Al asked:


/>Fair trade – why should we care?



Fair trade. The only trade



The fair trade movement is old news. People have been talking about it for a long time, but have we really been listening?



Surfers lead the way



Surfers are usually out there on the front line when it comes to environmental issues but the same cannot always be said for the big Surfwear brands. Young, environmentally conscious surfwear and snowboarding retailer ZooZoo2 is determined to do more.



We are all used to fair trade products such as coffee, tea, and cocoa used in thousands of good cafe’s and restaurants across the developed world. But what about surfwear and surf related products? What are we wearing, how was it made and who actually made it?



Fair trade is a system of economic relations in which: sweatshops are eliminated; workers earn a living wage; the rights of workers, producers and local communities are respected; labor, health and safety, and environmental laws are followed; and trade is conducted on a level playing field, truly free and fair’. [extract from bangornews.com / PICA article]



Fair trade works to ensure producers in the developing world receive a fair price for the goods they make and that these goods are produced by workers in sweatshop-free environments. It is no longer acceptable for global brands including surfwear brands to benefit at the cost of poor producers who have no voice of their own.



Fair trade involves practices that give producers a voice, either by collecting them into cooperatives or by ensuring minimum support prices for them which will allow them enough resources to invest in further producing the raw material that goes into producing consumer goods says Fair Trade: Market-Driven Ethical Consumption.



“In simple terms, Fair Trade represents a new approach to buyer-supplier transaction which aims at equality of exchange within a partnership approach, underpinned by a developmental, rather than confrontational, agenda. Fair trade recognises the power discrepancy between the developing and the developed worlds and aims to forge long-term partnerships. A firm focus on the producer rather than the consumer, has been central to Fair trade.” [extreact from Finacialexpress India]



Child Labour Facts



The ILO estimates that 120 million children aged 5-14 work full-time, and a further 130 million work part-time.



About 61% of working children live in Asia, 32% in Africa and 7% in Latin America. More and more children in Europe are working.



Africa has the highest incidence of working children. Approximately 40% of all its five to 14 year olds work full or part-time. In both Asia and Latin America, about 20% of five to 14 year-olds are engaged in the job market. [source: www.volunteernow.ca]



ZooZoo2 is committed to supporting the principles of third world fair trade.



Prohibition of child labour (children should be children, to learn and play and have fun)



Prohibition of forced labour (no sweatshop labour)



Prohibition of harassment (no sweatshop labour)



Regulated work hours



Prohibition of discrimination



Health and safety (no sweatshop labour)



Preservation of the environment



Concern for fellow human beings as well as concern for the health of our planet seem to us to be a natural step for all surfers and snowboarders



Keith

John Callingham asked:


Aiming for exponential return of investments, forex market is becoming the popular venture nowadays. It is where the foreign exchange or forex trading is held. Traders earn through the buying and selling process of the different international currencies.

There are many essential forex market trading tips to consider. Understanding this information will also help you eliminate the typical pitfalls as you start your venture in this type of business segment.

Forex is trade in pairs. Each currency which is paired off to the other shares a proportional relationship. It is therefore valuable to the impact of one currency to the other or vice versa. You should have the right hunch for the condition of both currencies.

The one of the external factors that has a great impact in the price trend of forex is the current global and event news. Like for example, CNN has reported the potential interest rate in US. This will result to outbreak and panic to the traders. The traders’ instant reaction is to close their positions and wait until the situation is better. Hence, the traders lose sight of the trading opportunities. It is therefore important to know the fundamentals of forex trading.

Another essential forex market trading tips is to have a clear understanding of the boundary between you and your broker. If you are new in this type of business and you entrusted your trading decisions and transactions to a broker, it is worth to have less interventions with your broker. Remember that it requires strategy to increase your investments and you have to respect your broker’s technique unless you are equipped enough to do the trading by yourself. Also, it is discouraged to ask opinions from multiple sources. Numerous advices will only confuse you which will likely lead to potential loss of money.

The tiny margin factor is oftentimes taken for granted. Although it is considered as one of the best advantages of forex trading as it allows you to trade certain amounts that are in fact high than your actual deposits. This is best recommended only for season traders but still the best rule win through – gradually increase your leverage according to your experience and success.

One of the forex market trading tips is not to trade during off hours which is from 2200 CET to 1000 CET. What usually happens during off peak hours, the professional forex traders, option traders and hedge funds tends to move around while there is minimal risk. Unless you are certain, then don’t do it.

The forex market trading tips will not be perfect without the impact of current global news and events. When the news is released, you can expect a high volume of trade and substantial moves in their positions. This development will lead to price changes in the currency flow.

Learning and understanding the various forex market trading tips will help you maximize your investment in forex market. Though these tips cannot guarantee your success, it will lessen you chances of losing some money.



Henry

Mike Davies asked:


Regardless of platform, all traders will be faced with a series of tough questions, mental debates and challenges on a daily basis.

Here are four important questions, one of which will be in any traders head at any given time.

1 If the price of a stock that I hold is still rising I would be foolish to sell when it could go up even further?

2 Should i wait till the stock starts to fall before selling? The price has been rising steadily, it won’t crash overnight will it?

3 If the stock has just plummeted then something is wrong with this company and it is not worth buying?

4 The stock is soaring, I must buy now or I will lose out?

Although all these four statements appear to make sense, on closer analysis it can be seen that for basic fundamental reasons an experienced trader should know innately that all four statements are in fact incorrect, for one of the fundamental reasons outlined below.

1 When a stock is “oversold” we can say that supply exceeds demand and so the price will fall, conversely if demand exceeds supply the stock is “overbought” the price will rise. How do we as traders pinpoint the specific point where the demand/supply ratio is about to switch?

2 This is of course the eternal, essential question and the answer is we don’t. It is impossible to predict the “exact” point at which a market switch event will occur, despite hundreds of attempts involving expensive computer programmes etc.

3 The volatility of your stock is intimately linked to news and events that in some way will affect your stock. Some of this news can of course at first glance seem completely unrelated to your particular stock ie the global economy can affect the entire index for your stock and movements of the index then directly affect your given stock.

4 We have seen in the recent credit crunch how corrections in one particular sector – the banking sector can affect the entire market around the globe wiping billions of dollars off literally every index, from commodities to pharmaceuticals. The Market is NOT king. Confidence in the market IS king.

5 When a market “switch” event does occur it can often create a stampede amongst traders which can wipe out recent gains in a matter of minutes, this is the herd mentality and can leave stocks hugely undervalued after a selling spree.

Experienced traders know that following a market crash is in fact not a time to be negative, and in fact this is the prime time to buy certain stocks which have been “oversold” as they represent “value” buys.

But as always there are important caveats, if a stock has crashed because a company is being liquidated then it obviously does not represent value at any price.

If it is undervalued because the entire index has simply suffered a bout of selling or a crisis of confidence then we can be assured that at some point confidence will return and the stock will rise again.

However in times of crisis it can seem difficult to muster up the courage to start buying again, and this is where novice traders lose out.

So how do you as a day trader make use of this mass of information to trade on the stock market.

Well you do it because it is your job, but many day traders fail and many are indeed turning to the betting exchanges as an alternative where their skills can be put to better use.

In many ways the betting exchanges offer a more coherent overall view of the market and volatility. With fast internet and racing TV a race trader has ALL the means to assess relevant aspects of volatility In advance of the market. Its all about control.

Also as the stock only exists for less than one day, the trades are closed at the end of each race and a trader can go to sleep knowing that nothing untoward can happen to his equities overnight.

Day traders come to the betting exchanges with a solid background in Technical Analysis and Fundamentals, they will have experienced the pain of losing trades and will understand the relationship between volatility, liquidity and the market spread.

For day traders used to working the stock market, the betting exchanges offer fast turnover, quicker more agile trades.

Why bother with the slow torture of leaving medium/ long term trades open in the stock market when you can have made 5 or 6 trades in 15 minutes on one single horse race.

Lets look at the benefits of trading horses on Betfair

* You choose which horse and which race to bet on.

* You know the exact time of the race and therefore the time that the trade will close.

* Medium term trades can be opened early morning or the night before and closed during the afternoon of the race.

* Pure scalpers can use short term scalp, swing and momentum trades which can be opened and closed in the 15 minutes before a race as liquidity soars.

* Trades can even be placed during the actual event taking advantages of extreme volatility. (not for the faint hearted and not for those without racing TV).

* At the end of each days racing a trader can examine the profit and loss account to see precisely the fruits of his days labour.

* You can forget about the global economy, forget about events out of your control, forget about the 8.30 am opening time on the markets and forget about boring economics and accounting.

The fundamentals which are part of your armoury are all online at:

1. http://www.racingpost.co.uk

2. http://www.oddschecker.com

3. http://www.attheraces.com

4. http://www.sportinglife.com

Technical Analysis platforms allow you to take your trading to the next level and they are a steal compared to the expensive financial packages that day traders will have been used to.

Bet Angel Professional is the flagship trading platform for Betfair, the real time Supercharting facility is recognised as second to none.

Ladder trading allows you whole market views of liquidity, and one click trading with offset allows you to fire trades into the market in microseconds stealing a big advantage over users stuck with the standard Betfair interface.

Simple chart setups using Quick Moving Average Back Price, Price Envelope’s, and Long Weight of Money Moving Average highlight simple scalp, swing and momentum trades in the pre race markets.

Most importantly you need to decide on your opening pot, you need a willingness to learn your new trade or platform and the confidence that your mindset is strong enough to cope with this type of career.

So just for the record what has since become of the poor online casino operator.

By Oct 2 2006 from a peak of 176p PartyGaming was down at 47p, following one of the biggest one day losses (56%) in FTSE 100 history.

Today it totters happily around 25p, a realistic price/earnings ratio, using a realistic and sustainable business model without flouting any established legislation.

Who knows, with the recent change of leadership in the US, the gambling legislation may be reversed and the reverse fortune could occur for this particular operator.

What can we take from this cautionary tale as we sail off to the betting exchanges; Quite simply, make volatility and liquidity your best friends as the alternative situation could truly represent Armageddon for your finances.

What can we learn?

1 Learn to spot trends early on

2 Identify and analyse potential risks using fundamentals

3 Use technical analysis software to take the heat out of timing your trades.

4 Get in early before the herd stampedes onto a likely winner.

5 Get out early before the herd flies over the edge of the cliff.

Remember if volatility scared you in stocks it will terrify you in horse racing.



Daniel

Mike Davies asked:


In any form of financial trading there are two terms which you will first need to fully understand before proceeding to the next stage.

The fundamentals of any trading system are the same whether it be stocks and shares, bonds, forex, spread betting or of course the betting exchanges.

1. Liquidity – Cash

2. Volatility – News

Lets start with liquidity or “cash”.

1. Cash is what physically creates/ moves markets.

2. Cash is what physically drives prices up or down, (bullish or bearish).

3. Cash determines how far a trend goes and when it will end.

The more cash coming into a system (buying positions) the longer a trend will last, so making it easier to trade successfully (in theory).

Markets of all types are self perpetuating, as we have seen over the last few years in the UK, bubbles are created, just like for example, in the UK residential housing market.

While buyers will meet sellers with available cash, prices go up and up and up, all other factors are irrelevant. Anyone could see that the housing market was overbought except the mug punters who believed the dross churned out in the form of hour after hour of prime time property porn TV.

Punters were falling over themselves to buy rabbit hutches in city centres that were genuinely worth about a fifth of the price they were actually paying.

The result was inevitable. Crunch!! Credit dries up, Cash dries up, the bubble bursts, sellers will not match buyers and not only do prices fall, but the volume of transactions collapses as well.

So here we are with factor 2.

Volatility. What are the factors that create the initial switch event?

Well they are quite basic – NEWS.

The news can come from anywhere, any angle, any source, there are hosts of sources of news that affect markets.

The economics of accounts and balance sheets, the movements of fiscal indices such as interest and inflation. Movements of exchange rates between currencies.

Oil prices, food prices, availability of credit and cash are recent movers of markets.

Even the climate and global terrorism play their part in disturbing regional markets.

For the housing market in the UK, the warning signs began early in 2007 with information that sub prime lenders in the USA were dangerously over exposed.

Even then, property prices in the UK continued their upward run for another 6 months such is the power of media propaganda and the nature of human greed and entrenchment.

Basically if you are playing the stock market, the property market or any other market and are trying to keep tabs on the number of things that might affect your trades, you have to attempt to follow all these sources of news 24 hours a day, piecing them together, attempting to predict their effect on the market along the way.

And, to be frank this is nothing short of gambling. Its also extremely stressful.

Part of the problem with stock market day trading is the competition.

Huge corporations, pension funds, investment banks and Wall Street itself are working on huge commissions to profit from these markets.

Their technology is second to none, high tech automated robots compete for easy money.

Insider trading is rife and unless you are “in the know” you will always be fighting to beat these markets as an independent.

To make matters worse the incoming news can occur night and day, and you can awake to an important piece of news that sent your stock into freefall at opening.

In part 2 of this article we examine how and why Betfair has become the platform of choice for traders and other punters, and the software, systems and strategies that are making them consistent profits.



Den Burke

John Callingham asked:


Oftentimes false impressions and misapprehensions could lead you to unfavorable outcome. Just because you have dealt so much with what others tell you or with what you hear about, you provided a quick judgment until such time you found out that all these are just delusions and misinterpretations. This is how the forex market is perceived until the advent of forex mini trading surfaces.

From the name itself, you will most likely generate a single inkling that this is something that requires not so much from you and from your investment. A lot of people thought that forex trading comes with hefty and bigger assets, well if you think this is really true, you definitely are leading a wrong path. Big capitals and outlays is not the requisite of the forex market and the forex mini trading is the idyllic case in point.

Forex mini trading only requires lower capital, it never go beyond thousands of dollars since you only need to have cash at hand amounting to $300 dollars. Yes, this is the amount that you need to start of with your trade and most traders have come out of the market bearing greater profits with a small investment given a shorter duration of time. The next factor that provides advantages in getting into the mini trading is the concept that you can have greater leverage given a small fund as capital. This means to say that when you own a stock amounting to $2000 then your leverage can be in between $1500 to $1750 leverage. Therefore, if you give just a small scope or margin to your mini account then there are greater tendencies that your forex mini trading account can acquire a money-spinning and profitable one.

Pips are also another facet of the mini trading and a lot of traders choose to trade in pips. As the denomination they provided is small there will be greater probabilities where traders can open up opportunities and discover other lucrative facets in the world of trade. The trade of pips also provides assurance for traders that if the dealings become tougher, their losses will not be that big. Since 1 pip is equivalent to $1 dollar the possibilities of a floating loss will not be that difficult to bear.

Another advantage of going by forex mini trading is the concept of trading for small units. When you venture in a mini trading, the only required units are 10,000 weigh against the standard ones which will provide you with almost hundreds of thousands of units. This small trading size gives you lesser risk particularly for those beginner traders. Once you become accustomed with all the dealings it wouldn’t be hard for you to move towards 20,000 to 30,000 units and so on.

Forex mini trading is absolutely a good way for novice traders and others who have little investment and capital. There is also software available in creating your mini account that is comparable with the regular one. Mini trading only proves that no matter how small your assets are, when it comes to forex trading all these are profitable and productive.



Earl