Los 10 Errores Más Comunes En La Negociación De Opciones

Top 10 errores comerciales

Lograr el éxito en el comercio de futuros requiere evitar numerosas trampas tanto, o más, que lo que busca y ejecutar operaciones ganadoras. De hecho, la mayoría de los comerciantes profesionales le dirá que no es ninguna metodología comercial específica que hacen que los comerciantes tengan éxito, sino que en su lugar las reglas generales a las que los comerciantes se adhieren estrictamente que mantenerlos "en el juego" el tiempo suficiente para lograr el éxito .

A continuación se presentan 10 de los errores más frecuentes los comerciantes hacen en el comercio de futuros, en ningún orden particular de importancia.

1 Falta de tener un plan de negociación en vigor antes de que se ejecute una operación:

Un comerciante sin un plan específico de acción en el lugar al entrar en un comercio de futuros no sabe, entre otras cosas, cuándo o dónde va a salir del comercio, o acerca de cuánto dinero se puede hacer o perder. Los comerciantes sin plan de negociación predeterminado están volando por el asiento de sus pantalones, y eso es normalmente una receta para un "accidente y quemadura". Un mentor una vez me dio la siguiente sabiduría: "Cualquier tonto puede entrar en un comercio, pero es el verdadero profesional que sabe cuándo salir".

2 Activos de negociación inadecuados o gestión de dinero inadecuada:

No toma una fortuna negociar mercados de futuros con éxito. Sin embargo, la mayor volatilidad en los mercados de futuros en los últimos meses ha llevado a las principales bolsas de futuros a aumentar los requisitos de márgenes comerciales. Los comerciantes con menos de $ 5,000 en sus cuentas de comercio pueden y comercian con éxito. Los contratos de futuros electrónicos E-mini se han convertido en un favorito entre los comerciantes con cuentas pequeñas y grandes, como los requisitos de margen son mucho menos que los contratos de futuros de tamaño completo. Es importante destacar que los comerciantes con $ 50.000 o más en sus cuentas de comercio pueden perder y lo pierden en un abrir y cerrar de ojos. Parte del éxito del comercio se reduce a la gestión del dinero adecuado y no gunning de alto riesgo "home-run" oficios que el riesgo de demasiado capital comercial a la vez.

3 Expectativas que son demasiado altas, demasiado pronto:

Los comerciantes de futuros principiantes que esperan dejar su trabajo diario y hacer una buena vida negociando futuros en sus primeros años de comercio por lo general son decepcionados. Usted no se convierte en un exitoso médico o abogado o propietario de un negocio en los primeros dos años de la práctica. Se necesita mucho trabajo y perseverancia para lograr el éxito en cualquier campo de trabajo, y el comercio de futuros no es diferente. El comercio de futuros no es el esquema fácil, conseguir-rico-rápido que algunos caracteres unsavory lo hacen hacia fuera para ser (de hecho, usted puede agregar a esta lista que escucha a la gente que intenta convencerle que usted puede hacer una fortuna ). Antes de soñar con convertirse en un exitoso comerciante de tiempo completo, primero debe trabajar en convertirse en un exitoso comerciante a tiempo parcial.

4 Falta de uso de paradas de protección:

El uso de paradas de protección al entrar en un comercio de proporcionar a un comerciante con una buena idea de cuánto dinero él o ella está arriesgando en ese comercio en particular, si se convierte en un perdedor. Paradas de protección son una buena herramienta de gestión de dinero, pero no son perfectos. Los movimientos de precio límite en los mercados de futuros pueden explotar justo después de las órdenes de detención de protección. La reciente mayor volatilidad de los precios en los mercados de materias primas ha hecho que la colocación de paradas sea un esfuerzo más difícil, pero las paradas de protección son una herramienta prudente de administración del dinero. La volatilidad añadida destaca la importancia de usar paradas y no debe utilizarse como excusa para evitarlas. El deslizamiento es un hecho de la vida en el comercio y debe ser trabajado en la ecuación. Entienda que no siempre se llenan en su precio de parada en la pérdida de operaciones y plan de acuerdo. Recuerde que no hay herramientas de gestión de dinero perfecto en el comercio de futuros.

5 Falta de paciencia y disciplina:

Si bien destacar estas virtudes se ha convertido en un cliché, al determinar lo que los comerciantes sin éxito carecen, no muchos argumentarán con sus méritos. Un ejemplo clásico de la disciplina de los comerciantes en los mercados comerciales reside en el repunte de los futuros de los índices bursátiles estadounidenses que ocurrieron a principios del otoño pasado. Los comerciantes veteranos saben que los meses de septiembre y octubre son históricamente bajistas para los índices bursátiles. Sin embargo, los índices bursátiles del pasado otoño impulsaron a través de esos meses históricamente bajistas y establecieron nuevos máximos para el movimiento en forma regular durante ese período. Un comerciante de la tendencia que exhibe la disciplina para continuar negociando con la tendencia y la paciencia para dejar el mercado decirle o ella cuando esa tendencia ascendente había terminado, habría reservado beneficios considerables durante un período de varias semanas. Otros comerciantes menos disciplinados pueden haber apostado por la corazonada de que los mercados se dirigieron hacia abajo en septiembre y octubre, sin hacer que el mercado les demuestre evidencia técnica de ello. Además, don & rsquo; comercio t sólo por el bien de comercio o simplemente porque usted haven & rsquo; t negociado por un tiempo. Permita que esos muy buenos sistemas de negociación vienen a usted, y luego actúe sobre ellos de una manera prudente. El mercado hará lo que el mercado quiere hacer & mdash; Y nadie puede forzar la mano del mercado.

6 Negociación contra la tendencia & mdash; O tratando de recoger las tapas y fondos:

Es la naturaleza humana querer comprar bajo y vender alto (o vender alto y comprar bajo para los comerciantes de lado corto). Por desgracia, eso no es en absoluto un medio probado de hacer ganancias en el comercio de futuros. Los recolectores superiores e inferiores usualmente están negociando contra la tendencia, lo cual es un error importante. El rally de 2010 en los mercados de metales preciosos, en el que los futuros del oro alcanzaron un máximo histórico y los futuros de plata alcanzaron un máximo de 30 años, son el ejemplo principal de los mercados que siguieron mostrando fuertes movimientos de precios a pesar de entrar en la estratosfera. Los mejores recolectores en los mercados de metales preciosos fueron brutalizados en 2010.

7 Posiciones perdedoras demasiado largas:

Los comerciantes más exitosos no se sientan en una posición perdedora por mucho tiempo. Ellos establecerán una parada protectora ajustada, y si se golpean, tomarán sus pérdidas (generalmente mínimas) y luego pasarán a la siguiente configuración potencial. Los comerciantes que se sientan en un comercio de perder, con la esperanza de que el mercado pronto se giran en su favor, suelen estar condenados. Usted puede hacer la adición de un perdedor 7B. Hay una tendencia a querer bajar el precio de la media en la pérdida de posiciones largas (o subir en cortos perdidos), porque si te gusta, por ejemplo, el maíz a $ 3,50, le encantará en $ 3,25. Esto es a menudo una mala idea y siempre peligroso.

El comercio de demasiados mercados a la vez es un error, especialmente si se acumulan las pérdidas. Si las pérdidas comerciales se están acumulando, es tiempo de recortar, a pesar de que existe la tentación de hacer más operaciones para recuperar los activos comerciales recientemente perdidos. Se necesita mucho enfoque y concentración para ser un comerciante de futuros exitoso. Tener demasiados hierros en el fuego a la vez es un error.

9 No aceptar la completa responsabilidad por sus propias acciones:

Cuando usted tiene un comercio perdedor o está en una racha de pérdidas, don & rsquo; t culpar a su agente o alguien más. Usted es el que es responsable de su propio éxito o fracaso en el comercio. Usted toma las decisiones comerciales. Si usted siente que no está en firme control de su propio comercio, entonces ¿por qué te sientes de esa manera? Usted debe hacer cambios inmediatos que le ponen en firme control de su propio destino comercial.

10 No obtener una perspectiva de mayor imagen en un mercado & mdash; Tanto técnica como fundamentalmente:

Usted puede mirar un gráfico de barras diario y obtener una perspectiva a más corto plazo en una tendencia del mercado. Pero una mirada en el gráfico semanal o mensual a largo plazo para ese mismo mercado puede revelar una perspectiva completamente diferente. Es prudente examinar los gráficos a más largo plazo, para esa perspectiva más amplia, al contemplar un comercio. Desde una perspectiva fundamental, también asegúrese de tener una visión más amplia de lo que está ocurriendo en el mercado que está siguiendo. La reciente incertidumbre de la deuda soberana que rodea a los países más pequeños de la Unión Europea (UE) afectó a la moneda ya otros mercados durante gran parte de 2010. La moneda y los operadores de los mercados financieros debían vigilar los eventos de noticias y los próximos eventos en torno a la deuda de la UE crisis. No saber o seguir los principales acontecimientos fundamentales en un mercado puede ciego a un comerciante.

Jim Wyckoff es el propietario del servicio de asesoramiento analítico, educativo y comercial, "Jim Wyckoff on the Markets". Él tiene un Web site en www. jimwyckoff. com y su email address es jim@jimwyckoff. com.

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Top 10 Errores comerciales. Y cómo evitarlos

¿Usted hace estos errores comerciales comunes?

Los errores son una parte de la negociación. Cada comerciante los hace. Pero los comerciantes más exitosos del mundo - los que hacen grandes ganancias cada año - son los que cometen el menor número de errores.

Lo que sigue es una lista de diez errores comerciales comunes. Una vez que haya aprendido a evitar estos errores, ampliará su conocimiento de los mercados de futuros y opciones y aumentará sus posibilidades de hacer más operaciones ganadoras.

SEGUIMIENTO DE LA MUCHEDAD Aunque se ha dicho que hay seguridad en los números, esa declaración casi nunca se aplica al comercio. Los comerciantes exitosos saben que es mejor "liderar la manada" de lo que es seguir ciegamente "la manada". Debido a que las mayores ganancias se obtienen al atrapar movimientos antes de que la multitud tenga la oportunidad de reaccionar, es importante que forme sus propias opiniones y luego actúe sobre ellas con total confianza.

REVERSANDO SU POSICIÓN Si su posición es incorrecta, evite la tentación de hacer un giro de 180 grados. En su lugar, salir y dar su comercio un descanso antes de tomar otra posición. No haga caso de este consejo, y corre el riesgo de ser whipsawed-perdiendo mientras que el mercado se mueve contra usted, después perdiendo más cuando el mercado da vuelta y va contra usted otra vez.

Tratando de seleccionar TOPS AND FONDOS Los comerciantes más inteligentes siempre dejar que la acción de precios de mercado demostrar una parte superior o inferior se ha formado antes de tomar una posición activa. Tratar de identificar las partes superiores y los fondos es un negocio arriesgado en el que la posibilidad de tomar una pérdida supera ampliamente la ganancia potencial. Mediante el ejercicio de la paciencia y la espera de un alto o bajo definido para aparecer, aumentará sus probabilidades de obtener beneficios, mientras que la reducción de su riesgo y estrés.

PERDER SU COOL Los comerciantes más exitosos poseen personalidades que les permiten mantener sus emociones bajo control, incluso cuando están equivocados acerca de su posición. Al permanecer objetivo en todo momento, usted hará más inteligentes las decisiones comerciales y evitar hacer oficios basados ​​en la ira o la venganza. Si tienes dificultad para controlar tus emociones, probablemente no seas un buen operador.

ESPERANDO DEMASIADO LARGO PARA "TIRAR EL TRIGGER" Los procrastinators hacen a comerciantes malos. Aunque uno nunca debe actuar en el instinto intestinal solo, ser demasiado cauteloso o indeciso puede ser casi tan destructivo para sus resultados comerciales. Los mejores comerciantes son los que son capaces de responder rápida y automáticamente a lo que ven en el mercado. Aquellos que no tienen el coraje y la convicción de actuar en su juicio son mejores invertir su dinero de otra manera.

PERDER PERDIDAS Nunca tengas miedo de admitir la derrota. Cuando usted comete un error, tome sus bultos, tragar su orgullo y continuar en el próximo comercio. Antes de hacer un comercio, decidir dónde quiere salir si el mercado va en contra de usted y luego se adhieren a su plan no importa qué. Incluso los comerciantes experimentados a veces tienen pérdidas durante demasiado tiempo, con la esperanza de que el mercado se convertirá en su favor. La mayoría de las veces continuará moviéndose contra ellos, y terminarán perdiendo aún más.

EVITAR LAS ÓRDENES DE PARADA La colocación de las órdenes de parada es una de las maneras más fáciles de protegerse contra una pérdida desastrosa. Aunque la colocación de órdenes de detención demasiado apretado puede ponerle fuera del mercado rápidamente, algunos expertos comerciales recomiendan que los utilice en todo momento. El uso de paradas es una disciplina fácil, pero recuerde usar discreción al usarlas. Cuando se coloca demasiado fuerte, las paradas pueden sacarte de la acción antes de que el mercado haya hecho un movimiento significativo.

SER AMISTAD Es una de las primeras cosas que cada comerciante que comienza aprende: deja correr los beneficios. Pero, ¿cómo decides cuán lejos dejarlos correr? Cuando un comercio va en su favor y ya ha hecho un beneficio atractivo, a veces es una buena idea tomar el dinero y correr. Uno de los mayores errores que algunos comerciantes hacen es permanecer en el mercado por demasiado tiempo con la esperanza de una ganancia inesperada que los hará ricos a la vez. De todas las emociones que pueden afectar los resultados comerciales, la codicia es la más destructiva.

TRADING MUCHOS MERCADOS A LA VEZ En los futuros, aquellos que aspiran a ser un "Jack de todos los mercados" por lo general terminan siendo un "maestro de ninguno". Si se extiende demasiado delgada tratando de comercio de muchos mercados diferentes a la vez, no tendrá la información y "sentir" que necesita para tomar buenas decisiones. La mayoría de los comerciantes expertos recomiendan que usted limite su comercio a uno o dos mercados. Si opta por negociar varios futuros diferentes, lo mejor es intercambiar grupos que se mueven en relación unos con otros.

NO HACER SU TAREA Aunque puede ser tremendamente gratificante, el comercio también es muy exigente. Cualquiera que le diga diferente no ha estado negociando por mucho tiempo. Los mejores comerciantes son los que han hecho un compromiso para hacer lo que se necesita para convertirse en un éxito. Ellos están dispuestos a estudiar gráficos o aprender nuevos métodos comerciales para que estén siempre listos para lo que el mercado lanza su camino. Una vez que haya hecho ese compromiso usted mismo, ha dado su primer paso hacia el éxito comercial.

Top 10 errores al negociar en las opciones baratas

Muchos comerciantes cometen el error de comprar opciones baratas sin entender completamente los riesgos. Una opción barata se puede definir como "barata" - el precio absoluto es bajo - sin embargo, el valor real se descuida a menudo.

Estos comerciantes están confundiendo una opción barata con una opción de bajo precio. Una "opción a bajo precio" es donde el valor de la opción se negocia a un precio inferior con respecto a sus fundamentos, y por lo tanto se considera infravalorado, ya que no es sinónimo del valor real de la acción subyacente que se está representando.

Invertir en opciones baratas no es lo mismo que invertir en acciones baratas. El primero tiende a acarrear más riesgo.

Como dijo Gordon Gecko en la película Wall Street, "La codicia, por falta de una palabra mejor, es buena". La avaricia puede ser un gran motivador para obtener ganancias. Sin embargo, cuando se trata de opciones baratas, la codicia puede tentar incluso a los comerciantes experimentados a tomar riesgos imprudentes. Después de todo, ¿quién no le gusta un gran beneficio con una inversión mínima?

Fuera de las opciones de dinero combinado con tiempos de vencimiento cortos puede parecer una buena inversión. El costo inicial es generalmente más bajo, lo que hace que los beneficios posibles sean mayores si se cumple la opción. Sin embargo, antes de negociar en opciones baratas, tenga cuidado con estos 10 errores comunes.

Top 10 errores al negociar opciones baratas

1. Ignorar o no comprender los parámetros de volatilidad implícita frente a la volatilidad histórica. Volatilidad implícita es utilizada por los operadores de opciones para medir si una opción es costosa o barata. La volatilidad futura (rango de negociación probable) se muestra mediante el uso de los puntos de datos.

Una alta volatilidad implícita normalmente significa un mercado bajista. Cuando hay miedo en el mercado, los riesgos percibidos a veces aumentan los precios. Esto se correlaciona con una opción costosa. Una baja volatilidad implícita a menudo se correlaciona con un mercado alcista.

La volatilidad histórica, que se puede trazar en un gráfico, también debe ser estudiada de cerca para hacer una comparación con las medidas de volatilidad implícitas actuales que se están calculando.

2. Ignorar las probabilidades y las probabilidades asociadas con el comercio de opciones. El mercado no siempre realizará de acuerdo con las tendencias mostradas por la historia del stock subyacente. La creencia de que aprovechar el capital, mediante la compra de opciones baratas, ayuda a aliviar una pérdida debido a un movimiento importante esperado por una acción, sin duda puede ser sobrevalorada por los comerciantes no se adhieren a las reglas de probabilidades y probabilidades donde se subestima el riesgo que, al final , Podría causar una pérdida importante.

Las probabilidades son simplemente describir la probabilidad de que un evento ocurra o no ocurra.

Mientras que la probabilidad es una razón basada en la probabilidad de que ocurra o no ocurra un evento o un resultado.

Los inversores deben recordar que las opciones baratas son a menudo baratos por una razón. La opción se cotiza de acuerdo con la expectativa estadística del potencial de sus acciones subyacentes. Por lo tanto, para el comercio fuera de este precio de la opción de la huelga, que se basa en un marco de tiempo, requiere consideración cautelosa.

3. N eglectar el delta de una opción barata ignorando su valor intrínseco en el tiempo de expiración.

Un delta se refiere a la relación que compara la variación del precio del activo subyacente con la variación correspondiente en el precio de un derivado. Si el delta es cercano a 1.00, una opción de llamada sería apropiada. Si el delta está más cerca de 1,00 negativo, entonces una opción de put es la jugada. Es más oportunista seleccionar opciones de mayor delta, ya que están más en línea con (tienen un comportamiento similar con) el stock subyacente. Esto a su vez significa que existe la posibilidad de una ganancia más rápida en valor a medida que la acción comienza a moverse. (Relacionadas: Técnicas de gestión de riesgos para la venta de llamadas cubiertas).

4. No seleccionar marcos de tiempo o fechas de vencimiento adecuados. Una opción con un marco de tiempo más largo costará más de uno con un período de tiempo más corto - debido al hecho de que hay más tiempo disponible permitiendo que el stock se mueva en la dirección anticipada. El atractivo de un contrato barato de un mes puede, a veces, ser irresistible, pero al mismo tiempo puede ser desastroso si el movimiento de las acciones no se ajusta a la expectativa de la opción adquirida. Otra consideración es que también es difícil para algunos operadores de opciones para manejar psicológicamente el movimiento de acciones durante un período más largo de tiempo - como el movimiento de acciones pasará por una serie de altibajos, períodos de consolidación, etc - causando el valor de la Opción cambie en consecuencia.

5. Análisis de sentimientos. Otra zona pasada por alto, ayuda a determinar si habrá una continuación de la tendencia actual de una población. Observando el interés corto, las calificaciones de los analistas y la actividad de la venta es un paso definido en la dirección correcta en poder juzgar mejor un movimiento común futuro.

6. Adivinar el trabajo en relación con un movimiento de acciones, ya sea hacia arriba, hacia abajo o hacia los lados, al comprar opciones, y ignorando totalmente el análisis de stock subyacente y los indicadores técnicos disponibles hace que un gran error de juicio. Por lo tanto, es un ejercicio necesario para utilizar indicadores técnicos y analizar el stock subyacente para que el momento del comercio de opciones sea adecuado a la situación.

7. Otra área a menudo pasada por alto por los comerciantes al comprar opciones baratas es el valor extrínseco / valor intrínseco de una opción.

Gran negligencia cuando las opciones comerciales es ese valor extrínseco. En lugar de valor intrínseco. Es el verdadero determinante del costo de un contrato de opciones. A medida que se acerca la expiración de la opción, el valor extrínseco disminuirá y eventualmente llegará a cero.

8. Las comisiones pueden salir de la mano, y los corredores están dispuestos a tener clientes que desean comprar opciones baratas - las opciones más baratas que se compran la comisión más el corredor hará.

9. Las pérdidas de la parada de protección que no se colocan pueden ser perjudiciales para la preservación del capital, y muchos comerciantes de opciones baratas renuncian a esta facilidad, y en su lugar prefieren mantener la opción hasta que se haga realidad o dejarla ir hasta que llegue a cero. Por lo general, este tipo de patrón se relaciona con la pereza o un temor agudo de riesgo - y con esta mentalidad, el comerciante realmente no debe negociar opciones en absoluto - y mucho menos opciones baratas.

Los comerciantes que toman este enfoque son los que evitan el comercio proactivo, y en su lugar, permitir que el mercado constantemente tomar sus decisiones para ellos por sacarlos del comercio en el momento de la caducidad. Este patrón de comportamiento con frecuencia conduce a una espiral descendente de pérdidas crecientes, que el comerciante puede tratar de ignorar esquivando las llamadas telefónicas y descartando las declaraciones no leídas. Todo esto equivale claramente a una perspectiva altamente perjudicial sobre las opciones comerciales.

10. Una estrategia sólida es a menudo pasada por alto, en particular por los comerciantes de opciones de principiante, cuya tendencia es iniciar su comercio en el lado equivocado del espectro, debido a la falta de conocimientos, ideas y / o estrategias de sonido como están apuntando a pie - In-the-sky, mientras que carecen de una comprensión clara de las realidades del comercio que están llevando a cabo.

Ambos novatos y experimentados operadores de opciones pueden cometer costosos errores al negociar en opciones baratas. No asuma que las opciones baratas ofrecen el mismo valor que las opciones subvaluadas o de bajo precio. De todas las opciones, las opciones baratas pueden tener el mayor riesgo de una pérdida de 100 por ciento como el más barato de la opción, menor será la probabilidad de que llegue a la expiración en el dinero. Antes de tomar riesgos en opciones baratas, hacer su investigación y evitar los errores más comunes.

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La decisión de reequilibrar su cuenta de jubilación debe hacerse en función de la asignación de activos deseada. Esto depende de. Leer respuesta completa >>

Un derivado es un contrato entre dos o más partes cuyo valor se basa en un activo financiero subyacente acordado. Leer respuesta completa >>

El comercio después de las horas de trabajo (AHT, por sus siglas en inglés) se refiere a la compra y venta de valores en las principales bolsas fuera de los regulares especificados. Leer respuesta completa >>

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Una relación de deuda y rentabilidad utilizada para determinar la facilidad con que una empresa puede pagar intereses sobre la deuda pendiente.

Una cuenta que se puede encontrar en la parte de activos del balance de una empresa. La buena voluntad a menudo puede surgir cuando una empresa.

Un fondo de índice es un tipo de fondo mutuo con una cartera construida para igualar o rastrear los componentes de un índice de mercado, tales.

Un contrato de derivados mediante el cual dos partes intercambian instrumentos financieros. Estos instrumentos pueden ser casi cualquier cosa.

Aprenda lo que es EBITDA, vea un video corto para aprender más y con lecturas le enseñamos cómo calcularlo usando MS.

Evite los 10 errores más importantes que los nuevos operadores de opciones hacen

Analista de Ventas

Es bastante duro llamar la dirección en una compra común, pero cuando usted compra opciones, no sólo usted tiene que ser derecho sobre la dirección de la mudanza, usted también tiene que ser derecho sobre la sincronización, escribe a Brian Overby de TradeKing.

En este artículo, he analizado diez de los errores comerciales más comunes. Las opciones son, por naturaleza, una inversión más compleja que la simple compra y venta de acciones. Por ejemplo, cuando usted compra opciones, no sólo tiene que estar en lo cierto sobre la dirección del movimiento, también tiene que estar en lo cierto sobre el momento.

Opción de comercio no es algo que usted quiere hacer si acaba de caerse del camión de nabo. Pero cuando se utilizan correctamente, las opciones permiten a los inversores obtener un mejor control sobre los riesgos y recompensas en función de su pronóstico para el stock. No importa si su pronóstico es alcista, bajista o neutral hay una estrategia de opciones que puede ser rentable si su perspectiva es correcta.

Error 1: Comenzando comprando Opciones de Llamada Out-of-Money (OTM) Parece un buen lugar para empezar: compre una opción de compra y vea si puede elegir un ganador. Comprar llamadas puede sentirse seguro porque coincide con el patrón que está acostumbrado a seguir como un comerciante de acciones: comprar bajo, vender alto. Muchos comerciantes de acciones de veteranos comenzaron y aprendieron a obtener ganancias de la misma manera.

Sin embargo, la compra de llamadas OTM es una de las maneras más difíciles de ganar dinero de manera consistente en el mundo de las opciones. Si usted se limita a esta estrategia, puede encontrarse perdiendo dinero consistentemente y no aprender mucho en el proceso. Considere la posibilidad de iniciar su educación opciones mediante el aprendizaje de algunas otras estrategias, y mejorar su potencial para ganar retornos sólidos a medida que construye su conocimiento.

¿Qué hay de malo con sólo comprar llamadas? Es bastante duro llamar la dirección en una compra común. Cuando usted compra opciones, sin embargo, no sólo tiene que estar en lo cierto sobre la dirección de la mudanza, también tiene que estar en lo cierto sobre el momento. Si usted está equivocado sobre cualquiera, su comercio puede dar lugar a una pérdida total de la prima de la opción pagada.

Cada día que pasa cuando el stock subyacente no se mueve, su opción es como un cubo de hielo sentado al sol. Al igual que el charco que está creciendo, el valor de tiempo de su opción se está evaporando hasta la expiración. Esto es especialmente cierto si su primera compra es una opción a corto plazo, fuera del dinero (una opción popular con los nuevos operadores de opciones, ya que suelen ser bastante baratos).

No es de extrañar, sin embargo, estas opciones son baratos por una razón. Cuando usted compra una opción OTM "barato", no aumentan automáticamente sólo porque la acción se mueve en la dirección correcta. El precio es relativo a la probabilidad de que la acción realmente alcance (y vaya más allá) el precio de ejercicio. Si el movimiento está cerca de la expiración y no es suficiente para alcanzar la huelga, la probabilidad de que la acción continúe el movimiento en el plazo ahora reducido es baja. Por lo tanto, el precio de la opción reflejará esa probabilidad.

¿Cómo puede comerciar más informado? Como su primera incursión en opciones, usted debe considerar la venta de una llamada de OTM en una acción que usted posee ya. Esta estrategia se conoce como una "llamada cubierta". Al vender la llamada, usted asume la obligación de vender sus acciones al precio de ejercicio indicado en la opción. Si el precio de ejercicio es más alto que el precio actual de mercado de la acción, todo lo que estás diciendo es: si la acción sube al precio de ejercicio, está bien si el comprador de la llamada toma o "llama" esa acción lejos de mí.

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Options Short and Long Term Technical Trading

Top 10 Mistakes Made by Rookie Options Traders

6 Responses to “Top 10 Mistakes Made by Rookie Options Traders”

Mark: Just listened to “Top Ten Mistakes. ” and I thought it hit home on some of my recent mistakes. It was very well presented and I know it will help a lot of option traders who are members of “Options Elite”. Gracias de nuevo.

Mark, Thank you for these great 10 mistakes for us to realize at the beginning some of the hazards of trading. I am not understanding a lot still, but I am confident that with time and your very professinal instruction, I can profit greatly in the future. Thanks for your individual help. and “hand holding” as we go forward.

Mark; what can I say my friend; not only this video but all of them are clear, concise and right to the point;I have seen many videos the last months, regarding options, and none were so educational as yours. Great job and a pleasure to be a member Tango

Great video. Made a couple of those mistakes already but learning form them. Great work you do Mark.

Very simply explained and I agree with all you said. Even though at times I hit the sell button trading my option plan, only to see it climb out after my target is met and I am out.

I should always be happy when my trade hit’s my target and I’m out with my profit. I must always keep reminding myself this: Bulls make money, Bears make money, But. Pigs get slaughtered!!

That’s great info on the video, I’m a beginner option trader.

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Top 10 Trading Mistakes Traders Make

Top 10 Trading Mistakes Traders Make 5.00 / 5 (100.00%) 1 vote

In the stocks, commodities and derivatives market, there are two types of traders; those who make money and those who lose big. The question that every new trader asks is what separates the two types of traders? The answer is simple; their trading strategies. Every trader makes a mistake every now and then, but successful traders learn from their mistakes and never repeat them. The following are the top 10 trading mistakes traders make and how to avoid them.

Trading Mistakes Traders Make

Not Having a Trading Plan

Many traders usually trade without any sort of plan. In fact, most of them only have one thing in mind; go in, make money and get out. While that may be the whole objective of trading, having a plan on how you are going to achieve that goal is important. Trading without a plan will lead to huge losses and disappointments in the future.

Trading too Frequently

Opening too many trades will only enrich the broker due to the commissions paid. For best returns, traders need to have a limit, say 10 trades per day. Once the limit has been reached, the trader needs to log out from the trading platform and wait for the next trading session.

Making decisions solely based on emotions is never a good idea. Traders should instead use all the technical analysis tools and trading signals available to them to make trading decisions that are well informed.

Lack of a Capital Management Plan

Capital management is important in any type of trading. many traders often do not have a plan on how to manage their capital, they invest big and gain big, or lose everything. Traders should have a capital management plan that restricts their investment in each trade to less than 5% of their account balance.

Every successful trader knows that the best trading time for different currencies differ because of time zones. Unfortunately, some traders are too impatient to wait for the best time to trade.

Leaving Open Positions Overnight

The market always moves up before coming down; everybody knows that. What nobody knows is when that may happen. Holding on to open positions hoping that the market will turn in your favor is not wise, as that might lead to a margin call, or huge losses.

Investing is not all about looking at price trends and listening to news; it also involves a lot of fundamental analysis to understand the market. Unfortunately, many traders do not see the need of understanding the market.

Traders who venture into online trading with the hope of becoming a millionaire overnight are often unsuccessful.

Lack of proper Risk Management

The stop loss feature in trading platforms is a very important feature as it limits losses. Unfortunately, some traders do not use it.

Ignoring Market Trends

Trends are very important to speculators. Ignoring trends is therefore among the top 10 trading mistakes that traders make.

Dodge the Top 10 Mistakes New Option Traders Make

Senior Option Analyst, TradeKing

It's tough enough to call the direction on a stock purchase, but when you buy options, not only do you have to be right about the direction of the move, you also have to be right about the timing, writes Brian Overby of TradeKing .

In this article, I've analyzed ten of the most common option trading mistakes. Las opciones son, por naturaleza, una inversión más compleja que la simple compra y venta de acciones. Por ejemplo, cuando usted compra opciones, no sólo tiene que estar en lo cierto sobre la dirección del movimiento, también tiene que estar en lo cierto sobre el momento.

Opción de comercio no es algo que usted quiere hacer si acaba de caerse del camión de nabo. Pero cuando se utilizan correctamente, las opciones permiten a los inversores obtener un mejor control sobre los riesgos y recompensas en función de su pronóstico para el stock. No matter if your forecast is bullish, bearish, or neutral there's an option strategy that can be profitable if your outlook is correct.

Mistake 1: Starting Out by Buying Out-of-the-Money (OTM) Call Options It seems like a good place to start: buy a call option and see if you can pick a winner. Buying calls may feel safe because it matches the pattern you're used to following as an equity trader: buy low, sell high. Muchos comerciantes de acciones de veteranos comenzaron y aprendieron a obtener ganancias de la misma manera.

Sin embargo, la compra de llamadas OTM es una de las maneras más difíciles de ganar dinero de manera consistente en el mundo de las opciones. Si usted se limita a esta estrategia, puede encontrarse perdiendo dinero consistentemente y no aprender mucho en el proceso. Considere la posibilidad de iniciar su educación opciones mediante el aprendizaje de algunas otras estrategias, y mejorar su potencial para ganar retornos sólidos a medida que construye su conocimiento.

What's Wrong with Just Buying Calls? It's tough enough to call the direction on a stock purchase. Cuando usted compra opciones, sin embargo, no sólo tiene que estar en lo cierto sobre la dirección de la mudanza, también tiene que estar en lo cierto sobre el momento. If you're wrong about either, your trade may result in a total loss of the option premium paid.

Each day that passes when the underlying stock doesn't move, your option is like an ice cube sitting in the sun. Just like the puddle that's growing, your option's time value is evaporating until expiration. This is especially true if your first purchase is a near-term, way out-of-the-money option (a popular choice with new options traders because they're usually quite cheap).

No es de extrañar, sin embargo, estas opciones son baratos por una razón. When you buy an OTM "cheap" option, they don't automatically increase just because the stock moves in the right direction. El precio es relativo a la probabilidad de que la acción realmente alcance (y vaya más allá) el precio de ejercicio. If the move is close to expiration and it's not enough to reach the strike, the probability of the stock continuing the move in the now shortened timeframe is low. Por lo tanto, el precio de la opción reflejará esa probabilidad.

How Can You Trade More Informed? As your first foray into options, you should consider selling an OTM call on a stock that you already own. This strategy is known as a "covered call ." Al vender la llamada, usted asume la obligación de vender sus acciones al precio de ejercicio indicado en la opción. If the strike price is higher than the stock's current market price, all you're saying is: if the stock goes up to the strike price, it's okay if the call buyer takes, or "calls," that stock away from me.

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At the center of everything we do is a strong commitment to independent research and sharing its profitable discoveries with investors. Esta dedicación a dar a los inversores una ventaja comercial llevó a la creación de nuestro probado Zacks Rank sistema de clasificación de valores. Since 1986 it has nearly tripled the S&P 500 with an average gain of +26% per year. Estos rendimientos cubren un período de 1986-2011 y fueron examinados y atestiguados por Baker Tilly, una firma de contabilidad independiente.

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Common Mistakes to Avoid When Trading Options

The Price Tag Problem

Thomas Jefferson was reported to say, “Don’t buy something you don’t need just because it’s cheap.” This philosophy is true for clothing, knick-knacks, and option positions! Options traders. particularly novice traders or traders with limited capital, may be attracted to deep out-of-the-money options because of their low price tag. But with that low capital investment comes a low chance for success.

HOW TO TRADE OPTIONS:

If an option is out-of-the-money, it has to move that much farther to become profitable by expiration. Contrarily, options that cost more (because they are in-the-money or have more time until expiration) have a greater chance of success. Risk will always correlate to reward, and when you try to swing for the fences, more often than not you wlll strike out!

Fear and Greed

These emotions are widely credited as a stock trader’s enemies, but the same is true for options traders. When a trade is winning, many investors cave to greed and are unable to close their positions for fear of missing up on additional upside. Greed can manifest itself on the way down as well, as investors refuse to admit defeat and instead hold on while their profits unfurl and losses build. Other investors may have the opposite problem, overreacting and bailing out of a position at the first sign of trouble.

The way to combat this is to have a plan before you even enter a trade. Look at the charts, consider your investment goals and risk tolerance, and select an upside target at which point you will close your trade. Also pick a bailout point for when you plan to cut losses. That’s the first step. The next step is actually sticking to this plan when your emotions flare up.

Allocate Correctly

As aforementioned, you don’t want to commit more than 5% of your portfolio to any single option trade. But there is another way of thinking about this when it comes to stock versus options. If an investor plans on dedicating $50,000 of his position to Microsoft, he shouldn’t just buy $50,000 in MSFT options. Rather, he should buy the options equivalent of controlling $50,000 in MSFT shares (each option contract represents 100 shares).

For example, $50,000 would buy 1,500 shares of MSFT with the stock at $32. On the options side of things, 15 contracts of an intermediate-term (six-month), at-the-money (32-strike) MSFT call would be less than $3,000. This leaves $47,000 to invest in more conservative strategies or diversify one’s portfolio across different stocks or sectors. Spending $50,000 on 250 contracts puts is a hefty risk, and you could wind up losing it all.

Keep these pitfalls in mind and try to avoid them as you begin your new life as an options investor!

Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, http://investorplace. com/2012/04/common-mistakes-to-avoid-when-trading-options/.

©2016 InvestorPlace Media, LLC

10 Mag 2015 / by / in Uncategorized

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All Forex traders tend to commit similar mistakes when interacting with the market. They also tend to harbor similar misconceptions about trading and what successful Forex trading is all about. This week’s article can be thought of as a guide to what the biggest trading mistakes and misconceptions are and what you can do to put an end to them. You should refer back to this article often to help you stay on the path to becoming a profitable trader. This article will give you some valuable insight and direct you to other relevant articles so that you can stop making the same trading mistakes and let go of any misconceptions you hold about Forex trading. 1. Trading with indicators and fancy tools –

Many Forex traders, especially beginners, tend to erroneously believe that they need to use indicators to fully understand Forex price movement, or that indicators will help them in some way become more profitable. This leads many traders to concentrate solely on reading and trading from indicators, instead of the actual price action that these indicators are derived from. The bottom line is that indicators provide no real advantage over simply learning to read a “naked” price chart, and they actually inhibit your progress as a trader because they distract you from learning to read the pure price dynamics that occur on the charts every day. Price action tells you what is most likely to happen next in the market, you just have to know how to interpret it. After learning to trade with price action you will soon learn why trading with indicators destroys Forex trading success .

2. Not fully understanding and implementing risk / reward –

If there is one thing that all professional traders have in common it is that they fully understand the power of risk reward and how to implement it on every single trade they take. Beginning traders obviously know the importance of making sure their winners are larger than their losing trades, but they often do not understand how this translates into real world trading and what it really means. Every single trade you consider taking should be viewed in terms of risk to reward. You have to consider not only if your trading edge is present, but if the realistic potential of the risk reward on the trade makes it worth taking.

We typically want to make at least two times our risk on any one trade, doing so gives us an excellent shot at making consistent money over the long-run. Many traders get caught up on losing 2 or 3 trades in a row because they fail to understand the full implications and practical application of risk reward ratios that take time to play out. Check out the following articles to learn why risk reward in Forex is the true Holy Grail, and to learn how Forex risk reward and price action trading can make you a consistently profitable trader.

3. Not understanding position sizing –

Many traders come into the Forex market and they do not understand that just because you put a wider stop loss on a trade does not mean you have to risk more money or that just because you put a smaller stop loss on a trade does not mean you automatically risk less. A very common mistake that traders often make is that they adjust their stop loss to meet the number of lots they want to trade, instead of adjusting their position size to meet the most logical and realistic stop loss distance. A thorough understanding of position sizing is very important to your overall money management plan and to correct implementation of risk reward on every single trade.

4. Not having a Forex trading plan –

Most beginning traders make the mistake of not having a functional trading plan, and they also harbor the misconception that they don’t really need one. Forex trading needs to be treated as a business, and just like having a business plan is necessary for the growth and prosperity of any business, having a Forex trading plan is necessary for the growth and prosperity of any trader. A trading plan helps to keep you accountable in a world that allows you to do an unlimited amount of damage to yourself; the world of Forex trading. Most traders seem to get fixated on how much money they can make and thus lose focus of the real risk involved in Forex trading, a Forex trading plan that you read every single day can help to keep you focused and on track, so that you don’t fall off the wagon and begin trading in a delusional manner.

5. Gambling instead of trading –

A question that every trader who has been trading for any period of time needs to stop and ask their self is; “Am I gambling or am I trading responsibly?”. Almost every trader falls into some sort of cycle where they are simply gambling instead of trading at some point in their trading career. The quicker you can recognize this and pull yourself out of this deadly cycle the quicker you will become consistent and profitable. Trading should really be viewed as “risk managing”, and not necessarily as “trading”, the traders who manage their risk the best are the ones who make the most money; take care of your risk and the market will take care of the rest; that is a very general anecdote, but it is also true, you have to control your risk very consistently if you don’t want to end up gambling in the market, when you put your focus on risk control instead of on how much money you can make the money will seem to come naturally. So, are you a Forex trader or a gambler?

6. Allowing emotions to cloud judgment / giving into emotions –

There are many factors that can contribute to and induce emotional trading, and emotional trading is the reason why so many traders lose money in the markets. Emotional trading is the end of result of not doing other things right, like anything or everything else listed in this article. Any one of the trading mistakes listed in this article can induce emotional trading, and once you begin trading emotionally it is extremely difficult to pull yourself out of its grips because it is a psychologically reinforcing problem that traders simply cannot shake unless they totally stop trading for a period of time and take a step back to think logically about what they are doing.

The Forex market can be an excellent arena for self-improvement and mastery of one’s own impulses and mind, or it can be an arena for total financial destruction and loss, which arena you ultimately create depends on whether or not you can master your primitive emotional brain structures with your more advanced logically thinking and planning brain structures. Read about how price action will help cure emotional trading problems .

7. Not having patience –

Patience is scare among amateur Forex traders. The reason it is scarce is because most new traders approach the market from the complete wrong perspective. Most people are attracted to trading because they think it will “fix” their life in some way, whether through freeing them from a job they hate or by providing them with extra money. While these are by no means bad or inappropriate goals to have, when you approach your trading from a feeling of “needing” it to work because you have no other options, you are almost certainly doomed to fail as a trader.

You have to be completely fine with whatever happens to your trades, and this means not trading with money you can’t afford to lose. Once you start approaching the market from a perspective of not feeling like it “has to” work out for you to be happy in life, you will begin to exercise more patience in the Forex market and this will drastically improve your overall winning percentage and will actually make you more profitable faster.

8. Not trading higher time frames –

I have been trading for nearly 10 years now and I still almost solely look at the daily and 4 hour charts. It amazes me to no end how many beginning traders that I encounter who want to trade shorter time frames. I get emails almost every day from traders asking me questions about trading the 15 minute charts, or even lower time frames. The simple fact of higher time frames that makes me concentrate most of my trading efforts on them instead of their lower time frame counterparts is that they act as natural filters of price movement, filtering out the price action that is not useful and leaving with you with a much clearer picture of what price is likely to do. This is why when you trade higher time frames in Forex combined with price action you have an extremely potent trading strategy at your finger tips.

9. Over-trading / being too involved

The quickest way to becoming a full-fledged emotional trader right behind over-leveraging, is over-trading. I find that traders are often guilty of over-trading and don’t even realize it. Most traders that I encounter do not spend long enough demo trading; this means they jump into live-market trading too soon and as a result of this they begin over-trading because they have not spent enough time on the demo charts perfecting their Forex trading strategy. Over-trading is most tempting after a trade, whether it is a loser OR a winner. Traders need to be especially aware of their state of mind immediately after exiting a trade, because this is when emotions like revenge and euphoria hit their peak, making it very likely the trader will dive back in the market with no real sound reasoning behind their action. Forex trading can be addictive and you certainly should trade less to profit more . 10. Not taking profits –

Yet another area where Forex trading is a paradox is profit taking. While hope is a great feeling to have in almost every other endeavor in life, in the financial markets hope is often the downfall of traders. They hope for larger profits, or they hope the next trade will allow them to make back all the money they lost. Most retail traders simply do not fully realize or understand the implications of the fact that the Forex market ebbs and flows, it never moves in a straight line for every long. So, when trying to build up a relatively small trading account it is essential to your equity curve and to your emotional sanity that you take profits as they come, instead of constantly hoping and holding out futilely for ever larger profits.

This is why I teach that traders should often take profits of 2 or 3 times risk, because generally speaking if you hope for more than this once you are up 2 to 3 times risk, the market is going to reverse and move back towards your entry. These reversals are what shake out most amateur traders, so it is crucial that you take profits when you have them, otherwise they are likely to disappear very quickly. As the Kenny Rogers song goes: “You’ve got to know when to hold em and know when to fold em ”.

You may ALSO be interested in the following …

Thanks Nial Sooo many trading truths in one quality article. Pity so many traders get mislead early on in their trading careers and get wiped out as a result of not quite correct trading information. Have come across your site quite recently after sim trading sooo many indicators over several years, looking for something that takes the guess work out of trading. They dont as there isn’t such a beast. Your price action method simplifies everything right down to make trading simple compared to working with indicators. Cheers Rob

Number 8 is so true, trading daily charts are so much simpler. Nial I cant wait to get your full trading course, you are the best and the easiest to understand.

nial, your whole article is great…i especially like number 9 specifically where you address the fact that right after exiting a trade, emotions like revenge or euphoria hit their peak and this may induce a desire to dive into a position again without a viable reason…thanks again, richy

Nial thanks so much for your support & for all your quality contents in your training plus the postings.

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Trading binary options can be risky for your capital so here are the most common mistakes traders can do, so try to avoid them:

Excessive investments – You only get high returns if you bet high and the risk of losing always exists. So please always use the Trading Chart of the simple method for the amount of the investments.

Do not trade with non-EU-regulated brokers – Brokers that are not EU-regulated can do whatever they want with your money. You wouldn’t trust someone with your money who only has a paper sign on the door that says ‘bank’ either.

Use the bonuses with attention – some brokers offer very cheeky terms on their bonuses so please be warned to read the small lines.

Wild asset-hopping – Stocks or currency pairs are assets, for example. Concentrate on a few options types and don’t jump back and forth to whatever seems the most lucrative or secure to you.

Watch yourself – Is your mood dependent on the outcome of your trades? Do you keep investing even though you always lose? Careful! With most certainty you’re developing a gambling addiction!

Compensate for losses – This is typical gambler thinking: I have lost big time so I have to continue gambling to compensate for these losses. If you have had to take big losses, then you didn’t trade right but gambled – so stop it!

Emotions – your worst enemy – If you trade emotionally, then you’re going to lose everything – stop it if you can’t turn off your emotions when trading! You have to be as cold as possible, 100% reasoning decisions and 0% gut decisions. It’s very important because especially losses can evoke strong emotions and fears. Fear has always been the worst teacher. You either stay cold with a loss and continue trading with a goal and calculate losses beforehand or you don’t trade at all.

One more trade… – If a trade is running out, so let it be. Go away from it and don’t think ‘Oh it’s going up now, I’m going to put a Call-Trade’. Most of the times, that goes horribly wrong and doubles the loss. Put your bet specifically and do something else until it runs out.

No Silence when trading – Do not trade if there is fuss around you. You need full focus to trade well.

‘Self-developed strategies’ & # 8211; You quickly get the impression in trading that you have developed a ‘winning strategy’. Usually that is NOT the case. The psychology of trading plays a big role here. If you feel as a winner while trading, you will win a lot more often (experience).

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Failing to Define an Exit Strategy - #4 - Option Trading Mistakes

Hello, I'm Brian Overby, Senior Options Analyst at TradeKing. TradeKing is an online stock and options broker. We're known for our award-winning customer service, cutting-edge tools, and our competitive pricing - we're only $4.95 a trade. We also have a very active Trader Network, which is a community of traders of all levels of experience where you can see real trades from our members and their performance, and you can share your trade ideas and discuss what's happening in the marketplace. If you'd like to learn more, please check us out at tradeking. com.

Having an Exit Strategy

The topic today is, not having a defined exit plan prior to placing a trade. In other words, we want to take the emotion out of trading options. When I'm looking at trading options, first of all we always have to realize that if I'm buying calls, it gives me the right to buy the underlying stock, and usually with my forecast I want the marketplace to go up. If I'm buying puts, I have a right to sell the underlying, and my forecast is usually that I want it to go down.

There are many different strategies that I can have in the options marketplace no matter what my forecast is. I could be bullish, I could be bearish, or I could say, I don't think the market's going anywhere, or, I think it's going to either go way up or way down. So, whatever your forecast is in the options marketplace, there will be an options strategy that will make you profitable if your forecast is correct.

With that said, though, I'm not seeing many option traders ever be profitable in the long term if they don't trade with a plan. In option trading and stock trading alike, it's very critical to control your emotions, especially if you're trying to trade on a shorter term basis. So, you want to have a plan to work, and working that plan is critical because of the leverage that's involved in options. You have to act fast.

So, if you've ever found yourself saying, oh, I'll just give it one more day, you might be guilty of this one of the top ten mistakes that I'm talking about. Not having a defined exit plan was one of the mistakes.

How do I trade smarter? Well, whether you're buying or selling an option, an exit plan is a must. Determine in advance what gains you'll be satisfied with on the upside, and also determine what's your worst case scenario on the downside.

Now, with this said, once you do it, look at it, stick to it. It's a simple request, but you'll be amazed at how many people don't do that after they have a trade to get on. Bottom line is, if you're going to trade with options, you have to trade with a plan.

If you'd like to learn more about these topics, please check out our Learning Center on tradeking. com. Also you can find answers to your questions inside our Trader Network, where many traders like to share tips and talk about where the marketplace is going to next.

I've also authored The Options Playbook, which is available for purchase on amazon. com, and you can actually view it online for free at http://www. optionsplaybook. com. If you'd like to hear more about my thoughts and tips, check out my blog on our Trader Network - just look for The Options Guy.

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Top 10 FX trading mistakes to avoid

FREE report on the most common mistakes in FX and how to avoid them.

Request this FREE Report and discover :

1. Failing to understand the platform

2. Using the wrong order type

3. Poor trade management

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Top Ten Mistakes Traders Make When Filing Their Taxes – Part 1

The US tax code is a complex maze. It is 73,954 pages long and includes more than 1,999 different publications and tax forms. In order to win in the tax game, you need to have the proper knowledge and expertise that can help you reduce your tax liability and stay in compliance.

In this 3 part series, we are going to zoom in and focus on trader taxation laws and the top ten mistakes traders make when preparing their tax returns. These mistakes lead to IRS audits, penalties and fines. These mistakes are costly and may cause you to pay thousands of dollars in unnecessary taxes.

Let’s count backwards from least to worst:

10. Not filing a tax return due to trading losses or minimal trading

There are people who are under the impression that they are required to file a tax return only if they had trading profits. Or, they are exempt from filing a tax return if they had a handful of trades, or experienced losses in the market. They are absolutely wrong! Failure to report your trading activity, even if you only had losses, or minimal gains may lead to IRS notices, penalties and interest. Take note that the IRS receives a copy of your 1099 from your brokerage company and if there is not a match between the trades on the 1099 form to the trades reported on your tax return they will send you a notice. What is worse is that the IRS will assume that your total taxable profits equal your total proceeds, and you will be taxed at the highest tax bracket allowable. In the last 13 years, I have seen many IRS notices like this, asking taxpayers to pay up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes. The clients typically are astonished when they receive these alarming notices. The issue is usually resolved by doing one simple action – filing a tax return.

9. Reporting your gains and losses on Schedule C:

Unfortunately, some traders experience losses that are greater than $3,000. In attempt to fully write off their losses they report it on Schedule C. They claim that they are business traders and therefore they are allowed to report their losses on Schedule C. This is a sure way to get on the IRS radar. The IRS code and publications clearly states that all capital transactions must be reported on Schedule D. Therefore, you are limited to claiming $3,000 of your losses in the year they occurred. The remainder of the disallowed losses gets carried over to future years. The only way to claim losses in excess of $3,000 is by electing the MTM accounting method which must be made by April 15 th of the tax year in question. Most traders are not aware of this election and fail to make it on time. Reporting losses on your Schedule C will most likely generate an IRS notice or examination. The result of this notice will surely be additional tax liability, penalties and interest. Avoid this mistake and consult with your trader tax professional on strategies you can use.

8. Paying self-employment (SE) taxes on trading

Many traders elect to trade via a business entity such as a corporation, partnership or LLC. When doing so they report all of their trading income as ordinary income and they subject their trading income to self employment tax. You should know that trading income is not considered to be earned income and only earned income is subject to self-employment tax. Therefore, reporting your gains as earned income subjects you to an additional 15.3% of unnecessary taxes. Let’s assume that Joe trader made $100,000 and reported all income as subject to self employment tax, this would mean that Joe would pay $15,300 in self employment tax. Only full members of futures exchanges are obligated to pay SE taxes on futures trading gains. However, too many traders out there are paying SE taxes on these gains. If you think the IRS will correct this error for you, you are simply wrong. The IRS hardly ever corrects mistakes in their favor.

7. Mixing up the tax treatment between securities, 1256 contracts, forex and options.

Stocks, bonds, and mutual funds belong to the securities group and are taxed at the long term capital gain rate if held more than a year. If the position is held for less than a year it is taxed at the short-term capital gain rate. Which essentially is your ordinary income tax bracket. Securities are also subject to the wash sale rule unless you have elected MTM accounting. Futures contracts are part of Section 1256 contracts which are entitled to a special tax treatment known as the 60/40 split. This allows futures traders to pay on 60% of their gains at long term capital gain rate of 15% and pay short-term capital gain rate on the remaining 40%; creating a maximum tax savings of up to 15%. M isreporting Section 1256 contracts as securities on Form 8949 rather than on Form 6781 causes you to lose your lower 60/40 tax treatment and potentially pay thousands of dollars in unnecessary taxes. Not all brokers report Section 1256 contracts correctly, especially instruments that are not clearly designated as such including some E-mini indexes and options on those indexes. You need to make sure you are reporting your trades correctly and not missing on any tax breaks available to you. Forex can be taxed either as ordinary income or as section 1256(g) that qualifies to the 60/40split mentioned earlier. You will need to know what tax election to make and when to make it. Failure to do so may cost you thousands of dollars in unnecessary tax payments.

Next week, we will continue with items 4-6 on our top ten mistakes traders make when filing their taxes. Until then, have a successful week.

To find out more about how you can avoid audits, reduce taxes legally and keep more of your profits, please visit OTA Tax Pros http://www. tradingacademy. com/otatax/ .

The Top 10 Mistakes Traders

Achieving success in futures trading requires avoiding numerous pitfalls as much, or more, than it does seeking out and executing winning trades. In fact, most professional traders will tell you that it’s not any specific trading methodologies that make traders successful, but instead it’s the overall rules to which those traders strictly adhere that keep them “in the game” long enough to achieve success.

Following are 10 of the more prevalent mistakes I believe traders make in futures trading. This list is in no particular order of importance.

1. Failure to have a trading plan in place before a trade is executed.

A trader with no specific plan of action in place upon entry into a futures trade does not know, among other things, when or where he or she will exit the trade, or about how much money may be made or lost. Traders with no pre-determined trading plan are flying by the seat of their pants, and that’s usually a recipe for a “crash and burn.”

2. Inadequate trading assets or improper money management.

It does not take a fortune to trade futures markets with success. Traders with less than $5,000 in their trading accounts can and do trade futures successfully. And, traders with $50,000 or more in their trading accounts can and do lose it all in a heartbeat. Part of trading success boils down to proper money management and not gunning for those highly risky “home-run” type trades that involve too much trading capital at one time.

3. Expectations that are too high, too soon.

Beginning futures traders that expect to quit their “day job” and make a good living trading futures in their first few years of trading are usually disappointed. You don’t become a successful doctor or lawyer or business owner in the first couple years of the practice. It takes hard work and perseverance to achieve success in any field of endeavor — and trading futures is no different. Futures trading is not the easy, “get-rich-quick” scheme that a few unsavory characters make it out to be.

4. Failure to use protective stops.

Using protective buy stops or sell stops upon entering a trade provide a trader with a good idea of about how much money he or she is risking on that particular trade, should it turn out to be a loser. Protective stops are a good money-management tool, but are not perfect. There are no perfect money-management tools in futures trading.

5. Lack of “patience” and “discipline.”

While these two virtues are over-worked and very often mentioned when determining what unsuccessful traders lack, not many will argue with their merits. En efecto. Don’t trade just for the sake of trading or just because you haven’t traded for a while. Let those very good trading “set-ups” come to you, and then act upon them in a prudent way. The market will do what the market wants to do — and nobody can force the market’s hand.

6. Trading against the trend–or trying to pick tops and bottoms in markets.

It’s human nature to want to buy low and sell high (or sell high and buy low for short-side traders). Unfortunately, that’s not at all a proven means of making profits in futures trading. Top pickers and bottom-pickers usually are trading against the trend, which is a major mistake.

7. Letting losing positions ride too long.

Most successful traders will not sit on a losing position very long at all. They’ll set a tight protective stop, and if it’s hit they’ll take their losses (usually minimal) and then move on to the next potential trading set up. Traders who sit on a losing trade, “hoping” that the market will soon turn around in their favor, are usually doomed.

Trading too many markets at one time is a mistake — especially if you are racking up losses. If trading losses are piling up, it’s time to cut back on trading, even though there is the temptation to make more trades to recover the recently lost trading assets. It takes keen focus and concentration to be a successful futures trader. Having “too many irons in the fire” at one time is a mistake.

9. Failure to accept complete responsibility for your own actions.

When you have a losing trade or are in a losing streak, don’t blame your broker or someone else. You are the one who is responsible for your own success or failure in trading. You make the trading decisions. If you feel you are not in firm control of your own trading, then why do you feel that way? You should make immediate changes that put you in firm control of your own trading destiny.

10. Not getting a bigger-picture perspective on a market.

One can look at a daily bar chart and get a shorter-term perspective on a market trend. But a look at the longer-term weekly or monthly chart for that same market can reveal a completely different perspective. It is prudent to examine longer-term charts, for that bigger-picture perspective, when contemplating a trade.

The author, Jim Wyckoff, can be contacted at 319-277-8643 or via email at jim@jimwyckoff. com

InvestoCopy

Revision completa

Investocopy is a social trading network, which enables you to profit from binary options trading without any previous experience in the field, by observing how experts do it and following their lead. Just as social networks have changed the way people communicate, social trading platforms are now changing the way people invest.

The highly profitable investments in financial markets are no longer limited to professionals with degrees in economics and Investocopy is a great solution for those who would like to make money from trading but don’t have any background in finance or lack the time to study and analyze market trends.

Investocopy is a platform that will help you minimize your risks by providing you with the opportunity to copy top-rated traders’ actions thus giving inexperienced and more hesitant traders the chance to enjoy investing without feeling stressed. On Investocopy’s website you will find a detailed description of all the phases that people lacking experience go through when they first start trading. It usually takes as long as 16 months to get to the point when you feel calm and self-confident enough to begin making consistent profits. Many give up long before that. With Investocopy you won’t have to waste a year and a half; you can start getting results right from the start.

How does Investocopy work?

As a social trading network Investocopy enables you to closely observe the trading community and copy the profit-making moves of experienced traders thus avoiding costly mistakes. Whenever your chosen trader opens a position, it is automatically copied to your own account along with the settings and the proportional investment amounts. You can make an informed decision what trader to select based on the detailed information about their performance, including what assets they invest in and percentage of winning trades.

Investocopy is integrated with the binary options trading platform of the OptionWeb broker, which makes your trading experience safe and relaxed because OptionWeb is authorized by all European Union regulative authorities, amongst which is UK’s FCA.

How to start?

First of all it’s a good idea to visit Investocopy’s website where you’ll find all the information you need. Watch the short presentation video, which explains clearly and concisely how the social trading system works. The site also has a Frequently Asked Questions section where you will find up to the point answers to the most important questions people usually have. If you are still not sure whether Investocopy is suitable for you, you can open a demo account, which comes with $500 in demo currency.

This way you can test the system and get a feel of how trading works without the risk of losing any of your money. You also get free credits, 1 of which is used whenever a position is automatically copied from a trader. A credit is worth 10 Euro cents and there are many ways to get free credits, including opening a trading account, referring a friend or using free coupon codes.

Once you feel confident enough and ready to build your portfolio you can proceed to live trades using real money. At this point other people can start copying you and you’ll get 3 % of their weekly profits.

Investocopy Minimum Investment

Whenever you feel ready to start operating with real money you have to make a deposit in your OptionWeb trading account. The minimum deposit requirement is 200 Euro or 200 USD depending on your currency preferences at the time of registration. In case you need more information about the terms of depositing and withdrawing money from your OptionWeb account, visit the “Account Types” section under the “Information” tab on the broker’s website. You shouldn’t experience any problems with this company since it is CySec regulated and applies strict security policies.

Investocopy Pros & Contras

Pros

This solution provides safe and stress free environment for novice and hesitant traders.

You can gain extensive experience in trading without any risk of losing money by opening a free demo account with $500 of demo currency.

You can stop copying a trader or change your preferences whenever you want.

Once other people start copying you, you’ll get 3 % of their weekly profits.

The network is integrated with a regulated binary options broker.

Contras

There are no guarantees that you will achieve the up to 87 % profit rates that some experienced traders have.

You have to rely on information about the past results of the traders you copy, which is not strictly indicative of their performance in the future.

InvestoCopy Update

We were surprized to find out InvestoCopy have closed their business while working on a new brand. After a long period of testing their new binary option robot will be activated in Q1 of 2016. Top10BinaryRobots. com team will make sure to try it and present our review a couple of weeks after the launch.

In the meantime the recommend auto trading app is Binary Option Robot – the feedback from our clients and the traders community is very positive. We also noticed there are no negative reviews for the robot online.

For opening an account with Binary Option Robot – see here

If you like to see a detailed review on Binary Option robot – see here

Featured Robot Website Preview

Línea de fondo

After conducting a thorough research, our team of binary options experts came to the conclusion that Investocopy is a good solution for both novice and more experienced traders. The platform is easy to use and safe due to being linked with a licensed broker. Unfortunately the auto trading social system closed for business for several months while rebranding.

You could, of course, Proceed to Safety and select a different binary options trading system highly-rated and recommended by Top10BinaryRobots. com.

DISCLAIMER: All Information such as Winning Ratios, Results and Testimonials are to be regarded as simulated or hypothetical. All the information on this website is not intended to produce nor guarantee future results. There's no guarantee of specific results and the results can vary. RISK DISCLAIMER: Trading Binary Options is highly speculative, carries a level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. You may lose some or all of your invested capital; therefore, you should not speculate with capital that you cannot afford to lose. You may need to seek 3rd party financial advice before engaging in binary option trading.

Top CFD Trading Mistakes

Mistake #1: Wrong Risk-to-Reward Ratio

Would you like to have an additional $25,000?

Most people would say sure! More skeptical people might respond, “ok, what’s the catch?”

Would it make a difference to you if the additional money would be granted after you scrubbed toilets for 40 hours per week for the next two years?

Now that changes the game!

When it comes to business, we think through those proposals all of the time. Factoring in what we have to give up in order to collect the money.

Yet, for a variety of reasons, CFD traders throw caution and logic to the wind and disregard what they are giving up to focus purely on the potential reward.

Based on most experiences, traders will often see their average winning trade be much smaller than the size of their average losing trade. In essence, traders give up and risk a lot to make relatively little.

This would be similar to the toilet scrubbing example, except that there is no guarantee you’ll even make $25,000!

Intuitively, it doesn’t make sense to risk a lot to make a little. However, it happens far too much in trading. Two of the most common reasons are a lack of a good plan or a lack of discipline in following that plan.

For starters, to combat the behavior, we need to plan out the trade in advance and make sure we are trying to do the opposite, risk a little on the trade for a much larger reward.

Traders need to look for profit potential at least twice the size of the risk on the trade. This is what’s called a 1-to-2 risk-to-reward ratio.

There are several benefits to using at least a 1:2 risk to reward ratio, with the most obvious being that you now don’t have to be right on every trade. In fact, while using a 1:2 risk to reward ratio, you only need to be ‘right’ about 34% of the time to break even in your account (see Figure 1).

Though losing on 66% of the trades can be difficult emotionally, the math doesn’t lie in that your account can be at break even, all while losing 2/3 of your trades. That is the type of trading a savvy investor should look for.

When using a 1:2 ratio, you do not have to be right the majority of the time just to break even. As a result, you can shift your focus from having to win, to better identifying higher probability trades that can increase the win ratio.

Notice that in strategy B above, improving the win ratio from 34% to 50% produces a dramatic improvement.

So how can we improve our win ratio? Understand the 2nd common mistake, not utilizing the market conditions to your advantage.

Mistake #2: Not Matching Your Strategy to the Market Conditions

The second mistake is that traders typically apply the wrong strategy to the wrong market.

Have you considered there are times when your strategy likely outperforms and other times when your strategy under-performs? We believe that strategies are built to excel in a specific market environment and that it is difficult to find a strategy that outperforms in all environments. Therefore, if you are experiencing an unusual amount of losses, it might be a result of the market condition rather than your trade entry and exit rules. If that is the case, find another CFD to trade that aligns with your strategy.

So, generally speaking, there are two common market environments; trends and ranges.

In a range, prices trade between a defined top and bottom as prices are comfortable within their current zone. For this to occur, typically you will find no news shocks and the general market appetite can be described as ‘comfortable’ with minimal fear of substantial losses. A range trader will simply buy at the bottom and sell at the top.

On the other hand, when a range is absent, you will find trends. Trends occur when capital is dislocated due to change in the health of the economy or health of the corporation that you are trading.

When a trend is identified, you will want to trade it with a momentum or breakout type of strategy.

To identify a trend, simply look for a series of higher highs and higher lows (in an up trend), or lower highs and lower lows (in a down trend). Once a trend has been identified, look to position your trades in the direction of the trend as the larger moves are available in the direction of the trend.

In the chart above, notice that if you were the perfect trader that sold at the top tick and bought at the bottom tick, more points were available to profit from in the direction of the trend (up). That is idealized as nobody is a perfect trader.

For the imperfect trader, if your strategy is to trade ranges in a trend, you will likely do ok on your buy trades, but likely end up eating losses in the counter trend trades.

On the other hand, if your strategy is a trend following momentum strategy then align your strategy to a market that is in a strong trend to increase the likelihood your target price will be reached on more trades.

Mistake #3: Using Too Much Leverage

The third common mistake of CFD traders is that they implement most of the leverage available to them in their account.

Just because your account provides you high amounts of leverage, doesn’t mean you need to use it all.

Consider the example of a Hyabusa motorcycle.

The Hyabusa motorcycle can go up to 325 kilometers per hour. Just because the motorcycle can go that fast doesn’t mean that you want to drive it that fast. Consider that if you were to make an error in judgement and were involved in an accident, the damage done to yourself (including death) would be a lot higher probability outcome if you were going 325 kph than if you were going 80 kph.

The same concept applies to trading. If you use all of the leverage available in your account, you leave very little room for error and are basically making a statement to the market that you are going to be 100% correct in your trade.

Naturally, the problem is that we will never know if we are right until AFTER the trade is closed which means there is a chance for adverse market movements against our trade. Therefore, without some breathing room, we are at high risk of considerable damage to the account.

To correct this mistake, we suggest implementing less than ten times effective leverage. Effective leverage is determining the amount of notional volume you control and comparing it to your account size.

Notional Size of Trade / Account Capital = Effective Leverage

Buying a house while using a mortgage loan is an example of a leveraged investment. For example, let’s say that you wish to buy a 750,000 AUD house with a down payment of 75,000. In this case, you are using 75,000 to control 750,000 so your effective leverage is 750,000 / 75,000 = 10 times.

When trading CFDs, if you implement more conservative amounts of leverage at less than ten times, then you are giving your account breathing room to take on several losing trades in a row. Otherwise, if you over leverage your account, then a surprise news announcement or comments made by a political figure could cause a margin call and wipe out the majority of capital in your account.

Notas:

In closing, by being mindful of the three common CFD trading mistakes, you are giving yourself an opportunity at more consistent trading results. Strive to use a positive risk to reward ratio, match your strategy to the correct market condition, then implement conservative amounts of leverage on the trade.

Inversión de alto riesgo Advertencia:

Trading Contracts for Difference (CFDs) on margin carries a high level of risk, and may not be suitable for all investors. Antes de decidir negociar estos productos ofrecidos por Forex Capital Markets Limited ( "FXCM Ltd"), FXCM Markets o FXCM Australia Limited ( "FXCM AU"), debe considerar cuidadosamente sus objetivos, situación financiera, necesidades y nivel de experiencia. FXCM puede proporcionar comentarios generales sin tener en cuenta sus objetivos, situación financiera o necesidades. El consejo general dado o el contenido de este sitio web no tienen la intención de ser un consejo personal y no deben ser interpretados como tales. The content of this website must not be construed as personal advice. The possibility exists that you could sustain losses in excess of your deposited funds. Usted debe ser consciente de todos los riesgos asociados con el comercio en margen. FXCM recomienda que busque el asesoramiento de un asesor financiero independiente.

FXCM Ltd is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA") [Registration No. 217689] and maintains its registered office at Northern and Shell Building, 10 Lower Thames Street, 8th Floor, London EC3R 6AD.

FXCM AU is regulated by ASIC [AFSL 309763], FXCM AU ARBN: 121934432, and maintains its registered office at Suite 2, Level 18, 420 George Street, Sydney, NSW 2000. If you decide to trade products offered by FXCM AU, you must read and understand the Financial Services Guide and Product Disclosure Statement. and Terms of Business issued by FXCM AU. Para cualquier pregunta o para obtener una copia de cualquier documento, póngase en contacto con FXCM en support@fxcm. com. au.

© 2015 www. CFDtrading. com una empresa FXCM. Todos los derechos reservados.

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Top 10 Mistakes of Forex Traders

The following is excerpted with permission of the publisher John Wiley & Sons, Inc. from The Little Book of Currency Trading: How to Make Big Profits in the World of Forex (Little Books. Big Profits) by Kathy Lien. Copyright (c) 2011 by Kathy Lien.

Most of the mistakes that traders make are not new and for those people who are able to avoid them from the very beginning, the path to successful trading will be smoother.  Whether you’re new to forex trading or have made some mistakes already, review this list of Top Ten Mistakes of Forex Traders and hopefully, it will save you a lot of time and money.

Mistake #1: Trading Out of Boredom or Anger. The trader’s high never goes away.   Regardless of whether you have been trading for a month, a year or a decade, there is always an initial adrenaline rush when you put on the trade.  However, being bored and seeking excitement is one of the worst reasons to trade.  When the markets are quiet and you are looking to put on a position, there is a very good chance that after scanning through a few charts over a few different time frames that you will convince yourself that the trade is right. Unfortunately what you are actually doing is forcing a trade, which can eventually lead to losses.  Professional traders wait for a currency pair to setup according to their plan and do not create a plan based upon the desire to trade.

Being angry is even worse than being bored.  Have you ever heard the saying that revenge is never sweet? The most dangerous time for any trader occurs right after a major loss. The instinct for revenge trading (the desire to get it all back at once) can be far more damaging than the initial loss, leading many traders to make impulsive, irrational decisions that often lead to complete destruction of the account.  It is much better to chip away at the losses by assuming less and less risk until the losses are recovered. This strategy stands in sharp contrast to what many novice traders do, which is to create even more risk by trying to revenge trade after a big loss.

Mistake #2: Having Unrealistic Expectations. I can never forget the one time that I encountered an overly eager trader at a Forex Expo who asked me if my trading returns were better than the winners of forex trading contests.  I responded by saying, “Considering that the winners make between 500 to 3,000 percent return in one month, which would equate to an yearly return of 6,000 to 360,000 percent, there is a very good chance that he is taking a lot of risk, trading irrationally using a strategy that he would never use if he was trading a significant amount of real money.  Usually these contests are either for demo trading accounts, mini and micros where the average account size is between $500 and $2,500.  Even the best fund hedge managers in the world are not able to make 1,000 percent return, let alone 360,000 percent return on a consistent basis.  Having unrealistic expectations encourages greater risk taking which is one of the primary reasons why many new traders blow up their accounts.  Seasoned forex traders are happy if they can beat the performance of the S&P 500 and elated if they can consistently generate double digit returns every year.  The key to being a successful forex trader is to approach it like any other asset class and to expect reasonable and not sky high returns.

Mistake #3: Taking Highly Correlated Trades. What many new traders cease to realize is that currencies will often move in the same direction. For example on any given day, if the Australian dollar is up against the U. S. dollar, there is a very good chance that the New Zealand dollar appreciated as well.  Many new forex traders will look at their charts and see that the AUD/USD and NZD/USD are breaking out at the same time and will naively go long both currencies. However, by doing so, the trader is basically doubling up on the same position.  This redundant exposure could be intentional but for most new traders it probably isn’t which can be a big mistake because if one comes crashing down, there is a good chance the other will follow.  The reason why currencies will move in the same direction is because of the U. S. dollar.  On most days, the U. S. dollar will be either up against all of the major currencies or down.  The magnitude of the moves will be different which may be a reason why a trader has decided to spread his risk between the AUD/USD and NZD/USD, but if that is not the intention, then rather than being diversified, the exposure is highly concentrated, which creates a hidden risk in the positions.

Mistake #4: Failing to Use a Stop. Another question that is asked often at Trade Shows is the importance of using a stop. I am always shocked to find out that many forex traders do not believe in using stops.  Their argument is that if they do not use a stop, the currency will eventually get back to their initial entry.  This is true until it isn’t.  When the trend in currencies is strong, it can move aggressively in one direction with little retracement.  Eventually it MAY get back to prior levels, but that could takes days, weeks, months, and sometimes even years.  Unfortunately markets can stay irrational far longer than most people can stay solvent, which means there may not be enough equity in the account to last until the currency pair finally gets back to its prior level.  It goes without saying that all traders should use a use a stop.  Trading at its core is ultimately an exercise in controlling the chaotic and often unpredictable markets.  If you do not use a stop you are at the mercy of the market and lose all control of your trade.  At that time, the best thing to think about is whether the trade would still be attractive if you were not already in the position.

Mistake #5: Taking Unnecessary Risks. New Yorkers are notoriously guilty of jaywalking.  Even 80 year-old grandmothers will avoid walking to the end of the street and waiting for the light to change before crossing.  However every time that I have seen an older person jaywalk it is over the weekend and in the early morning when most of the city is still sleeping.  With decades of life experience, grandmothers and grandfathers know that it is far less risky to jaywalk at a time when the city is deserted in an area that is relatively quiet than during rush hour in Times Square.  In fact, they would probably never jaywalk at that time and in that madness because it is an unnecessary risk.  When it comes to trading, holding a position over the weekend when the finance ministers and central bankers are holding a summit is an example of taking an unnecessary risk.  The outcome of these meetings is oftentimes unpredictable and can trigger a gap open on Sunday evening. Staying on top of upcoming news releases and events can help new traders avoid exposing the position to unnecessary risks.

Mistake #6: Being Too Patient With Losers and Not Patient Enough With Winners. Inexperienced traders are usually too patient with their losers and not patient enough with their winners.  Cut your losses quickly and let your winners ride is a common piece of advice that traders will receive.  However is it even more relevant to forex trading because of how strong trends can be.  Many traders fall victim to the mistake of nursing their losers until they become so large that it wipes out their account.  Some will even keep their losing trade open and trade around the losses hoping to recover at least some of it back.  Yet these are most likely the same traders who will abandon their trades as soon as it turns a small profit.  Unfortunately this is not the most efficient way to trade currencies.  It is generally smarter to bag a small profit early and leave open a part of the position in case the move begins a big one.

Mistake #7: Being a “Possum Trader”. If you have ever had a losing trade and decided to shut off your computer or walk away with the hope that it will turn around if you stopped watching it, then you have fallen victim to what my good friend Rob Booker calls Possum Trading. Leave the position open, close your eyes, cross your fingers and hope that the trade will work itself out.  Unfortunately this almost never happens and more often than not, the losses become even greater.  Trading is a game of survival and closing your eyes hoping that the fire will put itself out is not the right decision.  If it is a small fire, it is smarter put it out before it even comes close to burning down your house and if it is a large one, it is better to abandon your home and call in the firefighters. In trading, if the reason for the trade is no longer valid, then get out before the losses grow.  Don’t keep the trade on and turn into a possum.

Mistake #8: Taking on Too Much Leverage. In 2008 when I traveled to Dubai for the very first time and we were driving down Sheikh Zayed Road, which is the equivalent of Las Vegas Boulevard, I could not help but notice the glamorous buildings and the numerous construction projects in process. It felt like half of the world’s cranes were in a 5-mile radius.  Gulf News puts it was closer to 20 percent at the tome, which is still tremendous. Yet considering that at one point, the number of construction workers rivaled the number of Dubai citizens, it was clear that property developers were over leveraged and a bubble was forming.  When the bubble became too large, like it did in the United States, it burst causing prices to fall 60 percent from their peak.  The subprime turned financial crisis was a tough lesson in overleveraging.  Forex brokers will entice individual traders with very generous amounts of leverage but risking anything greater than 5 to 10 percent of your account on any one trade is financial suicide.  Leverage is a wonderful drug when the trade moves in your direction but it is pure poison when the market is aligned against you.

Mistake #9: Over Optimizing Your Strategy. Trading robots have become very popular over the past few years and savvier traders have even learned to code their own trading strategies and create mini algos.  However the biggest mistake that these traders make is over optimizing their strategy.  What may work perfectly in one market environment will not work so well in others.  Having spent a great deal of time creating systematic trading products, I have learned that most robots or algos work in either trend or range and rarely in both. So if someone is showing you backtested results with 1,000 percent returns, you should be highly skeptical because they have probably over optimized their robot to show you a perfect trading record that will be difficult to replicate in reality.    Markets are dynamic and their drivers change with time and therefore it is important to use the appropriate strategies in the right trading environments.  For example, applying trend following or breakout trading strategies in quiet range-bound environments will usually lead to be more losers than winners.

Mistake #10: Becoming a Demo Billionaire. Finally, don’t become a demo billionaire.  Nothing can replace live trading.  According to my business partner who loves to play videogames with his son, trading a demo is like playing HALO 3 and thinking that you are ready for war.  The moment you hear a shell explode near you in real life you’d pee in your pants.  Just because you can make 500 percent return in your demo doesn’t mean that you will be able to do the same in a live account.  Once you start to see losses of $1,000 or $5,000, nervousness will cause you to question whether you should remain in the trade.  One of the unique advantages of the forex market is that brokers provide new traders will different sized accounts that allows them to ease into live trading.  After making consistent profits on the demo for a few months, open up a mini trading account with a small amount of throwaway money.  Make sure you can handle the psychological element of trading real money before you commit greater amounts of capital.

Regardless of your risk tolerance, or whether you arrive at the airport an hour or three hours in advance of a flight, nobody likes to make a mistake. Reviewing this list of the Top 10 Mistakes might just save you from making one. Just make sure that you have a good reason for getting in and out of each trade and don’t get emotional!

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Okay day traders, today I’m starting a new series of 10 articles covering the top 10 mistakes I find people making when day trading and losing money. Many of the mistakes of stock market, futures and forex day trading have to do with trading psychology.

These are in no particular order, so we’ll start with …

CHASING THE FOREX, FUTURES OR STOCK MARKET.

Some traders are under the assumption that their trading strategy (whatever it is) should be able to get them into every major move of the market. That’s a false assumption that will lead to disastrous trading results such as:

Reverse engineering every big move in the market to see what indicators, etc. would have helped them catch that particular move.

Change trading methods continuously.

Causing a trader to think there’s something wrong with them.

Jumping into a trade that has “left the station” without you just because the market is making a big move (but not entering based on your proven trading rules).

Assuming that there is some magical trading strategy that will help you catch every move the market makes.

Successful trading is all about having a methodology that provides a high probability scenario when the rules of the method are met.

Not all big market moves are preceded by a high probability situation or setup. In such cases it’s important to manage your thoughts and emotions and allow the market to make it’s moves, even the big ones, without you.

Successful trading is done by “making the market come to you.”

That means sticking to a proven, time-tested trading methodology that when certain rules are met, the probability of a profitable trade is on your side.

You wait until those rules are met. When they are met, you take a trade. When they aren’t met, you stay on the sidelines and simply watch as the market makes its gyrations up, down and sideways … maintaining an emotionally detached attitude.

Never chase the market … make the market come to you.

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General Trading Articles | Written by Jim Wyckoff |

Top 10 Mistakes Traders Make and How To Avoid Them

Achieving success in futures trading requires avoiding numerous pitfalls as much, or more, than it does seeking out and executing winning trades. In fact, most professional traders will tell you that it's not any specific trading methodologies that make traders successful, but instead it's the overall rules to which those traders strictly adhere that keep them "in the game" long enough to achieve success. Following are 10 of the more prevalent mistakes I believe traders make in futures trading. This list is in no particular order of importance.

1. Failure to have a trading plan in place before a trade is executed.

A trader with no specific plan of action in place upon entry into a futures trade does not know, among other things, when or where he or she will exit the trade, or about how much money may be made or lost. Traders with no pre-determined trading plan are flying by the seat of their pants, and that's usually a recipe for a "crash and burn."

2. Inadequate trading assets or improper money management.

It does not take a fortune to trade futures markets with success. Traders with less than $5,000 in their trading accounts can and do trade futures successfully. And, traders with $50,000 or more in their trading accounts can and do lose it all in a heartbeat. Part of trading success boils down to proper money management and not gunning for those highly risky "home-run" type trades that involve too much trading capital at one time.

3. Expectations that are too high, too soon.

Beginning futures traders that expect to quit their "day job" and make a good living trading futures in their first few years of trading are usually disappointed. You don't become a successful doctor or lawyer or business owner in the first couple years of the practice. It takes hard work and perseverance to achieve success in any field of endeavor -- and trading futures is no different. Futures trading is not the easy, "get-rich-quick" scheme that a few unsavory characters make it out to be.

4. Failure to use protective stops.

Using protective buy stops or sell stops upon entering a trade provide a trader with a good idea of about how much money he or she is risking on that particular trade, should it turn out to be a loser. Protective stops are a good money-management tool, but are not perfect. There are no perfect money-management tools in futures trading.

5. Lack of "patience" and "discipline."

While these two virtues are over-worked and very often mentioned when determining what unsuccessful traders lack, not many will argue with their merits. En efecto. Don't trade just for the sake of trading or just because you haven't traded for a while. Let those very good trading "set-ups" come to you, and then act upon them in a prudent way. The market will do what the market wants to do -- and nobody can force the market's hand.

6. Trading against the trend--or trying to pick tops and bottoms in markets.

It's human nature to want to buy low and sell high (or sell high and buy low for short-side traders). Unfortunately, that's not at all a proven means of making profits in futures trading. Top pickers and bottom-pickers usually are trading against the trend, which is a major mistake.

7. Letting losing positions ride too long.

Most successful traders will not sit on a losing position very long at all. They'll set a tight protective stop, and if it's hit they'll take their losses (usually minimal) and then move on to the next potential trading set up. Traders who sit on a losing trade, "hoping" that the market will soon turn around in their favor, are usually doomed.

Trading too many markets at one time is a mistake -- especially if you are racking up losses. If trading losses are piling up, it's time to cut back on trading, even though there is the temptation to make more trades to recover the recently lost trading assets. It takes keen focus and concentration to be a successful futures trader. Having "too many irons in the fire" at one time is a mistake.

9. Failure to accept complete responsibility for your own actions.

When you have a losing trade or are in a losing streak, don't blame your broker or someone else. You are the one who is responsible for your own success or failure in trading. You make the trading decisions. If you feel you are not in firm control of your own trading, then why do you feel that way? You should make immediate changes that put you in firm control of your own trading destiny.

10. Not getting a bigger-picture perspective on a market.

One can look at a daily bar chart and get a shorter-term perspective on a market trend. But a look at the longer-term weekly or monthly chart for that same market can reveal a completely different perspective. It is prudent to examine longer-term charts, for that bigger-picture perspective, when contemplating a trade.

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5 Millionaire Traders on the Biggest Mistakes You Can Make in the Stock Market

Timothy Sykes Entrepreneur, Leading Penny Stock Expert, Trader and Advocate

The stock market made me a millionaire by age 21 and now for the past few years I've been teaching others the rules of the game. I've made over $4 million (see my profit chart ) but more importantly, in the past few months, two of my students passed the $1 million in trading profits, a very proud achievement for both me and them.

And yet no matter how many video lessons, blog posts, webinars, watch-lists and trade alerts I give, far too many of my students keep making the same mistake that prevents them from taking their accounts to the next level.

The biggest mistake I see newbie traders making is not cutting losses quickly, instead their egos take control, they refuse to admit when they're wrong and small losses become emotionally and financially devastating.

That's why my number one stock market trading rule is to cut losses quickly, which means sometimes I miss out on a big move after being proven right after I've already exited the position, but this is to prevent myself from ever putting my account and confidence in a position that risks disaster.

I also asked a few of my multi-millionaire trading friends what the biggest mistake they see and the top rule they use to be successful.

My friend Gregg aka LX21 has made nearly $11 million (see profit chart ) and he says:

Trading without a proven strategy is the biggest mistake I see. The stock market is a very competitive place and there are many sophisticated participants who are ready to take your money. Traders and investors need to put the odds in their favor if they want to stand a chance of success. The first thing any investor or trader should do before putting their money on the line is to find a strategy that has a positive expectancy.

As for his number one rule:

Be patient! Patience is one of the key ingredients to reaping large profits. It can be very difficult to sit idle when I am surrounded by all the action of the market, yet sometimes the best course of action is to do nothing at all. I make far more money when I wait for the best set-ups, wait for the best entries, and wait for the best exits.

Paul aka "Super_Trades" I have known for over a decade and he has discovered more big winners than anyone else I've ever met. (See his profit chart )

The biggest mistake I see investors/traders making is taking position sizes that are too large for their portfolio and not using stop losses when trades go against them. Many new people want to make the money but they do not want to put in the work and discipline to be successful. Those that do are obvious and they catch on quick and compound their wealth.

As for his number one rule he says:

The number one stock market rule I have used to make millions is having a trade plan. This involves researching a stock and having a plan on how to take profits when it works or what to do if it does not work. I have now verified nearly $3 million in profits over the last couple of years and my subscribers have verified almost $1 million this year by learning the trade plan/research strategy I now teach.

My buddy Nate has just crossed the $2 million profit mark (see his profit chart ) but has wisdom beyond his years. He says:

The biggest mistake I see traders make is dollar signs in their eyes and thinking that a few hundred bucks profit isn't a good trade and they need more, more, more. And in the end they turn a winning trade into a losing one. You need to start somewhere and you're not going to hit a home run every time. Second mistake is disconnecting from the reason of the trade, ie: day trade turning into a swing trade and why this now losing trade is worth holding despite being wrong.

As for his number one trading rule, he says:

Trading is like baseball -- consistency is the name of the game, base hits win games. You may be a home run leader but more often than not if you swing for a home run you're likely to strike out. Never underestimate the power of taking profits along the way, always adapt and evolve; the moment you think you know best the market will humble you time and time again. I like to add to winners and use the house's money (unrealized gains) as risk for bigger profits. This concept seems so simple to do -- adding to winners, but contrary to what we are accustomed to doing -- adding to losers. Try it, you may be surprised!

My second millionaire student Tim Grittani aka "KroyRunner" has now made $2.22 million in four years (see profit chart ) and says:

I see far too many traders/investors refuse to cut losses. They delude themselves into believing the stock will come back their way for fundamental reasons, or simply are too proud to admit they were wrong and take a loss. No matter what the reason, the end result is usually one bad trade taking them out of the game. You could be short a near worthless company (like some were with CYNK) and still blow up your account if you refuse to cut a loss quickly. The market is always right, you have to be humble and respect the market, or the market WILL humble you!

He sounds like a veteran already, right? As for his top trading rules he says:

I think the biggest reason for my success is I trade off of technical analysis alone. Whether it's the latest OTC stock scam, or a blue chip stock, I am trading the chart patterns I am most comfortable with and nothing more! I don't let the latest earnings numbers or seemingly positive (or negative) PR cloud my judgment; I completely ignore those factors and just stick to playing the price action. By keeping my approach simple and literally making the exact same trades over and over again, I am able to learn from my mistakes and better myself as a trader every day.

The Best Advice I Ever Got

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Sunday, 31 October 2010 13:20

A few years ago, a magazine called Trader Monthly popularized a ranking of the "Top Traders Under 30." In those days, successful traders were a dime a dozen and celebrating dynastic wealth was much in vogue, so the magazine's list was a favorite on Wall Street.

Julien Balkany Age: 27 Firm: Nanes Delorme Partners City: New York Trades: Equity (activist)

In a year that has closed many hedge funds down, Balkany launched one, successfully. He opened in January with around $30 million; the fund was up 40 percent through the end of June.

Positioned as an activist investor, Nanes Delorme targets publicly traded, small-cap oil-and-gas firms viewed as undervalued and in need of a growth catalyst. "We don't fight for the sake of fighting," Balkany explains of his firm's approach. "Fighting is not always the best way to create alpha. Compromise is."

Balkany, a native of Paris, says he's inspired by Warren Lichtenstein ("he's never lost a proxy fight") and developed his investing style while working at Pierson Capital, a private-equity shop. Balkany completed his undergraduate studies at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris and has a master's in finance from Berkeley.

He worked at Bear Stearns in Latin American Debt Capital Markets in New York prior to Pierson Capital. He's the managing partner and CIO and owns 50 percent of the management company. These days, he's also a managing director at Nanes Delorme Capital Management, a New York–based broker-dealer/financial-advisory firm.

"This is a good market for us," he says -- the oil-and-gas sector is wide-open right now, he notes, and underperforming companies litter the space.

Despite his desire for peaceful prodding, Balkany has locked horns with his biggest *holding, Vaalco Energy, which sued him to preempt a proxy battle. The case has since been settled, and Nanes Delorme has reduced its stake in the firm. The stock is up 40 percent this year.

Age: 29 Firm: TCI City: London Trades: European equities

One of the youngest partners (out of more than a dozen) in activist/philanthropist Christopher Hohn's $15 billion–plus hedge fund, Baring is already something of a storied name in the securities industry, thanks to his lineage -- he's a direct descendant of famed eighteenth-century merchant banker Francis Baring and his eponymous banking empire.

One might assume he has simply feasted on the benefits of his fortuitous ancestry, but Baring, we understand, has worked hard, putting himself through all necessary paces to reach the top of the hedgerow. After graduating from Bristol University in southwest England with a master's degree in *physics and philosophy -- studying metaphysics, normativ*ity, epistemology and the usual mind-*numbing crush of core physics -- he worked at JPMorgan Cazenove as a pan-European sell-side analyst from 2001–2006. Baring declined to comment for this article; a TCI spokesman confirmed that he is a partner at the firm, though he refused to reveal the size of his stake.

Age: 28 Firm: Balyasny Asset Management City: New York Trades: Equities

A Minneapolis native who waited tables in Hell's Kitchen (and interned at MD Sass) before landing at BAM in September 2004, Bassin has quickly forged a reputation as a steely industrials trader. Bassin, who graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 2002 with a degree in finance, is a true two-tool player, technically astute at reading the markets but also a budding analyst who can ferret out fundamentals crucial to decision-making. Says one peer who nominated him: "Gabe is a rising star."

Age: 28 Firm: First New York Securities City: New York Trades: Equities

David Bender is not your typical 28-year-old. At an age when many of his contemporaries are fortunate to find any job at all on Wall Street, he has already made partner at First New York Securities. And he's no junior partner, either. Bender is one of the best traders at his firm, which counts a handful of former SAC standouts among its ranks.

Bender, who grew up in Great Neck, New York, spends his days stalking event-driven U. S. equity opportunities, eating what he kills, particularly during earnings season. In 2007, Bender's P&L flirted with eight figures, of which the Emory University graduate -- he was a triple major -- took home half. Call him exceptional (he's said to be a scratch golfer), call him confident (he actually acknowledges that he is, indeed, a scratch golfer), but don't dare call him a day trader. The term implies a certain unwashed recklessness, and that's not his way.

"My style has proven consistent," he says. "Last year I had 240 trading days. I think I lost money on five of them."

Hordes of equity traders such as Bender -- young, self-assured, flush with employer-sponsored capital, free to chase daily stock gyrations aggressively -- once roamed the financial landscape, until the bursting of the tech bubble at the turn of the century treated day traders the way asteroids treated the dinosaurs. Those who survived (the traders, not the dinosaurs) have reinvented the space, a maturation that has brought more focus and technical savvy, more disciplined risk control and the trading of more instruments and markets beyond tech stocks -- though don't think some of the new breed haven't made money long GOOG and short MSFT.

Age: 25 Firm: Magnetar Capital Management City: New York Trades: Equities (distressed/special situations)

Working in the New York office of Alec Litowitz's Chicago-based firm, Bryan is swiftly moving up the industry ranks. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvaia in 2004, he got his start trading at Goldman Sachs, then joined Cyrus Capital Partners, a derivative of Och-Ziff. Upon establishing himself as a top young trader in the distressed/special-situations space in U. S. equities, he landed at $8 billion–in-assets Magnetar this January. "He is extremely bright and responsible with his capital," says someone familiar with Bryan's trading. "I've always known him to make intelligent investment decisions."

Age: 28 Firm: Citigroup City: New York Trades: Equity index derivatives

Just two months into a Citigroup training program following his graduation from Penn in 2001, Chiang endured the unthinkable: His father, Alex, was working in IT at insurance broker Marsh & McLennan in the north tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11. From just blocks away, Chiang did his best to stay calm while fielding calls from his distraught mother in California. He charged down Chambers Street, but was forced to turn back when the first tower fell. He would eventually learn that his dad was among the many lost. "Only recently have I come to grips with the whole thing," Chiang says. "It really has shaped who I am, how I approach life. It was a grounding moment" -- because these days, he has the perspective not to get rattled or upset by everyday ups and downs.

Chiang took two months off to mourn but then returned to Citi, transitioning in 2003 to equity index options and eventually becoming a VP. Trading $1 billion–plus, notional, of principal, Chiang makes markets and takes prop *positions in all the major indices. "Huge size," an industry peer confirms.

Age: 25 Firm: Goldman Sachs City: London Trades: Cash *equities (prop)

A chorus of voices from all across the globe clamored for El Isa's inclusion ("She is the best at what she does, hands down," one admirer gushed), and while Goldman Sachs gatekeepers kept their curiously named prized prop star under wraps, we were able to tap a few City sources who helped us fill out a portrait. Having started her career in September 2004 as a trainee in London, she now trades prop on Goldman's Pan-European cash desk, as well as client money. More recently, she secured her current position, which we hear involves some impressive size.

El Isa is smiling coyly in one of the world's hottest sectors right now, making markets for natural resources–linked equities and taking no prisoners. Born in the U. K. and raised in Greece, she didn't even wait until she had graduated from University College London (with a degree in economics and statistics) before embarking on what would soon become a stellar trading career. In the summer of 2003, a year before she graduated, she landed an internship at Goldman with an eye toward getting an education as a market maven. From there, she swiftly moved into pole position, clinching a job at the bank in August 2004, trading financials. In 2005, she won a coveted post in the mining sector, developing the risk-management skills that would later prompt her admirers to brand her a star. Impressing *clients and superiors alike, she nailed a promotion in 2007 as an associate, making markets on Goldman's London-based cash equities desk. Sums up one ad*mirer: "You can't have a 30 Under 30 list without her."

Age: 26 Firm: JPMorgan City: New York Trades: Equity *derivatives/technology

Touted by some Wall Street insiders as being among the top traders at his firm, this Yale graduate (class of 2004, a physics major) entered the JPMorgan equity-analyst program right out of school before migrating into the Equity Derivatives Group with a focus on such big technology names as MSFT and GOOG. "He's trading hundreds of millions," says one source at JPMorgan. "Very disciplined, but a real old-school, from-the-gut trader."

Forman, who grew up in Westchester County, New York, reports to David Long, an MD and head of the Equity Derivatives Group. Whether the rise in popularity of his asset class continues remains to be seen, of course, but Forman is going about making a name for himself (and his firm) by making markets in this vast, often volatile sector. Says one industry participant: "Drew is trading the biggest book on the EDG desk."

Age: 28 Firm: Alden Global Capital City: New York Trades: International *equities, bonds

Like many of his industry peers, Freeman boasts a proud pedigree. The son of Carl Icahn's go-to investment banker, the late Brian Freeman, this former Duke University football player (he was captain of its special teams) appears to be well on his way to cementing his own securities-industry legacy.

After graduating from college, Freeman took a job as an analyst at boutique banking firm Peter J. Solomon. Now backed by famous investor Randy Smith, the Short Hills, New Jersey, native is currently the portfolio manager of the $100 million–plus Alden Global Canada Fund, part of Alden Global Capital, a subsidiary of Smith's *family office, Smith Management. Freeman doubles as an analyst for Alden's Frontier Fund, which invests in fast-growing emerging markets such as Vietnam and Indonesia. Says someone who regularly transacts with him, "To be *mentored and seeded by Randy Smith speaks to his ability. He is one of the most talented young guys I've seen in a while."

Age: 23 Firm: Casa Energy Cities: Chicago/Dubai Trades: Crude oil, natural gas

Something of a prodigy and seemingly *destined for a life in the markets, Graham spent his childhood relocating from place to place on account of his father's job as a manufacturing consultant. Having skipped the sixth grade, Graham (born in Color*ado, he has lived in Texas, Australia and New Zealand) studied economics and finance at the University of Illinois. After three years in school, he began trading oil and gas at Chicago-based Allston Trading. Before long, at just 22 years old, he was running the firm's entire energy-trading operation.

"His trading prowess is unprecedented for someone his age," says one crude-oil broker. "He's a brilliant trader and a tremendous risk taker, but at the same time he knows how to calculate risk well."

Graham's precocious skills soon caught the eye of Frank Carbon*ara, owner of Dubai-based Casa Trading. Despite Graham's youth, Carbonara recently hired him to be Casa's director of energy trading.

Graham's best trade yet? "I bought the gas crack spread back in February and March when it was closing in on being negative," he says. "From there, it soared."

Says Robert Barry, the boy wonder's former boss at Allston, "We are sad to see him go."

We're glad to see him come aboard.

Age: 27 Firm: Tudor Investment Corp. City: Greenwich, Connecticut Trades: Global macro (currencies, metals, interest rates, futures, swaps, International Equities)

Only five years out of college, this Scarsdale, New York, native has already worked for four employers, though he has always carried his weight and appears to have found a happy home at Tudor. A 30 Under 30 member two years ago who fell off our radar in 2007, Grunfeld attended Stanford and started his career at Goldman. From there, he jumped to Balyasny Asset Management before leaving to help start up London-based Comac Capital in 2006. He briefly returned to Balyasny last year before moving to Tudor in February. Like his boss, he trades everything across the board. Says one sales trader who covers him, "Great trader, very smart -- a baller."

Age: 26 Firm: First New York Securities City: New York Trades: International equities, futures, options, swaps For every regimentally focused daytime equity trader like Bender and Thoreau, there are those who simply do not sleep very often, such as First New York's Adam Guren, who keeps track of his international equities and futures positions around the clock, even trading in his sleep.

"Sometimes I'll leave orders with brokers overseas and get woken up at 3 a. m. to see if something got filled," says the 26-year-old former Duke soccer star, who is the youngest partner in First New York's history. The Cleveland native joined the firm in 2004 after playing one season of professional indoor soccer, and in the last two years was up 68 percent (2007) and 55 percent (2006) on his allotted capital. According to Motschwiller, his P&L last year was in the "mid-seven figures."

Age: 25 Firm: Lehman Brothers City: New York Trades: Equity options

"Best equity derivatives trader on the Street."

Those are just a few of the *comments we received on the topic of "Billy" Hillegass, who is known around the Street as a single-stock options Zen master. Hillegass graduated from MIT in 2003 at the age of 20.

Age: 29 Firm: Citadel Investment Group City: Chicago Trades: Equities

Hooker is turning the tech equities space upside-down. After graduating from Notre Dame in 2001, having completed its rigorous Applied Investment Management course, he left South Bend for New York, spending more than three years on the *equities desk at Goldman Sachs. In 2004, he headed to Ken Griffin's Citadel, trading tech names in its Global Equities strategy. He is also a chartered financial analyst. "An absolute superstar over there," says someone familiar with his trading. Chris Hsu

Age: 27 Firm: Abax Global Capital City: Hong Kong Trades: Special situations (debt, equity)

After graduating early from Stanford with a degree in engineering, this Taiwan native got a job at Aristeia Capital in New York, followed by gigs at JMB Capital in Los Angeles and Chicago-based Citadel. Working out of Citadel's Hong Kong office, Hsu led the firm's Asian special-situations group. Now one year into his $300 million launch, Abax Global Capital, Hsu is invading China with the zeal of a thirteenth-century Mongol. Employing a variety of instruments and techniques, Abax has taken positions in China Mobile Media Technology, Harbin Electric, Sinoenergy and China Natural Gas.

Age: 27 Firm: Credit Suisse City: New York Trades: Stocks, convertible bonds, equity options, variance swaps and credit *derivatives

Working for the past six years in Credit Suisse's equities division as a proprietary trader, Kero is a man who does it all. He got his start on the firm's convertibles desk in 2003 and quickly embraced the challenges of trading across the equity, fixed-income and volatility markets. "During volatile markets such as what we've been seeing, I tend to turn my positions over fairly frequently," he says. "Opportunities come in times of stress."

Working now in a strategy called capital-structure arb -- which combines elements of convertible arb, volatility arb and correlation trading -- Kero covers the widest possible spectrum, trading everything from blue-chip stocks and convertible bonds to options, *variance swaps and much, much more. "I've tried to go beyond being a so-called jack of all trades to really striving to understand the entire market," he adds.

A native of Spring Hill, Florida, Kero attended Carnegie Mellon, graduating at age 20 with a master's in information systems. He stumbled into finance only after the tech bubble burst. Known to play a wicked game of tennis, Kero is an ace in our book.

Age: 27 Firm: Goldman Sachs City: New York Trades: Natural gas (swaps, options)

A Wheaton, Illinois, native and wrestling captain at Princeton (from which he graduated in 2003 with a degree in operations research and financial engineering), Knorring spends much of his day grappling with wildly volatile energy markets. He takes action on NYMEX-linked contracts, and makes markets on OTC swaps and options. Working under Greg Agran, Goldman's partner in charge of gas and power, Knorring is constantly assessing risk -- and profiting accordingly, always playing many angles.

"He's part market maker, part hedger, part prop trader, all in one," says someone familiar with this former CBOT intern's trading style. "He could be making money on vols one day, then on deltas the next. He knows where the risks are all the time."

Competing in a space for which most traders cut their teeth in the rough-and-tumble pits, Knorring, who has worked at Goldman since graduating from college, has taken advantage of his quant background, which offers an edge as volume increasingly transitions from floor to screen. In natural gas, an asset class that has produced some of the most fabulous blowups in trading history, he's taking down his rivals one contract, one trade and one day at a time.

Says a former Goldman colleague: "His major skill is in making markets for Goldman on the OTC markets. He is an expert at developing relationships with counterparties and then leveraging those relationships to hedge risk for the proprietary book."

Age: 25 Firm: Two Sigma Investments City: New York Trades: Equities

At some hedge funds, traders are required to execute precisely what their proprietary signals and price points demand, without much (if any) discretion. This is hardly the case with Liebeskind, of renowned $5 billion–plus quant fund Two Sigma. The 2005 Duke graduate has been a wunderkind at the firm ever since he left Goldman Sachs in 2006. "He has full discretion to go with their signal, or simply decide it's no good," says one source. "For someone his age to have that kind of veto power over trades is unheard of." We are told Two Sigma is having a stellar year, in no small part due to Liebeskind's prowess, and is also increasing its head count. This is his second year on the 30 Under 30, with several more appearances possibly to come.

Age: 25 Firm: Citigroup City: New York Trades: Currency, rates and commodities

Growing up in Hong Kong, Lo heard about the world of bank prop trading from a family friend. Those seeds planted, he made his way to Manhattan, attending New York University as an economics major. After his junior year, he applied for an internship at every major bank on Wall Street. "They all turned me down," he recalls. "Except one."

Lo got that shot at Deutsche Bank, interning on the firm's forex desk. Within a month (he spent his first four weeks e-mailing his boss, Maura Craven, three times a day with trading ideas), a million-dollar limit was his to exploit. In the next two months, he generated profits totaling several hundred thousand dollars for the firm.

"That experience sealed it," he says. "I knew prop trading was for me."

In the spring of 2005, still a few credits shy of graduating, Lo snagged a pure prop-trading job at Citi on the firm's Global FX desk -- that family friend from years ago, Wayne Chang, worked at Citi, and helped open the door. Lo made the most of it. Mentored by Street *veteran Jeff Feig, Lo now runs positions totaling, notionally, hundreds of millions, trading everything from spot dollar/yen to Eurodollar options. "My trading style can't be put in a box," he says. "You can't trade currencies these days without looking at equities, commodities, rates, everything -- it's all intertwined.

"My boss likes to say that if you're comfortable, you probably don't have enough risk on," he adds. "We push it."

Age: 23 Firm: Independent City: London Trades: Commodities, currency, fixed-income

Starting out at age 21 with a few thousand dollars and a spread-betting account, Marks soon discovered he had a knack for trading currencies, reaping returns of as much as 300 percent. After seven months, the native South African was hooked, forgoing college to sign up for a training program with London arcade Saxon Financial, where he learned the trading ropes. Once he completed the program, Marks struck out on his own, cold-calling and e-mailing roughly 30 trading firms to provide him with capital. Today, he has a fund of nearly $1 million financed, in part, by London prop shop Pyne Trading. He has also caught the attention of others keen on seeding him.

"Right now, we're watching him to see how he does," says Adam Musikant, cofounder and director of Hamilton Court Capital, an Islington-based prop firm that has also given Marks money. "This is a hard business to break into, and he's obviously young -- but he's got vision, he's prepared to persevere and he's got charisma that stands out from the pack."

Marks says his trading regimen consists of 60 percent fundamental analysis combined with a proprietary system that he built from scratch with the assistance of former colleagues and advisers. "When I get into a trade, I do the research. But the system helps me determine where to enter and manage the trade, giving me a *continuous risk profile and managing the exposure and profit," he says. "By no means do I think that what I do is better than anyone else. Maybe the only difference is, possibly, my risk management. I put that before everything -- even profits."

When he's not busy trading, Marks -- who grew up in Pretoria before moving to England's West Yorkshire at 16 -- enjoys snowboarding the Swiss Alps.

Age: 27 Firm: Tudor Investment Corp. City: Greenwich, Connecticut Trades: Weather derivatives, energy, agricultural commodities

Energy and commodities have been the hottest trading sectors of the past few years, but one of the most unpredictable, uncontrollable forces behind some of the wildest swings has been the weather. From what we gather, no one trades it better than Pickard.

The son of a retired hedge-fund executive (Mark Pickard, formerly of Tudor and a cofounder of Two Sigma), the University of Virginia grad pitched fellow alum Paul Tudor Jones last year on the idea of backing a proprietary weather desk, a space in which few hedge funds are involved and which, until recently, was dominated by commercial players. Seeing the potential, Tudor invited his former colleague's kid onboard. Blue skies have since prevailed, and the wind remains at Pickard's back.

Before joining forces with the legendary hedge-fund manager, Pickard, a Randolph, New Jersey, native, began his career at XL Weather and Energy, backed by former Enron traders, then spent three years at Constellation Energy's Commodities Group, eventually getting promoted to director and running its weather-trading operation.

He doesn't shy away from weather-futures volume, which has increased roughly 200-fold on the CME since 2002. "He's one of the most dominant traders in the space," says one dialed-in broker. "This is a niche space where one person can easily gain the upper hand by understanding how things are priced, and his knowledge is superior. He is also consistently correct."

Age: 27 Firm: Goldman Sachs City: Hong Kong Trades: Equity derivatives and prop

While some people his age have yet to move out of their *parents' basement, Piplani is busy running Goldman Sachs's equity-index business in Asia. A product of Texas A&M (he graduated in 2001 with a degree in chemical engineering), Piplani spent most of his career at UBS in Stamford, Connecticut. By age 26, he was an executive director there; he stayed in that position until the end of last year. He even played on the UBS cricket team. A sturdy batsman in the Asian sector, Piplani is one of two members of this year's 30 Under 30 (along with Chris Hsu) who are currently trading in Asia. Jennifer Pomerantz

Age: 28 Firm: Highbridge Capital Management City: New York Trades: Equity *(energy sector)

It's a 30 Under 30 four-peat for this hard-charging energy trader, who has been racking up frequent-flyer miles exploring sizzling opportunities in the Southern Hemisphere of late. She cut her teeth at Thomas Sandell's event-driven shop and has been running more than $1 billion at Highbridge since late 2006. The University of Chicago graduate has recently focused on oil-drilling assets off the coast of Brazil; her most recent big score was Portuguese company Galp Energia.

Always on the prowl for ideas and unlocking value, Pomerantz continually travels the world, seldom relenting in her pursuit of the next big idea. She's generally considered one of the best traders in the industry -- male or female, of any age.

Age: 28 Firm: Marex Financial City: London Trades: Eurostoxx, S&P 500 futures

Having briefly flirted with a career in wealth management after interning for a summer at London's M&G Investments, the British investment arm of Prudential, this golf enthusiast realized, upon graduation from Warwick University -- where he earned an economics degree -- that he needed to be where the action was. "When I first started out interviewing with different wealth managers, I found them almost too quiet, too measured," he says. "I've always been a lot more comfortable with the rowdier groups, where I can speak my mind."

After working on Dresdner Kleinwort's U. K. cash equities desk in London from September 2001 to April 2003, Rogers joined up with Marex (which at the time was Refco), one of the biggest and most successful prop shops in London, where he speedily made a name for himself not only as a trader to be reckoned with, but one who generated remarkably consistent returns.

Now, with leeway to trade up to $200 million a day, he says his secret is sticking, religiously, to a finely honed daily ritual. "Day in and day out, you have to stay committed to doing your pre-game and post-game analysis," he says. "That's the only way you improve and learn. I think it's often a lack of patience and discipline that causes traders to become undone, attributes with considerable aggression. I don't want to make tons of money and just retire early. This is a career I want to do for the rest of my life."

Despite his enviable earnings trajectory -- he pulled in somewhere north of seven figures last year -- Rogers doesn't consider making money through trading an accomplishment in and of itself. "If you think too much about money, you're never going to be a good trader," he says. "Instead, it's more about the challenge -- and you have to be up for that challenge every day." McAndrew Rudisill

Age: 29 Firm: Pelagic Capital City: New York Trades: Equities, fixed-income, commodities

An avid fly fisherman, Rudisill has cast a wide net since being seeded by Julian Robertson. A deft long/short trader who worked under Tiger cub Tom McCauley at North Sound Capital for the past few years, Rudisill founded his firm in 2007 in the same Midtown Manhattan office as the Tiger clan. He attended Middlebury College in Vermont, graduating in 2001 with a degree in economics and beginning his career at JPMorgan. He now has full discretion over the entire book, and he's not afraid to go wherever the opportunities lead him: More than half of his capital is invested outside the United States.

Age: 28 Firm: Moab Partners City: New York Trades: Equities, debt, options

Like many on this list, Sackler started his trading career very early. After dabbling successfully in health-care stocks as a teenager growing up in Greenwich, Connecticut, he was soon running money for Trader Monthly 100 perennial Richard Perry while studying economics at Princeton. The event-driven trader left Perry soon after graduation for Oscar Schaeffer's OSS Capital Management, and then ventured out on his own in April 2006. He has been delivering consistent, low-volatility returns for investors ever since.

"We run a very focused portfolio, so it's imperative I know our companies inside and out," says Sackler, who along with fellow Perry alum Mike Rothenberg runs more than $100 million. A notoriously thorough value investor, Sackler recently took a 10 percent–plus stake in fast-food operator Morgan's Foods. "I speak with management regularly," he says. "The company has tremendous upside." In a space mired in volatility and draw-downs, Moab was up 3 percent through the first half of the year. Last year, Moab returned around 8.5 percent, with only two down months.

Unlike many of its peers, meanwhile, Moab employs very little leverage. Says Rothenberg: "We choose to keep volatility low, and our investors love us for that."

Rothenberg also sings his partner's praises. "He is very diligent and research-focused," he says of Sackler. "His goal is to understand the businesses he buys better than anyone on the Street."

Age: 28 Firm: Nautilus S. A. City: Geneva, Switzerland Trades: Energy

If it's oil-related, Tremaine is trading it -- freights, pipelines, oil, natural-gas emissions, any piece on the three-dimensional chess board that is the global energy market. A whiz kid of the first order, swinging multibillion-dollar mega-transactions every day from his outpost in idyllic Switzerland, this native Englishman runs the oil-trading arm of Nautilus, which mana*ges the sprawling hedges of huge energy-development projects in the Middle East and elsewhere. "We trade the entire barrel, taking on enormous contracts in line with the majors," he says.

Tremaine started off, like most other English prep-school grads, simply looking for a summer job to fill up his "gap year" (the period between high school and college that Britons get off). Eighteen years old and curious about trading, he took a position as a gas/oil local at London's International Petroleum Exchange (now a part of IntercontinentalExchange). Today, he's still at it. "What was supposed to be a gap year turned into a gap life," he jokes. When the trading floor began its inexorable decline, he jumped ship for the commodities-index desk at UBS in London, where he learned how to interpret macro trends from energy maven Nigel Labram, the head of Hermes Pension Fund, the largest such fund in the United Kingdom. In 2003, he nabbed a job at Hetco, the energy-trading arm of Hess, placing bets of $100 million and up and meeting another mentor -- Neil West, the head of Goldman's oil-trading desk in the 1980s and '90s.

In 2006, Tremaine left to run the crude book for the London energy-trading desk of Société Générale. Last year, he founded his own firm with two Dutch pension-funders, just acquired by Nautilus. "Our staff right now is about 20, but we don't lack for any business," he says. "In about three years, we expect to have about 300 staffers globally."

Age: 27 Firm: Harbinger CapitaL Partners City: New York Trades: Equities, options, bonds, credit default swaps

All great trading legends have their protégés. George Soros had Stanley Druckenmiller. Julian Robertson had his Tiger Cubs. Now, Phil Falcone has Turano. For every big bet on which Falcone is able to cash in -- including a recent surge in iron-mining *concern Cleveland Cliffs, among others -- Turano is toiling on the front lines, working hard to make it happen.

A forward on Harvard's hockey team two decades after his boss skated for the Crimson, the Valley Stream, New York, native played professionally for a couple of months before joining Harbinger in 2005 as a trading assistant. After booking transactions for two and a half years, he was promoted to vice president in September 2007, and now trades every nook and cranny of the firm’s $26 billion–in-assets portfolio.

In hiring Turano, Falcone added a degree of toughness to his crew. As a college senior, Turano beat his physicians' expectations when he returned to Harvard's 2004 Eastern College Athletic Conference championship team after an early-season broken ankle. As a trader, he continues to live up to the expectations of working at one of Wall Street's best-performing funds.

Says a colleague, "Kenny's well-grounded manner and first-rate technical skill set keep him disciplined enough to create significant alpha for our funds."

Age: 28 Firm: Catapult Capital Management City: New York Trades: Equities

As the head execution trader for Catapult, an affiliate company of Israel Englander's $14 billion Millennium operation, Werbitt is now overseeing the trades for $4.5 billion–in-assets Catapult. When Millennium acquired London-based Castlegrove Capital this past May, that operation was folded into Catapult. A graduate of the University of Vermont, Werbitt grew up in Ridgefield, Connecticut; he got his start in the business at, yes, Millennium.

Age: 28 Firm: Deutsche Bank City: New York Trades: Convertibles

A Penn product (he played football there), Zimring has an aggressive approach to trading converts. Considered undersized for the gridiron, he's got serious size now, running $400 million to $500 million, notional. He concentrates mostly on the biotech and health-care spaces, and has access to the firm's top-tier *clients. Insists his boss, David Puritz: "Mark is a household name in his sector."

Among his responsibilities at DB is heavy involvement in the firm's environmental policies. "When social responsibility begins to have an impact on the bottom line one way or the other," he says, "a nimble trader can get ahead of new trends to rack up some real gains and encourage positive change -- going green can make you green."

He trades. He helps run an endowment. He's 14.

Most kids his age pass their time playing Wii, posting on Facebook or checking out the latest hilarious cat-on-a-treadmill video on YouTube. Christopher Davis prefers studying 10K's.

Sharing the same the name as (but no relation to) a famous money manager, this 14-year-old Florham Park, New Jersey, *resident might well be on his way to running his own fund. He trades his own account, and has an advisory role helping to steer the endowment at Newark Academy in Livingston, New Jersey, where this fall he'll enter the ninth grade.

This precocious trader got started at age 11, when he bought a handful of shares of his local thrift, Peapack-Gladstone Bank, with money he had saved. Since then, he's up more than 90 percent on his personal principal, and still holds those shares of Peapack. "They have very few non-performing loans and pay a nice dividend," he says of his first investment.

In 2002, Newark received an anonymous gift of $100,000 to its endowment to be managed by students. Sam Goldfischer, the school's business manager, oversees the student-run pool, whose investments are restricted to low-cost Vanguard mutual funds. Davis helps set the asset *allocation. "Christopher is one of the more active members of our Student Endowment Committee," Goldfischer says. "He often shows up to my office to discuss *investment ideas with the Wall Street Journal in his hand."

With Davis's input, the student-run fund was up 4 percent in the first quarter of 2008, following solid returns of 13.7 *percent in 2007. In addition to helping burnish the student-run portion of the school's endowment, Davis sits in on *meetings of the school's formal investment committee (which is run by adults).

"I keep them on their toes," he says. "It's fun showing up at meetings and being introduced alongside members of the class of 1948."

Like the other Christopher Davis, the freshman follows value-investing principles -- but his true inspiration is his father. "I guess what I do has rubbed off on Christopher," says Paul Davis, who manages portfolios for high-net-worth clients at Oppenheimer and Co. in New York. "We often talk about trading ideas at the dinner table."

The younger Davis's best play to date? Buying Nokia in the teens and selling in the 40s. As for the market in general? "I think it's going to be crazy until the election," he says. "But I have a long time horizon. I'm only 14."

Taking stock of some previous young turks.

Of Sun Capital in Miami, recently turned 30 -- and while he has passed our list's maximum age, his single biggest position, Alpha Natural Resources, has gone straight through the roof. The distressed coal play, through mid-July, had risen more than 600 percent since last August, when Kabot appeared on CNBC and revealed that he owned it at $16.

Keith O'Malley, 30

Another grizzled 30-year-old, continues to give Hold Brothers -- and prop trading in general -- a good name. In just the first five months of 2008, O'Malley reportedly matched his entire profits of 2007 (he was said to have made a killing the day BofA announced it was taking over Countrywide), and he is apparently on a pace to make eight *figures this year. Not surprisingly, he's considering starting his own hedge fund.

Zack Michaelson, 27

Became a controversy magnet last summer following his departure from his rates-trading gig at Fortress -- an occurrence we learned of only after we'd gone to press with Michaelson among eight traders on our cover. He soon landed at Graham Capital in Rowayton, Connecticut -- but upon further review, he no longer works there, either.

Tom Themistocles, 31

Who also graced last year's cover alongside Michaelson, Kabot and others, left RBC in early 2008, moving to First New York Securities. He has since become a partner there.

Charlie Katz, 33

Another FNYS prop standout, is still going strong there. We first met this natural-gas expert in 2005, when we compiled our inaugural 30 Under 30 list. He's now a partner and head trader for the firm's commodities desk. Says a colleague, "He's a true gladiator."

Michael Ross, 32

Also part of our inaugural list, remains the head trader at Boone Pickens's BP Capital in Dallas.

Our first 30 Under 30 cover subject, went on to form Simran Capital Management, a fixed-income-based hedge fund. Though Tandon was originally dismissed by many as a mere salesman, this past May, Simran was voted 2008 Hedge Fund of the Year at Opal Financial Group's Emerging Manager Summit.

A forex trader for Citi, had "jumped into Manhattan's nightlife scene with both feet," we wrote when we first met him in 2006. He now reports that "I'm still enjoying things at Citi -- although my pace of enjoying the New York nightlife scene has slowed over the last couple of years." He now runs Citi's FX cash desk and e-trading group.

Lee Frankenfield, 31

Is still ruling the derivatives world at Deutsche Bank. He is now the North American head of single-stock equity derivatives and a managing director -- and yes, he still looks like he's 15.

Top 10 Arthritis Mistakes

Making mistakes is OK when dealing with health and trying to recreate a better quality of life. But when you don’t realize you are making mistakes, serious problems occur that put success out of reach. This is a serious issue in the 10 most common mistakes people make when dealing with arthritis.

Mistake #1 — Waiting Too Long To Address Arthritis

Even though there is no cure for arthritis, once you have been diagnosed, you must become proactive in managing, treating and slowing its progression. Reduction of symptoms and changes in lifestyle are essential from the start. Waiting too long to do something about arthritis is one of the biggest mistakes; it allows the condition to entrench itself in the body, to progress and to wreak havoc. There is no time like the present: Go ahead and make the decision to begin the rest of your life today by taking control of your arthritis.

Mistake #2 — Undergoing Arthroscopic Surgery

Plenty of research indicates without doubt that arthroscopic surgery, to “repair” arthritic joints and the space between them does not work. When it comes to fixing your arthritic condition, it is a mistake to go ahead with physician-recommended arthroscopic surgery. Given the number of years this practice has been in place, I can understand why this doesn’t seem like a mistake, but it is. So if your primary care physician or orthopedic specialist suggests you have this procedure, please say, “No, thank you.”

Mistake #3 — Avoiding Exercise, Being sedentary

I know you are in pain, it is difficult to do what you used to do, and it takes serious effort to get up and keep moving. But it is a mistake to allow the symptoms of arthritis to keep you from enjoying a vibrant life. In fact, immobility and a sedentary lifestyle are contraindicated when it comes to arthritis. Physical activity lubricates the joints, maintains their range of motion, improves blood flow and stabilizes the muscles around arthritis joints. All of this reduces inflammation and pain as long as the exercise is within a range that you can perform without injury or further damage to your joints.

Mistake #4 — Assuming If You Are “Physically Fit” And “Eat Right” You Won’t Get Arthritis

The physically fit and active among us are great at creating a worldview and building a lifestyle around being healthy, fit and vibrant. I would like active people to know that they are not safe from arthritis. You see, a condition like rheumatoid arthritis can come on at any time and for various unknown reasons; it is a result of an autoimmune disorder that has nothing to do with how physically fit you may be. And people who train hardest, run most intensely and jump the most over prolonged periods are most susceptible to osteoarthritis. They are at the highest risk for wearing down joints and damaging the cartilage between them. A look at the people being treated at a physical therapy center shows this to be true. Anyone can suffer arthritis, not just the sedentary and sick. It is a mistake to think otherwise.

Mistake #5 — Not Believing Diet And Nutrition Play A Major Role In Arthritis

One of the key components of osteoarthritis prevention and reversal is embracing an organic, nutrient-dense diet, and taking nutritional supplements to reduce symptoms and shore up wellness. Our bodies are created from the stuff we eat. The quality of our cells and blood and tissues derive from the quality of our nutritional intake. Taking natural supplements to reduce inflammation and ease pain and improve joint motility is always easier on the body than taking artificial drugs. Don’t fall victim to diet and nutrition mistakes. Instead, put nutritionally dense food into your body.

Mistake #6 — Thinking Medical Specialists Have All The Answers

Americans are taught to believe in a healthcare system that incorporates two practitioner categories: generalists and specialists. When it comes to arthritis, the specialist is usually an orthopedist or immunologist. In either case, it is a mistake to think these people have all the answers; they don’t. Yes, they are highly educated in their specific field of treatment, but they are often ignorant of the available natural and holistic options. Oftentimes, they dismiss such options as so much hocus-pocus. It is important to note, however, that a medical specialist may have the right option for you. So keep an open mind in all cases and do look for multiple opinions and resources when considering the path you will take on your road to a better life.

Mistake #7 — Not Giving Natural Therapies Enough Time To Work

Natural therapies like herbal remedies, supplements, dietary changes, energy medicine and manual therapies that gently work the energy lines (meridians), the soft tissue and the skeletal system are effective. As a matter of fact, they work very well, but only when given the time to do their job. They are gentle and take time to correct the imbalances within the body that cause arthritis or allow the condition to continue on its destructive course. Please do not give up on natural therapies and solutions. It is a mistake just to “try” them for a short period, or even a single time, and say they don’t work because they didn’t meet your expectation of immediate relief.

Mistake #8 — Continuing On A Treatment Plan That’s Not Working

If you do give a natural remedy the time necessary to work as it should, and it falls short for you or does not seem to help you, then it is a mistake to keep doing it. Additionally, continuing to take a medication to mask arthritic symptoms without altering the condition in a positive way is a mistake; discontinue it. Move on to the next therapy and find the mix of products, treatments and practices that, when combined, do what you need them to. Everyone reacts differently to therapies.

Mistake #9 — Believing There Are No More Options Left

Believing there are no options left — that you have exhausted all options within the medical profession for arthritis relief — is a mistake. There are many causes and triggers for arthritis and its symptoms. And the good news is that within the treasure chest of alternative medicine and holistic therapies are hundreds of options that can work for you. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to arthritis.

Mistake #10 — Failing To Take Personal Control Of Your Situation

No one cares about your arthritic condition as much as you do. You are the one suffering, not others, so to rely on others to take care of your condition is a big mistake. You must take personal control of your arthritis. You are the only one who can change your lifestyle, removing the things that negatively impact your health and wellness. It is only you who can eat right and take supplements and administer pain relieving creams and gels. It is only you who can stretch, walk, exercise and meditate. It is a mistake to think otherwise.

Information contained on EasyHealthOptions. com such as text, graphics, images and other materials are for educational use only. Although not guaranteed, every attempt has been made for accuracy. The information contained on EasyHealthOptions. com is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice or treatment. Results from following the information contained on EasyHealthOptions. com will vary from individual to individual. If you have any health concerns or concerns about potential risks, you should always check with your physician, licensed health provider or health care practitioner.

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Binary Hedge Fund

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Binary Hedge Fund is a binary option signals provider suitable for traders with various levels of proficiency who are looking for a comprehensive and safe trading experience with minimal risk. The signals offered by Binary Hedge Fund are based on an advanced algorithm constantly analyzing market trends and historical data to predict asset price movements, which ensures that traders will receive up-to-the minute information to help them make the best possible decisions and easily spot profit-making opportunities.

This is especially beneficial for beginners with little or no prior knowledge of the binary options market because it enables them to avoid mistakes and increase their potential profits. However, the Binary Hedge Fund signals are also very useful for seasoned traders since they allow them to optimize the way they use their funds and maximize eventual earnings.

The Binary Hedge Fund also provides auto trading, which makes the trading experience more flexible and efficient. This is especially beneficial for those who have busy schedules because after setting up your preferences positions are opened automatically and that enables you to trade successfully without having to monitor the markets all the time.

Binary Hedge Fund Scam

When it comes to binary options trading one of the most important things is safety. That is why traders should research very carefully how reliable the signals service provider is before signing up with them. Binary Hedge Fund works with some of the most trustworthy regulated brokers who operate in compliance with all relevant laws and regulations and apply strict security policies.

Featured Robot Website Preview

After opening an account you can choose a broker from the provided list and start trading with a minimum deposit as low as $200 depending on the broker you have selected. In addition to ensuring customers’ safety the Binary Hedge Fund provides a sophisticated yet user friendly software and reliable up-to-date signals. Taking all of this into account it can only be concluded that Binary Hedge Fund is not a scam but a highly professional and trustworthy signals provider.

Binary Hedge Fund Trading Platform

The Binary Hedge Fund ‘s platform is a combination of advanced technology and an intuitive, easy to navigate interface. The provided signals are calculated according to a sophisticated algorithm that analyzes massive amounts of financial data and predicts changes in asset prices. It is not necessary to download or install any additional software in order to use the signals service so it is accessible from any computer or mobile device wherever in the world you are.

Traders can choose from 3 reliable signal sources: Pro Trader Katrina, Pro Trader Mircea and Pro Trader Sergiy and receive up-to-the-minute signals on a wide range of assets such as stocks, commodities, indices and currency pairs. For even more flexibility and control you can determine the level of risk you are willing to take by selecting from 4 options: Low, Moderate, Medium and High. This feature enables traders to minimize potential losses by choosing a level of risk they feel comfortable with and therefore increase their chances for successful outcome.

Following a quick registration traders can proceed to setting up their preferences, which are highly customizable and allow for unique control over all aspects of their binary options trading experience. After that the auto trading software will automatically execute the trades according to your settings even if you are not online, which means that you don’t have to sit in front of the computer for long hours especially if you don’t have much spare time.

Binary Hedge Fund VIP Account

The Binary Hedge Fund offers a VIP account, which is an upgraded version of the Basic Account and is intended for traders who would like to have a wider range of options and extra features at their disposal in order to achieve better results. Currently opening a VIP account is free of charge and you can get one by referring a friend. Once your friend signs up, both of you will receive a free upgrade to a VIP account for two months. For every new friend you bring the VIP status period is extended and since there are no limitations as to how many people you can refer you could get years of free access to a VIP account.

Binary Hedge Fund Accuracy

Probably the most important question when it comes to binary option signals providers is how accurate their signals are. It is essential to know that an accuracy of 100% is impossible to achieve due to the various unpredictable factors, which influence changes in asset price. Therefore traders should beware of anyone that offers a perfect accuracy rate.

Keeping in mind how difficult it is to predict market changes, the accuracy rate of more than 80% offered by Binary Hedge Fund is excellent and fully realistic and gives traders the chance to easily identify the most profitable investment opportunities. The reliable signals along with the advanced software and the numerous customizable settings provide all that is needed for achieving optimal results.

Conclusión

Along with the rapid growth of online binary brokers has also advanced the technology that makes trading binary options more successful and easier even for the inexperienced traders.

As a result to the independent scam inspection the professional team at Top10BinaryRobots can conclude that Binary Hedge Fund is an effective binary options autotrading robot. It can offer you one of the highest results and can give you the trading strategy you need.

We can guarantee that Binary Hedge Fund will help you to maximize your binary options trading profit and will definitely lower the risk level of your trades.

DISCLAIMER: All Information such as Winning Ratios, Results and Testimonials are to be regarded as simulated or hypothetical. All the information on this website is not intended to produce nor guarantee future results. There's no guarantee of specific results and the results can vary. RISK DISCLAIMER: Trading Binary Options is highly speculative, carries a level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. You may lose some or all of your invested capital; therefore, you should not speculate with capital that you cannot afford to lose. You may need to seek 3rd party financial advice before engaging in binary option trading.

Binary Options Strategy PDF

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Where You can Find Binary Options Strategy on PDF?

Amongst the various eBooks available online, one of the most sought after one is “ The Building Blocks For Succeeding With Binary Options Trading ”. The book lays emphasis on learning the trading tips so that the traders make fewer mistakes and don’t lose money. This binary options strategy pdf also talks about the tools for trading and also the techniques of market analysis and how to use these analyses while trading. Uno aprende las diversas estrategias comerciales y recoger el derecho para ellos.

This book tells you the importance of the trading platforms and how to choose one for best profit. This binary options strategy pdf offers step by step guidance on making trades. El eBook ofrece toda la guía profesional libre del tiempo a sus usuarios registrados. Usted puede aprender los trucos de las opciones binarias de comercio de sus expertos y leerlos en el eBook. This particular binary options strategy pdf is very simple to understand and covers everything that a trader is required to know. These tips and strategies are helpful in getting higher returns. With this help available, you can really trade from virtually anywhere through the internet. If you are a beginner and want to make your living with binary options trading . then this is the right book and platform for you.

The next in this regard which covers nearly everything for a new as well as an experienced trader is “ The Boss Guide to Binary Options Trading ”. This free binary options strategy pdf contains everything about binary options trading. Si tiene alguna idea básica de comercio binario y desea conocer algunos puntos específicos, puede visitar directamente su columna de contenido y hacer clic en el tema deseado. It talks about subjects like - how do the binary options trading work, rules for successful trading and so on.

These guides and binary options strategy pdf can be downloaded in your laptop and phone easily and can use them as and when required. Going through a good binary options strategy pdf before making very big bids is always helpful. Dado que siempre hay un factor de riesgo involucrado en este tipo de comercio, que están obligados a hacer su movimiento con mucho cuidado y estratégicamente. The best way to succeed in this field is by learning the tips and tricks of trading and the binary options strategy pdf aim to teach you all this. The greatest benefit of this learning is that will help you make the right moves and maximize your profit, all in a short span of time. Por lo tanto, encontrar un libro electrónico adecuado y pasar por él a fondo para tener éxito en las opciones binarias de comercio.

Bare in mind that there are a lot of binary options strategy pdf ebooks available online now. Basado en nuestro juicio la mayoría de ellos son bastante buenos. The important point here is that you don’t have to pay a lot of money for such a pdf, usually the free versions provided are quite useful and will do the job. Actually almost every binary option broker has their strategy pdf available for their clients – what we have noticed is that this is branded version of some free ebooks, this is another proof free binary option strategy pdfs are of very good quality.

How to Choose Binary Broker?

In order to start trading online you need to open an account with legit and trusted broker. In this field there are numerous non-regulated brokers, most of them with shady reputation.

Sin embargo, estamos luchando para encontrar los buenos y proporcionarle sus opiniones imparciales y comentarios de los clientes. El comercio de opciones binarias no es absolutamente libre de riesgo, pero podemos ayudarle a minimizarlo.

By researching the market daily and following the financial news, the team at Top10BinaryStrategy is always up to date with the latest alerts, and upcoming launches of trading systems, and brokers.

NQSOs: Basics

How To Avoid The Most Common Stock Option Mistakes (Part 1)

Your stock options are valuable, so you so may be nervous about avoiding the mistakes that many people made during past market booms and busts. This series of articles points out common mishaps with stock options that can cost you money.

Major Events To Watch Out For

Many employees squander the potential of their stock options because they lack foresight with them and do not form a financial plan around their grants. Instead, they merely react to unanticipated circumstances and have to scramble to salvage their option awards at the last moment. Most of the common mistakes with stock options arise from the following types of situations.

Change of control : The company announces a merger with a competitor.

Termination : You decide to quit your job.

Expiration : Your options are about to expire.

Concentration : More than 10% of your net worth is in employee stock options.

Disability : A whitewater-rafting mishap puts you in a body cast.

Division of marital assets : You and your spouse have decided to divorce.

Death : You go to the great company in the sky.

Market timing : You try to guess whether the stock price will be up or down when you exercise your options and sell the stock.

Taxes : You misunderstand the tax consequences of your equity pay.

With proper education and planning, you can improve your chances of preventing the financial losses that may otherwise occur when you must react to unanticipated circumstances.

Study Your Plan Document And Share It With Your Advisors

Your plan document governs the rules and timelines associated with each circumstance.

Ideally, you will understand how your company's stock option plan document addresses each of these scenarios, and you will devise a strategy to address each possibility. The plan document, together with your grant agreement. will govern the rules and timelines associated with each circumstance. Request a copy of the plan, read it, and share it with your advisory team and a reliable family member.

Change Of Control

Accept the fact that virtually any company may be bought by, or may join forces with, its nearest competitor in a merger or acquisition (M&A).

Plan As If It's Inevitable

Your company's plan document should spell out what will happen to your stock options in a merger, acquisition, or asset sale. The plan document may allow the acceleration of vesting in a change of control: this may give you an opportunity to exercise 100% of your options immediately instead of having to wait for the length of time that your grant agreement specifies.

Accelerated vesting is appealing because it allows you to realize the benefit of your stock compensation earlier, but it has some significant tax consequences because you can't stretch the taxation over several years. This opportunity is limited: you may have fewer than 30 days to exercise your options before they expire.

In an M&A situation, you must make other investment and cash-management decisions that depend on the structure of the deal:

Will the shares you buy in your current company convert to shares in the new, merged company? (See a related FAQ .)

Is the potential for appreciation in that new stock worth holding for long-term capital gains, or are you better off with exercising and selling simultaneously?

Will you receive stock options in the buyer in exchange for your current options and/or as part of your compensation package with the new company? (See a related FAQ .)

Could this merger result in the loss of your job? If so, what happens to your stock options?

Will you need cash from this exercise to support yourself until you find another job?

Will the company withhold enough money from your exercise to meet your tax obligation, or do you need to reserve cash for that purpose?

In some situations, your company's plan document may state that there is no acceleration of vesting, and you are faced with planning decisions related only to your vested options.

For more information on stock options in mergers and acquisitions, see the section M&A on this website.

If your relationship with your company ends for any reason other than retirement, disability, or death, your plan document will specify the treatment of your stock options. Make sure you understand its terminology. If you do not, costly mistakes may occur. Example: Your official termination date was September 19, but you received a severance package through December 31. The plan document allows you to exercise your vested stock options for 90 days after termination (i. e. until December 19). Don't confuse the length of your severance package with your post-termination exercise window.

The standard "window" for exercising after termination is 90 days (or three months), but read your company's plan carefully for exceptions. For more, see the section Job Events: Termination .

By granting stock options, your employer has, in effect, given you a "use it or lose it" compensation coupon. You've earned the right to purchase a particular number of company shares, at a certain price, within a specific period.

There is a tendency, particularly with NQSOs. to delay any exercise activity until the last moment. That approach is not necessarily aligned with your financial goals and your company's stock performance.

Revisit the timing and pricing targets associated with your equity compensation at least twice a year. Exercising a combination of in-the-money grants concurrently, in an effort to minimize taxes and maximize what you put in your pocket, is not uncommon. Market conditions, strike prices, number of vested options, and your overall financial objectives should have more influence on the timing of your exercise strategy than the fact that one particular grant is scheduled to expire in the near future. For details, see the articles and FAQs in Financial Planning: Strategies .

Emotions can overtake good sense. This leads to some of the most costly mistakes.

For many employees, stock options carry emotional issues, not financial ones: you are loyal to your company and want to believe in a bright future for it and its stock price. Emotions can overtake dispassionate good sense to the detriment of family financial goals. This leads to some of the most costly mistakes.

Conventional wisdom advises against having too much of your portfolio invested in a single company stock. But it's not unusual to find employees with 60% to 90% of their net worth in their company's stock through a variety of programs: stock options and/or restricted stock, employee stock purchase plans, and company stock purchased or given as a match to salary deferrals through the 401(k) plan.

Financial advisors typically warn clients against having more than 10% to 15% of their investment assets in a single company's stock or a specific sector of the economy. Read more about how to diversify, and why, in Financial Planning: Diversification .

Enrons And Lehmans Happen: Be Prepared

When Enron filed for bankruptcy, its employees lost over $1 billion in retirement savings as a direct result of investing in its stock. Many had 50% or more of their retirement savings in company shares. The Enron implosion was not a freak mishap. During the subsequent decade, over the course of two major market downturns, employees at other respected companies, such as Lehman Brothers, experienced similar devastating declines in their net worth because of rapidly falling share prices.

Market crashes and corporate downfalls are not exceptions. They are an ineluctable part of the business cycle and should be regarded as intermittent realities of capital markets. What are you doing to prepare yourself?

Ask The Tough Questions

Stock options quickly concentrate net worth. Optionholders must pay attention to the risks that increase with each additional grant. How do you know whether your wealth is too concentrated in your company's stock? Answer a few simple questions developed by Dr. Donald Moine, an industrial psychologist who specializes in compensation:

How much is your home worth?

How much are your cars worth?

How much are your stock options worth, plus any company stock you already own (in a 401(k) plan, through ESPPs, in an outside investment account, etc.)?

If the answer to question 3 is more than 1 or more than 1 + 2, your wealth is heavily concentrated, and you are at risk of suffering a serious financial setback if your company's stock price plummets.

The next question Dr. Moine asks is: "Would you like free insurance to protect the value of your stock options and your company stock?" Who wouldn't? You're already insuring your house and cars because the cost of replacing them could be devastating. Why wouldn't you be interested in free (or nearly free) risk-management strategies to protect another sizeable contributor to your net worth? For high-net-worth optionholders, these types of hedging strategies exist (e. g. zero-premium collar, pre-paid forwards), as explained in the section Financial Planning: High Net Worth .

Many diversification and liquidity tactics exist. Seek help from skilled advisors in managing your concentrated position. Let someone who is not emotionally attached to your company's stock price evaluate the merits of your equity compensation according to investment criteria, tax consequences, your risk tolerance as established for your personal investment-policy statement, and the role your company's stock should play in your overall wealth-building strategy.

Part 2 will cover the impact that major life events, market timing, and taxes can have on option gains.

Beth V. Walker . CRPC, RFC, was a Wealth Coach with Private Advisory Group/Sagemark Consulting in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the time of writing. Este artículo fue publicado únicamente por su contenido y calidad. Neither the author nor her firm compensated us in exchange for its publication.

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Trading Binary Options: A Simple Explanation

Binary options trading is a fascinating concept that allows anyone to invest in option markets without a large cash outlay. It is popular because of its fast turnaround between buying and selling and its high profit margin.

Technically, a binary option is a contract which nominally gives the owner the right to buy a certain asset at the end of a fixed period of time. In reality, the owner of the contract does not want to buy the asset; he is speculating on whether the item under contract will gain or lose value at the end of the specified period.

As with any market trading, there are risks involved and an investor should never put more money in it than he can afford to lose. However, there is also a potential to make a lot of profit quickly off of the money invested and that is what has attracted the attention of so many people. This has become such a large part of the investment market that brokerage houses have been established to handle options trading exclusively.

The buyer may choose what item, or “underlying asset” he wants to contract to purchase. These items are usually currencies, commodities, stocks, or indices.

It is also up to the buyer how much time he wants to wait before the contract expires. This is known as the “expiry time”. A one-hour expiry time has become standard but the owner can choose a day, week, or month.

In the contract, the buyer declares whether he believes the underlying assets will go up or down in value at the end of the expiry time. The owner places a “call” option on the assets he thinks will rise in value and a “put” option on the items he thinks will decline.

The owner doesn’t have to know how much an item will rise or fall. It must simply have moved in the direction he predicted by the end of the expiry time in order for him to sell his contract back to the broker for a price they agreed upon. This is usually at a profit of 60 to 70%.

If the owner’s prediction is incorrect, then the broker still buys the contract back but this time at a lower price than the owner originally invested. Since the agreed-upon price is usually around 15% of the purchase price, the owner does not lose all of his investment.

A Trading Scenario

Leopold and Fay are both amateur investors in the stock market. They don’t have time to study every major business in depth, but they have both found the same company that they feel will do well in the years to come.

As it turns out they are right. Fay buys a few shares of stock, and her stock slowly climbs in value. After only five years, her stock has doubled in value and she sells, pleased to make a 100% profit.

Leopold decides to invest in binary options. He buys a new contract every day on that same company. The first day Leopold buys a contract, the company’s stock moves up incrementally. Fay has made a penny. Leopold has made a 70% return on his investment. As the years go by, the company’s stock goes up and down, but generally trends upward. Sometimes Leopold loses money, but most of the time he gains.

Because he is buying and selling daily, Leopold is keenly interested in his favorite company. He reads about it. When the company vice-president dies suddenly of a heart attack, Leopold buys a put contract the next day, correctly predicting a slight decline in the value of the stock. Fay has bought the stock and set it aside, he isn’t even aware of the death of the vice-president.

At the end of five years, Fay has doubled her money and is entirely divested of the company. Leopold, on the other hand, has made five times as much. Some days he made mistakes and lost, but for Leopold that five years were exciting and rewarding. He has become an expert on the company and has no intention of stopping his daily binary options trading.

It is no wonder binary options have become so popular.

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Updated December 16, 2015

The 5 Worst New Car-Buying Mistakes

Don't let the dealer trick you into thinking you drove away with an unbeatable deal.

Buying a car may be one of the biggest financial investments you will ever make, and the shopping process can take several months. If you really want to get the best price on your vehicle purchase and drive away with a reliable set of wheels, take some time to separate your emotions from the buying decision and set a realistic budget. Determining exactly what you want and setting your own price for your vehicle can help you narrow down the search and avoid some common car-buying mistakes .

Here are five new car-buying mistakes to steer away from:

1. Shopping at the wrong time of year. Dealerships often receive new inventory at the beginning of the year and start at ground zero with their sales goals at this time. This means the car dealer may be less likely to negotiate a better price or provide you with any type of purchasing incentives. If you are in the market for a new car, AutoTrader recommends shopping in the late summer or early fall. You may be able to get a great price on last year’s model as next year’s models start to roll in. It’s also a good idea to time your visit closer to the end of the day when the sales teams are trying to close deals before they head out for the night.

2. Only visiting one dealership. While many dealerships might lure you in with grand opening specials and test-drive incentives, it pays to shop around. Take the time to visit at least three dealerships before committing to a purchase. Shopping around will give you a chance to ask lots of questions, take pictures and compare several vehicles. Car and Driver recommends getting quotes from multiple dealers and letting the dealer know that you are shopping around, since he or she might be more likely to extend a better deal and negotiate.

3. Focusing only on the monthly payment. Auto dealers work hard to make your dream car seem very affordable and may break down the financials to a monthly payment. However, being able to afford a monthly payment doesn’t necessarily mean you should sign papers for those wheels. Car salespeople may readily suggest a five - or six-year loan term to make that monthly payment fit within your budget. but the value of your vehicle investment may drop dramatically over that time. And you could end up paying a significant amount in interest. Think about whether you may be in a position to trade in the vehicle in a few years and what is the depreciation value of your vehicle of choice before you agree to a loan.

4. Believing the deal is only good for the day of your visit. Another sales tactic to encourage you to make a decision on the spot is to entice you with an “unbeatable” offer that is only good for the day of your visit. Even if you have successfully negotiated a great price for that new car, insist on shopping around so you can take the time to make your final decision or make your own offer. High-pressure sales tactics can push you to make a purchasing decision you are not ready to make – and prevent you from exploring other options. The experts at Car and Driver recommend taking control by making an offer and suggesting that it is only good for that day. If the dealer is interested in making the sale, the salesperson will agree to your offer. If not, you are not under pressure to accept theirs. Make a note of the sales manager ’ s contact information if you want to return another day.

5. Neglecting to research your trade-in. If you plan on trading in your vehicle, don’t let the dealer do the work in pricing your vehicle. Take the time to learn as much as possible about the value of your vehicle from Kelley Blue Book. and print out the details for your visit. Even though many dealers will claim to do this for you, they may also play with pricing and financing terms based on their own valuation process. You will have more negotiating power when you know the true market value of your vehicle and are prepared to do business with a dealer that will honor the highest price for your trade.

Grey. I was wondering which software you recommend as being important. Nice to see you post on here again.

The bank I trade on behalf like many other institutions uses proprietary algorithm front end to vhayu vwap engine to both shift and execute large positions as well as identifying arbitrage opportunities on US stocks to minimise the market direction effect .

PS:- I have already explained most techniques in Arb trading using VWAP in my previous posts. Serious traders can enjoy a wealth of info on this site with simple and practical examples given by myself to develop an automated trading engine similar to the VHAYU engine

look at http://www. vhayu. com/ specially the pair trading sub link

Last edited by Grey1; Dec 23, 2005 at 1:44am.

For those that didn't see the video when it originally aired January 22, 2008, I lost over 30k holding a trade over the weekend being long the stock Futures indices. I was overleveraged, but I never thought the market would go limit offer (Dow Futures down 650pts) with the US markets closed on Monday in observation of Martin Luther King day. I sold my long before the market opened due to a potential margin call that would have liquidated everything. On Tuesday, the Fed did a surprise interest rate cut, and the market popped 500pts. Here is one of the posts from January. The Dow dropped close to 1000pts in 3 trading days. For the record I went long 10 ER2 contracts into the close on Friday. With the intention of holding until market open on Tuesday. Bad Choice. Clearly.

37 comments:

Sorry for the pain. Just wondering if you averaged down when globex opened this evening. Keep the faith. The way it is trading, there is a high likelihood of a rate cut Tuesday morning.

That shows you and the rest of us, keeping futures on the blind for 3 freaking days is suicide. That what brings fortune fast, brings disaster even faster! No wonder, Buffett calls these investments, FWMD (Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction).

Hopefully you'll keep trading. even if it's just paper trades. I still think loads of people are interested I what you have to say about this stuff. Keep remembering, that what doesn't kill you, makes you tougher!

sorry to see you're loosing big over the weekend. hopefully your broker won't liquidate you before the market has a chance to rebound. good luck tomorrow.

I felt the same way when I went short FSLR into earnings and watched it gap up 55 points on me the next morning.

These things sometimes happen. You'll move on.

Man it's disaster and I'm sorry.

But thanks for sharing this video because it's evidence of what can happen and how risky this business is.

Thanks for sharing the video. I could feel the angst. At the moment, I'm on the wrong side of market as well. I'm long UYG, POT, DRYS, MOS and ICE swing positions that I bought on Thurs/Fri and I'm sure they will take a hit. The only saving grace will be my FXP hedge. Later.

Wow, I'm so sorry. But I think you can come back from this. Good luck to you.

been there brother, my chest hurts just watching you. i am sincerely sorry, its fucked up.

The best thing you can do at this point is to mentally let it go. You will do yourself no good and much harm by beating yourself up over it. You already know what the problem is and you will eventually be able to admit it to yourself without all the emotional pain and outburst.

If your position was not liquidated then that means you still have enough to trade, just not the size you had available to you previously - which in my opinion is a good thing in the long run. If you choose to continue trading you will force yourself to learn better self control if you want to survive.

If were so confident the market was going to tank then the correct action should have been clear and you would be up 24k or more right now. You felt locked in and you were not.

You were afraid to make a different decision because you were afraid you would be wrong again.

Intraday trading is completely different than the elephant hunt you went on. Your intraday methods are dangerous and haphazard enough without compounding them with the added risk of fighting the market while hoping for some external influence to come in and prove you right.

As have others, I have lost 40k in a single trade by ignoring the obvious and hoping for a miracle. It didn't work. The reason I thought it might? The same reason you thought it might - I'd done the same thing before and got lucky.

You don't have an edge. Luck is not a system. Hope is not viable methodology.

Flush your brain of all input regarding trading, including what I have written here, and step away for a month. Decide what you really want and think hard about the best way to accomplish that.

You seem like a smart kid. Would life not be better if you had something that paid you handsomely while you were doing more enjoyable things other than staring a monitor all day waiting for the right beep and the right color to show up?

I wish you all the best and am confident that you will accomplish great things.

You should have used a stop to protect you. Now you've learned your lesson. Good luck going forward.

This was very painful to watch and my heart goes out to you. If you still have funds left I would suggest you take some time off and regroup your thoughts. Start trading small size and gradually build up. I took a huge hit in august and made it back. I have taken a smaller hit recently and I need to control the urge to get it all back because it leads me to gambling not following sucessful methodoligies. Buena suerte. May great traders completely blew up and came back and made millions. You may not want to hear that right now but it van be done !

Come to the Vanguard Diehards forum. We'll show you how to invest safely so this doesn't happen again:

Each person who reevaluates the risk in their holdings after watching your video should send you 1% of their portfolio.

There is nothing I can really say to you except thank you for having the courage to share a powerful message.

for the genius who said "shouldn't you have used a stop?" - there are no stops when it gaps open. and if he went long before the close, he took his chances with a gap, as i did. the only thing is that i wasn't leveraged. had stocks. but i thought "ah, well, us holiday, so its a pump day from our bear market pump and dump's. "

Don't despair. There isn't a great trader in history who has not made a terrible mistake at least once in his trading career. I hope this does not annihilate your account, because then you can learn and grow from this experience.

ugh, this is obscene and I don't blame you for going long.

however if you went long 10 contracts, I assume this is just a fraction of your account?

i much more than that over a year and I now use stops even though i get stopped out more often than not.

hey guy. I sufferred disaters 3 times in 2 years. blow up my futures account 3 times. just like you saying the word "fucking" all day long. I know it really really really hurt. You can stand up again. just like me. I broke my trading chair. broke my door into pieces by naked fists(pain was forgot). crazy. angry. anything negative was running out of your mind. but it is the business! You may not believe that I'm still in the business right now but it's true. I'm a better day-trader now. so can You. I trust!

Ghost of McClellan said.

Stay in the trade as long you can. A short term bottom is close to hand according to my metrics, probably already today tuesday.

Then I was young and green many moons ago I'd run down my first futures account from 20 grand to almost zero by over trading, using no stoploss, no discipline, etc. But it provided valuable lessons and made me stronger.

HPT - I hope you cover your position already. The futures is currently in another leg down (double from the point you record this screencast actually).

I'm pretty much in the same position as you now. But I hope we both can pull a comeback :)

well, this takes courage to publish this video. I can honestly say since I trade for a living now for 23 years that this has happened to me as well on 2 or 3 occasions and I have to admitt once I even slammed and broke my keyboard. The lesson I have learned and I made me look at it visually in front of me every day is that I do not take overnight positions over the weekend or holidays. The bottom line is preservation of capital and many times you will miss on a few good trades but trust me every day there will be another opportunity and I try to slapp me whenever I feel I overtrade and put me in the penalty box for 2 days to recharge and pick only the trades where there is an edge, this is hard enough as we all know

Don't get too down on yourself, all the greats have made big mistakes that they bounced back from!

If nothing else it sys your blog is worth $22,581.60, maybe you could raise some cash that way?

I've been there dude. An ugly part of the journey, but one that's gonna reinforce keeping your losses small.

I really hope you did not get a margin call tonight and were able to hold for 670 to exit. Still an expensive lesson, but not as expensive as it looked at first

Welcome to the gambling business. Do what I do, bet on sports.

Anyone who lists Topgun as a favorite movie deserves to wiped out (lol).

Where was your stop? IB accepts stops that trigger in the overnight market. I checked and this didn't just gap down. It moved lower which would have triggered a protective stop.

Pretty cool to have posted the webcam footage. Back in November I got the chills when I was down over 170Keur (obviously on margin) on only pure equity (mostly emerging market ETF and Mining), sent one of my cellphones crashing against the fucking wall and was really thinking I would be royally fucked if the market went down any harder, luckly I stuck to my guns, and got out on the rebound and sold 60% of my portfolio on the day gayish Bernanke only gave us 0.25pt cut; which means I got it all back in the December rally.

Couple of pointers that I've tattooed on my forehead:

One way bets will make or break you, and remember. you can't win them all, so always hedge!

Never turn a short term bet into a long position.

Don't bet! Invest.

So sorry man. I know that sorry does not even come close to doing it justice. Don't forget one thing. you are more important than money my man. You are MUCH more important than money.

Thanks for the video. Hope you make it back next week

This blog is really nice and informative. We do think our posting will be highly beneficial for you too. As we know now a days stock market trading has just became a joke, every third person who don’t even know about the name of exchanges is willing to do trading due to which in recent past we have seen few shares which are fundamentally very week but had flied high in rally. But now everyone is trapped in those sort of companies.

Now best strategy is to wait and watch let Nifty close above 5350-5400 for 1-2 days only then strength will come back in market.

We are expecting short covering above these levels.

Till then our approach should be wait and watch trade in less quantity.

I mean this to help. Let me ask you a question.

Why did I experience the same move? But year to date, I'm only down 8% in my worst performing account?

It's all about money management principles and strategies. It's not that you were in Futures (I've traded futures for 12 years). It's not that you were in Options, or recession, or subprime is unfolding, or anything else.

It's all about money management. You were gambling. Not investing. Not trading. Juego. There's a difference. And the five aspects of money management are what make up the difference. I'm really sorry you had to learn this expensive lesson. but you know you did it to yourself. Only 3 - 5% of your account should have been risked total on that trade. Unless you are very, very savy with money management principles, and understand the ratio's, you should NEVER risk beyond 5% of your capital. Nunca. This is what leaves you alive through movements like this - to trade another day.

airelon is right, but it also sounds like he/she has a lots of capital to work with because only 5% is not enough to pay for commissions on such a small account. Sure its easy to say if you have an account of $500k another thing if you have $5k.

i've been there done that and i know the pain of bad trading decisions. just stop gambling and focus on becoming more disciplined. thats my goal this year. i plan to trade call/put options with only $1000 per trade for a good while until I can handle that amount. I'm also taking steps to not make the same mistakes i have before and to keep it strictly disciplined how i get in and out of trade using a personal checkoff sheet i'm creating. if all the checks aren't there i won't trade the option.

so the stock market didn't ruin your life, you made your ownself miserable, so own your own misery and be reborn again! d

Dude, I feel your pain right across the Pacific. Finance Ninja is right, a large part of money management depends on the scale of money involved. Nevertheless, you still should have some sort of stop loss.

Betting futures either way at the moment, IMHO, is financial suicide. But hey, we all come back to trade another day, right?

jesus. this was hilarious. ) very sorry for you man. hope I never put my self in this serious position. help me god! Hope you make it back so you can laugh of this video yourself.

I also just lost $30k in the last couple of days. I lost that much because I went against my own trading principles.

In my experience the biggest profits are made from leveraged counter-trending, that's also where the biggest fortures are lost.

I'm not pissed at the Markets but at myself. I knew the shape the market was taking and instead of doing what I had planned I completely lost self control and the market swiftly punished me for that (in less than 24hours).

I'm still thankful that I got stopped out with money in my trading account because if it hadn't stopped me out intra-day, I would have left it going and who knows. I could have ended up owing the bank more money than I have!

Anyway, I hope you feel better and I can say I know how you feel. I don't think I'll be going back in the markets any time soon, I need a period of reflection and maybe a sharpening of my trading skills in a simulator.

Well that was very sad, but we should remember that nothing is permanent, you will earn again what you have lost, Trading Market is full of consequences and chances so Good Luck.

Top 10 trading movies

The announcement of the closing of the ICE Futures U. S. trading floor made us remember the movie “Trading Places,” which was filmed on the old New York trading floor at the World Trade Center. Soon we began naming some of our favorite trading movies, a list of course that kept expanding. So here - pared down from a much longer list - are 10 of our favorite movies that either focus on or have trading, finance and global markets as part of the theme. We’ll begin with a couple of our favorite documentaries, and then move into fiction. Some honorable trading floor scene mentions not included here are “What Happens in Vegas” and “A Good Year,” which have stories not centered around the markets. Surely there are more movies, and if you have suggestions, please note them in the comments section.

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Top 10 Trade Show Exhibiting Musts and Mistakes

Trade show success demands so much more than just exhibiting at an event. There are definite dos and don’ts to every step of the trade shows process and it can take lots of trial and error to determine the right and wrong ways to work a show. While experience is the best teacher, it is also helpful to get advice from the pros who know. SkylineTradeShowTips. com featured these five exhibiting essentials and five errors to always avoid.

Must #1 – Marketers must always establish specific show objectives that will define their success. Without a clear understanding of what constitutes a strong showing, it’s impossible to know if the work was really worth it.

Must #2 – It’s vital to figure out how ROI is going to be measured since most corporate executives make the bottom line their top priority. It can be costly to travel the trade show circuit, so it’s necessary to justify the value and expense of exhibiting.

Must #3 – Trade show marketing takes plenty of intelligent planning and pre-show promotion in order to position the booth as a must-visit destination for attendees.

Must #4 – It’s also important for booth staff to be properly trained. They need to be well equipped with the means, methods, and mindset to excel in every trade show situation.

Must #5 – Be sure to follow up with every single prospect in a very timely manner. The trade show floor is an extremely competitive playing field and the fastest follow-up will often secure the sale.

Following these five must-dos will make your trade show experience positive and productive, but be sure to avoid the following five most serious slip-ups and stumbles:

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Mistake #1 – Not being completely engrossed in the trade show process and only exhibiting because it’s expected. Trade shows take a lot of dedication and perspiration, so not going all-in is an all-out bad move.

Mistake #2 – Designing the trade show display for vanity instead of value. Don’t just highlight things that glorify the brand, but thoughtfully position each element in a way that speak to the needs, interests and goals of show attendees.

Mistake #3 – Mindlessly collecting business cards in the name of networking, which can easily be done online. Instead, strive to personally connect with every lead and make your interactions truly memorable.

Mistake #4 – Sitting back and just watching the show go by. Be proactive and aggressive to meet, greet, connect, and keep up with everyone at the show.

Mistake #5 – Ignoring the trade show leads for months. Letting your leads grow cold and old completely nullifies the value of exhibiting at the show.

MDG Advertising, a full-service advertising agency with offices in Boca Raton and New York, NY, is one of Florida’s top creative ad agencies. Our 360° integrated approach uses just the right mix of traditional and digital marketing to reach your advertising goals. MDG’s core capabilities include print advertising, branding, logo design, creative, digital marketing, media planning and buying, radio and TV advertising, outdoor advertising, trade show marketing, Web design and development, email marketing, social media marketing, and SEO. To stay on top of the latest trends in marketing and advertising, contact MDG Advertising today at 561-338-7797 or visit mdgadvertising. com .

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10 common car-buying mistakes

Buying a new car can be exciting. But it's also a complex process through which you can end up overpaying by hundreds or thousands of dollars or with a vehicle that you won't be happy with down the road. Below are 10 mistakes that car buyers often make that can quickly turn that initial excitement into buyer remorse--and how to avoid them.

1. Falling in love with a model. When spending tens of thousands of dollars on a car, emotion shouldn't rule the day. Becoming infatuated with a single model can blind you to alternative vehicles that may be better for your needs or make you skimp on thoroughly researching a vehicle's ratings, reviews, reliability, or safety and pricing information. A wide-eyed approach can also leave you more susceptible to a salesperson's tactics to get you to pay more than you should. To determine which vehicle is best for you, you should set emotion aside and focus on doing your homework, comparing different models, and assessing your real wants and needs. There will be plenty of time for emotion after you've bought the vehicle.

2. Skipping the test drive. The test drive is one of the most important parts of the car-buying process. A lot of vehicles look good on paper--especially in glossy brochure photos--but the test drive is your best chance to see how a vehicle measures up to expectations and how well it "fits" you and your family. You don't want any surprises after you've bought it. That's why it's surprising that many people give vehicles only a token test or, worse, none at all. That is a mistake and a sure recipe for buyer remorse. It's critical that you take ample time--at least 30 minutes--to conduct a complete test drive and perform a thorough walk-around of any vehicle you're considering.

3. Negotiating down from the sticker price. Don't use the sticker price as your gauge when negotiating a deal. A salesperson may offer you a deal that's, say, $500 below the sticker price, and many consumers will conclude, often mistakenly, that they're getting a good deal. Unless the vehicle is in big demand and short supply, you can often get an even lower price by negotiating up from what the dealer paid for the vehicle. When you know the dealer's true cost, you'll know how much profit margin it has to work with and can determine a reasonable target price with which to begin your negotiations. You can calculate the dealer's cost by subtracting any behind-the-scenes sales incentives, such as dealer rebates and holdbacks, from the dealer invoice price. Consumer Reports New Car Price Reports does this for you with the Bottom Line Price.

4. Focusing only on the monthly payment when negotiating. Salespeople like to focus on a monthly-payment figure while negotiating a deal. Indeed, "How much were you thinking of paying each month?" might be one of the first questions to greet you when you meet a salesperson. Don't take the bait. It's the first step down a slippery slope of being manipulated with numbers and overpaying for your vehicle. Using the monthly payment as the focus, the salesperson can lump the new-vehicle price, trade-in value, and financing or leasing terms together, giving him or her too much latitude to give you a "good price" in one area while making up for it in another. Instead, insist on negotiating one thing at a time. Settle on the vehicle's price first, then discuss a trade-in, financing, or leasing separately, as necessary. A leasing tip: Don't bring up your desire to lease until after you've agreed on the vehicle's price.

5. Buying the "deal" instead of the vehicle. Automakers have been offering a variety of attractive sales incentives in recent years, from 0% financing and hefty cash rebates to employee-discount pricing programs. These can save you money, but it's important to remember that any deal is only as good as the car that's attached to it. Just because you can get a good discount doesn't mean you should buy the vehicle. After all, you'll be living with the vehicle for years, so make sure it's the right one for you. Thoroughly research any model you're considering and check our Ratings and reviews of competitive models (see our New-vehicle Ratings comparison. available to subscribers ). You may find you can get a much better vehicle for not much more money. Also check the reliability of the model (see our Reliability Ratings. available to subscribers ). Despite an attractive discount, a vehicle with subpar reliability--and the possibility of hefty depreciation--might not be much of a bargain in the long run. A related tip: Don't let a special incentive keep you from negotiating. Rebates and special financing are subsidized by the automaker, not the dealership. You should still negotiate the vehicle's price as if there were no incentive. There's no reason you shouldn't get the best price and the incentive, too.

6. Waiting until you're in the dealership to think about financing. You might be a whiz at negotiating a good deal, but if you don't choose your financing just as carefully, you could lose everything you saved on the vehicle's purchase price, and more. A car shopper who hasn't researched financing terms is especially vulnerable to being manipulated by the dealership. Not only do you only have the dealership's terms from which to choose, which are often higher than elsewhere, but dealers also often mark up the interest rate of a loan over what you actually qualify for--a tactic called "interest-rate bumping." It can cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars more over the term of the loan. That's why it's critical to comparison shop for financing terms at different financial institutions and get prequalified for an auto loan before you go to the dealership to buy the vehicle. Check interest rates at banks, credit unions, or online financial sites to see which offers you the best rate. If the dealer can offer you terms that are better than what you got elsewhere, you can always choose that deal instead.

7. Underestimating the value of modern safety features. Today's vehicles offer an array of advanced safety features. But many buyers don't know which are most important or what to look for when comparing vehicles. Antilock brake systems (ABS), electronic stability control (ESC), and head-protecting side air bags, for instance, are effective and well worth the money. Studies have shown that ESC can significantly reduce accidents and fatalities. The feature is especially important for SUVs, because it can help prevent rollovers. Side-crash tests show that head-protecting side air bags are critical in preventing fatalities in side impacts. Unfortunately, you can't always depend on a dealership's salespeople to give you accurate information or reliable guidance about these features. That's why you should thoroughly research the benefit of all available safety features and look for vehicles that have the ones that will best protect you and your family.

8. Buying unnecessary extras. Dealerships often try to sell you extras that boost their profit margin but are a waste of you money. They can include rustproofing, fabric protection, paint protectant, or VIN etching, in which the vehicle identification number is etched onto the windows to deter thieves. Don't accept those unnecessary services and fees. If you see those items on the bill of sale and you haven't agreed to them, simply cross them out and refuse to pay for them. Vehicle bodies are already coated to protect against rust. And recent CR reliability surveys show that rust is not a major problem with modern cars. You can treat upholstery and apply paint protectant yourself with good off-the-shelf products that cost only a few dollars. If you decide you want VIN etching, you can buy a kit to do it yourself for less than $25, instead of the $200 that some dealerships charge. Also think twice about an extended warranty. It can cost hundreds of dollars. But if you buy a model with good reliability or if you expect to have the vehicle only for five years or less, it often isn't worth the cost.

9. Not researching the value of your current car. You could get a great deal on your new car but lose all of the savings--and more--on your trade-in. That's why it's critical that you research the value of your current car before buying your new one. Find out what both the used-car retail and wholesale prices are, so that you'll know what you should be able to get if you trade it in or if you sell it yourself. Typically, you'll get more money by selling it, as long as you're willing to put in the additional effort. By knowing your vehicle's true value and by sticking to your price during the negotiations, you can get your car's full value, whether you trade it in or sell it yourself.

10. Not having a used car checked by an independent mechanic. When buying a used car, condition is everything. Even the most reliable vehicle can turn into a lemon if it's poorly maintained. Before you buy a used vehicle, have it scrutinized by a repair shop that routinely does diagnostic work. A thorough diagnosis should cost around $100, but confirm the price in advance. A good mechanic should be able to tell if the car has been in a major accident or has a hidden but costly problem. Ask for a written report detailing the car's condition, noting any problems found and what it would cost to repair them. You can then use the report in your negotiations with the seller to adjust the price accordingly.

New Car Buying Guide

The Top 10 Financial Mistakes to Avoid During Divorce

During a divorce, you’ll be faced with many decisions that may affect your financial security. This article outlines the most common financial mistakes divorcing spouses make and provides tips on how to avoid them. You may feel comfortable dealing with some of these issues on your own, but with many of them, it’s crucial that you find good financial advice from a qualified professional.

1. Ignoring or underestimating your expenses. Most people know exactly what they earn each month, but can’t explain where their money goes. Take the time to write down all of your expenses, and develop a realistic monthly budget. Likewise, consider the cost of your future living expenses, taking inflation into account. If you ignore inflation, you may underestimate your future needs and find that you’re not able to maintain your quality of life.

2. Believing that the parent with more custodial time should keep the family home. It’s often a very emotional decision whether to keep the family home, especially when children are involved. While it would be nice to remain where you’re comfortable and avoid the hassles of moving, staying put might not be the best financial decision. No matter how attached you are to your home, it’s critical to have a realistic sense of whether you can afford it. If you give up everything else in order to keep the home, and then find that you can’t cover the mortgage, property taxes, and maintenance, you may end up in serious financial trouble.

Learn more about this issue in What to Do With the House When You Divorce . by Emily Doskow.

3. Assuming that an equal division is a fair division of property. Be sure you understand that an asset’s value is not necessarily defined by or limited to its current market value. For example, assets that generate income (like rental property or bonds) may be worth more than their market value. Agreeing that each spouse will receive property of equal monetary value doesn’t always mean each spouse will receive a truly equal share of the assets over time. Make sure you’re comparing apples to apples when you trade assets in a divorce negotiation, and pay attention to tax basis, present value, and transaction costs.

Learn more about this issue in Divorce & Money , by Violet Woodhouse with Dale Fetherling.

4. Deciding financial issues one at a time. By looking at each asset or source of income separately, you miss the interaction of taxes, capital gains, investment losses, timing issues, inflation, and more. A fair settlement begins by looking at a comprehensive picture of all of your finances. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be better able to understand how each financial decision you make may affect another decision, and determine how and when to divide assets.

5. Failing to secure spousal support (alimony) and child support payments with insurance . Your ability to collect alimony and child support is only as good as your spouse’s ability to pay. You can request that your spouse obtain disability and life insurance policies (or modify existing policies) to ensure that these payments will continue in the event of your spouse’s disability or death. Be sure to review the policies to make sure your spouse has made the proper designation(s). Understand that these policies won’t help you in the event of your spouse’s voluntary decision to stop paying. To enforce your rights in this situation, you’ll need to go back to court and ask for an order that your spouse make the appropriate payments.

6. Not understanding your liability for unsecured debt. For most people, unsecured debt means consumer credit card debt. In most cases, if the debt was incurred during the marriage, it’s a shared liability no matter which spouse used the credit card. When you settle your divorce, you’ll divide responsibility for those debts. But don’t assume that the credit card companies care what your settlement says - they can still come after both of you for payment. The best practice is to pay off all debts before the divorce becomes final.

7. Not evaluating a defined benefit pension plan correctly. A defined benefit plan (DBP) is a true pension plan—it’s funded and controlled by the employer, and pays a monthly income at retirement. (This is different from a defined contribution plan, such as a 401(k).) Even though the employee has to wait until retirement to receive payments, the DBP has value today, and the non-employee spouse is entitled to a share of that value. In most cases, you’ll need to hire an actuary – a specially trained financial expert - to calculate the present value of DBPs.

8. Overlooking a Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO). A Qualified Domestic Relations Order (QDRO) is a legal document that reflects how you and your spouse have decided to divide a defined contribution plan (eg. 401(k), 403(b), and 457 plans) or a pension plan. A QDRO also orders the plan administrator to pay the non-employee spouse his or her agreed-upon or court-ordered share. The plan administrator cannot make such payments without a valid QDRO in place. Even if you're dealing with a pension that may not be payable for several years, it’s crucial that you get the QDRO in place as part of your divorce, or you may lose important pension rights.

9. Having unrealistic expectations about investment returns. If your spouse is trying to convince you to settle for a certain investment because “It’s going to grow at 30 percent per year,” you might want to get a professional opinion. That investment might not grow at all, or it may yield negative results. Liquid assets (cash or assets that can be easily converted into cash) may provide more financial security than investments, many of which may be risky. Think twice before accepting investments in lieu of safer, less risky assets.

10. Failing to consider your long-term financial security. If you focus only on the immediate task of splitting assets and getting alimony and child support, without understanding how things might look in 10 or 20 years, you’re doing yourself a great disservice. You might want to hire a financial planner to review any proposed settlement agreement (before you sign it) and advise you about the long-term financial consequences.

I have seen some complex SSIS implementations that handle far more than 100 structured elements. I agree that it does get cumbersome, so you need to think about the overall ETL process before it goes that far.

While you should not use BizTalk for ETL as such, it can participate in an ETL solution to manage complexity and make on-going maintenance easier. You need to take a broader look at your solution, not only in terms of its functionality but also in terms of how you plan to manage its day-to-day operations, maintenance, and upgrades or updates.

I have used BizTalk as a participant in ETL for just those purposes. I position SSIS to handle less frequently changing aspects of the overall transformation, perform acquisition and delivery, and handle time-critical functions[*]. I use BizTalk to handle the more complex and frequently changing aspects, centralize business rules, and gain insight into the overall process through tracking, BAM, etc.

[*] - I want to clarify that BizTalk is *not* slow - I mentioned that I use SSIS for time-critical functions; however, BizTalk has no problems handling sustained workloads in excess of hundreds of messages per second, at low latency. I use SSIS when I need the raw speed to handle a repetitive, straight-forward transformation that must deliver data as quickly as possible and use BizTalk for fast, complex transformations that include business rules etc.

Does that answer your question?

Erik Westermann - ArtOfBabel. com - Systems Integration Magazine

Contact Erik for consulting, development, or content creation at +1 416-809-1453 or via wWorkflow. net

modified on Thursday, April 9, 2009 9:15 PM

Guay.

Erik Westermann 9-Apr-09 6:50

This article has been imported from my RSS feed at ArtOfBabel. com.

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Covered Calls: Learn How to Trade Stock and Options the Right Way

Covered Calls: Learn How to Trade Stock and Options the Right Way

Covered Calls are one of the simplest and most effective strategies in options trading. The art and science of selling calls against stock involves understanding the true risks of the trade, as well as knowing what kind of outcomes you can have in the trade.

Covered calls, also known as buy-writes . give you a way to reduce volatility in your portfolio as well as give you a better basis in your trades-- but you'll need to put the work in to figure out how to select the best stocks and the best options for this strategy.

New to covered calls? This guide will get you up and running in under 15 minutes.

What are covered calls?

Covered calls are a combination of a stock and option position.

Specifically, it is long stock with a call sold against the stock, which "covers" the position. Covered calls are bullish on the stock and bearish volatility.

Covered calls are a net option-selling position. This means you are assuming some risk in exchange for the premium available in the options market. This "risk" is that your long stock will be taken away from you by the call option buyer-- this is known as assignment risk.

Covered calls are unlimited-risk, limited-reward. The unlimited risk is similar to owning stock, and the limited reward comes from the short call premium and the transactional gains you may have. In exchange for limiting your risk, you have better odds of profitability than a simple long stock play.

Construction of a Covered Call

The best way for new traders to truly understand covered calls is visually.

Remember, in the options market you can both get long options and short options-- each with its own unique risk characteristic.

Let's start off with 100 shares of stock-- this is pretty easy to represent. When a stock goes up you make money, and when it goes down you lose money. This is also on a 100:1 basis-- if a stock goes up $1, you make $100. In options terms, this gives us a delta of 100.

The next part is the short call option that covers the stock. Because this is an option, it can get a little tricky because the delta (directional exposure) can change. But at options expiration it has very clear risk parameters.

At expiration, if the short option is out of the money, it will have a delta of 0. If the option is in the money, it will have behave just like 100 shares of short stock.

The cool thing about combinations in the options market is that they have aggregate risk-- that means you just have to add them together. Here's what a covered call looks like total.

At expiration, if the stock is under the strike price, the position will behave like stock. And if the stock is above the strike price, the position will have no directional exposure.

But wait-- not so fast! This is what the risk looks like at expiration. But what about when there is time left? Well. that time means more risk, and that means more extrinsic value in the short option. So your actual risk when you put on a trade will look something like this:

3 Major Covered Call Calculations

There are 2 big numbers you have to know if you get into a covered call position.

Keep in mind, there are a few different ways to do these calculations, but this is the best way because the formulas are inclusive for both in the money and out of the money options, and is the simplest to explain to new option traders.

The first is your basis . which is your breakeven level at expiration. This is a little complex, because it depends on whether the option you are selling is In the Money or Out of The Money

The main difference here is whether you are looking at the option strike or the cost of your stock trade as your transactional basis. There are "simpler" ways to calculate this, but this is the best for new option traders.

The next calculation is the max return. Here we are looking at the maximum possible reward you can get out of the position.

Keep this in mind-- if you are using an in-the-money option, the transactional value will be negative, but will be compensated for the total value amount. This is a workaround to deal with all options, regardless of "moneyness."

To calculate the return on basis . simply divide the maximum return by the basis previously calculated. This will give you a percentage that will show you the maximum gains you can get in the position.

Want these Caculations Done for You Automatically? Get Your Free Covered Call Spreadsheet Emailed to You.

The 3 Outcomes of Covered Calls

The trade at expiration has two major possibilities, and three total potential outcomes.

The first is if the stock closes above the call strike at expiration. if that happens, you will be assigned on that option and required to sell 100 shares of stock to the option buyer. Since you already have the stock in your account, then you sell that stock. If you didn't have any stock, then you would end up being short 100 shares-- this is known as a "naked short call" and is not the same thing as a covered call.

If the stock closes under the strike, then the call option expires worthless and you are left with just long stock at expiration. In this case there are two potential outcomes-- if the stock is trading above your basis then your are profitable, and if it is lower then you are in a drawdown.

Why You Trade Covered Calls

Covered calls are a great way to use options to generate income while trading. You are able to keep options premium against a long stock position that can help to reduce your basis in long term holdings. It also decreases the volatility of your positions as it reduces the directional exposure you will have.

You shiould trade covered calls if you are bullish on the stock and bearish on the volatility, and don't mind having similar risk as if you were just long stock.

Why You Don't Trade Covered Calls

If you think the stock is due for a huge move, you shouldn't trade covered calls. This is both to the upside and downside. If the stock is about to crash, then you don't need the large downside exposure-- and if the stock is about to rip higher, you don't want to cap your gains.

Covered calls are a bearish volatility strategy. If you are bullish volatility, then you need to choose a different option trade.

The Major Tradeoffs With Covered Calls

When selecting a covered call, there are two variables to consider: the time left to expiration, and the strike price of the option.

Remember-- when trading options, there is always a tradeoff between risk, reward, and odds.

Time Selection

If you go further out in time to do your covered call, you will be able to get more premium and a better basis on your position. But in exchange for that benefit you will have to wait much more for that premium to go away-- and it keeps more money at risk in the market.

On the other hand, if you choose near term options, you will have a lot of theta (time decay) benefiting your position, but it will be less premium on an absolute basis, which means you will end up with more directional risk compared to a longer term covered call.

Strike Selection

The main tradeoff with strike selection is related to your odds of success and the amount of premium available in the option.

If you choose to sell a deep in the money call against your position, you will have a very high odds of profit-- but the profit won't be that big.

Conversely, if you sell out of the money options, the transactional reward will be much higher and you can have a much better return on basis-- but that comes with additional directional risk in the position.

There's no right or wrong answer here, it all comes down to your personal preference.

What's the best way to trade covered calls?

Think about why you are selling a call in the first place. You are looking to maximize your reward relative to the risks you are taking.

To get the best rewards, you need to focus on the amount of premium you can sell.

Generally, selling way OTM options or way ITM options don't make sense-- why? Because there isn't enough premium to justify the sale.

So you should sell the fat middle.

This is a personal preference, but when entering covered calls I follow two general guidelines:

1. Between 30-60 days to expiration

2. Between 40-60 short deltas on the call option

This allows me to be consistent in my option selection no matter what I'm trading. If this matches your trading style, consider adding it to your trading plan.

Make Sure to Get Your Complimentary Covered Call Spreadsheet! Fill Out the Form to Have it Instantly Sent to You.

Some Common Pitfalls When Trading Covered Calls

Everyone makes mistakes in the markets, but here is a list of common misconceptions and execution errors that must be avoided:

Oh No! I could get assigned!

Take a big deep breath-- this is a good thing! If you are assigned and your shares are called away, then you have maxed out your profit on the position!

If you are worried about getting assigned, then you shouldn't be in covered calls in the first place.

Also-- don't worry about getting assigned early. Except in very unique conditions, as long as there is extrinsic value in the option, then you will not get assigned.

Hey, this option has fat premium, I should sell it!

Bad idea. If the premium in an option is super-high, there usually is a reason. Earnings could be coming up, or maybe an FDA approval for a biotech company. If you're looking for candidates with very high premium, you may think you get a high reward, but there is often a very high risk associated with it.

Even though the stock is lower, I'm still making "income" by selling these calls.

This is probably the worst risk management technique you can use. You must include both realized and unrealized P/L to get a feel for how your overall position is doing. If you don't, then you will succumb to very bad behavioral finance tendencies, like letting your losers run too far, too fast.

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The Top Ten Mistakes Consumers Make When Hiring A Contractor

A good contractor will be happy to provide you with dozens of written references. When speaking to the contractor's customers, ask such questions as:

Did the contractor keep to the schedule and the contract terms?

Were you pleased with the work and the way it was done?

Did the contractor listen to you if you had a problem, and seem concerned about resolving it?

Did the contractor willingly make any necessary corrections?

Would you hire him again?

Would you recommend him to others?

You may also wish to check the contractor out with your local building department, trade association or union, local consumer protection agency, consumer fraud unit in your city or district attorney's office, and the Better Business Bureau. Call these organizations to see if they have information about the contractor you are considering.

Ask the contractor for the address of his or her business location and business telephone number, and verify them. A contractor who operates a business out of the back of a pickup truck with a cellular telephone may be difficult to find to complete a job or fix something that has gone wrong after the last bill is paid.

If a contractor says he has insurance coverage for himself and any workers, he should be happy to show you documentation from the insurance company. Don’t expose your home owner’s policy to claims for contractor negligence. With home owner's insurance rates climbing all over the country the last thing you need to do is have to make a claim for no reason when a simple verification of your contractors insurance could protect you from it.

Ask about their General Liability Insurance. A one-million dollar policy is now considered standard. Make sure he requires the same coverage from any sub-contractors that will be working on your home. Sub-contractors without insurance won't be covered under the general contractors insurance and will default back to you.

Ask about Workers Compensation insurance. Without it if the contractor or any of his employees get hurt on the job site they can go after you personally to pay for medical bills. Imagine the nightmare of a debilitating injury, you could lose your house for innocently asking someone to work on it.

Well established companies are affiliated with professional organizations such as the Better Business Bureau and industry related organizations such as the NKBA (National Kitchen and Bath Association), NARI (National Association of the Remodeling Industry), or NAHB (National Association of Home Builders), In all cases, these organizations only attract conscientious contractors interested in bettering the industry and in weeding out unprofessional contractors. In order to become a member, the contractor’s background and references are thoroughly investigated. While a new contractor may not be a member of any professional organizations, it is highly unlikely an established contractor would not be a member of at least one, unless there is a reason that he cannot join.

I can't stress how important this information can be to you, ask questions such as how do they perform their work, what time do they start, how will you protect my carpets, how will the trash and debris be handled, do you work straight through a project? The answers to these questions will give you a clear picture of what type of contractor you are dealing with.

Not Asking Questions About Their Experience With Similar Work As Yours?

The time for a contractor to experiment or get on the job training is not on your project! The more experience a contractor has with the work involved in your project the smoother, less delays and possibly cheaper you can expect your project to be executed. Ask the contractor how many times he has completed projects such as yours. What issues does he believe he may run into during your project? What procedures does he have in place to eliminate problems that might surface during the completion of your project?

Top 10 Mortgage Mistakes to Avoid

I’ve put together a list of what I feel are the top 10 mortgage mistakes individuals should avoid if planning on financing a new home purchase or refinancing an existing mortgage.

Anything on this list should be avoided at all costs to ensure your credit score is as high as possible and that you don’t run into any qualification problems when it comes time to get that sparkling new mortgage. Otherwise you could end up with a higher-than-necessary mortgage rate, or simply get declined !

1. While this may be a no-brainer, it still reigns supreme. Avoid bankruptcy and foreclosure. Either could keep you out of the mortgage game for several years for obvious reasons. Also avoid mortgage lates. Even if your credit score is up to snuff. late mortgage payments that show up on your credit report can disqualify you with many banks and lenders. Makes sense doesn’t it?

2. Not locking your mortgage rate. If you fail to (or forget to) lock the interest rate on your mortgage. it could go up. A lot. Yes, you have the choice to lock or float. but make sure you understand both options and keep an eye on interest rates before and during the home loan process.

3. Listing your property on the MLS and then attempting to refinance that same property within six months (or longer). Lenders don’t love the idea of giving you a loan on something you don’t actually want, or tried to get rid of just months before.

[See more common refinance mistakes if you already own a home.]

4. Applying for a mortgage with charge offs and collections, especially medical collections, on your credit report (many consumers have these, often in error, and they can easily be removed via credit bureau disputes. They crush your FICO score!). Regularly review your credit report to ensure there are no surprises long before you begin the mortgage process.

Put simply, a low credit score will lead to a much higher mortgage rate, and even disqualification if it drives your monthly mortgage payment high enough. Also steer clear of credit counseling. (Even if it doesn’t lower your credit score, many banks won’t lend to borrowers who have used these services in the recent past.)

5. Not figuring out how much you can afford well before beginning your property search. You should get pre-qualified or pre-approved before you even start looking at homes. Once you know how much home you can afford based on your salary and assets, you can properly assess the situation. Otherwise you could just be wasting your time and setting yourself up for disappointment.

6. Opening new credit cards or making excessive charges on existing credit lines before and during the loan application process. This can hurt your credit score and increase your debt load, which could lead to disqualification. See debt-to-income ratio for more on that. You can buy your new leather couch and big-screen TV once the loan is funded and closed.

7. Attempting to get a mortgage with less than two years consecutive employment in the same occupation or field (unless you’re a recent grad with proof of future income). You must prove to lenders that you will actually continue to make the money you’re currently making to obtain a mortgage .

8. Trying to get a mortgage without documented 12-month housing history or your own verifiable assets that cover at least two months of your proposed mortgage payment. including taxes and insurance. Yes, lenders want to know that you paid your rent on time previously and have enough in your bank account to cover future payments.

Oh, and the money needs to be in your account, not under your mattress.

9. Not establishing your credit history. You generally need at least three credit tradelines (that show up on your credit report) with a minimum two-year history on each. Yes, credit is the root of all evil, but also a necessary one in the mortgage world, that is, unless you plan to pay for your expensive house with cash…

10. Not shopping around. If you don’t take the time to comparison shop, as you would any other product you buy, like a big-screen TV or a car, you’re doing yourself a major disservice. Put in the hours to ensure to find the right bank to work with and snag the best deal.

Bonus tip: Don’t forget to compare different loan products, such as fixed-rate mortgages vs. ARMs. and conventional loans vs. FHA loans. Both have their pros and cons, and should be carefully considered before applying for a mortgage. There is no one-size-fits-all approach folks.

*Many mistakes on this list pertain especially to first-time homebuyers. Most banks and mortgage companies now offer no-doc loans that don’t require income, assets, or employment. But they’ll still ask for your credit report and score, along with your housing history to ensure you’re a sound borrower.

And first-time homebuyers usually always have to verify assets, employment, and credit history. Sure, you might find a lender willing to give you a mortgage without those requirements, but your mortgage rate will be less than desirable!

If you think you’ve got better mortgage no-nos, or feel I could add some to this list, please feel free to contact me and I will add them. The more tips we’ve got, the more money we save people.

Can you please give me advice? I have to give you some background so I apologize for the length. I have always relied on my husband but a couple yrs ago he suffered a severe blood clot and developed a pain disorder. He has not been able to work since. Our landlord, who is very compassionate, allowed me to work for rent often reducing or eliminating rent. Some months we would pay in full but it would be middle end of the month. At the time I was making between $150-$200 a week supporting a family of 4 and making excessive trips for doctors tests therapists etc. Often 1 hr travel 1 way. My credit took a bit of a hit too. Anyway, I’ve been working hard to get things stable. I now work a job where I bring home $360 a week plus a 2nd job that’s an on call gig but made 5k in 2015. My credit is improving, no lates in 12 months on credit cards. Middle Fico is a 620. We want to buy a house for $50k 5% down. If we can get it, it will save us $100 a month over renting…I just don’t know how this rent thing will affect us…Will the low price of the house make a difference? Lender calculations are telling me U can afford $120k but I’m only trying to get $50 any advice… I’m so sad because I though I was doing so well.

Instead of speculating you’ll probably want to get pre-approved to see exactly what you qualify for based on all the numbers. And if you’re concerned the rent thing could hurt you, it may make sense to explain it upfront with a broker or loan officer that knows how to navigate the situation. ¡Buena suerte!

Question: if you have old unpaid debts (from 9yr ago) and it not on credit report (and not sure who to pay the debt to) when applying for a home loan will lenders see that past unpaid debt?

I suppose it depends who can see those unpaid debts and where they actually show up. Chances are a lender may not see them if they’ve already fallen off your credit report.

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IQ Option Bonuses. What kind of bonuses and benefits a new trader gets.

IQ Option Youtube Video. Introduction video for new traders.

IQ Option Review.

IQ Option Testimonials and Success Stories. The real users share their experiences.

IQ Option Trading. How and what to trade with IQ Option.

IQ Option Strategy. The best strategies, which enable you to earn as much as possible.

IQ Option App. How to use this app and how to get the most out of it.

IQ Option Is It a Scam. My full fraud investigation report and results.

IQ Option Auto Trader. Can you use the binary option robot auto trader with this broker site?

IQ Option US traders. This broker site does not currently accept US traders. I will tell you why and what your options are if you reside on the United States.

Conclusion and Overall Rating

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Youtube Video

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Important Information in a Nutshell

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Platform: Own

Founded: 2011

Bonus: Up to 100%

Return: max 92%

Refund: Up to 45%

Number of Assets: 77

Minimum Investment: $1

Maximum Investment: $1,000

Regulated: CySEC and FMRRC

Demo Account: Yes

Mobile Trading: Yes

Minimum Deposit: $10

Withdrawal Time: 3 business days ; 1 day for VIP

Languages: Russian, English, Turkish, Italian, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian.

Mobile App: iOS, Android

Customer Service: 09 :00-23:00, weekdays. Email: support@IQoption. com

Deposit & Withdrawal Methods: Credit card. bank wire transfer, WebMoney. QIWI. Yandex Money. PayPal. LiqPay. Skrill, Moneta

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There are currently hundreds of binary options brokers, with new ones appearing on the market almost daily. This is great for customers. There is almost an endless number of choices, as companies are trying to compete against each other for new customers with increasingly offering higher bonuses and special new features.

One thing that many brokers has been overlooking is old customers ; the goal has only been the acquisition of new customers, which has led to the fact that. after their first deposit, many go to other broker sites or completely stop investing in binary options.

But this is where IQ Option completely differs from its competitors. as they really have worked very hard to make investment interesting. fun and entertaining, even after the first deposit bonuses have been used and the new features have been experimented. A perfect example of this is a $10 minimum deposit and a $1 minimum investment, which show that they are even openly welcoming those investors who want to start more cautiously or who cannot simply afford to invest larger amounts of money.

Earning with investment is no longer just possible by the rich, as ordinary people now have the same opportunity to start with small amounts, and gradually increase their fortune to the same amounts as those of professional traders. However, you do not have to take my word for it ; please read these actual experiences and success stories, and determine if you could be one of them in the near future.

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There are over 70 different trading assets available

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There are three different account types available , from which two accounts are for real money trading:

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There are wide range of different banking options available

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The minimum investment of $1 per trade is also the lowest on the industry. This makes possible to start investing with real money carefully if you are a beginner. Thanks to the low minimum investment, I recommend opening a real money account directly at the beginning. This way, you will get access to all the benefits that a demo account user does not get.

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In order for the platform to be tested by a beginner. we asked our secretary if she could master the platform after spending a brief amount of time learning how to use it. Our secretary does not have any previous experience with binary options. We gave her 15 minutes to learn. after which we came back to check the situation.

When we came back, she told us that 15 minutes were more than sufficient. She was already very familiar with all the main features after a couple of minutes. However, this is not all, as she also told us that she has never been interested in investing ; though, after the experiment. she decided to start actively learning investing with IQ option. As a conclusion, we may say that. if you do not have any experience with binary options or investing, there is no easier or better way than this to start.

The trading platform is very user-friendly and extremely easy to use

The trading platform has for example the following unique features:

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Sixty-second options enable you to earn huge profits in a very short period

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IQ option is also offering binary options tournaments. I never found these on any other broker site, so I tried them with great interest. At the beginning, all traders will get a tournament balance of $10,000 for their use during the tournament. Winners are determined by the amount of tournament balance at the end. Participants with the highest balance will win the first place prize etc.

Some tournaments have a guaranteed prize fund. which means that. if participation fees do not cover the whole prize pool. the broker will pay the rest of the guaranteed funds from his or her own pocket. Some tournaments also have rebuy possibility, which means that. if you lose your whole tournament balance, you rebuy yourself back to the tournament. For the same entry fee as originally, you get a tournament balance of $10,000 for the second time. Tournaments usually last for 30 minutes, so they are a great entertainment for investors who want to get excitement and high profits in short periods. By participating in the tournament, you can earn up to one hundred times (sometimes even more) the entry fee.

The average level of the participants in these tournaments is astoundingly bad. With a good strategy, these are a truly easy way to earn money. You do not even have to know much about investing, as long as you follow the following instructions:

Always aim to win . The first-place finisher always gets by far the biggest prize. It is therefore not worth to ensure the eighth or ninth place, even if these allow you to earn a cash prize. Even if you just have a small chance, try to get to the first-place, as it is usually worth the risk.

It is fine to spend the first few minutes to observe what strategies the other participants are using. Whether other participants are trying to grow their tournament funds aggressively right from the start or do they take a more cautious approach. You can then tailor your own strategy according to this. However, make sure that the first ranked participants do not escape too far from you, or it may become hard for you to reach them later on.

In the middle of the tournament, you should have a clear picture of what the other participants are doing and what kind of strategy you should use. Now, it is time to optimize your strategy according to your objectives. If you are the clear leader, do not get too close to those in previous positions. If you are close to the first places, try to keep them close, so that you can strike when the end of the tournament is near. Also, observe what kind of strategies the tournament leaders are using. If they are too cautious, this will be your chance to take the whole pot, struck more aggressively and try to get the first place.

If the end of the tournament is getting closer, and you are far away in the money finish, it will be the best moment to take big risks. You have nothing to lose, so it will be a good moment to reach the money by taking big risks. Victory is already probably too far away, but do not be discouraged. As long as you have money, you have a chance.

Analyze your strategy afterwards and think if can win more in some other way. There is always room for improvement, even if you won the whole tournament. Spend a few minutes analyzing your strategy after the tournament is over, as this might be extremely beneficial for the next time.

In binary option tournaments, you can win huge prizes with a small entry fee

Strategy

The investor has free access to a large number of different tools and resources to make use of technical analysis. You can even use these directly through the trading platform. You can easily see the moving trends of trading and, through the technical analysis panel, it is almost effortless to make investment decisions based on completed analyzes. You do not need any previous expertise to do this.

There is also an almost endless quantity of free educational materials for you to use at will, such as free webinars, ebooks. instructional videos and tutorials. With the help of these extensive materials, you can easily develop your skills and become a much better investor. Below are three examples of tutorial videos that are available for investors.

Trading Strategies for IQ Option broker

Before you get to the actual strategies, you need to understand the system that they work with.

Japanese Candlesticks:

These are bars in charts depicting the price movements if an asset. They represent the opening and the closing of a price range. If the price moves up it will be represented by a green candle. If the price moves down, it will be represented by a red candle.

Trend Lines:

These are lines in the chart which represent price movements and also show the corridor within which the price range within which the value of the asset is likely to fluctuate. The support lines on the lower side of the chart represent the level from which prices tend to bounce upwards. The resistance level refers to the trend line at the upper side of the chart and it represents the level from which prices tend to bounce downwards from. The area between the two trend lines is the trending corridor.

The candlesticks, the trend lines and the trending corridor are some of the most popular and effective tools in binary options signal generation.

The main strategies

The Rebound Line Strategy

The aim of this strategy is to catch the movement of an asset at the very moment when the price cannot break through the support of the resistance levels. In this strategy, when the price reaches the resistance level and the candle closes before this level, the possibility of a rebound is greater than the possibility of a growth. Here, you are better off buying a PUT option. With the same strategy, if the price reaches the support line and the candle closes just above this level, you are better buying a CALL option. This strategy is relevant whether the trend is neutral, upward or downward.

The Three Black Crows Strategy

This strategy defines the downward reversal on the uptrend. Look out for an uptrend with several ascending candles in a row. Wait for the reversal of three descending candles in a row. Closing at the third candle is a signal of an uptrend turning into a downtrend. At the same time, when there are three descending candles in a row, and the price closes at the end of the third, this will be a signal of a downtrend turning to an uptrend. These signals are what you will use to make your trades with.

Piercing Line Candlestick Pattern

Here you will study the candlesticks carefully and look out for a trend in the price movements. What you will be on the lookout for here is the precise moment where you will notice a reversal of a down trend. Find two candles on the chart one of which closes the price in the middle of the previous one. Wait for the second ascending candle. When a third ascending candle appears it will be a signal for a tend reversal. This will happen both ways. Look out for another set of two candles and see if one closes in the middle of the one before it. You will look at the second candle while waiting for the third descending candle. This will be the signal of another trend reversal this time on the opposite side of the chart. You will then be expected to execute the trade in line with the signal and you can expect a winning conclusion.

The Rainbow Strategy

This strategy is a little more technical than the other strategies explained above. The rewards of this system are just as rewarding as those ones outlined above; the generation of great signals. Here, three exponential averages with different periods are used simultaneously. On the chart, you will mark the first line with a period of 6 in blue. The second line with a period of 14 will be marked in yellow while the third line with a period of 26 will be marked with red.

For strong signals of an asset’s imminent drop in price, the following points with the moving average will be noted.

The blue line is located above the others

The yellow line is below the blue line

Both of these lines will be above the red line

The intersection of the blue line with the yellow line will be the signal to enter the market and buy a PUT option.

For strong signals of an asset’s imminent rise in price, the following points will be noted.

The red line will be above the others

The yellow line is below the red line and above the blue line

The blue line is at the bottom.

The intersection of the yellow line with the blue line is a strong signal that you enter the market and but a CALL option.

Moving Averages Strategy

This is one of the most popular of strategies and it is used extensively in binary options trading where IQ Option broker is in play. It is used to full effect profit wise by both the experienced and the rookie traders. You will use the available technical analysis tools to construct the moving averages indicator. The period indicates the amount of candlesticks selected for the calculation of the moving averages. With this strategy employed by IQ Option’s clients, there are four types of moving averages. The difference comes with the method of calculation. The different moving averages are:

Most of the clients of IQ Option are in agreement that the simple and exponential moving averages are the simplest to calculate and use to help generate signals. They are also the most accurate of the four. In most cases, the last two are used by professionals in highly specialized strategies.

The Simple and the Exponential moving averages are relevant with many trading strategies including following the corridor using the rebound line and the breaking line. They are also used in advanced strategies where construction of several moving averages simultaneously is carried out.

The Pin Bar Strategy

This is another of the more technical strategies that you can use with the IQ Option broker. It will be used to predict a down ward or an upward trend with the price of an asset. What are studied here are pin bar candles with tails or spots.

If a pin bar candle has a small body and a long tail, directed upward or downward, there is an imminent shift in the price of the asset depending on the prevailing market conditions. If the tail of the pin bar points upwards, the price of the asset is predicted to move downwards. You are therefore at this instant expected to predict accordingly.

When the tail of the pin bar points downwards the price of the asset is predicted to go up. This is another signal and you will trade as directed. At all times, remember that good a pin bar with a tail is an indication that you should enter the market. What you need to be careful with is the direction that the tail is facing as this will be indicative of the prevailing market conditions.

Not all pin bars with tails are good to signal you to enter the market. A good pin bar has to satisfy the following conditions:

The open and close levels are placed next to one of the previous bar’s ends.

This must be near the top or near the bottom.

The pin bars open and close levels are placed within the left bars also known as the left eye. If all the parameters are to the right, it means that the signal is strong enough to enter the market.

The Breaking Line Strategy

This IQ Option strategy aims at catching the exact moment that a candlestick breaches either the support line or the resistance line. When the candle closes above the resistance line, it is better to buy a CALL option. This is because the chances of the price of the asset rising increases dramatically.

When the candle closes below the support line, the chances of the price falling increase at a very high rate. At this point in the chart, you will buy the PUT option as it is the most favorable. This trading strategy is suitable for natural trends, upward trends and for downward trends.

Alligator Strategy

This strategy is rather simple in its application mechanisms. Here, three smooth moving averages are monitored as they move along the chart. They will be displaying different moves and their respective time periods. What is important to note is that with this strategy, the moving averages must be of the smooth kind and none other. This implies that the simple and the exponential moving averages will not work with this strategy, at least not with the IQ Option broker’s system. This is because the smooth moving averages have a very little impact on ripples in the market or fluctuations with very little significance.

These lines of the moving average show the most likely price that the asset will have in the near future if the market is not under any undue influence from unexpected factors either within the asset’s market itself or in the wider global financial markets.

The smooth average lines of the candlesticks are looked at like they are alligator teeth. When the candles open upwards, it is the appropriate time for you to make a trade. This is a signal to execute a CALL option immediately.

When the candlesticks open downwards, it is a signal that the appropriate trade to execute is a PUT option.

When the indicators are twisted like a helix or intertwined in any way, it means the alligator is asleep; this is not the appropriate time to make any trades. Trading at this point may be tempting but the chances of losing your stake here is very high because the next possible move in very unpredictable.

In between the CALL and PUT trades, the indicators will twist again and you should rest your trading for a while as well.

The Bollinger Bands Strategy

Here, the strategy is applied with the price chart carrying 3 lines. These lines are not equal in thickness all through the chart. Rather, they will change their width according to the movements in the market. When an asset’s marketplace is calm, the bands will be narrowed. When activity resumes, the bands will widen. The rate at which they widen will depend on the intensity of the trading. Should you notice a rapid widening of the bands, you can be sure that there has been a sudden increase in the intensity of trading for that particular asset.

The band at the central represents a smooth moving average which will be carrying something like 20 bars/candles.

Trading binary options is a profitable venture. What you need is the right broker to handle your investment and to guide you on the right path to profitability. IQ Option is one of the leading brokers in the binary options marketplace. This can be seen from the deep understanding that they have of the binary options marketplace and the movements of asset prices. As evidenced by the sophistication of the trading strategies, it is how you interpret the price movements that determine the nature of the signals that you will have.

There are many different free analytic tools for traders.

IQ Option App

The IQ Option mobile app is one of the best that I have ever used. However, I am not the only one who thinks like this. At this moment, it is the #1 trading app in 45 countries. One of the most important reasons for its success are the great functional features, which make trading possible at anytime and anywhere. The most important buttons are not too close to each other. so even those with big fingers like me will not make incorrect clicks too often.

The app is basically the normal trading platform in smaller size, so if you only want to trade with your mobile phone, this is possible ; and you will not miss any of its key features. Trading “on the go” is becoming more popular every day, so with this excellent mobile platform, IQ Option has definitely a distinct advantage over most of its competitors. The app can be downloadable from Google Play or App Store. Click on the button below to download IQ Option mobile app:

Mobile app can be downloaded from Google play or App Store.

IQ Option: Is It a Scam?

I made a full fraud investigation and its outcome is clear. IQ Option is not fraudulent broker. The following facts prove this without a doubt:

It has the best websites and the most versatile trading platform on the industry. These cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to make. Scammers would not have these kinds of resources at their disposal .

It has operated for several years without any negative comments . S cammers can never fully escape the negative comments; a great reputation is a good indicator that the broker is truly honest.

It has the lowest minimum deposit on the industry. Scammers usually have one single goal: to get as much money as soon as possible. There is always a risk that the scam is revealed. after which getting money is extremely difficult.

Completely free demo account. If you intend to scam, why would you give anything for free? Especially if that would make you take the risk of being exposed.

Extensive free educational material. If you intend to scam someone, you would not make it harder by teaching the victim. as this does not make sense.

Fast withdrawals and versatile withdrawal methods. Scammers always try to get money from their victims by any means possible. Therefore, it is obvious that they would not give victims their money back .

Awards and distinctions. Scammers do not win prizes from impartial organizations. More about these awards is provided below.

Awards

IQ Option has received several awards and recognitions from multiple sources. This is one more proof that they are excellent and honest in this business. The most popular of these awards are “ Most Reliable Binary Option Broker ” award and “ Most Innovative Binary Option Broker ” award. The judges were the most esteemed and experienced people in the area of investment, from all-around the world. IQ Option competed against other popular broker sites. such as CTOption. Option FM. CherryTrade and Master Option

IQ Option has won many awards, such as “Most Reliable Broker” and “Most Innovative Broker.”

IQ Option Autotrader

Unfortunately, there is no possibility to use Auto Trader at IQ Option. at this time. You have to approve every trade for yourself. If you want to use an automated trading robot, there many other great broker sites through which it is possible. If you are interested in auto trading, I recommend you to read our following articles:

Binary Option Robot Review (Best fully automated free trading robot. The biggest secrets of binary options trading revealed. Read how pro traders have earned their fortune, and use the same tools that they have used for many years.)

Binary Hedge Fund Review (Earn like the billionaires with this free hedge fund software. Real traders show their incredible results!)

Copyop Review (A new revolutionary way to earn money. Set your trades to copy the best professionals. It is so easy to do that you will not believe how this is possible!)

Binary Stealth (Very accurate new signal provider. What kind of results can you get with it?)

Mike’s Auto Trader (Free auto trader developed by the binary options guru Michael Freeman. )

Exclusive offer! Get the binary option robot for free by clicking on the button below and learn how it is possible to make money while you sleep!

IQ Option US Traders

IQ Option does not currently accept US traders. After SpotOption stopped accepting American customers a little while ago, their position has been a little bit uncertain. However, for the moment, at least the following Binary Options Brokers accept US traders.

Conclusión

I must admit that I am extremely impressed with how professionally IQ Option has dealt with single every detail of their site. They really raised the bar to a completely new level. At this moment, it is difficult to even imagine that any other broker site would get even close to them as a whole. For this reason, IQ Option is my absolute number one recommendation for every binary options investor. This broker site is truly top-notch in every feature that can be measured. I will give IQ Option an overall rating of 4.9 out of 5.0 stars .

IQ Option Ratings

Ten Common Database Design Mistakes

If database design is done right, then the development, deployment and subsequent performance in production will give little trouble. A well-designed database 'just works'. There are a small number of mistakes in database design that causes subsequent misery to developers, managewrs, and DBAs alike. Here are the ten worst mistakes

No list of mistakes is ever going to be exhaustive. People (myself included) do a lot of really stupid things, at times, in the name of "getting it done." This list simply reflects the database design mistakes that are currently on my mind, or in some cases, constantly on my mind. I have done this topic two times before. If you're interested in hearing the podcast version, visit Greg Low's super-excellent SQL Down Under. I also presented a boiled down, ten-minute version at PASS for the Simple-Talk booth. Originally there were ten, then six, and today back to ten. And these aren't exactly the same ten that I started with; these are ten that stand out to me as of today.

Before I start with the list, let me be honest for a minute. I used to have a preacher who made sure to tell us before some sermons that he was preaching to himself as much as he was to the congregation. When I speak, or when I write an article, I have to listen to that tiny little voice in my head that helps filter out my own bad habits, to make sure that I am teaching only the best practices. Hopefully, after reading this article, the little voice in your head will talk to you when you start to stray from what is right in terms of database design practices.

Poor design/planning

Ignoring normalization

Poor naming standards

Lack of documentation

One table to hold all domain values

Using identity/guid columns as your only key

Not using SQL facilities to protect data integrity

Not using stored procedures to access data

Trying to build generic objects

Lack of testing

Poor design/planning

" If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there " – George Harrison

Prophetic words for all parts of life and a description of the type of issues that plague many projects these days.

Let me ask you: would you hire a contractor to build a house and then demand that they start pouring a foundation the very next day? Even worse, would you demand that it be done without blueprints or house plans? Hopefully, you answered "no" to both of these. A design is needed make sure that the house you want gets built, and that the land you are building it on will not sink into some underground cavern. If you answered yes, I am not sure if anything I can say will help you.

Like a house, a good database is built with forethought, and with proper care and attention given to the needs of the data that will inhabit it; it cannot be tossed together in some sort of reverse implosion.

Since the database is the cornerstone of pretty much every business project, if you don't take the time to map out the needs of the project and how the database is going to meet them, then the chances are that the whole project will veer off course and lose direction. Furthermore, if you don't take the time at the start to get the database design right, then you'll find that any substantial changes in the database structures that you need to make further down the line could have a huge impact on the whole project, and greatly increase the likelihood of the project timeline slipping.

Far too often, a proper planning phase is ignored in favor of just "getting it done". The project heads off in a certain direction and when problems inevitably arise – due to the lack of proper designing and planning – there is "no time" to go back and fix them properly, using proper techniques. That's when the "hacking" starts, with the veiled promise to go back and fix things later, something that happens very rarely indeed.

Admittedly it is impossible to predict every need that your design will have to fulfill and every issue that is likely to arise, but it is important to mitigate against potential problems as much as possible, by careful planning.

Ignoring Normalization

Normalization defines a set of methods to break down tables to their constituent parts until each table represents one and only one "thing", and its columns serve to fully describe only the one "thing" that the table represents.

The concept of normalization has been around for 30 years and is the basis on which SQL and relational databases are implemented. In other words, SQL was created to work with normalized data structures. Normalization is not just some plot by database programmers to annoy application programmers (that is merely a satisfying side effect!)

SQL is very additive in nature in that, if you have bits and pieces of data, it is easy to build up a set of values or results. In the FROM clause, you take a set of data (a table) and add (JOIN) it to another table. You can add as many sets of data together as you like, to produce the final set you need.

This additive nature is extremely important, not only for ease of development, but also for performance. Indexes are most effective when they can work with the entire key value. Whenever you have to use SUBSTRING . CHARINDEX . LIKE . and so on, to parse out a value that is combined with other values in a single column (for example, to split the last name of a person out of a full name column) the SQL paradigm starts to break down and data becomes become less and less searchable.

So normalizing your data is essential to good performance, and ease of development, but the question always comes up: "How normalized is normalized enough ?" If you have read any books about normalization, then you will have heard many times that 3rd Normal Form is essential, but 4th and 5th Normal Forms are really useful and, once you get a handle on them, quite easy to follow and well worth the time required to implement them.

In reality, however, it is quite common that not even the first Normal Form is implemented correctly.

Whenever I see a table with repeating column names appended with numbers, I cringe in horror. And I cringe in horror quite often. Consider the following example Customer table:

Are there always 12 payments? Is the order of payments significant? Does a NULL value for a payment mean UNKNOWN (not filled in yet), or a missed payment? And when was the payment made.

A payment does not describe a Customer and should not be stored in the Customer table. Details of payments should be stored in a Paymen t table, in which you could also record extra information about the payment, like when the payment was made, and what the payment was for:

In this second design, each column stores a single unit of information about a single "thing" (a payment), and each row represents a specific instance of a payment.

This second design is going to require a bit more code early in the process but, it is far more likely that you will be able to figure out what is going on in the system without having to hunt down the original programmer and kick their butt…sorry… figure out what they were thinking

Poor naming standards

" That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet "

This quote from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare sounds nice, and it is true from one angle. If everyone agreed that, from now on, a rose was going to be called dung, then we could get over it and it would smell just as sweet. The problem is that if, when building a database for a florist, the designer calls it dung and the client calls it a rose, then you are going to have some meetings that sound far more like an Abbott and Costello routine than a serious conversation about storing information about horticulture products.

Names, while a personal choice, are the first and most important line of documentation for your application. I will not get into all of the details of how best to name things here – it is a large and messy topic. What I want to stress in this article is the need for consistency . The names you choose are not just to enable you to identify the purpose of an object, but to allow all future programmers, users, and so on to quickly and easily understand how a component part of your database was intended to be used, and what data it stores. No future user of your design should need to wade through a 500 page document to determine the meaning of some wacky name.

Consider, for example, a column named, X304_DSCR . What the heck does that mean? You might decide, after some head scratching, that it means "X304 description". Possibly it does, but maybe DSCR means discriminator, or discretizator?

Unless you have established DSCR as a corporate standard abbreviation for description, then X304_DESCRIPTION is a much better name, and one leaves nothing to the imagination.

That just leaves you to figure out what the X304 part of the name means. On first inspection, to me, X304 sounds like more like it should be data in a column rather than a column name. If I subsequently found that, in the organization, there was also an X305 and X306 then I would flag that as an issue with the database design. For maximum flexibility, data is stored in columns, not in column names.

Along these same lines, resist the temptation to include "metadata" in an object's name. A name such as tblCustomer or colVarcharAddress might seem useful from a development perspective, but to the end user it is just confusing. As a developer, you should rely on being able to determine that a table name is a table name by context in the code or tool, and present to the users clear, simple, descriptive names, such as Customer and Address .

A practice I strongly advise against is the use of spaces and quoted identifiers in object names. You should avoid column names such as "Part Number" or, in Microsoft style, [Part Number], therefore requiring you users to include these spaces and identifiers in their code. It is annoying and simply unnecessary.

Acceptable alternatives would be part_number . partNumber or PartNumber . Again, consistency is key. If you choose PartNumber then that's fine – as long as the column containing invoice numbers is called InvoiceNumber . and not one of the other possible variations.

Lack of documentation

I hinted in the intro that, in some cases, I am writing for myself as much as you. This is the topic where that is most true. By carefully naming your objects, columns, and so on, you can make it clear to anyone what it is that your database is modeling. However, this is only step one in the documentation battle. The unfortunate reality is, though, that "step one" is all too often the only step.

Not only will a well-designed data model adhere to a solid naming standard, it will also contain definitions on its tables, columns, relationships, and even default and check constraints, so that it is clear to everyone how they are intended to be used. In many cases, you may want to include sample values, where the need arose for the object, and anything else that you may want to know in a year or two when "future you" has to go back and make changes to the code.

NOTE: Where this documentation is stored is largely a matter of corporate standards and/or convenience to the developer and end users. It could be stored in the database itself, using extended properties. Alternatively, it might be in maintained in the data modeling tools. It could even be in a separate data store, such as Excel or another relational database. My company maintains a metadata repository database, which we developed in order to present this data to end users in a searchable, linkable format. Format and usability is important, but the primary battle is to have the information available and up to date.

Your goal should be to provide enough information that when you turn the database over to a support programmer, they can figure out your minor bugs and fix them (yes, we all make bugs in our code!). I know there is an old joke that poorly documented code is a synonym for "job security." While there is a hint of truth to this, it is also a way to be hated by your coworkers and never get a raise. And no good programmer I know of wants to go back and rework their own code years later. It is best if the bugs in the code can be managed by a junior support programmer while you create the next new thing. Job security along with raises is achieved by being the go-to person for new challenges.

One table to hold all domain values

" One Ring to rule them all and in the darkness bind them "

This is all well and good for fantasy lore, but it's not so good when applied to database design, in the form of a "ruling" domain table. Relational databases are based on the fundamental idea that every object represents one and only one thing. There should never be any doubt as to what a piece of data refers to. By tracing through the relationships, from column name, to table name, to primary key, it should be easy to examine the relationships and know exactly what a piece of data means.

The big myth perpetrated by architects who don't really understand relational database architecture (me included early in my career) is that the more tables there are, the more complex the design will be. So, conversely, shouldn't condensing multiple tables into a single "catch-all" table simplify the design? It does sound like a good idea, but at one time giving Pauly Shore the lead in a movie sounded like a good idea too.

For example, consider the following model snippet where I needed domain values for:

Customer CreditStatus

Customer Type

Invoice Status

Invoice Line Item BackOrder Status

Invoice Line Item Ship Via Carrier

On the face of it that would be five domain tables…but why not just use one generic domain table, like this?

This may seem a very clean and natural way to design a table for all but the problem is that it is just not very natural to work with in SQL. Say we just want the domain values for the Customer table:

As you can see, this is far from being a natural join. It comes down to the problem of mixing apples with oranges. At first glance, domain tables are just an abstract concept of a container that holds text. And from an implementation centric standpoint, this is quite true, but it is not the correct way to build a database. In a database, the process of normalization, as a means of breaking down and isolating data, takes every table to the point where one row represents one thing. And each domain of values is a distinctly different thing from all of the other domains (unless it is not, in which case the one table will suffice.). So what you do, in essence, is normalize the data on each usage, spreading the work out over time, rather than doing the task once and getting it over with.

So instead of the single table for all domains, you might model it as:

Looks harder to do, right? Well, it is initially. Frankly it took me longer to flesh out the example tables. But, there are quite a few tremendous gains to be had:

Using the data in a query is much easier:

Data can be validated using foreign key constraints very naturally, something not feasible for the other solution unless you implement ranges of keys for every table – a terrible mess to maintain.

If it turns out that you need to keep more information about a ShipViaCarrier than just the code, 'UPS', and description, 'United Parcel Service', then it is as simple as adding a column or two. You could even expand the table to be a full blown representation of the businesses that are carriers for the item.

All of the smaller domain tables will fit on a single page of disk. This ensures a single read (and likely a single page in cache). If the other case, you might have your domain table spread across many pages, unless you cluster on the referring table name, which then could cause it to be more costly to use a non-clustered index if you have many values.

You can still have one editor for all rows, as most domain tables will likely have the same base structure/usage. And while you would lose the ability to query all domain values in one query easily, why would you want to? (A union query could easily be created of the tables easily if needed, but this would seem an unlikely need.)

I should probably rebut the thought that might be in your mind. "What if I need to add a new column to all domain tables?" For example, you forgot that the customer wants to be able to do custom sorting on domain values and didn't put anything in the tables to allow this. This is a fair question, especially if you have 1000 of these tables in a very large database. First, this rarely happens, and when it does it is going to be a major change to your database in either way.

Second, even if this became a task that was required, SQL has a complete set of commands that you can use to add columns to tables, and using the system tables it is a pretty straightforward task to build a script to add the same column to hundreds of tables all at once. That will not be as easy of a change, but it will not be so much more difficult to outweigh the large benefits.

The point of this tip is simply that it is better to do the work upfront, making structures solid and maintainable, rather than trying to attempt to do the least amount of work to start out a project. By keeping tables down to representing one "thing" it means that most changes will only affect one table, after which it follows that there will be less rework for you down the road.

Using identity/guid columns as your only key

First Normal Form dictates that all rows in a table must be uniquely identifiable. Hence, every table should have a primary key. SQL Server allows you to define a numeric column as an IDENTITY column, and then automatically generates a unique value for each row. Alternatively, you can use NEWID() (or NEWSEQUENTIALID() ) to generate a random, 16 byte unique value for each row. These types of values, when used as keys, are what are known as surrogate keys . The word surrogate means "something that substitutes for" and in this case, a surrogate key should be the stand-in for a natural key.

The problem is that too many designers use a surrogate key column as the only key column on a given table. The surrogate key values have no actual meaning in the real world; they are just there to uniquely identify each row.

Now, consider the following Part table, whereby PartID is an IDENTITY column and is the primary key for the table:

How many rows are there in this table? Well, there seem to be three, but are rows with PartID s 1 and 2 actually the same row, duplicated? Or are they two different rows that should be unique but were keyed in incorrectly?

The rule of thumb I use is simple. If a human being could not pick which row they want from a table without knowledge of the surrogate key, then you need to reconsider your design. This is why there should be a key of some sort on the table to guarantee uniqueness, in this case likely on PartNumber .

In summary: as a rule, each of your tables should have a natural key that means something to the user, and can uniquely identify each row in your table. In the very rare event that you cannot find a natural key (perhaps, for example, a table that provides a log of events), then use an artificial/surrogate key.

Not using SQL facilities to protect data integrity

All fundamental, non-changing business rules should be implemented by the relational engine. The base rules of nullability, string length, assignment of foreign keys, and so on, should all be defined in the database .

There are many different ways to import data into SQL Server. If your base rules are defined in the database itself can you guarantee that they will never be bypassed and you can write your queries without ever having to worry whether the data you're viewing adheres to the base business rules.

Rules that are optional, on the other hand, are wonderful candidates to go into a business layer of the application. For example, consider a rule such as this: "For the first part of the month, no part can be sold at more than a 20% discount, without a manager's approval".

Taken as a whole, this rule smacks of being rather messy, not very well controlled, and subject to frequent change. For example, what happens when next week the maximum discount is 30%? Or when the definition of "first part of the month" changes from 15 days to 20 days? Most likely you won't want go through the difficulty of implementing these complex temporal business rules in SQL Server code – the business layer is a great place to implement rules like this.

However, consider the rule a little more closely. There are elements of it that will probably never change. P. ej.

The maximum discount it is ever possible to offer

The fact that the approver must be a manager

These aspects of the business rule very much ought to get enforced by the database and design. Even if the substance of the rule is implemented in the business layer, you are still going to have a table in the database that records the size of the discount, the date it was offered, the ID of the person who approved it, and so on. On the Discount column, you should have a CHECK constraint that restricts the values allowed in this column to between 0.00 and 0.90 (or whatever the maximum is). Not only will this implement your "maximum discount" rule, but will also guard against a user entering a 200% or a negative discount by mistake. On the ManagerID column, you should place a foreign key constraint, which reference the Managers table and ensures that the ID entered is that of a real manager (or, alternatively, a trigger that selects only EmployeeId s corresponding to managers).

Now, at the very least we can be sure that the data meets the very basic rules that the data must follow, so we never have to code something like this in order to check that the data is good:

We can feel safe that data meets the basic criteria, every time.

Not using stored procedures to access data

Stored procedures are your friend. Use them whenever possible as a method to insulate the database layer from the users of the data. Do they take a bit more effort? Sure, initially, but what good thing doesn't take a bit more time? Stored procedures make database development much cleaner, and encourage collaborative development between your database and functional programmers. A few of the other interesting reasons that stored procedures are important include the following.

Maintainability

Stored procedures provide a known interface to the data, and to me, this is probably the largest draw. When code that accesses the database is compiled into a different layer, performance tweaks cannot be made without a functional programmer's involvement. Stored procedures give the database professional the power to change characteristics of the database code without additional resource involvement, making small changes, or large upgrades (for example changes to SQL syntax) easier to do.

Encapsulation

Stored procedures allow you to "encapsulate" any structural changes that you need to make to the database so that the knock on effect on user interfaces is minimized. For example, say you originally modeled one phone number, but now want an unlimited number of phone numbers. You could leave the single phone number in the procedure call, but store it in a different table as a stopgap measure, or even permanently if you have a "primary" number of some sort that you always want to display. Then a stored proc could be built to handle the other phone numbers. In this manner the impact to the user interfaces could be quite small, while the code of stored procedures might change greatly.

Security

Stored procedures can provide specific and granular access to the system. For example, you may have 10 stored procedures that all update table X in some way. If a user needs to be able to update a particular column in a table and you want to make sure they never update any others, then you can simply grant to that user the permission to execute just the one procedure out of the ten that allows them perform the required update.

Performance

There are a couple of reasons that I believe stored procedures enhance performance. First, if a newbie writes ratty code (like using a cursor to go row by row through an entire ten million row table to find one value, instead of using a WHERE clause), the procedure can be rewritten without impact to the system (other than giving back valuable resources.) The second reason is plan reuse. Unless you are using dynamic SQL calls in your procedure, SQL Server can store a plan and not need to compile it every time it is executed. It's true that in every version of SQL Server since 7.0 this has become less and less significant, as SQL Server gets better at storing plans ad hoc SQL calls (see note below). However, stored procedures still make it easier for plan reuse and performance tweaks. In the case where ad hoc SQL would actually be faster, this can be coded into the stored procedure seamlessly.

In 2005, there is a database setting ( PARAMETERIZATION FORCED ) that, when enabled, will cause all queries to have their plans saved. This does not cover more complicated situations that procedures would cover, but can be a big help. There is also a feature known as plan guides . which allow you to override the plan for a known query type. Both of these features are there to help out when stored procedures are not used, but stored procedures do the job with no tricks.

And this list could go on and on. There are drawbacks too, because nothing is ever perfect. It can take longer to code stored procedures than it does to just use ad hoc calls. However, the amount of time to design your interface and implement it is well worth it, when all is said and done.

Trying to code generic T-SQL objects

I touched on this subject earlier in the discussion of generic domain tables, but the problem is more prevalent than that. Every new T-SQL programmer, when they first start coding stored procedures, starts to think "I wish I could just pass a table name as a parameter to a procedure." It does sound quite attractive: one generic stored procedure that can perform its operations on any table you choose. However, this should be avoided as it can be very detrimental to performance and will actually make life more difficult in the long run.

T-SQL objects do not do "generic" easily, largely because lots of design considerations in SQL Server have clearly been made to facilitate reuse of plans, not code. SQL Server works best when you minimize the unknowns so it can produce the best plan possible. The more it has to generalize the plan, the less it can optimize that plan.

Note that I am not specifically talking about dynamic SQL procedures. Dynamic SQL is a great tool to use when you have procedures that are not optimizable / manageable otherwise. A good example is a search procedure with many different choices. A precompiled solution with multiple OR conditions might have to take a worst case scenario approach to the plan and yield weak results, especially if parameter usage is sporadic.

However, the main point of this tip is that you should avoid coding very generic objects, such as ones that take a table name and twenty column names/value pairs as a parameter and lets you update the values in the table. For example, you could write a procedure that started out:

The idea would be to dynamically specify the name of a column and the value to pass to a SQL statement. This solution is no better than simply using ad hoc calls with an UPDATE statement. Instead, when building stored procedures, you should build specific, dedicated stored procedures for each task performed on a table (or multiple tables.) This gives you several benefits:

Properly compiled stored procedures can have a single compiled plan attached to it and reused.

Properly compiled stored procedures are more secure than ad-hoc SQL or even dynamic SQL procedures, reducing the surface area for an injection attack greatly because the only parameters to queries are search arguments or output values.

Testing and maintenance of compiled stored procedures is far easier to do since you generally have only to search arguments, not that tables/columns/etc exist and handling the case where they do not

A nice technique is to build a code generation tool in your favorite programming language (even T-SQL) using SQL metadata to build very specific stored procedures for every table in your system. Generate all of the boring, straightforward objects, including all of the tedious code to perform error handling that is so essential, but painful to write more than once or twice.

In my Apress book, Pro SQL Server 2005 Database Design and Optimization. I provide several such "templates" (manly for triggers, abut also stored procedures) that have all of the error handling built in, I would suggest you consider building your own (possibly based on mine) to use when you need to manually build a trigger/procedure or whatever.

Lack of testing

When the dial in your car says that your engine is overheating, what is the first thing you blame? The engine. Why don't you immediately assume that the dial is broken? Or something else minor? Two reasons:

The engine is the most important component of the car and it is common to blame the most important part of the system first.

It is all too often true.

As database professionals know, the first thing to get blamed when a business system is running slow is the database. ¿Por qué? First because it is the central piece of most any business system, and second because it also is all too often true.

We can play our part in dispelling this notion, by gaining deep knowledge of the system we have created and understanding its limits through testing .

But let's face it; testing is the first thing to go in a project plan when time slips a bit. And what suffers the most from the lack of testing? Functionality? Maybe a little, but users will notice and complain if the "Save" button doesn't actually work and they cannot save changes to a row they spent 10 minutes editing. What really gets the shaft in this whole process is deep system testing to make sure that the design you (presumably) worked so hard on at the beginning of the project is actually implemented correctly.

But, you say, the users accepted the system as working, so isn't that good enough? The problem with this statement is that what user acceptance "testing" usually amounts to is the users poking around, trying out the functionality that they understand and giving you the thumbs up if their little bit of the system works. Is this reasonable testing? Not in any other industry would this be vaguely acceptable. Do you want your automobile tested like this? "Well, we drove it slowly around the block once, one sunny afternoon with no problems; it is good!" When that car subsequently "failed" on the first drive along a freeway, or during the first drive through rain or snow, then the driver would have every right to be very upset.

Too many database systems get tested like that car, with just a bit of poking around to see if individual queries and modules work. The first real test is in production, when users attempt to do real work. This is especially true when it is implemented for a single client (even worse when it is a corporate project, with management pushing for completion more than quality).

Initially, major bugs come in thick and fast, especially performance related ones. If the first time you have tried a full production set of users, background process, workflow processes, system maintenance routines, ETL, etc, is on your system launch day, you are extremely likely to discover that you have not anticipated all of the locking issues that might be caused by users creating data while others are reading it, or hardware issues cause by poorly set up hardware. It can take weeks to live down the cries of "SQL Server can't handle it" even after you have done the proper tuning.

Once the major bugs are squashed, the fringe cases (which are pretty rare cases, like a user entering a negative amount for hours worked) start to raise their ugly heads. What you end up with at this point is software that irregularly fails in what seem like weird places (since large quantities of fringe bugs will show up in ways that aren't very obvious and are really hard to find.)

Now, it is far harder to diagnose and correct because now you have to deal with the fact that users are working with live data and trying to get work done. Plus you probably have a manager or two sitting on your back saying things like "when will it be done?" every 30 seconds, even though it can take days and weeks to discover the kinds of bugs that result in minor (yet important) data aberrations. Had proper testing been done, it would never have taken weeks of testing to find these bugs, because a proper test plan takes into consideration all possible types of failures, codes them into an automated test, and tries them over and over. Good testing won't find all of the bugs, but it will get you to the point where most of the issues that correspond to the original design are ironed out.

If everyone insisted on a strict testing plan as an integral and immutable part of the database development process, then maybe someday the database won't be the first thing to be fingered when there is a system slowdown.

Resumen

Database design and implementation is the cornerstone of any data centric project (read 99.9% of business applications) and should be treated as such when you are developing. This article, while probably a bit preachy, is as much a reminder to me as it is to anyone else who reads it. Some of the tips, like planning properly, using proper normalization, using a strong naming standards and documenting your work – these are things that even the best DBAs and data architects have to fight to make happen. In the heat of battle, when your manager's manager's manager is being berated for things taking too long to get started, it is not easy to push back and remind them that they pay you now, or they pay you later. These tasks pay dividends that are very difficult to quantify, because to quantify success you must fail first. And even when you succeed in one area, all too often other minor failures crop up in other parts of the project so that some of your successes don't even get noticed.

The tips covered here are ones that I have picked up over the years that have turned me from being mediocre to a good data architect/database programmer. None of them take extraordinary amounts of time (except perhaps design and planning) but they all take more time upfront than doing it the "easy way". Let's face it, if the easy way were that easy in the long run, I for one would abandon the harder way in a second. It is not until you see the end result that you realize that success comes from starting off right as much as finishing right.

Simple-Talk Magazine

This article was featured in the Simple-Talk Magazine, Fall Edition.

You can find out more about the magazine, or download a copy of the PDF directly .

Top 10 Electrical Mistakes

Wiring problems and mistakes are all too common, and if left uncorrected have the potential to cause short circuits, shocks and even fires. Here's what to look for and how to fix what you find.

By the DIY experts of The Family Handyman Magazine

Mistake 1: Making connections outside electrical boxes" data-analytics-link_location="intro" href="#step1" data-analytics-metrics='[ ]'> Mistake 1: Making connections outside electrical boxes

Mistake 2: Cutting wires too short" data-analytics-link_location="intro" href="#step2" data-analytics-metrics='[ ]'> Mistake 2: Cutting wires too short

Mistake 3: Leaving plastic-sheathed cable unprotected" data-analytics-link_location="intro" href="#step3" data-analytics-metrics='[ ]'> Mistake 3: Leaving plastic-sheathed cable unprotected

Mistake 4: Poor support for outlets and switches" data-analytics-link_location="intro" href="#step4" data-analytics-metrics='[ ]'> Mistake 4: Poor support for outlets and switches

Mistake 5: Installing a three-slot receptacle without a ground wire" data-analytics-link_location="intro" href="#step5" data-analytics-metrics='[ ]'> Mistake 5: Installing a three-slot receptacle without a ground wire

Mistake 6: Recessing boxes behind the wall surface" data-analytics-link_location="intro" href="#step6" data-analytics-metrics='[ ]'> Mistake 6: Recessing boxes behind the wall surface

Mistake 7: Installing cable without a clamp" data-analytics-link_location="intro" href="#step7" data-analytics-metrics='[ ]'> Mistake 7: Installing cable without a clamp

Mistake 8: Overfilling electrical boxes" data-analytics-link_location="intro" href="#step8" data-analytics-metrics='[ ]'> Mistake 8: Overfilling electrical boxes

Mistake 9: Reversing hot and neutral wires" data-analytics-link_location="intro" href="#step9" data-analytics-metrics='[ ]'> Mistake 9: Reversing hot and neutral wires

Mistake 10: Wiring a GFCI backward" data-analytics-link_location="intro" href="#step10" data-analytics-metrics='[ ]'> Mistake 10: Wiring a GFCI backward

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The online trading academy has created a list of mistakes that most investors and traders make when they file their taxes. When filing their taxes they always have special challenges that they are faced with and these mistakes are common. The list of mistakes below are from an affiliate of trading academy called Tax Pros. View the infographic below to learn the top 10 mistakes you as an investor or trader need to be aware of.

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What You Need to Know about the Strategy Called “Scalping the Rainbow”

What You Need to Know about the Strategy Called “Scalping the Rainbow” 5.00 / 5 (100.00%) 1 vote

Binary options traders have a number of tools and techniques at their disposal for accurately predicting the price movements of underlying assets. Among these is a strategy called strategy called “scalping the rainbow”, which is commonly employed by more seasoned traders who are looking to maximize the profit potential of their trades. Like many other strategies, it can be used in a variety of ways and continues to evolve over time.

Scalping the Rainbow

Basic Information about Binary Options Trading

Those who choose to trade binary options should know that the use of these financial instruments does not entail investments in actual assets. When people trade stocks, they are actually purchasing small shares in the companies that offer these stocks. Their success in these endeavors is wholly dependent upon how well these assets and the related companies perform. If stock prices move up, investors gain and if they fall below the original purchase price, these investments will wind up losing traders money.

Conversely, binary options allow traders to make predictions about the price movements of assets. Traders are not investing in actual shares of companies and they can still profit from their trades, whether companies perform well or not. They simply have to do diligent analysis and make accurate predictions concerning the price movements of these assets.

Time Limitations

The major challenge in these efforts is simply the fact that a prediction must come true within a very specific amount of time. Thus, it is not enough to correctly predict whether an asset will hit a specific price point, but when it will do this as well. This is because binary options have expiration dates. When their expiry dates arrive, traders must be spot on about their current prices, whether these assets have gained or lost value. If predicted prices are hit before or after an option expires, the trader will still lose his money.

Using Indicators and Charts

There are many forms of analysis that can be performed in an effort to make accurate predictions. Traders can follow analysts, review binary options charts and use technical indicators. This is where the rainbow scheme comes into the picture. This is a strategy that like all others, was devised by a trader who was seeking a new way to capitalize on the ability to predict price movements. It has been shared in online forums, sold as part of ebooks and tweaked and altered so that it comes in a variety of forms version.

The strategy called “scalping the rainbow” is related to exponential moving averages. On exponential moving average charts, various price trends are recorded in an array of colors so that traders can quickly differentiate between each. Every line has its own specific hue and denotes price trends at either specific points in time or for specific price periods. In order to “scalp” this data or glean optimal profits from it, traders use each of the predictors to strategically purchase put or call options based upon the strongest “short-term” trends.

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Common 401k Rollover Mistakes

By erollover. July 21, 2010, 08:00:00 AM EDT

401k Rollover Mistakes to Avoid

401k Rollover mistakes can be brutal. Have you ever considered rolling your 401k or other retirement account from one financial institution to another? Whether it is for higher returns, a greater variety of investments or better service in general, many times this can be a great move! If you roll over your plan, there are some 401k rollover mistakes that many commonly make that you must avoid. These mistakes could result in unnecessary taxes and a 10% early withdrawal penalty. As you read below, we will give you an overview of 401k or retirement rollover rules and tips to keep you out of trouble.

401k Rollover Mistake. Not following the 60-Day 401k Distribution Rule 

When you have received the funds from your 401k, you have 60 days to complete the 401k rollover to another IRA or qualified plan. If have not finished the rollover within the time allowed the amount must be treated as ordinary income in the IRS's eyes. As a result, you will end up paying income tax on the entire distribution, which could be a ton! Furthermore, if you were under the age of age 59.5 when the distribution occurred, you'll face a 10% penalty on the withdrawal. 

Don't Forget the One-Year IRA Rollover Waiting Rule 

A rollover from a 401k into another IRA may be made only once a year. The one-year wait period begins when the taxpayer receives the 401k distribution, not the date when he rolls it over into a rollover IRA. Keep in mind that this one year rule applies separately to each IRA account that an individual owns. Also, another thing to not is that this one year limit does not apply to transfers from a Traditional IRA account to a Roth IRA.

401k Rollover Mistake: Same Property Rule 

This is a very common 401k rollover mistake. You must rollover the same property to your new IRA. The same property provision means that you cannot take a cash distribution from your 401k, purchase other investments with the cash, and then proceed to rollover those assets over into a new IRA. Should this occur, you would be hit once again by the IRS treating this distribution as taxable income. 

Remember that RMDs are not Eligible for an IRA Rollover 

Required minimum distributions is a provision that you must take income from your qualified plan upon reaching age 70 ½. Although you are allowed to make tax-free rollovers at any age, if you are 70.5 or older, you cannot rollover your annual (RMD), as this rollover would be considered an excess contribution. If you fall in the category where you are required take RMD each year, make sure that you do not take the current year's RMD amount into consideration before implementing the rollover. 

Additional points to Consider

If you want to avoid the trouble of going through the withholding and the resulting reporting requirements, you should probably look strongly at doing direct rollover since that should be used to effectuate your rollover from your qualified plan. A direct rollover is reportable, but never taxable. Another key feature is that there is no 60-day requirement window to worry about. All that you need to do is to check with your plan administrator and the institution receiving the rollover regarding their forms and requirements for facilitating a direct rollover on your behalf. 

Keep in mind that you could possibly move funds the other direction, too. This means that you may be able to take a distribution from your traditional IRA, and then proceed to roll it over into a qualified plan, like a 401k account. Please make a note however, that your employer is not obligated to accept such rollovers, so be sure to double check with your plan's administrator before you initiate the transfer from your IRA. Similar to dealing with a 401k rollover, certain amounts, such as nontaxable amounts and RMD's cannot be rolled from an IRA to a qualified plan. 

Top Ten MTGO Beginner Mistakes

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Plejades

1. Buying booster packs and opening them to get cards

This is one of the most costly but also most easy-to-make mistakes for anyone who just started out and is looking to grow his card collection — cracking boosters is fun, and that’s what they are meant for after all, right? Wrong! To understand why this is a major blunder that will cost you a lot of money, we need to talk a little bit about so-called MTGO limited tournaments and how booster packs are used in those. In contrast to constructed tournaments, in which every player brings his or her own deck with 60 or more cards he has chosen in advance, limited tournaments are played with sealed boosters that are opened during the tournament and then either drafted or used to build a 40+ card deck (depending on the exact format played).

The fact that you need sealed product to participate in these online tournaments makes boosters inherently more valuable than they would be if you could only rip them open for cards. They are like entry tickets, in addition to the event tickets you need to participate. As soon as you open that booster pack, you lose this virtual value and rely on the singles within the booster to recoup the cost. In 95% of the cases, the singles in the booster pack are worth LESS than what you had to pay for it. Do not fall for fantastic stories from players about how they always open great stuff and that the difference is marginal; it is not. So what should you do if you need cards to grow your collection, then? You should sell the boosters for between 3 and 4 event tickets and use those tix to buy specific cards you need and like. You can buy up to 10 nice, playable rares (no tournament powerhouses, mind you) for a single event ticket or around 30 good commons/uncommons. Even if you are not chasing the most desired cards, this is much more than you will get from your booster pack. To inform yourself about what a booster is worth, feel free to check the classifieds section in game or go to Supernova’s booster prices list, which shows the dealer buy and sell prices for a booster. Settle in between when selling, and you should be fine.

MTGO Academy is also selling boosters from many sets for low prices in our store. Compruébelo aquí.

2. Entering tournaments without sufficient play skill or knowledge of the format

It is fun to compete and even more fun to win prizes, but most beginners underestimate the competition they are facing on MTGO . The worldwide access draws the best players in the world, and you can quickly find yourself paying entry fees and/or cracking packs for limited events without a realistic chance to make it to the prize ranks. MTGO has on average much better players than the casual paper Friday Night Magic event at your local store. The really good news about that is that it also makes you a much better player over time. Many of the best paper players would not be where they are today without MTGO and its strong player base. However, there are ways for you to enjoy the benefit without burning through your wallet in an attempt to improve your skill and win product.

Make extensive use of the New Player room; the room was created to allow beginners to get accustomed to the client interface and test the water with their initial cards. Don’t move to the regular playing area until you know how to use the interface and ideally also the most important keyboard shortcuts; you will benefit greatly if you understand how stops work and how to use the F-keys. For a great summary of the most important commands you can read “Cracking the Code .” Learn how to create, save, and load decklists for later use and always ask a member of the ORC (Online Response Crew) if you have questions; they are the moderators in the game and always happy to help you out.

Once you feel you are ready to move on, you should avoid the next error that is also very common and costs a lot of money, which is…

3. Buying, selling, and trading cards without knowledge of card prices

Trading is an important aspect of Magic: the Gathering . and it can either help you to save money or hinder you by costing you money. The choice is really completely up to you!

With right preparation, it is certainly going to benefit your collection and make it easier for you to get the cards you need for your decks. Ignore it, and others will exploit you to their benefit; chances are that you want to avoid this. First of all you need to gather a few resources, so you will be able to check card prices on a regular basis. Many MTGO cards are worth next to nothing, while others have a huge price tag. We personally would bookmark the following websites for this purpose:

www. mtgoacademy. com/store – you can quickly use the search and the filters to get MTGO card prices.

www. mtgotraders. com – also a large dealer that has prices for all cards.

www. supernovabots. com – a list of prices that is updated every 15 minutes but contains only rare cards. It is, however, a good source for comparison.

www. cardbotmtgo. com/ – a simple web tool that displays card prices while you are typing them into the search field. Prices are usually the same as the MTGOTraders list.

¡Atención! Using prices from other websites that sell paper cards for MTGO is a huge mistake, as the paper and digital prices can differ greatly in either direction, depending on the card, the card’s set, etc. Only use the above sources or other sources that are dedicated to MTGO cards for price checks.

Besides websites, there is another way to check prices within the game, namely by checking the classifieds section and searching for a particular card. Often you will find buy and sell offers from players that will give you an indicator as to what a card is worth. Be careful, though, since many players offer you far less or sell for far more than a card is actually worth, so take any given ad with a grain of salt.

You can also just open trade with an automated MTGO account, called a bot, and see for what it is selling the card in question. In the case of a buy bot, it will show you what the managers of the bot are paying for the card, booster, etc. All the information combined will give you a good idea on prices and ensure that you will not get ripped off by unscrupulous sharks that pray on clueless or careless beginners.

4. Growing you collection without clear direction and knowledge of MtG formats

There are literally tens of thousands of different Magic cards in the system by now, and what is possible is only growing. This can be very confusing to the fledgling planeswalker and might lead to the mistake of buying without a clear idea of where you want your focus to be and how to be smart about growing your spell arsenal. The frustration is big when players later realize that they have wasted money and time acquiring cards they do not really need. When you start out after making your account, you will get a lot of gold-bordered planeswalker cards that are great for getting accustomed to the game in the New Player room as outlined above. Those cards, however, cannot be traded or used outside of this designated area, and therefore you need a strategy to acquire cards for the later constructed decks that you will use in the Casual Room, Tournament Practice Room, or in tournaments of your choice. Before you make big purchases and begin the transition, you should familiarize yourself with the most important MtG formats. Formats, simply put, delimit what types of cards you may use when competing in them. Some allow only the newest sets, others all sets, and others only commons, etc. There is really no best or worst format; it is mostly a matter of taste, and to a large extent, also a matter of spendable money you have available. Vintage and Legacy, for example, allow you to use a huge card pool that contains many, many sets and is more expensive to play than, let’s say, Block Constructed, which only allows for the most recent three or fewer sets to be used. While the number of possible formats is huge (a feature that makes MTGO really awesome), you can often use your cards in more than one, so don’t despair! Read this article to understand how formats work, and then come back for the next important step. Done? Okay, now we can talk about our recommendations for a beginner and how to go from there. MTGO Academy recommends beginners to start with the Block Constructed format, which allows only the most recent sets to be used. The reason is that you focus on a smaller card pool and don’t have to buy many, many, cards to get going. Block is also a great springboard for the most popular constructed format, which is Standard. When a new block is released, all your cards will rotate out but can be comfortably used in Standard, which then ought to be, on our recommendation, your next goal.

As the set rotations continue, you might consider a slow transition into the so-called eternal formats, where card sets never rotate out (only in). The card pool for these formats constantly grow and allow you to play your cards as long as you wish in competitive events (aside from a few banned cards).

Tip: To make sure you are only buying cards from sets that you need, you can use the client format filter; you will then only see the cards allowed in the format of your choice when searching other players’ or bots’ collections. Check our tutorial page to learn more about this option and many others.

Attention: If you are playing casually against friends or strangers and not competing in tournaments, you are free to use whatever cards you like, of course, no matter the set. It is, therefore, not a big deal if you plan to stay in the casual rooms or mainly play with friends online. In fact, if you use the format Freeform when creating a game, you can even break the deckbuilding rules imposed by Wizards, normally in place to ensure a sound tournament experience. P. ej. you can play with fewer than 40 cards in your deck or play all 10 of your copies of Lightning Bolt if you really wish.

5. Completely ignoring value-building actions

Magic is primarily a game, but if you don’t belong to the fortunate minority who can ignore financial aspects of the game (due to having massive assets in the bank), you should spend at least a small portion of your time thinking how you can use the tools, tips, and tricks shared here to sustain your hobby. Taking this effort will not only help you to finance some of the more expensive cards that exist, but also prevent you from getting ignorant and lazy about it and paying more money than you should. We highly recommend the Rags to Riches series on MTGO Academy; you can learn the most valuable trading techniques and tips in an entertaining run, where I, the owner and founder of this website, turn a pile of 15 nearly worthless cards into the most expensive card online by using simple tricks and a long series of trades.

Also stay on top of the finance game by reading a few economy-related articles from time to time, and listen to people with experience in that matter.

6. Not using freebots or the opportunity to buy bulk, bundles, or specials

Many beginners make the mistake of buying too many singles. They pick a few cards they need and repeat the process over and over until they have a deck together that they like. The problem with this approach, if you have very few cards, is that as soon as you are bored of the deck, or simply want to try something else, you are forced to buy singles again. This can be very costly and in most cases, you are far better off buying in bulk. What that means is that you should buy a lot of cards at once and get a huge discount on the price. Often you can get hundreds of cards for very little money and can use the cards to build many different decks over time. There are several ways to go about this; one of the most popular ones are the Beginner Specials on www. mtgoacademy. com/store. You will receive a huge amount of cards and pay as little as $4.99 for a huge boost to your collection. Because we are using excess inventory to make these packs, we can offer them for a low price to the benefit of the customer.

There are also ways to use bulk bot accounts within the client to buy a certain amount of cards for one Event Ticket. You can recognize those due to their classified ad that often reads “Selling x uncommons for y”; it can be a great way to fill a few holes in your deck or expand your deckbuilding capabilities.

Lastly there are automated accounts that give cards away for free — yes, it is legit and no scam, and you should make sure you use them. To find the accounts simply go to the classifieds, type “free” into the search box, and open trade with the account if the ad indicates to do so; then you’ll get free cards. Be aware that a lot of shady players use the term free in their ad just to draw traffic to their accounts without actually offering anything for free. Chances are they are just trying to rip you off. MTGO Academy is the only account that has a special tool running in client called Academy_Quizbot . If you open trade with it and answer a Magic trivia question correctly, you can pick up to four free cards. This is allowed once a week. Just make sure you don’t time out; more than 5 minutes, and you are out!

Another great opportunity to get quality cards for a bargain price are our “deals of the day” that you can find on the front page. There you will find a new discounted product every day.

7. Falling for scammers that promise much but only take your goods or money

No different from any other communal online environment, MTGO has its bad apples who thrive within a small space and try to steal or exploit beginners, who are usually their most welcome victims because their lack of experience makes scammers’ jobs much easier. There are several schemes that try to part you from what is yours to benefit them, but nearly all of them use outside transactions that circumvent the built-in trading features of MTGO . The simple recommendation we can make is to engage in outside transactions only with reputable dealers who have business for many years and have earned the trust you have to put in for them. It is true that you can sometimes save a bit of money trading, buying, or selling with players you don’t know at all, but it is rarely worth the risk with large transactions. MTGO Academy is in the business for years and offers an encrypted e-commerce platform and great customer support. If you want to support our free articles and videos please visit our MTGO store. where we have a great selection of products for low prices.

8. Practice without Theory or Theory without Practice

Magic is a very skill-intensive game. It takes a long time until you can swim with the sharks, and it can easily happen that you get frustrated if you don’t follow a path that increases your play performance regularly. The trap you need to avoid is starting to play constantly, maybe even in tournaments (and you shouldn’t if you have read point 2 above…) and wonder why you always lose. To be a winner at this game, you have combine rigorous play and review with reading good strategy articles, watching game videos, and most importantly, asking a lot of questions and learning the rules! Rule knowledge, the technical aspect of the game, is a pivotal factor to understand why and how strong players make decisions on the board and how you can move the game forward to your advantage. Long story short: Play a lot against competitive opponents, but combine frequent play with reading, asking, and learning. Good resources are websites that offer free articles and videos such as mtgoacademy. com. channelfireball. com. starcitygames. com, mtgotraders. com, and many more you can find on the web. Use them!

9. Not utilizing the in-game support crew (ORCs)

While MTGO can be quite confusing due to the rather creative user-interface design and the complex game mechanics, it does have a very good support crew referred to as ORCs (Online Response Crew). Those support members are there to help you out if you have problems or questions, and usually respond very quickly. You should make yourself familiar with the rooms where you can reach them and utilize their help whenever you are not sure about how to use something, have technical problems, or just want to find out more about the game. The easiest way to contact them is to open the main menu at the bottom left of the home screen and then click on ‘help/chat with support’ or enter one of the tournament rooms, where you will usually find at least one ORC answering questions or linking to useful resources that help you with your issue. Try it out!

10. Reading this list and ignoring the points made

It is possible that you don’t really understand the impact of the decisions you make in game completely when you are new. You might think it is okay to ignore a few of these points or, despite thinking you trust the above, make exceptions for ourself — it will come back to bite you in one way or another! We recommend you reread the list, print it, put it on your desktop, and come back to it often. All recommendations given here are a result of many years of MTGO experience as a user, dealer, and provider of strategic and economic advice for the game. You will certainly benefit and save a lot of money listening to what we’ve said. We wish you a lot of fun and exciting moments, and: Welcome to MTGO . If you want to jump right in click on the button below to get to our webstore!

I wish I had seen this article 2 hours ago before I opened my booster pack.

I’ve been looking for an article like this for ages! Thank you so much. The advice given is really good and every beginner should read and take into account. I spent around 20 dollars to get myself a deck only to find out it’s not allowed in the standard format. The deck is great but I wish I could use to play in standard. I haven’t opened the booster pack yet because someone told me not to. I was curious as to why and now I found the reason. Good thing I didn’t open it. One question, when does the season start and end? I’m aware that standard format decks have a life span but I have no idea when banned cards/decks are given out, etc. Any help would be appreciated and thank you again for this comprehensive and helpful article

The Magic 13 core set was released in July of this year I believe and the set has 3 expansion 1st being Return to Ravnica released Oct 15th, 2012 and the last set of this block i believe will be released April or May 2013. Then the M14 set will be released again a year from the M13 release

Hi everyone. I am expirienced player in real magic, I have started few weeks ago playing MTGO. I have made one huge mistake, mistake number one: 1. Buying booster packs and opening them to get cards Believe my, I have spend to much money for them. Cheeper would be even to buy separate tickets and trade with players to create your tournament deck.

I have managed to create it, but had to buy few more tickets to do that.

Don’t make that mistake!

p. s. Plejades, very good list! Good job! Kind Regards chochlik

I have bought an M13 DECKBUILDER TOOLKIT 300 random cards and a few handpicked from mana leak. I have bought 6 booster’s as well and pulled Tamiyo, Angel of Senrenitiy and Sphinx’s Revelation.

I don’t know what ORCs you are talking to, but they are different from the ones I have had the displeasure of interacting with. They are the worst customer service I have ever dealt with, always treat players(not just myself) like garbage, harass people constantly for little to no reason, and have incredibly poor rules knowledge that they liberally throw out and ruin peoples’ games. My advice to a new person would be GET OUT NOW before you’ve invested so much money into it that you feel trapped and have to play in an environment that makes you miserable. Like if you were at an actual tournament and the officials all heckled the players.

TaaNop, I cannot confirm your observation. I have always found that you reap what you saw. If you converse politely and with respect ORCs do provide useful information and treat you well. The exception confirms the rule – but that is just my opinion. Enjoy the game!

Thanks for the read and tips bud. Trying out MTGO for the first time and having minimal knowledge of the game, I am overwhelmed by the amount thinking that goes into not just playing the game but what surrounds it as to how you approach it. With my slim knowledge of only playing on Xbox for a limited time. I am hopeful that your article is true and will be very beneficial in what I hope to be a long term commitment to the game. Look forward to finding other useful info you have out there.

Great read an hour into the game now and this has answered most of my initial questions. Thanks for the help

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MtGNotifier Puede activar un efecto de sonido al recibir solicitudes o mensajes comerciales e incluye cientos de símbolos de MtG para chat y los clasificados. Free to download.

Magic Online Playmats y otros recursos para Limited Esta página contiene recursos descargables de forma gratuita, incluyendo Magic Online playmats y Magic Online-compatible listas, para ayudarle a recordar los hechizos que su oponente podría lanzar durante su turno con su mana disponible.

I would like to express my appreciation for [your] help. Parts of my next month's Magic budget will definitely go to your store!

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Top 10 Application-Design Mistakes

Summary: Application usability is enhanced when users know how to operate the UI and it guides them through the workflow. Violating common guidelines prevents both.

It's hard to write a general article about application design mistakes because the very worst mistakes are domain-specific and idiosyncratic. Usually, applications fail because they (a) solve the wrong problem . (b) have the wrong features for the right problem, or (c) make the right features too complicated for users to understand.

Any of these three mistakes will doom your app, and yet I still can't tell you what to do. What's the right problem? What are the right features? What complicating curlicues can safely be cut from those features? For each domain and user category, these questions have specific and very different answers.

The only generalizable advice is this: rather than rely on your own best guesses. base your decisions on user research :

Conduct field studies and task analysis before deciding what your app should do.

Paper prototype your initial ideas before doing any detailed design — and definitely before wasting resources implementing something you'd have to change as soon as you get user feedback.

Design iteratively. conducting many rounds of quick user testing as you refine your features.

Of course, people don't want to hear me say that they need to test their UI. And they definitely don't want to hear that they have to actually move their precious butts to a customer location to watch real people do the work the application is supposed to support.

The general idea seems to be that real programmers can't be let out of their cages. My view is just the opposite: no one should be allowed to work on an application unless they've spent a day observing a few end users.

(Whatever you do, at least promise me this: Don't just implement feature requests from "user representatives" or "business analysts." The most common way to get usability wrong is to listen to what users say rather than actually watching what they do . Requirement specifications are always wrong . You must prototype the requirements quickly and show users something concrete to find out what they really need.)

All that said, there are still plenty of general guidelines for application UIs — so many, in fact, that we have a hard time cramming the most important into our two-day course. Here's my list of 10 usability violations that are both particularly egregious and often seen in a wide variety of applications.

1. Non-Standard GUI Controls

Basic GUI widgets — command links and buttons, radio buttons and checkboxes. scrollbars. close boxes, and so on — are the lexical units that form dialog design's vocabulary . If you change the appearance or behavior of these units, it's like suddenly injecting foreign words into a natural-language communication. Det vil gøre læserne forvirrede (or, to revert to English: Doing so will confuse readers ).

For some reason, homemade design's most common victims are scrollbars. For years, we've encountered non-standard scrollbars in our studies, and they almost always cause users to overlook some of their options . We're seeing this again this year. in the studies we're conducting to update our course on Fundamental Guidelines for Web Usability. (The linked article includes screenshots of offending scroll controls.)

Some of the world's best interaction designers have refined the standard look-and-feel of GUI controls over 30 years, supported by thousands of user-testing hours. It's unlikely that you'll invent a better button over the weekend.

But even if your homemade design, seen in isolation, were hypothetically better than the standard, it's never seen in isolation in the real world. Your dialog controls will be used by people with years of experience operating standard GUIs.

If Jakob's Law is "users spend most of their time on other websites," then Jakob's Second Law is even more critical: "Users have several thousand times more experience with standard GUI controls than with any individual new design."

Users will most likely fail if you deviate from expectations on something as basic as the controls to operate a UI. And, even if they don't fail, they'll expend substantial brainpower trying to operate something that shouldn't require a second thought. Users' cognitive resources are better spent understanding how your application's features can help them achieve their goals.

1.a. Looking Like a GUI Control Without Being One

The opposite problem — having something that looks like a GUI control when it isn't one — can reduce usability even more. We often see text and headlines that look like links (by being colored or underlined. for example) but aren't clickable. When users click these look-alikes and nothing happens, they think the site is broken. (So please comply with guidelines for visualizing links .)

A similar problem occurs when something looks like a button but doesn't initiate an action . or looks like a radio button but isn't a choice. We found an example of this in our current round of studies.

To design a custom-tailored shirt on Liste Rouge Paris, you must provide your measurements. As the following screenshot shows, there are two different paths through the application here, depending on whether your measurements are already on file with the tailor.

Our test user clicked incessantly on the New Customer button to indicate that he was indeed a new customer. Unfortunately, this screen element was not a button at all, but rather a non-clickable heading.

He was the only user to test this site because he encountered it during a task in which users could choose a site to visit (usually from a search listing). In this case, the user eventually overcame the confusion and proceeded to enter his measurements. If we had tested more users, a small percentage would have likely failed at this point. Each small error in dialog design reduces usage only by a small amount, but most UIs contain bundles of errors . and the number of lost customers adds up .

As an aside, this screen also uses radio buttons incorrectly. In theory, all five choices are mutually exclusive, which does call for radio buttons. But in the user's mental model of the workflow, there are actually two issues here: (a) new vs. old customers, and (b) how to provide the measurements for your situation. You should use a single set of radio buttons only when users will choose between options for a single issue.

So, in the case above, a better design would first ask users to decide the new/existing customer question, and then reveal the relevant radio buttons for the option they choose.

2. Inconsistency

Non-standard GUI controls are a special case of the general problem of inconsistent design.

Confusion results when applications use different words or commands for the same thing, or when they use the same word for multiple concepts in different parts of the application. Similarly, users are confused when things move around, violating display inertia .

Using the same name for the same thing in the same place makes things easy.

Remember the double-D rule: differences are difficult .

Another example from our current study: Expedia pops up a two-month calendar view when users specify the departure or return date for a trip. The composite screenshot below was taken in February and shows what happens when you want to book a trip that starts on March 10 and ends on March 15.

In the second pop-up, the month of March has moved to the left, leaving room for April to appear on the right. This may seem like a convenient shortcut, since there's no way the user would want a February return date when traveling out in March.

In reality, however, the user is looking for March 15 in the same spot where it appeared in the first pop-up calendar: in the right-most column.

In our testing, the inconsistent placement of the months in the second pop-up caused confusion and delays, but users ultimately figured it out. We tested only a few users with this site, but if you observe this kind of almost-miss error in user testing, it's usually a sign that a few users will make the mistake for real during actual use.

Booking the wrong return date can have disastrous consequences — customers could arrive at the airport without a ticket for their expected flight. If a site has good confirmation emails. users might discover the problem before departure, but even that will cause aggravation and expensive customer support calls to resolve the situation.

Even if people eventually use the calendar correctly, it takes more time to ponder the inconsistent design than the time users save by not having to click the next-month button for April departures.

The shortcut that moves the months around saves time only for very frequent users who learn how to efficiently operate this part of the UI. So, an application for professional travel agents should probably use Expedia's calendar design. A site targeting average consumers should not.

3. No Perceived Affordance

"Affordance" means what you can do to an object. For example, a checkbox affords turning on and off, and a slider affords moving up or down. " Perceived affordances" are actions you understand just by looking at the object, before you start using it (or feeling it, if it's a physical device rather than an on-screen UI element). All of this is discussed in Don Norman's book The Design of Everyday Things .

Perceived affordances are especially important in UI design, because all screen pixels afford clicking — even though nothing usually happens if you click. There are so many visible things on a computer screen that users don't have time for a mine sweeping game, clicking around hoping to find something actionable. (Exception: small children sometimes like to explore screens by clicking around.)

Drag-and-drop designs are often the worst offenders when it's not apparent that something can be dragged or where something can be dropped. (Or what will happen if you do drag or drop.) In contrast, simple checkboxes and command buttons usually make it painfully obvious what you can click.

Common symptoms of the lack of perceived affordances are:

Users say, "What do I do here?"

Users don't go near a feature that would help them.

A profusion of screen text tries to overcome these two problems. (Even worse are verbose, multi-stage instructions that disappear after you perform the first of several actions.)

When I tested some of the first Macintosh applications in the mid-1980s, users were often stumped by the empty screen that appeared when they launched, say, MacWrite. What do I do here . en efecto. The first step was supposed to be to create a new document, but that command was not shown anywhere in the otherwise highly visible Macintosh UI unless you happened to pull down the File menu. Later application releases opened up with a blank document on the screen, complete with an inviting, blinking insertion point that provided the perceived affordance for "start typing."

3.a. Tiny Click Targets

An associated problem here is click targets that are so small that users miss and click outside the active area. Even if they originally perceived the associated affordance correctly, users often change their mind and start believing that something isn't actionable because they think they clicked it and nothing happened.

(Small click zones are a particular problem for old users and users with motor skill disabilities .)

4. No Feedback

One of the most basic guidelines for improving a dialog's usability is to provide feedback:

Show users the system's current state.

Tell users how their commands have been interpreted.

Tell users what's happening.

Sites that keep quiet leave users guessing. Often, they guess wrong.

(For an example of the problems with poor feedback, see the screenshot of VW's car configurator toward the bottom of my recent article reporting on our current round of testing. Because users couldn't tell which tire was selected, they had trouble designing their preferred car.)

4.a. Out to Lunch Without a Progress Indicator

A variant on lack of feedback is when a system fails to notify users that it's taking a long time to complete an action. Users often think that the application is broken, or they start clicking on new actions.

If you can't meet the recommended response time limits. say so, and keep users informed about what's going on:

If a command takes more than 1 second . show the "busy" cursor . This tells users to hold their horses and not click on anything else until the normal cursor returns.

If a command takes more than 10 seconds . put up an explicit progress bar . preferably as a percent-done indicator (unless you truly can't predict how much work is left until the operation is done).

5. Bad Error Messages

Error messages are a special form of feedback: they tell users that something has gone wrong. We've known the guidelines for error messages for almost 30 years, and yet many applications still violate them.

The most common guideline violation is when an error message simply says something is wrong, without explaining why and how the user can fix the problem. Such messages leave users stranded.

Informative error messages not only help users fix their current problems, they can also serve as a teachable moment . Typically, users won't invest time in reading and learning about features, but they will spend the time to understand an error situation if you explain it clearly, because they want to overcome the error.

On the Web, there's a second common problem with error messages: people overlook them on most Web pages because they're buried in masses of junk. Obviously, having simpler pages is one way to alleviate this problem, but it's also necessary to make error messages more prominent in Web-based UIs.

6. Asking for the Same Info Twice

Users shouldn't have to enter the same information more than once. After all, computers are pretty good at remembering data. The only reason users have to repeat themselves is because programmers get lazy and don't transfer the answers from one part of the app to another.

7. No Default Values

Defaults help users in many ways. Most importantly, defaults can:

speed up the interaction by freeing users from having to specify a value if the default is acceptable;

teach, by example . the type of answer that is appropriate for the question; y

direct novice users toward a safe or common outcome, by letting them accept the default if they don't know what else to do.

Because I used Liste Rouge Paris as a bad example under Mistake #1a, I thought I'd play nice and use them as a good example here. The tailor offers 15 different collar styles (among many other options) for people ordering custom-designed shirts. Luckily, they also provide good defaults for each of the many choices. In testing, this proved helpful to our first-time user, because the defaults steered him toward the most common or appropriate options when he didn't have a particular preference.

8. Dumping Users into the App

Most Web-based applications are ephemeral applications that users encounter as a by-product of their surfing. Even if users deliberately seek out a new app, they often approach it without a conceptual model of how it works. People don't know the workflow or the steps, they don't know the expected outcome, and they don't know the basic concepts that they'll be manipulating.

For traditional applications, this is less of a problem. Even if someone has never used PowerPoint, they've probably seen a slide presentation. Thus, a new PowerPoint user will typically have at least a bare-bones understanding of the application before double-clicking the icon for the first time.

For mission-critical applications, you can often assume that most users have tried the app many times before. You can also often assume that new users will get some training before seeing the UI on their own. At the minimum, they'll usually have nearby colleagues who can give them a few pointers on the basics. And a good boss will give new hires some background info as to why they're being asked to use the application and what they're supposed to accomplish with it.

Sadly, none of these aides to understanding apply for most Web-based applications. They don't even apply for many ephemeral intranet applications .

Usability suffers when users are dumped directly into an application's guts without any set-up to give them an idea of what's going to happen. Unfortunately, most users won't read a lot of upfront instructions, so you might have to offer them in a short bulleted list or through a single image that lets them grok the application's main point in one view.

As an example, our test user who was trying to order a custom-tailored shirt was highly confused when the first screen in Hamilton Shirts' "Create Your Shirt" process displayed a fully designed shirt with an "Add to Bag" button. This screen mixed two metaphors: a configurator and an e-commerce product screen.

This is a case where a default value isn't helpful: people who want to design their own shirt are unlikely to want to buy a pre-designed shirt on the first screen.

(This screen also suffers from Mistake #1: non-standard GUI controls. In addition to its non-standard drop-down selection menus in a tabbed dialog that doesn't look enough like tabs. the screen has a non-standard way of paging through additional fabric swatches. Users are less likely to understand how to select fabrics when the controls are presented in this manner.)

Our test user never understood the process of designing his own shirt on this site and ultimately took his business elsewhere.

9. Not Indicating How Info Will Be Used

The worst instance of forcing users through a workflow without making the outcome clear is worth singling out as a separate mistake: Asking users to enter information without telling them what you'll use it for.

A classic example is the "nickname" field in the registration process for a bulletin board application. Many users don't realize the nickname will be used to identify them in their postings for the rest of eternity — so they often enter something inappropriate.

As another example, we once tested an e-commerce site that smacked users with a demand for their ZIP code before they could view product pages. This was a big turn-off and many users left the site due to privacy concerns. People hate snoopy sites. An alternative design worked much better: It explained that the site needed to know the user's location so it could state shipping charges for the very heavy products in question.

10. System-Centric Features

Too many applications expose their dirty laundry, offering features that reflect the system's internal view of the data rather than users' understanding of the problem space.

In our current study, one user wanted to reallocate her retirement savings among various investments offered by her company's plan (for example, to invest more in bonds and less in stocks). She thought she did this correctly, but in fact she had changed only the allocation of future additions to her retirement account. Her existing investments remained unchanged.

As far as the mutual funds company is concerned, new investments and current investments are treated differently. Reallocating future additions means changing the funds they'll buy when the employer transfers money into the account. Reallocating current investments means selling some of the holdings in existing mutual funds and using the proceeds to buy into other funds.

The key insights here?

Our test user didn't have this distinction between new and old money; she simply wanted her retirement savings allocated according to her revised investment strategy.

Even users who understand the distinction between new and old money might prefer to treat their retirement savings as a single unit rather than make separate decisions (and issue separate commands) for the new and old money.

It would probably be better to offer a prominent feature for changing the entire account's allocation, and use progressive disclosure to reveal expert settings for users who want to make the more detailed distinction between the two classes of money.

Bonus Mistake: Reset Button on Web Forms

This mistake relates to Web forms, but because so many applications are rich in forms, I'll mention it here: It's almost always wrong to have a Reset button on a Web form .

The reset button clears the user's entire input and returns the form to its pristine state. Users would want that only if they're repeatedly completing the same form with completely different data, which almost never happens on websites. (Call center operators are a different matter.)

Making it easy for users to destroy their work in a single click violates one of the most basic usability principles, which is to respect and protect the user's work at almost any cost. (That's why you need confirmation dialogs for the most destructive actions.)

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10 Common Time Management Mistakes

Avoiding Common Pitfalls

Learn how to overcome several common time management mistakes.

How well do you manage your time? If you're like many people, your answer may not be completely positive! Perhaps you feel overloaded, and you often have to work late to hit your deadlines. Or maybe your days seem to go from one crisis to another, and this is stressful and demoralizing.

Many of us know that we could be managing our time more effectively; but it can be difficult to identify the mistakes that we're making, and to know how we could improve. When we do manage our time well, however, we're exceptionally productive at work, and our stress levels drop. We can devote time to the interesting, high-reward projects that can make a real difference to a career. In short, we're happier!

In this article, we're looking at ten of the most common time management mistakes, as well as identifying strategies and tips that you can use to overcome them. These ten mistakes are:

Mistake #1. Failing to Keep a To-Do List

Do you ever have that nagging feeling that you've forgotten to do an important piece of work? If so, you probably don't use a To-Do List to keep on top of things. (Or, if you do, you might not be using it effectively!)

The trick with using To-Do Lists effectively lies in prioritizing the tasks on your list. Many people use an A – F coding system (A for high priority items, F for very low priorities). Alternatively, you can simplify this by using A through D, or by using numbers.

If you have large projects on your list, then, unless you're careful, the entries for these can be vague and ineffective. For instance, you may have written down "Start on budget proposal." But what does this entail? The lack of specifics here might cause you to procrastinate, or miss key steps. So make sure that you break large tasks or projects down into specific, actionable steps – then you won't overlook something important.

You can also use Action Programs to manage your work when you have many large projects happening at once. (Action Programs are "industrial strength" versions of To-Do Lists.)

Mistake #2. Not Setting Personal Goals

Do you know where you'd like to be in six months? What about this time next year, or even 10 years from now? If not, it's time to set some personal goals!

Personal goal setting is essential to managing your time well, because goals give you a destination and vision to work toward. When you know where you want to go, you can manage your priorities, time, and resources to get there. Goals also help you decide what's worth spending your time on, and what's just a distraction.

To learn how to set SMART, effective goals, read up on Locke's Goal Setting Theory . Here, you'll learn how to set clearly defined goals that will keep you motivated.

You might also enjoy our Book Insight into Long Fuse, Big Bang by Eric Haseltine. This book teaches you how to focus on your long-term goals without overlooking your short term priorities.

Mistake #3. Not Prioritizing

Your assistant has just walked in with a crisis that she needs you to deal with right now, but you're in the middle of brainstorming ideas for a new client. You're sure that you've almost come up with a brilliant idea for their marketing campaign, but now you risk losing the thread of your thinking because of this "emergency."

Sometimes, it's hard to know how to prioritize . especially when you're facing a flood of seemingly-urgent tasks. However, it's essential to learn how to prioritize tasks effectively if you want to manage your time better.

One tool that will help you prioritize effectively is the Action Priority Matrix . which will help you determine if a task is high-yield and high-priority, or low-value, "fill in" work. You'll manage your time much better during the day if you know the difference.

You might also want to go through our Bite-Sized Training session How to Prioritize. to further enhance your skills.

Mistake #4. Failing to Manage Distractions

Do you know that some of us can lose as much as two hours a day to distractions? Think how much you could get done if you had that time back!

Whether they come from emails, IM chats, colleagues in a crisis, or phone calls from clients, distractions prevent us from achieving flow . which is the satisfying and seemingly effortless work that we do when we're 100 percent engaged in a task.

If you want to gain control of your day and do your best work, it's vital to know how to minimize distractions and manage interruptions effectively. For instance, turn off your IM chat when you need to focus, and let people know if they're distracting you too often. You should also learn how to improve your concentration . even when you're faced with distractions.

Additionally, our article on managing email effectively teaches you how to gain control of your email, so that it doesn't eat up your entire day.

Mistake #5. Procrastination

Procrastination occurs when you put off tasks that you should be focusing on right now. When you procrastinate, you feel guilty that you haven't started; you come to dread doing the task; and, eventually, everything catches up with you when you fail to complete the work on time.

Start by taking our procrastination quiz to find out if procrastination is a problem in your life. If it is, then learn the strategies you need to beat procrastination .

For instance, one useful strategy is to tell yourself that you're only going to start on a project for ten minutes. Often, procrastinators feel that they have to complete a task from start to finish, and this high expectation makes them feel overwhelmed and anxious. Instead, focus on devoting a small amount of time to starting. That's all!

You might also find it helpful to use Action Plans . These help you break large projects down into manageable steps, so that it's easy to see everything that you need to get done, and so that you can complete small chunks at a time. Doing this can stop you from feeling overwhelmed at the start of a new project.

Tip:

Our Bite-Sized Training session, Overcoming Procrastination. gives you more in-depth strategies and tips for dealing with procrastination.

Mistake #6. Taking on too Much

Are you a person who has a hard time saying "no" to people? If so, you probably have far too many projects and commitments on your plate. This can lead to poor performance, stress, and low morale.

Or, you might be a micromanager . someone who insists on controlling or doing all of the work themselves, because they can't trust anyone else to do it correctly. (This can be a problem for everyone – not just managers!)

Either way, taking on too much is a poor use of your time, and it can get you a reputation for producing rushed, sloppy work.

Finding This Article Useful?

You can learn another 60 time management skills, like this, by joining the Mind Tools Club.

To stop this, learn the subtle art of saying "yes" to the person, but "no" to the task . This skill helps you assert yourself, while still maintaining good feelings within the group. If the other person starts leaning on you to say "yes" to their request, learn how to think on your feet . and stay cool under pressure.

Mistake #7. Thriving on "Busy"

Some people get a rush from being busy. The narrowly-met deadlines, the endless emails, the piles of files needing attention on the desk, the frantic race to the meeting. What an adrenaline buzz!

The problem is that an "addiction to busyness" rarely means that you're effective, and it can lead to stress.

Instead, try to slow down, and learn to manage your time better.

Tip:

"Do More Great Work", by Michael Bungay Stanier, is full of ideas and tips to reduce the "busywork" that you're doing, so that you're more excited and engaged in the work that matters. Click here for our Book Insight on it.

Mistake #8. Multitasking

To get on top of her workload, Linda regularly writes emails while she chats on the phone to her clients. However, while Linda thinks that this is a good use of her time, the truth is that it can take 20-40 percent more time to finish a list of jobs when you multitask, compared with completing the same list of tasks in sequence. The result is also that she does both tasks poorly – her emails are full of errors, and her clients are frustrated by her lack of concentration.

So, the best thing is to forget about multitasking . and, instead, focus on one task at a time. That way, you'll produce higher quality work.

Our Expert Interview with Dave Crenshaw, looking at The Myth of Multitasking. will give you an enlightening look at multitasking, and will help you explore how you can manage simultaneous projects more effectively.

Mistake #9. Not Taking Breaks

It's nice to think that you can work for 8-10 hours straight, especially when you're working to a deadline. But it's impossible for anyone to focus and produce really high-quality work without giving their brains some time to rest and recharge.

So, don't dismiss breaks as "wasting time." They provide valuable down-time, which will enable you to think creatively and work effectively.

If it's hard for you to stop working, then schedule breaks for yourself, or set an alarm as a reminder. Go for a quick walk, grab a cup of coffee, or just sit and meditate at your desk. Try to take a five minute break every hour or two. And make sure that you give yourself ample time for lunch – you won't produce top quality work if you're hungry!

Mistake #10. Ineffectively Scheduling Tasks

Are you a morning person? Or do you find your energy picking up once the sun begins to set in the evening? All of us have different rhythms, that is, different times of day when we feel most productive and energetic.

You can make best use of your time by scheduling high-value work during your peak time, and low-energy work (like returning phone calls and checking email), during your "down" time. Our article, Is This a Morning Task? will teach you how to do this.

Key Points

One of the most effective ways of improving your productivity is to recognize and rectify time management mistakes.

When you take the time to overcome these mistakes, it will make a huge difference in your productivity – and you'll also be happier, and experience less stress!

Tip:

To continue improving your time management skills, take our Time Management Quiz . which will help you identify where your strengths and weaknesses lie. You can also take our Bite-Sized Training session, the Time Management Audit. to hone your skills to the next level.

This site teaches you the skills you need for a happy and successful career; and this is just one of many tools and resources that you'll find here at Mind Tools. Subscribe to our free newsletter. or join the Mind Tools Club and really supercharge your career!

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Calling All L&D Managers!

10 Common Mistakes Made By New Betting Exchange Traders

Mistake 1: Predicting and trading in different timescales

You must make sure that you match the timescale of your prediction of the price’s direction with the amount of time that you hold your position.

You must make sure that you match the timescale of your prediction of the price’s direction with the amount of time that you hold your position.

For instance, a classic betting exchange trading mistake would be if you are trading the favourite’s price 3 minutes before the race is due to start and you see that the price is being Backed heavily and is going down. You think that this horse has a really good chance of winning the race so you decide to Back also.

If you do that you are basing a short term trading decision on a long term view of the price. The timescale of your prediction of the price, i. e that the price will go down because the horse will win the race, is different from the intended timescale of your trade, which is to trade out of it with a profit in a minute or less.

Unless you’re going to hold the bet until the race has finished then you can’t base trading decisions on where you think the price will be when the race has finished.

Mistake 2: Not getting out instantly

Short term traders on the betting exchanges don’t realize just how short term you have to be to avoid the losses.

To trade without knowing anything about what is going on, you have to assume that any movement against you is going to carry on going against you in the most painful way it can. And this isn’t to drastic of an assumption, as anyone that’s held onto a losing trade only to see it get worse and worse will agree.

Without any knowledge to the contrary you have to assume the worst, and the only protection against this is not to be in harm’s way: The less time you’re in a position, the less can go wrong.

Take your profits quickly and your scratch trades and losses even quicker.

By quickly I mean instantly, profit scratch or loss you should be out, or at least have your counter trade in, within 10 or 20 seconds at the most.

Mistake 3: Not doing scratch trades

There is a tendency amongst new traders to see the scratch trade as a waste of time.

The scratch trade is where you lay and back the horse at the same price. Once someone has done a scratch trade, only to then see the price go 2 or 3 ticks the right way they tend to stop doing them. The new trader can’t get it out of his mind that the scratch trade just cost him a profit and stops doing them.

However, human nature, some more than others, will always make us dwell on what we just missed out on without appreciating what we’ve got.

A scratch trade that gets you out of the market before the price suddenly turns against you is soon forgotten about as the trader quietly congratulates his trading skills and quickly forgets all about it. A missed profit has a different effect on many people than a saved loss of the same size has.

The fewer scratch trades you do the more losses you will have, that is a fact, so therefore you need more profits just to get back the extra that you’re losing.

It’s far better to not lose and then to not win than it is to lose and then win.

Mistake 4: Letting losing trades ride as bets

To be a successful trader you must be taking profits and losses of roughly the same size, but having more profits than losses, with the scratch trade taking the place of the losses.

As soon as you start to let your losses get bigger than your profits you’re creating an uphill battle for yourself because then you have to have lots more profits than losses just to break even.

The absolute worst thing you can do is hold on to a bet because you were losing on it and let it ride as the race runs. Doing this is total insanity from a risk reward ratio and is gambling at it’s worst.

If you want to gamble then gamble but at least do it properly. Don’t do a hybrid mix of trading and gambling where you’re doing each one badly.

To make small one and two tick profits and then risk your whole bank on the outcome of a horserace because you couldn’t take a small one or two tick loss is stupid. You know that in the long run it’s going to end in tears so why do it?

There’s no point in winning 9 times and losing once if your loss is 50 times the size of your profit. Anyone with such a complete lack of discipline not only will lose but deserves to lose.

Mistake 5: Reading form and watching racing on TV

As a short term scalper the last thing you want to do is read from and watch the racing on television.

Those that wish to gamble on the outcome of the races should of course do these things but a trader should avoid the formbook and the television. Not only are they distractions from trading but they implant biases in the betting exchange trader’s mind that detract from his ability to concentrate solely on the numbers and the patterns of movement that they are creating, leading to Mistake 1.

The scalper shouldn’t read the racing paper or switch on the television and should only log in to Betfair at the most 20 minutes before the first race.

Mistake 6: Wanting to enjoy the racing

Trading is often described as boring and detracting from the enjoyment of racing. This may be the case but horseracing is of no concern to the scalper so this comment is meaningless.

Horseracing has nothing to do with what the scalper is doing.

Wanting to enjoy the racing or enjoy your betting is fine but you cannot trade successfully at the same time. You can do one or the other but not both.

Trading requires concentration and dedication and if you’re watching horseracing at the same time then you are being unprofessional.

Mistake 7: Over thinking their trades

Most traders over think which way the market is going to go which has 2 drawbacks: firstly, they don’t do enough trades which cuts down their potential to make money and secondly when they do eventually pull the trigger they have put so much thought and effort into their trade that they fall in love with it.

They are unwilling to get out of such a trade with an almost instant scratch trade or an almost instant small loss.

It’s as if doing that would be to embarrassing after waiting so long and putting so much time into it.

This is why people ride their losses due to their inability to accept so quickly that they were wrong.

Instead of entering into a trade with the confidence that you are right, each trade should instead be entered with the assumption that you are wrong with a willingness to react correctly if indeed you are wrong.

As much as you may have built up your reasoning for the trade you just did, you must remember that you don’t actually know anything about what is going on and it’s ok to be wrong.

Mistake 8: They don’t use BetTrader

Not using BetTrader PRO betfair trading software when scalping is by far the biggest mistake anyone could make!

It’s the only Betfair trading software that was designed and built by a full time UK horseracing prices scalper, namely me!

They say necessity is the mother of invention and that’s definitely the case with the BetTrader betting software.

Having live price feeds and one click bet submission at any price, lay or back, gives the trader the absolute flexibility he needs to turn on a sixpence which the betfair website and other betting exchange trading applications don’t let you do.

Mistake 9: Getting distracted during races

It’s easy to get distracted by lots of different things when you’re trading but you must ignore everything.

Don’t check your emails, don’t be on instant messenger and don’t go on the betfair forum while the racing is on.

To really get in the groove you have to concentrate on every race, moving onto the next race when that one is due to start. That slack period where you have just greened up on a race and then move onto the next race and there is still 10 minutes to go and everything is quite calm shouldn’t be used to do other things.

That’s the time where you can sit back for a few minutes while nothing much is happening and relax a bit, but you must still watch the price and be aware of what is happening.

Don’t take your eyes from the screen except to go for a piss. If you smoke then smoke in front of the computer or not at all, nipping out for a cigarette will cost you thousands of pounds over the course of a year.

And don’t completely leave the moment by chatting online to others, don’t even answer the phone or check out other websites. Concentrate dammit!

For 3 and a half hours you are a trader and nothing else, you’ll be surprised how much better you trade when you don’t allow any outside distractions of any kind, letting yourself be absorbed by what you are doing and really seeing the movements and imagining what they might do next.

Mistake 10: Wanting a profit of a predetermined size

Many people decide how much they want to make out of a trade before they enter it and then set their exit price according to that rather than what it looks like they can reasonably get now.

Wanting to make 2 ticks is great but putting your counter trade in 2 ticks higher than you just layed at and then sitting back waiting is gambling, not trading.

It might go up, but it might go down, if you can’t get out straight away with a profit you should ask for a smaller profit. If you can’t get the smaller profit straight away you should scratch, and if you miss the scratch trade you should take a loss.

If instead of all that you remain motionless with your counter trade still in at the same price waiting for your 2 tick profit then you are gambling and will have your share of profits but also your share of big losses.

Adam Todd

Adam Todd is an experienced betting exchange trader who has written his own software as an aid to making higher profits on the betting exchanges.

If you are interested in using the exact same betting exchange trading software he himself uses, why not take it for a free trial spin.

The top 10 mistakes new home buyers make

When Karen Somerville and her husband Alan Greenberg showed up for the pre-delivery inspection of their brand new luxury home in Ottawa they were horrified. Electricians, drywallers, plumbers and a variety of other tradespeople were still busy constructing their home and, despite assurances from the builder, the couple seriously doubted their $443,000 new build would be ready for possession in 14 days. Electrical wires hung from ceilings and stuck out from unfinished walls, appliances and cabinets were stacked in the kitchen, and only a portion of the hardwood floors had been installed. They immediately hired an independent contractor to examine the home. The result was a deficiency report citing 130 problems, including an undersized furnace and ductwork, poor ventilation and improper roof installation.

At first, Karen, then a university professor, and her husband Alan, an account manager with Sun Microsystems, tried to negotiate with the builder to resolve the problems. When this proved futile, the couple turned to Tarion—the private corporation that regulates Ontario builders and provides warranties on new houses and condos. Tarion sent its own inspector who confirmed that there were 85 defects in the home—but only 39 were considered to be under warranty.

Karen and Alan would be on the hook to fix the other defects themselves, which would cost the 40-something couple $4,000 or more. “This is the largest purchase we, as consumers, make,” says Karen, “and Tarion is supposed to be there to help.” Instead, she found herself having to document and defend an appeal against the provincial warranty program’s decision—despite paying a $650 fee for her new home warranty.

Buying a new home directly from the builder, whether a condo, townhouse or detached, is a popular choice. Almost one third of all homes sold in Canada each year are brand new. In Ontario alone, more than 52,500 buyers opted for a new build last year, and a forecast by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) predicts that number will only climb. Despite the problems Karen and Alan encountered, it’s easy to see the appeal: Buying direct from the builder means you can customize your dream home to your exact tastes. It means higher energy efficiency ratings than older homes, and often higher quality building materials. New homes also have lower maintenance costs and are less likely to surprise you with a serious issues such as a cracking or tilting foundation, severe plumbing problems, asbestos or knob-and-tube wiring that needs replacing.

But as Karen and Alan discovered, there are some pitfalls specific to a new home purchase too—pitfalls that we don’t want you to run into. To help out, we’ve compiled the top 10 mistakes that new home buyers make, so you can be sure to avoid them. Read on to find out why you should be wary of the show home, what to do if your new place isn’t ready on time, how to save big money on upgrades, and most importantly, how to make sure that the dream home you’re expecting is the one you actually end up getting.

Mistake #1: They fall in love with the show home

When Jason Saxon and his wife Emily set out to find a builder in the quaint Edmonton suburb of Spruce Grove, they were surprised to find only two builders operating in the area. “Only one of them offered the separate dining room that we wanted,” says Jason, which made their choice easy. The deal was clinched when they toured the builder’s magnificent show home. “It had everything we needed,” gushed the systems analyst. The couple (whose names have been changed to protect their privacy) was so impressed by the show home they booked an appointment with a salesperson on the spot. Within days they had a signed purchase agreement and were busily designing their dream home.

That, of course, is the result every builder is aiming for, explains Stan Garrison, an industry insider with more than 20 years experience (we’ve changed his name to protect his privacy). “Most people fall in love with the show home, but you have to realize that everything you see in that model home is an upgrade,” he says. “And upgrades are a major portion of a builder’s 10% to 20% profit margin.”

Upgrades are so profitable for the builder because the industry standard is to charge double the sub-trade’s fee—a cost that is passed directly to the buyer, Garrison says. “That means the $8,000 granite countertops you ordered really cost your builder $4,000. Now multiply that by 25 buyers and you can see how builders make a profit.”

That doesn’t mean you should never order an upgrade, but you do need to be clear on what is an upgrade and what isn’t—and do a little bargaining so you don’t get taken for a ride. “With new builds there is no room for negotiation on the base sale price,” explains Max Wynter, a realtor with Re/Max Realtron Brokerage in Markham, Ont. “But there is room to negotiate the price of your upgrades.”

The rule of thumb is the more upgrades you spring for, the bigger the discount you should angle for. “If you purchase $5,000 in upgrades the builder may only give you a 10% discount,” says Garrison. “But purchase $50,000 in upgrades and you can start asking for $10,000 to $15,000 off the final price.”

Mistake #2: They trust the floor plan

Ken Grunber, who works at a video production house in Toronto, found out too late that the new condo unit he bought in 2007 wasn’t nearly as large as advertised. When he and his partner moved in and measured the area, they discovered it wasn’t 700 square feet after all. The condo was actually 560 square feet—if you don’t count the balcony and bathroom.

“That’s not unusual,” says Martin Rumack, a real estate lawyer with over three decades experience in new build construction. “Condo sales staff will often include balcony or terrace measurements as part of the total square footage. New home sales staff will provide square footage based on measurements of external walls. You can’t rely on their verbal assurances, on the floor models, or on the sale pitch or brochure.”

Unfortunately, many new home decisions are based solely on brochures or artist renditions. For instance, a sales brochure sold the Saxons on upgrading to French doors for the entrance to their walkout patio. “We’d originally seen the sliding doors in the show home, but a brochure highlighted the double French doors and we loved the look,” says Jason. They quickly paid the upgrade fee, but when they moved in they were surprised to find the doors didn’t have the little window panes with wooden slats between them that they had seen in the photo. Instead there was just one huge pane of glass in each door. “The price quoted by the builder’s sales rep didn’t include window slats, just clear glass. It would cost us more to get slats,” Jason says. “Now I know: get every detail in writing.”

In fact, the builder has the discretion to change an image, or floor plan, or layout and “you have no say,” says Rumack. He suggests asking for a breakdown of room sizes and plan details, and to “get it in writing.” Then, if there’s a substantial difference between what you’re sold and what you get you can either negotiate a price reduction or try and get out of the deal.

Mistake #3: They don’t get their contract lawyered

Whether you’re buying a new detached home or a condo, the purchase agreement is the legally binding document that spells out what you’re getting and the conditions of the sale. It’s full of fine print and legal-speak, and if you sign without legal representation, you risk being bound to terms you don’t understand or don’t want. More importantly, says Rumack, it destroys any chance of re-negotiating the terms of the sale.

“Skip legal advice and you could end up with an electrical utility box on your front lawn that you can’t do anything about, or no side door on your garage, regardless of what the plans looked like,” he says. “You could find yourself stuck with any manner of substitutions, exclusions or inclusions that could detract from your home’s future value.”

When you’re buying a condo, depending on the province you live in, you may have a cooling off period of up to 10 days. This gives you a chance to pay $800 to $1,600 and hire a lawyer to go through your contract after it’s signed. If you don’t like what they find, you can back out of the deal.

Unfortunately, there’s no such period for freehold homes, and many home builders demand that you sign a contract on the spot to secure your sale price or lot selection. Try to avoid this situation if possible, but if you must, at the very least insist on adding a clause that makes the deal conditional upon approval by your solicitor. “These days more and more builders are offering buyers a two-day period where they can seek legal advice before the contract becomes binding,” explains real estate lawyer Sheldon Silverman.

Mistake #4: They don’t bother with an inspection

During the home buying process there are two specific times when it’s important to have your house inspected. The first is the pre-delivery inspection, a mandatory walk-through for all new homes under warranty. This inspection takes place with your builder shortly before you officially take possession of your home. The second inspection should be scheduled for about one month before your home warranty expires. In Ontario the first and broadest portion of your warranty expires 12 months after your possession date, in B. C. it’s 24 months after possession.

During the pre-delivery inspection, you probably don’t need to pay for a professional inspector, but you might want to “take along a friend who’s wise about construction,” says Silverman, “because if you don’t write down the deficiency then the builder isn’t obligated to fix the problem.”

However, hiring a professional home inspector to do a second walkthrough before your warranty expires is a must. This will allow your home to go through all four seasons, which is enough time for major defects to start showing up, and you’ll still be able to get them fixed under the first stage of the standard provincial warranty, which covers against material and labour defects.

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Mistake #5: They accept delays without a fight

Believe it or not, until quite recently, if your new house wasn’t ready on time, it was your problem. “Builders were not required to provide reasons or to limit their delays,” says Rumack. But that all changed when Toronto condo buyer Keith Markey challenged a Tarion decision five years ago.

In 2001, Markey bought a unit in a soon-to-be constructed condominium tower in downtown Toronto. His initial possession date was Nov. 30, 2002. But as the date approached, the builders kept sending letters announcing delays. Markey’s possession date was moved back six different times—he wasn’t able to move in until eight full months after the initial possession date.

He requested $5,000 from the builder to compensate him for the delays. The builder refused, the case went before a tribunal, and Markey won. Tarion appealed the case, but in 2006, Markey was vindicated: Not only did he receive almost $5,000 in compensation but close to $9,000 in damages. The case changed how Tarion and other provincial warranty programs handle builder delays.

“The law is now clear and critical dates are now included as part of the purchase agreement and contract,” says Silverman. “If a builder misses these critical dates and requires an extension, a buyer can either agree, and seek compensation, or simply get out of the deal.” Either way, Silverman suggests seeking legal advice whenever you’re presented with a request to delay a critical date.

Mistake #6: They forget they are moving into a construction zone

Anyone considering a new condo or home purchase should take into consideration the impact of ongoing developments. As one reader, who bought into the first phase of a three-phase condo development, recalls: “It’s noisy, everything is dusty and the air quality is just plain horrible—not even the best furnace filter could catch this dust. Combine that with the fact that the whole area is ugly for quite a long time and that access points can open and close, depending on the phase, and you have a recipe for long-term aggravation.”

Still, others, such as Jason Saxon, were mentally prepared for living in a construction site, and actually found it kind of fun—at times anyway. “You take the dust and dirt and noise with a grain of salt,” he says. “And it’s actually nice watching the homes go up.” In fact, there were only two days out of that first construction year when the Saxons and their neighbours felt truly inconvenienced. “When the builders put the final grading on our road no one could drive or park on our street,” Jason recalls. “For many of our neighbours that meant a hike through muddy and overgrown fields just to get home.”

Mistake #7: They think they have a warranty—but they don’t

Most buyers assume that all new-build lofts, condos and homes are covered by a provincial warranty, but this isn’t the case. Only three provinces—B. C. Quebec and Ontario—make warranty coverage mandatory. In fact, those are the only provinces that require new home builders to register with their respective provincial regulator at all.

“In Ontario, it’s illegal to build without being registered,” says Janice Mandel, vice president of corporate affairs at Tarion. But in other provinces, where the warranty program isn’t mandatory, builders can simply opt-out of coverage. Often they’ll try to convince home owners that they’re saving them the registration costs.

Buyers should be proactive and get their new home warranty in writing, says Mandel. They should also go online to determine if their builder is registered with a provincial regulator as a new home builder. This is particularly important for loft or condo conversions—residential units constructed inside an existing building shell. In such situations, new-build warranties often don’t apply.

Mistake #8: They’re not speedy with their warranty claims

When the Saxons first moved into their dream home near Edmonton, they were delighted. But they soon found themselves caught in a bureaucratic nightmare. During that first winter in their new home, they noticed a large crack in the cement-block floor of their garage. So they called the builder, who told them that when the ground thawed in the spring the problem would be fixed. A few months later, when the ground started to thaw, they noticed even more cracks stretching from their garage down their driveway. “We phoned, spoke to the site super, and even flagged down a builder’s representative, who promised us a new driveway.”

But weeks went by and nothing happened. “What was frustrating was coming home to see that our neighbour had a newly poured driveway and ours was still pock-marked and cracked.” That’s when Jason started sending emails. “You have to hound the builder, who seems willing to fix anything, but just needs a lot of motivation.” After weeks of sending emails and making calls the Saxons finally got a new driveway and garage floor.

The Saxons were able to get the problem fixed because they were proactive and understood that there are strict time limits on making claims. To ensure you understand how long you have, carefully read the package you get during the pre-inspection, as there are different deadlines for different types of warranty claims. “My advice: get a calendar and mark down those deadlines, and then make sure you get the claim in at least five days before the deadline,” says Peter Balasubramanian, vice president of claims for Tarion.

While you’re reading your new home package, you should also familiarize yourself with the maintenance you have to do to ensure your warranty remains valid. For instance, if you forget to change your furnace filters or fail to clean out your gutters you could find a claim regarding deficient heating or water penetration into your basement is deemed to be invalid. Mistake #9: They’re ambushed by hidden closing costs

When you sign the purchase agreement for your new place, many of the closing costs are estimates. These costs often escalate as you approach your possession date, and both Rumack and Silverman have seen their fair share of “absurd” adjustments tacked on to a buyer’s purchase contract. For instance, you may find large charges that suddenly materialize for hooking up gas and electricity meters, plus mortgage discharge fees, development fees, deposit verification fees—Rumack has even seen a fee for “public art contributions” to cover the cost of a sculpture by a building’s entrance. “That’s why I pay close attention to the adjustments and try and get a cap on certain items and remove others,” Silverman says.

Mistake #10: They buy at the wrong time

If you’re buying a new condo or townhouse as an investment, the key is to get in as early as possible. In order to get the financing to start a new project, builders will often raise initial funding through pre-sales. These pre-sales often kick off with invitation-only VIP events, says Wynter. Usually, only high-volume realtors who specialize in the type of building on offer are invited. “If you see a line-up at a sales office, it’s often because a VIP event has been scheduled.” Once the VIP event is over, the builder will open sales up to all interested realtors, then finally they’ll open the project up to the public. “By the time a builder throws a grand opening for the general public, often 50% of the units have already been sold and the price has gone up three or four times,” explains Wynter.

It’s easy to get in on these VIP pre-sales, but you’ll need to work with a realtor who specializes in new developments and be ready to move quickly. For instance, the Paintbox development—the second phase of condos in the newly revitalized Regent Park area of Toronto—gave VIP realtors a week to register their clients for the pre-sale. Four days after registration closed clients were required to sign the paperwork.

Despite the potential savings on purchase price, this can be a risky way of buying real estate. When the Vancouver condo market turned in 2008 many pre-sale buyers found themselves with a contract price that was much higher than the current value of the unit. The builders refused to renegotiate the purchase contracts, and their banks refused to grant pre-arranged mortgages for the original purchase price. Many buyers were forced to either default—and lose their money—or find additional funding elsewhere, at significantly higher interest rates.

If you’re purchasing a freehold home, keep in mind that purchasing at the right time of year can also save you tens of thousands. For instance, in the Greater Toronto Area, the summer is the best time to shop for a new development, says Garrison. “People are on vacation in July and August and don’t have time to look for houses. When things slow down for a builder you have more bargaining power as a buyer.” Another good time to look is in December and January, but by mid-February activity starts to pick-up, says Garrison, and deals are taken off the table.

In Vancouver’s Lower Mainland the opposite is true: real estate and new home purchases are typically hot in the summer and slow down significantly over the rainy months of November and December. Each local market has its own cycle, so it’s best to talk to an experienced realtor.

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30 comments on “ The top 10 mistakes new home buyers make ”

The points discussed above are the common mistakes a new home buyer generally makes. They should inspect their home carefully especially water lekage and plumbing problem are the major concern that many of us facing. So take care of these points as these looks small but are major problem pratically.

plumber on October 25, 2012 at 4:46 am

What a great post. People planning to build, especially for the first time often rush in and sign on the dotted line as quickly as they can. The opposite should happen. We all know the saying "location, location, location". For people building for the first time it should include "education, education, education". Equip yourself with as much knowledge as possible. Taking advice like this article seriously can make a huge difference. Reality is that many people actually enjoy the whole building experience. It can be extremely exiting. But take your time and educate yourself beforehand.

Building Wizard on February 14, 2013 at 10:25 am

You should not be turned-off by some of the negative stories regarding new construction, as the quality of workmanship/materials/technological improvements/government regulations/environmental/warranties have made new construction in the housing industry far more superior than earlier years (especially pre 1980s). Improvements have evolved in such areas as proper drainage away from homes; newer and better concrete for footings and foundations; I-Beams which are stronger and straighter than traditional wooden beams; higher R value standards insulation in wall and ceilings; better energy efficiency windows and doors; better and more efficient HVAC, with most new homes having at least 93% AFUE rating and the list could go on much longer. Todays builders have mostly undergone some formal education (ie. trade school) and have not learned solely on the job, although in some cases the latter may happen. Don’t forget that the contractor you hire to renovate your older residence, is likely the same person who is building new homes. More so, the renovating contractor may just be a fly-by-night so called contractor who takes your money after the job is done and which may not be up to par and expectations. Al least most new home builders will only hire those who have a degree of good reputation and expertise in their field. I have lived in a house that was built in the 1960s and the quality of workmanship and materials was absolutely horrible. No or very little insulation in the walls/ceiling, leaky windows and doors and extremely poor sewage system to mention a few problems. I have talked over the years with people also who have in older homes who mentioned wood shavings for insulation in the attic and shoddy electrical. So bottom line is – don’t think the past was better, because it ain’t…..just one more point – Caveat Emptor…

Timtam on October 9, 2013 at 3:23 pm

They should have done their homework. All too many times the price and promises look great. Sales pitch. Get history of company and talk to at least 3 references both happy and mad. The mad should be at least 1 month after moving in and everything is taken care of. Then the emotions don’t show first. Follow the regional home builders associations guidelines, realtor’s guidelines or provincial guidelines. If there are none then good luck.

concerned citizen on May 6, 2014 at 9:45 pm

Mistake #5. I’m so frustrated with our builder possession date is originally Feb 1st, 2014 but until now we are not able to move in yet. Do we have that tribunal mentioned in #5 here in Manitoba? I want to fight and let them pay for the inconvenience this purchase had caused us.

Me on June 25, 2014 at 5:34 pm

My daughter and son in law are purchasing a new duplex with the possession date of July 29th. The detached garage has not been constructed and the builder is requesting total funds at closing date. Their lawyer has advised them that a $9,000.00 holdback is standard in cases like this. He has told them not to take possession on the 29th. We would appreciate any advise available. Will they lose the deal if they stand their ground and protect themselves? Thank you in advance.

sharon todd on July 26, 2014 at 11:02 pm

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Do You Need a Trading Mentor?

Do You Need a Trading Mentor?

Going it alone is never easy and it’s seldom fun. There is nothing harder than trying to climb a mountain alone and unaided, which is pretty much what you are doing if you try to trade binary options in a vacuum. Odds are if you have been browsing around for trading products, you have discovered that there are professional traders out there who are offering their services to fellow traders in a mentoring capacity. These traders generally charge a premium for a package which includes direct counseling (usually over Skype, telephone, or another chat or VOIP service) as well as members-only trading resources. A trading mentor can help to give you direction when you are lost and keep you focused when you lose your concentration or become discouraged.

Do you really need a trading mentor? And if so, how much should you be willing to pay for one? Are all these services legitimate, or are some of them scammers? Is it really worth it to pay someone else to teach you how to trade? Do you need a trading system?

Finding Legitimate Coaching Programs

Trading mentors come in all shapes and sizes. Some will follow your trading closely on a day by day basis, while others may offer assistance at a distance, agreeing to be accessible if you need something, but otherwise leaving you to your own devices. Many will leave it up to you how you want to approach the mentorship program. Some, but not all mentors, trade for a living. Others make most of their money through offering their mentoring services.

“But wait—why would I pay someone to teach me how to trade who isn’t even making a living trading?” There are two schools of thought concerning programs like this. On one hand, some traders look down on mentors who make their living principally through teaching. Others however point out that (many of) these mentors know trading inside and out and are fully capable of teaching others to trade for a living. These teachers may be capable of trading for a living, but teaching may be their greater gift.

There are scams among mentorship programs, just as there are scams among trading systems for sale and signal and alert services, not to mention brokers. That does not mean the majority of coaching programs are fraudulent however or a waste of money. Sadly, a lot of traders come out of these programs still failing to make a living trading, and may blame it on their coaches instead of on themselves (where the blame is ultimately due). This can make it rather difficult to figure out whether a program is legitimate or not.

You can however use some contextual clues to make a determination about the legitimacy of a mentorship program. Here are some tips to help you decide:

How informative are the reviews? Do the negative reviews list specific negatives, and do the positive reviews list specific positives? Do the negative reviewers take responsibility for their own failings, or do they cast all blame on their mentor?

Are there any free materials offered by the trading coach? A lot of trading coaches will actually make a large portion of their materials available without any charge. Many will offer free eBooks in return for newsletter sign-ups. Some may be active members on forums and regularly post their trades or trading ideas. Check out any free materials you can locate; they offer you a preview of the quality you can expect from the rest of the program if you join.

How accessible is the trading coach? If you have questions, can you get in direct contact with him or her? How forthcoming and helpful is this person? Is this the type of person you would trust with your money?

Other Selection Criteria

Obviously you want your trading coach to be legit, but that alone is not the sole criterion you should be using to select your mentor. Your mentor, if you choose to have one, needs to be able to help you with your trading. Not every mentor or every program is right for every trader. One of the wonderful things about binary options is that there are endless different approaches you can take to trading. But that means that not every approach is going to suit every personality. It also means that you can shop around for something that does suit you, because there isn’t one perfect method that you must learn. Here are some additional criteria to consider in your search for a trading coach:

An approach trading that you find intuitive. If you are someone who leans heavily toward fundamental analysis, you do not want to pick a trading coach that teaches only technical analysis. Or if you absolutely hate everything to do with MACD. but want to learn technical analysis, it would be foolish to choose an instructor who teaches MACD-based techniques, even though he or she specializes in technical analysis.

An approach to teaching that is compatible with how you learn. It is not just what a coach teaches, but also how he or she teaches that counts. Even if someone teaches a technique that you could hope to learn and apply successfully, you will have a hard time if the format of the teaching does not mesh well with how you learn. Every person on the planet learns in a unique way; that is one of the reasons each of us develops different skill sets and approaches to problem solving. You need to select a program where you will be able to learn according to your needs.

A top notch community. The best training programs will offer you all kinds of assistance beyond the class materials and coaching from the program manager. Look for a program with a dedicated forum where you can interact with other teachers and students. A community like this is great for two reasons: 1-You can learn from others, and learn in different ways, which extends the value of the program, and 2-A community of smart, driven individuals generally is going to accumulate only where there is a legitimate, proven program in place for trading binary options.

Alternatives to Coaching Programs

You do not have to have a trading mentor or sign up for a premium members-only paid trading course in order to become a successful binary options trader. At the same time, you really should avoid isolating yourself from other traders and trying to make it on your own. There is a reason a lot of mountain climbers choose to ascend with the help of a team. When you expose yourself to risk, it can really pay off to have someone else on your side to help you make smart choices and catch you when you make a mistake. If you do not want to pay for guidance, consider these alternatives:

Free forums for trading. There are a lot of binary options forums cropping up online, and you can also join forums for Forex and general trading. On these forums you can meet other traders and learn and share. An unbelievable amount of incredibly good trading material is shared by traders online every day for free. Traders are usually a cooperative bunch, not a competitive group. ¿Por qué? Because the smart traders know that 95% of their fellow traders are going to fail with or without their help. But the 5% that are going to make it will make it by forging ahead together. You can make friends quickly and easily in most trading circles simply by demonstrating you want to be in the 5%.

Trading partners and groups. On these forums, there are a lot of opportunities to join private trading groups and form partnerships. These people will often place trades together side by side. Partners from around the globe can help you to spot the best opportunities, and return, you can help to keep them on track as well. Be cautious about team trading, since there are a lot of complications which can arise. Read more about best practices for team trading to learn about pitfalls to avoid.

An accountability partner. Sometimes all you really need is someone you are answerable to (other than yourself). An accountability partner can be anyone who you trust with inside knowledge of your financial life. It could be a spouse, a friend, or a family member. It might be another trader. If anyone else is financially dependent on you, like a spouse or a housemate, that person should automatically be an accountability partner for you, because you owe it to him or her. An accountability partner can help you to stay honest and on track with your trading by taking a sincere and dedicated interest in your trading activities.

So regardless of where you are standing with financial resources, there are a lot of options for guidance in trading. If you can afford it, membership in the right coaching program can really catapult your trading ahead—but only if you make the most of it. And even if you cannot afford to take a course, you can still enjoy most of the same benefits for free simply by availing yourself of the resources of the trading communities you find online.

Most brokers will not help you do anything except execute more trades. I’ve been with Nadex for a couple of years now and have been making money. Nadex is legit and regulated. However, in the beginning, any questions I asked they responded with an answer that involved making more trades (more money for them). Good luck and get to work learning to become a good/great trader.

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1 year 9 months ago

Do you know of any good, honest mentors I can work with one-on-one that are not too expensive? Does your recommendation have to be with a broker? (The broker I have now is very good at trading but has little time for me because I have very few funds in my account.)

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About, Privacy, Terms, Disclaimer U. S. Government Required Disclaimer - Commodity Futures Trading Commission Futures and Options trading has large potential rewards, but also large potential risks. Debe ser consciente de los riesgos y estar dispuesto a aceptarlos para invertir en los mercados de futuros y opciones. No negocie con dinero que no puede permitirse perder. Esto no es ni una solicitud ni una oferta de compra / venta de futuros u opciones. No se está haciendo ninguna representación de que cualquier cuenta tenga o sea probable obtener ganancias o pérdidas similares a las discutidas en este sitio web. El desempeño pasado de cualquier sistema o metodología comercial no es necesariamente indicativo de resultados futuros. CFTC REGLA 4.41 - LOS RESULTADOS DE RENDIMIENTO HIPOTÉTICOS O SIMULADOS TIENEN CIERTAS LIMITACIONES. DESCONOCIDO UN REGISTRO DE RENDIMIENTO REAL, LOS RESULTADOS SIMULADOS NO REPRESENTAN COMERCIO REAL. TAMBIÉN, DADO QUE LOS COMERCIOS NO HAN SIDO EJECUTADOS, LOS RESULTADOS PUEDEN TENERSE COMPARTIDOS POR EL IMPACTO, SI CUALQUIERA, DE CIERTOS FACTORES DE MERCADO, COMO LA FALTA DE LIQUIDEZ. LOS PROGRAMAS DE COMERCIO SIMULADOS EN GENERAL ESTÁN SUJETOS AL FACTOR DE QUE SEAN DISEÑADOS CON EL BENEFICIO DE HINDSIGHT. NO SE HACE NINGUNA REPRESENTACIÓN QUE CUALQUIER CUENTA TENDRÁ O ES POSIBLE PARA LOGRAR GANANCIAS O PÉRDIDAS SIMILARES A LOS MOSTRADOS.

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Please note: All content on this website is based on our writers and editors experiences and are not meant to accuse any broker with illegal matters. The words Scam, blacklist, fraud, hoax, sucks, etc are used because all content on this website is written in a fictional, entertainment, satirical and exaggerated format and are therefore sometimes disconnected from reality. All readers must personally judge all content and brokers on their own merits. Additionally, visitors comments are not moderated other than the obvious link spam. People lie. Use your discernment. Disclaimer: Trading binary options is extremely risky and you can lose your entire investment. Only deposit and trade with money you can afford to lose. Always refer to local laws, jurisdictions and authorities before performing any action on the internet. The content on this website is NOT financial advice and by use of this site you agree to hold us 100% harmless for any loss.

Boss Capital Review – Binary Options Bosses? Or Your Average Bums?

Boss Capital is the newest binary options broker catering to the US market ( not anymore darn it ) to gain the attention of influential voices in the community, which is partly responsible for their explosive growth in such a short period of time. But having successful and influential traders on your side is certainly not by itself enough to explain the impressive success of this broker. And that is what our new Boss Capital review sets out to explain. What are they doing over there to get so much attention and praise in such a crowded and competitive industry? Very few new brokers these days are able to make a name for themselves and capture any significant market share from the established names in the business. Yet Boss Capital managed to do just that. Read on to find out how…

Boss Capital Review Basic Information

BossCapital Website: http://www. BossCapital. com/ Platform Launched: January 2014 Accepts US Traders: NOT ANYMORE – BOO! Boss Capital Minimum Deposit: $200 USD, EUR, and GBP Boss Capital Deposit Bonus: From 30% Up To 100% Contract Variety: High/Low, Above/Below, One-Touch, Boundary, and Short-Term Boss Capital Demo Account: Available Upon Special Request Platform Technology: Tech Financials

Boss Capital Trading Platform & Features

The first thing which we noticed about the Boss Capital trading platform was its unique look and feel. This was somewhat unexpected since we knew that they used the Tech Financials platform technology, a technology used by several other brokers in the business that we have traded with. Of the binary options brokers that use the Tech Financials technology as the basis for their platforms there is only one other broker who use it as well as Boss Capital, and that would be the popular global broker, 24Option (read review ). And unfortunately, they no longer accept US traders. Of the brokers who are still serving the US market, we can say that hands down Boss Capital has the best implementation of this platform technology that we have seen to date. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights and features of this broker.

***Register Your Free Account Today***

Very Clean & Easy-To-Use Trading Platform

Advanced Charting & Technical Analysis On-Site!

150+ Underlying Assets, With 200+ Trading Combinations

A Handy Underlying Asset Filtering System

Customer Support In 10 Widely Spoken Languages

“Hassle Free” Guaranteed Withdrawal Policy

Rarer “Short-Term” and “Boundary” Options Available

7 Different Contract Varieties To Trade With

Outstanding Education Center With Video Academy

High Payouts On Short-Term Contracts – Up To 85%

Both Standard and High-Yield One-Touch and Boundary

The image above was taken while trading during our month-long Boss Capital review period, and shows their outstanding on-site advanced charting and technical analysis tools. The only other broker we know of that can offer on-site charting as advanced as this is 24Option, and they are the 3rd most popular broker globally so Boss Capital is in good company there. We usually recommend that our readers and visitors use off-site charting software such as TD Ameritrade’s ThinkOrSwim software, or the popular forex charting software of MT4. However, in the case of Boss Capital we found that this was rarely, if ever necessary. Only when making “long-term” contract trades (end of the week or longer expiry windows) did we really feel the need to use our full-featured TOS charting software.

***Register Your Free Account Today***

Before moving on to the Boss Capital customer service and educational material available we should briefly touch on what kind of trading options are available on the Boss Capital platform. Earlier in this review we mentioned that Boss offers a total of seven different contract types to trade on (or five if you don’t separate standard and high-yield contracts). This is the most you will find at any binary options broker currently. There are others with 7. Just none with more than 7. Let’s quickly look at how each contract is traded on the Boss Capital platform.

Standard High/Low & Above/Below

The standard high/low binary options at Boss Capital are, of course, the “regular” binary options contracts which we all know and love. These are simply a bet on whether or not price will be above or below your entry price at the time of expiry. These options generally offer between 71% – 89% return rates, and are the most widely traded contracts.

The above/below binary options operate a bit differently. With high/low options the goal rate (or strike price) is whatever the current price at the time of entry was. You are just choosing whether price will be higher than it is now, or lower than it is now. Whereas with the above/below options the goal rate (or strike price) is a pre-determined rate that is set by your broker at a certain distance from current price (the exact distance being based on current volatility). These contract are higher risk, higher reward contracts which can offer returns as high as 500% in some cases.

Boss Capital “Short-Term” Options

The fast-paced action of 60-second binary option trading was first introduced to us by Traderush in 2011, and then quickly spread from there. This contract variety has gone on to become the second most widely traded binary option type currently. But there are now a few brokers who are taking the idea even further, and they have begun to offer contracts in 30-second, 60-second, and 2-minute expiry intervals. This has also proven to be a very popular idea, and offers traders more flexibility and strategy development options. Other than the short expiry windows, however, these contracts are exactly like the regular high/low variety. And Boss Capital also offers some of the highest payouts in the industry on these contracts at up to 85%.

Standard Daily & High-Yield Weekly One-Touch

Another popular variety of binary option contract these days in the one-touch option. Boss Capital is offering these contracts as both standard daily contracts, and as high-yield weekly one-touch options, which can only be traded on the weekend. We really like how Boss has done theirs though because we like the ability to trade when markets are closed over the weekend. And these “long-odds” weekend contracts can offer returns as high as 500%, or even more in some cases. This variety of contract is especially useful in event-based trading (trading the news, earnings releases, etc).

***Register Your Free Account Today***

Regular Daily & High-Yield Weekly Boundary Options

Boundary option (regular or high-yield) are a much more rarely seen contract variety, but one which is beginning to gain in popularity. Boundary options are somewhat similar to the above/below variety discussed above. With these options the trader will be deciding whether or not the price of the chosen asset will finish within a certain price range, or outside of that price range. You can actually see this in the image above as the two parallel lines which are defining the price range. At the time of expiry will price be within those two lines? Or will it finish outside those lines? Simple enough.

Boss Capital Customer Service & Reputation

In our book customer service is possibly the single most important factor when choosing a broker of any kind. We’ve seen what happens at binary options brokers with bad customer service, and all the features and bonuses in the world cannot make up for it. With that in mind we always make sure to try to contact a broker’s customer service agents at least a couple of times during our review periods. We will usually manufacture some fake problem we are having with our account or the trading platform and see how they handle it. If they can keep their cool and remain friendly and helpful while trying to solve a problem that doesn’t even exist and can’t really be solved, then they are doing pretty darn well. And we are happy to report that Boss Capital went 2-for-2 in the positive experiences department this time around. Once with a phone contact, and again using their live chat feature.

What about reputation though? Can a broker as new as Boss Capital even have an established reputation? Well normally we would answer that with a resounding no. However, in the case of Boss Capital it is actually a yes. They do in fact have a long-established reputation for excellent service and market-leading innovation. How can that be? Boss Capital is brought to us by the same great company that brought us both Traderush and Redwood Options. two of the most popular and successful brokers in the industry. This solid financial and managerial backing is a good part of why they were able to gain the support of so many influential traders in the community so quickly after launching.

Educational and Strategy Development Materials

We view the educational and strategy development materials and resources offered by brokers as an important part of their customer service. Many people will be new to binary options trading entirely, and will need some guidance to get started. Luckily, Boss Capital has one of the better education sections which we have come across recently. New clients will get access to a beginners eBook, video courses, market commentary and analysis, a full video academy, and over 15 different webinars for all experience levels (the best material — see lock icons in image above for example — is saved exclusively for depositing clients). The great thing about the Boss Capital education section is that even very experienced traders are likely to learn at least a thing or two from this material. Most brokers offer only the most basic of strategy guidance. Strictly for beginners usually. Boss goes well beyond this level.

Boss Capital Review Conclusion

We haven’t had this good of an experience with a new broker in quite some time. Probably since GOptions first hit the scene. As far as global binary options brokers go, Boss Capital can certainly at least compete with the best of them. But when it comes to brokers that are still serving the US market, Boss Capital is now our newest top choice for US-based binary options enthusiasts. That is not to say that they are not also a good choice for those outside the US, because they are. It is just a matter of having a LOT more choice at hand than US traders currently have. All-in-all, this is definitely one of the best new brokers to enter the market in a long time, and we expect that their popularity will only continue to grow going forward.

Overall Boss Capital Review Rating = 4.5/5 Stars = Binary Bosses

If you have any personal experience with Boss Capital, or any other broker discussed here which you would be willing to share with the community then please leave us a comment below with your own review!

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10 Big Data Migration Mistakes

Beware these pitfalls and risks when transferring your data to new computer systems or storage formats.

Transferring data between computer systems or storage formats is never a trivial task, particularly when it involves both structured and unstructured data. The complexity of data-migration jobs means that cost overruns and delays with "go-lives" are all too common, said Arvind Singh, co-founder and CEO of Utopia. a Chicago-based enterprise data solutions provider.

In a phone interview with InformationWeek . Singh outlined 10 common data-migration problems--five pitfalls and five risks--that enterprises should strive to avoid.

Pitfall #1: Failing to engage the lines of business and business users at the outset. When companies integrate or consolidate multiple systems into one--often after a business merger--they need to identify the right business uses at the outset.

"You need to identify who knows and understands the business data," said Singh. "Who's the subject matter expert in your business? It's certainly not IT or the systems integrator."

In other words, bring the people who'll be using the data into the migration project. After all, they'll be the ones operating the system once it goes live.

2. Absence of data governance policies and organizational structure. "You've got data being moved from System A to System B, but who owns the governance structure? Who has the rights to create, approve, edit, or remove data from the system?" Singh asked.

Other issues that must be resolved: Is your organization set up to manage data? Is there a business process for managing the lifecycle of data? And do you have data stewards in the company?

Pitfall #3: Poor data quality in a legacy system. Companies often don't realize that an "as-is assessment" is essential before embarking on a data-migration job.

"Understanding the quality of existing data in a legacy system is a huge pitfall that companies often don't spend enough time on," said Singh

Questions to consider: Will the existing data support new users? What is it missing? And what are you planning to do, analysis-wise, that you're not able to do today?

A detailed assessment makes it easier for companies to estimate the amount of work required to migrate legacy data successfully.

Pitfall #4: Neglecting to validate and redefine business rules. Your company's business and validation rules may not be current.

"It's amazing how little time companies have spent agreeing on a business rule, much less making sure the data complies with the business rule," said Singh. "In other words, you think you have a business rule, but does your existing data match, map, or comply with that rule?"

In addition, auditors need to be sure that data moved from a legacy system to a new system has been validated, especially when a migration involves critical information such as financial, inventory, and payroll data.

Pitfall #5: Failure to validate and test the data-migration process. Don't save this step for the end. "You really need to make sure that you're validating and testing throughout the process," Singh said.

Questions to consider: How are you going to test the data? Who will test and evaluate it? Who will sign off on it? And who's the ultimate consumer of the data?

This process must be built into the project's lifecycle, but unfortunately companies often "don't spend enough time aligning the data testing, validation, and migration cycles to the project timeline," said Singh.

2 Small And 1 Big Mistakes ETF Investors Make

In life we all make mistakes. Some are small and don’t really matter much, others are larger and the consequences last longer. When it comes to investing, the same holds true. And since mistakes will most certainly be made both in life and in investing, regardless of how careful we are, in an attempt to help you make fewer mistakes when it comes to ETF investing I have put together a list of the top three biggest mistakes ETF investors make. Two of them will be minor mistakes, while the last will be a big one that could substantially hurt an investor’s long-term performance.

Not looking at Funds Holdings

While the number of ETF’s having grown over the past few years is great, giving investors hundreds of options to choose from, it has also caused a lot of confusion. There are now ETF’s that track all the indexes, ever industry, commodities, international markets, futures, bonds, the list can go on and on. Yet just because an ETF has a certain name doesn’t mean that is all it invests in, or that its holdings are not overweight certain assets compared to the rest of its holdings. I have written about this problem in the past, pointing out that a lot of funds are massively overweight Apple Inc. (AAPL ) .

Not only do ETF’s have weighting problems, meanings a few stocks account for a massive amount of the funds’ assets, but some may hold assets you don’t want to be exposed to. For example, if you buy an international ETF thinking you will be getting exposure to Europe and China, but the fund has massive holdings in South American or Russian companies you may be taking on more risk than you want.

Not knowing the ETF’s holding is not a major mistake that will wreak everlasting havoc on an investor’s portfolio, but it is still a mistake that should be avoided. Investors should at least look at a funds top 10 holdings and read what the funds investing parameters are before hitting the buy button.

Not Comparing Fund Fees

Another small, but often made mistake ETF investor’s make is not looking at an ETF’s fees and comparing those to other similar funds. After deciding on what type of ETF you would like to buy; index, industry specific, etc. the next thing to do is see how much a the fund manager is charging you to invest in the ETF.

This is the expense ratio and is found in the prospectus or on the profile page of most stock quote websites. The lowest priced ETF’s charge as little as 0.05%, usually this is found with index ETF’s that simply track the index they are following. The low price is because these funds are on autopilot as they only buy or sell based on the index they track making a change. For example the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY ) tracks the S&P 500 index and has an expense ratio of 0.09% or 9 cents ever year for every $100 you have invested.

But, when you get into managed ETF’s the price begins to rise, sometimes dramatically. For instance the PowerShares Dynamic large Cap Value (PWV ) ETF, operating in the U. S. large cap value sector, has an expense ratio of 0.57%, more than 6 times that of SPY. But the costs go even higher than that. First Trust Tactical High Yield (HYLS ) ETF, operating in the fixed income ETF sector, has an expense ratio of 1.29%. With each of the ETF’s I mentioned, you can find similar products attempting to provide similar performance at similar risk levels at both higher and lower expenses. The key is to look at what something is costing you before buying. A few hundredths of a percent may not sound like much, and it will not be in the short term, but could add up to a massive amount in the long run when you consider how much money is eaten up that could have compounded. [You’ll also want to consider the long-term performance in ETFs; in some cases a bit higher expense ratio may be worth it if it consistently outperforms similar funds.]

Not Understanding How Leveraged ETF’s Work

Leveraged ETF’s are not products the average investor should be buying. Let me say that again. A leveraged ETF is not an investment the average long-term buy and hold investor should ever consider buying.

I have warned against the dangers of leveraged ETF’s in the past and I will certainly do it again in the future. What you need to understand about leveraged ETF’s is that they are intended for day traders. These are traders who want to get in and out of the market, a sector of the market, or a certain asset class, in a very short time frame. Whether it is 2X or 3X leveraged ETF’s, they mimic the asset at the specific multiple, but just for one day.

For example, if you buy a 3X leveraged S&P 500 ETF at 9:30 a. m. and sell at 3:59 p. m. and the S&P 500 goes up 1% that day, your trade will have gone up 3%. But, if you hold that ETF for a few days, weeks, or months and the S&P 500 increases by 10% during your holding period, it is very unlikely you will make 30% or 3 times what the S&P 500 did. The reason is because in order for the ETF to properly track the asset, it has to spend lots of money and that spending eats into the ETF’s returns.

The other reason average investors shouldn’t fool with leveraged ETF’s is because while they provide 3X upside, they also have 3X downside risk. If the S&P 500 falls 5% and you hold the 3X S&P 500 ETF, you just lost 15%. Remember the flash crash, Black Monday, Black Friday; yes large one day moves do happen, not to mention the regular daily 1.5% drops or pops which quite common.

Next time you are using an ETF screener and see 2X or 3X Leveraged ETF’s with the highest performance over a certain period of time, remember they are more dangerous than you know.

ETF’s can be a great way to diversify a portfolio and offer reduced risk, just remember you need to fully understand what you are buying before you hit the buy button, or all the benefits ETF’s offer may go right out the door.

Naming life insurance beneficiaries: 10 ways to screw up

By Insure. com. May 16, 2013, 04:17:00 PM EDT

Naming who should get the life insurance money after you die sounds simple, but designating beneficiaries can get tricky.

Mistakes are common, financial advisers say -- and they can be heartbreaking and expensive.

When mistakes are made "you're not creating problems for you," says Keith Friedman, principal of FBO Strategies, an estate planning and insurance firm in Stamford, Conn. "You're creating problems for the people you leave behind."

Here are 10 life insurance beneficiary mistakes to avoid.

1. Naming a minor child

Life insurance companies won't pay the proceeds directly to minors. If you haven't created a trust or made any legal arrangements for someone to manage the money, the court will appoint a guardian, a costly process, to handle the proceeds until the child reaches 18 or 21, depending on the state.

Instead, you can leave the money for the child's benefit to a reliable adult; set up a trust to benefit the child and name the trust as the beneficiary of the policy; or name an adult custodian for the life insurance proceeds under the Uniform Transfers to Minor Act. Consult an estate attorney to decide the best course.

2. Making a dependent ineligible for government benefits

Naming a lifelong dependent, such as a child with special needs, as beneficiary puts the loved one at risk for losing eligibility for government assistance. Anyone who receives a gift or inheritance of more than $2,000 is disqualified for Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid, under federal law.

Work with an attorney to set up a special needs trust, and name the trust as beneficiary. A trustee you appoint will manage the money for the dependent's benefit.

3. Overlooking your spouse in a community-property state

Generally you can name anyone with whom you have a relationship as beneficiary, even a secret lover.

"Life insurance is not a judge of someone's morals," Friedman says.

However, in community-property states, your spouse typically would have to sign a form waiving rights to the money if you designate anyone else as beneficiary. Community-property states are:

4. Falling into a tax trap

Life insurance death benefits are generally tax-free -- except when three different people play the roles of policy owner, the insured and the beneficiary. In that case, the death benefit could count as a taxable gift to the beneficiary, says Amy Rose Herrick, a Chartered Financial Consultant and life insurance agent with offices in the U. S. Virgin Islands and Tecumseh, Kan.

Say, for instance, a wife owns a life insurance policy on her husband's life and names their adult daughter as beneficiary. The wife effectively is creating a gift of the policy proceeds to her daughter, Herrick says. The person who makes the gift -- the wife -- is the one who would be subject to the tax, if the amount of the gift exceeds federal limits.

The problem could be avoided in most cases by having the husband own the policy, insuring himself. However the situation can get tricky in community-property states. Consult a financial adviser to decide the best way to structure the policy.

5. Assuming your will trumps the policy

A life insurance policy is a contract. Regardless of what your will says, the life insurance money will be paid to the beneficiary listed on the policy. That's why it's important to contact your insurer to change your beneficiary if needed.

6. Forgetting to update

"Designating beneficiaries are not 'set it and forget it' events," says Tara Reynolds, vice president at MassMutual. You should review your policy every three years and after major life events, such as marriage, having children or divorce. Change the beneficiaries when circumstances change.

Unfortunately, many people forget to do so.

"Half of my practice is second or third marriages," says Peter Blatt, a tax attorney and financial adviser in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. "It's not uncommon to find the ex-spouse still listed as beneficiary on the life insurance policy" when reviewing a client's portfolio.

7. Neglecting details

You want to leave life insurance money to your kids and grandkids, and you want it divided evenly.

There are two ways of distributing the money -- per stirpes and per capita. You can specify either method on the life insurance policy, and both are acceptable options when naming beneficiaries, says Ed Graves, a professor of insurance for The American College in Bryn Mawr, Pa. "But the possible outcomes can be drastically different from one approach to the other."

Per stirpes means the proceeds are divided by branch of the family, and per capita means they are divided by head.

Say, for instance, you want to leave the money to your two children, Bob and Sue, or to your grandchildren if Bob or Sue predeceases you. Bob has three children and Sue has one child. Now suppose Bob dies before you do.

Under per stirpes, half the money would go to Bob's three children, and half would go to Sue. Under per capita, the money would be divided equally among Bob's three children and Sue; each would get 25 percent.

Choose the distribution method to match your intentions. Graves recommends you diagram the possible scenarios.

"Complex situations should probably have an attorney involved," he adds.

Be specific when you name beneficiaries. Instead of "my children," list their names, Social Security numbers and addresses, says Ed Graves, a professor of insurance at The American College in Bryn Mawr, Pa.

Otherwise, "the insurance company has to launch a search and that can take a lot of time," Graves says.

When naming multiple beneficiaries, decide whether you want the money divided "per stirpes," which means by branch of the family, or per capita, which means by head. (See sidebar.)

8. Staying mum

"The most important thing is to tell someone so they know you have a life insurance policy, where it is and how to find it," says Joshua Hazelwood, vice president at MassMutual.

Open communication with beneficiaries now can save a family from chaos later - or even worse, never claiming the benefit.

9. Giving money with no strings attached

Naming your young-adult children as beneficiaries without setting any conditions for how the money is dispersed can be a setup for financial failure. How many 18- or 21-year-olds can handle a huge influx of cash? One way is to set up a trust with specifics for how the money can be released and what it can be used for until the young adult reaches a certain age.

"It allows me as a parent to instill what I feel is valued in my absence," Friedman says. "I don't want to leave my children with millions of dollars when they're 18 with unfettered access."

Insurers are beginning to introduce policies that let you arrange for the death benefit to be paid out in installments. Minnesota Life Insurance Co.'s new indexed universal life product, Omega Builder IUL, includes that option, calling it an "income protection agreement."

10. Naming only a primary beneficiary

"Most people just think they're going to make their spouse beneficiary, but don't take into account the spouse might predecease them," Friedman says. "It's conceivable that something would happen to you and your spouse together."

Blatt says he even sees cases where people fail to name any beneficiaries. When there is no living beneficiary, the life insurance benefit typically goes into the estate and is subject to probate. That leads to two complications. One, heirs might face a long wait to get the money. Two, the life insurance proceeds, which normally would be protected from creditors, now can be used to pay off creditors.

Advisers recommend naming secondary and final beneficiaries. If the primary beneficiary dies before you do, then the money passes to the secondary beneficiary. If the secondary beneficiary has passed away when you die, then the death benefit goes to the final beneficiary.

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10 Common Tax Mistakes

Tax В­mistakes can happen to anyone -- just ask President Obama. At last count, at least four nominees to ObamaВ­'s administration were found to owe back taxes. Tom Daschle, nominated to head the U. S. Department of HeaВ­lth and Human Services, owed more than $100,000 in taxes related to unreported income and untaxed limousine service. News of the unpaid taxes led Daschle to withdraw himself from consideration for the position. Tim Geithner, Obama's secretary of the Treasury, faced fierce criticism for his failure to pay $34,000 in taxes related to his work for the International Monetary Fund, among other things. Tax issues also hindered or derailed the nominations of Obama's picks for U. S. trade representative (Ron Kirk) and chief performance officer (Nancy Killefer).

You might (or might not) be inclined to cut the president's nominees some slack. After all, the official U. S. Tax Code now numbers more than 70,000 pages long and grows thicker every year. That's the equivalent of more than 33 Oxford American dictionaries [source: В­Reuters ]. Clearly, it's difficult to keep up with all of these constantly changing rules and regulationsВ­.

You don't need to be a tax accountant, however, to avoid some of the most common mistakes people make when filing their returns. While most of these mistakes won't land you in a jail cell next to Bernie Madoff, they might cause you a few headaches as you deal with delays in your refund check or pay penalties and interest. So without further ado, and in no particular order, let's get on to some tax doozies that you won't commit after reading our list.

Print | <a data-track-gtm="Byline" href="hsw-contact. htm"> Jonathan Atteberry </a> "10 Common Tax Mistakes" 7 April 2009.<br />HowStuffWorks. com. &lt;http://money. howstuffworks. com/personal-finance/personal-income-taxes/10-tax-mistakes. htm&gt; 17 March 2016" href="#">Citation & Date

The Top 10 - The Biggest Mistakes Endurance Athletes Make

1. Excess hydration

Optimum nutritional support for endurance athletics means consuming the right amount of the right nutrients at the right time. You can neither overload nor undersupply your body without compromising athletic performance and incurring detrimental results. The principle of avoiding both too much and too little especially applies to hydration, where serious consequences occur from either mistake. If you don't drink enough, you'll suffer from unpleasant and performance-ruining dehydration. Drink too much, however, and you'll not only end up with impaired athletic performance, you may even be flirting with potentially lifethreatening water intoxication.

One of the most respected researchers on hydration, Dr. Tim Noakes, studied the effects of thousands of endurance athletes and noted that the front-runners typically tend to dehydrate, while overhydration occurs most often among middle to back-of-the-pack athletes. Both conditions lead to hyponatremia (low blood sodium), but through different processes. Excess water consumption causes what is known as dilutional hyponatremia, or an overly diluted level of sodium and electrolytes in the blood. This is as bad as underhydrating in regards to increased potential for muscular cramping, but has the added disadvantages of stomach discomfort, bloating, and extra urine output. And, as mentioned earlier, in some unfortunate circumstances, excess hydration can lead to severe physiological circumstances, including death.

Unfortunately, endurance athletes too often adopt the if a little is good, a lot is better approach. This can lead to significant problems when you're trying to meet your hydration requirements. All it takes is one poor performance or DNF due to cramping and you start thinking, Hmm, maybe I didn't drink enough. Next thing you know, you're drinking so much water and fluids that your thirst is quenched but your belly is sloshing and you're still cramping. Remember, both undersupply and oversupply of fluid will get you in trouble.

How much should one drink? One expert, Dr. Ian Rogers, suggests that between 500-750 milliliters/ hr (about 17-25 fluid ounces/ hr) will fulfill most athletes' hydration requirements under most conditions. I believe all athletes would benefit from what Dr. Rogers says: Like most things in life, balance is the key and the balance is likely to be at a fluid intake not much above 500 milliliters (about 17 ounces) per hour in most situations, unless predicted losses are very substantial.

[Rogers, I. R. Fluid and Electrolyte Balance and Endurance Exercise: What can we learn from recent research. Wilderness Medicine Letter, 18:3, USA (2001)]

RECOMMENDATION

We at Hammer Nutrition have found that most athletes do very well under most conditions with a fluid intake of 20-25 ounces (approx 590-740 milliliters) per hour. Sometimes you may not need that much fluid,16-18 ounces (approx 473-532 ml) per hour may be quite acceptable. Sometimes you might need somewhat more, perhaps up to 28 ounces (approx 830 ml) hourly. Our position, however, is that the risk of dilutional hyponatremia increases substantially when an athlete repeatedly consumes more than 30 fluid ounces (nearly 890 ml) per hour. If more fluid intake is necessary (under very hot conditions, for example) proceed cautiously and remember to increase electrolyte intake as well to match your increased fluid intake. You can easily accomplish this by consuming a few additional Endurolytes capsules, or adding more scoops of Endurolytes Powder or Endurolytes Fizz tablets to your water/fuel bottle(s).

2. Simple sugar consumption

We believe that fructose, sucrose, glucose, and other simple sugars (mono - and disaccharides) are poor carbohydrate sources for fueling your body during exercise. Also, for optimal general health you should restrict your intake of these simple sugars (see the article 146 Reasons Sugar Ruins Your Health ).

For endurance athletes, the primary problem with fuels containing simple sugars is that they must be mixed in weak 6-8% solutions in order to match body fluid osmolality parameters (280-303 mOsm) and thus be digested with any efficiency. Unfortunately, solutions mixed and consumed at this concentration only provide, at the most, about 100 calories per hour, inadequate for maintaining energy production on an hourly basis for most athletes. Using a 6-8% solution to obtain adequate calories means your fluid intake becomes so high that it causes discomfort and bloating, and you may possibly overhydrate to the point of fluid intoxication.

You can't make a double or triple strength mixture from a simple sugar-based carbohydrate fuel in the hopes of obtaining adequate calories because the concentration of that mixture, now far beyond the 6-8% mark, will remain in your stomach until sufficiently diluted, which may cause substantial stomach distress. You can drink more fluids in the hopes of self diluting the overly concentrated mixture, but remember that you'll increase the risk of overhydration. However, if you don't dilute with more water and electrolytes, your body will recruit these from other areas that critically need them and divert them to the digestive system to deal with the concentrated simple sugar mix. This can result in a variety of stomach-related distresses, not to mention increased cramping potential.

The bottom line is that simple sugar-based drinks or gels have to be mixed and consumed at very dilute and calorically weak concentrations in order to be digested with any efficiency. A simple sugar-based product used at a properly mixed concentration cannot provide adequate calories to sustain energy production. Any way you look at it, fuels containing simple sugars are inefficient and therefore not recommended during prolonged exercise.

Complex carbohydrates (polysaccharides) are the best choice for endurance athletes, as they allow your digestive system to rapidly and efficiently process a greater volume of calories, providing steady energy. Unlike simple sugars, which match body fluid osmolality at 6-8% solutions, complex carbohydrates match body fluid osmolality at substantially more concentrated 15-18% solutions. Even at this seemingly high concentration, complex carbohydrates (maltodextrins/glucose polymers) will empty the stomach at the same efficient rate as normal body fluids, providing up to three times more calories for energy production than simple sugar mixtures. This means that you can fulfill your caloric requirements without running the risk of overhydration or other stomach-related maladies.

RECOMMENDATION

To get the proper amount of easily digested calories, rely on fuels that use complex carbohydrates (maltodextrins or glucose polymers) only, with no added simple sugar as their carbohydrate source.

Hammer Gel and HEED are ideal for workouts and races of up to two hours, sometimes longer in certain circumstances. For longer workouts and races, select Perpetuem or Sustained Energy as your primary fuel choice.

3. Improper amounts of calories

Too many endurance athletes fuel their bodies under the premise, If I burn 500- 800 calories an hour, I must consume that much or I'll bonk. However, repeating what Dr. Bill Misner stated earlier in The GUIDE, To suggest that fluids, sodium, and fuels-induced glycogen replenishment can happen at the same rate as it is spent during exercise is simply not true. Endurance exercise beyond 1-2 hours is a deficit spending entity, with proportionate return or replenishment always in arrears. The endurance exercise outcome is to postpone fatigue, not to replace all the fuel, fluids, and electrolytes lost during the event. It can't be done, though many of us have tried. Simply put, your body can't replenish calories as fast as it expends them (ditto for fluids and electrolytes). Athletes who try to replace calories out with an equal or near equal amount of calories in usually suffer digestive maladies, with the inevitable poorer-than-expected outcome, and possibly the dreaded DNF ( Did Not Finish ). Body fat and glycogen stores easily fill the gap between energy output and fuel intake, so it's detrimental overkill to attempt calorie-for-calorie replacement.

Keep this in mind if you're doing ultraendurance events, especially if you've had to alter the game plan and are unable to stick to your planned hourly caloric intake. For example, let's say you've been consuming an average of 150 calories an hour, but the heat or other circumstances (such as climbing a very long hill) prevent you from maintaining that desired hourly average. DO NOT try to make up lost ground by consuming additional calories; it's not only unnecessary, it may very well cause a lot of stomach distress, which will hurt your performance. Remember, during periods where fuel consumption may be less than your original hourly plan, body fat stores will effectively fill in the gap, thus eliminating the need to overcompensate with calories.

RECOMMENDATION

In general, an intake of 120-150 calories per hour is absolutely sufficient for the average size endurance athlete (approximately 160- 165 lbs/approx 72.5-75 kg). Lighter weight athletes ( 190 lbs/approx 86 kg) may need slightly more on occasion, the key word being may.

When it comes to calorie intake, your focus should NOT be How much can I consume before I get sick? but rather, What is the least amount of calories I need to keep my body doing what I want it to do hour after hour? Start with our dosage recommendations as outlined in the article The Hammer Nutrition Fuels - What they are and how to use them (found in our supplementary booklet) and fine tune your intake as needed. As is the case in all aspects of fueling, when it comes to caloric intake you need to determine, via thorough testing under a variety of conditions, what amounts work best for you.

4. Inconsistent Electrolyte Supplementation

Consuming sufficient amounts of calories and fluids during workouts and races is an obvious necessity. Consistent electrolyte supplementation is equally important. Just as your car's engine requires sufficient oil to keep its many parts running smoothly, your body requires electrolytic minerals to maintain smooth performance of vital functions such as muscle contraction. Athletes who neglect this important component of fueling will impair their performance, and may incur painful and debilitating cramping and spasms, a sure way to ruin a workout or race.

However, this doesn't mean that athletes should indiscriminately ingest copious amounts of one or more electrolytes; sodium (salt) is usually the most misused. Supplementing with only one electrolyte or consuming too much of one or more electrolytic minerals overrides the complex and precise mechanisms that regulate proper electrolyte balance. The solution is to provide the body with a balanced blend of these important minerals in a dose that cooperates with and enhances body mechanisms. Salt tablets alone cannot sufficiently satisfy electrolyte requirements, and excess salt consumption will cause more problems than it resolves.

Additionally, remember that electrolyte replenishment is important even when it's, not hot outside. Sure, you may not need as much as you would in hotter weather, but your body still requires consistent replenishment of these minerals to maintain the optimal performance of many important bodily functions. You don't wait until you dehydrate before you drink fluids, or until you bonk before you put some calories back in your body, do you? Of course not. You fulfill your fueling requirements before the consequences of inadequate replenishment strike. The same principle applies to electrolyte replenishment. Going back to the engine/oil analogy, you don't wait until the engine seizes before refilling the oil reservoir. The same is true for electrolytes, the body's motor oil, in that you don't want to wait until you start cramping before you replenish these important minerals.

RECOMMENDATION

Endurolytes. in capsule or powder form, is an inexpensive, easy-to-dose, and easy-to-consume way to get your necessary electrolytes. Use Endurolytes consistently during workouts and races to fulfill this crucial fueling need.

5. No protein during prolonged exercise

When exercise extends beyond about two hours, your body begins to utilize some protein to fulfill its energy requirements, as you begin to derive glucose from amino acids. This metabolic process helps to satisfy anywhere from 5-15% of your energy needs. If you fail to include protein in your fuel, your body has only one other choice: your own muscle! Called lean muscle tissue catabolism or muscle cannibalization, this process devastates performance through muscle deterioration and increased fatigue-causing ammonia accumulation, and also negatively affects the immune system and recovery. The longer your workout or race, the greater these problems are compounded. While carbohydrates are still the primary component of your fuel, it should include a small amount of protein when training sessions or races last longer than two to three hours. We believe that soy protein's amino acid profile is ideal for use during exercise, which is why Hammer Nutrition's Perpetuem and Sustained Energy contain soy as the protein source. For instance, compared to whey protein (which is ideal for recovery), soy protein has higher levels of phenylalanine and tyrosine, which may aid in maintaining alertness during ultra-distance races. Soy protein has higher amounts of histidine, which is part of the beta-alanyl l-histidine dipeptide known as carnosine, which has antioxidant/acid buffering benefits. Finally, soy protein has higher levels of aspartic acid, which plays an important role in energy production via the Krebs cycle.

We believe soy protein’s amino acid profile is ideal for use during exercise, which is why Hammer Nutrition’s Perpetuem and Sustained Energy contain soy as the protein source. For instance, compared to whey protein (which is ideal for recovery), soy protein has higher levels of phenylalanine, which may aid in maintaining alertness during ultra-distance races. Soy protein has higher amounts of histidine, which is part of the beta-alanyl l-histidine dipeptide known as carnosine, which has antioxidant/acid buffering benefits. Finally, soy protein has higher levels of aspartic acid, which plays an important role in energy production via the Krebs cycle.

Thoughts on protein intake

“Soy’s remarkable donation to endurance performance is deserving of our review. Soy has been observed to produce a higher degree of uric acid content than whey proteins. Uric acid is reduced by excessive free radicals produced during exercise. When uric acid levels are higher, that is an indication of less free radical release due to antioxidant influence of the isoflavones found exclusively in soy. This is one reason why soy may be the preferred dietary protein application during endurance exercise.”

- William Misner, Ph. D. - Director of Research & Product Development, Emeritus

RECOMMENDATION

Using Perpetuem or Sustained Energy as your primary fuel during workouts and races longer than two to three hours will satisfy energy requirements from a precise ratio of complex carbohydrates and Soy Protein. the latter of which helps protect against excess muscle breakdown. You stay healthier, reduce soreness, and decrease recovery time.

6. Too much solid food during exercise

In the 1985 Race Across America (RAAM), Jonathan Boyer rode to victory using a liquid diet as his primary fuel source. Since then, it has become the norm for endurance and ultra-endurance athletes. Liquid nutrition is the easiest, most convenient, and most easily digested way to get a calorie and nutrient-dense fuel. Solid food, for the most part, cannot match the precision or nutrient density of the best liquid fuels. In addition, too much solid food consumption will divert blood from working muscles for the digestive process. This, along with the amount of digestive enzymes, fluids, and time required in breaking down the constituents of solid food, can cause bloating, nausea, and/or lethargy. Lastly, some of the calories ingested from solid foods are used up simply to break down and digest them; in essence, these calories are wasted.

Occasional solid food intake provides a welcome diversion during ultra-endurance efforts, but we don't recommend it as your primary fuel source. In fact, our position is that NO solid food is necessary (even food as healthy as the Hammer Bar) during workouts or races in the 12-hour-or-under range. If, however, you choose to consume solid food during your workouts or races, even during ultra distance events, we suggest you take heed to these two recommendations:

Pay Attention!

Choose foods that have little or no refined sugar or saturated fats. Don't think, I'm a calorie burning machine so I can eat anything I want. calories are calories. Remember, what you put in your body greatly determines what you get out of it. The well-known phrase garbage in, garbage out fully applies here.

Use solid food sparingly, and only as an exception or diversion. Maintain your primary intake through liquid/gel sources.

RECOMMENDATION

Use Hammer Gel, HEED, Sustained Energy, and/or Perpetuem as your primary fuel source during exercise. These provide precise amounts of specific nutrients and are designed for easy digestion, rapid nutrient utilization, and less chance of stomach distress. Also, the numerous flavors and mixing options give you plenty of variety. If you do decide to consume solid food, use it sparingly and select high-quality foods such as the Hammer Bar.

7. Using something new in a race without having tested it in training

The title is pretty self-explanatory; it's one of THE cardinal rules for all athletes, yet you'd be amazed at how many break it. Are you guilty as well? Unless you're absolutely desperate and willing to accept the consequences, do not try anything new in competition, be it equipment, fuel, or tactics. These all must be tested and refined in training.

RECOMMENDATION

Because all of the Hammer Nutrition fuels are complementary (they all work well alone or in combination), you have all the flexibility you need to ensure that you can tailor a fueling program for any length of race, regardless of the conditions. You'll never have to guess or grab something off the aid station table in the hopes of trying to keep going for another hour. Use Hammer Nutrition fuels, try a variety of combinations in training, and keep a log of what works best for you. If you expand your training log to include fuel intake also, you'll have the data you need to prepare a smart fueling protocol for your next event.

8. Sticking with your game plan even when it's not working

Endurance athletes tend to be strong-willed and uncompromising. Most strive to have a game plan in place for their training program, which is, of course, an excellent idea. Smart athletes also have a strategy for their supplements and fueling. Having this nutritional game plan that you've honed during training is a big step toward success on race day, but don't slavishly adhere to it during the race if it's not working. What does fine in terms of fueling - your hourly intake of fluids, calories, and electrolytes, during training at a slower pace and lower overall energy output, might fail during competition. Athletes who stubbornly maintain the same fuel intake hour after hour, even when it's clearly not working, end up with poorer results, if they finish at all.

Yes, it's important to maintain consistent caloric intake during a workout or race, but if the weather gets hot, the body's ability to process calories usually diminishes. It's important to recognize this and to listen to your body. Continuing to force down X amount of calories an hour (the original game plan ), especially under extreme conditions when your body cannot properly assimilate them, puts a burden on your stomach and can cause any number of stomach-related maladies, which will certainly hinder or ruin performance. In the heat, it becomes more important to stay hydrated and maintain adequate electrolyte levels, so be willing to cut back on calorie consumption. Body fat stores, which satisfy up to two-thirds of energy requirements during prolonged exercise, will accommodate energy needs during occasional breaks from regular intervals of fuel consumption. During the heat, fueling is still important, but the focus shifts towards maintaining hydration and proper electrolyte levels. Resume regular caloric intake when you start feeling more acclimated to the heat and your stomach has had some time to assimilate the fuel that it already has.

In a similar, but non-fueling vein, another time when it's not a wise idea to stick to your training plan is after you've had a poorer-thanexpected race. Many athletes think that the cure for a poor race is to train harder and longer. Instead of recuperating, many athletes will train themselves into the ground, usually ending up not fitter, but overtrained, with a poorly functioning immune system. A better tactic is to recuperate completely after your race, evaluating what went right and what went wrong during the race, then adapting your training accordingly; training harder and longer isn't necessarily your best option. Remember that recovery is as important a part of your training and the achievement of your athletic goals as the actual training session. Make sure that you take your recovery as seriously as your training.

RECOMMENDATION

It's a good practice to have a game plan that includes a fueling protocol that you have refined during training, but you need to be flexible. Evaluate and adjust accordingly as race pace and weather dictate. Have a game plan, but write it in pencil, not in ink.

9. Inadequate post-workout nutrition

Performance improvement depends on a program of exercise that stimulates muscular and cardiovascular adaptation followed by a recovery period in which the body rebuilds itself slightly more fit than before. Thus, the real gain of exercise occurs during recovery, but only in the presence of adequate rest and nutritional support. Athletes who fail to replenish carbohydrates and protein shortly after workouts will never obtain full value from their efforts. So even though all you may want to do after a hard workout is get horizontal and not move for several hours, you must first take care of what might be the most important part of your workout: the replenishment of carbohydrates and protein.

Carbohydrate replenishment as soon as possible upon completion of a workout (ideally within the first 30-60 minutes) takes advantage of high glycogen synthase activity, imperative to maximizing muscle glycogen, the first fuel the body uses when exercise commences. Protein supplies the amino acids necessary to (a) maximize glycogen storage potential, (b) rebuild and repair muscle tissue, and (c) support optimal immune system function.

This is also an ideal time to provide the body with cellular protection support in the form of antioxidants. Because athletes use several times more oxygen than sedentary people, they are more prone to oxidative damage, which not only impairs recovery but is also considered a main cause of degenerative diseases. Consistent supplementation with a full spectrum vitamin/mineral supplement, along with any additional antioxidants, boosts and maintains the immune system and reduces recovery time.

The bottom line is that post-workout nutrition is an important component of your training, and properly done, allows you to obtain maximum benefit from your training. For more detailed information on this extremely important topic, please refer to the article, Recovery - A Crucial Component For Athletic Success .

RECOMMENDATION

Depending on a number of factors (such as body size and length/intensity of the workout), consume 30-90 grams of complex carbohydrates and 10-30 grams of protein (a 3:1 ratio of carbohydrates to protein) immediately after workouts. This is easily accomplished with Recoverite, the all-in-one, complex carbohydrate/ glutamine-fortified whey protein isolate recovery drink. Supplements to consider for providing antioxidants and supporting enhanced recovery are the Hammer Nutrition products Premium Insurance Caps, Race Caps Supreme, Mito Caps, Super Antioxidant, AO Booster, and Xobaline.

10. Improper pre-workout/race fueling

Far too often, athletes put themselves at a metabolic disadvantage during a workout or race by fueling improperly prior to it. The article PROPER FUELING - Pre-workout & race suggestions * discusses this in greater detail, but we mention it here as well because it's definitely one of the biggest fueling errors that athletes make. It's also one that is easy to remedy. Let's look at the three primary factors:

Over-consuming food the night before a race or workout in the hopes of “carbo loading” – It would be nice if you could maximize muscle glycogen stores the night before a race or tough workout; unfortunately, human physiology doesn’t work that way. Increasing and maximizing muscle glycogen stores takes many weeks of consistent training and post-workout fuel replenishment. Excess consumed carbohydrates the night before will only be eliminated or stored as body fat (dead weight).

Over-consuming calories in your pre-workout/race meal – The goal of pre-exercise calorie consumption is to top off your liver glycogen, which has been depleted during your sleep. Believe it or not, to accomplish this you don’t need to eat a mega-calorie meal (600, 800, 1000 calories or more), as some would have you believe. A pre-workout/race meal of 200-400 calories—comprised of complex carbohydrates, perhaps a small amount of soy or rice protein, little or no fiber or fat, and consumed three or more hours prior to the start—is quite sufficient. You can’t add anything to muscle glycogen stores at this time so stuffing yourself is counterproductive, especially if you’ve got an early morning workout or race start.

Eating a pre-race meal at the wrong time – Let’s assume that you’ve been really good – you’ve been training hard (yet wisely) and replenishing your body with adequate amounts of high-quality calories as soon as possible after every workout. As a result, you’ve now built up a nice 60-90 minute reservoir of muscle glycogen, the first fuel your body will use when the race begins. A sure way to deplete those hard-earned glycogen stores too rapidly is to eat a meal (or an energy bar, gel, or sports drink) an hour or two prior to the start of the race.

RECOMMENDATION

Don’t go overboard with your food consumption the night before a workout or race. Especially important for races is the adherence of these two rules:

Eat clean, which means no refined sugar (skip dessert, or eat fruit), low or no saturated fats, and no alcohol.

Eat until you’re satisfied, but not more.

If you’re going to have a meal the morning of your workout or race, you need to eat an appropriate amount of calories (don’t overdo it), and finish all calorie consumption at least three hours prior to the start of the workout or race. If that’s not logistically feasible, have a small amount (100 calories) of easily digested complex carbohydrates 5-10 minutes prior to the start. Either of these strategies will help top off liver glycogen stores (which again, is the goal of pre-exercise calorie consumption) without negatively affecting how your body burns its muscle glycogen.

HONORABLE MENTION

Overcompensating in the days leading up to a race

Far too many athletes overdo it in terms of calorie, fluid, and salt consumption in the days leading up to a race, thinking they’re getting a head start on their fueling needs come race day. Big mistake! Here are the fueling/diet-specific areas to focus on and our recommendations on how to avoid these commonly-made mistakes:

FLUIDS – Don't drink excess amounts of water in the hopes of getting a head start on your fluid requirements for the race. Consumption of roughly .5 to .6 of your body weight is a good gauge in regards to how much water you should be consuming daily (example: 180-lb/approx 82-kg athletes should drink approximately 90-108 ounces of water daily). However, if you’ve not been following this recommendation consistently, don’t start now, as this will overwhelm your body with too much fluid too soon, which may increase the potential for hyponatremia.

CALORIES – As discussed earlier, don’t stuff yourself with extra food in the hopes that you're “carbo loading.” The time period for carbohydrate loading (i. e. maximizing muscle glycogen storage capabilities) has, for all intents and purposes, passed. In essence, “carbo loading" is what you did in the 0-60 minutes after all your workouts leading up to the race. That’s when the glycogen synthase enzyme—which controls glycogen storage—is most active, and that’s how you topped off your glycogen stores. Any excess food you eat in the days leading up to the race is either going to be passed through the bowels or stored in adipose cells. neither of those things will benefit you.

SODIUM – Don’t consume extra sodium (salt) in the hopes that you’ll be “topping off your body stores” prior to the race. Since the average American already consumes approximately 6000 to 8000 mg per day (if not more), an amount well above the upper end recommended dose of 2300-2400 mg/day, there is absolutely no need to increase that amount in the days prior to the race. (Hint: Adopting a low-sodium diet will do wonders for both your health and athletic performance). High sodium intake, especially in the days leading up to the race, is a recipe for disaster because it will greatly increase the potential for disruption of the hormonal mechanisms that control sodium regulation, re-circulation, and conservation. In the days leading up the race, be especially cognizant of the salt content in your foods, especially if you go out to eat. Dining out can easily increase your already-high salt intake dramatically (into double figures!).

On a non-diet/fueling note, avoid the temptation to train too much and/or too close to race day. You will not be able to positively influence your fitness level in the days leading up to the race; however, you can negatively impact your race by training during that time (training meaning anything of significant duration or intensity). As well-known coach Jeff Cuddeback states, " If you think you're going to further your fitness through training the week of your key race, you're sadly mistaken. If you are the type to train right up to the event, you will almost certainly underperform.”

The best performances in long-duration events are achieved by getting to the starting line well rested rather than razor sharp. In doing so, you may find yourself not hitting on all cylinders during those first few minutes. In fact, you might even struggle a bit. However, your body will not forget all the training you've done and it will absolutely reward you for giving it the time it needed to "soak up" all of that training.

Buggy C# Code: The 10 Most Common Mistakes That C# Developers Make

About C#

C# is one of several languages that target the Microsoft Common Language Runtime (CLR). Languages that target the CLR benefit from features such as cross-language integration and exception handling, enhanced security, a simplified model for component interaction, and debugging and profiling services. Of today’s CLR languages, C# is the most widely used for complex, professional development projects that target the Windows desktop, mobile, or server environments.

C# is an object oriented, strongly-typed language. The strict type checking in C#, both at compile and run times, results in the majority of typical programming errors being reported as early as possible, and their locations pinpointed quite accurately. This can save the C# programmer a lot of time, compared to tracking down the cause of puzzling errors which can occur long after the offending operation takes place in languages which are more liberal with their enforcement of type safety. However, a lot of programmers unwittingly (or carelessly) throw away the benefits of this detection, which leads to some of the issues discussed in this C# tutorial.

About this Tutorial

This tutorial describes 10 of the most common programming mistakes made, or problems to be avoided, by C# programmers and provide them with help.

While most of the mistakes discussed in this article are C# specific, some are also relevant to other languages that target the CLR or make use of the Framework Class Library (FCL).

Common Mistake #1: Using a reference like a value or vice versa

Programmers of C++, and many other languages, are accustomed to being in control of whether the values they assign to variables are simply values or are references to existing objects. In C#, however, that decision is made by the programmer who wrote the object, not by the programmer who instantiates the object and assigns it to a variable. This is a common “gotcha” for newbie C# programmers.

If you don’t know whether the object you’re using is a value type or reference type, you could run into some surprises. Por ejemplo:

As you can see, both the Point and Pen objects were created the exact same way, but the value of point1 remained unchanged when a new X coordinate value was assigned to point2. whereas the value of pen1 was modified when a new color was assigned to pen2. We can therefore deduce that point1 and point2 each contain their own copy of a Point object, whereas pen1 and pen2 contain references to the same Pen object. But how can we know that without doing this experiment?

The answer is to look at the definitions of the object types (which you can easily do in Visual Studio by placing your cursor over the name of the object type and pressing F12):

As shown above, in C#, the struct keyword is used to define a value type, while the class keyword is used to define a reference type. For those with a C++ background, who were lulled into a false sense of security by the many similarities between C++ and C# keywords, this behavior likely comes as a surprise that may have you asking for help from a C# tutorial.

If you’re going to depend on some behavior which differs between value and reference types – such as the ability to pass an object as a method parameter and have that method change the state of the object – make sure that you’re dealing with the correct type of object to avoid C# problems.

Common Mistake #2: Misunderstanding default values for uninitialized variables

In C#, value types can’t be null. By definition, value types have a value, and even uninitialized variables of value types must have a value. This is called the default value for that type. This leads to the following, usually unexpected result when checking if a variable is uninitialized:

Why isn’t point1 null? The answer is that Point is a value type, and the default value for a Point is (0,0), not null. Failure to recognize this is a very easy (and common) mistake to make in C#.

Many (but not all) value types have an IsEmpty property which you can check to see if it is equal to its default value:

When you’re checking to see if a variable has been initialized or not, make sure you know what value an uninitialized variable of that type will have by default and don’t rely on it being null..

Common Mistake #3: Using improper or unspecified string comparison methods

There are many different ways to compare strings in C#.

Although many programmers use the == operator for string comparison, it is actually one of the least desirable methods to employ, primarily because it doesn’t specify explicitly in the code which type of comparison is wanted.

Rather, the preferred way to test for string equality in C# is with the Equals method:

The first method signature (i. e. without the comparisonType parameter), is actually the same as using the == operator, but has the benefit of being explicitly applied to strings. It performs an ordinal comparison of the strings, which is basically a byte-by-byte comparison. In many cases this is exactly the type of comparison you want, especially when comparing strings whose values are set programmatically, such as file names, environment variables, attributes, etc. In these cases, as long as an ordinal comparison is indeed the correct type of comparison for that situation, the only downside to using the Equals method without a comparisonType is that somebody reading the code may not know what type of comparison you’re making.

Using the Equals method signature that includes a comparisonType every time you compare strings, though, will not only make your code clearer, it will make you explicitly think about which type of comparison you need to make. This is a worthwhile thing to do, because even if English may not provide a whole lot of differences between ordinal and culture-sensitive comparisons, other languages provide plenty, and ignoring the possibility of other languages is opening yourself up to a lot of potential for errors down the road. Por ejemplo:

The safest practice is to always provide a comparisonType parameter to the Equals method. Here are some basic guidelines:

When comparing strings that were input by the user, or are to be displayed to the user, use a culture-sensitive comparison ( CurrentCulture or CurrentCultureIgnoreCase ).

When comparing programmatic strings, use ordinal comparison ( Ordinal or OrdinalIgnoreCase ).

InvariantCulture and InvariantCultureIgnoreCase are generally not to be used except in very limited circumstances, because ordinal comparisons are more efficient. If a culture-aware comparison is necessary, it should usually be performed against the current culture or another specific culture.

In addition to the Equals method, strings also provide the Compare method, which gives you information about the relative order of strings instead of just a test for equality. This method is preferable to the <. <=. > and >= operators, for the same reasons as discussed above–to avoid C# problems.

Common Mistake #4: Using iterative (instead of declarative) statements to manipulate collections

In C# 3.0, the addition of Language-Integrated Query (LINQ) to the language changed forever the way collections are queried and manipulated. Since then, if you’re using iterative statements to manipulate collections, you didn’t use LINQ when you probably should have.

Some C# programmers don’t even know of LINQ’s existence, but fortunately that number is becoming increasingly small. Many still think, though, that because of the similarity between LINQ keywords and SQL statements, its only use is in code that queries databases.

While database querying is a very prevalent use of LINQ statements, they actually work over any enumerable collection (i. e. any object that implements the IEnumerable interface). So for example, if you had an array of Accounts, instead of writing:

you could just write:

While this is a pretty simple example of how to avoid this common C# programming problem, there are cases where a single LINQ statement can easily replace dozens of statements in an iterative loop (or nested loops) in your code. And less code general means less opportunities for bugs to be introduced. Keep in mind, however, there may be a trade-off in terms of performance. In performance-critical scenarios, especially where your iterative code is able to make assumptions about your collection that LINQ cannot, be sure to do a performance comparison between the two methods.

Common Mistake #5: Failing to consider the underlying objects in a LINQ statement

LINQ is great for abstracting the task of manipulating collections, whether they are in-memory objects, database tables, or XML documents. In a perfect world, you wouldn’t need to know what the underlying objects are. But the error here is assuming we live in a perfect world. In fact, identical LINQ statements can return different results when executed on the exact same data, if that data happens to be in a different format.

For instance, consider the following statement:

What happens if one of the object’s account. Status equals “Active” (note the capital A)? Well, if myAccounts was a DbSet object (that was set up with the default case-insensitive configuration), the where expression would still match that element. However, if myAccounts was in an in-memory array, it would not match, and would therefore yield a different result for total.

But wait a minute. When we talked about string comparison earlier, we saw that the == operator performed an ordinal comparison of strings. So why in this case is the == operator performing a case-insensitive comparison?

The answer is that when the underlying objects in a LINQ statement are references to SQL table data (as is the case with the Entity Framework DbSet object in this example), the statement is converted into a T-SQL statement. Operators then follow T-SQL rules, not C# rules, so the comparison in the above case ends up being case insensitive.

In general, even though LINQ is a helpful and consistent way to query collections of objects, in reality you still need to know whether or not your statement will be translated to something other than C# under the hood to ensure that the behavior of your code will be as expected at runtime.

Common Mistake #6: Getting confused or faked out by extension methods

As mentioned earlier, LINQ statements work on any object that implements IEnumerable. For example, the following simple function will add up the balances on any collection of accounts:

In the above code, the type of the myAccounts parameter is declared as IEnumerable<Account>. Since myAccounts references a Sum method (C# uses the familiar “dot notation” to reference a method on a class or interface), we’d expect to see a method called Sum() on the definition of the IEnumerable<T> interfaz. However, the definition of IEnumerable<T>. makes no reference to any Sum method and simply looks like this:

So where is the Sum() method defined? C# is strongly typed, so if the reference to the Sum method was invalid, the C# compiler would certainly flag it as an error. We therefore know that it must exist, but where? Moreover, where are the definitions of all the other methods that LINQ provides for querying or aggregating these collections?

The answer is that Sum() is not a method defined on the IEnumerable interface. Rather, it is a static method (called an “extension method”) that is defined on the System. Linq. Enumerable class:

So what makes an extension method different from any other static method and what enables us to access it in other classes?

The distinguishing characteristic of an extension method is the this modifier on its first parameter. This is the “magic” that identifies it to the compiler as an extension method. The type of the parameter it modifies (in this case IEnumerable<TSource> ) denotes the class or interface which will then appear to implement this method.

(As a side point, there’s nothing magical about the similarity between the name of the IEnumerable interface and the name of the Enumerable class on which the extension method is defined. This similarity is just an arbitrary stylistic choice.)

With this understanding, we can also see that the sumAccounts function we introduced above could instead have been implemented as follows:

The fact that we could have implemented it this way instead raises the question of why have extension methods at all? Extension methods are essentially a convenience of the C# language that enables you to “add” methods to existing types without creating a new derived type, recompiling, or otherwise modifying the original type.

Extension methods are brought into scope by including a using [namespace]; statement at the top of the file. You need to know which namespace includes the extension methods you’re looking for, but that’s pretty easy to determine once you know what it is you’re searching for.

When the C# compiler encounters a method call on an instance of an object, and doesn’t find that method defined on the referenced object class, it then looks at all extension methods that are within scope to try to find one which matches the required method signature and class. If it finds one, it will pass the instance reference as the first argument to that extension method, then the rest of the arguments, if any, will be passed as subsequent arguments to the extension method. (If the C# compiler doesn’t find any corresponding extension method within scope, it will throw an error.)

Extension methods are an example of “syntactic sugar” on the part of the C# compiler, which allows us to write code that is (usually) clearer and more maintainable. Clearer, that is, if you’re aware of their usage. Otherwise, it can be a bit confusing, especially at first.

While there certainly are advantages to using extension methods, they can cause problems and a cry for C# help for those developers who aren’t aware of them or don’t properly understand them. This is especially true when looking at code samples online, or at any other pre-written code. When such code produces compiler errors (because it invokes methods that clearly aren’t defined on the classes they’re invoked on), the tendency is to think the code applies to a different version of the library, or to a different library altogether. A lot of time can be spent searching for a new version, or phantom “missing library”, that doesn’t exist.

Even developers who are familiar with extension methods still get caught occasionally, when there is a method with the same name on the object, but its method signature differs in a subtle way from that of the extension method. A lot of time can be wasted looking for a typo or error that just isn’t there.

Use of extension methods in C# libraries is becoming increasingly prevalent. In addition to LINQ, the Unity Application Block and the Web API framework are examples of two heavily-used modern libraries by Microsoft which make use of extension methods as well, and there are many others. The more modern the framework, the more likely it is that it will incorporate extension methods.

Of course, you can write your own extension methods as well. Realize, however, that while extension methods appear to get invoked just like regular instance methods, this is really just an illusion. In particular, your extension methods can’t reference private or protected members of the class they’re extending and therefore cannot serve as a complete replacement for more traditional class inheritance.

Common Mistake #7: Using the wrong type of collection for the task at hand

C# provides a large variety of collection objects, with the following being only a partial list: Array. ArrayList. BitArray. BitVector32. Dictionary<K, V>. HashTable. HybridDictionary. List<T>. NameValueCollection. OrderedDictionary. Queue, Queue<T>. SortedList. Stack, Stack<T>. StringCollection. StringDictionary .

While there can be cases where too many choices is as bad as not enough choices, that isn’t the case with collection objects. The number of options available can definitely work to your advantage. Take a little extra time upfront to research and choose the optimal collection type for your purpose. It will likely result in better performance and less room for error.

If there’s a collection type specifically targeted at the type of element you have (such as string or bit) lean toward using that one first. The implementation is generally more efficient when it’s targeted to a specific type of element.

To take advantage of the type safety of C#, you should usually prefer a generic interface over a non-generic one. The elements of a generic interface are of the type you specify when you declare your object, whereas the elements of non-generic interfaces are of type object. When using a non-generic interface, the C# compiler can’t type-check your code. Also, when dealing with collections of primitive value types, using a non-generic collection will result in repeated boxing/unboxing of those types, which can result in a significant negative performance impact when compared to a generic collection of the appropriate type.

Another common C# problem is to write your own collection object. That isn’t to say it’s never appropriate, but with as comprehensive a selection as the one. NET offers, you can probably save a lot of time by using or extending one that already exists, rather than reinventing the wheel. In particular, the C5 Generic Collection Library for C# and CLI offers a wide array of additional collections “out of the box”, such as persistent tree data structures, heap based priority queues, hash indexed array lists, linked lists, and much more.

Common Mistake #8: Neglecting to free resources

The CLR environment employs a garbage collector, so you don’t need to explicitly free the memory created for any object. In fact, you can’t. There’s no equivalent of the C++ delete operator or the free() function in C. But that doesn’t mean that you can just forget about all objects after you’re done using them. Many types of objects encapsulate some other type of system resource (e. g. a disk file, database connection, network socket, etc.). Leaving these resources open can quickly deplete the total number of system resources, degrading performance and ultimately leading to program faults.

While a destructor method can be defined on any C# class, the problem with destructors (also called finalizers in C#) is that you can’t know for sure when they will be called. They are called by the garbage collector (on a separate thread, which can cause additional complications) at an indeterminate time in the future. Trying to get around these limitations by forcing garbage collection with GC. Collect() is not a good practice, as that will block the thread for an unknown amount of time while it collects all objects eligible for collection.

This is not to say there are no good uses for finalizers, but freeing resources in a deterministic way isn’t one of them. Rather, when you’re operating on a file, network or database connection, you want to explicitly free the underlying resource as soon as you are done with it.

Resource leaks are a concern in almost any environment. However, C# provides a mechanism that is robust and simple to use which, if utilized, can make leaks a much rarer occurrence. The. NET framework defines the IDisposable interface, which consists solely of the Dispose() method. Any object which implements IDisposable expects to have that method called whenever the consumer of the object is finished manipulating it. This results in explicit, deterministic freeing of resources.

If you are creating and disposing of an object within the context of a single code block, it is basically inexcusable to forget to call Dispose(). because C# provides a using statement that will ensure Dispose() gets called no matter how the code block is exited (whether it be an exception, a return statement, or simply the closing of the block). And yes, that’s the same using statement mentioned previously that is used to include namespaces at the top of your file. It has a second, completely unrelated purpose, which many C# developers are unaware of; namely, to ensure that Dispose() gets called on an object when the code block is exited:

By creating a using block in the above example, you know for sure that myFile. Dispose() will be called as soon as you’re done with the file, whether or not Read() throws an exception.

Common Mistake #9: Shying away from exceptions

C# continues its enforcement of type safety into runtime. This allows you to pinpoint errors much more quickly than in languages such as C++, where faulty type conversions can result in arbitrary values being assigned to an object’s fields. However, once again, programmers can squander this great feature, leading to C# problems. They fall into this trap because C# provides two different ways of doing things, one which can throw an exception, and one which won’t. Some will shy away from the exception route, figuring that not having to write a try/catch block saves them some coding.

For example, here are two different ways to perform an explicit type cast in C#:

The most obvious error that could occur with the use of Method 2 would be a failure to check the return value. That would likely result in an eventual NullReferenceException, which could possibly surface at a much later time, making it much harder to track down the source of the problem. In contrast, Method 1 would have immediately thrown an InvalidCastException making the source of the problem much more immediately obvious.

Moreover, even if you remember to check the return value in Method 2, what are you going to do if you find it to be null? Is the method you’re writing an appropriate place to report an error? Is there something else you can try if that cast fails? If not, then throwing an exception is the correct thing to do, so you might as well let it happen as close to the source of the problem as possible.

Here are a couple of examples of other common pairs of methods where one throws an exception and the other does not:

Some programmers are so “exception adverse” that they automatically assume the method that doesn’t throw an exception is superior. While there are certain select cases where this may be true, it is not at all correct as a generalization.

As a specific example, in a case where you have an alternative legitimate (e. g. default) action to take if an exception would have been generated, then that the non-exception approach could be a legitimate choice. In such a case, it may indeed be better to write something like this:

However, it is incorrect to assume that TryParse is therefore necessarily the “better” method. Sometimes that’s the case, sometimes it’s not. That’s why there are two ways of doing it. Use the correct one for the context you are in, remembering that exceptions can certainly be your friend as a developer.

Common Mistake #10: Allowing compiler warnings to accumulate

While this problem is definitely not C# specific, it is particularly egregious in C# since it abandons the benefits of the strict type checking offered by the C# compiler.

Warnings are generated for a reason. While all C# compiler errors signify a defect in your code, many warnings do as well. What differentiates the two is that, in the case of a warning, the compiler has no problem emitting the instructions your code represents. Even so, it finds your code a little bit fishy, and there is a reasonable likelihood that your code doesn’t accurately reflect your intent.

A common simple example for the sake of this C# tutorial is when you modify your algorithm to eliminate the use of a variable you were using, but you forget to remove the variable declaration. The program will run perfectly, but the compiler will flag the useless variable declaration. The fact that the program runs perfectly causes programmers to neglect to fix the cause of the warning. Furthermore, programmers take advantage of a Visual Studio feature which makes it easy for them to hide the warnings in the “Error List” window so they can focus only on the errors. It doesn’t take long until there are dozens of warnings, all of them blissfully ignored (or even worse, hidden).

But if you ignore this type of warning, sooner or later, something like this may very well find its way into your code:

And at the speed Intellisense allows us to write code, this error isn’t as improbable as it looks.

You now have a serious error in your program (although the compiler has only flagged it as a warning, for the reasons already explained), and depending on how complex your program is, you could waste a lot of time tracking this one down. Had you paid attention to this warning in the first place, you would have avoided this problem with a simple five-second fix.

Remember, the C# compiler gives you a lot of useful information about the robustness of your code… if you’re listening. Don’t ignore warnings. They usually only take a few seconds to fix, and fixing new ones when they happen can save you hours. Train yourself to expect the Visual Studio “Error List” window to display “0 Errors, 0 Warnings”, so that any warnings at all make you uncomfortable enough to address them immediately.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. Accordingly, there may be times when your code will look a bit fishy to the compiler, even though it is exactly how you intended it to be. In those very rare cases, use #pragma warning disable [warning id] around only the code that triggers the warning, and only for the warning ID that it triggers. This will suppress that warning, and that warning only, so that you can still stay alert for new ones.

Wrap-up

C# is a powerful and flexible language with many mechanisms and paradigms that can greatly improve productivity. As with any software tool or language, though, having a limited understanding or appreciation of its capabilities can sometimes be more of an impediment than a benefit, leaving one in the proverbial state of “knowing enough to be dangerous”.

Using a C# tutorial like this one to familiarize oneself with the key nuances of C#, such as (but by no means limited to) the problems raised in this article, will help optimize use of the language while avoiding some of its more common pitfalls.

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Great post. Congrats!!

“Using iterative (instead of declarative) statements to manipulate collections” — questionable. LINQ statements should only be used for simple processing. Complex LINQ statement is write-only code: hard to read and understand, very hard to debug, and thus expensive to maintain. “Using the wrong type of collection for the task at hand” — this is indeed very common mistake. However, the article gives no clue how to choose the correct collection. For small collections (a dozen of items) choose whichever is easier to use, for large collections however (thousands and more) you should carefully consider whether the collection should be ordered or no, and which operations will prevail, only then choose based on the big O notation of that operation.

Your second point about collections is well received, but your first point I have to disagree with: ". hard to read and understand": LINQ has enough ubiquity and history to render this complaint pointless. I saw the LINQ statement first and I totally got what it was doing immediately. It comes down to well-defined variables/functions. "very hard to debug": Same thing applies from aforementioned statement. Maybe a first year. NET developer might have some difficulty, but descriptors like "very hard" are highly subjective. I find LINQ very easy to debug.

Kudos! Good article.

“I saw the LINQ statement first and I totally got what it was doing immediately” — it means you saw simple (by my standards) LINQ statements, in the cases where the decision to use LINQ was wise. Which is not always the case. “descriptors like very hard are highly subjective”. Fine, let’s lets about objective things. You cannot step in/step over, which becomes problem e. g. if the LINQ contains non-MS extension methods — you can’t just step in to find out what it does. You cannot use intermediate IDE window with statements that have lambdas. Unlike imperative code, you can’t review intermediate results as they’re not kept in variables but lost in the call stack. Intermediate data is very often implicitly typed and unnamed. This list goes on and on… P. S. I saw a funny article entitled “What if Visual Studio had Achievements?”. The relevant item is #2 that says “Job Security – Written a LINQ query with over 30 lines of code”. In my previous comment, I was talking about _that_ kind of LINQ.

This is a surprisingly good article for a top-10 list. I'm definitely going to adjust my coding style based on it.

Sure it was a simple example. But please realize anyone can obfuscate or complicate any code, LINQ being no exception. I do concur with you about the limitations of debugging in LINQ, but this does not ipso facto warrant a dismissal of the technology - there's always a less than optimal use of any technology. Context determines everything.

My personal favourite is #9. Never use catching as one of an intended paths in a workflow, do checks. Catching exceptions is a more complex procces then you may think.

While I agree with the caption of #9, I disagree about the message it sends. If there is a valid execution path for all possible cases, you should NOT use exceptions. In a end user application, there should be checks to ensure the valid state of the application. A invalid CastException or similar should not happen. This makes it possible to reserve Exception only to real errors and not a valid program use case.

Gracias. I loved this article.

I can't stop watching this animation :D

Can you put a breakpoint in Linq? For example, if you have above statement (account. Status == "active"). and want to check why one is missing (because the status is "Active") Secondly, what about performance? Doesn't Linq do the same iteration internally? The Linq looks very elegant and convincing though, but can it sometimes be misleading? Giving people to think that this is an actual SQL statement?

Nice post. Just let you know that in code snipped of "Mistake #3", the sting comparison instruction "Console. WriteLine(s. Equals("Straße", StringComparison. CurrentCulture)); & Quot; appears in two times, one in the "output false" section and also in "output true"

I had to look at this twice, but it's Straße and straße

Ok, cool. I took a look several times and I couldn't see it, and I used the browser search to make sure, and it found me the two lines, so it searches "case insensitive" :S Sorry mate, for the inconveniences, I think that I'm not having a good Monday.

Sí. you can put a breakpoint within a LINQ clause, provided it is multiline, but you can always make it multiline.

since the compiler don't allow us to compile code like "Point p = null;" (because p is a valuetype). why can happily compile code as " if (p == null). ; & Quot; ?

c# automatically casts p to a Nullable<Point> in the if statement. After that, comparing the Nullable Point to null is perfectly valid. I did expect that it would give a warning because it doesn't really make sense to do that.

My take from this list is wow, serious language design issues! structs passed by value, who thought it a smart idea to repurpose a well known keyword into something entirely different with many repercussions? LINQ is its own special little area of hell IMNSHO. Let's use an out of language tool to simulate a DB query on a collection and treat variables with a different ruleset. Sounds smart to me, no problems I can foresee. <-- sarcasm… And lastly, to be able to assign an object as another and fail, with no exception? That's just asking for problems. Fortunately, my coding practices don't include any of these aberrations when I coded C#, but still, wow.

You have missed my favorite: var user = new User(); user = db. GemmeAUser(userId);

There are some good points in this article, but I disagree with the exception handling. Using "as" and "TryParse" should always be preferred when casting types, then the null's handled accordingly. The main reason for this is performance. Generating an exception is a very heavy operation, and whilst they should always be planned for and handled, if you can get away without using them, you should do so.

Common Mistake #0. Getting involved with C sharp. NET at all.

and Common Mistake #11 is using such a badly designed language in the first place!

In our engineering section use of LINQ is rejected in code reviews, its viewed as unnecessary and just complicates code. Same applies to other unnecessary language additions. Making languages more complicated and code more terse to save a few keystrokes is plain stupid. Not just C# see the same thing in C++ and its slowly getting worse

Great article! Thanks so much for sharing..

Our engineers reject anything that's not assembly code because it is too terse and not optimized manually.

Because Java guys cannot C#. But I don't really care I think Python is awesome, I am writing right now a mobile OS in it.

Yea, totally agree, properly designed ones would be called when the object won't have any other references to it. Wait, isn't this the what the finalizer does?

Exceptions for casting instead of checking for null is wrong. You got this one reversed. Applying your logic you shouldn't check anything, you just wrap everything in a giant try/catch all

I don't know if you realize, but this website is slow as molasses on FireFox. Not sure who is at fault, the site developer or Mozilla, but the user experience is terrible.

Based on #3 shouldn't the code example in #4 look like: account. Status. Equals("active", StringComparison. CurrentCultureIgnoreCase) :-)

Repurpose? Yes, structs in C# are rather different than in C or C++, but the fact that they are passed by value is not one of those differences. And you can't simply assign an object as another and fail without exception (such as "myCat = myDog;"), you have to explicitly use the "as" keyword to do that ("myCat = myDog as Cat;"), something you'd only do in circumstances where null on failure to convert is the behavior you want, something common enough that it is a nice syntactical shortcut.

Silly me, put the pic in the wrong place. Hopefully I didn't annoy anyone!

This false dichotomy is exactly what leads too many developers to make this mistake. There is a third option: Let the exception propagate up the stack to an exception handler placed in an appropriate spot, where it can respond in a meaningful way.

It's the "handled accordingly" part that's not always so straightforward. Sometimes the context you need to handle it accordingly is only available several frames up the stack. This is why exceptions were invented, to unwind the stack to that point. There is no reason to purposefully avoid using a language feature in a situation it was designed for.

I don't think we disagree here. #9 was specifically intended to remind the programmer that the condition you started your sentence with ("_if_ there is a valid execution path. ") does not always hold. The point is to determine whether or not that condition holds, and choose the appropriate method, as opposed to automatically choosing the one that doesn't throw the exception.

Actually not quite the same, and of course it doesn't have the ease of use of a destructor, so you can't easily use any of common design patterns to close resources like file handles.

Yet you dismissed non-LINQ code just as easily. I think the point here is that the guideline should not be "write every query/loop as a LINQ if possible".

You can put a breakpoint in any place, including lambdas - with right-click menu.

Great read. Loved the article!

i agree with you, it doesn't make sense. ¡gracias!

Garrett Alain Colas

I wish I could show you some of the LINQ I deal with at my work. 30+ lines of code, all within a methods return statement, utilizing 3-4 ternary operators, also it's a double level LINQ call. I love LINQ to interact with SQL in C#, but When it comes to arrays or lists, It's very rare it is more readable or more maintainable than a classic for loop. I decided to put a snippet on pastebin for you: http://pastebin. com/0AauZVit The above code is what LINQ always ends up looking like, at best.

Correct me if I am wrong but I think Common Mistake #2 is not actually an issue. C# compiler will not compile a code that compares anything of value type with null (see error CS0019 at MSDN documentation).

The difficulty is that if you're using LINQ-to-Entities, for example, the "account. Status. Equals("active", StringComparison. CurrentCultureIgnoreCase)" doesn't get translated into a SQL statement, and will generate a compiler error, on account of String. Equals(String, StringComparison) being a. NET Framework method, not a T-SQL method. (While perhaps future versions of EF may support the translation, I wouldn't count on it, particularly since T-SQL doesn't have a direct correlation for the StringComparison enumeration.) On the other hand, if you were doing an in-memory query using LINQ-to-Objects, it would work just fine.

Mike, thanks for taking the time to reply with an excellent explanation!

We only allow our interns to use assembly code, the rest of us just use machine hex codes.

Great read! I can confirm from own experience that #5, #9 and #10 are incredibly common among "senior" developers. #5 can happen to you if you don't understand how LINQ works, #9 can happen to you if you don't know what are exceptions and how it needs to be used in application (is there for reason and is not same as error), but #10 can only happen to a team where most people don't care at all about what they do. It makes me very sad when I see project with hundreds of warnings, it says a lot about general quality of code.

Don't get me wrong. 1. Nice article. 2. LINQ can be used in many places in a good and efficient way. Just think XML or trying to sort objects in a class. 3. Regarding #1 reference vs value, this is really problematic for programmers, because there is no intuitive way to know that if you pass a class (e. g. datarow) to another function it will work differently than if you pass an integer to that function. Of course one learns this quickly ;-) And of course, C# is great, because it is so intuitive

The problem with those snippets isn't Linq, the same thing as a foreach would be just as bad. The problem there is doing too much inside the object initialiser, which could just as easily do imperatively. If you were to replace the anonymous method with a more sensibly refactored equivalent, using Linq there would be fine.

Mistake #1 is using C#. The list of "advantages" of C# over C++ is bogus. C# is just as vulnerable, just as "complex" (whatever that means), and just as prone to errors (albeit of different nature) as C++. It makes a lot of things that are simple in C++ really hard (while the converse is less true). It is NOT cross-platform even within the MSFT ecosystem (and is even more hostile to cross-platform development if you consider non-Microsoft platforms). To date, C++ remains the best standard for cross-platform development. Finally, C# is much much much slower. So why is there C#? Simple - it's the Miscrosoft answer to Java. They saw Java gain traction, felt threatened, and decided to push their own "standard" to lock developers in. Java itself was an attempt to break Microsoft hold on developers in the 90s. It all has to do with mega-monopolies, and NOTHING to do with better, easier development.

Well said. See my post on top of the thread as to the real nature of C#.

C# raises productivity by 5 to 10 times - thats a fact, in conjunction with a tool like ReSharper even more. C++ gives more flexibility, especialy by excessive usage of templates. But this leads to code that is hard to 'debug' - yee need to debug the compilation process. C++ isn't generally faster than C#, thats a myth - measurements (Image processing) show a different picture: C# gives the same or sligtly lower speed, BUT with much cleaner and more maintainable code. A simple Parallel. For is nearly on the same level as TBB based parallel processing. Performance is not all, the performance crititical code is usually not more then 5. 10 percent of an application. I made the best expirences with some (template flooded) native C++ code for hardware related / performance critical tasks, a managed C++ wrapper for it as a bridge and C# as the language for common application development. Instead of this senseless 'Whats the best langunage' dicussions we should follow the rule: Use always the best suitable tool for a task. And combine them as figured about ealier. This gives you both, performance AND a short time to market. Btw: Batch files/Shell scripts have a performance that is even worse compared to C++/C#, but are the glue in nearly every system. the right tool for the task.

You make some good points, esp. on having the right tool for the task. But I have to "raise an exception" with the following: "C# raises productivity by 5 to 10 times - that's a fact" "The Earth is 2 times cooler than it was 100 years ago - that's a fact" "Smoking gives you healthy lungs - that's a fact" You can "prove" each of these statements with selected data from selected industry sources. Who exactly is more productive with C#? Probably true for poorly-trained graduates of a 2-year technical program who have not been trained in C or C++. Developing a GUI for Windows? Probably true too, because MSFT has done their darnedest to push C# on developers and designed their libraries to that effect. The reason why your image processing application in C# is nearly as fast is probably because it uses an image processing library written in C :) In general, more flexibility equates more productivity. Yes, it gives you more options to screw things up, but the answer to that is better training, not less flexibility. C# takes away a lot of useful tools that C++ offers to an experience developer, but the WORST is that it locks you on MSFT platforms. And don't even get me started on Java.

brianm101 I don't agree, C# is a garbage collected language, so it's much simpler, destructors aren't required because of reference counting! There are a fe subtleties for long lifetime, shared, unmanaged resources, but by eliminating the need for manual memory management, you remove an entire class of bugs from C# applications. Check out http://blogs. msdn. com/b/tom/archive/2008/04/25/understanding-when-to-use-a-finalizer-in-your-net-class. aspx More on garbage collection http://msdn. microsoft. com/en-us/library/ms973837.aspx Xenon10, finalizers do look like C++ destructors, but their role is very different, they run late and on a single finalizer thread; they will block the whole world until their processing is complete. Suggest you check out Richter's book CLR via C# http://amzn. to/1vli0Vb. If you have a shared resource whose ownership isn't clear, falling back on a finalizer is a quick but v slow fix. Sure, when all references go out of scope, it will be released, and finalize will be called - - but declaring a finalizer means the object won't be garbage collected - - who knows when its resources will be freed. Use iDisposable, keep unmanaged resources open for only a short time.

Kennymac: Having a true destructor that is actually called when the object goes out of scope or deliberately destroyed, is a very powerfully and usefull feature. You then know exactly when resources are going to be released. For example a class that uses a large amount of memory or a file handle, all can be closed off in the destructor, and you know when it will occur! I use both c++ and c#, c++ wins hands down. Although a backup garbage collector would be useful, but there are smart pointers for that now! Lack of a determinist destructor was one of the main criticisms of c# when it was being designed - Microsoft arrogance stopped c# being a better language than it is.

@brianm101:disqus They are both fantastic languages, but are based on v different memory paradigms. On performance of garbage collected languages, check out this SE Radio discussion with Martin Thompson (referring to Java mainly, but everything equally applicable to C#). http://www. se-radio. net/2014/02/episode-201-martin-thompson-on-mechanical-sympathy/

RichardW1001 is right. Let one method do one thing. Return e. g. IEnumerable from that method and proceed. So it's perfectly testable as well. There is no problem with LINQ. For me it makes code MORE readable.

You can wrap everything in a giant try/catch block but even then you have to take care that exception handling is needed in a minimal way because exception handling is expensive.

There is another thing at #1, you can have an abstract class but not an abstract struct. So when you need copy-by-value sometimes there is no way around a class. But then you can implement a DeepCopy() function that performs a MemberwiseClone() in that class to get Values instead of References.

Experienced developers would look at the problem's requirements and then choose a language that best suites the problem. You wouldn't use a fork over a spoon to eat tomato soup, both are eating utensils both solve the problem of getting food but the spoon is better suited to the problem at hand. I use C# every day at work, I use python for quick web scripts etc. I use Scala for personal projects at home because I like being able to run java code libraries and Scala libraries interchangeably. Prolog, Haskell, lisp, lua, PHP, F#,go, FatherTime(points for whomever knows that one). I could go on for days, each one has pros and cons pick one that solves the problem well and solves it in a simple (or as simple as possible) and easy to maintain manner. "C# takes away a lot of useful tools that C++ offers", Really what might those be? don't say pointers http://msdn. microsoft. com/en-us/library/y31yhkeb. aspx, C# is Feature full and allows developers to solve the same problem in a style that suites them. I'm not saying C# Fixes everything just that it fits the bill for a lot of things. "[C#] designed to lock developers to platforms" while this was made with windows in mind, it was not designed to limit to only one platform. "Microsoft first announced their. NET Framework in June 2000 it was described as "a new platform based on Internet standards",[23] and in December of that year the underlying Common Language Infrastructure was published as an open standard, "ECMA-335" http://www. ecma-international. org/publications/files/ECMA-ST-WITHDRAWN/ECMA-335,%201st%20edition,%20December%202001.pdf There is even a large open source implementation of the. NET libraries that you may have heard of called mono. All in all no one language rules them all a good Experienced developer uses the language as a tool for solving problems not just really good at using one tool and proclaiming it capable of doing most everything better than a tool that may actually fit the bill better.

While I do feel that the article may be a bit biased its does present a lot of gotchas that new C# developers should keep and eye out for. Some of the mistakes listed are not C# exclusive and avoidable by simply educating ones self on how the language behaves (ex. value vs reference, types). Some solutions need to be prefaced with "depending on the case". I also feel that the #9 may have missed the mark a little bit, they are there for catching errors IF one occurs and returning you to a "safe" place (up the stack) where you are able to safely recover. However, it is correct in saying that exceptions should not be used as a normal control statement. Even though I know better, I too, am guilty of using them incorrectly from time to time. The mistake would also benefit from having a bit more on how to use exceptions correctly. LINQ statements! LINQ like any language feature can be abused and used in such ways that it does make things harder to understand but it is a powerful tool that should not be overlooked. I like to use it when accessing data sources, and then prefer other control loops for any processing on the data. This separates processing code from data access visually and helps keep things easy to spot and understand. LINQ allows for the ability to create complex "SQL like" statements that MAY be more difficult to implement in the SQL flavor of choice. LINQ vs Extension methods, it is key to keep your understanding of these clear. LINQ is not extension methods, LINQ is not Extension methods, LINQ is not extension methods. I have seen a lot of confusion about what the difference is here even though a lot of extension methods can do linq like things and they are OFTEN(almost always) used together they are two very distinct language features. Extension methods allow for extending types that you don't necessarily have access to, such as third party dll's. linq is just really a syntactic sugar that allows for a different approach which may make things conceptually simpler to understand. its all about ease of use.

Mono. Sí. More bugs than a New York kitchen and slower than continental drift. If I wanted an environment hated and blocked by MSFT AAPL and GOOG equally I would definitely chose mono. You clearly don't like pointers (even if all C# classes are implemented as pointers to objects under the hood). No problem, many IT trainees are not good enough to handle pointers. Compared to Java of course, C# does not take much away from C++. I stand by what I say. Instead of making more robust OS and adhering to common standards wrt APIs and libraries, the large software corporations are each pushing their own "language/environment" with the result that developers have to work x3 to publish cross-platform products. To make a soup analogy, the result is a mix of tomato soup, chocolate marshmallows, and clam chowder perfumed with skunk essence served in tin cans with proprietary locks. It sucks. C++ is still the only way to write code once and easily run it across all the incompatible platforms out there.

Blocked? How so? (Also that depends on the Kitchen I like the imagery on that one) I said nothing of hating pointers actually they make my life much easier. The pointers comment was merely pointing out that a lot of complaints about C# in C# vs C++ Say that C# doesn't have them in the same way C++ does, I fear that the link following that comment apparently did not clearly convey my implication, so let me make it explicit C# does have pointers and can be used much like C++ pointers. Why compare to java, just leave it at C# does things C++ can't and C++ does things that C# can't. each have their place in this world, hence why they both still exist and have strong supporters like yourself. I understand that Mono may not be fast but it does get the job done. I wouldn't want to write a real time raytracer on Mono but a simple application to do simple process x on all my machines. sure. I may use python just because I prefer, but it doesn't change the fact that I could do it in C#, or C++. I hope I've shown C++ is not the only way but it is A way to things done. Not trying to cheapen C++'s value just sharing that it may not be the best choice for every endeavor, and hopefully someone will broaden their horizons and try to learn a new language.

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Point #1 is just wrong. The results are indeed surprising. But the lesson isn't that developers should be aware of which kind of type they're working with. The lesson is that mutable value types are pure EVIL. The fault lies with the author of the `Point` struct - not its user. I treat an `int` (an immutable value type) the exact same way I treat a `string` (a reference type). Read Eric Lippert's "Mutating Readonly Structs": http://blogs. msdn. com/b/ericlippert/archive/2008/05/14/mutating-readonly-structs. aspx

Where are the grads to fill these in-demand jobs?

College students in search of a major, take note: New research from CareerBuilder and Emsi reveals there are certain degree programs that aren't producing enough graduates to keep up with labor market demand. Translation? Earning a degree from one of these programs means you'll be in high demand once you enter the workforce. The programs highlighted in the study are undersupplying workers for occupations that already see big gaps between the number of jobs posted and the number of hires companies make each month. For example, 157,591 people graduated with degrees in computer and information sciences in 2014. On average, from January 2015 to January 2016, 689,685 computer and information technology jobs were posted each month in the U. S. However, the average number of hires was only 209,035 – leaving a gap of 480,650 positions. Which fields are affected? It's no surprise that STEM-related fields (science, technology, engineering and math) are feeling the impact of a low supply of gradu.

Education requirements on the rise

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10 Common Leadership and Management Mistakes

Avoiding Universal Pitfalls

Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes. – Oscar Wilde

It's often said that mistakes provide great learning opportunities. However, it's much better not to make mistakes in the first place!

In this article, we're looking at 10 of the most common leadership and management errors, and highlighting what you can do to avoid them. If you can learn about these here, rather than through experience, you'll save yourself a lot of trouble!

1. Not Providing Feedback

Sarah is a talented sales representative, but she has a habit of answering the phone in an unprofessional manner. Her boss is aware of this, but he's waiting for her performance review to tell her where she's going wrong. Unfortunately, until she's been alerted to the problem, she'll continue putting off potential customers.

According to 1,400 executives polled by The Ken Blanchard Companies, failing to provide feedback is the most common mistake that leaders make. When you don't provide prompt feedback to your people, you're depriving them of the opportunity to improve their performance.

To avoid this mistake, learn how to provide regular feedback to your team. (You can use our Bite-Sized Training session on Giving Feedback to gain an in-depth understanding of feedback, and to learn how to provide it effectively.)

2. Not Making Time for Your Team

When you're a manager or leader, it's easy to get so wrapped up in your own workload that you don't make yourself available to your team.

Yes, you have projects that you need to deliver. But your people must come first – without you being available when they need you, your people won't know what to do, and they won't have the support and guidance that they need to meet their objectives.

Avoid this mistake by blocking out time in your schedule specifically for your people, and by learning how to listen actively to your team. Develop your emotional intelligence so that you can be more aware of your team and their needs, and have a regular time when "your door is always open", so that your people know when they can get your help. You can also use Management By Walking Around . which is an effective way to stay in touch with your team.

Once you're in a leadership or management role, your team should always come first - this is, at heart, what good leadership is all about!

3. Being Too "Hands-Off"

One of your team has just completed an important project. The problem is that he misunderstood the project's specification, and you didn't stay in touch with him as he was working on it. Now, he's completed the project in the wrong way, and you're faced with explaining this to an angry client.

Finding This Article Useful?

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Many leaders want to avoid micromanagement . But going to the opposite extreme (with a hand-offs management style) isn't a good idea either – you need to get the balance right.

Our article, Laissez Faire versus Micromanagement will help you find the right balance for your own situation.

4. Being Too Friendly

Most of us want to be seen as friendly and approachable to people in our team. After all, people are happier working for a manager that they get on with. However, you'll sometimes have to make tough decisions regarding people in your team, and some people will be tempted to take advantage of your relationship if you're too friendly with them.

This doesn't mean that you can't socialize with your people. But, you do need to get the balance right between being a friend and being the boss.

Learn how to do avoid this mistake with our article, Now You're the Boss . Also, make sure that you set clear boundaries . so that team members aren't tempted to take advantage of you.

5. Failing to Define Goals

When your people don't have clear goals, they muddle through their day. They can't be productive if they have no idea what they're working for, or what their work means. They also can't prioritize their workload effectively, meaning that projects and tasks get completed in the wrong order.

Avoid this mistake by learning how to set SMART goals for your team. Use a Team Charter to specify where your team is going, and detail the resources it can draw upon. Also, use principles from Management by Objectives to align your team's goals to the mission of the organization.

6. Misunderstanding Motivation

Do you know what truly motivates your team? Here's a hint: chances are, it's not just money!

Many leaders make the mistake of assuming that their team is only working for monetary reward. However, it's unlikely that this will be the only thing that motivates them.

For example, people seeking a greater work/life balance might be motivated by telecommuting days or flexible working. Others will be motivated by factors such as achievement, extra responsibility, praise, or a sense of camaraderie.

To find out what truly drives your people, read our articles on McClelland's Human Motivation Theory and Theory X and Theory Y . Then, take our test "How Good Are Your Motivation Skills?" to learn how to be a great motivator of people.

7. Hurrying Recruitment

When your team has a large workload, it's important to have enough people "on board" to cope with it. But filling a vacant role too quickly can be a disastrous mistake.

Hurrying recruitment can lead to recruiting the wrong people for your team: people who are uncooperative, ineffective or unproductive. They might also require additional training, and slow down others on your team. With the wrong person, you'll have wasted valuable time and resources if things don't work out and they leave. What's worse, other team members will be stressed and frustrated by having to "carry" the under-performer.

You can avoid this mistake by learning how to recruit effectively . and by being particularly picky about the people you bring into your team.

8. Not "Walking the Walk"

If you make personal telephone calls during work time, or speak negatively about your CEO, can you expect people on your team not to do this too? Probably not!

As a leader, you need to be a role model for your team. This means that if they need to stay late, you should also stay late to help them. Or, if your organization has a rule that no one eats at their desk, then set the example and head to the break room every day for lunch. The same goes for your attitude – if you're negative some of the time, you can't expect your people not to be negative.

So remember, your team is watching you all the time. If you want to shape their behavior, start with your own. They'll follow suit.

9. Not Delegating

Some managers don't delegate, because they feel that no-one apart from themselves can do key jobs properly. This can cause huge problems as work bottlenecks around them, and as they become stressed and burned out.

Delegation does take a lot of effort up-front, and it can be hard to trust your team to do the work correctly. But unless you delegate tasks, you're never going to have time to focus on the "broader-view" that most leaders and managers are responsible for. What's more, you'll fail to develop your people so that they can take the pressure off you.

To find out if this is a problem for you, take our interactive quiz, How Well Do You Delegate? If you need to improve your skills, you can then learn key strategies with our articles, Successful Delegation . and The Delegation Dilemma .

10. Misunderstanding Your Role

Once you become a leader or manager, your responsibilities are very different from those you had before.

However, it's easy to forget that your job has changed, and that you now have to use a different set of skills to be effective. This leads to you not doing what you've been hired to do – leading and managing.

Our articles Now You're The Boss and From Technical Expert to Manager provide more information on the additional skills that you need to develop to be an effective manager. Make sure that you learn these skills – you'll fail if you try to rely on technical skills alone, however good they are!

Key Points

We all make mistakes, and there are some mistakes that leaders and managers make in particular. These include not giving good feedback, being too "hands-off," not delegating effectively, and misunderstanding your role.

It's true that making a mistake can be a learning opportunity. But, taking the time to learn how to recognize and avoid common mistakes can help you become productive and successful, and highly respected by your team.

This site teaches you the skills you need for a happy and successful career; and this is just one of many tools and resources that you'll find here at Mind Tools. Subscribe to our free newsletter. or join the Mind Tools Club and really supercharge your career!

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Binary Options Trading Signal Review

Binary Options Trading Signals is a popular name in the binary signal business. With a success rate of more than 85% and a profit margin of 35%, the company provides premium financial services to traders.

Unlike other companies, Binary Options Trading Signals provides a live interactive session to traders with an industry expert called Franco. The traders are supposed to follow strategies used by Franco and maximize their profits. Technical questions and explanations for every move are answered by Franco.

Features

The subscription fee is $97; valid for two weeks

A live interactive session with a professional trader enhances the chances of higher profits

The live stream can also be accessible from iPhone or Android, thereby giving traders a chance to buy stocks according to updated information

The service includes multiple signals per day

The service provides a broad range of options and expiry time

The platform experience is enhanced by user-friendly chart tools. This makes it easier to use for everyone, including any newbie

In addition to conventional options of Call/ Put, the Touch/No Touch options are also included

The 60 seconds and the 15/30 minute Call/Put options are also included

The live trading session is open from 9.30 a. m. to 11.30 a. m. EST

Payment Procedure

Payments can be made via PayPal and all major credit cards. This service is sold on the Clickbank Marketplace.

Asset Type

Binary Options Trading Signals deals mostly in stock binary assets. Some of the stocks available for trading include ExxonMobil, IBM, and Apple.

Profit Model

Unlike other binary option services providers, this company deals with profit made per week, instead of “per trade” method. This makes the method realistic and more reliable.

Atención al cliente

This service has impeccable customer support, because it’s Franco himself answering all the questions. Unlike other companies which hire incompetent customer support staff, your queries will be answered by a professional.

Pros

One-to-one interaction makes the trading more efficient

The system comes with 30 days guaranteed refund

Apart form live chat, a Skype address is also available for any extra query

The system doesn’t require any software installation on your computer

It is known to have more than 80% average winning rate

The service provides mobile platform too. The live streaming can be seen on your iPhone or Android

Contras

The service doesn’t provide any trial account

Due to live streaming, being present on exact timings is necessary. This would need tailoring of your whole schedule

Conclusión

Binary Options Trading Signal is a popular name in the binary option trading market. What truly sets the company apart is its live streaming service, where a professional guides traders to make moves after studying market changes. This greatly minimizes any chance of scam that some similar companies may be involved in. Though the subscription fee is quite high and unavailability of a trial account is not a good feature, superior live trading room makes the experience much better.

copyright © Binary Best. todos los derechos reservados

company history fast facts

About Us From its inception, Seymour Financial, LLC has been dedicated to creating a culture that embraces the spirit of trading, while exemplifying professionalism and still providing a road map to success. This formula, driven by our founders, enables Seymour Financial to redefine traditional trading of the financial markets. Our unique methods, our drive to succeed, and our environment, we believe, is redefining the option industry. Our philosophy allows Seymour Financial to maintain its competitive edge while still fulfilling the high expectations of its global client base.

Our Strategy In developing Option Run . the focus was on creating a financial site that would, effortlessly lead the experienced and inexperienced trader to that one common goal of consistent returns . Our goal is not to up sell memberships, services, seminar or materials. Simply stated, the goal of Option Run is provide outstanding customer service and a system that delivers exceptional results. The Option Run system was developed using key elements that will allow members to succeed.

"IT IS THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA FOR INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS. YOUR JOURNEY BEGINS TODAY WITH OPTIONRUN!"

Performance

The Run

Why Option Run?

Why Trade Options?

Key Points

Vision

Alliances

The Top Ten Biggest Mistakes in Home Buying

As someone searching for a new home, you sometimes have an overwhelming amount of information. Floor plans, communities, interest rates, mortgages – there is so much to look at, sift through and decide. So what are the most important things to keep in mind?

Here are our 10 biggest mistakes in home buying from David Weekley's book How to Buy a Home Without Getting Hammered . Want your own copy? Sign up here.

1. Not doing your homework

You’ve probably heard the old maxim: “Knowledge is power.” Nowhere is this truer than in real estate. With a price tag that’s two or three times your annual salary, if ever a purchase demanded preparation it’s home buying.

It can be overwhelming when you think about all the factors that can affect a home’s value: its location, school district, deed restrictions, taxes and amenities. That’s why it’s imperative that you do your homework before you start. With all of the information available today on the internet, from REALTORS® and in housing guides, there’s really no excuse for entering the market ill-prepared.

2. Trying to make a shrewd investment

It’s easy to think we are all financial geniuses. No doubt some of you are. So, Mr. Gates and Mr. Buffett, you have my permission to move on to the third biggest mistake in home buying. As for the rest of you, forget everything they told you in that late-night infomercial. While real estate investing can make a great career, it’s no place for amateurs.

As simple as it may sound, when it comes to buying a home, your best bet is to choose one that appeals to you. The chances are very good that if you like it others will, too.

Am I suggesting that you throw caution to the wind? Lead with your heart and not with your head? Absolutely not, but if you choose a neighborhood where you want to live and choose a home that’s attractive and structurally sound, then you probably won’t go wrong. If you want to be known as a shrewd real estate investor, then wait at least three to five years before selling and you can tell everybody that you outguessed the market.

3. Choosing a poor location

OK – you’ve found the perfect home. It’s in a good school district, it’s got great curb appeal, a terrific floor plan that fits your family and the price is right. The only drawback is the bowling alley that backs up to it. Walk away.

Nothing spoils life and resale value like a poor location. If it bothers you now, don’t think you will learn to live with it. The flood lights from that office building across the way will only get brighter with time. The planes on final approach to the airport will only get louder and more frequent.

The best looking home, the most extravagant landscaping, tall fences, and insulated windows will never overcome a homesite near a pig farm (no offense to pig farmers).

4. Overlooking an inferior floor plan for an attractive exterior

I don’t mean to downplay the importance of curb appeal. A home that turns your head as you drive down the street can be a real asset. Resale will be a lot easier if you don’t have to stand on the curb shouting, “No, wait! I know it looks bad, but this home’s got great personality!” If the romance doesn’t continue when you open the door, then you’ve got a problem that will be difficult to unload.

You want a home that makes your heart beat faster when you first open the door. It’s got to have a layout that makes people feel comfortable, one that responds to the way we live today. Open. Friendly. Functional.

I’ve seen it happen a hundred times. Buyers approach a home with an exterior they’re not crazy about, then they discover a fantastic floor plan, and when they come back out, the exterior seems to have magically improved. If I had to choose between a good-looking exterior or a knockout interior – and I couldn’t have both – I’d choose the great interior any time. After all, that’s where you live every day.

5. Not considering how your family wants to live

We all carry around a mental picture of the perfect home. If you’re a child of the 60s your ideal home probably looks like the Cleaver’s house. Younger shoppers may be searching for the Brady’s or the Cosby’s home, or maybe even the Taylor’s home from Home Improvement. These images seldom fit the way we really live.

It’s also not about finding a home your parents would like (unless they’re helping with the down payment). It’s not choosing a home your best friends would want. This home only needs to fit one family – yours. Your comfort and happiness depends on how well you can judge that fit.

Start by thinking of how you live now. Try not to be influenced by those fantasies of how life would be if only you had the right home. If your idea of fun is watching reruns of Jeopardy in your pajamas, then look for a TV room that accommodates your favorite recliner. If you like to have friends and family over for informal get-togethers, then look for a large kitchen that’s open to the Family Room. How many rooms do you need? How should they be arranged? Master up or down? Will you have use for a home office?

Don’t overlook how your family lives outside, as well. Will you use a pool or would a hot tub suffice? Do you like to garden and work in the yard, or would you rather have less maintenance?

If you’re buying a used home, you’ll have to look beyond the current owner’s décor and furnishings. If it’s a builder’s furnished new model home, the toughest part will be facing the fact that the decorator and furniture don’t come with it. If you’re honest with yourself, you can find a home that will fit your family and feel like…well, home.

6. If buying a resale, not having the home property inspected

I can't emphasize this one enough. When you find your dream home, it's love at first sight. As with all love affairs, you begin to lose your objectivity and see only what you want to see. "OK, so the foundation is cracked. But, isn't this the cutest little window you've ever seen?" Now is a good time to seek professional help.

They're called structural and mechanical inspectors. Good ones are worth every penny you pay them. A good one is licensed by the state (ask to see his or her certificate) and has no personal relationship with you, the seller or the REALTOR®. This is someone you pay for a professional, unbiased opinion about the structural integrity and mechanical performance of the home you're planning to buy. They will inspect every major component of the house from the foundation to the rafters, including the central air, furnace, water heaters, plumbing and electrical. You will also want to have the home inspected for termites. As much as it may hurt to hear something negative about the one you love, this is when you want the ugly truth.

Many resale homes were built when energy codes were more lenient or nonexistent. Independent third-party performance verification inspections that test for energy efficiency can make a big difference in the performance of your home and its effect on your pocketbook.

You and the seller will be given a written report with a list of items that must be repaired before you close the deal. Usually the contract spells out limits on what the seller is obligated to pay for repairs. If the cost of recommended repairs exceeds this amount and the seller is unwilling to pay for them or to adjust the sales price, DO NOT proceed. (You may elect to pay the difference if the overall deal is still a good one.) This could be the toughest decision of your life, but ignore the engineer’s warning and you will live to regret it.

7. If buying new, failing to check out the builder's reputation

If you’re shopping for a new home, you probably know where you want to live, so you’ll be comparing home builders in that area of town. You’ll look for home designs that appeal to you in a price range you can afford. Once you’ve narrowed your search to one or more builders’ homes, your next step should be to take a long hard look at the builders.

Here are the most important questions you should answer about any builder before you let them build your home:

How long have they been in business?

How many homes have they sold?

What do their Homeowners think of them?

How many of the Homeowners would buy from the builder again?

What do other builders say about them?

What industry recognition have they received?

What does the REALTOR® community think of them?

What kind of warranties do they offer?

Do they have a department solely dedicated to warranty issues?

Do they have an energy-efficiency or green building program?

The best way to check out a builder is to ring some doorbells and knock on doors. Visit the neighborhoods where they build and ask Homeowners about their experiences. You should talk to at least three to five neighbors and get a consensus before you make one of the largest investments of your life.

If you don’t get satisfactory answers to most of these questions, choose another builder. If none of them pass this test, choose another part of town. Beyond all the fancy advertising and hype, builders have only one thing of real value: their reputation. If the one you’re considering doesn’t have a good one, they shouldn’t get your business.

8. Not getting what you want because you are impatient

To borrow a phrase from the Rolling Stones, time is on your side. Show me someone in a hurry to buy and I’ll show you someone who pays too much. There are a lot of things you can rush into and recover from later, but this does not include marriage or buying a home. Never, ever, ever, rush into buying a home. Have I made my point yet? It is the single largest investment most of us ever make. It requires an enormous amount of energy, effort and research. It takes time to do it right.

You need time to do your homework. You’ve got schools to check, tax rates to compare, mortgage companies to shop, neighborhoods to drive, and – if it’s a new home – you need to check the builders’ reputations (See #7 above).

If it’s a used home, you need time to negotiate. Seldom should you pay the “asking price” on a used home. The longer you can take, the better the deal you can usually make. If you find yourself in an unavoidable time bind because of a transfer or the impending sale of your home, try to make arrangements to delay the purchase. You can always store your non-essential things and rent in the interim. Sometimes people who purchase your home are willing to lease it back to you on a pro-rated basis if you need extra time. It doesn’t hurt to ask and it could save a lot. Do the math. If patience can save you $5,000 on the purchase price, wouldn’t that be worth it?

Whatever you do, even if you don’t have time and you must move forward, try not to show it until after the price is set.

9. Buy low. Sell high.

It’s a great plan if you’re a fortuneteller, but for the rest of us mere mortals, here is the best advice for when to buy a home: There is no time like the present. You know what houses cost. You know what interest rates are. You know you have a job (If not and you’re not independently wealthy, maybe you should consider putting it off). Warren Buffett says, “the rear view mirror is always clearer than the windshield.” Looking back, we can all see when the best time to buy a home would have been – it is hard to find a better time than the present. Who can predict the future? The best we can do is learn from the past. History shows that those who purchased homes and kept them for three to five years or more did better than those who didn’t. How can you argue with that?

Will interest rates be lower some day? Maybe – then you can refinance. Will home prices ever be significantly lower? Probably not. Will you be making money in the future? We all hope so. Do you have a crystal ball? Stop your waiting. Just do it.

10. And the biggest home buying mistake. drum roll, please

Not Buying at All! No place to call your own. No control. No tax break. No appreciation. No equity.

Anyoption is a licensed binary options broker who offer a binary option trading bot for their clients. Traders can visit AnyOption’s auto trading bot page here. Anyoption is an EU regulated binary options broker, registered with various EU country financial regulators, see details.

Auto Trading Bots

Automated trading robots are the new hot product in online binary options trading. With the increase in popularity of binary options trading, everyone is coming out with the new holy grail / software with claims of 60%, 70%, 80% or even 90% accuracy.

Which auto trading bots actually work and which ones will make you lose all your money?

The most advanced auto trading robot is called Binary Option Robot . see here. This automated trading robot gives traders the ability to see historical signals and you can select which assets the robot should trade and control your risk!

Click here to read the full review or.

Now Let’s look at five different automated binary trading systems.

Banc De Binary (an EU licensed broker) has an trading signal generator, called PayDay. The platform looks nice, and it is integrated with the Banc De Binary trading platform. The bot generated a bunch of signals, however you must have funds in your account to see the signals, see here .

The majority of Banc De Binary traders use the Binary Option Robot for automated trading & signals, try it here .

24Option (an EU licensed broker) has integrated the trading signals directly into their trading software. While many brokers keep the auto trading robot separate from their platform, 24Option’s trade alerts are right there in the online trading platform, see here .

Their trading signals include a feature called reliability. Now seriously speaking, how can a trading signal generator decide if the signal it just generated is more or less reliable? But a smart trader using any signals will not just follow them blindly and instead decide for themselves if it is a worthwhile trade. Now you can select 24option as your broker for the Binary Option Robot, see here .

For more information about AnyOption, read the review .

CTOption has a couple of auto trading features. The first one is called BinaryBug, see here. BinaryBug integrates with the trading platform so traders can place trades directly from the signals software.

The second feature CTOption has is similar to the social trading features many brokers are talking about. The Binary Replicator allows traders to follow and auto trade one of the top 10 traders, see here .

Traders will notice that CTOption uses a unique trading platform not found by many brokers, it is called the Panda TS software, see here .

There are so many trading signal services and robots to choose from, just look at this list .

Here is an "Insiders View" of the simple Stock Trading Method that is helping seasoned and beginner traders grow their portfolio safely and quickly.

As a member of Stock Market Mentor You’ll receive access to:

Community Trading Forum

Our Exclusive Community Forum is an active trading room; a community of traders that range from beginning traders with small portfolios to large money managers responsible for multi-million dollar funds. It is an ongoing source of education, trading ideas and market dialogue. I regularly join conversations, give feedback and share my trading ideas and experiences openly with the community.

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Our dedicated Education Department comes complete with trading tutorials that will challenge you to learn various aspects of trading to enhance your trading skills. You can quickly find the latest educational content, broken down into Trading Concepts and Technical Analysis all of which give you a “hands on” guide to the trading concepts and ideas you need.

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Video price alerts are sent to members as stocks covered in our Strategy Sessions and Chart of the Day videos make key technical developments during the trading day. You'll be emailed the chart of the stock along with the video providing the analysis of the setup. This is delivered during the market as the stock is making the move.

Video Requests

Sometimes you just want Dan's input on a chart. No problem, just ask. You can send a request for Dan to cover the chart. Once he covers it, we’ll email you the video that covers your stock.

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Each month I host a ”Members Only” Question and Answer webinar where I get deep and personal in helping individuals solve their problems. It’s great to watch, even if you don’t have any immediate questions since the quality of dialogue we have will help steer you in the right direction.

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Members receive an extensive “Strategy Session” video each evening, which is typically 20-30 minutes long. The Strategy Session is an ongoing analysis of winning sectors, industry groups and stocks that we’re focusing on. It is a constant source of profitable trading ideas and is intended to educate, inform, and challenge you to become a competent and successful trader.

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Interested in Learning to Trade Options?

If you want to take your trading to the next level, try Option Market Mentor.

With options, you can generate income from your current portfolio and hedge against market reversals. You can maximize the potential of a small portfolio by generating big returns on option trades.

Option Market Mentor members have access to trading ideas directly from Dan. You are also a member of a large community of option traders who share trades, ideas and knowledge every day. Dan gives you step-by-step instructions on how to put on the trade and manage it until it’s closed. He also regularly provides tutorials on common mistakes and current events in the market.

Whether you are new to options or an experienced option trader, Option Market Mentor is an essential resource in your quest for success.

&dupdo; 2016 Stock Market Mentor — Todos los derechos reservados. Prohibida la reproducción sin permiso. Investing involves substantial risk. No guarantee or other promise of performance or as to any results may be obtained from use of this information. The information provided herein is for educational purposes only and are only the ideas of the author with no guarantee of the outcome of such ideas. While past performance and/or references to potential future performance may be referenced or analyzed, past performance should not be considered indicative of future performance and references to potential future performance are only the opinion of the author and should not be relied upon without first conducting your own research and due diligence. No subscriber should make any investment decision without first conducting his or her own research and due diligence, including carefully reviewing the charts related to such security as well as the prospectus and any and all other public filings of the issuer of any security. The information provided is based upon and obtained from sources believed to be reliable. However, none of the information obtained or relied upon has been independently verified or otherwise investigated.

&dupdo; 2016 Stock Market Mentor All Rights Reserved. Prohibida la reproducción sin permiso. Investing involves substantial risk. No guarantee or other promise of performance or as to any results may be obtained from use of this information. The information provided herein is for educational purposes only and are only the ideas of the author with no guarantee of the outcome of such ideas. While past performance and/or references to potential future performance may be referenced or analyzed, past performance should not be considered indicative of future performance and references to potential future performance are only the opinion of the author and should not be relied upon without first conducting your own research and due diligence. No subscriber should make any investment decision without first conducting his or her own research and due diligence, including carefully reviewing the charts related to such security as well as the prospectus and any and all other public filings of the issuer of any security. The information provided is based upon and obtained from sources believed to be reliable. However, none of the information obtained or relied upon has been independently verified or otherwise investigated.

Choosing a Trading Application

All ISVs listed below support iLink order routing and basic futures trading functionality.

The CME Globex platform is designed with open architecture that accommodates a wide variety of trading and market data interfaces. If you need a front-end trading system, you can:

Develop your own

License one from an independent software vendor (ISV)

Use an application provided by a broker, data center, proprietary trading group, trading arcade, or clearing firm

Interested in Advanced Options Functionality? View the demos provided by our Options Technology ISV Partners.

If your company has developed a trading application and would like to discuss appearing on this page, please contact the Channel Partner Management at +1 312 634 8700 or GAM_CPM@CMEGROUP. com .

The CME Globex platform is designed with open architecture that accommodates a wide variety of trading and market data interfaces. If you need a front-end trading system, you can:

Develop your own

License one from an independent software vendor (ISV)

Use an application provided by a broker, data center, proprietary trading group, trading arcade, or clearing firm

The CME Globex Access Directory lists all the companies that provide trading and market data applications that are certified for compliance with CME Globex. These companies also are committed to keeping current with platform enhancements and changes to CME interfaces and functionality. Many also offer network access in addition to front-end trading applications.

The following Futures Commission Merchants (FCMs) and Introducing Brokers (IBs) provide front-end applications certified for trading on CME Globex.

Trading on CME Globex gives you the flexibility, speed, transparency, access and liquidity you need to get the highest possible return from your trading. We offer CME Direct as an electronic trading solution.

CME Direct

Delivered securely across the internet, CME Direct provides access to CME futures and OTC markets. All trades, voice or electronic, are processed electronically and can be made available for straight-through-processing (STP) through CME ConfirmHub directly to your desktop or into your risk system, further reducing operational overhead and potentially costly mistakes. Online trade verification and trade recaps across trading venues eliminate manual trade checkouts, saving time and effort.

Online trading of CME futures, including all NYMEX benchmarks

Electronic trading of OTC markets, supported by selected, independent brokers

Support for hybrid, broker-assisted trading combines the convenience of online execution with the benefits of voice brokerage

Fully customizable instant messenger platform, CME Direct Messenger for your trading and communication needs

Trading Options on Globex gives you the flexibility, speed, transparency, access and liquidity you need to get the highest possible return from your trading.

The Globex platform is designed with open architecture that accommodates a wide variety of trading and market data interfaces. If you are looking for a front-end trading system, specifically with advanced options functionality . one of the following providers can assist you. The ISVs listed below have developed and certified to CME Group’s advanced options functionality and all their systems offer the ability to:

Submit and view RFQs in any CME Group asset class

Trade outrights and complex spreads

View, trade and create user-defined spreads

View, trade and create delta-neutral spreads

CME Group Options Technology Partners and Demos

If you're interested in learning more about trading electronic options, we invite you to view a series of webinars and demos brought to you directly from our Options Technology Partners. The webinars and demos highlight the ISV, their advanced options capabilities and more. Simply click on a screen shot below to view the demo.

Additional demos from our other Options Technology Partners are coming soon.

Tag Archives: Mistakes.

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” & # 8211; Ralph Waldo Emerson Slope has, over its nearly eleven year history, garnered a reputation for honesty. I make every effort to be completely forthcoming with my thoughts about trading, even when it’s going lousy for me, as […] Slope of Hope

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See our expert and unbiased reviews of the top 10 online stock trading brokers of 2016. Compare the best online stock trading services for free. Who else wants to hear the truth about the Best Online Stock Trading Companies?

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Position Sizing and Expectancy

So where does system development start?

Investors will be prepared to trade in situations when the odds are in their favor by properly understanding position sizing techniques and calculated system expectancies. A system that has been tested will have an approximate expectancy that will tell the trader how much will be gained or lost during each trade over a period of time. Using this knowledge, the investor will determine how much risk to undertake by calculating a position sizing algorithm which tells you how much to place on a specific trade. The word ‘algorithm’ sounds scary but I have developed very simple position sizing and expectancy spreadsheets that can be found through the links below. They can be downloaded, studied and tweaked without any advanced spreadsheet or mathematical experience.

Most traders look for three major factors when developing a system:

How much to trade on each position

The right odds or positive expectancy

Number of trades or how much opportunity the system presents

How do we Calculate Position Size? We can determine how much to place on each trade by assuming a $100,000 account with 1% risk on each position. Using a basic trading approach, I will place my stops approximately 8% below the ideal entry area or pivot point. Please use more advanced methods for locating the ideal stop rather than a general 8% (I am doing this for example purposes only). Look for the ideal risk-to-reward setup based on recent support and resistance levels and set your stop and potential target accordingly.

$100,000 Account 1% Risk = $1,000 8% Stop Loss Position Size will be $12,500

We calculate the position size by dividing the 1% risk by the 8% stop loss or $1000 / 8% = $12,500.

If the stock we are watching has an ideal entry of $50, we now know that we can buy 250 shares or $12,500 worth of stock. Our stop loss is $46 or 8% of $50 and our maximum loss is $1,000 of the original $100,000 portfolio.

What exactly is expectancy? Expectancy tells you what you can expect to make (win or lose) for every dollar risked. Casinos make money because the expectancy of every one of their games is in their favor. Play long enough and you are expected to lose and they are expected to win because the “odds” are in their favor. Most games at a casino are completed in a short period of time so they can increase their odds of winning.

The same holds true for trading. If your expectancy is positive; you can make money with a certain number of trades within specified periods of time.

Expectancy is your profit percentage per win multiplied by your win rate minus your loss percentage per loss multiplied by your loss rate. I will use an example of Expectancy from Dr. Van K. Tharp’s Book: Trade your way to Financial Freedom:

Expectancy = (Probability of Win * Average Win) – (Probability of Loss * Average Loss) Expectancy = (PW*AW) less (PL*AL)

PW is the probability of winning and PL is the probability of losing. AW is the average gain (win) and AL is the average loss

So let’s do an example using another basic approach (assume $12,500 per position, a $100,000 portfolio using 1% equity risk):

If my trades are successful 40% of the time and I realize an average profit of 20% but I lose an average of 5%, my expectancy is $625 per trade.

(0.4 * $2,500) – (0.6 * $625) = $1,000-$375 = $625

I lose 60% of the time yet I show a profit of $625 per trade. If I have a system that produces 65 trades per year, I would realize an annual gain of $40,625 (hypothetical scenario). A 40% gain on the original $100,000 (minus all commissions, fees, taxes and compounding).

Let’s look at the calculation one more time using only percentages: PW: 40% AW: 20% PL: 60% AL: 5% (40% * 20%) – (60% * 5%) = 5.00%

What this tells me is that I have a positive expectancy of 5% or $625 per trade from the original $12,500. It doesn’t mean that I will make $625 on every single trade but my system will average a profit of $625 per trade over the course of a year with a combination of winners and losers. I can always make more trades or fewer trades in a year so my total profit will be adjusted accordingly.

Final Note: I didn’t cover how to develop a trading system in this post but that was not the point. I will assume that you are already trading or possibly developing a system that can be applied to the techniques above. The techniques above are used by professional traders everyday; the same people that treat their trading as a business. To last in this game, you must think and act as a professional or they will eventually suck you dry like the rest of the amateurs on Wall Street.

The Two Biggest Mistakes You Can Make When Buying a Car

April 16, 2015 at 12:00 PM

If you lack the cash to buy a car free and clear, you really need to hear me out on the two worst financing moves you can make. What I am about to tell you can save you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. And trust me, this is exactly what car dealers and financing companies don’t want you to know:

A car loan longer than 36 months is a waste of money. I know, I know, there are all those great looking ads showing how “affordable” a payment will be with a 60 month or 72 month car loan. Don’t fall for it. For starters, we need to get on the same page: A car is the worst investment. ¿Por qué? Because from the moment you drive it off the lot it loses value. You will never recoup what you paid for the car when you eventually sell it. Got it? Good.

So if you’re going to lose money on this deal, why would you agree to pay more interest on the loan? That’s exactly what you end up doing when you choose a longer repayment term.

The reason the car industry hawks five year (and longer) loans is because they want to entice you to buy a more expensive car. The longer the term, the lower your monthly payments. But what they don’t point out to you-and I do-is that because the payments go on for a longer time, you end up spending more over the life of the loan….for a crappy investment.

My advice: Shop for cars that you can pay off with a three-year loan. No more.

Leasing is the Worst Way to Build Financial Security. A shiny new car every three years seems so enticing. But have you every stopped to consider the cost? If you are leasing and trading in, and then leasing again, you never own the car free and clear. You will be making monthly payments forever. That is a colossal waste of money. If you instead follow my advice and take out a 3-year loan, you will own the car free and clear after 36 months. Given the dependability of cars these days, that could mean you could keep driving the car for five, seven or even more years (depends on your mileage ) without having a loan payment. That gives you years when you can be saving more for other important goals—such as retirement-rather than continuing to throw money at your depreciating car.

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Top 10 List Of Alternative Careers For PhD Science Graduates

Written by Arunodoy Sur, Ph. D.

A postdoc was not for me.

I knew this well before graduating.

I simply did not want to pursue a tenure track position.

Too many postdocs and assistant professors I knew were too miserable for me to ever want to be one of them.

I wanted to explore options for alternative careers instead but my University provided me with no resources for doing so.

It was very surprising to see how little the University knew about transitioning into non-academic careers.

It was also surprising to see how limited the University’s network was outside of academia.

To make matters worse, I was an international student.

As such, immigration laws required me to be formally employed in less than 90 days from my graduation.

Three months is not a lot of time to find a job.

I did not have the luxury of spending half a year on a job search after graduation, let alone taking a break for a few months and then starting my job search.

To get more information about career options, I started asking other science PhDs and postdoctoral researchers about their career plans.

Many of these students and postdocs said they were also interested in an industry career.

But, oddly enough, they had chosen to only apply for postdoc positions.

A Postdoc Is Not Your Only Career Option

Most PhDs transition into an academic postdoc, even when they would rather transition into an industry position, because they believe a postdoc is their only option.

Their academic advisor and the entire academic system has led them to believe this is their only option.

¿Qué significa esto?

It means the reason most PhDs do not get PhD jobs in industry is because they lack the information they need to get these jobs.

They also lack information on which non-academic career options are available to them and which of these positions fit their goals and lifestyle.

If you’re a PhD or postdoc, it’s crucial for you to understand all the opportunities you have in front of you.

You need to gain in depth knowledge of all the career tracks available to you, not just one or two.

You should also pay close attention to changing trends, making sure to note which job sectors are rising and which are falling.

10 Top Non-Academic Jobs Alternative For STEM PhDs

Gain a thorough understanding of your career options.

Otherwise, you will be forced by circumstances to take a position that is not in alignment with your long-term career goals.

To avoid this fate, we’ve collated a list of the top 10 hottest non-academic jobs.

Understanding which industry positions are on the rise will help you see what’s available to you outside of a traditional postdoc or professorship.

There are many alternative career options available to STEM PhDs.

It will also help you make an intelligent decision on which positions you would enjoy and which you may not enjoy.

When choosing the next step in your career, be sure to consider not only the title and salary you want to have, but the lifestyle you want to live.

Don’t make the mistake of chasing something that will ultimately make you miserable.

This is how many PhDs ended up in poor and unhappy postdoc positions in the first place.

Here are 10 top non-academic careers for PhDs to consider applying to…

1. Market Research Analyst

Marker Research Analyst roles exist in most industries, but they are especially significant in innovation-based sectors such as electronics, IT or biotechnology.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics this profession is projected to experience a job growth of 20% from 2004 to 2014.

Market research analysts are expected to gain a complete understanding of the commercial landscape associated with a specific technology or sector.

A PhD’s ability to analyze large amounts of information and identify comparative advantages between two technologies is very valuable to this role.

As a Market Research Analyst, your responsibilities include gaining information about commercialization opportunities as well as evaluating the key advantages and disadvantages of your products versus competitor products.

You will apply this information and your technical expertise to create reports that outline key niches for commercialization, estimate market size, identify current major players in the sector and recognize prospective future competitors.

Your reports will act as essential tools that administrative teams will use to plan an ideal commercialization path, thereby avoiding pitfalls and maximizing revenues.

Since Market Research Analysts provide key market information and collaborate with strategic decision-maker, this role can open up doors to higher management positions.

As innovation based industries grow and continue to globalize, there will be an increasing demand for science PhDs in Market Research roles.

2. Business Development Manager

A recent career survey by CNN Money found that Business Development Managers, or BDMs, ranked in the top 100 careers worldwide with a projected growth rate of 16.4%.

The name of this role might suggest that it’s only for professionals with a business degree.

But, nowadays, science PhDs are being increasingly hired as BDMs.

This is because many PhDs excel at understanding complex technologies, which is crucial to technology-based sectors such as biotechnology, software, consumer electronics, and pharmaceuticals.

A BDM’s key responsibilities include developing new business opportunities, managing existing products, developing market strategies, and building new business partnerships.

As a BDM, you will have to prioritize innovative products based on market needs and competitor positioning.

Thorough knowledge of not only a company’s technology, but its culture and products is key to this role.

BDMs are required to use a combination of scientific knowledge, analytical skills and market trends to forecast things like revenues, profits, and losses.

Your presentation and teaching skills are also valuable to this position because BDMs are expected to present to management and marketing teams regularly.

3. Competitive Intelligence Analyst

Competitive Intelligence (CI) Analysts main role is to gather information about products that are in a competing company’s pipeline and analyzing these products to determine how they will affect the market.

A Global Intelligence Alliance survey of global software, healthcare, pharmaceutical, financial, energy and manufacturing found that the hiring of CI analysts will increase dramatically in the coming years, with 60% of hiring managers reporting that they are actively looking for candidates.

As a CI Analyst, you will turn information about your competition into actionable intelligence for your company.

You will be required to gather information from key opinion leaders (KOLs), intelligence databases, scientific conferences and online resources.

These inputs will be used to determine both threats or opportunities in the market.

CI Analysts play a critical role in supporting a company’s management team in making strategic marketing decisions.

PhDs have already have many of the skills required for this role, including strong scientific and technical knowledge, strong information gathering skills, and the ability to analyze large data sets.

CI Analyst positions often act as a gateway to higher executive positions as these Analysts already contribute to a company’s executive decision-making.

CI Analyst positions are abundant in not only technology-based companies, but also inn specialized CI firms that are dedicated to offering CI services to a wide range of clients.

4. Product Manager

Product Managers (PMs) are responsible for managing the entire life-cycle of an innovative product.

They oversee the development of a product and the management of product after it launches.

An employment survey conducted between 2012 and 2013 found that the demand for Product Managers in technology-based sectors is increasing by 23% annually.

PMs are responsible for analyzing a product’s market performance as well as determining ways to boost a product’s commercial success while simultaneously determining how to phase out or terminate older versions of the product.

PM roles are multifunctional and demand collaboration spread across multiple divisions of an organization .

As a PM, you must be able to quickly identify market needs, communicate those needs with your marketing team, and find innovative solutions for these needs.

You must also possess a unique blend of business acumen and creativity. Successful PMs are able to envision new products and clearly understand the competitive landscape of their market.

PM roles are available for PhDs in most technology-based sectors, including electronics, aeronautics, IT and software, and of course, biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors.

5. Management Consulting

Ten years ago, most consulting firms only employed MBAs.

Things have changed.

Thanks to the steady rise of technology-based business sectors, there has been a significant increase in the number of science PhDs being hired by these firms.

According to a Bloomberg Business report. the consulting market is expected to experience an overall annual growth rate of 3.7%.

The same report stated that the management consulting market recently grew by 8.5% to a total value of $39.3 billion.

STEM PhDs are in high demand for consulting positions because they have a strong technical background and are specifically trained troubleshooting difficult problems.

Many PhDs fail to pursue Management Consulting positions because they believe that these positions require extensive industry experience. Esto no es verdad.

Even the most reputed global consulting firms have specialized job opportunities for PhDs.

As a Management Consultant, you will be required to leverage your problem solving skills. You will also be required to design unique strategies for overcoming these problems.

Management consultants must be able to work in collaborative “teamwork” environments where communication and leadership skills are crucial.

You must be able to present your findings both orally in PowerPoint presentations and in written form through detailed reports.

A key advantage of securing a Management Consultant position is that it will open doors for a variety of opportunities including executive management, venture capitalism, and entrepreneurship.

6. Quantitative Analyst

There are many opportunities for science PhDs to transition into Quantitative Analyst (QAs).

Most of QA positions are available in major financial institutions involved in financial trading.

A report by Recruiter showed that over the last 10 years, employment opportunities for QAs in the U. S. have grown by 29%.

QA responsibilities include quantitative data analysis, financial research, statistical modeling, and pattern recognition—all related to predicting trades.

Science PhD with backgrounds in “quant” related disciplines such as Mathematics, Statistics, Physics, Engineering, and Computer Science are highly sought after for these positions.

However, many Life Science PhDs are also being hired as QAs. This is due to increases in financial trading in the biotechnology industry.

Science PhDs continue to be preferred by QA firms because of their proven ability to conduct independent research and their detailed understanding of the scientific aspects of technology-based sectors.

As a QA, you will be expected to have a strong scientific background and to be able to work under pressure with little supervision.

You will also be required to gain deep financial knowledge of your markets and be able to grasp advanced mathematical concepts quickly.

7. Medical Communication Specialist

Medical Communication Specialists are broadly described as technical writers involved in the development and production of communication medical and healthcare related materials.

A Bureau of Labor Statistics report shows that Medical Communication Specialist positions are expected to grow by 15% between now and 2022.

As a Medical Communication Specialist, your responsibilities will include writing and editing materials that healthcare organizations will use to communicate with patients, clients and medical professionals.

You must be able to organize, edit, and present information in a manner appropriate for your target audience.

Medical Communication Specialists must also possess excellent written communication skills and have a strong understanding of the ethical or regulatory guidelines in their field.

The main reason for this is that Medical Communication Specialists often work to produce a variety of documents, including patient education brochures, Web content, physician articles, sales training materials and regulatory documents.

8. Healthcare Information Technology Specialist

In 2009, the US government enacted the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act).

According to this new government initiative, there is a massive push for adoption of healthcare technology by healthcare providers.

One of the major criteria of this act is to convert all healthcare related data into an electronic format.

This has made the role of Healthcare Information Technology (HIT) Specialist one of the fastest growing jobs.

A recent HIT Specialist related survey reported that there were a total of 434,282 HIT-related job postings between 2007 and 2011.

As a HIT Specialist, you will be responsible for organizing patients’ medical record into electronic databases, verifying patients’ medical charts, and communicating with physicians to ensure the accuracy of their diagnoses.

Science PhDs who are trained in Life Science fields and have experience with online databases such as Genomics and Bioinformatics are highly sought after for this position.

You must have a strong background in medical research as well as medical terminology.

You must also be willing to learn about medical coding, information technology, clinical database management, and medical billing.

Hospitals, ambulatory healthcare services, clinical research centers, academic research institutions, and health insurance providers are the main sources of employment for HIT Specialists.

9. Operations Research Analyst

Operations Research Analysts are responsible for investigating complex issues, identifying and solving operational problems and facilitating a more cost-effective and efficient functioning of an organization.

In short, these Analysts are very high-level problem solvers. Their job is to systemize organizations as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Operations Research Analysts were first implemented by the military a few decades ago but now they are used in almost every sector.

The demand of this role has increased investments in big data analytics platforms.

Job reports show that Operations Research Analyst positions are estimated to grow by 27% per year until 2022, making it one of the hottest jobs of the next decade.

As an Operations Research Analyst, you must be able to use data mining techniques, mathematical modeling, and statistical analyses to provide real-time operational guidance to large biotechnology and biopharmaceutical companies.

STEM PhDs with academic training in Mathematics, Statistics, Computational Modeling, and Data Mining are highly sought after for these positions.

Although a bachelor’s degree is often mentioned as the minimum qualification in Operations Research Analyst job postings, graduate degree holders are heavily favored.

10. Medical Science Liaison

Becoming a Medical Science Liaison (MSL) is a rapidly growing opportunity for STEM PhDs.

A recent McKinsey & Company report found that MSL roles will continue to increase rapidly through 2020. The same report also showed that advanced degree holders with a strong scientific background will be hired more and more for these roles.

A international recruiting survey found that MSL positions have increased by over 38% and is one of the fastest growing, science-related jobs in the world.

For these and other reasons, nonprofit groups like Medical Science Liaison Society have been created to help advance the global MSL profession

MSL positions can be found in a variety of healthcare-based sectors including pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device sectors.

The biggest misconception regarding MSL positions is that it is a sales position. Esto no es verdad.

In reality, MSLs act as scientifically trained field personnel who are considered to be part of a company’s medical staff. Most MSLs are not even allowed to discuss drug prices or conduct sales.

This provides MSLs with more freedom to learn and teach. As a result, they gain a deeper knowledge of therapeutic areas and are able to discuss detailed medical and scientific issues with physicians.

As an MSL, one of your key responsibilities is to build rapport with KOLs in various therapeutic research areas.

You must have extensive clinical or medical knowledge and, at the same time, be a “people-person.”

Strong communication skills are important but you must also be able to work independently and travel extensively.

Twenty years ago, MSLs were selected from experienced sales representatives that had strong scientific backgrounds. This has changed. Now, PhDs with relevant scientific knowledge are often hired.

Currently PhDs with medical knowledge have a significant advantage in finding employment.

However, MSL positions are highly competitive with only 1-2% of applicants getting hired.

You can make yourself a more competitive candidate for these positions by first taking a Clinical Research Associate (CRA) position.

A PhD combined with CRA experience is considered by industry experts as the best way to prepare yourself for an MSL position.

The two most important lessons you will learn by searching for an alternative career is that there are several jobs available to you and other PhDs outside of academia . You do not have to do a postdoc or continue doing a postdoc. The key is that you must work to change your situation. In order to secure your ideal industry position, you must prepare yourself by gathering as much information about alternative career options for science graduates as possible . You must also begin to grow your non-academic network. Only then will you be able to transition into the non-academic career of your choice.

To learn more about transitioning into industry, including instant access to our exclusive training videos, case studies, industry insider documents, transition plan, and private online network, get on the wait list for the Cheeky Scientist Association.

Arunodoy is a Ph. D. in Integrative Biology and has training in intellectual property, entrepreneurship, and venture capitalism. He also has experience with global biotechnology and biopharmaceutical companies, including clinical trial consulting. Arunodoy is passionate about the translation of academic research to the real world and commercialization of scientific innovation so that it can help solve problems and benefit people. He possesses in-depth understanding of both technological and commercial aspects associated with the life science industry.

Latest posts by Arunodoy Sur, Ph. D. (see all )

My eToro Trading Strategy – Update for 2013

Check out my eToro 2015 UPDATE HERE!

I have been getting many requests from my blog readers to write this post, so here it is – my overview of trading on eToro over the past 12 months using my rather simple eToro Trading System !

The Results

I started with a £10k deposit at the end of 2011. Currently my bank account stands at £20k+. This was achieved in the space of around 14 months.

Is it a good profit to have on a passive investment? You bet it is! I’m very happy and even actually surprised that I managed to keep my head well above water at the end of the year considering I made two stupid mistakes which I will cover later in this post.

When I first started trading on eToro my idea was to make 10% profit (+/-) each month . In reality that turned out to be mission impossible. I know, I know – greedy me! But over the last year spent following traders and seeing how good traders can go down the drain in a matter of just a few days, I realised that whatever I do, I won’t be able to predict such situations and un-copy in time, just before disaster strikes.

A 10% monthly yield would mean a 313% yearly yield (remember, monthly results would accumulate so it’s not just 120%). My result is 80.5%, which is roughly 25% of my initial goal. If we look at my eToro trading experience from this point of view, I have failed miserably. But then again, I’m more realistic now than I was a year ago.

If you ask me today, I’d say that by following my eToro trading system . you can achieve a 30%-100% yearly gain, probably 100% being a very lucky case. Even with 80% I consider myself very lucky. Realistically, 30%-60% is probably what you’re looking at.

Is it good or bad ROI? Depends on how you look at it – I could probably make way more by investing that money in stock and selling on eBay, but that would require way more time and effort on my part. eToro trading is all about passive income – I really don’t spend more than 1-2 hours a week on this, just enough to monitor current traders, cancel bad ones and spot rising stars. So it’s not really comparable.

You can probably compare eToro copy trading with stock trading, but in my opinion eToro carries less risk; with stocks, you would have to look out for penny stocks to get gains like these and they are very risky to deal with in the first place. To each his own, I guess, but for me the stock market looks way more risky than copying successful traders on eToro.

Mistakes

I made 2, no actually 3 mistakes:

1) My idea of long term investment in oil failed miserably. I didn’t make any profit, worse still I had to cut the deal and accept a small loss to get out of my positions. And I’m glad I did it last summer as today, in 2013, the price of oil STILL hasn’t improved. In fact, it’s $4 LESS per barrel then when I bought it for the first time a year or so ago. So yeah, this didn’t work out very well for me, LOL.

With that being said, I’m sure that in the long term, the price of oil is bound to increase, but I guess it won’t happen that soon – in few months’ time. (Now that I said that it will definitely happen, LOL).

But even if it does, eToro may not be the best platform for such long trades as the small fees to carry trades over the weekend eat into your potential profits, especially if we’re talking about years of passive trading. It would probably be a better idea to buy commodities in proper commodity markets. So, no more OIL investments for me at this time.

2) My second and third mistakes can be clearly seen from my 12-month graph:

I’ll tell you! Andrew decided that he was smart enough to do trades on his own! You know – you hear bad stuff about Greece on the evening news, you know that the EUR will go down the following morning, right? As it turns out, it’s not that simple – far from it!

I tried day trading as well as short-term trading (morning-evening) and failed. I couldn’t find any rules to follow. Luckily enough, I somehow managed to win back what I lost (the odds turned in my favour) but I’ll tell you – it’s pure gambling in my eyes! I’m not a financial expert and probably never will be.

This didn’t stop me from doing the same thing few months after my first failure (see the second blue circle in the graph). You should learn from your mistakes, right? Absolutely! For me it did take 2 tries, but now I’m cool, totally cool.

From now on, I’ll stick to copying people who know what they’re doing . That way I can manage my risks very effectively and even if 1 or 2 traders from my portfolio have a bad week, the others usually make up for it so that I’m still in profit (not that every week is profitable, of course).

New Filters to Find the Best Traders

Right after I published my initial guide to How to Make Money on eToro . they introduced a new, advanced filter system to help us find traders we’re looking for more easily:

What these filters do is they allow you to set very precise eToro parameters to find the most suitable traders for your search criteria. Previously we were limited to simple Low/Medium/High risk searches and win ratio, but now you can use 8 different filters:

1) Average Position – this means how much money a trader puts on each trade against its overall balance. For example, if a trader has a balance of $1,000 and he puts $500 down on one trade, his average position would be 50%. Now, that’s very high and risky. I usually try to stick with traders whose average position doesn’t exceed 10% and even that is only occasionally. Ideally, this figure should be below 5%.

2) Leverage – I won’t go into detail on how this works here as it would take a few paragraphs, but to cut a long story short leverage means that a trader is trading with/risking money he doesn’t have. The higher the leverage number, the more risk a trader is taking on a regular basis.

3) Weekly Drawdown – a new and very helpful indicator. This basically shows the MAX losses a trader has made over a chosen time period. It also shows unrealised trades, which is great as this allows us to filter out “good-looking” traders who have long-standing negative trades open that they don’t want to close so as to not ruin profit numbers. When using this filter for low risk trades set it to 20%-25% and below.

4) Winning Weeks – this filter is not very objective as winning weeks really doesn’t mean anything. Some traders may have a very low rate, but when they win they win big (long trades) while others may win 9 out of 10 weeks but when they lose, they lose everything they made during those 9 profitable weeks. So this really is irrelevant.

5) Win Ratio – similarly to the Winning Weeks filter – it’s not very objective, but obviously if you’re looking for low risk traders, this number should be quite high, at least 50%+.

6) Gain – or profit made against the bank . This is obviously a very important filter as it shows exactly how much money a trader has made over a given period of time.

7) Minimum Number of Trades – this is a good one . By using this you can filter out all those lucky traders who have impressive gain figures, but who have only made a few trades. We want tried and tested traders who make at least a few dozen trades per year (if the number of trades is that low, the win through rate should be very, very high).

8) Exposure – another good indicator for spotting low risk traders as they’ll never risk their entire bank in all of their open trades (unless several open positions are open against each other, e. g. when one increases, the other decreases). Still, this number shouldn’t be more than 50% in most cases.

These filters really help me to find good traders.

Don’t forget that sometimes simple doesn’t mean bad. For example, when you go to the People tab to look for traders, you can simply click on Copiers to sort all traders by the number of Copiers they have. If a trader is copied by 2,000 other people and the history graph looks good, it must be worth taking a closer look, right? 2,000 people wouldn’t just blindly copy someone who is losing money for them:

Below the Advanced Filters section, you’ll find Most Popular Searches. These are searches that are already pre-defined with the most commonly used filter settings. For example, “Low Risk with Gain 10%-20%” would be very suitable for my eToro trading system with a few small adjustments (increase the number of minimum trades and increase the weekly drawdown a little):

Even after using filters, remember that you want to check each trader manually to see past trades and open positions, the number of copiers, portfolio allocation and most importantly – graphs/trends for last 6 and 12 months of trading results. From these graphs you can instantly spot a good trader with steady growth over time and a low number of high risk trades.

Conclusión

I hope this update is of some value to you and gives you a better insight into what’s going on with my eToro trading activities.

Here’s what I plan to do now – I’ll withdraw the £10k I made in profit and leave everything else in the system. This way I simply cut off any risks associated with this venture – I have made back my initial investment and I will now leave the profit to make more money for me. No risk of losing for me from now on.

You could say – why, Andrew? Leave all the money in the account so you can double it this year and make some real money, etc. etc. Yeah, right! It could work out like that, but then again, it might not – I can’t know for sure. Maybe I’ll lose all the money this year. I simply don’t know because Forex trading is not predictable. That’s why I am choosing to take the safest path, sleep well at night and only risk the money I earned last year.

As I explained in my original blog post, I’m not really a risk taker – at least not on this kind of scale . I would never put my life savings into eToro . the stock market or similar risky activities. NEVER . I simply wouldn’t be able to sleep at night and would be stressed out all the time. Prices go down the same way they go up – you never know what you’ll see in your account each day – and it’s very stressful! That is, if you’re risking money you can’t afford to lose – much like when you play poker for stakes you’re not comfortable losing.

I would rather invest that larger sum of money in stock . because I know for sure that in 99% of cases I’ll be able to sell it. In the worst case scenario, I sell it at cost price. Same goes for property investment – in today’s climate, when prices are down but rents are relatively high, investing in a good property is a much safer long-term investment. Sure, with properties you can’t make an 80% gain in one year, BUT the risks are much smaller too.

To sum up – it has been a really great, fun experience trading on eToro and it turned out to be quite profitable, too! I would never put £100k or £200k into this system, but as a side investment it has worked out very well for me so far.

Whether or not it’s suitable for you is your decision to make! It can’t hurt to try, right? Even if you start with just a few hundred pounds, it is a great learning experience and can bring in some extra cash to spend on Xmas gifts at the end of the year.

Good Luck with your trading activities!

Check out my eToro 2015 UPDATE HERE!

There’s also a special guru page here: http://www. etoro. com/guru/meet-the-gurus which displays the total income for each guru. If they have earned >$30k they probably know what they’re doing so it’s worth taking a closer look at their profile.

So, in conjuction with other checks as described in your post Andrew, we can locate the best traders.

Personally, I’m willing to pay for a special service that will send once a week an email to my account regarding “who to follow” traders. People trust you, so if you say follow these traders, they will do so.

Andrew Minalto says:

Thanks George, that’s a great share! I didn’t know such a page exists, lol

As for the subscription service – I have thought about it to be honest BUT I can’t see how it could work out. I’m not a professional trader so for me giving out advice etc. would simply be un-ethical. I have said it several times that this is more like a hobby for me and I want it to stay that way.

The World wouldn’t end for me if I lose the money invested in this project but I could never sleep well knowing other people’s money is on the line….

Maybe in few years time, when I will have a proven track record on eToro, I will change my mind.

In this post you said that “eToro trading is all about passive income – I really don’t spend more than 1-2 hours a week on this, just enough to monitor current traders, cancel bad ones and spot rising stars.”

Which traders are, according to you? the bad ones? How would they behave? I mean, we all use analysis and filtering to find the best traders on eToro. Then, in a few weeks, those good traders take your account down into red. What would one do – keep them, or drop them? How does one tell the trader is messing up?

Andrew Minalto says:

Yes, that’s the hardest part – knowing when to drop a trader. That’s why it’s crucial to diversify your risks by investing in as many traders as you can (I try to stick with 8-10).

As for signals on when to drop a trader – there are no systems I use for this, it’s just manual observation. I don’t drop trader after one or two negative weeks but sometimes that’s enough to push the hold button and stop following future trades.

Found your site via wholesale forums and stumbled upon your eToro pages by chance this morning. I’m tempted to try the practice account. When you performed trades in the past on eToro have you ever found it slow to process?

I’m just wondering what the ‘technical’ experience was like, whether things went smoothly or not. Saw one or two videos online of people complaining about this (one was dated 2011). Although I was wondering if that could just be an issue with the individual’s computer.

Andrew Minalto says:

I have not had any issues with the speed of eToro as I’m not day trading. When you copy others or make long term trades (oil, gold, stocks), the speed is not an issue at all.

With day trading, every second and mili second is important but as I said, I have no experience in doing such trades on eToro. My quickest trades lasted several hours.

what a great post! Thanks for sharing your experiences with us.

I have some cash I could give etoro a go but may I ask you a question,

How was your experience of withdrawing money from your etoro account? I hope it was as easy as paying in or do they make it harder to get it out?

Andrew Minalto says:

Withdrawals are pretty straightforward and automated – first time you withdraw money you have to verify your identity though (usual scanned ID + bill for proof of address) but after that, all is automated and money is in your account in 3-5 days time.

would you consider making your trades ( or copied trades ) available for others to copy?

I would definitely be interested as I like your system. I am aware there is always some degree of risk but I am ok with that.

Andrew Minalto says:

I already this answered few comments above:

As for the subscription service – I have thought about it to be honest BUT I can’t see how it could work out. I’m not a professional trader so for me giving out advice etc. would simply be un-ethical. I have said it several times that this is more like a hobby for me and I want it to stay that way.

The World wouldn’t end for me if I lose the money invested in this project but I could never sleep well knowing other people’s money is on the line….

Maybe in few years time, when I will have a proven track record on eToro, I will change my mind.

In response to the point above, would you be willing to share your eToro profile name with us so that we can see who you are copying?

I have been formulating my own method for copying people (some low, some medium, and some high risk traders), but would be interested to be able to compare who I am copying with you.

Thank you for your previous reply further up. I think unless the person has had plenty of practice to trade, the Copy Trader idea seems best route even if you had +5 people copied just to spread risk. Are there any disadvantages in spreading funds thinly between many traders?

I saw a profile of a guy from Kenya (somewhere like that) and he has a crazy “gains” history record. He has lost trades, but his gains looked good. Don’t think he does low risk trades, but I could be wrong.

Andrew Minalto says:

NO, there are no dis-advantages to copy 5 or even 10 traders. I personally have +/- 10 traders in my portfolio at all times to spread the risk.

Can’t comment on that guy from Kenya though. I’m only copying low risk traders (with occasional medium risk trader if he’s doing something phenomenal).

It is me again (from before). I’ve joined the website since reading your thoughts on it. I did fall for temptation and perform 3 manual trades (2 minor profit and 1 minor loss).

I fell foul on the “copy open trades” option which is always ticked automatically when I go to copy traders. I copied one trader quickly and he had 4 open trades which were being carried over the weekend. Not seeing the error until it was too late, I had 4 open trades I did not want and they were all for the same currency. I then was even more unfortunate as the guy closed them all (in profit for him), but still in the red for me (only just though). I put in £200 and the trades were only a few lost pennies luckily. Have now just recovered above the 0% on level, so I’m happy.

Andrew Minalto says:

Congrats on starting out!

Yes, I NEVER go with current trades when start copying new trader, NEVER! This is actually a new feature eToro introduced very recently and I still can’t figure out why they have it checked as default when you want to copy someone.

Anyway, good luck with trading Gary!

Good review and thoughts about eToro and your strategy. And thanks for your effort to provide us with this information.

I have on my own hand traded stocks and forex profitably and actually found a strategy that works very good for myself. It’s a hybrid of technical analysis, sentiment analysis and price action. It handles risk very reasonable too. The problem you see – is that I started law school so I don’t have the time to carry out trades myself. Since I have a small investment going on together with my family I have thought of eToro. And as of my demo account I performed an incredible 130% return within 6 mths. So we are about to start investing with eToro with other autotraded services too like iron condors.

I am happy that someone shares the very same reflections according the compounding effect generated from profitable trades when one cannot trade self. So I would like to hear if I could be informed with your eToro name? & # 8211; And I would be glad if you could write me back on the attached email-adress. I could. I can also help you.

My initial thought was to generate a good retirement although I am only 21. But it’s good to start in a early age – right?. . Esperamos oír de usted. I can provide you with profitable traders too and other services that trades more complex strategies

Andrew Minalto says:

Thanks for stopping by and sharing your experience with trading.

130% within 6 months sounds very good to me! Over time it will probably get lower but 100%+ yearly returns is totally achievable. Where else can you make such massive return on investment with relatively small risk? (if doing proper portfolio management).

Imagine what kind of bank you can grow over 5, 10 or 15 years starting with just $1000 right now?

Go for it and stick with basics, this way there’s very little chance of losing your bank.

Hi Andrew I loved ur system but how can I trust Etoro? I do research on google about etoro reviews And I found many people says its not safe. Could u take a look on the comments on this link and many nigitive feedback about etoro What’s ur opinion about it ( sorry for my bad English )

Andrew Minalto says:

Thanks for stopping by.

In my opinion, YES, you can def. trust eToro! At least, not less than any other such companies.

eToro is now FCA regulated company now in the UK and that means their finances and operations are constantly monitored by authorities.

You won’t have any problems with withdrawals – I have done it many times. The negative feedback on this is that it takes sometimes 3-4 days to receive money but I don’t think that’s a big problem.

With that being said, I DON’T use eToro for technical/day trading so I can’t really comment on speed issues here…. eToro is really a beginner type of social investment network, it’s easy to use etc. but for day trading you probably want to use specific software, not eToro’s interface…

Lastly, you’ll find negative comments on almost any company online! Don’t take everything for granted as there are often competitors who try to make bad publicity.

There are now more than 4 million eToro users and few negative comments really doesn’t mean that much. At least I’m 100% satisfied with how eToro works.

Hope this helps Samel!

Get article, one question thought. Is it possible be lose more then you’ve invested/made. Example say I credit £1000, split it evenly between 10 low-mid traders, over the months they make a nice small steady profit, lets say to £1200 in 5months, then some freak occurrence happens and all the traders got negative and I haven’t un copied in time, would it be possible for me to lose more then what’s in the account I. e £1200. Generally I’d be ok risking the original investment and any profit but would think more if its possible for me to owe more. Hope this question makes sense. Gracias por adelantado

Andrew Minalto says:

Andrew, a great pair of articles you have written regarding eToro, I would strongly recommend any new copier to listen to your advice. Especially when it comes to those seemingly never ending lists of open trades propping up the apparently unblemished and popular gurus.

Tengo una pregunta sin embargo. I am currently copying ten traders (10% each), who have nice consistent stats, low average trade sizes, few or no stale open trades. They are lovely. Three however, have not traded for over two weeks now.

I am of two minds on this matter, while I am irritated by their inaction and reduced returns due to locked up equity, I also understand that their behaviour is risk averse in response to market uncertainty (at time of writing, US debt crisis). The temptation is to uncopy them, and distribute equity to my other traders who continue to trade, however I feel that perhaps their ‘not trading’ is in fact a very reasonable strategy trading right now, and their hesitance helps to more effectively distribute risk in my portfolio.

What would you do, if three of your traders halted their trading for three weeks or perhaps more?

Andrew Minalto says:

Thanks for stopping by and sharing your insights on eToro trading!

You’re absolutely right! The fact that a trader is in-active right now makes sense to me (I see that happening in my portfolio too). And I wouldn’t un-copy a good trader only because he hasn’t made a trade in a week or two. Often people take breaks, holidays too when they stop trading and it’s not a reason to un-copy them if their results are good.

I will just wait until the US debt crisis end and then see what happens.

Gian Paolo says:

Hi Andrew, great article indeed! I wanted to give a try to this system but after having opened an account I discovered that all those nice filters are now changed in just 1 risk selector and a simple list of popular searches, not very useful to build an effective search strategy. Do you confirm this unfavorable change or it’s me not looking in the right section?

Thanks for sharing Gian Paolo from Italy

Andrew Minalto says:

Gracias por tu comentario.

I have had short term loses too of course but nothing like -50%.

Did you copy only safe, low risk traders? I stay away from high risk traders, traders with long opened positions and traders who portfolio is heavily based on copying others.

Thanks for your reply, its very much appreciated.

Yes most of my traders were low-medium risk with the odd high risk. However the high risk traders, I’m sure your aware of Unser & Dellos, are doing ok in comparison to some of the medium traders at the moment. I have a feeling that it is a ‘strangely volatile’ market; with the USD shutdown a little while ago and some of the JPY currencies reaching all time highs/lows at the moment due to the BOJ depreciation. I think, but I’m not sure, that this caught some of them off guard. Even in my practice account which I have used many more and very different high & low risk traders to work up to $19000 is now a mere $13000, also with about -40% drawdown. My real account wasn’t that far behind this and if I ’pack up and go’ now, I lose half my money which is not a good feeling as I’m sure you can imagine.

Its very difficult to get it right though, as some of the lower risk traders have the longest open trades. Santosh and Malsolo have years old trades and make just a few % a year with very large drawdown at some points. When the USD shutdown happened other safe traders such as Caraj, Roby26 & Alexfrank all had trades go sour and shut up shop for 2 months with some copiers having trades run into SL; meaning that they had to pump more money into the copy system.

But many people on etoro are talking of problems and losses due to peculiarities in the market at the moment. I just wanted to know whether these ‘black swans’ happened while you were trading on etoro?

eToro social gurus are not great. Their risk and reward does make no sense at all. Their risk is about -200 to 500+ pips while reward is 5 to 200+ pips. It is not a professional way to trade. If you trade with 500pip risk, you’ll never win or lose. Almost all social gurus add money to their open positions to extend stoploss. It’s ridiculous. One of social gurus named “Dellos” is not a trader but gambler. Look how many open positions he has. He has almost hundreds of open positions that are way way way far away from profit. It’s not a big problem for him because he has 8000 copiers which means he gets paid monthly to trade. He doesn’t win or lose. If you want to make money off trading, you should do it by yourself or find a professional trader to invest.

Andrew Minalto says:

Many Thanks for your comment and advice.

It’s true, there are many gamblers on eToro and even ones that are often featured as top traders to follow. That’s why I carefully analyse a trader before start copying it AND open trades is almost my number #1 filter right after profit/loss etc.

If there are many trades opened for months or even years, I would never copy such a trader.

And I can agree that it’s probably best to become a professional trader and do it all yourself but for many people, that’s just not an option and eToro in my opinion provides a safe alternative – introduction to trading world for masses, which has never been possible before.

Great posts and informative, might sound silly but when you follow a trader and it starts making the same moves so to say when that copied trader sells do you also sell or do you do that manually yourself when you want to?

Andrew Minalto says:

Thanks for stopping by,

When you FOLLOW trader, you only get notified on what trades they do. Your account won’t copy those trades.

To start copying a trader, you want to click on COPY TRADER – when you do this, all trades will be copied and executed in your account too.

Hope this helps!

thanks a lot for these two very well-written and helpful guides! I read them in the last weeks more once and then decided to adapt your strategy.

We’ll see how that works out! Any plans, when you will publish your next update? unesdoc. unesco. org unesdoc. unesco. org

Andrew Minalto says:

I have dedicated my time almost the entire day to read more about investing at etoro. I actually didn’t know the copy trader thing. I think this is an intuitive idea. If one can follow those traders who are showing consistent performance in the past six months… then it can help. In addition spreading the risks on different traders is also nice since one will reduce chances of losing all the bank from one trader.

The last time i traded on forex, it was on a broker and i lost my $100 within the first one hour of trading (I was doing the trading all by myself). From that, it gave it a break, but after reading your information, it has given me some insight on how i can trade using the copy trader and not risk like i did last time.

Great article, these types of articles really inspire me! May i ask do you invest in properties also? i know you mention it above and this is an area that really interests me also.

I’ve spent my last 2 days reading your posts about eBay and ended up reading these posts about eToro. Far as I could understood is that your strategy is to follow disciplined and steady traders with longer trade history, with active trades and no big risks. I was thinking to start by looking for good traders for a while and also to follow few of them (up to 5) and copy them in practice mode (1 month let’s say) then (if everything goes right) I am thinking to add £1000 and to start following the most disciplined ones. Do you think it is a good way to start as a beginner?

Andrew Minalto says:

Yes, you can def. do that.

Only thing, when you use play money, you have to be careful with your mindset as usually people act differently when real money is involved. It’s like playing poker with “free money” & # 8211; you take way more chances, risks etc. compared to a game where real money is involved. So my advice actually is to start with real money, be it a very small budget, but then at least you know that you’ll be 100% concentrated on what you’re doing.

Interested in Etoro and really appreciate the efforts you have put in share your experiences. I just noted the delayed update since the loss of the filters and wondered if they had returned and if you were still generally positive towards Etoro

Andrew Minalto says:

Oops! That page can’t be found.

&dupdo; 2016 TradeSmart University . a division of Financial Puzzle Inc. All Rights Reserved. DISCLAIMER: The information presented on this website and through TradeSmart University, providing stock market trading classes and option trading education programs, is for educational purposes and is not intended to be a recommendation for any specific investment. All stock market trading classes, options trading education, and courses are examples and references and are intended for such purposes of education. The risk of loss trading securities, futures, forex, and options can be substantial. Individuals must consider all relevant risk factors including their own personal financial situation before trading. Options trading involves risk and is not suitable for all investors. It is the official position of TradeSmart University to encourage all students to learn to trade in a virtual, simulated trading environment where no risk may be incurred. Students and individuals are solely responsible for any live trades placed in their own personal accounts. TradeSmart University, it's teachers and affiliates, are in no way responsible for individual loss due to poor trading decisions, poorly executed trades, or any other individual actions which may lead to loss of funds. Stock Market Classes | Options Trading Education

Could Chip Kelly be an option for Dolphins?

The Philadelphia Eagles fired head coach Chip Kelly on Tuesday night. Could he be an option for the Miami Dolphins head coaching vacancy? Shouldn’t be ruled out completely.

While Kelly’s time in Philadelphia was mediocre there was internal issues that caused Kelly and executives to butt heads. Kelly who was given full control over personnel ahead of the 2015 season didn’t win over fans when he traded for Sam Bradford and traded LeSean McCoy while releasing Jeremy Maclin. But is Kelly still a top coaching candidate in the NFL?

Most believe he is and some think that after spending three seasons learning the NFL in Philly, he will be far more prepared to coach at his next stop. Tennessee seems like a logical landing spot for Kelly who coached Marcus Mariota for a season. Last year it was rumored that Kelly tried in vane to trade up and get Mariota in the draft. A reunion in Tennessee could be possible.

Also making the cake a little sweeter is the potential top pick in the draft. Then there is the Dolphins. Ryan Tannehill runs a similar offense in Miami. Similar but not the same as the West coast spread that Kelly uses. Former QB coach Bill Lazor brought a hybrid of Kelly’s system which uses quick passes and up tempo to keep defenses off balance. Miami also holds a top 10 pick heading into the final week of the season.

Kelly is the big name and potentially the big splash that Stephen Ross wants to make but can Miami bring in a coach whose history in the NFL has been marred by players disliking him? Miami could do without the drama that hiring Chip Kelly could bring but on the other hand if Kelly has learned from the mistakes in Philly and can work with Mike Tannenbaum, there is a real shot at turning the team around. Of course do the Dolphins want to hire one of the five coaches that they actually beat this season?

Kelly is just one of many names that will be floated over the next two to three weeks as the Dolphins begin their off-season.

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Chase Stories

Everyone is looking for the best investment option in the country with the best returns (Click To Tweet ). From research, there are a lot of options depending on how well your account is. The following are the top 10 investment options for Q1 2014.

Provision of transport services especially in courier, public transport, given that with stringent government rules, opportunities have opened up and the transportation of agri - produce from the farms.

Investment in brick making schemes . With huge demand for houses and offices countrywide, thanks to devolution, this has become a lucrative venture.

Investing in ICT will be key as majority of businesses look for convergence in delivery of their services.

The NSE and the Government Securities offer the best easy way of investments with a lot of discounted options to look at.

With food insecurity on the increase and given the bad harvest in 2013, green housing will be key to plug in the short fall and it has better returns if handled well. (Check out: Chase Bank and Amiran Kenya Partnership for young farmers).

The devolution aspect has opened a dilemma for county businesses especially when it comes to real estate management and this is a lucrative idea that many SMEs can lurch on.

Specialized car washing is a business that is in demand. The available car washing points are not keen on specific needs for various models and brands of cars and this would be perfect for SMEs and youth groups.

Commercial and residential cleaning . This is huge, especially with a deficit of cleaning firms on a county level.

Garbage collection and Recycling . Well organised and specialized garbage collection is missing around the country and those with a keen eye will see the opportunity in this.

Convenience is the middle name for Kenyans. Offering mobile services will be key, especially if a mobile unit offering MPESA service, with express service will be key, especially in any CBD of any major town.

Guest Report by Steve Biko.

Have you invested or thought of investing in any of these options? What sectors do you feel have been left out and should have been part of the list or that is part of the list but doesn’t cut it for you? Share with us.

Buy To Open (BTO)

Buy To Open (BTO) - Introduction

No other publicly traded financial instruments in the world has more types of trading orders than options. La variedad de órdenes comerciales que las opciones de comercio tiene es una de las primeras cosas que sorprendió a las opciones de comercio de los principiantes y también uno de los primeros errores que los operadores hacen.

De hecho, el uso de los pedidos equivocados, sin duda, dará lugar a pérdidas innecesarias y la frustración, lo que hace que la comprensión de cómo trabajan muy importante. There are four main trading orders that options traders use and they are; Buy To Open, Sell To Close, Buy To Close and Sell To Open.

This tutorial will explain in detail what "Buy To Open" is.

Explosive Options Trading Mentor Find Out How My Students Make Over 45% Per Trade, Confidently, Trading Options In The US Market Even In A Recession!

When To Use Buy To Open?

Buy To Open (BTO) is the most basic trading order all options trading beginners must know. Buy To Open is to be used when buying options . Sin importar las opciones de llamada o de venta. Sí, usted compra para abrir opciones de compra y Comprar para abrir opciones de venta también. A lot of beginners misunderstand buying put options as "shorting the stock" and uses the Sell To Open order instead. Eso está mal. Para ser más técnico, Buy To Open se utiliza para establecer una posición larga.

La siguiente imagen explica los pedidos que coinciden en el comercio de opciones. Como puede ver, la posición establecida mediante las órdenes Buy to Open (BTO) se utiliza para cerrar con Sell To Close.

Remember, always use the Buy To Close order when closing your naked put or call write position

What Does Buy to Open Mean?

Buy To Open (BTO) means "Opening a position by Buying". Esto es exactamente lo mismo que comprar acciones. Opening a position is to start a trading position on a particular options contract. There are two main ways to open an options position; Going Long and going short. Buy To Open está abriendo una posición por largo tiempo en un contrato de opciones en particular. Cuando compra Para abrir un contrato de opciones, en realidad está comprando los contratos de opciones de un creador de mercado y luego mantiene esos contratos de opciones en su cuenta. Esto le permite beneficiarse de la propiedad de los contratos de opciones, incluyendo el ejercicio de las opciones si lo desea. To get an immediately fill, you should use the Buy To Open order at the option's ASK price.

Buy To Open Call Options

You Would Buy To Open call options when speculating an UPWARDS move in the underlying stock through buying its call options alone. De hecho, este es el orden exacto que utilizará al ejecutar una estrategia de opciones de Llamada Larga. Comprar para abrir opciones de compra le permite poseer esas opciones de compra y beneficiarse de su apreciación cuando el stock subyacente sube y también le permite ejercer la opción de comprar el stock subyacente al precio de ejercicio en cualquier momento que desee antes de que expire la opción de compra.

Comprar para abrir Ejemplo: John quiere comprar el Jan40Call en el QQQQ para especular que el QQQQ subirá. Él comprará para abrir (BTO) el Jan40Calls.

Con el fin de obtener ganancias o detener la pérdida en esta posición, se utiliza una orden de venta para cerrar.

Buy To Open Put Options

You would Buy To Open put options when speculating a DOWNWARDS move in the underlying stock through buying its put options alone. Este es el orden que utilizará al ejecutar una estrategia de opciones de Puesta Largo. Comprar para abrir opciones de venta le permite poseer esas opciones de venta y beneficiarse de su apreciación cuando la acción subyacente va hacia abajo y también le permite ejercer la opción de vender el stock subyacente al precio de ejercicio en cualquier momento que desee antes de expirar las opciones de venta.

Comprar para abrir Ejemplo: John quiere comprar el Jan40Put en el QQQQ para especular que el QQQQ se reducirá. He will Buy To Open (BTO) the Jan40Puts.

Con el fin de obtener ganancias o detener la pérdida en esta posición, se utiliza una orden de venta para cerrar.

Buy To Open Questions

Are You Making These 10 Training Mistakes?

After thousands of years of practice, you might think that training a dog would be a natural, almost intuitive, process for us humans. But, too often, we make honest errors in training that result in nagging misbehaviours and strained relations. Owing to the dog’s resilient nature, minor mistakes rarely result in catastrophe. But major errors can cost owners (and dogs) years of frustration. I’ve therefore listed the ten biggest training mistakes I see owners make, and offer alternatives to improve your chances of keeping you and Fido on the straight and narrow. Note that these are related to training technique only, and not to other important areas such as socialization, enrichment, or exercise.

1. You don’t train your dog often enough

Most of us do teach basic behaviours and routines to our new dogs. But once the relationship stabilizes, we often allow our dogs to go on “auto-pilot.” Consequently, response times for important behaviours can worsen; often a dog won’t even respond. This degradation is simply a function of a lack of practice; if you play golf only once a year, you’re going to stink at it, right?

Instead of “training then forgetting,” keep your dog’s established behaviours sharp by working them randomly and regularly, several times each day. “Sit” for dinner, “wait” at doors, “down” at the dog park; be spontaneous and unpredictable. Then, each month, teach a new behaviour—a trick will do—to keep your dog’s mind and motivation up. The larger your pet’s repertoire of behaviours, the smarter he or she gets, and the more important you become.

2.You repeat commands

I see this often, especially among newbie owners with challenging dogs. The owner has taught a behaviour such as “sit,” but, due to distractions, bad technique, or confusion on the dog’s part, the pet fails to respond. The owner asks repeatedly until, after the sixth or seventh attempt, the dog halfheartedly sits. This stalling becomes a learned behaviour, one that’s hard to break.

This often occurs with behaviours that haven’t been fully proofed, or with one the dog doesn’t particularly like to perform. Headstrong dogs, for instance, hate to lie down, as it is an admission of deference. Timid dogs also resist lying down, a position they might deem too unsafe.

When I teach “sit,” I do so as if it’s a fun trick; I treat reward at first, praise, then work it in other locations, reducing treat rewards along the way while increasing praise. I make sitting, lying down, or coming when called the greatest things to do.

Once you are sure a dog knows a behaviour, ask only once! If you are ignored, it’s either because you haven’t taught it properly, or the dog is distracted or simply rebellious (yes, they can be!). Take Fido to a quiet spot and ask again; if he still doesn’t respond, go back to basics and re-teach, avoiding the mistake of asking multiple times, or of making the behaviour seem dreary or unbeneficial. If you suspect your dog is simply blowing you off, don’t be afraid to show your disappointment by saying in a convincing tone: “No; sit.”

One other tip; after asking once without response, wait a moment, while looking your dog square in the eye and moving in a bit closer. Often this will be enough to get the dog to comply. Then praise!

3. Your training sessions run too long or too short

Teaching new behaviours to a dog is a process of evolution, not revolution. The key is in knowing that it’s usually going to take numerous sessions to perfect a new behaviour.

Time spent on a training session should reflect some positive result; as soon as you attain some obvious level of success, reward, then quit. Don’t carry on and on, as you’ll likely bore the dog, and actually condition it to become disinterested in the new behaviour. Likewise, don’t end a session until some evidence of success is shown, even if it’s a moment of focus or an attempt by the dog to try to perform. Remember that ten one-minute sessions in a day trump one ten-minute session every time.

4. Your dog’s obedience behaviours are not generalized to varying conditions

If you teach Fluffy to “sit” in the quiet of your family room, that’s the only place she will reliably sit. It’s a mistake that many owners make; failing to generalize the new behaviour in different areas with varying conditions and levels of distraction will ensure spotty obedience at best.

To generalize a behaviour, first teach it at home with no distractions. Then, gradually increase distractions: turn the television on or have another person sit nearby. Once that’s perfected, move out into the yard. Then add another person or dog. Gradually move on to busier environments until Fluffy will perform consistently, even on the corner of a busy city street. Only then will the behaviour be “proofed.” This generalizing is especially vital when teaching the recall command, a behaviour that might one day save your dog’s life. [For more information on reliable recall, go to moderndogmagazine. com/distract-me .]

5. You rely too much on treats and not enough on praise, esteem, and celebrity

Treats are a great way to initiate a behaviour or to reinforce that behaviour intermittently later on. But liberal use of treats can often work against you. There can develop in the dog’s mind such a fixation on food that the desired behaviour itself becomes compromised and focus on the owner diffused. Think of it: you’ll rarely see hunting, agility, Frisbee, or law enforcement dogs being offered food rewards during training or job performance. ¿Por qué? Because it would break focus and interfere with actual performance. Instead, other muses are found, including praise and, perhaps, brief play with a favourite toy. Most of all, reward for these dogs comes from the joy of the job itself.

By all means, initiate new behaviours with treats. But once Fido learns the behaviour, replace treats with praise, play, toy interludes, or whatever else he likes. Remember that unpredictable treat rewards work to sharpen a behaviour, while frequent, expected rewards slow performance and focus. Also, understand that you are a reward as well; you responding happily to something your dog has done will work better than a treat, and have the added effect of upping your “celebrity quotient.”

6. You use too much emotion

Excessive emotion can put the brakes on Fluffy’s ability to learn. Train with force, anger, or irritation and you’ll intimidate her and turn training sessions into inquisitions. Likewise, train with hyperbolic energy, piercing squeals of delight, and over-the-top displays of forced elation, and you will stoke her energy levels far beyond what is needed to focus and learn.

I tell students to adopt a sense of “calm indifference”—a demeanor suggesting competence, and a sense of easy authority. A laid-back, loving, mentoring kind of energy that calms a dog, and fills it with confidence. If your dog goofs up, instead of flying off the handle, back off, and try again. Likewise, if she gets something right, instead of erupting with shrill pomp, just calmly praise her, smile, then move on. She will gradually imprint on this relaxed attitude and reflect it.

7. You are reactive, not proactive

Dog training is a lot like the beautiful martial art of Tai Chi, with equal parts physical and philosophical. It takes timing, technique, and stamina, as well as a devotion to understanding the canine mind. It is not a skill that can be learned by watching one half-hour television show or from reading a few books. It takes time.

As a result, many dog owners have not yet mastered the timing and insight needed to train as capably as they might like. Like someone playing chess for the first time, they react to their opponent’s moves instead of planning their own.

When you simply react to Fido’s misbehaviours, you lose the opportunity to teach. Instead, practice your technique; anticipate his reactions ahead of time, becoming more proactive in the process. For example, if trying to quell a barking issue, instead of waiting for the barks to start, catch Fido right before his brain says “bark,” and distract it into some other, more acceptable, behaviour. Know that whatever stimulus is causing the barking needs to be either eliminated or redefined as a “good thing” in the dog’s head. This takes experience and a proactive role on your part.

8. You are inconsistent

Dogs need to feel that their mentors and providers are consistent in behaviour and in rule setting. If you vary training technique too much, especially in the beginning, you’ll diminish your dog’s ability to learn. For instance, if one day you stay patient with a stubborn dog, but the next day lose your cool, she won’t be able to predict how you’ll react at any given moment. This breaks confidence and trust. Instead, stick to a consistent methodology and be unswerving regarding what is suitable behaviour. For instance, if Fluffy isn’t allowed on the bed, but you let it happen two times out of ten, that’s inconsistent. Set rules and stick to them.

9. You lack confidence

Loss of confidence is a weakness, and I think that, as natural predators, dogs can sense it instinctively. It’s why frightened people get bitten more often than calmer individuals.

Show a lack of confidence and Fido will exploit it. That’s not a condemnation of your pet; it’s just a dog’s nature. To avoid this, simply work him more and attain some training successes. Attending a class with him can work wonders to increase your confidence, as can you spending time with other dogs. Try trading dogs with a friend every so often for the different experience. Take your dog into different venues, and push yourself and your dog to learn more. Practice!

10. You don’t train to the individual dog

Every dog has a distinct personality and behavioural profile. Though breed helps determine this, the individual dog’s character must be understood before training can succeed. As a trainer, you must determine what methods will work best with your dog.

For example, most retrievers are very sociable and can handle lots of people or dogs around them. But try this with a Chow Chow or Shiba Inu, and you may be in for a surprise. Likewise, a dog with a high food drive will respond to treats, while a dog with a low food drive may require a different muse. A shy dog will fare poorly with a robust training technique, whereas a swashbuckling dog might not even hear the gentle appeals coming from a trainer with a less hardy style. Think timid Toy Poodle versus rowdy Rottweiler.

If you have a shy dog, plan on showing a saint’s patience. Train peacefully, with little distractions at first. Train to the dog’s limitations, but plan to gradually sneak in social situations to desensitize and build confidence. If your dog is a big, bulldozing lummox, be just as big, just as hearty. Know that this dog can be challenged more than that timid dog. And know that, because of its size and strength, you simply must achieve control over it, especially in social situations. For dogs in between, reason out a training strategy based upon personality, size, age, energy, breed, and history.

If you stick to these basic guidelines, you’ll slowly redefine yourself as the resident trainer, and not just your dog’s concierge. Practice, succeed, be confident, and have fun with your protégé!

¡Estoy de acuerdo! We are very conservative with treats and try to focus on the positive verbal reinforcement and attention when our dogs follow through with commands. They respond to that just as much as the treats. We do give treats, though, just not every time. About twice a day we will give them a Healthy Bones if they listen and perform the command. And only healthy treats, of course! The cleaner the dog food, the better they seem to focus.

Thu, 06/14/2012 - 11:16

I agree with some of this but not all. For one thing, YES you do see a lot of treats being used in agility training (ever tried it?). Not every dog is toy focused/motivated. I train in agility and use tug to get my dog up but reward with treats. Quite a lot of treats. I'm not conservative at all. If she gets something right and it's AWESOME she gets a huge jackpot. Yet despite that I can still take her out to a trial and do a complete run without immediately rewarding her in the ring. Also, I find it interesting that #10 says "train to the individual dog" but then above you say "Likewise, train with hyperbolic energy, piercing squeals of delight, and over-the-top displays of forced elation, and you will stoke her energy levels far beyond what is needed to focus and learn." Have you ever trained a low-drive dog in agility? I use a lot of "over the top" displays of elation when she does things right. It helps to get her energy up and to motivate her to keep working. Like you said, not all dogs are alike so why would you assume that you shouldn't use certain kinds of emotion with different dogs? if I trained with "calm indifference" my dog would shut down and stop wanting to work.

Fri, 07/13/2012 - 09:49

I have the smartest most well-behaved dogs ever. except in public. So #4 is where I fall short. I tend to repeat commands from #2 as well. In regards to #3, I find that several short sessions are best. Your tip for ten 1minute sessions v. one 10minute session is right on.

Mon, 08/20/2012 - 08:14

Agility dogs are most definitely trained with treats. They don't get them while in the ring performing, but most certainly during training. I am confused by your statement.

Sun, 12/30/2012 - 05:08

I think I am guilty of not being constant with my dog's training and also I can't really be very firm with it - I prefer to take a few lessons from a specialized trainer!

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 07:36

A note on number 5: The dog should be working for the click or a verbal "yes" not the food directly. Food is used as a lure to begin with (always clicking or saying yes before giving it to the dog) then you use an empty hand to lure then you fade the hand signal and stop luring completely.

I use tons of food in training but my dog works for the mark (click, yes) and isn't focused on the reward.

Wed, 03/20/2013 - 04:31

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Your top 10 savings questions answered

It's not easy to find a decent interest rate but there are still a few simple ways to work your savings to the max.

Savings rates have gone from bad to worse in recent months as banks, building societies and supermarkets pull the plug on their top-paying saving accounts.

So what can you do to get the most out of your cash? And what mistakes can't you afford to make in this low-interest environment? Here we answer your top savings questions.

1. THE TOP RATE I FOUND INCLUDES A BONUS. IS THAT A BAD THING?

If you want a half-decent return on instant-access savings, you'll probably have to opt for an account that pays a temporary bonus. These typically last for around 12 months, but they are controversial because when they expire the rate suddenly drops.

However, provided you make a note of when this will happen to remind yourself to check your rate and that you're prepared to switch accounts, this need not be a problem. You will normally have to put up with a lower rate at the start if you want to avoid the hassle of regular switching.

2. CAN I GET A BETTER RATE FROM MY OWN BANK?

Banks have caught on to the concept of rewarding faithful customers, so it's worth checking out offers from your own bank. In the past, they've seemed more interested in snaring new customers with top rates, but many are now focusing on the loyalty of their current account holders too.

Find the best cash Isa or savings account for you

3. SHOULD I GO FOR A FIXED DEAL?

It depends on your individual circumstances. If you're happy to lock your money away for a set period you could benefit from higher interest rates.

The longer you save in a fixed-rate bond, the higher the rate of return you can get - but the greater the risk of being locked into that rate when interest rates do start to rise.

4. ARE THERE ANY ALTERNATIVES TO TRADITIONAL SAVINGS ACCOUNTS IF I DON'T WANT TO INVEST?

One option is one of the UK's 500 credit unions offering savings accounts and lending facilities. Traditionally they have catered for those excluded by the banks, but they are becoming more popular. These are not-for-profit institutions owned and controlled by their members, so when you become a customer you become a member.

For example, the Clockwise Credit Union ( clockwise. coop ) offers members a basic share account and a less easily accessible budget account. Interest is paid in the form of an annual dividend (the union's cash surplus) divided between members.

Another alternative is a social lending site such as Zopa, YES-secure or Funding Circle. They match people with money to spare with those who want a loan. As they cut out the middleman, borrowers are able to secure a loan at a competitive rate, while lenders get a decent return on their cash.

But although the returns far outweigh those paid by the banks, a concern is that customers are not protected under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme ( FSCS ).

However, the various peer-to-peer lenders have taken steps to safeguard their customers' money, and the average default rate on loans is less than 1.5%.

5. WHY DO BANKS LAUNCH RATES AND THEN WITHDRAW THEM A DAY LATER?

Market-leading deals are oversubscribed very quickly. For example, in September 2012 Sainsbury's market-leading five-year bond at 4% was withdrawn just a day after launch, due to demand. "Customers piled in to take up the deal," says Rachel Springall from moneyfacts. co. uk.

"Top rates get a barrage of attention, so savers who want to take up these deals need to act quickly to ensure they are not disappointed."

6. I CAN ONLY SAVE £20 A MONTH. SHOULD I EVEN BOTHER?

If you're trying to save, putting away a little on a regular basis is a good start, says Jason Witcombe, director of IFA Evolve Financial Planning. "The key to saving is to get started and stick with it; every long journey starts with one small step."

There are plenty of regular saver accounts on the market that allow small deposits so long as you save each month for a year. "For example, you could build up a good safety net of £240 after 12 months and earn 3.3% in interest with West Brom BS' Fixed-Rate Regular Saver ," adds Springall.

7. CAN I USE AN OFFSET MORTGAGE TO SAVE?

Given low savings rates, it may make more sense to use your savings to cut your mortgage repayments by taking out an offset mortgage. This works by ‘offsetting' your savings against the total debt of your mortgage, so rather than earning interest on your savings, you pay less on your mortgage debt.

For example, if you have savings of £15,000 and an outstanding mortgage of £100,000, you will only pay interest on £85,000. Another benefit – particularly for higher-rate taxpayers – is that because you are not earning interest on your savings, you won't pay tax on it.

However, this tactic is only really worthwhile if you have substantial savings that will make a big dent in the amount of mortgage on which you pay interest.

8. WHY DO PEOPLE WITH THE SAME SAVINGS ACCOUNTS EARN DIFFERENT RATES?

Banks and building societies often change the interest rates available on accounts without changing the account name, so it is possible for the exact same account to pay different interest rates to different people.

This happens because the providers may push up their rates on a short-term basis to attract new customers, leaving existing customers on lower-paying rates; but it can be hard to spot.

9. WHAT'S BEST: ANNUAL OR MONTHLY INTEREST?

Some savings accounts will offer you the choice of monthly or annual interest. If you are saving for the long term, annual interest would suit you. However, if you are using interest on your account to top-up your income or pension then monthly would be the best option.

Theoretically, the effects of compound interest would mean you earn a higher return with monthly interest but most banks would pay a slightly lower monthly gross rate to compensate for this. So even if the advertised gross rates were different, the annual equivalent rate ( AER ) would be the same whether you plump for monthly or annual interest.

10. HOW CAN I PAY LESS TAX ON MY SAVINGS?

First, make sure you maximise your cash ISA allowance every year (£5,760 for 2013/2014) by shopping around for the best ISA rates on comparison sites such as moneysupermarket. com or indeed moneywise. co. uk .

Additionally, if your partner pays a lower rate of tax than you, you could transfer assets into their name. That's because in an ordinary savings account, basic-rate taxpayers will pay 20% tax on their savings interest but higher-rate taxpayers will pay 40%. This makes particular sense if one of you is a non-taxpayer, as you are entitled to receive savings interest tax-free.

ISA

Invidivual Savings Accounts were introduced on 6 April 1999 to replace personal equity plans (PEPs) and tax-exempt special savings accounts (TESSAs) with one plan that covered both stockmarket and savings products, the returns from which are tax-exempt. The ISA is not in itself an investment product. Rather, it’s a tax-free “wrapper” in which you place investments and savings up to a specified annual allowance where the returns (capital growth, dividends, interest) are tax-exempt (you don’t have to declare ISAs and their contents on your tax return). However, any dividends are taxed within the investment, and that can’t be reclaimed.

ISA allowance

There are limits to how much you can invest in any tax year. For 2011/12, the limit is £10,680. Of that, the maximum you can invest in cash is £5,340 and the balance of £5,340 can be invested in shares (individual company shares or investment funds). If you don’t take the cash ISA allowance, you can invest up to £10,680 into a stocks and shares ISA.

Social lending

The name given to a certain type of financial transaction which takes place directly between individuals or “peers” without the use of a traditional financial institution such as a bank. Various social lending websites incorporate a number of strong risk controls, and screen all potential borrowers by checking their credit history. Lenders agree to lend a specific amount for a stated return and lenders’ cash is pooled between borrowers, spreading the risk. The major social lending companies are Zopa, RateSetter, Funding Circle, Quakle and Yes-Secure.

IFA

A financial adviser who is not tied to any financial services company (such as a bank or insurance company) and is authorised by the Financial Services Authority (FSA ). They can advise on financial products to suit your circumstances. All IFAs have to give consumers the choice of paying by fees or commission and have to explain which would best suit the customer in that particular instance. Also, if commission is paid either by the client or the financial service provider recommended by the IFA. the IFA must disclose what that commission is.

Offset mortgage

A way of combining a mortgage and savings so the savings “offset” and reduce the mortgage. Rather than earning interest on savings, the savings reduce the mortgage and the interest paid on the borrowing, so savings are effectively earning interest at a higher rate than most mainstream savings accounts will pay. They are also tax-efficient, as savers avoid paying tax on interest that their deposits would otherwise have earned. Offset mortgages offer the disciplined borrower a great deal of flexibility, as overpayments can be made to reduce the term or monthly mortgage repayments, which can save thousands of pounds in interest payments over the mortgage term.

FSCS

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme is the compensation fund of last resort for customers of authorised financial services firms. If a firm becomes insolvent or ceases trading, the FSCS may be able to pay compensation to its customers. Limits apply to how much compensation the FSCS is able to pay, and those limits vary between different types of financial products. However, to qualify for compensation, the firm you were dealing with must be authorised by the Financial Services Authority (FSA ).

Compound interest

This is effectively paying interest on interest. Interest is calculated not only on the initial sum borrowed (principal) or saved (see APR and AER ) but also on the accumulated interest. The more frequently interest is added to the principal, the faster the principal grows and the higher the compound interest will be. Compound interest differs from “simple interest” in that simple interest is calculated solely as a percentage of the principal sum.

Current account

An account opened with a clearing bank (few building societies offer current accounts) that provides the ability to draw cash (usually via a debit card ) or cheques from the account. Some pay fairly minimal rates of interest if the account is in credit. Most current accounts insist your monthly income (salary or pension) is paid directly in each month and they offer a number of optional services – such as overdrafts and charge cards – which are negotiable but will incur fees.

Dividend

If you own shares in a company, you’re entitled to a slice of the profits and these are paid as dividends on top of any capital growth in the shares’ value. The amount of the dividend is down to the board of directors (who can decide not to pay a dividend and reinvest any profits in the company) and they will be paid twice yearly (announced at the AGM and six months later as an interim). Dividends are always declared as a sum of money rather than a percentage of the share’s price. Although dividends automatically receive a 10% tax credit from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), which takes the company having already paid corporation tax on its profits into account. Dividends are classed as income and, as such, are liable for personal taxation and so shareholders have to declare them to HMRC.

AER

Where APR is the rate charged for money borrowed, Annual equivalent rate is how interest is calculated on money saved. The AER takes into account the frequency the product pays interest and how that interest compounds. So, if two savings products pay the same rate of interest but one pays interest more frequently, that account compounds the interest more frequently and will have a higher AER.

The New Sell and Sell Short by Alexander Elder

2nd June 2011, 05:08 am

The New Sell and Sell Short: How To Take Profits, Cut Losses, and Benefit From Price Declines is a 2nd edition of his not very popular trading book titled Sell and Sell Short. This one is timely piece of trading education that can be of a great help during current times of recession and bearish markets out there. If you’ve read some of the best-selling books by Alexander Elder (which I strongly recommend doing): Entries and Exits. Trading for a Living. Come into My Trading Room. you should already know that Dr. Elder knows what he’s talking about and knows how to tell it to the traders, so that they would learn something really useful and helpful. This book unites his emotional and psychological studies with the most sophisticated trading methods to create a strategy to trade by selling and selling short. Of course, not everything here can be applied successfully to Forex market, but it still contains many lucrative lessons for all types of traders.

Forex trading is almost never profitable without a Forex strategy. You can read the detailed descriptions with the examples of several Forex strategies. including indicator strategies, price action strategies and fundamental strategies.

Below you can read the reviews of the book and also submit your own review about The New Sell and Sell Short by Alexander Elder.

1 Review

Loki:

It’s good to see Dr. Elder to update and publish the new edition of his book. He was sharp enough to assess the warning signs of the year 2007 Bull Run to come to an end and thus wrote this great book about the value of shorting stocks and importance of the timing exist when the time was appropriate. The author has good control over the exits and entries in publishing, possible because he is trading. The timing of the book, i. e. May 2008 was perfect for the trading community. In case you are browsing Amazon for a good trading book then you need not look further, as this one is among the best available in the market. You will see that this book is more informative than all the books that you have previously read. It is truly a complete book on stock trading and it covers everything required to ensure long term success in the market.

1) The traders including the discretionary traders must have a plan for trading. 2) It is important for the traders to keep a record so as to understand their successes and mistakes. 3) A trader should avoid trading too big, as it may lead to bad judgment or mistakes. 4) A thumb rule is to reduce the losses to a maximum of 2% or less so as to limit the risk of ruin. 5) If you trade with discipline then you will surely stay ahead of other traders. 6) Your trading must fit your risk tolerance as well as your personality 7) In case you are relying on your fundamentals for trading then do cross check it with analytical trading tools. 8) It is important for you to understand that stock option buyers turn out to be net losers in market. 9) Traders simple cannot give up on their stocks since they are stopped out, however a trader is successful, if he or she keeps trading until he or she catches a winning trader. 10) Rallies off support and false breakouts are among the two best trading opportunities which one can utilize.

Author has got a brilliant trading style. He trades with slow and fast moving averages, i. e. 13, 26, along with the envelopes. The book teaches you how you can use short term swing traders with the help of force index and MACD to trade when the stock is below or above its value zone. The trading style here is to win high probability trades by catching half or more stocks average and not by catching huge trends. Professionals adopt this way to trade in a normal market. Risk management is very vital and it can be practiced using stops, which will surely protect you from trend that take off and then fall outside their average range.

When you see the title of the book you will feel as if it suggests when you should sell your stocks to gain profit. It really teaches you that. However apart from it, this book also explains the concept of short selling. Together, these things make this book a complete solution to any trader. This book will teach you when you can lock in the profits and when you can exit trade with the help of a target. Also, it teaches you how you can double the potential for profits, by not just buying the stocks but also selling them so as to buy them at a much lower price and making profit. Majority of the professionals sell short because even if the stock market rises, when a stock falls it falls at a much faster pace than it rises. Selling short is a perfect tool, only when it is used appropriately. This book will make you learn when it is appropriate to sell short. Dr Elder has integrated money management, record keeping, technical analysis as well as trading psychology is just one book. These factors are of great importance and will have a big impact in making you a successful trader.

If you want to be a successful trader then you must follow the money management ideas which are given in this great book. This book states that you should never ever risk more than 2% of your total equity in trading. If you follow this rule, it will surely save you from any problem that you face in trading and save you from huge equity draw downs. A successful trader is one who is able to learn from the mistakes that he or she makes in trading and ensure that the same are not repeated. The best way to avoid these mistakes is to keep a record of them in the form of charts, spreadsheets or diaries etc. You should look squarely at each win and loss. If you limit your loss to just 2% and learn from your mistakes, then you are surely going to be a big name in the field of trading. This review is just one of the hundreds of good reviews for this book. The book consists of some very helpful real trades, humor, helpful principles and is simply superb. The other books by Dr. Elder, i. e. “Trading for a Living” and “Come into my Trading Room” are also best sellers. If you want to trade successfully then this book is a must buy for you. Dr. Elder also very cleverly has added the trades from 2008-09 bear market. His explanation on trader is very informative and interesting. You will find some reviews of charts of that time period which reflected bottom signals and when it was time to stop the selling and start buying the stock again.

Leave a review

About

Trading Forex (like any other financial trading activity) can be very risky. Trading with margin is even riskier. To be prepared to the possible losses and other dangers of market, it's recommended to read the Forex books written by professionals and recommended by the successful traders. Forex books presented on this site can greatly improve your chances to prosper from currency trading and to avoid the common mistakes that have blown up thousands of accounts. Don't forget to read the Forex book reviews before buying them and, please, leave your own review after you read the book. Read first, trade next!

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Who are India's biggest FPIs?

Sneha Padiyath | Mumbai Aug 03, 2015 12:59 AM IST

Europacific Growth Fund, the largest foreign portfolio investor (FPI) in India was born seven years before liberalisation ushered foreign investment into Indian equity markets. Today, it holds $131 billion in assets under management; 6.4 per cent of that is invested in Indian equities.

Prime Database recently carried out an exercise to identify the 10 largest FPIs in India — through an examination of 1,447 listed Indian companies’ disclosure of the names of their foreign investors to stock exchange — and it turned out these FPIs together held Rs 1.79 lakh crore in Indian equities.

FPIs hold a major chunk of the non-promoter stake in Indian companies but can be notoriously difficult to pin down. Unlike domestic mutual funds, there is no freely available ranking in terms of the size for foreign funds investing in India. Listed entities disclose the names of shareholders owning more than one per cent in them.

The biggest FPI in terms of disclosed shareholding (above one per cent) is the Europacific Growth Fund. Among others on the list of the 10 biggest are sovereign and pension funds from Singapore and Norway, some familiar names like Franklin Templeton Investment Funds, and Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore), besides Dodge & Cox International Stock Fund, First State Asia-Pacific Leaders Fund, Aberdeen Global Indian Equity, the Oppenheimer Developing Markets Fund and Copthall Mauritius Investment. These FPIs together hold shares equivalent to half the equity assets of the entire Indian mutual fund sector.

ALSO READ: FPIs pump in Rs 5,300 crore in Indian stock market in July While the actual number might be significantly higher, Prime’s analysis estimates Europacific’s holding in Indian equities at Rs 42,530 crore. An analysis of the fund’s own documents shows this could be around Rs 54,000 crore.

So, the top 10 FPIs’ actual holding could be significantly higher than the Rs 1.79 lakh crore disclosed to bourses. This also means the ranking should be considered indicative, since FPIs holding company shares through participatory notes (P-notes) and the cases where holdings are less than one per cent are not required to disclose their names to stock exchanges.

Europacific Growth Fund belongs to the US-based Capital Research and Management Company. For Europacific, India is the biggest emerging market destination and fourth-largest overall — after Japan, the UK and France — according to its disclosures at the end of June. As much as 87.5 per cent of its investments are outside the US.

The fund managers’ commentary in Europacific’s annual report released in March this year might explain why they allocated more money to India than China.

It noted India and China shared similar growth trends, including the rise of the middle-class. However, India’s demographics were better than China’s. The median age in India was 27, noted the report, while United Nations data showed the median age in China was around a decade higher.

Jonathan Knowles, the Singapore-based fund manager of the Europacific Growth Fund, believes the rising middle class in India would drive consumption, leading to a rise in credit penetration, explaining the fund’s preference for financial stocks, especially private-sector banking names. “These banks have been taking share from public banks in India year after year,” said Knowles.

Financial stocks are also high on the list of India’s second-largest FPI, the $38-billion Oppenheimer Developing Markets Fund. Led by Justin Leverenz, who has been overseeing the asset management since 2007, the fund invests 14.8 per cent of its total assets in India, second only to China, which received 19.4 per cent of its total investments as of June 2015.

HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and HDFC are among the popular investment names in these funds.

Pranav Haldea, Managing Director at Prime Database pointed out that the trend towards financials can be seen amongst all foreign investors.

"Amongst sectors, the maximum exposure as on 30th June, 2015 was in Banks (Rs. 3.44 lakh crore) followed by IT Software (Rs.2.59 lakh crore). The sector which has seen the maximum increase in FII holdings in the last one year was also the Banking sector (from Rs.2.83 lakh crore to Rs.3.44 lakh crore)," he said as part of an emailed statement.

The third largest fund is the Government of Singapore which invests about Rs 24,192 crore as of June 2015.

FPIs were net buyers by Rs.1.11 lakh crore in FY15. They have been net buyers by Rs.7927 crore so far this year, shows data from depositories. FPIs held a total of Rs.20.51 lakh crore in Indian equities at the end of June. FPIs with exposure of over one% in Indian equities constitute nearly one-fourth of all FPIs with investments worth Rs 4.69 lakh crore.

Money mistakes in your 30s

This article is by staff writer Suba Iyer.

As I venture into my early 30s, I think I’ve become pretty careful about our finances. I certainly know not to continue on with the mistakes I made in my 20s like buying more car than I can afford or not paying myself first. But something happened last week that made me go, “Uh-oh.”

Now that spring is here, I went shopping to look for new clothes for my daughter. After a while, my husband looked at all the stuff and asked me, “Don’t you think you’re going a little overboard here? Why so much stuff?”

I started to justify why we needed each item. And after a bit, I realized I was actually repeating myself: “Well, this looks pretty. And this is very pretty.” I could see the look on my husband’s face. I just stopped. I had to admit that she only needed half of what I was going to purchase. She is a baby after all; she doesn’t care about being pretty, only about being comfortable. Uh-oh, I am making new money mistakes!

When we reach our 30s, many of us have our careers on a steady path; most of us are married or are getting married; some of us have started traveling more, purchased a house and might even have a baby or two. But it’s not a time to become complacent with our finances. If we aren’t careful, we can make new money mistakes.

I guess that is true for every stage in our lives — we keep making new mistakes. But we can also keep learning from each other and avoid as many mistakes as we possibly can. Isn’t that why we read this blog in the first place?

So here I am, compiling a list of potential money mistakes my 30-something peers and I should avoid. On the eve of my 40 th birthday, I don’t want to be thinking “I wish someone had told me this 10 years ago.” I will start with the one that served as my wake-up call and got this thought process going for me in the first place:

Buying too much for your child. I think every parent makes this mistake. In fact, compared to what I see other moms in my local mommy groups purchasing, I seem to buy very little. And what I buy is more than plenty. So I can only imagine how much money people are spending on cute clothes, shoes, blinking and screaming toys, even educational apps. I (and other parents) should just save that money and start a college fund .

Getting married without talking about finances. Maybe money is a touchy subject for people; but by the time you have reached your 30s, you should be more capable of negotiating difficult discussions. It is extremely important to be on the same page with your spouse when it comes to money. Otherwise, it can become a major source of conflict in your married life and potentially the reason it ends in divorce. Talk about finances with the person who will share your life and develop your monetary goals together.

Still having consumer debt. I have heard of excuses like “If only I were single, I would have paid off all this debt” or “I was paying off my debt, but we had a kid.” There will always be some new event in life; some exciting, some unfortunate. But if we choose to ignore our debt, it can become an obstacle that prevents us from pursuing opportunities that might better our lives. Take charge of your debt! Budget aggressively, earn as much as you can, and pay it off.

Buying more house or car than you need. A lot of people move when they have children, thinking they need more room with a kid than they did before. They take the same approach with cars, trading in their sedan for a big SUV. ¿Por qué? We don’t need giant homes or huge cars to raise kids!

Keeping up with the Joneses. Speaking of giant homes and huge cars, people of all ages seem to be afflicted with the desire to keep up with the Joneses — but unfortunately, it seems especially common among 30-somethings. Maybe it’s the subconscious messaging of television advertising or the desire to be accepted in our social groups; but no matter what the reason, it is important to keep our spending within our means, forego lifestyle inflation, and chart our own financial course.

Ignoring a will. If you have a significant other or any children, please make out a will or set up a living trust. It may be unpleasant to think about death in your 30s; but you don’t want your loved ones to go through the hassle of fighting the State to get what is theirs. While you’re at it, get a durable power of attorney and healthcare power of attorney too!

Not having enough life insurance. Again, no one wants to think about death; but if you have anyone that depends on your income or your time . you need life insurance. And you have to get enough life insurance to cover the needs of your dependents, not just the minimum offered by your employer.

Not having long-term disability insurance. In your 30s, the chances of becoming disabled and not being able to work are higher than death. Most people have long-term disability insurance from their employer; but you should calculate how much you need and then purchase supplemental insurance. When it comes to insurance, life or long-term disability, it is better to get your own policy and not depend on your employer (unless getting your own policy is prohibitively expensive for some reason). If you change your job, you will lose that insurance and then replacing it will be that much more expensive. This type of insurance is less expensive in your 30s than it is later in life.

Not re-evaluating your retirement goals. In your 30s, you have a new lifestyle; hopefully your income is different now than it was 10 years before when you started saving for retirement. If your income has increased since you formulated your retirement goals, have you done the calculation on how much you need in retirement with your new income and lifestyle? If not, now is the time.

Not paying attention to how your investments perform. You might have started your 401(k) with a very basic money market fund with the intention of learning about investing and doing a better job. Have you done that? Have you studied how your investments are performing and adjusted them based on your current goals and tolerance for risk? If you need help, now would be a great time to find a fee-only financial planner and see if you are on the right track.

Neglecting your children’s education. If you have a child and intend to pay for at least part of their education, you need to start putting money away for college now. At the very least, start saving money in an online savings account until you fully research college savings plans.

Putting too much importance on your children’s education. You should save for your children’s college tuition but not at the expense of your own retirement. Make a budget, fund your retirement, and then find ways to save more money to fund college.

Going back to graduate school for the wrong reason. I am all for getting a graduate degree if it propels your career to new heights. But if you are going to graduate school after a job loss to avoid job-hunting or if you are going to grad school because you can’t find a job with your undergraduate degree — particularly if you have not researched job prospects after a graduate degree — then you are making a huge mistake.

Not diversifying your income. It used to be that you stayed loyal to your employer and in return they took care of you. For example, each of my parents had one job throughout their working years. When they retired from their jobs, they each had a pension. But since that isn’t the case today, we need to find ways to maximize and diversify our income. If you have a hobby that can make some money, pursue that. Try to generate income from sources other than your job. After all, job loss is no longer an uncommon occurrence and the only person who cares about your future is you.

Those are the mistakes of which I am aware. Some of these are things I notice myself doing and others I see happening with my friends. But unlike the mistakes we are likely to make in our 20s, these are born more from complacency, not necessarily naivete. The good news is that we 30-somethings can wake up, take charge of our finances and still hope to achieve our financial goals.

What mistakes do you think people should avoid in their 30s? If you see yourself in any of these items, do you see a way to change what you’re doing?

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03 April 2015 at 8:59 am

I have been posting here for a very long time, almost from the beginning of the iste. And I have watched as this site has been taken over by people trolling for their business interests, from gold to financial planning. The suggestion that young people should focus their financial planning on more immediate goals than retirement is hardly “trolling”, unless I suppose you have a financial interest in the retirement industry.

03 April 2015 at 10:27 am

I I have no interest in the financial planning industry. I do have the personal experience of not realizing how fast the years speed by and having to play catch-up. I also know that nasty things happen, and without GOOD disability policies, you not only will be miserable, but probably die prematurely because you cannot afford medical care.

I agree–Ross is a troll on this thread.

03 April 2015 at 11:12 am

Lets be clear. Some people may need disability insurance badsed on their circumstances, but in general not having it is not a “mistake”. The reality is that the chances of you losing significant income from disability in your 30′s are not all that great, although they may be greater than your chances of dying. But exaggerating that possibility to create fear has been, and continues to be, the major selling point for what is very expensive insurance.

As far as I know, disability insurance isn’t sold by the financial planning industry. So whether you are a financial planner isn’t really relevant.

03 April 2015 at 7:07 pm

I sincerely hope that nobody else reading this is a cock-eyed optimist like Ross. Unless you have a written guarantee that you will never ever seriously injured or get seriously ill, you need health and disability insurance. Years slip by quickly. You can’t unring a bell; you can’t go back in time and get the insurance you need when you need it.

Retirement comes up on you fast. If you don’t have enough money set aside, you are going to be in a world of hurt.

Money saved gives you options. Being broke takes them away.

01 April 2015 at 9:27 pm

“Focus on maintaining or improving youthful vitality (aka exercise and eat right), to reduce chances of being on expensive meds or expensive therapies in your 40′s.”

This statement is soooo spot on. I wish it could be repeated at least 1,000,000 times. It should be mentioned in every article on personal finance as well as every piece on medical insurance and costs. 2/3 of us are overweight or obese. We literally, cannot afford this way of life any more.

02 April 2015 at 7:02 pm

Which doesn’t mean that you won’t still get sick. Bad things happen, and we all die. You can do your best to stay healthy, but you better have that health and disability insurance in place.

Jen From Boston says:

01 April 2015 at 1:05 pm

4. Buying more house or car than you need.

I agree with this, but I did have a slightly different approach to buying a home.

I bought a little more home than I needed, but I bought a home I’d be happy with ten or twenty years after I bought. I hate moving, and there are costs associated with selling your home, especially if you end selling for less than what you paid.

If I was married and planning on having children I’d take the same approach if buying my first home. I’d want to buy a home I could raise the family in. i’d rather spend a little more once, and then just stay put. It saves me money on costs associated with selling home, and it saves me stress of moving.

Of course, this approach assumes that you can afford a home that will fit both your current and future needs. And it assumes that the home you buy really does work for you. Sometimes it isn’t until after you’ve lived in a place for a while that you realize it doesn’t work for you. I know for any home I buy after this one I want a broom closet. I have squeeze the vacuum and broom and mop in with the coats. But that’s a minor irriation, luckily.

02 April 2015 at 6:59 pm

You also need to be confident that you won’t have to relocate for some compelling reason. Industry collapse, need to care for aging parents, etc. can make it tough to stay.

01 April 2015 at 8:46 am

I think several of these are just plain wrong:

1) People in their 30′s should not make saving for retirement a big priority. They have 30+ years until they retire and will then will likely only live 15-20 more years after that. Many will find they are no longer able to do a lot of the things they want to do. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t save for retirement, it just shouldn’t be at the top of your list.

2) You don’t buy clothes for you kid because THEY want to look pretty, you buy them because YOU want them to look pretty. The same reason for spending money on clothes for yourself.

3) Social Security already provides disability insurance. Supplementing that insurance should not be a priority in your 30′s. If you can afford it great, but should not be a priority since you are unlikely to use it.

4) People in their 30′s should be paying zero attention to how their long term investments perform, since there is nothing you can/should do about it. Your investments should be in an index fund and forgotten. If you have short term investments, money you will need to spend in less than 10 years, you can also ignore their performance. Just make sure you have a reasonable percentage in cash or bonds that aren’t very volatile in price and that you can live with the results if the stock portion drops in half at some point.

5) Paying a financial adviser just to tell you whether you “are on the right track” is a waste of money. If you have specific issues you need help with, like a disabled child, aging parents in need of financial support or an inheritance, then by all means get some advice. But most 30 somethings don’t.

6) The biggest mistake 30 somethings make is “paying themselves first” by setting aside a specific amount for savings. This just encourages them to waste the rest of their money. The starting point for budgeting should be determining how much money you have to spend and where. ALL the rest of your money should be considered savings. You can set aside some of that savings for specific purposes (child’s education, buying a house, retirement, annual vacation, etc), but you want to know whenever you buy something that you are using money you have saved for the future.

7) The biggest mistake made by young and old is spending money on ephemeral wants that will quickly lose their value. Any purchase can be an investment for your retirement if you are still making use of it in retirement. The best way to build wealth is to purposefully spend every dollar with an eye toward its future value.

Jen From Boston says:

01 April 2015 at 12:53 pm

1: I disagree with you here. As long you already have your emergency fund in place, I think it is good to pump up your retirement savings. Putting it off is just going to lead to more procrastination, and then you’re stuck at 50 trying to catch up. Also, if you haven’t started having children yet then you should start socking away for retirement. Odds are once the kids enter the scene you’ll have to dial back the retirement savings, and when you’re 60 you’ll be glad you saved the extra money in your early thirties. And, saving for retirement in your 30s is even more important if you were unable to save anything in your twenties.

2. Well, duh But, too many people, and this includes aunts, uncles, grandparents, siblings, go overboard on making the baby cute, which leads into the mistake you mention in #7, spending money on ephemeral wants.

3. How much disability? I’m very skeptical that Social Security pays out enough disability to be meaningful. Also, for big earners SS disability may not even come close.

4. Again, I disagree, but mostly because not everyone knows to invest in index funds. In fact, paying attention to the really bad returns I was getting on a mutual fund made me see that what I thought would be a good investment when I was in my twenties was, in fact, a total dog of a fund. I then switched that money over to an index fund. I think it’s good to periodically review your long term investments, and your mid and short-term investments, too.

5. I think this point is highly individualized. If you’re single, like I am, you don’t have a spouse to bounce ideas off of. A financial advisor can also challenge you on certain things, like “Why are you holding on to that stock you got 10 years ago? It’s mediocre. What’s going on there?” Questions like that can get you to reconsider previous assumptions that might now be wrong, or even just bring your attention to an account or habit you had forgotten about.

At the same time, if you have your financial house in order then, yes, you don’t need to spend the extra money.

6. “Paying yourself first” is just another way of doing what you suggest. Not everyone has your discipline or organization to pay only for needs and bank the rest. Many just need that money to disappear into savings. For me, it helps to have a certain amount of money to go straight from my paycheck into my savings account. It’s just one less thing I have to think about.

01 April 2015 at 3:10 pm

I agree with your comment about #6. Some people find it easier to have their retirement savings automatically taken off their pay cheque — especially for employer matching. I’m a firm believer in setting savings goals and then figuring out your budget rather than the other way around. For instance, if you can’t afford to buy a house and save for retirement and emergencies, then you’re not ready to be a homeowner

01 April 2015 at 3:20 pm

How do you set savings goals independently of knowing how much money you are going to need to spend to live? Setting a “savings goal” and then spending the rest is an open invitation to waste money on things you don’t really need or want. Deciding what you really need to spend and then considering everything else savings helps to make one really consider each purchase.

01 April 2015 at 6:03 pm

Funny, I don’t see it as an either/or situation. You can use automatic deductions in tandem with other savings and investment strategies.

Sure, if some people who pay themselves first will be tempted to spend the rest — just like some people who don’t pay themselves first will be tempted to spend everything they earn.

02 April 2015 at 6:04 am

I wasn’t opposing automatic deductions. I was suggesting that you ought to put ALL the money you don’t intend to spend immediately into savings. How you do that depends in part on how you track your spending.

If you are using “automatic deduction” that means your whole paycheck goes into savings and you take out just the money you have budgeted for living expenses. If you want to call that “pay yourself first”, fine. But for a lot of people “pay yourself first” means you decide on how much you will save and then spend the rest. That is very different than deciding what you really need to spend and then saving the rest.

After all, savings is just money you intend to spend in the future. Why would you treat money you spend now differently? But plenty of people do. They buy stuff they would never buy if the money came out of their savings.

01 April 2015 at 3:40 pm

“… paying attention to the really bad returns I was getting … I then switched that money over to an index fund.”

Which really proves the point. You sold low because the fund was down. That is exactly the wrong thing to do. But its what paying attention will get you because you will think you are being smart.

I applaud your moving to an index fund. But the lesson is not that you should pay attention to your investments, its to invest in a low cost index fund to begin with. Then you don’t have to pay attention again until you approach a time when you are going to spend your savings. You also don’t need to pay a financial adviser.

“then you’re stuck at 50 trying to catch up.”

What exactly is wrong with that? It means you will have less money to spend at 50, but that is usually a persons peak earning time and with the kids gone they can sustain their current lifestyle at a much lower cost.

You are going to get a whole lot more out of money well spent in your 20′s and 30′s than money well spent in your 60′s, assuming you live that long. For instance, you are better off buying a fishing boat now if you want one, rather than saving the money so you can buy one in your retirement. You can take your kids fishing in the boat now and take your grandkids fishing in the boat when you retire. And there are plenty of other good uses of money at that age that are better than socking it away in stocks and bonds.

02 April 2015 at 12:28 pm

Just a point on “selling low”. Sometimes a dog of a fund is a dog of a fund and will remain a dog of a fund until someone puts a bullet through it. If your mutual fund is tracking like crud for a few years while the benchmarks are way above it, time to cut your losses and move on.

02 April 2015 at 2:45 pm

Most mutual funds are “dogs” compared to an index fund. And if they haven’t been a “dog” in the past, they still likely will be a”dog” in the future. If you have to pay close attention to the performance of your long term investments, you have the wrong investments.

You are confusing different programs. Social Security Disability Insurance is administered entirely by the Social Security Administration and benefits are based on your work history, just like Social Security.

01 April 2015 at 7:26 am

I think another one, closely tied to what you mentioned above, is having children without talking about finances. It’s hard to say what “spending too much in children” is if you haven’t defined that first (before the cute, cuddly baby is born and clouds your judgment ). Define what your priorities are (e. g. private school, college education, sports/extracurriculars) and then map out a plan to fund those. That helps keep you focused on what matters to you when you might start getting distracted by the adorable baby clothes at Target, or the super cute Mommy-and-Me swim class at the YMCA.

01 April 2015 at 8:25 am

+1! After hearing about the high cost of child care, I started socking away money into a baby fund almost two years ago, right alongside my vacation fund and other savings goals, even though we weren’t planning on starting a family for a few more years. Full time child care in my area can be $800-$1200 per month. That’s $10-$14K per year! I think of the baby fund as “prepaying” for child care, so we don’t have to bear the full cost all at once when we finally do start a family.

01 April 2015 at 6:06 am

This is a good subject to dive into.

Many of us are already well into being financially stable and planning for the future, but we don’t often think about the typical pitfalls that come around certain stages of life and how they can throw it all offtrack.

For me, general lifestyle inflation is the biggest one that comes to mind.

My wife and I are in our early 30′s and its hard not to get caught up in buying/upgrading while you are in the midst of buying your home, having a baby, getting a needed family car, etc.

This is happening as we are getting raises and becoming more and more independent and stable.

You do so much buying and changing, it can be easy to forget the basic principles of personal finance even while you used them to get to where you are now.

I try to bank more savings every time once of us gets a raise. If we get a tax refund or come into any money, I first parse it down by adding to our emergency fund and savings.

As for upgrades, etc. we make a list of all the things we think we may need in the future, and changes we want to make to the house and prioritize(a dining room table comes to mind). That way we don’t go crazy trying to do everything at once.

01 April 2015 at 5:30 am

It is actually a bit misleading to say that most people have long term disability from their employer. Most probably don’t. Market penetration is modest (less than 50%) and hasn’t been growing. Most people don’t know their own risk there.

Ask your HR person if you have an LTD policy. The key metrics to evaluate it are: 1. At least 60% income replacement 2. A high enough maximum that you don’t “max out” and get a lower replacement rate 3. An “Elimination Period” that leaves no gap between your Short term and Long term Disability.

If you don’t meet all 3 criteria, you need to consider getting an individual policy. The last is the least important however, if you already have 6-12 months of emergency fund. I price long term disability for a living, and I can say that group LTD is notoriously cheap (so much so that many companies post losses on it every year), so it is worth picking up or pushing your employer about.

02 April 2015 at 6:47 pm

You should get your own disability policy as soon as you graduate and get your first “real” job. You could be between jobs, and you could become uninsurable at any time. Make sure you can raise the amount as time goes by.

As a bonus, that income is tax-exempt.

I never thought of the married with kid person who says “If only I were single” imagining it’s just like being in your 20′s but that’s a really good point and casts a different shadow on whatever follows the comment.

Jen From Boston says:

01 April 2015 at 2:07 pm

I hear it from marrieds who seem to think of singletons as living a fancy free life. Granted, I don’t have to wash the dishes right away if I don’t want to, but I also don’t have anyone to pick me up at the airport after I get home from a long trip. I also don’t have anyone to help me move heavy items.

Well, at least I don’t until my boyfriend moves in

I think it’s one of those “grass is alays greener” things, as well as romanticizing the past. Still kind of annoying, though.

06 April 2015 at 7:45 am

Sí. I also don’t have anyone to split the cable bill with, utilities, rent. I also don’t get big tax breaks.

I could sell half my stuff and just share his.

I’ve always thought marriage has great potential to save a lot of money given you share so much. You don’t need two of so many things when you’re married.

07 April 2015 at 1:29 pm

Marriage itself is not that detrimental to finances in my opinion (other than my wife having slightly fancier taste than I). The problem is that marriage so often results in children. So far my one-year-old and three-year-old daughters have proven to be very poor investments–financially of course.

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I sure wish Grey would do his 2016 fantasy baseball rankings. Wait, I am Grey and this is those rankings. Holy crapballs, this is the greatest day ever! Now, only 400,000 words more until I finish my top 400 and I’ll be done. Worst day ever! Damn, that excitement was fleeting. Well, not for you because you don’t have to write all the rankings. You lucky son of a gun! I wish I were you… *wavy lines* Hey, why am I balding and wearing sweatpants? *wavy lines* Hmm, maybe we’re okay with who we are. Now before we get into the top 10 for 2016 fantasy baseball (though I imagine every single one of you has skipped this intro paragraph), I’m gonna lay some ground rules. First, keep your hands and legs inside the trolley. Second, send me all your money. Damn, tried to trick you! Okay, here’s where you follow us on Twitter. Here’s where you follow us on Facebook. Here’s our fantasy baseball player rater. Here’s our fantasy baseball team name generator. Here is all of our 2016 fantasy baseball rankings. Here’s the position eligibility chart for 2016 fantasy baseball. And here is a picture of my son. What a punim! You may not get all of those links in such a handy, easy-to-use format ever again this year, so make proper note. (Unless you just go to the top menu on this page that says “Rankings” and click it, but semantics, my over-the-internet friend, semantics.) Now my expositional half insists I breakdown some generalizations about these 2016 fantasy baseball rankings. The 2016 fantasy baseball rankings will be an ever-evolving mass like the blob. This fantasy baseball top 10 for 2016 list is as of right now and could potentially change with a big injury or Mike Trout quitting baseball because he’s bored with being the best and wants to play competitive Mahjong. So while it is the 2016 fantasy baseball gospel, take it with a tablet of salt. Tomorrow we will cover the rest of the top twenty for 2016 fantasy baseball, then we will go around the horn with a top 20 list for every position. Then for pitchers and outfielders, I’ll turn the dial to 100. Listed with each player are my 2016 projections. Did I consult with anyone else who does projections? It would be ignorant not to, but, in the end, these are my projections. Players need 10 games at a position to get included in the positional rankings. Finally, as with each list in the 2016 fantasy baseball rankings, I will be mentioning where I see tiers start and stop. I look at tiers like this, if Bryce Harper and Paul Goldschmidt are in the same tier, it doesn’t matter if one guy is ranked 2nd and one guy is ranked 3rd, they’re both very close. It comes down to personal preference. I would prefer the guy at number two better than the guy at three, but you do you, I’ll do me and let’s hope we don’t go blind. Anyway, here’s the top 10 for 2016 fantasy baseball :

1. Mike Trout – This is the first tier. This tier goes from here until Goldschmidt. I call this tier, “Al Gore warned us.” The tier name refers to the climate change– “I told you!” “Leave us alone, Al Gore!” The climate change in regards to people’s perceptions of Trout, Harper and Goldy. People are out on Trout, and not just poets and/or Rhymin’ Simons. There’s the lack of steals, they say. There’s the K-rate, they say. There’s the plateau vs. the rise of Harper, they say. They say a lot, but I don’t see them doing much but yammering. Trout just hit 41 homers, a career high. He hit .299 with a low-for-him BABIP. His line drives were at a career high. He has the speed to steal 10 bases in his sleep. He stole six bases in April alone last year. Trout has four years of stud numbers. Harper has one. Goldy is a sexpot, but he just had a career year. Trout’s had multiple career years, but 2016 could be even better. Yes, a career yearer! The careeriest year? A careerer yearer? The career year’s career year? You know what I mean! 2016 Projections: 108/40/101/.303/16

2. Bryce Harper – I wanna put you inside my brain for a second. Why are you poking your finger into my medulla oblongata? I was speaking metaphorically! I think Harper is here to stay. And, no, I’m not writing this from a Best Western. I mean, he’s a top ten talent. Last year, I ranked him in the top 15 and that was coming off a less-than-stellar year, so I foresaw big things. 47 homers big? Um, no. 460 OBP? That seems a bit bigger too. A .330 average? Okay, also on the high side. A 27.3 HR/FB%? So, there’s some reasons to be concerned. The point has been made. Last year, he only stole six bags and that actually seems low. For our porpoises — hey, dolphins! — Harper may lose some average and power and still be about as valuable as last year with ten extra steals, which doesn’t seem completely out of the realm of possibilities. Could Harper go on some next level shizz and be a 50-HR, 20-SB guy? I’d put it at about a 10% chance. In all of baseball, I’d also give Trout a 10% chance, Goldy has about a 7% chance, and every other player has around a combined .0005% chance. Okay, Daniel Descalso has about a .000000000000000000000000005% chance, which is bringing down the average a little. 2016 Projections: 104/36/107/.297/12

3. Paul Goldschmidt – In 2013, I wrote a poem for Au Shizz in the rankings and he had his worst year. Last year, I wrote a poem in the rankings for Giancarlo and he missed half the season with an injury. This year no freakin’ poems! Though, I did rhyme briefly in the Trout blurb. I have worse success after my rhymes than Vanilla Ice near an open window. Too cold, too cold! Ever wonder what Vanilla said to Suge right after he brought him back from dangling out of that window? I imagine a lot of, “No worries, man, I was feeling a bit clammy in these baggy pants and that fresh air did me wonders.” Any hoo! Au Shizz is a total beast like Bella in the final Twilight (What? It was in reruns.). I do think 21 steals, like last year, is ridiculous to expect again and his .321 average with a .382 BABIP feels high, even if he does nothing but make hard contact. I think he’s even safer than Harper, but I can’t lie and say I’m not excited about Harper’s age and upside. Well, I could lie, but you’d see through it, you perceptive person you! 2016 Projections: 101/30/115/.297/14

4. Anthony Rizzo – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Giancarlo. I call this tier, “I love these guys like a Kardashian loves the green room at the BET Awards.” I’m straight caca-cuckoo for the guys in this tier. Why the love? Let me give you the 411! *all millennials close browser window at mention of 411* Okay, let’s just look at last year super quick. Rizzo went 94/31/101/.278/17. That alone is first round worthy. Sí lo es. No, it’s not. Yes, it is, no repeatskis! Now a brief word about that super quick look. It was a down year! Rizzo should be much better! He’s only 26. His BABIP was only .289, could be near-.315 easily. His HR/FB% was only 14.6%, could be near 18% easily. 94 runs and 101 RBIs in that stacked lineup with Wrigley assisting dinkers in July and August’s humidity? Doode’s about to break out like Cameron Diaz’s face. 2016 Projections: 103/36/114/.291/12

5. Manny Machado – I juggled Machado between this tier and the next tier (Last year’s darlings) more times than I want to count (37 times, including once while laughing at someone who was Redbox’ing The Tourist). I finally decided Machado had age on his side to warrant this ranking. He just went 35/20 in a year where he was only 22 years old for half the year. 40 homers seems impossible from Machado, but 35/20 at 22 years old says, “Shove your impossible up your arsehole, you non-believer.” Machado doesn’t hit a ton of balls hard (he’s a pro at medium contact), but he walks, he’s got speed, he’s in a nice park, his HR/FB% feels repeatable and, honestly, I could list everything about him, i. e. there’s little to not like. He really is The Manny. 2016 Projections: 94/30/109/.298/18

6. Giancarlo Stanton – *knocks on Giancarlo’s door* “Hey, Giancarlo, I’m just bringing your mail up. ¿Qué? Why do I need to wear pants to do this?” Okay, so I love him. My blindspot is about yay big. When I’m saying yay big there, I’m holding one arm out, then running 3,000 miles and holding my other arm out. It’s big, okay. That’s what she never said! There’s a reason. One of these years, he’s going to hit 50+ homers and it’s going to be this year or next. No, that’s not what my Magic Eight Ball says. It’s the truth, Ruth. He was headed that way last year, then he had an unfortunate injury. Yeah, I know, every year he has an unfortunate accident. Well, here’s a non-related name for you…Ian Kinsler. That’s right, Kinsler spent his early 20’s looking about as injury-prone as anyone. Four of his first five years he had fluky injuries sidelining him. Now he has 600+ ABs in five of his last six years. And this will be the only time Kinsler is ever compared to Giancarlo! Seriously, Giancarlo’s fluky injuries sucked the last few years for those that owned him, but don’t let that stop you from loving him. At least that’s what I keep telling myself every time I see my Giancarlo tramp stamp in the mirror. 2016 Projections: 94/46/115/.272/7

7. Nolan Arenado – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Donaldson. I call this tier, “Last year’s darlings come with no discount.” That tier name also sounds like a proverb. Or poverb as Ben Carson would spell it. This tier is straight up depressing with a beer chaser. Last year was the year to own these guys. This year, they scream slight regression, but here’s the thing. Do you take Arenado and his regression to 36 HRs and .275 or do you you reach for Correa here because you think he’s going to be a top five fantasy player this year? I think you take the safer bet in Arenado. Now, enough of that boohoo I’m crying like a little baby and getting a guy in Coors in the prime of his career! Arenado is still a stud, but he has 40-homer power, not 50 like Giancarlo, and Arenado has absolutely no speed. I like Arenado a ton, my goofy friend that I pretend to not know in public, but expecting a repeat of last year feels foolish. 2016 Projections: 91/38/110/.299/2

8. Josh Donaldson – “…and the moral of the story is draft a bunch of Blue Jay and Rockies hitters. Goodnight, little baby Jesus.” Oh, sorry, I didn’t hear you come in. I was just reading my rankings to a nativity scene in my mom’s basement. Like you never run things by baby Jesus. Pfft! Donaldson likely deserves to be above Giancarlo in the rankings, but his last year screams career year so obscenely that I’m having a hard time hearing anything else. Or maybe it’s baby Jesus whispering in my ear. “What’s that baby Jesus? His HR/FB% is too high? I know!” I get that Fred Rogers Centre helps with the big fly, but 41 homers last year was Donaldson ripping through his ceiling, grabbing a flying past Pablo Sandoval. who is staying afloat by passing gas, and both of them zooming thousands of feet into the sky. 2016 Projections: 104/32/97/.269/4

9. Kris Bryant – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here into the top 20 for 2016 fantasy baseball. I call this tier, “These names could surprise you. Boo! That boo was also meant to surprise.” There’s a delicate balance in the early rounds of drafting skills vs. track record. Donaldson has track record, Kris Bryant has skills. Track record has those guys above him, but skills has Bryant here. If this were the 90s, he’d have the skills to pay the bills. He’d also have a retirement portfolio that was relying heavily on AOL stock. Bryant is a 30/15 guy, those are his skills. 30/15 from 3rd base is a top 15 pick. 30/15 from 3rd base does not get The Gas Face. The problem is his track record — there isn’t much of one in the majors — and his strikeouts. He had a 30% strikeout percentage. That’s not good. Hard to not hit .240 when you’re K’ing that much. (I just had to pay Jerry Lawler a nickel for using any variation of the word King.) Here’s the thing — uh-oh, Grey’s bringing out The Thing starring Michael Chiklis! — Anthony Rizzo in his rookie year struck out 30% of the time when he was 23 (Bryant’s age last year). Rizzo’s now down to 15%. Giancarlo struck out 30% of the time this past year, but since he hits everything so hard it doesn’t matter. Bryant was top 15 for all of baseball for Hard Contact. Bryant had a great rookie year, but I can point to multiple things that should get better — strikeout percentage, HR/FB%, steals, walk rate, homers, runs, RBIs, etc. etc. etc. This year Bryant will be better than great. What’s better than great? Greater, I Googled it. 2016 Projections: 95/31/108/.268/15

10. Carlos Correa – I told ya there would be some surprises! Or maybe I didn’t tell you that. Did I just watch the movie Still Alice? Oh no, I’ve forgotten! AHHHH. Correa in the top ten feels ballsy like my hand down my pants, only, sorta, kinda, it doesn’t. He’s a 20/20 guy without injuries. You can’t dock him for potential injuries. Well, you can, but that would be foolhardy. No relation to Tom Hardy, who is my newest mancrush. I didn’t love Legend, and I really wanted to, but he was still worth the price of admission. I’m assuming, at least, since I went to a free screening. Since you asked, the best movie of the year: Room. As for Correa, I love him. By the by, I wonder if he tells girls that his waist is “Correa’s demarcation line” and to stay south. Last year in 99 games in the majors, he had 22 homers and 14 steals and a .279 average. Steamer has him down for 22 homers and 21 steals in 146 games. Is there any way he hits the same number of homers in 2016 as he did in under 100 games last year? La respuesta corta es sí. The long answer is yesssssssssssssssss. He had 7 Just Enough homers and an average distance on his homers of 398.7 feet. For guys with at least 18 homers, that’s in the bottom third for distance. His HR/FB% was high at 24.2% with only a 29.1 FB%. That is a low fly ball rate, and, as common sense tells us, if you don’t hit fly balls, you can’t hit homers. Yet…Again, with some stank, YET! He’s 21 years old and is a lock for 20/20 and .280. Jesus and Mary Chain, that’s good. His power is easy 20 homers. Whether he hits fly balls or not, he should get to 20 homers. If he hits lots of fly balls, he could hit 35 homers. His speed is even easier if you’ve seen him play. 30 steals seems doable. What about his batting average, asked Expositional Voice. His BABIP last year was .296, that seems low for him. He had some years in the minors of a .375 BABIP and a .320 average. I wouldn’t project him for that, but that feels possible. You were wondering who was going to bump Trout out of the number one slot next year? Look no further! Literally, this is the end of this post. 2016 Projections: 103/24/95/.292/26

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You know, I love Rizzo also I kept ranking him no worse than 5. Everytime I looked up his stats, lineup, intangles, it seemed a fair ranking. I know you don’t ever think a pitcher should go first round but Kershaw is pretty amazing. Pitching is very deep but Kershaw can help out tremendously, huge K numbers, ridiculous era and whip, could carry a pitching staff. He seems less risky to me than Kris Bryant, Carlos Correa to name a couple. I’m also big fan of Mookie Betts curious where you rank him. Great job should be fun reading these upcoming rankings.

@Robert. ¡Gracias! Yeah, I’m liking and likely drafting Rizzo a lot of places this year… You don’t need Kershaw

M says: January 18, 2016 at 5:11 am (link )

Happy birthday Grey! Thanks for all the good work!

jvanslyke says: January 18, 2016 at 5:25 am (link )

Like an idiot I forgot top overall rankings came before position rankings and had psyched myself up for catchers analysis. I was up all night wondering where Swihart would fall, if you thought Vogt would improve and if Mike Lavaillere would make his way into a reference.

Happy birthday to you and Ted Dibiase. Hope you guys have something fun planned for tonight!

jvanslyke says: January 18, 2016 at 5:26 am (link )

Kanye dropped No More Parties in LA for your birthday!

@jvanslyke. Ooh… No More Parties, huh? Will have to check it out, any good?

Ralph Lifshitz says: January 18, 2016 at 9:16 am (link )

@Grey. Madlib on the beat and Kendrick. Actual real hip-hop from Kanye, not that 808, auto-tune, fruit-loops garbage.

Agreed, but it could be tighter

Ralph Lifshitz says: January 18, 2016 at 9:33 am (link )

@Grey. I thought the beat was dope and the rhymes were fine. If his new album is along this wavelength I’m going to be into it. I liked the first three albums.

The Ghostface sample was dope, and my first thoughts after hearing this song is that Kendrick and Madlib should do an album together. It would be a classic.

Happiest of Birthdays to you Mr. Grey! Quick question if I may!?

12 team h2h (obp) Keep 5, at least 1 arm and 1 bat. Have no picks in 1, 3 or 5 round. C,1b,2b, ss,3b, if,3of, utility 3 year max term

Harper 2 Grienke 3 Harvey 3 Donaldson 4 Machado 6 Altuve 6 Carrasco 6 Blackmon 7 Abreu 8 Kluber 20

I’m leaning toward harper, Donaldson, machado, Altuve and Kluber. I’ve also considered keeping Abreu and trading others for picks or other keepers. I fear I’ll be left without a good option at first base if I wait until round 7 to pick one. I have also considered attempting to trade a corner infield for Correa. Thoughts?

Abreu over Kluber

BRS says: January 19, 2016 at 8:11 am (link )

@Grey. but we must keep one pitcher, as much as it saddens me.

ThE sHiT says: January 18, 2016 at 6:59 pm (link )

Happy Birthday Grey!

As always, thank you for all you do. I think this is year 6 since i found your site, keep up the excellent work.

Awesome Auger says: January 18, 2016 at 7:10 pm (link )

YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! & # 8211; /Daniel Bryan

Fantasy Baseball is officially back! Thanks in advance for all you do Grey, seeing a new Razzball post makes my morning every day.

Dan says: January 18, 2016 at 7:53 pm (link )

Your rankings are my absolute favorite, thanks. Two quick things…1) 31 homers seems light for Bryant based on his power across all levels, what do you think is his ceiling? 2) in a keeper league (you can keep 7 guys) where you sign guys to 1,2, or 3 year deals and you get discount for three years but if you drop them you’re stuck with the salary…have to make decisions on Carrasco and Salazar, how sold are you on both? Thank you sir!

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ETFs vs. Mutual Funds - The Battle Continues

By Mark Kennedy. Exchange Traded Funds Expert

Mark Kennedy has traded ETFs for over 14 years. He was an ETF options trader on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange floor and a Vice President of Derivatives Trading for Goldman Sachs. Now he enjoys writing about ETFs and giving first-hand insight to his readers. Lee mas

Updated November 25, 2014.

Mutual funds vs. ETFs, the war wages on. Which is the better investment. There’s no clear-cut answer, but understanding the risks and benefits of each asset will allow you to pick the best investment that fits your strategy. Here are five reasons to consider buying or selling an exchange traded fund in lieu of a mutual fund .

1. Tax Benefits

The biggest advantage an ETF has over a mutual fund is the tax benefit. Due to their construction, ETFs only incur capital gains taxes when the fund is sold. In a mutual fund, capital gain taxes are incurred as the shares within the fund are traded during the life of the investment.

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2. Simplicity

When you buy or sell an ETF. it is done at one price with one transaction. You are a trade away from opening or closing a position. With mutual funds, shares in the asset are constantly being traded to hit a target price and seek a desired performance. Multiple trades, multiple prices.

3. Cost-Effectiveness

As well as being simplistic investments, ETFs are also more cost-effective than mutual funds. Since shares in a mutual fund are actively traded and the fund itself is actively managed. they sometimes rack up large management fees. Fund managers have to charge for their time after all. With an ETF, it’s one transaction. Just like purchasing a stock. This cuts down on fees and commissions. There will be multiple commissions associated with a mutual fund due to its activity and volume.

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4. Investing Flexibility

With more and more ETFs being released, investors have more options to target a specific trading strategy. Commodity ETFs. Style ETFs. Country ETFs. even Inverse ETFs. There are so many types of ETFs for investors, tracking the performance of a certain index or achieving a specific financial goal may be more attainable than with a mutual fund.

5. Transferability

Whenever a managed portfolio is switched to a different investment firm, complications arise with mutual funds. Sometimes the fund positions have to be closed out before a transfer can take place. That can be a major headache for investors. Liquidating a portfolio’s mutual funds may increase risk, increase commissions and fees, and incur early capital gains taxes. With an ETF, the transfer is clean and simple when switching investment firms. They are considered a portable investment.

Are ETFs better than mutual funds. There’s no set answer to that question since too many factors are involved. However, if you are faced with an ETF vs. mutual fund dilemma, consider the disadvantages of mutual funds and the advantages ETFs bring to the table.

10 Common Car-Buying Mistakes

Buying a car can be a perilous venture for your finances. Like other transactions that that happen only once in awhile, many shoppers are out of practice when car-buying time comes around. Couple that with the fact that you're usually talking about a big chunk of change when purchasing a car, and it just follows that the effort is full of potential disaster for your bank account.

Want to know what the most likely dangers are? Here are ten common car-buying mistakes as listed by MSN:

1. Falling in love with a model.

2. Skipping the test drive.

3. Negotiating down from the sticker price.

4. Focusing only on the monthly payment when negotiating.

5. Buying the "deal" instead of the vehicle.

6. Waiting until you're in the dealership to think about financing.

7. Underestimating the value of modern safety features.

8. Buying unnecessary extras.

9. Not researching the value of your current car.

10. Not having a used car checked by an independent mechanic.

My thoughts on these:

1. We always look at 2-3 similar models before we settle in on one to negotiate (after all, a Subaru Forester, Toyota RAV 4, and Honda CRV are all pretty much the same). If one dealer doesn't want to negotiate (like the Honda guy -- he never wants to come down much on price), we move on to another one.

2. You HAVE to test drive the car. You're going to be sitting in/operating this vehicle for a significant part of your life. It has to be comfortable for you and functional for your needs. (And for me, I have to make sure it has enough headroom -- which rules out lots of options.)

3. I start by knowing what the car costs them and negotiate from there. See Save on Buying a Car: Four Steps to a Bargain on Wheels for details.

4. We pay in cash, so the monthly payment is not an issue.

5. Why would anyone do this? A good deal on a car you don't like that much is a bad deal.

6. Of course, this should be thought of/worked out well in advance (and used as a negotiating tool if possible). My preferred option is to save up and pay cash for the vehicle.

7-8. These go together to me. You want features that add value to the car and you can't get elsewhere, but there's no reason to pay for upgraded car mats when you can get them at Walmart for 1/3 of the price.

9. We usually give our cars away -- either to charity or a family member (this is what we've done with the last three of them) -- so we don't need to establish trade-in value.

10. I would NEVER buy a used car without having it checked out by my mechanic first.

Lots of these seem like common sense, but I guess they trip a bunch of people up a bit. Take some time and think through each of them before you start your new-car-buying-process. They could end up saving you a bundle of money.

Top 10 Reasons Companies Choose Data Masons

1. ERP Integration Focus

Data Masons is the industry’s ERP integration expert in addition to having unmatched EDI expertise. The company’s deep knowledge of the Microsoft Dynamics ERP platforms (AX, GP, and NAV) and the Exact Macola solutions removes the risk and excessive costs that are potential hazards when working with companies lacking similar expertise. Compared to any other company in the industry, Data Masons provides the most document integrations to all of these platforms.

“We could tell Data Masons were experts in our Microsoft Dynamics ERP platform during our initial meetings. This was important as we wanted a provider that could help us eliminate customizations we had to build to satisfy the needs of our earlier provider. Our recent version upgrade would have been much more difficult had we not had the Data Masons’ EDI product.”

Gary Godman, CIO ESI Enterprises

2. EDI Solution vs. Tool (No ERP customizations!)

Customers prefer our ‘plug-and-play’ solution that meets EDI integration and compliance requirements. Implementation is a simple set-up process as opposed to a software development project which may put you and your ERP platform at risk. The Vantage Point EDI solution requires no ERP modifications for tight integration and, combined with Data Masons’ library of 8,000+ partner approved maps, you can implement integrated EDI with over 1,200 different businesses quickly and cost effectively.

“Vantage Point EDI proved to be a tightly integrated, out-of-the-box EDI solution that did everything we needed to handle our EDI requirements with no ERP development needed.”

Bill Blyth Oldcastle Precast

3. No Transaction or Document Fees

Many companies provide seemingly low-cost solutions, but what they also have are unpredictable and, in many cases, exorbitant document and transactions fees. Data Masons gives you the choice to move your data in the manner that best suits your business needs without any unnecessary transaction fees, resulting in lower and more predictable cost.

“When we found out we could do unlimited transaction processing with Wal-Mart and Target using Vantage Point EDI, we dropped our web forms provider and purchased Vantage Point EDI. Our monthly transaction charges went from $3,800 per month to $0. The integration saves us time, money and eliminated errors – the ROI has been tremendous.”

J Wang Pepsi Bottling, M. V.

4. End-to-End Automation with Management by Exception

Data Masons provides a ‘lights out’ automated workflow solution that excels in trapping and reporting discrepancies when they happen, a feature that is not available in any other solution in our marketplace. Vantage Point EDI is truly an end-to-end application that runs 24/7/365 without human involvement, except in the case of discrepancies that require a staff member to resolve or approve (e. g. a price discrepancy).

“Our company is a Microsoft shop and we liked the SQL and. NET technology foundation. Reporting has been a dream and we love the flexibility and control SQL provides. The Data Masons’ EDI Scheduler provides “lights-out” automation, audit reports and informative exception alerts which is exactly what we wanted.”

Jeff Perrye Vice President of Finance Advantus Corp.

5. Performance

High volume distributors know that performance can make or break an integrated EDI solution. The Data Masons solution leverages Microsoft SQL multi-server load balancing to provide outstanding performance in extreme transaction volume scenarios.

“On a busy day Ferry-Morse Seed Company must process 5,000,000 sales order lines. Data Masons was the only provider we could find that could guarantee that volume integrated into our Dynamics AX ERP solution. We are very pleased with our decision and the excellent relationship we have with Data Masons.”

Tamra Gargus, EDI Coordinator Ferry-Morse Seed Company

6. Accelerated ERP Deployments

New ERP implementation projects can be delayed or even derailed by complex EDI integration projects. Our knowledgeable service team can work independently and deploy an integrated solution without distractions to your ERP project.

“We chose Data Masons because we wanted a solution that would not slow down our Dynamics AX deployment. There staff worked closely as part of our team that made it very easy meet our timetable without worrying about EDI integration or mapping. It was as close to plug-and-play as I could imagine”

D. Peters VP of IT Nucal Foods Corp .

7. Extensive Trading Partner Integration and Compliance

Customers get up and running quickly and easily by connecting their ERP system to the supply chain partners including customers, suppliers, public warehouses, freight companies, trading networks, banks, brokers, customs and government agencies.

“We were using three different websites to input EDI data. Data Masons handled all of our partners and eliminated all of the data entry.”

Mitch Buchwalter Home Stuffings, Inc.

8. Flexible Service Levels

Some companies want to manage EDI operations themselves, from partner communications to mapping compliance. Others want a fully-managed experience without any involvement in EDI - related matters, and then others want something in between. Data Masons provides multiple levels of service that provide your company with the service level that best matches your needs and budget.

“We originally purchased the EDI solution from Data Masons and had them manage all of our compliance. After we completed some major IT initiatives we decided to take over the EDI mapping. We appreciated the fact that Data Masons is willing to support us either way and we’ve found we can create our own integrations and process flows using their mapping without any custom programming.”

Nick Hutchens Lead Architect | EDI Coordinator

9. Industry Expertise and Support

Knowledgeable consultants combined with Vantage Point EDI’s industry specific features help our customers avoid costly mistakes and spending valuable budget hours training their EDI consultants on how industry partners operate. See the Industries pages to learn more.

“We chose Vantage Point EDI because Data Masons understood our distribution model and industry partners such as Tech Data and Ingram. Also, they had great references.”

Mary Henry Virtual Iron Software, Inc.

10. Reputation

By putting the customer first, delivering quality solutions and unparalleled customer service, Data Masons has become the leading EDI provider.

“We heard Data Masons was the best option from several different companies in our industry at a recent user group meeting. We decided to abandon our existing EDI solution based on the feedback we heard from other companies using the Vantage Point EDI solution. They quickly replaced our existing EDI solution and solved many challenges our prior vendor could not address. ”

Hank White Thunder Creek Industries

Vantage Point EDI for Dynamics NAV has helped Steiner Enterprises become more efficient and more competitive. We can set up new partners quickly and affordably without problems. The product is very easy to use and support has been excellent. I strongly recommend Vantage Point EDI to any company needing integrated EDI .

President, Steiner Enterprises

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EDI Made Simple ®

Little or no source code changes needed for tight integration

No document or translation fees

Professional and courteous service from EDI experts

Low risk setup and cost effective EDI Solution

Enterprise class performance and functionality

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Small and medium sized enterprises seeking finance may want to consider invoice factoring. Invoice factoring is an example of how traditional financial arrangements are entering into new accounting practices toward sustainability.

Here are 10 reasons why Invoice Factoring is the most reliable form of business financing.

# 1. Accounting Principle

Invoice factoring standards allow for more cash flow flexibility in accounting. An accounting principle used in a range of industries, invoice factoring turns outstanding accounts receivables into profit.

# 2. Balance Sheet

Invoice discounting and invoice factoring are both viable options for making sure that balance sheets are on target. Cash flow is a critical mechanism for ensuring that a business is able to resolve accounting expenses normally.

# 3. Liquidity

Like debt trading, invoice discounting factoring produces immediate liquidity for companies seeking alternatives to traditional bank lending. Availability of capital is almost immediate compared to bank application for credit so that expenses (i. e. equipment, payroll, rent, and utilities) can be covered for on short notice.

# 4. Sustainability

It can be especially pressing to manage accounts during delay of an entire billing cycle. Invoice discounting and invoice factoring release cash for expenses that might otherwise force temporary or even final closure or sale of a business. A great secondary source of commercial finance, invoice factoring allow struggling businesses to stay afloat during poor performance periods or delayed payment by customers or other payers.

# 5. Billing Obligation

Advance of funds by an invoice factoring company means that accounts receivables are collateral for lending agreements sustained by the promise to pay at time of collection on those outstanding invoices. When a factoring trader purchases invoices, assuming billing obligation on a retailer or other business accounts receivable, invoice factoring is in effect. This is distinct from invoice discounting which allows businesses to retain control over billing while loosening the strings on cash flow so that other obligations to suppliers and payees can be met.

# 6. Uninterrupted Service

One reason why this is a great option for businesses is that you get the monetary benefit of selling your invoices – immediate working capital – but your billing process does not have to be interrupted and your customers do not have to be aware of the factoring arrangement you have made with the discounting company.

# 7. Rate Variability

Accrued expenses over time can often exceed the cost of service rates. By tendering your invoices for capital lending, you can sustain your own financial obligations in the short term. Similar to traditional commercial finance, invoice discounting factoring varies in terms of percentage rate paid on service. Some traders charge more than others, and in most cases invoice discount factoring services are far higher than standard lending contracts.

# 8. Discretionary Service

Invoice factoring companies provide private service. Businesses looking for the best deal in invoice factoring may find that some research is required. Sourcing reputable, reasonably priced invoice factoring services is advised.

# 9. Industry Specialization

Many invoice factoring companies focus on target sectors. For instance, a business may require additional assistance in recuperation on billing due to lack of in-house support. Searching for an invoice discounting factoring service targeting businesses in that industry will reduce risks in the debt collection process. By narrowing your search to a specialist, the best possible returns are likely.

# 10. Risk Reduction

By speaking to someone involved in invoice discounting factoring or another professional in your sector, time, money and hassle may be eliminated. Third party representatives working as B2B brokers are an alternative to conducting what may become a lengthy search. Intermediary agents reduce confusion via a professional broker community. Many of these intermediaries are now online auction forums for open bidding on invoices. It is that easy. join, post, and compare bids prior to making the decision.

Finding an invoice discounting factoring company through your chamber of commerce, online financial advisory in your sector or through a network of existing business contacts means that recommendation prefaces the relationship. The sheer number of factoring and invoice discounting businesses can be daunting without advice.

For more information on invoice discounting factoring services, contact your local industry affiliation for details about how you can benefit from the sale of outstanding accounts payable.

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