Fundamentals of Successful Equity Trading

By Christopher Fitch

Investors who are looking to take the plunge into the equity markets now that the economy is starting to recover will need to follow these basics if they are looking to make wise equity investment choices.

1. Familiarize yourself with the security's Price-to-Earnings ratio. Also known as the PE ratio, this figure tells investors how much they are paying for each dollar earned by the company. In other words, the lower the PE ratio, the better the price for the security. Investors can gauge whether one security is deemed more expensive than comparable securities, such as competitors within an industry.

2. Understand the security's Debt-to-Equity ratio. This simple ratio tells investors how much debt a company owes for every dollar they have in equity in the company. Obviously, the higher this number, the more debt the company has, which can translate into solvency problems during difficult economic periods. The lower the debt the better, but understand that debt-to-equity ratios will vary from industry to industry, so one security's ratio needs to be compared to another security's in the same industry.

3. Find out what Professional Analysts feel about the stock in question. Since most public companies are reviewed by investment houses for possible inclusion in their own portfolio, these companies will often publicize their recommendations. These recommendations will vary, but will be either Buy, Hold or Sell. Finding out what the pros think about a particular security can provide further confirmation of a position that an investor is looking to take.

These three tips are starting points for many investors. Although the list is nowhere near being all-inclusive, investors who take the time to find this easily available information will find they are making smarter trades over the long-term.

As an alternative, investors who prefer a hands-off approach to their investment accounts should consider mutual funds. This puts the onus of proper research on the shoulders of the mutual fund company and not the investor. - 23309

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Learn more about Where To Invest and the best Bond Funds at Christopher Fitch's website, the Mutual Fund Site.org.

What Is The Forex Interbank Market

By James A Jackson

Another method of forex trading is that the interbank forex market. This is a money system of some of the most important banks and financial establishments that engage in currency trading. These markets of currency are run directly amongst the financial institutions or with an electronic banking system, like the EBS system (Electronic Brokering Services). This and other platforms supply trading in only the most major currency pairs. Typically if you wish to trade cross currency pairs it will not be supported on that system.

As a result of the interbank forex market does not own a centralized location that they do business from, it is unregulated. But the interbank forex market may be a terribly large part of the forex market as a whole. The interbank forex exchange could be a wholesale exchange that is comprised of three entities. 1st, the spot exchange could be a half of the interbank forex market that enables trades in currency to be traded and delivered in real time, almost immediately.

The forward market deals solely with trade contracts that are to be delivered at a later date. Finally it contains the SWIFT network, standing for The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications.

SWIFT is a network that spans the planet and is used for exchanging messages between financial institutions. Most of the activity on the interbank forex market takes places with the bank's accounts, although some monetary establishments undertake trades on behalf of their high worth customers.

Each bank concerned in the interbank forex exchange sets its have costs for currency pairs. However, because there is a lot of competition and a massive number of economic establishments involved, typically, the costs don't vary too drastically. All the banks use the same indicators to see their forex costs: the degree of currency available, the political or economic surroundings of the countries, their examination of the future of the currency pairs, and what their currency inventory levels are.

Central financial institutions have a vital role in the market rates for this exchange as a result of they need the ability to change interest rates. Central financial institutions will additionally obtain and sell currency themselves so that they alter the provision, and thus alter the demand and prices. - 23309

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Where to find free Forex signals and interbank Forex

Bond Funds That Perform

By Christopher Fitch

Investment management has become an all-important component to investing, particularly after the past 3 years since the collapse of the US credit system. A lot of investors have taken a good, hard look at their asset allocation model and determined that their risk tolerance might be a lot lower than they might have originally believed.

Those dark market days that tested new lows and personal strength pushed the ideals of risk tolerance to the surface and made both conservative and aggressive investors alike realize that risk tolerance has to be paramount. For conservative investors, that has meant no longer being able to rely on term deposits and treasuries to contribute to the growth of an investment portfolio.

For the aggressive investor, the implications were probably more grave. It meant proper diversification needed to take center stage. That meant finding opportunities in the income class, a class that might have been ignore completely in the past.

But the income class has evolved tremendously over the last decade or so. Increasingly, bond funds have taken on greater risk profiles, investing high yield investments that not only provide better income streams, but whose underlying debt respond to various market forces in much the same way that equity assets respond.

In fact, many high yield investments today are more volatile that many conservative equity funds, providing not only greater income stream and growth into the funds and to investors, but less overall risk than similar equity funds.

All things being equal, a bond fund will be much less risky than an equity fund. The problem that bond funds have faced is in their rating system, with Moody's and Standard and Poor's having come under fire after the credit crisis. Therefore, what was an investment grade and low-paying bond two years ago is now B-rated with higher rates as the spreads between government and corporate bonds widened. The result? The bond investor benefits.

These high yield bond funds will actually generate greater returns than conservative equity funds. And since bonds come with less research and trading costs, there are even more savings for the investor... all with one important benefit: less risk. - 23309

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Learn more about Where To Invest and the best Bond Funds at Christopher Fitch's website, the Mutual Fund Site.org.

Bonds And Protecting Your Investment Dollar

By Linda Jasmin

Investing in markets today has become very treacherous. Investing in bonds is a good investing decision in the current market. There are several types of bonds to be considered. Bonds are available in the corporate market, the municipal market and the MBA Market or mortgage backed securities as well as others.

Bonds do require varying minimum purchase amounts depending on type. By investing in bonds you earn interest quicker than you could in a normal savings account. Bonds are available in almost any amount and with a direct account you can purchase this amount every month automatically

Bonds are available at less than their face value but only with certain types. Others have to be bought at face value. They are short-term securities and are second in popularity only to money market funds.

Most bonds are free from local and state taxes, making them of even further value. If you use the bonds to fund college tuition they will be free from federal taxes as well. Bonds are also transferable so they can be sold.

If you purchase bonds from a Federal Reserve facility there will be no fees or commissions. Other banks or brokerage firms will charge you some fees but they do sell bonds.

Bonds earn interest on their face value; interest is paid every six months. This interest can be paid directly into your checking or savings account. Investing in bonds will secure your funds and will make you money.

Interest rates on bonds can be a fixed rate or adjustable with the market rate. With a fixed rate, it will remain constant for ten years. After that time the rate will be reevaluated, keep this in mind when investing in bonds of this sort.

Establishing an account directly with the treasury is available through the Treasury Direct website. You will need your bank information and social security number. It takes up to two weeks to validate your account, be patient and you will be investing in bonds in no time. - 23309

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To learn more about Investing in Corporate Bonds visit Bonds and Income Investing

Types Of Trades In Forex Trading

By Chris Wigtune

Forex brokers provide retail investors access to the forex market through the interbank exchange allowing them to invest in a market that was once only open to banks, large hedge funds, Central banks and countries.

Depending on what type of system traders are utilizing they have several types of trades orders they can place. These orders can help traders handle different types of market conditions or actually even lock in gains once they have been realized making sure those gains do not turn into losses.

Limit orders are used in order to place take profit levels once a trade is opened. Limit orders are also called take profit orders because of this.

Stop loss orders are used by traders to lock in profits once a trade has moved into profit and also used at the time of the trade to minimize losses protecting account capital. Every time a new trade is established a stop loss orders should be used as it will protect traders from taking losses that are too big.

Trailing stops are a type of order used by traders in order to continuously lock in profits as the trade progresses into profit using a predetermined level that moves along with the trade.

A buy stop limit and sell stop limit order are used by traders to buy or sell at a price that is above or below the current market price by setting a predetermined price level for the trade to trigger.

Today forex brokers are providing more choices than ever to traders and investors when it comes to the types of trade orders they offer as well as the leverage and unit sizes traders can trade with.

There are many different types of trade orders that help traders come up with very creative ways to approach the forex markets and employ some killer forex trading systems profiting from the foreign exchange markets. - 23309

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Learn more about forex broker reviews. Stop by Chris Wigtune's site where you can find out all about forex broker metatrader options and what it can do for you.