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Are PINs always needed for paying with card?
There generally isn't much in the way of real identity verification, at least in the US and online. The protection you get is that with most credit cards you can report your card stolen (within some amount of time) and the fraudulent charges dropped. The merchant is the one that usually ends up paying for it if it get...
Options for dummies. Can you explain how puts & calls work, simply?
Put Options for Kids: You have a big box of candy bars. You saved up your allowance to get a lot of them, so you could have one whenever you want one. But, you just saw a commercial on TV for a new toy coming out in one month. Your allowance alone won't buy it, and you want that toy more than you want the candy. So, yo...
If I put in a limit order for the same price and size as someone else, which order goes through?
While littleadv's answer is true for many exchanges (in particular the stock market, it's called FIFO matching) you should also know that some markets trade pro rata. That is, for a match at some price level everyone at that level gets a chunk of the deal proportional to their input (i.e. order size). E.g. match for q...
Got a “personal” bonus from my boss. Do I have to pay taxes and if so, how do I go about that?
As others have mentioned yes it is taxable. Whether it goes through payroll and has FICA taken out is your issue in terms that you need to report it and you will an extra 7.5% self employment taxes that would normally be covered by your employer. Your employer may have problems but that isn't your issue. Contrary to w...
Why are there hidden bids and offers in the US stock market for the more illiquid stocks?
When you place a bid between the bid/ask spread, that means you are raising the bid (or lowering the ask, if you are selling). The NBBO (national best bid and offer) is now changed because of your action, and yes, certain kinds of orders may be set to react to that (a higher bid or lower ask triggering them), also many...
How to finance my trading strategy in foreign exchange trading?
how can I get started knowing that my strategy opportunities are limited and that my capital is low, but the success rate is relatively high? A margin account can help you "leverage" a small amount of capital to make decent profits. Beware, it can also wipe out your capital very quickly. Forex trading is already high-r...
What determines deal price on stock exchange? [duplicate]
Stock prices are set by bidding. In principle, a seller will say, "I want $80." If he can't find anyone willing to buy at that price, he'll either decide not to sell after all, or he'll lower his price. Likewise, a buyer will say, "I'll pay $70." If he can't find anyone willing to pay that price, he'll either decide no...
What are the financial advantages of living in Switzerland?
The lake is beautiful. The Swiss people are really good educated The companies want to be a part of these great reputation. We have low taxes We are political stable Our currency is stable We are company-friendly
Should a retail trader choose a broker with access to dark pools
That's like a car dealer advertising their "huge access" to Chevrolet. All brokers utilize dark pools nowadays, either their own or one belonging to a larger financial institution. Why? Because that's a primary source of broker income. Example: Under current US regulations the broker is under no obligation to pass ...
Does a larger down payment make an offer stronger?
There is a lot of your financial information that the selling agent handles in the course of a real estate transaction, including but not limited to your pre-approval letter which states what maximum purchase price might be. Closing costs and interest rate are not details they would know unless you shared that with the...
Opening and funding an IRA in three days - is this feasible?
A few years ago, I did something like this at a Wells Fargo; I realized I could put money into an IRA a few days before 4/15, and was able to walk in to the main branch and do the whole thing in under an hour.
Where do online stock brokers get their real-time data from?
Generally Google gets their data, directly from the exchanges (Nasdaq, NYSE). This is really expensive -- tens of thousands of dollars a month just for the license from the exchange, and lots of telecom costs on top of that.
Price movement behaviour before earnings announcements
In principle, the stock price should see no change in the days leading up to an earnings announcement, and then at the moment of the announcement, the stock price should move in the direction of the earnings surprise (relative to the market's belief of what earnings were going to be). In practice, stock prices tend to ...
Selling on eBay without PayPal?
I've definitely seen a similar conversation about this, I personally don't buy from eBay (Amazon for me). So I turned to the internet to see what I could find to offer you any additional information (albeit not my personal experience). I first read this article: CodeNerdz Article and was pretty horrified by the scammi...
Live in Florida & work remote for a New York company. Do I owe NY state income tax?
New York State is one of a few states that will go after telecommuter taxes (such that some people may end up paying double tax even if they don't live in NY). There are a few ways that you can avoid this. If you NEVER come to NY for work, and your employer can stipulate that your position is only available to be fill...
Borrowing money to buy shares for cashflow?
It's generally a bad idea to use low-risk credit (low-risk in sense you're practically guaranteed to be forced to pay it off) to buy high-risk shares. In optimistic scenario, the profit from shares would be higher than your credit percentages. In less optimistic scenario you come with nothing. In worse scenario you hav...
Analyze a security using Benjamin Graham's Defensive Investor Criteria
Everything you are doing is fine. Here are a few practical notes in performing this analysis: Find all the primary filing information on EDGAR. For NYSE:MEI, you can use https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000065270&type=10-K&dateb=&owner=exclude&count=40 This is the original 10-K. To evalua...
Taxable Website Ad Revenue
If the $5000 is income, then you need to pay income taxes on it. That's simply the way it works. Hourly rate has nothing to do with whether or not you pay taxes. If it helps, try to think of the $5000 as the first $5000 you make for the year. Now it's covered by your standard deduction and you're not paying taxes on...
What are the consequences of not respecting a notice period when leaving a job?
It depends on your employer. They may not care to pursue matters if you don't give enough notice. They might be happy to see you go. Or they might be really sad to see you go, but not feel like they need to punish you. Or they might be really angry to see you go, and decide that they want to punish you to the full exte...
How can the Samsung Upgrade Programme offer 0% APR?
Having just purchased an upcoming Samsung phone using their 0% interest I can tell you that the justification is to give you credit. I have the same with Best Buy which is 0% for a specific initial purchase. The bank (in the Samsung case is TD Bank) establishes a rotating credit line for you. The APR after is well esta...
Unable to understand logic behind why there is no exit load on liquid fund
Imagine that a fund had a large exit load that declined over several years. If you wanted to sell some or all of your investment in that fund you would face a large fee, unless you held it a long time. You would be hesitant to sell because waiting longer would save you money. That is the exact opposite of a liquid inve...
Uni-Select (UNS.TO) Market Cap Incorrect?
Note that your link shows the shares as of March 31, 2016 while http://uniselect.com/content/files/Press-release/Press-Release-Q1-2016-Final.pdf notes a 2-for-1 stock split so thus you have to double the shares to get the proper number is what you are missing. The stock split occurred in May and thus is after the deadl...
Where do I invest my Roth IRA besides stock market and mutual funds?
That depends, really. Generally speaking, though - Roth IRAs are THE PLACE for Stock-Market/Mutual-Fund investing. All the off the wall (or, not so off the wall) things like Real Estate investments, or buying up gold, or whatever other ideas you hear from people - they may be good or bad or whatnot. But your Roth IRA i...
What emergencies could justify a highly liquid emergency fund?
What sort of emergency requires payment up front for which 2-3 days processing of a stock sale would pose a problem? In my case, the sudden and unexpected death of my wife. Back in 2011, my wife was struck and killed in a traffic incident. I had to immediately (not in 2 - 3 days) cover 50% of the entire costs of the fu...
Is it OK to use a credit card on zero-interest to pay some other credit cards with higher-interest?
I am sure everyone is different, but it has helped me a great deal. I have had several card balances go up and the interest on those per month was more than $200 in just interest combined. I transferred the balances over to 0% for 15 months – with a fee, so the upfront cost was about $300. However, over the next 15 mo...
Where can I get AEX historical data - Amsterdam?
Try the general stock exchange web page. http://www.aex.nl I did a quick trial myself and was able to download historical data for the AEX index for the last few years. To get to the data, I went to the menu point "Koersen" on the main page and chose "Indices". I then entered into the sub page for the AEX index. There...
Are stock prices likely drop off a little bit on a given friday afternoon?
It is called the Monday Effect or the Weekend Effect. There are a number of similar theories including the October Effect and January Effect. It's all pretty much bunk. If there were any truth to traders would be all over it and the resulting market forces would wipe it out. Personally, I think all technical analysis h...
If a company has already IPO'ed and sold its shares, what is the incentive to keep making money?
Because people bought their shares under the premise that they would make more money and if the company completely lied about that they will be subject to several civil and criminal violations. If people didn't believe the company was going to make more money, they would have valued their shares lower during the IPO by...
How to compute for losses in an upside down trade-in of a financed car?
I'm going to ignore your numbers to avoid spending the time to understand them. I'm just going to go over the basic moving parts of trading an upside down car against another financed car because I think you're conflating price and value. I'm also going to ignore taxes, and fees, and depreciation. The car has an acqu...
What economic growth rate is required to halve U.S. unemployment?
Two points.
Are there any dangers in publicly sharing my personal finance data?
I think it's advisable to exercise a fair amount of caution when posting information about yourself online. With the advances in data aggregation efforts, information that would have been considered sufficiently anonymized in years past might no longer be sufficient to protect you from bad actors online. For example, d...
How can I stop wasting food?
Most basic tip: Don't go to the grocery store hungry. What we do to minimize food waste: On Sunday when my wife and I go grocery shopping, we figure out what meals we are going to have for dinner that week, and we only buy what we need for those meals. We also try to decide in advance what night(s) we are going out fo...
What is most time-efficient way to track portfolio asset allocation?
If you have enough assets at T Rowe Price, you get what I think is a scaled back version of the portfolio tracker for free.
Ideal investments for a recent college grad with very high risk tolerance?
Sorry to be boring but you have the luxury of time and do not need high-risk investments. Just put the surplus cash into a diversified blue-chip fund, sit back, and enjoy it supporting you in 50 years time. Your post makes me think you're implicitly assuming that since you have a very high risk tolerance you ought to b...
Does a withdrawal of $10000 for 1st home purchase count against Roth IRA basis?
From Schwab With a Roth, withdrawals of contributions are always tax-free because you've already paid income taxes on that money. So are withdrawals of earnings of up to $10,000 under the homebuyer exemption, assuming you've had the Roth for five-plus years. But if you withdraw more than $10,000 in earnings, th...
Where do I invest my Roth IRA besides stock market and mutual funds?
In general, investors with a long period of time until they would need to withdraw the cash are best off holding mostly equities. While the dividends that equities would return are less than the interest you would get in peer-to-peer lending, over long periods of time not only do you get the dividends from equity inve...
How can it be possible that only ~10% of options expire worthless, and only ~10% are exercised?
Consider the futures market. Traders buy and sell gold futures, but very few contracts, relatively speaking, result in delivery. The contracts are sold, and "Open interest" dwindles to near zero most months as the final date approaches. The seller buys back his short position, the buyer sells off his longs. When I own...
Investing in low cost index fund — does the timing matter?
If you're worried about investing all at once, you can deploy your starting chunk of cash gradually by investing a bit of it each month, quarter, etc. (dollar-cost averaging). The financial merits and demerits of this have been debated, but it is unlikely to lose you a lot of money, and if it has the psychological ben...
How should I value personal use television for donation?
I used TurboTax last year. It had a section for donations where it figured out the amounts of the IRS approved values for a donation. You would need to know the size of the television and the current condition it is in. He's a screenshot - though it's not from the TV section. https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/ta...
How can I determine which stores are regarded as supermarkets for a rewards credit card?
Credit card companies organize types of businesses into different categories. (They charge different types of businesses different fees.) When a business first sets up their credit card processing merchant account, they need to specify the category. Here is a list of categories that Visa uses. Grocery stores and super...
Will a credit card company close my account if I stop using it?
There is no universal answer here. Some card issuers will. Some that will close the account will warn you first. For my "sock drawer" cards I'll try to take each out semi-annually to make a single transaction, then put it back in the drawer. I've heard you should charge something quarterly, I've never had one closed...
Non Qualifying Stock Option offered by employer
Let's work from the inside out. Options are not stock. Options are a contract that give you the right to own the stock. For options to have value they have to be exercised. Straight line means that each quarter 1/16th of the option grant becomes yours and the company cannot take it away. Four quarters in a year times f...
Ballpark salary equivalent today of “healthcare benefits” in the US?
As a contractor, I have done this exact calculation many times so I can compare full time employment offers when they come. The answer varies greatly depending on your situation, but here's how to calculate it: So, subtracting the two and you get I've run many different scenarios with multiple plans and employers, and ...
ESPP in the UK - worth it? Disqualifying / qualifying sales?
ESPP is common among US companies, often with a framework similar to your outline. In the US, some ESPPs allow sales of shares to be considered qualifying (subject to capital gains rather than ordinary income tax) if they are sold at least 2 years after the enrollment date and at least 1 year after the purchase date. ...
Importance of dividend yield when evaluating a stock?
Dividend yields can also reflect important information about the company's status. For example, a company that has never lowered or stopped paying dividends is a "strong" company because it has the cash/earnings power to maintain its dividend regardless of the market. Ideally, a company should pay dividends for at leas...
Why are some countries' currencies “weaker”?
You may as well ask why a piece of wood is 25 centimeters long but only 10 inches. Most units of measure are very arbitrary. Somebody decides that this amount of heat or distance or money is a convenient unit, and so that's what they use. Suppose that tomorrow the government issued a whole new currency that had 10 time...
Gigantic point amount on rewards card - what are potential consequences?
What would be the consequences if they do realize their error some day in the far future? You've informed them of the error and they've informed you that nevertheless the points are yours and you should use them. So you have a couple of issues: have you made what your jurisdiction considers a reasonable effort to cor...
What does Dividend 165% mean in stock market?
Do not confuse the DIV (%) value and the dividend yield. As you can see from this page, the DIV (%) is, as you say, 165%. However, the dividend yield is 3.73% at the time of writing. As the Investopedia page referenced above says: The payout ratio is calculated as follows: Annual Dividends per Share / Earnings per Sh...
PayPal wants me to “add a bank account”, another funding source. Credit card isn't working. Why?
Have you checked to make sure that your card isn't at the limit, or at risk of expiring soon? Maybe PayPal has a policy to reject credit cards with expiry dates that fall within their buyer/seller protection periods? But to answer your question, no, I've never had this happen to me before.
Do I have to sell worthless stock to claim a loss and clean up?
Generally, to be able to write off worthless securities, you need to show that they're indeed worthless. It's not necessarily easy, as you need to prove that there's no way they will regain any value in the future. What is usually done, instead, is very simple: you sell them. Many brokers are aware of this problem and ...
How fast does the available amount of gold in the world increase due to mining?
For the last few years around 2,500 metric tonnes of gold have been produced each year. This is on top of existing supply of 160,000 metric tonnes. Existing yearly production is around 1.5% of the existing supply. Charts from here.
Buying a house for a shorter term
There are two main factors at play to consider. Also, realize that no advice is universal. You need to evaluate your exact situation and do what is best for you.
How to work around the Owner Occupancy Affidavit to buy another home in less than a year?
Danger. The affidavit is a legal document. Understand the risk of getting caught. If you are planning on using the condo to generate income the chances that you default on the loan are higher than an owner occupied property. That is why they demand more down payment (20%+) and charge a higher rate. The document isn't ...
How to find historical stock price for a de-listed or defunct company?
Such data is typically only available from paid sources due to the amount of research involved in determining the identity of delisted securities, surviving entities in merger scenarios, company name changes, symbol changes, listing venue changes, research of all capital events such as splits, and to ensure that the da...
Complete Opposite Calculations and Opinions - Using Loan to Invest - Paying Monthly Installments with Monthly Income
Sorry in advance, but this will be long. Also, it sounds like your friend is a tool. I hope this "friend" is not also your financial advisor... they would be encouraging you to make a very poor investment decision. They also don't know how to do financial math. For what it's worth, I am not wrong. I have correctly an...
Loan holder wants a check from the insurance company that I already cashed and used to repair my car
There are at least three financial institutions involved here: your insurance company's bank, the money center, and your bank. Normally, they would keep records, but given that the money center didn't even ask for your signature, "normal" probably doesn't apply to them. Still, you can still ask them what records they h...
Can you explain the mechanism of money inflation?
Assuming constant velocity, inflation is caused by the difference between the growth in the money supply and growth in real output. In other words, this means that the money supply growing faster than output is expanding causes inflation to arise.
are there any special procedures for managing non-petty cash?
You manage this account just as any other account. "Petty cash" refers to accounts where the cash money is intended for ad-hoc purchases, where you store an amount of cash in your drawer and take it out as needed. However, other than naming it "petty cash", there's nothing petty about it - it's an account just as any o...
Full-time work + running small side business: Best business structure for taxes?
You should look into an LLC. Its a fairly simple process, and the income simply flows through to your individual return. It will allow you to deduct supplies and other expenses from that income. It should also protect you if someone sues you for doing shoddy work (even if the work was fine), although you would need ...
Personal Tax Return software for Linux?
I used H&R Block this year 2013 to do my 2012 taxes and it was a snap! Ubuntu 12.10 with Firefox 20 and everything worked great! Although it is not listed as one of the "supported" platforms, Firefox breezed through the application without any problems. I used the deluxe version of H&R to calculate my mortgage and h...
Credit card interest calculator with grace period & different interest rate calculation methods?
If you want to ensure that you stop paying interest, the best thing to do is to not use the card for a full billing cycle. Calculating credit card interest with precision ahead of time is difficult, as how you use the card both in terms of how much and when is critical.
Mortgage refinancing fees
2.5%? Whoa, you are being robbed there. Straight-up, stripped-down, and bent-over-a-table robbed. Never agree to "fees". If they don't want to do the work to give you a loan, there are other lenders who do. Rarely agree to "points". If you know -- and I don't mean "think", I mean "know" -- if you know that you are g...
Exercising an option without paying for the underlying
It would be nice if the broker could be instructed to clear out the position for you, but in my experience the broker will simply give you the shares that you can't afford, then freeze your account because you are over your margin limit, and issue a margin call. This happened to me recently because of a dumb mistake: o...
Why is property investment good if properties de-valuate over time?
When you buy a property the house or the building goes down in value every year (it gets depreciated) similar to when you drive a new car out of the lot. However, it is the land that increases in value over time. As land becomes scarcer the value of land in that area will increase in value, as does land in sought after...
Market percentage growth per timeframe
What you are looking for is an indicator called the "Rate of Change (Price)". It provides a rolling % change in the price over the period you have chosen. Below is an example showing a price chart over the last 6 months with a 100 day Rate of Change indicator below the price chart.
Why is company provided health insurance tax free, but individual health insurance is not?
This probably is a question that belongs on History but here's the basic reason: the or Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974 established that health benefits under approved plans were not taxable to the employee. If the employer were to pay for an employees non ERISA approved individual plan, it wou...
How often do typical investors really lose money?
So how often do investors really lose money? The short answer is, every day. Let's first examine your assumptions: If the price of the share gets lower, the investor can just wait until it gets higher. What are the chances that it won't forever, or for years? There are many stocks whose price goes down and then dow...
What's the best online tool that can track my entire portfolio including gains/losses?
Mint.com does this quite well. The graph views of your budgets, investments, debts, and other aspects of your financial life can be shown in gestalt, or on a per-account basis (at least, it does for me). See the investment "how it works" page for more information. "Find out whether you're beating the market–or it's be...
Is www.onetwotrade.com a scam?
It is a binary options market licensed by the "gaming authority" of Malta. One of the most liberal "pay to play" jurisdictions in the European Union. It sells access to tighter regulatory regimes. This is distinctly a gambling website, not licensed or protected by securities regulations. But that aside, even if they we...
How to check the paypal's current exchange rate?
PayPal does charge a premium, both for sending and receiving. Here's how you find their rates:
Risk and reward of a synthetic option position
But if underlying goes to 103 at expiration, both the call and the put expire worthless If the stock closes at 103 on expiration, the 105 put is worth $2, not worthless.
Investment fund or ETF sanity check / ideas
Now I'm trying to decide whether to find a managed fund, or use Vanguard ETFs. With a new trading account I can keep at least the initial move free of transaction charges, but ongoing additions would cost me the standard fee. I may want to move half of those funds into a mortgage deposit in a year. (maybe?) Most ETFs, ...
How a company can afford to give away so many shares as part of its ESOP
This question is very open ended. But I'll try to answer parts of it. An employer can offer shares as part of a compensation package. Instead of paying cash the employer can use the money to buy up shares and give them to the employees. This is done to keep employees for longer periods of time and the employer may also...
Apartment lease renewal - is this rate increase normal?
Yes, automatic rate increases are typical in my experience (and I think it's very greedy, when it's based on nothing except that your lease is up for renewal, which is the situation you are describing). Yes, you should negotiate. I've had success going to the apartment manager and having this conversation: Make these ...
Is there a way I can get bid/ask price data on the NSE in real time?
Yes apply for live and dynamic data (you may have to pay for this depending on your broker and your country) and look at the market depth.
operating income
Judgement, settlement, insurance proceeds, etc etc. These would probably be recorded as a negative expense in the same category where the original expense was recorded.
Should I fund retirement with a static asset allocation or an age based glide path?
I think not. I think a discussion of optimum mix is pretty independent of age. While a 20 year old may have 40 years till retirement, a 60 year old retiree has to plan for 30 years or more of spending. I'd bet that no two posters here would give the same optimum mix for a given age, why would anyone expect the Wall Str...
Why does it look like my 401k loan default was not paid by my 401k account balance?
When you leave an employer, 401(k) loans are immediately due (or within 30 days or 60 days). So maybe they are waiting to see if you will pay off your loan. If you wanted to transfer the loan as well, you need to talk to your new 401(k) plan administrator to find out if this even possible. If they say No and you don't ...
Small withdrawals from IRA
You have several questions in your post so I'll deal with them individually: Is taking small sums from your IRA really that detrimental? I mean as far as tax is concerned? Percentage wise, you pay the tax on the amount plus a 10% penalty, plus the opportunity cost of the gains that the money would have gotten. At 6% g...
I'm a UK citizen, can I use US stockbrokers?
The UK has historically aggressive financial law, inherited from Dutch friendship, influence, and acquisitions by conquest. The law is so open that nearly anyone can invest through the UK without much difficulty, and citizens have nearly no restrictions on where to invest. A UK citizen can either open an account in the...
What can my relatives do to minimize their out of pocket expenses on their fathers estate
Consider contracting with a property management company to lease and maintain the house until it can be sold. Rent on the property should cover the mortgage, property taxes, etc. The property management company can handle maintenance and the tenant would be responsible for utilities.
Net money invested in Stock indexes ended up in red
Not sure where you got the 296 crores figure. The data on the sheet shows activity by category of investors. In the end NET of all BUY and SELL across all categories will always be Zero. It has no bearing on whether the stock market goes up or goes down. If you compare only activity by certain category, say FII then th...
I may earn a lot of cash soon through self-employment on a lucrative project. How to handle the tax?
I'm not familiar with Canadian taxes, but had your question been written about the United States, I'd advise you to at least consult for a couple of hours with an accountant. Taxes are complex, and the cost of making a mistake generally exceeds the cost of getting professional advice.
how can a US citizen buy foreign stocks?
For question #1, at least some US-based online brokers do permit direct purchases of stocks on foreign exchanges. Depending on your circumstances, this might be more cost effective than purchasing US-listed ADRs. One such broker is Interactive Brokers, which allows US citizens to directly purchase shares on many differ...
Are REIT worth it and is it a good option to generate passive income for a while?
Other individuals answered how owning an REIT compares to an individual real estate investment, but did not answer your second question as readily, "are REITs a good option to generate passive income for awhile?". The "awhile" part is quite important in answering this question. If your intentions are to invest for a re...
Using 2 different social security numbers
While I agree with keshlam@ that the gym had no reason (or right) to ask for your SSN, giving false SSN to obtain credit or services (including gym membership) may be considered a crime. While courts disagree on whether you can be charged with identity theft in this scenario, you may very well be charged with fraud, an...
If I sell a stock that I don't have, am I required to buy it before a certain amount of time?
Answers here are correct but I'll offer an extremely (overly) simple explanation that should help you in understanding the more detailed answers. When most people own stock they do so through a broker. Unless you jump through some hoops, the broker keeps the shares in the name of the brokerage. This is called holdin...
What intrinsic, non-monetary value does gold have as a commodity?
Borrowing Wikipedia for a bit, it seems like the intrinsic uses are these. I've ordered these approximately in technology-level order: The importance of any of these uses largely depends on the state of a civilization and the level of technology of that civilization. However, most of these applications have far cheaper...
What does “interest rates”, without any further context, generically refer to?
It refers to the risk free rate of a particular country. Because all other rates are usually pegged to the risk free rate. In US,it is the 30 day treasury rate. In England, it is the LIBOR In Canada, it is the overnight rate at which banks lend money to each other. All of these come under the category of risk free rate...
What are some simple techniques used for Timing the Stock Market over the long term?
Buy low, sell high - the problem, of course, finding a crystal ball that will tell you when the highs and lows are going to happen :-) You could, for instance, save your money in cash and wait for the occasional sharp drop, but then you've lost profits & dividends from having that cash under the mattress all those year...
What should my finances look like at 18?
The golden rule is "Pay yourself first." This means that you should have some form of savings plan set up, preferably a monthly automatic withdrawal that comes out the day after your pay is deposited. 10% is a reasonable number to start with. You are in a wonderful situation because you are thinking about this 10-15 ye...
Put on a put option
I doubt that this exists, but it could theoretically. After all, a share is kind of an option to a company's future success, and so a call is already a second level on indirection. The better approach would be to 'create your own Put-Puts', by investing less money (A) in the Put you wanted to invest into, and put the s...
Is there a term that better describes a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) when it is negative?
Not sure why CAGR is a problem for both directions. I used to be a physicist, and, when I taught classes in graduate school, students always wanted to use the terms "accelerate" and "decelerate" to describe "speeding up" and "slowing down". But acceleration is just a vector with magnitude and direction. There's nothing...
Following an investment guru a good idea?
The best answer here is "maybe, but probably not". A few quick reasons: Its not a bad idea to watch other investors especially those who can move markets but do your own research on an investment first. Your sole reason for investing should not be "Warren did it".
Why do so many people trade a bankrupt company's stock?
It may have some value! Investopedia has a well-written quick article on how stock holders may still get some portion of the liquidated assets. While there is generally little left for common shareholders if the price of those shares is tiny and some money does come back to shareholders there can still be significant...
Why is retirement planning so commonly recommended?
I like many of the answers, but here is a summary of reasons: Almost everyone will retire, and it is almost certain that government or company pensions schemes will not alone give you a lifestyle you would like in retirement. Money invested early is worth much more in retirement than money invested late, thanks to the ...
401k with paltry match or SPY ETF?
Answers: 1. Is this a good idea? Is it really risky? What are the pros and cons? Yes, it is a bad idea. I think, with all the talk about employer matches and tax rates at retirement vs. now, that you miss the forest for the trees. It's the taxes on those retirement investments over the course of 40 years that really ma...
How smart is it really to take out a loan right now?
Yes, it's a buyer's market. If one is looking to buy a house, comparing the cost to rent vs own is a start. Buying a property to rent to a stranger is a different issue altogether, it's a business like any other, it takes time and has risk. If today, one has a decent downpayment (20%) and plans to stay in the house fo...
Finding Uncorrelated Assets
Have a look at: Diversify Portfolio. The site provides various tools all focused on correlation, diversification and portfolio construction. You can scan through every stock and ETF listed on the NASDAQ and NYSE to find any kind of correlation you're looking for. You can also create a portfolio and then analyze all the...
How is options implied volatility for a stock determined?
There are a few different "kinds" of implied volatility. They are all based on the IVs obtained from the option pricing model you use. (1) Basically, given a few different values (current stock price, time until expiration, right of option, exercise style, strike of the option, interest rates, dividends, etc), you can ...