Parent Category: Financial Services
From investing in the stock market, to foreign exchanges, to currency exchange and financial services.
Here are some quick links that most investors or market afficionados will find helpful:
Yahoo Finance - CNN Money - Google Finance
Currency Exchange Rates - Oil Prices - Gas Buddy
More on Trading ETFsI started out with Schwab ETFs. There are currently 13 ETFs available from Schwab that can be traded for free as often as you like with no minimums. Probably the biggest drawback of Scwab is they only have 13 available so it is a little more difficult to diversify. They also offer some very nice advanced trading tools such as StreetSmart. You can use this tool for free so long as you trade at least 3 times per month (and that includes the free ETF trading). You can also trade Schwab mutual funds for free as well, but as with all mutual funds you have to hold them for at least 30 days, or you could incur a penalty. Fidelity’s EFT offering is even better with 30 different products available. Again you can trade an unlimited number of ETFs for free and there is no minimum. The main consideration with Fidelity is you need at least $2500 to open up an account. I spoke with a nice gentlemen there name Rolando (Phone 800-544-5115 ext 75020), and I get the impression the people that work there can do things like code in free trades for other products, so it helps to call. I would also note that with Fidelity you can trade mutual funds for free as well, but there is typically a 30 day period in which you must hold the fund, or else you get a penalty. Also, with Vanguard everything is free all year long and they have 49 funds you can trade. There is no 30 day lockout. The ONLY catch is if you don't fund your account with at least $50,000 you have to pay a $20 annual fee for your money market account which you have to establish in order to trade. Beyond the $20, Vanguard by far has the best options. And finally, you might also want to checkout TD Ameritrade. They have the most ETFs that you can trade for free, but the catch with them is you have to hold them for 30 days (like a mutual fund). So if you want to have a buy and hold approach, this would be a great option for you. They also have a nice comparison chart comparing them to the others (but don’t tell you about the 30 day lockout period) I hope this info will be helpful to some of you. Best Wishes to All! | ||||||||||||||||
Easy Way to Start Investing with Exchange Traded Funds For those of you that have never invested, and mostly never bothered because you thought you needed a lot of money or were concerned about trading fees, you might be interested in looking into ETFs (or Exchange Traded Funds). Basically, they are like mutual funds but often there is no minimum purchase, and they can be traded as little or often as you like. You generally need to purchase at least one share which generally runs between $25-50 per share. Each “share” is like a mutual fund in that it is generally comprised of hundred or more securities. For example, you often hear people tell you that you should buy a mutual fund that follows the S&P 500. Well, you can do the same thing with an ETF for that $25-50 and trade for free (well, there is something called an “expense ratio” that is VERY small). Right now, at Schwab you can choose from about a dozen different Scwab ETFs and you can trade as often as you like, and there is no fee per trade. The expense ratio is as low as 0.06% (6 hundreds of 1 percent) for the broad market fund to 0.35% for some International ETFs. But basically you are trading absolutely free as often as you like and you can easily start investing with a budget as low as $30 or hold a few ETFs and still have only invested a couple hundred dollars. There are other investment firms that offer similar arrangements, and they are in somewhat of a price war right now, so it is a good time to weigh your option. Scottrade, Vanguard, and Fidelity offer similar deals as in found with Scwab. What is nice about Fidelity is you can get a 2% cashback credit card, and as you spend money at the grocery or other places, you build up money in your investment account, and you can use this money to get started. Good luck and best wishes to all! | ||||||||||||||||
Greek Debt and Goldman Sachs
The latest plan to help rescue Greece is not looking so good. It seems the plan has the following prescriptions:
- Raise income tax - Raise consumption tax - Decrease government spending - Lower wages for goverment employees - Lower benefits for government employees - Sell assets like airports or parks to raise money It seems there is every indication that Greece is merely extending the inevitable which is defaulting on the loans they owe. Worse still, with a growth rate of -6% last year, and about the same so far this year, there is very little hope that the situation can be changed anytime in the next few years. Greece will not be able to pay it's debt. One story that does not make the news on a regular basis is the involvement of Goldman Sachs in Greek debt. There was a time when Greece wanted to enter into the European Union, but they didn't have their books in order. In comes Goldman Sachs. They talked Greece into trading away proceeds from airport fees and lotteris in exchange for Goldman moving the debt into something that would not be traceable when audited by the EU. So basically Goldman bought off the debt, but also the revenue the government had used in the past to pay for things like pensions and salaries. Read all about it at the NY Times. It's hard to say for sure how this is going to go down, but once again we may find ourselves in a bailout situation where banks like Goldman risks their livelihood on Greece, and meanwhile received bailout funds and low interest loans from the American tax payer. When are we going to stop giving Wall Street banks preferencial treatment? (Please comment below this article! Help me build this blog) | ||||||||||||||||
Unemployment Rate Prediction for 2011
So where will the unemployment rate be at the end of 2011? One “no nonsense” financial blog I follow predicts it will be a little over 9%, so less than it is now, but not much better. Of course, there is a lot that can happen between now and then.
A big factor will be the GDP growth, and here is a little graph from Calculated Risk.
Another important factor is going to be participation rate. There is really no way to know how many people will stop looking. Certainly we have an again population. That could contribute to a more people leaving the workforce. On the other hand, as jobs increase, we could see an increase in people re-entering the workforce. It will be an interesting 2011, and let’s hope for the decrease in the unemployment rate! | ||||||||||||||||
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