Question: What do brokerage firms do?

Off the top of my head, a broker: While there are stock exchanges that offer direct market access (DMA), they (nearly) always want a broker as well to back the first two points I made.  In that case the broker merely routes your orders directly to the exchange and acts as a custodian, but of course the details heavily depend on the exchange you're talking about. This might give you some insight: Direct Market Access - London Stock Exchange

The US (in fact the global) banking industry is subject to Anti-Money Laundering & Counter-Terrorism funding laws, slowing down funds transfer eliminates a great deal of fraud.

Banks and energy are fundamental requirements for modern civilisation, and there are plenty of both who contribute a great deal to society's well-being, but I do know where you are coming from.  The nature of the system we have is that the largest organisations tend to attract the most ruthless leaders who are prepared to screw over people and the environment in pursuit of their own selfish interest. Sociopaths cunning enough to not get caught out are rewarded and those who prioritise social benefits over the growth of their organisation are out-competed and make themselves less relevant. In theory, that should be kept in check by culture of social responsibility, a strong free press and good government, but those things have been eroding for a long time.  There are mutual funds who seek to invest only in ethical companies. Ethics are subjective, so there's always the possibility that you'd disagree with their choices, or they make errors of judgement, but it's a better option than a fund that only considers returns. You've got a better chance that it is run by people who think ethics are important, so they might not see their clients as muppets to be fleeced (like Goldman Sachs apparently does).  Alternatively, you could invest in a fund that contributes to growing a developing nation's economy, or only invests in renewable energy, or agriculture, or whatever you consider important.

"Private equity firms have a unique structure: The general partners (GP's) of the firm create funds and manage the investments of those funds.  Limited partners (LP's) contribute the capital to the funds, pay fees to the GP's, and then make money when the funds' assets grow. I believe the article is saying that ultra high net worth individuals participate in the real estate market by hiring someone to act as a general partner and manage the real estate assets.  They and their friends contribute the cash and get shares in the resulting fund. Usually this GP/LP structure is used when the funds purchase or invest in private companies, which is why it is referred to as ""private equity structure,"" but the same structure can be used to purchase and manage pools of real estate or any other investment asset."

What options do I have? Realistically?  Get a regular full time job.  Work at it for a year or so and then see about buying a house. That said, I recently purchased a decent home.  I am self-employed and my income is highly erratic.  Due to how my clients pay me, my business might go a couple months with absolutely no deposits.   However, I've been at this for quite a few years.  So, even though my business income is erratic, I pay myself regularly once a month.  In order to close the deal with the mortgage company I had to provide 5 years worth of statements on my business AND my personal bank accounts.  Also I had about a 30% down payment.   This gave the bank enough info to realize that I could absolutely make the payments and we closed the deal. I'd say that if you have little to no actual financial history, don't have a solid personal income and don't have much of a down payment then you probably have no business buying a house at this point.  The first time something goes wrong (water heater, ac, etc) you'll be in a world of trouble.

Is there a debit card accessing this account?  When you spend money on a debit card for certain item, including, but not limited to gas, restaurant, hotel, a bit extra is held in reserve. For example, a $100 restaurant charge might hold $125, to allow for a tip. (You're a generous tipper, right?) The actual sales slips my take days to reconcile.  It's for this reason that I've remarked how credit cards have their place. Using debit cards requires that one have more in their account than they need to spend, especially when taking a trip including hotel costs.

The only reason I can think of is that the bonds are bought automatically by some investment pools, groups or institutions. That will stop very quickly once the management finds some other place to put the money.

Car rental chains are so dependent on location/airport... I could tell you that I prefer Budget, cheap, easy to deal with, great cars, etc., but someone could reply to me and tell me Budget murdered their dog.  But with that said, I do prefer Budget in most areas... even if my first car choice isn't available, they have other great options:  1. Mustang convertible 2. Mustang 3. Charger RT 4. Camaro  Those are my preferences with them (in order).  Be warned though if you've never been in a Camaro... a Mustang feels like a fucking Suburban compared to a Camaro.


Question: What is the minimum age for early retirement

You can withdraw from CPP as early as 60. However, by doing so, you will permanently reduce the payments. The reduction is calculated based on average life expectancies. If you live for an average amount of time, that means you'll receive approximately the same total amount (after inflation adjustments) whether you start pulling from CPP at 60, 65, or even delay your pension later. People may have pensions through systems other than CPP. This is often true for big business or government work. They may work differently. People who retire at 55 with a pension are not getting their pension through CPP. A person retiring at 55 would need to wait at least five years to draw from the CPP, and ten years before he or she was eligible for a full pension through CPP. Canada also offers Old Age Security (OAS). This is only available once you are 65 years old or older, though this is changing. Starting in 2023, this will gradually change to 67 years or older. See this page for more details. As always, it's worth pointing out that the CPP and OAS will almost certainly not cover your full retirement expenses and you will need supplementary funds.

The best way to look at it is this: I would suspect most people would say no.  Most people do not have the time, skill, or risk tolerance to be able to leverage capital as large as the value of their own home. Remember that a 15-year fixed has a slightly lower interest rate than a 30-year fixed (difference of 0.5–1%).  If you won't have the discipline to invest every cent left in your pocket, then you are better off with the 15-year and the lower rate.

"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.ceps.eu/publications/eu-and-israel-partnership-and-weight-history) reduced by 87%. (I'm a bot) ***** > &quot;If I have to choose between a small Israel, without territories, but with peace, and a greater Israel without peace, I prefer a small Israel.""  > Netanyahu&#039;s terms in office - he was prime minister in 1996-99 and again after 2009 - saw a sharp deterioration in relations with the EU. Seen from Jerusalem, the EU appears to be siding with the Palestinians; it is the Palestinian authority&#039;s largest donor, and some member states, including France, were early champions of Palestinian statehood.  > With Israel&#039;s domestic politics having shifted dramatically to the right over the past decade or so, a loss of power for Netanyahu&#039;s Likud party or the prime minister&#039;s removal over an ongoing corruption investigation would change little with regards to attitudes towards the Palestinians, and hence relations with the EU. At the same time, the regional setting, with wars ongoing in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq; low-intensity conflict in Libya; and increasing competition between Saudi Arabia and Iran, shows little sign of improving.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6ywdm7/ceps_the_eu_and_israel_partnership_and_the_weight/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~206605 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*: **Israel**^#1 **Palestinian**^#2 **EU**^#3 **Israeli**^#4 **war**^#5"

"No it does not.  Candlesticks really have nothing to do with this, a stock price can open different then the previous day's close. Examining the chart of TSLA provides an example it closed on 1/18 at 238.8 it opened on 1/19 at 243.7 In candlestick parlance is is known as a ""gap up""."

"The value of a stock ultimately is related to the valuation of a corporation.  As part of the valuation, you can estimate the cash flows (discounted to present time) of the expected cash flows from owning a share.  This stock value is the so-called ""fundamental"" value of a stock.  What you are really asking is, how is the stock's market price and the fundamental value related?  And by asking this, you have implicitly assumed they are not the same.   The reason that the fundamental value and market price can diverge is that simply, most shareholders will not continue holding the stock for the lifespan of a company (indeed some companies have been around for centuries).  This means that without dividends or buybacks or liquidations or mergers/acquisitions, a typical shareholder cannot reasonably expect to recoup their share of the company's equity. In this case, the chief price driver is the aggregate expectation of buyers and sellers in the marketplace, not fundamental evaluation of the company's balance sheet.   Now obviously some expectations are based on fundamentals and expert opinions can differ, but even when all the experts agree roughly on the numbers, it may be that the market price is quite a ways away from their estimates.  An interesting example is given in this survey of behavioral finance.  It concerns Palm, a wholly-owned subsidiary of 3Com.  When Palm went public, its shares went for such a high price, they were significantly higher than 3Com's shares.  This mispricing persisted for several weeks. Note that this facet of pricing is often given short shrift in standard explanations of the stock market.  It seems despite decades of academic research (and Nobel prizes being handed out to behavioral economists), the knowledge has been slow to trickle down to laymen, although any observant person will realize something is amiss with the standard explanations.   For example, before 2012, the last time Apple paid out dividends was 1995.  Are we really to believe that people were pumping up Apple's stock price from 1995 to 2012 because they were waiting for dividends, or hoping for a merger or liquidation?  It doesn't seem plausible to me, especially since after Apple announced dividends that year, Apple stock ended up taking a deep dive, despite Wall Street analysts stating the company was doing better than ever.  That the stock price reflects expectations of the future cash flows from the stock is a thinly-disguised form of the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH), and there's a lot of evidence contrary to the EMH (see references in the previously-linked survey).  If you believe what happened in Apple's case was just a rational re-evaluation of Apple stock, then I think you must be a hard-core EMH advocate. Basically (and this is elaborated at length in the survey above), fundamentals and market pricing can become decoupled.  This is because there are frictions in the marketplace making it difficult for people to take advantage of the mispricing.  In some cases, this can go on for extended periods of time, possibly even years.  Part of the friction is caused by strong beliefs by market participants which can often shift pressure to supply or demand.  Two  popular sayings on Wall Street are, ""It doesn't matter if you're right.  You have to be right at the right time.""  and ""It doesn't matter if you're right, if the market disagrees with you.""  They suggest that you can make the right decision with where to put your money, but being ""right"" isn't what drives prices.  The market does what it does, and it's subject to the whims of its participants."

Why?  I fly on a regular basis and I've never had a single issue with TSA agents.  With the new machines, going through security is fast, effective, and painless.  The stories you see on the internet are almost always from someone who purposely created a confrontation because they already had an agenda to prove.

Annual sales dived five straight years, and the company closed 450 stores. Then they tried to merge with Office Depot. That didn't work. So by going private with Sycamore Partners Staples they have an opportunity to revamp their businesses away Wall Street pressure. Staples is being sold at a fraction of the price.

Loans are indeed a bitch. You should make enough to cover your expenses and live comfortably. Any salary above that is at your discretion. You shouldn't feel pressured to compete for highest salary because if you're happy, it really doesn't matter.


Question: Recommendation on Options Back Testing tool please

Power Options is one such example of what you seek, not cheap, but one good trade will recover a year's fee.  There's a lot you can do with the stock price alone as most options pricing will follow Black Scholes.  Keep in mind, this is a niche, these questions, while interesting to me, generate little response here.

>  I would have to spend at least a few more years in school rather than a single semester to get a comp sci major instead of the minor.  Exactly. And the benefits are priced appropriately. As in, you will get it off a minor about what you put in - not much.

Under US law, if you clearly have more than half of a torn bill it is worth its full value; the smaller piece is worth nothing... except that having both halves makes the banking system much happier, since it prevents some particularly stupid counterfeiting attempts. So this proposal wouldn't be cheat-proof unless the cut is close enough to the middle to make determining 51% difficult. And I'd like to see you try to explain to a bank how so many bills were cut in half... (This is more normally an issue when money has been damaged unintentionally, of course.)

How is the government paid for these things? How is this handled without taxes? Are you suggesting that the people pay for all of this because they supposedly derive all the benefit while the businesses supposedly derive none from infrastructure.  Yes public roads may not be restricted by entities except in safety measures and compliance with DOT regulations. It is illegal for company A to blockade or otherwise make unavailable a public road to keep company B or the general public from using it.   These type of rules also apply to communication lines and power infrastructure and are designed to decrease duplication and ensure that selected infrastructure is appropriate for the area.

I apologize in advance if this seems heartless, Lord knows many on this site would consider me such, but it is my intention to be helpful. Rhetorically: Given your disability, could you find a different line of work that would have earn you a decent income?  You mentioned fighting for disability for 5 years.  Could that time have been spent creating a different occupation?  Could you still do so? As you mention these are not large numbers prior to disability, but post-disability they are overwhelming.  The tone of your post suggests that you feel trapped and helpless, and I really hate that for anyone.  In some ways you are so close, just another $300/month puts you in the black!    My encouragement would be to find a way to make this work.  Find a way to earn more and you can keep your house and car.

> loses from WaPo to reduce his tax bill  That's not even how taxes work! Christ, isn't this an economics subreddit? You're really out of your element here, bud. That would be the absolute stupidest strategy of all time.

We play Cash Flow and Cashflow for Kids by Robert Kiyosaki. Our kids love it.

"I would hold off on making that threat (closing your account). First, because as others have said, it's not likely to help. And second, assuming you're willing to make good on that threat, you should only play that card as a final absolute last resort, because if it fails, and you close your account, there is little to nothing else you can try to get what you want. First, talk one-on-one with a personal banker at your local BA branch. You might be surprised at how helpful they can be. Next, try talking to customer service on the phone. After that, you might try sending a letter to corporate HQ. A lot depends on the particular ""feature"" you are talking about and why they removed it. It could be that 1) the bank finds the feature is just too costly provide for free, 2) there may be a technical reason why they can no longer provide it, 3) it could be as simple as that few to none of their customers (excluding you) are actually using the feature, or 4) it could be that due to changing regulation, or market forces, no bank is offering that feature anymore. Also, while they may not care specifically about your business, the local branch has an incentive to not drive customers away if it can be reasonably avoided."


Question: How to use stocks certificate as a gift to a teenager?

Yes, depending on what you're trying to achieve. If its just a symbolic gift - you can use a service like this. There are several companies providing this service, look them up, but the prices are fairly the same. You'll end up getting a real stock certificate, but it will cost a lot of overhead (around $40 to get the certificate, and then another $40 to deposit it into a brokerage account if you want to sell it on a stock exchange). So although the certificate is real and the person whose name on it is a full-blown shareholder, it doesn't actually have much value (unless you buy a Google or Apple stock, where the price is much much higher than the fees). Take into account that it takes around 2 months for the certificate to be issued and mailed to you, so time accordingly. Otherwise, you can open a custodial brokerage account, and use it to buy stocks for the minor. Both ways are secure and legal, each for its own purpose and with its own fees.

interesting and good points BUT,   1- the S&P e-mini has plenty of liquidity for me and all of us here at reddit. idont think that we could move/influence its price with our trades.   2- i dont have the historical of bid-ask or tick by tick, it is backtested on 1min chart, entering the trade at a close of a 1min bar and subtracting a commission/slippage of a tick or two per trade. your thoughts ?

Aaah, okay that makes much more sense now. Thank you for clarifying.  I completely see what you mean. And I second a lot of what you just said. You didn’t exactly answer my question but that’s okay — I very much enjoyed what you’ve said anyways and it was interesting to hear your opinion and thoughts on such a matter. Thanks :)

"A DCF includes changes in working capital which is a source or use of cash.  I also don't like your characterization of enterprise value as ""cashless"" because it's also ""debtless"".  It's capital structure independent -- just like a DCF is.  **That's the common theme.**"

I doubt you're going to find anywhere that will give you free outgoing wires unless you're depositing a huge amount of money like $500K or more. An alternative would be to find a bank that offers everything else you want and use XETrade for very low cost online wires. I've used them in the past and can recommend their services. Most banks won't charge for incoming wires. I have accounts at E*Trade Bank that don't charge any fees and I can do everything online. You might want to check them out. E*Trade also offers global trading accounts which allow you to have accounts denominated in a few foreign currencies (EUR, JPY, GBP, CAD and HKD I think). I don't think there is a fee for moving money between the different currencies. If your goal is simply to diversify your money into different currencies, you could deposit money there instead of wiring it to other banks.

Especially since the 2007 UCS Falcon has been selling for over $1000 on ebay pretty much since it was discontinued.  There's clearly a market and it's not like it's the only falcon in town, the 75105 is $150. I don't understand why people are getting bothered by the price tag of the largest commercially available lego set ever.

I went to Sears on Dec 22nd because it's very close to my house. I just wanted to get a few toys for my nieces/nephews.  Their toy section was smaller than the one at CVS/Walgreens.  What the fuck kind of department store doesn't carry toys.   They had less than 20 different items.

> A significant proportion of recent economic growth has relied on borrowed money -- today standing at a dizzying 325 percent of global gross domestic product. Debt allows society to accelerate consumption, as borrowings are used to purchase something today against the promise of future repayment. Unfunded entitlements to social services, health care and pensions increase those liabilities. The bill for these commitments will soon become unsustainable, as demographic changes make it more difficult to meet.


Question: Responsible investing - just a marketing trick?

"You are correct that, barring an equity capital raise, your money doesn't actually end up in the company. However, interest in their stock can help a company in other ways; Management/board members hopefully own shares or options themselves, thus knowing that ""green"" policies are favorable for the stock price (as your fund might buy shares) can be quite an incentive for them to go green(er).  Companies with above average company share performance are also often viewed as financially healthy and so creditors tend to charge lower interest for companies with good share performance.  Lastly, a high share price makes a company difficult to take over (as all those shares have to be acquired) and at the same time makes it easier for the company to perform takeovers themselves as they can finance such acquisitions by issuing more of their own shares. There is also the implication that money flowing towards such green companies is money flowing out of/away from polluting companies, for these ""dirty"" companies the inverse of the previous points can hold true. Of course on the other hand there is quite an argument to be made that large enough ""green"" funds should actually buy substantial positions in companies with poor environmental records and steer the company towards greener policies but that might be a hard sell to investors."

"I hate to be the guy that says this but if you are indeed competing in the CFAI Research Challenge it is probably important. Remember you cannot use CFA as a noun (CFA's) you can only use it as an adjective ie a CFA charterholder.  As far as you question, what was provided below is pretty much all you need. Security Analysis, anything from the NYU professor and Greenwald stuff (although Greenwald, like someone already mentioned, is balance sheet focused) will get you where you need to go.  I am not sure what you mean by ""exotic valuation"" methods. As far as I know, the three most accepted and used valuation models by practitioners are the DCF model, the multiple model and the residual income model.  DCF uses short term cash flows and a terminal value discounted to today at some discount rate. The multiple model puts some multiple on earnings, book value, cash flow to arrive at a fair value. The residual model is the opposite of the DCF. One starts with the assets book value, then accrues all income generated in excess of WACC from all future periods.  Find some CFAI Level 2 books on equity and bond valuation. They pretty much cover it all.  And for a closing note, to perform well in investing and valuing companies it is not about what valuation model you use. Focus on WHY an asset should be worth what you think it is worth, not HOW you get to some valuation of that asset. Just my two cents."

> They are outsourcing R & D and just buying innovation  Yeah that was the impression I got, but it seems unsustainable!  I have to wonder what their horizon is like for breaking even on their investment. And since the barrier to entry for a new dating app/service is relatively low, it seems like a huge risk given how easily a new startup could skim off their user base.  Unlike Facebook which has infiltrated all aspects of peoples' lives, dating apps have a very narrow focus, and users can get sick of any given app very quickly.

When Obama came into office we were running a roughly $1.16 trillion deficit, and when he left office it was only $600 billion.  Yes, the total debt kept going up because he never got that number to zero, but he made a lot of progress.  Trump, by contrast, seems determined to blow up the deficit, just has the last Republican president did.  And the Republican before that.  And the Republican before that...  EDIT: Thanks for the gold kind stranger!

"I wouldn't worry about ""it probably wouldn't be best time for withdrawal"" aspect too much.  With a bit of planning and organization, you could cash out investments held in one country and have them reinvested in another one in a matter of days (if not less), minimising your ""time out of the market"".  If the markets are cheap when you sell, the chances are you'll be able to buy in again at much the same price.  There's a small chance you miss out on the markets lurching upwards, but you might just as easily miss out on a fall and come out ahead.  Old saying: ""time in the market is more important than market timing"". Tax it's hard to discuss without mentioning specific countries.  e.g if you were resident in the UK you'd probably want to invest within an ""ISA"" tax-free wrapper; gains are tax free and there's no penalty for withdrawing when you leave.  No idea what equivalents there are around Europe. Interestingly there seems to be some recognition by the EU that this sort of thing is an issue for an increasingly mobile workforce; was recently some news of plans for a pan-European pension savings vehicle."

Banks make money by charging fees on products and charging interest on loans. If you keep close to a $0 average balance in your account, and they aren't charging you any fees, then yes, your account is not profitable for them. That's ok. It's not costing them much to keep you as a customer, and some day you may start keeping a balance with them or apply for a loan. The bank is taking a chance that you will continue to be a loyal customer and will one day become profitable for them. Just be on the lookout for a change in their fee structure. Sometimes banks drop customers or start charging fees in cases like yours.

"I'm a mathematician, not an accountant.  But my feeling has been that the distinction between Asset and Liability is mainly a sign convention, and comes from a wish to avoid negative numbers. Suppose you take out a loan for $1000 and deposit the proceeds in your bank account.  Under normal accounting conventions, your bank account is an Asset and the loan is a Liability.  After the loan, Bank has a balance of 1000 and Loan has a balance of 1000.  You can compute your net worth by adding all Assets and subtracting all Liabilities (so in this case your net worth remains 0). If you treat Loan as an Asset account, then after taking out the loan, you should give it a balance of -1000.  Under this convention, you have lots of negative numbers to deal with everywhere, which I suspect early accountants would have found inconvenient.  The Asset/Liability convention means you only need to deal with negative numbers in unusual situations (overdrawn bank account, overpaid loan, etc). Likewise, in theory you could treat Expense accounts as negative Income. But I'm not sure why you feel the need to reinvent the wheel by ""simplifying"" double-entry accounting like this.  The standard conventions are not that complicated, and their major advantage is that they're standard: other people will be able to understand your books if they ever need to.  (Say you want to hire somebody to do your taxes at some point: if your books are kept in your own idiosyncratic system, their job will be at best error-prone and at worst impossible.)   It's a bit like a proposal to simplify English spelling: shur, a sistum waar yu rit lik this mit bee simplur in sum abstrakt sens, but if nobudee els can reed it eezulee, it izunt ackshyualee veree yusful."

I own less than 1BTC, and I think this is a bubble about to burst but it could go either way. After all, a small purchase of bitcoins three years ago paid for my brand new Toyota Sequoia this summer. You never know.


Question: Benjamin Graham: Minimum Size of the company

Smaller markets can actually be more volatile so it's not a good idea to lower Graham's criteria for them. The only real adjustment possible is inflation adjustment. $100 million in 1973 United States works out to $500 million today based on the difference in CPI/Inflation from 1973. This number will be different for other markets where the rate of inflation since 1973 has been different. So the real question to ask is - what is to $100 million in the United States in 1973 worth today in your market? Source: http://www.serenitystocks.com/how-build-complete-benjamin-graham-portfolio

"Seriously whole foods accounts for maybe 5% of market share in the grocery industry. I feel like I have seen a lot of ""writers/reporters/bloggers"" trying to paint amazon as taking over groceries and retail, but it's just a huge overreaction. Just like the stock market overreacted to amazon purchasing whole foods, this is just another overreaction."

This can make a difference of a few points. When your balance is reported on a monthly basis to the bureaus that current balance is used to determine your utilization. Keeping it paid down will  help in this case. If you are monitoring your credit regularly, you can see what time of the month your balance is reported and pay before then (just make sure you include enough padding to be sure your payment clears before the reporting date--normally only a business day or so, but weekends can throw it all off).

See that's where you're wrong. It's NOT a traditional game of musical chairs.  It's musical chairs where anyone with the right idea and ambition can build their own chair and take a seat!  The pie is NOT fixed.  That's what's so great about free market capitalism. But with that comes responsibility for your own life, which apparently, and unfortunately, has turned out to be overly difficult for an increasing portion of the population.

I'm a two time Dungeons and Dragons World Champion - or whatever.  There are as many ways to answer your question as there are ways to be competitive. But that's not the point. I think you're doing yourself a disservice by employing a pop-psychology approach that has very little value in evaluating potential candidates. You'll succeed in picking out who shares your interest in sports, but little else. Even the famous [Meyers-Briggs Test](Meyershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator#Reliability) has been generally dismissed as unreliable.  Seeking information in a roundabout way is like shooting an arrow into the air and hoping to hit the bullseye. Just aim directly for the target and you'll get better results. If you want to know if someone is competitive, ask them if they're competitive. - explain why a competitive nature is important. Complete transparency and honesty is always the best approach.   Any trained psychologist will tell you (and I know several) that your method is not only ineffective, but recklessly assumptive.

> Prove it, name an example country that is now a devastated wasteland for providing decent wages alone.  He can't. In fact, most European nations mandate a much higher minimum wage than what is being proposed in the United States; and do so while maintaining a higher standard of living for the average citizen. The argument to depress wages is nothing but right-wing propaganda, enthusiastically supported by employers.

The free market will determine exchange rates.   But only sort of. If anyone leaves the euro expect and immediate mother-of-all-bank-runs. Then the new currency will begin to trade both officially and unofficially and eventually a market clearing price will be set. Whether that lands on an officially pegged rate or at a discount to that rate is a total crapshoot and not even worth trying to predict.

The rental industry is seasonal. They purchase additional inventory (vehicles) for their busy seasons and sell the extra inventory afterwards.


Question: Pay via Debit Card or Bank's portal

There are reward points that you have already mentioned. Some banks also give reward points for netbanking transfer, although very few and less than debit card. On a fraudulent site, debit card adds a layer, if compromised, easy to change. i.e just hot list the card, get a new card issued. Netbanking quite a few banks have incorrect implementation and difficult to change the login ID / User ID. The dispute resolution mechanism is well established as there is master or visa network involved. The ease of doing transaction is with netbanking as for card one has to remember 16 digits, expiry, cvv. The entire process of card usage is multiparty, on slow connection if something goes wrong, it takes 3 days to figure out. In netbanking it is instantaneous. You just login to bank and see if the debit has gone through.

There are entire 5-person teams dedicated to forecasting *individual products* at major companies that roll up to product class teams, which then roll up to balance sheet forecasting. Since all of those companies have major capital markets operations, these things get huge. The real forecasters are spending 10-14 hours a day, year-round using massive models to come up with competent forecasts. I did this for a few years, it's leaps and bounds more than applying multiples.   I hope you get a lot of participation, but you have to see the flaw in this dataset. I think this would be better done by honing your focus in on what forecasting you're talking about. It's a very, very broad field.

Ally Bank is a good online only account.  They reimburse any ATM Fees you may occur.  I have both checking and savings, with both Ally and ING Direct.  I don't know about having 25 total accounts - seems like overkill to me.  I do something similar though - I get direct deposit into one account, then transfer the average bill amount each pay to a different account that I never touch other than for the allotted bills.  It works well, especially for Utilities that are inflated seasonally. What do you use to mange the 25 accounts?  I use Quicken, but I don't have 25 accounts...yet.

You are in a difficult situation because of US regulation, that is much more demanding to fulfill than in EU or rest of the world.  Second, Interactive Brokers stopped serving FX for US clients. Third, EU brokers - like Saxo Bank - don't accept US clients: Almost any private client can open an account with Saxo Bank, although there are few exceptions. You can’t open an account if you are US, Iranian or North Korean resident - Brokerchooser: Saxo Bank Review Working for Brokerchooser, I would say you are limited to Oanda or Gain Capital. The latter is an ECN broker, and operates through other white label partners, you could try Forex.com also.

"I always liked the answer that in the short term, the market is a voting machine and in the long term the market is a weighing machine. People can ""vote"" a stock up or down in the short term.   In the long term, typically, the intrinsic value of a company will be reflected in the price. It's a rule of thumb, not perfect, but it is generally true. I think it's from an old investing book that talks about ""Mr. Market"".   Maybe it's from one of Warren Buffet's annual letters.    Anyone know? :)"

(I'm assuming this is a publicly traded company, if not, things are somewhat different.) The objection that management might have that flows out of the fact that the pool of available options is fixed in size for the current year. (Or maybe several years depending on how they structured the compensation plan.) Within that pool they have allocated some to various key individuals and then some to to the ESOP pool. They don't want requests for more options than they planned to issue in that period. Suppose that many people notice that the companies prospects are good and offer to forgo some salary for options. This could easily eat up the whole pool and leave nothing for the rest of the year. If I was management here, I would want to structure it so that I had control over how many options were granted so that everyone eligible got some and the pool lasted until the end of the year.

There's an unavoidable risk of defects in any complex factory-built piece of equipment, price and quality notwithstanding.  Which is also a great justification for an infinite mile drivetrain warranty.  The only reason other car companies don't offer such a thing is because consumers have never had any leverage to ask for it.  Tesla does it because they can.

The original investors and founders own them. Think about it this way - When you hear that an IPO priced at $10 opened at $50, is that 'good or 'bad'? Of course, it depends who you are. If you are the guy that got them at $10, you're happy. If you are the founder of the company, you are thinking the banker you paid to determine a market price for the IPO failed. Big. He blew it, basically as you just sold your company for 20% of the perceived value. But, instead of selling all the shares, just sell, say, 5%. Now, the IPO opening price is just a way to understand the true value of your company while keeping 95% of the upside once the market settles down to a regular trading pattern. You can slowly sell these shares into the market or you can use them as cash to take over other companies by buying with these shares instead of actual cash.  Either way, the publicly traded shares should trade based on the total value of the company and the fraction they represent.


Question: Historic prices for currencies, commodities,

My guess it's a legal agreement between Yahoo and data provider on what data can be stored, displayed and for how long. Check out this list of data providers

"Why is nobody providing a service that is basically: Give me your money. I will invest it as I see fit. A year later I will return the capital to you, plus half of any profits or losses. This means that if your capital under my management ends up turning a profit, I will keep half of those profits, but if I lose you money, I will cover half those losses. Because they can already make lots of money by just charging people an unconditional fee and not having to cover their losses.  Why take on the risk of having to cover your losses when they can just take a percentage of your assets and stick you with any losses? In addition, as Charles E. Grant mentioned in a comment on another answer, if a person has both sufficient capital to cover your losses and sufficient confidence in their investing acumen that they don't think they will have to do so, they have little need for your money.  Rather than take half the gains on your money, they will invest their own money (they must have some, or else they can't guarantee your losses) and take all the gains. Your scheme would only be plausible as a partnership between a person with investing skills but little capital, and another person with ample capital and less skill.  In that case, the investment whiz could genuinely benefit from access to the bankroller's capital.  As quid noted in chat, this does exist in the form of ad-hoc private equity arrangements between individuals.  However, such a setup is unlikely to exist as an ""off-the-shelf product"" marketed at retail investors, because financial institutions have more capital than any individual retail investor -- and, more generally, anyone with sufficient skill to pull this off will (at least in theory) quickly accumulate enough capital that they can negotiate a less risky payment plan."

http://www.vistageconnect.com -- Who are you speaking to? Just who is your marketing message trying to reach? Marketing and branding expert David Avrin explains how taking a bit of time to get to better know your customers can help yield better results for your overall marketing efforts.

There are two different liabilities here. You signed, so the bank can rightfully demand the money from you. Even though it is not your debt. You signed, so you have to pay.  However, it's really the business that is responsible for the account, so you can ask the business to refund the money. You might ask them to pay the bank instead if you haven't paid yet.

#2 is really important.    Western tourists hate getting assaulted by a bunch of shouting people who are all trying to get their attention and sell them something.  It's really stressful.   You just need to be calm, quiet, smile, make eye contact, and speak in normal English to get attention.  Some distinctive/visible clothes/hat/trademark accessory could be helpful just to make you stand out a bit and be memorable.         I would get a tshirt printed with the front explaining your services/prices to major destinations and the back with important info that can be read while driving.

The KOHLER engine is designed to help you achieve more than you imagined. They are great engines manufactured with obsession for perfection and performance. A KOHLER engine is crafted for strong, dusty and rugged application, where it can deliver the demands of an operation, enduring long hours of patient rigorous work.

Yes, you do. Unless you actually donate it, the loan will be repaid and as such - is an asset for you. On your taxes you report the interest you got paid for the loan. You can claim the interest as a charitable deduction, if you don't effectively charge any (IRS dictates minimum statutory interests for arm-length loan transactions).

In today’s world, mobile apps have taken center-stage in our lives in many ways - shopping, ordering food, looking for services, checking out reviews, testing new products, booking tickets for events, using social media, reading news. Read full story.


Question: Can I negotiate a credit card settlement by stopping payments?

"This would be on your credit for ~8 years.   If it goes according to your plan, it will take 6 months to a year to do the settlement by getting behind enough to let it go to collections and then settling.   The write-off will then be on your credit record for 7 years before it ""falls off"". Your cash out refinance would have to cover you for at least the next 8 years to be valuable. And you have a lot of assumptions to get there: In short, there's one way (or only a few ways) this works out well in your favor.  There are many ways that this has the chance to hurt you.    I don't like ""investments"" with those kind of odds."

"Every company with a ""Strong Culture"" Ie Office bars and happy hours, nap rooms, pool tables, zen/mediating rooms, etc,etc seem to be the most successful. Its unfortunate that they people pay for no work/life balance... but at least they get to get drunk in the office..."

"Stocks are regarded as an inflation hedge because when your money is worth less, everything else is worth more. i.e. Stocks are more expensive (go up) simply because your money is worth less, but not because of better earnings across individual companies. So that general idea can effect sentiment, whereby if everyone believes it then more people buy stocks if they think there will be a lot of inflation. But it doesn't explain actual behavior (whether ""more"" people buy, hold or sell.) It's worth noting that individual companies and stocks also may be adversely affected by inflation, since their own assets or accounting may already be outside of the currency and/or they may already be engaging in their own hedging."

Are you allowed to have two personal current accounts with a debit card attached to each one? Yes, you may have as many current accounts you want, but you should ask why should I have more than one. It is cumbersome and time consuming to keep track of ongoing incoming credits and outgoing debits. Open to bank fraud too, if you aren't careful. If yes, can a sole trader in the UK use the second personal account for business transactions? Yes, but no payments to the business. At the end of the year you file you P11D, even if you have a business bank account. You would need to justify the expenses by keeping the bills and stuff. As it will be a personal account, you have to little more careful, not to mix personal and business expenses.  If you are allowed to use a second personal account for business transactions, then why would someone choose to open a business bank account, where you have to pay? What are the benefits? First of all no company will pay into you personal account, for any transactions, they need to pay you. They will only pay to an account registered with the business, with whom they are dealing with. Benefits are you have your business expenses sorted out in one account and personal expenses in other. Pure business expenses comes out of the business account, rather than from your personal purse, keeps the accounts smooth. No need to sort out expenses at the end of each quarter or at the end of each month.

Cash has zero value until it is transformed into something material.  Cash hoarders realize no improvement in their lifestyle by gaining more cash than they need.  If corporations are already so flush with cash they only inflate the stock market, why would further tax breaks improve anything?  An inflated stock market only improves income for very few.  People who need money will spend it and put it back into circulation.  People will not hoard cash if they know more will show up regardless of their ability to perform.  Less financial pressure and less resentment of the rich for their preferential treatment would create a more positive attitude among the population and improve productivity.  A happier work force is a more productive work force.  People should only work part time anyway so they can have a life outside of work to enjoy their lives while they have the health to do it.  Slaving your life away until you can't do the things you always wanted to do does not improve a person's outlook.  Life according to me.  Was a reduction in unemployment compensation, medicare, medicade and SNAP payments included in the study?  There may be a reduction in spending on crime and addiction as well.

I would say that the three most important skills are: Note that some costs are hidden. So, for example, a mutual fund investing in other countries than where you live in may mean the investment target country charges a certain percentage of dividends going to the mutual fund. The mutual fund company doesn't usually want to tell you this. There may be clever financial instruments (derivatives) that can be used to avoid this, but they are not without their problems. If you diversify into equities at low cost, you will have a very wealthy future. I would recommend you to compare two options: ...and pick from these options the cheaper one. If your time has a high value, and you wish to take this value into account, I would say it is almost always far better option to choose an index fund. Whatever you do, don't pay for active management! It is a mathematical truth that before costs, actively managed investments will yield the same return than indexed investments. However, the costs are higher in active management, so you will have less total return. Don't believe that good historical return would imply good future return. However, if for some reason you see an index fund that continuously loses to the index more than by the amount of stated costs, beware!

I go out often to restaurants, and I've never had to wait more than 20 minutes with a reservation, and it's extremely rare than I have to wait more than 5 minutes.  If you had to wait 2 hours you were not speaking up for yourself, and that's a horribly run restaurant.

"I'm told that the analysis and arriving at an answer with a good attitude is the correct response and not the precise answer.  Bad answer : What? That's impossible, go fuck yourself, asshole. Better: Well, I have a Expedition and its cabin is about six feet across, ten feet deep and four feet high, so lets say 400,000 sq inches (rounding means your cool, right). About a third of the space is taken up by seats and what not, so 275,000 sq inches free. Lets assuming we pack the balls in there tight from the sun roof. I figure a tennis ball takes up 4/3(3.1416)2.5"" each, so lets say 10. So 27,500. I'd order 30,000  to be safe and have a well stuffed SUV. Do you want the engine compartment full too? Too much: Same as above but ""so to test this I was able to cram 27895 without damaging any of the plastic SUV parts, and allowing for the sun roof to close."


Question: My bank wants to lower my credit limit on my credit card. Will this impact me negatively?

No, it will have no negative impact on getting a mortgage. You are building up a history with regular payments and are not carrying a balance on the card each month. Your ability to get a mortgage will ultimately be based on other things. Money Saving Expert has a good guide on what will affect your credit score. A further discussion on the topic that backs up that what a mortgage company is interested in is affordability and a stable history. They really don't care about utilisation ratios.  (Though might be spooked by almost maxed out cards - sign of poor spending control, or large unused limits - too easy to go into bad debt.)

"Your logic breaks down because you assume that you are the only market participant on your side of the book and that the participant on the other side of the book has entered a market order. Here's what mostly happens: Large banks and brokerages trading with their own money (we call it proprietary or ""prop"" trading) will have a number of limit (and other, more exotic) orders sitting on both sides of the trading book waiting to buy or sell at a price that they feel is advantageous. Some of these orders will have sat on the book for many months if not years. These alone are likely to prevent your limit orders executing as they are older so will be hit first even if they aren't at a better price.  On more liquid stocks there will also be a number of participants entering market orders on both sides of the book whose orders are matched up before limit orders are matched with any market orders. This means that pairing of market orders, at a better price, will prevent your limit order executing. In many markets high frequency traders looking for arbitrage opportunities (for example) will enter a few thousand orders a minute, some of these will be limit orders just off touch, others will be market orders to be immediately executed. The likelihood that your limit order, being as it is posited way off touch, is hit with all those traders about is minimal. On less liquid stocks there are market makers (large institutional traders) who effectively set the bid and offer prices by being willing to provide liquidity and fill the market orders at a temporary loss to themselves and will, in most cases, have limit orders set to provide this liquidity that will be close to touch. They are paid to do this by the exchange and inter-dealer brokers through their fees structure. They will fill the market orders that would hit your limit if they think that it would provide more liquidity in such a way that it fulfils their obligations. Only if there are no other participants looking to trade on the instrument at a better price than your limit (which, of course they can see unless you enter it into a dark pool) AND there is a market order on the opposite side of the book will your limit order be instantaneously be hit, executed, and move the market price."

While historical performance is not necessarily indicative of future performance, I like to look at the historical performance of the markets for context. Vanguard's portfolio allocation models is one source for this data. Twenty years is a long term timeline. If you're well diversified in passively managed index funds, you should be positioned well for the future.  You've lost nothing until it's realized or you sell. Meanwhile, you still own an asset that has value. As Warren Buffet says, buy low and sell high.

My first thought is: email? Are you sure it is legitimate? Verify everything. Assuming it is legitimate:

"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-26/mike-novogratz-is-set-for-comeback-with-crytocurrency-hedge-fund) reduced by 92%. (I'm a bot) ***** > Novogratz will put up $150 million of his own money and plans to raise $350 million more by January, mainly from family offices, wealthy individuals and fellow hedge fund managers, said a person familiar with his plans.  > For Novogratz, 52, the fund marks a comeback to professional money management after humbling losses at Fortress and almost two years of self-imposed exile from Wall Street.  > With a $500 million hedge fund, Novogratz will be able to capture trading opportunities that require more scale, as well as wield influence with developers, entrepreneurs and regulators.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/72ofsc/mike_novogratz_is_forming_a_500mil_crypto_hedge/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~217166 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*: **Novogratz**^#1 **fund**^#2 **trade**^#3 **bitcoin**^#4 **way**^#5"

Lucasfilm is more than just Star Wars, they also have Industrial Light and Magic (still one of the top VFX companies in the business) as well as Skywalker Sound and LucasArts, a respectable game division. Even if Lucasfilm didn't own Star Wars, they would still have enough valuable assets to justify a large purchase by Disney.

"What this means is this: The authors of the website claim they have calculated the cost that it will take to ""fully fund the Medicare, Medicare Prescription Drug Program, Social Security, Military and civil servant pensions."" They claim that the government will have to spend $114T to do the things it is currently promising to do, and it hasn't set aside the money to do it. That's what is meant by an 'unfunded mandate'. Firstly I would take with a grain of salt the calculations of any website which claims the US is a kleptocracy in its title. You know they are coming to this with an agenda. Secondly this is money that the government has not actually spent. The government doesn't owe this money to anyone, and it is absolutely untrue that ""you are responsible along with everyone else to pay this back"". The worst they can claim is that the government will, one day, have to spend it - assuming that nothing else changes in that time. A government could pass a law that reduced Medicare, or raised taxes, and the 'unfunded mandate' would simply go away. Thirdly the calculation must assume a time period over which the money is spent. But the site carefully doesn't specify it. They can make the amount bigger or smaller as they choose, just by changing the time period over which it is calculated. To give an example, an unfunded mandate is a bit like enrolling in a four year college course without knowing how you are going to pay for it. You've said you are going to spend money on tuition - you may even have promised your mother you will finish the course - but you can in fact drop out if you choose and you don't owe anything for courses you haven't taken yet.  Some unfunded mandates can be legal obligations, but this isn't one. And in neither case are they money you actually owe. That's not to say that unfunded mandates are not a cause for concern - they represent a discrepancy between what a government says it will do, and what it can currently afford to do. As an illustration of how this works, you can look at either Russia ten years ago or Greece right now. All the expenditures in these ares are being cut. People are certainly angry, but there is nothing they can do to force the government to make those payments."

"The price movements of Bitcoin are actually cogent in at least one sense:  Why in the world would somebody use bitcoin right now to buy anything?  That $100 item you bought today represents (to most) a huge opportunity cost as far as ""missed returns in the future"" go.  It's basically a dollar-deflationary cycle, which we know to be corrosive to an economy:  You don't buy today what you expect to be cheaper tomorrow.  That's highly problematic for bitcoin as far as business adoption is concerned."


Question: First time consultant, doubts on Taxation

1.If the compensation that I receive is over 10 lakhs, how much would be deducted as tax No tax will be deducted by the company. You have to calculate the tax and pay in Advance by yourself. There are quite a few Banks that give you online facility to pay your tax. There is no service tax. Otherwise the tax slabs are right. The current budget has slightly revised the tax brackets. 2.So are these the right taxes and % that Need to be paid? If not do let me know the correct deductions. Yes. Revised brackets for financial year 2014-2015 are NIL for first 2.5 lakhs. Other brackets are unchanged. 4.What others legal options I have to decrease the tax liability? As an employee of my ex company I had once taken an FD (that reduced my tax) The options are same as salaried, i.e. you can claim exemption under 80C or on interest of housing loan, etc. As a consultant certain expenses can also be deducted.  You should also talk to a CA who can help you with this as there will be some paperwork involved.

So your argument for a national ID is that we're already fucked so might as well add another data point?  There's other ways to solve this problem that doesn't introduce more privacy concerns... advocating against a national ID is not the same as advocating for using an SSN as an ID.

You can use an intermediary online bank account.  For example, ING Direct has the ability to link to other real banks.  You can link to both your old and new banks. Once linked, transfer the money from old bank to ING.  Then transfer from ING to new bank. There are delays, and you can't transfer directly from bank-to-bank, but this should work, and should be free. The same concept should apply for something like PayPal or another online financial service.

A pattern of high level people buying or selling is a sign, positive or negative. An individual, not so much. He can be selling to diversify, trying to keep his investments from being all in the company. He can be selling to pay his large bills. Same reasons any of us might be selling an investment to have cash to use.

Do a common size analysis to  compare to its competitors. Also run a rqtio analysis to the industry. Explain the commonalities and differences as it pertains to the business.   A lot of big banks publish research on public companies and where they're headed in terms of financials. They are usually published for a fee but you can sometimes find them for free online.  It would be useful to talk about the current financial landscape like yellen, rate hikes etc if you wanna go there.

I would say it really depends on where you are applying.   Almost all the candidates that we get directly from school are either CFA level I candidates or have passed it already. It has become ubiquitous enough to not be note worthy for us (can't speak for other places). However, if you don't have anything else going on atm then definitely take the exam.  I would also say that you should pick/hone your programming skills revise your textbooks. I can't believe the number of MFE graduates who don't know what risk-neutral pricing means.

The middle class attack continues...    Nevermind that all that tax money goes to salaries, then returns in taxes, and eventually trickles back up to the wealthy in product purchasing, interest, etc, etc.  That is too long term thinking for short term America. We have forgotten that people need to have money to spend it.  This just sucks more money out of the economy and [again slows the velocity of money](https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2V) which is at some of the lowest levels since it was tracked. Money is being hoarded and that helps noone in a consumer economy, not even the wealthy.  The check engine light is on in the American consumer economy and noone cares about fixing it or taking it in for repairs.

Does anyone here have a source to find free PDFs of books related to finance, specifically corporate finance? I would like to truly learn about the subject but all the books I've found so far are too expensive for me to rent.   Alternatively, any other quality sources (doesn't have to be books) about corporate finance for a beginner would be fine as well. Thanks in advance.


Question: Where can I find historical P/E ratios for companies?

"The mathematics site, WolframAlpha, provides such data. Here is a link to historic p/e data for Apple. You can chart other companies simply by typing ""p/e code"" into the search box.  For example, ""p/e XOM"" will give you historic p/e data for Exxon. A drop-down list box allows you to select a reporting period : 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, all data.  Below the chart you can read the minimum, maximum, and average p/e for the reporting period in addition to the dates on which the minimum and maximum were applicable."

The stock market was already reaching highs way before trump took office. Fortune 500s and Dow were already reporting record profits every quarter before trump. The dozens of new retail/food/medial/plaza buildings to open this year in my city were already being built and going to open. The expansion on our already brand new hospital was already happening. The new school and medical university has nothing to do with trump. No i don't think the new 10,000 home development site approval has anything to do with trump. Trump literally has done nothing so far but win the election. These things were happening already. Employers are already desperate for employees I don't think anyone is hiring more because trump is in office when they were hiring already.

"Many of my friends said I should invest my money on stocks or something else, instead of put them in the bank forever. I do not know anything about finance, so my questions are: First let me say that your friends may have the best intentions, but don't trust them. It has been my experience that friends tell you what they would do if they had your money, and not what they would actually do with their money. Now, I don't mean that they would be malicious, or that they are out to get you.  What I do mean, is why would you take advise from someone about what they would do with 100k when they don't have 100k. I am in your financial situation (more or less), and I have friends that make more then I do, and have no savings. Or that will tell you to get an IRA -so-and-so but don't have the means (discipline) to do so. Do not listen to your friends on matters of money. That's just good all around advise. Is my financial status OK? If not, how can I improve it? Any financial situation with no or really low debt is OK. I would say 5% of annual income in unsecured debt, or 2-3 years in annual income in secured debt is a good place to be. That is a really hard mark to hit (it seems). You have hit it. So your good, right now. You may want to ""plan for the future"". Immediate goals that I always tell people, are 6 months of income stuck in a liquid savings account, then start building a solid investment situation, and a decent retirement plan. This protects you from short term situations like loss of job, while doing something for the future.   Is now a right time for me to see a financial advisor? Is it worthy? How would she/he help me? Rather it's worth it or not to use a financial adviser is going to be totally opinion based. Personally I think they are worth it. Others do not. I see it like this. Unless you want to spend all your time looking up money stuff, the adviser is going to have a better grasp of ""money stuff"" then you, because they do spend all their time doing it. That being said there is one really important thing to consider. That is going to be how you pay the adviser. The following are my observations. You will need to make up your own mind.  Free Avoid like the plague. These advisers are usually provided by the bank and make their money off commission or kickbacks. That means they will advise you of the product that makes them the most money. Not you.  Flat Rate These are not a bad option, but they don't have any real incentive to make you money. Usually, they do a decent job of making you money, but again, it's usually better for them to advise you on products that make them money. Per Hour These are my favorite. They charge per hour. Usually they are a small shop, and will walk you through all the advise. They advise what's best for you, because they have to sit there and explain their choices. They can be hard to find, but are generally the best option in my opinion.   % of Money These are like the flat rate advisers to me. They get a percentage of the money you give them to ""manage"". Because they already have your money they are more likely to recommend products that are in their interest. That said, there not all bad. % or Profit These are the best (see notes later). They get a percentage of the money they make for you. They have the most interest in making you money. They only get part of what you get, so there going to make sure you get the biggest pie, so they can get a bigger slice. Notes In the real world, all advisers are likely to get kickbacks on products they recommend. Make sure to keep an eye for that. Also most advisers will use 2-3 of the methods listed above for billing. Something like z% of profit +$x per hour is what I like to see. You will have to look around and see what is available.  Just remember that you are paying someone to make you money (or to advise you on how to make money) so long as what they take leaves you with some profit your in a better situation then your are now. And that's the real goal."

"Yes, you can usually deposit/pay money into a credit card account in advance. They'll use it to pay any open debt;  if there's money left over they'll carry it as a credit towards future changes. (""Usually"" added in response to comments that some folks have been unable to do this -- though whether that was really policy or just limitation if web interface is unclear.  Could be tested by simply sending them an overpayment as your next check and seeing whether they carry it as a credit or return the excess.)"

Schwab High Yield Investor Checking does not charge for incoming wires.

In the San Francisco bay area I know the region is putting to use Clipper cards. If you load them with clipper cash that money sticks around until you ultimately use it. The card itself maxes out at like $300 but any excess funneling into the card is kept with Clipper and shows up in your account as like some itemized deposit pending to distribute to your card once the card's balance drops below the limit to the amount that is pending deposit. If you however use the money for something like a month pass which is only good for that month and you don't use the pass to break even then you lose that money.

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre27.pdf if you are in the US Look at section 805 and 805 about how they may contact you and what they are and aren't allowed to do. You can simply send a Certified Mail, Return Receipt (CMRR) letter explaining you have no part of it, and that they are not allowed to contact you by any means other than in writing from this point forward. Then you can either put return to sender on the letters (it costs them money) or open them and delete anything you don't need.

In this case, trust the real estate agent; negotiating experience is one of the things you selected them for. Especially if they're suggesting a lower number than you expected, since they get paid on commission and so may be biased the other way.  Part of their job is to look for hints about how motivated this seller is and what price they might accept, as opposed to what price they hope to get.  And remember that the default assumption is that the two parties will meet in the middle somewhere, which means it's customary to offer 10% less to signal that you could probably be talked into it if they drop the price about 5%. This is like bridge-hand bidding: it's a semi-formalized system of hints about levels of interest, except with fewer conventions and less rationality. As far as the seller paying the closing costs: that's really part of the same negotiation, and doing it that way makes the discussion more complicated for the seller since they need to figure out how much more to charge you to cover this cost. If they offer, great, factor that into what you are willing to pay... but I wouldn't assume it or ask for it. Edit: Yes, unless you have engaged a Buyer's Agent (which I recommend for first-time buyers and maybe all huyers), their fiduciary duty is to the seller. But part of that duty is to make the sale happen. If the price goes too high and you walk away, neither the agent nor the seller make money. A bad agent can be as bad as a bad car salesman, sure. But if you don't like and mostly trust your agent, you are working with the wrong agent. That doesn't mean you give them every bit of information the seller might want, but it does mean you probably want to listen to their input and understand their rationalle before deciding what your own strategy will be.


Question: Calculate APR for under 1 year loan

Is the pay cycle every 2 weeks? So 30% each two week period is 1.3^26 = 917.33 or an APR of 91633%.  Loansharks charge less, I believe standard vig was 2%/week for good customers. Only 180% per year.

If you're a sole proprietor there's no reason to have a separate business account, as long as you keep adequate records, as you are one and the same for tax purposes. My husband and I already have 5 accounts and a mortgage with one bank. I don't see the need to open up yet another account.  As a contracted accountant, I don't need to write business checks, and my expenses are minimal. As long as I have an present my assumed business name certificate and ID, there's no reason for a bank not to deposit into my personal account.

I get it; money is money and shareholders demand businesses make as much as they possibly can. Great. That doesn't change my opinion that tax inversions are wrong. They deprive the US of valuable income which has been earned through infrastructure, defense, education, etc. It's legal right now so fine but I don't have to patronize businesses which choose to do this. So if the deal closes, as much as I don't eat fast food often, Burger King will lose my future business. Just my choice. And my choice to make the suggestion to others in as many public forums as possible.. <shrug>

"It's not consistent across the states. Most states have some implementation of these functions but fully regulated states don't have all of them and many are ""functions"" but are owned by the same entity.  Look at the southeast, the rockies, the PNW, AZ there are zero or few opportunities for merchant anything."

Real question: Besides just doing what pharma companies do normally, which is raising prices astronomically for drugs which have no generics available, was he really the bad guy in other terms or did he just come off as a massive dickhead?

The story says this property ranked near the bottom among NJ casinos for money won from gamblers.  It's not just poor financial planning that caused this place's failure. Operationally, it was poorly managed as well considering it's excellent location.

The details of the DJIA methodology is outlined in the official methodology document on their website.  In addition, you will need their index mathematics document, which gives the nitty-gritty details of any type of adjustments that must be made. Between the two you should have the complete picture in as fine a detail as you want, including exactly what is done in response to various corporate actions like splits and structural changes.

The limits for 2011 and 2012 are $5000 or $6000 if you are 50 or older. The 2011 income limit is $169K, but that's MAGI, not gross. With a $180K income, your MAGI is likely below $169, but you can only tell by looking at your return. If you are this close, you might have to convert to a non-deducted IRA, or withdraw the money. Else, you can fund the 2011 IRA when you file the return in 2012 to be sure.


Question: Why haven't there been personal finance apps or softwares that use regression modeling or A.I.?

What would they be trying to predict?  The value YNAB and Mint provide is objective truth about what you've spent. They can force you to think about the tradeoffs inherent in budgeting by showing that you've overspent one category, and making you decide where to find the money to cover it. They can call your attention to a credit card swipe that's larger than you intended, to a subscription you didn't intend to keep, etc. by just generally getting you to read and think about your transaction history and the sums of transactions per category and overall. Prediction doesn't really enter into it. One way to understand Mint's business model is as a service that collects training data for machine learning models that do try to predict things, such as how stock prices will move or whether users will click on certain ads.

Based on the additional comment you gave, I would recommend that you keep the capital from the businesses separate as much as possible.  It sounds like you won't get into any trouble legally if you make 'loans' or transfers of capital from one business into the other. But I would suggest that you keep detailed records of any transfers that you do make.  The reason why is that in any business, it is important to know the economics of how your business makes money. If you find yourself making transfers repeatedly, then your business model may be bad. Even if your transfers are only to deal with the cost of poor customers, it could still mean that your business model needs to be adjusted.  But if it's a question of the timing of cash flows, then there's really nothing wrong with taking some of the money from your successful pants operation and building up more working capital in your stationery shop.

"What do you mean by 'make'?  I am in the US, but I'm sure it's typical that any business has a ""bottom line"", the profit after all costs including paper losses for things like depreciation. This is then taxed, either at the business level or to the individual. The individual's person expenses don't come into play, unless those expenses are tied to the business, e.g. Some kind of function at their house which includes clients/customers."

You could do that once, maybe, if the lender negotiates rather than going to court and taking you for everything you have plus having you wages garnished for the next several decades. And in the process, you would destroy your credit rating, making it impossible to borrow again any time soon. Doing this deliberately is fraud ... But worse than that, it's blatently stupid. You are likely to lose far more than you could gain.

Its very silly of you to have house savings while you have these debts.  Your total (listed) debt is 1657, with a savings of 2000, and a tax refund of 985.   I'd be done with the Apple loan and CC tomorrow.  Does that accomplish the goal of making a significant difference in your debt?  Yes it does. This will leave you with 1328.  I'd keep 500 or so in an emergency fund, and put the rest to the car.  Although 828 will not help much with the car it would probably knock a month off.   Next work like crazy to pay off the car.  Get a second job or work overtime. Then save a emergency fund of 3 to 6 months of expenses as if you already owned the house.  I would tend to go on the high side as I suspect you are single. Only then does it makes sense to save for a down payment.   Although it is an American institution, the book The Millionaire Next Door might be helpful for you.  Your most powerful wealth building tool is your income.  When one handicaps that tool with payments and exorbitant lifestyle choices you greatly reduce your ability to become wealthy. These amounts are so small, you should just knock them out.

"This is a great question.  I've participated in a deal like that as an employee, and I also know of friends and family who have been involved during a buyout.  In short:  The updated part of your question is correct: There is no single typical treatment.  What happens to unvested restricted stock units (RSUs), unvested employee stock options, etc. varies from case to case. Furthermore, what exactly will happen in your case ought to have been described in the grant documentation which you (hopefully) received when you were issued restricted stock in the first place. Anyway, here are the two cases I've seen happen before: Immediate vesting of all units.  Immediate vesting is often the case with RSUs or options that are granted to executives or key employees.  The grant documentation usually details the cases that will have immediate vesting.  One of the cases is usually a Change in/of Control (CIC or COC) provision, triggered in a buyout.  Other immediate vesting cases may be when the key employee is terminated without cause, or dies.  The terms vary, and are often negotiated by shrewd key employees. Conversion of the units to a new schedule.  If anything is more ""typical"" of regular employee-level grants, I think this one would be.  Generally, such RSU or option grants will be converted, at the deal price, to a new schedule with identical dates and vesting percentages, but a new number of units and dollar amount or strike price, usually so the end result would have been the same as before the deal. I'm also curious if anybody else has been through a buyout, or knows anybody who has been through a buyout, and how they were treated."

Ah, then we have fundamentally opposed views. I think there is a common leadership skill that one can develop. A skill that entails communicating with stakeholders, negotiating goals, developing a strategy, and leading an organization to accomplish said goals.  You do not think this is its own skill?

As most people said, family loans are dangerous to the relationship.  The lender should not lend more than they are willing to forgive, and the borrower should not borrow more than they are very certain they can repay. I would suggest a few things to consider: Anecdote: I borrowed some money from my grandfather when I graduated from college to help with cash flow for an apartment, vehicle, etc.  It was about 5% of my starting annual salary and I paid it back quickly and with interest.


Question: how much of foreign exchange (forex/fx) “deep liquidity” is really just unbacked leverage and what is the effect?

"In essence the problem that the OP identified is not that the FX market itself has poor liquidity but that retail FX brokerage sometimes have poor counterparty risk management. The problem is the actual business model that many FX brokerages have. Most FX brokerages are themselves customers of much larger money center banks that are very well capitalized and provide ample liquidity. By liquidity I mean  the ability to put on a position of relatively decent size (long EURUSD say) at any particular time with a small price impact relative to where it is trading. For spot FX, intraday bid/ask spreads are extremely small, on the order of fractions of pips for majors (EUR/USD/GBP/JPY/CHF). Even in extremely volatile situations it rarely becomes much larger than a few pips for positions of 1 to 10 Million USD equivalent notional value in the institutional market. Given that retail traders rarely trade that large a position, the FX spot market is essentially very liquid in that respect. The problem is that there are retail brokerages whose business model is to encourage excessive trading in the hopes of capturing that spread, but not guaranteeing that it has enough capital to always meet all client obligations. What does get retail traders in trouble is that most are unaware that they are not actually trading on an exchange like with stocks. Every bid and ask they see on the screen the moment they execute a trade is done against that FX brokerage, and not some other trader in a transparent central limit order book. This has some deep implications. One is the nifty attribute that you rarely pay ""commission"" to do FX trades unlike in stock trading. Why? Because they build that cost into the quotes they give you. In sleepy markets, buyers and sellers cancel out, they just ""capture"" that spread which is the desired outcome when that business model functions well.  There are two situations where the brokerage's might lose money and capital becomes very important. In extremely volatile markets, every one of their clients may want to sell for some reason, this forces the FX brokers to accumulate a large position in the opposite side that they have to offload. They will trade in the institutional market with other brokerages to net out their positions so that they are as close to flat as possible. In the process, since bid/ask spreads in the institutional market is tighter than within their own brokerage by design, they should still make money while not taking much risk. However, if they are not fast enough, or if they do not have enough capital, the brokerage's position might move against them too quickly which may cause them lose all their capital and go belly up. The brokerage is net flat, but there are huge offsetting positions amongst its clients. In the example of the Swiss Franc revaluation in early 2015, a sudden pop of 10-20% would have effectively meant that money in client accounts that were on the wrong side of the trade could not cover those on the other side. When this happens, it is theoretically the brokerage's job to close out these positions before it wipes out the value of the client accounts, however it would have been impossible to do so since there were no prices in between the instantaneous pop in which the brokerage could have terminated their client's losing positions, and offload the risk in the institutional market. Since it's extremely hard to ask for more money than exist in the client accounts, those with strong capital positions simply ate the loss (such as Oanda), those that fared worse went belly up. The irony here is that the more leverage the brokerage gave to their clients, the less money would have been available to cover losses in such an event. Using an example to illustrate: say client A is long 1 contract at $100 and client B is short 1 contract at $100. The brokerage is thus net flat. If the brokerage had given 10:1 leverage, then there would be $10 in each client's account. Now instantaneously market moves down $10. Client A loses $10 and client B is up $10. Brokerage simply closes client A's position, gives $10 to client B. The brokerage is still long against client B however, so now it has to go into the institutional market to be short 1 contract at $90. The brokerage again is net flat, and no money actually goes in or out of the firm. Had the brokerage given 50:1 leverage however, client A only has $2 in the account. This would cause the brokerage close client A's position. The brokerage is still long against client B, but has only $2 and would have to ""eat the loss"" for $8 to honor client B's position, and if it could not do that, then it technically became insolvent since it owes more money to its clients than it has in assets. This is exactly the reason there have been regulations in the US to limit the amount of leverage FX brokerages are allowed to offer to clients, to assure the brokerage has enough capital to pay what is owed to clients."

Rent. You have no idea whether you will still be in the same part of the country five years from now; you may not even be in the same country. A house is a boat anchor you really do not need or want at this time. It's also a set of obligations you may not want to take on yet.  And buying is not automatically more financially advantageous than renting, when you remember that money not going into the house can go into your retirement plan or other investments.

"Well, you mentioned McKinsey earlier and that's a consulting firm.  All of them draft from the Ivy's (plus the other top tiers) but it also helps to come from a school that is well known but not an Ivy. (NYU comes to mind)  My friends from CUNY Honors Baruch got jobs in accounting pretty easily as CUNY Baruch has programs set up with different companies and a fairly established network in the accounting field. It's pretty good if all you want to do is accounting.   In my experience, there's less of a ""prestige"" focus with IB's and accounting firms. The top consulting firms, on the other hand, are quite ""prestige"" focused. (worked in one that hired 80-90% from top tiered schools)  It's hard to put an umbrella statement over everything because there are exceptions. And, networking can trump everything.  You should be less concerned about schools and more about grades. A brand name won't help if you have an average GPA. To that point, take a major you'd do well at. Statistics, computer science, mathematical engineering are in demand but your major won't help if the work is too difficult/uninteresting leading to lower grades."

"There's no objective definition of what your house is worth between sales.  If you sell it for $107K, then that's the current functional definition of its worth.  There is not ""extra"" money to be had because you sold it for less than it was worth.  If the buyer is able to flip it for more, then the value of the house effectively went up and he will pocket the difference when he sells it. EDIT This turned out to be unexpectedly controversial, so let me be more precise in my answer.  I think this is important because it seems like many people misunderstand equity and how it figures (or doesn't) into the value of their home, which then leads to significant confusion and errors in what's many people's largest single investment. At any given time there are several possible ways to put a dollar value on your home.  A non-exclusive list that includes: Some of these obviously are more ""official"" than others. It would not be strange for these different values to vary by quite a bit at any given time. (This is what I meant in my original answer when I said there's ""no objective definition of what your house is worth between sales."") The interesting thing - and what I meant in my original answer when I wrote ""current functional definition of its worth"" - is that none of these factor directly into the transaction that the OP described of selling his house except for the last.  Using the numbers from the OP's example, that means the $107K.  Wherever the OP got the number $155K (either from one of the options on my list above or somewhere else), it won't be directly part of the sale between him and his friend. (For completeness, with a nod to Eric's comments on my original answer, some of these numbers may indirectly influence the sale.  For example, the buyer typically won't be able to get a mortgage for a value greater than the appraised value of the house, and so that might influence what he's willing and able to bid.  There may also be tax consequences if the price is artificially low, like, say, a gift.  As further expounded below, however, that's not directly relevant to answering the OP's stated question.) Now, the OP seemed to believe that there is an ""extra"" $48K in cash up for grabs in this scenario.  That comes from the $155K value that the OP claims his house has and the $107K price of the actual proposed sale.  This is a complete misconception.  When the buyer and seller sit down at closing and the title agent sums up who owes and who receives cash in this transaction, the $155K ""theoretical"" value will not enter into the calculation and therefore no one will pocket it. Subsequently, however, after the buyer takes possession, he may sell it.  If it's true that he ""got a deal"" on the transaction at $107K, then he maybe able to flip it and turn a profit.  But if that happens, it will be in a completely separate, subsequent transaction. Even if you look to this hypothetical second sale, however, the $155K doesn't really figure.  The new owner will have to find his own buyer, and they will have to agree on a price.  That might happen to be $155K, but there's no real reason to believe that it will or it won't."

A $2 fee to push customers towards setting up automatic bill pay is a very different thing than participating in writing legislation which would cripple the internet.   BoA's fee was pure greed. GoDaddy has no sane reason for backing or even participating in SOPA. Verizon wanted people to use automatically bill pay, so they created a fee to punish those that didn't use have recurring payments. Do you really not see the difference between these 3? Verizon just screwed up by not offering an incentive to go along with the punishment. It was a PR blunder, not greed or maliciousness.

The way the question is worded, it is slightly opinion based. Just to point out;   Tax benefits - Upto 50000 INR is tax free when invested here. This is actually 200,000 INR under 80C. So if you invest max of 150,000 in other instruments in 80C; you can still invest 50,000 into NPS. Hopefully it will provide some lumpsum money that I could probably use to buy a house / kid's education / kid's marriage. There are very few withdrawal options. Generally in the current scenario; By the time you retire; you would already have house, kid would have got married. Answers given the current data is it a worthwhile investment? It is a good investment option available. It is up to individual to select this or invest else where. If yes, would be better to fix choice at 50% in E and 25% in C and E or go for the auto choice? As you are young it is better to have max 50% in Equity and actively monitor this and change the percentage as you near the retirement age. If you don't have time, or are not financial savy, or one is plain simple lazy; going with Auto choice makes sense. bad investment because if you put the same money into equity oriented mutual funds then you will get better returns ... This depends. If you are currently investing everything into Equity; then yes at absolute level, the returns are high. However if you are investing into Equity and debt to achieve a balance, then NPS is doing it automatically for you. As the NPS has very low costs, there is substantial advantage. In some years [2013-2014?] the NPS equity return has been excellent and exceeded leading mutual funds. Other Aspect Edits: The Annuities need to invest in guaranteed risk free instruments; generally bonds. As the rates are locked for life, they need to factor things like average life expectancy, demographics, etc. This is largely statistical. Similar to how the Insurance premiums are decided. This is adjusted periodically. Say they offer 6.5% for 100 people. The investments into bonds is yielding only 6%. Then for next 100 people, they would offer 5.5%. However if the mortality increases, i.e. 50 people die at age of 70, they just need to adjust it to 5.75% for next 100 ... so there are quite a few parameters that go in and statical models output what the rate should be offered. At times the corpus manager may take a hedge to minimize downside. This is a specialized subject and there no dummies that show how rates are determined. It is also a trade secret.

Large and well-known companies are typically a good starting point. That doesn't mean that they are the best or even above average good, but at least they don't cheat you and run with your money. A core point is someone you pay, not the company whose investment he sell you. Although the latter seems cheaper on first glance, it isn't - if you pay him, his interest is to do good work for you; if they pay him, his interest is to sell you the product with the highest payment for him. That does not imply that they are all that way; it's just a risk. There are many good advisers that live from commissions, and still don't recommend you bad investments. Depending on the amounts, you could also read up a bit and open an account with a online investment company. It is discussable, but I think the cost for an adviser only starts to become worth it if you are deep into 5 digits of money.

Wasn't a bailout, it was a stick up. GSEs have paid back $130 billion over the original loan amount (which was around $180 b iirc). Gov't took them over under false pretenses, and implemented the net worth sweep under even falser pretenses.


Question: How did I end up with a fraction of a share?

It's not that uncommon but it doesn't usually come from standard purchases.  Investopedia explains: Definition of 'Fractional Share' A share of equity that is less than one full share. Fractional shares usually come about from stock splits, dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs) and similar corporate actions. Normally, fractional shares cannot be acquired from the market. However, there is at least one investment firm that markets itself as offering fractional shares.  Fractional investing makes more sense, since an investor's perspective is to invest a certain number of dollars into equity, not to buy a certain number of shares that closely mirror the dollar commitment.

I own a few MLPs that operate oil/gas pipelines (TSE:IPL-UN, NYSE:BPT, NYSE:APL), and I'm very happy with their performance. Because they don't pay corporate tax MLPs tend to pay higher dividends than most regular stocks. I pay H&R Block to do my taxes, and they sort out all the arcane details.

Say what you want about their prices but I still go there twice a month because:  * The marbling on their beef is significantly better than what I can get at Safeway  * Their cheese selection is far better in variety and quality, and their employees are much more knowledgeable than Safeway  * They actually have a cured meats section. I love me calabrese salami with a nice malbec.  95% of my grocery shopping is done at Safeway (can't beat $2/lb chicken), but the 5% when I'm feeling fancy it's pretty hard to beat Whole Foods.

In the UK the official rule is that a cheque is valid for 3 years from the date it was wrote. However after 3 months some banks can choose to turn them down. I had a cheque once that was a year old which is when I looked it up to see whether it was stil valid, and I found the laws regarding it then.  I was actually quite surprised it was 3 years! Btw if it does bounce your quite entitled to ask your employer for a replacement cheque.  They owe it you and it's just sat in their account assigned to you anyway.

"You are not smart.   The average person works more than 25 years. And because it's an average earnings increase, OF COURSE EVERYONE DOESN'T REACH IT. By the way, the greatest predictor of a person not reaching it is that person getting a liberal arts degree. And since you seem to want to do baseless math, I'll let you go ahead and decide how much the other 10% has to make in order for it to be true.   The point is that if you go to college, particularly to get a more valuable degree, you are making an astoundingly good investment. Are there exceptions? Absolutely. There are always exceptions. That doesn't disprove the facts.   Go look at the actual statistics by major or career. Don't bring this, ""I'll bet"" nonsense into the argument as if it proves anything."

You made 94$ on an investment of 554.80 *100 = 55480$ for an approx holding period of 1 year. So the % return is ~0.16%, which is not much better than the short term us treasury rate. The current 1 year treasury rate is 0.27%: http://ycharts.com/indicators/1_year_treasury_rate So yes, you have a risk free portfolio, so you make the risk free rate. Remember this is an European option, so you are stuck for 1 year. if you found the same mispricing in an American option, then you found an arbitrage.

"Typically, there are three ways an acquisition is financed. What is used is called the ""consideration"".  1.) Cash - Existing cash on the balance sheet is used. Think of it like purchasing something with your debit card.  2.) Stock - This a bit more complicated. The acquiring company issues new shares and exchanges those shares for shares of the acquiree. Because new shares are issued, this can have a dilutive effect on the stock price of the acquirer. However, it can have an accretive effect if enough synergistic value between the two companies is realized and/or expected.  3.) Debt - Basically like taking out a loan.   The ""consideration"" for a deal is often reported, as you read in your article.  Most deals are a combination of cash/stock/debt. (Debt is often referred to as ""cash"" - i.e. if you take out a loan, you are essentially receiving cash.)    When it comes to which is best to use, there are quantitative analyses for that - with a specific focus on the acquirer's EPS (Earnings per share) post-deal.  The factors that are considered are the forgone interest on cash, the additional interest gained from taking on debt, and the dilutive effects of issuing new stock. There is no right answer for which is best, as there are multiple different factors and circumstances involved across M&A deals. Each company has different borrowing rates and synergistic value expected from their deals. One big factor is the timing and stock price of both companies during the deal. If the acquirer is trading at an all time high and the acquiree is at an all time low, then perhaps an all-stock deal would be advantageous to the buyer.   Typically, companies want to avoid stock deals because they are the most dilutive."

The best way to make money on a downward market is to buy at the bottom, sell at the top.  Lather, rinse, repeat.