10 Top Tips For Macro Photography

May 21st, 2009
macros
Daniel Claydon asked:


m>10 Top Tips for Macro Photography

Go Steady

Camera shake can be a real problem at high magnifications due to longer exposures and shallow depth of field. Use a tripod or assume a sturdy position. Have the mirror lockup mode activated and preferably use a cable release.

Windy Conditions

Shooting macros of delicate subjects is impossible on a windy day so go equipped with a makeshift windbreak. A small clamp and stand may be enough to steady flowers and plants.

Props

Add impact to the shot and create an early morning feel with a water spray to imitate dew or rain.

Sharp as Possible

Maximise the depth of field by using an aperture of f/11 - f/22 and keeping your camera parallel to the subject. Use your depth of field preview button to see the result and if the preview is too dark, take a test shot and check the shot on your LCD.

Get Close

Ordinary lenses won’t let you get close to a subject. There is no substitute for a macro lens that can reproduce 1:1 or life-size reproduction. A focal length of 100 or 200mm will give a good distance to work from.

Manual Focus

Auto focus is a wonderful timesaving addition to your camera lens but can be tricky with close-ups as it battles back and forth to any subtle change or camera movement. Try switching to manual focus and choosing the focus point yourself. To make the most of the depth of field focus on the middle part of the subject.

Backgrounds

Try to avoid backgrounds of the same colour, otherwise your subject will blend into it. Clutter and patches of bright light will draw your eye away from the subject.

Fill in Flash

Add sparkle in dim conditions and reduce shadows and contrast on bright sunny days.

Get Light Subjects Right

With white butterflies for example standard camera metering can be fooled into underexposing so be prepared to add two stops of positive exposure compensation to eradicate this.

Diffused Light for Detail

Avoid burned out highlights and maximise fine detail by shooting on bright overcast days when the light is diffused and not harsh and direct. If you can’t avoid shooting in direct light then use a diffuser to soften the light.

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Forex Auto Pilot Review

May 15th, 2009
forex
Venu Modalavalasa asked:

Forex market is the largest market in the world. Daily at least 2 to 3 trillion dollars of transaction takes place in the market. The Forex market is a non stop market which runs 24/7/365. There is a lot of opportunity to make profits in this forex market. At the same time it is a very risky market. Many forex traders end up with huge losses. Most of those who loose are the newbies.

Today there are many automated forex trading systems in the market and only a few have the proven tracks. Forex Auto Pilot is the one which is having the outstanding proven records. Forex Auto Pilot is developed by Marcus Leary who is a forex trader employee used to work with various mathematical algorithms to analyze the trends in the forex market. Using his expertise, he teamed up with Steven Strauss, a software programmer, and together they created Forex Auto Pilot.

This Forex Auto Pilot is developed especially for the newbies who do not have much trading experience. Forex Auto Pilot make you consistent and steady stream of income but it is never a get rich scheme. Execution of Forex Auto Pilot is simple. You need to understand the Forex Auto Pilot system very clearly so that you can really make profitable trades. I have got some feed back from some of the forex traders who bought this software and tried this. The feed back i got is positive. They said that they are making considerable amount of profits but i also got the feed back that some took one day and some took two days and even some took a week to start making profits.

For anyone to start making profits with Forex Auto Pilot they need to understand the way the Forex Auto Pilot is working and the strategy with which it is working. May be some forex traders may take a few minutes and some may take a day or some may take a week to understand the Forex Auto Pilot System. The faster you understand it the sooner you will start making profits. Once you understand the Forex Auto Pilot System, then you can make Forex Auto Pilot to make trades for you even while you sleep!

Following are the features of Forex Auto PIlot :

1.works 24/7

2. Recognizes trends and hidden trends

3. Works on the MetaTrade4 platform which is a very popular trading platform

4. Is based on various mathematical models and algorithms

5. Simple to operate

6. Can monitor several markets at the same time

7. Provides customer support round clock

8. Money-Back Guarantee, if you not satisfied during the first 56 days (8 weeks)

9. Affordable price

Bonus from Forex Auto Pilot:

Bonus 1: Non Farm Payroll Robot Add on

This unique trading robot for MetaTrader4 was developed to automate the risky high profit trading on important economic news, like Non-Farm-Payroll. 5 minutes before the NFP event it opens 5 pending buy and 5 sell orders automatically with optimized distances between the current price calculating several factors. When the opportunity opens itself the robot starts the trade to increase the profits and minimizes the risk using trailing stop. A powerful money maker that rakes in thousands of dollars every month and is an incredible bonus.

Estimated value: $235

Bonus 2: Ultra Trend Robot

Ultra-trend advisor is one of the best and most effective instruments of technical analysis. It detects trend, strength of the trend, finds support and resistance levels. It can be used for Elliot waves and Fibonacci levels! This indicator surpasses all well-known indicators like ADX, Stochastic; Moving Average. You can develop your own low risk and profitable system based on Ultra-Trend. Easy to setup with a few mouse clicks, it helps you to get a feel for the market. This is ideal for people who not only want to make money with the forex Autopilot robots but to learn and understand WHY they make it :)

Estimated value: $149

BONUS 3 (INCREDIBLE): up to $500

Forex Auto Pilot in fact is so successful that they are giving each user a bonus of up to $ 500 (five hundred) Dollars! They made a deal with a well known brokerage that credits each Forex Auto Pilot user up to 500 USD bonus on their deposit. You don’t need to pay anything more for the platform.

The actual price of Forex Auto Pilot is $399.50. Now there is discount coupon for 75% off is available and it is for a limited period only.

Forex Auto Pilot is recommended for both newbies and experienced Forex traders who really want to make consistent profits even while they sleep!



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Forex Trading: Pros and Cons on Trading Forex

May 15th, 2009
forex
Vikram kuamr asked:


Although, trading Forex can be done mostly by professional banks and broker, they can also be done by aspiring investors. There are lots of pros and cons when trading Forex. Knowing these pros and cons will guide you on the risks of starting to be involved in Forex trading.

Cons: Forex Scam

The major con in Forex trading is the possibility of Forex scam. In fact, most investors are afraid to be involved in Forex trading because of rampant scam going around the market. Forex scam is trading scheme that defraud traders with a promise that they gain high profits when they start trading Forex. The most prone to Forex scam are the retail investors who were convinced to invest in Forex trading. This is usually matched with a promise of high returns only to find out that the money invested was stolen by the dealers instead of putting the money on the Forex market. Other scams may also include, getting the customer’s account to get commissions, mismanaging account, false promotions, and selling fake Forex trading softwares. TO avoid these scams, aspiring investors should study and be equipped with the proper trading Forex schemes and understand how it works so that he can be exposed to both loss and profit in Forex Trading.

Pros: Liquidity

The most common advantage of Forex trading is the fact that the activity creates high liquidity. The fact that you can access to the account of the brokerage can mean that there is convenience in funds. As a result, there is no limit in the volume of trades. It can also be possible that it can absorb big amount of trade sizes. You can also readily close or open positions in trading Forex at anytime you want.

24-hour access
In Forex trading, there is no closure of the market. The market keeps on going for 24 hours a day. The trading then can be done anytime of the day without the risk of closure or pause. For investors who want to actively participate in the Forex trading, they can do so at their convenient time of the day as they would like to earn maximum profit. This is also an advantage to the fact that without pause, there is no delay. There is also no possibility for drastic change in currency rates as monitoring can be seen anytime of the day.

Profit Despite Low Market

Trading forex can be profitable even if the market is down. This can be done when you choose long position by selling and buying different prices of currencies. This is an advantage that stock market trading is far off. In stock market, your profitability is expected to be low when the market is low.

Free Demo

If you want to learn Forex trading, you can start to avail free avail free accounts of online sites that demonstrate and teaches how to go about Forex trading. The free accounts demonstrate illustrative trading using virtual money. One of the sites that offer free trial is the Smart Forex Live that offers a system for Forex trading. Once you get used to how trading Forex works through the teaching demos online, you can be confident to trade real money in actual trading Forex.

Online, Anywhere

Since Forex trading can be done online, it can be done anywhere as long you have laptop and Internet access wherever you go. This way, you get to deal at anytime and anywhere.



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How to shoot flowers well?

May 14th, 2009
macros
Victor Mars asked:


Spring is coming again! After a long winter blues, it is time to enjoy colorful flowers. Many people has a camera, so don’t let it sleep, shoot some flowers and keep it in permanence.

Most photographers like the macro photo. When we take a macro photo, focus is everything. The plane of focus is very shallow — maybe just several centimeter. So we have to choose: What part of the flower do you want to be in sharp focus exactly? The pistil? stamen? or petal? The most beautiful part, of course.

Now, let us find out the light. Usually we avoid harsh sunlight, it tends to cast harsh shadows, at the same time, avoid photographing in the shadows because it tends to give us a color cast. When the light comes from behind us, remember to avoid casting a shadow on the flower. sometimes for getting a special effect, we need shoot with the flower in backlighting, don’t forget avoiding the incoming light to shine directly into your lens producing flare.

Next, it is important to choose a contrasting background so that the flower stands out in the shot. When ever possible for bright colored flowers choose a darker background and for dark colored flowers choose a lighter background.

Then, we need to control the Depth of Field. A larger aperture of say f3.8 would mean a narrower Depth of Field which may not have been enough to capture all the details of the flower. But a small aperture, let’s say f22, would mean a longer Depth of Field which may catch a massy background. We have to make a decision what kind of result we want.

With a macro lens will allow us to capture a landscape of flowers with a wide-angle lens. But don’t forget we also can use telephoto lens to capture the fleeting butterfly or bee as it flutters from flower to flower.

Sometimes, we need to use flash to fill some shadows that maybe lurking around the subject.

Before pressing the shutter, make sure to use a tripod if we can. In nature, the flower is swaying in the wind, we have to wait for the moment, no, the second while the wind will die down and the flower will stand still and “pose”. Without a tripod, we will be exhausted lose patience easily.

If we must shoot during an unremitting wind, we have to play some tricks, placing a temporary shelter (such as an umbrella or a folder) around the flower to block off the wind.

Be patient, hold on… once everything is good in our camera’s viewfinder, press the shutter, done!



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The Present Global Macro-economic Policy

May 12th, 2009
macros
Kh. Atiar Rahman asked:




There is no denying the fact that the loom to macroeconomic stabilization in developing countries underwent a major change in the late 1970s paving the way for the implementation of structural adjustment programmes in developing countries supported by the IMF and World Bank in the early 1980s. The experience of the 1960s and 1970s suggested that the causes of macroeconomic disequilibria were profoundly deep-seated in the make-up of the economy and could not be addressed through short-term fiscal and monetary policies alone. The focus of stabilization policies shifted from the macro economy per se, to include the macro, and micro economy. Structural adjustment policies have come to influence all sectors of the economy and permeate virtually every aspect of short and medium term economic management in Bangladesh due to the country’s excessive dependence on confessional external assistance.

In July 1975, in an agreement with IDA and IMF, the government of Bangladesh made a major adjustment programme with a devaluation of exchange rate by 58% and agreed to initiate adjustment measures such as liberalisation of import, tight control on Bank credit, increase of Bank rate and other interest rates, abolition of multiple currency system, reduction of Bank borrowing, rationalisation of the tax system, gradual reduction of subsidy on food grains and agricultural inputs, enhancing efficiency and financial performance of the public enterprises. ‘The government launched a medium- term structural adjustment program in the mid 1980s to promote financial stability and the efficient use of resources. The program was supported by the IMF, the World Bank, and other organisations. The government adopted a policy program to:

1. To spur private investment through financial reform, exchange and trade liberalisation, and industrial deregulation,

2. To facilitate public invested by domestic revenues, curtailing government consumption, and improving project implementation,

3. To Reduce inflation, and

4. To improve human resource development’.

Bangladesh, like many other embryonic countries, is still struggling with the traditional administrative systems which never come out with desired objectives. Public sector organisations of Bangladesh have similar patterns following the traditional administrative system at the cost of taxpayer’s money but not responsible and accountable to the taxpayers. Bangladesh being a typical Third World country is practically over loaded with reforms. In fact, it is one of the first nations in the South Asian region which accepted the SAP reform packages as early as the 1980s .Structural adjustment in Bangladesh started with the IMF in December 1980 on extended fund facilities. It was followed up by another loan agreement under the conditionality in the name of Structural Adjustment Facilities (SAF) for the period 1986-87 to 1988-89. After a year, Bangladesh contracted another three-year loan under the enhancement structural adjustment facility of IMF covering the period 1990-91 to 1992-93.

Structural adjustment policies adopted in Bangladesh fall into three broad categories:

(1) Demand management policies;

(2) Structural policies; and

(3) Institutional policies.

Demand management policies are aimed at bringing aggregate demand in line with aggregate supply. The major instruments used in this regard include

(1) tight monetary policy through restrictions on credit in the form of savings and controls on both the public and private sector with improving the balance of payments; and (2) tight fiscal policy with cut backs of government expenditures as its main feature aimed at reducing the fiscal deficit.

Structural policies include those aimed at improving provision and productive efficiency and increasing domestic savings and investment. Specific policies under this package include: (1) withdrawal of food and input subsidies, and output price support; (2) financial liberalization to allow the financial markets to reflect the true opportunity cost of capital; (3) rationalization of public enterprise pricing policies to eliminate haziness between cost and revenues; and (4) liberalization of trade through abolition of quantitative restrictions on imports and reductions in the level of tariff protection. Institutional policies essentially consist of denationalisation and privatisation policy allowing greater competition in the economy.

In view of the above it is evident that the structural adjustment policies in Bangladesh as a whole thus cover every aspect of public policy and most sectors of the economy viz, public expenditures interest rates, exchange rates, credit ceilings, tax and tariff regimes, market structures, reforms in public enterprises, civil administration reform, financial sector reforms, decentralization, privatisation, improved management practices, rationalization of pricing policy etc. One of the primary foci of SAP in the context o9f Bangladesh is to rationalize the administrative set up and enhance the productive capacity of public administration. As far as public administration is concerned the reform package under the SAP has stressed taking measures to improve the performance of public sector enterprises, privatise selected areas of the public sector; and rationalize the scope of public delivery and services. The public sector is the dominant sector in Bangladesh and covers about 75% of the development outlay of the country. A major sector of the economy is controlled by public enterprises whose performance is found to be disappointing. The rate of completion of targeted public sector development projects in Bangladesh during the last one and a half decades never exceeded an average of 45% . In spite of its importance in the economy, almost all the public sector enterprises are running on recurrin



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Forex Trading As A Home Business

May 11th, 2009
Forex
Gerald Greene asked:


Forex trading is not just a piece of cake, as some people would like you to believe. A realistic assessment of the forex trading market should be made before putting real money at risk. This forex trading review will try to give you a good overview of the forex market.

Trading forex is like many financial trading businesses in this world. What makes it different are the items that are being traded and the complex factors that influence price fluctuations. Forex trading is a speculative activity and one mistake can bring you down. The best thing to do is invest carefully until you have a full understanding of how the market moves.

Forex Trading is being called “today’s exciting new investment opportunity for the savvy investor”. The reason is that the forex trading market only began to emerge in 1978, when worldwide currencies were allowed to ‘float’ according to supply and demand, 7 years after the Gold Standard was abandoned.

Forex trading is attractive because it offers unparalleled freedoms. A forex trader can live anywhere as long as he/she is within reach of the Internet. Forex trading is not two strange words for those who are looking forward to making a quick profit in the financial market. Most investors will have at least heard or read about Forex trading. Forex trading is not bound to any one trading floor, but takes place electronically between a network of banks continuously over a 24 hour period.

Forex trading is something that many people do not understand very well. While they hear of the dollar “fluctuation” they never quite understand the process or what it means. Forex trading is not easy however it does provides significant potential for profit, as more and more people are discovering. In this review, I want to provide information to help you decide whether forex trading is for you. If you do have risk capital and the inclination to learn forex trading can be an ideal home business.

Forex trading is highly speculative in nature which can mean currency prices may become extremely volatile. Forex trading is highly leveraged. Since low margin deposits normally are required, an extremely high degree of leverage is obtainable in foreign exchange trading. Forex trading is not an exact science, but you need to be able to make cost benefit analysis along with looking at fundamental, economic and technical factors. Forex trading is buying and selling the foreign currencies of different countries. The basis idea is simple enough. Buy at one price and sell at a higher price or sell at one price and buy back at a lower price.

Forex trading is always done in currency pairs. The value of your forex investment increases or decreases because of changes in the currency exchange rate or forex rate. Forex Trading is the world’s largest financial market with an estimated daily average turnover between $2.5 trillion to $3.0 trillion that we cannot doubt.

If we want to make profit from this investment, there is some related knowledge that we definitely need to know. Forex trading is an alternative to the unpredictable nature and whims of the other markets. In the Internet age you can easily participate in the USD 2.5 trillion FX market.

Forex trading is the potentially most lucrative home based business at the moment. It is a business where you can earn an income without selling anything, without pitching a sale to people and without running around after clients. Forex trading is becoming very popular nowadays because in it there are so many additional methods that can be used to get into the markets which are not available through the New York Stock exchange.

Forex trading is the simultaneous buying of one currency and the selling of another. Currencies are traded through a broker or dealer, and are traded in pairs; for example the Euro dollar and the US dollar (EUR/USD) or the British pound and the Japanese Yen (GBP/JPY).

Forex trading is a holistic art. You cannot trade a set of technical indicators crossing (but ignore everything else), and hope to be consistently profitable. In order to be a successful forex trader you need to have discipline and good knowledge of the forex market place.

Of course, good luck is also always welcome. But since good luck is such a fickle thing before getting started you had best prepare yourself for forex trading as a home business venture with a good bit of relevant knowledge.



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Microsoft Excel and Automation

May 10th, 2009
macros
Ramachandran Pillai asked:


Microsoft Excel is one of the best Office Applications ever happened in the history of Computer Software and changed the way we work with complicated calculations and analysis of Business information in a quick way. Originated from Visicalc, the first Worksheet Program conceived by Dan Bricklin, refined by Bob Frankston brought out in 1979 for Apple II Computers. Later, clones of VisiCalc were emerged with more powerful features. SuperCalc in 1980, Multiplan in 1982, Lotus 1-2-3 in 1983, Spread Sheet Module in AppleWorks in 1984, Microsoft Excel for Macintosh in 1985 and for Windows 2.0 in 1987. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VisiCalc).

 

I have worked with Lotus 1-2-3 under DOS. Now, we are referring to the Main Memory in terms of MBs and GBs but those days only 640KB maximum Free Main Memory was available. Lotus 1-2-3 could run within these limited resources. There was an Add-On Program - Worksheet Publisher – for Lotus 1-2-3 to print the Worksheet contents and Graphs, as we print them today under Windows. It was an exciting experience to print the Worksheets with Fonts of different sizes in Graphic shapes and Graph Charts with various shades on Dot Matrix Printers, when these kinds of output from Computers were very rare in those days. I came across the Macro Language in Lotus 1-2-3 and did some form of Automation with Customized Menus.

 

Microsoft Excel is loaded with many features that can make our life easier for home and Business needs alike. We will look into the usage of a one line Macro or VBA Statement and you can judge yourself how powerful it is. But to use that statement we have to do some ground work. Those of you have not tried any of this before, let it be a starting point and I am sure that you will love it. I hope it will give you more insight into the power of Microsoft Excel and inspire you to look beyond what you see here.

 

We are not going to dwell into any complicated Calculations or Expressions. We will try to move the control from one Worksheet to a distant Worksheet among several Worksheets, within the Workbook, quickly with one click of a Button.

 

Assume that our WorkBook has 12 month’s Account Receivable details and each Month need three Worksheets each for keeping - Gross, Adjustment & Net values. That is 36 Worksheets in all and reaching out to any one of these Sheet’s contents requires several clicks or scrolling. But, if we carefully plan, organize and automate some of the frequently used actions then it saves lot of time and you can reach the target area with the Click of a Button.

 

We will look into a simple example (may not be simple for you for the first time) to see how to set up a Control Worksheet with two List boxes and a Command Button for our automation task. One List Box for Months, another one for Worksheet Category Names: Gross, Adjustment & Net and a Command Button to Click and transfer control to the selected Worksheet Area Quickly.

 

1. To try out our example, open a new WorkBook and save it with the name Sample.xls. Create 8 Worksheets in the Workbook and change the Names of them as given below. Right-Click on the Worksheet and select Rename option and Type the new Name.

 

· Ctrl_Data

· Control

· JAN_NET

· JAN_ADJ

· JAN_GRS

· FEB_NET

· FEB_ADJ

· FEB_GRS

 

2. Select the Ctrl_Data Worksheet.

3. Enter JAN, FEB to DEC in Cells A1 to A12, see the image given below:



4. Highlight the Cells A1 to A12 and Name the range as MTHLIST (select Insert - - > Name - - > Define and type MTHLIST in the Names in Workbook Control and Click OK).

5. Enter GRS, ADJ, NET in Cells B1, B2, and B3. Highlight B1 to B3 and define the name as SHEETLIST.

6. Select Cell A16 and Name the Cell as MTH.

7. Select Cell B16 and Name the Cell as RNG.

8. Select Cell B18 and Name the Cell as GotoName.

9. Write the Formula =MTH&”_”&RNG in Cell B18.

10. You may Format the Named Cells with Borders so that they can be spotted easily.

11. Now, we have to name a Range (say A1:D10 or even A1 alone will do) in each Worksheet from JAN_NET to FEB_GRS with the same name like JAN_NET in JAN_NET Worksheet and so on. The Worksheet name can be different but the range name must be as indicated.

12. Select the Control Sheet and highlight the Range: B2:I20 and fill with a gray Color so that it looks like a Form. See the image below:



13. Display the Control Toolbox (View - -> Toolbars - - > Control Toolbox).

14. Click on the Design Mode Control with the Green colored Triangle.

15. Click on the List Box Control and draw a List Box, tall enough to hold all 12 months Description.

16. While the List Box is still selected Click on the Properties Control on the Toolbox, which will display the Property Sheet of the List Box.

17. Change the following Property Values as given below and leave others as it is:

· BoundColumn : 1

· ColumnCount : 1

· ColumnWidths : 30 pt

· LinkedCell : MTH

· ListFillRange : MTHLIST

 

Now you will find all twelve Months’ Description appears in the List Box.

 

18. Create another List Box to the right of the Month’s List to hold GRS, ADJ and NET descriptions.

19. Select the List Box and display the Property Sheet.

20. Set the First three property values same as above and change the next two property values to RNG and SHEETLIST respectively.

21. Select the Command Button Tool from the Toolbox and draw a Command Button to the right of the List Boxes.

22. Display the Property Sheet and change the Caption Property Value to Go To and change the (Name) Property Value to CommandButton1, if it is different there.

23. Select the View Code Button on the Toolbox. You will find the VBA Code Module Window and the following Subroutine skeleton (the top and bottom lines). If the first line is different then select Click from the right-side Drop-down control.

 

Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()

 

Application.Goto Reference:=Worksheets(”Ctrl_Data”).Range(”GotoName”).Value

End Sub

 

24. Write the line given in the middle without mistakes giving all the punctuations correctly.

 

25. Click on the Design Mode Button on the Control Tool Box again to de-select it.

 

26. We are ready to test our Worksheet selection Automation. Select the month FEB from the first List Box and ADJ in the second List Box.

 

27. Click on the Command Button. If you followed the steps described above strictly you will find the control jumps to the Range you have named FEB_ADJ and the range is highlighted in FEB_ADJ Worksheet.

 

28. Open the Ctrl_Data Sheet and view how the selected values from the List Boxes are appearing in the Cells, which we have named MTH and RNG and how the Cell B18 formula combines them together to match the Range Names that we have given on Worksheet JAN to FEB Worksheets.

 

You may add all twelve months Worksheets in the same manner and try out.



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Even The Pros Get Things Wrong!

May 7th, 2009
macros
Ricky Schmidt asked:


Dear Fellow-Investor.

We all make mistakes even if our name is Warren Buffett or George Soros. But when great investors such as Buffett and Soros make mistakes, the lessons for the rest of us are so much more interesting!

Both get far more decisions right than wrong. Buffett took over as the world’s richest man this year (2008)with a fortune of $62bn, while Soros managed to pull in $2.9bn as a hedge fund manager last year.

And new books that are coming out now cast some light on some mistakes.

Vahan Janjigian and Steve Forbes fouthcoming book “Even Buffett Isn’t Perfect” isn’t supposed to quite live up to the iconoclastic promise of it’s title. They conclude that Warren Buffet is one of the greatest investors - if not the greatest - of all times. But they identify one recurring problem with Buffett’s style of investing. He holds on to stocks too long regardless of price.

Buffett once said , “we have no interest at all in selling any good business that Berkshire (Buffett’s conglomerate holding company) owns and we’re very reluctant to sell businesses if they were at least producing some cash and had decent labour relations.”

For Buffett, his investments are almost like a marriage. Meanwhile, Vahan Janjigian and Steve Forbes prompts him with an old adage, “never marry a stock.” These attitudes can be reconciled because Buffett sees all investment decisions as though he is buying a business, rather than simply buying a stock, and takes very large stakes. Once invested, he is married to the business, not merely the stock.

For most it’s probably not so! If a very good business has become overpriced, most people consider selling it. The emerging discipline of behavioral finance - which uses experimantal psychology to explore investment decisions - suggests that far more mistakes are made in deciding when to sell a stock than in the much more widely discussed arena of deciding when to buy.

One of Buffett’s great stock picks was Coca-Cola, which he rode all the way up to it’s brief stint as the world’s largest company by market value, a distinction it reached a little more than a decade ago. But he still holds it, even though Coke has been outperformed by many rivals since then.

For Buffett, this might make sense. But the rest of us should develop a selling discipline. When a stock has become overpriced, we should sell.

As for Soro’s mistakes, he’s been honest enough to tell us about them. His forthcoming book “The New Paradigm for Financial Markets”, on the causes of the credit crisis includes an investment diary that started at the beginning of this year. Soros gave his prognosis for 2008 and explained his investment strategy to capitalize on it.

He then updated it every 2 weeks. The timing was fortunate: Soro’s diary took him through until the Bear Stearns sell-off in March. Soros was the first great “global macro” fund manager making big asset allocation bets. Most famously he wagered that the sterling would have to devalue in September 1992, forcing the UK government to leave the exchange rate mechanism.

Macro funds - which is a hedge fund that specializes in strategies designed to profit from expected macroeconomic events. ( Macroeconomics is a branch of economics that deals with the performance, structure, and behavior of a national or regional economy ). - did well in the first quarter of this year, making an average of about 10% while many other investors lost serious money.

But Soros reveals in his diary that he was only flat for the period. He failed to make money even though he was exactly correct in the way he assessed the global markets. In January, he predicted that the credit crisis was sever but that the acute phase would be contained because central banks would provide temporary liquidity. And that’s exactly what happened.

He also saw a bubble in China. So he started the year betting on the dollar and US and European stocks to fall. All correct calls! So how did he fail to make money? Timing was part of it. He was heavily invested in India and China on the theory that the bubble was in its early stages. But Indian stocks fell 20% in a few weeks during January, while the Shanghai Composite is now at half from its peak of last October.

Then there was Bear Stearns. His overall prediction on US financial services was uncannily correct. But on Friday, March 14, he bought Bear Stearns stock which closed the day at $54. The Federal Reserve had announced emergency funding and he assumed that Bear Stearns would be auctioned off to the highest bidder over the weekend.

Instead, Bear was forced into the arms of JP Morgan for $2 a share. And Soros could have feared very much worse. His Bear shares were very well hedged in the credit market. But by March 20, his fund was “under water for the year”, albeit to a much lesser degree than many others.

There is a belief that times of turbulence are times of opportunity for those that see the big picture. And that perfectly describes George Soros. But if even he can fail to make money owing to slight errors in timing and slight misreadings of individual situations, the lessons for the rest of us is sobering!

Yours in Successful Trading

Ricky Schmidt



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Real Estate Macro-marketing With Microsites

May 7th, 2009
macros
Gary Ashton asked:


You don’t need a big website in order to make a big impression online. Smaller, more focused websites, called microsites, are now the tools of choice for many companies in search of a new marketing angle, and they’re working quite well. That’s great news for real estate agents looking to improve their online presence without starting from scratch. It’s also good for target audiences tired of combing through huge sites in order to find the information they want. Real estate agents who understand the basics of microsite development can make huge marketing progress on their own, or with the help of a web development company.

The best microsites typically support new products by well-established companies. Whether that product is a new car or a romantic comedy movie, the microsite format seems to attract more attention on its own than as a part of a large corporate website. One of the reasons for this is that microsites exist on their own URL and are easily branded separately. Movies also typically make great URLs, so the marketing angle comes naturally there.

While largely untested in real estate, the microsite concept could have many applications. Home sellers looking for an edge in the market could consider registering a unique domain to promote their listing, such as Street_Address.com, and real estate agents looking for new clients could register a domain promoting a new service, such as Buyers_Service.com. Many real estate agents with well-established sites face the challenge of keeping their site current with the latest popular keywords, and microsites could be the way to address that very challenge.

Because microsites only need to attract traffic for one or two keywords, and often receive most of their exposure through linking or advertisements, their forms are a little less strictly defined. Microsites can feature more pictures and graphics than a typical website, and generally don’t need any kind of rigid site architecture in order to perform well.

Microsites are often conceived the same way as blogs: to keep track of a single topic in an uncomplicated format. Indeed, many microsites turn out to be blogs with a fancy landing page attached, or a little more branding. This is fine - in fact promising - for real estate agents, home sellers, and buyers. Imagine a unique brand for every home on the MLS - that’s the promise of a microsite.



Create a video blog…instantly.

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Forex Trading Course: a Must for Forex Beginners

May 7th, 2009
Forex
Andri Irawan asked:


In the world’s largest financial market where exchanges reach up to trillions of dollars each day, many people would really want to participate in this market. Aside from being the largest financial market in the world, Forex is also the most liquid market in the world where trades are done 24 hours a day.

A lot of traders have become very rich trading in the Forex market. And, many people who trade in the Forex market everyday have found a great way to replace their day jobs. Some even became millionaires almost overnight by just trading in this financial market.

Trading in the Forex market can be very attractive. However, you should also know that there have been people who suffered extreme financial losses in the Forex market. It is true that the Forex market offers a very good money-making opportunity to a lot of people, but it also has its risks.

It is a fact that people who didn’t have the right knowledge and skills trading in the Forex market suffered huge financial losses and some even went into debt. So, before you enter the Forex market, it is essential that you should have the necessary knowledge and skills as a Forex trader in order to minimize the risk of losing money and maximize the potential of making money.

Many people who were successful in the Forex market have went through a Forex trading course to get the knowledge and skills needed to successfully trade in this very liquid and very large financial market.

In a Forex trading course, you will learn about when it is the right time to buy or sell, chart the movements, spot market trends and also know how to use the different trading platforms available in the Forex market.

You will also be familiarized with the terminologies used in the Forex market. Even the basic knowledge about trading in the Forex market can be a great help with your money-making venture in the world’s largest market.

There are different Forex trading courses available, all you need to do is choose one that suits your needs as a trader. There are crash courses where all the basic things about Forex will be taught to you in a short period of time, full time online courses, where you will learn all about Forex through the internet and there are also full time real life classroom courses where you can learn the ropes about Forex in a real classroom with a live professor.

You can also become an apprentice. However, in order to learn a lot about Forex as an apprentice, you need to make sure that you have a seasoned Forex trader who can share a lot of things to you about the Forex market.

Here are some of the basic things you should look for in a Forex trading course in order for you to get the sufficient knowledge about Forex trading:

•    Margins

•    Leveraging

•    Types of orders

•    Major currencies

A good Forex trading course will also explain a lot about the fundamental and technical analysis of charts. As a trader, knowing how to analyze a chart is an essential skill that you should have. So, when you are looking for a Forex trading course, you should look for a course that offers fundamental and technical analysis instruction.

Stress plays a vital part in Forex traders. Knowing how to deal with stress is also a skill that you should develop. A good Forex trading course should teach you how to deal with stress and trade effectively and efficiently.

As much as possible, you should look for a Forex trading course that offer actual trading systems where students can trade real money on the Forex market or at least trade on dummy accounts in a simulated Forex market. This hands-on experience will greatly benefit you. Besides, the best way to learn about anything is by actually experiencing it. Live trading and simulations should be offered in a Forex trading course.

So, if you plan on getting involved in the Forex market, consider finding all these things in a Forex trading course. Developing the right knowledge and skills in trading in the world’s largest and most liquid market in the world will definitely help you make it to the top and achieve your dreams as a Forex trader.



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