Unfortunately, making good financial decisions is easier said than done, and it is easy for you to lose all your life savings if you don’t know what you’re doing. Therefore, the first investment you should make is in your education: learn how to read the market along with the specific direction a financial asset is taking.

how to spot a downtrend and how to trade it

Taking the first step in your education, we will discuss how to spot a downtrend plus what to do when you see one. Honing this ability will help you minimize your losses when the market takes a dive, and if you get really good at spotting downtrends, you can make huge profits off of it.

what you will need for this journey?

Before beginning our financial journey, we need to take a few things along with us: we need to familiarize ourselves with the lingo used by financial analysts as well as the tools they rely on. Not only will this facilitate matters for us, it will also help you in all your future excursions.

Another thing you need to know is that there are two main roads we can take: that of fundamental analysis and that of technical analysis. Fundamental analysis studies the asset itself and tries to compare the asset’s inherent value with its market value, whereas technical analysis is more concerned with the market price of the asset and how that’s changed over time. Throughout this article, we will be focused on technical analysis. Nevertheless, you should also explore fundamental analysis and learn how to combine both approaches

1. Important definitions:

a. technical analysis:

Technical analysis tracks the history of price movements in addition to the volume of trade, while completely disregarding the underlying asset. The main idea is that the price of an asset should ideally reflect all the relevant information about said asset. Moreover, prices of assets tend to move in what’s known as a trend. For example, if a price is going up, it will probably keep going up for a while before changing direction. Over and above, trends tend to be predictable, due in part to the fact that a main determinant of price is how investors and traders react to fluctuations and new information. These reactions aren’t that hard to anticipate, thanks to historical records.

b. Time period:

Seeing as technical analysis studies the price movements of an asset over a period of time, it comes as no surprise that we need to first define our period of time. For example, we could study how the price of an asset changes every day versus how the price of the same asset changes every hour. In the first scenario, our time period is a single day, while, in the latter scenario, our time period is an hour.

c. Price point:

A price point is basically the price of an asset at a moment in time. For any given time period, technical analysts hone in on four special price points:

i. Opening price: at the beginning of a time period, the price of an asset is recorded and dubbed the opening price.

ii. Closing price: at the end of a time period, the price of an asset is recorded and dubbed the closing price.

iii. High price: during a time period, the highest price an asset reaches is recorded and dubbed the high price.

iv. Low price: during a time period, the lowest price an asset reaches is recorded and dubbed the low price.

Let’s take a look at an example:

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Suppose that we have been studying the price of gold over a time period of a day. On the 27th of March, an ounce of gold cost 1247.20 dollars at the beginning of the day, which is the opening price. Conversely, at the end of the day, an ounce of gold cost 1258.8 dollars, which is the closing price. During the day, the highest price an ounce of gold attained was 1264.2, which was the day’s high price. On the other hand, the lowest price an ounce of gold hit that day was 1247.20, which was the day’s low price.

If you’ve been paying attention so far, you’ll have noticed that the opening price and the low price of gold was the same that day. This shows that on march 27th, the price of gold kept increasing that day, and the demand was higher than the supply.

d. Trends:

It is not particularly easy to agree on a definition for trends, but, all the same, here it goes: A trend is the general direction in which an asset’s price is headed. Naturally, the price of an asset rarely skyrockets in a single direction. Instead, the price of an asset tends to move up and down, with the general direction being consistent for a period of time. Bear in mind that this applies to any publicly traded security or commodity, including the Forex.

Trends can be divided in one of two ways: direction-wise or time-wise.

When it comes to directions, trends can go in one of three ways:

• An uptrend is when the price of an asset is generally increasing. It is usually marked by the fact that each high and low is higher than the one preceding it.

• A downtrend is when the price of an asset is generally decreasing. It is usually marked by the fact that each high and low is lower than the one preceding it.

• Sideway/ horizontal trends is when the price of an asset is generally neither increasing nor decreasing. In this case, an asset’s price might fluctuate, but its average price is more or less constant.

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On the other hand, analyzing trends according to their time length gives you three possibilities:

• A short term trend is one that takes place in less than a month.

• A medium term trend is one that takes place in a time frame between a month and three months.

• A long term trend is one that takes place for longer than a year.

You should bear in mind that the longer the trend, the more significant it is: it can be more trusted, and a reversal of this trend is a much more meaningful than the reversal of a shorter one. Also, each long trend consists of medium trends, which in turn are made up of short trends. It is for these reasons and more that trend analysis plays a huge part in technical analysis. If anything, the whole objective of technical analysis can be summed up in one notion: forecasting trends with a high level of confidence.

e. Position:

Let’s agree that a position is where an investor situates themselves relative to a particular asset. This will be made much clearer through the use of examples:

• An investor who’s secured a buy position intends to buy a specific asset at a particular price.

• An investor who’s secured a sell position intends to sell a specific asset at a particular price.

• An investor who’s secured a long position intends to bet on the asset. They plan to buy an asset and hold onto it for a period of time till it appreciates in value.

• An investor who’s secured a short position intends to bet against the asset. They plan to sell the asset today for its fair market value. Afterwards, when the asset depreciates in value, the same investor will purchase the asset at the reduced price, and their profit will be the difference between their sell price and their later buy price.

2. Important tools:

Having gathered some important definitions, let’s move on and construct a few useful tools:

a. Charts:

Our current focus on historical data compels us to consider ways of presenting this information in a more concise and digestible form. This is where compact visual representations, a.k.a. charts, come in.

There are numerous kinds of charts, but, for our purposes, we will focus on candlestick charts only.

The vertical axis of a candlestick chart represents the prices, while the horizontal axis denotes the time period. The horizontal axis could display how the asset changed price over a period of hours, days, weeks, months, or years, depending on the set time period.

However, the true value of a candlestick chart lies in the amount of information each candle gives off. Each candle is composed of a body and a wick and has a unique color that gives off a particular meaning hence giving you all the price points you could possibly need. To elaborate further, I’ll explain each aspect separately:

• The candle’s color symbolizes whether the price of the asset appreciated or depreciated over the time period of the candle. Assets that appreciate in value are usually symbolized by a body that’s colored green or left empty. On the flipside of the coin, assets that depreciate in value are marked by a candle body that’s colored red or black.

• The candle’s body represents the opening and closing price of the asset over the time period. If a candle has a green body, meaning that the underlying asset increased in value, then the bottom of the body represents the opening price and the top of the body represents the closing price. Naturally, the opposite would be true had the candle had a red body.

• The candle’s wicks represent the high and low prices of the time period. Needless to say, the upper wick represents the high price, regardless of the color of the candle. The same applies to the lower wick.

Besides giving off all the necessary price points pertaining to a time period, candlesticks tend to form patterns that can allude to future price movements. For example, a doji, which is a kind of candlestick, may signify something, yet a hammer can be screaming something else entirely. Moreover, groups of candlesticks can give off their own meanings also: a bullish engulfing and a rising sun are two completely different patterns, but they may have similar implications.

Nevertheless, you don’t have to worry about all of this; I will not ask you to remember any patterns or to memorize any shapes. Rather, I’ll give you a simple rule of thumb for you to follow:

Try comparing the body of a candle with its wicks. If the body is much larger than the wicks, then this signifies the certainty the market has in the value of the asset. As a result, it is a safe bet that whatever trend the asset is experiencing will continue. Conversely, wicks that are much larger than the body exhibit uncertainty, and there is a large possibility that a current trend will reverse. Of course, there are several shapes that go beyond this simple breakdown: a candle could have a long lower wick, a relatively small body, and a non-existent upper wick (in which case the candle is called a hammer). This type of candle may signify something unique, depending on the context. Yet, for all intents and purposes, our simpler rule of thumb will serve us just fine.

b. Support and resistance levels and trend lines:

When the price of an asset fluctuates, there is always method to the way in which this fluctuation happens. The price usually exhibits a certain sense of constraint that can be identified through support and resistance levels. In other words, a support or resistance level is a line which the price has been unable to break, despite trying more than once. So, a support is a line that prevents the price from dropping beyond a certain limit, and a resistance stops the price from rising above a certain limit.

The significance of a support or resistance line can be attributed to its predictive capabilities: when you see the price of an asset approach a support or resistance line, you can bet that the current trend is bound to reverse. In addition, should the price break through this support or resistance, the line’s role will be reversed. To put it in more solid terms, a support level that is broken becomes a resistance level, and the opposite tends to be true.

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So “how do we identify support and resistance levels?” I hear you say. Well, there are several methodologies:

• By drawing horizontal lines that touch the price chart in more than one place, we can discern support and resistance levels. Interestingly enough, round numbers tend to play a big role in this exercise; history tells us that round numbers tend to be excellent support and resistance levels. This may have something to do with our innate psychological dispositions plus our affinity for round numbers.

• Another tool is the use of Fibonacci retracement levels, but we won’t really delve into them here.

• You can also find support or resistance levels by drawing trend lines. Trend lines are lines that aren’t necessarily horizontal but confine the price chart one way or another. You can draw them by finding several reversal points that lie on the same straight line. Furthermore, you can draw a channel should you be able to draw a support trend line along with a resistance trend line.

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Obviously, all of this seems good and well, but how can we have any confidence in these support and resistance lines? After all, we are the ones who draw them. Now seems the perfect time to introduce the concept of IRATE criteria, which are used to judge the dependability of a support or resistance line. IRATE stands for indicators, round numbers, age, and tested. You don’t have to know all of these criteria, yet it doesn’t hurt to at least understand most of them:

• Indicators:Momentum indicators, or forex trend indicators, give us clues about how strong a trend is as well as how likely it is to continue. Some examples of indicators are moving average crossovers, oscillators, and double Bollinger barrels.

• Round numbers:As mentioned earlier, round numbers usually play excellent support and resistance levels. Therefore, you should have much more faith in a support level at 50 dollars than another support level at 47.23 dollars.

• Age: Just as longer trends are more significant than shorter ones, older support and resistance levels are more significant than newer ones.

• Tested: When we ask ourselves how tested is this support or resistance level, we are trying to investigate how many times this level was able to halt the progress of the price. The more times the support or resistance level held firm, the more faith we have in it.

c. Other useful tools:

Having answered fundamental questions such as what is a trend? What is a trend line? How to identify a trend’s performance? How to draw a trend line? We can now build off of this information in numerous ways:

• We can choose to adopt trend following strategies, where we patiently wait and see where the market is heading and then ride that wave. This is known as using trend trading systems, and it is a valid way to play the market.

• For the more diligent among us, there are numerous chart patterns that derive their shape from their trend lines: head and shoulders, double top, and triple top, to name a few. Each chart pattern produces a market trend signal, if you will, that notifies traders of the next direction the current trend will take.

d. A platform to observe your assets from:

Apart from the knowledge, you will also need the technical tools that will enable you to observe your investments in action. If you choose to invest in the forex market, then I suggest you look for a good platform to trade on as well as monitor your money, such as Meta Trader 4. Conversely, if you choose to invest in the stock market, you’re better off depending on a reliable website like stockmarketwatch.

Time to go on your journey:

It hasn’t been an easy journey so far, but now that we have all the prerequisite information to start targeting downtrends, let’s take a look at what actually needs to be done:

1. Define your objectives:

Before you embark on your hunt, you need to be clear on a few topics:

• How much money do you have? How much of it are you willing to risk?

• How much risk are you willing to expose yourself to?

• Do you want to invest in a few assets or do you want to play the general market?

• How important is it for you to beat the general market?

Answering these questions may require you to include your significant other in the discussion.

2. Begin your search:

Depending on the objectives you’ve stated in the previous question, you can either choose to follow the progress of a few assets or choose to closely monitor the general market. In both scenarios, keeping a watchful eye is only part of the equation; you need to know what to look for.

I will suggest a strategy called price action trading, where you trade based off of the price itself. It is a simple strategy that is suitable for every beginner:

• Start by drawing the main trend lines. This should give you a much clearer view of where the asset is headed. You can try drawing horizontal support and resistance levels or more oblique trend lines. You should just remember the IRATE criteria in all cases.

• Pay attention to each individual candle, and try to figure out what it is telling you.

• Bear in mind that a single signal on its own is not nearly as potent as a group of signals taken together. It’s the same difference between judging a painting from just looking at the corner part versus taking the whole painting into consideration. Consequently, the more signals you are able to incorporate, the more of a holistic picture you’ll see.

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3. Identify the downtrend:

There are two types of downtrends to look out for:

• The first is the continuation of an ongoing downtrend.

• The second is the reversal of an uptrend.

Each type of downtrend can be identified in different ways:

• When an asset is in the middle of a downtrend, it isn’t that hard to spot. The trick is to know whether this downtrend will continue on for a while. Therefore, you have to answer questions like is the price close to its support levels? Do the candles display any sense of uncertainty in the market? If the answer to either one of these questions is yes, then you’re better off letting this downtrend go as it might reverse soon.

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• When an asset in the middle of an uptrend, you should ask yourself very similar questions to the ones above: is the price close to its resistance levels? Do the candles display any sense of uncertainty in the market? If, and only if, the answer to both these questions is yes, then the asset is probably about to reverse and experience a downtrend.

4. Trade the downtrend:So how do you get started:

In this article, we’ve covered a lot of ground, which should give you the ability to start trading right now. However, there is a world of difference between understanding something and being able to apply it in real life. Hence, what you need now is practice.

My advice for you is to start small and experiment. You can start by looking for cheap stocks to buy, like penny stocks. Although penny stocks are usually unstable investments, think of them as practice for the real thing instead: finding trending penny stocks is no mean feat, and it can prepare you for bigger game. Pretty soon, you’ll be spotting stock trends like a pro.

Another thing to be wary of is how volatile the market can get. It happens. The trick is to have a system and stick to it. So long as you don’t panic, you’ll be fine.

In this tutorial, you’ve learnt the basics of technical analysis as well as how to spot a downtrend and trade it. These skills can prove instrumental when investing your money, especially when it comes to timing your entry or exit.

Please let us know what you think, and if you have anything to add, feel free to do so in the comments.

The Possible Glory of Gold

Many analysts are closely watching the prices of gold, and for good reason. Colin Cieszynski recently noted that the abandoned Trump healthcare bill has caused jitters across the markets; resulting in a slight (albeit perhaps short-lived) currency rally. While this would normally be counter-intuitive regarding bullish gold prices, other factors need to be considered. Notably, the levels of United States are predicted to jump from 77 per cent to an unsustainable 150 per cent over the next 30 years. Furthermore, political uncertainty in other major economies such as the United Kingdom will likely drive gold prices moderately higher. As this yellow metal already gained 7 per cent during Q1, further positivity is likely realistic. 

Industrial Commodities Set to Surge

The World Bank has predicted a sizeable surge in the prices of industrially backed commodities during 2017. The reasoning behind this observation is quite simple. The strengthening demand for energies and metals is quickly outstripping the present supply. There are two important takeaway points here which should be highlighted:
• Oil is set to rise to approximately $55 dollars a barrel; an increase of 29 per cent when compared to 2016.
• The price of metals is expected to increase by 11 per cent; a revision of the 4 per cent highlighted in October 2016.

Copper could be poised to make massive gains, as large economies such as China continue to demand larger amounts for industrial necessities. Some believe that the target of $2,600 dollars a tonne is perfectly reasonable. Still, this has yet to materialize.

Could Black Gold be a Golden Investment?

It is always wise to examine predictions surrounding oil, as this commodity tends to be a relatively accurate barometer in regards to economic performance in general. There are two factors to take into account. First, OPEC hopes that crude will top off at $60 dollars a barrel by the end of 2017. Considering that WTI crude is currently trading at just over $51 dollars, such a rise would be beneficial for investors.

However, we must also take into account plans within the Trump administration to emphasize fracking and to further stress the development of fossil fuels (in direct contrast to his predecessor). While it can be difficult to predict how many of these promises come to fruition, it is not altogether unreasonable to imagine that some short-term rallies within this sector will become possibilities soon. 

The Bottom Line

Commodities are predicted to perform moderately well throughout the remainder of the fiscal year. Should instability and uncertainty continue to impact short-term market sentiments, it would be wise to closely monitor these potentially valuable strategic options. 

Property debt funds

Investment strategists argue that there’s an opportunity for 2017 in real estate. They strongly believe that it might be better to remain on the debt side of things, rather than focus on the physical assets. There’s a reason behind the shift, namely real estate prices that have risen a lot since 2009. The HSBC has been an important part of the journey; the company has been purchasing properties for its clients in the cities of London and New York, which are prime real estate markets.

Nowadays though, the better deals might be in debt and they center mostly on developers enthusiastic about re-financing or building high quality properties. Knowing the ins and outs of the market, as well as understanding debt has made experts believe that there’s great potential in real estate debt.

Direct investments are still attracting high-end investors

Clients who are income focused and defensive are still fond of private property debt funds. That’s mainly because they have the ability to invest in bonds, and buy or sell bonds because they generate higher profits and have more potential. However, not all investors are defensive. Residential and commercial real estate in the US remains interesting, but only because the potential returns are less “sophisticated” than they used to be 5 years ago.

Asian investors have turned their attention to distress properties in major European cities, due to the equity and debt investment potential of these cities. Furthermore, these investors are also fond of real estate in Australia and Japan as well, even though they’re very wary of the currency overview. Most investors are attempting to have a balanced range when it comes to single asset purchases; their goal is to watch out for a more sensible and plain debt, and stay away from risks.

Bank loans are replaced by real estate debt funds

Private debts funds are an excellent form of investment because banks have become more cautious about loans since the 2008 global financial crisis. Tighter capital regulations have left them with no choice. Also, there’s a shortage of mortgage-backed securities in the commercial property environment. This factor alone has been helping the lending market quite a lot in the recent years. The situation is better known as “capital scarcity” that apparently has become even scarcer amid the present volatility in the realty market at a global scale.

Fund surges and fundraising efforts

Back in 2014, there was a surge in funds as nearly $25 billion was gathered at a global scale. According to a private equity business known as Preqin, the amount slide back to $14 billion in 2015. The market’s size varies from one year to another, and it usually depends on one big fund. There’s a shift happening in the property debt fund environment. Officials are currently originating loans as opposite to raising cash to take down legacy loan portfolios.

Banks are an important part of the loan business, but then again they’re not the most important. For the most part, banks play a key role in the financing part of a loan. In layman’s terms, private debt funds are better known as originating loans as they have the ability to set the terms for other lenders in the same group. Banks no longer have monopoly over lending terms, because now there are many institutions that aren’t banks that can offer better deals to savvy investors.

Investors might also consider investing in debt funds as a means to purchase high-quality, but rather illiquid bonds; which might require up to 10 years to have any value.

By Fredrick Cameron and PropertyTurkey.com!

Most trading signal services are scams and fake their results.

Because of that, the research of a good signal service includes a lot more than comparing price/results. The most important thing to do is to ensure that they really achieve the advertised results.

So, why Millennium Traders?

I am too far from that I have found the top of the best. Millennium Traders surely have their disadvantages, but here are the reasons why I have chosen them for the first review in SharkInvestor:

• I was able to personally verify that their trading is successful. (You can do it too)
• They show the performance of each individual moderator and they show dollar – value, clearly saying that your percentage results will depend on your own trading choices
• They offer several types of trading signals
• There are big discounts if you join quarterly, semi-annually or annually
• There is a free trial
• The performance is rather good, but still reasonable. Please check their performance page/li>
• They have excellent responsive support

Millennium Traders definitely are not the cheapest signal service I’ve seen, but you get what you pay for. So let’s see what exactly they have to offer.

The Trading Rooms

Most of the Millennium Traders’ signals are organized in the form of chat rooms where the moderators send buy, sell or watch signals to the members. There is a sound coming with the signals, so you don’t really need to watch the screen all the time.

The Stock Trading Room has currently 3 moderators and provides day trading signals mostly between 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM US ET. The membership costs $249 monthly and $1500 yearly. There is an option to get a free month if you invests in a featured broker.

The Futures Trading Room provides live real time future calls at the same time – between 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM US ET. Just like the stock trading room, it is priced between $249 and $1500 depending on the subscription term.

The Forex Trading Room is open 24/7, but mostly active between 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM US ET. The prices are the same as the stock and futures trading rooms and the performance is amazing. There is a great deal if you decide to open an account with some of their featured brokers – you can get the signals completely free.

Day Swing Trades is another chat room providing up to five stock picks every day. The picks are posted before 8:00 AM EST. The prices are the same as for the above rooms.

The Weekly Swing Trades sends stocks picks only once per week, on Monday before 8:00 AM EST. This service has the lowest prices – $79.90 monthly, $203 quarterly and $480 annually.

Millennium Traders offer also one-to-one trading education for $750 but reviewing it is not a subject of this article.

How To Get The Most Of It?

Many people subscribe to trading signals in the wrong way and then are happy if hey can break even. I’d like to give you some tips which will help you achieve greater return on your investment:

• Subscribe for a trial first. See if the thing works for you and if you can be online at the time when the signals come
• Subscribe for only one service at the beginning. It’s tempting to go for the triple or double subscriptions because of the better price. But do that only after you are comfortable with the overall service and you have some experience.
• Subscribe for one month or a quarter first. After you pass the trial, try the real stuff for a month or three. This time will be enough for you to decide if you want to go further and purchase annually subscriptions (or some of the combined subscriptions).
• Make sure that you actually trade. Sounds simple, but many don’t do it. If you only watch the signals and don’t perform trades, you won’t earn any money. Do trade.

I wish you success with Millennium Traders. Please post a comment here once you start trading for real with them.

With that being said, I am not directly saying that the ideas posted below are wrong, but I definately think its a good idea to question them. They might be suitable for some, and not for you.

Let’s get to it.

There is no risk in taking profit

This is such a cliche and in my opinion and in my opinion, a truly bad advice. From a static perspective, the specific wording is correct, but it indirectly implies that your expected trading career is a binary bet and not a long term plan. Taking profit might give you a dollar in the pocket now, but if that “profit” is based on an initial setup with a risk of say 100 USD -and you plan to execute your next trade with the same R/R conditions, there is a risk of doing this. A risk which, over time, is equal to the sum of your account balance.

Start practicing with a demo account

So this isnt exactly a bad advice. But people promote this for the wrong reasons, which is; start with a demo account to find a strategy that is profitable, and then move on to a live account. This is a bad advice! Starting with a demo account can be a good idea, as a way to get a grip of the details as to how to platform functions, and the details of your account. You need to learn how to place orders, close them out, and see how this accounts your account balance, equity, margin and so on. Once you know this, the next step should done on a live account. The reason why you cannot find a profitable trading strategy on a demo account and replicate it on a live account is because of the way funny money alters your mindset and psychological threshold. In order to find a profitable trading strategy, you need to be able to handle losses of real money.

Have a specific trading plan

People state this like its the only way to become a profitable trader; having a trading plan, with specific setups that trigger entries and exits, along with specific take profit and stop loss levels, that is. This might work for some but it certainly doesn’t work for everyone. This can easily spotted in the market for algo trading. I have seen I don’t know how many of these, and majority of them are nothing more than hot air; interestingly, they are all based on exactly that; very specific trading setups. Sure there might be certain particular trading setups that work wonders, but don’t be fooled into believing that any random strategy will be profitable, just because it’s based on fixed parameters. It won’t! And finding one that will, will take a lot of time and effort.

Control your emotions

Easier said than done. It’s said a lot! It’s done far less! The funny thing is that this exact advice is shared a lot! But specific actions steps as to how you should do this, are close to nonexistent (at least in the trading space). Usually, people who start on a trading journey, wont know emotionally affected they get, untill its too late. I dont have the perfect answer either. The short version is that people make this seem a lot easier than it really is, by stating the obvious. Few people share thoughts on the significace on this, or how to actually go about, controlling your eomitions.

Follow the trend

In some markets and for some strategies, sure, this can be a good idea. But traders often highlight this as more important than anything else in trading; it might be, if you are using a trend following strategy, but if you aren’t, following the trend is obviously not important. You can make a profit from trend following, but you can just as easily do it the other way around. The whole talk about trend following makes more sense for stock traders than for FX traders as there is a mean reversion tendency in the FX market. The trend itself is also a blurry thing. Traders certainly don’t agree on how to identify it, nor what time frame is the ideal for spotting a trend; opinions on actual trends are shattered. Trading in the direction of the trend can be a good idea, but it can also be a bad one. If you do it, do it for the right reasons, and stop throwing the word around like it should form an essential part of any trading plan out there. That is not the case.

How TyreCompare Reinvented Tire Shopping
With TyreCompare, vehicle owners no longer had to call or go from one tire shop to another to compare prices in order to get the best deal. TyreCompare has the dirty work covered. All a user needs to do is to visit the site, enter their tyre details and postcode, and he will be greeted with a list of stock and prices from retailers in the local vicinity.
Once a user has chosen and reserved the desired tires, he’ll simply have to wait to be contacted by the winning retailer to arrange the fitting. Headache solved all in a matter of minutes.

Part of the growing success of the platform is the ability for the consumer to see the inventory from different providers, compare efficiently, and make up your mind without being pressured by pushy salesmen. You make your own decision in your own time based on the information presented to you.

As of writing, there are over 300 retailers that have joined the network, and TyreCompare is looking to roll out in all major metro areas by the end of 2016.

Credit card debt is a crippling force if left to escalate.

If you struggle with credit card debt then you will know that the repayments become harder and harder the deeper you get into the debt quagmire. Your repayments increase and continual penalty feeds for being over your limit can cripple any long term chance of recovery you have. Do not be tempted by quick fix solutions to your monthly problems such as additional loans to cover your normal expenses. Do not open up more debt even if you feel that it solves your immediate issues. You must strive for solutions that aren’t still in someone else’s pocket.

Reduce the deficit ASAP.

It is imperative that you reduce you outstanding balance as soon as is physically possible – this will reduce your level of monthly repayments and start you back on the road to financial control. Sell things you no longer use on Ebay or gumtree. Move your long term savings arrangements around in such a way that you can freely access them without suffering a penalty fee. You can even try asking for help from your immediate family if your debt has become critical. Do what you can to reduce your debt to the bank and this will ease the financial haemorrhage. If you have the money in your account do not settle for simply paying off the minimum required amount to not be charged a late payment penalty fee. Look to pay off the amount in full while you have the resources available.

Create a buffer area in your credit card account to reduce risk.

While you want the majority of your savings to be doing work for you in high interest savings accounts or in some kind of financial investment, it is worthwhile preserving a small contingency amount residing permanently in your credit card account. This cash sum can cover you in the case of emergencies when you are forced to use your credit card as a payment method for whatever reason. As you have the funds already in there you can make your payment without worry as you know your account will not be going beyond your current funds. Of course you need to remember to top up this buffer amount at intervals to ensure you don’t accidentally run into withdrawing cash you do not own. Awareness of your own earnings and savings is paramount at all times.

Seek professional advice.

Although the last thing you really want to be doing is spending more money, you should seriously consider the investment of obtaining a professional to explain your specific financial situation to. A professional will be able to give you a detailed strategy that will help consolidate your debts into a reduce payment plan and will help you settle your debt in the most cost effective way. The advantage of paying an individual for their freelance advice is that you have the peace of mind of knowing that they have your best financial interest at heart. The sad reality is that many other sources that claim to offer debt solutions are simply trying to obtain you as a customer that they too can make some money off.

The commission you get from CashBackForex will differ, depending on which broker you sign up with, ranging from 0.1 pip – 1.3 pip. They operate with all major brokers, and continue to add new ones.

There are a couple of competing sites similar to CashBackForex on the net, but so far no other site is coming close to CashBackForex, both in terms of broker selection, commissions or customer service. CashBackForex is definitely the leader in this space simply because they are doing a great job.

Yesterday, 2 new brokers were added to the service:

We are pleased to announce the addition of 2 New Brokers to our website.

AFBFX is a CYSEC-regulated and FSA-registered broker offering: ECN and NDD (No Dealing Desk) with instant execution; Leverage up to 1:500; and 24/5 Multilingual Customer Support with Accounts held in USD or EUR.

We offer a rebate rate of $6/rtl on Mini or Standard accounts and $1.6/rtl on Advanced accounts. To view more details or open a new account with AFBFX please click here.

Friedburg Direct (FXCM CA) is an IIROC-regulated broker and a member of CIPF offering FXCM products with FXCM support. Currently offers NDD (No Dealing Desk) Forex Execution where account may be held in USD and CAD.

We offer a rebate rate of .70 pips per round turn lot traded. To view more details or open a new account with Friedburg Direct (FXCM CA) please click here.

Other NEW Trading Platforms with existing brokers are:

• FXCM UK – Direct Dealing accounts with rate of 0.29 pips / rtl on currency trades
• FXCM UK – Spread Betting with rate of .40pips/rtl on currency trades
• Alpari UK – Direct & Direct Pro accounts with rate of $5 per million round turn
• FXDD Malta – Swordfish accounts with rate of .70 pips per round turn lot traded
• IronFX – STP/ECN accounts with rate of $2/rtl on Majors and $4/rtl on Minors & Exotics*

Full rebate details on these new offerings are available at our website.

Head over to CashBackForex and get your account now.

Kobewka was born on a farm in Lincoln in 1960. Since he was 13 years-old he wanted to become a stockbroker. He had not the slightest idea what it was they did for a living, but he knew they made plenty of money and had large houses. He became the man of his family at the age of ten upon the death of his father. At 16, he finished school and began work as a mechanical engineer.

Kobewka became his employer’s apprentice of the year, and developed his skills in electrical work, sheet metal, welding, milling, fitting and turning. He was promoted and participated in a management buyout.

At first, he established a spread betting account to bet on Grand Prix races and other sporting events. He then diversified into financial trading, and in his first month transformed a stake of £200 into more than £11,000. Anyone wishing to emulate him can do so using Cantor spread betting.

Kobewka is very frugal. He says he “just hates to lose money.” He lives in a modest flat in Manchester and drives an equally modest Rover 214, which places him in a lower bracket for car tax. He has never been on an aeroplane or left the United Kingdom. His hobby is cooking, and he loves to make stews and curries. He is divorced, but takes care of his three sons twice a week.

One of his spread betting techniques is “the fade,” where he trades in the opposite direction to the short-term trend. He trades once a day and says he wins much more than he loses. He sometimes stays up late to trade the Nikkei index, but is at his happiest trading Dow Jones.

Kobewka is happy to make any profit, even as little as a fiver. While most traders say the risk-to-reward ratio should be no more than 3:1, Kobewka will often allow a trade to go 40 points against him if the potential profit is sufficiently large. He uses the system described in his book, 60 Minute Trader System.

“The client needs this for June 2!”

I got this email after long relaxed discussion with someone about developing a Wopress plugin. It was May 26th. Long story. I’m not really doing much of custom development anyway, but I’m selling software (and giving some for free). I just have to handle custom development requests to keep users happy.

What are the choices that I have?

In such a situation I could stop working on my projects for a week and work on his task. The payment wasn’t bad and would be worth my time.

But still this is a horrible idea for a small business owner.

You should not lose the focus of your project. Believe me, I’m distracted enough managing about 10 sites, a microISV, consulting businesses and more.

To stop working on your business projects because of some well paid customer project is plain bad.

Don’t do this regardless of the payment unless you badly need that money. And unless doing customer projects (consulting) is your primary business.

So what other choice did I have? To outsource it of course.

There are million articles giving advice about outsourcing. I won’t be writing one more. Instead I’ll tell you how I outsource my tasks on vWorker.

But first – why vWorker?

vWorker was previously named RentACoder and was primary focused on programming tasks. I used to do some freelancing there years ago. There are other similar sites too – for example Elance, Scriplance, Freelancer. All of them are used for outsourcing from small business and all of them have their advantages and disadvantages. More often Elance is used by larger companies and larger projects and as a general rule the providers there are more expensive. Scriplance is on the lower end, you can find very cheap workers there but most of them are clueless. vWorker is somewhere in the middle. I’m not saying it’s best. I’m just familiar with it and my outsourcing there works fine, that’s why I am writing about it.

My WordPress plugin and other projects

“The client needs this for June 2!”

Remember how it started? So when I had this guy wrote me this I was just about to drop a line saying “Sorry, no way”. Then I decided, why not outsource the task? Fortunately I had a programmer from vWorker working on another WordPress plugin for me (my own project). I had not seen his work yet but he seemed to know what he was doing by the questions asked and by the previous reviews so I decided he was the guy.

I mailed him, explained about my urgent project and told him approximate budget. He was happy to do it for about 40% of the payment I’d get from the client. I got 50% in advance, escrowed 100% for the programmer and now I am already in profit even before the work has started.

Making profit isn’t the moral of the story here. You won’t make such nice profit on every project you outsource. I have even lost money on some outsourced tasks.

There is more important than pure profit. Outsourcing this project helped me for several things:

• Not lose concentration for my own long term business projects.
• Not delay my projects with a week or more.
• Keep the client happy. If everything goes fine he may be back for other things. He may recommend my site to someone.
• Keep the programmer happy. If he completes the work well, I’ll have found a reliable guy who can use to outsource future programming tasks.
• Avoid stressing myself because of the tight deadline. If I had to do it myself I would most probably have tried to change my time management strategy and somehow to fit the work along with my projects.

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I’ve used vWorker for outsourcing about 15 times or so. First purchased few articles for some of my sites for the price of $5 – $10 for each one – most were average but few were good. I’ve purchased few article translations from English to Spanish (they were very good except one), a sales page copy (this was a failure because I hired an amateur), and a few plugins and browser extensions (some were good, some not so good). In general my experience outsourcing there is positive and I believe I’ve learned some lessons along the way. Let me share them with you:

Tips for successful outsourcing on vWorker (or any other similar site):

Here are some random tips, not particularly ordered.

• Explain your project in brief details. Brief details is oxymoron. Still, you need to do it. Should you list too short description most good providers will skip your project. Should you get into too many details about every field or every word, you’ll get too high quotes. Find the middle and explain your project with short, specific, and straight to the point sentences.
• Don’t choose based on ratings. Ratings matter very little. I’ve seen quite horrifying work by people with a lot of 10 ratings. Most buyers on vWorker or similar sites will give 10 to the worker just because they had low expectation. Or because the provider has been polite and hardworking. Not because they did terrific job. I’m guilty for such ratings too.
• Don’t choose based on price. Of course if price goes over your budget, the offer is out. I mean don’t think that high price always means high quality. Many clueless provides start with outrageous offers just to try their luck. Most providers who bid too low are worthless too but sometimes good ones will try to win a project with low bid just so they can get their first review on the site.
• Choose based on work samples. The best way to know someone’s work quality is to look at their past work. Of course there is risk here. They might be showing you someones else’s work pretending it’s their own.
• Choose based on communication. The communication should show that the provider understands the project. Too many of them start dry polite and then talk about their team and their company instead of talking about your project. The truth is often a single freelancer pretends to be a company with huge team. I personally don’t care if they are 1 or 200 developers out there, I just need the work done. I prefer someone who’ll just talk informal, say “Hi” instead of “Dear Mr X” etc. Prefer real genuine people who ask smart questions. Just follow your good feeling.
• Pay promptly and in parts. Don’t let your providers hang out nervous and wait. Pay quickly, promptly and if possible accept parts of the project when they are delivered to you. This is very easy on vWorker and I always do it.
• Always test before accepting the work. In contrary of the above you shouldn’t pay anything before you make sure what you pay for works well. This is very important for development work.
• Build a “team”. Selecting a provider takes time. On small project it could take more time than you would spend doing the task yourself. So if you find few decent providers, better stick to them and work with them often to save time posting projects, receiving bids and selecting providers for each new task.
• Avoid the desperate. Some providers are really desperate for work and will do everything to convince you to hire them. Including to work for free which is against vWorker rules. Avoid them. If someone is so desperate, they are most probably not good at all.

These tips should get you started well. If you have any tips for successful outsourcing small business tasks on freelance sites, feel free to share them too.