Your gut feeling is absolutely spot on - you shouldn't be worrying about pension now, not at the age of 25. Assuming that you're not a footballer in the middle of the most productive part of your career and already have a fat wad of crunchy banknotes under your pillow that you're looking to set aside for a rainy day when you won't be able to play at your prime any longer. That doesn't mean you shouldn't invest, nor that means that you mustn't save. There are several factors at play here.  First of all as a young person you are likely to have a high tolerance for risk, there is still plenty of time to recover should expected returns not materialise. Even a pension fund with the most aggressive risk / return strategy might just not quite do it for you. You could invest into education instead, improve health, obtain a profitable skill, create social capital by building connections, pay for experience, buy a house, start a family or even a business. Next, as a young professional you're unlikely to have reached your full earning potential yet and due to the law of diminishing marginal utility a hundred pounds per month now have greater utility (i.e. positive impact on your lifestyle) than a seven hundred pounds will in 7-10 years time once your earnings plateaued. That is to say it's easier to save £700 month from £3000 and maintain a reasonable level of personal comfort than carve £100 from £1300 monthly income. And last, but not the least, lets face it from a human point of view - forty years is a very long investment horizon and many things might and will change. One of the downsides of UK pensions is that you have very little control over the money until you reach a certain age. Tactically I suggest saving up to build a cushion consisting of cash or near cash assets; the size of the stash should be such that it is enough to cover all of your expenses from a minimum of 2 months to a maximum of a year. The exact size will depend on your personal comfort level, whatever social net you have (parents, wife, partner) and how hard it will be to find a new source of income should the current cease to produce cash. On a strategic level you can start looking into investing any surplus cash into the foundation of what will bring joy and happiness into the next 40 years of your life. Your or your partners training and education is one of the most sensible choices whilst you're young. Starting a family is another one. Both might help you reach you full earning potential much quicker. Finding what you love to do and learning how to do it really well - cash can accelerate this process bringing you quicker there you want to be. If you were a start-up business in front of a huge uncaptured market would you rather use cash to pay dividends or finance growth?


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-06-26/what-you-should-know-about-r) reduced by 87%. (I'm a bot) ***** > As the Federal Reserve gradually normalizes its monetary policy, market participants will hear a lot more about r*, the &quot;Neutral rate of interest,&quot; which helps equilibrate financial markets when the economy is growing at potential and inflation remains contained and stable.  > A gradual convergence of the policy rate to that level would allow, to adapt the phrase of Bridgewater Associates&#039; Ray Dalio, a &quot;Beautiful normalization&quot; of monetary policies that is consistent with market stability and soundness.  > While the r* concept is more relevant for advanced countries with mature financial systems, many emerging economies cannot avoid the consequences of related policy shortfalls even though these would be well beyond their borders.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6k3ex6/what_you_should_know_about_r/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~154803 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **financial**^#1 **policy**^#2 **market**^#3 **rate**^#4 **interest**^#5"


Barefoot Holidays aims to provide you the best Game and Sport charter facilities in the Andamans. Salt water angling or game fishing is a sport that has seen huge   success in these waters. Become a part of one of the most addictive sporting pastimes today.The waters here are teeming with record sized game fish. By virtue of its   position, the islands receive a continuous south/south west current which brings with it plenty of baitfish as well as Black Marlin. Night fishing for Giant Grouper,   Snappers, Swordfish and Shark too are possible with Barefoot Holidays.


A Random Walk Down Wall Street Barbarians at the Gate Liar's Poker King of Capital The Big Short No need to even consider CFP or CFA if you don't have a degree/full time job that requires it. They are costly.


I'd like to learn more about this study. The article says they surveyed 500 managers. This is theoretically a large enough sample to make inferences from, but I'd like to know:  1. Why a larger sample wasn't used 2. The distribution of different copmanies/industries these managers worked in 3. The geographical spread of these managers.  My suspicion is that this study is actually heavily biased by the corporate culture of a small group of companies or geographic region. How do I know these managers didn't all come from a single corporation with a toxic work culture in a bigoted town?


You can withdraw the principal of your Roth IRA account (i.e.: the amounts after tax deposited there) without a tax. However, in case of conversion - you have to wait for five years before you can do that. Otherwise, 10% penalty will apply. It is actually mentioned in the article you linked to. Taxable portion in that context is the portion you paid tax on when converting. In the case you described (converting your 401k) that would be the whole amount of the conversion.


"probably never since republicans started ""starving the beast"" and then calling it inefficient when your government cant perform. on the other hand, ive read there are serious inefficiency problems in the process of infrastructure / general public property maintenance in the united states, and they only partly faulted the cut down budgets. sorry i cant back that up with a link right now"


Yeah, it is, to a massive degree to boot. The wealth gap is staggering because of it and it's the number one threat to the economy as a whole. Turns out it doesn't trickle down at all. It floods up and leaves a wake of poverty and bankruptcy behind it.


Somebody call the Waaambulance.  If I was a billion dollar company that owned the world's most popular search engine, my shit would be #1 every time. I'd  be stupid not to.  People seem to forget, Google is not a public utility it's a business.  If you walk into Walmart and want to know where you can get a good deal on a TV, they're not going to mention Best Buy first, they're going to point you to the TV department.  I see absolutely nothing wrong with this.


I'll start by saying that if this is being explored to scratch a specific itch you have then great, if this was a cold call it's probably safe to ignore it. Certain whole life products (they vary in quality by carrier) can make sense for very high earners who are looking for additional tax preferred places to store money.  So after you IRA, 401(k), etc options are maxed out but you still have income you'd like to hide from taxes whole life can be a potential vehicle because gains and death benefit are generally exempt from income taxes.  Be on the look out for loads charged to your money as it comes in to the policy.  Life insurance in general is meant to keep your dependents going without having to sell off assets in the event of your death.  People may plan for things like school tuition, mortgage/property tax for your spouse.  If you own a business with a couple of partners it's somewhat common for the partners to buy policies on each other to buyout a spouse to avoid potential operating conflicts.  Sometimes there can be estate planning issues, if you're looking to transfer assets when you ultimately pass it can make sense to form a trust and load cash in to a whole life policy because death benefits can be shielded from income tax and the estate tax calculation; the current estate tax exemption is about $5.5 million today (judging from your numbers you might actually be close to that including the net value of the homes).  Obviously, though, the tax rules are subject to change and you need to be deliberate in your formation of the trust in order to effectively navigate estate tax issues.  You seem to have a very solid financial position from this perspective it looks like your spouse would be in good shape.   If you are specifically attempting to manage potential estate tax liability you should probably involve an financial planner with experience forming and managing trusts; and you should be very involved with the process because it will absolutely make your finances more complicated.


well 30 minutes outside of montreal for the same amount of money you'd probably get a McMansion too in the burbs. I'm talking island core. Problem here if you live outside of the city you litterally have to take a bridge to commute, which instantly means traffic! I'd be curious what you get for that price in the city you're talking about. By 20 min of downtown I meant 20 minutes from downtown by subway, aka the neighborhoods just around the skyscrapers. 20 min from the city would be different.  Vancouver is pretty bad. Single homes on a small island (a lot smaller then Montreal) that sell 1 millions +  As for Calgary, never went there, but I heard they are a in recession since the oil crude plummeted so house prices slowed down. Now the houses sells around the same price then Montreal, maybe a bit more.


Although in concerns to the Plumbing services, people do face a challenge whether to pay for commercial activity or to take official root and make things possible by virtual processes. To cope with both issues around, a certain web portal is available that makes things easy and can help in both ways forward.


"The high frequency trading you reference has no adverse impact on individual investors - at least not in the ""going to take advantage of you"" way that many articles imply. If anything, high-frequency trading is generally more helpful than harmful, adding liquidity to the system, although it can cause some volatility and ""noise"" in volume and other data, and the sudden entrance or exit of this type of trading can drive some abnormal market movements. As to research and time needed for trading, most data suggests that the less you try to ""beat the market"", the better you'll do.   Trade activity tends to be inversely related to returns, particularly for individuals.   Your best bet is likely to learn enough about investment risks to ensure you're comfortable with them, and invest in broadly diversified asset classes, regions, and sectors, and then mostly leave them alone, or rebalance annually.   You'll almost surely do a lot better that way than you will if you spend countless hours researching the ""right"" stocks to buy."


tldr; Is the purpose of doing this to ultimately avoid any sort of capital gains paid by someone in your family? Your plan accomplishes this if your dad is single and you are married, but if your dad is married this is probably unnecessary. One side effect of this plan is both you and your dad are unnecessarily giving up a portion of your lifetime gift tax exclusion. Your dad is giving up somewhere between 97-56= $41K of his exclusion (if both you and he are married) and 97-14= $85K (if neither you or your dad is married) and when you give the $430K back you are giving up to that amount minus somewhere between 14-56K. If your dad is married and you were to simply purchase the home from your dad for $430K you would both avoid dipping into your lifetime max, and your dad wouldn't realize any capital gains. If he isn't married, but you are, then your plan works in avoiding any capital gains paid by anyone in your family, unless you end up selling the home in the future for more than $597K. The plan also hinges on:


Thanks for sharing, interesting piece. I find the best opportunities to buy are watching the downtrends on oversold stocks. For example, recently with Amazon's buyout of Whole Foods, groceries took a big hit. Kroger took the biggest hit of all, falling nearly 30% from its 50 day moving average of $30/share. So I bought some at 21.50 and will just sit on it for a couple months. I find put buying on the upward swings to still be risky in this market, but on the downtrend it easy to spot oversold equities that will trend back up over time because of solid fundamentals.


Uh . . . yeah.  Because if we don't have a central source of law, then we aren't a single country.  Those united laws are exactly what defines a country.  The government, however, isn't like the Death Star.  It isn't one giant entity bent on controlling the world.  Are you saying the Constitution and its method of law making, enforcement, and arbitration is bad, and should be rebuilt?


Mostly you nailed it.  It's a good question, and the points you raise are excellent and comprise good analysis. Probably the biggest drawback is if you don't agree with the asset allocation strategy.  It may be too much/too little into stocks/bonds/international/cash.   I am kind of in this boat.  My 401K offers very little choices in funds, but offers Vanguard target funds.  These tend to be a bit too conservative for my taste, so I actually put money in the 2060 target fund.  If I live that long, I will be 94 in 2060.   So if the target funds are a bit too aggressive for you, move down in years.  If they are a bit too conservative, move up.


Northwave EC are one of the best housing solutions that people go for today. In most cases, they are affordable and they can house a lot of people at the same time. There are various criteria to meet so as to be able to own an Executive condominium. Understanding the whole process can be of great help as it makes it much easier. The best thing to do is to make sure that all the income statements are checked by the HR so as to ensure they are exactly what the HBD need. Visit this site http://northwave.co/ for more information on Northwave EC.


Avoiding the complexities of tax [dividends likely taxed the year they are received, barring special tax accounts which many countries implement in for example, locked-in retirement type accounts; share growth is likely only taxed when sold / on death / on expatriation / similar], and assuming you reinvest the dividends every year in new shares, then yes, total growth in your account is the same whether that growth is comprised of entirely dividends, entirely share increase, or a mixture of both. It is those caveats (tax + reinvestment) which could change things.


One scam that happens occasionally is that of the forced placed insurance.  Either the home owner fails to pay the premium,  or,  which is not uncommon,  the bank claims that the existing insurance does not meet their (obscure/undocumented) criteria,  and buy insurance on the owner's behalf...


"When it's actually in the interests of taxpayers, duespayers, or shareholders for execs to upgrade to get work done / be prepared, there's no conflict between the interests of agent and principal, and the entire issue is moot.  But assuming we should treat business execs as a special case doesn't address the question. If governmental and union leadership ""should fly coach"", shouldn't c-corp execs?"


You cannot have off-campus employment in your first year, but investments are considered passive income no matter how much time you put into that effort. Obviously you need to stay enrolled full-time and get good enough grades to stay in good standing academically, so you should be cautious about how much time you spend day trading. If the foreign market is also active in a separate time zone, that may help you not to miss class or otherwise divert your attention from your investment in your own education. I have no idea about your wealth, but it seems to me that completing your degree is more likely to build your wealth than your stock market trades, otherwise you would have stayed home and continued trading instead of attending school in another country.


Look most of the time you can manage it sure. But without the lender of last resort(central bank) bank runs would happen and failures would be common, like in 19th century. The only way to stabilise fractional reserve banking is this behemoth of a monetary entity that can abuse its power(excess credit expansion causing economic bubbles) and makes us even worse off


I have been using http://moneydance.com/ for several years now.  Works pretty well for me. Another one is http://www.iggsoftware.com/ibank/ I have not used it other than a five minute play session.  Looks more mac-ish than Moneydance, but that's all I know.


Sure! Jews are the problem, but not Muslims/Arabs or North Korea.  Anyway, there's nothing you can do about Jews because we control the banks, the media, the government, we have all the money and we also use blood from young gentile boys for our religious rituals.


Firstly, make sure annual income exceeds annual expenses. The difference is what you have available for saving.  Secondly, you should have tiers of savings. From most to least liquid (and least to most rewarding): The core of personal finance is managing the flow of money between these tiers to balance maximizing return on savings with budget constraints. For example, insurance effectively allows society to move money from savings to stocks and bonds. And a savings account lets the bank loan out a bit of your money to people buying assets like homes.  Note that the above set of accounts is just a template from which you should customize. You might want to add in an FSA or HSA, extra loan payments, or taxable brokerage accounts, depending on your cash flow, debt, and tax situation.


"I am not sure how anyone is answering this unless they know what the loan was for.  For instance if it is for a house you can put a lien on the house.  If it is for the car in most states you can take over ownership of it.   Point being is that you need to go after the asset.   If there is no asset you need to go after you ""friend"".  Again we need more specifics to determine the best course of action which could range from you suing and garnishing wages from your friend to going to small claims court.  Part of this process is also getting a hold of the lending institution.  By letting them know what is going on they may be able to help you - they are good at tracking people down for free. Also the lender may be able to give you options.  For example if it is for a car a bank may help you clear this out if you get the car back plus penalty.  If a car is not in the red on the loan and it is in good condition the bank turns a profit on the default.  If they can recover it for free they will be willing to work with you.  I worked in repo when younger and on more than a few occasions we had the cosigner helping.  It went down like this... Co-signer gets pissed like you and calls bank, bank works out a plan and tells cosigner to default, cosigner defaults, banks gives cosigner rights to repo vehicle, cosigner helps or actually repos vehicle, bank gets car back, bank inspects car, bank asks cosigner for X amount (sometimes nothing but not usually), cosigner pays X, bank does not hit cosigners credit, bank releases loan and sells car.  I am writing this like it is easy but it really requires that asset is still in good condition, that cosigner can get to the asset, and that the ""friend"" still is around and trusts cosigner.  I have seen more than a few cosigners promise to deliver and come up short and couple conspiring with the ""friend"".   I basically think most of the advice you have gotten so far is crap and you haven't provided enough info to give perfect advice.  Seeking a lawyer is a joke.  Going after a fleeing party could eat up 40-50 billable hours.  It isn't like you are suing a business or something.  The lawyer could cost as much as repaying the loan - and most lawyers will act like it is a snap of their fingers until they have bled you dry - just really unsound advice. For the most part I would suggest talking to the bank and defaulting but again need 100% of the details.   The other part is cosigning the loan.  Why the hell would you cosign a loan for a friend?  Most parents won't cosign a loan for their own kids.  And if you are cosigning a loan, you write up a simple contract and make the non-payment penalties extremely costly for your friend.  I have seen simple contracts that include 30% interests rates that were upheld by courts."


I'm kind of shocked that no formal behavioral modeling has been proposed as an explanation yet. One such model would be steep (hyperbolic, quasi-hyperbolic) discounting.  Consumers would rather pay for popcorn later than for an expensive movie ticket now.  For instance, consumers might when purchasing the ticket see a low value of popcorn and view the ticket price as the whole price because they do not predict purchasing popcorn.  Then when entering the theater, the present value of popcorn is very high and they purchase it.  There might therefore be a market for a commitment device (such as a popcornless theater) to make the appropriate decision ex-ante.  Another commitment device that seems to be practiced is when individuals sneak their own popcorn into the theater.  They may not actually want the popcorn, but by bringing their own they ensure they do not purchase the theater's.


Eh. The valuations are extrapolations based on the value of equity with liquidation rights. Which is fine: if I'm a buyer of that class, I don't really care what the value of common is; I care what the value of that class of equity is.   Bloomberg tries to paint that as some conspiracy, which is ridiculous.


Your clients should not send you 1099-MISC if they paid with a credit card. You can refer them to this text in the instructions for the form 1099-MISC: Payments made with a credit card or payment card and certain other   types of payments, including third party network transactions, must be   reported on Form 1099-K by the payment settlement entity under section   6050W and are not subject to reporting on Form 1099-MISC. See the   separate Instructions for Form 1099-K. By sending out the 1099-MISC, your clients are essentially saying that they paid you directly (check or cash) in addition to the payment they made with a credit card (which will be reported on 1099-K). In case of an audit, you'll have trouble convincing the IRS that it didn't happen. I suggest asking the clients not to do this to you, since it may cost you significant amounts to fight the IRS later on. In any case, you report on your tax return what you really got, not what the 1099 says. If you have two 1099's covering the same income - there's no legal obligation to report the income twice. You do not have to pay twice the tax just because you have stupid clients. But you may have troubles explaining it to the IRS, especially if you're dealing with cash in your business. If you want to avoid matching issues, consider reporting all the 1099s, and then subtracting the duplicates and attaching a statement (the software will do it automatically when you add the description in the miscellaneous item) about what it is.


> He's supposed to be grading him as a board member. I dont think that a board member's vote should be seen as a positive or negative when it comes time for their job review.  Being a Trump supporter shows bad judgment. I certainly wouldn't want someone like that to be a board member of my company.


"US federal tax law distinguishes many types of income. For most people, most of their income is ""earned income"", money you were paid to do a job. Another category of income is ""capital gains"", money you made from the sale of an asset. For a variety of reasons, capital gains tax rates are lower than earned income tax rates. (For example, it is common that much of the gain is not real profit but inflation. If you buy an asset for $10,000 and sell it for $15,000, you pay capital gains tax on the $5,000 profit. But what if prices in general since you bought the asset have gone up 50%? Then your entire profit is really inflation, you didn't actually make any money -- but you still have to pay a tax on the paper gain.) So if you make your money by investing in assets -- buying and selling at a profit -- you will pay lower taxes than if you made the same amount of money by receiving a salary from a job, or by running a business where you sell your time and expertise rather than an asset. But money made from assets -- capital gains -- is not tax free. It's just a lower tax. It MIGHT be that when combined with other deductions and tax credits this would result in you paying no taxes in a particular year. Maybe you could avoid paying taxes forever if you can take advantage of tax loopholes. But for most people, making money from capital gains could result in lower taxes per dollar of income than someone doing more ordinary work. Or it could result in higher taxes, if you factor in inflation, net present value of money, and so on. BTW Warren Buffet's ""secretary"" is not a typist. She apparently makes at least $200,000 a year. http://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2012/01/25/warren-buffetts-secretary-likely-makes-between-200000-and-500000year/#ab91f3718b8a. And side note: if Warren Buffet thinks he isn't paying enough in taxes, why doesn't he voluntarily pay more? The government has a web site where citizens can voluntarily pay additional taxes. In 2015 they received $3.9 million in such contributions. http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/gift/gift.htm"


Yeah, but they have a price match policy; have them price match themselves or go home and order it online.  Or hell, use your smart phone on their free wifi to place the order so the sales person doesn't get credit for the sale and can't harass you for a warranty.


">I think you should move along before you get hurt. This is a grown up conversation little one.  First: you're clearly a totally arrogant cunt who is so uncomfortable with the position he has elected to take that he can't argue it on its merits and is instead left with petty insults, so it is actually not clear to me why I'm even responding. But anyway, here we go.  >The UK did NOT sell debt and simultaneously purchase its own debt in the past (until modern times).  I state at the outset that I take this to include purchases of government debt by central banks. If you mean the ""government"" itself re-buying its own debt then firstly I'm not sure where that came from and secondly it isn't what I'm talking about.  Put some meat on the bones here, sport: when do you define ""modern times"" as commencing? I don't want to give you a date and then have you move the goal posts again. So give me a time period you're after so we can go again.  Also note I said the British Empire, not the UK.  You should perhaps do some reading on Pitt the Younger, or the history of the Bank of England in general. You'll no doubt see that it provided loans to the government from the beginning, which is equivalent to a modern central bank buying government debt. I wont lie and say it is exactly the same, but the reason it isn't exactly the same is that it was 250 years ago. There was no open market operations as there is now, with monthly bond auctions. The BoE just loaned the money when needed. Bonds were typically only issued for specific purposes (e.g. Napoleonic wars).  What Pitt the Younger did in freezing redemptions was the equivalent of the BoE buying British government debt.  But anyway I await your vitriolic and completely-point-avoiding reply.  >And who said the reason soviet union collapsed was because of its banking policies? Putting words in peoples mouths aren't we.  You did:  >So, the soviet union purchases its own debt, and this is a shining example of a historical empire that worked in your mind? Come on man, you aren't that fucking stupid are you? You don't need me to explain why that is a very, very incorrect choice do you?  What else were you trying to say there?  You asked for an example, he gave it, you said it was a bad example. Remember, just in case you can't stay on topic, the discussion is about central banking policy here. I presumed you were implying that the collapse of the Soviet Union was the reason for it being a bad example for central bank policy. Please otherwise feel free to articulate why it is a bad example, citing specific evidence if you don't mind."


The most significant reason is that if the board of directors of a company neglects the stock value, the stockholders will vote them out of their jobs.


">Because people trade currency in exchange for goods and services.   Right, and they are *utterly dependent* on continuing to receive money in exchange for goods and services or they will *very quickly* go out of business. Most businesses only have cash reserves to continue operations for a few quarters if they are unprofitable. We are going to assume that businesses wish to maximize profits, and continue operations.  Now, consider if they try to ""prevent competition by violent means"", people will stop doing business with them, they will stop getting revenue, and they will go out of business.. So we can assume that most businesses are not dumb enough to be violent, because they want to continue to exist. Basically, you make more money through peace.  So we're left with ""having control of the market through market share"". If people are satisfied with the business, it doesn't matter if the business controls a lot of the market - it's that way because the businesses' customers want it to be that way.  If their customers aren't satisfied with the business, they will stop buying from that business, which will reduce the market share. Also, other competitors that better meet the customers' needs will arise, which will further impact the market share of the business that is misbehaving. Without government, there's no mechanism to stop new competition from arising if the business isn't meeting the customer's needs.  So your proposed mechanisms either won't happen, or will fix themselves if they do happen.  >Price can be controlled by the threat of super low prices in order to drive out competing businesses  And this can only happen for so long before the company no longer has the ability to subsidize their goods. But why would the business do this, if their intent is to maximize profit and continue operating? This behavior puts both at risk.   So, now that we have demonstrated that your proposed mechanisms of monopolization either won't happen, will solve themselves, or contradict the purpose of a business, what other mechanisms do you propose a corporation is going to use which will create a monopoly without a government to help them?"


If you were to stick to your guns, then yes, that's what you'd need to do. In practice, that kind of a hit should get your attention, and you'd be wise to look at why your investment dropped 10% in a month. Value averaging, dollar-cost averaging, or any other investment strategy needs to be done with eyes open and ears to the ground.  At least with value averaging you need to look at your valuation each month!  From my own experience, dollar-cost averaging breeds laziness and I ended up not paying much attention to what I was investing in, and lost a fair bit of money. Bottom line is you still have to think about what you're doing, and adjust.


Yeah they must just be fanatics. I mean it's not like the Fed actually *targets* inflation, or *tries* to create it, you know as if Bernanke actually mentioned those things in speeches...  Oh, wait... he has.  Damn facts... they get in the way of Keynesian dogma every damned time.


As Chris pointed out in his comment, smaller stock exchanges may use open outcry. There are several exchanges that use open outcry/floor trading in the US, however, although they aren't necessarily stock exchanges.  Having visited the three Chicago exchanges I mentioned, I can personally vouch for their continued use of a trading floor, although its use is declining in all three.


"It appears the interest is not compounded daily.  Each period of interest has the loan amount calculated on the ""capital"" remaining on the start of period, for each day in the period.  The Excel finance functions don't handle irregular periods that well, but I can reconstruct the interest calculations:"


See that's where you're wrong. It's NOT a traditional game of musical chairs.  It's musical chairs where anyone with the right idea and ambition can build their own chair and take a seat!  The pie is NOT fixed.  That's what's so great about free market capitalism. But with that comes responsibility for your own life, which apparently, and unfortunately, has turned out to be overly difficult for an increasing portion of the population.


American living in Canada, actually. Seeing the system in action here, while imperfect, is much better than what the US is doing. By design, it's class warfare, rather than making your government fix it, you wind up angry at your employer, IE some big corporate entity and/or their insurers. Strange thing is, dollar for dollar, the American government pays more per citizen for health care than their Canadian counterparts. Actually, just about [everyone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_the_health_care_systems_in_Canada_and_the_United_States)... And so completely fucked...


One company owns majority of popular freelancing websites (elance included)  Aside from the race to the bottom pricing happening for projects; customer is always right. Lots of stories of even a pip from a client freezing accounts -- not even just a project, your whole account with any ongoing projects. Everything gone. Thousands lost. Not worth it. No recourse.


The odds could very well be in your favor, even when the insurance company expects profit. What matters to you is not the expected amount of money you'll have, but the expected amount of utility you'll get from it: getting enough money to buy food to eat is much more important than getting enough money to be able to buy that fiction book too. The more money you have, the less a dollar is worth to you: consequently, if you have enough money, it's worth spending some to prevent yourself from getting into a situation where you don't have enough money.


In my view you are going through quite a bit of logistics to achieve this. Best is drop this idea. If all of you are paying equally, then there is virtually no gain. A better pact is not to gift each other on wedding. We want to open a joint fixed deposit account in name of each one of us which should be locked-in till 2020 Yes it is possible to have Joint Account with multiple names. Ideally all should be present or a Power of Attorney can be created to include names of people who are not present. We want our money to be risk free and secured. Risk free and secured will mean Fixed Deposits.


"Shopify is a ripoff. $30 is too much to pay for ""starter"" hosting and they don't offer anything special for that extra price.  2. When you are just starting out a very economic VPS is the way to go. You can upgrade as your traffic increases. The big consideration is how many simultaneous visitors does your website need to handle. At first you are going to be low-traffic so you don't need to pay for a powerful server. Your costs will be between $5 and $15 per month depending on who you rent from.  3. It's possible to make money from advertising just bear in mind the use of ad blockers is on the rise so advertising should not be your primary income source. A lot of newspaper and magazine sites were trying to use advertising as their primary online revenue stream and in recent years we've seen them shutting down or forcing annoying popups that say things like ""Please disable your ad blocker"" which is really embarassing. Also, advertising is only a viable income generator for sites with a lot of traffic. When you are just starting out you should not expect more than 10 or 20 visits per day at most, and that's assuming you advertise your website in various places. If you don't advertise you'll see 0 visits per day until you start getting organic search results which can take several months on a new domain, because search engines give priority to ""older"" domains."


So do I understand it right that this is the same thing as ESTA?  I have just finished reading the article and can't really see what should my models apply for?  Or is it just that the can fly to US, say the are coming for modeling and then will be OK?


Probably. I had a roommate who was a laborer, and he was known to eat a few quarterpounders in a sitting while being pretty damn in shape. I ate a double whopper once, and it actually tasted way worse then the regular. It didn't make me feel all too awesome after either.


"Did you get an option contingency? This is usually part and parcel with getting a home inspection; you negotiate a nominal fee, like $100, that gives you the ""option"" to back out of the deal for any reason at all within X days (typically 7 calendar days). This is usually the time you schedule the home inspection and figure out what needs repairing. If you're still in your option window, then yes, you can back out and get your ""earnest money"" back from escrow. The seller keeps your option fee (it can be credited to your portion of closing costs if you were to go forward). If you are not in an option period because it's expired or you didn't get one, you can still back out, but unless you're covered by another contract contingency that would apply, such as financing or appraisal (the bank may not be able to underwrite the property even after agreed repairs), you ""default"" and typically lose your earnest money. Technically the seller could hold you to strict performance and force you to the closing table, but that requires going to court and it's almost never heard of; just taking the earnest money and putting the house back on the market is the easier route for everyone."


"Uber would have been a better company if they just started up the world's largest payday loans business. It would actually be cheaper to operate, by a substantial margin, and they could run their business legitimately, instead of immorally and illegally on most locations.  When I looked at Uber, I laughed so hard it actually made my stomach hurt. A guy I knew reckoned he was creaming it. I used simply maths to show he was making 4 cents a kilometre by the time running costs were accounted for, and many Uber drivers will be operating at an actual loss.  At least a payday loan has no hidden costs associated with it, and you don't have to spend days raising the small amount of cash you need to get through the month.  Uber must be the most dishonest business of the planet right now, and its ""employees"" (LOL) are the dumbest fucks on the planet."


Obviously you must be an Israeli and a Jew or you must be living on another planet.  You want pictures? [Here is a complete website](http://www.peterloud.co.uk/palestine/)  There is really no need to played the aggrieved and horrified party now . .the game is over and the world knows


"For new shares to be successfully sold, the price has to be below market price. If you currently own shares of that company, you should always get an option to buy those newly sold shares at that discounted price. The number of options depends on the relative number of shares you hold. Lets say you own 100 out of 1000 shares, currently priced at $10. 100 new shares are to be sold at $9. Since you are holding 10% of all shares, you have the option (i.e. the right) to buy 10 new (cheaper) shares (10% of 100) before anybody else can buy them. Theoretically, the money you save by getting the shares at a discounted price is equal to the money you lose by the share's value being diluted. So, if you're a shareholder and the company is increasing it's capital, you're given the right to ""go with it""."


But cash talks. If you can save yourself a grand or two a month in mortgage overpayment, and have the cash for 1st and last month's rent plus deposit, a job or two, etc. That crap means more than a credit score. Plus don't rent from people you can't talk to about with what is going on in your life.   My personal credit has always been shit (because the morality associated with debt is complete bullshit) since my 20s and I have never had a problem renting, because I let my landlords know I am human and that paying rent on time and in full is my top bill to pay.   People are beginning to realize that FICO scores are pretty meaningless in this Lesser Depression.  e: prepositional indifference


"It's a tricky question w/out more context. If your only options are between stock/funds and letting it sit (i.e. in a saving or CD), I'd have to say option one is the way to go (but that's based on my situation, and you did ask ""if you .."").  However, I think the true answer is ""it depends."" It depends on your risk tolerance and what are your short-term vs. long-term financial needs. Only after answering those questions you can then seek to strategize and diversify investment accordingly."


"Not going to happen anytime soon. These old fatties won't go down without a bitter fight that will make us really hate them for a while longer.  New media (e.g. Netflix, youtube, Hulu...) still requires an internet connection. As it stands, the avenue to get connected to these services still goes through cable companies (e.g. Time Warner, Comcast, Cox...) or through telecom companies (e.g. ATT and Verizon).   The first step these antiquated orgs. will pull is putting caps on our internet usage. This will take the floor right from under online video services, which have worked off an ""all you can eat"" broadband model.  Right now caps are at something like 100-250GB, which seems like a lot. But imagine you replace your entire cable consumption with online consumption. Plus add in any other internet activity like games and downloads, 250GB may be a bit closer than you think.  Moreover, ISPs are moving to lower the caps on internet usage, probably around 50GB, which limits us even further on online media consumption.  So because they *cannot* compete with these services, they aim to stop us entirely from using them. Bully tactics, not good business through adaption and innovation.  They think by doing this, they will drive consumers back to their traditional services. Time will tell if the masses will play into their hand or actually shape demand for a non-restrictive, non-cable sourced ISP. Should such a service arise, cable companies are pretty much dead in the next 5-10 years.  As it stands, we still require cable companies to deliver our content. The battle between Old Media and New Media will be hard fought and we, the consumers, stand to get the brunt of this battle for a while longer."


It has been talked about extensively. It is talked about in [Crisis Economics](http://www.amazon.com/Crisis-Economics-Course-Future-Finance/dp/1594202508) by Nouriel Roubini.   Basically, what he wants to change is the people that own the security being rated are the ones that pay for the rating. This would help to eliminate some of the bias because they are being paid by people that want to know as much information about the security that they own.  I think it's something that would require government action to occur (could be wrong) which is why the business model hasn't changed.


"It happens in private too.   In addition to rarely ""putting their name on it"", my management will often given tasks out a wheel barrow load at the time. By saying they want it ALL done - they're not actually held responsible for any of it getting done.   The defense becomes ""well I told em'"".."


I took littleadv's advice and talked to an accountant today. Regardless of method of payment, my US LLC does not have to withhold taxes or report the payment as payments to contractors (1099/1042(S)) to the IRS; it is simply a business expense.  He said this gets more complicated if the recipient is working in the US (regardless of nationality), but that is not my case


Seems a little strange:   You exercised an option we were fully aware of and now we don't like you so vote our way or we sue.  F that - two investors wanting to control the company with an undersized holding is a no go.


True... Though if the USPS can survive these payments (I think it will) it will look very good when people start to retire in the future and it won't have to worry about retirement costs.   BUT... they do need to address their fundamental problems. They do lose billions every year without factoring in pension costs.


Uhhm you do realize that like 99% of all new consumer products are still developed and released to market by US companies.  I mean two us companies drive like 99% of the mobile cellular market, google and apple.   Google will be releasing driverless cars, tesla is redefining the car market, space X is redefining space travel the list goes on.  The idea that the dollar is america's only edge is ridiculous at best.


Since you are paying taxes on the distributions from your mutual funds anyway, instead of reinvesting the distributions back into the mutual funds, you could receive them as cash, then contribute them to your Roth IRA once you are able to open one.


"SOS stands for Secretary of State. The California Department of State handles the business entities registration, and the website is here. See ""Forms"" in the navigation menu on the left. Specifically, you'll be looking for LLC-5."


I'm not sure how I feel about this.  On one hand, the decrease of home prices is very appealing, especially living in a high cost of living area.    On the other hand, no tax right offs for charities does not seem like a good idea.  If people are going to contribute less to charitable organizations, that will directly hurt the people they are trying to help such as the poor, homeless, and disadvantaged.  And these aren't small donations like the average person.  These are thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars.   I understand most of the money doesn't necessarily reach the ones they claim to help due to salaries, overhead, and marketing, but there are some good charities that try to give as much of the donated money to their cause.  I just don't trust our local and state government to put the money  into these kinds of programs.


"> Why should we trust big agro to release accurate information that may be damning to their business?  Enforcement via inspection. You only need to check up on a small portion of claims to ensure accuracy. Have hefty fines for inaccurate information, and jail time for anyone who intentionally misleads.  >The problem is that the USDA has been underfunded to the point that it's completely incapable of doing the amount of inspections needed.   There's a simple and obvious solution to that.  >Consumers don't know what they need to be educated about, and rely on reporters and experts to make recommendations and revelations on their behalf.   That's why there's a mix of sources. Indeed, consumers don't know, but they still have the right to ask silly questions. Actual knowledgeable people are also involved so that actual meaningful questions be answered.  >Revoke all laws that restrict the first amendment when it comes to our food. ""Disparaging a food product"" should not be illegal in a free country. Public health should be more important than sales of unhealthful products.  Those laws are, in part, there to protect public safety. Causing an unfounded panic over food-products could be disastrous. Public health is the justification for those laws existing, not protecting sales."


"The fallacy in your question is in this statement: ""The formulas must exist, because prices can be followed real time."" What you see are snapshots of the current status of the stock, what was the last price a stock was traded at, what is the volume, is the price going up or down.  People who buy and hold their stock look at the status every few days or even every few months. Day traders look at the status every second of the trading day.  The math/formula comes in when people try to predict where the stock is going based on the squiggles in the line. These squiggles move based on how other people react to the squiggles.  The big movements occur when big pieces of news make large movements in the price. Company X announces the release of the key product will be delayed by a year; the founder is stepping down; the government just doubled the order for a new weapon system; the insiders are selling all the shares they can. There are no formulas to determine the correct price, only formulas that try to predict where the price may go."


Some places banks/Credit Unions will allow you to refinance a auto loan. My credit Union only does this if the original loan was with another lender. They will send the money to the old lender, then give you a loan under the new terms. They are trying to get your business, not necessarily looking for a way make less money for themselves.  You will have to see how much you will save. Which will be based on the delta of the length of the loan or the change in interest rate, or both. My Credit Union has a calculator to show you the numbers based on keeping the size of the payments the same, or keeping the number of payments the same.  Make sure you understand any limitations regarding the refinance based on the age of the car, and if you are underwater.


Pre-Market trading activity is shown on the site from 4:15 - 9:30 AM (actual trading starts at 4:00 AM EST) The NASDAQ Stock Market Trading Sessions (Eastern Time) Pre-Market Trading Hours from 4:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Market Hours from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. After-Market Hours from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/about/trading-schedule.aspx#ixzz38OtcISrq In this case GOOG did not trade in the Pre-market until that time and FB was.


"Yes, this is restricted by law.  In plain language, you can find it on the IRS website (under the heading ""When Can a Retirement Plan Distribute Benefits?""): 401(k), profit-sharing, and stock bonus plans Employee elective deferrals (and earnings, except in a hardship distribution) -- the plan may permit a distribution when you: •terminate employment (by death, disability, retirement or other severance from employment); •reach age 59½; or •suffer a hardship. Employer profit-sharing or matching contributions -- the plan may permit a distribution of your vested accrued benefit when you: •terminate employment (by death, disability, retirement or other severance from employment); •reach the age specified in the plan (any age); or •suffer a hardship or experience another event specified in the plan. Form of benefit - the plan may pay benefits in a single lump-sum payment as well as offer other options, including payments over a set period of time (such as 5 or 10 years) or a purchased annuity with monthly lifetime payments.  Source: https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/when-can-a-retirement-plan-distribute-benefits If you want to actually see it in the law, check out 26 USC 401(k)(2)(B)(i), which lists the circumstances under which a distribution can be made.  You can get the full text, for example, here: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/401 I'm not sure what to say about the practice of the company that you mentioned in your question.  Maybe the law was different then?"


There are two dates that matter for vesting in this situation: If you left the company on 12/31/16, you would be entitled to none of the company contributions. If you left on 1/1/17, you would be entitled to all $20k. This is sometimes known as a cliff vesting schedule. Some companies do a stair step - 20% after year 1, 40% after year 2, etc. This is known as graded vesting. But, that is not the case based on the language here.


Confused? see your CPA


Completely agree with this, especially with the level 2 comment. Some sections in the Schweser level 2 books are quite scarce, and will need additional research.   I just passed level 2 this June, and I have pretty much never used the CFAI materials; they are very long and time consuming, whereas the Schweser resources were much shorter, yet still comprehensive enough. Of course, you are in this to improve yourself and learn as much as you can about the world of finance, so if you are not under time pressure, perhaps it may be better for your long term understanding to learn the content from the CFAI resources.   One thing I would stress is to do the Mock exams and topic tests on the CFA website, as this is probably the most important component of your studies. Use these resources to find your weaknesses and fill in the gaps from there.   You should skim read those blue boxes which contain worked examples, but personally I found the end of chapter questions to be too easy and a waste of time tbh.  Hope that helps a bit; all the best for your studies.   TL;DR  Schweser materials are more concise and a better option Regardless of what you use, do official CFA mocks & topic tests


Just because gold performed that well in the past does not mean it will perform that well in the future.  I'm not saying you should or should not buy gold, but the mere fact that it went up a lot recently is not sufficient reason to buy it. Also note that on the house, an investment that accrues continuous interest for 30 years at an annual rate of about 7.7% will multiply by a factor of 10 in 30 years.  That rate is pretty high by today's standards, but it might have been more feasible in the past (I don't know historical interest rates very well).  Yet again note that the fact that houses went up a lot over the last 30 years does not mean they will continue to do so.


Buffett has the edge here. Berkshire is proposing to keep Oncor's board and CEO, which NextEra didn't offer and was a sticking point for the PUC.  However Elliot owns something like 70%+ of EFH's debt, so maybe the PUCT will be more accommodating to that.


Cut the tax rate, eliminate the loopholes.  If they are able to make money then they should be more than able to do so, but if they are not, they should have to take the loss as they are the ones taking the risk.  EDIT: Of course I'm downvoted, I forgot Reddit is basically communist.


Remind me again who held and was willing to loan out that debt?  The investor classes partly created the risk environment that they now want protection from. convenient.   If they're going to sit on their savings, they're going to comparatively lose more to inflation, so what you think will happen probably wouldn't happen. And even if they do, savings don't receive preferential tax treatment anyways.


The Skipton Building Society has recently announced that it is offering a cash LISA. According to the papers it is the first to offer a cash LISA. Skipton is the UK's 4th largest UK Building Society and has been in existence since 1853. There are other providers of LISAs such as Hargreaves Landsdown. Hargreaves Lansdown is listed on the FTSE 100 i.e. it's one of the largest 100 companies with a UK stock market listing. Stocks and Shares and Cash LISAs are quite different so you need to decide which type you want before deciding where you want to get one from. You can switch from one to another at a later date if you so wish but you may need to switch providers to do so.


My current favorite service for this kind of transfer is Transferwise. The fees are quite low when compared to the 2.5-3% by high-street banks for currency conversion, to which you need to add the international wire transfer fee, and it's often a lot faster, as they split it into two domestic transfers while the international part + currency conversion happens internally to Transferwise.


It was Facebook/Zuckerberg implementing their black mail engine. I helped manage a Facebook page as an intern for a mid-size music venue a few years ago. Our outreach per post was hitting at least 50% of our followers. Overnight that number crashed to 15-20%. Conveniently. we received an email shortly thereafter explaining how if we paid for advertising, we could boost our visibility back to where it used to be. That cannot be a winning strategy in the longterm, to demand that the entities that drive traffic on your site to pay for exposure.


The reason we are talking about Saudi, because they are the biggest oil exporter. Their political stability-oil supply has direct impact to US and global economy.  i doubt any of us really concern about actual saudi economic well being without considering direct impact to global oil supply.   Venezuela oil export is not as large as Saudi, and venezuela biggest customer (and their biggest mistake) is US.  Venezuela is just US screwing a vassal state.  Saudi is global oil security.


You can't actually transfer shares directly unless they were obtained as part of an employee share scheme - see the answers to questions 19 and 20 on this page: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/isa/faqs.htm#19 Q. Can I put shares from my employee share scheme into my ISA? A. You can transfer any shares you get from into a stocks and shares component of an ISA without having to pay   Capital Gains Tax - provided your ISA manager agrees to take them. The   value of the shares at the date of transfer counts towards the annual   limit. This means you can transfer up to £11,520 worth of shares in the tax   year 2013-14 (assuming that you make no other subscriptions to ISAs,   in those years). You must transfer the shares within 90 days from the day they cease to   be subject to the Plan, or (for approved SAYE share option schemes) 90   days of the exercise of option date. Your employer should be able to   tell you more. Q. Can I put windfall or inherited shares in my ISA? A. No. You can only transfer shares you own into an ISA if they have   come from an employee share scheme. Otherwise, the ISA manager must   purchase shares on the open market. The situation is the same if you have shares that you have inherited.   You are not able to transfer them into an ISA.


"Are you saying they're all just a bunch of hacks trying to monetize fear instead of actually providing sound financial advice? Are you further suggesting that they were nowhere to be found in 07, yet now that the country is in a poor financial state, they're trying to grab headlines? Are you saying that even though they all claim they ""predicted"" the housing crisis there is no conclusive evidence suggesting that any of them actually did so?   Oh wait, I guess I said that."


"First note that Standard Chartered Bank's domain is ""sc.com"", not ""scb.com"". The ""scb.com"" site appears to be an architecture company ""of sorts"". The ""yandex"" email address is for a Russian search company which offers free email services.  The ""standardchartered.X10.bz"" email address is clearly a spoof use of the standard chartered name, and is registered in Belize - a small central American country and tax haven.  The ""yilmazguneadana.org"" is not recognised by internet DNS, so appears to be an email only service. This is clearly a phishing scam.  Do not respond to this email.  Of the many thousands of people that have received this email, sadly some will be dumb enough to respond - the elderly are most vulnerable to this type of scam."


"Depending on what you need to explain, you can submit your electronic return without the supplemental information and subsequently mail a Form 8453 with the additional information.  This is helpful for form 8489, for example, where you need to list every transaction reported by your stock broker on a 1099-B.  See https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8453.pdf for more details on this form. If the information you need to submit an attachment for doesn't follow one of the options on that form, you will likely need to file a paper return or use a paid tax preparation service/application. Limitations of FreeFile are explained here, along with a list of forms that are available: https://www.irs.gov/uac/List-of-Available-Free-File-Fillable-Forms The ""Attaching Statements"" and ""Write-in information"" sections seem like they might apply to your situation. Attaching Statements - If you need to add statements and you can't use Form 8453, U.S. Individual Income Tax Transmittal for an IRS e-file Return, to mail that information, you will not be able to use this program to efile your return Identity Protection PIN's (IP PIN) - This program only supports the entry of a Primary taxpayer's IP PIN. If the spouse or dependents have an IP PIN, you cannot use this program to efile the return. Writing In Information - Your ability to ""write in"" additional information to explain an entry is generally limited to the 1040 forms and some of the more frequently submitted forms. If you need to write in additional information on a form, other than the 1040 series, you may not be able to use this program to efile your tax return. E-filing Forms - To efile forms, (except Form 4868) they must be attached to a 1040 series form (1040, 1040A or 1040EZ). Form Limitations - There may be Known Limitations of forms you plan to complete. Please review them. A form limitation may keep you from completing or e-filing your return."


The traditional role of a stockbroker is to arrange for the buying and selling of stock by finding buyers and sellers at an agreed upon price.  The broker does not purchase the stock for himself but merely arranges for the stock to be traded. A trader is one who purchases stock with the hope of selling it for a gain.  The trader will use a broker to help with the purchase and sale of a stock.


Write a virus, start spreading it via USB. That's how stuxnet got to Iran's nuclear program.  Someone could make a virus that does nothing on most computers, but if it happens to be on an ATM, it spits out cash if you type in the proper number on the key pad.


If you don't know how to evaluate funds and are looking for someone to help you make good investment decisions, then you want a financial advisor.  My suggestion is to look for one that 1) doesn't try to sell you insurance first (since insurance is an expense, not an investment), 2) can explain to you the the relationship between risk and return (and what mix is right for you) and 3) recommends funds that have good demonstrated returns after fees have been removed. If you plan to pick your own funds and just want a transaction broker, go with one of the free/cheap online discount brokers.  Many let you invest in hundreds of different funds, so look for brokers with the cheapest fees.


>First, federal labor law bars even non-union employers like Google from punishing an employee for communicating with fellow employees about improving working conditions. The purpose of the memo was to persuade Google to abandon certain diversity-related practices the engineer found objectionable and to convince co-workers to join his cause, or at least discuss the points he raised.   >In a reply to the initial outcry over his memo, the engineer added to his memo: “Despite what the public response seems to have been, I’ve gotten many personal messages from fellow Googlers expressing their gratitude for bringing up these very important issues which they agree with but would never have the courage to say or defend because of our shaming culture and the possibility of being fired.” The law protects that kind of “concerted activity.”   >Second, the engineer’s memo largely is a statement of his political views as they apply to workplace policies. The memo is styled as a lament to “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber.” California law prohibits employers from threatening to fire employees to get them to adopt or refrain from adopting a particular political course of action.  https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2017/08/07/it-may-be-illegal-for-google-to-punish-engineer-over-anti-diversity-memo-commentary.html  The employee was also fired after making a complaint to the NLRB. >Damore said he was exploring all possible legal remedies, and that before being fired, he had submitted a charge to the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) accusing Google upper management of trying to shame him into silence.   https://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-diversity-idUSKBN1AO088


"> she makes some very good points to the whole ""Startup"" mentality.  The 'fight' here is for responsibility.  Ahoyhere is challenging people to be responsible for themselves, and to 'take the blame' if they have nothing to show for it when or if their vc startup employer goes bust (or, gets wildly successful and they don't share in the success.)    People don't want that.  They want to tell themselves they're justified for being bitter after being screwed.  They want to know that 'hard work always pays off', which is obviously false."


"I'd be willing to pay for content only if it was somehow integrated into a single billing structure, and I didn't have to manage eight million micro-transaction accounts with every single website that I used.   So, for example, maybe instead of an ad-server - Google could run some kind of cookied browsing tracker that would apportion my monthly ""content budget"" among the various sites I visit based on my time-on-page?"


"Okay, I'm going to give you my opinion based on experience; not any technical understanding. The options - by themselves - are pretty meaningless in terms of determining their value. The business plan going forward, their growth expectations, the additional options to be authorized, the additional preferred stock offers they anticipate, even current estimated value of the company are some of the pieces of data you will be needing. I also want to say something cynical, like ""to hell with the stock options give me cold hard"" but that's just me. (My experience two-times so far has shown stock options to be worth very very little.)"


That's like saying the Dollar is untrustworthy because Madoff used it in his scam, or that the Dollar is a criminal enterprise because US cash is the number one currency of the black market.  If you believe those arguments as well, then I grant your criticism, but otherwise you'd be inconsistent.  Personally I don't think it makes sense to blame the money in any of these situations.  Money's just a fundamental tool for all economic activity, good or bad, and in all of these cases, I'd argue the money did exactly what it's supposed to do.  Seems a lot more reasonable to blame the individuals involved.


Eh, I've read their list and it didn't seem like they had that strong of arguments for their selections. Some of those I'm sure will make the short list but others don't seem to match what Amazon is looking for at all.


I'm in the US as well, but some basic things are still the same. You need to trade through a broker, but the need for a full service broker is no longer necessary. You may be able to get by with a web based brokerage that charges less fees. If you are nervous, look for a big name, and avoid a fly by night company. Stick with non-exotic investments. don't do options, or futures or Forex. You may even want to skip shares all together and see if UK offers something akin to an index fund which tracks broad markets (like the whole of the FTSE 100 or the S&P 500) as a whole.


In 1929 the Dow Jones Industrial Average peaked at roughly 390 just prior to the Great Depression. It did not return to that level again until 25 years later in 1954. 25 years is a long time to go without any returns, especially if you are a retiree. There is no easy answer with investing. Trying to time the tops and bottoms is widely regarded as a foolhardy endeavor, but whenever you invest you expose yourself to the possibility of this scenario. The only thing I highly recommend is not to base your decision on the historical returns from 1975 to 2000 that the other answers have presented. These returns can be explained by policy changes that many are coming to understand are unsustainable. The growth of our debt, income inequality, and monetary manipulation by central banks are all reasons to be skeptical of future returns.


"Because any nation that allows real estate to become an asset class will eventually, given enough time, destroy the wealth potential and social mobility of the non-owner class. There's a reason that aristocracy used to be referred to as ""landed aristocracy"".   The solution is a progressively higher tax on second, third and fourth properties. And an elimination of tax on first properties.  But such proposals are never allowed air time as they gut the rentier class."


In my experience, this choice is entirely up to the bank itself. There was a time when, given my mothers ATM card I could go to the bank and pull money for her, but the bank has since changed their rules and now they only will allow people listed on the account to access it, card or no card.  If the bank is aware of who you are and knows that your friend is not you, they may be skeptical of allowing your friend to withdraw any money, or they might not care, it's at their discretion.  If they do not know who either of you are, if your friend has the card and information needed, that will likely be sufficient, unless they ask for identification.


If the account is not dollar-denominated, I would say it does not make sense at all to have dollar-denominated statements. Such a statement would not even be accurate for any reasonable amount of time (since FX rates constantly fluctuate). This would be a nightmare for accounting purposes. If you really need to know the statements in USD, I think the best practice would be to perform the conversion yourself using Excel or some similar software.


I don't even think that much is true, in a downturned market we see deflation. Things go on sale, prices drop, that's deflation. But the elephant in the room is that the gov't can't let deflation happen or their debt becomes harder to pay off. So after/during a downturn the government goes into hyperinflation mode.  To me, gold/silver aren't a hedge against the dollar they are a hedge against the inevitable decline of the dollar which isn't going to stop until we change monetary policy.  Graph the dollar's value in the past 100 years, it's the biggest crash in history. Now ask yourself if the dollar was a stock, would you want to own it with that record? 100 years of declination. Sell your dollars, find a real currency.


You have to pay off the balance on the loan first. Also, FHA loans are not supposed to be used for rental properties. I don't know how you living there for a number of years changes things or how often is that rule enforced but you might need to refinance even if you rent it out.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.dawn.com/news/1361897/saudi-arabia-to-buy-russian-s-400-defence-systems-other-arms) reduced by 86%. (I'm a bot) ***** > Saudi Arabia signed on Thursday preliminary agreements to buy S-400 air defence systems and receive &quot;Cutting edge technologies&quot; from Russia during King Salman&#039;s landmark visit to Moscow, the Saudi military industries firm said.  > Under the agreements, Saudi Arabia is set to buy S-400 air defence systems, Kornet anti-tank guided missile systems and multiple rocket launchers.  > &#039;Positive cooperation&#039; Citing Russia&#039;s energy minister Alexander Novak, the Financial Times reported that Russia and Saudi Arabia were expected to sign deals worth over $3 billion, including a $1bn energy investment fund and a $1.1bn agreement for Russia&#039;s petrochemicals giant Sibur to build a plant in Saudi Arabia.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/74h8c5/saudi_arabia_to_buy_russian_s400_defence_systems/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~222658 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **Saudi**^#1 **Russia**^#2 **agreement**^#3 **Salman**^#4 **Arabia**^#5"


Since the compounding period and payment period differs (Compounded Daily vs Paid Monthly), you need to find the effective interest rate for one payment period (month).   This means that each month you pay 0.33387092772% of the outstanding principal as interest.  Then use this formula to find the number of months:  Where PV = 21750, Pmt = 220, i = 0.0033387092772  That gives 120 Months.  Depending on the day count convention, (30/360 or 30.416/365 or Actual/Actual), the answer may differ slightly. Using Financial Calculator gives extremely similar answer.  The total cash paid in the entire course of the loan is 120 x $220 = $26,400


It's not that simple.  The problem is that Greece is not in control if it's own finances.  Neither are any of the other countries.  The Eurozone doesn't have the power to do things like raise taxes or sell government bonds, and the individual governments don't have the power to float the currency.  The Eurozone is going to unwind over the a decade.  Greece will leave, but there are another 4-5 countries that should leave the Euro for the same reasons as Greece.  Spain seems likely to be the next up, with Italy not far behind.  The Euro was never designed to break apart.  We really have no idea what the shockwaves of a country leaving the currency will look like.


"> Wii – 95.85 million as of 31 March 2012[8]  > Xbox 360 – 65.8 million as of 12 January 2012[52]  > PlayStation 3 – 63.9 million as of 31 March 2012[53]  I wouldn't characterize those numbers as Microsoft ""dominating"" the market.  I also don't think it is a ""certainty"" that Microsoft will dominate the next generation.  >MS is also much closer to a unified platform for you TV.  I don't get this at all.  I have a 360 and a PS3.  My PS3, has Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and it's own video service but it also has a blue ray player and the ability to easily stream videos from my Windows Home server, something I've been unable to get my 360 to do.   Personally, I think Windows 8 is going to be very similar to Vista.  Businesses (which is a HUGE % of Microsoft's OS market) aren't going to touch Windows 8 with a 10 foot pole.  Keep in mind Windows XP is still 41% of the PC market.  Overall, you've got a much rosier view of Microsoft than I do."


It's quite alright, it's been over a decade since he passed so I'm not particularly sensitive about it any more.  I'll have a look at investopedia, but what I'm mainly interested in is private equity. I wanted to ask directly about that, but I feel that I need a frame of reference to understand what's going on. As in, I doubt I'd be able to really get private equity without first having an understanding of public trading.  Is this subreddit really that reputable? I've learned to not really trust reddit, for the most part. Is there some kind of curation here?


Anytime you mention Wal-mart's employment, it's almost always the biggest (fill in the blank) because it's the country's biggest private employer.  It employs 4 times more people than #2 (McDonalds).  About 1 / 150 Americans work for Wal-Mart.  It's crazy.


Apples and oranges. The stock market requires a tiny bit of your time. Perhaps a lot if you are interested in individual stocks, and pouring through company annual reports, but close to none if you have a mix of super low cost ETFs or index fund.  The real estate investing you propose is, at some point, a serious time commitment. Unless you use a management company to handle incoming calls and to dispatch repair people. But that's a cost that will eat into your potential profits. If you plan to do this 'for real,' I suggest using the 401(k), but then having the option to take loans from it. The ability to write a check for $50K is pretty valuable when buying real estate. When you run the numbers, this will benefit you long term.  Edit - on re-reading your question Rental Property: What is considered decent cash flow? (with example), I withdraw my answer above. You overestimated the return you will get, the actual return will likely be negative. It doesn't take too many years of your one per year strategy to wipe you out.  Per your comment below, if bought right, rentals can be a great long term investment. Glad you didn't buy the loser.


Nah most of what the quants do is v. mathematics / theory heavy and not prog / cs heavy. It really depends whether you want a markets / stats focus or a programming focus.  Programming focus = CS style, development, implementing algo.s  Markets focus (where the $ is) = refining algos and working with devs, stats/research, more physics/maths-style work with a lot more scripting and empirical approaches to problem solving  Take it from someone in industry... you'll be fine just go out and get a job, they'll train you, start reading the FT for some background on markets and read up on basic financials e.g. what stock actually is, how it's prices, how markets actually function (structurally), how people price swaps and bonds, etc.


The main concern I'd have is that something will happen to the account while it's unattended.  While you may not have any money in it to risk, you could have a fraudulent check written against it that causes you to incur NSF fees. Your bank also might change its no-fee policy (I assume these are no-fee accounts, or there's an obvious drawback).  If it does, it's possible you might not notice, and again then the fee might be assessed, overdrawing you and causing additional NSF fees.


Yes, it's true (from a BB perspective).  This isn't the 80's where M&A's are the money makers.  This isn't the 90's where IPO's are the cash cows.  Going forward the new products, especially the OTC derivatives market and FI are going to be where a lot of resources are pooled and where revenues are generated.  Ask yourself the question, why do you want to go into equity research as opposed to another product?


"I'm a manager of a charity shop so work with a wide range of unpaid volunteers, which requires an especially soft touch (most of the time, everyone is different) or people will just leave.  It takes longer, but the overall results are better and more long-lasting.    Think of it like pushing a boat from the docks with your hand, always applying a small pressure to get the boat to gradually move where you want, rather than ramming into the side of a boat with a truck - sure it'll get you there quicker, but will cause lasting damage.  It's also best to take it slow, as you need time to learn the business and people.  Be clear about your approach with your boss, managing their expectations is important.  Anyway, here is what I've learnt in my first year or so doing this job, plus things I've learnt along the way in my previous career as a software engineer (radical career change!) where I've managed people and been managed:  1. Be yourself.  Don't pretend to be someone you're not, everyone will see right through you in an instant.  You'll change over time as you get used to managing people, that's fine, but always be yourself through that.  1. Say ""thank you"" to everyone at the end of each day as you say goodbye.  Mean it.  Think of all the work they've done today for you.  1. Spread the shit evenly.  Every job has crap parts, make sure you and everyone else gets their fair share and no more.  I regularly hoover, clean the bathroom, wash-up, and so on.  1. Ask, don't tell.  If you bark orders, people will do them.. but they'll put no effort into it and you'll distance yourself from them.  Ask if they could do something for you.  It's a politeness, nobody ever says no unless there is an issue which you need to deal with anyway.  1. Pick your battles.  Is it worth moaning at someone for that little infraction?  Or can you get over that message another way?  i.e. I don't like people having drinks on the till counter, so when I take over to cover for them for a break, I just move it.  After a while, no drinks appear on the counter.  1. Be honest.  If you don't know, say so.. ask for input.  Weigh up the options out loud, then pick one, explain why, and go for it - or better yet, get the person that thought of it working with you (not for you) to implement it.  If you're wrong, hold your hand up and try the other suggestion(s).  1. Always take responsibility when things go wrong - that is actually your job.  When things go well, use *you* and *we*.  If things go badly, sometimes *I*, sometimes *we*, but never *you*.  1. Always be pro-active with money.  If you owe your staff money for any reason, chase them to give it to them, never let them chase you.  If there even *might* be any problems at all with money, let everyone know as soon as you know.  Go out of your way to ensure they get what they're owed *now*, not later.  I just did this today actually, I forgot to do expenses for someone and switched over the till so there wasn't enough cash in the new till to cover it.. so I just took it from the money to bank, and marked down why there was a discrepancy on the paperwork and will do the same tomorrow when that doesn't match by the opposite amount.  I should not do this at all, but it's the right thing to do.  1. Listen carefully.  Often employees have problems but won't bring them up, either they don't think anything will get done, or they don't want to get someone in trouble, or something else.  However, if you listen and observe carefully, often there are clues to the things that are bothering them and you'll find ways to tackle them.  1. Don't run a team meeting until you know everyone, if you can avoid it.  You don't know shit about how the company works, who the people are, what makes them tick, what they do, and so on.  All you'll do is come across as a bit of a tool, and distance yourself from them (as boss).  When you do run one, just guide it, don't lead it.  Always hand over control of the conversation as much as possible, except of course where you've got things that they need to hear.  1. Never joke about your 'power'.  i.e. Don't mess about saying how you'll fire them if blah, or how you'll give them all the shit work, or mention pay jokingly, etc.  I had a boss that did that when drunk, not in a serious way at all, and he was very widely hated for pretty well nothing other than that.  It served as a constant reminder that he's separate from us.  1. Give people room, but don't be taken for a ride.  If someone is late once, fine, I wouldn't even mention it.  Late again, maybe I'd make a light joke of it.  Late again.. we'll have a chat.. always listen to what they have to say, is there any way you can help?  But, don't be taken for a ride.  I've had people pick me up on being late the very first time I was late, and you know what, I was more late for that job from then on than I've ever been before or since.  1. Try to get your employees to come up with ideas to move the business forwards.  It's very easy to look at a business and say ""we need this, that, and the other doing.. like this!"".  But you need to get your employees to buy into it, or they just won't do it properly.  It'll be like getting blood out of a stone to start with, but if you're patient and support their ideas most people will come around.  You *need* their input as they know their job better than you.  1. EDIT: Always be clear what you want from people, when.  Speak with them about the task(s) before-hand to make sure they're comfortable with it and think it can be done in the time.  So many times I've been given tasks with unrealistic deadlines, the manager hasn't wanted to listen to my protests, then wonders why it didn't get done in time.  It's crazy really, wanting something to be possible doesn't make it so.  *A (not so) Quick Example*  One volunteer said to me that we should halve the price of all the fiction books to .99 to compete with other shops.  I personally don't think that's a good idea (our shop has better quality stock and is much more organised), but I have no evidence to the contrary, and I honestly don't really know.. so I say go for it and support it completely as a good idea.  We tried it for a month, and we made exactly the same amount of money.. sold twice as many books, but no extra cash.  So it was valuable to do, and we discovered that maybe 1.49 might be a good option to try.  But, far more importantly, they saw their ideas put into action right away, and saw the results of that.  It empowered them, which is incredibly important for a wide variety of reasons that are too much to go into here, but basically it makes them feel more respected, enjoy their job more, think more about the business, and so on - you know what it's like when you're empowered, how good it feels.  However, it's being empowered with the support that's important, something which you personally going into your new job don't feel you have, which leads to the anxiety and so on I'm sure you're feeling now.  Don't put your employees in that position if you can help it.  There is also another reason why I outright supported their idea from the offset.  It didn't work (although we didn't loose anything) and I thought it wouldn't, but I can say ""*we* tried"".  It wasn't down to that one person, they didn't feel bad that it didn't work because I was right behind it, and it's my job to take responsibility.  If it had been *their* idea that had failed, they wouldn't give any ideas ever again, and everyone else would be put off too.  As soon as anyone tries to take personal responsibility, and they will, stick to your guns in supporting them.. stronger than ever.  Now we're getting a lot of ideas all the time, they're having in-depth discussions amongst each other, they're pro-active, and so on.  As a business we're doing much better now because of it.. profits are up 15% from last year and we've only just begun to kick things off, and that's going against a national trend downwards.  We've had several critical changes to our shop layout, back-room organisation, results reporting, stock handling processes, and so on.. all from volunteer ideas and feedback.  So the 15% is actually the tip of the iceberg, what we've got in place now should allow us to grow more quickly too.  And remember, you can make suggestions too of course.. but they're just that, suggestions.  Suggest them to your employees, speak with several of them, then get back to them when you've made a decision.  Don't say ""I'm thinking of trying this"", say ""I was just thinking.. what about this?  Do you think it would work?"" and talk about it.  Think of arguments against your idea, see if they counter them, and so on.  Now.. how many of these changes did I think of before-hand and want to enact?  About half.. so we've got a significant number of successful ideas that I personally hadn't thought of, everyone's happier and working harder for the business, and we have a bright future.  I have more ideas too, and people listen to and respect them now just like I have with them.  I think that's the key to it all really.  Show your employees respect, and they'll show you it in return."


Your practice of waiting until you can pay cash is a good one. It will certainly prevent you from getting into debt! Now, to be clear, your question puts a credit card in the same category as a loan, but it doesn't have to be. You could use a credit card almost like cash, if you are careful. I'm not familiar with the system in France, but in the US, even if you are paying cash all the time, there are some benefits to getting a credit card and paying it off in full every month, instead of simply paying with cash. Some of those benefits are: One pretty big downside of having a credit card depends on your personality. Some people, once they have credit, end up spending beyond their means, and end up getting into debt. Please look into whether credit cards work the same way in France before considering the above advice. As for your question regarding getting a loan vs paying cash, that will usually be personal preference, since with a loan you can buy expensive items (such as a house or car) much sooner than you otherwise could if you waited until you saved the money. For example, it might take 10 years or more to build up enough money to purchase a house with cash, so if you don't want to wait that long, you'll need to finance it.


"Stock price is determined by the buyers and sellers, correct? Correct! ""Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it""-Publius Syrus What causes people to buy or sell? Is it news? earnings? stock analysis and techniques? All of these things influence investors' perception of how much a stock is worth. If AMZN makes a lot of money one quarter, then the price might go up. But maybe public perception of AMZN changes because of a large scandal. This could cause the share price to decline even with the favorable earnings report. Why do these 'good' or 'bad' news make people want to buy/sell a stock? People invest to make money. If it looks like a company is going to take a turn for the worst, people will sell. If it looks like the company has a bright, cash-laden future in front of them, people will buy. News is one of the many factors people use to determine how well a company will do. Theoretically could a bunch of people short AMZN and drive down the price regardless of how well it is doing? Say investors wanted to boycott AMZN in order to drive down the cost and get some cheap shares. This is pretty silly, but say for the sake of the argument that everyone who owned AMZN decided to sell their shares and no other investor was willing to buy the shares for less than $0.01, then AMZN shares would be ""worth"" $0.01 in that aspect. That is extremely unlikely to happen, though, for two reasons:"


Agree with Michael here. The exchanges help you more than they will hurt. It begs the question why you want to avoid exchanges and the brokers since they do provide a valuable service. If you want to avoid big fees, most of the discount brokerages have tiny fees these days (optionshouse is down to $4), plus many have deals where you get 60 or more trades for free.


This sounds like a crazy idea, but in reality people don't make the wisest decisions when considering bankruptcy in Australia.  My suggestion would be to get some advice from an insolvency specialist.


You should also be aware that there are banks that do business in the US that do not deal with Fannie Mae, and thus are not subject to the rules about conforming loans.  Here is an example of a well-known bank that lists two sets of rates, with the second being for loans of $750,000 or more (meaning the first covers everything up to that) https://home.ingdirect.com/orange-mortgage/rates


"This may sound very ""tongue in cheek"", but the best thing you can invest in is to raise your income in order to increase your retirement savings.  How much are you able to contribute to retirement now?  I think you would be lucky to do $150/month and most months probably less than that.  However, if you were making like 60k/year, and allowed a little lifestyle bloat, you could probably easy put away 20k/year.  Once you are able to do that the savings you can manage now will be quickly eclipsed.   Often times when people consider ""having their money work for them"" they often neglect to factor risk.  Prior to investing one should have a proper emergency fund in place.  That is 6 months or so of living expenses in a nice safe savings account.  Those earn about 1.25% these days, which is pretty meager, but it does earn something.   Once the emergency fund is in place, one can invest with impunity.  Without it, you will have to liquidate investments if economic calamity strikes you.  This could be done at a loss furthering the harm done by the calamity.   Increase your income and create an emergency fund.  Do those things first."


Why not just get a consolidated loan for 15K, and then $20K zero transfer? The Loan will have a payoff on the amount borrowed, probably a fixed payment which would be more than double the payment as if it were only $15K to start. That make sense?  If you are approved for both pieces of this, it should help, what is going to be the rate on the loan?  The process you are starting has 3 aspects - cut spending, reduce interest, minimize payment obligations. If you do anything to earn more, even a few hours a week it will add up.  I would not reduce any credit lines. In a perfect world, you will have a buffer of money to cover any expense. Until then, available access to money is important, but of course to be used either for emergencies or when cash is there to pay the bill in full when it comes in.


Your article uses two metrics, number of lawyers per capital and number of lawsuits. I don't think those simplistic metrics are sufficient to count as science or even a fully reasoned analysis. Perhaps number, + dollar value, +validity, +lawsuits that are threatened but not followed through with. I actually live in Germany, after having grown up in the us, and it's very clear to me that the US has a significantly shittier environment surrounding litigation.


"The ""Deferral"" for the 401k means that you're not collecting your pay immediately, but instead diverting it to a retirement account (Roth 401k in this case). This article defines deferral well: What is the difference between a regular 401(k) deferral (pre-tax) and a Roth 401(k) deferral?  Under either a regular 401(k) deferral or a Roth 401(k) deferral, you   make a deferral contribution by electing to set  aside part of your   pay (by either a certain percentage or a certain dollar amount).  For   a regular 401(k) deferral, the  taxable wages on your W-2 are reduced   by the deferral contribution; therefore, you pay less current income   tax.   However, you will eventually pay tax on these contributions and   earnings when the plan distributes the regular  401(k) deferrals and   earnings to you.  The result is that the tax on the regular 401(k)   deferrals and earnings is only  postponed.  A Roth 401(k) deferral is an after-tax contribution, which  means you   must pay current income tax on the deferral.   Since you have already   paid tax on the deferral, you won’t pay tax on it again when you   receive a distribution of  your Roth 401(k) deferral.  In addition, if   you satisfy cer tain distribution conditions, then you won’t have to   pay tax  on the earnings either.  This means  that the distribution of   the Roth 401(k) earnings can be tax free not just tax  postponed. Traditionally, this deferred compensation typically was directed to a 401k, but now that Roth 401k is another available option, deferred compensation can be directed there as well."


**Potlatch**  A potlatch is a gift-giving feast practiced by indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and the United States, among whom it is traditionally the primary economic system. This includes the Heiltsuk, Haida, Nuxalk, Tlingit, Makah, Tsimshian, Nuu-chah-nulth, Kwakwaka'wakw, and Coast Salish cultures. Potlatches are also a common feature of the peoples of the Interior and of the Subarctic adjoining the Northwest Coast, though mostly without the elaborate ritual and gift-giving economy of the coastal peoples (see Athabaskan potlatch).  Potlatches went through a history of rigorous ban by the Canadian federal government, continuing underground despite the risk of criminal punishment, and have been studied by many anthropologists.  ***  ^[ [^PM](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=kittens_from_space) ^| [^Exclude ^me](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiTextBot&message=Excludeme&subject=Excludeme) ^| [^Exclude ^from ^subreddit](https://np.reddit.com/r/business/about/banned) ^| [^FAQ ^/ ^Information](https://np.reddit.com/r/WikiTextBot/wiki/index) ^| [^Source](https://github.com/kittenswolf/WikiTextBot)   ^] ^Downvote ^to ^remove ^| ^v0.27


There are two answers to this (excluding central banks which are really just a banks to private banks):  **Please note:  This is an oversimplification and not accounting for the fact that banks operate in both categories now.  **  Banks are either depository institutions or financial service/transaction providers.  *  Depository institutions are your typical retail bank (regions, boa retail, wells fargo retail, etc).  They accept deposits from account holders and lend out via reserve lending to mortgages and business loans for their revenue generation.    * Financial service/transaction providers are better known as IBanks.  You have your Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, etc.  These have traditionally been banks that do not accept deposit accounts but revenue generation comes from financial services such as asset management and research or from financial transaction facilitation such as market making (offering both buy/sell quotes in capital markets).  This is generally the role that banks have played historically from the medieval ages on... They started out as being entities that provided access to connecting buyers and sellers of markets.


Not really. This just shows you might be able to fill huge orders a little less cheaply now, but then somebody else gets to fill it at a better price and the HFT/Market Maker took on some risk for some profit. That's pretty much the definition of providing liquidity. How is this raising prices? It's not. Raising prices would be if HFT bought like 2mil worth of stock and just held it for some time, then tried to sell it to you later at a better price, but that's just investing.