Saturday, July 18, 2009

What is forex?

FOREX - the foreign exchange market or currency market or Forex is the market where one currency is traded for another. It is one of the largest markets in the world.
Some of the participants in this market are simply seeking to exchange a foreign currency for their own, like multinational corporations which must pay wages and other expenses in different nations than they sell products in. However, a large part of the market is made up of currency traders, who speculate on movements in exchange rates, much like others would speculate on movements of stock prices. Currency traders try to take advantage of even small fluctuations in exchange rates.
In the foreign exchange market there is little or no 'inside information'. Exchange rate fluctuations are usually caused by actual monetary flows as well as anticipations on global macroeconomic conditions. Significant news is released publicly so, at least in theory, everyone in the world receives the same news at the same time.
Currencies are traded against one another. Each pair of currencies thus constitutes an individual product and is traditionally noted XXX/YYY, where YYY is the ISO 4217 international three-letter code of the currency into which the price of one unit of XXX currency is expressed. For instance, EUR/USD is the price of the euro expressed in US dollars, as in 1 euro = 1.2045 dollar.
Unlike stocks and futures exchange, foreign exchange is indeed an interbank, over-the-counter (OTC) market which means there is no single universal exchange for specific currency pair. The foreign exchange market operates 24 hours per day throughout the week between individuals with forex brokers, brokers with banks, and banks with banks. If the European session is ended the Asian session or US session will start, so all world currencies can be continually in trade. Traders can react to news when it breaks, rather than waiting for the market to open, as is the case with most other markets.
Average daily international foreign exchange trading volume was $1.9 trillion in April 2004 according to the BIS study.
Like any market there is a bid/offer spread (difference between buying price and selling price). On major currency crosses, the difference between the price at which a market maker will sell ("ask", or "offer") to a wholesale customer and the price at which the same market-maker will buy ("bid") from the same wholesale customer is minimal, usually only 1 or 2 pips. In the EUR/USD price of 1.4238 a pip would be the '8' at the end. So the bid/ask quote of EUR/USD might be 1.4238/1.4239.
This, of course, does not apply to retail customers. Most individual currency speculators will trade using a broker which will typically have a spread marked up to say 3-20 pips (so in our example 1.4237/1.4239 or 1.423/1.425). The broker will give their clients often huge amounts of margin, thereby facilitating clients spending more money on the bid/ask spread. The brokers are not regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (since they do not sell securities), so they are not bound by the same margin limits as stock brokerages. They do not typically charge margin interest, however since currency trades must be settled in 2 days, they will "resettle" open positions (again collecting the bid/ask spread).
Individual currency speculators can work during the day and trade in the evenings, taking advantage of the market's 24 hours long trading day.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Microsoft giving 2007 stats in 2009 for promoting adcenter


They might dominate the desktop OS market, but they are far behind in online search and advertising. Here is a screenshot from one of the adcenter pages giving really old statistics as obviously in the new one they are trumped by Google

Microsoft giving 2007 data in 2009 for promoting adcenter











Monday, March 9, 2009

What to Blog About

Don't know what to write. Check this out.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

How To Create Compelling E-mail

If you want to create a dynamic e-mail campaign, you have to offer your clients more than a simple announcement.


If you want customers to buy from you, you are far better off offering “special deals” or a “special offer” than simply offering an announcement.

Why?
An announcement says, “Hey, I have a new product!

Wow, that’s terrific!

But what’s in it for the customer?

You have to think about what your customer’s needs are and how you are filling them with every contact you make.

An announcement doesn’t take these needs into consideration, and that’s why far too often Announcements fail to produce results.

An announcement also lacks a call to action or an incentive for customers to contact you.

It doesn’t make sense to contact someone unless you are going to offer him or her an incentive to buy your product.

Keep this in mind when creating your next e-mail campaign.

Types of Promotions
So now you know you have to offer incentives.

Now, what kind of incentive do you offer in your e-mail campaign?

There are many different incentives to offer. Most people rely on the special discount offer.

You don’t always have to offer a discount however, to get people to buy from you. You can for example, offer a new product to your customers. Say for example, you offer them a free publication, like a subscription to your newsletter if they buy your product now. Or,you can offer them 20% off your latest publication when they order.

You can also offer special deals by recognizing some special event in your personal life. Most customers appreciate e-mails that include some personal information about you. For example, let’s say you have an upcoming birthday or anniversary to celebrate. In your e-mail,mention this.

Say, “Because it’s my birthday today I’m offering you a special discount.” This will help your e-mails appear more personal in nature.

You have to share personal information if you want to build trust with your clients. Let them know something about you.

Say for example you are sharing your 10th anniversary with your partner. Let your customer’s know you are offering a one-time deal because of this.

Another promotion you can offer your clients is the “special sale.”
In this special bonus offer, e-mail your clients a day or two after you send out an
announcement.
Then let them know you forgot to tell them something in the previous “announcement”, so if they order now, they can take advantage of your mistake.

Then offer them something. Then after a couple of days send them a last minute reminder. You can phrase it similar to, “We almost sold out,and we only have a few hours left, so act now so you don’t miss out. Remember, you’ll be reaping A, B, C benefits.”

Special offers are great during holidays, like Christmas, Halloween or even Valentines Day. Speaking of Valentines Day, remember your offers don’t have to be discounts. They can be something unusual, crazy or fun. Like on Valentines Day, offer your clients a rose or chocolate for ordering that day.

Your goal should be to keep things exciting and fun. Keep all your promotions on an event.

Another way to produce more feedback from youre-mails is to send customers FAQ e-mails. Let’s say for example, you send an e-mail that creates some questions you’d like to respond to.

You can send an FAQ offer or follow up e-mail that answers all their questions and presents a new offer or special deal for your customers.

How Often You Should E-mail Clients?
How often should you e-mail your clients? If acustomer consistently buys your products andservices, you should send frequent e-mails.

If however, you are sending a special promotional offer to someone that has never
ordered from you, don’t waste too much time on it.

These are just a few things you can do to spice up your e-mail campaign. The bottom line is this… whenever you send an e-mail, you have to create much more than a simple announcement.

An announcement isn’t going to call people to action. You have to carefully craft your e-mails, to encourage your customers to act.
You want to offer your customers some incentive so they act on your e-mail immediately.

And one last point... Don’t reveal your price in the e-mail.Your job is to entice, compel and motivate your customers to buy.

This cutting edge software can automate an unlimited number of tasks, including tedious ones like handling email, writing content, checking stats, and building websites.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Why you must quit smoking and how to do it in three hours !!!!

Smoking is the most dreaded killer of humans. The Tobacco Industry kills more people in North America from Monday to Thursday of each week than the terrorists murdered in total on Sept. 11, 2001. 90% of lung cancer occurs in those who have smoked. Each package delivers the equivalent of one chest x-ray. Chemicals contained in second hand
smoke are not even allowed in most city landfills.

Money you will save if you quit smoking.

Pack/Day

$$/Day

$$/Week

$$/Month

$$/Year

1 $3.55 $24.85 $99.40 $1192.80
1.5 $5.33 $37.31 $149.24 $1790.88
2 $7.10 $49.70 $198.80 $2385.60
2.5 $8.88 $62.16 $248.64 $2983.68



This program will help you get on track to quit smoking in three hours. If ,however, for any reason you are unable to quit smoking Clickbank will refund your money in full. Click here if you want to quit smoking.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

SC permits banks to charge up to 49% interest on card payment defaults

The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed MNC banks to charge hefty interest up to 49% on defaulted credit card payments, ending the respite that lakhs of card holders have had since September last year when the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission capped the penalty at 30%.

The SC stayed the apex consumer forum’s directive to banks not to charge more than 30% interest on defaulted payments on credit card purchases. The SC had last year refused to heed the appeal of banks against the NCDRC’s order. A Bench comprising Justices B N Agrawal, G S Singhvi and Aftab Alam on Tuesday suspended the relief to card holders on a plea by a coalition of foreign banks — Citibank, HSBC, American Express and Standard Chartered — that their business was suffering immensely because of the “unwarranted’’ cap on the quantum of penal interest.

Ironically, the plea of banks may have been allowed because of a lapse by the very same NGO ‘Awaz’ that was instrumental in getting the NCDRC order pegging the penal interest at 30% last year.

Though the bench had issued notice to the NGO four months ago, it has yet not put in its response, possibly helping the court to see merit in the argument of the banks that no penal interest rate, they were only following the guide
lines issued by the RBI.

The banks teamed up to apprise the apex court of their compulsions to charge between 36% to 49% interest on defaulted payments on credit cards. “No bank as a credit card issuer would charge undue interest rate as, apart from the regulatory framework that applies, the market would not sustain the same by reason of competitive force,’’ Citibank said. In its application, filed through counsel Rupinder Suri, it said facility of credit cards could be availed of without any interest for a certain stipulated period and it was only after the expiry of that period that penal interest was levied on default of payments.

“The credit card holder is aware of the same at the time of applying for it. It is also relevant to note that credit card transactions de facto constitute unsecured credit availed of,’’ the bank said justifying the high interest rate permitted by RBI on defaulted payments.

The July 7, 2007 order of NCDRC had ruled that “charging of interest rates in excess of 30% per annum from credit card holders by banks for the former’s failure to make full payment on the due date or paying the minimum amount due, is unfair trade practices.’’
It had also said that penal interest could be levied only once for the period of default and should not be capitalised while terming the practice of computing interest on monthly basis as “unfair trade practice’’.

The banks justified the
high interest rate on default payments by credit card holders by listing as many as 27 factors that included even the SMS alerts it sends to the card holders.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

PayingPost - the new site for advertising on blog

If you have been blogging you would have heard about get paid to blog. PayingPost is a new service in this form of advertising. It has an interface which is similar to payperpost but is more pleasing to eye and loads several times faster.

For those who have not heard about blog advertising, it is one of the hottest way to make money with a blog after Google Adsense. However, if you are using Google Adsense you have to depend on your visitors to click on your ads. Moreover, if your visitors are tech savvy and use Firefox with adblock plus your revenue will reduce even further.

So,if your click through rate is pathetic then you will earn your first $100 in about two years. The solution is that, if you have good traffic, then join PayingPost.com. With little hard work and dedication you can earn easily up to $500 or more. Converted is equal to INR 25000.

PP is a service which connects advertisers with bloggers. You just have to sign up and submit your blog. If accepted you will receive opportunities suitable to your blog. You are completely free to choose the offer which suits your blog's category. Write about it according to the descriptions and requirements given by the advertiser. Then submit it. If you follow the rules, rest assured, you will be paid.

In school you might have written essays to improve your language but you were motivated by marks only. Here you are motivated by the cash you are going to earn. You just have to devote half an hour to one hour a day.

In order to get more opportunities and of higher value concentrate on increasing the Pagerank and Alexa Rank and your traffic of your site. You can do this by writing good articles and by increasing inlinks to your blog. You can visit their blog.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

How to open ODF files with Microsoft word

Open Document Format (ODF) is an open standard file format OpenOffice.org and others use. You may have come across file extensions like .odt(text), .ods(spreadsheets)and .odp(presentation).

Microsoft Office,by default, does not recognise these file formats. You can open these files by installing a plugin from Sun Microsystem.

Users of Office 2003, simply download and install the Sun ODF plugin.

Users 0f office 2007 need to first install SP1 for MS office 2007, install the plugin. Then open ODT file by choosing open with word.

There are online converters like Zamzar and Media Convert. You can also upload and collaborate online using Google Docs, Zoho Writer, etc

Monday, January 12, 2009

Portable browsers in USB

Mozilla Firefox is a fast, full-featured web browser that’s easy to use. It has lots of great features including popup-blocking, tabbed-browsing, integrated search, improved privacy features, automatic updating and more. Plus, thanks to the PortableApps.com launcher bundled in Mozilla Firefox - Portable Edition, it leaves no personal information behind on the machine you run it on, so you can take your favorite browser along with all your favorite bookmarks and extensions with you wherever you go.

  1. Go to http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable14 and download Mozilla Firefox - Portable Edition
  2. Install it and run it so Mozilla will generate the default configuration files (Change Mozilla Firefox’s option as needed)
  3. Finally, copy the whole folder to a USB or even a CD and enjoy!


If you will want to run your Google Chrome Browser anywhere by having the app in your USB and run from it.

Here’s how to make a Chrome USB Drive:

1. Download Portable Chrome and extract (un-zip) it.

2. Copy the files into your USB Flash Drive.

3. Run ChromeLoader.exe from your USB anytime you need to use it.

(Your Profile preferences are stored in directory called Profil in your USB)

4. Enjoy Google Chrome Browser anywhere by sticking your USB into any computer.

This is Portable Chrome. Just download & extract and start with ChromeLoader.exe. Chromeloader.exe is a simple AutoIt-Script – compiled to an exe-File. So – if you got an error from your AV: it’s just a false poitive, because ChromeLoader.exe was packed with UPX. All settings are stored in “Profil”-folder. Have fun!

Friday, January 9, 2009

Barak Obama could rake in upto 50 million for endorsement

Forget Tiger woods, Oprah and Phelps. The Most Powerful Man on the planet can be the highest earner in endorsement if he wishes to do so, of course.Obama loves his blackberry and hates the fact that he will have to abandon the phone after he assumes the office.

Ny Times reports that What could the “BlackBerry president” charge for his plugs of the device if he were not a public servant? More than $25 million, marketing experts say, and maybe as much as $50 million.

Inevitably, perhaps, marketing executives dream about creating an ad featuring the president-elect, something Gene Liebel, a partner in the Brooklyn agency Huge, said would be a “fantasy assignment.”

Asked what tagline he might use for the campaign, Mr. Liebel repeated one his employees had thought up: “If Blagojevich can pick my replacement, I can pick my device.”

R. Vann Graves, the chief creative officer of the UniWorld Group, suggested a campaign showing Mr. Obama in the Oval Office. “In the foreground, you have the desk, but instead of having the proverbial red phone, you have a red BlackBerry,” Mr. Graves said, with the tagline “Shot Caller.”

Matt Reinhard, the executive creative director of DDB Los Angeles, suggested Apple try to steal Mr. Obama away from BlackBerry as a spokesman for the iPhone.

The message could be, “It’s time for change,” Mr. Reinhard said.

Wow!! I think he would be the only politician in recent times who commands as much respect and fan-following as any celeb. Maybe it is because the way he branded himself as the People's Choice and showed his aptitude for tech. Can you tell me whether there is any other politician who commands this kind of respect?

Thursday, January 1, 2009

How Israelis can be so audacious

On October 3, 2001, I.A.P. News reported that according to Israel Radio (in Hebrew) Kol Yisrael an acrimonious argument erupted during the Israeli cabinet weekly session last week between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his foreign Minister Shimon Peres. Peres warned Sharon that refusing to heed incessant American requests for a cease-fire with the Palestinians would endanger Israeli interests and "turn the US against us. "Sharon reportedly yelled at Peres, saying "don't worry about American pressure, we the Jewish people control America."

"The Israelis control the policy in the congress and the senate." -- Senator Fullbright, Chair of Senate Foreign Relations Committee: 10/07/1973 on CBS' "Face the Nation".

"I am aware how almost impossible it is in this country to carry out a foreign policy [in the Middle East] not approved by the Jews..... terrific control the Jews have over the news media and the barrage the Jews have built up on congressmen .... I am very much concerned over the fact that the Jewish influence here is completely dominating the scene and making it almost impossible to get congress to do anything they don't approve of. The Israeli embassy is practically dictating to the congress through influential Jewish people in the country" -----Sec. of State John Foster Dulles quoted on p.99 of Fallen Pillars by Donald Neff

The long history of bipartisan Congressional support for Israel led former Secretary of State James Baker to call the Congress "The Little Knesset" after Israel's Knesset (parliament) in Jerusalem. Congress's embarrassing and unpatriotic display of allegiance to a foreign country that is dependent on American largesse and support is the unknown scandal to the American people. With the media's strong, biased and sympathetic portrayal of Israel while simultaneously denying any opposing view of Israel or human pictures and stories of the endless suffering of Palestinians, its no wonder that we the American people are so unaware of the true face of Israel. Thus shockingly but not surprisingly only 4 % of the American people are aware of Israel's 34 year brutal military occupation of the Palestinian people.

To read Senators protectionist policy of Isreal read http://www.mediamonitors.net/khodr49.html


However please remember that I am NOT against Israel's policies. Most people don't talk about Hamas sending hundreds of missles into Israel, which by the way is why this is happening. If Hamas didn't launch rockets indiscriminately at civilians while hiding behind human shields, we wouldn't have this problem.

The claims that Israeli Air force is targeting civilians is preposterous, If they wanted to do so there would be thousands of casualties. you really think that the Israeli air force cant bomb more than 80 civilians in the most crowded place on earth?! Innocent people will die in wars and that is a tragedy...