Investment Articles

According to Forbes, the indexed annuity is the hottest thing on the market. As the market keeps shifting, investors keep losing. I’m not referring to folks that play the market but those that are saving for their future as well. I always hear that “EVERYONE LOSES” but that’s not true.

The 403 (b) as well as the Roth IRA are investments that you may want to look into. There are some programs out there that can offer you substantial growth plus the security that we need in an unstable market. I realized the other day as I was watching the television that if the protestors in NY were to shut down Wall Street as they were intending to do, so many investors would have lost… big time. Today we can’t take chances on the market giving us the returns like it used to. We are a global market today and any hiccup in the world will in some form alter the market. There are some TSA’s that don’t have any fees associated with them at all. The interest gained may not get you rich but the sustained interest without lost will give substantial gains..as high as 7% guaranteed. that’s petty good in today’s market.

Let’s look at the options…

Your local bank – offers you less than 1% on your money saved and there are fees associated with this type of savings plan. If you ask me, I think that this is the biggest scam in America right now.

CD’s – is another savings vehicle that in my opinion should be obsolete.

401 K (mutual funds) – Well, to put it bluntly, I see people all day begging me to help them to stop losing their money. You see this type of investment is governed by shareholders and the company’s main interest is them…not you. There are fees associated with this type of investment and if you are not a day trader constantly sitting at the computer buying and selling, more than likely you will lose.

T-Bills – Don’t make me laugh. These are treasury bills… nuff said.

Gold – is HOT right now, but who has $1,000.00 plus dollars per ounce? I don’t know, maybe you do but I’m talking to the average Joe/Joanne that is just trying to retire with some dignity.

I offer you to go to Forbes.com and look under investment tab and get this info form the horse’s mouth. TSA’s and Roth IRA’s are the best thing going right now (depending on the company that you decide to go with). They have no fees, TSA’s are pre-taxed so that you will have greater savings, but unfortunately they are only in the non-profit sector like schools, hospitals etc. They even have riders that can enable you to get guaranteed income for life.

Some companies also offer this same type of deal with the Roth IRA but they are tax deferred. You can also get the guaranteed income for life rider with this type of savings vehicle.

I do encourage you all to do your homework and please, check your quarterly statements. Don’t just throw them in your kitchen drawer when they come. This is your future at stake. So take charge of it and I wish you all much success.

My name is Ernest Xavier Smith and I really hope that I was able to help someone with this article. For more content o this subject feel free to log on to http://www.ernestxaviersmith.com

The trading market is a difficult and complicated place to get into but the monetary reward is worth the effort. Before you make investments you must have sufficient knowledge, understanding and analysis of the market. You need to have the right data to examine and analyze. One of the required data that needs your understanding is financial data. Understanding and making analysis is not as difficult as before especially with services that provide good financial data presentation.

Financial data provides you the whole fiscal year’s data on a certain company’s situation in terms of operating expense, operating income, revenue, profit, etc. including news about important events on the changes on that company’s performance. Financial data also covers the documentation of expenses of services provided, income generated from services and income from different sources.

It is important that financial data be collected and presented effectively in order for you to produce maximum monetary rewards. Data about financial issues should be presented clearly and presenting related images can be very useful to you as well. Images, charts and graphs related to the data make it easier for you to understand and even allow you to conveniently create comparable analysis. The graphs and charts can even be more helpful if matched with descriptions and explanations. Most importantly, you should be sure that the data you acquire are accurate.

There are some details that investors and traders must have knowledge about when deciding to analyze financial data. You must familiarize yourself with terms related to economics and finance so that you can better digest the financial data presentation. This can aid you in your analysis and making good decisions.

For awhile marketers undergo the inconvenience of separating financial data from unrelated data. There are services that provide you with accurate and related data for quicker analysis. These services have the data mining technology that can do classification, clustering, association and regression among the changes in data.

Traders and investors are constantly faced with the challenges of the changing market which is why tools that enable them to react quickly to the changes are constantly sought after. These services have their own collection of financial data that you can conveniently access. Though there are numerous services to choose from, you should make sure that the service you get into focuses on speed, quality and accuracy.

A good financial data presentation can be a huge help to you when doing analysis. Images, graphs and charts are some examples of presentations that allow you to examine and understand data easily. Traders and investors usually acquire tools to aid them in analysis due to the always changing market. You will need the tools to provide you with the speed and convenience in doing complicated analysis.

Investor and Trader, John Conejos wants to share with you the tools that helped him acquire great monetary rewards in the market. He believes that though risks are present in the market, skills matched with advanced stools that can help avoid these risks.

You can now perform effective analysis with Derivative Trading Systems’ tools for good financial data presentation. These tools can provide excellent presentation of data that enables you to perform effective and much convenient analysis. Subscribe for the free trial version at http://www.derivs.com/horizon-start.html and experience firsthand how its tools can put you one step ahead of your competitors.

A lot of traders and investors examine the yield curve since it has the ability to provide them with accurate predictions of future growth and recession. By effectively analyzing this curve you can lessen risk of loss by leaving the market during recessions. Understanding future economic conditions can provide you security and assurance on your investment. You don’t have to do this on your own since there are tools and software that can aid you in performing effective yield curve analysis.

Yield curve analysis is where the measurement of the difference in interest rates among notes that have varying terms of maturity. Traders in various markets all over the world closely examine the different interest rates and maturities to understand the curve that would serve as their platform in knowing their personal rates for long, medium and short-term debt tools.

There are different kinds of yield curves and it is good that now there are services that provide you a better view for close monitoring on each of them. The normal curve is where the yields rise as maturity increases and a good indicator for future economic growth. The steep yield curve shows you that the economy is expected to progress rapidly in the future. The flat or humped yield curve sends you signs of economic uncertainty. The inverted curve gives you an idea that the economy will slow down or even go down in the future.

Traders, investors and economists are looking for ways to have effective analysis on this curve in order to have certainty on the financial economic condition. The upward curve can give them an idea that investors need higher rate to match longer maturities. A steepening curve means that the economy will experience rapid development that would require higher rates. A flat curve provides them with a sign of economic uncertainty.

You can spot tools and software that allow quicker and better analysis of this curve. These software tools cater for all elements of the this curve such as the different configurations of forward rates. The great thing about some of these tools is they allow you to perform complex analysis in a short period of time. The speed and accuracy of data is a big factor on how fast you can perform yield curve analysis. Some of these tools locally store data on your computer or LAN so you can’t experience any internet lag when doing analysis.

Market conditions are always changing and you need to have the right tools and skills to react quicker to analyze market strategies. There are tools available for you that have advanced yet user-friendly graphical application that provides quality and accurate data for yield curve analysis.

John Conejos is a financial professional who wants to help you achieve success in your trade and investment. He wants to introduce to you the tools that helped him develop effective analysis of the market which then led to his success.

Now you can react faster to market changes and save a significant amount of time when doing analysis. You don’t have to be an expert in programming and even manually perform data adjustments on spreadsheets. Visit Derivative Trading System and avail the free trial version. Experience their tools functionalities and be the judge of their performance.

The hard truth about the financial market is it is risky and challenging. While many experts give advice on putting your money on long-term investments to generate money safely, many prefer to invest their savings in the financial market in an effort to increase wealth quicker. There is a way to minimize the risks involved and that is by analyzing technical analysis charts. Transactions need to be calculated and taken seriously. Technical analysis charting software can provide you with a clear view of the chart pattern on a stock chart that produces a trading sign or forecast on future movements of price.

Technical analysis charts enable you to analyze future price movements by studying past price movements. Continuous changes in price movement in the chart are normal and learning to interpret them can be extremely beneficial. The charts provide you with a basis for analysis in order to find and determine common chart patterns and trends. Technical analysis is not going to give you the exact future prediction but it helps you predict what is most likely to occur to prices in the future.

Previously you needed to learn and master charting but now there are technical analysis charting software tools that can do the task for you. These software tools can show you different chart patterns such as head and shoulders, cup and handle, double tops and bottoms, triangles, flag and pennant, wedge, gaps, triple tops and bottoms and rounding bottom. You need not to be an expert since there are now software tools that doesn’t require you to perform manual technical analysis with charts.

There are services that designed an easy to configure java based charting tools that can be integrated into data viewing applications and browser pages. They can be used to view real-time or static data. They are always ready to display individual charts or a group of up to four different charts in a single page. You can find tools that are cost efficient solutions to add advanced charting systems to an online site or data viewing application.

Using charts for analysis doesn’t have to be difficult especially now that there are tools that have a technical analysis charting software that can automatically makes sub-charts for technical examination that are not designed for overlay. They can present you a variety of technical analysis tools. The charts are updated and revised each time realtime data is updated. With the right tools, you can easily and quickly determine your personal trading as well as program trading opportunities.

Though, not much of an expert on charting, John Conejos has done a lot of effective analysis of the yield curve chart. He has achieved numerous successful trade and investment with the help of tools that are designed for convenient analysis.

You don’t have to be a programming expert as well as waste so much time doing difficult data analysis and strategy. He wants you to subscribe at http://www.derivs.com/horizon-start.html and register for the free trial version so you can see for yourself how their tools can help you analyze strategies.

With a high-speed internet connection and computer you can access numerous financial data providers online. You need a source that provides reliable information whether you are new or experienced in trading. The data provided can show you the financial markets and movements of stocks that are crucial in making investment decisions. People are seeking financial data services in the effort of acquiring reliable, accurate and quick information.

By definition, financial data is a full fiscal year’s data on a corporation’s performance in terms of operating expense/income, revenues, profits, loss, etc. Additional to this information is the analysis of the circumstances that affected this performance. Though there are numerous providers of this data, some require you to do all the work in filtering and tracking the patterns to separate unrelated data from the financial data. Software with financial data services can help you reread and build the data required for financial analysis and anticipate financial needs.

The sources providing financial data differ on the quality of service they provide. The frequency of delivery can be real-time, end of day or delayed. The method of delivery can be data snapshot files or streaming data format. The competing sources’ transportation of delivery can vary via satellite, broadcast, VPN, private line or internet. They vary on the reliability of data depending on its availability to the financial market. There are sources that offer additional services for convenience and better analysis. The sources also vary on local experience.

There are some financial data services sources that are already very popular with a lot of middle office and back office personnel. These are sources that provide you with a cost wise yet amazingly powerful way to take advantage of a top of the grade term structure analytic to view the trends in finance as well as be provided with reference data. Banks, financial services providers, buy-side users and hedge funds are the top users of these software tools.

You can find tools that provide a never before seen framework for fast, thorough and accurate interpretation of market trends. They will allow you to do complicated analysis in a short period of time. There are sources that offer financial data services that allow you to react faster in analyzing market strategies. Some have their own historical database of a wide range of market data and interest rates that goes back over thirty years. In today’s volatile market and fast changing environment, you need the best tools to outperform your competitors.

Investor and trader, John Conejos is an avid user of advanced tools that offer amazing financial data services. He wants you to learn about the tools that can help manage data for much effective and convenient analysis of the market.

Subscribe at Derivative Trading Systems and acquire the free trial version to see for yourself its tools’ efficiency in helping you with analysis. In today’s competitive and always changing market, together with skill and knowledge, the advanced tools that can provide data and helped with analysis can increase assurance for success.

Around 225,000 people are added to the global population every single day, all of whom require food and fuel. At the same time, incomes in developing economies are rising, causing a shift toward a more expensive and more resource intensive westernised diet based on meat. Considering that 1kg of meat requires the input of 7kg of grain as animal feed, this combination of more people and higher consumption per capita adds tremendous strain to already stretched agricultural productivity.

The amount of farmland on the planet is actually falling. Urbanisation, soil degradation, water scarcity and climate change all converge to reduce the stock of land suitable for growing the essential crops we need.

In light of this on-going and increasing disparity between supplies of farmland and demand for agricultural commodities, investors are turning to farmland in order to capture financial gains as food prices rise and productive land becomes intrinsically more valuable.

There are a range of farmland investment strategies to consider, from simple acquisition of land and leasing to farmer, through to sharing crop revenues in a joint venture under a contract framing agreement. But certainly the most profitable agriculture investment strategy is greenfield development; the acquisition of land with agricultural potential and converting into productive agricultural assets through the establishment of infrastructure such as irrigation, storage facilities and road, as well as amending the soil profile to ensure maximum productivity.

Greenfield farmland developments add substantial capital value to previously unused land, as well as positively impacting the current black hole in agricultural productivity that leave over 1 billion people hungry around the world each year. Investors also benefit from on-going income from crop revenues as newly converted land produce an annual yield from the production of crops.

The majority of future growth is widely expected to come from developing regions including Asia, Africa and Latin America, where economic growth outpaces that of the west by a huge margin. It is these key growth regions that the appetite for agricultural commodities will grow the most. In fact, in Germany the population is expected to get smaller in the next 40 years, whilst in China the population is expected to expand by some 30% in the same period.

It is fair to say then that agriculture investments based on the development of suitable land, in close proximity to key growth regions in Asia, Africa and Latin America offer investors the best opportunity to capture not only short term appreciation through development, but also long-term growth and income driven by population growth and rising incomes.

David Garner is Partner at boutique alternative investments boutique DGC Asset Management Limited.

Investors seeking income can no longer rely on share dividends, and saving deposit accounts often generate a negative return when adjusted for inflation. Whilst this scenario looks set to continue for the foreseeable future, we must look elsewhere for our annual pay-outs.

Agriculture Investments

At the most basic level, agriculture investments based on the acquisition of agricultural property assets generate income, either from leased payments from tenant farmers, or shared revenue from harvests when farmed as part of a contract farming agreements (CFA).

There are a number of options for investors to consider, allowing smaller investors to take a direct stake in productive farmland and benefitting from a share of the annual income as well as potential capital growth as land values rise over time.

Such options exist in Latin America, Australia and Africa, and investors should be encouraged to seek independent advice as to the suitability of any such scheme to ensure suitability for the investors specific circumstances and attitude to risk.

Renewable Energy Investments

As the global population grows demanding more energy, and natural resources such as coal oil and gas continue to diminish, the world turns to renewable sources capable of supply energy in perpetuity without causing damage to the environment and delicate global ecosystem.

Around the world, governments incentivise investment in renewable energy technologies such as wind, solar, tidal, geo thermal, waste to energy and anaerobic digestion through feed-in-tariffs, where each unit of energy fed into the national grid is paid for at a set rate which is invariably linked to inflation.

This present those looking for income capture annual revenue that shares no correlation with traditional income investment assets or financial market fundamentals. Investors may choose to establish solar panels or wind turbines, collecting feed in tariffs from energy generated. Other may choose to grow renewable energy crops for the production of biofuels or for use as biomass fuel.

Renewable energy investments then are ideal non-correlated income investment tools, replacing lost dividend or interest income and offering to hedge that income stream against the effects of inflation.

Forestry investments

Forestry investments have long been used as a tool to diversify and optimise investment portfolios by institutional investors, and now a range of options exist for smaller investors to purchase plots within larger, professionally managed timber plantations.

Trees continue to grow every year so forestry investment can grow even when other assets fall in value. Investors choose forestry to ensure at least a part of their portfolio retains value and even grow every year, and as timber prices also increase, forestry investment offer a double edged sword of capital growth.

Faster growing timber species such as bamboo (which is technically as grass), offer shorter term income opportunities as they can grow into harvestable timber within a few years, whilst other commercial species like teak take up to 25 to 30 years to reach maturity.

This means fast growing timber species make for ideal income investments, also providing coverage of capital being backed by physical property assets.

Summary

Whilst a range of alternative investment options exist, these esoteric investment options are not suitable for every investor. All of the above options lack any kind of immediate liquidity, so potential investors must be prepared to tie up their funds for at least five years.

Liquidity aside, investor must also work with an advisor with experience in these sectors, preferably being able to demonstrate that they have delivered and exited performing investment previously.

David garner is a Partner at DGC Asset Management an alternative investment boutique specialising in identifying and delivering asset-backed, alternative property investment opportunities in the agriculture, timber and renewable energy sectors.

Hopefully knowledge of the information below will help you sleep better at night.

Did you know that during our last steep market decline from the high in October of 2007 through it’s low in March of 2009, the Standard & Poor 500 Composite Index (a broad measure of U.S. stocks) fell nearly 57%? The good news was that by the end of 2009 the index had risen almost 65% from its March low. Do you think that after a 57% loss that a 65% gain will get you at least back to your break-even point?

Let’s look at an easier example to help us figure this out: If a $1,000.00 investment loses 50%, then its value drops to $500.00. In order for the investment to return to the $1,000.00 level again, that $500.00 must do more than gain 50% – which would only bring it to $750.00. It would actually need to double! Isn’t that interesting? A 50% loss would need a 100% gain to bring you “back in the black” or back to your break-even point.

So, to answer the original question, for the S&P 500 to return to its October 2007 high, it would have to realize an increase of over 132%! How did I figure that out? By using the same loss and recovery percentages as the S&P 500 and with a nice round number like 1000, if a $1,000.00 investment loses 57%, then it drops to $430.00. So, you would need to make another $570.00 to get back to $1,000.00. All you have to do now is figure out what the percentage 570 is to 430 by using the following equation: (570/430) * 100 = 132.56%.

Here is a quick reference list to help you figure out what type of gain you would need to get back to break-even after a loss in your investment:

If your investment declines 10% you would need a gain of 11.1% to break even.
If your investment declines 20% you would need a gain of 25.0% to break even.
If your investment declines 30% you would need a gain of 42.9% to break even.
If your investment declines 40% you would need a gain of 66.7% to break even.
If your investment declines 50% you would need a gain of 100.0% to break even.

David Vogelsang makes weekly posts to his blog titled Spreading Financial Confidence… One Post at a Time. For more great articles like this, please visit http://dvogelsang.blogspot.com/

The Federal Reserve just announced that it was going to perform stress tests on 6 major banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo. This is a part of an annual review required by the Dodd-Frank law, with the intention of determining whether or not any of the big banks are vulnerable to collapse.

Clearly, the last thing the Fed wants is to be blindsided like they were when Lehman Brothers went under and when they were forced to institute TARP. In fact, some think that the collapse of another major financial entity would be disastrous, and would be enough to tip the economy into a full-blown recession. Not me. Instead, I think another bank collapse is what we need to get the economy back on track.

Think about it. The economy has been stuck in low gear for over three years now. Bank of America, for example, was trading near $40 per share in September, 2008, just before the banking meltdown. It got as low as $2.53 per share in February, 2009, just before the market bottomed. By October, 2009, it had moved back up close to $20 per share but stalled until it made a slightly higher high in April, 2010, which is where it peaked out. Since then, it has continued to falter, and now sits close to $5 per share.

In the meantime, even though it too has stalled, the S&P 500 is in much better shape than Bank of America and other major banks, like Morgan Stanley and Citigroup. The under performance of the banking sector sticks out like a sore thumb, and it’s what has kept the overall market from making much progress.

So, why are banks under performing so badly? It’s because no one really has a handle on their exposure to potential loan losses – including the Fed – whether in the US or in Europe. And, if there’s one thing the market hates above all, it’s uncertainty.

Thus, we have a real Catch 22. On the one hand, everyone worries what might happen to the US economy if another big bank goes under. On the other hand, the weakness of the banking sector has been largely responsible for the market going nowhere. So, what’s the solution? I say let as many banks as necessary go under, because it could be a cathartic moment; a true cleansing of everything that has been wrong with the “system” for a number of years.

Of course, such a solution has the potential to cause a calamity in the markets. So what? If you have an abscessed tooth and you do nothing about it, you are going to be in pain for an indefinite length of time, and unless dealt with, may not be able to function. So, I say take the pain now, get it over with and move on.

The good news about our economic system is there’s always someone ready to swoop in to take advantage of the weak hands; it’s just the way it is. Someone’s misfortune is someone else’s good fortune. If Bank of America, or any other bank was to go under, the surviving entities would be there to pick up the pieces.

One would argue that the remaining banks would then become even bigger, thus setting up an even worse case scenario than too big to fail. Nonsense. There are thousands of banks across the country; enough to absorb the fallout. Why do you think the major banks did an about-face on the debit card fees they were thinking of enacting? Because they saw the writing on the wall; the smaller regional and local banks were going to take away their business.

No longer fear too big to fail. Start thinking just the opposite. If we’re lucky, this will be the solution we’ve been looking for to get our economy back on track.

About the Author

You can learn more about John and Invested Central, and sign up for our free stock market newsletter, at http://www.investedcentral.com

Predictive analysis software tools can provide you with understanding of what is coming. It is no surprise that the demand for them is increasing. Numerous companies are accepting the competitive advantage the tool’s predictive analytics provide. Companies that use these tools will have an advantage on predicting the future trends and probabilities.

The reports provided to the company by predictive analytics exceed the standard sales forecast and business reports. It can show you the risks and opportunities once it is done analyzing the patterns seen in transactional and historical data. Predictive analysis captures the connection between numerous factors so that it can analyze and determine the risks associated with a certain group of decisions.

It uses the data acquired from a group of people in order to determine their future actions. This prediction helps companies to transfer those future actions in a direction that is favorable to the company. This strategy helps companies decide on what creative way they can introduce new products to clients as well as find a way to maintain their existing clients.

Implementation of predictive analytics can improve the business processes of retailers. Retailers would be able to automate, direct and optimize decisions as well as improve decision-making, thus accomplishing goals in a short period of time. Using this analysis will enhance retailers’ speed on their decision-making processes. The qualitative foundation of predictive analytics can quickly evaluate, identify and pursue fresh market opportunities. It improves retailer’s operating performance, enable them to provide accurate forecast, improve sales productivity and resource management.

These tools that are used to identify predictive analysis in the financial markets are already very popular to sales staff, traders and quant. They use them to determine and spot arbitrage and trading opportunities. It is vital that you look for tools that provide accurate and quick data to allow you to perform effective analysis and even outperform your competitors. These tools have added features that can be very beneficial. There are tools that conveniently supply you with data and place them in applications such as Excel for computation.

These tools can help you analyze rewarding trading strategies such as volatility, yield curve and other strategies before your competitors can put data together for analysis. There are no boundaries for the application of predictive analysis. Some tools can provide effective prediction with their text analysis, speech analytics, social media monitoring and scoring models to analyze the customers’ mood.

John Conejos believes in the power of data and how they can help us identify opportunities and lessen risk. He wants to share about a tool called Open Horizon by Derivative Trading System which can help you determine and spot arbitrage as well as trading opportunities. He wants you to try the tool for yourself, be amazed by its accurate and quick data and experience being ahead of your competitors.