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Improving Your Relationship with Money In 2018

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Improving Your Relationship with Money In 2018

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The turning of the calendar year is traditionally a time when you feel inspired by the possibilities of a new start, a new beginning, and the onset of positive change. It can be a time that is empowering, energetic and life supporting; it can forever alter the trajectory towards a more successful money life.

But like any change, you want to consider the good, the bad, the ugly, and importantly, the challenges that transitions can bring.

You can conquer your transition by distilling it down to key essential components:

1. As Simon Sinek says, “Start with Why.” Understand not only why change is beneficial to your life but also that the outcomes are so powerful and important that no other choice remains. Begin with a declaration.

For example: I must become debt-free within the next 12 months; or

I must accumulate X dollars to go towards a down payment on a home, or

We must open and fund a college savings program for my child by February 1.

You get the drill; it’s about why, in your heart and mind, something must occur. These are known as your “Money Musts.”

2. The second step is to get a handle on where you are right now. If your “must” is to pay off your credit cards, then you have to know exactly how much money you owe, to whom, and how much money you have to reduce the debt. Using credit card debt as the example, you might need to tighten your belt and alter some of your spending decisions to a greater or lesser degree. If paying off the cards is so important, ask yourself what you’re willing to do to make that happen!

The same question applies for savings and investment goals. If you cannot make more money, the cash flow needs to come out of your current spending and shifts need to be made in your spending habits.

3. Look back to look forward. Your money beliefs, habits and behavior typically stems from your childhood. What you heard, synthesized, and adopted from your early life becomes your “normal” in adulthood. However, just because this is what you grew up believing doesn’t make it necessarily appropriate or beneficial for you today. Consider that those beliefs, habits and behaviors might not support your adult values—or your partner’s, if you have one. If that’s true for you, it’s time to rethink your beliefs, rewire your habits and realign your behavior to actuate your life today and your future goals.

4. Anchor past successes. Can you remember a time when you made a successful change? It doesn’t matter how small it might seem, but if you can recall what you did and how your mindset impacted the outcome, it can be a powerful tool in working towards success on your New Year’s resolution. Remember the feeling you had when you accomplished your goal; and use that sentiment to commit and motivate you to make future positive changes and money habits.

5. Consider the roadblocks. If you’ve ever been on a diet, you know that somewhere between the first day of eating sensibly and you reaching your goal, there will be a piece of chocolate cake, dish of ice cream, candy bar or bagel that looks you right in the eye and demands you to eat it—tempting you to veer off your track to success. Your ability to get past that “demand” is the difference between success and failure.

These transition periods can be hard to overcome, but if you know it’s coming and manages your expectations so as not to be surprised or off put, they are less difficult to conquer. This is where you need a support system, so that when that part of your brain is telling you to dig into some retail therapy or that delicious looking cookie, you need to be armed with the strength to resist. This is where having friends and professionals around you to help support you is so vital.

Surround yourself with those who have the expertise and the willingness to help support and guide you through the process of getting yourself to where YOU want to go.

6. Small steps rule! Setting up small steps leads to successes and lowers the pain threshold. Small steps are less intimidating and tend to be easier to envision; and thus take action on. If you are currently paying the minimum on the credit card each month, consider the following: pay your bill every time you get paid, not when the bill is due.

Taking this small advanced action step can make a big difference. Find places in your spending that hold less value to you than getting out of debt. Start with the areas of the least pain. For example, set a smaller entertainment budget by, say, $100 per month and adding that $100 to your payment. Think of the things you can change that won’t kill you, but that will help decrease your debt each pay period.

7. Missteps are common. It’s not uncommon to make mistakes. If you’re changing your eating habits, and one day you fall to the desire for a piece of cake, there is nothing preventing you from starting the next day anew with the understanding that a misstep is not fatal. The same applies to changing your money behaviors. You decide your goals and the road to get there.

8. Appreciate the journey. Celebrate each success each step forward deserves acknowledgment. The act of focusing on what you did right sets up the next victory. Each dollar you pay off, or dollar that you accumulate, brings you closer to your ultimate goal. Don’t wait to celebrate! Build one victory on top of the other. You deserve it.

Your New Year’s resolution can be the beginning of a new, richer and a more purposeful money life. It requires awareness, action and support to take it from thought to action. I know you can do it!

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How to Invest In the Next and Current Big Thing: The Gaming Industry

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How to Invest In the Next and Current Big Thing: The Gaming Industry

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The gaming industry is where it’s at right now. This is a great industry to invest in, because it’s an industry that generates billions, is adored by millions, and has a golden age just around the corner. As a freelance developer and someone who runs my own small company, I am fully invested in this industry already. But there are other ways you can invest without resorting to starting your own company.

Gaming Stocks

One of the ways you can invest is to buy stocks in listed gaming companies. There are many of these, including some of the biggest ones. The likes of Activision and Electronic Arts are on the stock exchange. If it’s mobile gaming you want to invest in then sink your money in King or ZYNGA.

One of the key things to remember here is that the start-ups, the indie companies and the other small timers are not listed. There are penny stocks for smaller companies, but these still tend to be multi-million dollar companies.

You can also go for the big boys, buying stock in Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, all of which are listed on stock exchanges around the world.

Investing in Games via Crowdfunding

There are crowdfunding sites that will let you invest in games that are being made. I like this option, but only if a few requirements are met. Firstly, I don’t care if they offer me a free game or a download code to get one. I want one that is limited edition, otherwise I’m not investing I’m just buying.

I also want to know that they will make the game and not just runaway with the money. A good way to work this out if they have made games in the past and if they actually have some of the game made. As any game developer will tell you, just because they have an idea and some artwork doesn’t mean anything will come of it.

I can’t tell you how many projects I have that will never get out of the development stage. Sometimes you find out that it’s just too costly, just not possible, or that there is a logistics nightmare when it comes to development, release and marketing.

Direct Invest

The best way to get your money into successful ideas is to put yourself out there as an investor looking to back developers with money. You can set the requirements, you can make the demands and you can make sure that the project is worthy. Don’t just offer to put money behind them though.

You should play an active role. I had someone do this with me and my company early on. They were a friend of a friend who knew I was getting involved with gaming, had some money to spare and wanted their own share. They helped to get my business off the ground, but they also help with the production and outsourcing, they help with the marketing, and they do so much more.

If you’re getting a big share of a company or game, then make sure you give them your money’s worth.

Is It Worth It?

I recently worked with someone who had received a large windfall and he invested most of this in websites, games and apps. It sounded crazy when I first heard about it and as someone who was only working on a few of his gaming ideas; I believed it was crazy right until the end.

I finished the job, I was paid and then I made my exit. It was fun. I met a nice guy and I learned that there are people out there willing to invest basically all they have on what I believed was a whim. However, I later discovered that one of the games I had worked on was a success. I had a small role, but I recognized it and I was pleasantly surprised to see it had done well.

Still, not quite enough to justify investing all of your windfall, right? Well, I then heard that this investor had succeeded with most of his games, his sites and a few apps. Using a substantial investment he had created a very successful media company. Most of his success came from the Chinese market, but money was money. He is now doing incredibly well, and all of this came even though he has no programming skills of any kind.

It goes to show that if you have the ideas, the money and the determination, this is a great industry to invest in. Of course, you really do need to work hard and it’s a huge risk, but it’s worked for many and it could work for you. Personally, as long as you hire me to do the work, I don’t mind either way!

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4 Types of Stock Market Investment Strategies (Part 2)

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4 Types of Stock Market Investment Strategies (Part 2)

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3. Trading

Advances in technology, lower commission rates, and the appearance of online brokerage firms have enabled individuals to employ tools and systems of increasing sophistication to follow and interpret the market. Individuals and Wall Street firms alike have embraced a new trading philosophy, with many employing artificial intelligence programs and complex algorithms to buy and sell huge stock positions in microseconds.

A trader is someone who buys and sells securities within a short time period, often holding a position less than a single trading day. Effectively, he or she is a speculator on steroids, constantly looking for price volatility that will enable a quick profit and the ability to move on to the next opportunity. Unlike a speculator who attempts to forecast future prices, traders focus on existing trends – with the aim of making a small profit before the trend ends. Speculators go to the train depot and board trains before they embark; traders rush down the concourse looking for a train that is moving – the faster, the better – and hop on, hoping for a good ride.

The bulk of trading occurs through financial institutions’ programmed systems to analyze price trends and place orders. Emotion is removed from the buy-sell decision; trades are automatically entered if and when a specific criterion is reached. Sometimes referred to as “algorithmic or high-frequency trading (HFT),” the returns can be extraordinarily high. A 2016 academic study of HFTs revealed that fixed costs of HFT firms are inelastic, so firms that trade more frequently make more profits than firms with fewer transactions with trading returns ranging from 59.9% to almost 377%.

The impact of high-frequency trading and the firms engaged in the activity remains controversial – a 2014 Congressional Research Service report detailed instances of price manipulation and illegal trading methods such as detailed in Michael Lewis’ book “Flash Boys.” There are also concerns that automated trading reduces market liquidity and exacerbates major market disruptions, such as the May 6, 2010, market crash and recovery – the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 998.5 points (9%) in 36 minutes. A similar crash happened August 24, 2015 when the Dow fell more than 1000 points at the market open. Trading was halted more than 1,200 times during the day in an effort to calm down the markets.

While few individuals have the financial ability to emulate the trading habits of the big institutions, day trading has become a popular strategy in the stock market. According to a California Western Law Review report, day trading continues to attract adherents, even though 99% of day traders are believed to eventually run out of money and quit. Many become day traders due to the enticement of day trading training firms, an unregulated industry that profits from the sale of instruction and automated trading software to their customers. The sales materials imply that the software is similar to the sophisticated, expensive software programs of the big traders, such as Goldman Sachs.

Day trading is not easy, nor for everyone. According to Chad Miller, managing partner of Maverick Trading, “Everyone glorifies it [day trading], but its hard work…you can’t just turn on the computer and buy a stock and hope you make money.” Day trading generally involves tens of trades each day, hoping for small profits per trade, and the use of margin – borrowed money – from the brokerage firm. In addition, margin traders who buy and sell a particular security four or more times a day in a five-day period are characterized as “pattern day traders,” and subject to special margin rules with a required equity balance of at least $25,000.

Despite the number of new day traders entering the market each year, many securities firms and advisors openly discourage the strategy. The Motley Fool claims that “day trading isn’t just like gambling; it’s like gambling with the deck stacked against you and the house skimming a good chunk of any profits right off the top.”

4. Bogeling (Index Fund Investing) – A New Philosophy

Frustrated by inconsistent returns and the time requirements to effectively implement a fundamentalist or speculator strategy, many securities buyers turned to professional portfolio management through mutual funds. According to the Investment Company Institute’s Profile of Mutual Fund Shareholders, 2015, almost 91 million individuals owned one or more mutual funds by mid-2015, representing one-fifth of households’ financial assets. Unfortunately, the Institute learned that few fund managers can consistently beat the market over extended periods of time. According to The New York Times, “The truth is that very few professional investors have actually managed to outperform the rising market over those years [2010-2015].”

Influenced by the studies of Fama and Samuelson, John Bogle, a former chairman of Wellington Management Group, founded the Vanguard Group and created the first passively managed index fund in 1975. Now known as the Vanguard 500 Index Fund Investor Shares with a minimum investment of $3,000, it is the precursor of many similar index funds managed by Vanguard – including the largest index mutual fund in the world, the Vanguard 500 Index Fund Admiral Shares, with assets of $146.3 billion and a minimum investment requirement of $10,000.

Despite the industry skeptics about index investing, Bogle’s faith in index investing was unshaken. The following statements express his views, and are the basis of his book, “The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns.”

·         Investors as a group cannot outperform the market because they are the market.
·         Investors as a group must under-perform the market, because the costs of participation – largely operating expenses, advisory fees, and portfolio transaction costs – constitute a direct deduction from the market’s return.
·         Most professional managers fail to outpace appropriate market indexes, and those who do so rarely repeat in the future their success in the past.

The fund was initially ridiculed as “Bogle’s Folly” by many, including Forbes in a May 1975 article entitled “A Plague on Both Houses.” (The magazine officially retracted the article by Forbes writer William Baldwin in an August 26, 2010 article.) The Chairman of Fidelity Investments, Edward C. Johnson III, doubted the success of the new index fund, saying, “I can’t believe that the great masses of investors are [sic] going to be satisfied with just average returns. The name of the game is to be the best.” Fidelity subsequently offered its first index fund – the Spartan 500 Index Fund – in 1988 and offers more than 35 index funds today.

With the success of index mutual funds, it is not surprising that exchange traded funds (ETFs) emerged 18 years later with the issue of the S&P 500 Depository Receipt (called the “spider” for short). Similar to the passive index funds, ETFs track various security and commodity indexes, but trade on an exchange like a common stock. At the end of 2014, the ICI reported that there were 382 index funds with total assets of $2.1 trillion.

Multiple studies have confirmed Bogle’s assertion that beating the market is virtually impossible. Dr. Russell Wermers, a finance professor at the University of Maryland and a coauthor of  “False Discoveries in Mutual Fund Performance: Measuring Luck in Estimating Alphas,” claimed in an article in The New York Times that  the number of funds that have beaten the market over their entire histories is so small that the few who did were “just lucky.” He believes that trying to pick a fund that would outperform the market is “almost hopeless.”

Some of America’s greatest investors agree:

Warren Buffett. The Sage of Omaha, in his 1996 Berkshire Hathaway shareholder letter, wrote, “Most institutional and individual investors will find the best way to own common stock is through an index fund that charges minimal fees.”

Dr. Charles Ellis. Writing in the Financial Analysts’ Journal in 2014, Ellis said, “The long-term data repeatedly document that investors would benefit by switching from active performance investing to low-cost indexing.”

Peter Lynch. Described as a “legend” by financial media for his performance while running the Magellan Fund at Fidelity Investments between 1977 and 1980, Lynch advised in a Barron’s April 2, 1990 article that “most investors would be better off in an index fund.”

Charles Schwab. The founder of one of the world’s largest discount brokers, Schwab recommends that investors should “buy index funds. It might not seem like much action, but it’s the smartest thing to do.”

Adherents to index investing are sometimes referred to as “Bogel-heads.”  The concept of buying index funds or ETFs rather than individual securities often includes asset allocation – a strategy to reduce risk in a portfolio. Owning a variety of asset classes and periodically re-balancing the portfolio to restore the initial allocation between classes reduces overall volatility and ensures a regular harvesting of portfolio gains.

In recent years, a new type of professional management capitalizing on these principals – robo-advisors – has become popular. The new advisors suggest portfolio investments and proportions of each allocated in ETFs based upon the client’s age and objectives. Portfolios are automatically monitored and re-balanced for fees substantially lower than traditional investment managers.

Final Word

Stock market profits can be elusive, especially in the short term. As a consequence, those seeking to maximize their returns without incurring undue risk constantly search for the perfect strategy to guide their activity. Thus far, no one has discovered or developed an investment philosophy or strategy that is valid 100% of the time. Investment gurus come and go, praised for their acumen until the inevitable happens and they join the roster of previously humbled experts. Nevertheless, the search for a perfect investment philosophy will continue.

As a participant in the securities market, you should recognize that owning securities can be stressful. Just as you do not know the events of tomorrow and how investors will react to news and rumors, so you do not have the certainty of profits in the stock market. So enjoy those days when fortune and goals come together, but remember and prepare for the times of disappointment, for they will be many.

What guides your decisions to buy and sell securities? Have you had success with one of the philosophies above?

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4 Types of Stock Market Investment Strategies (Part 1)

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4 Types of Stock Market Investment Strategies (Part 1)

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Trading is a relatively recent phenomenon made possible by the technology of communication networks and the development of the paper stock ticker. Details of stock transactions – stock symbols, the number of shares, and prices – were collected and transmitted on paper strips to machines located in brokerage offices across the country. Specialized employees using their memory, paper and pencil notes, and analytical skills would “read” the tapes and place orders to buy or sell stocks on behalf of their employer firms.

As a young trainee on Wall Street in the early 1960s, I remember the gray-haired, bespectacled old men bent over and concentrating on the inch-wide tapes spooling directly into their hands from the ticker. As technology improved to offer direct electronic access to price quotes and immediate analysis, trading – buying and selling large share positions to capture short-term profits – became possible for individual investors.

While the term “investing” is used today to describe to anyone and everyone whoever buys or sells a security, economists such as John Maynard Keynes applied the term in a more restrictive manner. In his book, “The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money,” Keynes distinguished between investment and speculation. He considered the former to be a forecast of an enterprise’s profits, while the latter attempted to understand investor psychology and its effect on stock prices.

Benjamin Graham – whom some consider to be the father of security analysis – agreed, writing that the disappearance of the distinction between the two was “a cause for concern” in his 1949 book The Intelligent Investor. While Graham recognized the role of speculators, he felt that “there were many ways in which speculation could be unintelligent.”

While there are observable differences in the goals and methods of the different philosophies, their successful practitioners share common character traits:

·         Intelligence. Successful investors, speculators, and traders must have the ability to collect and analyze diverse, even conflicting, data to make profitable decisions.
·         Confidence. Success in the securities market often requires taking a position in opposition to the majority view. Like Warren Buffett advised in a New York Times editorial, “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.” In a letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, he noted the Noah Rule: “Predicting rain doesn’t count. Building arks does.”
·         Humility. Despite one’s best preparation, intention, and effort, errors occur and losses inevitably happen. Knowing when to retreat is as important as knowing when to dare. As Sir John Templeton, founder of the mutual fund family with his name, said, “Only one thing is more important than learning from experience, and that is not learning from experience.”
·         Effort. Christopher Browne, a partner in the New York brokerage firm Tweedy, Browne Company LLC and author of “The Little Book of Value Investing,” claims, “Value investing requires more effort than brains, and a lot of patience. It is more grunt work than rocket science.” The same applies to intelligent speculation or active trading. Recognizing and translating price patterns and market trends requires constant diligence; success in the stock market requires hours of research and learning the skills to be successful.

1. Investing

Investors intend to be long-term owners of the companies in which they purchase shares. Having selected a company with desirable products or services, efficient production and delivery systems, and an astute management team, they expect to profit as the company grows revenues and profits in the future. In other words, their goal is to buy the greatest future earnings stream for the lowest possible price.

On May 26, 2010, speaking before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, Warren Buffett explained his motive in buying a security: “You look to the asset itself to determine your decision to lay out some money now to get some more money back later on…and you don’t really care whether there’s a quote under it [at] all.” When Buffett invests, he doesn’t care whether they close the market for a couple of years since an investor looks to a company for what it will produce, not what someone else may be willing to pay for the stock.

Investors use a valuation technique known as “fundamental or value analysis.” Benjamin Graham is credited with the development of fundamental analysis, the techniques of which have remained relatively unchanged for almost a century. Graham was primarily concerned with the metrics of companies.

According to Professor Aswath Damodaran at the Stern School of Business at New York University, Graham developed a series of filters or screens to help him identify under-valued securities:
1.       PE of the stock less than the inverse of the yield on Aaa Corporate Bonds
2.       PE of the stock less than 40% of its average PE over the last five years
3.       Dividend yield greater than two-thirds of the Aaa Corporate Bond Yield
4.       Price less than two-thirds of book value
5.       Price less than two-thirds of net current assets
6.       Debt-equity ratio (book value) has to be less than one
7.       Current assets greater than twice current liabilities
8.      Debt less than twice net current assets
9.       Historical growth in EPS (over last 10 years) greater than 7%
10.   No more than two years of negative earnings over the previous decade

Warren Buffett, a disciple and employee of Graham’s firm between 1954 and 1956, refined Graham’s methods. In a 1982 letter to shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway, he cautioned managers and investors alike to understand “accounting numbers are the beginning, not the end, of business valuation.”

Buffett looks for companies with a strong competitive advantage so the company can make profits year after year, regardless of the political or economic environment. His perspective when he decides to invest is always long-term. As he explained in another shareholder letter, “Our favorite holding period is forever.”

Morningstar considered Philip Fisher as “one of the great investors of all time” – as such it is not surprising that he concurred with Buffett and Graham, preferring a long holding period. In a September 1996 American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) Journal article, Fisher is credited with the recommendation that “investors use a three-year rule for judging results if a stock is under-performing the market but nothing else has happened to change the investor’s original view.”  After three years if it is still under-performing, he recommends that investors sell the stock.

Investors seek to reduce their risks by identifying and purchasing only those companies whose stock price is lower than its “intrinsic” value, a theoretical value determined through fundamental analysis and comparison with competitors and the market as a whole. Investors also reduce risk by diversifying their holdings into different companies, industries, and geographical markets.

Once taking a position, investors are content to hold performing stocks for years. Fisher held Motorola (MOT) from his purchase in 1955 until his death in 2004; Buffett purchased shares of Coca-Cola (KO) in 1987 and has publicly said that he will never sell a share.

Some market participants might consider an investing philosophy based on conservative stocks with long holding periods to be out-of-date and boring. They would do well to remember the words of Paul Samuelson, Nobel winner in Economic Sciences, who advised, “Investing should be more like watching paint dry or grass grow. If you want excitement, take $800 and go to Las Vegas.”

2. Speculation

According to Philip Carret, author of “The Art of Speculation” in 1930 and founder of one of the first mutual funds in the United States, speculation is the “purchase or sale of securities or commodities in expectation of profiting by fluctuation in their prices.” Garret combined the fundamental analysis popularized by Benjamin Graham with the concepts used by early tape readers such as Jesse Lauriston Livermore to identify general market price trends.

Milton Friedman, writing in In Defense of Destabilizing Speculation in 1960, noted much of the public equates speculation with gambling, with no value as an investment philosophy. However, Friedman contends that speculators often have an information advantage over others, enabling them to make profits when others less knowledgeable lose. In other words, speculation could be defined as the buying and selling of securities based upon a perceived advantage in information.

Paul Mladjenovic, a certified financial planner (CFP) and the author of four editions of “Stock Investing for Dummies,” explained the point of speculation best: “You’re putting your money where you think the rest of the market will be putting their money – before it happens.”

Jesse Lauriston Livermore, named the “most fabulous living U.S. stock trader” in a 1940 TIME article, developed his skill buying and selling stocks in bucket shops – unregulated businesses that were the equivalent of today’s off-track betting parlors, where customers placed wagers on the price movement of stocks, according to Bloomberg. No securities changed hands, and the transactions did not affect share prices on stock exchanges. Livermore’s ability to detect and interpret patterns in the movement of stock prices quickly made him persona non grata in the shops, much like card counters are banned from the casinos of Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

But Livermore’s focus on stock prices and the patterns of their price changes enabled him to identify “pivot points” – now known as levels of support and resistance – that guided his buys and sells. He purchased stocks as they rebounded from a support level, and sold them when they approached a resistance level. Livermore understood that stocks move in trends, but could quickly change direction depending upon the mood of stock market participants. Accordingly, in his book “Reminiscences of a Stock Operator,” he advocated a strategy of quickly cutting losses and letting profits run.

Other Livermore stock trading rules include the following:

·         Buy rising stocks and sell falling stocks.
·         Trade only when the market is clearly bullish or bearish; then trade in its general direction.
·         Never average losses by buying more of a stock that has fallen.
·         Never meet a margin call – get out of the trade.
·         Go long when stocks reach a new high; sell short when they reach a new low.

Livermore also noted that the markets are never wrong, though opinions often are. As a consequence, he warned that no trading strategy could deliver a profit 100% of the time. Livermore and others following a similar philosophy are willing to be on the sidelines – out of the market – until an opportunity for profit is readily apparent.

The techniques used by Livermore evolved into what is now known as technical analysis by extending Livermore’s pivot points to more esoteric price and volume patterns of price changes such as head and shoulders patterns, moving averages, flags, pennants, and relative strength indicators. Technicians led by John Magee and Roberts Edwards – authors of what many claim to be the bible of price speculation, “Technical Analysis of Stock Trends” – claim that the bulk of information which “fundamentalists [investors] study are past history, already out of date and sterile, because the market is not interested in the past or even in the present! In brief, the going price, as established by the market itself, comprehends all the fundamental information which the statistical analyst can hope to learn (plus somewhat is perhaps secret from him, known only to a few insiders) and much else besides of equal or even greater importance.”

The underlying assumption of speculation or technical analysis is that patterns repeat themselves, so a review of past and current prices, properly interpreted, can project future prices. The assumption was challenged in 1970 by Eugene Fama, professor of finance at the University of Chicago and a Nobel prize winner, with the publication of  his article “Efficient Capital Markets: A Review of Theory and Empirical Work” in the Journal of Finance. Fama proposed that securities markets are extremely efficient, and that all information is already discounted in the price of security. As a consequence, he suggested that neither fundamental nor technical analysis would help an investor achieve greater returns than a randomly selected portfolio of individual stocks.

His ideas became popularly encapsulated as the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EFH). While acknowledging critics of EFH, Dr. Burton Malkiel – economist, dean of the Yale School of Management, and author of “A Random Walk Down Wall Street” – defends the hypothesis. He claims that stock markets are “far more efficient and far less predictable than some academic papers would have us believe…[the behavior] of stock prices does not create a portfolio trading opportunity that enables investors to earn extraordinary risk-adjusted returns.”

While the academic battle over EFH continues, adherents of technical analysis – speculators – continue to embrace the philosophy as the best method to pick optimum moments of buying and selling.

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4 Types of Stock Market Investment Strategies (Part 1)

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The Code of Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan

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The Code of Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan

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Every one of our associates at Westward Holdings will continually:

·         Exhibit an unmitigated optimistic attitude before our respected clients. Every recommendation and decision they make must put the client’s interest above all other considerations.

·         Assure the openness of our sources of compensation and inform clients of other possible options available.

·         Guarantee all personal details submitted to us by our clients receives complete protection of our confidentiality policy within the full extent allowed by law.

·         Completely observe and uphold all legal and governing provision imposed by the pertinent agencies in the respective regions where we operate and, likewise, comply with set guidelines of our associate-partners owned and run by Westward Holdings.

·         Avoid acts and attitudes that will directly violate or adversely affect high ethical standards, honesty, integrity and professional conduct when transacting with clients.

·         Correspond promptly with all our clients and address every issue or query they raise with dispatch and diligence.

·         Upgrade their knowhow and expertise with continuous training.

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The Code of Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan

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The Assets of Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan

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The Assets of Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan

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In all respects, we consider our highly experienced and committed professionals as our most vital assets, along with their diligent staff members.

Whereas other companies depend on the newest financial software or novel asset type, we consider our dedication to encourage our advisors as they build deeper connections with our clients as the prime mover for achieving the actual revenues that more discriminating investors look for today.

These concrete results can only be obtained by the current training and professional accreditation we advise all our professionals to acquire. At the outset, your assigned Westward Holdings advisor will meet with you to thresh out your investment goals.

All our professionals acquire regimented training to assure that they remain cognizant of the newest trends and development in the financial industry.

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The Assets of Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan

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Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan’s Business Plan

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Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan’s Business Plan

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With the present economic circumstances, we require business plans that address the issues of the modern world and have attainable targets. Building a business plan must cover the following factors:

Business mission

Competitive status

Sales and marketing plan

Targeted market

Costs and revenue projections

Operational program

In case you desire to collaborate with Westward Holdings, kindly send your business plans at info@westwardholdings.com.

Compared to other companies who try to please everyone, we limit our clientele and operate only within the boundaries of our capabilities. Westward Holdings have established and maintained a network of relevant associate professionals beyond our company scope to further augment the service we provide for our clients.

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Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan’s Business Plan

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Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan’s Global Alliances

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Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan’s Global Alliances

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Westward Holdings has utilized its gains within its principal ventures to promote its own funding facility to entrepreneurs.

Westward Holdings seek to assist dynamic innovators by sharing in their evolution as a growing business on positive terms and delivering business advisory support at no charge for 5 years.

One benefit of collaborating with us includes access to our worldwide network of funders. Westward Holdings has built a network of capital sourcing and alternative lenders that observe our non-securitization rule.

Westward Holdings Sources

Regional banks

Pension fund trustees

Insurance firms

Trade union treasury departments

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Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan’s Global Alliances

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Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan on Investment Sectors

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Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan on Investment Sectors

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Westward Holdings is extremely enthused by proposals for financing from entrepreneurs working or aiming to work within the following sectors in the industry:

·         Oil & Gas Exploration
·         Mining of Minerals
·         Agriculture
·         IT
·         Water Purification/Filtration
·         Alternative Energy/Biofuels

Westward Holdings sit on the board of majority of the firms that we help fund ordinarily as a minority shareholder. When necessary and convenient in order to support an investment, we can enter as a major shareholder of that firm.

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Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan on Investment Sectors

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Portfolio of Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan

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Portfolio of Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan

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Approach

Westward Holdings’ principal investment philosophy is founded on the traditional practice of acquiring and holding equity in excellent firms in order to build and preserve enduring wealth.

The efficiency of this approach can best be measured from how our clients' portfolios perform. Minor problems stem from the fact that worth and growth stocks have alternated traditionally with regards to revenues with no sound determinant or fail-safe warning when one class makes way for the other.

Westward Holdings adheres to the practice of eluding the enticement to second-guess the market and to spend too much time to seek the most attractive new investment product or class. We regard the market as being right even when all things point to the contrary.

Due Diligence

Prior to making recommendations to our clients, we normally undertake our due diligence on the contents of potential portfolios. Westward Holdings do not merely suggest a certain stock or corporate bond without an initial evaluation of the security in the most in-depth manner.

Westward Holdings’ analysts are well-experienced professionals honed in the area of getting information that matters in the investment process. They employ technical investigation which allows them to recommend the most opportune time to purchase a stock by considering its place and role in the long-term.

Technical Analysis

In its simplest sense, technical analysis seeks for order, rhythm and trends in the price behavior of a security and completely overlooks the fundamentals. It presumes that the security’s price is always founded on the market’s sensitivity to every information relevant to it, whether it the yearly outcomes, earnings, profit margins, or even merger reports.

Trends can be determined in stocks or financial markets, although it also works in other sectors, such as real estate, or the supply and demand of services.

Looking at their history, one can appreciate that many technical approaches have produced many very lucrative results. Hindsight always has 20-20 vision, as they say. One can clearly see a pattern/design, except that it can happen only once in every 100 patterns. Hence, if 100 varying patterns within a daily chart span across a decade, you end up selecting one every 10 years.

Fundamental Analysis

Our professional analysts likewise apply fundamental evaluation. News about fundamentals drives markets; yet, our concern is focused on the long-term effects and, therefore, we look at vital details such as a company’s sales, its earnings, its debts, and others on.

In essence, this describes the forensic nature of the procedure which requires us to investigate the internal dynamics of the company and to evaluate management and the way it operates. We derive a general view of the particular sector and strive to obtain a clear perspective of its current status and of the concerned firm’s future within that sector.

Anecdotes

Usually, we have to retrace our steps and make a fundamental and technical evaluation, as well as observe the market from an elementary point of view. The danger to over-analyze can become counter-productive and may result in missing the whole picture.

For Westward Holdings professional analysts, anecdotes provide effective markers of how markets influence the combined consciousness of an economy. Unfortunately in most cases, once you read it in the news or hear it from somebody who is clueless, the game is over.

Westwards Holdings define an anecdote is a narrative or happening that relates to the market in a quite irrational manner. Why so? This is because markets never follow a predictable or simple path and the fluctuations appear to be more psychological than anything else; that is why we hear of bears and bulls.

Ongoing Services

Asset allocation has such a vital role to play in a client’s whole assets management plan that, aside from our regular reviews, we conduct periodic reconciliation of a client’s strategy with their risk tolerance profile.

As such, we effectively verify our client’s status twice over, based on our comprehensive expertise and their risk capacity.

Rebalancing your Portfolio

Westward Holdings provides rebalancing of your plan to maintain its consistency with your uniqueness as a person. While we completely appreciate the personal inclination of a client to sustain a profitable status, usually this method can result in unattractive portfolio upshots.

We have developed the discipline to look beyond this temptation which allows us to unload the asset type that has done profitably in order to re-invest the gains into a portion of the portfolio which has not shown any promising movement.

In essence, this is a buy-low, sell-high method which, naturally, is the objective of all investors. This method is referred to as rebalancing and it can prove to be a catalyst for your portfolio and general strategy to attain the goals initially laid at the beginning.

Your engagement in and comprehension of Westward Holdings’ rebalancing method is of crucial value to us. It serves to support our dedication to serve you for your financial security, hoping that in the end, you progress on with more knowledge and greater confidence.

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Portfolio of Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan

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The Stipulations of Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan

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The Stipulations of Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan

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Westward Holdings uphold a rational and well-researched business approaches which incorporate exhaustive computations of cash flow, revenue made on the principal(s)’ own volition, documents of outstanding orders or involvements, detailed data on the qualifications and track-record of management and a perspective of the projected goals and/or expansion of the firm.

Westward Holdings require principals to be flexible and able to exhibit the ability to pledge personal or other capital sources to the firm’s starting fund.

At Westward Holdings, our mission is to continually go beyond our clients’ expectations by improving their life by offering them excellent financial services. Our singular commitment to all our clients, whether an individual or a company, is provide them with honest, reliable and professional service backed up by many years of experience.

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The Stipulations of Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan

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Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan’s Approach

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Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan’s Approach

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Westward Holdings’ principal investment philosophy is founded on the traditional practice of acquiring and holding equity in excellent firms in order to build and preserve enduring wealth.

The efficiency of this approach can best be measured from how our clients' portfolios perform. Minor problems stem from the fact that worth and growth stocks have alternated traditionally with regards to revenues with no sound determinant or fail-safe warning when one class makes way for the other.

Westward Holdings adheres to the practice of eluding the enticement to second-guess the market and to spend too much time to seek the most attractive new investment product or class. Westward Holdings regard the market as being right even when all things point to the contrary.

To be honest, even the most astute investors, such as Westward Holdings, cannot positively foresee the movements and caprices of the stock market. Our track record has proven that long-term investment is the most effective way to weather the shifts that characterize short-term investments.

Your personalized, diversified portfolio of fixed-income, equities and other quality investment products allows you to take advantage of the market's historical inclination to overcome inflation and aid you maintain your liquidity over a long period.

Our philosophy also covers the following:
·         Regular rebalancing of the whole portfolio to assure no digression from the risk evaluation.
·         Handling the portfolio with regard to its tax situation.
·         Fine-tuning the financial strategy to mirror varying conditions or objectives.

Westward Holdings ascertain clients that every portfolio is designed with allocation and diversification of assets securely in mind. To attain this, we resolve the contents of the portfolio with the client and their risk tolerance level. Equities play a major feature whereas long-term treasuries and investment-class corporate bonds may also be augmented where it is allowed.

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Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan’s Approach

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Investment Stewardship of Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan

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Investment Stewardship of Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan

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At Westward Holdings, we take our role as caretakers of your financial security quite earnestly. Westward Holdings always keep in mind that we are handing your money and fulfill the responsibility with utmost diligence. Hence, we undertake the task and related solutions as if we were the investors ourselves.

Our ability to put our shoes in the clients’ shoes when it comes to handling their money allows us to seriously seek the highest possible benefits for them and the best kind of assistance we can deliver to them.

The integration of the components of an investment plan is similar to a jigsaw puzzle. With a wider perspective of the entire picture and taking all due diligence, one can complete the whole picture as the pieces practically play themselves gradually into completing the picture.

Major benefits of working with Westward Holdings are:
·         Westward Holdings is an independent firm delivering financial assistance and has access to all the financial players in the market.
·         We have broad exposure in both global and domestic markets and are wholly in-step with the prevailing stipulations with regard to all product types and the localities in which they operate.
·         We consider our clients’ well-being as our primary concern.
·         We strive to establish enduring connections with our customers.

How Westward Holdings Helps You Decide

Just like life itself, investment involves crises and opportunities, risks and rewards. Westward Holdings appreciates every person's desire for personalized investment schemes. Our expert advisor will meticulously evaluate your requirements and "risk tolerance" and make pertinent recommendations. Your short, medium and long-term objectives will come in as vital considerations in the handling of your investment portfolio.

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Investment Stewardship of Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan

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Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan’s Financial Plan

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Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan’s Financial Plan

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Westward Holdings holistic strategy to developing your personal financial plan.

A complete financial planning involves, first of all, assessment of every area of your specific personal financial situation and the necessary creation of a strategy to attain your projected goals.

With Westward Holdings’ application of comprehensive and professional methods, you can consolidate your financial objectives with your highest goals in life and substantially increase the opportunity to attain them.

Our well-rounded strategy normally considers the following financial aspects: investment evaluation, cash-flow investigation, tax position, risk measurement, retirement planning, educational-cost planning and legacy preparation.

Upon the collection of all your information and once our advisors acquired a full appreciation of your status, you will obtain a better degree of control and understanding of your finances, assets and investments. This fresh confidence to develop a sound foundation will allow you to make calculated moves and well-researched investment decisions.

Westward Holdings utilizes a Six-Step Method:

1.      Introduction
The client-adviser relationship is defined (Including our mutual expectations).

2.     Discovery
Relevant client information is gathered.

3.     Clarity
An objective evaluation of your financial condition and your goals is undertaken.

4.     Ideas
We collaborate on the creation and deriving of solutions and/or options.

5.     Implementation
We apply the solutions into the investment process.

6.     Review & Update
Manage and update solutions if necessary (Westward Holdings meticulously checks the fine points of your financial circumstances).

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Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan’s Financial Plan

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M&A/IPO of Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan

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M&A/IPO of Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan

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Admittedly, a company can hope to attract investors through a public offering of its equity on the Stock Exchange.

Going public through IPO on the Stock Exchange establishes potential growth in the future for a company through additional funding and also propels development of the business in dynamic ways.

The primary consideration in any IPO is the magnitude of investment that will be achieved.

A vital aspect in the failure or success of an IPO is the ability of the market to welcome a new business to the existing pool of investment options. Prospective investors need to be made aware of the newcomer’s business and their competitiveness.

Moreover, it is crucial for a company to have a working relationship with potential stockholders when it offers an IPO. Westward Holdings, on its part, readily plans and undertakes a comprehensive and meticulous information promotion during this early stage of the IPO.

Westward Holdings are in a position to support our clients by underwriting a tranche of shares or engaging some reliable associate companies. Westward Holdings consider it as our duty to assure that the IPO is sufficiently subscribed at the price targeted.

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Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan on Business Consulting

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Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan on Business Consulting

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Westward Holdings Business Consultancy offers a selection of fit-for-purpose strategies to answer the business needs of clients involved in the creation or delivery of intricate projects or endeavors.

Usually, these enterprise requirements have an inclination to arise from the financial needs and corresponding risks which directly affect our clients’ objectives in the present dynamic macro-economic world.

As investors in their companies, our clients look for professional, sector-friendly counsel to support their financial plans, whether they aim to enhance revenues or reduce risks.

Whether our clients operate private or public concerns, eventually they aim for vitalized company operations to increase worth and to improve their profitability in the international market.

Westward Holdings BC experts offer clients vital results-oriented assistance and counsel necessary for the whole investment process.

From the very start of the business conceptualization, we employ business strategies and financial expertise to support entrepreneurs, investors and developers to uncover potential profit-centers and assess other alternative and prospective schemes.

Westward Holdings advisors offer financial, business and technical solutions to our clients in their role as sponsor, investor or promoter. This dedicated relationship aids our clients reduce risk and obtain financial advantages that increase business worth.

For business operations support, Westward Holdings works to enhance performance through alternative company management plans.

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Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan on Business Consulting

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Venture Capital of Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan

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Venture Capital of Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan

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Funding of venture capital provides a major push for the potential growth of your business.

Nevertheless, although it may provide a viable source of financing for your company, it may not be always appropriate in all cases. But should a company genuinely require sound capital funds; this option can offer a major catalyst toward growth.

This type of capital funding requires a level-headed evaluation of the capability of your company to accomplish closely the investors’ objectives in providing the capital.

In short, the major goal of venture capital investors is to gain substantial revenue from their involvement in your firm. Meaning to say, they commonly impose strict standards and require that you fulfill this prior to the loan release.

From our involvements in the past, the conditions of most venture capital lenders often focus on the following considerations:

Does your company manufacture or market a novel, special product or service that can appeal to a wide social sector?

Can your newly-capitalized venture actively compete with the top firms in your market niche?

Will it be an easy task to attract your market target and patronize your unique service or product?

Can your product or service realize gross margins over 50%?

Does your product or service require an intensive customer assistant?

Do you and/or your management staff have comprehensive knowledge and appreciation of the new product or service? Do you, as a group, have past successes in business operations?

Does your business have the potential of realistically attaining positive gross yearly profits within a period of 3 years as financed by a venture capital investor?

If you can answer affirmatively and confidently to the final question, your need for venture capital will most likely convince the prospective investors. Your investors will surely desire to obtain significant return on investment while the possibility of a loss will be undesirable to them. In case of uncertainty as far as achieving this goal, it would be wise to look for alternative ventures, such as in small business funding.

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Venture Capital of Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan

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Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan on Business Funding

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Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan on Business Funding

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Westward Holdings’ Business Funding Department is staffed by widely-experienced professionals who have long and intensive exposure in dealing with corporate finance during their years of business consultancy involvement.

We offer companies with help in fine-tuning future financial requirements, business strategies and also impart management counseling to assist corporate capital sourcing. We can provide realistic and relevant assistance to practically all kinds of corporate finance plan, whether it requires:

Corporate Expansion

Corporate Acquisitions

Management Buy-Out/In

Business Sales

Organizational Restructuring

Westward Holdings has observed the principle of focusing our services to benefit a particular corporate clientele and, as a result, most of our customers manage interests with productive results.

This covers the small family-owned enterprises up to sub-companies of huge multinational corporations. Funding arranged can therefore vary significantly for a small to medium refinance of a management buyout or an acquisition.

Westward Holdings has an extensive network of lenders which allows us the use of a vast source of innovative and dynamic plans that we employ into majority of our industry deals.

Our experience has proven that, more often than not, firms either encounter mismatched lenders or the loan package acquired does not provide enough leeway to address their needs.

Hence, we strive to seek to refinance the current facility with the collaboration of the client and the lender. Based on the requirements of the client firm and, naturally, with the agreement of the current lender, we will seek to refinance all of the remaining debts.

Once a company experiences a drastic fall, we collaborate with insolvency experts or receivers in order to seek capital source which satisfies any provisions of an ongoing contract.

Usually, clients depend on Westward Holdings to undertake the determination and preparation of initial steps toward potential business acquisition prospects. In such cases, we conduct the necessary moves to finance such an acquisition.

Westward Holdings also assists in Management Buy Outs, leading in a proactive advisory process in favor of the potential management group over the entire transaction period.

Our part within such procedures is essential and crucial. By doing strict due diligence in planning, and providing appropriate knowhow, Westward Holdings conducts liaison work with vendor, legal representatives, funder(s) and other related entities for the MBO team, assuring a proper resolution of all issues from the start to the signing of the contract agreement.

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Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan on Business Funding

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What Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan Is?

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What Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan Is?

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At Westward Holdings, our mission is to continually go beyond our clients’ expectations by improving their life by offering them excellent financial services. Our singular commitment to all our clients, whether an individual or a company, is provide them with honest, reliable and professional service backed up by many years of experience.

Westward Holdings stay alert and focused on building fresh opportunities and methods of aiding our clients. Constantly, we project the future needs of our clients by assuming their situation as our very own. Hence, through empathetic planning we produce realistic approaches and attain significant results.

Westward Holdings offer our corporate clients the excellent professional investment advice derived from many high-profile transactions creative and pioneering ventures, aiding to fine-tune operations, enhance profitability and to plan out acquisitions or mergers to move their companies to a higher phase of development.

Are you an individual seeking to secure your financial future? Or are you a small or medium-sized company with large capital needs? Our service will address the challenges within the circumstances that serve as the arena within which we will improve your opportunities for personal or corporate growth.

Compared to other companies who try to please everyone, we limit our clientele and operate only within the boundaries of our capabilities. Westward Holdings have established and maintained a network of relevant associate professionals beyond our company scope to further augment the service we provide for our clients.

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What Westward Holdings Professional Advisors Tokyo Japan Is