{"appState":{"pageLoadApiCallsStatus":true},"categoryState":{"relatedCategories":{"headers":{"timestamp":"2022-06-23T18:31:19+00:00"},"categoryId":34273,"data":{"title":"Personal Finance","slug":"personal-finance","image":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Business, Careers, & Money","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34224"},"slug":"business-careers-money","categoryId":34224},{"name":"Personal Finance","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34273"},"slug":"personal-finance","categoryId":34273}],"parentCategory":{"categoryId":34224,"title":"Business, Careers, & Money","slug":"business-careers-money","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34224"}},"childCategories":[{"categoryId":34084,"title":"Medicare","slug":"medicare","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34084"},"image":{"src":"/img/background-image-2.fabfbd5c.png","width":0,"height":0}},{"categoryId":34274,"title":"Veterans' Benefits","slug":"veterans-benefits","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34274"},"image":{"src":"/img/background-image-1.daf74cf0.png","width":0,"height":0}},{"categoryId":34275,"title":"Budgeting","slug":"budgeting","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34275"},"image":{"src":"/img/background-image-2.fabfbd5c.png","width":0,"height":0}},{"categoryId":34276,"title":"Charitable Giving","slug":"charitable-giving","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34276"},"image":{"src":"/img/background-image-1.daf74cf0.png","width":0,"height":0}},{"categoryId":34277,"title":"Cryptocurrency","slug":"cryptocurrency","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34277"},"image":{"src":"/img/background-image-2.fabfbd5c.png","width":0,"height":0}},{"categoryId":34278,"title":"Estate Planning","slug":"estate-planning","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34278"},"image":{"src":"/img/background-image-1.daf74cf0.png","width":0,"height":0}},{"categoryId":34279,"title":"Financing Education","slug":"financing-education","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34279"},"image":{"src":"/img/background-image-2.fabfbd5c.png","width":0,"height":0}},{"categoryId":34280,"title":"Insurance","slug":"insurance","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34280"},"image":{"src":"/img/background-image-1.daf74cf0.png","width":0,"height":0}},{"categoryId":34288,"title":"Investing","slug":"investing","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34288"},"image":{"src":"/img/background-image-2.fabfbd5c.png","width":0,"height":0}},{"categoryId":34301,"title":"Loans & Credit","slug":"loans-credit","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34301"},"image":{"src":"/img/background-image-1.daf74cf0.png","width":0,"height":0}},{"categoryId":34308,"title":"Retirement","slug":"retirement","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34308"},"image":{"src":"/img/background-image-2.fabfbd5c.png","width":0,"height":0}},{"categoryId":34309,"title":"Social Security","slug":"social-security","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34309"},"image":{"src":"/img/background-image-1.daf74cf0.png","width":0,"height":0}},{"categoryId":34310,"title":"Taxes","slug":"taxes","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34310"},"image":{"src":"/img/background-image-2.fabfbd5c.png","width":0,"height":0}},{"categoryId":34311,"title":"General Personal Finance","slug":"general-personal-finance","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34311"},"image":{"src":"/img/background-image-1.daf74cf0.png","width":0,"height":0}}],"description":"Money, money, money. Whether it's stashed in your sock drawer or invested in complex instruments, we'll help you keep it safe and watch it grow.","relatedArticles":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles?category=34273&offset=0&size=5"}},"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34273"}},"relatedCategoriesLoadedStatus":"success"},"listState":{"list":{"count":10,"total":2281,"items":[{"headers":{"creationTime":"2018-04-16T04:32:12+00:00","modifiedTime":"2022-05-27T14:51:01+00:00","timestamp":"2022-06-22T19:37:41+00:00"},"data":{"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Business, Careers, & Money","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34224"},"slug":"business-careers-money","categoryId":34224},{"name":"Personal Finance","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34273"},"slug":"personal-finance","categoryId":34273},{"name":"Investing","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34288"},"slug":"investing","categoryId":34288},{"name":"General Investing","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34300"},"slug":"general-investing","categoryId":34300}],"title":"First Priorities: Paying Off High-Cost Debt and Building a Safety Reserve","strippedTitle":"first priorities: paying off high-cost debt and building a safety reserve","slug":"first-priorities-paying-off-high-cost-debt-building-safety-reserve","canonicalUrl":"","seo":{"metaDescription":"Plenty of younger folks have debts to pay and lack an emergency reserve of money for unexpected expenses. High-cost debts, such as on a credit card, can be a ma","noIndex":0,"noFollow":0},"content":"Plenty of younger folks have debts to pay and lack an emergency reserve of money for unexpected expenses. High-cost debts, such as on a credit card, can be a major impediment to investing, in particular, and accomplishing your future personal and financial goals, in a broader sense. A high interest rate keeps the debt growing and can cause your debt to spiral out of control, which is why dealing with such consumer debt should be your first priority, just before establishing an emergency reserve.\r\n<h2 id=\"tab1\" >Pay off high-cost consumer debt</h2>\r\nPaying down debts isn’t nearly as exciting as investing, but it can make your investment decisions less difficult. Rather than spending your time investigating specific investments, paying off your debts with money you’ve saved may indeed be your best investment.\r\n\r\nConsumer debt includes borrowing on credit cards, auto loans, and the like, which are often costly ways to borrow. Banks and other lenders charge higher interest rates for consumer debt than for debt for investments, such as real estate and business, because consumer loans are the riskiest type of loans for a lender. Risk means the chance of the borrower’s defaulting and being unable to pay back all that he or she borrowed.\r\n\r\nMany folks have credit card debt that costs 18 percent or more per year in interest. Some credit cards levy interest rates well above 20 percent if you make a late payment or two. Reducing and eventually eliminating this debt with your savings is like putting your money in an investment with a guaranteed tax-free return equal to the rate that you pay on your debt.\r\n\r\nFor example, if you have outstanding credit card debt at 18 percent interest, paying off that debt is the same as putting your money to work in an investment with a guaranteed 18 percent tax-free annual return. Because the interest on consumer debt isn’t tax-deductible, you would need to earn more than 18 percent by investing your money elsewhere to net 18 percent after paying taxes. Earning such high investing returns is highly unlikely, and to earn those returns, you’d be forced to take great risk.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">Consumer debt is hazardous to your long-term financial health (not to mention damaging to your credit score and future ability to borrow for a home or otherwise investments) because it encourages you to borrow against your future earnings.</p>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">Tapping credit card debt may make sense if you’re financing a business. If you don’t have home equity, personal loans (through a credit card or auto loan) may actually be your lowest-cost source of small-business financing.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 id=\"tab2\" >Establish an emergency reserve</h2>\r\nYou never know what life will bring, so having an accessible reserve of cash to meet unexpected expenses makes good financial sense. If you have generous parents or dear relatives, you can certainly consider using them as your emergency reserve. Just be sure you ask them in advance how they feel about that before you count on receiving funding from them. If you don’t have a financially flush family member, the onus is on you to establish a reserve.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">You should have at least three months’ worth of living expenses to as much as six months’ worth of living expenses as an emergency reserve. Invest this personal-safety-net money in a money market fund. You may also be able to borrow against your employer-based retirement account or against your home equity, should you find yourself in a bind, but these options are much less desirable.</p>\r\nIf you don’t have a financial safety net, you may be forced, under duress, to sell an investment (at a relatively low price) that you’ve worked hard for. And selling some investments, such as real estate, can take time and cost significant money (transaction costs, taxes, and so on).\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">Riskier investments like stocks aren’t a suitable place to keep your emergency money invested. While stocks historically have returned about 9 percent per year, about one-third of the time, stocks decline in value in a given year, sometimes substantially. Stocks can drop and have dropped 20, 30, or 50 percent or more over relatively short periods of time. Suppose that such a decline coincides with an emergency, such as the loss of your job or a health problem that creates major medical bills. Your situation may force you to sell at a loss, perhaps a substantial one. Stocks are intended to be a longer-term investment, not an investment that you expect (or need) to sell in the near future.</p>","description":"Plenty of younger folks have debts to pay and lack an emergency reserve of money for unexpected expenses. High-cost debts, such as on a credit card, can be a major impediment to investing, in particular, and accomplishing your future personal and financial goals, in a broader sense. A high interest rate keeps the debt growing and can cause your debt to spiral out of control, which is why dealing with such consumer debt should be your first priority, just before establishing an emergency reserve.\r\n<h2 id=\"tab1\" >Pay off high-cost consumer debt</h2>\r\nPaying down debts isn’t nearly as exciting as investing, but it can make your investment decisions less difficult. Rather than spending your time investigating specific investments, paying off your debts with money you’ve saved may indeed be your best investment.\r\n\r\nConsumer debt includes borrowing on credit cards, auto loans, and the like, which are often costly ways to borrow. Banks and other lenders charge higher interest rates for consumer debt than for debt for investments, such as real estate and business, because consumer loans are the riskiest type of loans for a lender. Risk means the chance of the borrower’s defaulting and being unable to pay back all that he or she borrowed.\r\n\r\nMany folks have credit card debt that costs 18 percent or more per year in interest. Some credit cards levy interest rates well above 20 percent if you make a late payment or two. Reducing and eventually eliminating this debt with your savings is like putting your money in an investment with a guaranteed tax-free return equal to the rate that you pay on your debt.\r\n\r\nFor example, if you have outstanding credit card debt at 18 percent interest, paying off that debt is the same as putting your money to work in an investment with a guaranteed 18 percent tax-free annual return. Because the interest on consumer debt isn’t tax-deductible, you would need to earn more than 18 percent by investing your money elsewhere to net 18 percent after paying taxes. Earning such high investing returns is highly unlikely, and to earn those returns, you’d be forced to take great risk.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">Consumer debt is hazardous to your long-term financial health (not to mention damaging to your credit score and future ability to borrow for a home or otherwise investments) because it encourages you to borrow against your future earnings.</p>\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">Tapping credit card debt may make sense if you’re financing a business. If you don’t have home equity, personal loans (through a credit card or auto loan) may actually be your lowest-cost source of small-business financing.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 id=\"tab2\" >Establish an emergency reserve</h2>\r\nYou never know what life will bring, so having an accessible reserve of cash to meet unexpected expenses makes good financial sense. If you have generous parents or dear relatives, you can certainly consider using them as your emergency reserve. Just be sure you ask them in advance how they feel about that before you count on receiving funding from them. If you don’t have a financially flush family member, the onus is on you to establish a reserve.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">You should have at least three months’ worth of living expenses to as much as six months’ worth of living expenses as an emergency reserve. Invest this personal-safety-net money in a money market fund. You may also be able to borrow against your employer-based retirement account or against your home equity, should you find yourself in a bind, but these options are much less desirable.</p>\r\nIf you don’t have a financial safety net, you may be forced, under duress, to sell an investment (at a relatively low price) that you’ve worked hard for. And selling some investments, such as real estate, can take time and cost significant money (transaction costs, taxes, and so on).\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">Riskier investments like stocks aren’t a suitable place to keep your emergency money invested. While stocks historically have returned about 9 percent per year, about one-third of the time, stocks decline in value in a given year, sometimes substantially. Stocks can drop and have dropped 20, 30, or 50 percent or more over relatively short periods of time. Suppose that such a decline coincides with an emergency, such as the loss of your job or a health problem that creates major medical bills. Your situation may force you to sell at a loss, perhaps a substantial one. Stocks are intended to be a longer-term investment, not an investment that you expect (or need) to sell in the near future.</p>","blurb":"","authors":[{"authorId":8975,"name":"Eric Tyson","slug":"eric-tyson","description":" <p><b>Eric Tyson </b>is a veteran Dummies author of numerous bestselling books in the investing and personal finance space.</p> <p><b>Paul Mladjenovic</B> is a Certified Financial Planner and the bestselling author of <i>Stock Investing For Dummies.</i> <p><B>Kiana Danial</B> is an investment consultant and trainer and the author of <i>Cryptocurrency Investing For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Russell Wild </B>is the author or coauthor of nearly two dozen books, including <i>ETFs For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Matt Krantz </b>is a nationally known financial journalist and the author of <i>Online Investing For Dummies. </i> <p><b>Robert Griswold</b> is a successful real estate investor and property manager and the co-author of <i>Real Estate Investing For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Steven Gormley</B> is a celebrated expert in the legal marijuana sector and author of <i>Investing in Cannabis For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Brendan Bradley</b> is a financial market professional and the author of <i>ESG Investing For Dummies.</i> ","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/8975"}}],"primaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":34300,"title":"General Investing","slug":"general-investing","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34300"}},"secondaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"tertiaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"trendingArticles":null,"inThisArticle":[{"label":"Pay off high-cost consumer debt","target":"#tab1"},{"label":"Establish an emergency reserve","target":"#tab2"}],"relatedArticles":{"fromBook":[{"articleId":251826,"title":"Investing in Your 20s and 30s: Tips to Maximize Your Stock Market Returns","slug":"investing-20s-30s-tips-maximize-stock-market-returns","categoryList":["technology","computers","macs","general-macs"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/251826"}},{"articleId":251823,"title":"Investing in Your 20s and 30s: Sidestep Common Minefields","slug":"investing-20s-30s-sidestep-common-minefields","categoryList":["technology","computers","macs","general-macs"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/251823"}},{"articleId":251820,"title":"Investing in Your 20s and 30s: Avoid Temptations and Hype","slug":"investing-20s-30s-avoid-temptations-hype","categoryList":["technology","computers","macs","general-macs"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/251820"}},{"articleId":251817,"title":"Investing in Your 20s and 30s: Alternatives to Money Market Mutual Funds","slug":"investing-20s-30s-alternatives-money-market-mutual-funds","categoryList":["technology","computers","macs","general-macs"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/251817"}},{"articleId":251814,"title":"Investing in Your 20s and 30s: Alternatives to Bank Accounts","slug":"investing-20s-30s-alternatives-bank-accounts","categoryList":["technology","computers","macs","general-macs"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/251814"}}],"fromCategory":[{"articleId":287556,"title":"Options Trading For Dummies Cheat Sheet","slug":"options-trading-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","general-investing"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/287556"}},{"articleId":285735,"title":"What Is ESG Investing?","slug":"what-is-esg-investing","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","general-investing"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/285735"}},{"articleId":285761,"title":"Just When You Thought It Was Safe: Coronawashing","slug":"just-when-you-thought-it-was-safe-coronawashing","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","general-investing"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/285761"}},{"articleId":273978,"title":"Investing For Canadians All-in-One For Dummies","slug":"investing-for-canadians-all-in-one-for-dummies","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","general-investing"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/273978"}},{"articleId":265694,"title":"Online Investing: Get More with a Discount Broker","slug":"online-investing-get-more-with-a-discount-broker","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","general-investing"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/265694"}}]},"hasRelatedBookFromSearch":false,"relatedBook":{"bookId":282312,"slug":"investing-in-your-20s-30s-for-dummies","isbn":"9781119805403","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","general-investing"],"amazon":{"default":"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1119805406/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","ca":"https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1119805406/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","indigo_ca":"http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-9208661-13710633?url=https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/product/1119805406-item.html&cjsku=978111945484","gb":"https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1119805406/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","de":"https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1119805406/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20"},"image":{"src":"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/investing-in-your-20s-30s-for-dummies-3e-cover-9781119805403-203x255.jpg","width":203,"height":255},"title":"Investing in Your 20s & 30s For Dummies","testBankPinActivationLink":"","bookOutOfPrint":false,"authorsInfo":"<p><b data-author-id=\"8975\">Eric Tyson, MBA,</b> is a bestselling personal finance author, counselor, and writer. He is the author of the national bestselling financial books <i>Investing For Dummies, Personal Finance For Dummies,</i> and <i>Home Buying Kit For Dummies</i>.</p>","authors":[{"authorId":8975,"name":"Eric Tyson","slug":"eric-tyson","description":" <p><b>Eric Tyson </b>is a veteran Dummies author of numerous bestselling books in the investing and personal finance space.</p> <p><b>Paul Mladjenovic</B> is a Certified Financial Planner and the bestselling author of <i>Stock Investing For Dummies.</i> <p><B>Kiana Danial</B> is an investment consultant and trainer and the author of <i>Cryptocurrency Investing For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Russell Wild </B>is the author or coauthor of nearly two dozen books, including <i>ETFs For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Matt Krantz </b>is a nationally known financial journalist and the author of <i>Online Investing For Dummies. </i> <p><b>Robert Griswold</b> is a successful real estate investor and property manager and the co-author of <i>Real Estate Investing For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Steven Gormley</B> is a celebrated expert in the legal marijuana sector and author of <i>Investing in Cannabis For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Brendan Bradley</b> is a financial market professional and the author of <i>ESG Investing For Dummies.</i> ","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/8975"}}],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/books/"}},"collections":[],"articleAds":{"footerAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;personal-finance&quot;,&quot;investing&quot;,&quot;general-investing&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119805403&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-62b36f8588433\"></div></div>","rightAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_right_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_right_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;personal-finance&quot;,&quot;investing&quot;,&quot;general-investing&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119805403&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-62b36f8588b3c\"></div></div>"},"articleType":{"articleType":"Articles","articleList":null,"content":null,"videoInfo":{"videoId":null,"name":null,"accountId":null,"playerId":null,"thumbnailUrl":null,"description":null,"uploadDate":null}},"sponsorship":{"sponsorshipPage":false,"backgroundImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"brandingLine":"","brandingLink":"","brandingLogo":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0}},"primaryLearningPath":"Explore","lifeExpectancy":"Two years","lifeExpectancySetFrom":"2022-05-27T00:00:00+00:00","dummiesForKids":"no","sponsoredContent":"no","adInfo":"","adPairKey":[]},"status":"publish","visibility":"public","articleId":251804},{"headers":{"creationTime":"2017-10-26T11:57:36+00:00","modifiedTime":"2022-05-26T14:16:24+00:00","timestamp":"2022-06-22T19:37:41+00:00"},"data":{"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Business, Careers, & Money","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34224"},"slug":"business-careers-money","categoryId":34224},{"name":"Personal Finance","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34273"},"slug":"personal-finance","categoryId":34273},{"name":"Investing","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34288"},"slug":"investing","categoryId":34288},{"name":"Investment Vehicles","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34290"},"slug":"investment-vehicles","categoryId":34290}],"title":"Tips for Working with Trend-Following Trading Systems","strippedTitle":"tips for working with trend-following trading systems","slug":"tips-working-trend-following-trading-systems","canonicalUrl":"","seo":{"metaDescription":"Many trend‐following trading systems use a moving average for their starting points. In this trend‐following example, the system is designed for position tradin","noIndex":0,"noFollow":0},"content":"Many trend‐following trading systems use a moving average for their starting points. In this trend‐following example, the system is designed for position trading, which means you use a relatively long moving average. Short selling isn’t permitted with this simple system.\r\n\r\nThe first step is to define buy and sell rules for your initial testing. The actual code for defining these rules depends on your specific system‐development package. Therefore, trading rules are described as generally as possible. The rules for an initial test may look like this:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Buy at tomorrow’s opening price when today’s price crosses and closes above the 50‐day exponential moving average (EMA).</li>\r\n \t<li>Sell at tomorrow’s opening price when today’s price crosses and closes below the 50‐day EMA.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nTo test whether using a moving average as a starting point is a good idea in a trend‐following system, apply these two rules to ten years of historical data for the stocks of your choice. After testing this idea, you find that this simple system works fairly well when stock prices are trending, but it’s likely to trigger many losing trades when the prices of stocks are range bound.\r\n\r\nYou can try to avoid these losing trades, and possibly improve your overall trading results, by filtering out trading‐range situations. One way to accomplish that goal is by changing the buy rule to read as follows: Buy at tomorrow’s open when the following conditions are true:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Today’s closing price is above the 50‐day EMA.</li>\r\n \t<li>The stock crossed above the 50‐day EMA sometime during the last 5 days.</li>\r\n \t<li>Today’s 50‐day EMA is greater than the 50‐day EMA from 5 days ago.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nThese added conditions serve as signal confirmation. When you test these rules, you find they reduce the number of whipsaw trades for most stocks, but they’re also likely to delay buy and sell signals on profitable trades and thus usually result in smaller profits on those trades. However, this adjustment makes the overall system more profitable because the number of losses is reduced.\r\n\r\nYou can find out whether other changes that you can make in your simple system can actually improve profitability. You may, for example, test different types of moving averages. Try, for example, a simple moving average (SMA) instead of an exponential moving average (EMA). Or you may want to try using different time frames for your moving average, such as 9‐day, 25‐day, or 100‐day moving ­averages.\r\n<h2 id=\"tab1\" >Identifying system‐optimization pitfalls</h2>\r\nMost system‐development and testing software comes equipped with a provision for system optimization, which allows you to fine‐tune the technical analysis tools used in your trading system. You can, for example, tell the system to find the time frame of the moving average that produces the highest profit for one stock and then ask it to do the same thing for a different stock. Some systems enable you to test this factor simultaneously for many stocks.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips warning\">Although this approach is alluring, using it is likely to cause you trouble. If you find, for example, that a 22‐day moving average works best for one stock, a 37‐day moving average works best for the next stock, and another stock performs best using a 74‐day moving average, you’re going to run into problems. The set of circumstances leading to these optimized results won’t likely repeat in precisely the same way again in the future. It’s almost guaranteed that whatever optimized parameters you may find for these moving averages won’t be the optimal choices when trading real capital.</p>\r\nThis is a simple example of a problem that’s well known to scientists and economists who build mathematic models to forecast future events. It’s called <em>curve fitting</em> because you’re molding your model to fit the historical data. You can expend quite a bit of effort fine‐tuning a system to identify all the major trends and turning points in historical data for a particular stock, but that effort isn’t likely to result in future trading profits. In that case, your optimized system is more likely to cause a long string of losses rather than profits.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">Testing a long moving average and comparing the results to a short moving average is fine, and so is testing a few points in between a long moving average and a short moving average. As long as you use this exercise to understand why short moving averages work best for short‐term trades and why longer moving averages work better for traders with longer trading horizons, you’ll be fine. Otherwise, you’re probably moving into the realm of curve fitting and becoming frustrated with your actual trading results.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 id=\"tab2\" >Testing with blind simulation</h2>\r\n<em>Blind simulation</em> is a method for setting aside enough historical data so you can test your system‐optimization results and avoid the problem of curve fitting. For example, you may test data from 1990 through 1999 and thus exclude data from 2000 through the present. After you’ve developed a system that looks good enough for you to base your trades on, you can then test your system against the data that was excluded.\r\n\r\nIf the system performs as well with the excluded data as it did with the original test data, you may have a system worth trading. If it fails, you obviously need to rethink your system.\r\n\r\nAnother approach is choosing your historical data with extreme care. You can expect trend‐following systems like a moving‐average system to perform well during long, powerful trends. If your stock had a strong run up during the long‐lasting 1990s bull market, that kind of price data can skew your results, magically making any trend‐following system appear profitable. Whether that success actually can be duplicated during a subsequent bull market, however, must first be thoroughly tested.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">If the majority of your profits come from a single trade or only a small number of trades, the system probably won’t perform well when you begin trading real money. You may want to address this problem by excluding periods from your test data when your stock was doing exceptionally well or when the results of any trades were significantly more profitable than the average trade.</p>\r\nThis technique is a valid approach to eliminating the extraordinary results arising from extraordinary situations in your historical data. Using it should give you a better idea of your system’s potential for generating real profits in the future.","description":"Many trend‐following trading systems use a moving average for their starting points. In this trend‐following example, the system is designed for position trading, which means you use a relatively long moving average. Short selling isn’t permitted with this simple system.\r\n\r\nThe first step is to define buy and sell rules for your initial testing. The actual code for defining these rules depends on your specific system‐development package. Therefore, trading rules are described as generally as possible. The rules for an initial test may look like this:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Buy at tomorrow’s opening price when today’s price crosses and closes above the 50‐day exponential moving average (EMA).</li>\r\n \t<li>Sell at tomorrow’s opening price when today’s price crosses and closes below the 50‐day EMA.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nTo test whether using a moving average as a starting point is a good idea in a trend‐following system, apply these two rules to ten years of historical data for the stocks of your choice. After testing this idea, you find that this simple system works fairly well when stock prices are trending, but it’s likely to trigger many losing trades when the prices of stocks are range bound.\r\n\r\nYou can try to avoid these losing trades, and possibly improve your overall trading results, by filtering out trading‐range situations. One way to accomplish that goal is by changing the buy rule to read as follows: Buy at tomorrow’s open when the following conditions are true:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Today’s closing price is above the 50‐day EMA.</li>\r\n \t<li>The stock crossed above the 50‐day EMA sometime during the last 5 days.</li>\r\n \t<li>Today’s 50‐day EMA is greater than the 50‐day EMA from 5 days ago.</li>\r\n</ul>\r\nThese added conditions serve as signal confirmation. When you test these rules, you find they reduce the number of whipsaw trades for most stocks, but they’re also likely to delay buy and sell signals on profitable trades and thus usually result in smaller profits on those trades. However, this adjustment makes the overall system more profitable because the number of losses is reduced.\r\n\r\nYou can find out whether other changes that you can make in your simple system can actually improve profitability. You may, for example, test different types of moving averages. Try, for example, a simple moving average (SMA) instead of an exponential moving average (EMA). Or you may want to try using different time frames for your moving average, such as 9‐day, 25‐day, or 100‐day moving ­averages.\r\n<h2 id=\"tab1\" >Identifying system‐optimization pitfalls</h2>\r\nMost system‐development and testing software comes equipped with a provision for system optimization, which allows you to fine‐tune the technical analysis tools used in your trading system. You can, for example, tell the system to find the time frame of the moving average that produces the highest profit for one stock and then ask it to do the same thing for a different stock. Some systems enable you to test this factor simultaneously for many stocks.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips warning\">Although this approach is alluring, using it is likely to cause you trouble. If you find, for example, that a 22‐day moving average works best for one stock, a 37‐day moving average works best for the next stock, and another stock performs best using a 74‐day moving average, you’re going to run into problems. The set of circumstances leading to these optimized results won’t likely repeat in precisely the same way again in the future. It’s almost guaranteed that whatever optimized parameters you may find for these moving averages won’t be the optimal choices when trading real capital.</p>\r\nThis is a simple example of a problem that’s well known to scientists and economists who build mathematic models to forecast future events. It’s called <em>curve fitting</em> because you’re molding your model to fit the historical data. You can expend quite a bit of effort fine‐tuning a system to identify all the major trends and turning points in historical data for a particular stock, but that effort isn’t likely to result in future trading profits. In that case, your optimized system is more likely to cause a long string of losses rather than profits.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips remember\">Testing a long moving average and comparing the results to a short moving average is fine, and so is testing a few points in between a long moving average and a short moving average. As long as you use this exercise to understand why short moving averages work best for short‐term trades and why longer moving averages work better for traders with longer trading horizons, you’ll be fine. Otherwise, you’re probably moving into the realm of curve fitting and becoming frustrated with your actual trading results.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 id=\"tab2\" >Testing with blind simulation</h2>\r\n<em>Blind simulation</em> is a method for setting aside enough historical data so you can test your system‐optimization results and avoid the problem of curve fitting. For example, you may test data from 1990 through 1999 and thus exclude data from 2000 through the present. After you’ve developed a system that looks good enough for you to base your trades on, you can then test your system against the data that was excluded.\r\n\r\nIf the system performs as well with the excluded data as it did with the original test data, you may have a system worth trading. If it fails, you obviously need to rethink your system.\r\n\r\nAnother approach is choosing your historical data with extreme care. You can expect trend‐following systems like a moving‐average system to perform well during long, powerful trends. If your stock had a strong run up during the long‐lasting 1990s bull market, that kind of price data can skew your results, magically making any trend‐following system appear profitable. Whether that success actually can be duplicated during a subsequent bull market, however, must first be thoroughly tested.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">If the majority of your profits come from a single trade or only a small number of trades, the system probably won’t perform well when you begin trading real money. You may want to address this problem by excluding periods from your test data when your stock was doing exceptionally well or when the results of any trades were significantly more profitable than the average trade.</p>\r\nThis technique is a valid approach to eliminating the extraordinary results arising from extraordinary situations in your historical data. Using it should give you a better idea of your system’s potential for generating real profits in the future.","blurb":"","authors":[{"authorId":9240,"name":"Joe Duarte","slug":"joe-duarte","description":" <p><b>Dr. Joe Duarte</b> is a financial &#173;writer, private investor and trader, and former money manager/president of River Willow Capital Management. In addition to <i>Options Trading For Dummies</i>, he is the author of <i>Trading Futures For Dummies</i> and <i>Market Timing For Dummies</i>. Visit his website at joeduarteinthemoneyoptions.com</p> ","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/9240"}}],"primaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":34290,"title":"Investment Vehicles","slug":"investment-vehicles","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34290"}},"secondaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"tertiaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"trendingArticles":null,"inThisArticle":[{"label":"Identifying system‐optimization pitfalls","target":"#tab1"},{"label":"Testing with blind simulation","target":"#tab2"}],"relatedArticles":{"fromBook":[{"articleId":245740,"title":"Understanding Countertrend Trading Systems","slug":"understanding-countertrend-trading-systems","categoryList":["technology","computers","macs","general-macs"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/245740"}},{"articleId":245737,"title":"Understanding Trend‐Following Trading Systems","slug":"understanding-trend%e2%80%90following-trading-systems","categoryList":["technology","computers","macs","general-macs"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/245737"}},{"articleId":245734,"title":"Understanding Mechanical Trading Systems","slug":"understanding-mechanical-trading-systems","categoryList":["technology","computers","macs","general-macs"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/245734"}},{"articleId":245731,"title":"The Risks of Trading Options and Futures","slug":"risks-trading-options-futures","categoryList":["technology","computers","macs","general-macs"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/245731"}},{"articleId":245728,"title":"Options for Getting Out of Options","slug":"options-getting-options","categoryList":["technology","computers","macs","general-macs"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/245728"}}],"fromCategory":[{"articleId":209450,"title":"Trading Options For Dummies Cheat Sheet","slug":"trading-options-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/209450"}},{"articleId":195878,"title":"Trading Order Types","slug":"trading-order-types","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/195878"}}]},"hasRelatedBookFromSearch":false,"relatedBook":{"bookId":282636,"slug":"trading-options-for-dummies","isbn":"9781119828303","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles"],"amazon":{"default":"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1119828309/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","ca":"https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1119828309/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","indigo_ca":"http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-9208661-13710633?url=https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/product/1119828309-item.html&cjsku=978111945484","gb":"https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1119828309/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","de":"https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1119828309/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20"},"image":{"src":"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/options-trading-for-dummies-4th-edition-cover-9781119828303-203x255.jpg","width":203,"height":255},"title":"Options Trading For Dummies","testBankPinActivationLink":"","bookOutOfPrint":true,"authorsInfo":"<p><b>Dr. <b data-author-id=\"9240\">Joe Duarte</b></b> is a financial &#173;writer, private investor and trader, and former money manager/president of River Willow Capital Management. In addition to <i>Options Trading For Dummies</i>, he is the author of <i>Trading Futures For Dummies</i> and <i>Market Timing For Dummies</i>. Visit his website at joeduarteinthemoneyoptions.com</p>","authors":[{"authorId":9240,"name":"Joe Duarte","slug":"joe-duarte","description":" <p><b>Dr. Joe Duarte</b> is a financial &#173;writer, private investor and trader, and former money manager/president of River Willow Capital Management. In addition to <i>Options Trading For Dummies</i>, he is the author of <i>Trading Futures For Dummies</i> and <i>Market Timing For Dummies</i>. Visit his website at joeduarteinthemoneyoptions.com</p> ","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/9240"}}],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/books/"}},"collections":[],"articleAds":{"footerAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;personal-finance&quot;,&quot;investing&quot;,&quot;investment-vehicles&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119828303&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-62b36f856871c\"></div></div>","rightAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_right_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_right_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;personal-finance&quot;,&quot;investing&quot;,&quot;investment-vehicles&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119828303&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-62b36f8568e72\"></div></div>"},"articleType":{"articleType":"Articles","articleList":null,"content":null,"videoInfo":{"videoId":null,"name":null,"accountId":null,"playerId":null,"thumbnailUrl":null,"description":null,"uploadDate":null}},"sponsorship":{"sponsorshipPage":false,"backgroundImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"brandingLine":"","brandingLink":"","brandingLogo":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0}},"primaryLearningPath":"Explore","lifeExpectancy":"Two years","lifeExpectancySetFrom":"2022-05-26T00:00:00+00:00","dummiesForKids":"no","sponsoredContent":"no","adInfo":"","adPairKey":[]},"status":"publish","visibility":"public","articleId":245715},{"headers":{"creationTime":"2019-11-27T21:49:43+00:00","modifiedTime":"2022-05-17T17:38:36+00:00","timestamp":"2022-06-22T19:37:41+00:00"},"data":{"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Business, Careers, & Money","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34224"},"slug":"business-careers-money","categoryId":34224},{"name":"Personal Finance","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34273"},"slug":"personal-finance","categoryId":34273},{"name":"Cryptocurrency","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34277"},"slug":"cryptocurrency","categoryId":34277}],"title":"Cryptocurrency Mining For Dummies Cheat Sheet","strippedTitle":"cryptocurrency mining for dummies cheat sheet","slug":"cryptocurrency-mining-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","canonicalUrl":"","seo":{"metaDescription":"Explore the basics of cryptocurrency mining, how to choose a cryptocurrency to mine, and a quick list of some of the top mining pools.","noIndex":0,"noFollow":0},"content":"Cryptocurrency mining is a relatively new concept that started slowly and has, over about a decade, developed into an entire industry with a wild-west-gold-rush reputation.\r\n\r\nThe mining of “digital gold” in the form of cryptocurrencies is often painted as a get-rich-quick scam, with comparisons to tulip mania and the gold rushes of years past.\r\n\r\nIndeed, the industry is rife with hype, scams, and misleading promotions, and there’s a lot of room for error. However, there are profitable mining ventures, and there is still room for you, as a new miner, to profit from <a href=\"https://www.dummies.com/personal-finance/investing/what-you-need-for-mining-cryptocurrency/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cryptocurrency mining</a> if you do your research, do your homework, and plan carefully.","description":"Cryptocurrency mining is a relatively new concept that started slowly and has, over about a decade, developed into an entire industry with a wild-west-gold-rush reputation.\r\n\r\nThe mining of “digital gold” in the form of cryptocurrencies is often painted as a get-rich-quick scam, with comparisons to tulip mania and the gold rushes of years past.\r\n\r\nIndeed, the industry is rife with hype, scams, and misleading promotions, and there’s a lot of room for error. However, there are profitable mining ventures, and there is still room for you, as a new miner, to profit from <a href=\"https://www.dummies.com/personal-finance/investing/what-you-need-for-mining-cryptocurrency/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cryptocurrency mining</a> if you do your research, do your homework, and plan carefully.","blurb":"","authors":[{"authorId":9031,"name":"Peter Kent","slug":"peter-kent","description":" <p><b>Peter Kent</b> is author of numerous technology titles as well as his own cryptocurrency video course, <i>Get Crypto Clear: Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Made Simple.</i></p> <p><b>Tyler Bain</b> is an engineer specializing in the electrical grid and keeping the lights on for all those Bitcoin miners, traders, and node runners. Peter and Tyler are also co-authors of <i>Cryptocurrency Mining For Dummies.</i> ","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/9031"}},{"authorId":33256,"name":"Tyler Bain","slug":"tyler-bain","description":" <p><b>Peter Kent</b> is author of numerous technology titles as well as his own cryptocurrency video course, <i>Get Crypto Clear: Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Made Simple.</i></p> <p><b>Tyler Bain</b> is an engineer specializing in the electrical grid and keeping the lights on for all those Bitcoin miners, traders, and node runners. Peter and Tyler are also co-authors of <i>Cryptocurrency Mining For Dummies.</i> ","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/33256"}}],"primaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":34277,"title":"Cryptocurrency","slug":"cryptocurrency","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34277"}},"secondaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"tertiaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"trendingArticles":null,"inThisArticle":[],"relatedArticles":{"fromBook":[{"articleId":266918,"title":"10 Types of Cryptocurrency Mining Resources","slug":"10-types-of-cryptocurrency-mining-resources","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/266918"}},{"articleId":266912,"title":"What Is Pool Mining?","slug":"what-is-pool-mining","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/266912"}},{"articleId":266907,"title":"What Is Cryptocurrency Mining?","slug":"what-is-cryptocurrency-mining","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/266907"}},{"articleId":266900,"title":"Decentralization of Cryptocurrency Is a Good Thing","slug":"decentralization-of-cryptocurrency-is-a-good-thing","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/266900"}},{"articleId":266895,"title":"Best Places to Find Mining Info: Staying Current as a Cryptocurrency Miner","slug":"best-places-to-find-mining-info-staying-current-as-a-cryptocurrency-miner","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/266895"}}],"fromCategory":[{"articleId":289714,"title":"Cryptocurrency All-in-One For Dummies Cheat Sheet","slug":"cryptocurrency-all-in-one-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/289714"}},{"articleId":289345,"title":"NFTs For Dummies Cheat Sheet","slug":"nfts-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/289345"}},{"articleId":266918,"title":"10 Types of Cryptocurrency Mining Resources","slug":"10-types-of-cryptocurrency-mining-resources","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/266918"}},{"articleId":266912,"title":"What Is Pool Mining?","slug":"what-is-pool-mining","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/266912"}},{"articleId":266907,"title":"What Is Cryptocurrency Mining?","slug":"what-is-cryptocurrency-mining","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/266907"}}]},"hasRelatedBookFromSearch":false,"relatedBook":{"bookId":281674,"slug":"cryptocurrency-mining-for-dummies","isbn":"9781119885368","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","cryptocurrency"],"amazon":{"default":"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1119885361/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","ca":"https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1119885361/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","indigo_ca":"http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-9208661-13710633?url=https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/product/1119885361-item.html&cjsku=978111945484","gb":"https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1119885361/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","de":"https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1119885361/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20"},"image":{"src":"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/1119885361-203x255.jpg","width":203,"height":255},"title":"Cryptocurrency Mining For Dummies, 2nd Edition","testBankPinActivationLink":"","bookOutOfPrint":true,"authorsInfo":"<p><p><b><b data-author-id=\"9031\">Peter Kent</b></b> is author of numerous technology titles as well as his own cryptocurrency video course, <i>Get Crypto Clear: Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Made Simple.</i></p> <p><b>Tyler Bain</b> is an engineer specializing in the electrical grid and keeping the lights on for all those Bitcoin miners, traders, and node runners. Peter and Tyler are also co-authors of <i>Cryptocurrency Mining For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Peter Kent</b> is author of numerous technology titles as well as his own cryptocurrency video course, <i>Get Crypto Clear: Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Made Simple.</i></p> <p><b><b data-author-id=\"33256\">Tyler Bain</b></b> is an engineer specializing in the electrical grid and keeping the lights on for all those Bitcoin miners, traders, and node runners. Peter and Tyler are also co-authors of <i>Cryptocurrency Mining For Dummies.</i></p>","authors":[{"authorId":9031,"name":"Peter Kent","slug":"peter-kent","description":" <p><b>Peter Kent</b> is author of numerous technology titles as well as his own cryptocurrency video course, <i>Get Crypto Clear: Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Made Simple.</i></p> <p><b>Tyler Bain</b> is an engineer specializing in the electrical grid and keeping the lights on for all those Bitcoin miners, traders, and node runners. Peter and Tyler are also co-authors of <i>Cryptocurrency Mining For Dummies.</i> ","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/9031"}},{"authorId":33256,"name":"Tyler Bain","slug":"tyler-bain","description":" <p><b>Peter Kent</b> is author of numerous technology titles as well as his own cryptocurrency video course, <i>Get Crypto Clear: Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Made Simple.</i></p> <p><b>Tyler Bain</b> is an engineer specializing in the electrical grid and keeping the lights on for all those Bitcoin miners, traders, and node runners. Peter and Tyler are also co-authors of <i>Cryptocurrency Mining For Dummies.</i> ","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/33256"}}],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/books/"}},"collections":[],"articleAds":{"footerAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;personal-finance&quot;,&quot;cryptocurrency&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119885368&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-62b36f8551bc2\"></div></div>","rightAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_right_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_right_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;personal-finance&quot;,&quot;cryptocurrency&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119885368&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-62b36f855259c\"></div></div>"},"articleType":{"articleType":"Cheat Sheet","articleList":[{"articleId":0,"title":"","slug":null,"categoryList":[],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/"}}],"content":[{"title":"Cryptocurrency mining basics","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Units of cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin and others, are generated and secured through an algorithmic process colloquially referred to as <em>mining.</em></p>\n<p>The process of mining underpins peer-to-peer cryptocurrencies by verifying and ordering transactions. Miners run mining &#8220;rigs,&#8221; computer equipment that generates new blocks of transactions to be added to the cryptocurrency blockchain. In return, miners are rewarded by earning newly minted coins and transaction fees.</p>\n<p>Cryptocurrency mining fortifies the peer-to-peer network of nodes and makes it more expensive and difficult for the network to be attacked. Miners are an integral part of the system’s protection against hackers and others attempting to subvert the cryptocurrency.</p>\n<p>It is important to stay up to date in the cryptocurrency mining space, so check out the following list of resources to stay current with what’s going on.</p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=375643.0.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bitcoin Talk</a>:</strong> Use Bitcoin Talk to inquire into almost any cryptocurrency topic, including (but definitely not limited to) mining. Despite the name, it’s not just for bitcoin anymore; you’ll find many different cryptocurrencies being discussed. For example, it is where most popular alternative cryptocurrencies were announced prior to launch.</li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bitcoin subreddit</a>:</strong> The bitcoin subreddit provides a great forum for lots of breaking news and current events and provides a window into the current sentiment in the community. It’s not all serious stuff, though; you’ll find plenty of memes, jokes, and other non-mining content.</li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinBeginners\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bitcoin Beginners subreddit</a>:</strong> The bitcoin beginners subreddit is an even better resource for recent entrants into the ecosystem, providing plenty of great information for newbies.</li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http://www.coindesk.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CoinDesk</a>:</strong> CoinDesk is a decent news source in an industry riddled with faulty cryptocurrency news outlets. It also provides exchange rate data from a variety of different cryptocurrencies.</li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https://coinjournal.net/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CoinJournal</a>:</strong> CoinJournal is also a good source for cryptocurrency related news, but clearly separates press releases from news articles so users can differentiate the public relations messaging from journalism.</li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https://bitcoinmagazine.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bitcoin Magazine</a>:</strong> Bitcoin Magazine has long been a reliable news outlet in the cryptocurrency space. Although print releases of the magazine stopped years ago, it still provides good and consistent news coverage on its website.</li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http://www.merklereport.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Merkle Report:</a></strong> The Merkle Report curates a wide variety of relevant content from various news sources in the cryptocurrency space. It offers a good one-stop-shop for news across the industry.</li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https://messari.io/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Messari</a>:</strong> Messari has a ton of cryptocurrency focused data, research, and news from across the industry. It also offers a daily newsletter and weekly podcast to help you stay up-to-date on current trends.</li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/c/blockdigest\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Block Digest</a>:</strong> Block Digest is an excellent source of news in the form of a weekly podcast that features various community members discussing news and headlines from the cryptocurrency space.</li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Stack Exchange</a>:</strong> The Bitcoin Stack Exchange has a large trove of questions answered by other cryptocurrency enthusiasts. Anyone can post a question or an answer, and whether you are looking for specific insight, chances are someone has already answered the question you have.</li>\n</ul>\n"},{"title":"Choose a cryptocurrency to mine","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Don’t rush your choice of which cryptocurrency you’ll mine. The choice can make or break the viability of mining.</p>\n<p>Some of the most important attributes to consider when selecting which cryptocurrency to mine include longevity, security, community support, relative decentralization, coin-distribution method, and personal preference.</p>\n<p>If the cryptocurrency you choose to mine is missing one or several of these central aspects of a well-functioning peer-to-peer system, it may be difficult to maintain viability and profitability long term.</p>\n<p>The following table provides background information about commonly mined cryptocurrencies.</p>\n<p>&nbsp;</p>\n<table width=\"571\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"69\"><strong>Coin</strong></td>\n<td width=\"68\"><strong>Ticker Symbol</strong></td>\n<td width=\"82\"><strong>Max Coin Distribution</strong></td>\n<td width=\"70\"><strong>% Supply Issued</strong></td>\n<td width=\"54\"><strong>Years Active</strong></td>\n<td width=\"66\"><strong>Current Price</strong></td>\n<td width=\"78\"><strong>Network Hash Rate</strong></td>\n<td width=\"84\"><strong>Mining Algorithm</strong></td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"69\">Bitcoin</td>\n<td width=\"68\">BTC/XBT</td>\n<td width=\"82\">21,000,000</td>\n<td width=\"70\">90%</td>\n<td width=\"54\">13</td>\n<td width=\"66\">$37,980</td>\n<td width=\"78\">193 EH/s</td>\n<td width=\"84\">SHA-256d</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"69\">Bitcoin Cash</td>\n<td width=\"68\">BCH</td>\n<td width=\"82\">21,000,000</td>\n<td width=\"70\">90%</td>\n<td width=\"54\">5</td>\n<td width=\"66\">$290</td>\n<td width=\"78\">1.5 EH/s</td>\n<td width=\"84\">SHA-256d</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"69\">DASH</td>\n<td width=\"68\">DASH</td>\n<td width=\"82\">18,900,000</td>\n<td width=\"70\">56%</td>\n<td width=\"54\">8</td>\n<td width=\"66\">$92</td>\n<td width=\"78\">4 PH/s</td>\n<td width=\"84\">X11</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"69\">Ethereum</td>\n<td width=\"68\">ETH</td>\n<td width=\"82\">No limit</td>\n<td width=\"70\">N/A</td>\n<td width=\"54\">7</td>\n<td width=\"66\">$2,618</td>\n<td width=\"78\">994.7 TH/s</td>\n<td width=\"84\">Ethash</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"69\">Litecoin</td>\n<td width=\"68\">LTC</td>\n<td width=\"82\">84,000,000</td>\n<td width=\"70\">83%</td>\n<td width=\"54\">11</td>\n<td width=\"66\">$107</td>\n<td width=\"78\">391 TH/s</td>\n<td width=\"84\">Scrypt</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"69\">Monero</td>\n<td width=\"68\">XMR</td>\n<td width=\"82\">No limit</td>\n<td width=\"70\">N/A</td>\n<td width=\"54\">8</td>\n<td width=\"66\">$147</td>\n<td width=\"78\">3 GH/s</td>\n<td width=\"84\">CryptoNight</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"69\">Zcash</td>\n<td width=\"68\">ZEC</td>\n<td width=\"82\">21,000,000</td>\n<td width=\"70\">66%</td>\n<td width=\"54\">3</td>\n<td width=\"66\">$99</td>\n<td width=\"78\">8 GH/s</td>\n<td width=\"84\">Equihash</td>\n</tr>\n</tbody>\n</table>\n"},{"title":"Pool versus solo mining","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Depending on your hardware capabilities and the block difficulty for the cryptocurrency you intend to mine, the odds of creating and mining a new block by <em>solo</em> cryptocurrency mining alone may be very low: within the realm of purchasing a winning lottery ticket. Thus, it often makes more sense to mine as part of a mining pool, to ensure steady and relatively constant rewards.</p>\n<p><em>Pool mining</em> is when various miners combine, or <em>pool </em>their mining hash rate resources to find blocks as a team and share the subsequent rewards between members of the team, proportionally to how much each miner contributed.</p>\n<p>Here is a quick list of some of the top mining pools by cryptocurrency:</p>\n<p><strong>Bitcoin (BTC):</strong></p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.antpool.com/\">Antpool</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://pool.binance.com/\">Binance Pool</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://pool.btc.com/\">BTC.com</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.f2pool.com/\">F2Pool</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://foundryusapool.com/\">Foundry USA Pool</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.poolin.com/\">Poolin</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://pool.viabtc.com/\">ViaBTC</a></li>\n</ul>\n<p><strong>Ethereum (ETH):</strong></p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://ethermine.org/\">Ethermine</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.f2pool.com/\">F2Pool</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://minerall.io/\">Minerall Pool</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://miningexpress.com/\">Mining Express</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://ethereum.miningpoolhub.com/\">Mining Pool Hub</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://eth.nanopool.org/\">Nanopool</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://eth.pandaminer.com/\">Pandaminer</a> (select English in the upper right)</li>\n</ul>\n<p><strong>Litecoin (LTC):</strong></p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.antpool.com/\">Antpool</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.f2pool.com/\">F2Pool</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.litecoinpool.org/\">LitcoinPool.org</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.poolin.com/\">Poolin</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://pool.viabtc.com/\">ViaBTC</a></li>\n</ul>\n<p><strong>Monero (XMR):</strong></p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.f2pool.com/\">F2Pool</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://minexmr.com/\">MineXMR</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://xmr.nanopool.org/\">NanoPool</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.poolin.com/\">Poolin</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.supportxmr.com/\">SupportXMR</a></li>\n</ul>\n<p><strong>Zcash (ZEC):</strong></p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://zcash.flypool.org/\">FlyPool</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://zec.nanopool.org/\">Nanopool</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://slushpool.com/\">Slush Pool</a></li>\n</ul>\n"},{"title":"Cryptocurrency unit prefixes","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<table style=\"font-size: 16px;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"105\"><strong>Number</strong></td>\n<td width=\"111\"><strong>Abbreviation</strong></td>\n<td width=\"114\"><strong>Number of Hashes</strong></td>\n<td width=\"56\"><strong>10<sup>x</sup></strong></td>\n<td width=\"190\"><strong>Number</strong></td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"105\">Zettahash</td>\n<td width=\"111\">ZH</td>\n<td width=\"114\">Sextillion hashes</td>\n<td width=\"56\">10<sup>21</sup></td>\n<td width=\"190\">1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"105\">Exahash</td>\n<td width=\"111\">EH</td>\n<td width=\"114\">Quintillion hashes</td>\n<td width=\"56\">10<sup>18</sup></td>\n<td width=\"190\">1,000,000,000,000,000,000</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"105\">Petahash</td>\n<td width=\"111\">PH</td>\n<td width=\"114\">Quadrillion hashes</td>\n<td width=\"56\">10<sup>15</sup></td>\n<td width=\"190\">1,000,000,000,000,000</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"105\">Terahash</td>\n<td width=\"111\">TH</td>\n<td width=\"114\">Trillion hashes</td>\n<td width=\"56\">10<sup>12</sup></td>\n<td width=\"190\">1,000,000,000,000</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"105\">Gigahash</td>\n<td width=\"111\">GH</td>\n<td width=\"114\">Billion hashes</td>\n<td width=\"56\">10<sup>9</sup></td>\n<td width=\"190\">1,000,000,000</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"105\">Megahash</td>\n<td width=\"111\">MH</td>\n<td width=\"114\">Million hashes</td>\n<td width=\"56\">10<sup>6</sup></td>\n<td width=\"190\">1,000,000</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"105\">Kilohash</td>\n<td width=\"111\">kH</td>\n<td width=\"114\">Thousand hashes</td>\n<td width=\"56\">10<sup>3</sup></td>\n<td width=\"190\">1,000</td>\n</tr>\n</tbody>\n</table>\n<p>The names of these numbers are based on the <em>short-scale</em> large-number naming convention that is used throughout most of the English-speaking world.</p>\n<p>Much of the non-English-speaking world uses the <em>long-scale</em> and, thus, uses different names for these numbers. For example, while a tera (1,000,000,000,000) is called a <em>trillion</em> in the short scale, on the long scale it’s known as a <em>billion.</em></p>\n<p>The numbers’ prefix names (exa, peta, and so on) and their symbols are the same in both systems; only the numbers’ <em>names</em> change (for the five largest numbers in the preceding table).</p>\n<p>The abbreviation of kilohash is kH, with a small k, because the capitalized letter k in ISU (the International System of Units), represents <em>kelvin,</em> a measurement of temperature. These number prefixes can be used in any context in which large numbers are employed, but in the cryptocurrency mining space, they’re typically used for hashes and watts.</p>\n"},{"title":"Coin divisibility in cryptocurrency mining ","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Cryptocurrencies can be divisible into many small pieces, depending on the cryptocurrency protocol specifications. Just as with dollars, transactions are not always carried out in whole dollars, but can be fractions of a dollar (dollars and cents), so, too, cryptocurrency transactions can be made using coin fractions. You don’t have to buy whole bitcoins, for example.</p>\n<p>Here is a rundown of some of the most common units used to refer to amounts of bitcoin (there are <a href=\"https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Units\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">others</a>). Other cryptocurrencies have similar unit divisibility. The list uses BTC as the bitcoin “ticker symbol,” but a common alternative is XBT.</p>\n<p>&nbsp;</p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"115\"><strong>Unit Name</strong></td>\n<td width=\"115\"><strong>Abbreviation</strong></td>\n<td width=\"115\"><strong>Number</strong></td>\n<td width=\"115\"><strong>10<sup>x</sup></strong></td>\n<td width=\"115\"><strong>Number</strong></td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"115\">Megabitcoin</td>\n<td width=\"115\">MBTC</td>\n<td width=\"115\">Million Bitcoin</td>\n<td width=\"115\">10<sup>6</sup></td>\n<td width=\"115\">1,000,000</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"115\">Kilobitcoin</td>\n<td width=\"115\">kBTC</td>\n<td width=\"115\">Thousand Bitcoin</td>\n<td width=\"115\">10<sup>3</sup></td>\n<td width=\"115\">1,000</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"115\">Hectobitcoin</td>\n<td width=\"115\">hBTC</td>\n<td width=\"115\">Hundred Bitcoin</td>\n<td width=\"115\">10<sup>2</sup></td>\n<td width=\"115\">100</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"115\">Decabitcoin</td>\n<td width=\"115\">daBTC</td>\n<td width=\"115\">Ten Bitcoin</td>\n<td width=\"115\">10<sup>1</sup></td>\n<td width=\"115\">10</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"115\">Bitcoin</td>\n<td width=\"115\">BTC</td>\n<td width=\"115\">One Bitcoin</td>\n<td width=\"115\">10<sup>0</sup></td>\n<td width=\"115\">1.0</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"115\">Decibitcoin</td>\n<td width=\"115\">dBTC</td>\n<td width=\"115\">Tenth of a Bitcoin</td>\n<td width=\"115\">10<sup>–1</sup></td>\n<td width=\"115\">0.1</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"115\">Centibitcoin</td>\n<td width=\"115\">cBTC</td>\n<td width=\"115\">Hundredth of a Bitcoin</td>\n<td width=\"115\">10<sup>–2</sup></td>\n<td width=\"115\">0.01</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"115\">Millibitcoin</td>\n<td width=\"115\">mBTC</td>\n<td width=\"115\">Thousandth of a Bitcoin</td>\n<td width=\"115\">10<sup>–3</sup></td>\n<td width=\"115\">0.001</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"115\">Microbitcoin</td>\n<td width=\"115\">µBTC</td>\n<td width=\"115\">Millionth of a Bitcoin</td>\n<td width=\"115\">10<sup>–6</sup></td>\n<td width=\"115\">0.000001</td>\n</tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"115\">Satoshi</td>\n<td width=\"115\">sat</td>\n<td width=\"115\">Hundred millionth of a Bitcoin</td>\n<td width=\"115\">10<sup>–8</sup></td>\n<td width=\"115\">0.00000001</td>\n</tr>\n</tbody>\n</table>\n"}],"videoInfo":{"videoId":null,"name":null,"accountId":null,"playerId":null,"thumbnailUrl":null,"description":null,"uploadDate":null}},"sponsorship":{"sponsorshipPage":false,"backgroundImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"brandingLine":"","brandingLink":"","brandingLogo":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0}},"primaryLearningPath":"Advance","lifeExpectancy":"One year","lifeExpectancySetFrom":"2022-05-17T00:00:00+00:00","dummiesForKids":"no","sponsoredContent":"no","adInfo":"","adPairKey":[]},"status":"publish","visibility":"public","articleId":266240},{"headers":{"creationTime":"2018-02-02T04:07:58+00:00","modifiedTime":"2022-05-17T15:11:21+00:00","timestamp":"2022-06-22T19:37:41+00:00"},"data":{"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Business, Careers, & Money","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34224"},"slug":"business-careers-money","categoryId":34224},{"name":"Personal Finance","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34273"},"slug":"personal-finance","categoryId":34273},{"name":"General Personal Finance","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34311"},"slug":"general-personal-finance","categoryId":34311}],"title":"Personal Finance in Your 20s and 30s: Online Resources to Find Service Providers","strippedTitle":"personal finance in your 20s and 30s: online resources to find service providers","slug":"personal-finance-20s-30s-online-resources-find-service-providers","canonicalUrl":"","seo":{"metaDescription":"Finding quality, affordable professional service providers can be a challenge. As can finding the myriad other service providers you may seek, such as an auto r","noIndex":0,"noFollow":0},"content":"Finding quality, affordable professional service providers can be a challenge. As can finding the myriad other service providers you may seek, such as an auto repair shop or a plumber. All of us have the battle scars from the school of hard knocks and making bad hiring decisions.\r\n\r\nGetting referrals from folks you know often doesn't pan out — and for good reason. Just because your friend or neighbor has had good experiences with a given contractor doesn't mean you will or that you value the same things in a provider.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">The Internet has long held the promise of being an information source and exchange for consumers interested in hearing the straight scoop about service providers, but message boards rarely have a critical mass of comments about locally focused companies. Firms such as Kudzu, which is owned by media conglomerate Cox Enterprises, provides consumers free reviews on companies, but here's a case where you may well get less than you paid for. Anyone can complete a simple registration by providing an email address, name, and zip code, and many service providers have just one or a few reviews. Due to the anonymity of the reviews and lack of screening, company owners, employees, and friends can easily post puffed-up reviews while competitors can easily criticize their peers.</p>\r\nAfter reviewing numerous websites that purport to help consumers separate the best service providers from the rest, the sections that follow highlight those that I've found are doing the best job.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips warning\">On some ratings sites, companies are solicited to buy enhanced listings, and this disguised advertising may make them more appealing to prospective customers. For example, Kudzu's \"Enhanced Profile\" service promises the paying company \"Higher placement in search\" as well as the ability to add photos and video and a marketing description.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 id=\"tab1\" >Angie's List</h2>\r\nAngie's List subscribers get access to data and customer feedback on a wide range of service providers in their local market area. The service boasts more than 3 million members in hundreds of markets around the United States.\r\n\r\nAngie's List, which began operations in 1995, uses proprietary technology to process reports, and one of a team of thirty people employed by Angie's List reads every report before it gets posted. Reports praising your own business or dissing a competitor's are ferreted out and removed. As happens on eBay, customers and businesses can respond to one another. When Angie's List receives a report on an unregistered company, that company is allowed to register for free. By registering, the company can then respond by posting to each customer's report. Consumers may not report anonymously, but their identity is only disclosed to the companies they rate. Angie's List also offers conflict resolution when a customer and company are at odds over their interaction.\r\n\r\nAngie's List says that they have a \"zero-tolerance policy\" about companies hassling a customer over the posting of negative comments. The report is posted live for all members to see, which obviously offers an incentive for the service company to resolve the issue quickly. If the service company resolves the complaint to the customer's satisfaction, the dispute is considered \"resolved\" and the negative report is removed from the service company's record. That's the leverage Angie's List uses to get complaints resolved. The member can then choose to file a new report, but if they do, they must grade the company at a B or above. However, the member is not obligated to file another report.\r\n\r\nCo-founder Angie Hicks never really considered the advertising-only model so often used online when she started her company. \"We offer a premium service with high-quality information. Consumers are willing to pay for good information. Consumers are looking for trusted filters,\" says Hicks.\r\n\r\nAngie's List has not totally forsaken ads. The company offers coupons from highly rated service companies. Companies pay to run coupons and must have an A or B rating. Like a school report card, grades range from A (best) to F (worst). If a company has any unresolved complaints, it can't advertise, regardless of its overall grade.\r\n\r\n(<strong><em>Note:</em></strong> At the time that this book goes to press in late 2017, Angie's List may merge into the parent company that owns HomeAdvisor.)\r\n<h2 id=\"tab2\" >HomeAdvisor</h2>\r\nHomeAdvisor (formerly Service Magic), another large online provider of service-company referrals, doesn't rely on member subscriptions. With HomeAdvisor, you register for free and provide personal information, including your home address and details of what you're looking for, and several companies, which have paid HomeAdvisor an annual membership (advertising) fee of about $300, will contact you offering their services. Home-Advisor argues that such fees weed out people who may be operating as a sideline or on a short-term basis and lead to higher-quality, committed contractors being listed on their site.\r\n\r\nHomeAdvisor, which is focused on home improvement, repair, and maintenance firms, also has a ratings and review feature where customers can rate the company. To prevent bogus reviews, HomeAdvisor only allows consumers who have found contractors through their service to rate and evaluate those contractors.\r\n\r\nHere's how their service works: Suppose you're seeking a contractor to build you a wooden deck. After completing background information on the HomeAdvisor site about your planned project, your information would be sent to three contractors in your area who would contact you, arrange a meeting to discuss your project, and give you a proposal (with some contractors, you can actually schedule these appointments through the HomeAdvisor site).\r\n\r\nUnlike other services, including Angie's List, HomeAdvisor screens all contractors, who must meet numerous criteria including being properly licensed within their state, carrying general liability insurance coverage, and passing a criminal and financial background check (which uncovers negatives such as liens, bankruptcies, and judgments), among other items.\r\n\r\nIn addition to paying HomeAdvisor an annual membership fee of $300, contractors pay HomeAdvisor a lead fee, depending upon the type of work and ranging from $10 to $50, for each lead they are sent. HomeAdvisor's model allows contractors to target clients by zip code and task, which allows them to be more focused in their prospecting and spend less time driving long distances.\r\n<h2 id=\"tab3\" >Other resources</h2>\r\nAnother resource worth checking out is <a href=\"http://www.checkbook.org/\">Consumers Checkbook</a>, which compiles service-provider data in the following metro areas: Boston, Chicago, Delaware Valley (Philadelphia area), Puget Sound (Seattle area), San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose, Twin Cities, and Washington, D.C. Checkbook is a nonprofit founded in 1974. Like Consumer Reports, it doesn't accept any advertising or money from companies it reviews. In addition to its website, it publishes <em>Consumer's Checkbook</em> magazine in seven local versions for each of the metro areas.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">Another option for checking out service providers is to access the Better Business Bureau (BBB) website in your area, which you can locate through their national site. BBB information, which is available without a fee to you the consumer, may tell you if the company you're considering has any recent black marks but will hardly give you a thorough review of many customers' experiences like those you will find on sites like HomeAdvisor or Angie's List. BBBs are non-profits that collect fees from member companies. Thus, they have similar conflicts of interest that Angie's List and Home Advisor have in being \"pro\" business.</p>","description":"Finding quality, affordable professional service providers can be a challenge. As can finding the myriad other service providers you may seek, such as an auto repair shop or a plumber. All of us have the battle scars from the school of hard knocks and making bad hiring decisions.\r\n\r\nGetting referrals from folks you know often doesn't pan out — and for good reason. Just because your friend or neighbor has had good experiences with a given contractor doesn't mean you will or that you value the same things in a provider.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">The Internet has long held the promise of being an information source and exchange for consumers interested in hearing the straight scoop about service providers, but message boards rarely have a critical mass of comments about locally focused companies. Firms such as Kudzu, which is owned by media conglomerate Cox Enterprises, provides consumers free reviews on companies, but here's a case where you may well get less than you paid for. Anyone can complete a simple registration by providing an email address, name, and zip code, and many service providers have just one or a few reviews. Due to the anonymity of the reviews and lack of screening, company owners, employees, and friends can easily post puffed-up reviews while competitors can easily criticize their peers.</p>\r\nAfter reviewing numerous websites that purport to help consumers separate the best service providers from the rest, the sections that follow highlight those that I've found are doing the best job.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips warning\">On some ratings sites, companies are solicited to buy enhanced listings, and this disguised advertising may make them more appealing to prospective customers. For example, Kudzu's \"Enhanced Profile\" service promises the paying company \"Higher placement in search\" as well as the ability to add photos and video and a marketing description.</p>\r\n\r\n<h2 id=\"tab1\" >Angie's List</h2>\r\nAngie's List subscribers get access to data and customer feedback on a wide range of service providers in their local market area. The service boasts more than 3 million members in hundreds of markets around the United States.\r\n\r\nAngie's List, which began operations in 1995, uses proprietary technology to process reports, and one of a team of thirty people employed by Angie's List reads every report before it gets posted. Reports praising your own business or dissing a competitor's are ferreted out and removed. As happens on eBay, customers and businesses can respond to one another. When Angie's List receives a report on an unregistered company, that company is allowed to register for free. By registering, the company can then respond by posting to each customer's report. Consumers may not report anonymously, but their identity is only disclosed to the companies they rate. Angie's List also offers conflict resolution when a customer and company are at odds over their interaction.\r\n\r\nAngie's List says that they have a \"zero-tolerance policy\" about companies hassling a customer over the posting of negative comments. The report is posted live for all members to see, which obviously offers an incentive for the service company to resolve the issue quickly. If the service company resolves the complaint to the customer's satisfaction, the dispute is considered \"resolved\" and the negative report is removed from the service company's record. That's the leverage Angie's List uses to get complaints resolved. The member can then choose to file a new report, but if they do, they must grade the company at a B or above. However, the member is not obligated to file another report.\r\n\r\nCo-founder Angie Hicks never really considered the advertising-only model so often used online when she started her company. \"We offer a premium service with high-quality information. Consumers are willing to pay for good information. Consumers are looking for trusted filters,\" says Hicks.\r\n\r\nAngie's List has not totally forsaken ads. The company offers coupons from highly rated service companies. Companies pay to run coupons and must have an A or B rating. Like a school report card, grades range from A (best) to F (worst). If a company has any unresolved complaints, it can't advertise, regardless of its overall grade.\r\n\r\n(<strong><em>Note:</em></strong> At the time that this book goes to press in late 2017, Angie's List may merge into the parent company that owns HomeAdvisor.)\r\n<h2 id=\"tab2\" >HomeAdvisor</h2>\r\nHomeAdvisor (formerly Service Magic), another large online provider of service-company referrals, doesn't rely on member subscriptions. With HomeAdvisor, you register for free and provide personal information, including your home address and details of what you're looking for, and several companies, which have paid HomeAdvisor an annual membership (advertising) fee of about $300, will contact you offering their services. Home-Advisor argues that such fees weed out people who may be operating as a sideline or on a short-term basis and lead to higher-quality, committed contractors being listed on their site.\r\n\r\nHomeAdvisor, which is focused on home improvement, repair, and maintenance firms, also has a ratings and review feature where customers can rate the company. To prevent bogus reviews, HomeAdvisor only allows consumers who have found contractors through their service to rate and evaluate those contractors.\r\n\r\nHere's how their service works: Suppose you're seeking a contractor to build you a wooden deck. After completing background information on the HomeAdvisor site about your planned project, your information would be sent to three contractors in your area who would contact you, arrange a meeting to discuss your project, and give you a proposal (with some contractors, you can actually schedule these appointments through the HomeAdvisor site).\r\n\r\nUnlike other services, including Angie's List, HomeAdvisor screens all contractors, who must meet numerous criteria including being properly licensed within their state, carrying general liability insurance coverage, and passing a criminal and financial background check (which uncovers negatives such as liens, bankruptcies, and judgments), among other items.\r\n\r\nIn addition to paying HomeAdvisor an annual membership fee of $300, contractors pay HomeAdvisor a lead fee, depending upon the type of work and ranging from $10 to $50, for each lead they are sent. HomeAdvisor's model allows contractors to target clients by zip code and task, which allows them to be more focused in their prospecting and spend less time driving long distances.\r\n<h2 id=\"tab3\" >Other resources</h2>\r\nAnother resource worth checking out is <a href=\"http://www.checkbook.org/\">Consumers Checkbook</a>, which compiles service-provider data in the following metro areas: Boston, Chicago, Delaware Valley (Philadelphia area), Puget Sound (Seattle area), San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose, Twin Cities, and Washington, D.C. Checkbook is a nonprofit founded in 1974. Like Consumer Reports, it doesn't accept any advertising or money from companies it reviews. In addition to its website, it publishes <em>Consumer's Checkbook</em> magazine in seven local versions for each of the metro areas.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">Another option for checking out service providers is to access the Better Business Bureau (BBB) website in your area, which you can locate through their national site. BBB information, which is available without a fee to you the consumer, may tell you if the company you're considering has any recent black marks but will hardly give you a thorough review of many customers' experiences like those you will find on sites like HomeAdvisor or Angie's List. BBBs are non-profits that collect fees from member companies. Thus, they have similar conflicts of interest that Angie's List and Home Advisor have in being \"pro\" business.</p>","blurb":"","authors":[{"authorId":8975,"name":"Eric Tyson","slug":"eric-tyson","description":" <p><b>Eric Tyson </b>is a veteran Dummies author of numerous bestselling books in the investing and personal finance space.</p> <p><b>Paul Mladjenovic</B> is a Certified Financial Planner and the bestselling author of <i>Stock Investing For Dummies.</i> <p><B>Kiana Danial</B> is an investment consultant and trainer and the author of <i>Cryptocurrency Investing For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Russell Wild </B>is the author or coauthor of nearly two dozen books, including <i>ETFs For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Matt Krantz </b>is a nationally known financial journalist and the author of <i>Online Investing For Dummies. </i> <p><b>Robert Griswold</b> is a successful real estate investor and property manager and the co-author of <i>Real Estate Investing For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Steven Gormley</B> is a celebrated expert in the legal marijuana sector and author of <i>Investing in Cannabis For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Brendan Bradley</b> is a financial market professional and the author of <i>ESG Investing For Dummies.</i> ","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/8975"}}],"primaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":34311,"title":"General Personal Finance","slug":"general-personal-finance","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34311"}},"secondaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"tertiaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"trendingArticles":null,"inThisArticle":[{"label":"Angie's List","target":"#tab1"},{"label":"HomeAdvisor","target":"#tab2"},{"label":"Other resources","target":"#tab3"}],"relatedArticles":{"fromBook":[{"articleId":249652,"title":"10 Things to Know About Apps in Your 20s and 30s","slug":"10-things-know-apps-20s-30s","categoryList":["technology","computers","macs","general-macs"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/249652"}},{"articleId":249649,"title":"Getting Your Career Going in Your 20s and 30s","slug":"getting-career-going-20s-30s","categoryList":["technology","computers","macs","general-macs"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/249649"}},{"articleId":249646,"title":"Seek Value for Your Education Dollars","slug":"seek-value-education-dollars","categoryList":["technology","computers","macs","general-macs"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/249646"}},{"articleId":249643,"title":"Exploring Entrepreneurial Options in Your 20s and 30s","slug":"exploring-entrepreneurial-options-20s-30s","categoryList":["technology","computers","macs","general-macs"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/249643"}},{"articleId":249640,"title":"Changing Jobs or Careers in Your 20s or 30s","slug":"changing-jobs-careers-20s-30s","categoryList":["technology","computers","macs","general-macs"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/249640"}}],"fromCategory":[{"articleId":288537,"title":"Financial Security For Dummies Cheat Sheet","slug":"financial-security-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","general-personal-finance"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/288537"}},{"articleId":240164,"title":"How to Write a Check","slug":"how-to-write-a-check","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","general-personal-finance"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/240164"}},{"articleId":208905,"title":"Personal Finance For Canadians For Dummies Cheat Sheet","slug":"personal-finance-for-canadians-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","general-personal-finance"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/208905"}},{"articleId":208797,"title":"Personal Finance in Your 20s and 30s For Dummies Cheat Sheet","slug":"personal-finance-in-your-20s-30s-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","general-personal-finance"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/208797"}},{"articleId":208765,"title":"Managing Your Money All-In-One For Dummies Cheat Sheet","slug":"managing-your-money-all-in-one-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","general-personal-finance"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/208765"}}]},"hasRelatedBookFromSearch":false,"relatedBook":{"bookId":282459,"slug":"personal-finance-in-your-20s-30s-for-dummies","isbn":"9781119805434","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","general-personal-finance"],"amazon":{"default":"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1119805430/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","ca":"https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1119805430/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","indigo_ca":"http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-9208661-13710633?url=https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/product/1119805430-item.html&cjsku=978111945484","gb":"https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1119805430/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","de":"https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1119805430/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20"},"image":{"src":"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/personal-finance-in-your-20s-30s-for-dummies-3e-cover-9781119805434-203x255.jpg","width":203,"height":255},"title":"Personal Finance in Your 20s & 30s For Dummies","testBankPinActivationLink":"","bookOutOfPrint":true,"authorsInfo":"<p><p><b><b data-author-id=\"8975\">Eric Tyson</b> </b>is a veteran Dummies author of numerous bestselling books in the investing and personal finance space.</p> <p><b>Paul Mladjenovic</B> is a Certified Financial Planner and the bestselling author of <i>Stock Investing For Dummies.</i> <p><B>Kiana Danial</B> is an investment consultant and trainer and the author of <i>Cryptocurrency Investing For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Russell Wild </B>is the author or coauthor of nearly two dozen books, including <i>ETFs For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Matt Krantz </b>is a nationally known financial journalist and the author of <i>Online Investing For Dummies. </i> <p><b>Robert Griswold</b> is a successful real estate investor and property manager and the co-author of <i>Real Estate Investing For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Steven Gormley</B> is a celebrated expert in the legal marijuana sector and author of <i>Investing in Cannabis For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Brendan Bradley</b> is a financial market professional and the author of <i>ESG Investing For Dummies.</i></p>","authors":[{"authorId":8975,"name":"Eric Tyson","slug":"eric-tyson","description":" <p><b>Eric Tyson </b>is a veteran Dummies author of numerous bestselling books in the investing and personal finance space.</p> <p><b>Paul Mladjenovic</B> is a Certified Financial Planner and the bestselling author of <i>Stock Investing For Dummies.</i> <p><B>Kiana Danial</B> is an investment consultant and trainer and the author of <i>Cryptocurrency Investing For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Russell Wild </B>is the author or coauthor of nearly two dozen books, including <i>ETFs For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Matt Krantz </b>is a nationally known financial journalist and the author of <i>Online Investing For Dummies. </i> <p><b>Robert Griswold</b> is a successful real estate investor and property manager and the co-author of <i>Real Estate Investing For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Steven Gormley</B> is a celebrated expert in the legal marijuana sector and author of <i>Investing in Cannabis For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Brendan Bradley</b> is a financial market professional and the author of <i>ESG Investing For Dummies.</i> ","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/8975"}}],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/books/"}},"collections":[],"articleAds":{"footerAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;personal-finance&quot;,&quot;general-personal-finance&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119805434&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-62b36f8541c00\"></div></div>","rightAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_right_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_right_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;personal-finance&quot;,&quot;general-personal-finance&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119805434&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-62b36f8542353\"></div></div>"},"articleType":{"articleType":"Articles","articleList":null,"content":null,"videoInfo":{"videoId":null,"name":null,"accountId":null,"playerId":null,"thumbnailUrl":null,"description":null,"uploadDate":null}},"sponsorship":{"sponsorshipPage":false,"backgroundImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"brandingLine":"","brandingLink":"","brandingLogo":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0}},"primaryLearningPath":"Explore","lifeExpectancy":"Two years","lifeExpectancySetFrom":"2022-05-17T00:00:00+00:00","dummiesForKids":"no","sponsoredContent":"no","adInfo":"","adPairKey":[]},"status":"publish","visibility":"public","articleId":249522},{"headers":{"creationTime":"2016-03-27T16:54:51+00:00","modifiedTime":"2022-05-13T15:51:40+00:00","timestamp":"2022-06-22T19:37:41+00:00"},"data":{"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Business, Careers, & Money","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34224"},"slug":"business-careers-money","categoryId":34224},{"name":"Personal Finance","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34273"},"slug":"personal-finance","categoryId":34273},{"name":"General Personal Finance","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34311"},"slug":"general-personal-finance","categoryId":34311}],"title":"Managing Your Money All-In-One For Dummies Cheat Sheet","strippedTitle":"managing your money all-in-one for dummies cheat sheet","slug":"managing-your-money-all-in-one-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","canonicalUrl":"","seo":{"metaDescription":"This Cheat Sheet provides a quick summary of key factors for managing your money, investing, and saving for retirement.","noIndex":0,"noFollow":0},"content":"Managing your money is crucial at all stages of your adult life — whether you’re interviewing for your first job, in the thick of your prime earning years, or enjoying your retirement. Some crucial aspects of managing your finances include taking stock of your finances, using a budget, building your savings, and investing your money.","description":"Managing your money is crucial at all stages of your adult life — whether you’re interviewing for your first job, in the thick of your prime earning years, or enjoying your retirement. Some crucial aspects of managing your finances include taking stock of your finances, using a budget, building your savings, and investing your money.","blurb":"","authors":[{"authorId":8947,"name":"The Experts at Dummies","slug":"the-experts-at-dummies","description":"The Experts at Dummies are smart, friendly people who make learning easy by taking a not-so-serious approach to serious stuff.","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/8947"}}],"primaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":34311,"title":"General Personal Finance","slug":"general-personal-finance","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34311"}},"secondaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"tertiaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"trendingArticles":null,"inThisArticle":[],"relatedArticles":{"fromBook":[],"fromCategory":[{"articleId":288537,"title":"Financial Security For Dummies Cheat Sheet","slug":"financial-security-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","general-personal-finance"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/288537"}},{"articleId":249522,"title":"Personal Finance in Your 20s and 30s: Online Resources to Find Service Providers","slug":"personal-finance-20s-30s-online-resources-find-service-providers","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","general-personal-finance"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/249522"}},{"articleId":240164,"title":"How to Write a Check","slug":"how-to-write-a-check","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","general-personal-finance"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/240164"}},{"articleId":208905,"title":"Personal Finance For Canadians For Dummies Cheat Sheet","slug":"personal-finance-for-canadians-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","general-personal-finance"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/208905"}},{"articleId":208797,"title":"Personal Finance in Your 20s and 30s For Dummies Cheat Sheet","slug":"personal-finance-in-your-20s-30s-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","general-personal-finance"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/208797"}}]},"hasRelatedBookFromSearch":false,"relatedBook":{"bookId":292106,"slug":"managing-your-money-all-in-one-for-dummies-2nd-edition","isbn":"9781119883357","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","general-personal-finance"],"amazon":{"default":"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1119883350/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","ca":"https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1119883350/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","indigo_ca":"http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-9208661-13710633?url=https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/product/1119883350-item.html&cjsku=978111945484","gb":"https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1119883350/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","de":"https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1119883350/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20"},"image":{"src":"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/9781119883357-203x255.jpg","width":203,"height":255},"title":"Managing Your Money All-in-One For Dummies, 2nd Edition","testBankPinActivationLink":"","bookOutOfPrint":true,"authorsInfo":"<p><b data-author-id=\"8947\">The Experts at Dummies</b> are smart, friendly people who make learning easy by taking a not-so-serious approach to serious stuff.</p>","authors":[{"authorId":8947,"name":"The Experts at Dummies","slug":"the-experts-at-dummies","description":"The Experts at Dummies are smart, friendly people who make learning easy by taking a not-so-serious approach to serious stuff.","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/8947"}}],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/books/"}},"collections":[],"articleAds":{"footerAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;personal-finance&quot;,&quot;general-personal-finance&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119883357&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-62b36f852fc7b\"></div></div>","rightAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_right_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_right_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;personal-finance&quot;,&quot;general-personal-finance&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119883357&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-62b36f85303c4\"></div></div>"},"articleType":{"articleType":"Cheat Sheet","articleList":[{"articleId":189809,"title":"How to Save for Retirement","slug":"how-to-save-for-retirement","categoryList":[],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/189809"}},{"articleId":189803,"title":"Keys to Investing Your Money","slug":"keys-to-investing-your-money","categoryList":[],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/189803"}},{"articleId":189802,"title":"Managing Your Money: Tips for Buying Health Insurance","slug":"managing-your-money-tips-for-buying-health-insurance","categoryList":[],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/189802"}},{"articleId":189791,"title":"Managing Your Money: Which Bills to Pay First","slug":"managing-your-money-which-bills-to-pay-first","categoryList":[],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/189791"}},{"articleId":189790,"title":"Things Debt Collectors Can't Do","slug":"things-debt-collectors-cant-do","categoryList":[],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/189790"}}],"content":[{"title":"Assessing your finances and managing money with a budget","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>You need a clear idea of the current state of your finances to figure out the best way to deal with your debts. Start with the following tips:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Compare your monthly spending to your monthly income. By doing this comparison, you may quickly realize that you’re using credit to finance a lifestyle you can’t afford. If that’s the case, you <em>must</em> reduce your spending to meet your financial obligations, and you may need to do a lot more than that, depending on the seriousness of your financial situation.</li>\n<li>Order copies of your credit histories from the three national credit-reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Your credit history is a warts-and-all portrait of how you manage your money — to whom you owe it, how much you owe, whether you pay your debts on time, whether you are over your credit limits, and so on.</li>\n<li>Find out your FICO score. Your FICO score is derived from your credit history information. These days, many creditors make decisions about you based on this score instead of on the actual information in your credit history.</li>\n</ul>\n<p>After you assess the seriousness of your financial situation, you need to prepare a plan for handling your debt, including keeping up with your creditor payments — or at least keeping up with payments to your most important creditors.</p>\n<p>One of the first things you should do is prepare a household budget. Whether your annual household income is $20,000 or $100,000 (or more), living on a budget is probably the single most important thing you can do to get out of debt and to avoid debt problems down the road. A <em>budget</em> is nothing more than a written plan for how you intend to spend your money each month. A budget helps you</p>\n<p>Make sure that your limited dollars go toward paying your most important debts and expenses first.</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Avoid spending more than you make.</li>\n<li>Pay off your debts as quickly as you can.</li>\n<li>Build up your savings.</li>\n<li>Achieve your financial goals.</li>\n</ul>\n<p>If you don’t owe a ton of money to your creditors, living on a budget may be all it takes for you to whittle down your debts and hold on to your assets.</p>\n"},{"title":"Adding money to your nest egg","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Becoming a saver is a big part of managing your money, and you have lots of tools at your disposal. Here are a few proven ways to build your nest egg:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Pay off your credit cards as much as possible. You’re paying them way more than your investments will pay you.</li>\n<li>Save in a tax-deferred retirement account as soon as you can in order to get more bang for your investment buck.</li>\n<li>Start by saving just 1 percent of your pay if that’s all you can afford.</li>\n<li>Save for retirement even if you think it’s too late. It’s never too late.</li>\n<li>Save at least the amount your employer matches; otherwise, you’re throwing money away.</li>\n<li>Aim to put away 10 percent of your income for retirement each year; increase your savings rate each time you get a raise.</li>\n<li>Aim to build a nest egg that’s at least 10 times your annual pay when you retire.</li>\n<li>Take any company stock your employer gives you, but don’t invest your own money in it.</li>\n<li>Roll your retirement money directly into a new tax-deferred account when you change jobs. Don’t cash it out.</li>\n<li>Don’t take a hardship withdrawal or loan unless absolutely necessary.</li>\n</ul>\n"},{"title":"Investing as part of managing your money","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Think you can’t become a savvy investor? Think again! Check out the following tips as you manage your money in investments:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Come up with a plan. Know what you’re doing and why: Don’t invest blindly, hoping that it’ll all come out well in the end.</li>\n<li>Establish realistic expectations, and then pick funds that have the potential to meet your goals. Learn from others, but build the portfolio that’s right for you.</li>\n<li>Keep in mind that higher risk doesn’t guarantee a higher return.</li>\n<li>Avoid funds that have dramatic up-and-down swings, particularly if you’re nearing retirement.</li>\n<li>Invest in a mix of asset types because no one knows which investments will be hot at any point in time.</li>\n<li>Find a professional to help you choose the best investments.</li>\n</ul>\n"}],"videoInfo":{"videoId":null,"name":null,"accountId":null,"playerId":null,"thumbnailUrl":null,"description":null,"uploadDate":null}},"sponsorship":{"sponsorshipPage":false,"backgroundImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"brandingLine":"","brandingLink":"","brandingLogo":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0}},"primaryLearningPath":"Advance","lifeExpectancy":"Two years","lifeExpectancySetFrom":"2022-05-13T00:00:00+00:00","dummiesForKids":"no","sponsoredContent":"no","adInfo":"","adPairKey":[]},"status":"publish","visibility":"public","articleId":208765},{"headers":{"creationTime":"2018-04-04T16:55:30+00:00","modifiedTime":"2022-05-12T21:38:23+00:00","timestamp":"2022-06-22T19:37:41+00:00"},"data":{"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Business, Careers, & Money","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34224"},"slug":"business-careers-money","categoryId":34224},{"name":"Personal Finance","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34273"},"slug":"personal-finance","categoryId":34273},{"name":"Loans & Credit","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34301"},"slug":"loans-credit","categoryId":34301},{"name":"Mortgages","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34306"},"slug":"mortgages","categoryId":34306}],"title":"Paying Off a Mortgage Early vs. Investing","strippedTitle":"paying off a mortgage early vs. investing","slug":"paying-off-mortgage-early-vs-investing","canonicalUrl":"","seo":{"metaDescription":"Learn the key factors you should consider if you're weighing whether to put money into prepaying off your mortgage or investments.","noIndex":0,"noFollow":0},"content":"If you talk with others or read articles or books about prepaying your mortgage, you’ll come across those who think that paying off your mortgage early is the world’s greatest money-saving device. You’ll also find that some people consider it the most colossal mistake a mortgage holder can make. The reality is often somewhere between these two extremes.\r\n\r\nEveryone has pros and cons to weigh when they decide whether prepaying a mortgage makes sense. In some cases, the pros stand head and shoulders over the cons. For other people, the drawbacks tower over the advantages.\r\n\r\nAt the crux of the decision is the fact that you’re paying interest on the borrowed mortgage money, but if you use your savings to pay down the loan balance, you won’t then have that money working for you earning an investment return. More importantly, what happens if that rainy day comes along and you need those handy cash reserves?\r\n<h2 id=\"tab1\" >Interest savings: The benefit of paying off your mortgage early</h2>\r\nMortgage prepayment advocates focus on how much interest you <em>won’t</em> be charged. On a $100,000, 30-year mortgage at 7.5 percent interest, if you pay just an extra $100 of principal per month, you shorten the loan’s term significantly. Prepayment cheerleaders argue that you’ll save approximately $56,000 over the life of the loan.\r\n\r\nIt’s true that by making larger-than-required payments each month, you avoid paying some interest to the lender. In the preceding example, in fact, you’ll pay off your loan nearly ten years faster than required. But that’s only part of the story. Read on for more.\r\n<h2 id=\"tab2\" >Quantifying the missed opportunity to invest those extra payments</h2>\r\nWhen you mail an additional $100 monthly to your lender, you miss the opportunity to invest that money into something that could provide you with a return greater than the cost of the mortgage interest. Have you heard of the stock market, for example?\r\n\r\nOver the past two centuries, the U.S. stock market has produced an annual rate of return of about 9 percent. Thus, if instead of prepaying your mortgage, you put that $100 into some good stocks and earn 9 percent per year, you end up with more money over the long term than if you had prepaid your mortgage (assuming that your mortgage interest rate is below 9 percent).\r\n\r\nConversely, if instead of paying down your mortgage more rapidly, you put your extra cash in your bank savings account, you earn little interest. Because you’re surely paying more interest on your mortgage, you lose money with this investment strategy, although you make bankers happy.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">If you’re contemplating paying down your mortgage more aggressively than required or investing your extra cash, consider what rate of return you can reasonably expect from investing your money and compare that expected return to the interest rate you’re paying on your mortgage.</p>\r\nAs a first step, this simple comparison can help you begin to understand whether you’re better off paying down your mortgage or investing the money elsewhere. Over the long term, growth investments, such as stocks, investment real estate, and investing in small business, have provided higher returns than the current cost of mortgage money.\r\n<h2 id=\"tab3\" >Taxes matter but less than you think</h2>\r\nIn most cases, all of your mortgage interest is deductible on both your federal and state income tax returns. Thus, if you’re paying, say, a 6 percent annual interest rate on your mortgage, after deducting that interest cost on your federal and state income tax returns, perhaps the mortgage is really costing you only about 4 percent on an after-tax basis.\r\n\r\nFor most people, approximately one-third of the total interest cost of a mortgage is offset by their reduced income tax from writing off the mortgage interest on their federal and state income tax returns.\r\n\r\nHowever, don’t think that you can simply compare this relatively low after-tax mortgage cost of, say, 4 percent to the expected return on most investments. The flaw with that logic is that the return on most investments, such as stocks, is ultimately taxable. So, to be fair, if you’re going to examine the after-tax cost of your mortgage, you should be comparing that with the after-tax return on your investments.\r\n\r\nAlternatively, you could simplify matters for yourself and get a ballpark answer just by comparing the pretax mortgage cost to your expected pretax investment return. (Technically speaking, this comparison isn’t as precise as the after-tax analysis because income tax considerations generally don’t exactly equally reduce the cost of the mortgage and the investment return.)","description":"If you talk with others or read articles or books about prepaying your mortgage, you’ll come across those who think that paying off your mortgage early is the world’s greatest money-saving device. You’ll also find that some people consider it the most colossal mistake a mortgage holder can make. The reality is often somewhere between these two extremes.\r\n\r\nEveryone has pros and cons to weigh when they decide whether prepaying a mortgage makes sense. In some cases, the pros stand head and shoulders over the cons. For other people, the drawbacks tower over the advantages.\r\n\r\nAt the crux of the decision is the fact that you’re paying interest on the borrowed mortgage money, but if you use your savings to pay down the loan balance, you won’t then have that money working for you earning an investment return. More importantly, what happens if that rainy day comes along and you need those handy cash reserves?\r\n<h2 id=\"tab1\" >Interest savings: The benefit of paying off your mortgage early</h2>\r\nMortgage prepayment advocates focus on how much interest you <em>won’t</em> be charged. On a $100,000, 30-year mortgage at 7.5 percent interest, if you pay just an extra $100 of principal per month, you shorten the loan’s term significantly. Prepayment cheerleaders argue that you’ll save approximately $56,000 over the life of the loan.\r\n\r\nIt’s true that by making larger-than-required payments each month, you avoid paying some interest to the lender. In the preceding example, in fact, you’ll pay off your loan nearly ten years faster than required. But that’s only part of the story. Read on for more.\r\n<h2 id=\"tab2\" >Quantifying the missed opportunity to invest those extra payments</h2>\r\nWhen you mail an additional $100 monthly to your lender, you miss the opportunity to invest that money into something that could provide you with a return greater than the cost of the mortgage interest. Have you heard of the stock market, for example?\r\n\r\nOver the past two centuries, the U.S. stock market has produced an annual rate of return of about 9 percent. Thus, if instead of prepaying your mortgage, you put that $100 into some good stocks and earn 9 percent per year, you end up with more money over the long term than if you had prepaid your mortgage (assuming that your mortgage interest rate is below 9 percent).\r\n\r\nConversely, if instead of paying down your mortgage more rapidly, you put your extra cash in your bank savings account, you earn little interest. Because you’re surely paying more interest on your mortgage, you lose money with this investment strategy, although you make bankers happy.\r\n<p class=\"article-tips tip\">If you’re contemplating paying down your mortgage more aggressively than required or investing your extra cash, consider what rate of return you can reasonably expect from investing your money and compare that expected return to the interest rate you’re paying on your mortgage.</p>\r\nAs a first step, this simple comparison can help you begin to understand whether you’re better off paying down your mortgage or investing the money elsewhere. Over the long term, growth investments, such as stocks, investment real estate, and investing in small business, have provided higher returns than the current cost of mortgage money.\r\n<h2 id=\"tab3\" >Taxes matter but less than you think</h2>\r\nIn most cases, all of your mortgage interest is deductible on both your federal and state income tax returns. Thus, if you’re paying, say, a 6 percent annual interest rate on your mortgage, after deducting that interest cost on your federal and state income tax returns, perhaps the mortgage is really costing you only about 4 percent on an after-tax basis.\r\n\r\nFor most people, approximately one-third of the total interest cost of a mortgage is offset by their reduced income tax from writing off the mortgage interest on their federal and state income tax returns.\r\n\r\nHowever, don’t think that you can simply compare this relatively low after-tax mortgage cost of, say, 4 percent to the expected return on most investments. The flaw with that logic is that the return on most investments, such as stocks, is ultimately taxable. So, to be fair, if you’re going to examine the after-tax cost of your mortgage, you should be comparing that with the after-tax return on your investments.\r\n\r\nAlternatively, you could simplify matters for yourself and get a ballpark answer just by comparing the pretax mortgage cost to your expected pretax investment return. (Technically speaking, this comparison isn’t as precise as the after-tax analysis because income tax considerations generally don’t exactly equally reduce the cost of the mortgage and the investment return.)","blurb":"","authors":[{"authorId":8975,"name":"Eric Tyson","slug":"eric-tyson","description":" <p><b>Eric Tyson </b>is a veteran Dummies author of numerous bestselling books in the investing and personal finance space.</p> <p><b>Paul Mladjenovic</B> is a Certified Financial Planner and the bestselling author of <i>Stock Investing For Dummies.</i> <p><B>Kiana Danial</B> is an investment consultant and trainer and the author of <i>Cryptocurrency Investing For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Russell Wild </B>is the author or coauthor of nearly two dozen books, including <i>ETFs For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Matt Krantz </b>is a nationally known financial journalist and the author of <i>Online Investing For Dummies. </i> <p><b>Robert Griswold</b> is a successful real estate investor and property manager and the co-author of <i>Real Estate Investing For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Steven Gormley</B> is a celebrated expert in the legal marijuana sector and author of <i>Investing in Cannabis For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Brendan Bradley</b> is a financial market professional and the author of <i>ESG Investing For Dummies.</i> ","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/8975"}},{"authorId":9293,"name":"Robert S. Griswold","slug":"robert-s-griswold","description":"Robert S. Griswold, MBA, is a successful real estate investor and property manager with a large portfolio of residential and commercial rental properties. He is the real estate expert for NBC San Diego, the lead columnist for the nationally syndicated columns Rental Roundtable and Rental Forum and coauthor of Real Estate Investing For Dummies.","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/9293"}}],"primaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":34306,"title":"Mortgages","slug":"mortgages","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34306"}},"secondaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"tertiaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"trendingArticles":null,"inThisArticle":[{"label":"Interest savings: The benefit of paying off your mortgage early","target":"#tab1"},{"label":"Quantifying the missed opportunity to invest those extra payments","target":"#tab2"},{"label":"Taxes matter but less than you think","target":"#tab3"}],"relatedArticles":{"fromBook":[{"articleId":251554,"title":"How to Improve Your Fico Score","slug":"improve-fico-score","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","loans-credit","mortgages"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/251554"}},{"articleId":251551,"title":"How Does A Reverse Mortgage Work?","slug":"reverse-mortgage-work","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","loans-credit","mortgages"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/251551"}},{"articleId":251548,"title":"How to Pay Off Mortgage Faster","slug":"pay-off-mortgage-faster","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","loans-credit","mortgages"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/251548"}},{"articleId":251545,"title":"Not All Mortgage Insurance is Tax Deductible","slug":"not-mortgage-insurance-tax-deductible","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","loans-credit","mortgages"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/251545"}},{"articleId":251539,"title":"Cash Out Refinance Basics","slug":"cash-refinance-basics","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","loans-credit","mortgages"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/251539"}}],"fromCategory":[{"articleId":251554,"title":"How to Improve Your Fico Score","slug":"improve-fico-score","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","loans-credit","mortgages"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/251554"}},{"articleId":251551,"title":"How Does A Reverse Mortgage Work?","slug":"reverse-mortgage-work","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","loans-credit","mortgages"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/251551"}},{"articleId":251548,"title":"How to Pay Off Mortgage Faster","slug":"pay-off-mortgage-faster","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","loans-credit","mortgages"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/251548"}},{"articleId":251545,"title":"Not All Mortgage Insurance is Tax Deductible","slug":"not-mortgage-insurance-tax-deductible","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","loans-credit","mortgages"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/251545"}},{"articleId":251539,"title":"Cash Out Refinance Basics","slug":"cash-refinance-basics","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","loans-credit","mortgages"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/251539"}}]},"hasRelatedBookFromSearch":false,"relatedBook":{"bookId":282406,"slug":"mortgage-management-for-dummies","isbn":"9781119387794","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","loans-credit","mortgages"],"amazon":{"default":"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1119387795/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","ca":"https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1119387795/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","indigo_ca":"http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-9208661-13710633?url=https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/product/1119387795-item.html&cjsku=978111945484","gb":"https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1119387795/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","de":"https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1119387795/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20"},"image":{"src":"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/mortgage-management-for-dummies-cover-9781119387794-203x255.jpg","width":203,"height":255},"title":"Mortgage Management For Dummies","testBankPinActivationLink":"","bookOutOfPrint":false,"authorsInfo":"<p><b data-author-id=\"8975\">Eric Tyson, MBA,</b> is a financial counselor and the bestselling author of <i>Investing For Dummies</i>, <i>Personal Finance For Dummies</i>, and <i>Home Buying Kit For Dummies</i>.</p> <p><b data-author-id=\"34808\">Robert S. Griswold, MSBA,</b> is a successful real estate investor, hands-on property manager, and the author of <i>Property Management Kit For Dummies</i>.</p>","authors":[{"authorId":8975,"name":"Eric Tyson","slug":"eric-tyson","description":" <p><b>Eric Tyson </b>is a veteran Dummies author of numerous bestselling books in the investing and personal finance space.</p> <p><b>Paul Mladjenovic</B> is a Certified Financial Planner and the bestselling author of <i>Stock Investing For Dummies.</i> <p><B>Kiana Danial</B> is an investment consultant and trainer and the author of <i>Cryptocurrency Investing For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Russell Wild </B>is the author or coauthor of nearly two dozen books, including <i>ETFs For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Matt Krantz </b>is a nationally known financial journalist and the author of <i>Online Investing For Dummies. </i> <p><b>Robert Griswold</b> is a successful real estate investor and property manager and the co-author of <i>Real Estate Investing For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Steven Gormley</B> is a celebrated expert in the legal marijuana sector and author of <i>Investing in Cannabis For Dummies.</i> <p><b>Brendan Bradley</b> is a financial market professional and the author of <i>ESG Investing For Dummies.</i> ","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/8975"}},{"authorId":34808,"name":"Robert S. Griswold","slug":"robert-s.-griswold","description":" <p><b>Eric Tyson</b> is a five&#45;time bestselling author, real estate investor, and syndicated columnist who gives people the tools to better manage their personal finances and investments. <b>Robert S. Griswold,</b> author, teacher, and a successful real estate investor, is an active, hands&#45;on property manager with a large portfolio of residential and commercial rental properties. ","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/34808"}}],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/books/"}},"collections":[],"articleAds":{"footerAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;personal-finance&quot;,&quot;loans-credit&quot;,&quot;mortgages&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119387794&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-62b36f851743b\"></div></div>","rightAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_right_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_right_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;personal-finance&quot;,&quot;loans-credit&quot;,&quot;mortgages&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119387794&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-62b36f8517b6a\"></div></div>"},"articleType":{"articleType":"Articles","articleList":null,"content":null,"videoInfo":{"videoId":null,"name":null,"accountId":null,"playerId":null,"thumbnailUrl":null,"description":null,"uploadDate":null}},"sponsorship":{"sponsorshipPage":false,"backgroundImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"brandingLine":"","brandingLink":"","brandingLogo":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0}},"primaryLearningPath":"Advance","lifeExpectancy":"One year","lifeExpectancySetFrom":"2022-05-12T00:00:00+00:00","dummiesForKids":"no","sponsoredContent":"no","adInfo":"","adPairKey":[]},"status":"publish","visibility":"public","articleId":251542},{"headers":{"creationTime":"2016-03-26T18:24:59+00:00","modifiedTime":"2022-05-12T21:13:45+00:00","timestamp":"2022-06-22T19:37:41+00:00"},"data":{"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Business, Careers, & Money","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34224"},"slug":"business-careers-money","categoryId":34224},{"name":"Personal Finance","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34273"},"slug":"personal-finance","categoryId":34273},{"name":"General Personal Finance","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34311"},"slug":"general-personal-finance","categoryId":34311}],"title":"How to Ease Financial Uncertainty","strippedTitle":"how to ease financial uncertainty","slug":"how-to-ease-financial-uncertainty","canonicalUrl":"","seo":{"metaDescription":"Life can throw you some financial curveballs, but you don't have to be at the mercy of financial markets even if you're not able to control them. To protect aga","noIndex":0,"noFollow":0},"content":"Life can throw you some financial curveballs, but you don't have to be at the mercy of financial markets even if you're not able to control them. To protect against financial uncertainties, use the following strategies:\r\n<ul class=\"level-one\">\r\n \t<li>\r\n<p class=\"first-para\">Plan for life's certainties and prepare for life's uncertainties.</p>\r\n</li>\r\n \t<li>\r\n<p class=\"first-para\">Invest in and protect your ability to earn money; it's likely your most valuable asset.</p>\r\n</li>\r\n \t<li>\r\n<p class=\"first-para\">Adequately insure yourself, your stuff, and your income stream.</p>\r\n</li>\r\n \t<li>\r\n<p class=\"first-para\">Minimize or eliminate debt, and focus on building a great credit score.</p>\r\n</li>\r\n \t<li>\r\n<p class=\"first-para\">Maintain an emergency reserve fund.</p>\r\n</li>\r\n \t<li>\r\n<p class=\"first-para\">Invest for your goals, time horizon, and risk tolerance.</p>\r\n</li>\r\n \t<li>\r\n<p class=\"first-para\">Diversify your portfolio across a broad mix of asset classes.</p>\r\n</li>\r\n \t<li>\r\n<p class=\"first-para\">Monitor and rebalance your portfolio to maintain your target asset allocation.</p>\r\n</li>\r\n</ul>","description":"Life can throw you some financial curveballs, but you don't have to be at the mercy of financial markets even if you're not able to control them. To protect against financial uncertainties, use the following strategies:\r\n<ul class=\"level-one\">\r\n \t<li>\r\n<p class=\"first-para\">Plan for life's certainties and prepare for life's uncertainties.</p>\r\n</li>\r\n \t<li>\r\n<p class=\"first-para\">Invest in and protect your ability to earn money; it's likely your most valuable asset.</p>\r\n</li>\r\n \t<li>\r\n<p class=\"first-para\">Adequately insure yourself, your stuff, and your income stream.</p>\r\n</li>\r\n \t<li>\r\n<p class=\"first-para\">Minimize or eliminate debt, and focus on building a great credit score.</p>\r\n</li>\r\n \t<li>\r\n<p class=\"first-para\">Maintain an emergency reserve fund.</p>\r\n</li>\r\n \t<li>\r\n<p class=\"first-para\">Invest for your goals, time horizon, and risk tolerance.</p>\r\n</li>\r\n \t<li>\r\n<p class=\"first-para\">Diversify your portfolio across a broad mix of asset classes.</p>\r\n</li>\r\n \t<li>\r\n<p class=\"first-para\">Monitor and rebalance your portfolio to maintain your target asset allocation.</p>\r\n</li>\r\n</ul>","blurb":"","authors":[],"primaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":34311,"title":"General Personal Finance","slug":"general-personal-finance","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34311"}},"secondaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"tertiaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"trendingArticles":null,"inThisArticle":[],"relatedArticles":{"fromBook":[],"fromCategory":[{"articleId":288537,"title":"Financial Security For Dummies Cheat Sheet","slug":"financial-security-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","general-personal-finance"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/288537"}},{"articleId":249522,"title":"Personal Finance in Your 20s and 30s: Online Resources to Find Service Providers","slug":"personal-finance-20s-30s-online-resources-find-service-providers","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","general-personal-finance"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/249522"}},{"articleId":240164,"title":"How to Write a Check","slug":"how-to-write-a-check","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","general-personal-finance"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/240164"}},{"articleId":208905,"title":"Personal Finance For Canadians For Dummies Cheat Sheet","slug":"personal-finance-for-canadians-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","general-personal-finance"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/208905"}},{"articleId":208797,"title":"Personal Finance in Your 20s and 30s For Dummies Cheat Sheet","slug":"personal-finance-in-your-20s-30s-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","general-personal-finance"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/208797"}}]},"hasRelatedBookFromSearch":false,"relatedBook":{"bookId":0,"slug":null,"isbn":null,"categoryList":null,"amazon":null,"image":null,"title":null,"testBankPinActivationLink":null,"bookOutOfPrint":false,"authorsInfo":null,"authors":null,"_links":null},"collections":[],"articleAds":{"footerAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;personal-finance&quot;,&quot;general-personal-finance&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[null]}]\" id=\"du-slot-62b36f850fb6b\"></div></div>","rightAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_right_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_right_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;personal-finance&quot;,&quot;general-personal-finance&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[null]}]\" id=\"du-slot-62b36f8510290\"></div></div>"},"articleType":{"articleType":"Articles","articleList":null,"content":null,"videoInfo":{"videoId":null,"name":null,"accountId":null,"playerId":null,"thumbnailUrl":null,"description":null,"uploadDate":null}},"sponsorship":{"sponsorshipPage":false,"backgroundImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"brandingLine":"","brandingLink":"","brandingLogo":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0}},"primaryLearningPath":"Solve","lifeExpectancy":"One year","lifeExpectancySetFrom":"2022-05-12T00:00:00+00:00","dummiesForKids":"no","sponsoredContent":"no","adInfo":"","adPairKey":[]},"status":"publish","visibility":"public","articleId":178764},{"headers":{"creationTime":"2016-03-27T16:57:40+00:00","modifiedTime":"2022-05-03T17:25:36+00:00","timestamp":"2022-06-22T19:37:40+00:00"},"data":{"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Business, Careers, & Money","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34224"},"slug":"business-careers-money","categoryId":34224},{"name":"Personal Finance","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34273"},"slug":"personal-finance","categoryId":34273},{"name":"Investing","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34288"},"slug":"investing","categoryId":34288},{"name":"Investment Vehicles","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34290"},"slug":"investment-vehicles","categoryId":34290},{"name":"Stocks","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34298"},"slug":"stocks","categoryId":34298}],"title":"Candlestick Charting For Dummies Cheat Sheet","strippedTitle":"candlestick charting for dummies cheat sheet","slug":"candlestick-charting-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","canonicalUrl":"","seo":{"metaDescription":"Candlestick charts help you make smart stock investing decisions. Learn how to construct candlestick charts and analyze trends and patterns.","noIndex":0,"noFollow":0},"content":"Make smart trading decisions using candlestick charting. This cheat sheet shows you how to read the data that makes up a candlestick chart, figure out how to analyze a candlestick chart, and identify some common candlestick patterns.","description":"Make smart trading decisions using candlestick charting. This cheat sheet shows you how to read the data that makes up a candlestick chart, figure out how to analyze a candlestick chart, and identify some common candlestick patterns.","blurb":"","authors":[{"authorId":10522,"name":"Russell Rhoads","slug":"russell-rhoads","description":" <b>Russell Rhoads</b> is a trader and analyst for Peak Trading Group in Chicago. His career in trading and market analysis covers over 17 years. He has a BBA and MS in Finance from the University of Memphis and has done graduate level work in Financial Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Russell also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/10522"}}],"primaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":34298,"title":"Stocks","slug":"stocks","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34298"}},"secondaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"tertiaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"trendingArticles":null,"inThisArticle":[],"relatedArticles":{"fromBook":[{"articleId":194520,"title":"Constructing a Candlestick Chart","slug":"constructing-a-candlestick-chart","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","stocks"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/194520"}},{"articleId":194496,"title":"Candlestick Chart Analysis and Trading Tips","slug":"candlestick-chart-analysis-and-trading-tips","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","stocks"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/194496"}},{"articleId":194495,"title":"Common Candlestick Patterns","slug":"common-candlestick-patterns","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","stocks"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/194495"}}],"fromCategory":[{"articleId":283116,"title":"10 Reasons Not to Invest in Marijuana Stocks","slug":"10-reasons-not-to-invest-in-marijuana-stocks","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","stocks"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/283116"}},{"articleId":283111,"title":"11 Criteria for Choosing a Cannabis Investment","slug":"11-criteria-for-choosing-a-cannabis-investment","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","stocks"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/283111"}},{"articleId":283105,"title":"Cannabis Investments: Risks Inherent in Momentum Investing","slug":"cannabis-investments-risks-inherent-in-momentum-investing","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","stocks"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/283105"}},{"articleId":283098,"title":"Investing in Cannabis: Spotting Opportunities to Buy or Sell","slug":"investing-in-cannabis-spotting-opportunities-to-buy-or-sell","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","stocks"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/283098"}},{"articleId":283089,"title":"Investing in Cannabis: The Bid-Ask Spread","slug":"investing-in-cannabis-the-bid-ask-spread","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","stocks"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/283089"}}]},"hasRelatedBookFromSearch":false,"relatedBook":{"bookId":282054,"slug":"candlestick-charting-for-dummies","isbn":"9781119869955","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","stocks"],"amazon":{"default":"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1119869951/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","ca":"https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1119869951/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","indigo_ca":"http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-9208661-13710633?url=https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/product/1119869951-item.html&cjsku=978111945484","gb":"https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1119869951/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","de":"https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1119869951/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20"},"image":{"src":"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/9781119869955-203x255.jpg","width":203,"height":255},"title":"Candlestick Charting For Dummies, 2nd Edition","testBankPinActivationLink":"","bookOutOfPrint":true,"authorsInfo":"<p><b><b data-author-id=\"10522\">Russell Rhoads</b></b> is a trader and analyst for Peak Trading Group in Chicago. His career in trading and market analysis covers over 17 years. He has a BBA and MS in Finance from the University of Memphis and has done graduate level work in Financial Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Russell also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.</p>","authors":[{"authorId":10522,"name":"Russell Rhoads","slug":"russell-rhoads","description":" <b>Russell Rhoads</b> is a trader and analyst for Peak Trading Group in Chicago. His career in trading and market analysis covers over 17 years. He has a BBA and MS in Finance from the University of Memphis and has done graduate level work in Financial Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Russell also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/10522"}}],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/books/"}},"collections":[],"articleAds":{"footerAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;personal-finance&quot;,&quot;investing&quot;,&quot;investment-vehicles&quot;,&quot;stocks&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119869955&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-62b36f847a688\"></div></div>","rightAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_right_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_right_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;personal-finance&quot;,&quot;investing&quot;,&quot;investment-vehicles&quot;,&quot;stocks&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781119869955&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-62b36f847aded\"></div></div>"},"articleType":{"articleType":"Cheat Sheet","articleList":[{"articleId":194520,"title":"Constructing a Candlestick Chart","slug":"constructing-a-candlestick-chart","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","stocks"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/194520"}},{"articleId":194496,"title":"Candlestick Chart Analysis and Trading Tips","slug":"candlestick-chart-analysis-and-trading-tips","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","stocks"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/194496"}},{"articleId":194495,"title":"Common Candlestick Patterns","slug":"common-candlestick-patterns","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","stocks"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/194495"}}],"content":[{"title":"Constructing a candlestick chart","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Four pieces of data, gathered through the course of a security’s trading day, are used to create a candlestick chart: opening price, closing price, high, and low. The candle in a chart is white when the close for a day is higher than the open, and black when the close is lower than the open. The <i>wicks</i>, lines sticking out of either end of the candlestick, represent the range between the day’s high and low prices. The wick on top shows the day’s high, the wick on the bottom shows the day’s low.</p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/162563.image0.jpg\" alt=\"image0.jpg\" width=\"485\" height=\"400\" /></p>\n<p>Additional information is sometimes displayed with candlestick charts. Don’t be afraid to use it! The following types of information are commonly included on candlestick charts and can be very useful in your analysis:</p>\n<ul class=\"level-one\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>Volume:</b> The total number of shares or contracts trading during a time period.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>Open interest:</b> The total number of open contracts on a futures product.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>Moving averages:</b> Lines that represent the average closing price for a time period and a few periods in the past.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>Technical indicators: </b>Statistics that can be displayed in a variety of ways on a chart.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>Fundamental information:</b> Data that includes dividend dates, days of share splits, or even insider buying and selling!</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n"},{"title":"Candlestick chart analysis and trading tips","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>If you’re examining or trading a candlestick pattern, keep these guidelines in mind before you decide what to do with your money, so you can make an informed decision:</p>\n<ul class=\"level-one\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Determine whether the market is trending up, trending down, or not trending at all.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">If you put on a trade, be prepared to identify the point at which you take a loss, especially when you’re trading against the trend.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Try not to anticipate that a pattern is going to be created by trading before the formation is complete.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">Use technical indicators to complement patterns. Indicators help to confirm your opinion of the market trend.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\">When putting real money into trading, don’t trade what you can’t afford to lose!</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n"},{"title":"Common candlestick patterns","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>You can become more familiar with some common and dependable candlestick patterns by checking out the following figures. (Remember, they don’t represent every possible candlestick pattern.)</p>\n<h2>Bullish two-day trend reversal patterns</h2>\n<p>These charts are a few of the most common and reliable bullish two-day trend reversal patterns in an uptrend.</p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/162566.image0.jpg\" alt=\"image0.jpg\" width=\"535\" height=\"280\" /></p>\n<h2>Bullish two-day trend continuation patterns</h2>\n<p>These patterns are common and reliable examples of bullish two-day trend continuation patterns in an uptrend.</p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/162567.image1.jpg\" alt=\"image1.jpg\" width=\"396\" height=\"400\" /></p>\n<h2>Bearish two-day trend reversal patterns</h2>\n<p>These figures shows some of the most common and reliable types of bearish two-day trend reversal patterns in an uptrend.</p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/162568.image2.jpg\" alt=\"image2.jpg\" width=\"535\" height=\"325\" /></p>\n<h2>Bearish two-day trend continuation patterns</h2>\n<p>These reliable two-day trend continuation patterns may show up frequently as you look through your candlestick charts.</p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/162569.image3.jpg\" alt=\"image3.jpg\" width=\"402\" height=\"378\" /></p>\n<h2>Bullish three-day trend reversal patterns</h2>\n<p>Here are a couple common bullish three-day trend reversal patterns.</p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/162570.image4.jpg\" alt=\"image4.jpg\" width=\"397\" height=\"291\" /></p>\n<h2>Bullish three-day trend continuation patterns</h2>\n<p>These two patterns are common examples of bullish three-day trend continuation patterns.</p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/162571.image5.jpg\" alt=\"image5.jpg\" width=\"482\" height=\"346\" /></p>\n<h2>Bearish three-day trend reversal patterns</h2>\n<p>These are a couple of the most common bearish three-day trend reversal patterns.</p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/162572.image6.jpg\" alt=\"image6.jpg\" width=\"458\" height=\"309\" /></p>\n<h2>Bearish three-day trend continuation patterns</h2>\n<p>Here are two common examples of bearish three-day trend reversal patterns.</p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/162573.image7.jpg\" alt=\"image7.jpg\" width=\"388\" height=\"397\" /></p>\n"}],"videoInfo":{"videoId":null,"name":null,"accountId":null,"playerId":null,"thumbnailUrl":null,"description":null,"uploadDate":null}},"sponsorship":{"sponsorshipPage":false,"backgroundImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"brandingLine":"","brandingLink":"","brandingLogo":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0}},"primaryLearningPath":"Advance","lifeExpectancy":"Two years","lifeExpectancySetFrom":"2021-06-29T00:00:00+00:00","dummiesForKids":"no","sponsoredContent":"no","adInfo":"","adPairKey":[]},"status":"publish","visibility":"public","articleId":209309},{"headers":{"creationTime":"2016-03-27T16:53:59+00:00","modifiedTime":"2022-05-03T13:58:06+00:00","timestamp":"2022-06-22T19:37:40+00:00"},"data":{"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Business, Careers, & Money","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34224"},"slug":"business-careers-money","categoryId":34224},{"name":"Personal Finance","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34273"},"slug":"personal-finance","categoryId":34273},{"name":"Investing","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34288"},"slug":"investing","categoryId":34288},{"name":"Investment Vehicles","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34290"},"slug":"investment-vehicles","categoryId":34290},{"name":"Commodities","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34292"},"slug":"commodities","categoryId":34292}],"title":"Commodities For Dummies Cheat Sheet","strippedTitle":"commodities for dummies cheat sheet","slug":"commodities-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","canonicalUrl":"","seo":{"metaDescription":"Learn some of the basics related to commodities investing, including the exchanges, regulatory entities, and about risk-adjusted returns.","noIndex":0,"noFollow":0},"content":"The major commodities exchanges trade specific commodities worldwide, and the main regulatory organizations provide information and enforce codes to protect commodities investors. When investing in commodities, use guidelines and advice from the experts to lower your risks.","description":"The major commodities exchanges trade specific commodities worldwide, and the main regulatory organizations provide information and enforce codes to protect commodities investors. When investing in commodities, use guidelines and advice from the experts to lower your risks.","blurb":"","authors":[{"authorId":9022,"name":"Amine Bouchentouf","slug":"amine-bouchentouf","description":" <b>Amine Bouchentouf</b> is a native Arabic, English, and French speaker born and raised in Casablanca, Morocco. He teaches Arabic and lectures about relations between America and the Arab world.","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/9022"}}],"primaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":34292,"title":"Commodities","slug":"commodities","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34292"}},"secondaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"tertiaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"trendingArticles":null,"inThisArticle":[],"relatedArticles":{"fromBook":[{"articleId":187975,"title":"Matching Commodities with Commodity Exchanges","slug":"matching-commodities-with-commodity-exchanges","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","commodities"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/187975"}},{"articleId":187959,"title":"Growing Interest in Agricultural Commodities","slug":"growing-interest-in-agricultural-commodities","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","commodities"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/187959"}},{"articleId":187956,"title":"Generating Risk-Adjusted Returns","slug":"generating-risk-adjusted-returns","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","commodities"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/187956"}},{"articleId":187957,"title":"Commodities and Emerging Markets","slug":"commodities-and-emerging-markets","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","commodities"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/187957"}},{"articleId":187958,"title":"Consulting Investment Regulatory Organizations","slug":"consulting-investment-regulatory-organizations","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","commodities"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/187958"}}],"fromCategory":[{"articleId":207438,"title":"<b>Investing in Commodities For Dummies</b><b> Cheat Sheet</b>","slug":"investing-in-commodities-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","commodities"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/207438"}},{"articleId":198903,"title":"Understanding the Real Risks behind Commodities","slug":"understanding-the-real-risks-behind-commodities","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","commodities"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/198903"}},{"articleId":198342,"title":"Risks with Investing in Commodities","slug":"risks-with-investing-in-commodities","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","commodities"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/198342"}},{"articleId":198341,"title":"The Role of Commodity Exchanges in Investment Trading","slug":"the-role-of-commodity-exchanges-in-investment-trading","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","commodities"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/198341"}},{"articleId":198213,"title":"How Money Supply Affects Commodity Tendencies","slug":"how-money-supply-affects-commodity-tendencies","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","commodities"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/198213"}}]},"hasRelatedBookFromSearch":false,"relatedBook":{"bookId":282094,"slug":"commodities-for-dummies-2nd-edition","isbn":"9781118016879","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","commodities"],"amazon":{"default":"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1118016874/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","ca":"https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1118016874/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","indigo_ca":"http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-9208661-13710633?url=https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/product/1118016874-item.html&cjsku=978111945484","gb":"https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1118016874/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","de":"https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1118016874/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20"},"image":{"src":"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/commodities-for-dummies-2nd-edition-cover-9781118016879-202x255.jpg","width":202,"height":255},"title":"Commodities For Dummies","testBankPinActivationLink":"","bookOutOfPrint":false,"authorsInfo":"<b data-author-id=\"9022\">Amine Bouchentouf</b> is an internationally acclaimed author and market commentator. You can follow his market analysis at www.commodities-investors.com.","authors":[{"authorId":9022,"name":"Amine Bouchentouf","slug":"amine-bouchentouf","description":" <b>Amine Bouchentouf</b> is a native Arabic, English, and French speaker born and raised in Casablanca, Morocco. He teaches Arabic and lectures about relations between America and the Arab world.","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/9022"}}],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/books/"}},"collections":[],"articleAds":{"footerAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;personal-finance&quot;,&quot;investing&quot;,&quot;investment-vehicles&quot;,&quot;commodities&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781118016879&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-62b36f8463aba\"></div></div>","rightAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_right_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_right_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;personal-finance&quot;,&quot;investing&quot;,&quot;investment-vehicles&quot;,&quot;commodities&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781118016879&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-62b36f84641f2\"></div></div>"},"articleType":{"articleType":"Cheat Sheet","articleList":[{"articleId":187975,"title":"Matching Commodities with Commodity Exchanges","slug":"matching-commodities-with-commodity-exchanges","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","commodities"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/187975"}},{"articleId":187957,"title":"Commodities and Emerging Markets","slug":"commodities-and-emerging-markets","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","commodities"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/187957"}},{"articleId":187958,"title":"Consulting Investment Regulatory Organizations","slug":"consulting-investment-regulatory-organizations","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","commodities"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/187958"}},{"articleId":187959,"title":"Growing Interest in Agricultural Commodities","slug":"growing-interest-in-agricultural-commodities","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","commodities"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/187959"}},{"articleId":187956,"title":"Generating Risk-Adjusted Returns","slug":"generating-risk-adjusted-returns","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","commodities"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/187956"}}],"content":[{"title":"Matching commodities with commodity exchanges","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>The 20th century saw a proliferation of commodity exchanges around the world, with many based in the money centers of New York and Chicago.</p>\n<p>In the first decade of the 21st century, the industry experienced a major consolidation period — partly driven by electronic-based trading platforms — that dramatically reduced the number of players in the space and increased the product offerings of the remaining exchanges.</p>\n<p>Here are some of the important exchanges in today&#8217;s new environment:</p>\n<ul class=\"level-one\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><a href=\"http://www.cmegroup.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)</b></a><b>:</b> Crude oil, natural gas, ethanol; gold, silver, copper, platinum, palladium; corn, wheat, soybeans, live cattle, lean hogs</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><a href=\"http://www.theice.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>Intercontinental Exchange (ICE)</b></a><b>:</b> Crude oil, gas oil, natural gas; cocoa, coffee, cotton, sugar</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><a href=\"http://www.shfe.com.cn/en/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE)</b></a><b>:</b> Fuel oil; gold, copper, aluminum, zinc; rubber</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n"},{"title":"Commodities and emerging markets","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>One of the driving forces behind the dynamic commodities markets are emerging markets, both from the demand side and also in terms of supply. Keep an eye on Brazil and China, two countries that tend to move markets.</p>\n<ul class=\"level-one\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>Brazil:</b> A powerhouse in the commodities markets, Brazil has been blessed with an abundance of natural resources. It&#8217;s one of the top agricultural countries in the world, with leading positions in coffee, cocoa, corn, wheat, eucalyptus, and sugar cane production. In energy, it has large reserves of crude oil in the offshore basins off the Atlantic Ocean. It also has sizable mining reserves with abundant iron ore resources. Since Brazil holds such a dominant position in the supply and production of key commodities, it&#8217;s important to monitor this country very closely.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>China:</b> China has been the miracle story of the beginning of the 21st century. Many analysts compare its rise to the emergence of the United States as an economic powerhouse in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Home to more than 1.3 billion citizens, China is a truly gigantic market. In many instances, it has been the main driving force behind demand increases for important commodities, including steel, copper, wheat, and crude oil. As the Chinese economy continues to expand at eye-popping rates (averaging 9 percent annually during the first decade of the 21st century), expect it to push demand for commodities at even more important levels.</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n"},{"title":"Consulting investment regulatory organizations","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>In the era after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC), the importance and responsibilities of market regulators have grown exponentially. The GFC exposed many deficiencies in the way markets and market participants operate, so frequently consulting with regulators has become a necessity for any risk-averse market participant.</p>\n<p>These organizations are some of the key regulatory bodies for commodities and other investments:</p>\n<ul class=\"level-one\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><a href=\"http://www.sec.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)</a></p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><a href=\"http://www.cftc.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)</a></p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><a href=\"http://www.nfa.futures.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Futures Association (NFA)</a></p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><a href=\"http://www.finra.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA)</a></p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n"},{"title":"Agricultural commodities","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>The following are some important agricultural commodities, along with their corresponding exchanges:</p>\n<ul class=\"level-one\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>Grains/cereals:</b> Corn, oats, soybeans, wheat (Chicago Mercantile Exchange)</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>Meat products:</b> Feeder cattle, lean hogs, live cattle, frozen pork bellies (Chicago Mercantile Exchange)</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>Tropical products:</b> Coffee, cocoa, orange juice, sugar (Intercontinental Exchange)</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n"},{"title":"Generating risk-adjusted returns","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Investing is all about managing risk, and here are two ways to approach risk management: (1) According to uber-investor Warren Buffet, Rule #1 of investing: Never lose money. Rule #2 of investing: Never forget rule #1; (2) If you focus on protecting your downside, the upside will take care of itself.</p>\n<p>Here are a few key risk variables you should be monitoring constantly:</p>\n<ul class=\"level-one\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>Volatility:</b> Volatility is the way that investors measure price variation and fluctuation of a given security over time. The higher the variation, the more volatility. For example, if a security trades at $5 on Monday, $15 on Tuesday, and $7 on Wednesday, it&#8217;s exhibiting extreme volatility. If you&#8217;re a novice investor, you should trade these types of securities with extreme care.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>Standard deviation:</b> Standard deviation is a statistical measure of the amount of volatility inherent in a security. The standard deviation formula is a complex one, but it&#8217;s extremely powerful and practical. With one number, you can determine just how volatile a security or asset is. The higher the standard deviation, the riskier the asset; conversely a low standard deviation number means the security is more stable from a pricing perspective. A stable Fortune 500 company tends to have a lower standard deviation than a startup tech company. Use this powerful metric to help make better trading decisions.</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n"}],"videoInfo":{"videoId":null,"name":null,"accountId":null,"playerId":null,"thumbnailUrl":null,"description":null,"uploadDate":null}},"sponsorship":{"sponsorshipPage":false,"backgroundImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"brandingLine":"","brandingLink":"","brandingLogo":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0}},"primaryLearningPath":"Advance","lifeExpectancy":"One year","lifeExpectancySetFrom":"2022-05-03T00:00:00+00:00","dummiesForKids":"no","sponsoredContent":"no","adInfo":"","adPairKey":[]},"status":"publish","visibility":"public","articleId":208627},{"headers":{"creationTime":"2016-03-27T16:47:15+00:00","modifiedTime":"2022-05-02T18:18:27+00:00","timestamp":"2022-06-22T19:37:40+00:00"},"data":{"breadcrumbs":[{"name":"Business, Careers, & Money","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34224"},"slug":"business-careers-money","categoryId":34224},{"name":"Personal Finance","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34273"},"slug":"personal-finance","categoryId":34273},{"name":"Investing","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34288"},"slug":"investing","categoryId":34288},{"name":"General Investing","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34300"},"slug":"general-investing","categoryId":34300}],"title":"Dark Pools and High Frequency Trading For Dummies Cheat Sheet","strippedTitle":"dark pools and high frequency trading for dummies cheat sheet","slug":"dark-pools-and-high-frequency-trading-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","canonicalUrl":"","seo":{"metaDescription":"This Cheat Sheet provides a quick overview of dark pools and high frequency trading, including choosing a good broker, and much more.","noIndex":0,"noFollow":0},"content":"Dark pools and high frequency trading (HFT) are contentious subjects in financial markets. Billions of dollars are traded through dark pools, and HFT algorithms with just small, incremental price differences make billions of dollars. And it all can happen in milliseconds. Most importantly, dark pools and HFT are part of the current market environment. Anyone who’s invested in the markets needs to know what they’re involved with and what they’re up against.","description":"Dark pools and high frequency trading (HFT) are contentious subjects in financial markets. Billions of dollars are traded through dark pools, and HFT algorithms with just small, incremental price differences make billions of dollars. And it all can happen in milliseconds. Most importantly, dark pools and HFT are part of the current market environment. Anyone who’s invested in the markets needs to know what they’re involved with and what they’re up against.","blurb":"","authors":[{"authorId":9235,"name":"Jay Vaananen","slug":"jay-vaananen","description":" <p><b>Jay Vaananen</b> is a senior private banker with many years of experience advising clients in their investments across all asset classes. He is also a popular university lecturer and regular commentator in all matters regarding banking, finance and investing.</p>","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/9235"}}],"primaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":34300,"title":"General Investing","slug":"general-investing","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34300"}},"secondaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"tertiaryCategoryTaxonomy":{"categoryId":0,"title":null,"slug":null,"_links":null},"trendingArticles":null,"inThisArticle":[],"relatedArticles":{"fromBook":[{"articleId":144053,"title":"Realising the Importance of Speed in High Frequency Trading","slug":"realising-the-importance-of-speed-in-high-frequency-trading","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","general-investing"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/144053"}},{"articleId":144049,"title":"Choosing a Broker Who Understands and Helps You Navigate Dark Pools","slug":"choosing-a-broker-who-understands-and-helps-you-navigate-dark-pools","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","general-investing"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/144049"}},{"articleId":144050,"title":"Being Aware of the Risks of Dark Pools","slug":"being-aware-of-the-risks-of-dark-pools","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","general-investing"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/144050"}},{"articleId":144051,"title":"The Basics of Automated Trading","slug":"the-basics-of-automated-trading","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","general-investing"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/144051"}},{"articleId":144031,"title":"10 Things You Should Know about Dark Pools","slug":"10-things-you-need-to-know-about-dark-pools","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","investment-vehicles","stocks"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/144031"}}],"fromCategory":[{"articleId":287556,"title":"Options Trading For Dummies Cheat Sheet","slug":"options-trading-for-dummies-cheat-sheet","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","general-investing"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/287556"}},{"articleId":285735,"title":"What Is ESG Investing?","slug":"what-is-esg-investing","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","general-investing"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/285735"}},{"articleId":285761,"title":"Just When You Thought It Was Safe: Coronawashing","slug":"just-when-you-thought-it-was-safe-coronawashing","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","general-investing"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/285761"}},{"articleId":273978,"title":"Investing For Canadians All-in-One For Dummies","slug":"investing-for-canadians-all-in-one-for-dummies","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","general-investing"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/273978"}},{"articleId":265694,"title":"Online Investing: Get More with a Discount Broker","slug":"online-investing-get-more-with-a-discount-broker","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","general-investing"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/265694"}}]},"hasRelatedBookFromSearch":false,"relatedBook":{"bookId":281564,"slug":"dark-pools-and-high-frequency-trading-for-dummies","isbn":"9781118879191","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","general-investing"],"amazon":{"default":"https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1118879198/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","ca":"https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1118879198/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","indigo_ca":"http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-9208661-13710633?url=https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/product/1118879198-item.html&cjsku=978111945484","gb":"https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1118879198/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20","de":"https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/1118879198/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wiley01-20"},"image":{"src":"https://www.dummies.com/wp-content/uploads/dark-pools-and-high-frequency-trading-for-dummies-cover-9781118879191-203x255.jpg","width":203,"height":255},"title":"Dark Pools and High Frequency Trading For Dummies","testBankPinActivationLink":"","bookOutOfPrint":false,"authorsInfo":"<p><b data-author-id=\"9235\">Jay Vaananen</b> is a senior private banker with many years of experience advising clients in their investments across all asset classes. He is also a popular university lecturer and regular commentator in all matters regarding banking, finance and investing.</p>","authors":[{"authorId":9235,"name":"Jay Vaananen","slug":"jay-vaananen","description":" <p><b>Jay Vaananen</b> is a senior private banker with many years of experience advising clients in their investments across all asset classes. He is also a popular university lecturer and regular commentator in all matters regarding banking, finance and investing.</p>","_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/authors/9235"}}],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/books/"}},"collections":[],"articleAds":{"footerAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_adhesion_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;personal-finance&quot;,&quot;investing&quot;,&quot;general-investing&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781118879191&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-62b36f8444509\"></div></div>","rightAd":"<div class=\"du-ad-region row\" id=\"article_page_right_ad\"><div class=\"du-ad-unit col-md-12\" data-slot-id=\"article_page_right_ad\" data-refreshed=\"false\" \r\n data-target = \"[{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;cat&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;business-careers-money&quot;,&quot;personal-finance&quot;,&quot;investing&quot;,&quot;general-investing&quot;]},{&quot;key&quot;:&quot;isbn&quot;,&quot;values&quot;:[&quot;9781118879191&quot;]}]\" id=\"du-slot-62b36f8444c59\"></div></div>"},"articleType":{"articleType":"Cheat Sheet","articleList":[{"articleId":144049,"title":"Choosing a Broker Who Understands and Helps You Navigate Dark Pools","slug":"choosing-a-broker-who-understands-and-helps-you-navigate-dark-pools","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","general-investing"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/144049"}},{"articleId":144022,"title":"The Fundamentals of High Frequency Trading","slug":"the-fundamentals-of-high-frequency-trading","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","general-investing"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/144022"}},{"articleId":144053,"title":"Realising the Importance of Speed in High Frequency Trading","slug":"realising-the-importance-of-speed-in-high-frequency-trading","categoryList":["business-careers-money","personal-finance","investing","general-investing"],"_links":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/articles/144053"}}],"content":[{"title":"Choosing a broker who understands dark pools","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>If you&#8217;re buying or selling shares then you&#8217;ll inevitably be routed through a dark pool at some point and your trades may well be executed there. Your broker&#8217;s expertise and the services that he provides are now one of the most important parts of your investment process.</p>\n<p class=\"Tip\">Figure out what you want to do with your investments and what type of relationship you need with a broker. Deciding on a broker depends on how hands-on you want to be and how much control you want to have over your orders. If you just want to push the button and execute your order then you need a broker you can trust.</p>\n<p>If, on the other hand, you prefer to do things yourself then you need a broker who offers you as much control and decision making as possible when it comes to the execution of your trade.</p>\n<p>When you talk with your broker, ask him these questions to ensure that he&#8217;s working for your best interests:</p>\n<ul class=\"level-one\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>Do you know the different dark pools?</b> Your broker should know the main dark pools. This question will tell you whether your broker is up to speed on the current market and has an understanding of who the major operators are. Stock trades are regularly routed through dark pools; if a broker hasn&#8217;t got any idea about dark pools, it&#8217;s a sign of incompetence.</p>\n<p class=\"child-para Tip\">After asking your broker what he knows about the different dark pools, you can also do your own investigation. Know the biggest dark pools by name. Read recent news reports about them and find out how they execute their orders and who they allow to operate in their pools. Don&#8217;t just believe their web pages and marketing materials. There have been lawsuits accusing dark pools of misleading clients, so make sure that you know the good guys from the bad guys.</p>\n<p class=\"child-para Remember\">The good guys can become the bad guys overnight, so regularly follow any developments in the dark pool market via the media. If a dark pool operator is fined or is under investigation for offences that have negatively impacted its clients, you should discuss the matter with your broker and make sure that he doesn&#8217;t route your trades through that particular dark pool until the issue with the dark pool is resolved.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>What markets do you trade in? </b>Discuss with your broker what dark pools and what displayed markets he executes your trades on. Don&#8217;t be afraid to ask straight and difficult questions and see what your broker says. If he can&#8217;t give you clear answers then the broker serving you either doesn&#8217;t know his job well enough or is hiding something from you.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>Does the dark pool operate a maker-taker fee?</b> A <i>maker-taker fee</i> is when some traders (often high frequency traders) are paid a fee to post orders on the book, which adds liquidity (maker fee), or to trade against existing orders in the book, which takes away liquidity (taker fee). If the dark pools your broker uses operate a maker-taker fee then high frequency traders are likely to be operating in that dark pool. Exchanges make money when trades are executed; that&#8217;s why sometimes they offer financial incentives to certain traders to either post orders or to execute against existing orders already in the order book.</p>\n<p class=\"child-para\">If you&#8217;re dealing in small share lots then it may be fine for you to use the standard at-market orders, because they&#8217;re unlikely to have an impact on the price. If you&#8217;re trading large sizes then you may be better off trading in another dark pool because the chances are high that a high-frequency-trading algorithm will discover your larger order and trade against it.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>Do you offer direct market access?</b> <i>Direct market access</i> means the ability to enter your orders directly into a market venue without having to go through a broker or intermediary. If you want to operate your trades yourself, you need direct market access. This gives you a choice of how and where to route your orders.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>What special order types do you have access to?</b> If you manage your own orders then you&#8217;ll need to know all the different special order types available and know exactly how they work in the market. Don&#8217;t just take your broker&#8217;s word; make sure that you research the different types of special order types and cross-reference with what your broker tells you.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>What is your trading portal? </b>A <i>trading portal</i> is what you have in front of you on your computer screen to enter and follow your trades.<b> </b>Get to know the trading tools at your disposal and test to see how they work. Check to see whether the broker&#8217;s trading portal is intuitive and easy to use.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>Will you answer my dark pool queries in writing?</b> Don&#8217;t be afraid to ask your broker for confirmation in writing on any issues you have with how he operates in dark pools and routes trades. Getting everything in writing is important because it gives you proof that you&#8217;ve discussed the matter of dark pools with your broker and made demands on the broker as to how he should act with your orders when dark pools are involved in one of your trades. If a situation arises in which a dark pool has acted unfairly to certain market participants (as has happened before) then you at least have the possibility of redress.</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n"},{"title":"Fundamentals of high frequency trading","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>Having a grasp of the fundamental traits of a high frequency trade helps you spot where the high frequency traders are operating and what tactics they&#8217;re using.</p>\n<p>The more knowledge you have of the tactics and trading strategies used by high frequency traders, the better equipped you will be to avoid becoming their prey and receiving poor trade executions. Here are some suggestions:</p>\n<ul class=\"level-one\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>High frequency traders trade in small lots of 100 to 200 shares.</b> They try to find out big orders hidden in the markets by using small orders to test the market.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>Watch for stock price slippage.</b> <i>Slippage</i><i> </i>is the difference between the price of a stock when you send an order into the market and the price your order actually gets executed at. Consistently seeing slippage in your trades is indicative of high frequency traders operating in that stock. Be careful: you don&#8217;t want to be fodder for high frequency traders.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>Flash crashes can often be traced back to high frequency traders</b>. Flash crashes happen fast. At their longest, a flash crash may take minutes; more often they are just seconds or milliseconds in length. Because of the speed at which a flash crash happens, it often involves high frequency traders pulling their orders out of the market and/or placing a large amount of sell orders. If the stock has had flash crashes then the order book may be the realm of high frequency traders.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>High frequency traders operate in dark pools. </b>Be aware that high frequency traders have been allowed into some dark pools. The fact that there may be high frequency traders in a dark pool makes it impossible for you to spot whether you&#8217;re trading against them. In such a situation, you&#8217;re at risk of receiving an execution at an inferior price.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>High frequency traders use many different strategies.</b> High frequency traders employ traditional market-making and trading strategies; contrary to popular belief, not all high frequency trading is predatory.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>High frequency trading follows regulatory changes.</b> Laws and regulations are the foundation of how high frequency traders are able to ply their trade. Any changes in regulation will affect how the market works.</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n"},{"title":"Realizing the importance of speed in HFT","thumb":null,"image":null,"content":"<p>High frequency trading requires speed quicker than the eye can see. With superior speeds, high frequency traders are able to react to news faster than market participants with inferior speed, because computer algorithms are able to analyse and produce trading instructions faster than a human can manually input an order. These are some of the ways they achieve these superfast speeds:</p>\n<ul class=\"level-one\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>Co-location is at the heart of HFT speed.</b> <i>Co-location</i> basically means placing a high frequency trader&#8217;s computers as close as physically possible to the exchange&#8217;s trade-matching computers. Doing so reduces the time it takes for the HFT trader&#8217;s computers to receive important market information. By placing their computers as close as possible to an exchange&#8217;s matching engine, high frequency traders are able to have faster access to changes in price and the order book.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>News service providers get a look at important economic data prior to the official release.</b> They then place the news in servers close to the exchanges so that when the news is released, it&#8217;s available in different geographical locations at exactly the same time. High frequency traders with their computers located close to the news servers will be at an advantage because they can get the released news more quickly and then trade on the news faster than other market participants.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"first-para\"><b>Routing via a dark pool exposes you to the possibility of being front run and of information leakage. </b>When an order is first routed through a dark pool or even several dark pools, it&#8217;s leaking information all the time. The type of order, the price information and the amount of stocks in the order are all valuable information to other traders. This information is being sent electronically and is therefore at risk of being picked up or even given to other market participants, which is why it&#8217;s called <i>information leakage.</i> Make sure that it&#8217;s a dark pool you&#8217;re happy to have your orders go through.</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n"}],"videoInfo":{"videoId":null,"name":null,"accountId":null,"playerId":null,"thumbnailUrl":null,"description":null,"uploadDate":null}},"sponsorship":{"sponsorshipPage":false,"backgroundImage":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0},"brandingLine":"","brandingLink":"","brandingLogo":{"src":null,"width":0,"height":0}},"primaryLearningPath":"Advance","lifeExpectancy":"Two years","lifeExpectancySetFrom":"2022-05-02T00:00:00+00:00","dummiesForKids":"no","sponsoredContent":"no","adInfo":"","adPairKey":[]},"status":"publish","visibility":"public","articleId":207527}],"_links":{"self":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34273/categoryArticles?sortField=time&sortOrder=1&size=10&offset=0"},"next":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34273/categoryArticles?sortField=time&sortOrder=1&size=10&offset=10"},"last":{"self":"https://dummies-api.dummies.com/v2/categories/34273/categoryArticles?sortField=time&sortOrder=1&size=10&offset=2271"}}},"objectTitle":"","status":"success","pageType":"article-category","objectId":"34273","page":1,"sortField":"time","sortOrder":1,"categoriesIds":[],"articleTypes":[],"filterData":{"categoriesFilter":[{"itemId":0,"itemName":"All Categories","count":2281},{"itemId":34275,"itemName":"Budgeting","count":13},{"itemId":34276,"itemName":"Charitable Giving","count":7},{"itemId":34277,"itemName":"Cryptocurrency","count":87},{"itemId":34278,"itemName":"Estate Planning","count":180},{"itemId":34279,"itemName":"Financing Education","count":30},{"itemId":34311,"itemName":"General Personal Finance","count":30},{"itemId":34280,"itemName":"Insurance","count":30},{"itemId":34288,"itemName":"Investing","count":1550},{"itemId":34301,"itemName":"Loans & Credit","count":182},{"itemId":34084,"itemName":"Medicare","count":48},{"itemId":34308,"itemName":"Retirement","count":32},{"itemId":34309,"itemName":"Social Security","count":17},{"itemId":34310,"itemName":"Taxes","count":21},{"itemId":34274,"itemName":"Veterans' Benefits","count":54}],"articleTypeFilter":[{"articleType":"All Types","count":2281},{"articleType":"Articles","count":2186},{"articleType":"Cheat Sheet","count":87},{"articleType":"Step by Step","count":7},{"articleType":"Videos","count":1}]},"filterDataLoadedStatus":"success","pageSize":10},"adsState":{"pageScripts":{"headers":{"timestamp":"2022-06-23T12:59:04+00:00"},"adsId":0,"data":{"scripts":[{"pages":["all"],"location":"header","script":"<!--Optimizely Script-->\r\n<script src=\"https://cdn.optimizely.com/js/10563184655.js\"></script>","enabled":false},{"pages":["all"],"location":"header","script":"<!-- comScore Tag -->\r\n<script>var _comscore = _comscore || [];_comscore.push({ c1: \"2\", c2: \"15097263\" });(function() {var s = document.createElement(\"script\"), el = document.getElementsByTagName(\"script\")[0]; s.async = true;s.src = (document.location.protocol == \"https:\" ? \"https://sb\" : \"http://b\") + \".scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js\";el.parentNode.insertBefore(s, el);})();</script><noscript><img src=\"https://sb.scorecardresearch.com/p?c1=2&c2=15097263&cv=2.0&cj=1\" /></noscript>\r\n<!-- / comScore Tag -->","enabled":true},{"pages":["all"],"location":"footer","script":"<!--BEGIN QUALTRICS WEBSITE FEEDBACK SNIPPET-->\r\n<script type='text/javascript'>\r\n(function(){var g=function(e,h,f,g){\r\nthis.get=function(a){for(var a=a+\"=\",c=document.cookie.split(\";\"),b=0,e=c.length;b<e;b++){for(var d=c[b];\" \"==d.charAt(0);)d=d.substring(1,d.length);if(0==d.indexOf(a))return d.substring(a.length,d.length)}return null};\r\nthis.set=function(a,c){var b=\"\",b=new Date;b.setTime(b.getTime()+6048E5);b=\"; expires=\"+b.toGMTString();document.cookie=a+\"=\"+c+b+\"; path=/; \"};\r\nthis.check=function(){var a=this.get(f);if(a)a=a.split(\":\");else if(100!=e)\"v\"==h&&(e=Math.random()>=e/100?0:100),a=[h,e,0],this.set(f,a.join(\":\"));else return!0;var c=a[1];if(100==c)return!0;switch(a[0]){case \"v\":return!1;case \"r\":return c=a[2]%Math.floor(100/c),a[2]++,this.set(f,a.join(\":\")),!c}return!0};\r\nthis.go=function(){if(this.check()){var a=document.createElement(\"script\");a.type=\"text/javascript\";a.src=g;document.body&&document.body.appendChild(a)}};\r\nthis.start=function(){var t=this;\"complete\"!==document.readyState?window.addEventListener?window.addEventListener(\"load\",function(){t.go()},!1):window.attachEvent&&window.attachEvent(\"onload\",function(){t.go()}):t.go()};};\r\ntry{(new g(100,\"r\",\"QSI_S_ZN_5o5yqpvMVjgDOuN\",\"https://zn5o5yqpvmvjgdoun-wiley.siteintercept.qualtrics.com/SIE/?Q_ZID=ZN_5o5yqpvMVjgDOuN\")).start()}catch(i){}})();\r\n</script><div id='ZN_5o5yqpvMVjgDOuN'><!--DO NOT REMOVE-CONTENTS PLACED HERE--></div>\r\n<!--END WEBSITE FEEDBACK SNIPPET-->","enabled":false},{"pages":["all"],"location":"header","script":"<!-- Hotjar Tracking Code for http://www.dummies.com -->\r\n<script>\r\n (function(h,o,t,j,a,r){\r\n h.hj=h.hj||function(){(h.hj.q=h.hj.q||[]).push(arguments)};\r\n h._hjSettings={hjid:257151,hjsv:6};\r\n a=o.getElementsByTagName('head')[0];\r\n r=o.createElement('script');r.async=1;\r\n r.src=t+h._hjSettings.hjid+j+h._hjSettings.hjsv;\r\n a.appendChild(r);\r\n })(window,document,'https://static.hotjar.com/c/hotjar-','.js?sv=');\r\n</script>","enabled":false},{"pages":["article"],"location":"header","script":"<!-- //Connect Container: dummies --> <script src=\"//get.s-onetag.com/bffe21a1-6bb8-4928-9449-7beadb468dae/tag.min.js\" async defer></script>","enabled":true},{"pages":["homepage"],"location":"header","script":"<meta name=\"facebook-domain-verification\" content=\"irk8y0irxf718trg3uwwuexg6xpva0\" />","enabled":true},{"pages":["homepage","article","category","search"],"location":"footer","script":"<!-- Facebook Pixel Code -->\r\n<noscript>\r\n<img height=\"1\" width=\"1\" src=\"https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=256338321977984&ev=PageView&noscript=1\"/>\r\n</noscript>\r\n<!-- End Facebook Pixel Code -->","enabled":true}]}},"pageScriptsLoadedStatus":"success"},"navigationState":{"navigationCollections":[{"collectionId":287568,"title":"BYOB (Be Your Own Boss)","hasSubCategories":false,"url":"/collection/for-the-entry-level-entrepreneur-287568"},{"collectionId":293237,"title":"Be a Rad Dad","hasSubCategories":false,"url":"/collection/be-the-best-dad-293237"},{"collectionId":287563,"title":"For Those Seeking Peace of Mind","hasSubCategories":false,"url":"/collection/for-those-seeking-peace-of-mind-287563"},{"collectionId":287570,"title":"For the Aspiring Aficionado","hasSubCategories":false,"url":"/collection/for-the-bougielicious-287570"},{"collectionId":291903,"title":"For the Budding Cannabis Enthusiast","hasSubCategories":false,"url":"/collection/for-the-budding-cannabis-enthusiast-291903"},{"collectionId":291934,"title":"For the Exam-Season Crammer","hasSubCategories":false,"url":"/collection/for-the-exam-season-crammer-291934"},{"collectionId":287569,"title":"For the Hopeless Romantic","hasSubCategories":false,"url":"/collection/for-the-hopeless-romantic-287569"},{"collectionId":287567,"title":"For the Unabashed Hippie","hasSubCategories":false,"url":"/collection/for-the-unabashed-hippie-287567"},{"collectionId":292186,"title":"Just DIY It","hasSubCategories":false,"url":"/collection/just-diy-it-292186"},{"collectionId":290164,"title":"Make a Commitment to Better Yourself","hasSubCategories":false,"url":"/collection/make-a-commitment-to-better-yourself-290164"}],"navigationCollectionsLoadedStatus":"success","navigationCategories":{"books":{"0":{"data":[{"categoryId":33512,"title":"Technology","hasSubCategories":true,"url":"/category/books/technology-33512"},{"categoryId":33662,"title":"Academics & The Arts","hasSubCategories":true,"url":"/category/books/academics-the-arts-33662"},{"categoryId":33809,"title":"Home, Auto, & Hobbies","hasSubCategories":true,"url":"/category/books/home-auto-hobbies-33809"},{"categoryId":34038,"title":"Body, Mind, & Spirit","hasSubCategories":true,"url":"/category/books/body-mind-spirit-34038"},{"categoryId":34224,"title":"Business, Careers, & Money","hasSubCategories":true,"url":"/category/books/business-careers-money-34224"}],"breadcrumbs":[],"categoryTitle":"Level 0 Category","mainCategoryUrl":"/category/books/level-0-category-0"}},"articles":{"0":{"data":[{"categoryId":33512,"title":"Technology","hasSubCategories":true,"url":"/category/articles/technology-33512"},{"categoryId":33662,"title":"Academics & The Arts","hasSubCategories":true,"url":"/category/articles/academics-the-arts-33662"},{"categoryId":33809,"title":"Home, Auto, & Hobbies","hasSubCategories":true,"url":"/category/articles/home-auto-hobbies-33809"},{"categoryId":34038,"title":"Body, Mind, & Spirit","hasSubCategories":true,"url":"/category/articles/body-mind-spirit-34038"},{"categoryId":34224,"title":"Business, Careers, & Money","hasSubCategories":true,"url":"/category/articles/business-careers-money-34224"}],"breadcrumbs":[],"categoryTitle":"Level 0 Category","mainCategoryUrl":"/category/articles/level-0-category-0"}}},"navigationCategoriesLoadedStatus":"success"},"searchState":{"searchList":[],"searchStatus":"initial","relatedArticlesList":[],"relatedArticlesStatus":"initial"},"routeState":{"name":"ArticleCategory","path":"/category/articles/personal-finance-34273/","hash":"","query":{},"params":{"category":"personal-finance-34273"},"fullPath":"/category/articles/personal-finance-34273/","meta":{"routeType":"category","breadcrumbInfo":{"suffix":"Articles","baseRoute":"/category/articles"},"prerenderWithAsyncData":true},"from":{"name":null,"path":"/","hash":"","query":{},"params":{},"fullPath":"/","meta":{}}},"sfmcState":{"newsletterSignupStatus":"initial"}}
Logo
  • Articles Open Article Categories
  • Books Open Book Categories
  • Collections Open Collections list
  • Custom Solutions

Article Categories

Book Categories

Collections

Explore all collections
BYOB (Be Your Own Boss)
Be a Rad Dad
For Those Seeking Peace of Mind
For the Aspiring Aficionado
For the Budding Cannabis Enthusiast
For the Exam-Season Crammer
For the Hopeless Romantic
For the Unabashed Hippie
Just DIY It
Make a Commitment to Better Yourself
  • Home
  • Business, Careers, & Money Articles
  • Personal Finance Articles

Personal Finance Articles

Money, money, money. Whether it's stashed in your sock drawer or invested in complex instruments, we'll help you keep it safe and watch it grow.

Browse By Category

Medicare

Veterans' Benefits

Budgeting

Charitable Giving

Cryptocurrency

Estate Planning

Financing Education

Insurance

Investing

Loans & Credit

Retirement

Social Security

Taxes

General Personal Finance

Previous slideNext slide

Medicare

Veterans' Benefits

Budgeting

Charitable Giving

Cryptocurrency

Estate Planning

Financing Education

Insurance

Investing

Loans & Credit

Retirement

Social Security

Taxes

General Personal Finance

Articles From Personal Finance

page 1
page 2
page 3
page 4
page 5
page 6
page 7
page 8
page 9
page 10
page 11
page 12
page 13
page 14
page 15
page 16
page 17
page 18
page 19
page 20
page 21
page 22
page 23
page 24
page 25
page 26
page 27
page 28
page 29
page 30
page 31
page 32
page 33
page 34
page 35
page 36
page 37
page 38
page 39
page 40
page 41
page 42
page 43
page 44
page 45
page 46
page 47
page 48
page 49
page 50
page 51
page 52
page 53
page 54
page 55
page 56
page 57
page 58
page 59
page 60
page 61
page 62
page 63
page 64
page 65
page 66
page 67
page 68
page 69
page 70
page 71
page 72
page 73
page 74
page 75
page 76
page 77
page 78
page 79
page 80
page 81
page 82
page 83
page 84
page 85
page 86
page 87
page 88
page 89
page 90
page 91
page 92
page 93
page 94
page 95
page 96
page 97
page 98
page 99
page 100
page 101
page 102
page 103
page 104
page 105
page 106
page 107
page 108
page 109
page 110
page 111
page 112
page 113
page 114
page 115
page 116
page 117
page 118
page 119
page 120
page 121
page 122
page 123
page 124
page 125
page 126
page 127
page 128
page 129
page 130
page 131
page 132
page 133
page 134
page 135
page 136
page 137
page 138
page 139
page 140
page 141
page 142
page 143
page 144
page 145
page 146
page 147
page 148
page 149
page 150
page 151
page 152
page 153
page 154
page 155
page 156
page 157
page 158
page 159
page 160
page 161
page 162
page 163
page 164
page 165
page 166
page 167
page 168
page 169
page 170
page 171
page 172
page 173
page 174
page 175
page 176
page 177
page 178
page 179
page 180
page 181
page 182
page 183
page 184
page 185
page 186
page 187
page 188
page 189
page 190
page 191
page 192
page 193
page 194
page 195
page 196
page 197
page 198
page 199
page 200
page 201
page 202
page 203
page 204
page 205
page 206
page 207
page 208
page 209
page 210
page 211
page 212
page 213
page 214
page 215
page 216
page 217
page 218
page 219
page 220
page 221
page 222
page 223
page 224
page 225
page 226
page 227
page 228
page 229

Filter Results

2,281 results
2,281 results
General Investing First Priorities: Paying Off High-Cost Debt and Building a Safety Reserve

Article / Updated 05-27-2022

Plenty of younger folks have debts to pay and lack an emergency reserve of money for unexpected expenses. High-cost debts, such as on a credit card, can be a major impediment to investing, in particular, and accomplishing your future personal and financial goals, in a broader sense. A high interest rate keeps the debt growing and can cause your debt to spiral out of control, which is why dealing with such consumer debt should be your first priority, just before establishing an emergency reserve. Pay off high-cost consumer debt Paying down debts isn’t nearly as exciting as investing, but it can make your investment decisions less difficult. Rather than spending your time investigating specific investments, paying off your debts with money you’ve saved may indeed be your best investment. Consumer debt includes borrowing on credit cards, auto loans, and the like, which are often costly ways to borrow. Banks and other lenders charge higher interest rates for consumer debt than for debt for investments, such as real estate and business, because consumer loans are the riskiest type of loans for a lender. Risk means the chance of the borrower’s defaulting and being unable to pay back all that he or she borrowed. Many folks have credit card debt that costs 18 percent or more per year in interest. Some credit cards levy interest rates well above 20 percent if you make a late payment or two. Reducing and eventually eliminating this debt with your savings is like putting your money in an investment with a guaranteed tax-free return equal to the rate that you pay on your debt. For example, if you have outstanding credit card debt at 18 percent interest, paying off that debt is the same as putting your money to work in an investment with a guaranteed 18 percent tax-free annual return. Because the interest on consumer debt isn’t tax-deductible, you would need to earn more than 18 percent by investing your money elsewhere to net 18 percent after paying taxes. Earning such high investing returns is highly unlikely, and to earn those returns, you’d be forced to take great risk. Consumer debt is hazardous to your long-term financial health (not to mention damaging to your credit score and future ability to borrow for a home or otherwise investments) because it encourages you to borrow against your future earnings. Tapping credit card debt may make sense if you’re financing a business. If you don’t have home equity, personal loans (through a credit card or auto loan) may actually be your lowest-cost source of small-business financing. Establish an emergency reserve You never know what life will bring, so having an accessible reserve of cash to meet unexpected expenses makes good financial sense. If you have generous parents or dear relatives, you can certainly consider using them as your emergency reserve. Just be sure you ask them in advance how they feel about that before you count on receiving funding from them. If you don’t have a financially flush family member, the onus is on you to establish a reserve. You should have at least three months’ worth of living expenses to as much as six months’ worth of living expenses as an emergency reserve. Invest this personal-safety-net money in a money market fund. You may also be able to borrow against your employer-based retirement account or against your home equity, should you find yourself in a bind, but these options are much less desirable. If you don’t have a financial safety net, you may be forced, under duress, to sell an investment (at a relatively low price) that you’ve worked hard for. And selling some investments, such as real estate, can take time and cost significant money (transaction costs, taxes, and so on). Riskier investments like stocks aren’t a suitable place to keep your emergency money invested. While stocks historically have returned about 9 percent per year, about one-third of the time, stocks decline in value in a given year, sometimes substantially. Stocks can drop and have dropped 20, 30, or 50 percent or more over relatively short periods of time. Suppose that such a decline coincides with an emergency, such as the loss of your job or a health problem that creates major medical bills. Your situation may force you to sell at a loss, perhaps a substantial one. Stocks are intended to be a longer-term investment, not an investment that you expect (or need) to sell in the near future.

View Article
Investment Vehicles Tips for Working with Trend-Following Trading Systems

Article / Updated 05-26-2022

Many trend‐following trading systems use a moving average for their starting points. In this trend‐following example, the system is designed for position trading, which means you use a relatively long moving average. Short selling isn’t permitted with this simple system. The first step is to define buy and sell rules for your initial testing. The actual code for defining these rules depends on your specific system‐development package. Therefore, trading rules are described as generally as possible. The rules for an initial test may look like this: Buy at tomorrow’s opening price when today’s price crosses and closes above the 50‐day exponential moving average (EMA). Sell at tomorrow’s opening price when today’s price crosses and closes below the 50‐day EMA. To test whether using a moving average as a starting point is a good idea in a trend‐following system, apply these two rules to ten years of historical data for the stocks of your choice. After testing this idea, you find that this simple system works fairly well when stock prices are trending, but it’s likely to trigger many losing trades when the prices of stocks are range bound. You can try to avoid these losing trades, and possibly improve your overall trading results, by filtering out trading‐range situations. One way to accomplish that goal is by changing the buy rule to read as follows: Buy at tomorrow’s open when the following conditions are true: Today’s closing price is above the 50‐day EMA. The stock crossed above the 50‐day EMA sometime during the last 5 days. Today’s 50‐day EMA is greater than the 50‐day EMA from 5 days ago. These added conditions serve as signal confirmation. When you test these rules, you find they reduce the number of whipsaw trades for most stocks, but they’re also likely to delay buy and sell signals on profitable trades and thus usually result in smaller profits on those trades. However, this adjustment makes the overall system more profitable because the number of losses is reduced. You can find out whether other changes that you can make in your simple system can actually improve profitability. You may, for example, test different types of moving averages. Try, for example, a simple moving average (SMA) instead of an exponential moving average (EMA). Or you may want to try using different time frames for your moving average, such as 9‐day, 25‐day, or 100‐day moving ­averages. Identifying system‐optimization pitfalls Most system‐development and testing software comes equipped with a provision for system optimization, which allows you to fine‐tune the technical analysis tools used in your trading system. You can, for example, tell the system to find the time frame of the moving average that produces the highest profit for one stock and then ask it to do the same thing for a different stock. Some systems enable you to test this factor simultaneously for many stocks. Although this approach is alluring, using it is likely to cause you trouble. If you find, for example, that a 22‐day moving average works best for one stock, a 37‐day moving average works best for the next stock, and another stock performs best using a 74‐day moving average, you’re going to run into problems. The set of circumstances leading to these optimized results won’t likely repeat in precisely the same way again in the future. It’s almost guaranteed that whatever optimized parameters you may find for these moving averages won’t be the optimal choices when trading real capital. This is a simple example of a problem that’s well known to scientists and economists who build mathematic models to forecast future events. It’s called curve fitting because you’re molding your model to fit the historical data. You can expend quite a bit of effort fine‐tuning a system to identify all the major trends and turning points in historical data for a particular stock, but that effort isn’t likely to result in future trading profits. In that case, your optimized system is more likely to cause a long string of losses rather than profits. Testing a long moving average and comparing the results to a short moving average is fine, and so is testing a few points in between a long moving average and a short moving average. As long as you use this exercise to understand why short moving averages work best for short‐term trades and why longer moving averages work better for traders with longer trading horizons, you’ll be fine. Otherwise, you’re probably moving into the realm of curve fitting and becoming frustrated with your actual trading results. Testing with blind simulation Blind simulation is a method for setting aside enough historical data so you can test your system‐optimization results and avoid the problem of curve fitting. For example, you may test data from 1990 through 1999 and thus exclude data from 2000 through the present. After you’ve developed a system that looks good enough for you to base your trades on, you can then test your system against the data that was excluded. If the system performs as well with the excluded data as it did with the original test data, you may have a system worth trading. If it fails, you obviously need to rethink your system. Another approach is choosing your historical data with extreme care. You can expect trend‐following systems like a moving‐average system to perform well during long, powerful trends. If your stock had a strong run up during the long‐lasting 1990s bull market, that kind of price data can skew your results, magically making any trend‐following system appear profitable. Whether that success actually can be duplicated during a subsequent bull market, however, must first be thoroughly tested. If the majority of your profits come from a single trade or only a small number of trades, the system probably won’t perform well when you begin trading real money. You may want to address this problem by excluding periods from your test data when your stock was doing exceptionally well or when the results of any trades were significantly more profitable than the average trade. This technique is a valid approach to eliminating the extraordinary results arising from extraordinary situations in your historical data. Using it should give you a better idea of your system’s potential for generating real profits in the future.

View Article
Cryptocurrency Cryptocurrency Mining For Dummies Cheat Sheet

Cheat Sheet / Updated 05-17-2022

Cryptocurrency mining is a relatively new concept that started slowly and has, over about a decade, developed into an entire industry with a wild-west-gold-rush reputation. The mining of “digital gold” in the form of cryptocurrencies is often painted as a get-rich-quick scam, with comparisons to tulip mania and the gold rushes of years past. Indeed, the industry is rife with hype, scams, and misleading promotions, and there’s a lot of room for error. However, there are profitable mining ventures, and there is still room for you, as a new miner, to profit from cryptocurrency mining if you do your research, do your homework, and plan carefully.

View Cheat Sheet
General Personal Finance Personal Finance in Your 20s and 30s: Online Resources to Find Service Providers

Article / Updated 05-17-2022

Finding quality, affordable professional service providers can be a challenge. As can finding the myriad other service providers you may seek, such as an auto repair shop or a plumber. All of us have the battle scars from the school of hard knocks and making bad hiring decisions. Getting referrals from folks you know often doesn't pan out — and for good reason. Just because your friend or neighbor has had good experiences with a given contractor doesn't mean you will or that you value the same things in a provider. The Internet has long held the promise of being an information source and exchange for consumers interested in hearing the straight scoop about service providers, but message boards rarely have a critical mass of comments about locally focused companies. Firms such as Kudzu, which is owned by media conglomerate Cox Enterprises, provides consumers free reviews on companies, but here's a case where you may well get less than you paid for. Anyone can complete a simple registration by providing an email address, name, and zip code, and many service providers have just one or a few reviews. Due to the anonymity of the reviews and lack of screening, company owners, employees, and friends can easily post puffed-up reviews while competitors can easily criticize their peers. After reviewing numerous websites that purport to help consumers separate the best service providers from the rest, the sections that follow highlight those that I've found are doing the best job. On some ratings sites, companies are solicited to buy enhanced listings, and this disguised advertising may make them more appealing to prospective customers. For example, Kudzu's "Enhanced Profile" service promises the paying company "Higher placement in search" as well as the ability to add photos and video and a marketing description. Angie's List Angie's List subscribers get access to data and customer feedback on a wide range of service providers in their local market area. The service boasts more than 3 million members in hundreds of markets around the United States. Angie's List, which began operations in 1995, uses proprietary technology to process reports, and one of a team of thirty people employed by Angie's List reads every report before it gets posted. Reports praising your own business or dissing a competitor's are ferreted out and removed. As happens on eBay, customers and businesses can respond to one another. When Angie's List receives a report on an unregistered company, that company is allowed to register for free. By registering, the company can then respond by posting to each customer's report. Consumers may not report anonymously, but their identity is only disclosed to the companies they rate. Angie's List also offers conflict resolution when a customer and company are at odds over their interaction. Angie's List says that they have a "zero-tolerance policy" about companies hassling a customer over the posting of negative comments. The report is posted live for all members to see, which obviously offers an incentive for the service company to resolve the issue quickly. If the service company resolves the complaint to the customer's satisfaction, the dispute is considered "resolved" and the negative report is removed from the service company's record. That's the leverage Angie's List uses to get complaints resolved. The member can then choose to file a new report, but if they do, they must grade the company at a B or above. However, the member is not obligated to file another report. Co-founder Angie Hicks never really considered the advertising-only model so often used online when she started her company. "We offer a premium service with high-quality information. Consumers are willing to pay for good information. Consumers are looking for trusted filters," says Hicks. Angie's List has not totally forsaken ads. The company offers coupons from highly rated service companies. Companies pay to run coupons and must have an A or B rating. Like a school report card, grades range from A (best) to F (worst). If a company has any unresolved complaints, it can't advertise, regardless of its overall grade. (Note: At the time that this book goes to press in late 2017, Angie's List may merge into the parent company that owns HomeAdvisor.) HomeAdvisor HomeAdvisor (formerly Service Magic), another large online provider of service-company referrals, doesn't rely on member subscriptions. With HomeAdvisor, you register for free and provide personal information, including your home address and details of what you're looking for, and several companies, which have paid HomeAdvisor an annual membership (advertising) fee of about $300, will contact you offering their services. Home-Advisor argues that such fees weed out people who may be operating as a sideline or on a short-term basis and lead to higher-quality, committed contractors being listed on their site. HomeAdvisor, which is focused on home improvement, repair, and maintenance firms, also has a ratings and review feature where customers can rate the company. To prevent bogus reviews, HomeAdvisor only allows consumers who have found contractors through their service to rate and evaluate those contractors. Here's how their service works: Suppose you're seeking a contractor to build you a wooden deck. After completing background information on the HomeAdvisor site about your planned project, your information would be sent to three contractors in your area who would contact you, arrange a meeting to discuss your project, and give you a proposal (with some contractors, you can actually schedule these appointments through the HomeAdvisor site). Unlike other services, including Angie's List, HomeAdvisor screens all contractors, who must meet numerous criteria including being properly licensed within their state, carrying general liability insurance coverage, and passing a criminal and financial background check (which uncovers negatives such as liens, bankruptcies, and judgments), among other items. In addition to paying HomeAdvisor an annual membership fee of $300, contractors pay HomeAdvisor a lead fee, depending upon the type of work and ranging from $10 to $50, for each lead they are sent. HomeAdvisor's model allows contractors to target clients by zip code and task, which allows them to be more focused in their prospecting and spend less time driving long distances. Other resources Another resource worth checking out is Consumers Checkbook, which compiles service-provider data in the following metro areas: Boston, Chicago, Delaware Valley (Philadelphia area), Puget Sound (Seattle area), San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose, Twin Cities, and Washington, D.C. Checkbook is a nonprofit founded in 1974. Like Consumer Reports, it doesn't accept any advertising or money from companies it reviews. In addition to its website, it publishes Consumer's Checkbook magazine in seven local versions for each of the metro areas. Another option for checking out service providers is to access the Better Business Bureau (BBB) website in your area, which you can locate through their national site. BBB information, which is available without a fee to you the consumer, may tell you if the company you're considering has any recent black marks but will hardly give you a thorough review of many customers' experiences like those you will find on sites like HomeAdvisor or Angie's List. BBBs are non-profits that collect fees from member companies. Thus, they have similar conflicts of interest that Angie's List and Home Advisor have in being "pro" business.

View Article
General Personal Finance Managing Your Money All-In-One For Dummies Cheat Sheet

Cheat Sheet / Updated 05-13-2022

Managing your money is crucial at all stages of your adult life — whether you’re interviewing for your first job, in the thick of your prime earning years, or enjoying your retirement. Some crucial aspects of managing your finances include taking stock of your finances, using a budget, building your savings, and investing your money.

View Cheat Sheet
Mortgages Paying Off a Mortgage Early vs. Investing

Article / Updated 05-12-2022

If you talk with others or read articles or books about prepaying your mortgage, you’ll come across those who think that paying off your mortgage early is the world’s greatest money-saving device. You’ll also find that some people consider it the most colossal mistake a mortgage holder can make. The reality is often somewhere between these two extremes. Everyone has pros and cons to weigh when they decide whether prepaying a mortgage makes sense. In some cases, the pros stand head and shoulders over the cons. For other people, the drawbacks tower over the advantages. At the crux of the decision is the fact that you’re paying interest on the borrowed mortgage money, but if you use your savings to pay down the loan balance, you won’t then have that money working for you earning an investment return. More importantly, what happens if that rainy day comes along and you need those handy cash reserves? Interest savings: The benefit of paying off your mortgage early Mortgage prepayment advocates focus on how much interest you won’t be charged. On a $100,000, 30-year mortgage at 7.5 percent interest, if you pay just an extra $100 of principal per month, you shorten the loan’s term significantly. Prepayment cheerleaders argue that you’ll save approximately $56,000 over the life of the loan. It’s true that by making larger-than-required payments each month, you avoid paying some interest to the lender. In the preceding example, in fact, you’ll pay off your loan nearly ten years faster than required. But that’s only part of the story. Read on for more. Quantifying the missed opportunity to invest those extra payments When you mail an additional $100 monthly to your lender, you miss the opportunity to invest that money into something that could provide you with a return greater than the cost of the mortgage interest. Have you heard of the stock market, for example? Over the past two centuries, the U.S. stock market has produced an annual rate of return of about 9 percent. Thus, if instead of prepaying your mortgage, you put that $100 into some good stocks and earn 9 percent per year, you end up with more money over the long term than if you had prepaid your mortgage (assuming that your mortgage interest rate is below 9 percent). Conversely, if instead of paying down your mortgage more rapidly, you put your extra cash in your bank savings account, you earn little interest. Because you’re surely paying more interest on your mortgage, you lose money with this investment strategy, although you make bankers happy. If you’re contemplating paying down your mortgage more aggressively than required or investing your extra cash, consider what rate of return you can reasonably expect from investing your money and compare that expected return to the interest rate you’re paying on your mortgage. As a first step, this simple comparison can help you begin to understand whether you’re better off paying down your mortgage or investing the money elsewhere. Over the long term, growth investments, such as stocks, investment real estate, and investing in small business, have provided higher returns than the current cost of mortgage money. Taxes matter but less than you think In most cases, all of your mortgage interest is deductible on both your federal and state income tax returns. Thus, if you’re paying, say, a 6 percent annual interest rate on your mortgage, after deducting that interest cost on your federal and state income tax returns, perhaps the mortgage is really costing you only about 4 percent on an after-tax basis. For most people, approximately one-third of the total interest cost of a mortgage is offset by their reduced income tax from writing off the mortgage interest on their federal and state income tax returns. However, don’t think that you can simply compare this relatively low after-tax mortgage cost of, say, 4 percent to the expected return on most investments. The flaw with that logic is that the return on most investments, such as stocks, is ultimately taxable. So, to be fair, if you’re going to examine the after-tax cost of your mortgage, you should be comparing that with the after-tax return on your investments. Alternatively, you could simplify matters for yourself and get a ballpark answer just by comparing the pretax mortgage cost to your expected pretax investment return. (Technically speaking, this comparison isn’t as precise as the after-tax analysis because income tax considerations generally don’t exactly equally reduce the cost of the mortgage and the investment return.)

View Article
General Personal Finance How to Ease Financial Uncertainty

Article / Updated 05-12-2022

Life can throw you some financial curveballs, but you don't have to be at the mercy of financial markets even if you're not able to control them. To protect against financial uncertainties, use the following strategies: Plan for life's certainties and prepare for life's uncertainties. Invest in and protect your ability to earn money; it's likely your most valuable asset. Adequately insure yourself, your stuff, and your income stream. Minimize or eliminate debt, and focus on building a great credit score. Maintain an emergency reserve fund. Invest for your goals, time horizon, and risk tolerance. Diversify your portfolio across a broad mix of asset classes. Monitor and rebalance your portfolio to maintain your target asset allocation.

View Article
Stocks Candlestick Charting For Dummies Cheat Sheet

Cheat Sheet / Updated 05-03-2022

Make smart trading decisions using candlestick charting. This cheat sheet shows you how to read the data that makes up a candlestick chart, figure out how to analyze a candlestick chart, and identify some common candlestick patterns.

View Cheat Sheet
Commodities Commodities For Dummies Cheat Sheet

Cheat Sheet / Updated 05-03-2022

The major commodities exchanges trade specific commodities worldwide, and the main regulatory organizations provide information and enforce codes to protect commodities investors. When investing in commodities, use guidelines and advice from the experts to lower your risks.

View Cheat Sheet
General Investing Dark Pools and High Frequency Trading For Dummies Cheat Sheet

Cheat Sheet / Updated 05-02-2022

Dark pools and high frequency trading (HFT) are contentious subjects in financial markets. Billions of dollars are traded through dark pools, and HFT algorithms with just small, incremental price differences make billions of dollars. And it all can happen in milliseconds. Most importantly, dark pools and HFT are part of the current market environment. Anyone who’s invested in the markets needs to know what they’re involved with and what they’re up against.

View Cheat Sheet
page 1
page 2
page 3
page 4
page 5
page 6
page 7
page 8
page 9
page 10
page 11
page 12
page 13
page 14
page 15
page 16
page 17
page 18
page 19
page 20
page 21
page 22
page 23
page 24
page 25
page 26
page 27
page 28
page 29
page 30
page 31
page 32
page 33
page 34
page 35
page 36
page 37
page 38
page 39
page 40
page 41
page 42
page 43
page 44
page 45
page 46
page 47
page 48
page 49
page 50
page 51
page 52
page 53
page 54
page 55
page 56
page 57
page 58
page 59
page 60
page 61
page 62
page 63
page 64
page 65
page 66
page 67
page 68
page 69
page 70
page 71
page 72
page 73
page 74
page 75
page 76
page 77
page 78
page 79
page 80
page 81
page 82
page 83
page 84
page 85
page 86
page 87
page 88
page 89
page 90
page 91
page 92
page 93
page 94
page 95
page 96
page 97
page 98
page 99
page 100
page 101
page 102
page 103
page 104
page 105
page 106
page 107
page 108
page 109
page 110
page 111
page 112
page 113
page 114
page 115
page 116
page 117
page 118
page 119
page 120
page 121
page 122
page 123
page 124
page 125
page 126
page 127
page 128
page 129
page 130
page 131
page 132
page 133
page 134
page 135
page 136
page 137
page 138
page 139
page 140
page 141
page 142
page 143
page 144
page 145
page 146
page 147
page 148
page 149
page 150
page 151
page 152
page 153
page 154
page 155
page 156
page 157
page 158
page 159
page 160
page 161
page 162
page 163
page 164
page 165
page 166
page 167
page 168
page 169
page 170
page 171
page 172
page 173
page 174
page 175
page 176
page 177
page 178
page 179
page 180
page 181
page 182
page 183
page 184
page 185
page 186
page 187
page 188
page 189
page 190
page 191
page 192
page 193
page 194
page 195
page 196
page 197
page 198
page 199
page 200
page 201
page 202
page 203
page 204
page 205
page 206
page 207
page 208
page 209
page 210
page 211
page 212
page 213
page 214
page 215
page 216
page 217
page 218
page 219
page 220
page 221
page 222
page 223
page 224
page 225
page 226
page 227
page 228
page 229

Quick Links

  • About For Dummies
  • Contact Us
  • Activate A Book Pin

Connect

Opt in to our newsletter!

By entering your email address and clicking the “Submit” button, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy & to receive electronic communications from Dummies.com, which may include marketing promotions, news and updates.

About Dummies

Dummies has always stood for taking on complex concepts and making them easy to understand. Dummies helps everyone be more knowledgeable and confident in applying what they know. Whether it's to pass that big test, qualify for that big promotion or even master that cooking technique; people who rely on dummies, rely on it to learn the critical skills and relevant information necessary for success.

Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
Cookies Settings
Do Not Sell My Personal Info - CA Only