The choice to select an online broker for your investment portfolio makes a world of sense, and this is true whether you are dealing with a few thousand dollars… or even several millions of dollars. Some people may look down their noses at online brokerages because they charge a lesser fee for their services, and they don’t tend to be interested in chit-chat when taking orders on the phone or in person. This is not a bad thing, it’s simply business. It takes about the same amount of time for the brokerage to manage an order for any client, no matter how large or small the sum may be.

It can be tempting for individuals to consider moving away from an online broker as their net worth begins to grow, just because money managers seem to have a special cache for the wealthy. However, investors should ask themselves if this move “up the ladder” is always the best choice? It is not hard for people to become a bit “pound foolish”, as the British say, once they have more money to be managed. For many people, they can manage their sizeable accounts every bit as easily online as they did when they were just starting out. In fact, it may be even more satisfying.

Once an investor has learned how to research the market well, and has seen success with his or her efforts, is that really the time to start asking someone else how to do things? Sticking with an online broker – for the right reasons – can make all the sense in the world… even once the investments have really started to improve one’s quality of life!

Any investor who wishes to make use of an online broker – whether to take advantage of the decrease in fees, or to manage their own research – needs to be prepared for a significant difference from the world of traditional or discount brokers. First and foremost, online investors must be prepared to manage their investments according to their own research, and they must be comfortable without a friendly voice at the other end of a telephone line. For all of their benefits, one area that online brokers may be lacking is customer service!

Those making use of an online broker will usually have a wealth of information at their disposal, however. With online brokers there is often a glut of 24-hour information available for comparison and research, and investors can take full advantage of this to decide on their market strategies. With these online tools ready and waiting, a savvy investor who understands this information and can apply it well will likely feel much more comfortable in dealing with an online broker. These investors know what they are looking for, how to accomplish their goals, and really need very little in the way of coaching or outside advice. However, newer (or less confident) investors who do not fully grasp all of the analysis at their fingertips might be more at ease with a traditional broker while learning the ropes a bit, and could later make the jump to an online broker.

The best advice for working with an online broker, then, is to learn the things you need to be successful as an investor. Once that knowledge has been gained, however short or long the time that it takes, then the future interaction with an online broker will be both streamlined and comfortable.

It was like watching a soap opera but Porsche and VW were duking it out for months as they both try to take over each other. On one hand, Volkswagen clearly had the purchasing power but Porsche on the other hand has clever strategies on its own through leverage.

The German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel reported that VW would initially get 49.9 percent of Porsche and then later grab the remaining shares. In the deal, Porsche will receive 8 billion euros from VW, which will pay off some of its debt that it owes. What’s convoluted though is that Porsche currently owns more than 51 percent of VW, so it’s kind of the left hand giving money to the right. The money is much needed though, because Porsche was denied an application to get 1.75 billion euros in credit.

So after all the money shuffling, the end result is that the families that own Porsche, the Pieches and Porsches, would own half of the new VW-Porsche group, while the remaining shares are divided among the state of Lower Saxony, the Middle Eastern nation of Qatar and the general public.

Neither Porsche or VW have released any news though, so this may all be a head fake even though someone familiar with the talks are saying that the deal is likely. Hopefully, this saga comes to an end because I just want to see more great cars from Porsche!

Finally, bastard Madoff is being sent to prison.

As you may recall, Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison and today marks the first day that he will start his sentence in Butner, North Carolina after leaving federal jail in New York City on Monday.

For those that want to look him up, he is prisoner number 61727-054 in the Bureau of Prisons.

It’s great to see that not only is Madoff in jail, he is in a medium security facility, meaning that he will have limited access to the public and probably won’t have a good time at all. For someone who’s used to private yards and estates, this is going to be an emotional win for everyone he’s screwed.

The facility also held other well known criminals, such as John and Tim Rigas, founder of Adelphia Communications, when they were convicted for securities and bank fraud. Jonathan Pollard, the spy for Israel that were connived more than twenty years ago. Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was park of the plot to kill the Egyptian President and to blow up New York City landmarks in 1995.

What a company, and rightly so. While ponzi-schemes are nothing new, the size and magnitude of the Madoff case is astounding. For over two decades, Madoff have scammed and lost as much as $50 billion dollars, leaving many investors devastated.

I just hope that they catch the people that were helping Madoff pull this off, because so far, everyone else is being let out easy.

I wished everyone just listened to my advice and sold. After yesterday’s huge decline, the market seems to be down again after the May home sales number missed expectations.

Even though May home sales rose to a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.77 million, it is modest at best and the picture is still very fragile. With one third of every home sold being a foreclosure or a distressed sale, the normal housing market still looks pretty dead, not to mention that the national median price just keeps getting killed (it currently sits at $173,000, down 16.8 percent from last year).

Even when people want to buy, it’s hard to get a loan to close on the house too. With falling prices, appraisers won’t lend out more money than a comparable house sold for. Let me give you an example. Let’s say that the house you want to buy is asking $400,000 and you agreed. When the lender figures out that the neighboring house was sold for $300,000 a month ago, they won’t lend you more than 80% of that amount. Therefore, the maximum loan amount of your house is only going to be $240,000. In this case, you can either come up with a $160,000 down payment, or walk away. Lately, many of the houses are falling apart because of this phenomenon.

Told you so. The housing market still has ways to go.

The confusion between OptionsXpress and Option Express stock broker is a lesson for all marketing folks – Make sure your name is very easy to remember and cannot be confused with a similar spelling. Which one is it then? Find out if you are right all along.

Click Here to Sign Up for an OptionsXpress Account

OptionsXpress or Option Express

Actually, there’s no such thing as Option Express, but it’s funny because there are more people on the Internet searching for the term than the real name, OptionsXpress. If you have any questions before, know the truth. The word with the “X” is the real name of the company. It’s not optionxpress either. It’s OptionsXpress.

Now That We Got it Out of the Way, Who is OptionsXpress?

OptionsXpress is a stock broker that attempts to differentiates itself from the competition through the emphasis on options trading. Unlike everybody else, the broker charges for options trade by the bulk. Here’s what I mean.

Options Trading Fees

Under the options broker, they charge you a flat fee of $15.00 for 10 contracts, and $20 for 20 contracts instead of the nickel and dime approach of every other stock broker. Also, they are big on “no hidden fees”, and they back it up with a Trade & Margin Calculator that helps you break down the total expense of a particular investment including the initial cost of purchasing the security, buying power required, estimated commission charge and the potential profit or loss.

Don’t just listen to me, see what this guy has to say about them.

Extras in Virtual Trade

One thing I love from OptionsXpress is that the brokerage firm seem to understand that not all of us are investment professionals, so they’ve setup what they called Virtual Trade. With it, they give you $5,000 in virtual funds so you can test out the platform and strategies to see whether trading is right for you, as well as familiarize yourself with the interface.

What Else Do I Get?

With an OptionsXpress account, you get:

• Free access to 18 powerful trading tools.
• Free broker-assistance on trades.
• Free education – virtual seminars, newsletters and tons of videos and literature.
• Free real-time and streaming quotes.
• Best Execution Price Guarantee.

Not bad. Not bad at all…

Bonus – Probably for a limited time, they are also willing to pay you up to $100 of transfer fees if you switch from another broker to OptionsXpress.

Click Here to Sign Up for an OptionsXpress Account

At least temporarily. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate sits at 5.38 percent this week, down from last week’s 5.59 percent, the highest level in seven months.

As we know, government debt is getting harder and harder to service so they’ve been jacking up Treasury yields in order to attract buyers. Of course, this means the cost of every type of loans, mortgage included, will rise. During the past month, rates jump significantly from well below 5 percent to 4.01 percent last week.

However, as Wednesday’s inflation data showed, there really isn’t anything to worry yet, sending Treasury yields down. The result? Better mortgage rates for consumers.

The mortgage rates are a big issue for everyone, because too high of a rate means that borrowers aren’t able to borrow as much and could slow down or halt the housing recovery that many have hoped for.

I, for one, don’t think it really matters because there’s no stopping the housing slowdown (especially where I live, Southern California). Houses here are routinely in the million dollar range, and with median income never able to afford such a price tag, home prices have no where to go from fall.

If you still think the stock market is going higher, gas prices rising for the 50th day in a row will get you thinking about it a little longer.

Retail gas prices climbed another day today, marking the 50th straight day of rise and the longest streak in record since people started keeping track in 1996.

Usually, summer season is when gas stations jack up the prices as people start driving more, but the recent surge in crude oil prices and the drastic cut back from refiners have added to the pressure.

I still remember a few short months ago when gas prices came back down to sub $2 level. Now, I’m happy when I see $3 gas (I live in Southern California).

With this gas price surge, it’s going to be interesting to see how the U.S. consumer with high unemployment and fear of inflation will deal with all this. Economic recovery? Please…

And the argument that there’s less demand this year? That’s also incorrect. Demand for gasoline was up 1.1% from last year, averaging 9.3 million barrels a day over the past four weeks.

I guess the only way we can get out of this is if the dollar strengthens, which again is not the best thing for the stock market.

Gather more cash everyone! Looks like the mattress trade is coming back!

It started out good but the selling pressure just started to mount. The Dow is off 80 points as of writing and continues to decline. In early morning, investors were encouraged by the rising housing starts that point to stabilization of the sector. In addition, the smaller than expected rise in producer prices tamed investor fear that inflation is on the horizon (these people that think inflation is anywhere near us is insane IMO).

However, industrial production had a steeper than expected slide last month and that spoked the market. As soon as it came out, the market just started tanking. “There’s really no real reason to buy right now”, says one trader. Show me why I should buy stocks, and I can point to 10 more reasons why you shouldn’t.

Best Buy also reported “not so good” results. The largest electronics retailer was off nearly 7 percent today alone.

Get your cash ready. There will be time to buy into the market but it’s not now.

So many people are in denial about the recovery of the housing market because they believe the recovery is near. If the homebuilders, the companies that spent hours and hours each day analyzing the market is pessimistic about the market, how can you possibly believe that the bottom is near?

The National Association of Home Builders says its housing market index dropped to 15, a one point decline from May. It’s better than the all time low of 8 in January, but 15 still sucks.

This index consists of opinions from 548 residential developers nationwide, so it’s not like it’s asking some guys off the street. While they believe that while traffic should remain at similar levels, sales expectation is not as good as it was in May.

Still bullish on the housing market? Pretty soon, the builders will be looking for 0 balance transfer credit cards to pay off their debt as well. Ha!

If you are planning to buy a house, be prepared to take a hit financially.