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Hazel Calvin

Finance

EVEN RETIRED PEOPLE WITH NO LIABILITIES NEED A PLAN

Retirement is usually synonymous for the idea that all your years of hard work and hustle is over. After all these years, you can finally sit back and relax.  It also brings you more options than any time in your life. After retirement, you could choose to sit back at home or you could work as a consultant depending on your profession. Regardless, another thing that comes with retirement is an entire career’s worth of savings.

Naturally, you wouldn’t want to exhaust this money by simply spending it on taking trips and buying things that you always wanted to. The first instinct would be to invest the money somewhere where it can give you returns. However, investing when you are young gives you time to let your investments grow. On the other hand, investing at the age of 60 or 65 may not allow that much time. Hence, to invest effectively, you need an investment plan. Here is how you can do it:

How to divide your money

Since, you are not working anymore, your savings are the only source of money you may have. Hence, you need to divide your money in a way that it benefits you rather than take away the money you already have. Here the important divisions you need to make:

  • Emergency fund

Just because you are retired does not mean that you will not have any expenses. In addition to the regular expenses, you need to have money in case of emergency. For example, increasing age means you are more likely to have health issues. This means you may have to visit the hospital and may need money for treatment. Hence, you need to set some money aside that you can use in any emergency.

  • Investment

The other half of your money should be dedicated to investment in various options. The goal is to use your life savings to generate wealth. This in turn should enable to invest more. Hence, the idea becomes about letting your savings earn for you. However, investment comes with its risks. Hence, you have to make sure you invest in options that have lesser chance of losses.

What you can invest in?

Simply put, one of the best options for you to invest in is mutual funds. While there is nothing wrong with exploring other options, it is better to focus more on mutual funds. Retirement income mostly includes interest payouts and dividends from investments. Hence, it is better to make investments in options that can take inflation into account.

Moreover, there are a long list of options you can get even within mutual funds. This helps you diversify your investment portfolio. The right investment option for your portfolio depends on the amount of risk you are willing to take. Experts recommend taking lesser risk with your life savings. However, if you want higher returns and have the right mutual funds option for it, you can go for a riskier investment option. This is the reason that mutual funds are popular among investors, they allow you to invest in different equity-based options with different risk profiles.

Another option that you go for is debt-based mutual funds. The main reason you should consider this option is the taxation around it. If you put your money in a bank account, you will be taxed on that income based on which tax slab your total income falls under. The highest slab requires you to pay 30.9% as tax. On the contrary, any income from debt funds is only taxable upto 20% if you have held it for three years or more. Happy investing!

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Forex

How Can You Effectively Trade The Foreign exchange Market?

Effective Foreign exchange market buying and selling is definitely an accomplishment that may be achieved via different buying and selling methods. However, whichever buying and selling method or system you at long last finish up using, there are several components to effective Foreign exchange buying and selling which are necessary and therefore should be present. So, let us review these elements to be able to make learning Foreign exchange buying and selling as efficient and effective as you possibly can.

• Effective Foreign exchange Education

It is important it does not matter what buying and selling strategy or system you finish up using, that you simply learn it from your experienced trader and make certain it’s really effective and relevant. Regrettably, the Foreign exchange world is filled with scammers and great online marketers who’re just attempting to jam some indicator or buying and selling robot lower your throat. You’ll need a real comprehensive Foreign exchange buying and selling education you have to really teach me to trade, not only learn to enter spoon-given exit and entry signals just like a monkey. Fortunately, there are several excellent Foreign exchange education sites on online, those operated by real traders who act more as mentors than sales males are often the best.

• Foreign exchange Management Of Your Capital

You will have to come with an effective Foreign exchange management of your capital plan, regardless of what buying and selling strategy or system you finish up using. Many, otherwise most traders, overlook management of your capital once the begin buying and selling Foreign exchange. They believe it is something they is to later or exercise once they begin to make money. Regrettably on their behalf, case not reality. You must have a particular Foreign exchange management of your capital approach and plan before you decide to ever start buying and selling with real cash. If you do not, you’re almost certain to lose much of your buying and selling money, if not completely from it. So, if you wish to become successful like a Foreign exchange trader, make certain to highlight management of your capital while you learn foreign exchange buying and selling.

• Foreign exchange Buying and selling Psychology

The mental facet of Foreign exchange buying and selling is among the impost main reasons towards the profession, otherwise thee most significant. Yet, many traders ignore their very own feelings as well as their inabiility to manage them. Indeed most buying and selling mistakes and account blow-outs are due to over-buying and selling over-leveraging. Both of these mistakes are a result of ineffectual emotional control or perhaps an ignorance from the important of managing a person’s feelings while you trade Forex currencies market.

So, in case you really wish to effectively trade the Foreign exchange market, you will must learn how to control yourself while you communicate with the marketplace. What this means is being disciplined even when confronted with constant temptation, because that is what the Foreign exchange market is a continuing temptation arena that you should over trade or higher leverage. You have to learn how to overcome this temptation while you learn Foreign exchange, since you certainly don’t want to end up giving in to these temptations once you begin buying and selling the marketplace with real cash. Keep your points in the following paragraphs in your mind while you learn Foreign exchange buying and selling they all are most evident and incredibly important to being a lucrative trader.

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Featured

Equity Financing: The Accountants’ Perspective

Becoming an adult it happens to be stated that you can raise investment capital or finance business with either its personal savings, gifts or loans from family and buddies which idea still persist in modern business but most likely in various forms or terminologies.

It’s a known proven fact that, for companies to grow, it’s prudent that business proprietors tap financial sources and a number of financial sources may be used, generally damaged into two groups, debt and equity.

Equity financing, to put it simply is raising capital with the purchase of shares within an enterprise i.e. the purchase of the possession interest to boost funds for business purposes using the purchasers from the shares being referred as shareholders. Additionally to voting legal rights, shareholders take advantage of share possession by means of dividends and (hopefully) eventually selling the shares in a profit.

Debt financing however takes place when a strong raises money for capital or capital expenses by selling bonds, bills or notes to the people and/or institutional investors. To acquire lending the cash, people or institutions become creditors and get a promise the main and interest around the debt is going to be paid back, later.

A lot of companies use a mix of debt and equity financing, however the Accountant shares a perspective which may be regarded as distinct benefits of equity financing over debt financing. Principal included in this are the truth that equity financing carries no repayment obligation which provides extra capital you can use to develop a company’s business.

Why go for equity financing?

• Interest rates are considered a set cost which can raise a company’s break-even point and therefore high interest during difficult financial periods can increase the chance of insolvency. Too highly leveraged (which have considerable amounts of debt when compared with equity) entities for example frequently find it hard to grow due to the very high cost servicing your debt.

• Equity financing will not place any extra financial burden on the organization because there are no needed monthly obligations connected by using it, hence a business will probably convey more capital available to purchase growing the company.

• Periodic income is needed for principal and charges and this can be hard for companies with insufficient capital or liquidity challenges.

• Debt instruments will probably include clauses containing limitations around the company’s activities, stopping management from going after alternative financing options and non-core business possibilities

• A loan provider is titled simply to repayment from the decided principal from the loan plus interest, and it has to some large extent no direct claim on future profits from the business. If the organization is effective, the proprietors reap a bigger area of the rewards compared to what they would when they had offered debt in the organization to investors to be able to finance the development.

• The bigger a company’s debt-to-equity ratio, the riskier the organization is recognized as by lenders and investors. Accordingly, a company is restricted regarding the quantity of debt it may carry.

• The organization is generally needed to pledge assets of the organization towards the lenders as collateral, and proprietors of the organization are in some instances needed to personally guarantee repayment of loan.

• According to company performance or income, dividends to shareholders might be postpone, however, same isn’t feasible with debt instruments which requires payment whenever they fall due.

Adverse Implications

Despite these merits, it will likely be so misleading to consider that equity financing is 100% safe. Think about these

• Profit discussing i.e. investors expect and deserve some of profit acquired after a financial year similar to the tax man. Business managers who don’t possess the appetite to talk about profits might find this method like a bad decision. It may be a useful trade-if worth of their financing is balanced with the proper acumen and experience, however, this isn’t always the situation.

• There’s a possible dilution of shareholding or losing control, that is usually the cost to cover equity financing. A significant financing threat to begin-ups.

• There’s also the opportunity of conflict because sometimes discussing possession and getting to utilize others can lead to some tension as well as conflict should there be variations in vision, management style and methods for running the company.

• There are many industry and regulatory procedures that will have to be stuck to in raising equity finance making the procedure cumbersome and time intensive.

• Unlike debt instruments holders, equity holders suffer more tax i.e. on dividends and capital gains (in situation of disposal of shares)

Decision Cards – Some Possible decision factors for equity financing

• In case your creditworthiness is a problem, this may be a more sensible choice.

• If you are much more of a completely independent solo operator, you may be best having a loan without having to share decision-making and control.

• Can you rather share possession/equity than need to pay back a financial institution loan?

• Are you currently comfortable discussing making decisions with equity partners?

• If you’re certain that the company could produce a healthy profit, you may opt to use financing, instead of need to share profits.

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Finance

How you can Let The Creativity Flow With Financing?

Creative Financing Choices for Sellers

If you’re a seller, you have to widen your pool of buyers to individuals who don’t be eligible for a traditional financing too. Some options could be the following:

Seller Financing

For those who have equity, you might want to offer seller financing. With seller financing, the vendor may be the bank.

Assumable Mortgage

Other options are checking together with your loan provider to find out if the customer can assume your mortgage. Although most loans aren’t assumable, today some lenders offer that being an choice to selling real estate who is going to get behind within their mortgage repayments or who’s already in arrears. It might be preferable for that loan provider to permit a purchaser to consider within the loan than need to property foreclosure around the property. Average property foreclosure costs to some loan provider are roughly $50,000 per property foreclosure.

Lease Options

Lease options are a good way to market your house inside a difficult marketplace for a greater cost since the buyer goes into an agreement to lease your house by having an choice to purchase it in a specific cost later on. Lease options are an easy way for buyers who don’t have sufficient cash or who’ve poor credit to possess a house. Throughout the option period, they are able to focus on clearing up their credit and qualifying for traditional financing or saving more for his or her lower payment. Generally, the customer pays an upfront option fee for you. Some or all the lease payments can be used credits towards the buyer towards acquiring the property. If in the finish from the term, the customer chooses to not purchase the property, you simply keep your lease payments, and you may continue renting the house for them or search for another buyer or tenant and enter a lease option together.

Creative Financing Choices for Investors/Buyers

Finding traditional financing for the deals gets tougher because banks have tightened their lending guidelines. Here really are a couple of options that are offered to get financing without having cash:

Eco-friendly or Hard Money Lenders

Eco-friendly are individuals or firms that will loan you cash on the temporary basis rapidly. They do not have to follow any strict lending guidelines like traditional lenders should do. Most are curious about the equity from the property and just how rapidly you are able to reimburse them. You’ll have to pay a greater rate of interest and points upfront, however the advantage is it’s not necessary to complete lots of formal documents, undergo credit report checks and also you obtain the money rapidly which means you don’t lose your chance to purchase an investment property you’ve found.

Seller Financing

You might want to possess the seller finance the transaction should they have equity.

Assume Seller’s Loan

An alternative choice would be to assume the seller’s loan when the loan provider allows it. This method for you to save money on a few of the costs connected having a traditional mortgage.

Wholesaling

Wholesaling property means putting a bit of property under contract and assigning it to a different investors/buyer. You obtain a project fee out of your investor/buyer for locating the home and securing anything. The benefit is it’s not necessary to close the offer yourself, and also you create a quick assignment fee of roughly $5,000 so that you can proceed to the following project.

Be resourceful and thinking creatively is the reason why today’s investor effective. When you do enough deals and accumulate some money, financing will not matter for you personally. However if you simply are simply beginning out or short on cash, you will have to secure financing in advance to do your deals and remain running a business. Compiling a summary of private lenders is a great factor to do this you are able to refer to them as when you get a great deal and hop on it.

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Finance

Construction Equipment Financing Takes Planning

Creating or expanding a current construction business is definitely an overwhelming experience.

In deciding the correct direction you will need to organize which kind of equipment to buy but more to the point how to cover it. Is it possible to pay cash or will construction equipment financing be necessary? Could it be easier to buy new equipment or will refurbished or used equipment be considered a less expensive.

Not able to pay for funds are common and frequently the necessity to look for a building equipment loan provider is the greatest alternative. In researching equipment financing you will want to possess a obvious knowledge of what your organization needs when it comes to equipment and the way your income will help you to pay it off.

Determine The Kind Of Equipment You’ll Need

Your construction equipment loan provider will have to know precisely which kind of equipment you want to purchase, because they will tailor the finance terms to complement the necessity. Various kinds of equipment may have various kinds of financing. For instance, if you are planning to change your computer the loan provider offer shorter-term financing as computer equipment becomes obsolete inside a almost no time. Purchasing a bulldozer or cement truck could have a considerably longer life time and become qualified for extended term financing.

Consider Used Or Refurbished Equipment

When you choose how much equipment to purchase, the company you need or want, how your budget supports, etc. you’ll then have to determine if buying used or new equipment is the greatest path to follow. Refurbished or used equipment might be a perfect solution, particularly if the primary use will be utilized as a look out onto your overall construction equipment and never put in use every day. Not every used construction equipment is going to be reliable enough if you are considering which makes it most of your equipment. Just like you’d investigate the benefits and drawbacks of buying a second hand vehicle you need to perform diligent research in your suggested used equipment purchase.

Not Every Financing Companies Are Identical

Now you know what you would like or need and also have made the decision between refurbished or new you’re ready to start researching financing companies. The right place to begin may be the bank that maintains your company bank account. Even though they might not offer the best looking financing options it might provide a good comparison to some company that’s a construction equipment finance specialist.

Since it is everything they are doing, a tool financial institution could be more knowledgeable than the usual commercial bank about your specific business and equipment needs. Look for a business that maintains its very own underwriting department as these information mill more able to reply to your request equipment financing faster than when they needed to send the applying from the department for review. The finish result is going to be you’ve your financing faster and delivery of the new equipment won’t be delayed because of financing.

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Investment

WHY INVESTORS SHYING AWAY FROM ELSS

Equity-linked Savings Scheme, commonly known as ELSS are a popular investment avenue among investors looking to expose their investments to equities while simultaneously saving on tax. Usually, ELSS investments are the highest during the last three to four months of the financial year as investors rush to earmark their tax-saving investment avenues before the deadline of tax submission. However, this year the number of investors investing in ELSS funds has dwindled.

As per the data released by AMFI (Association of Mutual Funds in India) on 9th April, 2020, the net ELSS inflows in FY 2020 between December 2019 to March 2020 was just Rs 3,834 crore. The net ELSS inflows is around 36% lower than the net ELSS inflows during the same period in FY 2019 and around 55% lower than the net ELSS inflows in FY 2018.

So why are investors shying away from ELSS mutual funds?

There are chances that with increased awareness about SIP investments (Systematic Investment Plan), investors are beginning to invest in mutual funds via SIP in the start of the financial year rather than investing a lumpsum in the end of the financial year. This might result in slower sales in the ELSS category. However, one could argue that the net inflow in ELSS funds in the entire FY 2020 was much lower than that of FY 2019 – Rs 8,187 crore in FY 20 and Rs 12,771 crores in FY 19.

Another reason for investors shying away from the tax saving mutual funds could be market volatility. But again, net inflows in equity jumped around astounding 52% to Rs 24,343 crores between Dec 19 to March 2020. Then, what’s the issue?

Experts believe that the drastic decrease in ELSS investments in FY 2020 could be because of the budget announcements. Budget 2020 includes a new optional tax regime that does not include most of the tax deductions and exemptions, including the ELSS tax saving exemption of Rs 1.5 lac under Section 80C of the IT Act. It must be noted that the taxpayers can continue to choose their old tax regime. Experts believe that the confusion to choose between the old tax regime and the new tax regime might have resulted in a lower net flow of ELSS investments.

Another reason could be the poor performance of these tax-saving mutual funds. Data shows that the returns on ELSS funds dipped from double digits in 2017 and 2018 to single digit returns in 2019 and 2020. Investors looking for the past performance and returns of ELSS mutual funds might not be satisfied and thus discouraged to invest in ELSS funds. This could have also contributed to the investors shying away from ELSS investments.

If you are an existing investor in ELSS funds, you might consider staying invested if you are satisfied with the performance of your fund. On the other hand, if you are a new investor, opt for funds with risk appetite matching yours. Happy investing!

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Investment

Achieving Business Growth Through Strategic Partnerships

Business success and growth can be achieved by impressing clients and improving your company’s performance. As long as you can provide consumers with high-quality products and services, your business will likely survive. Unfortunately, there are moments when your business experiences major setbacks because of a lack of significant resources. This may include a lack of funds, tools, and equipment, or even manpower. When this happens, business processes are disrupted, which eventually leads to inconvenience both to you and your clients. To prevent this, you need to prepare backup strategies or find a strategic partner who can help you deal with possible business challenges.

The Importance of Strategic Partnerships in Business

Some business owners get overwhelmed with challenges in running a company. Aside from building plans to attract more customers, they also need to find time to fix internal processes. This includes hiring competent and reliable employees or investing in advanced tools and equipment. Unfortunately, not all companies have the ability to secure all the resources that are essential in fixing their business processes. Most of them lack funds, while others don’t have the right knowledge and experience to handle certain tasks. Good thing, companies can rely on strategic business partnerships to solve these issues.

Strategic partnerships refer to an agreement of two businesses to combine their efforts and work together to achieve a common goal. This helps companies, especially small businesses, have access to valuable resources essential in improving their performance. Here are some of the remarkable benefits of having strategic business partnerships:

  • Gain knowledge and skills in running a business.
  • Get funding for your future campaigns.
  • Help identify opportunities.
  • Build a team of skilled and talented individuals.

Strategic Partnerships You Need for Your Business

  • Marketing—Partnering with a marketing agency helps increase your chances of building successful campaigns. You can look for companies doing print ads or digital marketing campaigns to help you produce high-quality and effective promotional tools. This helps you improve brand awareness and business visibility, which helps attract more clients to your business.
  • Logistics—If your business heavily relies on delivering goods, you need to find a logistics partner. You have to ensure that your customers can conveniently get their orders on time. Also, you need to reduce the chances of your items getting damaged. Thus, a trusted logistics partner can help you address these concerns. You may also consider partnering with a reverse logistics provider so you won’t have issues dealing with returned goods.
  • Financial management—If you are having trouble looking for a reliable accountant, bookkeeper, and other staff who are money experts, you can rely on other companies to solve the issue. There are software developers who can help you get hold of advanced accounting tools and other resources you might need to improve financial management in your company. On the other hand, if your business is based in Toronto, find Toronto accountant with good results
  • Technology Integration—Using advanced tools and equipment requires time and patience. Whenever you invest in the latest tech tools, you have to train employees to use them properly. This ensures that they won’t commit errors and continue staying productive while doing their jobs. To minimize risks and mistakes, you can work with experts in technology integration. These companies assist business owners in onboarding processes and provide useful training programs that employees need to keep up with business processes.

Businesses need strong and reliable connections to survive, especially if you are part of a highly-competitive industry. Thus, you need to find a strategic partner who can help you fulfill your goals and help you achieve your company’s vision. Working with trusted companies can help you significantly improve your business performance. Doing this does not only benefit your company, but it will also give your clients more reasons to keep supporting your brand.

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Loan

Tips on Choosing the Best Loan Provider

If you are faced with a shortage of funds or an emergency financial situation that you need to resolve faster, an online loan with no credit check can help you. With the right loan, you can finance home improvements, pay for your vacation or college fees and foot a wide range of other bills.

However, before you start applying for the loans, you need to understand your options and take time to choose the right lender. Sometimes, you might feel a bit spoilt for choices which can easily make you assume that the loan lender you choose doesn’t matter.

You need to keep in mind that not all lenders are equal and only responsible lenders have your best interest at heart. Therefore, it is critical to take time and choose the right loan provider. Here are some tips to consider when selecting the best loan provider.

1.     Consider Interest Rates, Fees and Other Charges

The first thing you need to pay close attention to while choosing a loan provider is the interest rate, service fee, and any other administrative charges that may apply.  One of the biggest mistakes people commit is simply looking at the interest rate and assuming that they will pay back less money.

Most of them don’t know that some lenders display relatively low-interest rates but charge a ton of additional charges that will eventually make the loan too expensive.

Therefore, before choosing an online loan with no credit check lender, find out what additional charges you will be expected to pay on top of your loan amount.

2.     Assess the Penalties and Repayment Costs

Sometimes, you may be in an excellent financial position, and you will want to make faster repayments so you can finish repaying the loan quicker than the stated loan tenure.  This has always proved to be a prudent move because it can save you a lot of money on interest cost.

However, some lenders don’t like it when you repay the loan early and will have early repayment penalties in place. You must be aware of such lenders and avoid them altogether.

Before you submit your loan request, carefully read the loan terms and ask anything you don’t understand. Enquire about all the potential penalties and repayment costs to avoid paying hefty penalties in the future.

3.     Check the Loan Amount

Depending on your financial needs, you may or may not know how much you need to borrow. Therefore, it is always good to choose a lender who is willing to offer you a substantial loan amount that you are sure will help you cover your expenses.

You should also pick a lender who offers more flexibility. Some lenders provide you with the option of withdrawing the loan amount in parts depending on your needs. In such a case, you only pay interest on the amount of money you use.

The bottom line is to ensure that the loan is flexible and offers you an option to borrow sufficient money to cater to your needs.

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Finance

The Shortcomings of Automated Trading Systems

Automated trading systems have many advantages and benefits. For one, they remove the emotions out of trading, which means you can stick more easily with your trading plan. It therefore also improves trading discipline. At the same time, you can backtest your trading strategy using historical market data.

On the flipside, though, automated trading systems also sport downsides that may not be suitable for some kinds of traders. In this article, we explore these downsides to help you decide whether an automated trading strategy is for you or not.

Program Failures

Ideally, automated trading systems work as the name suggests: automatically. It’s also pretty straightforward: set the rules, and let the computer run the trade.

However, in the real world, program failures and mechanical glitches happen. Yes, automated trading is a sophisticated trading strategy. But it is not perfect.

For instance, if the internet connection is suddenly lost, an order may not be sent to the market. There could also be some errors between trades from the strategy.

Traders should expect some kind of learning curve with automated trading systems. The trick is to start small—use small trade sizes—while the automated process is still being polished.

Problems with Monitoring

Even though turning on the computer and leaving for the day sounds thrilling (not really), automated trading systems still require some amount of monitoring.

Keep in mind that chances of technical failures, connectivity problems, power interruptions, and computer and system crashes still exist.

That means the automated trading system could still experience anomalies, which could reap errant orders, missing orders, or duplicate orders.

To resolves these issues, you still have to be alert and monitor the system often.

Overoptimization

Although this issue is not exclusive to automated trading systems, traders who use backtesting techniques can design systems that appear to be great but perform horribly badly in a live market.

Overoptimization is a thing; it refers to the excessive curve-fitting that results in a trading plan or system which traders cannot rely upon.

For example, it’s possible to design a strategy that could achieve exceptional results on the historical market data on which is was backtested.

Traders then incorrectly assume that a trading plan could have near 100% efficiency and profitability (never experiencing a drawdown).

They then tweak the parameters to create an almost perfect trading plan, which succumbs to failure once applied to a real-world, real-time situation.

Scams

Traders search for trading systems which they will use on their trade. But sometimes, it’s too good to be true. And remember that if it’s too good to be true, it probably is not true.

Some systems sold by suspicious or disreputable brokers or sellers promise high profits for low prices. Keep in mind that scams exist and the market has a lot of those going around.

To determine whether the system is legitimate or not, scrutinize anything that you have to pay for before laying down any money. Always ask a lot of questions.

Check the testimonials if any and do your research. Be sure to read the terms and conditions before you commit.

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Finance

Economic Indicators for Market Trends

Economic indicators may be leading, lagging, or coincident indicators. These indicators help an investor or trader confirm or disprove his or her conclusions regarding the market. More importantly, they help him or her know the market trends. Here are some of the most important economic indicators for market trends.

Market Indices

Market indices offer predictive abilities to investors, so it should be current and forward-looking. It also has to discount values based on future expectations.

The most insightful statistics about the economy’s direction start with major market indices for stocks, stock futures, bond interest rates and yield curve, forex, and commodity prices.

Weekly Data Reports

Every week, some important economic reports also come out for the public to see.

The weekly jobless claims report comes weekly from the Department of Labor. When the economy weakens, unemployment rates go up.

On the other hand, this report has a bias in that self-employed, part-time, and contractual employees who lose their jobs do not get the benefits. Therefore, they don’t count.

Meanwhile, the money supply report also comes out weekly. It comes from the Federal Reserve, and it’s an abstract technical calculation of how much money is in circulation in the economy.

On the other hand, because of digital improvements wherein huge amounts of money can move across the globe in a snap, this indicator has lost its value over the years.

Monthly Data Reports

There are also economic data that come out every month.

The New Residential Housing Construction Report is an example. It comes from the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and it’s commonly called “housing starts.”

This report breaks down the number of building permits issued, housing starts, as well as completions. The data is an important leading indicator because construction activity typically picks up early in the expansion phase of the business cycle.

Meanwhile, the Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) comes from the Conference Board. It’s one of the many reports that gauges the correspondents’ attitude and sentiment.

It is not necessarily exact or precise. However, it scores high on accuracy when it comes to predicting consumer spending. And consumer spending accounts for 70% of the economy.

Industrial and Manufacturing Report

There are also important reports that tell something about industrial and manufacturing growth.

The Durable Goods Report (DGR) from the Census Bureau is one such report. It is used as a barometer for the health of heavy industry, and it surveys manufacturers of goods with a life expectancy of more than three years.

Such purchases by businesses represent capacity expansion. Meanwhile, sales at retail indicate increasing confidence among consumers.

Because of the high volatility on a monthly basis, moving averages are used. Year-over-year comparisons are also utilized to spot the pivot points in the economy.

Meanwhile, the Factory Order Report, also coming from the Census Bureau, is a more detailed and less timely report than the GDR.

The main downside of this indicator is that it fails to account for price changes that can greatly impact inventories during both inflationary and deflationary times.

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