December 27, 2014 / TheNewsGuy / 0 Comments
Stock brokers are professionals licensed to provide financial advice to their clients and manage their investments in stock options. Among the tasks they perform are buying and selling bonds, stocks and other form of securities.
The minimum education requirements for becoming a stock broker licensed professional is a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Achieving a top position in this career may require a MBA or a master’s degree in finance. Typically, on the job training is provided for stock brokers as well. This on the job training usually includes communication skills, securities analysis, and effective selling. As they build a client base and improve their skills, new stock broker employees may work up to six months on a position of intern or trainee.
In order to become licensed, a stock broker must pass certain exams: the Series 7 and Series 63 exams administered by FINRA. Only after passing these exams a broker becomes licensed to buy and sell bonds, stocks, and securities. Depending on their field of work, brokers may be required to obtain other licenses as well, such as: Series 65 or Series 66 to become a Registered Investment Adviser, the Series 3 or Series 31 licenses for commodities and managed futures, or a life and/or health insurance license to sell life, long-term care, and disability insurance products.In order to keep up to date and maintain their license stock brokers are required to undergo continue education.
How Much Does a New Hampshire Stock Broker Earn?
A stock broker career can be very rewarding on financial plan. The average salary among all commodities, securities, and financial services professionals was $102,510 annually for the year 2013. The annual salary of a stock broker varies based on certain factors such as location, industry, level of education, years of experience, and brokerage firm size. Those licensed stock brokers working for large brokerage companies earn an average of $111,160 on average. This amount is higher than the national average. However, stock brokers who are top earners make an even higher average of $124,450 annually. The majority of top earners in this profession are in the state of California and in the state of New York, where the salaries are $103,430 and $129,620 respectively. The top paying industries for stockbrokers are: management and consulting services – with an annual salary average of $149,040, and electric power generation and distribution – with an annual salary average of $116,440. Stock brokers working specifically insecurities brokerage firms make around $111,160 per year.
In the state of New Hampshire, stock brokers make an average annual salary of around $75,753. The salary of an entry-level stock broker in New Hampshire is in average $36,961 yearly, while an experienced stock broker makes an average of $95,139 yearly.
If you are interested in this lucrative career you need a broad skill set in order to succeed. For those qualified the rewards are significant. However, in order to become a top earner, it takes several years for a new broker to accumulate a large customer base.
December 26, 2014 / TheNewsGuy / 0 Comments
For the last two years, the world’s economy has been experiencing better GDP numbers and positive media commentary. In fact, latest global economic statistics indicates that the economy grows a record 5 percent. However, despite all these positive optimism, the U.S economy and the Eurozone continue to be fragile and the momentum in Japan is tapering off. The situation is even worse in developing countries that are still facing various country-specific challenges, including increased financial risks, structural imbalances, incoherent micro-economic management, geopolitical and political tensions as well as infrastructural bottlenecks.
According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the global economy appears increasingly vulnerable to recession as different countries continue to grapple with the challenge of taking appropriate fiscal and monetary policy actions in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The international economic research and policy group, however, forecast world’s economic growth to strengthen, but is highly threatened by substantial risks including still-high debt levels, divergent monetary policy, volatile markets and still-high financial instability amid a slowdown in China and the spread of the Ebola virus outside of West Africa.
Inflation continues to be a non-issue
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce in its 2014-15 economic outlook report states that the country’s economy is projected to strengthen moderately to 2.5 per cent in 2015, up from 2.3 per cent in 2014. This prediction is based on the IMF’s global financial and economic forecast that World Gross Product is likely to grow at a pace of 5 per cent in 2015 compared to 3.0 per cent in 2014. The IMF report expects GDP to increase by 5.1 per cent in U.S., 7.1 per cent in China, 8 per cent in Japan, 3.7 per cent in U.K. and 1.8 per cent in Japan. The World Bank also reports that the global inflation remains well anchored. It is expected that inflation will remain within the bank’s 1.0 per cent to 3.0 per cent inflation-control range for the next two years.
Overall, there are signs of improvement for the world’s economy. The Eurozone is finally creeping out of the protracted recession and the U.S. economy continuing to recover. Majority of the emerging economies are starting to see accelerating economic growth characterized with growth in foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, portfolio equity inflows and significant fall in non-bank credit flows. At present, the average rate of inflation in Canada and the U.S. is less than 2 per cent, around 2 per cent in the U.K., and below 1 per cent in the Eurozone. In fact, even in countries in the periphery of the Eurozone, such as Cyprus and Greece, prices have dropped recently compared to the previous year. However, for any country to reap full benefits of an improved global economic outlook, it has to tap new markets, strengthen its competitiveness, and secure and expand its involvement in global supply chains.
Major challenges and remaining fragility
The main challenge and fragility to economic growth remains lackluster international trade flows. These flows continue to remain the key policy concerns as long-lasting effects from the financial crisis continue to weigh on labor markets in every country. Vulnerability in emerging economies to both the external shocks and domestic structural bottlenecks, the remaining fragility in both the financial sector and the real economy in the Eurozone, a possible escalation in geopolitical tensions and the risk of a failure in containing Ebola may also exacerbate any financial recovery. Other challenges include the risks and uncertainties associated with the divergence in monetary policies among the major developed countries, and QE exit and normalization of interest rates by the U.S. Federal Reserve.
December 25, 2014 / TheNewsGuy / 0 Comments
In the attempt to stop the spread of the secrets of the company, Sony Pictures has threatened to sue Twitter if it does not prohibit accounts that send tweets with information allegedly leaked during the mass rape to study computational systems. The threat was contained in a letter sent Monday by the lawyer of Sony Pictures David Boies to Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s lawyer, which requires Twitter to cooperate for suspending accounts associated with the broadcast of “stolen information”. Sony has made it clear that Twitter will be responsible for all the loss and damage caused the tweets unless they suspend the accounts of the users from the social network who are tweeting exposed email contents
In his letter, Boies warned his counterpart on Twitter that if “the stolen information continues to be disseminated by Twitter in any way”, Sony “won’t have another option other than to ensure that Twitter is responsible for any damage or loss arising out of the use or spread by Twitter”. Sony Pictures did not immediately answer our request for a comment on the letter. Since the publication of this article, Sony has complained that @bikinirobotary can still be like the tweets that appear to be associated with the emails hacked from Sony. A number of screenshots of the hacked emails are posted on Twitter by a musician Val Broeksmit and Sony asked Twitter to share the legal threat with him in the letter.
It was confirmed by a spokesperson of Twitter that the warning was authentic and Sony considers lawsuit against Twitter over hacked email tweets, but he declined to give any further information or comment about the response of the company.
The letter highlights the magnitude of the actions that will take Sony to try to contain the collateral damage that have resulted from hacking. Security violation was allegedly perpetuated by a group called the guardians of the peace, who entered to Sony servers to filter thousands of financial documents and emails that have revealed the secrets of the Studio. A handful of films was also strained.
The collateral damage has been a mixture of devastation, humiliation and frustration for Sony and its partners. Followed by a series of threats made during the last few weeks, Sony decided to cancel the Christmas release of the film ‘The Interview’, a comedy about the assassination of the leader of North Korea. On Friday, the FBI identified Korea as responsible for the attack on the basis of the type of attack employed software to penetrate computer networks of Sony.
The language used by Boies recalls the letters that he sent to the news media at the beginning of the month in which it demanded that they ignore and destroy the information downloaded and leaked by hackers. Media that do not meet the demands of Sony could be “responsible for damages and losses” by its use or spread, said the letter. While social networks normally suspend accounts that violate its policy of use, also have suspended accounts when governmental organizations ask him. Over the weekend, a Facebook page seeking support for a critic of Vladimir Putin seems to have been blocked. Twitter suspended a couple of accounts in April related to allegations of government corruption in Turkey.
December 23, 2014 / TheNewsGuy / 0 Comments
During this past week, New York Senator, Charles Schumer, made a public announcement proclaiming that the Federal Bureau of Investigations needs to evaluate the circumstances on why U.S. airfares are still high, despite the fact that gas prices have dipped to some of the lowest levels that we have seen in over 5 years.
The senator proclaimed that despite the fact that the cost of fuel is steadily dropping which equates to a higher profit margin for airlines, ticket prices have reached an all time high. As a result of this, he proclaimed that he is urging federal agents, to perform a price investigation on behalf of the travelers that need to buy a holiday ticket this season.
The senator also said, that many airlines have increased the price of their tickets in the past, but proclaimed that it was partially due to the fact that the oil prices were increasing. The problem with this he said is that, if the airline companies justified an increased price due to increased oil prices, then it doesn’t make sense that the prices should still be gradually increasing if the cost of fuel is steadily decreasing.
In response a representative from Airlines for America, said that while the prices of fuel has been decreasing, many carriers are still adjusting their finances so that they can pay off approximately $72 billion in accumulated debt, purchase new and safer aircrafts, and enhance the facilities and amenities at the airport. The representative also said that the rise in profits is also being used to reward employees and investors.
The representative also proclaimed that they should be treated like every other business and used Starbucks as a prime example. They said that when the cost of coffee beans decreases, Starbucks ultimately receives a higher profit margin, but in the same breath, no one asks Starbucks to reduce the price of their lattes as a result of a decline in the price of coffee beans. Starbucks chooses to use that extra profit margin to expand their stores and give back to the investors. In closing the representative said, that airlines are no different and should not be treated differently.
In response the senator proclaimed that when fuel prices rose to over $100 per barrel, airlines began adding fuel surcharges to the total price of their tickets and despite the fact that the price of a barrel of oil is now at approximately $60 per barrel, and the fact that fuel surcharges accounts for 60% of an airlines ticket price, then there’s no reason why those fuel surcharges should not be decreased as an end result.
December 22, 2014 / TheNewsGuy / 0 Comments
Crude oil is of great relevance in the economy of various countries around the world. There are some dominating countries that supply the oil all over the world. In recent times, however, there has been a fall in the prices of oil, this has been noted all over the world. Most of the dominating supplies of oil are the Arab nations, specifically Saudi Arabia.
Cause Of Price Fall
One major reason why oil prices are falling so steeply is that the demand has reduced, while the supplies has increased vastly. There has been more supply of oil over the recent years. Among the nations that have joined the oil supply race are Canada and the US. On the other hand, Europe is battling to get out of recession, and coming up with cleaner options to supply oil. This has made the nations to be competitive.
The demand has steeply fallen down, and less people are depending on the dominant oil suppliers. I’m sure you’ve noticed the recent drop in gas prices as a result. They opt to go for either cheaper suppliers, or the local suppliers. If an American oil company opts to buy the American oil, then the Saudi Arabian suppliers would have less demand.
The increased production in the US, and the reduced demand in China and Europe. The reason for the reduced demand was probably because they used equipments and vehicles that required less or no oil. Some electric cars have been introduced in the recent years. The violence in the Middle East also threatened to interfere with the supplies of oil to the rest of the world. And this is another major reason why demand for the Mideast oil went down.
The Reduced Prices
The slow decline took about 3 and a half months, this led to a further drop in the price, specifically by Saudi Arabia. Being the largest oil exporter in the world, this meant that Saudi Arabia was aiming at defending its market share. The prevailing theory is that Saudi Arabia is continuing to pump out oil to keep prices low so that it might become unprofitable for other markets, like US and Canada, to pump oil. They want to be the main oil supplier and believe they can withstand a drop in oil prices. It really all comes down to supply and demand. If there’s more supply of a commodity and the little demand, the prices will generally fall in an effort to help attract more sales.
The Organization Of The Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC is a group of nations that produce oil, which work along to set the output level and prices. OPEC dropped the prices of crude oil across the world, which meant that all the nations had to adhere to this. Rather than pushing the prices back to their level, OPEC chose to maintain the production of the oil, a move that made the oil price to drop further.
Generally, the reduced demand and increased supply of the crude oil are the major reasons why the prices have dropped down steeply.
December 21, 2014 / TheNewsGuy / 0 Comments
According to latest leaks and rumors the Samsung company has made a number of big changes in their Galaxy S6. The Galaxy S6 popularly known in Samsung HQ with the code name of Project Zero is supposed to be the biggest release in the main phone line of the company.
The rumor reported by the unnamed insiders of the company states that Samsung is introducing the entirely new version of its next generation mobile device by modifying it from the scratch. According to them the release of Galaxy S6 indicates that Samsung is planning to achieve some thing different and unique in future.
The announcement made in last November at the time of its annual Analyst Day in Korea Samsung has disclosed that it will release its first phone which will run with 2560 x 1440 pixel WQHD displays in late 2014.
Though it was not the first device which features such screen but still company is planning to give some thing different from S5 with 1080p Full HD in Galaxy S6. the Galaxy S6 is supposed to fall between technology cycles of Samsung though it is considered company’s flagship phone.
Though the release of smartphone with 3,840 x 2,160 pixel UHD displays during 2015 was confirmed by Samsung but Galaxy S6 is supposed to enjoy the benefit of this new technology much earlier then expected. On the other hand there are rumors about the looks of S6 which seems to resemble with LG G3 including a QHD display screen.
Samsung announced to focus of premium materials and high end designs while producing smartphones as it was compelled to reassess its efforts in this regard due to the below expectation sales of S5.
According to Tom Kang, a counterpoint analyst, the slow sales of S5 was due to mistake made by Samsung in pricing the product which failed to prove as per expectations. According to him the company should now focus on its next product instead of spinning its brain on the slow sales
of previous device.
Along with the analysts Samsung itself is committed to improve the handsets of its future devices as it has to compete with its rivals like HTC and Apple.
According to a Samsungs official spokesman the company is strengthening the competitiveness of its products by emphasizing on the reputation of its premium brand, revolutionary technology and line of powerful products.
Now Chinese media has claimed that insiders have tipped that Galaxy S6 will be presented like the new Samsung Galaxy Alpha withpremium metal body.
December 16, 2014 / TheNewsGuy / 0 Comments
It’s been repeated time and time again regarding the slow but steady recovery the job market has been experiencing. It seems like each piece of great news had been watered down and tampered with a note of caution citing that although the economy has been moving the right direction, it’s moving frustratingly slow. The bottom line is that unemployment is still higher than it should be even though employers are creating jobs in some sectors. And wages aren’t rising as fast as they should because of the slow recovery. Employers have had to keep wages stagnate in case another economic downturn occurred. If they raise wages too soon they may have to lay people off which is terrible for morale. Besides just waiting for employers to dish out raises, some are simply asking for them according to some surveys. As a whole, however, wages aren’t rising as they should and here a few possible reasons why.
Already at the Top
There is a high percentage of people who are staying employed for longer periods because they’re either saving money for retirement or they have debt that needs to be taken care of before throwing in the towel. So it’s likely these individuals have arrived at the top tier of how much their profession pays.
Don’t Over Do it
There’s a high percentage of employees who get a pay raise at least once a year. However, with a slow economy, consumer spending is down which means productivity has had to decrease to avoid a surplus in supply. This can limit the amount of profitability a company receives which, in turn, limits their capability to increase pay.
No Where Else to Go
Of course, with jobs scarce, it’s not that likely employees are going to be able to find work elsewhere with better pay. In a good economy where jobs are plentiful, if someone isn’t happy with the pay they are receiving from an employer, they can simply search for a new job with better pay and benefits. That is not the case in an economy that’s slowly recovering like this one.
The Type of Jobs Being Created
According to a New York Times article, the jobs that are being created are low-paying jobs. That sort of knocks the excitement of a lowering unemployment rate in addition to those simply dropping out of the labor market altogether so that they can’t be counted for the statistic. Fast food restaurants and strip malls that are keeping the unemployment rate low aren’t going to do much to increase the overall pay Americans are getting.