Investment Articles

Institutional investors are a segment of the market consisting of traders who make large trades that qualify them for preferential treatment with a broker. This can include lower commissions and fewer regulations that dictate their market participation. Examples of institutional investors are pension funds and other types of large entities that buy quantities of shares in bulk amounts.

This type of investor can buy shares in many types of market products that include individual stocks, various types of bonds and specific commodities. However, an institutional investor many also decide on a type of index fund instead of individual securities. One type of index fund that is an option to a passive institutional investor is an exchange traded fund. This type of fund is traded on stock exchange has assets that include stocks, bonds and commodities. They track an index such as the S&P 500.

The use of an exchange traded fund is beneficial to the institutional investor because of the ability to be flexible. This type of market vehicle is often seen as an alternative to using futures. This type of product does not require the use of margins, a special account or documentation that may be necessary for other types of financial products. Using this type of investment allows for tracking a market segment or product without having to buy large quantities of an individual security.

Other types of institutional investor that are more active include hedge funds. Investments for this type of fund are convenient for active traders because they are traded in the same way as stocks. Funds offer flexibility that is not available with other types of index funds. Traders will also benefit from the use of exchange traded funds because they are not included in the short sale uptick rule.

This use of exchange traded funds or available in many markets such as those in countries in Asia. This will include the Singapore Exchange and the Hong Kong Exchange. Investors in these markets have access to funds that are not available in the European and American markets. However, the type of fund that is used for an investment vehicle will depend on various factors such as risk and return.

Traders that will take advantage of exchange traded funds are those that seek to have long-term growth of capital and active returns on their investment. They are a great way to track the investment return of a market segment or specific type of financial product.

Asian institutional investors face new challenges this year in a difficult market situation; visit our website to learn more.

Most investors want to enjoy the high, longterm returns provided by equities, but they can’t stomach the volatility of the stock market. In the bear market of 2008, the S&P 500 lost 60% of its value. This is too much for people who need to rely on their investment portfolios for retirement.

GOAL/ OBJECTIVE:

To provide longterm gains that beat the market averages with less volatility than the overall market, and significantly less draw down during bear market corrections.

BASIC APPROACH:

Use low cost, unleveraged, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) that track the broad market indices as investment vehicles. Invest in bull market ETFs when the 9 month moving average (9MMA) is trending up, and bear market ETFs when the 9MMA is trending down.

HISTORIC RESULTS:

Ignoring dividends and trading costs, a buy and hold investment in the S&P 500 of $100,000 starting in 1995 would be worth $295,000 at the end of 2011. An investment in unleveraged S&P 500 bull and bear ETFs based upon the trend of the 9MMA would be worth $678,000.

The largest draw down during this period would be 60% for the S&P 500 buy and hold strategy. The maximum draw down for the trend following technique would be 25%.

BACK TESTING:

The 9MMA trend following strategy has been rigorously back tested for the Russell 2000 and the NASDAQ Composite from 1995 to present, and for the S&P 500 from 1980 to present. Some other time periods were checked on a less rigorous basis, to see if the method holds up during significant recessions; notably, the DOW 30 during the late 1920s and the 1930s, Japan’s Nikkei 225 during the late 1980s and 1990s, and the S&P 500 around the time of the 1974 bear market. In each instance the 9MMA trend following method yielded better results than the market averages, with smaller draw downs, and less overall portfolio volatility.

REFINEMENTS:

While developing this strategy, I noticed a number of refinements that could potentially improve longterm returns, or reduce risks. For example, in March 2009 the S&P500 went down to $670, but the 9MMA trend following technique indicated staying short until June, when the S&P 500 was at $930, before switching to bull market ETFs. I know there are a number of techniques and indicators that could improve the timing of these bare/ bull decisions. However, I have not been able to back test these theories in enough detail to ensure they should be adopted in the overall strategy. I’ll include the results of back testing these refinements in a later article. Some of the things I’ll look at include:

- Using MACD and Relative Strength indicators for timing the bull/ bear switch

- Employing multiple indices to get a head start in trend turning points

- Using leverage during the fat part of bull market trends

- Using multiple indicators to identify market trends

- Enlisting weekly charts to identify trend changes faster.

- Etc.

The goal will be, to back test the most promising ideas and incorporate enhancements to improve performance and reduce risk, and to keep the overall strategy simple while limiting the number of buy/ sell transactions.

When most people think of investments, they typically think of trading stocks and shares on the stock exchange – and this is the form of investment that most investors tend to engage in. However, if you are looking to diversify your investment portfolio or make a start in investing in something of a different way, there are some great options open to you.

One of these is wine investment. The wine market is currently much more buoyant than the economy more generally, so even though the market did suffer something of a fall last year, it has recently picked up again and is still up more than 50% compared to where it was in 2007. This means that now could be a great time to get started in wine investment.

The market on which wine is traded is called the Liv-ex Fine Wine 100, which tracks the value of the 100 most sought after wines in the world. Wine is also typically thought of as a safe haven in times of economic trouble, which is one reason the market continued to perform well even as stock markets around the world have significantly struggled over the past few years.

One important thing to note about wine investment is that fine wines are a finite resource – each chateau only produces a certain amount of each vintage, so even though new wines are coming onto the market all the time, ‘classic’ vintages are still highly sought after. This helps to drive the price of the wines. For example, in 2009, a record number of Bordeaux red wines were awarded the highest points possible, something that will make these wine hugely popular to investors in years to come.

Essentially, this means that these wines were awarded 100 out of 100 in accordance with the wine scoring system. This system was developed in the 1970s by a man called Robert Parker, and it intends to measure the quality of fine wines. As you have probably already guessed, it is the perceived quality of wine that has a huge impact on its market value.

Typically, wine that is suitable for investment has to have a score of at least 95 out of 100, so this is something to keep in mind when you’re just starting out. Overall, wine investment can be a risk just like any other form of investment, but it is also a very interesting market with good signs of growth that suggest it could be a good investment vehicle for anyone looking to move away from traditional stocks and shares.

Content written for fine wine investment brokers, Vin-X. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdzyrSXeyeA&feature=related.

Investing is always an interesting subject, because just like everybody is interested in making money, the next step is always finding a way to keep that income, and hopefully grow it somehow. With the current economy, the first phase is harder than ever, and simply making enough to live comfortably on can be a big challenge. So when you do manage to get some extra cash, you want the best possible option for investing. In this article, I want to talk about some different options on where to invest in 2012, some tips you can use, and some words of caution.

The investment choices in 2012 haven’t really changed much from the past years. The options you have are still quite similar; it’s just that the risks and rewards have shifted a bit.

Let’s start with the safest options, and move on to more risky ones. Even though the US dollar is said to be sinking by a lot of pundits, it’s still a very good investment. This means vehicles like treasury bonds, or the dollar itself are still deemed as the safer bets. Opening a standard investment savings account at a local bank is pretty much the safest thing you can do, and even if the bank defaults, you’re protected by the federal government. The downside of choosing the safer option is that of course, your potential income will be very low. Interest rates aren’t that great, and you won’t be doubling your money any time soon.

If you want to go with more risky investments, then you can start by looking at mutual funds and the stock market. Over the past few years the stock market has suffered because of the economic downturn. Now however, we’re starting to slowly get out of it, and many experts think it’s a good time to get back in. Of course, that’s no guarantee. To make money trading stocks, you’ll need a lot of knowledge and skills, and unless you’re prepared to risk big, you should probably look into some form of managed funds, something that a good broker or financial adviser can offer you, with limited risks and decent returns. Then there’s also real estate. The past few years have been hard on the property market, thanks to all the debt and foreclosures around the nation. Still, when prices go down, it’s time to buy. I’ve recently watched an episode of Ellen, where a fourteen year old girl bought a house for twelve thousand dollars! She’s now making good returns monthly by renting out her house. If you plan to put real estate into your portfolio, it’s probably a good time for you to get in on the action now.

If you’re feeling more adventurous, then there are other possibilities as well. A lot has been said about commodities lately, especially energy commodities like lithium, and precious metals like silver and gold have seen a huge gain in the past 2 years. Typically when the dollar goes down, commodities like gold, silver and many others start to climb. So you might want to look into these alternative opportunities.

As always, before you decide where to invest, make sure you do your own research or talk to a financial consultant first. Everyone has different goals and expectations, and it’s important that you select the investment vehicle that is right for you. Thanks for reading. Please visit http://www.wheretoinvest101.com for more expert investment tips and advice.

The $32 billion Harvard University Endowment Fund, which generated a return of 21.4% in the fiscal year 2011, has 23% of its investments held in real-assets, which according the CEO of Harvard Management Company; Jane Mendillo, has been a significant contributor to the fund outperforming its benchmark over the last decade by 270 basis points per year, adding roughly $15 billion of value versus what would have been earned by a more traditional portfolio. The University of Notre Dame also holds a significant proportion of its portfolio in real-assets (17.5%), and delivered a return of 21.5% in 2011. The Yale University Endowment Fund delivered a return of 21.9% in 2011, and holds 29% of its portfolio in real-assets, including real estate and natural resources.

This article seeks to review the investment performance of a range of real-assets, compare that performance to the performance of UK equities, and establish the effect of real-assets on the performance of investment portfolios. In particular, this report focuses on the investment performance and impact of farmland, forestry, gold and fine wine. The following analysis suggests that the low correlation of real-assets with other asset classes means that such investments, whilst potentially illiquid, offer an opportunity to reduce risk and volatility whilst also carrying significant potential to generate superior returns.

The following chart demonstrates the compound annual growth rate associated with a range of asset classes over a range of timeframes assuming a single investment made at the beginning of each measured period and ending at the end of 2011. In the case of the IPD UK Forestry Index and IPD Rural investment Index, data was only available until the end of 2010, however anecdotal evidence suggests that performance throughout 2011 has continued at a similar pace and therefore we feel this still offers a true and fair comparison with the equity indices.

Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)

FTSE 100

Gold
UK Farmland
UK Forestry
US Farmland
US Forestry
Fine Wine

FTSE All Share

Cash

5 year

-2.2%
19.4%
12.0%
17.7%
11.9%
4.7%
10.7%
-2.4%
3.8%

10 year
0.7%
18.7%
10.0%
10.4%
14.7%
7.5%
11.7%
1.3%
4.1%
15 year
6.2%
9.9%
-
-
11.9%
7.2%
-
2.4%
4.4%
20 year
6.2%
7.6%
-
6.3%
11.0%
10.1%
-
4.5%
4.8%

This chart tells us that, broadly speaking, real-assets have outperformed UK equity indices and cash over every period considered. Interestingly, equities is the only asset class examined that generates a financial loss over any given period, indicating a higher degree of volatility than its real-asset counterparts. The timing of this analysis plays some part in forming that conclusion due the impact of the recent financial crisis being included in the 5-year performance data. It is likely then that holding real-asset investment alternatives such as farmland, forestry investments, gold and fine wine throughout a range of timelines will have improved portfolio performance without dramatically altering – and in some cases improving – the overall risk profile.

It should be noted that, in the case of the FTSE 100 and FTSE All Share Indices, these numbers offer only a broad view of the performance of an investment in an index-linked investment vehicle, and do not take into account the upside and downside potential of managing a basket of equities and relying to an extent on picking specific stocks in the hope of ‘beating the market’. Nor does it take into account dividend income which could be re-invested, effectively compounding returns and losses. Investment Managers and Investors might feel they are able to outperform the Index through careful stock-picking and active trading/management, although many studies have shown that, over the long-term, professionally managed equities perform only marginally better than the Index in general, and Investors remain exposed to the likelihood or otherwise that individual investment managers will perform consistently throughout the entire term of an investment.

In this report we have compared the investment performance of a range of asset classes including UK equities, farmland, forestry, fine wine and gold bullion. We have also analysed the effect of portfolio diversification through reducing equity exposure and acquiring real-assets. This report has shown:

Real-assets may contribute substantially to traditional stock portfolios
Real-assets have outperformed UK equities by some considerable margin over every timeframe measured
Exposure to real-assets adds meaningful risk reduction, especially during periods of underperformance or volatility in traditional financial assets

It is clear then that diversification achieved through reducing equity exposure and allocating capital to real-assets has, in the cases reviewed in the this report, improved the overall performance of investment portfolios and reduced risk (considered as volatility) between 2001 and 2011, effectively optimising portfolio performance.

One issue with this basic analysis would be a lack of access to investable projects or assets that give smaller Investors direct exposure to the fundamental characteristics that drive returns in the real asset space. Often, farms and woodlands are too large and expensive for single Investors to purchase, and the specific expertise required to improve, develop and operate those assets is also expensive and hard to come by. It is therefore difficult for Investors to allocate smaller sums of capital to these assets outside of restrictive and often expensive and opaque collective funds. Whilst some funds do offer limited access to certain assets, the structure of such arrangements often hamper asset selection, development and management to such an extent as to deliver much smaller returns than direct investments, as revenue is often absorbed into the cost of the structure and on-going management.

Thios article is an excerpt from a report by David Garner is Partner, Investment Partner at DGC Asset Management, an alternative investments boutique specialising in property transactions in the agriculture and renewable energy sectors. To download the full report, please visit the DGC Asset Management website.

1. Start Today

Whatever your circumstances are right now step up and start doing something different from today. It is a common mistake to wait for when the time is right, or when you have some spare money you will start investing, as David Bach points out in his best selling book The Automatic Millionaire The Pay Yourself First Rule is the first rule to start implementing and the sooner you start the better.

Start investing at least 30 minutes a day of your time on raising your financial IQ and even if you have £1.00 a day right now to invest with just do it this habit alone has the power to transform your future.

2. Make It Your Mission To Move To The B/I Side Of The Cashflow Quadrant

If you are an employee right now looking to start your own business, good for you! It is one of the major decisions in life when you believe in yourself enough to throw away the stabilisers of having a nice safe pay check each month and step up to the fact that if you want to create the lifestyle of your dreams then becoming a business owner is definitely a step in the right direction.

Moving from being employed to self-employed is a big step for a lot of people but being self-employed in professions that rely on your expertise is still in many ways trading time for dollars. The goal is to aim at becoming a business owner / investor (the B/I side of the Cashflow Quadrant) where it is essential to acquire financial intelligence to get paid.

3. Manage Your Money Well And Aim At Keeping More Of It

There is a huge difference between the amount of money you earn and the amount of money you keep and the people who get really good at making more money and keeping more of it in general will create surpluses that will ultimately work for them. Setting a goal of having money work for you is a great investment goal but it can be really hard for people in this day and age to achieve.

The vast majority of people in the last decade or so have seen their surplus income diminish as their credit cards and loan payments have increased. Today’s economic times have the governments printing more money daily than ever before to try and deal with their own over borrowing and that is bad news for the consumer as commodities will need to keep rising to keep pace.

So a good place to start is to get back in control of budget and look for ways to INCREASE your income to create surpluses in addition to savings you can make.

4. Never Make Your Goal Getting Out Of Debt

If you put all your efforts into getting out of debt you are aiming at reaching zero in your bank account. Although there is a considerably amount of stress and suffering that goes with the territory, I am with Bob Proctor on this one..

If you are thinking about debt you will attract more of it to you the universe cannot determine between get into debt or get out of debt and the only way to deal with it is to meet it head on and set about paying it off each month at an affordable amount that leaves you:

A. In control of the whole situation if possible.

B. Leaves you with enough money to cover your essentials plus start building a contingency, investing in your education / personal development / start saving for a major purchase / giving a percentage to charity. Even if these amounts are small amounts again it is the habit that is important.

C. Allows for you to invest 10% of your gross earnings each and every month.

5. Make It A Goal To Build A Network Of Advisers Around You

Nobody can know everything, and you certainly cannot be an expert of all things so it makes sense to seek out and find specialists in their fields to assist in building your financial golden goose.

Personally given the High Street banks track record in recent years and the financial economic world crisis laden with trillions of debt and no growth we see around us today I certainly will not be listening to any politician or bank manager about what may or may not be a good investment vehicle for my money.

Once you seek out excellent people in the investing world such a Mike Maloney for example you will soon realise that the so called breaking news you hear today is old news that was predicted some time ago by real experts in their field, nicely side stepped and turned into a profit situation instead.

6. Be Open Minded To The Fact That You May Be Holding Yourself Back

As a female myself I am more than abundantly aware of how much the vast majority of women talk about their feelings whereas the vast majority of men talk about logical reasons why something is what it is.

So when it comes to investing you can imagine what kind of disconnect occurs all the time, in one extreme there are the savers and at the other extreme there are the spenders. So unless you address your feelings towards money and investing you are going to find a total imbalance when it comes to preparing a solid financial future.

In every situation in life you immediately rely on the files in your mind for a solution or a response. You can’t help yourself it is who you are and what is in your mind,,, and that is what is usually holding you back.

If you knew people were making 100% annual returns during this economy would you believe them?

Your mind would either be open to the possibility immediately or closed because the only thing on offer at your local bank is a 3% ISA.

The only thoughts you will ever have about money, investing and growing wealth are planted like seeds in your mind from experiences and people you have had or met up to this point in your life and the older you are.. usually the more you have! My grandson would have no issue in believing that 100% returns were possible because his mind is wide open to all possibilities.

Your decisions are based on what you believe is logical, sensible and appropriate for you at any one time.

What if the High Street offers are for the vast majority of people who are conditioned to believe what they have always been told is safe.

What if you are so sure you are right when it comes to handling money that anyone cannot possibly know any better!

The vital step is to change your awareness that you may just have a problem in the first place.

7.You Are The Full Deck Of Cards The One Who Holds All Four Aces

For a lot of people it is always somebody or something else’s fault, there are always factors in every decision to be considered but at the end of the day the decision making is always yours.

The aim of building your own financial golden goose is for you to leave a legacy and to help make the world a better place, you can never spend your financial golden goose, it is there to lay golden eggs and yes you can spend the golden eggs but only on cashflow producing investments to continually build your networth and your legacy.

Some inside information on how to side step the economic downturn and boost your networth is with the Elevation Group. For an unbiased review try this on for size http://creativeonlinemarketing.co.uk/3123/the-elevation-group-review/

In today’s unstable, volatile financial environment, multiplied millions are finding one thing in common: they all need to know how best to both save and re-invest their money. While many economic experts say it cannot be done, this brief overview for beginner investors may help guide them through the financial maze and into economic stability.

An Emergency Reserve Fund

This is the first step and often the easiest achieved. Having at least a 3 – 6 month supply of reserved funds on hand to confront an unexpected financial crisis is vitally important. Funds can be kept at home or at another financial institution but consider it as “petty cash”; moreover, develop enough restraint to avoid regularly “dipping” into funds.

Get Wisdom

Today’s “information highway”, the Internet, can easily provide beginning investors the knowledge of knowing what to do with their finances as well as the ability to keep abreast of late breaking developments in the world of finances. Carefully research every step to be taken and don’t be too quick to reach a decision — choose wisely!

Set A Strategy

Having a plan or strategy for investments is primordial in order to start on the road to financial stability. Conversely, to set a course, one must know the destination. Is it early or late retirement? Perhaps it is the goal of putting one’s offspring through college? What is it you wish to do with the money and when? Be it one year from the present or ten years; a goal must be set and a strategy developed to get there — be it for a short, medium or long-range time frame.

The Bank

In a nutshell, forget it. Stop looking to the bank for earnings as they are no longer generating sufficient interest to merit tying up one’s finances. Moreover, the iconic Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is just an insurance company that has the name “federal” in its name. Should several banks go down at the same time, the insurance company also would suffer as presently there are only minuscule amounts of funds to guarantee bank holders their deposits.

Short Term

Having cash flow in fairly liquid investments, online banking services, and short-term government obligations such as Treasury Bills or Treasury Notes means one can have fairly rapid access to one’s money. These also provide the flexibility needed to anticipate unexpected life and financial changes.

Medium Range

Learn the art of “laddering” medium range CDs or even Savings Bonds which may take up to 30 years to mature but can be redeemed after merely 5 years. This will take monitoring on your part but is well worth the effort.

Long Term

Real estate holdings, utilities, long-term bonds and commodities such as gold are traditionally safe investment vehicles. Today, U.S. Savings I-Bonds and T.I.P.s are especially looking better as inflation indexes are creeping ever upwards.

In today’s unstable financial environment, multiplied millions are gradually finding stability by seeking to know how to best save money and invest their savings.

Liesl Henderson writes for the California Institute of Finance, a degree program at California Lutheran University.

One of the very cool things about investing and wealth building is that there are so many ways to do it. There are thousands of simple low risk ways to make massive amounts of income. One of the most popular investment vehicles is the stock market. Within the stock market is a very beautiful thing called the stock option. I’m going to give you some reasons why you need to be trading stock options right now

Reason #1 – Trading Options gives you Leverage

Leverage leverage and more leverage! For a fraction of the cost of buying an actual stock you can buy an option and make a lot of money if the stock price moves even a little bit.

With an option trade a $1 move in a $20 stock price could mean a 200% profit for you, maybe more!

Reason #2 – Selling Options can provide An additional income stream on stocks you already own

If you own stocks that are pretty flat, you can sell call options against those stocks and get a monthly income while you own the stock.

Not only will you be getting a monthly income, you will also be lowering your cost basis for the stock every month.

Let’s say you bought the stock at $20 and you sold a call option against that stock for $1. By selling that call option, your cost basis for the stock is now $19 ($20 – $1). Keep doing this and you could make you money back on a stock in no time, even if that stock has been flat!

Reason #3 – Options can be like Insurance on your stocks

If you own some stocks and the stocks have had a nice rise in price, you can buy some put options to protect you from drops in the price and losing out on your profit.

Buying put options are a great way to protect your brokerage account from unexpected drops in a stock price. Put options allow you to sell a stock at a specific price no matter what happens with the stock itself.

Reason #4 – Options are a way to get paid to buy stocks

If you don’t own any stock and you see a stock you like, you can get paid to buy that stock at a price you choose. Let’s say you like abc stock and it is currently selling at $35. You think it is an excellent buy at $33. Instead of waiting for abc to hit $33 you can sell some put options at the $33 strike price and if the stock does do to $33, you keep the money you got by selling the put option, you get the stock at $33 AND your cost basis is lower by whatever you received for the put option.

I have been investing for over a decade and have done meticulous research on how to build wealth. My primary focus is on strategies that can create low risk residual streams of income.

Not only do I personally practice the methods I write about, I have also coached many others in these methods to show them (and to show myself) how easy it is to make money with passive residual streams of income. You can read more about my best strategies at http://bestresidualincomestrategies.com/

The point of a hedge is to make money for clients regardless of market direction. Hedge funds will buy and hold stocks, they will sell short, as well as buy and sell options. These particular funds differ from most traditional funds, which adhere to the buy and hold concept. In these particular funds, an investor will pay a performance fee as well as a management fee it performs well. These investments, which include foundations, college endowments, and pension funds are worth billions of dollars. Over 1 % of financial institution assets are comprised of these funds, with total assets around $2 trillion. Many large funds choose this type of fund because of their potential upside during a bull market.

These funds can offer some nice returns dependent on how the they are positioned in the market and how strong the market is performing. If investments of this kind are leveraged well, the investor will realize size able to returns as opposed to other funds. With this in mind, one must also be wary of the potential losses that can be suffered when the wrong investment vehicle is being leveraged. In short, take your time and do your research when choosing any type of fund. The crash in 2008 seemed to motivate large pension funds into direct hedge fund investing. A lot of people were hurt by the 2008 crash, lending to more hedge fund investing to recuperate some losses. The rules of hedge fund investing have become stricter since 2008, limiting participation to accredited investors, weening out the small, private investor.

A hedge fund managers uses the same information available to all investors. For instance, you did not need to be a hedge fund manager to evaluate some opportunities in Japan after the tsunami. However, the sheer size of these type of funds lends to significant research and investment opportunities that an ordinary investor does not have. However, on the same note, these large funds can sometimes find it difficult to find a place to invest billions of dollars. When this kind of fund takes a position in an equity, it changes the direction of the market. An individual investor can profit from studying a hedge fund, being aware of where the money is going. A lot of successful investors yield high returns by mirroring a successful hedge funds investment strategy. How available that information is depends on the individual investors savvy. Again, hedge funds move the market.

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The day before Thanksgiving many of us will be preparing our homes to receive guests, or making the trek to a friend, or relatives gathering.

But the 23rd of November is D-day for the congressional debt committee.

There are many factors to consider:

Will Greece’s economy fail, causing them to no longer have credit whereby having to move to an all cash system?

What will be the outcome of the Italian issue, and its subsequent effect on the global economy?

There are many questions, with speculations disguised as answers.

The bigger question, what are you going to do about your situation? Your personal finances are just as important as the global economy because you are a part of that same deteriorating economy.

What are some of the ways you plan to protect the money you currently have from the future impending inflation, and will you still gain interest on your money? Will it be enough to either live off of, or will you use it to build for the future?

With the rocking and rolling of the stock market, should you place your money in bonds? But didn’t the analyst say the bond market is a bubble waiting to burst?

Should you move to tangible assets such as gold, silver, etc.?

Will futures be the new ‘now’ market for growing an income, or retirement portfolio?

What’s happening with mutual funds?

The answer to all of these questions is everything has a cycle. Study the cycles and you may be able to predict an outcome.

The stock market currently appears to be in a sideways pattern and with a new cycle starting around the year 2016, but what type of cycle will it be?

Are we in for a Bull or Bear market future?

Only time can really tell.

All bubbles do burst eventually, the futures market may be having gains at this time of the year, and gold’s value is through the roof and moving higher with silver riding its coattails. Mutual funds are currently stagnating, but some will gain with the shifts of the S and P.

Real Estate is still a viable consideration for investing, if done wisely. The area, growth rate, employment, and expanding or shrinking housing availability are factors when considering an investment property.

With all time lows on residential and commercial property it would only make sense to have an implemented strategy to invest in real estate.

If you decide to buy a house to rent out, check to make sure other homeowners are not doing the same thing, and if so then how many other homes will be for rent and at what price.

If you decide to invest in an apartment then check to see if there is a shadow market from residential. If a shadow market exists, how much of an impact will it have on being able to rent your units, and still being able to not only break even on the new investment but also realize a profit?

For which ever investment vehicle you are going to utilize to guard against an uncertain future, ensure you weigh all the pros and cons and make an investment choice which will work for you, yielding you appreciation in the present and future.

Knowing what you know now, would you have invested in the stock market and real estate after the crash in the early 1900’s?

As with all cycles and time, change is always on the horizon.

Please visit our blog for more information http://BackedByRealEstate.com.

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