What are International Equity Funds?
International equity funds hold stocks of corporations based outside of the United States. International equity funds invest mostly in the stock of overseas companies. People purchase shares of such funds as a means of globally diversifying their portfolio. There is some degree of currency risk involved in international investments, which may necessitate a currency hedging strategy if an investor is heavily invested across the globe. Continue reading...
What is an Annuity?
Annuities are financial products developed and sold generally by insurance companies, and they are designed to protect an investor’s principle against the risks of market fluctuations and longevity (life expectancy). Annuities get their names from a series of payments which are based on an annualized payout rate. Annuities formerly just offered fixed payments for life, like a pension, and they were developed by life insurance companies who would use their mortality tables to determine the payout rates. Continue reading...
Where Should I Open an IRA?
IRAs can be held at many kinds of institutions, even those that you only see online. It is completely your choice! IRAs can be opened at almost any large bank or brokerage firm, giving you plenty of options. Many online services make it possible to open an IRA from your phone or computer. Be sure to compare them because there are some distinctions, such as fee structures and the investments available within the account. Some institutions will only offer their proprietary funds, while others will let you access almost any investment on the market that is allowable inside of an IRA. Continue reading...
How Much Will Long-Term Care Insurance Cost?
The cost of long-term care insurance varies depending on the policy and the age of the insured. Generally speaking, however, the insured can expect to pay between a hundred to several hundred dollars a month. Typically the total cost adds up to at least a few thousand dollars per year. Furthermore, you will be required to continue paying the premium through your retirement (until you begin using the insurance), and if you fail to pay the annual fee, you might lose some or all of your coverage (regardless of how much you have paid up to that point). Continue reading...
What was the Mt. Gox Incident?
There have been many incidents where cryptocurrency has been stolen, but the Mt. Gox incident is the largest to date Mt. Gox was at one time the largest cryptocurrency exchange on the net, facilitating as much as 80% of global bitcoin trades, according to some sources. And then about 850,000 bitcoin suddenly went missing. At the exchange rate in 2014, when the problem came to light, that many bitcoin were worth about $450 USD. At the time of this writing, with Bitcoin at a high in 2017, that man... Continue reading...
How to use a Gann Fan in trading
W.D. Gann developed a suite of technical analysis tools around the 1930s, with Gann Fans being among the most essential in his toolkit. Gann fans are a collection of lines placed on a price chart that, in theory, help traders gauge potential price changes. Gann theorized that prices were likely to be sequentially bound by markers; that is, if a price broke through one marker, it would be likely to use the next ones as its new support or resistance level. The range between the lines gets wider the further they extend from the origin, which makes Gann fans suitable for long-term charting in which the number of traders and the size of total market cap grows over time. Continue reading...
What is Due Diligence?
Due diligence is the responsibility of the investor and broker to research all pertinent information about the individual's, investments, and companies involved prior to doing business. Due diligence is a responsibility and also a legal defense. If a fiduciary person or company is accused of negligent or criminal behavior, it may be a good defense to show a document trail of research about the people, companies, and investments involved in a transaction. Continue reading...
What is Adjusted EBITDA?
Basically synonymous with Normalized EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP method of making earnings valuations a little more standardized between companies. Adjusted Earnings is a valuation that has many moving parts in the form of the interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization that might be included there, in addition to the non-GAAP nature of the methods. EBITDA removes all of those moving parts and looks at the Earnings before any of the other arithmetic interferes, hence the name Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization. Continue reading...
What is Momentum Investing?
Momentum investors usually have their own models for determining whether they think a price trend (to the upside or downside) is set to continue - sometimes it’s looking at a 3 month trend, sometimes a few weeks, sometimes even longer. The idea is that once a trend is established, an investor can buy into its continuance (if its an upward trend), or sell into (or sell short) if it is an established downward trend. Momentum investing is by no means a proven method, but sophisticated investors will try to use models to increase their probabilities of success. Continue reading...
What is the difference between Common Stock and Preferred Stock?
A preferred stock is higher up the equity chain than a common stock - preferred stockholders receive dividends first and will be paid out first in the event of liquidation. The primary difference between a preferred stock and a common stock is that preferred stockholders have a greater claim to assets of the company. This can come in two forms: preferred shareholders being paid dividends first, and also having a higher claim to being paid out in the event a company goes bankrupt or liquidate assets. Continue reading...