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What's a reliable way for a non-permanent resident alien in the USA to get an auto loan? | I took @littleadv 's recommendation that online apps only ask for citizenship due to post-9/11 legislation. I applied to 2 banks in person (one big, one small), and at the dealership. None of my in-person applications ever touched on the issue of citizenship. I even applied in person at the same bank that insta-rejec... |
Why do stock prices of retailers not surge during the holidays? | Systemic and well know patterns in sales are priced in to the security. Typically companies with very cyclical earnings like this will issue guidance of earnings per share within a range. These expected earnings are priced in before the earnings are actually booked. If a company meets these expectations the stock wi... |
How to record a written put option in double-entry accounting? | Because you've sold something you've received cash (or at least an entry on your brokerage statement to say you've got cash) so you should record that as a credit in your brokerage account in GnuCash. The other side of the entry should go into another account that you create called something like "Open Positions" and i... |
Paying Off Principal of Home vs. Investing In Mutual Fund | The mathematically correct answer is to invest, because you'll get a higher rate of return. I think that answer is bunk -- owning your home free and clear is a huge burden lifted off of your shoulders. You're at an age where you may find a new job, business, personal or other opportunities will be easier to take advant... |
Is candlestick charting an effective trading tool in timing the markets? | Candlesticks and TA are a relic of pre-computer trading, period. Market makers use sophisticated algorithms not for trading, but manipulations. |
What percentage of my portfolio should be in individual stocks? | How much should a rational investor have in individual stocks? Probably none. An additional dollar invested in a ETF or low cost index fund comprised of many stocks will be far less risky than a specific stock. And you'd need a lot more capital to make buying, voting, and selling in individual stocks as if you were run... |
Does the stock market create any sort of value? | You are correct that a share of stock in a company has zero intrinsic value. Even if the company typically pays dividends, there's no guarantee that it will continue to do so. A share's only worth comes from: So that's one step better than a Ponzi scheme, because in a Ponzi scheme there's not actually any value prese... |
Would investing equally in all 30 companies which comprise the DJIA net the same performance as the DJIA? | DJIA is a price weighted index (as in the amount of each component company is weighted by its price) and the constituents change occasionally (51 times so far). With these two effects you would not get anything like the same return by equally weighting your holdings and would have to rebalance every so often. Note that... |
Buying shares in a company after you quit | Insider trading is when you buy or sell an investment based on material, non-public information that gives you an unfair advantage over the rest of traders in that market. Working for a company is one way that you might have such information, but whether it is insider trading is not contingent on you working there. Yo... |
Are 'no interest if paid in in x months' credit cards worth it? | No, because of the balance transfer fees, which could be 4%. Unless of course you get a deal for 12 months of no payment, and you pay it back in 12 months, in which case a 4% annual interest rate is much less than a loan! At that point you are gambling that you will be responsible with the payments, and the card compan... |
Bait-and-switch on new car lease | Within some limitations, the dealer is allowed to approve or deny lending to anyone that it chooses. Those constraints are the basics that you'd expect for any regulation in the US: Race Religion Nationality Sex Marital Status Age Source of income You can read more about them in this leaflet from the FDIC's Fair Len... |
Why can't 401(k) statements be delivered electronically? | There are a lot of unintended consequences of fairly arbitrary IRS guidelines when it comes to 401Ks, they both close and create tons of loopholes and many companies are left to implement their own policy around these laws. Ultimately what you are left with are a lot of random things, interpreted differently by every s... |
Does a 1045 exchange require any filing prior to that years tax return? | When you get into reading Revenue Rulings and Treasury Regulations - I'd suggest hiring a professional to do that for you. Especially since you also need to assure that the new stock does indeed qualify as QSBS. However, from the revenue ruling you quoted it doesn't sound like there's any other requirement other than r... |
Potential phishing scam? | You need to talk to your bank. If you're unable to contact your bank until Monday, then wait until Monday. Don't fixate on the idea that the transaction may "hard post" on Monday. If it happens, it happens, but it's not the end of the world. Even if the transaction posts, it's not the end of the world. If the retai... |
How to sell option with no volume | Volume @ 0 doesn't mean that there are no buyers and sellers, it just means that there hasn't been any trades done yet. What you need to look for are the bids and offers (for selling and buying, respectively). For further expiration and NTM or IT options there will almost always be a bid and an offer (but it may be ver... |
What does a CFP do? | A Certified Financial Planner has passed a licensing exam and will advise you and help you reach your financial goals. A good CFP can help you a lot, especially if you are unsure how to set up your insurance, investment, savings, and financial plans on your own. You do not need a CFP to get a life insurance policy. If ... |
I have around 60K $. Thinking about investing in Oil, how to proceed? | One possibility would be to invest in a crude oil ETF (or maybe technically they're an ETP), which should be easily accessible through any stock trading platform. In theory, the value of these investments is directly tied to the oil price. There's a list of such ETFs and some comments here. But see also here about s... |
Should I really pay off my entire credit card balance each month or should I maintain some balance? | I think you got the message mixed up a little: Racking up big balances can hurt your scores, regardless of whether you pay your bills in full each month. What's typically reported to the credit bureaus, and thus calculated into your scores, are the balances reported on your last statements. (That doesn't mean paying ... |
What is the difference between a scrip dividend and a stock split? | Firstly a stock split is easy, for example each unit of stock is converted into 10 units. So if you owned 1% of the company before the stock split, you will still own 1% after the stock split, but have 10 times the number of shares. The company does not pay out any money when doing this and there is no effect on tax... |
Claiming income/deductions on an illegal apartment | The IRS demands and expects to be paid tax on all taxable activity, including illegal activity. If they expect drug dealers, hit men, and smugglers to pay tax, they expect you to pay tax on your basement apartment. The flip side of this is that the IRS keeps reported tax activities confidential. They only share what ... |
What is the meaning of “writing put options”? | Apple closed Friday 9/23 at $403.40. This is what the Puts look like, note the 2013 expiration. (The rest is hypothetical, I am not advising this.) As a fan of Apple and feeling the stock may stay flat but won't tank, I sell you the $400 put for $64.65. In effect I am saying that I am ready willing and able to buy ... |
How can I legally and efficiently help my girlfriend build equity by helping with a mortgage? | I just wanted to give you a different perspective, as I own a house (purchased with a mortgage), with my girlfriend. I think it can be done safely and fairly, but you do need to involve legal help to do it right. There really is nothing to be terrified about, the extra cost to set this up was almost irrelevant in the b... |
How much is my position worth after 5-1 stock split? | The average price would be $125 which would be used to compute your basis. You paid $12,500 for the stock that is now worth $4,500 which is a loss of $8,000 overall if you sell at this point. |
Can value from labor provided to oneself be taxed? | This is called imputed income, which is generally not taxed in the US. |
I have about 20 000 usd. How can invest them to do good in the world? | There isn't going to be one right answer, but LessWrong has some posts on effective altruism you might find helpful. They also link to a TED talk |
Using Euros to buy and sell NASDAQ stocks | Does the Spanish market, or any other market in euroland, have the equivalent of ETF's? If so there ought to be one that is based on something like the US S&P500 or Russell 3000. Otherwise you might check for local offices of large mutual fund companies such as Vanguard, Schwab etc to see it they have funds for sale t... |
How do you compare the sales of a company like Coca Cola against another company like JPMorgan Chase to figure out the best investment opportunity? | The question isn't sales but profits. Banks traditionally profit by making loans. Just as with a physical product, there are costs involved, income produced, and the difference between the two is gross profit. From there you can get net profit, and from there you can look at efficiency or profit per share or whatever o... |
How to manage paying expenses when moving to a weekly pay schedule and with a pay increase? | Unlike other responses, I am also not good with money. Actually, I understand personal finance well, but I'm not good at executing my financial life responsibly. Part is avoiding tough news, part is laziness. There are tools that can help you be better with your money. In the past, I used YNAB (You Need a Budget). ... |
How can I figure out how a stock's price would change after I buy shares? | Stock price is based on supply and demand. Unless the stock you are looking to buy usually has very low volume trading 100 shares isn't likely to have any effect on price. There are many companies that have millions or tens of millions of shares trade daily. For stocks like that 100 shares is barely a trivial percentag... |
How do you declare an interest free loan? | In principle, the US taxes both income and gifts. Simply thinking good thoughts is not necessarily sufficient to avoid filing or payment obligations. Giving somebody money with no repayment date, no interest, and no enforceable note looks an awful lot like either income or a gift. A loan normally has interest, money si... |
Is it better to buy a computer on my credit card, or on credit from the computer store? | As far as the money goes, it all comes down to the terms. What is going to cost you the least? Look for hidden fees and costs with the store credit. You will need to read the fine print of the credit agreement some automatically sign you up for a service that will cost you extra money every month. Compare what the... |
Should I pay more than 20% down on a home? | A few thoughts off the top of my head: Advantages of more than 20% down: Disadvantages of more than 20% down: |
Can I add PMI to my principal balance when I take out a mortgage? | There are few different types of MI you can choose from, they are: Borrower-Paid Monthly (this is what most people think of when they think MI) Borrower-Paid Single Premium (you may have QM issues on this) Lender Paid Single Premium Split Up-front and Monthly The only way to determine which option will ultimately cost ... |
What is a bond fund? | I used the term "bond fund" to mean a mutual fund which invests in bonds. Vanguard has a list. If you live in PA, OH, MA, FL, CA, NJ, or NY there are tax free funds you can invest in on that list. |
Why does a stock price drop as soon an I purchase several thousand shares at market price? | You say: Every time it seems the share price dips. Does it? Have you collected the data? It may just be that you are remembering the events that seem most painful at the time. To move the market with your trade you need to be dealing in a large amount of shares. Unless the stock is illiquid (e.g most VCT in the U... |
Are 'per trade' fees charged on every order or just once per stock? | You will be hit every time, once every buy order and once every sell order. Commissions to the broker are paid every time they do something for you. This is true regardless if it is a security in which you are already invested. It is true regardless if you make or lose money. It is just as sure as death and taxes. |
Average Price of a Stock | That metric is not very useful for anything other than very extremely long trading periods. Most strategies or concerned with price movement over much shorter time frames, 15 mins, 1 hr, 4 hr, daily, weekly, monthly. The MA or moving average is a trend following lagging indicator used to smooth out price fluctuations a... |
Why is company provided health insurance tax free, but individual health insurance is not? | The idea is that the premiums (or costs) associated with the plan are a business expense, you know that already. The distinction here is that employees don't pay premiums, they elect to contribute. The company sponsors a plan, the employees then choose to accept less salary in order to participate in the employer's pl... |
When are equal-weighted index funds / ETFs preferable to market-cap-weighted funds? | As Dheer pointed out, the top ten mega-cap corporations account for a huge part (20%) of your "S&P 500" portfolio when weighted proportionally. This is one of the reasons why I have personally avoided the index-fund/etf craze -- I don't really need another mechanism to buy ExxonMobil, IBM and Wal-Mart on my behalf. I l... |
Question about Tax Information from a Prospectus | A mutual fund could make two different kinds of distributions to you: Capital gains: When the fund liquidates positions that it holds, it may realize a gain if it sells the assets for a greater price than the fund purchased them for. As an example, for an index fund, assets may get liquidated if the underlying index ch... |
Why does the share price tend to fall if a company's profits decrease, yet remain positive? | It has got to do with market perceptions and expectation and the perceived future prospects of the company. Usually the expectation of a company's results are already priced into the share price, so if the results deviate from these expectations, the share price can move up or down respectfully. For example, many times... |
Previous owner of my home wants to buy it back but the property's value is less than my loan… what to do? | A short-sale seems like an extreme and unethical course to take. You should read your mortgage documents or work with your attorney to read the mortgage and determine whether it is an "assumable" mortgage. If so, you might be able to get the former owner to take over the mortgage. |
How and why does the exchange rate of a currency change almost everyday? | The basic idea is that money's worth is dependent on what it can be used to buy. The principal driver of monetary exchange (using one type of currency to "buy" another) is that usually, transactions for goods or services in a particular country must be made using that country's official currency. So, if the U.S. has so... |
Simple and safe way to manage a lot of cash | Overall I think your idea is sound. The key here is to choose that 401k provider wisely and have a specific asset allocation plan (like Joe mentioned) Summary of this approach: Pluses: Minuses: I'd consider Vanguard for simple, no frills investing. If you're looking to get into choosing stocks, check out the Motley F... |
Are there index tracking funds that avoid the “buy high - sell low” problem? | There are some index funds out there like this - generally they are called "equal weight" funds. For example, the Rydex S&P Equal-Weight ETF. Rydex also has several other equal weight sector funds |
Do credit checks affect credit scores? | Hard pulls you give your explicit permission to run do affect your credit. Soft pulls do not. While hard pulls affect your score, they don't affect it much. Maybe a couple few point for a little while. In your daily activities, it is inconsequential. If you are prepping to get a mortgage, you should be mindful. Sim... |
Correct term for describing how “interesting” a stock is to buy | You can call it a stock rating of say between 0 to 5 or 0 to 10 or whatever scale you want to use. It should not be called a recommendation but rather a rating based on the criterial you have analysed. Also a scale from say 0 to 5 is better than using terms like buy, hold and sell. |
Should I deduct or capitalize the cost to replace a water heater in my rental property? (details Below) | You may be able to choose. As a small business, you can expense certain depreciable assets (section 179). But by choosing to depreciate the asset, you are also increasing the cost-basis of the property. Are you planning to sell the property in the next couple of years? Do you need a higher basis? Section 179 - Elec... |
What's the fuss about identity theft? | Real world case: IRS: You owe us $x. You didn't report your income from job y. My mother: I didn't work for y. I don't even know who y is. IRS: If the W-2 is wrong, talk to them to get it fixed. My mother: I can't find y. Please give me an address or phone. IRS: We can't. You talk to them and get it fixed. I k... |
A debt collector will not allow me to pay a debt, what steps should I take? | This is somewhat unbelievable. I mean if you had a business of collecting debts, wouldn't you want to collect said debts? Rather than attempting to browbeat people with these delinquent debts into paying, you have someone volunteering to pay. Would you want to service that client? This would not happen in just abou... |
Can I use losses from sale of stock to offset capital gains from sale of property | Capital losses from the sale of stocks can be used to offset capital gains from the sale of a house, assuming that house was a rental property the whole time. If it was your principal residence, the capital gains are not taxed. If you used it as both a rental and a principal residence, then it gets more complicated: ... |
What happens to a call option in a cash/stock acquisition? | I believe that your option contracts will become "non-standard" and will be for a combination of ACE stock and cash. The allocation between stock and cash should follow that of the acquisition parameters of the underlying - probably with fractional shares converted to cash. Hence 1 call contract for 100 shares of CB w... |
How to calculate 1 share movement | Unless other people believe you have a reason for selling at a lower price, your sale probably has no lasting effect at all on the market. Of course, if people see you dump a few million dollars' worth of shares at a discount, they may be inclined to believe you have a reason. But if you just sell a few, they will conc... |
23 and on my own, what should I be doing? | I also had a student loan and glad you are taking a good look on interest rate as it really makes a huge difference. One of the strategies I followed was since my credit improved as I stepped out of school. I took advantage of a good 0 percent credit card. I applied for discover and got a decent credit limit. There are... |
Why would people sell a stock below the current price? | Firstly, if a stock costs $50 this second, the bid/ask would have to be 49/50. If the bid/ask were 49/51, the stock would cost $51 this second. What you're likely referring to is the last trade, not the cost. The last trading price is history and doesn't apply to future transactions. To make it simple, let's define ... |
Should I put more money down on one property and pay it off sooner or hold on to the cash? | I would go with option B. That is safer, as it would leave you with more options, in case of an unexpected job loss or an emergency. |
What's the best use for this money? Its only a small amount but can make a big difference to me | First and foremost, it's about changing habits. It seems like you've learned a painful lesson with the car financing. That's a good start. I'd work on developing the habit of making a budget every month before you spend a penny. As for this money, I would pay off the Apple loan and put the rest in savings. Then pay... |
Want to buy above market price? | Buy and sell orders always include the price at which you buy/sell. That's how the market prices for stocks are determines. So if you want to place a buy order at 106, you can do that. When that order was fulfilled and you have the stock, you can place a sell order at 107. It will be processed as soon as someone places... |
When investing, is the risk/reward tradeoff linear? | The risk-reward relation depends on what you are changing. In the most cases people ask about, it is not linear but I will give examples of both. Nonlinear case 1: As you diversify your portfolio, the firm-specific risks of various stocks cancel each other out without necessarily affecting the expected return of the p... |
Debt collector has wrong person and is contacting my employer | Assuming you're in the US, you can file complaints against financial institutions (including debt collectors) through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The link to debt collector complaints is: http://www.consumerfinance.gov/Complaint/#debt-collection |
Car as business expense, but not because of driving | To be deductible, a business expense must be both ordinary and necessary. An ordinary expense is one that is common and accepted in your trade or business. A necessary expense is one that is helpful and appropriate for your trade or business. An expense does not have to be indispensable to be considered necessary. (IR... |
Being a 1099 for a company I part-own? | The contract he wants me to sign states I'll receive my monthly stipend (if that is the right word) as a 1099 contractor. The right word is guaranteed payment, which is what "salary" is called when a partner is working for a partnership she's a partner in. Which is exactly the case in your situation. 1099 is not the ... |
How should I save money if the real interest rate (after inflation) is negative? | (Real) interest rates are so low because governments want people to use their money to improve the economy by spending or investing rather than saving. Their idea is that by consuming or investing you will help to create jobs that will employ people who will spend or invest their pay, and so on. If you want to keep thi... |
Where can I see the detailed historical data for a specified stock? | Yahoo Finance's Historical Prices section allows you to look up daily historical quotes for any given stock symbol, you don't have to hit a library for this information. Your can choose a desired time frame for your query, and the dataset will include High/Low/Close/Volume numbers. You can then download a CSV version ... |
why do energy stocks trade at lower prices compared to other sectors? | Large-scale price range of a stock isn't directly meaningful; that reflects how many shares exist, not just how desirable they are. A stock split, for example, doubles the number of shares everyone holds while cutting the value of each share in half; that's meaningless except that it makes the shares a bit easier to tr... |
How to deal with IRS response of no action to 83(b) election? | I think you should consult a professional with experience in 83(b) election and dealing with the problems associated with that. The cost of the mistake can be huge, and you better make sure everything is done properly. For starters, I would look at the copy of the letter you sent to verify that you didn't write the yea... |
Growth rate plus dividend yieid total? | In my mind its not the same. If growth is stock value then this is incorrect because of compound interest in stock price. $100 stock price after one year would be $105 and a dividend would be $2 Next year the stock would be $110.20 (Compound Interest) and would the Dividend really go up in lock step with the stock p... |
Is it worth investing in Index Fund, Bond Index Fund and Gold at the same time? | I'd say neither. Index Funds mimic whatever index. Some stocks that are in the index are good investment opportunities, others not so much. I'm guessing the Bond Index Funds do the same. As for Gold... did you notice how much gold has risen lately? Do you think it will keep on rising like that? For which period? (Hint:... |
What is the best credit card for someone with no credit history | If you've never had a credit card before a likely reason can be due to lack of credit history. You can apply for a department store card. Nordstroms, Macy's, Target will often grant a small line of credit even with no history. Target would be my first attempt as they have a wide selection of every day items, improving ... |
Are companies like EquityZen legitimate and useful? | Full disclosure: I’m an intern for EquityZen, so I’m familiar with this space but can speak with the most accuracy about EquityZen. Observations about other players in the space are my own. The employee liquidity landscape is evolving. EquityZen and Equidate help shareholders (employees, ex-employees, etc.) in private ... |
What is a good 5-year plan for a college student with $15k in the bank? | Fifteen thousand dollars is not a whole lot of cash. It should probably be kept liquid. To that end, savings accounts and certificates of deposit (CDs) are typically used. (There are also money market funds, but I am not sure that makes sense once trading costs are figured into the equation.) I would set some of tha... |
What options do I have at 26 years old, with 1.2 million USD? | Something not in answers so far: define your goals. What is important to you? My goals, if I were in your shoes, would include a debt-free home, passive (investment) income so I would not have to work, and have health insurance covered. I could think of many more details, and already have, but you get the idea. To h... |
At what point is it most advantageous to cease depositing into a 401k? | You'd need to test the assumptions here - in effect you're saying that in 15 years your account will have a balance 10x your income. But normally you'd expect your income to grow over the years (e.g. promotions) and so you'd hope that your income in 15 years would be significantly larger than what it is now. But, eve... |
Approach to share options in the UK | When your options vest, you will have the option to buy your company's stock at a particular price (the strike price). A big part of the value of the option is the difference between the price that your company's stock is trading at, and the strike price of the option. If the price of the company stock in the market is... |
Should I “hedge” my IRA portfolio with a life cycle / target date mutual fund? | I like that you are hedging ONLY the Roth IRA - more than likely you will not touch that until retirement. Looking at fees, I noticed Vanguard Target retirement funds are .17% - 0.19% expense ratios, versus 0.04 - 0.14% for their Small/Mid/Large cap stocks. |
Why are prices in EUR for consumer items often the same number as original USD price, but the GBP price applies the actual exchange rate? | It's mostly VAT (value added tax or sales tax). For example an US IPad is $499 without tax, and a German IPad is EUR 499 including 17% VAT. The base price is actually only EUR 417. In addition to that, cost of business is a little higher in Europe because of tax structures and because smaller countries cause higher ov... |
What is the correct way to report incentive stock options (ISO) on federal taxes? | I'm assuming this was a cashless exercise because you had income show up on your w-2. When I had a similar situation, I did the following: If you made $50,000 in salary and $10,000 in stock options then your W-2 now says $60,000. You'll record that on your taxes just like it was regular income. You'll also get a form ... |
Want to buy a car but have not enough money | When your dream car is not just 200 times your disposable income but in fact 200 times your whole monthly salary, then there is no way for you to afford it right now. Any attempt to finance through a loan would put you into a debt trap you won't ever dig yourself out. And if there are any car dealerships in your count... |
What can I do when the trading price of a stock or ETF I want to buy is too high? | If you find a particular stock to be overvalued at $200 for example and a reasonable value at $175, you can place a limit order at the price you want to pay. If/when the stock price falls to your desired purchase price, the transaction takes place. Your broker can explain how long a limit order can stay open. This meth... |
Is Amazon's offer of a $50 gift card a scam? | a free $50 looks too good to be true. As others already pointed out, these offers are common to many cards that want you to build loyalty towards a particular company (e.g. airlines cards give lots of mileage for a decent initial spend). Should I get this card for the $50? Why and/or why not? How much do you spend on A... |
How can I live outside of the rat race of American life with 300k? | Consider buying a legal "mother daughter" property, rent out the top part, and live in the "mother" component. |
LLC Partnership Earned Income vs. Partnership Share | Why would you file four K-1s for each partner? You file one K-1 per partner, on which you report the total of income attributed to that partner. It shouldn't and cannot "vary". There's no variables here, the income you report is the income already earned and attributed to that partner. What's there to vary? How you dec... |
Is it a good practice to keep salary account and savings account separate? | I live in the UK so it's a little different but generally you'd have one account (a current account) which would have a Visa/MasterCard debit card associated before working and any high street bank (don't know what the US equivalent would be, but big banks such as HSBC/Santander) will offer you a savings account which ... |
Starting long-term savings account as a college student | Great question and great of you to be paying attention to this. Right now having the ability to save $2K per year might seem very out of reach. However with the right career path and by paying attention to personal finance saving 2K per month will become possible sooner than you may think. As a student you are alread... |
Harmony Gold Mining Company is listed on the NYSE and JSE at different prices? | On NYSE it isn't the equity which is listed but is an ADR(American Depositary Receipt). Source A negotiable certificate issued by a U.S. bank representing a specified number of shares (or one share) in a foreign stock that is traded on a U.S. exchange. ADRs are denominated in U.S. dollars, with the underlying security ... |
When is it worth it to buy dividend-bearing stocks? | Yes, they are, and you've experienced why. Generally speaking, stocks that pay dividends will be better investments than stocks that don't. Here's why: 1) They're actually making money. They can finagle balance sheets and news releases, but cash is cash, it tells no lies. They can't fake it. 2) There's less good the... |
Ideal investments for a recent college grad with very high risk tolerance? | An ideal investment for a highly risk tolerant college grad with a background in software and programming, is a software company. That's because it's the kind of investment that you will be able to judge better than most other people, including yours truly. Hopefully, one day the software company for a highly risk tole... |
Where to Park Proceeds from House Sale for 2-5 Years? | There are some high-yield savings accounts out there that might get you close to 1 percent. Shorter term CDs might also serve you well here- rates are above 1 percent, even with 1-2 year terms: http://www.nerdwallet.com/rates/cds/best-cd-rates/ |
How much power does a CEO have over a public company? | This is a very good question and is at the core of corporate governance. The CEO is a very powerful figure indeed. But always remember that he heads the firm's management only. He is appointed by the board of directors and is accountable to them. The board on the other hand is accountable to the firm's shareholders an... |
Short or Long Term Capital Gains for Multiple Investments | The default is FIFO: first in - first out. Unless you specifically instruct the brokerage otherwise, they'll report that the lot you've sold is of Jan 5, 2011. Note, that before 2011, they didn't have to report the cost basis to the IRS, and it would be up to you to calculate the cost basis at tax time, but that has be... |
Why do financial institutions charge so much to convert currency? | In my experience working at a currency exchange money service business in the US: Flat fees are the "because we can" fee on average. These can be waived on certain dollar values at some banks or MSBs, and sometimes can even be haggled. If you Google EURUSD, as an example, you also get something like $1.19 at 4pm, 9/18... |
Do companies only pay dividends if they are in profit? | Yes the company can still pay dividends even if they aren't making a profit. 1) If the firm has been around, it might have made profits in the past years, which it might be still carrying (check for retained earnings in the financial statements). 2) Some firms in the past have had taken up debt to return the money to s... |
What is a straddle? | A straddle is an options strategy in which one "buys" or "sells" options of the same maturity (expiry date) that allow the "buyer" or "seller" to profit based on how much the price of the underlying security moves, regardless of the direction of price movement. IE: A long straddle would be: You buy a call and a put at ... |
Why do stocks tend to trade at high volumes at the end of (or start) the trading day? | Trading at the start of the day is highest because of news flows that may have come after the close of the previous day. And trading at the end of the day is highest because of expected news flows after closing hours. Moreover, there are many day traders who buy in the morning without making any payment for purchase a... |
How to invest with a low net worth | You most definitely can invest such an amount profitably, but it makes it even more important to avoid fees, um, at all costs, because fees tend to have a fixed component that will be much worse for you than for someone investing €200k. So: Edit: The above assumes that you actually want to invest in the long run, for ... |
What prevents investors from buying high yield stocks and selling them as soon as their dividend is paid out? | This investment strategy may have tax advantages. In some countries, income received from dividends is taxed as income, whereas profits on share trades are capital gains. If you have already exceeded your tax-free income limit for the year, but not your capital gains tax allowance, it may be preferable to make a dealin... |
What is a trust? What are the different types of trusts? | Trusts are a way of holding assets with a specific goal in mind. At its simplest, a trust can be used to avoid probate, a sometimes lengthy process in which a will is made public along with the assets bequeathed. A trust allows for fast transfer and no public disclosure. Depending on the current estate tax laws (the de... |
How can one get their FICO/credit scores for free? (really free) | I get my credit scores from all three bureaus for free - no gimmick. I use a combination of banks that offer this service to get my scores. I wrote about this sometime back in my blog. For credit report, the only place to go is AnnualCreditReport.com. I space it out so that I get one every 4 months since there is a ... |
Trouble sticking to a budget when using credit cards for day to day transactions? | Discipline. If you have to have a hard limit on your account that prevents you from spending - credit cards are not for you. If you can discipline yourself not to make purchases in excess of your budget even if the plastic technically allows it - then you can go on using the credit card. Make sure to stay on top of you... |
Does bull/bear market actually make a difference? | To short: Of course, you may always buy some index correlated ETF that eliminates the above. They use stock futures on the index, and you simply buy the "shorting ETF" in your non-margin account. However, they are surprisingly high cost, and despite the intended correlation, have significant drag. It's a much safer wa... |
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