Saving Time and Money Via the Video Business Production

By Chuck R Stewart

The IPO presentation is necessary for a thriving business. Companies need it to raise capital when private placement capital may not be enough. It can be either live, face to face or live, via the Internet. While there are many advantages to doing a live demo, there are also many disadvantages. These disadvantages can be overcome through the business video production.

Lets discuss the types of presentations given today, starting with the live demo. The most obvious good reason is personal interaction and goodwill. This is a big advantage, but the drawbacks are just as strong. The most obvious is the cost and hassle of travel. And the cost of plane tickets, hotels, and rental cars is only increasing. In addition, the modern parent is less willing to be away from the family for extended periods. For these reasons, not traveling is growing in popularity.

Which brings up the webinar. A webinar is a presentation via the Internet. In a webinar, the viewer can see the computer of the presenter, and they can carry on a discussion over the phone or VOIP (voice over Internet protocol). A video camera improves the process by making the presenter visible to the audience and, with a second camera, can even make the viewer visible to the presenter. Under this optimal setup, the presenter has all of the advantages of an in-person visit (the interpersonal interaction) without the disadvantages (cost and time away from home).

Which brings up the webinar. A webinar is a presentation via the Internet. In a webinar, the audience can see the computer of the presenter, and they can carry on a discussion over the phone or VOIP (voice over Internet protocol). A web cam improves the process by making the presenter visible to the viewer and, with a second camera, can even make the viewer visible to the presenter. With this optimal setup, the presenter has all of the advantages of the personal visit (the interpersonal interaction) without the pain (cost and time away from home).

The second disadvantage of the live presentation is the foibles and missteps of all humans that emerge as stumbles and fumbles. No matter how much we practice, we are doomed to imperfection, and the level of our professional mien is determined by the number of our "ers" and "ums" and slips of the tongue.

Once again,we are rescued by the developing technology of the high-definition video presentation. While this variety of presentation has the disadvantage of the absence of direct human interaction, it overcomes the disadvantages of the live presentation and the webinar. Most obviously, it eliminates the need for the presenter to travel to the viewers location. Second, it saves the precious time of the presenter. Once the kinks are worked out of the video presentation, it can be viewed an uncountable number of times by an uncountable number of people. Third, the step of coordinating two or more schedules is eliminated. The video presentation can be viewed by each individual at whatever time is convenient, and the viewing can even be split into shorter segments that fit into the busy schedule. Finally, the perfected video has none of the slips of the tongue that are inevitable in any live presentation. - 23305

About the Author:

Chuck R Stewart recently reviewed the most effective methods to deliver an raise capital for a company looking to obtain financing. Chuck found that using a private placement company was one of the most proficient ways to develop the presentation.

Profitable CFD Trading Strategies

By Jeff Cartridge

The two critical numbers to know when you are trading is the risk reward ratio and the winning percentage or hit rate. Understanding these numbers will go a long way to improving your trading.

The risk reward can be calculated by averaging all the wins and dividing by an average of all the losses. The risk reward clearly displays how large your profits are when compared to your losses. The hit rate is simply how often you win and is a count of the winning trades divided by a count of all the trades.

Lotto versus CFDs

Judging by the number of people that play lotto this is the way to generate wealth, but is it really?

Putting at risk just $10, you stand the chance to make $10 million when playing Lotto. This is excellent odds with your wins 1 million times the size of your losses giving a risk reward of $1 million to 1. This is an exceptional number and unlikely to be repeated anywhere in the investment world.

But it is not how much you win that is important when playing lotto it is how often do you win. An awesome risk reward is coupled with an awful hit rate. To win lotto if you require 6 from 40 balls then your probability of success is 1:3,838,380.

If you bought 3,838,380 tickets on average one ticket would win and the rest (3,838,379) would lose. This means on average you would have to spend $38,383,790 to win $10 million. Overall playing Lotto would cost you $28,383,790.

Winning Lotto is more about luck than probability as you may win before you buy you 3,838,380 ticket. But when it comes to building a profitable trading strategy it is not about luck it is about taking advantage of an opportunity that has a profitable edge.

Trading Lessons From A Rugby Game

The Crusaders have consistently won the Super 14 rugby competition in NZ managing to secure 7 wins over the last ten years.

A large bet of $100,000 was made that the Crusaders would win a particular game. The payoff if the Crusaders won was $108,000 so the gambler would receive a profit of just $8,000. With a downside of $100,000 the risk reward is very poor at 8:100 or 0.08.

Despite the lousy risk reward the probability of success is very high. If the probability was greater than 90% that the Crusaders would win then this could be the basis of a profitable strategy.

The odds are unknown, but assuming they were 95% then the gambler would win 19 out of 20 times. This means he would win $8,000 x 19 - $100,000 x 1. Overall he expects to win $52,000 from this strategy. So despite the risk reward being very poor it is possible that this is a winning strategy.

A successful CFD trader will find a CFD trading strategy that skews the odds in their favour and then implement that strategy to generate profits. - 23305

About the Author:

Jeff Cartridge has been trading CFDs since they were first launched in Australia in 2002 and created the website LearnCFDs.com Find the Best CFD Trading Books

Articles on Forex Trading

By Paul Bryan

Forex can be best defined as a global currency exchange market where buying and selling of the currencies from all over the world takes place. It has emerged as the worlds largest market in terms of money flow and volume of trading. It has been identified as the most liquid market where trillions of dollars are being exchanged every single day.

Some of the common currency pairs include the Euro against the Dollar, the Dollar against the British Pound, and the Euro against the Dollar. These are the most common pairs that traders exchange on (around 70% of trades are made with these pairs), however, there are many more pairs to choose from.

Due to the recent boom in interest in currency dealing, a range of websites and media sources are publishing a wide selection of forex trading articles. Many of these focus on the analytical and strategic side of trading.

Please be careful when reading the articles as some give you false or inaccurate information. This is particularly true of forex strategy articles. A good trading strategy can take a lot of time to construct with a lot of money being lost in the process. Articles claiming to have the perfect system should be treated with caution.

It is very difficult for a new trader to tell which articles are good and which are not to be trusted. Be wary of any that seem biased or have been written by someone selling a Forex tool or program.

People look to these articles to get the best information about the Forex business. So, it is very important that while reading these forex trading articles one verifies them properly before believing the message they carry to the core.

A good forex trading article will come up with simple strategies which are easy to use, and are all the more logical and usually used by veteran traders in the business.

Risk management is one of the most important aspects of currency dealing so make sure the article is advising you off this and not making unrealistic claims about how much money you will make. A good article will be written to be useful to you and so the writing style should reflect that.

Finding a currency dealing article that has been written by someone well-respected in the market is your best chance of success. Articles written by these people often look more at winning strategies as well as outlining the risks involved.

Forex trading articles can offer you a lot more than just a bed time story. They can provide you with real knowledge that you can use to start becoming a better, more informed Forex trader. - 23305

About the Author:

Paul Bryan is an experienced trader with years of experience in the Forex trading market. To see how his articles can help you learn to be a more careful trader please visit his website: Currency Dealing Articles

The Macro Trader and Interest Rate Cycles

By George Kovner

Macro traders via their mandate are able to trade any and all liquid asset classes. Whether they be stocks, bonds, commodities, or currencies macro traders look for the best risk to reward opportunities on the planet.

An area of the financial markets where macro traders tend to do really well is that of fixed income and interest rates. Both academia and practitioners of global macro have found this to be the case over the years. This is not a fluke as the basic trend of interest rates essentially screams profit opportunity.

To understand why this is the case it is important to look at how interest rates are raised and lowered. As opposed to many things which go up or down seemingly at random, short term interest rates are moved in a very methodological manner.

Central banks such as the Fed or the ECB rarely raise rates at one meeting and then lower them at the next. Instead they typically will raise, raise, raise, raise, hold, hold, hold, lower, lower, lower, etc. They move rates gradually because they are driving the equivalent of an aircraft carrier and not a jet ski, in other words they are trying to steer an entire economy and not a one man shop. Entire economies take time to move, and this is where a large part of the macro traders edge comes in.

By watching the moves of central banks and the economy traders can better forecast what is likely to happen. By not trying to pick the exact tops and bottoms macro traders can more safely generate their returns. Sometimes the central bank will only lower rates a few times before embarking on a new tightening cycle but typically these trends lasts months and months if not years and years which helps to generate even higher returns.

And whereas the regular stock trader only has two main decisions that they can make in light of interest rate changes the macro trader has several tools and trading strategies at their disposal. You can go long high yielding currencies, you can go short oil, or you can do the classic trade and go long or short bonds.

One of the classic trades is to go long zero coupon Treasury bonds when rates are to be cut and to short them when rates are headed back up. By doing this a macro trader can earn substantial profits and if they use leverage they can make even more. While there are several potential risks involved in the trade the primary one, especially in a easing cycle, is simply that of interest rates.

Global macro traders are the kings of interest rate trends and profiting from them. If you want to generate higher returns with less volatility then it pays to track rate trends and position yourself accordingly. One other bonus is that in this electronic age central banks are becoming more and more transparent, making our jobs all a lot easier. - 23305

About the Author:

If you need actionable trading ideas then check out The Macro Trader It is a weekly global macro trading advisory publication with frequent intra-week updates for time-critical analysis and actionable trading ideas.

What Are Stock Indexes? (Part I)

By Ahmad Hassam

There are hundreds of ETFs and HOLDRS covering key industry benchmarks such as the various Standard & Poor Indexes, Russell Indexes and the Dow Jones Averages or other less well known narrow based sectors.

For example SPY tracks the Standard & Poors 500 Composite Index and is the largest of the ETFs. You should know the major indexes that are either key benchmarks or have ETFs tied to them.

Standard & Poor: Standard & Poor (S&P) is the financial services segment of the McGraw Hill companies. It has been providing independent and objective financial information, analysis and research for nearly 140 years.

It is also the provider of equity indexes. Investors around the globe use S&P Indexes for investment performance measurement. These indexes are also used as the basis for wide variety of financial instruments such as Index Funds, Futures, Options and ETFs.

S&P 500 Composite is one of the most popular indexes in the global financial markets. Hundreds of companies around the world have licenses with the Standards & Poors for their index products. The influence and name recognition of S&P 500 is unparalleled. It is also used as a key benchmark for money manager performance.

The S&P 500 is a capitalization weighted index that tracks the performance of 500 large capitalization issues and each year thousands of money managers have the single minded goal of outperforming the S&P 500. S&P 500 represents more than 75% of the capitalization of the entire US Stock Market.

Over the years, the complexion of S&P 500 has changed. 30 years back most of the stocks were from the Industrial Sector. By 1970s, six of the top companies were from the Oil Sector. In 2000s, technology composed about one third of the capitalization of the index. The stocks in the S&P 500 are determined by a nine member committee in accordance with the general guidelines.

The other Standard & Poors indexes are the S&P Midcap 400 Index and it is based on 400 chosen domestic stocks. It is also capitalization based and measures the performance of the midsize companies of the US economy.

S&P SmallCap 600 is also capitalization weighted index and is of interest to institutional and retail investors. The S&P SmallCap 600 Index consists of 600 smallcap domestic stocks and these stocks are chosen for market size and liquidity. There are also sub-indexes based on these S&P Indexes.

NASDAQ: NASDAQ Composite Index contains more than 4500+ companies. It represents a market capitalization of trillions of dollars in the US economy. You will often hear in the media that the Nasdaq market being up or down on a given day.

There is another Nasdaq Index called the Nasdaq-100 and it is composed of the top 100 nonfinancial companies in the Nasdaq Stock Market. NASDAQ-100 is a modified capitalization weighted index. The QQQ is based on the Nasdaq-100 Index. - 23305

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. He is interested in day trading stocks and forex. Know Candlestick Charting. Learn Forex Trading!