The stock market volatility has been unstable for the last two days. The ^VIX (Volatility S&P500) was holding the last couple of days at 20, but it gained 20% yesterday and climbed 60% today. The VIX shows an investor how much uncertainty there is in the markets. As it increases, so does the uncertainty on Wall Street.

For the last few months, I’ve been writing on my other blog, Beating The Stock Market, about how the markets were going to turn ugly, and informing my readers to sit patiently on the sideline to prepare for a day like today. I’ve mentioned how when a sell off like this happens, there is always too much selling of any and all stocks. Other investors are too busy saving their own skin to realize that so many more are doing the same. Causing the price of most stocks to fall below or close to the company’s “book Value”. To figure a company’s book value, look at the shareholders’ equity minus all intangible assets. This will give you in theory, the value of the company’s tangible assets, also known as “net tangible assets. There are plenty of stock market books as well as stock market trading software to assist you in learning more about book value.

The big sell-off started just after 2:30pm and the DOW fell below the 10,000 mark around 2:45pm at which point investors realized that too much selling had occurred, at which point it was time to put in Limit orders to start acquiring more shares. After the DOW and the S&P 500 fell 10%, I started to buy. I may have been a little early but it’s fine with me. I typically wait for the markets or an individual stock (one that I’ve researched) to fall 8% before I buy more shares or start a new position. That is one of my stock market strategies to help me make more money.

Today was a great day to make some quick money in the stock market today, If you’re a day trader, I’m sure you jumped out of those position before the end of the trading day, but if you’re an average investor, be prepared to sell off those share real soon. Like I also stated on my other blog, I expect the markets to fall much further than it did today.

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What is a Penny Stock?
A Penny Stock is a stock whose shares trade for less than $5. These stocks are a bit risky to invest in, but also have the potential to generate huge gains.

What are some of the Dangers?
One of the greatest dangers of penny stocks is their lack of visibility. Because most of these companies are newly established or small, there is less information about them. This fact requires you to make decisions based on limited information compared to what is available for larger, more established companies in major stock markets. Another great risk is that these stocks can sometimes trade slowly from low liquidity, making it difficult to cash out on your investment.

What are the positives?
By its nature, a penny stock has a lot of potential. That is to say, it has a lot of potential to move either up, down or disappear completely. That being said, there is much more potential for growth than there is for loss. As a result, a good penny stock pick can reap huge returns and give a nice boost to your investment portfolio.

What else should I keep in mind?
Even some of the top penny stocks to buy are not quick, easy money. Despite what anybody tells you, these stocks require great care and educated investment. You should take into account that these shares trade slower than larger shares. Many of the companies selling these penny stocks have high debt loads and are selling stocks to reinvest into the growth of their companies.

Some of this may sound scary. However, with the correct knowledge and prudence, penny stocks can not only be profitable but enjoyable to trade. There is a certain rush that you get from trading in a volatile environment. You also have the opportunity to be part of a someday great company. Many of our largest technology firms were funded in this way. With the correct penny stock guide, you could be well on your way to taking part in the next big venture.

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Toyota

Toyota is a stock to buy now because it is a good car company. Many people are foolish about Toyota stock because they think that the company is doomed due to the major recall issued regarding their cars with runaway acceleration. However, people forget that Toyota has been making cars for more than 50 years and their cars are usually very high in quality. A problem like this happens only once in the history of a car company. While the stock may dip lower due to the fear of pending lawsuits, Toyota will be fine in the long term. It is a very profitable company and has been profitable when other car makers were not. Even though Toyota faces problems in the United States, it actually does very well internationally. That is why you might want to consider Toyota stock.

General Electric (GE)

Ge is another great company worth investing in simply because it makes great products and makes many of them. GE has a real future in commercial aviation and wind turbines. GE is the biggest supplier of wind power machines and thanks to the current administration, investment in this area will continue to rise. Wind power is a mature technology. Windmills have been around for several hundred years and the principals remain the same. The wind power phenomenon benefits GE because people buy from them to create these megawatt wind farms.

GE also have a very successful aviation business where it designs engines. One growing market is the one for private jet engines and regional jet engines. GE has invested a lot of money into these engine designs. People want to fly further and in quieter planes. Airlines want more efficient engines that run with low maintaining costs. GE has invested a lot of money in this area and they have the potential to lead sales when demand grows.

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The Rule Of Thumb:

The rule of thumb is that bonds go in tax-deferred accounts and more tax-efficient equity funds should go in taxable accounts (assuming you don’t have enough room for both in your 401k).  The reason for this is that taxable bonds have much higher yields than even the most generous high yield municipal bonds.  That said, most investors will eventually hit a point where they simply don’t have enough room in their tax-deferred accounts for the quantity of bonds required to fill out their asset allocation.  Part of this is due to the fact that the longer you invest, the larger your portfolio will naturally become.  But most of it is due to the simple fact that as we grow older, we usually become more conservative and wish to allocate a larger percentage of our portfolio to bonds.

The Taxable-Equivalent Yield Formula:

So you have no choice but to own bonds in a taxable account.  How do you decide which is better, tax free municipal bonds or taxable bonds?  The formula is actually pretty simple.  Note: If you buy municipal bonds from the state you live in (for example California if you live in California, etc), the interest earned on them is also exempt from state income tax, which you should factor into the formula below.

Taxable-Equivalent Yield = municipal bond interest rate / 1 – (federal tax rate)

If the taxable-equivalent yield of a particular muni bond fund is greater than the yield on a comparable taxable bond fund, you are better off owning municipal bonds.  If it’s lower, you’re better off owning taxable bonds even after paying tax on the income.

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A fully revised, new edition of one of the bestselling real estate investing guides of all time

Through its five previous editions, Investing in Real Estate has shown investors how to intelligently build wealth with their investments in houses, condominiums, and small apartment buildings. Unlike many titles in this genre, Investing in Real Estate steers clear of the hyped-up “no cash, no credit, no problem” promises. Instead, it provides sound, real-world advice and instruction that reflects the author’s time-tested wisdom and experience. This book shows you how to invest profitably, safely, and reliably as you navigate the risks and opportunities of today’s property market. It covers all the topics investors need to master, including how to find, negotiate, finance, lease out, and manage your property acquisitions. Plus, you will discover how to add tens of thousands of dollars of value to nearly any property. Whether you plan to start investing or move your current investing strategy to a higher level, two decades of sales success testifies to the fact that this investing guide stands superior to any others that you will find.

This new edition covers all the recent changes in the market, including the latest housing rescue legislation from Congress, a historical review of how to profit from property cycles, and insightful new ways to gain from the current excess inventories of for-sale properties, foreclosures, and REOs.

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Essentially, these are gold-based funds that allow you to get a little piece of the action of a number of gold mining firms that are operating successfully today.

But how do you invest in a gold ETF? First, you have to figure out which type of mining company you are more interested in going with.

Considering Market Vectors Gold Miner ETFs

For those investors who would like to take advantage of a gold ETF for the purpose of mirroring the gold market right now, the best choice is to go with a large ETF. The Market Vectors Gold Miner ETFs allow this, as you get a piece of the most successful and established mining companies today.

Some examples of companies that will be included in this kind of fund are Barrick Gold, Goldcorp, and Newmont Mining. The thing to know about these companies is that they have the largest market shares possible in the industry, so their stock success will usually rise and fall with the price of gold. The risk of external factors is lessened when you go this direction.

Risk vs. Reward for Market Junior Vectors

These funds have less market cap, but they offer a potentially higher return for those people who have some tolerance for risk.

The nice thing about all gold ETFs is that they are outpacing the value of gold at the current time. That means that over the short term, you can truly take advantage of the rising gold value better with ETFs than with any other type of gold investment.

With junior mining companies, you also open yourself up to good possibilities, like hitting it big with a fund that includes a company that is bought out. These offer a bit more risk, but the fund-based aspect makes them less risky than investing in individual gold stocks.

Overall, the market for gold ETF funds is very inviting. Figuring out your tolerance for risk is the first step, then you can invest in these funds through either an online broker or your standard financial planner. Of course, you can also find other ways to invest in gold, such as gold bars, gold coins, or even gold mining stocks.

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There is a popular saying among rich people and that it isn’t about the money they make but it’s more about the money they keep. This is actually profound advice if you consider that so many people invest in the stock market hoping for fast money without any savings to their name. Having money in the bank will definitely help in influencing you NOT to sell in rough times.

When people are investing, they should think about investing for the future with long-term stock picks. This is for a few reasons. Hopefully, you’re able to spot some growth stock picks that will be worth more in the future and it takes time for a company to build. Given the time you need to wait, they should be selling at a value price.

Other reasons to invest in the long term include just not triggering so many commission fees with buying and selling transactions like a lot of traders do. This eats away at your initial investment and like stated above, being rich is about the money you get to keep. While day trading might seem glamorous and there’s no doubt that you can make a lot of money fast, you can also lose it as quickly as the money came in.

One of the rules of investing from the famed investor Warren Buffett is to never lose your money. And given his track record of being a billionaire stock picker, who can argue with him? It takes discipline not to invest in losers and that is why Buffett is known to hold billions of dollars in cash. Going in and out of trades and being forced to make decisions when you don’t have money is not a good way to invest. If you want to be rich investing, you need to your money to pounce on opportunities when they do come along.

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Many online brokers are available, but no two are alike. Many of them advertise on other websites, and have such pitch lines as: 100 free trades, 4 dollar trades, and $1.95 options contracts. These sells lines are good for drawing business in, but they do not tell the whole story. For instance, the 4 dollar trades line is the headline of many sharebuilder or ing direct ads. This company does in fact offer 4 dollar trades but only if they are not real time trades. Real time trades, which are trades executed the moment you place them, run a standard rate of $9.95 on sharebuilder.

Also, anytime you sell your position on sharebuilder, you will be charged the base rate of $9.95. The 4 dollar rate applies to trade that are made in advance or set up to occur in the future. When trading in this manner, you may not get the stock at the price you want. However, overall sharebuilder is a fine site for the beginning investor or infrequent trader.

Other online investment sites such as e-trade.com are better geared towards the more experienced trader. The technology behind e-trade is for those who understand advanced Wall Street jargon. E-trade is also designed in general to be used by day traders, or those who trade in and out of stocks on a very frequent basis. They are the site well known for ads reading “100 free trades”. This offer of 100 free trades is applied to accounts that sign up others to the e-trade site. In other words, you have to work to get your free trades. E-trade is a better choice for those who are well experienced in the ways of Wall Street.

These are just two of the online investment sites, however these stock tips should give you a good idea of the variety on the web. As a general rule, investors should use websites that are well known, such as the two mentioned above. Searching for the best possible trading price may lead you to scam sites, and this should be avoided at all costs.

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What exactly is a cheap stock? Cheap doesn’t just mean that the trading price of the stock is cheap. That is criteria we will look at, but not the only one. Stocks valued at $100 or $200 can be called cheap if they meet certain conditions. You could even call Berkshire Hathaway cheap last year when it fell from a high of $140,000 a share down to about $75,000 a share in 2009. It has since rallied to over $120,000 a share since. Why would have been deemed cheap? The underlying businesses that make up Berkshire Hathaway were still fundamentally sound and throwing off cash. The stock tanked due to investors being afraid of the economic situation last year.

So that is one thing we are looking for. Stocks that are in good shape whose share prices are taken down, but the business is still good and profitable. It’s tough to invest in a scenario like that, buying when everything looks bleak, but if you are able to, you can make a lot of money. Warren Buffett has said he likes to be greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy.

Let’s use Warren Buffett for another example. Early in his investment career, he found a stock trading for about $45 a share. This was back in the early 1960”s and $45 a share was a lot of money then. Just based on the trading price of the stock, you might have concluded it wasn’t cheap. What Buffett would do is to closely exam the assets of companies. He discovered this $45 stock had over $65 a share in cash and liquid investments! Imagine buying something worth $65 for $45. That would be a classic example of finding a cheap stock.

These are just 2 examples of looking for the best cheap stocks. They are out there, its up to you to research and uncover them.

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While you can buy gold in coin form, it is becoming increasingly difficult to do so. One of the reasons why is the demand, but with demand comes supply. Thanks to the demand being high for gold at the moment, the supply is low, and many gold coins are being sold to companies so that people can continue to pay their bills. These are then being used not to make more gold coins, but to make gold jewelry as well as be in the private vaults of these companies for trade.

Luckily, there are still gold coins on the market that can be bought. One of the best companies to buy from is the United States Mint. They produce many different types of coin, including gold American Eagle coins as well as gold commemorative coins.

You can ensure that these gold coins are in perfect mint condition and that they will be collectible in the future. The value of many of these coins is so high that individuals are flipping them after a few short years. Thanks to the high gold prices, and these troubling economic times, you may also be able to buy gold coins from the government!

There are many third party sellers that say that they are authorized by the mint. While this may or may not be true, it is oftentimes much easier to buy gold coins for your local retailer or from the mint directly. This way, you can ensure the product is of the highest quality and that you are getting the gold coins that you truly paid for.

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