From Coins to the Stock Market

My coin collection hobby which I am imparting to all bloggers. If you have been following with me on this money making habit from my elementary years, enjoy this journey with me. You can pop up questions and give additional information regarding this goldmine, out of cents, pennies and quarters from my pocket and eventually to my bank account and subsequently to the world of the stock market so others may know and apply.

From the business seminars I attended be it about stocks, real estate, lumber and rice trading, one should always be cautious on the kind of business that you want to venture out. Mind you, there are always risks involved even in relationships, allow me to mention that because it takes money also to nurture such, right? You buy flowers, chocolates and other stuff for your girlfriend / wife, even cab fare and snacks and so on. What caught my mind during one of the seminars I attended was "Have faith in God and have faith in yourself". I did not have much confidence in myself back then.

I hope this experience of mine will teach and guide you in handling your finances wisely, remember it always takes discipline, perseverance and hard work to achieve what you want to achieve, don't focus on results first as it will just come to you if you put your heart into this. It will guide you in your future and have a secure life with regards to financial matters. Cheers! and God Bless

Autor: Harvey Enrile

http://thetruemoneymaker.blogspot.com/

Added: February 9, 2010
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

Investors Get Better Returns With Social Lending

If you've been disappointed by the low interest rates offered on CDs or checking accounts recently, you might want to look into social lending.

Social lending is a new investment opportunity that matches individual lenders with individual borrowers. Platforms like Lending Club and Prosper cut out the complexity and overhead of traditional banks to offer better returns to investors and lower rates to borrowers.

How good are the rates for investors? Well, I'm currently averaging a 13.77% annual return on my investments at Lending Club and the average return there is over 9% for all investments since 2007.

Your personal rate of return there can vary significantly based on the types of loans you choose.

Here's how social lending works for investors. First, you open an account online and deposit funds (typically $1000 is the minimum). Then, you decide if you would like to select loans to invest in specifically, or if you would like the system to choose loans for you based on your risk tolerance and other criteria.

Generally, investors choose to invest small amounts across tens or hundreds of different loans. For example, if you invested $1,000, you might choose to invest just $25 in 40 different loans, to reduce the impact of the risk of default from any one loan.

Loans you can invest in will carry different interest rates, based on the borrowers credit worthiness. Interest rates at Lending Club vary from about 6% to 21%, and borrowers must have a credit score of 660 or better. Your overall annual rate of return will depend on the mix of loans you invest in and how many of those loans end in default.

How risky is social lending overall? Does it really fit in the same category as investing in a CD or checking account? Social lending does carry certain risks that are greater than investing in an FDIC-insured product like a checking or CD account.

Social lending probably compares more favorably risk-wise between bond investing and stock market investing. The primary risks to you as an investor are that individual borrowers will default, or that the platform who administers the loans might stop servicing the loans altogether. The former will almost certainly happen, and can be mitigated by choosing your loans carefully and investing in many different loans at the same time. The latter is less likely to happen, and choosing the platform you invest through is critical. Prosper and Lending Club are the two biggest platforms in the U.S.

As an investor, you owe it to your portfolio to at least investigate whether social lending is for you. You may find that it can help you raise your returns in this low interest rate environment.

Autor: Jack Blatt

Jack Blatt writes about social lending and personal finance and is ecstatic about the returns he has achieved with Lending Club.

Added: February 7, 2010
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

Investing in the Markets With Options?

Options are a great way to protect profits and safeguard against losses for people trading in the markets. They are perhaps the only true form of hedging, when people properly understand how to use them.

Although, the problem is that options are still widely misunderstood in the marketplace, and that is why many people do not get the results that they should with them.

One of the reasons for this is the Options education industry. Education is the most valuable thing a trader can do to progress their knowledge and experience of the markets, and it can ultimately be a big factor in either succeeding, or failing when trading.

However, when it comes to options training many of the companies in the industry actually approach it back to front. Often they will teach people all the different options trading systems that they can, even to a very advanced level and then let them live in the markets on their own.

The problem is that while students know theoretically how to use an option, they don't know how to identify the opportunities where options can best be utilized.

If people are serious about making the profits that are possible with options trading, then they need to find companies that teach things the right way round.

These are companies that first coach their students in how to understand and identify good opportunities in the marketplace, and then after students feel comfortable being able to do this they then go on on to teach them what strategies are best suited for each different situation that they find.

Also, good companies will be able to offer traders the chance to trade in live markets alongside successful professional traders. It is one thing to understand something theoretically, but being able to progress and develop skills and experience alongside people who are already successful in the markets is extremely valuable indeed.

Autor: Brendan Dean

To see an independent report of the best options training companies to learn How To Trade Options, then just Click Here.

Added: February 4, 2010
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

3 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Bonds

In these hard economic times, bonds are a good option for saving money.There are different types of bonds, but the most common is a traditional savings bond. Most banks and other financial institutions offer this as a financial option. Normally you can buy a bond at a certain price and then let it double in it's amount overtime, earning interest. Bonds are considered a form of debt security. Underwriting is the most common practice for issuing bonds. This is where one or more financial institutions form a syndicate, buy an entire issue of bonds from an issuer and then resell them to investors. There are a few things about bonds that are not always known by most people, mentioned below.

The first of them is that the interest rate that the issuer ends up paying to the bond holders is called the coupon. This is most often times a fixed rate that lasts the entire term life of the bond. Although the term can be set for any amount of years, it is most commonly set at a term of thirty years. The reason that the term coupon was used here is because coupons were in fact attached to physical bonds that were issued in the past.

The next thing about bonds to know is the maturity date. The maturity date is the actual date on which the issuer has to repay the nominal amount. The length of time until the maturity date is reached is often called the term of the bond.

The last thing to be aware of when dealing with bonds is the indenture. The indenture establishes the terms of a bond issue in a formal debt agreement. This is a technical explanation of the bond.Bonds are both good options to look into when looking at ways to invest money smartly in a struggling economy. Research all options and decide what is right for whatever budget or life situation you might be in.

Autor: Charles E Johnson

Charles E. Johnson is an entrepreneur and the current owner of Articleportfolio.com. For more information on the bond market and investing in bonds, visit the Articleportfolio.com bonds page here: http://www.articleportfolio.com/buying-bonds.html.

Added: February 3, 2010
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

Bond Basics - Interest Rates

As a bond investor, one must thoroughly understand interest rates, the most basic feature of bonds. The value of a bond investment is very much dependent on today's interest-rate environment and the potential future interest-rate moves.

Coupon Rate

Bonds as fixed income securities pay a set coupon rate, the rate used to calculate periodic interest payments on an issue. Two things affect the coupon rate: the issuer's credit quality and the issue's duration. In general, the better the credit quality and the shorter the duration, the lower the interest rate, and vice versa.

Yield

Unlike a coupon rate that stays constant, the actual yield(to maturity) on a bond fluctuates as the result of the changing supply and demand in the trading, any changes in current interest rates, as well as in the perception of future interest-rate moves. For an investor, the yield is the coupon payments relative to the purchase price of the bond, which changes over time for the same above-mentioned reasons. And a bond yield moves in opposite direction to the price.

As interest rates have come down so much in the last couple of years, bond prices have risen accordingly and that has been good for investors. But the question now is that if interest rates can't drop much lower from today's historical low, what would that bode for investors, especially when inflation expectation starts setting in? One has to think about possible dropping in bond values down the road.

Interest Rate Sensitivity: Short Term vs. Long Term

Investors care a lot about how much their bond holdings are sensitive to any interest-rate change, because moves in interest rates will be reflected in the changing of the bond prices, thus the value of their holdings. In a rate-tightening environment or a would-be one, longer-term bonds are more sensitive to rate increases. This is because such a potential bond holder would be locked up for too long at a lower coupon rate.

Now the investor would be unable to earn any ongoing higher rates, and thus would demand a higher yield by paying less when purchasing the bond, effectively driving down longer-term bond prices. Should there be a future tightening and should the tightening become progressive as the current economic recovery continues moving forward, there could very well be losses of value on longer-term bonds.

On the other hand, shorter-term bonds would be less influenced by upward moves in rates in terms of investors demanding a higher yield and thus there wouldn't be much downward pressure on shorter-term bond prices. In fact, as investors contemplate whether interest rates will really go up, they would like to get into shorter-term bonds for the flexibility that shorter durations offer, potentially driving up shorter-term bond prices and delivering better returns for those shorter-term bond holders.

Investing in bonds is a lot about evaluating current interest rate environment and anticipating future interest rate moves.

Autor: Charles E Johnson

Charles E. Johnson is an entrepreneur and the current owner of Articleportfolio.com. For more information on the bond market and investing in bonds, visit the Articleportfolio.com bonds page here: http://www.articleportfolio.com/buying-bonds.html.

Added: February 2, 2010
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

Investing in Tax-Free Bonds

What is a tax free bond, and how can you invest in such a thing? A tax-free bond invests in municipal bonds. It is a debt security issued by the state or local government. They pose as good investments since they don't attract tax. They also attract very high interest on their value. How you can invest in tax free bonds is based on a number of factors; most important of all, your knowledge about these bonds.

There are two attractive tax-free bonds in the market namely; the general obligation and revenue bonds. General obligation bonds are state securities meant for raising money for projects like community development, schools, sewers etc. The General Obligation tax free bond is considered as safer in comparison to the Revenue Bond. On the other hand, the Revenue Bond is issued by a state or local government company. Both are available in the market. The interest on your investment comes from the business profits of the issuer.

Deciding on what to invest on can be challenging. However, if you are an average investor with some experience in the market, you can determine what the ideal bonds to buy through equivalent yield formula.

You may want to invest heavily; the tax free bonds provide you with insulation against heavy tax on your investment. There are two thumb rules in the market

Study the yield potential of the bond you want to invest in, this provides an overview of the benefits.
Invest objectively; the value of these bonds is high, as such it's ideal to invest high enough money to earn high yields unlike when you invest small amounts.

Investing in tax free bonds promises you, as an investor, very good yields on your initial investment. You can choose to invest in either the general obligation or the revenue bond. Each provides an attractive interest on your initial investment. Learning how to project possible earnings is done using the equivalent yield formula. If you have little knowledge about bonds, it's ideal you study books about investing in this topic.

Autor: Charles E Johnson

Charles E. Johnson is an entrepreneur and the current owner of Articleportfolio.com. For more information on the bond market and investing in bonds, visit the Articleportfolio.com bonds page here: http://www.articleportfolio.com/buying-bonds.html.

Added: February 1, 2010
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

The Psychology of Investing Money and 5 Negative Personality Traits

Investing in the stock market, in options, in foreign currency, in commodities, or in other financial instruments will only be successful if you do technical analysis and fundamental analysis and when you have a trading strategy that incorporates risk and portfolio management. To be successful in investing money, you must understand the psychology of investing. One aspect of this is to understand the negative personality traits that investors have - these traits prevent investors from succeeding in their investments.

Tape watchers

A tape watcher is a person who sits all day looking at live data. If you are a tape watcher, whenever the price of the stock you have invested in is up, you will think you have make a good investment, and vice versa. This makes tape watching an emotional experience. You should set your stop losses and you should take the time to do research or to do other constructive things.

The uncertain

Some people are always unsure about the decisions they make. This is a bad trait because they are not able to take risks and since the greater the risk the greater the reward, uncertain people will not succeed as investors. If you are not sure about your investment decision, you should do fundamental and technical analysis and then you should trust your intuition.

Roller coaster riders

Roller coaster riders are people who buy and sell when others are buying and selling. This is not prudent because sometimes the market is driven by external factors that are not related to the actual value of the stock they have invested in. You should be able to filter the noise and to make decisions based on sound judgment.

The backward thinkers

Some investors are backward thinkers. They do not use analysis tools such as trading calculators and volatility data and they do not have access to live data. Avoid being a backward thinker by taking courses on how to invest in whatever you are investing in.

The stupidity

Some people make very stupid investment decisions. These people buy a stock just for the sake of buying or for emotional reasons. They also buy without doing any analysis and they will sell when the prices are low and buy when they are high. Such an investor should find something else to do.

Autor: Marcus De Maria

Marcus is dedicated to providing financial education that helps individuals create wealth for themselves and their families.

Marcus is the author of the book, 'Wealth Workout - the Simple Seven Step Formula for Financial Success', and the contributor to various money, finance, stock market and property publications in UK. For more information on how to make more money and to get a wealth workout please click here wealth-workout.

Added: January 31, 2010
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/