Auction Power Guide

I can tell you how but I’d rather yod didn’t do it because it’s too risky. After I explain how to do it and why it’s too risky I will explain a better way to profit by the drop in a Stock.

To short a stock you must have enough money to buy the number of shares you plan on selling short, plus you must have enough in the account and get the broker’s approval – believe me, it’s not that easy. A brokerage will then borrow those shorted stocks from someone who owns them and you have a short position, for which your account will be credited the amount of the shares at the price the stock was trading when shorted, less commissions. Hopefully the stock will go down and you profit by that decrease (in the case of a short, down is good). Your percentage profit is calculated by taking the price you bought the shares back when closing the position as the cost per share basis (with commissions added to the cost of course). The profit percentage is: closeout price minus Original short sale stock price, divided by closeout price, or (L-S)/S. I have deliberately used L and S to give you the sense of S=short, L=long or closeout. But your Short Position, as it is called, can be closed against your will by the brokerage, especially if your position is going against you (stock going in the wrong direction for you – UP), even if you are vindicated in the long run and the stock does drop eventually – after your position has been closed.

Now let me explain the real reason why this is such a bad strategy. If the company you have shorted has announced a killer new business plan, that stock will go up fast against you and you will lose so much money by it going against you that theoretically there is no limit to how much you can lose – it could be 500 to 1,000 times the money you received in the first place. Say, for example you had sold short $20,000 each worth of Google, Ebay and Chicago Mercantile Exchange in 2002. By now you would have lost OVER ONE MILLION DOLLARS. Never forget that an expensive (in your opinon) stock can still go up, while a cheap crashed stock can still go down. The Market DOES NOT CARE that you will be hurt – IT DOES WHAT IT WANTS WHEN IT WANTS TO!

A better way to do what you are trying to do is to buy options – in this case, a PUT. This gives you, as the owner of the PUT the right, but not the obligation, to sell (PUT to the Market) the stock at the original price, then profiting by the decline, so once again DOWN is GOOD for you, the owner of the PUT. Why would this PUT option limit your risk? Because you can only lose 100% of your option’s price if the stock goes way up (as little as 3-400 dollars per hundred shares or ONE PUT CONTRACT), instead of the theoretical Million $ spoken of earlier. But if the stock truly goes to zero, you will have made the difference between the stock price when you bought the PUT and the stock crashing to zero, that is, selling it at the PUT’s strike price (say $250 a share). So suppose you had bought Enron PUTS in 2000. You would have made a lot on the crash by buying the PUT option; yet if Enron had never been a bad company and had never had a scandal, its stock by now would most likely be worth at least 6 or 7 times what you got when you "sold" it short. Follow me? By using the PUT, if you are entirely wrong, you just lost the premium you originally paid, but did not have to pony up many thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to "cover your shorts" as they call it. So the PUT limits your risk while letting you participate in the drop IF it happens.

IF you decide to get more education in this area a word of caution: treat options with care. If you have X dollars to invest, never let an option position exceed 2-5% of that theoretical X – it is like having 98% margin on a stock and having a horrible loss on a slight move in the wrong direction. So by limiting the position size, if an option position goes to zero, this 100% loss on a very small percentage of your assets will hardly be noticed. Options are like spice – stocks are like meat and potatoes.

Hope this helped.

I would like to know more about buying a car through a public auction, repossessed cars, police seized cars, government auctions. How do i get into these auctions? What can i expect? Where would the best auctions be located in California? How does the auction work? What are good sources to look up the car’s history before buying it through an auction? Are there available warranties or are these car’s "as is"? The more information you can provide, the better.

first off u cannot look up history ….unless u happen to pre-pay a multiple carfax before u go and carry ur smart phone with u and look it up once u are there…

** as far as auctions go most are scams…….and the ones that aren’t aren’t really open to the public……they are but the used car dealers go and can and WILL out bid anyone on anything decent……

** as for when and where contact ur local PD ….and every garage or mechanic has to auction off cars that they keep from ppl not paying the bill and they have to run an add in the paper about it at least one week in advance…….but again these "auctions" are rigged….basically mechanic will "pay himself" for car if u don’t offer enough money ……

With so many people trading on eBay these days it’s hard to see how to get to the top of the eBay pile. Yet making a living is perfectly possible if some basic business methods are followed. This article considers three crucial issues.

Market choice: Most casual eBay sellers don’t have a target market as such – they simply sell to anyone who might buy. To be fair, their marketplace is a vast one and the likelihood is great that someone, somewhere, will want what they are selling. This was the original eBay idea – a vast marketplace of potential buyers with something for everyone.

However, times change and, if you want to make a business out of eBay, a way has to be found of sustaining a viable sales level. This is essential if you want to a) make enough money to be worth the effort and b) climb the eBay pile to be recognised as a serious player. There are two main ways of doing this:

First, simply sell more. If you are an ’emporium’ type seller – that is, a non-specialised merchant who sells a wide variety of goods – this is, up to a point, easy. You just take on more sales lines to increase your selling chances. The downside to this is that more and more time is spent sourcing, cataloguing and listing – not to mention money ties up in your widening range of inventory.

The other route is via niche marketing. Your sales window may be much smaller but, if you have identified your market properly, that market can be a good one. With less inventory to tie up cash your business can operate on a much leaner model, helping to maximise profit and taking less time in administrative tasks. My choice would always to go with a niche market.

Maximising exposure: It’s an old business truism that you can have the best product in the world but, if no-one knows about it your business will fold. An eBay business is no different. Okay, your auction lots are in front of the eBay world and, if targeted correctly, will probably sell. However, selling purely via auction brings its own problems, not the least of which is the difficulty in projecting profit and loss with its attendant cash flow issues.

It might be wise, therefore, to consider how to best expose your business to the wider world! One way is to write articles like this one. Although they must not be adverts for your business, they can – and should – contain useful information for readers that can generate interest in what you do. That of course leads us on to the next way to get noticed:

A website. Web hosting and domain names are these days so inexpensive in comparison to ten years ago as to be almost laughable. If you’re paying more than forty pounds/eighty dollars a year for web hosting you’re paying too much! It’s so easy too to set up a basic selling website compared to those distant days of the mid-nineties that anyone can do it (even me!). But here’s the kicker: get yourself a basic eBay shop and, using the simple-to-use tools that eBay provide FREE you can embed your eBay shop into your website.

Why do this? Well, it’s a triple whammy. Your eBay shop can drive business to your website and your website drive business to your eBay shop. Also, your auction items draw buyers to your shop, giving shop inventory items much greater exposure. Search engine optimisation is beyond the scope of this article but, by using well-tried techniques, your website should climb the rankings, especially if it is content-rich rather than just a mass of adsense advertising.

Using your eBay shop and website in tandem should, in time, put you way ahead of any competitors utilising only a single marketing stream. Try putting yourself in the buyer’s position – is it a) easy and b) interesting to use you – or someone else?

Customer care: Many people think that the sale is over when you have the order and the payment is in the bank. Wrong! It’s much easier to sell to an existing customer than to get a new one. Existing customers already trust you to a certain extent – if their initial purchase has gone well, been easy and the goods were fine then they are more likely to use you rather than an untried competitor – even if your products are a bit more costly.

It’s true – the fact is that, for many buyers, price isn’t the absolute deciding factor when buying online, especially from a ‘known’ seller. What they want is a) an easy transaction b) peace of mind as far as the quality of their goods goes and c) a reliable delivery that they don’t have to worry about. Give your buyers these three things and they’ll love you for it.

Customer care isn’t difficult but it is essential. Your mindset should not be one that suffers your customers but enjoys them. On a purely practical level this is essential for your business – on a subjective level it helps you enjoy building your business on eBay or elsewhere. In my opinion, the more you can enjoy your business the better it will be – for both you and your customer – and that puts you firmly on the road to success!

Steve Dempster
http://www.articlesbase.com/ecommerce-articles/ebay-trading-three-pivotal-points-to-consider-119034.html

Pros and Cons of Selling on eBay

Are you interested in becoming an eBay seller? If you are, you are definitely not alone, as eBay has become a relatively quick and easy way to make money online. Each day, a large number of individuals use eBay to make extra money from home and a few lucky ones are even able to make enough money to support themselves or their families. Before you jump on the eBay selling bandwagon, you are advised to take a few minutes and examine the pros and cons of selling on eBay.

One of the many pros, or plus sides, to selling on eBay is the fact that is it is relatively easy to do.  Once you create an eBay account, you can start listing items that you have in your possession for sale right away.  When doing so, it is also easy to do.  eBay has a step-by-step process for listing items for sale, in traditional auction formats or buy it now formats.  In fact, eBay also has a program that lets you compile your auctions, with pictures and descriptions, when you aren’t even connected to the internet.  As soon as you connect to the internet, you can begin to upload your listings and have them start right away. 

Another one of the many pros to selling on eBay is that just about anyone can do it.  You don’t have to have big fancy, expensive items to sell on eBay.  In fact, a large number of those selling on eBay are just selling items that are taking up space in their homes; items they don’t want anymore.  If you are interesting in becoming an eBay seller, but you aren’t sure as to how much you can depend on eBay for income, you may want to think about testing the waters.  You can do this by listing the items have you have around your home for sale.  Items that tend to sell relatively well are lots, or groups, of toys and infant clothing. 

While there are a number of pros, or plus sides, to selling on eBay, there are also a number of cons, or downsides, to doing so as well.  One of the biggest cons or downsides to selling on eBay is the competition.  As it was previously mentioned, a large number of internet users have started using eBay to make extra money or even make a living. This is what leads to multiple auction listings for the exact same items.  While this is nice for the eBay buyers, it can hurt you as a seller.  When the supplier is higher than the demand, you may not make as much money off of your items as you had originally hoped to, if they even sell at all.

Another downside to selling on eBay is the fees associated with doing so.  In recent years, eBay has redone their fee structure, often to raise their fees.  Although these fees are still considered relatively low, they could put a damper on your profits, which alone are sometimes hard to come by.  Of course, there are ways that you can the most out of eBay fees.  For instance, if you have a “hot seller,” you could start your auction out at a low price, as the fees are less for doing so; however, you are taking a gamble, as you never have any guarantees as for how much your items will sell for.  Perhaps, the unknown is one of the biggest downsides to selling on eBay; you never really know if you are going to make money or even if you will end up losing money.

As you likely already know, the decision as to whether or not you want to become an eBay seller is yours to make, but, when making your decision, you are advised to keep the above mentioned points in mind. With a relatively equal amount of pros and cons, you may be wondering what your best option is.  For more accurate information, you may want to think about testing the eBay seller waters, as you are able to sell whenever you want, with no minimum auction requirements.

Simon Fusco
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-ideas-articles/pros-and-cons-of-selling-on-ebay-698291.html