"What I've found works best when working on my personal budget is to track my income and spending two different ways: bank accounts and budget categories. Here is what I mean: When I deposit my paycheck, I do two things with it: It goes into my checking account, so the balance of my checking account goes up by the amount of my paycheck. I also ""deposit"" the money from my checking account into my various budget category balances.  This is separate from my bank account balances.  Some of my paycheck money goes into my groceries category, some goes into clothing, some into car fuel, entertainment, mortgage, phone, etc.  Some goes into longer range bills that only happen once or twice a year, such as car insurance, life insurance, property tax, etc.  Some goes into savings goals of ours, such as car replacement, vacation, furniture, etc. Every dollar that we have in a bank account or in cash in our wallets is also accounted for in a budget category.  If you add up the balances of our bank accounts and cash, and you add up the balances of our budget categories, they add up to the same number. When we make a purchase, this also gets accounted for twice: The appropriate bank account (or cash wallet) balance gets reduced by the purchase amount. The appropriate budget category gets reduced by the purchase amount. In this way, we don't really need to worry about having separate bank accounts for different purposes.  We don't need to put our savings goal money in a separate bank account from our grocery money, if we don't want to.  The budget category accounting keeps track of how much money is allocated to each purpose.   Now, the budget category amounts are not spent yet; the money in them is still in our bank account, and we can move money around in the categories, if we change our mind on how to allocate them.  For example, if we don't spend all of our gas money for the month, we can either keep that money in the gas category, or we can move it to a different category, such as the car replacement category or the vacation category.  If the phone bill is more than we expect, we can move money around from a different category to cover it. Now, back to your question: We allocate some money from each paycheck into our furniture category.  But the money is not really spent until we actually buy some furniture.  When we do, the furniture category balance and bank account balance both go down by the amount of the purchase. All of this can be kept track of on the computer in a spreadsheet.  However, it's not easy to keep track of so many categories and bank balances.  An easier solution is custom budgeting software designed for this purpose.  I use and recommend YNAB."


Ask your bank to recall the transfer (as if went to wrong account and you have inform the bank about it).  Secondly get a police report in the country where you sent the money from and where it was sent to, and state the person's name and account details.  Ethically this person should return the funding, but if he or she wants to play gangsters paradise, then you want to take police action and push your bank to take the funds back by RECALLING THE FUNDS UNDER INDEMNITY.  Ask your bank to give you a copy of the message they have sent to the beneficiary's bank.  Use this wording and you will have success. Contact the beneficiary bank also and give them details.


"Not sure why this hasn't received any answers yet... the link to the investopedia page you posted explains it pretty well, however when you hear about a golden cross in the media, it is most likely a reference to the 50-day SMA crossing above the 200-day SMA.  In general, a golden cross consists of a short term MA that was previously below a long term MA crossing above that LT MA, however the most common reference will imply a 50/200 day cross because this is considered as a stronger signal (compared to shorter MAs). With that said, it's important to realize that the golden cross is just one of many technical analysis ""signals"", and the entire field of technical analysis is considered controversial, to say the least.  Many studies, such as those examined in A Random Walk Down Wall Street, have found that after transactions costs are considered (e.g., the commissions you pay to your broker on every trade), ""charting"" is a losing proposition in the end."


I'd recommend LinkedIn instead for this purpose. I'm an admin for a business page on both platforms and in the US, Facebook is highly competitive paying little attention to group affiliates, more focused on consumers or prospects. You are lucky to even get a like from a vendor. LinkedIn however has groups directly associating B2B.


Can you offer an alternative solution?   Sounds like you are not well versed in the reasoning for fiat money. Before trying to pass opinions that you have not formed on your own I would do some research.   So go ahead, I challenge you. What is a better way?


The reason is because there's basically no incentive for anyone to not be unrealistically optimistic (aka lie). The management wants to show its being active so they aren't replaced. The IB trying to sell a company wants to make it look as good as possible. The bank providing a loan for the acquisition needs to make it look good for their risk committee, so they won't try to sour down the claims in the CIM too much. The acquired company would rather make more money than less. The only person who loses is the shareholder. It's an agency problem.


CDs pay less than the going rate so that the banks can earn money. Investing is risky right now due to the inaction of the Fed.  Try your independent life insurance agent. You could get endowment life insurance. It would pay out at age 21. If you decide to invest it yourself try to buy a stable equity fund. My 'bedrock' fund is PGF.  It pays dividends each month and is currently yealding 5.5% per year. Scottrade has a facility to automatically reinvest the dividend each month at no commission.  http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/Fund/PGF?CountryCode=US


Its highly unlikely to 'collapse', perhaps there will be  managed defaults, yes, but there is no way they will let it collapse as a global depression would follow.  If the euro collapses it will also bring down most of the global economy including the likes of China and the US (not to mention the Germans) and they are not going to let that happen.  http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6cf8ce18-2042-11e1-9878-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1y0lc0hy1  P.s. I am surprised we have not seen more suggestions of buying guns, land and building a commune.


That number may be based on a long term historical view of the stock market.  If you look at some long term charts for the DOW  or the S&P500, you'll see that overall the upward trend is pretty good.  However there are some pretty huge flat spots in those charts, and if the majority of your investements have been made during one of those periods, you may not have seen a lot of growth. If you look at periods between 10-17 years or so, you can find places where it would have really sucked to be you (look at the S&P chart and imagine 66 to 83.. OUCH!) and places where things were stellar.   If you expand to about say 30 years or so, then it's hard to find a period without at least some good growth in there somewhere.  If you panicked during a downturn and sold on the low, things of course get much worse.  How your own portfolio has done will depend a lot on how the funds you chose have done, how much you put into equity vs fixed income, and if the fixed income was in actual bonds, or a bond fund..   Bond funds are subject to a lot more fluxuation as interest rates rise or fall than something like a t-bill or i-bond that you own outright and plan to hold to maturity.


"An annuity is a contract. Its contents are ""a contractual obligation from the issuing company"". If you want to evaluate how your annuity is likely to fare, you're essentially asking whether or not its issuer will honor its contract. They're legally required to honor the contract, unless they go bankrupt. (Even if they do go bankrupt, you will be a creditor and may get a portion of the assets recovered by the bankruptcy process.) Generally, the issuer will take the proceeds and invest them in the stock market (or possibly in similar instruments - e.g. Berkshire-Hathaway bought a railroad and invests some money in it directly). They invest in these places because that's where the returns are. One of the reason that annuities may have a good rate on paper is that they may end up taking some of your principal, because many are structured as some form of survivor's insurance policy. Consider: If you're 65 years old and have some retirement savings, you'd like to be able to spend them without fear of them running out because you live longer than you expected (e.g. you survive to your 90s). So, you could invest in the stock market and hope for a 7% return indefinitely and then plan to spend the returns - but if those returns don't materialize for a few years because there's a big stock market crash, you're in big trouble! Or, you could buy an annuity contract which will pay you 7% a year (or more!) until you die. Then you're guaranteed the returns unless the issuer goes bankrupt. (Sure, you lose all your principal, but you're dead, so hey, maybe you don't care.) The insurance company essentially sells risk-tolerance. Other annuities aren't structured like this, and may be marketed towards non-retirees. They're usually not such a good deal. If they appear to be such a good deal, it may be an illusion. (Variable annuities in particular are hard to reason about without a good deal of knowledge about how the stock market behaves on a year-to-year basis: many of them have a maximum return as well as a minimum, and the stock market may pile up a lot of its returns into one year, so after a ""crash and recovery"" cycle you might end up behind the market instead of ahead.) Annuities are a form of safety. Safety can be very expensive. If you're investing your own money, consider whether you need that safety. You probably needn't worry quite so much about the issuer being crazy-fraudulent or Ponzi-esque: you should worry mostly about whether it looks better on paper than it is."


Just like many other industries, entertainment is becoming a commodity of convenience which means that it also is getting far less profit margin. It won't die, but the money that keeps the big named companies in the black is slowly petering out. They are going to fight this tooth and nail just as past companies in other industries that have paved the same path have tried. Any sense of success on their part only makes their fall much harder down the road. We are moving into a world where entertainment is more plentiful and cheap, but the cost will be that we see fewer big budget offerings.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://eurbaninsight.wordpress.com/2017/09/17/modelling-an-agent-based-general-equilibrium-model-in-python/) reduced by 93%. (I'm a bot) ***** > The extension from this partial equilibrium in a single market to general equilibrium reflects the idea that it may not be legitimate to speak of equilibrium with respect to a single commodity when supply and demand in that market depend on the prices of other goods.  > On this view, a coherent theory of the price system and the coordination of economic activity has to consider the simultaneous general equilibrium of all markets in the economy.  > Labor print(&quot;Price:&quot;, price, &quot;Product:&quot; , product, &quot;Labortime:&quot;,labor ) def demand(lili, comps, wage): demand = totalwork = 0 totallabortime = 0 for indiv in lili: for comp in comps: indiv.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/70sqwg/how_to_model_an_agent_based_general_equilibrium/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~211887 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **Price**^#1 **comp**^#2 **weight**^#3 **def**^#4 **market**^#5"


Stupid article. People on government assistance typically don't have a great deal of money to begin with, and there aren't exactly many items on Amazon that are at 'dollar store' level prices..and unless one is house-bound level of disabled, you really can't fill a whole grocery list by shopping at Amazon as you could running down to Walmart or Save a Lot.


If you already have the money, put the 20% down but here is another option: You can put whatever you want down...Let's say 10%. For the other 10%, take out a 2nd mortgage. This enables you to avoid PMI. The rate you will get on the second mortgage will be higher than the first but the combination of 2 mortgages may be less than 1 plus PMI. When you get to 20% equity you can refinance and consolidate to one lower rate mortgage without PMI.


Stocks aren't just paper -- they're ownership of a company.  Getting cash from a stock that doesn't pay dividends basically means reducing your stake in the company. If the stock pays dividends, on the other hand, you still have the same shares, but now you have cash too.  You can choose to buy more of the company...or, more importantly, to use it elsewhere if that's what you want to do.


It’s more convenient for both you and the bank; its much simpler to handle things electronically than it is to go through paperwork. Also, its eco-friendly and by saying that they care about the environment, banks earn brownie points with environmentally-conscious customers.


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You're trying to tell me they are as great as Japanese cars?  Actually I have the data to prove you're a moron. Before you run your mouth, show me reliable data  https://www.consumerreports.org/car-reliability/the-most-and-least-reliable-cars-by-class/  CATEGORY MOST RELIABLE LEAST RELIABLE   Subcompact Cars Toyota Prius C Ford Fiesta   Compact Cars Toyota Prius 1 Ford Focus   Midsized Cars Kia Optima 1 Chrysler 200 1   Large Cars Hyundai Azera 1 Dodge Charger   Luxury Compact Cars Lexus CT 200h 1 Acura TLX   Luxury Midsized/Large Cars Infiniti Q70 1 Mercedes-Benz S-Class 1   Sporty Cars Lexus RC 1 Ford Mustang   Minivans Toyota Sienna Dodge Grand Caravan   Small SUVs Toyota RAV4 Jeep Cherokee   Midsized SUVs Toyota 4Runner Jeep Grand Cherokee   Large SUVs Ford Expedition 1    Chevrolet Suburban/GMC Yukon XL   Luxury Compact SUVs Mercedes-Benz GLC 1 Lincoln MKC   Luxury Midsized/Large SUVs Lexus GX Cadillac Escalade   Pickup Trucks Toyota Tundra Ram 2500       Out of the 10 most reliable, 1 is American:   https://www.consumerreports.org/car-reliability/10-most-reliable-cars/     10 least reliable, almost all american:   https://www.consumerreports.org/car-reliability/10-least-reliable-cars/          Sorry big mouth, you're wrong. Nice try though


A couple of thoughts. Tax benefits are the usual reasons to decide on one residency or another. International tax law is complex, and it's probably best to consult a professional. Certainly without knowing which the other country is I would not want to hazard a guess. If he is really not going to be taxed on the other country, residing there would seem sensible. But... In Canada residency for tax purposes is established for an entire year. If you are resident for more than six months your salary for the year is taxable. Conversely if you are present for less than six months you are not taxable. (This may have changed - it's been twenty years since I did this.) The other issue is healthcare. If you are not resident in Ontario you are not eligible for free healthcare, I believe. He might have to purchase supplemental insurance if he returns occasionally.


Consider a single person with a net worth of N where N is between one and ten million dollars.  has no source of income other than his investments How much dividends and interest do your investments return every year?  At 5%, a US$10M investment returns $500K/annum.  Assuming you have no tax shelters, you'd pay about $50% (fed and state) income tax. https://budgeting.thenest.com/much-income-should-spent-mortgage-10138.html A prudent income multiplier for home ownership is 3x gross income.  Thus, you should be able to comfortably afford a $1.5M house. Of course, huge CC debt load, ginormous property taxes and the (full) 5 car garage needed to maintain your status with the Joneses will rapidly eat into that $500K.


Here is what I would do (my wife has done this and it worked great). Pay off one card. Pay down the other card then find a new card that offers a 0% period on balance transfers. They generally have between a 1%-5% fee with 3% being pretty typical. You will get probably 18-24 months of no interest. At the end of that period, provided it isn't paid off, just open another card and do another balance transfer. After you are done paying everything off get a card that offers cash back bonus and pay for everything using that card, pay the card off at the end of the month.


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As one answer points out, people buying greeting cards care little about whether they cost 25 cents or $5.  Those are both small amounts of money and it's not something you buy often---also people feel the need to spend money because it's a gift. On the supplier side, it should be noted that the cost of cards has little to do with the paper they are printed on.  There is an expectation that cards are new and unique...something the buyer and recipient have never seen.  So they have writers and graphic designers constantly cranking out a large variety of cards and replacing existing cards with new ones, of which only a small number get sold before they move to the next model.  Relatively speaking, there is a lot of human effort per thousand cards sold.  Then of course there is the real estate they occupy in the store (disproportionate to a bunch of pieces of paper) and other retail, marketing, and distribution costs.  I'm not saying margins are particularly thin, but if they were crazy high we probably would see more entry as you suggest.


So why are large US companies privy to the language but large US consumer or civil liberties groups not?  For example, analysts at Cisco, IBM, Intel, and HP have access to the text of the TPP and can make comments to guide policy decisions that will go into the treaty[1], but I don't believe the EFF has had access except for leaks[2].  So, where's my advocate in the negotiations?  Why should I believe the negotiators have my best interests at heart?  Even if the treaty comes back as something generally positive, it's going to be tilted in such a way that those with a spot at the table come out ahead whereas Congress' only option is just 'take it or leave it'.  By extension of my representation in Congress (and even that's kind of weak given the current state of US politics), that's my only option as well.  [1] http://www.flushthetpp.org/tpp-corporate-insiders/   [2] https://www.eff.org/issues/tpp


As Waldfee says, CFDs are a derivative (of the underlying stock in this case). If you are from the USA then they are prohibited in the USA as has also been mentioned. They are not prohibited, however, in many other countries including Australia.  We can buy or short sell (on a limited number of securities) CFDs on Australian securities, USA securities and securities from many other countries, on FX, and different commodities. The reason you are paying much less than the actial stock price is worth is because you are buying on margin. When you go long you pay interest on overnight positions, and when you go short you recieve interest on overnight positions (that is if you hold the position open overnight). Most CFDs are over the counter, however in Australia (don't know about other countries) we also have exchange traded CFDs called ASX CFDs. I have tried both ASX CFDs and over the counter CFDs and prefer the over the counter CFDs because the broker provides a market which closely but not exactly follows the underlying prices. Wlth the exchange traded CFDs there was low liquidity due to being quite new so there was the potential to be gapped quite considerably. This might improve as the market grows. All in all, once you understand how they work and what is involved in trading them, they are much easier than options or futers. However, if you are going to trade anything first get yourself educated, have a trading plan and risk management strategy, and paper trade before putting real money on the table. And remember, if you are in the USA, you are actually prohibited from trading CFDs. Regarding the price of AAPL at $50, the price should be the same as that of the underlying stock, it is just that your initial outlay will be less than buying the stock directly because you are buying on margin. Your initial outlay may be as little as 5% or lower, depending on the underlying stock.


Rule 610 (Google for it) stands that if Bid and Ask are the same, the market is considered Locked, and the exchange must stop all trading. So the same person can't quote the same bid and ask price. However, HFTs have found ways to circumvent this limitation when exchanges created special order types for them, e.g. Spam-and-Cancel


As much as people on the internet and ZH-like blogs like to harp on auto deliquencies and other narrow metrics as broader statements about how life around us is all a sham, I feel this article does a good job at discussing the mitigants here.  Notably: 1) that the sub-prime auto market is rather small, so while delinquencies may rise it won't represent a catalyst for a broader financial crisis.   2) The securitized products Santander and others are putting together are structured in a way to account for these defaults and loss rates, so while the relative uptick in default rates is interesting to note, it doesn't necessarily spell doom in absolute terms.   3) The fact that many auto dealers don't verify income isn't uncommon and in fact an industry standard practice due to point #2 above. The statement these dealers have been lying about incomes and/or is not verifying incomes certainly pulls at the heart strings of the 2008 Housing Crisis, but when discussed within the context of how the auto lending market works, it isn't nearly as scary as those statements would suggest in isolation.


It is subjective of course, but when I hire people I'd rather see a shit job for two months than nothing at all.  Not that I'm planning to give the prospective employee shit work, just that they're not lazy.


There are 2 trades involved - keep in mind that the function of the CIO is to hedge out the banks risk from a very high level. Credit and interest rate risk should come to mind since what does a bank do (for the most part)? Loan money.   Trade #1 - The bank is long corporate debt, that's no secret, so they're always exposed to a high amount of macro economic risk. So the CIO hedged this initially by taking a bearish stance on junk bonds. This is somewhat narrow, but still reasonable.   Trade #2 - What you'd call a second order hedge in an attempt to offset the overly bearish but still embarrassingly narrow position in trade #1. All on the Markit CDX IG 9 (Investment Grade Series 9 10yr), Mr Iksil sold CDS tranches out to 2017 and bought to 2012.   So, the books were flat (with a slight optimistic edge) through 2012, and bullish on the economy out to 2017.   Unfortunately, credit markets didn't exactly take off. The economy stayed volatile, and Bruno had to keep digging deeper into the trade, selling back year tranches to buy front the front years. This eventually wonked spreads out so badly that everyone who cared caught on and, when JPM decided the time had come to take their losses, hedge funds started picking them off on the unwinds.


Utilities and cost of living vary from city to city but maybe not that much.  For basic planning purposes you can probably figure to spend as much as you are now, maybe a little more.  And adjust as needed when you get there.  (And adjust if, for example, you're moving from a very low cost of living area or to a very high cost of living area.) The cost of housing varies quite a bit from city to city, but you can do this research using Zillow, Craigslist, other places. Now, on to moving itself.  The cost of moving can vary hugely depending on how much stuff you have and how much work you want to do.  On the cheap end, you can rent a U-Haul or one of those portable boxes that they plant outside your old house and move for you.  You'll do all the packing/loading/unloading/unpacking yourself but it saves quite a bit of money.  My family and I moved from Seattle to California last year using one of those portable box places and it ended up costing us ~$1400 including 30 days of storage at the destination while we looked for a place.  We have a <1000 sq foot place with some furniture but not a huge amount and did all the packing/loading ourselves.  If we had wanted full service where people come pack, load, unpack, etc, it could have been 2-3x that amount.  (And if we had more stuff, it could have been a lot more expensive too.  Try not to acquire too much stuff as you just end up having to move it around and take care of it all!)  Your employer may cover moving expenses, ask about this when talking about job offers.  Un-reimbursed moving expenses are tax-deductible in the US (even if you don't itemize).   Since you're just starting out, your best bet is to overestimate how much you think things will cost, then adjust as you arrive and settle in for a few months.  Try to save as much as you can, but remember to have fun too.  Hope this helps!


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yes. And the rentals facilitating terrorism is such a ludicrous claim at least compared to what hotels themselves do, namely rent rooms to anyone showing up with a credit card or in the lower tiers even cash. That is even easier than ABnB where at least you have to spend a few minutes to create an account.   The real terrorism risk around hospitality is hospitality being targeted or used for laundering money which is also a lot easier in a large hotel than doing it one ABnB rental unit at a time.


"+1 on all the answers above. You're in a great position and have the right attitude. A good book on the subject is A Random Walk Down Wall Street - well worth a read. Essentially, go for low tax paying in, low tax taking out approach (in the uk that's a SIPP or ISA), a low cost well diversified unit fund (like a Vanguard LifeStrategy 100), on a low cost platform (""Annual Management Charge"" in be UK). Keep paying a regular amount and let compound interest take care of things. I'd also add that you should think about what lifestyle you would want at specific ages and work out what you need to save to achieve these - even though they are probably a long time in the future, it makes your goals ""real"". Read Mr Money Moustache for some ideas http://www.mrmoneymustache.com"


Level 1 and level 2 are more equation driven and fairly straight forward. If you have a solid grasp of all the formulas and equations presented you should pass. The curriculum of level 3 is smaller, but from the practice tests and mocks, I've realized that you have to know the material better. Level 3 requires the synthesis of material, where anything from any section can show up anywhere.   Also it doesn't help that I'm not in portfolio management, so maybe 95% of the material is new to me.


You're 100% right! The IRR is the rate at which the project breaks even. You project cash flow/profitability metrics, and then you see what, under your projections, is the discount rate at which your project breaks even (the IRR).   But remember, it breaks even today! So it's saying that you should make a worthwhile investment today because the return that you will obtain at points in the future are worth you putting your investment in today! You still make a healthy return overtime if you project a reasonable IRR, but your IRR is showing you whether it's at least as worth it today to put your money in today (whether, given what you'll make over the future, it's at least as worth it to put your money in today).


"Gotta beat them with price and games. You toss xbox on there and you'll have every 14 year old ""gamer"" screaming to get one. Hell, even if it's just a wrapper for simple games like angry birds."


Exactly.  Bosses/managers often frame things in terms of 'you should be thankful for us giving you a paycheck each week' when by definition, you are being paid less than your labour, strictly speaking, is worth.  ie, on the whole what you do is paying the company MORE than you receive.    Personally, I'm fine with this trade off, within reason.  I get to go home at 5, and if the phone rings I ignore it if I like.  If the place folds, no one is coming after me for a share of the company's debts, either.  But don't let anyone blow smoke that by paying you they are being generous.


that could be said about anyone of a million companies in america. thats when the executives track records become relevant. so far so good for musk. no doubt they are venturing into unknown territory but thats half the fun. to be honest with the current state of things a pioneer of this sort deserves america's support.


"The notion that you can put product on the web and sit back and watch the money roll in is a myth, plain and simple.  If you put content on the web and expect people to pay money for your products (t-shirts, etc), you have to do the work to get your stuff seen by people, and preferably the right kind of people who will buy your stuff. That means you need to know your market and provide something that they are eager to pay for. This doesn't necessarily mean buying advertising to direct traffic to your site - there are plenty of no-cost ways to bring people to your web site, but instead of costing $$ the cost is in effort and time that you have to put into it. Also keep in mind that the more participants you have in your production and fulfillment pipeline, the less you will make off every sale. Hands-off production services like Zazzle or Cafe Press do everything for you, all you have to do is provide the artwork.  However, they also take all the income and pay you a rather piddling percentage of sales.  You can get a larger percentage of sales if you do more of the work yourself - like handmade items sold on Etsy.  But then, you're doing work. Maybe you'll get $1 for each T-Shirt you sell.  If you just upload your artwork to the production service and type in some product description text into their web sales catalog, how many sales will you make in the first month?  Most likely somewhere between zero and two.  Why should anyone buy your shirt over the tens of thousands of other designs carried by the same production service?  It's your responsibility to tell people about your stuff and send them to the site to buy it.  And that means it's not a ""passive"" income. For truly passive income, invest in bank CD's, treasury bonds, or in stocks that pay dividends.  The only problem with that is you have to have money to make money this way. :/"


"If you invest in a foreign bank you are subject to their financial rules and regulations. If you put your money with their CD it will be converted to UAH (grivna) and you will be paid back in UAH, which introduces the exchange rate risk.  FDIC is not the only reason why a CD in a US bank pays a lower interest, but it could be seen as a contributing factor.  It all comes down to risk and what the bank is willing to pay for your money, when a bank issues a CD they are entering the debt market and competing against other banks, governments, or anyone looking for money. If the yield from lending to one bank is the same as the yield of another, the logical choice would be whichever loan is less risky. So in order for the riskier bank to receive loans they must entice investors by offering a greater rate of return. In addition, if a bank isn't looking for loans they might be less inclined to pay for them. - See ""What is the “Bernanke Twist” and “Operation Twist”? What exactly does it do?"" If your looking to invest in the CD's of foreign banks I would suggest doing research on their regulations. Especially if and how your money is protected in the event the bank goes bust."


"Summary: It's because you are effectively contributing more money in the second case, so you have more money at the end.  The effect of being covered by an employer retirement plan (in the case of a 401(k), that means either you or your employer contributed to it during the year) is that it prevents you from deducting Traditional IRA contributions unless your income is below a very low level (for Single filing status, it phases out at an MAGI of between $62k and $72k). Since you are unable to deduct the Traditional IRA contribution, but you entered that you are still making the full $5500 contribution every year, that means you are making a non-deductible contribution of $5500 every year instead of a deductible contribution. Nondeductible contributions are ""after-tax"", whereas deductible contributions are ""pre-tax"" (because your taxable income is reduced by the amount of the contribution, so you effectively don't pay income tax on the income you used to contribute). $1 of pre-tax money is not the same as $1 of after-tax money. If your marginal tax rate is 25%, then $1 of pre-tax money is equivalent to $0.75 of after-tax money. However, since in both cases you are putting in the same nominal amount of contribution ($5500), but one is pre-tax and one is after-tax, in the after-tax case you are effectively contributing more money, i.e. more money is taken out from your bank account that year. The $5500 pre-tax contribution is equivalent to only $5500 * 0.75 = $4125 after-tax, i.e. you are only short $4125 from your bank account at the end of the year after making a $5500 deductible contribution, whereas you are short $5500 after making a $5500 non-deductible contribution, so it's not a fair comparison. The non-deductible Traditional IRA contributions are not taxed when withdrawn (though the earnings earned from those contributions are still taxed), so that's why you are left with a greater amount. This is a similar situation to what happens when you try to compare a $5500 deductible Traditional IRA contribution to a $5500 Roth IRA contribution -- it will look like the Roth IRA case leaves you with much more money, but that's again because you are effectively contributing more money, because the Roth IRA contribution is after-tax, so it's not a fair comparison. (The Roth IRA case will produce a much greater ""advantage"" than the non-deductible Traditional IRA contribution case, because for a Roth IRA, both the contributions and earnings will not be taxed at withdrawal.)"


First the obvious: Business school rankings are flawed.   I have no doubt that Asian business schools are improving rapidly, and many are already on par with Western universities. Many of the best teachers at US/European schools are also teaching in Asia (I have never had an Asian teacher but I expect that they are as great as their Western counterparts). Also, academic journals accept more and more Asian submissions.   But we also have to put the numbers in perspective. An American student who did an MBA in China will have a hard time getting a job in the US. Even those who go to European universities are met by recruiters with puzzlement. So these the high ranking of Asian schools is really only relevant for Asian students.   In short, what the ranking says is: If you're Chinese, you don't *need* to go to the US or Europe for your business degree. Personally I suggest you still do if you can afford it, because the experience abroad, and the exposure to students with a different attitude, will be an enrichment.


If one is looking at this from the perspective of a store where debits could be how money comes into the store's account and credit is what has to be paid out to customers, then the employee salaries would also be something going out of the account for the store.


I lucked out and bought a beat little 640 sq. ft. bungalow in S.E. Mass for short money in 2008 hoping that I'd be able to build up some equity and upsell into a nicer house (i.e. one with more than three rooms and a roof that doesn't leak).   The good news (I guess) is that I'll be paid off in just a few years, but the bad news is that this little bungalow will have to do for a long time. House prices in the places that I'd like to live are through the roof, and if you're not a cash buyer you're pretty well fucked. I can't afford to sell without the hope that I'd be able to actually buy another house.


Each ATM, the machine, belongs to one or more networks. Those networks work with multiple types of cards. Each card belongs to one or more networks. The overlap of the networks the machine belongs to, and the card belongs to determines if the card works and what fees and limits apply. In general if the credit card belongs to one of the major networks (VISA, Master Card, American Express and Discover) you shouldn't have a problem finding a ATM that will give you a cash advance, or even a cash advance without an ATM Fee. Each credit card network should have a web interface to show you where the ATMs are that will work with the card. If it is a store credit card it still might belong to one of the major networks.  If the bank that issues the card is local you can probably get a cash advance at the bank branch. Use the website to see if the ATM/Branch  locations are convenient for you. The actual limits are a function of the card type, and the credit limit that you have been approved for. In my experience the maximum amount of cash advance outstanding is half the credit limit, but you need to check with your card.  Keep in mind unless you have a special offer from the credit card company expect that there will be a fee charged by the credit card company for the cash advance, this is in addition to a fee charged by the ATM.  Also remember that interest starts to accumulate on day one of the cash advance. It isn't  like a regular purchase that might not be charged interest until the cycle closes and the payment is due.  The documentation from the credit card company will describe all the fees and limits.


Safe deposit boxes are rented out to customers, and their content is not bank's property. Money deposits are not being taken by the creditors if a bank goes bankrupt, for the same reason - its not bank's money, it belongs to the depositors. However, frequently banks go bankrupt because they do not have enough cash at hand to pay back the depositors. In this case, unless insured (up to $250K in the US, EUR100K in EU), some or all of the deposits may not be immediately (or even at all) available. Depositors become creditors of the bank in the bankruptcy proceedings. Safe deposit box, however, is rented to the customer, and the content is not removed by the bank to be used elsewhere, as happens with monetary deposits. So even if the bank is bankrupt and doesn't have enough money to cover the monetary deposits, the content of the safe deposit boxes doesn't magically disappear, and the owner can get it back. The access to the deposit box itself may be limited due to the bankruptcy, but the content will remain there waiting for its owners. In the United States, when a bank goes bankrupt, FDIC takes over it and its assets. Safe deposit box rental contract is an asset. It is taken over by the FDIC and will be sold to a buyer (usually as a part of the whole branch where the box is located), who will continue operating/servicing it.


"I mean the scripture was written and incorporated long after Roman adoption by Constantine.  Just because the republicans say that is their motivation doesn't mean it is objective. Policy research, the impact of Reganomics shows, and Kansas' own failed tax experiment over the last six years show that belief in ""free market"" is not a sound basis to make decisions which impact people's health and welfare. Actions have impacts and their belief and explanations do not align with reality."


I am using the term homework generically to mean anything that is a part of school work that you should be working on independently.   You can see if the people at r/investing or r/finance will answer your question


Most answers to this question only address the issue of providing personal information to a scammer. But considering that a lot of questions without the personal information addition get closed as duplicates of this one, I would like to answer the question in the subject: There are several criminal schemes which involve this.


Here are the 7:  1.  Use folders to Help Someone Who Is Not You (Right Now) find what they need  2.  Too many open browser tabs is harmful to your brain  3.  Save time and frustration with a Password Manger  4.  Zap your productivity apps so they work together  5.  Eliminate distractions and find your flow while writing  6.  Manage inbox chaos with Labels  7.  Save your most important content in one place


I've wondered why anyone thinks it will be more than a speculation instrument. I'd love to hear arguments for it but they always fall short as soon as I think about countries inflating/deflating the value of their own currency.


I think you're missing the point. We all have things we are good at and we all have styles we like to do it in. Was Bach's skills nature or nurture, I think we can assume both. If he had the same nurture in a different time period where a different form of music was dominant would he have found as much success? We can't truly know, but perhaps, perhaps not. If his childhood was different, if his parents were different, would he even have been a musician or a composer? Again, perhaps, perhaps not. Luck is how our parents raised us, the teachers we get in school, the friends we make, how our peers treat us, the year we were born, the random events of our lives, and so much more.   To some degree we make our own luck, yes, but to suggest that we all are dealt the same hand to play with or that all hands are equal is lunacy.


FYI, it's not my article. But to respond....   > What if it contributed to a planet that did not get destroyed, thereby maintaining a better business climate (pun intended) for the future?* FTFY   The point being made is that it isn't the purpose of a business to contribute to a planet not getting destroyed. That is the purpose of a scientist/non-profit/governmental organization. The point being made is that a business is losing its true focus and thus undermining its purpose if it tries to do anything other than maximize profits. I'm NOT saying I agree with that, but that's my take on what they're saying.


If you believe the stock market will be down 20-30% in the next few months, sell your stock holdings, buy a protective put option for the value of the holdings that you want to keep. That would be hedging against it. Anything more is speculating that the market will fall.


1500 what? Items purchased at a supermarket? Assuming I purchase 50 items during a serious visit (a pretty low estimate) 1500 data points only represents 30 visits. If I go to the supermarket once a week, that's not even a year's worth of data.  How about websites? According to [this guy](http://kickstand.typepad.com/metamuse/2007/10/how-many-web-pa.html) an average internet user initiates between 120-140 unique pageviews per day. taking the low estimate, 1500 data paints doesn't even represent two weeks of data (12.5 days).  1500 data points is NOTHING when you're trying to predict consumer behavior.


Skin tightening in Noida offers spectacular results. If you have been trying every means possible to rejuvenate your skin and look younger, then skin tightening is the right solution for you. Age can take a toll on the skin, and while good habits and sunscreen can protect your skin against serious harm, the toxic environment, lifestyle factors, and stress can make you look older.


Yes, it's probably one of the best combinations for the current/future job market. A lot of the finance industry will (eventually) become more technological with areas like algorithmic trading and artificial intelligence, and CS is a good way to position yourself for this. Only if you're interested in it though, otherwise it's kind of pointless.


Ở đây, bạn có thể tin cậy và mong đợi nhiều hơn từ nhóm kinh nghiệm tốt nhất của chúng tôi. Chúng tôi cung cấp dịch vụ độc đáo cho trần thạch cao với giá phải chăng. Chúng tôi cung cấp sự hài lòng đầy đủ cho khách hàng của chúng tôi. SMY nhận ra hầu hết các dịch vụ trong ngành cung cấp tran thach cao. Dịch vụ của chúng tôi được đánh giá cao bởi khách hàng của chúng tôi cho các tính năng khác nhau như độ tin cậy. Chúng tôi luôn sẵn sàng giải quyết vấn đề và cung cấp vật liệu tốt nhất cho thạch cao, bền lâu.


"Price is current price per share, but you can buy fractional shares. Minimal investment is how later the first purchase of shares must be to make it worth their efforts to set up the account for you. How you manage it is up to you. You can buy or sell shares at any time, pretty much, though it may take a few days for the transaction to ""settle"" and take effect. You can do this via checks, or you can give the broker (or the investment house, if you are dealing directly with them as I do) permission to take money from or put money to your bank account when you tell them you want to buy or sell shares. You may be able to set up direct deposit; talk to your employer about that. Or you may be able to have your bank make a periodic transfer/purchase for you."


The terms of IL state pensions are among the most generous in the entire country and the state is swimming in debt due to them.  The unions own the democratic pols in IL and it's been an incestuous relationship between the two.  Politicians get union money for elections, elected politicians give unions generous pension payouts that basically burden the taxpayer to obscene levels.  Why is IL the largest net migration in the 50 states?  Why isn't Indiana or Wisconsin facing the same problems?  Oh that's right, they got rid of their public sector unions and that's why citizens of IL have about $40,000 more in debt than their neighbors.


I had o conversation with our HR VP about a year ago and he said the same thing.  But I did make him realize he'd better offer more money for the position I needed filled.  We found a great guy within three weeks when we upped the pay another 20k.


When in doubt, call (the card issuer) and ask. Ask if you overpay your current bill if the overpayment becomes available credit and tell them why you are asking. It can go either way.


"Due to the issues in the Eurozone, many foreign investors were buying Swiss Francs as a hedge against a Euro devaluation. They were in effect treating the Franc like gold, silver or some other commodity with perceived intrinsic value. This causes huge problems from the Swiss, as the value of the Franc increased and their exports became more expensive for foreigners to purchase. Things were getting bad enough that the Swiss in some places were travelling to Germany to buy groceries! To enforce this ""fixing"" of the Franc, the Swiss Central Bank announced that they would buy foreign currency in unlimited quantities by printing Francs. In reality, just announcing that they were going to do this was sufficient to discourage foreign investors from loading up on Francs. NPR's Planet Money did a really good job covering this topic:"


No matter what, it is never a bad decision to go 100% debt free.  However, you can make debt work in your favor in some cases (investments, education, etc.), but you need to approach it with a plan and long term strategy. Interest, fees, and loss of value can quickly eat up any gains.


If you're creating an S-Corp for consulting services that you personally are going to provide, what would it give her to have 50% of the corporation when you're dead? Not to mention that you can just add it to your will that the corporation stock will go to her, and it will be much better (IMHO, talk to a professional) since she'll be getting stepped-up basis. Why aren't you talking to a professional before making decisions? It doesn't sound like a good way to conduct business.


Obviously, there are many approaches. I’ll describe what we do and why we think it is successful. I have seen many couples having disagreements and even divorce over money; it seems that this is a typical reason to fight and sometimes fight badly. The realization is that different people have different preferences what to spend their money on, and if you are not rich, it continuously leads to disagreements - ‘did you really need another pair of shoes?’, etc. Our solution is a weekly allowance. First, all our money goes into one pot and is considered equal. Many couples find that a difficult step, but I never thought twice about it - I trust my spouse, and I share my life with her, so why not my money? From this, we agree on an ‘allowance’ that is used to cover any non-common cost; this includes all clothing, dining out, buying things, etc. The amount was chosen to match about what we spent for those things anyway, and then adjusted annually. The main point is that there is no critique allowed about what this is spent on - you can blow it all on shoes, or buy books, or wine and dine, or gamble it away, whatever. We are doing this since 23 years now, and we are very happy with the results; we never have financial ‘fights’ anymore. Disadvantages are the effort - you need to keep track of it somehow. Either you use a separate credit card, or hand it out in cash, or have a complete accounting (I do the latter, because I want to). Regarding all other spend, we use the accounting to plan ahead for at least a year on all cost and income that are expected, and that shows us the available cash flow and where it might get tight. It also shows you where the money goes, and where you could cut if cutting is needed (or wanted). Again, there is some effort in collecting the data, but it is worth it (for us).


Godrej Nest Floor Plans completely define the large residences at Sector 150 Noida. It ranges from 1250 to 3050 Sq.ft including 2BHK,3BHK,3.5BHK & 4.5BHK within normal and iconic towers. It is the most promising apartments coming near to Noida - Greater Noida Expressway. http://www.smcrealty.com/godrej-nest-150-noida/floor-plans.php


He can buy at 69.95 or 69.70 or whatever because he already has all the shares. The HFT bought at a cheaper price earlier. The HFT has all the shares. Now he's testing the guy who won't go above 70.00 with small orders. When he sees that this guy is willing to buy 10 at 70.00 the HFT makes a limit order of all the shares in the market at 70.00 when he got them all already at 69.95.  Whatever doesn't get bought up goes back into the market at the price the HFT originally bought at. The HFT was in line ahead of the guy who won't go above 70.00 as soon as he saw him buying. Like at the horse race, remember?


Melodrama much?   The only reason this hurts the franchise system is because it prevents the franchiser from profiting from labor violations at the franchise level.  So, sure some franchises might not be viable anymore, but that might not be so bad for society as a whole, those jobs will just transition to other food joints.  In terms of franchiser operational changes, its not going to change anything other than the cost of drafting up some company wide pay policies and reworking the franchise contracts to allow McDs  to revoke franchise licenses in the event that they violate labor laws.


He doesn't have to follow through on this, but he could tell this sister that he will stop making mortgage payments, which will result in foreclosure and sale at lower price than might be realized by a voluntary sale. Translation: the house will sold, sis. Do you want to maximize your share of the proceeds?  And, as I said in a comment above: I hope that he is keeping careful records of mortgage an utility payments, as he might (should) be entitled to a refund from the proceeds of an eventual sale (possibly adjusted by the fair rent value of the time which he spent living there)


I can't find the video, but Mark Cuban was on one of the late shows, and the host asked him this question. His first response was I have no idea, then he took a wild guess of about $175K, or so.  I am a tax accountant that works on a couple of very very weathly people. I very seriously doubt they keep up with knowing how much is in their checking account. They are given a card, and accountants handle the rest. Then their advisor gives them a run down every month or so.


I wonder what they would say if there was a clause preventing tax breaks from going to management? It doesn't seem like a terrible idea, but would screw over middle-management and the supervisory positions an incentive like this could create.


Can you elaborate more on what you are referring too? No where near an economic expert, but by 'demand side subsidization' are you referring to the fed gov giving people money for their health care costs? Excluding the erroneous spending, such as a patient only willing to take a brand name pharmaceutical drug instead of a generic, that health care will be needed regardless, correct? So if taxes fit the bill, why would costs for the care received go up? Is it just because the provider knows they'll get the $$ almost no matter what if it's gov $$? Or something else besides, to put it bluntly, greed that would directly increase those costs?  Serious question btw?


The way reddit works so well with news proves that news sites don't have to organize themselves around huge profit and centralized reputation. The quality of journalism will probably suffer if the current businesses go belly up but then I compare late 2000's youtube channels with how highly-professional most youtube channels are becoming now and I realize that these disruptive processed take a little time.


It's not that simple.  Where I live, McDonald's charges $6.19 for a Big Mac combo.  The local In-N-Out charges $6.59 for a Double-Double combo.  They're pretty damned close in price and I don't think anyone would price discriminate over 40¢.  The difference between the two is enormous.  In-N-Out makes a great product, the burger and fries are delicious and fresh.  Further, In-N-Out is known for treating - and paying - their employees well.  They promote from within and becoming a manager is a good job.  Thanks to the decent pay, In-N-Out employees tend to be very good and care about the customers.  McDonald's is very different.  The food is terrible.  Flavorless and bland and *very* expensive for what you get.  In-N-Out aside, I can go to a local mom'n'pop and get a good meal for under $6.  There is no reason for me to go to McDonald's, none.  McDonald's isn't such a great employer, either.  The employees don't care.  I've never been treated badly, but there's no enthusiasm.  They are there for the paycheck only.  I blame accountants and the business structure.  For the record, I am an accountant, so I know what they're up to.  McDonald's is a large, public company bent on returning maximum profits to shareholders.  So they bring in the cost accountants who are very good at shaving costs down to the absolute minimum.  The Big Mac has suffered death by a thousand cuts.  No one cut makes it a lousy product, but give the cost accountants enough time and they will make anything mediocre to bad in lots of different ways.  In-N-Out is a privately held company.  Obviously, they are more interested in making money through selling a quality product and expanding sales.  They don't have to worry about shareholders who don't give a fuck and just want short-term profits.  They could make more money by turning the cost accountants loose, but they also know that would hurt their business.  The difference shows.  McDonald's is rarely busy here.  At In-N-Out, lines are usually out the door and you can't find an open table.  I only go there late at night on weekdays, since that's the only time it isn't slammed.  So you have two companies selling a similar product at almost the same price.  One is wildly successful and slowly expanding.  The other sells a shitty product and thinks that marketing is the problem.


The problem around here is while the crowd sourced nature of reddit can be great for discussions, when it comes to topics that require specialized analysis or understanding beyond headlines most of the participants are young and have very little direct experience or knowledge on what they're commenting on.  So as a business owner with actual experience that you live with and have dealt with for decades you might end up with negative comment votes, while a 15 year old who plays call of duty all day says something popular with the hivemind has hundreds of positive upvotes.   At least r/business has more people willing to consider both sides of the argument.... whereas r/politics is pretty much a lost cause. Nevermind I have a top 20 university degree in political science. For even suggesting people consider alternatives or that Obama is anything but a saint I often receive negative comment votes. I don't support Romney OR Obama, but thats as good as evil for most of these people.


No, it means that each year (Annual Payment Rate) you are accruing interest at 29.8%. If your principal is $10,000, that means you are gaining $3,000 of debt per year in addition to this, excluding payments you make/interest on interest.


Some brokerages will let you withdraw/deposit in multiple jurisdictions. e.g. I used to use Interactive Brokers. I could deposit/withdraw to US and UK bank accounts, in the appropriate currencies. It helps to have a brokerage that provides good rates on forex exchange also, and they were very good on the bid/ask spread. It was possible to get interbank rates plus a very low commission.


In short: yes, as long as you have Internet access. See, for example this question or this one about opening a brokerage account from outside the US.  Your sister could even open an account here in the US and provide you with access. However, I'm guessing you're not a registered or even formally trained financial advisor and if you make bets with her money that don't work out well, she could get pretty upset with you.   You might consider doing research from Bangladesh on good financial advisors and picking one (or a few) to recommend she go see in the US.  EDIT: OP hopes to be a financial advisor in the future. Given that comment, I'd recommend looking into becoming a Certified Financial Planner (unless CFA suits your goals; you indicated that process is already underway), as a step towards that goal.  Information about the certification in the US is here, in India here, and in some other countries here.


Having a good dividend yield doesn't guarantee that a stock is safe. In the future, the company may run into financial trouble, stop paying dividends, or even go bankrupt. For this reason, you should never buy a stock just because it has a high dividend yield. You also need some criteria to determine whether that stock is safe to buy. Personally, I consider a stock is reasonably safe if it meets the following criteria:


I suppose it depends on what you mean by replicate.  I don't take his meaning as to be able to create a brain with real neurons and such (this is actually possible*).  I take it to mean replicate the functionality of the brain as closely as possible.  I've been tracking the progress of the Blue Brain project which is attempting to do just this via software abstraction and simulation.  It's a lofty goal.  I like lofty goals.  I think they often accomplish more faster.  But having said that, I think trying to do this with hardware without the abstraction is even more difficult because as you say, we don't completely understand how the brain works.  It's much easier to write or adjust simulation code than it is to redo hardware.  Of course, the simulation route is less efficient but it's more flexible as new theories and information are generated, you just revise the simulation software.  *Have a baby or do something like this: http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-bioelectric-tadpoles-eyes-tail.html  edit: would someone mind replying instead of just downvoting?


Whether or not it is logical probably depends on individual circumstance.  When you take on (or maintain) debt, you are choosing to do two things: The first is clear. This is what you describe very well in your answer. It is a straightforward analysis of interest rates. The fixed cost of the debt can then be directly compared to expected return on investments that are made with the newly available cash flow. If you can reasonably expect to beat your debt interest rate, this is an argument to borrow and invest. Add to this equation an overwhelming upside, such as a 401k match, and the argument becomes very compelling. The second cost listed is more speculative in nature, but just as important. When you acquire debt, you are committing your future cash flow to payments. This exposes you to the risk of too little financial margin in the future. It also exposes you to the risk of any negatives that come with non-payment of debt (repossession, foreclosure, credit hit, sleeping at night, family tension, worst-case bankruptcy) Since the future tends to be difficult to predict, this risk is not so easy to quantify. Clearly the amount and nature of the debt is a large factor here.  This would seem to be highly personal, with different individuals having unique financial or personal resources or income earning power.  I will never say someone is illogical for choosing to repay their debts before investing in a 401k. I can see why some would always choose to invest to the match.


If you return the money in the same tax year - it will not appear on your W2 and you will not be taxed on it. Whatever was withheld - you'll get it refunded when you file your annual tax return. If you return it in a different tax year - it becomes a miscellaneous deduction reported on your Schedule A. If the amount is less than $3000 - then this deduction is subject to the 2% AGI threshold, if the amount is more than that - it is not subject to threshold. Bottom line, you're probably going to lose money, unless you're already itemizing and the amount is above $3K. There's also a credit that you can take instead of deduction. See publication 525 for details.


From a tax perspective, it doesn't matter whether what you are doing is fraud, illegal, or perfectly legit.  If you make money, the IRS will want you to pay taxes on it.  Drug dealers, pimps, hobos, professional gamblers, extortionists, coupon collectors.  The IRS doesn't care.  They want their taxes. Now, where do you pay taxes?  There are two likely options:  I'm not a tax lawyer so I can't say which would be more correct.  My expectation is that the IRS would be fine with either.


As said previously, most of the time volume does not affect stock prices, except with penny stocks. These stocks typically have a small volume in the 3 or 4 figure range and because of this they typically experience very sharp rises and drops in stock prices, contrasting normal stocks that go up and down constantly every minute. Volume is not one thing you should be looking at when analyzing a stock in most cases, since it is simply the number of people of trades made in a day. That has no effect on the value of the company, whereas looking at P/E ratios, dividend growth, etc all can be analyzed to see if a company is growing and is doing well in its field. If I buy an iPhone, it doesn't matter if 100 other people or 100,000 other people have bought it as well, since they won't really affect my experience with the product. Whereas the type of iPhone I buy will.


I can't think of anyone who seriously uses LinkedIn as a definitive source to find personnel.  Maybe some bottom feeding firms in India, but that's about it.  Judging by the downvotes LinkedIn is used by the Bangladesh Buttholes.


"I'll repeat, do you have an actual argument to contribute or just going to keep derailing?   Putting the onus onto me to disprove my own argument, that's really reaching..the bigger question is why are you unable to disprove me yourself? It should be ""pretty easy"" for a true skeptic, but impossible for a believer. Which are you?   You're the one trying to invalidate my argument but you have yet to give a reason why.   So far none of your replies have even mentioned the website which makes me think you aren't even here to talk about it.   Either give me an actual argument against my claim, or expose yourself as having zero integrity when confronted with facts you don't like."


For tax optimization, cash is stored mostly overseas, according to the New York Times. For Apple, everytime a song or an app is bought in Europe, Africa or Middle East, money flows to iTunes Sàrl, in Luxemburg. Royalties on patents flow internally from Apple in California to Apple in Ireland. Then profits flow to the Carribean. The problem is that cash cannot be brought back to the USA without huge taxes.


"Currencies don't really have intrinsic value. You can't compare bitcoins to tulips because you can't grow 200x more bitcoins next winter to push the price down to its intrinsic value.  Bitcoins are scarce and like gold, the intrinsic value doesn't matter anymore, it's all about supply and demand and there will always be bitcoin fans with money that won't let it go to 0$. And compared to gold, bitcoin is still very very cheap, so even if the bubble ""bursts"", it will grow again."


> He shouldn't be allowed to work overtime. Bridge patrol should be mandated to be well rested and never overworked. They should work max 40 hrs a week. And they should be salaried and not hourly.  If you've got all these bright fuckin' ideas, why don't **you** go run the police department?


This definitely depends on your situation. If  your furnace is relatively young it's probably not going to require major service anytime soon so you may not need it. As @sdg said, if you can tolerate a couple of days with no heat, you may not need it. If you have access to trusted HVAC repairman, you may not need it. Mind if I ask how much they're charging? There's definitely a pain threshold that will vary based on your needs.  For example, I'd be willing to pay up to $10. But that's mostly because of the annual maintenance check. If I had an older system or depended on it more, my pain threshold would be higher. My local gas company offers this service for around $20/month. That's not worth it to me because I'm estimating (i.e. guessing) that any repairs I need to do in the next 5 years will cost less than 5*12*20 = $1200.


You need growth in your retirement fund. Sad to say but the broad U.S. marks still has better growth perspective than the emerging markets. Look at China they are only at 6.7% growth for next year the same as this year.  Russia's economy is shrinking. These are the other two super powers of 2015. The USA is still the best market to invest in historically and in the present. That's why the USA market tends to be overweight in most retirement portfolios. Now by only investing in the USA market do you miss out on trends internationally? Well you do a bit but not entirely. Many USA companies are highly international in regards to their growth. Here are some:  So in short the USA market still seems to be the best growth market and you still get some international exposure.  Also by investing in USA companies they sometimes are more ethical in their book keeping as opposed to some other markets. I don't think I'm the only one that is skeptical of the numbers China's government reports.


Chanteur is one of the most trusted brands for buying jewelry for kids, infants, toddlers, teens and tweens. We offer most stylish and 100% heavy metal free jewelry which includes kids bangles, adjustable bangles for babies, earrings that toddlers can't take out, necklaces for teenage girl and much more.


I agree with the principles, but the reality is far different on the ground. We are still moving further and further into hard skills for recruiting, because that is all HR drones know how to do. If we want more well rounded people, we need to change the way we evaluate people, rather than just looking for boxes to check. Unfortunately I suspect the vast majority of these phantom liberal arts jobs will simply be filled by cherry picked Ivy leaguers and those with the right connections, because that is basically how it is done now.


This comment might sound like a circle jerk but I think it's important to say. Indeed innovation is what creates more productivity, which is fueled by debt, but debt is fueled by real savings, which comes from under consuming, which is easier when your productivity is higher. The government can stimulate innovation yes, but only at the expense of someone else.   What's really scary is the federal reserve has been manufacturing all the savings for nearly a decade now. So there's a complete mismatch between credit and savings, and the overall economy. The actual price of money itself is manufactured too, so just about all asset prices are inherently flawed in my view.   I think it's important to piggy back your point about innovation and how productivity can't really go down, because inventions and new methods of producing goods don't disappear(once we come up with the combustible engine or a new drug for example, it's now here forever ideally, it's work that we don't have to do all over again).  What brings on a crash or feeling like we're going backwards in terms of progress comes when we somehow manage to go through a boom bust (like in 2008), but then take on all this debt, normally we can pay off debt but when the government manufactures it, and credit is created out of nothing, that's when you get into problems like not being able to pay it back - because it wasn't truly real or representative of real savings. I feel like I'm ranting now but I think this stuff is super important and I think you understand it.


I disagree with Dumbcoder's response. Setting up a DD is not easily approved by the banks as you must prove a existing business cash flow. And secondly you cannot empty someone's account via DD as they are protected by the DD mandate. (Money goes out, complaint is made, money goes back in, the registered business with the DD facility has some serious explaining to do to the bank and FCA). Dumbcoder you likely work in a middle position of a company..


I'm sure you did. I'm pretty sure a hedge fund manager knew the underwriters couldn't short IPOs. No one would have been able to follow your advice because they wouldn't have been able to short it on day two either. You still don't get it.


If btc looks like its going to replace dollars etc, banks will be right there with it, along with all the public convenience and trust they already have. They're also invested in much more than currency. Big banks aren't built of money paper machè.


Wow this is a perfect example of the apathy of customers.  This scandal is literally about their auto loans, and that's what the article is about.  How are you ever going to know if something is affecting you if you won't even read the damn article about a company YOU DO BUSINESS WITH?  Seriously this couldn't prove the point of the comment you're replying to more.  It's stupid consumers like you that allow these companies to get away with this shit.


This investment does not have a payback period as the net present value of your investment is negative. Your investment requires an initial cash outlay of $40,000 followed by annual savings of $2060 for the next 20 years. Your discount rate is 5% at which the NPV is $-14327.85 as calculated below by using this JavaScript financial functions library tadJS that is based on a popular tadXL add-in for Excel 2007, 2010 and 2013.


"Basically, you either borrow money, or get other people to invest in your business by buying stock or something analogous.  Sometimes you can get people to ""park"" money with you. For example, many people deposit money in a bank checking account. They don't get any interest or other profit from this, they just do it because the bank is a convenient place to store their money. The bank then loans some percentage of this money out and keeps the interest. I don't doubt that people have come up with more clever ways to use other people's money. Borrowing money for an investment or business venture is risky because if you lose money, you may be unable to pay it back. On the other hand, investors expect a share of the profit, not just a fixed interest rate."


>Sometimes that requires more time other times less.  Oh bullshit.  Once when I had little work I started doing few hours.  After a couple weeks of this I was explicitly reprimanded and told to give 8 hours per day of butt-in-seat.  I asked if my actual team leader had complained I wasn't working efficiently enough.  Turns out he thought I was doing *just fine* for the workload he was giving me.  Only as a salaried contractor working remotely did I end up being able to turn my ability to *get my shit done* into more free time.


Loans are not taxable events. The equity you took out is not income. It's a loan, and you pay it back with interest. You pay taxes on the capital gain of the home when you sell it. The tax does not take into account any mortgages, HELOCs, or other loans secured by the house. Instead the tax is calculated based on the price you sold it for, minus the price you bought it for, which is known as the capital gain. You can exclude $250k of that gain for a single person, $500k for a married couple. (There are a few other wrikles as well.) That would be true regardless of the loan balance at the time.


"there's a large gap between  ""scheming group of evil masterminds"" and   ""since we're just people making $800,000 or more, there can exist no organic or intended collective desire for us to perpetuate or push for socio-culturo-political systems which tend to ensure our continued wealth"" though."


Oh I definitely wish there were more women in STEM.  Though the NYT likes to blame bias from those already in those fields, I suspect that's mostly decades in the past.            I'm more inclined to attribute a lot of it to some type of social pressure from female peers, particularly in teenage years where social acceptance is very important, and being the girl who's taking AP Statistics or considering a degree in Accounting is not going to win one acceptance into the popular kids crowd.  Which is really unfortunate because being interested in such things really should be encouraged.


If you've ever taken a look at Amazon Fresh,it's full of pretty much the same stuff (just much less variety than Whole Foods) - I'd imagine the WFM model isn't going to change from the brick and mortar standpoint, but will see a full scale integration of Amazon Fresh's delivery service, which will be good for both.  Still not keen on 8 dollars for a gallon of milk tho. wtf Whole Foods.


For the Roth the earnings: interest, dividends, capital gains distributions and capital gains are tax deferred. Which means that as long as the money stays inside of a Roth or is transferred/rolled over to another Roth there are no taxes due. In December many mutual funds distribute their gains. Let's say people invested in S&P500index fund receive a dividend of 1% of their account value. The investor in a non-retirement fund will be paying tax on that dividend in the Spring with their tax form. The Roth and IRA investors will not be paying tax on those dividends. The Roth investor never will, and the regular IRA investor will only pay taxes on it when they pull the money out.


Aeroprop, is one of the pinnacle leading propeller manufacturer organisation, who've greater than sixty five years of experience, along with all these items we carry out a huge range of Non-Destructive Testing inclusive of magnetic particle and eddy modern inspections, We test on housing gadgets propellers and different additives to come across microscopic cracks  or flaws that cannot be unseen through the naked eye.The Aeroprop Prop Cylinder Flush focused on first-class one product line, so whether or not it’s a 2-blade metallic propeller or a 6-blade composite device, our understanding of Hartzell plane propellers is remarkable. If you name for the super in your plane, don’t accept whatever a great deal much less. Aeroprop has been the leader in aircraft Hartzellpropeller structures for nearly a century.


Bonds have multiple points of risk: This is part of the time value of money chapter in any finance course.  Disclaimer - Duff's answer popped up as I was still doing the bond calculations. Similar to mine but less nerdy.


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Have you ever thought that how we get protected from small ailments like cold, or any other infections? Then it is the Antibodies are those things that protect us from various Infections. These are large Protein molecules white cells. Custom Antibody produced by the immune system in the response to the presence of antigens in the human body.


Yes.  It is.  It, like all business, takes a bit of luck, but honesty can be an asset.  I knew a used car salesman who was absolutely honest and had a great eye for product.  He bought cars at auctions out of state, and many of them were sold or reserved before they even arrived  at his lot.


It would be hard to say everything is overvalued when value is relative between any two items or services.  Most large corporate entities will hedge their positions, so even if a subset of securities or commodities moves negatively they preserve their value.    Most of the people that promote these types of ideas are selling something that has an inverse correlation with the market, so they hope to get others to buy in and drive up prices for them so they can cash out.  Or they are doomsday-conspiracy types.


"You can report it as ""hobby"" income, and then you won't be paying self-employment taxes. You can also deduct the blog-related expenses from that income (subject to the 2% limit though). See this IRS pub on the ""hobby"" income."


Options - yes we can :) Options tickers on Yahoo! Finance will be displayed as per new options   symbology announced by OCC. The basic parts of new option symbol are: Root symbol + Expiration   Year(yy)+ Expiration Month(mm)+ Expiration Day(dd) + Call/Put   Indicator (C or P) + Strike price Ex.: AAPL January 19 2013, Put 615 would be AAPL130119P00615000 http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=AAPL130119P00615000&ql=1 Futures - yes as well (: Ex.: 6A.M12.E would be 6AM12.CME using Yahoo Finance symbology. (simple as that, try it out) Get your major futures symbols from here: http://quotes.ino.com/exchanges/exchange.html?e=CME


"I worked for a large well known corporation as a senior programmer, and was in charge of interviewing programmers. This is in NYC. Out of 50 pre-screened candidates we hired 2. Half of the candidates can't answer the simplest questions like ""write a function to reverse a string"", which every first year Comp Science student should be able to do.  And our salaries were good, not $60K.  So yes, even in NYC there's not enough talent."


there are several reasons you might want good credit even if you could afford to pay for all your expenses in cash. having pointed out all the above reasons to have good credit, it is probably worth noting that many people with good credit choose to not borrow simply because they are more comfortable with the risks of not borrowing (e.g. inflation risk), than they are with the risks of borrowing (e.g. investment volatility).


"Google ""forex broker"" and find one of the thousands that allows you to trade on Gold futures.  Then use one of them to short Gold... just watch your leverage. I would certainly wait before you're shorting gold.  Why tie up capital in a bubble that you think will burst in the next few years.  Wait for the price to increase and monitor for actual signs of the bubble bursting.  Right now with the Euro possibly collapsing shorting gold probably isn't your best bet."


I just graduated from college and I am already planning my retirement.   ... in terms of money sitting in my bank account post retirement, assuming Ii have   $250,000 what is the highest interest that I can earn with it?  Assuming you are 22, and will retire in 45 years at age 67. There is no way to predict interest rates. When I was 22 and just out of college I started putting money into a bank account to save for a down payment. The rate for a savings account was 6%. That means that every month I made 1/2 of one percent. Today that same credit union offers a money maker account with a minimum balance of $100,000 that pays 0.25% for the year. What I made in a month would take two years to make today. Keep in mind we also can't estimate your pay in the last year before retirement, or the inflation rate for the next 45 years, or the mortgage rate, or the availability of Social Security, or the returns of the S&P for 45 years. It is great you are starting to think about this today. But you will have to keep adjusting parts of your plan as the years go by: You may have to factor in children, your medical situation...  Even if the interest rates recover you may not want to put all your post retirement money in the bank. Most people can't sustain the required flow of money for their 30 years of retirement from savings accounts.  As for today. FDIC (or similar accounts from credit unions) will not have rates approaching 3%. It can't even approach that 3% rate via multi-year CDs. My credit union has a 6 year CD for almost 2%. If the goal of the money is safety then don't expect to find those high rates now. Some institutions may offer high rates without that FDIC protection, but that is risky.


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When that happens the least desired things get cut off first.  This condition signals to the market that we are correcting very badly missallocated sources which in turn is a good thing because we are allowing the bubbles to burst.  These burstings will bring prices back down to acceptable levels so that the economy starts moving again.  What you instead are suggesting is to not allow, for example, home prices to come back down to affordable levels and just keep the bubbles inflated.


We fired some middle management who can take the blame for the ridiculous and unattainable goals we put in front of them.   We told them to perform or lose their jobs and you'll be happy to know they lost their jobs anyways..  We also shat in their boxes of personal items on the way out the door.   Thank you for trusting that we can find new scapegoats.


> People will work harder when they're less rewarded? I don't know if that make sense to me.  Totally get it. It does run counter to our current approaches. If you would like to understand how I could have this crazy position [here is a TED talk on motivation that explains better than I could](https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation).


"Wow all the answers here are a joke. Retained earnings is a funding side (liabilities + equity) of the balance sheet accounting entry. It's a residual value, so if you end up funding your assets with more liabilities, for example, then retained earnings will be smaller.  When worrying about the funding side of the balance sheet, you should consider mainly (1) how much you want in the business of your own money (equity) and (2) how much debt your business can support, as well as how much debt you're comfortable with.  #2 is a function of looking at your income generating capacity. Once you've figured out how much you will fund with debt, you then need the remainder to be your money. Some of this is contributed capital, the rest is retained earnings. So to wonder about how much in retained earnings to have isn't really the way to think about it. You should have the ""debt vs. equity"" conversation with yourself and figure it out that way. Don't worry about the components of equity if you're a sole owner and it's all yours. (There are other ways to finance equity like preferred shares, but for all intents and purposes this is a small business).  From a risk perspective, retained earnings is largely irrelevant on a standalone basis. You should pay far more attention to your assets. For example, if you asked ""how much cash or working capital do I need?"", that's an operational question that's very important to know for running the business. It can be debated and there is a right answer. Retained earnings is just a partial accounting entry of equity (and can even be manipulated by repurchasing shares and then contributing more capital), so I wouldn't focus on it."


Yes.  If you reply back, they'll confirm that Uncle Alex did indeed leave you $7 million, and you just need to send them a few thousand dollars for taxes and estate fees and then they'll wire you the money.  And then there'll be customs fees.  And then more taxes.  And of course, there will be separate import fees.  And so on until you run out of money.


"You can get on boards by having good leadership skills and knowledge, being invited, and having good connections.  You can often start by joining the board of some ""smaller"" groups such as a small non-profit once you have enough relevant experience where you can actually dish out advice.  This is in addition to your normal job where you presumably are doing well and are respected.  It all starts by having enough skill (and/or connections) that someone recognizes that you can provide value at the Board of Directors level.  Or you know someone who just wants a ""yes"" man for his (or her) company."


I wonder if Home Depot price drops are just a product of capital outflows from retail ETFs, as investors leave the sector en masse. I think Home Depot is defensible against online intrusion, at least for now. If Home Depot is taking a price hit because investors are conflating it with other obvious retail losers (Barnes and Noble, Target, etc) this might actually be a good time to buy.


What killed TiVo is the cable monopoly.  Their business is tied to a service that a competitor has control over.  I have a TiVo in my house.  Comcast charges me $8.00 to use it, plus $2.00 for the cablecard inside.   I had looked into a second unit, but Comcast told me this would be *another* $10/month.  On top of the monthly TiVo bill, of course.  Now I'm thinking of dropping both cable and TiVo.


You have 3 assumptions about the use of credit cards for all your purchases: 1) May be a moot point. At current interest rates that will not make much of a difference. If somebody links their card to a checking account that doesn't pay any interest there will be no additional interest earned. If the rate on their account is <1% they may make a couple of dollars a month. 2) Make sure that the card delivers on the benefits you expect. Don't select a card with an annual fee. Cash is better than miles for most people. Also make sure the best earnings aren't from only shopping at one gas station or one store. You might not make as much as you expect. Especially if the gas station is generally the most expensive in the area. Sometimes the maximum cash back is only for a limited time, or only after you have charged thousands of dollars that year. 3) It can have a positive impact on your credit rating. I have also found that the use of the credit card does minimize the chances of accidentally overdrawing the linked account. There is only one big scheduled withdraw a month, instead of dozens of unscheduled ones. There is some evidence that by disconnecting the drop in balance from the purchase, people spend more. They say I am getting X% back, but then are shocked when they see the monthly bill.


> Honestly, I think this open access to the stock market whereby anyone can be a 'trader' is a terrible thing.  Really? Could you please elaborate? Do you think it's a flaw in the stock market system itself or in peoples' financial education?


Yes, it can buy back the call, but much before stock hits the $30 mark.   Let us say you got 1$ from selling the call. So the total money in your account is 4$ + 1 $ = 5 $. When stock hits 10$ (your strike), the maintenance margin is 5$. As soon as stock goes past 10, your maintenance margin is violated. So broker will buy back your call (at least IB does that, it does not wait for a margin call). Now if the stock gapped up from 8 to 30,then yes, broker will buy it back at 30, so your account will have a negative balance. Assume the call cost 20$ when stock hit 30, your balance is: 5 - (30-10) = -15. Depending on broker, I suppose they will ask you to bring your account balance back up to positive. If they don't do that, they risk going out of business.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/17/slash-your-student-debt-by-earning-your-degree-abroad.html) reduced by 39%. (I'm a bot) ***** > Annual earnings in Ireland are about the same as in the U.S. - $55,000 - but schools are tuition-free.  > &quot;We walk around thinking that America is the best place to earn an education, but when you take a look at the facts, you start to see that earning a degree abroad is actually a smarter move to make,&quot; said Rick Neil, CEO of RN Public Relations and a spokesperson for studentloanreport.org.  > In the United Kingdom, for example, students pay tuition that&#039;s on par with the U.S. Even so, Britain is by far the most popular destination for American students seeking to get their degree abroad. Of those attending school outside the U.S., 36 percent of them are in the U.K..   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/777wzh/slash_your_student_debt_by_earning_your_degree/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~230713 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **U.S.**^#1 **earn**^#2 **degree**^#3 **tuition**^#4 **American**^#5"


I'm not a financial guy, but I handle decent amounts of money. I don't care how much money you take in, money only makes so much money. Sure, $1 million throws off decent interest (at least it used to), but it doesn't generate enough money to ever sustain a Ponzi scheme. Don't be fooled by what $20 million generates everyday in an account. It's never enough to pay back investors a fair return on their money.


Disadvantage is that tenant could sue you for something, and in an unfavorable judgement they would have access to your house as property to possess. You could lose the house. Even if you make an LLC to hold the house, they'll either sue you or the LLC and either way you could lose the house. This might be why the landlord is moving to Florida where their house cannot be possessed in a judgement because of the state's strong homestead exemption ;)


"Your plan already answers your own question in the best possible way: If you want to be able to make the most possible profit from a large downward move in a stock (in this case, a stock that tracks gold), with a limited, defined risk if there is an upward move, the optimal strategy is to buy a put option.  There are a few Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) that track the price of gold.  think of them as stocks that behave like gold, essentially.  Two good examples that have options are GLD and IAU. (When you talk about gold, you'll hear a lot about futures.  Forget them, for now.  They do the same essential thing for your purposes, but introduce more complexity than you need.) The way to profit from a downward move without protection against an upward move is by shorting the stock.   Shorting stock is like the opposite of buying it.    You make the amount of money the stock goes down by, or lose the amount it goes up by.   But, since stocks can go up by an infinite amount, your possible loss is unlimited. If you want to profit on a large downward move without an unlimited loss if you're wrong and it goes up, you need something that makes money as the stock drops, but can only lose so much if it goes up.   (If you want to be guaranteed to lose nothing, your best investment option is buying US Treasuries, and you're technically still exposed to the risk that US defaults on its debt, although if you're a US resident, you'll likely have bigger problems than your portfolio in that situation.) Buying a put option has the exact asymmetrical exposure you want.   You pay a limited premium to buy it, and at expiration you essentially make the full amount that the stock has declined below the strike price, less what you paid for the option.   That last part is important - because you pay a premium for the option, if it's down just a little, you might still lose some or all of what you paid for it, which is what you give up in exchange for it limiting your maximum loss. But wait, you might say.  When I buy an option, I can lose all of my money, cant I?  Yes, you can.    Here's the key to understanding the way options limit risk as compared to the corresponding way to get ""normal"" exposure through getting long, or in your case, short, the stock: If you use the number of options that represent the number of shares you would have bought, you will have much, much less total money at risk. If you spend the same ""bag 'o cash"" on options as you would have spent on stock, you will have exposure to way more shares, and have the same amount of money at risk as if you bought the stock, but will be much more likely to lose it. The first way limits the total money at risk for a similar level of exposure; the second way gets you exposure to a much larger amount of the stock for the same money, increasing your risk. So the best answer to your described need is already in the question:   Buy a put.  I'd probably look at GLD to buy it on, simply because it's generally a little more liquid than IAU. And if you're new to options, consider the following: ""Paper trade"" first.  Either just keep track of fake buys and sells on a spreadsheet, or use one of the many online services where you can track investments - they don't know or care if they're real or not. Check out www.888options.com.  They are an excellent learning resource that isn't trying to sell you anything - their only reason to exist is to promote options education.   If you do put on a trade, don't forget that the most frustrating pitfall with buying options is this:  You can be basically right, and still lose some or all of what you invest.  This happens two ways, so think about them both before you trade: If the stock goes in the direction you think, but not enough to make back your premium, you can still lose.  So you need to make sure you know how far down the stock has to be to make back your premium.  At expiration, it's simple: You need it to be below the strike price by more than what you paid for the option. With options, timing is everything.  If the stock goes down a ton, or even to zero - free gold! - but only after your option expires, you were essentially right, but lose all your money.  So, while you don't want to buy an option that's longer than you need, since the premium is higher, if you're not sure if an expiration is long enough out, it isn't - you need the next one. EDIT to address update: (I'm not sure ""not long enough"" was the problem here, but...) If the question is just how to ensure there is a limited, defined amount you can lose (even if you want the possible loss to be much less than you can potentially make, the put strategy described already does that - if the stock you use is at $100, and you buy a put with a 100 strike for $5, you can make up to $95.   (This occurs if the stock goes to zero, meaning you could buy it for nothing, and sell it for $100, netting $95 after the $5 you paid).   But you can only lose $5. So the put strategy covers you. If the goal is to have no real risk of loss, there's no way to have any real gain above what's sometimes called the ""risk-free-rate"".  For simplicity's sake, think of that as what you'd get from US treasuries, as mentioned above. If the goal is to make money whether the stock (or gold) goes either up or down, that's possible, but note that you still have (a fairly high) risk of loss, which occurs if it fails to move either up or down by enough.  That strategy, in its most common form, is called a straddle, which basically means you buy a call and a put with the same strike price.  Using the same $100 example, you could buy the 100-strike calls for $5, and the 100-strike puts for $5.  Now you've spent $10 total, and you make money if the stock is up or down by more than $10 at expiration (over 110, or under 90).   But if it's between 90 and 100, you lose money, as one of your options will be worthless, and the other is worth less than the $10 total you paid for them both."


Yes. The most complicated software most bankers use is Excel. From my limited perspective, success in banking is a function of who you know and how big you can convince everyone else your dick is. Breaking in is the hardest part, but once you're there you won't get kicked out for not being smart enough if you play the game.  You should know accounting really well, also.