Net Invest

If you are new to investing perhaps you are not familiar with bonds. Before you get started, you need to understand some of the risks associated with bond investing. Most people assume that all interest-bearing securities are completely risk free, but this is not the case. Even if you know a lot about investing, you may not be aware of some of the risk characteristics associated with bonds.

The most important thing to take into account is the interest rate. The Federal Reserve (also known as the Fed) meets every 6-8 weeks to evaluate the health of the economy. At each meeting, the Fed renders a decision regarding interest rates.

If inflation is rising, the Fed will need to raise interest rates to tighten the money supply. If inflation is moderate or contained, the Fed will likely leave rates unchanged. However, if the economy is slowing down and there is very little inflation or maybe even deflation, then the Fed might decide to reduce interest rates to create a stimulus for economic growth.

The reason why you need to consider present and future interest rate levels is because as interest rates increase, bond prices go down, and vice versa. If you are able to hold your bond until maturity, then interest rate movements do not really matter, because you will redeem the principal upon redemption. But often, investors have to cash out their bonds well before the maturity date. If interest rates have moved up since you purchased the bond, and you sell it prior to maturity, then the bond will be worth less than your initial investment.

You should also be aware of the claim status of the bond you are buying. Claim status refers to your ability to liquidate your investment in the event the bond issuer goes bankrupt. If you are buying a government bond, such as a Treasury Bill, claim status is irrelevant, because the odds of the Federal Government going bankrupt are slim and none.

If you are buying a corporate bond, however, there is always a chance that the issuer could go out of business. In the event of liquidation, bondholders are given priority over stockholders. However, there are often different classes of bondholders. Senior note holders can often claim against certain kinds of physical collateral in the event of bankruptcy, such as equipment (computers, machines, etc.). Regular bondholders can not always claim against physically collateral, and are next in line after the senior note holders.

Next, you should always check the three main features of the bond you are buying; the coupon rate, the maturity date, and the call provisions. The coupon rate is the interest rate. Most bonds pay an interest rate semiannually or annually.

The maturity date is the date that the bond will be redeemed by the issuer; simply put, the maturity date is when the company must pay back to you the principal you loaned to them. The call provisions are the rights of the issuer to buy back your bond prior to maturity. Some bonds are non-callable, while others are callable, meaning that the company can buy your bond back before maturity, usually at a higher price than what you paid.

Finally, you should also understand that if economic conditions become more favorable after you a buy a bond, and interest rates start to go down again, the issuer will likely issue a lot more bonds to take advantage of the low interest rates, and will use the proceeds to try to buy back any callable bonds it issued previously. So, when interest rates go down, there is an increasing likelihood that your bond will be redeemed prior to maturity, if in fact the bond is callable.

You should invest in bonds. However, you should also take into account the risk factors we have covered. Your portfolio should contain a mix of corporate, federal, municipal, and even junk bonds (there is always a default risk associated with junk bonds, but they pay a huge interest rate). Talk to your broker about diversifying the kinds of bonds in your portfolio and you will reduce your overall risk and maximize your return.

Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make an HTML form

The two most important numbers that investment analysts look at when evaluating a stock are the P/E ratio and the PEG ratio. The former has been around for as long as the stock market itself, the latter originated more recently. A thorough analysis of these dueling indicators reveals that one is definitely superior to the other.

The P/E is the price-to-earnings ratio. It is used to calculate how expensive or how cheap a stock is relative to its earnings. Using it, an investor can get a sense of whether a stock might be overvalued or undervalued. The ratio is calculated as follows:

P/E = Price per share / Earnings per share

The price per share is the current market price for a single share of stock. The earnings per share is the net income divided by the total number of shares outstanding. You can find net income by looking at a current income statement, which almost all corporations now make available on their company website.

The lower the P/E, the cheaper the stock is. The higher the ratio, the more expensive the stock is relative to its current earnings. However, that does not give you the full picture. The reason why some companies sometime trade at very high price-to-earnings ratios is because they are expected to grow tremendously in the months and years ahead. So, investors are willing to pay more than what the company is currently worth because they feel the company will be worth a lot more in the future.

So, you should not necessarily run away from a company with a high P/E. In fact, those companies are sometimes the best investments, because if their earnings climb tremendously, then the stock will pay a large dividend in the future (for the uninitiated, dividends are a percentage of the profits of a company that are distributed to its shareholders). So, a high P/E ratio can be a very good thing or a very bad thing.

As with a high P/E, a low P/E can also be tricky. If it is low, this could be an indication that the earnings of the company are expected to plummet, causing investors to run away from the stock, resulting in a low share price.

Or, the low ratio might indicate that the company is currently undervalued, making it a good buy because as long as the company is expected to have stable earnings growth in the future, then the share price will go up. It is not easy to discern whether a high or low ratio is good or bad; you need to take into account the expectations for future earnings growth to understand if the P/E ratio is a positive or a negative.

The pitfalls of using the P/E ratio to interpret the relative worth of a stock resulted in analysts coming up with a better measurement, which is known as the PEG ratio. The PEG refers to the price-to-earnings growth ratio. It is calculated like this:

PEG = (P/E) / Annual earnings-per-share growth

The lower the PEG ratio, the more undervalued the company is. A PEG ratio of 1 or less is considered excellent. For example, if a company has a P/E ratio of 30, and annual earnings-per-share growth of 50%, then the PEG would be 0.6, making this company an excellent buy because it is undervalued and the stock price will almost definitely climb. However, if a company has a PEG of 1.5, that means that the stock price is high relative to the earnings growth, which means that unless the company is supposed to grow at a faster rate in the years head, the stock price might not hold up.

So, it is obvious that the PEG is a much more valuable tool for investors to use. It reveals whether the high price of a stock is justified based on whether earnings will grow enough to continue to drive the stock higher.

The P/E falls short in this regard because it does not take into account by what percentage earnings are growing each year. Increasing earnings are the driving force behind an increase in the price of a stock. Therefore, using the PEG, you can truly ascertain whether the price is currently too high and whether it is a good time to buy the stock.

I hope this information has helped you form an understanding of how to evaluate stock prices. Try to set aside some money for investing, and begin to analyze stocks and buy the ones that have a low PEG. They may not go up right away, but in the long run they should increase significantly, unless there is something fundamentally wrong with the company. Research carefully the companies you are going to invest in and you will do fine.

Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make an HTML form

If you are new to investing, you may have heard of mutual funds but do not know exactly what they are or how to select the right one. A mutual fund is a collective investment security, and there are many different types. It may consist of a mix of several different types of investment vehicles, such as stocks, bonds, or derivatives, or it may consist of nothing but stocks that are part of a certain sector of the economy, or it could be just bonds.

For example, there are mutual funds that consist of nothing but technology stocks. There are also funds that are comprised of stocks that have a similar market capitalization (such as mid-cap funds, large-cap funds, or small-cap funds). And some might contain several different types of securities (such as stocks, bonds, etc.) that all fall within the same risk classification (high-risk, medium-risk, low-risk).

Just like stocks, mutual funds have a price per share, also known as the Net Asset Value (NAV). The NAV is calculated by dividing the total value of the fund divided by the number of shares outstanding. As with stocks, the price fluctuates on a daily basis and it can be sold just like any other security.

When deciding what fund to invest in, you need to consider your investment goals. Are you looking for long-term capital appreciation, or would you prefer to receive immediate income from your investment? You also need to evaluate your risk tolerance. Are you willing to take a chance on a speculative fund to potentially receive a better return, or is capital preservation a high priority?

If capital preservation is your goal, then you should consider a mutual fund that consists of low risk equities and conservative bond and money market instruments. If you want a mix of investments, then you should look for a balanced fund. If you want explosive capital appreciation, then you should consider a high-risk common stock or high-yielding bond fund.

They are different than stocks when it comes to fees and expenses. As with stocks, funds are subject to capital gains taxes. But a fund is sometimes subject to a front-end and/or back-end load. If there is a front-end load, that means that a percentage of the initial investment is automatically deducted to pay for commissions to the fund. If there is a back-end load, the investor must pay a fee when the security is sold.

Also, there is a 12b-1 fee that is often deducted to pay for advertising expenses incurred for the marketing of the fund to the public. Sometimes there is no 12b-1 fee, it depends. Investors might be unaware of the 12b-1 fee because it is sometimes deducted from the share price, so in a way, it is an invisible fee.

I hope this introduction to mutual funds will help you make some decisions regarding your investments. There are literally thousands of different funds available, and brokerage houses often have their own set of funds that they create for sale to their customers. Talk to your broker and see if he or she can help you identify the best investment vehicle for you. Just make sure you review the fee structure of the mutual fund you are interested in before you invest.

Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make a free HTML form.

There are three main sources of financial information that a company regularly makes available to investors. These 3 items are the balance sheet, the income statement, and the cash flow analysis. Most neophyte investors have no idea how to interpret these statements. A lot of stockbrokers are not too proficient at it either. You do not need to be an expert or a financial analyst to understand and evaluate financial information, but you should know what to look for so you can determine whether you should invest in a certain company. For our purposes here, we are going to discuss how to analyze a balance sheet, which is generally considered to be the most important tool for analyzing the financial health of a company.

The first thing to examine on the balance sheet are the assets. Assets are things that the business owns or will own in the future and have a value attached to them. The next important item is liabilities, which includes everything that a company owes, such as taxes, wages, loans to be repaid, etc. The other most important item to look at is equity, which is the earnings and money contributed by shareholders. You can calculate the shareholder equity by subtracting total liabilities from the total assets.

If Shareholder Equity is a very small number or a negative number, this does not bode well for investors. If the number is on the high side, that means that the company is profitable and able to share its earnings with stockholders by paying a dividend.

A balance sheet is normally presented in two different formats, depending on where it is published. Sometimes the statement is presented horizontally. Other times, it is presented vertically. The vertical presentation is used most often because it is easier to analyze. The five basic components of a balance sheet are:

Shareholder Equity (we already covered this)

Non-current liabilities (money to be paid more than 12 months from now)

Current liabilities (money to be paid within the next 12 months)

Non-current assets (non-cash items of a permanent nature)

Current assets (cash or items that will become cash within the next 12 months)

These components are categorized differently depending upon the industry the company inhabits. A telecommunications company would have different categories of assets and liabilities than a pharmaceutical company. Also, it is important to note, balance sheets for companies in a certain industry will show different levels of profitability. Just because a software company does not have the same level of shareholder equity as a retail business does not mean that the software company is not a good investment. The software business might have to meet a lot of short-term liabilities, such as paying programmers and investing in technology, in order to meet future sales goals. Once the software is finished, those liabilities might disappear, making them profitable. You need to take into account the operations of the company when reading a balance sheet.

Also, it is important to realize that balance sheets, though they always span a 12 month period, the beginning and ending dates can differ from one company to the next. A company will typically select a 12 month period that results in the lowest level of their business cycle being the end of the 12 months. So, some statements might run from December to December, while others might run from April to April.

I hope this information will help you understand a balance sheet.. Try to set aside some time and log on to a stock quoting website. Look up the stocks of companies you are currently invested in, and then click on the link for their balance sheet. Take a few moments to review it, and then call your broker if you have any concerns.

Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make email forms.

Day trading is the practice of buying and then selling a stock all within a single day of market activity. Day traders dabble in a number of different financial instruments, such as stocks, currencies, stock options, and futures contracts such as interest rate futures, equity index futures, and commodities futures.

It is not uncommon for a day trader to execute hundreds of trades in a single day, whereas others might only make a few trades. Some look for swings in prices that may last a few seconds or a few minutes. Such a trader literally will buy a stock and then sell it within a few minutes, or sometimes within 30 seconds or less. Others look for changes in momentum and will hop in at the beginning of an upswing and then ride it out until the upswing is over. This is known as momentum trading. Another strategy that day traders often employ is called position trading, where they look for a stock that is likely to experience a significant increase in price over a period of a few days or even a few months. They hold their position until the price plateaus, and then they dump it.

Most average day traders look at the resistance and support levels for the price of a given stock. When a stock has reached its historical maximum, it is said to have reached its normal resistance level, meaning it probably will not go up much more. When the stock has reached its historical minimum, it is said to have reached its support level, meaning it will probably not go down much further. However, new resistance and support levels are established all the time, so it is not always smart to rely on historical price levels to gauge future price movements.

Most traders look at websites like MarketWire for the latest breaking news developments to make their investment decisions. If a company has just put out a favorable press release, the price of the stock will likely go up in the short-term, so it is smart to buy some stock as soon as the story is released, and then sell it when the buying frenzy starts to lose its momentum.

One of the most common practices utilized by day traders is known as buying on margin. When you buy a stock on margin, you are basically borrowing money in order to buy stock, and of course the money that you borrow has to be paid back at a certain time. Most brokerages usually require that you have a certain minimum amount in your account in order to borrow. Some financial institutions require that you have an account balance equal to 25% of the amount you are going to trade on margin, and some require 50% of the amount borrowed. And usually, the trader is required to exit a certain percentage of the positions they have in various stocks by the close of business on the day when the trades were initially executed. Buying on margin is extremely risky, because the money you lose on trades is still owed the lender. Margin orders are not recommended for inexperienced investors.

Another popular trading strategy is called short selling. This is where the trader borrows a stock from a financial institution and then sells it, hoping that the price will go down in the near future so that the trader can buy the stock back at a lower price when it comes time to return the stock to the lender. The difference between the price it was initially sold at and the cost to buy it back in order to return it to the lender represents the profit for that trader. Short selling requires advanced knowledge of market trends.

After a stock is bought and subsequently sold, there is a settlement period that must elapse before the money earned from the sale can be used again to place another trade. The settlement period is usually 3 full business days. This can be especially frustrating for neophyte day traders who have opened up their first brokerage account and then put all of their money into one stock, and then sell it the same day when it goes up, only to discover that they have to wait until the transaction is settled in 3 business days before they can place another order. So, if you are new to trading, do not use all of your money to place a single trade; set aside some money so that you always have some money in your account that is not tied up in settlement, so that you can continuously trade without interruption.

I hope this information has helped you to become familiar with day trading. Try to set aside some money for investing and start while you are still young. The earlier you begin, the more money you can potentially make down the road. Some day traders make millions, others lose everything, so you should carefully research the companies you are going to invest in beforehand and you will do fine.

Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make email forms.

If you are new to investing perhaps you are not familiar with bonds. Before you get started, you need to understand some of the risks associated with bond investing. Most people assume that all interest-bearing securities are completely risk free, but this is not the case. Even if you know a lot about investing, you may not be aware of some of the risk characteristics associated with bonds.

The most important thing to take into account is the interest rate. The Federal Reserve (also known as the Fed) meets every 6-8 weeks to evaluate the health of the economy. At each meeting, the Fed renders a decision regarding interest rates.

If inflation is rising, the Fed will need to raise interest rates to tighten the money supply. If inflation is moderate or contained, the Fed will likely leave rates unchanged. However, if the economy is slowing down and there is very little inflation or maybe even deflation, then the Fed might decide to reduce interest rates to create a stimulus for economic growth.

The reason why you need to consider present and future interest rate levels is because as interest rates increase, bond prices go down, and vice versa. If you are able to hold your bond until maturity, then interest rate movements do not really matter, because you will redeem the principal upon redemption. But often, investors have to cash out their bonds well before the maturity date. If interest rates have moved up since you purchased the bond, and you sell it prior to maturity, then the bond will be worth less than your initial investment.

You should also be aware of the claim status of the bond you are buying. Claim status refers to your ability to liquidate your investment in the event the bond issuer goes bankrupt. If you are buying a government bond, such as a Treasury Bill, claim status is irrelevant, because the odds of the Federal Government going bankrupt are slim and none.

If you are buying a corporate bond, however, there is always a chance that the issuer could go out of business. In the event of liquidation, bondholders are given priority over stockholders. However, there are often different classes of bondholders. Senior note holders can often claim against certain kinds of physical collateral in the event of bankruptcy, such as equipment (computers, machines, etc.). Regular bondholders can not always claim against physically collateral, and are next in line after the senior note holders.

Next, you should always check the three main features of the bond you are buying; the coupon rate, the maturity date, and the call provisions. The coupon rate is the interest rate. Most bonds pay an interest rate semiannually or annually.

The maturity date is the date that the bond will be redeemed by the issuer; simply put, the maturity date is when the company must pay back to you the principal you loaned to them. The call provisions are the rights of the issuer to buy back your bond prior to maturity. Some bonds are non-callable, while others are callable, meaning that the company can buy your bond back before maturity, usually at a higher price than what you paid.

Finally, you should also understand that if economic conditions become more favorable after you a buy a bond, and interest rates start to go down again, the issuer will likely issue a lot more bonds to take advantage of the low interest rates, and will use the proceeds to try to buy back any callable bonds it issued previously. So, when interest rates go down, there is an increasing likelihood that your bond will be redeemed prior to maturity, if in fact the bond is callable.

You should invest in bonds. However, you should also take into account the risk factors we have covered. Your portfolio should contain a mix of corporate, federal, municipal, and even junk bonds (there is always a default risk associated with junk bonds, but they pay a huge interest rate). Talk to your broker about diversifying the kinds of bonds in your portfolio and you will reduce your overall risk and maximize your return.

Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make an HTML form

Most people have a broker that makes all of their investment decisions for them. They rarely even look at their portfolio to see what it contains, and they review their account statements only once per year, because their goal is for their account to grow in the long run.

However, you should not rely on your broker to do everything for you, because most stockbrokers have many clients, and do not pay close enough attention to your account to make the small trades here or there that can really help you maximize your return, or get out of a stock that is weighing down your portfolio so that money can be transferred into something else that would be more remunerative. Simply put, your broker or financial advisor does not make the necessary short-term investment decisions to maximize the performance of your account. You need to become familiar with each stock you have in your portfolio so that you can make decisions on your own in the short-term, while still relying upon your financial advisor to structure your portfolio with a mix of the right instruments (stocks, bonds, money market, etc.) to help you make money in the long run.

To make your own investment decisions, you need to review the most recent balance sheet and income statement for the company, as well as some other important statistics. You can access these reports online on any stock quoting website. Simply enter the ticker symbol for the company you want to evaluate, and then there should be a link to their income statement and balance sheet on that page.

When looking at the balance sheet, compare the assets for the current reporting period to the previous period. Did the assets, such as revenue from sales, increase or decrease? Check the liabilities from the previous period as well. And, you should check whether shareholder equity has increased or decreased. This is important to you as an investor because shareholder equity is the true worth of a company to its shareholders. If the balance sheet does not have shareholder equity listed, simply subtract the total liabilities from the total assets to arrive at the number.

When looking at the income statement, you should look at the earnings figures. The earnings figures are listed at the bottom of the income statement. Have earnings increased or decreased since the previous income statement was issued? If there is a decrease, what is the reason? Is it because the company is struggling, or is it because of some non-recurring expense they had to pay that will not affect their earnings in the future? Earnings are important to you as an investor because a portion of this money is paid out to the shareholders in the form of a dividend.

Next, there are a few statistics that you should evaluate which are also listed on the profile for the company when you look them up online. The two most important statistics to look at are the P/E ratio and the PEG ratio. Typically, you can find these numbers under the statistics section for the company.

The P/E ratio is the price-to-earnings ratio. It is calculated by dividing the price for one share of stock by the earnings per share. Most companies have a P/E ratio between 15 to 25. Some companies trade at P/E ratios as high as 70 or higher, such as Google. If a P/E ratio is very high, the stock might be overvalued, meaning it could come down in price in the future. But, a high P/E ratio often means that the company is expected to grow its sales and earnings significantly in the future, so investors are willing to pay more than the stock is currently worth because the price will be justified in the long run, and the company will be able to pay larger dividends when its earnings increase.

A low P/E ratio could mean that a company is undervalued, meaning that the stock price will likely go up in the future. However, a low P/E ratio could mean that investors are abandoning the stock because future sales and earnings are expected to decrease. When evaluating the P/E ratio, you need to assess the overall situation and future sales expectations in order to properly interpret what the P/E means for you as an investor.

The other important statistic, perhaps more important than the P/E ratio, is the PEG ratio. The PEG is the price-to-earnings growth ratio. It is calculated by dividing the P/E ratio by the annual earnings growth per share. This ratio helps you to ascertain whether the company is growing its earnings enough each year to justify the current price of the stock. If a company is not growing its earnings at all, then the stock will not go up. If the earnings are growing significantly each year, then the price of the stock will rise accordingly. Since earnings growth is the real impetus behind an increase in the price of a stock, the PEG is probably the best tool for evaluating whether the stock has hit the wall or will continue to increase. If the PEG is less than 1, the stock will likely continue to go up. If the PEG is much higher than 1, then the stock might go down. However, a high PEG could mean that a company is expected to grow tremendously in the months and years ahead.

I hope this information will help you make your own investment decisions. Try to set aside some time to review each stock that you have in your portfolio, and then use the procedures outlined in this article to examine the value of the stock. This will help you grow your investments much more in the long run than if you rely solely on your broker or financial advisor to do all the work for you.

Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make email forms.

If you are new to investing, you may have heard of breakup value, but have no idea what it means. Sounds bad, huh? If there is much discussion about the breakup value of a company, it could mean that the company is having problems and is about to be sold off.
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Simply put, the breakup value is what a company would be worth if its component parts were sold off and the liabilities were paid. For example, a certain company may have multiple subsidiary businesses operating in different industries. It may have a computer division, a food division, and an entertainment division. To determine the breakup value, you would need to figure out what the total assets are for each subsidiary, minus the total liabilities.

When a corporation or conglomerate is sold, sometimes it is sold for cash, or for stock in the acquiring company, or both. As an example, if company A is sold to company B, company A may receive a certain amount of cash for the sale, along with a certain amount of common stock in company B. Company B might decide to give all of the shareholders of company A a single share of stock in B for every four shares they have of A.

There are certain situations that may cause a company to be broken up. In the event it does split up, you should find out what the breakup value will be and how it will affect the value of your stock. We will now review each of the possible situations so that you will remember to consider the breakup value of a company before it is sold.

If the corporation is being poorly managed, the board of directors may decide to sell off the company to get something for their stock or to get stock in another company that has competent management and can help their stock grow in value.

Another situation that may arise is if one of the subsidiaries within the corporation has liquidity problems and can not be salvaged, the entire company is affected. As a result, the corporation may have to sell several of their businesses in order to restore the bottom line.

Another reason why a company could be broken up is if one of the divisions within the company, although it might be profitable, is holding back the growth of the other divisions. As a result, the board of directors may decide to sell off or destroy the part of the company that is holding it back so that it can experience much larger growth in its other sectors.

Also, if one of the businesses that the company owns is facing a potential lawsuit, the corporation may decide to break off that business so that the other profitable segments within the company are not financially vulnerable to any judgement rendered against the business that is about to be sued.

Breakup value does not always have to be a bad thing, it can also be used as a way to assess the financial strength of a company so that you can determine whether to hold on to its stock. If the share price of a stock is trading at a discount relative to its total assets minus liabilities, then you should probably hold on to the stock, unless the company has a negative outlook for the future.

I hope what you have learned here was helpful and informative. If you can not determine the breakup value of a company on your own, ask your portfolio manager or stockbroker to get the number for you. You should know this information even if the company in which you are invested is doing well, because if the company folds quickly, it will be hard to sell the stock. If that happens, it is possible that the only way that you will be able to recoup your investment is when the assets are liquidated so that the bondholders and shareholders can be compensated.

Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make free HTML forms.

If you are new to investing perhaps you are not familiar with bonds. Before you get started, you need to understand some of the risks associated with bond investing. Most people assume that all interest-bearing securities are completely risk free, but this is not the case. Even if you know a lot about investing, you may not be aware of some of the risk characteristics associated with bonds.

The most important thing to take into account is the interest rate. The Federal Reserve (also known as the Fed) meets every 6-8 weeks to evaluate the health of the economy. At each meeting, the Fed renders a decision regarding interest rates.

If inflation is rising, the Fed will need to raise interest rates to tighten the money supply. If inflation is moderate or contained, the Fed will likely leave rates unchanged. However, if the economy is slowing down and there is very little inflation or maybe even deflation, then the Fed might decide to reduce interest rates to create a stimulus for economic growth.

The reason why you need to consider present and future interest rate levels is because as interest rates increase, bond prices go down, and vice versa. If you are able to hold your bond until maturity, then interest rate movements do not really matter, because you will redeem the principal upon redemption. But often, investors have to cash out their bonds well before the maturity date. If interest rates have moved up since you purchased the bond, and you sell it prior to maturity, then the bond will be worth less than your initial investment.

You should also be aware of the claim status of the bond you are buying. Claim status refers to your ability to liquidate your investment in the event the bond issuer goes bankrupt. If you are buying a government bond, such as a Treasury Bill, claim status is irrelevant, because the odds of the Federal Government going bankrupt are slim and none.

If you are buying a corporate bond, however, there is always a chance that the issuer could go out of business. In the event of liquidation, bondholders are given priority over stockholders. However, there are often different classes of bondholders. Senior note holders can often claim against certain kinds of physical collateral in the event of bankruptcy, such as equipment (computers, machines, etc.). Regular bondholders can not always claim against physically collateral, and are next in line after the senior note holders.

Next, you should always check the three main features of the bond you are buying; the coupon rate, the maturity date, and the call provisions. The coupon rate is the interest rate. Most bonds pay an interest rate semiannually or annually.

The maturity date is the date that the bond will be redeemed by the issuer; simply put, the maturity date is when the company must pay back to you the principal you loaned to them. The call provisions are the rights of the issuer to buy back your bond prior to maturity. Some bonds are non-callable, while others are callable, meaning that the company can buy your bond back before maturity, usually at a higher price than what you paid.

Finally, you should also understand that if economic conditions become more favorable after you a buy a bond, and interest rates start to go down again, the issuer will likely issue a lot more bonds to take advantage of the low interest rates, and will use the proceeds to try to buy back any callable bonds it issued previously. So, when interest rates go down, there is an increasing likelihood that your bond will be redeemed prior to maturity, if in fact the bond is callable.

You should invest in bonds. However, you should also take into account the risk factors we have covered. Your portfolio should contain a mix of corporate, federal, municipal, and even junk bonds (there is always a default risk associated with junk bonds, but they pay a huge interest rate). Talk to your broker about diversifying the kinds of bonds in your portfolio and you will reduce your overall risk and maximize your return.

Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make an HTML form

Most people consider penny stocks to be a poor investment. I, on the other hand, think that investing in a penny stock before that company becomes profitable company is the best way to invest, because you can make a lot more money with penny stocks than would ever be possible with blue-chip stocks. I will now outline for you what you need to know about penny stocks and how to find the best one in which to invest.

Penny stocks are defined differently depending on who you talk to. Stockbrokers define them as any stock that trades below $5 per share. Regulatory agencies sometimes classify them as a stock with a price below $2. But, generally speaking, a penny stock is any low-priced security that trades on one of two exchanges; the Pink Sheets or the OTC Bulletin Board.

The Pink Sheets are an exchange where most startup companies first get listed. There are no listing requirements to be traded on this exchange. A company does not have to have any sales, nor does it have to reveal how many shares outstanding it has to qualify for the Pink Sheets.

The reason why a company tries to get listed on the Pink Sheets, even though their stock will not go up in price because they have no sales to speak of, is because it gives their company more substance and credibility; it is typically easier to attract additional capital, obtain financing, and execute contracts and agreements if a company is publicly traded, even if it is on the Pink Sheets.

Also, it is easier to get transferred from the Pink Sheets to one of the larger exchanges than it is to go from being a private company to hopping directly on to one of the major exchanges, such as the NASDAQ or NYSE. Companies listed on the Pink Sheets trade as ridiculously low as $0.00001 per share, all the way up to $500 per share and sometimes beyond. Foreign companies often have some of their shares sold in the United States by listing them on the Pink Sheets.

The OTC (Over-The-Counter) Bulletin Board is similar to the Pink Sheets. This exchange consists of relatively young companies either with no sales or a small amount of sales. Companies listed on it are sometimes fully reporting (meaning that they reveal how many shares they have outstanding and what their balance sheet looks like). Often, companies go from the Pink Sheets to the Bulletin Board once they are ready to become fully or semi-reporting.

Most publicly traded companies that are now listed on one of the major exchanges (NASADAQ, AMEX, NYSE), at one time or another, were penny stocks listed on the Pink Sheets or Bulletin Board. Rarely does a company go from being private directly to one of the 3 major exchanges. Google is a rare example of a company that was able to do that, because they were so successful so quickly. But, most companies have to pay their dues and edge their way up from the penny stock exchanges to the bigger ones.

So, investing in penny stocks can be an excellent investment because some of these young companies will one day be worth a fortune. The hard part is finding the right company to invest in, because for every successful startup company, there is also one that fails within the first year or two.

To find the right company, there are a few things you need to look for. Number one, you need to do some research and try to find out how many shares the company has in its float. The float is the number of shares that are currently being traded. Companies listed on the Pink Sheets usually do not officially report this number to the public, but with a little research, you can usually find out. It is usually contained in articles written about the company, or in TV or radio interviews with company officials that are sometimes archived on certain websites.

You can also look for the information on message boards or forums where stock traders chat with each other. Simply do a search on Google and read every article ever written about the company, and you will likely find out about their float. This is important because you do not want to invest in a company that already has something like 500 million shares in its float. Companies with this kind of share count are likely having problems moving forward, so they have issued more and more shares to raise money just to stay alive. You want to look for companies that have approximately 5 to 100 million shares in their float.

Other things that you should look for in a new company are barriers to entry, patents, and consumer demand. Here are the questions you need to ask yourself when analyzing the probability that a company will be successful:

1) Barriers to Entry: Are there are obstacles that will make it difficult for the company to sell its products or services?

2) Patents: Is the product that the company is going to sell patented? A patent will prevent other companies from producing the exact same product.

3) Consumer Demand: Will there be a demand for what the company is selling? Sometimes a company has a great new invention or an exciting technology, but if it is not something practical that consumers are going to want or need, then it does not matter how great it is.

Try to set aside some money for investing in penny stocks and start while you are still young. The earlier you get started, the more money you can make in the long run. Just make sure you do your homework before you invest and you should do extremely well.

Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make an HTML form

It is extremely important to have investments. Without some money set aside for retirement, you will never be able to enjoy your golden years. Social Security will likely be depleted within the next 30 or 40 years, so you should not be depending upon the U.S. Government to take care of you when you retire. Besides, Social Security does not even pay enough to help senior citizens live comfortably. So, you need to invest your money wisely, perhaps aggressively, in order to grow your portfolio to a level that will adequately support you after you retire, and you need to start while you are still young.

You need to ask yourself the following question when deciding in what you are going to invest: What is your investment risk tolerance? Answering this question will enable you to develop your entire investment strategy. Are you going to put all of your money into variable securities, like stocks? Are you going to balance your portfolio with a mix of stocks and fixed-income securities (like certificates of deposit or other money market instruments, etc.)? Should you buy bonds? Should you invest in an annuity?

Answering these questions can be difficult and time-consuming, but necessary nonetheless. When evaluating your risk tolerance, you should first consider what type of person you are. If you like to take risks, then invest accordingly. If you hate to take chances, then play it safe. Also, you need to assess what your long-term goals are. Do you want to make a lot of money, or just enough to retire on? Do you have kids that you will one day want to send to college or provide other financial support to?

We will now set forth an appropriate investment strategy for each different risk tolerance, beginning with high-risk tolerance. If you are not afraid of losing money and do not have any kids or other responsibilities weighing you down, then you might consider putting together a very aggressive portfolio. In this case, you should have a portfolio that consists of mostly equities (stocks). The stocks you select should be companies that have the potential to grow tremendously. The higher the risk, the higher the potential reward. Though you should still keep some of your money invested in blue-chip companies with stable finances, you should put a great deal of your money in new companies, hedge funds, and perhaps junk bonds. You should consult with a financial advisor when looking for the right hedge funds or junk bonds in which to invest.

What if you have a medium risk tolerance? Well, for those of you that fall in the middle, the answer is simple. You should have a balanced portfolio. You need to have a mix of stocks, bonds, and fixed-income securities. You may want to set aside a very small amount of money for speculative investments such as the aforementioned hedge funds, penny stocks, or perhaps derivatives, but most of your money should be allocated towards a mix of stable small-cap, mid-cap, and large-cap stocks, government and corporate bonds, and fixed-income securities.

Finally, for those of you who are extremely risk averse, you need to compose a portfolio that consists of mostly high-yield government bonds and certain money market instruments that pay a decent interest rate. You should also invest in corporate bonds issued by companies with a high credit rating, and stocks of companies that consistently pay dividends (dividend income will help to offset any losses in the share price of the stock).

I hope this information will assist you in making your investment decisions. Formulate a plan to set aside a certain percentage of your income for investing on an annual basis and start while you are still young. The earlier you begin, the more money you can potentially make down the road. Using your risk tolerance, select a portfolio that meets your needs, and you should do fine.

Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make email forms.

From time to time, companies merge with one another. Sometimes, a merger involves a company that you are currently invested in and there are usually rumors of the proposed alliance before it actually takes place. So, the question is, how will this event affect the value of the stock and what should you do?

Mergers are made when the result of joining two companies together will increase the value of both companies. This process is also often referred to as an acquisition. Sometimes two businesses that are close to or equal in value come together and form a new corporation with new stock. Other times, one company in the transaction is significantly larger than the other, and it buys the stock of the other company and absorbs all of its assets and businesses by issuing stock from the larger company to shareholders of the smaller company. Sometimes cash is paid, but stock-for-stock swaps are more common.

Knowing how a merger will affect your investment in a certain stock requires that you first understand the circumstances and the conditions of the buyout. You should ask yourself three important questions:

1) What is the current financial condition of each company? (If both companies are in good shape, then joining them together will likely make each entity stronger; if one company is in trouble, then the other will be saddled with the problems of the other)

2) How many shares will you have after the merger takes place? (Sometimes, if one company is eliminated after the alliance takes place, the shareholders of the eliminated company will not receive shares equal to what they currently have; you might only receive 1 share in the new company for every 4 shares you had in the old company, and depending upon the current market price, this could actually decrease the overall value of your investment, so you might want to sell before the merger takes place)

3) How much is the acquiring company paying for the smaller company? (If the acquirer is paying less than or equal to what the smaller business is worth, this might not be a good sign, but if they are paying a premium for the other company, this is a sign that the acquisition is remunerative and will increase their overall worth)

Shareholders will typically be given the opportunity to vote on a merger before it takes place. Each share you own will count for one vote. The management of the corporation usually holds most of the shares, so their votes count for the majority, but you should still consider your vote carefully. You should exercise your right to vote, and your decision should be based upon what will be best for the future value of your shares. You should examine the income statement and balance sheet of the other company involved in the acquisition to get a sense of whether the merger will be beneficial or detrimental.

I hope this information will assist you with reviewing the pros and cons of a merger. Put together all of the relevant facts discussed in this article and you should be able to ascertain what the consequences will be. Just use your common sense and you should do fine.

Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make email forms.