Unfortunately, you are really new in this field, should you do some kinds of trial and error before you can start making the real fortune. Well, some people perhaps will do that, but if there is one solution that can bring you benefits and real fortune from the first time you start to invest, then why don’t you try that solution? When talking about options trading, there is one site that is highly recommended for you; it is Optionsmentoring.com. This site is providing you everything that you need and you should know about online trading systems up to advanced tips and tricks. One more thing about this site is that besides they are your source information about options trading, they are also providing you online mentoring service to help you learning about options trading.

So, have you decided the right investment for your life? If you haven’t, why don’t you try this kind of investment?

We will be concentrating on the method of computing retirement benefits in place since 1979.  Before then a different, but equally bizarre, method was used.  The changes were instituted in 1979 to help keep benefits more or less inflation-proof.  The computation begins by determining a worker’s Average Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME).  The AIME is based on the worker’s social security wages or earnings from self-employment after 1950, but only up to the social security maximum for each year.

The worker’s earnings are then “indexed” by adjusting them for the average national wage increases.  The purpose of the indexing is to state the wages in terms of the level of wages in the second year prior to social security eligibility.  Generally you are eligible for social security at age 62, so we index to the year in which you turn 60.

Now that you have “adjusted” the earnings, you must next determine the average.  Begin this process by determining the number of years after 1950 (or turning 21 if later) and before when you turn 62.  Got that number?  Great, now subtract five.  (Why five?  Beats me.)  Social security calls this figure the “number of computation base years.”  Now, go back to your indexed annual earnings and select the highest earning years until you have enough to equal the “number of computation base years.”  For example, you began work at 22 and worked to 62.  Your benefits will be computed based on the highest 35 (40 – 5) years of indexed earnings.  Finally, total all the indexed years and divide by the number of months in those years.  Congratulations, you have just computed the AIME.  Have a drink…..or six.

If you thought you’re done, guess again.  The amount of the social security benefit is equal to the Primary Insurance Amount (PIA).  Fortunately, you don’t have to do these computations yourself.  The Social Security Administration is happy to do it for you.  Just get a Form SSA-7004-PC from your local Social Security Office, fill it out and send it in.  In a few weeks the good folks at Social Security will send you an estimate of your benefit.

They will also send you a print out of your “earnings record.”  Your earnings record is the amount Social Security thinks you made each year.  It pays to check this periodically, say every three years.  Mistakes are possible and those mistakes can cost you in social security benefits later on.

As we said last time, owning a stock is like owning part of a company. As the company rises or falls in value, so does the price of it’s stock. A key distinction is that the value of the stock is not only driven by the fundamental value of the company, but by other factors as well. These factors may include overall stock market trends, domestic versus foreign trade issues, business sector climate, etc. Owning a bond, is like owning part of a loan to a company or institution, like the State of Texas. Bonds typically pay a fixed amount of dividend as the loan is repaid. The bond’s value is determined by the interest rate on the underlying loan, and the current interest rates and trends in the marketplace. For example, who would not want own a 10% bond right now, when the money markets or bank passbook savings accounts are paying 3%? Should the institution or company fail or default on the loan, you could lose all or most of your bond’s value. Large companies or institutions usually issue bonds; so the risk is greatly reduced over owning a company’s stock share.

A stock mutual fund, is a group of stocks owned by a fund company to achieve certain investment objectives. Likewise a bond mutual fund is a group of bonds held to achieve a certain investment objective. Mutual funds, in both stock and bond types exist in many styles and forms. Fundamentally they are a savvy collection of stocks or bonds assembled and professionally managed for a specific or combination of investment aims. These typically diversify your investments so that no one particular company can sink your entire investment. The converse is that no one single stock can shoot your mutual fund up to a huge return.

Typically each mutual fund focuses upon growth, income, value, large, small or mid-capitalization companies, or a combination of these objectives. There are thousands of different funds and dozens of fund families to choose from. There are also companies that rate mutual funds, like Morningstar (www.morningstar.com ). Some mutual funds use a management team to select and prune stocks in the portfolio, some use certain methods, and some follow the leadership of a single fund manager. You should check these out before investing in a particular fund.

An oft-overlooked mutual fund consideration is the management fee or what are referred to as 12b-1 fees. Most fees are in the range of 1 to 2%. Be wary of any fund outside that range. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission can help unravel some of these issues for you. A good starting point is their investor section on mutual fund performance, specifically www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/mperform.htm . They also have a fund cost calculator to help take into account the fund management fees. Some funds are no-load mutual funds because they do not pay a sales person any commissions for selling fund shares. These are typically lower in cost, and if you own them for a long time, they can make a difference in the net return on your mutual fund investment. Conversely, there are loaded funds, which charge a commission when you invest in their fund. These vary widely in amounts, so ask for exact details before investing. Some require you to pay the sales commissions; others add that to the fund expenses. Either way it’s a cost to you. The Vanguard Funds (www.vanguard.com ) are often mentioned as a leader in creating no-load, low cost mutual funds. You will find compelling arguments at their website for owning no-load funds. You should check carefully on overall fund performance including fees when evaluating fund choices.

Measuring Risk:

Most mutual fund and stock tables and resources will list something called the beta or volatility of the items listed. Beta is a measure of the risk of the security listed associated with variation of the security when compared to the overall stock market. If beta is 1, then the stock or mutual fund varies about the same as the general market index. If less than 1, then the security is less volatile than the general index of comparison, with higher than 1 meaning more risk.

Measuring Risk-adjusted Returns:

There is also parameter called alpha, which is the market-adjusted return of the security. If alpha is positive, then the security earned a higher return than the relative market index of comparison. If alpha is negative, then the security earned less than the market did.

Minimizing Overall Risk:

Risks in the future may be reduced in the present only through preparation, planning and actions!

We discussed preparation and planning for the future in the last Investment Corner, which is a key risk-reduction strategy.

Risk reduction for investing is typically achieved through:

• Diversification,

• Portfolio Allocation,

• Pre-determined buying and selling prices, and

• Adherence to personal investing rules.

Now let’s look at the first part of risk reduction strategy for investing.

Diversification:

Diversification is spreading out your investments across several areas to reduce risk and capture growth in multiple places. Diversification is typically done at several levels. At the uppermost level, we typically diversify investments across different investment vehicles, such as cash, stocks, bonds and real estate. By doing this, we reduce several important risks. Inflation can reduce the value of cash on hand over time, which is why smart folks do not keep their life savings in cash hidden in a mattress! On the other hand, inflation can drive down the value of fixed dividend investments like bonds as well. Real estate may rise or decline with inflation, depending upon the health of both the local and the greater economies. Fixed hard assets like precious metals funds (gold) will usually rise on inflation or fears of inflation. Other risks include stock market declines, individual company bankruptcies, and so on…. By not “placing all the eggs in one basket” we lower our exposure to risks through diversification. During broad stock market declines, many folks move assets from stocks to cash or bonds. And of course the opposite during bull market runs.

Another diversification notion is that of slicing up your investment by specific growth sectors. Within a specific type of investment vehicle, say Mutual Funds, we diversify across the available growth and income sectors. Typically this is large, medium and small companies, as well as high dividend or high growth type stocks. You also could look into diversifying into domestic or international companies such as Asia-Pacific.

At the lower levels of investment diversification are multiple choices within a specific growth target. Most advisors strongly recommend diversification within a stock or bond market holding. If you feel for example that the Internet’s growth will continue or expand soon, buying stock in several companies who offer Internet products would help lower risk of any one company not doing too well. Diversification across several stocks is usually done in simple form through equal partitioning. If for example you had $10,000 to invest, how would you do it? You could place 20% of your total investment amount in each of 5 different Internet stocks as in Table I:

Table I –Stock Investment Diversification

Stock Name Current Price 90 Day High 90 Day Low Amount Invested ~ Shares

Company A $25 $28 $20 $2000 80

Company B $40 $40 $20 $2000 50

Company C $60 $60 $20 $2000 33

Company D $300 $300 $198 $2000 7

Company E $8 $9 $3 $2000 250

By looking at the trading ranges across the 90-day history, you can estimate the risks or volatility of each stock. Do the stocks have the same risks? Do they all have the same growth potential?

One approach would be to allocate risks equally, as opposed to alloc
at
ing investment equally. You would be to use the information in the range of stock trading prices to assess risk and re-allocate your investments as this diversification calculator shows below in table II:

Table II – Risk Diversification Calculator

Risk Diversification Calculator

Investment Amount $10,000

Stocks 5

Stock_1 Stock_2 Stock_3 Stock_4 Stock_5

90-day Max $28 $40 $60 $300 $9

90-day Min $20 $20 $20 $198 $3

Cur. Price $25 $40 $60 $300 $8

Trade Rnge 32% 50% 67% 41% 100%

Eq. Amt $2,000 $2,000 $2,000 $2,000 $2,000

$$ at Risk $640 $1,000 $1,333 $819 $2,000

Risk Ratio 1 1.5625 2.083 1.28 3.125

Risk-Red. $2,000 $1,280 $960 $1,562 $640

Adj. Inv.$3,104 $1,987 $1,490 $2,425 $993

If you do not want to do the research and monitoring required for several individual stocks or bonds, choosing a mutual fund may be the wisest choice, with a smaller but usually acceptable return on your investment. The key question you need to answer is not “Should I diversify?”, but rather “How will I diversify my investments?”

About YOU

The primary things you should know about yourself before selecting among the different types of investments are:

I. How much of my time is available to monitor/manage my investments?

II. How often do I want to change my investment choices?

III. Do I want help and advice from investment professionals?

These are important questions you need to answer for yourself. All investment requires some time commitments to monitor and manage. When stock markets or life situations begin to change, you may need to change your investment choices. If your experience level does not warrant it, getting professional help may increase both your results and comfort level.

I. Time to manage your investments: Your time is worth money! At least if you can put it to good use in managing your investments… but do not become obsessive with it. Investments take time to grow. Every investment portfolio must be watched and pruned from time to time. You wouldn’t want to look back after 5 years and find that right after your investment choices were made, that the business climate changed and those choices had become poor performers.

Two typical uses of your time applied to investment managing:

• Weekly, monthly or quarterly checking for:

o Stock movements

o Business climate changes,

o Company news

• Annual or quarterly allocation changes

o Re-planning or shifting your plans

o Pruning and re-diversification

o Reallocation of investment amounts

Weekly or Monthly Check-ups

If you buy individual stocks and bonds, these will need monitoring more often than if you had purchased mutual funds. However, stock and bond funds need attention too, just less often.

Some questions you should answer for yourself are:

• Can I afford time each week to check investments (Friday night or Saturday morning)? This is important for individual stocks and bonds.

•Am I disciplined enough to check my investments periodically? This is critically important, as the business environments are constantly changing.

• Can I put this on a monthly calendar and stick with it? Monthly checkups are important no matter what your investments may be…

• If I get an automatic e-mail sent will I read it? Many investment houses will do this for all accounts above a certain size limit. You can pool your investments under one roof, usually with savings in cost plus perks for research, quotes, e-mails, etc. Both Fidelity and Schwab are good examples of these services once you reach certain size limits.

Quarterly or Annual Check-ups

If you are only into mutual funds as investment vehicles, then you need check them only quarterly or annually. After all you are giving up some small amount of income to pay for professionally managed investments, right? You may want to keep up with monthly or weekly news on the investment fund management team, however, as management team shakeups there could cost you. The key thing is disciplined reviews and setting a schedule that you can stick to. Ignorance in this case can be dangerous, so do it together with your spouse or a family member that you trust. As you get good at it, the time required to do these should drop from several hours to perhaps an hour to review all your investments. If you have been keeping tabs on things, it can be shorter still.

“Even if you’re on the right track you will get run over if you just sit there!” – Will Rogers.

II. Changing your investment choices:

The challenge when deciding to change investments is often the emotional content. “We had a return of say 7%, when the broader markets got only 5%”. How did the overall group for your investment vehicle do? Morningstar provides good index comparisons, as do other groups. If your choices did not perform above the class average for 1 or 2 quarters in a row, it’s probably a good idea to consider other alternatives. That may require all the same diligence of researching an investment as you did originally. If you are seriously concerned and need to act quickly, you can always sell and put the proceeds into cash or a money market for a short time while you do the research.

III. Getting help from professionals:

I have often found the larger funds and investment houses to be a plethora of information via the Internet. They have how-to guides, acronym explanations, and in general some great advice. If however, these seem to complex for you, or you would prefer to seek out a single person with whom to deal, then find a Certified Financial Planner. The best ones should be able to provide references, a track record, and a good deal of services all at your doorstep. These services do not come free and can be in the thousands of dollars to set up your initial plans. Be certain to check 3 to 5 references and interview several planners before deciding. Determine what you pay exactly and what you get exactly after your selection is made. Be certain that they are certified, a place to begin is: http://www.cfp.net/ .

Summary

We’ve covered a lot of ground in this topic of stock and bonds versus mutual funds. Primarily remember that individual stocks require more monitoring, but can yield higher returns. The same applies somewhat to individual bonds. Newer investors to these may want to start with mutual funds, Money magazine has an annual issue every February that is very helpful and is usually available at public libraries. Finally remember to lower your risks by diversification, no matter what investments you make. Ask yourself the questions we reviewed about your time commitments and discipline for monitoring as part of the investing process. And of course, read-up on the Internet and some of the books listed below.

Next time – Portfolio Allocation, Pre-determined trigger points, and Personal investing rules …

Self-Study:

Some great resources to continue your journey are located on the web.

Try visiting these sites:

•http://www.greatcompaniesgreatcharts.com/archives/001864.html

•http://www.rightline.net/home/gate_rm.html

•http://www.investorguide.com/stockfaq.html

•http://www.pascoresearch.com/int_alpha.asp

•http://www.stockbook.com/Evaluator/

Or read these well known authors and books:

• William J. O’Neil: How to Make Money in Stocks

• John Boik: Lessons from the Greatest Stock Traders of All Time

• John C. Bogle: Common Sense on Mutual Funds : New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor

Additional info from th

is author may be found at http://www.sbtionline.com

In this article we will look not at the relative merits of a land investment vis-à-vis a property market investment but at whether the two (ie direct land investment versus indirect land investment) complement each other in an investment portfolio. The former subject is too extensive to discuss here and, at any rate, since many people already have property market assets the pertinent question for them is this: ‘does investment land complement property market holdings or is each investment opportunity best pursued in isolation?’.

Of course much depends on what type of investment land is being considered. For instance, self-build land investment is a natural bed-fellow of buy-to-let property market investment since it is common for investors to develop small plots of UK land and then retain ownership in order to earn rent from the resulting property. However, if your idea of the best investment is not one which involves buying land with planning permission or buying land without planning permission and then developing it out, there are land investment alternatives.

One such is buying land on a professional property and development project. This is sometimes known as Site Assembly land investment and often appeals to the investor for whom self-build land investment is not suitable. The growing market for investment land is being in large part serviced by Site Assembly investment land because, relatively speaking, the number of people investing in land is growing but only a small proportion have the necessary skills and/or appetite for self-build land investment.

With this in mind, we can refine the original question thus: ‘does Site Assembly land investment complement buy-to-let property market investment or is each investment opportunity best pursued in isolation?’ (since Site Assembly land investment is becoming more common).

The key considerations in land investment, and in fact any investment, are threefold:

-Risk (what is the chance of gaining/losing)

-Term (how long is the investment for?)

-Liquidity (how easy is it to exit the investment?)

These criteria will help elucidate whether buy-to-let property market investments and investment land on a Site Assembly project are complementary. In investment terms (ie land investment and otherwise), ‘complementary assets’ are those that provide diversity, so the Risk, Term and Liquidity should be different in each case.

Let’s see:

Buy-to-let property market investment

-Risk: Low

-Term: Long

-Liquidity: High

Site Assembly land investment

-Risk: Medium

-Term: Medium

-Liquidity Low

Although these are generalisations, the above broadly reflect the true nature of buy-to-let property market investment and Site Assembly land investment. Naturally, some buy-to-let property market investments can be medium term just as some Site Assembly land investment projects offer moderate or even high liquidity but generally speaking the information above holds true.

It is therefore reasonable to conclude, working from the premise that complementary investment assets display different profiles (Risk, Term and Liquidity), that Site Assembly land investment and buy-to-let property market investment do complement one another in a portfolio.

This article has not attempted to assess the extent to which investment land is superior to property market investments (or vice-versa). What it has attempted is to consider the growing popularity of investing in land (especially on an existing development projects) and whether such a venture is compatible with a buy-to-let property market investment portfolio.

Rational analysis, as set-out above, suggests that Site Assembly land investment and buy-to-let property market investment are complementary.

This can also be part of a strategic financial plan and should be considered by investors as part of a diversified portfolio. When considering an investment purchase you should also source the best investment loan structure for you. With any investment your investment loan can make a difference to your return. If you are negatively geared through an investment loan the cost to you of that investment loan can effectively be reduced.

If you purchase wisely, once there has been capital growth in the investment property over time there is the option of using this built up equity to move into another investment property, take out another investment loan and thereby continue to further increase your investment portfolio.

Aside from the traditional belief that tax advantages are the key driver for taking out an investment home loan there are many other factors to consider when purchasing an investment property.

Below are some key points for your reference, by using these points as a guide in conjunction with a detailed discussion with your accountant or financial planner you will be in a better position to ensure your investment purchase and investment loan is a financially sound decision for the long term.

In relation to property enquiry therefore, you should consider:

* What is the infrastructure like in the area? Are there enough schools, hospitals, shopping centres, doctors and dentists, freeways or main roads?

* What has the historical capital growth been in the area over the last two decades?

* Is the local council planning to increase housing density or add a new road to increase traffic flow?

* If you are purchasing in a new subdivision, are there more new land blocks and house and land packages planned nearby. New developments can impact on the value of your home as purchasers often prefer a new home to one that might be 2 or 3 years old in the same area.

* What length of time will the investment be held? And will this tie in with planned infrastructure development which will in turn accelerate capital growth?

There has been recent press to suggest that investment and home property values in Sydney have a potential capital growth of 18% over the next 3 years so buying off the plan as an investor may be an attractive option in the current market. If you find a good property development, suitable for investment, which has a completion date in say 2010 – 2011 then you can exchange contracts with either a 10% cash deposit or a deposit bond (as a guide the cost of a deposit bond of around $86500 for say settlement September 2011 will cost you approximately $9000- $9500 (significantly less than the interest you would pay over the period if you borrow $86,500 at current interest rates of 9% p.a). The general feeling is that direct investment into property as opposed to into managed property funds is a better way to go – you are in control of your investment and avoid the high management fees so often charged by share and property investment funds.

Do some research on the internet to see which areas have the greatest potential for capital gains – remember if you are looking for an investment property you should invest with your head not your heart. An investment property needs to be well located to transport and other facilities so that those renting can easily access these services.

When considering which investment loan would suit you best take the following into account:

1. Does the investment loan allow you to split it into a number of investment loan accounts. This is a good feature to have in an investment loan because you are positioning yourself for the future – if you use the investment property at a later date to gear into another investment purchase then you can split the account so that the investment loan portion relating to the new purchase is clearly identified. This allows you, and your accountant, to easily track the costs associated with the new purchase.

2. If you use your home property (with an existing home loan) as security for the investment loan then it is imperative that you do not mix any home loan debt with your investment loan borrowings. The ATO in Australia requires you to apportion any additional repayments to a loan where the borrowings are “mixed”. You want to apply any additional repayments to your home loan before your investment loan. You are paying your home loan off in after tax dollars – whereas you can deduct the interest you are paying on your investment loan against the income form the investment property.

3. Does the investment loan allow you to capitalise interest? It is always a good idea to include a capitalising feature as a part of your investment loan to protect you against any unexpected costs in relation to the property. It also means that instead of subsidising the investment costs and interest shortfall on your investment loan you can capitalise these and make additional repayments to your non-deductible home loan debt.

4. If you have sufficient equity in your home then you may be better to consider a 100% + costs investment loan for the investment acquisition and use any savings you intended for the investment purchase to pay down your home loan debt.

If you consider all these points your investment loan will be working in your favour at all times.

Addressing to the Indian Economic Summit’s session, on Tuesday, the 18th of Nov. 2008, the State Minister of Industry, Mr. Ashwini Kumar declared that Rs 500 billion would be invested by the Central Government with public-private partnership in infrastructure pertaining projects. According to him this investment would lure demand to boost economic growth. In the prevailing time when Indian economy is under threat of the entrance of world depression 2008, such type of a big dose of investment in infrastructure is desirable to barricade against the entering depression. But, the private partnership may hamper the way of receiving the desired results.

INDUCED INVESTMENT

When talking about investment, it is categorized as the induced investment and the autonomous investment. Induced investment is that investment which is induced by profit motive in a free enterprise capitalist economy. It produces commodities and thereby it can be termed as ‘directly productive investment’. Establishment of a productive unit which produces consumption or capital goods comes under the category of the directly productive investment. It changes with a change in (national) income that is why it is also called income elastic investment. Induced investment is incurred especially to produce larger output.

AUTONOMOUS INVESTMENT

On the other hand, the autonomous investment is the investment which is not induced by profit motive. It is not sensitive to changes in income. It is also known as public investment and is incurred in direct response to inventions and much of the long range investment which is only expected to pay for itself over a long period. Autonomous investment is generally associated with such factors as introduction of new production techniques, new products, development of new resources or growth of population. Autonomous investment generates favorable environment for production. An autonomous investment is never profit motivated and that is why it is always suggested to be undertaken by government instead of private investors. Autonomous investment does not directly produce goods. It creates external economies whereby the cost of production sustained by the producing firms is lowered. Thus, their profit is increased whereby the firms are induced to produce more. In this way the autonomous investment indirectly helps to increase production. Moreover, autonomous investment generates general utility services to the general public which they can’t afford to purchase.

DUAL INVESTMENT

Autonomous investment is autonomous only to the extent it is free of profit. If this investment is made by private investors they can’t help earning profit. Therefore, the producers will have to pay for the external economies and the general public will have either to go without the generated general utility services or will be exploited for they will have to pay high to avail the services. Thus, in a developing economy where cost of production is high, general mass is poor and markets are undeveloped the autonomous investment will lose its importance if given in private hands. In this way, autonomous investment is made of two different portions. One is that which can never be given in private hands irrespective of the fact whether the economy is developed or developing. Therefore, this portion of autonomous investment is a true autonomous investment. The investment incurred in the projects pertaining to national security, law and order maintenance, international relations, world peace, general governance, epidemics eradication, general health, poverty alleviation, public welfare etc. comes under this type of autonomous investment. The remaining portion of autonomous investment is that which can be (and is generally) given in private hands in a developed economy. In a developed economy sufficiently a high level of income is achieved, the distribution of income is almost equal, market is extended and developed, general poverty stands alleviated and cost of production is quite low on account of capital based modern technology. Hence, the producers can easily pay for external economies and people can pay for many of the general utility services. Therefore, in a developed economy, the portion of autonomous investment to be incurred in the projects like road transport, construction of highways, construction of bridges, power and electricity, civil aviation, sea transport, education etc. can be (and generally is) given in private hands. This portion of autonomous investment, being however similar to the previous one (above said true autonomous investment) in a developing economy, but thus becomes profit motivated and is converted into induced investment in a developed economy. In other words, this portion behaves as autonomous investment in a developing economy but is converted to and starts behaving as induced investment in a developed economy. Therefore, this portion of autonomous investment can be regarded as the convertible investment or the dual investment.

CONCLUSI ON

            The above  concludes that investment can be categorized as the autonomous investment, the dual investment and the induced investment. The autonomous investment should be exclusively incurred by the government in both the developed and the developing economies and, similarly, the induced investment should be incurred by private investors in both the economies. As regards to the dual investment, it should be incurred by government in a developing economy and by private investors in a developed economy. However, a partnership of government and private investors may be desirable in case of the dual investment if the economy has entered into the stage nearest to the full development. It is similar to the case of the partnership of government and private investors in induced investment in early stages of development in a developing economy. The Indian economy seems to have travelled though a long on the development path but it has not so far achieved such a high stage of development which may allow private hands to participate in the dual investment. General poverty still persists there, income distribution is highly unequal, technology is not fully capital based, cost of production is high, and much more. Therefore, the dual investment in Indian economy still needs to be incurred exclusively by the government. Therefore, the partnership of government and private investors in case of the declared investment worth Rs 500 billion, referred to in the beginning hereof, is not desirable. The loss to the producers and the poor general mass on account of so far brought about privatization of the past is not a latent fact. All the same, if the government somehow feels itself helpless to desist from accepting the partnership, it must not at all allow it beyond the dual investment. In more clear words, the Government of India must keep the (true) autonomous investment fully intact from the private partnership and may allow the partnership in the dual investment but only to a limited extent if the partnership can not be fully abandoned.

_________________________________________________

It’s no secret that online trading can be a very lucrative, yet highly competitive field, and the truth is that the stock market doesn’t care if you are an experienced or a beginner trader.

The rules and the opportunities are the same for everyone, so either you are going to make money when you pick a stock and make a trade or you are simply going to lose it in favor of the more seasoned ones.

As a stock trader your homework is all about studying and testing different market strategies that can help you take advantage of stocks while at the same time protect your gains.

Just always keep in mind that a good strategy is simple and practical. Complicated stock systems will always make you slow in your decision making process or confuse you from the start.

A trader must always read as much as he can. There is simply no other way to prepare one self for this difficult yet incredibly rewarding activity, but to read and put into practice as much ideas as you can, at least by paper trading first.

The are a lot of books on the subject that pretend to help you, however many of them where written 6 or 8 years ago and that kind of makes them obsolete in this constantly changing field.

Fortunately there are some practical stock trading sites on the web where you can access proven trading strategies that are easy to implement. One of those sites is http://www.MomentumStockPick.com

They focus on stock trading methodologies that can help you identify and take advantage of certain stocks with momentum, while limiting your risk. Visit them today and improve your stock trading potential in 2009.

Entrepreneurs look at factors like the ease of recruitment, and as a result – have looked into the central states of the US, such as Colorado, where the workforce is well educated, quality of life is good, and cost of living is a big step lower than on the coasts.

With hopes up about stabilisation of the economy, this is a great opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs and small business start ups alike to take things to the next level. Over the last few years, several angel groups and individual investors have started to set up shop in cities like St. Louis (such as the Arch Angel Investor Network), again bucking the general trends.

On the Central Investment Network – entrepreneurs in the Central states of the US get another chance to connect with angel investors. Members can get their business ideas and plans out to hundreds of local investors – and since Central Investment Network is part of the Angel Investment Network, members can connect with thousands of other investors from around the world. In fact the network grows continuously, with branches in over 40 countries and investments occurring both on a local and international basis.

Of course, the plans have to be well thought out and organised, as while entrepreneurs may have less competition, the investors are also more choosy. Still, there are signs that more successful angel investment strategies such as venture capital investments are occurring within the central states. While some venture capital backed companies have gone bankrupt this year in the U.S, almost all of them are California based, and none of them are in the states that the Central Investment Network covers – which includes Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Utah & Wyoming.

Find out more, by visiting http://www.centralinvestmentnetwork.com

A paper in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Inquirer & Daily News) recently did a story in which a start-up CEO almost seemed to feel like securing angel investment was easier in this market than before.  And it makes sense, since less competition combined with more places to look for funding make this a good time for companies to secure investment.  

It is true that angel investors are becoming more cautious, and one will need a strong, convincing business plan (or some already existing activity) in order to secure such funding, but this has always been the case.  However, sites such as the Mid-Atlantic Investment Network help potential entrepreneurs and existing start-ups alike find more channels in which to reach these investors.  

Many companies will look to raise “Seed Capital” from a wide variety of courses, including friends and family.  But the Mid-Atlantic Investment Network allows members to look beyond that, with the ability to broadcast your plans to other potential investors online.

While technology remains one of the top niches in angel investment (such as the recent development by an entrepreneur in Maryland to develop software that uses facial recognition technology to determine who can see the content on-screen), other fields are also attracting entrepreneurs and angel investors these days.  Our network has active investors and entrepreneurs in fields such as Real Estate, Retail, Business Services, Transportation, Health Care, Entertainment, Agriculture and more.  

A wide range of investors are members, including various angel investors from within Mid-Atlantic regions such as Delaware, Maryland (including Baltimore), Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, etc), Virginia, West Virginia and Washington D.C, but also features investors located across the country and internationally.

Join the Mid-Atlantic branch of the Angel Investment Network today and find someone to help get your business off of the ground.