Nobody has ever said that investing in the stock market is a sure thing, but there are some things that you can do that will better ensure your success. One of those things is to make sure that you have a diversified portafolio that will spread out your money and protect you. A lot of beginner investors fail to do this and as one company goes, so goes their entire portfolio.

Diversification in the stock market is like a life insurance policy. You can never be totally sure what one sector is going to do, but having your money spread out over various sectors allows you to get gains in one area when another one might be going backwards. Not every risky investment that you make is going to pay off and a diversified portfolio will help to offset those losses when they happen.

In order to be …

by Melinda Torbay
Debt or Savings?

I guess most of us dream about living without debt. If you are like me, you sit down and pay bills, and think about how much money you would have if you did not have to service credit card bills, car loans, or a mortgage. Maybe a picture of a shack on an island even comes to mind.

I really think that those end of the world books became popular as an escape. Even if something awful happens, like a zombie invasion, it would still wipe out all of our creditors too.

But are we better off without debt, or should we had onto cash? I think the answer is complex, and like most things in life, it depends.

Move Credit Around

Maybe you can improve your debt situation even if you cannot eliminate it. It is tough these days, but many people can still find offers for …

by Michael Janston

One investment plan for making profits on the stock exchange is trend following. In this strategy you wait for a trend to create itself and then following it, timing both your entrance and exit carefully. It’s a method that works in upturns or downturns in the market. Rather than trying to foretell the trends, trend disciples go with trends that are established. The figure to be invested is decided by the size of the trading account and how stable the issue appears to be.

Traders who use trend following use software that is programmed to exit when a surprising falling trend in their issue happens. Then the traders wait to determine if the trend gets back on track before re-entering. It’s really about staying with an established trend and getting out if the trend changes direction.

Price is the first rule of trend following. Other indicators …

Stock prices in New York skyrocketed this week and U.S. stock indexes are now about 20% higher than when the market hit bottom on March 9. Unprecedented measures to expand credit are one cause of this powerful recovery. The Fed is buying long-term Treasury bonds, increasing purchases of asset-backed securities and other credit instruments, and taking other actions. Investors were also happy to hear the U.S. government’s plan to buy as much as $1 trillion of toxic assets.

There are three key aspects of this plan: (1) the participation of private-sector investors with the backing of Fed loans will provide more funds to buy these assets; (2) the government (using the FDIC and bailout fund under the Economic Stabilization Act) will cover losses; and (3) prices will be determined by auctions. Since the government has limited the downside risk, many private-sector investors are likely to purchase toxic assets.

This massive program to …

Oh…we are such optimists!  So far, the Crash of ’09 has paralleled the Crash of ’29…and the Crash of 1873.

All three began in early September.  All three saw the big selling in late October. Both in the case of ’29 and ’09 a near-term bottom was hit in mid-November.

“Moreover, the percentage declines,” writes Dominic Frisby at MoneyMorning, “were virtually identical. An initial decline from the high to a late October low of about 40%, then a rebound of about 15%, followed by a final low in late November – down about another 22%. The parallels are uncanny.

“The worrying thing…it is not unreasonable to expect the eventual low to come no earlier than 2010-11.”

After the initial lows were hit in the Crash of 1873, a rebound continued until May of the following year. After the Crash of ’29, the rebound continued until late April of the following year. In the

Earlier this month, Convergence Technology announced that it has completed the acquisition of Bookkeeper International Equities Corp. Bookkeeper is an innovative Merchant Banking Firm primarily focused on providing structured financing and comprehensive banking solutions to underexposed and undervalued companies.

Founded in 2006 as a closed-ended Private Fund & Management Merchant Consortium Bank, Bookkeeper Int’l Equities’ objective is to assist Small and Micro-cap Companies with a comprehensive slate of services, including; Investment Banking, Debt & Equity, Bridge Financing, Equity Debt Lines, Business Consulting and Investor Relations. While other hedge funds & merchant banks have recently exited the world of Corporate Finance, this Merchant Banking Firm continues to see great opportunity in raising capital in the smaller public markets.

From initial private and public capital transactions to follow-on offerings, strategic consulting engagements and mergers and acquisitions, the company facilitates the execution of business plans that yield superior

by Doug West

The meltdown on Wall Street has taught us all many lessons.

“We Better Learn To Make Our Own Investment Decisions -And Not Let Brokers Make Choices For Us!”

This is a basic fact that we have been teaching for many years now. Most investors either blindly throw money at the market or let a broker do it for them. With just a little time and effort, you can learn to direct your investment accounts and retirement funds on your own.

In this article we want to point you in the right direction, and give you a few crisis tips too.

ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) are an excellent alternative to mutual funds as an investment vehicle for your retirement or other accounts.

There are ETFs that cover every sector of the market. ETFs offer many advantages over mutual funds. Here are a few:

* Tax Advantages – ETFs seldom sell any equity …

National Party leader John Key hit two hot buttons in his speech at the weekend when  he promised to increase government borrowing by 2% of GDP to invest in infrastructure.

First, he correctly pointed out that New Zealand needs to invest heavily in infrastructure to boost productivity. Second, he said the government needed to borrow to do it. The first hot button is crucial, but not so controversial. The second hot button is both controversial and crucial. Both should be central election issues. 

Key pointed out what everyone has known but has been unable to achieve for years:   New Zealand needs better infrastructure to improve our productivity and therefore improve our wealth-generating potential. NZ Inc needs to find ways to invest in this infrastructure quickly and heavily. New Zealand needs better broadband, better hospitals, better schools, better roads and better energy networks. We all know this. The question is how do we do it? 

The unsolved problems have always been: