Well it has been a busy week working on the new layout for the web site and I still have a bit more work to do. I apologize to anyone who tried to access the page in the previous 12 hours however there were still some minor issues that prevented me from going live. The site is running again as you can tell if you are reading this, however there are still some issues that need to be ironed out. If you notice any issues please do not hesitate in letting me know.

The Theme

The theme is designed by Quommunication with some slight modification done on my part. The new theme is a lot more readable with a large font size and a clear layout. It also provides space for advertising and the content is structured far more logically. A screen shot of the current theme is shown below for the people reading this article in their email or a feed reader:

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The portfolio I will be constructing is based on the five Australian stocks highlighted in Smart Investor magazine. If you haven’t read the previous article on “Economic Moats” I would advise you to read that before reading this article. The tool I will be using for this is Google Finance, therefore you will need to sign up for a Google account (this is free). Go to Google Accounts and click on “create an account now “. Once you are logged in go to Google Finance click create portfolio and name the portfolio and then add desired stock.

Portfolio Calculations

In order to determine how much money we can allocate to each share we will have to do a few simple calculations. Firstly we work out each shares maximum share of equity, as we are giving equal weight to each different stock this is simply: Read the full story

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I am sure you have heard about the stock markets of the world losing large portions of their value. The mainstream media is really having a field day with it. Some finance blogs are noticing considerably high search volumes as people look for answers. The Australian market has not been immune to this global phenomenon with the market having its longest losing streak in a quarter of a century. You can see the steady decline in in the benchmark All Ordinaries Index from about the 8th of January, this is shown below with 13 straight days of losses.

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Timing I am sure everyone is aware how crucial timing is. In the foreign currency or FOREX market it becomes even more important. If you haven’t already read my article on The best trading times in the 24 hour Forex market I would advise you to take a look.Depending on your trading style it is also important to know the timing of news announcements and the currency’s they will likely effect. The two best free resources I have found for economic based news announcements are:

Forex Factory Calendar- This is one of the best free calendars around, previous result and forecast result are shown as well as a link to the page were the news announcement will be posted. The Forex Factory Calendar also allows you to alter the time zone settings to display what time a news announcement will occur in your region which is handy if you don’t have a program like ZoneTick. Forex Factory Calendar also allows you to setup email alerts for news events. Read the full story

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If you have not already read the brief introduction to Excel 2007 I would advise you do so before continuing on with this tutorial series. You may be asking yourself what is the point using Excel as an analysis platform when there are products such as Wealth Lab and TradeStation available. I think that it is important that every trader be able to understand the underlying concepts of the indicators they are using and be able to analyse data. By undertaking this tutorial series you will also get the chance to learn by doing, which helps re-enforces concepts much better than if you were to just passively read the articles.

When you first start Microsoft Excel 2007, you will be presented with a screen similar to the one shown below. The key areas and terminology are also highlighted. Read the full story

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Well the first week of the New Year drawing to an end it is time for some light weekend reading. The start of the year has seen oil crack the US$100 mark if but briefly. Nearly every media outlet in Australia jumped on the band wagon spreading fear that the price increase for the February delivery light sweet crude contracts would continue unabated. Here are some of the headlines:

“Oil price surge signals financial pain”

“Fears petrol could hit $1.50 [per litre in Australia]”

“Oil price hike sign of things to come”

“Asian shares down after oil hits $100″

“Record oil price deepens US woes”

It is amazing the psychological effect the passing of the US$100 mark has had, it will be interesting to see if all the hype is warranted. The chart below shows the passing of the US$100 mark for the February delivery light sweet crude contracts. Read the full story

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