4passiveprofit.com

mikey answers:

Whoa… Some other answerer chose China as a safe place, and I’ve got to disagree with that. China is ruled by laws, but property rights are a new concept there – particularly for foreigners – particularly those w/o billions of dollars and ties to the Chinese government. My advice: be careful in China. (good news is, as a foreigner, you can’t even buy on the Shanghai exchange)

My opinion: The US, UK, Canada are good. Then at a very slightly small step down: Australia, NZ, Western European countries… And Japan. Then: South Africa, Brazil (Argentina used to be here). Then: Peru, China, India. Then:Russia, middle eastern countries.

It’s important to know a little about geopolitics for stuff like this, because some places have a history of screwing investors (and their populations at the same time), and some, based on current policies, may not have a history, but have a risk.

mikey answers:

Good companies – companies that have made enough of a profit to be able to not only pay a dividend but to increase that dividend each year for the past 25+ years.
See www.dividendsvalue.com/analysis/stock-ideas/ or dividendinvestor.com for a list.
Bad companies – any company in which you don’t understand their future prospects, what they do or how they make their money.

mikey answers:

Congratulations on getting started. It’ll help you more than you know!

Your first dollars should be spent on getting educated on investing. You don’t have to train to trade them professionally, but we are talking about your future here. So the more you learn, the more it’ll help you! So let’s start there.

You ask a very broad question, so be prepared for a pretty long answer. Just take it in chunks!

How to invest depends on what you already know. We’ll assume that you’re beginning since you say you’re a newbie!

A good primer is How to Make Money in Stocks by William O’Neil. You can get it cheap just about anywhere. It’s widely available new or used.

Another good one is one of Jim Cramer’s books (he’s got a few).

But books will only get you so far. At some point, you’ll also want to get at least a little training. There are some great education companies if you want to make the investment. Investools.com or optionetics.com are both very good companies as is tmitchell.com

For free, you can start by visiting thestreet.com and investopedia.com. That’ll get you a pretty good primer so at least you’ll understand what the markets are and what a stock is, etc.

If you get a chance, watch Mad Money on CNBC. Don’t trade any of his picks until you track many of them over time. Just use the show to get you to understand some basics and get a feel for the market itself.

Next, subscribe to something like Investorsbusiness daily or something like that that can help you identify good stocks.

Once you understand stocks, go to 888options.com. It’s a website that’ll help you understand options (what they do, how they work, etc). You don’t need to trade them, but the more you know, the more you’ll see how options can really be the safest way to invest (once you’re educated).

For discipline (which is crucial to successful trading), probably Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas or Mastering the Trade by John Carter

I know that’s a LOT to absorb. Just take it one step at a time for now. Start with a book or two to give you an idea of where to begin. Take your time, and let it seep in.

As you get up to speed, you should papertrade to practice (highly recommended). This should help reduce your losses in the beginning as you get used to buying/selling.

You can practice for free on almost any reputable broker site (optionsxpress, scottrade, thinkorswim, etc).

Start slow, then as you figure things out, you can buy more shares.

Congrats again on getting started. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Hope this helps!

mikey answers:

….just go to yahoo/finance….. Where you see a box marked ” quotes”…you enter the symbol of the company you bought stock in… If you don’t know the symbol…use the ” symbol look- up ” function.
If you are looking for companies or stocks ..just for the project…try BEXP ( Brigham Exploration Co )…. Doing very nicely lately…….. Or see if you can invest in ETF’s like UYM..( materials )…or EDC ( emerging markets )……they are ‘ leveraged” meaning they gain two or three times the daily percentage that the sector they are invested in..(.good for fake investing !!!)

mikey answers:

AIM shares are legit,they have to adhere to strict rules laid down by the FSA,i think your problem is just impatience but you should always look long term – invest – and if your oil/gas shares have great potential then stop worrying about what this or that book said because it will only do your head in,,one last thing – if you keep buying and selling just because one of them has had a bad day well that’s the fastest way to lose your money,HOLD….

mikey answers:

That is an easy one. Just start saying your broke or you spent it. Ask mom what she needs it for and then put the same restrictions on her as she does you. When you need money.

mikey answers:

Not entirely true. If you drop the RESP, then you can apply for a scholarship. You must get a group scholarship plan if you want to apply.

mikey answers:

YOU ARE MY HERO, Keep it up, cut out buying thing you can live with out. Thank You for being a stay at home mom.
Your child is worth it

mikey answers:

Gee that was worth it…And how much fun will you have not being able to have friends over to play it…How are the holidays going to be when no one in your family knows they can get you games for the 360 or even buy you xbox live cards…. Dude tell the truth now …take the week of yelling ….It’s better then having to stress for months and months about her finding out…

mikey answers:

I’ve noticed that to save on groceries, making out a menu and writing your grocery list based on that can actually save money! I used to just go shopping and get anything. I then noticed that I had this high grocery bill and not much food to show for it. When I sat down and made a menu for the week and bought only the things on my list the grocery bill was much lower and I knew exactly what I was going to make that day which helped me in that way also. Bottle feeding your baby formula is also going to take a lot of money. My baby wouldn’t take the breast so I bought a breast pump and still gave him his breast milk in a bottle. Now he’s 7 months old and formula fed and it costs soooo much money. So breastfeed as long as you can. I was going to try cloth diapers but noticed that there are some things worth paying for! It took almost all my time to clean cloth diapers so I quickly got tired of that! Being a stay-at-home mom is the greatest joy of my life and I wish you and your new baby all the best!

mikey answers:

Banking is a broad field. If you want to do retail banking (which is the regular teller, personal finance sort of thing…available at most branches of a bank), then start as a teller. In retail banks, education counts for very little (unless it’s the Canadian Securities Course, or the Mutual Funds Accreditation); experience is what matters most.
If it’s commercial/institutional/investment banking, then try your best to get an internship. There are risk departments etc. Know financial derivatives well.

Last question: I personally graduated with a degree in Mathematics, and I regret it everyday. It was a waste of time; you need a graduate degree for a math education to be worth anything (unless you go into teaching). Don’t believe what anyone else tells you. It makes no sense in doing a degree if it isn’t going to land you a job. I would recommend switching to math and accounting/finance etc. Economics isn’t that much better as they typically want Phds. If you still have time, switch to engineering.

mikey answers:

First you must finish college and get a degree, then join bank for working experience, then work out from there to realise your ambition.

mikey answers:

Hey Mate,

we have same name
by the way why don’t you search resources on some search engines. Anyways i know a website for you as i also appeared in the exams.. Here it is http://www.indianbanks.org/

also subscribe the rss feeds, so that whenever a new job comes you will get an alert in your mail. I think they have lot of things for preparation like Q & A, Forums, Mock Test..

mikey answers:

I’m sorry to hear about your job loss.
It’s going to be hard to find an equivalent job in the current economic climate.
I would advise contacting firms directly, as well as searching on job sites.
These are difficult times.

mikey answers:

Most major companies do have offices outside of NYC, however, if you really want to make it big in banking NY is the place to be. I started my career in Boston and made the move to Wall Street.
You do get compensated well, but you also work more than just 9-5. Luckily I have a wife that understands as she has a demanding job as well. To give you an idea, my wife and I have a mutual friend that worked for a major investment firm on Wall Street. On 9-11 he realized he left his keys in his office and went back later that night to get them. Believe it or not there were some guys working. Moral of the story some banks do not care what is going on around you, close the deal and make them money or someone else will.
Keep in mind some of the more prestegious firms only hire MBA’s from the top 20, if you aren’t from Harvard, Wharton, Yale etc.. You will have a very hard time getting your foot in the door.
I would recommend visiting some of the bank websites and reading about the career paths for MBA’s. Most of them have a typical day in the life, career path etc..

mikey answers:

I hope you have been studying stocks for years because that $2000 can go bye bye in a matter of days if you don’t know about things like “sell stop” or invest in the wrong thing.

Stick to really big names .. Apple, Cable, Gold …anything you know about.

mikey answers:

Melco Crown Entertainment (MPEL) , have held since it broke through its 30 week MA many moons ago…

mikey answers:

I would shoot for clean energy (GREEN) companies if I were you. The Obama Administration will be moving their agenda to alternative energy jobs within the year – in fact, it’s beginning already with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act!

Corporations who are devoted to clean energy is where to put your money.

mikey answers:

If you do not stand to lose real money, high risk options and ACTC.PK.
If it is real money, DOW +ATI

mikey answers:

IBM, ExxonMobil, Johnson & Johnson and Walmart all come to mind, but even those stocks have had periods where they underperformed the market. Past performance is not necessarily a predictor of future stock performance. You mentioned just one company ATT that is no longer the leader that it once was, but there are several former great companies whose stocks no longer perform as well as the market as a whole.

mikey answers:

B

mikey answers:

For (3), there should be no question about what the answer is. But for (1) and (2), some questions will want you to use the ending balance of $4,312.6, while others will want you to use the average balance of $4,283.45 [(4,312.6 + 4,254.3) / 2]

mikey answers:

The answer is c. That company has net income of $93,385 on net sales of only $257,082, which is a profit margin ratio of over 36%. You just divide net income by net sales to get your ratio.

That company obviously has low cost of sales and low expenses relative to the other companies listed.

mikey answers:

Profit Margin Ratio = Net Income / Revenue

mikey answers:

The net profit margin is equal to the net profit (aka net income) after taxes and excluding extraordinary items divided by total revenues.

Return on Assets = Net Profit Margin x Asset Turnover
ROA = 0.08 x 1.54 = 12.32%

ROE = ROA x Debt-Equity Management Ratio

So, D/E = ROE / ROA
debt to equity = 15.28 / 12.32 = 1.24

check my math

mikey answers:

In most banks, a Customer Service Rep or CSR is a sales and service position. They may have duties on the teller line, but also have sales goals like a personal banker does. Their goals are usually lower than a PB. Often, CSRs are part time positions.

mikey answers:

Float–the amount of time it takes when you write a check to when the check shows back up to your bank for collection.

Example: you write the check on Tuesday at Old Navy. They take it, you take your merchandise. They put the check in their bank for deposit credit to their account. Your check comes to your bank for collection against YOUR account. The whole process can take up to 5 days or so.

Available balance–Your bank account shows how much you have available to withdraw. Sometimes this is with ATM w/drawls sometimes without. Available balance is what you could come withdraw if you went to the bank right then and took out all your money. HOWEVER, if you have say 45 checks out and after you go withdraw all your money all those checks start coming in…you are in trouble.

Collected balance–What you have left after all your deposits have been collected (all the deposits you have made checks and cash have been posted and paid) and your payments/debits have been taken out is your collected balance.

ATM withdrawals and debit card purchases can really screw you up if you don’t keep a running total of what you have and what you use.

mikey answers:

Hi Angel,

These are banking instruments

1.FFRDLS = Revolving
Documentary Letter of Credit
2. BG = Bank Guarantee
3. = SBLC is Standby Letter of Credit
CD = Certificate of Deposit
MTN = Medium Term Note

Etc.

~Trey

mikey answers:

Pin number رقم التعريف الشخصي

social security number رقم الضمان الاجتماعي

password الرقم السري

transaction المعاملة

drivers license number رقم رخصة القيادة

birth date تاريخ الميلاد

mikey answers:

It probably indicates a fair rating on your FICO score. You can get more specific advice about what it means.

mikey answers:

1. Preferred stocks get priority if the company is liquidated. For other differences — do a search online!
2. The structure of a business would depend on what the business is doing. While the first three can apply to almost anything, something that’s a non-profit is not likely to be in the same line of business as a for-profit. The different types generally provide different (if any) legal protection. Do a search!

mikey answers:

Greg ur wrong. Im 15 and started with $1000. Now $6,800 since July 18 . Although ive packed away about $4000. But ive made 23% ytd in 3 months.

1) how much cash do u have?
2) do you get allowance, have a job, or do odd jobs?
3)are you prepared to actually read a few books and follow a fake stock market on a virtual trading website for a few months?

I say u need $1000 minimum, if ur really good at it maybe $500. The only reason ive made so much is because its pretty much all i do.

mikey answers:

As the answer below states, you should start at investopedia.com. They are a very good resource for starting out. If you have cable TV in the United States (or elsewhere), you should find CNBC on cable TV. They have a major US cable station and CNBC worldwide, that follows stock markets in Asia, Europe and the United States. You can also follow them on their website for all kinds of financial and political news that affects the financial markets.

I have also included a few more, marketwatch and smart money.

Http://www.investopedia.com/university/beginner/

http://www.investopedia.com/university/stocks/

http://www.cnbc.com/

http://www.marketwatch.com/

http://www.smartmoney.com/

The next thing you will need is to find yourself an online broker. Smartmoney magazine runs a survey every year and below is their results for 2009.

Http://www.smartmoney.com/investing/stocks/smartmoney-2009-broker-survey/?page=8

Good luck in your investing! I’m not sure that my answer is the answer you were looking for, but investing in stocks is something you will have to read about online. All of the websites I have listed have tutorials and very good information to help you get started.

Happy investing!

mikey answers:

If you’re a rookie in investing or stocks, go to

www.finance.yahoo.com.

Open up a portfolio without using real money. You can give yourself as much or as little money to try out the market. The stocks you want to focus on is consumer staples, consumer discretionary, and healthcare. These are DEFENSIVE stocks that will survive through good and bad times. Most of my positions are in these stocks. Some names include 3M, Procter & Gamble, Kimberly Clark, Exxon Mobil, Walmart, Costco. Everybody’s got to eat and wipe their butts regardless of the state of economy. Many of these companies survived through the Great Depression.

That’s the benefits. You can sleep at night knowing your money is doing well. There are NO guarantees that you won’t lose money. It’s just that these stocks are the best. They pay good dividends too.

Then once you’re comfortable and test the waters of the market, you can finally put some real money in. Go to Scottrade.com. They’re excellent for beginners.

If you’re new to stocks, DON’T DAY TRADE. You’ll a rookie in a world of professionals. I tried day-trading with Citigroup and AIG when they were a little bit over $1. I had some luck at first, making about $30 a day but I was way over my head. My luck didn’t last long and I had to rethink my strategy.

Day trading involves A LOT of commissions to the broker. With all the commissions deducted from each trade, you’ll be lucky if you only lose half your money.

I would just day trade using Yahoo! Finance. Open a stimulation account, give yourself $100 worth of fake money and play it in the stimulation format. You’ll see what I mean by losing money every easily.

Good luck.

mikey answers:

You’re looking for a lot of things that others are looking for, however, there is very little out there that meets your requests. Of anything, I would suggest companies like Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Altria (MO), Walmart (WMT) and Procter & Gamble (PG). I would avoid the pharmaceuticals despite their high yields and relative stability as there is question regarding the drug policy of Obama, who will likely push generics. Therefore, you are stuck looking for companies in the consumer staples arena for the most part, and then very select companies outside that arena that will do well in either a strong or weak economy. However, for the long-term, I would definitely encourage people to invest in commodity-related industries (such as oil, metals, fertilizer, etc.), as they have fallen off a cliff because of our deflationary environment. However, with the substantial monetary stimulus that the government has been injecting into the financial sector, our country will emerge from this in a much weaker financial state than the likes of China (using a fiscal stimulus versus a monetary stimulus) or Japan (has a strong budget surplus, just lent the IMF $100 billion). Therefore, I expect inflation to take a toll on the economy going forward, which may prolong this recession, as it will likely begin its rampage once the economy begins to recover, and will likely exceed the levels we saw earlier this year (oil at $140+). In regards to timing, I can’t help but continue to be bearish on the broader markets. The markets broke my previous expectations of S&P 500 to the 800 level, and I have revised my expectations to S&P 500 to the 575 level. I have done so as the market just broke a long-term support line (from the 2002 market bottom) today, and broke a bearish descending triangle pattern yesterday, which was confirmed today by a failed retest of the previous support line. Therefore, if you do enter any of these companies, do so only with the long-term in mind, and create a dollar-cost averaging strategy to build your position and strictly adhere to it. At some point, there will be a recovery in the markets, but there is little fundamental or technical reason to consider entering the market aggressively now. Just my opinion, I hope it helps.

Best of luck!

mikey answers:

It can be a post office or even a travel agents with bureau de change facilities. It seems to depend where the recipient is in the world – more information is available here http://www.moneygram.com/index.htm

mikey answers:

Be careful, if you were not expecting the money orders it could be a scam. Do not share any of your personal info in an attempt to collect any of this money unless you are 100% certain it is legit.

mikey answers:

Yes you can buy the Chinese products.

mikey answers:

You are right, that site is a mess.

Western Union will keep a transaction open for a year, 365 days. So maybe moneygram is the same?

Have you checked the 8 digit MTCN# online or by phone to see if it is still active?

mikey answers:

It is only mandatory by company law, so yes you could sue if you can prove that there was a loss on your part. Not saying you would win and it is not criminal unless the person that picked it up impersonated the actual recipient.

mikey answers:

No you will not. Many organizations do a fundraiser, such as a craft fair using paid vendors.

mikey answers:

How much money are we talking here? Is this a profitable endeavor

Capital gain. The items you purchased more than a year before selllng are long term. And those that you bought less than a year before selling are short term.
You will enter your purchase date and $ paid for it. Then you enter sales date, which will be same for all entries since you sold all at one time. Do you know the weights of each purchase? You would prorate the total price recieved in the sale by the % of weight that each purchase represents.

mikey answers:

The IRS will smell something then will call for major audit. Tell your friend to do it right, legal and to avoid doing something unaware of. He better consult with an attorney for this where there will be many papers to be filled for the IRS, secretary of the state.

mikey answers:

3!

mikey answers:

They don’t spend as much as you think they do on payouts. They have high power attorneys who are paid big bucks to fight patient cases. That’s why people are angry because instead of working with patients they are fighting against them.

mikey answers:

Staff levels remain unchanged. The changes don’t really have any effect on it. However you can expect higher fees and new fees to combat the government trying to lower the profit margins.

mikey answers:

I’m also against the possibility something can be “too big to fail”.
A reserve fund, while better than nothing, and WAY better than using our tax dollars, is not as good as splitting those damn monopolistic companies in two or three pieces.

mikey answers:

The real question that no one is asking (but should be) is, what ever happened to all the energy brokers who left Enron after its collapse, and why were none of them ever held accountable for the illegal manipulation of the energy markets in California?

Going after the Enron chiefs was not enough. They simply looked the other way at the illegal practices. But meanwhile, those brokers moved on to other sectors, where they used the exact same methodology again.

Some went to the mortgage industry. Some went to the credit industry. Most went to the oil and gas industry. And it’s no coincidence this is where our problems are… Again.

If you want to demand anything from Congress or the presidential candidates, it should be that all of the people involved in these scandalous practices — NOT just the CEO’s and CFO’s — be punished accordingly and appropriately.

mikey answers:

Zero. Zilch. Nada. Nothing.

Which is strange, because the 2008 meltdown was directly attributed to the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley banking deregulation act, which repealed the Depression era Glass-Steagall act.

Democrats claimed this proved the GOP was to blame, because it has Republican Phil Gramm’s name on it (eyeroll).

So, WHY DIDN’T THE DEMOCRAT GOVERNMENT REPEAL IT FIRST THING?

WHY HAVENT’ THE DEMOCRATS REINSTATED GLASS-STEAGALL???????

The FACT is, JOHN MCCAIN has introduced legislation to do exactly that:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/31148

‘Big is bad’ catches on in Congress
“The anger at the nation’s financial behemoths is taking shape in a variety of ways, most notably in a bill from Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), who are targeting big financial institutions such as JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup.

“The bipartisan duo’s bill would reinstate the Depression-era law that built a wall between commercial banking and the riskier activities of investment banking. The separation — originally set up in the Glass-Steagall Act — was repealed in 1999. ”

IS THIS BEING COVERED IN ANY OF THE MAINSTREAM NEWS MEDIA????

No, of course not.

All anybody can talk about is global warming and health care reform. Both of which are now dead issues.

Well I guess now we have to go back to arguing about gun control, flag burning, and abortion.

We can NEVER discuss anything of substance, can we…

mikey answers:

There are many but the most prominent was the Glass Stegall Act which was initiated in 1933 and separated savings and loans from banks and prevented banks from private investments like the brokerage houses . It was repealed by Clinton in 1992 a few weeks before he left office by Executive privelege and has contributed greatly to our problems today. It was prior to WW2 but it was a very big change.

Sarbanes Oxley was a major change in 2002 that changed accounting practices to protect investors from fraudulent accounting practices by corporations.

Good luck