What is IRS Publication 54, Tax Guide for US Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad?
IRS Link to Publication — Found Here Publication 54 is a guide for those earning income in a foreign country. There are several tax deductions which might be available and several forms and filing practices that one will need to be familiar with when taking employment elsewhere. US Citizens and long term resident green card holders will need to let the IRS know how much they are making even if they are employed in a foreign country. Continue reading...
What Can a Blockchain Do?
Blockchain technology is already being used and developed for many important and impressive applications, and much more is yet to be discovered. Blockchains use distributed work to obtain consensus for changes to a distributed ledger. Because of their nature, blockchains are incredibly powerful tools that can be used in many realms and applications. They offer security in that they are almost unhackable; any attempted unauthorized changes to the system are immediately obvious to the entire system because it is built on agreement and consensus among its many nodes. Because this structure gives each addition to the ledger, and the record in the ledger, a high degree of integrity and security, future applications of blockchains are being researched in various fields around the world. Continue reading...
What is the Broadening Top (Bullish) Pattern?
The Broadening Top pattern forms when the price of a pair progressively makes higher highs (1, 3) and lower lows (2, 4) following two widening trend lines. The price is expected to move up or down past the pattern depending on which line is broken first. What distinguishes a Broadening Top from a Broadening Bottom is that the price of the pair is rising prior to entering the pattern formation. This type of formation happens when volatility is high or increasing, and when a pair’s price is moving with high volatility but little or no direction. It potentially indicates growing investor nervousness and indecisiveness. Continue reading...
What is Corporate Equity?
Corporate equity is retained earnings plus common shares outstanding. On a corporate balance sheet, the retained earnings and the outstanding common stock capitalization combined would be considered the corporate equity, also called shareholder’s equity / owner’s equity. Of the total corporate equity, the portion representing common stock equity is only the capital raised through the issuance of shares in an IPO (initial public offering), where payment for those shares was paid to the company. Subsequent trading in those shares does not affect the common stock equity on the company books. Continue reading...
What does 'Outstanding Shares' mean?
Outstanding shares refers to all of the shares of company held in total, which includes all ownership - retail investors, institutional, the company’s officers, insiders, and so on. Outstanding shares are listed on the balance sheet under “Capital Stock,” and are used in calculating market capitalization, earnings per share, and other critical per share calculations. The amount of outstanding shares can fluctuate over time on the basis of corporate actions, such as share buybacks (reduces overall count) or new share issuance (increases overall count). Continue reading...
What is the Price to Book Ratio (P/B Ratio)?
The price to book ratio compares a company’s current stock market price to its book value (which is generally speaking a company’s net assets). To calculate, an analyst need only divide a company’s latest market price by it book value, which is calculated by taking ‘Total Assets minus Intangible Assets and Liabilities.’ The P/B ratio gives some idea of what premium an investor is paying if the company went bankrupt immediately. Continue reading...
What is Cash Available for Distribution?
Cash Available for Distribution is a term used in REITs and sometimes corporate accounting for the balance of earnings left over after expenses have been paid. After expenses have been paid and a reserve fund amount has been set aside for taxes and other recurring expenditures, there may be enough earnings left over to be designated as Cash Available for Distribution (CAD). It might also be called Funds Available for Distribution (FAD). Continue reading...
What is a currency basket?
Currency baskets are composed of weighted amounts of certain currencies. The most common use of a currency basket is as a benchmark for certain economic analysis, but it can also be used as a unit of account where an international organization has constituents that use various currencies. A basket of currencies is a weighted index of various currencies which serves a specific purpose as a benchmark or as a unit of account. Continue reading...
What is commodity paper?
Commodity paper is the contract for a loan which is secured by collateral in the form of a commodity held in a warehouse or in transit. This is basically a form of warehouse financing, where the inventory in storage is verified and the changing level of inventory insures a larger or smaller line of credit from the lender. In this arrangement, however, there is one agreed-upon loan and collateral amount. Continue reading...
What is quantitative analysis?
The attempt to represent events and phenomena mathematically and to thereby make reality more understandable is called quantitative analysis. To quantify something from the real world, an analyst will translate the factors and variables present in a real event into a coding system which will allow it to be represented in mathematical or computational symbology. The quantitative analysis that follows will attempt to create formulas and test them for external validity and replicability. Continue reading...