Human life is subject to risks of death and disability due to natural and accidental causes. When human life is lost or a person is disabled permanently or temporarily, there is a loss of income to the household. The family is put to hardship. Sometimes, survival itself is at stake for the dependents. Risks are unpredictable. Death/disability may occur when one least expects it. An individual can protect himself or herself against such contingencies through life insurance. Though Human life cannot be valued, a monetary sum could be determined which is based on loss of income in future years. Hence in life insurance, the Sum Assured (or the amount guaranteed to be paid in the event of a loss) is by way of a ‘benefit’ in the case of life insurance. It is the uncertainty that is risk, which gives rise to the necessity for some form of protection against Continue reading
Investment Ideas
Case Study: Warren Buffet’s Investment Style
Warren Buffett is the only billionaire in history to amass his fortune entirely through shrewd investing. He started investing with ten thousand dollars earned from a paper route and went on to become one of the wealthiest people in the world. Today his worth is staggering $30 billion. Warren Buffett was born on August 30, 1930 in Omaha, Nebraska. Since his early childhood, he has been fond of reading various kinds of investment books and The Wall Street Journal. He bought his first stock at age 11. He regretted later as he made delay in purchasing his first stock. At the age of 15, he had saved enough money to buy a 40 acre land from his father at Nebraska. By the age of 20, his fortune was estimated $9800 and it was about $68000 in inflated dollars at the end of 1999. Buffett completed his degree from University of Continue reading
Basics of Commodity Futures Markets
Futures markets have been described as continuous auction markets and as clearing houses for the latest information about supply and demand. They are the meeting places of buyers and sellers of an ever-expanding list of commodities that today includes agricultural products, metals, petroleum, financial instruments, foreign currencies and stock indexes. Trading has also being imitated in future contracts , enabling option buyers to participate in future market with known risks. In other words Futures markets have been described as continuous auction market and as a clearing house for the latest information about supply and demand. Participants in Future Market The following are the participant in future market which are as follows: Hedgers: Hedgers are individuals and firms that makes purchases and sales in the future market solely for the purpose of establishing a known price level —weeks or month in advance -for something Continue reading
Fundamental Analysis of Stocks
Definition of Fundamental Analysis Fundamental analysis of stocks is defined as the practice of examining the fundamentals of an organization in order to determine if a business has turned out to be a good investment. Fundamental analysis aims are answering questions related to the business finance and capital investment, such as “what are the probabilities that this business investment is going to fail or become bankrupt” and “how sure can a portfolio manager be that the stock continues to pay dividends?” In other words, fundamental analysis involves detailed study in regards to financial statements like the balance sheet. It is considered as a complete contrast to technical analysis of stocks. Fundamental analysis of stocks deals with the analysis of the financial, economic, as well as other quantitative and qualitative elements associated with a security with the sole intention of determining its intrinsic value. Even though this technique is employed for Continue reading
Difference between Fundamental and Technical Analysis
While analyzing price movement, forex trade uses two primary types of analysis. Those concentrating on price movement and neglect other factors choose to guide their efforts at enhancing their skills at technical analysis, whereas traders preferring to examine the economic events which cause the market action mainly throw light on their efforts in analyzing fundamental analysis. Most traders wish to mix the information supplied by these two kinds of analysis in order to generate accurate trading signals. Others focus on one aspect of analysis and discard the other type from the computations, and yet it can be said that either of the approaches can be valid with respect to the circumstances. In essence, there are traders who have been acquiring reputation as well as wealth by trading effectively based on fundamental analysis. But as both of these people disagree in several subjects, they would most probably agree with the fact Continue reading
Defensive and Aggressive Securities
Defensive securities are kind of securities that exhibits less volatility than the market as a whole (i.e., its BETA is less than 1.0), providing lower, but more stable, returns. Investors often acquire defensive securities during periods of financial turmoil or uncertainty. Defensive securities tend to remain more stable in value than the overall market, especially when prices in general are falling. In times of market downturn, investors tend to seek defensive securities to provide a steady rate of return, or at least to lose less money than the market as a whole. Examples include stocks in utility companies and the health care industry. Defensive securities include stocks in companies whose products or services are always in demand and are not as price-sensitive to changes in the economy as other stocks. Aggressive in finance means relating to an investment or approach to investing that seeks above-average returns by taking above-average risks. Continue reading