Archive for July, 2007

by Sandra Case
This second article by Absolute Futures will explain the commercial production of ethanol. Ethanol is a product of fermentation. Fermentation is a sequence of reactions which release energy from organic molecules in the absence of oxygen. In this application of fermentation, energy is obtained when sugar is changed to ethanol and carbon dioxide.

Changing corn to ethanol by fermentation takes many steps. Starch in corn must be broken down into simple sugars before fermentation can occur. In earlier times, this was done by chewing the corn. This allowed the salivary enzymes to naturally break down the start. Today, this is achieved by cooking the corn and adding the enzymes alpha amylase and gluco amylase.

Once a simple sugar is obtained, yeast is added. Yeast is a single-celled fungi which feeds on the sugar and causes the fermentation. As the fungi feeds on the sugar, it produces alcohol (ethanol) and carbon dioxide. In fermentation, the ethanol retains much of the energy that was originally in the sugar, and explains why ethanol is an excellent fuel.

Most ethanol production in the United States is made in 50 production facilities in 20 different states. Most of these plants are located in the Midwest.

Changing the starch in kernels of corn to sugar and changing sugar to ethanol is a complex process and requires a mix of technologies that include microbiology, chemistry and engineering.

Ethanol is produced from corn by using one of two standard processes: wet-milling or dry-milling. Dry-milling plants cost less to build and produce higher yields of ethanol, but the value of co-products is less. Most of the ethanol plants in the U.S. utilize a dry-milling process. The wet-milling operation is more elaborate because the grain must be separated into its components.

After fermentation, the ethanol is removed from the mix of ethanol, water, yeast, and residue. It is then purified through distillation. The distilling process takes advantage of the low boiling point (78C.) of ethanol. When the temperature of the mix is increased slightly higher than the boiling point, the ethanol evaporates. It is then captured as a gas vapor and condensed back to a liquid. Other chemicals are added and molecular sieves are used to purify the ethanol.

Advances in technology are being made to further reduce the large amounts of energy needed for distillation. These advances help to reduce the costs and make producing ethanol much more economical.

This article has been written by Sandra Case, who is Vice President Commodity Research for Absolute Futures Commodity Brokerage.For further information regarding this article or information on othercommodities or trading of the commodity markets please contactSandra Case 800-935-6494. http://www.absolute-futures.com

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by Jeff Adams
For the investor, subject-to investing is really one of the great inventions of the real estate market. In this type of investment, the seller usually wants to or needs to get out of the property quickly. The homeowner may be in financial distress and may need cash quickly, or may need to move fast. In either case, the homeowner simply cannot wait the 98 days that a property takes, on average, to sell. This means that the seller is willing to be more flexible and it also means that the investor buying the property has a golden opportunity for bigger profits.

In subject-to purchases, the investor gets ownership of the property and the homeowner leaves his or her current financing in place for the investor or buyer’s use.

The investor usually gives the seller some sort of money in exchange for the equity the homeowner had in the property. However, this type of investment is highly flexible, so that in some cases it is possible for an investor to take control of a property with no money or very little money down.

Once the investor has taken over the property, there are many profitable options available. One good option is to offer the property for resale with financing already in place. This means that you offer your buyers both financing and the home, which can mean more interested buyers — not to mention more profits.

Investors who have bought a property subject-to can offer no qualifying loans along with the property to buyers. This can be attractive to buyers who have not established great credit, but it does not necessarily mean that investors have to take great risks. In many cases, investors can offer no qualifying loans to buyers who have a good credit history but who cannot get a great rate because of a recent job change or move, that has affected their credit. In these cases, an investor can get a $6000 or even $12 000 down payment on a property and can charge a higher interest rate as well to cover the risks associated with financing. For example, an investor can advertise owner financing and can raise a 7% rate to a 9% rate and enjoy greater profits while still giving buyers a good deal. Many buyers are attracted by owner financing because it means less hassle with banks and less time spent with loan officers. Buyers are often willing to pay a little extra for the convenience and this can be a great benefit for investors.
Investors who succeed at subject-to investing also often take pains to improve the value of a home, so that they can get more equity and a better asking price from it. Plus, if the buyer needs to refinance in a year or two, the investor can get more cash from the refinancing.

The bottom line is that subject-to investing can mean great profits with little risk. Some investors in the know risk as little as $1000 on this type of investment, and profits in the tens of thousands of dollars are quite common with these deals. Of course, these profits are not automatic. Investors need to learn the ins and out of subject-to selling and real estate investing before they risk any of their money.

This article was written by Jeff Adams, a full-time investor who has successfully completed over 350 deals in the past 12 years. Claim your Free 7-Day e-course on “The 23 Most Costly Mistakes Investor’s Make And How To Avoid Them” today by visiting: www.RealEstateWebProfits.com

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by Joe Samson
Great, you have decided that you want to invest in real estate, perhaps you are thinking of flipping a house or thinking of renting it for long term appreciation. Regardless of your exit strategy, more likely your investment will include challenges such as finding the funds to support the project, finding the right property, dealing with contractors and so on.

The truth is that everyone invests in something throughout their lives. Some of us invest in stocks, gold, stamps, cars, their hobbies or real estate. Personally I believe in real estate not because of what the media says on the 6 o’ clock news but rather due to the fact that history shows that over 90% of all millionaires have become wealthy by owning real estate. If this is true, why isn’t everyone doing it? Unfortunately there is more to investing than most people might think. The first obstacle that most of us have to cross is coming up with the money to invest.

Who says it has to be your money to invest? Lets get high on OPM or other people’s money. Generally humans go through three phases in their lives. When we are born we are dependent on our parents, then we want to become independent and finally we realize that we cannot do everything ourselves therefore we become interdependent of others. You can easily approach your circle of influence to partner with you in a project. For example if you know someone who has some cash sitting around and he is tired of earning 2%-3% at the bank you can create a win-win relationship by offering your real estate expertise in exchange for his investment. Your expertise could include finding the property, renovating it, and taking care of the day to day management activities. The key is to remember to make sure that each one of you brings different values to the relationship. If neither of you have any investment funds but you are great buddies, it’s not going to propel you forward.

If you have owned a house in Calgary for the last couple years you should have seen a substantial equity increase in your home. The money sitting in your home is a great feeling, it gives you security and piece of mind to your family. Ask yourself the question, how much profit is that equity putting in your pocket each year? Banks nowadays will be happy to provide you or your investor partner with a PLC (personal line of credit) against your home and then you can use those funds to invest in real estate and earn a lot more than your savings account would generate.

The Calgary real estate market is so expensive, where do I buy? Probably 99% of the listings today aren’t going to fit your criteria. But that still leaves you with lot of options available to choose from. One of the biggest mistakes that I see Investors making is calling up their REALTOR® and asking them to give them a call when he sees a great deal out there. In my point of view this statement is no different than saying to a Doctor to fix your problem but you won’t let him to examine you. My suggestion to serious investors is to decide what part of Calgary or communities he is planning on investing and get familiar with the neighborhood. The investor will need to consider the type of homes he is after, general size, garage or no garage etc. The more specific the criteria the better chances a REALTOR® have of finding a solution. This approach will also forge the investor to become a specialist in the area and he will have a great insight on property values. It will take some time to go through the learning process but dividends will be rewarding especially when an undervalued property shows up on the market.

You think you’ve found the right house, how do you make sure it’s going to work? Doing too much due diligence will never get you into any trouble, not doing any research will cost you a fortune. At this point you should be educated enough to know approximately how much do certain renovations will cost. It’s worth the effort to visit suppliers to get familiar with prices. I suggest outsourcing the same suppliers as builders are using, this could easily save you 10%-25% compared to retail price. If you just need to replace a couple of doors you can find business in the city who sells recycled materials. Most of the time if you just paint it, it will look brand new and you could buy it at 1/3 of the new door. At the time of making an offer, you aren’t going to have any time to ask contractors to provide you with a quote. Plus homeowners wouldn’t appreciate strangers coming through their homes. Prior to your house hunting, you can interview a few contractors and have a general idea of what their prices are. For instance to replace a carpet in a house it would probably cost $3.50/sq.ft. supply & install or paint $2/sq.ft. I don’t recommend starting to measure floor space when you are viewing a home but you should be able to estimate an approximate cost of repairs in 5-10 minutes by using round figures to the nearest thousands. Always over estimate your expenses because it’s guaranteed that you will have surprises.

What kind of renovations should I be doing to maximize my profit? The trick here is to renovate the house to the point where the potential buyer will fall in love with it but it doesn’t cause the resale price to be above the norm in the community. According to the Appraisal Institution of Canada finished basements will only return about 1⁄2 of the investment and the greatest values are usually gained from the renovated kitchen and bathrooms. If you are planning on doing multiple renovation projects you need to set up a system to follow. You need to now exactly the type of colors, carpet, baseboards, window coverings that you are going to use. Once you have this information nailed done, you are just repeating the same process over and over until it becomes “cookie cutter” and that will save you a lot of time.

After the renovation is complete staging always helps to sell a home quicker and for a higher price. To speed up your learning curve on how to stage a house you can visit a few show homes on the weekend. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel you just need to get some ideas from what works for others.

Finally you’ve got the keys to the house and you are ready to swing the hammer. Prior to submitting your offer you’ve decided what kind of renovations you will be doing and you have an idea how much it’s going to cost. How do you orchestrate the contractors so it won’t be nightmare? First and most importantly who ever you choose to hire at whatever price, make sure that both of you understand the exact plan. The best way to avoid any misunderstanding is to have everything in writing and in great detail. If you want to establish a long term relationships with contractors it doesn’t hurt to discuss your policies and perhaps have them to sign off on it.

Keep in mind that you must take action. As with anything in life, knowledge without action equals nothing. Although, dreaming is an enjoyable and important process, only actions can transfer dreams into reality.

Joe Samson is currently a realtor For Calgary Real Estate and has been for the past 7 years. You can read more articles like this at his web site http://www.joesamson.com.

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by Monty Guild
WORLD ECONOMY….GROWING VERY FAST

I could cite a lot of statistics but suffice it to say Asia is booming. Europe is growing and so are Latin America, Australia and Canada. Of the major countries only the U.S. is sluggish.

The world economy is growing and growing very fast. In our opinion it is not time to fear. It is time to “seize the day”, “make hay when the sun shines” and all of those trite but true sayings that have persisted because they correctly describe an era of opportunity. If there is a cloud on the horizon it is the potential for inflation, not the problem of slowing growth.

THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM

The conventional wisdom is that the U.S. will be unattractive for investment during the summer due to rising interest rates, the subprime mortgage crisis and the fact that the stocks have risen enough in the last few years. Many in the U.S. think that if the U.S. market is unattractive, then the world must be unattractive.

NOTHING COULD BE FARTHER FROM THE TRUTH

We do not watch markets per se but rather we watch economies and the growth of sectors of the world and national economies.

It is clear that globally, many economic sectors are in stunningly good shape. Basic materials, energy, industrial products, farm products, commodities, transportation products and defense products are in demand worldwide.
There are many opportunities in the countries that are growing rapidly throughout Asia, Australia, Canada and Eastern Europe.

CURRENCIES

The dollar is going to start to decline in the not too distant future and we continue to favor other currencies than the U.S. dollar.

ENERGY

A FEW OBVIOUS POINTS ON ENERGY

1.OIL WILL NEVER BE CHEAP AGAIN.

2.GLOBAL DEMAND increases about 2% per year. OPEC SUPPLY falls about 1% per year. Non OPEC suppliers make up the difference. The question is how much do non OPEC suppliers have and how much are they willing to sell to others? We believe they will hoard more and more of their production, further exacerbating the oil price increase.

3.ETHANOL WILL NOT HELP IN A BIG WAY.
Ethanol is a political carrot thrown to the farm lobby. Ethanol will increase farmers’ income by transferring money from all the other citizens to the farmers’ pockets. As we have written in the past, it will be ineffectual and very costly on several levels. For ethanol to have any impact on oil demand and help lower energy prices, the amount of corn and other materials required for cellulosic production would cause food prices to rise.

4.SOLAR AND WIND WILL PROVIDE SOME ENERGY SUPPLY. However, believe it or not, most of our power when the oil runs out will come from nuclear and coal.

5.There is the possibility that solar panels can be made more effective allowing solar to play a bigger role.

OIL AT $100

1.We still believe that oil will go to $100 over time. If we get some explosion in the Middle East or an expansion of the continued problems in Nigeria, it could be at $100 in 2008.

2.Today, oil is harder to find, demand is increasing and supply is diminishing; thus, the price is rising.

OIL SERVICE COMPANIES

We favor those companies who are OUTSIDE THE U.S. AND IN DEEP WATER, where the biggest demand will be in coming years.

We own deep water drillers, floating production, storage and offloading companies who operate offshore facilities and we own high tech seismic companies serving the deep water market.

Recent declines in the price of some oil service companies and deep drillers are a good buying opportunity in our opinion.

METALS

Fear has spread that a slower U.S. economy will cause demand for gold and base metals to diminish.

We could not disagree more. The dominant variable impacting the price of gold and base metals is global economic growth. Gold goes up when the global economy grows because more people get wealthy and use gold in jewelry and for hoarding (to protect themselves from the insecurity presented by certain government behaviors). Confiscation of assets, uncertain economic outlook and weak currencies are among the many potential government created problems.

IN OUR OPINION….OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND

We see many opportunities in the areas of our focus. We will use all declines as buying opportunities, and we believe that the next few years will continue to provide good profits in these areas just as the last few years have.

We are concerned about inflation over the longer term. Historically, inflation is good for metals, energy and also for foreign nations that have low production costs and can pass along price increases.

Therefore, most of our favorites benefit today and will continue to benefit if inflation arises.

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These articles are for informational purposes only and are not intended to be a solicitation, offering or recommendation of any security. Guild Investment Management does not represent that the securities, products, or services discussed in this web site are suitable or appropriate for all investors. Any market analysis constitutes an opinion that may not be correct. Readers must make their own independent investment decisions.
The information in this article is not intended for distribution to, or use by, any person or entity in any jurisdiction or country where such distribution or use would be contrary to law or regulation, or which would subject Guild Investment Management to any registration requirement within such jurisdiction or country.

Any opinions expressed herein, are subject to change without notice. In addition, there are many market, currency, economic, political, business, technological and other risks that are beyond our control. We make reasonable efforts to provide accurate content in these articles; however, some content and some of the assumptions, formulas, algorithms and other data that impact the content may be inaccurate, outdated, or otherwise inappropriate. In addition, we may have conflicts of interest with respect to any investments mentioned. Our principals and our clients may hold positions in investments mentioned on the site or we may take positions contrary to investments mentioned.

Guild’s current and past market commentaries are protected by copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act, you must not copy, frame, modify, transmit or distribute the market commentaries, without seeking the prior consent of Guild.

Mr. Guild founded Guild in 1971. Prior to founding the company he was an analyst at a bank and a hedge fund. Mr. Guild is a recognized expert in the areas of international investing and economics. He has been a writer and speaker on economic issues. For More information on global investing visit http://www.howtoinvestglobally.com.For More information on Guild Investment Management Services visit http://www.guildinvestment.com

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by Jerry Durham
The following article covers a topic that has recently moved to center stage–Stocks–at least it seems that way. If you’ve been thinking you need to know more about stocks, here’s your opportunity.

Time To Look Back

2004 is over, now we are in 2005. This is time to seriously look at performance of your personal investment, such as mutual fund, or individual stocks holdings, etc. Does your fund beat index last year? Does it beat index over past many years? How are you doing with your own stock investment comparing to SP&500 index?

If the answer is “great”, well congratulations. You have your own way of beating market and making big money already.

If the answer is “not so great”, or “failed to beat index”. You have got a problem. You need to look deeper into the investment strategy you used or your fund used. You can not pretend that there is no problem when in fact there IS a problem. I know there are just so many people out there that can not face this. Let’s face it, Almost everyone, include myself have ego that we JUST do not want to admit failure or mistake or any hint of it. Here comes the 1st Component below.

Component # 1 - Ego, Gut, Perseverance

Value investing or investing in general is all about psychology, ego, attitude, and gut.

Investing is serious business. It is our money, our life savings at stake. Sometimes biting the bullet with pain to trash the ego is worth the pain if that makes you more money. Ego is one thing that we must avoid in stock market investing business in order to make big money ahead. You can not hide, you have to compare your own performance of past many years to SP&500 index. Of course, I am not saying that you should be comparing every month. It is OK to make some mistakes, here and there for certain months. However, it is NOT ok if the performance year over year has been bad. You have got to change if that is the case.

Although ego is something you should all avoid, perseverance is something you must treasure if you want to be that marathon winner. When you finished your due diligence and you have calculated your risk reward ratio and intrinsic value, go for it and stick with it. Do not be scared of negative comments or negative press, even if the source is from a famous author or from your close family. Value investing is lonely business. I know this for years. I have been criticized over past many years for numerous reasons, for not beeing able to sell at top, for not beeing able to buy at bottom, for picking a risky bankruptcy related stock, or for buying a low float small cap stock , blah blah. You know what? in the end, my investment performance is better than most of folks out there in the market, including those “pro” mutual fund managers.

I have got comments like this before: “Blast, I like your method, I know you are making big money. But, I can not do as you are doing. I can not hold. Especially bad news hit, I just have to sell, and my performance sucks”.

Well, if he/she do not have gut to hold like I hold during bad time, she/he can not make big money with value investing. One can be all right in paper, right with value calculation, right with timing of purchase. However, if you can not fight against panic during minor negative news, you are out in the investing marathon.

Component # 2 - Right Method

Many investment methods are flawed, period. This is especially true for many short term oriented trading methods. Many mutual funds preach long term holding for their fund investors, but the fund managers themself engage in short-term trading like mad men. Performance of many momentum based growth funds or tech funds looked horrible for past 5 years. The reason for that is very simple: the investing method itself. Growth investing or short term trading sometimes can be very speculative and dangerous.

Wall street has famous theory that “the more risk, the more reward”. Therefore, yeah, growth funds are risky, but if you want to have more reward, you have to chase risky stuff.

Wrong. The truth actually is “the more risk, the less reward”.

I know I am going to be hammered by saying above non-conventional statement. I put out below example to back up my point.

Las Vegas is world famous place for gambling. As an average investor, you visit Las Vegas looking for opportunities to make big money with $50,000 investing capital. Let’s assume the theory “the more risk, the more reward” is correct. Where are the riskiest opportunities out there in LV? Of course, Gambling. The potential reward can be astonishingly high. Black jacket, slot machine all have huge potential with 1000% or even more within minutes. You can make millions if you are lucky with your $50,000 principal at slot machine. Actually, it is FACT there are small group of gamblers who made millions in gambling in LV.

However, If you are sensible person, you know the answer. As high as the potential reward can be, the most likely result from gambling with $50,000 principal at LV is WIPEOUT. You lose all your hard-earned money.

If you are a rich investor with multi-million dollar capital looking for investment opportunities in Las Vegas. Certainly casino company stocks and bonds or private offering might be worth looking. However, the sad news is that no matter for stocks or bonds or private offerings, the investment reward is only around 10% to 20% yearly. Well, maybe it is not so sad at all. 10% or 20% of return is certainly a lot safer than gambling. Which reward is better, 10% - 20% return or wipeout?

Well, I know you may want to protest against my above example. Stock market can not be as bad as Casino, right?

Sometimes the most important aspects of a subject are not immediately obvious. Keep reading to get the complete picture.

It depends. Although casino gambling does not provide real investment opportunities as stock market provides, sometimes stock market can be even worse than casino due to insider manipulation, cheating books, etc. Over the past couple of years, I have heard so many negative news from stock market: Enron, Worldcom, mutual fund scandals, market timing, etc. But I have not heard of news of slot machine cheating by Las Vegas Casino company. Casino does not need to cheat to make money, the odds are against gamblers. Although stock market does offer real investment opportunities for businessman-like investors, stock market is also a place for gamblers to place their bet just like a Casino.

In stock market, the odds are against speculators.

Well, I know you may have more questions. Why Casino bonds or stock offerings or even private offering is only offering 10% to 20% returns?

Casino business is just another business. Numerous academic study has shown that in US history of past many decades, majority of companies can not maintain more than 20% of return on equity over the long run. Many companies are operating under loss, a negative return on equity. If you read books on Warren Buffet method of Philip Fisher method, you will know that they are experts in identifying those small group of high return on equity stocks. But for most companies, they are not as good as the stocks in which Buffet or Fisher invested.

Competitive economics is also at play here. If a company can make more than 20% of return consistently, the competition will heat up and more smart businessmen will enter this field to drive down the return.

If you think of value investing as special kind of business, you will realize how hard it is to maintain 20% return for the long run, as Warren Buffet achieved over past 50 years. Very few investors can do that. Value investing business is just as competitive as other business. Let’s face it, if value investing is not competitive and easy to make big money consistently, many smart business guys out there in US will liquidate their own company and start their investment firm instead.

Component # 3 - Right Tools - New Way to Find Great Picks

Peter Lynch mentioned many methods to get the stock leads and identify the big winners in his book “One up in Wall Street”. Tips from wife, tips from friends can land you the great stock idea. Although his methods are very valid, there are new ways to find that great pick in this internet stage: Software Data Mining.

It is quite fortunate that I am a data mining expert myself. If you are good at data mining, you can do yourself well too. You can design and fine-tune your data mining tools to get the leads you want and make big money by getting ahead of crowds.

A successful value investor really has to find great pick ahead of big guys and move fast in order to make big money. In this internet stage, big guys such as mutual funds or hedge funds really have no advantage over small guys or small firms such as BlastInvest. At BlastInvest, we do stock data mining with our in-house software just as good as those big guys, if not better. Sarbane Oxley new law also helped individual investors and small firms like BlastInvest a lot because most of public companies now disclose information to public and to big institutions simultaneously through conference calls or press releases. Insiders now also have to report insider buying and selling within couple of days of transaction instead of several months before. Whenever insiders buy or sell, You need to know that immediately within a few days. You want to buy when insiders buy and you may want to sell when insiders are selling too.

Don’t despair if you do not know how to program software yourself. There are lots of tools and services out there to help you out. Here I want to talk about the most useful tools out there.

(1) Valuation screening tool. You need at least one tool for screening against value metrics for you. Yahoo stock screening is very useful tool and it is free.

(2) Insider buying tool. This is must-have tool to get you the latest insider buying stocks. There are many offering there, fee-based or free. We offer free insider-buying weekly service as well at BlastInvest.

(3) Strategy screen. Validea.com offers an interesting stock screening tool that can screen based on methods of Ben Graham, Warren Buffet, or Peter Lynch. It has limitations too. I have used it and found that its Warren Buffet tool is not working well and its Ben Graham strategy screening is only looking for “defensive” type of stocks, not the “enterprising investor” type of stocks. My BIRTP newsletter is really geared toward “enterprising investor” type of stocks rather than “defensive investor” type of stocks. Heck, still Validea is best kind of tool available at affordable price in this category.

Final Thought

If you follow up with my above 3 components of value investing, you are on your path for financial freedom.

However, if you can not do as I stated above, do not naively believe that you can make big money alone in stock market mainly by hunch. Buy the stock screening tools if necessary, get the professional help from real experts and consider my newsletter BIRTP as well.

Webmasters and Ezine Publishers: Free professional content - pre-licensed to you..

Now might be a good time to write down the main points covered above. The act of putting it down on paper will help you remember what’s important about stocks.

* Article by Henry Lu of BlastInvest LLC, a premium investment newsletter publisher in Connecticut. Visit BlastInvest for FREE “how-to” investing assistance, web services and more.

by Vic Darbourn
A real estate investing book is a valuable aid for people who would like to know more about no-money-down investing options and those with higher costs in leverage gains.

However, choosing a real estate investment book requires some basic knowledge. Considering a huge variety of real estate-related publications, buyers need to know what they are looking for. Yes, you need to know a fair bit of the answer, before you ask

There are many approaches to the issue of real estate investment. Don’t expect on book to cover all the most important issues. These publications are written with a different degree of complication, and some are just impossible to understand, let alone benefit form, for a novice. On the other hand, a seasoned real estate investor will acquire plenty of the specific knowledge needed to make some headway on the overcrowded field of property transacting.

Handy Calculator. Inclusion of a calculator for computing of basic financial parameters of real estate transactions is a must. Many of relevant formulas are quite complicated and even their concept is hard to grasp. Being able to use a ready-made calculator would definitely benefit every budding investor.

Glossary of Terms. Another ‘must have’ for every real estate investment book. The subject of real estate investing is difficult enough, and for the readers to go to external sources to understand certain terms, is just expecting too much. Glossary containing all the terms used in the book should form an integral part of the book.

Both Sides of the Story. Objectivity is the word, for a real estate investment book that claims to be relevant and informative. Showing both sides: negatives and positives will increase not only readers’ confidence, but the real knowledge as well. No hype should be allowed into serious investment related publications.

Demonstrate Varying Options. Every good real estate investment book should aim at presenting as many differing opinions on a given subject, as possible. This would better prepare investors for making decisions with only a limited knowledge about the issues concerned.

Exploration of Financing Alternatives Topics in a certain real estate investing book would be useful if there are financing alternatives that are also shown within its pages. As such, in order to make good choices in investing in a real estate book, there should be a correlation of available alternatives - whether good or bad - that may be opted for by an individual.

Buyer-Seller Negotiations. An essential part of property investment deals is the negotiation process. Investors should benefit from a real estate investment book that explains the finer points of both parties coming to an agreement, and settling the transaction. It’s highly recommended for both parties to acquire some basic knowledge, before sitting ready to put out a deal.

Shows Practical Issues. Too much theory, and every real estate investment book becomes less than helpful. It simply will be left unread. That’s why it’s of paramount importance for any theoretical cases to be explained using a practical occurrence. Put simply, show how the law and regulations work in the field. Nothing is more frustrating for the investor, than to be faced with information that has little relevance in the daily operation of property businesses.

Promotes Understanding of Complex Matters A perfect real estate investing book should, above all, include complex matters that can be simple enough to digest. If the writer or writers had compiled the important things, and had worked hard on making it appear as simple as it can be, it is not surprising if there would be many customers falling in line just to buy it.

The ability to choose the real estate investment book that suits your needs can’t be overestimated. It’s up to the readers to educate themselves about the basics, prior to purchasing a publication that is expected to enlighten them about the more complex issues.

Real estate investing book is where Vic Darbourn has obtained advanced property investment know-how. Sites like RealEstateMeet.com offer free publications reviews and latest tips.
You can get a unique content version of this article.

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by Arthor Pens
When it comes to selecting top-performing investment funds and unit trusts the bigger brand is not necessarily better. Choosing the wrong fund by investing with big brand fund managers could cost investors dearly.

Many investors are deluded into thinking that buying from a big brand fund manager will in some way protect them against selecting a poorly performing fund. The big brand managers offer many great funds, but they’re also marketing plenty of duds. Just because one fund is a top performer, doesn’t mean it applies across that fund manager’s range. Investors need to look beyond the brand and more closely at the underlying fund.

Over recent years, the UK market has seen a rise in popularity for boutique investment houses, and, given their track record of consistent positive performance, it’s hardly surprising. There are many ways to classify a boutique, but generally speaking, boutique fund managers are independently-owned or employee-owned, and relatively small in size. They often invest in specialist areas of expertise, rather than attempt to be all things to all men and run funds across each and every sector.

Recently, boutiques have even been stepping on large firms’ toes when it comes to servicing retail clients. Last year boutiques outshone their larger counterparts in the UK, taking the top four places in the ‘best overall fund manager rankings’. Big brands such as UBS and Standard Life slipped down the rankings, while boutiques Rathbone, Neptune, Dalton and Artemis took the top spots.

The last quarter of 2006 was hair-raising for investors, as millions were wiped off share prices and markets. However, the boutique fund management houses continued to outperform their larger rivals.

The disappointing reality for most private investors is that neither they, nor in some cases their financial advisers, would have heard of some of these relatively unknown smaller investment houses, and are therefore missing out on great investment opportunities.

The same caution applied to big brands should also be applied to big names - or the so called ‘star fund managers’. Is it wise to stake your money on the reputation of an individual big-name fund manager when there’s no guarantee they will stick around?

Research shows that just 15% of managers have run the same fund for over six years, 43% for four to six years, and 39% for two to four years. Similarly, 80% of fund managers at the top 50 UK fund providers have left their funds in the last three years. Around 60% of managers move because of offers from competitors.

In investment terms, familiarity doesn’t always necessarily breed content. Investors should monitor their investments very closely and ensure that they have the tools to hand to spot strong investment opportunities that would otherwise pass them by.

For further information and to compare different funds’ performance visit http://www.moneyspider.com

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by Keith Driscoll
Spread The betting is a tool that enables traders to profit from both up and down moves on a broad variety of economic markets, whether stock indexes, individual shares, currencies, bonds, and commodities such as silver or commodities. Spread the betting is a term used to describe more than one kinds of wagering on the outcome of an event, where the pay-off is based on the faultlessness of the wager, rather than a simple binary outcome (win or loss).

Spread the is free of tax, cost efficient alternative to standard percentage trading. One of the down sides of spread the is that it is easy to miscalculate the risks and costs. While certainly not for the foolish or completely inexperienced, spread betting is an extremely flexible, cost efficient and user-friendly way to gain access to the biggest games in town. The other important feature of spread the is that trades can be closed at any time, and do not have to be left to expire. And because, as a margin product, traders could potentially lose a different of their initial gamble, spread betting is really for use only by professionals, day traders and knowledgeable investors. Although your hard earned can be constructed of and can be substantial, spread the is highly speculative and losses can be extensive.

Betting

Just like any other form of gambling, however, spread the betting is not for all, and spread betting should be played in moderation. One fascinating aspect to spread the betting is that you can choose whether you want to explore the economic world of spread the or whether you would rather bet on one of innumerable much acclaimed sports. Unlike fixed odds betting the amount won or lost can be very huge, as there is no single stake to limit the maximum losses. Spread betting on politics and sport is gambling, pure and simple.

Economic

Monetary Spread the betting can be very complex and players who normally bet in this way are quite prepared to lose huge sums as well as win them. The “spread” in the phrase economic spread the betting refers to the Sell (Bid) and Buy (Offer) price quoted by a financial spread betting company. This price is calculated by adding additional points around the live (or the estimated futuristic) market price of a financial product. One of the most obvious advantages of monetary spread the is the unique opportunity to go short of (or sell) a stock or bite. Well-informed investors use economic spread betting as an additional trading tool as the spreads offered rival the prices on hand in the realistic market. Numerous of the main Spread Betting sites offer guides and instructions to benefit players who may be slightly daunted by the world of financial trading.

Sports

Sports Spread The betting allows gamblers the opportunity to place bets on just about anything with the result of a sporting encounter merely being one of a number of the opportunities. 15 years ago, make-up, supremacy and mid-point was a foreign language to most sports traders. If you already bet in a selected sport of your choice, spread betting can add an extra angle for you.

Conclusion

Spread the is simply a matter of deciding whether the outcome of an event is usually higher or lower than the spread firms quote and for how much per point you are prepared to stake. You can win and lose a lot more than your initial stake and for that reason spread betting is actually illegal in most countries. A main risk of spread the betting is that if a spread bet position moves against you, the bettor, you can incur additional liabilities far in excess of your initial margin deposit. As a newcomer to trading, spread the could appear to be a very attractive way of entering the markets; but before you jump in feet first, it’s noteworthy to understand what spread the is and how it works or you might as well throw your funds out the window!

For more details on Spread Betting and Financial Trading http://www.win2win-spread-betting.co.uk/

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by Real estate investing for beginners
For those of you who are new to real estate investing, I’m going to show you how you can begin your journey with real estate investing. When you first start out, it can be a daunting task. There are risks involved, as there is always in every venture. However, of all the risks involved with real estate investing, it is low in comparison to other investing scenarios.

Beginners in this game need to know a lot of information in the beginning in order to protect themselves as well as their interests. There are ways to begin informing yourself. A real estate investing program or real estate investing seminars are two great suggestions for beginners interested in real estate investing. You can also use the Internet as a great place to receive and learn the skills you are required to have when making a real estate investment.

One of the key skills for beginners of real estate investing is to know real estate law. If you fail to learn this, you may be putting your real estate investment at risk. To avoid this you need to educate yourself as much as possible about real estate law. When you finally teach yourself these laws and the market as a whole you will then be ready to move that step closer to purchasing a real estate investment

With regards to the market, if you can find a seller willing to sell for less than 20% of the market value then you should definitely buy. Purchasing bargain real estate is one of the best ways to make money. If you make an offer, make sure you know how much the property will be worth once you’ve done the fix-up, if you’re planning to flip the house to generate capital. It is often a wise idea to pick a certain geographical area and work it exclusively, so that you become an expert on what houses are selling for. That way, you know within a relatively small fraction how much profit is to be made when you sell.

Don’t give up–make a lot of offers with different properties on the market. There are always bargain properties waiting for smart investors. Always bare that in-mind.

If you follow these basics then you should have no problem getting started and making money with real estate investing. Keep in mind that it does take time and hard work to make it pay off but it will in the long run.

Sean regularly updates a blog on real estate investing for beginners-Check it out at - http://real-estateinvestingforbeginners.blogspot.com

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by James Kronefield
This is a controversial subject but I truly believe that you do not need to view a property personally in order to purchase it as an investment. In fact, personally viewing a property that you will be purchasing as an investment can even be detrimental to your purchasing, I’ll explain why in this article.

At the end of the day, real estate investment should not be viewed differently to any other investment. You invest in real estate in order to make money just like you would invest in anything else, be it in shares or a business or whatever. Thus, in order to ensure that you are making the best return, what you need to do is to make sure the numbers add up. What you need to do is to treat the investment totally as a business decision and really nothing else.

When making business or investment decisions, you need to have all the numbers to make a calculation to determine whether its a good investment or not. In terms of real estate, what you need to know include the following:

* The purchase price (of course!)
* The average rent return you can expect from the property when you purchase it as is as well as what you think you can get for it if you are going to do some renovations to the property. Be realistic about this by investigating what similar properties are getting in the area
* Any vacancy rates - have a look at how property is renting in the area and factor in a number of weeks vacancy between tenants
* All renting expenses such as management expenses and cleaning, gardening (if applicable), body corporate fees (if applicable), council rates, water fees etc
* Solicitors fees to purchase the property
* The current interest rate on mortgages - this may differ depending on whether you are able to get a normal loan or whether you might have to pay a higher interest rate if you are not credit worthy or if the banks do not want to hold a normal mortgage on the property as its not classed a normal residential property
* Fees for building and pest inspections
* Any other fees that might arise
* Depreciation if the property is new

Once you have all these numbers plus anything else that might relate to the purchase, then you can sit down and calculate whether the purchase is a good one. You should also take into consideration the capital growth rate of similar properties in the area, if there is to be any major developments in the area that may impact the property in a good or bad way, whether you can actually afford to service the loan without too much burden on yourself, and so on.

If you do the calculations and the numbers look good and you’ve considered all the influencing factors as described above, then there is no reason that you shouldn’t invest in the property even if you have not actually viewed it yourself. Make sure that you get all the building and pest inspections completed before making the final decision, as even if you have all the numbers, you do not know if there is anything hidden in the property that may impact the property’s value and future required expenses.

Here is the reason why I also believe that it can be detrimental to personally view a property that you are purchasing as an investment. It is too easy to allow emotions to get in the way of your decision making when viewing a property. You may absolutely fall in love with the property because it suits the kind of property you like to live in, or it looks great or any other reason. This sort of emotion quickly clouds your decision making process and can cause you to make concessions about numbers where you previously wouldn’t have, thus leading you to make a bad purchase decision. Or the contrary might happen, you may completely dislike the property because its just not the place you’d like to live in, and even if all the numbers are shouting out that its a great investment, you choose not to purchase it because you just don’t like it. You have to remember here that you are not going to be the person living in it. Its an investment and if you’ve researched the area for vacancy rates, then other people will probably want to live there & you will get the rent you are looking for.

Thus at the end of the day, sound real estate investment decisions are based entirely on numbers. Do the math, if it adds up, buy it, if not, walk away.

For more tips and advice on making money through real estate investments, visit www.profitfromRE.com

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