Tips And Tricks For Stock Market Success

                            Tips And Tricks For Stock Market Success

Even very experienced investors can still have difficulty playing the stock market tricky at times. You can earn a lot by trading stocks, or you could end up losing money. By utilizing the strategies from this article, you will start making wise investments in the stock market that will yield you long term profits.
Keeping things simple can really be effective in life, and the stock market is no exception.
When you decide upon a stock to invest in, don’t allocate more than 10% of your portfolio into that company. By doing this you won’t lose huge losses if the stock crashes.
Don’t make an attempt to time any market. History has proven that the best results go to those who steadily invest equal sums of money into the stock market over a greater period of time. Figure out how much of your money you are comfortable investing. Then, set up a regular investment schedule, and don’t stop.

If you’re a novice at the stock market, you need to realize that success may not come quickly. Often, it may take a bit before stocks become successful, and lots of people give up along the way. Patience is key when it comes to the market.

Short selling can be an option that you should consider. This is where you need to loan stock shares. The investor will then sell the shares which can be bought again when the price of the stock falls.
Don’t invest too much in a company that you are an employee. Although buying stocks in your employer’s company may seem loyal, there’s risk that comes with doing this. If something bad occurs, both your regular paycheck and your investment portfolio would be in danger. However, if employees can buy company shares at a nice discount, you might have good reason to buy.
Don’t over-invest in your wealth in your own company’s stock. Although some investment in your company is fine, it is best to build a more diverse portfolio that includes other investments. If your main investment is in your own company, you’ll lose a major portion of your net worth.
Steer away from stock market advice and recommendations that are unsolicited. Of course, your own adviser should be listened to, especially when they are doing well. No one has your back like you do, especially when a large amount of stock tips are being given by people who are paid to give advice.
If you plan on using a brokerage firm for your investments, see to it that they are trustworthy. There are a lot of firms that make nice promises, a lot of them are nor properly trained to do so. Research brokerage firms online before settling on the Internet.
Review your stock portfolio constantly.Don’t take this too far, because the stock market is subject to frequent change, and obsessing and panicking unnecessarily can cause you to lose money.
Before you buy any stock, think about what your long-term plans are. For instances, it might be that you want to make money without assuming much risk, or you could be aiming to increase the size of your portfolio. Knowing what your goal will help you the best chance of success.
Be sure that you’re eye on trade volume. Trading volume is critical in identifying how a particular period. You need to know how active a company trades to figure out if you should invest in it.
Learn how to assess risk.There is always a bit of a risk whenever you invest. Bonds usually have the lowest amount of risk than mutual funds then stocks. There is always a completely safe investment. You must learn how to identify the risk in order to make sound investment decisions.
Many people forget that undue greed works against them when dealing with stock market rather then improving it. This has been proven time after time to be a quick way that many people end up losing substantial amounts of money.
Never keep your funds trapped in stocks that continues to lose money. Look for something which moves more active and likely to produce some return.
The stock market is not a scheme to get rick quickly. You will need to spend time learning about stocks before investing or you can even start investing. You will need to be ready to make mistakes, but you will learn from the times you screw up.
Buying a stock is buying ownership in a company. Some investors purchase stocks they’ve heard are good stocks, but don’t forget: when you buy a stock, you are buying a piece of the company. You need to do thorough research to ensure the due diligence so you don’t lose all of your investment will succeed.

Stock Market Investments

There are, as was mentioned earlier, a lot of ways to protect your stock market investments. Use this advice to make safer and more successful stock market investments.

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Rebalancing Your Portfolio

Rebalancing Your Portfolio

As the trend continues for carrying more of the responsibility for your retirement nest egg, you will have to make investment decisions all along the way. Some will seem brilliant at the moment you make them, only to turn to dust in hindsight. You will be challenged to stay on top of what is happening in your portfolio and to make adjustments periodically to reflect your goals. It doesn't hurt to get good professional advice before you throw all your retirement dollars into the hot stock that cousin Joey was tipped to on his last fishing trip with the guys.
When you make investment decisions, and watch them, you will see movement over time both up and down financially. Every now and then you may want to switch where you have your dollars placed in order to hit a target you have for your retirement plan. This is known as rebalancing your portfolio. This is how it works: Your initial objective was to have 10 percent of your portfolio be in government bonds. Because of a strong stock market over a couple of years, your bond percentage drops to 7 percent. Now you would sell some of the assets that had grown and purchase more of the government bonds to keep your overall portfolio balanced as you envisioned.
You may be wondering about how to decide when to rebalance. There are two methods — calendar and conditional. With calendar rebalancing, you set a periodic time frame, either quarterly or annually, and you will sell some of the investments that have gone up and buy more that have gone down. These decisions can be made by category rather than by specific securities. Conditional rebalancing is put into action whenever an asset class goes up or down a percentage you choose, usually a significant swing—25 percent, for example. This method lets you respond to the market rather than the calendar.

Investment Risk and Mix

Let's take a closer look at how you will build the portfolio you will be rebalancing. As you move through your working years, you may have a number of opportunities for putting away money for your retirement. After a decade or more, you might find yourself with an IRA you set up with monies from summer jobs while you were still in school (a really good idea, by the way), a 401(k) one of your employers offered, and a Roth IRA you decided to open. You may have company stock in the employer's plan, and a combination of cash and mutual funds in your IRAs. By chance you have a mix of investments, which is a good thing. The more you are building your investments as you are salting away money for retirement the more deliberately you will want to diversify where your money is going. Your goal should be twofold. First, you should aim to spread your investments among categories. Then, aim to diversify within each category.
The primary reason for diversifying your investments is because at any point in time one type will be doing well while another lags. Often when stocks are booming, bond prices sag. Over the course of a long period of savings, the ups and downs smooth out.

Try to spread your money among cash, bonds, stocks, and some other types of investments. Studies demonstrate that once you have decided which categories you will use, the choice of how much to put in each is the most important factor in your personal investment strategy.

Within each category you will want to diversify. For example, you may put cash in CDs with different maturing periods and different rates of interest. You may choose bonds in an IRA that will have taxes due when you begin to make withdrawals. You may hold individual company shares or you may opt to spread your stock dollars in a couple of mutual funds. Multiple stock funds are usually managed by professionals who watch many industry stocks and make decisions for the fund based on the goals of the fund. Some funds are designed to be high risk/high growth and others just the opposite. Make it your business to know where your monies are going and what the goal is for each investment.
The bottom line is: Don't put all your eggs in one basket. When you diversify into various types of assets, your risk will more likely be reduced and your returns should be stronger than if you had limited your choice to only one investment, or even one type of investment.

Asset Allocation

How you actually divide up your investments is called asset allocation. If you decide cash is to be part of the mix, what percentage is right—15 percent? 25 percent? The same questions apply to each segment — should you have 50 percent of your portfolio in stocks? Should half of that be in mutual funds and half in individual company shares? What about bonds? The key factors influencing this choice will be:

• How much time you have until you retire
• The size of your current nest egg
• How long you expect to live
• How much risk you are willing to take
• What other sources of retirement income you have
• The state of your current financial health

Over time your asset allocation is apt to change. In your earlier years it may make sense to load up on stocks and mutual funds instead of sitting on a pile of slow-growing cash, or conservative bond funds. As you progress closer to retirement, you might gradually shift the allocation of your investments from the higher stakes of stocks to the more predictable sure bets of bonds and treasuries. You may wind up changing your asset allocation because your financial circumstances have changed, or your goals and risk tolerance have changed.

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What's Diversification?

  How to Diversify Your Investment Portfolio

If you pay any attention to investing, you've heard the familiar chants about the importance of diversification in your portfolio. So what is diversification and how do you achieve it?
Diversification is spreading your money over different types of investments, instead of putting it all into one single stock or bond. One thing history has shown about the stock market: some investments move in different directions. When one goes up, the other goes down and vice versa. These are called non-correlated assets. Since no one knows when an investment will go up or down, you want to own non-correlated assets so some part of your portfolio is always growing, even when another part isn’t. This way you soften the jags in a volatile market, and even out your portfolio’s performance over time.

1. Allocate Your Assets

So how does one diversify? It starts with asset allocation. You divide your investment portfolio into different parts, such as stocks, bonds and cash. Stocks provide growth, bonds produce income with less risk and cash, or cash investments like CDs or money market accounts, offer a degree of safety and liquidity (although inflation is always a risk to cash holdings).
Financial experts recommend spreading investments across a mix of stocks, bonds and cash investments—or stock funds, bond funds and money market or stable value funds. But how much should go to stocks vs. bonds is a very personal question. There is one trick that involves subtracting your age from 100, investing your age in stocks and the remainder in bonds. But an aggressive 25-year-old investor probably doesn’t want 25% of their growth potential moving into the relative safety of bonds. And some young 50-somethings may not ready to move half of their nest egg into bonds. Although if you have built up a lot of assets, bonds can help to keep the principal safe and generate pretty good income… See? It just depends. You really have to evaluate your own time horizon, goals and risk tolerance to come up with an allocation you can live with. There are plenty of resources on the Web to help, like risk tolerance quizzes and portfolio allocation tools.
There are other asset classes, such as real estate, commodities or private equity. As you become a more experienced investor, you may move a small portion of your portfolio into these asset classes. In fact, REITS or Real Estate Investment Trusts are among the most popular 401(k) investment types. They are non-correlated to other types of investments, and can be good income producers. Before you make any investment, make sure you understand the risks as well as the returns. The more exotic asset classes often have some tricky tax consequences as well.

2. Look for Mutual Funds and ETFs

You can further diversify your holdings by forgoing individual stocks and bonds in favor of mutual funds. A mutual fund is a collection of investments, so when you buy a share of a mutual fund, you buy a wide array of stocks, bonds or whatever underlying investment the fund holds. A mutual fund or ETF investor’s success in the market does not depend on one company’s good fortune.
Exchange traded funds or ETFs, are like mutual funds but they trade like stocks. With a single ETF share, you can buy into the growth of a group of companies. Most ETFs are passively managed or index funds, meaning they mirror the performance of a broad market index like the S&P 500.

3. Consider Different Aspects of an Asset Class

Mutual funds and ETFs also often have strategies, areas of the market that they target. The funds you choose can help you divide your investments even more. For example, you can divide the stocks portion of your portfolio into domestic stocks, internationals stocks, large-company stocks and small-company stocks. You could have some money in growth stocks and some in income stocks (those that pay dividends), or a combination of the two. You can invest in a specific market sector, like energy or technology or retail. In short, there are many ways to skin a stock market. Bonds, too, come in many types: Treasury, corporate, municipal, high-yield, stable value, and more.
Or you could take a more minimalist route and use one to three broad market index funds to build your portfolio: a broad stock market index fund and a broad bond market index fund can give you plenty of diversification, and you’ll pay less in fees. If that seems like too much work, a target-date or lifecycle fund does the work for you. You can buy one with a built in asset allocation that adjusts as you near retirement age. You don’t even have to think about it.
However you choose to diversify, it's better than having your savings in a single stock position. Sort of. There's a saying: Concentration creates wealth, diversification keeps it. And it's true for some people, like Apple employees maybe, having a large concentration in one stock really works out. But for others, like employees of Enron, who also once had their life savings in high-flying stock, before it crashed and burned completely. If you have company

Investing Style

What's Investing Style? 

Understand Investment Styles and Determine Which Fit Your Portfolio.

Successful investors and investments don't just pick companies on a whim. They narrow their focus on investment styles. They may target companies of a certain size, look at company fundamentals as a predictor of long-term value or annual growth, manage every stock move or set the investing on auto-pilot. Most mutual funds or ETFs have a pre-determined style that does not (or should not, sometimes funds get tricky) vary. Often, these investments target a combination of styles. So how do you make sense of it all? Learn the types of investment styles, and it can help you determine which investments best suit your style.

1. Investing by company size: Large Cap, Mid Cap, Small Cap

Companies perform in different ways at various times in their growth cycles. Investors focus on capturing companies at different points—when they are just starting, just starting to grow, in mid-growth, or well established. You can do this by focusing on market capitalization, or the number of outstanding shares multiplied by share price. Large capitalization or big cap companies are those worth more than $10 billion. Mid-caps or mid capitalization companies are about $2 billion to $10 billion. Small-caps or small capitalization companies, between $100 million and $2 billion. There are micro-caps below that, then nano caps, then... I guess angel investments. Fund managers typically choose a market capitalization to focus on. For example, "This fund seeks to generate capital appreciation by investing in small cap companies" or, more specifically, "This Fund seeks capital appreciation principally through the investment in common stock of companies with operating revenues of $250 million or less at the time of initial investment." So what's the difference? Typically, small-cap companies offer more growth potential. If you get in at the right time (think early Microsoft, 1990s Apple), you can get a great investment return. But small-caps can be riskier than established large-caps. Only the strongest small companies survive. The risks increase as companies get smaller. Micro-, nano- and other tiny-capitalization investments could have serious potential, but unless you are a very agressive investor and can afford the loss, they shouldn't represent a huge part of your portfolio.Large-cap companies move the market. They are the dominant players, produce consist returns over time, and may even return dividends to investors. They are also liquid companies, meaning it's easy to buy and sell their shares. There typically offer decent returns with less risk, and since they represent the larger market these companies should play a dominant role in your portfolio.
In between are mid-caps, which some investors think is a sweet spot where you can find companies with growth potential that act like value plays (more on growth vs value below).
Different-sized companies seem to perform differently, meaning when large caps are down, small move up. These are assets that are non-correlated, they don't move in the same way. Owning companies of each size helps to balance some of the risk of your portfolio.

2. Investing in company fundamentals: Growth Investing and Value Investing

Some investors use analysis of fundamentals to determine where a company is headed. Growth investors look for companies they think will increase earnings at least 15% to 25% a year on average, based on management, new products, competition, etc. Value investors look for companies that are selling cheap compared to intrinsic value or the value of tangible assets.
For many investors, the real win is a combination of growth and value. A good company with solid long-term prospects at a reasonable price. That's super investor Warren Buffett's way (he doesn't believe in the two separate strategies).

3. Investing with or without a manager: Active vs Passive

An actively managed fund is one with a manager or team of managers picking stocks in an attempt to beat the market. A passively managed fund, also known as an index fund, follows a set group of stocks to achieve its stated goals. Index funds perform like the index they follow, and because there is no one to pay the expenses are typically cheaper than actively managed funds.
Active managers can try to reduce risk when the markets are turbulent, but managers rarely beat the markets by enough to justify the extra expense of an actively managed fund. A recent study found that only 24% of actively managed funds beat their passive counterparts.

4. Investing in a market segment: Sector Investing

Some investors narrow their style to invest in a specific industry or sector, say technology, consumer goods or manufacturing. Sector funds are not diversified in and of themselves, but they can help balance out a portfolio that is heavily weighted in a certain sector because it contains a lot of company stock, for example.
A balanced portfolio can contain a combination of the fund styles mentioned above. It really depends on your personal tolerance for risk, your goals, and the types of investments available to you through your 401(k) or individual retirement account. You can use an asset allocation calculator (this one from Bankrate) to figure out what's right for you. (Some people are just as well off putting everything in an index fund, which is just a cheap way to own the entire market, or a target retirement fund, which does the asset allocation for you.) Choose based on what works for your own investment style.

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The Decade Of Debt

                                                         The Decade Of  Debt 


Nine out of 10 people in their 30s are in debt, the highest proportion of any age decade, according to the Federal Reserve's most recent Survey of Consumer Finances.
Thirty-somethings also carry the biggest debt burdens. The median amount of debt carried by people in their 30s in 2007 was twice their median income: $110,600 of debt versus $54,503 of income.

These are also the years when the majority of people become homeowners (63.7%) and have children at home (71.7%), both potential budget busters. Consider:

• The percentage of households carrying credit card debt peaks in the 30s. More than half, or 53%, of households headed by 30-somethings fail to pay off their credit cards in full every month, and the median balance carried is $3,000.
• Compared with other age groups, more people in their 30s have serious debt problems. Despite median income that's 76% higher than those in their 20s, people in their 30s are more likely to be 60 days late on a bill (9% compared with 7.9% in their 20s) and nearly twice as likely to be $10,000 or more in debt on credit cards (12.1% compared with 6.4%).
• Fewer have student loans, but the balances are higher. One out of four 30-somethings still owes money for school, but the median balance is more than $15,000, compared with $13,000 for those in their 20s. This reflects the fact that the folks who didn't owe much were able to pay off their loans within a few years of graduation. Those stuck with payments in their 30s tend to be the ones who borrowed a lot.

The good news is that you're more likely to have access to a workplace retirement plan, such as a 401k, and to be using it to save.

Here are some of the things to keep in mind while charting your financial life in your 30s:

• Corral your expenses. It's easy to let your living costs creep up on you, but if you want to get ahead financially, you may need to make some hard choices about your spending.
• Pay off those credit cards. Carrying a credit card balance is bad for many reasons: You pay unnecessary interest on your purchases, and you're vulnerable to all kinds of credit card company schemes. And you cut yourself off from a source of funds in an emergency.

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Speaking of which:

• Build an emergency fund. A cushion of cash can protect you in case of job loss, illness, accident or other setback. Aim for an amount equal to one week's pay at first; try to build from there.
• Watch your other debt. Make sure you can really afford the loans and other debt you take on. You'd be smart to limit mortgage debt payments to no more than 25% of your gross income and to be extremely cautious about auto debt.
• Continue to save for retirement. With all the other demands on your income, you may be tempted to suspend or reduce your retirement savings. Don't do it. Your contributions to retirement need to come first and to continue no matter what if you want to have a comfortable old age.

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12 Tasks That Killer Employees Always Finish Before Noon

　                 12 Tasks That Killer Employees Always Finish Before Noon

I know this dose not have anything to do with finance but ths seems to work for me.

1. They make a work to-do list the day before. Many swear by having a written to-do list, but not everyone agrees on when you need to compose it. According to Andrew Jensen, a business efficiency consultant with Sozo Firm in Shrewsbury, Pa., the opportune time to plan a day's tasks is the night before. "Some people like to do the to-do schedule in the morning, but then they might have already lost office time writing it out," he says. "It helps to do that to-do schedule the night before. It also will help you sleep better.

2. They get a full night's rest. Speaking of sleeping better ... lack of sleep affects your concentration level, and therefore, your productivity. Whatever your gold standard is for a "good night's rest," strive to meet it every work night. Most health experts advise getting a minimum eight hours of shut-eye each night.

3. They avoid hitting snooze. Petitioning for nine more minutes, then nine more, then another nine is a slippery slope that leads to falling back asleep and falling behind on your morning prep. Ultimately it also leads to lateness. "Anyone can be made into a morning person. Anyone can make morning their most productive time. It could be that for the entire week, you set your alarm clock a little bit earlier, and you get out of bed on the first alarm. It may be a pain at first, but eventually you'll get to the point where you're getting your seven to eight hours of sleep at night, you're waking up with all your energy, and accomplishing the things around the house you need to before going to the office.

4. They exercise. Schedule your Pilates class for the a.m. instead of after work. "Exercise improves mood and energy levels, Not only that, but there have been studies done on employees who've exercised before work or during the work day. Those employees have been found to have better time-management skills, and an improved mental sharpness. ... Those same studies found these workers are more patient with their peers.

5. They practice a morning routine. A morning routine aside from your exercise routine. Whether you opt to meditate, read the newspaper, or surf the Web its important to have that quiet time with just you.

6. They eat breakfast. Food provides the fuel you'll need to concentrate, and breakfast is particularly important since it recharges you after you've fasted all night. Try munching on something light and healthy in the morning, and avoid processed carbs that could zap your energy.

7. They arrive at the office on time. This one is obvious, right? Getting a full night's rest and keeping your sticky fingers off the snooze button should make No. 7 a cakewalk. If you're not a new employee, then you've already figured out the length of your average commute. Allot a safe amount of time to make it to work on schedule.

8. They check in with their boss and/or employees. We all know the cliche about the whole only being as good as the sum of its parts. In other words, if your closest work associates aren't productive, then neither are you. Good workers set priorities that align with their company's goals, and they're transparent about their progress.

9. They tackle the big projects first. You can dive right into work upon arriving in the office, since you made your to-do list the night before. Start with the hardest tasks. "Don't jump into meaningless projects when you're at your mental peak for the day.

10. They avoid morning meetings. If you have any say on meeting times, schedule them in the afternoon. "You should use your prime skills during the prime time of the day. I believe that mornings are the most productive time, noting that an employer  who schedules morning meetings could rob his or her employees of their peak performance, and ultimately cost the company.

11. They allot time for following up on messages. Discern between mindless email/voicemail checking and conducting important business. Advises that checking their inbox every couple of minutes takes time away from important tasks. Instead, set a schedule to check and respond to email in increments. Consider doing so at the top of each hour, to ensure that clients and colleagues receive prompt responses from you.

12. They take a mid-morning break. Get up and stretch your legs. Or stay seated and indulge in a little Internet surfing. Zone out on Facebook and Twitter or send a personal text message or two. "You should take 10-minute breaks occasionally, Companies that ban any kind of Facebook [use], texting, or personal calls can find it will be detrimental. Those practices increase employee satisfaction."

Just be sure not to abuse the privilege. "The best employees will respect their employer's time, and the worst-performing employees will find a way to waste time even if the company forbids personal Internet use.

                             
                                  The Advantages of Employing a Financial Planner

 Although there are more, here are the top 6 advantages of employing a financial planner:

 1.  You will be forced to take an in depth look at your finances. You can’t just show up for your appointment with your brand new financial planner and expect miracles to happen.  You must come prepared with information, and the more detailed the better.  How much do you earn each year?  How much of that do you bring home?  Does your employer sponsor a retirement account?  Is there a match?  Do you contribute?  How much money do you have saved, invested, or in retirement accounts?  How much are you spending on insurance; car, home, umbrella, life?  What is your coverage?  What is your monthly car payment, rent or mortgage payment, student loan payment?  Do you have credit card debt?  How much do you spend on cable, internet, cell phone bills?  What are the monthly grocery expenses?  Where is the rest of your money going- restaurants, concert tickets, your stamp collection, the latest video games, etc.?  If you’re like most people, this is not an exciting topic to tackle on your own, so you probably won’t.  However, if your financial planner sends you a form requesting all this information (and more), you will be forced to sit down and figure it out prior to your meeting.  Although a painstaking process, it is extremely valuable and will likely be a big eye opener to discover where all your money is actually going.

2.  You will be forced to set personal goals.  No one can set financial goals until they first sort out what their personal goals are.  What do you ultimately want to do with your life?  I know this seems philosophical for an advantage of a financial planner, but most people don’t take enough time to step back and look at the big picture of their life, because they are so caught up in the day to day.  This is an opportunity to figure out what’s most important to you- do you want to quit your day job so you can pursue your passion for acting?  Do you want to retire at 45 and travel the world?  Do you want to upgrade to a bigger house in a better school district for your kids?

3.   You will ensure your financial goals are aligned with your personal goals.  Once you sort out what your ultimate goals are for your life, you can then tailor your financial plans to help ensure you reach those goals.  Your financial planner will make you a detailed roadmap of what you must be doing today to achieve your dreams tomorrow.  Want to pay for your son’s college tuition in 10 years?  You need to set aside X dollars per month starting today.  Want to retire at 50 instead of 65?  Up your 401k contributions by X dollars per month.  Instead of just dreaming about what you would like to do “some day,” you will now be able to see what steps you need to take to make that dream a reality.

4.  You will get a financial reality check.  You only make so much money.  You can’t save more than you make.  If you find that the goals you have for your life aren’t in line with your current income, this is important information to know.  You have two options, to either increase your income or cut back your spending.  Sometimes it takes this harsh realization to motivate a person to pick up a small extra source of income, or cut back on some of those expensive habits.  If your long-term goals are really important to you, a little sacrifice now may go a long way towards your happiness in the end.

5.  You will gain an objective outside opinion.  Sometimes it’s just good to have a fresh set of eyes look at a situation.  You are so embedded in your own finances that it’s hard to take a step back yourself to make sure you’re making the smartest decisions.  Your financial planner will review your insurance coverage to make sure it’s where it needs to be (many people take out a policy and then never revisit it as their income and family obligations increase).  He will check to make sure you are saving in the most tax-advantageous way possible.  He may suggest ideas you haven’t considered before- like refinancing your home, or rearranging which debts you should prioritize to pay off first.  Even minor tweaks that your planner might suggests can lead to major long term benefits to your overall financial situation.

6.  You can track your progress.  A financial planner will input all the data that you provide and produce a lovely document, full of nice colorful graphs that show you where you are and where you need to be.  Among these pages will be one that shows your calculated net worth, which is simply the total of your assets minus your liabilities.  This number should never be used to compare to the net worth of others, but rather as a marker for your own progress.  Each year when you get your updated report you can track that number to make sure it is moving in the positive direction.  Even if your net worth is negative, seeing that number creep closer and closer to zero is extremely satisfying and motivational.  If your net worth is not increasing at the rate that you’d like it to, that can precipitate a discussion about what changes need to be made to get that number closer to where you would like it to be.

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