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This article is the fourth in the series of explaining wealth. The first was the scientific explanation, the second was the spiritual one and the third the economic. This article will tackle the psychological issues surrounding wealth and its creation.

You might be thinking that it is somewhat unclear whose psychology we are talking about. Every transaction must always have two facets. That is, the buyer and the seller. We’ll talk about both.

The Psychology of the Buyer
It’s not very hard to ascertain this because the psychology is driven by well defined motives such as desire and need. These are always the most prevalent ones. Buyers will never purchase a product because they want to make the seller rich. The reason is always a selfish one but this is not meant to be a derogatory remark. It must be this way because the buyer is parting with hard-earned cash. If we go down the scale of motives we come across the concept of prestige. The practical function of a Rolex watch is no better than that of a watch that costs a fraction of the price. However, a Rolex watch has another, more sinister function. It screams out the status of the owner. But this is fine if that’s what you’re after. It applies to almost all products that are by their very nature much more expensive than cheap equivalents. If you dig a little deeper, you might find that there are other underlying incentives for buying a particular product but they are more to do with the buyer than the product. You might buy something to show off to your neighbour or to your colleagues. It really doesn’t matter because the number of purchases resulting from desire and need still far outweigh all others put together.

Often it is very easy to see through the psychology that advertisers use to entice us to buy their product as opposed to another. But this is usually in markets saturated with different products with the same function such as different makes of car, perfume, clothes, food, electrical goods and so on. It makes it hugely difficult to enter such markets because they are driven by very large investments and revenue.

So where does that leave the humble beginner who wishes to flood the market with a particular product. It is definitely possible to do because many people have done it and are doing it. Needless to say your particular product still has to exhibit and excel in one or more of the criteria outlined in article 3 of this series.

If we assume that all buyer motives other than desire and need are negligible, we can roughly divide all products into a 50:50 ratio between these two areas. I will commit myself and say that there is probably a better chance of being able to succeed in any major way in the market of desire than need though the probability increases rapidly if you have access to a large investment capital. The simple reason is that you can actually create desire but you can’t create need because needs are mainly for survival only and are few in number. In fact, you can boil them down to three industry divisions. Food, clothing and shelter. All else is probably more a desire than need.

To demonstrate the veracity of this statement, that you can create desire, let’s assume you have a new product X that you wish to sell. You are sure that it meets the criteria outlined in the article preceding this one. How do you create the desire. There are many past examples but here are seven:

1. Child’s yoyo. (not so long ago every child had one)
2. Lights on the soles of trainers
3. Cameras on mobile phones
4. Key ring lasers
5. Scooby do’s (coloured plastic strings for children to weave into plats)
6. Ipods
7. Rubik’s cube
8. The stepometer

All of the above have one glaring attribute in common. The desire came into existence only when the product did. It is that indefinable quality in a product that influences a buyer in such a way as to create the desire to have it. There may be other products that possess the very same function but not the way it is conveyed or delivered by these ones. Desire has exponential properties in as much as it actually grows as the number of people that buy the product. The trick is to come up with a product that is capable of creating the desire. For that, we need to examine the psychology of the seller.

The Psychology of the Seller
Ultimately the motive behind selling anything is to make money but this must not be the overbearing reason. I’m not saying it is impossible to make money with products or services that are out to do nothing but make money. What I am saying is that the likelihood of creating wealth increases dramatically if the following principles are adhered to. So, just as the reason for a buyer to purchase something is ultimately a selfish one, the opposite must be true of the seller. That is, if you want the product to become a best seller, your motive must hinge firmly on the side of the potential buyer and not your bank balance. You must ask yourself the following three
fundamental questions:

1. Who will buy the product?
2. What benefit will it bring them?
3. Will people want to buy it if they see others who have it?

A successful product will attract the following answers:

1. A large subsection of the population such as children, teenagers, adults 30-50, senior citizens, men only or women only. If the product is for general purpose, the entire population may be included but such new products are usually few and far in between.
2. Since we’re in the desire market this will be centred around the capacity of your product to entertain or make life a easier or healthier.
3. If people encounter evidence of 2, 3 will follow naturally.

The third is really the key to it all because you can always sell a few products but whether it catches or not depends entirely on the answer to question 3. The best and the most powerful publicity is word of mouth. The second is seeing another person with the product.

I wonder if I can interest you in my new book which is a supernatural come science-fiction novel. Please click on http://www.willofdreams.com to visit the site and learn more about the author and the book. Thank you for your attention.

So, you are in a bind. Your rent is due and you don’t have the funds available to pay your landlord? What to do? Well, after praying about your next step the revelation you receive may be not what you had expected. Perhaps you were looking for a miracle instead perhaps God has shown you ways for you to work out your problem quickly and legally. Yes, there are many ways to make money that are honest and smart. Let’s take a look at some of them right now.

Ways to make money are perhaps much more numerous than you first thought:

Hold a garage sale: Chances are you have some things around your house that you no longer are in need of. If so, hang a sign out front and invite neighbors and “drive bys” to visit you. While you may not own a big ticket item that can garner you a nice return, a bunch of smaller items including clothes, bric-a-brac, books, etc. could push you over the top.

Ebay: Not everyone is fond of garage or yard sales. In addition, if you have a special item which you know could bring in more money if you could advertise it, consider eBay or another online auction site to sell what-have-you. EBay has proven to be one of the biggest ways to make money that there is today.

Bake, clean, or provide another service: Not everyone has the time or inclination to cook for themselves, pick up their dry cleaning, mow the lawn, clean, etc. You neighbors may be too busy to take care of their yard but would gladly pay someone they know such as you to do the work for them. Offer to organize their attic or garage and don’t be shy to charge them a decent rate. Perhaps in exchange for money they will offer to you whatever is in their garage of value. This can one of the ways to make money as you resell what they have online or in your next yard sale.

Online help: If you own a computer and have internet access, then this can be one of the ways to make money quickly and legally. Sometimes blog managers will pay for posters to add a few paragraphs of comments to their sites while others will be glad if you moderate their forums. Either way, if there is money involved you can raise cash that way too.

Watch the kids: Not everyone likes to babysit other children, but perhaps you are already “giving that service away” when your friends drop their children off to play with your kids. Let’s be smart about it: are you providing a play date or babysitting services? If the latter, start charging by the hour to make sure your hard work gets a return on the investment!

Yes, there are many ways to make money you hadn’t thought of in the past. Don’t borrow off of your credit card and don’t take out a loan you won’t be able to repay later. Chances are there is a service you can provide, an item you could sell, or something you can offer that will bring in money quickly. Are there many ways to make money? Yes! Find out what they are and step forward in faith today.

Copyright 2006 - For additional information regarding Matt Keegan, The Article Writer, please visit his blog for wit, quips, and freelance writing tips.

This is the continuing story of our two imaginary traders, Peter and Paul.

Peter is a professional trader, Paul is not. Peter has a tested, proven, written trading plan that he follows each time he enters a trade, Paul does not.

Peter and Paul have had vastly different Stock trading experiences - Peter has just made another substantial profit - this time from the Bear market, Paul has lost heavily.

A chance meeting with Peter’s group of friends one day at lunch launches Paul on a learning curve that will see him become a good trader, but not without some hard lessons along the way.

In discussing the different attitudes of our two hypothetical traders, Peter and Paul, I have tried to share with you the thought processes that make a successful trader.

If you read any of the marketing material from the Financial Planning community or the Mutual Fund promoters, they all stress the principle of diversification.

They say it enhances returns while minimizing risk - Peter believes that ,as Frank Watkins says in his book, Exploding the Myths, “Diversification is another word for risk minimization, but it has very little to do with making profits.”

As one of the World’s greatest Investors, Warren Buffet, has said on many occasions - diversification is simply an antidote for ignorance!

Diversification for diversification’s sake simply means that you will have your money in a lot of Stocks or markets that aren’t performing to their fullest potential - some will be rising, some will be falling, some will be going nowhere.

Hardly the best way to run your trading Business is it?

Peter’s view of diversification is different to that of the herd - use technical analysis to find several quality Stocks that are rising, then buy all of them in equal dollar amounts to reduce the risk of one Company crashing and taking all of his capital with it. When these quality Stocks stop going up, sell, take a profit and move on.

Why hold Stocks in a Portfolio that are not rising, or worse, falling in value, simply because you want to have some diversification?

If you look at the typical Brokers Portfolio recommendations, they will include Stocks that are in various stages of trends, both up and down. When you ask them why they would recommend something that is falling in price, they tell you, “Well you have to have some diversification.

And based on fundamentals, it’s valued at much more than the Market is quoting it. Don’t put all your eggs in the one basket, spread your risk through different sectors, etc. etc.”

Peter merely takes the prudent step of diversifying across several quality Stocks that are rising in price. Simple.

Below are some charts of Stocks that Peter found met his criteria - of course, this is in no way a recommendation to go out and buy any of these - they are simply examples of Stocks that met Peter’s buy criteria at the time of entry.

They might not fit the buy criteria now, and some have given Peter sell signals, but they will give you an idea of what to look for when a Broker or well meaning friend gives you that ‘hot tip’ and says you should buy as many of ’such and such stock’ as you can get your hands on straight away.

(Charts available at www.StockTradingReview.com)

Study the charts above and you will notice that all of these Stocks were trending strongly with small reactions. The moving averages crossed and gave a buy signal - some gave a sell signal early and then another buy signal, and then they never looked back.

Of course, not every Stock Peter bought rallied like these did. If they didn’t, they were sold and the proceeds were used to buy something that had more potential.

These are the types of trends Peter looks for and diversifies into.

He doesn’t buy, hold and hope for profits, based on some imagined intrinsic value that his Broker says the market hasn’t identified yet…

Remember though, if things don’t go according to plan, Peter gets out quickly and looks for the next trade - but while the price is going his way, he simply looks for opportunities to compound his position.

“Remember this simple rule”, Peter tells Paul with monotonous regularity - “With any Stock you are considering buying, don’t buy it or hold onto it if it isn’t going up!!”

Pretty simple advice, really…

To Your Trading Success,

Tony Spann and the Team

Stock Trading Review is dedicated to helping you succeed as a trader by sharing with you simple and easy to follow tips and techniques.

Discover more insider secrets and the exact proven strategies to trade stocks profitably: http://www.stocktradingreview.com

Copyright(C)2005 Stock Trading Review

There are red lights, green lights, blue lights and spot lights. There are orange lights, pink light and flash lights. There are search lights and micro lights. And the one you must obey is the stop light.

If you don’t stop when the light is red you could easily have an accident and lose everything you have, even your life. These different types of lights alert us to possibilities and dangers. Is there a light that goes on that tells us whether the stock market is going up or down; one that is green to invest or red to sell? They aren’t very obvious, but they are out there. You only need to become aware and learn when the signal flashes.

It doesn’t take long to learn to drive an automobile, but it does require much more skill to handle an 18-wheeler. The professional driver has taken to time to learn his profession. He knows what all the lights mean. Not only the red and green, but the yellow and blue as well. There are also many light signals inside the cab that he must be aware of all the time if he is to have a safe passage.

Stock market signals may not be red or green or any color at all, but they are there and are obvious to one who wants to learn. The one who wants to learn is the investor who wants to protect his capital from loss and to make enough money to retire in a comfortable life style.

The most obvious signal is the 200-day moving average. You can find one of the best market signals printed every day in the Investor’s Business Daily Mutual Fund Index. When the index is above the 200MA line you are in the green and should to be invested. When it is below the 200MA line you the red light is on and you want to be in a money market fund. When those signals flash and you learn to act you will become very wealthy over the next 10 to 20 years. You will not lose your money when the market is going down.

It you take the time to go back in history, say 20 years and treat the S&P500 Index as a dollar value you will quickly see that buying and selling on this simple method would have made you a ton of money. No, there is not very much trading involved. You will only be buying or selling about once each year. It will not take much of your time and you will sleep better, especially when the market is crashing and your money is safely tucked away.

Currently the green signal is on to be invested according to the IBD Mutual Fund Index. The red signal will come on that tells you it is time to sell when the index plunges below the 200MA line. Pay attention to the signals. You don’t want to lose everything.

Al Thomas’ book, “If It Doesn’t Go Up, Don’t
Buy It!” has helped thousands of people make
money and keep their profits with his simple
2-step method. Read the first chapter at
http://www.mutualfundmagic.com and discover why
he’s the man that Wall Street does
not want you to know. Copyright 2005.

We know that bond prices, like anything else with a price, can be tracked on a point and figure chart. We can also monitor the relative strength of bonds, just like we do with stocks. Also, when bonds in general gave a relative strength sell signal over two years ago, we knew that this group would likely perform poorly, when compared with the rest of the overall market.

It’s important to know that a large rise in rates can be just as devastating or catastrophic as a stock market crash to many investors. Especially investors who blindly follow computerized asset allocation models.

But WHY is this all happening? And why NOW?

Let’s face it; the Fed has been raising rates for well over a year now! Why didn’t bonds start collapsing back then?

Could it be there is no confidence in the new Fed Chairman? Could it be a “proxy” on the current President’s administration? Could it be a resurgence of inflation? Could it be the ongoing struggle between the dollar and the other currencies around the world? Could it be the fact we are getting mixed signals about the economy…where the “man on the street” sees no improvement, but yet, economists see signs things are picking up?
Maybe it is a combination of all of these reasons!

Perhaps it is something so very simple and basic that market pundits just keep missing it!

Maybe it is simply the fact that more people are selling bonds than buying bonds, which pushes prices down.

Look, when too many sellers appear, in any market, prices must fall. That is true whether you are selling fruit on the corner, selling all your baseball cards on Ebay…or if you are selling bonds.

But…most importantly, it DOES NOT MATTER why bond prices are falling and interest rates are climbing. I’ll say that again, it DOES NOT MATTER what the reason is for these price changes.

What matters is what you will need to do about it.

You see, the bond market, compared to the stock market, can sometimes be like the Wild West. The stock market has trading collars and curbs put in place since 1987 to avoid meltdowns like we saw on October 19th, 1987. The bond market has no such limitations. And don’t forget, there are no stop orders or limit orders to help dry up the outstanding demand or supply.

It’s a lot like that scene at the end of the movie “Trading Places” when Dan Ackroyd and Eddie Murphy are trading futures on frozen concentrate orange juice. When everyone wants to sell, it becomes frenzy…with no end in sight. With little or no stability in prices.

A lot of people just don’t understand this! Selling a bond can be like selling your home. When you want to sell a bond, there is rarely a “listed” market. So you need to contact a broker. They will come up with an offer price to buy your bond from you. This price has to work for you, or you won’t sell. But it also has to work for them…they will often turn around quickly and offer it elsewhere, in an effort to make a profitable trade.

There are times when firms will not want to buy a bond that is being offered around by another broker. So they will enter an extremely low offer to buy the bond, not a serious offer. But when a firm really needs to unload a particular bond, it has to take these bids, just to move a bond. So, once the word is out that XYZ’s bonds just traded at a severe discount, all bonds of that issue will often begin to slide as well. This is how chaos begins in bond markets.

The moves can be sudden, and they can be violent…both up and down!

It’s been a while since the bond market has experienced some real volatility. Hopefully we will not experience that, but we need to be prepared for the chance that we might.

Thomas Mullooly, President of Mullooly Asset Management, works one on one with individuals so they can regain control of their investments. Tom’s popular email alerts help folks to reduce the risks in their portfolios. To learn how to stop making simple investing mistakes and to sign up for Tom’s email alerts, visit http://www.mullooly.net, today!

“The American Age of Inflation is finished.” So says economist Robert Samuelson in his December 2nd Washington Post column.

This type of refrain is common. We often hear that this or that is ended - that such things only happen in the past, and that our new, more advanced time is above such mundane things. It is reminiscent of the late ’90’s declarations of the end of value investing, and the meaninglessness of p/e ratios, and the (can you believe it?) end of bear markets. Such drivel is what houses of cards are built on.

It is, in fact, just such declarations that should alert us to the impending disaster that awaits. The easiest way to know when a trend or characteristic may be on the horizon is the cacophony of pundits extolling its end. When the columnists and advisors in the late ’90’s told us that it was a “new era”, and that we needn’t worry about overpriced stocks, that was precisely the time to worry.

Today, when we hear economists like Samuelson announcing the “end” of inflation, it is again time to worry. We already sensed the alignment of a variety of factors that could lead toward the re-emergence of inflation, but the fact that apologists for government policy (economists) see the need to talk it away only serves as confirmation that the time is at hand. Inflation is apparently not only on the way, it is probably at our doorstep. The massive spending spree and resulting dollar devaluation should lead us to that conclusion anyway. We’ve been expecting some level of inflation for some time. But, when we start hearing such defensive postures from those who don’t want to hear the truth, well, its time to begin planning for it more seriously.

In Samuelson’s defense, his article focuses mostly on the idea that markets have risen rapidly over the past 20 years (since Reagan reduced inflation in 1982) due to the benefit of lower inflation. He argues that we will no longer benefit from that improvement. But his error is in thinking that things will now be “flat”, and that inflation was a one-time event that will not be revisited.

He displays a lack of political understanding. As long as politicians can benefit from printing and spending other people’s money, we’ll see more inflation.
Of course, the fact that we anticipate inflation in the financial system does not mean that this will affect all goods equally. Certainly, our enhanced trade relations have caused prices of some imported goods to drop significantly. However, as the dollar drops in value, our ability to buy imports cheaply will also be reduced, and already, prices of imported goods are rising from their lows. Since these cheap imports have been masking inflation for some time, this eventuality will speed the negative impact. Oil prices are a prime example of this phenomenon. This kind of price increase is naturally uncomfortable, but is a natural result of the free-floating currency regime we follow, and it is actually part of a healthy mechanism for refocusing our efforts. It isn’t the price increases that should surprise us, and they themselves are not the problem. This is simply the result of a dollar that is plummeting in value. We need to realize that it is not the producers of goods that are doing us harm, but the governments who run our currency into the ground. Eventually, we may expect to see prices rising on most goods, including both those produced locally, as well as imports.

The result is important for investors. Rising price levels will mean your savings are worth less, and your retirement accounts must grow just to hold their value. It has been many years since this nation has dealt with high inflation, and most of us have forgotten how to deal with it. Since Reagan, Volcker, and Greenspan worked to defeat the wild inflation of the Carter, Ford, and Nixon years, we haven’t had to deal with this devastating bugaboo, but today we should plan for it.

In addition to damaging our savings, inflation can make our debts less bothersome. High inflation will push interest rates higher, however, so only borrowers with fixed rates will benefit. Others will probably experience rising interest rates on their credit cards and struggle to pay them off. Never before in U.S. history have so many carried so much credit card debt in a period of high inflation. One might expect higher default levels. Inflation will also boost home prices without increasing value, and uplift profit levels without growing real assets. The outcome will be higher taxes and tougher competition. In the end, it will be a worse time for bonds, and while stocks will be a better place to be, high-flying growth companies will often disappoint. It is a wonderful time to think like a value investor.

To send comments about this article or to learn more about Scott Pearson’s Investment Management Services, visit http://www.valueview.net

Scott Pearson is an investment advisor, writer, editor, instructor, and business leader. As President and Chief Investment Officer of Value View Financial Corp., he offers investment management services to a wide variety of clients. His own newsletter, Investor’s Value View, is distributed worldwide and provides general money tips and investment advice to readers both internationally, and in the U.S.

Are you ready to open your pathway to financial independence?

Well you should be. The sooner the better. But, how do you get started?

There is so much to know about investing and the truth is it will take a lot of training and guidance in order to get the hang of it. With our fast paced and ever changing economy, it will be hard to fit into the market with no experience. So the sooner you get started the better. You can start anywhere, read books, websites, financial publications, magazines, attend courses, seminars etc. but no matter what you do, make sure you start right now!

Investing Basics

Investing refers to the accumulation of some kind of asset in hopes of getting a future return from it. There are several different ways you can invest your money. You can invest in a bond, which is exchanging money for a promise of more money in the future. You could also invest in an capital investment, which is the exchange of money by a business for an addition to their ability to produce. No matter what you decide to invest in, the fundamentals are the same. You are basically buying risk. the more risk you take on, the higher price you can sell it for. That’s basically what all investing boils down to. As an investor you are really becoming a risk manger.

Investing Tips

The number one tip is to invest wisely, do some research to figure out what kinds of questions you should be asking. A few common sense questions would be those that evaluate the background of the brokerage firm or individual banker with whom you intend to do business with, before you hand over your money.

It is also important to evaluate the firms history, how stable it is, etc. because if the firm goes out of business chances are you might not be able to recover your money.

A good place to start figuring out what questions to ask of your broker is the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission homepage, they have a detailed page that outlines very good questions to ask. You could also check the library for other investing resources. Make sure to take notes when you ask your questions and write down the answers that you received, this shows the broker that you are a serious investor.

It’s important to consider that, as a beginner in the investment world, you are sure to make mistakes. Everyone does, but its your ability to learn from these mistakes that will give you the experience necessary to carry on and improve your results. The only logical way to learn from your mistakes is to write down everything you do, and evaluate it thoroughly. This way you will be able to acknowledge what mistakes you make, and help you avoid repeating them.

Read More Free Investment, Wealth Creation & Personal Finance Articles & Tutorials at:
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The Global Investment Institute has been setup to aid people in the pursuit of a better lifestyle through managing their money effectively, investing wisely and wealth planning for their future.