displays the number of searches for specific keywords. It will give you a good idea of which products are popular and the specific keywords you should target when building your website.

Scope Out Your Soon-To-Be Competitors

Before settling on a business idea, scope out your would-be competitors. Visit their websites and compare the following:

Professional Look & Feel

Products and Services

Search Engine Ranking

Page Rank (Available on the Google Tool Bar)

Keywords

Back Links (how many sites link to them).

Youll need to know your competitors websites inside and out. Spend some time exploring each one. This will give you an idea of what youre up against. Keep in mind, that your website will need to be equally as professional or better than theirs. Dont worry if you dont think you have the technical skills necessary to create a professional website. The use of professional website templates will be explained later.

While youre researching your competitors, check to see if the products you intend to sell are sold at large department stores such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Amazon.com. It is very difficult for a small business to compete with these large companies because the profit margins are extremely low. Youll need to sell products that are in demand, but arent sold by corporate giants.

Establish A Business Entity

In order to conduct business, you need to establish a business entity. Fortunately this can be as easy as filing a Doing Business As or Fictitious Name form with your local County Clerks office to become a sole proprietor. When you arrive at the County Clerks office, they will check their records to make sure your intended business name is not already in use. If its available, you will need to complete the appropriate forms and pay your filing fee. Each state has different requirements. Check with your state for requirements on becoming a sole proprietor.

You will also need a sales tax id. You will need to charge sales taxes in the state where your business resides. Contact your county office for details about sales tax IDs and any other requirements they may have.

Open A Business Bank Account

Now that you are a legitimate business owner, its time to open a business bank account. Take your court documents to the bank and open a business checking account. Most banks offer a variety of business accounts. Choose the one the best meets your needs. Its usually best to start with their least expensive account because it could be a while before you start earning revenue. You can always upgrade in the future.

Some banks require a business owner to wait specified amount of time, usually 90 days, after the court documents are filed before opening a business bank account. These rules are in place to help prevent fraud. Check with your bank to obtain waiting period information.

Choose A Domain Name

While you wait to open a bank account, you can start building your website. First, register a domain name. Names that end in .com are best. If possible your, domain name should include one or more of your target keywords. For example, if you are creating a yoga supply business, youll want to choose a name with the word yoga, such as yogacenter.com, yoga-supply.com, or yogastuff.com.

Create Your Website

One of the keys to successful e-commerce businesses is a professional website. Your website is the first and often the only impression your visitors will have of your business. A professional website can be the difference between your visitors viewing you as a home-based business operating out of your garage and a multi-million dollar business with hundreds of employees. Fortunately, you dont need to be a web programmer to create a professional website. There are companies that sell professional website templates. You can get website templates for free, but its much better to pay for a highly professional template. To find these templates, simply search for website templates. You should expect to pay $50 $150 for a good template with multiple pages and professional images.

Most website templates can be customized with common HTML editors and a simple graphics program. Templates can be edited without having to invest a lot of time and energy into learning how to code web pages.

Youll want your website content to target specific keywords. This can be achieved by creating articles, product reviews, product comparisons and detailed description of your products. Avoid repeating the keywords so often that the text becomes difficult to read. There is a fine line between good copy text and spam text. Spam text is designed to increase your sites listing in the search engines, but often backfires when penalties are issued and your website is dropped from the listing.

Host Your Website

Now that your website has been created, its time to find a company to host your website on their servers. You should be able to find a good hosting company for around $10 per month. This fee should include technical support and email accounts with your domain name. Domain name-specific email accounts are important for a professional image.

Your website files can be uploaded with a simple FTP program. The hosting companys technical support personnel can walk you through the steps to upload your files and launch your website.

Implement A Shopping Cart

No e-commerce website is complete without a secure shopping cart. There are many shopping cart options. Many e-commerce business owners make the mistake of using Pay Pal to accept payments, which immediately tells visitors that their company is very small and not professional.

A good alternative to Pay Pal is a remotely hosted shopping cart. Remote shopping carts take the burden of maintaining security and credit card numbers off your shoulder and places the responsibility on another company. Remote shopping carts can usually be configured to look similar to your website. In fact, your customers may not realize that they have left your website to place an order. The remote shopping cart provider will give you the HTML to add to your website. When your potential customer clicks on the Buy Now button, he or she is taken to the remote shopping cart to enter the personal information and payment details.

Depending on your choice of a shopping cart, you may or may not need a merchant account to process transactions. Some shopping cart services allow you to use their merchant accounts for a slightly higher fee.

Stock Your Inventory

Now that your website has been created, its time to stock your inventory. The first step is to find the manufacturers of the products you wish to sell. You can find this information by reviewing your competitors websites. Some of them may list the manufacturer with the product name or description. Once you have the name, you can search for the manufacturer online.

Contact the manufacturer and tell them that you are interested in becoming a distributor. Ask for a wholesale price list and an application. The price list will help you determine if the profit margins are high enough to justify selling their product.

Youll want to ask the manufacturer the following questions:

What is the MSRP (Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price) for the item?

Am I required to sell the item at MSRP?

What is your minimum order quantity/amount?

Some manufacturers will not sell to e-commerce businesses that do not have a brick and mortar retail location. If this is the case, youll simply have to find a company that manufactures a similar product and is willing to sell to an e-commerce business.

Promote Your Business

Now that your website is live and youre open for business, its time to promote your website. If no one knows that it exists, you will not receive any sales. Most website visitors originate from search engines. Before search engines can list your website, they have to know that it exists. Youll need to submit your website to search engines and directories such as Yahoo!, DMOZ, Excite, and others. Search engine submission programs and services are available, but they not effective. Most good search engines require websites to be manually submitted. They enforce this by displaying an image with a series of letters or numbers that automated programs cannot read. The code embedded in the image is required to submit your website.

Search engine algorithms are extremely complex. The ranking of a website in their search results depends on a number of factors, including keywords, density, back links, page rank, and other factors. After submitting your website to the major directories and search engines, the next step is to establish back links. When search engines crawl the web and find a link to your site, they count the link as a vote for your site. The more votes you have, the higher your site will rank (assuming other criteria has also been met). You can acquire back links by sending emails to other website owners and offering to exchange links. Its very difficult for new websites to acquire back links. Most people prefer to exchange links with established websites. In a way, its a catch-22, but it can be done and the results are worth it.

Starting your own e-commerce business is a lot of work. Making it successful is even more work, but the pay-offs can be rewarding. Thanks to the explosion of the Internet age, e-commerce business opportunities are now available to anyone with a computer, a few hundred dollars for start-up costs, some spare time and the desire to create a business.

Copyright 2004 ZIP Baby. All Rights Reserved.

About The Author

Danna Henderson started ZIP Baby in order to provide parents with comprehensive potty training information as well as a large selection of potty training products. For more information about potty training, or to browse the potty training store, visit the Toilet Time Targets for Potty Training.

Education In Real Estate Investing-What You Need To Know To Start Profiting Now

So you want a good education in real estate investing? Certainly, this is one of the most lucrative investing fields you can embark in, today or ever.

The great thing about real estate is that there will always be a great demand for it. Everybody will always need a home to live in, and thats what you can provide as a investor.

Many people have a big misconception about real estate investing. You see, most people mistakenly believe that most real estate investors make their money by buying for a low price, and then turning around and selling for a higher price. This is not what most successful real estate investing gurus do.

In reality, the vast majority of the successful real estate investors will buy a house only if they can be sure of making some long term income from it. Just like stock investing, the vast majority of investors are only looking for a quick buck.

The same thing applies to real estate investing. Like stock investing, the vast majority of real estate investors dont succeed because they are too focused on making a short term gain, and not worried enough about long term income. The ultra successful investors, on the other hand, will generally only buy a stock or real estate investment property if they can be assured of making a long term income from it.

In real estate investing, this would involved renting the property to someone else, and then using that as a passive long term income stream. of course, in order to know this, you will need a good education in finances and real estate investing. This means being able to read a financial statement, and determine an investments overall profitability before investing.

Unfortunately, most investors never do this simple little step. Remember, when it comes to investing, its all about the numbers. If the numbers arent there now, they likely never will be. Therefore, get a good educating in real estate investing, an then only invest if the numbers are right.

To learn to invest money and for other investing advice, try checking out http://www.online-investing-tips.com. This is a popular investment site that gives money investment advice to help you achieve financial freedom.

Mini Accounts: A Great Way to Get Your Start in Currency Trading

Currency trading is a risky but potentially profitable means of earning more money in addition to your regular income. There are many ways of going about it, but if you are a beginner to currency trading, I strongly suggest starting with what is called a mini Forex account. You can open a mini account with a minimum investment as small as $250, and some brokers will even allow you to open an account with a $100 minimum investment. With a mini account, you will still enjoy many of the same privileges as a regular account holder.

Let's look at the difference between a mini account and a standard Forex account. In a standard account, the lot or trading contract size amounts to 10,000 units of the base currency--in the case of USD, that would amount to $10,000. A mini Forex account will handle only a percentage of a single lot, which means that mini account contract is one-tenth the size of a standard Forex account contract. The pip values in mini Forex trading are also one-tenth the normal value.

Mini account trading does involve engaging in marginal trading. That means that you are making use of leverage, or in other words, borrowing money to be able to perform a trade without having to invest the full amount required for a single lot. The investment that you pay for out of your own pocket is called a marginal lot. For a mini account, the marginal lot for every $10,000 lot is $50, which is a 200 to 1 leverage. On starting a mini account with a minimum of $250, you are trading five mini lots with your investment.

Should you be concerned that the mini account requires a high degree of leverage as compared to other forms of trading? For example, stock market day trading has a leverage ratio of 4 to 1 in a trading day, which is far lower than the leverage ratio of mini account trading is 200 to 1. But this is the standard practice in mini Forex trading and traders and brokers do not see it as over-leveraging.

When you look at what happens in mini Forex trading, you will find that the traders risk on a mini account can be compensated by the smaller amounts of potential losses in mini trading. An average loss in mini account trading is one-tenth the amount that would be lost in an equivalent trade on a standard Forex account. That makes it easier for mini Forex traders to follow a disciplined trading strategy, since a trader normally finds it simpler to let go of a small loss, whereas a greater loss may prompt an investor to hold on longer than one should to a declining currency. The high leverage in mini Forex trading also gives an investor more options and trading strategies in currency trading.

A mini Forex account is the recommended investment choice for traders who want to invest $10,000 or less in currency trading.

Learn more about getting into Forex trading. View our latest articles about the Forex market at http://www.faso06.com

Commodity Trading Blunders IV, PART 1 - My Early Days As A Novice Trader

Be wary of the man behind the curtain. He may represent the biggest company with the most powerful software, but still, you need to verify. And remember, if whatever worthwhile you are trying to accomplish was easy, everyone would be doing it and already rich. Commodity trading takes lots of practice and skill. There are no shortcuts.

I keep coming back to Max, my first broker. Let me tell you another story that taught me two lessons. About the time I made the big British Pound futures contract trade, I started to notice that my commodity account statements did not agree with what I thought the balance should be. It was off something like $3,500. I sent my paperwork showing profits and losses to Max. He said the trades seemed correct, but still, my account balance was $3500 lower than it should have been.

Max finally told me to come in and sit down with a Merrill auditor. I showed up and met a thin, balding man of about 45, with glasses and a very conservative look. I just knew he was thinking I was the typical commodity futures gambler who would be blown out in no time. He had not studied my trading records to this point.

I showed him the futures trades and he looked them over one by one. What I remember about the session is his shocked look when he realized that I was actually making money in the account! He looked at the cotton ”limit up” trade and said, “ you made $5,000 on this trade?” I tried to act like it was nothing - like it was an everyday thing and said, “yep.” I could see his eyes widen as he looked at some of the “lucky” big ones. After about 45 minutes he said he could not find an error in my paperwork and said he would credit the futures account for the full $3,500 the next day.

I learned two valuable lessons that day. The first is not to trust any commodity account statement. As good as our computerized world is today, there are still mistakes being made. It can mean having wrong trades put into your account or not receiving them at all. Errors can be more numerous when day trading since many trades come and go quickly.

The second and most important thing I learned is that most new and inexperienced commodity futures traders lose and blow out their accounts. It’s just a matter of time before the commissions, bad analysis, ego generated mistakes, order mistakes, over-trading and everything else reduces the account to nothing. I realized this when the auditor was stunned that I was actually making money with Max. Later I found this to be the case in the real world. The statistics in stock trading are no different. Futures trading is not unique in this regard.

Hey, I’m not the greatest commodity trader either. I still struggle with the trading triangle every day. But you and I don’t have to be the best trader in the world to make money - only better than most. Perfection is not required.

Most commodity futures traders are reckless with their trading. Many just guess or look for tips. They come, play for a few months, get blown out and never come back. Then a new group comes in and the cycle repeats. Only a small percentage hang around long enough to learn how to break even. Even that is a big accomplishment. Later with persistence, learning and good fortune, they pull it off by making some money each year.

It’s all about the bell curve. At one end of the curve there will be some that are gone in a few days. In the middle, the majority will make a little, break even or lose a little. Then there are the superstars at the opposite end who consistently make multi-millions each year.

Probability allows for everything. Every scenario will play out eventually. If you stay focused and are willing to drop things that do not work and keep trying new ideas, you may be able to find the right combination that fits you to a ‘T.’ That’s the whole commodity futures and options game. You need to figure out your strengths and weakness. Then match up a commodity trading program where you feel comfortable and confident enough to take consistent action.

Part Two of Four - Next!

There is substantial risk of loss trading futures and options and may not be suitable for all types of investors. Only risk capital should be used.

Thomas Cathey directs the managed futures division of Thomas Capital Management, LLC. Get FREE, the complete 44+ lesson, "Thomas Commodity Trading Course" by visiting: http://www.thomascapitalmanagement.com/commodity/welcome.htm It's brand new and fun reading... a "street-wise" trading e-course. Visit the main Thomas Capital Management trading website at: http://www.ThomasCapitalManagement.com

Understanding Financial Statements

Financial accounting's focus is on the financial reports distributed to people outside of the company. The major component of financial reporting is the financial statements: income statement, balance sheet, statement of cash flows, and the statement of stockholders' equity. The income statement indicates a company's profitability during a specified time period such as one year, three months or one month.

Under accrual accounting the income statement reports the amount of revenues earned and the expenses that were incurred to earn the revenues. Expenses also include costs that expired during the period of the income statement. If a corporation's stock is publicly traded, the income statement will also report the earnings per share of common stock. The balance sheet reports a corporation's assets, liabilities, and stockholders' equity as of a specific instant, such as midnight of December 31. Most balance sheets will group all of the current assets and all of the current liabilities. This allows readers to easily see the corporation's working capital and current ratio. The statement of cash flows organizes the explanations of the change in cash and cash equivalents into three sections: operating activities, investment activities, and financing activities. The statement of stockholders equity provides a summary of the changes occurring to stockholders' equity during the accounting period. The changes include net income, dividends declared, purchase of treasury stock, and other comprehensive income.

In order for the readers of these financial statements to make comparisons with other companies, it is necessary that the financial statements follow some common rules. The rules are referred to as generally accepted accounting principles or GAAP (pronounced gap) and consist of several components. One component of GAAP is the basic or fundamental accounting principles and concepts such as cost, matching, going concern, economic entity, materiality, conservatism, consistency, reliability, and others. You can see a brief explanation of these basic principles along with an example of each at AccountingCoach.com.

Another part of GAAP includes the detailed rules established by the Financial Accounting Standards Board or FASB (pronounced fas Bee). These pronouncements are entitled statements of financial accounting standards. FASB interpretations are also part of GAAP. You can view these pronouncements at www.FASB.org/st. The accounting rules established by the predecessors of the FASB remain as GAAP unless they have been superceded by the FASB.

Lastly, GAAP includes industry practices. For example, the balance sheet of a public utility will list the plant assets ahead of its current assets. Unique reporting practices often occur in industries that are regulated by government agencies.

The financial accounting and financial reporting of publicly traded corporations also include the annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission (Form 10-K), the annual report to stockholders, and various press releases on financial matters.

The Accounting Coach is a former university instructor known for his clarity in presenting accounting information. He now spends his time developing a free website of accounting material, http://www.AccountingCoach.com

How to Sell Covered Calls, Part 1

There is a way. By selling a call when you also own 100 shares of the underlying stock, you cover your position. If the option is called away by the buyer, you can meet the obligation simply by delivering shares that you already own.

You enjoy several advantages through the covered call.

You are paid a premium for each call that you sell, and the cash is placed in your account at the time you sell. While this is also true of uncovered call writing, the same risks do not apply. You can afford exercise because you own 100 shares of stock. Upon exercise, you would not be required to buy shares at market price; you simply relinquish ownership of the shares you already own.

The actual net price of your 100 shares of stock is reduced by the value of the option premium. The covered call discounts your basis because you receive cash when you sell the call. This gives you flexibility and downside protection, as well as greater versatility in selling calls with high time value.

Selling covered calls provides you with the freedom to accept moderate interim price declines, because the premium you receive reduces your basis in the stock. Simply owning the stock without the discount means that declines in the stock's market value represent paper losses.

By selling calls against appreciated stock, you are able to augment profits and, in the case of exercise, build in a capital gain as well.

The disadvantage to covered call selling is found in lost opportunity risk that may or may not materialize. If the stock's market value rises dramatically, your call will be exercised at the specified striking price. If you had not sold the call, you would benefit from higher market value in shares of stock. So covered call sellers trade the certainty of premiums received today, for the potential lost profits in the event of exercise.

Tip: The major risk associated with covered call writing is the possibility of lost income from rising stock prices. But that might not happen at all; when you sell a call, you accept the possibility of lost capital gains income in exchange for the certainty of call premium income.

Get your Momentum Stock Trading System and sign up for my free weekly online trading system newsletter here at: http://www.stressfreetrading.com