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Home is the place where your soul remains. In this world of uncertainty and insecurity, having a home is very important as well as hard to achieve. It acts as a protection and shields you from all the odds of life. So building a home requires utmost care and planning in terms of its size, locality, area as well as the amount of money that you spend.

It is an important move of life that comes with anxiety and great expectations. Building a home require huge investment which is sometimes not possible for an individual. In that case, you can take help of the home loans that are available widely nowadays. So if you want to build or buy your dream house, you can proceed by taking a home loan that will help you with all the arrangements.

With the help of home loans, you can have access to large amount of funds. This amount will depend on the equity of the borrowers’ home. Equity is the actual market value of your selected property inclusive of all the debts. This means with higher equity you will get large amount and with lower equity you will get lower amount. Through the borrowed home loan amount, you can also fulfill all the other requirements like financing of higher education, home improvement, meeting wedding expenses, undergoing cosmetics surgery, buying a brand new car and so on.

People with a poor credit history also have options for home loans. In this case, the interest rates will be a bit higher but through proper research, you will be able to find the ideal loan package at competitive rates. The lenders do not show up with any problems during the loan approval period as they have a benefit on which they can bank.

Home loans are categorized into two types- unsecured and secured. In an unsecured loan option, you will be free of collateral possessions and if you are having a good history of credit, you can enjoy this option full-fledged. Whereas, in a secured loan option, you need to keep your home as collateral possession. You will be getting many facilities with this option like flexibility in the interest rate and the duration of repayment. You can apply for your loan through various options like leading institutions, internet, banks, lenders and so on. One of the most cheapest and convenient way of accessing to home loans is the World Wide Web which will provide with wide options. You can compare and contrast the loan quotations in order to avail the beat deal.

If you are going through any financial crisis, seeking financial help is nothing wrong. But while looking for such options, be sure about the interest rates which always has to be nominal and easy on your pocket. This is important and you will be able to repay the borrowed amount well in time. As per your needs and requirements, it is better to avail the option of secured loans especially if you own a home and ready to assure for the collateral for the loan. By pledging collateral, you will be assuring your lender that the fund will be returned in due course of time. With this process, you will get the advantage of deriving a huge amount at considerably low rates as well as other benefits that comes along with this package.

Robin Williams works for CashOne, a company whose services include online payday loans and Cash Advance Payday Loans . He has extensive knowledge about payday loans and an understanding of urgency of clients & how they use payday loans for. His work at CashOne includes providing seamless loan transaction into customer account.

Income that is earned from investments is a significant factor in the amount of Alternative Minimum Tax an individual pays. Certain types of investment income (dividends, capital gains, certain interest, e.g.) as well as the amount of this income in relation to the taxpayer’s other income, all factor into the AMT formula. A taxpayer usually has much more control over investment income than he does his salary, for example, making this source of income much more important from an Alternative Minimum Tax planning point of view. In general, an investment portfolio can be changed any time a taxpayer finds it advantageous to do so.

Discussed below are a few key items associated with investing activities, and the AMT planning opportunities that may exist.

Dividends and capital gains

Most dividends on common stocks are “qualifying,” and, thus, are eligible for a lower tax rate than “ordinary income,” which consists of things such as salaries and wages, interest income, rental income, and the like. Similarly, a capital gain that qualifies as a “long-term” capital gain also is eligible for this lower tax rate. As discussed in a recent article on amtblog.com, even though the tax rate on dividends and capital gains is the same for both the Regular Tax and the AMT, the effect on a taxpayer’s exemption amount can mean that these items of investment income are the reason a taxpayer is paying the AMT.

Planning strategy – use a model such as that available on AMTIndividual.com to determine the real tax rate being paid on dividends and capital gains. For maximum returns, investors should always consider after-tax yield when evaluating investment alternatives.

Tax-exempt bond interest

In general, municipal bond interest is exempt from Federal tax. However, certain muni bonds are designated “private activity” bonds, depending on how the proceeds of the bond issuance are used. Interest from private activity bonds continues to be exempt for the Regular Tax, but it is fully taxable for the AMT, with the result that the after-tax yield is significantly less than what the taxpayer originally thought he was earning. Note that, in order to boost yields, certain muni bond funds may allocate a portion of their portfolios to private activity bonds.

Planning strategy – Again, a taxpayer always should be considering after-tax yield in evaluating investments. An AMT payer generally should not be holding private activity bonds. If the investment is in mutual fund form, there are plenty of muni bond funds available that do not invest in private activity bonds.

Partnerships and other “pass-through” investments

In many cases partnerships themselves will have AMT items, but since a partnership “passes through” these items, it is the individual partner who ends up paying the AMT. For example, a real estate partnership may use a depreciation method that is allowable for the Regular Tax but is not allowable for the AMT. This difference in depreciation methods is an AMT item that will be reported to the partner on the Form K-1 he receives from the partnership, which, in turn, must be reported on the partner’s own AMT schedule, the Form 6251.

Note that this same pass-through treatment results in the case of S corporations, LLCs, and certain estates and trusts.

Planning strategy – Before investing in a partnership, an individual should inquire about AMT items that the partnership may generate. Once invested, it generally is too late to do anything about them.

Conclusion

While the old maxim that taxes should not determine an investment strategy is true, nevertheless an investor who is stuck in the AMT may be earning a significantly lower after-tax yield on his investments than he realizes. Remember that it is only after-tax income that an investor actually gets to keep; ignoring taxes, especially the AMT, is unwise.

George Bauernfeind is with AMTIndividual, providing analysis, customized strategies, and an online dual tax calculator / planner to help you reduce your Alternative Minimum Tax. Visit www.amtindividual.com or www.amtblog.com to read more tax planning articles or to access this tax software on the Alternative Minimum Tax.

The concept of automated Forex trading system is mind-boggling. The exchange-traded futures market was the first to switch on automation. Then, the traders on the Interbank spot Forex market decided to catch up with the latest trend and moved to to the new automatated system.

Automated Forex trading system enables traders to execute their trade on spot Forex market automatically and anytime of the day, based on existing technical indicators and custom trading rules. There are various features included in the automated trading system, such as: Account equity management; Stop and/or limit orders; Discretionary market orders; and Various technical analysis indicators within your discretion for enabling trend-following systems.

Automated Forex trading systems supports most of the following indicators (the technical support will depend on the technology used as well as the available features of the system):

Weighted moving average, exponential moving average, simple moving average, variable moving average, triangular moving average, time series moving average, wilder average true range, vertical horizontal filter, Standard deviation, Trailing stops, Mass index, Fixed limits and stops, and others.

The success of the automation process to the Forex market is attributed to several factors, such as the following:

1)Its ability to perform or execute trades in real time. Because of the automation, a trader can close trades within a few milliseconds. It is impossible in manual systems, as previous trades are normally closed after several hours. In addition, there are also instances wherein a trader incurs several losses in a row that prevents him from making any fresh transactions. Thus, with automated Forex trading system, this problem could be avoided.

2)The ability to greater diversification. With automated trading system now in place, a trader can trade in various local as well as international markets within varying time zones. In other words, you can place trade or close deals with different traders from various markets around the world even at the middle of the night.

3)The ability to analyze short-term data. This feature is not available in manual trading system. Thus, traders using automated system have the bigger advantage since they can predict market trends in less than an hour.

4)If you will consolidate the features as well as the benefits of automated Forex trading system, it will give you a solid conclusion: with the Forex market on automation, you will be able to place more trades on a single day, thus increasing the average volume trades daily.

5)Let us take the following scenario: If you are trading using the manual system, you will notice that it takes time before a trader confirms if he will accept your deal or not. He will look on the market condition first as well as the exchange rate of the currencies that you are trading with. Thus, if it takes time before a transaction will be finalized; there would be fewer trade volumes.

6)Now, if you are using the automated Forex trading system, the evaluation of exchange rates and market conditions could be done within a few minutes, since Forex data are now updated in real time. Probably after less than an hour, you will be able to take your position whether you will push through the deal or not. If a Forex transaction per trader is averaging within an hour, a single trader can place as much as 8 trades within the regular trading hours (if he is following the day trading schedule) and additional trades beyond the regular trading hours. There are thousands of traders in just a single market who can place such average number of trade per day. Combining it with the number of Forex markets around the world, the figure is just huge enough.

7)In addition, the technology is changing continuously, thus there is a tendency that the average number of trades per day will increase, thus a possibility of increased trade volumes on daily basis. With faster trade execution, that is a certain possibility.

The Forex trading market is now at the helm of automation. Transactions are now faster, and earning money through Forex trading is now easier.

Looking to find the best deal on Forex Automatic System Software, then visit the best Forex Trading website for all your Forex trading needs.

The financial crisis epoch has developed a new business that seems to rise as people have need more and more of rapid money to face current problems. People might need to pay a medical bill. Maybe you completely forgot someone’s birthday. Maybe a new chance has occurred in your career and you must meet someone and make good impression. To buy new clothes, to pay house bills or simply to make someone happy when you do not have the possibilities can find the answer in the payday loans today.

However, regular loans may ask you to pass through a veritable hassle. To avoid all this needless effort and to have hassle free payday loans you need do a simple and clear research to get the best alternatives for your needs.

You can do this by several ways. There are advertisements in the supermarkets with the addresses of the providers of payday loans. During each time, people search ways to make money. Hassle free payday loans seem to be the promise some lenders can make to the people so they can still offer you money and in addition, they will get the money from you plus the extra for their profit. These companies function somehow as the bancs. They are called financial institutions. In some states, they are forbidden. But in other countries they are legal and they offer good alternatives to the ones that cannot obtain a regular credit in the normal way because of having a bad credit report , not having one or even having a poor credit report. In all the situations people will find themselves saved from the hassle that they have to face when applying for regular credit.

Financial crisis offered the possibility to the employers to say to employees that there is financial crisis so they are restraining activity, and so they might be forced to fire people. Working under constant pressure people will get sick Hassle free payday loans should mean the chance to avoid extra stress and also to avoid getting sick from useless reasons.

I ask myself if this entire circle was not artificially produced or if the payday loans were not the answer of the credit industry to the actual situation. All the arguments indicate that I have reason to think this way. Anyway, hassle free payday loan would mean to apply for the credit directly from home, receive the money directly on your card in less than 24 hours and to pay automatically on your payday. Being asked for copy of the documents via fax or of the credit report would mean hassle because some people have bad credit history and that will decrease their chances to get a loan.

This would mean the perfect credit, given without asking too many details what is the money from. Even more offering financial consultation along with lending money makes this service more attractive. A friendly interface is essential in the case of the payday loans and any other credit services, because getting a credit means already passing through a hassle situation.

James Cornhole is in the financial field for hassle free payday loans that provides no credit check Bad Credit Loans Online as well as as providing No Hassle Payday Loans service online.

With the extraordinary expansion of the forex market, we have been starting to see a huge volume of traders lose all their money. Unfortunately, they haven’t followed the elementary strategies we have laid out for you. Go by these strategies to give yourself the biggest opportunity to grasp your goals.

1. Have Faith In Yourself

To reach the top level forex trader you must trust in your education. You must be willing to make all your trading decisions, instead of relying on someone else’s thoughts or ability (or lack of). Of course, you will prepare yourself fully before every risking any money.

2. Accept Your Learning Curve

Unless you are a veteran trader, you will lose money trading the Forex market. This is a near certainty. I don’t say this to talk you out of trading. In fact, quite the opposite. You will be trading against others that fall to this reality day in and day out. You, however, will not risk a dime until you have learned the skills you need to make money trading the forex.

3. Decide What Type of Trader You Are

There are many ways to trade the forex. They range from very active to very patient. You must decide which style suits you best. The best time to learn this about yourself is while you are trading a demo account. There is no need to allow your learning curve to cost you money.

4. Get Educated

Proper education is the shortest path to elite forex trading. Regardless of your ultimate goals, you will reach them quicker with a great forex trading education. Take some time to review different options before deciding on who to trust with your forex trading education needs. A forex seminar will help shorten your learning curve drastically.

5. Continue to Get Educated

In order to improve you forex trade skills, you be always adding to your forex knowledge. Your forex education should never end. It’s good to have an ongoing relationship with the people aiding you to learn more about forex.

What separates successful forex businessman from all others is their ability to be independent. Many traders have been inclined to follow signals, systems, strategies, or anything else you may call them. By using this approach, however, these traders have only been as good as the people they follow.

The best forex traders lead. Their decisions will be analyzed to circuitously perfection. They will have decisions with no hesitation, and handle their growth in a predetermined and intelligent fashion. Take your forex trading to new heights and don’t look back. A good forex trading robot like Ivybot make help increase your chances of succeeding with forex.

Looking to find the best deal on Forex Trading Products, visit www.forextradingsoftware.ws/

Capital gains are income derived from the sale of property, most typically investment property. While capital gains are not directly an AMT preference item, they do have an impact on a taxpayer’s Alternative Minimum Tax, and, therefore, are an essential element of AMT planning. One real-life scenario with which the writer is familiar involved a retiree with what one would call a typical investment portfolio, including mutual funds, and it was solely a larger-than-usual year-end capital gain distribution from one mutual fund that threw that individual into the AMT.

For a little review, capital gain income historically has been taxed at a rate lower than the rate that applies to other, “ordinary,” income such as salaries and wages and interest income. This lower rate applies only to “long-term” capital gain (LTCG), which means the taxpayer must hold the property for over one year before selling it. Under current law, most dividend income also receives this favorable LTCG treatment.

In general, the tax rates that apply in computing the Alternative Minimum Tax are different from the rates that apply in computing the Regular Tax. However, LTCG is taxed at the same rate for both computations – typically 15%. Thus, a LTCG by itself is not an AMT item. Despite this treatment, however, a LTCG definitely can be a factor that triggers the AMT.

Here’s what happens. First, every taxpayer is entitled to an AMT Exemption amount. This Exemption is designed to prevent taxpayers with only small AMT items from paying the AMT. For example, a couple filing a joint return for 2009 is entitled to an Exemption of $70,950. Unfortunately, however, this Exemption is phased out as the taxpayer’s income increases. The actual phase-out is the loss of $1 of Exemption for every $4 of additional income (i.e., at a 25% rate). So even though LTCG is not a preference item, the more capital gain a taxpayer has the more of his Exemption is phased out and, thus, the more likely he is to pay the AMT. This is exactly what happened to the retiree mentioned above, who, by the way, also happened to be 90 years old at the time. While it may not seem right, there certainly is no AMT forgiveness even for old age!

To illustrate how this works, assume a taxpayer realizes an additional $10,000 of LTCG. In comparing the tax rate schedules for the AMT and the Regular Tax, one would conclude that this capital gain income would have no impact on the taxpayer’s AMT because it is taxed at the same rate under both computations. But here’s what actually happens by adding $10,000 to taxable income:

(a) Income increase of $10,000
(b) AMT Exemption Phase-out (25%) = $2,500
(c) Increase in AMT Income (a) + (b) = $12,500

This increase in AMT income at a rate 25% greater than Regular taxable income is the problem. It is simple math – the more AMT income taxed, the greater the chance of being pulled into the AMT.

In summary, an AMT payer definitely needs to factor capital gains into the equation when doing any tax planning. With year-end now only a little more than two weeks away, anyone thinking of recognizing gains this year had better take this into account.

George Bauernfeind is with AMTIndividual, providing analysis, customized strategies, and an online dual tax calculator / planner to help you reduce your Alternative Minimum Tax. Visit www.amtindividual.com or www.amtblog.com to read more tax planning articles or to access to this tax software on the Alternative Minimum Tax.

The AMT items that were talked about in Part 1 of this wrap-up generally were the bigger ones that can, depending on a taxpayer’s situation, present immediate year-end Alternative Minimum Tax savings opportunities. But the other items that were discussed in this 10-week series also are important in making sure the least amount of AMT is paid. Here is a brief recap of these other items, with references to the amtblog.com articles in which each appeared.

Investments: Private Activity Bonds – an individual investing in tax-exempt municipal bonds can receive an unpleasant surprise when he discovers that AMT has to be paid on the interest income from a certain type of municipal bond. See the December 18th article posted on amtblog.com.

Miscellaneous Itemized Deductions – business or investment-related expenses may be deductible under the Regular Tax, but they are not for the AMT. Several planning ideas on how to minimize this impact are presented. See the November 14th article posted on amtblog.com.

Limitation on Itemized Deductions: AMT Adjustment – when a taxpayer is in the AMT, the limitations that apply to itemized deductions are calculated differently from the limitations that apply for the Regular Tax. See the November 25th article posted on amtblog.com.

State Income Tax Refunds: AMT Adjustment – because of the different AMT treatment of state and local tax deductions, any adjustment to these deductions – for example, a refund of overpaid state taxes which generally is treated as income when received – is itself then given different treatment for the AMT. See the November 29th article posted on amtblog.com.

Standard Deduction – a taxpayer is allowed no standard deduction in calculating the AMT. An interesting planning idea here could mean that an AMT taxpayer might be better off not claiming the standard deduction at all. For a discussion of this opportunity see the November 18th article posted on amtblog.com.

Personal Exemptions – similar to the standard deduction, a taxpayer is allowed no deduction for personal exemptions in calculating the AMT. Not a whole lot can be done here, but there always are at least a few planning ideas. See the November 22nd article posted on amtblog.com.

The AMT Exemption, also known as “the annual patch” – the AMT Exemption amount is set annually by Congress. This is a prescribed amount by which a taxpayer’s Alternative Minimum Taxable Income must exceed his Regular Tax taxable income before the AMT itself is triggered. If Congress were to fail to adjust this exemption amount, 24 million new taxpayers would be pulled into the AMT, in addition to the four-plus million already stuck there. See the December 21st article posted on amtblog.com. Also, pay careful attention to the news we will be seeing on this in the near future as we anxiously await Congress’ fix on this again for 2010.

Good luck with your AMT planning. Hopefully each of these articles provided a simplified explanation along with a few 2009 Alternative Minimum Tax savings ideas. Soon we’ll be working on 2010!

George Bauernfeind is with AMTIndividual, providing analysis, customized strategies, and an online dual tax calculator / planner to help you reduce your Alternative Minimum Tax. Visit www.amtindividual.com or www.amtblog.com to read more tax planning articles or to access this tax software on the Alternative Minimum Tax.

In our 10-week series of articles on tax planning for the Alternative Minimum Tax, we have looked at many things a taxpayer can do to reduce his AMT liability. With only four days left in which to act in order to reduce 2009’s taxes, here is a summary of these items, with reference to the date each article appeared on amtblog.com. Please refer back to the article for the specific tax-saving steps that still may be taken before year end.

State and local taxes

This item affects 94% of all AMT payers, yet it is one of the easiest to plan for and it can have the most direct impact on a taxpayer’s Alternative Minimum Tax. There are three types of taxes here:

1. Property taxes – by weighing the relative factors of property tax burden, percentage of AMT payers, and size of population, here is a ranking of the top 10 states that are hit the hardest by this item. Residents of these states really do need to focus on this one in particular. See the November 8th article posted on amtblog.com, “Property Taxes.”

#1 – New York
#2 – New Jersey
#3 – California
#4 – Illinois
#5 – Massachusetts
#6 – Connecticut
#7 – Maryland
#8 – Pennsylvania
#9 – Virginia
#10 – Ohio

2. Income taxes – the tax dollars here are larger, on a per-taxpayer basis, than property taxes. While the AMT planning takes a little more work than property taxes, the potential savings still are there. See the amtblog.com article posted on November 2nd, “State Income Taxes.”

3. Sales tax on new cars – this is easy money for those who bought a new car this year, or still are contemplating buying one. See the amtblog.com article posted on November 11th, “Sales Tax on New Cars.”

Stock options, in particular Incentive Stock Options (ISOs)

A large number of corporate employees, generally ranging from the mid-management level up to the “C Suite” folks, have stock options granted to them by their employers. If these options are ISOs, AMT planning is critical because of the major impact the exercise of these options can have on an individual’s Alternative Minimum Tax. Our two-part series of articles appearing on amtblog.com on December 3rd and December 6th, “Incentive Stock Options – Parts 1 and 2,” go through the basic steps in determining whether a taxpayer does in fact have an ISO – often confused with the other types of stock options and equity grants an employer may offer – and then explains how these ISO exercises trigger the AMT. This is a very important read for all those who either have exercised stock options or are contemplating exercising stock options.

Capital gains

The impact of capital gains on a taxpayer’s Alternative Minimum Tax can be a real surprise – and, unfortunately, not a pleasant surprise At first blush capital gains appear to be AMT-neutral, but this is far from the case. The December 13th article on amtblog.com, “Investments – Capital Gains,” explains this issue. To the extent a taxpayer has recognized capital gains in 2009, and/or “harvested” capital losses to offset capital gains, there can be a direct AMT impact. Any capital gain or loss activity between now and December 31 also will have this impact.

Summary

It is not too late to take action on any of the above items for 2009, but time is short. Once the ball drops in Times Square, you’ll be planning for 2010!

George Bauernfeind is with AMTIndividual, providing analysis, customized strategies, and an online dual tax calculator / planner to help you reduce your Alternative Minimum Tax. Visit www.amtindividual.com or www.amtblog.com to read more tax planning articles or to access this tax software on the Alternative Minimum Tax.

In my previous articles, I gave a comprehensive introduction on how to invest in the Philippine stock market, particularly talking about the basic principles that each prospective investors should understand. In this article we are going to discuss the advantages of investing in the stock market.

As I said mentioned previously, the stock market is just another vehicle of investment. You might be wondering what is the reason why you should invest in the stock market? Is there an advantage in investing in the stock market ?

The following reasons could probably answer the above question. Take note, examples given refer to Philippine based companies and currency. If you wish to view the entire article please visit my blog.

1.) The expectation of great returns – In 1997, the price of Globe Telecom Inc. (GLO) stocks was only P152.00 per share. You would only have spent P 1,520.00 to buy the minimum board lot of 10 shares. Now the price of globe has increased ten times more. It is pegged at P 1,620.00+. Meaning, the value of those shares that you bought at 1997 would be P 16,200 right now. This means that on the average you get 30 % return per annum. This is far more advantageous than putting your money in time deposit accounts which only give you less than 4 % per annum. This is just an example of what the financial experts are saying that when the stock market goes up, it really goes up. Returns could reach as high as 200 %+ per annum or even more. This is really expected, especially if you invest long term. It is interesting to know that the Philippine stock market is expected to be in a bull run for the next 2 to 3 years. If there is a time to get involved in the stock market, now would be the best time to do so.

2.)”Ownership” in the companies that you are investing in. – Wouldn’t it be so cool to have your own Jollibee franchise ? However the investment of 20 to 25 million pesos does not make it so cool considering that you also have to put in time and effort to run the store. So instead of owning a Jollibee franchise why not buy Jollibee instead through buying shares of stocks in the corporation ? The minimum board lot of JFC shares (Jollibee Foods Corporations – JFC) cost only P 5,000+. With this investment you indirectly own the more than 1414 stores in the Philippines and 175 in other countries not to mention Red Ribon, Chowking, Deli-France, A popular fastfood chain – Yonghe King in China and popular teahouse chain from Taiwan called Chun Shui Tang including Jollibee’s pilot restaurant “Tio Pepe’s Karinderia.” So next time you eat at Jollibee tell your friends and that you like to eat there because you “own part of the company.” You might want to own stocks of PLDT or Globe to help you become more prompt in paying your bills.

3.) You belong to a special group of people when you invest in the stock market -

When somebody will ask me to join a multi-level marketing scheme I always ask when the company started. The reason is that because if it started a long time ago, then my chances of recruiting other people will be slim because almost everybody I know has already been recruited.

But investing in the stock market is not multi-level marketing. It does not matter whether the market is saturated or not. But it’s good to know that we are among the first to exploit the market’s potential.

Most of those who invest in the stock market are from the class A and B segments of the population. An Asian Development Bank study done in 2005 revealed that only 600,000, out of the of the country’s 87 million population, invest in the stock market. This means that only 0.7 % of the population are involved in stock market trading.

Want to know more about investment strategies? Visit the blog of Zigfred Diaz where he blogs about several interesting topics such as investments, financial management, business, making financial online and Stock market investing

This is part 2 of the four part series on the discussion of principles of investment in the stock market. In the first part, the first principle involved realizing that the stock market is just another investment vehicles and that before you start investing in the stock market, you must realize that there are other vehicles of investments. We continue by discussing the next two principles. If you wish to view the entire article, please visit my blog.

2.) A roller coaster ride – It could be said that the biggest advantage in investing in the stock market is the huge profits that are made when the market goes up. However this is also conversely true because huge losses can also be made when the market goes down.

Bearing in mind that the stock market is a roller coaster ride it is generally best to sell when the market goes up and buy when the market goes down. When I started investing in the stock market about 2 years ago, the Philippine Stock exchange index was about 2000 + points. It went up to 2500 points and then down to the 2000 level in the middle of 2006. Slowly and steadily it climbed up to the 3200 level during the 1st quarter of 2007. It then went down in a very short period of time during the final days of the 1st quarter of 2007. It steadily climbed to a high of 3700+ points in July 2007 but went down below 3000 points a month after. It rose steadily to its highest at 3800+ points by October 2007, but after a month dropped to 3600 points.

There is only one conclusion that can be drawn here, that is it is really a roller coaster ride. Huge Profits and losses are made during those times that the market is up or down.

3.) You should determine what type of investor you are – Are you a long term investor or a short term investor? This is a very important question that each serious new investor should consider. This affects whether you should buy or sell a certain stock.

If you are a long term investor, meaning that you hold your stocks for 5 to 10 years or more it means that you believe in the company that you are investing in and that you have extra money for other things because you can afford to put in your money for a long period of time.

The advantages of long term investing is that they do not have to worry about the cumbersome day to day technical analysis that has to be monitored. There is no problem if the stock is held for a long period of time because long term investors believe in the fundamentals of the company. On the other hand a short term investor cashes in within a months time to 6 months time. If you are a short term investor, one thing that has to be considered is the monitoring of the day to day activities of the market.

Short term investors have also to consider if they can afford to put in their money for a long period of time however the time element is not as long as that of the long term investor. This is so because during the short period wherein you buy and sell stocks, you might incur losses during this time so you may decide to wait longer a little bit more.

When I first invested in the stock market I said to by myself that I will be more of a long term investor. There are stock that I invest in that I consider as short term. However most of the stocks I hold are considered as medium and long term investments.

Would you like to know more about investment strategies ? Visit the blog of Zigfred Diaz where he blogs about several interesting topics such as investments, financial management, business, making financial online and Stock market investing