Tuesday, 2 April 2019

5 Credit Card Features You Shouldn't Use

Most credit cards come packed with money-saving benefits, offering perks ranging from car rental insurance to return protection to extended warranty coverage. Some credit card features and perks come with hidden costs and charges that can threaten your budget — or cause you more hassle than the benefits are worth. Here are five such benefits that most people should avoid.

Credit Card Convenience Checks

Those reams of blank checks you receive from your credit card issuer may look appealing — especially if they advertise a short-term 0% APR offer on balance transfers. Think twice before using them. Convenience checks often come with substantial rates and fees.

For example, if you use the check to pay bills or cash it at a bank, you could wind up paying a cash advance APR as high as 25% to 36%, and you may also be charged a transaction fee. Similarly, if you use the checks to transfer a balance from another card, interest-free, you’ll likely have to pay a balance transfer fee as high as 3% to 5%.

ATM Cash Advances

Using your credit card to withdraw cash from an ATM is also a bad idea. Some credit card issuers charge even more to withdraw cash from an ATM than they charge to use convenience checks. For example, an issuer might charge a 3% cash advance transaction fee if you use a check, but charge a 5% transaction fee if you pull cash from an ATM. You’ll also have to pay a higher cash advance APR if you carry over the amount you borrowed. Don’t expect to pay a tiny fee if you just withdraw a small amount, such as $20, either.

Issuers typically charge a minimum of $10 for transaction fees, or 3% to 5% of the full transaction, whichever amount is greater.

Interest-Free Balance Transfers

A 0% balance transfer with a lengthy promotional period could save you money if you have a lot of debt to trim, allowing you time to pay off your debt without building up more interest. These balance transfers often charge a fee, and if your card charges an above-average fee — such as 4% to 5% of the transferred balance — you could wind up paying hundreds of dollars in fees before you’ve even had a chance to tackle your balance. You’re better off instead looking for a card that doesn’t charge an initial balance transfer fee, but still offers a promotion, such as the Barclaycard Ring MasterCard, the BankAmericard Mastercard or the Chase Slate card.

Merchandise and Gift Card Rewards

Many credit cards offer merchandise and gift cards that you can buy with your rewards points. Check to see if you can use your points for a reward with a higher redemption value first. Merchandise and gift cards often have significantly lower redemption values than other card rewards, such as travel or cash-back. Depending on your credit card issuer, that means that 50,000 rewards points could potentially buy you $350 worth of gift cards or more than $500 worth of airline tickets. It’s an easy choice, so make sure you do your homework and make sure you’re getting your money’s worth on your points.

Card Reward Transfer Programs

You’ll also want to be careful about transferring your rewards points to another hotel or airline loyalty program. Some credit cards let you transfer your points on a 1:1 basis, so you don’t lose any value on the points you earned. Other loyalty programs make you spend significantly more points to convert your rewards into a single airline mile or hotel rewards point. If you just need a small burst of points to buy a ticket or earn a free night’s hotel stay, slashing the value of your card rewards points might still be worth it.

Just do the math before you agree to convert your hard-earned points.

Friday, 10 August 2018

What is Intra-day Trading and How to Trade ?

Intraday trading involves buying and selling of stocks within the same trading day. Here stocks are purchased, not with an intention to invest, but for the purpose of earning profits by harnessing the movement of stock indices. Thus, the fluctuations in the prices of the stocks are harnessed to earn profits from the trading of stocks.
An online trading account is used for the purpose of intraday trading. While doing intraday trading, you need to specify that the orders are specific to intraday trading. As the orders are squared off before the end of the trading day, it is also called as Intraday Trading.
Here are some few take away points to keep in mind while doing intraday trading:

Intraday Trading Tips
Indicators
How to make profit in intraday trading
Intraday Time Analysis
How to choose stock in intraday trading

Intraday Trading Tips

Intraday trading is riskier than investing in the regular stock market. It is important, especially for beginners, to understand the basics of such trading to avoid losses. Individuals are advised to invest only the amount they can afford to lose without facing financial difficulties. A few intraday trading tips will help you learn the art of trading. Know now more about intraday trading tips.

Intraday Trading indicators

When it comes to booking profits in intraday trading, you will require to do a lot of research. For the same purpose, you need to follow certain indicators. Often intraday tips are believed to be the Holy Grail; this, however, is not entirely accurate. Intraday trading indicators are beneficial tools when used with a comprehensive strategy to maximize returns. To get a detailed understanding of intraday trading indicators, and its effect on trading strategy, visit…

How to Make Profit in Intraday Trading

Intraday traders always face inherent risks that exist in the stock markets. Price volatility and fluctuating daily volume are a couple of factors that affect the stocks picked for daily trading. Ideally, Traders should not risk over two per cent of their total trading capital on a single trade to ensure the right risk management. However, the desire to earn higher profits often compels traders to risk more. In order to balance the risk taken, while achieving higher returns, here are some tips to follow:

In order to earn profits, here are some of the proven intraday trading strategies:

Opening Range Breakout (ORB):

This intraday trading strategy is widely used by professional traders as well as amateurs. To maximize the potential of this strategy, combining it with the optimum use of indicators, accurate assessment of market sentiment and stringent rules are recommended. ORB has numerous variations; some traders may opt for trade on large breakouts from the opening range and others choose to place their trades on the opening range breakout. The time window for the trades ranges between 30 minutes and three hours.

Mapping Resistance and Support:

Every stock price fluctuates within a range from the initial 30 minutes of the start of the trading session, which is known as the opening range. The highest and lowest prices during this period are assumed as the resistance and support levels. It is advisable to buy when the share price moves beyond the opening range high and sell if the price falls below the opening range low.

Demand-Supply Imbalances:

An important intraday trading tip for beginners is to look for stocks where drastic demand-supply imbalances exist and opt for these as entry points. The financial markets follow the normal demand and supply rules—price reduces when there is no demand for higher supplies and vice versa. Users must learn to identify such points on the price chart through research and studying the historical movements.

Opt for 3:1 Risk-Reward Ratio:

Traders, especially beginners, must understand the appropriate risk-reward ratio. Initially, finding stocks that provide a potential risk-reward ratio of at least 3:1 will be beneficial in earning profits in share market investment. This strategy will allow them to lose small while giving them the opportunity to earn big even if they have losses on most of their trades.

Relative Strength Index (RSI) and Average Directional Index (ADX):

Combining these two intraday trading strategies to find buy and sell opportunities can help traders earn profits. The RSI is a technical momentum indicator comparing recent losses and gains to determine over purchased and oversold stocks. The ADX is beneficial and used to determine when the prices are showing strong trends. In most scenarios, if the RSI crosses the upper limit, it is indicative of a sell trade and vice versa. However, when you combine the RSI and ADX, intraday traders buy when the RSI crosses the upper limit and vice versa. The ADX is used as the trend identifier to help users take their buy or sell decisions.

Intraday trading involves same-day trade settlements. Most traders try to achieve smaller profits through their trades. The golden intraday tip is to ride with the market trend to help make profits.

Angel Broking’s Angel Eye has charts and portfolio watch tools that helps in identifying trends, and thus helping traders to make better decisions. This will help traders to earn profits from Intraday Trading.

How to Choose Stocks for Intraday Trading

Tips to Choose the Right Intraday Trading Stocks:

Trade Only in Liquid Stocks:

Liquidity is the most important intraday trading tip while choosing the right stocks to trade during the day. Liquid stocks have huge trading volumes whereby larger quantities can be purchased and sold without significantly affecting the price. Generally, lesser liquid stocks do not provide traders the opportunity to purchase and sell larger quantities due to lack of too many buyers. Some traders may argue that illiquid stocks offer bigger opportunities with rapid price modifications. However, statistics show that volatile stocks show greater movements in a short period of time. Thus, most of the possible gains dissipate while the downside risk still looms. Nonetheless, the liquidity of the stocks depends on the quality of the trades placed by the traders. For example, a volume of 50,000 to 75,000 shares is sufficient if the trade is for 50 or 100 Rs; however, if the volume is few hundreds or thousands, volume requirements significantly become larger.

Stay Away from Volatile Stocks:

It is commonly noticed that a low daily volume of traded stocks or those where some huge news is expected move in an unpredictable way. Sometimes, the stock may show volatility even after the announcement of the big news. Traders are recommended to avoid intraday trading in such stocks. A few volatile stocks are in the mid-size segment while most stocks traded in the low-cap categories like S, T, and Z are highly chaotic. In addition to being volatile, these stocks have low daily volumes, making them illiquid.

Trade in Good Correlation Stocks:

An intraday tip for choosing the right stock is to opt for those that have a higher correlation with major sectors and indices. This means when the index or the sector sees an upward movement, the stock price also increases. Stocks that move according to the sentiment of the group are reliable and often follow the expected movement of the sector. For example, strengthening of the Indian Rupee against the Dollar will generally affect all information technology companies dependent on the US markets. A stronger rupee implies lower earnings for the IT companies and weakening rupee will result in higher export incomes for these companies.

Follow the Trend:

One of the most important intraday trading tips is to remember that moving with the trend is always beneficial. During a bull run in the stock market, traders must try to identify stocks that can potentially rise. On the other hand, during the bear run, finding stocks that are likely to decline is advisable.

Pick after Research:

Undertaking quality research is one of the most vital intraday tips that traders must always remember. Unfortunately, most day traders avoid doing their research. Identifying the index and then finding sectors that are of interest is recommended. The next step is to create a list of several stocks with these sectors. Traders need not necessarily include sector leaders, but rather identify stocks that are liquid. Technical analysis and determining the support and resistance levels along with studying the fundamentals of these stocks will help traders find the right stocks to profit through intraday / day trading.

Intraday trading has inherent risks; but speed plays a vital role in making all the difference. Earning profits through small price fluctuations during the few trading hours is not an easy task. Angel Broking Angel Eye helps to monitors stocks in real-time. Being browser-based, you can easily do online share trading from anywhere, without the speed being affected. The platforms helps in taking Quick decisions, thus enabling traders to book profits..

How to make profit in intraday trading

Intraday traders always face inherent risks that exist in the stock markets. Price volatility and daily volume are a couple of factors that play an important role in the stocks picked for daily trading. Traders must not risk over two per cent of their total trading capital on a single trade to ensure the right risk management. So here are a few tips shared to make profit in intraday trading.

Intraday Time Analysis

When it comes to intraday trading, daily charts are the most commonly used charts that represent the price movements on a one-day interval. These charts are a popular intraday trading technique and help illustrate the movement of the prices between the opening bell and closing of the daily trading session. There are several methods in which intraday charts can be used. Know about some of the most commonly used chart.

How to Choose Stocks for Intraday Trading

To succeed as a day trader, it is important to know how to pick stocks for intraday trading. Often people are unable to make profits because they fail to select appropriate stocks to trade during the day. Choosing the right stocks to book profits is an art that you will learn with experience. For beginners, here get some tips to choose stocks for intraday trading.

Intraday trading is riskier than investing in the regular stock market. It is important, especially for beginners, to understand the basics of such trading to avoid losses. Individuals are advised to invest only the amount they can afford to lose without facing financial difficulties.
A few intraday trading tips discussed below should help investors in making the right decision.

Tips for Intraday Trading

Below are a few tips for intraday trading in Indian share market which will help investors in making the right decision:

Choose Two or Three Liquid Shares
Determine Entry and Target Prices
Utilizing Stop Loss for Lower Impact
Book Your Profits when Target is reached
Avoid being an Investor
Research your Wish list thoroughly
Don’t Move against the Market
Basic Rules for Intraday Trading
Intraday Trading indicators
How to make profit in intraday trading
Intraday Time Analysis
How to Choose Stocks for Intraday Trading

Choose Two or Three Liquid Shares

Intraday trading involves squaring open positions before the end of the trading session. This is why it is recommended to choose two or three large-cap shares that are highly liquid. Investing in mid-size or small-caps can result in the investor having to hold these shares because of low trading volumes.

Determine Entry and Target Prices

Before placing the buy order, you must determine your entry level and target price. It is common for a person’s psychology to change after purchasing the shares. As a result, you may sell even if the price sees a nominal increase. Due to this, you may lose the opportunity to take advantage of higher gains because of the price increase.

Utilizing Stop Loss for Lower Impact

Stop loss is a trigger that is used to automatically sell the shares if the price falls below a specified limit. This is beneficial in limiting the potential loss for investors due to the fall in the stock prices. For investors who have used short-selling, stop loss reduces loss in case the price rises beyond their expectations. This intraday trading strategy ensures emotions are eliminated from your decision.

Book Your Profits when Target is reached

Most day traders suffer from fear or greed. It is important for investors to not only cut their losses, but also to book their profits once the target price is reached. In case the individual thinks the stock has a further possibility of rising in price, the stop loss trigger must be readjusted to match this expectation.

Avoid being an Investor

Intraday trading, as well as investing, requires individuals to purchase shares. However, factors for both these strategies are distinct. One kind adopts fundamentals while the other considers the technical details. It is common for day traders to take delivery of shares in case the target price is not met. He or she then waits for the price to recover to earn back his or her money. This is not recommended because the stock may not be worthy of investing, as it was purchased only for a shorter duration.

Research your Wish list thoroughly

Investors are advised to include eight to 10 shares in their wish lists and research these in depth. Knowing about corporate events, such as mergers, bonus dates, stock splits, dividend payments, etc., along with their technical levels is important. Using the Internet for finding resistance and support levels will also be beneficial.

Don’t Move against the Market

Even experienced professionals with advanced tools are not able to predict market movements. There are times when all technical factors depict a bull market; however, there may still be a decline. These factors are only indicative and do not provide any guarantees. If the market moves against your expectations, it is important to exit your position to avoid huge losses.

Stock returns can be huge; however earning smaller gains by adhering to these intraday trading tips & strategies should be satisfactory. Intraday trading provides higher leverage, which effectively provides decent returns in one day. Being content is crucial to succeeding as a day trader.

Intraday Trading Indicators

Be it a beginner or an established trader, following the basic intraday tips is a common practice before starting the trading day. However, your trading strategy changes with time, and the concurrent events play a huge role in its working. In order to maximize returns, it is essential to understand the market. For this purpose, there are trading indicators. Trading indicators are beneficial tools that are used with a comprehensive strategy to maximize returns..

Information Offered by Intraday Trading Indicators

The direction of the trend to determine the movement
The lack of or existing momentum within the investment market
Profit potential due to the volatility
Determine the popularity through volume measurements.

These are the vital pointers shared by trading indicators. These basic, but beneficial pointers help in assessing the market conditions and allow traders to take better decisions with respect to trade positions.

Useful Intraday Trading Indicators

Moving Averages:
Traders often hear about daily moving averages (DMA), which is the most common and widely used indicator. The moving average is a line on the stock chart that connects the average closing rates over a specific period. The longer the period, the more reliable the moving average. This indicator will help you comprehend the underlying movement of the price, as prices do not move only in one direction. Stock prices are volatile and the moving average indicator smoothens the volatility to provide an understanding of the underlying trend of the price movement.
Bollinger Bands:
This intraday trading indicator is one step ahead of the moving average. This band comprises three lines—the moving average, an upper limit and a lower one. All these are representative of the stock’s standard deviation, which is nothing but the amount by which the price increases or decreases from its average. This provides traders an understanding about the stock’s trading range.
Momentum Oscillators:
Stock prices move up and down. There are short-period cycles that are unrelated to the bullish or bearish market trends. In such cases, it is easy for day traders to miss out on such changes, which is when the momentum oscillator is beneficial. This indicator is depicted within a range of 0 to 100, and is advantageous when the price has achieved a new high or low, and one wants to determine whether it will further rise or fall. In other words, the momentum oscillator helps to understand when the market sentiments are undergoing modifications.
Relative Strength Index (RSI):
The RSI is one of the useful intraday trading tips to compare the share price’s gains and losses. This information is then formulated in an index form, which further helps in narrowing down the RSI score ranging between 0 and 100. This index increases with price rises and vice versa. Once the RSI increases or decreases to a specified limit, you can modify your trading strategy.

Intraday Trading Time Analysis

When it comes to intraday trading, daily charts are the most commonly used charts that represent the price movements on a one-day interval. These are beneficial for analyzing short and medium-term time periods; however, some traders may use these for long-term analysis. The thumb rule states that usage of daily charts is used for analysing periods exceeding six weeks. They help in assessing stock movements in a better way, thus giving clear picture about stock performance. This helps in planning the trading strategy effectively.six weeks.

Intraday Trading Charts

These charts are quite popular in the trading world, they help to illustrate the movement of the prices between the opening bell and closing of the daily trading session. There are several methods in which intraday charts can be used. Below are some of the most commonly used charts while intraday trading on the Indian stock market:

Hourly Charts:
These charts depict the price movements of a particular stock for a specific period of time. These include detailed information within the confines of a single trading day. Each candlestick or bar is representative of the opening, closing, high, and low of every hourly interval for the time period being analysed. These are generally used for short-term trades, which last from a few hours to a few days.
15 - Minute Charts:
These show the opening, closing, high, and low price movements at 15-minute intervals for a particular stock. The 15-minute charts are often used for day trades lasting from an hour to a few trading sessions.
Intraday Five-Minute Charts:
This is one of the most widely used charts by traders. It represents the price movements of the index or stocks over a particular period of time. Every bar on the chart represents the opening, closing, high, and low of five-minute intervals during the chosen time frame. These charts are frequently useful for quick scalps lasting from several minutes to several hours during a trading session. This kind of chart is also used by long-term traders to identify and select the most efficient entry and exit points while initiating trades over a longer period of time. Using the intraday five-minute chart for long-term share market investment can be a beneficial intraday tip for longer period investors.
Two-Minute Chart:
This is another intraday chart that is popular among stock market traders. This type of chart often depicts the price movement over some hours on the same trading day. Each candlestick shows the opening, closing, high, and low at two-minute intervals during the selected period of time. These charts are most beneficial for day trades or scalping, which can range from some minutes to several hours during one trading session.
Tick-Trade Charts:
These are line charts representing every trade that is executed on the stock market. While using these kinds of charts, traders need to bear in mind that time is of no essence and every point on the chart represents an actual completed trade. In case the markets are illiquid, the chart is depicted as a flat line. Highly liquid market charts show constantly moving ticks. The chart is beneficial while intraday trading in tracking every executed transaction with a line across time, which moves up or down to immediately show the upward or downward movement in the stock price. The tick charts are used by traders for scalping and to keep track of ‘out of money’ trades that need correction.

Based on the traders’ perspectives, market conditions can change, also depending on the period of time being analysed. To be successful, analysis of the accurate time period is important and is a vital intraday trading tip that must always be borne in mind

Saturday, 28 July 2018

21 Free And Best Android Apps For 2018 To Get The Most Out Of Your Smartphone

The number of apps in Google Play Store has grown to around 3.5 million by December 2017. There are multiple apps with the same functionalities. So, instead of trying all of them, we have saved you some time by compiling this list of free and best Android apps. These are also some of the essential Android apps that you should have on your device in 2018.
Note: We have made this list considering user ratings, app features, and popularity. You are free to choose any other alternative app that suits your need.

1. Launcher App: Nova Launcher

Nova Launcher is one of the best Android launchers that has been on Play Store for many years. The launcher is smooth and lightweight with tons of customizations. Numerous icon packs are available in the Play Store to change its looks.
Nova Launcher supports customization of app-drawer, has a scrollable dock, notification badges, folder and icon customization, and packs around a dozen gestures for ease of use. It is free to download, but its prime version unlocks a lot of other features including some locked gestures.

2. Assistant App: Google Assistant

Google Assistant is an artificial personal assistant developed by Google that allows users to navigate, communicate, and get a lot of things done. You can use the Google assistant on your Android or iOS devices to trigger apps, ask any questions, play games, make plans, etc. including these 30+ Super Useful Voice Commands. It is available for all kind of Android smartphones that run Android marshmallow, Nougat, or Oreo and even on smartwatches.

3. Keyboard App: Swiftkey

SwiftKey keyboard is trusted by over 250 million users worldwide. It uses artificial intelligence that enables it to learn and can satisfactorily predict what the user intends to type.
Swiftkey features autocorrect and gesture typing for faster input. Moreover, there is an inbuilt GIF search engine, a wide range of themes and is an excellent keyboard for bilingual folks. Swiftkey does not store information from password fields and sensitive information such as credit card numbers. Overall, Swiftkey will enhance your typing experience and is a must-have app on your Android device. We have featured it among the top Android keyboard apps.

4. Video Calling App: Google Duo

Google Duo is one of the best video calling apps for Android with a simple interface. It’s quite easy to log in and verify your number, and you can make fast video calls just like making a standard phone call. Its unique “Knock Knock” feature lets you have a live preview of the caller before you receive the call. It is available for both Android and iOS users.

5. Note Taking App: Evernote

Evernote is a cross-platform utility to take notes in a variety of formats, including text, photos, audio, video, sketches and more. It is one tool you need to keep yourself organized in today’s hectic life. It syncs across all your devices to facilitate workflow. Evernote also has home-screen widgets for quick access to your notes. It is one of the essential Android apps for every user.

6. Office App: WPS Office +PDF

WPS is a free Office Suite application with all-in-one features. It is fully compatible with Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and integrates PDF, presentations, spreadsheets, memo, Google docs, etc. The app also comes with a free PDF converter, reader, editor, along with file sharing abilities, supports multi-window mode, data encryption, etc. It is intuitive and easy to use, and you can also connect to the Cloud Drive to automatically save your documents to the cloud platform. Overall, it is one of the best Android office apps.

7. Google News & Weather

Google News & Weather is one of the best apps for Android that helps you get news from your preferred topics along with accurate weather information and prediction. If you provide access to location services, it can show your local news and weather. The app uses AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) to provide instant load and read experience. It also comes with widget support.

8. File Manager App: ES File Explorer

ES File Explorer is one of the popular Android file manager apps with all the necessary features. It comes with a Space Analyzer to help you free up space on your device. Sharing media with other ES File Explorer users over WiFi is easy. ES File Manager also comes with an App Manager where you can uninstall/backup apps. You can even uninstall system apps with root privileges. It’s “Root Explorer” feature unlocks a lot of functionalities for rooted devices. However, the app shows a lot of intrusive ads and is aimed at power users. For users who are not rooted and do not require advanced features, our list of best Android file manager apps will surely be helpful.

9. Cloud Storage App: Google Drive

Google Drive is a massive cloud storage service that gives you free space to store and access your files in the cloud platform. You can browse through all the files and folders you saved in your Drive and share, move, download, rename or print any files from the application.

It also encompasses Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, where you can edit documents, spreadsheets, forms, presentations, etc. and save them in the Drive. Users can have access to 15 GB of free space across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photos. This essential Android app helps you to keep your valuable files backed up on the cloud for free.

10. Instant Messaging App: WhatsApp

WhatsApp is a free, instant messaging application where users can communicate with one another using the phone’s internet service. It provides you the ability to send text messages and voice messages, share links, images, and location, make video calls, etc. to any other user worldwide. It is one among secure Android messaging apps and is also accessible from a desktop environment.

11. Browser App: Google Chrome

Google Chrome is a cross-platform browser application. It has free and necessary features like unlimited tabs, HTML5 support, desktop syncing, quick links to favorite sites, built-in Google search and Google translate, etc. The app is convenient, fast and provides secure browsing experience with a lot of customizable options. Google Chrome is one of the best Android browsers available.

12. File Sharing App: Xender

Xender is one of the essential Android apps you should have on your device. It saves you from the hassle of carrying your USB data cable around to exchange files with PC as no PC side software is required to transmit or receive files. Moreover, it is a hundred times faster than Bluetooth for transferring files between any device, thanks to it being cross-platform.

13. Video Player App: MX Player

This video player for Android supports almost all the primary video and audio file formats. It packs a lot of features including editing of subtitle timeframes, fast forwarding and volume control gestures, gestures for zooming in and out of a video, on-screen kid lock and many more. MX Player is available for free with ads. Moreover, it comes with additional plugins for extra functionalities.

14. Google Maps

Google Maps is a web mapping service for real-time GPS navigation, traffic, transit, and details about millions of people. It offers street maps, satellite imagery, real-time traffic info, short-cut route planning, etc. The app covers accurate maps of more than 200 countries and territories. With the help of the Google map services, you can navigate an unknown place with ease. It is one of the essential Android apps.

15. Photo Editor App: PicsArt

With over 100million downloads, PicsArt is one of the favorite photo editing apps for Android. You will be overwhelmed by the number of options you have for customizing your photos. It has a social network for sharing photos within the app. Its features include collage, drawing on photos, frames, stickers, free cropping, clone tool, tilt-shift, perspective changer tool and a lot more. The app is available for free with some in-app purchases and display ads.

16. Remote Control App: Unified Remote

Unified Remote is one of the go-to apps for controlling your PC from an Android device. It uses Bluetooth or Wifi to remotely control your PC and comes preloaded with support for more than 90 popular programs. It supports Windows, Linux, and Mac, and requires a server program to be installed.
Using Unified Remote, you can remotely wake up your computer from sleep using its “Wake on LAN” feature. All the necessary features like screen mirroring, keyboard and mouse, media player controls, etc. are available within this app. You can even use it to control a Raspberry Pi or Arduino Yun. Its paid versions unlock a multitude of useful features including custom remotes and functions for Android wear.

17. RSS Reader App: Feedly

Feedly is one of the best Android apps. It neatly organizes all the information and news for you in a single place. Online magazines, blogs, Youtube channels and more than 40 million feeds are available within this single app. Many professionals use it to stay ahead of the market as it is helpful in analyzing competitors and trends.
Feedly is powered by RSS and offers integrations with Facebook, Twitter, Evernote Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc. so that you to easily share stories with networks and teammates.

18. Password Manager App: LastPass

LastPass is a feature-rich password manager and secure private vault that can lock down your passwords and personal information. It has the ability to autofill logins in browsers and apps and can generate new and secure passwords instantly. You can log in with one password instead of remembering a dozen. Moreover, you can also sync your passwords and data across all of your devices. It is intuitive and fast across numerous platforms.

19. Music Discovery App: Shazam

Shazam is a popular music recognition application that can instantly identify music that’s playing in your surrounding and is used by a lot of music lovers. All you need is to hold your Android device close to the source of the song, and after a few seconds, the app will accurately detect the song. Besides, you can also play songs and add them to Spotify playlists, buy songs in Google Play Music with one tap, connect your Facebook account, etc. If you are a musicophile, this Android app is a must-have for you.

20. Task Automation App: Automate

Automate allows you to automate various tasks using simple flowcharts. You can automate system Settings to perform tasks like changing volume, Bluetooth, GPS, etc. It even allows you to trigger tasks based on location, time of the day, battery level and many other events. With this awesome app, you can automate almost anything on your Android device. It even supports plug-in for the popular automation app Tasker. It is definitely one of the best apps for Android.

21. Scanner App: Tiny Scanner

Tiny Scanner is a scanner application that can scan every type of document and save them as image files or as PDFs. You can name and organize the scanned files and share them by email, store in DropBox, Google Drive, etc. It comes with many scanner features such as color, grayscale and black&white scans, page edge removal, adjusting page sizes, sorting scans by date and time, etc. The app is optimized to run fast, and you can also protect your documents with a passcode.

Did you find this list of free and best Android apps to be helpful? Share your reviews in the comments.

Friday, 27 July 2018

10 golden rules of investing in stock markets

The lure of big money has always thrown investors into the lap of stock markets. However, making money in equities is not easy. It not only requires oodles of patience and discipline, but also a great deal of research and a sound understanding of the market, among others.

Added to this is the fact that stock market volatility in the last few years has left investors in a state of confusion. They are in a dilemma whether to invest, hold or sell in such a scenario.

Although no sure-shot formula has yet been discovered for success in stock markets, here are some golden rules which, if followed prudently, may increase your chances of getting a good return:

1. Avoid the herd mentality

The typical buyer's decision is usually heavily influenced by the actions of his acquaintances, neighbours or relatives. Thus, if everybody around is investing in a particular stock, the tendency for potential investors is to do the same. But this strategy is bound to backfire in the long run.

No need to say that you should always avoid having the herd mentality if you don't want to lose your hard-earned money in stock markets. The world's greatest investor Warren Buffett was surely not wrong when he said, "Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful!"

2. Take informed decision

Proper research should always be undertaken before investing in stocks. But that is rarely done. Investors generally go by the name of a company or the industry they belong to. This is, however, not the right way of putting one's money into the stock market.

3. Invest in business you understand

Never invest in a stock. Invest in a business instead. And invest in a business you understand. In other words, before investing in a company, you should know what business the company is in.

4. Don't try to time the market

One thing that even Warren Buffett doesn't do is to try to time the stock market, although he does have a very strong view on the price levels appropriate to individual shares. A majority of investors, however, do just the opposite, something that financial planners have always been warning them to avoid, and thus lose their hard-earned money in the process.

"So, you should never try to time the market. In fact, nobody has ever done this successfully and consistently over multiple business or stock market cycles. Catching the tops and bottoms is a myth. It is so till today and will remain so in the future. In fact, in doing so, more people have lost far more money than people who have made money," says Anil Chopra, group CEO and director, Bajaj Capital.

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5. Follow a disciplined investment approach

Historically it has been witnessed that even great bull runs have shown bouts of panic moments. The volatility witnessed in the markets has inevitably made investors lose money despite the great bull runs.

However, the investors who put in money systematically, in the right shares and held on to their investments patiently have been seen generating outstanding returns. Hence, it is prudent to have patience and follow a disciplined investment approach besides keeping a long-term broad picture in mind.

6. Do not let emotions cloud your judgment

Many investors have been losing money in stock markets due to their inability to control emotions, particularly fear and greed. In a bull market, the lure of quick wealth is difficult to resist. Greed augments when investors hear stories of fabulous returns being made in the stock market in a short period of time. "This leads them to speculate, buy shares of unknown companies or create heavy positions in the futures segment without really understanding the risks involved," says Kapur.

Instead of creating wealth, these investors thus burn their fingers very badly the moment the sentiment in the market reverses. In a bear market, on the other hand, investors panic and sell their shares at rock-bottom prices. Thus, fear and greed are the worst emotions to feel when investing, and it is better not to be guided by them.

7. Create a broad portfolio

Diversification of portfolio across asset classes and instruments is the key factor to earn optimum returns on investments with minimum risk. Level of diversification depends on each investor's risk taking capacity.

8. Have realistic expectations

There's nothing wrong with hoping for the 'best' from your investments, but you could be heading for trouble if your financial goals are based on unrealistic assumptions. For instance, lots of stocks have generated more than 50 per cent returns during the great bull run of recent years.

However, it doesn't mean that you should always expect the same kind of return from the stock markets. Therefore, when Warren Buffett says that earning more than 12 per cent in stock is pure dumb luck and you laugh at it, you're surely inviting trouble for yourself.

9. Invest only your surplus funds

If you want to take risk in a volatile market like this, then see whether you have surplus funds which you can afford to lose. It is not necessary that you will lose money in the present scenario. You investments can give you huge gains too in the months to come.

But no one can be hundred percent sure. That is why you will have to take risk. No need to say that invest only if you are flush with surplus funds.

10. Monitor rigorously

We are living in a global village. Any important event happening in any part of the world has an impact on our financial markets. Hence we need to constantly monitor our portfolio and keep affecting the desired changes in it.

If you can't review your portfolio due to time constraint or lack of knowledge, then you should take the help of a good financial planner or someone who is capable of doing that. "If you can't even do that, then stock investing is not for you. Better put your money in safe or less-risky instruments," advises Kapur.