Saturday, March 31, 2012

Picking Penny Stocks

It is Sad to say, that the “easy money” mentality has reached the stock market and has left a lot of people investing unwisely on penny stocks that may often be too risky to begin with. Let us learn how this variety of stocks can actually be problematic to investors. 

Penny stocks are stocks that are sold for less than a dollar or, in some cases, less than five dollars for each share. Most of these stocks only have a short operating history and only have a few million dollars in net tangible assets. Typically, these have low market caps, minimal liquidity and are often traded on over the counter exchanges.

What you should know about these stocks is that trading them may be much riskier as compared to regular stocks. After all, with such issues as these stocks offerring very limited information about the companies, having no adequate backgrounds and may often pose huge threats for scams. 

Limited Information
For most companies that offer penny stocks, not a lot of information is really available for investors to view online or elsewhere. After all, most exchanges in this market operate on the Over The Counter Bulletin Board (OTCBB), which do not really require thorough reports for public posting. Without such valuable information, it would be very difficult on the investor’s part to make the right and objective trade decisions, and this could often lead to unwise guessing. 

Lack of Background
The chances are, if companies are willing to trade stocks in such small amounts, they most probably have very little business history or may have a very negative one. These companies are either just starting out in the business or they may have experienced bankruptcy, thus they resort to selling their stocks at such low prices.

Because there isn’t a lot of information available on penny stock companies, there is a very huge possibility that you might be making a bad investment. And of course, you may end up losing more money than you plan on gaining.

Bribes And Scams
It isn’t common for such stocks to be promoted by people who have been paid to do just that. Perhaps, you have received spam emails that may sound too good to be true, which may encourage you to invest in a particular penny stock. Take in mind those successful companies these days mostly did not start out through penny stocks.

The usual scenario happening that enables bribes and scams is that a company may buy some stock and then spread emails to tell people that a certain stock is doing well in the market. A lot of readers would then respond to this by investing in stocks, causing the price to dramatically shoot up due to supply and demand. After this, the scammer may sell his or her share for a huge amount before the price dramatically goes down again leaving many investors to lose a lot of money. 

And so, if you are new to the whole stock exchange market, make sure that you decide wisely on which type of stocks to invest and do not go after what may seem easy to get you rich. Take in mind that, although penny stocks may be alluring, they may involve huge risks on your part.

Factors Affecting Forex Market

The Forex Market is the largest market today for stock trading, and it is continually growing with more and more people investing in it. However, as promising as this market may be when it comes to profit, like any other trade it can be very volatile as well. It is therefore important to be familiar with certain factors that influence the Forex market if you are decided in joining this arena. After all, acquainting yourself with the many scenarios that can cause currencies to go up or down can help you a lot in making decisions for when to buy or sell.

There are basically three major factors that affect the Foreign Exchange, namely; a country’s economy, political conditions and market psychology. 

The Economy of a country is the most basic thing that create changes in a country’s currency. When such economic conditions as a budget deficit or surplus is present within a country, there will surely be reactions in the market and values will be reflected on currencies. Other conditions may also include inflation trends, and the general economic growth of the country.

Click here to watch video, for more on factors affecting forex market

The more prosperous a country’s economy is, the more investors will be able to adhere to doing trade in a more positive attitude. Such indicators as a growth in a nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), employment levels and retail sales among others will basically attract more investors and that nation’s currency value will likely go up. 

Secondly,  a country’s political sector is another very important factor that affects Forex Market. This is because political instability or turmoil can generally create negative fluctuations to an economy. But if such instances occur wherein a country may rise above political obstacles, the opposite may occur and the economy may improve.  Also events in a region can surely create negative or positive interest among investors for a nation’s currency. And so, such conditions surely acts as a factor for demands and prices of a certain currency. 

On the other hand, the perception of traders and investors will greatly influence the Foreign Exchange market in so many ways. After all, the market is highly dependent on whether or not people would want to invest on a country’s economy in order to determine whether currency prices will go up or down.
For example, such conditions wherein unsettling international events may happen, then under the “flight of quality” rule, people would generally want to look for a safe haven for their investments. Whenever there is a greater demand for a certain country’s economy, then a higher price will be given to buyers and the currency’s value will go up and become stronger.

The market in Foreign Exchange is often unpredictable and fluctuating. Therefore if you are interested in doing trades in this market, make sure that you take the time to be knowledgeable about good strategies that can help you play the game. After all, this currency market would greatly revolve upon events that would occur in the different countries. Familiarizing yourself with the factors that affect the Forex Market will surely help you make better decisions.

How to choose a good stock broker

 Choosing a stockbroker for trading may certainly be difficult and even overwhelming at times. But as long as you take in mind the important...