Robot Trading Produces Automatic Profits. Robot Trading Produces Automatic Profits. Online Brokers Upgrade Retail Investor Tools. (Corrects number of commission-free ETFs offered by Fidelity in 8th paragraph and title of TD Ameritrade's Michael McGrath in 21st paragraph.) Institutional investors can deploy ultra-high-speed stock trades and complex strategies cooked up by PhDs to make their market bets. How can the little guy hope to keep up?
As part of an ongoing series on the latest tools and technologies available to online investors, Businessweek.com surveyed the efforts by online investing sites to equip smaller investors with advanced weapons to help narrow the gap. Websites such as such as Fidelity, TD Ameritrade (AMTD), and tradeMONSTER have come through with features that online traders couldn't have dreamed of little more than 10 years ago. New functions not only enable them to use advanced strategies such as identifying stocks whose options have unusually high volume on any given day, but also suggest ways to hedge trades. Do-it-Yourself Stock Screeners Trading Volume Slightly Down in 2010. Phone Apps Put a Bargaining Chip in the Car Buyer’s Hand. A new option if you want to invest in startups. Just a decade ago, if you wanted to invest in a startup you had to know someone.
A lawyer, an accountant, a friend of friend would give you a referral to a company looking to raise money, or they’d invite you to invest with them. That’s how you got in the door. You had to have a lot of money to play – often $50,000 or more. And the startups you’d see were from your geographical region. That traditional scenario left a lot of interested angel investors sitting on the sidelines. Today, it’s a lot easier to become an angel investor, due to crowd funding, micro lending and investment sites like MicroVenture Marketplace Inc., which is opening doors to those looking to invest $1,000 to $10,000 or more. The way to win at angel investing, of course, is to invest in the right startups. 1) Good deal flow from which to spot potential winners. 2) The ability to invest in multiple deals so you gain experience. 3) A knack for spotting companies, and more importantly people, who will succeed.
Which company is the biggest? A primer on corporate valuation. Update: When the markets closed on August 10, 2011, Apple ended up as the company with the largest market capitalization in the world ($337.17 billion), surpassing Exxon Mobil ($330.88 billion). This generated a new flurry of discussion about what "market cap" really means, so we felt it appropriate to re-publish our primer from earlier this year on the different ways to judge corporate valuation. Please note that we have not updated the data in this feature (originally published in February 2011), but we think the principles discussed in the piece are worth highlighting. So the order came down from the Orbiting HQ, and I'm here to make it happen: Make people a little more smarter than "DURR HUGE MARKET CAP DURRR!
" The data that follows was culled from Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poors, is current as of February 4, 2011, and reflects results over the last 12 months unless otherwise noted. Let's start with the simplest metrics. Market cap There is no single driver of this value.
Making Sense of your Credit Card Number. 21 Jul 2012 You credit card number may look like a random string of 16 digits but those digits reveal a little more than you think. couch mode print story You credit card number may look like a random string of 16 digits that’s unique in the world but those digits reveal a little more than you think. The first digit of the card represents the category of industry which issued your credit card. American Express is in the travel category and cards issued by them have 3 as the first digit. If you have VISA or MasterCard, your card’s first digit should be either 4 or 5 as they are from the banking and financial industry. The first six digits of your credit card number identify the institution that issued the card to you. You may even verify if a given credit card number is valid or not using simple addition. Tax-changes-for-2011-a-checklist: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance. It's customary for this column to start the year with a roundup of what's new for taxpayers.
Given last December's theatrics in Congress, some items on our list may seem familiar unless you were out mapping the tributaries of the Amazon. [Click here to check savings products and rates in your area.] But keeping tax details straight is tough—even for tax reporters. Our mailbox is full of queries from bewildered readers trying to sort out issues such as which Roth IRA conversion rules expired last year, how the new payroll tax cut works, or at what income level the zero rate on long-term capital gains ends. The most important point to remember is that last year's 11th-hour tax changes, though favorable for most, are temporary.
[See 6 Sources for Free Tax Help] That raises the dreary possibility that in less than two years we will be in a replay of last year's tax debates, but in the middle of a presidential campaign. Meanwhile, here are important changes for this year: Income Taxes. Roundup: Your End of Year Money Moves. Photo: AMagill December is a significant time for most of us, when we get to celebrate the holidays with cheer and maybe a touch of chaos.
It’s also when we take stock of the past year and start thinking about our financial and personal goals for the following year. The winter season sets the tone for reflection and contemplation. Most of us look back on the months behind us with a heart grateful for the wonderful things that have happened, as well as with a mind that’s been made aware of mistakes made, lessons learned and a hope and resolve that we’ll do better going forward. This form of reflection can help us tie up the loose ends of the past year and allow us to prepare for what’s ahead. Just as we clean out our attics, basements and closets, it may be time to take a look at our financial house and do a little cleaning before we ring in the New Year.
First up is Pick One, Just One. Then, when you’ve set your major goal for 2011, how about clearing the cobwebs in your mind? Credit-Card Rates On The Rise? Not At These Banks. Photo: TheTruthAbout… When President Obama signed the Credit CARD Act into law last May, industry analysts predicted that tighter, consumer-friendly regulations would force banks to hike credit-card interest rates for everybody. They were, of course, right. In the months leading up to February 2010, it seemed the banks had engaged in a rate-hike race in preparation of the new credit-card rules, which would prohibit “any time, any reason” interest-rate increases. According to the 2009 Credit Card Survey by advocacy organization Consumer Action, the big banks hiked interest rates noticeably between March and June 2009. A more recent report backs that trend further. Rate hikes have been in the news frequently in the past year, not to mention limit cuts, fees and account closures.
What hasn’t been making headlines nearly as much? You will not find their names on the top 10 banks list. Why? You might be able to do even better at your credit union. And they’re very demanding. FXtrek.com -- one stop for foreign exchange traders. AnnualCreditReport. Hot Trade in Private Shares of Facebook.