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Silver bullion bars, also referred to as silver ingot bars, generally consist of 99.99% silver and range in size from one ounce to 5000 ounces. The 10-oz and 100-oz sizes are the most popular with investors. The 5-oz, 25-oz, and 50-oz size bars, which were produced in the early 1970's, are difficult to find. However, the diligent collector can sometimes find these silver bars on popular online auction sites such as eBay.

Unlike silver coins, silver bullion bars are first and foremost an industrial product. They are intended to be used as a storage means and are consider a trading medium. They are very liquid, but should be purchased strictly as an investment and not used for bartering purposes. Some of the advantages of owning silver bullion bars are:

* Uniform size, making them very convenient to store and easy to handle.

* Compact size, making them ideal for investors who want to secure a large amount of wealth in a relatively small storage area.

* Recognizable hallmarks, making them readily accepted for resale and easily convertible to cash.

The 100-oz silver bullion bars are often called investment bars, because collectors who buy them usually do so for investment purposes, not as a hedge against inflation. These type of collectors will often sell when silver prices go up. The 100-oz silver bullion bars are desirable because they offer a low markup over the spot price of silver, although they aren't as flexible as the 10-oz variety.

The most popular silver bullion bars are created by Engelhard and Johnson-Matthey. Although they are two of the world's largest refiners, they have not mass-produced silver bars since the mid-1980s. This means Johnson-Matthey and Engelhard silver bars are only available when other investors decide to sell.

More readily available are the 100 ounce Wall Street Mint and Sunshine Mining bars. The English Sheffield and Handy & Harman bars can be obtained, but are more difficult to find. The most popular size is the 100 troy ounce silver bar produced by Englehard, an American company.

Engelhard is renowned for producing quality silver bullion bars that are accurately stamped with the exact pureness of the silver that is contained in the bar. Investors know that the Engelhard symbol assures them of the ability to buy and sell silver bars with total complete confidence, anywhere in the world.

Investors know that the Engelhard symbol assures them of the ability to buy and sell silver bars with total complete confidence, anywhere in the world. Because of their low premium over spot, compared with silver bullion coins, the 100-oz Engelhard silver bars are an excellent way to invest in silver bullion.

Johnson-Matthey was founded in 1817 and has an unrivalled reputation in the precious metals field, because of its technical excellence and dedication to quality. Johnson-Matthey 100 ounce silver bars are always in high demand from silver collectors and investors because of their confidence in the company.

An investor can buy a Johnson-Matthey silver bar with total confidence in its purity, liquidity, quality. Every Johnson-Matthey silver bar is stamped with the exact weight and an individual serial number, exclusive to each and every buyer.

When the economy is terrible and the stock market keeps declining, it is time to ask the question how do bonds work! Bonds are great, safe investments, especially in uncertain times. However, before you invest in any kind of a bond, you need to find out how do bonds work.

There are many types of bonds to invest in. Fortunately, all bonds work in the similar ways so you only need to find out how do bonds work once to know if bonds are right for you. Then you can decide on the type of bond you want to invest in.

Bonds, unlike stocks, are debt securities. When you buy a bond, you are lending money to the bond issuer. In return, the issuer pays you interest and promise to pay back the principal at the end of the life of the bond. Each bond has a face value which is $100. The face value is sometimes referred to as par value.

Once issued, bonds can be traded at par, at discount or at premium. You can buy bonds that are priced at discount or priced higher than the par value. No matter how much you paid for the bond, you will still only get the par value back at redemption. That means if you over pay for the bond, you may be losing money in the end.

When people learn about how do bonds work, they are particularly interested in the interest rates or the coupon that bonds pay. Most bonds pay interests regularly such as monthly or quarterly or annually. Bonds that pay more interests are often desirable because people want regular income from their investments.

The coupon rate of a bond is the interest rate but a high coupon bond is not always the best bond to buy. When you learn about how do bonds work, you will learn about how to calculate the bond yield which is a better measure of whether a bond is a good investment or not.

The higher the yield, the better the bond. If bond A has higher yield than bond B, bond A can be better than bond B even if bond B pays higher interest rate. You need to learn all about bond yields when you learn about how do bonds work.

Finding out how do bonds work is key to bond investing especially if you are a beginner. Bonds are long term investments and should not be used for short term cash accumulation. You will learn about the right ways to invest in bonds in any books that teach how do bonds work.

The 401K is a type of retirement plan, also sometimes called a cash or deferred arrangement plan (CODA). It is named after a section of the Internal Revenue Code. It means that you make contributions from your salary which are matched and paid for by your employer. There are many companies and non-profit organizations which can set up these plans for their employees.

The contributions that you make are from your pre-tax amount but the funds in the retirement plan are tax-free until it is withdrawn. Your employer allows you to defer payment of part of your compensation and contributes those funds to your account.

Some of the 401k retirement plans include a contribution of 50% from the employer. There is also the option of a profit sharing plan. This means that the employer can make contributions to your funds that are independent of the retirement plan. The independent payments are linked to the profit sharing plan. The most common plan is called a participant-directed plan.

There are 401k retirement plans which allow the employer to decide where the funds will go to such as company stocks, the stock market and other financial options.

The Employment Benefits Security Administration is the office that is in charge of the 401k retirement plans, and they are a section of the U.S Department of Labor. State governments do not allow their employees to have these types of retirement plans, but some tax-exempt and private employees may qualify for the plan. People who are self-employed can now have one of the retirement plans too.

The plan has many benefits for the employee. For example, the employee can choose where the funds will be directed to, therefore maintaining full control over their investments. Another advantage is that the employee can make pre-tax payments which means that they pay less tax and get a better salary check. If an employee changes the company they work for then the retirement plan can be moved from their old employer to their new one.

It is possible to take funds out of the retirement account, but it is worth checking whether any charges will be made for doing this. The 401k retirement plan does allow for monies to be given in the event of hardship; it is common for employers to ask a spouse to sign an agreement to withdraw funds, as this transaction affects them too. As the plans are covered by the U.S pension laws it is not possible for the fund to be paid out to any creditors or signed over to anyone else. The good thing is that the plan is fundamentally a personal investment plan.

It is advisable to be wary of rollovers relating to the 401k retirement plans. It is recommended that you gain all the information possible on the topic of rollovers before making any decisions.

In summary, the 401k retirement plan is one of the best pension-related options around and is worth researching to provide a nice nest egg for your retirement years.

Austrian Philharmonic Gold coins are one of the most beautiful and well crafted in the world. A gold bullion coin, these historic coins were minted in Vienna Austria, and like other coins minted in Austria's impressive coin minting history of over 800 years, have become famous around the world as one of the most sought after and coveted of all gold bullion coins.

These 24 carat gold 99.99% pure coins are not only gorgeous in their beauty and design, but are sought after for such benefits as their reputation for being:

* The best-selling coins in the world * Struck in 99.99% fewer 24 carat gold * Perfect in mint quality * Exceptionally beautiful design of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra on one side and Vienna's Golden Hall on the other * Able to offer immediate resale gold market value

According to the World Gold Council, this coin was the best selling gold bullion coin for most of the 1990s, exceptional for a coin first struck in 1989. Vienna Philharmonic Austrian gold coins contain no alloyed metals. Minted in Austria by the Austrian mint, established in 1194, this coin contains both ancient beauty as well as a potential contemporary investment well into the 21st century.

The key factors of the popularity of these Austrian gold coins are:

* Minted in one half, one quarter, and 1/10 ounce sizes * 37 mm diameter * Face value of 100 or 2000 shillings

Exceptional detail in design and construction continues to make Austrian Philharmonic gold coins one of the most popular and sought after bullion coins in the 21st century. From the exquisite craftsmanship on the obverse and reverse sides of the coin to its continued value and reputation, this Austrian gold coin will continue to be a favorite among both investors and collectors for some time to come.

No matter where you look, every body is wondering whether last Monday's S&P 500 drop of 8.8% combined with yesterday's 8.3% loss at the lows and 3.8% loss at the close is the capitulation we need to call a bottom. Was the last-hour recovery yesterday a sign that the tide has turned?

Here's a round up: Mark Hulbert: "It's worth remembering a truism about market psychology that has been too often overlooked in recent weeks: When genuine capitulation finally takes place, few will recognize it as such at the time. In contrast, an eagerness to declare that capitulation has occurred probably means that it hasn't."

Bill Cara: "Equity markets complete their Bull and Bear cycles with increased volatility, which is the case today. Bull cycles end when the actors run out of cash needed to push prices higher. Bear cycles end because cash holdings build up to very high levels amid the growing opportunities to buy value.

I feel we will do better from here on, and that by far we've seen the worst. I think the woes of the credit market ended with the collapse of Bear Stearns, and credit spreads are already much improved since then. If spreads continue to come in, the write-offs at the big financials will end, and we may even have some write-ups in the second half instead of write-downs.

Valuations are incredible, and valuation spreads are now around one standard deviation over normal, a point at which valuation-based strategies normally begin to work again, and momentum begins to fade.

Majority of housing stocks are up double digits this year amidst bleak headlines, a sign the market had already priced in the current anxiety. I think likewise we have seen the bottom in financials and consumer stocks, but not necessarily the bottom in headlines about the woes in those sectors. Although the economy is likely to struggle as it did in the early 1990s, the market can move higher, as it did back then.

Now is not the time to panic as we have seen it all before! Notwithstanding, if you need your money within the next five years then you will be well adviced to take your money out of the stock market. If you have more than 10 years before you retire then you need to keep investing in the stock market. The grievous error you can ever make right now is to stop contributing to you 401K plan! You have to keep contributing to your retirement plan as it will help you in the long run due to the Dollar Cost Averaging theory.

Dollar cost averaging is a technique designed to minimize market risk through the methodical acquiring of securities at fixed intervals and set amounts. Instead of investing assets in a lump sum, the investor works his way into a position by slowly buying smaller amounts over a longer period of time. This spreads the cost basis out over several years, giving protection against variations in market price.

By making use of this style of buying stocks and securities, you have the ability to buy more securities when the prices drop and less when the prices rise. As time goes by, it averages out with making the value of your potfolio higher. This is why it is critically important to continue to stay in the stock market. A lot of stocks of fundamentally sound companies could be purchased at a bargain right now!

With the increased volatility in the US Stock markets over the past few weeks, now may be a good time to take a look at what happened in the 1987 market crash.

Between October 14 and October 19, 1987, major indexes in the United States dropped 30 percent or more. On October 19, 1987, a date that subsequently became known as Black Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 508 points, losing 22.6% of its total value, while the S&P 500 dropped 20.4%, falling from 282.7 to 225.06.

The 1987 crash put an end to the five-year bull market that had seen the Dow rise from 776 points in August 1982 to a high of 2,722.42 points in August 1987. Unlike what happened in 1929, however, the market rallied immediately after the crash, posting a record one-day gain of 102.27 the very next day and 186.64 points on Thursday October 22. It took only two years for the Dow to recover completely; by September of 1989, the market had regained all of the value it had lost in the '87 crash.

Many investors feared that the 87 crash would trigger a recession. Instead, the fallout from the crash turned out to be surprisingly small. This phenomenon was due, in part, to the intervention of the Federal Reserve. The worst economic losses occurred on Wall Street itself, where 15,000 jobs were lost in the financial industry. (Like today)

Numerous explanations have been offered as to the cause of the crash, although no one theory has been said to have been the sole determinant. Among these are computer trading and derivative securities, illiquidity, trade and budget deficits, and overvaluation. Below are some of the major theories of what happened.

1: DERIVATIVE SECURITIES

Initial blame for the 1987 crash centered on the relationship between stock markets, index options and futures markets. In the former, investors buy actual shares of stock; in the latter they are only purchasing rights to buy or sell stocks at particular prices. Thus options and futures are known as derivatives, because their value derives from changes in stock prices even though no actual shares are owned. The Brady Commission [also known as the Presidential Task Force on Market Mechanisms, which was appointed to investigate the causes of the crash], concluded that the failure of stock markets and derivatives markets to operate in sync was the major factor behind the crash.

2: COMPUTER TRADING

Many analysts blame the use of computer trading (also known as program trading) by large institutional firms. In program trading, computers were programmed to automatically order large stock trades when certain market trends prevailed. With a large decline in the market, analysts believe that program trading caused more selling. However, studies show that during the 1987 U.S. crash, other stock markets which did not use program trading also crashed, some with losses even more severe than the U.S. market.

3: ILLIQUIDITY

During the Crash, trading mechanisms in financial markets were not able to deal with such a large flow of sell orders. Many common stocks in the New York Stock Exchange were not traded until late in the morning of October 19 because the specialists could not find enough buyers to purchase the amount of stocks that sellers wanted to get rid of at certain prices. As a result, trading was terminated in many listed stocks. This insufficient liquidity may have had a significant effect on the size of the price drop, since investors had overestimated the amount of liquidity. However, negative news to investors about the liquidity of stock, option and futures markets cannot explain why so many people decided to sell stock at the same time.

4: U.S. TRADE AND BUDGET DEFICITS

Another important trigger in the market crash was the announcement of a large U.S. trade deficit on October 14, which led then Treasury Secretary James Baker to suggest the need for a fall in the dollar on foreign exchange markets. The fear of a lower dollar led foreigners to pull out of dollar-denominated assets, which then caused a sharp rise in interest rates.

One theory is that the large trade and budget deficits during the third quarter of '87 might have led investors into thinking that these deficits would cause a fall of the U.S. stocks compared with foreign securities (this was the largest U.S. trade deficit since 1960). However, if the large U.S. budget deficit was the cause, why did stock markets in other countries crash as well - as unexpected changes in the trade deficit were bad news for one country, it would be good news for its trading partner.

INVESTING IN BONDS AS AN ATTRACTIVE ALTERNATIVE

Long-term bond yields that had started 1987 at 7.6% climbed to approximately 10% during the summer before the crash. This offered a lucrative alternative to stocks for investors looking for yield.

6: OVERVALUATION

Many analysts agree that stock prices were overvalued in September, 1987. Price/Earning ratio and Price/Dividend ratios were too high [Historically, the P/E ratio is about 15 to 1; in October 1987 the P/E for the S&P 500 had risen to about 20 to 1]. Does that imply that overvaluation caused the 1987 Crash? While these ratios were at historically high levels, similar Price/Earning and Price/Dividends values had been seen for most of the 1960-72 period. Since no crash happened during that period, we can assume that overvaluation did not trigger crashes every time.

Comparing today's market, with the 1987 crash, show that there are not many similarities. Bonds are not at attractive levels, stocks are not overvalued and computer trading has evolved significantly over the past 20 years. Emotional fear is in the market. Once the fear subsides, it will be back to business as usual.