Finance Space

“Panic” might be too weak a word for what’s going on out there. It’s not just that the stock market has been affected — the far larger lending market has seized up as well. Banks don’t want to lend to each other, much less those of us out here in the real world, and the bond markets remain off-limits to all but the strongest of borrowers.

And all of that is leaving everyone terrified. The long-term future simply doesn’t matter all that much to a company that risks oblivion in the next week if it can’t roll over its maturing debt or cover tomorrow’s margin call.

One thing that I love about the currency market is that there is always a currency or two going up at all times, even when stocks and commodities are getting thrashed.

The global slow down that has punished stocks for well over a year now has seemed to have “blessed” a couple of currencies out there. Some currencies can actually benefit from “hard times”.

Let’s take a look at the chart of the Japanese yen below since “a picture is worth a thousand words”. I’ve overlaid it on a chart of the S&P 500 so you can see how “inversely” they have tended to trade against each other (click to enlarge).

The world’s leading provider of financial services to institutional investors, announced today that David Puth has been named to a newly created position as head of State Street’s investment research, securities finance and trading activities worldwide. Puth, age 51, will report to Jay Hooley, president and chief operating officer of State Street. He will also join the company’s Operating Group, State Street’s senior-most strategy and policy-making team.

(Omaha World-Herald (NE) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jul. 25–Everyone is encouraged to save, but one question people might pose: What is saving?

Is it putting money aside to buy a dishwasher, television set or iPod without having to use a credit card?

Is it money placed in a 401(k) retirement fund or the stock market?

Is it enough cash in an emergency fund to cover three to six months of living expenses in the event of job loss or disability?

Chances are, you fall into one of two investing camps: passive or active.

Passive investors like to invest in index funds. They typically buy the entire stock market, or most of it, via funds based on the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 — and accept average market returns.

In contrast, active investors aim to beat the market, making most or all of their investments outside indexes. For example, they may invest in a bundle of carefully selected individual stocks, or select mutual funds that concentrate on a specific subsector of the market, such as small-cap stocks, energy stocks, or foreign regions.

A new law proposed by Gilad Erdan is meant to encourage pension funds to take “social” considerations into account by compelling them to give an accounting of their policies regarding social investing. The pension holder would thus be given the information he or she needs to make social responsibility one consideration in the investment decision.

The law would put Israeli workers in a position to exercise “socially responsible investing,” a term which is all the rage in business ethics circles.

Tough times often open doors to new avenues. If doors to the Indian stock markets do not seem to be in a welcoming mood at the moment, there is a whole world awaiting the investors, literally, outside the domestic circuit. That was the theme of the recently concluded Global Investment Marathon organised by ING Investment Management, one of the world’s leading asset management companies, in Mumbai.

The two-day summit aimed at creating awareness about the investment opportunities available around the globe, through a series of workshops and panel discussions conducted by leading experts in the investment arena.

You know there’s an energy crisis when Ferrari pledges to redesign its supercars to get 40% more distance out of a tank of gas. Celebrated for bombastic 12-cylinder engines that assure its place in the annual fuel-hog rankings, the Italian icon is making lighter models that also are molded to reduce aerodynamic drag. It has even built a concept car that swigs 85% ethanol.

How do socially responsible mutal funds measure up?

Cheryl Crowe is a talkative sort when it comes to socially responsible investing.

It goes with the territory since she’s Assiniboine Credit Union’s socially responsible investment (SRI) specialist — the only position of its kind in Canada.

Crowe, who became interested in SRI after visiting an African AIDS orphanage in the ’90s, gives community presentations, works with advisers and will offer her knowledge freely to anyone interested in mutual funds filtered through the lens of ethical investing.

Madhuri, an avid investor claimed that she had an investment portfolio of Rs 10 lakh built over a period of two years of savings. She narrated her feat to Amrita, an investment analyst. Out of curiosity, Amrita asked her what was the return on the same. Madhuri was bewildered. She had never computed returns! Amrita explained to her that what is important is not the cost of the investment but its current value.

An investment portfolio has to be valued based on the current market price of securities, to which you add interest/dividend earnings and reduce expenses/ interest on borrowed funds.