Investing

It is hard to believe that in this economic recession, that some countries are doing extremely well, financially and are in the process of rapid growth, and industrialization.

According to data collected in 2010, at least 40 emerging markets are present and have the potential of some great financial rewards for investors.  The markets that are looking investor-friendly are Egypt, Mexico, Poland, South Korea, Turkey and South Africa.  China is always a good bet, as is Brazil and Japan, however, emerging isn’t the right term for them as they are fairly established.

Even though India has been a good market, as well as China, Mark Madden, manager at Oppenheimer Funds says “”The whole notion that you should invest only in BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) is silly” and that diversifying is important.

Emerging markets are more likely to produce strong growth, and even though the U.S. is familiar turf, it might be well worth looking at some of these other countries.  Sometimes extremely volatile, they are still worth investing in, and according to market experts, at least fifteen percent of your portfolio should be in emerging markets.

Experts have said that because of the major financial swings, the risks are large, however so are the gains, but watching the market is the best way to know when to jump in.

1.         A great emerging fund is American Funds New World (NEWFX) because it combines emerging markets, and invests in in both emerging and multinationals doing business in developing nations, but you will need a broker or investor.

2.         T. Rowe Price’s Pangaro, which is a first class, no load fund.  It’s diversified to emerging markets and has shown a gain of around 16 percent at its high, which matches MSCI Emerging Markets Index.  This though, is a highly volatile fund.  It has a claim of being 38 percent more volatile than the MSCI index, and although volatility is a good predictor of down-market performance, it fell more than the MSCI index fell.

3.         The SPDR S&P China ETF is an investment in large companies located in China and is known as the weathervane for the Chinese economy.  The returns can vary from 3.45 percent, all the way up to a five-year return of a whopping 46.2 percent.  But economic or natural disasters can really cost you big, as well.

4.         ETF’s are great investments, if you have trouble sleeping over putting all of your cash into one market.  They add several countries or combinations of countries and many funds find stocks of every size to fill an investor’s portfolio.

5.         GPIF is a Government Pension Investment Fund, seeing over 114 trillion yen, for Japanese investors, and mutual fund investors and are included in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.  As of September 2011, Japan is looking good, say’s Tomoko Yamazaki, Business Reporter for San Francisco Chronicle.  “Prospects for growth still remain strong for emerging markets relative to the developed countries, which means expected returns will be higher.”

6.         Also in China – the Shanghai SE A share index is showing a lot of promise, and as of Dec 2010, it was up 33.6 percent.  The biggest hope with these emerging markets showing so much promise, is that they would dip enough to get in.

7.         Nicholas-Applegate Emerging Markets II – NAGDX is in the top 10 performers of 2010, with a growth of over 3 percent.

Here is a chart to give you an idea of the growth potential in some investment emerging markets:

Investors appear to be scrambling to get out of the U.S. market, because of its major economic problems, and to jump on the emerging market investment train.  It looks like most underdeveloped countries that are seeing growth and development are your best bet, because the funds are still low enough to get in, and the promise of a pretty substantial growth is still on the rise.

Having patience is a major factor, though, and get rich quick hopes should not be a consideration with emerging markets.  Knowing your markets, when to buy, when to sell will keep your portfolio intact, with some pretty nice gains.

About Author: Kristy Ramirez is a personal finance writer for Life Insurance Finder where she helps people compare and select the best term life insurance policies to suit their needs.

During the financial times that we live in there have been various claims and statements on where you should put your money.  Ultimately the decision is down to the investor, and with savings accounts offering extremely poor returns on money at the moment; many of us have decided that we need to move our money into more risky investments in order to get a good return.  Whilst this may be seen as frivolous by some, investing in different stocks and shares can be exciting, and also give you the opportunity to get great returns on money which otherwise would be helping you in no way at all.  But is there an alternative to investing in stocks and shares?  How about something that costs far less, can see similar returns, and actually gives you entry into a market that could otherwise be completely closed to you?

Find a quick way into those big companies

Investing in spreads rather than stocks can do this.  Spread betting has been around for many years, and since the financial meltdown around the world it has seen a rise in popularity.  First of all, we have to remember that gambling on the stock markets is dangerous, but conversely this is a safer way of investing in stocks rather than spending thousands on a small piece of the pie.  So could investing in spread betting be more palatable to most of us rather than trying to find successful stocks to invest in?  It has to be said that spread betting can see big returns on your investments in a short space of time, and if you manage to play the stock markets well, you can see returns which exceed the amount of income possible from investing in exactly the same stocks.  For example you could bet on Apple’s stock increasing, at only a £1 or $1 a point, rather than the thousands per point it would potentially cost to buy actual stock.  This means that you can invest in the big blue chip companies without actually ever owning any stock, but still taking advantage of their success.

Remember to monitor your success

Obviously the danger with this is that you get carried away, unlike the investment manager you may have for your stocks and shares, they probably wont have any input on your spread betting activities.  This means that you need to have complete control over what you are doing, and not get carried away if you begin to see big returns on your investments.  Most spread betting firms will allow you to put limits on investments; profits and losses, meaning you still have ultimate control over your finances.  This sets it apart from gambling in the sense that your losses will always be in your control, to an extent.  Consequently investing in spreads can see you get great returns on your investments, with the ultimate control in your hands.  The most important thing to remember is that you don’t get carried away, you need to be responsible with your money, after all, it is your future profits you are potentially risking if you push too hard.

Author Bio: This article was written by James from spreads.org.uk.

Investments – are these really helpful? Is it really worth your money? If the traditional investments are to be taken into account, it can be said that these are falling short of the way these used to help people earn money. Some of the traditional investments are the likes of stocks, real estate investment, and forex and so on. Previously, people used to earn so much from these investments that they could use the revenue from these investments to obtain debt relief.

Different investments options for 2012

The different investment options that can serve the porpoise of earning good revenues for obtaining debt relief are:

1. Coins – Coins or rather the rare coins can be one of those investment options in today’s market that can help you earn god money. So, if you are starting to collect coins, it’s better to go for the historic coins. These coins in general have been made out of precious metals. Now, the value of precious metals is seen to be rising and so with this rise, it is considered that the value of rare coins too is going to rise. The financial experts do believe that the precious metals are going to see a surge in their value in the coming years. Furthermore, collectors find coins so valuable that they can pay high price to buy a rare coin.
2. Swiss Francs – Switzerland’s balance sheet is considered to be one of the best of the world. In fact, according to reports, millions of dollars have been poured within franc in 2011. As a result, its value has increased from 95 USD to that of 125.80 USD just in a single year. However, the value of the franc can fall if logjam on American budget gets solved.
3. SIP – If you are not happy with your salary and if it is not enough to save, the Systematic Investment Plans or SIP can help you with invest small amount of dollars into mutual funds. You can have the option to even choose from 2-3 different SIPs before investing money every month.
4. Gold and silver – Both gold and silver are precious metals. These two are the metals which aren’t going to lose their luster even in times of any economic downgrade. Gold is one of those metals which from the ancient times has been consider the purest and precious metal and today too people are equally interested in buying gold. Moreover, gold price is seen to be increasing. Thus, if you buy gold now, you may be able to sell it off later at much higher price.
5. Some mutual funds – You can also invest your money in some of the mutual funds. These accounts include a pool of assets where different investors are considered one. These accounts are used to buy basket of different forms of securities and is supervised by the fund manager.
6. Stocks of certain companies – You can invest your money in the stocks of different companies whose business are based on energy, computer and cell phone games, and so on. But, in order to invest in the right kind of stocks, it is extremely important for you to understand as to how the stocks work.

It is expected that in 2012 the inflation is going to raise more and the interest rates are also going to see some increase. This is going to result in lowered value of the bond futures. So, the bonds are the investment vehicles which you should stay away from in 2012 and may be more. If you still would like to invest your money in these, it would be better for you to go for the short term bonds. So, you can see that it is essential for you to check the financial markets before investing your money in any of the investment carriers before actually going forward with the investments.

Jason Holmes is a regular writer with Debt Consolidation Care and is also a contributory writer with other financial sites. His expertise is woven around various aspects of the debt industry and with his e-books he tries to impart to people the different situations and simple solutions to get out of difficult situations. Some of his works include e-books like ‘Credit Score The Quintessential Therapy for a Happy Pocket’, Take Creditors and Collection Agencies to Small Claims Court’ and, My Story- From Depression To a Smile’.

Let’s face it: investing in the stock market is not always the best idea. This is particularly true for older individuals who can no longer afford to wait out the “downswings” of the market.

While there is nothing wrong with investing some of your money in the stock market (if it’s at the bottom now, there’s only one way for your investment to go), there is no better time than now to consider alternative investments. By considering these options, you can diversify your portfolio and hopefully earn an even better return than you would get with stocks.

1. Collectible cars: Did you know that collectible automobiles have outperformed the S&P 500 over the last four years? If you have any interest in collectible cars this may be one of the best ways to invest your money. Not only can you stay involved with a hobby that you enjoy, but you can make a lot of money along the way. However, investing in collectible cars is just like anything else – you need to do your homework to ensure that you make the best possible decision.
2. Wine: No matter if you are a wine connoisseur or somebody who is simply looking for an alternative investment, this is an option definitely worth considering. Over the past three years, fine wine investing has taken off all over the world. From Australia to the United States and everywhere in between, more people than ever are investing in fine wine. Just like the stock market the fine wine market goes up and down. However, things have been looking up lately as wine, particularly Bordeaux, becomes increasingly desirable as a status symbol in developing economies. Even if you don’t enjoy the taste of wine, if you are interested in earning a better return on your investments you should learn as much as possible about this market. And with wine-based investment funds, you don’t even have to store the wine!
3. Cash: What say you? Cash is not an investment, right? Maybe not in the traditional sense of the word, but this is definitely something that more and more people are turning to. By taking money out of the stock market and moving it into cash investments, such as a savings account or certificate of deposit, you are opting to “play it safe.” Of course, all is not loss. You may not earn as much as you would when the market is gaining ground, but a few percentage points of interest is better than taking the risk of losing money.
4. Peer lending: What do you think about lending money to others through programs such as Prosper.com and LendingClub.com among others? In short, this is a great way to earn a high rate of interest on your money. As a lender, you are in position to earn a higher rate of return than you would through more traditional investing methods. While not always the case, you should expect high single digit returns.
5. Sports memorabilia: Are you a sports fan? Do you have a favorite team or player? Investing in sports memorabilia can be among the most exciting alternative investment options – especially if you focus on a sport, team, or player that you know a thing or two about. But before you rush out and start investing in sports memorabilia, you need to invest with your brain and not your heart. Stick to big name players because the law of supply and demand is always in effect (smaller supply means a higher demand and a better return). Also, you’ll need a storage system to keep your items in top physical condition.

Andy Boyd is co-founder of the Money Choices website, an independent comparison service where he has contributed reviews of many of the top performing high yield savings accounts in the Australian market.

Investing money can be somewhat of a mystery without the right tools and information needed to make educated choices and take advantage of intelligent opportunities, resulting in successful investments. But while investing may seem difficult at first, understanding simple rules and tips can help provoke educated investments, even while finishing up college classes or merely beginning one’s higher education career. Getting ahead financially before even embarking into the real world of work, mortgages and student loans can be a great way to jump start one’s finances.

Investment Methods

One of the trickiest aspects of investing while in college can be understanding the different investment options available to those interested in growing money while attending classes. While different factors may make different investment opportunities better than others for specific situations and investors, understanding what types of alternatives are available can be a vital first step to growing finances in an intelligent manner. Some of the different opportunities include:

• Savings Accounts
• Business investments
• Stocks
• Bonds
• Real Estate
• Commodities
• Foreign Exchange investment

Savings Accounts

Savings accounts are one of the easiest ways that college students can earn interest on their money with very little effort, while attending classes and working on a degree. Many savings accounts offer a small interest rate on the money a student saves. But while investing in this manner is low risk and simple for students with busy schedules, the interest earned may be far less than student loan interest or credit card interest accrued. Paying down such expenses before investing in a savings account may save more money in the long run. While this type of investment is low risk, it also results in small profits because of the minimal interest earned.

Stocks & Bonds

A stock is share or certificate of ownership in a company or business. On the other hand, a bond is a loan attained by a company or government, in which they promise to pay back the borrowed amount plus interest, which is how the investor’s money is grown.

With enhanced technology and growing financial opportunities, student investors can now trade stocks and invest in bonds from the cozy atmosphere of a dorm room or apartment, with a mere laptop and internet connection. In addition, many web-based investment companies offer 24 hour access to trading and accounts, seven days a week, making them a great opportunity for students with busy and sporadic schedules.

Those willing to make greater risks can invest in mutual funds, which offer higher yields of return and are comprised of stocks, bonds and other investments. How successful a corporation is can directly affect the money earned on stocks, bonds and mutual funds, depending on their own success and short comings.

Real Estate

There is more than one way to invest in real estate.  You can purchase a house as an investment and rent it out to people.  Although the market is not what it used to be, it is still possible to flip a house in some cases.  In this market, just buying a house and expecting it to appreciate over the years is not usually a good idea, but it could be done depending on the local real estate market.

Commodities

Commodities are often natural resources such as precious metals like gold and silver or crops such as coffee, sugar, and wheat.  You can invest in these commodities through the futures market, exchange traded funds, stock, mutual funds, and futures contracts.  All of this must arranged through a licensed brokerage firm.

Business Investments

Business investments can be made through starting your own business, investing in another persons business as a partner, or loaning startup capital.  There is no set way to this, as it depends on what kind of agreement you make with the parties involved.

Foreign Exchange Investments

This is investing in foreign currencies like the the Euro, the Yen, or the Peso.  This can be quite lucrative if you know what you are doing.  You will need to do this through some banking institutions or through Forex.

How to Pick an Investment Opportunity

While there are a multitude of investment opportunities that can help busy, odd-scheduled students earn money and grow their portfolio, there can be a variety of options that can be better suited depending on the specific, pin pointed needs and diverse situations. The amount of money being invested offers an array of opportunities dependent on the beginning rates and necessary fronts that an investment company may require. For example, a web based stock trading company may require a small amount of money fronted to begin investing while mutual funds investment may require a larger sum for initial investment.

Risks & Initial Investments

Another important consideration for potential student investors is the amount of risk one is willing to take. Money that may be needed for emergencies or is necessary for other obligations after a certain period of time may make different investments better suited than others. If money is needed sooner than later, a lower risk investment, like a savings account is better suited. On the other hand, student who are willing to make larger risks with larger amounts of money may be willing and interested in learning more about investments like mutual funds, real estate or foreign exchange. Understanding the wide array of opportunities and the risks and initial investments involved can help students with other expenses like credit cards and student loans make intelligent investments and grow their money and financial portfolios.

This article was written by Brian Taylor, a blogger and writer at sites such as privatestudentloan.org.

Certainly at over $1400 an ounce, gold is at a record high price. This isn’t surprising since in rough economic times the demand for gold increases. Historically, this can be seen in the last time gold hit a record high of $850 per ounce on January 21, 1980. Actually, taking into account CPI inflation gold would have to rise to over $2,700 an ounce to reach parity with the 1980 spike. Still, a good number of analysts and economic experts are saying that gold is currently in a bubble that is about to burst. In this article we examine some of the differences between gold and other investments so that you can determine whether to believe this or not.

1. Although the day to day pricing of gold is volatile, its rise in price has been fairly steady over the last decade. ‘Certainly if you had bought gold in 2001 when the price bottomed out to $275 an ounce you could stand to make a large profit for yourself right now. However, after adjusting for inflation, the value of gold has actually decreased. This makes it a poor long term investment.

2. The Gold Price is Tied More to Speculation than Real Economic Activity
While other economic indicators like the Employment Situation and GDP have been trending up over the last 6 months, gold prices have continued to rise as well. Gold futures are also continuing to rise. Certainly gold’s industrial uses are quite limited, although they aren’t entirely non-existent. This is also the reason why gold is seen as a hedge against poor economies, and an indicator that the majority don’t expect much improvement over the next 6 months.

3. With Gold Prices as High as they are, it’s likely the U.S. Government will sell off some of its
gold assets to pay down debt.
This is in the best interest of the Feds for two reasons: first, because gold prices are so high at the moment; and second, because they would rather have people investing in stocks than in gold. This would be a good sign that gold prices have or are about to peak.

4. Historically Low Interest Rates are Bound to Go Back Up
Once interest rates begin to climb back up it will be an indicator that the economy has finally stabilized. If history is to repeat itself then you can expect gold prices to dip sharply once you see this.

5. China’s Gold Production Continues to Grow
In an effort to capitalize on the recent gold buying frenzy China has increased its mining efforts the past couple of years. In fact, they are now the largest producer of gold in the world and still have untapped areas to mine. While gold supply has historically been inelastic, this trend could change that and drive prices down.

6. Gold Buying Has Become a Part of Pop Culture
Think of the advertisements that were coming out just prior to the subprime lending crisis. Certainly pop culture has a way of turning the populace into the greater fools when it comes to speculative trading practices. Since we are now seeing this with the gold market, it’s a good indicator that the market is about to burst.

Bio: Alexis Bonari is currently a resident blogger at College Scholarships, where recently she’s been researching dental school scholarships as well as diabetic scholarships. Whenever she gets some free time, she enjoys watching a good movie or curling up with a good book.

What is Futures Trading?

Futures trading is the trading of futures contracts, which allows specific
stocks, commodities or such assets to be traded at a pre-determined price “in
the future”. NOTE the Quotation marks of “in the future”. Essentially Futures
trading is just an auction process where Supply and Demand play an
important key role in determining the price of the Contract, just like supply and
demand determine the price of houses or bacon in the market.

At the end when you open a futures trading account and start trading, you
are trading an asset such as the E-mini S&P 500, Gold, Crude Oil, etc by
mere LAW OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND, therefore, you do not make any
mathematical calculations or such. What you use is trading charts, like in
stocks, to determine the levels of Supply and Demand, you also read financial
newspapers to develop an understanding of the current economic situations
that might affect the price of the Stock index, Commodity, etc. but this is
secondary as ALL is reflected in the charts.

Futures trading is NOT gauging, for example, or following the 500
components of the S&P 500 or the Eurostoxx 50 (leading blue-chip stock
Index in Europe). Futures trading involves determining the levels at where
buyers are preparing to bid and the levels at where sellers are preparing to
offer.

A futures contract is an agreement between two parties to buy or sell a
specified asset (oranges, oil, corn, etc) of standardized quantity and quality
at a specified future date at a price agreed today (the futures price). This is
the technical definition, What this mean is that you Accept the terms of that
contract.

What is really Important is the fact that, Futures Trading involves the use of
charts, a software and an strategy (the most important aspect) to approach
the markets, in fact, you may be surprise that the MOST technical and
predictable markets in the world are the Futures Markets. Why? Because the
whole world looks at them, thus, traders often leave traces in the charts where
opportunities are vast in a daily basis. It also offers the convenience that the
whole world have liquid contracts so it may help you suit your schedule. If you
are in EU you may trade the US market at night, if you are in the US you may
trade the Chinese or Australian market at night (the mini Hang-seng index or
the SPI 200).

The only downturn: Markets move Faster than in stocks, in fact, LEADING
the stock movements, and that you require at least 5000 Dollars to trade at a
comfortable level.

This guest article is written and submitted by Daniel Salas at Futures Trading How To.

One of the biggest issues that many people have when it comes to long-term investing is looking at the big picture, and how it fits into their long-term financial goals. It’s hard to focus on the long-term when, in the short-term, stock market volatility is scaring you. In order to stay focused on the big picture – which is what you want your finances to look like 20 or 30 years down the road – you need to tune out some of the yelling you hear in the financial media.

Develop a Longer Attention Span

As a society, we are so debt-ridden because we have short attention spans. Credit card debt is so high because we don’t have the attention span to save the money over the course of months for something we think we want now. The same lack of attention can also be difficult when it comes to maintaining your investment portfolio. We want to see riches immediately, and we get impatient if our portfolio grows at a moderate pace.

On top of that, the financial media, which like to focus on the next “crisis” has us drawing attention away from our long-term investing goals and looking at what is sure to be a stock market crash. Decisions made in panic just after the financial crisis led to people selling low, when if they had kept with a long-term investing plan, they could have been buying low and seeing substantial gains today.

Volatility Evens Out a Bit Over the Long Haul

Remember that, over the long haul, things that seem like huge market problems tend to even out a bit. A trend line observed over the course of 30 years looks a lot different than one observed during a particularly volatile five-year period. By keeping long-term trends in mind, it is possible for you to gauge how you are really doing with regard to the big picture and your investment portfolio goals. It is important to keep this in mind as you make investment decisions.

This doesn’t mean that you never get rid of anything. Long-term investing is about seeing how your decisions affect the big picture. If something changes fundamentally about an investment, it might be time to sell. Think about why the investment no longer fits into the big picture. Just because something dropped along with the rest of the market is not a valid decision to remove it if the fundamentals of the investment haven’t changed. If, however, something has changed about the investment that could affect its place in your financial plan, it might be time to shift things around.

Measured, carefully thought out asset allocation and portfolio re-balancing are part of a good long-term investing strategy. Just don’t let short term volatility lead you into abandoning your investment plan because of the panicked frenzy whipped up by the financial media. Long-term investing is an important part of your long-term financial stability. Don’t lose site of the big picture in the heat of the moment.

Miranda is a freelance writer and professional blogger, specializing in personal finance. She is associated with a number of web sites, including the AllBusiness Personal Finance Corner, her personal finance blog, and Credit Card Canada, which offers reviews of the best Canadian credit cards.