Should I invest in Gold ?

By Tushar Mathur

Looking to invest in Gold funds but don’t know too much about them? Here are some basic facts to get you started.

What are Gold funds?
Gold funds are similar to mutual funds except that they invest in gold instead of debt instruments or equity shares. A unit of a Gold fund is nearly equivalent to a gram of physical gold.

How does it work?
A Gold fund collects money from investors and uses it to buy gold in physical form. Of the total money collected, a major portion is used to buy gold and the rest is invested in low-risk debt products such as bonds and money market instruments. It does not invest in equities. As the major portion of funds is invested in gold, the performance of the fund depends on the price movement of gold. The performance of the fund is reflected in its Net Asset Value (NAV). This gives you a chance to make fresh investments even after the initial offer closes.

Is it suitable for all?

Till date investment in gold has always been through jewelry or coins. But there is a physical limitation to the actual amount of gold you can store. Besides, you cannot take advantage of the price variation in gold. But with Gold funds, you do not have these problems. All that you have to do is buy units in a Gold fund and these units will be credited to your demat account. It is advisable to allocate 5-10 over the long term.

Reasons to say YES to Gold

• The dollar is weak and getting weaker due to national economic policies which don’t appear to have an end.
• Gold price appreciation makes up for lost interest, especially in a bull market.
• The last four years are the beginning of a major bull move similar to the 70′s when gold moved from $38 to over $800.
• Central banks in several countries have stated their intent to increase their gold holdings instead of selling.
• All gold funds are in a long term uptrend with bullion, most recently setting new all-time highs.
• The trend of commodity prices to increase is relative to gold price increases.
• Worldwide gold production is not matching consumption. The price will go up with demand.
• Most gold consumption is done in India and China and their demand is increasing with their increase in national wealth.
• Several gold funds reached all-time highs in 2007 and are still trending upward.
• The short position held by hedged gold funds is being methodically reduced.
• U.S. government economic policies over the past decade have systematically projected the U.S. economy down a road with uncontrollable federal spending and an uncontrollably increasing trade deficits. Both will cause the dollar to lose in international value and will increase the price of alternative investments, such as gold.
• With the recent devaluation of many international currencies, the U.S. dollar was the international safe haven of last resort. We are seeing signs of this ending due to many financial factors, the most important one being a falling dollar.
• There are over One Trillion dollars ($1,500,000,000,000) of U.S. debt owned by foreigners which could be repatriated under certain conditions. This could cause a major decline in the value of the dollar and a soaring gold price.
• If you believe in ‘buy low, sell high’, gold is still low, but climbing.

What is the tax treatment?
Though Gold funds are similar to mutual funds, they are not treated at par with equity schemes. So you don’t enjoy the same tax-free treatment. Both short and long term capital gains tax, with indexation benefits, become payable.

Tushar is the author of 2 blogs.
http://www.everythingfinanceblog.com
http://investmoneyinindia.com

Article Source: http://www.free-articles-zone.com

This is not a substitute for professional financial advice. Seek the guidance of a finance professional if you need help with financial advice.

Gold Investing Resources

Invest In Gold
Gold As An Investment

In tough economic times, your financial planning may seem to be a futile attempt to stem losses instead of increasing gains. It’s nice to know that even when most investments are going south, from housing to the stock market, you can still count on municipal bonds to protect your principal while giving you some steady gains. And, the fact that they are at bargain basement prices can even sweeten the deal.

The need for municipal bond insurance too is in question. This might make sense if the insurers were solvent, but many of them are the same people who insured the mortgage mess. In the final analysis, one shouldn’t bother with municipal bond insurance until things shake out in the greater market place. In order to hedge the risk, you can simply opt for low-cost and high quality municipal bonds instead. If your portfolio is diversified well enough, it can be a great way to stash some money away and still feel somewhat safe. A default on any one bond will have much less impact that way.

Finally, using this strategy, one can make greater gains on the investment than putting the money in treasury securities – even though, that hasn’t been the case historically, because they are not free from Federal taxes now, unlike in the past. When you compare the returns on municipal bonds, including the tax costs, you may find that municipal bonds become far more attractive for the near future. After all is said and done, you might make out with a 5% yield on the investment without much risk. In today’s collapsing markets, that’s one of the better deals around. It’s not stellar, but it also won’t have you lying awake at night wondering if the price of oil, the housing mess, or credit crunch is going to derail your investments.

This is not a substitute for professional financial advice. Seek the guidance of a finance professional if you need help with financial advice.

Rental Property Investment - Finding The Properties

by: Steve Gillman

Rental property investment starts with finding the best deals. To do this, you can increase your odds by finding more deals. Who’s more likely to get a cheap apartment building, an investor that looks through the MLS listings and calls it a day, or the one that uses ten resources? Here are those ten:

1. Look in old papers to find “For Rent” ads. Call if they are a few weeks old. The landlord may be ready to sell, especially if he hasn’t yet rented the units out.

2. Look up old FSBO ads. Call on two-month-old “For sale By Owner” ads, and if they haven’t sold, they may be ready to deal. Owners often give up the effort, but still would love to sell. Help them out!

3. Drive around looking for “For Sale By Owner” signs. Owners often don’t want to pay to keep the ad in the paper every week, so you won’t see all properties there.

4. Find abandoned properties. That’s a pretty clear sign that the owner doesn’t want to deal with the property. He might sell cheap.

5. Talk. Let people know you are looking and sometimes the properties will come to you. There are a lot of owners out there who want to sell, but haven’t yet listed their property.

6. Talk to bankers. You might get a foreclosed rental property cheaper if you buy it before they list it with a real estate agent.

7. Offer someone a finder’s fee. There are people that always seem to hear about the good deals. Have such people coming to you.

8. Eviction notices. If your local papers publish eviction notices, or if you can get the information at the courthouse, it can be useful. A landlord who just went through the procees of evicting tenants is a likely seller.

9. Use the internet. Go to a search engine and enter the type of real estate you are looking for, along with the city you want to invest in. You never know what you might find.

10. Put an ad in the paper. “Looking for rental properties to buy,” might be sufficient to generate a few calls.

There is a lot more to learn to do it right, but finding good properties is a good place to start for rental property investment.

About The Author

Steve Gillman has invested in real estate for years. To get a free real estate investing course, and see a photo of a beautiful house he and his wife bought for $17,500, visit http://www.HousesUnderFiftyThousand.com.

This is not a substitute for professional financial advice. Seek the guidance of a finance professional if you need help with financial advice.

Rental Property Resources

Low Price Houses
Foreclosures

Forex Trading System

How To Choose a Forex Trading System That Works and Suits You

by: Bret Freak

There are so many different trading systems you could use to trade the forex market, some better suited to certain people than others. For example some people may find it easier to comprehend and take into account fundamental factors as opposed to looking at a screen covered in technical indicators, and vice-versa.

The first logical step in determining what type of trading system would best suit you is actually being aware and understand the widely known methods of analysis used in trading the currency market. Once you are aware of the tools that are available, you can generally tell what type of analysis suits you. For example some of the main technical analysis methods which are popular include:

Pivot points

Chart patterns

Fibonacci retracements

Candlestick patterns

And some fundamental factors which are widely used include analyzing:

Interest rates

Trade balances

Unemployment rates

Gross domestic product (GDP)

You may now actually be able to develop your own system by combining certain methods of analysis together, giving you a method which you are comfortable with. On the other hand you may decide that you would like to trade someone else’s system, either way, that brings us to the next step which is determining the profitability of a trading system.

Determining Profitability

Most people would think that back testing is the best way to determine a systems profitability. However back testing doesn’t always give you a true idea of how profitable a system is. The reason for this is because when you’re back testing your system on historical charts, you are only seeing the obvious setups which have occurred, and not always seeing the ones that are less obvious. These less obvious ones sometimes can produce losses, which is why back testing isn’t always the best method to implement.

A better method of determining profitability is by trading your system in real-time with a demo account. This would give you a true understanding of what your system is capable of. This would also allow you to familiarize yourself with your trading platform at the same time. When determining profitability you must look at it in terms of expectancy and opportunity.

Expectancy & Opportunity

These two factors together will be able to tell you what you could expect to make over a period of time. Expectancy is calculated with the following formula:

(Probability of winning × average win) – (Probability of losing × average loss)

This will give you a figure which is the average amount you can expect to make per trade. This shouldn’t be a negative amount, if it is you should look at some other method of trading since you cannot make money on a system that produces a negative expectancy. Obviously the higher this figure is the better. Now to the opportunity factor.

The opportunity factor is how often you are able to trade using your system. By multiplying your expectancy figure with your opportunity factor it will tell you how much you could expect to make over a period of time. The more opportunity you have to trade, the more money you should expect to make. This now brings us to the last component of a trading system, money management.

Money Management

Without proper money management you will end up as a statistic. In other words one of those 90%+ of traders who loose their money. Money management tells you how much of your account balance to risk per trade. The whole point of money management is to ensure your survival over the long term, and to preserve your capital.

The most common form of money management is the percent risk model which tells you not to risk more than x percent of your account balance on any one trade. A range between 1-3% is generally an accepted amount which has been a reliable percentage to use in order to make money in the long term.

Conclusion

By taking into consideration the above factors you will be able to determine if a trading system best suits you, and with some simple mathematical calculations you will be able to determine its profitability.

About The Author

Bret Freak is the owner of http://www.trading-forex-online.com where you can find information on forex trading systems & strategies available online.

Find Foreclosures Nationwide. 7 Days Free. Click here.

 by: David Jacobsen

If someone is about to lose their home to foreclosure, then you can guarantee they’re feeling stressed. They’re probably being bombarded by calls and letters from creditors, and for many people it all becomes too much to handle. They close their eyes and hope it will all just go away.

Reality is that it won’t, and as an investor interested in buying foreclosures, the hardest part can be convincing the homeowner that they really are going to lose their house unless they do something about it. It can also be difficult to convince them that you really are trying to help them, even though you are helping yourself make a profit at the same time.

When you’re dealing with foreclosures, time is of the utmost importance. You need to have enough time to bail out the homeowner and take over the property before it’s too late. That’s why it can be a good idea to subscribe to a foreclosure listing service – you get access to listings at the earliest possible time, and don’t have to use your valuable time looking for potential foreclosure properties from other sources.

Many people facing foreclosure have spoken to an attorney, and are convinced that bankruptcy is their only option. In most cases this isn’t true, but attorneys tend to stick to what they’re familiar with, which is bankruptcy, rather than mentioning other possibilities such as:

- Sale by assumption
- Deed in lieu
- Straight sale
- Foreclosure presale
- Compromise sale
- Short payoff
- Workouts
- Assignment
- Injunctions

There are still more options than these, which shows that bankruptcy definitely isn’t the only choice for the homeowner. When you’re dealing with a homeowner in foreclosure, make it clear that you’re offering an alternative to bankruptcy. Find out whether they really understand what bankruptcy will do to their credit history and how it will affect their future.

If you’re serious about buying foreclosure properties, then you need to become familiar with everything that’s required in the process, and check everything for every property you consider. These items include:

- Loan and mortgage documents
- Loan amount, monthly payment, and interest rate
- Any outstanding taxes
- Existing insurance policies
- Any other liens or judgments

Make sure you have enough information to complete all the necessary tasks before the foreclosure occurs. If there’s not enough time, don’t even bother starting. Having said that, learn as much as you can about ways to delay foreclosure, and help the homeowner to implement them all. If may just give you enough time to take over the property before the foreclosure auction.

Above all, focus on creating a solution where everybody wins. It’s never an easy time for the homeowner, so be prepared for plenty of anger, frustration and resentment – some of which may be directed at you. Walk away if it’s obvious the person doesn’t want to work with you. Find someone who is interested in finding a solution, show empathy for their situation, put together a strategy to get the best possible result for them, and before long you’ll find yourself with a good portfolio of investment properties.

About The Author
David Jacobsen

If you want to read more about foreclosures, click over to David’s site at http://www.foreclosuresonlinecentral.com

You can also access lists of seized real estate at http://www.buyingcheaphouses.info

This is not a substitute for professional financial advice. Seek the guidance of a finance professional if you need help with financial advice.

Foreclosure Resources

Foreclosure University

Real Estate Foreclosures