forex fire

Does a buy and hold strategy still work well for unit trust funds? There’s an argument that buy and hold is not a strategy, but is the same as not doing anything. To make it worse, your investment may ’sink’.

Given an example, let’s say, you bought into an equity fund in December 1998 and kept it until December 2004 and had a return on investment (ROI) of -2%. If you had actively managed your investments and switched to a bond fund (during bull bond market) and returned to equity later (during bull equity market), your ROI would have been 15%. Thus, some analysts suggest a buying, monitoring and rebalancing strategy.

The buy and hold strategy is based on an assumption that over the long run, markets will go up eventually. It’s a strategy that helps the investor save on transaction costs, taxes on capital gains and avoid the hassle of buying and selling.

There are a number of factors concerning this strategy. First, it’s assumed that the portfolio is diversified into different stocks and asset classes. If the investor only invested in one stock, he won’t even recover the cost today. He needs to invest across the asset classes (bonds, gold, cash etc.). In the long term, the portfolio will give good but not necessarily the best results.

Second, the investments must be fundamentally sound. In developing countries, a buy and hold strategy may not produce the best results many changes are still taking place. Thus, business cycle, the economic and investing environment and government policies will change, in line with the country’s development. When change happen, you can’t ignore the impact.

That being the case, investors are advised to review their investments regularly (at least once a year). But should unit trust investors try timing the market? As you know, a unit trust fund is a medium to long term investment vehicle. However, you can’t just invest and forget about it. Investors should monitor them closely and not easily give up control of their hard earned money.

Not all investors are literate enough to know when to enter and exit asset classes. Investors’ emotions come into play, making it hard for them to sell and take profit or cut losses, especially those who invest directly in the market. Thus, leave it to the professionals if you’re clueless and illiterate about financial markets, although even professionals can’t get it right all the time too as timing the market is never easy.

Another critical element of unit trust investing is to figure out if you’re comfortable with the fund manager’s style. If the investor were to rebalance his portfolio himself, in this case, the asset allocation decision is made by the investor himself. When markets move, he decides whether to buy, hold or sell.

For you those of you who prefer taking control of your investment, even if it’s a small sum, make sure you go into a fund that charges minimal entry and exit fees or allows free switches between funds in the same company and in the same year. Only move your investments when you believe market fundamentals have changed, otherwise don’t get caught up with investor sentiment.

Even if there were no changes in the investing environment, your own objectives may have changed, so it’s wise to review your portfolio at least once a year.

For investors who prefers to let the fund manager decide so long as they get a reasonable return on investments, there are funds that allow you to just sit back and watch your investments grow (if you’re lucky!). Go with funds and fund managers whose investment style suits your risk profile.

Finally, investors need to be educated. Get literate in your finances or make sure your investment consultant is literate.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Investing

The coterie of the new rich swear by the efficiency, benefits and sheer pleasure of money coming in from various sources without them having to do any work, whatsoever. Imagine how it might look like when you dip your toes on waters alongside tropical beaches of Bali or Goa and your money just seems to be hitting the bank in time for you to withdraw. Investing in stock markets and other financial instruments can help you achieve this level of financial freedom and here’s how you can do just that:

Pick Value stocks and have someone else do the thinking

Forget what you know about trading on the stock market. Pick up a book called “The Intelligent Investor” by

Benjamin Graham or read up on value investing from somewhere and then take the help of a well-intentioned and experienced broker to pick some long-term, value stocks. Have this broker invest your money in these stocks and for a long time to come. You do this now; so that you can reap the capital appreciate later, when you want to hit the arm chair. Now, when enough time passes by, have someone to do the thinking and strategically buy and sell the stocks for a tidy profit. The resultant cash can be held in a parallel, liquid financial vehicle on a recurring basis for your access.

ETFs and Mutual Funds: Invest and forget it

If you don’t want to do anything with stock picking yourself and don’t want to trust any individual broker for your stock picking, another great option would be to pick on an ETF (Exchange Traded Fund” or a mutual fund and go by a system of regular automated payments called Dollar-cost Averaging (which reduces your cost of holding this investment over time). These instruments have been designed for the average Joe and you could just invest regularly into a selection of funds and forget about it for a while. When appropriate time comes, you can arrange to take the cash out systematically or re-route them to another liquid vehicle to facilitate easy withdrawals.

Have your real estate investments work for you

This is by far the easiest way to build residual income from. Instead of purchasing homes, if you could pick up commercial property in prime areas and give them away for long-term lease, you literally have money continuously roiling in from this source alone. Real estate makes a lot of sense for hands-free, residual money for a long time to come. However, entering the market might call for dedication, commitment and hard work which can be mastered given the right drive and ambition.

Bonds: Allow them to earn for you

If you are really past the age where you can jump into risks outright, but you did pile some cash reserves by now, it is then time to look at options which handle cash with much less risk and then pay you cash on a recurring basis each month. Bonds make an excellent choice for this kind of a strategy. When you have earned enough, shift your funds into a debt fund or some sort and have a “monthly payout option” enabled which then routes your money straight into your bank account. The debt funds wouldn’t give you swashbuckling returns but they do give you the security you need and the residual income that can make your life easier.

Unleash the Power of compounding

The power of compounding can single-handedly make you more wealth than you ever thought possible. If you start early enough on a mission to ensure that you retire with residual income streams working in your favor, the sheer power of compounding is enough to get your life by. If you had to just save a small sum of money - assume 100 USD - each month (1200 USD annually) starting at the age of say, 24 - you would be left with $ 65, 300 by the time you are 45. And it was only 100 $ that you were stashing away. What can you do with 3000 USD each month?

http://www.finance-maker.com/build-residual-income-from-investing/

Women looking for a way to be able to stay at home and simultaneously contribute to the family income should consider foreign currency trading as one among many home-based business possibilities. This also applies to stay-at-home dads, financially struggling college students, minimum wage workers or anyone else who would like to supplement their income or even create a new full time career.

FOREX trading requires very little startup capital, knowledge that can be acquired from excellent online sources for only a modest investment, a computer and an internet connection. It is one of the easiest businesses for an individual to get started in. Note and caution: in addition to the previously stated items, successful trading also requires intense self-discipline and risk management. It should not be considered a get-rich-quick project, but a source of steady part time (or full time) work with good income potential.

In 1978 the International Monetary Fund mandated the free-floating of currencies. That means that a currency, like the U.S. Dollar, Swiss Frank, or Euro changes in value minute to minute based on the laws of supply and demand. That decision also opened the currency markets to more participants than before. The volume of currency traded each day has grown dramatically, and this is a good thing for small traders who want to take small risks and get in and out of the market fairly fast. In 1977 the daily value of currency traded between banks was about U.S. $5 billion. By 1987 this had grown to U.S. $600 billion, and by the year 2000, it was up to U.S. $ 1.5 trillion.

Eventually corporations joined the banks in trading. This added to the volume and also added to the liquidity of the currency markets. Liquidity is important to keep from getting trapped in a losing position without being able to get out, or riding a nice profitable move and then seeing it disappear while you attempt to get out. The ideal market to trade is one that lets you in quickly and also lets you out quickly.

Now, even individuals can compete on relatively even footing with large central banks. The key is access to online information and online trading services. It may sound risky and complicated at first, but can actually be quite simple if you don’t get greedy and invest the time and money needed to learn the basics.

An advantage of currency trading over trading something like stocks is that currency markets are open almost 24 hours per day, so you can work whatever hours you choose, even the middle of the night. Also important is the fact that you don’t need much money to start. Many brokerage companies will allow you to open an online trading account for only $1000, and most of them will also let you practice for free with simulated trading accounts.

It is very important to learn the basics and also to have a well-practiced plan before you put real money into your new part-time business. Go to the library and read all the books you can find on trading and investing, then take time to surf the internet looking at forex trading courses (if you want to be a profitable trader, you need to invest a little money up front in education in order to avoid learning the ropes the hard way: by losing real money in the market) and selecting a good forex broker.

After you learn everything you can from a good online course and set up a trading account, be sure to trade “on paper” in real time without real money for a month or two to get all the bugs worked out of your strategy before you put real money on the line. Don’t let anyone tell you it is easy, but with hard work and discipline you can enjoy a nice supplemental income by trading.

Have you absorbed all the trading knowledge you can find at the library? Excited about getting your feet wet in the forex market? Go here for an excellent forex training course and visit http://www.forexprofitsmeister.com for more trading pointers.

Forex trading online is a fast way to use your investment
capital to it’s fullest. The Forex markets offer distinct
advantages to the small and large traders alike, making
Forex currency trading in many ways preferable to other
markets such as stocks, options or traditional futures. Here
are seven reasons why you’ll want to look into Forex Trading
online.

1 - Forex is the largest market.

Forex trading volume of more than 1.9 billion, more than 3
times larger than the equities market and more than 5 times
bigger than futures, give Forex traders nearly unlimited
liquidity and flexibility.

2 - Forex never sleeps!

You can execute forex trading online 24/7, from 7AM New
Zealand time on Monday morning, to 5PM New York time on
Friday evening. No waiting for markets to open: they’re open
all night! This makes Forex trading online a very attractive
component that fits easily into your day (or night!)

3 - No Bulls or Bears!

Because Forex trading online involves the buying of one
currency while simultaneously selling another, you have an
equal opportunity for profit no matter which direction the
currency is headed. Another advantage is that there are only
around 14 pairs of currencies to trade, as opposed to many
thousands of stocks, options and futures.

4 - Forex Trading online offers great leverage!

You can make the most of your investment resources with
Forex trading online. Some brokers offer 200:1 margin ratios
in your trading accounts. Mini-FX accounts, which can
typically be opened with only $200-300, offer 0.5% margin,
meaning that $50 in trading capital can control a 10,000
unit currency position. This is why people are flocking to
Forex trading online as a way to highly leverage their
investments.

5 - Forex prices are predictable.

Currency prices, though volatile, tend to create and follow
trends, allowing the technically trained Forex trader to
spot and take advantage of many entry and exit points.

6 - Forex trading online is commission free!

That’s right! No commissions, no exchange fees or any other
hidden fees. This is a very transparent market, and you’ll
find it very easy to research the currencies and the
countries involved. Forex brokers make a small percentage of
the bid/ask spread, and that’s it. No longer any need to
compute commissions and fees when executing a trade.

7 - Forex trading online is instant!

The FX market is astoundingly fast! Your orders are
executed, filled and confirmed usually within 1-2 seconds.
Since this is all done electronically with no humans
involved, there is little to slow it down!

Forex trading online can get you where you want to go
quicker and more profitably than any other form of trading.
Check it out and see what Forex trading online can do for
you!

Keith Thompson is the webmaster of Forex Trading Today; a blog focusing on the latest Forex news and resources.

Forex Autopilot and Forex autopilot system are two phrases that has been playing an important role in Forex trading. Why do many Forex trader searches this kind of tools. Forex Autopilot and Forex autopilot system are both automated Forex trading system. They help even a beginner to make huge profits to the largest market we have today. They also help those people who have little knowledge about Forex trading. Many trader thought that they are exactly the same. Little did they know that they are different from many aspect. So, let’s make the story short, how can you distinguish a Forex autopilot to a Forex robot.

Forex Autopilot is designed by Marcus Leary, a mathematician who turbo charged his trading profits and brought the entire industry crashing to his knees. The system run on autopilot meaning you don’t have to spend a lot of time checking your trade and profits. You just have to wait for your money to grow. It is a trading system that will show you the exact knowledge and training that will allow you to side step your competitor and super charge your income in to six figure. This system is a fully profitable business model in place guaranteed to make money. This system involves three simple and easy steps.

1. Download the Forex autopilot in to your hard disk.

2. Install and configure. Open a real demo account with our broker.

3. Run the advisors to your account and watch your business grow.

Meanwhile, Forex Autopilot System is also known as the automatic money making trading robot and PAFS. It has been designed by Mark Copeland, a senior quantitative analyst in Goldman Sachs. He uses his 8 years experience as an opportunity to research at the huge complicated system that the Forex expert uses to make killer trades for million dollars. He claimed that Forex robot is not just autopilot trading system but also a profitable system that let you possibly earn thousand of dollars a day. Forex autopilot system doesn’t required any Forex trading experience and a fully automated black box software. Forex Robot is the only system with low risk and high gains up to thousand a day. It is a system that works in any country. It was just a system that you have to install and run. Forex Autopilot System will tell you exactly what to do and when to trade. The system will come along with a guide which instructs you step-by-step how to setup the system and use the system to trade. It will take you about 15 minutes to read the guide and 5 minutes or so to complete the setup and run the system. All the steps involve no cost. In Forex Autopilot system, the advisers given by the system has been explained. Your success with this system depends on your capital.

Based on my own reading, both of them really works but they don’t want to make any outrageous claims. Everyone knows that Forex trading involves risk, and sometimes software and machines are not as accurate in making decisions as human beings. It is time for you to choose and decide the perfect tools to use in trading.

I will recommend that you do some research and reading before you trade. Read more of my Forex reviews here!

Read more about Forex autopilot and Forex autopilot system at http://www.squidoo.com/forex-autopilot-system!

Hundreds of thousands of individuals have already joined the FOREX market. If you are
interested in a way to invest your money with quicker returns, FOREX may be perfect for you.
But before you can begin earning money, you should thoroughly understand the FOREX market.

Investing Methods

To better understand the FOREX market, you can compare this investing method to trading
stocks. In the stock market, you can buy shares of many different corporations in the hope that
stocks will rise, earning you a profit. Well, the FOREX market works in the same way, except
you are not buying shares of a corporation. Rather, you are buying and selling currencies. The
aim is the buy a currency and sell it when the currency rises, thus earning a profit when the
currency is more valuable.

As with the stock market, the FOREX market consists of those who invest a small amount as
well as those with millions to invest. Any individuals with any capital can join in on the action.
Because of the wide variety of FOREX brokers available today, you can become a FOREX trader
with as little as two or three hundred dollars.

Predicting Results

But like the stock market, the FOREX market is full of risks. When you are investing any money
there is always a risk of some loss. To minimize loss, many FOREX traders thoroughly educate
themselves through classes, online courses, books, and other materials. There are many kinds of
trading methods that will help you analyze current conditions and enable you to predict results.

The FOREX market is constantly changing, with drops and rises in currencies, 24 hours a day.
The trick is to predict these trends before they occur, so you can buy currencies low and sell them
when it is higher than the original cost. Sometimes, this means buying a dropping currency, and
waiting for that currency to take on an upward trend. This forces you to keep up to date on the
FOREX market conditions.

Online Trading

To become a FOREX participant, you should at least read a book, if not take a course. Because
real money is involved here, you must proceed with utmost caution. Many FOREX investors sign
up with FOREX related websites to receive newsletters, advice, and to keep up with currency
trends. Some investors even sign up to receive trends on their phones and PDA’s to stay in the
game.

The good news is that you have the opportunity to practice with play money before you put any
of your hard-earned cash through the FOREX market. When you sign up with a brokerage firm
that offers the option to trade online, you can use play money to test and understand the software.
You can use this valuable opportunity to put your research to the test by trying out different
trading methods to see if your predictions and analyses are correct. While the money may not be
real, the conditions are, which allow you a stable playground to learn and adapt to the FOREX
market.

Stay informed to stay on top of your game; your FOREX profits count on it. By remaining
vigilant, you’ll be able to pull in great profits through the FOREX market.

Get the latest in forex market know how from the only true source at http://www.forextradingline.com Check out our forex market pages.

Easy Language

TradeStation gives you the power to right code in Easy Language in order to back test your trading strategies. Now, while the name of the code is Easy Language, it is far from easy. If you have previous coding experience, then Easy Language will remind you a lot of C++, but if you have no previous coding experience, do not waste your time on trying to learn the syntax. Simply look to their third-party programmers for assistance. These developers are backed by TradeStation and they do not charge and obscene amount of money. Better yet, if you have a friend or relative that knows how to write code, they will quickly be able to write basic strategies for you.

TradeStation provides some basic literature on Easy Language, but if you want to really get your feet wet, you will have to purchase their home study course, which will run you a cool $149. Again, if you are here to trade, trade, and leave the developing to the programmers.

Historical Market Data

TradeStation has over 25 years of historical data. When you look a little closer, the amount of data is dependent upon which investment vehicle you are using:

• 4 years of intra-day Forex data
• 8 years of Eurex Futures and Index Data
• 16 years of intra-day Equities
• 25 years on intra-day Futures data

So, the real question is do you need all this data from TradeStation. Well, of course, if you are serious about testing your trading strategies. This amount of market data will allow you to back test your strategies in bull, bear and flat markets. You will quickly see how you would have faired in the bull market of the late 90’s, or the slippery slope down in ‘01 and ‘02. Most importantly, you can see how you would have done since the market recently bottomed in the spring of ‘03.

Automated Trading

I do not endorse mechanical trading, as I feel every trader should be responsible for his or her own trading decisions, but I have to admit, having the option of setting up automatic trading is impressive. In order to activate this feature, you should be certain that your strategy is working properly and has clear stop rules. The last thing you want is to take lunch and come back to realize you just bought a 10 thousand dollar hotdog. TradeStation also has a new feature that allows you to execute orders based on fundamental analysis. TradeStation is the first platform capable of scanning and executing orders based on fundamental factors.

Back testing Strategies

There is one part of back testing that TradeStation does not tell you about and that is slippage. When you write your Easy Language code, you can tell the code to exit a trade on the close of the current bar, or ext at market on the open of the next bar. The problem is you may want to write the code to get out at a specific price. Now, all of you Easy Language experts out there, please relax, I know that you can write code to get out at any particular price, but the average trader will not know how to write such detailed code. So, in summary remember that if you write your own code, the canned functions in Easy Language will not allow you to easily code your exits. Just make sure you verify in your performance report that your results have not been inflated or deflated due to slippage.

TradeStation will display a report of your hypothetical trading results. The TradeStation performance report lists everything from average time in trade, average gain, total commission, annual rate of return to name a few. Only problem, you cannot export the data to excel. So, one is forced to manually type in stats into your friendly worksheet processor. Depending on how much information you want to analyze, this exercise could prove to be time consuming.

Trade Execution

TradeStation has the quick order button execution of every other active brokerage firm. But the cool thing with TradeStation is the Order Cancels Order (OCO) and Order Stages Order (OSO) order types. For Order Cancels Order, you can instruct TradeStation to enter a position if the price breaks up or down. This works well when you have identified two levels on a stock as potential long or short entries depending on how the price breaks. The Order Stage Order allows you to stage multiple orders for an existing position. So, if you are long MSFT and want to exit in 3 increments, you can create an OSO order which will stage the orders and when a certain price is hit, it will exit a part of your position at a specific limit. I often hear traders say that they do not want to put a stop in, because if there limit is hit, they will have to cancel their open stop order, to then put in a limit order to exit the trade. Well, with OSO in you can place both a stop and up to 3 limit orders in TradeStation, so there is no longer any excuse as to why you can not protect your capital, the second you get in the trade.

Shorting

TradeStation does not have the books to short some of the more obscure stocks. So, if you want to short stocks that are not well known, you may encounter some trouble with TradeStation. This does not happen often, but it happens enough that it is noticeable.

Charting

The charts in TradeStation are in real-time and there are over a hundred indicators, show me, paint bars, etc. which can be displayed on the chart. The only negative is that you cannot execute trades by clicking directly on the chart. There are multiple screens in TradeStation that will allow you to close a position; unfortunately, the chart is not one of them.

Ability to Link Accounts

TradeStation has the ability to link all of your accounts. Therefore, you can trade futures, one minute and then put on a trade in your equities account the next. This is extremely convenient, since you do not have to open another application or go through the tedious process of logging into another account.

Commission Structure

If you are an active trader and you trade under 1k shares per lot, TradeStation makes sense. TradeStation has a per share cost up to 500 shares. The first 500 shares are $.01. So you can buy 100 shares for a $1 and up to 500 shares for $5. Over 500 shares, it is $.006 per share. So, if you trade 3k shares, TradeStation can become costly. The first 500 shares will cost 5 bucks and then the last 2.5k shares will run you another 15 bucks. The total cost would be 20 dollars one-way for the trade. In this example, it of course would be much cheaper to trade with a brokerage firm that has a flat charge for all trades. In summary, if you are going to trade in big lots, 1k or more, go with a flat fee brokerage firm, but if you’re going to trade under 1k lots, TradeStation is the place for you.

Support Center

TradeStation has a support and discussions forums, where traders share ideas, stories and Easy Language code. Unlike many forums, where there are only a few users, the TradeStation forum has hundreds of quality posts. I have been able to pickup tons of ideas as well as free Easy Language code for some of my strategies. Each post is grouped in categories and the users are quick to respond to your questions. TradeStation has also recently started a Wiki for both their platform as well as Easy Language. The Wiki is expanded daily. TradeStation also has a dependable phone support staff. I have yet to call and not be able to get someone on the line with in 15 - 30 seconds. The staff is always attentive and willing to help on any issue. There is a sales desk, equities desk, futures desk, and forex desk. Each department specializes in their respective areas, which prevents you, the client, from ever talking to someone who is unknowledgeable on how to address your issue.

Radar Screen

TradeStation is the only trading platform, which has a radar screen that can scan the market based on your own market criteria. Now this is not your standard, scan that can display stocks with an RSI under 30. The scan in Radar Screen can be as simple or as complicated as your Easy Language abilities will permit. So, if you want to look at stocks at 2-day highs, with 25k shares per minute, that are up a minimum of 2%, you can scan the market for this information in real-time. The only negative regarding Radar Screen is TradeStation only allows you to scan the market for 1k stocks. But, who needs to monitor more than 1k stocks?

See You At The Top,

Al Hill

Al Hill is the co-founder of mysmp.com (My Stock Market Power) which provides free trading articles to investors. Please visit http://mysmp.com/trading-articles.html for more free articles.

Many people are of the impression that Forex trading is an easy way to make money. To make matters worse, there are a lot of ads and promotion going around which makes the claims. Those new to Forex are the group of people who are most likely to be influenced by all the ads and promotions going around which promotes Forex courses or Forex trading systems.

However the reality is very much different. Most of those new to the Forex market in fact lose money. There are some even who lose their money over a long period of time.

The good news here is that there are concrete reasons for that and you can do something to avoid becoming a statistic. If you start your trading with a clear understanding of the realities, you stand a much better chance of turning a good profit. Here are a few things you should come to terms with before you venture into Forex trading.

You never have precise information

If you are one of those who lives and breathe Forex technical analysis charts then think again. By the time you are done compiling your charts, the information that you have is obsolete already. The market situation is always changing and so will the information that you will need. For you to have up to date information, you will need to be in the middle of the action, which is trading in the market itself. While its important for you to conduct analysis, do not place too much importance on it.

The amount of time for pondering is very limited.

Forex is not like a board game. There is no way with which you can plan ahead as to the movements of the market. This is because the market is so unpredictable. Furthermore, the window of opportunity for you to act typically only last around a minute. During this time, you probably have to need decide whether you wish to risk maybe a hundred times more capital than what you have. Forex trading therefore involve making decision based on accuracy. As such it is crucial that you use a proven and tested system which can help you speed up your decision making process.

Predicting the Forex markets movements is an impossible task.

Many people under the belief that if you study the Forex markets long enough, you could predict its movements. Infact, this is the most common sales tagline promoters’ uses to promote their courses or trading systems. Actually what is crucial in Forex trading is your reaction time towards changes in the market. The purpose of analysis is only to assist you with a better understanding in order that you can speed up your reaction time.

The truth of the matter is that Forex is not suited for everybody. The reason why so many people venture into Forex is because they think it’s easy to make money there. The reality is completely opposite of their perceptions. But you need to know the real situation first before you start trading in market. This helps you to prepare you for any eventuality and you will not get caught unaware.

Need elite Forex Trading Softwares with reliable statistical elements? I highly recommend that you review 10 Minute Forex Wealth Builder to trade up to 500% more effectively!

Would you like to find out more about Forex Factor X, and whether it really works as a profitable trading system? There are many factors to consider when choosing a trading system. The first criteria, is of course, whether the method can really make money. Once that is found, you also need to make sure that it fits your lifestyle (for example, I would not use a profitable system if it required me to check my trading platform every 10 minutes or so). So how did Forex Factor X do in testing?

1. Review of the Forex Factor X System

Cuts Losses Fast and Runs Winners

Forex Factor X’s method aims to run profitable trades as far as possible, while cutting losses out when the trade does not pan out as planned. This is the reason how this system comes out with a profit in the short and long term. In fact, all the best trading systems that I have used apply this concept to preserve capital and while maximizing winners.

Simple to Understand and Implement

I personally felt that this system is relatively simple compared to some others that I have used before. It has been proven time and time again that the complexity of a system has no effect on its profitability. In fact, many successful traders use simple and fundamentally strong methods that survive any market condition.

The more complicated systems tend to fit market conditions to their system and therefore fail when conditions change. As long as you understand how Forex Factor X’s system works, you should have complete confidence executing your trades.

2. My Experience with Forex Factor X

This system tells me exactly what to do every day and removes any emotions I have that may affect my decisions. I would usually find a signal to enter a trade in the morning, and the system tells me exactly which price to enter, where to take profit and set stop loss.

Is Forex Factor X a scam? Visit http://www.top-review.org/forex-factor-x.htm to read a FREE report about this Forex trading system, or CLICK HERE to See Forex Factor X!

Lisa and I walked 5 miles around Boston to celebrate our wedding anniversary. The Swan boats, Italian food in the Northend, a new “doo” for Lisa on Newbury Street, and new summer sweaters for me(”About time you got some sweaters with bright colors!”, Lisa said).

At Fanueil Hall Marketplace we watched “Formerly known as ‘Jim the Juggler,’ now known simply as “Jim, from The Jim Show.” Jim does daffy juggling as children giggle and parents laughed (we laughed and giggled). Jim balanced on a large beach ball while juggling.
I cannot stand on a beach ball nor can I juggle. Yet every morning my brain attempts the economic juggle, a dance registered investment advisors do in their office (privately). No need to mention the balls required, but here is an outline of what each ball lofted represents.

Each subject has current relevance, especially when the market movers sell more stock than they buy. I will define and explain the relevance in my opinion.

• Interest Rates
• Bond Rates
• Inflation

Other influences driving the stock market have aggregate affect, but individually lack market-moving clout. So, let’s look at what each subject means to the market.

Interest Rates: Lisa’s grandmother laments about the Bush administration while she longs for Jimmy Carter. “Those were the good ole days when the banks paid you for investing!” She remembers a call from a Florida stock broker offering her a 15% return on her $25,000 deposit. Of course, she and “Pa” never calculated their real rate of return (The inflation rate from June 1986 to June 1989 was 13.33% leaving 2.67% pre-tax real-rate of return)

Interest rates and inflation are the horse and cart of the economy. High Interest rates do not guarantee low inflation, nor that Lisa’s grandmother gets a “good-return” on her money. However, higher interest rates manage economies by affecting borrowing, corporate expansion, merger/acquisition activity (notice it slowed down on June 5, 2007), and currency values (U.S. dollar versus the Yen, as an example). Finally, the stock market dislikes high interest rates because there is less risk when buying bonds. You still with me?

News Flash! “Tracy Withers reports that “New Zealand’s central bank unexpectedly raised its benchmark interest rate to a record 8 percent, saying housing demand and consumer spending are fanning inflation. The currency rose to a 22-year high”

“Skellerup Holdings Ltd., which exports rubber goods used in medicine and irrigation, this week said full-year profit will fall by 34 percent because of the currency’s gain. The company is planning to stop some local production and fire workers because it is cheaper to make goods overseas, it said.”

Interest rate increases control inflation and can instigate sector recessions.

2. OK. On to Bond values. The bond market is all about the “cost of money”. Cheap money means mortgages, corporate buyouts, and stock market opportunity.

How come the bond market does not control interest rates? Perhaps because there is no immediate consensus, and bond traders might not consider inflation’s nasty economic slaps the way Federal Reserve Bankers do. Federal Reserve Bankers line their jackets and underwear with fabric imprints reading “Inflation”. Nothing matters more. At the Federal Reserve Bank water cooler, it’s all about inflation.

Bond traders are not numb to economic indicators. Sell-off’s in bonds push interest rates up and bond values/prices down. Bond traders don’t take risks with an greater courage than you or I. No one wants to lose money.

Joseph Keating, Chief Investment Officer for First American Asset Management thinks bond yields are now giving “competition” to stocks. Investors are observing bond yields, and consider bonds the “safer bet”. Stock buyers need a “premium” when buying stocks due to stock risk. This is known as “stock risk-premium”. When risk premiums are high, bonds fly.

Supply and demand drives pricing. So when bond buyers are attracted to higher yields, pricing gets tighter (bond prices go up and bond yields go down). This bond buying brings lower yields or lower interest rates in the bond market. Lower interest rates in the bond market decreases the risk premium making stocks attractive. When risk premiums are low, stocks grow. Fascinating, don’t you think?

Bond traders tend, in my opinion, to give weight to economic growth rather than to the value of the dollar. Dollar values may tell us more about inflation than any other indicator. Every commodity in America (and the dollar is no longer a commodity) is dollar-priced. If the dollar is down in value against other currencies, does it suggest that prices are inflated? Does this mean that someday, holders of the dollar will want more for what they can get with their lower-valued dollars? It seems so.

Inflation: No wonder the “Fed” worries about inflation. The insidious affect gets little attention from the public, but the result devastates buying power.

Tracking inflation started in 1914. Not much relevance tracking inflation from 1914 to now. However, we could try it from January 1997 to January 2007. From then to now, the inflation rate is 27.14%.
Now, let’s calculate what that means to your spending power. We can calculate the affect of inflation: $1+($1 x .2714)= $1.2714 or $1.27. This means your investment account per thousand must earn at least $270 more per thousand just to keep up with inflation.
The current Inflation Rate is 2.57%.

“Inflation causes reduced consumer spending, it squeezes profit margins,” said John Kornitzer, who manages $6 billion at Kornitzer Capital Management in Shawnee Mission, Kansas. (Bloomberg.com, U.S. Stocks Retreat on Inflation Concern…, Michael Patterson)

What do you prefer? High interest rates or low inflation? Juggle them if you can; for me, logic recommends asset allocation.

As a registered investment advisor, Ray Randall provides clients with tools to manage risk control as clients work toward investment goals. You may read more about him at Ethos Advisory.com Ray also manages the article bank and resource directory found at Echievements.com. Would you like to know how much risk your temperament permits? Fill out a request for a no-cost report on the Ethos Advisory Services contact page.