Introduction for digital and physical goods

Dagong Global Credit Rating Co Ltd on Friday denied accusations of "generosity" in the ratings it has awarded to domestic companies and some local government bonds, which many market experts felt were high risk. Some media outlets pointed out that Dagong has awarded the highest rating (AAA) 156 times in the past year. Most of those AAA ratings were awarded to bonds issued by State-owned enterprises or local government financing vehicles which many experts consider to be a potential default risk. However, the agency claims that the number is misleading because "one company may have issued multiple debts within a year", and 156 was the total number of ratings given to all bond issuances by AAA-rated companies. "Although some issuing bodies do not have AAA ratings themselves, their bonds may get the highest rating because of good guarantees," said Jin Yongshou, Dagong's managing vice-president. There are only 39 issuers with a AAA rating on Dagong

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs envisions a new landscape in which personal computers no longer rule the digital world─but are just another device, like the company's hit smartphones and tablets. 'We're going to demote the PC and the Mac,' Mr. Jobs said, speaking at the company's developer conference in June. Hewlett-Packard Co. performed its own dramatic demotion Thursday, as the world's largest PC supplier disclosed it is considering plans that include a spinoff or sale of its personal-systems group, which brought in $40.74 billion in sales during its last fiscal year, or about a third of the company's total revenue. H-P shipped more than 64 million PCs during 2010, or about 18.5% of the total PC market, according IDC. The 'post-PC era,' as Mr. Jobs calls it, underscores several sharp changes in the behavior of both consumers and corporations that are shifting growth to the likes of Apple and Google Inc., and away from PC stalwarts like

China's Internet is the only strategic sector of the economy where private companies dominate. That oddity hasn't escaped the attention of the government. It shouldn't escape investors' attention either. China's Internet firms have been one of the year's best investments, with Baidu -- China's main search engine -- and Sina -- owner of the popular Weibo microblog -- at the center of the action. Sina's second-quarterresults, published Thursday, showed registered users for the Twitter-like service topping 200 million, triggering a 5.5% jump in a stock that had already doubled over the last year. But in their eagerness to buy a piece of the Chinese Internet dream, investors are overlooking the risk of government actions. Baidu had a reminder of the potential for problems this Monday when state broadcaster China Central Television aired a 30-minute special exposing negligence by members of the sales force in allowing fraudulent adverts on its platform. B

With the Dow down 10% over the last five sessions, some of you are probably wondering whether I'm still crazy enough to be buying stocks. You know the answer. Of course I am. Call me naïve, call me delusional. But I bought last Thursday and last Monday. I bought again yesterday ─ and if the market heads lower today, I'll probably buy once more. No, I'm not ignorant of America's stumbling economy, France's impending S&P downgrade or Wall Street's sundry woes. It's just that U.S. large-cap stocks are already pricing in lots and lots of bad news. To be comfortable buying stocks at this level, I only have to be less pessimistic about future long-term corporate earnings than all the panicky sellers. And that's easy. To start, most of the sellers aren't thinking about profits and they're certainly not thinking long-term. Heck, most of them aren't thinking at all. Fifty to sixty percent of all NYSE trading volume is driven by high-

Immediately after Standard & Poor’s rating agency announced its historic downgrade of US sovereign debt last Friday, China’s official Xinhua news agency published a scathing editorial, excoriating the profligate western nation for its “debt addiction”. “The US government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone,” it thundered, as it reminded Americans that China was the largest foreign holder of their government’s debt. The implicit assertion behind this fierce outburst was that China, in stark contrast to the US, was a country that understood “the commonsense principle that one should live within its means”. Indeed, the Chinese central government’s declared gross debt was only about 17 per cent of gross domestic product at the end of 2010 – tiny when compared with the debt-to-GDP ratios for the US (87 per cent), UK (80 per cent) and Japan (210 per cent). S&P and

Convertible bonds allow investors to receive regular bond interest payments. Convertible bonds also allow upside appreciation if the stock underlying the bond rises. Bond prices vary with the risk of the credit security of the bond, the interest rate level of the bond coupon, and movement of the stock price above the conversion price, as well as the length of time before the conversion ends. Convertible bonds of high-quality issuers represent a reasonable investment with moderate risk for most investors. Instructions Things You'll Need Spreadsheet program Bond price and yield calculator 1 Use a bond calculator and find a bond of similar credit to the convertible bond--but one that is not convertible. Estimate the current yield to maturity of the plain bond. Enter the coupon rate and maturity of the convertible bond and the yield to maturity of the similar bond. The calculated price represents the bond value of the convertible. Subtract the result from the ma

The stock market is a place where investors can purchase publicly traded shares of thousands of companies. It can take years to become proficient in stock market trading. As you hone your trading skills and try to make a profit investing in stocks, take some advice from a few tips for the stock market that can help you learn the ways of stock market investing. Research You should never buy a stock based solely on a tip you received from someone you know, according to Warren Buffett, writing on the MSN Money website. A good stock market investor researches the companies she is considering investing in to see what kind of new products the companies are releasing, to look for the past financial performance of the company and look to see where the company stands in the marketplace among the competition. Never buy a stock because there are a lot of people buying it. You should only purchase stocks that you have done your homework on and feel comfortable about. Trading V

With the federal government faced with economic stagnation and mounting deficits, the temptation is strong for policymakers to pursue inflationary measures, which have the short-term effect of boosting exports and employment and making existing debts easier to repay. To that end, the Federal Reserve announced a 600 billion dollar "quantitative easing," or expansion of the money supply, in late 2010. The risks of such a policy, however, include a declining dollar and the rapid increase in the costs of commodities and anything exported from abroad. Instructions 1 Buy foreign securities. These securities can be bonds, stocks or sovereign debt--as long as the original security is not denominated in dollars. If the dollar falls in value relative to the other currency, the price of the security in dollars will go up. You can easily purchase foreign securities by contacting a broker and purchasing ADRs, or American Depositary Receipts, which represent shares of ownershi

When seeking free stock trading advice, remember that nothing is free and that you get what you pay for. Good stock trading advice is still worth paying for. However, there is plenty of free stock trading advice available in print and online -- you just need to know where to look and how to use it. Books The best books on stock trading are written by former traders who made a lot of money in the stock market. The best stock trading methods have withstood the test of time, working well in different markets. A book on stock trading that is 20 or even 50 years old could still be valid today. Many good books on stock trading are available free at the library. Stock-Picking Groups The number of Internet stock-picking groups and forums has mushroomed in recent years but the number of good traders has not changed much so it has become harder to meet a good stock trader online and avail yourself of his knowledge for free. It may take you a while to find a good st

The other day a bright young diplomat from China set me an examination question. My first thought was that it sprang from that admirable Chinese trait of searching out enduring patterns in the clatter and chaos of events. Then it struck me that anyone watching the train crashes on either side of the Atlantic should be asking something similar. The US faces an unsustainable debt burden alongside sustained political paralysis. Strategic decision-making is held hostage to ideological polarisation. Democrats and Republicans may well escape a calamitous default with an 11th-hour deal on the debt ceiling. But a sticking plaster will not bridge the rancorous divide over tax and spending that piles deficit on deficit. In Europe, the stakes have been higher still. The European Union’s core project, the single currency, has been buckling under the weight of sovereign debt and political discord. Solidarity has been lost to resurgent nationalisms. Germany’s Angela Merkel says that 60-odd years

Selloffs are a great time to look for bargains─with one caveat: They make all stocks look cheap, increasing the risk that your bargain is really an overpriced bust. That's even more true after Monday's market rout. Stocks, of course, are cheaper than they have been since September 2010: The Dow Jones Industrial Average has dropped about 16.4% since peaking in April, while the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index has dropped about 18.3% since its peak. Valuations are cheaper than they have been all year: The S&P 500's price/earnings ratio, which is calculated by dividing the current market price by the total profits of the companies in the index, is currently about 10.07, based on 2012 earnings estimates. One month ago it was over 12. Yet the uncertainty about the economic environment makes it difficult to trust those valuation numbers. Part of the problem is that most widely cited measures of P/E are based either on analyst forecasts, which tend to be overopt

Chinese officials are understandably angry about the irresponsible brinkmanship demonstrated by their American counterparts in recent weeks. Unfortunately, anger counts for little in international finance. The danger facing the US is that after Tuesday’s debt deal any sense of urgency over a dire fiscal situation will dissipate. The danger for China is that it does not learn the right lesson – namely, that now is the time to end its dependency on the US dollar. China is worried about the possibility of a US default for obvious reasons. As the largest foreign holder of US Treasuries, either a default or a downgrade would bring huge losses. Even after this week’s debt deal, however, the risk remains that US debt will continue to grow to the point where its government is left with no option but to inflate the burden away. While there is little China can do about its existing Treasury holdings, it can rethink past policies – and ask both how it fell into this trap, and how it might free

As concerns grow that the global economy may be running into a ditch again, adding to the uncertainty is doubt that China will be able to lift it out this time around. The plunge in global markets this week exposed anxiety about another bout of economic malaise and a 'double-dip' recession in the U.S. at a time when the euro zone is struggling to contain its long-simmering sovereign-debt crisis. Last time around, after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, China launched a massive four trillion yuan ($622 billion) spending plan that didn't just keep growth in its own economy on track, but helped to steady the world economy at a crucial time. The railways, bridges and buildings it built as part of its stimulus package fed demand for raw materials from resource-rich countries like Australia and Brazil. Chinese consumers kept buying things like cars and computers, helping to buoy the business of multinational corporations even as demand in developed markets fizzled. China'

“Wall Street” is a classic film of the 80s business. This is the work of Oliver Stone, is set in New York City, was released in December 1987, just two months after the stock market crash that year. With all the stars, including Charlie Sheen, Michael Douglas, Martin Sheen, Daryl Hannah, James Spader, Terence Stamp, Hal Holbrook and Sean Young, the film follows Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen), a stockbroker, naive not hungry yet willing to do whatever it takes to achieve his dream of money and power. movie opens in the midst of organized chaos that environment Bud worked at Jackson & Steinham brokerage firm. It soon became clear that he is determined to pursue an interview with his hero, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas). Gekko is a highly competitive corporate raider, known for its ability to find undervalued companies, buy them, and then sell their assets for a quick profit, regardless of the effect of his actions on others. Once called Gekko’s office for 39 consecutive days in a failed a

The 2008 market collapse followed a loss of confidence in the financial system. The current collapse follows a loss of confidence in government ability, both in the U.S. and in Europe, to continue propping things up. A healthy stock market is one in which investors don't care about the government; they focus on the strength of the companies whose stocks they are buying. Today, both the stock market and the economy have become dependent on government support, and the current crisis grows from a fear that governments are losing control of the situation. Investor reaction reflects that quandary. Calls have begun for government aid: a fresh Federal Reserve stimulus program, or tax cuts aimed at spurring business investment, or perhaps both. Either of those could theoretically turn stocks higher, at least temporarily. But with many major corporations sitting on record cash hoards that they are uninterested in investing, the problem isn't the absence of ready cash in the syst

from Peter Radford I’m bored with debt defaults. No one seems to worry about them, so I won’t. How about insider trading? That sounds like fun. The much heralded Galleon case and the guilty finding against a well respected money manger has confused Wall Street. The boys and girls down there are throwing a hissy fit. How can someone with a little bit of information not be expected to try to make a buck? After all the whole point of getting those special hints, clues, and facts is to end run the market, make a fortune, preen in fancy restaurants, and retire early in order to serve the public as an official in the Treasury Department. Well, maybe not that last bit. The point is information is the grist that makes the market work. So he, or she, who has information, has a nugget worth a great deal. Since sharing is not a gene found in these folk’s DNA, they naturally like to hoard and then deploy these nuggets to their own advantage. This game is time honored. It’s the way the wo

Stock insider trading is a feature of the investment strategy of George Muzea, the author of the book The Vital Few: The Trivial Many. He describes an approach to investing that uses the buying and selling activities of company insiders to inform investment decisions. One can define insider trading as trading carried out by company insiders, namely the directors and CEOs of companies. In his book Muzea is referring to legal rather than illegal insider trading. Illegal insider trading refers to insider trading on information about the company that has been withheld from the market. Insider Investment Strategy Muzea's investment style is 'top down'. He buys both value and growth stocks but only if there is insider buying to support the decision to purchase. He follows the 80:20 rule of the 19th century economist Vilfredo Pareto (the Pareto Principle) which, from a stock market perspective, he adapts to call the 'Vital Few and the Trivial Many rule'. The &

Stock market information can be found in a variety of forms and include stock market abbreviations, stock market articles, stock market data, stock market graphs, and much more. Stock Market History Stock market history is extensive and colorful as it includes the birth of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), stock market crashes, the development of regulatory bodies to reduce illegal behavior and the effect of communications advances on the manner in which stocks are traded. One important point that one learns from the history of the stock market is that, despite major reverses, stock prices have always recovered to beat the previous market highs - but sometimes it doesn't pay to hold your breath. Find out why by following the link stock market history. Stock Market Trends It is important for the value investor to be able to identify stock market trends as these provide a context for the current state of the stock market. For example, in a 'bull' market, most stocks

Stock market manipulation is any activity that attempts to interfere with the proper operation of the stock market and create artificially distorted stock prices. This type of activity is prohibited in the United States under Section 9(a)(2)[2] of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. In Australia a similar prohibition is covered under Sections 1041A of the Corporations Act 2001. Types of Market Manipulation Market manipulation can occur in a variety of ways including ... Churning - when a trader places both buy and sell orders at about the same price. The increase in activity is intended to attract additional investors, and increase the price. Rumoring - when a group of traders create activity or rumors in order to drive the price of a stock up, sometimes referred to in the US as 'ramping' (the market up). Wash trading - selling and re-purchasing the same or substantially the same security for the purpose of generating activity and increasing the price, or creating a

Illegal insider trading is the buying or selling of an investment based on information not generally available to the investing public. Officers of companies often buy and sell stock in their company. While this is technically insider trading, it is not illegal in of itself. Insider trading has the potential to manipulate stock prices to the harm of the investing public and to make insiders considerable profits based on unfair access to information about the company. Significance of Insider Trading Insider trading undermines the integrity of the investing system and therefore discourages non-insiders from investing unless they believe they are on something approaching the same footing as insiders who are investing. Allowing insider trading to go unchecked would reduce the number of investors willing to invest capital and therefore could potentially harm the economy as a whole. Identification of Insider Trading Illegal insider trading can be conducted by people who are not employed

The benefits of risk management in the stock market make strategies to manage risk an essential part of successful investment management. Many investors have employed a simple buy and hold strategy that has destroyed wealth and has set back many retirement plans a decade or more. Remember, a 50% loss requires a 100% gain to breakeven. A 10% loss only requires an 11% gain to get back to breakeven. Portfolio risk management requires: 1. Identification of potential risks. 2. Assessment of the magnitude and probability of those risks occurring. 3. Choosing a path or technique to optimize the risks and rewards of the portfolio. The two major potential risk categories to identify are systematic risk and unsystematic risk. Systematic risk is risk associated with market returns. These are risks that are affected by macroeconomic factors that affect the market as a whole. These risks would include changes in interest rates, inflation, recessions, war, etc. Unsystematic risk is c

You can never eradicate systemic risk, which collapses the entire financial system, but only reduce it in the stock market. However it’s up to different regulators to decide as to what level of risk they are comfortable in taking, share market participants say. “Given the levels the markets have gone up to, the lack of capital adequacy in Sri Lanka's brokers and the overall exposure to the stock market from the banks, both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Central Bank have done a decent job," Deshan Pushparajah, Manager Corporate Finance, Capital Alliance told the Business Times. Lessons learnt – Bangladesh He added that provided margin trading licenses are provided to related companies of the brokers (which will meet requisite capital adequacy standards) there will be little effect to the market itself. "Again, what level of risk the regulator wishes to take, changes from country to country, but given the causes of the current global economic cris

New investors entering the stock market have a world of technical ratios and jargon to learn before fully understanding the underlying structure of equities, and even then, market movements often defy logic and burn even the most experienced investors. Some investors opt to purchase index or mutual funds to avoid the complexities of selecting individual stocks. Others may trust a financial advisor to do all the trading at a premium. However, if you are a younger investor with decades before retirement, trading stocks through a bare bones electronic brokerage like E*Trade or Ameritrade can be a far more profitable and rewarding experience, provided that you understand risk management, and how to gauge the risk and volatility of individual securities. All stocks are subject to two forms of risk - systematic and non-systematic. Systematic risk is the risk that all publicly traded equities share due to market-wide movements. This is usually defined by macro-economic events, such as inter

The stock market is at once both the biggest creator of wealth in modern times and a risky activity, and this is no coincidence. When economists analyze risk, defined in one sense as exposure to a chance or loss or damage, they tend to find that risk and potential reward are positively correlated. The stock market, one of the most profitable investment vehicles of our time, has a variety of risks, which new investors should recognize and understand. Basic Categories of Risk: Systematic Risk There are two types of risk that will always be present in most investments: systematic risk and unsystematic risk. Systematic risk can be thought of as macrorisk, or a game changing risk. For example, political events, natural disasters, nuclear attacks and other fairly unpredictable events could at any time affect the stock price of many stock market assets, and therefore your assets as well. It is very difficult to avoid systematic risk, although professionals try to anticipate th