Thursday, February 12, 2009

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a relatively new destination to think of when planning for your retirement, but its popularity as a retirement location has been growing exponentially. Reasons for its new popularity include but certainly are not limited to the near perfect weather, absolutely gorgeous beaches and golf courses and of course the great exchange rates for Americans.

These factors combined with the fact that because the Dominican Republic is a relatively new developing country, it is extremely affordable in most areas, it is safe to assume that its popularity will only be increasing further in the near future.

When choosing a retirement location, one of the most important factors that people consider is if they were to purchase property there, how easy it would be for them to obtain a mortgage and what kind of rates they should be expecting to pay. This is important to investors since international mortgaging is different in every country and it can sometimes be difficult to find information on it that can be trusted.

If you are one of the many visitors interested in purchasing property in the Dominican Republic, and are looking to finance. Get ready to be shocked! Mortgage rates in the Dominican Republic are typically around 20% and can sometimes be as high as 26% and are almost always totally adjustable.

Even worse news is that you are going to be purchasing properties with U.S. Dollars; however financing in the Dominican Republic must be done in pesos! Since exchange rates are constantly changing, the amount you are paying for a home is constantly changing, making it impossible to know what is really being paid for the home that was suppose to cost say $150,000.

However, if the Dominican Republic is where your heart is set on for real estate purchasing, there are ways to avoid these outrageous mortgages. The best option is available to those people who own assets or have property in the U.S. If this is the case, the best thing to do is refinance the property that is owned in the United States and use that cash to purchase property in the Dominican Republic.

Reasons for doing this are endless including interest rates in the single digits, up to 100% of appraisal value available, and interest payments and taxes on the property in the US are tax deductible. When purchasing real estate anywhere, there is a lot to consider but especially when looking outside your own country.

The Dominican Republic is a great place to retire with affordable properties and beautiful areas, however financing through the United States is definitely the way to go when purchasing property in the Dominican Republic.

Monday, February 9, 2009

The Logical Trader

Paul Tudor Jones
Chairman and CEO of Tudor Investment Corp.

Applying A Method To The Madness
My first face-to-face encounter with Mark Fisher occurred in the silver pit in the early '80s on the COMEX in New York where he often resided. An occasional visitor to that club of gentlemanly behavior, I was given an order to buy 200 contracts of silver on the close by one of my upstairs friends. The treatment I received was something akin to that of a piece of red meat thrown into a cage of half-starved lions.


I remember being pounced upon by four or five "locals," not the least of which was this short blur of energy shouting, cajoling, and talking to me so fast that I could only recognize the badge FSH (or "Fish" as he was known to thousands on the trading floor). As he always does, he somehow innately knew exactly how many I had to buy and waited until I had bought all but 20 or 30 contracts before selling me the top tick of the close. There was no one better and there never will be anyone as good as Mark Fisher when it comes to smelling an order that a pit broker has in his hand.

It will not take you long in reading this book to realize that Mark Fisher is being powered by some type of energy source that is not endemic to the normal human condition. And to say that he is a control freak is an understatement. But to anyone who wants to learn how to trade and takes the time to read this book, there is zero doubt that Fish's messianic willingness to share with the public the successful system he has developed is an opportunity to be exploited.

He details in very methodical and systematic fashion a unique way of approaching markets and creating fantastic reward/risk opportunities over virtually any timeframe, from day trading to long-term positioning. Creating these favorable reward/risk trades is the genesis of all profitable trading and his plan is one that has been successfully implemented by hundreds. I know this first hand as many of the traders who worked for me when I had a floor operation used his system successfully to trade profitably.

For anyone starting out in the trading business, Mark's trading experiences and ACD system provide an invaluable blueprint for trading success. Central to his trading methodology is his incredible discipline, which has been his hallmark as a trader over the years. As he stresses throughout the book, the most important factor for traders to identify is the point at which to get out if they are wrong.


If traders learn nothing else from this book, the lesson of knowing where to get out is one that will spare them much physical, emotional, and financial pain.
While presenting a "logical" method to approach the market, Mark also shares with the reader, colorful and entertaining stories of the breakdowns and breakthroughs of several traders who he has worked with over the years. In addition, Chapter 7 entitled "The ACD Version of Ripley's Believe It or Not!" presents incredible, real stories from the trading pit. Experienced traders will see themselves and their flaws in these stories, while novices can learn from these professional traders' mistakes.

When I meet someone who is interested in learning the trading business, I always refer them to what I consider to be the four Bibles of the business: Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre, the fictionalized biography of the fabled Jesse Livermore; Technical Analysis of Stock Trends by McGee and Edwards, which was written in the first half of the 20th century and whose tenets still hold today;


The Elliott Wave Theorist by Robert Prechter and A. J. Frost, a classic; and finally Market Wizards by Jack Schwager, which is a compilation of interviews with great traders. Reminiscences is a wonderfully entertaining read that mostly illuminates the emotional highs and lows that go with trading and tape reading. Technical Analysis of Stock Trends and The Elliott Wave Theorist both give very specific and systematic ways to approach developing great reward/risk ratios for entering into a business contract with the marketplace, which is what every trade should be if properly and thoughtfully executed.


Finally, Market Wizards is a great read if but to learn one lesson over and over again from virtually every single trader who tells his tale in the book - that is, to make great sums of money you first have to learn how to lose much smaller sums of it when you're wrong.
I mention the other four books because, after having read The Logical Trader, I am going to add Fish's book to my list of must reads for the beginning trader.


Having seen hundreds of traders matriculate through the doors here at the Tudor Group, I am consistently amazed that virtually all of them have different ways of approaching and reaping profits from the marketplace. There really are dozens if not hundreds of ways of making money. But ultimately, though all of them may have different techniques, they share the common trait of somehow creating very favorable reward/risk ratios for trading despite their myriad approaches.


That is also what The Logical Trader accomplishes in a straightforward fashion. It gives you a well-developed, systematic way to competently apply leverage in the marketplace and garner great performance from it. How could we not pay close attention with great gratitude to the vision that one of the most successful floor traders of all time has decided to share with us? Over the past 20 years that I have known him, Fish has been a giving and generous person in every aspect of his life. This is but another in a long line of incredibly valuable gifts he has given to people that he both knows and doesn't know.Thank you, Mark.

Risk Management

Risk Management In The Real World
An experienced trader takes his lumps in the market, but still comes out ahead. How?Prudent risk management.In order to generate long-term investment success,traders must adhere to several time-honored trading principles.Bruce Babcock summed up these principles concisely in his;

Four Cardinal Principles Of Trading:
1. Trade with the trend.
2. Cut losses short.
3. Let profits run.
4. Manage risk.

No trading methodology is 100% accurate. Thus, it is important not to place all of your capital at risk on any given idea. When an idea is correct, you must let it work as long as possible to generate the large returns necessary in order to offset the inevitable losing trades. Here are some real-life examples of both winning and losing trades, and how my risk management of these trades resulted in overall profitable trading, even though 50% of the trades resulted in losses.