Stock Watch … Stock In Play … Trading Stock On the News …
Stock Alert … Stock Prices .-

Most stock traders recognize that momentum trading can be a
very profitable activity. You can make big amounts of cash in a
short period of time.

It’s not unsual to see a stock rise more than 15% in less than 5
minutes on a good momentum day. The problem is, that if you
don’t know what stocks to look for and how to approach them and
simply leave everyting to luck, you could end up wasting money
instead of making your profits grow.

That’s why the most important aspect of momentum trading is the
knowledge FILTER you employ to make your buy and sell decisions.
There are many “fantastic” stock systems and trading strategies
outhere, but you need to test them in order to discover which
ones help you the most. That’s part of your homework as a
stocktrader. Test, test and test again.

Complicated stock trading strategies that rely on a “boat load”
of technical analysis indicators can make you slow, and being
slow when trading hot momentum stocks can be as dangerous as not
knowing what to do in the first place.

The worst thing that can happen to a beginner momentum trader is
to get information overload. It’s better to go step by step, and
test a practical stock trading strategy that can show you how to
focus on concrete ways to make money while picking SOLID hot
stock trading opportunities once at a time.

Fortunatly there are great sites on the web today that can show
you how to trade in a sharp and effective way. One of those
sites is Momentum Stock Trading
http://www.MomentumStockTrading.com

In the end, momentum trading is all about buying and selling
stocks according to your knowledge FILTER. Once you master and
follow your proven filter parameters like a clock, you can
expect to start making serious amounts of cash on a consistent
basis.

Find out how to do it with ease and simplicity at Momentum Stock
Trading

http://www.MomentumStockTrading.com

Agonizing displays of poor theatrics failed to entertain my mind one recent Saturday evening. I scrolled across several television channels hoping for an engaging program. Finally, one particular concert intrigued my senses. There on the stage performed one of rock and roll’s most expressive singers.

With every bit of his legendary convulsive style, Joe Cocker belted out each song with passion and enthusiasm. A solitary man represented by a dull silhouette and expressions of life’s complicated sorrows braided through words of reassuring simplicity. The foggy stage complimented his smoky voice as his lyrics invited every listener to share his soul. He was an elder musician with lessons to teach.

The English born Cocker, now in his early sixties, has been delivering the same spasmodic “air-guitar” performance for decades. His music has endured critics, fads, and lifestyle changes. Who can resist the tunes of “Heard It Through the Grapevine” or “Up Where We Belong?”

Perhaps some people mock his unique musical delivery, but his melodies speak to the soul.

At times, his twitching becomes somewhat distracting, yet in the end, his concert is a magical blend of R&B influences, solid rock and roll, and rhythmic gospel.

In the end, this diversified musician has prevailed through the good times and the bad.

Well, it must be Joe Cocker’s Market.

At times, the current stock market is intolerable and difficult to watch. Like Cocker, it sometimes seems contorted and out of control. The ups and downs can be disturbing, yet in the long run, the concert delivers tunes of delight. When the show finally concludes, the audience cheers for an encore.

As an investor, you may be cheering for an encore. Interest rates seem undesirable and the stock market volatility may have you curious about the future.

Keep your focus on a pre-determined game plan. Ignore short-term distractions and learn to invest in range bound markets. Do not allow the ups and downs to discourage you and by all means avoid making judgments by sight alone. Know your positions and the reason for inclusion in the portfolio. Longevity is the key and your risk tolerances, time horizons and/or goals must be prioritized. Together, you and the market may live in harmony.

Wardlaw’s belief is that familiar life elements best illustrate practical investment strategies; not typical investment jargon. With that philosophy, the author assists financial planners/advisors, brokerage firms, periodicals, and other investment information syndicates create informative and entertaining articles. For comments and questions, please contact the author at tools2invest@yahoo.com or visit http://www.tools2invest.com

All this talk about Investing is encouraging lately. Over the last few years, more people have become interested in the duty to invest there money, then ever before. However, when you follow most investment offers to their logical conclusion, they are disgustingly futile.

Yet, many people take up these “offers” nonetheless. Why?

As I mentioned at the opening comments. We really aren’t interested in the investing, its the compounding we want. Its the compounding of our seed capital over a specified amount of time that produces the results for us. When most people refer to investing, they really mean compounding their money.

The government accredited investment advisors and other peddlers of paper financial tools offer 7% compounding where ever you go. Didn’t anybody tell them we dont live for 200 years? Thats how long it would take to see any reasonably interesting return. Even then, in 200 years, inflation would eat up half of the gains. Why do so many settle for these returns?

Maybe lack of choice. But I believe we have simply swallowed the line “the higher the reward the higher the risk” Therefore, the logic goes, settle for a very small 7% compounder, and my money will be safe. (Whether it is or not, is a matter for the Gods)

Its just not so. Many low yielding investments are VERY risky.

Want to know what they really mean by that statement? “The more in control of your own investments you are, the higher the reward and the higher the risk TO US-our job, our profits” (the investment advisors jobs, the investment advisors profits)

CONTROL is the financial key to rapid asset growth… compounding. Its just so confusing for most people. They see the polished brochures, and marble floored offices, and the pristinely groomed secretaries, and believe these guys MUST be good. Yes they are good, they are good at getting business for themselves. So we work very hard in our jobs/small businesses, trying to aggregate together some funds to hand over to them.

Well, those of us that refuse to become professional investors anyway.

YOUR CONTROL OF YOUR FUNDS

The absolute truth. Completely unbiased, unspoiled, honest to holy, highest of accuracy truth, is that you can do 100 times better then whats on offer. Its possible, it happens and you can make it happen too.

Risk is a managable factor, that can be negated to almost zero.
“Low returns and risk are proportional to the exact degree we relinquish control of our asset to another”. (I hope you heard that last statement, its the most important sentence on this page.)

The further removed we are from the compounding control of our assets (money), the higher the risk and the lower the return…..guaranteed.

If you could compound your money at a rate of tenfold, (or 1000%) for 48 months starting with just $1000 you would have 10 million dollars IN 4 YEARS. (Try it yourself, just get a calculator and multiply $1000 by ten, then multiply the result by ten for 4 times.)

At 7% over 48 months, you would end up with the grand total of $1310.79 (Try it yourself, but instead of ten, multiply by 1.07 which is equivalent to 7%)

Its a big difference isn’t it?

What would it take to multiply your money by 10 every year, consistently? Or even 5 for that matter would be quite acceptable, 3 times? Yes, Yes, and Yes. They are possible, and available to you.

If control is the key, how then can we physically, concretely make these results? If not in the “closed shop” of the worlds stock markets, then where?

Its all around you. Spare value is everywhere, waiting to be scooped and resold for a profit. At every price point imaginable. You can start with $20 or you can start with $20,000 your account size and comfort zone, are your only restrictions.

There’s alot to all this. Its beyond the scope of this short article. The main point here, is that the “professionals” are in charge, so they get paid first, and in some cases-the most. You gave them the power over your money by signing their forms. They scooped the cream off, even though ITS YOUR MONEY that did the work.

Its easy to understand if you will just be willing to be honest with yourself. Investing is alot of fun. Especially when you know a few things about it.

I have alot to tell you about these issues, so keep an eye out for my articles here, or visit our web site now for alot of free insights and open content pages.

(c) Martin Thomson 2005.

Martin is an investor who is also part of a team that maintain a website for ordinary people to find rapid resource pathways to wealth.
http://www.opportunity-investor.com. With quality content heavily slanted towards good common sense,
opportunity-investor.com is the exclusive place on the web to get the highly acclaimed work by Millionaire Investor Hayden Muller.
“The Trade Secrets of an Ethical Opportunity Investor: A Step-by-Step Guide”. copyright 2005 revised edition. Hayden Muller.

There are many, many different people out there selling their
“forex secrets” or trading systems that promise to make you a
millionaire in a month. How do you sort through the overload of
information to pick the right one, without going bankrupt in the
process?

The key to consistent success in forex is to develop your own
personal trading system. Sure, someone else may be having great
success with a certain system, and decides to crank out an ebook
or a website to sell it. But because there is such a thin line
between profitability and losing it all in the forex market, it
is impossible to convey every single piece of information that
makes a system successful. Even the most detailed systems will
not have the answers to more than a small slice of the
situations you will be faced with in an average day of
trading.

So how do you go about developing a personal trading system? The
first thing is to ask yourself what kind of trader you are. How
much time do you have to spend at your computer? Are you
comfortable carrying trades overnight, over a week, or longer?
Are you prepared to leave your trades alone while you are not
monitoring the charts? Day traders and swing traders tend to
want to close all their trades before they leave the computer
for an extended amount of time to make sure all is well.
Longer-term traders leave trades open for days or weeks, and
only log on occasionally for maintenance.

If you decide that you are not comfortable leaving your trades
alone for an extended amount of time, consider yourself a day
trader. Day and swing trades tend to rely on tight stops and
technical analysis. Long-term trades rely more on fundamental
analysis and worldwide economic conditions. This is another
factor to consider - will you enter a trade based on chart
action, support and resistance bands, overbought and oversold
conditions? Or do you prefer examining larger trends in the
economic factors that will affect prices?

The most important factor in the success of any system is
testing. Constantly test and refine your system, and eventually
you will find yourself consistently in profit. Pick several
currency pairs and become a specialist in them. If you are a
swing trader, is there a time of day where a pair always seems
to move in the same way? Become aware of each currency market’s
opening and closing times. Often when one or both currencies in
a pair are closed, movement will be much less volatile and more
consistent. Long-term traders should focus more on the less
popular pairs, as they are much less susceptible to short-term
spikes in price that go against the overall trend, and you won’t
be stopped out as much.

Your trading style should also influence your choice of market
maker. For example, if you are a swing trader, the spread
becomes much more important to you. Choosing a market maker with
smaller spreads will be very beneficial. People who are willing
to take bigger risks should go for market makers with higher
margins, and risk-averse people ought to find the smallest
margin they can.

Does all of this mean that you should not listen to any forex
advice? Of course not. You should just be wary of anybody who
claims to have a foolproof system, especially when they are
selling it. Don’t expect to follow any system to the letter and
have success. There are many systems and people out there that
have good fundamental advice, and the key to profit is to take
this advice as a basis for your own system that suits your own
needs. If you are willing to put the time and thought into your
trading, you too can save yourself being one of the 90% of
people that do not achieve success in the forex market.

Often, I receive requests from members of my stock market trading discussion group to give my views on technical analysis of stocks that they are watching. In the course of discussion, I discovered one common factor which separates the winning traders from the losing traders.

In general, both group of traders like to scan their lists of active stocks to uncover possible trading candidates. However, the traders in the winning group are specific about their trading, and have their entry and exit points well spelt out in a specific trading plan.

In their trading,they have precise entry and exit points…so that the trade is unemotional. After they have entered a trade, either they are correct and ride the trend or they are wrong and you exit with a loss that has been predetermined. There is nothing vague in their trading.

In contrast, those who are losing money in their trades invariably do not have a trading plan, or at least a semblance of a trading plan. This group of traders jump on tips provided by others without being able to check or verify the tips from some analysis, whether technical or fundamental. They do not have any idea of when to enter the trade or to exit with a stop loss.

Again, when the winning traders have computed their entry and exit and stop loss points, these traders can approach their
trading day with guarded optimism, watching whether an expected rally is on the cards or not. By watching pre-determined price points, the trader can know whether a rally has in fact begun and to start to trade in a more aggressive manner or to stop trading on wrong expectations which comes soeasily by being influenced by tips here and there. If the trade goes against them and hit their stop loss, they take their loss unemotionally and are out of the market, thus limiting their losses.

Remember, you involve hard earned money into your trading and investment.There is nothing VAGUE about trading. Every entry and exit points is calculated before hand to enable you to control your risk, if you are to become a successful trader.

Learn how to do this well and you will be a consistent trader. Test every tip and breathe specifics into your trades and you can make profits. In every profession, it is the specialist who makes the most money. Learn to excel in your trading and you will be profitable.

Peter Lim is a Certified Financial Planner and often share his thoughts and views on technical analysis of stocks and futures in several forums where he is a moderator. Visit his blog ” The Art of Trading” at get-investment.info/finance to get more insights and free resources to help in your trading, or for more trading articles on swing trading at www.online-guides.info

Are you new to trading? Perhaps you wonder what the difference is between trading Stocks and trading Futures. Often when I meet someone new who inquires as to what I do, I get a response of “that’s like trading stocks, isn’t it?”

In some ways they are similar, but only minutely so. So let’s consider some of the major differences between the two.

Most individuals have likely traded stocks at one time or another. Usually, it is to buy in order to ‘own’ a percentage of a particular company or to liquidate such partial ownership. They pick up a phone to call a broker or go online to purchase or sell. The order is facilitated through an ‘exchange’, such as the New York Stock Exchange for example.

Buying and selling Futures is similar in this respect. You can call a broker or go online to buy or sell Futures contracts. The order is then facilitated througha commodity exchange, such as the Chicago Merchatile Exchange for example. Yet while buying a stock gives you part ownership in a company or portfolio of companies (as in a fund), buying a Futures contract does not give you ownership of a commodity or product. Rather, you are simply entering into a contract to purchase the underlying commodity at a certain price at a future time, noted by the contract. For example, buying one May Wheat at 3.00 simply creates a contract between you and the seller (whom you need not know as this is taken care of via the exchange) that come May you will take delivery of 5000 bushels of Wheat at $3 per bushel, regardless of what the price of Wheat at market happens to be come May. As a speculator simply trading to make a profit from trading itself and with no interest in actually taking delivery of product, you will simply sell your contract prior to delivery at the going market price and the difference between your buy price and sell price is either your profit or loss.

When you buy a stock, you are part owner of a company. When you buy a Futures contract, you simply are entering a contract. With stocks, you will pay for the stock at the time of your purchase plus broker commissions. When buying a futures contract, you are simply entering the buy side of a contract and no monies is paid other than commissions to your broker.

Stock exchanges and commodity exchanges are both membership organizations established to act as middlemen between the buys and sells of all types of traders, from business entities to the individual small trader. The stock exchange act to bring capital from investors to the businesses that need that capital. They facilitate the transfer of property rights (ownership in the various companies offering stock).The commodity exchange act to bring people willing to assume risk for the opportunity to make a substantial amount of money for taking such risk. This helps transfer the price risk associated with ownership of various commodities, such as Soybeans, or a service, like interest rates, from producers.

To buy stocks, you only need enough money in your account to purchase the stock outright plus commissions. Once you make the purchase, the money is removed immediately to make the purchase. With trading futures, since you are not actually purchasing anything but simply entering a contract to do so at a later time (which you will exit prior to avoid delivery), the broker will require a certain amount of margin (good faith deposit to cover any possible losses) in what is called a ‘margin account’. Each commodity has a different minimum margin requirement depending on several factors. Your broker may use the exchange calculated margin or require a different margin of their own. If the value of the commodity were to decrease and you are on the buy side of the contract, then your contract has lost value and your broker will notify you if your unrealized losses exceeds have gone beyond your minimum margin requirement. This is called a ‘margin call’. Naturally you would want to have more capital than simply the margin amount when trading futures to avoid these broker calls. The broker has the right (and likely will) liquidate your position if you are getting too close to not having enough to cover the losses in order to protect themselves.

With buying stocks outright, there is no potential for a margin call. You simply own the stock outright. So perhaps you may be wondering why anyone would bother buying futures contracts rather than stocks. The major answer is: LEVERAGE.

Leverage gives the trader the ability to control a large amount of money (or commodity worth a lot of money) with very little money. For example, if Live Cattle futures requires a minimum margin of $800 to trade a single contract, and a single contract represents 40,000 lbs at the current market price of say 75, you would be controlling $30,000 worth for a leverage of over 35:1. This is appealing to many traders and justifies the risk. What is that risk? Just as leverage can work in your favor, it can work against you at the very same ratio. Known as a ‘two-edged sword’.

You can increase the leverage of trading stocks if you trade with a margin account. This usually allows you to purchase stocks on margin at the usual rate of 50%. So for every dollar you have you can purchase $2 worth of stock. The leverage is 2:1. How this works is that the broker is actually ‘lending’ you the other 50%. Of course by purchasing stock with margin you can lose more than you have due to the leverage. And in this case you can end up getting a ‘margin call’ from your broker if your stock losses too much value. But trading stocks comes no where close to the kind of leverage you get trading Futures.

When you look at these two trading vehicles, the bottom line comes to MARGIN and LEVERAGE.

Learn more on how to lower your risk and increase your profit potential with other free articles found at our Precision Timing of the Futures, Commodity and Forex Markets site.

Say you have a stock in your portfolio that is up 30% and it forms a base or consolidates to a moving average, and you want to add to this position. How would you go about doing this?

There are a few ways that I have approached this situation. Some of you may agree and some of you may disagree with the way I pyramid or scale my positions when they are in confirmed up-trends after my original entry. When the market is weak and the NH-NL ratio is not confirming a bull market such as 2005 and 2006, I am cautious when I enter a position making a new high. Hypothetically speaking, I will use a $100,000 portfolio and round numbers to keep the examples simple although the CBG position explained in detail is based on a true position.

If I start to research a stock and feel it will travel from $60 to $100, I will determine the maximum position I can assume from a simple position sizing calculation. If I determine I can handle an 8% drop, I am allowed to purchase 208 shares at $60 per share (I’ll typically round it off to 200 shares in this situation). My position size will be $12,500 with a maximum drawdown risk of $1,000 or 1% of my entire portfolio. My stop will be located at $55.20 or slightly beneath a specific support area that is within 8% of my purchase price. If the stock is breaking out of a specific pattern such as a cup with handle, I will buy half my position at the time of breakout and the other half after the trend is confirmed several days later.

If the stock is in a solid up-trend and not in a recognizable pattern, I will typically purchase 2/3rd of the position when I see the opportunity and then follow up with the remaining 1/3rd of the position at the time of the next pullback (only after the stock reaches a minimum gain of 25%).

Other times, when the market is acting healthy and the NH-NL ratio is strong, I will initiate the entire position based on my original 1% position sizing model and reassess the situation at a later date. Using a recent example, I added shares to CBG when it consolidated in the $40’s and then readjusted my position sizing model to 1.5% (the math can become tricky at this point since the price has changed and my portfolio value is different). I have never gotten into this much detail in a simple blog post but I guess now is better than ever. This method is my own so you will not find it anywhere else and it may or may not appeal to everyone.

The following is a true example using actual stock prices but the portfolio size has been altered to keep the calculations simple and to keep my own activity discreet.

When I first purchased CBG, I took on the entire 1% portfolio risk and wasn’t sure if I would ever add shares in the future (this wasn’t my concern at the time). I liked the stock and thought the 15 week pattern that preceded my buy was picture perfect (especially since the correction was due after the prior up-trend from the IPO date). I placed a market order on June 1, 2005 at $38.97 for the entire risk amount of 1%. The stock was already under coverage on the MSW Index since May 21, 2005 at $37.20 but I was looking for a break above $39. I used the calculation of $39 which gave me the purchasing power of $12,500 or 321 shares (my order was filled for 320 shares at $38.97 = $12,470). After I placed the position, the stock immediately reversed but I stayed put as it didn’t violate any sell signals and then watched as it quickly advanced into the $40 range and approached $50. The stock consolidated over the next three months as I held the position and started to cover it more heavily on the MSW Index with a new purchase price of $50. The resistance line was touched several times so I decided that I was going to add shares if the stock broke-out above $50 with confirming volume.

As it turns out, I did add shares when the stock started to form the obvious consolidation during the fall of 2005. I added shares on November 2, 2005 at $52.68 (a little higher than I wanted but it was an extremely powerful move that day). The stock hesitated slightly over the next several days but never violated the new support line of $50. Within six weeks the stock moved towards $60 per share and I felt very comfortable. So, how many shares did I buy and how did I determine the size of my additional position?
When pyramiding up, I have always been taught by my father to take on a smaller position than the original purchase. In this case, my portfolio had grown by about 10% since the summer so I decided that I could take on another 0.5% risk in CBG (a total risk of 1.5% - my maximum risk in any one stock caps at 2% of my entire portfolio). When running the new calculation, I had a portfolio size of $110,000 (hypothetical value) with a 1.5% risk factor or $1,650 risk on the entire position.

I used a price of $50 with a risk factor of 0.5% (half of 1%) with a stop of 8% (typical for my calculations) which gave me the purchasing power of $6,875 or 138 shares. I bought an additional 130 shares and added them to my original position of 320 shares for a total of 450 shares and a total cost of $19,318.80 (minus all fees, etc…). Now, take a look at how this works (it doesn’t work perfectly every time but this time I kept the numbers round): Using the position sizing calculator; plug in a portfolio value of $110,000, a risk of 1.5%, stop loss of 8% and an average cost basis of $45.83 (($38.97+$52.68)/2). What do you get? Amazing: a position size of $20,625 or 450 shares. I currently hold 450 shares with a dollar value slightly lower ($19,318.80) than the maximum calculation in this equation.

The support line is $50 but the stock went on to maintain the 50-day moving average as the true support line heading into 2006. I have not sold one share in this company as I approach one year of holding the stock from the original date of purchase. I will not base my sell on anything but my stop which currently resides slightly below the 50-day moving average. I have a tremendous gain in this stock and I owe it to two things: CANSLIM for finding the actual stock (strong earnings and a recognizable pattern setup) and position sizing for giving me the right amount of shares to purchase. By using the moving average and a retracement stop calculation, I know the exact location to take my profit. Also note that I will most likely scale out of the position if it starts to consolidate in a new range. This is a topic for another day! I always start with a 1% risk factor but will raise my risk factor to 1.5% or even 2% in rare situations when things are working out and I am placing good money after a profitable trade. Again, this is my own personal method so I advise that each individual use what works best for their own portfolio and test several scenarios.

Chris Perruna - http://www.marketstockwatch.com
Market Talk with Piranha

Chris is the founder and president of MarketStockWatch.com, an internet community that teaches you how to invest your money with solid rules. We offer an extended no obligation monthly trial period starting immediately with two free weeks. We don’t stop at just showing you our daily and weekly screens, we teach you how to make you own screens through education. Through our philosophy, you will be able to create your own methods and styles to become successful.

Whether you simply want to pay off your mortgage or car loan sooner, or you’ve run up a huge pile of credit card debt, starting a debt reduction plan is always a good idea. Follow these five steps to setting up your own debt reduction plan:

1. Find out where your money is really going. You can’t cut your expenses if you don’t understand where you’re spending your money in the first place. Pull out all of your receipts, credit card bills, and bank statements for the last 3 – 6 months. Make a list of everything you spend money on, by breaking things down into categories (food, entertainment, clothing, travel, bills, interest, taxes, etc.). Then figure out what percentage of your income is going towards each group of expenses. While you can’t change certain expenses, you can change most of them. Decide what general areas you can cut expenses in, and which areas you should be spending more money on.

2. Trim unnecessary expenses. Now that you’ve decided what general areas you want to cut expenses in, start looking at specific bills and receipts. Some expenses will be justifiable, and others won’t. Just because something was inexpensive, doesn’t mean you can justify spending money on it rather than putting more towards reducing your debt. For example, perhaps you spent $80 on a pair of jeans, and $10 on a clearance top you found. At first glance, you might think the $80 expense could have been cut by finding a less expensive pair of jeans, while the $10 expense is easily justified, but that’s not necessarily so. If you truly love that pair of jeans, they’re of high quality and will last a long time, and you’ll wear them regularly, then the $80 expense is justifiable. But if you purchased the clearance top simply because it was cheap, and you’ll likely wear it only on rare occasions, then that expense is the unjustified one that could have been cut. You need to evaluate the benefit of what you spent the money on versus the benefit you would have realized if you had spent that money paying down your debts.

3. Set a timeline and goals for yourself. You’ve already decided where you can cut your expenses. So what should you do with that extra money in your pocket? Each debt reduction plan will revolve around different goals and timelines. Set your own now. For instance, if you have a 30 year mortgage, your goal might be to pay it off in 20 years instead, to save thousands of dollars in interest payments. If you want to pay off your credit card debt, your goal might be to pay off one card completely (and get rid of it) by the end of the current year. Your goals and timeline will be highly personal, so spend some time deciding what’s most important to you.

4. Pay the small, high interest debts first. When you’ve decided on a timeline and general goals for yourself, it’s time to pick the specific debt to deal with first. The general rule is to start with the smallest debt with the highest interest rate. That usually means a credit card. By eliminating a small high-interest debt, you’ll cut down on the total interest you’d pay over time, and by choosing a small debt first to eliminate completely, you’ll free up those regular payments to go towards a larger debt later. Once that small debt is paid off completely, keep paying those monthly payments, but pay them towards your mortgage, car payments, or other large expenses.

5. Reward yourself with savings. As you reduce your debt, make sure there’s something in it for you (although for some, the peace of mind may be enough). One of the best ways to reward yourself is to set up a savings account, money market account, or some other kind of interest-bearing account with the money you used to put towards your debts. For once, let interest rates work in your favor, and when a large expense comes up you’ll have funds to draw from (whether it be an emergency or a pleasant vacation). You won’t need to rely on creditors when you can rely on your accumulated wealth.

Copyright 2006 Stephen Ashton

Find out more tips and advice about how to clear your credit card debt at http://www.clearcreditcarddebt.com. You can find debt consolidation loans at http://www.finddebtconsolidationloans.com.

One of the questions we get asked a lot is, I know the limit that the IRS puts on my 401k contributions for the year is $14000 (for a person under 50) (2005) but is this the limit I can get from one employer or is it the total amount I can get from all my employers? So if I had 5 jobs could I get a total of $70 000 5 x $14 000 in contributions?

The simple answer is $14 000 is the personal limit you have as an individual and there for the total from all your employers, so if you have more than one employer then between you all the total that can be added for each year is $14 000. If you do over pay into the plans you have, it is easy to do if you are running more than one plan with more than one employer making contributions, you can claim back the overpayments but the claim must be made by 15th March.

The part of the IRS guidelines that causes a lot of confusion with reference to these limits is this paragraph;

“Additional limits. There are other limits that restrict contributions made on your behalf. In addition to the limit on elective deferrals, annual contributions to all of your accounts - this includes elective deferrals, employee contributions, employer matching and discretionary contributions and allocations of forfeitures to your accounts - may not exceed the lesser of 100% of your compensation or $42,000 (for 2005, $44,000 for 2006). In addition, the amount of your compensation that can be taken into account when determining employer and employee contributions is limited. In 2005, the compensation limitation is $210,000; for 2006, the limit is $220,000.”

Now a lot of people ask us at http://www.the401k.info how the limit can be $42 000 and this is the best explanation we have seen so far,

Ok, let’s say you make $260,000 per year, your plan allows you to defer up to 100% of your compensation, and your employer matches all your deferrals up to 3% of your compensation plus makes a 5% profit sharing contribution to all participants. In your case, for 2006, you could defer the maximum legal limit of $15,000 (roughly 6.8% of your legally capped compensation of $220,000), receive a match of $6,600 (3% of your legally capped compensation) plus $11,000 in profit sharing contribution (5% of your legally capped compensation), for a total of $32,600, well below the $44,000 overall contribution limit. If, however, your employer decided to make a 15% profit sharing contribution ($33,000) instead of a 5% contribution, because the total of these contributions exceeds the overall limit of $44,000 for 2006, your profit sharing contribution would most likely be reduced so that you would not exceed the overall limit. As you can see, there are numerous limits applied in different situations in different layers that must be adhered to.

Sean D has been a tax specialist for 20 years, teaching and working in the financial industries his free ebook is available here 401k info Now.

So you’re started trading, you bought some positions with your online broker, you’ve set some reasonable stop-losses to protect your account and all of a sudden one of your positions move strongly in your favor – so what do you do now? This my friend, is probably the hardest situation to deal with in trading the market – believe it or not.

Do you take profits? Do you hold on for more profits? Do you take partial profits? There is no textbook answer to these questions as it depends on your trading objective. That’s why you need to determine your objective BEFORE you start trading. No matter what you do, there will be regrets if you trade long enough. If you decide to take profits, there will be times when the market makes a huge move without you, if you decide to hold on for more profits, there will be times when you’ll lose the profits you had. However, the important thing is that you decide on your objective and stick to it no matter what happens.

With that said, let’s discuss some profit taking options that you might consider.

When you’ve bought your stock, option or commodity and then placed your stop, you must first try to prevent that position from losing money. We recommend that you move your stop right along with the price movement. In other words, if your stop is placed one point below your purchase price and your stock moves up one point, then we recommend you move your stop up to your purchase price. After doing this, you now have a scratch trade at the very least and the position poses virtually no risk to your account – only “gap downs” at market opens can hurt you. And of course, the golden rule with using stops is that they can only be moved up and must NEVER be moved down.

Chuck Cox is a Technical Writer and Industrial Scientist by professional with a background in statistics. He has used mathematical and statistical methods to invest and trade in the stock, futures, and options markets. Chuck has owned various businesses and presently operates several websites. To learn more about trading the markets, visit his website, http://www.earncashathometoday.com/trading-stocks.htm