Why gold should be part of your stockmarket portfolio

One of the great advantages of CFD trading is that it permits you to seamlessly move within asset classes at little cost, and opens up a wealth of new contracts not just in stocks, but across a range of investment classes. Clients of Blue Index will be aware that we carry out analysis of the gold price on a daily and weekly basis, and our track record in pinpointing the regular movements in the price of the metal has been excellent. Our long term stance has been bullish since gold ended its 20 year bear market at the turn of the millennium, and for those CFD traders who are not aware of the big picture, this article updates our rationale for long term investment in gold. It should be noted that since we began daily coverage two years ago, gold is up 80% in dollar terms, and over 50% for sterling based investors. We think there is a lot more to come. Why the outlook for gold is so bullish The starting point for the analysis of any commodity is supply and demand, and for gold the simple fact is that supply is declining and demand rising. As it stands, and because of the previous lack of profitability in exploiting new mines, most major sources of supply are declining and the global gold market currently faces an annual supply shortage of about 600 tonnes. The gold supply World mine production began to level off in the 1990s as gold traded a wide range but remained significantly lower than previous peaks, and by 2004, production was falling at a rate of 5% p.a. according to the World Gold Council. This as yet has not changed significantly and is a long term factor because it can take almost a decade for a rise in gold prices to generate exploration and eventual exploitation of new mines. In terms of the existing supply, much of this has come from ongoing central bank offloading of gold, and here many developed countries have now stopped both official and unofficial sales of gold. Previously, and as a result of the need to diversify, central banks carried out regular gold sales, but in some cases (see below) the reverse is happening as finance ministers see the need to protect against the inflationary consequence of fiat monetary policies that are rampant across major western economies. Another aspect of supply that is changing is forward selling from gold producers, where output prices were traditionally locked in to protect against potential future falls in gold. This was a normal part of commodity hedging, and to some extent it might have helped keep the price down, but given the ongoing bull market, mining companies now run the risk of losing potential future profits if they hedge into rising prices. It is estimated that global gold producers have reduced forward sales by over 40%, which would result in a drop in supply of almost 1000 tonnes. Demand for gold A big change in demand has come from central banks in China, Japan, India and Russia as a result of the need to diversify their vast US dollar reserves to some extent. The Russian central bank has hinted more than once that it plans to double its gold reserves, and the subject has regularly been mentioned by the Chinese central bank. All this is mainly as a result of the high proportion of trade-related US dollars flowing into their coffers, which has made them proportionately more reliant on the value of those dollars held. As an example of potential demand, Japan and China have the eighth and tenth largest gold holdings in the world, but their current gold holdings are equivalent to just 1% of respective reserves. An increase of 50% in their gold reserves for just these two central banks would be the equivalent of buying over 600 tonnes, which is around a quarter of world annual mine production. Russia and India’s gold as a percentage of total reserves is slightly higher but stands at just 4%, so there is scope for additional demand here. Asset allocation and investment in gold Back in the 1970s commodity investment was an essential part of asset allocation for diversified portfolios, but despite the long term bear market ending just after the turn of the millennium, many investors continue to shun gold stocks. The two biggest gold stocks in the world are Barrick Gold Corporation, now valued at $36bn, and Newmont Mining, worth £21bn, and the total value of the top ten gold stocks is less than $150bn. If you compare this with the current value of Exxon Mobil at $505bn and it can be seen how insignificant gold stock valuations remain given the continued potential of this sector. The total market for physical gold is also small, and stands at around $3.5 trillion, but the total value of the US stock and bond markets alone is close to $40 trillion. For asset allocation purposes, a 1% move into gold and gold stocks would equate to the purchase of eight times the annual production of gold worldwide. M3, inflation and the gold price With M3 money supply growing rapidly in most of the developed economies, the only outcome other than drastically higher interest rates, which looks unlikely, is a devaluation of currencies as has been the case throughout the last century. Should the dollar continue to move to lower ground as measured by the dollar index, which looks likely, further diversification into gold and other asset classes as a protection against the falling value of dollar reserves is likely to accelerate. In 1980, the gold price peaked at $850 in times of raging inflation and 27 years later it is still below that peak level. For it to get back to those levels, which might be seen as extreme at the time, it would now need to be closer to $2000. In real terms though it looks dirt cheap, and long term investors should view $1000 as a realistic target in the next couple of years, which is 25% higher than the price right now.

Make money on the Internet

If you read my other articles, you know already that there are many ways to make money on the Internet. I personally can't understand why people don't do it more often when it is so easy. "Variety is the spice of life." That's a fact. This subject is precisely huge because there is not one, two or three ways to make money online, but many. In fact this is what I would do if I were you. Instead of focusing on one specific business only, I would set up different ones at least to try and find out which one is better for me. If I realize that it does not consume too much time and I can do it at ease I would then go to the next level . . . I would set up different streams of internet income. This way I would be assured that even if I am not making that much money with one business, other streams of revenues would keep producing profits for me anyway. Most people are so afraid to lose their jobs. That's because it is the only job they have. It is the only thing they do to make money. They are just earning a living. Even if you love your current job, it is a smart decision to set up a few automatic businesses and let them produce residual income for you. Then, how can you do this? 1. Creativity. As you will read in my book Easy Web Riches creativity is very important. Most wealthy people are also creative people. There is no limit to what you can create. Then, there is no limit to what you can earn. This is easy. Trust me! 2. Publishing To publish your own products and sell them to others on the Internet. You will see how many people out there are seeking information nowadays. They know that by educating themselves on certain fields they can improve their standard of living a lot. Often knowledge makes the difference. This kind of business will make you money too. 3. Affiliate Marketing. Many of you have tried this already. I know. In the other hand this is not just any kind of affiliate marketing. I am talking about affiliating with products or services that sell like crazy! These companies pay you 50% or more for every product you sell. So, if you get $50 per product, you only have to sell 10 products per week to make $500. I am not talking about ClickBank only either. I am talking about implementing different advertising techniques that can help you make more money from any affiliate marketing program that you choose to join. 4. Trading. It is easier to trade today than ever before. You don't have to pick up the phone and call anybody. You can trade all major markets like Forex, The Stock Market, Futures, Options anything, right on your computer screen. This is an automatic business that allows you to earn automatic income. You do it from home. You set up your own hours. You are the boss. The only problem with trading is that most novice traders rush into it wishing to make a quick buck, without taking time to learn the basics of this business. Reading a few good books about it could increase your profit rate by at least 1000%, specially if you have never traded before online. 5. Join ventures. Some business owners need money to develop a project. It could be real estate, a new technology, etc. Selling shares of the company stock on The Stock Market is a good method to raise capital for the business. Other popular method is through a joint venture. A company makes an offer and let interested investors participate on it. There are thousands of joint ventures on the Internet. If you like this business your job will be to find the companies that pay you the highest profits and invest your money with them. Above you can find five of the biggest businesses you can start to make money one the Internet. Now, the truth is that there are hundreds of ways to do this. That's where the multiple stream of income concept comes from. Replication is the key to your online business. This means that once you establish the base, the backbone for your businesses, you can start duplicating your success more and more. In other words, with the same amount of effort, you will double your income through the passage of time. Notice that if you are an employee, it happens usually the opposite. Every day they demand that you accomplish more tasks for about the same salary. If you like your job you can be an employee, but at the same time start your own online business. It is a smart decision to start a business and make some extra cash every day. That's how you will have another stream of income when unexpected money problems suddenly hit you from nowhere. You know that sometimes things just don't happen like we plan them. It is always wise to have a cash reserve. Now why an online business and not an offline one. To start a traditional brick and mortar business requires strong will power. There are lots of requisites, forms, legal aspects, procedures, etc., to take into consideration. In a few words, there are so many hassles that most people don't even think about it. Now, analyze how different it is when you choose to start your very own online business. For example, you can build your first web site within a few hours and start promoting the products. Instead of spending months or years on the set up process, you spend a few hours or days. You get paid 50% or more for every sale you generate. You can also create your own services and let other people take care of the marketing for you. It is a win - win situation since the beginning. Other thing to take into consideration is the investment. How much do you have to invest to start a traditional business? Usually tens of thousands of dollars or more. How much do you pay to start making money on the Internet? Usually $0 - $100. How much do you need to wait to start seeing results with an offline business? Probably years. How much do you need to wait to make money online? Probably days. Do you notice the difference?

Investing In Foreign Currencies - The FOREX

Building a diversified portfolio gives you a lot more stability with your investments and enables you to keep on the profit side of things more easily. But if you already have a rather diversified portfolio and think you are now rather knowledgeable of the stock market, then you may be ready to expand your investments into FOREX - the foreign exchange. When currencies in the United States may take a plunge, or a lack of growth, markets in other countries are doing quite well and this is something that you can draw a profit from. The FOREX market, listed simply as "FX," is the biggest market of all. A lot of money can be gained from it - and rather quickly, too. This market deals entirely with the exchange rates between two currencies on 5 days of the week. Two currencies are always in every exchange and they are exchanged the one for the other with a buy rate and a sell rate - at the same time. For instance, if you believe that the Japanese yen is about to increase in value, then you may offer to buy it at $1.10 and sell it at $1.25 - making a possible $.15 per yen purchased. Here are a few things you need to know about how to get started in the FOREX market. Learn The System Trading on the FOREX is generally more difficult than the regular stock exchange. It is easier to lose money if you do not know what you are doing. In order to prepare people to learn to deal with the FOREX, though, most online brokerages have specialized software that provides training - up to about 30 days, with "free money" to use to practice until you start being able to regularly see a profit. Only then is it wise to start doing some real trading. You also need to know how to determine the state of national economies and be able to predict their fluctuations. Other online companies provide many free booklets that they will mail to you only for the asking. Potentially Safer Investing Since all deals with the FOREX require a broker, your money is potentially safer. Every contract made with a broker will have a clause in it that allows the broker to actually stop the transaction if they feel it is a poor investment. The primary reason for this is because you are actually using the broker’s money to make the deal. When you use FOREX, you create a sort of "loan" that gives you an operating ratio of up to 100:1. This means that, for $3,000, you are actually controlling $300,000. The FOREX is also a better investment because there cannot be any insider trading. Dealing with currencies means that the things that effect it would make national news. This kind of event would be known almost instantly around the world - and everyone has access to the same news. Easy Liquidity Trading in currencies occurs every single day - many trillions of dollars worth of it. Because of this feature, there is always someone who will buy or sell dollars, enabling you to have a very quick liquidity when needed. No Fees Brokers do not charge you a fee when you make a FOREX transaction. This enables you to be able to control even better the amount of money that you invest and it allows you to chart it a little better. Brokers make their money through the spread of what is sold, the difference between what is bid and the actual selling price.

Forex Trading Pivot Points

Many traders and novices are looking to make money in Forex, however only 5% of Forex traders ever make a dime. The question then becomes what are the 5% that are making money in Forex doing that the other 95% are not. The truth is anyone can make money in Forex as long as they educate themselves and learn how the market reacts. Trades can use key support and resistance zones for entry and exits within the market, however there is another key component that will help determine price movement and that is pivot points. Pivot points help determine where price is going as well as reversals in trends. If one knew the range parameters used by floor traders then one may have a handle on significant areas where off floor and position traders may take over the market. Determining key support and resistance zones coupled with pivot points is essential to forecasting price movement in the Forex. Even if you are not a day trader, knowing the key pivot point, support and resistance points can help the short term trader and intermediate positional trader to identify potential entry points and stop loss levels. Getting into a trade near key support and resistance zones is a double edged sword. Pivot points can be seen as both dangerous and a great opportunity to enter a trade. Stop orders to enter at pivot points are readily whipsawed by the local market and noise, meaning price may bounce up and down around pivot points before heading in one direction. The question then becomes how are pivot points used to determine a good entry and exit point in the market? Pivot points can be used in two ways. The first way is for determining overall market trend: if the pivot point price is broken in an upward movement, then the market is bullish, and vice versa. Keep in mind, however, that pivot points are short-term trend indicators, useful for only one day until they need to be recalculated. The second method is to use pivot point price levels to enter and exit the markets. For example, a trader might put in a limit order to buy 100 shares if the price breaks a resistance level. Alternatively, a trader might set a stop-loss for his active trade if a support level is broken. Calculating pivot points is not an easy task. There are some really great training courses online that will train you on how to trade using pivot points as well as calculate them for you and teach you how to use them in a real-time.

Eliminating Risks of FOREX Investing

It is quite unwise to remain under the notion that FOREX trading is free of risks; just as some websites would have you believe. If you are going to trade in heavy sums of money, chances are that the trades will work in your disfavor. But, a wise investor will know exactly how to identify and avoid those risks. Such an investor could make great profits at the FOREX. The FOREX is rife with scams. Of course, the incidences of these scams have gone pretty low in recent years, but that doesn’t mean one will trade in it throwing all caution to the winds. You must be very particular about your broker; it helps to do some background check to verify credentials. If the broker is affiliated to a reputable bank, insurance company or some such financial institution, then you may be well confident of his/her genuineness. The registering body for FOREX traders is Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) or the broker must be a member of the National Futures Association (NFA). It is also advisable to get a report from the Better Business Bureau and the Consumer Protection Bureau. There are several more risks that one needs to know of, even after getting a reputable broker. The following are some of the risks:- (i) There are unexpected rate changes at the FOREX that the trader must know about. Fluctuations can occur while the trading is still going on. If prices fall, then there could be severe losses to the trader. These could be minimized by issuing stop orders, but all traders may not be aware of this order. A stop loss order will close all the positions if the currency prices fall lower than a predetermined cutoff. There are also limit orders that close the positions when a profit target is achieved. A wise investor will make use of both the stop loss and the limit orders in order to reduce losses and make profits at the FOREX. (ii) Sometimes the interest rates of two countries are different. If this happens in the FOREX quote, then there could be a deviation from the projected profit or loss. (iii) Lack of honesty is occasionally encountered at the FOREX. If one of the parties in the transaction dishonors their debt when the deal is closed, there could be a credit risk. This could also happen when the party declares insolvency. (iv) Governments of the countries associated at the FOREX could limit the flow of currency. This is seen much more in the lesser-used currencies in the FOREX. Even though there are so many risks at the FOREX, there are also ways in which these risks can be reduced or even eliminated. The first step in reducing risks is to develop a strategy including a plan of when to enter and when to exit the market. This would require a good research of market trends of the FOREX in advance. Also, the wisest investor is one who put only that excess money in the FOREX which doesn’t make much difference to the financial position if lost. Knowing about the technical analysis and how to read and understand the financial charts is very important. These can be learnt through the internet and by reading books written by FOREX gurus. However, the greatest of education cannot guarantee profit-making at the FOREX. This is because the market can move in unpredictable ways. Stop loss orders and limit orders must be used to prevent losses from any eventualities. Most traders use stop loss orders. But even these need careful understanding of the market trends. If the trader is looking for a long position and expecting the price to rise, then the stop loss order would be ideally placed at below the current market price. The converse is also true. Let us understand this with an example. Suppose a trader takes a short position with the following quote: USD/CDN = 1.2138/43 This quote means that the trader can sell 1 USD for 1.2138 CDN or sell 1.2143 CDN for 1 USD. Let us also suppose that the investor is taking a short position. In the above case, a good order would be: Sell USD: 1 standard lot USD/CDN @ 1.2138 = $121,380 CDN Pip Value: 1 pip = $10 Stop Loss: 1.2148 Margin: $1,000 (1%) Here the trader is selling 100,000 USD and buying 121,380 CDN. If the USD value goes above 1.2148, then the stop loss order would be executed. Here, the trader would lose $100. But if the USD/CDN falls to 1.2118/23, the trader can sell 1 USD for 1.2118 CDN or sell 1.2123 CDN for 1 USD. Since the trader entered in the transaction by selling USD, then he/she must now buy back the USD and sell CDN to make the profit. So, the trader buys back 100,000 USD at the current rate for a total cost of 121,233 CDN. Since the original sale was for 121,380 CDN, the trader would have made a profit of 157 CDN or 129.51 USD.

Currency Exchange Terms Every Forex Trader Should Know

Before getting into the forex trading business, you need to arm yourself with some terminology that will be used in any course or software on trading forex. The following terms were put together to provide the novice forex trader with the fundamental concepts of the forex (currency exchange) trading business. While they may sound technical, most are simple to understand and apply. Let us begin with the instruments that are traded in the forex markets. Currencies are traded in pairs so the instrument will always be in this double denomination. The reason for this is simple – the basis of forex currency trading is to exchange one currency for the other. So if the pair is the Euro and the US Dollar, and the forex trader is taking a long position or buying the Euro in hopes that it will appreciate, effectively the trader is also selling US Dollars to buy the Euros. The most widely traded pairs are the Great Britain Pound and the US Dollar (indicated as GBP/USD), the Euro and the US Dollar (the EUR/USD pair), the Aussie Dollar and the US Dollar (AUD/USD pair), the USD and the Japanese Yen (USD/JPY pair), and the Canadian Dollar and the USD (USD/CAD pair). These pairs account for over 80% of the total volume of the trading in the forex market. The advantage to trading in these currency pairs is that they are highly liquid and allow the investor to convert their portfolio to cash very quickly to realize a profit. In every pair, the first currency is called the base currency, over which the second one is countered to imply the price of the pair, or commonly referred to as the "cross currency". The second is therefore called the quote currency and the pair price is recorded in terms of the units of the quote currency required to buy one unit of the base currency. Thus, assuming the price of the GBP/USD pair is 1.5, this implies that 1.5 USD will buy 1 GBP. Every pair is quoted in terms of a bid ask spread. The bid price means that this is the rate at which your forex broker bids to buy the currency at, while the ask price is the rate which the forex broker is asking to sell the currency to the forex trader. The bid price will always be lower than the ask price and the forex trader will buy at the ask price and sell at the bid price. The bid ask price will be quoted as: GBP/USD 1.532/5, meaning the bid price is 1.532 and the ask price is 1.535. A pip price interest point), as it is commonly called, is the smallest incremental change a currency pair will experience, for instance, a change in the GBP/USD price from 1.532 to 1.542 is a change of 10 pips. A trading margin is a deposit which is a minimum amount or a small percentage of your traded amount that you have to put up. The remaining amount is supplied by your broker. This amount can vary from 1% to 0.25%, also referred to as 100:1 and 400:1. Commonly, forex brokers will offer 100:1 or 200:1 to most clients. This is risky but enables the trader to leverage a large amount that he or she would not otherwise have access to. Finally, a margin call can happen when the forex trader allows the balance in the trading account to go below the margin deposit percentage agreed upon with the forex broker. The broker will automatically sell your long positions or buy your short positions and clear the entire trading account, returning the margin amount to the trader to protect the trader from losing more money than they have.

Knowing the Differences in Forex Trading Systems

There are a wide variety of forex trading systems available online. Every investing niche has a group of people who claims to be experts. Foreign exchange trading is no different. While some may find it helpful at first to pay for forex trading strategies, they are generally redundant; and after getting started, many traders go on to develop their own successful strategies. Most of the companies that are selling forex trading systems offer a free online simulator. It is a very good idea to spend some time investing with play money so you can carefully track the performance of a particular strategy. If you feel, after some time, that you just aren't comfortable with the forex trading strategy that they are producing, don't think twice about walking away. The tools are there for a reason, and it may just be to keep you from making a costly mistake. Once you have done some research and have found several forex trading systems with which you are comfortable, you should do some additional research to check on the validity of those few. Consumer advisory sites keep running listings of companies that have been found to the fraudulent, or that have made false claims about earnings potential. The chances are pretty good that theses companies haven't actually made a dime trading forex. Instead, they make their money selling promises to unsuspecting investors. There are several ways that these companies dupe new traders into believing that their forex trading systems are legit. The first is that they offer hypothetical results. You, as an investor, shouldn't be nearly as concerned with what their system could have accomplished, as you should be with what it actually accomplished. Anyone can use a little common sense and hindsight to create a hypothetical trail of forex trades that will look good on paper. Make sure you see actual return on investment numbers before you commit any money to a forex trading system. Another way that these fraudulent companies get foreign exchange traders to buy into their forex trading systems is by guaranteeing profits. If a company promises high returns with minimal or no risk, then they are trying to sell you something. Any type of investing comes with inherent risk. When trading forex, that risk can be fairly substantial, especially when you start dabbling in the 60 some odd currencies that are not considered majors. The world economy is volatile by nature. Therefore, the markets that are controlled by it are volatile as well. As with anything else available to consumers, there are different levels of quality available in forex trading systems. The best information that you can get will always be from other customers who have used the product. Service providers will always have great things to say about themselves, but a true test of their worth is to find another consumer who believes in the one you are considering.