Consumers told it to the FTC: Top 10 complaints for 2014 | Consumer Information

Source:   Consumers told it to the FTC: Top 10 complaints for 2014 | Consumer Information

Consumers told it to the FTC: Top 10 complaints for 2014

February 27, 2015

by 

Colleen Tressler

Consumer Education Specialist, FTC

Today, the FTC announced its top 10 consumer complaints for 2014. Of the more than 2.5 million consumer complaints received…

• Identity theft once again tops the list, with 13 percent of total complaints filed.
• Debt collection held steady as the second-most-reported complaint, with 11 percent.
• Imposter scams — where con artists impersonate government officials or others — moved into third place on the list of consumer complaints, entering the top three complaint categories for the first time. The increase in imposter scams was led by a sharp increase in complaints about IRS and other government imposter frauds.
• Rounding out the field: Telephone and mobile services; banks and lenders; prizes, sweepstakes and lotteries; auto-related complaints; shop-at-home and catalog sales; television and electronic media; and finally, internet services.

Florida, Georgia and Nevada are the top three states for fraud per capita and other complaints, while Florida, Washington and Oregon are the top three for identity theft complaints. 

For a complete list of all complaint categories, check out page six of the FTC’s 2014 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book.

Your complaints matter at the FTC. If a business doesn’t deliver on its promises, if someone cheats you out of your money, or if you've spotted a scam, tell it to the FTC. Your complaints help us stop rip-off artists, scammers and fraudsters. The FTC’s aggressive law enforcement efforts put the bad guys out of business, and our vigorous consumer education campaigns empower people just like you to make well-informed buying decisions and recognize frauds and scams.

Tagged with: complaint, debt collection, fraud, identity theft,imposter, scam

Blog Topics: 

Money & Credit

Stock Chart Skills: The Beauty Of A Symmetrical Base ACT - Investors.com

Source:   Stock Chart Skills: The Beauty Of A Symmetrical Base ACT - Investors.com

Stock Chart Skills: The Beauty Of A Symmetrical Base

BY ALAN R. ELLIOTT, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

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There is nothing like scanning through scores of charts to make you appreciate the rarity of a nicely formed base. One of the traits that make such pieces of work stand out is symmetry.

Bases happen all the time. And usually they look like what they are: random patterns formed by the combined forces of supply and demand. The result tends to be consolidations that look like jagged cups — steep, craggy double-bottoms or flat bases that aren't really flat.

So when you happen across a cup base that is evenly carved, in which down weeks in price equal up weeks and trading ranges are similar, it makes an impression.

 View Enlarged Image

A double-bottom base in which the first lobe is roughly equal, in length and depth, to the second, and in which no price spikes or deep sell-offs interrupt the flow, stands out as a thing of beauty.

Symmetrical bases generally signal a lack of volatility in the stock. Consolidations generally begin with prices declining rapidly as institutional investors take profits. The chart rises out of the pattern as other big investors move in to set up shop. Symmetry suggests an element of control in this transition. The institutions exerting that control ultimately want the stock to go higher.

It's also important to keep in mind that bases are made up of many factors and none guarantee a successful breakout. Each positive element reduces the risk a of a breakout failure. But you must always remain ready with your sell rules and ready to opt out if the stock falls to the limit of your risk tolerance. Tableau Software (NYSE:DATA) is a good example of a stock that cleared a symmetrical cup in January 2014, then quickly gave back all of its gains from a 77.84 entry point and more.

Symmetry comes in many forms. And it can, at times, be subtle. Actavis (NYSE:ACT) had put in a nice run before plateauing in May 2013 and beginning what would become an eight-week flat base.

The first four weeks of the base established its range in one week down, two weeks up and one more week down. Both down weeks closed very low in their trading range (1). Both up weeks closed high in the range. That's a unique form of symmetry.

In the next four weeks, Actavis felt its way along the top end of its trading range, posting tight closes. The drugmaker reached down and kept tabs on its rising 10-week moving average.

Notice how for eight weeks in a row, the weekly highs were nearly uniform, helping to create the look of a rectangle, which itself contains elements of geometric symmetry. In the final week of the base, the stock price ventured slightly below the 10-week line but quickly retook that support.

The breakout past 133.10 in big trade on July 26-29 mirrored the left-side wall that had started the base in late May. The stock has climbed 123% in 18 months.

Read More At Investor's Business Daily: http://education.investors.com/investors-corner/740645-how-to-invest-in-stocks.htm#ixzz3T3z5Zbsr
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Why Big Wins & Small Losses = Profitability - New Trader U -

Source:   Why Big Wins & Small Losses = Profitability - New Trader U -

Why Big Wins & Small Losses = Profitability

January 14, 2015 by Steve

“It’s not whether you’re right or wrong that’s important, but how much money you make when you’re right and how much you lose when you’re wrong.” – George Soros

Looking at the below chart you will see that the bigger your wins are versus your losses the lower your winning percentage can be and you remain profitable.

A primary dynamic of trading that is over looked as traders chase hot stocks, trends, and chart patterns is the importance of taking trades that have the potential to be big wins or small losses. Big losses will kill your account quickly and small wins will do little to pay for those losses.Our trades have to be asymmetric where our downside is carefully planned and managed, but our upside is open ended. This is a crucial element for trading success and has to be understood and planned for.

The risk/reward ratio is used by more experienced traders to compare the expected profits of a trade to the amount of money risked to capture profit. This ratio is calculated mathematically by dividing the amount of profit the trader expects to have made when the position is closed (the reward) by the amount the trader could lose if price moves in the unprofitable direction and the trader is stopped out for a loss.  

A big secret that many rich traders know that new traders do not is that the winning percentage for even the best traders is only about 50%-60%. Having big winning trades and small losing trades is a trading edge.

The skill of cutting losses short is a primary driver of a profitable trader’s ability to make money. Big losses are the primary reason most new traders are unprofitable.

• With a 1:1 risk/reward ratio and 50% win rate a trader breaks even.
• With a 2:1 risk/reward ratio and about a 35% win rate a trader breaks even.
• With a 3:1 risk/reward ratio and about a 25% win rate a trader breaks even. 

The big takeaway is that the bigger your winning trades are versus your losing trades, the lower your win rate has to be to become profitable. The lower your win rate has to be, the better your odds are that you will be profitable as a trader. You don’t have to be right all the time; you just have to be right big and wrong small.

• With a 3:1 risk/reward ratio, you only have to be right over 25% of the time to be profitable. This is a powerful principle to understand.

The methodology for determining your risk/reward ratio begins with first determining where price has to go to show you that your expected outcome is not going to happen. This is the key support level and what you use to place your stop loss. You can set your target for a rally to a key resistance level or a new all-time high. That will be your potential profit target. Your stop loss level is your risk and your target is your reward. Allowing one of the two to play out is the key to skewing your trading to have a high risk/reward ratio and increase your odds of profitability.

The errors of letting a loser run through your stop loss and create a big losing trade or taking a profit quickly and eliminating a big winning trade are what undermines this ratio and creates unprofitable trading in many instances. High winning percentages are difficult for the vast majority of traders, especially with tight stop losses. It is a much simpler path to profitability to ride trends in your trading time frame instead of trying to be right about every entry.

A great formula to use is a 3:1 risk/reward ratio. With this ratio a trader is risking $100 to make $300. If 100 shares of stock are bought for $30 a share and the stop is at $29 then the stock should only be purchased if it is probable that the stock could run to $33. At a $33 share price, profits could be taken or, ideally, if it runs to $34, a trailing stop could be set at $33 to give the stock an opportunity to be an even bigger winner. Remember, though, set the trailing stop to lock in the $3 per share gain.

If you follow this plan, after ten trades your account could look like this:

• Lose $100
• Make $300

• Lose $100
• Make $300

• Lose $100
• Make $300

• Lose $100
• Make $300

• Lose $100
• Make $300

 Profit $1,000 with only a 50% win rate!

However if you allow losers to run, hoping they will come back so you can take profits on a rebound, then you can get into trouble fast.

What if the stock you were trading fell from $30 to $29, you didn’t stop out, and it kept falling to $20? What if you started wanting to lock in profits at $31 and not let your winner run? The dynamics of your risk/reward ratio would change, leaving you unprofitable even though you had an 80% win rate.

• Lose $1000
• Make $100

• Lose $500
• Make $200

• Make $100
• Make $100

• Make $200
• Make $100

• Make $100
• Make $100

Lost $500 even with an 80% win rate!

Remember that you can cut losses even shorter if you are proven wrong before your stop is hit, but at the same time you have to allow enough room for normal fluctuations and volatility in your stop and use position sizing that you are comfortable with for your trading account size.

• Allow winners to run as far as possible with the use of trailing stops. You never know when you could have a huge win with the right entry and trend.
• Know how much you will risk on any one trade then do not enter a trade where the upside is not at least three times your risk of loss if your stop is hit.

It is not the winning percentage of a trader that determines their profitability, but the size of all their winning trades versus the size of all their losing trades. This is the math that determines profitability.  

Filed Under: Trading Method, Trading Plan

Weekly summary and commentary on U.S. stock market performance - T. Rowe Price

Source:  Weekly summary and commentary on U.S. stock market performance - T. Rowe Price

Week Ended February 27, 2015

Stocks modestly higher; Nasdaq nears record territoryMost of the major benchmarks established record highs on Friday, before falling back a bit to end the week mixed. At its peak on Friday, the Nasdaq stood within roughly 2.8% of the all-time intraday high it established in March 2000, although the index remained well below its peak on an inflation-adjusted basis. The small-cap Russell 2000 Index also performed well and ended the week with better year-to-date gains than the large-cap benchmarks—a notable break from its relatively poor performance in 2014.

Dovish Fed boosts sentimentAlthough price swings were relatively moderate in either direction, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index saw its biggest gains on Tuesday, following Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's appearance before Congress. Many investors interpreted her comments as supportive of continued low interest rates and thus higher stock multiples (price-to-earnings ratios). Some were particularly encouraged to hear Yellen's assurance that any small change in the Fed's post-meeting statements-which have stated that policymakers will be "patient" in normalizing monetary policy—should not be interpreted as a sign of impending rate increases.

Energy stocks lag as oil prices tumble on ThursdayEnergy stocks performed poorly at the end of the week, due mainly to a sharp drop in oil prices on Thursday. A rise in U.S. inventories sent the price of West Texas Intermediate crude down over 5% for the day, even as global oil prices held on to recent gains due to declining production in Iraq, Libya, and elsewhere. Overall U.S. production has remained surprisingly robust, as producers have mainly chosen to take unproductive rigs offline. T. Rowe Price energy portfolio managers and analysts believe that lower prices will eventually weed out the more inefficient producers, while stronger competitors will also benefit from the declining cost of extraction.

Good news about business spending, but consumer likely to drive growth in 2015The week's economic data were mixed and did not appear to play a major role in driving sentiment. The government announced Friday that the economy had grown a little less than first estimated in the final quarter of 2014, even as consumer spending increased at its fastest pace in nearly four years. T. Rowe Price Chief U.S. Economist Alan Levenson notes that a decline in inventory building was largely to blame for the downward revision, while business capital spending actually increased considerably more than first estimated.

U.S. Stocks1
Index2	Friday's Close	Week's Change	% Change Year-to-Date
DJIA	18,132.70	-7.74	1.74%
S&P 500	2104.50	-5.80	2.21%
NASDAQ Composite	4963.53	7.56	4.80%
S&P MidCap 400	1507.44	-7.40	3.79%
Russell 2000	1235.16	5.15	2.53%

This chart is for illustrative purposes only and does not represent the performance of any specific security. Past performance cannot guarantee future results.

¹Source of data Reuters, obtained through Yahoo! Finance Closing data as of 4 p.m. ET.

²The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Standard & Poor's 500 Stock Index of blue chip stocks, the Standard & Poor's MidCap 400 Index, and the Russell 2000 Index are unmanaged indexes representing various segments by market capitalization of the U.S. equity markets. The Nasdaq Composite is an unmanaged index representing the companies traded on the Nasdaq stock market and the National Market System.

Hack Attack: Health insurer’s customer information stolen | OnGuard Online

Source:  Hack Attack: Health insurer’s customer information stolen | OnGuard Online

Hack Attack: Health insurer’s customer information stolen

February 5, 2015

by 

Colleen Tressler

Consumer Education Specialist, FTC

Last week, hackers hit Anthem, the nation's second-largest health insurance company. As many as 80 million customers had their account information stolen. The pilfered data includes names, birth dates, medical IDs, Social Security numbers, street addresses, email addresses and employment information.

If you’re worried about your personal information ending up in the wrong hands, the FTC has a helpful reminder. A credit freeze, also known as a security freeze, lets you limit access to your credit report, which makes it more difficult for identity thieves to open new accounts in your name.

Our Credit Freeze FAQs can help you decide whether a credit freeze is right for you. One thing to remember: A credit freeze doesn’t prevent a thief from making charges to your existing accounts. Even if you elect a credit freeze you still need to monitor your existing credit card and bank accounts for charges you don’t recognize. If you decide you don’t want to get a credit freeze, you can still place a fraud alert. It lasts 90 days — you can renew it — and makes it tougher for thieves to open new accounts.

It’s also a good idea to review your credit report periodically. Federal law allows you to get a free copy every 12 months from each of the three nationwide credit bureaus. Visit annualcreditreport.com or call 1-877-322-8228. Accounts on your credit report that you don’t recognize could indicate identity theft.

Anthem has established a website where members can access information about its data breach. In addition, the FTC can help you learn more about securing your privacy and identity.

Tagged with: credit report, hacker, health, identity theft, personal information, scam

Blog Topic: Avoid Scams, Be Smart Online

Hotel Wi-Fi: Weigh the risk | OnGuard Online

Source:  Hotel Wi-Fi: Weigh the risk | OnGuard Online

Hotel Wi-Fi: Weigh the risk

February 4, 2015

by 

Carol Kando-Pineda

Counsel, Division of Consumer & Business Education, FTC

When you travel, have you used your hotel’s Wi-Fi – maybe to pay a few bills or catch up on a report you need to read? You may want to think twice before logging in to accounts over hotel Wi-Fi. Hackers are using security vulnerabilities in hotel Wi-Fi to steal people’s passwords and other sensitive information. Here’s how it works: as a hotel guest, you try to get online using their Wi-Fi network and get a pop-up for a software update. But the network has been compromised. When you click to accept the download, you unknowingly load software designed to damage your computer or steal your information.

During your next hotel stay, consider whether you absolutely must share your login info over the Wi-Fi network. Weigh for yourself whether it’s worth the risk. If you decide to use a public network, take precautions:

• When using a public Wi-Fi network, log in or send personal information only to websites you know are fully encrypted. Look for https in the web address – the “s” stand for secure. To be safe, your entire visit to each site should be encrypted – from the time you log in to the site until you log out. If you think you’re logged in to an encrypted site but find yourself on an unencrypted page, log out right away.
• Don’t stay permanently signed in to accounts. When you’ve finished using an account, log out.
• Do not use the same password on different websites. It could give someone who gains access to one of your accounts access to many of your accounts.
• Many web browsers alert users who try to visit fraudulent websites or download malicious programs. Pay attention to these warnings, and keep your browser and security software up-to-date.
• Some Wi-Fi networks use encryption: WPA2 is the strongest.
• If you regularly need to access online accounts through public Wi-Fi networks, you may want to use a virtual private network (VPN). VPNs encrypt traffic between your computer and the internet, even on unsecured networks. You can get a personal VPN account from a VPN service provider. Some organizations create VPNs to provide secure, remote access for their employees. What’s more, VPN options are available to encrypt information you send through mobile apps. If you work out of hotels frequently, you may want to obtain your own mobile hotspot, which encrypts traffic between your device and the Internet and uses the cellular network instead of public Wi-Fi.
• Installing browser add-ons or plug-ins can help. For example, Force-TLS and HTTPS-Everywhere are free Firefox add-ons that force the browser to use encryption, if available, on popular websites that don’t normally encrypt.

Tagged with: hotspot, personal information, privacy, Wi-Fi

Blog Topic: Be Smart Online