May 28, 2009

Writing A Day Trading Plan

How essential is it to have a day trading plan?

Why do you need a trading plan?

This piece of writing will explore several crucial aspects of why you must engage in a trading plan, as well as the crucial essentials of your trading plan.

A trading plan is of high significance to your trading success. Trading is a business, and nearly all businesses want a plan. Precise planning is vital to your success. In fact, strategic planning will do you well in business as well as in trading.

If you don’t have a trading plan, your trading decisions could be typically based on hunches and emotions - and odds are you will not attain trading success, over the extended term.

By trying to trade with no a trading plan - expensive mistakes are inevitable. Emotional decisions are the largely destructive aspect for a trader. Do not permit your emotions to dictate your trading habits.
It is not necessary to have a problematical trading plan, keep your trading plan uncomplicated. Have a written trading plan, as the procedure of writing things down can be essential to your accomplishment as a trader.

After spending several trading days paper trading your system, you are better prepared and able to set out and arrange a trading plan.

A trading plan must take account of not only your goals but must also designate how you plan to achieve them.

Consistent actions can only be achieved through an in-depth written trading plan. Traders should have faith in their trading plans, and remain true to their trading plan.

A day trading plan has got to contain a number of basic issues such as your trading goals and objectives. A trading plan must comprise your entries, profit targets and stop loss.

Entering into a trade is one of the first decisions you create when trading. However, it is also one of the least important…….

A trading plan must also cover position size. How much are you prepared to suffer the loss of on one trade? The lesser the percentage of your trading account dedicated to any one trade, the bigger the likelihood of your being flourishing. You ought to be aware of the greatest amount at risk for every trade. You also need to comprehend the highest amount you are prepared to suffer the loss of for the day before you stop trading. Protecting your wealth, or money management, is without a doubt an extremely critical element of success.

The goal is not just to get money, but also to be able to continue to make riches consistently for an extended episode of time.

Once in a winning trade, be tolerant and fully benefit from the victory. The known trading axiom is, “slash your losses short and let your profits run”.

A trading plan ought to identify precise goals to accomplish within a set time.

Having a written trading plan gives you an edge over most others and as the failure percentage of traders is so prohibitive, how can you afford not to take part in a written trading plan.

A written trading plan will not ensure you success, but not having one will pretty much guarantee failure.

The fundamental to any day trading plan is how well it works over time.

Have you paper traded your system for a worthwhile period of time? This would provide confidence to take every single setup. If you have a few stopouts in a row, which is unavoidable to come to pass at a few stage, you continue to take every one of the trades. Will your system work in the long term?

You have tried your system and tested it and you are delighted to go live with it. Now is the moment to write out your day trading plan.

 

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May 9, 2009

Push for legalizing online gaming in the US

For a man who does not play “games of chance”, Barney Frank sure is an unlikely candidate in the effort to legalize online gambling.  Mr. Frank does not visit casinos (online or offline) and claims to never have pulled the handle on a slot machine.  So what drives the Newton-based Democratic Congressman so hard to champion a cause for which, apparently, he does not have much
“love”?  Why has the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee gone to the length of proposing new legislation that would legalize an industry like online casinos that is under constant pressure from the US Department of Justice?

Mr. Frank is finding support among online gamblers who have backed his efforts not only with words but with cold-hard cash as well.  A pitboss at the famed Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas has recently donated to his campaign, so has Chris Moneymaker, a famous professional poker player.

Industry figures show that, in the United States alone, the Internet online gambling industry accounts for $5.9 billion in annual revenues.  Nearly 8 million Americans place wagers online, according to a study done in 2005 by Christiansen Capital Advisors, a Maine-based research firm.  But the industry as a whole has been very controversial and come under constant criticism since it first appeared back in 1995. As of now, roughly only 30% of deposits trying to be made from the US are processed into online casinos.

A law dating back to the early 1960s prohibits the use of telephone lines to place bets.  The US Department of Justice has since that date relied on that law to defend its stance against the burgeoning industry despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of all gambling sites operate in offshore jurisdictions and do not need to meet US laws and regulations.

The signature by George Bush, in 2006, of a new law that prohibits banks and credit card companies from participating in transactions involving online gaming firms made it even more difficult to place bets online.  But businesses like lottery gambling, horse racing or fantasy sports were exempted from that same law.  One has to wonder about those strange exemptions.

In 2007, within a four-month period of time, Barney Frank introduced new legislation reversing George Bush’s ban and worked on setting up a regulatory body that would allow gamblers to play online casino games on the Internet.

According to Frank, this is an issue of personal freedom.  Why does the government need to intervene in people’s personal decisions?  If, in the privacy of their own home, people want to gamble, why would they not be allowed to do so?

While it is still to early to tell what the outcome of Mr. Frank’s efforts are gathering support from both sides of the aisle. If legalized, online gambling would represent billions of dollars in new tax revenue for the US government.

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March 5, 2009

Penny Stocks A Sure Way To Lose Your Money

Several folk have heard of the term penny stocks. It can be employed to imply stocks possessing a price of less than one buck a share or it may be employed to imply stocks that are not exchanged in regular markets such as the NY Stock Exchange . Although, many of us are under the myth that an investment in Penny Stocks can be sweet, essentially they can be considered as a sure way to lose money. There are a few drawbacks to these so called penny stocks. It is important for you understand these drawbacks, so you may not be lured falsely by these kinds of stocks.

Perhaps the best downside is the incontrovertible fact that these penny stock corporations are no longer controlled by the SEC ( SEC Commission ). Since these penny stocks are no longer regulated in the classic stock market basics, they don’t have to report their assets, report their change of administration and scores of other urgent info that is obligatory for backers to help decide about a company’s future.

Since, these corporations exchange thru over the counter services, regularly they can be considered as a black hole since only immaterial info will come thru about them.

The second major disadvantage of penny stocks is the incontrovertible fact that they can have a particularly thin margin of exchange. This indicates that when you’re searching for a way to sell your penny stock ; you may not be in a position to find a buyer at its current cost. The explanation for this stems from the indisputable fact that there are customarily awfully low volumes of exchange for plenty of penny stocks.

Therefore , when you want your money and therefore when you try and exit these stocks ; you won’t be in a position to find a buyer who is ready to buy at the present cost. You will have to lower your price significantly, so you can sell your stocks and get your money.

Since these companies are not controlled ; then if the company is getting ready to go bankrupt, you wont have an alert about it and just as importantly you wont have any rights concerning this investment. In the most extreme case eventuality, you’ll have to take your possibilities on these penny stock firms. You have got a high probability of picking an incorrect penny stock thanks to the fact that they’ll have a scarcity of history. Therefore , you won’t have away to do a correct research. You may be a victim of a biased advice as the majority of these penny stock corporations will try and influence the financiers by trying different channels of the media and particularly the Net. In the Net, you can receive falsely made info about a specific penny stock, but actually you’ll be losing money since the info may not be true. Since, these stocks are now not controlled by SEC, you will not be guarded by the govt and therefore you may be misinformed. Ordinary stock brokers are prohibited to solicit penny stocks due to these downsides. 

 

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October 24, 2008

Cash flow factoring

Both factoring and invoice discounting can be described as ways to get immediate cash by selling accounts receivable to a third party, usually a finance company. In fact, the two methods are more similar than they are different.

Invoice factoring, also referred to as asset securitization, is an outright sale of receivables to the finance company. The business gets cash and the finance company collects the debt, keeps the interest and gets a discount fee on top of that for its trouble. Invoice discounting can also be termed a sale of receivables, but in this case administration of the receivables and their collection does NOT change hands. The business that earned the income still holds that responsibility.

Here are some questions to consider in order to choose which method is best for your company:

1. Are you concerned with the cost of collections in your company? Are they getting out of hand? Is your collections area fully staffed with competent and reliable personnel? If you think your company would be better off reducing the amount of resources devoted to this function, factoring is the better choice for you, as a lot of it, but not all, can be offloaded to the finance company. If you already have a well-working collections department you might rather choose invoice discounting. That way your staff and procedures regarding collections remain in place.

2. Knowing that the finance company will undoubtedly treat your customers with the utmost courtesy, respect and professionalism, are you nevertheless concerned that he may prefer to be dealing directly with your company? Perhaps billing requests often come together with customer service requests. Your customer is generally not aware of the sale of his receivable to you with invoice discounting. Not only is he aware of a factoring arrangement, but also he is subject to confirmation calls on individual invoices by the finance company on occasion. If this is something you know would disturb your customers you may need to choose invoice discounting.

3. What are your current informational needs with regard to collections efforts and your customers? Do you currently collect this data and rely on it to make future credit decisions for this customer? Can the finance company provide it in the format and frequency you desire? If not, invoice discounting may be the right choice, so all your current data collection techniques will not be disturbed.

4. What are your cash requirements? With either factoring or invoice discounting, you are paying for the immediate cash. Doing the collections yourself at a normal rate would return you more actual cash. But invoice discounting returns you more cash than does factoring. This is, obviously, because the finance company takes on more responsibility and more duties with factoring than with invoice discounting.

5. How large a portfolio of unsecured receivables does your company hold? How diverse is it? Are there any single customers who hold more than 20% of the total receivables balance? Generally, companies using invoice discounting tend to be larger and have a more diverse portfolio. This could be why they chose invoice discounting, however, rather than a characteristic. They already have the collections efforts and data collections methods in place and the cost and difficulty involved in changing them might be prohibitive for a factoring arrangement. Diversity in the portfolio is something finance companies look for under both arrangements.

Making an honest assessment based on these factors will allow you to make the right choice for your company. You’ll soon be on the way to a healthy cash flow, no matter which you choose.

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June 26, 2008

Who is Elligible to Apply for QROPS?

by Amy Nutt

British citizens who are living permanently abroad often struggle with finding the right investment option for their retirement funds. British pension plans tend to keep the money tied up within the UK, making it difficult for the expatriate to access his or her funds. When money is made available, it is heavily taxed and is delivered in British pounds. Pounds are often not the currency of choice for those living abroad, creating a problem. The British government has recently made provisions to make it easier for expats to access and use their money while residing outside of the UK.

A QROPS, or Qualified Recognized Pension Plan, is a relatively new investment option for British expatriates. This option became available to expatriates in April of 2006. The new regulations regarding QROPS allow British expatriates to move money from their UK pension plans to QROPS. The QROPS must be qualified and recognized, which means the government has agreed that it is a qualified plan. This allows the expatriate to put his or her funds into an account that is subject to fewer taxes, allows access to the money when needed, and provides a better form of currency.

This has led to the question of who is able to apply for QROPS. Under current tax law, this system is open to British citizens who are living overseas for an extended period of time. Those who hold UK pensions and are citizens of other countries are also able to transfer their money form the pension to a QROPS, provided they are no longer living in the UK. This means that individuals who have worked within the UK at any time, while maintaining their citizenship elsewhere, can apply for a QROPS, provided they are no longer living in the UK. The only people who cannot use a QROPS are United States citizens. At this time, Americans who hold UK pensions cannot use the QROPS program.

Money that is transferred into a QROPS can be accessed tax free if the fund is structured properly. However, this benefit is not available until the individual who owns the account has been out of the UK for at least five complete tax years. This stipulation keeps people from moving out of the country temporarily simply to access the tax benefits associated with a QROPS.

There are no minimum amounts required to transfer money from a UK pension plan to a QROPS, unless the QROPS itself sets these minimums. However, the cost of the transfer and the management of the account may prohibit those with small pensions from utilizing this tool. For instance, individuals with less than 150,000 may find that the cost of creating and maintaining the fund outweighs the tax benefits they will receive.

Why should those who qualify for QROPS consider making the transfer? Not only will the money in their pension now be available in a new currency, but it will also be available before they reach retirement age. Provided the individual has lived outside of the UK for the past five years, that money can be withdrawn from the QROPS free of UK pension taxes. This can mean that the full value of the pension funds is available to the expatriate. The taxes in the country where the fund is set up still must be paid, but choosing the right country can make these taxes close to nothing.

Money in a QROPS is also freed from UK inheritance taxes. For those who are working on their estate plans, this is a great incentive. By setting up a QROPS and transferring pension money to it from a UK pension, these individuals can protect more of their funds for their heirs when they die. Because of these great benefits, many British expats and others who hold British pension plans are looking to transfer their money out of the pension plan and into a QROPS.

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