Daily Investment Tips

If you read the news in 2011, most headlines was about how bad things were for investors, falling stock markets and European debt crisis. But the true is even in this crisis there were areas where investors made money. Investors who bought Junk bonds of companies such as Ford saw good returns, some stocks even out performed the market in 2011 (check this video of best performing stocks in 2011). The lesson here is, if you look at individual stocks you are likely to find value and opportunities.

Best Opportunities to Invest your Money In 2012

Facebook IPO in 2012

You can’t talk of investment opportunities in 2012 without mentioning Facebook. 2012 is the year this social network will go public. I have big feeling Facebook is another Google: it will keep getting bigger and bigger. Other tech IPOs in 2011, Linkend and Groupon, opened high on first day but came to down later. The only people who made money were the early investors and the few who were lucky to buy the IPO.

Buying Short Term Bonds

As rates go up, the value of bonds that have long dated maturities go down, sometimes significantly. For that reason, stick with short term bonds (both government and corporate), Inflation Linked Bonds (TIPs) and Floating Rate Notes. Once rates go up — and they have nowhere to go but up — gradually change those holdings into longer term bonds.

Buying Under Water Properties

There are millions of mortgages across US that are under water, the value of this properties have fallen low and the return on investment is now high. If you have enough cash and you buy this properties, you can get a good return renting out the properties.

Investing In Companies Catering in Luxury Goods

2011 was the year the middle class disappeared. Companies that target the upper end of the market have continued to do well. Stats indicate the number of super rich people has gone up, these group continues to spend on luxury cars, boats etc. Companies like Lululemon Athletica (targeting Yoga lovers) have continued to see year-over-year earnings growth at or above 50%.

Investing in Low End companies

As the middle class disappears, the majority of these people are finding themselves in the lower end. As numbers of low income people continue to swell, discount retailers such as Wal Mart will continue to do well.

To find best opportunities to invest your Money In 2012 you need to look at individual stocks and not the whole market.

written by Constantine Njeru \\ tags: Athletica, Best Investments, Best Performing Stocks, Cars Boats, Debt Crisis, Facebook, Google, Inflation Linked Bonds, investing 2012, investment 2012, Investment Opportunities, Ipo, Junk Bonds, Linkend, Luxury Cars, Luxury Goods, Maturities, Middle Class, opportunities 2012, Return On Investment, Stock Markets, Term Bonds

The major reason why you should invest in a Wheat ETF is, wheat is one of the most popular cereal commodity grown into the Global. It is only comparable to rice and maize in its quantity and more than 6000000 tons are harvested every year .

The only wheat only ETF that I know is Teucrium Wheat Fund. This ETF is the only one that tracks the price of wheat. The other option of investing in a Wheat ETF is buying ETFs that have wheat plus other commodities in their basket. These include some of the big names in agricultural commodities etfs:-

• ADZ – PowerShares DB Agriculture Short ETN
• AGA – PowerShares DB Agriculture Double Short ETN
• AGF – PowerShares DB Agriculture Long ETN
• BARN – Global X Farming ETF
• CRBA – Jefferies TR/J CRB Global Agriculture Equity Index ETF
• DAD – PowerShares DB Agirculture Double Short ETF
• DAG – PowerShares DB Agriculture Double Long

written by Constantine Njeru \\ tags: Agricultural Commodities, Commodities ETF, Commodity, Etf, Etfs, Etn, Farming, Farming ETF, Global Agriculture, Investment Opportunity, Jefferies, Powershares, Price Of Wheat

If you are looking into investing in an agricultural commodity ETF  you can select form the following list of agricultural etfs related to agriculture. These agricultural ETFs tend to reflect the performance of the agricultural sector. Some of the ETFs are long while others are short.

ADZ – PowerShares DB Agriculture Short ETN

AGA – PowerShares DB Agriculture Double Short ETN

AGF – PowerShares DB Agriculture Long ETN

BARN – Global X Farming ETF

COWL – Direxion Daily Agribusiness Bull 3x Shares ETF

COWS – Direxion Daily Agribusiness Bear 3x Shares ETF

CRBA – Jefferies TR/J CRB Global Agriculture Equity Index ETF

DAD – PowerShares DB Agirculture Double Short ETF

DAG – PowerShares DB Agriculture Double Long ETN

DBA – PowerShares DB Agriculture ETF

DIRT – iPath Pure Beta Agriculture ETN

MOO – Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF

BAL – iPath Dow Jones AIG Cotton TR Sub-Index ETN

CTNN – iPath Pure Beta Cotton ETN

CAFÉ – iPath Pure Beta Coffee ETN

JO – iPath DJ-UBS Coffee Total Return Sub-Index ETN

NIB – iPath DJ-UBS Cocoa Total Return Sub-Index ETN

CHOC – iPath Pure Beta Cocoa ETN

GRU – ELEMENTS MLCX Grains Index Total Return ETN

JJG – iPath DJ-UBS Grains Total Return Sub-Index ETN

WEET – iPath Pure Beta Grains ETN

WEAT – Teucrium Wheat Fund

The initials on the left are symbols of agricultural ETF / ETN

written by Constantine Njeru \\ tags: Agricultural Commodities, Agricultural Commodity, Agricultural ETF, Agricultural Sector, Commodities ETF, Commodities Future, Commodties Investing, Etf, Etfs, Etn, Global Agriculture, Grains, Jjg, Powershares, Ubs, Vectors

Despite the high risk in Junk Bonds investment, investors who invested in Junk Bonds sinces 2007 have seen high yield returns. According to Bloomberg analysis, Junk Bonds have returned 34 percent, including price gains and interest, since October 2007.

Junk Bonds have performed better than S&P 500 index

Bonds rated below investment grade have beaten the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index by 53 percentage points since October 2007, returning 34 percent through Nov. 25, while stocks fell 19 percent.

Investors who invested in Junk Bonds of companies instead of buying shares of the companies have seen better return

The contrast is even more striking in the case of several well-known companies. Ford Motor’s 7.125 percent notes due in 2025 have risen 129 percent since Oct. 9, 2007, well ahead of the 17 percent gain by shares of the second-biggest U.S. automaker

Why Junk Bonds are Returning higher yields

Junk bonds have remained buoyant because “the bond market doesn’t believe we will have a meaningful increase in default rates,” Says Junk Bond Analyst.

have returned 34 percent, including price gains and interest, since October 2007.

written by Constantine Njeru \\ tags: Bloomberg, Bond Market, Bonds Investment, Default Rates, High Risk, High Yields, Junk Bond, Junk Bonds, Stock Index, Stocks

The prices of Gold move in unison with Australian dollar. Trading in Gold is just like trading in Australian dollar in many ways. As the world’s third-largest producer of gold, the Australian dollar had an 84% positive correlation with the precious metal between 1999 and 2008. Generally speaking, this means that when gold prices rise, the Australian dollar appreciates as well.

The reason is simple, all that production of Gold means foreign currency money flowing in to buy Gold. As more US dollars and Euros flows in, the Australian Dollar will rise.

An investor can take advantage of this correlation between Australian Dollar and Gold To make money.

written by Constantine Njeru \\ tags: Australian Dollar, Australian Gold, Australian Money, Buy Gold, Currency Money, Foreign Currency, Gold Dollar, Gold Prices, Positive Correlation, Precious Metal, Trading Gold, Trading In Gold, Us Dollars

The biggest myth spread by Facebook haters is Facebook doesn’t turn a dim. This people have a hate for everything Facebook and it is only natural they look for anything negative and in the process miss the positive.

Facebook Profits Facts

According to Reuters, Facebook’s revenue doubled to $1.6billion in 2011′s first half, a source with knowledge of its financials told Reuters. Facebook profits during that same period was $500 million.

Estimating where Facebook Profits & Revenues now stand

Estimating financial results for a fast-growing company like Facebook is always difficult, since so much is unknown, but if figures provided by the WSJ and the NYT are correct, the network’s revenue climbed about 160 percent in 2010, and its profit doubled. Continuing that kind of growth would result in revenue of more than $5 billion this year, and assuming the profit margins stay at 20 percent, profit may be close to $1 billion.

written by Constantine Njeru \\ tags: Estimates, Facebook, facebook profits, Myth, Nyt, Profit Margins, Profits, Reuters, Wsj

The eagerly awaited Facebook IPO could happen in first quarter of 2012. Wall Street Journal says the social networking giant is likely to go public during the first quarter of 2012. Facebook is aiming to raise $10 Billion in the IPO.

That falls in line with a May 2012 deadline when Facebook will be required to publicly report its financial information, regardless of whether it’s a private or public company.

The actual date of Facebook IPO will be communicated when Facebook files for the IPO and gets SEc clearance.

Facebook IPO could easily top $100 billion. And if that happen Mark Zuckerberg will be worth $24 billion. That will make him richer than Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, according to estimates of their wealth by Forbes. Not bad for some still under 30!

written by Constantine Njeru \\ tags: Cnbc, Facebook IPO, Facebook IPO date, Financial Information, First Quarter, Ipo, Networking Giant, Nine Months, Social Networking, Wall Street Journal Facebook IPO

Many Forex investors have unrealistic expectations about the potential for profit when they invest in the Forex market. The truth is although you can make a lot of money trading and investing in Forex, the market has its disadvantages. Even traders with years of experience can incur large losses in this market.

Factors Beyond Your Control

One big disadvantages is losses and gains in Forex markets are affected by such factors as politics, economic factors in certain countries. Local and regional factors within a country as well as current events can all have a large impact on the market. For example, any political instability in a country can affect a nation’s economy and decrease the value of their curency. The events in one country may also affect other countries in the region as well as their currencies. Political instability come from the blues and are difficult to predict.

Forex Market Is Too Big

One of attraction of forex market investing and trading is the sheer size and trading done round the clock. But this is also a disadvantage. Forex markets never shut, when you go to sleep the market remains open in another part of the world. When you wake up the next day you may find the prices have moved beyond your expectation.

Thin Movements

There is a maximum limit as to how high a currency can move, what this means is in order to make money an investor will need to take a bigger risk. One cannot hope to make extraordinary gains without taking extraordinary risks. A trading strategy that involves taking a high degree of risk means suffering inconsistent trading performance and often suffering large losses.

Unlimited losses

it’s vital to remember that when you trade on margin, relatively small exchange-rate movements can result in big profits or losses. Not only that, but your losses are unlimited – if the rate moves far enough against you, you can lose far more than your initial deposit. The usual solution is to agree a stop loss with your broker, the best being the ‘guaranteed stop’. There will be a charge for this, but it ensures that your losses are always capped.

written by Constantine Njeru \\ tags: Exchange Rate Movements, Forex Investing Disadvantage, Forex Market, Forex Markets, Forex Trading Disadvantages, Initial Deposit, Losses, Market Factors, Maximum Limit, Money Trading, Political Instability, Regional Factors, Stop Loss, Trading Strategy

Forex indicator is a series of calculations which may be used to predict fluctuations in the exchange rate for particular currencies. Professional Traders investing and trading in forex currencies use Forex indicators to establish their next ‘move’ (whether to buy or sell).

Forex Indicator : Relative Strength Index

There are several Forex indicators you can use to predict currency movements. Some you need to purchase and others are free. One forex indicator is the Relative Strength Index, or RSI. This index is a measure of the ratio of appreciations to depreciations expressed between the values of 0 to 100. If you take a look at an RSI graph and notice that the value is high (greater than 70 or so), this suggests that prices have risen higher than the market expected them to, or the currency was ‘overbought’. A low RSI value (lower than 30) suggests that the rate did the opposite, or was ‘oversold’.

Forex Indicator : Fibonacci Numbers

Fibonacci numbers is another forex indicator that can be used to make decisions on whether to buy or sell. Using a ‘Fibonacci retracement’ strategy, it is possible to decide whether a change in trend (a change from depreciation to appreciation, or vice-versa) is likely to occur, although the strategy involved in doing so is rather complex, and an explanation of the strategy is likely to be way beyond the scope of this article. If you are an experienced Forex trader, taking a look at the Fibonacci retracement strategy could be a great way to make buying and selling decisions.

Remember, Forex trading involves alot of  risk, so it is possible to both gain money and lose money, so consider yourself warned about this fact!

written by Constantine Njeru \\ tags: Buy Sell, Currency Movements, Depreciation, Exchange Rate, Fibonacci Numbers, Fibonacci Retracement, Fluctuations, Forex Indicators, Forex Indicators Explained, Forex Investing, Forex Investing Tips, Forex Trader, Forex Trading, Forex Trading Tips, Graph, Professional Traders, Relative Strength Index, Risk, Rsi, Scope, Trading Currencies

To invest in oil, you don’t need to buy barrels of the stuff, though in the last bull market there was talk of hedge funds being forced to take delivery of tankers.

Here are four ways to invest in oil without dirtying your hands.

Oil ETF

An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is an investment fund traded on stock exchanges, much like stocks. You can talk to a broker about oil etfs.

Crude Oil Futures

Crude oil futures are among the most popular and widely watched futures markets. There isn’t a day without the mention of crude oil prices on the television, in newspapers or magazines. Futures for crude oil trade on more than one exchange and are available nearly twenty-four hours a day. Crude oil prices are watched widely by speculators, hedgers, and the general public since petroleum products can affect nearly every facet of our lives. However, crude oil trading involves a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone.

Stocks Of Oil Companies

If you feel buying oil futures and oil etf is too complicated for your liking you can invest in oil the easy way: Buying stock of big oil companies such as Exxonmobil, Chevron, & BP. You can buy these stock long or short, it depends on how you forecast the oil trends.

Oil exploration ventures

Oil exploration ventures buys rights to look for oil in particular areas e.g. Africa, Australia etc. Some of this oil ventures have issued shares on stock exchange and any one interested can buy the stock. Oil exploration is risky business with more bad news than good news but if a ventures strikes oil, the investors are set for a rich pay day.

Oil contractors

The oil industry relies on service contractors. The oil contractors are involved in drilling, One famous oil contractor is Halliburton. You can look up for oil contractors on stock exchange.

written by Constantine Njeru \\ tags: Africa Australia, Crude Oil Futures, Crude Oil Prices, Crude Oil Trading, Exchange Traded Fund, Futures Markets, Hedgers, Investing In Oil, Oil Etf, Oil Exploration, Oil Trade, Oil Ventures, Petroleum Products, Risky Business, Service Contractors, Stock Exchanges, Stock Oil, Substantial Risk