montreal mike

yoong .. I know nothing about trading but I do know there's money to be made and of course lost.

If this is not an indelicate question, how much of an initial investment is needed to get going and what are the risks? And how can one limit them? How does one start up? Could you give us a link? Maybe you could describe a few typical trades? No need to uses actual names but a generic Y, Y, Z etc will do to illustrate.

montreal mike

Thanks for your response. I am in Montreal and have been for 45 years.

montreal mike

Honestly I don't know.

montreal mike

This sounds interesting ... I am bilingual and could do a good job translating French to English but would not handle English to French.

Never been a journalist but have tons of experience (20 years) in writing reports geared to corporate management and Boards of Directors.

Without disclosing any 'state secrets' could you elaborate further? This sort of thing might be a good fit.

montreal mike

It is well past my bedtime. Will comment further later.

Beebop

I'm attempting to learn how to trade at the moment and it's like a lot of things, the range of experience is vast.

I started with http://www.amazon.co.uk/Naked-Trader.../dp/1897597452

and read his website but I've moved onto the links I gave you earlier and also spreadbetting.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Financial-Sp...8117905&sr=1-1

But make sure you understand and more importantly have an interest in investing/trading as it is quite a challenge (she said, nursing a spreadbetting loss for the week!) Don't trade with money you can't afford to lose.

montreal mike

Thanks again ... the more links the btter. I agree with your very last sentence. Makes perfect sense.

Surrey Expat

Ever thought of consulting - If you have expertise that someone is willing to pay for. Professional speakers also make good coin, it just involves quite a bit of traveling, oh and you have to like speaking in front of groups.

Info on home based businesses from the Govt. web site.
http://www.canadabusiness.ca/servlet...277281&lang=en

montreal mike

Judy .. Good idea which has merit but the market for advice/guidance on taxes is saturated enough as it is.

There are numerous publications out there, plus nowadays there are all sorts of software programs available. Both sources are updated constantly. Most people I know somewhow or other manage to get though their tax returns on their own.

Those with more complicated scenarios will usually seek the services of an established practitioner, which I am not.

There is another ethical aspect. I can give free advice here on anything under the sun and people are not obliged to take it. However shoddy advice, for which one charges, on tax matters has a moral/ethical aspect as it could cost people money.

Not for me but thanks for the suggestion.

Beebop

Also Alexander Elder's book "Come into my Trading Room" as it has chapters on risk & money management.

montreal mike

Funny you should make this point for some 40 years ago I wrote away for a book called '99 money-making ideas'. It was ten US dollars then which for me was about a day's pay. I got the publication mailed to me which consisted of six pages of type-written photocpies. I did not find any usefull but I did get 99 ideas. I recall then thinking what a marvelous money making scheme this was. To the present now, I have bookmarked the site 'Profit Lance' and will take a closer look. In the meantime if you succeed please let us all know.

montreal mike

Judy .. I ran through the material on the website in fair detail. On the plus side it is remarkably well presented, attractive, with a simple easy-to-follow lay out.

But .. and here there is a but .. the approach is one I am all too familiar with. The old story of once slaving away at a job one didn't like. Money now rolling in all the time with virtually no effort or so it would seem. Glances at ones bank statements and numerous testimonials. The 'Look at my humble origins, now look where I am' technique. Being able to rise at a late hour and having time for the kids. Trips to far off exotic locations. Now all this may all be perfectly true and kosher but it sounds all too familiar too me.

Anyways I try to have an open mind. Since you aim to pursue it anyways and if it does prove worthwhile, please let us know or send me a PM via the site.

Whatever the case, good luck!

Judy in Calgary

I don't blame you for being sceptical, Mike. I know what you mean about that familiar sales pitch.

I had tried a couple of products before this one, and had grown frustrated. What I found with the others was that, the sales pitch notwithstanding, the product didn't really include enough information to help me to get up and running. As I went through the tutorials, I discovered that, to really make the system work, I would have to purchase this or that additional product. It's like going into McDonald's and having the clerk ask, "Would you like fries with that, Ma'am?" or, "Would you like to supersize that, Ma'am?" In fact, in the case of the other products I had tried, it seemed as if the initial product was only a lure to draw one in so that the author could then "cross-sell" and "up-sell."

What sets Profit Lance apart from the other products I've tried is that it truly is a one-time purchase. Once I gained entry to the members' area, there were so many tutorials that I immediately realised that it would take me months to go through them all. Fortunately they are arranged in such a way that the more elementary ones are presented first. In other words, I estimate that, within a month or so, I will be able to get a website up and running. Then I can continue to do further tutorials that take the initial set up to a more sophisticated level.

In addition to the numerous tutorials that explain the nuts and bolts of running an online business, the author also provides supplementary material on broadly related topics. For example, he has a section in which he reviews the products that other "gurus" in the same general field sell. He lists, in concrete terms, what the benefits or faults of those products are. In many cases he says, "This is just a bunch of fluff that doesn't have any meat to it." But in a few cases he says, "This is a very solid product that provides good information," and he goes on to explain the good points of that product.

He has a blog in which he regularly provides fresh reviews of new products that have come onto the market. These reviews are cross-referenced, so that one can see them in the blog (which is organised by date) as well as in the product review section.

Prior to this I had run into one Aussie who was selling blogging tutorials. Otherwise all of the folks whom I have encountered in the online marketing world have been Americans. Michael Andrews, the author of Profict Land, on the other hand, speaks with a British accent. I didn't realise that he was British until I heard his voice in the video tuturials.

This took me a bit by surprise. I looked around his website to see if I could find out where he was located. The address of Profit Lance is 70 Brunswick Street, Cleveland. At first glance I thought it was Cleveland, Ohio. But then, on a subsequent visit to the website, I noticed that the postal code was TS18 1DW. That looked to me like a UK postal code. I did a Google search for CLEVELAND + UK, and found that there was a Cleveland in Yorkshire.

I didn't try this product because the author was British. I found out the author's nationality only after I'd made the commitment. However, I did find it quite interesting that this guy, who seemed to me to be so much better than the others I'd tried, was British.

I don't see a home-based business as an avenue for working two hours a day and taking trips to the Mediterranean once every three months. I envisage it as something that will take a lot time and effort, at least initially, while I'm on this steep learning curve and getting my business up and running.

On the other hand, it's a form of work that I enjoy (as evidenced by my activities on this forum), and it's also a form of work that is portable. I can do it at home, and "home" could be anywhere. The hours are flexible, and one can work in one's pajamas.

Also, if one manages to find a home study course that genuinely delivers, there is little capital outlay. The main investment is sweat equity (to the extent that thinking and typing involves "sweat"). I mean there is no physical inventory that one needs to store, and there is no product that one physically has to ship to customers, and so on. At least that is true if one is selling information in an electronic form, as I intend to do.

About living the lifestyle of the rich and famous ....... I recently read an interview that a business publication held with a online marketing guru. When you see this fellow's sales bumph, you see photos of his $2 million house, you see photos of him on the golf course, etc. I don't think he's lying about his wealth. From what I can gather, he really is a millionaire. But the fascinating thing is that, when the business publication asked him how much he worked, he said that in the period in which he'd established his business, he'd worked 70 - 80 hours a week, and now he was working 40 - 50 hours a week. That was quite a revelation, considering what his sales pitch sounded like. Now that I come to think of it, I don't remember if he actually said one could work only two hours a day. But he certainly conveyed that impression.

Anyway, Mike, I'll get back to you in a few months and let you know how things are going for me.

montreal mike

Consulting is a great idea. Of course the trick is have the contacts.

Judging by some of the posts, this thread and many others, I have a hunch a few of us right here are knowledgeable and write well and these seem to be the ones with good skills who are not shy to speak in front of an audience (I did once and ran out of time and not of things to say) and don't mind hopping on a plane.

The govt. website you linked to is interesting. Curiously enough astrology is a at the top of the alphabetical list of personal services. I am surpised to see it listed at all. Some would say astrology is all hocus pocus but others take a different, more enlightened, view.

montreal mike

Interesting post of yours Judy. I can agreee with a lot of what you say.

Yes I am a skeptic here.

Problem is I can't right now decide whether the product offered is a good one but needs a slick sales pitch to get the point across.

Or, is it simply a slick sales pitch and really nothing else?

Anyways, I would like to hear back sometime in late October or so to see how things worked out.

This thread will be dead long before then but you can always revive it or simply start a new one.