InvestMacro FX

By James McKee

The nation of Japan has the world’s second largest economy and boasts one of the most diverse and profitable export industries. These activities have all been halted or at the very least diminished by the immense earthquake and resulting tsunami that swept over coastal regions of the island nation. Hundreds of people have died and damage numbers in the tens of billions of dollars in addition to a substantial loss of life. There are even other large scale disasters being caused by the tsunami including problems with a nuclear power plan that Japanese officials say could be leaking radiation.

Such problems could result in far reaching consequences should they hinder Japanese productivity over time and they very well could at this point. The tsunami is not only bad news for Japan but for the United States and China as well, both of who import very large amounts of Japanese products. Even though much of the manufacturing that occurs in Japan is further towards the center of the country, there will inevitably be fallout from the financial and emotional burdens that every Japanese citizen will face. This type of crisis will almost certainly prompt the Japanese government to seek out financial assistance from its allies including the United States.

The United States economy could see a great deal of harm in coming weeks as Japan struggles to deal with what has occurred with regard to the tsunami and all the fallout therein. The USD could see some serious downgrading if the United States is drawn into a position of aiding Japan and shouldering a diminished supply of inventory. The forex currency exchange will also inevitably see a loss of value where the JPY is concerned and the Yuan will also see some turbulence. China’s recently established increase in trade relations with Japan will soon become a liability.

About the Author

Author is a Forex trader and financial analyst residing in Denver, Colorado. To stay up to date on all the latest developments in the financial world and beyond be sure to check out the forex exchange rates regularly

By Adam J. Davis

What did I steal from Warren Buffett? What did I break into his company headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska for and snatch like a thief in the middle of the night???

As you may know, Buffett is currently the second richest man in the world, with an estimated net worth of $40 billion. Buffett is unique because he gained his wealth exclusively through investing, instead of starting or owning a single company or having an invention. Don’t be too quick to brush off the Oracle of Omaha simply because he’s considered a ‘stock market guy’ and not a real estate specialist.

First of all, many of his investments are quite real estate dependent (he owns one of the largest real estate brokerages in America, along with building supply businesses). Second of all, any time someone amasses a fortune through investing, there ‘s definitely some things we can learn and apply in our own businesses.

I’ve been a Warren Buffett student for many years (as many years as I’ve been investing in real estate). From reading his annual shareholder letters to books such as The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life, by Alice Shroeder, I have gained tremendously in my real estate investing and private money raising.

Here are just a few things that I “stole” from Warren Buffett to apply in my own business…

Getting private money

This is a shocker, huh? Indeed, Warren Buffett started his professional investing career with several small partnerships in the late 1950’s. He raised money from private investors (partners) to fund these partnerships. Keep in mind: at the time he wasn’t the Warren Buffett we know of today, he was young and relatively unknown.

Buffett started off with $100,000 (roughly equivalent to $761,000 in 2009 dollars) in private money from limited partners. His initial investors were some friends, family and other associates (doctors, lawyers, etc.) that liked his approach to investing and thought that he could make them money (boy, were they were right!)

Working with investors

Buffett has been masterful in working with private and public investors alike over his 40 + year investing career. While Buffett first started out with private investment partnerships, he eventually took his company public by acquiring Berkshire Hathaway (which became the flagship for most future investments).

Over the years, Buffett has gained a great deal of notoriety with his informative and sometimes even humorous approach to investor relations. His annual shareholder letters contain great pearls of business wisdom and also show his investors the type of person he is and gives them more reasons to keep their money invested and, perhaps invest more money.

Pay cash

Warren Buffett open eschews leveraging too much. He doesn’t want his businesses future to be ‘based on the philanthropy of someone else’. What he means by this is that when you borrow too much money and someone calls that debt in, your business can be stuck in a bad spot. Sound familiar? Yes, this is exactly what happened to many businesses (real estate investing related and not) during the credit crunch of 2006-present.

If you raise the capital and pay cash for your real estate investments with private money and bring with it the inherent power and flexibility, you won’t have to rely on any Wall. St. banks or other quirky institutions that may crimp your profits.

Buying at the right price cures all

When you buy bargain real estate, usually distressed properties, you have the best chance to acquire assets at what Buffett calls a “margin of safety.” The margin of safety simply means that the market could suffer adversity or things could not go perfectly according to plan and you still make money. What a concept right? Things don’t go perfectly, but I still make money. My downside is protected, as well as my private money lenders or equity investors.

But how do you know if you’re buying at the right price? Simple. Do what Buffett does: take your estimated value of an investment property and slice 25% to 33% off of it. Make that number the maximum price you’ll pay for the deal. Think it can’t happen? Think again: banks and asset managers (not to mention HUD) are very eager to unload properties right now. If you pay cash (hint) you can get the cash buyers discount that builds in an automatic margin of safety for you.

This single approach that I stole from Warren Buffett has results in millions in private money as well as multi-million deals in my company coffers. Private money investors like this approach because it shows them that they have a very small chance of losing money and a very big chance of making handsome returns by placing their funds with you.

I do realize that there are a lot of real estate “guru’s” who will disagree with myself and Mr. Buffett. They might say that you can make money by pursuing marginal deals or by ignoring the needs of your investors. I disagree with these approaches. The purpose of this blog is to show you how to get private money to do more deals in less time and build substantial wealth and cash flow. It’s difficult to achieve wealth when you ignore the principles of the second richest man on the planet – a guy who’s made his fortune by investing.

My advice: steal a few principles from Warren Buffett yourself and watch your net worth double or triple in the next 12 months.

About the Author

Adam Davis is a real estate investor, author and speaker. He teaches real estate investors how to raise capital. Adam has completed hundreds of deals- from single family house flips to apartment buildings. He has raised millions of dollars from private individuals. For a FREE audio program on how to get private money go to: http://www.UltimatePrivateMoney.com.

By Tom Simmons

In any practice of life, be it boxing or painting, those who want to be the greatest look to learn from those who’ve already become the greatest. By watching legends in action, you can also study what they do and determine why they do it and apply it to your own practices. Investing is no different. If someone wants to be a great investor, they must study the moves of those who have been most successful. And one of those greats is Warren Buffett.

Buffett, who was just recently named the world’s richest man by Forbes magazine with a net worth of $62 billion, is regarded as one of the greatest American investors. Born August 30, 1930 in Omaha, Nebraska, Buffett’s father was a stock broker, giving him early exposure to investing and business. He attended Columbia Business School to study under the famous economist and investor Benjamin Graham. By 24, Buffett was working under Graham on Wall Street. By 32, Buffett had combined seven existing partnerships into one. By 35, he took control of manufacturing firm Berkshire Hathaway. This was all less than halfway into his career.

Aside from being what could be the world’s most frugal billionaire, living off an annual salary of less than $200,000, watching Warren Buffett’s actions can help teach up-and-coming investors some serious lessons. While the grand majority of investors would be happier with stocks that got them quick money, Buffett’s strategy runs more along the lines of the maxim, “slow and steady wins the race.” He only invests in businesses that have proven to be sure things by researching their histories. Rather than looking to make quick cash in an economic bubble that will inevitably pop, Buffett chooses investments with less volatility.

Another lesson to be learned from Buffett’s strategy is compounding. Compounding looks at how the value of an investment can increase immensely in the long run, rather than how quickly it will pay off in the short run. Using the rule of 72 (dividing 72 by an investment’s annual rate of return), Buffett came up with an accurate formula which determined how long it would take an investment’s value to double. Buffett’s annual return in the first half of his career was 29%, which meant according to the rule of 72, that he was doubling his value every two and a half years. Now pause a moment and extrapolate that. In ten years, with that kind of return rate, $5,000 becomes $40,000, or $20,000 becomes $160,000! Compounding’s subtle method in making an investor a lot of money over an extended period of time is something Warren Buffett mastered.

And, naturally, like any other great legend, Warren Buffett can teach you the value of a strong work ethic. Buffett’s name would not be so easily remembered had he not worked hard to get what he has now. Through his ambition and diligence he managed to exercise his practices to their greatest potential. This is the one universal characteristic known in all of history’s greatest heroes.

About the Author

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By James McKee

The tsunami in Japan has been more trouble to Japan’s economy than it has been to the country’s infrastructure overall. The closing of factories and complete lack of confidence in the country’s economy has resulted in a massive sell off of Japanese assets and of the JPY. Current projections predict a massive decrease in Japan’s GDP both next quarter and the one after that, the current state of Japanese nuclear reactors will inevitably have an impact on whether or not the country’s economy can stabilize. There are efforts under way to bring down the temperature that is escalating in the reactors; and they include dumping massive amounts of water and cement on the affected areas.

To date Japanese financial markets have lost over half a trillion dollars and that number is increasing everyday. The value of the JPY has actually been increasing on the Forex market against the USD and other majors instead of dropping in value; this has driven down demand for Japanese products since they are only becoming more expensive. In Japan itself goods are flying off of store shelves in anticipation of an all out meltdown with regard to country’s infrastructure and local economy.

In the short term betting against the USD or the EUR would be a great idea with the JPY since it will continue to increase in value. There is no sign of the disaster in Japan calming down any time soon, indeed there are other aging nuclear power plants in the country that could see the same type of scenario. The Japanese Yen is going to be a wild card on the Forex currency exchange until Japan can solve its nuclear crisis and begin to address the problems therein. Such a crisis could occur in any country that does not properly maintain its nuclear power structure.

About the Author

Author is a Forex trader and financial analyst residing in Denver, Colorado. To stay up to date on all the latest developments in the financial world and beyond be sure to check out the forex exchange rates regularly

By Ken Sundheim

“Winning the lottery isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be,” Adams comments. “I won the American dream but I lost it, too. It was a very hard fall. It’s called rock bottom,” says Evelyn Adams a two time lottery winner from the State of New Jersey who, after many thankless nights in Atlantic City and frivolous spending, now lives in a tailor.

It’s sad but true – there is no easy way to get rich. The lottery only seems to bring bad fate and by the time the get rich quick internet ads and make $100,000 / year spam emails tell you that wealth can be more than seamlessly obtained via following a proven method, you are too late to the game.

We all want wealth. Wealth signifies power in any human society. It buys fancy clothes, gold jewelry, fine dining, celebrity status, looks and European vacations. The one kicker is that nobody is going to hand you money.

However, follow these proven steps and see if you can’t grow your bank statement and decrease that 12% AMEX bill:

– Pick The Right Profession – Love What You Do

Owning an executive search firm, the number one mistake I see that job seekers make is that they bounce from job to job chasing a marginally increased commission. What many fail to see is that if you don’t love what you do and don’t love the company you work for, you are not going to reach your full potential.

Find a job that plays to your strengths. Pursuing jobs that solely focus on your weaknesses will only complicate the equation. Do you remember when your parents made you study math regardless of how much you hated the subject? Statistically, that time could have been more productively spent on the subjects that you were getting A-‘s on.

Getting rich begins with excelling in your career. There is no better to do than to settle in with a company that may pay less at first, but will give you confidence in your skills via feeding you jobs and tasks that can help flourish your career.

One way or another, if you like your career, you’re going to make money. You can be the best garbage man and you’ll easily glide past seven figures. Pick the career. The money will come regardless.

– There Are No Shortcuts – Come To Grips With This

When the majority of individuals start their own business, they do so with the mentality that others are going to either work for free or that they are going to be able to cut corners or any mixture of the two. If success was only so simplistic and easy to come by.

If you want to make money, not only do you have to put in 16+ hour days to prove yourself and become the best at what you do, you must be creative regarding the approach to get there. When it comes to making money and pursuing the career you want, everyone must follow their own path. What yours is, only you know.

Though, start by deciphering what your end goal is and map out the ways that you plan to skin the cat. Then, attack.

– Try Not To Burn Bridges

The most successful people are quite careful about whom they burn bridges with. The more bridges a person burns, the stronger the blockades are going to be throughout their journey of chasing their career goals.

Human beings hate rejection and successful individuals despise it. This often leads to lashing out at those who do not adhere to this admiration of them. The aforementioned mentality is sure to create those blockades and the more you have, the harder your accomplishments are going to come.

About the Author

Ken Sundheim was the founder is the acting President of KAS Placement. KAS Headhunter Los Angeles Recruiterdoes executive search for companies ranging from BNY Mellon to smaller, start-up organizations. The agencyRecruiter New York City was founded by Ken from a studio apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. KAS Recruiter Washington DC Sales Headhunter also has 2 new businesses ready to launch this year.

By James Woolley

It is a sad fact of life that not all companies that run their own private affiliate program are entirely honest with their affiliates. This is equally true in the forex niche as it is in any other niche. So why do they try and deceive their affiliates, and how can you spot if an affiliate program is not entirely trustworthy?

The reasons why they may be slightly deceitful is that they obviously prefer to keep as much cash for themselves, rather than paying out a percentage of each sale to their affiliates. In the forex niche this can be anywhere between 20% and 75% of the actual sale price, so there are clear motives for doing this.

One way to identify whether a company may not be giving you the affiliate commissions that you deserve is by looking at the conversion rate. The truth is that even the poorest quality products with badly designed sales pages can often generate a conversion rate of at least 1%. So if you are sending thousands of visitors to the sales page and only generating one or two sales, then they may not be giving you the credit for the sales you generate.

You ideally want to join a program where every visitor and every sale are recorded and viewable in your stats and reports page. One way to test this out is to obtain your affiliate link and click on it say ten times throughout the day. Then you can log in and see if these ten visits are recorded in your affiliate report. You could also pay a friend to buy the product you are promoting using your affiliate link to see if this sale does indeed show up in the stats page.

Another common tactic is to display a prominent opt-in form on the sales page in order to get leads and sell them the product in the autoresponder sequence. There’s nothing wrong with that providing this lead is cookied, because then you will get credit for any sales that may result from this. However a lot of companies keep all of these subsequent follow-up sales for themselves, which is definitely deceitful, because you’re the one that sent them these leads in the first place.

Finally one another way you can spot a deceitful forex affiliate program is by looking at how often you actually get paid. Thankfully there are very few companies that will refuse to pay out, but it can happen in some instances, particularly with companies you haven’t heard of before.

Similarly another tactic is to reduce your overall affiliate commissions, citing the reason that people have returned the product and asked for a refund. Now unfortunately you have no way of knowing whether or not these returns are genuine or not, so you simply have to take the company’s word for it.

So overall there are lots of ways that these forex affiliate program providers try and cheat their affiliates. However I should point out that the vast majority of these companies are completely genuine and treat their affiliates well with accurate statistics and prompt payments. As is always the case it’s always just one or two dodgy companies that give the rest of the affiliate marketing industry a bad name.

About the Author

James Woolley is both a forex trader and an affiliate marketer. Click here to read his forex affiliate program reviews and to see which programs he most recommends.

Energy shares are higher in mid-day trading but crude oil futures are trending lower. The April contract, however, is still above $100 a barrel. Light, sweet crude oil for April delivery traded down 0.06%, or $0.70 to $100.75 a barrel. In energy ETFs, the United States Oil Fund (USO) is down 0.15% to $40.63. The United States Natural Gas ETF (UNG) is up 0.45% to $11.14. In mid-day energy news, Buckeye Partners (BPL) announced Friday that it has entered into a definitive agreement with BP Products North America (BP) and its affiliates to acquire 33 refined petroleum products terminals with total storage capacity of more than 10 million barrels and approximately 1,000 miles of refined petroleum products pipelines. The total transaction purchase price will be $225 million.

KeyCorp (KEY) today announced that it has commenced an underwritten public offering of $625 million of its common stock to repurchase the $2.5 billion of Series B Fixed-Rate Cumulative Perpetual Preferred Stock it issued to the U.S. Treasury under the TARP Capital Purchase Program. According to the company, it will proceed with these capital actions pursuant to its capital plan submitted to the Federal Reserve on January 7, 2011. KEY has been informed that the Federal Reserve had no objections to the capital actions set forth in its plan. After repurchase of the TARP preferred stock is completed, KEY will enter into negotiations to repurchase the warrant held by the U.S. Treasury. The company also intends to commence a separate registered public offering of senior notes. Proceeds from both offerings, together with other available funds, will be used to repurchase such preferred stock upon receiving the U.S. Treasury’s authorization. Shares are up 3.16% to $9.13.

The Federal Reserve is planning to withdraw government oversight on some of the nation’s largest banks Friday, reports the Wall Street Journal. After two years of regulation following 2008’s crisis, the Fed will now allow financial institutions that have passed a January round of stress tests to operate as they did prior to industry’s near-collapse, restriction-free. Banks will now be able to raise dividends and initiate share buybacks, which was previously largely prohibited as an effort to preserve capital and a stipulation to receive government aid. Of the 19 banks tested, J.P. Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) is one of the bank expected to receive immediate approval for a dividend hike and share repurchases. The bank had slashed its quarterly dividend by 87% to $0.05 in February 2009 which gave JPM an additional $5 billion a year. Analysts also expect U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB), American Express Co. (NYSE:AXP) and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE:WFC) to be among the first institutions cleared from restrictions. Dividend increases are important factors of growth as they allow healthy companies to reward shareholders and employees while attracting investors.

There’s a well known phrase that is very relevant when it comes to forex trading. ‘If you FAIL to PLAN, then you PLAN to FAIL’. Every good professional forex trader has a trading plan that they develop early in their careers and always consult with before making any trading related decisions. A forex trading plan is something every trader should spend time making and adhere to.

Many traders often find themselves aimless trekking though the markets going in no clear direction chopping and changing their trading style when they encounter a few losing trades. A forex trading plan is key in helping the trader stay on the path to success.

A trading plan helps the trader eliminate emotionally charged decisions, provides them with a set of ‘rules’ to follow and stops them from making sloppy trading decisions.

The plan does not need to be complicated and should consist of a few simple rules that the trader will check before entering a trade.

In the forex market if things go wrong you have no one to blame but yourself. Many traders however look to blame someone or something else when the markets don’t go their way. These traders never have a trading plan and are aimlessly placing trades in the hope of ‘hitting the jackpot’ and becoming the next forex millionaire. A forex trading plan helps the trader outline and develop a trading method/strategy and greatly reduces the chances of ‘things going wrong’.

What makes up a trading plan?

Entry: Do you have a valid entry for your trade? Is there a pin bar / inside bar / candle pattern / support / resistance etc, supporting your entry price? It is recommended that there is more than one reason supporting your entry level. i.e. a pin bar at a support level.

Stop Loss: Where are you going to put your stop? Is your stop loss placed at a relevant level in the market? Is it at a support or resistance area? How far is your stop from your entry? Is it too far or too close?

Target: What level in the market are you going to target? Is your target the next level or support or resistance? What else supports the placement of your target area? Will you let the trade ‘run’ and decide later when to close?

Risk to Reward: Are you comfortable with the R:R ratio for your trade? Is your reward at least the same if not more than what you are risking?

Money Management: How much money are you going to risk on this trade? Does this trade fit in with your money management rules? Are you risking the same % as you risked on your last trade?

The 5 rules above are critical to stick to when placing trades. It is very important to have more than 1 confirmation when placing a trade. For example you may want to trade an inside bar pattern, however it is wise to only take the trade if there is something else supporting the inside bar pattern you’ve just noticed, i.e. the inside bar pattern has formed at a strong level of support.

You must remember to never adjust the size of your stop loss in order to meet a desired position size. Using good money management will make no difference to the number of pips you are risking on any given trade.

It is crucial to take proper note of your Risk to Reward ratio. You should never be risking more than what you are targeting. Ideally you want to be targeting at least 2x what you are risking.

Never be unrealistic in trading!! Although possible it is highly unlikely that a stop loss of 10pips will produce a target of 500pips. Being realistic in targets is very important and helps control emotions and keep them in tack.

Above is a forex trading plan for an actual trade. It’s a good idea to expand your plan to take into account the bigger picture. For example you may want to include a weekly or monthly target that you will be aiming for or the maximum amount of drawdown you will be prepared to endure before re-evaluating your trading strategy/method.

Forex trading plans help keep you on the track to success. It’s recommended that you write your plan and keep it next to your computer while trading. If your plan is ‘somewhere in your head’ it will soon get lost or disregarded. If it is printed out in black and white next to your computer it will encourage you to STICK TO YOUR PLAN!!

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