Fortune Watch

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

The Internet is one of the most frequently used tools for communication today. There are over millions of people who log on to the Internet every single day. Besides, with the benefits that the Internet gives, who would not want to be a part of this information superhighway.

With the Internet, you can communicate with your family and friends through emails and instant messengers, you can purchase goods and services without leaving your own home, and the Internet is one of the most promising income generating tools that everyone can use today.

In the past, you needed products or services in order to make money through the Internet. Today however, you can make money through the Internet by using affiliate programs. This program will allow you to make a substantial amount of money out of your website and is a very good home business that you would want to get in to.

First of all, you need to know what an affiliate program is and how it works in order to fully understand how you can make some money out of it. Affiliate programs is like a joint venture where you or your website becomes a partner with another website that have already developed a product or service that they are already selling in the Internet. As a partner, your job is to direct the visitors of your website to your partner website and hope that they will purchase the products or services being offered. Your website will be like the company’s marketing arm, among several.

The company you plan on being affiliated to will be providing all the necessary tools that you need in order to start the affiliate program. They will be providing the links, and some companies will provide free e-books on how you can effectively earn from affiliate programs.
Read (more…)

For the uninitiated, the stock market looks either a rosy picture or the dooms day scenario. Actually it is a mixture of both. By investing wisely, you can get the money of life time or if you are not careful, you may lose money of life time.

Don’t follow the herd mentality. This is one of the top mistakes to avoid. The herd mentality is THE reason why many investors lose their money. Actually when your neighbor or friend is buying, since everyone is buying, stop and think for one moment “is this share worth its money today and does it have a growth potential?” If the answer is a YES after study of the share, go ahead and buy that share. If you have a slightest doubt, refrain from buying. Do not buy just because someone else is buying.

Not deciding your time line: When you start investing in stocks, you have to decide your time line or profit margins when you are going to quit. If you do not do that you may pass on the period of greatest value for your stock. Thinking that your stock will go up when it has reached its present peak, is a sure way of losing your money. Of course it is not possible to sell your stock at peak very time, but if you have decided the limits, you will not be sorry.

Not cutting down losses: For every stock, there is a range and depending on the general market conditions and fundamentals of the company you can decide the price of the stock you hold. If either of the above two conditions compel a stock to go down, have predetermined limits when you are going to sell irrespective of market conditions. This will cut down the losses you may have in future.

Taking too much risk: If you are a reckless investor, you will have blame yourself for taking too much risk. A calculated risk is what one is expected to take in stock markets. Taking too much risk based on hear say from the market, is a sure way for doom.

Read (more…)

“Self-Made in America” a book by John McCormack, suggests that if you are investing less than 25% of your income then you aren’t serious about becoming wealthy. But how do you afford to do this without suffering? The answer is here.

You can do this by eliminating waste and impulse spending from your spending habits. Studies have shown that the average person blows around 25% of their income in these two totally unnecessary areas; waste spend and impulse spending. Let’s see what these two types of unnecessary spending are and how to eliminate them.

First I will define waste spending. There are two main types of waste. Firstly waste is when you spend more money than you need to in order to get the result that you want. Secondly waste is when you buy more than you need in order to get the result that you want.

Here are two examples around food.

An example of Type 1 Waste would be buying a sandwich for lunch for $5 when you could have made the same sandwich at home, and brought it with you, for only 50 cents. You are paying ten times the true value of that sandwich by buying it ready made. You probably also spent more time standing in line to be served than the time you would have required to make the sandwich at home.

An example of Type 2 Waste is when you buy more food than you need and then have to throw it away. Because you couldn’t be bothered taking the time to calculate the amount that you really needed you overspent on your food bill.

Read (more…)

Ask most people to guess what the biggest risk they need to asset protect themselves against and they will usually guess either being sued or paying too much tax.

Asset protection is a crucial part of wealth building. There are many different aspects of asset protection and they often involve complex trust structures. Yet most people ignore the number one cause of financial loss, even though it is easy to protect them.

Both of these are important and every wise business person structures their business with the aim of minimizing these two risks, but there is a bigger risk than those two put together.

The risk of losing big time financially in a divorce can be minimized by having a sound prenuptial agreement yet many otherwise canny business owners fail to take this sensible step and end up losing far more money that they needed to.

Much of the money lost in a divorce isn’t just going to your ex-spouse; it is going into the pockets of lawyers. There is no financial incentive for lawyers on either side to come to a quick settlement. They are getting paid while the parties are fighting.

A lot of this financial and emotional loss could be avoided if couples took an example from business.

A golden rule in business is to never enter into a joint venture unless you have a formally documented and signed exit strategy. There are two reasons for this.

Read (more…)

To be a good investor it requires financial intelligence that you should constantly improve. You have to start reading a lot of books and magazines, the great idea can come without even knowing. Inform yourself from local, national, even from global news. Any information you get from TV or newspaper, you need to learn something from it, keep your mind open. That’s how you start to become a good investor.

Successful investing requires three components, money, time and discipline, the chances are that you have the first two and have to work on the discipline part.

Investors who analyze the company can better judge the value of the stock and profit from buying and selling it. Your greatest asset in stock investing is knowledge (and a little common sense). To succeed in the world of stock investing, keep in mind these key success factors:

- Analyze yourself. What do you want to accomplish with your stock investing? What are your investment goals?

- Know where to get information. The decisions you make about your money and what stocks to invest in require quality information.

- Understand why you want to invest in stocks. Are you seeking appreciation (capital gains) or income (dividends)?

- Do some research. Look at the company whose stock you’re considering to see whether it’s a profitable company worthy of your investment dollars.

Read (more…)

Offshore investment is the keeping of money in a jurisdiction other than one’s country of residence. Offshore jurisdictions are a commonly accepted solution to reducing excessive tax burdens levied in most countries to both large and small scale investors alike.

Selected offshore domiciles are superficially viewed by some as havens used by to conceal or protect illegally acquired money from law enforcement in the investor’s country. Although this may be the case, legitimate investors also take advantage of higher rates of return or lower rates of tax on that return offered by operating via such domiciles. The advantage to this is that such operations are both legal and less costly than the solutions offered in the investor’s country - or “onshore”

Another reason why ‘offshore’ investment is superior to ‘onshore’ investment is because it is less regulated, and the behavior of the offshore investment provider, whether he is a banker, fund manager, trustee or stock-broker, is freer than it could be in a more regulated environment.

Offshore investing refers to a wide range of investment strategies that capitalize on advantages offered outside of an investor’s home country.

The most important advantage in offshore investing is that you can make a lot of money without paying almost any taxes. If the investor lives in a place where he pays taxes like most countries then he will only pay taxes on his dividend or interest made.

Read (more…)

In a bid to remain independent, Yahoo plans to reject Microsoft Corp.’s unsolicited takeover offer, according to reports on the Wall Street Journal’s web site.

Quoting sources familiar with the situation, the Journal reports that Yahoo’s board feels the offer of $31 per share “massively undervalues” the company. A letter spelling out the position is expected to be sent Monday. Yahoo also expressed concern that Microsoft’s offer does not account for risks to Yahoo should the deal be overturned by regulators.

The Journal source said the company would be unwilling to consider an offer below $40 per share, which would represent a $12 billion increase over Microsoft’s original $44.6 billion bid. It is unclear if Microsoft would be willing to increase its bid by such a significant amount.

The two companies have been in discussions about an alliance or merger for more than a year. Yahoo has long hoped to remain independent, believing it can reverse its fortunes and lift its flagging stock price.

In the summer of 2007, investors believed it was possible as well. Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang replaced Terry Semel as CEO and announced he would unveil a new strategic plan for the company within 100 days.

“There will be no sacred cows and we need to move quickly,” he said. But, after the 100 days – and then some – passed, investor patience wore thin, driving the stock lower.

In late January, the slumping Internet pioneer reported a fifth-consecutive quarter of lower profits and warned of “headwinds” for 2008. Yahoo’s battered stock fell to a four-year low, below the $20 per share level, and Microsoft pounced.

Read Yahoo rejects Microsoft bid

No matter how much you’ve read about trading, or how much experience you have as a trader, it is difficult to trade profitably in a volatile market environment like the one we are in now. A rising market is often perceived to reflect optimism and investor faith. Enthusiasm and rejuvenated interest in the markets rides high. Many investors have multiplied their money manifolds.

Now, is it time to quit? Will the bubble burst? The investor has many questions and very few options before him. Strategies for a rising market are crucial and much depends on the risk appetite of the investor.

Don’t sell into the panic. Don’t buy the greed. This is of course obvious to say, but harder to execute when it is actually happening. When you have extreme market conditions, the individual stock movements can be big and rapid, and they are not necessarily, and in fact, usually not at all, related to fundamentals or economics.

Will the upswing continue? This is a difficult question and much depends on the factors that contribute to the bull run. Many perceive the market to be over-heated and fear to set foot in it. Others view corrections as an opportunity to make quick money. But this calls for quick decision-making and considerable tolerance to risk.

The unfailing strategy is to buy great companies with long track records of rising stock prices and dividends. Pick them low and hold on. Over a long haul, such companies with good fundamentals will not fail you. It is not unusual to find some stocks faring poorly in a bull market and some doing exceptionally well in a bear market. A bull run implies a booming economy, low unemployment rate, high production of goods and low inflation.

Read (more…)

A full-blown dollar crisis on top of a credit crunch and a weakening economy would be frightening. Thankfully, it need not happen. A lot of pressure is being put upon some Governments and, by extension, the Central Bank, to revalue the local currency exchange rate in relation to the US dollar.

Some financial experts are calling for a revaluation, one to take account of the dramatic decline the dollar has suffered over recent months.

Other financiers are saying the time has come for their currency to be del-inked to the dollar and set against a basket of currencies which would reflect a more realistic value of their currency on the world market. So far these calls have been resisted by many, for a number of reasons.

It is not sentimentality that compels a currency to retain the US dollar as its peg, but there is a recognized historical reason for doing so. Until recently, many Gulf countries relied solely upon exports of crude oil and refined products for its export earnings to support the economy.

Oil was and still is traded in American dollars so it made a lot of sense for Gulf , as nascent nations and emerging economies to link its currency to that with which most business would be conducted.

Read (more…)

A remarkable number of investors are deeply concerned about the size of the company to invest in. Unfortunately, unlike some other kinds of prejudices, not having a prejudice about size is not good. Let me explain. A few days ago I was talking to (or rather, I was being talked to) by a group of very enthusiastic investors. These were people who had dropped in to extract investment advice from me, despite my strong protestations that I had no advice to offer about any specific stocks.

However, it did not really matter because what they were interested in was displaying the high quality of the research that their brokers had provided them with. This research consisted, in its entirety, of a list of stocks that were about to go up. No actual reasoning and logic accompanied the list. In the olden days of the stock markets, this kind of research went under the term ‘tips’ but it has been re branded now

Anyway, one of things that struck me about the research-led investment strategies that they were discussing was the utter lack of any consideration for size. They consider the stock of a large company, with a high market value, and that of a company with a lower market value as alternatives to each other. This is so because the ‘research’ they are going by says that all these are likely to rise. This is deeply misguided way of evaluating stocks.

Read (more…)