Defining goals

Before deciding on an investment decision, we need to know our investment goals.
Below are three categories to help us deciding what kind of assets we are going to acquire for our investment especially in stock market. Each implies a different level of risk.

- Capital appreciation. Our primary goal is to grow the value of the portfolio. The best capital appreciation prospects are usually the most volatile, and hence, the riskiest stocks.

- Balance of capital appreciation and capital preservation. We want to grow the capital but without undue risk.

- Capital preservation: You want to achieve reasonable returns but priority No. 1 is preserving your existing capital. This is the lowest risk category.

Pick portfolio objectives with risk tolerance in mind. If we're likely to lose sleep when one of our stocks drops 10%, avoid the pure capital appreciation portfolios. Conversely, these portfolios might be our bag and craving excitement and want something to talk about with friends and co-workers. Some investors put their "serious" money into low-risk portfolios, but allocate a small amount of "fun" money for speculative portfolios.


Do you have the time?
Some portfolios require monitoring on a daily basis, while others require only occasional checks. Here are a specification of time commitment for each portfolio:

• High. Check on stocks daily, or at least, weekly.
• Medium. Check on stocks weekly or, at a minimum, monthly.
• Low. Check on portfolio only occasionally.

Spread your bets
Spreading the risk by acquiring stocks through diversification.

With only a few stocks, one bad performing stock will banish our returns. At a minimum, each portfolio should contain at least 10 stocks, and 15 would be better.

Whether that's practical depends on how much we're planning to invest.

Momentum Stock
Capital Appreciation (Time Commitment: High)

Momentum-stock selection strategies are the favorites of hedge-fund managers and other pros because they're effective at spotting growth stocks likely to move up fast. Two common characteristics in momentum strategy: They require stocks with a combination of strong price charts and strong recent earnings growth.
This particular stock are profitable small companies that have outperformed most stocks over the past year and are trading near their 52-week highs. They must have recorded at least 18% year-on-year earnings growth in their last quarter and have some institutional ownership.
Because these are "hot" stocks, you must watch them closely, preferably, daily. Sell any stock that falls 10% or more from its recent high.

Growth stocks
Capital Appreciation (Time Commitment: Medium)

This stock looks for reasonably priced stocks that have recorded moderate sales and earnings growth over the past five years. It is not as volatile and doesn't need to be watched as closely as the Momentum stocks. Buy it and plan to hold for one year. Until then, sell only stocks that have been acquired by another company or become involved in major ongoing scandals.

Dogs
Balanced (Time Commitment: low)

The Dogs is a contrarian, are likely to overcome problems that are currently pressuring their share prices.
The analysis are based on market capitalization (recent share price multiplied by number of shares outstanding). The dogs strategy screened for stocks that have market big caps, but the price drops over the past 12 months. The strategy involves picking the 10 worst performers from that list. Buy it and hold for one year. Then repeat the process. Do not sell any stocks during the year unless they are acquired by another company.

Boring dividends
Capital Preservation (Time Commitment: low)

Reduced expectations generally drive share prices down. This strategy pinpoints stocks with already-low expectations. They're only expected to grow earnings around 10% to 15% annually, which is too low to interest most growth investors. They pay dividends equating to 2.25% to 5% yields, which is too low to attract dividend yield chasers. The fact that they've grown dividends at least 5%, on average, annually over the past five years doesn't impress many. Buy it and hold for one year.

Please remember these techniques are not putting into account of the economic turbulence, political situation and so on and may not applicable in all the situation..... Read more!

Building a Stock Portfolio To Meet The Investment Goals

When it comes to building a stock portfolio, it is very important to understand the investment goal, and considering how much time is devoted to do the monitoring, the amount of money you have (as suppose to suffer financially if thing goes against yours positions) and how much risk ones are willing to take when investing in the stock market. These two later is similar, just want to emphasize it rather to regret it.

There are many vehicles to do an investments: time deposit, bond, real assets investments, stock, forex trading etc. Stock investments as one of the investment vehicle can help your investment portfolio by providing potential growth, income from dividends or a combination of the two, which is known as return.

However, the value of stocks can fluctuate, and when you sell your stock, it may be worth more or less than you originally paid. When building a stock portfolio, you should carefully consider the risks of investing in the stock market and develop a diversified asset allocation strategy that fits your goals, investing time frame and risk tolerance.

Diversifying stock portfolio is a way to help offset the risk in the stock investments. The goal is to spread out stock investments in different sectors and include different investment characteristics so that when a stock or sector performs poorly, the performance of your stock investments in other sectors may help offset the swings in the total value of your stock portfolio.


Following are some basic tips which can be used to make the diversification:

• Invest in approximately 20 to 30 stocks in at least six to eight sectors with different investment characteristics.
• No more than 25% of the total value of your stock portfolio should be in any one sector.
• No more than 15% of the total value of your stock portfolio should be in any one stock.
• You should invest a minimum of approximately 3% to 4% of the total value of your stock portfolio in each stock.

Deciding which stocks to invest can be difficult, especially if the tolerance for risk is too low or the money which are allocated for stock investment are too low. That's why it's important to develop an asset allocation strategy, research stocks that fit within your strategy and invest in stocks that have the potential to meet your specific goals, whether you want growth, income or a combination of the two. In this points, the "do-it yourself investor" need to make a research to find the best stock for his/ her own portfolio. There are plenty of resources in the internet to learn, the suggestion is do not rush, take it slowly, if the money to invest is too low do not push it, wait till the amount is enough to make a good diversification.... Read more!

Chickenpox

Chickenpox is a common illness among kids, particularly those under age 12. An itchy rash of spots that look like blisters can appear all over the body and may be accompanied by flu-like symptoms. Symptoms usually go away without treatment. This is a very communicable disease and a member of the herpes virus family which only infects people. Chickenpox may typically develop two to three weeks after contact. Most children have chickenpox at some stage. The immune system makes antibodies during the infection. These fight the virus and then provide lifelong immunity. A person who has caught chickenpox is very rarely can catch it again.

Vaccination

The best way to protect children from chickenpox is to have them vaccinated. If your child is not yet vaccinated and comes in contact with another child who has chickenpox, he may still be protected if he is vaccinated right away. If one of your children has chickenpox, it will probably spread to other members of the household who are not already immune. If someone else catches the infection, it will appear two to three weeks after the first family member got it. Vaccination can be done usually between the ages of 12 to 15 months. It is also recommended a booster shot at 4 to 6 years old for further protection, people 13 years of age and older who have never had chickenpox or received chickenpox vaccine get two doses of the vaccine at least 28 days apart. Older children and adults who have previously had chickenpox do not need to be vaccinated. Contact your doctor or local health department for further information about the chickenpox vaccine.

The vaccine is about 70% to 85% effective at preventing mild infection, and more than 95% effective in preventing moderate to severe forms of the infection. Healthy children who have had chickenpox do not need the vaccine — they usually have lifelong protection against the illness. Although the vaccine works pretty well, some kids who are immunized still will get chickenpox with much milder symptoms than those who haven't had the vaccine and become infected.

The symptoms

The incubation period (from exposure to onset of symptoms) is 14 to 24 days. Chickenpox begins with a fever, followed in a day or two by a rash that can be very itchy. Dry cough and sore throat are also common. The rash starts with red spots that soon turn into fluid-filled blisters. Some people have only a few blisters. Others can have as many as 500. These blisters dry and form scabs in 4 or 5 days. The rash usually appears first on the abdomen or back and face, and then spreads to almost everywhere else on the body, including the scalp, mouth, nose, ears, and genitals. The rash begins as multiple small, red bumps that look like pimples or insect bites. They develop into thin-walled blisters filled with clear fluid, which becomes cloudy. The blister wall breaks, leaving open sores, which finally crust over to become dry, brown scabs. Chickenpox blisters are usually less than a quarter of an inch wide, a reddish base, and appear in about 2 to 4 days. Typically, chickenpox is a mild illness, but can affect some infants, teens, adults, and people with weak immune systems more severely.

A person usually has only one episode of chickenpox, but this virus can lie dormant within the body and cause a different type of skin eruption later in life called shingles (or herpes zoster). Getting the chickenpox vaccine significantly lowers your child's chances of getting chickenpox, but he or she may still develop shingles later.


Contagiousness

Chickenpox is very contagious — most kids with a sibling who's been infected will get it as well, showing symptoms about 2 weeks after the first child does. To help keep the virus from spreading, make sure your kids wash their hands frequently, particularly before eating and after using the bathroom. And keep a child with chickenpox away from unvaccinated siblings as much as possible. People who haven't had chickenpox also can catch it from someone with shingles, but they cannot catch shingles itself. That's because shingles can only develop from a reactivation of VZV in someone who has previously had chickenpox.

Chickenpox is contagious from about 2 days before the rash appears and lasts until all the blisters are crusted over. Chickenpox is transmitted to others by direct person-to-person contact with the virus, by droplet or airborne spread of discharges from an infected person's nose and throat or indirectly by contact with articles freshly soiled by discharges from the infected person's lesions. The virus enters the body by the nose or mouth. It can also spread through the air, if you are near someone with chickenpox who is coughing or sneezing. A pregnant woman with chickenpox can pass it on to her baby before birth. Mothers with chickenpox can also give it to their newborn babies after birth. The virus travels in the air and then settles on clothes, bedding, etc. A child with chickenpox is likely to pass it on to most classmates and household members who have not already had it. It takes 14 to 24 days to develop symptoms after catching the virus (known as the 'incubation period'). A child with chickenpox should be kept out of school until all blisters have dried, usually about 1 week. If you're unsure about whether your child is ready to return to school, ask your doctor.

The only way to stop the spread of the virus from person to person is to prevent infected people from sharing the same room or house, which isn't practical. Chickenpox cannot be spread through indirect contact. A person with chickenpox is infectious from 2-4 days before the rash first appears until all the spots have crusted over (commonly about 5-6 days after onset of the illness).

Treating Chickenpox

The antiviral medicine acyclovir may be prescribed for people with chickenpox who are at risk for complications. The drug, which can make the infection less severe, must be given within the first 24 hours after the rash appears. Acyclovir can have significant side effects, so it is only given when necessary. Your doctor can tell you if the medication is right for your child. However, because chickenpox tends to be mild in healthy children, most physicians do not feel that it is necessary to prescribe acyclovir. One important note is that do not give aspirin [acetylsalicylic acid (ASA)] or any products that contain aspirin. Taking aspirin increases the risk of getting Reye's syndrome, which can damage the liver and brain. Taking good care of the skin and not itching may prevent infections that can be caused by bacteria that get into the skin. Your doctor may recommend a cream to help reduce the itch.

Give pain-relieving syrup and plenty of fluids. Calamine lotion and antihistamine medicines may relieve the itching. Keep your child's hands clean and their fingernails short. Try to discourage them from scratching the spots, as they can scar. Give plenty to drink to avoid dehydration. Give paracetamol or ibuprofen to ease fever, headaches, and aches and pains. Crotamiton lotion or cream put on the spots may ease itching. Antihistamine tablets or liquid medicine may help with sleep if itch is a problem. Give a dose at bedtime. You can buy these at pharmacies or get them on prescription.

Here are some tips on treating chickenpox: using cool wet compresses or giving baths in cool or lukewarm water every 3 to 4 hours for the first few days. Oatmeal baths, available at the supermarket or pharmacy, can help to relieve itching. (Baths do not spread chickenpox.) Patting (not rubbing) the body dry. Putting calamine lotion on itchy areas (but don't use it on the face, especially near the eyes).
Give your child foods that are cold, soft, and bland because chickenpox in the mouth may make drinking or eating difficult. Avoid feeding your child anything highly acidic or especially salty, like orange juice or pretzels. Ask your doctor or pharmacist about pain-relieving creams to apply to sores in the genital area. Give your child acetaminophen regularly to help relieve pain if your child has mouth blisters. Ask the doctor about using over-the-counter medication for itching.
Talk to your doctor if you're unsure of the diagnosis or if your child seems particularly unwell, have a cough, headache, if the skin is particularly inflamed or infected, or there are other worrying symptoms. For young babies or children with immunity problems, always seek medical advice.

Note: All information on this site is for educational purposes only. For specific medical advice, diagnoses, and treatment, consult your doctor.
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Employee Relations Program

In todays business, employees are free to vote and place their valuable talent to those companies who offer them the best opportunity to growth and appropriate rewards for their critical contributions. The burden will be on companies to attract and retain the workers they need. Companies need to review their program to retain their best talent. Job satisfaction are not only on the salary but also on the recognition and open communication by the managers to the employee.
Many companies perceive that it is time to give increased attention to work force issues, as a way to help address business-driven changes. Remember that “if you take care of your employees, they will take care of your customers". Employee-focused activities will remain important functional services and areas of expertise, responsibility for the process should be shared with managers. Because the issues addressed are people-related business issues, the process is more effectively integrated with the business. To be successful to maintain the employee relation, line managers can do the following:
- Communicating the urgency for change and implications for employees with regards to the business vision, mission, and strategy

- Clarifying the values that define the company's culture

- Addressing issues relating to labor relations, equal opportunity, legal compliance, sexual harassment, and fair practice

- Achieving and managing diversity in the work force

- Addressing work force issues such as work-family, workplace, health and wellness, dispute resolution/employee advocacy, policy application

These may seem disparate topics, but they all impact employee retention, trust, and the perception that the company is a great place to work. Read more!

Integrating HR Functions with Management Functions

Managing people was a line management responsibility long before HR staff functions are created. Managers generally acknowledge responsibility for managing their people. Yet human resource staffs have taken on more and more functions in support of managers over the decades, including employee relations, sourcing and screening talent, handling performance problems including terminations, and career development.
With increased support, it often come a sense of ownership of functions, with managers and employees as customers. This perception has made the HR functions separated from the businesses. HR staffs should be considered partners in serving those people who bring revenues into the company. Accordingly, a primary emphasis of the function should be to work with managers to build and implement effective processes for staffing, learning, performance and rewards, employee relations, and achieving needed organizational change. In many companies, people management processes are being similarly redesigned to match the new flexible, horizontal, organization paradigm. The emerging changes represent integration of the human resource function with the business through improved alignment of practices with needs.
The process of integrating HR Functions with Management Functions including: redesigning Human Resource Processes, analyzing Performance and Rewards, staffing, training and development, managing organizational changes, and employee relations. Read more!

Hiring For the Organization

Diverse firms are hiring employees to fit the characteristics of the organization, not just the requirements of a particular position. This approach is building cultures that rely heavily on self-motivated, committed people for corporate success. The new selection model is most effective when used by organizations that allow employees enough freedom to use their unique attributes to influence job performance. Many companies who have implemented this new selection model are adopting unusual hiring practices to find employees who fit the organization. They are willing to invest substantial resources to assess person-organization fit. These organizations share a set of management assumptions about organizational success. Each is attempting to build a distinctive culture that is intentionally "fragile”, meaning that management relies heavily on self-motivated, committed people for system effectiveness. All of these companies rely to an unusual degree on employees to make the system work effectively. They use sophisticated selection systems to hire the whole person whose skills and personality fit the type of organization, not just a job.

Traditional Selection Model
1.Hire employees whose knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) provide the greatest fit with the requirements of specific jobs
2.Rarely consider characteristics of the organization in which the jobs reside
3.Ignore characteristics of the person that are irrelevant to immediate job requirements
4.In common management parlance, the organization hires new "hands" or new "heads" that is, parts of people i/o the person as a “whole”
5.Managers tend to of individual job performance as the key outcome of the hiring process
6.Job performance is a function of the fit between KSAs and task demands.
7.The traditional selection model is more concerned with finding new employees than to retain them.
8.Less attention to whole person finds the organization's culture satisfying enough to stay

New Selection Model
1.Geared toward hiring a "whole" person who will fit well into the specific organization's culture
2.It reflects a fundamental reorientation of the selection process toward hiring "people," not just KSAs; for "organizations," not just jobs
3.This leads to hiring practices that seem peculiar, and needlessly extravagant, from a traditional human resource standpoint Read more!

How to Succeed in Business: Listen!

I am very outgoing and love to talk, and my friends have told me that there are times when it seems I'm not really hearing what other people are trying to say.

Nobody ever listened his way out of a job. Listening is a vital skill in any field. Here are some tips to better listening.

1. Ask pertinent questions, Questions are the hallmark of a good listener.

2. Practice empathic listening. Quoting Stephen Covey's observation that "most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply."

3. Listen with more than just your ears. body language shows whether you really interest in others or not. Nodding occasionally, making eye contact, taking notes, and being fully engaged all demonstrate genuine concern for the person you're speaking with. Watch his or her facial expressions, eye contact, and hand gestures" to pick up on unspoken messages.

4. Share personal stories. Telling a short anecdote about something from your own life that's relevant to the discussion helps to break the ice, and makes you seem "more approachable and down-to-earth.

5. Don't interrupt, let people finish what they're saying before you pipe up.


6. Pause before you reply.

7. Eliminate distractions. Don't try to discuss an important subject while either you or the other person is distracted by other tasks. Suggest setting another time to talk, when both of you can concentrate on the topic at hand.

8. Don't give unsolicited advice. don't give advise if you are not asked to give advise.
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