All about investment

By: kelly price

Currency trading education is all about getting the right information but most traders believe myths or base there trading strategies on logic which is not correct and lose. Here we look at some common mistakes, you must avoid to enjoy currency trading success...

One of more of these mistakes are made by the majority of novice traders so lets take a look at them, there in no particular order of importance to avoid - there all important!

1. Forex Robots and Expert Advisors make Money

You have seen them advertised, promising to double your money each month with no effort and all you do is pay a hundred dollars or so for an income for life.

They don't work and if you use one these systems you will lose very quickly. If making money was as easy as the robot vendors claim, no one would work and everyone would trade for a living.

2. Day trading and scalping Work

All short term volatility is random and there is no way you can get the odds on your side and win because of this. Trading short term moves is a loser's game - it looks low risk but you are guaranteed to be wiped out.

3. Markets can be Predicted

Prediction is hoping or guessing and you won't get far doing that in any venture in life and that includes Forex. The far out investment crowd love the theories of Elliot and Fibonacci which claim they can predict the future - but if they can do this, why do they ever get a trade wrong? Never predict, trade the reality of price change and you will have the odds on your side.

4. You can Trade breaking News Stories

News is discounted by the market instantly.

The news itself is not important it's the investor's view of the news which is and everyone may see the same facts but they all draw different conclusions from them. Markets always fall when the market is most bullish and rally when it's most bearish so never trade news stories.

5. Working Hard or Being Clever Guarantees Success

Forex trading suits a simple approach as it's an odds based market. Over complicate your trading and your Forex trading strategy will have to many elements to break. Don't work hard, work smart - effort may make you more money in a normal job but not in Forex.

6. Leverage is the Key to Big Gains

Yes it is but more novice traders wipe themselves out due to over leverage than any other reason. You can get 200:1 leverage with any broker now but novices should start with NO leverage at all, until they are comfortable with there trading and use no more than 10:1 after that.

Work Smart and Win

The above are all common and avoidable mistakes, so if you want to enjoy currency trading success, avoid them and get a good solid currency trading education which is based on sound logic and avoids the myths of Forex.

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By Thomas Wheelwright

I'm constantly teaching and sharing the concept of building a business around your wealth. What does this mean? Let's start with a little background.

Historically, all great fortunes have been built in business. Whether it was Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Bill Gates or Warren Buffett, all great fortunes have business as their foundation.

You really don't hear about great fortunes being made by investors. Ever wonder why? It's because business done right provides the most leverage, greatest velocity, and least amount of risk of any money-making activity.

Why do some businesses grow and grow while others seem to hit a ceiling which they can't grow?

The answer to this question lies in the foundation of the business. Small businesses stay small when the owner spends his or her time running the business. Effectively, these people own their job. They have no time to work on the business because they are always working in the business.

The key is how to get the owner out of the business operations and focused on the business growth. The answer is for the business to create a strategy and a set of systems that implement that strategy. Then, and only then, will the business owner have time to grow the business.

When the strategy and systems are in place, the owner only has to manage the systems, not the people. The owner isn't doing the work, the employees and other team members are doing the work.

What does this have to do with investing?

I have discovered that the business principles of strategy and systems can be applied to investing. Investors who create a business of investing, by developing a strategy and implementing systems, can enjoy the same results enjoyed by a successful business owner, i.e., higher profits, more growth, less time spent on investing, total control over their investing and less risk.

Is your investing a business or just a hobby?

Think about your investing. Do you run it like a business? Or, do you run it like a hobby?

Investors who run their investing like a business have:

A clear written strategy

Mission, vision and values

Systems in place to make investing fast, efficient and in line with the strategy

A team of advisors

Reporting to tell them their net worth or cash flow at any given minute

Both informal and formal agreements with their customers and vendors

The list goes on and on. How does your investing activity stack up?

Are you ready to build a business around your wealth?

Historically, all great fortunes have been built in business. Whether it was Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Bill Gates or Warren Buffett, all great fortunes have business as their foundation. http://www.provisionwealth.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Thomas_Wheelwright

BY:Jose Roncal

The current economic meltdown has changed the face of Wall Street, possibly forever. For decades the energy in the market had been fueled by high-rolling investment bankers, but look what's happened in the last eight months. Lehman Brothers went bankrupt. Bear Stearns was snapped up by JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch got bought out by Bank of America, and Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley had to convert to bank holding companies just to stay in business. Five major investment banks . . .and then there were none.

At the beginning of this year, those five firms had a combined market value of around $250 billion with the top firm, Goldman Sachs, valued at nearly $90 billion. Now the top banks, which are comparatively small boutique firms—Raymond James, Jefferies & Co, Greenhill & Co, Keefe Bruyette & Woods and Piper Jaffray—have a combined market value of $12 billion, a number that has shrunk by a factor of 20.

Essentially, the global economic crisis has ushered in the era of universal banking where massive financial firms offer every conceivable kind of investment product and service. Even smaller brokerage firms face being herded under the umbrellas of big banks, or else risk becoming irrelevant.

Historic Realignment of the Industry

When Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley opted to become bank holding companies it marked an historic realignment of the financial services industry and the end of a securities firm model that had prevailed on Wall Street since the Great Depression. But why did they make the change? Partly because it's given both firms access to the Federal Reserve's discount window — the same line of credit that is open to other depository institutions at a lower interest rate.

As bank holding companies, they can also tap into deposits from retail customers. The two firms had already received a temporary financial lifeline from the Fed—the Primary Dealer Credit Facility—the special reserves established to bail out Wall Street broker-dealers like the Bear Stearns deal in March 2008.

Even though Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are now classified as bank holding companies and are part of the universal banking model, they'll still be able to engage in investment banking activities. But after years of loose oversight by the Securities and Exchange Commission, they're now faced with tighter regulations imposed by the Federal Reserve and they are subjected to Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation oversight.

The Golden Years of Investment Banking

A quick historical review of investment banks will serve as a backdrop to the events that led to their downfall.

Independent investment banks have been around for a long time, but originally they were small private partnerships that earned most of their money from offering corporate finance and investment advice, as well as some broking and other services. If you had walked into one of their offices and looked around, you might have mistaken it for a large law firm.

The success of their business model depended on the trust built through long-term relationships. There wasn't much money at risk in the early days because the firms operated primarily with the partners' own money. That meant there weren't vast sums available to gamble on risky ventures with excessive leverage. But the lack of working capital and a desire to orchestrate splashier deals, motivated the firms to go public in the late 90s.

The Downfall Begins

With more capital in the coffers and a growing access to low cost, short-term debt, managers started to make larger, riskier capital bets—most recently those troubling and toxic mortgage-backed securities.

The regulations that had once separated investment banks from traditional banks were no longer in place. That opened the way for big global banks like Citigroup and JP Morgan to start competing with Wall Street for what had traditionally been the domain of the investment banking business. This forced Wall Street firms to expand their services, to use more leverage and to take even bigger risks.

When those risks led to profits, the dealmakers were rewarded with outlandish bonuses and the wheels were set in motion for bigger risk-taking. Throw patchy government regulation into the mix and you have, as the saying goes, a recipe for disaster.

Before long, major Wall Street firms were leveraged three or four times more than conventional banks, yet they still operated under far less stringent regulations than the banks.

It wasn't until the financial crisis reared its ugly head in mid-2008 that the U.S. Fed stepped in and for the first time, allowed investment banks access to their discounted funds. Then when the credit crisis hit, highly leveraged Wall Street firms like Bear Stearns and Goldman Sachs found themselves in even deeper trouble. They'd already suffered huge losses with their hedge funds and high-risk ventures, but their excessive leverage compounded their problems as the credit crisis stripped them of the ability to raise the additional capital they needed to survive.

The Outlook for Wall Street

What's the outlook for those working on Wall Street now? No doubt there will be less excitement and no more of the huge bonuses that dealmakers had grown accustomed to. But there are bigger concerns about whether the U.S. will lose its competitive edge and the ability to maintain its power status in the global financial system.

Some of the best and brightest might pull up stakes and head for better opportunities in the burgeoning Asian Markets, or they could flip over to the unregulated Hedge Fund market—at least for as long as those funds manage to survive. Thousands of Hedge Funds are going out of business, bringing serious grief to investors like the huge public pension funds, foundations and endowments that have poured billions of dollars into these private partnerships.

If there is any good news in this economic fiasco, it's this: Main Street stands to eventually benefit from a better regulated Wall Street. With a more transparent financial system, a firmer foundation and a stronger business model, there might be a promising outlook for more stable and consistent growth.

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Jose Roncal is co-author of "The Big Gamble: Are You Investing or Speculating" which Donald Trump endorsed as "a great read". Many of the author's articles related to finance and the global economic crisis can be found at http://www.financialspeculation.com

By Jamie Murray

We have not seen a financial storm like the present one for decades. For many, the sudden intensity of this financial cold snap, and the likely wintry recession ahead, has been a surprise. In days of yore, winter and snow forced a community to come together so that it would pull through and see off the cold, the wolves and other dangers.

The hedge fund industry is a community. It is rightfully proud of the many benefits that it has brought. It is not just making its clients wealthier. It has helped transform the investment industry to the good. It gives employment to many people and gives back through philanthropy and charitable works. It has given liquidity to some markets and kept them running. It is true that it is described as a Darwinian industry, and that it is about "survival of the fittest" as if hedge fund managers were a group of frontiersmen. However, in winter, even frontiersmen helped each other through the hard times and stood up for their community.

Deep winter has come to the industry. Performance is down sharply for many strategies. Clients are redeeming. A few politicians are calling for the abolition of hedge funds. Regulators are scrutinising the sector. Leverage is harder to access. Parts of the mainstream media demonize the sector, crowing in triumph at the difficulties it faces. The natural response is to hunker down and let the storm pass. However, if individual funds do that, when the blizzard is over and they emerge blinking into the sunlight, they will likely see a very changed financial landscape. You only need to see the recent statements out of Brussels to see where things may be heading. As EU Economics and Monetary Affairs Commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, recently told the EU Parliament "On hedge funds, we have used as our basis that they must be regulated."

The industry has a choice. It can stand up and be counted, and be part of the debate on how the financial landscape should change, or leave it to the politicians and regulators to sort things out. Clearly industry bodies work behind the scenes on hedge funds' behalf, but there is plenty to do in the public eye to change perceptions. This is where I must declare self interest. After twelve years of selling and structuring hedge funds, I have moved into media relations. I am doing it partly because it is a challenge, but mainly because I am passionate about the hedge fund industry, and am frustrated that it does not stand up for itself. It is a media punch bag.

There is plenty that a good media strategy can do to contribute to asset raising, client retention and attracting talented employees. However, the media strategy needed now is one engaging directly with the press and the broadcast media, and through them with the public and politicians. If the case is not made, and parts of the media paint hedge funds as causing market upheaval, public opinion may turn even more negative. Public opinion moulds political thought. Politicians drive policy responses and financial regulation worldwide.

There are other consequences if hedge funds do not engage. Institutional investors may shy away from investment. Pension fund trustees reading " hedge funds are high risk " stories may not invest. Local politicians may lean on local authority pension plans and force sale of hedge fund positions or forbid any exposure to hedge funds. Unions may question why their members' assets are invested in such "risky" investments. Some institutions may stop lending stocks. All this is not just possible in the context of one country, but applies across regions such as Europe, the Middle East and Asia.


The picture is not as bleak as it seems. There is plenty to be positive about if the industry starts to engage with the media. Both the hedge fund industry and the PR industry need to rethink things. For example:-

· Individual hedge funds need to work much harder on communications with the media. They also need to work more closely with industry bodies such as AIMA. AIMA works hard behind the scenes lobbying on the industry's behalf. It also works hard on the industry's behalf as shown by Chairman, Christopher Fawcett's recent defence of the industry in print media, and on BBC's Newsnight.

· PR firms representing hedge fund clients need to be more strategic in how they serve their clients. Being non-reactive, even if that is the main brief, is exacerbating media hostility. If PR agencies are to represent hedge fund clients better, they need to be much more proactive and to push back at a client's knee-jerk " no comment " reaction.

· The PR industry should also take the hedge fund opportunity more seriously and learn more about the industry and how it works. This means having accounts staffed by people who really understand how their clients' investment strategies work, and who are able to communicate this. This requires investment at a time when hedge fund assets are likely to halve from their $1.9 trillion peak. However, as 1998 and the early 1970s showed, the hedge fund industry has gone through periodic retrenchment. These were exciting times as they were when fresh stars of the hedge fund firmament were born. After each retrenchment the industry has come back stronger.

Many hedge funds are launched because their owners want to control their own destiny. Surrendering the media landscape, with the likely consequences, runs against that philosophy. There are grave dangers in ignoring the media. Equally, there are huge benefits to be gained from engaging with the media in an open and coordinated manner. If the hedge fund industry truly is a community, in this financial winter, it needs to come out of the cold and stand together in front of the media.

Jamie Murray is head of Broadgate Alternatives, a specialist division of Broadgate Media focused at developing communications and public relations strategies for hedge funds. He has twelve years experience selling and structuring hedge funds for large industry players. His move into public relations comes from a desire to see the hedge fund industry better represented in the media.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jamie_Murray