Alternative investment

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An alternative investment or alternative investment fund (AIF) is an investment or fund that invests in asset classes other than stocks, bonds, and cash. The term is a relatively loose one and includes tangible assets such as precious metals, art, wine, antiques, coins, or stamps and some financial assets such as real estate, commodities, private equity, distressed securities, hedge funds, carbon credits, venture capital, film production, financial derivatives, and cryptocurrencies. Investments in real estate, forestry and shipping are also often termed “alternative” despite the ancient use of such real assets… Read More

The CPI Is Underrepresenting Food Inflation By 40%: Here’s The Proof

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From Zero Hedge May 2019: The “muzzle” on reported inflation has policymakers and analysts perplexed. As Joseph Carson, former director of economic research at Alliance Bernstein writes in his follow up to a “New Working Theory on Inflation“, numerous economic explanations and theories have been offered, and policymakers are considering making changes to their operating price-targeting framework. Yet, before any… Read More

$100,000 Per Year Is Now The Bare Minimum To Live Alone In New York

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From Zero Hedge August 2019: It’s getting extremely difficult to live in New York if you’re making less than six figures, according to a new analysis from Bloomberg. The impact is being felt by those who live alone and it’s taking place in areas that were previously seen as affordable. Solo renters in popular Brooklyn neighborhoods like Prospect Heights, Brooklyn Heights and… Read More

Gross domestic product

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Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced in a specific time period, often annually. GDP (nominal) per capita does not, however, reflect differences in the cost of living and the inflation rates of the countries; therefore using a basis of GDP per capita at purchasing power parity (PPP) is arguably more useful when comparing differences in living standards between nations. Definition The OECD defines… Read More

Balance of trade

The balance of trade, commercial balance, or net exports (sometimes symbolized as NX), is the difference between the monetary value of a nation’s exports and imports over a certain time period. Sometimes a distinction is made between a balance of trade for goods versus one for services. The balance of trade measures a flow of exports and imports over a given period of time. The notion of the balance of trade does… Read More

S&P futures

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S&P Futures are financial futures which allow an investor to hedge with or speculate on the future value of various components of the S&P 500 Index market index. The futures instruments are derived from the S&P 500 Index is E-mini S&P Futures. S&P 500 futures contracts were first introduced by the CME in 1982. The CME added the e-mini option in 1997. The bundle of stocks in the S&P… Read More

Pension fund

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A pension fund, also known as a superannuation fund in some countries, is any plan, fund, or scheme which provides retirement income. Pension funds typically have large amounts of money to invest and are the major investors in listed and private companies. They are especially important to the stock market where large institutional investors dominate. The largest 300 pension funds collectively hold about $6 trillion in assets. In January… Read More

Stock market index future

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In finance, a stock market index future is a cash-settled futures contract on the value of a particular stock market index, such as the S&P 500. The turnover for the global market in exchange-traded equity index futures is notionally valued, for 2008, by the Bank for International Settlements at USD 130 trillion. Uses Stock index futures are used for hedging, trading, and investments. Index futures are also used as leading indicators to… Read More

Qualified institutional buyer

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A qualified institutional buyer (QIB), in United States law and finance, is a purchaser of securities that is deemed financially sophisticated and is legally recognized by securities market regulators to need less protection from issuers than most public investors. Typically, the qualifications for this designation are based on an investor’s total assets under management and specific legal conditions in the country where the fund is located. Rule… Read More

Commodity market

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A commodity market is a market that trades in the primary economic sector rather than manufactured products, such as cocoa, fruit and sugar. Hard commodities are mined, such as gold and oil. Investors access about 50 major commodity markets worldwide with purely financial transactions increasingly outnumbering physical trades in which goods are delivered. Futures contracts are the oldest way of investing in commodities. Futures are secured by physical assets.Commodity markets can include… Read More