0 Invest in Stocks: a Must for 2014

The beginning of the year is a perfect time to make solid financial commitments toward gaining financial freedom, such as increasing their savings and paying off credit card debt. In order to achieve these, some people choose to place investments able to yield the best possible returns and profit.
One of the most popular investment options for 2014 is stocks. Although investing in stocks have many risks due to the volatile nature of the market, they still remain a popular investment option. Below are some of the reasons why stocks remain popular for 2014:

1.     Easy to Acquire

It’s easy to acquire stocks. In the past, you’d need to contact a broker or a financial planner to buy stocks. Now, you can purchase stocks simply by going online and doing some research.

2.     High Returns

Although stocks do not guarantee a fixed amount of profit, investing in stocks for a long period of time can yield good returns. As the economy grows, consumer demand increases. In turn, revenues of the companies you invest in also go up.

3.    Easy to Sell

Because investors are buying and selling stocks regularly, this makes stocks not only easy to buy, but easy to sell, as well. In comparison, other forms of assets such as houses, jewelry, or cars can be harder to sell because there are more factors to consider such as the condition of the property you’re selling, and the fact that there are other people selling the same assets, some of them in better condition or at cheaper prices. Stocks, on the other hand, can be sold any time you choose. Also, the rules are rather simple: buy low and sell high.

4.     Gets You Ahead of Inflation

According to CNN Investing Basics, stocks usually have an average annual return of 10%, a rate significantly higher than the average annual inflation rate of 3.2%. This means you can prevent the value of your purchased currency from decreasing because the companies you’re investing in will still yield higher returns than the annual inflation rate. Even if the economy gets bad, people will still continue making purchases, which is why you can still be ahead of inflation when you invest in stocks.

5.     Tax Relief

Purchasing stocks doesn’t entail having to pay taxes on what you earn every year, just like what investors do for bonds or bank accounts. When you purchase a stock, and its value increases, you’re not required to file a return on your earnings. You’ll only be required to file your stock profits when you sell your shares. You can also adjust the taxes you file for stock gains when you lose money in purchasing a stock.

6.    Higher Interest Rates

If you are finance-savvy and like to save, then you’d be pleased to know that money invested in shares will yield you higher interest returns compared to other forms of investment. For instance, fixed-deposit accounts generally yield around 4% compounded interest per year, while investing in a unit trust fund can yield 5%-20% compounded interest.

By comparison, investing in stocks can provide you with 50%-100% compounded interest. For those who want more interest rates in terms of profits, you can try investing in foreign exchange trading. However, remember that higher-earning stocks also come with bigger risks.

7.    Extra Funds

Whether you hope to earn money for a short period of time or aspire to grow your money in the long term, you can have additional funds for better cash flow management through stock investments. Investing in stocks can provide you with a source of income so you wouldn’t have to rely solely on credit cards any more to supplement your regular income.

With all these advantages of investing in stocks, it is easy to see why the number of Filipino stock investors is growing year by year. So for 2014, make it your goal to set aside part of your savings to invest in well-researched stocks and watch your money grow. 

The article is contributed by Michael Vincent from Money Hero, Hong Kong’s up and coming financial comparison website. Users can compare a broad range of financial products like credit cards and insurance plans side by side, thus enabling them to make better financial decisions when looking for financial products.

1 Using the reversal strategy in binary options trading

Binary options trading is known as a short term trading and it is necessary to find your own strategy to keep emotions aside and gain more from the market because emotions is the main reason why such strategy appeared.

If you're not new to trading or at least you've followed some company stock price trends, you might notice that sometimes company stocks are overpriced or undervalued. This happens because many traders (mostly speculators) are very careful and when they see some bad news coming out about a company which stocks they own, they try to get rid of them as quickly as possible without a significant reason or vice versa if news are in favor of the company. Of course, because of this, company stock prices will change noticeably. I.e. these can be rumors or news that could affect trader’s decision.

As such things happen, you can be careful and try to notice it and even benefit from it. In binary options trading there are not that many assets yet that traders can trade. So it is easy to notice if some bigger price changes show up. Most likely you'll be able to read about it in most daily market review websites. So what can you do about it? I.e. you notice that Baidu stocks yesterday were traded for $93.05 and today when the market opened they dropped to $85.60 which is -8%. For such company there should be a reason why it happened. Try to analyze and understand why did it happen and is it really that important to affect stock price to drop -8%. Follow the trend for some time and if it is not decreasing anymore it might be the right time to buy a call option because it might stabilize a bit in the next few hours.

Few important tips:

• This is not a long term strategy, it is better to use it only for short term trades like 30 minutes, 1 hour;
• Do not use it on 60 second trades, it might be too short;
• The best moment to use the reversal strategy is when the market opens and you can quickly go through the latest news to find a company or an asset that might fit these conditions.

4 Choosing the Right Indicator for your Binary Options Trading

Binary options come in different shapes and sizes. It is possible to trade commodities, stocks, indices and currencies. It is possible to trade over a week, a day, 2 hours, 30 minutes, 15 minutes or even 60 seconds. The information that is needed to have predictive accuracy is different for each trading scenario. Essentially though Binary Options are simple. You either predict that the direction of a price will go up or down. Indicators can eliminate the need to spend hours doing technical analysis to understand the current trends, and likely future trends. Or they can be used as a small part of an overall strategy. The right indicator is all about the strategy.

What successful traders tend to do is develop a strategy for a particular scenario type. For example, they may trade a certain stock with thirty-minute expiries. They may use indicators to point them to the fact that a bullish or bearish trend is likely to continue. This same indicator would probably not be relevant for a 60 second trend as the fluctuations are too unpredictable. Indeed, most serious traders tend to stay away form the 60-second trades. 

 

There are many indicator services available on the market. Some profess amazing success rates. At the end of the day they are all after your subscription and you should be wary of overinflated claims. Choose an indicator service that has a long history of success, check forums and find out what others are using, and read reviews. If an indicator service is going to be an important part of your analysis strategy you should vet thoroughly and then test it repeatedly. Good service providers will offer a trial to demonstrate their proficiency.

It is important to take a balanced view of indicator services. They can add value to your trading, save you time and improve your success rate. However, you should understand your technical and fundamental analysis and not rely on an outside service too much. Many people that are new to binary options are looking for the magic solution. In reality trading successfully and consistently is about using indicators for trends, moving averages, economic indicators to inform your understanding and help you reach a level where you have predictive power on an ongoing basis. 

 

Indeed, the right indicator is the one that provides you with information to make a successful trade. Often traders will use indicators to confirm something they already suspect. Trading successfully is about going through a process. Being confident that a price is going to go a certain way may involve doing ones own technical and fundamental analysis, reading reviews from others and then checking indicators to see whether they corroborate what you suspect. For some traders the indicator service information has the power of veto but is not used for initial predictive insight.

So the right indicator is dependent on the personality of the trade and the strategy adopted. Getting an edge in binary options trading is not easy. Use indicators wisely and understand your traded assets better than others and you have a strong likelihood of ongoing success.

About the author:

Eleonora Marchetti is an expert on financial markets specializing in foreign exchange and trading in binary options. An honorary graduate of the SDA Bocconi School of Management in Italy, she provides consultation services to various economic powerhouses, including the globally renowned binary options trading firm, Banc De Binary.

0 Fiscal Cliff and Housing

It seems that for now we have avoided the fiscal cliff which was supposed to take effect in 2013. It is considered as an economically damaging set of tax increases and spending reductions which is good news for the housing industry, but for how long? The enactment of H.R. 8 or the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 has the following provisions; it has increased income tax, increase in capital gain and dividend rates, exemption and deduction phase-out for all individuals with high-income.It has made permanent the alternative minimum tax relief and has increased the federal estate, gift and generation-skipping tax.

There will also be an extension of certain tax breaks but for a limited time which is generally two years for various business credits, exemptions including new markets tax credit, work opportunity tax credit, and the exclusion of gain on the disposition of certain small business stock. Well, this extension from the Tax breaks are good for home buyers since it will help lessen the number of foreclosure and will help borrowers whose mortgage is upside down to stay in their homes. You may recall, that a law was signed in 2007 stating that debt relief modifications, foreclosures and homes in short sale were no longer taxable and it was supposed to end in 2012. Now, if these tax breaks were not extended, homeowners would not agree in putting their homes in short sale because they would then be facing the tax bill and they would also not agree to the principal reduction loan modification which is way more successful than any other modifications because it leaves the principal as is. This latest development in legislation would do “mostly” good for the people. It somehow prevented the massive tax hikes and deep government spending cuts which could trigger the country to go into recession again. About ninety percent of the new tax revenue which will be collected for the year will come from families who are earning more than 1 million dollar annually. Meaning, only 1 percent of the population will be affected.

However, the negative part of the deal would be; the act did not extend the 2% reduction in Social Security portion of the FICA tax collected from wages, so as a result, a worker who earns a total of $113,000 per Social Security ceiling for 2013 will see an increase in taxes from his earnings of $2,274 this year. If an individual’s income is above $250,000 then expect the tax rate on stock dividends to exceed the current 15% level. Explained as; each extra dollar earned as investment income which includes dividends and long-term capital gains are now subject to the 15% rate plus a 3.8% surcharge under the Affordable Care Act or the “Obama Care” making now a total levy of 18.8% on your income.

In two weeks time the Congress will meet again to raise the debt ceiling. Well, whatever the outcome would be, ordinary citizens are being called to act and let their voices be heard by calling their representatives and let them hear your thoughts on this before it takes effect on March 1, 2013.

About the Author:

Georges Kfoury is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Leaderscorp Financial Inc. headquartered in Rancho Cucamonga, CA, a leading provider of mortgage financing dedicated towards providing affordable home loans. He founded the company way back 2003 from a ground level, without having the mortgage background. In spite of this, he was able to immediately take the company a level of generating annual income ranging from 8 to 10 million dollars.

7 How To Utilize Gold Price to Make Wise Investment

There are many big and small investors all over the world. People do invest their money with respect to get positive returns in terms of profit to their investment. Investment on gold can be done in a number of ways such as through stock exchange secondary markets, via banks etc.

Gold prices keeps fluctuating for which there is a need of keeping a track on the change in price of the gold. The change in gold prices depends on multi-factors in the financial markets. A proper financial planning is required for investing in gold. Buying gold is a good investment as the price of the gold is rising with each passing day.

 

Gold as investment

Out of all metals which are precious,gold is considered as one of the most favorite and popular in the investment point of view. In gold market gold is always subjected to some or the other speculation in comparison to the other markets, mainly by the use of derivatives and futures contracts.In the ancient history of gold standards, gold reserves has played a very important role in the central banking along with the low correlation of gold, and prices of other commodities. We can also say that gold being a commodity behaves just like the liquid cash which can be converted into cash any moment with an ease.

Factors which can influence gold price

Some of the factors which influences or drives the gold price are s follows –

• Demand and supply – the demand and supply highly affects the gold prices. When the demand is excess over the supply, its price started rising and as soon as the supply becomes excess over the demand the price started falling down.
• Speculation – it is a practice to get engaged in such financial transactions which are risky in nature. People do speculation with the attempt for making profit from either medium or short term fluctuations of gold in market value of the tradable goods for example the financial instruments instead of attempting to making profit from financial attributes which are underlying which embodies in such financial instruments like dividends, interest, capital gains etc. many speculators do not pay much attention to fundamental value of security rather they focus more on the price movements of gold. Speculators are common in financial markets for commodity, bonds, stocks, derivatives, real estates, collectibles, fine art, currencies, futures and many more.
• Savings and disposal –savings and disposal is playing a very important role for affecting the price of commodities but as far as the gold prices are concerned it focuses more on the consumption. The gold which have been mind in all the years most of which are still existing in an accessible form like jewelry which are mass produced, bullion which has a very little value on the fine weight. It can potentially come back into gold market at right price.

More about the value of gold and investments

The quantity of the stored gold above the ground as compared to annual production, gold price is affected mainly by the change in its demand or sentiment rather than the change in supply o the annual production.

Some of the important gold based questions which knock every mind of an investor are as follows –

• Whether the investment on gold is a wiser decision or is it only a store of value simply.
• Is investing on the gold at higher price is a good decision?

For answering the above questions it is very important to follow expert’s advice in the financial market as well as on keeping continuous track of the changing values and prices of the gold time to time. You must analyze and understand the trend of the prices of gold before making your investment or before risking your money into it. Only a very few knows about the relationship between the gold prices and the silver prices. However it is complimentary and related. 

Author's Bio:

Criss Derek is a specialist in global resources as well as a contributing writer. He writes on Gold Price to make people aware about the pros and cons of investing in gold. Read his blogs to stay updated about the price fluctuation in gold.

1 Bear Market Investing Strategies

Bear markets are worrisome indeed. But one need not get unduly perturbed. When the market is down, ‘buy’ is the strategy to be practiced. Watch out for those companies that are selling at a lower price than usual. This is generally referred to as averaging down. This could be a good equities investment in the long term. 

It has been observed that when there is a lot of optimism in the market, it results in the welling up of buying by investors and then this bull market paves way for the entry of the bear market. The intermittent stage is when the cleverest of investors manages to steer clear of the stock market plunge. But the rest are tossed about in the oncoming gush of the bear market waters and then they feel that they are going to drown. So they, in totality, get out of the market while they are in the midst of this bear market. In most cases, this is the wrong move as they incur more losses on their investments. They should actually wait for the stock market to recover / gain from the upside in the succeeding bull market. Thus when the market is under-valued, it is quite difficult to understand when to again invest in it. Similarly when the market is over-valued, selling out is tricky.

History has seen that investors who do not part with their stocks when the bear market is ongoing stand to gain more on their investments when it recovers than investors who wait for some period after the market rally to reinvest in it.

The bear market is feared so much that some investors shy to ever purchase stocks thereon. When recovery is seen, they tend to view it with skepticism; thinking it could be temporary, which also could well be true. These investors then wait until the time when the market is so full of talks of stocks yielding handsome profits that their past losses fade out as a paled nightmare and they reinvest well into the rally. At such a maximum-risk-time, the stocks tend to be very high-priced and the returns will mostly fetch extremely less upside as compared to the times when the market sentiment is quite weak.

With all the complications involved with investments during the bear market, it is very necessary to understand what exactly happens herein: The stock market sits low for an exceedingly long period of time on account of a variety of factors; namely, when there is a decline in the profits of corporations; when there is a correction of over-valuation, etc. The jittery investors sell their stocks in this scenario and hence the price tumbles. This fear is transmitted to other investors as well and they too sell their stocks. Thus starts the vicious circle. And before the stocks lose value, selling is advisable. For long term investments, buying into the bear market is recommended.

The best stocks to buy would be those who look to offer potential profits in the long run, for, say, the next ten to twenty years.

Author Bio:

Liza Dey is a financial advisor in a leading stock market company in Canada and she has immense interest in writing about latest trends in the financial market. She publishes her market forecasts and investment suggestions often through the internet. Writing guest posts and articles is one of her passions so as to create awareness in investors all around the globe. You can visit http://www.profitconfidential.com/ to read about her recent market forecasts and helpful financial investment suggestions.

3 How to Save Up For Your Vacation Dream Home

Saving up for your vacation dream home is not as complicated as it may seem. However, it does involve a lot of self discipline and the willingness to make temporary sacrifices in the present in order to enjoy a luxury vacation home in the future. Following are some tips on how you can save up for the vacation home of your dreams, a bit at a time.
 

Saving Money

A number of financial gurus suggest that a person should set aside about 10% of his or her income and put this money in a savings account. This is a wise idea and should be done before a person spends money from his or her monthly paycheck.

Naturally, saving 10% of your income means that you have less money to spend in the present. Chances are you will probably have to make some sacrifices in order to save this amount of money. Perhaps you will have to eat out less often than before, buy secondhand clothing instead of new clothes and/or walk or ride a bike every so often instead of driving short distances. However, if the vacation home is worth it to you, then making these small sacrifices will not be such a big deal.

Increasing Saved Money via Investments

If you want to maximize your savings, then investing this money can be a good idea. Every type of investment comes with some risks, although some investment options are safer than others. Buying gold is a good way to make more money, as gold usually costs more at the end of the year than it did at the beginning. Other safe investment options include buying fixed annuities, putting the money in a savings account that accumulates interest and investing in bonds.

A person may also want to invest in a few risky investments, such as stocks and mutual funds. While there is a chance that one will lose money, these investments have the potential to be very profitable. You just need to do some research to see which exact stocks and mutual funds are the best ones to invest in at the present time. You will also need to keep an eye on your investments and be prepared to sell them quickly if they take a sudden downturn.

Calculate how much your vacation dream home will cost and then determine how much money you will need to set aside every month in order to buy the home of your choice. You can then determine if saving money is enough or if investing the saved money is also in order.

While you can take out a mortgage or refinance your home in order to buy a vacation home, it is cheaper and better to save the money and pay for the home without going into debt. The above tips provide a good starting point for anyone who wants to set aside money to buy a luxury vacation home.

About the Author: The author is an expert in the field of buying property and has written extensively on the subject. Click here if you are interested in good deals on luxury properties in Park City, Utah.

1 Why Order Management Is the Secret to Great Seller Ratings

When you run an ecommerce website or network of sites, you don't have to deal with unhappy customers at the face-to-face level. However, you still need to do your best to make each transaction a positive experience for consumers. Any successful retail or wholesale business relies on customers that are motivated to return for another transaction in the future. A few dedicated customers can help boost you from a fledgling ecommerce company to the road towards becoming a multinational success. Proper order management ensures you offer the optimal shopping experience from beginning to end.

Scattered Information

Data gathered by AMR Research shows that about 90% of all companies are still failing to completely integrate the fulfillment process after a customer orders. Time and money is lost when the employees handling the packaging are failing to receive packing orders due to messaging issues. Customers want their products shipped promptly and delivered in perfect condition. If your orders must be printed out before they are filled and shipped, a single lost sheet of paper could cause a customer's request to be ignored for days or even weeks. One very unhappy customer can have quite a serious impact on your reputation, according to NetSuite. This is especially true if you are using a platform like Amazon or eBay as part of your ecommerce strategy. These large marketplaces put a lot of emphasis on customer feedback. You can lose your Amazon store account if your customers file complaints for more than 1% of your total transactions.

Improved Efficiency

The right order management system allows you to streamline the entire ecommerce process. The system has controls to speed up each step, starting with the moment the customer places the order. Messages are sent to the packing department or the drop-shipper you are working with. Internet Retailer also says that many management systems even include support for automatic inventory re-ordering with your favorite suppliers. This can ensure that your customers aren't disappointed when a peak in demand for one product causes supply chain issues.

Proper management helps your packages leave your warehouse as quickly as possible. When you can ship a product within just a few hours of receiving the order, your customers can have their products in as little as one day. These customers will make hearty recommendations when they find that your ordering and shipping process is smooth and effective, according to Internet Retailer. You won't have to deal with negative feedback for failing to deliver on your promise of good service.

Order Management As Reputation Management

Handling each order in a sensitive and professional way is the best route for building a strong reputation in the world of ecommerce. You can encourage loyalty among customers by treating each interaction with care. The world's biggest marketplaces put a lot of weight behind customer feedback because it is an accurate measure of the company's quality. Even if you don't use any of these platforms for your sales, you need to manage your reputation on social networks and consumer websites.

Author's Bio: Ted Hosford has extensive experience with stock management and eCommerce software development. He consults businesses on their software needs and his articles appear on various business blogs. Find out about Amazon and eBay shipping software solutions, click on the link.

0 Top 5 differences between Stock trading and gambling

There has been much debate on whether Stock trading is intrinsically gambling or not. On the surface, both of them share certain common features as both involve the attributes of risk and choice.

Ideally, when people refer to the adage- ‘Stock investment is just like gambling in a casino’, people are referring to those involved in the ordeals as Professional traders and recreational gamblers. Furthermore, while there are certain games in which the results don’t just boil down to complete luck, we’re going to focus on Long-term stock investing which has a pay-off period of a minimum of 4 months (as compared to day-trading) versus Blackjack or roulette. This taxonomy has to be kept in mind as we examine these two activities more closely and see if we can point out some of the key differences.

1. Odds in favor and against

The main reason that stock market investing isn't gambling is that you have much better odds of success with the stock market. When you go to the casino the odds work against you, while you can certainly win in the short term if you gamble long enough you will lose.

1 10 Things You Should Invest In

If you are considering getting involved in investments, you should know which things are the best products that will give you the most return on your money. Here are 10 things that you should invest in: 

Land

Owning and investing in land has been something that has brought people anything from a few hundred dollars in rent every month to millions of dollars when they sold it. It all depends on the type of land that you buy. If you manage to buy them when the prices are low and then sell when the prices are high, there are big returns you can net for your initial investment.

Housing

Just like land, investing in buying property in the form of homes or businesses can net you hundreds to millions of dollars. You buy these properties for purposes of either renting them or selling them. It all depends on whether you want to become a landlord or just want to buy a property, fix it up, and “flip it” and earn more money than you bought it for. 

Mutual Funds

Mutual Funds part of the stock market and are a group of selected stocks bought by the mutual fund. Most have between 5 to 30 companies in the mutual fund. That fact provides more safety than if all your funds were spent on only one company.