What are No-Load Mutual Funds?
Mutual funds that do not charge a front-end or back-end sales load are known as no-load funds. What are Load Mutual Funds? While no-load mutual funds do not require the investor to pay sales charges (i.e., commissions) when buying or selling that fund, it’s important to remember that nothing is free, especially in the world of financial services. The portfolio manager of the fund and his team of analysts still have their salaries, bonuses, retirement benefits, and so on, and fees are needed to pay for it. Continue reading...
What are the Expenses Associated with Buying and Holding an Annuity?
Annuities are generally the most costly financial product, because the investor has to pay fees/expenses in order to secure the insurance guarantees offered. Investors should take care to examine and understand all of the fees and expenses associated with annuities before purchasing. Many annuities are sold by insurance salesmen or commission-based advisors who will receive a commission around 5% or more. These charges are not always apparent to you up front, as they do not usually come out of your actual principal according to your account balance. Continue reading...
How Does Cloud Mining Bitcoin Work?
It is possible to participate in bitcoin mining indirectly, by partially funding a remote mining operation. Cloud mining is separate and distinct from pool mining, because instead of owning hardware and pooling resources with other miners to increase the likelihood of securing profits, cloud mining simply secures funding from investors, essentially, who have a contract to participate in profits of a mining pool in a remote locations based on the bandwidth of Gigahashes/s that they would like to fund (“buy”). Continue reading...
What is a Bank Guarantee?
When a lending institution offers a Bank Guarantee, they are reducing the risk involved in a transaction by guaranteeing payment to the seller. Bank Guarantees often come into play with deals made internationally, where the participants in the deal prefer to have some assurances before they do business. The guarantee acts as insurance to protect the parties involved in transactions where they are not fully able to assess the strength and reliability of the other, such as when small companies bid for projects or when bids for a job come-in from around the world. Continue reading...
What is a Billing Statement?
Billing Statements are primarily used by credit card companies, listing the transaction history and balance due on a customer account. A billing statement is mailed, physically or electronically, to a customer at the end of a billing cycle, which is usually monthly. The statement will show the balance due and the transaction history, perhaps including recent payments received from the customer. The term “billing statement” is sort of a blend between two distinct documents: a bill and a statement. Continue reading...
What is swing trading?
Swing trading is active trading that is not frequent enough to be categorized as day-trading but generally follows short-term trends. Swing trading can describe long or short positions traded on upswings and downswings of a security or index, and these positions are generally held from one day to two weeks. Generally, these are going to be momentum investments which are entered into after there seems to be confirmation of a trend, and the positions are closed out when there seems to be confirmation that the trend has ended. Continue reading...
Where do I find a good CPA?
A good CPA can be a valuable ally. You should find one who works with clients similar to you and who is easy to talk to. Taxes and accounting are a part of nearly every financial instrument and consideration that people will be confronted with in their life. It can be very beneficial to work with a CPA who can advise you properly on the issues that affect you. It can also be detrimental to place too much trust in a CPA who isn’t really an expert in the areas he claims to be. Continue reading...
Can You Pay More Than Nominal Value for a Bond?
Yes, and this is part of what’s called the interest rate risk of bonds. If someone purchased a $1,000 bond with a 5% coupon, and a year later, the company issued new $1,000 bonds with a 4% coupon, in order to buy the 5% coupon bond from the owner, you would obviously need to pay more than $1,000 (since the new bonds issued by the company have a 4% coupon). What does Nominal Value mean? What Happens to the Price of a Bond After I Buy It? Can You Sell a Bond for Less Than the Price You Paid For It? Continue reading...
What is the adaptive market hypothesis?
The Adaptive Market Hypothesis uses theories of behavioral economics to update the aging Efficient Market Hypothesis. There have been many debates surrounding the Efficient Market Hypothesis and its validity, and a lot of research over the last 15 years or so has been done which suggests that behavioral finance holds many of the keys to an accurate “universal theory” of the markets. A marriage between the two schools of thought has given birth to the Adaptive Market Hypothesis, coined in 2004 by Andrew Lo of MIT. Behavioral and evolutionary principals come into play when theorizing about the large-scale behavior and adaptation of humans in a system. Continue reading...