What is “efficient market hypothesis”?
The Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) states that it is impossible to beat the market consistently over time, since all available information is priced efficiently into stock prices. But what the EMH misses is the impact that sentiment can have on price discrepancies in the short-term. Emotions can lead to gross mis-valuations (as we saw with the tech bubble in 2000), and market corrections can see stocks selling off dramatically for no fundamental reason. Continue reading...
What is Dividend Frequency?
Dividends are paid at certain intervals by companies who pay them. This might be quarterly, annually, or semi-annually. The dividend rate that investors should keep up with is the annualized amount, but there is a lot to be said for quarterly or monthly payments, particularly for those actually using dividends as income, but even if you are just reinvesting. Higher dividend payment frequency means higher liquidity, more control, and probably higher returns in your portfolio. Continue reading...
How Do You Make a Paper Bitcoin Wallet?
Because bitcoin wallets and balances are little more than a few lines of code, it is often desired to move the wallet offline into paper form. Generally speaking, it is not a difficult process. The way bitcoin transactions work, funds are sent to a specific address that signifies the wallet of the payee. People can possess multiple wallet addresses, which can be quickly generated at no cost, and this is often preferential for security and privacy reasons. Services such as bitaddress.org allow users to generate new wallet addresses and then help users encrypt and print paper versions of the necessary information to keep their bitcoin balances offline for cold storage in physical form. Extensive tutorials on how to do this exist online in forums and videos. Some people like this option because it removes any chance of their wallet being hacked. Continue reading...
What is the Three Rising Valleys (Bullish) Pattern?
The Three Rising Valleys pattern forms when three minor Lows (1, 3, 5) arranged along an upward sloping trend line. It often appears at the end of a declining trend – an indication that buyers are overtaking sellers, which ultimately pushes the price higher. This type of formation happens when investors shift into buying mode following a consolidation period. Once the price breaks out from the top pattern boundary, day traders and swing traders should trade with an UP trend. Consider buying a pair or a call option at the breakout price level. To identify an exit, compute the target price level by adding the pattern’s height (highest price minus the lowest price within the pattern) to the breakout level (the highest high). When trading, wait for the confirmation move, which is when the price rises above the breakout level. Continue reading...
What is the Debt to Capital Ratio?
The debt-to-capital ratio is a measure of a company’s leverage that looks at total debt compared to total capital (shareholder equity + debt). This measure of leverage is not a globally accepted accounting practice, therefore it is important for analysts to learn exactly what is being included by the company as their debt and equity in calculating the ratio. Generally speaking, a higher debt to capital ratio indicates that the company is financing more of its operations and needs through the debt markets versus with equity. Comparing debt-to-capital ratios amongst companies within the same sector or industry can be a useful exercise. Continue reading...
What is an Abandonment Option?
An Abandonment Option can be worked into a contract for a capital project at a business, for example, or between an investment advisor and his or her clients. An abandonment option outlines the terms by which either party in an agreement can choose to cease their involvement in the project or a working relationship without penalty. This may be worked into the contract on a business partnership agreement, a capital project, or even something as simple as the relationship between a financial planner and his or her clients. Continue reading...
What is Revenue?
Revenue is a word describing any cash flowing into a business as a result of goods and services rendered. It is sometimes call gross income, and is a representation of income before all expenses. It is notable, though, that revenue only includes receivables in the current period. The Accounts Receivable on the company’ s books may include the entire cost of the goods or services rendered during that period, but the Revenue should generally only reflect the amount that is paid to the company in the current year. Continue reading...
What is Insider Trading?
Simply put, insider trading is the crime of trading in a company’s stock based on information not available to the general public. According to the efficient market theory, any publicly available information is immediately "priced-in" to a stock, so any article you might find in a news publication is not going to give you a competitive advantage for a stock's future price movements. Insider trading tips give an unfair advantage to the holder of the information, since the market has not had a chance to react to it yet. Of course, insider trading is illegal and several notorious cases have been well-publicized, like that of Martha Stewart. She was jailed. Continue reading...
Is there any merit to the “Elliot market waves theory?”
The Elliot Wave theory essentially uncovers larger trends and investor sentiment by smoothing and “zooming out” from market price action. Elliot Waves zoom out on market price action by using larger-interval moving average and smoothing out price information to reveal larger trends. He was one of the first to attempt such a theory, and his foundations may have contributed to the use of Fourier Analysis and Fibonacci Sequences in market analysis. Continue reading...
What is Operating Leverage?
Operating leverage is a measure of how critical each sale of a company is to overall cash flow. If a company has high operating leverage, it means that it relies on fewer sales with very high gross margins, versus a company with low operating leverage that experiences higher levels of sales with lower gross margins. As an example, a convenient store has less operating leverage than a business that sells yachts. Continue reading...