Question: What are my risks of early assignment?

One reason this happens is due to dividends. If the dividend amount is greater than the time value left on a call, it can make sense to exercise early to collect the dividend.  Deep in the money puts also may get exercised early. There's usually little premium on a deep in the money put and the spread on the bid-ask might erase what little premium there is. If you have stock worth $5,000 but own puts on them that will give you $50,000 upon exercise (and no spread to worry about), the interest you can gain on the $50k might be more than the little to no time value left on the position... even at several weeks to expiration.

The ETF price quoted on the stock exchange is in principle not referenced to NAV. The fund administrator will calculate and publish the NAV net of all fees, but the ETF price you see is determined by the market just like for any other security.  Having said that, the market will not normally deviate greatly from the NAV of the fund, so you can safely assume that ETF quoted price is net of relevant fees.

"So I'm in Australia and we have our very own housing price/credit bubble right now (which is finally deflating) and I'll try explain it as I understand. I welcome anyone to chime in and correct me.  The problem we faced (still face to a large degree) is the idea of rising asset prices and how this fuels a feedback loop into increasing personal debt, all based on the false assumption that house prices always go up. Now before I continue, house prices *do* always go up in the long run, but so does the cost of everything and we call that inflation, adjusting for this effect usually reveals that house prices are cyclical in the long term and never really 'grow'. So that aside we in Australia recently saw a long period of increasing house prices (as did the USA and Europe, and more recently China), the thing about house price is it is your 'equity', I'll try and explain: (all figures are made up to provide a simple example) if you borrow $200,000 to buy a house that costs $250,000 you owe the bank 80% of the equity (what your home is 'worth', and notionally this is value that you own) in your home and the bank will be happy, remembering that they make money on your interest payments, not your principal repayments. If your house then increases in value to $300,000 but you still owe $200,000 then you now owe only 66% of your equity. The bank sees you as a lower risk and encourages you to borrow more to get back up to that sweet spot they had before of 80% - this is a nice tradeoff between risk and reward for the bank. You, the consumer, have just been mailed a new credit card with a 50k limit (hypothetical) and theres a new iMac being released next week, and you really did want to trade in your 5yr old car (see where this is going yet?). Not only is this type of spending given a mighty boost but consumers feel like this house thing has done them very well and suddenly they have the ability to borrow lots more money, why not get a second house and do it all over again? The added demand for investment housing drives prices, throw in some generous government incentives (here and in the USA) and demand is pushed hard, prices grow more and the whole thing feeds back into itself. People feel richer, spend more from their credit cards, buy another house, etc.  But what happens if your house 'value' then drops to $240k? The bank now sees you as a high risk, so do the bank's investors, you have negative equity, the bank demands the difference paid back to it or it might take your home. Somehow, nobody believed this would happen.  Hopefully you start to see the picture? In Australia we are now facing a slow melt in housing prices which has not yet hurt en masse but it has dried up the credit cards, retails spending has collapsed and everyone is worried about the future.  Now to realise where the USA got to you have to also understand that banks were not merely asking for a maximum of 80% owed on the asset, many of them let this figure go to 100%, since hey prices always go up, right? They then in some cases went further and neglected to look into your income and confirm you could even *repay* your loan. Sounds dodgey? This is just the setup.  Remember I mentioned the bank's investors? Well banks/smart people basically figured out a clever way of 'dealing with' the risk of a few outliers with bad financial situations by collecting large numbers of home loans into a single entity and selling it on. Loans were graded according to risk and I believe they were even cut up into smaller pieces (10% of your high risk loan assigned to 10 different 'debt objects' with different risk profiles). These 'collateralised debt obligations' were traded from one bank/investment firm to another with everyone happily accepting the risk profiles until eventually nobody knew what risk was where. Think about it like ""I'll throw 10 high risk loans, 50 medium risk loans and 40 low risk loans into a pot, stir it up and sell the soup as 'pretty safe' "". This all seemed like a very good idea until it gradually became clear just how much of these loans were in the 'extremely stupid high risk' category. This is probably extremely confusing by now, but thats the point, investors could no longer judge how risky an investment in a bank or financial institute was, the market did not correct for any of this until it was all too late.  The moral of the story is when people tell you an investment is guaranteed to make you money, you stay away from that investment. And to specifically answer your question you can't solely blame government incentives as you might be able to see, but they play a part in a giant orchestra, there are many factors that drive this sort of stupidity, stupidity being the primary one."

Right there with you.  It drives me crazy watching those commercials with the cute talking babies telling the average person they can take control of their own future and open a trading account.    A few months ago I met someone at a bar who worked customer support for a large company with lots of individual traders.  I asked him what percentage of his client accounts actually made money and he guessed only a few.  The company got paid either way (commissions).  What a scam.

www.sedar.com is the official site that provides access to most public securities documents and information filed by public companies and investment funds with the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) in the SEDAR filing system. Now, I'm guessing - I think the doc is MDA - Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. At least this is what appears listed for many companies.

They aren't giving stuff away their resources for free. If they bail Europe they would get a massive boost in international clout and political power.  He who controls the purse strings, controls the world. When you give aid to a country, that country is pretty much your bitch. I mean, look at the power the US has over all of Central and South America. Hell you can even look at Pakistan, the US kills civilians over there with drones, yet Pakistan doesn't dare stand up to the US since the US provides billions in aid to Pakistan.  The US pays the bill for a large part of IMF, NATO, and the UN. And for those reasons, the UN/IMF/NATO is pretty much just a puppet of the US. If the US doesn't agree with something, none of those organizations will contradict the US. None of them can, the US foots the bill for most of their funding.  A China that just sits on $3.1 trillion dollars has zero world influence. Money that sits in a bank has no power. But when China spends those trillions, and trades them for power and influence. That's when China will turn into a superpower.

"I agree that you should have received both a 1099 and a W2 from your employer. They may be reluctant to do that because some people believe that could trigger an IRS audit. The reason is that independent contractor vs employee is supposed to be defined by your job function, not by your choice. If you were a contractor and then switched to be an employee without changing your job description, then the IRS could claim that you should have always been an employee the entire time, and so should every one of the other contractors that work for that company with a similar job function. It's a hornet's nest that the employer may not want to poke. But that's not your problem; what should you do about it? When you say ""he added my Federal and FICA W/H together"", do you mean that total appears in box 4 of your 1099? If so, it sounds like the employer is expecting you to re-pay the employer portion of FICA. Can you ask them if they actually paid it? If they did, then I don't see them having a choice but to issue a W2, since the IRS would be expecting one. If they didn't pay your FICA, then the amount this will cost you is 7.65% of what would have been your W2 wages. IMHO it would be reasonable for you to request that they send you a check for that extra amount. Note: even though that amount will be less than $600 and you won't receive a 1099 in 2017 for it, legally you'll still have to pay tax on that amount so I think a good estimate would be to call it 10% instead. Depending on your personality and your relationship with the employer, if they choose not to ""make you whole"", you could threaten to fill out form SS-8. Additional Info: (Thank you Bobson for bringing this up.) The situation you find yourself in is similar to the concept of ""Contract-to-Hire"". You start off as a contractor, and later convert to an employee. In order to avoid issuing a 1099 and W2 to the same person in a single tax year, companies typically utilize one of the following strategies: Your particular situation is closest to situation 2, but the reverse. Instead of retroactively calling you a W2 employee the entire time, your employer is cheating and attempting to classify you as a 1099 contractor the entire time. This is frowned upon by the IRS, as well as the employee since as you discovered it costs you more money in the form of employer FICA. From your description it sounds like your employer was trying to do you a favor and didn't quite follow through with it. What they should have done was never switch you to W2 in the first place (if you really should have been a contractor), or they should have done the conversion properly without stringing you along."

I agree but...  ( i didn't read the article in its entirety!)  but if her business was grossing $300k per year...  and for her to fall so hard in such a short time, tells me that even with such a large income, she was still living beyond her means.


Question: Howto choose a marketplace while submitting an order for a stock trade

It depends on your cost structure and knowledge of the exchanges. It could be optimal to make a manual exchange selection so long as it's cheaper to do so. For brokers with trade fees, this is a lost cause because the cost of the trade is already so high that auto routing will be no cheaper than manual routing. For brokers who charge extra to manually route, this could be a good policy if the exchange chosen has very high rebates.  This does not apply to equities because they are so cheap, but there are still a few expensive option exchanges. This all presumes that one's broker shares exchange rebates which nearly all do not. If one has direct access to the exchanges, they are presumably doing this already. To do this effectively, one needs: For anyone trading with brokers without shared rebates or who does not have knowledge of the exchange prices and their liquidities, it's best to auto route.

I think India and Africa are going to center of the economic growth market in the next two decades. Probably more India, since they have the means to develop and a culture that wants it. I think the growth rates are all relative, but you obviously know the standard growth rate of the Sp500. I just can't see it falling because we are still in the middle of a complete globalization and I really think it won't be over before I retire. It will probably yake Africa 50 years before they reach a first world living standards we enjoy now. God only knows what we will have as the definition of first world by then.   The medical industry alone will drive a large portion of growth. Cyber security is going to be the next frontier in tech as the internet of things explode into our daily life.   I am not as weary about long term growth. We are always innovating and creating new markets. The beauty of the Sp500 is that it doesn't even have to be in the US to make money off it.

"Some technical indicators (e.g. Williams %R) indicate whether the market is overbought or oversold.   ... Every time a stock or commodity is bought, it is also sold. And vice versa. So how can anything ever be over-bought or over-sold? But I'm sure I'm missing something. What is it? You're thinking of this as a normal purchase, but that's not really how equity markets operate. First, just because there are shares of stock purchased, it doesn't mean that there was real investor buyer and seller demand for that instrument (at that point in time).  Markets have dedicated middlemen called Market Makers, who are responsible to make sure that there is always someone to buy or sell; this ensures that all instruments have sufficient liquidity.  Market Makers may decide to lower their bid on a stock based on a high number of sellers, or raise their ask for a high number of buyers. During an investor rush to buy or sell an instrument (perhaps in response to a news release), it's possible for Market Makers to accumulate a large number of shares, without end-investors being involved on both sides of the transaction.  This is one example of how instruments can be over-bought or over-sold. Since Williams %R creates over-bought and over-sold signals based on historical averages of open / close prices, perhaps it's better to think of these terms as ""over-valued"" and ""under-valued"".  Of course, there could be good reason for instruments to open or close outside their expected ranges, so Williams %R is just a tool to give you clues... not a real evaluation of the instrument's true value."

"Logic fail. The qty of shares is irrelevant. What matters is the value, which is, of course, quite high -- and, what's more, the P/E ratio, which is extremely favorable. Having worked in operations at Apple for 7 years, I can tell you that the company is very lean and efficient.  25% matching is extremely generous. 25% contribution rates are standard in corporate jobs (contribution rates are what maximum percentage of your pre-tax income you can opt to set aside into a 401K; this is different than matching). It absolutely is not bare bones to be given 25% matching. Although I no longer work at Apple, I still have my 401K, and the administration of it is good, as is the choice of funds. Back to the matching... It's free money. For every $1 you put in your 401K (pretax, btw), Apple puts in a quarter. Having worked in other corporations over my career, I can tell you that this level of matching is pretty much as good as it gets.   For a good part of the time I worked there I made around $30K (not in Retail, but in Operations, as mentioned before). I maxed out the Employee Stock Purchase Program contribution and mostly maxed out my 401K contribution. Now, 12 years later, my stock appreciated beyond my wildest expectations. I have made well over six figures on it over the years. If I never sold any, it would be worth over $500,000 by now. All that from 10% contributions on a salary that ranged from about $26K when I started out to about $46K when I left 7 years later. My 401K holdings are worth about $60K, I think, invested extremely conservatively. I have had it in money market funds since right before the 2008/2009 crash, which I anticipated.  So the investment benefits at Apple served me extremely well. My stock appreciation paid for my car, and it will soon cover the down payment on a house. I was essentially able to ""retire"" to be a stay-at-home-mom when my son was born, thanks to the safety net I have from my Apple stock.  Regarding health benefits...  I think you meant to say copays, not deductibles. When I was there, there were no copays. I forgot what the deductibles were, but for most routine visits, you wouldn't need to pay out of pocket. Annual physicals are included in the health plan, up to $250. The health plan works with various local providers to ensure that the $250 allotment will cover all expenses needed for an annual physical. This physical is separate and in addition to a women's health annual exam (pap smear/pelvic exam/etc) that is also included without copay. I'm pretty sure annual mammograms are covered. All prenatal visits are covered with zero copay. All child well checks, including immunizations, covered with zero copay. Two dental checks a year. Dental Xrays at regular intervals included. Annual vision exams and, I think $300 annually towards glasses or contacts included, IIRC.   Time off was pretty standard and accrued by the hour worked, which was nice. There was no ""you have to be with the company for X length of time"" before time off benefits began to accrue, or before any benefits kicked in, for that matter. By about Year 5, I had easily racked up enough vacation days to take 3 weeks off at a time. The longer you have been with the company, the faster your time off accrues. And each summer they'd offer a cash-out program, where you could double up on time off, where if you took off a week, you could opt to deplete your accrued vacation time by two weeks and get double pay for it. A lot of people liked this option.  The points for absenteeism thing seemed a bit silly -- and seemed to only have been implemented in one store and then only for a brief time. From what I gathered in the article, it was an experiment that failed miserably.  The other corporation I have spent a significant amount of time working at is Whole Foods Market, in their corporate office. While both Apple and Whole Foods always are selected as two of the top companies to work for by Forbes in their annual report, as far as benefits went, Apple's were far superior in most aspects. With respect to company culture, I personally found Whole Foods to be better, but that was sort of a personal preference. Both were dream jobs, and I consider myself very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work for two outstanding companies that both treated me very well.  Oh- and incidentally, Ron Johnson, who was VP of Retail at Apple from the inception of the stores until like a year ago, now is CEO of JC Penny, and, I suspect, is fully behind JCP's ad campaigns which include images of families with same-sex parents. JCP has stepped deliberately and full-on into what is, unfortunately, still a controversial topic and has taken a firm stand in support of all types of loving families. I have to wonder if part of this might have been inspired by the fact that Apple's new CEO, Tim Cook, is gay. Ron Johnson would have worked closely alongside Cook during his tenure. I met Ron once and found him to be a great guy, and I worked with the Retail operations folks from the time the stores launched. They were a great team that worked hard and were very sincere and dedicated. You could see his leadership reflecting in each member of the team."

> pay a premium to the enthusiastically complicit exchanges for the privilege of scalping those that do not.  I'm assuming you're talking about colocation. Can you tell me how colos enable them to scalp participants without a colo? Give me a breakdown.

"I wish you were right, but sadly, ""we the data"" have pretty much *no* ability to have any effect on Equifax; **That's** the real ""fuck you"" of this whole situation, *we* had zero choice in whether or not they tracked our data.   Now, more to your point... Can we *maybe* get the *actual* customers (banks, loan brokers, etc) to favor TransUnion over Equifax?  *Maybe*.  But you're missing the point entirely if you go that route.   The problem here isn't Equifax.  The problem here is that Equifax (and Experian, and Transunion, and LexisNexis, etc) is *allowed to exist* under US law in the first place.   Don't lobby your bank, lobby your **senator**.  They won't actually *care*, since Equifax pays them more than you do, but that's at least nominally ""more effective"" if we want to play pretend that our elected officials actually care what we think."

The screen copy talks about disablity, so if you want to cut your leg off or so, this would work. Otherwise, yes, you can retire anytime now. However, you can only get social security benefits after you turn 60, and it will not be much. So if you have enough money around to feed yourself till you turn 60, and thereafter want to live on the meager benefits, then you can retire now.

Well thats a natural monopoly, nobody needs competition in search engine or social websites, who uses two social websites if one has everyone in it anyway. Learn before you talk.  Some industries are born to be monopolies but the problem that people are arguing is that companies like amazon give you much better prices and deliver stuff to your house. This is different than normal monopoly situation where they increase the price to a higher one than the market equilibrium and cause welfare loss.  In this case for example, amazon actually kills all the retailers which are earning normal amounts of money anyway, uses underpaid workers for more profit, don't pay taxes to us government for more profit and basically takes away money from the buyers indirectly(who are very happy with their new x which was cheaper than retailer price).


Question: How to approach building credit without a credit card

Ways to build credit without applying for credit cards: It takes some time for these types of actions to positively affect you.  I'd say at the very least 6 months.  You won't get the full benefit for several years.  However, the earlier you get started, the better.

"In addition to all the points made in other answers, in some jurisdictions (including the UK where I live) the consumer credit laws require the lender to allow the borrower to pay off the loan at any time. If the lender charges interest and the borrower pays off the loan early then the lender loses the interest that would have been paid during the rest of the loan period. However if the actual interest is baked into the sale price of an item and the loan to pay for it is nominally ""0%"" then the borrower still pays all the interest even if they pay off the loan immediately. If you think this game is being played then you can ask for a ""cash discount"" (or similar wording: I once had problems with a car salesman who thought I meant a suitcase full of used £20s), meaning you want to avoid paying the interest as you are not taking a loan."

Since the compounding period and payment period differs (Compounded Daily vs Paid Monthly), you need to find the effective interest rate for one payment period (month).   This means that each month you pay 0.33387092772% of the outstanding principal as interest.  Then use this formula to find the number of months:  Where PV = 21750, Pmt = 220, i = 0.0033387092772  That gives 120 Months.  Depending on the day count convention, (30/360 or 30.416/365 or Actual/Actual), the answer may differ slightly. Using Financial Calculator gives extremely similar answer.  The total cash paid in the entire course of the loan is 120 x $220 = $26,400

The bigger problem isn't the people making career posts. It's that this subreddit has grown too big to have the intelligent conversation it once did. This subreddit has gone from being mostly finance professionals to now including the types you see in /r/economy and other idiots that are only tangentially interested in finance. I'm not sure what you can do about this, it's probably too late.

The right answer is use it, but use it responsibly. The point of the credit report is to prove to potential creditors that you are a responsible person who pays their bills on time. If you don't use the new credit card, you can't prove that. However, of course there is a limit. If you max out the card, you have only proven that you are irresponsible with credit. Try to stay around 50% of your max limit. More is O.K., but never go over 89%. Always pay your bills on time. Always. Not just this new credit card, but all bills. The best way to ruin your credit is not paying your bills. Even if you are having a dispute with a company, pay the bill anyway to save your credit and then dispute the situation and try to get your money back. Prove to creditors that they can trust you and you'll have an excellent credit score.

Except: it's a material concern at every company.  If the senior executives all quit at the same time, this is going to be problematic no matter what company we're discussing.  I wouldn't be surprised if most 10-Ks have similar generic language.

Agreed. If you create a small sustainable biz for yourself, you create the freedom to pursue the hobby project ideas as well. You have a strong base which protects you.  A software biz like ours is WAY more tolerant than a job. Like when I got sick for 3 mos and couldn't work at ALL, we didn't grow, but we didn't collapse either. It pretty much coasted. That means we have way more free time than we think we do.

This is a nice narrative, but the organizations I have operated in put a good amount of effort trying to de-bottleneck production issues by going straight to the front lines. My current org does an annual survey (with tons of open ended questions) and listening sessions around 5 year plans. Also every production employee gets a weekly 30 minute session with their direct report.  Now it takes some effort to separate signal from noise (yes, everyone wants to be paid more and receive frequent strategic communication).  Now grossly inefficient general and administrative costs that thrash bottom line .. we have that in spades!!


Question: Borrowing 100k and paying it to someone then declaring bankruptcy

This is fraud and could lead to jail time. The vast majority of people cannot obtain such loans without collateral and one would have to have a healthy income and good credit to obtain that kind of loan to purchase something secured by a valuable asset, such as a home. Has this been done before?  Yes, despite it being the US, you may find this article interesting.     Hopefully, you see how the intent of this hypothetical situation is stealing.

Ultimately the question is more about your personality and level of discipline than about money.   The rational thing to do is hang on to your cash, invest it somewhere else, and pay off the 0% loan as late as possible without incurring penalties or interest.  Logically it's a no-brainer.  Problem is, we're humans, so there's a risk you'll slip up somewhere along the way and not pay off the loan in time.  How much do you trust yourself?

"I think the ""right"" way to approach this is for your personal books and your business's books to be completely separate. You would need to really think of them as separate things, such that rather than being disappointed that there's no ""cross transactions"" between files, you think of it as ""In my personal account I invested in a new business like any other investment"" with a transfer from your personal account to a Stock or other investment account in your company, and ""This business received some additional capital"" which one handles with a transfer (probably from Equity) to its checking account or the like. Yes, you don't get the built-in checks that you entered the same dollar amount in each, but (1) you need to reconcile your books against reality anyway occasionally, so errors should get caught, and (2) the transactions really are separate things from each entity's perspective. The main way to ""hack it"" would be to have separate top-level placeholder accounts for the business's Equity, Income, Expenses, and Assets/Liabilities. That is, your top-level accounts would be ""Personal Equity"", ""Business Equity"", ""Personal Income"", ""Business Income"", and so on. You can combine Assets and Liabilities within a single top-level account if you want, which may help you with that ""outlook of my business value"" you're looking for. (In fact, in my personal books, I have in the ""Current Assets"" account both normal things like my Checking account, but also my credit cards, because once I spend the money on my credit card I want to think of the money as being gone, since it is. Obviously this isn't ""standard accounting"" in any way, but it works well for what I use it for.) You could also just have within each ""normal"" top-level placeholder account, a placeholder account for both ""Personal"" and ""My Business"", to at least have a consistent structure. Depending on how your business is getting taxed in your jurisdiction, this may even be closer to how your taxing authorities treat things (if, for instance, the business income all goes on your personal tax return, but on a separate form). Regardless of how you set up the accounts, you can then create reports and filter them to include just that set of business accounts. I can see how just looking at the account list and transaction registers can be useful for many things, but the reporting does let you look at everything you need and handles much better when you want to look through a filter to just part of your financial picture. Once you set up the reporting (and you can report on lists of account balances, as well as transaction lists, and lots of other things), you can save them as Custom Reports, and then open them up whenever you want. You can even just leave a report tab (or several) open, and switch to it (refreshing it if needed) just like you might switch to the main Account List tab. I suspect once you got it set up and tried it for a while you'd find it quite satisfactory."

"Ah to be clear, ""bad customer"" here means someone that ends up costing the company more money than they are worth to you.  The article explictly says that a lot of the problems that Bob had were nothing to do with their product."

"Most other countries are worse off.    Your perception of what is a resource intensive lifestyle does not take into consideration future innovation or adaptation.    Government debt is large but not insurmountable.  Much of it is owned by the government itself (social security trust fund and the federal reserve) and by domestic banks.   The ""crumbling infrastructure"" claim is often made but is rarely articulated well so it's hard to respond to.    Entitlements is a bit more complicated an issue due to political gridlock, but I expect that at least minor changes will be made gradually that will help deal with this problem.  If not major reform, small things like pushing back the benefit age a year here and a year there, repealing benefits for the wealthy, reducing the size of cost of living adjustments, reducing the amount that is paid out to higher earning recipients, increasing the amount of yearly income that is subject to FICA...  These are piecemeal changes that both sides could agree to even in the current political climate.  Medicare is the bigger cost, but how to deal with that is difficult to determine considering what's going on with obamacare.  Municipal and state governments will not fail if they go bankrupt.  Most municipalities and states are able to balance a budget.  It can be done but in some place it isn't because politicians don't have enough backbone to say no.  When they go bankrupt and are unable to borrow money, they will have no choice and can blame their cuts on the banks who won't loan them money.  That is, unless the people running the federal government also have no backbone and decide to bail them out, in which case we will have an enormous case of moral hazard on our hands.  The economic dominoes in Europe and China are not damaging the core of their economies.  Unless Europe breaks apart violently and goes to war with itself or China has a civil war, the basic aspects of their economy that make them a valuable part of the global economy will not go away.  Their productive capacities will remain intact and we'll still want to buy stuff from each other.    The beauty of free market capitalism is that it's so adaptable and the fact that things are changing does not mean that everyone will be worse off.  Whether or not the US is above everyone else in the end is mostly irrelevant, but the fundamental aspects of the US economy that make it among the strongest in the world will not change because of these things.  Our workforce will remain highly educated, very productive and very innovative.  We have the best farmland in the world and a lot of it, enormous amounts of natural resources, a relatively flexible and adaptable economy and a tremendous amount of wealth.  There may be troubles related to certain institutions and governing bodies, but remember that those things are not the economy.  The economy is the people, the things they can make, the things they know, and the things that they can do."

Are corporations not already passing along the cost of healthcare to the consumer?  When the employer pays, directly, for the employees health insurance, it goes directly into overhead costs.  Goods and service costs have to rise to meet that.  It's already happened.    Ideally, the healthcare savings would just offset the VAT.  Employee salaries probably wouldn't increase any, even ideally.

On July 20, when you posted this question, AAPL was trading almost at 115.  The market charges an extra premium for buying an option that is in the money (or on the money like this case) over one that is out of the money.  In order for the 130 Call to be worth something the market has to go up 15 points. Otherwise you lose 100% of your premium. On the other hand with the 115 every point that the market goes up means that you recover some of that premium. It is much more likely that you recover part of your premium with the 115 than with the 130.  With the higher probability of losing part of the premium, the sellers are going to be reluctant to write the option unless they receive larger compensation.

By studying. I wouldn't consider the statistics and math required for finance to be of the most difficult caliber, maybe a statistics major would be a nice extra to set a person ahead but I'd say just a couple intermediate courses would serve well for a finance career.


Question: If a trendline or pattern breaks due to some bad news but it returns back what to do?

There is a technique called the Elliott wave which explains these 'shocks'. The reversal directions you are questioning are part of the pattern, it is known as corrections. The Elliott wave is an indicator based on psychology of investors. Think about it this way, if you see a huge up trend what are you most likely to do, sell and make profit or continue, this is why there is a shock before it continues. Many people will sell to be safe, especially after hearing the bad news they won't risk it. By learning the Elliott wave you'll be able to make an educated decision on whether or not to stay or leave. Here are websites on the Elliott wave: http://stockcharts.com/school/doku.php?id=chart_school:market_analysis:elliott_wave_theory http://www.swing-trade-stocks.com/elliott-wave.html The Elliott wave is helpful in any time frame and works well with momentum. Hope this helps.

It's because trucks and SUVs can have way better margins. Automakers might make a few hundred bucks on a sedan vs $10,000 on a truck.   Truck and SUV price points are insane. Part of it can be blamed on the availability of credit.

Cool! Financial IT is fun. Banks wouldn't run without us :).  I'm doing a Master's while working part time in IT in an investment bank. I'm kind of on the fence of if I should go for a more technical profile (software development) or business profile (IT business analysis). It's quite the different career tracks...

Hello Wall Street!  I would like to remind you all once again that the march of computer automation will continue to take your jobs.  Put in those 100 hour weeks.  Kiss ass.  Discard your ethics.  Do whatever you want because in the end, you WILL be beaten by a $3000 machine.  You cannot win this battle.  Nobody in HISTORY has won this battle.    We'll see you soon!

> Say profits are 100mil, and a dividend is payed. Say 50 mil worth is payed out as dividend and 30 mil is kept as retained earnings for future investment.  This does not equate. Out of net income, it is only possible to either reinvest (retained earning) or payout (repurchase or dividend). You can't have a $20m gap there.  > Can the remaining 20 mil be distributed to shareholders A and B, so that they both get 10mil each?  What makes them entitled to a separate, special dividend over the other shareholders?  > Can certain shareholders be favored and get a bigger cut of profits than the dividends pay out is my question basically.  It kinda sounds like you're describing preferred equity, but doing it in a rather round-about way.

Did you buy near the bottom? Suppose you did then the price is still 16% below. 50% fall and then 40% increase leaves a 16% gap. So there could still be upside. However, it appears that you are talking about a small-cap that is volatile. I wouldn't hold it. I would take the money and invest elsewhere. If you have a lot of shares and brokerage is less then sell 60% now and the remaining 40% on either 10-15% jump in price or if it falls by 5% from now. Too risky to hold longer-term.

At the present time, businesses are facing serious threat from various sources. This is needless to say that, if there is a new brand wants to occupy a small space in market, it has to make an elusive effort while there are different brands have already taken their places.

"Wait...what? Do you live in backwards land? They've let free market reign in healthcare that is why prices are through the roof. The healthcare industry is immune to antitrust, and negotiating with government programs. There is no such thing as ""preventing single payer programs......it only works if there is a SINGLE overriding singlepayer program (yes they wont pass it), anything else doesnt over come the problems of a fractured buying pool.  Things they legislate is ""No negotiating policy"" ....and no."


Question: Why are banks providing credit scores for free?

I think the biggest reason is price; it's a lot cheaper now than it was to offer these.  That's because for the most part, when you get a credit score for free, you're not getting a true FICO score.  You're getting instead a VantageScore. VantageScore was created by the three credit bureaus, and as such they can offer it without paying Fair Isaac a licensing fee.  That makes it a lot cheaper to offer, and while it's not absolutely identical to FICO (or more accurately to any of the FICO provided scores) it's close enough for most peoples' purpose. And of course undoubtedly Fair Isaac has some price pressure on their side now that Vantage is big enough that many people see them as fungible.  As such they've had to make it easier, or they'd lose business - no longer being a monopolist. The other relevant piece here is that probably in many of these cases they're really just offering you what Experian would give you directly - so it's just a cross-marketing thing (where Experian, or perhaps another bureau, gets access to you as a customer so they can up-sell you ID theft insurance and whatnot, while the bank gets to offer the free score).

The simple fact of the Matter is this, that the US will not attack NK because it has nuclear weapons, The Orange Tangerine may like to talk out of his ass all day long, its simply not something that is going to happen.  Countries that do not have nuclear weapons, get attacked and invaded, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria, Crimea and soon unless they detonate a nuclear weapon and demonstrate the ability to deliver it . .Iran  It is a simple fact of life, it is important for anybody wishing for survival not to depend on the good wishes of a nation that is unable to recognize the Human right abuses and systemic genocide of the Palestinian people because of a handful of Jews that have them by the balls,, yet stand in front of the world and pretend to be the last bastion of Humanity and still lead the charge of Islamophobic hatred against all Muslims because the Israelis need to steal more land from the Palestinians. It has been 50years of Apartheid and ethnic cleansing and mass murder.  Its not about cute one liners pumpkin

There is no clear answer, it might be or not be. Depends a lot on your situation. 1)Yes it is taxable but as Italy has a double taxation agreement with UK, you might not have to pay. You can get a detailed guidance on the HMRC website. 2) Apply here for a certificate of residence  3)You can only claim back if Italy taxes you more than UK would. If it is less than you will have to pay the remaining portion to HMRC. You do this in the self assessment form/tax return/call up HMRC. 4)Tell the truth, explain your whole scenario and don't withheld relevant information assuming you may lower you tax by doing so.

Although I don't think you need to factor in risk tolerance to get the probabilities, I agree with JoeTaxpayer that you will need to factor in risk tolerance in order to make a practical decision about what to do.  In fact, I think that to make a practical decision you will need more than the specific probability you ask for you in the question; rather, you would like to see the complete probability distribution of possible outcomes. In other words, it's not enough to know that there is a 51% chance that investing will outperform paying down debt.  You actually need to know much it outperforms when it does outperform, and how much it underperforms when it underperforms.  As JoeTaxpayer's comment suggests, you might not choose to make an investment that had a 99% chance of outperforming debt payment by 1%, and a 1% chance of underperforming by 99%. I think it possible to address these questions by doing simulations.  This can be done even with a spreadsheet, but more flexibly with simple programming.  Essentially you can create some kind of probabilistic model of the various factors (e.g., chance that your investment will go up or down) and see what actually happens: how often you lose a lot of money, lose a little money, gain a little money, or gain a lot of money.  Then based on that you can consult your inner spirit animal to decide whether the probability distribution of possible gains outweighs that of possible losses.

"I haven't read the book and have no intention of reading it. This definitely looks like a forced savings plan with ""Whole Life Insurance"" as the theme – which is pretty bad for someone who is able to take care of his finances. It would be good for someone who is not very good with his finances and wants to be forced into savings, but then even for those people it would only help a little; there are enough clauses that would make things more bad for him. i.e. one can choose to take a loan, pay only interest etc. No book is going to help you build a savings habit. One has to realize and spend what is essential (it means not buying or doing tons of things) and putting quite a bit away for a rainy day. After this, comes investing wisely..."

There is no rule that says the dealer has to honor that deal, nor is there any that says he/she won't.  However, if you are thinking of financing through though the dealership they are likely to honor the deal. They PREFER you finance it. If you finance it through the dealer the salesman just got TWO sales (a car and a loan) and probably gets a commission on both. If you finance it through a third party it makes no difference to the dealer, it is still a cash deal to them because even though you pay off the car loan over years, the bank pays them immediately in full.

3S Courier and Logistics in Singapore can offer the best services to the clients at the most affordable rates. They have designed services for the clients. They ensure that the delivery of the document or the parcel happens timely.The Same Day Delivery Service is also offered by the company which can be availed by paying extra charges. The clients can also Buy Carton Boxes Online for safe and secure packaging of their commodities and products.

Those are some very broad questions and I don't think I can answer them completely, but I will add what I can. Barron's Finance and Investment Handbook is the best reference book I have found. It provides a basic description/definition for every type of investment available. It covers stocks, preferred stocks, various forms of bonds as well as mortgage pools and other exotic instruments. It has a comprehensive dictionary of finance terms as well. I would definitely recommend getting it.  The question about how people invest today is a huge one. There are people who simply put a monthly amount into a mutual fund and simply do that until retirement on one side and professional day traders who move in and out of stocks or commodities on a daily basis on the other.


Question: UK student loans, early repayment/avoiding further debt

"I think you're right that from a pure ""expected future value"" perspective, it makes sense to pay this loan off as quickly as possible (including not taking the next year's loan). The new student loans with the higher interest rates have changed the balance enough that it's no longer automatically better to keep it going as long as possible. The crucial point in your case, which isn't true for many people, is that you will likely have to pay it off eventually anyway and so in terms of net costs over your lifetime you will do best by paying it off quickly. A few points to set against that, that you might want to consider: Not paying it off is a good hedge against your career not going as well as you expect, e.g. if the economy does badly, you have health problems, you take a career break for any reason. If that happens, you would end up not being forced to pay it off, so will end up gaining from not having done so voluntarily. The money you save in that case could be more valuable to you that the money you would lose if your career does go well. Not paying it off will increase your net cash earlier in life when you are more likely to need it, e.g. for a house deposit. Having more free cash could increase your options, making it possible to buy a house earlier in life. Or it could mean you have a higher deposit when you do buy, reducing the interest rate on the entire mortgage balance. The savings from that could end up being more than the 6% interest on the loan even though when you look at the loan in isolation it seems like a very bad rate."

"myRA is a name for a proposal Obama made to make IRA more accessible to people who are employed but don't have access to the traditional employer-sponsored retirement plans. However, other than making IRA more accessible - there's nothing in that plan that doesn't exist already. You can open IRA yourself and deposit money there yourself. The only thing ""myRA"" proposal adds is an ability to deduct money automatically from your paycheck and deposit it into your IRA without you doing it manually. Bottom line - it is just a proposal, not an existing program, that makes things you're already doing easier for people who are not doing it yet."

"What does stupid have to do with it?  There's nothing unreasonable about the proposition, and frankly, the public has very little sympathy with organized labor right now.    ""Oh, you think your job is lousy?  Well so's mine, and I still owe fifty thousand on the degree I needed to get it, so suck it up."""

I wouldn't recommend trying to chase a good return on this money.  I'd just put it into a savings account of some sort.  If you can get a better interest rate with an online account, then feel free to do that.  I'd recommend using this money to pay for as much of college out of pocket as you can.  The more student loans you can avoid, the better. As @John Bensin said, trying to make money in the stock market in such a short time is too risky.  For this money, you want to preserve the principal to pay for school, or to pay down your loans when you get out. If you find you have more money than you need to finish paying for school, then I'd suggest setting some aside for an emergency fund, setting aside enough to pay your loans off when you're out of school, saving for future purchases (house, car, etc), and then start investing (maybe for retirement in a Roth IRA or something like that).

Advertising in an essential tool for any sized business or individual who needs to promote their products or services. Advertising allows you to target a set group of individuals or a general population and publicize directly to them. Each business requires a different advertising strategy to complement their unique strengths and correspond with their goals.

>By 2037, the debt would be almost twice the size of the economy, the agency said. That would mean **higher interest rates**, slower economic growth and far more painful choices for lawmakers than they face today.  Japan is at 230% right now!  > Japan 208.2 2011 est. **229.77%** 2011 Asia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_public_debt  >Bank of Japan Keeps Monetary Policy Unchanged Published on 5/23/2012 12:57:08 PM  | By TradingEconomics.com, Bank of Japan  >At the Monetary Policy Meeting held on May 23rd, the Policy Board of the Bank of Japan decided, by a unanimous vote, to keep the uncollateralized overnight call rate at around 0 to 0.1 percent.  http://www.tradingeconomics.com/japan/interest-rate

"There should be no affect on your taxes. If you profit on the sale of a home, it does not matter whether you own the home fully or not. Selling a house with a mortgage on it will usually incur fees, ""like mortgage processing fees"". Paying off the mortgage is preferable because that will make the sale easier. When a bank is involved then they will function in the closing as a 3rd or 4th party, making everything more complicated. Not only that, they will charge you fees, for making them sit through a closing. The bank will require a lawyer. Guess who pays for their lawyer? You do. When you pay off a mortgage, none of this happens. You just pay the mortgage and the bank goes away. There are no lawyers and no fees. This makes it easier to sell the house and gives you full control over the sale."

"As long as you're willing to pay the taxes and the penalties, once you're no longer employed you're allowed to do whatever you want. You can always do an ""direct roll-over"" (See IRC Sec. 401(a)(31)(A) which mandates this) and then withdraw from another qualified account, thus creating a withdrawal, if they refuse to just mail you a check (Why would they care? Don't know). The match may have some vesting restrictions, though. Your own contributions - are yours to do with whatever you feel like. That said, just pointing out the obvious - it's a very bad idea. Unless you expect to die before you're 60 and don't want to leave a dime to your heirs, you would probably be better off leaving it in a tax-sheltered account. If the custodian is bad - just roll over elsewhere, there's tons of excellent IRA providers."


Question: Asset allocation when retirement is already secure

he general advice I get is that the younger you are the more higher risk investments you should include in your portfolio. I will be frank. This is a rule of thumb given out by many lay people and low-level financial advisors, but not by true experts in finance.  It is little more than an old wive's tale and does not come from solid theory nor empirical work.  Finance theory says the following: the riskiness of your portfolio should (inversely) correspond to your risk aversion.  Period. It says nothing about your age.  Some people become more risk-averse as they get older, but not everyone.  In fact, for many people it probably makes sense to increase the riskiness of their portfolio as they age because the uncertainty about both wealth (social security, the value of your house, the value of your human capital) and costs (how many kids you will have, the rate of inflation, where you will live) go down as you age so your overall level of risk falls over time without a corresponding mechanical increase in risk aversion. In fact, if you start from the assumption that people's aversion is to not having enough money at retirement, you get the result that people should invest in relatively safe securities until the probability of not having enough to cover their minimum needs gets small, then they invest in highly risky securities with any money above this threshold. This latter result sounds reasonable in your case.  At this point it appears unlikely that you will be unable to meet your minimum needs--I'm assuming here that you are able to appreciate the warnings about underfunded pensions in other answers and still feel comfortable.  With any money above and beyond what you consider to be prudent preparation for retirement, you should hold a risky (but still fully diversified) portfolio.  Don't reduce the risk of that portion of your portfolio as you age unless you find your personal risk aversion increasing.

"One can generalize on Traditional vs Roth flavors of accounts, I suggest Roth for 15% money and going pretax to avoid 25% tax.  If the student loan is much over 4%, it may make sense to put it right after emergency fund.  For emergency fund priority - I'm assuming EF really requires 2 phases, the $2500 broken transmission/root canal bill, and the lose your job, or need a new roof level bills. I'm in favor of doing what let's you sleep well. I'm also quick to point out that if you owe $2500 at 18%, yet have $2500 in your emergency fund, you're really throwing away $450 in interest each year. There's an ongoing debate of ""credit card as emergency fund."" No, I don't claim that your cards should be considered an emergency fund, per se, but I would prioritize knocking off the 18% debt as a high priority. Once that crazy interest debt is gone, fund the ER, and find a balance for savings and the next level ER, the 6-9mo of expenses one. One can choose to fund a Roth IRA, but keep the asset out of retirement calculations. It's simply an emergency account returning tax free interest, and if never used, it eventually is retirement money. A Roth permits withdrawal of deposited funds with no tax or penalty, just tracking it each year. This actually rubs some people the wrong way as it sounds like tapping your retirement account for emergencies. For my purpose, it's a tax free emergency fund. Not retirement, unless and until you are saving so much in the 401(k) you need more tax favored retirement money. I wrote an article some time ago, the Roth Emergency Fund which went into a bit more detail.  Last - keep in mind, this is my opinion. I can intelligently argue my case, but at some point, it's up to the individual to do what feels right. Paying 18% debt off a bit slower, say 4 years instead of 3, in favor of funding the matched 401(k), to me, you run the numbers, watch the 401(k) balance grow by 2X your pretax deposits, and see that in year 3, your retirement account is jump-started and far, far more than your remaining 18% cards. Those who feel the opposite and wish to be debt free first are going to do what they want. And the truth is, if this lets you sleep better at night, I'm in favor of it."

Every year stories like this come out. Every year the US does not default on its debt. We all should know by now that the US, as a financially sovereign nation that issues its own currency, cannot default on its debt. This fearmongering is just a click-baity waste of time, and yes, a waste of money.

That's different in that nobody pays him 46 million dollars in wages or salary. He is self employed and negotiates individual fees for his performances. This guy is almost certainly worth 46 million a year because he negotiates many fees amongst many paying clients. It's possible that a person receiving 1 salary from one employer is being overpaid but if you are dealing with dozens of employers it's unlikely that they are *all* overpaying market rates.

And that's the rub, you didn't win a fucking thing. You are not part of a team. You are just brainwashed by the politics you choose to isolate yourself with. Trump won, not you, and he won on accident and on lying to people that supported him foolishly.  He was expecting to lose, and the day before and day of election Tuesday his campaign was pushing a narrative that democrats cheated to win.  We all fucking lost. You lost worse that I did, because you continue to put your hope in a lying scumbag who has no morals, scruples, or sense of decency whatsoever, and it is too painful to admit your monumental fuckup.

An important risk is that the government may decide to change the rules. For example, prior to 2011, over the counter drugs like aspirin, Tylenol, Nyquil, etc. were eligible expenses. You could use your HSA money to buy as much as you wanted. Beginning in 2011, those rules changed. Now, if you want to spend your HSA money on Tylenol, you need a prescription for it. The value of HSA dollars was diminished in the sense that the universe of eligible expenses was diminished. No one knows what the HSA rules will be in the future. What will be eligible expenses? Who will be eligible providers? What kind of compliance paperwork will be required? What kind of fees will be imposed? Personally, I'm a great believer in HSAs. I've saved in one for years. But remember that the government makes the rules regarding their use. They've changed the rules to the detriment of HSA owners at least once; I won't be surprised if it continues.

You signed a contract to pay the loan.  You owe the money.   Stories of people being arrested over defaulted student loans are usually based in contempt of court warrants when the person failed to appear in court when the collection agency filed suit against them. Explore student loan forgiveness program. Research collections and bankruptcy and how to deal with collection agencies.  There are pitfalls in communicating with them which restart the clock on bad debt aging off the credit report, and which can be used to say that you agreed to pay a debt.  For instance, if you make any sort of payment on any debt, a case can be made that you have assumed the debt.  Once you are aware of the pitfalls, contact the collection agency (in writing) and dispute the debt.  Force them to prove that it is your debt.  Force them to prove that they have the right to collect it.  Force them to prove the amount.  Dispute the fairness of the amount.   Doubling your principal in 6 years is a bit flagrant.   So, work with the collectors, establish that the debt is valid and negotiate a settlement.  Or let it stay in default. Your credit report in the US is shot.  It will be a long time before the default ages off your report.  This is important if you try to open a bank account, rent an apartment, or get a job in the US.  These activities do not always require a credit report, but they often do.  You will not be able to borrow money or establish a credit card in the US. Here's a decent informational site regarding what they can do to collect the loan.  Pay special attention to Administrative Wage Garnishment.  They can likely hit you with that one.  You might be unreachable for a court summons, but AWG only requires that the collectors be able to confirm that you work for a company that is subject to US laws. Update:  I am informed that federally funded student loans are not available to international students.  AWG is only possible for debts to the federal government.  Private companies must go through the courts to force settlement of debt.  OP is safe from AWG.

I really think it's zoning restrictions and a general move back toward living in big cities. Larger cities are pretty notorious for having terribly restrictive zoning requirements. When you combine limited space, with increasing population, and restrictions on building then the outcome is fairly predictable.


Question: What happens to class action awards for a stock in an IRA?

"In most cases, if you are a member of the class the law-firm will contact you via postal mail to notify you of the class action and give you an opportunity to opt-in or opt-out of participating in any settlement that happens.  More often than not, they take the opt-out approach, meaning that if you don't say you want out of the class it is assumed that you agree with the complaints as defined in the class action and would like to receive your portion of the money if there is a settlement.  If you haven't gotten such a letter and you think you should have, it is a good idea to contact the law firm. How do you find the law firm? Usually some Googling on ""class action"" and the name of the defendant company will get you there. Also, check the legal section of the classifieds of the local newspaper, they sometimes advertise them there.  Typically they aren't hard to find because it is in the law firm's best interest to have everyone sign on to their class action for a number of reasons including: If you have a lot of people who are supposedly aggrieved, it makes the defendant look more likely to be guilty, and more participants can equate to higher settlement amounts (for which the law firm gets a percentage). That is why you see non-stop ads on daytime TV for lawyers marketing class action cases and looking for people who took this drug, or had that hip implant. Once a settlement occurs and you are a member of that class, there are a number of ways you might get your piece including: - A credit to your account. - A check in the mail. - A coupon or some other consideration for your damages (lame) - A promise that they will stop doing the bad thing and maybe some changes (in your favor) on the terms of your account. A final note: Don't get your hopes up. The lawyers are usually the only ones who make any substantial money from these things, not the class members. I've been paid settlements from lots of these things and it is rare for it to be more than $25, but the time the spoils are divided. I've gotten NUMEROUS settlements where my share was less than a dollar. There are some decent resources on ClassAction.com, but beware that although the site has some good information, it is primarily just an ad for a lawfirm. Also, note that I am not affiliated with that site nor can I vouch for any information contained there. They are not an impartial source, so understand that when reading anything on there."

I've had fairly extensive experience using Entropay, with a few hiccups along the way. I suspect your transaction or repeated top-ups has been flagged as 'suspicious' activity. Read: potentially fraudulent or money laundering.  You've also tried to buy expensive electronic goods, a common use of fraud/laundering. Finally, Entropay does NOT provide address validation. Again, with laptops being a common use for fraud, it is more than likely Lenovo attempted to do an address validation on your card details, which failed and may have led to the hold. How to resolve it? You will probably need to provide documentation to Entropay including proof of identity and where you live.

Great question. Surprisingly, stock returns and GDP growth are mostly unrelated. In fact, they are slightly inversely correlated when you look across countries. Consider a firm that earns $100 on average per year with zero growth. If investors apply a 10% discount rate to this firm, the company will have a market value of $100/10% = $1,000. If it continues to earn $100 per year, it will produce 10% returns despite zero growth in earnings. You can see that realized returns are largely a function of the return investors demand for putting their money in risky assets.  I say mostly unrelated because an increase in GDP growth may increase our firms earnings (though the relationship to earnings per share is muddied by new share issuances, buybacks, M&A, etc.). But you can see from the above example that returns can vastly exceed growth in perpetuity.

Do you mean, like for instance to steal their money?  There is a way to wrestle control away from the 0.1%, but it will seem perfectly counter-intuitive to you. that would be to get the federal government out of the economy. Cut regulations, eliminate subsidies, shrink the federal government. The rich and powerful stay rich and powerful by harnessing the power of the Federal government

"I haven't seen this addressed anywhere else, so I'll make a small answer to add on to the great ones already here. Money isn't the only way a person can contribute to a relationship. Time and effort are valuable contributions. Who runs the household? Who cooks, cleans, does laundry? How will you share these duties? My husband and I have a couple of rules. One of which is that we don't keep count. ""I did dishes, so you do laundry"". ""I made coffee last time, so now it's your turn"". ""I paid this, so you pay that"". That's not allowed.  I happen to make ~4x as much as my husband, but I work 4x the hours (he's part time at the moment). So, he does the dishes, he cooks, he does laundry, he runs the household. Do I value him less? No! I value him more, because he is part of the team, and he feeds me coffee while I work (we have our own business). Even though I make so much more than him, we still split everything down the middle. Because his contribution to this relationship, to this household, is so much more than just money. And I value him. I value his contribution.  At the end of the day, you are a team - and if you split hairs over finances, you'll find yourself splitting hairs over everything."

> The European economy was not utterly doomed before the Euro, therefore the fall of the Euro does not doom their economy.  I'm not sure how that's related at all.  Just because at some random point in time, the European economy was doing OK, doesn't mean that it will definitely be ok again in the future after a jarring multi-national currency shift.  There are tons of other factors in play.  First of all, who's going to accept drachma again?  What is it worth?  What about pesata and lira?  These currencies haven't been used in over a decade.  Who is going to value them?  Who is going to accept them?  What happens when the Greeks default?  When their pension checks start bouncing?  This is what Germany is fearing.  Who is going to buy their products when there is a major currency crisis going on?

I suspect that the times you are referring to are those times when there is relatively low volumes of foreign exchange trading.  Lower volumes of trading make it possible for large orders to have a disproportionate effect on the market price.  This implies that the times to avoid will be the times with the lowest relative volumes.  This will occur on the cusp between the New York market winding down and the Asia/Tokyo market revving up. This will be in the hours preceding Tokyo's opening at 06:00 Tokyo time, so the time to avoid is about 04:00-06:00 Tokyo time, or about 20:00-22:00 GMT (if I've worked out the time difference correctly). Foreign exchange is a 24 hour, global market.  Although each of the three main trading centres - London, New York, Asia - will operate 24 hours a day, they will maintain only a skeleton staff outside of normal working hours.  The time difference between London and New York is only 5 hours, so there is no period of time when both centres are operating with a skeleton staff.  The time difference between London and Tokyo is 8 hours, so again there is no period of time when both centres are operating with a skeleton staff.  The time difference between New York and Tokyo is 13 hours.  This does include a period where both centres are operating with a skeleton staff, as well as London operating on a skeleton staff.  Thus, in the couple of hours immediately preceding Tokyo's opening for the regular trading day there is minimal coverage in each of the three main trading centres.  As mentioned above, this is the time when large orders can have a disproportionate effect on fx rates and so this is the time to avoid.

Getting about a dollar more per day is the difference between starving and not starving for many people. If you compare that to the alternative without globalization, that is: not getting a dollar a day and starve, that's good. The author isn't comparing globalization with pre globalization, he's comparing globalization with his fantasy, and calling the reality outside of his fantasy a lie. What a visionary.  And I'm so bloody tired of people not understanding resources. If these 63 people would throw their money to the poor that wouldn't make food magically appear, that would just make food prices go up, leaving the poor with as much food, but a bunch of useless paper-scraps as well.  for the 100:th time: communism doesn't work.


Question: can the government or debt collectors garnish money from any bank account to which the debtor has access?

There is a difference between an owner and a signer. An owner is the legal owner of the funds. A signer has access to withdraw the funds. In most cases, when a new personal account is opened the name is added as an owner&signer. However, that is not always the case. A person could be an owner, but not a signer, in a custodial arrangement. For example, a minor child may be an owner only on their account with a custodial parent listed as a signer. The minor could not withdraw from the account. A person could be a signer, but not an owner, in a business or estate/trust account. The business or estate would be the owner with individuals listed as signers only. The business employees do not own the funds, they are only allowed to withdraw and disburse the funds on behalf of the company. The creditor can only garnish/withhold funds that are owned by the indebted. If the second person on the account is only a signer, those funds cannot be withheld as part of a judgment against the second person (they don't own those funds). However, simply titling the second person as a signer only is not sufficient. If you share access with the second person and allow them to spend the money for their own benefit, they are no longer just a signer. They have become an owner because you are sharing your funds with them. Think of the business relationship as an example. The employee is a signer so they can withdraw funds and pay business expenses, like the electric bill. If the employee withdrew funds and bought herself a new dress, she is stealing because she does not own those funds. If the second person on the account buys things for themselves, or transfers some of the money into their own account, they are demonstrating that more than a signer-only relationship exists. A true signer-only relationship is where the individual can only withdraw funds on the owner's behalf. For example, the owner is out of town and needs a bill paid, the signer can write a check and pay the bill for the owner. A limited power of attorney may be worth looking into. With a limited POA, the owner can define the scope and expiration of the power of attorney. With this arrangement, the second person becomes an executor of the owner under certain circumstances. For example, you could write a power of attorney that states something like: John Smith is hereby granted the limited power to withdraw funds from account 1234, on deposit at Anytown Bank, for the purpose of paying debts and obligations and otherwise maintain my estate in the event of my incapacitation or inability to attend to my own affairs. This Power of Attorney shall expire on it's fifth anniversary unless renewed. If the person you have granted the power of attorney abuses their access, you could sue them and you would only have to demonstrate that they overstepped the scope of their power.

"When Laurence Olivier took the role of Douglas Macarthur in the Unification Church's filming of Inchon, he told the press, ""People ask me why I'm playing in this picture. The answer is simple: Money, dear boy."" Banking systems are typically decades old and subject to innumerable legal and technical restrictions. Moving money more quickly from one client's account to another would definitely be in the clients' interest, but"

I've done several deals in excess of that amount. However, I am confused what you are looking for exactly. Typically those amounts are syndicated and presented via a pitch deck to investors to secure financing. Is an example pitch deck what you are looking for? If not, are you looking for the actual legal agreement? Or are you looking for the credit memo? Think I can point you in the right direction either way. Best chance to find what you are looking for is to check comparable companies investor relations materials and sec filings.

Read his press release. It's bullshit 90% of time. Musk trying to push meme that solar roof are cheaper than regular shingle when in fact it's 10 times more expensive.   Model 3 is selling for $35,000 base is a joke. It needs $5000 autopilot upgrade, $1500 paint upgrade to be competitive.  Model 3 begin production this week yet strangely all cars are sold to Tesla employees for testing.  Telsa can't even solve it [ridiculous parking problem](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4403480/Tesla-parking-nightmare-employees-California.html). I don't have faith in the manufacturing quality of their products.

"The Facebook ad sales aren't ""concrete"" enough for you?  Look dummy, we know for a fact that Russia interfered with the election.  No serious person disputes that.  What we don't know is how far their efforts went, but that's what we should expect because until he's done building his case, Mueller isn't going to reveal what he knows.  At this point, while it's still somewhat reasonable to be skeptical about the extent of Russian interference, denying that it happened at all just makes you look stupid or insane."

I was being sarcastic. Student loan crash is a major circle jerk in some Financial subs  If anything, it's more likely to manifest itself as OP described. Economic growth is going to be lower is a substantial portion of the populus is servicing debt than consuming goods.

It is important to determine a constructing  and good inspector can suggest you on any precise troubles and feasible methods of repair. Get the coolest inspections group by means of Assured Building Inspections, we've got proper fantastic enjoy of the inspection the constructing. As a home consumer, you’re cautioned to have interaction an expert to undertake a pre-buy building inspection on a belongings earlier than you make a decision to buy. The motive of the property inspections is to understand any substantial structural damage, assets defects, or conditions likely to motive similarly damage. Pre-purchase assets  inspections will likely be in reality one in all the largest investments you may make in your existence.

Step back and take a deep breath. Pay your mortgage. repeat 1 and 2 monthly until equity > mortgage.


Question: What is Fibonacci values?

Usually when a stock is up-trending or down-trending the price does not go up or down in a straight line. In an uptrend the price may go up over a couple of days then it could go down the next day or two, but the general direction would be up over the medium term. The opposite for a downtrend. So if the stock has been generally going up over the last few weeks, it may take a breather for a week or two before prices continue up again. This breather is called a retracement in the uptrend. The Fibonacci levels are possible amounts by which the price might retract before it continues on its way up again. By the way 50% is not actually a Fibonacci Retracement level but it is a common retracement level which is usually used in combination with the Fibonacci Retracement levels.

What I ended up doing was finding where each ticker of Novo was registered (what exchange), then individually looking up the foreign taxation rules of the containing country.  Luckily, most companies only have a few tickers so this wasn't too hard in the end.

This right here is the mindset of the Democrat party (and why I will never vote for one until it changes).  It's class warfare.  Somehow people that have less money are worth more than people with money (even if they earned it through hard work).    I guess it pays to be a lazy asshole that leeches off the system.

"You absolutely, positively can land in jail in the United States of America for an unpaid, NON-governmental debt: ""In 2011, Robin Sanders was driving home when she saw the blue and red lights flashing behind her. She knew she had not fixed her muffler, and believed that was why she was being pulled over. She thought she might get a ticket.Instead, Sanders, who lives in Illinois, was arrested and taken to jail.As she was booked and processed, she learned that she had been jailed because she owed debt — $730 to be precise, related to an unpaid medical bill. Unbeknownst to her, a collection agency had filed a lawsuit against her, and, having never received the notice instructing her to appear, she had missed her date in court."" So, a private company is able to marshal the power of the State to arrest a person for a non-criminal act: being in debt. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015/02/24/debtors-prisons-then-and-now-faq#.kzmmbtcOZ"

Just short GS.  http://www.google.com/finance?q=gs  Much more fun.  That list looks like a global macro short list. Shorting XOM, JNJ are systemic risk plays.  The guys that stand out for specific risk: INTC AMZN ABT LMT BMY  AMGN  CMG AVB, I stopped reading after that.  fundamentally I would long INTC as them and AMD are the market for CPU's. Maybe people are betting against pc's...   AMZN has a retardedly high facebook like P/E.  I don't know enough about most of the risk.

Money itself has no value. A gold bar is worth (fuzzy rushed math, could be totally wrong on this example figure) $423,768.67. So, a 1000 dollars, while worthless paper, are a token saying that you own %.2 of a gold bar in the federal reserve. If a billion dollars are printed, but no new gold is added to the treasury, then your dollar will devalue, and youll only have %.1 percent of that gold bar (again, made up math to describe a hypothetical). When dollars are introduced into the economy, but gold has not been introduced to back it up, things like the government just printing dollars or banks inventing money out of debt (see the housing bubble), then the dollar tokens devalue further. TL;DR: Inflation is the ratio of actual wealth in the Treasury to the amount of currency tokens the treasury has printed.

Since you are not starting with a lot of cash the commissions may eat into your account. So go with somebody that has no inactivity fee and low/free commission. I think there are number of sites and the ING sharebuilder.com comes to mind. Scottrade also one of the cheaper ones that i used.

Wow, I had never heard of this before but I looked into it a bit and Mikey was spot on. It seems that if you don't pay attention to the fine print when making credit card purchases (as most of us tend to skip) many companies have stipulations that allow continued charges if they are recurring fees (monthly, yearly, etc.) even after you have cancelled the card.


Question: GnuCash, how do I book loan from credit card, being paid back with salary? [duplicate]

"When you pay the flight, hotel, conference attendance fees of $100: When you repay the credit card debt of $100: When you receive the gross salary of $5000: Your final balance sheet will show: Your final income statement will show: Under this method, your ""Salary"" account will show the salary net of business expense. The drawback is that the $4900 does not agree with your official documentation. For tax reporting purposes, you report $5000 to the tax agency, and if possible, report the $100 as Unreimbursed Employee Expenses (you weren't officially reimbursed). For more details see IRS Publication 529."

"You avoid pattern day trader status by trading e-mini futures through a futures broker. The PDT rules do not apply in the futures markets. Some of the markets that are available include representatives covering the major indices i.e the YM (DJIA), ES (S&P 500) and NQ (Nasdaq 100) and many more markets.  You can take as many round-turn trades as you care to...as many or as few times a day  as you like. E-mini futures contracts trade in sessions with ""transition"" times between sessions. -- Sessions begin Sunday evenings at 6 PM EST and are open through Monday evening at 5 PM EST...The next session begins at 6 pm Monday night running through Tuesday at 5 PM EST...etc...until Friday's session close at 5 PM EST. Just as with stocks, you can either buy first then sell (open and close a position) or short-sell (sell first then cover by buying). You profit (or lose) on a round turn trade in the same manor as you would if trading stocks, options, ETFs etc. The e-mini futures are different than the main futures markets that you may have seen traders working in the ""pits"" in Chicago...E-mini futures are totally electronic (no floor traders) and do not involve any potential delivery of the 'product'...They just require the closing of positions to end a transaction.  A main difference is you need to maintain very little cash in your account in order to trade...$1000 or less per trade, per e-mini contract...You can trade just 1 contract at a time or as many contracts as you have the cash in your account to cover.   ""Settlement"" is immediate upon closing out any position that you may have put on...No waiting for clearing before your next trade.  If you want to hold an e-mini contract position over 2 or more sessions, you need to have about $5000 per contract in your account to cover the minimum margin requirement that comes into play during the transition between sessions... With the e-minis you are speculating on gaining from the difference between when you 'put-on' and ""close-out"" a position in order to profit. For example, if you think the DJIA is about to rise 20 points, you can buy 1 contract. If you were correct in your assessment and sold your contract after the e-mini rose 20 points, you profited $100. (For the DJIA e-mini, each 1 point 'tick' is valued at $5.00)"

So nothing preventing false ratings besides additional scrutiny from the market/investors, but there are some newer controls in place to prevent institutions from using them. Under the DFA banks can no longer solely rely on credit ratings as due diligence to buy a financial instrument, so that's a plus. The intent being that if financial institutions do their own leg work then *maybe* they'll figure out that a certain CDO is garbage or not.  Edit: lead in

"I'm sorry, I find it hard to believe that a prestigious firm would just ""give"" out work to some random person to do for free. The companies he's trying to get into aren't some mom and pop shops, and you don't ""infiltrate"" them by being friendly with janitors.  I'm not saying your advice is bad. I just don't think it applies to MBB."

www.earnings.com is helpful thinkorswim's thinkDesktop platform has a lot of earnings information tied with flags on their charts they are free.

Ask them to send a SWIFT payment [aka International Wire]. You would need to give them your bank details, essentially Bank Account, Bank Name & Address, SWIFT BIC, etc. Almost all Public Sector Bank and all leading Private scetor banks are members of SWIFT and can give you a the SWIFT BIC. If you are not sure about other party, it would be wise to open a new account and give the details of this account rather than your normal account.

Probably because it's a question of Excel vs Access, not VBA vs SQL. You probably don't need VBA for any of the calcs that the OP mentions.  Excel is the one tool everyone uses in Finance. CR and SSRS require tools and permissions that the average guy simply won't have, and a level of expertise that is not useful for most front/middle-office analysis work.  I usually see these done in Excel. SSRS and CR seem like way overkill for something done trivially and transparently in Excel, whose presentation will change frequently anyway.  Depending on what OP is talking about, analysis is not reporting, and flexibility and transparency usually win. Especially when you want to poke around the underlying data and iterate with other people.  SSRS and CR only make sense when you know what you're looking for, that the data is appropriate for it and you don't expect it to change.

Dividends. There are blue chip companies that have paid and raised their dividends for 20 or more years. As an example: Altria (MO). There are also ETFs that specialize in such stocks such as SDY.


Question: Are stock prices likely drop off a little bit on a given friday afternoon?

It is called the Monday Effect or the Weekend Effect. There are a number of similar theories including the October Effect and January Effect. It's all pretty much bunk. If there were any truth to traders would be all over it and the resulting market forces would wipe it out. Personally, I think all technical analysis has very little value other than to fuel conversations at dinner parties about investments. You might also consider reading about Market efficiency to see further discussion about why technical approaches like this might, but probably don't work.

citation obtained from this piece: [The Mindless Harm of Economic Sanctions](https://consortiumnews.com/2017/08/27/the-mindless-harm-of-economic-sanctions/)  Russia update: [Russian GDP could grow 2%-3% in 2017 - Volodin](http://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp?id=773931)  [Visa, Boeing, Ford and other US-based giants stand against the introduction of further sanctions against Russia, CNN reported with reference to a source in US Congress.](https://np.reddit.com/r/russia/comments/6wfptm/visa_boeing_ford_and_other_usbased_giants_stand/)  [China says sanctions won't help as Trump targets Venezuela](http://www.euronews.com/2017/08/28/china-says-sanctions-wont-help-as-trump-targets-venezuela)  [The European Commission has again raised concerns over proposed US sanctions on Russia, as the bill is passed by the US House of Representatives. It is feared the ploy will damage EU energy independence.](http://www.euronews.com/2017/07/26/european-commission-concerned-as-russia-sanctions-bill-passes-in-us-congress)  [Germany's economics minister implores the US president to step up and discuss a joint approach to Russia in an exclusive commentary for Handelsblatt Global's sister publication.](https://global.handelsblatt.com/opinion/lets-talk-about-sanctions-808740)

When I was pursuing my Business Degree in Canada we were told the standard notice period is 2 weeks on both sides. This means your employer is required to give you at least two weeks notice and you are required to give it as well. If you violate your notice requirement the employer can sue you for lost revenues and etc. for that time period. The converse side is if your employer failed to provide you with sufficient notice you could sue for lost wages for that time frame as well. I'm sure you can contractually agree to more than the legal minimum of two weeks.

This sort of open data about government budgets and finances is sometimes referred to as Government 2.0, or Gov 2.0.  There are many countries who have their own open data websites. Several super-national entities also have open data about government expenditures available to the public. They aggregate information from multiple countries. The United Nations, the European Union and the World Bank are all reliable sources of open data, compiled on one website. Here's a list of some of the major open data government websites: U.S.A. Main open data site Data catalog How to access Open Data  United Nations Data catalog  European Union Open Data portal

“First mover Advantage doesn’t go to the company that starts up, it goes to the company that scales up.” - Reid Hoffman  It's also important to note that for companies that copy a business that has a strong local component, like SpotHero, AirBnB, Uber, etc it's more of an operations game than winner takes all.  I think the general rule of thumb is that it's not always best to be first to market, as new competitors can let you take the majority of the risk, demonstrate that there is a market and strategically enter the market as a new entrant.   For example;  Friendster > MySpace > Facebook  Zimride > Lyft > Uber

Non-target undergrad in the south, but I networked with right people. Through the finance clubs I got an equity research role for the school's investment fund and leveraged that for an interview at a home developer but the partners there ultimately went with someone else. They happened to be investors at the firm I currently work at and thought my background would make me a good fit. Once I started working there, I took on as many projects/responsibilities as I could. I'm actually in the process of partnering up with the trader to take on some outside investors and get his algos running. He's been trading for ~25 years and I couldn't believe what his returns were at first, so I'm fairly excited to work with him.

This is not a supply side issue (bank), but a demand side (small business) and there is simply no demand.  Bank CEOs have been repeating that there is just no interest in borrowing right now, they would love to lend, but businesses are not taking the loans.    Businesses are trying to firm up their balance sheets and with concerns of a recession looming most small business owners don't want to borrow and risk defaulting.

You may want to dive into the various scandals and further hefty settlements between blue chip brands and agency networks here. Ask around if Dentsu Aegie finances enjoyed being honest to their clients as to where the money was going and what kind of online advertising was actually in place, just to name a specific example.  Of course online ads find positive outcomes for lots of businesses. You don’t expect any less when you see Google revenues to be honest. It still doesn’t mean that the whole tracking and private information dragging framework isn’t wrong or that so many web experiences aren’t soiled by intrusive and nasty ads.


Question: HELOC vs. Parental Student Loans vs. Second Mortgage?

"Thank God you have your child back, it is so awesome that you finally found a medical treatment that worked.  It must have been a truly trying time in your lives.   That situation is an important template in personal finance.  Through no fault of your own, a series of events occurred that caused you to spend far more money then you anticipated.  Per your post this was complicated by lost income due to economic situations.   What is to say that this does not happen again in the future?  While we can all hope that our child does not get sick, there are other events that could also fit into this template. Because of this I hate all options you present.  Per your post, you are pretty thin with free cash flow and have high income, and yet you are looking to borrow more.  That is a recipe for disaster with it being made worse as you are considering putting your home at risk. The 20K per year per kid sounds like a live at the university state school; or, a close by private school.  Your finances do not support either option.  There are times when the word ""No"" is in order when answering questions.   Doing a live at home community college to university will cost you a total of about 30K per kid rather than the 80K you are proposing.  Doing this alone will greatly reduce the risk you are attempting to assume.  Doing that and having your child work some, you could cash flow college.  That is what I would recommend. Given that you are so thin, you will also have to put constraints on college attendance.  No changing major three times, only majors with an employable skills, and studying before partying.  It may be worth it to wait a year of two before attending if a decision cannot be made. I was in a similar situation when my son started college.  High income, but broke.  He worked and went to a community college and was able to pay for the bulk of it himself.  From there he obtained a job with a healthy salary and completed his degree at the University.  It took him a little longer, but he is debt free and has a fantastic work ethic."

That is mostly true, in most situations when there are more buy orders than sell orders (higher buy volume orders than sell volume orders), the price will generally move upwards and vice versa, when there are more sell orders than buy orders (higher sell volume orders than buy volume orders), the price will generally move downwards. Note that this does not always happen, but usually it does. You are also correct that for a trade to take place a buyer has to be matched with a seller (or the buy volume matched with the sell volume). But not all orders get executed as trades. Say there are 50 buy orders in the order book with a total volume of 100,000 shares and the highest buy order is currently at $10.00. On the other side there are only 10 sell orders in the order book with total volume of 10,000 shares and the lowest sell order is currently $10.05. At the moment there won't be a trade unless a new buyer or seller enters the market to match the opposing side, or an existing order gets amended upper or lower to match the opposing side. With more demand than supply in the order books what will be the most likely direction that this stock moves in? Most likely the price will move upwards. If a new buyer sees the price moving higher and then looks at the market depth, they would most likely place an order closer to the lowest sell order than the current highest buy order, say $10.01, to be first in line in case a market sell order is placed on the market. As new buy orders enter the market it drives the price higher and higher until the buy orders dry up.

In 2015 there's a $5.43M (That's million, as in 6 zeros) estate exemption. Even though it's $14K per year with no paperwork required, if you go over this, a bit of paperwork will let you tap your lifetime exemption. There's no tax consequence from this.  The Applicable Federal Rate is the minimum rate that must be charged for this to be considered a loan and not a gift. DJ's answer is correct, otherwise, and is worth knowing as there are circumstances where the strategy is applicable. If the OP were a high net worth client trying to save his estate tax exemption, this (Dj's) strategy works just fine.

"Agreed, the mix is best, at least as it has been done in Northern Europe. In the U.S., not so much a success.  The problems with capitalism are manifold: It does not scale well; it corrupts political systems where the intent and desire is for a society to govern itself; it willingly sacrifices any and all ethical considerations to the impulses of greed by the rich-of-the-moment; it has such a short-term view of the future that nothing gets fixed or improved beyond more money for the rich-of-the-moment, which is usually referred to as ""progress.""  Capitalism only works when it's kept on a short, completely transparent leash; as soon as opacity and freedom to cheat are allowed, everything else shortly goes to shit. Capitalism and governance are forces in opposition and as for allowing capitalists to govern, well, look at the U.S. these past few decades and you see the steady degradation of everything except the coffers of the extremely wealthy. The final joke's on them though: Wealth never out-survives the source of it's creation: U.S. wealth will die with the U.S. or be stolen by the places where it's hidden away."

Maybe the society will evolved into Wall-E's society where robots take care of everything and human just sit and get fat or more time to spend on creative tasks like creating a Mega-Gozilla!  Why do people always assumed the worst when the trend of automation/technology advance is inevitable.

As always, the most important info is near the bottom: > **Smith revealed that Equifax missed an opportunity to prevent the breach.** In early March, the Department of Homeland Security alerted Equifax about a critical vulnerability in its software. The company sent out an internal email requesting that the problem be fixed, but that was not done, Smith told lawmakers. By May, hackers found the software vulnerability

"I think your problem is using the word ""drone business"" to encompass self driving vehicles (trucks) and air based single delivery drones (drones).    It's funny, we don't even have good language worked out for this stuff, at least not in the public sphere."

Because the population of NYC was shy of 7 million in the 1930s, now it's over 8.5.    If government weren't corrupt, they would have issued new medallions to meet the demands of a growing city.  But they were invariably entrenched with and thus beholden to the monopoly they created, so did nothing while medallion prices skyrocketed over a million dollars.    Remember that a medallion is an artificial shortage and a barrier to entry.