Branching out may start with a simple leaf stockleaf

Think back to the days when you got up in the morning, powered up that laptop, and began to see what was going on with your investments. Or let's go back even further. Remember the days when you'd sit at your desk, sipping coffee as you perused the financial section of the Wall Street Journal, skimming the articles, keeping your eyes peeled for whatever stock symbol was closest to your heart—or your wallet? Those days are long gone. Now there's a simpler, more efficient way to get the financial news you need from the top news sources in the world any time you want. Stockleaf.

The name couldn't be more apropos. Stockleaf has sprung up on the internet superhighway, changing the way financial news is presented, organized, and researched.

The concept is simple. Type in a stock symbol and hit 'Search.' In seconds, you'll have links to every recent article from every reliable financial news site on your screen. Want to know what Google Finance is saying about TELOX today? Stockleaf. Want to know what MSN Money has to say about GOOG? Stockleaf. Want to know if WB is up or down? You guessed it. Stockleaf.

Stockleaf has invited all the heavy-hitters to the party. You'll get the most recent links to articles mentioning your desired stock from financial news sites like Forbes, Y! Finance, MSN Money, Google Finance, Seeking Alpha, and more. You'll also be able to click on the latest feeds from financial blogs, financial news sites like Kiplinger, and sort the articles you want to read based on subject. Stockleaf also gives you the latest information about your stock including share price, the previous day's close, P/E, and dividend yield.

In short, Stockleaf is more than just a financial website. It's a tool. It's where you should start when you're looking for the most reliable, up-to-date information on the stocks you own, the stocks you're thinking of buying, or the stocks you just unloaded. It's your roadmap, your hub, your launching pad. Instead of forcing you to click on site after site, looking for what you need, it brings it all right there to you on a single page.

So is Stockleaf the internet stock news navigational tool to trump all others? What others? Stockleaf is the only navigational tool to help you locate information on publicly traded companies quickly and easily. In short, it's one-stop shopping. Consider it the meeting hall where all the financial gurus have gathered to talk about the one single stock you care about. Want to know what the folks at Motley Fool are saying about Bank of America? Would you like to compare their thoughts to those of Jim Cramer and the analysts at Ockham Research? Or at Bespoke Investment Group? Well then, my friend, you've come to the right place.

Stockleaf will, without a doubt, change how you research financial news online. Isn't it amazing that one little leaf can do so much? We think so.

The price of gold

As other precious metals, gold is measured by troy weight and by grams. And when it is alloyed with supplementary metals the term carat or karat is used to specify the amount of gold present, with 24 carats being pure gold and lower ratings being proportionally less. The purity of a gold bar can also be written as a decimal figure ranging from 0 to 1, known as the millesimal fineness, such as 0.995.

Carat and gold price

Carat is a measure of the purity of gold and platinum alloys. One carat is one twenty-fourth purity by its weight. Thus 24-carat gold is pure gold (99.99%); 12-carat gold is 50% purity, et cetera. In the United States and Canada, the word karat is typically used for the measure of purity, while carat is referring to the measure of mass.

The carat system is gradually more being complemented or superseded by the millesimal fineness system where the purity of precious metals is denoted by parts per thousand of pure metal in the alloy.

The most frequent carats used for gold in bullion, jewellery making and goldsmith are:

24 carat (millesimal fineness 999), 22 carat (millesimal fineness 916), 20 carat (millesimal fineness 833), 18 carat (millesimal fineness 750), 16 carat (millesimal fineness 625), 14 carat (millesimal fineness 585), 10 carat (millesimal fineness 417) and 9 carat (millesimal fineness 375).

The open market gold price

The gold prices is determined on the open market, but a procedure recognized as the Gold Fixing in London, originating in 1919; provide a twice-daily benchmark figure to the industry.

The historically gold price

Historically gold was used to back currency in an economic system recognized as the gold standard a certain weight of gold was given the name of a unit of currency. For a long period, the United States government set the value of the US dollar so that one troy ounce was equivalent to $20.67 ($664.56/kg), but in 1934 the dollar was revalued to $35.00 per troy ounce ($1125.27/kg). And by 1961 it was becoming harder to uphold this price, and a pool of US and European banks agreed on manipulating the market to stop further currency devaluation against increased gold demand.

On 17 March 1968, economic conditions caused the collapse of the gold pool, and a two-tiered pricing scheme was established and gold was still used to settle international accounts at the old $35.00 per troy ounce ($1.13/g) but the price of gold on the private market was allowed to rise and fall; this two-tiered pricing system was discarded in 1975 when the price of gold was left to find its free-market level. Central banks still hold historical gold reserves as a store of value even though the level has generally been declining. The biggest gold depository in the world is that of the U. S. Federal Reserve Bank in New York.

Ever since 1968 the price of gold on the open market has ranged widely, with a record high $850/oz ($27,300/kg) on 21 January 1980, to a low $252.90/oz ($8,131/kg) on 21 June 1999 (London Fixing). On 26 April 2006 the London gold fixing was $635.50/oz.

How i spent my vacation in amsterdam

During the vacation I got to see many of the wonders that Amsterdam has to offer. One of the first things I went to see was the Van Gogh Museum. Having just gotten off the plane I was tired, but some of his art is just amazing to see, and I did not want to wait to see them.

After going to the museum I headed into the city center to look around, maybe do some shopping and get some food.

I had herd many things about Amsterdam and just thought that many of them were blow out of proportion, well I am here to tell you that they are all true. The first thing that hits you is the strong smell of Marijuana, and then you start to see the almost completely naked girls in the windows.

As if the prostitutes in the windows were not enough there are live sex shows and sex shops selling every imaginable sex toy known to man on every street, but this was not what interested me.

Then as I continued walking around I started to notice something besides pot, and naked females, I saw casinos.

I grew up in New Jersey, just about 2 hours from Atlantic City, and after my 18th birthday I spend a good amount of time in the casinos. So I decided to go in and check some of them out.

Well I wound up spending most of the rest of my time in those casinos. The first one I went to was Video Gaming machines only, but they had video poker, video blackjack and Video Slot machines as well, I did not really do well her in this place so I only spent about an hour, and about 100 Euro, then left.

The next place I found was a nicer place. Unlike in New Jersey, in these casinos people are dressed up in their nice clothes instead of jeans, sneakers and T-Shirts. This casino had actual table games so I tried to play some Blackjack, but there was a player at the table that either had no idea on how to play or he was somehow involved in cheating with another player, but I am inclined to think he just did not know how to play blackjack.

So I started playing at the Roulette table, and I was doing really well, at one point I was up about 400 Euro before I started losing. So I decided to leave this casino and go walking around for a while.

The next day I found myself in another casino, and I decided to see if my luck was back, I went to a slot machine and put in some money and on the third spin I won another 200 Euro, so feeling lucky I decided to enter the poker room, and that is when things got really interesting. I got into a game and boy were these guys good, but I was winning just as much as I was losing, and in the end I may have even walked away with a few Euros more then when I walked in.

After playing for about 5 hours I decided to go outside and walk around a bit to stretch my legs. I would up deciding to sit down and have a cup of coffee, but I did not know the difference between a coffee shop and a caf?.

In Amsterdam a caf? is a place to sit and have a coffee, but a coffee shop is a place to purchase and smoke Marijuana. So as I was sitting there drinking my coffee I noticed several people rolling joints. Now I have herd about this and I hade smelled plenty of pot while I was there, but I did not realize it was sold out in the open like this. So I decided to buy some pot and try it.

I went to the counter where I saw others buying their weed and the guy behind the counter was very nice and showed me a menu of what they had for sale. I wound up buying a joint of white widow. The man behind the counter told me his was very strong stuff, but I was not prepared for this.

I managed to smoke about half of the joint, before I was hit with this feeling. I have been a drinker for many years, but even in my college days I was never out of my head like this.

Eventually I managed to get out of there and get some fresh air, and some waffles. I decided, this was the time to back into the casino and win my money back, and in the end I lost another 600 Euro, and wound up falling off my chair in the casino and needed to be helped out.

So if you are going to be going to Amsterdam, be careful the grass is really strong.

What is skimming

In speaking of drawbacks of credit cards another form is the fraud of making copies of stored information upon the credit card, also known as “Skimming”. This has become extremely popular for those who are making the business of stealing other peoples financial information and making use of it. Each time you let your credit card leave your hands, you run the risk of credit card skimming.

In general, skimming occurs in a public place such as a restaurant, shop, or retail store. Anyone who is dishonest and in the fraud business such as a cashier or waiter could swipe the credit card for payment of their services and then unbeknownst to you swipe it a second time in a device known as a “skimmer”. A skimmer is a small device that is similar to the size of a pager that has a slot; this is purchased very easily on the internet. What it does is it will record information stored upon a credit card (magnetic strip) and it will do so extremely fast. Then the information that it records is passed to thieves who will then put the information upon a credit card that is counterfeit.

This essentially means that your money is now in the hands of the thieves. There is only one way to prevent this action and that is to make sure you always keep a sharp eye upon the credit cards. Skimming has also known to take place at various unwatched ATMS such as those within a mall. Your credit card could become stuck within the ATM or done in such a way that you believe that the ATM has kept your card for some reason, but in actuality, the thief has inserted something within the ATM in efforts to steal your card along with a camera that has recorded your pin number.

It is important that you become extremely aware of your surroundings and keep close eyes upon your surroundings. Make sure, if the ATM ever keeps your card that, you immediately report the instance to the bank or Credit Card Company. Additionally, you should ensure that each credit card statement you receive, you carefully examine it for anything that should not be on there. Make sure you keep all limits of credit low upon credit cards to help minimize losses if you do fall prey to skimming. With the risks of being financially crippled, you should be keenly aware of any and all activity in regards to your credit cards.