The Tasgall Group

Ever wondered how or where to open up an IRA for trading things other than stocks, such as futures and forex?? Consider a custodial trust?company that can approve various types of trading accounts for an IRA setup.? I think as long as the broker can prove that there are automatic safeguards in place that prevent the account ever going into debit such that you owe money, then it can be approved.? This is why margin accounts are allowed because most have automatic margin call procedures that prevent you from ever losing more than the amount in your account.

Here are a few:

Entrust Administration

Equity Trust Co.

Millennium Trust Company

I don’t have any knowledge of these firms to recommend?one and there may be more, but these are the few I’ve heard of.

By opening a FXTrade account at Oanda, which costs you nothing, has no obligations to trade and no minimum deposit, they pay 4.7% interest on USD deposits compounded daily.? Four point SEVEN just to have your money sit there.? I don’t think there is a savings account at any bank that can match that while giving you the option to invest in alternative currencies. The only better rate with no minimum on www.bankrate.com?was OneUnited Bank at 4.91%.? So for a trading account 4.7% is?very attractive.

How Index Investing Harms Your Portfolio

I read about this a few months ago in the book Just One Thing?where Rob Arnott contributed a chapter and it really stuck out as a useful piece of info.

Now for the other point of view and more supporting arguments with charts.

Need to calculate the implied volatility of an at-the-money option on the fly and you left your Nobel laureates at home?? Not a problem…

IV = 40 x p / SQRT(t)

where p is the price of the option (as a % of the underlying) and t is trading days until expiration.

That’s all.? Forget all the complications of the million dollar formula as this gives you all you need.? However, it only works at-the-money, but then again so does Black-Scholes.

So what if the price is between strikes so there is no at-the-money?? Well here is another spiffy formula:

CM = 1.04 – 0.04 * R

where R is the ratio of the more expensive to least expensive options that are nearest to the money.? Just multiply your option price p above by CM and there you have it: the price converted to the at-the-money equivalent.

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