Texting and stock investing don't mix

It was just one line, with more information promised on the website vipstockpicks.mobi. Another text came two hours later, saying TRON "is already up 20%+ today. Get in now before the BIG news comes this week!"

With about 20 minutes left in the day's trading, a third message arrived: The stock was up 41%. The text again urged me to get in before big news came this week. About 48 hours later, there was another text, suggesting that it was not too late to act on Toron.


The truth, however, is that anyone buying stock on the basis of a text message from a service about which they know virtually nothing is making a mistake, which is why Toron is the Stupid Investment of the Week.

In fact, Toron's pick is less about the company than about the way investors found out about it; it's hard to believe any stock being pumped via text message would be a good idea for average investors.

The interesting thing, of course, is that somebody would actually trade on advice from an anonymous text, from an anonymous website, where the information amounts to "Buy now!' without any real knowledge of the company.

Michael Whitehead, Toron's president, said the company was unaware it was the subject of the text messages and has no idea who is behind the push. It's not the first time in the company's short history, however, that it was used this way; Whitehead's wife once received a spam email touting the stock.

"We want to attract investors, but not this way," Whitehead said in a telephone interview late last week. "I believe we can attract investors by moving the company forward and having some success, which would attract investors who want to be part of this for the long-term, and not somebody who is going to buy today and sell tomorrow."

Anyone who followed up on the text by going to the VIPStockPicks website didn't exactly get any real information. The reason to invest in Toron was summed up by the site: "We all know it's the big announcements that make these small gems move."

But it would be news to Toron's president if the company had a big announcement to make.

"Whoever is behind (the texts) is making that up," Whitehead said. "There is no big announcement coming right now."

Toron was organized in 2008 and according to its own filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission was "engaged in the marketing, sales and re-sales via the Internet of web domain names."

Last summer, however, the company made the completely logical decision to move from that business into "identifying and pursuing options regarding the acquisition of mineral exploration properties." At that point, it effectively went from a shell company to an operating company, although you can't tell it by the company's revenues because there have never been any, through its latest quarterly report, dated Oct. 31, 2011.

When it made the change, the company acquired "an undivided 100% interest" in 62 mineral claims in Canada. The company then underwent a 32-for-one stock split, increasing its float to 185 million shares.


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What Does Trade Volume Mean?

At Money Runners Group, we pride ourselves on educating our clients – and the general public – on the ins and outs of successfully investing in stocks, whether you are interested in purchasing one share of Berkshire Hathaway, or investing in the hottest penny stocks. Our penny stock advice is pretty simple: Principals of sound investing transcend all markets. If you apply time-honored methodologies, educate yourself, and utilize common sense, you could turn a profit no matter what type of stocks you invest in. With that in mind, we would like to talk a little bit about trade volume, specifically, what does trade volume mean?

Here is a simple definition: Trade volume is the amount of shares traded among parties in a certain period of time. In many cases, the time frame is a single day, but it also can be much longer, like a week or month. It is a term that is commonly used when talking about the stock market or other financial markets, and for traders it may not seem an important statistic on the surface. But do not be fooled by the simplicity of the definition, as trade volume plays a vital role in the stock market and how it operates. How so? Because it takes into consideration securities that are bought and sold, meaning trade volume paints a picture not only for the overall market on a particular day, but for an individual stock.

Trading volume is important because it tells you how significant a price shift is, and gives clues as to how legitimate those shifts may be. Here is an example: Company A and Company B is both worth $12, but suddenly gain $5 in one day and close at $17. If the volume of Company A was 1,000,000 shares whereas the volume of Company B was only 10,000 shares, there is a much bigger shift in Company A. This could mean that the stock for Company A caused a much greater increase in investor confidence. A key here is to keep your eyes open and sniff for a pattern. If the same scenario with the same two penny stocks continues to play out, or Company B peters out a bit, then stock in Company A may be worth than a passing glance. As trading volume increases, so does the amount of investor interest – many of whom may decide to get involved, continuing to drive the price up even further. At this point, you have to ask yourself: Should I get involved now? And if I invest, am I confident this pattern will continue, making my investment worthwhile enough to sell?

Here are some other penny stock tips to consider.

As trade volume rises, so does the liquidity for traders. Remember, liquidity refers to the degree to which a stock can be bought or sold without affecting its price. If the volume is light, it may be problematic to find another party to trade against at an attractive price. Translation? You may have to buy at a price higher than you expected to originally. Again, look for patterns.

This is something else to watch for with trade volume. In many cases, trade volume for large companies may spike up to four times each year, coinciding with quarterly earnings reports. If these reports, and related announcements about the health of the company, are positive, a price increase will follow.

Finally, remember that penny stock trading does not occur in a vacuum. Trade volume and other tools at your disposal, such as the relative strength index, can be important in investing success. Do not dismiss anything that can give you an advantage.

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Selecting A Mortgage Plan

The luxurious homes have become the basic need of the modern era. Mortgaging a house is an attractive option for buyers from all walks of life to own a luxurious house. Selecting a mortgage plan remains a critical aspect in owning a house because the mortgage rates vary from plan to plan.


Since the houses are an important need, they are an attractive option for the investors to invest. House mortgages are in fact a kind of loan for the houses but it works in a different manner.

In mortgage, you get a house and you are required to pay a monthly installment of your mortgage as per your mortgage plans. These mortgages also play as a guarantee for getting any additional loans from companies.

The advent of technology has also affected the mortgage field. Now you do not have to run from office to office searching for a suitable mortgage plan. Instead all the necessary data is now just a click away. By using different websites that host a collection of mortgage plans, one can simply select the plan that suits him. All the data is sorted and sifted in an orderly manner and you are truly just a click away from your dream house.


Like all other commodities, the rates of mortgages also vary from company to company. The mortgage plans include a down payment followed by the monthly installments plan. Obviously the mortgages involve a particular rate of interest and furthermore, the interest rates may increase due to defaults and late payments.

However now one does not have to worry about the varying mortgages plan as the entire details of such deals are available online and one can easily access his choice plan.

Mortgages for houses have numerous benefits. They are ideal for the people with small income but they are equally popular amongst the rich people. Due to the varying interest rates, the investors also like to invest in the housing industry as it promises easy and befitting returns for their money. Since the houses remain one of the basic needs, there is no getting away and the business of mortgaging houses continues to flourish. Also the competing companies have played a major part in reducing the rates of mortgages for houses.

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Home Equity Loan

Equity Loan allows people to borrow money by pledging their house as a guarantee. The loan money is free of tax because it is not an income. The person pledging their property can receive the loan in a single payment, or is offered a check book to borrow money against the pledged property. The interest to be paid on an equity loan is much lesser than other loans because the person before receiving equity loan has pledged his/her house.

An equity loan allows a borrower to borrow money by involving collateral. The money borrowed can be paid off when the property is sold or whenever the borrower can afford to pay it back.  There is no stern schedule to follow when it comes to paying back the loan. Some banks also lend money against an equity loan to facilitate the borrower.

There is no specific time slot mentioned at the time of lending the loan, as to when the person has to pay back the equity loan.

The amount can be paid off whenever the borrower has money, or once the house is sold.

The interest rate charged on an equity loan is considerably low than other loans e.g. credit card debt; because equity loan includes collateral and the other one does not.


Equity loans are easy to get as the property that is pledges can easily cover the amount of the loan being borrowed. These loans have lower interest rates, and they can be used to get whatever the loan borrower desires. The amount received on such a loan is tax deductible because it does not qualify as an income.

Another favorable point about equity loans is that a person can be eligible for the loan even if they have a poor credit score, unlike other financing loans where the person with a good credit score is considered more likely to be given the loan. A person applying for an equity loan can get fairly higher amount of money as a loan.

The most common usage of such a loan is paying for school tuition, college, and funds or paying for a holiday.  In the past borrowing an equity loan was considered to be the best available option to pay for children’s education because of the interest rates being so high, but not anymore, now loans for educational purposes are a better option to pay for a child’s tuition.

Equity loans have some disadvantages as well, if a person has invested the money in a child’s college or school tuition, and they fail to pay it according to the time slot planned, the child’s future will be in jeopardy along with your home. Another factor to really think about is that now there are a lot of scams going around, where the lenders trick the borrower into pledging their house and offer very attractive deals, and when the borrowers fails to pay up, they end up losing their home.

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Set and Manage Your Budget Online Free

Having a budget and tracking expenses vs income is important for small business survival. If you are just starting out, have a one-person home business and want to save some money, here's a helpful free resource you can use.

Mint is a free online tool that you can use to manage your money. Designed mainly for personal use, there's no reason why you can't use it to help you set and track a simple budget for your small or home-based business.

Mint lets you connect your Mint account with your bank and credit card accounts, so that you can easily track your business income and expenditures and compare them with your budget goals - without wasting a lot of time.



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Best Way to Become a Money Saving Expert

One of the best ways you can turn yourself into a money-saving expert is through cutting down the cost to spend on your bills. You may not realize, if not checked, bills can really be large monsters. Having a record on your billing expenses will allow you to checked if it will dig more into your pocket. And can apply strategies how to lessen it without hurting your necessities.


How to save money on electricity bills
Electricity bills come first in line because we largely rely on electric-powered appliances. We use a lot of electric appliances every single day in our homes. These things consume a lot of energy, which is best reflected on our monthly electric costs.

With the cost of energy rising seemingly constantly, it’s worth to find ways to curb the use of electricity. Simple but often neglected energy-saving tips are a big help in lowering electricity use most especially in households. You can use time –tested formula and other creative ideas you can find. And depending on your situation, this can be accomplished without making any major sacrifices.

Here are simple ways you can apply to become more energy-efficient and save money on electricity bill:

• Try to use the new compact fluorescent light bulbs rather than traditional bulbs. Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) can last up to 15 times longer than incandescent light bulbs and consume much less energy. By upgrading your lighting to CFLs, you can save 10 to 15 percent on your monthly energy bill.
• Unplug appliances when not in use,specifically those which have a stand-by mode function. Simply turning these appliances off is not enough because electrical appliances/devices still consume power while in stand-by mode.Give your air conditioner or heating devices an annual check up and cleaning. This is to make sure your cooling or heating systems are running at their highest efficiency.
• Replace your major appliances or air conditioners that more than 10 to 15 years old. They are definitely costing too much to run. Modern appliances that conform to energy-saving efficiency are 10 to 20 percent cheaper to operate than other products.
• At night, turn off refrigerator’s cooling control system at night but not unplugged. This will lessen around 10% power consumption.
• If it’s a sunny day, open the blinds rather than turning on lights.
• Turn  lights off every single time you get out of your room.
• Do your ironing and laundry in bulk.
• Open refrigerators only when needed.

Some appliances known to use up a lot of electricity during summer include air conditioners, refrigerators, freezers, electric fans, water pumps and entertainment appliances like TV’s and computers among other appliances.

For further ways of reducing your electricity bill, visit Meralco website and find money-saving ideas and help.


How to save money on groceries
There many things you can cut down expenses on grocery shopping. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to compromise the quality of the products that you’re going to buy. Instead, you just need to take note of certain techniques that will help you save money on groceries.

Ways to save money when grocery shopping:

• Don’t waste money on prepared foods. Instead, prepare meals ahead of time and freeze them, or double a recipe when cooking, and freeze the second for a hectic day coming up.
• Take the farmer’s market approach: Buy produce that’s fresh, inexpensive and in season. With less middlemen involved, you get good buys and your family gets the freshest food.
• A grocery store’s main aisles, like the paths to milk and bread, are usually strewn with high-priced land mines. Avoiding those pricey areas will really help.
• Try to shop when you’re alone. Those little helpers can quickly boost your bill.
• Shop early in the day. You get through the store faster with your list and spend less.
• Avoid shopping for food when you’re hungry; you’ll buy more.
• Don’t grocery shop when you’re tired, you’ll buy more sweets, more high-carbohydrates. When you’re angry you go for crunch food, the junk food.
• Check your store for a small section where they discount products that aren’t as popular as the manufacturer had hoped. This area can be a gold mine for bargains.
• Shop with a calculator. That way, you can figure whether the unit price for a case lot is really cheaper than buying one of the same item.
• Check your receipts. No matter how careful you or the store staff might be, mistakes happen.

How to save money on phone bills
The telephone is an essential tool inside the house as this allows you to communicate with family and friends.
Here are some tips to reduce your phone bills:

• Use the same plan as friends and family. Many cellphone service providers offer free in-network calls or allow you to choose a small group of in-network friends and family that you can call for free. Bundle all services. There’s great benefit when you move all of your services  – cellphone, cable/ satellite, Internet and home phone to one provider. You’ll likely be rewarded with a bundled service discount.
• Go prepaid. If you only use your cell phone for occasional calls, a prepaid plan may be the cheapest service option for you.Pick a Plan that matches your talk times. Do you make a lot of calls in the early evenings? On the weekends? Mid-day? Examine your phone habits; then, pick a plan that best matches them.
• Switch to unlimited texting. Text messages can cost Php 1.00 in the Philippines to send. If you do a lot of text messaging, a plan with unlimited text messages is definitely the way to go.
• Ask for a better deal. One thing you can be sure of: Your service provider doesn’t want to lose you to the competition. So, ask for a better deal, and you’ll probably get it.

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Investing Money with Compound Interest Calculator in Mind

Albert Einstein is widely rumored to have once said that “the most powerful force in the universe is compound interest.”


What is compound interest?
The term compound interest, also called as the 8th wonder of the World, is a standard word in economics and finance. It is the process of adding interest to the initial amount of an investment, and from then on earning further interest on this new amount. This is distinct from simple interest, in which the rate is applied once to the initial amount and then multiplied by the term of the investment.

Compound interest is a key way to grow savings. It works when interest is paid on interest. This leads to exponential growth over time.

In more detail, interest compounds when money invested earns interest and then – when the original sum and the original interest are unspent – interest in the next period is paid on both. Over many years, the pattern is repeated, growing the original investment at an increasingly rapid rate.


Compound Interest  Formula
Where the interest is compounded once a year then the Compound Interest Formula is: A = P(1 + R)Y whereby:

• A = the accumulated amount i.e. how much money you’ve accumulated after n years, including interest.
• P = the principal (the money you start with, your first deposit)
• R = the rate of interest (AER) as a decimal (8% means =.08)
• Y = the number of years you leave it on deposit

The Two Levers of Compound Interest: Frequency & Time
1. Frequency (or Interval)
In the above example we are simply compounding annually. But some savings and investments may compound quarterly or even monthly. So, it’s important to find this out in advance from the financial institution or broker. The frequency with which returns are compounded is particularly important when investing in Bonds. The following shows the difference in how the formula is calculated.

Quarterly Compounding = P (1 + R/4)4Monthly Compounding = P (1 + R/12)12

The more frequent the interval of compounding is, the greater the impact on compound growth. However, it’s worth noting that although frequency is an important lever in the impact of compounding on the future value of a savings or investment vehicle, it is not as impactful as the term i.e. length of time (plus the compounding frequency “lever” is subject to the law of diminishing returns over time).


2. Time (i.e. the Term)
Compounding exerts its most dramatic effect (for a given interest rate) when the term is extended. In other words, the longer an amount is subject to compounding, the greater the effect.

The secret to reaping the benefits of compound interest is:

• Saving and/or Investing a regular amount of money each month.
• Leaving you money invested for the long-term.
• Reinvesting your gains (interest), again and again.

How to Calculate Compound Interest
Calculating compound interest is not as straight forward as simple interest, although it is not particularly difficult.

In order to make the calculation it is necessary to know both the periodic rate of interest and the compounding period. Given these two facts it is possible to determine the return on investment over a given period, as well as a nominal annual rate and annual percentage rate (APR), two means of comparing investments offering different compounding periods.


Compound Interest Calculator
Compound interest calculator is the system that calculates the charges or amount to be paid on the original amount, plus the amount accumulated through the charges gained.

If you hate to show your Mathematical skills, online calculators are available in your aid. The calculator is easy to use and available for all of us. Just visit TutorVista, one of the best compound interest calculator online.

Certainly, compounding money is the fastest and easiest way to become financially secure. It allows you to get rich slowly over time but you can speed up this process and get rich quicker by pulling on the two levers of frequency and time. Of course, maximizing your interest rate by choosing the right investment vehicle in the first instance is also a big factor. However, the key take-home message in all of this is, leaving aside interest rate, the amount of capital (principal) you start with is not nearly as important as time i.e. getting started early.

But here’s a reminder, even if compound interest is a really marvelous invention, it can also works to the opposite. When you invest, it works for you. But when you borrow, it works against you!

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Online Investing Opportunity for People With Little Time, Knowledge, or Money to Get Into Stocks

For people looking for online investing opportunity but with little time, little knowledge, or little money to get into investing bandwagon, here’s a great opportunity from CitisecOnline (COL). The number one online stock brokerage firm in the Philippines offers COL Easy Investment Program. The purpose of this investment program is to minimize risk and maximize earning potential for investors in the stock market over several years. It encourages investing a fixed amount of money at regular increment over an extended period of time, thus enabling investors to purchase more shares when prices are low and buy less when prices are high.

With the investment program, investors can make their savings multiply exponentially by regularly allotting as low as P5,000 to purchase blue chips or shares in companies perceived to be stable and to have a good performance record.

The program offers the investor to choose from a list of stocks preselected by COL’s analyst.  Among the stocks are those of top companies like Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), SM Prime Holdings Inc.,  Ayala Land Inc., Jollibee Foods Corporation, Manila Water Co., and Bank of the Philippine Islands.
COL’s services being online, the account holder can execute buy-and-sell orders without the hassle of getting through to a broker every time, unlike in the traditional stock market. Transparent investment processes are ensured at all time because investors can monitor their transactions and stocks anytime from anywhere.

The return on investment from COL Easy Investment Program will be better in the long term.  This is a great investment vehicle for people who want to start saving money for retirement, or for those who have long-term goal.

As a personal wealth-building tool and an ideal way to build a retirement fund, the investment program  effectively reduces volatility in any portfolio as the risks of investing in the market diminish over time.  COL Easy Investment Program is an ideal entry point to the stock market for it uses the dollar cost averaging or peso cost averaging method that involves investing a set of amount at regular intervals over a long period of time to take advantage of the rises and falls in the investment prices. Though, this is not a perfect investment for people who want to invest but not willing to wait three to five years for their money to grow.

The good thing of the COL Easy Investment Program is that it takes the guesswork out of stock investment because the online brokerage firm basically suggest the right stocks and investment vehicles for investors. Investors only have to figure out how much disposable income they can afford to invest for the long term. And because the fund basically shield investors from the market volatility, the return on investment will be bigger in the long run.


How to Start Investing Online with CitisecOnline?
Signing up for CitisecOnline COL Easy Investment Program takes only four easy steps:

• Sign up for a COL account. 
• Download the forms are www.citiseconline.com/easy
• Decide on the fixed amount and schedule of your payments.
• Choose from the prescreened blue-chip stocks from the list.
• Start tracking your investments through the internet by logging on to your COL account.

For new or prospective investors who wants to familiarize themselves with the stock market trading, CitisecOnline conducts monthly training seminars that seek to educate people on the basics of stock investment and to promote the idea of investing money on staggered basis. The seminar schedules are posted on COL’s website, www.citiseconline.com.

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