Getting Mutual Funds in the Philippines

By Jeffrey Mute

Mutual funds have become a fad investment in the Philippines today. This is because it has several advantages over the usual investment opportunities in the country. For those who want to be a part of this up and coming industry of mutual funds, it is important that you get some basic ideas of how the fund works and the ways you can benefit from it.

In laymans explanation, mutual funds can be understood as a fund which has an asset base jointly put up by different shareholders which is then invested into several diverse investment vehicles. A fund manager is designated to do all the decision-making regarding the kind of investments the fund will be put into. Invariably, he sees to it that the funds investments will gain maximum returns for the shareholders.

The legal owners of the mutual fund company are the investors themselves. The amount of their ownership depends on the number of shares they bought. This is also the determining factor for the income their investment will bring them. A mutual fund can earn income in two ways. The first one is through the dividends and interests earned by the funds investments. The other way is through the capital gains earned when the cost of security increases. Once the fund gains income, it will then be distributed accordingly to its shareholders.

There are two ways a mutual fund can generate income. The first way is through the dividends and interests accrued from the funds investments. The second way is through capital gains, which occurs when value of security investments increase. Once gains are earned, it will then be passed on through the shareholders by distributing it according to the amount of ownership.

Even if a mutual fund is a sound investment, it also has some disadvantages. Despite being considered as a low to medium risk investment, there is a slight possibility of not being able to earn. Another disadvantage of this kind of investment option is that you wont be able to decide on the kind of investments the fund will put your money in. Since the fund will be controlled by a fund manager, all you can do is hope that he will make wise investment decisions.

One other disadvantage includes the costs and fees charged by the mutual fund company as this can affect the project returns of your investment. Also, be aware that mutual funds are medium to long term investments so you cant expect immediate returns.

Upon knowing these factors, you can now make your decision on whether you should invest in one or not. If you decide to invest in one, learn as many things as you can regarding the mutual fund company you want to invest in.

With these basic ideas of what a mutual fund is and how it works, you are now ready to decide on whether or not you should invest in one. If you want to go ahead and invest in one, just fill out an application form to be provided by an authorized broker and youre all set. Just make sure you understand the terms of your investment. And dont stop learning about mutual funds upon investing in it. Make it your responsibility to monitor how your investment is doing. - 23226

About the Author:

The author's website provides information about Philippine Mutual Funds and also guide you on how to buying mutual funds in the Philippines.

Know How To Place Stop Loss?

By Hass67

The forex markets are highly volatile. There is so much noise in the intra day forex market; it becomes difficult for new retail forex traders to know where to put the stop loss. The prices in the intra day market keeps on jumping 10-20 pips for no apparent reason.

Most of the new forex traders get frustrated to find their stop loss being constantly tripped due to noise even when the market is going in the anticipated direction.

Most of the new day traders use a static 10-20 pip stop loss. This is an arbitrary choice many traders make. How about using a trailing stop? If you place the trailing stop loss too close; you will find your stop hit too early. And if you place it too far; you will have to forgo potential profits if the price retraces later on.

You should place your stop loss on dynamic levels. Most of the professional traders do use stop loss but mostly place it on their computers making them invisible to their brokers.

No body will ever tell you that your broker may be stop hunting against you. When a broker finds many stop loss orders at a particular rate on his price feed; he will try to trip these stops using a momentary blip in the feed. If you complain the broker will explain that the momentary spike happened due to a sudden large transaction in the market.

More often than not, professional traders, trade with a stop loss at all, only keeping a mental stop loss. But you will need a lot of experience to trade this way.

Moving Averages, Bollinger Bands, SARs etc can be easily used as dynamic stop losses by you. It is a good way to manage your risk while letting the currency markets to do what it wants.

The more experienced a trader you will become, the more you are going to realize that placing fixed stop losses actually hurts you more emotionally, psychologically and profit wise than help you.

Never ever trade, just before a major economic news release. Dont place your stop loss close to or at round numbers and at times of thin liquidity in the markets.

Stop hunting is something that you should know. Many forex brokers pry on new traders and keep on tripping their stop losses terming it market noise. - 23226

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. He is interested in investing; options and forex trading. Discover a revolutionary new broker buster Forex Robot. Learn Forex Trading!

How To Get Preapproved Or Prequalified For Your First Home Loan

By Alexandria P. Anderson

One of the most important steps to home buying involves getting the right loan amount for your ideal property. There are several ways you can get prequalified to purchase a home and preapproved for a home loan, and it's generally a good idea to check your credit report before approaching this step. A prospective lender will be reviewing your credit report and other financial details in great detail as you set the prequalification or preapproval process in motion, and you can obtain a free credit report from any of the three major credit bureaus to check it for errors.

If you do find errors in your credit report, make attempts to have them cleared up as soon as possible and keep written records of all communications with the creditors or the credit bureaus themselves. After that, you're ready to approach the financial side of home buying; here are a few ideas for getting prequalified or preapproved for your first home:

1. Check the different mortgage programs through the Internet. You can find several loan packages and compilation of the latest interest rates through websites like LendingTree.com and Bankrate.com. Examine these options in the Internet and if you want to have a preliminary review - you can give your personal details. As soon as you have forwarded all the necessary information, a representative will contact and guide you for the remaining steps to follow.

2. Approach your area bank. Most people turn to a mortgage loan officer at their bank to obtain a prequalification letter or preapproval status in person. Ilyce Glink, author of '100 Questions Every First Time Home Buyer Should Ask' explains that this process can actually take longer than the online process. However, some people prefer the face-to-face communication and will be more comfortable going to the bank in order to get things started. However, you will be receiving the same type of service either way.

3. Transact using the telephone. Related prequalification services are also provided over the telephone by some lending companies, and you don't have to visit a bank or browse the Internet to begin. Secure the number through a bank or financial institution and from there, you may start sending yout personal details over the telephone.

4. Engage the service of a national lender. These lending companies may provide you a wider array of options than that of a bank or online processes; examples of national lending institutions are Countryside Home Loans and Bank of America. Know more about the current rates in their website and get your home loan pre-qualified after sending your personal information.

5. Try an aggregator website. If you can't decide between different banks or financial institutions, use an aggregator site that compiles rates and services from multiple lenders and only requires you to submit your information once. After the information is submitted, you can select the best package from several different options.

Buying a home is much easier when you know the basics in getting pre-qualified and pre-approved for a home loan. Refer to these essential steps for you to make the most in your pursuit to purchase your first home. - 23226

About the Author:

Alexandria P. Anderson is a licensed Minnesota Realtor that helps people to find and purchase Bloomington houses and other Bloomington properties for her clients' needs.

The Essentials of technical Analysis: Part II

By Jack Haddad

Charting:

The time frame used for forming a chart depends on the compression of the data: intraday, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual data. Traders usually concentrate on charts made up of daily and intraday data to forecast shorterm price movements.

The shorter the time frame and the less compressed data is, the more detail that is available. While long on detail, short term charts can be volatile and contain a lot of noise. Large sudden price movements, wide high-low ranges and price gaps can effect volatility, which can distort the overall picture. Long term charts care good for analyzing the large picture to get a broad perspective of the historical price action. Once the general picture is analyzed, a daily chart can be used to zoom in on the last few months. Four of the most popular methods of displaying price data are by the following charts: line bar, candlestick, and point & figure. The line chart is one of the simplest charts. It is formed by plotting one price point, usually the close. For that matter, I don't favor them because I personally consider the open, low, and high to be as important as the close in technical analysis. However, at times, only closing data are available for certain indices, thinly traded stocks and intraday prices. Bar charts are perhaps the most popular charting method. The high, low, and close are required to form the price plot for each period of a bar chart. The high and low are represented by the top and bottom of the vertical bar and the close is the short horizontal line crossing the vertical bar. On a daily chart, each bar represents the high, low, and close for a particular day. Weekly charts would have a bar for each week based on Friday's close and the high and low for that week. Bar charts can be effective for displaying a large amount of data.

Using candlesticks, 200 data points can take up a lot of room and look cluttered. Line charts show less clutter, but do not offer as much detail (no high-low range). The individual bars that make up the bar chart are relatively skinny, which allows users the ability to fit more bars before the chart gets cluttered. If you're not interested in the opening price, bar charts are an ideal method for analyzing the close relative to the high and low. In addition, bar charts that include the open will tend to get cluttered quicker. If you're interested in the opening price, candlestick charts probably offer a better alternative. The beauty of Point & Figure charts is their simplicity. Little or no price movement is deemed irrelevant and therefore not duplicated on the chart. Only price movements that exceed specified levels are recorded. This focus on price movement makes it easier to identify support and resistance levels, bullish breakouts and bearish breakdowns. Contrary to this methodology, Point & Figure charts are based solely on price movement and do not take time into consideration. The topic on candlestick charting is broad and beyond the scope of this article. This method of charting originated in Japan over 300 years ago, and have become quite popular in recent years. For a candlestick chart, the open, high, low, and close are all required. A daily candlestick is based on the open price, the intraday high and low, and the close. A weekly candlestick is based on Monday's open, the weekly high-low range, and Friday's close.

Trendlines:

Trendlines are an important tool in technical analysis for both trend identification and confirmation. The general rule in technical analysis is that it takes two points to draw a trendline and the third point confirms the validity. An up trendline is formed by connecting two of more low points. The second low must be higher than the first for the line to have a positive slope.

Up trendlines act as support and indicate that net-demand (demand less supply) is increasing even as the price rises. A downtrend is formed by connecting two or more high points. The second high must be lower than the first for the line to have a negative slope. Down trendlines act as a resistance and indicate that net-supply is increasing even as the price declines. - 23226

About the Author:

Dr. Jack Haddad, MD, MBA has been professionally trading the stock market since 1997 and had an annualized return of 39.4%. Dr. Haddad has recently launched MD Capital Management, an Investment Fund with Charles Schwab. The fund utilizes option hedging techniques to generate returns while minimizing risks. For more info, visit Jack's online group: MD Capital Management.

Wills and Estate Planning 101

By Cindy R.

Estate planning is the process of putting a plan together to take care of your family and you assets when you die. No matter how little you may have in assets it is important to have a estate plan in place. Key elements of an estates plan include a will, powers of attorney and possibly trusts. We'll cover each of these in turn

A will is the first place to start your estate plan. You need to create a list of all of your assets and determine who you would like to receive those assets after your death. Your will is the legal document that lists your assets and who is to receive them. When drafting your will pay special attention to the probate laws of Texas to ensure that your will can be validated in probate court. If your will is disallowed then your property will be distributed without your will and according to Texas probate law. This is not something you want to take the chance of messing up so enlisting the aid of an estate planning attorney is a smart move. They can usually assist you for a reasonable fee.

Power of Attorney - A power of attorney is a legal document that authorizes somebody to act on your behalf in legal or business matters. A durable power of attorney is a special kind that allows the rights granted to be effective if you become incapacitated due to injury or mental illness. Durable powers of attorney can by financial and medical in nature. A Health Care Power of Attorney is a durable power of attorney that authorizes the appointed agent to make health care decisions for up. The authorization can include the ability to stop life sustaining medical support if it is keeping a terminally ill patient alive.

Living Will - A living will is an advanced directive that spells out your wishes to caregivers if you become unable to communicate them due to incapacity. It can be very specific to certain situations such as not wanting to maintain life support if a physician determines that your situation is terminal. A living will is usually created in conjunction with a Health Care Power of Attorney.

Trusts - Trusts are legal devices that let you place restrictions on how and when your assets will be distributed upon your death. A great example of establishing a trust is if you want to leave assets to your minor children. You can place those assets in trust and limit the asset dispersal schedule to future ages or events that you deem appropriate. Trusts can also be used as a tax planning device to allow your assets to be transfer by a different path.

Tax planning - There are a wide variety of tools that can be used to manage the tax burden at your death. These include life insurance, life insurance trusts, charitable remainder trusts, qualified personal residence trusts and more.

Now that you a familiar with some of the estate planning tools available, it is time to start your estate planning process. Step number one is to list out all of your assets whether held just by you or jointly with your spouse. With that list in hand go through every item and choose who should receive each item upon your death. You should also note and items or recipients that you would like to place restrictions or requirements upon. Now it is time to decide if you are going to try and create your estate plan on your own or with the help of a professional.

Setting up a Will in Texas can seem like a complicated process but take it one step at a time and you will quickly gain the peace of mind know that you and your loved ones will be taken care of if you should pass away. Enlisting the aid of a professional estate attorney will help you land with the exact types of documents that will most help you and your particular needs. - 23226

About the Author:

Learn about Writing A Will at TexasWills.com where Cindy writes about Probate Will Texas and more estate planning topics.