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What is Earnings Before Interest, Taxes ,and Depreciation (EBITD)?
Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, and Depreciation (EBITD) is one method of viewing the earnings of a company with some of the typical expenses added back into it. It is not to be confused with its close cousin EBITDA, which also adds amortization back in. Amortization is essentially the same thing as depreciation, but amortization applies to intangibles such as debt principal amounts and intellectual property. Continue reading...
What is foreign investment?
Foreign investment is the act of an individual or corporation, or institutional investor, acquiring a large stake in a company, which may be a controlling or non-controlling interest. When it is a controlling interest, it is known as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Foreign corporate expansion in terms of newly acquired domestic facilities and equity interest in domestic companies tends to be monitored by domestic governments. Continue reading...
What is a Spin-off?
A spin-off is when a division or subsidiary of a company is separated from the parent corporation and starts to offer its own shares. The term can also colloquially refer to a situation where a group of talent leaves the larger company to start their own firm doing similar work as they used to do. As far as the SEC is concerned, the definition of a spin-off must include the shareholders of the parent corporation being offered a substantially proportionate amount of shares in the new company. Continue reading...
What is the Technology Sector?
The Technology sector consists of companies involved in the research, development, and sale of technology products. It is perhaps the most relevant and exciting growth sector in today’s world, with new technologies being developed and tested on nearly a daily basis. Technology is a cyclical sector, and one where leadership changes hands often. Companies can be in the business of developing hardware, software, web-based applications, and so much more. Continue reading...
Why Use a Blockchain?
Blockchains create an indisputable digital record that is decentralized, i.e, cannot be changed by a single actor. Using blockchain is generally for digital security. Here are few reasons to use a blockchain: Tokenization A user can authenticate a unique physical item by pairing them with a corresponding digital token. In that sense, these tokens serve to connect the physical and digital worlds. With a token assigned to each physical good, that can revolutionize supply chain management, managing intellectual property to prevent against counterfeiting, and fraud detection. 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 Blockchain Technology?
Blockchain technology is a decentralized network structure used to obtain consensus on changes to a ledger shared and distributed throughout a system. Blockchain technology allows for peer-to-peer trust-less validation and record-keeping that is superior to centralized database systems in many situations, in terms of security, reliability, and efficiency. Blockchains tend to be integrated with smart contract technology that serves as the mechanical-legal framework for interactions between the co... Continue reading...
What are Blockchain’s Issues and Limitations?
Blockchain is an emerging technology and arguably one of the next “big things.” As with anything so big and impactful, it comes with a few issues and limitations. Before even diving into the technology behind blockchain and potential issues, perhaps one of the broadest issues facing blockchain is gaining the public’s trust. Blockchain is not only a new technology, it also comes with its own language, literally. There are numerous terms and definitions that accompany a person’s grasp of blockchain, and it can take some commitment of reading and learning to figure out. Not everyone is willing or able to do that. Continue reading...
What is Abatement Cost?
Environmental regulations or lawsuits occasionally force companies to comply by taking measures or acquiring technologies to abate their environmental impact, and the overhead of such projects is called Abatement Cost. Increasingly over the last 20 years or so more countries and states have begun imposing laws on companies to reduce their carbon emissions, noise pollution, and various other environmental impacts. The costs of enacting measures or technologies to help them comply with such regulations is known as abatement cost. Continue reading...
How Does Blockchain Technology Work?
Blockchains are intended to maintain integrity in the system without anyone needing to monitor or control it. By instituting a system of checks and balances that functions on its own accord through rules programmed into the protocol, and which also makes decisions and keeps records based on consensus throughout a peer-to-peer network, a blockchain oversees its own activities without requiring any trust in a central authority or the other parties involved. Continue reading...
Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?
The pseudonymous inventor(s) of bitcoin and blockchain technology, Satoshi Nakamoto, likely walks among us today. Satoshi Nakamoto was the pen-name of the author(s) who anonymously gave the world the design and code for bitcoin and blockchain technology. Penning a white-paper entitled “Bitcoin: a Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System,” the author(s) described the need for a decentralized digital currency and proposed blockchain technology as the way to validate digital transactions with a distributed ledger. Continue reading...
What is market disruption?
Market disruption is a term that describes the state of affairs when the status quo of the stock market or a particular industry’s market is destabilized. This could include the entry of what’s called a disruptive technology or new competitive company, or a natural disaster, or technical difficulties with the computer network that the exchanges use. It is also commonly used to refer to a panic or mania that makes the market disorderly and is stemmed through the use of circuit breakers. Continue reading...
What are currency futures?
Currency futures are derivative contracts that trade on regulated exchanges around the world. Like forward contracts, they name a specific amount of one currency which is to be exchanged for a specific amount of another currency at a future date. Futures name a specific amount of one currency which will be exchanged for a specific amount of another currency at a future date. Like other derivative contracts that trade on exchanges (e.g., options), futures are transferable and are traded as the market calls for up until their expiration. Investors can short them (sell to open) and hold them long (buy to open), and can close their positions as they see fit without riding out the contract to the expiration date. Continue reading...
What is the Difference Between Public and Permissioned Blockchains?
Blockchain technology does not always have to be implemented in a public peer-to-peer system. Blockchains rely on a network of computers, representing nodes, that collaborate and distribute the information required for the blockchain to function. The nodes in some blockchains can be established by any computer willing to run the client software for the network. Bitcoin and most cryptocurrencies are intended to function this way: as a public, open-source, permission-less, and trust less network. The nodes are used indiscriminately by the rest of the network as long as the node is performing the functions required of nodes, and this is called a proof-of-work system. When Satoshi Nakamoto coded the first blockchain, his intention was to keep the network functioning with only one tier: “one CPU, one vote.” That vision has encountered obstacles in the form of ASIC mining and other unforeseen circumstances that have empowered some nodes and groups of users over others. Continue reading...
What are Bank Fees?
Bank fees are penalties or maintenance requirements that may apply to checking, savings, or money market accounts. Banks may charge fees for specific types of transactions, if a check bounces, or just a monthly checking account fee. There are many other types of fees and reasons for them. They may be penalties, such as an overdraft fee, or they may be customary for the kind of transaction or account being used. Continue reading...
What is Form 706 GS (D): Generation Skipping Transfer Tax Return for Distributions?
IRS Link to Form — Found Here Form 706 is the Estate Tax return, and it has a section concerning Generation-Skipping Transfers. 706 GS (D), specifically, is the form which 706: GS (D-1) is the corresponding form if the transfer is associated with a trust, which is filed by the trustee. The Generation-Skipping Tax attempts to prevent an estate from transferring too many assets directly to grandchildren instead of children for the purpose of shielding heirs from estate taxes. The form for reporting Generation Skipping Transfers is 706 GS (D), where 706 is the Estate Tax Return filing. Continue reading...
What are Some of the Applications of Blockchains?
The overarching theme of blockchains is that they can provide security and asset verification in a decentralized system, which is perhaps the best-known method for preventing fraud. Blockchains are a technological revolution that provides an opportunity to establish strong systems for digital identity. Here are some of the applications and uses for it: A user can authenticate a unique physical item by pairing them with a corresponding digital token. In that sense, these tokens serve to connect the physical and digital worlds. With a token assigned to each physical good, that can revolutionize supply chain management, managing intellectual property to prevent counterfeiting and fraud detection. Continue reading...
Can I Rollover My 401(k) into an IRA?
Yes, in fact this is what most people do. This is a very popular choice. Because Traditional IRAs receive the same kind of tax treatment as 401(k)s, with pretax contributions, tax-deferred growth, and taxable withdrawals, the IRS allows you to move funds over without creating a taxable event. Of course, you need to have an IRA account to do so, but it can be as easy as opening an account online and telling the custodian company the account information for your old 401(k). Continue reading...
What is Underwriting?
Underwriting is the process through which risks are accepted by an institution. Underwriting is the assessment of risk or the acceptance of risk after such assessment by a company or bank. Underwriters in insurance companies will assess a risk prior to the company accepting the risk; once the risk has been accepted the company bears the burden of covering the potential losses associated with the risk. The company is paid a premium for accepting the risk. Continue reading...
Can I Rollover My Old 401(k) into a New 401(k)?
Most 401(k)s will accept custodian-to-custodian transfers from old 401(k)s. If your new employer has a 401(k) plan, you can usually rollover your old 401(k) into a new one, but you will need to check with your new employer to find out for sure. Keep in mind that the choice of mutual funds and other investments in the new 401(k) might be totally different from the investment options that your old employer offered. This means that you might need to liquidate all of your positions in the old 401(k) and transfer the cash balance. Continue reading...