The good news is something the US overseas investor may not know and that is that the IRS has no interest in foreign real estate holdings. Overseas properties often do not even have to be reported to the IRS. Unlike other worldwide income or assets, US owners of second homes for either personal use or investment purposes are not subject to US taxes on the property itself; in most cases they don’t even have to be declared to the authorities such as with the recently introduced IRS Form 8938.

Something else the US tax payer or investor may not know: It is legal and possible to move IRA funds offshore and use them to buy foreign real estate – in spite of what a tax or IRA adviser might say.

Learn more about this and investing money abroad.

Traders who are au fait with binary options trading will be interested in an opportunity to profit (they also know the risks) from buying options on the Facebook IPO – the initial public offering of Facebook shares which is expected to take place within the next few weeks. The opening share price has not been decided yet, but the value of the offering is expected to be above $100 billion.

Facebook One Touch options is inviting traders to predict the stock’s IPO valuation by buying options at a chosen price. There is a range of “put” and “call” options for predicting the valuation from as high as $140 billion down to $53 billion. Something for everyone!

All of the options offer high returns of up to 300%. For example, a trader can receive a return of $400 by placing a $100 position on Facebook 140. The outcome is determined by the market value of Facebook being above $140 billion at the end of the first day of trading in Facebook shares.

Learn more about this unique opportunity (possibly the only one available for non-US investors) from anyOption.

Watch a video and learn more about Thor Forex here.

Here is a screen shot I took of trading results:

A VPS is like having a whole computer (server) – with its own operating system and programs you can load on it – based in a chosen country such as the US or UK/Europe. The interface appears as a separate ‘desktop’ on the computer you are physically using; when connected, it allows you to use those programs. The service can be (and is usually) left running remotely even while the local machine is switched off.

Typical users of a VPS are forex traders.  They need a continuous internet connection to their broker trading account 24 hours 6 days a week when the markets are open. They use automated trading systems which can enter and exit trades as long as the connection is maintained. The most popular program (trading platform) for this is MetaTrader.

A further advantage is using a VPS located in the same country or area as the broker. This lessens the ‘latency’ between trade triggers and improves trading performance.

See www.Forex-on-Auto.com for more information about automated forex trading and VPS providers, and why serious traders use them for better results.

The image (full size on the above site) shows a VPS being used on a Windows PC, with the MetaTrader forex platform running. You can see shortcuts to other programs available on this ‘PC within a PC’.

Visit www.Forex-on-Auto.com

 Read our VPN post which explains how a simple to set up service can be invaluable to expats wanting to watch or download their favorite shows from the home country.

Here’s a hint:

Do you have any idea what the components are?

It’s based on years of observation and research into what separates the losing traders from the ones that consistently have an edge in the markets, and if you trade with ALL FOUR parts of the formula, whether intentionally or not, then failure is pretty much a certainty.

However, these four forex trading ‘sins’ are easy to avoid once you understand the ‘formula’.

When you avoid the sins, you automatically have an edge over most other traders.

It’s all explained in this short video story…

So, are you guilty of committing any of these forex ‘sins’?

Watch the story and find out

Forex trading, once the domain of governments, banks and professional fund traders has become a popular part-time and in some cases, full-time pursuit for ordinary people at home with an internet connection and a little money to invest or speculate with. It’s made out to be easy to profit from trading Forex, mainly by salesmen and marketers eager to relieve you of your hard-earned cash in various ways, without warning you sufficiently of the relatively high risks involved in any market trading activity.

The Forex is an electronic, automated over-the-counter trading market for major currency pairs, and while it is very easy to learn to use, there is risk – as with any form of speculation, betting, gambling, trading investing, call it what you will. The fact is that for every winner, there must be a loser. It’s what is known as a ‘zero-sum game’.

While the forex trading system is easy to use by the average trader, there are aspects of currency trading that increase the risk of loss due to ‘margins’ and ‘leverage’ offered by all banks and brokers. Low margin and high leverage also mean high risk and this is the primary cause of losses by inexperienced Forex traders who have not been taught the implications.

Misunderstanding, misuse or abuse of leverage offered by a dealer or broker should be considered as ‘mortal sins’ for forex traders. Although new leverage rules are now in place for US-based forex traders, there are ways to take advantage of them.

What is meant by ‘low margin’ and what exactly is ‘leverage’? Basically that you are able to control a large amount of a currency in the Forex market with a very small cash outlay. In the normal stock and index options markets it may be possible to control say 100 shares of IBM for $500, whereas to actually buy them could cost you $15,000. That’s an example of 30:1 leverage. However, in the Forex market, leverage can (or for US traders used to) be much higher – several hundred to one. The risk of large loss is that much greater if the trade goes the wrong way.

The recent housing market crash was a perfect example of where leverage and low margin caused massive losses among individual investors, mostly in the form of home owners. People across the world were given almost unlimited credit by banks and lenders to buy properties well beyond their ability to pay for them, even over 30 years. To tempt buyers even further, they were asked to put very little cash down as a deposit. A lot of these transactions were little more than speculative, greedy bets on the ever-continuing rise in housing prices.

However, some knowledgeable, experienced traders (notably investment banks) realized this could not continue indefinitely and they made money from others’ huge losses. Many of those losers weren’t necessarily ‘bad’ homeowners, but without knowing what it was, they had misused leverage.

The huge amount of leverage and low margin requirements available to forex traders is similar to that scenario. Previously, US traders could be offered anything up to 500:1. The new Forex leverage rules allow only 50:1 on major currencies and 20:1 on minor currencies. Some dealers and brokers may still be able to offer 100:1 leverage. But lower levels still contain risk.

When new or insufficiently experienced traders allow their emotions – primarily greed and fear – to rule their trading, they are likely to end up on the losing side of large leveraged trades which are no more than high risk bets.

You can learn more by getting a useful and free Forex Toolkit with a separate video section dedicated to using the new lower-risk leverage rules to enable you to still trade profitably and more consistently.

With professional forex coaching and trading education, including an understanding of risk and its management, steady profits from forex trading are achievable – even for a novice trader, providing they have been taught using a reliable, proven manual system or trading technique.

Forex robots are promoted willy-nilly, make the whole forex thing seem easy, but very few of them work at all and in inexperienced hands (defeating the object of the exercise: making something complicated work on autopilot) trading live accounts (real money) with forex robots or EA’s as they are also known, is a recipe for disaster.

To introduce his latest innovative trading system and comprehensive forex training course being released later this month, Bill Poulos, one of the Forex trading community’s most seasoned “veterans”, has made a video which explains what’s behind his Forex Profit Multiplier training course and trading system which also provides signals by email or SMS (text) to users wherever they may be in the world.

For the past year Bill  has been working diligently in his “trading lab” coming up with a solution to some of the most-asked questions from traders trying to make a success of their trading. Top of the list is “How can I make more money in less time, even if I’m not a technical Forex geek?”

To address this properly, Bill had three major challenges. He wanted to find a way to shorten the time needed to actively find and manage the highest probability, lowest risk trades, give the trader total control to see these trades to completion; a third essential was to include continuous protection for the trader’s portfolio.

After a lot of research and testing, he’s now ready to demonstrate the way to multiply profit potential in highly lucrative markets in 60 seconds or less of active trading.

Watch the video in which Bill reveals his new forex course and system.

The “secret weapon” behind his discovery is a custom piece of intelligent software that cost over $20,000 to develop; it can predict with a high level of accuracy which way any of the 6 major Forex pairs are headed in the next 8 hours.

This is NOT a robot or EA (expert advisor) or other chart  “plug-in”, but a complete, step-by-step approach to trading that’s unlike anything seen before.

The Forex Profit Multiplier trading system is one that virtually any forex trader can use, regardless of experience. Plus, it easily fits into a busy schedule because it requires just 60 seconds here and there throughout the day to place and manage potentially profitable trades.

Take a look at Bill explaining the Forex Profit Multiplier system and see it in action.

However, I’ve just read a report that surprisingly disputes this – at least in the way that Wall Street usually recommends, and shows proof. This is not about exotic derivatives that caused the recent economy meltdown, but the major markets and  mainstream shares – the kind you hear about every day on CNBC, Bloomberg and the like.

Download this 10-page pdf and after reading it, see if you still believe that ‘normal’ diversification still works in today’s financial markets.

There is a solution too. Clue: Think Global.

First was Forex Nitty Gritty for currency market trading and more recently Stock Trading Nitty Gritty. This includes 9  easy-to-understand online training videos. They contain everything you need to know to begin trading stocks, including not only the basics of stock trading but some more complex strategies such as used by ‘master’ traders.

Charting techniques are covered such as single and double tops, triangles, head and shoulders, 1-2-3 formations, flags and pennants. There are also explanations of the more popular technical indicators such as Fibonacci as well as how to use ‘candlestick‘ charts. If you can read this common chart display method correctly, you have a great means of identifying the next movement of a forex pair, stock or commodity. This is an important topic on its own. See more below on Candlesticks.

At the end of the training, as a bonus, Bill Poulos reveals a ‘secret’ strategy that he and his team uses regularly when trading stocks. It’s fairly conservative but consistent returns can be expected from trading this way.

Stock Trading Nitty Gritty accomplishes everything it was designed for which is to introduce stock trading to beginners, with the bonus of a strategy that will allow a novice trader to start making profitable trades. It’s excellent value for less than $40. Money-back guarantee of course, though I’ve never heard of anyone returning it.

More on Candlestick Charting

There are several ways to learn about candlestick chart analysis; the best is from acknowledged expert Steve Nison who provides a free special report.

If you’re in a hurry and with a limited budget, get an inexpensive ‘Candlestick Crash Course‘ here.

If you traded options properly – with confidence, in safety and for the best returns and with the least amount of risk – you would be trading like the professionals.

One of the best courses available comes from the respected Options University which is opening its Live Trading Labs to a limited number of student traders. OU is also giving away almost $800 worth of their best options training.

To get a unique ‘insider view’ of professional options trading you can attend either (or both) of two free webinars being held on Tuesday, February 16. Learn how professional traders find successful trades and how they manage risk.

The Live Trading Labs will give you the luxury of watching expert options traders as they identify the most profitable trades that the market has to offer, and then TRADE THEM – right in front of your eyes.

The preview webinars are being held next Tuesday, February 16. The first is at 12 Noon EST (New York time) – convert this to your time – and the second at 9:00 pm EST – check your local time.

Options University gives you a ‘sneak preview’ of the Live Trading Labs, and shows you how expert options traders make their money.

You’ll also find out how you can get $794 worth of the best options training FREE if you decide to join the Live Trading Labs at the Options University.

Register now for the free webinars (places are limited).