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LONDON (Reuters) - Canada's natural beauty, multicultural society, health care service and security made it the top place on the planet for UK expats, according to an annual index released on Wednesday.

The NatWest International Personal Banking Quality of Life Index also reported that despite a global economic malaise, more than two thirds of UK expats had not seen a reduction in their quality of life abroad and fewer planned to return home.

The fifth index by Britain's Natwest bank revealed most UK expats believe their decision to move abroad was right and that more than half of them have not had to reduce their spending significantly despite the economic backlash from a debt crisis that has depressed the global economy for years.

NatWest head of International Personal Banking Dave Isley said in a statement that the index showed expats had sailed through the most troubled global economic period since the end of World War Two.

"Our Quality of Life Index - which examines expats real life perceptions and experiences and gauges their personal assessments - shows the global financial crisis has failed to dampen the spirits of expats who seem to have adopted the 'keep calm, carry on' philosophy," he said.

Expats living in China, UAE, Hong Kong and Singapore said their financial position had 'improved dramatically' since moving to the country. Those living in Australia, Canada and New Zealand assessed their financial position as having 'improved significantly'.

Those living in Western Europe, South Africa and the United States were less enthusiastic about the improvement in their financial prospects and reported their financial position to have 'improved moderately'.

The index also reported that those Britons who escaped to the sun in Spain, France and Portugal are counting the cost of their moves as their disposable income is eroded and the cost of living rises during a period of budget austerity ushered in by a euro zone crisis that has hit market confidence in several countries tied to the single European currency.

When the first Quality of Life Index was carried out in 2007, confidence around the world was high as the global economy was expanding, household prosperity was increasing and global GDP forecasts were positive, Isley said.

"Fast forward five years and it's a very different picture however, it is the expats who are riding the storm with the majority planning to remain abroad," he said. "Those who are most likely to return home are those who retired to France, Portugal and Spain as their disposable income diminishes and the cost of living rises."

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Canada tops UK expat lifestyle quality index

Youve heard about housing bubbles, commodity bubbles and the Internet bubble.

Are we in the midst of a dividend bubble?

After the big runup in dividend stocks over the past couple of years, a few people have started to throw around the b word. They argue that with bond yields at historic lows, income-starved investors have rushed recklessly into dividend stocks, pushing prices to dangerously high levels.

Some are even comparing it albeit loosely to the subprime bond crisis. Yikes!

Blue-chip dividend stocks are not subprime bonds. But theres an argument to make that, just as investors ran blindly into subprime bonds five years ago in search of yield, theyre running blindly, carelessly into dividend stocks today, Morgan Housel, a contributor to the Motley Fool investment website, wrote recently.

Its true that dividend stocks have become enormously popular with investors, and valuations in some cases may have become stretched. Price-to-earnings multiples for many classic dividend payers pipelines, utilities and real estate investment trusts, for example have jumped and yields have plunged to the lowest in years. Theres also been an explosion of dividend-oriented products particularly exchange-traded funds to meet the growing demand for income.

But its a gigantic leap to argue that we are therefore in a dividend bubble. Were not, and heres why.

First, lets define what a bubble is.

Most investment bubbles, or manias, share several characteristics. They are usually speculative in nature, meaning that investors buy with the expectation that they will be able to flip the asset for a large capital gain. Demand is often fuelled by leverage, which magnifies price increases, which in turn draws in more buyers.

As investors become increasingly euphoric, they ignore risks and throw traditional valuation methods out the window to justify the ascent in prices. There is often talk of a new era a feeling that prices will rise forever.

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Dividend stocks are buoyant, but not bubbling

Youve heard about housing bubbles, commodity bubbles and the Internet bubble.

Are we in the midst of a dividend bubble?

After the big runup in dividend stocks over the past couple of years, a few people have started to throw around the b word. They argue that with bond yields at historic lows, income-starved investors have rushed recklessly into dividend stocks, pushing prices to dangerously high levels.

Some are even comparing it albeit loosely to the subprime bond crisis. Yikes!

Blue-chip dividend stocks are not subprime bonds. But theres an argument to make that, just as investors ran blindly into subprime bonds five years ago in search of yield, theyre running blindly, carelessly into dividend stocks today, Morgan Housel, a contributor to the Motley Fool investment website, wrote recently.

Its true that dividend stocks have become enormously popular with investors, and valuations in some cases may have become stretched. Price-to-earnings multiples for many classic dividend payers pipelines, utilities and real estate investment trusts, for example have jumped and yields have plunged to the lowest in years. Theres also been an explosion of dividend-oriented products particularly exchange-traded funds to meet the growing demand for income.

But its a gigantic leap to argue that we are therefore in a dividend bubble. Were not, and heres why.

First, lets define what a bubble is.

Most investment bubbles, or manias, share several characteristics. They are usually speculative in nature, meaning that investors buy with the expectation that they will be able to flip the asset for a large capital gain. Demand is often fuelled by leverage, which magnifies price increases, which in turn draws in more buyers.

As investors become increasingly euphoric, they ignore risks and throw traditional valuation methods out the window to justify the ascent in prices. There is often talk of a new era a feeling that prices will rise forever.

Original post:
Dividend stocks are buoyant, but are they a bubble?

The Chinese Internet stocks started out 2012 with a nice rally. The four stocks discussed here produced share price gains of 20% to 40% in the first six weeks of the year. However, the price gains were in general just a break in longer term down trends as these companies either try to maintain levels of profit growth to justify the share valuations or figure out how to grow profits along with growing revenues. Traders looking for short sale prospects should check if their analysis match the reasons below why these stocks are better short candidates than buy long investments.

Youku Inc. (YOKU) Youku is the Chinese answer to YouTube or Hulu in the U.S., offering Internet television and video services. Youku was a hot IPO in December of 2010 and the shares traded as high as $70 in early 2011. Then reality set in. The company has posted net losses every quarter for the last four and is expected to lose 38 cents per share when the 2011 fourth quarter results are released, putting the loss for the full year at a loss of $1.52 per share. The Wall Street analysts have been slashing their 2012 expectations: Ninety days ago the consensus estimate for 2012 was a loss of 10 cents per share. Currently the consensus is a loss of $1.42 with the most pessimistic analyst predicting a loss of $2.27. The most optimistic analyst expects a measly 15 cents per share profit. Price rallies on Youku, like the recent runup above $20 to $24 are short selling opportunities. Cover a short position at $15 and avoid being short during an earnings release announcement.

Sina Corporation (SINA) Sina is the owner of a Chinese micro-blogging weibo website. Micro-blogging is a growth craze in China and Sina reported 250 million users at the end of 2011 and was adding 20 million per month. Unfortunately, Sina has suffered from the curse of social media companies as a business: How to generate profits in the face of growing expenses to support the growing number of subscribers? Sina earned $1.74 per share in 2010, saw usership increase exponentially in 2011 and the consensus earnings estimate for 2011 is 94 cents per share, a 50% decline. The company reports 2011 fourth quarter results on February 27. The earnings estimate for the quarter is a profit of 21 cents per share, less than half the 46 cents earned a year earlier. The Wall Street analysts as a group have a little more optimism about 2012, forecasting earnings of $1.41. Over the last several months, the consensus earnings have been declining and Sina is trading at 44 times very iffy forward earnings. It is hard to see a good reason to be long this stock, so short it.

Renren Inc. (RENN) Renren is the Chinese answer to Facebook. The company went public in May 2011 and after the $14 IPO the shares peaked at $21.93 on the IPO trading day. The share value has been mostly downhill ever since. The share price dropped below $10 in early August 2011. Since the end of summer the stock's trading range has been $3.20 to $7. The share price popped 50% from $4 to $6 when the Facebook pending IPO was announced. As the forerunner to the Facebook IPO, Renren was not profitable who it went public, but was expected to soon turn profitable, after raking in that $700 million of IPO money. For 2012, the consensus earnings estimate is a loss of 7 cents per share with the most optimistic analyst forecasting a 4 cent profit. Sell Renren short above $5 and cover at $3.50.

Baidu.com Inc. (BIDU) Baidu is probably the most dangerous short selling candidate listed here. Baidu is the Chinese version of Google (GOOG), receiving 75 percent of the country's search results and is a large cap stock itself with a $47 billion market cap. Baidu operating profits were up 91% in 2011 and net income for the fourth quarter increased by 77%. The Wall Street consensus estimate has net income growing by 50% in 2012. So what are the reasons to short sell this growth stock?

These Chinese Internet stocks have mostly received positive press and share value forecasts over the recent past. Yet they all have vulnerabilities which could result in profits for short sellers. Traders who short sell often must go against the Wall Street crowd, which has a vested interest in stocks generally going up in value. As a final point, foreign stocks from a specific country often move in the same direction together. If a large company such as Baidu starts to lose value, many other Chinese tech stocks will follow along as investors sell of the country as a whole.

About the author: Vatalyst articles are written by a team of independent traders from around the world. All of our articles provide actionable investing ideas you can use to make money. Visit Vatalyst.com's Website

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4 Chinese Internet Stocks to Short Now

Unique opportunity for a company treating neurological disorders, creating educational games or providing eLearning software Brain.com available for sale via DomainAdvisors

New Seabury, MA (PRWEB) February 29, 2012

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"Domain names like Brain.com have a strong and memorable branding association and offer significant advantages to online businesses, said Jeffrey Gabriel, President of DomainAdvisors. Good branding will make your domain name memorable, but a memorable domain name will make your branding efforts much easier. It's not often that a domain name of this caliber becomes available for sale, especially having not yet been developed. Brain.com not only provides the ability to the right investor to start with a clean slate, but also offer a very significant marketing and revenue opportunity. Mr. Gabriel shared that, DomainAdvisors is very pleased to be chosen as the exclusive brokerage firm to represent the sale of this premium domain.

For additional information or offer guidelines on Brain.com, please contact Jeffrey Gabriel directly at +1 508 689 9569, ext. 701 or Jeff(at)domainavisors(dot)com.

About DomainAdvisors

DomainAdvisors assists domain owners and online businesses in the overall planning and execution of their domain strategy. DomainAdvisors offers resources with the knowledge and understanding necessary to provide invaluable guidance during the entire lifecycle of a domain. Services range from consultancy to acquisitions, to all elements of monetization, development, branding and sales. Domains can be complicated and DomainAdvisors provides the opportunity to leverage years of industry experience to help maximize success.

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Brain.com Domain and Trademark Exclusively for Sale with DomainAdvisors.com