- Comprehensive Guide to Investing in Bond Funds
Investing in bond funds can diversify your portfolio, but it’s important to understand how they compare to other financial instruments. Like stocks or exchange-traded funds (ETFs), bond funds have unique advantages and disadvantages. They can be a low-cost option with consistent returns, but they also come with some unavoidable risk. A financial advisor can help… read more…
- How to Invest in Precious Metals
Investing in precious metals can help an investor diversify their portfolio. A healthy mix of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, or even an exchange-traded fund (ETF) or two can keep your portfolio balanced. However, there’s a lot of potential for investors… read more…
- How to Invest in the S&P 500 Stock Market Index
The S&P 500 is an index that tracks the 500 of the largest publicly traded companies on American stock markets. One way to invest in the S&P 500 is by purchasing individual shares of all 500 companies in the index. While possible, this strategy is highly impractical and difficult to manage. A more realistic option… read more…
- How Private Placement of Securities Works
A company can be more selective about who buys its shares if it sells them in a private placement. Shares sold in an initial public offering (IPO) are offered to the general public and tend to attract more attention. However, private… read more…
- What Is a Margin Account and How Does It Work?
Spotted a hot stock and can’t afford to invest as much as you’d like? A margin account allows you to borrow money from your brokerage firm to make the buy. But if trading money you don’t have sounds risky, that’s… read more…
- A Guide to Investing in Floating Rate Notes
Bonds are often the investment of choice for people seeking stability. They don’t yield much, unless you have sought out the junk market, but they come with highly stable returns. Bonds can be seen as the dad jokes of investing:… read more…
- A Comprehensive Guide to Dark Pool Investing
There’s one main reason someone would choose to conduct dark pool trading: It allows them to initiate trades without influencing the stock market. In turn, dark pool investing is a straightforward solution specifically for large-scale investors. That means you probably won’t need to get involved with it, since your trades are unlikely to affect the entirety of… read more…
- How Are Profit Margins Defined and Measured?
As a business owner, your profit margins may be key to making money and growing a company. Evaluating your profit margins can assist you with gauging the financial health of your company. In order for your business to succeed, you… read more…
- How to Invest in Startups
Investing in startups may seem like an opportunity that only exists for those willing and able to drop a few million into a fledgling tech company housed in a garage or a Stanford dorm room. While that type of investor… read more…
- What Is Current Ratio and How Do You Calculate It?
The current ratio is an accounting measure that tells you if a company can pay such short-term obligations as payroll and rent for the year. A good metric for investors to use when analyzing securities, the current ratio is a… read more…
- How to Use TreasuryDirect to Buy Government Bonds
Government bonds are one of the safest places to park cash. This is because they are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government, so there’s virtually no risk of default. The tradeoff for safety, of course,… read more…
- Free Investment Classes for Learning How to Invest
As you aspire toward a secure retirement and other financial milestones, investments become an increasingly important financial topic to know about. But those looking to gain knowledge about investing may have issues finding reliable sources. Luckily, the internet is home to many… read more…
- How to Invest Your Money
Investing can be an intimidating venture, but learning how to navigate the investment market is a life skill with plenty of upside. You can use the returns you earn from your investment portfolio to achieve a number of goals, such… read more…
- How (and Where) to Invest in Cryptocurrency
Although cryptocurrency has only been around for a short time, it has expanded into a wide, convoluted universe that can be difficult to understand for the uninitiated. But with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies seeing wild fluctuations in price, there’s an… read more…
- How to Invest in Penny Stocks: A Step-by-Step Guide
The allure of penny stocks isn’t surprising. The idea is to buy low-priced stocks with huge growth potential and then make a robust profit by selling if they go up substantially in value. The problem is that many people don’t… read more…
- How to Invest in a Hedge Fund
Hedge funds are more loosely regulated than traditional mutual funds and tend to invest in different types of securities. This can mean higher returns, but it can also mean higher fees and a greater risk of loss, as we’ve seen over the past… read more…
- How to Build and Manage a Bond Ladder
Investing doesn’t have to involve high risk or complex strategies. A bond ladder is a simple approach that can help you earn steady income over time. It works by spreading investments across bonds with different maturity dates, so some come due regularly. This creates a predictable cash flow and reduces exposure to interest rate changes.… read more…
- How to Become an Accredited Investor
An “accredited investor” is a person or entity with exclusive access to complex, loosely regulated and often opaque investments like hedge funds, leveraged buyouts and startups. To become an accredited investor the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires certain wealth, income or… read more…
- How to Invest in Commodities
The investment world is full of an overwhelming number of options, including equities, bonds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and more. Commodities may seem like just another one of the bunch, but these products offer a unique way to invest your money… read more…
- Making an Investment Plan: A Step-by-Step Guide
Making an investment plan involves more than just choosing a few stocks. You must also consider your current financial situation, as well as your goals for the future. It’s also important to define your timeline and determine how much risk you are willing to assume in order to determine your optimal asset allocation. These considerations… read more…
- How to Calculate Your Net Worth
We seem to have a fascination with the net worth of celebrities, but the wealthy aren’t the only ones whose net worth is of interest. It’s a good idea to know your own net worth so you can assess the state of your assets and liabilities and figure out how to increase your financial stability.… read more…
- 3 Passive Investments for Hands-Off Investors
Choosing the right investments is an important part of building wealth. If you don’t have the time to take an active role in managing your portfolio, you can still find investments that have a good chance of providing you with steady returns without requiring you to constantly monitor performance. The most hands-off investments will provide… read more…
- The Best Ways to Invest $1,000
You don’t have to be wealthy to become an investor. On the contrary, there are plenty of ways to invest smaller amounts of money. The key is finding investment opportunities that don’t charge excessive fees that can reduce the size… read more…
- How to Invest in Water
In the 2015 film The Big Short, hedge fund manager Dr. Michael Burry realizes that the mortgage market is about to implode. By the end of the movie, Burry decides to shift his investment focus to one thing: water. If you’re wondering… read more…
- What Is a Fiduciary Duty?
Fiduciary duty is an important topic of conversation, especially as debates continue over which financial professionals are obligated to uphold this standard for their clients. Simply put, fiduciary duty is a legal and ethical obligation to act in the best interests of another party. Understanding who is bound by this duty — and who is… read more…