Efficient Market Hypothesis: Myth of Reality?

The efficient market hypothesis (EMH) was promoted by Eugene Fama in the 1960. In his classic paper Fama (1970) defined market in which prices always fully reflect available information as "efficient".While this definition reflects the main idea of the EMH it might be extended to explain the underlying assumption. For example Malkiel (1992) proposed the following definition:
A capital market is said to be efficient to if it fully and correctly reflects all relevant information in determining security prices. Therefore, more formally, the market is efficient with respect to some information set. ..if security prices would be unaffected by revealing that information to all participants. Moreover, efficiency implies that it is impossible to make economic profits by trading on the basis of the defined information set (Papers4you.com, 2006).

As it follows from the Malkiel (1992) definition if the market is efficient the company market value should be an unbiased estimate of the true value. Nevertheless it is important to stress that:
1. Market efficiency does not require that market price is equal to the true value
2. There is an equal probability that stocks over or under valued at any point in the time
3. And finally, investors should not be able to consistently identify under or over valued stocks using any investment strategy ( Damodaran, 2006).

What are the implications of the market efficiency from the individual investor perspective?
Firstly, equity research is costly and provides no benefits. Secondly strategies that have minimal execution costs such as randomly diversified portfolio or indexing to the market would be superior to any other investment strategy. Thirdly, a strategy that has minimum transaction costs should provide higher returns in the long run (Damodaran, 2006).

Nevertheless it is important to stress that markets are not efficient due to their nature, but they are driven to efficiency by the actions of the investors. Therefore Roberts(1967) distinguished among three forms of the market efficiency:
1. Weak form: the information set includes only historic data.
2. Semi strong: the information set includes publicly available information.
3. Strong form: the information set includes all information know to any market participant and includes private information.

Obviously in reality, investors have access to different information sets. While trading which is based on the insider information is prosecuted, analysis and interpretation of the publicly available information requires specific knowledge and skills (Papers4you.com, 2006). Therefore the efficient market should be seen as a self correcting mechanism, where inefficiencies appear at regular intervals but disappear almost instantaneously as investors find and trade on them.

EMH has wide applications in the financial markets, since it is easily extended to the valuation of companies , market failures such as an Enron Case, or performance analysis of the mutual funds. The traditional analysis of the market efficiency is based on the analysis of the anomalies such as Peso Effect in the foreign exchange market or devoted to the predictability of the stock returns.

References

Damodaran )nline (2006) "MARKET EFFICIENCY - DEFINITION AND TESTS", Available from: http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~ADAMODAR/New_Home_Page/invemgmt/effdefn.htm [17/06/2006]

Fama E. F., 1970, Efficient capitalmarkets: Areviewof theory and empiricalwork, Journal of Finance, 25, 383�417.

Malkiel B (1992) Efficient market hypothesis. In NewMan P.M. Milgate ,and J Eawells (eds). The new Palgrave dictionary of Money and Finance.

Papers For You (2006) "C/F/94. Validity of the Efficient Market Hypothesis", Available from http://www.coursework4you.co.uk/sprtfina2.htm [17/06/2006]

Papers For You (2006) "E/F/38. Efficient market hypothesis: theory and implications", Available from Papers4you.com [18/06/2006]

Robersts, H. 1967. Statistical versus clinical predictions of the stock markets. Unpublished manuscript, Center for research in Security Prices, University of Chicago, May.

Are Hedge Funds Heading Into the Perfect Storm?

You are going to be seeing and reading a lot more about hedge funds in the coming weeks and months. Two loosely related disturbed fronts are moving towards each other that may yet converge into the perfect storm.

The S&P 500 Index, the proxy for the US stock market, is up only 1.97 percent for the year, and down 1.7 percent for the quarter. The Lehman bond fund index is down 1.5 percent for the year. US stocks and bonds comprise the overwhelming majority of assets in individual investor portfolios.

That means very little or no growth for pension fund and 401(k) beneficiaries. For mutual fund and pension fund managers that means skinny or no performance bonuses. In a word, the pressure is on to somehow make a silk purse out of the sow's ear of an underperforming US stock and bond market. That's being done. New filings with the SEC indicate that a growing number of mutual funds will adopt hedging strategies like short selling and option investing to keep investors from leaving the herd and taking their assets with them.

On the other side of the disturbed front, the real hedge funds, unregulated private investment pools with a $trillion plus to toss around, are getting some unwanted heat from the regulators. Although they were held off by a recent DC Circuit Court ruling in favor of the hedge funds, the SEC is hot to regulate the hedge funds and is lobbying hard for Congress to give it the laws to do so.

Hedge funds are not mutual funds. They are not bound by any investment strategy description in a Prospectus. A hedge fund can implement any investment strategy that you as a private individual who got together with a few friends could do. Other than the always applicable laws against insider trader and outright fraud that leaves lots of room for creativity and financial maneuvers.

For example, in 1994 the former head of Solomon Brother bond department and two future Nobel Laureates in Economics got together and started Long Term Capital Management hedge fund with a few friends and $1 billion in capital. Four years later LTCM was producing returns of 40% annually, and the hedge fund's off balance sheet positions totaled a gargantuan $1.25 trillion. There probably weren't a dozen people in the world who completely understood LTCM's enormously complex strategy, and not many more than that who even knew enough to ask an intelligent question.

The Russian government's bond default in 1998 created an international whirlpool of panic selling in other government's bonds that threatened to sink LTCM and suck the entire international financial system down with it. The ultimate disaster was averted but you can bet that the memory of what "that hedge fund could have done" is very much alive in Washington DC and among the veterans of the financial press.

How does this fit together to create the perfect storm? Negative stock market returns demand a cause, identifiable culprits whose evil deeds have shaken investor confidence and robbed people of their retirement. It doesn't matter if there is no actual connection if the story is compelling enough. Short selling hedge funds, fueled by the fallout from an insider trading scandal or two, make the perfect culprit. Hedge funds are not open to joe sixpack. The media and the public love villains.. The average hedge fund investor is a financial institution or a fabulously wealth individual. Who better?

Real Estate Finance Overseas

After the technology bubble burst back in 2000 the stock markets suffered a bleak period of decline and investors chose to place their focus on bricks and mortar rather than falling share prices and they began investing heavily into real estate.

As a result the second home and the buy-to-let real estate markets in many countries around the world such as in the UK, US and Australia boomed. However, as the real estate affordability gap continues to widen in these nations and fewer first time buyers can even get onto the first rung of the real estate ladder, property price increases have begun to cool off and the ability to generate impressive rental yields and strong capital appreciation has slowed right down for at least the short term.

At the same time the stock markets around the world remain volatile and so now many more investors are looking overseas for alternatives to cooling domestic housing markets and bumpy rides on the stock market. Many are finding that there's an abundance of real estate opportunity in emerging countries around the world which has created a strong demand for real estate finance overseas.

For those considering joining the jet-to-let real estate investment set here are the three main options available when it comes to raising real estate finance, loans or mortgages to buy property abroad.

1) In many of the nations that were the first to boom the property markets are now stagnant and because lenders have fewer customers to provide finance for they are actively targeting those who have yet to upsize, release equity or take out a second mortgage and offering them increasingly favourable terms, conditions and interest rates.

For anyone thinking about buying real estate overseas in a country where they believe it will be difficult for them to secure local finance or where interest rates are unattractive, the option may exist for them to re-mortgage their existing property or take out a loan secured against the equity in their primary residence.

The negative side of this option to raise real estate finance to buy overseas property is that the purchaser's primary residence will be the security against the loan and naturally this introduces an element of risk.

2) The second option available to buyers looking for real estate finance overseas is getting a mortgage locally in the country in which they want to buy. Some countries such as Spain, Germany and France for example offer attractive interest rates and payment schedules to buyers from other European nations and many countries offer mortgages to international purchasers who can provide a decent sized deposit.

Anyone thinking about buying abroad would do well to also research which banks and lending institutions exist in that country, whether they are allowed to lend to foreign buyers and if so, are the criteria for getting a loan and the terms and conditions of the loan favourable?

3) The final option available to the majority of real estate investors looking to finance the purchase of a property abroad is an international mortgage provided by an international lender who usually has experience in the country from which the borrower heralds and also in the country in which they wish to invest which can make the whole finance process so much simpler�but the downside is that arranging such mortgages can be far more expensive than the first two options available to those contemplating their real estate finance options.

The availability or applicability of any type of mortgage or finance raising scheme discussed in this article is something that needs to be determined on an individual basis therefore this article does not constitute advice. Anyone hoping to raise finance to purchase real estate overseas should seek expert financial advice.

"5 General Trends in the California Real Estate Market to Watch -- 2006"

"5 General Trends in the California Real Estate Market to Watch -- 2006"

Historically, the real estate trends of California have always been the precursors for the rest of the country. Which is why leading players of the real estate market keep a close watch on the Golden State's real estate market conditions.

And whether you are a first time homebuyer, debating the viability of building your dream house in San Bernardino, or a real estate investor looking to sell condominium units in Los Angeles, you certainly want to know: When is it the optimum time to buy or sell?

Purchasing a house is a major investment. With judicious planning, this valuable asset will appreciate with each year.

But how do you get the big picture? Fortunately, real estate trends are predictable because these develop over a long period, unlike the stock market, which is rather volatile.

The first thing you will need to do is to read and track real estate articles: the market reports of the California Association of Realtors or the California Building Industry Association, and the briefs created by housing analyst companies.

Once you have identified the following key indicators you will have a better grasp of the general trends in California's real estate market.

THE FIVE KEY INDICATORS TO WATCH

Interest Rates
When interest rates rise, buyers shy away. Conversely, lowered interest rates attract more buyers.

This year, interest rates in California are on an upswing. For example, thirty-year fixed mortgage rates, which averaged 5.71 percent in 2005, has risen to 6 percent levels in January 2006. And adjustable mortgage interest rates have moved up to 5 percent levels compared to 4.12 percent in 2005.

Building Permits
The higher the number of building permits issued, the higher the demand for houses.

Figures show that number of building permits issued for the year 2006, have fallen by 10 percent in comparison to last year's figures. In terms of houses, that's a decrease of 1,430 building permits compared to January 2005 figures, according to California Building Industry Association report.

Home Sales
This key indicator refers to the total number of homes sold. In the law of supply and demand, when there are few buyers, real estate prices fall.

The January 2006 figures of the California Association of Realtors reveal that the number of existing single-family detached homes sold, has gone down by 24.1 percent in comparison to sales for the entire year 2005.

Another factor to consider is the growing inventory of available houses in certain counties in California, which is changing the market dynamics. What was once a sellers market is slowly turning into a buyers market.

Loan Defaults
This refers to the failure of homeowners to pay their monthly mortgage fees. One downside to this is that many Californian homeowners are choosing to have a bad credit report, rather than to keep paying fees for a home whose value has been inflated by as much as 20 percent more.

Foreclosure Sales
Figures presented by DataQuick Information Systems, a housing analyst company, indicate that foreclosure activities in California have gone up by 19 percent in the last quarter of 2005. This is an increase of 3 percent compared to the third quarter of 2005, and is 4.6 percent higher when compared to 2004's last quarter figures.

When foreclosure sales are on an upswing, consumer spending is down and consumer debt levels have risen. In the real estate market, this has meant that many financially strapped homeowners are selling their homes at lower prices. The other contributable factors are inflation, the rising prices of gasoline, federal budget deficit, and interest rates.

Concurrently, these key indicators confirm that although home sales levels in California are falling, the demand for houses remains strong and steady. Always do your due diligence before undertaking a purchase of property in California.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average: Failing the Average Investor

In addition to a well thought out Investment Plan, successful Equity investing requires a feel for what is going on in the real world that we all refer to as "The Market". To most investors, the DJIA provides all of the information they think they need, and they worship it mindlessly, thinking that this time tattered average has mystical predictive and analytic powers far beyond the scope of any other market number. A cursory review of New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Issue Breadth figures (93% of the Dow stocks are traded there) clearly shows how the Dow has neither been prescient nor historically accurate with regard to broad market movements for the past eight years. Additionally, this financial icon that investors revere as the ultimate "Blue Chip" Stock Market Indicator has lost its luster, with less than half its members achieving S & P ratings of A or better, and 20% of the issues ranked below Investment Grade.

Is the 120-year-old DJIA impotent? No, it's certainly helpful for Peak-to-Peak analysis right now, for example, to see if your Large Cap only Equity Portfolio is as high as it was six years ago. But it's based upon a seriously flawed Buy and Hold investment strategy and universally used as a market barometer, when its original role was as an economic indicator. This is not just semantics. It's Wall Street's rendition of "The Emperor's New Clothes". Possibly, a weighted average of investor perceived business prospects for thirty major companies is a viable economic indicator, but leading or lagging? Clearly, there is no conceivable way that any existing average/index can measure the progress of the thousands of individual securities (and Mutual Funds masquerading as individual securities) that, in the real investment world, are "The Market". And is there just "a" Market, when REITs, Index ETFs, Equity CEFs, Income CEFs, and even some Preferreds are all mixed together in such a way that most brokerage firm statements can't quite distinguish one from the other? Investors are dealing with multiple markets of different types. Markets that don't follow the same rules or respond to the same changes in the same ways. The Dow is dead, long live reality.

Feeling statistically naked? Don't fret Nell, here are a few real market statistics and lists that are easy to understand, easy to put your cursor on, and useful in keeping you up to date on what's going on in the multiple Markets of today's Investment World:

1. Issue Breadth is the single most accurate barometer of what's going on in the markets on a daily basis! Statistics for each of the Stock Exchanges are tracked daily, documenting how many individual issues have advanced versus how many have declined. Rarely are these important numbers reported, especially if they are painting a picture different from that being jammed down investors' throats by institutional propaganda. Would you believe, that in 1999 (when the DJIA and other indices) last achieved All Time High (ATH) levels, monthly Issue Breadth on the NYSE was positive only in April, followed by a 12 month paper bloodbath extending through May of 2000. Since then, Breadth has been positive for six consecutive years. Surprise!

2. Pay close attention to the number of issues hitting New Fifty-Two Week Highs (52Hs) and Lows each day: a) for trend corroboration, and b) to obtain a wealth of important information for daily decision-making and periodic performance understanding. The recent NYSE Bull Market (not a typo) is clearly evidenced by six consecutive years (from 04/00) with more issues hitting new 52Hs than new 52Ls... New Highs nearly tripled New Lows. So much for the standard market tracking tools... not to mention Wall Street manipulation of all the news that's fit to print for investors. Looking at the daily lists of 52Hs and 52Ls will help you determine: a) which sectors are moving in which directions, b) if interest rate expectations are pointing up or down, c) which individual issues are approaching either your Buy or Sell targets and, d) which direction your portfolio Market Value should be moving.

In recent months, REITs, metals, and energy stocks dominated the hot list while regional banks, utilities, and other interest rate sensitive issues were notsos (sic). These lists always indicate what's going on now, without any weighting, charting, or hype, making your job almost simplistic. Take your reasonable profits in the issues that have risen to new peaks (Sell Higher), and purchase the quality issues among those that are at 52Ls (Buy Lower). High prices often reflect high speculation with Bazooka potential, while lower priced value stocks often turn out to be bargains. Ishares, foreign Closed End Funds, Mining and Energy bloat today's 52H List while preferred shares and Utilities occupy the 52Ls... a bit more meaningful than "the Dow is near an All Time High", and a bit scarier as well.

3. Throughout the trading day, periodic review of three lists called "Market Statistics" will keep you current on individual issue price movements, active issues, sector developments, and more. How you interpret and use this information will eventually affect your bottom line, weather you are a Value Stock Investor or a Small Cap day trader. The Most Active and The Most Declined Lists describe individual and group activity, identify where some more detailed research might be appropriate, and provide potential additions to your Daily Stock Watch List. The Most Active and Most Advanced Lists will identify the hottest individual issues and sectors, identify areas where news stories may be worth reading, and instantly make you aware of profit taking opportunities.

I know you are tempted to shout "Blasphemy" at the top of your lungs, but the DJIA was developed in a pre-internet world (actually, pre-automobile) where the statistics discussed above were unavailable, only the wealthy cared about the stock market, there were no Mutual Funds, and, frankly Scarlet, 95% of the population just didn't care. Now here's some blasphemy for you: It is likely that not one person reading this article has an investment portfolio that closely resembles the composition of the DJIA. It is just as likely that nearly everyone reading this article will use the Dow to evaluate portfolio performance. I've never understood this phenomenon, and I know that change takes time... but really, the Dow (and the other averages) have had their day, and far too much of your nest egg, for you to ignore this reality any longer.

The Sky Is Rising � Buy Stocks Low Now!

Back in 1998 I wrote an article warning people that the stock market was extremely overpriced. I was seeing obvious signs of idiocy in the stock market. The first big sign was a rampant hype of how great the big stock opportunity was in the popular press. I was seeing new investing shows pop up on TV. I was seeing young attractive women that look fresh out of am MBA program and dumb as dirt � CNBC's "Money Honey" Maria Baritomo on the floor of the NYSE gave a daily blow by blow account of how everyone in the public was going to get rich if they just bought in.

It all reminded my of Bernard Baruch's account of why he sold out at the top of the market in 1929. On his way to work he stopped to have his shoes polished. The shoeshine boy said, "Mister, let me tell you a bout a great stock I just bought� I ain't gonna be shining shoes for long." Baruch immediately went to his office and sold all of his stock. Later he told a reporter that when an inexperienced stock market idiot of a shoe shine boy is giving recommendations it is time to get out. In 1998 airline stewardesses were bragging about their stock buys and counting the days to quit their job.

Nothing could have been farther from the truth. The inside corporate executive controlled media firms were pumping investment sewage into the minds of the public. Why were they doing this? Because they had enormous holdings of employee optioned stocks that they needed to dump on the public. That is exactly what they did and public investors jumped onto the insider Punji stakes. In late 1999 and early 2000 just six months before the great stock market crash every time a greedy inexperienced idiot in the public bought into the great American rip off and bought stock an insider sold out for extraordinary profits. The vast majority of all inside corporate executives sold out their holdings on a stupid, greedy, public whipped into a buying frenzy buy the U.S. media that is controlled and operated from behind the scenes by large U.S. corporate insiders.

I just read an article in Business Week entitled "Blue Chip Blues." The article discusses the fact that the companies that comprise the S&P 100 have had a stellar 200%+ increase in earnings but share prices have increased less than one percent. This says that the public is not paying any attention whatsoever to the market. It is kind of like in high school where most of the kids paid attention to the cool kids even if they were stupid and wrong and can barely hold a job as adults.

We know in financial economics that the public is right in the middle of a major market move where all you have to do is buy and hold on tight � no brain required. The public is dumb as dirt at the bottom and the top of the market however. We are at the bottom right now. I know this because of the articles I am seeing about how much the stock market sucks right now. I was treated like Chicken Little in 1998 when I told everyone to get out as I ran around screaming "the sky is falling!" I was right. Now I am running around screaming the sky has crashed so buy, buy, buy! Yes folks right now is the time to buy and the sky is about to rise again. Chicken Little is always right in the end!

The beginners guide to safely join and use eBay

I don't think it matters where you are these days, if you mention the name ' eBay ', there is someone there who has either bought an item on it, or who has sold something on it, eBay has become a household name around the world. I started buying and selling on ebay around 7 years ago. There are thousands of people living in the U.S. that make full time living's selling item's on eBay, and thousands more that buy items on it daily.

eBay was started by one man named ' Pierre Omidyar '. When Pierre was 28 years old he started writing the programming code that was to become the internet site eBay. The site was launched online on Sep 4, 1995, ' Labor Day ' here in the U.S. At first it wasn't called eBay, but was named ' Auction Web '. Later it was changed to ' ebay ' , which was a short version of a consulting firm Pierre owned named ' Echo Bay '. eBay was free at the start, then it started charging fees to help cover it's internet costs for hosting and other charges. At the time, Pierre was dating a woman that collected PEZ toys, she used the new eBay site in its earliest incarnation to buy and sell rare dispensers. In 1996 Jeffrey Skoll, a Stanford MBA, joined the company and by 1998 eBay had gone public in the stock market, making Omidyar a billionaire. In 2005, Omidyar's 214 million eBay shares were worth around $8 billion. In March 1998, Meg Whitman was brought in as President and CEO of eBay where she serves still today

Let's start by going to the eBay site and joining. Just visit: www.ebay.com and you will be taken to the main page of the website. Once there look towards the top area of the screen and you will see text that says: ' Hello! Sign in or register. ', using the mouse button, click on ' register '. After clicking on ' register ' you will be taken to a screen with a form on it, enter the information about yourself, such as your name, address, telephone number and email address. Next you will be taken to another screen where you must choose a password and ebay user name, the eBay user-name is the ID or Name you will be known by to other ebay bidders and shoppers.

The password should be something that is not common, for instance do not use your first or last name, or some common word such as ' pencil ', or ' computer ', take your time and choose something difficult and a little long, make sure you write this password down and keep it near your computer in case you forget it. I recommend writing your ebay password on a yellow post-it note and hanging it someplace near your computer.

When your done with the username and password screen, you just have to check your email for the confirmation link that eBay sends you, just click on the link as shown in the email to activate your eBay account, now you have joined eBay, and you can start bidding and buying right away, but before you do let me tell you about the different features of eBay and how some things work.

eBay is not just an auction site, I mean you do not have to bid and wait for an auction to end, in order to purchase every item on eBay. In fact many items can be purchased for a set fee, and bought instantly, these are called ' Buy Now ' listings. For an example of how listings differ from each other, let's look at some ebay items. Let's say you and I are looking for a ' singing fish ', the fish that look like their mounted and displayed on a piece of wood, when someone gets near it, it will start singing and move it's mouth and tail, they are often called ' big mouth billy bass '.

To see if eBay has any of the ' singing fish ', we just go to the main ebay page (www.ebay.com) and in the 'SEARCH' area, type in: singing fish, and the screen shows there are currently 60 different items or listings found. I scroll down and select one of the listings, it currently shows the current bid price is $7.00 and it has had 4 bids, with 1 day and 13 hours remaining before the listing or auction ends. If I really wanted this item, and was willing to pay up to $15.00 for it, I would just click on ' Place Bid ', and enter my ebay username and password, if requested to do so. It tells me that I have to enter a bid of at least $7.50, remember I am willing to spend $15.00, so I would now enter $15.00 as my bid price. The item description page would then show that I am the current high bidder, and the amount needed to outpid me would be $8.00 or so, eBay keeps my maximum bid price ($15.00) secret, and automatically bids in increments for me as other folks bid, until reaching my $15.00 limit. If someone bids more than my $15.00 limit, there is no way I can win the item, unless I bid again and set another higher limit, if the item listing time ends with my $15.00 bid as the highest one, I am the winner.

The ' maximum bid ' option is a very neat feature, if you will be away from the computer and can not watch an auction closely while the time remaining is ending, eBay will automatically bid for you until you have reached your maximum bid limit.

Besides bidding, some items have others ways of purchasing them. Now lets go back to the screen that showed the 60 different listings for the ' singing fish ', I scroll down and notice that besides the current price of one fish, it says ' Buy It Now ' and shows a price of $8.99 near it. Clicking on this listing, I see the fish can be purchased instantly for $8.99, by clicking on the ' Buy It Now ' button. If I clicked on the ' Buy It Now ', button I would be taken to another screen where I would confirm that I want to buy it by clicking on the ' Commit to Buy ' button, or I could simply click 'back' on my web browser, or just go to another page to cancel my decision to buy the item. If I did click on the ' Commit to Buy ' button, it would show me other screens, and tell me where to send the payment, etc, all which are explained in simple and easy to understand terms.

There are three things to always check on before buying or bidding on an eBay item, the first is the sellers location. As you use ebay, you will see that some of the sellers live in Canada, or even the U.K. If you are like me and live here in the U.S. you may wish to just buy or bid on items that are here in the same country, to avoid a long delivery time, and large shipping fees. Each ebay item description page, tells the users address, for instance it will say ' Item location: Chatsworth, CA United States ', etc, near the top and middle area of the screen. Another thing to check is what the shipping costs will be. Some folks offer very high shipping, for instance someone may sell a shirt for only $2.00 but have a set shipping fee of $15, so always search the item description page before bidding and buying to find the shipping information. Some item description pages have a box, with a button on them called ' Calculate ', once you click on this button, just enter your zip code, and it will tell you what the exact shipping fees will be. One more thing to always check on is what methods the seller accepts as payment. Some folks only accept PayPal, others only accept Money Orders, or Checks, while some accept all methods. Look for this information on the item description screens also, it's listed usually under the item's description section, in an area called: ' Payment methods accepted ', all three of these things I have told you about, are easy to find and view on any item's description screen.

As you search and look at different items listed on eBay, you will see that a lot of people only accept PayPal as their form of payment. If you are not familiar with ' PayPal ' visit, www.paypal.com. Signing up and joining PayPal is simple and free, and it has great benefits especially for using eBay. PayPal payments are secure, and the money is sent instantly to the seller, it makes eBay a lot more fun to use, when buying items on eBay I use both PayPal payments and money orders.

Now let me just explain a little about ' feedback ' and how it's very important when it comes to buying and selling on ebay. Let's go back to the ebay webpage that shows the listings for the ' singing fish '. As I pick a listing at random, I look under the ' Seller Information ' area of that page, I see the sellers eBay name, and the Feedback Score. The feedback score tells you how many buy/sell transactions a user has made in the past on eBay, and the percentage of the transactions that were positive. This info is a great way to protect yourself from a seller or buyer that may not be very reputable. For example if you were interested in bidding or buying an item, and you noticed the person listing the item had a feedback number of 6 and a positive percentage of 20%, stay away from this person, but if the person had a feedback number of 6 and a positive percentage of 99% or so, they would be a lot safer to deal with.

Now before finishing this article I want to give you two more pointers or bits of information to use to make your eBay experiences good ones. Once you become familiar and can find your way around the different areas, go to your account screen, and find the option to change your password. My eBay password is over 14 characters long and contains letters and numbers in random order. I change my password every month or two, and I recommend you do this also.

The main reason I recommend you change your eBay password every month or two, is because there are a lot of nasty computer viruses and trojan horses floating around on the internet and arriving through email, and the purpose of some of these viruses is to scan your hard drive and seek out your passwords, ebay's included, and to email this info to hackers and other websites, giving folks you don't know access to your eBay account information.

In all of my years using eBay, I have never had one problem, and you should not either if you read and follow my advice and tips in this article, and just use some common sense or internet savy. There is no way I or anyone can guarantee you will never have trouble using ebay or any internet site, but neither can someone guarantee you won't become involved in a wreck while driving a vehicle.

There is a great FREE eBook that describes in detail how to ' How To Join eBay and PayPal - and Safely Use Each ', The eBook contains NO AdWare or SpyWare and is available for immediate download from this website address:

http://www.rb59.com/jepasut

By Robert W. Benjamin

Copyright � 2006

You may publish this article in your ezine, newsletter or on your web site as long as it is reprinted in its entirety and without modification except for formatting needs or grammar corrections.