401k Secrets

By Michael Swanson

Anyone who has been in the work force and a taxpayer is familiar with 401k advice retirement plans. It helps many hardworking Americans save their hard earned money for the time they need it most, retirement. It is truly a milestone when one can enjoy life as a senior and not worry about residual income.

The retirement plan insures that when we do retire, we don't have to strive so hard to make ends meet. This account will pay a monthly salary to the person who has saved for many years and has reached the age of retirement. The following is a list of some of the benefits of a 401k retirement plan.

1. The account can be moved around. If you leave your place of employment after paying into the 401k plan, you can take it with you when you find another job. The value of the account stays the same and if you're current employer matched the deposit that is yours too.

2. It allows the employee to make a few tax free investments. The 401k gives the employee the chance at dabbling into the stock market, buying bonds, and even purchasing mutual funds. They can really make the account take off by spreading their investments in many different areas.

3. The 401k retirement plan is fully transferable. It can be moved from one employer to the next without loosing any of the employee's funds. That gives the investor peace of mind knowing that if something happened to their employment, they haven't lost their money and can keep the money invested by the company.

One of the smartest financial assets to have is a 401k retirement plan. It ensures that seniors and their families will have a steady income when they retire. When it comes to retirement, nothing is more important than your state of mind, state of financial well being, and your health. A 401k retirement plan covers two of the three. - 23204

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Understand Covered Calls In The Next 10 Minutes

By Mike Brown

It is amazing to me that not many retail investors understand the concept of generating cash flow from their stock positions. When I tell people that I utilize covered calls to generate extra income, hedge my stock positions, and set strict sell disciplines they look at me like I am crazy. I was introduced to the concept from a stockbroker. The idea of writing covered calls is the only option strategy that you can employ at most of the major brokerage firms for your IRA investments. The reason is that writing covered calls is a very conservative strategy relative to other option strategies.

Covered call writing is very simple to understand. It basically says that I'll give you $5,000 now, if you allow me to buy your stock 3 months from now at a certain price. If I choose not to exercise this option, you keep the money and we part.

Ok so now let us go in more detail. I buy 1000 shares of CDE at $10 and the stock goes to $11 a few weeks later. I can generate cash flow in my position by selling someone the option to buy the stock from me 6 months from now at $12.50. For that option, the buyer is willing to give me $0.50 per share or $500 right now.

The $500 is deposited into my brokerage account immediately. My brokerage company will not allow me to sell my stock prior to 6 months unless I buy back the option on the open market. With big fluctuations in option prices, I usually hold my stock until the expiration date.

Six months from now, one of two things can happen. One, the stock rises above $12.50 and the person "calls" me out of my position which is great because remember, I bought the stock for $10. The second possibility is that the stock falls below $12.50 which makes the option worthless. Why does it expire worthless? Think about it. Why would the option holder "call" the stock away from me at $12.50 when she can just buy the stock for $11.45 on the open market?

You then start the process all over again by writing another call against your position.

Are you beginning to see how cool this strategy is? Here is what I just accomplished. First of all, I lowered my cost basis by 5% or $500. Secondly, I drew a line in the sand and said this is what I'm willing to sell the shares for, $12.50. Third, I generated instant income that I could use for Christmas or just reinvest.

I can not tell you how happy this strategy has made me since the crash of 2000-2001. The strategy has helped me keep my head above water in this depressing market.

There are a variety of software programs available that will let you spot the best stocks to buy, then write covered calls against. Of course you do not need any software. The software just saves you some research time.

Keep in mind that you should consult with a tax professional and a financial adviser before you begin risking your money on any options strategy. - 23204

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Do not buy any stock trading education materials until you see Lance Jepsen's free stock market blog at how to invest in stock market, and learning the stock market

Autotrading Exposed

By Ahmad Hassam

Can autotrading make you rich? Well, it depends on your autotrading system. Many hedge funds and other entities that manage money through forex trading use some form of autotrading in their daily activities. Autotrading is common in the currency trading.

Previously these autotrading programs also known as Expert Advisors or Forex Robots were expensive costing like thousands of dollars and only wealthy individuals or big institutions like hedge funds could afford them.

However, the recent advancement in computer programming has made it possible for professional forex traders to team up with a software expert to develop their own autotrading systems. Many private individual traders have also begun to adopt autotrading to execute their thoroughly backtested and highly optimized forex trading strategies.

Metatrader platform makes it real easy to program such type of Expert Advisors. The price of these Expert Advisors has also come down to around a few hundreds that can be easily purchased by ordinary investors like you and me.

So what is autotrading? You must have heard or read a lot about the benefits or advantages of autotrading. Recent advancements in computer programming has led to the development of trading platforms that allow an API ( Application Programming Interface) which connects the trader's system to the dealer's trade execution structure through the trading platform.

APIs requires programming skills on the part of either the trader or a programmer hired by the trader. But once all of the trading rules and criteria are determined by the trader, programming an API can be relatively straight forward for anyone with programming experience. After the specific trading rules and criteria are determined, the trading strategy is backtested with positive results.

When this occurs not only trades entered when predetermined technical criteria is met but trade exits in the form of stop loss and take profit rules can also be programmed into the API. Autotrading is almost as simple as flipping a switch to begin the trading process.

However, an autotrading system should be thoroughly backtested and forward tested to make sure the likely success of the autotrading system before being put on live trading. This creates an entirely self contained autotrading system. So autotrading can actually execute real trades on current real time market prices. When a predetermined signal emerges, the software actually places a trade automatically.

Any nondiscretionary technical trading strategy that has clear cut, unambiguous rules is a good candidate for autotrading. In fact, if the trader has optimized and perfected this type of black and white trading strategy that runs devoid of human judgment, autotrading is perhaps the best way to achieve it. Autotrading effectively eliminates all human biases, errors and emotions in the trading process.

The best two forex autotrading systems are FAPT and Ivy Bot. There are a number of successful autotrading systems now available in the market for the ordinary retail investors. - 23204

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Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Try This Cash Printing Forex Signal Service From Heaven! First practice on your Forex Demo Account!

Ways to Invest in Oil and Gas

By Terry Stanfield

If you are interested in oil and gas investing there are three primary ways you can go about starting your investment. These ways include investing in companies, mutual funds, and commodities. You can make a lot of money in this industry if you are smart about your investments.

Investors consider gas investments to be safe. This is because there are so many ways that someone can invest their money in the industry. You are not limited to only buying stock in a business but there are so many other ways to invest too. It is easy to diversify your portfolio of investments with only oil and gas in the many different ways you can invest.

The primary way to take advantage of oil investments is through company stock. If you find a drilling company that you want to invest in because you believe they will strike oil some time soon you can purchase their stocks. There are tons of companies out there who drill for oil. There are independent companies and medium-sized businesses and more. It is important to know that stock with gas investments does not always provide the largest return on investment.

Mutual funds that have a primary focus on energy is another way you can look at oil and gas investing. A mutual fund in this field may focus on the oil and gas but have stock in many companies in the field. This fund may include large companies and independent companies too. One type of a mutual fund is a drilling fund. This is broken down into two fields; exploratory and developmental drilling. Exploratory drilling is as the name suggests, exploring to find oil and gas. Developmental drilling uses wells that already exist. It monitors the development and production limits.

Gas investments can also include commodities. This includes things like royalty funds, leas acquisition funds, and even combination funds. There are many ways commodities are offered for investments in the oil and gas industry.

There are many ways you can invest in the oil and gas industry. If you are interested in oil and gas investments you should consider looking into the different methods. You can invest your money in company stock, mutual funds, and even commodities. Some investors make a huge amount of profit and some don't. Any type of investing is risky so you should do plenty of research before you do anything with your investment. - 23204

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Visit Evans Energy's site for information on investng in oil and gas and oil and gas investment benefits.

Forex Banking: How To Make Profits With Foreign Currency Banking

By Cedric Welsch

Many individuals trying to make profits with the forex trading business seem to not be really familiar yet with forex banking. One thing you must always put in mind if you are in the trading business is that currency values tend to change a lot and instantly. It is a wise move to make if you go thinking of alternative options that can support your trading business. One of which is the idea of plunging into the game of foreign currency banking. However, you need to study about it deeply.

Just like when doing a regular bank account opening, this strategy is almost similar in nature. The interests though are way bigger than just the regular banking transaction. This alternative proves to be best for those who have accumulated a good number of currencies as you wont be selling them all in any single time. Currencies have way bigger interest rates and also under their own currency values. It is good to compare interest rates in between banks as they all vary from one another.

Therefore, instead of just allowing your currencies to be of not much use, let them multiply by themselves inside the bank. It is always easy to take action like when selling them, once they're kept within a bank account. In undergoing foreign currency banking, it can be much favorable for you in terms of choosing what to do with your currencies as you can check the bank's current rate values if its high or low. Below are some good points that can help you in such undertaking:

1. Make sure you pick the bank with best rates - You cannot deny the fact that the bank's interest rate is the first thing you should always consider. Before deciding on any other steps to make, you have to be very specific first with this one step. And also, be keen to learn about a bank's policy in opening an account particularly with the involved amounts, this is so you can make an initial assessment to the interests you should be expecting.

2. Make investments using low valued currencies - Do not always go after your most popular currencies, this isn't a good move in every instance, do consider investing your low valued currencies as well. The reason for this is that to avoid the possibility of frequently hitting the minimum threshold for your account which especially occurs when you make a lot of dealings involving your high valued currencies. Meaning, do choose to do transactions too using the currencies you seldom do trading with.

3. Try other alternatives on depositing - Signing up for a time deposit in foreign currency banking could be a nice decision to implement especially if you have in your possession a good amount of assets or funds. No doubt, choosing a time deposit account over a regular account can produce much greater returns in the long run. All you have to be very specific with are the account limits particularly for time deposits since they shed much bigger interest rates. - 23204

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Running out of ideas in your forex strategy? Forex news site updates is your best solution. Grab all the info you can get from forex trading reviews portals like reviewpips.