How Much Should Professional Financial Advice Cost?

By Richard Moran

A professional financial advisor may be easier to find than you realize. All the investment firms have them on staff as well as most of the banks. If your finances are large or complicated you may want to consider contracting with an independent financial advisor to guide you through the maze of investments available.

How Should You Start

Let's start with the easy, uncomplicated way of searching for advice. The first place should be your phone book. That way you'll know where the firm is located an if it will be convenient for your purposes. Assemble a small list of firms from the phone book, call and see what you can learn on the phone. Then you can determine if they will charge for a personal consultation and if they do what that fee will be. Also ask if they do charge a fee, and you contract their services if that fee will be credited back to your account. With the economy the way it is the firms may be more flexible in their charges.

Friends Can Help

You never know, someone from your golf club may have a great prospect. Conversely, a business associate may be able to steer you to a great performer. Doing this may also keep you away from making the same mistakes they did in the past with bad choices. Eliminating bad advisors is as important and finding good ones.

Research

When you have completed your "short list" sit down at your computer and start your research. Google the person and the firm and check all the results. With the internet today there is no excuse for saying you didn't know.

Most of the financial websites that are independent will have unbiased appraisals of both firms and particular professional advisors. There are many websites by "celebrity" advisors such as Jim Cramer who give advice directly on the internet or through their websites. Chat rooms, blogs, or forums often address peoples experience with particular firms or advisors. Don't expect all good things, everyone has some detractors in the world. With this method you should be able to cull out the better candidates.

Your financial situation is unique and special to you. Be sure you find a firm/person who understands this and doesn't try to just sell you some package they are pushing this month. All firms/advisors will have an agenda so it is you job to sift through the suggestions and ask the questions. Bottom line - unless your 100% comfortable don't write the check. - 23218

About the Author:

Richard Moran is a Financial Consultant and writer for Money Helpers. The Blog contains hundreds of articles, charts, and calculators to aid you in your financial health. All the aspects of the Blog are free and it is updated on an almost daily basis. If you are looking for any financial information or products they can be found on Money Helpers.

How The Forex Mega Droid Works

By Chris Arribbat

Forex trading is all about putting your money into other currencies, so you can gain the interest for the night, for time period or the difference in trading money all around. Forex trading does involve other assets along with money, but because you are investing in other countries and in other businesses that are dealing in other currencies the basis for the money you make or lose will be based on the trading of money.

Constant trading is done in the forex markets as time zones will vary and the markets will open in one country while another is near closing. What happens in one market will have an effect on the other countries forex markets, but it is not always bad or good, sometimes the margins of trading are near each other.

A forex market will be present when two countries are involved in trading, and when money is traded for goods, services or a combination of these things. Currency is the money that trades hands, from one to another. Often times, a bank is going to be the source of forex trading, as millions of dollars are traded daily. There is nearly two trillion dollars traded daily on the forex market. Should you get involved in forex trading? If you are already involved in the stock market, you have some idea of what forex trading really is all about.

Another word for forex is called the stock market which is involved in buying shares of a company. And you track the progress of that company waiting to see if it has made you a bigger return. When you deal with the stock market you are initially buying goods or services and are paying money for them. As you do this, you are gaining or losing as the currency exchange differs daily from country to country. you can learn about trading and purchasing online using a free game like software.

You will log on and create an account. Entering information about what you are interested in and what you want to do. The game will allow you to make purchases and trades, involving different currencies, so you can then see first hand what a gain or loss will be like. As you continue on with this fake account you will see first hand how to make decisions based on what you know, which means you will have to read about the market changes or you will have to take a brokers information at value and play from there. - 23218

About the Author:

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Boeing Does Not Bring In Any Orders At The Paris Air Show

By Jennifer McClelland

With the Air France disaster still very fresh in everyone?s minds, particularly those in Paris (where many of the fatalities were from), the Paris Air Show wasn?t the same display it typically is. With it being the 100th anniversary of the exhibition, it looks that the catastrophe of Air France Flight 447 is nevertheless weighing forcefully on airlines.

At the opening day of the Air Show, Boeing didn?t obtain one lone purchase and its main competition Airbus was only capable to obtain just one sell from Qatar Airways for 27 airplanes.

The purchase from Airbus for the 24 A320 single aisle airplanes is worth $1.9 billion, well that?s the list cost anyway. Typically airlines, particularly given the global economic condition, are able to haggle down the price to a much more sensible level.

The big winner of the day ended up being Canada?s Bombardier airplane. The Canadian airplane maker announced that it had 35 offers for its CRJ100 jets offered by Air Nostrum, the deal is worth $1.75 billion. Bombardier are characteristically smaller planes and don?t travel the vast distances that Airbus and Boeing jets do.

Boeing has been having a difficult time selling their goods considering the deficiency of industrial flying and even waning military sales. If you look at commercial trip within the United States, the bulk of flights are on smaller district airplanes like the Bombardiers at the present. When I booked a trip from Memphis to Washington D.C., I was only able to fly on smaller regional airplanes versus just a couple years ago when the same flight could have been booked on a Boeing 727 or Airbus.

Boeing did try to brighten up the mood concerning its sales though:

?At this point it appears to us that the economic conditions have bottomed. If they have bottomed and a recovery comes next year, I think we have a shot at getting through,? said Scott Carson, president and CEO of Boeing?s commercial division.

Hopefully things will recover for the Chicago located company, or possibly it is time for them to start producing the smaller airplanes that appear to be selling better. - 23218

About the Author:

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British Pound Currency Profile (Part III)

By Ahmad Hassam

Economically, the United Kingdom is more free-market oriented than Europe, and it tends to share a more common set of views with the United States. At the same time, the United Kingdom cant totally disassociate itself from Europe, given its history and its geography. The upshot is a currency that is affected by politics at home and on the two continents to which its destiny is so closely related.

The British Pound GBP) is active against the dollar and the euro, offering good opportunities to trade both pairs (GBP/USD and USD/GBP). The GBP/USD is one of the most liquid currency pairs in the world. 6% of the all the global currency trading involves GBP as either the base or counter currency.

One of the reasons for GBP liquidity is the countrys highly developed capital markets. GBP is also in the four most traded major currency pairs EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY and USD/CHF in the world.

Many hedge funds are located in London. UK is an important foreign investment destination. Many foreign investors seeking to diversify their investment other than the United States send their funds to the UK. Foreigner investors need to convert their local currency into GBP in order to create these investments.

A few years ago, GBP had one of the highest interest rates in the developed countries. Although Australia and New Zealand had still higher interest rates but their financial markets are not as well developed as UK. GBP was full of speculators one to two years back.

Carry trading is a long term fundamental trading strategy that takes advantage of the interest rate differentials between the two currencies as well as price appreciation in the currency pair. Carry trading was popular with many hedge fund managers. Carry traders would use GBP as the lending currency taking advantage of the high interest rates and would go long against USD, JPY and CHF.

UK Treasury had to intervene heavily in the market by pumping money into a number of failing banks in order to stabilize the financial markets. The present global financial crisis has taken a heavy toll on the British Banks as well. There have been a number of high profile bankruptcies.

Interest rates have been lowered. An exodus of carry traders took place that increased volatility in GBP with the lowering of the interest rates. Interest rate differentials between UK gilts/US Treasuries is a barometer for GBP/USD flows and UK gilts/German Bunds is a barometer for EUR/GBP flow. These interest rate differentials are widely watched by the professional forex traders to judge where the money will flow between US, UK and EU.

Indications on adopting the Euro usually put negative pressure on GBP while further opposition to Euro boosts GBP. The three month eurosterling futures reflect market expectations on UK interest rates three months into the future and can help predict fluctuations of GBP/USD.

GBP/USD currency pair tends to be more sensitive to the developments in the US economy. GBP/USD currency pair is more liquid than EUR/USD pair. However, EUR/GBP is the leading gauge for GBP strength. EUR/GBP is a more pure fundamental pound trade as EU is the UK primary trading and investment partner. GBP has positive correlation with the energy prices. You must keep these facts in mind while determining your bias for GBP as a currency trader. - 23218

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. He is interested in day trading stocks and currencies. Try These 1500 Pips A Day Forex Signals From Heaven. Know Forex Rebellion!

The Secret Short Sales Letter

By Arnulfo Snider

The best time to choose a short sale is when you owe more on your home than it is worth. Let's say that your home is worth 450,000 and you owe 470,000 then a short sale would be the way to go. Obviously, if you do not have to sell your home, you could wait out the market and hope for a turnaround in real estate values.

However, if you do have to sell your home you basically have three options. First, you can bring cash to the table. Say you sell your home for a $10,000 deficit, you would have to come up with that money immediately for the bank. Second, you could let the home go into foreclosure. The lender will go through the foreclosure process, force you out of your home and then auction it off to the highest bidder at a foreclosure or Trustee's auction. The third option is to pursue a short sale. You contact the lender, explain the circumstances and convince them to take less than full value of their loan.

For example, you are have a buyer at 340,000 and your loan is for 350,000, then you would have to explain to the bank that there aren't any buyers interested in paying a higher price for your home. You can pursue a short sale only when the bank agrees to take the lesser amount for your home.In some instances banks will accept a short sale even before someone has made an offer on your house. You can then advertise your property at the lesser amount to make it easier to find a buyer.

One of the great things about a short sale is that they are not complicated, but there is some effort involved on behalf of you and your short sales specialist.

Figure out the true value of your property. Your short sales specialist will do market analysis which will help you to determine what your home will sell for. You can also use the Internet to help you in this process, there are many real estate sites that you can compare listings to help you determine the value of your home. Take into consideration that the market is constantly moving and your value may only be valid for a short period of time.

You also need to calculate your estimated closing costs. Items such as a title report, escrow, appraisal, attorney fees, agent commissions, unpaid property taxes etc. may add up to a substantial amount of money.

You will need to be aware of how much you have left to pay on your home, include all loans in this calculation.

Calculating your equity is essential. In a normal case closing costs and loans will add up to less than the value of your home. When the opposite is true you can then pursue a short sale.

Be sure you talk to someone who has the authority to make the required decisions. Loss mitigation department at your bank is usually the first step. Lenders do not have to accept your short sale, but most of the time they do because it is in their best interest. Some banks will not take a short sale unless you are behind on your monthly installments. Your lender may not accept short sales so contact them a soon as possible to find out.

Understand where you stand with taxes. Do not underestimate this! Many times there can be a substantial tax obligation after a short sale has occurred. Make sure you talk to your accountant or short sales specialist to calculate your tax before going with a short sale. - 23218

About the Author:

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