Learn Forex - Is Forex Trading The Ultimate Home Business Opportunity ?

That's true, you can be a trader at home. Forex, or Foreign Exchange Market is by far the largest financial market in the world. About $2 trillion are traded EVERY DAY. The Forex market is the currency market, where a currency is traded against another. Quick example : you buy a dollar and sell euros. Not that easy to understand. But can we do this from home ? Yes, we can. About ten years ago, you would need millions of dollars to start trading. Now you can start with a few hundreds of dollars.
What you need is your computer and an internet connexion. You can trade from the comfort of your home, without having to deal with any boss or clients. You will only deal with money. Then you can start selling dollars and buying euros and make a profit. You have to find a broker, where you will open an account and funding it. You will also have the possibility to get a demo account and practice, with fake money but in the real time market. I strongly recommend you practice a few months before thinking of "live" trading.
It is not that easy, it is extremely risky if you don't know anything about trading. First rule : don't invest what you can't afford to lose. Forex is not a game, there is a lot of parameters to take in account, and human factor is one of the most important in this business.
You may have already understood it, currencies are traded by pairs. The european Euro versus the US Dollar, The US Dollar versus the Japan Yen, etc. When you buy a currency, you want to sell it later at a higher price. When you sell a currency, you want to buy it later at a lower price. This is how you make profit. Think like you were buying a foreign company share. You always want to buy low, and always want to sell high.
What you are looking to when trading currencies is the exchange rate. This will tell you your next move. Buy or sell. Currencies are part of the economy of each countries. When the value of a currency is increasing, this means the economy is going better as before. The exchange rate can be viewed as the country's economy compared to another economy. This is why economic factors can help you to predict your next move. If you know that a currency will increase, you will buy it and expect to sell it at a higher price, a higher rate.
You can choose the pair you want to trade, but the most people trade the main currencies, Euro, Dollar, British Pound, Japan Yen. And you can only choose to trade one pair only if you want. You are the only person that will make the decision. Hope you are making the good ones, profit can be huge, as well as losses.
Like any business, forex trading has to be taken seriously. Lots of people are trading the forex and some are earning thousands of dollars every day. But it needs a lot of training, education and analysis before reaching such results. It can be the perfect business and actually it is for advanced traders

Discover Some Magic To Beat The Forex: The Elliott Wave Theory For Forex Markets

One of the best known and least understood theories of technical analysis in forex trading is the Elliot Wave Theory. Developed in the 1920s by Ralph Nelson Elliot as a method of predicting trends in the stock market, the Elliot Wave theory applies fractal mathematics to movements in the market to make predictions based on crowd behavior. In its essence, the Elliot Wave theory states that the market – in this case, the forex market – moves in a series of 5 swings upward and 3 swings back down, repeated perpetually. But if it were that simple, everyone would be making a killing by catching the wave and riding it until just before it crashes on the shore. Obviously, there’s a lot more to it.
One of the things that makes riding the Elliot Wave so tricky is timing – of all the major wave theories, it’s the only one that doesn’t put a time limit on the reactions and rebounds of the market. A single In fact, the theories of fractal mathematics makes it clear that there are multiple waves within waves within waves. Interpreting the data and finding the right curves and crests is a tricky process, which gives rise to the contention that you can put 20 experts on the Elliot Wave theory in one room and they will never reach an agreement on which way a stock – or in this case, a currency – is headed.
Elliot Wave Basics
• Every action is followed by a reaction.It’s a standard rule of physics that applies to the crowd behavior on which the Elliot Wave theory is based. If prices drop, people will buy. When people buy, the demand increases and supply decreases driving prices back up. Nearly every system that uses trend analysis to predict the movements of the currency market is based on determining when those actions will cause reactions that make a trade profitable.
• There are five waves in the direction of the main trend followed by three corrective waves (a "5-3" move).The Elliot Wave theory is that market activity can be predicted as a series of five waves that move in one direction (the trend) followed by three ‘corrective’ waves that move the market back toward its starting point.
And here’s where the theory begins to get truly complex. Like the mirror reflecting a • A 5-3 move completes a cycle. mirror that reflects a mirror that reflects a mirror, the each 5-3 wave is not only complete in itself, it is a superset of a smaller series of waves, and a subset of a larger set of 5-3 waves – the next principle.
• This 5-3 move then becomes two subdivisions of the next higher 5-3 wave.In Elliot Wave notation, the 5 waves that fit the trend are labeled 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 (impulses). The three correcting waves are called a, b and c (corrections). Each of these waves is made up of a 5-3 series of waves, and each of those is made up of a 5-3 series of waves. The 5-3 cycle that you’re studying is an impulse and correction in the next ascending 5-3 series.

Learn Forex - How To Make Money Trading Forex, The Trade Process

On the forex market we are trading currencies, exchanging a currency for another. So we buy a currency hoping its value will increase compared to the value of the one we are selling. Yes, we, at the same time, buying a currency and selling another currency. An example may be a little more understandable.
We have dollars and want to buy euros. The pair traded here is EUR/USD, and the exchange rate is 1.25. You can read it like this : 1 euro equals 1.25 dollar. We hope that the euro value will be higher so that later we will buy more dollar. The exchange rate increase to 1.35, in this case we bought 1 euro using 1.25 dollar, and it now equals to 1.35 dollar. So we exchange our 1 euro back into dollars and now have 1.35.
We bought 1 euro for $1.25 and sell it back for $1.35, we made a 10 cents profit. Of course on the forex market you will not buy only one euro, this will be few hundreds or thousands, depending on your budget and the leverage offered by the broker.
Exchange rates are always moving. When I say that you "hope" the value will increase, many factors can be used to predict the rate, based on technical or fundamental analysis. This is not the topic of this article so let's have another example of a selling trade.
We take the same pair (EUR/USD) as above starting with the same exchange rate (1.25). We want to sell euros so we can buy it later at a lower price. Here we hope, or know that the value of the euro will depreciate. We sell one euro for $1.25. The exchange rate drops to 1.15. That means that now we only need 1.15 to buy our euro back. We exchange our dollars back into euros and again, make a 10 cents profit.
When you buy or sell, you always buy or sell the base currecy. The base currency is the first one in the pair. In the pair EUR/USD, the base currency is the euro and the USD is called the quote currency. When you decide to buy, you buy euro and sell dollars. When you decide to sell, you sell euros and buy dollars.
Think that you always need to exchange something two times. If you buy something and want to make a profit from it, you would prefer to sell it at a higher price. And so, if you are selling something that you will need to buy again, you would prefer to have it at a lower price.

UPDATE 1-Exelon earnings drop but top forecasts

Adj Q2 EPS of $1.03 tops Wall St. view of 99 cts
* Reaffirms full-year earnings forecast
* Shares slip in pre-market trade
NEW YORK, July 24 (Reuters) - Power company Exelon Corp (EXC.N), which earlier this week withdrew a hostile takeover bid for NRG Energy Inc (NRG.N), posted a 12 percent drop in second-quarter earnings on slack demand for electricity and higher costs for nuclear fuel.
Net earnings fell to $657 million, or 99 cents per share, from $748 million, or $1.13 per share, in the year-ago quarter.
Adjusted earnings for the quarter of $1.03 topped analysts' average forecast of 97 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.
The company, which owns the PECO utility in Pennsylvania and ComEd in Chicago, reaffirmed its expectation that it would earn an adjusted $4.00 per share to $4.30 per share for the full year.
Third quarter adjusted earnings are expected to be between 90 cents per share and $1.00 per share.
Shares in Exelon slipped 0.5 percent to $53.75 per share in premarket trading. (Reporting by Matt Daily, editing by Gerald E. McCormick

Investing your windfall
By Dene Mackenzie on Thu, 23 Jul 2009
Economic downturn Living smart

Paying off a mortgage and/or any debt should be a priority for anyone inheriting money during the current recession, a panel of experts selected by the Otago Daily Times recommends.
ABN Amro Craigs sharebroker Chris Timms, wealth management adviser Craig Myles, Forsyth Barr sharebroker Peter Young and financial planner Peter Smith were asked by the newspaper to provide some guidance to two selected groups - a family with three children, parents 35 years old, and with a $100,000 mortgage; and a couple aged 55, with children who had left home, and who had three grandchildren.
Each family was assumed to have inherited $350,000.
Younger couple
Paying off the mortgage, and any debt - either partially or in full, depending on circumstances - should be a priority for the young family who had inherited money, according to our panel of experts.
"This releases at least $750 a month, assuming a 20-year mortgage payment. To keep the mortgage requires $1.27 to be earned for every dollar paid into the mortgage," Mr Smith, the principal of Smith Financial Planning, said.
The couple should repay student loans and should join KiwiSaver, if they had not already done so.
If one parent stayed at home, he or she should still join, paying the minimum of $1040 a year into the scheme to get tax advantages.
With up to $250,000 left to invest, depending on things like repaying student loans, the couple could form a family trust.
Mr Smith recommended them spending up to $20,000 on an educational holiday, going to places such as Japan, Egypt, Turkey, Northern France and the United Kingdom, but also visiting fun parks in Australia on the way.
"It is good to see the world at a young age and understand some of our heritage, such as war zones."
The family could consider one major home renovation of up to $30,000.
Mr Smith recommended setting up an education fund for the children's university fees.
A balanced fund from any of the major providers, such as AMP, ASB, AXA, ING or Tower, would be suitable; but the fund probably needed to be $50,000.
Investing what was left:
• Cash fund for emergencies - $15,000.
• New Zealand fixed-interest PIE - $40,000.
• Listed property companies - $15,000 and reinvest distributions.
• New Zealand share-managed funds - $20,000.
• Managed funds in Australia and Asia - $60,000.
Mr Myles, a director of Myles Wealth Management, put $20,000 aside for emergency funds and assumed the spending needs of the younger couple would be met from income for the next five years.
He would put $67,500 in a defensive blend of high quality, highly rated and tax-efficient funds, invest in some property assets and use growth assets that would be currency-protected if they were international.
He would put $162,500 in growth assets, predominantly shares that were activity-managed and well diversified across countries, sectors, industries and companies.
Currency hedging would be put in place and Mr Myles had a preference for some protective strategies against prolonged falls in markets.
Mr Young suggested the couple seek recommendations for a growth portfolio investment, with the knowledge that as a growth investor they would prefer predominantly sharemarket investments with a small fixed-interest component.
As a growth investor, they would have to accept the portfolio might lose value for extended periods in the course of seeking capital appreciation over the recommended minimum period of, for example, five years.
A growth portfolio would have:
• Cash - a portfolio should have some available cash for emergency funds or any investment opportunity that arose.
• Fixed interest - a small weighting of fixed interest would provide some quarterly income to top up cash reserves.
• Property - a small exposure to the listed property sector would provide diversity and a good income from dividends of about 8% to 14%. Listed property stocks were also PIEs where the maximum tax paid on the dividend was 30%.
• Australian and New Zealand equities - Mr Young would have the largest weighting of the portfolio split between New Zealand and Australian shares.

Trading ban for 6 months not applicable to ESOPs

MUMBAI: Market regulator SEBI has clarified on the interpretation of certain amendments in the insider trading norms, in response to a few queries
The regulator said the six-month restriction for directors and employees to transact in shares of a company is only intended for trading on stock exchanges and not applicable to the exercise of employee stock options (ESOPs) and sale of these shares. Sebi noted that employees can subscribe to ESOPs, even if they have sold shares during the previous six months, but added that the restriction on market purchases for the next six months would be applicable, once shares bought through ESOPs are sold. The regulator also clarified that employees can sell shares in case of emergency on approval from the company’s compliance department. It also said employees are free to trade in Nifty or Sensex futures, subject to the company’s code of conduct. In response to whether the minimum holding period of 30 days while buying shares through an initial public issue would be applicable to bonus, rights share issues and ESOPs, Sebi said this restriction is limited to IPOs. It added that the company is free to decide the holding period for the others issue of shares.
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Where Goldman Really Makes Its Money
Goldman Sachs made $5.7 billion of trading revenue in the last quarter. That run rate (over $22 billion per annum) is almost as much as the pre-crisis peak.
Twenty-Two billion dollars per annum is roughly $200 per year per household in the United States.
If it is someone's trading revenue, it presumably comes out of someone else's pocket, so measuring it per household is appropriate.
The trading revenue of "Wall Street" investment banks (including Barclays ( BCS - news - people ), the trading parts of Citibank and similar entities) peaked at over $500 per household in the Western world

Broker snap: Housebuilders' rally a 'false dawn'
LONDON (SHARECAST) - KBC Peel Hunt, a long time bear on the housebuilding sector, is once again exhorting its clients to take profits on the housebuilders in the wake of what it regards as “a positive spin” put on housing market figures by property web site Rightmove. “Rightmove has hailed the bottom of the housing market, citing a 20% rise in new sellers as evidence. A rise in new sellers in fact has the opposite effect, correcting the buyer imbalance now driving the market,” KBC’s Robin Hardy argues. Hardy is also sceptical about the soothing noises coming from the industry during the recent round of trading updates. These “painted a picture of optimism: price stability, scope for margins to begin re-building and asset values to stop falling. This was based on the distorted price environment, a drift from second-hand into new homes and the favourable selling conditions resulting from available stock,” Hardy believes. The new build industry faces a “hard sell in the autumn,” in Hardy’s view, and “hopes of a return to selling 'off-plan' are a pipedream.” Turning to specific stocks, KBC believes that the recent advance by Barratt Developments – up almost 15% over the last week – probably makes a large cash call more likely, with the broker guessing that the company would tap the market for around £500m. With or without an equity issue, KBC believes Barratt’s valuation is “stretched on an NAV [net asset value] or EPS [earnings per share] basis.” The broker concedes that bulls are driving the share price direction of housebuilders at the moment but claims “the false dawn is coming to an end; a negative tone is set to return but not just yet.” Investors dedicated to maintaining exposure to the sector are advised to switch into “less exposed stocks such as Bellway, weaker performers such as Taylor Wimpey or stocks allied to transactions such as Travis Perkins

Where Goldman Really Makes Its Money
We still don't know the truth behind Goldman Sachs' trading profits.

Goldman Sachs made $5.7 billion of trading revenue in the last quarter. That run rate (over $22 billion per annum) is almost as much as the pre-crisis peak.
Twenty-Two billion dollars per annum is roughly $200 per year per household in the United States.
If it is someone's trading revenue, it presumably comes out of someone else's pocket, so measuring it per household is appropriate.
The trading revenue of "Wall Street" investment banks (including Barclays ( BCS - news - people ), the trading parts of Citibank and similar entities) peaked at over $500 per household in the Western world.
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Revenue like this is usually paid for a service. Ultimately I thought the service was intermediation between savers in China, Japan and the Middle East (who want Treasuries) and dis-savers in the Anglo countries (who want to fund exotic credit card debt and mortgages). That remains the only service that looks large enough to justify that sort of revenue. (The real service having been finding suckers such as municipalities and insurance companies to hold the toxic waste such as CDO squared re-securitization paper.)
That said, given almost nobody knows how to make $22 billion per annum trading and jealousy is a common trait, conspiracy theories abound. The current conspiracy theory is that this money comes from front-running clients in the market with very rapid trading. The New York Times recently promoted this view.


Trading ban for 6 months not applicable to ESOPs
MUMBAI: Market regulator SEBI has clarified on the interpretation of certain amendments in the insider trading norms, in response to a few queries

from companies. The regulator said the six-month restriction for directors and employees to transact in shares of a company is only intended for trading on stock exchanges and not applicable to the exercise of employee stock options (ESOPs) and sale of these shares. Sebi noted that employees can subscribe to ESOPs, even if they have sold shares during the previous six months, but added that the restriction on market purchases for the next six months would be applicable, once shares bought through ESOPs are sold. The regulator also clarified that employees can sell shares in case of emergency on approval from the company’s compliance department. It also said employees are free to trade in Nifty or Sensex futures, subject to the company’s code of conduct. In response to whether the minimum holding period of 30 days while buying shares through an initial public issue would be applicable to bonus, rights share issues and ESOPs, Sebi said this restriction is limited to IPOs. It added that the company is free to decide the holding period for the others issue of shares.
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Market fall pushes T. Rowe Price 2Q profit down
BALTIMORE -- Investment Manager T. Rowe Price Group Inc. said Friday second-quarter earnings fell as revenue from managing investments declined 27 percent from a year ago.
The company reported net income of $100 million, or 38 cents per share, compared with $162.2 million, or 59 cents per share. Revenue fell to $442.2 million from $586.5 million a year earlier.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected profit of 34 cents on revenue of $423.8 million.
The Baltimore-based company said investment advisory revenue earned from mutual funds distributed in the United States decreased 29 percent, or $100.7 million, to $248.8 million. Average mutual fund assets in the second quarter were $179.6 billion, a decrease of 26 percent from the average for the comparable 2008 quarter.
However, the company said that trend has reversed and it reported mutual fund assets at June 30 of $189 billion, up $30.2 billion from the end of March

HDFC Mutual Fund revises load structure
In accordance with the requirements specified by the SEBI circular no. SEBI/IMD/CIR No.4/168230/09 dated June 30, 2009, no entry load will be charged for purchase / additional purchase / switch-in accepted by the Fund.
Similarly, no entry load will be charged with respect to applications for registrations under Systematic Investment Plan/ Systematic Transfer Plan / HDFC Flexindex Plan accepted by the Fund.
The upfront commission on investment made by the investor, if any, shall be paid to the ARN Holder (AMFI registered Distributor) directly by the investor, based on the investor's assessment of various factors including service rendered by the ARN Holder.
Exit LoadThe scheme will charge an exit load / CDSC (if any) up to 1% of the redemption value charged to the unitholder by the fund on redemption of units shall be retained by each of the schemes in a separate account and will be utilized for payment of commissions to the ARN Holder and to meet other marketing and selling expenses.
Any amount in excess of 1% of the redemption value charged to the unitholder as exit load/ CDSC shall be credited to the respective scheme immediately

RNRL, TCS, Wipro among favourite picks of fund managers in Jun
NEW DELHI: Software exporters Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services and ADA Group firm Reliance Natural Resources are among the companies which
fancy of fund managers in June, while Punjab National Bank and Indian Oil Corporation lost some flavour. An analysis of buy and sell transactions by mutual funds during May shows that the fund houses purchased stocks from sectors like power, software, housing finance and sugar, while offloading shares from banking, refineries and airlines. According to brokerage firm Sharekhan, state-run NTPC, ONGC, TCS, Essar Oil and Reliance Petroleum figure amongst the favourite picks by the equity funds in the month of May. Besides, MFs were also seen adding a couple of new stocks to the portfolio. The top new picks for equity funds includes, UCO Bank, Swaraj Mazda, Bhushan Steel and Purvankara Projects, the data compiled by Sharekhan shows. Besides, in the mid-cap equity funds portfolio stocks of Mahindra Satyam, RNRL, Hindalco Industries and Network 18 Media caught the fancy of the MFs. In the last month, domestic MFs have made complete exits from the portfolio of equity funds in the scrips of a host of firms including Ansal Properties, HOEC and Wire and Wireless.

Is There High Interest in a Low-Carbon Mutual Fund?
By Marc Gunther - Marc Gunther You want a car that gets good gas mileage and you want energy efficient appliances (or at least I hope you do). But do you want a low-carbon investment portfolio? The Green Century Balanced Fund is betting that you do. The Boston-based mutual fund says it is the first U.S.-based fund to disclose its carbon footprint, which is 66% less than the carbon intensity of the S&P 500 Index. Let’s be clear what we’re talking about here. This isn’t an accounting of how much energy the mutual fund company uses in its offices or how often its staffers get on planes. It’s an analysis of the tons of carbon emissions per million dollars of revenue that are generated by the companies held by the Balanced Fund, compared to the firms in the S&P 500. Why would you care? Not merely because you want to invest in mutual funds and companies that are greener and cleaner than average (although, again, I hope you do) but because those funds and companies will over time outperform their peers -- an arguable but much iffier proposition. In a prepared statement, Simon Thomas, the chief of executive of Trucost, a firm that did the analysis for Green Century, said:
"There will clearly be winners and losers from climate change regulation, with companies that are less carbon intensive than their sector peers standing to gain competitive advantage."
While, as they say, past performance is no guide to future returns, the tiny ($47 million in assets under management) Green Century Balanced Fund has, in fact, outperformed the S&P 500 Index over the last decade:
"The Green Century Balanced Fund’s returns for the one-, three-, five-, and ten-year periods ended June 30, 2009 were -13.36%, -3.78%, -1.05%, and 4.64%, respectively. The S&P 500® Index returns for the one-, three-, five-, and ten-year periods ended June 30, 2009 were -26.21%, -8.22%, -2.24% and -2.22%, respectively."
Of course, this is partly due the fact that Green Century is a “balanced” fund -- as of March 31, it held more than 40% of its assets in cash and bonds -- and stocks have underformed cash and bonds lately, to say the least. Still, there’s a big idea here -- that mutual funds, and not just companies, should be required to disclose the carbon footprints of their holdings. To learn more about that, I called up Cary Krosinky, a vice president of Trucost, which is based in the U.K. I’ve been meaning for some time to reach out to privately-held Trucost because one of its big investors is Robert A.G. Monks, the estimable shareholder advocate who I profiled in FORTUNE (“Investors of the World, Unite!“) back in 2002. Cary told me that Trucost published two relevant studies on the topic this year -- one on the carbon intensity of U.S. mutual funds in April, another on the carbon intensity of the S&P500 in June. The nonprofit Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC) commission the S&P 500 study, which found not just vast differences in the carbon intensity of companies across sectors (which you would expect) but also major differences within sectors (which you might not.) If, as now seems likely, Congress passes a cap-and-trade program to regulate carbon emissions and put a price on fossil fuel emissions, the impact on companies would vary widely. Assuming a market price of about $28 per ton of carbon-equivalent emissions, the study says:
"Exposure to carbon costs varies significantly across companies in the Index. Carbon costs would amount to less than 1% of EBITDA for 203 companies, while 71 companies could see earnings fall by 10% or more."
And:
"Financial risk from carbon costs is greatest in the Utilities sector, where EBITDA at a company level could fall by 2% to 117%."
As for mutual funds, they, too, vary widely in terms of their carbon exposure -- sometimes in unexpected ways. Trucost’s report, called Carbon Counts USA, examined the carbon performance of 91 mutual funds in the U.S., including 16 funds that say they focus on sustainability or socially responsible investing. It did not make all the results public, but it said “the footprint of the most carbon-intensive fund is over 38 times larger than the lowest-carbon fund, reflecting the range in potential carbon risk.”As you’d expect, the 16 funds that focus on sustainability or social investing have, as a group, the smallest carbon footprint, but some are much “greener” than others. Trucost found that the Sentinel Sustainable Core Opportunities Fund has a carbon intensity (692 tons of carbon equivalent emissions per $1 million of revenues of the fund’s holdingss) that is seven times as great as the Ariel Appreciation Fund, which has the smallest footprint (98 tons of carbon equivalent emissions per $1 million in revenues.) Green Century, meanwhile, reports that its footprint is 126 tons of carbon per $1 million in revenues, bigger than the Ariel Fund but just a bit more than half of the average of the sustainability funds tracked by Trucost. The 10 biggest holdings of the Green Century Balanced Fund, as of March 31, were IBM, AT&T, Xerox, Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, General Mills, SLM Corp., Telfonica SA, Johnson & Johnson, Advance Auto Parts and Oracle. Gustav Knepper Power Station in Dortmund, Germany What does this all mean? It’s too soon to say. Only over time will we be able to see whether low carbon stocks and funds, as a group, outperform those with higher carbon exposure. Already, though, some investors are factoring carbon into their long-term view. Trucost is using its data to develop investable indexes of low-carbon companies. “If enough investors look at carbon intensity,” Krosinsky tells me, “it will create a competitive dynamic and encourage companies to become more efficient.” More capital would then flow to clean tech, and less to coal plants like the one to the left.

Selloff money to go to National Investment Fund
NEW DELHI: The government on Friday said the disinvestment proceeds of public sector NHPC and Oil India Ltd (OIL) would be credited to the Nation
NIF), and ruled out any plan to restructure the fund. “The process of launching initial public offerings (IPOs) for NHPC and OIL is already in progress. The receipts from the disinvestment would be channelised into NIF,” minister of state for finance SS Palanimanickam said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. The IPOs of NHPC and OIL are expected to hit the capital markets in August and September, respectively, while the disinvestment of other PSUs would be decided on a case-by-case basis. Asked whether the government proposed to amend the NIF, the minister replied in the negative. Under the existing guidelines, the disinvestment proceeds are deposited in the NIF, which is managed by three public sector mutual funds—UTI Asset Management Company, SBI Funds Management and LIC Mutual Fund Asset Management Company. The NIF currently has a corpus of Rs 1,815 crore. It generated an income of Rs 85 crore in the first year, Mr Palanimanickam said. As per the present rules, stake sale proceeds have to be put into the NIF and are not treated like other tax and capital receipts of the government. The government can use the interest from the fund only for social schemes and restructuring of ailing PSUs. Any change in the way NIF operates will have to be approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. The government is expected to put in place a road map for disinvestment in public sector enterprises by mid-August, for which consultations have already been initiated with various ministries. However, the government has ruled out any plan to go in for strategic sales of companies and would retain a minimum of 51% equity in these entities. The Economic Survey has recommended an annual disinvestment target of Rs 25,000 crore.
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Reliance Mutual Fund declares dividend for two schemes
Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group firm Reliance Mutual Fund today announced a dividend of up to 50 per cent for its two schemes: Reliance Regular Savings Fund and Reliance Equity Opportunities Fund
The company would pay a dividend of 50 per cent or Rs 5 per unit and 30 per cent or Rs 3 per piece under the equity and balanced options of Reliance Regular Savings Fund, respectively, it said in a statement.
The fund house has also announced a dividend of 20 per cent or Rs 2 per unit under the retail and institutional plans of Reliance Equity Opportunities Fund. It has fixed July 24 as the record date for dividends.
"Reinforcing the investors' faith, Reliance Mutual Fund has maintained its strategy of giving timely and regular dividends on its schemes," Reliance Capital Asset Management CEO Sundeep Sikka said.
At the end of June, Reliance Mutual Fund has a corpus of over Rs 1,08,332 crore for over 71 lakh investors.

MFs give arbitrage funds a break, stop fresh inflows
MUMBAI: At a time when domestic mutual funds continue to aggressively scramble for more money to boost their asset base, they have made an exception
arbitrage funds. Several top arbitrage schemes of mutual funds have stopped accepting fresh money from investors, as lack of sufficient arbitrage opportunities between the cash and futures markets have made it tedious for them to generate competitive returns to the existing unitholders itself. Top schemes in the category, including Kotak Equity Arbitrage, UTI Spread, ICICI Prudential’s Blended Plans and Equity and Derivative Income Optimiser Plans, are no longer taking money, officials at these mutual funds told ET. Mutual fund distributors said HDFC Arbitrage, IDFC Arbitrage Plans and JM Arbitrage Advantage have also been closed to fresh subscriptions, though this could not be independently verified with them. Sandesh Kirkire, CEO of Kotak Mutual Fund, which manages the biggest arbitrage fund of roughly Rs 1,000 crore, said: “We decided to stop accepting fresh money, keeping in mind the interests of the existing holders because the market is hardly conducive for arbitrage.” Arbitrage schemes, considered relatively risk-free, aim to profit from the pricing anomalies between shares and equity futures. While they use at least 65% of their fund corpus to take advantage of such pricing anomalies, these hybrid schemes are structured to invest up to 35% of their corpus in money market papers such as certificate of deposits and commercial paper. Arbitrage opportunities are at its best in a bull market, when futures trade at a premium to the underlying shares or indices. This allows traders to buy the underlying and sell futures. Analysts say nowadays, futures are mostly trading at a discount to the underlying, resulting in fewer opportunities to cash in on the price differentials. The interest rate scenario of late has also not been favourable for these funds, unlike last year when they switched to money market instruments to sustain returns in the absence of arbitrage opportunities. In the bull run, these schemes aimed at returning 9-11%, but in the last year, average returns from this category have been roughly 7%, according to Value Research, a mutual fund tracker. Funds fear that the returns from this category would shrink further if assets grew more, with these schemes finding favour among the risk-averse investors, amid the existing uncertainty. “It did not make sense to accept more applications at the expense of the existing unitholders. This is a temporary measure,” said Nilesh Shah, deputy MD and CIO of ICICI Prudential Asset Management.
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SC to decide on 'dividend stripping' by mutual funds
The Supreme Court will decide whether mutual fund brokers can resort to a process (dividend stripping) of creating a short-term loss to avoid tax.
A Bench headed by Justice S H Kapadia has issued notice broking firms on a batch of petitions filed by the income-tax department challenging the Bombay High Court judgment that a broker was entitled to have his/her loss set off against income from any other transaction or source.
Dividend stripping happens when a mutual fund declares a tax-free dividend for unit-holders, who after taking the dividend exit the scheme. The net asset value of the scheme declines and unit-holders are able to show a capital loss. As a result, the exchequer misses a chance to tax capital gains.
However, the unit-holder gets the dividend and the mutual fund earns the entry and exit load.
According to the petition, these agents resort to dividend stripping as they know that after the dividend is declared, the net asset value (NAV) of the MF decreases.
Brokers purchase units at a higher price and sell them immediately after the declaration of dividend, knowing that the sale of such units would result in a loss, which they could adjust against the profits derived from the sale and purchase of shares and securities, it added.
In one case, the department alleged that Bang Security had received as dividend more than Rs 14 crore from mutual funds between 1999 and 2001 and had claimed exemption from tax under Section 10 (33) of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
However, at the same time it had shown a loss of Rs 14.35 crore incurred between 2000 and 2002 from purchasing units.

SBI Mutual Fund Uses IVR to Boost Customer Experience
An independent IT solutions and services company announced that it's implemented an interactive voice response, or “IVR” solution for an India asset management company to help manage its mutual funds arm.
Datacraft installed IVR technology at SBI Funds Management, a company that manages more than 100 different funds under SBI Mutual Fund, to help improve customer interaction and let customers use their voice to obtain the latest Net Asset Values of SBI’s Mutual Fund schemes.

The technology features a speech recognition solution powered by Nuance (News - Alert) that's designed to increase users’ experiences. The solution is designed to help SBI Mutual funds enhance customer satisfaction, reduce time to service people and increase agent productivity at the customer support center, the company said.

The speech-enabled IVR service will likely play a key role in improving the end-user interaction, Datacraft said. A touchtone-only environment would have made the system cumbersome and likely would have frustrated customers, officials said.

“The solution will improve customer service by offering more intuitive access to information and streamlining transactions,” said Sunil Manglore, CEO at Datacraft India, in a statement. “In addition, the solution will also increase customer satisfaction by shortening on-hold time and overall call duration.”

SBI Funds Management selected speech-enabled IVR based on surveys of customer calls and an analysis of call patterns. Datacraft India offered consulting and application development services to design and implement the IVR solution, the company said.

IVR services are crucial to ramping up a company’s brand image in the wake of growing competition in India's financial services sector. Datacraft’s deployment of such a service demonstrates the company’s ability to improve the interaction between clients and their customers, Manglore said.

The recent announcement supports a recent report from market research firm T3i Group that found that the global IVR market will grow to $514 million by 2013, up from an estimated $431 million this year. As TMCnet reported, the IVR market is growing because of a resurgence of self-service applications, as well as the power of VXML to link Web applications to voice.

A separate report by market research firm DMG Consulting predicted that the IVR solutions market will see a CAGR of 13.4 percent for the hosted/managed inbound IVR sector and 18.7 percent for the outbound IVR segment over the next four years.

Datacraft, a subsidiary of global IT solutions and services provider Dimension Data, operates more than 50 offices across 13 Asia Pacific countries. The firm helps clients plan, build, support, manage, improve and innovate IT infrastructures.
Amy Tierney is a Web editor for TMCnet, covering unified communications, telepresence, IP communications industry trends and mobile technologies. To read more of Amy's articles, please visit her columnist page.

UPDATE 2-American Express Q2 earnings fall, shares down

EPS 9 cents
* Revenue falls 18 percent to $6.1 bln
* Shares decline 5 percent in after-hours trading (Adds Reuters Estimates, financial details, CEO comments)
By Juan Lagorio
NEW YORK, July 23 (Reuters) - American Express Co (AXP.N), the largest credit card company by sales, reported quarterly earnings that fell in line with expectations on Thursday, hurt by weakness in cardmember spending, record credit losses, restructuring charges and the repayment of government funds.
Net income fell to $337 million, or 9 cents per share, from $653 million, or 56 cents per share, a year earlier.
Earnings from continuing operations declined to $342 million or 9 cents per share from $660 million or 56 cents in the same quarter last year.
The results included a reduction of 18 cents per share related to the repurchase of preferred shares from the U.S. Treasury Department.
Excluding that charge, earnings per share were in line with analysts expectations of 27 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.
Total revenue fell 18 percent to $6.1 billion, while consolidated expenses fell 16 percent to $4.1 billion, helped by a restructuring plan.
In the U.S. card service business, net charge-offs -- a measure of bad loan write-offs -- rose to 10.0 percent from 8.5 percent in the previous quarter.
"Although it is still too early to point to any sure signs of an economic recovery, the number of cardmembers who are falling behind in their payments, the volume of bankruptcy filings and the level of loan write-offs were better than we had expected," Chief Executive Kenneth Chenault said in a statement.
Provisions for losses decreased 22 percent to $1.2 billion.
American Express shares fell 5 percent to $27.99 in after-hours trading after closing at $29.45 on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Juan Lagorio; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

Malaysian shares seen down next week: Analyst
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian share prices are expected to drop next week following recent rallies, an analyst said Friday.
"There have been rallies for the past eight or nine days -- the market is becoming more and more overbought so we are looking at a healthy correction," Stephen Soo, technical analyst with local brokerage TA Securities, told AFP. "We also expect the blue-chips to consolidate," he added. Soo said he expected the bourse to trade between 1,165 and 1,188 points next week. For the week to July 24, the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index gained 34.98 points, or 3.12 percent, to close at 1,155.88.

India to revamp national security in wake of terror attacks

KRISHNAN: The government has already set up a National Investigation Agency on the lines of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation to tackle terror exclusively and strengthen provisions in terror laws making it tougher for suspects to obtain bail. However to improve core policing in the country the home ministry has begun to improve the police- people ratio, filling up police vacancies in many states and purchasing proper equipment, sophisticated weaponry and communication systems for both police and paramilitary forces to meet the challenges of new age terror. Home Minister P Chidamabaram spells out the agenda before him. CHIDAMBARAM: I'm fully aware of the security situation and the issues that have to be addressed. Terrorism, Naxalite violence and insurgency in the north east are the key challenges for the country. Besides, there are areas that are sensitive in the areas of public order and communal harmony.KRISHNAN: With seven paramilitary forces under his charge, Chidambaram, has conducted a personal review of each of these forces.The Mumbai attacks exposed the utter unpreparedness of the intelligence establishment but now a multi-agency Centre has been empowered functioning on a 24-7 basis and is now legally obliged to share real time intelligence with all other agencies.Terrorism expert Hartosh Singh Bal says India has to cope with new age terror especially when attacks either by terror groups or leftist extremists have got deadlier and had a surprise element.BAL ACTUALITY: There's almost a transition in the very nature of Indian terrorism. For the first time, we are lookign at well-educated, reasonably affluent terrorists who have an idealogy that is not restricted by the boundaries of India, who are getting increasingly sophisticated in the methods, who are learning from the mistakes they's made - this is obvious in how they are using explosives, how they're using technology like the net. India needs to upgrade its capabilities across the board in order to fight the new threat. KRISHNAN: Just this month, more hubs of the elite National Security Guard that battled terrorists in Mumbai opened up in four other cities, that are expected to act as force multipliers to any threat arising in the country.Chidambaram maintains that much of the action plan to secure India has been implemented.Security analyst M. K. Venu who has been keeping a close eye on the revamped mechanisms believes there has been a significant change in the security regimen.VENU: I think after the Mumbai terror attack, India is indeed spending a lot of money on upgrading its security establishment, whether it is coastal security or whether its improving and upgradign it anti-terrorist outfits like the National Secuirty Guard. And also, improving the hinterland security.KRISHNAN: The government has so far been serious to implement a raft of measures such as securing important private establishments and deploying commandos at iconic structures round the clock. It is now working towards deadlines. The security establishment wants to transform and quickly to ensure that another Mumbai or worse does not recur.

'Kalam had No Problems with Frisking'

New Delhi, July 21 (IANS): Former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was subjected to a body search for the first time by employees of a US airline in Delhi when he was boarding a flight in April to Newark, his office said Tuesday, adding he does go through the standard security drill while travelling abroad.
The issue created a storm in the Rajya Sabha with Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel promising a probe into the incident and saying a show-cause notice would be sent to the carrier.
"He did not complain when he was frisked and took in his stride. Everyone was being checked and so was he," said Kalam's personal secretary H.Sheridan.
Kalam was frisked by the ground staff of Continental Airlines at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) when he was on the aerobridge while boarding the non-stop flight to Newark, New Jersey.
"He had left the ceremonial lounge and there were a few airlines staff on the aerobridge who were checking passengers," said Sheridan.
"Till date he has not been frisked while leaving India. That was the first occasion. However, when he travels abroad he goes through the regular drill of going through detectors but that is minimal," Sheridan told IANS.
India has a list of VIPs exempted from routine security checks and frisking. This is applicable even when they are travelling by commercial flights.
The list includes the president, vice-president, prime minister, former presidents, Lok Sabha Speaker, chief ministers, chief justices of the Supreme Court and high courts, the cabinet secretary, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and members of her family.
The airline has defended its action stating it was company policy to conduct security checks on all passengers and it did not make a distinction for VIPs.
Since he stepped down from office in July 2007, Kalam has been a regular traveller abroad, invited by universities and think tanks for lectures and attending seminars.
"He has been to the US alone four times already and is off again in September for receiving an award from the California Institute of Technology," Sheridan said.
"We just got back from Dhaka this afternoon where the former president was given royal treatment."
Kalam was in Dhaka on a three-day visit and met with Bangladeshi Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus and attended a dinner hosted by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and President Zillur Rahman.
This is not the first time that Indian politicians or VIPs have been subjected to frisking.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was forced to undergo security checks at the ceremonial lounge at Moscow airport last year while he was on his way back to India, creating a diplomatic flutter.
However, former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee called off a scheduled official visit to London in October last year after he was told he would be frisked at Heathrow airport. He was then invited by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.
That was the second time Chatterjee cancelled a foreign trip for the same reason. In April 2005, he called off a trip to Sydney after the government refused to exempt him from security frisking.

Lee County drops toll change

FORT MYERS, Fla. - Lee County drops a recommendation to simplify the toll structure for drivers with electronic passes.County leaders wanted to simplify the system to save money in operational costs and make it more compatible nationwide. Paul Wingard with Lee DOT says it would have caused more problems than it was worth."The first issue that came up was the unlimited use program," said Wingard. "Then it was the 2ND car unlimited use plan which has a lower rate. It complicates the software and has a tremendous impact on revenue." The county would give out a limited number of pre-paid plans and charge one rate for people with transponders.Businesses spoke out at the public meetings, saying the new rates would mean new costs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars."It's like an additional tax at a time that would have been difficult for us," said Danny Adams with Sanibel Holiday Inn.Winguard says a new toll system idea may not be revisited for at least a year, but, he says it needs to change to be more compatible with the rest of the country

PREVIEW-Bissau election holds little hope of change

DAKAR, July 24 (Reuters) - Guinea-Bissau, a tiny slice of the West African coastline that has endured decades of political violence, will vote for a new president on Sunday, though neither contender offers real hope of a break with the past.The decisive second round of the poll, triggered by the killing of President Joao Bernardo Vieira in March, was initially seen as a chance to end the spiral of retribution between the presidency and the military that culminated with the twin slayings of Vieira and the armed forces chief of staff.However, familiar faces and familiar problems still dominate the political landscape.Malam Bacai Sanha, widely seen as favourite to win on Sunday, and rival Kumba Yala have both been president before, the latter for a chaotic 2000-2003 spell that saw four prime ministers, more than 80 ministers, and a halt to IMF and World Bank lending.Whoever wins, much of the real power will remain in the hands of the soldiers."Whatever the balance of power between institutions, it's the military that calls the shots in Guinea-Bissau, and that's not going to change whoever wins this election," said Richard Reeve, West Africa analyst for Oxford Analytica.Sanha represents the ruling African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) while Yala is standing for the Social Renewal Party (PRS)."The military is more opposed to the PAIGC than the PRS because the PAIGC has been much more overt about security sector reform," Reeve said.MILITARY INTERVENTIONSThe military has repeatedly shown its willingness to intervene in politics since the country won independence from Portugal in 1974. It has declared its neutrality, but many officers were promoted during Yala's stint in power."It is essential that the authority of the state is restored in order to assure the security and physical safety of all citizens," Sanha said while campaigning this week.Years of insecurity are to blame for the lack of much-needed foreign investment in Guinea-Bissau, one of the poorest countries on earth, Yala told supporters."What the country clearly needs is security sector reform as well as institutional capacity building," said IHS Global Insight analyst Kissy Agyeman-Togobo.The corrupting influence of drug smugglers from across the Atlantic, who have in recent years used Guinea-Bissau as a transit point for cocaine on its way to Europe, often with the complicity of the armed forces, will leave Sunday's winner as the head of a severely weakened state."Whoever comes to power will have to grapple with these harsh realities, but with the support of the international community in the combat of illegal drugs," Agyeman-Togobo said.Ethnicity strongly favours Sanha, as analysts say Yala is unlikely to be able to broaden his appeal beyond his Balante tribe."Past practice would suggest Kumba Yala will dispute the result, but his capacity to cause trouble is pretty limited," said Oxford Analytica's Reeve.For a FACTBOX on Guinea-Bissau, click on [ID:LN36267] and for a TIMELINE of its political history, click on [ID:LN34701] (Additional reporting by Alberto Dabo in Bissau; editing by Tim Pearce) (For more Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit:

Indo-US Eco Ties to Hinge On Five Pillars: Clinton

MUMBAI - India and the United States plan to take their strategic and economic cooperation to a new high by launching an important dialogue on what is called ‘five pillars” during the five-day visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.“We see the dialogue that we are embarking upon as extremely important and is based on the five pillars which are areas of strategic importance, agriculture, healthcare, science and technology and education,” Clinton told reporters July 18 after meeting top Indian businessmen, including Ratan Tata and Mukesh Ambani.The subjects of discussion ranged from climate change, promotion of green energy and initiatives to strengthening of bilateral trade ties. To a question if export of petro-products by Reliance to Iran figured on the agenda, Clinton said the issue was not discussed. “That is something we will look at later.”Discussions with India Inc on climate change and clean energy were “extremely productive” Clinton said, adding “the point was made that there is no contradiction between poverty elimination and moving on carbon emission”.She said the US and developed countries “have made mistakes that have contributed significantly leading to the problems that we face of climate change” and hoped that India would not repeat those mistakes. “We are hoping that a great country like India does not make the same mistakes (that the US did),” Clinton said, adding “we believe India is innovative enough to deal with climate change” while simultaneously taking measures to eliminate poverty.Clinton also highlighted the country’s great achievement in the telecom sector where it has leap-frogged over technologies to reach the level it has today.Both governments were seized of the challenge posed by climate change problems and over the next few days, discussions would be held not only at the governmental level but also with the private sector on this issue, she said.“There are creative approaches (to the climate change problem) and we will share it,” Clinton said.Describing the power-breakfast with India’s corporate bigwigs as “exciting”, she said among the issues discussed were increasing agricultural production, providing micro-nutrients to infants, the need for clean energy, working together of Indian and US pharma companies and universities.In New Delhi, US officials would be interacting with their Indian counterparts on issues ranging from economic growth and development, climate change and education, non-proliferation and counter-terrorism.India and the US would jointly work on tackling global hunger and move towards clean energy in the future, she said.Climate change and clean energy are two important issues that figure on Clinton’s agenda. “Tomorrow, I will meet Indian scientists and innovators on green energy,” she said. (PTI)

The system's challengersDreams and Shadows by Robin Wright
Reviewed by Sreeram Chaulia Representations of the Middle East as changeless, frozen-in-time and regressive have crowded mainstream Western media for years owing to the region's high frequency of despotism and religious fundamentalism. But the despondent narrative of a region doomed to medievalism obscures new developments and forces pushing for democracy and decency. In her new book, Robin Wright, a senior journalist for the Washington Post, pries open a window to the Middle East's lesser-known strain of citizen activism against both dictatorship and Islamist terrorism. Having lived and traveled in the region for three decades, she focuses on the courage and sacrifice of
individuals and groups aspiring for freedom. The book's prologue draws attention to "pyjamahedeen" - emerging young players campaigning for human rights and democracy using laptops and cell phones. These activists are inexperienced and under-resourced compared to entrenched tyrants and violent Islamists. With the highest youth unemployment rate in the world, the region has enough flashpoints for extremism. A demographically fuelled revolution in expectations can therefore be easily channeled into the throes of armed jihad rather than constructive change. Wright terms these contradictory prospects the "crises of change" through which "not all new actors will succeed". (pg 18
In the Palestinian territories, the death of the patriarch Yasser Arafat

was a catalyst for change. The 2006 parliamentary election that followed was the first instance in Arab history when people peacefully and democratically turned incumbents out of power. Hamas' sweep ended half a century of monopoly over power by Fatah, but both parties then proceeded to violate the norms of democratic conduct by engaging in devastating factional fighting. Washington fanned the Palestinian deadlock by arming Fatah to the teeth, thereby extinguishing the "euphoria of the Arabs' most democratic election ever". (pg 63) The Palestinian saga, says Wright, demonstrates the volatility of change in an institutionally weak Middle East. Egypt's 2005 presidential election was typically fixed in favor of the absolutist ruler, Hosni Mubarak, but it propelled civil society watchdogs to try to hold his government to account. Their exemplary actions inspired similar movements in Jordan and Lebanon. Yet, the most energetic political opposition in Egypt is the Muslim Brotherhood rather than secular democratic networks like Kefaya. The Brotherhood presently advocates peaceful transformation but insists on the primacy of Islamic Sharia in lawmaking. Its ultimate aims of recreating the caliphate and "mastering the world with Islam" hardly inspire the country's 10% Christian population. With the US on his side as ally and the opposition scattered, Mubarak looks set to prolong his police state by spawning a dynasty. Lebanon is relatively democratic but plagued by sectarian divisions. Institutionalized confessionalism hobbles national unity in this most diverse country. The assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri in 2005 spurred a new generation of activists with a national vision. They assembled the largest mass protests ever in a modern Arab country and succeeded in ending Syria's 29-year occupation of the country. But sectarian quota systems in government remain along with warlords and clans, which still tower over fledgling civil society groups. The Shi'ite guerrilla outfit, Hezbollah, is the most powerful political actor in Lebanon. Backed by Iran and an impressive social service and Israel-resistance record, Hezbollah is a state within the state. Wright describes meeting its supremo, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, who said "the real democratic process in our countries will often produce governments that will be Islamist". (pg 196) The author adds that Hezbollah's war against Israel in 2006 hastened "a shift from Arabism to Islamism among both major Muslim sects" in the region. (pg 210) Since 1963, Syria has been in an open-ended state of emergency under the thumb of the Ba'ath Party. Neo-Marxists have taken the biggest risks and served the longest prison stints for relentlessly opposing the Assad dynasty's oppression. Wright focuses especially on the tribulations of the long-imprisoned leftist dissident, Riad al Turk. Syrian progressives have willingly walked to the gallows with the pride that they at least "participated in saving the dignity of our people". (pg 239) Wright also profiles a Syrian lawyer who sold his personal affects to defend dissidents even though his clients had no chance of acquittal. As in Egypt, the more consistent challenge to the Assad autocracy comes from the Syrian branch of the Brotherhood. It is now open to collaborating with other opposition forces, including the leftists. With "a strong Islamic wind blowing through the region" (pg 248), says Wright, secular dissidents too are keen on bringing the Brotherhood back into the political field. But regime change looks like a long haul in this heavily militarized country. Moving to Iran's revolution-gone-sour, Wright features the views of philosopher Abdolkarim Soroush and his student, Akbar Ganji. After falling out with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Soroush began propounding that "freedom always precedes religion" and that the reversed sequence "inevitably leads to totalitarianism". (pg 275) Ganji quit the Ministry of Culture upon realizing that "the revolution (had) started swallowing its own children". (pg 277) He chronicled the corruption and impunity of Iran's clergy and intelligence agencies and braved jail sentences to describe the Islamic republic as an "iron cage" that can only be broken through mass civil disobedience. Wright writes affectionately about the "irrepressible irreverence" and "desperate defiance" of Iranian youth. She also follows the fates of rebel clerics like Ali Montazeri, Mohsen Kadivar and Hosein Boroujerdi who exposed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's empire of abuses and paid heavy personal prices for it. Moderate insiders like former president Mohammad Khatami and former prime minister Mir Hossein Moussavi also try to humanize and liberalize the system from within, but get stopped in their tracks by Khamenei's hardliners. The most recent re-anointment of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad through a fraudulent presidential election spells greater travails ahead for democracy in Iran. Wright's chapter on Morocco, a country reeling under monarchy for the last 1200 years, highlights women as "an imaginative force for change in the Middle East." (p.352) Iconoclastic Moroccan feminists like Fatima Mernissi and Latifa Jbabdi faced state bullying and harassment from the mosque but persisted in launching collective campaigns for gender equality. Their 20-year-long struggle yielded far-reaching democratic changes in family law in 2004. But the Moroccan royalty's failure to share power or enact political reform has kept open avenues for extremist organisations like the Islamist Combatant Group. Wright reserves the final chapter to the trauma of Iraq. Before the US invasion in 2003, she recalls the apprehensions of top Iraqi Kurdish leaders that "removing a dictatorship does not mean democracy will work". (pg 383) Since the ouster of Saddam Hussein, occupying American administrators and elected Iraqi politicians have not managed to calm ethnic divisions or reduce alienation from the central government. Elections rewarded Islamist parties and failed to prevent sectarian militias (often protected by the state) from going on the rampage. Wright critiques the US neo-conservative experiment in Iraq by asserting that, "whatever its shortcomings, change is always better home-grown". (pg 409) The US attack on Iraq stranded new democracy activists throughout the Middle East and handed the initiative to violent actors. But the indefatigable spirits among the human rights groups, Wright assures us, will "keep trying". (pg 419) One need go no further than this book for a realistic appraisal of the promise and limitations of moderate agents of change in a politically pent-up region.

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Forex signals is deemed as one of the most essential factors that are given greater stress and emphasis when you hit the trade market. As a lot of people begin to rely on forex signals to provide them with a clear strategy, so as the search for free forex signals begin. True enough, there are various providers that give free signals however; this is considered short term reliefs since you never know when these free providers are going to pull the plug and the last thing you know everything's over. Therefore, you have to secure a kind of forex signal that will not only allow you to have free access to exchange currency market but also the ways on improving your skills.
Free forex signals served greater purpose of providing traders with the accurate signals that allows them to trail on repeated patterns and through this generate a prediction of how will the currency move. This is of the essence since as you begin to do your trade chances of acquiring a wrong move is inevitable and you will be left with nothing but to go back to square one and try your luck on your next trade. However, with free forex signals, you no longer have to endure anxiousness when trading as accurate signals are transmitted on your database.
Serious forex traders have greatly rely on free forex signals apart from its greater outcome, one of the most gleaned factor is its ability to reward traders with profits that they never imagine they can get. You can also try on investing forex signals and make this your partner for lifetime. As people would prefer to have subscription rather than the free ones it is never difficult to find one for your trade.
Accurate signals have become the indicators of the market's flow and behavior. These signals serve as your eye in the entire course of your foreign exchange dealings. Some of the factors that are provided by the forex signals are forex patterns, currency pairs, breakouts and Fibonacci levels. These are some of the things to look at when you are in a trade. This is precisely the reason why a trader without sufficient knowledge of the market will do no good in his dealings. These signals also provide traders of the idyllic timing when it comes to buying and selling currencies. The forex signal provides you with various information and recommendation if it would be favorable to buy or sell your currency. This type of recommendation is given by your provider or if you employ a broker then you most likely receive signals through an agent.
Forex signals are generally given on a daily updated basis and all are contingent on factual market analysis and behavioral flow and not on mere hearsays and other speculations.
Looking at the practical side, it would be a best option to go by free forex signals however, if you have the financial means to fund a subscription then you may acquire for one. But regardless of it being free or not, the underlying principle relies on the fact that forex signals are your way towards unleashing the secrets of forex trading.

Forex Training Education - Learn How to Become a Professional Forex Trader!

Forex training education is one of the most sought after training course formulated and specifically tailored for those who want to learn the true dealings of the trade. This becomes popular to a lot of aspiring traders, novice and even professionals. As everyone knows how the trade can move to an intensified state down to its fluctuation, it can never be gleaned that forex trading is an easy market. Reality check, it is not an uncomplicated market however, you can formulate ways on how to weather a complex market into something that will turn all the intricacies and risks as part of a challenging course and in the long run to your advantage.
When you finally come to the conclusion of undergoing forex training education, you will realize that this is something worthwhile as you begin with an investment that you will be carrying on in the duration of your trade and in your future transactions. One might come to ask, what could possibly be the best formula to gain more profit? The answer is simple, learn through forex course training education and be able to apply all the things that you have learned in your actual trade.
Forex training education has a lot of things to offer in helping you become a professional trader. You have to start off in searching for the best and the finest online courses on the net. There are multiplicities of selections provided for those who want to gain further knowledge in the areas of forex market and you will surely come up with the most efficient ones. You can also go by other forex trade software that consists of forex autopilot and forex robots. This software generate favorable outcome and constructive feedback as expediency becomes its major point. When you acquire a forex autopilot or robot, you will no longer have to do the monitoring 24/7 for the forex autopilot will be the one to do all the things that you once been doing. This software will also send forex signals on your database indicating if it is a perfect time to buy, sell or hold your currencies.
Forex training education is also comprise of demo accounts that can serve as your online resources. You can also create an account where you will be given a trial trade with no capital involve until such time that you are ready to face the inner circle and do your first trade at once. Added to this, is the significance of learning forex languages that will also play a big part in your dealings. Terminologies such as hedge, pips, currency pairs, quote currency, base currency, cross currency and the major and minor currency. The chances of coming across with these terms are viable.
Keep in mind that, forex training education should not rest once you get yourself in the forex market circle. Just like any other venture, a continuous learning process is essential to make way for greater challenges to overcome, profits to take pleasure and in due time a professional trader in your own right.

Forex Trading - Why Forex Traders Prefer Technical Analysis

Until relatively recently fundamental analysis, or looking at past political and economic events to help them predict price movements in the underlying currencies they traded, is how most traders arrived at trading decisions.
However, fundamental analysis requires a trader to absorb lots of diverse information from many sources and considerable knowledge to interpret it accurately. Couple this with basic disagreements as to what information is important and what weight to assign it and you can begin to see why this method took enormous resources and time. Two characteristics not commonly associated with the individual investor.
The end result was that for years currency trading was the exclusive playground of large banks or other institutions with the resources to accomplish this type of analysis
Now, the rise of computing power and the proliferation of electronic information sources have lead to a fundamental shift in the way most traders analyze the Forex market.
Today most traders employ another, more automated, form of analysis known as technical analysis. This involves the combined charting of real-time and historical price movement data of currencies. Today this is mostly accomplished using computers which have the ability to do the sometimes complex math quickly in near real-time.
Technical analysis really boils down to simply taking the over one hundred years worth of recorded historical price data available from the foreign currency market and running it through a computerized charting application to look for patterns and trends.
Once these patterns or trends are identified they must be quantified in there ability to predict price moves in a particular direction. Once done, a trader can then look at the manner in which a currency's price is currently moving and compare this to similar past patterns to predict the future direction of movement.
So, while technical analysis still requires skill, experience, and judgment the fact that it is more automated and less subjective than the research involved in fundamental analysis contributes to it's popularity. The debate over which method is better will probably never be resolved, but most traders feel that technical analysis is easier to learn and master.
There are three underlying principles one must be familiar with to fully understand technical analysis.
First, there are many factors, such as political or economic events, that will produce price movement in a particular currency pair. However, these factors, or reasons, are not what's important to technical analysis, but rather the price movement itself.
Second, technical analysis assumes that pricing moves follow a trend that can be discerned by tracking the patterns that emerge over time in the market.
Finally, the trends and patterns that emerge from historical charting and analysis of price will also be reflected in future price action movements. This is because, in the view of the technical analyst, the trading psychology of humans remains for the most part constant over time. So market participants will react in similar fashion to similar news in the future the same as they have in the past.
This "wisdom of crowds" or at least the predictability of crowds is dismissed by followers of the fundamental analysis approach. They hold to their belief that a deep understanding of the factors that affect pricing and not a reliance on patterns is the only way to produce reliable long term results.
In spite what the fans of fundamental analysis say the majority of traders today rely almost entirely on a some form of technical analysis for trading currency.
No system, whether based on fundamental and technical analysis, can accurately predict price movements every time but a good technical trader who takes the time to learn a sound methodology can do quite well.

Forex Trader Forum, Where Forex Traders Talk About Forex

Forex Trading Strategies in Timing
Savvy forex traders often pinpoint the opportunities in forex trading and persist to time the industry so they know precisely when the right time is to trade, or buy. The problem is many traders buy at the wrong time, although they have monitored, explored, and checked the quotes daily. In addition, these people tend to bank on the notion that buying in forex is best when the market is low and the traders are pulling back.
At the entry level in forex, many traders erroneously time forex marketing without realizing how to fittingly, utilize pullback and the level of support.
Forex marketing has a strategy that many traders overlook. The prime strategy, which many forex traders believe is the key to profiting in the forex industry is the buying low and selling high strategy. Unfortunately, these traders are wrong, since it is a key to loosing instead.
Support in forex industry is when chronological value or pricing comes in from traders who “Buy.”
The mission behind buying is to provide support for the forex market exchange, as well as to analyze, examine, experiment, investigate, etc, the markets in forex currencies and exchange. Each time the traders test forex, it authenticates support.
Resistance becomes sizeable in the forex industry only when the levels of “resistance” is charted, i.e. at what time the levels of forex value, or pricing refuses to give in to jumping to a higher listing.
For this reason, at what time forex traders venture on buying low and selling high, they are making a big mistake. Traders who delay in forex trading markets will often recoil, or retract at the time some of the biggest deals transpire in the forex industry.
In short, the trends are what traders want to stay aware to, yet most traders will resist. Why, because the traders often feel uneasy at the times when other traders resisting buying and selling in forex.
Now, if you want to get ahead in forex trading and use strategies to win, I recommend you read the book on emotions, or the keys to success. No, these are not actual titles, yet visit your library to find relating material because what you are going to have to do to win in forex trading, is become friends to your discomfort.
Most people feel discomfort will experience distress, anxiety, and often it is because they fear embarrassment. The disadvantage of this way of thinking is that, most times the fears are exaggerated and the one fearing is the one who looses at the end.
Another big failure in life is that most people feel that if they are not on the normal level of thinking, they are not accepted and are set apart from the world. Read your history because you will find that the vast majority of those who succeeding in life, where different. That is they did not think on the terms of normal society. These people often win also in forex trading, since they set strategies apart from the rest.
In short, fear is the mechanism behind all failures. Now to sum up the best times to buy in forex trading. The best times to buy in trading industries, such as forex is when the market is “high” and traders are not resisting, or pulling back. In summary, when you use strategies in forex trading such as buying “high” and selling “higher,” you are off to a grand start in winning in the forex industry. As well, you have setup forex trading strategies that set you apart from the rest, which means your chances of winning are higher

) Forex Signals: Effectively Using Forex Signals to Maximize Your Forex Trading Profits

FOREX trading has some shortcomings; one is the fact that you have to spend a great deal of time scrutinizing the market. Indeed, you may have to spend many hours at your PC, keeping your eyes peeled for entrance and exit situations that will be helpful in your overall investment strategy.
It is possible to utilize automated orders. Limits and stops prevent eye strain by letting you have some time away from your monitor, secure that any potential for loss is minimal. However, you can also lose out on prospective gains, if such orders, in your absence, take effect sooner than you’d like.
To minimize the risk of automated orders, and yet still get away from your desk, a FOREX signal service may be helpful. Someone else does the market watching and analyzing for you, and the results are sent to you directly, by email, cell phone, pager, etc. Such services aren’t free; usually a monthly or annual subscription is required. However, some brokerages have integrated such services into Forex trading software which sends signals to you by screen “pop-up” messages, or by the other direct methods already mentioned.
FOREX signals are usually only to be had in a restricted quantity of currency pairings. Most frequently, one of the following will be offered: EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, or USD/CHF. However, other such duos may be offered by certain specialty services.
A high level of technical market analysis is generally required for FOREX signal creation. Most services utilize a mix of indicators to recognize primary trends and entrance/exit signifiers. Subscribers are then given the option of exercising or foregoing a trade based on the results; some companies may even give you the ability to place trade orders that can be exercised by an analyst without consultation with you, to give you even more freedom from having to monitor the markets – or even the signals – yourself.
A variety of signals are possible as the results of the analysis of currency charts. A Simple Moving Average (SMA) signals to buy if the price for the specified currency moves higher than the line indicating the average price, or to sell if the price goes below the line.
A Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) study also has a signal line where “buy” is indicated if the price goes above, or “sell” if the price goes below, the line.
Market interest may be found using indicators of volume. Especially near the market low, high volume tends to signal that a new trend is beginning. Conversely, low volume may signal that investors are unsure of the wisdom of purchase at this time. The possibility of market change may be signaled by a variety of different indicators.
The utility of such signals can be reinforced with a mixture of additional indicators from a variety of sources. Such a combination provides insight into market behavior that can be fairly dependable. Of course, nothing is 100% certain – if such signals were absolutely reliable, we’d all be rich. No respectable service will ever guarantee absolute success. However, a particular service’s result history can be a good indicator of whether or not you can rely on their currency trading advice being useful to you in the future.
Subscription services that provide such data typically cost between $50 and $200 per month. You may find that the cost outweighs the benefits, or you might find that your profits make the information worth the price. Such data can never take the place of true knowledge, however; signals are simply a form of guidance. If you lack the basic tools to use the information provided, such a service will probably be useless to you until you can obtain some additional training.

) Learn Forex - Is Forex Trading The Ultimate Home Business Opportunity ?

That's true, you can be a trader at home. Forex, or Foreign Exchange Market is by far the largest financial market in the world. About $2 trillion are traded EVERY DAY. The Forex market is the currency market, where a currency is traded against another. Quick example : you buy a dollar and sell euros. Not that easy to understand. But can we do this from home ? Yes, we can. About ten years ago, you would need millions of dollars to start trading. Now you can start with a few hundreds of dollars.
What you need is your computer and an internet connexion. You can trade from the comfort of your home, without having to deal with any boss or clients. You will only deal with money. Then you can start selling dollars and buying euros and make a profit. You have to find a broker, where you will open an account and funding it. You will also have the possibility to get a demo account and practice, with fake money but in the real time market. I strongly recommend you practice a few months before thinking of "live" trading.
It is not that easy, it is extremely risky if you don't know anything about trading. First rule : don't invest what you can't afford to lose. Forex is not a game, there is a lot of parameters to take in account, and human factor is one of the most important in this business.
You may have already understood it, currencies are traded by pairs. The european Euro versus the US Dollar, The US Dollar versus the Japan Yen, etc. When you buy a currency, you want to sell it later at a higher price. When you sell a currency, you want to buy it later at a lower price. This is how you make profit. Think like you were buying a foreign company share. You always want to buy low, and always want to sell high.
What you are looking to when trading currencies is the exchange rate. This will tell you your next move. Buy or sell. Currencies are part of the economy of each countries. When the value of a currency is increasing, this means the economy is going better as before. The exchange rate can be viewed as the country's economy compared to another economy. This is why economic factors can help you to predict your next move. If you know that a currency will increase, you will buy it and expect to sell it at a higher price, a higher rate.
You can choose the pair you want to trade, but the most people trade the main currencies, Euro, Dollar, British Pound, Japan Yen. And you can only choose to trade one pair only if you want. You are the only person that will make the decision. Hope you are making the good ones, profit can be huge, as well as losses.
Like any business, forex trading has to be taken seriously. Lots of people are trading the forex and some are earning thousands of dollars every day. But it needs a lot of training, education and analysis before reaching such results. It can be the perfect business and actually it is for advanced traders

Discover Some Magic To Beat The Forex: The Elliott Wave Theory For Forex Markets

One of the best known and least understood theories of technical analysis in forex trading is the Elliot Wave Theory. Developed in the 1920s by Ralph Nelson Elliot as a method of predicting trends in the stock market, the Elliot Wave theory applies fractal mathematics to movements in the market to make predictions based on crowd behavior. In its essence, the Elliot Wave theory states that the market – in this case, the forex market – moves in a series of 5 swings upward and 3 swings back down, repeated perpetually. But if it were that simple, everyone would be making a killing by catching the wave and riding it until just before it crashes on the shore. Obviously, there’s a lot more to it.
One of the things that makes riding the Elliot Wave so tricky is timing – of all the major wave theories, it’s the only one that doesn’t put a time limit on the reactions and rebounds of the market. A single In fact, the theories of fractal mathematics makes it clear that there are multiple waves within waves within waves. Interpreting the data and finding the right curves and crests is a tricky process, which gives rise to the contention that you can put 20 experts on the Elliot Wave theory in one room and they will never reach an agreement on which way a stock – or in this case, a currency – is headed.
Elliot Wave Basics
• Every action is followed by a reaction.It’s a standard rule of physics that applies to the crowd behavior on which the Elliot Wave theory is based. If prices drop, people will buy. When people buy, the demand increases and supply decreases driving prices back up. Nearly every system that uses trend analysis to predict the movements of the currency market is based on determining when those actions will cause reactions that make a trade profitable.
• There are five waves in the direction of the main trend followed by three corrective waves (a "5-3" move).The Elliot Wave theory is that market activity can be predicted as a series of five waves that move in one direction (the trend) followed by three ‘corrective’ waves that move the market back toward its starting point.
• A 5-3 move completes a cycle.And here’s where the theory begins to get truly complex. Like the mirror reflecting a mirror that reflects a mirror that reflects a mirror, the each 5-3 wave is not only complete in itself, it is a superset of a smaller series of waves, and a subset of a larger set of 5-3 waves – the next principle.
• This 5-3 move then becomes two subdivisions of the next higher 5-3 wave.In Elliot Wave notation, the 5 waves that fit the trend are labeled 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 (impulses). The three correcting waves are called a, b and c (corrections). Each of these waves is made up of a 5-3 series of waves, and each of those is made up of a 5-3 series of waves. The 5-3 cycle that you’re studying is an impulse and correction in the next ascending 5-3 series.