Using High Yield Savings Accounts For Financial Stability

By Chris Channing

The money you make can be a blast to spend. Responsibility kicks in, though, and your mind should shift to saving the money for when you need it most. For an emergency, a new house, or anything you can think of- knowing how to save your money can keep you out of a tight situation.

The FDIC offers insurance to banks, who in turn offer it to clients. Make sure that the bank you are doing business with is insured with the FDIC. If they aren't, you could lose all of your money with the blink of an eye should anything happen to the bank. The FDIC only insures a certain amount of money for each account, so a bit more research on this will be required.

Interest rate determines how much money you will get on return each period- but it also can be used to determine how stable the bank is. A bank that keeps a fairly stable interest rate, even in tough times, is a sure winner. Interest rates that fluctuate wildly would indicate that the bank isn't as stable as others- and perhaps you should take your business elsewhere.

Banks have several methods of keeping you as a customer- even if you plan to take all of your money out at some point in the distant future. Banks could use fees such as closing costs, minimum account balance costs, and others to keep your account open. Before you do sign an agreement, you should review the fees that you will incur in such cases with a bank representative.

Also do reputation checks on the company. Use the Internet to purposely scout out both good and bad reviews of the company. Once you feel you have read enough, make a general assumption about the company. If many bad reviews were in play, you might consider doing business elsewhere. Even the best interest rate and terms will do you little good if the customer service department doesn't do anything to help the customers they serve.

Internet banks are becoming more common as time goes on. Don't be concerned to trust your funds and information with a bank that you aren't able to physically visit. Through secure technologies and easy communication standards, having an Internet savings account is actually easier than going to your local bank to create one. In addition, the interest rates tend to be higher and the customer support better.

Final Thoughts

Look at your budget and start planning what you can do to save money. Cut back on other costs as well so that you can put more money into your savings account. Save money on food and apparel, as well as entertainment, and you'll notice a big change in your finances. - 23212

About the Author:

Learn more on Best Savings Accounts and High Interest Savings Accounts.

Starting Out As A RE Investor

By Doc Schmyz

One of the best ways to get started with building your own personal wealth-building system is by investing in real estate. Becoming a real estate investor is a daunting task, but one that will, if operated efficiently, pay dividends forever.

How does one start with the business of real estate investing? Let's look at plans to get started buying and selling real estate property:

Everywhere you turn these days someone is a member of a Real Estate group. Find where they meet and be willing to ask the most basic of questions.

RE investors, are for the most part, a great group of people, from all walks of life? The one thing we all share is our passion for what we do. We discuss tactics and ideas about what to invest in as well as where. We share tips on things that have worked...and warnings about things that dont.

Now dont buy anything just yet. You need to map out your "battle plan". What type of real estate are you interested in? What are you willing to do with it? And what is your exit strategy with it?

At first you need to decide on what type of property to start with. If your goal is to find distressed houses then focus on those. If you want to deal with the condo market...then thats where you look. Keep in mind when you focus on one area you will become more understanding of what those types of property can be sold for, not to mention how much it cost to get them sale ready.

Begin to get together a group of contractors and sub-contractors who you can trust to work within your new system and according to your business plans and your budget.

So lets say you choose to do the "fix and flip" game. People to have on your team are a contractor, electrician, plumber, and to be safe a heating/air condition guy. Now if you can find one...and the property isnt getting major work (like say a room addition) you can get away with a good handyman who does all the above.

Find a real estate agent that understands property investors and their needs and is willing to work with you on a continuing basis. An agent gives you access to property information, including the Multiple Listing Service. An agent who understands real estate investing can also find you good deals within your specific market.

Exit Strategy. How to unload your investment. Think about how youre going to sell it. Are you listing it yourself?? Or using the great agent you found. How long will you stick with a price before you lower it? These are things to make sure you have set up in your plan already.

Every beginning real estate investor will make mistakes that cut into potential profits. It is imperative to recognize these mistakes and correct them before they can cripple the business.

In the end, the investor who runs their business in the most efficient ways will profit, succeed, and grow in real estate investing. - 23212

About the Author:

Doc Schmyz has worked with investors all over the US and Canada. His free website shares Real estate investing information for all over the US. Find Real estate investing information by state

Descending Triangles - Long Trading Strategy

By Jeff Cartridge

The descending triangle can be traded very successfully on the long side entering the trade as the stock breaks out to the upside. The pattern forms when the two boundary lines that contain the price movement converge to a point. The top line slopes down toward the bottom line which is horizontal.

Descending Triangles, Unexpected Returns

Most descending triangles would be expected to break down but, in fact 43%, break out to the upside making this pattern tradable on the long side. Only 41% of these breakouts are profitable and on average the profit per trade is 0.87% over a period of 8 days. The descending triangle is not the best chart pattern when it breaks to the upside, but applying some filters makes this pattern attractive to trade.

Refine Your Entries

When you look at the performance of a descending triangle in bearish market conditions you will see the results were not as strong as they were in more bullish years. Trading descending triangles when both the sector and the market, are in an up trend or consolidating improves your trading results. Because of the shape of the pattern the share will naturally be in a down trend so in effect you are entering a retracement in the share during a bullish market phase.

Avoid trading descending triangle patterns that breakout early, in the first 30% of the pattern. Likewise avoid very shallow patterns where the height of the pattern is less than 2% of the stock price.

Illiquid stock can sometimes be identified by two identical closes or highs and if this is the case you are better to avoid these trades. If volume supports a descending triangle breakout then the profitability of the trades improves. For volume to support the breakout, volume when the stock is going up should be greater than volume when the stock is going down.

Descending Triangles Can Be Profitable

You can improve your trading results by using a series of simple filters that have been outlined here. This select group of descending triangles delivers an average profit of 1.45% in 10 days and is profitable on 51% of the trades. Overall this makes descending triangles attractive to trade.

Note: Statistics for this article have been provided by Patterns Trader after analyzing over 60,000 chart patterns on the Australian market from 2000 - 2008. - 23212

About the Author:

Jeff Cartridge has been trading CFDs since 2002and created the website LearnCFDs.com Trading Chart Patterns - All The Insider Tricks

Different Types of Market Orders (Part I)

By Ahmad Hassam

Just to remind you that forex markets are open 24 hours a day, five days a week. A market move is just likely to happen while you are asleep or in the shower as while you are sitting in front of your computer screen. Currency traders use market orders to catch market movements when they are not in front of their screens.

There are many types of market orders. Proper use of market orders is very critical to your trading success. You should think of the different types of market orders as trades waiting to happen. You are in the market so be as careful as possible while playing with the market orders if you enter an order and the subsequent price action triggers its execution. Trading can be very difficult without these market orders.

Professional currency traders routinely use market orders to limit risk in volatile or uncertain markets, implement a trade strategy from entry to exit, capture sharp short term price fluctuations and preserve trading capital from unwanted loss. Market orders are essential for maintaining trading discipline and your peace of mind as a trader.

Forex markets can be notoriously volatile and difficult to predict. While limiting the impact of any adverse price movements, using market orders can help you capitalize on short term price movements.

If you dont use market orders, you probably dont have a well thought out trading plan. While there is no guarantee that the use of market orders will limit your losses and protect your profits in all market conditions, a disciplined use of market orders will help you quantify the risk that you are taking. It will also give you the peace of mind in trading.

A number of different types of market orders are available to currency traders in forex markets. You should add the market orders to the list of questions you need to ask the broker when you open an account with a forex broker because you should know that not all market orders are available at all online forex brokers.

Take Profit Orders: Use the take profit order to lock in profits when you have an open position in the market. An old market saying, You cant go broke taking profits. If you are long EUR/USD at 1.2845, your take profit order will be to sell the position somewhere higher close to 1.2875. Suppose you are short GBP/USD at 1.2354. Your take profit order will be to buy back the position and be place somewhere below 1.2334. Making you a profit of 20 pips!

Limit Orders: Dont forget the saying, Buy low and sell high. A limit order is any market order that triggers a trade at more favorable levels than the current market price. The limit order must be placed somewhere above the current market price if the limit order is to sell. The limit order must be entered somewhere below the current market price if the order is to sell. - 23212

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. He is interested in day trading stocks and currencies. Know Forex Scalping. Learn Forex Trading!

Global Macro and Commodity Trading

By Dwight Tourajdi

The typical image of the floor of the Mercantile Exchange being filled with a bunch of guys that couldn't get jobs anywhere else is very outdated and wrong. Instead commodity traders are increasingly becoming some of the most sophisticated investors on earth.

The largest group of traders are the upstairs traders, to differentiate them from the floor traders. Inside of the upstairs traders that largest group is that of the systematic long term trend followers. The next biggest group of commodity speculators are the global macro traders.

Some global macro traders are always involved in the commodity markets while others don't actually do a ton of trading. But one thing that all global macro funds do is track and forecast commodity prices. This is so that they have a better grip on raw materials cost as well as where on earth are things growing fast and slow. It basically gives a great picture of the macroeconomic landscape.

For instance if oil is rising like we saw in 2008 then you have to look to see what businesses are going to get hurt and what will benefit from higher oil prices. Obviously oil companies will make more money but what about shorting airlines? Or maybe even going long railroad companies. As you can tell there are endless ideas of who is affected and who is not.

One area that also gets a ton of attention is that of precious metals. Precious metals have a small piece of the industrial machine but mostly are used as an inflation hedge and as an asset backed alternative currency as more and more of the fiat currencies look long term bankrupt.

Industrial metals are also a big deal as almost everything you buy or use has some type of metal in it. Copper for electrical wires, lead for batteries, aluminum for cans, etc. The list is virtually endless and between the MERC, the NYMEX, and the LME you can trade basically all of it. If you aren't tracking industrial metals then you are not pricing out the number one cost for most manufacturing and industrial companies.

While many investors gloss over the agricultural commodities they shouldn't. In the future agricultural commodities will only be increasing in importance as the worlds water supplies continue to diminish. If you are already monitoring demographic trends and overall supply demand you should also be following agricultural commodities.

Obviously commodities are a huge component of the global economy. Not only can you make some great trades in these markets but you can also get a better picture of what will be happening in other asset classes, kind of like the missing pieces of the puzzle. - 23212

About the Author:

If you need actionable trading ideas then check out The Macro Trader It is a weekly global macro investor advisory publication with frequent intra-week updates for time-critical analysis and actionable trading ideas.