Currency Trading Success 6 Tips to Increase Your Profits

If you want to increase your profit potential and achieve currency trading success then the simple tips will help you.

Some are at normal investment wisdom, but as the bulk of traders dont ever achieve long term currency success, so thats Good!

Here are your 7 tips for greater currency trading success and bigger profits.

1. Focus on the long term trends

Currency trends mirror the health of the economy generally and economic trends last years and these are reflected in currency trends.

Forget day trading, its the equivalent to flipping a coin. You cant predict such short term movements so dont try.

When flipping a coin the odds are even, but keep in mind in currency trading the fact that you have to place a stop and you have to overcome both slippage and commission, means you will take a thumping loss.

Day trading wont lead to currency trading success for you, but will simply make your broker rich.

2. Trade in frequently

Many traders want to be in the market all the time and act like gamblers trading for the sake of trading if you DONT want currency trading success do this!

Only trade this moves with the best profit potential.

Keep in mind you may need to be patient You cant hurry the market, so dont try.

3. Dont diversify too much

If you dont risk anything you wont make anything.

Diversification is the enemy of making really big gains.

To make really big profits you have to have the courage to take calculated risks on the really good trades and go for maximum profits.

This is the only way you will make really big gains - Period.

4. Use a simple system

There is no correlation between how complicated a system is and how much profit it will make.

On the contrary, simple systems are more robust than complicated ones and will cope better in the face of brutal market conditions.

A good example of a simple system is a breakout system, which anyone can understand.

You must always make sure you understand the systems logic.

If you do, you will have the discipline to follow it through inevitable losing periods, so never trade a system where the logic is not revealed.

A great method to learn is the Gann method of trading, its different, its revealed and it made him $55 million.

In conclusion, get a system you understand, thats simple and that has been proven to be successful.

5. Never Seek or Give Opinions

If you win at currency trading you will often be trading in the opposite direction to the majority so dont discuss your trades with other people, they will put you off and dont give opinions either.

Trade in isolation.

Independent thought, is one of the keys to currency trading success so dont get distracted.

6. Stay with the majors

Stay with the major currencies: US $, British Pound, Euro Swiss Franc and Japanese yen.

These all have good liquidity and good trends.

Dont trade minor currencies that can feature erratic moves or currencies that dont have a long history.

The majors will give you plenty of opportunities so use them.

Above are six general rules for currency trading success and bigger profits.

In part 2 of this article we will look at some others that will help you achieve bigger profit potential from your currency trading. Good luck!

ONE OF THE WORLDS TOP TRADING SYSTEMS REVEALED!

W D Gann was a trading legend and made over 50 million trading. Get more info on all aspects of Gann trading including an exclusive Gann Trading Course visit our website for a huge resource of articles, features and downloads and at http://www.net-planet.org/index.html

Race Horses and Mutual Funds

For years investors have been taught to look into the composition of a mutual funds. In other words the "experts" want you to take the time to analyze the stocks within the mutual fund portfolio, categorize them by industry group and try to understand the objective of the fund manager. This is nonsense.

When I go the track I look to see what the horse has been doing for the last several races. I don't give a hoot what he had for breakfast. All I want to know is has he been fast? Is there a good chance he will finish in the money in the next race? I only want to know how he has been performing.

Most mutual fund managers, except those who follow index funds, are always trading. You have no idea that what is in the portfolio today was there yesterday or will be tomorrow. Some fund managers trade more than others, but you can prove this to yourself by looking at the fund prospectus at the beginning of the year and one of the updates that funds publish quarterly. Many of the stocks will still be there, however, you don't know if the percentage holdings are the same.

By the way, don't bother reading a mutual fund prospectus. They are worthless when it comes to making money. Consider that most of the information in it is about a year old by the time you read it. Think about this seriously for a minute. Is there anything you can find out in the document that will show up in your bottom line? I'll wait while you think. OK? There really wasn't anything was there? All prospectuses are basically worthless.

But you say the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) in Washington approved this. No, they did NOT. They don't approve of anything; they just read it to be sure it meets the regulatory requirements for disclosure. There is almost no difference between the prospectus for the worst mutual fund and the best mutual fund and both of them may have been read by the same Dilbert in his cubicle at the SEC.

There is one excellent way to find out which fund to buy. It is based on performance. How much has the fund increased in price during the past 12 months? Just 12 months. Many financial analysts want you to look at 3-year, 5-year and 10-year performance. Remember that horse? I don't care how many races he won 3 or 5 years ago. Can he run NOW? There are many publications and web sites that tell you the best performers. Investor's Business Daily prints a list of best performing funds each day. You might have to see the paper every day as they sometimes just tell about the long-term performance. You want the last 12 months and the last 3 months.

Three years ago you could have bought the best performing fund on the street and today have a dog. I call a dog any mutual fund that is not outperforming the S&P500 index.

If you were a jockey you would want to ride the fastest horses because in many races you get a percentage of the purse. The same applies to mutual funds. You must own only the best performing funds at all times. Like the jockey you must pick the fastest horse if you want to be a winner.

You should review your fund holdings monthly to see that you are only in the best funds. It might take you an hour, but you will find that you will double the current return on your mutual fund investments. Do it!

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.

Runescape Guides - A Beginners Guide To Making Money On Runescape

If you are reading this it's probably because you are interested in Runescape and more importantly making money on Runescape. With millions of players now playing the online game, it's no wonder that there is such a huge demand for making money guides for Runescape.

More or less as soon as you have finished on Tutorial Island, the fun begins. It's easy to get a little overwhelmed for the first few times you go on. The whole place looks so big and confusing. There are people everywhere, probably trying to trade with you do you even know what trading is yet?

Take your time and look around, you don't (and probably won't) make it around the whole world on your first visit. Chances are, you might get lured into the Wilderness though Players are good at doing this to you and it's something that you should avoid at all costs. Never follow someone that tells you to follow them past the warning ditch into wildy, it's where players can kill each other (known as PK player killing).

Next, you might be told that the best way to start making money is by killing chickens and collecting their feathers. It's a very good idea, but you need to collect a few hundred (about a thousand ideally) and sell them all in one go to make the most amount of money from them.

A much better idea is to go mining. As you mine you are gaining experience and pushing your levels up, as your levels progress so does the available ores. The one you can start mining straight away is copper and tin, if you smelt these together them produce bronze. I strongly advise doing both mining and smelting to start with. Not only will it take your experience and levels up, it's easy to sell and in demand most of the time.

This brings me on to another problem that people new to the game soon come across. Not everything stays at the same price all the time. Supply and demand play a big part of how much something costs. For example, yew logs are normally in demand all the time, whereas sapphires can be sold for lots of GP (gold pieces the currency of Runescape) on one day and then nothing the next. If lots of people start to sell something at the same time, the price will go down. If there is hardly anyone selling something, the price shoots up. Learning how to judge this is important.

Making money on Runescape takes time and effort, but the rewards are certainly worth it. Anyone with lots of GP will hold power, power can get you almost anything you want. It's easy to see why there are lots of people playing the game purely to make money (you can also make money in the real world given enough time.)

To get more great runescape guides, including many on how to make money on Runescape, simply teleport to our great new blog Runescape Guides & Tips

Taking Risk on High Yielding and Broader Capital Ventures

Private Equity Venture Capital is an investment stocks from private firms that are not listed in stock exchanged market. Usually the exchanged market is composed of members who inter-sale securities in a definite stock market set at a particular time, or fixed buying timetable of closure. Private equity is funding on a very broad sense. Types are leverage buyout, growth capital, angel capital, venture capital, and the mezzanine capital.

Some Types of Private Equity Venture that are Popularly Favored

1. The Leverage Buyout

This kind of venture capital is set on a ratio of 90 to 10 percent capital funding distribution coming from loans, or second party funds with a 10 percent equity of the base company, using the assets of the enterprise to pose as collateral for those borrowed funds, and payments thereby of said loans will be paid by any cash flow, proceeds, or acquired gains of the subject business in equity.

In some instances, a significant amount of debt will be incurred to zero equity at all (disregarding the remaining 10% if it's not available at all). Usually, this happens when an enterprising group takes over the acquisition of a public or private company or business that's in the brink of insolvency due to mismanagement, or corruption. In other cases it is a combined capital from the buying group of managers, and from outside funding thru acquired debts, most often in form of high yield "trash" bonds.

2. The Angel Capital

This private equity capital venture that involves several business entrepreneurs joining together as a group "angel group" with the aim to invest as a collective shareholder of an entrepreneur's stock, with visions to specialize in some industry's expertise, likewise marketing in specific markets of target.

A wide range of innovative industries that has been patronized by the angel group capitalist, from software, communications, manufacturing, medical equipments, and various innovative devises used in hospitals and in the medical profession. These Angel groups aim at contributing to the economy in particular, and usually choose to involve with entrepreneurs just within their regional jurisdiction, so their visions will be established where it is projected to be catered along.

3. Mezzanine capital

It is a capital (debt incurred in equity capital ventures), which operates in a very broad financial process from the point the indebtedness has been drawn from a financier up to the time payments are settled, thus making a risky venture but with high yielding profits in investments classified as "subordinate" (a preferred stock), debt representing a claim on the Company's assets that are directly next level-higher than the company's shareholders.

Mezzanine debt often includes equity warrants, a separate clause attached to the obligation (notwithstanding the usual charge on interests), a debt conversion feature, more likely similar to convertible bonds.

Low Jeremy maintains http://venture-capital.articlesforreprint.com . This content is provided by Low Jeremy. It may be used only in its entirety with all links included.

Forex Course Trading

Nothing can help you better understand the nuances of the exciting tools and strategies of the forex market than a forex course trading. If you are a first time player or want to start as a foreign currency trader, a course in the forex market can guide you and build your confidence to face the real world.

The foreign currency market is highly developed with some of the most advanced trading systems and features available to make your decisions more scientifically. Whether you are a day trader or a long term player, you need to develop your own strategies to time the market and your entry and exit points. Forex course trading can help you in your understanding of the terms and concepts. As you learn the basic tricks of the trade, you can learn the advances strategies, straddle concepts, technical analysis indicators, charting software and other tit bits to gain your foothold in the forex market.

Forex market demands a fair bit of knowledge about the finer aspects of trading and techniques to be successful consistently. Hence it is all the more important that you are armed with right training. Forex course trading can fill that gap and make even a novice an expert in the field.

While it is true that no forex trading course can make you rich overnight, it is also true that there are no magic formulae to make money in the shortest possible time. It is only patience, hard work and consistency that brings dividend in the long run. A good course will equip you not only with the trading strategies but also how to handle exceptions and time your market moves.

Charting and Technical Analysis are one of the most important tools for predicting the future trends and fluctuations. Forex course trading will help you do that to give shape to your strategies for your good. A good trader does not spend his time and energy trading all day. He looks for 4 or 5 good trading opportunities in a week and place his orders based on that analysis. The timing is very important and so is the correctness of his prediction. This way you can earn better than the expected returns without having to time the market all the times. Hence an understanding of the trading systems and rules allow you to concentrate on exceptions rather than all the currencies and commodities for making an entry in the market.

If you are planning to take forex course trading, never be enamored by all those claims of making risk free profits by trading in currency spot and futures. Remember that there are no free lunches. Currency trading is a specialized field and has its own risk reward paradigm. In most of the cases, you will have to adjust your trading strategies to fit that paradigm to remain within the ranges. One wrong move and all your equity may be wiped out. The forex course trading will also help you to understand that sometimes it is better to cut losses than to cut a sorry figure later.

Thomas D. Houser
The key to successful Forex trading is knowledge.
http://www.bestforexcurrencyinfo.com/

Diversify, Diversify, Diversify

Diversification, even in trading, is very important for risk reduction. Since you aren't going to be correct in every trade you make, diversification is necessary and important as a means to risk reduction and capital preservation.

The simple fact is this: if you put all your trading capital in one or a very limited number of stocks, you are just asking for trouble and increasing the risk you are exposing your money to. At some point, if you trade long enough, you will undergo owning a stock that drops like a rock for one reason or another. Most people who have traded for any length of time have been there, and it's no fun at all. Avoiding putting all of your eggs in one basket is the first step in limiting risk when it comes to both investing and trading.

It is important to avoid investing too much in a position. There is an old story on Wall Street where one trader asks another trader for advice. He says, "I've bought so much of this stock that I can't get any sleep at night... what should I do?" His friend says, "Reduce your position in the stock down to the sleeping point. This is not only very good advice, but very true. The smart trader takes up no position in such large quantities that it makes him overly nervous or subjects him to loss of sleep.

Trade at levels which you can afford, and you will generally feel much more comfortable in your trading. This will generally result in much clearer thinking and smarter decisions on your part. Too much risk will result in too much fear, and that will cloud your thinking and judgment.

Trade stocks that you know. Part of being confident about a position you take up relates to having some understanding of the company behind the stock. Clearly it is impossible to know every little detail about the day-to-day operation of every business you buy stock in. However, it does help if you have a basic understanding of the type of business they are in and how news (positive or negative) may relate to and/or impact a company and their stock. This will not only help you feel more comfortable about the position you take up, but it will allow you to more quickly evaluate news which may be released regarding the company.

Trade stocks you know or that are in areas you may have experience in. Warren Buffett is a good example of this philosophy. He has no problem telling share holders in his investment companies that he doesn't understand much about technology related companies and therefore steers clear of buying such stocks. Sticking to what you know is not only a good way to start out investing and trading stocks, but it can help you feel more confident and make better decisions along the way.

Another approach is to trade popular/liquid stocks. Stocks that are "popular" with the public and investment community have a very real benefit to your trading. Specifically, they tend to be very liquid. Liquidity is a measure of how much volume changes hands on a specific stock (typically on a daily basis). The more liquid the stock is (i.e. the more shares it trades) the more likely you'll get a fair price when buying or selling the stock. Also, the more likely it is that there will be a market to buy from or sell into.

Trading stocks which have very low volume (typically under 100,000 shares per day) can incur additional costs and can limit your ability to get in and out quickly when so desired. Often times if you try to buy or sell a large block of stock, there simply won't be a market at current prices. This can result in the market "stepping away" from you when you go to sell. Worse yet, you can drive the price up on yourself. While there are times when buying a little known stock may work out, for most of your trading, you should strongly consider sticking to actively traded stocks. This is true of options trading as well (i.e. stick to options on stocks which trade higher volume).

Trade stocks that are making money. The stock market is based largely on economics and business (with some emotion and perception thrown in). As a result, I personally feel it's a good idea to trade stocks on companies which are currently showing a profit, as opposed to companies which "might show a profit someday". Great ideas are a dime a dozen, as they say, and you don't have to look far on Wall Street to find stock in companies that are using other peoples' money to test out their "great" idea. In my personal opinion, I would much rather be trading stocks in companies that are currently profitable.

Additionally, keep in mind that even companies that are "making money" on the top line may not be "profitable" from a net (bottom line) profit standpoint. There are many companies out there that have racked up a tremendous amount of debt and/or have business models that, while they bring in quite a bit of cash, are unable to actually show a profit at the end of the year. Generally speaking, stocks which are currently showing a profit or are very close and very likely to show a profit in the near term, trade better and are somewhat less risky than stocks which are either in the red or struggling to show profits on their financial statements.

Part of this is because valuations are much easier to calculate from real earnings (i.e. using the company's P/E ratio) than trying to base valuations on "what might happen" down the road. True, sometimes stocks trade more actively or more wildly on news of potential profits, but at the same time, when a company announces they may not meet analysts' expectations or may experience an earnings short fall, it can get quite dangerous. Consider sticking to companies with tangible, consistent earnings when doing your trading as a further means to risk reduction.

Finally, avoid buying the Big Event. This idea tends to go hand in hand with the ideas presented above (regarding trading companies that actually are able to show a profit). In the stock market, there is always "some big event" that might take place for a company or the market. Buying or selling based on the possibility that this event may take place (or may not take place) or based on the how the market might react to such an event tends to turn your trading into a gamble more than anything else - and this is very risky.

Buying a stock ahead of what might be a "big event" can be quite risky and often times tends to delay your trading. Very often these big events (such as mergers, buyouts, etc.) get delayed for months and months. If you wish to hold a stock for weeks and weeks or months and months waiting for some big news flash, then that's perfectly okay. However, just keep in mind that generally stocks move up on news far before the average individual hears about even the rumor of the news. As a result, you often see stocks trade down on positive news (due to the fact that the news was already anticipated long in advance and largely priced into the stock prior to the release of the actual news). Generally speaking, buying the big event will tend to be not only risky, but also will tend to slow down and stagnate your trading. Avoid them when possible.

Good luck in the markets!

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.

Ray Johns is the founder and Senior Market Editor of Daytraders.com, Proudly serving day traders & short-term investors since 1996, at http://www.daytraders.com Daytraders.com is the publishers of the award winning Morning Stock Market Report and the home of the Internets finest real time trading desk. Ray has been on the forefront of trading and investing in the markets and has appeared as a guest on a number of radio and television shows including CNBCs Market Talk. If you would like a free trail of the newsletter and the live trading desk log on to Daytraders.com. Comments and questions can be sent to articles@daytraders.com.

Series 27

Financial and operations positions at an NASD firm usually require the Series 27 license. There are several areas and departments of a brokerage firm. People looking to become brokers will usually need to take the series 6 or series 7. Supervisors of brokers or sales people may need the series 24.

The Series 27 is an exam that covers topics consistent with working as a compliance officer or in another financial operations department. The exam is 145 questions and multiple choice. Like the other NASD tests, the Series 27 can be taken any day of the week at Prometric testing centers. You must register through your brokerage firm prior to arranging a test date. Once you are registered, a 120 day testing window is opened. You can take the Series 27 at any time during that 120 day period. If you fail the exam, you must wait 30 days before sitting for the test again. If you fail the Series 27 three times, you must wait 6 months.

Most of the exam covers rules, regulations and operations of an NASD firm.

Test Breakdown

The Series 27 covers several main topic areas, they include:

Balance sheet and net capital.

This section will cover computing a firm's net capital, understanding the rules and minimums of keeping minimum net capital, and understanding the balance sheet. It will also test the candidate on the effects of loans and securities on net capital and its effect on the balance sheet. This is the area that covers the most math on the test.

Reporting

This area of the Series 27 includes purchases and sales of securities, transfer of securities, customer settlements and confirmations, and other items that require record keeping and reporting.

Customer Protection and Notification

This section of the exam will test you on notifications, delivery of securities, and activities in the accounts of the firm's customers.

Margin Accounts

A fairly large section of the Series 27 deals with lending of money and securities in margin accounts. The margin section will cover market values, equity, debit balance, SMA, hypothecation and the markets effect on margin accounts. There is some math in this section. You need to know basic calculation and the rules associated with margin accounts. Federal Reserve Board and NYSE margin rules are covered in this section.

MSRB

The organization that oversees the municipal industry is known as the MSRB - Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board. Brokerage firms that sell municipal securities must abide by the MSRB. Students studying the Series 27 must be familiar with the rules and regulation that are covered by the MSRB.

Other areas include rules and securities acts.

Series 27 Career

If you are looking to break into the financial operations area of NASD firms, the Series 27 can be a big plus. If you are in between jobs or firms and do not currently hold the Series 27 license, you might want to consider studying for it and begin adding your process on your resume. Doing this can give you an advantage over other candidates not familiar with the exam. These are salary positions, which is the good part. Most jobs at brokerage firms (that are non-support jobs) are commission - or largely based on commission. The bad part is that firms do not hire groups of people for their compliance department. You need to keep a look-out for these openings. Most firms only need one compliance officer.

Good luck in your career!

Nick Hunter is the President of American Investment Training http://www.aitraining.com. They offer home study courses for all NASD exams, including the Series 27.

A Modern Economist's Bartering System

Forex or foreign exchange is a growing industry in the economic market. Currencies are traded for another, thus making the foreign exchange market the largest in terms of cash. Because of trading between one bank to another, not to mention the trading between multinational corporations and government, between financial markets and institutions, cash is abundant and easily flows in foreign exchange trading.

Due to its various trading components (since there are a lot of foreign currencies in the international market over-all), the liquidity or easy cash flow of the market, huge bulk of traders and a 24-7 service transaction, the foreign exchange market is unique and is here to stay in the competitive world of business.

The foreign exchange market is not unified. There is no single dollar rate. Dollar rate varies from one country to another, this is due to the over-the-counter or OTC transactions that is practiced in most forex industries. There maybe different prices to a dollar, which is dependent on the bank, but generally, the rates are pretty much close.

The trading centers in Tokyo, New York and London are the centers of foreign exchange trading. However, all are interconnected. Tokyo may be the center for the Asian market, New York for the US and London for Europe but notice the chain of one to the other two. For example, the US session ends, then the Europe session begins followed by the Asian. It is a cycle and a change from one capital can affect the other two.

Foreign exchange can be considered as the modern economists barter exchange. A currency of one economy can be traded to another. The most heavily traded currencies are that of:

- the US dollar to the Euro
- the US dollar to the Japanese Yen
When the Euro became the official currency of the 12 of the 15 then members of the European Union, it was pitted against the dollar. The Euro enjoyed periods of ups and downs in comparison to the American dollar. As of most recent news, the dollar declined to a low as opposed to the Euro despite of the decline in the American deficit. The fact that well-established and developed countries have one currency as their official fiscal trading component, the Euro gets stronger than ever in the economic aspect.

Its not only the three forex capitals that play a part in foreign exchange trading. Markets of other economies are free to join. In fact, even their banks have a role to play in the big economic picture. Commercial turn overs and large trading are catered by international banks on a daily basis. Some of these banks trade their currencies for dollars.

Commercial companies also sought the assistance of the forex market to pay for the obtained goods and rendered services. Commercial companies may have smaller amounts of currency transactions as opposed to banks, but these trades and exchanges among commercial companies are still necessary for the trading market. For example, a multinational company that is based on various locations through out the world may have an impact in the economic picture as a whole when it stops participating in the trading market. This is the another example of the mentioned scenario: that one capital session can affect the other two, so does one multinational company in any location can affect the forex trading as a whole.

Another example proving that countries are interconnected. One economys gold is another economys gain as well.

For more information and tips about forex trading. Visit us at http://www.ForexTradingSpot.net.

Stock Chart Reading

As an investor you will want to check out any equity before you buy it. Many investors go to Morningstar which is one of the largest providers of mutual fund information in the world. It is assumed that their information is correct. After all that is what you are paying for.

Recently the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) called them on the carpet for not correcting an error within a reasonable time (whatever that is according to the SEC). Everyone makes errors and this was no big deal.

It seems that when you went to their site and drew up a chart or asked for statistics on Rock Canyon Top Flight mutual fund it failed to notify the potential buyer that the fund had issued a very large dividend of approximately 25% and the NAV (Net Asset Value) dropped from $15 to $11 to reflect the $4.00 dividend.

When you ask for a chart of this fund on MarketWatch, Yahoo, TheStreet or Bloomberg they only post the NAV and do not make any adjustment for the dividend or capital gains distributions. Looking at the chart it appears the fund fell out of bed. Because I look at so many charts I knew immediately that this was a distribution and not some calamity. It is best to call the fund to verify this.

Most funds that make dividend and capital gains distributions usually do so in December, some in November and very few at other times during the year.

Some nitpicker called the SEC and made a complaint about Morningstar. Not that I am a big fan of them (in fact I think their reports are worthless) they get their price information from other sources such as the above. If you are not familiar with the requirement of mutual funds to disburse their profit before year end you might be fooled when you see the price suddenly drop.

This is important for potential investors. I caution everyone to get a chart on the Internet of at least a one year performance of any mutual fund before buying. It is better to go back to year 2000 to see if the fund manager was able to keep from losing money during the last 4 years. Almost none of them could so they bamboozle about how they did better than the S&P500 Index which had a huge loss of 50% and remains down 25% from those highs at this time. Dont fall for that one.

Once again I caution that any purchase should have an exit plan. One of the basic rules of investing is never to lose a lot if you are wrong. Small losses will not ruin your portfolio, but big losses can ruin your retirement. Set your loss limit (5%, 10% or ?) and stick with it.

Charts can help you with buying/selling decisions, but check out their accuracy as charting is not an exact science.

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.

Saifun -- Is It The Little Flash Company That Could?

NASDAQ: SFUN 26.88

Do you think the market for smart phones, digital audio (MP3) players, consumer solid state drives (SSDs), portable media players, digital video cameras, GPS devices, multimedia and music handsets, memory cards and USB flash drives are growing? All these products provided a disruptive position taking away market share from their predecessors.

One market segment that could see even stronger growth than these separate products we mentioned, and include other growth products, is the flash memory market. Flash is a root component used in all the above products and more.

Based on history we are forecasting that flash is the memory medium of choice for a plethora of devices in the consumer electronics in wireless devices and that flash will grow faster than the wireless devise market. It appears that in the past, memory for computing devices has grown faster than the device that utilizes the memory. Memory of the Personal Computer (PC) and the Internet has grown faster than their supporting platform. With the PC creating tremendous growth and history as our guide the demand for both memory and disc drives for the personal computer was often the impetus of many upgrade cycles. The Internet with the many millions of new web pages created a tremendous growth in storage. Ive seen in many reports that forecasted storage of the internet has been one of the fastest growing subsets of the internet as a whole.

With a decrease in price per gigabyte (GB) of more than 80 percent over the past three years and with the high growth in wireless data the need for new and addition memory could exceed the growth of the hardware device market that uses flash for its memory. The current market in flash memory is about $25 billion annually and its forecast is about 40 billion by 2010.

With each new product cycle the advantages of flash have become more disruptive allowing it to become about 30-40% cheaper every year. Many experts are forecasting this disruptive curve to replace the disc drive market for PCs. Flash has already replaced hard drives in most MP3 players.

Currently the flash memory is designed to support two types of flash memory. One type of memory supports your machines internal usage or operating system, the other type is for more external storage needs. The internal memory often uses the architecture of NOR, which has been established for years and Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) considered by many as the market leader. The NOR technology is a more complex technology and is starting to see the market mature.

Often you will find both NOR and NAND in the same mobile device.

The much faster growing market is for external memory market needs or NAND and the one of the leaders is SanDisk. SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK), founded and managed by president and CEO Dr. Eli Harari. SanDisk and Toshiba jointly launched the multi-level cell (MLC). This technology made it possible to divide the cell and store two bits of data on the same piece of silicon (x2, as it were), which significantly improved the profitability of manufacturers and fabs, basically doubling the price performance curve.

This process has become the leader and allowed NAND MLC to become disruptive to the predecessor NOR architecture and in 18 months penetration has been so great that MLC is becoming dominate force in flash.

We believe that this new curve of double captivity on a single cell technology will become the single most important factor for next generation flash memory, and it will become essential as flash is staring to see possible limits in the reduction of its die size as many experts are starting their forecasting. If flash is going to continue on its curve of lowering the price of a gigabyte by 80% over the next three years, it is my opinion they will need an architecture thats designed specifically to establish this goal. There is a proprietary NROM architecture that has many advantages toward increasing capacity of bits per cell. The NROM is close to production of 4 bits of memory in each cell or quad flash.

The company we believe has a unique position and leads the NROM approach in the flash memory market is an Israeli based company called Saifun (NASDAQ:SFUN).

Saifun is an intellectual properties company which its revenues come in three forms: licenses, royalties and support. This type of model has been very successes for our model portfolios in the past. The three previous companies that had core business from intellectual property we investment into our portfolios were Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) in1997 at 3.31 per share and still holds a position. Arm Holdings (NASDAQ:ARMHY) in 9/29/1999 @ 9.60 and holds half a position and Rambus (NASDAQ:RMBS) in 1998 which appreciated about 350% in 2000 and we sold the position in the model portfolio when Intel stopped supporting the Rambus architecture late and 2000 and in 2001.

Even though it is very early is Saifun publicly traded history we are excited by its new form of flash memory architecture, it appears that Saifuns approach has many advantages over the more established NAND and especially NOR. The single most important part is their technology curve. They have the ability to double the bits per cell allowing for a second compounding curve. The other architecture they are working hard on is to shrink their size and increase density, but we believe that Saifun with its simpler model should achieve a smaller die than the others but the real advantages with Saifun is the ability to allow 4 bits of memory in every piece of silicon (x4). Doubling again the events of MLC while at the same time reducing their size thus possibly leading the new flash architecture. Another advantage is NROMs ability to work both as an operating system and memory component being able to supply both markets that individually NOR and/or NAND has target.

A second company has just announced that in 2007 they will start producing a 4 bit cell in NAND. The company making this announcement is M-Systems (NASDAQ: FLSH). They claim they will have a product on the market some time in 2007. Even though they have achieved this tremendous breakthrough we believe that because they use the whole cell instead of a fraction of the cell for this doubling process, the whole cells ability to double again may become geometrically tougher. On the last review M-Systems has not explained their business model to (make at own fabs or licenses) and delayed the secondary offering.

It is has been our opinion that companies that form successful royalty models resemble gutters and the fab companies have the appearance like shingles when looking at a roof. When it rains the gutter can create a stronger stream receiving income and achieve a much higher level of profitability. The delay of M-Systems secondary offing might reduce the chance of more fab developments.

Either way this looks like a marathon race and since this is such a very large market it will be about a $40 billion market when quad flash is widely available, that means that any of the top three or four should benefit.

Saifun already competes extremely well with NOR but early 2007 when it doubles the number of bits from 2 bits to 4 per cell it should be able to show advantages over MCL NAND currently the price performance leader. Saifun has a chance of repeating the same step that, in our opinion, allowed SanDisk to lead the last cycle.

There are many new technologies looking to replace flash but at this point there are a few that are close to achieving mainstream volumes. You should know the Saifun technology hibernated for about twenty years. This is very common, the Internet incubated for about 30 years and electricity for 100 years. New technologies often hibernate longer than people anticipate, and then it seems that they often almost explode onto the seen very quickly.

Even though Saifuns approach is about 20 years old, the technology they have just started to achieve is commercial feasibility.

The true advantage is since they only use points in the cell versus in the more convention approach such as NOR or NAND that uses the whole cell. This simpler usage allows for higher data retention and also provides a faster response time, and hopefully more density, and less power.

This is a tremendous advantage having 4 times the bits in competitive cells. Saifun also believe future that future cells could expand to possible to 8 or even 16 bits per silicon.

Possible risk

Saifun only has a handful of clients, if they loose Infineon Technologies (NYSE:IFX) Saifun largest client, they would impact their business tremendously. On a side note, it looks like it will pick up UMC out of Taiwan.

Saifun has basically signed many very large vendors like Sony (NYSE:sne) and Spansion (NASDAQ:SPSN) a spin off Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE:AMD) / Fujitsu (pink sheets) these based solely on the flash market are small in the market, since the production volume is small this could make it harder to be designed into leading volume products.

Even though we believe NROM offers a simpler cell structure with several layers, we believe it will be easy over time to reduce or migrate to a smaller form factor, but this has not been completed in high volume production. If and/or until they can compete in a smaller form factor this company will be, based on unit size, be at a significant disadvantage. Experts believe in 2007 this disadvantage should be at most minimal and Saifun believes in late cycles this will be come a true advantage.

To summarize

1) If Saifun continues to lead the flash market with more bits per cell with NROM flash architecture.

2) If Saifun if achieves the forecasting of smaller die than comparable flash.

If Saifun achieve either of these goals it could become an architecture leader in the flash memory market. If they are able to achieve both they would attain a real architecture leadership position.

According to several of our monopoly theories, available at www.durig.com the stock market value of the companies that lead architecture often grow faster than all the combined companies stock market values that utilize the architecture.

Thus, if Saifun become the dominant architecture with the smallest die size in my opinion it will probably attain the leading stock market value in the flash memory market.

Randy Durig manages the several Portfolios including the Monopoly Technology Portfolio to see the full list go to http://www.durig.com and http://www.money-manager.us

Durigs Monopoly Blue Chip Portfolio National Performance Rankings: 3rd In the United States, Ranked by 3 year annual return, for Large Capitalization Blend, 4th Quarter 2005, By Money Manager Review.

Randy Durig owns Saifun in discretionary client's portfolios and in his own account. Past performance is not a guarantee for future returns. All information we believe to be correct but make no guarantee to accuracy.

Randy recommend for open source investment news to read or publishing articles go to http://www.investment-investment.us.

Enrollment Of Beginners In Forex

Foreign exchange market becomes new market for the people who are engaged in the activity of foreign exchange. Generally, large number of people enters the foreign exchange market at their interest and particularly more number of beginners investors finds it difficult to enter the market. Foreign exchange market is a peculiar market, where more innovative things happen daily. When a person enters the forex trading, he is required to understand the various terms, procedures and other strategies required for trading. Forex trading is offered as per the customer requirement and to facilitate the investors, new innovations are been found out. Even online forex trading has been offered to the investors and the investors can also make their foreign exchange through online forex trading.

There are many forex trading companies which online forex trading to their customers. Using more courses and books offered related to forex trading should be used by the beginner investors, so that he can take part in forex trading efficiently and effectively. There are more useful tips, guides are available for the beginner of the foreign exchange and they found to be more useful to the investors. Generally for any forex trading investors, the beginner investor should be more careful and should make it more successful and complicated. Since, forex trading is the long term investment and involves unique steps, more knowledge and experience is required for the investors to be competent.

* The amount fixed for the foreign exchange usually differs and fluctuation can always be found out.

* The investor should be known that foreign exchange market is irregular market and they lay out certain set of procedures. The investor should undergo certain functions in foreign exchange.

* He should be known that foreign exchange market involves lot of risk. Particularly, trading foreign exchange currency comes up with more risky currency trading. So, the beginner investors finds difficult and they are afraid of investing in the foreign exchange currencies.

* More over forex brokers will encourage the forex trading investors and they motivate the beginner investors to come up in competitive prices. The beginner investor should come up the risks that are available in the market and the investor should try to ignore forbidden risk.

The investor should take time to read the new forex trading activities and they should practice each and everything required for forex trading. So, the beginner of foreign exchange market should be very careful and should follow the tips, guides, and steps in estimated manner.

Chris David is a SEO Copywriter of Forex Broker He written many articles in various topics. For more information visit: Online Forex Trading contact him at chrisdavidseo@gmail.com

7 Profit Multiplying Trading Strategies of Successful Traders

Would you like to see your trading profits multiply? Are you struggling to squeeze out small profits and reduce losing trades? Here are some tips to help you make better decisions each and every time you trade.

One of the first and foremost strategies of the successful trader is actually having a strategy in the first place! Many new investors mistakenly make decisions based on one day of trading or the release of just one economic indicator report. The more successful traders develop a long-term strategy for their investments and trade only when certain criteria are met. Traders who go back and forth from one strategy to another are sabotaging their chances for success. These erratic changes make it much more difficult to analyze which strategy works and when.

To boost profits, you must employ careful research and long-term planning. Just because the strategy is long-term does not mean you cannot participate in day trading or swing trading. The long-term strategy means developing investment goals and making sure that each trade adheres to these goals. You will also want to develop specific criteria for your trades. Use historical prices as a starting point in developing when you will buy and sell. Write down your entry and exit strategies. Then stick to them at all times and track your results. Lastly, modify the plan as needed to produce the greatest percentage of winning trades as possible.

Successful traders analyze the level of risk that they are willing to assume and their trading strategies are built around this risk level. Evaluate your individual financial needs. A 25-year-old male is much more likely to be willing to assume a higher level of risk than a 40-year-old female with two children to support. Determining the level of risk you are willing to undertake will keep you focused when developing your trading plan.

Research is another power tool in the successful stock traders arsenal. These traders utilize stock charts, press releases, news articles, and other sources to detect trends in various industries as well as to make individual stock predictions. They also do not make their trading decisions based on biases. Make sure that you are relying on solid financials, from a reputable source.

Successful investors stay smart by being aware of the trading scams that abound on the net. From bogus stock purchase programs to promises of doubling or triple digit returns, there are always dishonest people willing to use the allure of huge profits against you. Dont get scammed out of your hard-earned money. Make sure to avoid any site selling or relating to high yield investment plans, or HYIP for short. If it seems too good to be true, it most likely is.

Finally, understand and being able to utilize current technologies that will help your bottom line in the trading game. New online software and systems can give your trading strategy a boost. If you refuse to learn how to use this technology and availability of information, you are undercutting the profits you stand to make. You could buy many trading courses and still be ahead if you found just one that enables you to multiply your profits and become a successful trader. Keep in mind that the ones that dont work for you will most likely have a money back guarantee.

Lastly, making investment decisions based on emotions is one of the poorest decisions a trader can make. Dont let the emotions surrounding a loss keep you out of the game. If you are truly interested in investing to make a profit, suspending your emotions and making fact-based trading decisions that follow along with your set trading plan. If you dont stick to your plan, then how can you determine whether it was faulty and a new plan should be formed?

About The Author:
Jeff Fairchild is the publisher of http://www.best-stock-trading-systems.com which provides reviews of trading systems and software. You can view a review of favorite stock trading software here: http://www.best-stock-trading-systems.com/marketclub_review.html or a review of the ebook trading for beginners here: http://www.best-stock-trading-systems.com/trading_for_beginners_review.html


***** Publishing guidelines (Publisher, delete before using this article): Make sure when using this article that the about the author resource information is included and the related links are working (clickable). *****

Taking Profits and Setting Exits

Most investors and many more market pundits continually talk about setting stops; they range from physical stops to mental stops to trailing stops to support stops to retracement stops or even moving average stops. It is easy to set a stop before you enter a position based off of your money management rules such as position sizing and expectancy. If you have a $25,000 account and want to risk 2% of the account on a $50 stock with an 8% stop; we know that the trade will allow you to buy 125 shares with a worst case scenario sell stop of $46.00 (assuming a 1-R risk of $4). This is wonderful but what should a trader do once the position gains 20%? Where should the stop be placed at that point to eliminate the chance of losing that quick 20% gain?

Several books attempt to explain how to take profits and many traders of the past have offered advice in books but most of it is fluff and subjective to opinion. I have heard people claim that they take a third of the position down after making a 20% or 30% gain while other traders take down half the position once a gain reaches 50%; but is this the correct way to manage money and positions? I thought so several years ago but have developed a more mechanical system that gives me precise exits at any time during an up-trend. It is a combination of a trailing stop and a retracement stop based upon the actual gain at any point in time. In a bull market, I will allow the system to loosen itself so I can handle a healthy pull-back without selling before a possible large move. For now, let me focus on my method for locking in profits without giving back too much.

For the sake of this article, I will continue to use the trade suggested above as the round numbers should be easy to follow.

Account Size: $25,000

Risk: 2%

Stop Loss: 8%

Share Price: $50

Shares to Purchase: 125 or $6,250

Sell Stop: $46.00

Worst case loss: $500 or 2%

If you are unsure how I came up with the numbers in this example, please go back and read my article on position sizing.

We buy the stock and it is up over 20% after the first three weeks of trading. What should I do to protect the profit I have already made?

Scenario #1: At $60, I will set a stop based on a 30% profit retracement.

To do this, you need to multiply the profit of 20% (or $10) by a 30% stop: $10*30% = $3

At this point in time, I will look to close the position and lock in gains if the stock drops more than $3 from the $20% threshold ($60 in this case). My trailing stop is now $57 which guarantees me a total gain of 14%.

Scenario #2: At $65, I will set a stop based on a 25% profit retracement. As my profit grows, my stop tightens so I dont give back too much. Again, this can loosen in bull markets and is also subject to longer term support and/or resistance lines. For the sake of this article, we will ignore all other variables.

To do this, you need to multiply the profit of 30% (or $15) by a 25% stop: $15*25% = $3.75

At this point in time, I will look to close the position and lock in gains if the stock drops more than $3.75 from the $30% threshold ($65 in this case). My trailing stop is now $61.25 which guarantees me a total gain of 23% if the trailing stop is violated.

Lets do this one more time with a 40% gain:

Scenario #3: At $70, I will set a stop based on a 20% profit retracement. As my profit grows, my stop tightens so I dont give back too much. As you can see from the three scenarios, my profit retracement has dropped by 5% as my profit has risen by 5%.

To do this, you need to multiply the profit of 40% (or $20) by a 20% stop: $20*20% = $4.00

At this point in time, I will look to close the position and lock in gains if the stock drops more than $4 from the $40% threshold ($70 in this case). My trailing stop is now $66 which guarantees me a total gain of 32% if the trailing stop is violated.

Please understand that I use these numbers since I like the separation of advances to be at least 10% from one retracement stop level to the next. Any investor or trader can substitute the numbers with something that makes more sense based on your own system and money management rules.

Outside of these selling rules, I also employ additional selling rules that use the long term 200-day moving average and long term support levels and trend lines. In a bull market, I will loosen the tight stops and look for longer term sell signals such as the moving average, a channel breakdown or even strong volatility movements that dont agree with the overall pattern (these may be obvious reversals on the daily and/or weekly charts). Other times, I have a specific price objective when placing the trade and will close the position if the objective is reached (even if the trend is still higher). A great example of this are the options I purchased in Tenaris (TS); I sold at $45 per call contact, yet they are now trading at $80 per contract. I bought above $10 per contract and had an objective to sell when the stock reached $145 which it did, so I sold my calls and moved on. Looking back, I got out much too early but didnt violate any of my rules which is more important than the additional gains. If I violated them on this trade and it worked out; what would stop me from violating them in the future and getting slammed with a heavy loss. I hope you get the point.

Chris Perruna - http://www.marketstockwatch.com

Chris is the founder and president of MarketStockWatch.com, an internet community that teaches you how to invest your money with solid rules. We offer an extended no obligation monthly trial period starting immediately with two free weeks. We don't stop at just showing you our daily and weekly screens, we teach you how to make you own screens through education. Through our philosophy, you will be able to create your own methods and styles to become successful.

Do You Want to Learn FOREX Trading?

The Foreign Exchange Market (FOREX) has no central exchange location yet it is the largest financial market in the world. It is over 3x's the size of the stock and futures markets combined and operates via an electronic network of a banks, corporations and investors.

Foreign exchange consists of a simultaneous buying of one currency and selling of another. Currency is traded in pairs, in other words, one currency is traded for another. The major currencies are:
1. USD - United States Dollar
2. EUR - Euro members Euro
3. JPY - Japan Yen
4. GBP - Great Britian pound
5. CHF - Switzerland franc
6. CAD - Canadian dollar
7. AUD - Australia dollar

There are 2 types of investors involved in the FOREX market.The first type of investor is the hedger. The hedger is involved in International trades and utilizes FOREX trading to protect their interest in a transaction from adverse currency fluctuations. The 2nd type of investor is the speculator who invests in currency solely for profit.

Currency prices fluctuate due to a variety of economic and political factors. The major factors are:
1. Interest rates
2. International trade
3. Inflation
4. Political stability

There are many reasons investors take a great interest in FX trading Some of the major reasons are:
1. No fees
2. No middlemen
3. No fixed trade sizes
4. Low transaction cost
5. High liquidity
6. Instant transactions
7. Low margin / High leverage
8. 24 hour market
9. Online access via online trading platforms
10. Always good opportunities to trade, unlike the stock market the market is never bullish or bearish.
11. No one entity can control the market
12. No insider trading can occur

To begin trading in the FOREX market, an investor only needs a computer, a high-speed internet connection and an online trading currency account. A mini account can be opened for as little as $100.

Find out why FOREX Trading is becoming a popular form of investing for all types of investors.

How To Get Tax Sale Lists for Free

Once you know when the tax sale is coming up in your area, you need to get the list of properties that are in the sale. I use naco.org to find tax sale property lists online for tax lien and tax deed sales. This only works for counties that have this information online. For counties or states that do not have this information online, you can either call the tax collector and ask how to get the tax sale list or you can buy the tax sale list from a tax sale list provider. To find out which counties have tax sale information and tax sale lists online, you can consult my State Guide.

To go to the countys web site, first go to naco.org and click on the link to find a county. This will bring you to a page with a map of the United States. Click on the state that you are interested in and youll be taken to that states web page with a list of all of the counties in the state. Find the county that you are interested in and click on that link. You will be taken to the NACO page for that county. Click on the link to the county on the top of the page and you will go to the countys web site. Note that this will only work if the county has a web site.

Once youre on the countys web site, look for a link to the department or county office that is responsible for conducting the tax sale. For most states, this will be the county treasurer or county tax collector. If youre not sure who is responsible for the tax sale in your state, then consult my State Guide. Once you get to the web site of the person or department that conducts the tax sale, look for a link to a list of tax sale properties. For larger counties, you can usually find this online. The exception to this is the counties in the Northeastern states. A lot of the Northeastern states do not have county tax sales. Instead the tax sales are conducted by the municipality, so instead of looking for the county web site, in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Rode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, look for the municipal tax collectors web site not county web site. New York has both county and municipal sales in some counties.

If you cant find the tax sale list that you want online, you can always buy a list from a tax sale list provider. Even if you can find the tax sale list online for free, you still may want to purchase the list from a tax sale list provider. Thats because the list that you get from the tax collector does not always have the information that you need. Frequently it will only have a parcel ID number, owner name, and amount due. What you want to know is what is the address of the property, what is the assessment and value of the property, what type or class property is it, and how big is the property. All of this (and sometimes even more information) is included in the detailed list that you can get from tax sale list providers. I talked about some different tax sale list providers in the last podcast episode, How to Find Out About Tax Sales. You can listen to that episode to get the names and urls of tax list providers for different areas of the country. Purchasing a detailed tax sale list from one of these companies will save you a lot of work in doing your due diligence.

Joanne Musa is a Tax Lien Investing Coach and Consultant who works with investors who want to learn how to buy profitable tax lien certificates and tax deeds. She is the president of Tax Lien Consulting LLC, a consulting firm for tax lien investors. She is the author of the e-books: Tax Lien Investing Secrets and Tax Lien Lady's State Guide to Tax Lien and Tax Deed Investing, available at http://www.taxlienconsulting.com

For more tips on investing in tax lien certificates send an e-mail to MoreTips@taxlienconsulting.com

Forex Market Overview

The foreign exchange market exists wherever one currency is traded for another. Individuals are currently a very small part of this market and may only participate indirectly through brokers. It is by far the largest market in the world, in terms of cash value traded. It includes trading between large banks, central banks, multinational corporations, governments, and other financial institutions.

The forex market is a cash inter-bank established in 1971 when floating exchange rates began to appear. The average daily trading volume of US Treasury Bonds is $300 billion and the US stock market has an average daily volume of less than $10 billion.

The foreign exchange market is unique because of:

The extreme liquidity of the market,
Its geographical dispersion,
Its trading volume,
The large number of traders in the market,
Its long trading hours - 24 hours a day

There are several types of financial instruments commonly used:-

Forward transaction: A buyer and seller agree on an exchange rate for any date in the future, and the transaction occurs on that date, regardless of what the market rates are then.

Futures: Futures are standardized and are usually traded on an exchange created for this purpose. The average contract length is roughly 3 months. Futures contracts are usually inclusive of any interest amounts.

Swap: In a swap, two parties exchange currencies for a certain length of time and agree to reverse the transaction at a later date.

Spot: A spot transaction is a two-day delivery transaction, as opposed to the Futures contracts, which are usually three months.

One difference between Futures and Spot is how interest is credited. Each currency in a Forex transaction has an inherent interest rate attached to it. This interest is added every single day whether the market is trading or not. Interest cannot take a vacation; money and its loaning value are still important even if the financial world has stopped dealing. In Futures, the interest is built into the price of the contract. In Spot, however, interest is not taken into account in the offering price because the Spot market is a cash market, not a contract market.

The main trading centers are in London, New York, and Tokyo, but banks throughout the world participate. As the Asian trading session ends, the European session begins, then the US session, and then the Asian begin in their turns.

Unlike a stock market, where all participants have access to the same prices, the Forex market is divided into levels of access. At the top is the inter-bank market, which is made up of the largest investment banking firms. The top-tier inter-bank market accounts for 53% of all transactions.

Forex Blog provides detailed information on forex brokers, forex trading and market makers, and other forex-related topics. iMakeDollars.com is the main site which has useful tips to make big money online.

What is FOREX Foreign Exchange Trading

Foreign Exchange Market, or Forex as it is commonly called, is an international exchange market to buy and sell different currencies from around the world. An investor has the ability to buy and sell these currencies in order to create gains from small movements in the value of one currency over another. The Foreign Exchange Market or Forex is open from Monday at 0:00 GMT until Friday at 10:00 GMT. For this reason Forex traders are not limited to the general time constraints of the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ.

This versatility attracts many investors to become Forex traders. The liquidity of the Foreign Exchange Market is also very attractive for the Forex investor as trades range from 1 to 1.5 trillion dollars on a daily basis. These massive amounts of trades make it extremely difficult for any one trader to affect the market.

Foreign Exchange Trading is simply the purchase and sales of currency based on the strength of the currency and the fluctuation in the value of that currency. For example, if one were to invest $1,000 against the British pound at 1.49989 with a 1% margin and anticipate the exchange rate to climb. If that occurs and you close the exchange rate at 1.5050 you would earn roughly $400. Forex is giving you a 40% return on your investment.

Forex offers the possibility of huge profits in relatively short periods of time. The stock exchange is very different in that positions are generally maintained over a longer period of time. Although there are day traders, Forex traders have much shorter hold times on positions. Similar to the stock market marginal accounts can be obtained in the Foreign Exchange Market as well.

Forex marginal accounts are very engaging as they allow Forex traders to take large positions without having to make a large deposit. In many circumstances one can fund a marginal account with .05% the necessary funds. In other words, $500 would allow a $100,000 position. In order to trade Forex effectively and profitably, one must have some type of method to follow. There are two methods used in determining what Foreign Exchange trades one should make. There are two methods, fundamental Forex analysis, and technical Forex analysis.

Technical Forex Analysis is the most commonly used practice and uses the assumption that the changes that occur in the Foreign Exchange Market happened for a reason and are accurate. The belief is that if a currency has been trading towards a high then that currency will mostly continue towards that high with the adverse being true as well. The technical Forex view does not try to make long term predictions about the market but instead simply tries to take advantage of what has already been seen in the past.

The fundamental Forex method takes into account all aspects of the country in which the currency is traded. Things such as the economy, the countries prime interest rates, war, poverty level, and other factors are taken into account. If there is a sharp rise in the prime interest rate a Forex trader may take a position based on that information.

Online Forex trading on the Foreign Exchange Market has the potential of being extremely lucrative. One can learn to trade by creating an online Forex Account and begin by using a learning account without real funds. This will help you to understand the Forex trading process and how currencies are affected by different things that are happening on a global scale.

Copyright 2006 Jason P Bertrand

Jason Bertrand is the President of JPB Financial Services, Inc., a Connecticut Corporation and member of the Better Business Bureau. He has over a decade of experience in the financial services industry and is a Notary Public in the State of Connecticut. Please visit the following sites: http://www.emortgageloanstore.com Free Home Purchase Guide Feel free to contact Mr. Bertrand with any questions or concerns through jbertrand@emortgageloanstore.com, or mail to: JPB Financial Services, Inc Attn: Jason P Bertrand PO Box 552 Vernon, CT 06066 860-982-5334.

Handling Tricky Stock Investment Transactions in Quicken

If youre an investor using Quicken, you should find your investment record-keeping pretty straight-forward. There are, however, several tricky investment transactions you may need to record, particularly if youre an aggressive investor (one whos willing to bear increased risk in the pursuit of greater returns). These transactions involve short sales, margin loans and interest, call and put activities, employee stock options, and corporate reorganizations. The following paragraphs briefly describe how you record these other types of transactions.

Short Sales

A short sale occurs when you sell stock you dont actually hold. The logic of a short sale is that rather than buying low and later selling high, you first buy high and then sell low. (To make the transaction, you actually borrow the stock from your broker.)

To record a short sale transaction in Quicken, you just sell a stock you dont own. Select the Enter Transaction command button, choose the Short Sale option, and fill in the appropriate categories in the Short Sale dialog box.

To show that these are shares you actually owe your broker, Quicken displays the number of shares and the current market value as negative amounts in the Portfolio View window. To record the transaction in which you close out your short position by buying the stock youve previously sold, you record a stock purchase in the usual way.

Margin Loans and Margin Interest

If you purchase a security and the total purchase cost exceeds the cash balance in a brokerage account, Quicken assumes that youve borrowed the needed cash on margin from your broker. To show the margin loan, it displays the cash balance as a negative value. To record margin loan interest in cases where you have a linked cash account, you record the margin loan interest as an expense when you record the withdrawal from the linked cash account that pays the margin interest.

To record margin loan interest in cases where you dont have a linked cash account, choose the Enter Transaction command button and choose the Margin Interest Expense option. When Quicken displays the Margin Interest Expense dialog box, use it to describe the margin interest.

Calls and Puts

A call is an option to buy a share of stock. A put is an option to sell a share of stock. You may write, buy, or exercise calls and puts.

Writing Calls and Puts

When you write a call or put, what you really do is collect money from someone in return for promising the person the option, or chance, to buy or sell a share of stock at a specified, or strike, price by some future date.

When a call or put expires without being exercisedand this is the usual caserecording the transaction is simple. If youre the one writing the call or put, just record the transaction as miscellaneous income.

Buying Calls and Puts

If youre the one buying the call or put, you just record the option purchase the way you do any other stock purchase. If the call or put expires and becomes worthless, just record the sale as a stock purchase with the amount set to zero. (This is the most common case.) If, on the other hand, you sell the call or put before the expiration date because the call or put can be profitably exercised, you record the sale as a stock sale with the amount set to whatever you sell the option for.

Exercising Calls and Puts

You probably wont actually exercise a call or put. Youll probably sell it, as described above. If you do exercise a call or buy option, however, you need to record two transactions. To record the exercise of a call option, first record a transaction that sells the call option for zero. Then record a transaction that purchases the optioned number of shares at the option price. To record the exercise of a put option, first record a transaction that sells the put option for zero. Then record a transaction that sells the optioned number of shares at the option price.

TIP

For income tax purposes, what you pay for a call needs to be counted as part of the purchase price if you exercise the call option and purchase shares. What you receive for a put needs to be counted as part of the sales price if you exercise the put and sell shares. This can get complicated, so you may want to consult your tax advisor.

Employee Stock Options

You can track the value of employee stock options in the same way that you track shares of stock. (The purchase price in this case is zero if you dont pay anything for the option.) The value of the option, of course, is the difference between the exercise price and the fair market value of the vested shares. The income tax accounting for stock options can get a little tricky, depending on whether the options are part of a qualified incentive stock-option plan or a nonqualified stock-option plan. You may have a taxable gain when you are granted or when you exercise the option, or you may have a taxable gain only later when you sell the shares. If you have questions about the income tax treatment, consult your tax advisor. Youll need to show him or her the stock option plan document, so be sure to bring that with you.

About the author: CPA Stephen L. Nelson wrote bestselling books on Quicken and QuickBooks. Which have together sold more than one million copies, and the popular downloadable do-it-yourself guides Information about the Corporation, and Costs & Benefits of Incorporation , Incorporating a Business in Pennsylvania, Incorporating a Business in Illinois .

The True Value of the Small Business Consulting Community

The Small Business IT consulting community is a dynamic and exciting community to be active in at this time. Many different opportunities are gaining some serious momentum in this underserved marketplace in Canada. The Small Business marketplace will be the fastest-growing segment in the information technology market. Currently, approximately 97% of the businesses in Canada have five hundred employees or less, which equates to a fantastic market to specialize in.

Microsoft launched their Small Business Specialist program in the summer of 2005 at their annual partner conference. Since that time, a number of information technology consulting firms have taken advantage of this program to commence their consulting practice. The Small Business Specialist program is designed to promote Microsofts offerings to small business. It establishes SBSC members as leaders in the small business IT consulting marketplace that has been thrust into the spotlight for growth potential.

The Small Business Specialist program serves as a best resource for IT professionals to access information, promotions, partnership opportunities and assistance to service a small business oriented client base. Groups have emerged on international, national and regional levels that assist the small business specialist in obtaining not only technical but also important business assistance. In addition, each year SMB Nation brings together the small business consulting community to network, learn, share and play.

The small business consulting community has grown out of the leadership of corporations like Microsoft, SonicWALL, and Symantec. It has also grown because of people like Harry Brelsford of SMB Nation and several other leaders in the community. Their leadership has provided Small Business Specialists with additional resources to sharpen their craft long before the official launch of programs from corporations like Microsoft.

The SMB community is open to sharing experiences, ideas, concepts and best practices so that emerging IT companies can seek knowledge to develop and grow. I like focusing on a market segment where I can really get to know my clients and have a direct, tangible impact on their businesses, claims Jeff Anderson, General Manager of Red Deers Bulletproof Networks, the citys leading Small Business Specialist. Business development, however, is often overlooked by those text book technicians who have decided to start their own businesses. Learning from others in the SBSC community allows the small business consultants like Jeff to learn two or three markets and become the expert specialist in that field in order to have the potential to gain new business clients.

New service offerings are demanding small business consultants start planning now on how to bring them to their client base. Clients today are in search of options that are evolving and they must be presented in a manner and language that they understand. Managed services, remote monitoring, software and hardware as services are starting to gain some traction in the market and as a new offering they need to be available from their SMB consultant. Small businesses want a company that they can trust. When you and your peers are representative of 97% of the Canadian marketplace, it makes sense to be working with the very businesses that share the same concerns and deal with the same issues you do. Who better to give them the right tools to succeed? states Elisabeth Vandervelt of Conamex International, an award winning Microsoft Small Business Specialist in Montreal.

Todays small businesses need innovative solutions to keep them competitive in the fast paced, on-demand, we-needed-it-yesterday and downtime-is-not-an-option environment we call todays business world. SBSC members have the luxury and the ability to have direct interaction with decision makers therefore sales cycles are generally shorter while the demand for services has never been higher.

Another luxury in the small business community is the ability to share work with each other across regional, national and international boundaries. Many firms are partnering locally to provide a one stop shop for their clients who need a specialized service or coverage in other locations where their clients may have a remote user or branch office. Partnering in the SBSC community is critical to the success of the small business consultants business since it gives small firms the reach and abilities of a much larger IT company and can be the their advantage over their competition in todays marketplace.

The Small Business Specialist can rest assured that they have the pride and recognition of a job well done combined with a community to back them up. All of these positive aspects provide an overwhelming sense of accomplishment for participants in the SBSC program.

I reflect back to when my youngest son was in Beavers and their leaders consistently reminded them of the Beaver motto, the same motto that is the cornerstone of the SBSC community and all other small business consulting groups: Sharing, Sharing, Sharing! Share your successes with others; help others who are struggling; and share of yourself to make our community strong.

Stuart Crawford is the Director of Business Development for Calgarys IT Matters Inc. IT Matters is a leading Microsoft Small Business Specialist and Gold Certified Partner. IT Matters is also a gold partner with SonicWALL and an active member in the TechData TechSelect program.

Avoiding Forex Trading System Headaches

If you are a trader and you have tried to find a forex trading system that might work for you and have curiously looked up the words forex trading system in Google, havent you been surprised and annoyed at the amount of rubbish and useless material on this subject out there?

Your first job is to ignore the typically glowing testimonials telling you how great a certain forex trading system is...

Guess what? They all say great things!

Anyone who is serious about trading needs to have a forex trading system that is tailored to them, but there is no reason to start constructing your forex trading system from scratch. Look for your most important criteria as it relates to your trading style for the trading system you are planning to buy, and if it fulfills them; then you are quite certainly making a good decision by planning to use it going forward in your trading career.

Any good online forex trading system will gives traders discipline, as good systems will run the big profitable trades and cut losers quickly to give great profit potential over the longer term. If you are just starting, you should look at longer term forex trading systems that milk the big trends for profit, and cuts losses quickly. Whatever you decide on for your forex currency trading system, however, you almost certainly can't go wrong by subscribing to some of the forex newsletters. Even if you've gone through quality forex training, smart traders subscribe to newsletters written by professional currency traders that offer both fundamental and technical analysis on the markets. In other words, more knowledge and information is a good thing.

Once you know what sort of forex trading system will work best for you, look at the components that make it work. Both the desktop based and web based forex trading software have their own advantages, so use the version that you are most comfortable with. Don't forget to take advantage of some of the generous free offers by various online forex brokerages that allow you to trade in real time with paper money so you can get the hang of how things work. Couple that with the guarantees that most of the marketers provide for you to try out their systems for 30, 60 or 90 days.

You also want to choose a forex trading system company that will put your money first, and that will listen to what you want to do, and how you want to do it. After all, it is your career they are looking after.

Forex is a great money making opportunity for those who know their way around, most newbies fall hard after flying high for a while. That's because forex trading is not straightforward. You see, it is simple to enter a trade and let it run, but making yourself a profitable trader takes more than just willingness; it takes knowledge and experience.

And finally, we dont have space here to go through the actual systems being currently marketed, but with a bit of research and testing you will see why a forex trading system built on the above principles, will work, and will continue to work.

Sydney Johnson gives you more free information at Forex Trading Introduction. Search other helpful articles at- Forex Trading List of Articles. Click here http://www.forexminitrading.com