Investment Articles

Taking part of your monthly income and investing it on the stock market is in all probability not a great idea if you’re hoping for a quick return. You would probably have more chance of getting a quick return by putting your money on the favourite at the next race at Haymarket! There’s quite a few folks who are getting a perverse sort of pleasure from the act of placing a bet instead of actual winning.

We have mentioned Penny shares and whether it’s wise to invest in this market. Although so-called, these shares can’t actually be bought for one penny; however they are normally under $5 to purchase. There’s a much higher risk with penny shares because of the fact that they have a low value. Another problem with penny shares is the fact that the price can swing lots in one or other direction in a short space of time and this can encourage inexperienced investors to sell if the price jumps a lot. It is often the case that the price will drop again before they get the chance to actually complete the sale. At a time when the market is volatile it can be very easy to make the wrong decision.

Something else to consider is the time of the year. Christmas time is only around one hundred days away would you believe. Not a word which is mentioned here until the start of December. But the fact is that you can find very few pay days left until the ‘C’ word. Fourteen days ago I suggested buying of one share as a gift. This is obviously not a big investment but it would be a nice change for the person who you find it very difficult to buy for. If you want to encourage them to start following a certain company on the stock market then this could be the way to do it. This is also a nice gift for a christening.

You might like to subscribe to a newsletter about online investments but if you do, then you need to be careful that what you’re subscribing to is not just an approach to advertising for various companies. It is imperative to check the small print at the bottom of these newsletter to clarify the position. If they are promoting purchasing of particular stock for which they have received a fee, obviously that can’t be classed as unbiased information.

It could be helpful to invest in a book aimed at “Investing for Beginners” to get a little additional knowledge before risking hard-earned monies on the stock market. I explained last week how a cash ISA is almost certainly the best way to get a good tax free return initially. You should think about investing in this annually before any other investments.

stock-trading-investing.com is the website to visit if you are into securities and investing. On top of all the advice, tips, reviews and info available at the web site, you could also learn about more specific things like trading options.

stock-trading-investing.com/stocks-to-buy

Online investment strategies can include a wide variety of options. Online brokerages and other websites enable anyone of legal age to engage in buying and selling stocks, bonds, currency, commodities, and precious metals. Because investing online is both easy and risky, if you are inexperienced with trading, take every precaution, research well every investment firm and every investment prospect, and invest slowly and with extreme caution. Learn about investing and formulate your investment strategy before spending your hard earned money.

Investment Markets
Before spending the first cent in an online investment, ensure you know precisely the type of investment tools that suit your investment outlook, short term and long term financial goals. The categories of investment vehicles include:

Capital Market: Where governments and large corporations raise long term funds. Those providing capital meet those who provide securities, and trades are made, each side hoping it will make money. Capital market investments include stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options, Treasury bills, and more.

Commodity Market: Investors in the commodities markets enter contracts on such items as agricultural products including fruits, crops, livestock, coffee, soybeans, and more, as well as precious metals-raw or primary products. Most commodity contracts usually pivot on future prices, such as a springtime purchase on winter wheat.

Foreign Exchange (Forex) Market: Anchored completely in buying and selling currency, the Forex Market has a direct impact on the value or strength of each country’s currency. Inflation plays its part, but as with all investment vehicles, the amount of investment interest and activity in a currency–how much is purchased, and the price an investor is willing to pay-influence how much one currency is worth in relation to another.

Money Market: A traditional or online investment in the money market involves trading securities with a maturity of less than one year.

Real Estate Market: While investment strategies that include buying real estate online are not quite the same as other online investments, searching for real estate for sale can easily be conducted via the Internet. If interested in investing in this market, look for good values in land and land improvements permanently affixed to the land. Before purchasing, however, ensure you conduct due diligence on any property that catches your eye. Common real estate investments include solely land or commercial, residential, or industrial buildings.

Cautionary Points
Regardless of what type, method, or amount of investment you want to make, never invest any money before you thoroughly investigate for yourself the opportunity that you find. Don’t automatically take the word of someone, simply because he or she may have a license. There are different types of license, and while legal, not all are issued by the Security Exchange Commission.

Read ‘opportunity’ emails with a jaundiced eye, if at all. Report spam to the email provider. If you sign up for an online investment e-zine or newsletter, do so with the foreknowledge that it may increase unsolicited emails from others.

Most importantly, never invest blindly or automatically. Keep control of your money; don’t allow others to manipulate your investment dollar without your expressed and per-instance authorization, and make sure you articulate permission or denial in writing. Formulate an investment strategy and stick to it.

Summary
Regardless of the market in which you opt to implement your online investment strategies, remember to start small, start slowly, and never invest more than you can afford to lose. While not the intent for most investors, there is no guarantee that any investment you may make will make a profit. But with study, patience, and a bit of luck, it just might.

Danielle Taylor writes out of New York about different personal finance tips and online investment strategies. Always looking for the most favorable investing options, she tends to end up planning her finances at http://www.firstrade.com more often than not.

Internet money scams
Millions of people are being scammed every day on the internet. People loose their life savings on programs that offer them the world, only to find out that they were not genuine. Every where you turn on the internet there are ads and programs promoting money, how to make money and you have won money. The people who put those ads know that one out of ten will give in. The search engines, classified ads, forums and message boards some times have warning alerts, but even that does not stop scammers. There are people who are wicked and malicious, and will do every thing to steal, rob people’s hard earn money on the internet. The same way in physical business on land people commit fraud and steal money, they do the same on the internet. So have your eyes open. This is real.

Look before you leap
Before you invest or spend money on the internet, be sure you do your due diligence work by checking out the websites and programs offered. Yes, there are many good and honest sites, but some are bad and dangerous. You can make money on the internet, but you need to use your good judgment. Spend a little time to look at the programs that are offered. Do they make sense, are they looking genuine? Do not just rush into things without due consideration. It will pay you in the long run. Do not just take people for what they say and promise. Be sure you need that particular thing or program. Do not just jump into things. Don”t be pressured to pay for any thing. You have to make up your own mind that is what you want. Some people use sales pressure on the internet to make you buy what you do not need. Be careful!

Online investments and scams
Yes, there are many scammers on the internet looking to fish your money out. They come in all forms and shapes. They come with all promises, hopes and programs. On the other hand, there are honest and genuine people and businesses on the internet. People are making money. more than ten million people are making their honest money and living using the internet in honest ways to make money. People make from $1-1,000,000 monthly using the internet. There are many opportunities online. With patience and good judgment, you can find things to do, businesses where you can invest your money. The internet is here to stay. In the next five years businesses will have to use the internet to get customers to survive. That is just the reality of the times. You can make an honest living using the internet. Thousands of companies are offering products that you can sell. There are a few honest investment businesses where you can invest your money and get better returns than local banks. Yes, not all online businesses are scams. Visit this website to learn more about online scams and honest online businesses.

Ray John; Freelance writer on business, investment, internet business and money

online money business

One individual had $11,000,000 invested with Bernard Madoff. This represented 95% of this persons’ net worth. Don’t let the same happen to you.

However attractive an investment appears you should never invest a substantial portion of your funds in it. There are countless examples of investors who thought they were on to a good thing, put all their money in to it only to find some time later the whole thing collapse.

Understanding Uncertainty

I’m pretty sure that if you look back at business reports prior to the economic crisis you would be hard pushed to find any commentator who was warning about the potential problems that would eventually surface and cause so much mayhem worldwide.

In hindsight of course there are now legions of advisers who claimed that they could see what would happen. Personally, I’m not convinced.

Human psychology is a strange and wonderful thing and many of us want to believe what we are told. We become part of the herd mentality and stop thinking for ourselves. This creates problems when knowing where to invest.

Even the best performing investments have indifferent performance now and again and we should accept that the uncertainty surrounding the global economy will always create both positive and negative situations. Unfortunately not many individuals have the knowledge or expertise to assess uncertainty and deal with it successfully.

Spreading the Risk

The answer therefore is to accept that uncertainty exists, that it will throw a spanner in your plans and that it needs to be planned for.

In other words your investment strategy must include the ability to spread the risk of your investment portfolio. So, it is wise to create a strategy that includes the following investment groups:

Cash – Sufficient to provide your living expenses for up to six months
Savings account – Rainy day fund for emergencies
Stocks – Dividend bearing growth stocks
Fixed Income bonds – gives confidence of future returns
Commodities – Gold, Silver and the like
Online Investments – Greater risk for greater reward

It wouldn’t be appropriate to put figures against the categories above as each individual has their own preferences but each should be considered.

Further Detail

Of course within each category there is also the ability to diversify and this should be considered. If we look at the Online Investment category you might split further by:

Passive Investment
Forex
Sports Arbitrage
Network Marketing

This list is just a sample of the type of investments you could invest in and should give a good spread of risk for your funds.

As you start out pick at least two opportunities and when they show positive progress invest some of your returns in a new programme. Then all you have to do is repeat.

No matter how convincing someone sounds about a specific investment don’t be tempted to invest a large proportion of your funds.

For more great tips on online investing you can visit my blog at http://www.onlineinvestingguru.com

From John Murphy and Online Investing Guru

For online investing to be treated seriously as a viable option the companies involved need to demonstrate commitment to investors.

When online investment programmes first started they quickly gained a bad reputation as many of them were revealed as scams. This severely damaged the public view of these opportunities and that perception still exists.

I believe it is time for things to change. The global economic crisis has shown that even well respected financial institutions cared little for their small investors with the result that interest rates on savings accounts are now derisory.

This is a golden opportunity for online investing companies to attract these disillusioned people but they must do it in a credible and honest way.

Is regulation the answer?

Nearly all online investments make it abundantly clear that their dealings fall outside any existing regulatory framework as they want to avoid members running to the authorities at the merest hint of a problem.

There are many horror stories where online investment companies have fallen foul of regulators (especially in the US) and the result has virtually always been losses for investors. So, I don’t believe online investing companies would currently welcome regulation under current legislation. Ultimately, this may be an aspiration as authorities learn and understand more about how these companies work.

Where to Start

So if formal regulation isn’t viable what alternatives exist? Some companies may argue that their industry is currently being regulated by the myriad of online monitoring sites as these demonstrate whether programmes are paying or not.

Personally I don’t believe this is the answer as monitoring sites can only work in a reactive way and are not that useful for predicting whether an opportunity is viable to start off with.

To my way of thinking there are two options to consider:

An independent group of investors could be set up to undertake due diligence on a programme that wishes to offer online investing services. They would need access to the company to be able to verify the claims that are being made on how funds are generated and the people involved
A self regulating body set up by the companies themselves which would define a code of practice that companies would need to adhere to if they wish to join. This should also include investor representatives as this is a key element of trust building

Time for Change

For too long online investors have suffered poor service, patchy communication and untrustworthy programme administrators. As I look at some of the online programmes today I can see that things are changing but we are still not at a point where the ordinary investor would consider an online investment as a viable alternative to basic savings accounts for example.

Clearly there will always be greater risk involved in online investments but I don’t think programmes should hide behind that as an excuse for poor service. If the risks are explained fully and clearly, if programmes communicate often and honestly then I believe the industry would reap great rewards both in terms of their own reputations but also in the number of people that would trust them with their investments.

Isn’t it time online investors were offered a better and more reliable service…

For more great tips and commentary on online investing you can visit my blog at http://www.onlineinvestingguru.com
From John Murphy and Online Investing Guru

Online Investing can be a realistic source of additional funding as long as you take the time to research things properly.

In my first 7 tip article I introduced online investing beginners to some of the key things that they need to do to be successful. But of course there are always other things that will help to ensure success and this article aims to help with that.

1. Use software to manage confidential information

As soon as you decide to invest online develop a strategy for keeping your account details secure. Be mindful that online investment opportunities are tempting targets for thieves. Use a robust strategy for user names and passwords to minimise the chances that anyone could access your account. Do not use the same user name and password for more than one account.

SIDEBAR: Search online for free software that will help you with this

2. Find an ecurrency exchanger

Online investing programmes use payment processors to manage deposits and withdrawals. Financing payment processors can normally be done either by a direct payment from your bank account or through an e-currency exchanger. Make sure that the e-currency exchanger you use has a verifiable track record and deals with your transactions quickly and efficiently.

3. Do your own research

As you will be investing your own money in a programme the onus is on you to do the necessary research into its viability. There are several good sources of information available to you which will enable you to make your decision. One thing you should be aware of is that online investment websites are not always the best source of information and should always be treated with caution.

4. Find something you have an interest in

As you should treat any online investing as a business it makes sense to look for online investments that you have an interest in. Currently there are programmes that specialise in forex, sports arbitrage, investment funding and environmental projects to name a few. By focusing on one area to start with you will learn to spot trends and how these may impact the investments you have.

5. Decide whether you want passive or active

The decision to get involved in either passive or active online investments will depend heavily on the time you have available and your knowledge and interest in a particular area. The advantage with active trading is that you keep full control of your funds whereas with a passive approach you are entrusting your funds to a group that you may know little about.

6. Use Discretion

Not everyone you know will be supportive of your attempts to invest in online programmes. Don’t let this put you off, it is highly likely that they know very little about the subject and speak from a position of ignorance and fear. Keep your dealings private and don’t broadcast your involvement widely as discretion will serve you well in the end

7. Diversify

Even if you start out with a limited bank be prepared to invest in more than one opportunity straight away. Given the higher risk profile of online investments it is crucial that you develop a strategy for diversification right from the outset. Whilst this may mean your funds could grow at a slower rate you are reducing the potential to lose them all if a specific programme fails.

Nothing is more important than protecting your own money…take the time to get it right

For more great tips on online investing you can visit my blog at http://www.onlineinvestingguru.com

From John Murphy and Online Investing Guru

If you are just beginning in online investing should you take advantage of a programme that offers a very low $5 initial deposit. Just to be clear here I am focusing on online investing programmes that are based on a passive investment approach i.e. you make an investment on the basis of the programme paying a fixed or variable rate of interest per day or week.

With such a low entry point are the online investments being realistic about their offer? Well in one sense I think you can say they are. As many people distrust these forms of investment, companies need to come up with ways to allow people to try what is on offer at little risk. One way to do this is to set the entry point low and assuming things perform as planned the investor would be persuaded and therefore happy to invest more. So as a marketing ploy this approach could be considered acceptable.

For the more cynical observer there could be a view that the programme is going out to attract as much cash as possible before heading off into the sunset. Personally I find this rather short sighted, of course some programmes do fail but as long as a potential investor does their homework it should be possible to root out the bad apples fairly easily before parting with funds.

Practicalities can get in the way

More importantly perhaps is the practicality for beginners to realistically fund a programme with say a $5 investment. Unfortunately you can’t just walk into the nearest branch, put your $5 on the counter and walk out with a receipt. In practice there are a number of hurdles to jump before your investment can start earning.

In a companion article, Online Investing For Beginners and the Tortuous Route For Deposits and Withdrawals, I describe some of the companies that you need to have accounts with when funding an online investment but I didn’t delve into the costs involved. Let’s take a closer look at just what sort of fees you could encounter. I can’t be precise here but the figures I’m presenting are typical and should be considered when investing in any online programme. I’ll use US$ for comparison purposes (I’m making the assumption that bank wires aren’t an option as they generally require quite a high level of investment to be used).

In most cases your funds would need to leave your account and go to an e-currency exchanger. There is generally a minimum fee attached to any transaction which is normally in the region of $25. If you are converting funds from another currency you will also be penalised on the exchange rate (this can be fairly significant). As the funds go from the e-currency account to the payment processor there may also be a charge from the payment processor for receipt of the funds. You wouldn’t normally be charged any fee for making the investment to the online programme itself. In summary you are therefore looking at a minimum of $25 and perhaps a maximum of $30 to $40 to get your investment started. Clearly for a $5 investment this doesn’t make a lot of sense.

What is realistic?

So, as a beginner how much should you consider as a starting amount to invest? In reality I believe you have to consider $100 as an absolute minimum given the charges involved and how long it would take to not only recoup your seed money but the associated charges as well.

The $5 option is more suitable for those who already have payment processor accounts and receive interest from their existing investments.

For more great tips on online investing you can visit my blog at http://www.onlineinvestingguru.com
From John Murphy and Online Investing Guru

In other articles in this series I’ve made the point that you need to be disciplined and keep good records of all your online investments as this will ensure things are set up correctly from the start. One of the other things you need to do especially when starting out is to recoup your initial investment as quickly as possible.

The Greed Monster

When people discover the higher returns that are possible with many online investing programmes they often throw caution to the wind and get carried away by the riches they envisage if they invest a relatively small sum, compound all the returns and wait until it becomes a sizable sum.

A great idea in theory but not so good in practice. However attractive online investing programmes appear you need to bear in mind that some fail and you could lose your money. This creates anger and resentment and can deter you from further investing.

Plan to succeed

One way to mitigate the risk of loss is to plan to retrieve your initial investment as soon as possible. Let’s take a simple example. Assume that you invest in a programme that pays 2% a day and that you invest $100. So simple maths tells us that we would receive a return of $2 per day and that it would take 50 days to recoup our original $100 investment.

After the initial investment is recouped you are then gaining on what has come to be known as OPM or Other People’s Money. At this stage you could make the decision to compound earnings if that is an option and your funds would then grow more quickly.

Taking the above example again and assuming we are able to compound the first day our account would grow by $2 to $102, next day it would grow by $2.04 to $104.04. Whilst this doesn’t seem a lot you can soon work out that daily increases become significant as the account increases.

Don’t get carried away

Assuming you get to the stage where you can compound then it is a good idea to pay yourself out of your earnings on a regular basis. This ensures you are profiting from your investment and can still continue to grow your fund. Many people withdraw 50% of their earnings on a regular basis which means that the remaining 50% remains to aid compounding.

The fact that you withdraw some of your earnings shows that you have control of your account and the money can then be used for personal treats or perhaps re-invested in a new programme that will assist in your aim to diversify.

Personal Risk Tolerance

Personally I support the general idea of recouping your initial investment as quickly as you can and if you are just starting out I think it is imperative. However, there may be an argument that says once you have some experience and have a reasonably diverse portfolio that recouping your first deposit is not always that critical.

It might be that you invest say $100 into a new opportunity on the basis that you have made the decision to leave the money there and compound immediately. You take this view on the basis that this money is a wholly discretionary investment and that if the programme fails you will not beat yourself up about it but move on to the next.

This is another very personal decision and I’m sure people have widely differing views as to how much they would want to risk in this way. As you start out you should always look to recoup the initial amount but your views may change as time goes by.

For more great tips on online investing you can visit my blog at http://www.onlineinvestingguru.com
From John Murphy and Online Investing Guru

When you start to invest online don’t treat it lightly. One of the first things you should do is set up a separate account that will hold the funds you have allocated for the purpose. As always do not invest any more than you are happy to lose. I know that this mantra is continually repeated but it is really important that right from the start you follow this rule.

Setting off in the right direction

One decision you will probably have to make is to whether you share your plans with your partner. There are examples of both extremes where couples are happy to be involved together and where one partner is resolutely against any such involvement. If you find yourself in the latter group try to come to an agreement such that both parties can work out an amicable solution. If you hide your activities it is more than likely you will be found out and it is much more difficult to assuage concerns if you are thought to be underhand.

Assuming that you decide to go ahead you should define what your goals and objectives are and break them down into short, medium and long time horizons. This should help you to establish how much funding you will need to start with. Bear in mind that time is on your side and don’t commit any more than is sensible. Once you’ve decided the amount transfer that sum into your dedicated account.

Find likely opportunities

Next, take time to research potential online investments that will help you achieve your goals. Bear in mind that not all of your investments will succeed, ensure you spread your risk across a number of investments. At first this may mean investing in only 2 or 3 to start with. Don’t let this worry you as once your profits start you can withdraw funds to invest in new ones.

Keep things under control

Keep records of your accounts as this will allow you to monitor their performance and determine whether they are meeting your objectives. Be prepared to act quickly if things are not going as planned as this shows you are in control and able to make rational decisions given the information to hand.

Treat your online investing as a real business as this will help to remove some of the emotional attachment that inevitably occurs when investing your hard earned money.

For more great tips on online investing you can visit my blog at http://www.onlineinvestingguru.com From John Murphy and Online Investing Guru.

If you were suffering from an illness and you didn’t know what it was who would you look to for answers? Would you listen to your next door neighbor who is something of a hypochondriac, your brother who works as a porter at the hospital or a website that you find using Google?

Hopefully you would have rejected all those options as whilst they may have an interest in helping you their level of expertise may be less than is really needed. Personally I’d seek out someone who has the knowledge and experience to help me in the first instance.

Do your research

The same should hold true when you want to invest online. You should not rely on hearsay, rumor or speculation as these can result in you losing funds rather than increasing them. At the end of the day any decision you make will be a personal one and you should accept that this is the case.

But before you make a decision you should do all you can to investigate the opportunity so that you feel confident in making that decision. In the vast majority of cases this level of confidence will not be (and shouldn’t be) 100%. There are just too many variables to consider when making any decision such as this. Just eighteen months ago you could have been highly confident making a decision to invest at your local bank, the economic crisis has destroyed even that level of confidence so investing online should raise your curiosity even more.

Clearly there are no formal bodies that you can turn to for reassurance as it is very difficult to police the world of online investments. Companies are based in jurisdictions that provide the most favorable conditions for their operations and they often keep an arms length stance when providing information. To some extent this is justified as they could be exposed to exploitation if details are made available.

This doesn’t mean to say that you should discount all such opportunities, just ensure you do your homework beforehand. One of the ways to do this is to find others who have the experience to help. As the online investing matures more and more people will have a track record of experiences that you can call on.

Spread your net wide

If you don’t have anybody in your immediate social circle who can help then spend time on the internet to search out knowledgeable people. Join forums and discussion groups that offer advice and help. Ask questions and monitor the quality of the answers given. Resist those who clearly aim to sell to you without any regard to your own situation. Make sure you are given the full story about an opportunity, both the good and the bad.

Start small

If you find an investment that you feel confident with begin with a small investment and monitor its performance closely. Keep up to date with news by monitoring forums, blogs and discussions so that if any problems are identified you will find out quickly. Don’t rush into a decision as some problems are exaggerated and given time can be overcome. Use common sense to guide your decision making and create a balanced portfolio to spread the risk.

For more great tips on online investing you can visit my blog at http://www.onlineinvestingguru.com From John Murphy and Online Investing Guru