Trend Biz Today

Invest Like an Index Fund

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 19:18:00 +0000

Investing is thought to be a very demanding task that needs years of training and higher education. This is true for big and complex transactions, but it is not true for most of the time. It takes ten minutes to build a portfolio that tracks major indices like index funds. Yet, many companies charge fees for such funds.

The Rules

Choose an index you like. You could choose S&P 500, for example. It is the most followed index in the US stock market.
Try to get a list of the biggest components of that index by size. In other words, what are the biggest companies in the S&P 500? (Decide how you are going to determine size by the way. Are you going to go with market capitalization?
Pick the biggest ten companies. General Electric and Exxon Mobile will most likely be in every index you could choose.
Buy them for your own portfolio.

Notes :

You could play with the percentage weight of each company in the portfolio for your own taste.
You could pick the biggest ten, five, or two companies depending on your preference. Less companies mean more volatility to your portfolio.
To get closer return to the index fund, invest more money in more companies.
The following companies represent 10% of S&P500: Exxon Mobil, General Electric, Microsoft, Citigroup.

Avoid Investment Trading System Scams

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:18:00 +0000

Everybody, it seems, has an investment trading system these days. There's so much baloney in the trading system marketplace that it makes you want to follow Mark Twain's advice about how to double your money: "fold it over once and put it back in your pocket." How do you separate the few legitimate investment trading systems from the scamsters? Based on research and experience, here are the "Top 11 most common ways to spot trading system scams".

The rules :

Think Often, they will start "improving" the system, or stop using it altogether. Especially for beginners it is a big help to gain confidence in the system if there is a winning percentage of 65% or more.
Avoid "hypothetical" trading systems - systems that have only been backtested, never actually traded in the market Insiders, like the proverbial "Them", as in "They say…" This is almost always a sign that nonsense is being peddled.
Know that there are very few secrets. One popular website sells a very costly manual on a technique they claim has "never before been revealed to the public." If you read their marketing hype, you'd think that they regularly rubbed shoulders with the biggest movers and shakers in the market. What they don't bother to mention is the name of one single real person who uses this "powerful, foolproof system for generating consistently high profits in the seven figures annually." Let's face it: if there even was such a thing as a "never before revealed secret system the pros use", why is it being revealed now, to you, by this seller?

Notes :

Do your due diligence.
Find a simple, straightforward trading system with a real history of success that doesn’t require you to mortgage the family farm to get started.
Make your trading program yield the wealth-building results you’re looking for instead of pouring your money into the scamsters’ pockets.

Pay per click

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 05:04:00 +0000

Pay per click (PPC) is an Internet advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks, and content websites, such as blogs, where advertisers only pay when a user actually clicks on an advertisement to visit the advertisers' website. With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market. When a user types a keyword query matching an advertiser's keyword list, or views a webpage with relevant content, the advertisements may be displayed. Such advertisements are called a sponsored links or sponsored ads, and appear adjacent to or above the "natural" or organic results on search engine results pages, or anywhere a webmaster or blogger chooses on a content page. Content websites commonly charge a fixed price for a click rather than use a bidding mechanism.