Why Invest in Urban Real Estate?

Most investors are not interested in investing in urban real estate. This means that there is a wide open opportunity for those who ARE interested in investing in urban real estate. You will likely hear umpteen reasons why you should NOT invest in urban real estate so let me give you a few good reasons why you SHOULD invest in urban real estate.

 First let’s discuss the pricing of urban real estate. If you keep your ‘ear to the ground’ so to speak you can find some real hidden gems in the urban real estate market. Not every low price is a good deal, of course, and just like with every real estate investment that you ever make, you should be certain that you do your homework.Really great deals turn up in every real estate market for one reason or another.Don’t miss those terrific investment opportunities simply because the property is in an urban area.

 Then there are the Section 8 tenants to be considered. Here is an obvious advantage to investing in urban properties. Government subsidized housing is a 21st century reality and under Section 8 the government pays a full 80% of the monthly rent. These renters are often referred to as ‘Section 8 tenants’. There is, of course, always a waiting list of potential renters and they all want to move into YOUR urban investment property. 

That adds up to a very nice and sure monthly income for you. Renters don’t always pay their rent but the government does send checks on time and in full thus eliminating much of the rent collection hassle.Let’s not overlook the fix and flip opportunity afforded by urban real estate investments. Okay, let’s face it. Today’s real estate market could be better….a lot better…but just because the over-all market doesn’t seem to be all that healthy at the moment that doesn’t mean that there aren’t some great fix and flip opportunities out there and particularly in the urban areas.

The trick to making a profit on an urban property is to sell with incentives included and, if it is a rental property, with a tenant already in residence.Don’t forget about the good old government of the United States of America. The government funds projects to rehab entire neighborhoods in urban areas and they do soon a regular basis. The local government gets funding and usually offers attractive incentives to developers and home owners investing in these urban neighborhoods.Not only that but you can some really astounding interest rate offers that will let you keep your money in your pocket and out of and danger at all. This creates a win/win/win situation.

The government gets to spend money which they seem to do so well. The inhabitants of the neighborhood get better housing and you make a nice profit. Everybody wins! There is the tired old real estate saying, “The only three things that matter in real estate are location, location and location.” That really is NOT necessarily true. Do you remember playing the board game Monopoly when you were a kid? Remember those first little properties that were located right at the beginning of the game? They were cheap. They were REALLY cheap. If you bought one of those right out of the gate, so to speak, you could have a hotel up on it almost immediately and every player in the game was going to have to land on it and pay you. It was a pretty good location but not an expensive one. It was one that you could afford to make improvements on quickly.Remember? Think of investing in urban real estate like you would think of investing in Baltic Avenue or Mediterranean Avenue.

 You don’t pay much for the property but improvements don’t cost much either and you can make a profit easily and quickly. It was good strategy for Monopoly and it is a good strategy for real live urban real estate investing. Urban property investments meet all of the criteria for sound real estate investing.There is a good rental market in an urban area. There are lots of people who need housing and that housing is very often government subsidized.Urban property is usually low priced and can even be purchased at extremely attractive interest rates as well.The market is stable in urban neighborhoods. There isn’t a boom or bust mentality. Demand is not likely to decrease.Investing in urban property can be a very good decision but you should always do your homework before you invest.

The Secret to Real Estate Riches Lies in Location, Location, Location

According to the old real estate saying, “The only three things that matter in real estate are location, location and location.” The fact is that a ten bedroom, eight bath home with cathedral ceilings and a swimming pool that is sitting next to a garbage dump is nearly worthless. On the other hand a little one bedroom, one bath shack sitting in the middle of downtown Dallas would be worth a small fortune. So you can see that the location is of the utmost importance when you are considering a piece of real estate to invest in.

 What is it that makes the location of a piece of real estate valuable? The answer is fairly simply really. The value is based on nothing more than the desirability factor. Desirability is a fluctuating intangible that is really hard to nail down. Property that is totally undesirable to one person might be just the next person’s dream-come-true. And this phenomenon is true for real estate investors and for home buyers and for renters. It is true for all aspects of the real estate market.

The main point for any real estate investor to consider first is what their strategy will be for making a profit on a property. Buying is only half of the equation and whether the location of the property is good or bad depends upon that profit strategy.For example: If an investor is going to invest in a property with the intention of just waiting for the market to go up, prime real estate is probably the very best choice.

 Locations that are near entertainment centers or developing areas would be best because the likely hood that the property will increase in value simply by waiting is a pretty good bet.On the other hand, if an investor is going to invest in a property with the intention of renting it and making a monthly income from it, he might be better off to look into urban properties. Urban properties wouldn’t be considered ‘prime’ real estate but they are ‘prime’ rental properties.Then there are real estate investors who are handy with their hands. They can make repairs and renovations to rundown properties themselves, sell it for a great deal more than their purchase price and make a very nice profit.

 The location that these kinds of real estate investors often find the best is in neighborhoods that are made up of mid priced homes in working neighborhoods.There are many factors that real estate investors consider when they are deciding which property to invest in. One factor can be what I call the ‘snob’ factor.It’s strange but people will pay a lot more money for a small property in the ‘right’ neighborhood than they will for a larger property in a less desirable neighborhood. However...one person’s definition of a ‘good’ neighborhood will not be anywhere close to another person’s definition of a ‘good neighborhood.Then there is the ‘visibility’ factor. If a neighborhood or an area has become famous or even infamous, property values rise regardless of the location.

 Convenience is another factor when considering the desirability of the location of a piece of property. People do like to live close to where they work and where their children attend school. Rising gas prices just might work wonders for real estate prices in inner cities. The desirability of the location of any piece of real estate can be determined by a great many different factors for real estate investors and for home buyers and renters. If the location is desirable for the investor’s purposes he will invest.If the location is desirable for a home buyer’s purposes then he will buy. If the location is desirable for a renter’s purposes then he will rent. So basically, you can roll all of the various factors for determining whether a location is good or bad into one simple work; desirability.

 We are a nation of individuals. We all see things from a different point of view. Look around. There are people living everywhere. They live in big cities, small towns and in urban and rural areas. Who can determine what a ‘good’ location really is?There is a proverb that says, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. The modern version would be ‘whatever floats your boat is good’. In real estate it would translate to ‘if the location serves your purpose then it’s a good location’.

How to Find Hot Markets for Buying Investment Property

Investing in real estate is not a new path to financial success. It is a well worn path and it is so well worn because it is such an effective way to make a great deal of money in a relatively short period of time.

 But you have to be a forward thinker to make any serious money in the buying and selling of real estate.The objective is to buy low and sell high and that means that you have to make a guess (an EDUCATED guess) as to what is GOING to happen tomorrow or next week or next year or ten years from now and not base your decisions on what happened yesterday, or last week, or last year or ten years ago.

 Think about the neighborhood that you grew up in. Your mom and dad bought the house when the subdivision was new. It isn’t new anymore. It isn’t on its way UP. It is on its way DOWN.The residents and the buildings are all beginning to show their age. That is the nature of real estate.

What goes up will eventually go down. You always want to buy when the area is on the rise and not when it is in decline. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule but there aren’t many.In short; you need to find the hot markets when buying investment property and in a nutshell the hot market is where the people are GOING.

 Determining where people are going is the trick.Buying in an area that is already popular can be a hot market providing you can make a good deal on the property but finding out about upcoming changes in the infrastructure can lead you to where people will be going in the future.Infrastructure changes are such things as major highway construction, marinas or entertainment facilities. Basically, you base your real estate market investments upon the cold hard facts and not what you hope will happen or what your barber tells you.Right now isn’t a great time to invest in real estate in the USA but there are hot properties overseas that you can take full advantage of while you wait for the US real estate market to recover. Costa Rica is a good example.Costa Rica is only 3 hours from the mainland. It is a hugely popular vacation destination and beach front property has been on an upward spiral for several years but it appears that the trend is going to continue.

 Real estate investing is not an exact science. You always have to weigh the risk against the potential reward and if you do decide to invest in overseas property it is wise to employ a local attorney to oversee the process.Then there is always the ‘cool’ factor that shouldn’t be overlooked when searching for hot investment real estate. For example: in California there is an area called ‘the Venice Beach’ area. There was a film made there a few years ago that was loaded with skate boarders and surfers. Suddenly, Venice Beach became a very ‘cool’ place to live and real estate prices soared! So don’t overlook ‘cool’.Keep both eyes on large corporation expansion plans.

 When corporations build, expand or even relocate the real estate market will boom simply because of demand for housing and small businesses. If a Wal-Mart is going to be built in a town, can a McDonald’s be far behind? And all of those people who will be coming in to run Wal-Mart and all of the small businesses that it spawns will need housing.Yes! Business can cause real estate prices to go up and can create hot properties for investment purposes!Remember that old song that Willie Nelson recorded, “You have to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away and know when to run”. Although the song was about gambling the advice is solid for investing in real estate. Choosing what properties to invest in should be made strictly upon solid facts.

A building permit for a marina is solid proof that a marina is going to be built and that the adjacent property values are going to go up.Your cousin telling you that he HEARD that a marina was going to be built is NOT a fact. It’s hearsay and you shouldn’t bet a lot on hearsay! Investing in real estate is an excellent way to get a very high return but you really do need to know what you are doing to keep from losing your shirt.

Tenderfoot Education in Real Estate Investing 101

Back in the days of the wild, Wild West, when easterners traveled across this vast country looking for opportunity in the newly opened territories, they were often referred to as a ‘tenderfoot’. This wasn’t a complimentary term but it was a rather apt one.

The easterners wore ‘city’ shoes that weren’t designed to withstand the rigors of the western terrain. Their hats didn’t have wide brims to protect them from the sun and their clothing wasn’t made of tough material like denim.hese new westerners didn’t know how to take care of themselves and because they didn’t know where and what the dangers were they didn’t have any idea how to avoid them. If you are just beginning to consider the idea of investing in real estate you are a tenderfoot and you do need some instruction to avoid losing your shirt…and probably your pants, hat and boots, as well.

First you will need to determine what your strategy will be in real estate investing. Do you want to buy a property, fix it up and sell it quickly or do you want to buy a property, hold it and wait for the market to increase? Do you want to deal with renters? All of these questions are ones that you need to answer before you invest in any piece of real estate.You will need to learn how to investigate the value of properties yourself. It isn’t fair to use the time of a real estate agent and have them show you property after property while you try to look for a good real estate investment.

 There are several online sites that are helpful in determining the real value of real estate. DO NOT rely on tax values. They are not reliable and they are not accurate either. You can find a real estate agent that you can work with and you can find recommendations for such agents online. After you have learned how to determine property values yourself and have chosen a real estate agent that you can work with, the next thing that you need is a good broker that you can also work with. Ask your real estate agent for the names of three mortgage brokers.

Then you will need to find out what interest rates and closing costs each one charges. (Check out your local bank or credit union as well). Take copies of your three credit reports and choose a sample property for each broker to run hard numbers on. Now you are ready to actually make your first investment. You want to choose the lowest price house in the best possible neighborhood to put a contract on.

Let's say the cheapest two-bedroom house in the best neighborhood in Fort Wayne costs $100,000 and the next cheapest, comparable home is listed for $140,000. If you buy the home that is priced at $100,000, you can raise your price to $130,000 the next day and make a dandy little profit.Now let’s talk about closing the deal. First show the seller your pre-qualification letter from your lender. Then get the required inspections for termites and get your appraisal. Once you have all of your ‘ducks in a row’ so to speak, it takes about 30 days to make the final close.A note here about any renovations or repairs that you might want to make to the property: Before you close, you might want to think about a Purchase and Renovate loan.

 A Purchase and Renovate loan wraps the cost of construction up in the loan so you don’t have many out-of-pocket expenses. This may require an estimate from a general contractor and plans from an architect as well.Okay, now let’s go back to the first thing that you needed to do and that was to determine your strategy. Now is the time for you to execute that strategy that you have used to invest in this real estate. If you bought it with the strategy of flipping it when the market went up then you just simply wait.If you bought it with the strategy of renovating and then selling then it is time to start your renovations.

 On the other hand, if you bought it with the strategy of renting it, it is time to start looking for tenants.You see, the point of having a strategy for profiting from the purchase of any piece of real estate must be your first decision because everything that comes after that is dependent upon it.

Affiliate Marketing Ideas

Affiliate marketing is an outstanding way to get started making money online, because you don’t have to invest much (or any) money, you don’t have to have your own products, and you don’t have to deal with customer service or shipping.All you really need to be successful in affiliate marketing is a strong desire to succeed and the knowledge to make it happen. I can’t give you the motivation you need, but I can certainly get you started with the knowledge you need.In this report, you’re going to learn the basics of getting started with affiliate marketing. You’ll learn how to choose profitable niches, how to choose the right affiliate products to promote, and how to get traffic to your offers.Everything I’m going to teach you will require little or no upfront investment, and very little technical knowledge. These are very basic techniques that absolutely anyone can learn!So let’s get started…

Choosing Profitable Niches

The first thing you need to do is choose a niche to promote. This isn’t as easy as it sounds. You can’t just choose a niche - you must choose a profitable niche. Not every niche is going to be as profitable as you might hope.I have chosen niches in the past that I truly expected to be profitable, yet despite my best efforts I was unable to find a single affiliate product that would convert well enough to make the effort worth the time involved.Fortunately, I have learned how to lessen my chances of choosing dud niches. Just a few simple steps can help you eliminate some of the risk of choosing these unprofitable niches.

Brainstorming

Your first step is to make a list of niches you’re interested in promoting. Just make a long list of niches you think might be profitable, or that you’re just interested in promoting.Don’t worry about anything other than making a list of 10-20 niches right now. If you need help, you can always look around you for inspiration.Here are some places to seek inspiration:• Look around your house. Things like kitchen appliances, outdoor barbecue equipment, office supplies, audio visual equipment, and musical instruments are all niches you might spot around your house.• Browse a bookstore – either online or offline. Try Amazon.com or a bookstore in your local neighborhood. Browse the books or magazines.• Take a look around news websites for hot topics. Check sites like Google Buzz for new trends.

Checking Potential Profitability

Once you have a list of 10-20 niche ideas, it’s time to start narrowing them down by checking out their potential profitability.

There are three main ways I do this:

1. I check to see if there are any magazines being published in the niche. This is sometimes, but not always an indicator that a niche might be profitable.

2. I check to see how many people are advertising on Google AdWords for the niche. People aren’t likely to advertise en masse in a niche that isn’t profitable, especially if the CPC is very high.

3. I check the MSN Commercial Intention tool for some of the most popular commercial websites in the niche. http://adlab.msn.com/Online-Commercial-Intention/I really like the Commercial Intention tool. It’s pretty accurate. Let’s say I want to be an affiliate for golf equipment. I would enter something like “golf clubs” in the tool, select the “Query” radio button, and then click “Go”. For the phrase “golf clubs”, the commercial intention is 0.97, which is almost a perfect 1.0. This means the niche is almost certanily profitable, as the vast majority of people who search for that phrase will probably be interested in buying.

Keyword Research

Everything you do in affiliate marketing will require keywords. Whether you choose to use PPC marketing, article marketing, blogging, or some other form of marketing, you will need to choose the right keywords if you expect to get a decent amount of traffic.I use the Google Keyword Tool for quick and free research:https://adwords.google.com/select/

KeywordToolExternal

This keyword tool is extremely easy to use. You simply enter your seed keyword phrase and you will receive a large number of related keywords. You can sort them by the average number of monthly searches.You want to look for keyword phrases that have:• At least 1,000 monthly searches• Fewer than 50,000 competing sitesTo check competition, you want to enter each keyword phrase in quotes into Google. This will tell you how many people are targeting that exact phrase.

Traffic and Marketing

Once you have a list of keywords that have at least 1,000 monthly searches and fewer than 50,000 competing pages, it’s time to use those keywords to get traffic.There are literally hundreds, perhaps thousands of ways to get traffic, but I’m just going through some of the easiest ways to get traffic quickly and with little to no money up front.

Article Marketing

One of the easiest ways to get free traffic is by writing articles and submitting them to article directories. Many article directories have very good authority with the search engines, so articles you submit will often rank well quickly and bring in traffic.If you’re going to send people straight to an affiliate link, it’s a good idea to register a domain that you can use to redirect people to.

There are a couple of reasons for this.

1. You can easily change the affiliate link if necessary, without having to go back and edit tons of articles.

2. Some article directories require it.

Articles should be between 300 and 500 words. It’s actually a good idea to keep articles fairly short so you don’t bore people, and because you don’t want them to feel completely satisfied. To get the really good information, they need to visit the affiliate link in your resource box at the end of your article.

Some article directories to submit to include:

http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.buzzle.com
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.articlesbase.com
http://www.articlecity.com

Blogging

Blogging is another great way to get traffic. It’s best if you do it on your own domain with your own hosting, but you can also make use of free blogging platforms like Blogger.com if you want. Just be aware that they have the right to delete your blog at any time, for any reason they choose, even if you didn’t break any rules.Every time you make a blog post, be sure to include keywords in the title of the post, as well as the content. This will help ensure you get plenty of traffic from the search engines.

Social Content

Social content sites like Squidoo.com and HubPages.com have very good authority with the search engines, so the pages you create will often rank quite well.They are free, and are also extremely easy to use, even if you don’t have any technical experience. You don’t even need to know HTML, because their online wizards will help you set up pages in no time flat.As with blogging or article marketing, you need to be sure to use your keywords in your titles and content. This is the only way to ensure you’ll get traffic from the search engines.

Forum Marketing

Forums can be great for affiliate marketing, but you have to be careful. Most forums don’t allow you to post affiliate links in posts or in your signature, so read the rules carefully. You might be able to link to your blog from your signature if affiliate links aren’t allowed.

Conclusion

Now you have the basics you need to get started with affiliate marketing. You can take this information and run with it, and you can be making money almost immediately!Whatever you do, you need to keep at it. Never give up! Trust me, these things really do work.

Affiliate marketing is extremely easy, and once you have some moneymaking methods in place, they can run mostly on autopilot!

Combine these methods with some of your own and you’ll have an unstoppable money machine that just keeps cranking out the cash day after day.

Goodluck....

Forex Trading Rules: Logic Wins; Impulse Kills

More money has been lost by trading impulsively than by any other means. Ask a novice why he went long on a currency pair and you will frequently hear the answer, "Because it has gone down enough - so it's bound to bounce back." We always roll our eyes at that type of response because it is not based on reason - it's nothing more than wishful thinking.

We never cease to be amazed how hard-boiled, highly intelligent, ruthless businesspeople behave in Las Vegas. Men and women who would never pay even one dollar more than the negotiated price for any product in their business will think nothing of losing $10,000 in 10 minutes on a roulette wheel. The glitz, the noise of the pits and the excitement of the crowd turn these sober, rational businesspeople into wild-eyed gamblers. The currency market, with its round-the-clock flashing quotes, constant stream of news and the most liberal leverage in the financial world tends to have the same impact on novice traders.

Trading Impulsively Is Simply Gambling:

It can be a huge rush when a trader is on a winning streak, but just one bad loss can make the same trader give all of the profits and trading capital back to the market. Just like every Vegas story ends in heartbreak, so does every tale of impulse trading. In trading, logic wins and impulse kills. The reason why this maxim is true isn't because logical trading is always more precise than impulsive trading. In fact, the opposite is frequently the case. Impulsive traders can go on stunningly accurate winning streaks, while traders using logical setups can be mired in a string of losses. Reason always trumps impulse because logically focused traders will know how to limit their losses, while impulsive traders are never more than one trade away from total bankruptcy. Let's take a look at how each trader may operate in the market.

The Impulsive Trader:

Trader A is an impulsive trader. He "feels" price action and responds accordingly. Now imagine that prices in the EUR/USD move sharply higher. The impulsive trader "feels" that he has gone too far and decides to short the pair. The pair rallies higher and the trader is convinced, now more than ever, that it is overbought and sells more EUR/USD, building onto the current short position. Prices stall, but do not retrace. The impulsive trader, who is certain that they are very near the top, decides to triple up his position and watches in horror as the pair spikes higher, forcing a margin call on his account. A few hours later, the EUR/USD does top out and collapses, causing Trader A to pound his fists in fury as he watches the pair sell off without him. He was right on the direction but picked a top impulsively, not logically.

The Analyzer:

On the other hand, Trader B uses both technical and fundamental analysis to calibrate his risk and time his entries. He also thinks that the EUR/USD is overvalued, but instead of prematurely picking a turn at will, he waits patiently for a clear technical signal - like a red candle on an upper Bollinger band or a move in the relative strength index (RSI) below the 70 level - before he initiates the trade. Furthermore, Trader B uses the swing high of the move as his logical stop to precisely quantify his risk. He is also smart enough to size his position so that he does not lose more than 2% of his account should the trade fail. Even if he is wrong like Trader A, the logical, Trader B's methodical approach preserves his capital, so that he may trade another day, while the reckless, impulsive actions of Trader A lead to a margin call liquidation.

Conclusion:

The point is that trends in the FX market can last for a very long time, so even though picking the very top may bring bragging rights, the risk of being premature may outweigh the warm feeling that comes with gloating. Instead, there is nothing wrong with waiting for a reversal signal to reveal itself first before initiating the trade. You may have missed the very top, but profiting from up to 80% of the move is good enough in our book. Although many novice traders may find impulsive trading to be far more exciting, seasoned pros know that logical trading is what puts bread on the table. 

Forex Trading Rules: No Excuses, Ever

Our boss once invited us into his office to discuss a trading program that he wanted to set up. "I have one rule only," he noted. Looking us straight in the eye, he said, "no excuses."

Instantly we understood what he meant. Our boss wasn't concerned about traders booking losses. Losses are a given part of trading and anyone who engages in this enterprise understands and accepts that fact. What our boss wanted to avoid were the mistakes made by traders who deviated from their trading plans. It was perfectly acceptable to sustain a drawdown of 10% if it was the result of five consecutive losing trades that were stopped out at a 2% loss each. However, it was inexcusable to lose 10% on one trade because the trader refused to cut his losses, or worse yet, added to a position beyond his risk limits. Our boss knew that the first scenario was just a regular part of business, while the second one could ultimately blow up of the entire account.

The Need For Rationalization:

In the quintessential '80s movie, "The Big Chill", Jeff Goldblum's character tells Kevin Kline's that "rationalization is the most powerful thing on earth. As human beings we can go for a long time without food or water, but we can't go a day without a rationalization."

This quote has strikes a chord with us because it captures the ethos behind the "no excuses" rule. As traders, we must take responsibility for our mistakes. In a business where you either adapt or die, the refusal to acknowledge and correct your shortcomings will ultimately lead to disaster.

Case In Point:

Markets can and will do anything. Witness the blowup of Long Term Capital Management (LTCM). At one time, it was one of the most prestigious hedge funds in the world, whose partners included several Nobel Prize winners. In 1998, LTCM went bankrupt, nearly bringing the global financial markets to its knees when a series of complicated interest rate plays generated billions of dollars worth of losses in a matter of days. Instead of accepting the fact that they were wrong, LTCM traders continued to double up on their positions, believing that the markets would eventually turn their way.

It took the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and a series of top-tier investment banks to step in and stem the tide of losses until the portfolio positions could be unwound without further damage. In post-debacle interviews, most LTCM traders refused to acknowledge their mistakes, stating that the LTCM blowup was the result of extremely unusual circumstances unlikely to ever happen again. LTCM traders never learned the "no excuses" rule, and it cost them their capital.

No Excuses:

The "no excuses" rule is most applicable to those times when the trader does not understand the price action of the markets. If, for example, you are short a currency because you anticipate negative fundamental news and that news occurs, but the currency rallies instead, you must get out right away. If you do not understand what is going on in the market, it is always better to step aside and not trade. That way, you will not have to come up with excuses for why you blew up your account. No excuses. Ever. That's the rule professional traders live by. 

Forex Trading Rules: Risk Can Be Predetermined; Reward Is Unpredictable

If there is one inviolable rule in trading, it must be "stick to your stops". Before entering every trade, you must know your pain threshold. This is the best way to make sure that your losses are controlled and that you do not become too emotional with your trading.

Trading is hard; there are more unsuccessful traders than there are successful ones. But more often than not, traders fail not because their ideas are wrong, but because they became too emotional in the process. This failure stems from the fact that they closed out their trades too early, or they let their losses run too extensively. Risk MUST be predetermined. The most rational time to consider risk is before you place the trade - when your mind is unclouded and your decisions are unbiased by price action. On the other hand, if you have a trade on, you want to stick it out until it becomes a winner, but unfortunately that does not always happen. You need to figure out what the worst-case scenario is for the trade, and place your stop based on a monetary or technical level. Once again, we stress that risk MUST be predetermined before you enter into the trade and you MUST stick to its parameters. Do not let your emotions force you to change your stop prematurely.

The Risk:

Every trade, no matter how certain you are of its outcome, is simply an educated guess. Nothing is certain in trading. There are too many external factors that can shift the movement in a currency. Sometimes fundamentals can shift the trading environment, and other times you simply have unaccountable factors, such as option barriers, the daily exchange rate fixing, central bank buying etc. Make sure you are prepared for these uncertainties by setting your stop early on.

The Reward:

Reward, on the other hand, is unknown. When a currency moves, the move can be huge or small. Money management becomes extremely important in this case. Referencing our rule of "never let a winner turn into a loser", we advocate trading multiple lots. This can be done on a more manageable basis using mini-accounts. This way, you can lock in gains on the first lot and move your stop to breakeven on the second lot - making sure that you are only playing with the house's money - and ride the rest of the move using the second lot.

Make the Trend Your Friend:

The FX market is a trending market. Trends can last for days, weeks or even months. This is a primary reason why most black boxes in the FX market focus exclusively on trends. They believe that any trend moves they catch can offset any whipsaw losses made in range-trading markets. Although we believe that range trading can also yield good profits, we recognize the reason why most large money is focused on looking for trends. Therefore, if we are in a range-bound market, we bank our gain using the first lot and get stopped out at breakeven on the second, still yielding profits. However, if a trend does emerge, we keep holding the second lot into what could potentially become a big winner.

Half of trading is about strategy, the other half is undoubtedly about money management. Even if you have losing trades, you need to understand them and learn from your mistakes. No strategy is foolproof and works 100% of the time. However, if the failure is in line with a strategy that has worked more often than it has failed for you in the past, then accept that loss and move on. The key is to make your overall trading approach meaningful but to make any individual trade meaningless. Once you have mastered this skill, your emotions should not get the best of you, regardless of whether you are trading $1,000 or $100,000. Remember: In trading, winning is frequently a question of luck, but losing is always a matter of skill. 

Forex Trading Rules: What Is Mathematically Optimal Is Psychologically Impossible

Novice traders who first approach the markets will often design very elegant, very profitable strategies that appear to generate millions of dollars on a computer backtest. The majority of such strategies have extremely impressive win-loss and profit ratios, often demonstrating $3 of wins for just $1 of losses. Armed with such stellar research, these newbies fund their FX trading accounts and promptly proceed to lose all of their money. Why? Because trading is not logical but psychological in nature, and emotion will always overwhelm the intellect in the end, typically forcing the worst possible move out of the trader at the wrong time.

Trading Is More Art Than Science:

As E. Derman, head of quantitative strategies at Goldman Sachs, a leading investment banking firm, once noted, "In physics you are playing against God, who does not change his mind very often. In finance, you are playing against God's creatures, whose feelings are ephemeral, at best unstable, and the news on which they are based keeps streaming in."

This is the fundamental flaw of most beginning traders. They believe that they can "engineer" a solution to trading and set in motion a machine that will harvest profits out of the market. But trading is less of a science than it is an art; and the sooner traders realize that they must compensate for their own humanity, the sooner they will begin to master the intricacies of trading.

Textbook Vs. Real World:

Here is one example of why in trading what is mathematically optimal is often psychologically impossible.

The conventional wisdom in the markets is that traders should always trade with a 2:1 reward-to-risk ratio. On the surface this appears to be a good idea. After all, if the trader is only correct 50% of the time, over the long run she or he will be enormously successful with such odds. In fact, with a 2:1 reward-to-risk ratio, the trader can be wrong 6.5 times out of 10 and still make money. In practice this is quite difficult to achieve.

Imagine the following scenario: You place a trade in GBP/USD. Let's say you decide to short the pair at 1.7500 with a 1.7600 stop and a target of 1.7300. At first, the trade is doing well. The price moves in your direction, as GBP/USD first drops to 1.7400, then to 1.7360 and begins to approach 1.7300. At 1.7320, the GBP/USD decline slows and starts to turn back up. Price is now 1.7340, then 1.7360, then 1.7370. But you remain calm. You are seeking a 2:1 reward to risk. Unfortunately, the turn in the GBP/USD has picked up steam; before you know it, the pair not only climbs back to your entry level but then swiftly rises higher and stops you at 1.7600.

You just let a 180-point profit turn into a 100-point loss. In effect, you created a -280-point swing in your account. This is trading in the real world, not the idealized version presented in textbooks. This is why many professional traders will often scale out of their positions, taking partial profits far sooner than two times risk, a practice that often reduces their reward-to-risk ratio to 1.5 or even lower. Clearly that's a mathematically inferior strategy, but in trading, what's mathematically optimal is not necessarily psychologically possible.

Forex Trading Rules: Know the Difference Between Scaling In and Adding to a Loser

One of the biggest mistakes that traders make is to keep adding to a losing position, desperately hoping for a reversal. As traders increase their exposure while price travels in the wrong direction, their losses mount to a point where they are forced to close out their positions at a major loss or wait numbly for the inevitable margin call to automatically do it for them. Typically in these scenarios, the initial reasoning for the trade has disappeared, and a smart trader would have closed out the position and moved on.

However, some traders find themselves adding into the position long after the reason for the trade has changed, hoping that by magic or chance things will eventually turn their way.

We liken this to driving in a car late at night and not being sure whether you are on the right road. When this happens, you are faced with two choices:

To keep on going down the road blindly and hope that you will find your destination before ending up in another state

To turn the car around and go back the way you came, until you reach a point from where you can actually find the way home.

This is the difference between stubbornly proceeding in the wrong direction and cutting your losses short before it is too late. Admittedly, you might eventually find your way home by stumbling along back roads - much like a trader could salvage a bad position by catching an unexpected turnaround. However, before that time comes, the driver could very well have run out of gas, much like the trader can run out of capital.

Do Not Make a Bad Position Worse:

Adding to a losing position that has gone beyond the point of your original risk is the wrong way to trade.There are, however, times when adding to a losing position is the right way to trade. This type of strategy is known as scaling in.

Plan Your Entry and Exit and Stick To It:

The difference between adding to a loser and scaling in is your initial intent before you place the trade.

If your intention is to ultimately buy a total of one regular 100,000 lot and you choose to establish a position in clips of 10,000 lots to get a better average price (instead of the full amount at the same time) this is called scaling in. This is a popular strategy for traders who are buying into a retracement of a broader trend and are not sure how deep the retracement will be; therefore, the trader will scale down into the position in order to get a better average price. The key is that the reasoning for this approach is established before the trade is placed and so is the "ultimate stop" on the entire position. In this case, intent is the main difference between adding to a loser and scaling in. 

Forex Trading Rules: Being Right but Being Early Simply Means That You Are Wrong

There is a great Richard Prior routine in which the comic lectures the audience about how the only way to respond when your spouse catches you cheating red-handed is by calmly stating, "Who are you going to believe? Me? Or your lying eyes?" While this line always gets a huge laugh from the crowd, unfortunately, many traders take this advice to heart. The fact of the matter is that eyes do not lie. If a trader is short a currency pair and the price action moves against him, relentlessly rising higher, the trader is wrong and needs to admit that fact - preferably sooner rather than later.

Analysis of the EUR/USD 2004-2005:

In FX, trends can last far longer than seem reasonable. For example, in 2004 the EUR/USD kept rallying - rising from a low of 1.2000 all the way to 1.3600 over a period of just two months. Traders looking at the fundamentals of the two currencies could not understand the reasons behind the move because all signs pointed to dollar strength.

True enough, the U.S. was running a record trade deficit, but it was also attracting capital from Asia to offset the shortfall. In addition, U.S. economic growth was blazing in comparison to the Eurozone. U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) was growing at a better than 3.5% annual rate compared to barely 1% in the Eurozone. The Fed had even started to raise rates, equalizing the interest rate differential between the euro and the greenback. Furthermore, the extremely high exchange rate of the euro was strangling European exports - the one sector of the Eurozone economy critical to economic growth. As a result, U.S. unemployment rates kept falling, from 5.7-5.2%, while German unemployment was reaching post-World War II highs, climbing into the double digits.

What If You Took a Short Position and Exited Early?:

In this scenario, dollar bulls had many good reasons to sell the EUR/USD, yet the currency pair kept rallying. Eventually, the EUR/USD did turn around, retracing the whole 2004 rally to reach a low of 1.1730 in late 2005. But imagine a trader shorting the pair at 1.3000. Could he or she have withstood the pressure of having a 600-point move against a position? Worse yet, imagine someone who was short at 1.2500 in the fall of 2004. Could that trader have taken the pain of being 1,100 points in drawdown?

The irony of the matter is that both of those traders would have profited in the end. They were right but they were early. Unfortunately, in currency markets, close is not good enough. The FX market is highly leveraged, with default margins set at 100:1. Even if the two traders above used far more conservative leverage of 10:1, the drawdown to their accounts would have been 46% and 88%, respectively.

Right Place, Right Time:

In FX, successful directional trades not only need to be right in analysis, but they also need to be right in timing as well.. That's why believing "your lying eyes" is crucial to successful trading. If the price action moves against you, even if the reasons for your trade remain valid, trust your eyes, respect the market and take a modest stop. In the currency market, being right and being early is the same as being wrong. 

Forex Trading Rules: Always Pair Strong With Weak

Every baseball fan has a favorite team. The true fan knows who the team can easily beat, who they will probably lose against and who poses a big challenge. Placing a gentleman's bet on the game, the baseball fan knows the best chance for success occurs against a much weaker opponent. Although we are talking about baseball, the logic holds true for any contest. When a strong army is positioned against a weak army, the odds are heavily skewed toward the strong army winning. This is the way you should approach trading.

Matching Up Currency Pairs:

When we trade currencies, we are always dealing in pairs - every trade involves buying one currency and shorting another. So, the implicit bet is that one currency will beat out the other. If this is the way the FX market is structured, then the highest probability trade will be to pair a strong currency with a weak currency. Fortunately, in the currency market, we deal with countries whose economic outlooks do not change instantaneously. Economic data from the most actively traded currencies are released every single day, which acts as a scorecard for each country. The more positive the reports, the better or stronger a country is doing; on the flip side, the more negative the reports, the weaker the country's performance.

Pairing a strong currency with a weak currency has much deeper ramifications than just the data itself. Each strong report gives a better reason for the central bank to increase interest rates, which increases the currency's yield. In contrast, the weaker the economic data, the less flexibility a country's central bank has in raising interest rates, and in some instances, if the data comes in extremely weak, the central bank may even consider lowering interest rates. The future path of interest rates is one of the biggest drivers of the currency market because it increases the yield and attractiveness of a country's currency.

Using Interest Rates:

In addition to looking at how data is stacking up, an easier way to pair strong with weak may be to compare the current interest rate trajectory for a currency. For example, EUR/GBP (which is traditionally a very range-bound currency pair) broke out in the first quarter of 2006. The breakout occurred to the upside because Europe was just beginning to raise interest rates as economic growth improved.

The sharp contrasts in what each country was doing with interest rates forced the EUR/GBP materially higher and even turned the traditionally range-bound EUR/GBP into a mildly trending currency pair for a few months. The shift was easily anticipated, making EUR/GBP a clear trade based on pairing a strong currency with a weak currency. Because strength and weakness can last for some time as economic trends evolve, pairing the strong with the weak currency is one of the best ways for traders to gain an edge in the currency market.

Forex Trading Rules: Trigger Fundamentally, Enter and Exit Technically

Should you trade based upon fundamentals or technicals? This is the $64 million question that traders have debated for decades and will probably continue to debate for decades to come.

Technical Analysis Vs. Fundamental Analysis:

Technicals are based on forecasting the future using past price movements, also known as price action. Fundamentals, on the other hand, incorporate economic and political news to determine the future value of the currency pair.

The question of which is better is far more difficult to answer. We have often seen fundamental factors rapidly shift the technical outlook, or technical factors explain a price move that fundamentals cannot. So the answer to the question is to use both. Both methods are important and have a hand in impacting price action. The real key, however, is to understand the benefit of each style and to know when to use each discipline. Fundamentals are good at dictating the broad themes in the market, while technicals are useful for identifying specific entry and exit levels. Fundamentals do not change in the blink of an eye: in the currency markets, fundamental themes can last for weeks, months and even years.

Using Both to Make a Move:

For example, one of the biggest stories of 2005 was the U.S. Federal Reserve's aggressive interest rate tightening cycle. In the middle of 2004, the Federal Reserve began increasing interest rates by quarter-point increments. The Fed let the market know very early on that it was going to be engaging in a long period of tightening and, as promised, it increased interest rates by 200 basis points in 2005. This policy created an extremely dollar-bullish environment in the market that lasted for the entire year.

 Against the Japanese yen, whose central bank held rates steady at zero throughout 2005, the dollar appreciated 19% from its lowest to highest levels. USD/JPY was in a very strong uptrend throughout the year, but even so, there were plenty of retraces along the way. These pullbacks were perfect opportunities for traders to combine technicals with fundamentals to enter the trade at an opportune moment.

 Fundamentally, it was clear that the market was a very dollar-positive environment; therefore, technically, we looked for opportunities to buy on dips rather than sell on rallies. A perfect example was the rally from 101.70 to 113.70. The retracement paused right at the 38.2% Fibonacci support, which would have been a great entry point and a clear example of a trade that was based on fundamentals but looked for entry and exit points based on technicals.

In the USD/JPY trade, trying to pick tops or bottoms during that time would have been difficult. However, with the bull trend so dominant, the far easier and smarter trade was to look for technical opportunities to go with the fundamental theme and trade with the market trend rather than to trying to fade it.

Forex Trading Rules: Never Risk More Than 2% Per Trade

Never risk more than 2% per trade. This is the most common - and yet also the most violated - rule in trading and goes a long way toward explaining why most traders lose money. Trading books are littered with stories of traders losing one, two, even five years' worth of profits in a single trade gone terribly wrong. This is the primary reason why the 2% stop-loss rule can never be violated. No matter how certain the trader may be about a particular outcome, the market, as the well known economist John Maynard Keynes,  said, "can stay irrational far longer that you can remain solvent."

Swinging for the Fences:

Most traders begin their trading careers, whether consciously or subconsciously, by visualizing "The Big One" - the one trade that will make them millions and allow them to retire young and live carefree for the rest of their lives. In FX, this fantasy is further reinforced by the folklore of the markets. Who can forget the time that George Soros "broke the Bank of England" by shorting the pound and walked away with a cool $1 billion profit in a single day! But the cold hard truth of the markets is that instead of winning "The Big One", most traders fall victim to a single catastrophic loss that knocks them out of the game forever.

Large losses, as the following table demonstrates, are extremely difficult to overcome.

Amount of Equity Loss,Amount of Return Necessary to Restore to Original 25%33%50%100%75%400%90%1000% Just imagine that you started trading with $1,000 and lost 50%, or $500. It now takes a 100% gain, or a profit of $500, to bring you back to breakeven. A loss of 75% of your equity demands a 400% return - an almost impossible feat - just to bring your account back to its initial level. Getting into this kind of trouble as a trader means that, most likely, you have reached the point of no return and are at risk for blowing your account.

Why the 2% Rule?:

The best way to avoid such a fate is to never suffer a large loss. That is why the 2% rule is so important in trading. Losing only 2% per trade means that you would have to sustain 10 consecutive losing trades in a row to lose 20% of your account. Even if you sustained 20 consecutive losses - and you would have to trade extraordinarily badly to hit such a long losing streak - the total drawdown would still leave you with 60% of your capital intact. While that is certainly not a pleasant position to find yourself in, it means that you need to earn 80% to get back to breakeven - a tough goal but far better than the 400% target for the trader who lost 75% of his capital.

 The art of trading is not about winning as much as it is about not losing. By controlling your losses, much like a business that contains its costs, you can withstand the tough market environment and will be ready and able to take advantage of profitable opportunities once they appear. That's why the 2% rule is the one of the most important rules of trading. 

Forex Trading Rules: Logic Wins; Impulse Kills

More money has been lost by trading impulsively than by any other means. Ask a novice why he went long on a currency pair and you will frequently hear the answer, "Because it has gone down enough - so it's bound to bounce back." We always roll our eyes at that type of response because it is not based on reason - it's nothing more than wishful thinking.

We never cease to be amazed how hard-boiled, highly intelligent, ruthless businesspeople behave in Las Vegas. Men and women who would never pay even one dollar more than the negotiated price for any product in their business will think nothing of losing $10,000 in 10 minutes on a roulette wheel. The glitz, the noise of the pits and the excitement of the crowd turn these sober, rational businesspeople into wild-eyed gamblers. The currency market, with its round-the-clock flashing quotes, constant stream of news and the most liberal leverage in the financial world tends to have the same impact on novice traders.

Trading Impulsively Is Simply Gambling:

It can be a huge rush when a trader is on a winning streak, but just one bad loss can make the same trader give all of the profits and trading capital back to the market. Just like every Vegas story ends in heartbreak, so does every tale of impulse trading. In trading, logic wins and impulse kills. The reason why this maxim is true isn't because logical trading is always more precise than impulsive trading. In fact, the opposite is frequently the case. Impulsive traders can go on stunningly accurate winning streaks, while traders using logical setups can be mired in a string of losses. Reason always trumps impulse because logically focused traders will know how to limit their losses, while impulsive traders are never more than one trade away from total bankruptcy. Let's take a look at how each trader may operate in the market.

The Impulsive Trader:

Trader A is an impulsive trader. He "feels" price action and responds accordingly. Now imagine that prices in the EUR/USD move sharply higher. The impulsive trader "feels" that he has gone too far and decides to short the pair. The pair rallies higher and the trader is convinced, now more than ever, that it is overbought and sells more EUR/USD, building onto the current short position. Prices stall, but do not retrace. The impulsive trader, who is certain that they are very near the top, decides to triple up his position and watches in horror as the pair spikes higher, forcing a margin call on his account. A few hours later, the EUR/USD does top out and collapses, causing Trader A to pound his fists in fury as he watches the pair sell off without him. He was right on the direction but picked a top impulsively, not logically.

The Analyzer:

On the other hand, Trader B uses both technical and fundamental analysis to calibrate his risk and time his entries. He also thinks that the EUR/USD is overvalued, but instead of prematurely picking a turn at will, he waits patiently for a clear technical signal - like a red candle on an upper Bollinger band or a move in the relative strength index (RSI) below the 70 level - before he initiates the trade. Furthermore, Trader B uses the swing high of the move as his logical stop to precisely quantify his risk. He is also smart enough to size his position so that he does not lose more than 2% of his account should the trade fail. Even if he is wrong like Trader A, the logical, Trader B's methodical approach preserves his capital, so that he may trade another day, while the reckless, impulsive actions of Trader A lead to a margin call liquidation.

Conclusion:

The point is that trends in the FX market can last for a very long time, so even though picking the very top may bring bragging rights, the risk of being premature may outweigh the warm feeling that comes with gloating. Instead, there is nothing wrong with waiting for a reversal signal to reveal itself first before initiating the trade. You may have missed the very top, but profiting from up to 80% of the move is good enough in our book. Although many novice traders may find impulsive trading to be far more exciting, seasoned pros know that logical trading is what puts bread on the table. 

Forex Trading Rules: Introduction to Forex

Why Trade in Currencies?There are 10 major reasons why the currency market is a great place to trade:

1. You can trade to any style - strategies can be built on five-minute charts, hourly charts ,daily charts or even weekly charts.

2. There is a massive amount of information - charts, real-time news, top level research - all available for free.

3. All key information is public and disseminated instantly.

4. You can collect interest on trades on a daily or even hourly basis.

5. Lot sizes can be customized, meaning that you can trade with as little as $500 dollars at nearly the same execution costs as accounts that trade $500 million.

6. Customizable leverage allows you to be as conservative or as aggressive as you like (cash on cash or 100:1 margin).

7. No commission means that every win or loss is cleanly accounted for in the P&L.

8. You can trade 24 hours a day with ample liquidity ($20 million up)

9. There is no discrimination between going short or long (no uptick rule).

10. You can't lose more capital than you put in (automatic margin call)

Fair Warning

This tutorial is designed to help you develop a logical, intelligent approach to currency trading base on 10 key rules. The systems and ideas presented here stem from years of observation of price action in this market and provide high probability approaches to trading both trend and countertrend setups, but they are by no means a surefire guarantee of success. No trade setup is ever 100% accurate. That is why we show you failures as well as successes - so that you may learn and understand the profit possibilities, as well as the potential pitfalls of each idea that we present.

The 10 Rules:

1. Never Let a Winner Turn Into a Loser

2. Logic Wins, Impulse Kills

3. Never Risk More Than 2% per Trade

4. Trigger Fundamentally, Enter and Exit Technically

5. Always Pair Strong With Weak

6. Being Right but Being Early Simply Means That You Are Wrong

7. Know the Difference Between Scaling In and Adding to a Loser

8. What is Mathematically Optimal Is Psychologically Impossible

9. Risk Can Be Predetermined, but Reward Is Unpredictable

10. No Excuses, EverTrading is an art rather than a science.

Therefore, no rule in trading is ever absolute (except the one about always using stops!) Nevertheless, these 10 rules work well across a variety of market environments, and will help to keep you grounded - and out of harm's way. 

A GUIDE FOR CONFESSION

• You can begin your confession by making the sign of the cross and greeting the priest: “Bless me father, for I have sinned.”
• The priest gives you a blessing and you may respond by reciting the words St. Peter said to Christ: “Lord you know all things; you know that I love you.”You may continue with the time since your last confession: “My last good confession was … (how many weeks, months, or years approximately.)”
• Say the sins that you remember. Start with the one that is most difficult to say. After this, it will be easier to mention the rest. If you received general absolution, tell this and the sins forgiven then to the priest.
• If you do not how to confess, feel uneasy or ashamed, simply ask the priest to assist you. Be assured he will help you make a good confession. Simply answer the questions without hiding anything out of shame or fear. Place your trust in God: He is your merciful Father and wants to forgive you.
• If you do not remember any serious sins, be sure to confess at least some of your venial sins, adding at the end: “I am sorry for these and all the sins of my past life, especially for ... (mention in general any past sin for which you are particularly sorry, for example all my sins against charity, purity, etc.)”
• The priest will assign you some penance and give you some advice to help you to be a better Christian.
• Listen to the words of the absolution attentively:
“God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church, may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
• Answer: “Amen.” Be willing to do the penance as soon as possible. This penance will diminish the temporal punishment in Purgatory due to sins already forgiven.
• The priest will dimiss you with the following or some similar prayer:
“May the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, the intercession of the Blessed Virgin mary and of all the saints, whatever good you do and suffering you endure, heal your sins, help you to grow in holiness, and reward you with eternal life. Go in peace.”

WIFE'S PRAYER FOR HER HUSBAND

God,

Thank you for your unconditional love for me. I am so undeserving, yet you pursue me daily! Thank you for your grace and for your perfect provision. I am so blessed and grateful for my life and for my husband’s life. Thank for trusting us with each other’s hearts, blessing us with the covenant of marriage. You have given us an opportunity to love each other unconditionally and sometimes that is hard to do, but I ask Lord that you would help us to love like you love. Please show me how to be a joyful wife, a compassionate wife, a humble wife, and a truly forgiving wife. I pray for wisdom. I pray that you would equip both my husband and I with whatever we are lacking so that we may bless each other and be a beautiful example of a healthy marriage to other couples. Help me to understand that my expectations for my husband may never be met, that he is human and capable of sin. Give me a discerning spirit and the courage to speak truth into my husband’s life, which will encourage him. Keep words of disappointment and regret, lies from the enemy, far from me. Lord, if { insert husband’s name } is struggling with anything, specifically { insert a struggle } please remove it from him. Heal my husband and give him a strong desire to seek after you. I pray that he is the spiritual leader of our family that you have called him to be. May your characteristics manifest in him as he grows in his relationship with you. God I ask that you would protect our marriage, keeping Satan and his ways far from our family. Holy Spirit walk with my husband today, call out his name and reveal yourself to him. I pray that our love for each other continues to grow deeper and deeper everyday. Please grant us time to spend intimately with one another, and especially time and desire to pray with and over one another! I pray for restoration in our marriage! May you be at the center of our marriage foreverand ever! Reigning in our hearts, motivating our love and guiding our actions! In Jesus Name,
Amen.

TO AVOID a MISCARRIAGE

Humble Virgin and Doctor of the Church, in thirty-three years you achieved great perfection and became the counselor of Popes.

You know the temptations of mothers today as well as the dangers that await unborn infants. Intercede for me that I may avoid miscarriage and bring forth a healthy baby who will become a true child of God. Also pray for all mothers, that they may not resort to abortion but help bring a new life into the world. Amen.

O Saint Catherine of Siena, God our Father enkindled the flame of holy love in your heart as you meditated on the Passion of Jesus His Son. Moved by His grace, you devoted your life to the poor and the sick, as well as to the peace and unity of the Church. Through your intercession, may we also come to know the love of Jesus, bring His compassion to all, and work for the unity of His Church. We ask this in Jesus' Name and for His sake. Amen.

God, You caused St. Catherine to shine with Divine love in the contemplation of the Lord's Passion and in the service of Your Church. By her help, grant that Your people, associated in the mystery of Christ, may ever exult in the revelation of His glory. Amen.

(Saint Catherine of Siena)

THE NICENE CREED (new)

I believe in one God, the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial
with the Father;
Through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate
of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.

For our sake he was crucified
under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son
is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
I believe in one, holy, catholic,
and apostolic Church.
I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins
and I look forward to the resurrection
of the dead and the life of the world to come.
Amen.

(New Missal Translation)

THE NICENE CREED

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.
Amen


(1988 ecumenical version)

THE MAGNIFICAT

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children forever.
(Lk 1:46-55)

THE HOLY ROSARY

The Holy Rosary
"Step-By-Step" Instructions for Praying The Rosary

1) Begin by holding the crucifix, saying "In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," (making the sign of the Cross while doing that), then say the Apostles Creed.

2) On the single bead just above the cross, pray the "Our Father." This and all prayers of the rosary are meditative prayers.

3) The next cluster has 3 beads. The "Hail Mary" prayer is said on these three beads. You pray the 3 Hail Marys while meditating on the three divine virtues of faith, hope, and love/charity.

4) On the chain or cord after the three beads, say the "Glory be..."

5) On the next bead, which is a single bead, you announce the first divine mystery of contemplation. For example, if it were a Monday, you would say the first Joyful Mystery is "The Annunciation", at this point you pray the "Our Father" prayer.

6) Now this will bring you to the first decade, or set of 10 beads of the Rosary. You will then pray 10 Hail Marys while contemplating the first mystery, example: The Annunciation.

7) After the 10th Hail Mary you will have completed the first of 5 decades which make up a Chaplet of the Rosary. You now come to another single bead, at this point, you pray the... Glory be to the Father... then (on the same bead) pray the O My Jesus... then (on the same bead) announce the next or second mystery. For example: if its Monday and your praying the Joyful Mysteries, the second Joyful Mystery is The Visitation. At this point you pray the Our Father....

8) You will now come to the second decade or group of 10 beads, you will now pray the 10 Hail Marys while contemplating the appropriate mystery.

9) You continue to pray the rosary the same way throughout. If your intention is to pray a Chaplet (a single set of mysteries) at the end of the fifth mystery you will come back to the joiner, this is where the decades all join with the lower part of the rosary which contains the cross. When you come to the joiner, you decide whether or not you wish to say another Chaplet or end. If you decide to say another Chaplet you simply announce the next mystery and continue. If you wish to end, you simply say the Glory Be To The Father, the O My Jesus, The Our Father and end the rosary with the Hail Holy Queen and the sign of the Cross........

THE 10 COMMANDMENTS

(from Exodus 20:1-17)
And God spoke all these words, saying: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

You shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

TE DEUM

You are God; we praise you; You are the Lord; we acclaim you; You are the eternal Father. All creation worships you. To you all angels, all the powers of heaven, Cherubim and Seraphim, sing in endless praise; Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. The glorious company of apostles praise you. The noble fellowship of prophets praise you. The white-robed army of martyrs praise you. Throughout the world the holy Church acclaims you; Father, of majesty unbounded, your true and only Son, worthy of all worship, and the Holy Spirit, advocate and guide. You, Christ, are the king of glory, the eternal Son of the Father. When you became man to set us free you did not spurn the Virgin’s womb. You overcame the sting of death, and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. You are seated at God’s right hand in glory. We believe that you will come, and be our judge. Come then, Lord and help your people, bought with the price of your own blood, and bring us with your saints to glory everlasting. Save your people, Lord, and bless your inheritance. Govern and uphold them now and always. Day by day we bless you. We praise your name for ever. Keep us today, Lord, from all sin. Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy. Lord, show us your love and mercy; for we put our trust in you. In you, Lord, is our hope; and we shall never hope in vain.

TANTUM ERGO (eng.)

Down in adoration falling,
Lo! the sacred Host we hail,
Lo! o'er ancient forms departing
Newer rites of grace prevail;
Faith for all defects supplying,
Where the feeble senses fail.

To the everlasting Father,
And the Son Who reigns on high
With the Holy Ghost proceeding
Forth from Each eternally,
Be salvation, honor, blessing,
Might and endless majesty.
Amen.

V. Thou hast given them bread from heaven.
R. Having within it all Sweetness.
V. Let us pray: O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament left us a memorial of Thy Passion: grant, we implore Thee, that we may so venerate the sacred mysteries of Thy Body and Blood, as always to be conscious of the fruit of Thy Redemption. Thou who livest and reignest forever and ever.
R. Amen.

(Tantum ergo are the opening words of the last two verses of Pange Lingua, a Mediaeval Latin hymn written by St Thomas Aquinas.)

SINGLE PARENT'S PRAYER

I know that, God, You’ve not ordained a family to be led by one,
but there’s no way to change the past or undo what has been done.
And so, dear Lord, I come today for Strength and Guidance too,
as I am a Single Parent and must depend solely on You!
I can’t depend upon myself because alone I cannot stand.
I need You standing by my side, holding onto my hand.
Oh, cover me, dear Jesus, with Meekness lest I see
old wounds of bitterness and pride reestablished deep in me.
’ve already asked forgiveness for what’s transpired in the past,
but I need constant Reassurance that I’m in Your will at last.
When I face ugly disappointments, let me draw on Your vast supply
of Wisdom and of Knowledge so I’ll do more than “just get by.”
A double-dose of Courage will help me stand up to Responsibility
so I’ll be a better parent, equipped with Stability.
Although my schedule’s very hectic with so much more to do,
teach me to be a Spiritual Leader as I daily lean on You.
Please help me to develop the skills my child needs to observe in me,
so that I can mend that tender heart and have Peace within my family.
Then help me squeeze in Quality Time to enjoy watching my child grow...
time to create Lasting Memories that come when Love and Happiness flow.
I promise, Lord, to follow You even when days seem too long or drear.
So help me hold tight to Your hand and eradicate my fear.
When I’m feeling desperate or lonely, give me Hope and Grace to see
that I never have been all alone... for You’ve been right there with me!

SAINT PADRE PIO: PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION

Stay with me, Lord, for it is necessary to have You present so that I do not forget You. You know how easily I abandon You.
Stay with me, Lord, because I am weak and I need Your strength, that I may not fall so often.
Stay with me, Lord, for You are my life and without You I am without fervor.
Stay with me, Lord, for You are my light and without You I am in darkness.
Stay with me, Lord, to show me Your will. Stay with me, Lord, so that I hear Your voice and follow You.
Stay with me, Lord, for I desire to love You very much and alway be in Your company.
Stay with me, Lord, if You wish me to be faithful to You.
Stay with me, Lord, as poor as my soul is I want it to be a place of consolation for You, a nest of Love.
Stay with me, Jesus, for it is getting late and the day is coming to a close and life passes, death, judgment and eternity approaches. It is necessary to renew my strength, so that I will not stop along the way and for that, I need You. It is getting late and death approaches, I fear the darkness, the temptations, the dryness, the cross, the sorrows. O how I need You, my Jesus, in this night of exile!
Stay with me tonight, Jesus, in life with all its dangers, I need You. Let me recognize You as Your disciples did at the breaking of the bread, so that the Eucharistic Communion be the Light which disperses the darkness, the force which sustains me, the unique joy of my heart.
Stay with me, Lord, because at the hour of my death, I want to remain united to You, if not by Communion, at least by grace and love.
Stay with me, Lord, for it is You alone I look for, Your Love, Your Grace, Your Will, Your Heart, Your Spirit, because I love You and ask no other reward but to love You more and more. With a firm love, I will love You with all my heart while on earth and continue to love You perfectly during all eternity.
Amen.