In the light of recent developments in the digital gold market, with companies like e gold being indicted and the  US government taking a hardline against some of them because of moneylaundering and unregulated illegal practices going unchecked, what do you think the future of these alternative currencies or digital currencies are ?

Can the US govt and others force them out of business as some believe?

We value your opinion here on www.digitalmoneyworld.com and both Mark and Benson have written here on digital gold extensively in the past.

DGC Magazine Blog

http://www.dgcmagazine.com/blog/index.php

• 
• Author: Mark Herpel
• Listed in: Finance Innovation
• Tags: gold e-gold e-bullion pecunix e-currency digital gold currency

So what do you think about this issue? Please let us know.

Comment below

Moneypenny

Last week I asked you to design the online payment system called edream you wanted as Here on www.digitalmoneyworld we regularly hear readers complaining about the services ( or lack of them) offered by e payments companies like moneybookers, paypal, e gold, loom, and the rest. In response, Sean over at franchise pick; a blog I never tire of reading, responded with a killah post not to be missed, with his usual wit and humour.

http://www.franchisepick.com/franchisepickcom-announces-esean-payment-processing-system/

So here’s the question, if you were to design the e payments system that you want and need, what would it look like?

What services would it offer that you are missing now?

How would you improve on existing options offered to customers?

What limitations that you presently have to endure would you do away with and what would you replace them with?

Lets call it e dream

The prize? a deposit of seed money into your a paypal account in your name to start your new business. Yes you heard right! seed money into your own account.

Now rumour has it that Sean is pretty confident of winning this are you going to let him? So send yours in today guys, your best ideas for a payment system.

The prize will be awarded at the end of July. get yours in!

So write to Moneypenny under comments below and let’s have your e dream e payments blueprint. The best one will be voted on and will win a prize of seed money into a paypal account!

Moneypenny

Last week I asked you to design the online payment system called edream you wanted as I regularly hear readers complaining about the services ( or lack of them) offered by e payments companies like moneybookers, paypal, e gold, loom, and the rest. In response, Sean over at franchise pick; a blog I never tire of reading, responded with a killah post not to be missed, with his usual wit and humour.

http://www.franchisepick.com/franchisepickcom-announces-esean-payment-processing-system/

So here’s the question, if you were to design the e payments system that you want and need, what would it look like?

What services would it offer that you are missing now?

How would you improve on existing options offered to customers?

What limitations that you presently have to endure would you do away with and what would you replace them with?

Lets call it e dream

The prize? a deposit of seed money into your a paypal account in your name to start your new business. Yes you heard right! seed money into your own account.

Now rumour has it that Sean is pretty confident of winning this and are you going to let him?

So send yours in today guys your best ideas for a payment system.

The prize will be awarded at the end of July. get yours in!

So write to Moneypenny under comments below, or to my soon to launch blog www.wisequeen.com and let’s have your e dream e payments blueprint. The best one will be voted on and will win a prize of seed money into a paypal account!

Moneypenny

Recently we’ve been talking about investing in digital gold or digital shares here on www.digitalmoneyworld.com I also asked what you would do with a windfall of 1000 dollars in this post

http://www.bizzia.com/fridays-fun-question/ What is clear, whatever you want to invest in, is this:Those who successfully invest year after year, follow one golden rule although their risk aversion may be high or low.

The golden rule is invest for the long term, that means five years or more.

That doesn’t mean you can’t take chances and make money on the short term on higher risk investments which can give higher returns. It just means this must be the exception not the rule.

Buying when no one else is, this is a trademark of the most successful it takes guts though, to hold on when others bail or sell out, and a singuar purpose.

Those with money to spare are buying into property now with low values. Why? Because it will turn, and when it does they ride the wave up to a good profit and double their money. While the sheep among us want to wait till the market is “safe” and everyone else is getting in, that’s the wrong time to turn a profit.

Of course you should never gamble money you need to live on, as you may have to hold on to get your return. Here those with spare cash have a great advantage.

Warren Buffet built his empire on these principles.

Warren Buffett is the world’s third richest man with an estimated fortune of over $52bn.

But unlike the other billionaires that feature in Forbes’ list of the 10 richest people in the world, Buffett doesn’t have a retail empire, an oil well or a brain for computing to show for it – simply a lot of share certificates.

The 76-year-old made his money through identifying companies that he believed were worth more than their market value, investing in them and holding that investment for the long-term. And it’s certainly paid off.

Class A shares in his company Berkshire Hathaway were $15 when he first took over in 1965 – today they are valued atover $1oo,ooo per share.

It sounds remarkably simple, but given the ups and downs of the stock market, it takes a high level of discipline, nerve and conviction in your decisions. Although Buffett has never written a book detailing his investment style, much can be gleaned from the annual letter he sends to Berkshire shareholders.

He doesn’t view the purchase of shares in a company as buying a stake in that business, but believes that the investor should feel that they are actually buying that business outright. Because of that he looks for quality management, a durable competitive edge and low capital expenditure.

Companies tend to have a strong brand name – Coca Cola, McDonalds and Gillette feature in his holdings – and a good history of solid earnings growth. We run through how Buffett invests his money.

‘Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.’

Value investing

‘It’s far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.’

The basic premise of Buffett’s investing style is buying something for less than it’s actually worth. This sounds simple enough, but unearthing these stocks and prove difficult and it’s easy to mistake a company that is unloved by the market because nobody has spotted its opportunity with one that is simply a dog. For that reason, Buffett applies some of the measures that are listed below.

Strong profitability

‘If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.’

Buffett prefers to invest in companies with a proven level of strong profitability, giving more credence to this than what analysts predict will happen in the future. He looks at a number of measures to assess a business’s profitability, including return on equity (ROE), return on invested capital (ROIC) and a company’s profit margin.

ROE is a measure of the rate at which shareholders are earning income on their shares and Buffett uses this measure to see how well a company is performing compared to other businesses operating in the same sector. You can calculate the ROE by dividing the company’s net income by the shareholder’s equity. It is believed that Buffett prefers a company that has an ROE in excess of 15%. He also looks for companies with above average profit margins, which can be calculated by dividing net income by net sales. The higher the ratio, the more profitable the company based on its level of sales.

Not too much in debt

‘Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.’

However, a company with a high ROE could be being fuelled by substantial levels of debt, which Buffett is keen to avoid. For this reason he also takes into accounted the ROIC. This helps take debt out of the equation by adding it back to the shareholder equity before doing the calculation. This can be calculated by dividing a company’s total liabilities by its shareholder equity – the higher the ratio, the higher the level of debt the company is using to fuel its growth.

He doesn’t like over-indebted companies, as he says each year in his Berkshire Hathaway letters, because they could become vulnerable in a credit squeeze or when interest rates are rising, as they have been doing recently.

Understanding the business

‘Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.’

Buffett will only invest in businesses he can understand and analyse, rejecting those that operate in complicated markets or where he is unsure of their operating model. He describes this as his ‘circle of competence’. He has largely ignored the technology sector because he claims not to fully understand their business, but prefers retailing, food and insurance stocks.

Strong management

‘It’s better to hang out with people better than you, … Pick out associates whose behaviour is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.’

Buffett places great emphasis on the quality of a company’s management. According to Robert Hagstrom, author of ‘The Warren Buffett Way’, he asks three questions of a company’s management team – are they rational, do they admit to mistakes and do they resist the institutional imperative? He takes a dim view of management teams that simply follow the crowd, copying the lead of competitors. He also likes companies to have been floated for a 10-year period before investing, but says he never interferes with the running of a company.

The ‘Moat’

‘Your premium brand had better be delivering something special, or it’s not going to get the business.’

Buffett coined the phrase ‘moat’ to refer to the competitive advantage or unique proposition that gives a business protection against their competitors. He says those businesses that have a wider moat will offer more protection to the main core business, which he refers to as the castle. This could be geographical, entry costs, a strong brand name or owning a particular patent. Buffett tends to pick companies that offer strong brand names, even though there is a lot of competition in their particular markets. Examples include MacDonalds, Coca-Cola and Gillette.

Moats are important to investors because if a business develops a successful product it is likely to be aped by competitors. How effecitively it can survive is largely determined by how its product differs from the others in the market and why consumers will keep coming back.

Long-term hold

‘Our favourite holding period is forever.’

When Buffett buys a stock he buys it with the view of holding it for life. He holds a number of permanent stocks in his portfolio, including Coca-Cola, GEICO and Washington Post, which he claims he’ll not sell even if they appear to be significantly overpriced. This approach has led to accusations that his portfolio has a number of ‘tired’ stocks in it, but Buffett thinks investors are too quick to buy and sell.

Don’t rush

‘You do things when the opportunities come along. I’ve had periods in my life when I’ve had a bundle of ideas come along, and I’ve had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I’ll do something. If not, I won’t do a damn thing.’

Boredom can cause rash buying decisions, forcing the investor to buy stock at the wrong time. Buffett has proved to be a master at the waiting game, preferring to sit on his cash rather than buy into a company just for the sake of it. He understands markets rise and fall and would prefer to wait until he feels a stock is cheap enough to buy. Buffett says investors would be better off if they could only invest a limited number of times, so they would make sure they were making the right investment.

Happy 4th of July

Yours in money,

Moneypenny

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Why use us?
Members benefit from our competitive rates and can easily (after verification) send funds to us via domestic Internet bank transfers, International bank wire to our multi-currency International bank, deposit cash or transfer money using Western Union and MoneyGram. We offer a simple, fast & efficient service.

We welcome International orders from all corners of the globe.

Follow our easy steps to Buy, Sell or Convert Digital Gold Currency.

This is but one example I found on the web of digital gold trading,

but I have questions like others have about digital gold. Let’s take e bullion as an example. I sat down with three leading financial advisors and they had these questions  and many others too. So don’t shoot me I’m only the piano player, Yes I’ve read the sites.

Let’s start with e bullion, It’s headquartered in Delaware that rings a bell, the associations are not good.

But maybe that isn’t an issue though.

Next question: what do some of these statements mean? This one for example.

Can I take delivery of e-Bullion^®?
Yes. You may take possession of your e-Bullion^® through the primary funding/withdrawal processor for e-Bullion^®.  Currently that is Goldfinger Coin and Bullion Inc.  There is a small fee involved for converting e-Bullion^® to physical delivery. This is known as a redemption premium and will vary according to the type and amount of metal you wish to redeem.

What does physical delivery mean? That if I want my gold bars you’ll drop them off or DHL them. I don’t think so.

My biggest question however is that my digital shares are not linked to the current market value of gold. Why?

Are ebullion trading gold? Sure they must be, but why use gold to back the digital funds if it has no relation to gold’s current market value on the commodities market.?

Every US dollar was once underwitten by gold in the days of “in gold we trust” now the dollar says “in God we trust”.So this is not a strange concept.

Why are e-Bullion^® services not offered in some areas?
Some states and jurisdictions may require the acquisition of a specialized business license under local law, in connection with some of the services we offer. Rather than bearing the administrative burden of meeting these multiple licensing requirements, we choose not to offer e-Bullion^® services in those areas.

944.09

That’s the current gold price listed on the Londongoldexchange site. I have one question, why link the actual price of real gold to digital gold? Does the investor take delivery of real gold, or shares in real gold or silver held in a vault? This is the question I and other financial brokers have about trading in e gold and others. And what is a market maker? Perhaps Benson or Mark over at DGC who have traded in digital gold, can educate us better.

Have a comment?  want to answer some of these questions from our readers. Please answer below.

Moneypenny

(Digital Money World) If you’re always a fan of how Digital Money really works, DGC Magazine is something which you shouldn’t miss monthly. Mark Herpel, our previous DMW resident is doing a great job with the flash version of his magazine.

In this July issue,  learn more about E-gold’s new primary dealer, find out how Loom is doing after all the controversies it had for the past few months, How Webmoney and Washington Post are on war mode. Remember the Fintrac message on Digital Gold merchants? Decipher it properly with DGCMagazine.

It’s out on all major newstands and coming to a click near you.

Ok anyone visiting digital money world recently would have noticed we have been discussing moneybookers scams Reading the comments on these posts is essential reading. So heres the latest to arrive in my box. Is it real or not?

Well here’s an email that seems to come from moneybookers advising me that someone has attempted to log in to my account. It’s an account, I’m about to close, as it has no funds and never will do. However, it would be more convincing if this was not a non-return email, but instead you got a person when you replied to this security update.

My advice that you should never click on a link, but rather, type moneybookers straight into your browser window, still stands.

Read this 

Fake moneybookers scam ?

Security update

Monday, 30 June, 2008 10:21 PM

From:

“MoneyBookers” <security@moneybookers.com>

Add sender to Contacts

To:

d@b5media.com

Attention!   Dear Member Moneybookers,We recently noticed one or more attempts to log in to your moneybookers account from a foreign IP address.. If you recently accessed your account while traveling, the unusual log in attempts may have been initiated by you. However, if you did not initiate the log ins, please visit moneybookers as soon as possible to verify your identity:   https://www.moneybookers.com/app/login.plVerify your identity is a security measure that will ensure that you are the only person with access to the account. Thanks for your patience as we work together to protect your account. Sincerely, Moneybookers 2008 Moneybookers Security Reminders Protect Your Password Moneybookers and its representatives will NEVER ask you to reveal your password. There are NO EXCEPTIONS to this policy. If anyone asks for your password by phone moneybookers.com, refuse and immediately report this to security@moneybookers.com.Please do not reply to this email.This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response.For assistance, log in to your moneybookers account and click the Help link located in the top right corner of any moneybookers page. The capitals matter Let us remind you that the capitalized letters matter for the password, it has to have at least 6 characters and contain at least one number or a special character like ‘-’.     Registered in England and Wales under Company No 4260907. Registered office: C3 Cairngorm House, Meridian Gate, 203 Marsh Wall, London E14 9YT. None of the information contained in this website constitutes, nor should be construed as Financial Advice.

What do you think,Is this real? Comments please. We reached 120 comments on digital money world for the month of June so thanks to all who commented on my posts and by so doing, helped others to be safer online. yours in money, Moneypenny

Have you ever needed to send money to someone quickly, and couldnt run into your bank for a swift payment? Here’s what Obopay offer as service.

All you need is a mobile phone, and it only takes a few minutes to get started.

1. Sign up for Obopay
2. Link your bank account or credit card
3. Send money in three easy ways:
   • Text message
   • Obopay phone application
   • Your phone’s web browser

Sign up

> Learn how Obopay works

Did Someone Send You Money?

If someone used Obopay to send you money, you can collect it right away, and you don’t even need to sign up for an Obopay account.

> Pick up money

Add Obopay to your site.

Send and receive money from friends and customers by adding Obopay to your favorite site, including MySpace, facebook, eBay, and more.

> Add the Obopay widget

This seems so simple has anyone had any experience with it?

What features would you like your online payment company or bank to offer? Write a comment and tell us.

yours in money,

Moneypenny

Our Partners Include:

 A new application on facebook  from Moneybookers which is based in the U.K. was launched, Moneybookers is one of the largest money transfer services online with over 4.6 million worldwide customers.

While Moneybookers promotes it as a “social fundraising” application, all of the normal Moneybookers money transfer services will be available inside the application.

The application will expand Moneybookers’ ability to extend their reach by offering their services to the millions of Facebook users. It appears that the fee structure for the Facebook application will match the current Moneybookers fee structure

One drawback that I see is that  logging directly into Moneybookers or PayPal when  sending and/or receiving money is more secure than within Facebook so many may not feel comfortable logging in via another application. Im sure this will open up a whole can of worms as far as the scammers go, as we have already seen on the Fake moneybookers scam ?   which has numerous comments worth reading. What do you think  good or bad, would you use it?

Yours in money,

Moneypenny

How could one fail to notice we are under a financial car crusher. Markets tumbling, formerly rock solid investment banks wobbling like jello and banks like Citi and others axing staff.

So they call it downsizing, ecomomising, rationalization, belt tightening… you know the score, it’s a crunch.

Financial markets reacting to each other and mirroring each others emotions, like twelve year old school girls.

Whose fault is it? The speculators, the central bank, the fat corporations- who were on a ten year long grabfest. The Arabs hoarding their black gold?

All of the above?

I’ve been writing about how to survive this in my last few posts, and also on my last post http://www.bizzia.com/my-guest-post-on-yielding-wealth/

So the man in the street. Yes, that’s you, even if you are sitting at a desk,

What would you do with an extra one thousand dollars if I gave it to you today?

Would you invest it, blow it on treats, hoard it, pay something outstanding.

How would you grow it?

Tell me Moneypenny what you would do with that 1,000,00 dollars

Send me a comment now.