ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds): pros and cons
Exchange Traded Fund or ETF is a fund that tracks an index, but can be traded like a stock. They are like stocks because they: • trade all day long on the major stock market exchanges (mostly on the AMEX)…
Category: Investing
What is behind the numerous figures of the quarterly reports
Investors need to get an idea of what is behind the numerous figures of the quarterly reports. It can be hard for an inexperienced investor to understand the point of this obscure paperwork. The first thing to take note of…
Investing in Options
While many investors may believe that options are a product of recent financial innovation, options were, in fact, conceived thousands of years ago. Some market historians trace the origins of options as far back as ancient Greece and the philosopher…
Plan your retirement wisely
Most Americans save for retirement over their professional lives. It pays to think of your future while you are young and active as you need more and more money for a happy life in the old age. There are many…
How to pick a good mutual fund: watch the costs
Mutual funds have suffered a serious blow when the public learned about serious machinations in the industry. The public has heard a number of times that the majority of the funds underperform the average return of the stock market. However,…
Closed-end funds are: definition
A “closed-end fund,” legally known as a “closed-end company,” is one of three basic types of investment company. The two other basic types of investment companies are mutual funds (open-end investment companies) and Unit Investments Trusts (UITs). Here are some…
What are mid-caps?
With the stock market growing fast, stock mutual funds continue playing an important role. Mid caps, short for medium capitalization, refer to stocks with a capitalization in between $500 million and $7 billion. To understand properly mid caps, it is…
Stocks: your share of ownership in a company
Stock generally refers to shares of Common Stock or an “equity share” of a corporation. Each share of Common Stock represents a share of ownership in a company. The price of a stock generally represents investor expectations about the future…
Basic Terms of Bonds
Governments and corporations opt to issue bonds as a means of fundraising. When you purchase a bond, you effectively extend a loan to the issuer, and in return, they commit to repaying you the principal amount of the loan on…
All that you need to know about Bond Funds and Taxation
Many investors who want to reap the returns available in the corporate bond market may buy shares in bond mutual funds instead of individual bonds – or in addition to individual bonds. They do so for the same reasons investors…