Comparing Mutual Funds

By Bob Jones

For anyone who is interested in investing in the stock market, there are various mutual funds that can be worth looking into. When you are doing this sort of research, it is best to short-list a couple of different mutual funds. To compare mutual funds you will have to keep various benchmarks in sight. The first one is the performance of the various companies that you have short-listed.

This means checking to see how the company has weathered the ups and downs of the stock market over a previous period of years. While this is not an reliable indication of future success, it will inform you, whether the mutual fund company is capable of performing reasonably, even if there is no clear indication of the prices of stocks changing. You can find this information in several financial guides.

You will gain an idea of how the stock market affects different forms of mutual funds from these different data sources and, once you have pondered these changes and the way your prospective portfolio is affected by them, you will know which funds are best avoided and which ones are all right to study further. However, it takes more than just looking through financial reviews to compare mutual funds effectively.

You will also need to see what kinds of costs are listed by the different mutual funds on your list. These expenses will include administrative costs, advertising costs, buying and selling of stocks and bonds charges and also the sorts of load costs. As most of these expenses need to be borne by the customer, it is advisable for you to research this information thoroughly.

You will find this information in newspapers and on Internet sites. However, make sure that you understand all of the information that is given, as this makes investing in a mutual fund less risky. In addition to these ideas on how to compare mutual funds, you will also discover lots of in-depth articles.

These brochures will explain the different terms used in some mutual fund articles. You will also be provided with information about the types of mutual funds that are currently available on the stock exchange.

By looking at all of this information, you can make a well-informed decision about which mutual funds are worthwhile investing in. Be sure that you look at all of these facts when you are ready to start investing. The details gained from comparing the mutual funds will give you the best information for investing wisely in the risky world of the stock exchange. - 31391

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If you are interested in Investing in Mutual Funds or investing in general, please go along to our website called Investing in Mutual Funds

Help For Retirement Calculation

By Smet Henry

All insured people in France must face with regulation of pension evolving making their application more and more complex. EOR is a consulting agency in retirement to help people for that. Through analysis of reconstitution of career and scoring the points fund accounts by fund and scheme by scheme, customers are sure to lose nothing of the contributions made during their careers.

Complex forms related to career recovery, validation of certain rights or recovery periods and contributions can be a real obstacle course. There are also rules for transforming the subtle calculations simulating pensions and their projection into a delicate exercise, whereas a pension is part of the future heritage, which should be exploited at best.

In fact, Eor services could help you: they interview each fund affiliate of the client and monitor the counts obtained. they proceed with corrections and disputes with the necessary funds to enforce your rights (period not taken into account, miscellaneous). Your pension consultant build for you a summary record of 20 to 30 pages of acquired rights and to acquire, to make estimates of the amount of future pensions to defined deadlines (which vary depending on the career of each insured person and his scheme affiliation). Each client is sure that all rights are preserved and that rents will be paid corresponding to the desired maturity.

It is an innovative product because people think that the payment of retirement is a simple administrative formality for which no value can be made. Our book shows that contrary to proper arrangements for departure adds value contributions and the choice of an appropriate status at the time of departure optimizes the last years of employment (assumption of accumulated employment pension for example). Finally know the amount of future pensions paid by pension schemes is a useful tool heritage.

Need more information about retirement, consult www.eor.fr - 31391

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Trading Options " Road To Wealth Or Short Cut To Bankruptcy?

By Johnny M Junior

Trading options has several advantages over trading in ordinary shares (stocks). This method of trading can also be high risk if you do not know what you are doing. We will briefly look at the different scenarios.

Steps to Success with Option Trades

The first advantage is that you can realize much bigger profits than if you invested the same amount of money in ordinary shares. The reason is what traders call leverage. If the price of a particular share is for example $100 and you have only $100 to invest, you can only buy a single share. The price of a so-called 'call option' could be as little as $.20. If this is so, then it would cost you $20 to control 100 shares of stock.

Let's now say a call option on that stock sells for $.20. If this is true, then you can control 100 shares of that stock for only $20. Just imagine the leverage you have. This is what attracts many investors to option trading.

Nowadays, experienced option traders like to use option spreads. This is what seems to be the best and safest way to make money on the market. To do this, we buy and sell options, giving us a hedged position with very limited risk.

Many people also use trading options to hedge investments they already have. If you have an investment of $1000 in a share that recently went up with more than 25%, you want to hold on to your profits, but you don't want to sell the shares either because the price might rise even further. In comes put options. If you bought put options on that particular share their value will increase if the share price drops (with the same amount as the drop in the share price). Your investment will therefore be intact. This is a very common hedging technique, and it's something to be studied more in detail. Whatever you do, make sure you do your homework before trading options. - 31391

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Learn more about option trading and how it works. With the right option trading system in place you will make lots of money. Set up your future today with a great way to earn cash!

403b Retirement Plans - Facts You Should Know

By John Lawole

403b retirement plans create the savings alternative to 401k plans but for work categories such as self-employed ministers, public schools employees and the employees of tax-exempt organizations. Despite the existence of limitations in the system, 403b retirement plans also have great advantages not only for employees and employers.

First of all, some companies use the existence of 403b retirement plans as a means to hire valuable professionals. Then, there are tax deductions not only for the employee who contributes money but also for the the hiring company. Tax deferment is thus possible for decades, while your account savings increase. Taxes will be paid only when you start withdrawing money.

Another good part about 403b retirement plans is that you can get loans against this money when you are in a dire need of cash. However, you should be aware of the way such loans and their repayment will affect your taxes. And this is where limitations of such retirement plans begin. In addition, you can only contribute a maximum amount of money as part of the 403b retirement plans per fiscal year. Plus, you can enjoy a total maximum contribution only if the company you work for has incredible profit.

Once you are 59.5 years old, you can start withdrawing money from the 403b retirement plans. There are penalties charged before this age. Otherwise, all you pay is the tax for income according to the withdrawn sum. Younger users get a 10% penalty on top of this tax per income. Different rules are set by the IRS for employees that own more than 5% of the company that they work for. This is a measure against very wealthy people who could be accumulating lots of tax-free money in their accounts.

All the savings available in the 403b retirement plans will be calculated so that you can get a good and complete distribution according to your life expectancy. The IRS also charges penalties for excess accumulation if you do not start to take the required minimum distribution, then you will be charged with a very high tax. Read more on what tax savings you can make with the contribution to the 403b retirement plans and then see what dividends, capital gains and interests you can earn in the 403b account. - 31391

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For further information on financial retirement planning, Retirement Planning, or Planning For Retirement tips, go over to my blog for more great Retirement Planning Advice, to discover how to start saving for your retirement today.

How To Secure Your Financial Future Through Investing

By Eno Williams

The very last few years have seen several changes in the financial world where a lot of the 'so called' economically secure areas have proved to be risky nevertheless we all must guarantee our financial future is safe. It is also unfeasible for folks to be able to work for the rest of their lives either as a result investing is the way to counter future financial problems.

There is nothing improper by having short term money in a low interest savings account however you cannot expect these to increase at a value that will provide for the future. This is the way several of us plan for the shorter term to obtain things that need preparing for in the immediate to near future and this dictates where the funds will be invested for the best financial return.

Huge amounts of money can be generated pretty fast if you are keen to invest in a higher risk area. If you are saving for the far off future, such as retirement, you may want to make safer investments that mature over a longer frame of time.

Long term financial freedom and guarantee requires time and keep in mind that you will not always be in a position to work hence the earlier you start this the better. You also would not rely on the Social Security system to do what you expect it to do and as we have seen with Enron, you cannot inevitably depend on your company's retirement benefit also therefore investing is the recipe to guarantee your own financial future, however you should make smart investments!

Investing for your future nevertheless has risks which can be reduced precisely like in a match where the victor is not all the time a guaranteed thing. If you know the system and have set up a plan of action for your investment you would give yourself a greater chance of success. If you know precisely how much funds you will need as you stop working, it is just a matter of preparing where to invest to meet that need.

Every category of fund has various areas that could be used to suit the requirements of the investor and as such makes each fund extremely exclusive. The most well-known of these areas is the stock market with basically hundreds of thousands of companies available to speculate savings in. Shrewd people understand that this is a complex game where the system have to to be learned before play commences therefore much of study is essential however that will make the difference of losing terribly or winning spectacularly. This is where a strategy comes into play but bear in mind your existing circumstances should be stabilized before you thinking of investing for your future. - 31391

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For more information about investing opportunities, go over to my blog to learn more about mutual funds investing, what are mutual funds, and why investing in mutual funds is a great choice to have in your investment portfolio

Rule Of 72

By Zigfred Diaz

There was once an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) who worked abroad for several years. At the age of 29 his savings already amounted to P 100,000.00 (Philippine peso)

In order to preserve his P 100,000.00, he decided to place it in the bank, since this is the only vehicle of investment that he knew about. The bank manager was delighted that the OFW opened an account with them. He even recommended that the money be placed in a time deposit account enabling the OFW to earn more than the ordinary savings account.

So the money remained in the time deposit account until the OFW reached the age of 65. At that time, he then went back to the bank to withdraw the P 100,000.00. He was amazed when he learned that the P100,000.00 had already grown to P 400,000.00. He was quite happy with the growth of his money. He then withdrew the money from the bank, enjoyed life and lived happily ever after.

So tell me, is this a "live happily ever after" story or not? Do you think this OFW has "wisely" handled his money? Did he really maximize his money's potential or did he just made others more richer ?

Under the rule of 72, in order to determine how many years it takes for your money to double you only need to follow this very simple equation: 72 / interest = No. of years it takes for your money to double

In the case of this Filipino OFW, every 18 years his money will double. 72 divided 4 % per annum = 18 years. So if he deposited his P 100,000.00 at age 29, his money will become P 200,000.00 at age 47. Add another 18 years then he reaches the age of 65. This time his money becomes P 400,000.00.

Now that the P 100,000.00 is in the bank's hand, what do they do with it ? Well they basically invest it in other vehicles of investments which gives them a higher interest rate such as mutual funds, the stock market, the money market, government bonds, corporate bonds etc. They even use it to loan it back to the depositors at a much more higher interest rate. But let's just say that all of the bank's investing activities gave a return of 12 % per annum. Using the rule of 72, it can be determined that the same amount of money will double every 6 years. (computed as follows: 72 divided by 12 % interest = 6 years)

After 36 years of waiting, the OFW claimed his P 100,000.00. You wouldn't be surprised why the bank manager willingly and gladly gave him back the P 100,000.00 plus the interest of P 300,000 amounting to a total of P 400,000.00. No sweat, they already made more or less a total of P 6,400,000.00 from the OFW's P 100,000.00 deposit. Now you tell me if that isn't hi-way robbery !

Think like the bank if you want to be more wealthy and a more better steward of your money ! The Rule of 72 works ! Make it work for you ! - 31391

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Would you like to know more about investment strategies ? Visit the blog of Zigfred Diaz where he blogs about several interesting topics such as investments, money management, business, making money online and Stock market investing

Why You Should Take Advantage of Retirement Social Security Benefits

By Lawole Johnny

The retirement age is the main element that influences the access to the social security benefits. Thus, Depending on the year of birth, the categories of retirees include people born before 1932 who retired at 65, others born up to 1943 who retired at 66 and finally people born in the 60s who will be able to retire when they are 67 of age. Social security benefits will diminish with several percents if you chose to retire before time.

Delayed retirement is common occurrence too, when one tries to increase the credits in the social security benefits so that they can be passed on to the spouse after death. According to US law, a worker's spouse and children can use the social security benefits, according to a regulation passed in 2000. In case of death, even divorced spouses can receive social security benefits. Moreover disability benefits can be received if the worker has worked long enough.

For social security benefits that apply to the disabled, the applicants have to go to a legal hearing at an appointed time. The number of applications for social security benefits is incredibly large which often makes it difficult for the Administrative Law Judges to cope with the hearings. Sometimes, it may take up to ninety days before a request is solved in a hearing. Yet, there are people who have waited eighteen months for solutions.

A higher monthly revenue and a tax-free income, such are the social security benefits that one aims at. While you receive disability services you are not counted as employed. the average earnings over the last 30 years will actually determine the amount of money you will get. A problem these years is the increase of the number of applications for social security benefits due to the world financial crisis.

The system is already put under pressure because of the recession, and it now suffers the burden of increasing numbers of retirees. Statistics indicate that 150,000 more people request their social security benefits yearly. During the recession, the elderly have troubles finding a job, and therefore, social security benefits become a safety net. Someone who closes retirement will hardly be interested in more education or be able to continue work once he/she has become unemployed. - 31391

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For more information on financial retirement planning, Retirement Planning Advice, or Investing For Retirement tips, go over to my blog for more great tip about Retirement Income Planning, to learn how to start saving and investing for your retirement today.

How to Make Best Use of Retirement Calculators For Retirement Savings

By Lawole Johnny

Retirement calculators are web tools that help people figure out how much they need to save for retirement. Do you need how much money you'll need per month? There are different scenarios and charts that can help you understand what you need. All the results are estimates and should be interpreted as such particularly since the amounts are calculated at the daily dollar values. Moreover, retirement calculators also adjust the return on investment with a certain inflation rate, usually around 3%.

Some web retirement calculators help people determine the amount of money they will currently need when they retire. On these grounds, you can determine the best way to get there, particularly since improvements in the saving plans are possible. When using retirement calculators, you'll come across sections or questions that do not apply to you; but normally these can be skipped.

Income taxes, pension income and expenses are the basic factors that are taken into account by retirement calculators, because such elements have every chance of messing the retirement savings. You can get a very general idea about how much you can withdraw from your retirement plan, and how long the savings can last. There are different retirement calculators and they can be found on many financial web sites that aim at improving retirement saving goals. Even if tools differ according to the software on which they rely, the core methodology remains the same.

Thus, you will start by entering the current income, the anticipated retirement age and the expected annual savings. A maximum of 80% of your current salary is the estimate set by most financial planners. Besides individual factors, retirement scenarios can only be created if several market variables are taken into consideration. The emphasis will fall on the estimates or scenarios with the highest rate of success.

If you are also interested in the ratings given to the various online retirement calculators you can check reviews and detailed features for further information. Moreover, when you are done using such a program, you can also give it a rating too, for others to take as a reference. Some calculators are held in high esteem while others are badmouthed on many forums that discuss retirement. You can also find some tips for making the best use of retirement calculators so that you can get as accurate data as possible. Good luck! - 31391

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For further information about financial retirement planning, Retirement Planning Advice, or Investing For Retirement tips, visit my blog for more great tip about Retirement Income Planning, to discover how to start saving and investing for your retirement today.

How to Get The Best Out of Florida Retirement Communities

By John Lawole

Florida retirement communities sound appealing to lots of American retirees who want to make the best out of their after-retirement living options. Even if one cannot complain about the lack of opportunities, there is no retirement heaven-on-earth. The real estate market has greatly increased in this part of the US, although the financial crisis has slowed down the boom. House prices in Florida have seriously dropped, yet, not all Florida retirement communities are worth investing in.

There is no other state or country in the world that has as many retirement communities as Florida. The proximity of the ocean and the warm climate make towns in Florida a favorite destination for many retirees. The costs in different Florida retirement communities vary depending on the neighborhood. To count just a few popular towns for retirees, we ought to mention Gainesville, Tallahassee, Venice, Stuart, Abacao or Key West, but there are many more.

Another issue that makes Florida retirement communities popular is the absence of income taxes, and there are just a few other states that provide similar conditions. Property taxes are also kept at a decent level, which has determined many American retirees to relocate to this part of the country. As for certification, there are no certified Florida retirement communities, just favorite towns where the elderly can choose to live.

In case you already reside in Florida, it is in your best interest to choose local retirement communities rather than move somewhere else. The truth is that relocation has lots of challenges and very few people feel prepared to change a lifestyle and a home that they've grown used to in a lifetime for a new residence on the other side of the country. Some retirees are also unhappy with the possible climate changes and the distance from the family, which makes relocation to Florida retirement communities a lot more difficult.

To sum up: there is a number of elements that you should be aware of in relation with Florida retirement communities. You can read magazines, books and Internet reviews, but the even better alternative is to actually visit the town or community before moving. Moreover, find out whether there are any criteria that you need to meet in order to make the move and become a Florida retiree. - 31391

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For further information on financial retirement planning, Retirement Planning, or Planning For Retirement tips, head to my blog for more great Retirement Planning Advice, to discover how to start saving for your retirement today.

Retirement Speech?- You Need to Read This

By Lawole Johnny

You entire life is affected by such a big change as the retirement. Many people consider the retirement speech a relevant part of the farewell party when one retires, which means that it has to be prepared well in advance. Very similar to a wedding speech, the retirement speech is suggestive for the professional experience people have had together with the retiree.

If you have to deliver a retirement speech it is important to identify one or several specific but relevant incidents that best characterize the professional experience of the employee in the organization. Nobody will feel awkward if you give a humorous and relaxed speech. If you can't appeal to the audience, chances are that they will get either too emotional or really bored. Keep in mind that the main purpose of the event is to celebrate, have fun, and create something memorable.

Therefore, the retirement speech is expected to look back at the key events that marked the years you've spent as colleagues in the same company. Mention must be made here that the person who delivers the speech should be someone close to the employee, a long-term collaborator. As you get ready for the event and you prepare the retirement speech, ask your other colleagues for impressions and special farewell words and even use a camera to record nice messages and goodbyes.

Most of the time, people experience a sort of tension when you begin the retirement speech, and this emotion applies not only to the speaker, but to the audience as well. If you know how to break this tension, everybody will feel a lot more comfortable. Use some heart-felt words, make some jokes or tell a funny incident so as to lighten up the atmosphere. If you are really short of ideas, you can try the Internet and see what suggestions you can find, or in really desperate cases you can ask a professional to write the speech for you.

The costs for such services are not high, and since they are easy to access and use, their reputation has definitely improved over the last years. Many people choose to pay $25 for a retirement speech and save themselves the embarrassment of not being able to put several phrases together. Whichever solution you may come up with, make sure to first think about the person you dedicate the speech to. - 31391

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To read more regarding financial retirement planning, Retirement Planning Advice, or Investing For Retirement tips, head to my blog for more great tip about Retirement Income Planning, to learn how to start saving and investing for your retirement today.

The Secrets to Writing The Best Retirement Speech

By Lawole Johnny

You entire life is affected by such a big change as the retirement. Many people consider the retirement speech a relevant part of the farewell party when one retires, which means that it has to be prepared well in advance. A retirement speech is very similar with a wedding speech since there is an emotional charge, everybody knows the people in question and there are common experiences to look back upon.

In fact, the retirement speech is often full of evocations of past incidents, funny moments and important achievements that have marked the retiree's activity. Make the speech humorous and relaxed so that nobody feels awkward. If you can't appeal to the audience, chances are that they will get either too emotional or really bored. Keep in mind that the whole point for the event is to have fun, celebrate and make memories.

With any retirement speech you will be looking back on the years spent with colleagues and you'll remember so many events that have kept you together. It is a long-term collaborator and friend who usually delivers the retirement speech. As you prepare the retirement speech and get ready for the event, talk to other colleagues, take notes and even record their message on a camera so as to get interesting stories or nice goodbyes.

You'll most certainly feel tensed when delivering the retirement speech. If you know how to break this tension, everybody will feel a lot more comfortable. Use some heart-felt words, make some jokes or tell a funny incident so as to lighten up the atmosphere. If you are really short of ideas, you can try the Internet and see what suggestions you can find, or in really desperate cases you can ask a professional to write the speech for you.

It sounds far-fetched but there are actually professional writers who can save you the trouble of not knowing how to write the retirement speech. $25 can save you from embarrassment and work just fine in context. No matter if you have someone write the speech for you or you rely on personal skill, you ought to create it with the right person in mind: the retiree. - 31391

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For further information concerning financial retirement planning, Retirement Planning Advice, or Investing For Retirement tips, head to my blog for more great tip about Retirement Income Planning, to discover how to start saving and investing for your retirement today.

How To Make The Right Investing Decision Tips

By Eno Williams

Loads of folks crave to try their hand at investment, typically as a way to build a nest egg for their family in the future and there are innumerable ways to do this. One of the most obvious avenues for investment are the stocks and share markets, although there are several other practical choices too, which might be of importance to you. Any one of these would be promising for the future, provided you have the correct mental make-up to handle them. Though this piece cannot offer sufficient space for covering all fact concerning this huge subject matter, this could in the least, provide you some sorts of rule of thumb involving possibility.

Stocks and mutual fund investments have always been beneficial, although before doing this you ought to do a lot of due diligence on the corporations where you wish to invest in. If you are looking for short term gains (long term too), subsequently the stock exchange is the place to do this but it is also where everyone can end up with egg on their face from time to time! Of course if you are investing in real estate, you are more expected to witness decent gains however they will take some time although it is a much safer option. Some individuals purposely purchase a home that needs huge remodeling as they can acquire them for less but the earnings when they are sold could be massive although this does need a sizeable amount of work to be carried out first. In case you discover this option attractive, do some investigation because there is more than what is mentioned here, which is not the case with the next option we will discuss.

The fastest means to get started is by doing it online and it is also the fastest emerging division of investment since it could be done by just about anyone using their computer and internet connection. For online trading, you have to check the company's history, their growth and performance track record ahead of you putting your funds with them, but all this can be completed really quickly. This kind of investment requires some estimation and someone with a great deal of built-in restraint would be good at it, as several people goes on blindly bidding till they find that more money is lost than gained.

At the same time some people go about their venture depending only on Lady Luck to smile on them, whereas others who are very painstaking, burn the midnight oil to study everything they should to know to make their investment dreams come true with desire income. Do not turn dealing into a something akin to the turn of a roulette wheel since if you do, you will surely lose when all that was necessary was some investigation of the markets.

Use the Internet to your advantage where there are abundance of forums and sites devoted to offer you tips on shrewd investments, learn from these as well as others' experiences. I individually know scores of individuals who have trusted in this kind of investing and have turn out to be rich, and there are some who have throw away the whole lot they had. - 31391

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Need More Info about mutual funds as investment options, What are mutual fund and Understanding Mutual Funds Go over to my blog for quality mutual funds information.

The Key To Guarantee Financial Freedom Is By Investing Wisely

By Ejima Pitt

The last few years have seen several changes in the financial world where a lot of the 'so called' economically safe areas have confirm to be insecure nevertheless we all need to ensure our economic future is guarantee. It is as well unfeasible for people to be able to work for the rest of their lives either hence investing is the way to counter future financial problems.

There is nothing wrong by having short term reserves in a low interest bank account but you would not assume these to grow at a rate that will provide for the future. This is the way a lot of of us prepare for the shorter term to obtain things that require planning for in the immediate to near future and this dictates where the funds will be invested for the best financial gain.

Huge amounts of money could be made fairly quickly if you are prepared to invest in a higher risk area. If you are saving for the distant future, such as retirement, you may want to make safer investments that mature across a longer frame of time.

Long term economic autonomy and security needs time and remember that you will not all the time be capable to work therefore the earlier you start this the better. You also cannot depend on the Social Security system to do what you expect it to do and as we have seen with Enron, you cannot essentially rely on your company's retirement plan either so investing is the solution to guarantee your own economic future, nevertheless you should make prudent investments!

Investing for your future notwithstanding has risks which could be lessened precisely like in a game where the winner is not always a sure thing. If you know the regulations and have put in place a course of action for your investment you should give yourself a greater likelihood of winning. If you know just how much cash you will require when you retire, it is simply an issue of preparing where to invest to meet that need.

Every category of fund has several areas that could be employed to suit the requirements of the investor and as such makes all fund highly exclusive. The most prominent of these areas is the stock market with literally hundreds of thousands of companies available to speculate savings in. Clever people understand that this is a complicated game where the regulations must to be studied prior to play commences therefore a great deal of learning is needed however that will bring about the difference of losing badly or winning spectacularly. This is where a strategy comes into action but take into account your current situation should be stabilized ahead of you considering investing for your future. - 31391

About the Author:

To learn more about investing opportunities,head to my blog to learn more about mutual funds investing, what are mutual funds, and why mutual funds investing is a great choice to consider

Index Options (Part II)

By Ahmad Hassam

Index options premium all depends on the volatility of the market. The duller the market, the lower the index options premium. Well it depends on the expectations of the traders whether the market will move sufficiently in the near future for them to exercise their buy or sell rights. The more volatile the market, the higher then index option premium! Infact there are many factors that can affect the options premium like theta Vega, gamma. Now what are these terms and from where they have cropped up? These terms are known as the options Greeks. Before you start trading options, you need to learn what these terms means.

You can find many options types of options contracts. You will find futures options, currency options, stock options, ETF options and so on. Options offer investors far more trading strategies as compared to futures. Such strategies can range from highly speculative to highly conservative. Options are a far more basic instrument than the ETFs and futures. You can easily replicate any ETF or futures contract with an option but the reverse is not true.

Of course for anyone who buys an options contract there should be someone to sell the options contract to make a complete transaction. Now the seller of a call options believes that the market will not move sufficiently up in the near future so he/she can make money by writing a call options contract and selling it to someone who believes the maker will move up.

There are always two parties to a trade. In case of options, one is the options buyer and the other is the options seller. Options trading are a zero sum game. Either the options buyer wins or the seller wins. Both can't. Now the seller of a call options believes that the market will not move sufficiently up in the near future so he/she can make money by writing a call options contract and selling it to someone who believes the maker will move up. Of course for anyone who buys an options contract there should be someone to sell the options contract to make a complete transaction.

So in a way, buying and selling of options contracts make options trading a zero sum game. Either the market will move up or it will not. Either the option seller will win or the options buyer will win. The development of the stock index futures and the index options was a major development in 1980s for investors and money managers. The buyers of the put options are in a way insuring their portfolio against possible market decline but who are the sellers of the put options. They are primarily those investors who are willing to buy those stocks but only at lower prices. Options are an important component of any money manager portfolio. Many hedging strategies now depend on options.

ETFs give you the familiarity of the stocks but like index futures much higher liquidity and superior tax efficiency. The Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) gave the investor still more ways to diversify across all market with very low costs.

Index options give the investors the ability to insure the value of their portfolios at the lowest possible prices and save on the transaction costs and taxes. - 31391

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Try these cash printing Forex Signals from heaven. Discover a revolutionary Forex Robot System!

Best Home Based Business

By Ahmad Hassam

A successful home based business is a dream come true. It must be your dream too to start your own home based business. Internet has made it possible for many people like you and me to have a home based business. But the challenge is how to start a successful home based business.

I am talking from my experience. Most home based businesses require you to sell a product online. You have to purchase the product just in order to become a member of that home based business. When you do that you will be provided with your own website link that you are required to promote online!

The success of your home based business will depend on how many people you can recruit in your down line and how fast. This will require a lot of advertising, cold calling and prospecting. You are supposed to advertise your website online. Most of the advertising methods are costly. If you do PPC on Google, Yahoo and MSN, you will find that most of the relevant keywords have been already taken over by your competitors and are costing something like $1-2. Are you ready to pay $1-2 just for someone to click on your website? Are you ready to spend thousands of dollars on advertising the website? You are supposed to recruit new members under you. Now the hard part starts.

Competition, competition and competition! Did you hear about Herbalife? Well it was a wellness and fitness product company that became so popular that everyone started to promote it and in a few years the market was saturated with Herbalife affiliates trying to sell the products. Where ever you will go you will find a lot of competition! Start hopping from one home based Business Company to another and you will find the market saturated with them. What to do then? Maybe not and if you try free advertising methods, they don't work at all.

I give you a very easy solution. Stop wasting money on buying home based business membership and then wasting hundreds and even thousands of dollars on advertising that home based business opportunity. Have you ever heard of forex?

I think so you must have heard about forex trading. Is forex trading difficult. You bet it is. Then why I am suggesting you to try forex trading. Forex market is the world's largest market. Everyday 3 trillion dollars get transacted in the forex market.

Tom Strignano says if you can read an email, you can trade with his forex signals. The other day, one of the members made a cool $15,000 with his forex signals. I want to introduce Tom Strignano to you. He has been the Chief Currency Trader in a number of elite banks. He has been a professional forex trader for the last 25 years.

If you can read an email, you can follow the instruction in his forex signals with a few clicks, you can start making money trading forex. You trade forex from anywhere. You can even trade forex from your cell. Yeah, any mobile phone can be used to trade forex. Subscribe to his forex signals. Try them and see if you can make money with them. If you can't, simply forget about them. You must be thinking that you need to pay something to try these forex signals. Not at all! Try these forex signals for two weeks risk free on your demo account and see how much money they make for you. Nothing can be more risk free than this! He will not only provide you with his forex signals but will also mentor you and coach you in forex trading. Now there is no selling, no advertising in this home business. - 31391

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Try These Cash Printing Forex Signals From Heaven. Know A Forex Trading System With An ROI of 3000% Per Month!

Green Stocks

By Ahmad Hassam

Do you know China is the largest producer of coal? Coal production n China would peak somewhere around 2010-2020. Are you aware of the fact that the peak of the global oil production (all liquids, including unconventional oil) will peak in the next few years.

You must be thinking what to do every available source of energy seems to be peaking in the near future? The global peak of uranium production lies somewhere around2025-2050. The global peak of natural gas production lies somewhere around 2025!

So what will fill this void in energy production in the coming decades? Do you know this fact that the US Department of Energy has estimated that there is enough available offshore wind energy of the coasts of US that can nearly cover the current US electricity capacity?

With introduction of energy saving technology in the fluorescent lamps and bulbs, a lot of energy can be saved. If every bulb in the US was replaced with an energy efficient fluorescent lamp, enough energy could be saved to shut down around 100 power plants. If all the care in US were hybrids by 2025 that would roughly reduce 80% of the US oil import.

The solution is already there and as the end of fossil fuel nears which is only a decade away, more and more alternative energy solutions will be used to generate cheap energy. Enough power could be generated for the entire US by covering only 9% of Nevada desert with parabolic trough systems. This is something like a plot of land 100 by 100 miles.

You might have seen only a glimpse of that last year in 2008 when crude oil prices jumped to around $150 per barrel. This is something that is bound to happen. The supplies of fossil fuel are finite and will be exhausted in the near future.

This prediction is based on our insatiable energy consumption and the lack of conventional supplies to meet the growing energy demand. This is most probably the safest long term bet that you can make in the long term. There is little doubt that companies operating in the green energy sector will ultimately become the major players in the overall energy generation and transportation mix of tomorrow.

Imagine Henry Ford in'09 asking you to invest in his Ford Motor Company that is about to mass produce a horseless carriage. Keeping in view the above facts, investing in green energy stocks in the best long term investment that you can make!

Right now the world is standing at another threshold. But many folks in that year of'09 were skeptical about Model T success. This is now 2009, exactly a century has passed. Do you think investing in green energy stocks is a bad idea? He tells you that this invention could change the entire landscape of the country. Knowing everything that you know right now with the power of hind sight with you, you will definitely say yes. Green Energy stocks may turn out to be your best investment decision of your life. A massive investment frenzy is about to take place in the green energy technologies. - 31391

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. Try these cash printing Forex Signals from heaven. Discover a revolutionary Forex Robot System!

Mutual Funds in Canada

By Bob Jones

Mutual funds are one of the ways that people can use to earn some money by saving in a safe way. With mutual funds the company has an investment of stocks and bonds that can increase the client's prospects. While many countries have their own version of mutual funds you will find that Canadian mutual funds have a parent company that regulates their operations.

In general, Canadian mutual funds are applicable only to residents of Canada. If you want to invest your savings in one of these Canadian mutual funds then you have to look into the company very carefully. The companies that you investigate should have all of their terms and conditions listed in a simple and readable way.

You can look through financial pages of the newspapers and the Internet to look up how the different Canadian mutual funds are performing. This overview will assist you to make a comparison between the various mutual companies that you are interested in.

To gain a better picture of what types of stocks and bonds there are in each of these companies, you should look at the listings that are given. Compare these details with those of other Canadian mutual funds.

For the most part, the many different Canadian mutual funds will have the same kind of funds as the ones in the USA. These funds include the index mutual funds, low cost funds, front load funds, no-load funds and others. Before you decide to invest in a Canadian mutual funds group, you may need some legal advice.

This legal advice will need to handle the questions of tax that you might need to pay on both sides of the border. This is vital as the tax office in the US require shareholders in investment funds to pay some kind of tax on capital gains distributions. You will need to know how the Canadian government views the tax rates for Canadian mutual funds.

There is one point that needs deeper inspection when you are investigating the various Canadian mutual funds. Canadian mutual funds can hold a number of different brands of stock under the umbrella of one fund. For example, you will find that the 'RBC ('Royal Bank of Canada') Asset Management Inc.', has one kind of stock brand called the RBC Funds. Whereas 'The Mackenzie Financial Corporation', on the other hand, has nine different brands.

All of this makes the idea of investing in Canadian mutual funds quite interesting. If you are interested, you will need to find out how you can invest in one of these funds. Your financial advisor should be able to provide you with help in this direction. - 31391

About the Author:

If you are interested in Canadian Mutual Funds or investing in general, please go along to our website entitled Investing in Mutual Funds

Stock Investing 101

By Ahmad Hassam

The whole point of investing in stocks is to choose one that has the greatest chance of a rising share value. Don't we all look for a stock that we could buy for $10 and later on sell for $300 per share? Well, how can we proceed to accomplish such a feat? What would make a stock rise so much?

So if the company does well, its stock will go up in price and if the company does poorly its stock will go down in price. Buying a stock is essentially buying a small piece of the company and its future potential for growth and profits.

The marketplace is in fact buyers and sellers, individuals and organizations that want to buy stocks or sell them. Now why does the stock goes up and down with the performance of the company. Actually the real force behind the stock rise and fall is the market place.

If there are more buyers of the stock, its value will go up and if there are more sellers in the market, the stock price goes down. This buying and selling of stocks can only take place in exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange and over the counter markets like NASDAQ.

Sometimes you will find that the company does well and is posting good quarterly earnings but still its stock price goes down. What's the reason behind this? Now it doesn't mean that if the company does well and is showing good profits and earnings, its stock price will go up.

Stock price goes up and down because of what the buyers and sellers expect will happen with the company in the near future. In reality the price of stock depends on the investor's expectations. The price of a stock goes down because there are more sellers than buyers. So why is it so? The stock price does not go up or down just based on the company's present performance.

In the short term, the behavior of the stock price is irrational and it can behave in crazy and illogical ways. However, the performance of the stock and the performance of the company over the long term have a logical relationship.

Focus on finding companies that are strong, well positioned in the right industries and have solid fundamentals like a good management, good product, good service, growing industry, rising sales, increasing profits and so on. The bottom line is don't worry about the short term gyrations of the stock price. Sometimes the industry and the economy matters more than the company. Picking a stock doesn't happen in a vacuum. Understanding the company's industry and the overall economic environment is critical to stock picking process. - 31391

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Try these cash printing Forex Signals from heaven. Discover a revolutionary Forex Robot System!

Growth Stocks Investment

By Ahmad Hassam

When we talk of the capitalization of a company what do we mean by it? Capitalization or cap refers to the combined value of all the share of a company's stocks. The division between large cap, mid cap and small cap are often blurry and not sharp. When you start looking for good stocks, you often come across these terms like large cap, mid cap, small cap, growth and value. Let's discuss these terms for a moment.

Statistical studies of large cap, mid cap and the small cap stocks has shown that over the years small cap stocks have outperformed. Mid caps are companies with $1 to $5 Billion in capitalization and small caps are companies with $250 million to $1 Billion in capitalization. Anything below $250 million can be considered as micro cap. However the following divisions are generally accepted: Large caps are companies with over $5 Billion in capitalization.

Perhaps the most important ratio is the Price to Earnings Ratio (P/E). Now the most important term that you come across is growth stocks and value stocks. How do you determine this is a growth stock or a value stock? Suppose, company ABC stock is presently selling for $50. Now suppose that last year company ABC earned $5 for every share of the stock outstanding. This means stock ABC P/E ratio is 50/5=10. So the higher the P/E ratio, the more investors are willing to pay for the stock. What is the P/E ratio? The P/E ratio divides the price of the stock by the earnings per share.

Now the higher the P/E ratio, the more growth the company is supposed to have. So it can be either the company is growing real fast of the investor have high hopes of its growth. Now these hopes can be realistic or foolish, you never know!

The lower the P/E ratio, the more value the company has. Low P/E ratio companies are not considered to be the movers and shakers in the market. Now, if you follow financial news than you must know that the large growth companies always grab the headlines. But do the growth stocks really make best investment? According to Fama and French, two famous researchers who did ground breaking research on stocks, over the last 77 years, large growth stocks have only seen 9.9% annualized rate of return as compared to 11.5% for the large value stocks.

The most probable cause seems to be their immense popularity. Since most of the headlines are captures by high growth companies, investors seem to think that they are the best investments. Now intuitively you might have thought that growth stocks are better. What can be the reason for their lower performance over the years?

So large growth stocks tend to get overpriced before you are able to buy them! Think about Google, how its stock price shot up within a matter of weeks after it hit the market. Weeks after that it began to cool off. - 31391

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. Try these cash printing Forex Signals from heaven. Discover a revolutionary Forex Robot System!

The Last 10 Years in the Financial Markets in Review

By Jason Raburn

To say that the equities markets have been erratic during the last ten years is somewhat of an understatement. There's never been volatility like this in both directions during such a short span.

Let's take a look back to the beginning of the decade. Times were great in the financial world. In fact, the indexes hit all-time highs and there were aggressive gains in the markets almost every day.

More people were trading stocks than ever before. This was a craze that the world had never witnessed, and everyone wanted a piece of the action. New accounts were springing up left and right.

Unfortunately, reality hit soon after, and it hit main street pretty hard. The markets retreated from their all-time highs within a matter of months. Things plummeted as the reality of the tech bubble set in.

To think that the indexes were as high as they were seems ludicrous in hindsight. Within the span of a few months, the markets had corrected by over 20%. Late 2001 was even worse, as the events of September 11th brought about new financial worries.

Things slowly rebounded during the next few years, until the Dow Jones industrial average rallied to an all-time high in 2006, breaking--,000 at one point. Many feared another bubble that was bound to correct itself.

Not only were the equities markets thriving, but fortunes were being made through foreign exchange currency trading and commodities trading. Even vehicles like ETFs began to spring up and attracted heavy investment money.

As you well know, the end of the decade ended on a poor note, as we've been hit with one of the biggest bear markets in history. On the bright side, things look to be slowly improving and we could very well be on our way back up the roller coaster. - 31391

About the Author:

If you're into forex trading, read this author's article about the Forex No Loss Robot scam concerns.

Index Options Investing (Part I)

By Ahmad Hassam

Options trading can be profitable if done correctly. Many people take the plunge in options trading without any training or understanding about the different options contracts that they can trade. In the end they don't have a clue when the options value starts going against them. Now for options buyers this option unlike futures limits their maximum liability to the option premium they had paid at the time of buying the options contract. The options market has caught the fancy of many investors and this is not surprising. The beauty of options is embedded in its very name. You have the options but not the obligation to buy or sell stocks at a given price by a given time.

You must have come across the term Index Options. So what are index options? In'78, Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) began options trading on popular stock indexes such as the S&P 500 Stock Index. The CBOE options trades in multiples of $100 per index point. This is much cheaper than the $250 multiple per index point for the S&P futures contract.

Let's take an example. Suppose the S&P 500 Index is at 1100 points. You have a bullish opinion of the market and are of the opinion that the S&P 500 Index will go further up. An index option allows the investor to buy the stock index at a set point within the given time period.

There are options Greeks that you need to understand. Time and volatility are two very important factors for an options contract. In case of an index options, what this means is that if any time for the next three months you decide to exercise your call option, you will get $100 for each point the index is above 1150. So you decide to purchase a call option at 1150 for three months for 50 points. In other words you paid an option premium of $5000.

So when an options contract loses value, you only lose the premium that you had paid while buying that contract. In that case you will only lose the premium of $5000 that you had paid to buy the call index option. Now, 1150 is the strike price of the index option. In case the S&P 500 Index does not rise above 1150, you can simply decide to not exercise your call option.

Contrast this with S&P futures. Call options are considered to be bullish. So for you to make a profit with this call option, the S&P 500 Index will have to rise above 1200 point within the next three months otherwise you will lose your premium.

A Put Index Option works in exactly the same way as a Call Index Option except that you make profit when the stock index goes down. If you had bought the put index options instead of the call index option in our example above, every point below the strike price of 1150 would have given you a profit of $100. In case the S&P Index had fallen to 1100 point, you would have recouped your options premium. Put options are considered to be bearish.

Options are highly dependent on the volatility of the market as well as time to expiry. As the options contract nears expiry, its premium starts decreasing. The more the options contract is away from expiry, the higher the premium you will have to pay. But the most important factor is the expected volatility of the market. Now the option premium that you pay is determined by the market and it depends on many factors like interest rates and dividend yield. - 31391

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. Try these cash printing Forex Signals from heaven. Discover a revolutionary Forex Robot System!

Commodity Mutual Funds

By Ahmad Hassam

The first question that may come to your mind is why invest in commodities? If you have been following the breaking news that you might have come across the news that gold prices have reached historically the highest level! Recently gold broke the price barrier of $1000 per ounce. This might be the best time to invest in commodities. A mutual fund is a fund managed by an investment professional on behalf of the fund investors. Now, mutual funds by law are constrained to follow conservative trading methods. Mutual funds cannot engage themselves in such sophisticated and risky trading techniques like arbitrage trades, long short strategies and distressed asset investing. Some expert of the opinion that the secular bull market started in the commodity market a few years back and may continue for the coming decade! If you want to invest in commodities than you have many options like trading commodity futures, commodity ETF, commodity stocks or commodity mutual funds.

There are many different mutual funds like stock funds, bond funds, currency funds and even country specific mutual funds. But there are a number of mutual funds that specialize in investing in commodities or commodity related products.

The rate of return all depends on the investment strategy of the fund manager. You will have to minus your management fees and the different loads from this rate of return to arrive at the rate of return hat would reach you! These commodity mutual funds use different investment strategies. Some of these commodity mutual funds invest in derivates based on commodities such as futures contracts and options based on futures contracts traded on the major exchanges in New York, Chicago and so on.

So how can you invest in these commodity mutual funds? After doing your research on these commodity mutual funds, you can select one that you consider to fit your investment objectives, simply write a check and purchase the shares of that commodity mutual fund either through your broker or directly through the fund providers. There are commodity mutual funds that may invest in companies that process these raw commodities such as energy companies and mining companies. So you will have to do your research in find the right commodity mutual fund for your objectives.

It is always good to make a list of research questions that you need answered while doing your research. These days a lot of research can be done online. Even you can ask for the prospectus of the mutual fund online. Now I said, after doing your research. The first step in your research should be to compile a list of questions like what is the fund's investment objective, what securities does the fund invest in, who manages the fund, what kind of strategy does the fund uses, what type of people invest in this fund, what are the risks involved in investing in this fund, what is the funds track record, what is the funds fees and expenses and so on.

Once you have your list of questions, see if the fund prospectus answers these questions satisfactorily. The good thing is that most of the mutual funds send their fund prospectus free! Now the two main commodity mutual funds are the PIMCO Commodity Real Return Strategy Fund and the Oppenhiemer Real Asset Fund. Now PIMCO Commodity Real Return Strategy Fund (PCRAX) is the largest commodity mutual fund in the market with $12 Billion of assets under its management. PCRAX tries to mimic the performance of Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Index by investing directly in commodity linked instruments like futures contracts, forwards contracts and options on futures.

Now as always Morningstar website is a very good resource for doing your research on commodity mutual funds. It can give you a lot of information about these commodity mutual funds such as the latest news, updates, load charges, expense ratios and other useful key data. Morningstar also have got a five star rating system that can be really helpful to you in picking the best commodity mutual fund. - 31391

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. Trade Dow Futures . Learn Commodity Trading !

MLP (Part II)

By Ahmad Hassam

The reason MLPs exist is to distribute all available cash back to the MLP unit holders. As said, this has to be done on a quarterly basis. The following factors are considered before determining the amount of cash distributed to each individual investor:

1) The difference between the total cash flow and the cash flow ploughed back into the MLP for futures growth. 2) How many units you hold as an MLP investor. 3) The incentive distribution rights created for the GP.

So once you decide to invest in commodities, you have many investment options like mutual funds, stocks, ETFs as well as MLPs. You must do your due diligence while making your investment decisions. There are always pros and cons of each investment vehicle!

So investing in an MLP is just like investing in stocks. Investing in MLPs is quite simple. Since an MLP is a publicly traded entity. You can simply invest in an MLP by calling your broker and telling him or her how many units of a particular MLP you are interested in buying.

Majority of MLPs trade on NYSE with a few trading on NASDAQ and AMEX! Something like 50 MLPs is being publicly traded in the United States. Out of these 50, 40 are energy MLPs meaning that they are involved in the storage terminals, pipelines, transportation, refining and distribution.

You only need to remember this 90% of the income that comes to an MLP should come from the production and distribution of commodities for these MLPs to have the tax exempt status. Moreover, investing in pipelines and other energy infrastructure offers steady cash flow streams for an MLP.

So when you invest in an MLP, you should look for answers to the following questions: 1) How much is the cash flow? And so on. 2) What's the historical payout of the MLP? If your brokerage firm has published some research on the MLPs, you can reference that.

Don't forget there is always some risk involved in any investment. The more return you demand, the more risk you will have to take. Now investing in MLPs do come with some risks like most of the infrastructure is like pipelines and drilling rigs that are vulnerable to natural disasters and earth quakes like the Hurricane Katrina, so any such event can have a negative impact on your investment.

There is another risk related with the management. You don't have much say in the management of the MLP. Running an MLP is basically a GP show. If you are not satisfied with the performance of the management or its policies only thing that you can do is to withdraw your investment from that MLP. Since the MLP is fairly small at this moment, there can be liquidity issues in withdrawing your investment from an MLP. These are some of the risk that you can face while investing in an MLP. - 31391

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Trade Dow Futures . Learn Commodity Trading !