Singapore Sets the Rules for Properties Industry

By Billy Chen

In industry, the barriers to entry into the labor market is set artificially low, it's probably no surprise that the real estate industry in the stomach for a variety of existence and untrustworthy agents. Their presence is actually the price of Singapore's reputation as a well-oiled machine.

With the alarming number of complaints, and often with a commission agent and dubious real estate development Ministry reacted the necessary countermeasures. The proposed measures are: Central approval and registration, legal framework, dispute resolution center.

One key element in the proposal is Centralized Accreditation and Registration. A team of industry professionals would be tasked to oversee its operation. It will make registration mandatory for all agents and a database will be maintained to allow potential hirers to check the background of new job applicants.

This is largely intended to stem the situation of job hopping among agents, sometimes illegally holding multiple employments.

So that the muscles around the framework design is also introduced. The new engine would be responsible Dosage weakness points moving agents / agencies.

This is undoubtedly bring relief to consumers who discouraged by the current system. New court intended that the much-anticipated public confidence booster, real estate professionals to bring him sat. The goal is to minimize the costs lead from all sides, and subsequently to a rapid solution.

The initial funding of this tribunal would come from the government but this is done with a view to pass down the operation, and thus the funding, back to the industry.

But the government also stressed that this is not meant to replace the current agency level tribunal. The government would expect the current system to be in place and are looking to formulate guidelines and fine tune the process from this agency level tribunal to the official tribunal.

The implementation part of the proposal would be rolled out in phases and become fully operational. Policy makers are optimistic about the initiatives designed to address the dropping service level within the real estate industry and hopeful that it will eventually repair the damage done. - 23222

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Trading Forex?

By Kris Deaney

The Forex industry is filled with opportunity. It's additionally a risky market to trade, unless you have got 2 things straight first.

The initial factor is a robust trading strategy, that can be carried out with discipline. The second is a reliable Forex broker. The aim of this piece is to talk about the aspects required in a high quality Forex broker, thus folks will be in a position to make sure they join up to one.

Firstly, a Forex broker must be able to give instant execution of trades. It seems obvious maybe, but a lot of brokers out there don't do this, and this ends up in what is called slippage. It means that that profits are lost.

1 of the issues is that the Forex business isn't overseen by a governing body, mostly as it's not traded on a regulated exchange, as it is way too big a marketplace. It means that that brokerages can hypothetically operate as they like and sadly for a number of them it means they trade against the trader. These organizations ought to be avoided completely.

After that, traders ought to just be trading with companies that work on a low spread. The spread is essentially the difference in the bid and ask price or more simply, what it can be purchased or sold for at a particular time. It can be looked at as the price to put on a trade. The greater the typical pip spread, the bigger the prices to trade.

Generally traders do not take into account the prices of the spread after they trade, however, they do this at their own risk, because it can have a massive result on gains and losses, especially when a trader is putting on regular trades.

Additionally, a brokerage should have a complete set of research tools accessible to be used by each trader. This means that they will trade as other traders with a brokerage organization, or bank will. Also, they must provide up to the minute economic news, so that traders are conscious of and can trade, depending on global events and economic numbers.

They ought to also offer the opportunity for a teaching program, particularly if traders are new, so that they can build up a full knowledge and progress their trading plans and their expertise.

This can usually include them having practice accounts, so traders will trade with virtual money, without the complete pressure of an actual cash setting, at least initially. Remember however that trading with practice cash is totally different psychologically from trading with real cash and at some point every trader needs to learn to cope with the added stress of a real cash environment. - 23222

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For further info, or to read an independent report of the Online Forex Brokers, just Follow This Link.

Leverage - Is This A Strategy For You?

By Gnifrus Urquart

Leverage is simply investment jargon for borrowing. Its called "leverage" because you use the value of an existing investment to underwrite, or as security for, the borrowing.

This article is all about the risks and rewards of borrowing to invest, or leveraging investment strategies. The information is general in nature and not intended as specific advice. As always, if you intend borrowing to invest, seek licensed financial advice before you do.

When I started investing, my borrowing habits where the same as most peoples. I had a floating credit card debt which varied to my whims. I had a small personal loan for some household items and a bigger one which enabled me to buy my car.

All these debts were used to fund consumables - objects for my pleasure. I learned that there are two issues with this. Firstly, the objects this debt bought all rapidly lost value. They were depreciating assets. Secondly, as I used the debt to purchase things I consumed, the interest on that debt had no tax benefits. I had to pay it all.

Today, due to the many benefits I found you get when you borrowing to invest, my debt profile is anything but typical. I now have much more debt, but I have borrowed to buy appreciating and income generating assets. For example, I have a massive debt on a property in Victoria, Australia. I also have a reasonable size margin loan helping me make money in a successful stock trading strategy. And finally, as per all foreign exchange trading accounts, I have an account which is leveraged out (and heavily too, at 400:1 - so every $1 I put in allows me to invest $400). My debt on consumables on the other hand is negligible.

Why is it more efficient to use your borrowings for investing then?

When you borrow to invest, you increase your investment earnings potential. As you borrow money, you have more to invest. Therefore, the returns on your investments increase by the net returns on the borrowed money. Obviously the basic key here is to ensure your investment return rate is higher than the interest rates on the loan. If this is the case, you will always make money with the money you have borrowed.

The second benefit you can get from borrowing to invest is a possible tax benefit. In my situation where I have borrowed to purchase an investment property in Victoria, as I rent out that property and earn an income from it, the interest payments on that mortgage become a cost associated with that income. As such, in my circumstance, I can claim those interest payments as a tax deduction. This means that while my asset is making me money, the tax office is actually giving me a discount on my borrowing by making it tax deductible

Margin loans work similarly. Basically I buy a bunch of stocks, fund 50% of the purchases myself and borrow the other 50% in a margin loan. This means I can double the size of my share portfolio and hopefully make a lot more money. Because I borrowed money though to buy the stocks which will make me money, the interest accrued in the margin loan is tax deductible.

Those are some of the benefits you can gain by borrowing to invest. There are risks too though, so it is very important to get independent financial advice if you are thinking about leverage.

There is the risk of over-extending yourself. When you borrow, you need to do so in a way that does not leave you unable to meet your repayment obligations. In a normal loan (like a mortgage, or investment loan) this means you need to be able to fund all your agreed repayments. If you cannot meet these payments, your lender has every right to take your investments off you. This is not good.

A margin loan is treated a little bit differently. If you borrow too much or the value of your investments drops suddenly, you will be at risk of paying margin calls. This means your lender will ask you to pay off a portion of the loan, so that the outstanding loan is in a reasonable level when compared to the reduced level of collateral. This can be quite a large issue if your investments drop by a long way. If you cannot meet the margin call obligations, your lender has the right to sell your investments.

Obviously also there is the risk that your investments will lose, leaving you with an investment loss and a loan. So you need to be confident with your strategies.

One of the reasons its important to speak to a licensed financial adviser is that these risk can be managed properly with the correct strategy. This will make managing your risk much easier and making money on you borrowing much easier. With the right strategy, leveraging your investments can be extremely beneficial. - 23222

About the Author:

Gnifrus Urquart has enjoyed significant success investing over the years. As such, he enjoys reviewing investment strategies and offering trading tips to others interested in investing

Commodity Exchange Traded Funds

By Ahmad Hassam

Commodity investing may become the hottest investment in the first decades of the 21st century. Right now gold prices have broken the $1000 per ounce barrier for the first time in history. It is predicted that this upward trend in gold prices will continue for the foreseeable future. Oil prices have also started reaching $80 per barrel and it is expected that oil price will soon be above the $100 per barrel mark. It may eventually reach the $200 per barrel barrier. If you are interested in investing in commodities than you can invest in a commodity mutual fund! Many people are not aware that commodities as an asset class has a lot of potential especially in the 21st century. It is being predicted that the 21st century belongs to the commodities.

This is the simplest way for you to get involved in investing in commodities as the mutual fund portfolio management will be done by a professional manager and you have to do nothing. Just buy the shares of the commodity mutual fund and let its NAV appreciate before you can sell for a capital gain.

Now, you must have heard about the Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). ETFs are really hot investments these days. ETFs started off some three decades back but became highly popular as investment vehicles in such a short time.

Now the good thing about investing in ETFs is that they give you the diversification benefits of a mutual fund with very low fees something like 0.7% as compared to 2-4% of the mutual fund. Driven by the growing demand of commodities by the investors many financial institutions are now offering Commodity ETFs.

So how about investing in commodity ETFs? Unlike a mutual fund whose net asset value is calculated at the end of the day and the shares of mutual fund cannot be traded during the day, you can go both long or short on ETFs all the time. Something you cannot do with a mutual fund! ETFs have the added benefit of being able to trade like stocks giving you the powerful combination of diversification and liquidity. Trade your ETF shares just like you trade your stock shares. Anytime go long or short!

Now, you can find thousands of ETFs in the market on different market sectors, stock indexes, currencies, commodities and so on. This diversification plus liquidity benefit makes an ETF a better investment tool as compared to the mutual fund and the stocks.

The Deutsche Bank Commodity Index Tracking Fund is listed on AMEX and tracks the Deutsche Bank Liquid Commodity Index. This index is based on a basket of six commodities: light sweet crude oil, heating oil, gold, aluminum, corn and wheat. The first Commodity ETF in US was launched by Deutsche Bank in the start of 2006.

This ETF invests directly in the commodity futures contract. Now one of the downsides of investing in this Commodity ETFs is that it can be fairly volatile as it is based on commodity futures contracts that get rolled monthly. Another downside to this Commodity ETF is that it is based on a basket of six commodities only. Now, every month a new ETF gets launched. There are a number of Commodity ETFs that track individual commodities like crude oil, gold and silver. Do your research on Commodity ETFs, you may find a good investment. - 23222

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. Trade Dow Futures . Learn Commodity Trading !

Growth Stocks Investing

By Ahmad Hassam

Capitalization or cap refers to the combined value of all the share of a company's stocks. The division between large cap, mid cap and small cap are often blurry and not sharp. When you start looking for good stocks, you often come across these terms like large cap, mid cap, small cap, growth and value. Let's discuss these terms for a moment.

Statistical studies of large cap, mid cap and the small cap stocks has shown that over the years small cap stocks have outperformed. Mid caps are companies with $1 to $5 Billion in capitalization and small caps are companies with $250 million to $1 Billion in capitalization. Anything below $250 million can be considered as micro cap. However the following divisions are generally accepted: Large caps are companies with over $5 Billion in capitalization.

You must have often heard of the P/E ratio of a stock being talked about the analyst on CNBC or Bloomberg. Perhaps the most important ratio is the Price to Earnings Ratio (P/E). Now the most important term that you come across is growth stocks and value stocks. How do you determine this is a growth stock or a value stock?

Let's make this clear with an example. Do you know how to read the balance sheet of a company? One of the most important things in doing research on a stock is the balance sheet of the company. Suppose, company ABC stock is presently selling for $50. Now suppose that last year company ABC earned $5 for every share of the stock outstanding. This means stock ABC P/E ratio is 50/5=10. So the higher the P/E ratio, the more investors are willing to pay for the stock. So what is the P/E ratio? The P/E ratio divides the price of the stock by the earnings per share. Over the years, studies have shown that the P/E ratio is somehow related with the growth of a company. Now the higher the P/E ratio, the more growth the company is supposed to have. So it can be either the company is growing real fast of the investor have high hopes of its growth. Now these hopes can be realistic or foolish, you never know!

Growth companies are usually adolescent companies usually in sectors like computers, technology, telecom while value companies are mature companies usually in sectors like insurance, banking, manufacturing. Now, if you follow financial news than you must know that the large growth companies always grab the headlines. But do the growth stocks really make best investment? The lower the P/E ratio, the more value the company has. Low P/E ratio companies are not considered to be the movers and shakers in the market. Is there any statistical study that can guide us as to the performance of these different categories of stocks? Eugene Fama did seminal research on stocks and stock market s in'70s. Most of his results were startling and broke many myths. According to Fama and French, two famous researchers who did ground breaking research on stocks, over the last 77 years, large growth stocks have only seen 9.9% annualized rate of return as compared to 11.5% for the large value stocks.

So most of these growth stocks become highly popular in a small period of time! Everyone rushes to buy these growth stocks thinking that they are great investments. The most probable cause seems to be their immense popularity. Since most of the headlines are captures by high growth companies, investors seem to think that they are the best investments. Now intuitively you might have thought that growth stocks are better. What can be the reason for their lower performance over the years?

Think about Google, how its stock price shot up within a matter of weeks after it hit the market. Weeks after that it began to cool off. So large growth stocks tend to get overpriced before you are able to buy them! - 23222

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Try these cash printing Forex Signals from heaven. Discover a revolutionary Forex Robot System!