Declines in IBM offset some of the gains made by investors looking forward to the European Central Bank announcement Thursday, where the group is expected to purchase more bonds to stimulate the economy. The Euro Zone has had some economic troubles as of late and investors see the new stimulus as overdue. Asian stocks also moved higher later in the day after the US markets rose.

It is that time of year again "Tax Season" and everyone needs to start thinking about filing his or her tax returns.

TurboTax has made some "Tax Software" changes for this year and that leads to a software war between TurboTax and H&R Block.

MousePrint which is a sister site to ConsumerWorld.org sent out a warning for TurboTax users earlier this week. According to MousePrint regular customers of the TurboTax Deluxe software program used to help with the preparation of tax forms are in for a big surprise this year. The surprise involves the Intuit INTU-1.01%'s version of TurboTax Deluxe. This top selling desktop version of TurboTax will require an upgrade for the Premier and higher edition versions. This will affect the Q&A sections for Schedules C (self-employment income and all expenses), D (investments), and E (rental and partnership income) on the TurboTax Deluxe software. The full interview sections will no longer be on the TurboTax Deluxe software. This will require an upgrade for the already purchased TurboTax software. Therefore this will require more money spent by TurboTax customers.

iPhone 6 will drive Apple Christmas sales to a healthy gain. KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that he predicts 71.5 million iPhone 6 sales in the fourth quarter of 2014. That is a large percentage gain (40%) over the same quarter last year and almost a doubling (82%) of the sales in the previous quarter.

Google CEO Larry Page sold 33 thousand shares for over $18 million last week in a disclosure statement to the SEC. He got 552.88 per share when he sold the Google stock and still owns a large number, 190 thousand worth over $105 million. The stock is currently near the 50 day moving average with a downward trend over the past 30 days. Their last quarter earnings missed consensus reports of $6.55 a share, coming in at $6.35 per share. Long term is hard to predict with the coming acquiring a number of companies and working to make its search business more profitable.

Google just signed a deal with NASA to rent the Moffit Federal Airfield in the South San Francisco Bay. The historic facility for the next 60 years will be used to advance Google’s space and robotics division, Planetary Ventures. In addition to the rent of $1.16 billion, they will invest $200 million into improvements. Hanger One, Two and Three have been used to store space and air craft. Hanger One is still the largest free standing structure in the world after almost 80 years. The main hanger will be used to advance Google’s space craft design and robots development.

Google stock has not seen much movement during 2014 even with revenue growth of 20% last quarter and earnings growth of 14% during the same time period compared to last year. But the company has moved into a leadership role in the new area that is set to explode in the coming 5 years, the Internet of Things (IoT). Smart homes are thought to take IoT on a annual growth rate of 67% in the next five years. This movement to a $2 billion unit industry will out pace the current darling, mobile devices. This relates to a $409 billion revenue market in 2019 from the current %61 billion market today. Google hopes to be the leader in this market while still focusing on its core search business.

Tech hungry investors should take a look at the robust TradeStation platform for their stock brokerage accounts. This trade platform offers 3rd party integration, tools that are very original, advanced monitoring, and great help support. The fees can get a little expense if you do not meet minimums, but overall a great platform/brokerage. At this time you can get 90 days of commission free trading when you sign-up.

Parkett-Boerse in Ffm (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

SureTrader Brokerage Firm Investing Benefits:

The SureTrader brokerage firm is based in the Bahamas. The Securities Commissions of the Bahamas is their regulating body. SureTrader serves an entire international community with very competitive rates. Even if you have a broker already, it never hurts to keep your options open to what works.

SureTrader can offer you several trading platforms to meet with your comfort level and needs. They have a bottom level for trading equities and options that is free, and it is easily accessed from any computer with an Internet capabilities. They also have a very popular mid-level platform that can be accessed for a low monthly fee. Their mid-level platform enables users to access their 'point-and-click' fast trading that helps newbies who lack experience. Their final platform level comes in the form of a mobile app that gives you access to your account 24/7. It can be used to make additional orders or place quotes. Regardless of the option you select, you will have great accessibility and good flexibility for making as much money as you can.

For the last 8 years, the rate of unemployment has kept on rising. On the other hand, the growth of industries in technology, energy and healthcare show an upward trend thus energizing the deteriorating economy. Amazingly, some sectors like manufacturing, which were reliable before are now perishing and taking with them whole cities.

During the few final years of Bush Administration and early Obama Administration people who depended on wages as their only source of revenue really suffered. On the other hand, a good portion of Americans who use alternative methods of revenue generation such as investing made more money. In fact, corporate payoffs rose to about 150 per cent as compared to 2007 figures. Many people fear to invest since they think investing requires a complex procedure.

Sure Trader is a company that is Bahamas-based and that clears through US based clearing firms. Recently, their CEO spoke about many of their appealing qualities on Friday's LiveStock on demand. Let's take a look at some of these great qualities they offer.

SureTrader's clients are not subject and not affected adversely by the Pattern Day Trader Rule. This means basically that their clients are able to trade as much as they want and not be restricted to 3 day trades in a 5-day rolling period.

Sure Trader is a company that is Bahamas-based and that clears through US based clearing firms. Recently, their CEO spoke about many of their appealing qualities on Friday's LiveStock on demand. Let's take a look at some of these great qualities they offer.

SureTrader's clients are not subject and not affected adversely by the Pattern Day Trader Rule. This means basically that their clients are able to trade as much as they want and not be restricted to 3 day trades in a 5-day rolling period.

Another positive is that you can operate your account with less than $25k which is a great advantage to investors.

Another great factor of opening an account with Sure Trader is that they require a minimum of just $2000 to do so. This is far less than what is required by most other companies.

Shorts are not waning at all, on the contrary, brokers are now seeing great demands for them. And the other good news is that CEO Guy Gentile is committed to making certain that Sure Trader becomes and remains the short-sales all-in-one broker.

Another great benefit is that for trades up to 1000 shares, the cost involved is only $4.95 per trade, making them one of the least expensive firms out there.

Another positive is that being an offshore company, they avoid many of the involved and complicated US rules.