Category: Personal Finance

Personal finance covers managing your money. That can be saving and investing. Personal finance includes budgeting, investments, insurance, mortgages, retirement planning, banking, etc. In other words, it is an entire industry that provides financial services to people and advises them about financial and investment possibilities.

Traders-Paradise gives you comprehensive articles on all these matters. We’re covering all mentioned above but our team stepped forward. Here you can find very useful articles about loans, personal loans, pay-day loans, and why some are better than others.

Traders-Paradise provides you, our reader, full and detailed guides on how to apply for loans, how to improve your bad credit score, how to get out a loan even with a bad credit score.

Here you’ll find all about the process of applying, what documents are required, both for online lenders and traditional banks. So, you can be prepared in advance.

Tredares-Paradise team that has experts in different fields, will guide you, with their articles, trough the personal finance issues and help you to solve them.

We are giving you a key to keep your personal finances on the right track. You’ll learn how to obtain skills that can help you in your personal success or your business success. These articles are all about that but with a concrete explanation of personal money management. How to do that, why to do that, how beneficial it is.

Bad credit loan – How to improve the financial health

If you have no other option you’ll take a bad credit loan. But it isn’t the end of the world.

By Guy Avtalyon

Bad credit loan isn’t the end of the world. Here are several ways how to overcome them. I’m gonna introduce some of them.

What is a bad credit loan?

In the first place, let me be clear about what is a bad credit loan.

A bad credit loan is a relief option for consumers whose low credit scores limit their borrowing options. In other words, a bad credit loan, or just another name for a personal loan, can secure you out of a financial emergency. Even if your credit score is lower than you would like it.

The good thing is that you can get a loan with bad credit, but it’s harder to get a good deal.

Yes, I know! Nobody likes to be judged. But when it comes to loans, creditors are going to look deep into your credit history and make a decision about whether or not to lend to you.

They need to define how risky it would be to lend money to a borrower. And if you’ve got bad credit, you could expect to show you the exit space. But, even if you have bad credit, there may be ways to get a loan. Here’s how.

You can get a loan from a bank, but if you’re looking for a reasonable interest rate and adjustable qualifying requirements, you better don’t even think to open that door. Even than, you have several options available. But you have to know that loans are typically more expensive.

With low credit scores is easy to slip into expensive traps. But a bit of homework can help you avoid the problems. After you prove you’re able to repay on time, it shouldn’t be hard to rebuild credit so that it’s easier to borrow next time.

How credit scores and credit reports can fix bad credit loan

Keep in mind that bad credit has different meanings to different lenders. Lenders know your credit score, and you should too. So, check out your credit reports. Especially if your credit card issuer reports to the consumer credit bureaus. This is important because some of the information contained in them is necessary to calculate your credit scores.

You’ll want to make sure there are no incorrect derogatory marks on your reports before applying for a loan. The major consumer credit bureaus aren’t perfect, so it’s important to read your credit reports carefully. If there are false negative marks, you should contact the specific credit reporting company.

Along with correct information, the provider will remove the error.

Your credit scores are important, too. Your credit scores, along with other factors, can affect your approval odds for a loan and the terms you qualify for. Don’t be discouraged if your scores are not what you’d like. A little bit of work could help put your scores in better shape.

How to improve your credit status

So, it’s time to start improving your credit status. Your scores are calculated using different credit factors and scoring models. Just be focused on the factors with the greatest influence. For example, payment history is one of them, but check out everything to improve your credit overall score.

You can’t change the past, but make all of your current payments for at least the minimum amount. And on time. This is key for payment history.

Speaking about usage, keep the amount of debt you owe low compared to your total credit limit, ideally less than 30%. Maxed-out or over-the-limit lines of credit can be particularly harmful. Also, keeping old accounts open instead of closing accounts after they are paid off can help increase your credit history length.
Mix. Frankly, you shouldn’t apply for a new type of credit to influence your scores. But it can naturally grow over time as you experience major financial events, such as buying a home, for example.

But be careful. Applying for several new credit accounts in a short period of time can make you seem risky to lenders.
The best bet is opening new accounts only when necessary and when you know you can handle them responsibly.

Shop around to compare options

Shop around for loans, and include credit unions in your search. Those institutions may work with you even if you have bad credit. Credit unions are often smaller than large banks. Also, they are focused on the community. Usually, they will review your application personally and discuss it with you. If you sit across the desk from a human being, they can understand what you need.

So, it’s time to start shopping around for the best loan for you. Some people simply choose the first loan they’re approved for.

But, that could be a major mistake.

Different lenders may offer different interest rates and loan terms. Lenders have their own methods for evaluating these factors.

There is a selection of lenders and loan facilitators who can help low-credit applicants obtain affordable financing. But not all loan features are created equally.

For example, one lender may offer you a loan with a 19.99% annual percentage rate while another can offer you a loan with a 15.99% APR (annual percentage rate). If you don’t shop around and accept the first offer of 19.99% APR, you would be overpaying by 4 percentage points.

Shopping around for loans is easier than ever. We have the internet. Yes, you should check into your local options, such as banks and credit unions. But you can easily view the estimated loan terms of various online lenders in one place using the internet.

How to compare loan terms

If you have bad credit, the loan could be approved but also will cost you more. The lenders may recognize you as risky. Since personal loans for people with bad credit can be so much more expensive, it’s especially important to compare loan terms to find the best deal. To compare loan offers, there are a few basic terms to pay attention to.

Loan repayment period: Loan repayment period is the time frame in which you’ll have to repay the loan. Personal loans require fixed monthly payments for an established period. The longer the repayment period, the more interest you’ll pay, and the more the loan are likely to cost you.

Monthly payments: Monthly payments are determined by the amount you borrow, your interest rate, and your loan term. Make sure the payments are achievable.

Loan maximum and minimum: Lenders usually establish a minimum amount and maximum amount they’re willing to lend. A lender may not be well suitable for you if it won’t loan you enough money or if it requires you to borrow more than you want.

Annual Percentage Rate (APR): APR is the total cost you pay each year to borrow the money, including interest and fees. A lower APR means the loan will cost you less. If you want to take out a personal loan with bad credit, you’ll probably have a higher APR.

Try online lenders to fix bad credit loan

Peer-to-peer lending services are one option for getting a loan with bad credit. Instead of borrowing from banks, you can do it from individuals. They may be more willing to take the risk, but they’re not looking to lose their money.

These non-bank lenders have different risk tolerance and use different ways to evaluate your creditworthiness. Online loans evolve. They may approve you with lower credit scores.

Just be sure to avoid payday loans. They are costly short-term loans and they have heavy promotions online.

Use collateral

It isn’t the best choice, but if you have trouble getting approved, you may need to put up collateral. If you pledge something valuable, your lender will know you’re serious. In such a case, lenders will have a better chance of collecting on the loan because they can take your collateral and sell it.

But be extremely careful when pledging collateral. If you have a property, you can probably borrow against it. But the risks are worthy of your attention. If you can’t make all of your payments, you might be forced out of your home. Think twice to avoid making a bad situation even worse.

Some con artists take advantage of you when you’re down. They particularly target people who are urgent to borrow. These lenders charge enormous fees, so make it almost impossible to dig yourself out of debt.

Sometimes, you won’t even deal with a real lender: Scammers advertise loans, but you need to pay steep application fees upfront. In the end, you don’t get approval, and you don’t get your money back. This is well-known as an advance fee scam. Don’t pay upfront fees to get a personal loan. Any processing fees should come out of your loan proceeds.

Think more than twice about a payday loan

If you need money right away, need an amount less than what a traditional lender might be willing to give, or have been denied a personal loan because of poor credit, you may be tempted to try a payday loan.

A payday loan is a short-term loan for a small amount — usually $100 to $500 — that you secure by giving the lender a post-dated check or electronic access to automatically withdraw your bank account. The loan is usually due on your next pay date, along with fees. Depending on the state, payday lenders can charge from $10 to $30 per $100 you borrow.

According to research by The Pew Charitable Trusts, for example, if a payday lender charges you $15 for every $100 you borrow per two weeks, it amounts to an APR of 391%. The Pew research found that fees from online lenders can be even higher, averaging an APR of 652% as of April 2012.

Never mind where do you live, a payday lender may not check your credit in order to approve you for a loan. Many only require you to be an adult with an active bank or prepaid card account. Also, they will ask for proof of income and valid identification. It may be easy to get a payday loan when you have bad credit, but the high cost could make it difficult to repay.

Don’t take out a payday loans

Some studies found that many payday loan borrowers can’t repay their loans without taking out another payday loan.
High-cost payday lending is prohibited in some countries. Others set limits on how much payday lenders can loan.
The regulation varies from country to country.

If your credit scores are low and you need a loan right away, finding an online lender or some other source offering personal loans for borrowers with bad credit could be your best option.

Just proceed with caution and be sure to compare the terms of each loan to find the most affordable lender. But, if you can’t find such an option that you can easily repay, it may be better to wait and work on your credit.

Applying for loans, especially if done the wrong way, can further damage your credit.

1st February 2019
Best-Paid Job In 2019!
3 min read

The best-paid job is so close to you, close to the new year, so think about them.

Ways to make money online are numerous. Our goal is to present you as many profitable deals as possible.

We want to help you find the best-paid job for you. And it is your goal too. To find the best-paid job that suits you more than any other.

You may not become rich, but certainly, this way of working will provide you additional and not small income.

But this is one of the best-paid jobs from home.

And know what, those of us who have worked from home for years wouldn’t dream of going back to a corporate office. Ever. At any point!

It won’t always be easy, and you have to work very hard, you will make mistakes and failures along all that path.

But be honest, the internet has opened up so many possibilities to people regardless of age, location, or background to build a sustainable, online business or side project that can make extra money online every single month.

So, let’s start. What can you do from your home and earn decent money?

1. Trade or invest from home is one of best-paid job

Trade from home is a totally online job.

And it can provide you a quite nice income. Or to be one of the best-paid jobs.

Once upon a time, people relied on the services of a stockbroker, who would make buy and sell orders on the customer’s behalf.

Today, individuals are able to execute buy and sell orders themselves in a fraction of a second using computerized trading services.

But, reading online articles doesn’t make you qualified to trade from home.

Reading the classics of investment literature could be helpful. But the best way is to set aside six months to practice trading with real-world data before investing your money.

You can use some demo account and practice.

Before deciding to buy or sell any stock, you should carefully research the company, its leadership, and its competition.

Make intelligent decisions about what you can afford to invest. Consider investing a portion of your money in an electronically traded index fund, which holds many stocks.

To that end, we present our top three stocks to buy for the long-term:

Buying marijuana stocks can be a best-paid job

The trade becomes more fundamental than gambling. There lies the opportunity and it can become one of the best-paid jobs in 2019. The concept is viable. Moreover, the use of pot will increase because of the legalization trend propagates. The millions of more potential users will access it.

It would be wise to take small positions. Don’t just lay the bet on one perfect entry point. Also, there are no guarantees when investing in stocks.

It’s important to consider the size and never bet more than you can afford to lose.

When looking at potential marijuana stocks to buy, it’s important for investors to remember that there are many ways of trading a concept. Also, not one method is perfect.

Here are three marijuana stocks to buy in 2019:
- Canopy Growth (CGC)
The first reason, the Constellation Brands invested $4 billion in it. So, you can be comfortable joining them in their bet on CGC stock.

If you are going to risk money on this market, you would like to do it in the one that has a strong balance sheet.

It sounds like CGC has good plans to open up more markets to follow the legal path expansion. Constellation made a multibillion-dollar bet on Canopy Growth because it thinks cannabis is a “once-a-century disruptive market transition” and that Canopy Growth is the best marijuana supplier in the world.

Constellation believes the total addressable global market could top $230 billion within the next 15 years. So, projects that Canopy could realistically claim up to 40% of the Canadian market and between 5% and 15% of the market in the rest of the world, including the United States.
- KushCo (OTC: KSHB)
KushCo is a dynamic sales platform. It provides unique products and services for both businesses and consumers in the cannabis industry.

It regularly services more than 5,000 legally operated medical and adult-use dispensaries, growers, and producers across North America, South America, and Europe.

An ancillary play, they have the opportunity of supplying both the legal and black market with their packaging products.

We believe KushCo to be the best additional play in the current market. They have a strong management team. Also, solid execution track record, and servicing the market. We really think their stocks are good investments.
- Innovative Industrial Properties
Stocks of REITs can be attractive for marijuana investors in comparison with pure-play marijuana stocks because REITs spread their risk across multiple leaseholders.

Even if one or two fail, it’s not catastrophic to the whole investment. Innovative Industrial Properties currently owns nine properties, all of which are either greenhouses or indoor facilities used for cultivating marijuana.

2. Launch and grow a startup

Launching a startup can be a very exciting experience and best-paid job.

The first mistake is that founders tend to over zeal their efforts to monetize their products and services. Instead to build a strong base from which the startup can turn into a realistic company.

To avoid mistakes make your list of knowledge areas/special skills on the one side and passions on the other. Then try to connect each of them.

Your knowledge and skills should hybridize with your genuine passion. It means that you have a passion for some job to work and, at the same time, you have knowledge or skills which job requires.

The truth is that you need to love what you do and be damn good at it as well.

Startup founders face a lot of factors and barriers that can stay in the way of success.

Testing your business expectations should be done without investing too much time and money. When you found a winning product, double the original bid on it and focus on the winner.

That’s the whole truth and wisdom!

This world is content obsessed. And we are obsessed by trying to find the best-paid job. This one can be that one in the coming year.

3. A virtual assistant is a defenetely best-paid job

A virtual assistant is a contact made over the internet that assists in day-to-day tasks. Yes, like an assistant, only virtual! And this is one of the best-paid jobs.

These assistants don’t just help someone business run smoothly, they help their life run smoothly.

Whether it’s sending a thank you card to a friend or researching potential investors, a virtual assistant can do just about anything.

They take charge of not only the day-to-day business tasks but can even take hold of day-to-day personal tasks so you can keep focused on what’s at hand.

They can send flowers, thank you cards, or even just schedule an Uber or Lyft so you can go from one venture to the next without a single hiccup.

However, it is just about anything.

Setting up your own Virtual Assistant business may seem like hard work, but we have to tell you that it’s actually the easy part. Moreover, we think it can be the best-paid job.

Being a successful VA isn’t simply helping someone with their admin or supporting their business, it’s knowing how to manage and communicate with them.

If you want to be a VA because you think it’ll be an easy life and easy money then you’re in for a shock because the reality is very different. It’s a brilliant life once you’ve nailed it but there can be a steep learning curve at first.

Virtual assistants charge anywhere from $1 to $100 per hour. Sometimes even more.

But the sweet spot is generally between $15 and $30 per hour for executive assistant services and $40-$75 per hour for higher-level marketing or financial tasks. This definitely may be the best-paid job in 2019

Bottom line: We, here in Traders Paradise, found a lot of very interesting and profitable jobs for 2019. More about them you will read soon, in our new ebook. It’s up to you just to pick one of the best-paid.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)
27th December 2018
Cryptocurrency mining – how to start
2 min read

Cryptocurrency mining involves two particular functions: adding transactions to the blockchain and also releasing new currency. Mining needs a powerful computer and a usually complex program. That helps miners compete with their peers in solving complicated mathematical problems. Cryptocurrency mining requires a lot of computer resources and power.

Cryptocurrency mining will celebrate its 10th year of existence in 2019. The very concept of mining with high-end computer hardware is starting to become mainstream. Mining is the way a certain kind of blockchain pays for participants to maintain it, its integrity and records, by paying ‘miners’ in the blockchains own coins.

How cryptocurrency mining works

The main point of mining is to fulfill three things:
- Provide bookkeeping services to the coin network. Mining is just about 24/7 computer * accounting called “verifying transactions.”
- Get paid a small reward for your accounting services by receiving fractions of coins every couple of days.
- Keep your personal costs down, including electricity and hardware.
Since Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency that dictates the destiny of all others, we will use it as an example

Cryptocurrency mining is simply just converting a sha2 hash into an integer and seeing if it is less than some value. Finding that number is difficult.

How do miners find this number? By guessing at random. The hash function makes it impossible to predict what the output will be. Miners guess the mystery number and apply the hash function to the combination of that guessed number and the data in the block. The resulting hash has to start with a pre-established number of zeroes. There’s no way of knowing which number will work because two consecutive integers will give wildly varying results. What’s more, there may be several nonces that produce the desired result. But there may be none and the miners keep trying, but with a different block configuration.

The first miner to get a resulting hash within the desired range announces its victory to the rest of the network. All the other miners immediately stop work on that block and start trying to figure out the mystery number for the next one. As a reward for its work, the victorious miner gets some new bitcoin.

What you will need to mine cryptocurrency

You will need several, well more than several things to mine.

You will need a wallet. This is a password-protected container that stores your earnings and keeps a network-wide ledger of transactions. Also, a free mining software package typically made up of cgminer and stratum. You’ll have to be a member of an online mining pool. It is a community of miners who combine their computers to increase profitability and income stability. You’ll have to be a member of an online mining pool. It is a community of miners who combine their computers to increase profitability and income stability.

Your hardware has to be set up in a cool and air-conditioned space.

And your desktop or custom-built computer has to be designed for mining, separate dedicated computer is ideal. You may use your current computer to start, but you won’t be able to use the computer while the miner is running. It isn’t recommended to use a laptop, gaming console or handheld device to mine because these devices are not effective enough to generate income.

An ATI graphics processing unit (GPU) or a specialized processing device called a mining ASIC chip is the must. The cost will be anywhere from $90 used to $3000 new for each GPU or ASIC chip. The GPU or ASIC will be the workhorse of providing the accounting services and mining work.

And you have to provide cooling the hardware.

Mining generates substantial heat and cooling the hardware could be critical for your success. You can use a house fan to blow air across your computer. But many currencies require specialized, high powered machines that use large amounts of electricity, and create excess heat.

There are ongoing technology changes for optimizing crypto mining results. Why we are pointing this? Because if you want to be cryptocurrency miner, you have to constantly learn. You have to follow new techniques and perhaps, spend hours studying the best ways to adjust and improve your cryptocurrency mining performance every week. We hope you’ll stick around for each new guide and explained.

Is it worth it to mine?

If you want a hobby venture, the answer is yes. Cryptocurrency mining can generate a small income of a dollar or two per day. You can recoup $1000 in hardware costs in about 18-24 months.

On the other hand, cryptocurrency mining is not a reliable way to make basic money. The profit from mining cryptos only becomes significant when someone invests $3000-$5000 in hardware costs. On that way time, you could potentially earn $50 per day or more. Miners have to keep electricity costs to under $0.11 per kWh. Mining with 4 GPU graphic cards can bring you around $8.00 to $10.00 per day or around $250-$300 per month.

Have reasonable expectation

There are two things you have to be informed about:

The investment in 4 ASIC processors or 4 AMD Vega graphic processing units

The market value of cryptocurrencies

There is a small chance your chosen digital currency could jump in value alongside Bitcoin at some moment. And you could find yourself sitting on thousands of dollars in cryptos. The accent here is on “small chance”. This means slightly better than winning the lottery.

If you want to try cryptocurrency mining, you should. But start with a very small income return. You will not collect gold nuggets but you will not lose your money. And do your research to avoid a scam currency.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)
27th November 2018
Bitcoin Mining, Is It Profitable At All?

Bitcoin mining is a legit job, but initial investments and cost of mining are very big.

By Guy Avtalyon

Is Bitcoin mining profitable these days? When the price of gold drops, miners are losing. It is the same story in the world of cryptocurrencies.

According to CoinMarketCap data, the prices of Bitcoin have tumbled nearly 30% in the past week and hit a 14-month low of about $3,800. The total market value of cryptocurrencies has slumped to $148bil, which is less than one-fifth of its worth during the market’s peak in January. Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange OKEx forced an early settlement of Bitcoin cash futures contracts on its platform the day before. Widely thought is that it has triggered the sell-off.

Miners position

The price drop has left miners in a weak position. They claim it has become unprofitable for them to run at least four models of bitcoin mining machines. According to the latest estimates of Beijing-based F2Pool, if they spend power at a rate of $0,06 per kWh it is clear that mining becomes unprofitable. F2Pool is one of the world’s biggest bitcoin mining pools.

Cryptocurrency mining has developed from a bedroom activity to mass-scale production. Later, it was undertaken by enterprises that use specialized equipment with application-specific integrated laps. The crypto miners combine their computing power in mining pools to increase their odds of winning new digital currency. They are counting various factors, the total amount of computing power in the network, and costs. Coasts are electricity and rental fees. That determines which coins to mine and where to house their devices. The cryptocurrency dropdowns have forced miners to remove at least four models of bitcoin mining machines. Some of them have become too expensive to operate under present market conditions, estimates F2Pool. These models are Antminer S7 and Antminer S9 from Bitmain Technologies as well as Canaan Creative’s AvalonMiner 741.

Is Bitcoin mining profitable now?

A group of Chinese cryptocurrency miners said they have already shut down 20,000 rigs, or about 10% of the total number of machines they operate. They declined to be named for fear of government reprisal.

But their struggles are an opportunity for others.

One miner bought about 50,000 used mining rigs that were put up for sale in the market over the past few days. He intends to send these used rigs to countries with lower electricity prices. He is thinking about Russia and Venezuela. In this way, he can turn a profit selling them there.

Correlation between mining and Bitcoin price

Mining Bitcoins takes time and resources. Let’s say, it’s not an easy thing to do in the first place. It requires high-powered machinery to make Bitcoin mining profitable. If you lack the resources, you will lose the potential earning and have to pay a huge sum of money for your electric bills.

According to CNBC, in March, the miner’s profits have roughly halved compared to their earnings in December due to the surge of interest. So, we can say Bitcoin mining is no longer profitable today. Over the past days, Bitcoin’s range had tightened up and seemed like another wild move will take place. We are not quite sure in which direction. From one side, the market is eager and deserves a correction back to the $5K+ area. But on the other hand, there is still a lot of panic selling, and Bitcoin looks like has to go lower.

There are several profitability calculators that miners can use to analyze the cost/profit equation of Bitcoin mining. Calculators vary as they have different levels of complexity and variables that can be inputted.

Trading Bitcoin

Bitcoin currently trades essentially at the break-even cost of mining it.

To answer if Bitcoin mining is still profitable you have to figure out if you are willing to invest the necessary initial capital for the hardware. And you have to predict Bitcoin’s value in the future as well as its mining difficulties. When both prices and mining difficulties fall, it usually means less miners, but more Bitcoin to mine. When the opposite happens, more miners are competing for fewer Bitcoins. Bitcoin is a real business, so you may accept mining bitcoin as a legit business. There are people working in this business, also have revenues, profits, earnings, plant, and equipment. It’s almost the same, there is no difference between mining bitcoin or coal. Except, mining bitcoin is all math. And there’s no scam.

25th November 2018
Bitcoin is Digital – How To Use It?

2 min read

Bitcoin is both: currency and commodity

What bitcoin is maybe the best describes this. Bitcoin cannot be held or kept in a pocket or wallet like currency.

Bitcoin is a digital currency (also called crypto-currency) that is not backed by any country’s central bank or government. You can trade Bitcoin for goods or services with vendors who accept it as payment.

What is bitcoin else? Bitcoin is a worldwide payment system and decentralized virtual currency. It offers quick, cheap, and highly private payments for everyone.

Do you see? Bitcoin is both of this. How?

As Bitcoin is separated into two components, it might cause some confusion.

Bitcoin – with a capital letter is a decentralized P2P network which helps to facilitate transactions between people without a middleman. The Bitcoin protocol is openly published. Developers can review the code as well as easily adapt an open source software and modify it to their own needs.

bitcoin – with a lowercase ‘b’ is the coin which exists on the Bitcoin network. It can be perceived as a currency for the internet. In the same way as dollar or euro are currencies for the United States and Europe. Bitcoin-the-coin is the first cryptocurrency.

Also known as virtual or digital currency and BTC is an abbreviation of it.

What is Bitcoin?

In 2009, Bitcoin was developed and launched as an open-source protocol. It was based on a whitepaper written by Satoshi Nakamoto. He described the bitcoin as a digital currency. That is to say, backed up by the idea of an electronic payment system. But such that should be secure, verifiable and independent of any central authority. The first Bitcoin transaction was for two pizzas costing 10,000 BTC (a cool $190,000,000 at the high point of 2017).

Since the Bitcoin release, it has experienced highs and lows. However, it stayed as the preeminent cryptocurrency in the world.

Unlike regular fiat currency, there is no central Bitcoin bank to print and regulate the flow of currency. Bitcoin is held by users linked together by a central ledger. The ledger is a core Bitcoin feature known as the blockchain. The blockchain records every single transaction made using Bitcoin. It validates transactions and ensures the integrity of the network.

What is bitcoin in comparison with fiat currencies?

It’s like an online version of cash. You can use it to buy products and services. But not many shops accept Bitcoin yet. And some countries have banned it altogether.

The physical Bitcoins you see in photos are a ornaments. They would be worthless without the private codes printed inside them.

Fiat currencies are a physical medium of exchange with an unlimited supply. It is issued and controlled by a government. Bitcoin, on the other hand, has a set maximum supply of 21M coins. And as on first place, it is not controlled by any government or entity. Both crypto and fiat currencies coexist alongside each other. And have their advantages and disadvantages.

Bitcoin is digital

Bitcoin has some resemblances to fiat money: value changes according to market variables. As Bitcoin is digital people can use them to buy things or pay for services. Also, people already use it in their daily lives as any other fiat currency, but this is where similarities end.

Bitcoin has several attributes that set it aside from traditional currencies as a pan-global means of exchange. Central banks or monetary authorities do not control the number of Bitcoins.

It is decentralized making it global. Anyone with a computer can set up a Bitcoin address to receive or transfer Bitcoins in seconds.

Bitcoin is anonymous.

The cryptocurrency allows users to maintain multiple addresses and setting up an address requires no personal information.

DLT technology makes Bitcoin completely transparent. It stores complete details by an address of every transaction that ever occurs. Transfers of Bitcoin are immediate and when you make it once, they are final. At the same time, there are some fees. And international and domestic transfers are not subject to foreign currency exchange rates and fees for the transfer. There are no borders when it comes to Bitcoin.

Bitcoin is a fixed asset.

However, Bitcoin is divisible so the growth potential for the exchange medium is unlimited. Certainly, one of the most interesting inventions that came alongside Bitcoin is blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT). DLT has amazing potential when it comes to traditional operations. And also as settlement results for businesses in the financial as well as other industries.

What bitcoin is maybe the best describes this. Bitcoin cannot be held or kept in a pocket or wallet like currency.

So, what is bitcoin if you can’t touch it?

It is purely a computer-based means of exchange. Bitcoin has morphed from a fledgling digital currency into an asset or commodity. In fact, Bitcoin somewhat straddles the median. Its use of a currency is limited, it is too volatile to be considered a solid asset. But it is traded similarly to regular stocks and shares.

Can we, on the question what is bitcoin, say it is currency?

There is a great deal of debate about whether Bitcoin is a currency. We called The Merriam-Webster Dictionary for help and found that this dictionary defines currency as:

Circulation as a medium of exchange
General use, acceptance, or prevalence
The quality or state of being present
Something (like coins, treasury notes, and banknotes) that is in circulation as a medium of exchange
Paper money in circulation
A comment article used for barter
A medium of verbal or intellectual expression

The official definition of currency may leave you more confused about whether what is bitcoin. Is it a currency or something else? It certainly meets some of the characteristics in the definition, but not all.

In September 2015, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in the United States officially designated Bitcoin as a commodity.

Can we, on the question what is bitcoin, say it is a commodity?

Bitcoin is one of those assets that does not quite fit well into any definition. In addition, and a historical understanding of what is a currency and what is a commodity.

While throughout history, many commodities and even some manufactured products have served as currency. The best examples are gold and silver. Central banks and monetary authorities around the world continue to hold vast gold reserves. Moreover, they are categorizing their holdings as “foreign exchange reserves.” Hence, both gold and silver are off in the same class as Bitcoin.

As you can see, the classification what bitcoin is as a commodity is both dubious and understandable, at the same time. It is not easy to categorize Bitcoin. Because it is so new and different from other assets available to the market participants.

What is bitcoin in the future?

Bitcoin is a child of the technological revolution.

As the first global currency that people can use all over the world as a method of exchange without involving governments. This cryptocurrency will continue to attract interest and resistance.

For people in countries where currency flows are subject to stringent government control, bitcoin offers a method to transfer fortune to parts of the world where restrictions are less difficult.

Bitcoin appears here to stay, at least for the time being.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

26th October 2018
BITCOIN MINING EXPLAINED: HOW IT WORKS, HOW MUCH ENERGY IT USES AND WHAT NEEDS TO BE FIXED

The cryptocurrency has staged a meteoric rise in 2017 that has attracted new investors, but, for many, question marks still surround bitcoin and the technology behind it. With recent reports pointing to the high energy cost associated with mining, the process used to create bitcoin, is there any way to fix it? Here are all your questions answered.

WHAT IS BITCOIN MINING?

Just as gold miners produce the world’s supply of gold, so do bitcoin miners produce all the digital currency available to the market – but, naturally, it is a bit more complicated than that. Mining is the process of adding transaction records to Bitcoin’s public ledger, or the blockchain.

HOW DOES MINING PHYSICALLY WORK?

First of all, the blockchain is, simply, a chain of blocks. Miners use special software to solve mathematical problems that both confirm legitimate transactions or blocks and create new bitcoins, adding new transactions to the blockchain about every 10 minutes. The hash rate is the number of calculations a piece of hardware can make every second as it works to solve that math problem, and the higher the hash rate, the more likely a miner is to solve a transaction and thus be rewarded with a set amount of bitcoin.

WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT?

The difficulty of mining bitcoin is part of its design. The ideal average mining time is 10 minutes per block, and if that falls, the process becomes more difficult with the aim of keeping the block creation rate stable. There are a total of 21m bitcoins that can be mined, at which point the miners will close shop unless bitcoin’s protocol – the rules that secure the system – is changed to allow for a larger supply.

IS IT PROFITABLE?

Mining can be profitable, as miners are rewarded with a fixed amount of coins and transaction fees for their hard work, but the computers and hardware necessary for powering through blocks can eat up a lot of electricity and end up running huge costs.

HOW MUCH ENERGY IS USED AND WHAT IS THE COST?

The massive computer network behind bitcoin uses quite a bit of energy – as much as Serbia, to be exact.

A recent report by Accounts & Legal said the aggregate computing power of the bitcoin network is nearly 100,000 times larger than the world’s 500 fastest supercomputers combined, and miners are constantly installing upgrades to make their computers faster.

Digiconomist has created a bitcoin energy consumption index in order to understand how much electricity is consumed by the cryptocurrency. As of 5 December, bitcoin’s estimated annual electricity consumption was 31.96 terawatt-hours (TWh), or 0.14 percent of the world’s total electricity consumption. That’s about the same as Serbia and more than Morocco, Oman, and the Slovak Republic. Annualized estimated global mining costs were $1.6bn (£1.2bn), while annualized global mining revenues were $10.2bn. The index says 250-kilowatt hours (KWh) of electricity are consumed per transaction.

WHAT’S THE NEXT BIG CHALLENGE FOR BITCOIN?

Greenspan said working out how to scale the network is next on the agenda. “Energy consumption is only a small part of that. If bitcoin is to replace cash, in the long run, it will need to be fitted to process more than 100,000 transactions per second. At the moment it can do about 10. Many proposals are on the table but as the currency is decentralized it’s difficult to get everybody to agree on one,” he said.

Read more HERE

This article was originally posted on markemlickprivateequity.com/

22nd October 2018
Earn a million! How and what you can do?

2 min read

If you earn a million dollars that will change your life for sure. But how to earn a million? Is that amount enough for some changes?

On some point in life, everyone asks themselves how much money would dramatically change their life.

It can be a tricky question but also a subject of serious consideration.

We all know some story about lottery winners and how much money they got and how fast they spent all. Easy come, easy go, some may say.

Million would change someone’s life. Several million everyone’s. Remember, everyone’s.

Most people won’t see a small part of that money in their lifetimes. Some of us play the lottery and have a hope that one day the luck will hit us. That a dream and there is nothing bad in having dreams.

But what can we do in reality? How much money would you consider “life-changing”? This question is worthy of economic consideration.

If you suddenly earn $1 million more economists say not as much as you might think.

You have to pay taxes on it and for sure you have some loans and outstanding debts to pay off. Speaking about me, if I were to win $1 million tomorrow, I’d definitely still keep working at my current job. One million bucks are not enough to change my entire life. Or anyone else’s. Maybe I’d spend a little bit of a vacation, and then I’d put the large amount of it in savings.

Actually, it isn’t so hard to earn millions

But let’s take a look at how much money is needed for a month of decent living.

Most of us are spending as little as possible and saving as much as possible. But this isn’t the point. Point is to set realistic goals and understand your own financial position.

Start with this number. Do you know what your life costs right now? Do you have a mortgage or you pay rent? How much do you spend on essentials, from food to clothes to insurance to annual fees, every month? And don’t forget to account for inflation over the long term.

Then you have to figure out how much it will cost you to get out of debts, from balances carried on personal credit cards to car payments to student loans. The first number figure that would change your life is the amount it would cost you to pay off all debt on depreciating assets. That’s your first number.

But your debt on depreciating assets isn’t an investment. Your car for sure will not get more worthy over time. It will not increase its value. That why this kind of debt is classified as bad debt.

Let’s go further to earn a million

Now, you have to figure what is the amount of money that you would need to pay off all debts on appreciating assets. It’s classified as good debt, because underlying assets like house or land, tend to increase in value over time.

But you’d still probably have to work to maintain your lifestyle. The third number is the amount it will take to produce little more than you need every year without touching the principal of your investment. That’s the third number.

Anyway, you need at least $50,000 a year to maintain your lifestyle. You go out to eat, take a vacation, buy new shoes, and pay your property taxes.

How much capital do you need to invest to generate $50,000 every year after taxes and inflation?

Let’s say you don’t want a risky investment, so you rather stay away from stocks. If you put your money in bonds, you might get a more stable return. If you looked for municipal bonds, you probably wouldn’t have to pay federal or state taxes. Suppose you can find a good portfolio of municipal bonds paying a 4% annual return. That’s an acceptable rate and a safe investment and probably even avoids taxes. For that $50,000 you need a principal amount of $1.25 million dollars.

Let’s say you can save an extra $15,000 per year if you pay off debt on depreciating assets in one leap and $18,000 per year on appreciating assets. And you have no debt for the next 40 years. WOW, you would have $1,320,000.

A million is a lot of money, but it’s also not an unreasonable amount of money.

It’s not lottery jackpot money. If you work hard, save well, and invest well, that amount is within your reach during your lifetime.

To make things clear, it is so fun to have dreams. But this doesn’t have to stay as a dream.

Creating a million dollars in one shot to do everything may never happen. But what you can do? You can make progress onto all three goals. You are the one that has the power to change your life and your financial future.

But where is dramatic life change? Stop watching movies.

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

19th September 2018
How I Lost 10.000 dollars On A Trading Platform

Lost money in trading isn’t a big deal. But lost self-confidence is the disaster.

How I lost 10.000 dollars on a trading platform? It was a painful experience and I want to share that with you. When you hear that somebody lost $10,000 on a trading platform, what is your first thought? How stupid he/she must be!

Thank you. I’m that one. I lost! So, what?

My entire savings were gone. Don’t even think that I traded without knowledge. I went through all the forex courses available to the time and I’ve spent a lot of money to pay for them.

Let’s go back to that moment in my trading history.

Only a few hours ago everything was fine. But what happened? Let’s take a look. I lost! OMG, I lost all my savings!

First of all, I was so-called, “day trader”. There was no reason I couldn’t have made a billion dollars day trading. Actually, I was the exception. I made a nice sum of money before stopping. The secret was that I treated the thing with respect. I did not plan to get rich overnight, but in a reasonable time, yes. My plan was to become indecently rich in 2-3 years. And I was on my way to becoming so. In fact, I was like many others. Becoming filthy rich for 2-3 years?

How stupid I was!

Fun fact: I was trading without proper preparation and education.

Ha? What do you think about me now?

I never listened to what my father told me:

“Don’t gamble, it is not worth it. Build up your assets with honest work and time. There is a time and a place for everything. With gambling, enough is never enough.”

I thought I knew everything and I have the holy grail in my hands. Just because I bought a trading robot. Yeah, that was very smart of me. Well, after 6 months, my trading account was gone.

Kaboom! It exploded and disappeared in its own smoke! That’s how I lost 10.000 dollars on a trading platform.

I lost everything! How it was possible? I believed marketers and some guys with their “track records”, and hundreds, thousands of testimonials. It is hard to resist when you read or hear some of them.

Would you really like to know how I lost 10.000 dollars on a trading platform?

Take a look at the image above. What can you see? Stop-loss levels. My trading strategy didn’t have stop-losses. I didn’t see the point of using it! The truth is, with a stop loss, you’d get sold out at a loss, and then the market would move back and you would have ended up making money if not sold. But I didn’t see that opportunity, I just wanted to earn a big sum of money.

I had no strategy except to make money

And I really believed that the robot knows what it is doing. I started investing slowly. It was fun. I checked the price of my investment, followed the news on Twitter, and talk about the company’s products. Then the stock price plummeted and I didn’t have a stop loss and that ruined me. Can you understand how I lost 10.000 on ta trading platform now?

Only then I realized that I had chosen the wrong stock, the wrong company.

My skipping of stop-losses and liquidating my position at a very low price. That triggered a chain reaction with all my positions being liquidated in a few minutes. The market was having one of its ‘corrections’. I’d received multiple margin calls overnight that had gone unanswered, so my CFD provider sold my positions out.

The people I was playing against were in many instances the big financial institutions. These institutions’ employees aren’t so many traders as risk managers.

I didn’t realize that trading is like a game of tennis.

You need to know who your opponent is

Today I know what was obvious, that this would never have worked. Do you really think that some rich guy believes in some trading robot account to make his buying decisions?

Of course NOT! But I have seen a number of miracles happen.

And the truth is only ONE! Trading without the right knowledge leads to a deep disaster.

When I see people who are day traders and they are following some crap newsletter or some coach with a fudged up track record, I am going crazy. I can’t even see someone watching FOREX algorithm sales pitch or sniveling over some poor stock report.

I have that one desire, I just want to say to them: you are guaranteed to lose money in any period of time unless you learn to trade well. If you trade without the proper education you should go to some casino or play the lottery. You would have better chances to win. Not to lost.

Yes, how I lost 10.000 dollars on a trading platform? I faced that beast.

The nature of the beast is that even if you are financially educated and you think you know everything about trading, investing or markets at all, you still haven’t guaranteed to win.

For you to know, I’m not selling anything. It didn’t even cross my mind to teach you how to trade. Hm, maybe I could sell my ideas, I could run some newsletter and give you trading ideas? That kind of person makes a lot of money, indeed. And they are generous when they have some secret ideas to share with you for free.

How I lost 10.000 dollars is true BS!

I am not saying all that information is bad, you just have to be careful and try not to follow anyone uncritically.

The Forex systems and robots stirred by internet marketers are a joke. Especially if you think that’s how they make money on Wall Street. And believe me, they DO make tons of money. The markets are full of sharks and they will eat you quickly if you don’t stick to simple and reasonable rules instead of their predatory advice.

Forget about making 20% per month. That’s how poor people like to think.

I learned a few key points when I lost on a trading platform exactly $10,000. My risk tolerance was pretty high. I never felt the need to sell. I regret losing the money, but I never regret making the investment.

The lesson to myself was: you have to know whether it will move up or down and markets must agree with your judgment and you also need to know when the stock will move.

To be successful with individual stock investing, you must predict its future movement AND when that movement will come. You’ve got to be fluid as a trader and there are no guarantees.

The Forex market is the most volatile market in the world and therefore it cannot be manipulated.

KISS, live long and prosper, and trade smartly!

19th July 2018
Easy Ways To Start Investing With Little Money

1 min read

Despite the title, I tell you that there is no big and small money.

Money is money and it’s yours. A different question is whether you have enough to invest. For investing with little money, I mean.

If you want to invest you can’t do it without money.

Is there any way to reach decent money for investment?

Well, my friend was putting away just $15 per week. In order to avoid tempted to take the money for saving, he put the box reserved for saving money in his girlfriend house.

Uh, how she was strict and strong. But he stashed the savings away in a safe place. You may think it isn’t a lot, but at the end of the year, he had $780.

It was still not enough but it was a great beginning.

To make money in the stock market, you have to start with big money, right? Oh, no! Totally wrong!

My friend started investing with little money.

You can try with day trading, why not. It is investing with little money.

But it takes bravery and strength of character. You have to understand the different market forces at play. This isn’t for dilettantes or dabblers.

But it is a way where you can very quickly make a major amount of money with a relatively small investment. Real investing with little money.

Day trading is not for you if you don’t have any guts.

Don’t worry, there are ways to hedge your bets when you are playing the stock market. But you have to learn and learn and learn. I suggest you ensure set stop-loss limits to cut any potential for accelerated depreciation.

If you’re an advanced trader, you probably understand that market makers move stocks to play into our greed or fear of failure. It isn’t rare they push a stock down to a certain price to enhance our fear and play right into their pockets. And pay attention to averages. When stocks break moving averages, there’s potential for large upside or big downside.

You can be investing with little money in commodities.

Gold, silver, metals, energy. Silver looks like the solid hedge on inflation. That kind of commodities is the tangible property that people can hold onto. Investing in commodities means investing in futures contracts, prearranged agreement to buy a particular quantity at a particular price in the future. These are leveraged contracts, providing a big upside and a large downside. I suggest you be extremely careful.

And of course, you can trade cryptocurrencies. Trading them might seem risky, if you hedge your investment, you could limit some fallouts. There are plenty of platforms for trading cryptocurrencies. But before you step into this, educate yourself. Use some free demo account for several months and learn, test your skills, get more knowledge.

For novice traders, it is difficult to distinguish valuable and useless trading. You need to avoid any new coins until they show up well on the market.

No matter how much you want to invest with little money.

Markets are very volatile in the altcoin scene.

There is also such a thing as “compulsive trading”. It’s hard to learn the trading style from the first day. Errors will have to occur until you find a rhythm that suits your needs. The best advice is to start with investing with little money of one or two coins that look legitimate and potentially profitable.

More about The 5 Most Common Mistakes Made By Beginners In Trading Cryptos.

Everyone who wants to invest on the market should first evaluate his own preference for risk. Also, it is necessary to have at least minimum economic and financial knowledge and ability of common sense reasoning.

The economic revolution is afoot and you can either be a part of it or get left on the side of the highway feeling dumb.

Everything is up to you. Even your investments. So, start investing with little money and follow the rules.

Be smart and good luck!

Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

19th July 2018
Can I get Rich by Trading Forex?

Some people really got rich by trading forex but they spent a lot of time and money to reach that level. Forex trading is a seductive but rocky path.

By Guy Avtalyon

Can I get rich by trading Forex? Yes, you can. Honestly, it’s possible but you have to learn a lot. When you first start learning something, you acquire information. As you acquire more and more information, your mind will sift through it and will organize it, and will only leave the most important information that pertains to you. And that becomes your knowledge. Then as you start acting on your knowledge, and start gaining experience on a subject, that knowledge turns into wisdom.

I would like to emphasize this. In order to become successful, it isn’t that you need to only be knowledgeable, but you also need to be wise, and wisdom is only acquired through action and experience.

Listen to the wise people if you want to get rich by trading Forex

But there is also a second point in this story. You can’t become a successful trader, no matter how much information you were gathering, and no matter how many books you read from “knowledgeable” experts if you are not ready to carefully listen to what wise people have to tell to you.

So please, before you open up space in your mind to someone or something, make sure they are a wise person who is actually trading and making money in forex, instead of just giving you a bunch of useless theories. When you find such a person you will know that. You will feel like the guy who discovered the king’s tomb.

Oh, yes, you will have one of those moments where you are staring at one of those optical illusions, staring at it for hours until KABOOM! It hits you “it’s a f***ing ship out to sea!”

Until you get rich by trading Forex here are some tricks!

Choose a Broker With Appropriate Trading Platform

You must know each broker’s policies and how it goes about making a market. Spending time researching the differences between brokers will be very helpful but choosing a reputable broker is of paramount importance.

Define Your Goals, Methodology, and Style

It is vitally important, to have some idea of your goal and how you will get there. Hence, it is imperative to have clear goals in mind. After that ensure your trading method to be capable of achieving these goals. Each trading style has a different risk profile and each of them requires a certain attitude and approach to trade successfully. Whichever methodology you choose, be consistent, and be sure it is adaptive. Your system should follow the changing dynamics of a market.

Choose Entry and Exit Time Frame

Some traders are disoriented by conflicting information that happens when looking at charts in different time frames. If you are taking your basic trading direction from a weekly chart and using a daily chart to time entry, be sure to synchronize those two. If the weekly chart is sending you a buy signal, just be patient and wait for the confirmation from your daily chart. It should also give you buy signal In Forex trading timing is everything.

Learn to Love Small Losses

Think of your trading money like holiday money. Have the same attitude toward trading, once the holiday is over, your money is spent. This will mentally prepare you to take small losses. This is key to managing your risk. You will be much more successful by accepting small losses rather than constantly checking your balance.

How to use Forex trading system

When knowing what to expect from your Forex trading system you must have the patience to wait for the price. It needs time to reach the levels that your system indicates for either the point of entry or exit. If your system point to entry at some level but the market never reaches it, then move on to the next opportunity. There will always be another trade. Sit on your hands until your system triggers an entry or exit point.

Forex can change your life

This is pretty much true but you must have realistic expectations. You can’t expect to invest $300 in your trading account and make $15,000 in each trade. That means being not – realistic. However, the Forex market sometimes can make a much bigger move than you expect. But it is not the rule, keep this in mind. It is better for you to be positively surprised than to lose everything. This is particularly true for Forex trading beginners.

Build Positive Feedback Loops

When you plan a trade with due diligence and execute it well, you create a positive feedback pattern. Success produces success, which grows confidence and you have a profitable trade. A positive feedback loop is formed as a result of a well-executed trade. But when you know that it comes in accordance with your trading plan the effect is more intense. Even if you get a small loss, you will be building a positive feedback loop. Think about the feedback loop as a tool and you’ll understand how important is to create this tool. That is the secret of how to get rich by trading Forex.

Test Your Skills

Open some free demo account and test. Submit trades in a virtual ambiance with virtual money before you start risking your own money. You should never ever trade a setup just because candles are moving. The aim is to be prepared and anticipate movements. You have to understand one rule: when a currency pair is moving fast, the reward to risk ratios are decreasing very fast. That means, there are more chances of the currency pair moving more pips before it makes a retracement. By jumping in a trade that is moving, the likelihood of a lower reward to risk ratio is high and the chances of a continued move without retracement are smaller.

The best trading occurs when traders have both the mindset and trading mentality of a hunter when approaching the Forex market. If you coolly view and analyze what the conditions of the market are and then comparing that setup to the desired market environment, you are on the right path. If the market is offering sufficient odds of success and reward to risk ratios, then the trade plan is executed without any emotional disturbances.

Stick a note on your computer that will remind you to take small losses often and quickly rather than wait for the big losses.
What are your experiences? Share them with us or share this post with others.

Last update: 10/07/20

10th July 2018