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how a hammer clause works | hammer clauses allow the insurer to force the insured to settle it does this by placing a cap on the amount of indemnification that it is willing to provide this cap may be set for example at the amount the insurer thinks that the settlement is worth if the insured refuses to settle it may be responsible for its own defense costs insurance companies indemnify their policyholders from the risks outlined in the policy that they purchase if a claim is made the insurer is responsible for helping settle the loss in some cases the insurance company and the insured party will have a different opinion on what the settlement value should be the insurer wants to limit the costs that it incurs during the settlement process including legal fees and claims adjuster fees which can grow substantially the longer the claims process drags out a hammer clause allows the insurer to compel a manufacturer in a lawsuit to settle the case the insured party however is interested in reducing the amount of money it will owe in a settlement and since it does not incur the legal fees it has less of an incentive to finalize a settlement if the party is not pleased with the amount sample hammer clause wordingthere is wording specific to a hammer clause we have the right and duty to defend any claim seeking damages even if any of the allegations of the claim are groundless false or fraudulent we will investigate any such claim we deem appropriate we will not settle any claim without your written consent which shall not be unreasonably withheld you and we agree to consult with each other to resolve any differences to such settlement example of the hammer clausefor example consider a manufacturer that is being sued for injuries sustained by consumers who used its product the manufacturer s liability policy requires the insurer to defend the manufacturer in court the insurer may recognize that defending the insured will be a drawn out process and that the consumer lawsuit may be finalized quickly by offering a settlement the manufacturer however doesn t want the settlement because it will cost it money out of pocket a hammer clause will allow the insurer to compel the manufacturer to settle | |
what is hammering | hammering is rapid and concentrated selling of stock shares in the wake of an unexpected event that is perceived as extremely damaging to the company s short term performance the effect of hammering is a steep drop in the price of the stock | |
how hammering works | hammering is usually a response to unexpected bad news also known as an asteroid event such as a terrorist attack it may focus on a single stock a sector of the market or the entire stock market in some cases investors may collaborate in an effort to push the share price lower for their own purposes hammering can be accomplished with a few large sale orders or many small sell orders a single company may experience an asteroid event that triggers hammering if the success of a company relies on the reputation of a particular boss or the success of a single product an adverse event may instantly change the company s outlook some companies and industries are particularly prone to asteroid events for a small pharmaceutical or biotechnology company a setback in a clinical trial or fda approval can change expectations of its short term profit expectations overnight more common asteroid events include corporate restructurings mergers and acquisitions deals bankruptcy spin offs or takeovers if such an event catches the market by surprise the stock could well get hammered investors may try to benefit from an asteroid event if they perceive it as a temporary stock mispricing they simply buy the stock after it falls in the expectation that it will quickly recover that strategy may misfire after an asteroid event stock analysts review the stock and may issue revised recommendations and lower price targets other investors will respond to those recommendations keeping the stock s price lower for the long haul some asteroid events actually are good for a stock s price when a hostile takeover occurs the stock price of the target company is likely to rise if the takeover fails the stock price could rise or fall depending on market sentiment technical analysts who watch the ups and downs of stock prices in order to identify patterns that can be exploited have identified a hammer candlestick pattern that indicates a recovery in a stock s price this indicator may appear after a prolonged downtrend in the stock s price the stock endures strong selling it reaches a low point and then begins to recover eventually it closes near its previous mark or higher in this case the market may be seen as hammering out a bottom to technical analysts a hammer candlestick pattern indicates that a stock should reverse course and begin to rise in price example of hammering a stockshares of chipotle mexican grill inc cmg got hammered after 22 people reported becoming ill after eating at its restaurants in october 2015 1 a strain of e coli infection was blamed chipotle acted quickly after the early reports it temporarily closed 43 locations in washington state and oregon even before testing confirmed its food was to blame the bad news kept coming by late january 2016 a total of 55 people in 11 states had been sickened by one of two strains of e coli bacteria possibly linked to chipotle products from october 2015 to february 2018 shares went from above 750 per share all the way down to 250 2 in every company s nightmare scenario chipotle mexican grill became the butt of late night comedy jokes about food poisoning 3 but that wasn t the end of it the food and drug administration fda credited the company with a number of aggressive measures to deal with the crisis including the immediate shutdown of 43 west coast restaurants in addition chipotle chipotle stock did not return to its previous levels until well into 2019 by mid 2020 its price had almost reached 1 200 a share it s safe to say that chipotle achieved that hammer candlestick pattern although perhaps not as quickly as some of its investors would have hoped | |
what is the hamptons effect | the hamptons effect refers to a dip in trading that occurs just before the labor day weekend that is followed by increased trading volume as traders and investors return from the long weekend the term references the idea that many of the large scale traders on wall street spend the last days of summer in the hamptons a traditional summer destination for the new york city elite the increased trading volume of the hamptons effect can be positive if it takes the form of a rally as portfolio managers place trades to firm up overall returns toward the end of the year alternatively the effect can be negative if portfolio managers decide to take profits rather than opening or adding to their positions the hamptons effect is a calendar effect based on a combination of statistical analysis and anecdotal evidence the statistical case for the hamptons effectthe statistical case for the hamptons effect is stronger for some sectors compared to others using a market wide measure such as the standard poor s 500 the hamptons effect is characterized by slightly higher volatility with a small positive effect depending on the period used however it is possible to use sector level data and create a case showing that a certain stock profile is favored following the long weekend for example the case can be made that defensive stocks which are consistent performers similar to food and utilities are favored as the end of the year approaches and therefore benefit from the hamptons effect trading opportunitiesas with any market effect finding a pattern and reliably profiting from a pattern are two different things analyzing a set of data will almost always reveal interesting trends and patterns as the parameters shift the hamptons effect can certainly be construed from market data when adjustments are made to the period and the type of stock the question for investors is whether the effect is large enough to create a true performance advantage after fees taxes and spreads are considered for an individual investor the answer is often to the negative for market anomalies the hamptons effect and other similar anomalies that can be construed from data are interesting findings but their value as an investment strategy is not significant for the average investor even if a market effect appears consistent it can quickly dissipate as traders and institutional investors implement strategies to take advantage of the arbitrage opportunity | |
what is handelsgesetzbuch hgb | handelsgesetzbuch hgb is the law that governs the primary commercial code for companies in germany the law includes a regulation related to the preparation of financial statements and establishes accounting guidelines and best practices 1 hgb is similar to generally accepted accounting principles gaap in the united states understanding handelsgesetzbuch hgb the commercial code of germany known as handelsgesetzbuch hgb was first established on may 10 1897 2 in 1998 the code was adapted to conform to new laws within the european community hgb was also been used in austria from 1938 until 2007 when it was replaced by a newer unified commercial code called unternehmensgesetzbuch ugb 3 german accounting law was further updated in 2010 with bilanzrechtsmodernisierungsgesetz bilmog 4hgb governs the registration of companies in germany and the ordinances they must adhere to for example hgb includes provisions on the use of commercial brokers agents and the formation and dissolution of partnerships with third parties 5the mandates of hgb include paying employees salaries by the end of each month under the law non compete clauses in employees hiring contracts must be outlined in writing there are also provisions regarding charter contracts for ships and salvage rights hgb is sometimes referred to as german gaap handelsgesetzbuch hgb vs ifrsgermany s commercial code and accounting laws share similarities and differences with international financial reporting standards ifrs for example germany s laws and ifrs both use historical costs as the core of accounting but german law generally does not allow for revaluations 6ifrs allows for the revaluation of the fair value of property intangible assets investment property equipment and inventions within set industries german accounting law does offer some exceptions to the fair value assessment of financial instruments from banks and financial institutions that are held for trading 6income statements are largely similar under either set of accounting laws but differences do exist there is no statement of comprehensive income under german account practices income statements can be issued by using the cost of sales or total cost methods furthermore income drawn from discounting provisions must be included with other interest and similar income 6with ifrs a company can decide to show its income or expenses as a single statement of comprehensive income or as two statements the separate statements can show components of profit or loss plus another statement for other income 6hgb only requires a statement of cash flows for consolidated financial statements and for publicly traded companies that are not required to file consolidated financial statements ifrs and german accounting practices both classify cash flows by operating investment and financing activities 6hgb is comprised of several books that span merchants partnerships trading commercial transactions and maritime transactions hgb and international businesshgb can have relevance and impact on businesses outside of germany that engage in commercial activities with german entities for starters when businesses from different countries engage in contracts or commercial transactions they often specify the governing law in their agreements if a contract involving a german entity designates german law as the governing law hgb s provisions may apply to the interpretation and enforcement of that contract compliance with hgb may also have implications for tax obligations and transfer pricing for international businesses operating in germany as discussed above hgb contains accounting and financial reporting regulations that may impact the financial statements and disclosures of german entities hgb also provides rules and standards for commercial transactions including sales contracts agency agreements and other trade related activities if international businesses engage in such transactions with german partners hgb s provisions may influence contract terms and obligations hgb regulates various types of business entities such as partnerships and corporations when international businesses form joint ventures subsidiaries or other business structures with german entities the legal framework of hgb may apply to those entities plus hgb includes provisions related to commercial agents which can be relevant when foreign companies appoint commercial agents or distributors in germany | |
what does hgb regulate in the context of commercial activities | hgb regulates aspects like business formation management accounting financial reporting contracts and liability in commercial activities creating a legal framework for businesses to operate within | |
how is hgb enforced and what are the consequences for non compliance | like other codification hgb is enforced through legal means including civil lawsuits administrative enforcement and potentially criminal charges non compliance can result in fines penalties compensation claims and other legal consequences | |
does hgb cover consumer protection or is it primarily focused on businesses | hgb primarily focuses on commercial and business matters rather than consumer protection consumer protection in germany is addressed by separate laws and regulations the bottom linethe handelsgesetzbuch or german commercial code is a comprehensive legal framework in germany that governs commercial activities and businesses it addresses various aspects of commerce including the formation and management of business entities accounting and financial reporting requirements contracts and commercial transactions and liability of business entities and their officers | |
what is a handle | a handle is the whole number part of a price quote that is the portion of the quote to the left of the decimal point for example if the price quote for the stock is 56 25 the handle is 56 eliminating the value of cents in the quote in foreign exchange markets the handle refers to the part of the price quote that appears in both the bid and the offer for the currency for example if the eur usd currency pair has a bid of 1 4183 and an ask of 1 4185 the handle would be 1 41 the part of the quote that is equal to both the bid and the ask | |
how handles work | handles are often used in futures and equities markets where they are also known as the big figure or big fig the decimal or fractional part of the price is sometimes referred to as the dollar price or the stem traders often refer to only the handle of a price quote since it is assumed that other market participants know the stem of the quote for example if s p 500 futures are trading at 2885 43 the handle could be conveyed simply as 2885 or shortened to just the 85 handle if the price drops to 2875 90 a trader may say that the index has dropped ten handles in the foreign exchange markets the minimum price movement is called a pip since many of the foreign exchange instruments are quoted out four or five decimal places it is considered simpler to refer to the last two places when discussing the bids and asks rather than include the handle which tends to be known by the participants handles and foreign exchange marketsforeign exchange encompasses an enormous range of transactions everything from currency conversions by a traveler at an airport kiosk to billion dollar international payments made by corporations financial institutions and governments specific examples include the financing of imports and exports as well as speculative investment positions with no underlying goods or services increasing globalization has corresponded with a significant uptick in the number of foreign exchange transactions amid the expansive global foreign exchange market spot markets and forward markets frequently use the term handle spot markets are markets for financial instruments such as commodities and securities that can be traded immediately or on the spot spot markets rely on spot prices or current market prices this stands in contrast with the forwards market which works with prices at a later date in both cases participants in these markets must understand the handle and stem of their price quotes spot markets may be organized exchanges or over the counter otc markets although the spot exchange rate is the earliest value date in general the standard settlement date for is two business days after the transaction date some exceptions exist including transactions for crude oil in this case goods are sold at spot prices but the physical delivery happens on a later date | |
when is the handle used | the handle or big figure is usually only quoted by traders when prices are changing quickly or reaching new levels it is used to simplify and clarify the price being discussed retail investors will almost always see the entire price of an asset not just the handle | |
are handles and pips the same thing | a handle and a pip are different things in forex trading the handle is the part of the price quote that is the same in both the bid and the ask a pip is the minimum price movement in forex markets usually the fourth decimal place 0 0001 pip is short for percentage in points and the bid ask spread of a forex quote is generally measured in pips the bottom linea handle is a term used by traders often in the futures or equities markets it refers to the part of a price quote to the left of the decimal point for example the 28 in a price of 28 65 the decimal portion of the price is called the stem traders use the handle to simplify how they talk about the price level and may refer to how many handles the price has changed for example a price change of 28 65 to 38 24 would be a gain of 10 handles in forex markets handle means something different it refers to both the part of the price that appears on both sides of a two way quote this could be both the whole number and all or part of the fractional number | |
what is a hands off investor | a hands off investor prefers to set an investment portfolio and make only minor changes for a long period of time many hands off investors use index funds or target date funds which make only small and slow changes to their holdings and therefore do not require much monitoring understanding a hands off investora hands off investment strategy is well suited to many retail investors who may not have the time needed to routinely monitor and research their investments hands on active management requires investors to continuously keep up to date on the positions that they hold this often requires several hours of research per week active managers believe that by doing this work they can earn higher than average returns on their investments a hands off strategy is not necessarily underperforming many investors believe in an indexing approach which posits that sticking with a well diversified portfolio over the long term is the key to wealth since index funds often have very low expense ratios hands off investors often enjoy a built in advantage over active traders who pay more in trading commissions lose out to the bid ask spread and incur the higher tax rates on short term capital gains and nonqualified dividends benefits and drawbacks of being a hands off investoran ongoing study that compares investor returns to market returns dalbar s quantitative analysis of investor behavior affirms the benefits of a hands off approach over the 20 years between 1997 and 2017 the average equity investor earned 5 29 per year while the s p 500 index gained 7 20 per year on a hypothetical 100 000 investment the average investor would have earned approximately 120 000 less than a hands off investor holding the s p 500 the average fixed income investor has done even worse trailing the bloomberg u s aggregate index by 4 54 percentage points per year and making approximately 155 000 less over 20 years special considerationsthe reasons for investor underperformance are myriad but attempting to time the market and behavioral biases like loss aversion are primary contributors dalbar correctly points out that an index is always in the market and always fully invested while investors may be on the sidelines waiting for the right moment to return to the market hands off investors can benefit from the price return of their investment but also from the reinvestment of dividends for mutual fund investors this approach enables investors to purchase more fund shares with their dividend proceeds hands off investors that are not in a target date fund that adjusts its allocation over time could be taking on additional risk as they approach retirement without periodic rebalancing a portfolio could become overweight in riskier equity investments which could destroy wealth should a bear market occur in the last five to 10 years prior to retirement the hands off investor will need a much more conservative portfolio in retirement that conserves capital with assets like cash and high quality bonds and will likely need to engage in significant trading to achieve this | |
what is the hang seng index hsi | the hang seng index or hsi is a free float market capitalization weighted index of the largest companies that trade on the hong kong exchange hkex hkex is one of the largest stock exchanges in the world with an aggregate market cap of more than 31 trillion as of december 2023 down 0 3 from november s 31 1 trillion 1the hsi is widely considered to be the benchmark equity market index for hong kong and often a barometer of asian markets more generally understanding the hang seng indexthe hsi is the most widely quoted indicator of the hong kong economy it s often used as a market benchmark for hong kong investors 2the index launched in 1969 its base period was july 31 1964 when it was valued at 100 hsi aims to reflect the leadership of the hong kong exchange and covers approximately 65 of its total market capitalization 3because of hong kong s status as a special administrative region of china there are close ties between the two economies and many chinese companies are listed on the hong kong exchange hsi is owned and managed by hang seng indexes company limited which is a wholly owned subsidiary of hang seng bank 4as of december 2023 the five largest constituents of the hang seng index were hsbc holdings alibaba tencent aia group and china construction bank 5the hang seng index structurethe hsi is a free float adjusted market capitalization weighted index its value is calculated and disseminated in real time at two second intervals during the trading hours of the hkex the hsi is classified as a price index without adjustments made for cash dividends or warrant bonuses the index targets the largest and most liquid stocks trading on hkex the number of constituents can vary from one period to another as of december 2023 there were 82 stocks in the index hsi companies also fall into one of four sub indexes finance utilities properties and commerce and industry to prevent any particular security from dominating the index the hsi has an 8 capping rule that s the maximum percentage of relative weighting that any single security may have 3a committee convenes quarterly to evaluate the index components and to decide if companies should be added or removed 67the hang seng hk 35 is an index of just the top 35 hong kong based companies that generate most of their revenues outside of mainland china 8the hang seng composite is an index of the top 95 of stocks trading on the hong kong exchange by market cap comprising around 500 stocks 9a subsidiary of the hang seng bank has maintained the hang seng index since 1969 4industries and componentsthe individual industries covered by the hsi along with their weights are 5top holdingsas of december 2023 the top 20 index holdings and their weightings were 5 | |
how many stocks are in the hang seng index | as of december 2023 the hsi was composed of 82 of the largest by market cap stocks traded on the hong kong stock exchange 3 the exchange for reference lists the stocks of around 2 600 companies 1 | |
how do you invest in the hang seng index | you can invest in the hsi via hong kong etfs such as the ishares msci hong kong etf ewh and the franklin ftse hong kong etf flhk the kraneshares hong kong tech etf ktec tracks 30 high tech stocks in the hang seng composite index | |
what is the biggest stock market in asia | as of january 2024 china s stock exchange was the largest equity market in asia with an 8 5 trillion market capitalization on jan 22 2024 india s stock market overtook hong kong s to become the fourth largest stock market in the world with a market cap of 4 3 trillion 10the bottom linethe hang seng index hsi is a benchmark index made up of the largest and most liquid companies that trade on the hong kong stock exchange or hkex as of december 2023 it tracked 82 companies and covered about 65 of the market cap of the exchange the hsi is considered to be the primary gauge of the performance of the hkex | |
what is a hanging man candlestick | a hanging man candlestick occurs during an uptrend and warns that prices may start falling the candle is composed of a small real body a long lower shadow and little or no upper shadow the hanging man shows that selling interest is starting to increase in order for the pattern to be valid the candle following the hanging man must see the price of the asset decline | |
what does the hanging man candlestick tell you | a hanging man represents a large sell off after the open which sends the price plunging but then buyers push the price back up to near the opening price traders view a hanging man as a sign that the bulls are beginning to lose control and that the asset may soon enter a downtrend the hanging man pattern occurs after the price has been moving higher for at least a few candlesticks this does not need to be a major advance it may be but the pattern can also occur within a short term rise amidst a larger downtrend the hanging man looks like a t although the appearance of the candle is only a warning and not necessarily a reason to act the hanging man pattern is not confirmed unless the price falls the next period or shortly after after the hanging man the price should not close above the high price of the hanging man candle as that signals another price advance potentially if the price falls following the hanging man that confirms the pattern and candlestick traders use it as a signal to exit long positions or enter short positions if entering a new short position after the hanging man has been confirmed a stop loss can be placed above the high of the hanging man candle the hanging man and candlesticks in general are not often used in isolation rather they are used in conjunction with other forms of analysis such as price or trend analysis or technical indicators hanging men occur on all time frames from one minute charts right up to weekly and monthly charts example of how to use a hanging man candlestickimage by sabrina jiang investopedia 2020tradingviewin the daily chart of amgen inc amgn a compelling example of a hanging man candlestick pattern was observed marking a significant moment in its trading behavior after a robust rally of 33 from its september 2022 low amgn reached a peak in november 2022 this uptrend was followed by a period of consolidation during which the hanging man pattern materialized signaling a potential shift in market sentiment traders adept in utilizing this pattern would typically initiate a position at the market s opening following the appearance of the hanging man setting a stop loss at the recent high to manage risk in the amgn scenario this strategy involved placing the stop loss at 296 67 to adhere to a risk reward ratio of 2 1 a limit order for exiting the position would be set for agn in this case this exit point was established at 263 07 with the trade commencing at an opening price of 285 55 notably this particular trade on angn proved successful within a span of 21 trading days it is crucial to understand that such examples serve as illustrations only traders commonly rely on extensive backtesting and scenario analyses across various securities before executing trades based on signals like these the hanging man pattern while indicative is not a standalone predictor and is best utilized in conjunction with comprehensive security and market analysis and risk management strategies the difference between the hanging man and hammer candlesticksthe hanging man and the hammer candlesticks look identical the only difference is the context the hammer is a bottoming pattern that forms after a price decline the hammer shape shows strong selling during the period but by the close the buyers have regained control this signals a possible bottom is near and the price could start heading higher if confirmed by upward movement on the following candle the hanging man occurs after a price advance and warns of potentially lower prices to come position in trend appears around the top of an uptrendimplication indicates potential bearish reversalconfirmation often requires bearish confirmation following the patternposition in trend found around the end of a downtrendimplication signals a bullish reversalconfirmation should be followed by bullish confirmationlimitations of using the hanging man candlestickone of the limitations of the hanging man and many candlestick patterns is that waiting for confirmation can result in a poor entry point the price can move so quickly within the two periods that the potential reward from the trade may no longer justify the risk the reward can also be hard to quantify at the start of the trade since candlestick patterns don t typically provide profit targets instead traders need to use other candlesticks patterns or trading strategies to exit any trade that is initiated via the hanging man pattern there is also no assurance the price will decline after a hanging man forms even if there is a confirmation candle this is why placing a stop loss to control risk above the high of the hanging man is recommend when a short trade is initiated | |
are there any other technical indicators similar to the hanging man | there are several technical analysis indicators and candlestick patterns that are similar to the hanging man in terms of signaling potential market reversals these patterns tend to be watched by traders for signs of changes in market direction these include the shooting star the doji and the inverted hammer | |
when is the best timeframe to use the hanging man | the effectiveness of the hanging man candlestick pattern like all patterns and indicators can vary depending on the timeframe in which it is used the best timeframe usually depends on the strategy and goals of the trader | |
what are the best indicators to use with the hanging man | using the hanging man pattern in conjunction with other technical indicators is likely to improve the reliability of the signals it proves the best indicators to use will depend on the strategy of the trader but generally a combination that offers insights into momentum and trend can be effective some indicators include moving averages momentum indicators trend indicators support and resistance levels as well as fibonacci retracements the bottom linethe hanging man candlestick is a significant pattern in technical analysis characterized by a small body located at the top of the trading range with a long lower shadow and little to no upper shadow this pattern typically emerges at the peak of an uptrend signaling potential bearish reversal its recognition is crucial as it suggests that despite the buyers initial control during the session sellers gained ground pushing prices lower before a close near the open however the pattern alone is not a definitive indicator of a trend reversal it requires confirmation through subsequent bearish price action or increased selling volume in employing tactics with the hanging man pattern traders should integrate it with other technical tools for a more robust analysis this includes utilizing moving averages to gauge the prevailing trend and applying momentum indicators like the relative strength index rsi or stochastic oscillator to assess market conditions additionally considering support and resistance levels can provide contextual insight enhancing the predictive power of the hanging man pattern as with all trading strategies it is vital to incorporate sound risk management practices including setting appropriate stop loss orders to mitigate potential losses in case the anticipated trend reversal does not materialize | |
what is happiness economics | happiness economics is the formal academic study of the relationship between individual satisfaction and economic issues such as employment and wealth investopedia alex dos diazunderstanding happiness economics | |
where standard economics relies on measurements of income and consumption or other observed behaviors to demonstrate the immeasurable concept of utility or the satisfaction of material wants and needs happiness economics uses surveys and related methods to elicit people to directly reveal their level of satisfaction happiness economics apples econometric analysis to discover which factors might increase or decrease human well being and quality of life | happiness economics is a relatively new branch of research mainstream economics has long relied on the concept of utility the enjoyment that people experience from the satisfactions of wants and needs however because the subjective internal experience of happiness joy or felt unease cannot be directly observed or measured by an external observer economists rely on observing people s actions to reveal what gives the utility to measure this utility economists use various observable proxies mostly market prices in terms of money to indicate how much utility people experience from various economic goods or activities the basic idea is that measuring the amount of money that people are willing to pay or accept for various goods and services on a market demonstrates the amount of utility they expect to receive from those things this also means that economists often use indicators like a person s income or total consumption to indicate their total utility happiness economics is an attempt to overcome certain shortcomings of this traditional approach by trying to measure utility or happiness more directly one major shortcoming of traditional utility theory is that because it relies on observed market prices quantities and incomes it cannot account for the enjoyment that people receive from goods services activities or amenities that occur outside of markets this means that impact on human happiness of anything that is not or cannot be traded on a market will be at best difficult or impossible to measure it also assumes that the observed market prices and quantities capture the full value of those goods and services that are traded on markets which may not always be the case those who study happiness economics argue that it is essential to examine factors affecting quality of life beyond typical areas of economic studies such as income and wealth happiness economics seeks to overcome these problems mainly by asking people to fill out surveys that directly ask people to rank or score the happiness they receive or to reveal how much they might be willing to pay or accept for things that do not have explicit market prices they also analyze indices tracking the quality of life in different countries focusing on factors such as access to health care life expectancy literacy levels political freedom gross domestic product gdp per capita cost of living social support and pollution levels collecting data on happiness can serve a number of purposes including helping governments to design better public policies happiness economics indicesover the past 30 or so years a number of happiness economics metrics have emerged common ones include gross national happiness gnh and happiness indices that aim to track the well being of people living in several countries in the world according to the 2023 world happiness report the happiest countries are europe home to most of the countries topping the 2023 list is particularly engaged with happiness economics the region s organization for economic cooperation and development oecd gathers data on happiness economics and ranks its member countries based on factors such as housing income employment education environment civic engagement and health criticism of happiness economicshappiness economics has several major problems in terms of theory method and application economists have traditionally eschewed survey research methods as unreliable surveys are known to be prone to numerous biases for one respondents can answer survey however they want with no actual consequence or trade off required which often leads to paradoxical results a classic example of this is that survey respondents will routinely respond that they support increasing total public services spending and will also respond that they oppose tax increases to pay for that increased spending by measuring utility through observed market phenomena where people have real skin in the game and have to acknowledge scarcity and make trade offs the traditional economic approach avoids these kind of problems the results of happiness economics research is often found to be redundant or duplicative of simply measuring human well being using more objective measures such as income gdp per capita or direct observation of the quality of economic institutions the research of happiness economics has generally found that people in wealthier countries with high quality institutions tend to be happier than people in countries with less wealth and poorer institutions simple comparison of self reported life satisfaction and real gdp per capita shows a strong positive correlation that is consistent over time this suggests that simply referring to gdp per capita already measures happiness and that attempts to directly measure happiness are a waste of time these and other criticisms lead many economics to see happiness economics as an inferior way of measuring human welfare compared to established methods | |
what is a harami cross | a harami cross is a japanese candlestick pattern that consists of a large candlestick that moves in the direction of the trend followed by a small doji candlestick the doji is completely contained within the prior candlestick s body the harami cross pattern suggests that the previous trend may be about to reverse the pattern can be either bullish or bearish the bullish pattern signals a possible price reversal to the upside while the bearish pattern signals a possible price reversal to the downside understanding the harami crossa bullish harami cross pattern forms after a downtrend the first candlestick is a long down candle typically colored black or red which indicates that the sellers are in control the second candle the doji has a narrow range and opens above the previous day s close the doji candlestick closes near to the price it opened at the doji must be completely contained with the real body of the previous candle the doji shows that some indecision has entered the minds of sellers typically traders don t act on the pattern unless the price follows through to the upside within the next couple of candles this is called confirmation sometimes the price may pause for a few candles after the doji and then rise or fall a rise above the open of the first candle helps confirm that the price may be heading higher a bearish harami cross forms after an uptrend the first candlestick is a long up candle typically colored white or green which shows buyers are in control this is followed by a doji which shows indecision on the part of the buyers once again the doji must be contained within the real body of the prior candle if the price drops following the pattern this confirms the pattern if the price continues to rise following the doji the bearish pattern is invalidated harami cross enhancersfor a bullish harami cross some traders may act on the pattern as it forms while others will wait for confirmation confirmation is a price move higher following the pattern in addition to confirmation traders may also give a bullish harami cross more weight or significance if it occurs at a major support level if it does there is a greater chance of a larger price move to the upside especially if there is no nearby resistance overhead traders may also watch other technical indicators such as the relative strength index rsi moving up from oversold territory or confirmation of a move higher from other indicators for a bearish harami cross some traders prefer waiting for the price to move lower following the pattern before acting on it in addition the pattern may be more significant if occurs near a major resistance level other technical indicators such as an rsi moving lower from overbought territory may help confirm the bearish price move trading the harami cross patternit is not required to trade the harami cross some traders use it simply as an alert to be on the lookout for a reversal if already long a trader may take profits if a bearish harami cross appears and then the price starts dropping after the pattern or a trader in a short position may look to exit if a bullish harami cross appears and then the price starts rising shortly after some traders may opt to enter positions once the harami cross appears if entering long on a bullish harami cross a stop loss can be placed below the doji low or below the low of the first candlestick a possible place to enter the long is when the price moves above the open of the first candle if entering a short a stop loss can be placed above the high of the doji or above the high of the first candle one possible place to enter the trade is when the price drops below the first candle open harami cross patterns don t have profit targets therefore traders need to use some other method of determining when to exit a profitable trade some options include using a trailing stop loss finding an exit with fibonacci extensions or retracements or using a risk reward ratio example of a harami crossthe following chart shows a bearish harami cross in american airlines group inc aal the price had been falling in an overall downtrend but then flattened out into a large range the price moved higher into a resistance area where it formed a bearish harami pattern following the pattern the price moved lower this provided confirmation and an opportunity to exit longs or enter short positions the price continued lower for a couple of weeks before reversing and then breaking above the resistance level | |
what is a hard asset | a hard asset refers to a tangible asset or resource with fundamental value examples of hard assets include a fleet of trucks for the delivery of consumer goods land real estate and commodities businesses purchase hard assets to help improve production increase revenues and act as a buffer against soft asset losses however sometimes the value of hard assets decreases in tandem with the value of soft assets understanding hard assetshard assets are usually fixed assets meaning they re long term assets that aid in the production of a company s goods and services fixed assets have a life of more than one year hard assets are typically classified as property plant and equipment on a company s balance sheet some examples of hard assets include however hard assets can also be short term assets called current assets which are typically used up within one year inventory for example could be a hard asset for a company if a company manufactures machinery the raw materials or inventory such as the machine parts would be hard assets hard assets that are fixed assets usually involve capital investment decisions for a company s executive management team these assets usually involve a large outlay of cash or capital and as a result are considered long term funding decisions the funding for big ticket hard assets can come from banks venture capital firms issuance of corporate bonds or debt as well as issuing new shares of stock the capital investment of hard assets such as a new manufacturing plant means the company plans to use the facility for many years to generate revenue hard assets are considered particularly valuable because they can be used to produce or purchase other goods or services they can also be sold to generate cash in the event the company has financial difficulties when analysts calculate a company s intrinsic value a portion of this underlying value is derived from the value of its hard assets the intrinsic value of a company is a calculation of a company s value using various models that include analyzing a company s cash flow assets future revenue streams and its cost structure hard assets come into play when valuing a company since they can be sold for cash to pay off debts bondholders and shareholders in the event of financial distress or liquidation hard assets vs intangible assetshard assets are the opposite of intangible assets which are non physical assets that are used over the long term examples of intangible assets include technology companies tend to have many intangible assets since they have patents for their products as well as significant capital tied up in research and development on the other hand oil producing companies have many hard assets such as oil rigs and drilling machinery ford motor company nyse f is a us automotive company that produces various cars and trucks the company s executive management team is looking to buy new machinery for their assembly line the company will also purchase steel and aluminum for the rivets all of the assets the machinery steel and aluminum are considered hard assets the assembly machinery is a long term hard asset on the other hand the steel and aluminum raw materials are current assets since their inventory will likely be used up within one year also any patents on the equipment are considered intangible assets | |
what is hard call protection | hard call protection or absolute call protection is a provision in a callable bond whereby the issuer cannot exercise the call and redeem the bond before the specified date usually three to five years from the date of issuance understanding hard call protectioninvestors who purchase bonds are paid interest coupon rate for the duration of the bond s life when the bond matures bondholders are repaid the principal value equivalent to the face value of the bond interest rates and bond prices have an inverse relationship when the bond price declines then yields rise and vice versa while bondholders prefer to invest in bonds with higher rates as this translates into high interest income payments issuers would rather sell bonds with lower rates to reduce their cost of borrowing thus when interest rates decrease issuers will retire the existing bonds before they mature and refinance the debt at the lower interest reflected in the economy bonds that are repaid prior to maturity stop paying interest forcing investors to find interest income in some other investment usually at a lower interest rate reinvestment risk to protect callable bondholders from having their bonds repaid too early most trust indentures include a hard call protection a hard call protection is the period of time during which an issuer cannot call its bonds callable corporate and municipal bonds usually have ten years of call protection while protection on utility debt is often limited to five years for example consider a bond that is issued with 15 years to maturity and a five year call protection this means that for the first five years of the bond s life regardless of the movement of interest rates the bond issuer cannot redeem the bond by repaying the bond s principal balance the hard call protection serves as a sweetener as it guarantees investors will receive the stated return for five years before the bond is free to be called since the investor is taking the risk of the bond being called prior to maturity brokers will usually provide yield to hard call as well as yield to maturity figures when a callable bond is being purchased an investor should base their decisions on the lower of these two yields which is usually the yield to the hard call date after the hard call protection period expires the bond may continue to be partially protected by soft call protection this feature requires certain conditions to exist before the bond can be called soft call protection is usually a premium to par that the issuer must pay to call in the bonds before maturity for example the issuer may be required to repay investors a percentage over the full face value say 105 of the bond on the first call date a soft call provision may also specify that the issuer cannot call a bond that is trading above its issue price in the case of convertible callable bonds a soft call protection would prevent the issuer from calling the bond until the price of the underlying stock rose to a certain percentage above the conversion price callable bonds pay a higher return because of the risk that the issuer will redeem them before maturity a retail note is an example of a type of bond that commonly includes hard call protection | |
what is hard currency | hard currency refers to money that is issued by a nation that is seen as politically and economically stable hard currencies are widely accepted around the world as a form of payment for goods and services and may be preferred over the domestic currency understanding hard currencya hard currency is expected to remain relatively stable through a short period of time and to be highly liquid in the forex or foreign exchange fx market the most tradable currencies in the world are the u s dollar usd european euro eur japanese yen jpy british pound gbp swiss franc chf canadian dollar cad and the australian dollar aud 1 all of these currencies have the confidence of international investors and businesses because they are not generally prone to dramatic depreciation or appreciation the u s dollar stands out in particular as it enjoys status as the world s foreign reserve currency 2 for this reason many international transactions are done in u s dollars moreover if a country s currency begins to soften citizens will begin holding u s dollars and other safe haven currencies to protect their wealth example of hard currencies in actionwithin the hard currency group the canadian and australian dollars are sensitive to commodity prices but they weather these dips better than other countries much more dependent on commodities for example the collapse of energy prices in 2014 hurt both the australian and canadian markets but it was far more devastating for the russian ruble that said a depreciation in a nation s currency is usually result of either an increase in the money supply or a loss of confidence in its future ability as a store of constant value because of either economic financial or governmental concerns a striking example of an unstable or a soft currency is the argentinian peso which in 2015 lost 34 6 of its value against the dollar making it highly unattractive to foreign investors 3 the value of a currency is mostly based off of economic fundamentals such as gross domestic product gdp and employment the international strength of the u s dollar is reflective of america s gdp which as of 2019 current prices stands first in the world at 21 37 trillion china and india have the second and fifth respectively ranked gdps in the world at 14 34 trillion and 2 88 trillion but neither the chinese yuan nor the indian rupee is considered a hard currency 4 this underscores how central bank policies and stability in a country s money supply also factor into exchange rates there is also a clear preference for mature democracies with a transparent legal system downsides of a hard currencyhard currencies are more valuable than other currencies for instance as of nov 6 2020 the fx market traded at a rate of 6 61 yuan per u s dollar and 73 97 rupee per dollar 5 6 these exchange rates are detrimental for chinese and indian importers but positive for current account balances a weak exchange rate helps a country s exporters because it makes exports more competitive or cheaper in international commodity and other markets in recent years china has faced accusations of manipulating its exchange rate to deflate prices and seize a greater share of international markets | |
what are hard dollars | hard dollars are cash fees or payments made by an investor or customer to a brokerage firm in return for their services hard dollar payments are usually set amounts that are known before a customer begins dealing with a broker hard dollar payments include set transaction charges monthly account maintenance charges as well as paying for research provided by the brokerage firm understanding hard dollarsif an investor requires research from a brokerage they can pay for those services via a cash payment this would be considered a hard dollar payment for services however if the investor wants to pay a few with commission dollars available with another brokerage firm the customer can allocate some of those commission dollars towards another brokerage firm to pay for services or research this type of payment is known as soft dollars example of hard dollarsfor example if a client is looking to receive research from a broker or investment bank they will usually pay for the research by trading with the broker and generating commission dollars however if the client doesn t have a trading relationship with the bank or broker they can send along a check for payment this would be considered hard dollars if the client has a soft dollar arrangement with another broker meaning they have commission funds set aside to pay for research and other needs they can direct the soft dollar broker to pay another broker for research if the client rather than sending a hard check directs the soft dollar broker to pay a firm for their research this would be a soft dollar payment in other words hard dollars differ from soft dollar payments because soft dollar payments are paid within the commission revenue from making trades or deducted from the value of any other transactions another way to look at it is that hard dollar payments are physical actual payments in cash whereas soft dollars are paid with commission dollars generated with a soft dollar broker | |
what is a hard fork | a blockchain hard fork is a change in programming that is incompatible with the old programming this essentially creates a new blockchain and cryptocurrency hard forks generally require all nodes or users who wish to stay on the new chain to upgrade to the latest version of the software hard forks may be initiated by developers as part of routine progress or maintenance on a blockchain they may also be created by a faction of the crypto community that wants to take a different direction with the blockchain | |
how hard forks work | a hard fork is when a new blockchain version emerges that is incompatible with the original version it is not always an adverse event in fact many blockchains have undergone hard forks to implement necessary changes blockchains are basically programs that create and store files of information on a network of computers and devices there are usually layers of software completing different tasks some methods for the network to reach an agreement on the blockchain s state and many network participants each layer s underlying programming can be changed as needed but it has to be accepted by the network s participants to be adopted developers cannot force changes on a public blockchain that relies on participation public blockchains rely on their participants so changes must be implemented by them not forced upon them otherwise they can refuse to accept the changes and keep their preferred version because blockchains are essentially programs and scripts they can be affected by errors bugs network communication problems hardware failures or other issues blockchains also rely on a large number of network participants to host versions for security | |
when developers publish a change to any of a blockchain s functions one of two things happen a hard fork or a soft fork if the change is drastic enough to prevent a participant running the old version from participating in the blockchain s processes the change is considered to have created a hard fork in the blockchain conversely a change that allows old and new nodes to run is considered a soft fork | in a hard fork event participants are faced with a choice they can update their software to the new version or not upgrade their software and use the old and now unmaintained blockchain reasons for a hard forkthere are several reasons or even events that cause developers to implement a hard fork for instance when the hack on the decentralized autonomous organization dao occurred the ethereum blockchain was forked by a nearly unanimous vote the fork rolled back transactions that siphoned off tens of millions of dollars worth of digital currency by an anonymous hacker the hard fork also helped dao token holders get their ether eth funds returned however some miners kept mining the old chain which was picked up by otc desks and given a price discovery order book poloniex listed this currency also and some of the ethereum community decided to keep this version and created ethereum classic 1 | |
what is the meaning of hard fork | a hard fork is a change in a blockchain s programming that creates a new blockchain and cryptocurrency many projects have hard forked but kept their original names and tokens with other groups deciding to stay with the original code and change the name | |
is a hard fork good or bad | it depends on the circumstances and participants views some might believe a hard fork is necessary and good while others might not | |
why do hard forks happen | there are several reasons a hard fork might happen code might need adjusting to fix errors or address a weakness or a group might want to create their own blockchain and cryptocurrency the bottom linehard forks are a change in programming that results in a blockchain split sometimes hard forks are controversial in the community involved in a blockchain at other times they are necessary for a blockchain to progress in situations with controversy participants and users can either upload the updated blockchain and begin processing it or reject it and use the old chain this is how several blockchains and cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin cash and ethereum classic started the comments opinions and analyses expressed on investopedia are for informational purposes online read our warranty and liability disclaimer for more info | |
what is a hard inquiry | a hard inquiry is a request by a lender to obtain your full credit report from a credit bureau hard inquiries typically occur when you apply for a loan or other form of credit and they can result in a small and temporary decrease in your credit score 1 hard pull and hard credit check are other names for a hard inquiry | |
when you apply for a loan line of credit or credit card the lender will typically request a copy of your credit report from one or more of the three major credit bureaus equifax experian and transunion | the credit bureaus obtain their information from your current and previous creditors because not every creditor reports to all three bureaus and some don t report to any of them you credit reports can vary from one bureau to another in the case of large loans such as home mortgages the lender may request all three reports before it makes its decision in order to get as complete a picture of you as possible these requests are known as hard inquiries any type of hard credit inquiry will be noted on your credit report causing a small credit score decrease hard inquiries remain on your credit report for two years although they have no effect on your credit score after one year 2if you have many hard inquiries in a short time period some lenders may take that as a red flag that you are in desperate need of money you may also see a substantial drop in your credit score however lenders and credit scoring models make allowances in some situations for example most fico credit scores are not affected by multiple inquiries from auto mortgage or student loan lenders within a short period of time typically these are treated as a single inquiry and will have little impact on your credit scores fico says 2fico has multiple scoring models and that short period of time can vary from one to another in the latest models it is 45 days 2as the consumer financial protection bureau explains the impact on your credit is the same no matter how many lenders you consult as long as the last credit check is within 45 days of the first credit check even if a lender needs to check your credit after the 45 day window is over shopping around is usually still worth it the impact of an additional inquiry is small while shopping around for the best deal can save you a lot of money in the long run 3 | |
what s more fico says its scoring models ignore inquiries relating to mortgage auto and student loans made in the 30 days prior to scoring so if you find a loan within 30 days the inquiries won t affect your scores while you re rate shopping 2 | the reason for these exceptions is that you are presumably looking for a single loan at the best possible terms not trying to obtain multiple loans at the same time unlike hard inquiries soft credit inquiries have no effect on your credit score hard inquiry vs soft inquiryin addition to hard inquiries lenders and other interested businesses can make so called soft inquiries to request your credit reports unlike a hard inquiry a soft inquiry is not triggered by your applying for credit in fact you may not even know it is happening examples of soft inquiries include requests by your current creditors to see your file or by prospective lenders that are looking for good prospects for credit card offers a process known as prescreening when you request your own credit report that s considered a soft inquiry as well 4if your employer or a potential employer requests your credit report that also counts as a soft inquiry however you will most likely know about it because employers are required to get your permission in writing first 5soft inquiries have no effect on your credit score they can appear on your credit report transunion says but only you will be able to see them 6other information lenders may requestwhile your credit report contains a lot of information about your use of credit it doesn t tell potential lenders or other interested parties everything they might want to know about your financial situation for example it doesn t include your income nor does it have information on your investments or other assets such as bank accounts if a lender wants that information it will have to obtain it in some other way such as by asking questions on your loan application and requesting satisfactory back up such as pay stubs tax forms investment statements and bank statements 7credit reports also lack certain personal information such as your marital status education and medical history 7in addition your credit report does not contain your credit score which lenders and others must obtain separately who can request your credit report who s allowed access to your credit report is governed by the fair credit reporting act according to the consumer financial protection bureau a consumer reporting agency may provide information about you only to people with a valid need usually to consider an application with a creditor insurer employer landlord or other business employers must typically obtain your permission in writing 8 | |
how can you request your credit report | by law you re entitled to a free copy of your credit report at least once a year from each of the three major credit bureaus the official website for all three is annualcreditreport com note that if you find any errors in a credit report particularly ones that might be damaging to your credit score you can dispute that information with the credit bureau it is required to investigate the matter and report back to you on its findings 9 | |
how can you prevent prescreening | while prescreening by credit card and insurance companies results only in soft inquiries if you wish to prevent it for privacy reasons or to lessen the amount of junk mail you receive you can do so on the website optoutprescreen com | |
what is a credit freeze | a credit freeze allows you to stop third parties with some exceptions from looking at your credit report you can request a freeze for free but must contact each credit bureau separately to do so 10the bottom linehard inquiries happen when you apply for a loan or other form of credit and the lender requests your credit report while hard inquiries can have a negative impact on your credit score the effect is usually small and only temporary and shouldn t deter you from applying for credit when you really need it | |
what is a hard landing | a hard landing refers to a marked economic slowdown or downturn following a period of rapid growth the term hard landing comes from aviation where it refers to the kind of high speed landing that while not an actual crash is a source of stress as well as potential damage and injury the metaphor is used for high flying economies that run into a sudden sharp check on their growth such as a monetary policy intervention meant to curb inflation economies that experience a hard landing often slip into a stagnant period or even recession understanding hard landingsa hard landing can be contrasted to to a soft landing which is considered to be a more desirable goal for economic policy makers to achieve a soft landing government official and central banks will gradually reduce expansionary fiscal and monetary policy in an attempt to curb price inflation without sacrificing jobs or unnecessarily inflicting economic pain on people and corporations carrying debt unfortunately the more dependent the economy has become on fiscal stimulus or easy money the more the more difficult it becomes to wean off of expansionary policy and the more vulnerable the economy becomes to a hard landing due to even minor checks on expansionary policy so typically the longer a policy induced boom in the economy runs or the larger an easy money fueled market bubble becomes the more difficult it is for officials to gradually withdraw expansionary policy support to engineer a soft landing this results hard landing where slowing down or stopping expansionary macroeconomic policy can precipitate a stock market crash financial crisis or a collapse of investor confidence due to recognition response and implementation lags in macroeconomic policy these events can spiral into a general recession too quickly for policy makers to mount an effective defense the federal reserve for example has hiked interest rates at several points in its history at a pace that the market found unpalatable leading the economy to slow and or enter a period of recession most recently there was a hard landing in 2007 resulting from the fed tightening monetary policy to cool the residential real estate market the fallout was spectacular with a great recession rather than just a recession but it is difficult to imagine how a soft landing could take place when the speculative bubble had grown so large china s oft mentioned hard landingthe term hard landing has often been applied to china which has enjoyed decades of preternaturally high gross domestic product gdp growth rates that to some observers have set it up for a hard landing high levels of debt particularly at the local government level are often pointed to as a potential catalyst for a downturn as are high property prices in many chinese cities in late 2015 following a rapid devaluation of the yuan and softening trade volumes many observers feared a chinese hard landing soci t g n rale put the odds of at 30 1 however trade volumes recovered and currency markets stabilized in 2019 the talk of a chinese hard landing resurfaced with the crackdown on shadow finance and speculation on what the loss of that credit source will do to chinese businesses growth and jobs of course it is worth noting that china has yet to experience a hard landing while all the western powers predicting it on their behalf have been through a few | |
what is a hard loan | a hard loan is a foreign loan that must be paid in hard currency which is the currency of a nation that has political stability and a reputation for economic strength for example a country classified as a developing country may borrow via a hard loan denominated in u s dollars | |
how a hard loan works | a hard loan is a type of loan between a lender and borrower occurring in two different counties and which is denominated in the hard currency hard currency refers to a monetary system or reserve currency that is widely accepted around the world as a form of payment for goods and services it usually comes from a country that has strong economic and political standing and it may not be the currency of either the borrower or the lender a hard loan substantially reduces the risk that would exist if the loan were denominated in less stable currencies there are some risks however if the borrower s home currency falls dramatically against the hard currency they may have great difficulty repaying the loan for instance if a brazilian manufacturer takes out a hard loan denominated in euros and the euro strengthens by 20 against the real over the life of the loan it will effectively increase the interest rate on the loan by 20 as well as the principal amount forex considerations on hard loans | |
what allows a currency to qualify as hard it is expected to remain relatively stable through a short period of time and to be highly liquid in the foreign exchange or forex fx market in which currencies are traded the forex market is the largest most liquid market in the world with average traded values of trillions of dollars per day 1 it includes all of the currencies in the world | forex transactions take place on either a spot or forward basis and are executed over the counter and around the clock there is no centralized market for forex transactions the largest foreign exchange markets are located in major financial centers such as london new york singapore tokyo frankfurt hong kong and sydney 2 the hard currency must have a stable value the value of a currency is mostly based on economic fundamentals such as gross domestic product gdp and employment the international strength of the u s dollar is reflective of america s gdp which as of the end of 2019 stood first in the world at 21 43 trillion china and india had the second and fifth respectively ranked gdps in the world but neither the chinese yuan nor the indian rupee is considered a hard currency 3 this helps explain how central bank policies and stability in a country s money supply also factor into exchange rates the u s dollar is considered to be the world s foreign reserve currency which is the reason it is used in 88 of international trade transactions 4 example of a hard loanan example of a hard loan would be a loan agreement between a brazilian company and an argentinean bank in which the debt is to be paid in u s dollars is a type of hard loan because u s dollars are considered to be hard currency and more stable than either the brazilian real brl or the argentine peso arp | |
what is hard money | hard money originally referred to the physical properties of metallic money the origin of the colloquial english expression cold hard cash the distinction between hard metal coins and soft paper money is evident in the intrinsic economic value independent of the monetary status of metallic coins paper fiat currency only represents a promise to pay the bearer in physical money upon redemption hard money valuehard money maintains a stable market value relative to goods and services and a strong exchange rate relative to foreign currencies due to its stability in goods and financial markets hard money fulfills the economic function of money as a medium of exchange a store of value and a unit of account hard money involves lower transaction costs and risks than soft money this distinction originated when comparing the metallic content and confidence in the metallic standard of commodity money and carried over to comparing various modern paper or fiat monies because the value of paper currencies fluctuates on the forex market according to confidence in the promises of payment that they represent and declines in value over time as issuers inflate their supply hard versus soft money also became associated with the relative stability of exchange rates of certain national currencies in the absence of metallic monies hard money can refer to other monetary instruments that behave more like metallic money in domestic and international markets examples include gold bullion or cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin history of hard moneyhistorically users of money held harder money because of its stability this tendency is part of the origin of gresham s law which stemmed from using precious metals to manufacture coins and their subsequent value since the abandonment of metallic currency standards the theory describes the stability and movement of different currencies in global markets as governments dropped the use and legal tender status of precious metal money and precious metal backing such as the gold standard for paper currency this relationship stuck when comparing hard versus soft paper currencies hard money usually describes fiat money whose issuer shows restraint in the volume of currency they supply and whose government is politically stable and fiscally responsible such currencies tend to lose value more slowly over time through inflation and maintain a stable exchange rate compared to similar hard money currencies maintaining a hard currency policy is a goal of monetary and fiscal authorities in some highly developed nations hard money is highly desired on the international market because its stability and reliability make it useful in international trade and as a bank reserve gold is a component of central bank reserves because of its safety liquidity and rate of return 1 | |
what does the term hard money mean for political contributions | in politics hard money is donated directly to a politician or a political action committee hard money contributions carry limitations and regulations including the amount contributed and the use of the funds by comparison donations to political parties without limits and controls are referred to as soft money contributions | |
what is a hard money loan | a hard money loan is backed by the value of a physical asset such as a car or home the collateral for the loan means that this hard money loan has a more reliable value than an unbacked loan | |
what is hard money government funding | hard money is a term used to describe an ongoing funding stream originating from a government agency or other organization the flow of funds represents a reliable series of payments rather than a one time grant hard money can describe government daycare subsidies or annual scholarships to post secondary students the bottom linehard money is a currency made of or directly backed by a valuable commodity such as gold historically hard money was highly regarded for its usefulness as money to mediate the exchange of goods store value and conduct profit and loss accounting | |
what is a hard money loan | a hard money loan is a type of loan that is secured by real property hard money loans are considered loans of last resort or short term bridge loans these loans are primarily used in real estate transactions with the lenders generally being individuals or companies and not banks | |
how a hard money loan works | hard money loans have terms based mainly on the value of the property being used as collateral not on the creditworthiness of the borrower since traditional lenders such as banks do not make hard money loans hard money lenders are often private individuals or companies that see value in this type of potentially risky venture interest rates on hard money loanshard money loans generally have a higher interest rate than traditional mortgages as of may 2024 the average interest rate offered on a hard money loan was between 10 and 18 this makes hard money loans much more expensive than a regular mortgage which during the same month offered an interest rate of between 6 95 and 10 5 1for flippers and short term investors this might not matter they may plan to pay the loan back quickly and this will reduce the effect of a high interest rate and make the loan cheaper for most other people however it makes sense to look for a loan with a lower interest rate the primary advantage of a hard money loan is speed if you can wait a few months for your loan to come through it might be better to look at refinancing your home or taking out a personal loan uses of hard money loanshard money loans are typically used by real estate investors developers and flippers hard money loans can be arranged much more quickly than a loan through a traditional bank in some cases hard money lenders can issue funds in as little as 10 business days while traditional banks have a wait time of 30 to 50 days for funding most hard money lenders can lend up to 65 to 75 of the property s current value and loan terms are generally short six to 18 months hard money loans may be sought by property flippers who plan to renovate and resell the real estate that is used as collateral for the financing often within one year if not sooner the higher cost of a hard money loan is offset by the fact that the borrower intends to pay off the loan relatively quickly 2hard money loans may be used in turnaround situations short term financing and by borrowers with poor credit but substantial equity in their property since it can be issued quickly a hard money loan can be used as a way to stave off foreclosure | |
what to expect from hard money lenders | hard money lenders do not operate the same as traditional money lenders there are a few important areas to be mindful of interest rates the interest rate that you ll receive from a hard money lender will generally be higher than a traditional lender this is so because the loan approval process does away with the traditional checks increasing the risk for the lender the higher the risk the higher the interest rate loan term hard money loans come with shorter terms the shorter term benefits both the hard money lender and the borrower the hard money lender has a shorter period they are lending money which reduces their risk period and borrowers don t have to pay a high interest rate for a long period of time approval metrics most traditional lenders approve a loan or the amount of a loan on standard industry metrics such as accepted debt to income ratios hard money lenders set their own standards on what is acceptable oversight and regulation hard money lenders are similar to payday lenders in that they don t have much oversight or regulation to abide by best hard money lenders | |
when choosing a hard money lender there are certain areas you ll want to pay attention to take a look at the interest rate and shop around for the lowest one you can find also look for lenders that provide you with a few loan options you ll also want to get an idea of the time to close from the lender the shorter the better accessibility and customer service should also play a role in your decision | hard money lending can be viewed as an investment there are many who have used this as a business model and actively practice it special considerationsthe cost of a hard money loan to the borrower is typically higher than financing available through banks or government lending programs reflecting the higher risk that the lender is taking by offering the financing however the increased expense is a tradeoff for faster access to capital a less stringent approval process and potential flexibility in the repayment schedule advantages and disadvantages of a hard money loanas with any financial product there are advantages and disadvantages to hard money loans these loans are quick and easy to arrange and have high loan to value ltv ratios but also high interest rates one advantage to a hard money loan is the approval process which tends to be much quicker than applying for a mortgage or other traditional loan through a bank the private investors who back the hard money loan can make decisions faster because the lender is focused on collateral rather than an applicant s financial position lenders spend less time combing through a loan application verifying income and reviewing financial documents for example if the borrower has an existing relationship with the lender the process will be even smoother hard loan investors aren t as concerned with receiving repayment because there may be an even greater value and opportunity for them to resell the property themselves if the borrower defaults since the property itself is used as the only protection against default hard money loans usually have lower ltv ratios than traditional loans around 50 to 75 vs 80 for regular mortgages though it can go higher if the borrower is an experienced flipper also the interest rates tend to be high for hard money loans the rates can be even higher than those of subprime loans another disadvantage is that hard loan lenders might elect not to provide financing for an owner occupied residence because of regulatory oversight and compliance rules | |
what are the typical terms of a hard money loan | hard money loans are a form of short term financing with the loan term lasting between three and 36 months most hard money lenders can lend up to 65 to 75 of the property s current value at an interest rate of 10 to 18 | |
is a hard money loan a good investment | it depends on what you use the money for hard money loans are a good fit for wealthy investors who need to get funding for an investment property quickly without any of the red tape that goes along with bank financing they can be useful to pay for a one time expense or project but only if you are reasonably sure you ll have the money to pay back the loan | |
what are the risks of a hard money loan | hard money lenders typically charge a higher interest rate because they re assuming more risk than a traditional lender would they may require a higher down payment than a traditional loan would and you ll have a shorter period to pay back the loan the bottom linehard money loans are typically used by real estate investors developers and flippers they can be arranged much more quickly than a loan through a traditional bank and loan terms are generally short six to 18 months hard money loans may be sought by investors who plan to renovate and resell the real estate that is used as collateral for the financing the higher cost of a hard money loan is offset by the fact that the borrower intends to pay off the loan relatively quickly | |
what is a hard sell | a hard sell refers to an advertising or sales approach that features especially direct and insistent language a hard sell is designed to get a consumer to purchase a good or service in the short term rather than evaluate their options and potentially decide to wait on the purchase it is considered a high pressure aggressive technique that has fallen out of favor according to some sales experts understanding a hard sell hard sell as a term saw its first use in the united states in the 1950s to describe sales and advertising practices that are aggressive in nature hard sell tactics put immediate pressure on a prospective client they can include abrupt language cold calls or unwanted pitches they re intended to keep pushing a client to buy even if the client has said no the accepted standard practice is to keep pushing until the client has said no three times hard sell characteristicshard selling may be characterized by various techniques that provoke the consumer flatter them play on their fear of missing out and attempt to convince them that buying a product will be a smart decision that will improve their lives a soft sell is the alternative sales approach where urgency is not a factor and the salesperson focuses more on the emotional aspect of the sale a hard sell technique used to sell a car for example might focus on the limited availability of the particular model how other people are waiting to purchase the vehicle and how prices might increase if the consumer walks off the lot hard selling is often associated with unscrupulous salespeople who may attempt to misinform the consumer withhold information from them or even lie to them advantages and disadvantages of a hard selldespite the negative perception consumers have of hard sell tactics they provide some advantages for example the immediacy of the hard sell can be an advantage in dealing with the fact that most people tend to delay purchases and will postpone making decisions even if it involves something that would immediately improve their lives for the salesperson hard sells provide immediate rewards especially for 100 commission based jobs the seller avoids wasting time following up with customers who will likely decline the sale as time passes also with a shortened sales cycle the salesperson has more time to focus on other sales and has a better ability to meet sales goals hard sell tactics are also effective at shutting out competition as customers have little to no time to compare however hard sells especially when done aggressively may overwhelm the buyer and prevent prospective buyers from considering the brand for the overwhelmed buyer the experience may be so distasteful that they share their negative experience with others which can adversely affect the company s reputation it may also push them to competitors who do not employ hard sell tactics hard sells often ignore the needs of the customer as the salesperson is focused more on the sale rather than the customer this could result in a mismatch between the customer and the product or service sold rewards the salesperson immediatelyfulfills an urgent needshuts out competitorspushes customers awayrepels prospective customerstarnishes the company s reputationhard sell vs soft sellto better understand the hard sell it is helpful to consider the soft sell which features more subtle language a consultative tone and a non aggressive technique a soft sell is designed to avoid angering potential customers and pushing them away it appeals to the emotions of the consumer attempting to trigger feelings that compel them to make a purchase because soft selling is a low pressure sales technique it may not result in a sale the first time a product is presented a soft sell may be better for certain goods and services or certain types of consumers hard sell debatemany sales experts contend that hard selling is counterproductive it can alienate buyers or make them respond to aggressive tactics with their own aggression it can also intimidate and scare off prospective buyers creating negative feelings that make repeat sales less likely hard selling allows no time for education and persuasion and therefore leaves a prospective buyer thinking that they are being told what to do and that their thought process doesn t matter hard sell faqsemploying a hard sell tactic could be beneficial when the customer has a need for an immediate solution such as a flat tire needing replacement when there is no immediate customer need and building a relationship is more important a soft sell should be employed the soft seller needs to exercise patience and be consistent to secure the sale understanding that it may not occur during the first encounter not all hard sales are unethical and for some industries it is necessary however a hard sell can be unethical when the salesperson is aggressive or threatening when the needs of the customer are ignored and when it forces the customer to comply | |
what are hard skills | hard skills are technical skills required for a job they are learned abilities acquired and enhanced through education and experience hard skills are important for your resume as employers look for them when hiring hard skills alone don t translate into success as employees also need other skills such as soft skills unlike soft skills hard skills can be quantified for example a hard skill might be proficiency in a second language while a soft skill could be the ability to work well on a team understanding hard skillshard skills are technical skills needed to perform a job or land a new one they are typically industry specific for example a financial analyst would need a different set of hard skills from a carpenter but hard skills can also be valuable across industries for example fluency in a second language could potentially benefit both the analyst and the carpenter employers and recruiters look for hard skills listed on your resume and during the interview process it s best to back up your hard skills with a certificate degree or other qualification that shows a level of achievement experience is also seen as a qualification that validates expertise in hard skills some prospective employers test the hard skills of job candidates someone interviewing for an editing job for example might have to take an editing test 1hard skills focus on practical abilities and skills whereas soft skills focus on behaviors and personalities such as social and communication skills soft skills are less tangible and harder to teach employers typically look for a hybrid of hard and soft skills soft skills are more intrinsic to personality and more difficult to judge quickly but they may be as important on the job over time 2hard and soft skills are critical for success at almost any job and having both on your resume is essential when job hunting types of hard skillsthe types of hard skills needed to be qualified and successful in a job depend on the industry employers typically list hard skills required in job descriptions common hard skills include 31according to data published by linkedin in september 2022 the top trending hard skills are 4hard skills vs soft skillshard skills generally have rules that remain the same regardless of the business industry or even culture in which they are practiced the rules of soft skills can change depending on company culture and the expectations of colleagues for example the rules for how a programmer creates code are the same regardless of where the programmer works however a programmer may communicate effectively to other programmers about technical details but struggle when communicating with senior managers about a project s progress or support needs hard skills can be learned via education training or apprenticeships and on the job the levels of competency can be defined and there is a direct path for achieving them for example in the field of accounting you can take basic and advanced accounting courses earn a degree gain work experience and pass the certified public accountant cpa exam soft skills are not often found in the curriculum of a school or college however they are taught in programs that help people develop communication skills teamwork or people management skills some common soft skills include 2ask your employer if they offer or pay for any leadership training or team building programs for employees if your employer wants you to improve one of your hard or soft skills many companies will cover hard and soft skill programs for their employees example of hard skillsaccounting is a profession that requires a relatively rigid set of hard skills proficiency in the microsoft office suite especially excel is a given familiarity with industry specific software such as tax preparation software and intuit s quickbooks is also required accountants need to know how to prepare and interpret financial statements and other accounting reports develop efficient financial reporting mechanisms and plan and implement accounting controls some of the other skills that accountants need might be categorized as soft skills they must be able to communicate effectively with clients and be diplomatic when dealing with external auditors | |
what are hard skills to include on a resume | if you are listing hard skills on a resume include any technical skills you have acquired and any foreign languages list hard skills relevant to the position for which you are applying these are typically spelled out in job postings | |
how can i acquire hard skills | you can acquire hard skills by taking online or in person classes at a university or other training program practicing these skills before applying them to a job and gaining experience by using the hard skills in the workplace | |
is critical thinking a hard skill | no critical thinking is an important soft skill you can study and practice critical thinking but it cannot be learned in the same way you can teach yourself to use accounting software the bottom lineevery job from firefighting to being a marketing executive calls for a specific skill set often made up of a combination of hard and soft skills whether you are considering a new job or applying for your first job knowing which hard skills are needed and obtaining those skills means you will have a better chance of being hired or promoted in your field of choice some hard skills such as being proficient in using a computer analyzing data or understanding at least the basics of using social media will often be useful in many different jobs and careers many trades call for particular hard skills that are required for employment in construction architecture plumbing and electric and engineering to get hired and be successful in the workplace you ll need a combination of hard and soft skills both of which you can continually build on and develop | |
what is a hard stop | a hard stop is more of a concept than an actual order type a hard stop presumes a price level that if reached will decisively trigger an order to sell an underlying security hard stops are usually implemented as a stop order on an open position in a market such an order is likely set to be good until canceled gtc or filled whichever comes first when the designated price level is observed the order may convert into a market order and the next available market price is taken as the trade the key concept behind the hard stop is that the rule is uncompromising and must be followed regardless of other considerations understanding a hard stopa hard stop is placed in advance of an adverse move and remains active until the price of the underlying security moves beyond the stop level a hard stop is one that is inflexible it differs from a mental stop where a trader may have a price in mind but really does not take action until they see their stop price traded at which time they may or may not follow their expected rule to sell traders convert a mental stop into a hard stop by merely creating a standing order and putting it into the system on a good till canceled status this takes away the need to be disciplined about following through on an exit order this kind of order does not protect against gapping prices but does have the advantage of getting out at the first possible price when trading resumes after it has gapped below the original stop price level many traders will choose to set a hard stop once the price of their investment becomes profitable and will leave the order active until it reaches the price target for example a technical trader may buy a stock following a breakout from an ascending triangle and place a hard stop just below the upper trendline support with plans to either take profit when the price target is reached or exit the position if the breakout fails special considerationshard stops are often used in conjunction with technical analysis to maximize the odds of success by placing these orders just below support levels traders can avoid being stopped out prematurely if the market experiences a whipsaw for these reasons fund managers with large positions are reluctant to use hard stops as part of their investing or trading strategies trailing stop loss orders are a common alternative to hard stop orders where the stop loss price point is reset on a regular basis to account for an increase in the underlying stock price the idea is to constantly maintain a buffer without letting the stock drop too far before taking profits example of a hard stopsuppose that an investor purchases 100 shares of acme co for 10 00 per share the investor may decide to place a hard stop at 10 00 per share once the stock has moved meaningfully higher to ensure that they don t experience a loss since it s meaningfully higher than the current price there s no risk of the hard stop order being executed by a brief whipsaw the goal is to ensure that the position is never underwater following the hard stop order s placement alternatively the investor may wait until the stock reaches 20 00 per share since they will have earned 1 000 in profit they may set a hard stop at 20 00 per share for 50 shares which would effectively remove their cost basis from the position the remaining 50 shares would be treated as house money in the sense that there is no net loss on the total 100 share position if they were to go to zero this is known as taking money off the table the comments opinions and analyses expressed on investopedia are for informational purposes online read our warranty and liability disclaimer for more info | |
what is a hard to borrow list | a hard to borrow list is an inventory record used by brokerages to indicate what stocks are difficult to borrow for short sale transactions a brokerage firm s hard to borrow list provides an up to date catalog of stocks that cannot easily be borrowed for use as a short sale the hard to borrow list can be compared with a brokerage s easy to borrow list understanding the hard to borrow listshort selling of stocks is built on the notion that an individual trader or investor wanting to profit from a decrease in a stock s price is able to borrow shares of that stock from the broker brokerages have a variety of ways to provide access to shares that can be sold short however regardless of their methods there is a finite number of shares available for shorting once the number of shares available has come close to running out the broker will publish a notation of some kind on their platform this alerts account holders that if they attempt to sell that security short their trade order may be refused short supply isn t the only reason why a security may be on the hard to borrow list it may also be included because of high volatility or something else to enter a short sale a brokerage client must first borrow the shares from their broker to provide the shares the broker can use its own inventory or borrow from the margin account of another client or another brokerage firm the borrower i e the short seller must pay interest and fees on the borrowed shares those on the hard to borrow list can have higher stock loan fees as a result of being in shorter supply investors who enter short sale transactions attempt to capture profits in a declining market for example an investor may think that shares in apple are likely to drop in price the investor can short sell the stock and if the price falls as they anticipate repurchase it back for a profit if the stock rises however the investor loses money hard to borrow list requirementsbrokerage firms update their hard to borrow lists daily a broker must be able to provide or locate the shares to loan to their client before executing the client s short sale transaction regulation sho which was implemented on jan 3 2005 has a locate condition that requires brokers to have a reasonable belief that the equity to be shorted can be borrowed and delivered to the short seller 1 the regulation is intended to prevent naked short selling a practice where the investor places a short sale without holding the shares hard to borrow list vs easy to borrow listthe hard to borrow list is the opposite of the easy to borrow list which is an inventory record of securities that are available for short sale transactions in general an investor can assume that securities not included on the hard to borrow list will be available for short selling while a brokerage firm s hard to borrow list is typically an internal list that is not made available to clients the firm s clients usually have access to the easy to borrow list brokerage clients may have to pay hard to borrow fees on certain short sales typically the cost of borrowing stocks on the difficult to borrow list is higher than for stocks that are on the easy to borrow list large brokerage firms usually have a securities lending desk that helps source stocks that are difficult to borrow a brokerage s securities lending desk also lends securities to other firms | |
what is hardening | hardening is a reference to trading conditions in which securities prices are rising and volatility is declining in a particular financial market although the assessment that a market is hardening can be applied in several contexts it is most commonly used when referring to the market for commodities futures the term hardening can also be used in the insurance and banking industries to refer to a period of more stringent underwriting or lending standards | |
how hardening works | in commodities trading a market is said to be hardening if its prices are steadily rising at a time when volatility is relatively low for many traders a market that is hardening presents ideal conditions for trading because of the apparently calm and predictable nature of the market at such times of course for traders wishing to speculate on large movements in commodity prices a hardening market might be a negative sign as the resulting decline in volatility could make those large moves less likely to materialize this could be especially damaging for owners of options contracts set against those commodities whose value generally falls when the volatility of their underlying asset decreases while hardening is most often noted in reference to the trading conditions of commodities futures markets it is also used to refer to periods of strict underwriting or lending standards in the insurance and banking industries | |
how speculators impact volatility | a commonly held belief is that the rise of speculators into the commodities futures markets has led to an increase in price volatility on futures contracts on the contrary some researchers have concluded that an influx of futures traders and the liquidity that they bring to the market have a stabilizing or hardening effect on futures prices these researchers suggest that futures markets are considered volatile not because of price fluctuations but because of a great deal of leverage available to futures traders by way of example equity margin requirements are generally around 50 whereas margins as low as 5 to 10 are common for futures contracts under these circumstances even small fluctuations in price can have a tremendous impact on the owner of a highly leveraged futures position special considerations | |
when applied in the insurance and banking industries the term hardening has a different meaning in these industries hardening is commonly used to refer to periods of more rigorous underwriting or lending standards these periods often arise following a financial shock such as the credit crunch that occurred during the 2007 2008 financial crisis | more rigorous underwriting or lending practices are sometimes implemented in response to risky decisions by the financial institutions involved such as the optimistic derivative contracts and subprime loan agreements that american banks and insurance companies entered into prior to the 2007 2008 financial crisis in the aftermath of this financial crisis financial firms were keener to reset their lending and underwriting standards on a more conservative footing although this reversal in sentiment amongst financial institutions from risky to more conservative can help reduce the incidence of inappropriate insurance policies and too risky loans it can also make it difficult for creditworthy counterparties to secure credit or insurance in these periods of fiscal hardening consumers and market participants alike will often complain that approval criteria have become unnecessarily onerous | |
what was the hardship exemption | the term hardship exemption referred to an exemption granted to individuals who weren t able to afford health insurance due to personal and or financial circumstances these exemptions were part of a provision in the patient protection and affordable care act aca which was signed into law in 2010 individuals were required to have acceptable health care coverage or else pay a fee individuals who weren t able to afford coverage could apply for an exemption where no penalty was assessed the fee for uninsured individuals was eliminated in 2019 with the passing of the tax cuts and jobs act tcja | |
how hardship exemptions worked | the affordable care act was signed into law by president barack obama on march 23 2010 commonly referred to as obamacare it helped reduce the cost of health care for the american public by creating health care exchanges expanding the eligibility for medicaid preventing insurance companies from denying coverage and penalizing individuals who weren t covered starting in 2014 most individuals were required to have acceptable health care coverage which was known as minimum essential coverage those who weren t covered were charged a fee called an individual mandate or the shared responsibility payment this was a one time fee collected by the internal revenue service irs when individuals filed their annual tax returns those who couldn t afford health care were able to apply for hardship exemptions through the health insurance marketplace a hardship exemption may be granted for tax years between 2015 and 2018 for the following circumstances the trump administration eliminated the individual mandate in 2019 which means those without health insurance were longer penalized the administration expanded the conditions for approval for the hardship exemption making it easier to avoid the penalty up until 2018 if individuals as noted above the individual mandate was eliminated in 2019 which means individuals without health insurance are no longer penalized president biden s health care plan includes bringing back the individual mandate special considerationshardship exemptions typically covered the month prior to the month of and the month after the hardship the exemption period could be extended up to an entire calendar year in some cases for instance people who were ineligible for medicaid because their state has not expanded medicaid coverage individuals were often required to provide documentation to back up their application for an exemption | |
what is a hardship withdrawal | a hardship withdrawal is an emergency removal of funds from a retirement plan sought in response to what the internal revenue service irs calls an immediate and heavy financial need 1 this type of special distribution may be allowed without penalty from such plans as a traditional individual retirement account ira or a 401 k provided the withdrawal meets certain criteria regarding the need for the funds and their amount 21however even if the irs penalty is waived it s a 10 penalty for distributions made before age 59 the distribution will still be subject to standard income tax unless it s a roth account the irs and most employers who offer 401 k s impose stringent criteria for these distributions to limit when they may be used and their amount and the rules that govern such withdrawals and who administers them differ by the type of retirement fund hardship withdrawals from irasthe irs will waive the 10 penalty for early withdrawals that is before age 59 from an ira in two situations purchasing a home for the first time and pursuing higher education 2unlike say a loan you take from your 401 k the funds from a hardship withdrawal cannot be returned to your account even if your financial position improves 4hardship withdrawals from 401 k swhether you can take a hardship distribution from your 401 k or 403 b plan and for which reasons is up to the employer who sponsors the program a retirement plan may but is not required to provide for hardship distributions the irs states 2 if the plan does allow such distributions it must specify the criteria that define a hardship such as paying for medical expenses or funeral expenses your employer may ask for documentation of your hardship if your employer permits a withdrawal for a particular reason irs rules govern whether the 10 penalty for withdrawals made before age 59 will be waived as well as how much you re allowed to withdraw these conditions are similar to those governing waivers for ira withdrawals but there are some differences 5hardship withdrawal alternativesif you re younger than 59 and considering a withdrawal from your retirement account you do have another option that would allow you to avoid the 10 penalty a substantially equal periodic payments sepp plan here s how it works the funds you wish to tap are placed into the sepp plan the plan will then pay you annual distributions for five years or until you turn 59 whichever comes later as with hardship withdrawals only the 10 penalty is waived you re still liable for paying income tax on the early withdrawals 6note this option requires a long term commitment to early withdrawals because the irs requires individuals to continue the sepp plan for at least five years this is not a solution for those who seek only short term access to retirement funds without penalty if you cancel the plan before the minimum holding period expires you re required to pay the irs the penalty that was waived under the program for the years that were penalty free plus interest for that period 3also funds held in an employer sponsored qualified plan such as a 401 k can be used in a sepp only if you no longer work for the sponsoring employer 6 and once you start a sepp program on a retirement account you may not make any additions to or take distributions from the account any changes to the account balance with the exception of the sepp and required fees may result in a modification of the sepp program and could be cause for disqualification by the irs and again the imposition of the 10 penalty that was waived plus interest 3despite these limitations a sepp plan is worth considering in cases where you need to tap funds early among other pluses a sepp plan may be less restrictive regarding how you spend the funds you withdraw without penalty when compared to hardship withdrawals | |
what qualifies as a hardship with the irs | various circumstances qualify as a hardship with the irs you can withdraw funds from an ira for higher education expenses or for a first time home purchase with a 401 k there are even more hardship options including medical and funeral expenses 2 | |
why would a hardship withdrawal be denied | a hardship withdrawal might be denied if your plan doesn t allow withdrawals for that reason rules for withdrawals vary from plan to plan can you do a hardship withdrawal to pay off debt according to the irs paying down debt does not qualify for a hardship withdrawal 1the bottom linehardship withdrawals can provide needed funds in an emergency without a credit check but they should be used very sparingly and only if all other alternatives have been tried or dismissed by exposing funds held in a tax advantaged account to income tax a hardship withdrawal is likely to boost your tax bill for the year it will also permanently deprive you of funds targeted for your retirement that s why you should consider a hardship withdrawal only as a last resort to meet an exceptional and pressing need | |
what is harmless warrant | the term harmless warrant refers to a provision that requires bondholders to surrender an existing bond if they want to purchase the same type of bond from the issuer put simply bond issuers put harmless warrants on their bonds requiring investors to swap their existing bond if they want to purchase another one with similar features from the same issuer harmless warrants are a safety net for bond issuers as they help keep their debt levels in check understanding harmless warrantswarrants are derivative securities that allow the holder the right not the obligation to purchase or sell a specific security at a specific price before the expiration date they come in several different forms including harmless warrants a harmless warrant is attached to bonds and offered by bondholders an investor who buys a bond with a harmless warrant cannot purchase another bond from the same issuer with the same terms until the investor surrenders the first bond they purchased this includes any bonds that have the same maturity date yield and principal amount as such mr investor can t purchase a 1 000 10 year bond from company a without surrendering the first one they own with the same terms bonds are a form of debt for the issuer the investor lends the entity a specific sum of money for a period of time in exchange for the principal balance plus interest at maturity as such these instruments add to the issuer s total amount of debt issuing bonds with harmless warrants allows these entities to control their debt levels in this way an investor can t get too much leverage on the issuer while preventing the issuer from getting into a dangerous situation in which an investor calls multiple bonds that the issuer can t cover one important point to note is that not all issuing entities attach harmless warrants on their bond offerings harmless warrants are also called wedding warrants special considerationsif harmless warrants prevent investors from purchasing multiple bonds with similar terms from the same issuer what happens if someone wants to buy different bonds from the issuer these warrants don t prevent bondholders from purchasing bonds with different terms from the same issuer this means they may purchase other bonds with different maturity terms yield rates and principal amounts keep in mind though that most investors generally want to repeat certain investments because of the favorable terms they carry so a harmless warrant forces an investor to decide which of the terms are the most crucial that is unless they are willing to surrender the original bond to purchase a new one with the same terms harmless warrants are not detachable which means they can t be separated from the underlying security as such you can t sell the bond or warrant separately on the secondary market harmless warrant vs warrantremember that a harmless warrant gives the holder the right to purchase another bond at the same terms as the bond to which the harmless warrant applies however the harmless warrant does not give the holder the right to own two bonds with the same terms at the same time instead it requires the holder to surrender the first bond to be allowed to buy the second bond with the same terms a warrant on the other hand is a type of derivative security because it gives the holder the right to act in some way with another security a warrant gives the holder the right to buy or sell another security at a specific time although the warrant holder does not have the obligation to exercise this warrant the holder of the original security purchases the warrant to have the right to do whatever the warrant delineates | |
are bonds and warrants the same | bonds and warrants are not the same thing bonds are fixed income investments that guarantee investors the return of their principal along with a set interest rate by a certain period of time warrants on the other hand are derivatives that give the holder the right but not the obligation to purchase or sell the underlying security at a certain price by the expiration date warrants can be attached to bonds bond linked warrants give perks to both investors and bond issuers | |
what are detachable warrants | detachable warrants are derivatives that are attached to certain securities they allow the holder the right to buy the underlying asset at a certain price within a certain period of time as their name implies these warrants can be detached or removed from the associated asset and sold or traded separately on the secondary market as such the holder can sell either the investment or the detachable warrant and keep the other | |
what is a penny warrant | a penny warrant is a warrant that comes with an exercise price the agreed upon price for the underlying asset of one cent or another nominal amount can you sell warrants you can sell a warrant as long as it s detachable detachable warrants are those that can be removed from the underlying asset such as a stock once detached they can be traded on their own if you do this it means that you claim the asset itself but sell or trade the warrant itself on the secondary market usually over the counter or through a broker | |
the harmonic mean is a numerical average calculated by dividing the number of observations or entries in the series by the reciprocal of each number in the series thus the harmonic mean is the reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of the reciprocals 1 | for example to calculate the harmonic mean of 1 4 and 4 you would divide the number of observations by the reciprocal of each number as follows 3 1 1 1 4 1 4 3 1 5 2 frac 3 left frac 1 1 frac 1 4 frac 1 4 right frac 3 1 5 2 11 41 41 3 1 53 2the harmonic mean has uses in finance and technical analysis of markets among others 2understanding the harmonic meanthe harmonic mean helps to find multiplicative or divisor relationships between fractions without worrying about common denominators harmonic means are often used in averaging things like rates e g the average travel speed given a duration of several trips the weighted harmonic mean is used in finance to average multiples like the price to earnings p e ratio because it gives equal weight to each data point 3 using a weighted arithmetic mean to average these ratios would give greater weight to high data points than low data points because p e ratios aren t price normalized while the earnings are equalized the harmonic mean is the weighted harmonic mean where the weights are equal to 1 the weighted harmonic mean of x1 x2 x3 with the corresponding weights w1 w2 w3 is given as i 1 n w i i 1 n w i x i displaystyle frac sum n i 1 w i sum n i 1 frac w i x i i 1n xi wi i 1n wi the reciprocal of a number n is simply 1 n harmonic mean vs arithmetic mean and geometric meanother ways to calculate averages include the simple arithmetic mean and the geometric mean taken together these three types of mean harmonic arithmetic and geometric are known as the pythagorean means the distinctions between the three types of pythagorean mean makes them suitable for different uses an arithmetic average is the sum of a series of numbers divided by the count of that series of numbers if you were asked to find the class arithmetic average of test scores you would simply add up all the test scores of the students and then divide that sum by the number of students for example if five students took an exam and their scores were 60 70 80 90 and 100 the arithmetic class average would be 80 the geometric mean is the average of a set of products the calculation of which is commonly used to determine the performance results of an investment or portfolio it is technically defined as the nth root product of n numbers the geometric mean must be used when working with percentages which are derived from values while the standard arithmetic mean works with the values themselves the harmonic mean is best used for fractions such as rates or multiples example of the harmonic meanas an example take two firms one has a market capitalization of 100 billion and earnings of 4 billion p e of 25 and the other has a market capitalization of 1 billion and earnings of 4 million p e of 250 in an index made of the two stocks with 10 invested in the first and 90 invested in the second the p e ratio of the index is using the wam p e 0 1 25 0 9 250 227 5 using the whm p e 0 1 0 9 0 1 25 0 9 250 131 6 where wam weighted arithmetic mean p e price to earnings ratio whm weighted harmonic mean begin aligned text using the wam p e 0 1 times25 0 9 times250 227 5 text using the whm p e frac 0 1 0 9 frac 0 1 25 frac 0 9 250 approx 131 6 textbf where text wam text weighted arithmetic mean text p e text price to earnings ratio text whm text weighted harmonic mean end aligned using the wam p e 0 1 25 0 9 250 227 5using the whm p e 250 1 2500 9 0 1 0 9 131 6where wam weighted arithmetic meanp e price to earnings ratiowhm weighted harmonic mean as can be seen the weighted arithmetic mean significantly overestimates the mean price to earnings ratio advantages and disadvantages of the harmonic meanthe harmonic mean is effective because it incorporates all the entries in the series and remains impossible to compute if any item is disallowed using the harmonic mean also allows a more significant weighting to be given to smaller values in the series and it can also be calculated for a series that includes negative values in comparison with the arithmetic mean and geometric mean the harmonic mean generates a straighter curve however there are also a few downsides to using the harmonic mean first and foremost because it requires using the reciprocals of the numbers in the series the calculation of harmonic mean can be complex and time consuming in addition because of the impossibility of finding the reciprocal of zero it is not feasible to calculate the harmonic mean if the series contains a zero value finally any extreme values on the high or low end of the series have an intense impact on the results of the harmonic mean | |
what is the difference between harmonic mean and arithmetic mean | the harmonic mean is calculated by dividing the number of observations or entries in the series by the reciprocal of each number in the series in contrast the arithmetic mean is simply the sum of a series of numbers divided by the count of numbers in that series the harmonic mean is equal to the reciprocal of the arithmetic mean of the reciprocals | |
when should you use the harmonic mean | the harmonic mean is best used for fractions such as rates or multiples harmonic means are used in finance to average data like price multiples such as the price to earnings p e ratio market technicians may also use harmonic means to identify patterns such as fibonacci sequences | |
what are the advantages of using the harmonic mean | the harmonic mean necessarily includes all the entries in a series and it allows a more significant weighting to be given to smaller values harmonic mean can be calculated for a series that includes negative values although it is impossible to compute when the series includes a value of zero in comparison with the arithmetic mean and geometric mean the harmonic mean generates a straighter curve the bottom linethe harmonic mean is calculated by dividing the number of entries in a series by the reciprocal of each number in the series the harmonic mean stands out from the other types of pythagorean mean the arithmetic mean and geometrical mean by using reciprocals and giving greater weight to smaller values the harmonic mean is best used for fractions such as rates and in finance it is useful for averaging data like price multiples and identifying patterns such as fibonacci sequences | |
what is the harmonized index of consumer prices hicp | the harmonized index of consumer prices hicp is a measure of inflation in the european union eu it reflects change over time in the prices paid by households for a representative basket of goods and services 1 the european central bank ecb uses the hicp for the eurozone comprising the 19 eu states using the euro common currency to pursue its objective of price stability defined as 2 annualized inflation over the medium term 2understanding the harmonized index of consumer prices hicp each eu state s statistical agency compiles a national hicp using a common methodology eurostat a department of the european commission then uses the national hicps to calculate the monetary union index of consumer prices muicp the aggregate hicp for the 19 country eurozone area that serves as the ecb s primary inflation gauge eurostat also calculates the european index of consumer prices eicp covering the entire european union as well as the european economic area index of consumer prices incorporating data from eu trading partners norway iceland and liechtenstein 3the flash estimate of the eurozone s muicp published by eurostat on the last working day of each month is a key economic release for financial markets 1each country s hicp measures the change over time in the prices of a basket of goods and services reflective of the spending patterns of that country s households the index tracks the prices of goods such as coffee tobacco meat fruit household appliances cars pharmaceuticals electricity clothing and many other widely used products and services 4 owner occupied housing costs are excluded from the hicp though the ecb s governing council recommended their inclusion in 2021 52weighted basketseurostat calculates the monetary union index of consumer prices using the weighted average of the hicp from each country in the euro area based on the country s share of aggregate eurozone consumer spending each country s hicp measures the change over time in the prices of a basket of goods and services representative spending by that country s households the baskets of consumer goods and services and the weightings of each country are updated annually to reflect the most recent spending patterns 6the muicp was first compiled in 1998 ahead of the euro currency s launch on jan 1 1999 78 | |
what is the harmonized sales tax hst | canada s harmonized sales tax hst is a consumption tax paid by local consumers and businesses as the name implies it harmonizes combines the nation s federal goods and services tax and various provincial sales taxes five canadian provinces use the hst other areas of canada use a similar goods and services tax gst the hst was implemented in 1997 1 proponents of the tax argue that it improves the competitiveness of canadian businesses by simplifying their administrative costs leading to lower prices for consumers the hst is collected by the canada revenue agency cra which then remits the appropriate amounts to the participating provinces who pays the hst in canada the hst is paid by purchasers at the point of sale pos the vendor collects the tax proceeds by adding the hst rate to the cost of goods and services and then remits the collected tax to the canada revenue agency cra the tax division of the federal government the cra later allocates the provincial portion of the hst to the respective province s government 2prior to the hst s introduction in 1997 canadian sales taxes were divided into the federal sales tax gst and the provincial sales tax pst each province had its own rates resulting in significant differences in sales taxes throughout canada the concept behind the hst was to streamline the recording and collection of federal and provincial sales taxes by combining them into a single consistent levy across the country advocates argue that it should reduce costs for businesses and ultimately customers since it simplifies their sales tax related bookkeeping the tax rate of the hst in all participating provinces except ontario where it is 13 3unfortunately in practice the hst can often complicate companies lives instead while the aim was to create a national sales tax the canadian government made adoption of the hst optional and many provinces opted not to keeping their separate systems and rates instead as a result businesses operating across provincial lines or nationwide either in physical locations or via ecommerce have to deal with disparities in tax rates depending on whether the customer is based in an hst province or a gst pst province while the gst is 5 everywhere the pst can range from 6 to 9 975 4canadian provinces and the hstfive of canada s 13 provinces use the harmonized sales tax of the remaining canadian provinces british columbia saskatchewan qu bec and manitoba apply the provincial system in addition to the separate federal sales tax several others apply only the federal goods and services sales tax and do not impose local sales taxes alberta northwest territories nunavut and yukon 8british columbia adopted the hst in 2010 but then abandoned it three years later reinstating its provincial sales tax system after an estimated 55 of the province s residents voted against the system 9registering and collecting the hstit is the responsibility of canadian business owners located in one of the five participating provinces to collect and remit the hst to start applying the sales tax the business operator must register for a gst hst account through the cra provided that the business makes 30 000 or more per year in total revenue each province established its own percentage for pst collection and harmonized it with the gst when it joined the hst program so the exact amount of the hst could differ depending on which of the five provinces a business operates in originally the rate ranged from 13 to 15 but now almost every province imposes 15 so called small suppliers business owners with firms earning less than 30 000 in annual revenue are not required to charge or remit the hst however they can still voluntarily register to collect the tax since doing so allows them to claim input tax credits on the goods and services that they purchase in running their operations 2exempted goods and serviceswhile many goods and services are subject to the hst some are zero rated or tax exempt a zero rated commodity or service is one that has an hst rate of 0 these include products like basic groceries books and many agricultural and fishery goods foreign purchasers of canadian products do not have to pay the hst provided that the goods or services will be solely used outside of the country however nonresidents visiting canada such as tourists are required to pay the hst in some cases they may qualify for an hst rebate 2the hst s effect on taxpayersthere is still a constant debate as to how the hst impacts consumers and taxpayers critics claim that the hst shifts the tax burden from businesses to consumers proponents of the hst argue that it actually lowers taxes they say that the hst system reduces the cost of doing business which effectively lowers the prices of consumer goods and services | |
how does canada s harmonized sales tax hst work | the hst is paid by purchasers at the point of sale pos vendors collect the tax proceeds by adding the hst rate to the cost of goods and services they then send the collected tax to the canada revenue agency cra the tax division of the federal government the cra later allocates the provincial portion of the hst to the respective province s government | |
what is the purpose of the hst | the goal of the hst system is to streamline the recording and collection of federal and provincial sales taxes by combining them into a single consistent levy across the country | |
does the united states have an hst | no the u s does not have a federal sales or value added tax most states impose some version of these taxes but the revenue generated is not nationally distributed 10the bottom linethe harmonized sales tax hst is a combination of federal and provincial taxes on goods and services in five canadian provinces the hst rate is 15 in all participating provinces except ontario where it is 13 the hst was introduced in 1997 to streamline the recording and collection of federal and provincial sales taxes critics argue that the hst shifts the burden of taxation to consumers but proponents of the tax say it ultimately benefits consumers by lowering costs | |
harry markowitz born 1927 is a nobel prize winning american economist best known for developing modern portfolio theory mpt a groundbreaking investment strategy based on his realization that the performance of an individual stock is not as important as the performance and composition of an investor s entire portfolio | since markowitz introduced mpt to academic circles in his article portfolio selection in the journal of finance in 1952 his original theory has fundamentally changed the way that people and institutions invest for his theory of allocation of financial assets under uncertainty also known as the theory of portfolio choice markowitz shared the 1990 nobel memorial prize in economic sciences with william f sharpe and merton miller specifically the nobel committee cited the theory of portfolio choice developed by markowitz as the first pioneering contribution in the field of financial economics the nobel committee also acknowledged that markowitz s original portfolio theory was the basis for a second significant contribution to the theory of financial economics the capital asset pricing model capm a theory of price formation for financial assets developed by william sharpe and other researchers in the 1960s 12investopedia alison czinkotaeducation and early careermarkowitz earned an m a and a ph d in economics from the university of chicago where he studied under famous academics including the economists milton friedman and jacob marschak and the mathematician and statistician leonard savage while still an undergraduate markowitz was invited to join a prestigious economic research institute the cowles commission for research in economics now the cowles foundation at yale university under the direction of tjalling koopmans a mathematician economist and nobel laureate in 1952 markowitz joined the rand corporation a global policy research institute where he built large logistics simulation models after a stint at general electric building models of manufacturing plants he returned to rand to work on simscript a computer simulation language that made it possible for researchers to reuse computer code rather than write new code for each analysis when he left rand to found consolidated analysis centers inc caci in 1962 he led the commercialization of a proprietary version of simscript in addition to his current role as adjunct professor at the rady school of management at the university of california at san diego markowitz is co founder and chief architect of guidedchoice a san diego based financial advisor firm where he heads the investment committee the development of modern portfolio theoryin his lecture to the nobel committee in 1990 harry markowitz said the basic concepts of portfolio theory came to me one afternoon in the library while reading john burr williams s theory of investment value williams proposed that the value of a stock should equal the present value of its future dividends since future dividends are uncertain i interpreted williams s proposal to be to value a stock by its expected future dividends but if the investor were only interested in expected values of securities he or she would only be interested in the expected value of the portfolio and to maximize the expected value of a portfolio one need invest only in a single security 1but markowitz realized that investing in a single security was not the way investors did or should act he knew that investors diversify because they are concerned with risk as well as return he also knew that while investors understood the benefits of diversification they needed tools to determine the ideal level of diversification this insight guided markowitz s design of the efficient frontier an investment tool that charts the level of diversification that will offer the highest return for an investor s desired level of risk if a certain portfolio lands on the efficient frontier section of the graph it is considered efficient which means it delivers the maximum return for that investor s risk tolerance portfolios outside the efficient section of the graph have either too much risk vs return or too little return vs risk of course because the risk tolerance and return expectations of each investor are different there is no one efficient frontier the impact of harry markowitz s modern portfolio theoryprior to harry markowitz s work on mpt investing was largely seen in terms of the performance of individual investments and their current prices diversification was unsystematic at best although it took well into the 1960s for markowitz s work to be properly appreciated mpt has become a mainstay of investment strategy and the benefits of diversification are widely understood by all money managers even robo advisors one of the most disruptive technologies in finance draw on mpt when compiling suggested portfolios for users so much of markowitz s work has become standard practice in portfolio management that fellow nobel laureate paul samuelson summarized his contribution by claiming that wall street stands on the shoulders of harry markowitz 3in 1954 when markowitz was defending his doctoral dissertation on the application of mathematics to the analysis of the stock market the idea was so unprecedented that milton friedman commented that his thesis was not even economics by 1992 his ideas were so respected that the economist peter bernstein in capital ideas called his development of mathematical and statistical methods for portfolio management the most famous insight in the history of modern finance 4another major impact that markowitz had on economics was that he was the first to understand the importance of assessing risk correlation the fact that risk depends not only on the individual risk of each separate stock but also on the degree to which multiple stock values rise and fall together fellow economist martin gruber credits markowitz with the simple but revolutionary realization that investors should always assess the relationships between stocks rather than look only at each stock in isolation 3criticisms of modern portfolio theoryas with any widely adopted theory there have been criticisms of mpt a common one is that there is no absolute measure of how many stocks one needs to hold for proper diversification it had also been argued that managing a portfolio according to mpt principles will nudge risk averse investors into taking on more risk than they can tolerate yet another criticism focuses on the need to move beyond mpt to address real world systemic risk two critics of modern portfolio theory mpt are jon lukomnik managing director of sinclair capital and senior fellow of high meadows institute a boston based policy institute focused on the role of business leadership in creating a sustainable society and james hawley head of applied research at truvalue labs a san francisco based start up which provides artificial intelligence analytics to create sustainability esg metrics 56in 2021 lukomnik and hawley published a book moving beyond modern portfolio theory it s about time to address what they call the mpt paradox the fact that markowitz s mpt diversification works only to mitigate idiosyncratic risks which are specific to certain assets sectors or asset classes and does nothing to mitigate systematic risks which could collapse an entire industry or the entire financial system 7lukomnik and hawley acknowledge that mpt was developed decades before certain systemic risks such as climate change antimicrobial resistance and resource scarcity were recognized as investment issues however they argue that these systemic risks to the environmental social and financial systems in the real world matter much more to returns than idiosyncratic risks associated with any individual security or company in their book they identify mpt s lack of tools to address these real world systemic risks as an urgent issue for modern investors | |
what does markowitz view as the biggest mistake of amateur investors | harry markowitz has said that the chief mistake of the small investor is they buy when the market goes up on the assumption that it s going to go up further and they sell when the market goes down on the assumption that the market is going to go down further 8 | |
what did markowitz call his a ha moment | markowitz s a ha moment came when he was reading a book on mathematical probability and he had his famous brainstorm about risk correlation that the volatility of the portfolio depends not only on the volatility of the constituents but to what extent they go up and down together 3the bottom linesince he developed modern portfolio theory mpt in 1952 harry markowitz has been one of the most important pioneers of the new field of financial economics his groundbreaking work on concepts ranging from portfolio theory to computer programming language laid the foundation for how wall street operates today markowitz s work has also popularized concepts like diversification and overall portfolio risk and return shifting the focus away from the performance of individual stocks | |
what is the hart scott rodino antitrust improvements act of 1976 | the hart scott rodino antitrust improvements act of 1976 requires large companies to file notifications with the federal trade commission and the anti trust division of department of justice prior to certain mergers and acquisitions or tender offers 1 the law requires companies intending to merge to file an hsr form also called a notification and report form for certain mergers and acquisitions and generally known as a premerger notification report 2 this gives regulators an opportunity to review the proposed merger based on antitrust laws president gerald ford signed the act into law as a set of amendments to existing antitrust laws including the clayton antitrust act 3 the hart scott rodino antitrust improvements act of 1976 is also known as the hsr act or public law 94 435 4 | |
how the hart scott rodino antitrust improvements act of 1976 works | once companies file the required forms a waiting period begins the waiting period is usually 30 days or 15 days for cash tender offers or an acquisition in bankruptcy 6 the transaction can proceed once the waiting period ends or if the government terminates the waiting period early if regulators see potential anti competitive issues with the proposed merger they will request additional information from the companies involved and extend the waiting period they will negotiate an agreement with the companies to enact measures to restore competition or they will seek to stop the transaction by filing a preliminary injunction in court 6 under the hsr act the following tests must be met to require a pre merger filing for 2020 the base filing threshold for the hsr act which determines whether a transaction requires a premerger notification is 904 million the statutory size of person threshold is between 18 8 million and 188 million alternatively the statutory transaction size test that applies to all transactions even if the size of person threshold is not met is 376 million 7 special considerationshsr forms carry a filing fee that varies depending on the size of a transaction for example transactions worth more than 94 million but less than 188 million require a 45 000 filing fee transactions valued at more than 188 million but less than 940 1 million incur a 125 000 filing fee the filing fee is 280 000 for transactions greater than 940 1 million 8 | |
what is harvard business school | harvard business school is an internationally renowned business school located at harvard university in boston massachusetts founded in 1908 it admits roughly 1 000 students to its mba program per year and regularly ranks among the top business schools in the world 1in addition to its master in business administration mba program the school also offers various other doctoral and executive education programs some of which are provided in collaboration with partnering institutions such as harvard law school and the john f kennedy school of government the school is consistently ranked as one of the best business schools in the world u s news world report ranks harvard business school as the fifth best business school and the financial times rates its mba program as no 4 in the world 23understanding harvard business schoolharvard business school was founded in 1908 and established the world s first mba program in 1922 the doctoral program and the harvard business review were both founded the school regularly ranks in the top five graduate business programs internationally and is undoubtedly one of the best known business schools in the world 124one reason for its substantial brand recognition is the many books and other publications put forward by the harvard business school publishing corporation hbspc in addition to publishing the scholarly works of harvard business school s roughly 270 full time faculty members the hbspc is also responsible for publishing the famous harvard business review 5as is typical of the so called ivy league universities harvard business school is very selective of who it admits into its program the school has an acceptance rate of approximately 10 the doctoral program is typically even more competitive with a 4 admission rate between 2012 and 2018 67for those students whose applications are accepted the financial cost of attendance can pose a substantial barrier with the mba program costing approximately 115 000 per year for the 2023 2024 school year of this roughly 75 000 is attributable to direct tuition fees while the remainder is due to ancillary costs such as health insurance course and program materials rental accommodation and other living expenses 8academic programsharvard business school offers a variety of programs including an mba executive mba online certificate courses joint mba degrees and doctoral programs the ph d concentrations are in accounting and management business economics includes finance health policy management management marketing organizational behavior strategy and technology and operations management 9the online certificates are available in the concentrations of business essentials strategy leadership and management finance and accounting entrepreneurship and innovation and business in society the joint mba degrees are available with the harvard kennedy school the harvard graduate school of arts and sciences the law school the medical school the school of dental medicine and the school of engineering and applied sciences 1011costthe total cost for the mba program for the 2023 2024 academic year is 115 638 for a single individual this includes tuition a student health fee health insurance course and program materials fee and nine months of housing food transportation and other living expenses tuition alone is 74 910 note that the mba program is two years 12alumni of harvard business schoolthe harvard business school s stated mission is to educate leaders who make a difference in the world some notable alumni include salman khan founder of the self education website khan academy meg whitman former president and ceo of ebay james d wolfensohn former president of the world bank henry paulson former u s secretary of the treasury and ceo of goldman sachs sheryl sandberg coo of meta facebook michael bloomberg founder and ceo of bloomberg mitt romney former bain company ceo and current senator and george w bush former president of the u s alumni and friends of the school have provided a high level of support for the school throughout its history 1314151617as of 2023 harvard business school had 89 000 living alumni collectively representing 173 countries the most prominent industries in which they work are finance venture capital investment banking and investment management consulting marketing and general management 1819 | |
how much does a harvard mba cost | for the 2023 2024 academic year a harvard mba costs approximately 115 000 of this approximately 75 000 is tuition with the rest of the costs related to health insurance books supplies and housing 8 | |
what gpa is required for harvard s mba program | though harvard does not say it requires a specific gpa for its mba program the class of 2024 had an average gpa of 3 70 20 | |
why is harvard business school so famous | harvard business school is famous for many reasons it offers students an exceptional education by some of the brightest people in their fields the school has a large alumni network of graduates with prominent jobs in almost every industry the school publishes well respected research papers and it is competitive only accepting those with excellent academic and non academic profiles the bottom lineharvard business school is one of the best business schools in the world and as such one of the most difficult to get into it boasts a large and prominent alumni network and regularly publishes well respected papers on a variety of business topics the school is very expensive to attend so prospective students should weigh the costs and benefits before deciding | |
what is the harvard mba indicator | the harvard mba indicator is a contrarian long term stock market indicator that evaluates the percentage of harvard business school mba graduates that accept market sensitive jobs market sensitive jobs exist in fields such as investment banking securities sales and trading private equity venture capital and leveraged buyouts if more than 30 of a year s graduating class take jobs in these areas the harvard mba indicator is said to generate a sell signal for stocks conversely if less than 10 of graduates take jobs in this sector it represents a long term buy signal for stocks in between can be regarded as neutral 1understanding the harvard mba indicatorstarted and maintained in 2001 by investment consultant and harvard business school graduate roy soifer who received his mba there in 1965 the harvard mba indicator gave sell signals in 1987 and in 2000 which were both terrible years for the stock market 1 the esoteric indicator is meant to represent long term signals based on the relative attractiveness of wall street jobs the more grads that are enticed to go there the more bloated wall street becomes and the more likely the market is nearing a top when stock markets are doing poorly fewer grads want to enter the sector this indicator is contrarian in that it is based on a similar theme to the old market adage that when everyone else is looking to get in it s time to get out in other words herding behavior can be indicative of a reversal performance of the harvard mba indicatoraccording to soifer the harvard mba indicator produces far more sell signals than buy signals the last time it reached the 10 long term buy level was back in 1982 heralding what turned out to be a historic bull market soifer weites as far as i know the record low was reached in 1937 when only three mbas about 1 went into wall street it was a good time to buy the record high of 41 occurred in 2008 right before the stock market crashed during the 2008 09 financial crisis leading to the great recession 1soifer calls his index a rather esoteric but nonetheless generally accurate long term indicator of the direction of the stock market 1 | |
what is a harvest strategy | a harvest strategy is a marketing and business strategy that involves a reduction or a termination of investments in a product product line or line of business so that the entities involved can reap or harvest the maximum profits a harvest strategy is typically employed toward the end of a product s life cycle when it is determined that further investment will no longer boost product revenue understanding harvest strategiesproducts have life cycles and when the item nears the end of its life cycle it usually will not benefit from additional investments and marketing efforts this product stage is called the cash cow stage and it is when the asset is paid off and requires no further investment therefore employing a harvest strategy will allow companies to harvest the maximum benefits or profits before the item reaches its decline stage companies often use the proceeds from the ending item to fund the development and distribution of new products funds also may go toward promoting existing products with high growth potential for example a soft drink company may terminate investments in its established carbonated product to reallocate funds to its new line of energy drinks companies have several harvest strategy options often they will rely on brand loyalty to drive sales thereby reducing or eliminating marketing expenses for new products during harvest the company can limit or eliminate capital expenses such as the purchase of new equipment needed to support the ending item also they can restrict spending on operations a harvest strategy may involve the gradual elimination of a product or product line when technological advances render the product or line obsolete for example companies selling stereo systems gradually eliminated sales of record turntables in favor of cd players as compact disc sales soared and record sales declined also when product sales consistently fall below the target level of sales companies may gradually eliminate the related products from their portfolios computers cellphones and other electronics products are common objects of harvest strategies as they quickly become outdated and profits are put into newer gadgets special considerationsharvest strategy also refers to a business plan for investors such as venture capitalists or private equity investors this method is commonly referred to as an exit strategy as investors seek to exit the investment after its success investors will use a harvest strategy to collect the profit from their investment so that funds can be reinvested into new ventures most investors estimate that it will take between three and five years to recoup their investment two common harvest strategies for equity investors are to sell the company to another company or to make an initial public offering ipo of company stock | |
what is a hash | a hash is a mathematical function that converts an input of arbitrary length into an encrypted output of a fixed length thus regardless of the original amount of data or file size involved its unique hash will always be the same size moreover secure hashes cannot be reverse engineered to get the input from the hashed output at least with current technology if you use a specific function on the same data its hash will be identical so you can validate that the data is the same i e unaltered if you already know its hash a different function would deliver a different hash hashing is essential to cryptocurrency and blockchain security | |
how hashes work | typical hash functions take inputs of variable lengths to return outputs of a fixed length a cryptographic hash function combines the message passing capabilities of hash functions with security properties hash functions are algorithms that determine how information is encrypted for example secure hashing algorithm 256 sha 256 goes through a process to encrypt the input it receives by 1using sha 256 the word hello will produce an output that is the same number of characters 64 as hello world and hello john however the hash will be significantly different for all three keep in mind that capital letters change the hash also 2the function used to generate the hash is deterministic meaning it will produce the same result each time the same input is used while sha 256 can generate a hashed output in milliseconds with very little computing power it makes determining the input difficult 1not all cryptocurrencies use sha 256 keccak256 equihash scrypt ethash and blake3 are also examples of hashing functions used this makes hashing ideal for securing cryptocurrency because it would take thousands of years to reverse the encryption to determine the original input with modern technology hash functions are commonly used data structures in computing systems for tasks such as checking the integrity of messages and authenticating information cryptographic hash functions add security features making detecting the contents of a message or information more difficult in particular cryptographic hash functions exhibit these three properties 3because of the features of a hash they are used extensively in online security from protecting passwords to detecting data breaches to checking the integrity of a downloaded file hashing and blockchainsthe backbone of a cryptocurrency is the blockchain which is a globally distributed ledger formed by linking together individual blocks files of transaction data and information through hashing blockchains only contain transactions that are validated validation is completed by comparing hashes which prevents fraudulent transactions and double spending cryptocurrencies use hashes in different ways for instance miners solve bitcoin s hash problem by using the data in a block as input and generating a hash the goal is to generate a hash that is equal to or less than the network s target hash the mining program adjusts variable numbers until it generates a hash less than or equal to the target hash once the problem is solved each node compares the block header by hashing it twice and comparing its result to the new block s hash | |
what is the main purpose of hash | hashes have many purposes in a blockchain they serve as a way to compare data and secure it for an enterprise purpose it could be used to compress data for storage purposes | |
what is the simplest hash function | the mid square method is one of the simplest you square a number and use the middle two digits as the hash for example squaring the number 61 gives you the result 3721 the hash would be 72 the middles two numbers |
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