Branching Out May Start with a Simple Leaf: Stocklea

Think back to the days when you got up in the morning, powered up that laptop, and began to see what was going on with your investments. Or let's go back even further. Remember the days when you'd sit at your desk, sipping coffee as you perused the financial section of the Wall Street Journal, skimming the articles, keeping your eyes peeled for whatever stock symbol was closest to your heart—or your wallet? Those days are long gone. Now there's a simpler, more efficient way to get the financial news you need from the top news sources in the world any time you want. Stockleaf.

The name couldn't be more apropos. Stockleaf has sprung up on the internet superhighway, changing the way financial news is presented, organized, and researched.

The concept is simple. Type in a stock symbol and hit 'Search.' In seconds, you'll have links to every recent article from every reliable financial news site on your screen. Want to know what Google Finance is saying about TELOX today? Stockleaf. Want to know what MSN Money has to say about GOOG? Stockleaf. Want to know if WB is up or down? You guessed it. Stockleaf.

Stockleaf has invited all the heavy-hitters to the party. You'll get the most recent links to articles mentioning your desired stock from financial news sites like Forbes, Y! Finance, MSN Money, Google Finance, Seeking Alpha, and more. You'll also be able to click on the latest feeds from financial blogs, financial news sites like Kiplinger, and sort the articles you want to read based on subject. Stockleaf also gives you the latest information about your stock including share price, the previous day's close, P/E, and dividend yield.

In short, Stockleaf is more than just a financial website. It's a tool. It's where you should start when you're looking for the most reliable, up-to-date information on the stocks you own, the stocks you're thinking of buying, or the stocks you just unloaded. It's your roadmap, your hub, your launching pad. Instead of forcing you to click on site after site, looking for what you need, it brings it all right there to you on a single page.

So is Stockleaf the internet stock news navigational tool to trump all others? What others? Stockleaf is the only navigational tool to help you locate information on publicly traded companies quickly and easily. In short, it's one-stop shopping. Consider it the meeting hall where all the financial gurus have gathered to talk about the one single stock you care about. Want to know what the folks at Motley Fool are saying about Bank of America? Would you like to compare their thoughts to those of Jim Cramer and the analysts at Ockham Research? Or at Bespoke Investment Group? Well then, my friend, you've come to the right place.

Stockleaf will, without a doubt, change how you research financial news online. Isn't it amazing that one little leaf can do so much? We think so.

Borrowing – Your Options Explained

When you approach a lender to ask for a loan, you can expect a certain formula. Mortgages are a particular type of loan – they usually involve larger amounts, are spread over a longer period, and are secured on your house. As is clear from looking at any of the financial pages at the weekend, there are thousands of different mortgages out there. However, you can use these general rules to get an idea of what to expect when you apply for one.

How much can I borrow?

Providing you have a regular salary and have been employed for a certain period of time – usually six months to a year – a lender is likely to offer from three and a half times your annual salary. This will be dependent on your providing a cash deposit – usually 5 or 10 percent of the total amount needed to buy your house. Certain professions, such as doctors, are sometimes offered more than this – up to five times their salary, but this depends on other factors too.

How much will my repayments be?

Again, this depends on many different factors. The interest rate will affect the amount you pay every month, as will the size of the deposit you can provide and how much you are borrowing. Some mortgages offer special rates for the first few years. In the current economic climate and as a very general rule, you can expect to pay between 0.5% and 0.75% of the total cost of your house every month. This means for a mortgage of £100,000 your repayments might be around £500 to £750 every month.

Can I change my mind?

While many mortgages have a ‘tie-in’ period, meaning that you are bound to keep your mortgage for a certain period, you will normally be able to change lenders or pay off your mortgage if you choose to. However, you may find you have to pay penalties. Generally speaking, it’s best to make sure you will be happy sticking with your mortgage for at least the next couple of years before you sign up.

When approaching a lender, be prepared to give them information about your finances and employment. They will usually want to see proof – for example, bank statements and wage slips to verify your income. They will also probably want to know about what financial commitments you already have, such as outstanding loans.

Bons Plans pour Mariage Express

Encore jeune et pas fortuné, pourquoi se privez de ce que la vie vus offre de plus précieux pour fonder une famille? Le mariage.

Alors qu'un mariage sur le vieux continent s'évalue entre 10 000 et 15 000 euros, las Vegas vous offre des prestations pour dix fois moins cher, et en plus sortant de l'ordinaire.

Que vous faut il faire. Bon, d'accord, il faut acheter le billet, mais ensuite?
Ensuite rien de plus simple, rendez vous au Bureau des Mariages (Clark County Marriage License - 201 Clark Avenue Las Vegas, NV 89155 - Tel. (702) 671-0600) munis des papiers suivants: carte d'identité prouvant que vous avez plus de 18 ans, en cas de précédent divorce, n'oubliez pas de prendre avec vous la copie de votre acte de divorce.

Ensuite, c'est à vous de voir.
Une simple cérémonie civile au Bureau des Mariages vous coûtera qu'une cinquantaine de dollars et ne durera qu'une demie heure.

Les célèbres chapelles long du Las Vegas strip reconnaissables par leur jardins de roses vous offres des services pour une somme comprise entre $200 et 500 dollars qui regroupent un forfait de mariage comprenant l'utilisation de la chapelle, la cérémonie de mariage, des fleurs, de la musique et des photos. Les forfaits plus coûteux comprennent plus d'extras comme le transfert depuis votre hôtel en limousine ou Elvis Presley comme témoin.

Ou encore, les casinos. Selon le thème que vous désirez pour votre mariage, rendez-vous soit l'hôtel Excalibur pour un médiéval,sinon MGM Grand a un mariage en montagnes russes, Treasure Island offre un mariage de pirates à bord de son bateau HMS Brittania et le Las Vegas Hilton propose un mariage Star Trek à bord du vaisseau spatial Enterprise avec des témoins Klingon et des invités Ferengi. Les prix varient alors de de 350 $ à 3500 $, voir d'avantage. Mais vous étes tout prets des salles de blackjack et des machines à sous.

Pour la Lune de Miel, en panne d'idées ou de sous? Pourquoi ne pas faire un tour du monde depuis Las Vegas?

Las Vegas, autre ses casinos, vous permet en effet de découvrir les sept merveilles du monde en un clin d'oeil. Vous voulez Paris et le charme de ses cafés? Pas de problème, rendez-vous au Paris Las Vegas! Ici, des votre arrivée, la Tour Eiffel, l'Arc de triomphe sans oublier le célèbre opéra Garnier vous accueillent a bras ouverts!Dans une architecture très Franchie style Haussmannien, vous retrouvez toutes les spécialités françaises et européennes au sein de ses fameux restaurants, sans oublier son casino.

Envie subite de vous dépayser. Rendez-vous Venetian! A Venise et ses gondoles... Quelle femme digne de ce nom ne souhaiterait pas passez sa lune de miel dans ce décor pittoresque, et rêvasser comme une jeune fille a l'aube de ses 20 ans, en attendant Casanova... Venez vous détendre au Venetian. Cet hôtel recrée pour vous les fameux canaux, les gondoles, les palais vénitiens et la réplique de la Piazza San Marco. Elégance et raffinement caractérisent le Venetian et ses 3000 chambres. Le Venetian abrite également une superbe galerie d'art avec le Guggenheim Hermitage Museum. Et pour découvrir encore plus de l'Italie, direction le Tuscany Suites Casino

Pour les nostalgiques d'Astérix et Obelix et du fameux Ave César, précipitez vous vite au Caesar's Palace! Conçue sur le modèle de la Rome antique, le Caesar's Palace accueille également des championnats du monde de boxe et des grands spectacles de vedette.

Envie de vous retrouvez sur une île paradisiaque? Essayer le Tahiti! Ses bananiers, les tropiques et les plages de sable fin, Pourquoi trop attendre.

Alors, qu'attendez vous pour passer la bague au doigt?

Blackjack Strategy Tips: How to Win in Blackjack

Blackjack is one of the few casino games that are beatable in the long run. It means that by using a basic blackjack strategy you can have an advantage over the casino and eventually step away from the blackjack table as a winner. Here you can find the basic blackjack strategy explained in a simplified manner.

The blackjack strategy is based on the mathematical probabilities of the game and it provides you guidance on the best decisions to make at every possible situation during the game. It takes about an hour to memorize this strategy but it is worth every minute. This does not man you will win every single blackjack game from now on, but with the help of the blackjack strategy, patience and persistence, you can significantly improve your chances of beating the casino in the long run.

Note that some blackjack rules vary from one casino to another. In some casinos, both brick and mortar and internet casinos, blackjack is played with one card deck while in others the blackjack game occupies four decks or more. In addition, in some of the casinos the dealer hits on a soft 17 while in others he is required to stand and doubling after splitting is allowed only in some of the casinos.

Here you can find a basic strategy to a single deck blackjack game where the dealer hits on soft 17. Playing other blackjack variants would require you to make some adjustments for a few borderline occurrences.

First, here is a short introduction to the terms mentioned here:
Hard Hand: two initial cards that do not include an Ace.
Soft Hand: two initial cards that one of them is an Ace
Stand: when a player is not asking to be dealt more cards after the two initial cards.
Hit: when a player calls for an additional card to be dealt
Double: when a player doubles his initial bet after the initial deal, but it requires him to hit only one card.
Split: when a player separates the initial two cards into two individual hands and plays them as 2 hands.

Finally, here is a basic blackjack strategy:
When your initial two card hand sums up to 8 or less: hit
When your hand sums up to 9 and the dealer hand value is between 3 and 6: double if else: hit when your hand sums up to 10 and the dealer hand value is between 2 and 9: double; if else:
When your hand sums up to 11 and the dealer hand value is between 2 and 10: double; if else hit.
When your hand sums up to 13, 14, 15, or 16 and the dealer hand value is between 2 and 6: stand; if else hit.
When your hand sums up to 17: stand.
when your initial two card hand contains Ace 2 or Ace 3 and the dealer has either 5 or 6: double; if else: hit.
When your hand contains Ace 4 or Ace 5 and the dealer has 4, 5 or 6: double; if else: hit.
When your hand contains Ace 6 and the dealer has 3, 4, 5 or 6: double; if else: hit.
When your hand contains Ace 7 and the dealer has 2, 7 or 8: stand; if he has 3, 4, 5 or 6: double; if else: hit.
When your hand contains Ace 8 or Ace 9: stand
When your hand contains a pair of 2s or 3s and the dealer hand value is between 2 and 7: split; if else: hit
When your hand contains a pair of 4s and the dealer has either 4 or 5: split; if else: hit
When your hand contains a pair of 5s and the dealer hand value is between 2 and 9: double; if else: hit
When your hand contains a pair of 6s and the dealer hand value is between 2 and 6: split; if else: hit
When your hand contains a pair of 7s and the dealer hand value is between 2 and 7: split; if else: hit
When your hand contains a pair of 8s: split
When your hand contains a pair of 9s and the dealer hand value is between 2 and 7 and either 8 or 9: split; if else: stand
When your hand contains a pair of 10s: stand
When your hand contains a pair of 8s: split

Blackjack: Learn How to Become a Champion

Learn How to Play and Win Blackjack after practicing some basic steps that can be learn easily. Blackjack is one of the more easier card games that you will come across, and its basic concept is simple: get 21 as the sum of your cards or get as close to 21 but higher than the sum of your opponent's cards.

1) Do not try and reach 21.
Yes. Even though blackjack is also commonly called 21, trying to reach 21 with every hand is an amateurish move. You will, most certainly, lose the hand. Statistical research conducted has shown that the odds of reaching 21 is lesser than the odds of getting more than 21.

2) Try and Beat the Dealer.
Since blackjack is a one on one battle: you versus the dealer, focus on beating the dealer. Instead of trying to get 21, try to guess what hand the dealer will receive and accordingly play your hand. Remember that the dealer at a regular casino or even at an online casino has to stop taking more cards if the cards on the table add up to 17. But if their cards add up to 16 or any number less, they will have to take another card.

3) Look at the dealer's card facing up.
The only way to play is to look at the dealer's card facing up. If it is a low card like a two or anything up to a 6 or 7, try and get a high number combination. If it’s a 9 or 10, the odds are high that he has a 10 underneath or at least he will be forced to take another card. So, reach anything up to 20 or 21, but its better to even stop at a 18 or 19 and hope they will over-run the sum of 21.

How Blackjack is Played at a Casino:
1) Place your bet on the table.
Each blackjack table has a set beginning bet and this ranges from a dollar to ten or twenty for the high-rollers crowd. This is the amount of chips you will have to put down, and this signals to the dealer that you are taking part in the next round.

2) You will get a card.
The dealer then deals a card to you and all the other players who have also placed a bet down.

3) The dealer places a face-up card in front.
This is one of the cards of the dealer, and since its facing up, all the players have a chance to judge the outcome of his cards.

4) The dealer deals the second card.
The dealer, then, deals you and all the players an additional card. This is the time to have a look at them and at the dealer's card and decide whether you wish to get another card.

5) The dealer asks.
The dealer now turns to each player and asks them if they wish to receive another card. If you wish it, the dealer will give you a card. Then, the dealer will ask you again. Note that the dealer will be with you until you decide that you do not want to receive any more cards. Then, the dealer moves on to the next player, then, the next, and so on.

6) The dealer starts playing.
Only when all the players have said that they do not want any more cards, does the dealer start playing. He takes cards until he has reached 17 or above. Then, he has to stop.

7) The dealer opens the cards.
When he's done, the dealer first reveals all his cards. Then, he moves from one player to the other opening their cards. After revealing each player's hands, the dealer pays out the bet or takes the bet away according to who has won and who has lost.

Bingo History: Story of the Game Bingo

Article Body:
The origins of contemporary bingo go back to 16th century Italy, where the lottery game Lo Giuoco del Lotto dItalia was introduced. The popular chance game was introduced to North America in the late 1920s by the name of Beano. A toy salesperson of New York was responsible for changing the name of the game into Bingo and to the increase of its popularity throughout the US.

In the late 18th century, the original Italian lotto game made its way to France. Historical evidence shows that a game called Le Lotto was popular among the French high society who used to play the game in parties and social gatherings.

Le Lotto used to be played with special cards that were divided into three rows and nine columns. Each of the three columns consists of 10 numbers, while each column had five random number and four blank spaces in it. Each player had a different lotto card where he used to mark the number announced by the caller. The first player to cover one row won the game.

By the 19th century, the lotto game spread around Europe and started to serve as a didactic childrens game. In the 1850s, several educational lotto games had entered the German toys market. The lotto games purpose was to teach children how to spell words, how to multiply numbers, etc.

By 1920s, a similar version to the lotto game, known as beano was popular at county fairs throughout the US. In beano, the players placed beans on their cards to mark the called out number. The first player who completed a full row on his card, used to yell out Beano!, until one night in December 1929, when a New Yorker toys salesperson by the name of Edwin S. Lowe visited a country fair outside Jacksonville, Georgia.

On his way back to New York, Lowe had purchased beano equipment including dried beans, a rubber numbering stamp and cardboard. At his New York home, Lowe has been hosting friendly beano games. During one game, one excited winner who had managed to complete a full row stuttered out Bingo, instead of Beano. Listening to the excited stuttering girl, Edwin S. Lowe thoughts went away. Lowe decided to develop a new game that would be called Bingo.

While Lowe’s Bingo game was making its first steps in the market, a Pennsylvanian priest asked Lowe to use the game for charity purpose. After a short tryout period, the priest had found out that the bingo game causes the churches to lose money. Since the variety of bingo cards was limited, each bingo game ended up in more than five winners.

In order to develop the game and to lower the probabilities of winning, Lowe approached Prof. Carl Leffler, a mathematician from Columbia University. Leffler was asked to create bigger variety of bingo cards that each of them will have unique combination of numbers. By 1930, Lowe had 6,000 bingo cards and Prof. Leffler went insane.

Since then, the popularity of the bingo game as a fundraiser continued to grow. In less than five years, about 10,000 weekly bingo games took place throughout North America. Lowe’s company grew to employ several thousands of employees and to occupy more than 60 presses 24 hours a day.

Now, bingo is one of the most popular chance games in the world. It is played in churches, schools, local bingo halls and land based casinos in the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and other parts of the world.

Bill Consolidation - What You Need To Know.

As easy as it is to get into debt, there are a number of strategies for consolidating your bills and lowering your monthly payments while still paying more to principal and becoming debt-free faster than you thought possible.

If you’re ready to eliminate your credit card debt, you need to assess your situation and then look at the best alternative for your financial needs. Do you own a home? If you own, do you have equity in your home to tap? Can you afford more than your monthly payments, or are you struggling to get by? Is your number one goal getting out of debt, or is it to meet your monthly payments?

If you own a home, and have equity available, you can look at a debt consolidation loan, or a related solution – a home equity line of credit. In this scenario, you are shifting your credit card debt from unsecured to secured debt, which allows you to lower your monthly payment and also lets you deduct the interest payments from your taxes. You may determine that this debt consolidation loan, or second mortgage, can put you on a much faster track to eliminating your debt. That’s because the interest rate on a second mortgage can be much lower than what you’re paying toward credit cards or other high interest debt. Trading higher interest debts such as these for a lower interest payment can save you hundreds each month which you can, in turn, put back toward paying off the debt. Last, but certainly not least, the interest you pay on a second mortgage is tax deductible and that savings too can be put toward your bills.

Or perhaps you already have a second mortgage you’ve been paying on for a while. Especially if you got your first and second mortgages at the same time, it might be time to consolidate them into one loan. Many second mortgages in the last decade carried adjustable interest rates which have increased causing payments to rise. Consolidating your first mortgage and your adjustable rate second mortgage into one low fixed rate loan can also save you a great deal each month which you can use to make payments to higher interest debts.

Two other advantages you may gain through refinancing are the elimination of personal mortgage insurance and the chance to get cash out at closing. When you took out your original mortgage, did your lender require you to carry personal mortgage insurance due to a high loan to value? If so, refinancing may eliminate that requirement. If you have since built up some equity and your new loan to value is low enough to drop the mortgage insurance, your payment amount will be much lower. You may also find that you can take some cash out of your home at closing without significantly increasing your monthly payments. That cash can go toward – you guessed it – your higher interest debts.

If you don’t own a home, or if you own and have no available equity, you can look at debt relief options – including debt settlement and credit counseling. If your monthly payment is your number one concern, it’s worth a try to call your credit card companies and see if a payment plan at a reduced interest rate can be agreed upon. This will allow you to pay more toward your balances each month and eliminate your credit card debt sooner. While your creditors are under no obligation to change the terms of your agreement, they may very well be willing to do so, especially as it is to their advantage to receive payment, and negotiating a payment plan shows that you are taking the initiative to do just that.

If calling your creditors doesn’t work, or if you just want a quick fix, you can contact a debt settlement or credit counseling company. Debt settlement is a service for consumers who want out of debt at the lowest cost, in the shortest time frame, with the lowest payment… while avoiding bankruptcy. Credit counseling, on the other hand, is a solution that lowers your interest rates slightly and can get you a lower monthly payment.

The path to becoming debt free is as different as the ways you can get into debt in the first place. The first step toward eliminating your debt is educating yourself with all the options available to you. Once you’ve identified your needs, you can get started taking the right steps for yourself.

Big Lie #1: Buy and Hold

Copyright 2006 Equitrend, Inc.

So much of what you hear in the financial press these days is so wrong, that one must consider most financial television and print to be strictly for entertainment purposes only. In this article, we’re going to examine one of the big lies constantly being pedaled, the myth of Buy and Hold.

“Buy a stock or mutual fund and hold it through thick and thin for 30 years and you will make money,” they say. “On an annual basis, the market goes up a little less than 2/3 of the time. Over 5 years, it goes up ¾ of the time. Over 30 years, you are virtually guaranteed a positive return.”

They spout these statistics because the financial industry is wholly dependent on buy and hold. With a buy and strategy, your broker doesn’t need to know how to manage money or guard your portfolio. All he has to do is sell you more products and collect his commission, or more recently, a hefty percentage of your portfolio as a “management fee.”

In a perfect world of ever rising stock prices, buy and hold would be a viable plan, but the real world tells a different story, a sad story of the consequences of blindly following a buy and hold strategy.

Here are the tragic facts:

* $100,000 invested in the S&P 500 in January, 2000, was worth $84,901.72 in January, 2006.

* $100,000 invested in the NASDAQ 100 in January, 2000, declined to $44,370.97 by January, 2006.

* The average recession in the United States decreases major U.S. equity indexes 43%.

* The NASDAQ decline from March, 2000 to October, 2002, will require a 461% gain just to get to break even.

* Of 16 major national stock markets, investors from only five would have been guaranteed positive annual returns over every 20 year period during the past century.

At best, buy and hold investors have been treading water for the last six years, and by treading water, they’ve actually been going backwards since the Consumer Price Index has been going up an average of 2.5% per year. But to many investors, treading water would have looked like a really good deal.

They were the people who watched their nest eggs implode by as much as 80% between 2000 and 2002 while their brokers and mutual fund managers did nothing to save them. Retirements were destroyed; millions had to return to work, dreams were put on hold. Families suffered and still suffer today in real and tangible ways.

And today many say that The Millennium Bear Market of 2000 can’t happen again. But it has happened before and will happen again! Between 1972 and 1974, the NASDAQ dropped 60% and stayed down until April, 1980. Eight years of negative returns.

Not to mention the Dow crash of 1987 or the fourteen year bear market in the Nikkei Index. Even without a headline making drop, U.S. stock returns over the last five years have been negative when factored for inflation.

The only sane solution for an investor today is to educate himself and find a better way to protect and grow his wealth. There are a number of proven options available, but the absolute worst thing one can do is listen to the pundits who tell you to “buy and hold.”

Big Brother – Put Your Debts Up For Eviction

Copyright 2006 Andy Warren

Another Big Brother season is underway and viewers are still gripped by the gradual (and sometimes quite dramatic) psychological demise of people who appeared to be living on the edge to begin with. It’s easy to tune in and gaze in disbelief at the people who have chosen to put themselves in this bizarre position all for the sake of the elusive prizes of acceptance, approval and more money. Why do they do it?

Perhaps they don’t quite realize what they’re getting into in the first place. Maybe it just seems like a good idea at the time so they go for it. Perhaps the temptation is just too compelling. But are we really all that different to the housemates?

Just the like the Big Brother house you probably share your life with some unwanted partners and maybe they’re beginning to take over your life. In this case they’re called Credit Card Debt, Late Payment Fees and Overdraft Charges. They seem to come into your life, uninvited, and just established themselves there. And now you can’t seem to get rid of them. And there’s no public vote to take them out.

So who really invited them in and why can’t you evict them? The answer lies in a real Big Brother that’s lurking in the background of your life. And it’s not really some sinister Orwellian nightmare, it’s simply your own temptation getting the better of you.

Of course there are some cases where people have really fallen on hard times and are dealing with challenges of debt and poverty that are not their own making. However, there are many more earning a decent salary with no real challenges who have simply slipped slowly into more and more debt.

Perhaps you’ve been tempted by the attractive offers for loans and credit cards. Maybe the magazines full of the latest must-haves have grabbed your attention for just long enough to get you buying. Could it be that those impulse buys, or the offer of a 10% discount at the department store were just the push you needed to put you in your own Big Brother house with some new housemates?

And once those unwanted housemates of Debt, Charges and Fees get their feet in the door it can feel like their immune from eviction every month. They just stay there and if anything they get more of a foothold and get larger. They’re eating you out of House and Home and you can’t even go to the Diary Room to complain.

So what can you do?

Well the first thing is to accept that you actually invited them in and stop denying that you were responsible. It’s tough to do but it’s the first step to putting yourself in charge.

Next you need to decide, once and for all, that you want them out. And you need to decide that you’re willing to do whatever it takes to evict them.

The Charges and Fees can be voted out quite easily by getting yourself a little more organised and setting up direct debit payments to make sure at least your minimum credit card payment is covered each month. You may need to speak to your bank for an extended overdraft but you’ll need to stay within in to avoid overdraft fees and that does mean watching what you spend for a little while as you get back in charge. Of course, if you’re avoiding a few £25 late payment charges each month then you’ll find staying in credit a little easier. Many people find they can get these unwanted visitors out within a few months or less.

The slightly bigger challenge is your Credit Card and Loan Debt. This takes a little more work but, by sticking to an effective plan for paying off the debt, many people find they can clear their debts within a year to two years. The more focus and concentration you put in the faster it goes.

And once you’ve evicted those unwanted housemates you can start inviting a few more friendly faces in, like Savings, Investments, Wealth and Good Relationships. Now wouldn’t you prefer to spend your time with those?

Better Trades Momentum Part III

Momentum can make a stock move quite far in a short period of time and create spectacular money making opportunities for us. You recently received from me an article in which you learned to recognize some of the typical patterns that stocks form when they are moving with a lot of momentum. Sometimes stocks will move well for no particular reason (as you learned in the previous article) but other times it is a news headline that gets these stocks moving.

When a stock moves on news the trade is similar to a momentum trade that occurs for no apparent reason but there are some distinct differences that you need to be aware of. First, the timing is different on a news trade because momentum plays out much more quickly that usual. Second, news creates opportunities with other stocks in the same sector that you may not have had otherwise.

Let’s start with the timing of a news trade. When a stock moves because of a good or bad headline we immediately see an influx of volume as traders react and buy the stock to take advantage of something positive or sell to protect their position. We usually see a lot of movement on the first day of the trade but as more and more people hear the news there can be continued buying or selling pressure for the next day or so. Most reactions to news last anywhere from one to three days and most of the movement occurs on the first day. Because of this you need to be diligent in setting your stops. What we get with a news trade is a great way to trade momentum and bank our profit within a few days.

When you enter based on news, only do the trade if the technicals confirm the entry. Our entries will be very much like the entries you learned about in Part II of this article but we need to use tighter stops because this trade is so fast. Take for example Conoco Philips (COP) on the latest oil price drop. The price of oil had already been weak and COP was in a downtrend. The stock had just filled the gap from early January when the price of oil dropped once again. COP gapped down giving us an entry. This was a great technical entry and the news just tempted more traders to sell COP and drive it lower. The stock was down $1.98 the first day of the trade. I set my stops slightly above a closing price when a stock moves well on news. I do this because, as I mentioned earlier, news trades may last up to three days and may even end after just one day. What I want to do is set my trade up to exit with profit if the stock bounces the next day.


You will notice that on the second day COP continued to sell off another $2.71 and I tightened my stop down once again to protect the money from this trade. The following day I was stopped out for about a $3 profit. This trade only took two days. When you are trading on news I recommend that you use tight stops because these trades can be so short lived. And of course by tightening your stops rather than exiting the trade you will still have your trade if the stock continues to run.

Las Vegas Sands (LVS) became a news trade on January 10th when they announced they had received approval to build a new resort near Macau. The news sent the stock skyrocketing and it closed up over $10 that day. By running through my scans, I generally find stocks that are moving even before I hear the news. When LVS came up on my momentum scan (for more information on my scans, join me in my Ultimate Scan free online workshop) the stock was rallying in a bullish candle pattern with bullish indicators that confirmed this was the right time to do the trade. The price pattern on LVS was bullish and volume was very strong. This was also a stock that had traded in an uptrend for most of 2006 when it moved from about $38 to about $90. The retracement you see in December probably washed out a few traders but when the new resort was announced the buyers came flooding back in.


As the stock rallied above the $94 area we had a bullish entry. The price remained strong for two days and then the stock formed a doji. I tightened my stops to just below the opening price on the doji day to exit the trade if the stock pulled back from there. As you can see, tightening the stop rather than just exiting the trade kept me in the trade for one more day and another $4.85 rally. I once again tightened my stops and exited the trade the following day. This momentum trade ran $14 points from $94 to $108.

One of the advantages of news trades like this is that we can look to other stocks in the same sector that may also benefit from the news. The day the price of oil dropped COP wasn’t the only oil stock to trade. Of course, that news affected the whole oil sector and you could have place a bearish trade on many of the oil stocks that weakened on the news. The same holds true for the news on LVS. That news created a lot of excitement in the Casino & Gaming sector and we saw other gaming stocks that moved well along with LVS. This is called a sector trade and is an easy way to trade stocks in the same sector that may not have run quite as quickly and thus the options may not be as inflated and expensive as the stock with the news.

When you see a news headline check out the stock with the news first and then you can begin to dig a little deeper for a sector trade. Look for a stock that is moving in the direction of the stock with the news. For instance, when LVS made their announcement I checked the other gaming stocks and noticed that Wynn Resorts (WYNN) was rallying along with LVS. The stock had already been in an uptrend and had just broken above a previous high a couple days earlier. With the bullish price pattern and the strong move in tandem with LVS we had an entry.

WYNN ran right along with LVS. The stock rallied from $100 to $107 and triggered an exit the same day we got our exit from LVS. Although WYNN did not rally the $14 that LVS did we still had a great $7 trade. This is very typical of the sector trades. The most profitable trade is generally made on the stock with the news but sometimes you hear the news too late after the run is done or after the options have become too inflated. Then go to the sector trade and find the other stocks within the same sector that are benefiting from the news.

Momentum trades occur all the time. Whether it is news or just a sudden increase in buying or selling pressure the secret to trading this strategy is in the technicals. Watch for these basic price patterns and join me in my Technically Speaking workshop or Trend Trading My Way DVD’s to learn more about recognizing momentum patterns to enter these trades just as the momentum begins.

Hope to see you soon!

Markay with Better Trades

Best way to improve credit score

If you have ever had a loan denied it was probably humiliating, embarrassing, and a harsh reality check. So much for that bright red Mustang convertible you wanted. Or maybe it was for an old, beat-up, rusty sedan you thought you could afford to drive back and forth to work. Sadly, that new five bedroom, brick home with the sun porch is out of reach. Or was it your last hope for a deposit to rent a simple one bedroom apartment for you and your family. Some people know before they ever apply for a loan that they will be denied due to a poor credit rating. Others are completely surprised to find out their credit history is hurting. How does this happen?

Sometimes it’s just a lack of discipline or good organizational skills. This leads to poor paying habits and late payments which can damage your credit. Sometimes it’s temporary circumstances beyond your control such as a job layoff, divorce, illness, etc. You are forced to choose between putting food on the table and making a credit card payment. That’s a tough one. Thankfully, there are ways to improve your credit rating with a little effort. The following five tips can help.

1. Often, a big part of your credit score depends on your debt to credit ratio. I’ll give you an example. If you have a credit card with a $1000 limit and you carry a $900 balance this would make the percentage you owe to the percentage available 90%. On paper it would look like you were in a credit-tight position. There are three ways to improve this.

A)Apply for another card. Whatever the limit is becomes part of the calculation. If it is $1700 you now have a total limit of $2700. This brings your ratio down to 33% ($1000 original credit + $1700 additional credit divided by $900 balance=33%). That’s a big difference.
B)You can do the same thing by asking your current credit card company to raise your limit.
C)Pay down your current balance. Make it a priority!

2.Always try to pay your bills on time. Chronic slow or late payments lead to denials or approvals with ridiculously high rates. If you just can’t seem to remember when to pay bills try using a personal planning calendar, PDA, or numbered folder. I use a folder that has multiple dividers numbered 1-31 for each day of the month and additional dividers for each month. You can get these at office supply stores. File your bills in the divider where you will see them the week before they are due. Check the folder daily.

3.Get a copy of your credit report and contact the credit bureaus if you find errors. Ask to have them removed.

4.If you have a credit card for every store you have ever entered….cancel some! No one needs fifty retail credit cards. Retail cards are sometimes viewed less positively than bank cards so get rid of them first.

5.Piggyback on the good credit of a friend or relative. Have them add you to their account (but don’t use it). Once you’re on, ask the creditor to report this account to the credit bureaus. Be careful with this one. Don’t abuse the goodwill of your friend or family member by using the account without asking first!

In our credit-driven society it’s way too easy to bite off more than you can chew. Throw in a couple of life’s little emergencies and you can quickly get into trouble. The tips here can be helpful, but I suggest you don’t just use them for temporary gain. If you go to the trouble to improve your credit, go to the trouble to keep it good. Look at your habits and try to change them if necessary. I know this is a tough one that we all have trouble with, including me. Hope this helps.

Best Way To Avoid Bankruptcy

If you are now in financial difficulty, and you have made the right choice in avoiding bankruptcy, then your next step is to manage your debt in a way that you are not Forced to file bankruptcy. And how exactly do you do that? The answer is, get professional help. Consult a debt consolidation company and let them help you sort out your financial issues.

Why Debt Consolidation program is the ideal choice. You can avoid bankruptcy by choosing debt consolidation, as it makes you debt free with a lot of extra benefits:

1. Permanent Solution: While Bankruptcy offers only a temporary relief, Debt Consolidation provides a permanent solution to your debt problems. They are the expert in their field and they are definitely on better grounds to advising you what the best path is.

2. Minimized Debt: Unlike Bankruptcy, Debt Consolidation can reduce your debt amount to as good as 40-60%! This ensures that you get to carry on with you life with as little hassle as possible. In time, you WILL clear off your debt!

3. Easy payment: Debt Consolidation allows paying off debts in easy monthly installment without making drastic changes to your living standards. This alone is great help, you get both the benefits of clearing your debt, as well as being able to live life normally.

4. Clean Credit Report: Debtors opting for Debt Consolidation Program can have renewed accounts and clean Credit Report once the debt is paid off.

5. Freedom from Creditors: In a Debt Consolidation Program, you are not dominated by the Creditor, as the Consolidation Company takes care of dealing with the Creditors. Imagine the hassle of not needing to deal with your creditors!

Whether you can avoid bankruptcy and take up any other debt solution depends on your debt situations. But bankruptcy should be chosen only when other options fail to work. The option best suited to your debt needs can only be judged by a Debt Counselor. Remember that it is always better to rely on professionals in such cases as one wrong step taken can result into a thousand troubles. Getting professional help from a debt consolidation company is really the best step during times of financial difficulty.

Best savings account

Savings Accounts

Savings accounts are the best idea for putting away a set amount of money each week or month depending on your circumstances. You would be surprised at how quickly this money can add up if you are contributing a set amount from your paycheck every payday.
When shopping around for the best savings account, find one that pays a good interest rate and has a minimal amount for opening the account. A lot of banks only require a dollar to open an account while others may want you to deposit anywhere from 5 dollars to 50.

The convenience of having money automatically withdrawn from your paycheck and placed in your savings account is great for some. However others may not put a set amount in each payday and may want to choose how much they deposit into their savings account.

The best type of savings account will pay a comparable interest rate, be easily accessible to your home or work, will not charge a fee for withdrawals from your account, has on-line availability, and does not require a large deposit to open. If you have a bank account and access it online you should be able to transfer money to and from your savings account. You should try not to transfer from it unless it is an emergency because this defeats the purpose of having the savings account in the first place.

Some types of savings accounts are geared towards the holiday season. This allows you to save money for Christmas. If you start it early enough in the year by the time Christmas rolls around you can have a nice amount for your holiday shopping.

Another type of savings account featured by some banks link your debit card with your savings account. Every time you make a purchase using your debit card the amount is rounded up to the next dollar and the extra is deposited into your savings account. Some of these banks will even match the amount deposited by a certain percentage.

Savings accounts are great ways to start your children out learning how to be responsible when it comes to money. Open a savings account and let them deposit birthday money or Christmas money for themselves. All the change that gets thrown in a jar every day can become a savings account deposit for them. They will love to go to the bank and deposit their own money and in the process you are teaching them the importance of saving.

Another advantage to a savings account is establishing credit. If you borrow money from your bank using the money in your savings to secure the loan, when you pay the loan back you will have established credit with your bank. This can make it easier to get an unsecured loan should you need it.

It is important to have a savings account and add to it regularly. For that unexpected expense that crops up, having the money to cover without having to borrow the money is great. With everything today being based on credit-worthiness, establishing a good relationship with your bank or credit union can make a big difference when it comes to buying a home or a car.

For more info visit

http://www.open-a-online-savings-account.com

Best Mortgage Rates and ARMs

When you go to get a mortgage you may start hearing the term option ARM thrown around, and you may wonder what one is exactly. An option ARM usually has two primary characteristics: interest rates adjusting monthly and payments adjusting yearly. Traditionally, a borrower can choose the size of the payment that they are required to make. The way you choose is you can usually pick whether you want to pay interest only on your loan or, if you want to pay a minimum payment.

Option ARMs are usually seen as a good deal by a prospective home buyer because they have low payments in the first year of the loan repayment. Some buyers realize that with a lower payment in the initial years they can enter into larger loan than otherwise possible. A minimum payment in early loan years can result in excess cash flow for the borrower as well, if a house well within their budget is involved.

While option ARMs may have very low payments in their first few payment periods, it is important to understand that rates can and will rise rather quickly in a few circumstances. If you elect a low initial rate on the loan, the payments will begin to rise in subsequent payment periods to recoup the lenders principal and interest within the loan term. When you pay less in the beginning of the loan life, the payments will accelerate to compensate for low initial payments. Option ARMs work if you can secure higher income in future payment periods. However, if you don’t see expenses dropping or income rising in the future, you should be very careful when setting low rates in the beginning of the loan, because you can expect rates to rise in the future with a static income which may lead to default.

Deciding to enter into an option ARM mortgage should be a well researched decision. Paying very little in the beginning is not the best option for the majority of people. Making payments as large of possible in the first few years is generally advisable so payments don’t really start to jump in years after low payments. Always comparing rates from competing lenders is crucial to getting a reasonable rate for the risk that you manifest. Settling on mortgage rates is not a good idea- get multiple rates if possible. While you want a low rate, you don’t necessarily want a low rate to translate into the lowest possible payment in the beginning of your ARM, because payments will potentially increase.

Lending institutions generally derive the rate they charge you by adding interest onto some average lending rate. Understanding how to keep this additional cost reasonable is key to making an option ARM manageable. This additional cost to you is know as the margin, and this information is not necessarily going to be relayed or shared with you as it is how the lender makes their profit. The best way to ascertain a reasonable margin for your risk profile is to get quotes from several institutions so you have relative comparisons.

Best Mortgage Interest Rate

The term mortgage in everyday lingo, is used to mean 'mortgage loan'.The word mortgage has now become the generic term for a loan secured by real property. A mortgage is similar to that of a secured loan. The amount of money lent is slowly repaid in monthly amounts for the length of the mortgage term.

Getting a mortgage is therefore, a huge task for any homeowner. These loans can range from the tens of thousands to the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and impose many different terms and conditions. Finding the best mortgage interest rate available is therefore quite an uphill task, which can eventually save one thousand of dollars over a period of time. The mortgage-lending industry is however, not free from its own share of pitfalls. As the market is inundated with so many different mortgaging options one may quite easily end up choosing the wrong one.

The unsuspecting consumer may be lured to believe that a 'balloon mortgage' offers the best mortgage interest rate available. While it is true that in the beginning of this mortgage, monthly payments are quite low, homeowners often find difficulty at the end of the mortgage when they are forced to make a large balloon payment. Balloon mortgages do however, offer some of the best mortgage rates available for real-estate buyers who are looking to turn over the property quickly. Mortgage brokers are usually middlemen between the customer and a lender .The broker needs to look through the market to find out the best mortgage interest rate available.

Types of Mortgage loan: There are two main types of mortgage loans, fixed rate and variable rate interest. With a fixed-rate mortgage loan, the homeowner pays the same amount of interest every month during the lifetime of their loan. With a variable rate mortgage, the homeowner will end up paying different interest rates month-to-month solely depending upon market conditions. Banks and lending companies may use different market indicators to determine your interest rate.

While selecting the best mortgage interest rate one also needs to know that the true drivers of mortgage rates are the investors in the secondary market. A loan when its funded, the mortgage lender that funds the loan which may be a bank, a credit union, or other type of financial institution has the option of keeping that loan on its portfolio or selling it on the secondary market.

When selecting the best mortgage interest rate one needs to see whether it offers you the best return possible. That level of return is to a great extent determined by the current and anticipated condition of the economy. Determining the best loan that requires one to pay the smallest monthly payment possible is equally important as getting the best mortgage interest rate.

Fully equipped technologies are now available which simplify the lending process and ensure the current mortgaging rate is the best for his client. Only by exploring the wide-range of mortgaging options one can decide which one suits his/her purpose. It takes only a little bit of internet surfing, a few phone calls or may be a couple of visits to the local branch to find out and grab the best mortgage interest rate.

Best money market account

Best Money Market Account

When you are looking for a good safe way to invest your money you should look into a money market account. They are a great way to maximize your savings potential without any risk. Many people don't understand the way money market accounts work and therefore they don't know how to choose the best money market account for their financial situation.

What is a Money Market Account?
A money market account is an account that works like both a checking and savings account. They offer you the ability to earn a much higher rate of interest then a standard savings account. This is because you only have the ability to withdraw money from your account six times a month, this is standard and every financial institution has the same rules. You can either write a check or a debit card to access your money.
What to Look for in a Money Market Account

One of the first things you should find out when searching for the best money market account is if the financial institution that you are going to use is FDIC insured. This is basically saying that the federal government is insuring your money, so if your bank, for whatever reason, goes out of business your money is not lost, you will get it back.
Another important factor is monthly maintenance fees that some financial institutions have. Many of them will waive all monthly fees if you keep a certain minimum balance each month and if you look around, especially on the internet, you can find many of them that have no fees and have require no minimum balance requirements. This is especially helpful if you are just beginning to start saving, the last thing you need is having your savings eaten up by fees.

Opening balances vary from institution to institution. Almost every money market account has a minimum opening requirement. However, they run the gamut, many require only $50 to open an account but as you get the better interest rates you will often have higher opening balance requirements, in fact several of them get up to the $5,000 mark.

Where to Find the Best Money Market Accounts
Until recently the only place to open a money market account was to go to a local bank. With the internet becoming so prevalent in society, lending institutions have begun to use it to recruit new customers. Some of the best money market accounts are available by internet. They don't have the high expensive of having lots of buildings to maintain so they are able to offer higher interest rates.

The only real difference between using an internet bank and a local branch is how you make your deposit, you will make your deposit two ways you can have your employer do a direct deposit or you can mail them a deposit. It is recommended that when you mail your deposits you send them certified.

Having a money market account is one of the best ways to save your money with no risks like stocks or bonds. You keep your money liquid and earn a great interest rated so take some time and find the best money market account for you and your financial circumstances.
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Best interest rate

These days it seems that all of us use some sort of bank; most often we will have a savings account along with our checking account.

Mostly we have good intentions of leaving the money in the account to draw the interest we intended when the account was opened and gain profits, but if you’re like most of us, for one reason or another by the time the interest is to be paid, most of the money is gone by then.

Of course we had every intention of this not being the case but it does happen to most of us. Now how can we break this habit? First never obtain an ATM card on a savings account, and if you do, leave it at home when you go shopping or any thing else for that matter. A savings account after all is for your future and the purpose is to save money.

Let’s talk about interest rates. They can vary from bank to bank so you might want to check with different banks in your area before opening an account. If you have any credit unions in your neighbourhood are sure to check with them. Most often if you join the credit union, the interest rates will be higher than that of most banks. And, if you have reached that golden age many of the credit unions will have special benefits for you.

Once you’re in the habit of leaving your money in the account, you will be amazed by how fast it will grow. After awhile you might want to consider transferring your money to an even higher interest paying account such as a money market savings account. After all it’s your money and the reason you have it in the bank is to make as much money as you can in interest.

Once you have reached a higher level of savings there are many high interest paying accounts you can invest your money in. Most require a minimum amount to be invested, and some start at $4,000.00 and go up from there. But, unless you have a better plan in mind this is a safe and sure way to build that fortune you have always wanted. It is not certain that all investments will work. But, if a person is frugal with his or her money and able to successfully save it, in time more and more investments will prove successful and pay off.

If this basic plan is conducted in only three or four short years there will be a collective pool of money that can be used for other areas of your life or to re invest and increase your moneys. Once you have an account established it can be handled online in most cases.

There are many benefits to online banking. One is the amount of time you will save; another is the comfort of not having to stand in a queue for hours. Of course you will need direct deposit to gain the most from online banking. If you have never tried banking this way I think you will be surprised by how much time and energy you do save. After all, if you’re like most of us, there are not enough hours in the day to do the other things we like to do. But, hopefully that savings account will bring you one step closer to your dreams.

Benefits of Online Gambling: Top Reasons to Gamble Online

The online gambling industry is the most profitable industry on the internet. Millions of people around the world are wagering on sports online, playing online poker, bingo and even the lottery online at any of the thousands of gambling sites available on the net. Even people who have never visited a land based casino or a local bookie are finding themselves visiting online casinos and poker rooms on a regular basis.

So, what makes gambling on the internet so appealing? Yes, you can play any game of your choice without having to leave your favorite chair. Still, you will not be served free drinks; you will not be able to watch the game you have wagered on from big TV screens; you can neither see the facial expressions of your poker opponents nor to hear the sounds of the coins fall from the slot machine when you hit the big jackpot…

Here are the benefits of gambling online comparing to traditional gambling:
Diversity: how else can you jump from an online poker room to the craps table and to a bingo hall while staying seated on your most comfortable chair? Most online casinos feature a large variety of casino table games, slots and video poker machines. Moreover, in many major online gambling companies you can switch from online casino gambling to online sports wagering with the same username and account.

Bonuses: where else can you receive free money to gamble with? Most online casinos offer free money bonuses in order to entice new customers and to keep up with the competition. The bonuses can start from 10 dollars free just for downloading the casino software to a couple of thousand dollars for completing a certain required amount of raked hands

Convenience: obliviously, what can be more convenient than playing your favorite casino game in the comfort of your own home while listening to your favorite music and drinking your favorite beer? Not to mention being able to put your dealer on hold each time up you want to take a break

Smoking and Dress Codes: whether you are a smoker or a non smoker, when you are gambling online you are free from obeying the rules. Same goes for dressing, eating and drinking; you can either smoke non stop or remain in a non smoking environment; wear your sloppiest clothes or stay naked; eat, drink, talk on the phone, watch TV, whatever

Atmosphere: when you are gambling online, there are not any cocktail waitresses who will sedate you with free drinks and distract you from beating the dealer. In addition, you can set an atmosphere of your choice that can include clocks or even a source of day light

Beginner Friendly: a land based casino can be an intimidating place for the newbie gambler. The average online casino, on the other hand, is much more beginner friendly than its brick and mortar equivalent. Interactive tutorials, play money modes and the option of avoiding social embarrassment caused by misunderstanding of the rules and codes of behavior is a more pleasant welcome for the novice casino gamer or poker player

Safety: yes, gambling online is usually safer than playing in a land based casino and carrying big amounts of cash money in your pocket. Most online casinos are reliable and respectable businesses that will not risk their reputation and lose their customers base by scamming their players

In addition to the list of benefits mentioned above, online gambling offers equal opportunity for people with disabilities or those who cannot afford traveling out of their state to play in a legal land based casino.

However, reading about the benefits of online gambling makes the huge popularity of online gambling, online poker playing and online sports wagering much easier to understand.

Benefits of Debt consolidation

Experts recommend debt consolidation for recovering control over personal money management. Debt Consolidation refers taking one loan in order to pay out other loans. In such case, you only have a tension of serving one debt consolidation loan and can secure a lower and fixed interest rate. You will save a lot of money and will pay your other loans faster if you are able to get a cheap remortgage or a poor credit remortgage at cheaper rate of interest. Debt consolidation will minimize your hassles of paying so many monthly loans. So, first you have to consolidate all your debts into one debt consolidation loan.

Though it sounds easy to do debt consolidation but there are certain risks and problems involved in it. Debt consolidation too has some negative aspects. As you must have known by time that we take a debt consolidation loan to pay our other loans and it should acquired at a cheaper rate, but getting a cheaper loan or cheap remortgage is very difficult. You should have a good credit score for applying a cheap loan and if you have been declared bankrupt sometime, it’s even worse.

People are finding it more difficult to repay their loans these days. This results in creating a negative credit history and ultimately it decreases one’s credit worthiness. So, if you are facing a difficulty in getting a debt consolidation loan or a cheap mortgage due to your poor credit score, you should take the help of a financial consultant. Robert Watts and Roya Nikkhah report says: “Rising interest rates and large credit card liabilities are driving increasing numbers of consumers to take out controversial loans that put their homes at risk. Five interest rates rises over the past 11 months will leave scores of people unable to meet monthly repayments on credit cards, personal secured loans and car finance deals”.

Lots of people are going for Homeowners Loan and secured personal loans. Secured loans also offer far high borrowing levels than unsecured loans. Another point is that the repayment period with secured loans is far longer than with unsecured loans, it simply means that your monthly repayments will be far lower. Secured loans and secured personal loans are comparatively easily accessible to the people who have a poor credit than a standard, unsecured loan because these secured loans are taken against any asset.

You can consolidate all your other loans into one and can pay back with an ease with a secured loan or a secured personal loan. You are saved of repaying several loans and have to keep only one in mind. Secure loans are very popular and widely available; even you can get a secured loan online too. There are types of secured loans; you can choose the one that suits your needs. One is considered wiser who compares various available deals in many secured loans and then makes a decision based upon it. One should study all about interest rates and other factors before going in for a secured loan.

Tags: Debt consolidation, Debt consolidation loan, Secured Loans, Homeowners Loan, Secured Personal loan, Poor credit remortgage, Cheap remortgage, Remortgages

Ben Bernanke – Replacing Alan Greenspan

The reputation of Alan Greenspan as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve was one of brilliance or incredible luck. Now it is the turn of Ben Bernanke.

Ben Bernanke

Alan Greenspan reigned as Fed Chairman for nearly 20 years. During this time, the economy in the United States performed at fairly stable and consistent levels. Yes, there were recessions and stock market crashes, but these were minor hiccups in an otherwise solid economic run.

Ben Bernanke has taken over control of the fed from Alan Greenspan. Instead of enjoying a peaceful grace period, he walks into a situation where an extremely hot housing market threatens to collapse. How will he handle the situation? Perhaps a review of Ben Bernanke will give us an idea.

Mr. Bernanke was born in 1953 in Augusta, Georgia. His intellectual abilities were apparent throughout his youth, particularly when he received a near perfect 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard in 1975. He then obtained a Ph.D from MIT in 1979. He subsequently taught at Stanford and then Princeton. He resigned from Princeton in July of 2005 when it became apparent he would be the new Chairman of the Federal Reserve. In short, we are talking about a very intelligent individual unlike many of the political friends President Bush has appointed to various positions in the government.

Intellectually, Bernanke is considered a macroeconomist, which mean he looks at overall trends in the economy related to production, employment levels, income being earned and price trends. He also is noted for studying the Great Depression and how the devaluation of money during that period impacted the economy. For those that fear a housing market crash, this would appear to be good news.

Bernanke is hardly a new face at the Federal Reserve. He has served on the Board of Governors for the Federal Reserve since 2002. Essentially, he was an internal promotion in an effort to continue the current fiscal policy of the Federal Reserve.

Given Bernanke’s background, can we make any educated guesses as to how he will guide the Federal Reserve? Generally, he appears to be very conscious of deflation factors, which means he should have some fairly detailed thoughts on the housing market and how to keep a slowdown from becoming a bigger problem. Bernanke also revealed he will speak in plain language, unlike Greenspan, and doesn’t appear interested in commenting on budgets and social issues. Greenspan was infamous for dropping comments regarding tax cuts.

Is Ben Bernanke up to the task of being the Chairman of the Federal Reserve? We are certainly going to find out.

Becoming an Expat : Tax Information

First of all, tax information about moving overseas is important because of the fact that it allows people to budget their finances. When a person moves overseas, the experience would be like beginning a new life. This means every detail, especially finances, needs to be taken into account.

Some people, when they are anticipating expenses tend to forget taxes. Although people hate paying taxes, they know that it is a necessary part of life and they often choose to disregard it. Except during auditing periods, people usually try to forget about taxes. Of course, people pay taxes, but they like to do so in such a way that they would not actively pay taxes. Most have it deducted straight from their income.

Having tax information about moving overseas enables a person to anticipate the expenses. It will give the person an idea of how to save cash on moving. This, of course, will help a person have a great start in his or her new world.

Having tax information about moving overseas also gives you a glimpse of your destination. As we all know, taxes are set by governments. By knowing tax information about moving oversea, you can draw some conclusions regarding the government of your destination. Of course, all taxes tend to be seen by people as unreasonably high. Because of your own bias, you need to have some sort of standard to base your judgment on. The best thing to do is to compare the tax rate of your destination with the tax rate of your origin. If you see some significant differences, that would reflect the difference in the economic development of the two places.

Where do you get tax information about moving overseas?

Well, usually, this can be provided by various government offices like the DFA. It is also possible that you can get this information from a consulate. However, this can be a bit inconvenient and not to mention difficult ordeal. The best thing you can do is research on the internet. On the internet, various overseas moving companies would be willing to give you the tax information about moving overseas that you need.

As we all know, the internet today is the largest and most comprehensive source of information. Its power is actually only matched by its accessibility. The internet today lets people connect with each other wherever they are in the whole world. This means that you would not only get tax information about moving overseas, you would also get various tips and advice regarding what to do with that information.

Tax information about going overseas can be valuable in the same manner as all types of information can be valuable. It needs the right person to give it the right value. Because of this, it is always important to consider the value of a piece of information carefully before dismissing it. You need to know that the right information in the right hands can be a very powerful thing.

Becoming a Millionaire

Copyright 2006 Timothy Rohrer

Many people don’t know about the largest traded market in the world. Currently over 1.2 trillion dollars is traded on a daily basis in the forex market. Forex, or the foreign currency exchange market was a market that only large investors could play in and until just recently has become available to smaller investors.

For those of you that don’t know, here is an example of how the forex market works. If one were to take a vacation to Europe from the United States, you would have to exchange your US dollars into the Euros. When you came back to the United States, you would then have to exchange your Euros back to US dollars. During the time you were on vacation market news may have caused the US dollar to strengthen against the Euro. Therefore, when exchanging your Euros back to US dollars, you may have made a bit of money.

What makes the forex arena so popular is the leverage one can use when trading in this market. Most brokers offer a 100:1 leverage. Traditionally a trader needs 100,000 US dollars or we say 1:1 leverage (trading cash). However, with 100:1 leverage, a currency trader is only required to deposit 1/100th of the amount needed, 1,000 US dollars. Some brokers offer as much as 400:1 leverage.

Learning how to trade forex and using the leverage available, it is very possible to make good money. However at the same time it’s very possible to lose a lot of money. Approximately 95% of forex traders lose when they decide to play in the forex market. There are many reasons for this, your psychology, discipline, greed and fear will have a major impact on your trading success.

When looking at the forex market, the price is constantly changing every second. Forex traders measure the price fluctuation in pips also known as the minimum fluctuation or smallest increment of price movement. One pip could be $1, $5, $50, or $100, whatever you decide to risk on each trade.

Using good money management with a well thought out plan can easily turn into profits in the forex arena. Learning to cut your losses and let your winners run is the key to success. A simple money management system to follow is to always look to win 3 times the amount you plan to lose. Yes, you will lose and it’s important to accept losses when trading. For example, if you set a stop-loss to 10 pips, you need to look to win 30 pips. If you set a stop-loss to 20 pips, then you need to look to win 60 pips. This way you only have to be right 33% of the time to be profitable in this market.

Becoming A Landlord: Things To Consider First

Being a landlord is certainly a great way to make more money in the real estate business, because as a landowner who can also generate income through rental and lease agreements, you can often increase your earning power significantly. Not only do successful landlords make money from rent; they also gain from increases in the equity value of their properties. And there are tax incentives for landlords, to make such things as repairs deductible as business expenses.

Before venturing into the business of owning and leasing property, be aware that sometimes the role of a landlord can be a full time job – and it will always constitute at least a serious part time job that requires your undivided attention several hours or more each week or month. Emergencies happen and your tenants need to call you – or your representative – at any hour of the day, even on holidays and weekends, to get help. Sometimes tenants don’t pay, and you have to become a bill collector or deal with the local authorities to have tenants evicted from your building. And there are times when you have to do routine chores like painting fences and cutting the grass. So unless you enjoy this kind of nonstop responsibility, you may want to look into the possibility of delegating some or all of the landlord tasks to another person or organization.

There are many ways to assume the job of landlord. Many real estate investors assign the entire responsibility to a property management company that specializes in providing services to owners who don’t have the time or the desire to be day-to-day landlords. A management company can handle things such as handyman repairs, rent billing and collection, tenant complaints, maintenance of insurance coverage, exterior landscaping, interior maid service and cleaning, replacement of old or damaged furniture and appliances, and advertising for new tenants. In exchange for these services, the management company will be paid, usually as a percentage of the income produced by the property. For example, a company might charge you one month’s rent each year, to oversee the rent of a single-family house.

Another common approach is to appoint a tenant to assume some of the duties of the landlord, in exchange for reduced or free rent. If you have an apartment building, for instance, and there is a police officer living in one of your units, you could agree to give the officer one week of free rent each month, in exchange for keeping an eye on the premises when you are away. Or you could give free rent to a tenant who agreed to maintain the landscaping and make sure that garbage collection is done on a routine basis.

Before becoming a landlord, make a list of the duties involved. Then decide which ones you want to do, and which ones you would rather hand off to someone else. You may find that striking a comfortable balance between doing some on your own and delegating the rest to others is a great way to be a landlord without letting the responsibility overwhelm you.

Become a Financial Planner

To become a financial planner, you first must know what their job profile is. Financial planners help in determining the financial resources required to meet the company’s operating program. They also help in forecasting the extent to which these requirements will be met by the internal generation of funds, and the extent to which they will be met from external sources. It’s the job of financial planners to develop the best plans to obtain the required external funds. They also help in establishing and maintaining a system of financial control governing the allocation and use of funds. Financial planners formulate programs to provide the most effective cost-volume-profit relationship. It’s the job of financial planners to analyze the financial results of operations, report the facts to the top management and make recommendations on future operations of the firm.

To do all these functions efficiently, financial planners first need to establish the financial objectives of the enterprise. Both long-term and short-term objectives should be established for the effective utilization of the financial resources. Then comes the next step of formulating policies. Policies are broad guidelines. Financial policies relate to procurement, administration and distribution of business funds. The next step financial planners have to do is to formulate procedures. Procedures are the specific order of doing things. They are formed for ensuring consistency of actions. In financial procedures, the financial executives decide about the control system, develop standards of performance and evaluate the performance. Lastly, they have to forecast the future. In order to take proper action to achieve the objectives established, it is necessary to know the future positions. This is facilitated by forecasting the future.

While doing these activities, financial planners must take into perspective the cost of finance and nature of business. In any assessment of the financial needs of the firm, the cost of finance is the basic criterion. This is so because only projects with net positive cash flow can be selected.

Be Cautious Of Those Offering Foreclosure Help

If you are facing a potential foreclosure, you are in a tough situation. But you aren't alone. With interest rates on the rise and home appreciation on the slow down, many homeowners are having trouble hanging on to their homes.

And there are plenty of people banking on the desperation that this causes. You may have noticed advertisements popping up for help avoiding foreclosure. Are they legit?

First of all, no matter what your situation, you should always treat any offer of assistance with caution. Many cons use "helping" as a way to cheat struggling homeowners out of their equity. You could lose the money you have in your home and your home too.

Mortgage foreclosure rescues come in several forms. You may be loaned money by the rescuer in order to pay off the mortgage that is facing foreclosure. You will be asked to sign a loan agreement, but it isn't what it seems. You are actually transferring all of your interest in the property to the rescuer. You are then evicted from the home.

Sometimes, the homeowner knows that he is signing over the title to the property. The rescuer pays off the property and the homeowner agrees to lease the home and continue to live there until he is back on his feet financially. But the lease payments will become larger than the mortgage payments. The victim falls behind and is evicted. If the victim doesn't fall behind, the rescuer will set the price of the home so high that it cannot be repurchased.

Many homeowners believe that if they are foreclosed on, they loose everything. Even if you lose your home to the lender, you may still receive money for it. The lender will only take any unpaid mortgage and associated fees out of the sale price of the property. The rest is your equity and will be paid to you. If you sign over your property to someone else, they will receive the proceeds from the sale.

How do you recognize and avoid scams?

1. Ignore any signs or bulletin board notes that offer foreclosure help. If they are advertising on the windshield of your car, they probably aren't legit.

2. Don't give out any information to anyone who contacts you wanting to help. Cons frequently check the public foreclosure notices for potential targets. They are betting that you are desperate to find a way out of your situation.

3. Read every single document, front and back. If an offer is too good to be true, it probably is. If someone says that you won't get a dime after your home is sold, don't put your trust in them. There is often a good chance that you will. For a few hundred dollars, you should have an attorney accompany you to read through every document that you are expected to sign. Also, watch out for documents with blanks and empty spaces.

4. Check out any company you are considering turning to with the Better Business Bureau and the state Real Estate Commission. You might even want to contact the state attorney general's office to see if there are any open investigations of the company or its owners.

BBC Banned Music: Top Singles Banned By the BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation also known as the BBC is a public broadcasting corporation. Therefore, it allows itself to ban materials that deviate from certain standards of civility. During the years, many singles that were seen as too explicit, distasteful or bear the potential for offending the British public were banned from BBC airplay. Here you can read about some of them.


In 1977, when England was celebrating the Queens Jubilee, the Sex Pistols had released their second single titled God Save the Queen. The single includes controversial lyrics that rhyme the national anthem title with fascist regime. Moreover, the record cover displayed a picture of the Queen with a safety pin stuck in her nose.

The single was found to offensive to be air played by the BBC, but it did not stop it from reaching number two on the BBC official singles chart. According to the myth, God Save the Queen was the top selling single in the UK at the time, but it was held back of number one to avoid controversies.

Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin scandalous duet Je TAime ... Moi Non Plus, translated: I love you... me neither, was the first ever number one hit to be banned by the BBC. Although at the time of its release, in 1969, the sexual revolution was celebrated, the British radio still was not able to cope with such explicit lyrics, not to mention Birkins moans and groans.

The BBC ban and The Vatican denounce, did not stop Je TAime ... Moi Non Plus from being a top selling single in the UK and worldwide. In October 7, 1969, the single reached number one in the BBC official singles chart. At the same time, it had reached number 69 at the US singles chart.

Je TAime ... Moi Non Plus was a major influence on another BBC banned single, Donna Summers disco pioneer from 1976 titled Love to Love You Baby. After counting 23 faked orgasms performed by Summer in Love to Love You Baby, the British Broadcasting Corporation banned the song. However, it did not stop it from becoming a massive hit. Love to Love You Baby reached number four on the UK single charts but peaked to number two on the Billboard pop chart.

Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood is one of the most controversial singles as well as commercially successful singles in history. The BBC did not only ban the song it also did not stop BBC Radio 1 DJ Mike Read to publicly express his feelings of disgust from the single's explicit lyrics. In 1984, Relax stayed in the UK singles charts for 42 weeks. In five of them, it stayed in number one. By the end of 1984, embarrassed Auntie Beeb removed the ban. Relax is still very popular worldwide and it is one of the most recognized symbols of the era. The arguments on whether it gained such a huge success despite the BBC ban or the BBC ban helped promoting it have not been settled yet.

Paul McCartney and the Wings response to the 1972 Bloody Sunday events titled Give Ireland Back to the Irish, was banned by every media resource in the UK. It was forbidden from being broadcast by the BBC, Radio Luxembourg and the Independent Television Authority. In addition, the song title was not allowed to be pronounced on the air, so when it arrived to the BBC Radio 1 chart show it was presented as a record by the group Wings. However, Give Ireland Back to the Irish hit the top of the Irish singles charts.

Basic Tips on Personal Finance

Do you ever wonder where your money goes every month? Does it sometimes seem as though you cannot afford to do things because your financial obligations are holding you back? If you find that you are asking yourself these sorts of questions, perhaps you should take a look at your financial situation and assess whether you are practicing good personal finance management or not. Good personal finance management spends within their income, plan for the future and solve financial problems as they arise. Poor personal finance management pay more, do without and fall behind. If you find yourself in the second category, you can do something about it. You can learn to take charge of your finances by planning your personal finances.

Planning your personal finances doesn’t always come naturally, and even if you’re just beginning to take your financial matters seriously, then you likely need a few personal finance tips.

Evaluate your current financial situation. One of the most important goals for most people is financial independence. Collect accurate information about your personal financial situation. Calculate your net worth which includes the real estate, saving and retirement accounts, and all other assets. This will help you decide how much money you can set aside for meeting future needs and goals.

A basic personal finance tip is to make a budget. A personal finance budget is information made up of your income and expenses and the more accurate this information is, the more likely you are be able to meet your goals and realize your dreams. A personal finance budget should be made for at most one year at a time and include a list of your monthly expenses.

All expenses must be included. To be sure of that go through all your paid bills, check register and credit card receipts to find expenditures that recure every month and expenditures that happen less frequently. Personal finance budgeting requires some small sacrifices. To be able to make good personal financial decisions and set priorities, you must know where your money is actually going. Start your budget and accomplish your goals.

Get an electronic bill pay. This is a very convenient way to pay your bills. You pay them electronically, by direct withdrawal from your bank account. The transaction is processed immediately. You can even link your bill pay service to your personal finance budget, so that your expenditures are automatically entered in the appropriate category. Personal financial management can be really easy.

Make an investment and finance plan. Now that the fundamental state of your personal financial security has been established, the time has come for the more prosperous part of your personal financial life. You need to make a personal finance plan of what you really want in life that money can buy. Your personal financial plan can be as simple or as detailed as you want it to be. Find out how to finally start to implement this plan and get the money to finance it. This is the long term part of your financial. This journey is the most interesting and exciting part of personal financing you can have toward financial freedom.

You can prepare for a secure personal financial future by following these simple tips. When you take control with your money, you don’t have to worry about debt taking control of you.

Basic Financial Information Tips (Part II)

Scams & bad deals. Identity theft is the #1 scam. Keep your account #s, and Social Security # out of the hands of those who don’t need to know them. Don’t pay up-front fees in hopes of obtaining a loan or a credit card. An exception to this rule is a home loan, which usually involves appraisal and credit report fees - paid in advance. Popular loan scams ask people to send a fee for a promised loan or credit card even if their credit rating is bad. Watch out for someone who pays you too much with a phony “certified check” and asks you to wire them the difference. If you do, you lose. Don’t sign untrue statements! Beware of companies who loan to people with bad credit.

Credit cards. If used well, great tools, if used poorly, financial ruin! If you’re too impulsive, hide your card! To avoid paying interest and fees, pay off your entire balance each month (on early or time). Most charge no interest if the balance is paid off within the billing cycle. If you pay only the minimum required payment, like one in four Americans, you lose.

Unauthorized use of credit cards. If a charge - which you did not authorize - appears on your credit card statement, contact the credit card company immediately. Follow-up your dispute in writing within 60 days to ensure your rights.

Disputed items. If you are dissatisfied with a product or service you charged with your credit card, first make a “good faith” attempt to resolve the dispute with the merchant. If you are unable to resolve it, contact your credit card provider and file an official dispute. Do this within 60 days of the charge to preserve your rights and avoid negative credit, etc.

Debit cards. If you, or someone else, uses your debit card, money is deducted from your checking account. For pre-authorized purchases (e.g. gasoline or motels) a “hold” is placed on your checking account, usually for an amount larger than the expected charge. This hold can cause other checks or charges to be returned -- if you don’t have a sufficient cushion of funds in your account, or a backup system (e.g. overdraft line of credit loan). Once funds are deducted from your account, it is often difficult or impossible to get your money refunded. Don’t use a debit card for mail order, telephone, or internet purchases. Even if you don’t get what you ordered, you may not be able to get your money back.

Reconcile your checking account. The sooner you do it, the easier it is. As soon as you receive your bank statement, compare it with your check register – item by item. Make sure both you and the bank have recorded things correctly. If you find that the bank has made errors, or the statement includes unauthorized deductions, contact them immediately.

Blank checks. Keep your blank checks in a safe place. Although you may not be technically responsible if someone steals your checks and forges your name, consumers are often unable to recover their funds which have been deducted from their account. Financial institutions have several defenses including consumers’ negligence.

Bounced checks. To avoid costly bounced checks, tie your checking account to a revolving line of credit (an empty loan). If you have such a pre-arranged plan, and write a check for more than your available balance, a loan advance is made to pay the check. If you pay off that loan quickly, most financial institutions charge you very little in interest and fees. Keep that line of credit reserved as your checking account backup – and don’t use it for anything else. Bounced check fees, are very costly. Beware; many banks automatically provide very high-cost “bounce protection” programs for those who don’t.

Solicitations. Don’t give your account numbers, credit or debit cards, or your Social Security numbers to anyone who phones or e-mails you. They may not actually be who they claim to be. They may fraudulently use your information, and the damage done to you financially, or to your credit rating, may cause huge headaches, and a horrendous waste of your time, money and energy trying to correct the problems.

Investing. If you can’t afford to lose it, don’t speculate with it. The greater the rate, the higher the risk.

Risk Free. Nothing is “risk-free”. Especially nothing involving money.

Too good to be true. If something sounds too good to be true, it is! Don’t fall for the scams. Heed the clues!

Credit repair. Be weary of credit repair services. Some claim to be able to “fix” bad credit. If you have inaccurate information on your credit report, you may contact the credit bureaus directly and correct it yourself. If you have had credit problems, any attempts to remove the relevant information from your credit report are illegal, fraudulent, and only temporary.

Basic Financial Information Tips (Part I)

Savings. Pay yourself first. Start now stashing 10% of your income in an “Emergency” savings. Don’t use it for anything but real emergencies. Keep a “For Sure” savings account for yearly expenses you know are coming and you can estimate (e.g. Christmas, insurance, taxes, etc.). Also have a “Buy Stuff” account. If you do, you’ll be able to avoid many financial disasters which will face you, and you can avoid borrowing money from high-rate lenders.

Borrowing. Don’t borrow money unless you are willing and able to pay it back. Failure to pay debts – on time – causes severe financial, emotional, and family problems. Experts recommend you don’t borrow for wants, only for needs, or for things that increase in value. Many lenders will loan you money you can’t afford to pay back, especially high-rate lenders.

Co-signing. Don’t co-sign on a loan unless you are willing and able to pay it back. Often, co-signers end up paying off loans they are unprepared for, and financial hardships follow. Numerous co-signors now have negative credit ratings because a primary borrower paid late. Many lenders do not notify the co-signor before reporting delinquencies or repossessions to the credit bureau.

Compare. Before you decide who to borrow from, compare! Find out who is offering the best deal at that time – look for the loan with the lowest rate (APR).

APR. The Annual Percentage Rate (APR). It is the standard rate, so we may compare the cost of borrowing. It is the cost of credit expressed as a yearly rate. When you borrow, always beat 13% APR (consider “13” to be unlucky when it comes to borrowing). Some have been illegally stating other rates such as weekly or monthly rates. Compare APR to APR. If you pay your bills on time, and you aren’t over-extended, you can nearly always find loans or financing arrangements at rates lower than 13%. Beware though, because beating 13% does not always mean you are getting a good deal. For instance: the difference in total interest paid on an 11% versus an 8% 30-year, $100,000 mortgage loan is $64,283 (assuming all payments are made as agreed).

Consolidation Loans. A consolidation loan can result in great savings to borrowers if the new interest rate is significantly lower, and if you don’t run-up debt similar to what was just consolidated. But beware, because consolidation loans usually result in substantially more money out of your pocket into the lenders’. For instance, mortgage loans usually involve closing costs. They increase the total debt. Many refinances involve reducing the monthly payment, but increasing the length of payback, which substantially increases the total interest paid. Borrowers, who refinance unsecured debt (e.g. credit cards) into a home mortgage, also increase their risk of losing their homes. Also, remember to keep all of your payments current until the old debt is paid off. Too many people have damaged credit ratings, and are in bad financial condition because they counted on money which didn’t come when they expected it. Expect delays when applying for loans, especially consolidation loans. Don’t spend money before you get it.

Desperation. Don’t get desperate for money. The more desperate you are, the less likely you are to get a good loan.

Auto insurance. Keep your auto insurance current. If you fail to keep your insurance up-to-date, you could end up making loan payments for years after your car has been totaled.

Establish good credit. To avoid bad credit, don't borrow too much, and do pay your bills on time. Inexpensive ways to establish good credit: (1) Obtain a good credit card. When you charge things, pay off the balance each month – on time – and pay no interest. (2) Establish a revolving line of credit (an empty loan) as an overdraft protection against bounced checks, and don’t use it as a loan. (3) Get a loan to buy a car, or furniture, or etc.) and pay it off within a few months.

Late fees. To avoid late fees (which multiply the cost of borrowing), pay early, or at least on time.

Repossessions. To avoid repossessions and associated fees, pay early or on time, and keep your insurance current.

Extra principal ® less interest. To pay less interest on loans, pay more than the minimum required payment. Even small amounts of extra principal, can significantly reduce the total amount of interest you would otherwise pay over the life of the loan. Before doing this, however, make sure your lender accepts extra principal payments, and find out what particular procedure you need to follow to ensure your extra principal is properly applied.

Bi-weekly payments. If you get paid weekly, or every other week, paying bi-weekly is a very convenient (almost painless) way to reduce your loan term and interest. For instance, if you make ½ of your required monthly payment every 14 days (a bi-weekly period), you pay the equivalent of 13.052 payments in an average year. If you don’t get paid bi-weekly, or if your lender doesn’t like biweekly payments, you can pay the equivalent amount in monthly installments. If you pay 1/12 of the sum of 13.05 payments each month, you will match the bi-weekly advantage (minor rounding differences).

Contrary to popular belief, the frequency of paying ½ payments bi-weekly doesn’t accomplish much, the real advantage is paying the extra principal (13.05 payments, or more, each year) which reduces the term and the interest paid. If you are considering signing up for a bi-weekly program, pay close attention to the cost. Some servicers have large set-up fees and transaction fees. Also consider the credibility of any company handling your money, some have diverted payments into their own pockets, leaving borrowers to make payments twice (once to a corrupt servicer, and a second time directly to the lender).