Introduction to forex trading

There are many markets: markets for stocks, futures, options and currencies. These are probably the most accessible markets for everyday traders like you and I. People easily understand the basics of trading shares. I began trading shares first and then I moved on to trading currencies.

If you do not know a lot about currency trading, allow me to introduce it to you. It is what I trade and I believe that it is one of the best markets to trade because of its efficiency. The transaction costs to execute a trade are minimal and most brokers provide you with the tools and data you need to make your trading decisions, they usually provide them for free. The market is open 24 hours a day which allows you to design your trading hours around your daily commitments. It is very volatile, which is great for those people who are looking for day-trading opportunities.

The foreign exchange market is the market in which currencies are bought and sold against one another. People may loosely refer to this market under different labels, including foreign exchange market, forex market, fx market or the currency market.

The foreign exchange market is the largest market in the world, with daily trading volumes in excess of $1.5 trillion US dollars. All transactions involving international trade and investment must go through this market because these transactions involve the exchange of currencies.

It is the most perfect market that exists because it has a large number of buyers and sellers all selling the same products. There is a free flow of information and there are little barriers to participate.

The currency exchange market is an over-the-counter (OTC) market which means that there is not one specific location where buyers and sellers can actually meet to exchange currencies. Instead, transactions are conducted by phone, fax, e-mail or through the websites of brokers who specialize in currency trading.

The major dealing centres at the time of writing are: London , with about 30% of the market, New York , with 20%, Tokyo , with 12%, Zurich , Frankfurt, Hong Kong and Singapore , with about 7% each, followed by Paris and Sydney with 3% each. Because of the fact that these centres are all over the world, foreign exchange traders can execute transactions 24 hours a day. The market only closes on the weekends.

THE MAIN ‘PLAYERS' IN THE FOREX MARKET

The five broad categories of participants are: consumers, businesses, investors, speculators, commercial banks, investment banks and central banks.

Consumers, including visitors of countries, tourists and immigrants, do need to exchange currencies when they travel so that they can buy local goods and services. These participants do not have the power to set prices. They just buy and sell according to the prevailing exchange rate. They make up a significant proportion of the volume being traded in the market.

Businesses that import and export goods and services need to exchange currencies to receive or make payments for goods they may have bought or services they may have rendered.

Investors and speculators require currencies to buy and sell investment instruments such as shares, bonds, bank deposits or real estate.

Large commercial and investment banks are the ‘price makers'. They are the ones who buy and sell currencies at the bid-and-offer exchange rates that they declare through their foreign exchange dealers.

Commercial banks deal with customers on one hand, and with the Interbank or other banks, on the other hand. They profit by utilizing the bid-and-offer spread. The bid price is the exchange rate that the buyer is willing to buy and the offer price is the exchange rate at which the seller is willing to sell. The difference is called the bid-offer spread. They also make profits from speculating about whether the exchange rate will rise or fall.

Central banks participate in the foreign exchange market in their effective duty as banks for their particular government. They trade currencies not for the intention of making profits but rather to facilitate government monetary policies and to help smoothen out the fluctuation of the value of their economy's currency.

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This is an excerpt, modified from the book: The Part-Time Currency Trader, featuring examples of how to trade these currency pairs.

Soccer 101

The biggest sporting event in the world is about to begin and most in the USA are uninformed about soccer. This article will provide a brief introduction to soccer, rules of the game, structure of the World Cup, odds-on-favorites and authentic underdogs that will participate in the FIFA World Cup.

Welcome to Soccer 101. As the FIFA World Cup, the most popular and fervently followed sporting event in the world approaches, many are anticipating that the world’s largest tournament will be successful in increasing the sport’s fan base. In the past, most people in the USA have had little to no knowledge or interest in this huge event. In recent years, there has been a shift in “American” thinking, and soccer is starting to become more popular. The event that clearly defines this sport, the World Cup, is to be held in Germany starting June 9th and will reach its climax on July the 9th with the crowning of a World Championship team.

The word “soccer” is actually only used in the United States and Great Britain, where it has its origins. The rest of the world simply calls it “football”. The term ‘soccer’ is actually an abbreviation derived from “Association Football”, an organization formed in London in 1863. Originally called the Football Association, it was formed to standardize the rules for the game. One of the early compelling rule changes established by this association was that the ball could not be carried, or touched by the hand, except by the goalie. At the time, many enthusiasts and players were leaning toward morphing the sport into something similar to rugby or American football. This caused a rift in the two schools of thought and the rugby oriented clubs departed from the association soon after. The organization then coined the name Association Football to make a distinction between the two sports. In 1889, the abbreviated form “socca” started to be used. Eventually, in 1895, the spelling was changed to “soccer.” The origin of soccer, according to historians, is not nearly as clearly defined as the origin of the name.

The earliest known game similar to soccer was played in China during the Ts'in Dynasty (255 BC-206 BC). A game played with an animal skin ball and thirty-foot high posts connecting a net to form a goal, “tsu chu”, as it was known, was used to train soldiers. It is also documented that it was played as a form of celebration for events surrounding royalty. In ancient Near-East countries such as Egypt, a version of the game was played as a form of fertility rites. The American Indians and the Eskimos also had versions of a game similar to soccer. One legend documents a contest between two villages in Alaska with goals set up ten miles apart in a game called aqsaqtuk.

A Native American legend depicts the game played on the beach with goals a mile apart and players wearing disguises. Trying to distinguish between teammates and opponents was a part of the strategy in this game called pasuckuakohowog. Legends surrounding the game that describe using a conquered enemy’s skull as the soccer ball are found as early as the fifth century in England.

Now that you know a little bit of history of soccer, here is a quick look at the basic rules:

No Hands allowed - Only the goalie can use his hands in defense of the goal. This doesn’t apply to throw-ins. FIFA defines the hand as “Any part of the body from the tips of the fingers to the shoulder”. The goalie also cannot use his hands if the ball is passed directly from his teammate.

Fouls - A player cannot hold, kick, trip, charge, jump at, strike, push, or spit at or on an opponent. Fouls are called at the umpires’ discretion, making distinctions between incidental and deliberate contact. These are frequently called when the shoulders, arms or hands are used in an offensive way toward an opponent.

Direct and Indirect Free Kicks – A direct kick is one by which you can score by kicking the ball directly into the goal. An indirect kick is one by which you cannot score with directly. It may, however, be assisted toward the goal by another player. A direct kick comes from a contact foul or “hand” infraction. All other fouls result in an indirect kick.

Throw-ins – When the ball goes out of bounds on the sidelines a throw-in is taken by the closest offensive player. In this instance, use of the hands is allowed. Both feet must be on the ground and the ball is thrown in with both hands over the head.

Goal Kicks / Corner Kicks - Corner kicks or goal kicks are taken when the ball leaves the field across the end-line. If the offensive team was the last to touch the ball, it is a turnover and a goal kick is taken. If the defensive team was the last to touch the ball, a corner kick is taken.

Yellow and Red Cards – A yellow card is given as a warning, a red card is an ejection of a player. Two yellow cards equal one red card. If a player is given two successive yellow cards or a red card, they must leave the game and the team plays a man short.

Two-touch Rule – No player can touch the ball twice successively when putting the ball into play. This rule applies to throw-ins as well. A player cannot throw in and then kick the ball.

Penalty Kick – As a direct-kick foul, a penalty kick results from a contact infraction or hand foul by the defending team within the penalty box area. The kick is taken from the penalty box arc, which is 12 yards in front of the goal. All offensive players must be outside of the penalty box when the kick is struck. The goalie must have both feet planted at the goal line until the ball is struck.

Offside – If a player is closer to the opponents goal than to the ball or ahead of the ball with no defender between him and the goal, offside is called only if that player is involved in some type of offense activity as determined by the referee. This doesn’t apply to a goal kick, corner kick, or throw-in. It also doesn’t apply to a player on his “own half” of the field. You can't be offside if you are standing on your half of the field. Also, the offside rule applies only when the ball is kicked, not when the player receives the ball.

To understand this better go to the FIFA Laws of the Game. Keep in mind that the FIFA International soccer competition rules are immensely complex. Even when viewed in brief, the "Laws of the Game" are not simple. They can be confusing and difficult to understand. The official FIFA rules are found in a 70-page book containing 17 sections and thousands of rules. Go to fifa. com/ for the complete laws for International tournament play.

The FIFA World Cup has held 17 tournaments. Oddly enough, there have been only seven different nations that have won the championship. Spanning the entire history of the tournament, here are the winners: Brazil 5, Italy 3, Germany 3, Argentina 2, Uruguay 2, England 1 and France 1. Amazingly, six of these wins at the World Cup were by the host country. This would indicate that the host nation has a distinct advantage. There have been some notable upsets along the way however. The underdog USA team of 1950 defeated a highly touted English team. North Korea beat Italy in 1966 and Cameroon won over Argentina, a super power in the sport, in 1990. If you are looking to lay down a bet on the World Cup, historical and tournament structural facts are important to consider.

The structure of the tournament can be one of the things to look closely at when trying to decide who is the favorite. For 2006, Brazil and Japan, who are equally matched, are in the same pool. That makes it tough to predict who will survive that grouping. Head-to-head match-ups are not the only thing to consider. Fatigue comes into play when evenly talented opponents meet in an early round. So you have to consider that even if Brazil is victorious early on, will they still have the stamina to go the distance? There is also some luck involved in the structure of the final groupings. The top 8 teams are separated as #1 seeds for groups A through H. Germany and Brazil get their free pass as top seeds because they are respectively the host nation and the previous champion. The remaining clubs are simply drawn at random from a bowl.

The pools for the World Cup have been chosen and their seeding in descending order looks like this:

Group A; Germany, Costa Rica, Poland, Ecuador

Group B; England, Paraguay, Trinidad-Tobago, Sweden

Group C; Argentina, Ivory Coast, Serbia-Montenegro, Netherlands

Group D; Mexico, Iran, Angola, Portugal

Group E; Italy, Ghana, United States, Czech Republic

Group F; Brazil, Croatia, Australia, Japan

Group G; France, Switzerland, South Korea, Togo

Group H; Spain, Ukraine, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia

Group A: Germany is a very tough opponent, and they are on their home field, which makes them scary. However, Poland has a legitimate shot at making the finals. Group B: It is important to note that Sweden has not lost to England in 37 years. Group E: The Italians are a good team but overall this group is too evenly matched to call. The United States has as much a chance as anyone in this division. Group C: The two toughest powerhouse teams in one single group are Argentina and the Netherlands. One of these two will no doubt emerge victorious.

The Underdogs: Trinidad-Tobago will pay big (~1000/1 to win), but can they make it past the first round? Portugal (~22/1), Sweden and Mexico (~40/1) and the Ukraine (~50/1) will also provide a big payoff if they win.

How important is seo to the success of your internet business

If you are new to the world of internet marketing, you may have come across the phrases, search engine optimization or SEO and wondered what it is. Search engine optimization is a way to ensure that your website is one that has lots of traffic and visitors. Learn how you can use this method to make your business a success.

Who Uses Search Engines

It is thought that there were more than 60 billion searches done on the internet in the past and that is worldwide. There are billions who use the internet each day and using SEO as a way to get yourself placed high on the directory lists of companies such as Yahoo!, Google and MSN can give your business a huge advantage over those who choose not to use this method of advertising. People from all walks of life and all kinds of financial situations use the internet each day, and when you use SEO for your business needs you will allow your business to be exposed to a great world of potential customers for your goods and services.

What Search Engines You Should Shoot for

To maximize your use of SEO, you are well advised to get yourself placed high on the more popular search engines such as My Way, Google, Yahoo!, AOL and Ask. com to name just a few of the search engines where you can have your advertising placed. The price tag for getting on some of the more popular search engines may be a little more expensive, but when you compare it to your possible profits, it may be well worth the cost.

What are Keywords?

The first thing you will learn when you decide to use SEO to boost your business is the importance of keywords. Keywords are the words and phrases that users use to search the web for the information they are seeking. The more popular the search term, the more hits you will have on your website when you post content that is rich in SEO. There are plenty of tools available for the novice at SEO that can help to explain the finer points of this concept to allow you to make the most of your advertising budget.

What Kinds of Programs are Available?

There are many programs you will find that will aid you in addressing your business needs such as pay per click campaigns, pay per inclusion and pay per performance. When you do your research to find out about the benefits of using SEO for your business, you will find the definitions for all of these terms and more.

Your Input is Important as the Creator of Your Website

Optimizing your web page for the recognition of the search engines is a top priority for almost all those who are making their livings from the internet. SEO teaches you how to make your pages “search engine friendly” in order to drive the most traffic to your site. This gives the savvy businessperson all the tools they need in order to make the most money from their hard work and effort. It may seem like a daunting task, but once you begin to learn the basics, you will see the importance that search engine optimization can make to your struggling business. Using this way to get the attention of the consumer is one sure fire way that your profits will increase and your business will thrive.

What to get on a beach honeymoon

The beach is probably the best place to spend your honeymoon. With best beaches offering world-class services, beach honeymoon can be the most ideal setting of your first days as couple.

Now, here are the things you can get on a beach honeymoon:

White sands, long coastlines, and velvet beach – These are the primary reasons why you and you wife (husband) want to spend your honeymoon at the beach. An afternoon walk at barefooted on endless white sands and the spectacular site of the sun vanishing across the horizon keep many couple attracted on a beach honeymoon. The endless beach with crystal-clear waters gives you reason to stay.

World-class hotels and resorts, and accommodation – Whether you choose to go to Hawaii, Fiji, Miami, or one of the countries in the Caribbean or South America, you can get to stay at world-class hotel with lots and lots of pampering and superb services. One good thing about beach honeymoon is that, you will never have any problem with accommodation since many beach destinations are packed with at least one of the best hotels and resorts in the world. Hawaii for example has the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai. The Caribbean has The Palms – Turks & Caicos. Plus, other beaches have private islands where you can stay one a villa for an ultimate private experience.

With world-class hotels come the world-class accommodations. Hotels and resort feature unique amenities. These may include, private pool, luxurious suites, spa and fitness centers, personalized services, breakfast in bed, romantic dinner, and the best view of the sea at the balcony of the hotel room.

Great food – Since you are at the beach, you can expect that you get the freshest fishes. That is not all. There are lots of gourmet restaurants available inside a beach hotels, resorts, and local diners.

Water sports – If love windsurfing, canoeing, kayaking, waterskiing, kneeboadring, jetskiing, sailing, parasailing, and everything that involves open water and wetsuits, only the beach experience could give you those. With beach honeymoon, you have the options to do some or all of these activities.

Underwater activities – if you spend your honeymoon at one of the top beaches in the world, you are assured that you can witness the underwater world larger than life. Most top-beaches have diving sites. You can either go for snorkeling or take one some scuba for dive.

Diy credit repair tips

While many people believe that getting their bad credit repaired can only be done through a professional agency, this is simply not true. By going to a credit agency, you might find that it takes a great deal more time and money than if you just worked on it yourself. Before you get in touch with a professional credit repair service, refer to the steps listed below, and you might find that repairing your own credit is not that difficult at all.

When you repair your own credit, you must understand that it is a lengthy process that requires patience. The first thing you need to do is contact credit reporting agencies in writing, and request a copy of your credit report. Federal Law states that everyone gets a free credit report annually. You can locate the three main credit-reporting agencies that you will need to get in touch with by performing an Internet search using the terms “Credit Reporting Agencies”. You might also consult your local phone directory.

Contact the agency in writing, and include the following information in your request:

1. Request a free copy of your credit report.

2. A copy of your state identification (such as your driver’s license)

3. Copy of proof of your current address (such as a utilities bill showing your home address)

4. Provide your previous addresses for the past 5 years.

5. A copy of your social security card.

6. Make sure you close the request with your signature.

Your credit report should take approximately 4-6 weeks to be generated and sent to you. If you receive a letter denying you credit, make a copy and enclose it with your written request for a copy of your credit report. If you have already received your free annual credit report permitted the free yearly report, you can use a denial letter of credit within 60 days of its receipt.

When you receive your reports from the agencies you contacted, look over each report for accuracy and discrepancies. Create a log in order to track the differences. If you find invalid accounts or errors in your reports, do not hesitate to file disputes. If you need to file a dispute, most agencies provide the forms to do so via their website. Each credit report should provide contact and account information for each creditor. Keep a log of all your debt information and creditors. Most debts older than 7 years old probably won’t appear on the report, and if so, leave them alone. Most creditors after 7 years will write off the debt, though some might continue to pursue you. Whatever the case, don’t open the Pandora’s box if the account isn’t listed on your credit report.

The next step is to contact each creditor to make payment arrangements. Most of them will be willing to work with you, while some might not be so agreeable. If a creditor is being difficult, feel free to ask for his or her supervisor or speak with someone else. Expect some creditors to be rude and unwilling to work with you. Try no to feel discouraged, be persistent, and ask to speak with someone else. Offer a settlement amount. Keep a written log of the conversation, including the person’s contact information each time you speak with a creditor.

It can take as many as 6 months to feel like you are making headway on your credit repair, but rest assured that your credit will get better within a year or two.

It is very important that while you are paying off your debts that you pay by check or money order and retain all receipts. Make sure that you request a receipt for the payment from the agency.

Continue to obtain copies of your credit reports annually from each agency. Do not create new debts while paying off your current ones. If you receive credit offers, throw them away. Remain focused on your goal to get out of debt and document your payments, contact with the creditors, their names, extension, time and date you spoke with them and list any pertinent detail regarding your conversations.

help the court has seized my assets - garnishment in law and practice

A court order that seizes assets from the defendant to pay off a debt is known as Garnishment. One form of garnishment is automatic withholding of the debtor’s wages. When a creditor fails to satisfy the debt taken, the court can issue a garnishment against him. When the creditor petitions the court to send a portion of its pay to satisfy the debt then this step is taken.

The garnishment law differs from state to state and varies in details also. Generally, the TVA is required to take over 25% of an employee’s disposable earnings or assets, thereafter sending that amount to court. The pay of an employee can be under garnishment until the complete of the debt has been collected.

This situation arises when we fail to pay taxes, skip out on child support or overlook some bills. Under these circumstances the state government or the creditor can seize our wages as well. This process is known as Wage garnishment. Most garnishment requires court orders and employers are supposed to notify the creditor before any step is taken. But garnishment is the last option for which a government goes for. It is taken up only after all other options have exhausted.

One should never ignore IRS because due to ignorance there are chances of increase in garnishment, as they know our work place, living place and even the bank account. The loans or the help provided by the government are of many types such as student loan for education, business loan, child support, and etc. To collect the loans back, IRS is not alone but the state government, private creditors, or even an ex-spouse demanding the alimony can also demand garnishment of our pay. To claim the garnishment, only different branches of the government do not need to take court orders, other than every other agency needs to obtain a court order to claim the garnishment.

Losing the income is not easy but there are some limits for garnishment. Title III of the Consumer Credit Protection Act caps the amount of wages that can be taken from an employee. In this manner, the person is also left with some part of the income as well as the creditor is also paid up. This also prevents the creditor to speed up the debt recovery procedure and harass the debtor.

The level of garnishment is based on the disposable earnings of the employee. This amount comes after deducting the legal deductions of federal state and local taxes, social security, unemployment, insurance and state employee retirement system. Things that do not come in the head of voluntary deductions are union dues, health and life insurance, charity, purchase of savings bonds and payment for payroll advance. After taking all the preventative measures, the disposable income amount is calculated the maximum amount that can be garnished in any pay period should not exceed more than 25% of the employees’ disposable earning.

The garnishment law allows up to 50% of the employees’ disposable income to be garnished, if he supports the wife and a child. The restrictions on garnishment do not apply in case of court orders of bankruptcy and outstanding debts of federal or state taxes. When the federal law differs from the state wage garnishment law, the smaller garnishment amount must be followed.

Care should be taken to stay from the evil of garnishment. In some cases this situation occurs when a letter is received form the IRS department 20 days before the garnishment date. That time if the person goes to the IRS and explains the problem and repayment schedule or apologize and seeks more time for repayment then the problem at hand can be solved. If the creditor also has a problem he also needs to go to the court and seek an order for garnishment. Thus if the reason explained by the debtor is genuine then the department chalks out a repayment plan. But if the second chance of the repayment is also defaulted then further garnishment proceedings and called for.

Work out properly on rowing machines

When you are working out on rowing machines or any other type of exercise equipment its possible to hurt yourself. As you travel the road to fitness you will find that you experience many aches and pains. The best way to avoid this is to work out properly.

Before you begin workout you must begin the warm-up and cool-down exercises that go with it. To warm up do some simple stretches or yoga. This will stretch out the muscles and limit your risks of sprain. In a cool-down routine you would do a similar set of stretches after your workout to ease your muscles and help to prevent cramps.

If you are injured on rowing machines limit the activity which initially caused your injury. If this was working out for too long or setting the tension too high reduce the one or other, or both. Though try to get back to exercising as soon as you can because exercise has actually been shown to speed up the healing process.

When you get a cramp from using rowing machines, you can try to get up and slowly walk around to ease the cramping. Sometimes you can stretch the cramp out until the muscle stops seasoning.

You can use alternating hot and cold on the injury to keep it from swelling up and hurting. Ice will slow down blood flow initially and keep it from swelling. A hot pack will seep in and ease the pain, relaxing muscles. Be sure to alternate every five to ten minutes.

Lastly for cramping, muscle pain and pinched nerves you can gently massage the area to ease away pain. This also helps to work out any kinks that may have occurred during your exercise routine. Be sure to check out some rowing machine reviews to see what others suggest to help prevent minor and major injuries.