Five ways to increase the efficiency of the business operation and its margins is probably one of the most overlooked areas to building and sustaining a profitable business. Yet, it has so much potential for making a positive impact on your bottom line.

Step 1: Control or Reduce Expenses

Getting a handle on where your money is going is critical. Most businesses have an incredible amount of waste, not only in actual money loss, but in human capital – loss or wasted time by their employees and staff. You need to keep a very tight reign over any expenditure, and money should only be spent after careful consideration and analysis as to how it will contribute to your bottom line profits.

One of the biggest money wasters is in the area of advertising and marketing. Careful testing of ads and promotions should be carried out in small runs before “rolling out” to your entire list or to the marketplace. Direct response ads with enticing and compelling offers should always be used in place of more traditional image or institutional ads.

When you consider how much it “costs” to bring in a dollar of actual profit and then see how easy it is to spend that money and not get a positive return, it’s not hard to see why so many businesses have a difficult time showing a positive balance at the end of the year.

Step 2: Increase Profit Margins

Profit margins are the difference between what the product and service you offer costs you to make, produce, purchase, or acquire, versus what you sell it for, and after deducting sales, processing, fulfillment, and delivery costs. The more steps there is in the process from production or acquisition to delivery, the more room there is for excess costs to creep in, and the lower profit margins will be.

Every effort should be made to monitor, control and slash costs whenever possible. Remember, a simple two-dollar savings on a twenty dollar product can add up to 20 percent more profit for your business.

Step 3: Create A Teamwork Approach

You cannot afford to run your business with a “super-star” mentality. Just as in any team sport, to be truly effective, it takes the entire team to make a company run smoothly and efficiently. Want to know how to make your company more responsive to the needs of your customers? Hold a team meeting. Invite people from every department – sales, manufacturing, accounting, fulfillment, delivery, even janitorial.

Have a brainstorming session and get every idea possible on the table. Don’t be judgmental. Get them all out. Then go through each idea and discuss how it can be used to more fully satisfy the needs of your customers. Sometimes the best ideas come from those you’d least expect.

Step 4: Manage Time More Effectively

Every person on the face of the earth has exactly the same number of hours, minutes and seconds in their day – every day. No one has an advantage in this area. It’s true that we all have different jobs, tasks, priorities, and responsibilities, and those all require different amounts of time, but you can significantly increase your available time if you take stock of where you are, what you’re spending your time on, and then effectively employ the principle of delegation.

By concentrating on things that matter most, or that only you can do, and then delegating the lesser important tasks to the lowest competency level person that can handle them, you’ll have more time to focus on the important priorities – the things that can make you real money.

Step 5. Increase Your Staff’s Knowledge And Competence

How many times have you called a business and asked a question, only to have the person on the other end of the phone act like they had no idea of what you were talking about or where to get the answer? It happens all the time. Unfortunately, with today’s labor laws it’s much more difficult to get rid of incompetent, rude or uncaring employees without the threat of lawsuits or some other problems.

Knowing how to hire the right employees is becoming more critical, as well as how they’re trained to handle different situations that come up in your business. It’s surprising how few businesses have regular what seems like old-fashioned staff or employee meetings. And for those who do, most of their meetings have to do with administrative duties, and are “reactive” in their approach.

By changing your focus and conducting “pro-active meetings on how to deal with certain situations, sell more effectively, and show interest in your customers, and so on, will not only improve the morale of your company’s image, but it will also be a contributing factor to your profitability.

Copyright © 2007, all rights reserved

Gail Barsky works primarily with small to medium size businesses in most industries. Gail’s proven system, “ProfitsMakeOver” helps business owners’ increase: the size of customer transactions, profit margins, the frequency of purchases, number of years customers do business with you, generate more referrals and boost conversion rates. Take Gail Barsky’s, “Get Rich With Barsky Challenge” by visiting her site at GailBarsky.com/ GailBarsky.com

You can select low-priced puts—ones that are out of the money—but that means you require many points of price movement to produce a profit. In other words, those puts are low-priced for a good reason. The likelihood of gain is lower than it is for higher-priced puts. When you buy in-the-money puts, you will experience a point-for-point change in intrinsic value; but that can happen in either direction. For put buyers, a downward movement in the stock’s market value is offset point-for-point with gains in the put’s premium; but each upward movement in the stock’s market value is also offset, by a decline in the put’s intrinsic value.

Example: A Losing Proposition: You bought a put and paid a premium of 5. At the time, the stock’s market value was 4 points below the striking price. It was 4 points in the money. (For calls, “in the money” means the stock’s market value is higher than striking price, but the opposite for puts.) However, by expiration, the stock has risen 4.50 points and the option is worth only 0.50 ($50). The time value has disappeared and you sell on the day of expiration, losing $450.

Example: Time Running Out: You bought a put several months ago, paying a premium of 0.50 ($50). At that time, the stock’s market value was five points out of the money. By expiration, the stock’s market value has declined 5.50 points, so that the put is 0.50 point in the money. When you bought the put, it had no intrinsic value and only 0.50 point of time value. At expiration, the time value is gone and there remains only 0.50 point of intrinsic value. Overall, the premium value has not changed; but no profit is possible because the stock’s market value did not decline enough.

The problem is not limited to picking the right direction a stock’s market value might change, although many novice options traders fall into the trap of believing that this is true. Rather, the degree of movement within a limited period of time must be adequate to produce profits that exceed premium cost and offset time value (and to cover trading costs on both sides of the transaction). This time-related problem exists for LEAPS puts as well. However, with much longer time involved, many put buyers view the normal market cycles as advantageous even when speculating. For example, you may need to spend more premium dollars to acquire a LEAPS put, but with up to three years until expiration, you will also have many more opportunities to realize a profit.

Whether using listed options or LEAPS to buy puts, it remains a speculative move to go long when time value is involved. Some speculators attempt to bargain hunt in the options market. The belief is that it is always better to pick up a cheap option than to put more money into a high-priced one. This is not always the case; cheap options are cheap because they are not necessarily good bargains, and this is widely recognized by the market overall. The question of quality has to be remembered at all times when you are choosing options and comparing prices. The idea of value is constantly being adjusted for information about the underlying stock, but these adjustments are obscured by the double effect of (1) time to go until expiration and the effect on time value, and (2) distance between current market value of the stock and the striking price of the option. When the market value of the stock is close to the striking price, it creates a situation in which profits (or losses) can materialize rapidly. At such times, the proximity between market and striking price will also be reflected in option premium. It’s true that lower-priced puts require much less price movement to produce profits; but these low-priced puts remain long shots.

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If you are a runner, then I am sure that you will know about calf cramps.

Imagine this scenario if you will. Let’s say that you are 7.5k into a 10k run and the road starts to incline. Ever so slightly, but enough to put that extra strain on your legs as you try to maintain contact with the leaders. And the temperature? Well, it’s the morning, but it’s hot and liable to get hotter before the end. And to make matters worse, you were so desperate to maintain contact with the leading group, that you forgot to take on liquid at the last feeding station. And did you use tight fitting calf length socks? I know they are all the rage, but why did you do it?

So what do we have here?

* Extra strain on muscles?

* Dehydration?

* Loss of essentials salts?

* Restriction of blood flow?

All in all, I think that we are describing running calf cramps, waiting to happen.

I am not sure that anyone has definitive answer to the cause of cramps, but there are certainly several steps that you can take which could help save you from disaster during competition, in any sport.

1. A Proper Warm Up

Ok, I know you know, but did you do it? If not, then those cramps could be coming. Seriously, if you have been involved in any sport to any level, then you will be aware of the importance of a proper warm up. And I don’t just mean a brisk walk up the stairs to the changing room either! A proper warm up should include a routine that gently stretches your muscles to get them ready for the increased exertion, and gets your blood flowing around your body. Not only will a warm help prevent calf cramps, they will also help prevent some of the injuries that might occur when you put sudden strain on cold muscles.

And whilst we are talking of warm ups, don’t forget warm downs as well. Warming down after exercise can also help prevent cramping and reduce the risk of injury.

2. Train Hard, Run Easy

Have you heard this before? No? Well you should give it some thought, because it’s true. When you train for a sport, not only do you practice the necessary skills required to execute which ever event you are competing in, but you are also training your body for the rigours of the event. To given an exaggerated example, if you train for a sprint, and then try and run a marathon, your body won’t be ready. If you try it, I think you could be in for some serious cramps.

Remember, train hard, run easy.

3. Water is Sport’s Life Blood

Whenever you start to exercise, you start to sweat (or you should). Sweat is nature’s way of cooling you down when you get hot, so, it’s a good thing. And since your body is mainly made of water, then you should have plenty, shouldn’t you? Well, considering that you lose moisture from your body when you breathe, sweating does take a lot of fluid out of your system.

And your body will demand that it be replaced!

If you start feeling dizzy, or experience a rapid heart beat, then these could be signs that you are starting to dehydrate. I will take it as read that if your mouth and lips feel dry, then you should be taking water on board. It is not always possible to take on fluid during sport, but always have some available as soon as you are able to drink.

4. Sport A’int No Catwalk.

It’s true! Sport is not a fashion parade. If you think it is, then you are hanging out in the wrong place! There’s nothing wrong with looking cool whilst you compete, but be practical. Don’t risk injury (or cramps) by wearing clothing that is too tight, and that restricts your body’s movement, either externally or via blood flow. Believe me, I know. When I was younger, I used tie up’s on my socks whilst playing soccer (not as a fashion statement you’ll understand), just to keep my socks up and my shin guards inside my socks. Three quarters of the way through a game, my calves would tighten up, and I would roll on the floor in agony. Once it was understood, that I ‘only had cramp’, I was the object of much derision, but believe me, cramp is far from funny if you are the one suffering.

Wear appropriate clothing.

5. Eat Properly.

When you are sweating and working hard, not only do you lose water, you also lose nutrients. There is speculation that that athletes who get calf cramps could suffer from low levels of potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus. I am not suggesting that you do low level analysis of your breakfast cereal, but the message is clear. Look after your body, and your body will look after you.

Eat sensibly, and eat the right foods.

The article was written by Charlie Cory, who is the owner of Home Fitness Online. Get fitter, feel better, live longer. Home Fitness Online provides advice about attaining higher levels of fitness from the comfort of your own home.

Visit his website about home-fitness-online.com home fitness today.

Hard working loyal employee for 25-30 years, looking forward to a beautiful retirement, only to find out that their promised company pension may have already been stolen. Farfetched? No.

In one year alone, 2005, about 120 corporations dropped their employee pension plans. On average, only one out of five corporate employees in America is covered by a traditional corporate pension plan today.

The problem is that of those corporations who still have pension plans, 80% are running out of money and will never be able to pay full benefits and may drop their plans completely.

Looked at another way, 8 out of 10 corporate benefit plans are under-funded. As a result, U.S. corporations are defaulting on their existing pension obligations at an alarming rate:

Major airlines such as Northwest and Delta, recently persuaded a Federal bankruptcy court to delay or terminate their pension obligations to their retiring employees. Health care benefits for pensioners are particularly vulnerable and will gradually disappear. GM’s outstanding unfunded healthcare obligations, at an unfathomable $64 Billion, are 25% more than its entire market capitalization! Inexplicitly, a company such as ExxonMobil, with the biggest quarterly corporate profit on record in history, recently announced that it has under-funded its pension plan by $11.2 billion. That was not an oversight. They gave departing CET Lee Raymond a $400 million dollar retirement package. Can the government help?

It should, they were the ones that allowed corporate raiders, such as Dick Cheney to siphon off retirement funds and consistently, though legally, under fund them. Don’t count on the US government to keep your pension checks coming if your company runs out of money.

The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC), has a whopping $23 billion deficit and it is the Federal body charged with insuring corporate pension plans that have defaulted. In the last 30 years, the PBGC has been forced to take over 3,400 pension plans.

With accounting practices now demanding that corporations “Book” their future retirement obligations on current financial statements, it is likely that the trend toward dropping pensions will become a landslide in the next decade.

As it is now, they have dramatically reduced pension payments to those retirees whose plans they have taken over to try to stretch out the remaining money.

A treacherous feature of the PBGC’s pension payments is that you are not sure that you will not have to pay back a certain percentage of the money you are paid by them until your payment level is certified; a process that, somehow can take years.

The trend toward bankrupted and abandoned pension plans will also accelerate as the Baby Boomers queue up to get theirs only to find that their companies have been playing fast and footloose with the regulations that let them raid their employee pension plans and/or significantly under fund them.

It amounts to nothing less than malfeasance to the loyal hardworking men and women who made these companies successful.

The future does not look good, retirement wise, for those who expect to retire in the next 20 years or so. You should expect to have to augment or replace your pension with private resources or expect to have to work until you can no more. Forget about company supplied health care coverge for retirees.

This will become the accepted norm for later generations. Corporate pensions will have become quaint notions. Unless you have an IRA or a 401(K), you will be penniless when you retire.

In the mean time, what are you going to do, turn to family and friends or charities? If you are in your late 40′s or 50′s, you will have to go into emergency mode and start saving prodigious proportions of your salary for the balance of your working life and/or make investments that will be able to support you when you retire.

If you are already in your 60′s, you will probably just squeek under the wire, but your payments and health benefits will probably gradually be reduced as the years go by.

By the way, I would not look to Social Security to pick up the slack any time soon!

Copyright 2006 Bill Young. Bill is a Financial Personal Trainer. He teaches individuals and groups how to Quit the Rat Race and become financially independent in a few short years, a neccessity in the coming years. You can sign up for his free Weekly Newsletter, which will provide you weekly guidance on how to solve money problems: HowtoSolveYourMoneyProblems.com HowtoSolveYourMoneyProblems.com He also has an advanced program for those who will retire in a few years, EmergencyRetirementPlan.Com EmergencyRetirementPlan.Com

Americans, the world’s largest polluters, consumed almost four tons of coal per person in 2006. Every ton of coal burned sends more than two tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

By 2009, experts believe China will overtake the United States as the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide.

According to the country’s National Reform and Development Commission (NDRC), China will produce 1.45 trillion kWh of electricity in the first half of 2007. About 75 percent of the China’s energy is generated by coal. By 2050, to serve China’s growing population, the country is expected to add the sum total of Canada’s generating capacity every four years!

While China hopes to rely more upon nuclear, coal is continues taking its toll until the country solves its energy quandary.

On Tuesday, China’s state environmental watchdog reported that more than 62 percent of the country’s cities suffer from air pollution. Thirty-nine cities were placed on the State Environmental Protection Administration’s ‘Black List,” because they suffered severe air pollution.

Seven of those cities are located in China’s northern Shanxi province, the country’s largest coal supplier. Coal-fired power plants are reportedly the major culprit. Many were given preferential pricing terms to install sulfur removal systems. Some took the pricing, but skipped the systems.

China’s runaway pollution has become an international problem.

In early April, an American satellite spotted a dense yellow cloud of gases, chemical and desert sands floating across Seoul (Korea) – emissions from China’s coal-fired smokestacks. This weekend, the Korean government retaliated by launching Greenbelt Plantation Project. The Korean forestry service plans to plant 1.5 million trees in Mongolia to help reduce sandstorms wafting across the Yellow Sea, which bring its residents respiratory illnesses.

It is not that China is ignoring the problem, but that the country’s breakneck GDP growth rate is not only impacting global commodity prices (oil, copper, nickel, uranium, etc), but could also be accelerating the effects of abrupt climate change and global warming.

Just Bad Weather?

One can politely compartmentalize the disrelated weather events which occurred over the past seven days and call those a coincidence, or one can imagine the horrors Dr. James Lovelock has warned could occur as this century unfolds, as he told us a year ago.

A week ago, Cyclone Gonu was recorded as the strongest tropical storm since 1945 in the Arabic Gulf region. It peaked as a Category 5 along the coastline of the Gulf of Oman. At the time, many worried it might disrupt oil exports from the Middle East. It was the first cyclone in recorded history to enter the Gulf of Oman. Eastern Australia was battered by heavy rains and suffered major flooding and landslides this past weekend. So great was the impact that some compared it to 1989’s earthquake, near the same location.

There have been other firsts over the past few years. In 2004, Cyclone Catrina became the first cyclone to form in the South Atlantic and also hit Brazil. In 2005, Hurricane Vince became the first cyclone to hit the Iberian Peninsula. In 2006, super typhoon Chanchu formed in the South China Sea, hitting China, Taiwan, the Philippines and Taiwan.

Many have concluded these could be early warning signs of much greater catastrophes expected as sea waters further warm up.

China Aiming for Solutions

Electricity growth has been the global driver toward more nuclear and more environmentally friendly methods of power generation. For example, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) forecasts an additional 90 gigawatts of electricity would be required over the next twenty-five years in the United States. To generate this new capacity, the DOE calculated it would take 151 coal-powered plants, 100 mid-sized nuclear plants or 60,000 wind turbines.

China’s problem is magnified to accommodate its higher energy intensity per unit of GDP growth. Not to mention its whirlwind growth.

While we discussed several coal-replacement developments in our recent publication, “Investing in China’s Energy Crisis,” one has piqued our interest as more easily implemented. And it is also one where China has focused.

Kyoto Protocol Drives CBM Projects

Clean coal technology is being rapidly advanced in China because of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which is an integral component of the Kyoto Protocol and which China signed in 1998 and approved in 2002. The CDM allows developing countries to sell their ‘certified emission reductions’ (CERs) to the wealthier nations.

By trading CERs, China has developed an additional revenue stream to fund local emission reduction projects. According to the World Bank, China obtained 62.5 percent of the total UN-certified carbon credits in 2006. This amounted to US$3 billion.

One such project benefiting from the CER mechanism is the Jincheng coalbed methane (CBM) power plant, which is scheduled to begin operation this August. At 120,000 kw, it will be the largest of its kind in Asia. Annually, the power plant is expected to transform 180 million cubic meters of CBM gas into 730 million kWh of electricity.

The power plant is attached to the Sihe coal mine from which the intense greenhouse gas will now be used to provide electricity. Jincheng Anthracite Mining Group, which owns the mine and the power plant, received US$150 million in funding in exchange for certified emission reduction credits.

On June 1st, Jiangxi province’s first coalbed methane (CBM)-fired power station was successfully connected to a power grid in this southern Chinese province. It had gone through two months of trial operations. This CBM plant could become a model for similar plants in other Chinese provinces.

There are negotiations for 60 CDM projects currently underway. Of the twenty approved by the state government, most are coalbed methane recovery projects.

China hopes to double the sale of the country’s carbon credits. The next five years could show intensified activity in carbon trading as Japan and Europe rush to the 2012 deadline for meeting their emission reductions targets. Using the present rate of China’s market share as a yardstick, this could mean more than US$7 billion in ‘foreign aid’ in 2007.

Financial institutions are scrambling to deal with the trading action. Fortis Bank, a Belgian Dutch financial group, which has carbon trading desks in Europe and the United States, plans to expand its Hong-Kong trading desk this year to capitalize upon the ‘easy pickings’ of methane projects. Fortis ranks 18th on Fortune’s Global 500 list with 2006 revenues of more than US$112.3 billion.

Fortis’ Asian carbon market director Shane Spurway said, “Methane will probably be one of the most popular projects in the next three to four years.”

While degasifying China’s coal mines helps save lives, the financiers aren’t attracted to methane projects for humanitarian reasons. Because methane gas is far more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, every ton of methane gas captured and utilized is the financial trading equivalent of twenty tons of CO2.

As a result, we believe China’s coalbed methane gas should become a very valuable commodity and attract widespread foreign capital to those companies developing CBM in China. We also suspect that foreign-owned CBM companies developing these projects could become beneficiaries of carbon trading credits – potentially adding cash to their revenue streams.

Until now, coalbed methane projects have lagged in development. The CER mechanism in the Kyoto Protocol shoots them to the top of the list. Carbon traders make money so the CBM projects will become easier to finance. They neither require the capital-intensive component of nuclear energy power plants nor the gamble of an offshore natural gas discovery.

Kyoto’s CERs and China’s CBM projects appear to be a banker’s dream project, for at least the next few years as the world’s richest nations rush to capitalize upon those carbon trading credits.

China’s Guizhou Province

China hopes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by phasing out many obsolete thermal power plants and replacing them with small-scale natural gas or coalbed methane electric power plants. Holding one of the world’s top coal reserves, and the world’s largest producer and consumer of coal, China relies upon coal for its energy. The country’s top experts know coal better than any other energy source.

Consequently, China’s turning to CBM gas as one means of reducing air pollution and continuing to power its double-digit GDP growth is a natural extension for its scientists, miners and environmentalists.

After researching Shanxi province, which hosts one-third of China’s coal reserves, we began studying comparable coal provinces and regions to find which areas had prolific CBM reserves. Guizhou province stood out. It is also about 400 miles northwest of Hong Kong.

In the course of researching the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Coalbed Methane Outreach Program, we were fortunate to uncover an analysis released in late 2005 jointly published by the China Coal Information Institute and the US EPA.

“Guizhou province has the largest coal reserve in southern China as well as rich CBM resources. The CBM reserve in Guizhou is 3.1KB m3, accounting for 22 percent of the total in China.”

Guizhou ranks second behind Shanxi province.

The report continued, “The CBM resources in Guizhou are not only rich but of high quality as well, with the CBM reserve 29KB m3 in the methane-rich areas of over 8 m3 methane per ton coal, accounting for 94 percent of the total amount of local CBM resources.”

This government report also noted the plan was utilize the ‘local rich CBM resources on a large scale.’

As a result, we anticipate Guizhou province may be one of the targets of the certified emission reduction credits. The high quality and abundant CBM reserves could help develop the small-scale CBM plants now operational or under construction to the east and north. The regional population is equivalent to more than 80 percent of the U.S. population.

In April, China announced Guizhou province would utilize 100 million square meters of CBM this year. Later that month, the NDRC announced it would encourage coal mine investors to exploit CBM. In May, a new preferential policy to promote CBM exploitation was announced.

To our knowledge, only one foreign-owned company holds properties in Guizhou province. Pacific Asia China Energy is presently developing its Boatian-Qingshan property in the Longtan coal formation in this province.

In summary, we don’t believe the high-pitched excitement for the next few years will be about China’s nuclear power plants. Certainly there will be growth in China’s nuclear, and over the next decade, nuclear could represent a higher level of electrical capacity. And China has announced it plans to build a strategic uranium reserve. But, the country has also limited the amount of molybdenum it exports (effective earlier this month). Of course, this should drive those metal prices higher.

However through 2012, China’s coal mines and the methane contained in those mines is more likely to be a major energy driver in attracting foreign capital. After all, carbon trading credits can’t be taken lightly. The CERs are attracting foreign investment, bringing the country new technologies and gifting the Chinese government billions of dollars for trying to reduce their air pollution.

COPYRIGHT © 2007 by StockInterview.com

James Finch contributes to StockInterview.com and other publications. His recent work, “Investing in China’s Energy Crisis,” is now available at bookstore.stockinterview.com/CBM-ebook.html bookstore.stockinterview.com/CBM-ebook.html

The easiest way to understand just how you can profit from foreign exchange swaps as the exchange rate moves up and down is to look at an example of each. Let’s start by considering how you might profit when exchange rates move up.

Let’s assume that you believe that the UK Pound is going to rise against the US Dollar and that you can currently buy GBP/USD at 1.9340. Let’s also assume that you are trading in standard interbank lots of 100,000 so that 100,000 UK Pounds will currently cost 193,400 US Dollars.

In essence to open a trade for a standard lot you will need to borrow 193,400 US Dollars and this amount will need to be repaid when you close out your position. We won’t digress from the purpose of this article to discuss the concept of borrowing to fund Forex purchases but, suffice it to say, that the majority of trading is done using borrowed funds making use of the ability to use leverage when Forex trading.

Now let’s assume that your belief that the UK Pound would rise against the US Dollar is correct and that the price moves 100 pips to a rate of 1.9440. The 100,000 UK Pounds which you purchased are now worth 194,400 US Dollars and can be sold to repay the original borrowing, leaving you with a profit of 1,000 US Dollars.

In reality it’s not quite this simple because there will be costs involved in this transaction, but this does demonstrate the principle of profiting when the exchange rate moves up.

Now let’s turn our attention to profiting when the exchange rate moves down.

Let’s assume that you believe that the UK Pound is going to fall against the US Dollar from its present rate of GBP/USD = 1.9340. In other words, you believe that the UK Pound is going to buy fewer US Dollars.

In this case you will place an order to sell 100,000 UK Pounds at a cost of 193,400 US Dollars. In other words you will borrow 100,000 UK Pounds and sell them for 193,400 US Dollars.

Again we will assume that your belief was correct and that the rate drops by 100 pips to GBP/USD = 1.9240. At this point you close your position by buying back and repaying the 100,000 UK Pounds which you originally sold which will now cost you 192,400 US Dollars, leaving you with a profit of 1,000 US Dollars.

Again this example ignores any costs involved in the trade, but nonetheless demonstrates the principle of profiting from a downward movement in exchange rates.

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Tae Kwon Do is perhaps the most commonly practiced martial art in the world today. Developed in Korea, it is a combination of combat technique, self defense, exercise, sport, entertainment and philosophy. It is the national sport of Korea and an Olympic sporting event.

Tae Kwon Do sparring is generally divided into two forms: one-step sparring and free sparring.

One-step Tae Kwon Do sparring involves prearranged movements performed by two participants in concert. One of the participants employs punching and kicking techniques while the other uses various combinations of blocking and counterattacking techniques.

One-step sparring helps familiarize the students with the fundamentals of kicking, punching, and blocking movements. The students will learn to develop and manage their reaction time for accurate counterattacks. One-step sparring is essential in preparation for free Tae Kwon Do sparring.

Free sparring in Tae Kwon Do is the practical application of self defense techniques. The points of contact include the belt and above.

Typically, full contact is not permitted in free Tae Kwon Do sparring for safety reasons. Students are only allowed to strike specific target areas. Hand techniques, for example, may only be used on the front and side of the body from the belt to the shoulder. This also means that no hand technique may be delivered to the face or head.

Foot techniques may only be executed on the front and sides of the body from the belt to the head. Intentional kicks to the back and back of the head are strongly illegal. Also, there should be no throwing, knee attacks, head butts, or elbows are allowed. These rules are generally maintained by the World Tae Kwon Do Federation (WTF).

Taekwondo sparring tournaments consist of three rounds, each of which is three minutes, with a one minute rest period between rounds. In competition, matches are held in an 8×8 meter contest area in the center of a 12×12 meter competition area. A referee controls the match and enforces compliance with the rules. The event is judged by four corner judges who award the scores.

The article you have just read is just one of several informative articles on the subject martial of arts sparring that you can find here: martial-arts-sparring-gear.com martial-arts-sparring-gear.com

The Fibonacci numbers sequence and the golden ratio have fascinated mathematicians for hundreds of years.

While Fibonacci numbers have many applications, they have received considerable interest from traders due to their uncanny accuracy in spotting market turning points in advance.

You can use Fibonacci numbers as a predictive tool and when used correctly they can enhance a your analysis of the market, helping you to increase profits and decrease risk.

The History of Fibonacci Numbers

The Fibonacci number sequence first appeared as the solution to a problem in the Liber Abaci, a book written by Leonardo Fibonacci in 1202 to introduce the Hindu-Arabic numerals used today to a Europe still using Roman numerals.

The original problem in the Liber Abaci posed the question: How many pairs of rabbits can be generated from a single pair, if each month each mature pair brings forth a new pair, which, from the second month, becomes productive.

The Fibonacci number Sequence

The resulting Fibonacci numbers 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, are the result of the following equation.

If Fn is the nth Fibonacci number, then successive terms are formed by addition of the previous two terms, as Fn 1 = Fn Fn-1, F1 = 1, F2 =

The ratio of any number to the next larger number is 62%, which is a popular Fibonacci retracement number. The inverse of 62% is 38%, and this 38% is likewise a Fibonacci retracement number.

Fibonacci Numbers and the Golden Ratio

Fibonacci numbers are found to have many relationships to the Golden Ratio F = (1 /5)/2, a constant of nature which was of constant interest to the ancient Greeks, appearing in both Greek art and architecture.

Fibonacci Numbers and Market Analysis

Changes in stock prices are not simply a tug of war between supply and demand but also reflect human opinions, valuations, and expectations.

A study carried out by mathematical psychologist Vladimir Lefebvre demonstrated that humans exhibit positive and negative evaluations of the opinions they hold in a ratio that approaches phi, with 61.8% positive and 38.2% negative and that Fibonacci numbers are rooted in a trader’s psychology.

Predicting Market Movements with Fibonacci Numbers

Research shows markets as being perfectly patterned, explaining that humans, being part of nature, create perfect geometric relationships in their behaviours, even if they don’t realize it themselves.

The Golden Mean is the number 0.618. In Both Greek and Egyptian cultures, this number was highly significant. They believed that the number had important implications in many areas of science and art. This dimension was utilised in the construction of many buildings – including the pyramids.

The Golden Mean appears frequently enough in the timing of highs and lows and price resistance points that adding this tool to technical analysis of the markets can help to identify key turning points.

W. D.Gann and Fibonacci Numbers

Gann was a stock and commodity trader who reputedly made over $50 million trading the markets.

Gann made his fortune using methods which he developed for trading instruments based on relationships between price movement and time and his work was heavily influenced by Fibonacci numbers.

Gann divided price action into eighths and thirds. This yields numbers such as 1/3, 3/8, 1/2, 5/8, and 2/3. In percentage terms, these fractions are 33.3%, 37.5%, 50%, 62.5%, and 66.7%. These five ratios are commonly used retracement values. Gann placed strong significance on 50% retracements.

To learn more about using gann.co.uk/gann-articles-sitemap.html Gann trading methods please visit our web site: gann.co.uk gann.co.uk

Over the past several years, the popularity of online currency trading has grown substantially. Each day, online FX brokerage firms attract new investors – each of them lining up with a glint in their eye, lured in by promises of easy money. Most of these companies allow you to sign up for a free demo account which lets you place mock trades using their trading platform to get a feel for the excitement of currency trading. In the casual world of free demo accounts – many young traders find they are able to garner impressive profits without a significant amount of effort. It almost seems too good to be true. But transferring this success from a demo account to a real account is far less common. Why is this? The actual trading platform behaves the exact same way, the market doesn’t care whether you’re a demo or real trader – so what is different? It’s you who has changed. Not your personality, not even your trading style – but the factors that affect you are different.

What is the key factor to trading success?

The search for the “Holy Grail” of trading has been a common theme throughout the history of markets. There are a variety of different techniques. Those whom are inclined towards number crunching and pattern recognition may prefer technical analysis, whereas those more focused on the big picture, logical macro perspective prefer fundamental analysis. Then there are specific methodologies like swing trading, trend following or even more esoteric ideas like the Elliot Wave theory. Which one is best? There are examples of very successful traders using each methodology.

Since most new traders lose money – perhaps the more appropriate question to ask is, “What is the key factor to trading failure?”

Greed and Fear

Trading is an atmosphere rich in the porous emotions of greed and fear. The current price of a given security or financial instrument at any point in time can be thought of as the confluence of greed (bulls) and fear (bears). These two emotions make up the core of humanity itself. When market information is released, trading can be a high intensity experience. Sensing danger, your body releases adrenaline that acts to accentuate both your greed (fight) and your fear (flight). Because these emotions are so strong, they can cause you to act irrationally, ignore your system, stated set of rules or trading plan and to act upon impulse. Indeed, this is a genetically programmed response – but it is often also the trader’s downfall, especially when he’s playing with much better capitalized, more sophisticated and experienced foes that know how to manipulate those emotions.

When you are a trader – you are always under the influence of at least one of these two emotions, even if you don’t have any trades on.

Impact of fear and greed on your trading

If the market’s going up and you’re in – greed is telling you to buy more and fear is telling you to take your profits while you still can. If it’s going down, fear of being wrong makes you hold onto a losing position – and then greed sometimes convinces you to “average down” your position (and buy more) so it’ll be easier for you to come back.

If the market’s going up and you’re not invested – fear is telling you that you’re missing out on easy money but it’s your greed that causes you to get in just after the greatest increase (just when its about to reverse course). If the market’s going down and you’re not invested – greed is telling you to get in as the price is cheap, while fear reminds you that you’ll miss out on this opportunity if you don’t act quickly.

Perhaps if we just felt greed, or just felt fear we would be able to control our emotions a little better. But when both of these little devils whisper into our ears at the same time – it is often impossible not to listen.

The Thrill of Greed

The first time you try FX trading – you will feel the thrill of greed. It is an ecstatic experience, your brain flush with neurotransmitters and your mind giddy with visions of untold riches about to be reaped. Greed is bold, aggressive and incredibly exciting. It can take hold of you both mentally and physically. Just imagine the possibilities!

This greed is what draws us into FX trading in the first place – the dream of easy money and 100:1 or 200:1 margin rates. It inspires us and causes us to forego rational thinking in favour of reckless abandon.

In the movie Wall Street, Gordon Gecko says, “Greed is good”, but it is also very dangerous – especially if you are unable to recognize when greed is the one doing the talking. Greed is also one of the most common techniques used to manipulate people. Every get rich quick scheme, promising untold riches for no money down takes advantage of your natural predisposition to throw all logic and sense out the window when greed pays a visit. The argument starts to appear very compelling and you ignore what would otherwise be clear warning signs. Like drunk goggles, greed can mislead you and when you eventually wake up you are often in a very precarious position.

The Fear of Losing

Fear can be equally as dangerous. The most potent and easily manipulated form of fear is your fear of admitting that you are wrong. Fear of having your precious ego bruised. This fear can cause people to do incredibly stupid things. The funny thing about this world is that everyone thinks that they are right. Most people would rather lose thousands of dollars than admit they are wrong. It is easy to feel ashamed of trading losses and live in denial but this is self-destructive behaviour. By denying the problem exists, you fail to take steps address it and only ensure that it will continue in the future.

Demo Trading

Demo trading is a great way to get started in foreign exchange trading. It is identical to real trading, except that you’re using “pretend” money. Demo trading allows you to get a taste for what type of events move markets and how they move. It encourages you to learn more about geopolitics, macroeconomics and global finance and these are all incredibly positive things.

Demo trading also introduces you to the rapture of greed. Trading is a means to one of the purest, most raw and potent forms of greed. The whole point of trading is to make money and the more money you make – the stronger the pull of your greed becomes. It is intoxicating and can take complete control of you.

But demo trading does not introduce you to fear. There is no fear when you are demo trading. It is like you have a perpetual get out of jail free card. If you start losing badly on a demo account – simply start a new one. There is no accountability for your trading failures and only recognition of your trading success.

So your demo account does not teach you how to handle the emotion of fear. This emotion is most likely going to lead to your downfall. Greed may get you overextended, but fear will stop you from cutting your losses. You may think that fear of losing money would cause you to cut your losses, but the stronger emotion is fear of being wrong and that causes you to hold on to your losing position – until it’s all gone.

There is also the issue of account size. Many demo accounts give you $50,000 to play with. This type of capitalization allows you to buy 5 lots (500K) of EURUSD pretty easily. If goes up 20 pips you’ve made $1000. Nice one. But when you open your real account – it’s more likely that you put $5000 or $10000 in there to begin with. Now you’re dealing with a 50K lot, which means you’ll take $100 out of a 20-pip movement. But mentally you are used to getting $1000 for that movement so you usually end up risking more. Next thing you know – your 200K position has turned against you 50 pips and you’ve lost $1000. That’s real money you just lost. You can’t just start another account.

The capitalization of the demo account is sufficient to sustain losses and still come out on top. But your real account is likely to be undercapitalized and if you’re trying to achieve returns similar to what you got on your demo account – you are going to blow up very quickly.

Being honest with yourself

Ultimately, while providing an excellent introduction to FX trading – demo accounts do not accurately predict whether you’ll be successful trading real money. Markets are dominated by psychology and often go against what fundamental logic or technical indicators suggest should happen. The single most critical factor in your trading success will be your ability to control your emotions of greed and fear. These emotions cloud your judgment and cause you to trade recklessly. Demo accounts introduce you to the emotion of greed, but by their very nature they are risk free and therefore there is no fear involved. They are also likely to be better capitalized than your real money account, which misleads you with respect to the amount of returns you can expect to earn.

For all of these reasons, demo accounts allow you to avoid being honest with yourself and this is perhaps the most important factor of all. You need to know your edge and your limits and in order to know these – you must be honest with yourself.

This being said, demo accounts are still very entertaining and educational and I highly recommend opening one to anyone who’s interested in getting a taste of the exciting world of FX trading. It’s a great way to learn more about economics, global politics and yourself.

mailto:william@financemaps.com William White is a profxtools.com software developer and avid fxanalyzer.com foreign exchange enthusiast.

His website – financemaps.com/fxmap Finance Maps offers free maps depicting short, medium and long range trends for the major currency pairs which allows the reader to easily get an overall sense of the global forex markets in a single glance.

Debt management trouble … interesting title for a page, huh?

Here’s the thing. Things that I recall from my own limited experience of being (only) knee deep in debt and during my time as a mortgage adviser are all overshadowed by one thing. Worry.

Generally, I am a very (probably overly) optimistic person. Almost always happy and living life to the full. But I remember very clearly being worried by my debts. It did get me down. It was upsetting. It made me eat more, for comfort. That made me gain a few kilos which made me feel more sorry for myself.

And yet I view myself as being rather lucky. Why? My debts were caused in the main by an errant and untrustworthy business partner, followed by the financial burden of a new business with no capital (he had stolen much of it and run up other business debts besides). I could at least look in the mirror each day and feel no personal guilt about my debts. I felt that my debts and debt management trouble were not of my making.

You may not be so lucky. The debt management trouble that you find yourself in may be of your own doing.

Remembering how my debts made me feel causes me concern for others. If my own, pitifully small, debt burden could have a mental impact on someone as sunny as me, what could it do to someone of a less rosy disposition. And, what might bigger debts do to the situation? If someone really owed tens of thousands too many, that could cause feelings of hopelessness quite easily, I imagine.

If I recall how some of my clients felt, it was clear to me that the debt burden they carried was literally that – a burden. It really does have a mental impact and it isn’t positive. Back then, I didn’t fully appreciate the pain that debt management trouble can cause.

I’m not going to roll out some pithy platitude or other to try and give you a pep talk. You can do that yourself. I wouldn’t be so condescending. However, please just remember that you are not alone. In fact, there are lots of people with debt management trouble and problems. It is estimated that the USA currently has over 55,000,000 – yes 55 million – people with debt ‘issues’. That is a lot of people and one heck of a big special interest group.

So there are support groups out there. Local and national groups offer guidance and advice. You can find details of a few on other pages of this site. If you need to, speak to someone. Even if it’s only a friend offering you a shoulder to cry on and some moral support – you don’t have to battle on alone.

When we are down, we often feel alone and helpless and that often isn’t the case at all.

Back in late 2004, a friend of mine committed suicide. I hadn’t seen him for about 2 years (but in my defence, I had moved abroad). He was in his mid 30′s (34 I think) and had recently split from his long term girlfriend. I’m not 100% certain, but I believe that was the cause.

I didn’t find out about the service until 2 days before and that is precious little time to prepare for even nearby international travel. My sister did however attend. She tells me that the church was ‘packed’ and there was barely room to stand. He wasn’t even that nice a guy! He was destructive, a womaniser, often drunk and had a well earned reputation for fighting.

Yet if all those people were willing to attend his funeral, there must have been many people whom he knew that would have offered him support – if he had only asked. It doesn’t need to be that way.

If you have debt management trouble and need to lift the weight on your shoulders, even if only for a little time – SPEAK TO SOMEONE. As long as you don’t choose your boss – I doubt it will hurt. Don’t suffer alone. There is always someone willing to help you through.

Stuart Langridge is an experienced financial and investment adviser and financial writer. You can read more of his down to earth financial wisdom at DebtManagementResources.com DebtManagementResources.com