“Unemployment” is a major economic indicator measuring how much of the working population is currently looking for a job. The unemployment rate is the most “tangible” economic indicator – if GDP is going up or down, it is harder for people to notice in their day-to-day lives. When the unemployment rate goes up, it usually means you or someone you know lost their job recently, which puts a great strain on individuals.
“Specialization” is when a labor force begins to divide total production, leading to a rise of experts or specialists. This is called the Division of Labor, and it typically results in much higher productivity of labor.
Scarcity refers to the fact that resources are finite – people and organizations need to allocate their finite resources between their infinite wants.
“Opportunity Cost” is what needs to be given up to get something. This is different from an item’s price.
Everyone knows about costs and benefits of doing something – the pros and cons of making a choice. Marginal benefit and marginal cost are different – they look more closely at doing slightly more or less of different alternatives. Marginal costs and benefits are extremely important to producers when choosing their inputs and prices.
“Labor” is how much a person works. It is the use of time and exertion of effort to produce something of value. Generally speaking, the more valuable a person’s labor is, the higher their wage.
Interest rates are growth rates – it is a percentage that is used to calculate how much a loan or investment grows over time.
In Economics, an “Externality” is a benefit or cost that is not reflected in the price of a good or service.
An Entrepreneur is someone who takes a risk to start a new business. Nearly every business that exists (apart those created as spin-offs of other businesses, or by government intervention) was started by one or several entrepreneurs, who took a risk to launch a new company.
“Economics” is often called the Dismal Science – it studies the trade-offs between making choices. The purpose of economics is to look at the different incentives, assets, and choices facing people, businesses, schools, and governments, and see if there is any way to improve outcomes.
Economic Incentives includes anything that pushes people, businesses, and governments to do one thing or another. This includes what products you buy, what career you choose, what products businesses produce, and what government programs are put in place.
Economic Growth means that the economy is growing. More goods and services are being produced and consumed than they were before. The most common measurement of economic growth is the Gross Domestic Product (or GDP), which measures the total number of finished goods and services produced in an economy in a year.
Types of Companies Have you ever wanted to start a business? Maybe you want to know the difference between a lemonade stand and Minute-Maid, besides just the size of the companies. Different types of companies have different levels of liability (meaning level of responsibility) for the owner or owners. What this means is that the more liability Read More…
“Competition” is when many producers try to sell similar goods to the same set of consumers. The producers need to “compete” to try to attract more consumers, usually by lowering prices, offering better versions of the goods or services, or through marketing.
Major Economic Indicators Definition “Major Economic Indicators” are numbers that you can look at to try to get a picture of how well the economy is doing. Different indicators measure different parts of the economy, but their main characteristic is that they measure the same thing in the same way over time. This means that you Read More…
The Federal Reserve Bank, or the “Fed”, is the central banking system of the United States. It serves as the primary regulator of the US dollar, as well as the “lender of last resort” for other banks.
Supply and Demand Examples in the Stock Market The stock market determines prices by constantly-shifting movements in the supply and demand for stocks. Market equilibrium is the price and quantity at which supply equals demand. Stock exchanges play a major role in facilitating this balance. We can use the stock market to give some great Read More…
Stock Market Crash of 1929 Definition The stock market crash of 1929 was a massive crash in stock prices on the New York Stock Exchange, and marks the largest financial crash in the United States. Details The stock market crash came in multiple parts – the initial crash on October 28 (a 12.87% drop) continued into Read More…
Comparative Economic Systems Various economic systems exist with different goals, such as promoting equality or facilitating rapid growth. The structure of an economy within a country is heavily influenced by its political landscape and the values held by its population. However, it is important to note that the economy of any country is subject to Read More…
“Price Controls” are artificial limits that are put on prices. If the limit is put in place to prevent prices from getting too high, they are called Ceilings. If they are in place to prevent the price from getting too low, they are called “Floors”.
The Business Cycle is the broad, over-stretching cycle of expansion and recession in an economy.
The accounting cycle is a series of steps that businesses take to track transactions and consolidate financial information over a specific accounting period (month, quarter, year). The end result of the accounting cycle is the production of accurate financial statements for that period and preparedness for the next accounting period.
Cost Accounting The field of accounting is typically divided into two areas, financial accounting and cost (or managerial) accounting. Whereas the purpose of financial accounting is to report the results and position of a business to external parties, cost accounting focuses on internal reporting for the purpose of improving managerial decision making. This means that Read More…
Build Your First Marketing Plan Marketing is a cornerstone in the success of any organization. However, successful marketing is not as wide spread in large part due to the lack of a marketing strategy and marketing plan. To ensure marketing is successful for an organization, companies need to compose long-term marketing strategies promoting their goals Read More…
Personal selling is when businesses use people to “sell” the product to a customer face-to-face. These sales people promote the product with every aspect of themselves, including their appearance, attitude and special knowledge of the product.
Make The Most of Your Marketing Dollars Planning advertising for any business is nothing to be taken lightly. Advertising, after all, is the method by which a business gets its message out to the world. How, and how well, a business advertises its products or services can, and does, make the difference between business success Read More…
Pricing Strategies One of the most crucial aspects of developing a marketing strategy is determining an approach to pricing. A company could have a great product and a fantastic promotion campaign, but could still fail if the price isn’t right for customers. On one hand, high prices could repel value-seeking consumers and could result in Read More…
The four stages included in the product life cycle are introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. This cycle is extremely important for managers to monitor in order to plan an effective strategy for their business.
Why You Buy What You Buy Clearly no two products are exactly alike and therefore each merits a unique marketing strategy. However, certain products carry similar characteristics in terms of price level, similarity between competing brands, and the way consumers approach them in the buying process. It is often useful to group these similar products Read More…
Ethical Issues in Marketing Ethics are a code of values and principles that govern the actions of a person regarding what is right versus what is wrong. They determine our behavior when faced with a moral dilemma. Morals are subjective, in that they vary from person to person depending on their point of view, and Read More…
Creating Financial Statements A company’s financial statements give investors, managers, and other “users” a complete, honest look at its financial health. Finished financial statements follow a standardized format, letting investors compare different companies in the same industry apples-to-apples. For the company’s financial reporting team, this presents a challenge – every business’s internal operations are different, Read More…
Segmentation and Target Markets Have you ever wondered how big and small companies gather their customer base? With all the people in the world, how do companies select who to market to? Larger companies use mass marketing to market their products, while smaller companies use market segmentation. What is Market Segmentation? Market segmentation is the Read More…
Asset Valuation – How to value an asset through their financials Every asset has a value that is always changing. So, what factors affect this change? Things such as earnings announcements, financial ratios, and recent news all go into the movement of an asset’s valuation. The key with all asset valuation is that ratios and Read More…
Do You Know Why You Buy What You Do? Consumers play an integral part in the marketplace. They are the ones who purchase the products, and largely inform the kinds of products that are produced (demanded). This is where the concept of consumer behavior comes in: what drives customers’ purchasing decisions, and how do they Read More…
Marketing Fundamentals Marketing is a word often thrown around as an umbrella term for a wide variety of functions within organizations, ranging from the running of social media accounts to inside sales, and anything in between. Marketing and Value Proposition The truth of the matter is that a successful marketing strategy is deeply rooted in Read More…
What is Solvency? Understanding financial solvency is as important to an investor as it is to a financial manager. Whether it’s having the money to pay off a friendly wager or having the capital to pay off a commercial loan, being solvent is necessary to achieve long-term success. Solvency is the possession of assets in Read More…
Ownership and Dividends Why own a stock? Owning a share in a company means that you are an integral part of the puzzle that helps the company tick. Whether Facebook (FB) or Amazon (AMZN), your investment has made you a part of the company. There are many caveats that come with being a part owner Read More…
Managerial Accounting Accounting is often defined as the backbone of any corporation or business. Without the numbers explaining the day-to-day operation, it’s tough to tell how well or how poorly said company is doing. In order to simplify accounting as a whole, it is easiest to split it into two separate definitions. On one side, Read More…
How Auditors Uncover Deception & Fraud The love of money… A Case of Fraud at LocatePlus Holdings Corporation In business, greed comes most frequently not in the pursuit of profit but in the form of financial fraud. Individuals who lack or loosen their ethical restraints often rationalize their behavior as unavoidable or good-intentioned. But, make Read More…
How to Get Past Resume Software Keywords – the Achilles Heel of every student’s resume. Knowing how to craft a killer resume and cover letter that grabs employers attention (and keeps it) will only help once you get your resume in the hands of a recruiter. Unfortunately, today anyone can apply to just about any Read More…
Are Internships Worth It? The internship season is upon us. It might be better to say that it never ended. Of course. This is a great opportunity to replace a vague estimate with compelling, data-backed statistics that will be much more valuable to your student audience. The new research provides several powerful angles: the high Read More…
Acing Job Interviews What separates a “good” job interview from a “great” one? There are many factors that will work for or against you when you head in for an interview for a great job. Some factors you don’t have much control over, but most job interview “bombs” are very easy to avoid, if you Read More…
Biggest Mistakes of Job Seekers In today’s competitive job market, the average search for a professional role takes between 3 to 6 months—a significant increase from previous years. For new graduates or those changing careers, the search can often last six months or longer. Your search will be much harder if you make one of Read More…
CFA, CFP, CPA & Other Financial Certifications Have you ever thought about a career in the finance industry? Have you wondered what is required to be considered a professional in the stock trading world? Well I have good news: you’ve come to the right place! We’ll cover educational requirements and the basics of Series 6, Series 7, Read More…
How to Visualize Your Portfolio Data Graphing is one of the most important features of spreadsheets. When you need to present your findings, whether as a written report or a presentation, summarizing your data in graphs is the best way to quickly communicate large amounts of data. This guide will walk through taking your raw Read More…
How to Calculate Your Profits The most important reason you would want to use excel to track your stock portfolio is trying to calculate your profit and loss from each trade. To do this, open the spreadsheet with your transaction history. It should look something like this: Tip: If you have not bought and then sold a Read More…
How to Import and Format Data The first step in using any spreadsheet is getting some data! This tutorial will show you different ways to import some of your portfolio data into a spreadsheet and how to format it to make it easier to read. Can’t view on YouTube? Click Here Getting Data The first Read More…
Using Excel To Track Your Stock Portfolio In this article we will be looking at how you can use Excel to keep track of your account’s performance. This is meant as a basic guide for people who have little or no experience with Excel. Using Excel To Track Your Stock Portfolio – Getting Some Data Read More…
Track Your Daily Portfolio Returns If you’ve been trading for a long period of time you might have been curious to know what your daily returns were. Excel and Google Sheets can help you efficiently calculate this in a simple way. Suppose we started trading on August 29th, 2017. It is now September 7th and Read More…
How Companies Finance Their Growth Do you ever wonder how companies have the money to build new stores, develop new products, or perhaps even buy another company? Usually companies do not keep enough cash for these transactions sitting in their bank account – it needs to be raised from outside investors. There are two main Read More…
A cash budget is used internally by management to estimate cash inflows (receipts) and outflows (disbursements) of cash during a period and the cash balance at the end of a period. In other words, a cash budget is a plan for an organization to obtain and use resources over a specific period of time. This means an organization must have an idea of where their money is coming from and how it should be spent.
Cash flow is a concept in accounting that refers to the spending or receiving of cash by an organization. For a given period, cash flow is calculated by ending cash balance less starting cash balance.
Operating ratios are a class of ratios that are meant to analyze how well a company is using their assets. Specifically, these ratios show how well a company utilizes its assets to create revenue.
How Companies Raise Capital Big corporations are very powerful entities that can possess more capital than some countries in the world. However, every company begins as a small start-up business. These businesses grow with the injections of capital, both from the founders and from other investors. Going Public At one point, a company’s plans become Read More…
Payroll Best Practices Most the taxes paid are through paychecks, so a large part of payroll accounting is properly accounting for all taxes. Most people are familiar with their annual personal tax return, but payroll tax filing works a bit differently. Payroll is run weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or even semi-monthly, so for each pay cycle, Read More…
GAAP – Accounting Gains and Losses Revenue and Gains are related fields related to the income a company receives. The main difference between them is the source of the income. Revenue Revenue represents income earned by the firm through the primary goods and/or services provided. It is the income earned from the firm’s operating activities. For Read More…
GAAP – Accounting Revenue and Expenses One of the first challenges auditors and regulators faced when developing the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) was trying to standardize how companies account for their revenues and expenses. Before GAAP, companies had (more or less) free reign on how and when revenue and expenses were reported, leading to Read More…
Accounting for Liabilities Every firm needs capital to purchase assets like inventory, land, and equipment. They also need cash to help manage expenses such as paying employees. How do companies raise the money they need to run their businesses? The answer is through a mix of liabilities (borrowing money) and equity (selling shares of ownership Read More…
GAAP – Accounting for Assets Facets of Assets How much is someone worth? One way to think about it could be to add up assets, or everything a person owns that holds financial value. First, think of everyday items like cash, a car, a computer, and perhaps money stored in a savings or investment account. Read More…
GAAP – Accounting for Equity The Basic Accounting Equation says that Assets – Liabilities = Equity Equity (stockholders’ equity, owners’ equity, etc.) is the claim shareholders of a company have on assets once the liabilities have been satisfied. Equity on the Balance Sheet There are five critical entries on a balance sheet related to equity: retained earnings, Read More…
GAAP – Purpose, Framework, and Terms What are the objectives of financial statements? How can accountants best meet these objectives? These are the very questions that the Federal Accounting Standards Board (FASB) set out to address in 1976 when they began developing the conceptual framework. FASB’s goal was to identify the objectives and concepts that Read More…
How To Check a Business’s Financial Health Every year or two, most of us go to the doctor’s office to receive a check-up on the state of our physical health. The doctor typically checks several measurements (height, weight, blood pressure, etc.) in order to gauge how our health has progressed over the past year. They Read More…
How To Launch Your Career in Accounting More students than ever are interested in a career in accounting. So, where do you begin? What do you need in order to become a successful accountant? How can you market yourself in the accounting world to stand out among employers? This is a broad overview of what Read More…
Futures Contracts are a standardized, transferable legal agreement to make or take delivery of a specified amount of a certain commodity, currency, or an asset at the end of specified time frame. The price is determined when the agreement is made.
An option gives the owner the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell the underlying instrument(we assume stocks here) at a specified price(strike price) on or before a specified date(exercise date) in the future. (this is different for European options as they can only be exercised at the end date). Exercising the option is using that right to to buy or sell the underlying instrument.
Spot and Futures contracts are a standardized, transferable legal agreement to make or take delivery of a specified amount of a certain commodity, currency, or an asset at the current date. The price is determined when the agreement is made.
What are Mutual Funds? Pop Quiz
Decoding What Moves The Market Stock and bond prices move up and down every day, sometimes by very large amounts. Before you start investing, the first thing to understand is why these price movements happen, and how to plan for them. Stock Price Movements Stock prices are often represented on a line graph that shows Read More…
5 Ways to Get Investing Ideas The most challenging aspect of starting to invest is picking the first few stocks to add to a portfolio. Every investor has their own techniques and strategies, but we want to give you the tools you need to place your first trades and get your portfolio off to a Read More…
Buying on Margin & Short Selling Explained A margin trading account is a type of investment account offered by brokerages that allow investors to borrow money to buy securities. With a margin account, an investor can borrow funds from the brokerage firm against the value of the securities in their account. This allows the investor Read More…
Brokerages exist to allow individuals to make investments into the larger market. In other words, they connect individuals to the markets as a whole.
Bonds are essentially a much more formal I.O.U (I owe you) used to borrow money. You buy the bond in return to interest over a given period of time. When a corporation or government needs money they issue bonds that people buy. In turn, the issuer (the person who sells the bond) takes the money. However, no one would buy something if they didn’t get something in return, so the issuer will offer to not only pay the person back at a specified date but also provide some interest along the way.
Mutual Funds are a way you can buy into a wide range of stocks, bonds, money markets, or other securities all at once. They are professionally managed, so you are basically buying a piece of a larger portfolio.
ETFs are a fairly new way that you can buy a large group of stocks, assets, or other securities all at once. ETFs trade just like stock; you can buy and sell shares of an ETF throughout the day on an exchange.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, more frequently known as the Dow or the Dow Jones, is a stock market index made up of 30 of the largest publicly-owned companies based in the United States. It’s a price weighted index meaning that the index’s price is an average of the price of the 30 stocks that make it up.
The New York Stock Exchange (or NYSE) is the largest stock exchange in the world. Think of it as an organized, fast-paced flea market where buyers and sellers from all over the world come to trade U.S. stocks (and now some foreign shares as well). It is where over 2,800 of the biggest U.S. companies have their shares listed.
How to Choose Stocks Strategically The most challenging part of starting to invest is picking the first few stocks to add to your portfolio. Every investor has their own techniques and strategies, but we want to give you the tools you need to place your first trades, and get your portfolio off to a good start. Establish Read More…
What is Diversification & How to Spread Your Risk Understanding what it means to build a diversified portfolio is one of the first concepts a new investor needs to understand. When talking about investing, diversification means to expose yourself to less risk by investing in different asset classes, industries etc. So if something bad happens to Read More…
Why Invest in Stocks vs. Keeping in Savings? Can’t view on YouTube? Click Here Investing in stocks can be a great way to make your money work for you and build long-term wealth, once you have set up your budget and emergency savings fund. In this lesson, we’ll explore why investing in stocks is a Read More…
How to Read a Stock Quote like a Pro Definition A stock quote gives essential information about a particular stock at a point in time. The quote normally includes information such as the name of the company, the ticker symbol, the price, the day’s high and low prices, and the trading volume. Details Usually when Read More…
A “Ticker Symbol” is a unique one to five letter code used by the stock exchanges to identify a company.
Stock is defined as a share of ownership in a company. If you own a company’s stock, you own a percentage of the company itself. This includes partial ownership of its assets (like equipment, vehicles, and buildings) and partial ownership if its income and profits.