Category: Forex

A Typical Investment Portfolio

financial investmentsA typical investment portfolio consists of stocks, bonds, real estate holdings, and other types of assets that provide varying degrees of financial security. However, both novice and experienced investors are also routinely advised to buy into mutual funds when they want to build portfolios that allow for better degrees of confidence. You can confidently add mutual funds to your own portfolio by learning some of the primary advantages that they offer to investors today.

Diversification

Mutual funds provide you with the diversification that you need to get the highest degree of security from your investment portfolio. They offset the risk that can come with investing in stocks in the retail, industrial, and other sectors. They also counter bonds that have varying degrees of maturity.

Further, mutual funds are typically low in cost and more affordable than buying individual stocks and bonds. You can buy mutual funds for as low as a $200 to $300 depending on the robo-advisor or financial planning services you use. A certified management accountant like James Dondero can tell you what mutual funds offer the lowest initial investment and offer the highest degree of ROI.

Best Value

As noted, mutual funds tend to be low in cost and easier to purchase than individual stocks and bonds. They also provide you with the best value for your money.

By allowing a certified financial analyst like James Dondero to guide you in buying mutual funds, you essentially get a discounted rate per stock because you are buying in bulk. Mutual funds also help you avoid costly individual transaction fees. You can make more transactions without having to spend a lot of money.

Professional Management

Mutual funds are managed by a professional money manager. This money manager uses your money to buy stocks for you that he or she has carefully researched.

This research ensures that your investment is secure and that you reap the largest ROIs possible with each mutual fund. Professional money managers also take the guesswork out of deciding what stocks to invest in and how much money to put into each fund.

Liquidity

Finally, mutual funds are easier to liquidate than other types of investments like stocks, bonds, and real estate. When you sell your mutual funds, you stand a greater chance of getting back what you initially invested if not more if the fund appreciated in value.

However, you can only sell mutual funds once per day. You must wait until the fund’s NAV (net asset value) is calculated. The time of day that you sell could impact its value. You can get the highest ROI for your mutual funds by following the advice of a certified financial adviser like James Dondero.

About James Dondero

James Dondero began his career in the financial industry in 1984. Since then, he has become an industry leader, having worked for top companies like American Express and the GIC subsidiary of Protective Life.

He now serves as the CEO of Highland Capital Management, L.P. in Dallas. He is also the chairman of the board for companies like NexBank and HCM Acquisition Company.

Dondero volunteers extensively for academic and charitable organizations throughout the Dallas area. Some of his charities include Snowball Express, Education is Freedom, and SMU’s Tower Scholar Program. He also supports the George W. Bush Presidential Library.

Thumb Rules of Investing in Stocks

investment in stockMaking profits in the equity market is not based on your luck. With a disciplined and research-based investment approach, you may be able to earn high returns. In addition, using some basic thumb rules based on the experience of other successful investors will help you earn profits.

Here are five thumb rules for investing in stocks

1. Do not try to time the market

Predicting the tops and bottoms in the equity market consistently over several cycles is almost impossible for seasoned investors. In reality, most people who try to time the market lose money.

2. Take a disciplined investment approach

Historically, great bull runs have also had their moments of panic. The volatility in the equity market has resulted in people losing money even during bull runs. However, if you follow a disciplined investment approach with long-term goals, it is most likely that you may avoid losses.

3. Invest in a broader portfolio

It is recommended you invest in different stocks across various sectors. Furthermore, you must include several asset classes to reduce your risk exposure. The different types of instruments that may be included in your investment portfolio primarily depends on your risk appetite and financial goals.

4. Monitor your portfolio regularly

The stock market is not only affected by domestic happenings. International occurrences also affect the equity market today. Therefore, it is very important that you monitor the performance of your portfolio regularly and make modifications as required. In case you are unable to track your portfolio at periodic intervals due to lack of knowledge or time, taking the help of an experienced financial advisor is recommended.

5. Avoid leverage

To ensure you do not face financial difficulties, you must invest the money that you can afford to lose. It is vital that you do not take on debt for stock market investing. In case the stocks do not perform as expected, there is a huge risk of losing the borrowed money and repaying the same may have adverse results.

Stock market investing may be highly profitable. However, you must do your research and make informed decisions. Furthermore, you must never let your emotions control your decisions and be realistic in your expectations.

Getting Ahead with the Top 10 Binary Options Brokers

options-brokersWhen you are active in the binary options market, the specific brokerage service that you use can make a huge difference in the kinds of profits that you can generate through your trades. There are more than a thousand brokers that you can find online, but it can be tricky to know which ones are going to offer the right services, tools, and terms to help you to be successful in your investments.

If you’re looking to work with one of the top 10 binary options brokers, consider some of these basic guidelines that can put you in touch with the right firm:

Regulatory Controls

Not every broker is licensed to operate in the country that they serve. In some cases, this is not a major problem. For example, many traders choose to work with European brokerage firms that are not licensed to work in the United States, but who accept traders from the U.S. However, these firms may be controlled by the corresponding entity, CySEC, in the country that they operate in and may hold a license that correlates to it. There is some manner of risk in using a service from another country, since funds are not guaranteed to you in the same way that a service from your own country might be, but it is still possible to work well with a broker from another country.

However, you’ll want to make sure that the firm does hold a license from a regulatory body, not just marketing themselves as being regulated, and that you understand the kinds of regulations that might affect the firm, so that you can protect your investments.

You’ll also want to explore the terms of the brokerage service prior to committing funds into an account. Some firms charge excessive fees or have lengthy retrieval times for profits that are made using the service.

While the specific brokerage firms that can be counted among the top 10 binary options brokers are constantly changing and new brokers are being added to the market continuously, it is possible to find and partner with some great service providers who help to make it easy to generate profits. There will always be some degree of risk in the binary options market, but having the right kind of binary options brokerage service on your side can help you to navigate the waters with a little more ease.

How The Information Age Turned Investing On Its Head

investment mattersI’m sure you’ll agree that the internet is one of the most revolutionary leaps forward in history. How many times have you used an internet connection today? How much harder would your life be without that? Pretty much every facet of our lives has been influenced by the world wide web, and investing is no exception. In this post, we’ll take a look at how the dawn of the information age has changed the way we invest.

With the sheer size of the internet these days, it’s pretty tough to explain exactly what it is. At the core of it, it’s one giant bank of information. The internet has made information more accessible than ever before, and stock traders have benefited from it exponentially. Before the internet, an investor’s job was incredibly long-winded. Every time you wanted to find out about a company, you’d have to head to a library and sort through stacks of financial journals. Lengthy files on the history of stocks and bonds would have to have been leafed through until you found what you were looking for. The only alternative would have been calling up a company and asking directly for a financial report. This would not only cost a lot in the way of postage, but would also take a lot of time to gain any benefit from. You would have to wait for the report to be printed and posted. After that, you’d start again with the process of sorting through all the information yourself!

The internet immediately sped up this entire process. These days, you can get onto the SEC website in a matter of seconds, and view company reports in detail as soon as they’re updated. Lengthy, detailed documents on financial histories can also be downloaded in an instant. Then, you can easily search for keywords, figures and specific topics. With the erratic nature of the stock market, these quick updates became an essential for any successful investor. Many modern companies also keep up investor relations web pages. Here, you can find all the same files, presented in a clear, simple way. This created a pretty significant shift of power in the world of investing. Before the information age, investment managers and brokers had a huge advantage over investors like you and me. They had immediate access to detailed financial reports, without having to go through the same trials as investors. This has completely been turned on its head now! Some online resources will provide information for an affordable fee. Others even offer their valuable information for free! Perhaps the biggest change technology has had on investment is lowering investor’s fees. This has been seen in precious metals, FOREX and everywhere else in the world of investing. Retail investors have benefitted the most from this however. These days, it’s completely common for online brokers to charge a mere £6.00 for a trade.

As the internet has become more widely used, the power has gradually transferred to the little guys. Let’s hope that future technology continues to do so!

The Habits Of New Forex Traders Who Make Money

money making through forexThese days it seems everybody wants to be a trader. Despite the financial crash and all of the negative press, trading on the international markets is still trendy.

What’s more, because interest rates are so low, it’s not just regular stock brokers and traders tradings on the forex. Now there are hordes of amateurs looking to make a return on their savings and get in on the action.

The problem however, is that very few of these amateurs know what they’re doing. They’re not following the bet trading practices out there, often because they’ve jumped in too soon. If you decide to start trading, make sure that you do the following.

They Practice Using A Demo Account

Starting a demo account and trialling out forex might seem like a no-brainer. But thousands of people start trading with real money from the get-go, without ever having put in any practice.

Demo accounts will give you an idea of whether the forex is for you. You’ll be able to play about with different financial instruments, like binary options low deposit options and so on. And you’ll eventually get a sense of whether the forex market is a market in which you want to spend time trading. If you like sitting eagerly at your computer all day following the markets, it could be for you. If you’d rather be doing something else, or the thrill just isn’t there for you, you can learn that lesson without having blown any of your money.

They Do Their Research

All investors know that their job is fundamentally about the flow of information. After all, if all information were known, then prices from now until forever would be known too. The real world is, of course, full of uncertainty. But if you can gain insights using historical data or the latest trends, you may be able to predict future price trends. And predicting future price trends is what it’s all about in the foreign exchange markets.

Short term trading tends to depend more on the sentiment of investors in any given moment. If you expect the sentiment towards a currency that you own will soon worsen, sell now and buy it back when the price has fallen.

Underlying fundamentals tend to affect the value of currencies in the long term. So if you’re a long-term investor, you’ll always be on the lookout for political and institutional factors that might adjust prices.

They Don’t Bet All Their Cash At Once

Most investors have portfolios outside of the forex. That’s because the market is notoriously volatile. Yes, there are dizzying highs. But there are also devastating lows.

It’s important to limit your losses by only using about 2% of your funds per trade and incorporating a stop-loss order on your account. Taken together, this will reduce the amount of money that you can lose and afford you sufficient capital to cover your downside.

Remember, you only lose money on a trade when you decide to sell, so having enough capital in the interim is essential to keep your position open.