Tag Archives: hedge fund

Protecting Your Investments

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When you invest, you hope that your money will generate an income for you or that it will grow in value and allow you to realise a profit in the future. However, there is a possibility that your desired investing outcome may not materialise; you could instead receive an unfavourable result.

While you happily envision what you stand to gain, before you commit your funds to an investment you also need to consider what you could lose if you were to make the wrong decisions. It’s critical to assess how any adverse outcomes could harm your financial position and negatively affect your goals.

When you put your money to work for you, one of the possibilities is that you could lose some or all of your money if the venture fails. There is also the risk that your investment may not perform as planned, or that you may not get the kind of returns within the time frame that you had anticipated.

Although risk is an inherent part of the investing process, you can still seek to minimise or prevent some of these negative occurrences. Let’s look at some of the strategies that can help you to protect your investments from the risks of loss and unmet objectives. Continue reading Protecting Your Investments →

Can we gain from rising oil prices?

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“Every day the cost of living is increasing, thanks to the continuing rise in oil prices. The last straw for me was the big jump in my electricity bill. I don’t know how I’m going to survive these higher prices when my pay is not going up. What can I do to fight rising costs?”

Unfortunately it seems that there is no end in sight to the rapid rise in the price of oil. In July last year, the price of oil was just about US$70 per barrel, and current prices have blown past the US$145 per barrel mark. There have even been discussions suggesting that oil prices are heading to an unbelievable US$200 per barrel.

The rise in oil costs is negatively affecting consumers in many ways. One obvious instance is painful petrol prices. I’m secretly wondering if the gas station price boards can actually display prices over J$100 per litre!

Then there are the electricity bills that are getting higher than many of our other expenses combined. All industries which use oil as inputs such as tyre and paint manufacturers, and businesses that rely on high-priced petrol and electricity to produce and distribute goods are forced to increase the costs of their products.

What exactly is driving the dramatic increase in oil prices that’s causing this decrease in our standard of living?

Continue reading Can we gain from rising oil prices? →

Other ‘Alternative’ Investments

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Thanks to the upsurge in investment clubs and institutions offering high monthly returns, Jamaicans have developed a seemingly unquenchable appetite for ‘alternative’ investments. Many investors, no longer satisfied with the regular returns paid by established financial entities, are on a constant search for high-yielding options.

Trading in the foreign exchange market (forex) provided the first opportunity for many ordinary investors to participate in the global investment markets. This investing phenomenon, formally unknown to Jamaicans, was termed an ‘alternative’ investment.

However, with forex being the largest financial market in the world with over US$3 trillion traded 24 hours per day, Sunday to Friday, it hardly seems to deserve to be described as an alternative market.

However, looking at the definition of alternative, it might very well be acceptable to give it this description.  Dictionary.com provides one definition of alternative as “employing or following nontraditional or unconventional ideas and methods existing outside the establishment such as an alternative newspaper or alternative lifestyles.” Continue reading Other ‘Alternative’ Investments →