What Are Structured Warrants?

What to look out for before investing in structured warrants

Action 1 – Understand the characteristics of warrants
As for other investment products, you should get a clear view and gain a better understanding of the nature of warrants, i.e. how it works, its benefits, as well as the risks involved. This is to ensure that warrants are the right investment product that matches your investment goals.

Action 2 – Identify the market direction
A warrant is a derivative product and its value is directly linked to the price of the underlying shares. If the price of the shares goes up (or down), the price of the warrants will move in tandem. For instance, if an investor anticipates that the market will do well, he can buy a call warrant to take advantage of price increases in the future. In the case of cash-settled warrant, if the current price of the underlying share is higher than the warrant’s exercise price and the warrant is exercised (before the maturity period), the holder will be entitled to the cash amount, i.e. the positive difference between the current price of the share and the warrant’s exercise price.

Action 3 – Determine the investment horizon
Set a deadline for the underlying share to reach its target level. Remember that structured warrants are a short-term trading instrument and will expire after the exercise period.

Action 4 – Comparing warrants
When you have narrowed down your choices to two to three warrants, you need to compare the warrant prices by identifying how the price of the underlying share fluctuates during a specific period of time. As a general rule, a warrant with a stable price fluctuation is a better choice for investment.

The Impact Of Currency Conversions

The currency price of one country advances and retreats daily against another country's currency. But what exactly does that mean for those who don't trade in forex market? Currency exchange rates affect travel, exports/imports and the economy. In this article, we'll discuss the nature of currency exchange and its effect on people and the economy.

Before delving into the topic in more detail, we must first establish a constant; for demonstration purposes we will be talking about the relationship between the euro and the U.S. dollar. More specifically, we will be talking about what happens to the U.S. economy and to the economies of Europe if the euro trades markedly higher against the U.S. dollar. The assumption we will be making is that US$1 will purchase 0.7 euros.

The Impact on Travelers

If US$1 buys 0.7 euros, U.S. citizens will be more reluctant to travel across the pond. That's because everything from food to souvenirs would be more expensive - about 43% more expensive than if the two currencies were trading at parity. However, under these conditions European travelers would be much more apt to visit the United States for both business and pleasure. American businesses and governments (via taxes) in the areas that European tourists visit will prosper - even if just for a season. (To read more about traveling, see Travel Tips For Keeping You And Your Money Safe.)

The Impact on Corporations and Equities

The impact that this scenario would have on corporations (particularly large multi-nationals) is a little more complex because these businesses often conduct transactions in a number of different currencies and tend to obtain their raw materials from a wide variety of sources. That said, U.S.-based companies that generate the majority of their revenue in the U.S. (but that source their raw materials from Europe) would likely see their margins take a hit on higher costs. (To read more on this subject, see Commodity Prices And Currency Movements and Global Trade And The Currency Market.) Similar pain would be felt by U.S. companies that must pay their employees in euros. And by definition, these decreased margins would likely have an adverse impact on overall corporate profits, and therefore on equity valuations in the domestic market. In other words, stock prices may drop due to these lower earnings and forecasts for future profit potential.

On the flipside, U.S. companies that have a hefty overseas presence and draw in a significant amount of revenue in euros (as opposed to dollars), but pay their employees and other expenses in U.S. dollars could actually fare quite well.European companies that generate the lion's share of their revenue in euros but who also source their materials or employees from the United States as part of their business would likely see margin expansion as their costs and currency decrease. By definition, this could lead to higher corporate profits and equity valuations in some overseas stock markets. However, European companies that garner a significant amount of their revenue from the United States and must pay their expenses in euros are likely to suffer.

The Impact on Foreign Investment

Under these assumptions, it is likely that Europeans (both individuals and corporations) would expand their investment in the United States. They would also be better suited to make acquisitions of U.S.-based businesses and/or real estate. In fact, this has happened at several points in the past. For example, when the Japanese yen traded at record highs against the dollar back in the 1980s, Japanese firms made significant purchases of real estate - including the world-renowned Rockefeller Center.

Conversely, U.S. corporations would be less apt to acquire a European company or European real estate under US$1 for 0.70 euros scenario.

How can you protect yourself from currency moves?

When planning a trip, check the most up-to-date currency conversion before they book their vacations so they can plan their choice of locations appropriately. (There are many ways of finding out local currency rates, including looking in the business section of your local newspaper, checking with a travel agency or searching the internet.) Incidentally, one of the best tips for travelers making purchases overseas is to use a credit card. The reason behind that is that credit card companies tend to negotiate the best rates and the most favorable conversions because they do such a high volume of transactions. These companies take out all the guess work for you, paving the way for smoother (and probably less expensive) transactions. (For more information about foreign currencies, check out Get To Know The Major Central Banks.)

For small and large business owners operating in the U.S. that source some of their raw materials from Europe, one of the best moves can be to stock certain supplies if the price of the euro starts to climb rapidly against the dollar. Conversely, if the euro starts falling against the dollar, it may make sense to keep inventory at a minimum in the hope that the euro will decline enough for the company to save on its purchased goods.

Bottom Line

Over time, currency values can vary quite dramatically. However, individuals, investors and business owners can take steps to mitigate risks and take advantage of such currency movements.

Profits in Small-Cap Stock: Where You Have the Advantage Over Warren Buffet

What if I said I could make you 50% a year? Scratch that. What if I told you that I know I could? Better yet, I'll do it using nothing more than publicly traded stocks that any retail buyer can pick up.

But there's a catch.
It can't be done buying Coca-Cola, American Express, or even Berkshire Hathaway. Instead, you have to back up the truck on lightly followed small cap stocks -- the very ones where retail investors have the advantage over institutions.

In fact, in this situation, you even have an advantage over Wall Street maven Warren Buffett. He may be the world's second richest man next to Bill Gates. Everything he's touched turned to gold -- Coca Cola, Berkshire Hathaway, GEICO, Gillette, The Washington Post, and American Express. He's regarded as godlike by Wall Street, with the power to move markets with his words.

Small-cap envy
But his billions are keeping him from buying the very stocks he wants to buy. And if you don't believe me, here's what he had to say in 1999.

"The universe I can't play in [small caps] has become more attractive than the universe I can play in [large caps]. I have to look for elephants. It may be that the elephants are not as attractive as the mosquitoes. But that is the universe I must live in."

What does that mean? It means Buffett may be a little jealous... well, just a little. He's the second richest person in America with the knowledge that mosquitoes are still producing 50% a year, as compared to large caps today. He's painfully aware that from 1925 through 2005, small cap stocks returned annual 12.6% returns, as compared to annual returns of 10.4% for large cap stocks.

Exponential profits in small caps
Truth is, exposure to small cap stocks is a necessity if you want to build a strong portfolio and accumulate lasting wealth. Even Buffett will tell you that after seeing how small cap stocks have performed from 2003 to present day.

Despite a YTD 125% move, Elixir Gaming (EGT) remains a relative unknown with exposure to the explosive Asian gaming markets. It's now trading just below multi-year highs after announcing agreements for another 700 electronic machines.

What's impressive is its exposure to Las Vegas and the growing popularity of Macau. While it's not yet profitable, buying now is the smart play. And here's what I mean: there are only two analysts covering this Asian gem.

This baby is well below Wall Street's radar.

Small caps profit from Asian gambling addiction
EGT is still a small and highly speculative name with a $162.3 million market cap and a float of 18.2 million shares. We're looking for additional investor interest once it shows up on the 52-week high lists again.

Just to give you some background on Asian gaming growth, take a look at Macau at the tail end of 2006. In less than a year, Macau saw visitor growth soar by some 12% thanks in part to a raft of casino openings in the region. And it's only expected to skyrocket even more as casino developers rain down on a region where 1.3 billion people live within a three-hour flight of Macau, and another 100 million people are within a radius of a three-hour drive, according to Macau Business News.

What does that mean for investors? Buy any company that'll be involved in Macau casino growth.

And how about the fast-exploding $900 million social networking market!

In fact, Visa, Mastercard, and American Express -- all the big players responsible for processing more than $6.6 trillion in annual credit card transactions -- have partnered with Concur. Even payment process behemoth Automatic Data Processing, has partnered up with them. Clearly, Concur has got something good going on here.

There's explosive growth appeal for Facebook, which will IPO one day along with LinkedIn and Classmates. U.S. visitors to Facebook have doubled inside a year to 33.7 million, as MySpace visitors grew 23% to 68.4 million.

But are there undervalued, under-the-radar-gems that already exist for small cap investors?
Israel's IncrediMail (MAIL) allows users to add thousands of e-mail backgrounds, Emoticons, Ecards, sounds, animations and 3D effects to e-mail. It's fun for the younger generations who are flooding the social networking scene. But here's why investors should pay attention.
IncrediMail Ltd. (MAIL) has been flying under the radar since early 2006, all the while posting impressive growth and profitability. Numbers prove it's just beginning to scratch the surface of long-term profitability.

Q2 2007 revenue increased 111% to $4.3 million. Six-month revenue soared 106% to $8.7 million. And net was up 59% to $600,000, thanks in part to advertising revenues, which just hit $1.9 million and growing. Insiders are loading up. There's no debt, and $28.7 million in cash on hand. And there's a severe shortage of analyst coverage.

For a profitable company to be growing its bottom line that fast, this is a steal. And it doesn't hurt that other Internet companies have shown real interest, including (from what I've heard), Facebook.

Let's Talk Shares!

You would have heard adults talking about shares or the stock market. They are a favourite and frequent conversation topic among grown-ups - just as much as you would debate about the latest music or movie sensation in town. You probably don't know what shares are exactly, but you would have an idea from the reactions of the adults that they can bring tremendous joy or great grief - and it all has to do with making money (that's bringing joy) or losing money (that's bringing grief)!

Like when your mother is pleased with the stock market and nothing can spoil her good mood, not even when you accidentally break her favourite casserole dish. But if she has lost money in the stock market, you know to stay clear away or she would pounce on you for even the way you sit on the sofa!

Well, if you're slouching now, sit up! Read on so that you can understand shares. You already know the two smart moves you could do with your money - first, to start saving and second, to invest your savings to make your money grow. Well, buying shares is one of the ways to invest your savings.

What are Shares?
Ownership of companySo, let's get started with the basic question, "What is a share or what is a stock?" Stock or sometimes called equity, is ownership of a company. Shares of stock represent pieces of ownership of a company that are sold to the public (like your parents or any adult who is interested to buy them). Here in Malaysia, the words 'share' and 'stock' are sometimes used interchangeably to mean the same thing.

When you buy shares, you are buying a proportion of the ownership of a company, and you become a shareholder of the company, or part owner of the company. For example, let's say a Mr Bong owns a sports shoe company called Nikee Shoes where he has divided ownership into one million shares of stock. If you buy 1,000 of his shares, you thus own one-thousandth of Nikee Shoes. Likewise, if your mother has bought some shares of the real company KFC Holdings (Malaysia) Berhad, you can go around telling your friends that mum owns a slice of their favourite fast food chain KFC, and you will be telling the truth!

But for you to be able to buy some of its stock, a company must be willing to sell some shares. So the question that probably pops up in your mind is why would a company want to sell part of its ownership? We ask you, why would anyone sell something? To get money in return, right? So it is with a company selling its stock. A company needs money (or what is known as capital in economics) to carry out its business.

Raising money

Let's go back to the example of Nikee Shoes. After a few years making athletic shoes, Mr Bong wants to expand his business by manufacturing casual shoes that produce(can squeak out) the latest hip tunes. He thinks it is a great idea that will be a hit with the younger population but he needs more funds/capital to manufacture them. There are, of course, many ways to raise the additional capital that he wants: sell some property, borrow the money from the bank (the interest rate might be too high) or he could use savings that the company has set aside from
the profits earned earlier. If any of these options doesn't appeal to Mr Bong, he can opt for another way to raise the funds he needs - by selling a part of the ownership of Nikee Shoes through selling some shares of its stock. That's why a company would give up part of its ownership.

Initial Public Offering or IPO

When a company first decides to sell part of its equity, it determines a suitable price for that amount of shares based on the company's worth, and offers to sell those shares to the public through what is known as an Initial Public Offering or IPO. Thus the public first gets to buy the shares of a company or to first become shareholders of a company through an IPO. The money that these shareholders pay for the IPO shares - that is, the funds raised from an IPO - goes to the company for financing its operations. Referring to our example of Nikee Shoes, let's say that Mr Bong has worked out that he needs RM100,000 to manufacture the casual-musical shoes. So what does he do? He offers 10,000 shares of Nikee Shoes to be sold at RM10 a share in an IPO:
10,000 shares x RM10 a share = RM100, 000. (That's the amount of capital needed to manufacture the musical shoes).

In this way, Mr Bong gets the funds he needs to finance his musical shoes venture. However the sacrifice that he has to make to get those funds is that after the IPO, he no longer owns every inch of his company. Now 0.01 per cent (10,000 shares divided by 1,000,000 shares) of Nickee Shoes is owned by others. But the way Mr Bong has thought it out - giving up a tiny part of the equity is nothing compared to the tons of money that he fervently believes his musical shoes will rake in for him!

How Investors Often Cause The Market's Problems

Sure, the economy sometimes hits a slump, whether because of a war (pick a year) or unforeseen natural disaster (say the drought in the 1930s). Of course, these things are beyond an investor's control. But turbulence in the market can often be linked not to any perceivable event but rather to investor psychology. A fair amount of your portfolio losses can be traced back to your choices and the reasons for making them, rather than unseen forces of evil that we tend to blame when things go wrong. Here we look at some of the ways investors unwittingly inflict problems on the market.

Following the Crowd
Humans are prone to a herd mentality, conforming to the activities and direction of others. This is a common mistake in investing. Imagine you and a dozen other people are caught in a theatre that's on fire. The room is filled with smoke and flames are licking the walls. The people best qualified to get you out safely, such as the building owner or an off-duty firefighter, shy away from taking the lead because they fear being wrong and they know the difficulties of leading a smoke-blinded group.

Then the take-charge person steps up and everyone is happy to follow the leader. This person is not qualified to lead you to the local 7-11, let alone get you out of an unfamiliar burning building, so, sadly, you are more likely to end up as ash than find your way out. This tendency to panic and depend on the direction of others is exactly why problems arise in the stock market, except we are often following the crowd into the burning building rather than trying to get out. Here are two actions caused by herd mentality:

1. Panic Buying - This is the hot-tip syndrome, whose symptoms usually show up in buzzwords such as "revolution", "new economy", and "paradigm shift". You see a stock rising and you want to hop on for the ride, but you're in such a rush that you skip your usual scrutiny of the company's records. After all, someone must have looked at them, right? Wrong. Holding something hot can sometimes burn your hands. The best course of action is to do your due diligence. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

2. Panic Selling - This is the "end of the world" syndrome. The market (or stock) starts taking a downturn and people act like it's never happened before. Symptoms include a lot of blaming, swearing, and despairing. Regardless of the losses you take, you start to get out before the market wipes out what's left of your retirement fund. The only cure for this is a level head. If you did your due diligence, things will probably be okay, and a recovery will benefit you nicely. Tuck your arms and legs in and hide under a desk as people trample their way out of the market.

We Can't Control Everything
Although it is a must, due diligence cannot save you from everything. Companies that become entangled in scandals or lie on their balance sheets can deceive even the most seasoned and prudent investor. For the most part, these companies are easy to spot in hindsight (Enron), but early rumors were subtle blips on the radar screens of vigilant investors. Even when a company is honest with an investor, a related scandal can weaken the share price. Omnimedia, for example, took a severe beating for Martha Stewart's alleged insider activities. So bear in mind that it is a market of risk.

Holding Out for a Rare Treat
Gamblers can always tell you how many times and how much they've won, but never how many times or how badly they've lost. This is the problem with relying on rewards that come from luck rather than skill: you can never predict when lucky gains will come, but when they do, it's such a treat that it erases the stress (psychological, not financial) you've suffered.

Investors can fall prey to both the desire to have something to show for their time and the aversion to admitting they were wrong. Thus, some investors hold onto stock that is losing, praying for a reversal for their falling angels; other investors, settling for limited profit, sell stock that has great long-term potential. The more an investor loses, however, the larger the gain must be to meet expectations.

One of the big ironies of the investing world is that most investors are risk averse when chasing gains but become risk lovers when trying to avoid a loss (often making things much worse). If you are shifting your non-risk capital into high-risk investments, you're contradicting every rule of prudence to which the stock market ascribes and asking for further problems. You can lose money on commissions by overtrading and making even worse investments. Don't let your pride stop you from selling your losers and keeping your winners.

Xenophobia
People with this psychological disorder have an extreme fear of foreigners or strangers. Even though most people consider these fears irrational, investors engage in xenophobic behavior all the time. Some of us have an inborn desire for stability and the most seemingly stable things are those that are familiar to us and close to home (country or state).

The important thing about investing is not familiarity but value. If you look at a company that happens to look new or foreign but its balance sheet looks sound, you should not eliminate the stock as a possible investment. People constantly lament that it's hard to find a truly undervalued stock, but they don't look around for one; furthermore, when everyone thinks domestic companies are more stable and try to buy in, the stock market goes up to the point of being overvalued, which ironically assures people they're making the right choice, possibly causing a bubble. Don't take this as a commandment to quit investing domestically; just remember to scrutinize a domestic company as closely as you would a foreign one.

What Are Warrants?

A warrant, like an option, gives the holder the right but not the obligation to buy an underlying security at a certain price, quantity and future time. However, unlike an option, an instrument of the stock exchange, a warrant is issued by a company. The security represented in the warrant (usually share equity) is delivered by the issuing company instead of an investor holding the shares. Companies will often include warrants as part of a new-issue offering to entice investors into buying the new security. A warrant can also increase a shareholder's confidence in a stock, if the underlying value of the security actually does increase overtime. There are two different types of warrants: a call warrant and a put warrant. A call warrant represents a specific number of shares that can be purchased from the issuer at a specific price, on or before a certain date. A put warrant represents a certain amount of equity that can be sold back to the issuer at a specified price, on or before a stated date.

Characteristics of a Warrant

Warrant certificates have stated particulars regarding the investment tool they represent. All warrants have a specified expiry date, the last day the rights of a warrant can be executed. Warrants are classified by their exercise style: an American warrant, for instance, can be exercised anytime before or on the stated expiry date, and a European warrant, on the other hand, can be carried out only on the day of expiration.

The underlying instrument the warrant represents is also stated on warrant certificates. A warrant typically corresponds to a specific number of shares, but it can also represent a commodity, index or a currency.

The exercise or strike price is the amount that must be paid in order to either buy the call warrant or sell the put warrant. The payment of the strike price results in a transfer of the specified amount of the underlying instrument.

The conversion ratio is the number of warrants needed in order to buy (or sell) one investment tool. Therefore, if the conversion ratio to buy stock XYZ is 3:1, this means that the holder needs three warrants in order to purchase one share. Usually, if the conversion ratio is high, the price of the share will be low, and vice versa. (In the case of an index warrant, an index multiplier would be stated instead. This figure would be used to determine the amount payable to the holder upon the exercise date.)

Investing In Warrants

Warrants are transferable, quoted certificates, and they tend to be more attractive for medium-term to long-term investment schemes. Tending to be high risk, high return investment tools that remain largely unexploited in investment strategies, warrants are also an attractive option for speculators and hedgers. Transparency is high and warrants offer a viable option for private investors as well. This is because the cost of a warrant is commonly low, and the initial investment needed to command a large amount of equity is actually quite small.

Advantages

Let us look at an example that illustrates one of the potential benefits of warrants. Say that XYZ shares are currently priced on the market for $1.50 per share. In order to purchase 1,000 shares, an investor would need $1,500. However, if the investor opted to buy a warrant (representing one share) that was going for $0.50 per warrant, with the same $1,500, he or she would be in possession of 3,000 shares instead!

Because the prices of warrants are low, the leverage and gearing they offer is high. This means that there is a potential for larger capital gains and losses. While it is common for both a share price and a warrant price to move in parallel (in absolute terms) the percentage gain (or loss), will be significantly varied because of the initial difference in price. Warrants generally exaggerate share price movements in terms of percentage change.

Let us look at another example to illustrate these points. Say that share XYZ gains $0.30 per share from $1.50, to close at $1.80. The percentage gain would be 20%. However, with a $0.30 gain in the warrant, from $0.50 to $0.80, the percentage gain would be 60%.

In this example, the gearing factor is calculated by dividing the original share price by the original warrant price: $1.50 / $0.50 = 3. The '3' is the gearing factor, and the higher the number, the larger the potential for capital gains (or losses).

Warrants can offer significant gains to an investor during a bull market. They can also offer some protection to an investor during a bear market. This is because as the price of an underlying share begins to drop, the warrant may not realize as much loss because the price, in relation to the actual share, is already low.

Disadvantages

Like any other type of investment, warrants also have their drawbacks and risks. As mentioned above, the leverage and gearing warrants offer can be high. But these can also work to the disadvantage of the investor. If we reverse the outcome of the example from above and realize a drop in absolute price by $0.30, the percentage loss for the share price would be 20%, while the loss on the warrant would be 60%!

Another disadvantage and risk to the warrant investor is that the value of the certificate can drop to zero. If that were to happen before it is exercised, the warrant would lose any redemption value.

Finally, a holder of a warrant does not have any voting, shareholding or dividend rights. The investor can therefore have no say in the functioning of the company, even though he or she is affected by any decisions made.

A Bittersweet Stock Jump

One notable instance in which warrants made a big difference to the company and investors took place in the early 1980s when the Chrysler Corporation received governmentally guaranteed loans totaling approximately $1.2 billion. Chrysler used warrants, 14.4 million of them, to “sweeten” the deal for the government and solidify the loans.

Because these loans would keep the auto giant from bankruptcy, management showed little hesitation issuing what they thought was a purely superficial bonus that would never be cashed in. At the time of issuance Chrysler stock was hovering around $5, so issuing warrants with an exercise price of $13 did not seem like a bad idea. However, the warrants ended up costing Chrysler approximately $311 million, as their stock shot up to nearly $30. For the federal government, this “cherry on top” turned quite profitable, but for Chrysler it was an expensive after thought.

Conclusion

Warrants can offer a smart addition to an investor's portfolio, but due to their risky nature, warrant investors need to be attentive to market movements. This largely unused investment alternative, however, can offer the small investor the opportunity for diversity without having to compete with large, market-influencing institutions.

Trading Currency: How To Easily Play Moves in the Dollar with Three Distinct Investing Choices

We marvel at the way Warren Buffett and George Soros play the currency markets. But you can learn to trade currencies, too. And with very little time and effort.

In the book, Safe Strategies for Financial Freedom, we outlined a great strategy for diversifying some of your portfolio outside of the U.S. dollar. It's a strategy that he learned from self-taught currency guru Chris Weber. It's called "The Max Yield Strategy".

The Max Yield Strategy is a great way to put a portion of your money to work while protecting against dollar devaluation. And it's so easy, anyone can do it.

But before we get to the strategy itself, let's see why it works…

Currency Valuation - It's Simpler than We've Been Led to Believe
Understanding currency movements on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis is a complex mix of supply and demand plus trading psychology. But understanding longer-term currency valuation can be made much simpler.

There are only two issues that affect developed countries currency valuations in the long run:

Purchasing Power Parity
Interest Rate Differential
We talked about purchasing power parity in the last issue of Trader's U, but the basic idea is that the same item should sell for the same price in each country; if not, then the currency prices of the countries being compared are out of balance. As we explained last week, a McDonald's Big Mac should cost the same in every country.

Interest rate differential is also easy to understand. Money flows where it is treated best. If the same amount of money receives a higher interest rate in one country than another, money will naturally flow there, as people and institutions grab the higher rate of return.

Sending Your Money Where It Is Treated Best
Chris Weber's Max Yield Strategy is amazingly simple and very effective.
On January 1st of every year, you simply invest your "currency allocation money" (my term for money you'd like to put in a non-dollar denominated investment) into the developed country with the highest interest rate. We'll explain how to do this in the "Tips and Tricks" section below.

You make money in two ways with this strategy:
You get the benefit of the higher interest rate; and
You gain from the currency appreciation that is expected from the country that is treating money the best at the time.
How has this strategy worked? It was profitable for 26 out of 33 years from 1970 until 2003 (a table with the exact year-by-year returns is found in Safe Strategies for Financial Freedom.)

Who Is This Strategy For?
This strategy is for anyone who would like to make money in the long run. Don't invest money in this strategy if you must make a return this year. It has worked almost 80% of the time in the past, but it does lose money one out of every five years.

Diversifying outside of the dollar is not just for big institutions or the "rich and famous." Every trader and investor should consider putting an appropriate portion of his capital to work in an overseas investment or at least, somewhere else in the world.

Today's Trader's U Tips & Tricks
The best place that I know to invest in other currencies and implement the Max Yield Strategy is through certificates of deposit with EverBank. They offer CDs in a variety of currencies… For more information about their WorldCurrency Accounts, visit their website or call the EverBank World Markets Hotline at 800.926.4922, and mention that you're a Trader's U-Investment U reader. (Please note, the publisher of Trader's U has a marketing relationship with EverBank.)
Safe Strategies for Financial Freedom, The New York Times best-seller that I co-authored with Van Tharp and Steve Sjuggerud, has some really useful information on currencies, inflation and other macroeconomic issues affecting traders and investors. It has a full description of the Max Yield Strategy mentioned above and a table of the returns from 1970 to 2003.

Showing Up The Banks' Dirty Tricks

When you read or watch ads of credit card companies, you are every time convinced in the fact that they lost sleep over thinking about your needs and problems. Plastics they issue have the lowest imaginable rates and fees, you will receive rewards that will double-cover your expenses. Do you usually believe that? And can this sometimes be really true?

It is a fact that even the most reputable banks can send their customers card offers with suspicious perks. On their way to big profit, credit companies locate their operation centers in such states as South Dakota or Delaware (known for having less restrictive consumer protection laws). Plus, they promote credit card offers which can at first attract you with the absent interest rates and breath-taking rewards. What are the tricks those dirty offenders use and how can one show them up? There are some tips for you to consider.* Fishy teaser rates. You may be offered a super-low or absolutely zero APR, but they in most cases come out of effect very soon. Such king of deals can be very appealing, especially for those who are eager to transfer the existing debt to a less expensive card. There are two most dangerous consequences of applying for these cards.

The incredibly low interest rate can end in several months quite unexpectedly, or can be applicable only under certain circumstances. So it is of vital importance to read the fine print. Besides, after the low APR ends, with a considerable balance on now expensive card, you can be offered another alluring deal. Regular balance transfers are sure to lower your credit score and are costly, as fees are often charged for this service.So, here is the conclusion: read the fine print and find out what interest is charged for purchases, balance transfers etc. After several minutes of calculation you will easily understand whether the deal is worth taking or not.* "You are pre-approved!" Mind it that credit card companies can be very tricky with their pre-approved offers.

On the one hand, a person with very bad credit can be pre-approved for a card with a sky-high interest rate and huge fees. On the other hand, you can be pre-approved for a credit card you are not eligible for: the bank looked through the credit reports, but not very thoroughly.* Fees that suddenly change or appear. Some lenders start to charge fees under certain circumstances you can find described in tiny letters. So, even if the application terms do not speak of a balance transfer fee, it can be charged is, for example, you transfer the balance from a card issued by another bank. Don't be lazy and read everything in detail.* You were cheated about the credit limit, grace period or the like. First of all, check the terms and conditions of your credit card deals – probably, your grace period is disabled in case you pay off the balance on a monthly basis. If you simply cannot receive the services you were promised, wait no longer and cancel the card.

Decision Making Without

Think about it!
Decision making without critical thinking may seem ridiculous when you think about it. Because nowadays, thinking is something we do a lot of. To be able to think is valued in our society. In fact, you could be forgiven for thinking that most people only exist from the neck up!

Body of knowledge
But what about gymnasts, trapeze artists, top class athletes, mountain climbers and others who are involved in predominantly physical activities. These people make decisions, sometimes life or death decisions, without much thinking. Not that they can't think, but they simply don't have time to analyze, evaluate and reason. There is so little time between the input of information and the response, their actions, that there may be almost no mental cognition at all.

Another group in which this has been studied are elite performers. And this occurs in both physical performances and mental performances. It's almost as if there is no time delay between them taking in information and responding. Their systems are somehow organized for exquisite decision making without critical thinking. In fact this idea of decision making without critical thinking is often used as a marker for peak performance.

Brain or bodymind?
Most lay people consider that we actually think with our brains, that nervous tissue in our skulls. But remember that those nerves actually extend to the tips of your fingers and the ends of your toes. Now add in the fact that there are is a huge amount of nervous tissue in the gut and in the heart. And you begin to think that maybe it is possible that we're thinking with our whole system.

Most people are just not very aware of their bodies unless there is an ache or pain somewhere. Something that really grabs their attention. So how would they possibly notice the subtleties if their body was involved in decision making without critical thinking?

Emotional decisions!!
Another idea to add in here is the notion that we actually make our decisions emotionally.
Sure, we like to think that we make sensible, rational decisions. Our educational systems base their courses on rational decision making models. We want to know the steps of the latest decision making process because we want to know that we're making the best decision. We're warned about the dangers of letting our emotions take over, of decision making without critical thinking.

But what about when you hear somebody saying 'I know I really can't afford it, but if I buy it there will be this advantage and that advantage and I can justify it on that basis.' Hey, you may have even said something like this yourself!

What's happening is the decision-maker has already made up their mind that they want something (emotional decision), and now they use reasoning to justify it. This is the critical thinking part.

Many of the newer sales techniques make use of this idea that people decide emotionally first. Why would business people adopt this notion and pay lots of money for it? Because it works! They realize that if they utilize this natural mechanism, they will increase their profits. It's a very simple equation for them.

Nature programs for success
We have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years. We have a decision making process in place. If this decision making process did not work, we just wouldn't have survived.
And the critical thinking piece is not necessarily a part of our decision making process. If one of our ancestors found himself face to face with a big cat, his natural decision making process would lead him to run away. If he was to engage in some critical thinking as to what the best decision might be, chances are it would have been the last decision he ever made!

But our environment has changed, I hear you say. We don't have to make such decisions anymore. And I agree.

But it does not mean that we should give up our natural process, that of decision making without critical thinking. As we've moved more into our heads and lost our awareness of our bodies, we've also lost our sense of ourselves.

Our ability to tune into natural rhythms is now almost nonexistent. Daylight extends into nighttime with our electric bulbs, and many people even start work in the morning before it has got bright. We heat ourselves up in the winter and cool ourselves down in the summer. And our physical bodies are paying the price.

We've got to the stage where decision making without critical thinking rarely occurs. Not because people don't want to, but because they can't. They're so unaware of their physical systems that they end up overriding the internal signals. The result, of course, is poor decision making and it's effects. Obesity, heart disease, lung disease, arthritis, autoimmune diseases as well as rape, murder and abuse.

What's available is magnificence...
When people relearn how to pay attention to their own internal signals so that they can go back to decision making without critical thinking, the relief is enormous. They make decisions that improve their health, their relationships and their awareness of self.

They make different decisions about what to be doing in the world. Things that allow them to begin to manifest who they are in a way that's beneficial to themselves, to others and also to the environment. And they make decisions quickly and easily... decisions that allow them to have a life that actually works!

The Passion

A great shift is in the making: A time for very deep purification and cleansing from the inner core within ourselves and within the Earth up to the outer manifest reality. How this will all play out is our choice.

Many will understand the need for inner and outer focus on unity and love. However, many others will remain under the grip of their programmed old ways and thus experience this world with much fear while focusing on dis-unity.

This is a time where our greatest force shall emerge from its hidden inner recesses as we face our greatest challenge: a transformation and trans-evolution of mankind when our thought processes transmute from a harsh concentration on lack toward a gentler constant awareness of the beauty and unity of all within the ONE that we all are here to manifest.

This is a time prophesied for eons where, in this world created around the notion of polarity, the "real" caring and nurturing Female energy is ready to interpenetrate each of our hearts and balance out the Masculine expansive powerful energy that has overtaken alone much of Creation and destabilized it. It is in the balancing and the unity of the two that our inner smiling probable future lays. Please allow this great and sacred energy in, and wish deeply for unity, for in that act lies the path to our happiness and salvation.

All great changes bring about in many much initial resistance, the degree of which will define the course of this Creation for a long time to come.

As many impacting events are about to happen, and even more unfold in the next months and years, often in an accelerated manner, one core issue will emerge as paramount in being the only real question to be asked and the only solution to be had."Where does your passion lay?"Does it lay upon a world where all thoughts and common efforts are on com-passion, forgiveness, unity, happiness, and the notion that we are all - without any exception -connected within the notion of ONE?

Is it your truest desire to unite the parts within yourself, the family without, and our greatest and most beautiful family: mankind?

Or does you passion lay upon events, stories, legends, and philosophies which evoke and trigger separation, elitism, fear, violence, control, gore, and the anti-force to the sacred notion of Unity of all and everything within the One and Only?

Do you want to unify all polarities to usher the proclaimed glorious era, or polarize even more? For this is the only question to be asked.

Please, I beg of you, watch carefully what you invite in your heart. If you invite within and resonate only with what unites us as one family and therefore exalts life, then the peace of the ONE, wondrous Creation, and life, longer that you can ever imagine, will be yours.

However, if you invite and resonate within upon visions of death, fear, and all that differentiates, divides, and separates us, then war, suffering, insecurity, and death will be yours. All great spiritual masters came to tell us of this choice and the two ways of seeing the same reality, and some even expressed it in their lives and experiences on purpose, in order for us to understand the consequences.

A glass is either half full or half empty depending on your focus of attention. Both are true at the same time. It is your focus which will determine which path you will experience. You can either focus on what is lacking, or what is wondrous. You can focus on the unity and common thread of all existence, see the spectacular awe-some reality of creation, and experience the miraculous, or focus on what is lacking and then experience nothingness.

Please do not fall into the trap of "passion" for death again. Please fall in love with yourself again, and with all your human brothers and sisters. For all are precious, magnificent, and sacred expressions of the ONE life force flowing through all living things.

How to Get Started with Google AdSense & Be Making Huge Cash Profits!

Adsense is a popular type of advertising through the commonly used search engine, Google. This type of advertising allows website owners to earn money by advertising Google on their websites. The website will feature a link back to Google and the advertiser is paid based on the number of hits Google gets from that particular link. The advertisements can be text, images, or both. This is a very easy way for you to generate some extra revenue on your website without very much time or effort involved.

You may be saying this is too easy? It is easy, but... there is no catch. This is a great way for businesses to get exposure in various places all over the internet. It also helps them cut down on advertising expenses because they only pay each time a consumer takes a link from a website. Most other types of advertising cost a set amount regardless of if anyone looks at it or not. This is a great method for new businesses that have a low budget for advertising. The more traffic they can generate to their site, the more profits they will make. In turn they can afford to advertise more.

It is a winning situation for all. Companies use it as a low cost way of advertising, website owners use it as a way to earn money, consumers use it as a way to find other products and services they are interested in, and Google uses it as an way to earn more money. In fact, Adsense has become so common you will find it on numerous homepages just by surfing around the internet a little bit.

The amount of revenue you will generate with Google Adsense depends on how much each advertiser is willing to compensate you for a per-click from your homepage. It also depends on the amount of advertising you do on your website. There is no cost to you for placing the ads on your homepage though so any revenue you generate will be profitable. Avoid placing too many ads on your website though or it can become distracting to the consumer. You still want them to focus on making a purchase from your website first. It is very simple too. All you are required to do is paste a couple of lines of coding from Google and place it into the html for your website.

What Are You Planning to Achieve by The End of The Year?

Fast forward yourself to the end of December and as the year closes, how are you feeling about your achievements during this past year? Really get in touch with your feelings, live them, breathe them and don’t let them pass by. Are you feeling any disappointment, regret or frustration for the things you haven’t done or achieved? Do you find yourself thinking, “This past year has flown by and what have I done”, “There is so much more that I wanted to do” or “Why haven’t I done the things that I’d said I’d do”.

Now bring yourself back to today. You still have time before the end of the year to get on a track to achieving what you want. Imagine starting the New Year knowing that you’ve been consistently moving in the right direction and will continue to take the necessary actions.

Lack of planning is one of the reasons why many people get to the end of the year and feel they haven’t achieved what they want. Planning often isn’t seen as a priority or much fun. Hold on! If it’s not fun, that’s the way you’ve chosen it to be. Instead you can choose to have fun with your planning and perhaps even make it into a game. If planning isn’t a priority for you, then have you considered the messages that you’re giving to yourself. Messages such as, “I’m not that important in my life”, “I don’t deserve these things” or “I’m not likely to do what I say I will”.

However, the people who do have plans often make them too rigid. Their plan is stuck to word for word, without any room for flexibility. A plan that you set today needs to be open to regular reviewing and changing. A clue that your plan needs changing is when you find it difficult to follow through with the actions and don’t feel inspired.

You’ve now got an opportunity to end this year with a feeling of achievement. Seize the opportunity and make the most of it.

Start by defining for yourself your vision, dreams and desires. Make this specific and exciting so that you feel inspired to follow through with action. You may need to break this down into smaller pieces. For instance, if you want to grow your business, there may be a number of different opportunities that you choose to explore. Now define the strategies that you’ll use, how you’re going to do it. In the example of growing your business, your strategies may include research, sales and marketing, increasing employee numbers or finance. Now go through each strategy and brainstorm possible action steps. Go for as many as you can, being open to different and creative action steps, rather than sticking with what you would normally do. Sometimes the most outrageous actions steps turn out to be the best and most productive.

Then at least once a day visualize your dream; the achievement that you want to make and see what you feel is the next thing to do. Visualizing keeps your plan alive and you inspired, and allows you to see the right actions to take. Taking committed and inspired actions every day moves you towards your desires. At the same time give yourself the opportunity to step back and review what you want and what it will take to get it. Time spent regularly stepping back and re-evaluating your plans can save you a lot of time as you see what no longer needs doing, doesn’t serve you or needs to be done differently.

What I want for you is to be achieving and on the right track to your dreams by the end of the year.

How to Invest For High Returns & Avoid Losing Your Original Investment

How Can I Get the Highest Return While Minimizing Risk?
This is the $64 million dollar question—the holy grail of investing. Every investor seeks to maximize his return while minimizing risk (mainly the risk of losing his original investment, but also the risk of looking dumb by making unwise and foolish investments). Generally speaking, the higher the return, the higher the risk. "He who bears the risk reaps the reward." This is true in mortgage banking, small business, the financial markets, personal relationships, and many other areas of life.

The corollary, of course, is that the risk-bearer must also suffer the consequences if there is no reward, but rather a penalty (loss of money, time, reputation, etc.). If you want to decrease your risk, realize that you will be limited (usually) to investments that generate lower returns.
There are, however, some exceptions to the "risk-return correlation." Risk can be lessened by skill, knowledge, or access to opportunities & resources that the majority of investors do not have access to.

The First Rule of Investing
The first rule of investing is that you should never invest money that you can't afford to lose. The money you invest should not significantly change your lifestyle, if it were lost. If you invest with "scared money"—money that you can't afford to lose—it may affect your judgment and cause you to make poor financial decisions. People who invest with money they can't afford to lose usually make emotional decisions (based on fear of loss) that negatively affect their investment returns.

How Do I Determine the Best Investments?
The best investments for your particular situation will depend on several factors: your age, your risk tolerance, and the amount of time you want to spend managing your investments.

Your Age
If you're young (20's, 30's), then you can afford to take more financial risks, because you have more time to recover from potential losses. If you're older (40's, 50's, 60's), then you will generally make more conservative investments, since you have less time to recover from large financial losses.

How Can Paid Surveys Diversify Your Work At Home

So many of us have to spend time working at home either raising kids and taking care of the house, or working as freelancers. No matter how much you like to spend time with your family or enjoy having a flexible career, you are always prone to fall victim of tedious routine. Taking paid online surveys can really change your perspectives and diversify your work at home learn why.

First, taking paid surveys is really easy. Even the lengthiest surveys are a few pages long. Survey designers take care that online surveys are easy to navigate, complete, and submit. Therefore, even if you are not an Internet junky, you can very well deal with survey taking. Online surveys are targeted to large consumer segments, and are, therefore, made for the computer proficiency even of the least skillful. Once you get started with paid surveys, you will be able to shorten the time needed to complete and submit them. That will help you complete more paid surveys, and earn more cash and prizes.

Paid surveys are a very responsible job, because the market research industry relies on consumer opinion to improve the products and services on the market. Therefore, what you write and express is really important. If you think that nobody cares about what you think, paid surveys can make the difference. Your opinion and experience are truly meaningful and significant, and you can contribute them to creating a better consumer world. Paid surveys not simply diversify your work at home routine, but give you a different perspective on the significance of your personal contribution to the quality of your consumer environment.

Paid surveys have one undisputable quality they apply to all. No matter where you live, how much you earn, what gender or social group you belong to paid surveys test your consumer opinion, and we all qualify. Of course, different surveys can be target to consumer groups that are smaller or larger, depending on how many people use the particular product or service. For instance, surveys on cat food will be targeted only to cat keepers only, because they will have direct experience with feeding their cats particular foods. Paid surveys are designed for a great variety of products and services; therefore, there will always be surveys that will target you as a consumer and you can participate to earn cash and win prizes.

Paid surveys can also be fun for people from different income brackets and educational levels. People from all walks of life find purpose and motivation to take surveys from students, retirees, stay-at-home moms, unemployed, low-skill workers, to software engineers, teachers, librarians, and nurses. Some take paid surveys for the extra cash and bonuses that they get in the form of freebies, discounts, vouchers and gift certificates. Others find it interesting to complete surveys on different topics and learn about new products and services that are just being launched on the market.Free Online Surveys are also a source of information on upcoming products, and you may be among the first to preview and try new stuff. Moreover, surveys help you evaluate the purchases you made in the past, and decide on the purchases you are planning. You may be surprised to find out that you werent as happy with a past purchase as you think you are, and even decide to change the brand, the timing of the purchase, and the credit source.

Taking surveys is more than just diversity in your work. Doing surveys at home or at the office brings you additional bonuses and cash that you can spend immediately or save to make a bigger purchase. Paid surveys help you reconsider your purchasing decisions, and improve your consumer stance. You help marketing companies improve their services, and contribute to having a more customer-oriented marketplace of the future.

Finding a Legitimate Online Job

Finding a needle in a haystack would be easier than finding a legitimate work from home job on the internet on your own. One of the first things you need to know about a vast majority of online businesses is that it involves a lot of advertising for whatever it is you are selling. So if you are not comfortable with this aspect, then you probably would not enjoy working online.

The Work At Home Group has found that most trustworthy work from home jobs have a fee that is paid up front, although many people believe otherwise. Free internet business opportunities involve a lot of work such as multi-level- marketing. Believe me when I say that if the job is free then you are doing all the work, for someone elses' benefit. "You get what you pay for", is very true in the work at home industry. You have to take into consideration that companies that charge a fee supply you with information and valuable knowledge. Before we go any further let me say that every online business with a start-up fee is totally legitimate, is not necessarily true, there are a lot of scams on the internet. One way to find out if a company is legitimate or not is to do a simple search on the internet with their web address. Another good method is to check the BBB on online scam sites.

There are a wide variety of online opportunities on the internet. Everything from free no cost jobs to large and small start-up fees. The most success I have seen people have had were the home typing jobs. I came across about one year ago and of course it involves marketing. This type of job is really good because they cut through all the hype other companies try to sale you and just tell you up front what you will be doing which is placing ads and marketing.

What does a home typing jobs involve? It involves placing ads for companies that do business on the interent. You can do this for free or pay a service to do it for you. The way it works is for each sale that your ad generates you will be paid a commission. These commissions range from 50-75% of that sale which sometimes is more then the company profits itself.

There are small requirements to be successful with this type of job because most of them will supply you with all free or paid resources and information you need to begin. Another aspect is the tech support you get with these types of jobs. Check for yourself how the support is by emailing the company with a question, and see how long it takes for them to get back with you.

Your only concern is to generate the sales and collect your checks, the companies take care of shipping, order processing, and any refunds. There are several ways to market a company online, the most affective ways of course includes a service fee but you can also choose to do it yourself. This can be very profitable but involves many hours and committment to be successful at it. Being able to sit at home in your pajamas, save gas money and be able to make the same amount of money (if not more) as an outside job from your home is one of the major reasons people want to work from home.

A 5-Point Focus on Quality

Henry Ford said that, quality means doing it right when no one is looking. What is doing it? And how well must it be done?

In every industry, competitors find themselves fighting price wars or positioning themselves as the low-cost provider only to find out that in many instances, quality is as important to customers (if not more so) than the cost they pay. Quality can be defined as the acceptable standard of excellence determined by the receiver. But, having a quality product and getting it to market is only part of the challenge; especially if you see quality as one action or an end result.

You cant give lip service to quality. Anytime that there is a handoff, a deliverable, a discussion or even a decision to be made, quality is key. It has to be factored in and measured throughout the organization and considered in all activities of design, development, production, installation, servicing, customer interaction and documentation. The goal is to continually identify standards of quality, evaluate performance, monitor results and make adjustments that will improve the customers perception.

When it comes to improving quality in your organizations you have five points to consider: the product, the processes, every transaction and the thinking that leads to overall performance quality. Achieving quality in an organization is an ongoing pursuit and has to be adopted as a mindset before any significant gains will be realized.

FOCUS #1 - Product Quality is measured by workmanship and reliability. It includes the raw materials, assemblies, products and components; as well as the function or services related to production. To have a quality product output means that you have to continually improve the inputs.

FOCUS #2 - Process Quality includes the quality of work in developing, making, and selling products and services. It is measured by adherence to performance standards, fewer mistakes, fewer rejects and less rework.

FOCUS #3 - Transaction Quality is measured by the effectiveness and efficiency of human interaction. When a products fails to meet the expectations of customers and they in turn seek remedy from the organization that creates a transaction (Ronald Coase, a British economist). Poor quality increase the number of transactions needed to resolve an issue and increases the cost of doing business. Once a customer picks up the phone or walks into your offices to seek resolution, the quality of the transaction itself becomes important.

FOCUS #4 - Performance Quality is within the control of every employee. It is achieved when transactions are handled in a way that delivers ever-increasing value to internal and/or external customers. Performance quality begins with quality of thought. How your people think about their jobs, their roles, your products, and your customers will determine the effort that they will expend.

Quality is achieved only by understanding current needs, future needs and then effectively and efficiently correcting errors and finding solutions that add value. Every internal handoff or customer exchange creates a learning opportunity for the employee involved, the organization, and the system. Employees often detect the first indication of a problem and are in the best position to eliminate it before the situation grows. How they make those decisions is indicative how they think.

FOCUS #5 - Quality of Thought- Rigid, habitual thinking makes product, process, transaction, and performance quality impossible. Without the ability to think strategically, laterally, or critically employees in organizations can never develop the creative ideas that spawn innovation and lead to quality improvements. Stale thinking overrides any opportunity that a company has to outwit the competition or get ahead of change. Breakthrough thinking is needed if organizations are to deconstruct challenges, set goals, construct workable real-time solutions, and accurately identify the right solution for the right situation at the right time.

In a competitive marketplace, quality is the great differentiator that pays impressive dividends. It is never a final destination but an ongoing pursuit to achieve maximum customer satisfaction in the shortest time and the lowest cost.

Quality products and processes begin with quality thinking but here is a list of ten more things that you can do to increase quality:
-Understand the nature and communicate the importance of quality to every employee.
-Know what matters most to your clients and why.
-Develop products and processes that help your clients meet their business goals in the most
efficient way.
-Make what your customers care about your top priority.
-Make sure that dollars spent to improve operations, systems, and products relate to the needs
of your current and targeted customers.
-Set, enforce, and revise standards to deliver your best (product, process, transaction,
performance and thinking) to the marketplace.
-Work collaboratively to establish quality in all internal processes and interdepartmental hand
offs.
-Create self-managed teams that focus on continuous improvement strategies.
-Increase the learning opportunities and challenge the habitual thinking of employees.
-Eliminate the waste and non-value added activities from your processes it will reduce your
product development and process cycle-times.

3 Steps To Understanding Your Home Based Affiliate Business Opportunity

If you've recently joined a home based affiliate business opportunity on the internet, then the chances are that you have alot of new information about the company that you should read over and learn if you want to be successful. While you might not be able to grasp all of the features of your new business venture overnight(let alone make tons of cash), you can start the foundation of long term success.

Step 1:
The first thing you should understand about making money online is that it's never going to make you rich overnight. It can make you rich, and you can make money overnight, but the odds of you getting rich overnight are about equal to you getting sent to prison for fraud, embezzlement or the like. Knowing this right off the bat is going to put you in a better mind set than most people who try to start a business online.While you may be desperate for cash, desperation is not going to change these facts. If you need a large amount of cash overnight, look somewhere else. But you can start earning income quickly with affiliate programs.

Step 2:
After you've joined an affiliate business program you will be given a user name and a password so that you can login to your member's area where all of the important information about the company is stored. Information such as your sales totals, how much money you've earned, the companies compensation plan, frequently asked questions, and marketing aids to help you advertise can be found here. Take your time and read over everything your affiliate company makes available to you. Don't only skim through it once, but read it in detail often or until you feel comfortable that you understand what your responsibilities are when it comes to making your business profitable for yourself, so that you know where your payments go, and so you know how the compensation plan works.

Step 3:
Do independant research on how to promote your affiliate business on the internet(start with google). Most affiliate companies that you join will have alot of ready made marketing and advertising tools ready for you to use in your online promotions. Don't just stop there though, take the time to research the basics of affiliate website marketing and even go as far as creating a file for all of your new discoveries so that you can start to put together ideas. There are many free resources and step-by-step guides that practically teach you how to succeed if you only practice the teachings on a consistent basis.

At the end of the day, the proper use of time and a long term mind set are the keys to success when you are just starting with an affiliate business opportunity. The best ways to make money with affiliate programs are not at all hidden, it's only that some people don't take the time to fully commit to the process of learning how to make money with them, even if it's only on a part time basis. Using the tips and tools provided by your affiliate company is enough to realize your goals in this business. As a beginner relying heavily on them is a great way to start. Over time you will realize that you are in the middle of growing a very lucrative internet business.

What's the Best Home Based Business for You?

Have you ever wanted to start a homebased business, and need to decide what's the best home based business for you?

You're not alone!

Many, many people have wished for their own work at home business. But of course the "dreaming" is easy. Choosing exactly which and what kind of business to start is quite different.But it's not really that hard. It's much easier when you can examine the many choices by examining the advantages and disadvantages of each.If you haven't decided yet here are a few factors to consider that might make your task a little easier.

1. Startup Costs
One of the disadvantages of many home based business opportunities is the initial expense. No doubt you've seen lots of "business opportunities" that claim to get you started for "free."Don't believe it for a minute! There are always costs involved. Look for a possible home business with low initial expenses. But veer away from those opportunities where initial costs seem unrealistic. Examine these offers carefully.

2. Time to Become Profitable
A new home business isn't like to be profitable immediately. In fact just recovering your initial investment can sometimes take months.Of course the time needed to recoup your investment will also depend on just how great that initial investment was. But in any event you'll usually do better to choose a business that will begin turning a profit sooner rather than later.

3. Ability to Start While Maintaining Your Current Job
The problem with a lot of business start-ups is they put you in an untenable situation money wise. No matter how quickly a new business becomes profitable, there's still a period of time when there'll be no profits coming in.If you're depending on your job to pay the bills, you can't quit your job until your business lets you earn enough money to pay your living expenses. But at the same time your job doesn't allow you the free time necessary to start your business!The best home based business option then is to find a business you can start and operate part time while continuing your job, until your business becomes successful enough to quit and devote full time to your business.

4. Operating Costs and Profit Margins
Not only will you need startup capital, you'll also need money to operate the business. Do a careful analysis of what it will cost you to operate the business of your choice. Choose one that will allow you a comfortable profit margin AFTER operating expenses.

5. Demand for the Product or Service
Regardless of any other advantages a business may offer, you'll never enjoy success if there's little or no demand for the product or service you're selling.Make sure there's a sizable market for your product or service.

6. Continuing Demand and Economic Conditions
Our economy is always changing. Businesses sometimes fail because of changes in the economic "climate."You could be making good profits one day, and the next day be watching demand for your product "dry up."It's best to select a business that's not prone to fluctuations in the economy.

7. Learning Curve
Depending on your choice, it could take a long time to acquire the knowledge needed to conduct your business.Look for a business with a short "learning curve" or for one that you already know something about.

8. Income Potential
Every business "opportunity" promises you high earnings potential. But sometimes those promises just aren't realistic.Always remember the old adage "If it sounds too good to be true ... it probably is!" Try to evaluate every opportunity dispassionately and choose a business that offers high but REALISTIC earnings potential.

9. Time Freedom
Starting new home business can place a great deal of demands on your time. Lots of entrepreneurs work 10 - 12 hours a day at least, as well as weekends and holidays, getting their business up and running.Realistically assess the time demands whatever business you choose, and make certain you'll have enough time to devote to running it.

10. Satisfaction
"Satisfaction" is a personal matter, and one you should carefully consider.Whatever business you pick, you're more likely to be successful if you take personal satisfaction in what you're doing, to feel that what you're doing is worthwhile, something you can feel good about and be proud of.In conclusion, you should start your search by listing of all the potential choices that appeal to you. Then look at each one subjectively based on the factors mentioned above. The best home based business for you is already out there ... you just have to find it!