Investment Articles

In today’s tough economic climate, people are looking for ways to get back some of their wealth that they lost over the last few years. Most conventional markets did not perform as well as they have in the past, which caused investors to lose a large sum of money. If more people would have invested in alternative markets, they would have been better prepared to weather the economic storm and would not have lost as much of their money as they did.

Outperform Traditional Markets

One of the best ways investing in alternative markets can help grow your portfolio is that these markets typically outperform conventional markets during bear markets. When every other investment opportunity is struggling to show a profit, alternative markets can be providing terrific ROI figures. It is because of this ability to return a positive ROI, even in a down economy, that every investor should add alternatives to their stock portfolio.

Independent of Other Markets

Another great reason for investing in alternative markets is to diversify your portfolio. All of the traditional markets such as cash, stocks, and bonds are intertwined and dependent on each other. When one of those markets starts to perform poorly, the others will tend to follow. If you had all of your money tied up in these traditional markets, you could potentially lose a large portion of your wealth whenever one of those markets started to perform poorly.

On the other hand, alternatives are not correlated to the traditional markets and therefore are not subject to their influence. If the traditional markets start to tank, alternative markets can still thrive. This will allow you to continue to see your investment portfolio grow even when traditional markets are tanking. Not putting all of your investment eggs in one basket is the only way to ensure you do not lose all of your wealth at one time.

Investing in alternatives is also a great way to take advantage of emerging markets. Most investors focus a large portion of their time and efforts into the traditional markets. Since these investors are not on the lookout for new markets to get involved with, you are able to take advantage of these new investment opportunities and get in on the ground floor. This could help you realize a tremendous return on your investment should you discover a highly profitable alternative market.

Developing a sound investment strategy is vital to your future financial independence. If you stick all of your investment eggs in one basket, you run the risk of losing all of your wealth when one of the traditional markets collapses. However, if you spread your investments around to include alternative markets, your chances of going broke are greatly reduced.

If you do not know which alternative markets you should invest in, consider seeking the advice of a company such as Altegris. This type of company can help invest your money wisely in alternative markets.

Fine wine investment market has changed dramatically in the last twenty years and is booming, even more so since Hong Kong removed a duty they had on wine, and demand has risen dramatically.

Investors look to alternatives ways to invest their money in trying times and with Asia’s rapid wealth, which looks only to increase, more and more money will be invested in fine wine. Investing in wine is thriving amongst the Asian markets, especially with the increasing demand from China.

Wine is generally more stable than stock-market linked indices allowing investors to securely own a tangible asset. Wine has always held its value and the reason why Bordeaux is a worthy asset is simply down to the laws of supply and demand. Investors want high returns from wine and fine wines can be a good, low-risk long term investment and less likely to follow the same paths as equity markets. There is no doubt that over the last 25 years wine has been a sound investment. Even in a bad harvest with a low quota, wines still get consumed and demand still remains stable and even grows with prices increasing up to 20% a year. Some wine investments have already outperformed gold and crude oil investments.

Fine wine is the only asset that operates with a perfect supply curve. It is the uniqueness in demand in wines that create a consistent growth curve which is why wine has little in common to other asset classes in terms of volatility. Wine investment is tax free as it does not attract Capital Gains Tax. VAT and Duty may also be avoided if your wine investment is kept in bonds.

Fine wine as an investment should be bought from a reputable source and storing the wine correctly is vital to ensuring its investment potential. There is a huge choice of fine wine investment companies to help people get into the market, and investors need not know anything about vintage wine.

Case prices vary but some top performers can command £5000 for each case and it is not uncommon for prices to be double that. Investors should benefit from a full market cycle between three and five years with maximum returns on an eight to ten year period. It has always been said that wine matures with age and so does the investment. As wines mature and become consumed, they becomes rarer which adds value to investments.

Wine investment is not a new trend, and is no longer the domain of the knowledgeable few as more and more investors are benefiting greatly and joining this exciting and vibrant market.

Written by Vin-X wine investment brokers, http://www.vin-x.co.uk.

During the economic crisis of the past decade, markets and industries crashed and hundreds of companies and millions of people were caught with their pants down. This ordeal has taught everyone the value of security during uncertain times. One of the surest ways to buffer yourself from economic crunches is by making sound investments. While there are traditional investment strategies available to first-time investors, alternative investments are rapidly gaining momentum, and for good reason.

Alternative Investments: The Basics

Alternative investments refer to investment strategies that go beyond traditional investments like stocks, bonds, cash, or property. Popular financial assets in the alternative investment category are:

1. Hedge Funds

2. Private Equities

3. Financial Derivatives

4. Venture Capital

5.Commodities

They also include several tangible assets including, but not limited to, the following:

1. Wine

2.Antiques

3. Stamps

4. Art

5. Coins

Characteristics of Alternative Investments

Unlike traditional investment strategies, alternative investments are not direct fixed-income or equity claim on the assets of an issuing body. They are complex in nature, so most of these assets are held by accredited, high net-worth individuals. They also tend to lack liquidity and have a low correlation to traditional financial investments such as shares of stock in a company. This low correlation adds to its appeal, especially with investors who are looking to diversify their investment portfolio (the low correlation coefficient will be discussed in depth in a later section).

Also, compared with more common investments like mutual funds, alternative investments have higher minimum investment requirements and fee structures. The cost of purchase and sale is relatively high. In addition, they are subject to less regulation. While this may be good on one hand, it also has the effect of limiting opportunities to publish verifiable performance data. Hence, historical data on risk and returns may be limited. This data could be useful in promoting an alternative investment to potential investors.

Because current market values of some forms of assets are difficult to determine at the least, it is imperative for investors looking to invest in alternative investments to conduct proper due diligence. This especially applies to tangible assets like artworks and wine.

Some investors consider alternative investments as a good means to diversify their portfolio, thereby reducing overall investment risk. However, this is not the only reason why more and more investors are now looking into expanding their financial prospects via alternative channels.

The Appeal of Alternative Investments: Low Correlation, Absolute Return

Although there are a number of alternative assets presently being offered in the marketplace, a common characteristic among these numerous options is their low correlation coefficients with both fixed income and equities. Low correlation is considered important when choosing assets for inclusion in a portfolio, primarily because assets that are relatively uncorrelated with both bonds and stocks tend to have minimal exposure to systematic market risk factors. Absolute Return Strategies – strategies that seek a low correlation to systematic risks in the market, make it their objective to attain relative independence from the underlying equity or fixed-income market benchmarks’ overall performance.

Absolute return does not come without its challenges, however. There are potential constraints on the upside. To illustrate, when broader stock markets are picking up, investors with low-correlation alternatives may see their portfolios performing weaker in relation to those with traditional assets. This somehow implies that absolute returns can be maximized in negative market climates and tend to underperform during positive economic climates.

The Economic Atmosphere for Alternative Investments

It would not be an understatement to say that alternative investments were, for the longest time, reserved mostly to high net-worth investors. The broader retail market finds the field of alternative investments difficult to penetrate because of reasons mentioned earlier in this article:

- High minimum investment sizes;

- High minimum fee structures; and

- Assets with no liquidity.

Recent years show a change – an evolution – in the economic atmosphere, where alternative investments are concerned. Progress in global financial markets has developed and provided greater opportunities and a wider range of products through which more investors can enrich their portfolios with alternative assets. Directional alternative assets like commodities, real estate and foreign currencies, as well as hedge strategies like buy-write become accessible to more investors through exchange-traded funds (ETFs), exchange-traded notes (ETNs), and mutual funds.

These options were not available until recently. With increasing entry points into alternative investments, investors now find themselves able to participate in innovative investment approaches that promise increased profits. If alternative investments appeal to you, now would be the best time to start investing in alternative assets.

PublicMining.org is a free resource about the mining industry for the discriminating mining investor.

In a previous article “Are Your Emotions Costing You Money,” I examined traditional and behavioral finance theories, and identified several biases that interfere with investors’ ability to make sound investment decisions. In this article we delve deeper into each of the biases, and explore simple, yet effective ways to overcome those biases. While there are a multitude of behavioral biases, this article will focus on three: mental accounting, anchoring, and overconfidence.

Mental Accounting – is the process whereby investors categorize their assets into separate mental “buckets”, and thus spend or allocate funds differently. Some examples: Susan receives a monetary gift for her birthday and uses it to go out for a gourmet dinner; Bill allocates his year-end bonus for Christmas presents; upon receiving his tax refund, Sam takes a vacation he hadn’t built in to his regular budget. Research corroborates these examples; people do tend to spend their tax refunds differently than they spend their normal wages. Interestingly, in the past several years surveys show that Americans are spending their tax refunds to pay down debt in an effort to deleverage their household balance sheets. When investors practice mental accounting such as those in the examples above, they tend to view and assess individual assets separately instead of as a part of a total portfolio.

Anchoring – is when an investor latches on to the first bit of information they receive and is unwilling to accept new information. Assume John purchased a home for $500,000 at the peak of the market and is now trying to sell his home in a depressed real estate market; he would be reluctant to list or sell his home for less than $500,000 because he is emotionally anchored to that “value” for his home. When investors exhibit the anchoring bias, they are unwilling to accept new information that is contrary to their the view that his home is worth $500,000 when it fact it might be worth much less. The risk here is that because John is anchored to his price, he may not be able to sell his home in a timely manner, which in-turn may have detrimental affects on his finances and portfolio, not to mention the possibility that the home value could decrease even further.

Overconfidence – Investors who are overconfident overestimate their ability to analyze data. Suppose Jane made some money on Cisco stock, she would begin to believe that she has a keen ability to identify all upward trending technology stocks. As a result, Jane would begin to buy more and more technology stocks, and thus her portfolio would become less diversified – diversification is one of the cornerstones of a balanced portfolio. Additionally, investors who are overconfident tend to not only have more concentrated portfolios, but also trade more frequently because they have an illusion of control that they can sell or buy at the “right time”. Many investors who exhibited the overconfidence bias during the dot-com era and the subsequent real estate boom, found themselves to be overexposed when that sector had a sharp reversal, and as a result lost most of their assets and wealth.

Overcoming Biases

As you have read, an investor’s emotions can have detrimental effects not only on his/her portfolio, but also on stress level. The good news is that there are ways to significantly reduce these effects. Here are five things you can do right now to avoid some common behavioral biases.

1. Stop watching the daily news. News networks draw ratings by evoking viewer emotions; TV is meant to incite not inform. Watching news every day causes investors to react emotionally, rather than analytically and strategically.

2. Don’t look at your portfolio everyday. Investors who check their portfolios every day tend to trade more frequently and take on more risk.

3. Don’t fall subject to the anchoring trap. Read contradictory news. Actively seek news stories that differ from your viewpoint, and give them equal weight.

4. When evaluating investments, don’t just look at the risk and return characteristics of that individual investment. Rather, analyze how that particular investment will impact your total portfolio, and determine whether it will enhance your total return, minimize risk, or both.

5. Lastly, work with a Fee-Only financial advisor to develop a sound financial plan that is specific to your needs. Remember that investing is a long term endeavor, so stick to that plan!

Behavioral finance is a relatively new field of study and academics are continuously researching new relationships between investor emotions and their finances. While financial experts have identified a multitude of investor biases, the three detailed above have the most acute consequences, and yet can be overcome when investors are willing to slightly change their habits.

ACap Asset Management is a Fee-Only financial advisory firm providing comprehensive financial advice specifically tailored for doctors’ needs.

Ara can be reached at aoghoorian@acapam.com, on the web at http://www.acapam.com, or on Facebook by searching ACap Asset Management.

INVESTMENT STRATEGY

A sound investment strategy may not mean what you think it means. Forget about all the hype you hear from day traders, Forex traders, and all the other noise out there. In fact a sound strategy is actually quite boring. Let me explain.

In order to have a sound strategy you MUST know what you want to accomplish, and what your time frame is. Think if it as a road map. You must know where you are going and when you have arrived. The best strategy is the one that will get you there with the least risks. We manage these risks with a proper asset mix.

By asset mix we mean stocks, large cap, mid cap, small cap, value, growth, domestic, international, global. This can be quite confusing for the novice, but I will explain all this in future writing. We also mean bonds, bonds range in rating from triple A, the safest to Junk, the riskiest. A combination of these can have a place in most any portfolio. Cash is another part of the asset mix. Cash ranges from savings accounts, to CDs, to money markets. Real estate is also an asset that can be combined into the asset mix. My sixteen years of experience in the investment industry shows no advantage in risk reduction or performance increases, so I neither advocate, no include real estate in any of my portfolios.

Time horizons are generally divided into three segments: long, medium, & short. Long horizons are generally 20-25 years or longer. Medium time frames generally range from 5-20 years. Short time frames are usually shorter than five years. Notice I use the term generally to define time frames. This is because based on where you are in life, your goals, and a term I am about to introduce risk tolerance, can have a little bit of effect on how your time frame is measures. Also a good investment strategy is part art, part science.

Risk tolerance is just what it says. What is your tolerance for risk? And another question that doesn’t get asked often enough what is risk? To define risk tolerance we must first define the different types of risks and how they can affect our investment. There are more types of risk than what I am going to cover in this article; it’s more technical than is necessary for our purposes.

The risk that we are all familiar with is loss of principal. In other words, we lose the money we’ve already invested. Most of us are familiar with this after the recent market crash. The second type of risk I want to cover is return risk. Will our strategy offer enough return to meet our goals. The third risk I want to cover is volatility risk. This is the one that gets us in trouble. This is what makes us buy high and sell low. This is where most people make their mistakes.

We use an asset allocation model along with our investment policy to manage our risks and get the greatest return for the least amount of risk. Think of it as a pie chart that tells what types of investments we need and how much of each we need. As long as our goals don’t change, we only need to buy and sell to keep our portfolio balanced.

The investment policy tells us how often we will rebalance the portfolio. It tells us when we will re-evaluate or portfolio to see if our investments still meet our original objectives. It tells us when to buy, sell, and take any cash out of your portfolio.

This article is just an outline, if you will, of a proper investment strategy. As I build this site we will examine the essential elements, time frame, goals, and risk tolerance to learn how you build a successful portfolio that will meet you investment needs. Feel free to read our other article and visit the other pages on this site to learn how to manage your investment strategy.

Matt Mullis
http://einvestmentstrategy.com

All investing is a bet on the future. The difference is how you arrive at your bet. A review of the decision making methods may help you decide which works best for you.

Options for making your investment decisions include:

• Hunches – sometimes our instincts can be rewarding, but just as often they can cost us money because a hunch is based on what we think we know and not on what is possible to know with research or analysis. Do I sound like I don’t recommend this method? You bet I don’t.

• Tips – a suggestion from a friend, co-worker, cousin or uncle can come from something they heard (another tip), something on TV, the internet or just about anywhere. The question again, is the tip validated with research or analysis?

• The Press – TV shows, internet articles & forums, magazines and newspapers along with newsletters with ‘buy’ suggestions. Usually these are backed by some type of research so the question then becomes, “What is the batting average of the source, the person making the recommendation?” Without knowing the batting average these recommendations may not have any more value than an ordinary tip.

• Fundamental Research and Analysis – you can do it yourself or read someone else’s reports about the management of a stock or fund, the industry and product trends and viability along with their financial status. Decision making based on fundamentals is primarily for long term investing because a thorough analysis can take days, weeks and even months.

• Chart Analysis – Reading charts can provide you with indications or indicators of future performance based on past performance of a ticker symbol. There are more chart types than it is possible to list in a short article. There are also free internet chart services plus chart programs that cost. Some software programs offer just the most popular or most relevant charts so the choice because yours and this choice relates to time: time to learn a chart program can be many months; and time to review charts on a regular basis can involve minutes or a full day depending upon how they are used.

• Technical Analysis – evaluating the data of a particular ticker symbol or group of symbols can produce either or both charts, spreadsheet results or reports based on the analysis. Chart analysis is a type of technical analysis but a true technical analysis program can go further by allowing you to evaluate the symbol or group data in additional ways and provide reports “in plain English” that make decision making easier. Depending upon your objectives and time frame these software programs can involve as little as 30 minutes a week and provide reliable investing recommendations.

In other words, investing need not be a bet. You have choices based on your preference for doing things and how much time you want to spend at it to make sound investment decisions.

Personally I like to use technical analysis that gives me an easy to read report coupled with key charts that can confirm recommendations. Key charts like moving average and full stochastic can be especially helpful when the markets are volatile and jumping up and down from day to day or week to week.

Author Raymond Dominick is the designer of Dynamic Investor Pro investment software for stocks, ETFs and mutual funds. He has been investing in the markets since his teenage years. An experienced business manager and journalist, he has been a registered investment advisor representative, also a professional photographer who loves escaping to the wonders of Glacier National Park in Montana.
View his software at: http://www.dynamicinvestorpro.com

You have likely heard the old saying, ‘Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.’ This summarizes the entire philosophy of a diversified investment portfolio. The idea is to spread out the risk. You do not want to have 100% of your investment capital riding on a single investment. For example, you would not want to have your entire investment portfolio allocated to commodities. This might represent very slow growth and/or improper risk allocation. Likewise, you would not invest 100% of your capital into penny stocks that may go up and down in value just as quickly as the wind blows. Maintaining a diversified investment account will allow you to reap the benefits of multiple investments while at the same time protecting yourself from a single catastrophic loss if one of the investments happens to tumble.

Stock Market Investing Is A Fundamental Element Of A Diversified Portfolio

The United States stock market has increased in value, on average, about 11% since the 1920’s. This includes the time of the Great Depression, the stock market dive of 1987 and the dot-com crash of more modern times. Over time, the stock market increases in value. Those who invest in the stock market are in a position to benefit from this slow increase in value. Those who invest for the long-term are most able to capitalize on the growth of the stock market. It is a fundamentally sound investment when done properly. There are number of ways to invest in the stock market including mutual funds, spider funds, and stock indexes, to name just at few of the methods. Individual stock purchases can also be profitable if done correctly. As always, talk with an investment adviser about your options and how stock investment fits into your overall game plan.

Penny Stock

A more specific type of stock market investing revolves around penny stocks. These are stocks that have a small price tag and potentially a significant return. However, the potential also exists for significant losses if prices go against you. For this reason, penny stocks are generally considered to be a risky investment and are not suitable for all investors. The appeal of the penny stock is to ‘find the next Walmart.’ What this means is that the investor (or perhaps in this case the speculator) is looking to buy a company stock for a very small amount of money (perhaps just a few pennies) in the hopes that it may soar to be worth several dollars per share in the future. This is generally the fundamental game plan with a penny stock.

Mutual Funds Investing

Mutual fund investing is another one of the ways to invest in the stock market. Mutual fund exist for the purpose of spreading out risk. By their very nature they are designed to help increase overall portfolio returns while at the same time reducing overall risk to investment capital. The way this is achieved is to spread out the mutual funds overall portfolio into a number of different stocks. This diversification can help with risk reduction. People enjoy investing mutual funds because it allows them the opportunity to invest in a number of different companies all at the same time. It also allows for their money to be managed by a skilled professionals so that as individuals they do not have to do the decision making themselves. For these reasons it is easy to see why mutual funds have a very broad appeal and are one of the most popular investment opportunities available. Bear in mind that just because a mutual fund has done well in the past does not necessarily mean that they will continue to do well in the future. This is one of the challenges common to mutual funds.

Value Investing

Value investing is generally a broad definition of investing done by purchasing companies that have fundamentally sound value. In other words, a company that displays consistent earnings and offers a good value for the price of the shares offered would represent a company fitting into the category of a value investment. A number of fundamental investors organize their portfolios according to a value investing approach. Buying stocks that are of good value can represent a fundamentally sound investment strategy.

Bonds Investing

When you talk about bonds investing you generally think of safe and secure investments, and for good reason. Bonds generally represent one of the safest investments available. A bond is something like a promissory note. A company or government might issue a bond in order to raise funds for a particular project. When raising the funds, the entity will offer a bond containing a specific investment return which is to be repaid to the investor according to the term and length of the bond. It is something like lending money to a company and then giving you a specific return on your money. This can represent one of the safest forms of investments and likewise is popular for many people.

Commodities Investing

Commodities can represent one of the more confusing types of options available for investors. It is best to consult with skilled professionals and financial advisers when it comes to the topics of commodities. Commodities can be viewed as both a high risk opportunity as well as a safe and secure opportunity for financial returns. It depends on the approach first and foremost. Many investors view commodities as a hedge against their other investments-designed to provide a counter-cyclical approach to investing that can help diversify overall risk and returns.

Consult With An Advisor

Consulting with the skilled investment adviser is one of the best options that any investor can take before allocating their money. It is a good idea to diversify, but if the diversification is done without a systematic game plan than the results can be less than spectacular. A solid game plan, rolled out over a long period of time can be one of the best approach is to systematic, long-term investing that will yield fruitful financial returns. Long-term investing should be the goal of almost every investor looking to double and triple their capital in the years ahead. Begin first by talking with your investment adviser about a systematic game plan for your investment blueprint.

For more great tips and expert advice on investing for a bright and secure future, please visit us at http://www.elementaryinvesting.com.

An individual’s ability to make smart decisions concerning investments can result in fortune. The timing of such decisions is a key to financial success. This global world has made necessary for investors to win big or reap good profits even with one good decision. Those who have become so rich are largely not as a result of hard work only but also smart decisions. Below are some of the tips you could master to help you make smart investment decisions.

First, you may need to carry out due diligence about the industry you have decided to invest in. You have to know the in and out of the industries. You may need to find out if those players in there are making any profit at all and whether the industries accept new entrants easily. You may need to know the type of competition in that industry. It will also be helpful to gather competitor intelligence information ethically. These will get you to know if the industry is worth investing in.

Also, vital to sound investment decision is the idea of diversification where funds for investments are spread among several securities. The goal here is that you may not want to ‘put all your eggs in one basket’. In the event of a collapse of the only company you have put all your funds in, you risk losing everything. Hence the smartest way is to divide your funds among many companies or different commodities such that if one is not doing well, others may do well. It is rear to find about five carefully selected securities in a portfolio all doing badly at the same time.

Besides, you may need to know where to invest your funds. Common among commodities to invest in are stock funds, mutual funds, and bond funds. Stock funds are the most unstable in terms of returns but also very lucrative especially when you have a lot of money to invest and also invest wisely. For wise investment, I mean investing in more secure stocks which can guarantee you constant returns. One of the best secure stock investments is the S&P 500 Index fund. By investing in this fund, you have collectively invested in over 500 of the best companies in the world together. Your profit will largely move with the performance of the index and hence you can be assured of profit even in a highly volatile stock environment.

Bond funds are also another smart commodity to invest in. Bonds are also risky in the sense that they are affected by interest rate movements. When interest rate rises, bond prices will also fall. The smartest way around this is to invest in medium term bonds to beat the fall in bond prices in the long-term. Bond interest rates are fixed meaning that you can be certain of returns in the very near future. The real estate market together with some carefully selected investments in the mining, oil and gas sectors will make another smart investment move.

Smart decisions are essential for success in every endeavour. This is even more critical when it comes to investments. If you would heed to the tips above, obtaining good returns from your investments will be a constant feature.

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The author Isaac Akohene-Asiedu is a lecturer in Finance and Statistics and a microfinance prodigy. He is a practical investment adviser and an entrepreneur with many years of investment experience. He likes to share investment tips with people who want to earn financial freedom.

Benjamin Graham is an authority when it comes to investing in stocks and has written several books including the bible of stock investing -’ Security analysis’.

In it, he explained that following a detailed investigation, an acceptable exchange and protection of principal are the primary concept empowering any investment decision. Any company that sells stocks which does not meet these requirements is deemed risky. He also advised stock investors not to get paranoid on the fluctuations of the market but rather look for long term arrangement and more stable financial growth.

The best time for an investor to buy stocks is while they come to be available in the market at a price lower than their own true value.

This can be done by researching and studying the business’s economic state during the past year or two.

He believed in vital assessment of a company and it just makes sense. The given “edge of protection” for the trader is a priceless notion particularly when stocks are very unstable. To make a sensible investment decision, one must adopt the art of sensible buying. Sensible buying is simply buying stocks of a usually economically secure organization at a reasonable price.

Graham also stated that good results can only be achieved through cautious evaluation and investigation. To acquire the top hand in options and stocks, one should take investing as a science and not take it as another betting venture. There are several investors who usually has the attitude of everything goes and has then stuck as aspect of their stock market investing technique. Graham realized that this process can only be achieved when traders start carrying out selections as professional as possible. What is essential is the order that will make their dealings as employed by some stock investors whose concept of stock market as a way to make quick money. He required traders to take all of the sentiment, recreation playing and shortcuts and replace it with careful research and study so that they will experience great success in their own financial ventures.

There are others who have come up to confront Graham’s ideas. Over the years, many other great financial minds such as Charles Brandes and Irving Kahn stated that it is certainly not possible to forecast or outsmart the stock marketplace.

But Graham’s investment theory engaged no chicanery or recreation playing in any way. His principle lies on the sound investment advice. This is to increase an investor’s possibilities of emerging victorious and well ahead over time. he simply believed that an informed, measured tactic will clear the way for the serious investor who is willing to put in the time to improve his/her chances in the stock exchange.

Rod Ang Lee is a part time stock analyst whose diverse set of portfolio has helped him stay afloat in these trying economic conditions. His portfolio consists of bonds, mutual funds, Dow Jones, Etrade and close end municipal bonds.

The key to making a great investment is to find something that everyone uses, and will continue to use. If you can invest in something that has high profitability, you are pretty much guaranteed to turn a profit. Everybody needs toilet paper, and everyone needs energy. Society is pretty much dependant on energy, it makes the world go round. Currently, the world is in an energy crisis. Many countries are endeavoring to come up with a more sustainable source of energy and they need lots of help to do it. If you are into investing to make a difference as well as turn a profit, investing in energy is a great option.

There are many options when it comes to investing in energy. You could invest in utilities companies or you could invest in energy research and development. It has long been established that oil makes a great investment. It is a sound investment because the world depends upon oil for transportation and many other elements of daily life. But alternative energy sources are beginning to make a showing in the investment realm. Yes, you will be a hero for investing in something that matters and makes a difference in our world. Yes, you will be forwarding the purposes of responsible living and renewable resources. But you will also be able to make a profit.

In 2009, solar, wind, nuclear, biofuels, and renewable were serious contenders in the investment market. Solar power, for example, which has not done well in the past, is beginning to make a turn around. There is not a lot of money to be had in solar power at the moment. But with all the hype around better energy solutions, it will not be long before solar energy becomes very profitable. As demand increases, so will the profits for investors. The same will happen for wind and other alternative sources of energy. Investing in energy is a place where forward thinking investors can get in while the prices are low and make huge profits when the energy market booms.

Two places that have taken serious hits in recent years are natural gas and uranium. In 2009, they both nearly fell out the bottom and are making very slow recoveries. It is not expected that they will go much lower, but they may not recover to their former glory. Investing in energy is a field about to burst open.For more information on investing in investment opportunities usually or

normally not found in the marketplace, click here!

Sean Johnson is an Investment Advisor for http://www.inquest.biz an Investment Referral Service for investors requesting information on specific investments.