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Why is Insider Trading Illegal? | I'm surprised at the tone of the answers to this question! Trading with insider information is corruption and encourages fraud. As in many areas, there's an ethical line where behavior the gap between "ok" and "illegal" or unethical is thin. The classic local government insider information example is when the local cou... |
Help Understanding Market/Limit Orders and Bid/Ask Price | Your logic breaks down because you assume that you are the only market participant on your side of the book and that the participant on the other side of the book has entered a market order. Here's what mostly happens: Large banks and brokerages trading with their own money (we call it proprietary or "prop" trading) wi... |
Can a shareholder be liable in case of bankruptcy of one of the companies he invested in? | No. One of the key ideas behind a corporation is that an investor's liability is limited to the amount he invests, i.e. the amount of stock he buys. This is the primary reason why small businesses become corporations, even though one person owns 100% of the stock. Then if the business goes broke, he won't lose his hous... |
What are investment options for young married couple with no debt that have maxed out retirement savings? | 4.7 is a pretty low rate, especially if you are deducting that from your taxes. If you reduce the number by your marginal tax rate to get the real cost of the money you end up with a number that isn't far off from inflation, and also represents a pretty low 'yield' in terms of paying off the loan early. (e.g. if you... |
How can a 529 plan help me save for my child's college education? | You get to put money away with special tax incentives (ie - no or less taxes to pay) They are state sponsored and therefore pretty reliable, but some states are better than others. Like with many of these tax incentive type accounts (FSA, Dependent Care Spending Accounts) they are use it or lose it. (In a 529, use it... |
Offer Price for my stock not shown on quote and a subsequent sale higher than my offer | Many exchanges trade the same securities. An order may be posted to a secondary exchange, but if the National Best Bid and Offer data provider malfunctions, only those with data feeds from that exchange will see it. Only the data provider for the primary exchange where a stock is listed provides the NBBO. Missing orde... |
Should I pay cash or prefer a 0% interest loan for home furnishings? | Two cases: You take the credit and reinvest the cash equivalent (be it a savings account or otherwise), yielding you the x% at virtually zero risk. Unless of course you consider possibility of your own negligence a risk (in case of missed payments, etc.). You pay by cash and have the peace of mind at the cost of that x... |
value of guaranteeing a business loan | The standard goal of valuing anything is to seek the fair price for that thing in the open market. Depending on what is being valued, that may or may not be an easy task. eg: to value your home, get a real estate appraiser, who will look at recent market sales in your area, and adjust for nuances of your property. To v... |
Will progressively investing with moderate-to-high risk help secure a future? | I always thought high-risk investing is hit or miss, but this is working out very well with the stocks I've chosen High risk investing IS hit and miss. We are in an historic bull market. Do not pat yourself on the back too hard, the bear can be around any corner and your high risk strategy will then be put to the te... |
What is the minimum lot size (number of shares) for the London Stock Exchange? | 1 lot is 100 shares on London stock exchange |
What are the common moving averages used in a “Golden Cross” stock evaluation? | Different moving averages work and not work for different indexes. I have seen simulations where during bull or bear markets the moving averages work differently. Here is an example: http://www.indexresult.com/MovingAverage/Exponential/200/SP500 |
Are lottery tickets ever a wise investment provided the jackpot is large enough? | If you just buy a few lotto tickets normally, then no, it's not going to be a good investment, as @Jasper has shown. However, there are certain scenarios where you can get a positive expected value from a lottery. In 2012, it was revealed that some MIT students found a scheme to game the Massachusetts state lottery. T... |
How do I find a good mutual fund to invest 5K in with a moderately high amount of risk? | Vanguard has a lot of mutual fund offerings. (I have an account there.) Within the members' section they give indications of the level of risk/reward for each fund. |
Ownership in company and rounds of investment | Say the company has created 500 shares [or whatever number]. You have 10 shares [equivalent of 2%]. Now when new capital is needed, generally more shares are created. Say they create 100 more shares and sell it to venture capital to raise funds. After this happens; Total Shares: 500+100 = 600 You own: 10 shares Your Ow... |
Some U.S. Tax Questions (CPA Concerns) | He has included this on Schedule D line 1a, but I don't see any details on the actual transaction. It is reported on form 8949. However, if it is fully reported in 1099-B (with cost basis), then you don't have to actually detail every position. Turbotax asked me to fill in individual stock sales with proceeds and cos... |
Strategies to recover from a bad short-term call options purchase where the underlying dropped instead? | For personal investing, and speculative/ highly risky securities ("wasting assets", which is exactly what options are), it is better to think in terms of sunk costs. Don't chase this trade, trying to make your money back. You should minimize your loss. Unwind the position now, while there is still some remaining value ... |
How to change a large quantity of U.S. dollars into Euros? | The right answer to this question really depends on the size of the transfer. For larger transfers ($10k and up) the exchange rate is the dominant factor, and you will get the best rates from Interactive Brokers (IB) as noted by Paul above, or OANDA (listed by user6714). Under $10k, CurrencyFair is probably your best ... |
Why is being “upside down” on a mortgage so bad? | Sample Numbers: Owe $100k on house. House (after 'crash') valued at: $50K. Reason for consternation: What rational person pays $100k for property that is only worth half that amount? True Story: My neighbor paid almost $250K (a quarter-of-a-million dollars - think about that..) for a house that when he walked (ran!) ... |
Principal 401(k) managed fund fees, wow. What can I do? | Would anything happen if you bring this issue to the attention of the HR department? Everyone in the company who participates in the 401(k) is affected, so you'd think they'd all be interested in switching to a another 401k provider that will make them more money. |
What is a good way to save money on car expenses? | Do your own oil change! If you are a hands-on person, you could also avoid the cost of the semi-annual oil change, by doing it yourself. Edmunds.com has a great how-to to help you accomplish this. Be prepared for dirty fingernails! But savings, you will realize, as an oil change will run you anywhere from $20 - $200... |
Why is financial data of some public companies not available on Yahoo Finance? | http://www.pacificrubiales.com/investor-relations/reports.html does have financial reports on their website for the example you list. There is the potential for some data to not be easily imported into a format that Yahoo! Finance uses would be my guess for why some data may be missing though an alternative explanatio... |
Why would we need a “stop-limit order” for selling? | One practical application would be to protect yourself from a "flash crash" type scenario where a stock suddenly plunges down to a penny due to transient market glitches. If you had a stop-loss order that executed at a penny (for a non-penny stock) it would be probably be voided by the exchange, but you might not want ... |
How good is Wall Street Survivor for learning about investing? | I find this site to be really poor for the virtual play portion, especially the options league. After you place a trade, you can't tell what you actually traded. The columns for Exp and type are blank. I have had better luck with OptionsXpress virtual trader. Although they have recently changed their criteria for a... |
Stock Certificate In two names | The DOW is just an index, which is simply a group of stocks meeting the criteria for inclusion. In the case of the DOW, it's the 30 US stocks with the largest market capitalization, but other indices include many lesser stocks (such as the S&P500 or the Russell 2000). The fact that Holobeam is no longer a constituent o... |
Why does gold have value? | Gold's value starts with the fact that its supply is steady and by nature it's durable. In other words, the amount of gold traded each year (The Supply and Demand) is small relative to the existing total stock. This acting as a bit of a throttle on its value, as does the high cost of mining. Mines will have yields that... |
I'm 20 and starting to build up for my mortgage downpayment, where should I put my money for optimal growth? | The big question is whether you will be flexible about when you'll get that house. The overall best investment (in terms of yielding a good risk/return ratio and requiring little effort) is a broad index fund (mutual or ETF), especially if you're contributing continuously and thereby take advantage of cost averaging. B... |
Is it true that 90% of investors lose their money? | The game is not zero sum. When a friend and I chop down a tree, and build a house from it, the house has value, far greater than the value of a standing tree. Our labor has turned into something of value. In theory, a company starts from an idea, and offers either a good or service to create value. There are scams tha... |
Investing in stocks with gross income (not yet taxed) cash from contract work? | In most jurisdictions, you want to split the transactions. Why? Because you want to report capital gains on your investment income, and this will almost always be taxed at a lower rate than employment income. See Wikipedia's article for more information about capital gains. In Canada, you pay tax on 50% of your realize... |
How to make money from a downward European market? | The best way to make money on a downward market is to buy at the bottom, sell at the top. Lather, rinse, repeat. |
Why would a company have 2 listings on the same exchange? | A company can issue different kinds of shares. For example, some kinds of shares may get preference in dividends or payment in event of (company) bankruptcy. Preferred shares are an example of this. A company might have several kinds of preferred shares and a 'common stock'. Here is a good explanation. See too the Wiki... |
How to correct a tax return filed electronically and already approved? | Simply file an amended return to correct the mistake. This happens all the time and is a standard procedure that every legitimate tax pro can handle. You can work it out with the tax pro about whose mistake it was and who should pay for the additional service. |
Multi-state K-1 earnings to S-Corp | I'm not sure why you think that it matters that the distribution goes to an S-Corp vs an individual tax payer. You seem to think it has any relevance to your question, but it doesn't. It only confuses your readers. The situation is like this: LLC X is deriving income in State #2. It has two members (I and S) residents ... |
My company didn't pay taxes on my behalf | Many a time even if the tax is deducted and paid by the company it does not reflect as a credit against your PAN for various reasons like, you not submitting it to your employer in time, errors of reconciliation, etc. Its advisable that you inform your company finance officer that you have received such a letter. Q1. T... |
What should I do about proxy statements? | You own a fractional share of the company, maybe you should care enough to at least read the proxy statements which explain the pro and con position for each of the issues you are voting on. That doesn't seem like too much to ask. On the other hand, if you are saying that the people who get paid to be knowledgeable abo... |
Is it a good idea to put everything in the S&P500? | What you choose to invest in depends largely on your own goals and time horizon. You state that your time horizon is a few decades. Most studies have shown that the equity market as a whole has outperformed most other asset types (except perhaps property in some cases) over the long term. The reason that time horizon... |
Do market shares exhaust? | RonJohn is right, all shares are owned by someone. Depending on the company, they can be closely held so that nobody wants to sell at a given time. This can cause the price people are offering to rise until someone sells. That trade will cause an adjustment in the ticker price of that stock. Supply and demand at wo... |
How could USA defaulting on its public debt influence the stock/bond market? | This is a speculative question and there's no "correct" answer, but there are definitely some highly likely outcomes. Let's assume that the United States defaults on it's debt. It can be guaranteed that it will lose its AAA rating. Although we don't know what it will drop to, we know it WILL be AA or lower. A triple-A... |
Is it possible to borrow money to accrue interest, and then use that interest to pay back the borrower + fees? | Your plan as proposed will not work, because it goes against how banks make money. Banks make money in two ways: (1) Fees [including account fees, investment advice fees, mortgage application fees, etc.]; and (2) Interest Rate Spread. They borrow money for x%, and they lend it out for x+y%. In a simple form, someone g... |
US Banks offering Security Tokens in 2012 | I'm looking for another one right now. Here's what I've found: Los Alamos National Bank (www.lanb.com) has tokens ($5?), but I think they only open accounts for New Mexico residents. I've had one for several years. USAA Savings Bank (usaa.com) has tokens ($5 or free, I don't remember). I'm pretty sure you do NOT need t... |
Unmarried Couple Splitting up with Joint Ownership of Home | Despite the unmarried status, you need to see a lawyer. Essentially you have a business with this person owning a home as the asset, and a mortgage for which you are responsible for. A lawyer needs to examine any paperwork you have and with knowledge of your particular jurisdiction's laws can advise you on the proper... |
Buying a house. I have the cash for the whole thing. Should I still get a mortgage to get the homeowner tax break? | Not for the tax break, no; as others have said that still costs you money. However, with rates being low right now and brought a bit lower by the tax break, this is an opportunity for the safest form of leveraged investing you will ever find. If you invest that money, the returns on investment will probably be better t... |
What are a few sites that make it easy to invest in high interest rate mutual funds? | If you want a ~12% rate of return on your investments.... too bad. For returns which even begin to approach that, you need to be looking at some of the riskiest stuff. Think "emerging markets". Even funds like Vanguard Emerging Markets (ETF: VWO, mutual fund, VEIEX) or Fidelity Advisor Emerging Markets Income Trust (FA... |
Why does Yahoo! Finance report different prices for the same index? | Are you sure you're using the same date range? If you're using Max, then you're not, as ^FTMC goes back to 12/1/1985 while ^GDAXI only goes back to 11/1/1990. If I enter a custom date range of 11/1/1990 through 10/24/2015, I get: and: which, other than the dates it chose to use as labels on the x-axes, look identical... |
How do I figure out the next step in deciding to sell my home to the market or to a uniquely interested buyer? | You decide whether the improvements will result in a net higher price. You also need to figure on how long the house will be on the market and the cost of carrying the home, unoccupied. Some people would prefer the quickest sale. Others would wait to get the highest price. If you sell to a known buyer, you avoid usin... |
What is a bond fund? | As Michael Pryor answered, a bond fund is a mutual fund that invests in bonds. I'd also consider an ETF based on bonds to be a bond fund, but I'm not sure that all investors would consider these as "bond funds". Not all bond funds are the same -- just like stock funds. You can classify bond funds based on the issuer of... |
What exactly is a wealth management platform? | Most businesses have some sort of software to manage their client data. Most of these various software and/or services are industry specific. Black Diamond seems to be a client management tool targeting investment advisers. From the black diamond site Reach an unparalleled level of productivity and transform your cli... |
Why would I vote for an increase in the number of authorized shares? | Why would I want to approve an increase in the number of authorized shares? Because you trust management to use those shares wisely. What it comes down to is, management is asking for money. While it may not be cash they're asking for, it has the same effect. Before you approve this, you have to evaluate the request (s... |
Borrowing money for a semi-urgent medical expense | The best option would be to have the dental office allow you pay in installments. That would be probably the cheapest and most convenient way. When high amounts are involved - many medical offices are flexible with payments and allow spreading over long period of time, so you should check it out. Otherwise, credit card... |
What to do with $50,000? | Before anything else, pay down any debt at higher interest rates. Best guaranteed return on investment you can get. What do you plan to use the money for, when, with how much advance planning? How risk-tolerant are you, and how patient are you ? Would you see a dip in an asset's value as lost money or a buying opportun... |
Is investing exlusively in a small-cap index fund a wise investment? | If the OP is saving 33% if his/her current income, he/she doesn't want or need yet more income from investments right now. The advice on "diversifying" in the other answers is the standard "investment advisor" response to beginner's questions, and has two advantages for the advisor: (1) they won't get sued for giving b... |
Building financial independence | While I can appreciate you're coming from a strongly held philosophy, I disagree strongly with it. I do not have any 401k or IRA I don't like that you need to rely on government and keep the money there forever. A 401k and an IRA allows you to work within the IRS rules to allow your gains to grow tax free. Additionall... |
Is debt almost always the cause of crashes and recessions? | The statement can be true, but isn't a general rule. Crashes and recessions are two different things. A crash is when the market rapidly revalues something when prices are out of equilibrium, whether it be stocks, a commodity or even a service. When the internet was new, nobody knew how to design webpages, so web page... |
Why liquidity implies tight spread and low slippage | You have just answered your question in the last sentence of your question: More volume just means more people are interested in the stock...i.e supply and demand are matched well. If the stock is illiquid there is more chance of the spread and slippage being larger. Even if the spread is small to start with, once a t... |
Should I sell my stocks to reduce my debt? | I'd get rid of the debt with the stock money. Stocks are at a high for the year. Get out while the getting's good and get your financial house in order. |
Is buying or selling goods for gold or silver considered taxable? | What you are doing is barter trade. Most countries [if not all] would tax this on assumed fair value. There are instances where countries may relax this norm in border areas for a small amount. Barter is not just for gold – one can virtually do this for any goods, i.e. sell garments in exchange for oil, sell electron... |
How exactly does dealing in stock make me money? | If you buy a stock and it goes up, you can sell it and make money. But if you buy a stock and it goes down, you can lose money. |
Tax implications of corporate housing | If the employer provides housing to the employee, the employer has to identify whether it is taxable or not. If it is - the amounts would be added to the taxable income on your W2. All the withholding and FICA tax calculations will be performed based on that taxable income. If the employer fails to do that, and you get... |
What foreign exchange rate is used for foreign credit card and bank transactions? | On Credit Cards [I am assuming you have a Visa or Master card], the RBI does not decide the rate. The rate is decided by Visa or Master. The standard Sheet rate for the day is used. Additionally SBI would mark it up by few paise [FX mark-up spread]. This is shown as mark-up fee. The rate of USD Vs INR changes frequentl... |
New company doesn't allow 401k deposits for 6 months, what to do with money I used to deposit? | Two options not mentioned: -No information about your emergency fund in your question. If you don't have 6 months of expenses saved up in a "safe" place (high yield savings account or money market fund) I'd add to that first. -Could you auto-withdraw the amount over six months, then when you can start contributing, con... |
Where to find detailed information about stock? | 1. Most of the information you want can be found in the annual report of the company. Go to their official website, look for shareholders information and then download the annual report. This will answer: "number of issued stock, voting rights, if there is more than one kind of stock, etc. In summary all the legal and ... |
Ask for credit decrease | Aside from an annual fee, if any, the card issuer makes money 2 ways, the transaction fee, about 1.5%-2% charged to the merchant, and interest from you if you leave a balance month to month. Obviously, the bank has some cost in processing statements and maintaining your account. If up front you are saying you will not ... |
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... |
View asset/holdings breakdown within fund | The full holdings will be listed in the annual report of the fund, obviously the holdings would only be completely accurate as of the date of the reporting. This is the most recent annual report for FMAGX. I got it from my Schwab research section under "All Fund Documents" but I'm sure you can find it other ways. Whe... |
Withholding for unexpected Short-Term Capital Gains and Penalties | The safe harbor provision is based on the tax you or the prior year. So in 2016 this helped you as your tax was substantially increased from 2015. However, by the same token in 2017 your safe harbor amount is going to be very high. Therefore if 2017 is similar you will owe penalties. The solution here is to make estima... |
Is there any evidence that “growth”-style indexes and growth ETFs outperform their respective base indexes? | They don't, actually. Though in some time frames S&P 500 growth out performs S&P 500, it often lags. This is because "growth" doesn't refer to what happens to your account, but rather the type of stock in the index -- roughly speaking, it's the half of the S&P with the best earnings growth. That would be great, except... |
Is this Employee Stock Purchase Plan worth it when adding my student loan into the equation? | It's 5% free money, if you believe the company's stock is fairly valued and likely to grow and/or return reasonable dividends until you're ready to sell it. There's usually a minimum holding period of a few months to a year before these discounted shares can be sold; take that into account |
Bonus issue - Increasing share capital | Fully paid up Shares issued in which no more money is required to be paid to the company by shareholders on the value of the shares. When a company issues shares upon incorporation or through an issuance, either initial or secondary, shareholders are required to pay a set amount for those shares. Once the company has r... |
buying a stock while the price is going down, and buy it at a lower price | If you bought them, you can sell them. That does not preclude you from buying again later. You might get yourself into a situation where you need to account for a so-called "wash sale" on your taxes, but your broker should calculate that and report it on your 1099-B at the end of the year. There's nothing illegal abo... |
How to handle capital gains on a Virginia Individual Income Tax Return | In Virginia the maximum tax rate on income is 5.75% which is the same as the capital gains rate. http://www.tax.virginia.gov/income-tax-calculator |
How Long Can It Take For a Check I Write to Clear on My Account? | According to this Q&A by a Houston law professor: The law, however, is not designed to interfere with an individual's right to stop payment on a valid check because of a dispute with someone. If he didn't deliver as promised, you do not owe the money and have the right to stop payment. Assuming that you had enough mone... |
Should I remodel or buy a bigger house? | I am quite sure you can set up an office in your basement for a lot less than $15,000. Don't build any walls, install any flooring, or upgrade the ceiling. Just install more lights and plugs. Set up your desks, bookshelves and what not in whatever corner is furthest from noises like the laundry room or the furnace. The... |
Why doesn't Japan just divide the Yen by 100? | So their programmers don't have to deal with floating point arithmetic. This is why they're so far ahead in technology! |
Mortgage or not? | Better in terms of what? less taxes paid? or more money to save for retirement? In terms of retirement, it would be better for you to keep the condo you currently have for at least two reasons: You wouldn't incur the penalties and fees from buying and selling a home. Selling and buying a home comes with a multitude of ... |
If one owns 75% of company shares, does that mean that he would have to take upon himself 75% of the company's expenses? | A firm is a separate legal person from its shareholders or owners (but doesn't get invited to parties much). Owners invest capital to get shares in the firm or may get shares for investing time, effort etc. but those shares are on a limited liability basis. That means that shareholders are only liable up to the value o... |
Estimated Taxes Fall Short of tax liability — how do I pay extra online (Federal and NYS) | If you qualify for the safe harbor, you are not required to pay additional quarterly taxes. Of course, you're still welcome to do so if you're sure you'll owe them; however, you will not be penalized. If your income is over $150k (joint) or $75k (single), your safe harbor is: Estimated tax safe harbor for higher incom... |
I cosigned for a friend who is not paying the payment | If the bank is calling your employer, the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) limits where and when debt collectors can contact consumer debtors. In many cases, debt collectors that contact debtors at work are violating the FDCPA. http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/a-debt-collector-calling-me-work-is... |
Living in my own rental property | When you live in your own rental property, it no longer counts as your 'rental property'. It becomes your own living property and legally you cannot get tax benefits. |
How do you translate a per year salary into a part-time per hour job? | As an easy and rough rule of thumb, a job for $55,000 per year is $55 per hour as a contractor. That's roughly twice the hourly rate. In return, the company gets the rate to vary your hours or cease your employment with less financial, legal or managerial overhead than a full time employee. You have less stability, l... |
Trouble sticking to a budget when using credit cards for day to day transactions? | You can fairly simply make a spreadsheet in your favorite spreadsheet application (or in Google Docs if you want portability). I like to make an overview page that shows how much I take in per month and what fixed bills come out of that, then break the remaining total into four to get a weekly budget. Then, I make one ... |
Ways to invest my saved money in Germany in a halal way? | What is not permitted in Islam is the practice of making unethical or immoral monetary loans that unfairly enrich the lender. Originally, usury meant interest of any kind. A loan may be considered usurious because of excessive or abusive interest rates or other factors. But In case of financial markets, people borrow m... |
Do you pay taxes on stock gains that are just returning to their original purchase price? | The tax is only payable on the gain you make i.e the difference between the price you paid and the price you sold at. In your cse no tax is payable if you sell at the same price you bought at |
What is the best way to get cash from my retirement accounts for a home down payment? | Given that utilizing all the funds available to you drains your retirement and leaves you with very little cushion for unforeseen events (as already noted), it may be best to use a smaller amount for closing and just deal with the PMI for a couple years. PMI is likely less than the taxes/penalties incurred from withdra... |
What's the difference between a high yield dividend stock vs a growth stock? | There can be the question of what objective do you have for buying the stock. If you want an income stream, then high yield stocks may be a way to get dividends without having additional transactions to sell shares while others may want capital appreciation and are willing to go without dividends to get this. You do re... |
I received $1000 and was asked to send it back. How was this scam meant to work? | Most answers have concentrated on this being a scam, however, it is possible this is an innocent mistake. Australian bank account numbers do not have redundant digits to be used to validate an account number; all of the numbers are data and uniquely identify a bank and branch (the BSB number) and an account (the Accoun... |
Why buy insurance? | The fundamental flaw here is conflating net worth with utility, at least failing to recognize that there's a nonlinear relationship between the two. In the extreme example imagine taking a bet that will either make you twice as rich or completely broke. Your expected return is zero, but it would be pretty dumb to take... |
Further Understanding of Wash Sale Rules | Disallowed losses due to the wash sale rule are added to the basis of the repurchased shares. In your example, on day two you paid $0.70 per share. Then the disallowed $0.30 loss from the previous day gets added to the basis, making your total basis $1.00 per share. When you sell at the end of the day for $1.00 per sh... |
How do amortization schedules work and when are they used? | Simply put, for a mortgage, interest is charged only on the balance as well. Think of it this way - on a $100K 6% loan, on day one, 1/2% is $500, and the payment is just under $600, so barely $100 goes to principal. But the last payment of $600 is nearly all principal. By the way, you are welcome to make extra princip... |
Solid reading/literature for investment/retirement/income taxes? | You bring up some very high level stuff, each of which can be the subject of a life's work. For taxes, I first read J.K. Lasser's Your Income Tax. I actually read it cover to cover instead of using it as a reference guide. I hit topics that I'd otherwise have never looked up on purpose. Once you familiarize yourself w... |
Closing a futures position | For exchange contracts, yes. A trader can close a position by taking an offsetting position. CME's introduction to Futures explains it quite well (on page 22). Exiting the Market Jack entered the market on the buy side, speculating that the S&P 500 futures price would move higher. He has three choices for exiting ... |
What benefits do “title search companies” have over physically visiting a land records offices? | Basically what @littleadv said, but let me amplify what I think is the most important point. As he/she says, one thing you're paying them for is their expertise. If the title on record at the county office had a legal flaw in it, would you recognize it? In a way your question is like asking, Why should I go to a doctor... |
Why do interest rates increase or decrease? | My answer is specific to the US because you mentioned the Federal Reserve, but a similar system is in place in most countries. Do interest rates increase based on what the market is doing, or do they solely increase based on what the Federal Reserve sets them at? There are actually two rates in question here; the Wikip... |
Why might it be advisable to keep student debt vs. paying it off quickly? | I'm no financial advisor, but I do have student loans and I do choose to pay them off as slowly as I can. I will explain my reasoning for doing so. (FWIW, these are all things that pertain to government student loans in the US, not necessarily private student loans, and not necessarily student loans from other countrie... |
How long to wait after getting a mortgage to increase my credit limit? | 8 hard inquiries spread over two years is not a negative factor, with a score of 750. Real question #1: How much of your credit limits are you currently using? Less than 30% of your credit limits is good. Less than 15% is even better, 10% is great You don't need to wait X amount of days after applying for a mortgage or... |
What are the benefits of opening an IRA in an unstable/uncertain economy? | Even Gold lost 1/2 of it's value between 1980 and 2000. You would not have fared well if you retired during that period heavily invested in Gold. http://www.usagold.com/reference/prices/history.html You said yourself that one can not foresee what the future will bring. At least IRA's force you to into dollar cost ave... |
Why are there hidden bids and offers in the US stock market for the more illiquid stocks? | Certain brokers allow for hidden orders to be placed in the market. It is as simple as that. Refer to Interactive Brokers as one example. If you press on the " i " next to "Hidden" you will get the following description. Some brokers may represent the hidden orders by an * next to the price level. Sometimes large orde... |
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 one bit of financial advice do you wish you could've given yourself five years ago? | I wish I would have known macro-economics taught by the Austrian School types at The Mises Institute. Their teachings would have compelled me to do the following: |
Why does money value normally decrease? | You expect interest because you forgo the opportunity of using the money as well as the risk of losing the money if the borrower can not pay you back. This is true also with gold - you would expect interest if you loaned someone your gold for a time period. When you deposit your money in the bank you are loaning your ... |
How does GST on PayPal payments work for Australian Taxation? | TL;DR - my understanding of the rules is that if you are required to register for GST (earning more than $75k per annum), you would be required to pay GST on these items. To clarify firstly: taxable income, and goods and services tax, are two different things. Any income you receive needs to be considered for income ta... |
Am I putting myself at any security risks by putting all my money in one bank institution? | For small amounts I wouldn't be too concerned. There are two factors I can think of: For relatively small amounts and when dealing with reputable banking institutions there should be little concern of banking with a single bank. It's what most people do. |
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