Siam Thai

No matter what kind of investing you do – bonds, stock options, mutual funds, gold, commodities, real estate – in order to be successful you need to have a thorough understanding of your personal investment style. Some investors are risk takers, some investors are conservative, some investors are a combination of the two, depending on their cash position and the form of the investment. Understanding your personal risk tolerance and investment style will aid you in making smart investment choices.

While there are many different types of investments, there are only three specific investment styles – and those three styles directly relate to your risk tolerance. The three investment styles are: conservative, moderate, and aggressive. These styles are dependent upon your tolerance of risk and how much time you’re willing to invest in … your investing.

For example, some investment strategies may have you watching prices go up and down continually throughout the day. Are you equipped to handle these changes, especially if they don’t go your way? Other ventures may place your entire investment at risk. You could lose all your money. Is that something that would weigh heavily on your mind, possibly affecting the way you handle the investment? Do you panic easily? Are you able to stick to the numbers and the plan they represent, with clear cut entry and exit points? Or are you the type to watch an investment dive and toss out the original plan in the hope that the investment will eventually come back?

Also important to consider: how involved do you want to be in your investments? Do you want to trade daily and make a career out of it? Do you want to overlook and control every aspect of your investments? Or would you prefer a more passive role, spending only an hour a week or a month in making sure everything appears on track? Do you prefer to do your own research or rely on the research of others?

It takes a little bit of awareness to invest and prosper. According to research conducted by experts, it is due to lack of awareness among common people that investment activity is so low. However, few people would mind a little profit, so investment is a kind of activity, which anyone with a tiny bit of desire and devotion can try his/her hand in. There are two reasons why we cannot make up our minds and go for it: lack of awareness and overloaded work schedules. To help you get through, we recommend that you consult a financial planner and a little written material on the best investments for 2011 for you to go through.

What Are the Best Investment Options for 2011

Investing in Gold
Gold investments are still the safest of all existing investment alternatives today’s market can offer. The times of gold purchased in shops and stashed in the remotest corner of your home are long gone. With electronic payment systems readily available, you can do the trick without leaving your home. You can buy gold when gold prices lower, but you can just as well profit when they go up. It should be noted that gold prices tend to grow during feasts and special events, so you can take advantage of these moments.

Investing in Commodities
These have been the best investments for 2010 and are expected to be for 2011. This market is less predictable than gold market, because metal prices depend on the situation in the world market, which is in no way stable. Therefore, if you have decided to go this way, a piece of advice from an experienced and reputable broker is a good option. Go through the best investment firms you know who you think can shed some light on the situation.

Parents are responsible for the welfare of their children. One of the ways through which they can show this responsiveness is by them opening investment accounts for their children. This article seeks to explain reasons why it is necessary to open an investment account for any child.

Since the purpose of opening investment accounts for children is to instill in them financial discipline, it is very important for children to engage in this process. This is of great importance since children don’t need to feel as though the concept of saving is mandatory.

Opening an account for your child should not be hurriedly done. This is so because there are many factors which both the parent and child should put into consideration. Parents have to clearly assess their own financial status to decide how best to support their child in this rewarding venture.

Worth noting is that any child can have an account opened for them. It is important for parents to have a certain percentage of their income or earnings dedicated towards saving for their child’s future.

The main reasons behind opening an account for a child are many and they include the need to enable children learn the principle of “sowing and reaping” at an early age.

To enable children feel that the bank account is for their own good, parents can do the following:

1. Explain to the child why it is necessary for them to have an account.
2. Discuss with the child the banking requirements.
3. Allow children to choose the bank of their choice based on information you give them.
4. Establish from them why they have settled for that particular bank.

INVESTMENT STRATEGY

A sound investment strategy may not mean what you think it means. Forget about all the hype you hear from day traders, Forex traders, and all the other noise out there. In fact a sound strategy is actually quite boring. Let me explain.

In order to have a sound strategy you MUST know what you want to accomplish, and what your time frame is. Think if it as a road map. You must know where you are going and when you have arrived. The best strategy is the one that will get you there with the least risks. We manage these risks with a proper asset mix.

By asset mix we mean stocks, large cap, mid cap, small cap, value, growth, domestic, international, global. This can be quite confusing for the novice, but I will explain all this in future writing. We also mean bonds, bonds range in rating from triple A, the safest to Junk, the riskiest. A combination of these can have a place in most any portfolio. Cash is another part of the asset mix. Cash ranges from savings accounts, to CDs, to money markets. Real estate is also an asset that can be combined into the asset mix. My sixteen years of experience in the investment industry shows no advantage in risk reduction or performance increases, so I neither advocate, no include real estate in any of my portfolios.

Time horizons are generally divided into three segments: long, medium, & short. Long horizons are generally 20-25 years or longer. Medium time frames generally range from 5-20 years. Short time frames are usually shorter than five years. Notice I use the term generally to define time frames. This is because based on where you are in life, your goals, and a term I am about to introduce risk tolerance, can have a little bit of effect on how your time frame is measures. Also a good investment strategy is part art, part science.

Technical analysis has been around for many hundreds of years, dating back to the 18th century when a Japanese rice trader developed candlestick charting.

Just after the turn of the 20th Century, Charles H. Dow’s (as in Dow Jones) contributions greatly increased the discipline’s prominence and his works were then expanded upon most notably by Hamilton (1922) and Rhea (1932), and a host of others thereafter.

Despite the continued development of the theoretical side of the discipline, until quite recently technical analysis remained confined to the realm of large institutions that possessed the necessary money and resources required to utilise it effectively.

Initially the money and resources were used employing research analysts who would construct and maintain hand-drawn charts but this eventually gave way to computers. In the early days, however, computers filled entire rooms and, once again, could only be afforded by large institutions.

It has only been in the last 10-15 years that personal computing power has allowed retail traders/investors the opportunity to utilise technical analysis as a tool for analysing financial instruments which, in all honesty, has proven to be both a good thing and a bad thing.

For an example of how far along we’ve come in this area, one need look no further than the I-phone which already allows traders/investors to access trading platforms and charts in order to place trades at any time, wherever they may be around the world.

Interestingly, technical analysis has also become a significant source of revenue and profit for major financial institutions due to technological advancements, i.e. the Goldman Sachs of this world.

Algorithmic and high frequency trading have developed because computers can read information, interpret it, and execute orders much, much faster than human beings. The clear majority of these systems are based on price action and technical rules, not fundamental ones.