Learn To Invest Stock To Boost Your Returns

By Janet Calhoun

In a roller coaster economy, the only way to profit is to learn to invest stock the way the pros do, so you profit whether the market goes up or down.

You should begin by understanding the different kinds of investment vehicles, such as stocks or bonds, and identify your risk tolerance, financial resources and your long term financial goals.

For example, if you were about to buy a car, you'd probabaly spend a lot of time on research before you make your purchase. You wouldn't dream of buying something you hadn't checked out and taken on the road for a test drive! You should treat investments the same way.

Take the time to learn all the details about the investment as you can, and check the past results too. This just makes sense.

Learning what you need to know to competently invest in stock or bonds maybe time consuming, yet you should know this before buying. There are literally thousands of websites and books available to help you learn to invest stock, as well as beginner and intermediate courses. Use the Internet to even play a "virtual" account to see how you fare in your stock picking, before plunking down hard earned cash.

Give virtual trading a try; here you can make investments without any money in the game, then see your results. go to a major search engine and look for 'Stock Market Games' or 'Virtual Trading.' This is a hands-on way to learn to invest.

For investments other than the stock market, you may have to use books and websites since virtual trading platforms are not as readily available.

As a new investor, start reading any and all materials you can get ahold of about basic investing. When you start with basic information, you won't be overwhelmed by the details and expert information.

Don't be impatient, but start to learn to invest stock a step at a time. There is always something new to learn, even for professionals, to profit with investing. - 23208

About the Author:

Learn to invest stock even in a recession - save money and make more! You can learn to invest, save money and build wealth by reading Janet Calhoun's posts online at SavingCashTips.

Planning your retirement age

By Sara Ferguson

The first decide when youre going to retire. If youre in your 20s you may feel this is ridiculous: How on earth can you possibly predict how you will feel about working in 40 years or so? Or it may be one of the easiest questions in the world to answer if you have long had no intention of working past the age of 50. Whichever type of person you are, thinking about the age you plan to give up work is critical because it has an impact on your retirement planning " how much you need to save and where you need to invest it.

Were all living a lot longer. Life expectancy has shot up in the past of decades. If youre a woman born in 1990 you can expect to live until your early nineties. Government buffoons reckon that the news on life expectancy is going to get better, with the average woman born today expected to live until they are nearly 110 years old!

This means if you retire in your mid 60s and enjoy just average health youre going to need enough money to live on for at least 30 to 40 years. Retiring at 50 or indeed anytime before the official state retirement age of 65 for men and 60 for women (until 2020, when it becomes 65 for both) is an impossible dream for the majority. Realistically, youll probably have to work until your seventies because you simply cant save enough to retire before then. Retiring at 50 requires a huge pension pot, supplemented with additional investments. If you are in a well-paid job and start saving a significant percentage of your salary from your early twenties, it might just be possible.

Otherwise, it wont be. Doing the math could make you appreciate that your dream is unrealistic. Either you invest more money to make it possible or get used to the fact that youll have to stay in the rat race for much longer. - 23208

About the Author:

How to Invest Today is a free website dedicated to helping you become a smarter investor.

Mutual Funds in Canada

By Bob Jones

Mutual funds are one of the methods that people can use to earn some money by saving in a safe way. With mutual funds the company has a number of stocks and bonds that can increase the client's outlay. While many countries have their own version of mutual funds you will find that Canadian mutual funds have a parent company that regulates their operations.

In general, Canadian mutual funds are applicable only to residents of Canada. If you desire to put your savings in one of these Canadian mutual funds then you should look into the company very carefully. The companies that you investigate should have all of their terms and conditions notated in a simple and readable way.

You can read through financial pages of the newspapers and the Internet to look up how the various Canadian mutual funds are performing. This overview will help you to make a comparison between the various mutual companies that you are interested in.

To gain a better picture of what kinds of stocks and bonds there are in each of these companies, you should look at the listings that are given. Compare these listings with those of other Canadian mutual funds.

For the most part, Canadian mutual funds will have the same type of funds as the mutual funds in the USA have. These funds include index mutual funds, low cost funds, front load funds, no-load funds and others. Before you decide to invest in a Canadian mutual funds group, you will need some legal advice.

This legal advice will have to handle the tax you might have to pay on both sides of the border. This is vital as IRS in the US requires shareholders in investment corporations to pay some type of tax on capital gains distributions. You will also need to understand how the Canadian government looks at the tax rates for Canadian mutual funds.

There is one aspect that needs deeper inspection when you are going through the various Canadian mutual funds. Canadian mutual funds can have a variety of different brands of stock held under the umbrella of one fund. For instance you will find that the 'RBC ('Royal Bank of Canada') Asset Management Inc.', has one type of stock brand called the RBC Funds. Whereas 'The Mackenzie Financial Corporation', on the other hand, has nine different brands.

All of this makes the idea of investing in Canadian mutual funds quite interesting. If you are interested, you will need to find out how you can invest in one of these companies. Your financial advisor ought be able to give you some help in this endeavour. - 23208

About the Author:

If you are interested in Canadian Mutual Funds or saving in general, please visit our web site entitled Saving in Mutual Funds

The Global Macro Trader and the Use of Macroeconomics

By Peter Buffett

In case you couldn't tell from the title, macro traders use economics a lot in their search for the best opportunities across the globe. The macro trader trades stocks, bonds, commodities, and currencies. Not only do they trade all four major asset classes but they trade them across the globe. That means that they need to follow at least the G-20 nations. This obviously multiplies the number of markets that they must have a solid grasp of.

So if the global macro trader focuses on all of these asset classes and countries what does he or she need to know? Not only do you need to know individual market dynamics but you must understand each nations macroeconomic situation.

Possibly the best example of a country where you need to understand the economic situation is that of Japan. Their stock market is essentially flat from 1982 all the way to 2009. During that time it has gone up ten times and then fallen back and then climbed and fallen again and again. This was not a random occurrence and if you understood the economic dynamics at play it would have made sense to you. Essentially once their bubble burst in the early nineties they entered a period of stagflation and occasionally deflation and they have not had asset growth for thirty years.

Obviously if you had decided to invest in Japan without understanding the macroeconomics at play you would have lost a lot of money. In fact without understanding the economics and practicing risk management you would have made no money at all from 1982 all the way to 2009. Yeah stocks for the long run works except when it does not.

Another trade where you could have made a lot of money was in commodities, commodity currencies, and commodity stocks from 2002 to mid 2008. Not only were we coming out of the dot com bust but were also amazingly underinvested in our global natural resources.

If you had been following the global economic environment you would have been able to spot this trend and would have been able to get on board for one of the best trades in the last twenty years. You likely would have bought countries like Brazil and other emerging markets.

Value investors and supposed pure stock pickers are notorious for claiming to not need economics. We only buy stocks they say. Well the truth is that all stocks are part of and are affected by the economy. You can lose fifty percent of your money when a supposed surprise economic disaster happens or look at the signs, see it coming, and profit.

Global macro trading and macro economics obviously are very complimentary to your account when used properly. Don't trade in ignorance. You should instead learn everything you can and set up the best risk to reward scenarios possible. - 23208

About the Author:

If you need actionable trading ideas then check out The Macro Trader It is a weekly global macro research advisory publication with frequent intra-week updates for time-critical analysis and actionable trading ideas.

Trade Exotic Currency Options

By Ahmad Hassam

Currency Options are used by companies as risk management tools. What are Options? Simply stated, it is a contract that gives the buyer the right but not the obligation to buy an underlying asset under specific conditions on payment of a premium.

The buyer may exercise the right if it makes him/her a profit. He/she may not exercise the right if it is unprofitable. However, if the buyer of an options contract exercises his/her right to buy the underlying asset, the seller is obligated to sell the asset at the specified price.

In every foreign exchange transaction, one currency is purchased and another is sold. Consequently, every currency option is both a call and a put. A call conveys the right to buy the underlying currency. A put gives the buyer the right to sell.

Why options are important as a risk management tool. Suppose a Japanese company is going to make the payment for its import of raw materials in 3 months time in USD.

The Japanese company can remain unhedged and purchase USD in prevailing spot rate in 3 months time. It can hedge by buying USD forwards or it can use an options strategy.

One of the hedging strategies available to the Japanese company is to buy JPY put and USD call option. Buying the JPY put option will put a ceiling on the cost of imports in case JPY goes down and depreciates in 3 months. The company limits the cost to a maximum while at the same time not limiting the minimum. You can trade these five exotic options to make profits under different market conditions. In case of a loss, you will only lose the small premium that you had paid while buying these exotic options.

Digital options are simple, easy and inexpensive to trade. If you think, the EUR/USD rate is going to be above 1.0800 after 2 months but you are not sure about the timing of this move taking place within the next two months, buy a digital option. If after 2 months, the EUR/USD rate is indeed above 1.0800, you get your profit. If not, your digital option will expire. You with lose only a small premium that you had to pay while purchasing the digital option.

One Touch Options are perfect vehicles for those forex traders who believe that there will be a retracement. The price action of a given currency pair will test a support/resistance level with a false breakout. The one touch options will pay a profit if the market touches the predetermined barrier level. If not, you lose a small premium.

A No Touch Option is a way that you can use to profit from a trending market; it pays a profit if the market never touches the barrier level that you choose. All you need to do is to determine the desired payoff or profit that you want, the currency pair that you are interested to trade, the barrier price and the expiration date.

A Double No Touch Option is perfect for you if you have the successful record of identifying and profiting from breakouts but always lose money when the market is ranging. On the other side, you can use a Double One Touch Option if you know how to pick the tops and bottoms in a ranging market but have always lost in a breakout market. - 23208

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. He is interested in day trading and swing trading stocks and currencies. Learn Forex Nitty Gritty. Discover A Revolutionary New Forex Robot. Develop your own Forex Trading System.