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I am often asked the same two questions. Do I need a business plan? What should I include in my business plan? These are questions that I will be answering within this article.

Do I require a business plan?

For most businesses the answer to this question would be yes, it certainly was my stuttering therapies company. I actually thought that a stuttering treatment would not really benefit from such a plan – I guess that shows you just how un-educated in this field that I used to be. For the majority of new businesses and ones which require investment by way of a loan or a business partner, a business plan is a must.

This is the type of business which does not require a business plan:

A business which is happy to stay as it is and which has no plans to expand.

A business which never has a need to take out a loan.

A business which is a one man band and is self-sufficient, without the need of any outside help – as an example a composite door company business.

The business plan will aim to show its readers all about your aims for your business and how you are going to reach these targets. Prior to even writing the business plan it is prudent to carry out research and to conduct meetings in order that you know exactly where you want the business to go.

I have no idea as to what should be included in my business plan – please help?

People who read your business plan will not only want to know about the business itself, they will also want to know about you. Give them a brief summary of your history and what you have achieved in the past. Write down all of your ideas and really sell the positive side of your character to them.

Describe the market place that your business is a part of, such as DVD replication, the competition and also the opportunities for growth in that market.

Give them financial figures including running costs, projected earnings, projected growth forecasts and also any financial history the business might have had.

Show them that you are flexible in that you have a plan B if plan A does not come to fruition.

To his beloved city of Boston, Benjamin Franklin left a fund of ,000 when he died.  His will stated that interest from this fund be allowed to collect for 300 years.From ,000, the investment increased to ,000, and the balance was again invested for the next hundred years.  In 1959, the market value of the Boston trust fund was a staggering .5 million!  The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has reaffirmed that the fund should continue until 1991.In the 1990s, his donated money has increased to more than million.  The Pennsylvania legislature used a portion of this $2 million to create Ben Franklin Funds at community foundations throughout the Commonwealth.True enough, Benjamin Franklin understood the value of investment, as he wrote: “Money begets money; its children begets more.”

Sometimes, when people have extra cash in their pockets like sales bonuses or fast cash loans, they have no clue what to do with it.  Most of the time, they end of spending the hard earned money on things they do not really need.Putting money in investments is one of the better ways to spend it.Alas, some have negative assumptions regarding investing.  They reason that they know little about investing or get confused with stock exchange numbers and rate charts.  Strip away the intimidating jargon, investing is simple and easy enough to understand even by ordinary people.

For starters, an investment is something people can buy or acquire which has the potential of bringing back more money than the amount they spent purchasing it.Company ownership, property accumulation, art work purchase, and loans made to friends are considered investments.  All these can generate more money which is called a return on investment or ROI.  What people should learn is how to look for and choose the best kind of investments that would give them, based on the initial resources, the biggest possible ROI.  For instance, if a person takes out a cash loan of $1000, what is the best investment that amount of money could get?  A good, well planned investment would do wonders with this kind of money.

Even during economic slowdown, investments are still good financial options.People who plan to put together an investment portfolio should get the help of investment companies and others who have investment experience. However, like in all things, people should be cautious so as not to get burned and make disastrous mistakes.

A variable annuity is similar to a 401k in some respects because you can choose for yourself which investments you would like to make up your portfolio. The premium can be divided with portions being used to fun several subaccounts that are diversified according to risk. These separate investments may include an ultra conservative money market fund, bonds, mutual funds, and more risky areas such as international equities. When purchasing these products, you have the choice of either making a full premium payment upfront or investing into the fund by making your payments over a set period of time.

You can typically expect the following features from a variable annuity:

• A flexible premium that is paid either in a simple upfront payment or invested in gradually over time
• Offer more equitable investments such as stocks and mutual funds as opposed to CDs
• You choose how risky or safe you would like your investments to be and allocate among them however you like
• You are able to shift your investments without penalty as you wish in order to adjust for the market
• You will receive checks every month with a rate of return depending on the performance of your investments
• Generally, you are free to invest as much as you like tax free

If you are interested in getting the maximum return on your investment, then it is recommended that you choose a variable annuity as opposed to the fixed rate alternative. They have provided higher yields historically, with the catch being that there is greater risk over short and medium time periods. It is impossible predict just how well risky investments can perform, but judging from the past they can typically be expected to yield up to 12 percent over a period of 10 years or more.

Although this is a very trusted and widely used investment, it is a good idea to become familiar with the disadvantages of these annuities as well. For example, if you make any withdrawals for income before you reach the age of 59.5 you will be charged a 10 percent tax penalty. In addition, they are not considered to be a capital gain so although the growth is deferred, you will still be taxed according to the regular income tax rates. There are also certain fees associated with these accounts such as management and annual contract fees to cover certain expenses.

If you would like to find the variable annuity that will give you the highest yields, you will first have to be experienced in managing flexibility in your investments. The right financial advisor can help you to choose the investments that will make you the most money. Please visit www.advisorworld.com today in order to have them connect you with the perfect advisor for your needs. The site does not charge for any of their services and they have one of the most extensive databases of professional accountants, mortgages brokers, and lawyers on the Net.

The fixed annuity is similar in many ways to CDs issued by a bank, but the difference is that they are intended to fund the buyer’s retirement. These are for the most part very low in risk and can be converted to cash much easier than a typical CD as well. Their earnings may be deferred for tax purposes and they will generally provide a higher yield than CDs or bonds. They can be classified as either immediate or deferred. The former begins making payments immediately until the interest and premium is spent and the latter does not begin making payments until the end of the term agreed upon.

A fixed annuity will typically feature the following:

• One single upfront premium
• The contract will lock onto one guaranteed interest rate for a certain number of years, just like a CD
• Offer a low risk because the money invested can only be lost in cases where the issuing financial institution becomes insolvent
• Are the perfect solution for generating a solid income for retirement
• Offer pretty solid returns for their low risk
• Are offered for either short, medium, or long term durations, with the longer terms offering higher yields
• Incredibly easy to use and feature no hassles. Simply sign the contact and make the required premium in order to start collecting

Unless you terminate your fixed annuity contract early you can expect to receive a guaranteed investment with plenty of opportunity for growth. When these annuities are deferred you can expect the tax-deferral to compound as well which will earn you much more than a CD or money market account. In addition to receiving a steady income for life, you can count on receiving allowances for withdrawal without penalties, death benefits, and probate insurance.

These annuities are the perfect investment for anyone who is interested in finding a low risk investment; particularly those who have just retired and are looking for a way to protect their retirement fund from the volatility of the market. Although one does not stand the same high rate of return as the variable alternative provides, they will provide a steady stream of income with very little risk. However, it is good to keep in mind that successful annuities will include more than one investment, so diversification is key.

If you are searching for the best fixed annuity, they will have the best chances of getting a great rate if they shop when the interest rates are high. In order to find an excellent financial advisor who can handle setting something like this up for you, one site you should visit is www.advisorworld.com. They are a trusted firm that has been in practice since 2003 and even better is that they offer their services to the public free of charge. They will only share your personal information with one advisor at time so you do not have to worry about receiving calls from individuals trying to sell you something.

It was another nice bull run today with intraday charts showing “buy on the dips” strategy working. We much less volatility although the VIX, Volatility Index dropped on 2.4% today. The SKF, the Ultrashort Financials ETF dropped 12.53% today and this could be a decent swing trade long soon, possibly a decent entry sometime tomorrow. (See tonight’s video). We clearly got more confirmation that sentiment is gradually shifting. An underlying feeling is building among mutual fund managers that they “can’t be left out of the market” for fear of their peers out-performing them if they have less cash on the sidelines. This could prop up the market further with more support going into the end of the year. The mutual funds want to show one good quarter and limit their big losses to the 3rd quarter of 2008. Although I would not count out the bears selling power, almost ready to pounce upon the longs at a moment’s notice.

The financial stocks were very strong today with the index up 5.73% today. WFC, Wells Fargo moved up 9.1%, JPM, JP Morgan Chase up 9.4%, BAC up 17.1%, MER up 17%, GS up 9.1%, AXP, American Express up 12.2%, BLK, Blackrock up 7.6% and STT, State Street Securities up 8.9%. It looks like we could see a slight pullback in the financials for a day or two and if the market is really strong, this group could resume upward to higher highs. This isn’t a tradable comment and isn’t the kind of high probability trade that suits my style so I can’t recommend you try this. Look at these charts of the financial stocks; most of them have moved up off the bottom 60-80% already and are closer to being shortable than being bought long.

Virtually all the sectors moved up today except the housing but they were getting over extended. Oil stocks, ag-chemical companies, heavy construction, solar, tech stocks, pharmaceuticals (pharma), and coal and steel stocks were really strong, moving up from 12-31% (PCX).

The insurance stocks, HIG, PRU, MET, LNC, PFG, were mixed with more pressure down. See notes on Intraday and swing trades below.

Oil prices moved up today 7% and started that technical bounce of some sort that I was looking for. Interesting that oil prices moving up continues to move stocks upward but eventually this relationship will change back to a normally inverse one, probably sometime in 2009.

Food and beverage stocks (PEP, K, KFT, GIS, KO) are just churning, with no real pattern. Note that MCD, MacDonald’s continues to get higher same store sales as cost conscious consumers are returning to the fast food chains. This pattern is likely to continue and this spike of $6 in the last 4 days (a lot for MCD) is a very bullish sign that usually precedes future direction of the stock.

Everyone is expecting the automakers to be bailed out and is now fully priced into the stock market. If there is any hiccup with the approval, or Congress requires a substantial change in the terms or causes a delay (as politicians usually do), this could cause some more power to any selling.

Intermediate Trade Positions: FXI, Xinhua 25 ETF got more buying today and continues to support the mildly bullish daily chart pattern. Any pullback with FXI is likely to be shallow and short-lived and could give people who were left out of the trade to go long on the next 2 or 3 day pullback. (REPEAT: The FXI etf has 40% financials, 20% telecomm, 25% energy stocks and this should be watched as a potential long purchase on an intermediate term (weeks to months). The technical indicators are and price chart are not very steep so the risk of a big sell off isn’t high. Conservative investors may wait for a pullback while aggressive traders could take a small long position immediately. PTR, Petro China also looks good using the same analysis as above.

Swing Trades: If you bought XTO, COG, EOG, or NBL, these independent oil and gas companies could be sold tomorrow to capture that nice 7-15% profit in two days that they are up. Still watching the housing stocks such as DHI, TOL, PHM, LEN, are eventually going to be good short candidates as they move up. All is not right with the world in this housing sector because it has had a nice run up in stock prices. The life insurance sector (HIG, PRU, MET, LNC, PFG) already started to correct into a swing short trade, especially the lower priced and lesser know companies like LNC, Lincoln National and PFG, Principal Financial Group. Keep position sizes small, especially if you are new to selling short.

Day Traders/Intraday stock ideas: Intraday trading pattern has changed to “no drop, and no obvious pop but just a steady climb upward.” The bullish sentiment covered over any drop and pops in the intraday chart but it is likely we see a drop and pop re-appear tomorrow morning but nothing close to the big drops we have seen in the past. We probably will see shallower drops followed by big pops and LONG is the smart way to use this technique now. We might see a slight sell-off tomorrow anyhow so the drop and pop could coincide well with the market. The insurance companies should be a group to watch for short scalps tomorrow followed by long scalps but give it a lot of time before going long. Notice how long PRU took to hit bottom at 10:42am Pacific time before bouncing 10% in the following 90 minutes. This is an excellent group of stocks (HIG, PRU, MET, LNC, PFG) to trade tomorrow using intraday trades short and long OR swing trades short for a 2 or 3 days.

Concluding thoughts: The market continues to show more and more bullish signs and could be establishing a new trend for the coming weeks or months, although that is still slightly premature to be sure. Hold your intermediate and swing trades longer than before

Thoughts: Best odds only, be decisive, aggressive, mentally flexible, stay in position size, don’t overtrade and wait a little longer to buy and wait a little longer to sell. You will find that will make you more money on your trades. Trade what you see, not what you hope for.

Don’t trade unless the setup is there for you, then use the charts to tell you when the odds are heavily in your favor. I recommend wide stop losses when using this technique otherwise you get stopped out frequently which is expensive, frustrating and distracts you from the bigger picture of making a successful trade. Don’t force anything to work for you tomorrow, let the setups develop and then take advantage of that. Be patient the next couple of days. Stay in position sizes without letting any intraday trade represent more than 10-15% of your total account value. As you build your account, your position size percentage should get smaller and smaller to lower your risk.

Have a great day and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

Mitch King

www.TradeStocksAmerica.com

Contents: stock trading, trading strategies, stock picks, stock market education, stock market investing course and educational stock trading videos.

Mitch King is the founder of TradeStocksAmerica.com. All material presented herein is believed to be reliable but we cannot attest to its accuracy. All material represents the opinions of Mitch King. Investment recommendations may change without notice and readers are urged to check with their investment counselors before making any investment decisions. Opinions expressed in these reports may change without prior notice. Mitch King and/or the staff at TradeStocksAmerica.com may or may not have investments in any stocks cited above before or after this newsletter is prepared. Opinions expressed in these reports may change without prior notice.

Disclaimer – Stock investing or stock trading has large potential rewards, but also large potential risk. There is risk of loss as well as the opportunity for gain when buying or selling stocks, bonds, option contracts or engaging in any strategy listed in the Daily Stock Report, The Wizard Training Course, The Trading Room and our seminar or workshops. You must be aware of the risks and be willing to accept the risks when investing or trading in any financial markets. Don’t trade with money you can’t afford to lose. This website is neither a solicitation nor an offer to Buy/Sell stocks. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those discussed on this website. The past performance of any trading system or methodology is not necessarily indicative of future results.

Although it may seem obvious to most stock market swing traders there are a number of simple rules that you can follow which will ensure that you have more success when buying stocks:

In the USA stock market there are 3 major indexes which are each made up of a basket of stocks, they are the S and P 500 (also known as the S&P500), the DOW 30 and the Nadaq 100. These stock indexes generally only contain major blue chip stocks, as long as you buy from these 3 groups you will at least know that you are getting a well known solid stock.

For example the DOW30 contains major industrials and large multinational stocks such as Home Depot (HD) and Johnson and Johnson (JNJ) whereas the Nasdaq 100 mainly contains techical companies such as Apple (AAPL) and Miscrosoft (MSFT).

Always buy a stock that is liquid, this means that it is a highly traded stock, this will enable you to quickly buy and sell at the price you want without having a delay. You will also get a smaller spread, thats the difference between the BID and ASK price of the stock. For a stock to be considered very liquid it should trade at least 500,000 shares per day, ideally even more.

It is best to aviod stocks that are bellow as this usually means the company is in trouble, although with the bear market of 2008/9 there have been a lot of good stocks at bargin prices between and . Avoid buying a stock that is below at anytime.

Another consideration to make is options, does the stock has options?, this will be important if you want to trade options around your stock, such as a covered call, or you may want to buy a PUT option in order to protect your stock.

Be very cautious about buying a stock just before it’s earnings are released, stocks often drop significantly if they come out with a poor report. Earnings are released 4 times a year with one of them being the annual report.

If you are going to trade options make sure that you learn how to trade by getting some good education. There are many swing trading strategies that work well with stocks in todays volatile markets.

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Although it may seem obvious to most stock market swing traders there are a number of simple rules that you can follow which will ensure that you have more success when buying stocks:

In the USA stock market there are 3 major indexes which are each made up of a basket of stocks, they are the S and P 500 (also known as the S&P500), the DOW 30 and the Nadaq 100. These stock indexes generally only contain major blue chip stocks, as long as you buy from these 3 groups you will at least know that you are getting a well known solid stock.

For example the DOW 30 contains major industrials and large multinational stocks such as Home Depot (HD) and Johnson and Johnson (JNJ) whereas the Nasdaq 100 mainly contains techical companies such as Apple (AAPL) and Miscrosoft (MSFT).

Always buy a stock that is liquid, this means that it is a highly traded stock, this will enable you to quickly buy and sell at the price you want without having a delay. You will also get a smaller spread, thats the difference between the BID and ASK price of the stock. For a stock to be considered highly liquid it should trade at least 500,000 shares per day, ideally even more.

It is best to avoid stocks that are bellow as this usually means the company is in trouble, although with the bear market of 2008 there have been a lot of good stocks at bargin prices between and . Avoid buying a stock that is below at anytime.

Another consideration to make is options, does the stock has options?, this will be important if you want to trade options around your stock, such as a covered call, or you may want to buy a PUT option in order to protect your stock.

Be very cautious about buying a stock just before it’s earnings are released, stocks often drop significantly if they come out with a poor report. Earnings are released 4 times a year with one of them being the annual report.

If you are going to trade options make sure that you learn how to trade by getting some good education. There are many swing trading strategies that work well with stocks in todays volatile markets.

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Bonds are one of the main stream types of investment along with stocks and real estate, and if you want to learn how to trade bonds make sure that you get a good education in the subject 1st. There are a number of important points that you must understand about bonds before you start investing in them. Not understanding these things may cause you to purchase the wrong bonds, at the wrong maturity date.

Like all investments it is important to learn about what you are investing in, and certainly don’t just take the advice given to you by a bond seller without checking it out first yourself. The three most important points that must be considered when purchasing a bond include the par value, the maturity date, and the coupon rate.

The par value of a bond refers to the amount of cash you will receive when the bond reaches its maturity date. In other words, you will receive your initial investment back when the bond reaches maturity.

The maturity date is of course the date that the bond will reach its full value. On this date, you will receive your initial investment, and the interest that your money has earned.

Corporate and State and Local Government bonds can be ‘called’ before they reach their maturity, at which time the corporation or issuing Government will return your initial investment, along with the interest that it has earned thus far. Federal bonds cannot be “called”.

The coupon rate is the interest that you will receive when the bond reaches maturity. This number is written as a percentage, and you must use other information to find out what the interest will be. A bond that has a par value of 00, with a coupon rate of 5% would earn 0 per year until it reaches maturity.

Because bonds are not issued by banks, many people don’t fully understand how to go about buying one. There are 2 ways this can be done.

You can use a broker or brokerage firm to buy them for you or you can go directly to the Government. If you use a broker, you will more than likely be charged a commission fee. If you want to use a broker, you should shop around for the lowest commissions!

Purchasing directly through the Government isn’t nearly as hard as it once was. There is a program called Treasury Direct which will allow you to purchase bonds and all of your bonds will be held in one account, that you will have easy access to. This will allow you to avoid using a broker or brokerage firm.

More advanced traders may try to buy and sell bonds to take advantage of the price movements, you can even swing trade them. But this is a very risky business if you don’t know what you are doing, you will need to take a swing trading course if this was something that wanted to, but again most people just buy and hold.

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This is something that most people don’t even think about, but knowing what your risk tolerance is and investment style are very important. This will help you choose investments that are more suited to you, and which the long run should do better as you will be less stressed and make fewer trading errors. 

While there are many different types of investments that one can make, there are really only three specific investment styles, and those three styles tie in with your risk tolerance, these are conservative, moderate, and aggressive.

Naturally, if you find that you have a lowish tolerance for risk, your investment style will most likely be conservative or moderate at best. If you have a high tolerance for risk, you will most likely be a moderate or aggressive investor. At the same time, your financial ambitions will also determine what style of investing you use.

If you are saving for retirement in your early twenties, you should use a conservative or moderate style of investing, but if you are trying to get together the funds to buy a home in the next year or two, you would want to use an aggressive style. Being an active stock market trader would be considered an aggressive style for most people.

Conservative investors want to make sure that they maintain their initial capital and make very modest gains per year, they want to sleep well at night. In other words, if they invest 00 they want to be sure that they will get their initial 00 back. This type of investor usually invests in blue chip stocks and bonds and short term money market accounts. But remember trading stocks, even if they are blue chips can still be very risky as we have seen in the 2008/9 bear market.

An interest earning savings account is a very common approach for conservative investors.
A moderate investor usually invests much like a conservative investor, but will use a small portion of their investment funds for higher risk investments. Many moderate investors invest up to 50% of their investment funds in safe or conservative investments, and invest the remainder in riskier investments.

An aggressive investor is willing to take bigger risks that other investors won’t take. They invest higher amounts of money in riskier ventures in the hopes of achieving larger returns – either over time or in a short amount of time. Aggressive investors often have all or most of their investment monies tied up in the stock market.

Again, determining what style of investing you will use will be determined by your financial goals and your risk tolerance. No matter what type of investing you do, however, you should always carefully research the investment and never invest without having all of the facts.

If you think you are an aggressive investor and intend to trade stocks activily, make sure that you learn how to trade before making your 1st stock purchase.

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Copyright 2006 Timothy Rohrer

When it comes to making money online, everyone wants to and everyone tries to, but very few actually end up making a dime.  So what’s the secret then to making money online?  The truth is most internet guru’s do not tell you exactly how to go about building a massive internet business simply because showing you means more competition for them.  Fortunately enough for you, I am willing to share with you my success secrets.

I have tested and tried hundreds of programs, many of which make outrageous claims and empty promises.  I’ll be the first to say that 99% of these programs are scams and making money online is not as cut and dry as one may think.  With so much information on the internet today it’s difficult to sift through the thousands of products and opportunities to find one that actually works.

My first experience was with a company called Liberty Alliance; I don’t even think they are around anymore.  I saw an ad in the newspaper for a company that offered flexible hours with the potential to earn thousands of dollars per week.  When I went to the interview I sat through a brief presentation and afterwards spoke with a few reps.  The business model worked, but little did I know I’d be cold calling people and trying to get my friends and family to join my opportunity.

The number one mistake that many people make is trying to recruit their friends and family.  In order to be successful in any type of internet business you have to find ways to reach a targeted audience.  Had I talked to people that were already looking for my opportunity I might have been much more successful.

I realized that in order to see success and in order to grow a business you must advertise. After all I found an ad in the newspaper for a network marketing company, so it would only make sense that I should do the same rather than trying to convince people of the business idea I needed to reach people looking for me.

The problem is many people lack the necessary marketing skills when it comes to launching their internet business.  There are plenty of programs available online that provide useful information when it comes to marketing online.  When I finally received the training I needed to market successfully online everything became clear.  I needed to get my website in front of the right audience, whether it was from newspaper ads, pay per click search engines, Craig’s list, or any type of free classifieds online and offline.  It was evident that this is what I needed to do in order to explode my income online.

Making money online is possible and if you have the desire to do so, you will succeed if you have a definite plan.  Many successful business owners fail initially, but it’s their persistency that eventually wins in the long run.  Learn how to market effectively online and you will see an explosion in your income.