Top Network Marketers Have Something In Common
Building a network marketing business can be tough at times - for everyone - even those people who experience long term success in the industry. You know, the people who make big money and have thousands and thousands of people in their network.
Now, if I told you that the big money earners in network marketing all have certain characteristics in common would you believe me? If so, would you want to know what those characteristics are? Sure you would! You probably want to know to see if you have those characteristics as well.
I’m going to share with you 8 characteristics that people who earn a significant income in network marketing have in common. If you discover that you do not have all of these characteristics, then guess what? That’s not a problem because you can develop these characteristics. Simply put your mind to it and seek the help from people who are skilled in these areas.
The 8 Characteristics of Top Network Marketers
1. When they prospect, they sort. They sort people into one of three categories: interested, not interested, interested and qualified. Of these three categories who do you think top network marketers spend their time recruiting? You got it - the people who are interested and qualified.
You see, top network marketers don’t play the “throw a bunch of spaghetti up against the wall to see what sticks” game. Instead they play the “sorting game.” They are constantly on the look out for people they think are qualified for the business - people with the particular experiences, traits and skill sets that are common among people who are successful in this industry.
This brings us to the seven other characteristics that are common among top network marketers. Top network marketers posses the following traits. However these characteristics are also what top network marketers look for in people who they invite to join them in business.
Keep in mind that the world needs variety. If we expect to function as a society we can’t all be doctors or lawyers or even network marketers. Think about it: not everyone is cut out to be a teacher, a pilot, a hair stylist, or even a network marketing leader.
However, there are enough people out there that are cut out to be a top network marketer. The key is in finding those people. Here is what you look for in your self and in others.
2. Work well with others. Motivating, intelligent, positive, encouraging, and friendly. Tends to be more objective than subjective. Does not backbite, complain, whine, or blame.
3. Outgoing and confident. Good communicators. Tend to be more extroverted compared to introverted. Confident, articulate and have a sense of humor. Typically well liked and can speak confidently in front of others.
4. Achievers. People who get things done. People who start something and finish it. Achievers are not dreamers as much as they are doers. Achievers commit to do whatever it takes to get it done.
5. They are a center of influence. They are already affiliated with a large network of successful people, have a lot of contacts and people respect their opinion.
6. Entrepreneurial. Has made money by some sort of enterprise in the past or present. This isn’t always something glamorous or high-end. Maybe the person generated a lot of money from something as simple as selling cookies. It’s more about the fact that they are accustomed to doing their own thing.
7. Financially stable. Generally not living paycheck to pay check, not broke and not always in need of money.
8. A natural leader. They get people organized. People respect them and typically follow their lead. Organizes things or events.
So, first get real with yourself and determine if you possess all of the above characteristics. If you don’t, then look to see how you can develop the ones you think you do not currently have.
As you develop those characteristics, continue to get better and better at sorting when you’re prospecting for people to join you in your business. Focus on inviting into your business only those people who have all of the above characteristics.
Kimberly Anne is a seasoned businessperson with over 20 years of marketing experience. With a BA and a MBA, she has helped thousands of people start home businesses and achieve success. For more information and resources visit Kimberly’s site http://www.all-about-home-businesses.com.
Business Advertising Through Business Cards
Probably one of the most effective and inexpensive advertising pieces you can use for your business is your common everyday business card. This small piece of paper and ink is your personal contact form between potential customers and your company. Not only does it list how you may be contacted but also gives the potential customer an idea of what service you can provide them and a personal contact employee that can make all the difference between who is awarded the user’s business and who is not.
Physically a business card is only a stiff cardstock that is small enough to slip easily inside a pocket or wallet. In the United States the standard business card measures precisely three and one half inches by two inches. There is a small fractional size difference between standard business cards globally, however none are larger than three and five eighths by two and one eighth inches.
While the most basic business card is simple black ink on white paper, the range of paper stock and ink color and process choices render an almost unlimited variety to utilize to individualize your company’s business cards. This is important to make your card stand out from the rest of a stack, yet should not be so gaudy as to turn off the potential customer. For a slightly more professional look, one can use the thermograph technique that adheres a powder to the wet ink that will bubble up and give a raised effect when heated. This system created fine professional type and logo designs on your card but is not as effective if you are printing a picture on your business card.
Photographic business cards have finally come into their own as the advances in color print technology has brought the price down to easy afford ability for just about any budget. Not only does the photographic business card offer distinctive coloring, it is most effective as a personalizing technique and memory key for people to remember the company representative they were originally in contact with.
There are several critical pieces of information that should be on any successful business card. The company name is of extreme importance unless it is so well known that the logo itself is enough to positively identify who you are working for. The name and position of the person giving out the business card is also a standard requirement. This will not only personalize the initial contact but also give the potential customer a known representative they can come back to for further questions or an order.
The telephone number or numbers of the business are crucial for being able to contact the business again. Depending on the nature of the business at least a company email address should be provided if not the individual’s as well. It is often necessary for a customer to find your physical address so that should be included as well. If you are in a difficult to find area then you can utilize the back of your business card to provide a small map to direct customers to your door.
With the increased influence of the World Wide Web, digital business cards have been created that can be attached to any email your company and its employees generate. Since this is a digital card, then you can open up the potential for motion as well as color. Whether you create an animated GIF file or develop an entire mini flash movie to use as your business card this technique will make your company memorable.
http://www.businesscardsla.com
http://www.simplybusinesscards.com
Work at Home Moms and Blogs
Blogs are here to stay and many work at home Moms are taking advantage of the trend. Making money with blogs is a very popular choice for many Moms who work from home. They’re simple to set up, and just as easy to update when needed. This is especially true when you compare blogs to other types of websites that work at home Moms could create. Within just a few moments, you could set up a professional looking blog for absolutely no cost and start blogging your way to success.
If you aren’t familiar with a blog, it is a website that is generally created for free through various companies that offer blogging services. It looks very much like a journal. When you make an entry in the blog, also called a post, they are added in sequential order with the newest posts being listed first.
Blog posts are usually short articles of around 200 to about 500 words and can contain anything you’d like to talk about from your family, friends to your business and special sales you may be having.
When you have a blog that you post to regularly, your options are wide open. Choosing a topic to write about is simply as easy as looking into your own business life. As a work at home Mom, you probably have questions that you receive frequently from your customers, you may have special deals that happen several times a year, your customers might want to know more about your product, what it contains, and how it compares to the competition.
The topic you choose to write about in your blog should be closely related to your business. Consider looking at other blogs that talk about the topic you’re considering. What do they talk about? How do they handle the questions that come in?
Be careful that you stick to the topic at hand. It can be tempting to talk about your children, or what happened with you personally and once every so often is quite all right, but you need to keep your blog focused on its primary purpose; bringing you in an income as a work at home Mom.
There are many ways that you can start a blog. One of them is simply by doing a simple search in your favorite search engine and look for the term “free blog”. Most blogs are very user friendly and you can be up and running in just moments.
As a work at home Mom, it is important that you get seen in as many places as possible in order to grow a successful business. While there are other avenues that you can eventually take in growing your business, you’re first money-saving stop should be a blog.
Just remember to keep it informative, full of interesting tidbits and you answer any questions that arise in a timely and professional manner. Keeping your blog updated and relevant will keep people coming back and the more they get to know you, the more likely they’ll be to do business with you.
Kristine Wirth runs http://www.ConnectingWAHMs.com, a website dedicated to helping work at home Moms and Dads run successful businesses in Network Marketing, Internet Marketing and Affiliate Marketing with free tips, advice and more.
Can You Really Employ Yourself From Home?
There is something about the idea of having a home-based that I find curious. Some people meet the idea of having their own business from home with skepticism. Why is this? I think it is because there are a lot of scams out there that, unfortunately, people have been victims of or know someone who has.
As with anything, the scams have tarnished the reputation of an otherwise viable, legitimate way to earn a good income. With the advances in technology, especially the Internet, I know that everyone on the face of this planet could earn an income from the comfort of his or her home.
Now, I am not suggesting that everyone should have a home-based business. Working from home simply is not for everyone. However, for those of you who do want to work from your homes, I am here to tell you that you can. I did, so that means that you can.
Simply put, I am an example of what is possible. I used to work outside of the home, as a well-educated career woman. But, things changed for me as I entered into middle management and then had a child. I became disillusioned and at the same time my motherhood values were kicking into gear. I started to loose the drive I used to have for the kind of work I was doing. I kept thinking, “There has to be a better way.”
I started researching what my options were. I discovered that they were limitless. I began to see that I actually could work from home. In fact, I could actually have my own business from home. That was just the beginning.
My research led to one business, which I started and began making money with right away. However, that led to yet another business about which I saw I would be more passionate. I pursued that idea. It was tough and it didn’t pan out. However, it did lead to yet another business that became profitable for me after a few years.
So what does what I am telling you mean for you? Possibly a few things:
* Avoid thinking that having a home-based business is simply a dream. There are countless ways to make money from home. Begin your search for your ideal home business by sitting down and making a list of all the possible ways you might make money from your home. Include any idea, no matter how zany, far fetched, or limited you think it might sound.
Then, go back and look at your list. Pick one, two, but no more than three ideas from your list. Start researching how you might start making money from your home by implementing one of those ideas.
* Understand that technology has advanced to the point where it is viable to have a profitable business from home - one that enables you to pay your bills and then some. You don’t have to be technically savvy, either. However, you must be willing to learn and challenge yourself.
* Building and running any business can be challenging at times. However, working for someone else can be as well. You’re not going to escape hurdles and difficulties in life. Decide that you can get through the tough times.
* Get that there is “no free lunch.” Having your own business is extremely rewarding. But, you have to put forth the effort required to get it going and keep it running.
* Your success at starting a home business and achieving your goals is 100% up to you. Access the resources you need at every step along the way. Get the training and support you need.
* Have a clear plan but also allow the process to unfold. If someone told me 5 years ago that I would be doing the work I now do from home I would have thought it was too good to be true. You see, I did not set out to do what I now do. I simply had a dream to work from home full time and I followed my own, unique path to realizing that dream. So, have a plan, but also be open to shifting gears if necessary.
Kimberly Anne is a seasoned businessperson with over 20 years of marketing experience. With a BA and a MBA, she has helped thousands of people start home businesses and achieve success. For more information and resources visit Kimberly’s site http://www.all-about-home-businesses.com.
Some Popular Job Interview Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
If you are familiar with people who work in human resources and hiring services, they will be sure to tell you of many experiences where they encountered applications that really looked great on paper but when the actual people behind these applications turned up to be interviewed, they turned out to be disasters. You don’t have to suffer the same fate; you can take note of the mistakes these individuals have made and prepare yourself for career success. You have to learn to make a good first impression by avoiding these four major mistakes which job seekers tend to make regularly and convince the interviewers that you are even much better in person than on paper. Avoid these blunders:
Failure to Prepare for Questions
Most people plan for interviews by setting a few interview questions for themselves and then preparing to respond to these specific questions, this is a very wrong move to make. Preparation is best for all possible eventualities or you rather not prepare at all. Think of it, what if you make up your mind to answer a set of specific questions and you end up being caught unawares and unprepared, how will that make you look? If you need preparation, you best think of as many possible questions as you can and anticipate as many possible eventualities as possible. In the end you will also have to learn not to rely too much on the questions you anticipate (you can’t possibly get them all, can you?) but your readiness to answer any that come your way.
Lack of Effective Communication
Impressing your interviewers and satisfying them with your responses is called effective communication, failure to effectively communicate leads to failure to be understood and failure to get the message across of how beneficial an employee you can be to the organization or establishment in question. Match the style of the interviewer asking questions when you answer them. If the interviewer is brisk and business-like, don’t attempt any jokes but respond in an equally business-like manner instead. Any questions that are directly asked should be directly answered as well.
Excessive Talking
Excessive talkers are a problem in any interviewing situation, interviewers will tell you this as well. Sometimes the excessive talk is due to over exuberance and sometimes it is due to the desire of the interviewee to over-compensate for what they perceive to be their own weaknesses. Whatever the precise case, being over-talkative is seen as a sign of weakness. Avoid taking an excessive amount of time to answer direct questions, get to the point. Never talk nervously as it indicates you’re either covering up for certain unclear deficiencies or that you are lying when you may not be.
Badmouthing Previous Bosses
Not all employers are Santa Claus and his band of merry elves but even if your previous employer was the Grinch Who Stole Christmas keep the sad stories out of your interview. Never express ill-feelings held about your previous employer or work situation. When it comes to challenges you experienced with your previous employer which were subject to negativity, learn to spin your experiences in a positive light.
Andrew Morris shows that the four secrets of finding trabajos online are …
http://trabajos.ca
Joint Venture Agreements and What They Can Do For Your Business
A joint venture agreement is a legal agreement detailing a joint venture. A joint venture is a partnership that is generally created to carry out a specific business project or transaction. Usually a joint venture is undertaken for a limited period of time. Typically, a joint venture will last for five to seven years.
For a joint venture, two or more companies will agree to share the risks, rewards, capital, human resources, and technology while forming a new company under mutual control. A joint venture agreement is generally formed for a particular project and will usually be dissolved once that project is finished. The members of the joint venture share all legal liabilities and are treated in the same way as a partnership when it comes to income taxes.
A joint venture agreement may be made for many different purposes. They are frequently used for real estate transactions when two or more individual want to develop a particularly piece of real estate. They are commonly used by companies in order to enter into a foreign market. A foreign company will often have a joint venture agreement with a domestic company that is already in that particular market. Generally the foreign company can contribute new technology and practices and the domestic company can contribute established relationships, required government documents, and their experience to the joint venture.
There are a number of benefits that come from forming a joint venture. One benefit is that it provides companies with an opportunity to gain expertise and capacity. It also enables companies to enter into a related business or new market, as well as gaining technology and expertise. While they are a legal “partnership,” they do not have to involve any sort of commitment long term.
On the other hand, the financial needs and risks are shared between the original parties for the duration of the joint venture which lowers the overall risk and financial obligation of the individual parties. Joint ventures often lead to the development of new products and technologies.
Of course, a joint venture agreement is not without risks. There are a number of potential pitfalls. The individuals or companies may find that they have different philosophies, expectations, or objectives for the venture. An imbalance may evolve in the degree of investment and proficiency that is brought by the individuals or companies. There may not be adequate support, identification, or compensation for management teams or superior leadership. The corporate styles and cultures of the partners in the joint venture may ultimately conflict. Any of these problems can lead to a loss of profit, investment, time and energy. It is even possible for legal battles to ensue.
The forms involved in creating a joint venture include the joint venture agreement, a memorandum of understanding, and any supplemental agreements. It is also necessary to obtain regulatory approval. This may be a time when it is worthwhile to consult with an attorney and have them draw up the required documents, although as is so often true in today’s internet age, it is possible to purchase uncompleted forms online.
Mark Warner is a Legal Research Analyst for RealDealDocs.com. RealDealDocs gives you insider access to millions of legal documents drafted by the top law firms in the US. Search over 10 million documents & clauses for Free at http://www.RealDealDocs.com
To Buy or Not to Buy a Hybrid Car
Ever thought that 60 miles per gallon would cut your monthly gas bill in half? Me too. The idea of the hybrid is almost too good to be true. And from a financial standpoint, it is too good to be true. The following information is a cost comparison between the Honda Civic Sedan and the Honda Civic Hybrid Sedan. Essentially the same car, except the hybrid uses half electric, and half gas power, thus improving gas mileage.
According to Honda, the Civic gets 40 mpg on the highway, while the Hybrid Civic gets an amazing 51 mpg. This is where the salesman gets you. “It will help protect the environment while saving you tons of money on your gas bill every month”, a salesman might say. This is very convincing, as it appeals to both our emotional side in protecting the environment, as well as our wallet. But let’s take a closer look at the two:
* Civic Sedan: Starting MSRP - $15,010
* Civic Sedan: Highway MPG - 40
* Civic Hybrid Sedan: Starting MSRP -$22,600
* Civic Hybrid Sedan: Highway MPG - 51
Now, I have compiled a spreadsheet that will aid you in your financial evaluation of the hybrid vs regular car purchase. As always, I have run an initial estimation only, you will need to download the spreadsheet at the bottom of the post, and update the numbers per your circumstances. Let’s look at the findings:
Buy a Hybrid Car Financial Comparison
Make/Model Price MPG Hwy Miles Per Yr Price/Gal Gas $/Month
Honda Civic Sedan $15,010.00 40 15,000 $2.75 $85.94
Honda Civic Hybrid Sedan $22,600.00 51 15,000 $2.75 $67.40
Monthly Savings with Hybrid $18.54
Yearly Savings with Hybrid $222.43
Price Difference $7,590.00
Months to Recoup Price Difference 409
Years to Recoup Price Difference 34.1
The results are staggering! Look at how long it will take for the gas savings to pay you back for the difference in price of the car. 34 YEARS!!! Clearly not a wise investment. However, if you still are considering buying a hybrid car, the government does offer some tax advantages. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 allows a tax credit to be applied to an owner of a new hybrid car, as long as it meets the programs requirements (at least until 2009).
The tax credit is derived from statistics run on the particular make/model hybrid car you purchase, but usually will fall somewhere around $1,500-$3,000. This is a deduction however, not a check. Depending on your tax bracket, the actual dollars of tax savings will vary. The nice thing though, is the deduction can be applied on top of the standard deduction!
Having said that, if you are in the 20% tax bracket and got a credit of $2,000, your tax savings would be $400. Not bad, but you will still need to drive that Honda Civic Hybrid Sedan for about 30 years to get the payback. The bottom line is, if you want to buy a hybrid car for the cost savings, forget it. If you have a green thumb and want to help the environment, then it is still an option. Be warned though, the life cycle to obtain and use the additional batteries for the hybrid car puts extra pressure on the environment, not found in regular gasoline cars.
I hope that I did not shun everyone from buying a hybrid car, I still believe in the concept myself. However with the current technology, it just doesn’t make sense financially. I look for the day of the fuel cell car, or other concept car, that takes away the need for gasoline…
Find more of Jeffry Evans’ great articles at http://personalfinanceresources.com for all your personal finance needs and investing tips. Sign up for my RSS feed while you are there to get automatic updates to all the new articles.
Five Steps To Success In Free Business Advertising
In online internet advertising, there are three types of businesses. The booming business, the slower than expected kind, and the barely-moving kind. In any of the above scenarios, it may be a good time to take stock of what works for you and even more importantly, what is not working and needs some tweaking your website included. A simple reassessment of your online internet advertising site could just be the tuneup to a profitable online business.
Here are five suggestions for a great tune up of your online internet advertising web site. Take a fresh look at your site and your promotional strategy with these pointers:
Make online internet advertising appeal to all your possible markets
A business usually has different potential buyers for different products and services. The ideal design for your online Internet advertising web site should include content that caters to each of these types of buyers. In many cases, the target customers on the Internet can be different from traditional customers. It is important to consider this fact and design a web site to exploit this fact.
Divert visitors to your online internet advertising web site
Most online internet advertising businesses are preoccupied with alluring visitors by way of snazzy graphics and other cosmetic features. The more successful ones like have understood one secret, the web site should be written from your visitors point of view and not the developers. The first rule to free business advertising successfully is that your home page clearly recognize why the visitor might be there what’s in store for them. How can they benefit? What are the expectations and ideas that they might have, and how will the web site and the free business advertising idea help them? Remember, everybody has a business agenda and being at the right place at the right time is not enough if they are not aware of this.
An easy to search url will work wonders for your online internet advertising. Web site addresses based on search words attract maximum traffic compared to ones that use technical words. Hiring an expert to advise you on the choice of domain name based on research would be a good idea. Also, search engines don’t read pictures . If you do have pictures, ensure that your key search terms are available in text and not just as part of the description for the picture. The title of the page is also a very important tool to engage attract to a profitable online business . The title of the page is the single most important place for your key search words and using the most relevant keywords for the title page can turn up your website in most of the major search engines.
Engage visitors at your web site
It is worthwhile to remember that your Internet online advertising site might be the first contact that a prospect has with your business. An effective online internet advertising site will make the surfing experience as close as possible to actually interacting with real people. The navigation should be easy to understand and should logically take the visitor to the right information. Getting the visitor to ask the relevant questions and then having the answers to them ready is a way to success in free business advertising. Helping the customer with their product selection can be done by including online surveys that can be sent to you over email. This also gives your internet online advertising business relevant data in the form of leads.
Remember, if visitors don’t relate to you on their first visit, it may well be their last visit to your web site .
Be the expert on free business advertising
One of the best ways to advertise on the Internet is to publish articles around your business. Most surfers like to do research on the business before joining up. And they look for general articles to better judge their position. Your claims to results can be substantiated with links to various articles on your web site as well as others with a link back to yours. It is important to have clear content on the web site to certify your claims to success. An effective free business advertising site can include testimonials from happy customers endorsing their track record. These testimonials and referrals should be placed evenly throughout the web site at vantage positions.
Articles with key words, and in return your web site, will be picked up by search engines and can be offered to publication web sites for free with a reference or link to your site.
Ask for business on your free business advertising site
You may expect many outcomes from your online internet advertising business. In every case, you will need to ask for it. Visitors like easy guidance to decide what to next. Every page on your free business advertising site should invariably have a conveyor belt strategy like interactive menus and go to the next page with easy and obvious steps. Asking for and giving away information is an intrinsic part of the internet and visitors would like to know where their information is going. Asking visitors to consider signing up could well be the question to all the answers on free business advertising!
Carael Knight is a renowned internet marketing expert.
Known as “The Internet CEO”, Carael Knight has built a six figure income by successfully marketing multiple products and services online.
Find out how to make money online with these strategies, http://www.majorenterprise.net.
Goal Setting For Small Business
We see personal development life coaches at seminars, authors in books and tape programs often talk about goal setting, but it can be hard to figure out how to apply that to your small business. In this article, we will look on where you can apply goal setting for small business.
In this article, you will discover:
* A Look At Goal Setting For Small Business And Personal Development Goal Setting
* The Processes - The Key To Goal Setting For Small Business
* How To Increase Your Bottom Line With Goal Setting For Small Business
* A Look At Goal Setting For Small Business And Personal Development Goal Setting
You have a small business. You go to a personal development seminar, and learn about goal setting. Now, you maybe apt to thinking that this applies only to long range goals, mixing your personal life into the equation. Though this is important in the broad sense, goal setting for small business needs you to focus for your business.
So, we can take this information, and consider our long range goals, such as a decade, few years or a year. Then we may look at more mid ranges of goal setting for small business, and consider 6 months, a quarter, and a month. Then we may consider smaller time frames such as a fortnight, week.
Finally this may come down to setting goals for a few days, few hours, even minutes at a time. This is generally done within our to do’s. You think about what you want to accomplish, and then write it down, then act, and check them off.
* The Processes - The Key To Goal Setting For Small Business
Goal setting for small business however does not simply rest on setting those kinds of time based goals. You now have an opportunity to delve a bit deeper. You can set goals for your sales and sales team.
You can set goals for your productivity, your customer retention rate, and many others. Goal setting programs in the main don’t offer customized information for the small business owner. There are simply not that many goal setting for small business programs.
Though goal setting systems are designed for multiple uses, i.e. that you can design your life or look at your daily goals, you have to adapt the goal system for your needs. This comes down to your small business, and knowing more about your business is the key to success here.
* How To Increase Your Bottom Line With Goal Setting For Small Business
You have many opportunities to increase your bottom line. Goal setting for your small business can make this a possibility. The first point to consider is everything about your business.
What kind of things can you measure? Ultimately you want to be able to measure something, to be able to know if you are making progress. As you know more about the processes of your business, and the parts, you can do goal setting for small business, and ultimately find that you are finding more opportunities to grow your bottom line.
From goal setting to goal achievement, Kozan Huseyin has helped many people find there own success story. Learn the true success secrets to setting goals and seeing those goals materialise in reality! http://www.howtogoalset.info
Stock Trading Made Too Easy
Stock is ownership in a company. Each share of stock represents a small piece of ownership. The more shares a person holds, the more part of the company he owns. The more part of the company a person owns translates to more dividends he earns when the company profits.
That is if the company pays dividends. Many do not these days as they want to use cash flow to build a bigger business rather than pay out cash to shareholders.
A stock market is a market for the trading of publicly held company stock as well as associated financial instruments such as stock options and stock index futures. On the other hand, stock market trading is the buying or selling of securities specifically in the stock market, usually on stock market exchanges, like the New York Stock Exchange.
There are two basic methods of doing stock market trading. Traditionally, stock markets where open-outcry where trading happened on the stock exchange floor. The more modern way of doing stock trading is through electronic exchanges where everything occurs online real-time.
Stock market trading via the exchange floor could not look any more chaotic. When the stock market is open, hundreds of people are seen rushing about, shouting and gesturing to each another on the exchange floor. Traders are also often seen talking on phones, keeping a close eye on the consoles and entering data into terminals.
Online stock market trading moves the trading off the floors and more into the networks. The electronic market employs a vast network of computers to match buyers and sellers instead of human brokers. While lacking the excitement of the usual stock market exchange floor, it is faster and more efficient. Investors frequently get an almost instant confirmation on any trades done.
How does stock market trading work? Be it on the chaotic stock market exchange floor or electronically, one needs to get an investment broker first.
For traditional exchange floor trading, after asking a broker to buy a certain number of shares at the market, the broker’s order department sends this order to the clerk on the floor. The clerk alerts a trader who finds another trader who is willing to sell the shares the investor requested.
The two traders agree on a price for the stocks and close the deal. Notification is sent back the same way until the broker calls the investor to inform him of the final price. This process may take a while depending on the market and stocks. Days later, the investor receives the confirmation by snail mail. This process is so yesterday.
The electronic counterpart is less complicated because the stock buying and selling are matched by the computers in real-time. And the investors get instant updates on the price action and profits or losses for their stock trades.
With so many discount brokerage firms operating on the Internet trading stocks is easier than ever. An investor and stock trader can easily and inexpensively trade stocks from his home or office computer.
That’s why it is more important than ever to be disciplined in one’s approach to stock investments. These days it is so easy to buy and to sell stocks online that it is easy to over do it. Few traders will make money by constantly churning their own accounts.
Gerald “Taipan” Greene is a retired forex trader and portfolio manager who worked in Asia for over 20 years. The nickname was acquired in Hong Kong and is now used for a number of financial related blogs. One of them is at http://www.stock-trading-pro.com
