Category: Investing

Chile economy is experiencing unprecedented growth in the world economy. While other countries are struggling to stay solvent, Chile’s economy is expanding and growing at rapid speed. With a devastating earthquake in its recent past, the economy is growing due to the reconstruction efforts in the areas affected. This has resulted in growth in the industries directly needed for reconstruction,natural resources, transportation and general labor.

Chile produces more copper than any other country in the entire world. The demand for copper all over the world is high and companies are willing to pay for the product. This has been a boon to the country’s financial growth. Chile produces five times the amount of copper as the US and the workers work for less money.  The country is also plentiful in other natural resources and harvesting these and shipping them throughout the region and the world has enabled additional growth. Having an abundance of natural resources and a large labor pool has also attracted major corporations and businesses from around the world to set up enterprises in the country. Additional population helps to drive up the need and demand for basic needs from food production to housing.

This South American country’s economy was facing recession merely a year ago, but seems to have found its way back with a vengeance.  The Economist Magazine predicts a growth in the economy of nearly 5% and predicts a future growth for next year of 6%–virtually unheard of in today’s fragile economic state.  Chile has made amazing steps to rebound after a tragic natural disaster that would have sent other country’s economies reeling. This has led investors to look at a Chile ETF as a viable investment option and have caused many to consider a leveraged etf.

Politics and policy have also played a part, with a successful shift from dictator to democracy the economy was allowed to grow freely without the governmental restraint that General Augusto Pinochet had supplied. Consideration should also be paid to the basic rules of financial and political engagement which Chile has established. The country supports open markets, financial responsibility and restraint and has crafted an effective anti-poverty program.  Chile pioneered counter-cyclical fiscal policy, where when the country and its finances were thriving, monies were saved and during recessions the monies were utilized to stimulate economic growth.

Nobody would ever expect that this Andean nation after the devastating earthquake she had in 2010 could ever bounce back and come up with robust 2011 Chile economy. The tragedy that she had experienced will remain in the annals of Chile as she moves forward and hurdle what ever obstacles to keep them from bouncing back and conquer economic challenges.

The gross domestic product which is the total monetary value of all goods and services produced by Chile, including those that came from foreigners who are staying and working in the country, reached  7% in the third quarter of 2010.  This is a stunning feat because it was projected that its GDP would have increased by 5% in 2010 basing on its 2009 performance, and still looking forward to 6% increase for 2011. Total import and export production of the country has increased by 32.6% from last year to a whopping $87.7 Billion, and they are looking at a $64.28 Billion in export alone for the 2011 projection. This growth has led many investors to look at a Chile ETF and even a leveraged etf that will give them exposure to this emerging economy.

The total labor force in Chile for 2010 has reached to 7.42 Million which is expected to grow by 7.58 Million in 2011 record.  The unemployment rate is expected to substantially decrease from 9.6% from the 2010 to a projected 8.7% in the 2011 data.  According to heritage foundation, a research and education institution whose mission is to formulate and promote policies based on free enterprise and American values, ranked Chile to be number 10 in the most open in the world.

To a large extent, Chile is fighting on to overcome the obstacles it had last year.  Some figures that are presented maybe forecasts, but the track record that it showed from the past several months that this nation of 16.74 million people will stop at nothing to bring their economy back on course.

The UK stock market has suffered similar losses as the U.S stock market thanks to the worlds economic decline. This has left the market in a volatile state which has put many investors off. Interests rates have also been in sharp decline which has left individuals with a problem of where to actually put their money. It has to be safe and offer a good rate of return.

There are other options out there for individuals looking to generate income. Bonds and property are viable options however many bonds experts are predicting that a fall in value is imminent. That leads us back to dividend paying stocks and all the income they can generate. When a company has had a great year it often rewards it’s investors with dividends. It’s essentially a way to share the profit with those who have believed in the company enough to part with their hard earned cash. In other cases, the company may choose to invest it’s dividends back into the company with the focus on achieving growth. This should be seen as a good thing by investors as the company in question will hopefully increase it’s market share and therefore increase the value of your holdings.

If you’re looking for a good place to put your money then dividend paying stocks may just be what you need. Look over a period of five years for companies who have been paying out dividends regularly. They are usually paid quarterly. This sort of information will be available if you sign up for an account with Google Finance. It might also be worth ordering a copy of the companies annual report. This will give you much more detail on the financial state of the company. It will also show you if they have reinvesting profit back into the company rather than paying out to shareholders. Once you are comfortable operating in this market you can easily move on to more advanced topics such as day trading for a living. Many individuals use automated stock trading software to increase their profitability.

For the 401k plan participant defaulted into Target Date Funds, this article will address the automatic asset allocation strategies inside these funds.

The chances are getting much higher that your company has adopted a default investment option in your 401k plan. A recent survey by Hewitt Associates suggested that automatic investment into Target Date Funds rose from 50% of plans in 2007, to 69% of plans in 2009.

For some plan participants this automatic feature may be a relief. The marketing material for these funds suggests that the automatic, asset allocation strategy used as well as the automatic, annual rebalancing are all that an individual investor need to sail comfortably into retirement. Yet, this, in fact, may not be the case.

The asset allocation strategy assumption which is the engine underneath the hood of this product is the prudent investment portfolio for every investor is a predetermined mix of stocks and bonds based on the investor’s age. Furthermore, the assumption is that as the investor gets older, bonds should represent a greater proportion of the investment portfolio. The assumption is that bonds preserve capital, in other words, are risk free.

Know that every Target Date Fund uses bond funds as a proxy for bonds. Know too that bond funds lack the one characteristic which makes bonds a “safe” investment – a maturity date. Without a maturity date bond funds are forever exposed to interest rate risk. Why? Because it is only on the maturity date that a BOND investor is at least promised a return of 100% of their investment. Interest Rate Risk is the reality that as interest rates rise, bond values fall and as interest rates fall, bond values rise.

If you look carefully at the credit rating of the bonds inside the bond fund portion of your Target Date Fund, you may be shocked. One would expect the managers to limit their bond allocation to AAA rated paper or at least “investment” grade. Yet, upon examination of at least one plan the author noted a surprising amount of bonds below “investment” grade. So how safe is the safe investment in the asset allocation strategies used by default Target Date Funds?  Do not assume this default investment is in your best interest; and, do not assume you are getting 401k advice.

Many people are already getting involved with etf investments which they find to be more money-spinning than buying other investment instruments. This is indicated by the recent increase in the number of funds sold by different companies that has reached to more than 700 already out of the 450 about a year ago. This is a 48 jump which a good sign that a lot of people are now aware of the advantages that they get in this type of investment. Exchange trade fund as it is known can also be your best gold etf which you can always use similar to investing in stocks which also gives you the same returns.

There are some rules that you need to know before you get into an etf deal and that is to know exactly what you are buying, you need to know the break down of your investment to see how your fund is performing. Secondly is you need check on the performance and not only the price, these are traded instruments so you should be careful about price swings which can totally affect your net asset value which you do not want to fall victim to. You should also be careful not to be do not be duped to invest in newer funds. There some new players that may offer better returns but then these the ones that are riskier which is not really advisable for you to be enticed to invest easily. Finally, avoid getting too excited to trade unlike some investors who feel the urgency to trade because of the promising performance of their fund not knowing that there is still more to come if they have kept it a little longer.

Investment is like a game that you play which needs wisdom and patience to win. If you do not have these characteristics, it will be hard for you to fit in.

Some of the best deals on gold scrap are often found online, and while this is not the only means, it is the fastest and most profitable, as many items that are for sale online, like coins, are not priced with respect to the current gold price, making them very profitable if acquired at the right price.  There are a great number of outlets online and off that offer actual scrap and using these, in combination with the other resources, have led to some impressive profits for many clever individuals.

Refineries and Dealers

Refineries and gold scrap dealers are both excellent resources for obtaining valuable stock, as well as some of the best places to sell gold scrap, as these are the main entities behind the majority of the advertisements for mailing scrap that are so prevalent today.  While these outlets are not the best for making huge profits with one deal, they are some of the best outlets to purchase and sell gold scrap in bulk.

Online Shopping

In a direct response to the extremely high gold scrap price, just over $1,400 an ounce right now, many clever entrepreneurs have taken to the ether in an attempt to locate discounted jewelry and coins to then turn and sell as gold scrap.  While this can become a tedious task, outlets like E-Bay have search parameters that one can set to act like an online surveillance system to watch for the items and price ranges desired.

Selling Your Own

Just as the online environment is a great place to find these items, it is also a great place to sell your own old jewelry or collectibles, and with a little research and the employment of an online gold scrap calculator, getting the most for them is easy as can be.  The same outlets that are used for monitoring the current price and market conditions are also some of the best for finding outlets online and local shops looking to buy gold scrap.

According to a recent report from the Office of Fair Trading, only 1 report out of every 5 is rejected and other 4 get successful regarding PPI claims. Stats showed that a year back more than 25,000 complaints for PPI were submitted by people and this shows that how much people are grieving about insurances. All of these complaints were against some of the top notch financial institutions of UK because they mis-sold millions of PPI policies. Because of this misconduct, the confidence of people in the insurance policies is not a strong one anymore especially under the current economy status.

Many reports showed that hundreds and hundreds of people from United Kingdom make the decision to buy PPI as they believe that it strengthens the acceptance of the financial products they want to borrow.

Many people are having this policy with them for years now and they are paying monthly premium on it but the reality is that they don’t even know what PPI is all about. PPI is simply an insurance policy which is offered to the consumers at the time of loans, credit card or mortgage and it provides them with protection in case they encounter some hurdle in paying their monthly debts.

PPI works in a very simple way and if it is properly implemented; consumers in their hard time can benefit a lot from it. If a consumer is not able to make the payments for loans or credit cards, PPI policy makes it for a specific period.

But if such a policy doesn’t work for you, you may look for other ways to make money online. For instance, you can have a psychology night course, and jump in one of the many lucrative psychology careers. You can try child psychology or school psychology. These may get you a valuable extra revenue.

They say that we are on the road to recovery these days and that things will soon be back to normal. The truth is that we do not feel things going back to the way it was. We still feel like there is a financial crisis going on in our midst. And it’s not just a feeling, despite what others may say things are still bad in financial terms. That’s why we have to make sure that every step that we take today has been the result of some careful consideration on our part especially when it comes to our finances. We can not go about spending money like there’s no tomorrow. It’s time to wake up and be mature when it comes to handling our finances.

You have to make sure that you can save enough money these days in case you need it. Once you have enough money in savings, start thinking about the best way to invest that money so that it will grow. Now don’t fall for those investment schemes that promise huge returns in a very small amount of time. Usually, those are the scams that you have to be careful of. When it comes to investing money why not learn from those who are experts at it? The rich people they are the ones who would know on how to go about with that.

The rich usually invest their money on closed end municipal bond funds. The reason is that because these bond funds enjoy local tax exemptions and in some cases even federal tax exemptions. That means you get a tax fee income that’s perfectly legal. So if you have a little money to invest, I suggest that you look for the best closed end municipal bond funds now and put your money in it.

If you are new to the stock market and stock trading you should definitely find a good broker to assist you with your investment transactions. Choosing a broker is especially important for a newbie in the stock market. They contribute a significant part in your success in stock trading and in increasing your investment.

But before we go on stock trading tips for dummies on how to choose a good broker let us first discuss what stock market is. Stock market is where stocks, bonds are traded by different investors and companies. In the stock market, an average person can make transactions with large companies. It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner investor or a big-time Wall Street genius. Here in the stock market everybody trades with everybody. To know about the stock market’s nature, you can search for more articles regarding stock market for dummies. Stock market for dummies articles will give basic information regarding the stock market.

For you to engage in stocks trading you ought to have a broker. There are three types of brokers the full service broker, the discount brokers and online brokers. Each of these brokers provides different services that will assist you to get the best stocks for your investments. There are different things that you need to consider in choosing a broker. First is the amount of assistance that you need. Do you want someone who will just be in charged with your buying and selling transactions? Or do you want someone who will guide you through the whole stock market processes? Next is the cost. Each type of broker would charge you differently depending on the services that they offer. To find whether you are charged with a reasonable price or not, you should search for different brokers and find out the services that they offer and the average charge for these services. That way you can weigh if you are charged higher than the usual.

Hopefully through these tips on stock trading for dummies you can effectively choose a good broker to handle your investment account.

If you want to engage in penny stocks trading, you should be aware of its nature and find where to buy penny stocks. Penny stocks are offered by small business companies having a market capitalization that is below 50 million dollars. These companies are also called micro-cap or penny-cap companies. For you to find out the market capitalization of these companies, all you have to do is multiply the trading price and the total number of shares. If the product is below 50 million dollars, the company is considered by the Securities and Exchange Commission as a micro-cap company.

If you want to invest your money in penny stocks, you should know where to buy penny stocks. There are two ways that you can use for you to figure out which companies will offer the best penny stocks. You can either hire a full service penny stock broker or do the research on your own. Penny stock brokers are considered as the master’s of this type of trading. They know where to buy the best penny stocks in the market. However, not all, penny stock brokers will give you information on where to buy penny stocks. Discount brokers and online brokers will let you decide where to buy penny stocks without giving any financial advice. Full service brokers can definitely help you find the best penny stocks, but their service comes with a price.

If you think that hiring a full service broker cost a lot, maybe you could do some research to help you know where is the place to buy penny stocks. Initially, you should search for micro-cap companies that offer penny stocks. See to it that these companies are reputable and has a high potential in succeeding in their type of business. If the company is about to fail, the possibility that you will lose your investment is great. Research as much companies as you can. The more the prospect, the greater the chance that you will get the best penny stocks in the market. Researching on different companies that offer penny stocks is better than guessing blindly whether your investment will pay out or not.