Archive for July, 2009

Futures Trading (Part I)

Written by author on Friday, July 31st, 2009 in Money Investing.

Trade Dow Futures and S&P Futures. The first choice for many investors was and is the stock market. Many small investors are looking for new avenues after getting their fingers burnt during the recent stock market crash. Investors have many choices for investing their money today. Learn swing trading.

If you are among those who take a look at their mutual funds portfolios only once a year than futures trading is not for you. Risk and uncertainty goes hand and hand in money making opportunities.

You will have to get out of the buy and hold investment mentality if you want to take on futures trading. Those who can’t shake off the preconceived notions and discover to make money as the market rise and fall are not successful at futures trading. What it means that those who can embrace the inherent volatility of the world and the markets and use it as a wealth building tool are more successful at futures trading.

Futures trading is for the 21st century. Although futures markets began in the United States in around 1850s, futures trading didn’t have global significance until the 1980 when companies and governments embraced futures trading as financial management tools for hedging.

Technological advances especially the internet has transformed the futures trading landscape. Today individuals trading futures are on a level playing filed with professional traders and institutional investors.

Now most futures contracts are electronically traded with online order entry and execution. E-mini products have been created specifically to appeal to the individual investors and are now standard among exchange offerings.

Futures contracts are highly leveraged and marked to the market daily. There are many ways that individuals can use futures for trading and portfolio diversification. Futures industry is well regulated and has superior financial safeguards in place to ensure trading integrity.

The chances for sustainable trend that last for decades like that happened in the stock markets during the 1980s and 1990s are less likely. Good services and basic materials will probably undergo major price swings, up and down during the next two to three decades. The volatility of the markets is only going to increase.

The today’s world calls for a more active and even speculative investor. The new world calls for a trader and futures trading offer one of the best opportunities to make money by trading in volatile times. The past investors could afford the luxury of buying and holding stocks and mutual funds for the long term (this is what Warren Buffet did in building his fortune) but not now.

However, trading futures contracts is a risky business and requires active participation. In order to change from a couch potato to a futures trader, you will have to work at it or you will be out of the game very quickly. You need to know the futures market intimately. Developing a winning futures trading plan can help you achieve success!

Profitable Ways To Earn Extra Income Online From Home

Written by author on Friday, July 31st, 2009 in Quick Money.

Some students who are juggling their class schedules with their odd jobs find internet income opportunities are an ideal way to earn extra money. Single moms also find online opportunities are ideal because they are convenient ways that allow them to earn extra income from home. If your day job does not bring in enough money to cover all the house bills you can earn additional income with these ideas to earn extra income.

Step one when looking for internet income opportunities is to identify your skills. Are you educated and trained as a writer? If the answer is yes, then you’d probably fit right into the article marketing industry. All you need to do to succeed in this branch of internet marketing is to get affiliated with companies who are providing web content services to different websites. SEO techniques are necessary for web content writing and most companies will fill you in on the basics required.

Online tutoring or teaching is the better online career choice for you if you are a better speaker than you are a writer. This way to earn extra income is particularly convenient and popular for a lot of college students and part time educators. In a nutshell, you just use online phoning devices to teach your students through the internet. You’ll probably be asked to access e-text book websites as well for the subjects that you’ll be teaching them.

Paid Surveys Online offer another opportunity to earn internet income. If your time is scarce, then taking online surveys are easy to slot into your schedule as it only takes a few minutes to complete a survey.

Very convenient ways for you to earn extra income are through internet income opportunities. However, simply because they’re based on websites, they are also extra risky for freelancers who don’t know any better. Unless the company is transparent about its real location and identity, you shouldn’t be too trusting. Before joining any online company, do your due diligence to protect yourself.

If you are still uncertain about the credibility of the company you’re dealing with, even with their office address posted online, you can always search online forums built especially for freelancers like yourself Take note though that some of these reviews may be written by competitor companies trying to attract more freelancers their way.

When you go into home based online jobs you are your own boss. Although some find it more challenging, many people consider this convenient. After all, with no supervisor to please, you are practically on your own. You can always procrastinate if you don’t find any reason to finish the job, although this can be very risky if you’ve already signed a contract with a client.

It is important to allocate a fixed number of hours daily for your online job so as to avoid procrastination and breaches of contract. If it is convenient to do so you put in more than your targeted number of hours but you should never do less. Committing a specific number of hours daily to your online tasks will keep you from cramming when the deadline draws near.

You should also allocate a room or a corner for your work space, unless you live alone in your apartment. Remember, you’ll be spending 4 to 8 hours a day working on your projects, and you can’t afford to be distracted while you’re doing this if you want to earn extra income.

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Learn To Make Money Online From Doing Surveys

Written by author on Friday, July 31st, 2009 in Money Survey.

Every so often, there are so many ways for a user to make money online. From getting paid to click on advertiser’s ads to benefiting from personal websites, all will be counted as your money maker as long as it can make even the slightest amount of money. One very classic way to make money is through participating on an online focus group or commonly known as paid surveys.

Paid surveys is a set of questions distributed online among a targeted population to obtain a statical data or feedback on a certain products or company services. In return, survey takers will get paid to complete the job. It usually takes between 10 to 20 minutes to complete a single survey and if you managed to participate in several survey companies at one time, generating a few hundreds or even thousands of dollars monthly is no big deal. Most of the survey networks is free to join, so there is no need to worry about being scammed. You have nothing to lose but everything to gain.

You can get paid from online surveys either from taking online surveys or referring other people to join the program. For each surveys you have submitted, you will be paid by the company based on the amount of the advertiser willing to pay for each survey. A typical survey should generate anywhere from $1 to several dollars depending on the difficulty and value of the survey. Visit Free Cash For Surveys to check out the list of sites that reward direct cash. There are some companies that do not pay their members by cash but offer redeemable points. These points will be used as a token to enter for a monthly sweepstakes where you will stand a chance to win prizes such as free cash voucher, free vacation, money jackpot and many more. As for referral program, you will make money whenever you managed to refer other people to sign up for the survey company using your referral link. Usually, you can earn up to two tiered referrals monthly earnings.

Paid Surveys Tips

1. Email - To prevent spams and junk emails, create new email account and use it to receive your surveys notification.

2. Referrals - Target your referrals mainly from US, Canada, UK and any other English speaking countries as the referral compensation will be higher. Participate in any forums as an active member and remember to include your referral link at the signature box.

3. Register More - Try to register with more survey sites. The more you register, the more will you earn as you will receive more open opportunities from time to time.

4. Beware of Scams - A legitimate Survey That Pay Cash should NOT have any obligation to pay for any registration fees.

5. Read the Questions - Be sure to take your surveys properly, read and answer the questions accordingly. Do not repeat the same answers for all questions as it will be marked as a spam.

6. Check Emails - Do check your emails often as they will send a survey invitation at any time of the day. Some surveys are only open for limited entries only, so make sure to respond to the surveys once you have been offered any.

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What Are S&P Futures? (Part III)

Written by author on Thursday, July 30th, 2009 in Money Investing.

Trade S&P Futures and Dow Futures. The E-mini S&P futures contract trade almost 24 hours per day with a 30 minute maintenance break in trading from 4:30 to 5:00 PM daily. The monthly identifiers for the E-mini S&P futures contracts are H for March, M for June, U for September and Z for December.Learn swing trading.

If you are a new E-mini trader you be careful as traders are expected to pay for the difference between the margins for the entry and exit points. In case you lose at the end of the day you are likely to pay in a big way. The margin requirements for E-minis are much less than the normal contract. The day trading margin is less than the margin to hold an overnight position in S&P 500 E-mini Futures contract.

All futures contracts are settled daily. At the end of the trading day they are assigned a final value price. The values of all positions are marked to the market each day after the official close based on the settlement price. Based on how well your positions fared in that day’s trading session, your account is then either debited or credited. In other words, cash will either come into your account or leave your account based on the change in the settlement price from day to day as long as your positions remain open.

As losses are not allowed to accumulate without some response being required, this system gives futures trading a rock-solid reputation for creditworthiness. It is this mechanism that brings integrity to the marketplace.

Leverage: Because futures markets are highly leveraged, the effect of price changes is magnified. With stocks, you typically pay the price in full (i.e., without leverage) or on margin (50 percent leverage). If you speculate in futures and the market moves in your favor, leverage can produce large profits in relation to the amount of your initial margin. However, if the market moves against your position, you also could lose your initial margin and then some.

For example, assume that you’ve decided to put $10,000 into a futures account. You buy one E-mini S&P 500 index futures contract when the index is trading at 1000. Your initial margin requirement for that one contract is $3,500.

Each one-point change in the index represents a $50 gain or loss because the value of the futures contract is $50 times the index. You could realize a profit of $2,500= (50 points) ($50) if the index increases 5 percent, to 1050 from 1000. Conversely, a 50-point decline would produce a $2,500 loss. The $2,500 increase represents a 25 percent return on your initial investment of $10,000 or a 71 percent return on your initial margin deposit of $3,500.

Conversely, a decline would eat up 25 percent of your original $10,000 or 71 percent of your initial margin. In either case, an increase or decrease of only 5 percent in the index could result in a substantial gain or loss in your account. That’s the power of leverage.

It makes your money work harder and produces more in a shorter period of time when everything’s going your way, than if you paid for everything in full, up front. In such a situation leverage can be a beautiful thing. Indeed, leverage is the key distinctive aspect of futures trading as compared with stock trading.

But there is a dark side to leverage, too. For example, assume you use $5,000 in your account to buy an E-mini S&P 500 contract worth $50,000. Instead of going up, however, prices fall by 10 percent and the contract’s value drops to $45,000. Your $5,000 is completely gone. Unless you get out of the position with an offsetting sale when your maintenance margin level is violated, you’ll be obligated to put up even more money if the market keeps moving against you. Leverage is the one ingredient that can produce either horror stories or happy endings. To get the happy ending, it is extremely important that you fully understand the power of leverage and how to manage it well.

What Are S&P Futures? (Part II)

Written by author on Thursday, July 30th, 2009 in Money Investing.

Trade S&P Futures and Dow Futures.Regular trading hours for S&P futures contracts are from 8:30 A.M to 3:15 PM. S&P futures contracts are another example of how 24 hours a day trading enables traders to respond to economic news releases in pre-market and after-market sessions. S&P futures contracts are valued in ticks worth 0.1 index points or $25.Know candlestick charting.

The evening session starts at 3:30 PM (15 minutes after the close) and continues on the Globex until 8:15 AM overnight. Individual contract holders are limited to no more than 20,000 net long or short contracts at any one time.

If the index experiences major declines or increases beyond certain limits, a procedure is set in place to halt trading. If these price limits are crossed, circuit breakers are triggered. A price limit is how far an S&P futures contract can rise or fall in a single trading session. The limits are set on quarterly basis.

Collar Rule: The collar rule addresses price swings related to program trades that move the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) more than 2% by requiring index arbitrage orders, or orders that bet on the spread between the futures and the cash of stock indexes to be stabilizing. This limits the traders from piling buy or sell orders in an attempt to exaggerate the gains or losses of the market. What this rule does is limit the chance of huge gains or losses as a result of futures trading.

Especially during slow seasons in the stock market such as summer, fall and around the winter holidays, overnight or pre-market trading can be thin and dangerous. It’s time to learn how an S&P futures contract ticks once you have mastered futures basics such as the performance bond margins, the mark to market requirements and the account specifics.

Hundreds of futures contracts trade on the federally regulated futures exchanges in the United States. Each of these exchanges trade contract that are somewhat unique to it. CME’s most actively traded contracts are Eurodollar futures and S&P futures including the E-minis.

E-mini S&P Futures contracts: The E-mini S&P futures contracts (ES) are among the most popular stock index futures contract because they enable you to trade the market’s trend with only one fifth of the requirement. The E-mini S&P futures contracts (ES) are the favorites of the day traders because of its high intraday price volatility and major price swings on a daily basis.

The E-mini S&P futures contract can be very volatile and can move even more aggressively during times of extreme market volatility. One tick on E-min S&P futures contract is equal to 0.25 of the index point or $12.50. The value of the E-mini S&P futures contract is $50 times the value of the S&P 500 stock index.

S&P Futures (Part I)

Written by author on Thursday, July 30th, 2009 in Money Investing.

Trade S&P Futures and Dow Futures.S&P futures contracts are based on the S&P 500 stock index and traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).The S&P 500 index is a market valued weighted index of 500 large capitalized stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Nasdaq National Market Executive System (NASDAQ) and American Stock Exchange (AMEX). S&P Futures are the most popularly traded stock index futures contract. Learn swing trading.

The S&P index was introduced in 1957. S&P 500 stock index is currently the investment industry’s standard for measuring portfolio performance. Majority of the portfolio managers measure their performance relative to the S&P 500 index. It has become the benchmark for the financial industry. The S&P 500 is made up of 400 industrial companies, 40 financial companies, 40 utilities and 20 transportation companies. S&P 500 index offers a fairly diversified view of the US economy.

The original S&P 500 futures contracts were valued at $500 times the index. As the stock market began to surge higher, the index more than doubled in three years. With the index approaching the 1000 level, the value of the S&P futures contract neared $500,000 and a 10 point change was worth $5,000.

The margin requirements for that sized contract ruled many traders out of the market. So in 1997, CME introduced an S&P futures contract that was worth $250 times the value of the index. A move of a full point is now worth $250. Suppose the S&P 500 index value is at 1450, the value of the S&P futures contract will be ($250) (1450) = $362,500.

Earlier in that same year CME introduced another mini S&P futures contract. This news mini contract became highly popular with individual traders instantly and was a hit with the investing public. E-mini S&P futures contract is worth only $50 times the S&P 500 index and the value of this new E-mini S&P futures contract brought the initial margin requirements down to around $4,000 at that time.

Even with a margin requirement of only about 6 percent of the contract’s value, the rising stock market put the initial margin at $15,000 with this $250,000 contract, keeping the S&P futures contract out of the reach of many individual speculators. The E-mini put the S&P 500 Index within the capabilities of many individual accounts.

But the real innovation was letting small orders of this new E-mini market trade entirely on an electronic platform and not in the traditional open-outcry pits. CME officials decided that trading orders could take place entirely on a trade matching computer with no human intervention, giving traders direct access to the market without going through an order handler.

Electronic trading would no longer be limited to after-hours trading or to supplement the primary pit contract, but it became the mainstream market for the E-mini contracts as the allowable number of contracts was increased over time.

The radical move caught the wave of online trading and day trading that was revolutionizing the stock market at the same time. CME also decided it might as well keep the market open almost 24 hours a day as long as trading was all computer-based.

In the earlier article on this subject, I covered some of the basic market selection and research work which will help ensure that your new venture brings the rewards you’re looking for. In this second article, I’ll be covering off the issues you need to consider as you evaluate your options.

As this new work from home business is the manifestation of your own brand, and you therefore want it to be outstanding, it’s therefore key that you look for home based businesses ideas that has the qualities, attributes and brand values that can truly sit comfortably with your own. So look at the quality of the way a potential partner company presents themselves. Are they in tune with current market conditions? Do they use vocabulary that you can relate to? Do you feel comfortable linking your name and reputation to the marketing material provided by the potential partner? All of these things should be carefully considered before making the commitment to get involved.

After you’ve established a comfortable fit, the next area to evaluate is the set of products and services offered. Are they products that you can relate to? Is the product portfolio wide enough with a spread of commercial values across a number of online sectors? Does the company offer a range of proven and successful products in a market sector that you have some experience in, or at least have an interest in? After all, this product portfolio will be the bedrock on which you will build your new business for profitability, so take time to look at the range on offer.

One of the most critical areas in considering your options is the marketing support provided by your chosen partner. This is fundamental in enabling you to make an effective start to the brand building and promotional activity that will build your pipeline. Be sure to check that your partner or affiliate has a customer service function, allowing you to submit queries, seek advice and generally get the specific help that you need, as this will prevent you from feeling at times that you’re flying solo without instruments.

Linked to this is the whole back office administrative engine. As you are going to be running your own show, but you’ve chosen not to work in the corporate world, you need to be absolutely certain that the company you choose to work with has a powerful and comprehensive back office function. You need to know that your orders, payments, invoicing and records will be maintained accurately and are made available to you in an administratively easy way.

An important component of a quality back office function will be the training tips and advice made available both in live on line coaching sessions, and subsequently made available on demand for your access at a convenient time. This is a terrific and valuable service and one that delivers enormous benefits. Don’t choose to work with anybody who has not invested in, and remains committed to, this critical aspect of the home industry business.

The best businesses provide a professional mentoring and coaching service enabling you to tap into the experience and success of others. If this is your first experience of a home based business you definitely need to pick a partner who can provide you with strong mentoring support and a guided path to wealth.

Naturally the bottom line also comes down to compensation. So thoroughly evaluate the way you can earn by selling the products and services of your partner company and be sure that commissions and fees paid reward you appropriately for your hard work.

The third and final article in this short series will look at ways that you should test your assumptions before choosing the company to align yourself with. It will also deal with the only ultimate thing that matters, making the decision to act.

George is an experienced marketeer with a passion for transferring his skills and knowledge to as many people as possible enabling them to fulfil their ambitions and their life income goals. For more information on his business opportunities and his profile, visit : http://myincomementor.com and http://whoisbriangeorge.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brian_G_George http://EzineArticles.com/?Secrets-to-Mastering-the-Successful-Launch-of-Your-New-Home-Business—Part-2&id=2607629

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Why Invest In Gold And Precious Metals?

Written by author on Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 in Money Investing.

Brian, Your thoughts on Gold/Precious Metals.
I recently bought some Freeport Gold & Copper FCX and it is up 15% in one week. The price of gold is $745+-. Many analysts are saying that Gold will double in 2 years. Should I buy more? What percentage do you have in Gold/Precious Metals?

Jake, Even though I really like FCX and have owned it in the past (going back to 1999 when it was Freeport-McMoran C&G;), it is not a gold pure play. It is as much copper as gold (and other minerals), but it is a very good China play since most of its mines are in Indonesia and an “anti-dollar” which is the key value of gold right now, as the dollar dives. Another good stock very similar to FCX is BHP.

I have been using funds to create a core position in precious metals and then dabbling around the edges with option contracts on the miners. My favorite gold fund is VGPMX, but it may be closed right now. It has done great the past three years I have owned it (41% annualized return over 3 years). I started buying another fund, GGN, early this year when VGPMX was closed. GGN is a “natural resource” fund and so has a lot of energy stocks as well as gold and basic materials. It also has a very good yield at 6%. There are other good precious metals funds that can be found on Morningstar or other websites.

Once I have my core position, I trade around the edges when the stocks are moving up. Precious metals and basic material stocks are very volatile, so they create good trading and option opportunities. I have been playing with AU, GG and AUY. The latter is a small cap and so very volatile. It is also a darling of the day trading crowd, so really moves fast. I just closed out my positions on AU that I have held off and on for four years. I will get back into AU when it approaches $40 again. I will probably sell put options to get in. Same is true for GG which I closed out in June when it was around $27. Now it is over $30, so probably got out too early. I just got back into AUY this week as it is well below its 52 week high. I sold (20) October 12.50 put contracts for 0.65 each on Friday (worth $1300 on Oct. 19 if AUY finishes above $12.50). That price is still good and will be on Monday (with the price of AUY at $13). I am looking for $15 or $16 in the next 6 weeks if gold stays at these levels.

Selling put options, you may end up with the stock if the price drops. That has happened to me with all the gold stocks along the way. If it happens, I just hold the stock knowing that the price is volatile and I will have a chance to get out at a profit. This is what I just did with the AU (Anglogold) and GG and AUY in the past.

Other conservative gold plays include the bullion ETF (GLD). You could also look at the silver ETF (SLV). Large cap miner possibilities are Newmont (NEM) and Barrick (ABX).

I think gold might double in 2-3 years from this level. It depends on the Fed and tax / spending policy. As long as we run fiscal deficits and also cut interest rates / create excess money, we will continue to see a devaluing dollar which encourages the price of gold to rise. If Congress and the Fed decide to protect the dollar, by raising interest rates and taxes and/or cutting Federal spending, then gold will decline in value. But I am not betting on that in the short term (during an election year).

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Bryan Ellis Reviews

Bryan Ellis is widely recognized as a expert in the fields of real estate investing and internet marketing, so it’s no wonder he’s regarded as a founding thinker of the new phenomenon of Virtual Real Estate Investing. I recently spoke with him about this topic:

Landlords, rehabbers and foreclosure investors, take notice - you may soon be focused on the new concepts of Virtual Real Estate Investing. Everything from using the internet as an avenue to make more money in real estate to online games such as SecondLife seem to be included in the popular definition of this term. And the pure financial potential is staggering.

In order to figure out the truth of the matter, I sought out Bryan Ellis whose experience in the fledgling industry is truly impressive.

“I began using the term ‘virtual real estate investing’ in the late 1990’s when I realized the clear similiarities in profit strategies, regardless of whether the real estate in question is ‘virtual’ or ‘physical’” said Ellis.

One example of the parallels between virtual and physical real estate Bryan Ellis cites is the similarity between the monetization of domain names versus physical property. He points out that control of a domain name or even a specific web page is much like controlling a real estate property: “those assets can be monetized in similar ways: By selling them for a profit, by leasing them, by offering advertising, etc. It’s not even necessary to own a website in order to profit from it.”

Bryan Ellis points to the example of websites like HubPages, Squidoo, Google Knol, etc. “Each of these services allows any person to write an article or create other type of content, and then allows the author to share in the revenue generated on that page. It’s almost as if you’re renting retail space in a highly desirable shopping district, only you get the benefit of a ‘great address’ in the form of a well-known domain host like Google.com but without paying a single penny in rental fees. It’s a win-win scenario.”

I must admit: Its easy to see the parallels. For example, if you’re the owner of a desirable property, its desirability is (in a business context) largely due to its being in a location that is of interest to others. Similarly, ownership of a desirable domain name is valuable for the same reasons. Regardless of the type of asset, you can sell or lease or use any number of strategies to turn the assets into cash.

In our next installment of this series on virtual real estate investing, Bryan Ellis will share the internet analogies to the physical concept of real estate development.

Workers compensation coverage is required in all states throughout the country. It is insurance that will provide for medical care for the worker if he or she gets injured while doing work for you. The coverage also protects you from having a lawsuit brought on by the employee that is injured.

Workman’s comp coverage can cover more than just accidents on the job. The protection of worker comp insurance can safeguard the worker in other locations in addition to the job site, even if they have a vehicle mishap while conducting business. It does not need to occur directly on business property. Illnesses might also be provided for as well.

The workers comp insurance compensates the worker while he or she is unable to come to work because they are recovering from his or her injury, regardless of who is to be at fault for the accident. As well as the above mentioned benefits, it provides a death benefit to the injured employee’s relatives. Every state has specific and unique rules regarding workers comp.

When a company is seeking worker’s compensation insurance company, the company has to buy it independently from property or liability types of insurance. BOPs, or business owner’s policies, are usually offered as insurance packages, but they don’t come with the required insurance for injured employees. Workman’s comp will be offered under its own package.

The entire concept of workmans comp ins dates back to the beginning of the 1900’s. Citizens determined there had to be a need for employees to be safe from on the job accidents and wanted to be paid for any and all accidental injuries that came about while on the job. It was a consequence of the public shock in regards to awful working environments and the dangers that came with certain lines of work.

Workers comp has been around longer than social security & unemployment insurances. Most states adopted this type of compensation in approximately the start of the 20th century, as the state of California enforced it. It is a type of ‘no-fault’ insurance because no one has to provide proof of the responsibility of the parties affected.

A few of the services that may be obtained, dependent upon your situation, include disability benefits, work rehab, supplemental work displacement coverage, permanent disability coverage, temporary disability benefits, and payments in case of death.



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