Best Discount Brokers

Today, discount brokers are greatly preferred, as they offer virtually the same service as full-service brokers, at a rock-bottom price. It is highly essential to find the best discount broker, if you are going to invest and manage money on individual stocks.

Typically, a discount broker who can keep your trading cost down is considered the best. These discount brokers offer reliable online trading service. The best discount brokers can help you to achieve full control over financial activities and also make your investing easier. Some even provide free news, research, and analysis tools. TD Waterhouse, Ameritrade, and Questrade are some of the best discount brokers.

Even though discount brokers charge a lower fee, there can be a wide range of price options within them. A good discount broker will not have any hidden fee such as postage or handling fee. Always choose a broker who charges minimum commission.

The execution speed of discount brokers should also be considered, especially when you are a day trader. Most online discount brokers offer Direct Access Trading (DAT) facility to have instant access over the market. They also provide services outside the regular market hours.

Certain factors have to be considered while searching for the best discount brokers. Check whether the brokers are properly licensed. Do a little research on their saving claims, volume discounts and rebates, account protection, and transfer and other fees. You should also know whether they have handled similar situations. Finally, check out the services offered. Some brokers focus only on specific segments of trading. So, always choose the one who suits your trading style.

Reading stock forums also plays a significant role in choosing the best discount brokers. These forums will help you to find out the top brokers. Furthermore, you can get referrals from your friends and relatives.

Best FOREX traders for Managed Accounts

The Forex trading market is one of the biggest financial markets in the world today with over USD3.2trillion daily turn over. The advent of web applications has birthed online currency trading which is now one of the biggest and fastest growing investments. To avoid the risk involved in trading on their own many investors employ the services of professionals in Forex trading to manage their accounts. Forex managed accounts is suitable for investors with risk capital who do not necessarily want to trade on their own. With the ever growing use of the internet there are many ways to find information about best traders of Forex managed account.

It might be difficult to find best traders of Forex managed accounts if you don't know where to look or what characteristics to look for. There are many websites offering currency analytical reports, statistical data for managing Forex trading and best Forex traders. Finding the best traders culminates in reaping higher profits. In currency trading there is no difference in profit potential between a long and short position. Therefore best Forex traders for managed accounts must possess the ability to profit in rising or declining markets unlike equity and fixed income managers. The best FOREX traders for managed accounts must be able to profit under any market conditions.

What are the things to consider while looking for best Forex traders for managed accounts?

1. Every investor wants to invest his money and make profits; therefore the expectation of best Forex traders is a consistent delivery of highest possible interest on the managed accounts.
2. They have to be a reliable company with a proven track record of consistency. The best Forex traders for managed Forex accounts are not necessarily the ones who make the headlines in the news. But those who have 100% positive reviews by their clients. Hence the reputation of the company also matters a lot

3. There must be a demonstrated ability of understanding of Forex market signals, charts, analysis and reports. This is a key factor In the Forex market as correct interpretation of these is a leeway to accurate predictions of when to enter and exit the market.

4. One important factor to look out for is the dealing spread of the Forex trader. Best dealing spreads are usually between 3 - 5 points in normal markets. These enable the Forex traders to move in and out of the trade with low slippages (the lower the spread offered the better).
5. Any promises of fantastic and consistent monthly gains of 15% or more, for example, are wildly exaggerated and would never be claimed by a legitimate investment manager. Although some traders do manage to produce some amazing short term gains the risks taken to produce these gains are enormous and generally mean that even the best intentioned manager who stretches his leverage beyond prudence is bound to eventually crash and burn.

Forex Trading Machine, Is It For Real?

Trading the Forex markets has become one of the most popular activities among people from all walks in life but with the solid interest of gaining financial freedom away from the traditional environments of the office work.

But Forex trading is not always easy. You will need a good amount of knowledge related to how the currency markets behave in order to become a profitable forex trader. It is the dream of every trader to have a forex trading machine that would help them once the time to make a transcendental decision in the markets comes.

Now a days a veteran trader has been spreading the word about an original and quite revolutionary way to trade the forex markets. It is a system based on what is called Price Driven Forex Trading (PDFT).

He claims that this is at last that elusive Forex Trading Machine that has been dreamed by many traders for many years. PDFT is a system based in three trading strategies that are able to produce consistent and systematic profits for the trader that follows PDFT to the letter.

Many veteran traders agree that in order to be successful in the world of forex trading you must be original, innovative and different in your trading systems. And this is the basis of the Forex Trading Machine based on a different approach to currency trading, this is by the use of PDFT which is a method of trading the forex market without using any type of indicators, support or resistance levels, moving averages, pivots, oscillators, fibonacci, trend lines or any other trading tool you can think of. Price Driven Forex Trading only uses the price of the currency pair and a time element. Quite innovative I would say.

In short, the Forex Trading Machine is what every machine should be; this original trading system is 100% mechanical, this means it requires no discretion or interpretation. You will simply have to follow strict rules: if A = B then do C. That’s it.

Forex Trading 101: What Is Currency Trading

Have you heard about currency trading? Maybe you heard about somebody who made some money speculating on the foreign exchange market, and wondered what it was all about and whether you could make some money yourself. In that case, you need to know some facts about currency trading, or more generally, Forex trading.

The foreign exchange market, also known as Forex or FX for short, may be the oldest global trade market in the world. It is also the largest of all trade markets. Financial analysts have estimated that more than a trillion dollars is transacted on the Forex market in a single year. In contrast, one of the world’s largest stock exchanges, the New York Stock Exchange, handles several million dollars in trade every year. Of course, the Forex market has the advantage of being a truly global market. It is not an exchange that is centralized in any single place, and Forex trading takes place 24 hours a day and seven days a week, non-stop. You can say that Forex trading follows the sun around the globe as trading passes from one major bank to the next over every nation on Earth.

You may be wondering what commodity is being exchanged in Forex trading. Well, as the term “currency trade” implies, Forex trading deals with world currencies. A Forex trader buys and sells currencies by exchanging one denomination for another in an attempt to make a profit from the transaction. It is a speculative market, where world news plays an especially big part in the movements of prices, even more so than in other types of markets. But the mechanics of Forex trading are essentially the same as in any other market: one attempts to buy low and sell high.

Specifically, you need to determine what currency is very likely to appreciate in value against another currency. Then you do a currency trade, which just means that you exchange the second currency for the first one, which you expect to rise in value. If your information is correct, and the first currency does appreciate, then you end up with a profit. And then you do the same thing again. And again. And again.

Most of the trading in the Forex market is performed by brokerage companies, major banks, and government financial institutions. Individual traders, or retail traders, do only a small percentage of the total amount of trading. But the Forex market remains a welcoming venue for the novice investor, as it is relatively easy to get into and has little in the way of entry restrictions. Basically, all you need is a dealer who can perform the currency trades you want. You can find many such dealers online.

Retirement Planning With Stocks & Mutual Funds

Retirement planning doesn't have to be a daunting task. In addition to a pension, social security and a 401k, the happiest retirees secure investments long before they retire and reap the benefits for that Bahamas cruise later on.

Stocks and mutual funds aren't just terms for Wall Street brokers anymore. They're assets to anyone with a desire for more money. Why not benefit as the economy benefits and share in the wealth? That's what "capitalism" is all about.

A stock is a share in the ownership of a company. For the company, a stock is a fundraising loan that they needn't repay, but will typically yield greater income for both the company and its shareholders in the end. As an owner, you are entitled to your share of the company's wealth.

You won't be able to control how the company is run per say, but the good news is that you will have a claim to assets and limited liability (meaning that you're not personally responsible if the company can't repay its debts).

Stocks can be daunting since there's always the risk that the company won't be profitable and you'll lose your investment. When retirement planning, the AARP recommends investing for the long haul in companies that are likely to succeed (instead of trying to "time" the market) and invest small in many different stocks to minimize risk and maximize returns.

A mutual fund is a lower-risk investment. Investors pool their money and allow professionals to select stocks for them. While stocks may generate a larger return, mutual funds are better for retirement planning because of their low risk and maintenance.

Mutual funds spread your investment dollars around and gives you the expertise of a money manager to ensure the success of at least some of your investments.

Mutual funds are constantly being bought and sold, so you can easily sell your shares for money. Many people choose the automatic investment option, which takes a certain amount of money out of each paycheck to invest. When the market's down, more shares are bought to increase your ownership and when the market's up, less shares are bought at the higher price.

So how will you make money off your stocks and mutual funds? One way is through appreciation, meaning that the fund will be worth more than what you paid for it as the market changes and you'll be able to resell, making a small profit.

Another way is through dividends, which works like interest that is distributed among shareholders annually or sometimes quarterly. A third way is through capital gain distributions, which is the portion of the shared company profit that you can receive annually or monthly.

Retirement planning investments shouldn't be touched until retirement however, since this money will be included in your taxable income.

Foreign Currency Trading

Foreign Currency Trading, or FX trading, is the art of buying and selling foreign currencies in order to make money when the exchange rate fluctuates. Nearly two trillion US dollars are traded on the Forex market every day. FX trading can be an exciting way to turn a small investment into a big reward. Industry analysts trading in foreign currency believe it is one of the largest markets in the world.

The common method is to speculate the fall or rise of the home currency. For common men the salary and the assets are based on the home currency and if there were a slump in the value of the currency, this would subsequently downsize the value of their earnings and the net worth value of their assets.

Foreign exchange trading is carried out two different units of currency, such as USD/JPY. This would mean that US dollar would be traded against the Japanese yen. In this case, if you want to sell US dollars or buy them, you must keep in mind the value of the Japanese yen.

One can turn a small-time investment in FX trading into a large profit, because investors on the Forex market are able to use leverage at a rate of 100:1. This means that for every dollar a trader invests, he can borrow $100 to play around in the market, which hugely increases the buying power.

FX trading is considered to be fast and highly volatile, and leverage makes it possible for even small investors to receive a high return on investments. With all the information available on the Internet, it makes it easy for the trader to react quickly to changing market trends. The Forex market is not based on commission, so this allows the investor to keep all the profit earned.

Mini Forex Trading - Practice For The Big League

Mini forex trading can be rightly described as an innovative method in which you can make money by trading the currencies of different countries. Both individuals and large scale financial institutions like banks can involved in this business of currency trading. It requires extreme awareness about the changes in the international commerce and the other factors that may lead to depreciation of the value of the currencies of different countries.

It works in the same pattern of a stock exchange. People invest in currencies with an expectation to sell them when market fluctuates favourably. The trade of currency market is always fluctuating with fluctuations in international commerce.

Forex is normally conducted in pairs of currency of two different countries. Most probably these currencies compete with each other in international market. This pairing of currency is commonly known as crosses among the traders or investors in forex. The most popular pairing or crosses of the present are the USD/EUR and the USD/GDP. These popular pairs are known as majors by the investors considering the high profit rate involved in the trading of these pairs.

Making money from investing in currency is not an easy thing as many of us think. Till recently global currency market was not open to the small investors and individuals. Only reserve banks and other larger industrial concerns were only permitted to invest in currencies considering the element of high risk and expertise required for trading currencies.

In the currency exchange market forex accounts are known in two names; mini account and regular account. As the very name suggests mini accounts are meant for small investors and individuals who like to participate in the international exchange. It will give individuals and small scale investors a chance to experiment with forex without making huge investment in the currency trading market.

In mini forex contracts will normally be small than a typical currency exchange. Normally it will be one tenth of the regular contract.

The main advantage of investing in this type of currency investment is that the person investing in the currency marketing will get a chance to test various currencies trading system without risking much of his capital. When he understands the technicalities and techniques of currency trading he will be able to upgrade him to typical currency accounts.