BizCorner | Investments | Forex | e Business | Learning

Online Forex Trading Basics

2006-05-07T20:40:00.000+08:00

Forex trading has become extremely popular the world over and has people from all different countries and backgrounds trading like only the professional traders could do just a short time ago. Until recently Forex trading was performed mostly by major banks and large institutional traders. The technological advancements that have occurred of late have transformed Forex into the playground of average traders like you and me.

It's easy to find an online FX trading system, platform or software that can make it easy and fun to trade the market. Simply browse the web and you will be inundated with many exciting offers and promotions. There are many firms that sell or even give away free training software, charts or other useful tools for your future in Forex trading.

Foreign currency trading is done in pairs or combinations. For example, trading the Dollar versus Yen, the Euro vs. the Dollar or the British Pound against the dollar. The most popular currencies that are used for trading and investment purposes are the United States Dollar (USD), Japanese Yen, British Pound, Euro and Swiss Franc. The make up the major portion of all currency trading.

When you come across these currencies in the market you will see them written as a pair: USD/JPY (U S Dollar and Japanese Yen), EUR/USD (Euro and U S Dollar), USD/CHF (U S Dollar and Swiss Franc) and GBP/USD (British Pound and U S Dollar).

The vast majority of all day trades of foreign currency involve these five major currencies. Your goal as a trader is to pick out which currency will appreciate against another. If you can find or develop a system that will allow you to choose the correct direction a currency will be taking it is possible to make good profits in the FX market.

Most trades on the FX market are done by Forex brokers and dealers at major banking institutions across the globe. And since it is a world wide market that makes it a 24 hour a day market. The brokers or dealers work in different shifts so that major institutional traders can perform their trades 24 hours a day around the clock.

However, don't be alarmed. You do not have to be awake all day and all night to trade the market. It is a simple matter of placing stop orders with brokers to buy or sell at pre-determined price levels even while you are sleeping. If your pre-specified price points are met the order will go through as planned. If your price points are not met the orders will not be placed or carried out. This is the key to stopping potentially big losses. You'd hate to be asleep when the market turned against you without a way to get out. Having specified price levels can save you a lot of stress in the market place. With stop orders you don't have to constantly follow your currencies every second of the day. You can place your orders and then go about your normal daily routine.

The FX is unlike stock exchanges in that stock exchanges can be very volatile. The FX market is ordinarily a great deal smoother and doesn't gyrate up and down as quickly or rapidly. The market is actually very easy to trade and is very liquid, meaning you can get your money in or out at any time. Placing an order can be done in a matter of seconds. If you have the temperament for this type of activity it can be a very worthwhile endeavor.

Original article by Larry Johnson, www.my-forex-trading.net. Source: www.articlealley.com

Crush the Stock Market Without Trading Stocks

2006-05-05T21:21:00.000+08:00

Do you look at the stock market and wish you'd bought some Google stock back when it was first offered for $104? You'd have gained nearly 300% on that investment in the first year - that's roughly 9.2% each month! That's a Wall Street level of success!

Imagine if I could show you an investment opportunity that could easily give you over 14% monthly? What if 21.5% per month was within reach? These yearly returns of anywhere from 500% to 1000% are possible for anyone who has the initiative to go out and get them. That's 2-4X MORE than GOOGLE, one of the fastest growing stocks IN HISTORY! We're talking about an investment opportunity where your returns will crush even the top gainers of the stock market. Are you starting to get curious about how these numbers are attainable?

You can beat the stock game by playing a different game, the Foreign Exchange trading game. Also referred to as Forex, the Foreign Exchange market is where one country's currency is traded for another's. You can buy €1100 Euros for $1000 US Dollars while the exchange rate is at 1.1 Euros/Dollar. Then you can sell the Euros back to dollars for $1100 (and a nice $100 profit) if the exchange rate moves to 1 Euro/Dollar.

$100 may be nice, but that 1% return on the $1000 doesn't sound like the path to your 500% returns, does it? Here's how that 1% gets its power: Leverage. With Forex, if you have $300 in your account, you can control a $10,000 trade. That makes your money a lot more powerful than the $1-$1 control you get in the stock market! If you're thinking that you can lose more money this way too, just read on, you'll learn why that won't happen.

Consider this: The Foreign Exchange market has a DAILY trading volume of around $1.5 trillion dollars. That's 30 times larger than the combined volume of all U.S. equity markets (that includes the NASDAQ and NYSE). This is an untapped resource, and you're about to learn five simple steps towards taking your share out of that market and into your pocket.

1. Get Educated!
As with all things, the more you know about trading, the more likely you are to success. A little effort spent learning up front can save you hundreds and thousands of dollars of mistakes later.

2. Have a Strategy!
A simple repeatable system can turn trading into a low-risk mechanical system. Know when you should trade, how often you should trade, how much money to spend per trade, when to cut your losses, and when to take your profits. Push the right buttons at the right times, and you'll make money.

3. Practice Makes Perfect!
Most Forex brokers will allow you to sign up for a practice account, where you can trade imaginary money until you've solidified your winning strategy. Don't risk your hard-earned cash until you've proven that you'll succeed

4. Scrape Together $300
That's 2 months of brown-bagging lunch instead of buying it; or a few months of cutting down on the daily coffee-shop visits. If you start now, by the time you've learned a strategy and perfected it on your practice account, you'll be ready with your $300 to start earning real money. More money is always better, but $300 is the minimum you'll need to get started.

5. Go Out and Succeed!
By the time you get to Step 5, you KNOW you will succeed, and you'll spring out of bed every day ready to make your profit. Some days you'll lose a little money, but you won't worry. Your strategy allows you to lose a little money from time to time; you proved that losing money periodically wasn't the end of the world when you practiced; you'll get up tomorrow and make it back by following your proven strategy.

Starting with your $300, if you made "Google Gains", you'd have $862 in a year. That's not bad. With Forex gains, though, you could easily turn your $300 into $1500-$3000 in a year! Who need the stock market?!?

Saving the best for last, here's the shocking truth: The 500-1000% yearly returns are possible, but with a smarter strategy you could turn your $300 into over $10,000 in less than a year without increasing your risks! Best of all, you can do all of this over the Internet without leaving home. That's 3000% while wearing pajamas. With these kinds of returns, you could realistically quit your job and trade full-time!

Original article by Jeff Watt, owner of www.SimpleForexTrading.com, free Forex e-Book available.

Mistakes in a Trading Environment III

2006-05-04T16:30:00.000+08:00

[ How to deal with mistakes ]

There are many possible ways to properly manage mistakes. We will suggest the one that works better for us.

Step one: Belief change

Every mistake is a learning experience. They all have something valuable to offer. Try to counteract the natural tendency of feeling frustrated and approach mistakes in a positive manner. Instead of yelling to everyone around and feeling disappointed, say to yourself “ok, I did something wrong, what happened? What is it?

Step two: Identify the mistake made

Define the mistake, find out what caused the mistake, and try as hard as you can to effectively see the nature of that mistake. Finding the mistake nature will prevent you from making the same mistake again. More than often you will find the answer where you less expected. Take for instance a trader that doesn’t follow the system. The reason behind this could be that the trader is afraid of loosing. But then, why is he or she afraid? It could be that the trader is using a system that does not fit him or her, and finds difficult to follow every signal. In this case, as you can see, the nature of the mistake is not in the surface. You need to try as hard as you can to find the real reason of the given mistake.

Step three: Measure the consequences of the mistake

List the consequences of making that particular mistake, both good and bad. Good consequences are those that make us better traders after dealing with the mistake. Think on all possible reasons you can learn from what happened. For the same example above, what are the consequences of making that mistake? Well, if you don’t follow the system, you will gradually loose confidence in it, and this at the end will put you into trades you don’t really want to be, and out of trades you should be in.

Step four: Take action

Taking proper action is the last and most important step. In order to learn, you need to change your behavior. Make sure that whatever you do, you become “this-mistake-proof”. By taking action we turn every single mistake into a small part of success in our trading career. Continuing with the same example, redefining the system would be the trader’s final step. The trader would put a system that perfectly fits him or her, so the trader doesn’t find any trouble following it in future signals.

Understanding the fact that the outcome of any trade has nothing to do with a mistake will open your mind to other possibilities, where you will be able to understand the nature of every mistake made. This at the same time will open the doors for your trading career as you work and take proper action on every mistake made.

The process of success is slow, and plenty of times it is attributed to repeated mistakes made and the constant struggle to get past these mistakes, working on them accordingly. How we deal with them will shape our future as a trader, and most importantly as a person.

Original article by Raul Lopez, founder of www.straightforex.com a forex training company. Article Source www.articlealley.com

Mistakes in a Trading Environment II

2006-05-04T08:29:00.000+08:00

[ Second Scenario: System does not signal a trade ]

1. No trade is taken

Outcome of the trade: Neutral

Experience gained: Good discipline, we only need to take trades when the odds are in our favor, just when the system signals it. Confidence gained in both the trader self and the system.

Mistake made: None

2. A trade is taken, turns out to be a profitable trade

Outcome of the trade: Positive, made money.

Experience gained: This mistake has the most catastrophic effects in the trader self, the system and most importantly in the trader’s trading career. You will start to think you need no system, you know better from them all. From this point on, you will start to trade based on what you think. Confidence in the system is totally lost. Confidence in the trader self turns into overconfidence.

Mistake made: Take a trade when there was no signal from the system.

3. A trade is taken, turned out to be a loosing trade

Outcome of the trade: negative, lost money.

Experience gained: The trader will rethink his strategy. The next time, the trader will think it twice before getting in a trade when the system does not signal it. The trader will go “Ok, it is better to get in the market when my system signals it, only those trade have a higher probability of success”. Confidence is gained in the system.

Mistake made: Take a trade when there was no signal from the system

As you can see, there is absolutely no correlation between the outcome of the trade and a mistake. The most catastrophic mistake even has a positive trade outcome, made money, but this could be the beginning of the end of the trader’s career. As we have already stated, mistakes must only be related to the violation of rules a trader trades by.

All these mistakes were directly related to the signals given by a system, but the same is applied when getting out of a trade. There are also mistakes related to following a trading plan. For example, risking more money on a given trade than the amount the trader should have risked and many more.

Most mistakes can be avoided by first having a trading plan. A trading plan includes the system: the criteria we use to get in and out the market, the money management plan: how much we will risk on any given trade, and many other points. Secondly, and most important, we need to have the discipline to follow strictly our plan. We created our plan when no trade was placed on, thus no psychology barriers were up front. So, the only thing we are certain about is that if we follow our plan, the decision taken is on our best interests, and in the long run, these decisions will help us have better results. We don’t have to worry about isolated events, or trades that could had give us better results at first, but then they could have catastrophic results in our trading career.

Original article by Raul Lopez, founder of http://www.straightforex.com

Mistakes in a Trading Environment I

2006-05-03T21:26:00.000+08:00

When it comes to trading, one of the most neglected subjects are those dealing with trading psychology. Most traders spend days, months and even years trying to find the right system. But having a system is just part of the game. Don’t get us wrong, it is very important to have a system that perfectly suits the trader, but it is as important as having a money management plan, or to understand all psychology barriers that may affect the trader decisions and other issues. In order to succeed in this business, there must be equilibrium between all important aspects of trading.

In the trading environment, when you lose a trade, what is the first idea that pops up in your mind? It would probably be, “There must be something wrong with my system”, or “I knew it, I shouldn’t have taken this trade” (even when your system signaled it). But sometimes we need to dig a little deeper in order to see the nature of our mistake, and then work on it accordingly.

When it comes to trading the Forex market as well as other markets, only 5% of traders achieve the ultimate goal: to be consistent in profits. What is interesting though is that there is just a tiny difference between this 5% of traders and the rest of them. The top 5% grow from mistakes; mistakes are a learning experience, they learn an invaluable lesson on every single mistake made. Deep in their minds, a mistake is one more chance to try it harder and do it better the next time, because they know they might not get a chance the next time. And at the end, this tiny difference becomes THE big difference.

[ Mistakes in the trading environment ]

Most of us relate a trading mistake to the outcome (in terms of money) of any given trade. The truth is, a mistake has nothing to do with it, mistakes are made when certain guidelines are not followed. When the rules you trade by are violated. Take for instance the following scenarios:

First scenario: The system signals a trade

1. Signal taken and trade turns out to be a profitable trade.

Outcome of the trade: Positive, made money.

Experience gained: Its good to follow the system, if I do this consistently the odds will turn in my favor. Confidence is gained in both the trader and the system.

Mistake made: None.

2. Signal taken and trade turns out to be a loosing trade.

Outcome of the trade: Negative, lost money.

Experience gained: It is impossible to win every single trade, a loosing trade is just part of the business; our raw material, we know we can’t get them all right. Even with this lost trade, the trader is proud about himself for following the system. Confidence in the trader is gained.

Mistake made: None.

3. Signal not taken and trade turns out to be a profitable trade.

Outcome of the trade: Neutral.

Experience gained: Frustration, the trader always seems to get in trades that turned out to be loosing trades and let the profitable trades go away. Confidence is lost in the trader self.

Mistake made: Not taking a trade when the system signaled it.

4. Signal not taken and trade turns out to be a loosing trade.

Outcome of the trade: Neutral.

Experience gained: The trader will start to think “hey, I’m better than my system”. Even if the trader doesn't think on it consciously, the trader will rationalize on every signal given by the system because deep in his or her mind, his or her “feeling” is more intelligent than the system itself. From this point on, the trader will try to outguess the system. This mistake has catastrophic effects on our confidence to the system. The confidence on the trader turns into overconfidence.

Mistake made: Not taking a trade when system signaled it [1]

Original article by Raul Lopez, founder of http://www.straightforex.com

Forex Currency Day Trading For Beginners

2006-05-02T09:47:00.000+08:00

You sell your money to the bank (or other) and it allocates some interest payments to your savings account from its profits. Have you seen a Bank's profits?

What do Banks do with your money? Well, they accumulate many small savers' money to lend to a borrower. The borrower buys his loan and repays it with added interest. The difference between interest rates is used by the institutions to pay salaries, pensions buy buildings and the usual business expenses.

The World Press occasionally reveals. "Insider Dealings" where an individual is accused of amassing huge profits from a fast book financial transaction that proves to be illegal.

Sandwiched between "Insider Trading" and interest are a range of products on sale by banks. Mortgages, shares bonds and so on . Very rich individuals and organizations do not leave all their wealth in savings accounts. They trade in art. gold, diamonds, huge properties huge film productions, rare cars and such. Some buy and sell consumer items such as coffee, tea etc.

So can individuals with a few hundreds of their own currency hope to buy and sell something for a smiling profit? There's eBay. Antiques. Some gamble on a wide variety of events such as roulette, horse racing etc. On-line poker (5m PC users play every day).

Now revealed. There is a legal ethical place where you take profits and not interest. You buy and sell without taking delivery. It's far from the bottom layer of the sandwich, situated above shares. It's Foreign Currency.

Forex attracts about 2 trillion dollars a day in transactions. Someone may tell you that this makes dealings in shares small fry. Forex used to be the exclusive realm of the world banks, but computerization replaced old style traders. Banks fund Forex Trading rooms, worldwide.

Immediately, the reader identifies with a PC. Your machine may be capable of earning you a tiny, tiny part of the 2 trillion dollars. You may start with just a few hundred dollars of your own currency, but you essentially need some education, Powerful information to enable you to trade like a professional. You, buy and sell money?

How can there be a risk if you buy something and don't sell it, until there's a higher price? Forex systems eke out patterns of transactions, perhaps following the big loaves, expecting a crumb. Stories of $300 becoming $30,000 within a year: have you heard them? Banks make profits because they trade from especially designed rooms.

You do not need a degree in maths, experience or qualifications to make money 24/7 from anywhere in the world. Forex Day Trading is legal, ethical, exciting and profitable long term. A simple technique at the roulette wheel explains - the pattern is red, black, red, black - what would you choose next? That the pattern continues or is likely to finish? Make a decision and wait for that pattern to appear on any table's display, then act.

Whilst you may take the banks interest in one hand, the staff are elsewhere making huge profits.

Original article by Michael Lindley

The Pros and Cons of Trading a Forex Trading Demonstration Account

2006-05-01T09:30:00.000+08:00

Trading is a skill that takes time to learn. Think of it like Boxing it’s also a skill that takes time to learn. If you get into a professional boxing ring without any training, you’ll get beat up physically! If you get into the Forex ring without any training, you’ll get beat up financially!

The similarities are that both the examples are Skills, and both require psychological preparation. The difference is that one is physical and the other is financial.

We can get over a physical beating usually in a few days or weeks, BUT a financial beating can be devastating and easily affect us for the rest of our lives, not only does it hurt our hip pocket but it can cause problems with our relationships and family. So when we get into the Forex ring we have to be prepared.

[ The Professional Boxer ]

When a professional boxer gets in the ring he has already been practicing in a safe environment usually for years, this safe environment is where he can make mistakes without having medical treatment. He can also spar with other opponents that have more skills and experience then he does and he learns from them. He also has someone there to watch him and give advice and guidance.

Then when he is ready, he gets into the ring and boxes for real, he’s accepted the risk and KNOWS that he can get hurt, but he’s also studied his opponent and done his home work, so he KNOWS he has a good chance. He can still lose this round but if he wins most of them he will take the money home.

BUT! What about the psychological side? Does he fear getting into the ring? Sometimes! But he’s aware of it and he can control how it affects him in a way that is beneficial. Will he be thinking about the money he’ll make? Or will he be thinking about the fight as is happens and planning his next moves during the breaks? He’ll be analyzing the results from the previous rounds and making changes in his strategy for the next round.

[ The professional Trader ]

Can you see what’s coming next? If so than, you’ve learnt to analyze what you read and form a projection into the future. (A very valuable skill for the FOREX Trader)

A forex trader, like the professional boxer, will not get into the Forex trading ring without being prepared first. He might not spend years practicing in the Demonstration Account, but he will at least have spent a month or two or three, sparing with the Forex Market in a safe environment that he won’t get beat up in.

He’ll practice trading forex against all the other traders and learn from them, and he’ll also have someone watching him and giving advice, and guidance.

Then when he is ready, he’ll get into the Forex trading ring and trade forex for real, he’s accepted the risk and KNOWS that he can get hurt, but he’s also studied the Forex market and done his home work, so he KNOWS he has a good chance. He can still lose on this trade but if he wins most of the trades he will take the money home.

BUT! What about the psychological side? Does he fear getting into the forex trading ring? Sometimes! But he’s aware of this fear, but he can control how it affects him, in a way that is beneficial to his forex trading. Will he be thinking about the money he’ll make? Or will he be thinking about the things that are influencing the market as is happens and planning his next trades while he waits for the results? He’ll be analyzing the results from the previous trades and making changes in his strategy or continuing with the one that’s working, and planning for the next Forex Trade.

So it” easy to see that trading with a Forex Trading Demonstration account is something everyone should do before getting into a live Forex Trading account.

The practice account will give the trader MOST of the skills necessary, to be able to trade profitably, giving them the training ring to spar in.

BUT A BIG WARNING!!!

Like the Boxer the Forex trader has learnt to manage his emotions, this is often overlooked by new Forex Traders. BUT is probably what separates the successful investor from the ones that keep getting beat up! If you are considering getting into the Forex trading Ring, then be sure to practice first, and find all the information you can about controlling your emotions.

Fear, greed, impatience, are the main culprits of financial bashings, so keep an eye out for them, and learn how to beat them before you get in the ring with them.

Understanding these emotions will enable you to use them to your advantage in understanding the market, the market is influence by these emotions and if you understand them you can have them on your side, thus giving you an advantage.

Original article by Bill Boyd owner of www.fx-t.com

FOX Forex

2006-04-28T15:35:00.000+08:00

Fox Forex is within the Fox Investment Division of Man Financial Inc. in Chicago. As a division of Man Financial, Fox is recognized for its strength, integrity and leadership in the financial community. Located in the historic Chicago Board of Trade, Fox Forex's mission is to bring excellence to its clients in all aspects of the financial services industry.

The FoxFire Account™ offers a solution which permits accounts of all sizes to participate in a professionally managed trading program without having to buy into a managed futures fund or establish a large account with a CTA. The FoxFire Account™ offers a flexible and elegant solution for all clients.

In a FoxFire Account™ the client is able to participate in trades regardless of account size. The traders take a cumulative or "notional" view of all the accounts they manage and consider the total equity of all the accounts when placing a trade. Since Forex traders can buy and sell in virtually any amounts, rather than standard preset futures contract sizes, investors of all sizes can participate. Each individual account comprises a portion of a "notional" account value. With this approach even smaller accounts can be accommodated. Each account gets a "piece" of the trade, and the profit and/or loss realized from the trade is automatically allocated to individual accounts based on the percentage of assets in the account relative to the total combined assets in all the accounts.

Company Name:
FOX Forex

Website Address:
http://www.foxforex.net

Year of company's foundation:
1783

Year of company's forex division foundation:
2005

Regulated by:
NFA - CFTC (USA)

Client base:
Not Released

Leverage:
100:1

Commissions:
None

Pip spread on majors:
2/3 pips

Mini Account:
yes

Minimum account size for Mini Accounts:
$1,500

Regular Account:
yes

Minimum account size for Regular Account:
$5,000

Services:
Managed accounts, Fox Logix system education, interactive training, Focus/FX advisory services with pair specific buy/sell and stop/loss signals, and full commentary. Choose either the Fox MetaTrader or Fox Direct Dealer trading platforms. Fund manager platforms also available.

Languages:
English

24 Hour trading:
Yes

Free demo account:
Yes

Live support chat:
No

Headquarters:
141 West Jackson Blvd., Suite 1800-A, Chicago, IL 60604 USA

Phone:
+1 888-469-3455

Fax:
+1 312-528-3332

E-mail:
info@foxforex.net

Exchange Rate

2006-04-27T19:08:00.000+08:00

In finance, the exchange rate (also known as the foreign-exchange rate, forex rate or FX rate) between two currencies specifies how much one currency is worth in terms of the other. For example an exchange rate of 120 Japanese yen (JPY, ¥) to the United States dollar (USD, $) means that JPY 120 is worth the same as USD 1. The foreign exchange market is one of the largest markets in the world. By some estimates, about USD 2 trillion worth of currency changes hands every day.

An exchange rate is the rate at which one currency can be exchanged for another. In other words, it is the value of another country's currency compared to that of your own. If you are traveling to another country, you need to "buy" the local currency. Just like the price of any asset, the exchange rate is the price at which you can buy that currency. If you are traveling to Egypt, for example, and the exchange rate for USD 1.00 is EGP 5.50, this means that for every U.S. dollar, you can buy five and a half Egyptian pounds. Theoretically, identical assets should sell at the same price in different countries, because the exchange rate must maintain the inherent value of one currency against the other.

[ Fixed Rate ]

There are two ways the price of a currency can be determined against another. A fixed, or pegged, rate is a rate the government (central bank) sets and maintains as the official exchange rate. A set price will be determined against a major world currency (usually the U.S. dollar, but also other major currencies such as the euro, the yen, or a basket of currencies). In order to maintain the local exchange rate, the central bank buys and sells its own currency on the foreign exchange market in return for the currency to which it is pegged.

If, for example, it is determined that the value of a single unit of local currency is equal to USD 3.00, the central bank will have to ensure that it can supply the market with those dollars. In order to maintain the rate, the central bank must keep a high level of foreign reserves. This is a reserved amount of foreign currency held by the central bank which it can use to release (or absorb) extra funds into (or out of) the market. This ensures an appropriate money supply, appropriate fluctuations in the market (inflation/deflation), and ultimately, the exchange rate. The central bank can also adjust the official exchange rate when necessary.

[ Floating Rate ]

Unlike the fixed rate, a floating exchange rate is determined by the private market through supply and demand. A floating rate is often termed "self-correcting", as any differences in supply and demand will automatically be corrected in the market. Take a look at this simplified model: if demand for a currency is low, its value will decrease, thus making imported goods more expensive and thus stimulating demand for local goods and services. This in turn will generate more jobs, and hence an auto-correction would occur in the market. A floating exchange rate is constantly changing.

In reality, no currency is wholly fixed or floating. In a fixed regime, market pressures can also influence changes in the exchange rate. Sometimes, when a local currency does reflect its true value against its pegged currency, a "black market" which is more reflective of actual supply and demand may develop. A central bank will often then be forced to revalue or devalue the official rate so that the rate is in line with the unofficial one, thereby halting the activity of the black market.

In a floating regime, the central bank may also intervene when it is necessary to ensure stability and to avoid inflation; however, it is less often that the central bank of a floating regime will interfere.

[ Quotation ]

An exchange rate quotation is given by stating the number of units of a price currency that can be bought in terms of 1 unit currency. For example, in a quotation that says the EUR-USD exchange rate is 1.2 USD per EUR, the price currency is USD and the unit currency is EUR.

Quotes using a country's home currency as the price currency (e.g., £0.5747 = $1 in the UK) are known as direct quotation or price quotation (from that country's perspective) and are used by most countries.

Quotes using a country's home currency as the unit currency (e.g., $1.7399 = £1 in the UK) are known as indirect quotation or quantity quotation and are used in British newspapers and are also common in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Direct Quotation: Home Currency / Foreign Currency

Indirect Quotation: Foreign Currency / Home Currency

Note that, using direct quotation, if a unit currency is strengthening (i.e., appreciating, or becoming more valuable) then the exchange rate number increases. Conversely if the price currency is strengthening, the exchange rate number decreases and the unit currency is depreciating.

When looking at a currency pair such as EUR/USD, many times the first component (EUR in this case) will be called the base currency. The second is called the counter currency.

Branding VS Offering

2006-04-24T17:15:00.000+08:00

You've taken great strides into the online space and search engine optimization is proving extremely successful. But how successful are you really? The strength of search engine marketing allows instant placement, creative manipulation and accountability - provided you are using some form of tracking tool - but are you spending good money on words and phrases that don't covert and is your brand name keyword bolstering an otherwise mediocre campaign?

This article looks at how brand name and brand presence within search engine marketing plays a crucial and sometimes masking role on the success of your search campaign.

The most important factor that must be considered first and foremost is the brand or organization itself. The Internet has demonstrated that through low barriers to entry and minimal start up costs a large number of Internet firms have sprung up. Adversely the pitfalls of starting a business in this fashion have demonstrated that only companies with a sound business plan or solid brand name have succeeded; just think how many internet brands you can name past eBay, Amazon.com, Google, or Yahoo!

So what does this mean? It means that there are two distinct groups of online organization, those with a sound offering but no brand name and those with a solid brand name (such as high street retailers or household brand names) - understanding these groups and the grouping in which your organization fits will allow you to apply rational to the selection of phrases for search engine marketing. So let's take a look at these two groups:

Companies with limited brand recognition. The challenge here is an easier to identify, above all else you must find your unique selling point (USP) and promote it via your listings. With engines such as Google, Find What and Overture preventing the use of inflammatory statements such as 'The best' or 'Web's Favorite' the only choice you have is to meet one or more of the online users expectations, these commonly being; 24/7 access, speedy delivery, convenience and in many instances cheap price. Therefore, your search engine creative must contain not only a call to action - buy, save, compare, find - but also within the description it must contain a USP such as 'free shipping', 'low prices', 'great value' or 'same day delivery'

Companies with a strong or recognized brand name. The challenge for a company in this position is a great deal harder - why? - Because not only do you have to compete with all of the above mentioned firms and suggested techniques but you have to make sure you use your brand name well and not at the cost of your other efforts. Now this needs further explanation so here goes. Your brand name is often the term that drives most conversions from a search engine at the lowest cpc (thus the highest ROI). As there are few companies who will bid on the same keyphrase as yours within an Overture or Google, and within reason you can prevent them from doing so if you wish, you can drive a large amount of traffic to your site at next to no cost. As the searcher is using your brand to find your site chances are they are already aware of what you do or sell and as such they are much more likely to convert. For many companies this is the case and from a portfolio of keywords and phrases within an engine the 80:20 rule applies with 80% of your revenue coming from 20% of your listings, which unsurprisingly are your branded campaigns or products or services that are unique to you. The problem that exists is that if you don't: a) manage this process and b) track each and every word within the engines the poorer performing campaigns are supported by these branded campaigns and as such the channel, be it Google, Overture or whomever, will still seem extremely successful.

So what do you do? The challenge is working out which words are converting and which aren't, how do I know that if I remove a word today that it won't convert tomorrow, if I remove my branded campaigns will I loose revenue, adversely if I leave my branded campaigns in am I paying for a click at number 1 when the term at number 2 is a free listing? The following suggestions give an insight into practices and procedures for answering these issues:

1) Utilise a tracking solution to measure individual keyword success - this is such an important factor that even the engines are starting to offer ROI tracking per keyword.

2) Match your keyword listings by seasonality - if you are worried about selecting words to remove check you past history of sales to see the success of the product or service for that particular time period.

3) Have you optimized your site for organic (free search)? - If you have then check whether your paid for listing is appearing just above your free listing. Then determine the following, with a free listing you have no control over the title and description so when special offers or seasonal messages have to be pushed they aren't represented; however, your click cost is zero. Paid for listings are controllable and creative can be changed so if you are willing to pay for a click then make sure the listings represent that information.

4) Manage your bids - bid prices on many terms can run wild, make sure your non branded campaigns aren't converting or delivering an acceptable ROI because: a) your bid price is too high or b) you've let you listing slip out of the top placements to get into the larger search network.

Original article by James Colborn, an Account Director for Inceptor Inc. (www.inceptor.com)

Hedge Fund

2006-04-23T19:37:00.000+08:00

A hedge fund generally refers to a lightly regulated private investment fund, often a partnership rather than a corporation in form, and characterized by unconventional strategies (i.e., strategies other than investing long only in bonds, equities or money markets).

The term hedge fund dates back to the first such fund founded by Alfred Winslow Jones in 1949. Jones' innovation was to sell short some stocks while buying others, thus some of the market risk was hedged. While most of today's hedge funds still trade stocks both long and short, many do not trade stocks at all.

For U.S.-based managers and investors, hedge funds are simply structured as limited partnerships or limited liability companies. The hedge fund manager is the general partner or manager and the investors are the limited partners or members. The funds are pooled together in the partnership or company and the general partner or manager makes all the investment decisions based on the strategy it outlined in the offering documents.

In return for managing the investors' funds, the hedge fund manager will receive a management fee and a performance or incentive fee. The management fee is computed as a percentage of assets under management, and the incentive fee is computed as a percentage of the fund's profits. A "high water mark" may be specified, under which the manager does not receive incentive fees unless the value of the fund exceeds the highest value it has achieved. The fee structures of hedge funds vary, but the yearly management fee typically ranges from 1-2% of the assets under management and the incentive fee is usually 10-20% of the profits of the fund. Certain highly regarded managers demand higher fees. In particular, Steven Cohen's SAC Capital Management charges a 50% incentive fee (but no management fee) and Jim Simons' Renaissance Technologies Corp. charges a 5% management fee and a 44% incentive fee.

Research shows that incentive fees correlate to higher returns in mutual funds (Elton, Gruber, and Blake, 2003), perhaps suggesting the attractiveness of hedge funds, where incentive fees can be much higher and restrictions on trading are less.

Offshore hedge funds are usually domiciled in a tax haven and, for U.S.-based fund managers, are designed to allow the manager to manage the assets of foreign investors and tax exempt U.S. investors. In this structure, the manager will receive a management and incentive fee as in an onshore fund.

The typical hedge fund asset management firm includes both the domestic U.S. hedge fund and the offshore hedge fund. This allows hedge fund managers to attract capital from all over the world. Both funds will trade 'Pari passu' based on the strategy outlined in the offering documents.

[ Privacy ]

As private, lightly regulated partnerships, hedge funds do not have to disclose their activities to third parties. This is in contrast to a fully regulated mutual fund (or unit trust) which will typically have to meet regulatory requirements for disclosure. The hedge funds are typically domiciled in an offshore jurisdiction, e.g. Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Virgin Islands, where regulation of investment funds permits wider powers of investment. Hedge funds have to file accounts and conduct their business in compliance with the less onerous requirements of these offshore centres. Investors in hedge funds enjoy a higher level of disclosure than investors in mutual funds including detailed discussions of risks assumed, significant positions, and investors usually have direct access to the investment advisors of the funds. This high level of disclosure is not available to non-investors, hence the notion of privacy attached to hedge funds.

A byproduct of this privacy and the lack of regulation is that there are no official hedge fund statistics. An industry consulting group, HFR (hfr.com), reported at the end of the second quarter 2003 there are 5660 hedge funds world wide managing $665 billion. To put that in perspective, at the same time the US mutual fund sector held assets of $7.818 trillion (according to the Investment Company Institute).

The combination of privacy and rich investors means that hedge funds are a target for criticism whenever markets move against some group's interests. For example, hedge funds were widely blamed for the speculative run-up in the bond market that preceded the global bond crisis of 1994, although the major players in the bond spree were actually large commercial and investment banks.

Forex as a Home Business

2006-04-23T09:21:00.000+08:00

Many people are looking for something legitimate to get into when it comes to starting a home based business. The FOREX market just may be the perfect opportunity when it comes to working at home. FOREX is the process of simutamously buying one currency and selling another.

I’ll be the first to say that 99% of home based businesses are scams. After losing nearly $10,000 in work at home opportunities, I was looking for a way to make a decent amount of money though a legitment business. I’ve heard of FOREX trading before, but wasn’t really quite sure just exactly what it was and how it worked.

In January of 2005, I decided to run a search on FOREX in Google and began reading articles and forums on the subject matter. It seemed that FOREX was the perfect home based business to start. I opened a demo account with $500 and started trading. Within my first 25 trades, I won 23 and lost only 2. I thought to myself I was ready to start trading on a real account.

Little did I know that there was a huge difference in trading on a demo account as opposed to trading real money. My entire psychology changed and I could not implement the same trading strategies that were previously winning on a consistent basis. Needless to say I blew out my first live FOREX account of $600. I decided to fund my account again with $400 this time trading under strict guidelines and much more discipline. Over the next month I managed to gain back my initial loss of $600 and gain a small amount of profit.

When starting out in FOREX, you will have the opportunity to choose between many different brokers. My suggestion is to choose a reputable broker that is well known. Most brokers offer a 3 pip spread on all the majors, some will offer a spread as little as 1 or 2 pips.

If you are not familiar with FOREX, another thing you might want to look into is a managed FOREX account. There are many FOREX signals providers that will send you entry and exit points, however only a selected few of them actually work.

It’s now been a little more than a year since I started with FOREX as a home based business and I have compiled over $40,000 in profits. Attaining these results did take a lot of work and research on my part. The FOREX market can be extremely volatile. Do take caution and be sure to do your homework before trading with a live account.

Original article by Tim Rohrer, http://www.forex-investing.us

Link Popularity and Press Release

2006-04-21T08:33:00.000+08:00

The quantity of links to your site is used by the search engines (like Google) to calculate the importance of your site. This measure of incoming links is called “Link Popularity”.

Press releases are a powerful way in which you can promote your site, service or product while at the same time increasing your link popularity.

[ Search Engine Optimization ]

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a process of fine tuning your website to get higher rankings on Internet Search Engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. Broadly speaking there are two types of optimization, “on-page” and “off-page”. On- page optimization deals with the layout and format of a web page to make it attractive to a search engine. Off-page optimization deals with external factors like the number of people linking to your page. Let's look at off-page first.

Off-Page
In trying to quantify the importance of a website, search engines have developed sophisticated algorithms that rank web pages for their quality. The largest factor in determining quality is the number of links to a web page. Links are an almost impartial method of determining how popular a website or a web page is. Or to put it another way, quality websites are the most popular and so have the most links to them. AS previously mentioned this is called “Link Popularity”. So to improve your standing on the search engine you need a higher link popularity.

Another very important factor in off-page optimization is the text used to link to your site. This is called the anchor text. Adobe rank the highest in the search engines for the words “click here”. Why should that be? The word "click here" isn't in the title of the page, nor is it in the page itself! So why does a search engine like Google rank Adobe so high for this term? Because many of the websites linking to Adobe used the words "click" and "here" many times in the anchor text of their links to Adobe.

Press Releases
A press release is a written communication that you submit to journalists in the media (newspapers, radio, television, magazines, etc.) They are used to make announcements which are newsworthy. The mistake that many people make when writing press releases is that they don't find the angle necessary to make their announcement newsworthy. Press releases aren't for customers or consumers they are for reporters, journalists who will use them as a starting point for a larger story or feature. Press releases written as sales pieces will be completely ignored.

There are various ways to submit free press releases on-line. Some of the popular sites are:
www.free-press-release-center.info
www.prweb.com
www.prleap.com

Press Release Help Your Link Popularity
Most of the free press release services are text-based which means you will not be able to add any HTML tags and so you can't add any keyword-optimized links into the press release. However others like the Free Press Release Center (FPRC) allow you to also supply some keywords for that press release. When that page is viewed by someone, including the search engines, the keywords will be used to create links within your press release back to your website.

This means:
There is a one-way link to your website
The link uses the anchor text of your choice
The link is within a natural context of the press release.

Traditionally, a press release is short lived, it has a limited amount of time make your impact on the media before it becomes old news and is replaced by fresh press releases. Some services like FPRC allow you to buy a cheap upgrade, which means your press release will remain permanently in their system. This means that your “in context” links with the anchor text of your choice remain permanently for search engines to find and so helping improve your rankings.

When preparing your press release you should optimize it for the keywords which are important for your site, product or company. This means that when someone searches for information in your industry, your press release will be seen as relevant by the search engine.

On-Page
There are several factors in on-page optimization. The first is the title of the page. This is almost the first thing the search engine reads when it visits a page. All of the free press release services use the title of your press release as the title of the web page. So when preparing your press release try to put some of your important words in the headline, however don't force them in as then you will alienate your readers (the journalists).

After the title is the heading tags on the page. Like the title of the page, your headline will become the first heading on the page. Again you should optimize your headline.

If you prepare an optimum press release and select good keywords you can gain valuable incoming links to your site as well as gaining exposure through the media.

Original article by Gary Sims - www.hungrypenguin.net

Spencer Financial

2006-04-20T07:43:00.000+08:00

Spencer Financial, LLC ("Spencer") was formed as a foreign exchange trading firm with the goal of providing a variety of currency related services to high net worth individuals, international corporations and institutions, and to offer the advantages and opportunities of the underserved markets.

Spencer is organized to flexibly accommodate the specialized and individual needs of corporate, institutional, and personal trading accounts. Our powerful online trading platform provides unparalleled connection to the FOREX market, supplemented by sophisticated trading tools, analytics, audit trails, and account reporting.

Company Name:
Spencer Financial LLC

Website Address:
http://www.spencerfx.com

Year of company's foundation:
2003

Year of company's forex division foundation:
2004

Regulated by:
CFTC - NFA (USA)

Client base:
Spencer Financial provides online brokerage services to a worldwide base of retail and institutional traders and money managers, having discovered Spencer directly, or through an Introducing Broker. Spencer also offers white-label strategic partnership to established institutions.

Leverage:
100:1

Commissions:
None

Pip spread on majors:
2/3 pip

Mini Account:
yes

Minimum account size for Mini Accounts:
$300

Regular Account:
yes

Minimum account size for Regular Account:
$300

Services:
Comprehensive solutions for retail and institutional forex trading focusing on quality of service, value, and openness. Some of the most competitive terms on the market - 2 pips spread on USDJPY and EURUSD. Rewarding IB programs. 24-hour Support. Live chat.
SFXTrader platform supports: trading on the charts using real-time price feed, full reporting and back office, multiple-account money management, automatic lot allocation for group orders, ticket history monitoring, real-time news ticker, support for English, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, and Polish languages.

Languages:
English, German, Italian, Chinese, Russian, Polish

24 Hour trading:
Yes

Free demo account:
Yes

Live support chat:
Yes

Headquarters:
125 Maiden Lane, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10038, USA

Phone:
+1-646-649-8080

Fax:
+1-646-219-6623

E-mail:
fxstreet@spencerfx.com

Day Trading

2006-04-19T17:24:00.000+08:00

Day trading is defined as the buying and selling of a security within a single trading day. This can occur in any marketplace but is most common in the foreign-exchange (forex) market and stock market. Typically, day traders are well educated and well funded. They utilize high amounts of leverage and short-term trading strategies to capitalize on small price movements in highly liquid stocks or currencies. Day traders serve two critical functions in the marketplace - they keep the markets running efficiently via arbitrage and they provide much of the markets' liquidity (especially in the stock market). This article will take an objective look at day trading, who does it and how it is done.

Day trading most commonly refers to the practice of buying and selling stocks during the day such that at the end of the day there has been no net change in position: for every share of stock bought an equivalent share is sold. A gain or loss is made on the difference between the purchase and sales prices. A primary motivation of this style of trading is to reduce the risk of holding a position overnight (where the open price may have significantly changed from the previous day's closing price). Stock traders performing day trading are called day traders.

Day trading is not necessarily more risky than any other trading activity. However, the common use of buying on margin (i.e. using borrowed funds) amplifies gains and losses such that substantial losses or gains can occur in a very short period of time. It is commonly stated that 80-90% of day traders lose money. An analysis of the Taiwanese stock market suggests that "less than 20% of day traders earn profits net of transaction costs".

Day trading used to be the preserve of financial firms and professionals and some savvy private investors and speculators, but in recent years has become notoriously common amongst casual traders taking advantage of new facilities offered via the Internet.

NASDAQ officially defines "pattern day trading" as placing four or more round-trip orders over a five-day period. A pattern day trader is treated differently from other traders: a broker may allow margin levels as low as 25% as opposed to the usual 50% e.g. a day trader can leverage the $100 in his account to buy $400 worth of stock; a broker may require the trader maintain a minimum liquidation value e.g. if the account value falls below $25,000 no day trading is allowed.

Some of the more commonly day-traded financial instruments are stocks, stock options, currencies, and a host of futures contracts such as equity index futures, interest-rate futures, and commodity futures.

[ Characteristics of a Day Trader ]

A professional day traders - which, those that trade for a living - are typically well-established in the field and have in-depth knowledge of the marketplace. Here are some of the prerequisites to day trading:

Knowledge and experience in the marketplace
Individuals who attempt to day trade without an understanding of market fundamentals often end up losing money.

Sufficient capital
One cannot expect to make money day trading. Day traders use only risk capital, which they can afford to lose. Not only does this protect them from financial ruin, but it also helps eliminate emotion from their trading. A large amount of capital is often necessary to capitalize effectively on intra-day price movements.

A Strategy
A trader needs an edge over the rest of the market. There are several different strategies that day traders utilize, including: swing trading, arbitrage as well as trading news, among others. These strategies are refined until they produce consistent profits and effectively limit losses.

Discipline
A profitable strategy is useless without discipline. Many day traders end up losing a lot of money because they fail to make trades that meet their own criteria. As they say, “Plan the trade and trade the plan.” Success is impossible without discipline.

Website Hosting Affect at Google's Rank

2006-04-18T23:38:00.000+08:00

After planning and developing a website the next part is to host it on the internet. Web Hosting is indeed an issue to be spent time on but the question arises if you need to look at it with your SEO eye or not? The issue of ‘Web Hosting’ is not just related to the price and features of web hosting provider offered but website owners who are far sighted consider some other factors too and one of those factors is search engine optimization.

Does choosing a host provider makes any difference in rankings at search engines. If you submit your site again and again to Google but still isn’t able to get it indexed then you must give a thought to your host provider who may be responsible. There is a strong belief that a website to rank higher must have a unique IP address but on the other hand it doesn’t seem necessary because these days most of the websites are hosted on shared IP’s. On a single computer many servers run side by side and serve different domains from single IP’s.

If you look at any of those SEO forums, you will see several topics old and new trying to talk about web hosting concerns as well as name servers issues!! The question people have in mind is “A ‘cheap’ web hosting company hosts my site but, by the price of it, also may be hosting numerous spammers, scam sites, or other banned sites like Gambling and or Porn. (But for less then $10 per month they'll give you 5000 MB and unlimited domains!). Does that affect my rank and does it risk my website?

The answer in plain words is Yes and No. It may affect you to some extent and No it may not affect you in other concerns. Read in detail below.

Well there are certain situations like if the domain sharing your server and IP is penalized by Google on account of spamming then your website is also expected to be banned or penalized. Another situation can be that your website is residing on the server containing illegal adult content, and that site too is on the hit list of Google resulting in your website to be banned too. But it is never taken for granted that if such co incidence happens then your website is surely affected because it is common sense that for a mistake by one person another one cannot be punished. Still to be on the safer side certain points should be made clear while hiring a web host.

Host should be 24/7 up:
For proper website services it must be up 100% of time so that users aren’t encountered with blank page at times. Similarly search engines have no specific timings to come to a website for crawling so it must be up at all times in order to make search engines happy. If googlebot encounters a 404 error it will come again in the next crawl, so to be on the safer side ensure 100% uptime of your site. Yes maintenance tasks all hosts do but they should inform well in advance that for such and such period the site will be down due to maintenance so that you can plan accordingly but on the other hand if your host doesn’t inform you and you browse your site to see a 404 error then you must consider moving to another one. Google is believed to have a smaller crawl daily and a deep crawl once a month which implies that googlebot can come anytime. So your website must be ready to receive this welcome guest.

Clean record:
The record of the host should be good at Google, although there is no mechanism to know about it but web hosts that are very popular and extensively used by big websites could be trusted rather than unpopular ones. Have a look at http://support.easystreet.com/abuse/banned_ip.html. For example a host hypermart.com offers very good and reasonable packages of hosting for general as well as dedicated hosting but a website hosted on it could face problems with optimizing at Altavista because this host service has got banned by Altavista and miss the traffic coming from this popular search engine. But such cases are rare and in a nutshell look for the prominent and reputable names in this field.

Virtual shared IP’s:
Virtual shared IP is a system by which a web server uses the same IP address for different domains. Instead of having new computer for a server multiple virtual servers are made to reside on the same computer. Some web hosts can host 2000 domains on a single IP address; it all depends on the processing power and resources available to the server and the quality of service that the host wishes to provide to its clients. In this case the web page feed to the search engines would be very slow. However these days virtual shared hosting is a common scene as being a cheap and reliable option and mostly accepted by engines especially Google. Google does not ban sites by virtue of their sharing an IP address with a misbehaving site. In the words of Craig Silverstein of Google at an interview “Actually, Google handles virtually hosted domains and their links just the same as domains on unique IP addresses. If your ISP does virtual hosting correctly, you'll never see a difference between the two cases. We do see a small percentage of ISPs every month that misconfigure their virtual hosting, which might account for this persistent misperception”. This makes it quite clear that Google does not penalize a site on account of virtual hosting if it is configured the proper way.

URL restructuring:
With web hosting maintaining the proper structure of your URL’s is also important, search engines face problems while indexing dynamic URL’s (URL’s having many parameters or long query strings). Google is considered to be happy only with one or two parameters and more of the parameters the more it will be difficult to index them. Try to convert your dynamic pages to static ones, or let the server do it for you the other way to reduce the number of parameters passed in the URL which will help the page to be indexed fast. Apache is the most popular web server and employs a special “rewrite” module that allows you to convert the dynamic long URL’s to search engine friendly web addresses, this module (mod_rewrite) is not installed by default on the server but many hosting companies install it additionally being very easy. Ensure that your host has this module working to enjoy the benefits.

Hosting does not matter that much although certain exceptions are always there i.e some host is penalized by Google but that way Google is intelligent in its operations and cannot deploy it unless compelled to do so. It is preferable to look for individual IP address so that risk of index removal is minimized. An expert advice can always save your time and money a great deal that is very precious which otherwise you learn by experience. Another thing that can be inferred is that sites hosted by free web hosts aren’t expected to rank high in future at Google for most competitive keywords because of the obvious reason that free sites are mostly prone to depleted content. In a nutshell you must be thorough with your web host and always clarify all issues before selecting one. These small considerations can make you safe for your further plans towards search engine optimization.

Original article by Nakul Goyal, a Master of Sciences in IT from Panjab University. Website: www.nakulgoyal.com

MIG

2006-04-17T10:15:00.000+08:00

MIG Investments SA is a Swiss Online Foreign Exchange and Bullion broker regulated by the Swiss Federal Department of Finance and located in Neuchâtel in Switzerland.

MIG supplies a unique and individualized service to Forex traders worldwide. MIG are dedicated to providing the absolutely best service in the market.

MIG offers a 24 hour online trading experience based on MIG advanced online trading software: the MIG Trading Station.

MIG Investments SA caters to both private and institutional clients. MIG have a strong commitment to maintaining a long term relationship with their clients.

Company Name:
MIG INVESTMENTS SA

Website Address:
http://www.migfx.ch

Year of company's foundation:
2003

Year of company's forex division foundation:
2003

Regulated by:
SFDF (Switzerland)

Client base:
Private Investors, Banks, Introducing Brokers, Asset Managers, White Labels.

Leverage:
200:1

Commissions:
None

Pip spread on majors:
2 pip

Mini Account:
yes

Minimum account size for Mini Accounts:
$2,000

Regular Account:
yes

Minimum account size for Regular Account:
$2,000

Services:
MIG offers a 24 hour dealing service on 20 currency pairs + spot Gold and Silver, unbeatable 2 pip spreads on six currency pairs. Exceptional margin conditions, no commission on all transactions. Free daily technical analysis and market commentary, WAP & mobile phone trading.

Languages:
English, Spanish, German, French, Arabic, Russian

24 Hour trading:
Yes

Free demo account:
Yes

Live support chat:
Yes

Headquarters:
Passage Maximilien-de-Meuron 1, 2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Phone:
+41 32 722 17 80

Fax:
+41 32 722 17 70

E-mail:
info@migfx.ch

MAN Financial

2006-04-15T20:58:00.000+08:00

The Man Group can trace its origins back to 1783 when James Man first established a sugar broking business in the City of London. The Group operated as a traditional partnership for over two hundred years and was engaged mainly in the agricultural markets of sugar, coffee and cocoa.

In October 1994 the Group floated on the London Stock Exchange (stock code EMG). In March 2000, the Group sold its original agricultural products businesses so that today it is a focused financial services group, comprising a specialist fund manager called Man Investments and an international broker called Man Financial.

Man Investments is a leading global provider of alternative asset investment funds. The investment funds use systematic trading strategies across a diversified range of international markets as well as offering fund of funds products. These are sold on both an individual basis and through composite guaranteed structures.

Man Financial, the Group's Brokerage division, is the worlds largest independent futures broker and commands a global financial presence with offices in New York, Chicago, Kansas City, London, Paris, Singapore, Taiwan, Sydney and Brisbane. Today the division provides agency broking and other related services to a worldwide client base, which ranges from banks, 'CTAs', 'Hedge Funds' and major industrial groups to individual private clients.

The acquisition of GNI Holdings Ltd in October 2002 also resulted in the Man Group plc becoming a leading broker in the European CFD market.

Company Name:
Man Financial Limited UK

Website Address:
http://www.tradeatman.co.uk

Year of company's foundation:
1783

Year of company's forex division foundation:
1992

Regulated by:
FSA (UK)

Client base:
Banks, Hedge Funds, Brokers, High Net Worth Individual Customers

Leverage:
40:1

Commissions:
None

Pip spread on majors:
0/3 pips

Mini Account:
no

Regular Account:
yes

Minimum account size for Regular Account:
$25,000

Services:
Full service broking - internet trading and telephone service- FX daily research - in addition to our Foreign Exchange services we can offer Futures and options, CFD's and traditional stockbroking. On-line brochure.

Languages:
English, Italian

24 Hour trading:
Yes

Free demo account:
Yes

Live support chat:
Yes

Headquarters:
Sugar Quay, Lower Thames Street London EC3R 6DU

Phone:
0207-649 3031

Fax:
0207-285-1792

E-mail:
tradenow@manfinancial.com

CANSLIM

2006-04-14T18:38:00.000+08:00

CAN SLIM is a two word acronym for the investing strategy made widely known by William J. O'Neil and described in his book How to Make Money in Stocks: A Winning System In Good Times or Bad, 3rd Edition (May 23, 2002) ISBN: 0071373616.

It is a growth stock investment strategy based on an exhaustive study of 500 of the greatest stock market winners dating back to 1953 and blends both technical analysis and fundamental analysis. The strategy, which initially began developing in the early 1960's, aims at discovering leading stocks right before they make their major price advances, and buying specifically at "buy points" that are emerging from sound price consolidation areas (or "bases"). Each letter in CAN-SLIM stands for common characteristics found in the greatest stock market leaders over the past 50 years:

* C = Current earnings per share. They should be up 25% or more.

* A = Annual earnings. They should be up 25% or more in each of the last three years.

* N = New. The company should either be under new management, have a new product, or have a new service. It should also have a new high for its stock price.

* S = Supply and demand. Look for a company that has large trading volume. High demand = increasing prices.

* L = Leader or laggard? Within an industry, always choose the company that is leading the way, not one that is following in another's footsteps.

* I = Institutional sponsorship. Make sure large mutual fund companies (and other institutions) are investing in your stock - you can ride on their capital. Also, focus on the better performing institutions buying your stock.

* M = Market trends and market indices. Recognize the cup and handle pattern, as well as other market correction footprints. Know when a stock has peaked out. Also, buy stocks only when the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq are going up.

The strategy is one of the very few that strongly encourages cutting all losses at no more than 7% or 8% below the buy point, with no exceptions, to minimize losses and to preserve gains. It is stated in the book, that buying stocks from solid companies should generally give you less chances of having to cut losses, since a strong company (good current quarterly earnings-per-share, annual growth rate, and other strong fundamentals) will usually shoot up--in bull markets--rather than descend.

William J. O'neil has stated in interviews and books that the CAN SLIM stragety is not "momentum investing", which is a term sometimes given to CAN SLIM by some analysts and reports who don't understand how the strategy really works. They tend to say it's "buying stocks that have gone up the most in price" and that have the strongest relative price strength. He says, "No one in their right mind should invest this way." What the system does is identify companies with strong fundamentals--big sales and earnings increases which is a result of unique new products or services--and then buying their stocks when they emerge from price consolidation periods (or "bases") and before they advance dramatically in price.

Investors.com is the official website for Investor's Business Daily (IBD), the national business and financial daily newspaper, from William O'neil + Co. offering individual investors investing tools tailored to finding and researching stocks with the CAN SLIM strategy in mind. William O'neil + Co., incorporated in 1963, is considered by many to be one of the most respected institutional investment research firms worldwide.

In addition, the investors.com website offers a free learning center for CAN SLIM.

Short Selling

2006-04-13T13:56:00.000+08:00

In finance, short selling is a way to profit from the price of a stock or other security declining. Most investors "go long" on an investment, hoping that price will rise. To profit from the stock price going down, a short seller can borrow a security and sell it, hoping that it will decrease in value so that they can buy it back at a lower price and keep the difference. For example, assume that shares in XYZ Company currently sell for $10 per share. A short seller would borrow (say) 100 shares of XYZ Company, and then immediately sell those shares for a total of $1000. If the price of XYZ shares later falls to $5 per share, the short seller would then buy 100 shares back for $500, return the shares to their original owner, and make a $500 profit. This practice has the potential for an unlimited loss, for example, if the shares of XYZ that one borrowed and sold in fact went up to $25, the short seller would have to buy back all the shares at $2500, losing $1500.

However, the term "short selling" or "being short" is often used as a blanket term for all those strategies which allow an investor to gain from the decline in price of a security. Those strategies including the buying and selling of options known as "puts and calls". In fact, what is many times labeled short selling is options or futures activity, since this activity greatly magnifies the gain that results from a securities price loss. For example, if the next earnings release of XYZ company is going to show that its profits declined somewhat in some of its divisions, its stock might decline only 5 percent when that information is released. Someone within the company who wants to trade in inside information however would probably not be satisifed with only a 5 percent gain on his short sell and instead would buy put options or other derivatives or futures to gain possibly 20 or more percent on the decline in the stock price of XYZ.

[ The Concept ]

Short selling is the opposite of "going long". The short seller takes a fundamentally negative, or "bearish" stance, anticipating that the price of the shorted stock will fall (not rise as in long buying), and it will be possible to buy at a lower price whatever was sold, thereby making a profit ("selling high and buying low," to reverse the adage). The act of buying back the shares which were sold short is called 'covering the short'. Day traders and hedge funds will often use short selling to allow them to profit on trading in stocks which they believe are overvalued, just as traditional long investors attempt to profit on stocks which are undervalued by buying those stocks.

The short seller owes his broker and must repay the shortage when he covers his position. Technically, the broker usually in turn has borrowed the shares from some other investor who is holding his shares long; the broker itself seldom actually purchases the shares to loan to the short seller.

Example: Borrowing 100 shares from someone, selling them immediately at $1.00 - when the stock drops, you buy them back for $0.50 and give the 100 shares back to the original owner keeping the profit.

In the U.S., in order to sell stocks short, the seller must arrange for a broker-dealer to confirm that it is able to make delivery of the shorted securities. This is referred to as a "locate", and it is a legal requirement that U.S. regulated broker-dealers not permit their customers to short securities without first obtaining a locate. Brokers have a variety of means to borrow stocks in order to facilitate locates and make good delivery of the shorted security. The vast majority of stocks borrowed by U.S. brokers come from loans made by the leading custody banks and fund management companies (see list below). Sometimes, brokers are able to borrow stocks from their customers who own "long" positions. In these cases, if the customer has fully paid for the long position, the broker can not borrow the security without the express permission of the customer, and the broker must provide the customer with collateral and pay a fee to the customer. In cases where the customer has not fully paid for the long position (meaning, the customer borrowed money from the broker in order to finance the purchase of the security), the broker will not need to inform the customer that the long position is being used to effect delivery of another client's short sale.

Stock exchanges such as the NYSE or the NASDAQ typically give short interest or the Short ratio that gives the number of shares that have been sold short as a % of the total float. Alternately, these can also be expressed as Short interest ratio or the short ratio which is the number of shares sold short as a % of the average daily volume. These can be useful tools to spot trends in stock price movements.

CMS Forex

2006-04-11T19:41:00.000+08:00

Since its founding in 1999, CMS has striven to serve the emerging retail segment of the Forex community. Through a staunch commitment to technological innovation, fair dealing practices and excellence in customer service, CMS has become a major force in today’s Forex landscape.

CMS is a registered Futures Commission Merchant (FCM), a member of the National Futures Association (NFA) (Member ID# 0313199) and is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). To learn more about NFA registrants and their background information, please visit the NFA Background Affiliation Status Information Center (BASIC).

Company Name:
Capital Market Services LLC

Website Address:
http://www.cmsfx.com

Year of company's foundation:
1999

Year of company's forex division foundation:
1999

Regulated by:
NFA - CFTC (USA)

Client base:
More than 6,000 customers from all over the world. We serve private investors, financial institutions, corporations, money managers and introducing brokers.

Leverage:
400:1

Commissions:
None

Pip spread on majors:
3/4 pip

Mini Account:
yes

Minimum account size for Mini Accounts:
$200

Regular Account:
yes

Minimum account size for Regular Account:
$200

Services:
CMS offers trading using the VT Trader platform where clients can execute orders automatically based on their own trading systems with FX AutoPilot. CMS features exclusive daily, weekly, and monthly commentary by world renowned forex analyst Hans Nilsson.

Languages:
English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Russian, Polish, Taiwanese, Mandarin, Cantonese

24 Hour trading:
Yes

Free demo account:
Yes

Live support chat:
Yes

Headquarters:
Empire State Building, 350 Fifth Ave., 64th Floor, Suite 6400, New York, NY 10118, USA

Phone:
1-212-563-2100

Fax:
1-212-563-4994

E-mail:
fxstreet@cmsfx.com

Currency Trading Market

2006-04-10T19:17:00.000+08:00

Unlike the trading of stocks, futures or options, currency trading does not take place on a regulated exchange. It is not controlled by any central governing body, there are no clearing houses to guarantee the trades and there is no arbitration panel to adjudicate disputes. All members trade with each other based upon credit agreements. Essentially, business in the largest, most liquid market in the world depends on nothing more than a metaphorical handshake.

At first glance, this ad-hoc arrangement must seem bewildering to investors who are used to structured exchanges such as the NYSE or CME. However, this arrangement works exceedingly well in practice: because participants in FX must both compete and cooperate with each other, self regulation provides very effective control over the market. Furthermore, reputable retail FX dealers in the United States become members of the National Futures Association (NFA), and by doing so they agree to binding arbitration in the event of any dispute. Therefore, it is critical that any retail customer who contemplates trading currencies do so only through an NFA member firm.

The FX market is different from other markets in some other key ways that are sure to raise eyebrows. Think that the EUR/USD is going to spiral downward? Feel free to short the pair at will. There is no uptick rule in FX as there is in stocks. There are also no limits on the size of your position (as there are in futures); so, in theory, you could sell $100 billion worth of currency if you had the capital to do it. If your biggest Japanese client, who also happens to golf with Toshihiko Fukui, the Governor of the Bank of Japan, told you on the golf course that BOJ is planning to raise rates at its next meeting, you could go right ahead and buy as much yen as you like. No one will ever prosecute you for insider trading should your bet pay off. There is no such thing as insider trading in FX; in fact, European economic data, such as German employment figures, are often leaked days before they are officially released.

Before we leave you with the impression that FX is the Wild West of finance, we should note that this is the most liquid and fluid market in the world. It trades 24 hours a day, from 5pm EST Sunday to 4pm EST Friday, and it rarely has any gaps in price. Its sheer size (it trades nearly US$2 trillion each day) and scope (from Asia to Europe to North America) makes the currency market the most accessible market in the world.

What did We Buy in Currency Market?

"Nothing". The retail FX market is purely a speculative market. No physical exchange of currencies ever takes place. All trades exist simply as computer entries and are netted out depending on market price. For dollar-denominated accounts, all profits or losses are calculated in dollars and recorded as such on the trader's account.

The primary reason the FX market exists is to facilitate the exchange of one currency into another for multinational corporations who need to trade currencies continually (for example, for payroll, payment for costs of goods and services from foreign vendors, and merger and acquisition activity). However, these day-to-day corporate needs comprise only about 20% of the market volume. Fully 80% of trades in the currency market are speculative in nature, put on by large financial institutions, multi-billion dollar hedge funds and even individuals who want to express their opinions on the economic and geopolitical events of the day.

Because currencies always trade in pairs, when a trader makes a trade he or she is always long one currency and short the other. For example, if a trader sells one standard lot (equivalent to 100,000 units) of EUR/USD, she would, in essence, have exchanged euros for dollars and would now be "short" euro and "long" dollars. To better understand this dynamic, let's use a concrete example. If you went into an electronics store and purchased a computer for $1,000, what would you be doing? You would be exchanging your dollars for a computer. You would basically be "short" $1,000 and "long" 1 computer. The store would be "long" $1,000 but now "short" 1 computer in its inventory. The exact same principle applies to the FX market, except that no physical exchange takes place. While all transactions are simply computer entries, the consequences are no less real

Although some retail dealers trade exotic currencies such as the Thai baht or the Czech koruna, the majority trade the seven most liquid currency pairs in the world, which are the four majors:
» EUR/USD (euro/dollar)
» USD/JPY (dollar/Japanese yen)
» GBP/USD (British pound/dollar)
» USD/CHF (dollar/Swiss franc)

and the three commodity pairs:
» AUD/USD (Australian dollar/dollar)
» USD/CAD (dollar/Canadian dollar)
» NZD/USD (New Zealand dollar/dollar)

These currency pairs, along with their various combinations (such as EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY and EUR/GBP) account for more than 95% of all speculative trading in FX. Given the small number of trading instruments - only 18 pairs and crosses are actively traded - the FX market is far more concentrated than the stock market.

Mutual Fund Intrododuction

2006-04-09T15:14:00.000+08:00

A mutual fund is a form of collective investment that pools money from many investors and invests the money in stocks, bonds, short-term money market instruments, and/or other securities. Legally known (in the U.S.) as an "open-end company", a mutual fund is one of three basic types of investment companies available in the US.

The portfolio manager trades the fund's underlying securities, realizing a gain or loss, and collects the dividend or interest income. The investment proceeds are then passed along to the individual investors. The securities held by a fund may gain or lose value. There are more mutual funds than there are individual stocks.

Outside of the U.S., mutual fund is a generic term for various types of collective investment. In the UK and western Europe (including offshore jurisdictions) other forms of collective investment are prevalent including unit trusts, Open-Ended Investment Companies (OEICs), SICAVs and unitized insurance funds.

The first open-end mutual fund, Massachusetts Investors Trust was founded on March 21, 1924 and after one year had 200 shareholders and $392,000 in assets. The entire industry, which included a few closed-end funds, represented less than $10 million in 1924.

The stock market crash of 1929 slowed the growth of mutual funds. In response to the stock market crash, Congress passed the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These laws require that a fund be registered with the SEC and provide prospective investors with a prospectus. The SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) helped create the Investment Company Act of 1940 which provides the guidelines that all funds must comply with today.

In 1951, the number of funds surpassed 100 and the number of shareholders exceeded 1 million. Only in 1954 did the stock market finally rise above its 1929 peak and by the end of the fifties there were 155 mutual funds with $15.8 billion in assets. In 1967 funds hit their best year, one quarter earning at least 50% with an average return of 67%, but it was done by cheating using borrowed money, risky options, and pumping up returns with privately traded "letter stock". By the end of the 60's there were 269 funds with a total of $48.3 billion.

With renewed confidence in the stock market, mutual funds began to blossom. By the end of the 1960s there were around 270 funds with $48 billion in assets. The first retail index fund was released in 1976, called the First Index Investment Trust. It is now called the Vanguard 500 Index fund and is one of the largest mutual fund ever with in excess of $100 billion in assets.

One of the largest contributors of mutual fund growth was Individual Retirement Account (IRA) provisions made in 1981, allowing individuals (including those already in corporate pension plans) to contribute $2,000 a year. Mutual funds are now popular in employer-sponsored defined contribution retirement plans (401k), IRAs and Roth IRAs.

Mutual funds can invest in many different kinds of securities. The most common are cash, stock, and bonds, but there are hundreds of sub-categories. Stock funds, for instance, can invest primarily in the shares of a particular industry, such as technology or utilities. These are known as sector funds. Bond funds can vary according to risk (high yield or junk bonds, investment-grade corporate bonds), type of issuers (government agencies, corporations, or municipalities), or maturity of the bonds (short or long term). Both stock and bond funds can invest in primarily US securities (domestic funds), both US and foreign securities (global funds), or primarily foreign securities (international funds).

By law, mutual funds cannot invest in commodities and their derivatives or in real estate. However, there do exist real estate investment trusts, or REITs, which invest solely in real estate or mortgages, and mutual funds are allowed to hold shares in REITs. A mutual fund may restrict itself in other ways. These restrictions, permissions, and policies are found in the prospectus, which every open-end mutual fund must make available to a potential investor before accepting his or her money.

Most mutual funds' investment portfolios are continually adjusted under the supervision of a professional manager, who forecasts the future performance of investments appropriate for the fund and chooses the ones which he or she believes will most closely match the fund's stated investment objective. A mutual fund is administered through a parent management company, which may hire or fire fund managers.

Mutual funds are subject to a special set of regulatory, accounting, and tax rules. Unlike most other types of business entities, they are not taxed on their income as long as they distribute substantially all of it to their shareholders. Also, the type of income they earn is often unchanged as it passes through to the shareholders. Mutual fund distributions of tax-free municipal bond income are also tax-free to the shareholder. Taxable distributions can either be ordinary income or capital gains, depending on how the fund earned it.

Profit on Margin

2006-04-08T14:39:00.000+08:00

The most important goal of a company is to make money and keep it, which depends on liquidity and efficiency. Because these characteristics determine a company's ability to pay investors a dividend[*], profitability is reflected in share price. As such, investors should know how to analyze various facets of profitability, including how efficiently a company uses its resources and how much income it generates from operations. Calculating a company's profit margin[**] is a great way to gain insight into these and other aspects of how well a company generates and retains money.

[ Profit-Margin Ratios ]

The bottom line is the first thing many investors look at to gauge a company's profitability. It's awfully tempting to rely on net earnings alone to gauge profitability, but it doesn't always provide a clear picture of the company, and using it as the sole measure of profitability can have big repercussions.

Profit-margin ratios, on the other hand, can give investors deeper insight into management efficiency. But instead of measuring how much managers earn from assets, equity or invested capital, these ratios measure how much money a company squeezes from its total revenue or total sales.

Margins, quite simply, are earnings expressed as a ratio - a percentage of sales. A percentage allows investors to compare the profitability of different companies, while net earnings - an absolute number - cannot.

Consider this example. In its final quarter of 2003, personal computer-maker Dell had an annual net income of $749 million on sales of about $11.5 billion. Its major competitor, HP, earned about $990 million for the year on sales of about $19.9 billion. Comparing HP's net earnings of $990 million and Dell's $749 million shows that HP earned more than Dell, but it doesn't tell you very much about profitability. If you look at the net profit margin, or the earnings generated from each dollar of sales, you'll see that Dell produced 6.5 cents on each dollar of sales, while HP returned less than 5 cents. That difference wasn't huge, but it was one of the reasons why the market valued Dell more than HP.

There are three key profit-margin ratios: gross profit margins, operating profit margins and net profit margins.

[ Gross Profit Margin ]

The gross profit margin - or gross margin for short - tells us the profit a company makes on its cost of sales, or cost of goods sold. In other words, it indicates how efficiently management uses labor and supplies in the production process.

Gross Profit Margin = (Sales - Cost of Goods Sold)/Sales

Let's say a company has $1 million in sales and the cost of its labor and materials amounts to $600,000. Its gross margin rate would be 40% ($1,000,000 - $600,000/$1,000,000).

Companies with high gross margins will have a lot of money left over to spend on other business operations, such as research and development or marketing. So be on the lookout for downward trends in the gross margin rate over time. This is a telltale sign of future problems facing the bottom line. When labor and material costs increase rapidly, they are likely to lower gross profit margins - unless, of course, the company can pass these costs onto customers in the form of higher prices.

It's important to remember that gross profit margins can vary drastically from business to business and from industry to industry. For instance, the airline industry has a gross margin of about 5%, while the software industry has a gross margin of about 90%.

[ Operating Profit Margin ]

By comparing earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT[***]) to sales, operating profit margins show how successful a company's management has been in generating income from the operation of the business:

Operating Profit Margin = EBIT/Sales

If EBIT amounted to $100,000 and sales equaled $1 million, the operating profit margin would be 10%.

This ratio is a rough measure of the operating leverage a company can achieve in the conduct of the operational part of its business. It indicates how much EBIT is generated per dollar of sales. High operating profits can mean the company has effective control of costs, or that sales are increasing faster than operating costs.

Operating profit also gives investors an opportunity to do profit-margin comparisons between companies that do not issue a separate disclosure of their cost of goods sold figures (which are needed to do gross margin analysis). Operating profit measures how much cash the business throws off, and some consider it a more reliable measure of profitability since it is harder to manipulate with accounting tricks than net earnings.

Naturally, because the operating profit-margin accounts for not only costs of materials and labor, but also administration and selling costs, it should be a much smaller figure than the gross margin.

[ Net Profit Margin ]

Net profit margins are those generated from all phases of a business, including taxes. In other words, this ratio compares net income with sales. It comes as close as possible to summing-up in a single figure how effectively managers run the business:

Net Profit Margins = Net Profits after Taxes/Sales

If a company generates after-tax earnings of $200,000 on its $1 million of sales, then its net margin amounts to 20%.

To be comparable from company to company and from year to year, net profits after tax must be shown before minority interests have been deducted and equity income added. Not all companies have these items, and investment income, wholly dependent upon the whims of management, can change dramatically from year to year.

Again, just like gross and operating profit margins, net margins vary between industries. By comparing a company's gross and net margins, we can get a good sense of its non-production and non-direct costs like administration, finance and marketing costs.

You'll recall that the international airline industry - comprising companies such as British Airways, United and Quantas - has a gross margin of just 5%. Its net margin is just a tad lower, at about 4%. On the other hand, discount airline companies such as Southwest Airlines and JetBlue generate average gross margins of about 29%. Their net margin is about 11%. These differences provide some insight into these industries' distinct cost structures: compared to its bigger, international cousins, the discount airline industry spends proportionately more on things like finance, administration and marketing, and proportionately less on items such as fuel and flight crew salaries.

Then there is the software business. It has an exceedingly high gross margin of 90%, but a net profit margin of 27%. This shows that its marketing and administration costs are very high, while its cost of sales and operating costs are relatively low.

When a company has a high profit margin, it usually means that it also has one or more advantages over its competition. Companies with high net profit margins have a bigger cushion to protect themselves during the hard times. Companies with low profit margins can get wiped out in a downturn. And companies with profit margins reflecting a competitive advantage are able to improve their market share during the hard times - leaving them even better positioned when things improve again.

[*] Distribution of a portion of a company's earnings, decided by the board of directors, to a class of its shareholders. The dividend is most often quoted in terms of the dollar amount each share receives (i.e. dividends per share or DPS). It can also be quoted in terms of a percent of the current market price, referred to as dividend yield.

[**] A ratio of profitability calculated as net income divided by revenues, or net profits divided by sales. It measures how much out of every dollar of sales a company actually keeps in earnings.
Profit margin is very useful when comparing companies in similar industries. A higher profit margin indicates a more profitable company that has better control over its costs compared to its competitors. Profit margin is displayed as a percentage; a 20% profit margin, for example, means the company has a net income of $0.20 for each dollar of sales.

[***] An indicator of a company's profitability, calculated as revenue minus expenses, excluding tax and interest. EBIT is also referred to as "operating earnings", "operating profit" and "operating income", as you can re-arrange the formula to be calculated as follows:
EBIT = Revenue - Operating Expenses

WestCapFX

2006-04-07T20:46:00.000+08:00

The Company was established in Geneva (Switzerland) in February 1990 as an investment advisor and financial markets analyst. Over the years the Company gained experience in market analysis as well as in managing funds for its own account and for various international clients.

Since early 2000, Western Capital Forex S.A.has been regulated by the OAR-G which is one of the self regulatory bodies in Switzerland. The Company is also member of the Swiss roup of Independent Financial Advisors (GSCGI).

In order to better service its clients Western Capital Forex S.A. is using the latest techniques and works with one of the best trading system on the market today. A multilingual support service is operating 24 hours a day and is trained to assist the clients in every question relating to the use of the system.

Company Name:
Western Capital Forex S.A.

Website Address:
http://www.westcapfx.com/

Year of company's foundation:
1990

Year of company's forex division foundation:
2005

Regulated by:
OAR-G (Switzerland)

Client base:
Client's base is intermediate and experienced individuals

Leverage:
200:1

Commissions:
none

Pip spread on majors:
2/3 pip

Mini Account:
yes

Minimum account size for Mini Accounts:
$5,000

Regular Account:
yes

Minimum account size for Regular Account:
$5,000

Services:
Demo and real accounts, Meta Trader and Meta Trader Mobile - free download, 24 hours live support, News, Signals.

Languages:
English, German, French, Arabic, Russian, Polish

24 Hour trading:
Yes

Free demo account:
Yes

Live support chat:
Yes

Headquarters:
17, Bd des Philosophes CH 1205 Geneva, Switzerland

Phone:
+41223200303

Fax:
+41223216790

E-mail:
info@westcapfx.com