Hedge Funds | The Securities Investors' Bill Of Rights (siborap): Part Two

Section Two: Regulation and Education (continued from Part One of the SIBORAP report).

Security industry regulators will be charged with many responsibilities: (1) educating investors with respect to product content; (2) developing a "hierarchy-of-risk" tool that identifies the risks in all things sold to investors; and (3) preventing the spread of unregulated Internet based investment advice offered by persons of unknown qualifications.

Additionally, they will be responsible for:

(4) Preventing the development of multi-level, multi-leveraged, WMFDs; (5) requiring that all financial blogs include appropriate caveats that speak to the qualifications of contributors; (6) investigating any "acronym" product produced by Wall Street, and (7) preventing rating agencies from separately rating pieces of derivative products.

If it looks and feels like a bond, it better not be a currency futures speculation.

The "hierarchy-of-risk" tool compares the risk vs. reward characteristics of a laundry list of investment securities from lowest-risk, investment grade, through highest-risk, speculation. A risk level "tier" system has been created:

Tier One: government securities, IG (investment grade) municipal and corporate bonds, and US government backed and/or guaranteed securities. Tier Two: individual commercial and residential mortgages, IG preferred stocks, dividend paying IGV stocks, and most REITs.

Tier Three: other exchange-listed stocks, most royalty trusts, and DJIA, S & P, and NASDAQ index funds. Tier Four: IPOs, sector index funds, junk bonds, options, futures and commodities contracts, currencies, multi-level derivatives, penny stocks, and anything with a "traunch" inside, etc.

Special documentation is required for individual investors to purchase anything listed as a Tier Four speculation. Tier Four speculations are only available to individuals with more than two million dollars in invested working capital and a segregated, personal retirement programs, with at least one million in working capital.

Note that individuals who do not comply with SIBORAP rules would continue to be taxed on both retirement and investment income. Investors continue to have an inalienable right to be stupid.

Section Three: Protection from Speculators.

Investors have a right to protection from unexpected risks being added to portfolios without their control, knowledge, or permission. No contract of a derivative and/or a speculative nature may be used in a manner that could impair the perceived investment status of any individual security.

This would preclude the use of almost all forms of "naked" short selling by any entity or person, index fund ownership of more than 100 share positions of tracked equities, and all "naked" stock options. The only short selling that would survive would be "against-the-box", and only in private, non-retirement, portfolios.

Similarly, margin financing in all but individual, non-retirement portfolios, would be prohibited--- which just means that mutual funds and hedge funds would be unable to borrow against the assets within the fund to leverage the portfolio. This eliminates the disruptive effect of margin calls on the values of the securities in non-speculative portfolios, retirement plans, etc.

Certain commodities and currencies speculations must be restricted to professionals within their communities. Basically, if you're not willing to take delivery of the commodity, you can't trade it. In recent years, for example, commodities speculators have been able to place global economies in turmoil by manipulating gasoline and food prices.

Under SIBORAP, regulators would be able to control speculators more quickly, and less experienced (wealthy or not) individual investors would be unable to participate in dangerous speculative endeavors.

Section Four: Controls of Hedge Funds.

Investors have the right to know that the same rules apply to all market participants. Hedge fund disclosure material must be made available to all eligible investors, and all hedge funds are subject to SIBORAP.

Hedge funds of all varieties will become regulated entities, and their operators, principles and officers will be required to fully disclose the processes and methodologies that they will be using in their operations. Any form of collusion between hedge fund operators is illegal, for any purpose.

Clearly, in 2008, hedge fund operators conspired with one another to manipulate the world oil market and to crush companies within the financial sector. Such flagrant breaches of the public interest will be eliminated by SIBORAP.

Hedge funds may not use margin borrowing, must not short securities they do not own, and must not allow entry to anyone who does not meet the funds stated wealth requirements. They may use covered option strategies, but cannot invest in any multi-level derivatives.

No unqualified person, through whatever medium, may participate in any form of hedge fund. Funds that contain hedge funds are prohibited.

Sections Five: Brokerage Account Statements, Six: Retirement Account Investments, and Seven: Executive Compensation, are presented in Part Three of the SIBORAP report.

Home Business Opportunities | Is Home Business For You?

There are obviously many advantages when running a business from home. Another great thing is that you can earn an income on top of a full time job, it involves low risk and low cost, no shop front required, you can do business round the clock and work at your own pace without normal workplace distractions.Individuals considering establishing a home-based business would do well to sit back and consider several key questions to work out if the project is suitable for them.

Entrepreneurs opting to turn their hobbies into a career are good to start a work at home business. These includes arts and crafts services such as painting and pottery, childcare, teaching and tutoring, pet grooming, dog walking and language translation. It is service business that works particularly well to run from home because these businesses do not receive customers on the doorstep. The range is varied and even involves large scale importers, wholesalers and distributors as well as office based business like consultancy and professional services such as communications, public relations, accountancy and human resources administration. It also includes telesales and marketing, writing and editing, customer service and web based business.

Pursuing work at home business opportunities without first thinking whether it is for you or not wouldn't be very wise. There are questions you need to ask yourself to determine if it is for you.
Will I have the support of my partner and children if any?Support from family members is important as you may need to set aside some personal space for your work area. These areas cannot simply be trodden upon by some naught kids or even your friend's kids when they come around.

Will I have the discipline to work hard every day without a boss always looking to see that that work is done? With all of the work at home business opportunities that are out there you must always be open to learning new ideas and obtaining new skills. Never give up and you can succeed!

Invest | Are Mutual Funds A Good Way To Invest For Your Future?

The basics

Mutual funds consists of money from many different investors that is pooled together and invested into short-term money markets, stocks, bonds, various other assets or securities, or maybe even a combination of any of these. Each investor owns a portion of the holdings that the fund possesses and the income that is generated from these holdings.

There are several factors that distinguish mutual funds from other types of funds. Those factors are:

- The shares are purchased from the actual fund instead of from other investors via such avenues as NASDAQ or NYSE.

- The purchase price is the price per share plus any fees imposed by the fund at the time. These are commonly referred to as shareholder fees.

- When selling the shares, you are selling them back to the fund.

- New investors are accommodated through the creation of new funds that can be sold to them.

- Investment advisors that are registered with the SEC are typically who takes care of mutual funds.

Advantages and disadvantages

There are advantages and disadvantages to mutual funds. The advantages include:

- Diversification of your portfolio - This is important in investing because a diversified portfolio has better earning potential.

- They are affordable - There is a high degree of affordability when it comes to mutual funds. Dollar amounts can be set low for purchases, giving lower income individuals the ability to invest.

- Managed professionally - There are professionals who are constantly monitoring the performance of these mutual funds and always looking for the best investments for the fund in order to maximize its return to its investors.

- Liquidity - Investors are able to redeem their shares at the current NAV. This is in addition to any fees or charges assessed at that time.

The advantages make it clear that a mutual fund can be a great investment, but like any type of investment there are some disadvantages that come along with them as well. Those disadvantages include:

- There are annual fees, charges for sales, and other fees associated with them. It doesn't matter how the fund performs. These costs still apply. Taxes also have to be paid on gains. This refers to any distributions received even if the fund performed poorly.

- Investors do not control their shares. The make-up of the portfolio is decided by the manager of the fund.

- There is uncertainty that surrounds the price of shares. It isn't like how you can follow regular shares of stock in real-time during trading hours. There is a delay in you finding out what your share is within a mutual fund since you are sharing the fund with other investors.

So now that you see the advantages and the disadvantages, you can decide which way to go. However, you have to weigh them against each other. An example: Although you don't have control, the fund is under professional control. Mutual funds have helped put money in people's pockets, so mutual funds can be a great way to invest for your future. Just make sure you find a fund that performs well.

Business Ideas | Best Online Business Ideas

1. Become an affiliate marketer and sell other people's products. Go to Associateprogams.com and learn everything you can about affiliate marketing. They are the premier affiliate marketing website on the Internet and have a discussion forum that deals 100% with making money as an affiliate marketer.

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4. Start a network marketing business and earn money on your downlines purchases and sales. Try and focus on Internet-based products where you can build a worldwide business with no shipping required.

5. Acquire products with resell rights and turn around and sell those. Choose to market only the highest quality products and you can make a tremendous amount of money with very little competition.

6. Start a blog and monetize it with affiliate programs and products. Blogging is big business and search engines love blogs. Learn how to drive traffic to your blog and you can quickly begin making money with it.

7. Start your own moneymaking website and sell products of your own. This can be a lot of fun and an online business you can develop into anything you want. You can even create an affiliate program and have affiliates help you sell your products.

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In summary this is eight online business ideas that you could do one or more of. There are many more ways to make Money on the Internet. You just need to find a couple that appeal to you and get started with them.