Buy Gold For Safety In These Incertain Times

By Pat Nopper

Gold investing has always been popular among those that want to protect themselves from really hard times in the economy. Gold has indeed done better than stocks or bonds in the last couple of years and it has been a good choice to have at least part of your portfolio in it. However, with stocks doing so poorly, one might have thought gold would do even better than it has.

If you haven't had any of your money in gold now might be the time to give it a look. The stock market might have a ways yet to go on the downside and having some of your money in gold might be smart. The key word is some of your money as it is never a good idea to have too much in one thing. If you put all or most of your money in one stock or in gold, that is akin to gambling.

Gold is desirable in hard times because it has never gone to zero. For thousands of years and countless civilizations, gold has always been sought after and considered valuable. Most famous of those civilizations were the ancient Egyptians who buried themselves with their gold. Nothing is guaranteed of course, but there have been many times when gold has not only been a safety play but it has outperformed other investments outright.

People might wonder why the current cost of gold hasn't gone up much in these troubled economic times. Most folks buy gold for safety because it is the one thing you can count on to hold its value in bad times. These are most certainly the worst of times economically and those who have gold have done reasonably will with it. But it still hasn't gone up like you might have thought it would with stocks performing so poorly.

Usually it is fine to invest in gold stocks or ETFs that are easier than actually collecting the physical gold. However, there has recently been a rise in interest in the real thing such as gold coins and gold bars because many people no longer trust any financial institutions. People have become wary of big business and all the shenanigans that seem to go on which leaves us normal investors out in the cold. Gold might be the answer for a little much needed security. - 23204

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Are you interested in finding out about buying gold for dummies? If so, please visit my website Current Price Of Gold.

Coming up with A Stock Trading Game Plan

By Michael Swanson

I'm sure you have your own method to picking out what stocks you like to buy. You might be a value investor who buys based on fundamentals. Or you may be a growth investor who looks for companies that have big earnings growth. Whatever type of stock you buy you need a method to know when to buy and sell.

You see you have to do more than just get an idea from TV or read about a hot stock in a magazine to make money. You have to know basic trading tactics and fundamentals and put them to use. That is where understanding price action and stock charts comes in.

Three principles guide the beliefs of technical analysis. First is that market action (price movements and changes in trading volume) discounts everything. In other words all of the relevant information about a company's earnings and fundamentals are already known and incorporated into the price of its stock. Looking at a company's balance sheet will rarely give you an edge over other investors. Everyone else knows that information too.

The second principle is that prices move in trends. There are predictable trends that repeat over and over again that you can take advantage of. The trader's mantra is "the trend is your friend."

The reason why technical analysis works is because investors will never change. Throughout history they have been driven by fear and greed and always will be. There always will be people who buy at tops and sell at bottoms and you just need to know the patterns that show you when important turning points are at hand.

The important thing is to be able to tell when a price movement represents an important pattern or is just noise you need to ignore. To do that you just need to do some studying and learn the patterns. Most people don't do that and just chase fluctuations and lose money.

This requires a degree of skill, judgment, and interpretation. Mechanical trading systems attempt to do away with subjectivity by basing investment decisions on mathematical indicators calculated with the variables of price and volume.

Money doesn't fall from the sky. Making money in the stock market requires guts, grits, and tough work. You need to educate yourself on technical analysis in order to use stock charts and make money off of price action in the stock market. - 23204

About the Author:

For more from Mike Swanson go to his stock trading blog at WallStreetWindow.com.

You May Be Missing US Grant Money

By John Holden

It requires effort, time as well as proper research in order to find out which government organization offer grants that fulfill specific purpose in particular area. Reading this, one will definitely get all necessary information regarding government grants and will be helpful to one in research and study. If a person is really keen to start his own business such grants may be helpful and he may face many troubles in getting a grant. It is a fact that government funds are the best choice for all non profit organizations as well as for programs and services that are helpful to common public.

Finding government grants

US government website contains the catalog of all government grants to be issued in particular year, thus interested people can get acquainted with latest grants from there. Furthermore, it also aids the individuals in searching for an apposite agent electronically and applying for different competitive grant opportunities from various other federal grant organizations. The official website lists all kinds of grants along with government agencies that award grants in different fields. CFDA can also prove an efficient way to get familiar with different categories of government funds and assistance. Moreover, it also facilitates the individuals to make use of some highly effective searching methods like keyword searching to find suitable grant easily. However, once the required grant is found, it is vital to make certain that whether one is qualified for a particular grant or not.

Most of the government grants are not accessible year round; therefore, one should apply for those only when announced by the government or government organization. When an organization makes some fund for grant, it enlists this proclamation in a kind of register known as "Federal Register" which is made available in print everyday. It is this register from where one can keep himself updated about the recent announcements. Besides, intenders can also look for latest funding made by government on the websites of government agencies.

These government agencies grant funds to individuals who want it for education purpose. Grant of funds is also done for scientific research. Apart from this there are numerous government agencies who grant funds for many other reasons.

Receiving government grants

Receiving government grants is, no doubt, a tough job due to huge competition. For being a good candidate for receiving grants, the individuals are required to render a written document which manifestly states that their aims lay down a financial plan for business activities. Now-a-days, various fraudulent agencies are also there which assert to issue free money grant just by writing a simple letter, so people need to be cautious about them.

These government grants are free in a way that a person does not have to reimburse the amount. The only thing which one should provide is proper evidence of periodic progress, financial reports as well as program evolution to the government.

So, if you consider yourself eligible for a particular type of grant, get ready to research more about it or make contact with a competent proficient individual to help you out in the entire procedure. - 23204

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To read more about US grants, check out Government Grants Direct. Also, check out the Gov Grants Direct review now!

Forex Trade at a Glance

By Bart Icles

Foreign Exchange, Forex, or just plain FX are the names used to describe the trading of the currencies of the countries around the world. By far, the Forex Market is the largest trading market compared to stock or futures trading market and other investment portfolios. Majority of Forex trading is based on speculation done by individual and institutional speculators which is roughly about 85% of the market, with the remaining 15% of trading for goods and services. Forex trade transactions amount to more than USD 1 - 3 trillion on average in a daily basis.

The main purpose of the Forex market is to help facilitate the trade and investment of various investors of the world by providing the means to exchange one currency to another.

Forex market business is termed as an OTC (over the counter) market, and is facilitated by "interbank" marketing such as email, fax, or phone. For a trade to be consummated there has to be two parties directly involved by way of telephone or electronic networks. Forex Trading is not conducted by a central exchange, nor by one ruling central body but through the many trading centers spread across the world. These are in Sydney, Tokyo, London, Frankfurt, and New York. With a trading system so designed, the Forex market is able to operate non-stop in all days of the weeks except Sundays.

In essence, a currency trade is when there is the simultaneous buying and selling of one currency to another currency - usually for one that it is paired against. This currency combination is termed as a cross, e.g. the EURO/USD, or the GB/Japanese Yen. Currencies that are most commonly traded as known as the "majors" like the EURO/USD, USD/JPY, USD/CHF, and the GBP/USD. The USD is currently ranked as the top traded currency in the world, followed closely behind by the Euro, Japanese Yen, Pound Sterling, Swiss Franc, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar, Swedish Krona, and so on.

Some common yet important Forex trading terms to remember are the spreads and Pips. Spreads means the difference between the price of a currency that any trader can sell at (Bid) and the price a currency can be bought at (Ask). A Pip is the smallest increment by which a cross price changes. In Forex trading a trader may often encounter a 3 Pip spread when trading majors. This spread is seen when comparing the bid and ask price of a paired currency. An example would be: EUR/USD quote is with a bid price of 0. 9876 with an ask price of 0.9879 = USD 0.0003 or 3 pips. - 23204

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How do you become a phenomenal forex trader? Also, come learn how to determine if forex day trading is for you.

What is Kelly Ratio?

By Ahmad Hassam

In my last article we talked about the criteria for developing a good mechanical trading system. The important question is how to develop a trading system, evaluate it and then apply it with real money. There are many factors to consider while testing and evaluating a mechanical trading system.

We need to not only know that the trading system is profitable but also whether it is profitable with limited equity swings. Does the trading system have excessive drawdown periods?

Three of the most important elements of trading systems are: 1) Clear cut rules for entry and exit. 2) Rules for exiting at profit targets and 3) Rules for exiting at loss targets.

Do losses exceed gains more than what is tolerable in the long run? Does the trading system experience periods of time that result in significant losses that give back those gains when a string of multiple winners and substantial profits accrue?

A money management tool used by system traders is the Kelly Formula or Ratio. John Kelly while working at AT&T Bell Labs had developed the formula in 1956. Most traders do not know when to correctly add on a trading position.

Gamblers realized its potential as an optimal betting system in horse racing. It soon became popular with the gamblers. This formula enabled gamblers to maximize the size of their bets on consecutive races.

Gamblers would use the Kelly Formula to determine how much to parlay winnings into the next bet. Kelly Formula used by many traders to determine how much money to place on the next trade.

Kelly Ratio is given by the formula: K=W-[(1-W)/R] where K is the Kelly Ratio in percentage. W is the winning probability and it is the probability that any given trade that you make will return a positive amount. R is the Win/Loss Ratio and it is the total positive trade amounts divided by the total negative trade amount.

Kelly Ratio tells you what you should ideally be willing to risk on each trade to maximize your total returns in terms of the percent of your total account. Suppose K is 25% then you can risk 25% of your account on each trade.

To be on the safe side you should half the ratio. Many traders argue that the Kelly Formula gives too high a figure. Suppose K is 25%. You should half it to 12.5%. It means you should not risk more than 12.5% of your account on a single trade.

Kelly Formula can help you in comparing two trading systems and deciding which one is better in the long run. You should look for a trading system that has the highest Kelly Ratio.

Back testing is used to evaluate the historical performance of a trading system. It shows the strength and weaknesses of each trading system in the long run. You can use the back testing results in the Kelly Formula.

So back testing combined with the Kelly Formula can help you achieve the highest trading profits with the lowest risks in most market conditions. - 23204

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. He is interested in day trading stocks and forex. Know The Candlestick Patterns. Learn Forex Trading.