Internet E Club

Be receptive, good info is where you find it.  2nd, you can find the costliness of information doesn't always reflect its' worth.  Lots of the best material you will get is free.  Your first sources of investment information are 2 : Manhattan Stock Exchange member firms and the firms in which you are interested.  Your broker will supply correct, current material, free for the asking.  The increase in the amount of new financiers has launched many firms on broad-scale tutorial programs.  Many of them have weekly market letters, monthly or quarterly surveys, analyses of individual stocks or industries.

( a tabulation shows that some 296 member firms now issue about 30,700 market letters, 15,500 pieces of sales literature, and 1,800 special reports a pile of paper some 38 feet high and weighing around 975 pounds ) the once each week letter is customarily the work of a senior analyst whose job is to move around and tap pro opinion about current market trends, or to conduct field inquiries of new developments in firms or industries.  It is conversational, newsy, and always not especially exhaustive.  The monthly and quarterly surveys are much more thoroughgoing, but the editorial and production time concerned in putting them together makes them something less than up to date.  These typically compare performances, indicate trends, and carry ratings or viewpoints of various groups of stocks.  You can get on the contact list for those things strikingly simply. 

Also join selective web message services to offer you up to the minute data.  On request, your broker will also send you fact sheets on individual firms you might be entranced by.  On request, too, you'll get rather more intricate studies of firms or industries, the range relying often on the flexibility of your brokerage firm's research dep..  These are typically more acceptable than your broker can offer, annual reports contain balance sheets, consolidated income statements, and takings records going back ten or maybe 20 years, as well as general factual information on the corporation's's activities. 

It must be remembered that corporations are naturally biased in favour of their own business interests, and are inclined to put their best foot forward.  This doesn't suggest that their data cannot be trusted, but simply a yearly report, as an example, which is management's accounting of its stewardship to investors, will put the company in the best light.  It's possible that there'll be an overenthusiastic view of its performance or prospects.  Secondary sources coming simply to hand, are standard papers some six hundred of which now print daily stock tables and general circulation mags coping with business and finance. 

These have the advantage of non-involvement with the money community as such, and most probably a wider viewpoint on the news. 

On the other hand, they may lack some of the data swiftly found in more specialised financial publications.  If you're trading on the foreign-exchange download some foreign exchange software to help foretell future changes in price .

Other resources to check out:

Trend Forex System

Trend Forex System Info

Here we go again . . . Apple App Store Fail No. 5102928. A few weeks ago stealth Israeli startup Tawkon gave me a sneak-peak developer build of what I believe is the most important app on my iPhone. What does it do? It analyzes the cellular radiation your iPhone emits at any given moment, at any given location, whether in standby mode, or within a call.

Sounds like science fiction, right? Well, that’s where Israeli hardware and software engineering prowess come into play (more on that in a second). Sadly, Israeli military training may have met its match . . .  the infamous iPhone App Store approval process.

The purpose of Tawkon’s app is to provide the user with an indication—or “prediction” as they call it—of the radiation level being emitted by the iPhone. This level changes based on environmental conditions, distance from cell towers, and even the manner in which the device is held. To illustrate: the iPhone’s antenna is located at the bottom of the device. If the user cradles the phone too tightly in the palm, the antenna has to work harder, thereby increasing radiation. The 3GS models have improved chipsets, so radiation would be lower on them compared to previous versions, and Tawkon takes this into considering when calculating its prediction.

When launched, the app instantly provides users with an indication of the radiation level in the iPhone’s stand-by mode. A green/orange/red pulse makes this dummy-proof. For example, radiation levels in my office are minimal, but are much higher in the men’s room which is deeper in the building, where more concrete forces the iPhone to work harder to hold a connection to the nearest cellular base station.

To find out what the radiation levels are during a call, the app lets users launch a call through the iPhone’s address book. It then monitors the radiation levels in real time and sends prompts via vibration and a tone should they reach the high-end of its threshold. The app also employs the iPhone’s proximity sensor and provides suggestions such as moving location, using a headset and even changing the iPhone’s orientation to your face.

So how does Tawkon do it? Algorithmic magic analyzes your phone’s dynamic SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) levels, location, environmental factors, as well as unique smart-phone capabilities such as bluetooth, accelerometer, proximity sensors, GPS and compass. The level of radiation a person is exposed to during calls is determined by analyzing several dynamic parameters, including the impact of environmental factors such as distance from cellular towers, network and weather condition, terrain, antenna’s proximity from the body, antenna orientation (if the user is holding the phone vertically or horizontally) and travel speed.

It’s perfectly natural to be skeptical about Tawkon’s app, so let me lay out a couple of things to set the record straight: first, Tawkon is not looking for controversy. They contacted me weeks before they submitted the app to the App Store with the sincere hope of not being stonewalled. Ironically, were this a gag app, not only would there have been no controversy, the app’s revenue potential may actually be higher. Second, I have no way of testing whether the app’s output is actually correct. However, I took the time to meet the three founders and feel comfortable stating that they struck me as serious, highly capable hardware and software engineers who’ve spent 18 months developing a technology they believe holds real compelling value for users. They claim the app has gone through lab testing to ensure its output is correct. For what it’s worth, I take their word for it.

Tawkon’s app has been in the approval process for a couple of weeks with the App Store denying approval on the grounds that a diagnostic tool of this nature would create confusion with iPhone owners from a usability perspective. This reasoning was communicated by an App Store representative on a phone call with the Tawkon team. I find this claim questionable as I’ve been using the app and there’s nothing problematic about it in this respect.

Tawkon is keeping optimistic, holding hope that Apple will approve the app which they intend to sell for between $5-$10. In the mean time, it’s plugging ahead in its development of Blackberry and Android versions.

200 students surveyed in a Stanford study were found to be “addicted” to their iPhones. “When asked to rank their dependence on the iPhone on a scale of one to five – five being addicted and one being not at all addicted – 10 percent of the students acknowledged full addiction to the device, 34 percent ranked themselves as a four on the scale, and only 6 percent said they weren’t addicted at all.”

According to the survey:

Nearly 85 percent of the iPhone owners used the phone as their watch, and 89 percent used it as their alarm clock. In fact, 75 percent admitted to falling asleep with the iPhone in bed with them, and 69 percent said they were more likely to forget their wallet than their iPhone when leaving in the morning.

Is this really addiction? It’s not clear how many students shed other accessories — like a watch or an alarm clock — as a result of their iPhone. I suspect a lot of people are happy to ditch a stand-alone alarm clock at home in favor of using their phone for that task in order to simplify their lives. I’ve been using my phone as my alarm clock for several months now, and I’m perfectly happy with it. It goes with me when I travel, so my nighttime routine remains the same, regardless of where I am. And yes, I use my phone as my watch, since I don’t wear a wristwatch. Using a phone as a timepiece makes perfect sense, especially since the phone automatically updates as you travel around timezones.

The survey is not all doom-and-gloom, thankfully:

The survey also suggests there are benefits to having an iPhone fixation that may balance out the potential negatives. Over 70 percent of those surveyed said the iPhone made them more organized, and 54 percent said the iPhone made them more productive.

My own experiences jive with the Stanford survey. I add little reminders to my calendar all the time to keep me focused and organized.

The link above closes with the obvious observation that “the current survey didn’t cover attitudes toward other smartphone. It’s possible that other phones with similar features might be just as useful and endearing to their owners as the iPhone is to the Stanford students.” I think this is pretty obvious: I know lots of people who similarly rely on their Blackberries or Androids or Palm Pres to be organized and functional in today’s always-connected world.

I think the real question is not “are you addicted to your iPhone”, but rather “do the applications and features provided by your iPhone change your lifestyle?” After all, the iPhone itself isn’t terribly useful beyond time, scheduling, and communications. It’s all the apps — things like Evernote, for example — that I can’t live without.