Archive for August, 2006
Your own business with No Selling!No
Meetings!No pressure!The system does
95% of the work!Join today as a pre-
enrollee.Simply visit the site and
you’ll be placed into a straight,
vertical powerline,which grows daily.
Watch as people are placed under you.
Get in early!
http://digbig.com/4htwj
A former colleague at a major stock brokerage firm always confused “fiscal” with “physical”. On June 30th, he would talk about the close of the “physical year”. Just a mental block for an intelligent man. Fiscal year-end differs for corporations with most ending June 30th while others use December 31st. Fiscal is fancy jargon for “show me the money”.
Measurements connotes appearances men notice. Year-end fiscal measurements get the attention of both genders. A friend reminds me, “You cannot track what you do not measure”. Many market watchers measure the stock markets performance by tracking the Dow Jones Industrial Average. So, just what is the Dow Jones Industrial Average?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
When Charles Dow, a journalist, devised his index for securities, most investors were bond buyers. Bonds provided predictable ownership with specific interest payment (coupon) and a promised return of your money (principle) on a specific date (maturity). Only a few investors wanted stocks; for most, stocks were too risky.
Think you have trouble following stock prices? In 1884, investors read charts with prices up 1/4 point, down 1/8th point. All seemed rather perplexing (frankly, it is not much different today with newspapers printing decimal stock-closing prices.
On July 3 1884, Charles Dow published an average of leading American stocks to make it easier for investors. Railroad stocks and Western Union (for obvious reasons) were on the list. Railroads were the backbone of emerging economic forces tracked in the U.S. economy.
* Some recognized names: New York Central
* Union Pacific
* Chicago & North Western
As time progressed, the list changed, and still changes. Theoretically, the Dow Jones Industrial Average represents a wide range of industry in the United States. The Dow no longer includes railroads or utilities; they are separate averages. The Transportation and Utility Averages are proxies or “leading indicators” for the economy. One tells us about the movement of product; the other the energy used to produce it.
Today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is a list of 30 stocks. When an index has a few stocks, the price of a few impacts the average. This often skews index pricing. For example during 2005, General Motors stock (GM) stalled and sputtered.
* GM 2005 performance Stock price January 3, 2005: $40.30
* Stock price December 30, 2005: $19.42
* Stock price loss percentage: 48%
* Current Dividend: $2.00
* Year-end Yield: 10.30% (this is called a “yield rally”)
The Wilshire 5000 Average
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gets the recognition, but the Wilshire 5000 tells you more. For some reason, news stations will not give the Wilshire 5000 averages. It is reported here: .
Ray Randall serves clients as a registered investment advisor with his firm, Ethos Advisory Services, Essex, Massachusetts Ethos Advisory Services. He has wide experience within the financial services industry, writes a weekly newsletter for Ethos Advisory Services, and coordinates the developments at Echievements.com. Ray holds a Masters Degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Hamilton, MA. You may call Ray (617-275-5565).
By Glenn Shepard
Some people waste their lives trying to avoid making mistakes, but cripple their careers since perfection isn’t attainable. They ultimately make fewer mistakes but accomplish less because they waste so much time trying to make things perfect. Time is money in business. Doing a good job today is more profitable than doing a great job tomorrow.
Rock star Jon Bon Jovi’s career might have ended before it started had he not understood this principle. He was only 21 when he won a contest with a radio station to record his first song in 1983. He quickly formed a band and released a debut album that went gold the following year. Suddenly they were opening a concert for ZZ Top at Madison Square Garden. They were rushed to record a second album and strike while the iron was hot. It was released in 1985 to poor reviews. Jon was unhappy with the album and wanted to do better, but timing was critical. The band moved past this bump in the road and released a better written and produced third album in 1986. Jon still wasn’t happy with the album because he didn’t think one particular song was good enough to be included. Fortunately for him, he listened to the people who knew the business side of music. That song was You Give Love a Bad Name. It became one of the band’s most well-known singles and helped send the album straight to number one. This launched them into super stardom and they went on to sell more than 100 million albums. Had they waited until the second album was perfect, they might have lost the support of their record label before they got to the third.
This is what happened to rock legend Tom Scholz. He’s often referred to as the smartest man in the history of rock and roll. He holds a masters degree in mechanical engineering from MIT and is listed as an inventor on 34 U.S. patents. The 1976 debut album by his band Boston sold over 16 million copies and remains the biggest selling debut album in history. It’s also considered one of the best-produced albums in rock history. Scholz played every instrument on every song and produced the album himself. He’s brilliant and talented. He’s also a consummate perfectionist who took eight years to finish the third album. CBS/Epic Records got tired of waiting for it, sued him for breach of contract, and dropped Boston from their label.
It’s okay to have high standards as long as they’re realistic. It’s not okay to procrastinate until everything is exactly the way you want it to be. Your employer doesn’t have time to wait around until you get things perfect even if you are a genius inventor or legendary rock star. Deadlines must be kept and payroll must be met. An electrical engineer who attended my management seminar in Orlando once told me that he has to constantly remind the engineers he supervises that sometimes 90 percent is good enough.
Highly valued employees don’t necessarily make fewer mistakes than run of the mill employees. In fact, they often make more mistakes because the number of mistakes increases as productivity increases. They just know the right way to do it. Making mistakes is okay as long as:
1. They’re reasonable mistakes to make.
2. You catch your own mistakes.
3. You correct your own mistakes.
4. You accept responsibility.
5. You don’t blame others.
6. You don’t make excuses.
7. You don’t hide your mistakes from your boss.
8. You learn from your mistakes.
9. You don’t repeat the same mistakes.
10. You apologize when it’s appropriate.
Resource Box
Glenn Shepard is a professional speaker and author of the #1 Best-Seller How to Be the Employee Your Company Can’t Live Without. He is recognized internationally as a leading expert in leadership and career development. Get his free report The One Thing That Every Employer Values More Than Job Skills now http://www.glennshepard.com/free-resources.html
The Bankruptcy Abuse and Consumer Protection Act was passed in early 2005 with the intention of reforming American bankruptcy law as we know it. The existing laws, according to Congress and the credit card companies, allowed too many debtors who might be capable of repaying at least some of their debts to have them wiped away by the courts. The new law was intended, rightly or wrongly, to eliminate the “bankruptcy of convenience” that allowed many consumers to run up huge debts without repaying them. Under the new law, filing is much more difficult, time consuming and expensive; so much so that it has discouraged many would-be filers from seeking debt relief through the courts.
Given that debt relief through the bankruptcy courts is now so much more difficult, it makes sense that consumers with mounting bills might want to seek alternatives. In order to do that, debtors need to find some other way to manage their increasing debt. Below are a few tips that might help consumers avoid filing for bankruptcy.
Bankruptcy shouldn’t be taken lightly. Having your debts removed by the courts will leave a mark on your credit report for up to ten years and will make it more difficult and expensive to borrow money or obtain credit in the future. Smart consumers know that avoiding bankruptcy, if at all possible, is a smart financial move.
©Copyright 2006 by Retro Marketing. Charles Essmeier is the owner of Retro Marketing, a firm devoted to informational Websites, including End-Your-Debt.com, a site devoted to debt consolidation, credit counseling, payday loans and personal bankruptcy. He also created The Debt Consolidator.
One of the least understood financial markets is the one for futures. That is in part a function of the fact that for many years it has been referred to as commodity futures, which has no doubt turned many would-be traders away, folks who don’t have any interest in things like Pork Bellies and Frozen Concentrated Orange Juice (to include a few from the popular Trading Places film). The other factor is the perceived complexity of the futures market. The fact of the matter, though, is that futures trading is incredibly diverse and not as difficult to do as many think.
Sure, for decades futures trading focused on the commodity markets. That’s a simple function of how they developed. Now, however, the focal point has shifted considerably. Yes, one can certainly trade agricultural good, energy products, and metals. These days, though, there is more action in things like interest rates, currencies, stock indices, and even stocks themselves.
What’s more, technological developments have made the futures market much more accessible to the individual trader. It is now possible for even lightly capitalized traders to operate effectively in the futures market, something difficult to do in years gone by. That has opened up a whole array of new opportunities for the individual to pursue their trading goals.
Consider this. Nowadays just about anyone can trade things like Gold and Crude Oil. These markets have made enormous runs in recent years. One could also take positions in the US Dollar at a time when it has shown persistent weakness, or in US Interest Rates as they were steadily increased.
As for futures being complicated - not really. Are they different than trading stocks? Sure. They are leveraged instruments. That means they present some very exciting opportunities for traders who use them in the context of well developed risk management strategies (which all traders should have anyway, regardless of market).
Futures prices move just like those in any other market. The same analytic techniques used to trade stocks or forex or any other market can be applied to futures. Their prices are, after all, based on those of the markets underlying them. That is why they are referred to as derivative instruments they derive their value from other markets. Stock index futures track stock indices. Currency futures prices move with foreign exchange rates. Single stock futures follow the prices of the stocks they represent.
Naturally, this derivative nature does mean some differences in the actual trading of futures as opposed to the markets underlying them. The concepts involved, however, are easily understood. It is possible for one with a basic understanding of trading and the markets to grasp them quickly and be operating effectively in the futures markets within only a short period of time.
If you haven’t already done so - and if you’ve read this far it’s a fair bet that you haven’t - take the time to look at the futures market. They could very well provide you with the opportunity to make excellent strides in your profitability and risk management.
If you would like to learn more about the futures market and futures trading, go to http://www.theessentialsoftrading.com/FreeGuide-Futures.html to get your free 30 page guide, The Essentials of Futures Trading. It will tell you all you need to know to decide whether futures may be for you.
John Forman is author of the Amazon.com Top Selling book The Essentials of Trading (http://www.TheEssentialsOfTrading.com). He is a near 20-year veteran of the markets and has published literally dozens of articles trading methods and analytic techniques in magazines around the globe. He is currently the Managing Analyst & Chief Trader for Anduril Analytics (http://www.AndurilOnline.com).
Forex (foreign exchange) refers to the foreign currency exchange market, the world’s largest financial trading market. Pass yourself as a forex expert with these buzz words:
Bid to buy
Ask to sell
Liquidity financial ease of transaction, i.e. cash
Trading volume the amount traded
Bid/ask spread the difference between the proposed buying price and the actual selling price
OTC over the counter
Exchange rate the difference between currency values; for instance, a Canadian dollar is valued at .86 of a US dollar
Hedge funds large mutual funds companies that control vast amounts of money and are able to manipulate the value of a currency through speculation
Central bank the national bank of a nation, which usually exerts control over the value of that currency
Forex trading is the investment in the currency of one nation. Multinational Corporations doing business across national boundaries find value in keeping their cash reserves in a variety of countries, and holding their funds in a myriad of ways. For example, a UK corporation may hold a percentage of its working capital in UK pounds, but if it does quite a bit of business in USA it may also maintain a percentage of its money in dollars, in US banks. Individual investors over the decades have discovered that there is profit to be made in investment and speculation in the currency markets.
Take the case during the 70’s when the German DM swung rapidly in value. It was worth anywhere from 1.2 marks to the US dollar to 3.5 US marks to the dollar. When the mark was worth 2.5 it was beneficial to spend dollars buying marks, since the mark would buy more goods or services at that rate. As the mark bottomed out 1.7 to the dollar there was less incentive.
Surprisingly, the forex market itself is not unified. One can find many small forex markets specializing in trading various currencies. The most commonly traded currencies in forex speculation are the US dollar, the Australian dollar, the British pound sterling, the Japanese yen, and the European Euro. Currency values vary depending on the market in which an investor is speculating, so there is really no such thing as a single, unified dollar rate, but instead there are multiple dollar rates, which vary according to the market where the trade is occurring.
The major cities in which trades occur include New York, London, and Tokyo. It’s a 24 hour process. When Asian trading ends, European trading commences, and when European trading ends, then American trading opens. Naturally, when American trading ends, it is time for Asian trading to open house once more and so on.
Currently, the most actively traded currency is the US dollar, involved in 90% of all trades. This is followed by the Euro involved in 36% of all trades, then by the yen in 20% and the pound in 17%.
Our fastest rising currency in trade is the Euro, however the US dollar is still the favored anchor point– and the currency watched so as to judge how others will react. Differences in value of currencies come from the current events. GDP growth, inflation dips, interest rate swings, budget and trade deficits, surpluses and other economic conditions all shift currency values. Investors, for this reason, follow the news very closely. There are 24 hour cable news channels and many web sites devoted to news that aid currency speculators.
The forex market is highly susceptible to rumors. In fact the central banks of countries frequently manipulated local currency value by sowing rumors about interest rate hikes and other economic propaganda that impacts the value of the domestic currency. When this news is false it is called a dirty float- and it dismays the market.
***
A master of manifestation to his
associates, Joseph R. Plazo offers intense
executive coaching so people can find jobs and build careers. Joseph achieved financial independence at 22, authored five NLP books, mentored hundreds and indulges in his passion for radionics. Always to take the initiative,
his battle cry is “Ducunt volentem fata, nolentem trahunt.”
Hi,
A very simple solution to a high tech problem. You have been bombarded with thousands
infact million of ad every day every second online.
Each and every one claiming to have earned hundreds and thousands of dollars and some
millions.
They boast that by folloowign their simple program or softwares you can be like them earning
as much as what they claim.
Reality speak for itself. I for one have spent thousands of dollars on ebooks, softwares and
you know what on Safelist and lead builderprograms so on and so forth.
Just trying to run the program is hard enough let alone trying to duplicate the
fantastic so call secrets explain in the ebooks.
Well for all that happen I have become wise and so before jumping into every program and so call ebooks.
I read the headline and then go do my home work. Some of the ebooks are old ebooks.
They have just been given a new look,title and re writting of the content.
So read carefully the sales letter if they sound just like some ebooks you know find out
do some homework and that could safe you some really good money.
The remedy for all of the above.
Simple just go here :- http://tinyurl.com/gvj9r
Ya! you’ll thank me later.
The first step to overcoming a debt problem is recognizing it. If worries about your credit cards and loans are keeping you awake at night, you probably already know that you’re in over your head
It is always suggested to make proper repayment plans before you start receiving harassing collection calls. But how would you understand when to consolidate your debts? There are certain warning signs that alert you earlier enough about the fore-coming conditions. Few such signals are listed below. If any two of these apply to you, it means the siren has rung and you have to get ready to decide your next move. You can get help by participating in Debt Consolidation Care forums, or visit DIY section if you decide to be your own mentor while paying back your debts. Check it here:
” You routinely spend more than you earn.
” You have begun charging to the credit card even for the essential expenses like food, water and other daily expenditures.
” You’re unsure about how much you owe or what may be on your credit report
” Your savings have come to the lees.
” Your credit limit is maxed on most of your cards.
” You are making only the minimum payments on your cards each month with lots of difficulties.
” You skip payments on some bills in order to pay others, or use cash advances on one credit card to pay off another.
” You are afraid of missing monthly installments in near future.
” You find yourself arguing with your spouse about money. Or, you’re are afraid to talk to your spouse about money at all.
” You are near the limit of your cards.
” You have too many credit cards.
” You’ve recently been turned down for credit or a loan.
” You panic when faced with an unexpected expense, such as a car repair.
” You owe more on your car than it’s worth
” You are unsure how much you owe creditors.
” You have even contemplated Bankruptcy.
—————————————————–
Przemek from Deb consolidation secrets lives and works in Michigan area where He runs his businesses mostly internet based.
—————————————————–



















