Investment Articles

So we know that gold is currently much more valuable than silver. That’s the general knowledge right now, and that’s why companies that have money to invest prefer to buy gold over silver. Because they’re buying and selling gold, their profit margins are larger.

Another reason companies invest in gold is that they know that gold is very popular. Over time, gold has always been considered one of the most valuable metals on this planet. People always traded gold. Kings wore gold all the time. Gold is used as a synonym of wealth. On the other hand silver is called “the gold of the poor”, and of course none of the big and wealthy investment firms want to work with something that’s associated with poor people. So, they select gold over silver.

But gold will decrease in value relative to silver because there will be much more of it as silver is depleted.

The main reason for which we use gold is to store value. Gold is our reserves. Gold is something that will be in demand and we will always be able to trade it for money or for anything we want. It will always be wanted and needed by almost any country in the world.

The crazy thing is that people don’t really consider silver to be a great way to store value. The reason for that is its price. If we want to have enough silver to even consider anything serious we have to have a lot of it. But as I have mentioned in the previous chapter it will not be a case for ever.

Silver will be just as good as gold as a means to store value in the very near future. We will want to buy silver from the investors because we will simply need it for our lives. This is common knowledge for many people that have interest in trading precious metals for long-term investments. Hopefully after reading this book this is common knowledge for you.

Andy Henry is the author of ‘Now Invest In Silver’ a beginners guide to investing in silver and the owner of http://www.nowinvestinsilver.com and http://www.sellingyoursilver.com the new auction site dedicated to silver buying and selling.

Forestry investment has outperformed most other assets for the last 30 years, providing consistent returns averaging 15% per annum over the last decade. Institutional investors like Jeremy Grantham have been using forestry as an effective inflation hedge for years (Grantham even holds 20% of his personal investment portfolio in Forestry), and an investment of £1 million into a managed forest in 1990 would be worth on average £16,366,537 today in 2010 (tax free in most countries too!).

So what is the best forestry investment, and how can smaller investors, who maybe don´t have access to £1 million, participate in forestry investment and take advantage of the low risk, high returns that have been enjoyed by institutional investors for decades?

There are many structures available for smaller investors, with options from Teak to Argawood, through to Paulownia and even bamboo, and there are also various locations to choose from covering most continents and all economies from frontier markets to developed economies. Choosing which type of forestry investment is for you will depend on how long you want to tie up your cash (tree type), and your attitude to political risk (where your forest is located).

After conducting some extensive due diligence on the harvest times of different timber types and their historical price performance and forward looking demand, and also settled on where you are, and are not, happy to invest, you can start to narrow down your selection of investment projects.

Deal Structure for Smaller Investors

Smaller investors can participate in forestry by buying or leasing a small part, maybe a hectare or three, of a much larger managed forest of maybe 1000 hectares. The investor will own the rights to the trees on their hectare of land, and those trees will be professionally managed, harvested and the timber sold, along with all the timber from the entire 1000 hectare site. This kind of deal structure allows retail investors the same kind of deal participation in forestry as institutional investors. These types of investment structures also suppress the ongoing costs involved with forestry in general, as the cost of professional management of your trees, harvesting, negotiating sales and transporting timber is shared amongst all investors in the site, and economies of scale apply.

There are also forestry investment structures that go a long way to mitigate risk, with land title held in trust in the UK or U.S. to protect smaller investors from company failure, and there are even forestry investment packages where all the timber is sold in advance, giving investors a pretty accurate picture of the forward revenue they will receive from their forestry investment.

So, In my opinion, the best forestry investment would encompass a deal structure that mitigated the risks of forestry investment by choosing a forest growing a timber in high demand, and a quick grower too if possible, so I could see a financial return inside five years; Paulownia fits this description quite well. There are no known diseases affecting Paulownia, and the tree doesn’t catch fire below 400 degrees, effectively removing the two greatest risks involved in forestry investment. Paulownia also grows quickly, and under the right circumstances can be harvested every five years, giving investors four cash yields over twenty years.

In my search for the best forestry investment, location figures quite highly as previously mentioned and from a climate perspective I would be looking at South America, Brazil, Panama, Costa Rica all have the relevant climates, and Panama has a favourable tax regime too so revenue earned from the sale of timber, if handled correctly, should present a tax efficient profit for a forestry investment in panama.

The best forestry investment then, as far as timescale and risk are concerned would for me, be Paulownia trees in Panama, with a deal structure in place to ensure a minimum risk level for the investor.

David Garner is Managing Partner at DGC Investment Consultants – http://www.dgc-ai.com – a boutique alternative investment firm advising a network of investors on alternative assets including agricultural investment, investing in forestry and property investment.

Securities arbitration results from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (”FINRA”) Office of Dispute Resolution reporting the outcomes of customer initiated investment related arbitrations against stockbrokers and investment firms have been released for 2009.

Not surprisingly, the number of FINRA customer initiated arbitration cases filed in 2009 increased 43% from 4,982 cases in 2008 to 7,137 cases in 2009. The number of these cases was initially expected to exceed 10,000 in 2009. Increases in securities prices in the 2009 have probably reduced the number of claims that would otherwise have been filed last year, given Wall Street’s more recent misconduct, as the high tide conceals that the swimmers are wearing no clothes.

Last years filings are still behind the number of presumably “tech-wreck” related annual filings in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Securities arbitration claims involving misrepresentations and omissions continue to outpace the filing of cases alleging the sale of unsuitable investments, as it is expected these cases particularly in 2008 and 2009 relate to the fraudulent sale of the preferred securities of financial institutions, structured products, bond funds, and the near cash instruments that have been manufactured by Wall Street within the last two years and sold to unsuspecting otherwise conservative investors.

Indeed, FINRA reports a 318% increase in the number of securities arbitration claims filed against brokers involving preferred securities and a 128% increase in the number of securities arbitration claims filed involving fraud in connection with the sale of corporate bonds.

Based upon the FINRA securities arbitration cases closed last year, at least 25%, or 1 in 4 of these cases were not settled or withdrawn, but were decided by arbitration panels. Of those cases decided by securities arbitration panels, investors prevailed only 43%, or less than half of the time, meaning that the chance or probability of not obtaining an monetary award or favorable outcome in an arbitration proceeding is greater than playing Russian Roulette, where only 1 in 6 times, the outcome does not favor the participant.

FINRA also reports that 7% or 310 of the cases closed last were cases “decided by arbitrators after a review of the documents,” but it is unclear if these cases were submitted to FINRA on the papers in simplified arbitration (i.e. claims for less than $25,000) or were cases dismissed by FINRA arbitration panels in advance of an evidentiary hearing. In 2009, the FINRA approved a proposal to limit significantly the number of dispositive motions filed in its arbitration forum and impose strict sanctions against parties who engage in abusive motions practices.

Although FINRA has again launched its “experimental” public arbitration pilot program allowing parties to be excused from the mandatory non-public, securities industry arbitrator required to render judgment on every arbitration panel deciding these claims involving more than $100,000, FINRA reports that of its qualified arbitrator pool, 43% or 2,696 of its qualified arbitrators are non-public arbitrators and are employed or have some significant tie to the securities industry.

If you have been the victim of investment fraud by your stockbroker or investment professional, contact us for a free evaluation at (877) SEC-ATTY. Many cases accepted on a contingency fee basis.

Nicholas J. Guiliano, Esquire
The Guiliano Law Firm
230 South Broad Street, Suite 601
Philadelphia, PA 19102
(215) 413-8223 (Telephone)
(215) 413-8225 (Telecopier)
(877) SEC-ATTY
http://www.securitiesarbitrations.com

Many people want to play on the stock market in hopes of making the magical selection that will provide them with lots of disposable income and make all their dreams come true. Although it might seem like the stock market is a place where you get thousands of dollars in return for a small investment, there are actually a lot of very complex processes and equations that go into determining who makes money, and who does not. More often than not, naive investors will sink all their money into one prospect only to have it shudder and die within a few months. Not all investing is created equal, and if you want the best dividends, you need to understand how the process works and what to look out for.

The first thing to understand is exactly what dividends are. When a company goes public and starts to trade its stock on the big boards, they begin to take on public shareholders. These shareholders can be investment firms, banks, or normal people that are interested in gaining something back on their money. In a certain sense, these people become partial owners of the company, and when the company does well, it usually rewards them for their initial investment. When a successful company turns a profit, it has the option of distributing percentages of these profits to its shareholders, and when it does, these shared profits are known as dividends.

Many people think that dividends are the fastest way to see a return on your investment without really having to do anything, but it’s important to remember that there are many different ways in which the market and the price of the stock can affect the dividend you do, or do not see. When thinking about getting involved in this type of investing, you must take care to consider the payout ratio very carefully. Many companies will try to attract investors with ratios that sound too good to be true, and they usually are. Anything over sixty five percent is a ratio that you should probably stay away from.

In the first couple of years, it’s important to remember that the best thing you can do with your dividends is reinvest them. Unless something unusual happens, they probably won’t be huge amounts of profit for you anyway, and you can strengthen your portfolio consistently if you allow those dividends to continue working for you in the open market.

Ready to get started? Learn more about investing and dividend yield at http://www.DividendYieldLive.com today!

The best investment strategy for 2010 and beyond is not likely to be the normal investment strategy recommended year after year by many investment firms. Things ARE different this time. Here’s your basic investment guide of things to consider going forward.

Year after year the basic investment strategy or asset allocation recommended for most people: 60% stocks and 40% bonds. Stocks or stock funds are the growth element and bonds or bond funds are the safer investment that provides higher income in this asset allocation. In theory, losses in one should be offset by gains in the other. It’s time to review your present asset allocation. You might be taking more risk than you think you are.

Sometimes the best investment strategy is aggressive in nature; other times a bit of defense is called for. Rarely does chasing a hot asset class pay off for long. With the stock market up 60% in less than a year and high bond prices (super-low interest rates), that’s exactly what many investors are doing. At the same time some are chasing gold at historically high prices, and emerging stock markets that have been on fire (like China).

Your asset allocation has probably changed since you last looked due to fast changing markets. Take a good look, and then decide if your investment strategy is on track at an acceptable level of risk. If you are heavy into either stocks or bonds (or both) you might want to lighten up and diversify more. In 2010 and beyond the investment landscape could change considerably.

What if the financial crisis is not really over, or the U.S. dollar continues to be unstable? What if economic growth fails to materialize or interest rates soar? The USA has not been faced with more economic uncertainty in my time, and I’ve followed the economy and the markets since 1972. Here’s a basic investment guide to avoiding heavy losses should the going get tough again.

If you hold bonds or bond funds consider shortening your maturities and cutting your exposure. For example, if you hold long-term bond funds consider moving to intermediate-term and short-term bond funds. Rising interest rates will send bond prices (values) down, and long-term bonds will get hit the hardest. You will sacrifice higher interest income, but will increase safety with this investment strategy.

Stocks and stock funds may have moved up too far too fast in 2009. Don’t chase the stock market unless you want to speculate. Consider lightening up your asset allocation to stocks that closely follow the market in general. It’s quite likely that much of this move upward was “window dressing” by large portfolio managers who want to look good at year end. Some of it was no doubt caused by individual investors looking for higher returns in a low-interest-rate environment. Any bad news in 2010 could prompt these same investors to sell and send stock prices down.

Now that you’ve cut your asset allocation to bond and stock investments in general, where do you put this money? When in doubt CASH is king. Cash refers to safe, liquid investments like savings accounts, short-term CDs, and money market securities. Money market mutual funds are the easiest way for the average investor to put money into money market securities. With short-term interest rates at historical lows many investors have taken money out of these safe investments. If you want to play defense, increase your asset allocation to cash.

For offense consider moving money periodically into a variety of areas often overlooked by average investors… to broaden your diversification. For example, consider stocks in the following specialty sectors: basic materials, natural resources, real estate, foreign securities, and precious metals if you don’t already have money there. Mutual funds are available in all the above specialty sectors as well. Invest in increments to smooth out the risk of bad timing.

In times of high uncertainty don’t follow the crowd. Your best investment strategy is to survive financially with your investment assets intact. When the dust settles get more aggressive with your asset allocation. Meanwhile, cash is king; and diversify, diversify, diversify.

A retired financial planner, James Leitz has an MBA (finance) and 35 years of investing experience. For 20 years he advised individual investors, working directly with them helping them to reach their financial goals.

Jim is the author of a complete investor guide, Invest Informed, designed for average investors or would-be investors of all levels of financial background and experience. To learn more about investments and investing and his new financial guide go to http://www.investinformed.com.

The business of private equity is one that has been in the headlines for some time now – coming under the public spotlight even more since the beginning of the recession. In this article we shall discuss how these firms operate, and how they make their rather substantial profits.

Let’s begin by outlining what exactly private equity is. These companies are in essence investment companies. Their actual name relates to the methods they use to accrue enough money to invest. They do not go to the stock market and sell shares; instead they obtain their monies from private individuals – these sources are often funds for pensions or individuals with a substantial amount of wealth.

With the money they have borrowed and obtained, they buy firms that have previously been identified as not performing as well as they might. The aim is to turn these firms around and generate a profit. Once the company has started being profitable, the company will in all likelihood be sold on to another investor/buyer. It is thought that nearly 30,000 companies have been invested in by the private equity industry – amounting to around 80 billion pounds in all – since 1983.

Some people might ask – are these buy outs actually a positive thing? As far as the government is concerned, the process of private equity is a very positive thing, as it arguably helps to create jobs with speed and contributes high tax revenues to the treasury’s coffers. The private equity firms themselves point out that they improve the performance of UK companies with stronger management and market discipline.

On the downside, these investment firms sometimes have to make difficult decisions – such as laying workers off; there might be a profitable part of a business, and an unprofitable part – the one losing money might see job losses. These eventualities can make these kinds of firms unpopular in the eyes of the powerful press and therefore the population at large.

This asset stripping is not popular – but the firms say they need to make drastic decisions in order to make the given company profitable again. People in opposition to private equity say that the business has unfair perks in terms of taxation – the central focus of this concern if the taxation process termed ‘carry’.

Overall, private equity businesses are a central part of the UK economy and are unlikely to disappear. In the current economic climate they are likely to be a growing feature of the nation’s economy.

Gino Hitshopi is highly experienced in the realm of private equity, having worked in the investment industry for many years. For more information please visit: http://www.preqin.com/section/private-equity/1.

An investment advisor is someone who takes his or her extensive knowledge of the stock market and financial arenas and tells others what stocks are worth investing for their trading needs and which should be passed on as too risky for the investment amount.

An advisor will not make the final decisions for the investor; only offer strong cautions or recommendations. A green investment adviser is one who takes those cautions and recommendations just a step further by suggesting only the companies that engage in ecologically aware practices or those that are more socially responsible. However, the level of this social responsibility may vary among investment firms and from company to company.

Light Green Advisors (LGA) suggests products such as mutual funds that include the Eco Index and the Environmental Leadership Trust. The former is a “broadly diversified, passively managed index based on the Standard and Poor’s 500 with 320 companies that have average or above average environmental performance from all industry groups except tobacco. The latter comprises 30 S&P stocks in most industry groups which many include firms that face environmental challenges but are managing their risk.” (Social funds)

What Skills Do I Need?

Being an experienced financial or investment advisor is a good way to start, as is being well versed in green practices. Keeping abreast of all economic, environmental and political news is important as well. What Should I Avoid?

You are acting in the role of advisor so you should avoid preaching to your clients. While it is good to feel passionately about something, it is not good if you have alienated most of your clients with overzealous outbursts against a company, without careful analysis.

What is the Market Size or Growth Potential?

This field is virtually unlimited, especially as more and more people lose their investment opportunities at work but still want an investment fund for their retirement. Even more important is the green aspect as more people become increasingly socially and environmentally aware and demand this same consciousness from the companies with which they do business with.

Who are the Competitors?

Other investment firms are going to be the most obvious competition that you will face. However, you will have to make sure that are not only knowledgeable in ecology, but customer service as well.

What are the Risks?

Every investor will make a bad investment every now and then and will immediately blame his or her advisor. No matter how carefully the research has been done, and how the financial projections have gone, there are always unforeseen events that may lose money for the investor. The very nature of the market is one of galloping unpredictability.

References: http://www.socialfunds.com/news

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What if you could achieve the investment returns of a professional? I am going to show you that the secret to becoming a successful investor is the exact opposite to what you think. To become a great stock market investor you must do what most people aren’t prepared to.

Why do most Stock Investors fail?

1. Because they believe that a financial adviser will do the work for them
2. Because they don’t care enough about their money

Financial advisors are not professional money investors. There are a handful of them that are great investors but they will charge you an arm and a leg just to meet with them. Ask your financial advisor what are their investment results? If there aren’t creating the results for themselves then what chance does your money have.

Imagine a world where the financial advice system was great and fair. You could give them your money and in a few years it will have double. WAKE UP. That isn’t how it works, the majority of investment firms and global investors have lost more than 50% of their retirement fund during the so called GFC. Yet the professional investors have made huge profits.

How can you join the real Professional Investors?

When I say real, I mean the investors who are actually making money — what seperates a successful investor from an unsuccessful one? The answer is knowledge. No longer is it profitable to simple buy and hold stocks. There are more opportunities at the moment than ever but you will need to have a better arsenal of investment strategies to take advantage of them.

The Best and Easiest Way to Become a Successful Investor is…

The above heading could read “The only way to become a successful investor is…” because unless you update your investment strategies you may as well throw your money away. The stock market is more volatile now than it has ever been and it is only going to get worse. Or should I say better, because professional investors love volatility. Have you heard the saying

“Volatility equals opportunity”

Not quite true, the correct statement should read — Volatility equals opportunity for the educated investor and disaster for the uneducated investor. So the question remains what kind of investor are you?

What is the Best and Easiest Way to Become a Successful Investor? http://www.SharesPropertyMoney.com is currently giving away a Free Investment DVD to anyone who is serious about growing their investment knowledge.

Learn the Easiest Way to Make Money as an Investor – This one strategy alone is making everyday people just like you over $30,000 per month! Low risk — Huge Rewards.

Just how do you seek out investment opportunities and how do you pick the best ones?

The Prospectus

There are many offers for investing with companies and business entities that are made available to the public. These are usually made through the issue of a prospectus. This is a document that should give full details of the offer and also include an application form. The prospectus is a legal requirement for all entities that are involved in raising money from interested investors. The document is subject to very stringent regulations and as such can be accepted as correct in its content. To receive these offers a subscription to investment firms or a request made to a financial advisor will be needed. You can also research your area of interest and apply directly to companies that make offers of interest to the public.

To find the best in this style of investment is going to depend upon your interest area and the history behind the companies offering the investment opportunity. The specific returns on offer are contained in the prospectus and comparisons can be made. Do research in this area to find the best returns for your money.

Initial Public Offering

Another form of investment is the IPO. The initial public offer is an offer for initial capitol to be invested in new share market offering. Often a company will raise funds in this manner to gain the capitol needed to list on the Australian share market. These offers can be a good investment although the risk may be high. Those that buy into an IPO often rely on the initial listing share price to be higher than the price they have paid at the IPO stage. Many are rewarded but some are not. It may be just a matter of waiting for the price of the shares to rise as the company establishes itself and has lodged significant returns.

To find the best IPO offerings, do research on the company that is making the offer. Look at the management and the style of management. What is the history behind the company? Does the management have experience in this area or similar areas? What are the previous success stories that come with the management team? Look at what the company is trying to do and evaluate that industry or area of investment. Look to other companies that are doing the same thing and differentiate between the results of the established company and that of the IPO.

The P/E Ratio

When you are evaluating an established business or company, one of the main financial calculations that will be needed is the P/E ratio. This is the price to earnings ratio. The price is of a unit of value that the company has compared to the earnings that the company made for that financial year. It is a requirement of all companies to lodge their financial information at the end of each financial year so that taxation matters can be dealt with and that share holders are able to access the information needed to evaluate their performance. There can be many other pieces of finance information that the investor could look at, but the P/E ratio is the most important. It is important to learn how to invest in shares

James McInnes is a professional share market trader and investment entrepreneur, with many years experience trading the Australian Share market. You can visit his site to learn about Trading Options In Australia