3 Tools ALL Real Estate Investors Need

By Doc Schmyz

"Doc what advice can you give me that will help me with investing. What tricks of the trade or inside tidbits can you share with me?? " My response is normally..."What is in your tool box?" Let me explain what this question means exactly

Ok let me define the "tool box" for you and explain the three parts that make it up.

1) Mental tools: This is the part of the tool box most of us use the most. It is all about how we think about investing. Are you a outside the box type of thinker?? Or do you follow a set program to help guide you in your investment choices? It is how your brain reacts to the idea of a new investment...the mental aspects that make up the checklist in your head.

It is the results of the information you have taken in about investing.

THINK ABOUT THIS: Every book store has some vast collection of books on real estate investing. You should take the time to add them to your reference library at home. Why? Because if some guru writes a book on RE investing that sits on the national booksellers ten best for 35 weeks...what do you think the chances are some one you will deal with has read that book? If you know what factors some one uses to make a decision...you have a better chance of influencing WHAT THEY DECIDE.

2)Your on-line tool box: Most investors use the web daily. Its a great information source, but most investors also have tunnel vision when they are on the web. we get stuck using a few websites that we think are the best at that will cover all our needs. WRONG answer. This causes a type of blindness I call "INFO INPUT SHUT DOWN".

Ok so how do you avoid Info input shut down? You have to open your tool box up to get some fresh tools.

All you do is create an another email and use it to collect eamil updates from various websites. these are going to be websits that will add you to an emailing list and send you any updates/newsletters they send out.

Once your on a email list I suggest allowing a few weeks before opting out of it. Just because it doesnt give you the "diamond in the rough" on the first email doesnt mean the newletter your getting is worthless. Newletters to look can originate from RE investment clubs, Blogs, News sites...etc

To me most pop up ad based newsletters are a waste of time. I prefer to find the newsletters that are written by people who ACTUALLY invest. I prefer to get reviews of SEVERAL porducts/methods or tools that some one else actually uses. Those to me are the gems that I try to subscribe too.

My favorite online tools/sites are the ones that cost me very little to use/buy or better yet are free to me. I love to find good resource sites. ( I admit freely I normally link them to my own) A good web tool is a great thing to find. Im not refering to another mortgage calculator...I mena that online tool your just dying to try out. When you find them...bookmark them.

3) And last but not least... actual physical, hold in your hand, tools. It can be a great "go by list". A solid flash light. anything that makes the time in the field looking at investments easier.

So there it is..the outline to your toolbox. Build one...update it often..and USE IT DAILY. - 23222

About the Author:

Doc Schmyz has done real estate deals all over the US. He built a free website shares Real estate investing information for all over the US. Find Real estate investing information by state

Lotto, Is This The Best CFD Trading Strategy

By Jeff Cartridge

Making of use of two critical measures of trading performance can dramatically improve your trading results. These two important measurements are the hit rate (winning %) and the risk reward.

Risk reward is calculated by dividing the average win by the average loss. The hit rate is the number of winning trades divided by the total trades. So the hit rate is how often you are right and the risk reward is how much you win when you are right relative to how much you lose when you are wrong.

How Does Lotto Compare To CFDs?

Do you really believe that lotto is the way to make money? The behaviour of millions of people would suggest that it is.

Putting at risk just $10, you stand the chance to make $10 million when playing Lotto. This is excellent odds with your wins 1 million times the size of your losses giving a risk reward of $1 million to 1. This is an exceptional number and unlikely to be repeated anywhere in the investment world.

But it is not how much you win that is important when playing lotto it is how often do you win. An awesome risk reward is coupled with an awful hit rate. To win lotto if you require 6 from 40 balls then your probability of success is 1:3,838,380.

If you bought 3,838,380 tickets on average one ticket would win and the rest (3,838,379) would lose. This means on average you would have to spend $38,383,790 to win $10 million. Overall playing Lotto would cost you $28,383,790.

Overall, buying Lotto tickets is not a profitable strategy. Luck will favour some people in Lotto, but successful CFD trading is not about luck, it is about exploiting profitable opportunities.

Rugby Versus CFDs

The Crusaders have consistently won the Super 14 rugby competition in NZ managing to secure 7 wins over the last ten years.

A large bet of $100,000 was made that the Crusaders would win a particular game. The payoff if the Crusaders won was $108,000 so the gambler would receive a profit of just $8,000. With a downside of $100,000 the risk reward is very poor at 8:100 or 0.08.

But the probability of the Crusaders winning the game is very high. For this to be a profitable investment the odds would have to be over 90% that the Crusaders would win the game.

Calculating the probability of a team winning a game is not an easy task, but assuming the odds were 95%, then the gambler would win 19 times $8,000 and lose $100,000 just once. It could be that our gambler had a profitable strategy despite the lousy risk reward.

A successful CFD trader will find a CFD trading strategy that skews the odds in their favour and then implement that strategy to generate profits. - 23222

About the Author:

Jeff Cartridge has been trading CFDs since they were first launched in Australia in 2002 and created the website LearnCFDs.com Discover the Truth Behind CFD Brokers

Forex Trading

By Matt Ferency

There are a lot of people out there that are new to the market and do not know much about trading the forex market. Trading the Forex market can be tricky if you are unsure exactly how to do it. A person with below average knowledge about the market probably knows very little if anything at all about trading the Forex market. Forex stands for the foreign exchange market and trades all the currencies out there.

Just like any other type of investing, there is no sure thing when it comes to Forex. You always put your money at risk but you can minimize your risk by learning as much as you can about how the Forex market works before you invest anything.

The best thing that most traders do when learning to trade a market they are unfamiliar with is paper trading. What this does is allows you to play with play money to learn how trading works on that market then once you have establish winning trading habits then you put up real money.

Forex brokers are always eager to bring on new clients so they make it easy for you to get started. Some will set you up with a training or dummy account to help you learn the ropes. It doesn't take much money to get started with Forex trading, you should be able to open an account for just a few hundred dollars.

Having the knowledge before you invest real money is going to be the key to you're success. Playing the open market can be tricky and in some cases leave you completely exposed. However, there is hope, because there are so many different tools at your dispense for learning to trade the Forex market.

Lets be honest here, no one wants to just dive into the market not knowing what they are doing and lose everything. You are going to want to take every class you can, and read every piece of literature you can, so that you are properly informed on how to play your money.

The Internet is a rich resource for learning about Forex. You can access broker websites, buy ebooks and hot tip newsletters, learn from fellow traders in chat rooms, and buy Forex analysis software.

To get stared in the exciting world of Forex trading, the first thing you should do is seek out an online broker who offers a dummy account that you can set up just as if it was a real money account. You should compare brokers to make sure you find one that provides great service at an affordable price.

With the technology that is out there, you will need to make sure that you have two required things for effective trading. Those two things are an up-to-date computer and high speed internet. You will need these to download the latest software, and to watch your stocks in real time.

As was stated throughout this article the best thing for you to do if you are new to the Forex market is making sure that you have the knowledge needed to trade. There are many people and businesses out there today that trade this market, and make a lot of money doing it. However, these people have the knowledge you need and know everything about all the currencies out there. So get out there and get the knowledge you need to become the next big money maker in the market. - 23222

About the Author:

You may read the latest forex articles here.

Knowing Major Stock Indexes (Part I)

By Ahmad Hassam

There are 100s of ETFs and HOLDRS covering key industry benchmarks such as the various Standard & Poor Indexes, Russell Indexes or the Dow Jones Averages. There are ETFs that cover the other less well known narrow based sectors.

You should know the major indexes that are either key benchmarks or have ETFs tied to them. For example SPY tracks the Standard & Poors 500 Composite Index and is the largest of the ETFs.

Standard & Poor: Standard & Poor (S&P) is the financial services segment of the McGraw Hill companies. It has been providing independent and objective financial information, analysis and research for nearly 140 years.

It is also the provider of equity indexes. Investors around the globe use S&P Indexes for investment performance measurement. These indexes are also used as the basis for wide variety of financial instruments such as Index Funds, Futures, Options and ETFs.

S&P 500 Composite is one of the most popular indexes in the global financial markets. Hundreds of companies around the world have licenses with the Standards & Poors for their index products and the influence and name recognition of S&P 500 is unparalleled. S&P 500 is also used as a key benchmark for money manager performance.

S&P 500 represents more than 75% of the capitalization of the entire US Stock Market. The S&P 500 is a capitalization weighted index that tracks the performance of 500 large capitalization issues. Each year thousands of money managers have the single minded goal of outperforming the S&P 500.

The stocks in the S&P 500 are determined by a nine member committee in accordance with the general guidelines. 30 years back most of the stocks in S&P 500 were from the Industrial Sector. Over the years, the complexion of S&P 500 has changed. By 1970s, six of the top companies were from the Oil Sector. In 2000s, technology composed about one third of the capitalization of the index.

The other Standard & Poors indexes are the S&P Midcap 400 Index and it is based on 400 chosen domestic stocks. It is also capitalization based and measures the performance of the midsize companies of the US economy.

The S&P SmallCap 600 Index consists of 600 domestic stocks. These stocks are chosen for market size and liquidity. S&P SmallCap 600 is also capitalization weighted index and is of interest to institutional and retail investors. There are also sub-indexes based on these S&P Indexes.

NASDAQ: You will often hear in the media that the Nasdaq market being up or down on a given day. NASDAQ Composite Index contains more than 4500+ companies. It represents a market capitalization of trillions of dollars in the US economy.

There is another Nasdaq Index called the Nasdaq-100. NASDAQ-100 is composed of the top 100 nonfinancial companies in the Nasdaq Stock Market like Microsoft etc. It is a modified capitalization weighted index. The QQQ is based on the Nasdaq-100 Index. - 23222

About the Author:

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

How to Trade Forex? It's a Snap!

By Steve Maenshel

How to trade Forex? Trading Forex is a piece of cake. It is really not as hard as it seems to be. Forex trades involve entering the trade at the right time, as well as exiting also at the right time. All you have to do is select a currency pair, select the desired amount of the base currency that you wish to trade and choose whether you would like to sell or to buy. Next you will have to wait for a profitable time to exit your transaction, and there you are. In order to learn how to trade Forex and to start consistently choosing the winning transactions, you will have to practice on a demo account for several months.

Demo Account

Demo account trading is the safest way to learn how to trade Forex. Making mistakes is inevitable, especially in the beginning of your trading career. However, if you make mistakes, while trading on a demo account, you will not have to pay for your mistakes. Most common mistakes will be choosing the wrong time of entering and exiting the trades. Being unfamiliar with the system may also result in mistakes. That's what demo accounts are for - to teach you without incurring losses. 90% of the traders fail in the very beginning of their trading career. Demo account trading will safeguard you from becoming one of them.

Understanding Currency Pairs

How to trade Forex with the best currency pair? Which currency pair to go with? It is better to first go with the most traded currency pair - USD/EUR: Trade with this currency pair, until you know it like the back of your hand. Do not start trading with other currency pairs until this one becomes your "friend". All currency pairs are different; they are all tied to different countries and different reasons behind fluctuations, such as news, political situation and so on. Try to get a feel for one currency pair at a time, starting with the most traded one (USD/EUR).

Understanding Currency Quotes

Understanding currency quotes is extremely important in order to learn how to trade Forex. Understanding currency quotes is essential, because the trades are performed based on the quotes. Each quote has two sides. The bid price and the ask price. Bid price is the price at which you can sell the base currency at the same time buying the counter currency. Ask price, is the price at which you can buy the base currency at the same time selling the counter currency.

First currency in the quote is the base currency, and second currency is the counter currency (also called quote currency or terms currency). In the example of the USD/EUR currency pair, USD is the base currency and EUR is the counter currency. The value of the base currency is always 1. The value of the counter currency is calculated against the base currency, i.e., 1 USD = 0.7422 EUR. Prices in the terms of quotes are expressed through pips, which are usually the 4th decimal point. Once you understand the currency pairs, you will be well on your way in the process of learning how to trade Forex.

Margins and Leverage in Forex trades

Leverage is what your dealer is willing to give you based on the amount of your margin. Trading on margin often sounds very appealing for the novice Forex traders since in this case, leverage would allow you to make substantially larger profits. However, you should realize that your losses in the case of trading on a margin may also become colossal. Dealers often offer 100:1 ratio of leverage to margin. Such a large leverage would allow you to trade with a lot of lots at the same time raising your chances of both profits and losses 100 times. How to trade Forex and stay calm? Do not trade on a margin.

No matter what dealers may say, they often do not care much about the outcome of your trades. Dealers are similar to banks, which are willing to provide you with a loan, and they do not care much if you will lose your property for example. You will still have to pay back the loan, as well as the interest to the bank. You should try to never trade on a margin since the outcome may be frightening. You should consider trading on a margin only after you gain sufficient knowledge of how to trade Forex.

It's very easy to learn how to trade Forex. However, how to trade Forex with a profit? Allow enough time to train on a demo account before proceeding to real-life trading. - 23222

About the Author:

About the author: Steve Maenshel can you help you navigate how to trade the forex markets. For more forex trading information, visit his forex resource center.