What is a Traditional IRA?
A Traditional IRA holds money tax-deferred until retirement. An Individual Retirement Account (IRA) is an account which allows tax-deferred growth of assets. As its name implies, an IRA has to be opened in the name of the individual. A person can contribute to one, up to the annual limit, and deduct the entire amount from his or her taxes unless they are prevented from taking deductions due to participation in a workplace retirement plan and having income that exceeds certain limits. Continue reading...
Can I Take a Lump-Sum Distribution From my Cash-Balance Plan?
Absolutely – this is what separates them from traditional pension plans. Yes. Cash balance plans maintain a hypothetical account balance for the participant, and the ending balance is known and guaranteed from the time the contributions occur. Many participants opt to take this lump sum balance and move it into their own IRA, or just to pay the taxes on it and be done with the plan. The other option is to have the balance paid out in the form of a life annuity, with equal payments for the rest of your life like a traditional pension. This option can be more risky simply because it is forfeiting the safety and security of monthly payments for life, in favor of a one-time distribution. Continue reading...
What does Bid Mean?
When you make a ‘buy offer’ on a stock or other security in the financial markets, you are making a Bid. A Bid offer in terms of financial markets is the price offered by an investor or trader for a security. A market maker will try to reconcile Bid offers (the highest prices that buyers are willing to pay) with Ask offers (the lowest price that a seller is willing to accept). Match the Bid and the Ask offers, and you’ve got a trade. Continue reading...
What is a Dividends Received Deduction?
A Dividends Received Deduction (DRD) is a tax deduction available to corporations when they are paid dividends from another corporation. This is a provision to reduce the number of times an amount of earnings can be taxed: company A, which is paying the dividend, will have already been taxed on it, and the shareholders of company B will be taxed as well, so the Dividends Received Deduction alleviates taxes at the intermediary stage when Company B receives it. Continue reading...
How Could Blockchain Technology Change the World of Finance?
Blockchain, if applied on a broad basis, could lower costs substantially for both financial institutions and consumers, while also preventing fraud. This could upend the financial markets as we know it, in a good way. With blockchain, virtually any type of asset can be stored digitally and securely, meaning that money, equities, bonds, contracts, deeds, etc.. can be moved from peer to peer with little to zero fear of fraud, and no vulnerable (or costly) intermediary like a bank or a government. Continue reading...
What is foreign exchange risk?
Foreign Exchange Risk is the possibility that exchange rates will move against you when you have pending payment on transactions in another currency or other investment positions in foreign currencies or foreign assets which will be affected by Forex fluctuations. Foreign Exchange Risk can also be called Forex risk, and it is the potential loss to an investor or institution when doing business in a foreign currency if the exchange rate swings unfavorably. Companies and countries take various measures to hedge against exchange rate risk, including holding reserves of other currencies and buying derivative contracts on various currency pairs. Continue reading...
What is a currency certificate?
A currency certificate is also called a foreign exchange (Forex) certificate (FEC), and it validates that the bearer is entitled to a certain amount of foreign currency upon the redemption of the certificate, or that a certain amount of foreign currency was exchanged for it. This is not to be confused with a certificate of currency, which is proof that some types of insurance are currently in effect. Currency certificates have been historically used in countries with closed or controlled economies, such as the Soviet Union, Cuba, and China. Continue reading...
What are “Dark Pools” of Money?
Large institutional investors sometimes trade on “Electronic Trading Crossing Networks," which allow them to conduct trades without publicly exposing them. They are used by financial institutions to move large blocks of shares without public investors even knowing about such transactions. Such examples of networks are “Liquidnet,” “Pipeline,” “SIGMA X,” and many others. It might be difficult to fathom the size of the transactions conducted over these networks, but the ownership of dark pools involves almost every institutional trading house. This is a huge business and regulators are carefully looking into their activities. Continue reading...
How should my strategy change with age?
The more time you have to invest, the more room you have to make mistakes, wait-out downturns, and to experience the power of compounding interest. As you get older and need to draw income from investments, things change. The answer is relatively simple: you can afford to be very aggressive when you’re young, and gradually become more and more conservative with your investments as you grow older. Generally speaking, stocks are considered risky investments, while bonds are considered less risky, so a person’s portfolio mix from age 40 to age 80 might go from 80 stocks/ 20 bonds to 50/50 or even 20 stock/ 80 bonds depending on his or her preferences and the market conditions. Continue reading...
What are futures contracts?
Futures contracts constitute a binding agreement to trade a commodity, share, or instrument at a future date at an agreed-upon price. They are auctioned on regulated futures exchanges. Futures contracts are used primarily to deal with agricultural assets and natural resources but have come into use for anything that can be commoditized, including financial instruments and technological resources. Continue reading...