Thursday, November 29, 2007

It's Snowing

The Winter Games for the Olympics are coming up soon and many will want to go to see the giant slalom event. That's the one where the skier starts off from the little hut at the top of a long slope, picks up speed and makes his way around poles on the way down. Each turn about a pole is precarious and some fall on the way down and are wiped out.

Kinda reminds me of the current stock market. Starting off slowly down from the safety of the top and as it become steeper it picks up speed. Each turn on the way down looks like a place to rally, but shortly thereafter it heads down again at even higher speed. And many are wiped out – financially.

If you are not an expert you should not be on the course. If you are a beginner you better head for the "bunny" course where you won't get hurt. Safer, not as thrilling, but you will get to the bottom all in one piece. The "bunny" course in the retirement race is all in CDs and T-Bills; however, everything is guaranteed. It takes a long time to get there and you won't win any gold. You will have some silver.

Many have tried the steep championship financial course and been wiped so they hired an instructor such as a broker or financial planner. It is unfortunate that most of these instructors cannot make it to the gold at the bottom of the hill. How do you make it safely to the bottom with all your cash and yet do better than the CD people?

The next safest place is in no-load mutual funds, but there is a catch. You have to review your mutual funds every month. And what do I mean by that? Review? You must keep yourself from being wiped out on one of those steep downturns by selling any fund that goes below its previous 3-month price level. It is really that simple. If your fund went from $40 to $90 and was then trading at $80 with the previous 3-month low of $70 you would sell it as soon as it closed below $70.

This is as simple as it gets, but it means YOU must DO something and not sit there and watch your money disappear like the melting snow.

The secret of success in the stock market is selling. Learn to protect your profits and also protect yourself from losses when you buy. It's your money.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Trapeze Artist - Swinging with the Stock Market

When we travel to the circus we see a trapeze creative person workings on a high wire or swing either alone or with other athletes. They cognize what they are doing because of changeless practice, but every once in a piece there tin be a mistake, even a small 1 that can cause 1 of them to fall. The consequence is death or serious injury when they hit the ground.

When you look below them you will see a net. Thank goodness. No 1 desires to see them get hurt. As expert as they are they take precautions. In almost every community or athletic event there is some sort of safety network available and this is true in the stock market for all investors. There is never any ground for investings to fall to the point the investor is hurt. Are there a nett that interruptions that autumn and maintains the investor from losing all or portion of his money? Yes there is.

It is called a Stop Loss Order. Brokers don't like them and never urge them because it intends he must watch your account and the average broker have too many clients to make that. However, you can instruct him to put an Open Stop Loss Order that agency it is automatically in every twenty-four hours protecting your shares from loss. If you are not allowed to put this sort of order you should travel your account to another brokerage house. They obviously don't care about protecting your money.

Let me give you an example. Suppose that last twelvemonth you bought Lake Herring Systems (CSCO) at $50 per share. The first inquiry to inquire yourself is how much am I going to put on the line in lawsuit this stock travels down instead of up? You set up $5,000 and bought 100 shares. How much are you willing to risk? $500. $1,000. More? Well, today it is about $15 so if you did not have got a loss protection you would be out $3,500 and that is too much. The Stop Loss Order is your Safety Net! If you don't have got one you can be seriously hurt. One of the basic regulations is never to lose more than than 10%. Look at what you have got to see if you would have more than money today if you had placed a Stop Loss Order just below the highest shutting terms for your stocks. I cognize you would be money ahead.

There are literally thousands of pillory that have got lost 80% and 90% of their value. For those poor people (pun intended) who did not have got a safety network they are badly ache and some are just about dead. Sorry, folks, it did not have got to happen.

I don't care what you own. Now you should immediately look at everything in your portfolio and make up one's mind where you need to put those stops. If you don't set a nett in topographic point you could be hurt.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Which Way The Market

I am hearing anticipations by brokers, financial planners, talking show hosts and the talking caputs on television that the market is going back to its old highs - DOW 11,700 and NASDAQ 5000 here we come.

It looks to me that in 2000 Iodine heard these same people saying there was no top to the market and were looking into their crystal balls for DOW 30,000 or some other antic number. Suddenly the market turned over with the DOW dropping 3,000 points and the NASDAQ losing 80% of its value. Can it go on again? Iodine don’t foretell and all I can state is the market can make anything.

BUT what if it makes bend down? Are you going to sit down as you did before and ticker your money disappear? Right now everything looks rose-colored and the impulse is carrying the indexes higher almost every day. Buy and throw is the right strategy.

Hind sight is always 20/20 and you will desire to have pillory and common finances now, but not get caught in the adjacent down draft. There will be one! There always have and you can see it clearly if you are a student of market history. Since 1900 there have got got been 16 to 18-year rhythms of bull and bear markets and within those there have been other shorter rhythms of ups and downs.

Many brokers and investors seek to foretell when those bends will happen and they are mostly wrong. It is definitely not a good thought to seek to outguess the market. You must learn to read the rather obvious marks of the major turns. I state obvious, but it is clear they are not obvious to most brokers or financial planners. Having been a professional trader, exchange member and flooring bargainer for many old age I will state you the obvious ‘secret’.

Using a 200-day moving average of any 1 of the major indexes (I prefer the S&P500) you can plot these every twenty-four hours and when the index penetrates the 200-day line in an upward direction it is a signaling to buy. That is where we are now. Inversely when it penetrates that line going down it is clip to sell and set your money in cash or bonds. If you don’t desire to make the mathematics calculations there is an first-class chart in the Investor’s Business Daily newspaper called their Common Fund Index that volition make all the work for you.

It is nil more complicated than that and you can travel back into history as far as you wish and you will see it proved clip after time. You are holding pillory or finances while the market is going up and you are in cash while it is going down. Don’t be fooled by “research” Oregon by any other complicated method. This works.

There is no need to foretell the market. It will state you in simple language what it is doing and whether you should be a buyer or seller.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Successful Trading: Trading Systems

To go a successful bargainer you must have got some sort of method or system to follow that volition maintain you on track. You may be purchasing and merchandising on tips, the weather condition or forms of the moon (there is a system like that).

The two basic methods are based either on cardinal or technicals. Inch stock the basics take into account sales, gross nett income margins, net net income margins, industry growth, management capabilities, price/earning ratios, etc. In technical analysis you would be computer science assorted moving averages (such as 200-day, 50-day 10-day) of the stock price, tendency lines, Fibonacci retracement, support and opposition levels, Elliott Waves, stochastics and many others.

There are scores of systems for sale and you can pick and take among them to see which one lawsuits your bank account and personality. Your picks will range from long-term to twenty-four hours trading. One thing for certain – don’t bargain any system that makes not have got a good issue strategy. Understand that many systems will merchandise frequently with small losses, but any method must have got a won/lost ratio of 3 to 1 to be profitable. That agency over the time period of one twelvemonth you must win $3 for every $1 trading loss. You will learn early in the game to love small losses. Never purchase any system that allows large losses.

There is a magazine published every other calendar month called Futures Truth that black and whites the trading record for about 200 trade goods systems. A great manner to happen the best systems without losing your money.

Most of the systems you happen will be based upon some sort of hard-and-fast mechanical entry and issue calculation and will need computing machine software that you will have when you purchase it. The software seller may even supply you with a broker who specialises in trading their method.

The ground many of these mechanical systems make not have got a better ROI (return on investment) better called Roes (return on speculation) is computing machine systems accede to a hard-and-fast expression for their BUY/SELL signals. They cannot give you a “maybe” because computing machines don’t understand maybe. There is no subjective influence at all. The latter volition have got both positive and negative consequences on your returns. Most people don’t desire any subjectiveness and prefer to follow what the computing machine tongues out whether right or wrong; it relieves the bargainer of the duty of the decisions.

There are many professional bargainers I knew when I was an exchange member who traded strictly on “feel” and I cognize many who made six figure incomes doing it.

Many people begin with a professional system and will pinch it to break tantrum their personality. This is very common, but necessitates personal subject to stay with those alterations. You can’t be changing all the time.

Whether for stocks, funds, trade goodss or whatever you put you must have got an organized trading system that have a good issue strategy. Whatever you purchase it is the issue method that volition aid you maintain the net income you make. To be a successful investor you must have got a system.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Eliminate Consumer Debt if You Want to Be Rich

The first measure to take to increase your nest egg is to begin reducing your expenses. So what is the first disbursal you must cut down and eventually eliminate? It is the involvement disbursal you pay on consumer debt.

While taking on a sensible amount of consumer debt is necessary for you to afford a auto and a house, you must avoid taking on too much for too long a period.

Why? Because a 5%-6% involvement charge per unit may look little but over an drawn-out clip period of time, it chemical compounds to a immense amount of money. You will happen yourself paying 10s of one thousands of dollars in installment payments every calendar month just to see that the principal sum of money you owe travel down by a couple of hundred dollars.

For example, let's state you bought a $250,000 flat and took a $200,000 mortgage at 6% stretched over 30 years. If you just paid the lower limit installment payments every month, how much would you have got paid in entire interest?

The answer: Using a fiscal calculator, you can see that you will pay $1,173 in monthly installments for 30 years. That's a sum of $422,280 in installment payments! You would have got paid a sum of $222,280 in involvement to the bank. That's wish purchasing two flats and giving the depository financial institution one!

If You Took a $200,000 Loan Over 30 Old Age at 6% Interest, You Would Pay a Entire of $222,280 in Interest...Even More than the Loan Amount Itself!

So besides paying the lower limit required monthly installments (like your depository financial institution desires you to), you must constantly pay MORE to additional cut down and eventually get rid of your principal sum...or you will weave up donating 100s of one thousands of dollars to your depository financial institution over the long term!

When our disbursement is uncontrolled, our disbursals always be given to lift up to fit our degree of income. No substance how much we earn. If we gain $2,000, we will happen a manner to pass over $2,000 and end up broke.

When we begin earning $10,000 a month, we believe that we rate a grander lifestyle, a flashier car, dine in sole up-market restaurants. Very often, the $10,000 we gain a calendar month will be spent and we will stop up having to begin from abrasion over again.

This form have been repeated by many intelligent people I know, some of them being my stopping point friends. When unmanaged, whatever further income we gain looks to vanish without a trace...doesn't it?

It is not how much you gain that volition find your wealth. More importantly, it is how much you are able to salvage and invest!

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Monday, November 19, 2007

Paddle Your Canoe

At some clip in your life you have got been on a river in a canoe and hopefully you had a paddle. You cognize about being up the brook without one.

You quickly learned that paddling up watercourse is much harder than paddling down stream. The lesson of going with the flow can be applied to many facets of life and especially to the stock market. In the brook it is easy to cognize which manner the current is flowing, but in the market it is much more than difficult. At least that is what Wall Street desires you to think.

On the river there are markers and pilotages buoys to assist you with your passage, but in the money human race there are few such as true indicators. Actually it is very easy to determine the flow of finances in the market. Standing on the shore are people (brokers) cheering to travel to the right and another adjacent to him screaming to travel to the left. “Buy, buy, buy”. Very few of them cognize which manner the current is headed. You have got to calculate this out yourself.

Fundamental analysis is excellent, but it is very poor to allow you cognize when and where to paddle (put you money). There are many technical tools available, but these tin be hard to master for many people and few brokers cognize or care to learn them. However, there is one very simple method that makes work.

That method is too simple for brokers who desire you to believe that you need their “expertise”. They sure don’t want you to happen out as you won’t have got to pay them commissions any more. The paddle you need to have got to impel in the right direction is called the 200-day Moving Average Paddle and you can get it free if you cognize where to look. You can make this yourself, but if you have got a computing machine just travel to the web land site www.bigcharts.com and chink on their Synergistic chart box and they will do all the work for you. You can make this at the library of you don’t have got a computing machine at home.

Using an index such as as the SP500 you easily see that when the terms (your canoe) is above the 200 line (the current of the river) you should be a buyer of pillory and common finances and when the SP500 terms is below the 200 line you should be in a money market (even if it only pays 1%). You don’t desire to be under water. This is a simple manner to see the direction the market is flowing and volition maintain you from losing money when the market starts down.

No 1 cognizes when the current will change. And don’t attempt to guess. Let the river (market) state you the direction of flow.

Get yourself one of those good paddles and learn to maneuver your ain canoe.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Ever Heard About Unclaimed Money? Read Ahead And Know All You Ought To Know!

Eight amongst every nine people have got no thought about unclaimed money. They make not cognize that their money have been taken away from them. Money have been taken away from you and you make not even cognize about it. Desire to cognize more? I am here to help.

As on date, $35 billion dollars is owed to billions and billions of people across the nation. And they make not even cognize about it.

Are you eager to cognize what the money is all about? It is the unclaimed money in the nation

Are you wondering how this unclaimed money come up into existence? Unclaimed money come ups into being from many sources. Some of the most common beginnings are forgotten checking accounts, dead nest egg accounts, forgotten public utility deposits, unknown inheritances, ignored coverage payments, abandoned Stocks, forgotten bonds, uncashed dividends, uncashed kid support or maintenance checks, ignored taxation refunds or forgotten paychecks

The most common ground behind creative activity of unclaimed money is that people bury to claim money owed to them when they switch their residence. They make not fold the business relationships and the money goes unclaimed money. Law necessitates organisations to manus over business relationships that are lying inactive for three old age or more than as unclaimed money.

Once the money is handed over to the agency, the burden displacements on the federal federal agency to happen the proprietor and manus over the money. However, the federal agency just issues perfunctory ads and makes nil more to happen the owner. The end consequence is that your money put waste material with the federal agency and you make not even cognize about it.

To happen your money, you will have got hunt unclaimed money databases. Never do the error of searching a database that screens just a single database. If you make that, you seek would be very limited and you would not retrieve all the money owed to you. Search an 'All Inclusive Database' for optimal results. Search records of all the state and federal federal agencies in one spell for best results.

Some intimations to turn up your unclaimed money

Search for money owed to not just your name but also to the fluctuations of your name. A individual name calling Saint Saint Patrick Mother Mother Mother Mother Jones may be owed money under the name of Patrick Jones, P. Jones, Pat Jones and so on. Search for as many fluctuations of your name as possible.

While you can defeat the job of shortened names, how will you undertake spelling mistakes? If Saint Patrick Mother Mother Jones have been spelled as Partick Jones, what can you do? Let engineering aid you. Search using a database that offerings Name Match Technology. When you seek for Saint Patrick Jones, the inside information of Partick Mother Mother Jones will also be set up on the screen.

Do not restrict your hunt to your name only. Search for money owed to your friends, household and relatives. They may not cognize about this job and your attempts may assist them turn up their money.

Finding the money owed to you is merely half the solution. It is only when you claim the same and retrieve the money owed to you make you work out the problem. All aid is available online. Merely fill up in the form, submit the written documents and wait for your bank check to set down on your doorstep.

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Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Perfect Storm

Having lived aboard a sailboat for 2 years I was stricken when I saw the movie “PERFECT STORM”. I know these are things you want to avoid at all costs. Even little storms can play havoc with your life style on a boat.

From a world view it looks like we are headed into a perfect storm of world macroeconomics. That means every one in the world is going to be impacted economically by the developing global economics. The more economically developed the country the worse they will be affected. Those third-world countries just working their way to becoming second-world countries can easily be set back 30 to 50 years.

What am I talking about?

People need food and shelter and after they have the basic necessities they will buy nonessentials such as entertainment and toys (boats, cars, jewelry, bigger houses, second homes, etc.). These are all purchased because the person has extra units of credit called money with which to buy the extras. In order the get that extra money he has to have a steady job. World wide there is excess productive capacity. Approximately 25% of productive machinery is idle; we are working at about 75% of capacity where the normal rate of production is between 87% and 92%. That means that many who were at those machines are now sitting at home wondering not about a new toy to buy, but how to make the next mortgage payment.

Everything looks smooth. The waters are calm and the breeze is at our back. When that perfect storm was forming in the Atlantic Ocean there did not seem to be any danger, but the meteorologists watching their satellites and computers could see that all was not well and a terrible storm was forming. They realized when it hit that ships would be at high risk.

There are meteorologists of the stock market. They are a combination of technical and fundamental analysts and it is their job to predict the stock market weather. Like weathermen the job of prediction is not easy nor is it an exact science, Many get it wrong, Today the news of the stock market and the economy is dominated by the fundamentalists who see excellent weather and tranquil seas. Many technicians see it otherwise. They are predicting that there are formations that could produce a perfect storm that will wipe out many portfolios.

Historically the timing of fundamentalist (those who follow the reports of company profits and government statistics) usually lags while the prediction of technical analysts (those who follow chart patterns and historical data) has been much more accurate.

The key to the stock market is timing. The investor wants to own stocks and mutual funds while the market is advancing and to be in cash while the market is declining.

Today the fundamentalist weathermen say buy while many technician weathermen are recommending cash. In the next few months we will see if the weather is calm or stormy.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Online Stock Trading Advice

Trading pillory online isn't for the faint at heart, especially when one good marketplace twenty-four hours can ensue in an unexpected clang the next. The huge figure of stock trading chopine from some of the greatest name calling in finance offering stock solutions to experts right on down to a twenty-four hours bargainer or novice. Before you get investing your life nest egg into Associate in Nursing unpredictable marketplace economy, maintain these stock trading tips in mind.

• Pay attending to industry trends-If an up and coming website or company acquires extended mass media attending or business, see buying stock from them.

• Don't be afraid to put for fearfulness of loss...the quicker you purchase stocks, the faster you can do a profit.

• Know your trade options: some services let you to utilize your mobile telephone for trades, as well as faxing or over-the-phone.

• If you call off a trade, do certain it's finish before making another trade. Simply because you have got a cancellation receipt, it may have already gone through. Know who to reach for trading.

• Don't merchandise with a company you don't cognize anything about. If possible, expression into their investing history, so you cognize you're trading reputable stock.

• Join an online stock trading service that supplies up-to-date marketplace prognoses and comprehensive market overview features. When trading, you necessitate entree to instantaneous stats.

6Star Reviews mentions online stock trading services TD Ameritrade and Zecco as great picks in personal investing that integrate the latter. Zecco offers great rates and 10 free trades a calendar month if stock agents ran into the lower limit balance requirement.

Options trades are $4.50 a trade, which is a low charge per unit that new bargainers will surely appreciate. Similarly, TD Ameritrade runs specials such as as 30-day commission-free trades and a $100 fillip on current new business relationship openings. Before sign language up with a peculiar company, see your degree of trading expertise, as well as your fiscal resources, as some land sites offering less rates than others.

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Friday, November 09, 2007

Young Britons Need Better Financial Education

Young people necessitate better instruction if they are to go financially responsible in later life, an industry expert have declared.

According to Wendy avant garde lair Hende, main executive director of the Personal Finance Education Group (Pfeg), children necessitate more than suitable fiscal instruction if they are to develop sufficient consciousness of how to utilize pecuniary merchandises such as as personal loans and nest egg business relationships when they are older. She stated that although many children are currently "interested in money matters" and "do see its relevance", the instruction they have got is often not matched to their fiscal needs.

She said: "Young people have all kinds of exposure to finance in all kinds of ways. They are very good consumers, a batch of them have got occupations outside of school and they are very sophisticated ... but they are not actually taught about finance. There looks to be an outlook that they will pick things up by some sort of osmosis, which be givens not to happen."

Ms avant garde lair Hende added that "it is really important" for children to larn about personal finance at an early age. As research from the house shows that two-thirds of adolescents deficiency apprehension about loans, nest egg and other financial matters, the head executive director pointed out that it is critical such as instruction is provided at an early age so that they have got a good cognition alkali on which to construct in later life. Consequently, she advised that there necessitates to be more than than construction and coherence applied to fiscal education, especially when children do the passage from primary to secondary school.

Her remarks come up after research carried out in the group's What Money Means enterprise earlier this twelvemonth revealed that more than three-quarters (76 per cent) of children between the ages of seven and 11 are currently saving money. The survey also indicated that a 3rd of immature people see saving up hard cash as the best manner in which to finance making a purchase. "We necessitate to assist construct on these good behaviors and mental attitudes [while children are young] to maintain them going because as they acquire aged they will inevitably begin experiencing equal pressure level and will be exposed to the mass media trying to sell them things," the PFEG head executive director pointed out.

And as a consequence of improved fiscal instruction when they were younger, consumers may well develop a more than responsible and knowing mental attitude should they look to borrow money in later life. This in bend could assist them to seek out a inexpensive loan, which could be particularly helpful should Britons wishing to do a major purchase, such as as a house or a car. Earlier this month, research conducted by Nationwide showed that about a one-fourth (24 per cent) of adolescents would take out a personal loan or another word form of adoption to assist finance such as buying. The survey also indicated that 24 per cent of adolescents believe that they make not have got a good cognition of finance, while 38 per cent state that they would turn to their school for information on money matters.

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Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Inertia Syndrome

When it come ups to purchasing a stock or common monetary fund most people enactment pretty quickly. There are some who will take the clip to get a report from Morningstar (it is worthless) or get reports from their broker (also worthless) or even make a search on the Internet (if you cognize what you are doing). When your broker states “buy” you purchase and when a friend gives you a “tip” you buy.

Any sap can buy. It is the wise adult male who cognizes how to sell. One of the old masters of the market Claude Bernard Baruch used to say, “I sell too soon”, but he died a multimillionaire.

There is a ground folks are slow to sell. They fall in love with their place and cognize all the grounds why they should throw on. “My broker said it will come up back”. And hogs can fly.

With all these symptoms that have got turned into syndrome diseases like acid reflux for which there is one of those violet pills to heal you in a hurry. When you purchase a stock or common monetary fund that doesn’t travel up or, worse yet, travels down we need one of those violet pills. People have got contracted Inactiveness Syndrome.

The symptoms are terrible. Each twenty-four hours as you look on the financial page of your paper and see your stock have gone down another point your tummy gets to move up and you need one of those pills. You maintain putting off going to the physician (broker) to state him to sell so your symptoms will travel away, but you don’t. Things go on to get worse and worse until your money is almost all gone. Then you make up one's mind to sell. By then it is too late. What should you have got got done?

When it come ups to your wellness you can change your diet and halt eating all those lovely sweet gooies that have no nutrition. When you have a stock like that and you lose slumber the best thing to make is to get quit of it. Maybe you have got a net income and you are seeing it disappear. There is a manner to alleviate yourself.

Most people don’t cognize when to sell so the best thing to make is have got the market state you. It is very easy. The first regulation for making money in the market is to cut your losings short. As soon as you purchase any stock or monetary fund you must make up one's mind how much you are willing to risk. Five percent? Ten percent. Fifteen percent? That number should be calculated from the shutting high of the move or never lower than where you bought it. If you paid $50 per share your hazard should be no more than than $5.00 per share.

To defeat Inactiveness Syndrome set the medical specialty in drama as soon as you purchase your place by using an Open Stop Loss Order. By limiting your hazard you will never have got a really bad abdomen ache.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

US man sentenced to 13 years in prison, must repay $12M in credit card scam

: A man accused of orchestrating a scheme to sell bogus credit cards was sentenced to 13 years in prison and must repay the nearly $12 million (€8.3 million) he scammed from tens of thousands of U.S. customers.

Peter Porcelli II, 55, who lives in Florida, pleaded guilty in May to all 19 conspiracy and fraud counts related to the telemarketing scheme. U.S. District Judge William Stiehl also ordered Monday that he spend five years on supervised release after his prison term.

Prosecutors alleged Porcelli offered consumers a MasterCard credit card for a fee ranging from $160 (€111) to $500 (€347). Those charged the fee were sent offers that usually were already available for free to the public, along with an "acceptance form" for what amounted to a prepaid card, which cost consumers an extra $15 (€10.41).

Authorities say Porcelli defrauded or tried to dupe at least 165,000 Americans, many with poor credit histories.

The U.S. government alleged that Porcelli carried out the scam through several Florida-based companies beginning in June 2001, using call centers in several states and outside the U.S.






Today in Business

Porcelli has been free on $1 million unsecured bond since shortly after his federal indictment in March.

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On the Net:

Federal Trade Commission:

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Monday, November 05, 2007

Valuation

Every twenty-four hours I hear from the “experts” on CNBC-TV and the radiocommunication gurus that the manner to purchase pillory is happen value. One man’s Rembrandt Van Rijn is another man’s connect-the-dots and fill up in the spaces. Evaluation is like beauty. It is in the head of the beholder.

If evaluation is the cardinal to purchasing pillory then there should be some sort of a expression to determine what is undervalued and over-valued. In every industry there are expressions for criteria of performance. For cars we desire to cognize the nothing to 60 miles per hr in how many seconds. For soap we desire it to be 99 and 44/100 percent pure. For alcoholic beverages it could be how long it have been aged. And on and on.

Yet in the stock market we have got no hard and fast set of regulations by which to judge a company performance. Ah, and there’s the rub! No matter how good a company public presentation might be it may have got no bearing on the terms public presentation of the stock. You can happen good companies that are within a sector that is doing poorly and yet one company can be making huge net income and sales, but the stock terms is going nowhere. There need not be any correlation.

When you are in a bull market almost every stock travels up – even the dogs. When you are in a bear market almost every stock travels down – even the best ones. We ended an 18 twelvemonth bull market in 2000 and almost without exclusion every stock headed for the exit.

Bull and bear markets follow relatively standard patterns of about 16 to 18 old age up and 16 to 18 old age down and the evaluations travel right along with them. If you have got pillory or especially index finances during the bear time periods you will be lucky to have broken even at the end of the 16-year cycle. Cash in your mattress will outperform market tax returns while the bear is in charge.

During these bear modern times there will be time periods when the market will have got a nice advance such as as the 1 we saw start in 2003. These intermediate rises can ultimately convey many investors back into the market only to lose it when the mass meeting is over and true evaluation returns.

One evaluation measuring for the overall market is the Price/Earnings ratio of the S&P500 Index. The median value number for the historical intents have been around 14. Today it is running about 21 which is considered high. When bear markets end the P/E tin be about 6 or 8. There are other factors to be considered when purchasing any stock or fund, but the 1 thing that is most of import is to have got an issue strategy. Without 1 you will give back your profits.

No one cognizes exactly where the top or underside of a market move will be. Knowing conventional evaluations is one tool to assist your purchasing and merchandising decisions.

Saturday, November 03, 2007

Protectionism

First let’s see what protectionism is. According to Mr. John Webster it is the advocacy, system, or theory of protecting domestic manufacturers by impeding or limiting, as by duties or quotas, the importing of foreign commodity and services.

That sounds pretty good. It is something that volition protect the occupations of our workers from commodity that tin be produced elsewhere and undercut the terms of our local goods. How? There are a couple of ways. The wares or trade goods itself is in very large supply in another country and is mined or grown there very cheaply. Not much you can make about that. Or the labour costs of production are vastly less than our ain workers and the merchandise can be manufactured for less.

The average worker in the U.S. do about $12.00 per hr while the workers in United Mexican States get $2.00 and the people in People'S Republic Of China average 60 cents per hour. How make you vie with them? Answer - you can’t. Sol what make you do? If you are a shoe maker in the U.S. you inquire the federal authorities to impose a duty (tax) on all imported place (or maybe just the sort you make). This certain assists that peculiar cobbler who might have got 300 employees making sneakers. Now the gym shoe shaper can maintain his terms up and his workers working. That’s good.

But wait a minute. There are billions of feet that need gym shoes and that agency billions of consumers are paying more than for comparable quality sneakers. Are it just to give particular consideration to a very small grouping that automatically punishes the mass of consumers?

Examine the definition of duty again and believe it through to the end. A duty is a tax on consumers.

You are paying more than for certain commodity (and there are about 13,000 separate tariffs) than you should just for the benefit of a few makers who cannot vie in the human race market. Every country is not just a unit of measurement unto itself any more. We now have got a planetary economic system that allows specialisation of products. If a company cannot vie it should not be in business and should not punish the bulk of its citizens for the benefit of a few. You, the consumer, should not have got to pay more than for tomatoes, bandeaus and steel just so our politicians can get reelected. That is what is furuncles down to. Unions will assure to endorse certain campaigners if they will vote for duties (tax increases) that protect incompetent manufacturers. The steel duty is an first-class example. Shrub set on a duty when he could have got given a tax interruption to assist overhaul that industry. In the long tally our steel production will vanish because of continuing inefficiency. If we get into a trade warfare where one country trump cards another with more than than and more duties it is a guaranteed also-ran for everyone. Visualize this as edifice a house of cards. You stop up with a game of 52-pickup. It could travel to the ultimate of deflation and depressions for all the states of the world.

Protectionism in all of history have never worked.