Forex trading is one of the most misunderstood subjects in the financial markets. People who enter the forex market dream of making money in the short haul. Unfortunately, this rarely happens. The point is, just like any other subject in the financial markets, you must have a good understanding of the psychology and mindset of the players if you are going to succeed.

Treating your forex trading as a business means knowing how to analyze forex markets. When it comes to the basics, there are two ways in which a forex market can be analyzed. The first is called technical analysis and the second is fundamental analysis.

 Technical Analysis

This looks at the action or performance of the market in the past and based on that, predictions are made. You may wonder why this approach in a technical field like forex. The fact is, history always has something to tell us. In fact, you can look at past trends in a particular season and compare them to a current trend.

People don’t usually change completely from one day to the next, and what motivated them to buy and react to the market in the past, may be the same today. That is why if you are going to treat your forex trading as a business, you need to consider the psychology and mindset of the players in the industry.

Admittedly, this process can be very daunting since you need to analyze the day-by-day figures of the past and compare them to day-by-day figures of the present upon which you can then make your predictions. For smart analysts, they have learned and mastered the art of looking at the big picture, skipping the minor details and analyzing trends over a certain length of time. Of course, if you are a beginner it is not advisable to go by this method. It is when you have mastered the skill of analyzing day-by-day that you gain the insight and experience to do it this way.

 Fundamental Analysis

The second approach employs the use of current external market forces such as political, governmental, and social factors. This is usually more in-depth and requires a high level of accuracy as you need to be able to examine how these factors impact on the numbers in a forex market.

Good external factors like favorable taxation and financial reforms, confidence in the economy, favorable political climate and the rest may have a positive effect on the forex market. Therefore, analysts are able to predict how the market would fair. On the other hand, bad external market factors like political instability, unfavorable foreign exchange rates, natural disasters and even the weather can affect negatively, the performance of the forex market. Fundamental analysts always have a way of using these factors to analyze forex markets in order to make predictions.

While having the ability to analyze markets is very important for anyone who aspires to treat their forex trading as a business, other factors like money management and the effect of taxation are also key considerations.

The currency we use in the forex market is money and if you do not know effective money management, then you have failed in the first instance. How to manage your money and use it in the forex market is largely in your hands. On the other hand, you may not have control over taxation issues. But as someone who wants to treat forex trading as a business, your responsibility would be to learn how to take advantage of the tax system rather than making it work against you.

Are you or your relatives looking to build up tax-free savings for your children? Well as of November 1^st you can do just that using a Junior Individual Savings Account (ISA).

The Child Trust Fund (CTF) launched by the previous government was seen as the main savings account for children, but Junior ISAs have been designed for children who missed out on opening a CTF.

Many people believe Junior ISAs will now become the number one savings vessel for children, with Danny Cox from Hargreaves Lansdown saying “We expect Junior ISA to become the children’s savings scheme of choice.”

It is believed that when the Junior ISA scheme is launched there will be around 6 million children automatically eligible for an account, with a further 800,000 children becoming eligible every year thereafter.

So what types of Junior ISA are there?

When deciding what type of Junior ISA you would like for your children, you will have to choose between a cash account and a stocks and shares account, or you can use a combination of the two.

The maximum you will be able to place into the accounts is £3,600, however please remember that the £3,600 that you can invest tax free is split across both types of account, so if you invest £1,000 into a stocks and shares Junior ISA account, you can only invest £2,600 into a Junior ISA cash based account.

It’s also important to remember that a child can only have one cash junior ISA and one stocks and shares Junior ISA account at any one time, and when the child reaches 18 Junior ISAs will automatically be converted into standard ISAs.

The main advantage of a Junior ISA is the tax free element, which includes no tax on savings if you have a Junior ISA cash account. If you opt for the stocks and shares Junior ISA then there is no capital gains tax or tax on dividend income.

Which type of Junior ISA account should you choose?

Junior cash ISA accounts, you probably guessed by the name, are solely cash accounts, but stocks and shares ISA accounts work differently. You invest the amount you want to save in funds, investment trusts, or bonds.

As the economy isn’t doing as well as we would like, interest rates are pretty poor and this combined with high inflation has made stocks and shares Junior ISA accounts seem more attractive than cash Junior ISA accounts.

Kevin Mountford, head of banking at MoneySupermarket, said: “The long term nature of Junior ISAs means that stocks and shares are likely to prove a better bet than cash accounts – particularly in the current low interest rate environment.”

1. Conduct an energy audit

Accepting that changes are necessary is one thing, knowing where to make the changes is quite another. In order to ensure that energy usage is as efficient as possible, businesses should invest in an energy audit to identify areas for improvement. A comprehensive energy audit is also useful for making a before and after comparison of changes.

2. Install a smart meter

Smart meters monitor all aspects of electricity usage. Providing businesses with invaluable data on energy consumption, including details of all individual items of equipment, the smart meter is able to identify areas in which energy savings can be made. It may be the case that shifting working hours forward by half an hour could save a firm money on a particular energy tariff. It is also possible that one or two appliances – perhaps a faulty kettle or old microwave in the staff canteen – happen to be responsible for a significant proportion of all energy wastage. The smart meter enables companies to make informed decisions as to how they use business energy.

3. Educate workers

Workers are responsible for much of the energy waste by firms. The problem is that many staff are unaware of their impact on energy bills, much less motivated to make changes for the better. Employers must instigate change by educating and instructing the team. Simple changes such as turning off monitors when computers (which should be set to sleep or hibernate) are left idle or closing windows during the colder months can make all the difference.

4. Install new lighting

Commercial lighting is wasted in abundance. Most office buildings are lit throughout the day and night, regardless as to specific requirements. Open place offices tend to be the worst offenders, keeping entire floors lit when only a corner of the office is in operation. While lights can be turned on and off manually, the cheapest and most effective solution is to install energy efficient tube or spot lighting with motion sensor controls. These ensure that lights are only every switched on when people are present in a room.

5. Turn down the heating

Finally, companies ought to turn down the heat on occasion. Current research claims that turning down the thermostat by just one degree can save up to 8 per cent on heating bills, which is certainly no hardship if workers learn to close the windows during the winter!

Due to the current economic situation in the UK many people are saying that if you can afford to spend then now is the time to buy, but if you’re buying your first home do you know where to start?

Ask for advice

Probably the most important tip I can give you is asking someone who has done it before. Whether you decide to ask your parents or a friend who has bought their own property, it’s important to ask someone with experience in the property market.  They will have invaluable experience that should help to answer some of your questions.

Do your research

You would never spend a small fortune on a property without doing your research would you? By the time you make an offer on a property you should know everything about it. You should know about the location, the property itself, the type of mortgage you would need and you should make sure that you are following all the latest market news.

Working out your budget

You won’t be able to make an offer for a property without knowing how much you can realistically afford to spend. A mortgage calculator is a great way to work out whether you can afford the repayments on a property.  There are loads of free mortgage calculators on the web like this mortgage calculator at MoneySupermarket.

Don’t make any quick decisions

Buying your first home can be one of the most important decisions you make and shouldn’t be taken lightly. Try not to panic and you should never put in an offer for a property without knowing what you are actually buying.

Compare prices

Before you decide to apply for a particular mortgage you should make sure that you have evaluated all of the options available to you so that you get the best deal for you. Use a price comparison site like moneysupermarket.com to compare the different products available and make sure you speak to an adviser before you commit.

Consider moving away

When you are looking for your first home, you won’t want to pay too much money and when it comes to price, location is critical. If you consider moving to a different area, even just a couple of miles outside of a city or town centre, then your money could go a lot further.

When you decide that the time is right and you want to take your first step onto the property ladder, you should make sure you’ve done it the right way. By researching and asking other people’s advice, it can really make you feel at ease, good luck!

Having a bad credit rating is not necessarily the end of the world, and there are ways in which you can rebuild your credit rating to prove that you are once again on the right financial track.

Know how bad the situation is

Before you can start trying to recover your bad credit, you have to know how bad the situation is. You can do this by checking your credit score via a reputable credit bureau, such as Experian or Equifax.

Once you receive your credit report, you should look at the major hindrances so that you know where you have gone wrong.

You should also look for any mistakes that might be on your credit file. If you find any mistakes that are making your credit score seem worse than it actually is, you can contact the credit bureau and ask for the information to be removed from your file.

Start the re-building process

Once you know your actual credit situation you have to create a plan of how you want to rebuild your rating so that it’s at an acceptable level. You have to start slow as nobody is going to give you a lot of credit if they think you are untrustworthy.

Use a bad-credit credit card

One of the more popular ways to start rebuilding a credit rating is to use credit cards for bad credit. The main purpose of a bad-credit credit card is to help someone to start or rebuild their credit score.

The main benefit of a bad-credit credit card is that it gives you the opportunity to prove to lenders that you can be sensible with your spending, and that you can handle debts and subsequent repayments.

The best way to rebuild your credit score slowly is to repay the balance of your bad-credit credit card in full each month. You then demonstrate that you are trustworthy and that you can be responsible with your spending.

The negatives of a bad-credit credit card

The main negative of a bad-credit credit card is the rate of interest as the APR (annual percentage rate) is significantly higher than that of a normal credit card.

It’s important to remember that these cards are only supposed to be used for the purpose of rebuilding or building your credit score, so you shouldn’t borrow significant amounts of money unless you can pay the balance off in full at the end of the month.

In my new articles ‘How to invest in commodities‘, ‘How to invest in Shares‘ and ‘How to invest in Property‘, I hope to provide the first step up for a financial newbie. Using low-jargon language, I attempt to explain the routes you can take when investing. I also like to be clear about the risks and uncertainties involved in investing in various products, and how we can mitigate those risks by being wise.

As I highlight in those pieces, successful investing is not always about picking the right shares, but investing using the correct method. One method I favour – passive investing, almost takes the choice out of the equation, and provides the investor with close to the ‘market return’. Success is also about keeping costs low. It may be tricky to improve your returns by 1%, but it can be simpler to reduce your costs by 1%, which has the same overall effect.

I invite you to dip into the articles above and fill yourself in on these investing essentials. Commodities is an asset class you should only invest in after several years of experience, but gaining some knowledge now won’t do you any harm!

Simon Oates

When applying for a mortgage you should consider all of your options before making a firm decision, as you may end up paying back more money than you bargained for.

Further analysis conducted by moneysupermarket.com showed that borrowers could save over £1,100 by looking beyond appealing initial rates.  It’s important to remember that lower rates don’t always mean the best deals as fees or interest rates may be well above the norm.

It has been reported that average mortgage application fees are up by a massive 13 per cent since September 2009, this is a staggering statistic and covers fixed and tracker mortgage products.

As a result of the percentage increase and the unstable interest rates, it’s incredibly difficult for borrowers to understand the real cost of their mortgage, and it’s equally difficult to compare prices with different mortgage providers.

Here’s an example:

You may have a two year fixed rate mortgage at 3%, however this may also come with booking fees of £2,500. This means that for someone borrowing £150,000 over 25 years, they would have to repay £19,571.68 over 2 years.

If you borrowed the same amount over 25 years with a bank that offered a slightly higher rate but a much lower fee then you could save money. Here’s an example.

You may find a mortgage at a two year fixed rate at 3.19%, but this time the booking and arrangement fees may only be £500. Borrowing £150,000 over 25 years with these terms means that you would have to repay £17,929.52 over 2 years, a massive saving of £1,642.16.

Clare Francis, mortgage spokesperson at moneysupermarket.com said:

“When looking for a new mortgage, it’s easy to be lured in by low headline rates, however it is vital borrowers take into account arrangement and booking fees as part of the overall cost.

The size of the fees can vary greatly, with some providers offering fee-free deals while the set-up costs on other mortgages can run into thousands. It is therefore vital to work out the total amount you’d repay over the term of the offer…

One thing worth noting is that it rarely proves best value to go for a product where you the arrangement fee is a percentage of the loan size. In fact this can prove a very costly mistake for those looking to borrow a large amount.

It’s almost always cheaper to opt for a product that charges a flat fee instead, and where possible pay the fees upfront otherwise you will also be paying interest on these too.”

This article was written by Andreas who writes about mortgages, savings and loans at moneysupermarket.com.

Financial Expert contains all the financial topics that I’ve been bursting to blog about for years, but couldn’t really find an excuse to link in with leadership or management on my other blogs. Truth is, I’m a finance fanatic, and I love keeping my ear close to the markets, whether it’s keeping up with the financial pages, or managing my own investment portfolio.

As I was Googling around the Internet in the early days, there was a significant lack of easily accessible information for new or amateur investors to get me up to speed on various funds, shares and strategies etc. For instance, when I wanted to look into what funds specialise in Oil indexes, I struggled to ever find information that was relevant. Things are certainly better now, as the supply from websites has finally caught up with demand, but I still believe there’s a sizeable gap that good targeted blogging can squeeze into!

Financial Expert solves some of these problems in part. Some of the pages will contain updated ‘list information’, whereby I list all the funds I can find for a given sector. To do this, I’ve compiled the data gathered from many searches and different sources to hopefully provide a comprehensive list of funds to kick start your own research.

Financial Expert will also offer ‘Guides’ to the different areas of investing. For instance, I’ve started off with a guide to private investment in commodities, entitled ‘How to Invest in Commodities‘, which will offer a menu of investment options and show just how many routes there are to gaining exposure to this volatile and mysterious market. Commodities are great example of how great amounts of money are being made by financial professionals, but not by your average Joe with a savings account and a ‘bunch of shares’.

I firmly believe that financial independence is one of the greatest achievements in life, and that successful and dedicated investing offers a sustainable method of reaching that target without needing to win the lottery or become a CEO. Indeed, you can retire within 10 years if you start on the right foot and put your mind to it: Read about how early retirement is possible here.

So indeed the website will have an investment focus, and an aspiration edge, but I’ll also cut into some of the classic personal finance such as borrowing, credit cards and savings accounts. Stocks and Shares may form the more exciting parts of ones portfolio, but they’re not appropriate for everyone, and savings accounts & NS&I bonds have their place.

Booking your flights

You should always try to book your flights in advance, as in my experience that’s when you will find the best deals. Check a price comparison site online to compare the best deals available; they will basically do all of the hard work for you which should save you a lot of time.

Booking your accommodation

Before going on holiday you will also want to find the best deal for your accommodation, have a look well in advance and try to book as early as possible. Also try to book accommodation that is just outside the busy tourist area; you’ll find that the closer you book to the city centre the more expensive the prices will be.

Will you need a car?

If you’re planning on hiring a car when on holiday, it pays to shop around on the internet to make sure you find the best prices. You can compare many of the biggest brands at the same time using a price comparison site online.

Changing currency

If you need to change your currency before you travel there are many high street banks that you can use to avoid paying any commission. However, just because you don’t pay any commission doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be the best price for your money, again compare online to see what your best option is.

Paying for your holiday

For security reasons people argue that the best way to pay for your holiday is via a credit card and with the recent ash clouds and other problems abroad you can never be too careful. If something goes wrong and you can’t travel due to a problem at the destination, if you have booked your holiday on your credit card your card provider will be liable to refund you.

If you use a credit card to pay for your holiday, make sure you do so for the right reasons. You could use a purchase credit card to reward yourself for your spending, you may be able to get some cash back or you may be rewarded with loyalty points that you can redeem at a later date.

When using a credit card to pay for your holiday, make sure you don’t accrue any interest, you don’t want your holiday to cost you more than it should. If you want to pay off your holiday at a later date, simply balance transfer your money to a different card and you can avoid paying any extra interest until you pay it off.

Conclusion

Paying for your summer holidays in advance will save you money, but the way you pay for your holiday can also be beneficial to you so make sure you take it into consideration.

How is personal debt on the up when lending criteria is more stringent than it has been for years?

The answer to this could lie in the current state of the economy as the recent changes in taxation, the rising cost of living and the removal of certain benefits have all contributed to people’s personal finances being squeezed more than ever.

And if people are struggling to pay down existing debt, particularly on high interest credit cards, then this would explain how debt levels are rising with little or no extra borrowing as these type of debts can creep up month by month if miss payments are missed or only the minimum amount is paid.

When does debt become too much debt?

The obvious answer to this may be that debt becomes a problem when it can no longer be effectively serviced and it begins to get out of control.

However, recent research suggests that the point at which debt becomes a problem can be quantified and that borrowers have two thresholds when it comes to worrying about debt.

Findings from price comparison website moneysupermarket.com revealed that, although £8,400 is the national average, people only really start to worry about their personal debt levels when they owe more than £9,700.

Furthermore, borrowers are more likely to seek professional paid for debt advice when they owe out £19,000 or more, although almost half of those polled said they would never pay for debt advice.

These findings are supported by a separate study carried out by Scottish Provident who found that the average person only considers themselves to be in serious financial difficulty when their debt is in excess of £15,837.

What to do if you’re worried about debt?

There are a number of companies that offer paid for debt solutions but if you are struggling to make ends meet it may be the case that you simply do not have the money available to be able to pay for this service.

In addition, the major benefit of paid for debt management is convenience as most of the work that they do can be done by you, it just takes time, effort and organization.

So, provided you have the time and determination to tackle your debts, it is probably a better idea to contact one of the free debt counseling services available such as the National Debtline or the Consumer Credit Counseling Service.

These services offer free and impartial advice and can best advise you on to how to manage your debt given your particular circumstances.

The next step will probably be to contact your creditors and work out a debt solution plan with them which could be anything from a temporary freeze on your interest and charges to a settlement figure, depending upon your circumstances.

Or if your debt has reached a certain level then an IVA or bankruptcy may be the only feasible solutions.

Either way, the most important thing when tackling debt is to act sooner rather than later as ignoring debt will only make the problem worse.