I just love doggies, how about you?   Then again, I also love Lindsay Lohan.  Haha!

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Time for a huge grin, as Uncle Dow did better than expected!

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Everybody wants to make money. Therein lies the problem. There are numerous tricksters and fraudsters who are more than willing to make you part with your money, again and again. The latest saga involved Oilpods and their investors. Anway, you can visit the link below to check out what are the latest scams in the market.

As the usual adage goes, a fool and his money are soon parted. All the Best!

10 biggest scams to watch out for

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Wall Street had its steepest decline in more than two months on Thursday as more signs of weakness in the labour market and increasingly sluggish growth overseas fuelled doubts about the ability of the US economy to stage an early recovery.

The sour mood was set early in the session, after weekly government data showed an unexpected jump in the number of filings for jobless benefits, while a report by ADP Employer Services showed private employers cut 33,000 jobs in August.

The data fueled investor nervousness ahead of the government’s key August non-farm payrolls report, and losses cascaded in afternoon trading. The Dow fell more than 340 points and only one of its 30 components escaped the sell-off.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 344.65 points, or 2.99 per cent, to 11,188.23, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropped 38.15 points, or 2.99 per cent, to 1,236.83. The Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 74.69 points, or 3.20 per cent, to 2,259.04.

It was the biggest one-day percentage drop for the three major indexes since June 26.

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In stock markets, you will experience both bull and bear markets. The good news is that the bull markets last much longer than the bear markets. Investors who keep their eyes open can typically find good opportunities when the market falls. This is because we often see good stocks act well during declines in the market.

This is not to say that the stock has to rally while the overall market is falling. The stock could move sideways while the market or the sector to which it belongs heads south. It may even fall a little bit but not as much as the market. If you own the stock, you may not be happy that it is moving down, but if the market falls 15 percent and your stock drops by only 5 percent, that is good performance relative to the market.

Step back and think about it for a minute, though. If you see a stock moving sideways during a market decline, it suggests there is enough demand for that stock to offset all of the supply. With most stocks falling during a decline, there is selling pressure on the vast majority of stocks due to broking houses forced-selling their margin client’s shares.

Yet here is a stock that is bucking that trend. It is not moving up, but it’s not moving down, either, and that is because of the demand for the stock. Once the selling pressure from the market decline is finished, demand usually remains strong. Not only that, but the investors who were buying the stock during the decline are not likely to sell soon, since they just purchased the stock and are expecting it to move higher. That means there is less supply of the stock to put on the market, and this, too, is good. The point is you can use market declines to try to find stocks that are holding up well.

All the best!

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US and European consumers are getting thriftier as the economic downturn caused by the credit and housing crisis continue to rampage. And this gloomy consumer spending and confidence will ultimately find its way into the emerging markets that have so far been able to withstand the storm.US retail sales is expected to dip 0.1% in July this year, despite the US$100 billion in tax rebates given by the US government. Some analysts said that out of the US$100 billion, only US$20 billion was spent, with the rest being squirreled away for tougher times ahead.

In the Eurozone, June retail sales dropped 3.1% from a year earlier, the biggest annual decline on record.

And adding to the woes, the supply of money in the economies is beginning to dry up as banks become less reluctant to provide loans.

Although emerging economies have managed to weather the storm so far, with the export-orientation economy, any fall in consumer spending and confidence in the US and Europe will have an adverse impact on the growth of those countries.

On Aug 1, a report showed that China’s manufacturing sector contracted in July for the first time since a monthly purchasing managers’ survey was launched in 2005. And more countries are expected to follow suit.

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The stock market is a dangerous but yet fun place to be for many… it has given birth to many millionaires… and is also responsible for reducing many millionaires to common men.

Many stock market traders lose simply out of ignorance. They base their trades on news and tips from friends, and do not define specific risk and profit objectives before placing trades. Others have the merit of educating themselves but fall victims of their emotions. They hold on to losing positions hoping they will turn into winners and sell winners by fear of losing a small gain. They over trade to fulfill a need for action or by fear of missing out.

By avoiding risks, money management in stock market trading is to ensure your survival that could take you out of business. Your money management rules should include maximum amount at risk for all your opened positions, different between your entry price and your initial stop loss is your risk per share.

Your maximum amount at risk for each trade determines the share size. Maximum daily and weekly amount lost before you stop trading, avoid trying to trade your way out of a hole after a loosing streaks.

Learning about stock market trading is not difficult, but it does take time. Take the time to learn about stock market from books that will get you going in the right direction. Read them, study the market, practice trading on paper. Take the time to learn to invest, you will not regret it. The stock market is not going to close anytimme soon. It has been here for a long time, and will continue to be here for a long time to come.

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Everyone wants success in their life. Some people spend their every waking moment pursuing it, to the detriment of everything else. At the other end of the spectrum are people who feel that success is impossible. They conclude that it is destined only for a select few. And the rest of us in between are content with whatever we have. We may desire greater success, but we believe somehow that we’re not “fated” or “destined” to achieve it.

Success is something you must work hard and long to earn, for yourself. It has a price, sometimes a very high one. And most people aren’t really and truly ready to pay that price, to do what success demands.

To achieve success, first you must understand that success is a process. It requires time and patience. There are no short cuts. Anything else is just a temporary illusion. Success that will remain with you, and bring you joy rather than sorrow, requires a learning process, a time to grow out of old habits and into new ones, a time to learn what works and what doesn’t. So don’t be in a hurry.

In order to attain success, you will also need to acquire traits and skills that attract it. Define what success means to you. What traits or skills will you need to achieve this goal? Devise plans to acquire the needed traits and skills. Learn to do what you need to do, to get where you want to go. Find two or three people who have what you want. Write down the habits that have made them successful and resolve to copy them.

And once you’ve made up your mind to achieve success, you must be ready to travel the road to success, often times alone. Author Les Brown once said that, “At some point in time, the pursuit of your goals becomes secondary and what you have become in the process is what is most important.”

When infants reach for the toy that their parents have placed some distance away, it’s not the toy that’s the prize; it’s simply motivation for the child to learn something more important, something more lasting, and that is to learn to crawl, and of course, to finally walk and run! It’s to strengthen their muscles so they can reach for other goals in life. Anyone can succeed but not every one will. And success means different things for different folks. All the best!

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Singapore market fell with the lowest turnover in 33 months. Market opened down in response to a weaker-than-expected US Personal Income number, which caused the Dow to plunge 172 points on Friday. With US market closed for a Labour Day holiday, investors preferred to stay away from the market for the time being, although some bargain hunting activities were witnessed in the later part of the afternoon trade. FTSE-STE dropped 26.19 or 1.0% to close at 2,713.79 points. Turnover was extremely low with 0.64 billion shares worth S$0.74 billion transacted, the lowest daily trading volume since the start of 2006. Losers led gainers 307 to 167

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SingTel has announced the pricing for its mio TV’s Season Pass, which was touted to offer broadcasts of top-rated US TV shows (Prison Break, Lost etc) as early as 24 hours after their US telecast. The service will be available from next Monday, 8 Sep. Subscribers to SingTel’s Season Pass can expect to pay an average of S$2.68/episode on a per-season basis, with each series costing between S$16.05 and S$69.55, depending on the number of episodes. While the move should help garner more subscribers for its mio TV platform, it is unlikely to lead to any big boost to its overall revenue.

StarHub is also offering a similar service for four shows – the three CSI franchise ones – and Numb3rs from Sep 22. It will announce the pricing at a later date.

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