There is also progress in Italy which is getting necessary reforms approved. On Friday, the Senate approved reforms to cut the budget deficit and liberalize the economy. It is expected that the Chamber of Deputies, or lower house of Parliament, will pass the measures over the weekend.

This sets the stage for the expected resignation of Silvio Berlusconi as prime minister and his replacement by an interim government. Italy’s president, Giorgio Napolitano is expected to name former EU commissioner Mario Monti to head an interim government, though last-minute changes remain a possibility in Italy’s volatile political landscape. If Mr. Monti is tapped, he will come under immediate pressure from investors and European regulators to take steps, such as a wealth tax, to lower Italy’s €1.9 trillion debt. Italy has also faced repeated calls to free up its restrictive labor market and make further cuts to red tape.

Global Stock Market Recap

With Friday’s boost from Italy’s Senate approving an austerity package, most equities managed to turn a negative week into a positive one. The approval elevated optimism that the country will contain its debt crisis. Investors were optimistic that the vote will be followed by a new government led by former European Union Competition Commissioner Mario Monti as soon as Monday. The FTSE was up 0.3 percent, the CAC gained 0.8 percent while the DAX was 1.5 percent higher. Although Swiss stocks rallied on Friday, they could not recoup earlier losses, slipping 0.2 percent on the week. Italian equities jumped 2.8 percent.

Friday’s exuberance was a far cry from Wednesday’s plunge as signs of political progress in Italy and Greece — for the moment at least — put worries about both countries’ debt burdens aside. On Friday, former European Central Bank Vice President Lucas Papademos was sworn in as Greece’s interim prime minister. And there are signs that Italy is heading closer to a national unity government, most likely headed up by Mario Monti.

As expected the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee left its key interest rate at 0.5 percent and maintained the size of its asset purchase program at £275 billion. The BoE had increased its QE target by £75 billion to £275 billion in October. Britain’s economic recovery is tightly linked to developments in Europe. The Eurozone is Britain’s biggest export market. The Bank will be releasing its quarterly Inflation Report on Wednesday which will give Bank watchers a window on the MPC’s thinking. At that time, the BoE is expected to lower growth projections. The Bank will also publish new inflation forecasts at that time. Consumer prices jumped 5.2 percent on the year in September — more than twice the Bank’s 2 percent target. However, forecasts say that inflation will be dropping sharply in 2012.

EU downgrades growth forecast

In its semiannual forecast, European Commission said that the economy is struggling against weak confidence, financial turmoil, government austerity packages and a slowdown in Europe’s main trading partners. The EU expects 2012 gross domestic product to grow just 0.6 percent, sharply down from its forecast six months ago of 1.9 percent. The commission’s forecast for the Eurozone is 0.5 percent in 2012, also falling short of the May outlook of 1.8 percent growth. Unemployment is expected to increase slightly next year, to 10.1 percent from 10 percent in 2011. The EU’s spring forecast predicted unemployment would fall to 9.7 percent in 2012.

The commission expects the already broad economic disparities between member countries to grow next year. The German economy should expand 2.9 percent this year and 0.8 percent in 2012, with an unemployment rate falling to just 5.9 percent next year. At the other end of the spectrum, the Portuguese economy is expected to contract 3.0 percent next year, with an unemployment rate of nearly 14 percent. Greece is expected to shrink 5.5 percent this year and 2.8 percent next year. The country’s unemployment rate is seen jumping next year to 18.4 percent, significantly above the commission’s previous forecast of 15.3 percent. Italy’s problems are expected to continue, with growth expected to be only 0.1 percent, down sharply from the spring forecast of 1.3 percent. France is expected to grow 0.6 percent next year with unemployment inching up to 10 percent.

Most equity indexes were down last week, with the steepest declines occurring on Thursday in midst of a rush to safety. While most rebounded on Friday, it was too little and too late to save the week’s results. Losses ranged from 3.6 percent (Hang Seng), 3.4 percent (Kospi) and 3.3 percent (Nikkei) to 0.1 percent (Jakarta Composite). However, the SET, PSEi and All Ordinaries advanced 1.4 percent, 1.0 percent and 0.4 percent respectively. Equity indexes here tended to follow leads from U.S. and European trading. The root cause of the volatility not surprisingly is found in the uncertainty surrounding the European sovereign debt crisis. Thursday’s plunge stemmed from fears regarding Italy’s debt crisis and a deadlock in talks on forming a new Greek government. Weaker than expected data on Japanese core machinery orders and Chinese merchandise trade also curbed appetite for risk.

At its meeting Friday, the Bank of Korea kept its interest rate unchanged at 3.25 percent for the fourth straight month after unexpectedly increasing it by 25 basis points at its June meeting. Analysts had widely expected no change after October consumer prices were up 3.9 percent on the year, putting overall inflation within the central bank’s target range of 2 percent to 4 percent for the first time this year.

The dollar was mixed against its major counterparts last week. The euro, despite its volatility during the week, managed to regain virtually most of its losses on renewed optimism that European leaders are taking steps to contain the region’s sovereign debt crisis. The euro steadied and advanced as former European Central Bank Vice President Lucas Papademos was sworn in as prime minster of Greece and as Italy’s Senate approved a debt-cutting bill on Friday.

The yen reached its highest level against the dollar since Japan intervened on October 31^st to weaken it. Japan’s Finance Minister Jun Azumi said that he is on guard against speculative yen trades while declining to comment on whether the nation has been selling the currency this month. Japan sold the yen after it reached a post-World War II high of ¥75.35 per dollar. It is estimated that Japan sold ¥8 trillion that day, based on changes in the Bank of Japan’s balance sheet.

Thats a fancy way of saying forex!

Forex brokers at the retail level did not exist because these institutions monopolized the foreign exchange due to their abilities to have access to information and data that allowed them to hedge their interests and profit from the monetary policy that the average investor could not get to very easily. This, combined with government regulations and the huge volume required in trades to maintain adequate liquidity,  prohibited the small speculator from participating.

Access to the currency markets changed however, first with the invention of the internet… this new and exciting information super highway opened the doors to allow anyone virtually instant access to the same macro-economic events, news and data that the large world banking institutions had previously dominated. Combine this new fangled world wide web with legislation by the CFTC and we soon found ourselves with a retail market for individual traders to have the same abilities to trade currencies as the big boys.

What Are The Differences Between Brokers?

In order to access the forex as a retail trader, we need brokers to provide us with a platform to trade from, liquidity and reliable execution of our trades. Much like a stock broker, the forex broker acts as  an intermediary for these ( relatively speaking) small trades, and they also can assist in advice, recommendations etc. Each brokerage house can have different commission rates, minimum balances and account requirements that make it essential for any forex trader to research and become familiar with before opening an account.

Before selecting a brokerage firm, it’s important to understand the basic differences from one to the other, and also to have a good understanding of what your choices are. Forex brokers, for the most part, fall into one of two categories. There are Market Makers, also referred to as “Dealing Desks” and there are Straight Through Processing Brokers (STP), also referred to as “Non Dealing Desks”.

Market makers provide the liquidity for a given currency market themselves, and they make their money off of the spreads, (the difference between the bid and the ask) and by placing hedges, or bets against their customers. In other words, when you place a trade with a Market Maker, more then likely, they will be taking the other side of that trade in the expectation that you will lose. So…. the market maker earns money through both the spread and by hedging your bet. It seems a bit counterintuitive doesn’t it? But this is how it works… your trades are commission free, but the spreads tend to be a little wider.

Straight through processing brokers, or non dealing desks, do not create their own markets… meaning that they do not take the other side of your trade. Your order is sent straight to the recipient on the other side of your position. These brokers however, do charge commissions for each trade you place with the advantage to you being a tighter spread.

Do Your Research First

Which type of broker you choose is dependent on what type of trading you do. If you are a day trader and a scalper, then it will probably be better for you to enjoy tighter spreads and just pay the transaction fee because you are attempting to make a profit with a smaller expected move by virtue of the very short time frame with this style of trading.

Conversely, if you are a swing or a position trader, holding onto a position for days, weeks or maybe even months, then the spread is of less consequence to you because your expected move will easily overcome this.

Knowing what type of trading you will be doing is a big part of choosing which type of brokerage house is best for you, but it’s most certainly not the only research you need to do when looking at different forex brokers. You also need to be aware of fraudulent enterprises know as “bucket shops”. Bucket shops are essentially fake brokers that work out of boiler rooms acting as legitimate forex brokers. They man the phones… take your orders and then promptly drop it in a bucket, hence the name. Simply being aware that these types of scams exist should be enough to insure that you do proper research and due diligence before transferring funds to anyone.

]]> http://www.forexyellowpages.com/why-do-forex-traders-need-forex-brokers/feed 0 http://www.forexyellowpages.com/choosing-a-good-forex-broker http://www.forexyellowpages.com/choosing-a-good-forex-broker#comments Wed, 02 Nov 2011 02:56:18 +0000 admin http://www.forexyellowpages.com/?p=818 Forex broker is an intermediary between a trader and a currency market. Retail trading isn’t possible with Forex brokerage. Finding the right Forex broker among hundreds of the online firms isn’t an easy task. That’s why you need to inform yourself on the specific broker that you will want to work with and collect important information on certain aspects.

The first question you have to ask yourself is: is the broker I want to use regulated? There must be no doubt about this first point. All regulated brokers must submit financial reports to regulatory authorities, and when they fail to do it, authorities have the right to fine them or terminate their membership. This enforces Forex brokers to keep transparent financial reports.

The brokers must be regulated by their local regulatory authorities, for instance, for brokers based in the US, they must be regulated by the NFA (National Futures Association) and CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission), Swiss based brokers must be regulated by the FDF (Swiss Federal Department of Finance) and so on.

Also when a Forex broker is regulated allows investors to dispute any resolution, increasing the investor protection.

Trading conditions are very important also. This refers to the features of the trading platform and the trading conditions with the chosen broker. Amongst the most important factors are:

Spread – Obviously the smaller the spread on currency pairs the better the conditions are for investors and traders.

Platform execution – Trading execution refers to how fast and consistent are the execution of trades. Some brokers guarantee fast and transparent executions during normal market conditions.

Fractional trading – Some brokers allow investors and traders to trade on a fractional basis, instead of trading full lots “100,000 units” or “300,000 units”, they allow you to trade “163,345 units” or “325,911 units”. This is very helpful for trades risking certain percentage of their balance on each trade.

Safety of funds – We need to make sure our trading funds are kept in a segregated account or at least insured.

Customer support is very important! You need a broker with a LIVE CHAT feature so you can get in touch with a representative anytime you need for different kind of problems, like withdrawals, deposits etc.

Also you need to check the promo offers that the broker is offering you. Some brokers offer 10% BONUS on the first deposit.

MF Financial is offering up to 20% BONUS on first deposit plus an outstanding trading experience with an outstanding customer support.

MF Financial Ltd. is one of the world leading online currency trading broker offering low pips and commission-free online forex trading. Founded by Wall Street veterans, MFFX’s vision is to service individual and corporate investors such as money managers, banks, and financial institutions in easing the complexity in dealing with forex trading. Their dealing software which specialized in forex dealing is rated second to none for it user friendly environment. Lightning speed and efficient execution is one of its many benefits.

Any new investor should think twice or 10 times before choosing the right broker. I am personally a MFFX client for 1 year and I must say that I have no reason to change it. I will keep it as my trusted partner in forex trading for a long time! For any interested investor I invite you to check MF Financial`s website www.mffx.com

These  CFTC regulations led to the limitation of the number of forex brokers that accept US traders and most of the brokers available on the US market have low leverages and unfavorable trading conditions. Under these circumstances more and more US traders look for offshore forex brokers with higher leverages and better trading conditions.

Unfortunately neither the foreign brokers are allowed to accept US traders so the only option available at this moment is the binary option trading. All major binary option traders such as Ikko Trader,Anyoption, EZ Trader and Option Fire accept US traders.

The binary option brokers are licensed and regulated by trustfully boards and commissions. For example Option Fire is regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), which  is the regulator of the financial services industry in the UK. So Option Fier is as secure and trustable as any English forex broker on operating the forex retail market.

All binary options brokers have high profit rates, most of them offering up to 85% profit for options expiring in the money and up to 15% refund for options expiring out of the money.

The binary options trading has many advantages compared to the traditional forex trading, the higher returns on investment and the shorter option expiration times being just the most attractive ones.

Best Offshore Forex Broker – www.MFFX.com

Recently, YB Teresa Kok asked me “Why are Malaysians so keen to leave this country? Life overseas is not necessarily easier!” I agree that life overseas is not necessarily. In fact my cousins living in Hong Kong, Singapore and London tell me regularly that they miss the food and that things are much cheaper at home. They complain about the weather, high cost of living and their long working hours. Despite this, when the possibility of coming back home is raised, they give me a smile and a shake of their heads.

Is living in Malaysia really so bad? What is it that other countries have that we don’t? Lim Kit Siang posted on his blog in December 2009 that more than 630 Malaysians are migrating overseas everyday, and that number is increasing year on year.

This is a worrying statistic and the brain drain issue is one that the current government acknowledges that it is a problem. However, the best they can come up with to make them come back are tax breaks, and tax free vehicles. From day one, it has become apparent these ‘perks’ would simply not work.

This government has a habit of tackling problems in this country by providing quick fixes. The 2012 Budget should really be called the ‘quick-fix’ budget as RM232 billion is mindlessly spent, with unrealistic economic growth forecasts to back it up.

Yes, 60% of households would receive a RM500 relief and we thank the government for it. What then? RM500 does not combat rising costs, or inflation. How far can RM500 bring us nowadays? Not very far.  In no time at all, that RM500 has become a distant memory and we are back to square one.

The Kedai 1Malaysia initiative was put in place by the government to sell cheap products subsidised by the government, and more are to be opened across the nation. Shop owners are now screaming in displeasure as they cannot possibly compete. If the government is intent on handing out subsidies, subsidise the shops which are already operating! Another poorly planned quick fix that provides no long term solution.

Where is the long term economic plan? Where is the investment in our children’s future? Fixing school buildings is an excellent initiative, but the real problem lies in the fabric of the education system.

Our children are taught to be robots, to regurgitate material and not to question their teacher. Many scoff at the lowering of standards in the ongoing PMR exams, and an Additional Mathematics SPM paper was allegedly leaked out to tuition centres. Is all this in the name of grades, just to make the Education Ministry look good? How can this system prepare our children to be competent, effective members of society? The biggest losers in all of this are our nation’s children.

A friend over dinner told me earnestly that he was preparing to leave the country for the sake of his children. As disheartening as it was to hear, he proceeded to tell me why.

His vision for his children was for them to grow up in a society in which they would not be discriminated against. Although racism is also prevalent in other countries, in Malaysia racism is institutionalised and sanctioned by the Barisan Nasional government.

Furthermore, corruption is rampant throughout all levels of government. The payment of corruption money in cases of obtaining building or business licenses is so prevalent, that many businesses have included such a payment in their expense budgets. How can this continue be the case?

These issues are all correlated, and opportunities continue to be stifled. Talented people leave because Malaysia appears to have no appreciation for their abilities. Nepotism and favouritism are practised on the basis of the “Lu tolong gua, Gua tolong lu” principle rather than getting the best person for the job.

Our English standards have been lowered in order to record more exam passes, but quality is sacrificed as a result. If even masters degree holders from local universities are unable to speak proper English, how can we then become a globally competitive nation?

After this budget, more and more people are convinced that this BN government cares only about staying in power and not for the long term development of the nation. The exodus of talented individuals will continue unless necessary reforms are put in place.

On a recent trip to the United States, on our stopover in Hong Kong, a fellow passenger remarked that they could finally talk about issues of Malaysia as they dared not voice out their displeasure at home. Recalling so many holding up their fingers to their lips to shush their friends from bringing up national issues, it is obvious that many feel that we are living under oppression.

Finally, one of my old schoolmates residing in Australia told me that he wanted to come home to take care of his parents. “But the biggest thing stopping me from coming home now is the government”. A change in government may not automatically bring Malaysians home, but what it would do is provide hope for the future of our nation, and hope for our future generations.

Change is needed, and change has to happen now.

By Dr Lim Teck Ghee

“WHAT? CHINESE POOR?”

Soon after I returned to Malaysia in late 2005, I met with a former president of the country’s major Chinese party in his office. During the discussion which covered a range of issues, I expressed my concern at the failure of the Chinese political leadership to deal effectively with the socio-economic problems and challenges that the community was facing.

I had known the leader since the 1970s but especially in the late ‘80s and early 1990s when I was a panelist in the 150-member National Economic Consultative Council (NECC) which had been set up by the then-Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, to come up with a post-1990 economic policy to replace the New Economic Policy (NEP).

The response of the former president to my concern shocked me.

Besides defending his party and his leadership, he declared that the Chinese were very lucky to be able to live in Malaysia .  (Is this joker Long Long Sick?)

“Where else in the world can you find a simple char koay teow seller become so rich and drive a Mercedes!” was his rejoinder.

This view that the Chinese have done very well for themselves — and by extension, do not require assistance from the government — is not uncommon.

However, it is a gross generalization and erroneous on several counts.

Taken to its logical end and juxtaposed with the fact that many of the country’s richest individuals are Chinese, such a simplistic view has provided the underpinnings for the racially biased public policies pursued in a wide range of sectors and over such a long period of time in the country.

OFF THE PUBLIC RADAR

Let us consider some of these facts and figures of the Chinese poor, disadvantaged and marginalized.

Firstly, many of these Chinese individuals and households do not appear on the government’s listing of poor Malaysians because the government has used an unrealistically low poverty line income to decide who comprise the poor.

Should there be a readjustment of the poverty line to a more realistic figure, it is likely that several hundred thousand Chinese households (as well as a larger number of Bumiputera and Indian households) will fall into the “poverty” category.

Secondly, income distribution within the Chinese community is worsening.

In fact the gap between the Chinese poor and well-to-do has increased in the last two decades, for which data is available. According to the Gini coefficient of income inequality, income inequality within the Chinese community has increased from .423 in 1990 to .434 in 1999 and .446 in 2004.

Incidentally, this is the same for all the communities, including the Malays.

The worsening income inequality points to an entrenched and worsening poverty problem within the Chinese community that is not discernible if we simply rely on the conventional statistical indicators used by the government.

EXCLUDED FROM NEP

Why is Chinese poverty so entrenched and intractable?

The answer is that, for the most part,the Chinese poor and lower classes have not benefitted from the NEP and other national policies in the way that the Chinese elites or even upper middle class have.

Consider the following :

1. They have not been targeted by any of the government’s anti-poverty programmes.

2. They have been disadvantaged by lack of mastery of English and Malay.

3. They have educated their children in Chinese schools which have been the victims of unequal treatment. More than a quarter of Chinese school kids drop out before the age of 17 with many coming from the poorer achieving and less-endowed Chinese medium schools which we seldom hear or read about.

4. A large number of them live in new villages or in geographically remote rural areas which have been cut off from enclave of affluence located in the main cities and in the Klang Valley area.

5. Many come from the agricultural sector and are vegetable gardeners, fruit farmers or fishermen or engage in agricultural services.

Unlike their Malay counterpart rural poor, they have had limited access to Felda, Felcra, IADPs and other federal and state schemes that have reduced landlessness and indebtedness and provided access to housing, infrastructure, utilities as well as enhanced incomes substantially. Even worse, they have been denied their legitimate land rights so that many remain squatters or operate on TOLs or short-term leases.

The recent report that the new MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek intends to meet with Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir to discuss matters pertaining to squatters, land premiums and discounts to new villagers and the issue of limited allocations shows how “lucky” the Perak Chinese are to be able to live in the state and the “tremendous” advances they have made after 50 years of Barisan Nasional rule.  (He should produce more sex video with his as main actor- do u know who is this HE??)

6. In the discussions on the country’s brain drain and loss of talent, much has been made about the out-migration of Chinese educated and professionals. In fact, if the proper surveys are ever carried out on out-migration from the country (according to the deputy foreign minister in Parliament recently, 304,358 Malaysians migrated to other countries from March 2008 till August 2009 compared with a out-migration figure of 139,696 in 2007), I will not be surprised if just as many less educated poor and lower middle-class Chinese are found to have left the country because of poverty and lack of opportunities for themselves and their children.

CHINESE SMES AND OTHER TOWKAYS

Much has also been made of the prosperity of the Chinese that comes from their domination of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country. However, not all SMEs are prosperous or can provide the secure and sustainable livelihood and incomes that others who are ignorant of the real conditions of these enterprises seem to imagine is the case with every SME.

Most Chinese SMEs are family-run businesses that are barely able to scrape a decent living through heavy self-exploitation of family members and extended family labor. Often working in dangerous and appalling conditions, they are ill-equipped to compete in an increasingly competitive and globalized environment.

The reality is that besides continuous harassment from government officials and politicians bent on extracting coffee money and beating them down for non-compliance with various local council rules and regulations, many SMEs are trapped in low productivity operations and lack access to technological know-how, larger markets and R&D capacity.

In the near term as regional and international competition heats up, many SMEs face a bleak future and are likely to go bust.

These small-fry “towkays” of micro-SMEs (over 90 per cent of the SMEs in the country belong to this group) and their poorly paid employees, eking out a modest living in the country’s workshops and squatter areas, however, have never been on the government’s radar screen, except perhaps for taxation purposes.

How much (or rather little) budgetary support and other assistance has actually reached the SMEs — directly and not through proxies or parasitic agencies — in the last few Malaysia Plans would be an important question for the government to respond to.

Members of the National Economic Advisory Council (NEAC) will find that there is a whole generation of bad policy planning and implementation that needs to be undone with regard to the SMEs if they are serious about the objective of revitalising this sector in the 10th Malaysia Plan and the New Economic Model.

NO SOCIAL SAFETY NET

There is one more important consideration that is seldom discussed when the issue of Chinese social-economic well-being is raised. This is that arising from their self employment or work as employees in SMEs and the informal sector, only a small proportion of Chinese households are covered by the social safety net for health, insurance and old age that comes with employment either in the public sector or with formal private sector employment.

This absence of participation in a social safety net will increasingly make itself felt on the future well being of the Chinese as the community ages rapidly and with the loss of traditional safety nets provided by the extended and large nuclear family.

The trend of Chinese vulnerable elderly who are either abandoned in old folk homes or live in miserable conditions on their own is already gaining speed. This trend is unstoppable without major changes taking place within the community and at the macro level where the state is the key player.

MALAYSIA’S PRESENT, FUTURE AND PAST

Will the 1 Malaysia concept and New Economic Model remove the blinkers that stand in the way of assistance and resources being provided to the Chinese disadvantaged?

Will the prime minister’s promise of raising income levels of all disadvantaged and marginalized groups be kept?

Will we see merit-based, transparent and needs-based policies targeting the bottom 40 per cent of the country’s income strata, irrespective of race and region, implemented?

We will have the opportunity to assess if this new vision of development for the country is more political rhetoric or a genuine path-breaking initiative soon.

As for me personally, I am not so sanguine. I was a member of the five- person team that finalized the NECC report which was presented to the government after more than two years of acrimonious debate.

The major recommendations of the NECC to dismantle the NEP were never implemented.

The NEP remained in force for another 20 years after it was supposed to have ended in 1990.

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A talk with one of my mentors, a senior enlisted member in my squadron, made me rethink the way I viewed investing. During one of our conversations I brought up the topic of investing and mentioned I would like to start in a couple years when I had more money. He listened to me give several excuses why I couldn’t invest and then he said something that changed the way I think and act about investing.

He told me saving and investing wasn’t hard, you just have to treat it like a bill. He said, “When your paycheck comes in each month, you pay your bills, right?” I nodded. “So treat investing like a bill. If you want to max out your Roth IRA, divide the maximum contribution by 12 and send that amount to your investment account each month. If you want to make it easier, then go to the finance office and set up an automatic allotment from your paycheck and you’ll never think about it again.”

It turns out he was right. It’s not that I didn’t have enough money to invest. I just wasn’t prioritizing how I used my money. Treating investing like a bill forced me to make investing part of my budget. I followed his advice and set up an automatic withdrawal from my paycheck and I began investing in a Roth IRA. I maxed out my IRA contributions in each of the eleven years following our conversation. That 15 minute conversation literally changed my life and might just make me a millionaire by the time it’s all said and done.

This concept of paying yourself first applies to different types of investments as well. Perhaps the most common way to take advantage of automatic investing is through an employer sponsored retirement plans such as a 401(k) plan, 403(b), 457(b), or the Thrift Savings Plan. You can also apply this to savings goals, Roth or Traditional IRAs, or taxable investments. In fact, many brokerage firms will waive account minimums if you agree to fund your account with a minimum contribution each month. Some brokerage firms even offer lower transaction costs with automatic investments.

Here are three reasons you should consider automatic investing.

It’s easy. You don’t have to remember to do it. Just set it up once and you know it will get done.

There is no emotional barrier. It can be difficult to write a check each month for a future goal when you have current wants you could easily fulfill with those funds. Automatic investing makes it easier to stick to your long term plans.

You don’t try to time the market. Market timing is almost always a losing battle. For the average investor, dollar cost averaging can be a great way to avoid market timing and ensure you get your money in the market for a longer period of time. Automatic investing gives you the greatest opportunity to realize the growth of compound interest.

Ryan Guina is a U.S. military veteran, writer, and professional in the corporate world. He blogs at Cash Money Life and Military Finance Network.

Trade Forex
Mini Forex Trading – MF Financial Ltd.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose about 390 points. The Dow and broader stock indexes rose more than 3 percent. Markets also barreled higher in Europe.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.55 percent from 3.43 percent late Friday.

“The market is breathing a huge sigh of relief that the EU has taken aggressive steps to contain the EU crisis in the weaker states,” said Alan Gayle, senior investment strategist at RidgeWorth Investments.

The 16 countries that use the euro and the International Monetary Fund have agreed to create a nearly $1 trillion rescue fund to support European nations burdened by heavy debt. Markets around the world plummeted last week as fears escalated that Greece’s debt problems would spread throughout Europe and upend a global economic recovery.

The U.S. Federal Reserve said it would also provide loans overseas.

Investors also feared that if Greece didn’t get a bailout, the fate of the euro, which is used by 16 countries, could be in trouble. The euro rose Monday against the dollar.

“Europe has unequivocally said, ‘We will defend the euro’s integrity,’” said Oliver Pursche, executive vice president at Gary Goldberg Financial Services in Suffern, N.Y.

Pursche noted the actions taken don’t mean European leaders will ensure its current value, but that they will do what is necessary to ensure its existence.

The U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks also stepped up with financial support to help head off what some analysts believe could have been a broader financial crisis.

The Fed reopened a program launched in 2008 during the credit crisis under which dollars are shipped overseas through the foreign central banks. Those central banks can then lend the dollars out to banks in their home countries.

Aside from the Fed, other central banks, including the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank of Japan are also involved in the dollar swap effort.

In midmorning trading, the Dow rose 390.50, or 3.8 percent, to 10,770.93. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 45.40, or 4.1 percent, to 1,156.28. The Nasdaq composite index rose 98.46, or 4.4 percent, to 2,364.10.

Stocks were highly volatile at the end of last week as investors shrugged off signs of an improving U.S. economy and focused on Europe’s sovereign debt problems. The Dow fell 5.7 percent last week to erase its gains for the year, while broader indexes fell even further. On Thursday alone, the Dow was down nearly 1,000 points late in the day before recovering much of its losses.

Stocks have dropped four straight days as triple-digit Dow moves have again become the norm. Big swings were also common as the credit crisis grew in late 2008 and the market bottomed in early 2009. In recent months, however, the Dow had been climbing slowly and steadily on repeated signs the economy was recovering.

Pursche said investors should expect more swings in the market. He said that the lack of turbulence in recent months was abnormal and that problems remain. Some European countries still need to enact austerity measures and unemployment remains high in the U.S., Pursche said.

“A 1 percent to 2 percent market move … in either direction is something investors should be prepared to cope with,” Pursche said.

As investors jump back into riskier assets like stocks on Monday, U.S. bond prices tumbled. Gold also fell. Both surged late last week as investors sought safe-haven investments.

Gold fell $14.90 to $1,195.50 an ounce. Crude oil rose $2.47 to $77.58 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

At the New York Stock Exchange, 2,973 shares rose while only 91 fell. Trading volume came to 455 million shares compared with 443 million traded at the same point Friday.

In afternoon trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 4.4 percent, Germany’s DAX index surged 4.9 percent, andFrance‘s CAC-40 rallied 8.6 percent. Earlier, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 1.6 percent.

The report truly brought mixed news. While employers are still not beefing up their payrolls, the Labor Department’s survey of households found major employment gains. The results were altogether better than many were expecting. “All in all, we see encouraging signs of progress in labor market conditions and expect to see much better payroll performance … in coming months,” Morgan Stanley economists Ted Wieseman and David Greenlaw wrote in a morning note.

Where is the hiring? For one thing, the Labor Department reports that the number of people in part-time jobs who want full-time work but can’t find it or had their hours cut, fell from 9.2 million to 8.3 million. Not surprisingly, the average number of hours worked in a week rose 0.1 hour to 33.3 hours. These are good indications that demand is picking up and employers are responding by paying their employees to work more hours, which may be a first step, before they begin hiring new workers.

Perhaps the strongest indicator that employers are testing the hiring waters is the continuing increase in temporary help services jobs. In January, employers added 52,000 temp jobs, bringing the total number of temp jobs added since September to 247,000. Many economists consider temp services a leading indicator for permanent hires, but some are cautious. “Whether this is a harbinger of stronger gains in permanent employment or a reflection of many businesses still not being convinced that they need to pull the trigger on permanent hires remains to be seen,” says Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR.

The retail sector also saw job growth, adding 42,000 jobs last month. The biggest gains were in food stores and clothing stores. Healthcare continued to expand its payrolls, and the federal government added 33,000 jobs, 9,000 of which are temporary positions for the census. State and local governments, wrestling with major budget woes thanks to a double whammy of higher recessionary expenses and lower tax revenues, continued to lose jobs.

Who’s seeing some benefit? This recession has been coined the “man-cession,” because of the massive job losses in the construction and manufacturing industries, which traditionally employ disproportionately high percentages of men. Indeed, last month, women made up an astounding 49.9 percent employed workers. When the recession began in 2007, 48.8 percent of nonfarm payroll employment was made up of women. Last month the unemployment rate for women fell to 7.9 percent, compared with a steady 10 percent unemployment rate among men.

A major bright spot in the report was the significant decline in the percentage of under-employed workers–the job-seeking unemployed plus those who are working part-time but want full time work; the unemployed who are not looking for work because they are in school or have other obligations; as well as those who have simply lost hope in finding work. In January, the under-employed made up 16.5 percent of the workforce, down 0.8 percentage point from December.

Who’s still hurting? There’s no question that the workers struggling most now are those who have been out of work the longest. The number of unemployed who have been out of work for 27 weeks or more reached 6.3 million in January. The average duration of unemployment among the jobless reached 30.2 weeks. That means more than 40 percent of the unemployed have been looking for work for about seven months or more.

That may in part be because the recession continues to hammer specific sectors. Construction employment fell by another 75,000 in January. Most of the job losses were in non-residential specialty trade construction. The sector has now lost 1.9 million jobs since the start of the recession. Also last month, 19,000 transportation and warehousing jobs were cut, driven by a big loss in courier and messenger jobs.

This week the National Employment Law Project reported nearly 1.2 million unemployed will become ineligible for federal jobless benefits in March, and by June, 5 million would become ineligible. “The continued high rate of long term unemployment reflected in January’s jobs report underscores the urgent need for action from Congress to maintain the lifeline of jobless benefits for millions of unemployed workers caught in the undertow of this recession,” says Christine Owens, executive director of NELP.

Will the job market keep improving? No one knows what this recovery will look like, although most economists believe that jobs will take some time to recover. The Labor Department revised its earlier job loss and gain figures to show that 64,000 jobs were added in November, rather than the 4,000 originally reported. While that gain sounds pretty good, the figures for December were revised to show 150,000 jobs were slashed from payrolls, instead of the 85,000 job cuts first reported. Nobody expects a smooth trend, but these numbers make it very difficult to know what future months will hold.

Morgan Stanley’s Wieseman and Greenlaw said they are getting “closer to calling the peak in the unemployment rate.” Still, the unemployment rate could bounce higher again if workers who dropped out of the job hunt are encouraged enough to jump back in. In the meantime, expect the Senate to move forward with a jobs bill aimed at small businesses, infrastructure investment, and green energy. “While today’s report shows positive signs that the economy is moving in the right direction, the numbers underscore that we still have work to do to get Americans back to work,” Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said in a statement. “The president has made it clear that job creation is our number one focus in 2010.”

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