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October 2015

Finance

XFR Financial Ltd Explains Trading Hours Of Forex Market

Forex market has great advantages over other markets and the biggest one is its 24 hours operation. It is open 24 hours over a week with the exception of weekends. The other markets operate during the normal business hours but the Forex market is open throughout the day and night. You are free to invest and perform trade at any point of time you like. Those who are busy in the office hours can do the trade in the night, those who want to do it early in the morning can do it as they like. You can do foreign trading whenever you have time to log in to XFR Financial Ltd. Though Forex market operates 24 hours but it is important to know about the actual operating hours of the different region’s market and when is the best time to place a trade on the market.

XFR Financial

What are the actual operating hours?

Each financial center like New York, London, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Australia and others have its own operating hours which means 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time. So if it is Tokyo market and it is 8:00 A.M. Monday morning in Tokyo, you can take the advantage of trading from your New York apartment at Sunday night also.

Each financial center

Overlapping of time and XFR Financial Ltd

There are many financial centers across the globe and there are times when these markets overlap. For example New York and London markets overlap from 8:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M. EST and London and Tokyo markets overlap from 3 to 4 AM EST. The Sydney and Tokyo markets overlap from 7 PM to 2 AM EST. The overlapping time is best for Forex trading at XFR Financial Ltd since the liquidity of the market is highest at that time and the risk of losses can be minimized when the liquidity is highest.

XFR Financial

What is a good time to trade in Forex?

Forex market is the round the clock market but as discussed the overlapping hours are best to trade because it provides great liquidity keeping your money safer. Besides these overlapping hours the best time to trade will be:

  • The middle of the week shows the best movements
  • London, New York and Tokyo market are the 3 biggest markets. So during the trading hours of these 3 biggest markets it is recommended to trade.

trade in Forex

Times to avoid for Forex trading

Here are the times to avoid in Forex trading to make the maximum benefits of other times when the trade is on its high-

  • Sundays which have limited volume
  • Fridays which are unpredictable
  • Holidays also have the limited volume of trade
  • Release of the economic reports which cause high volatility
  • 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM EST which have low volumes of trade

Forex trading

Thus a careful analysis of the right time for Forex trading is very important so that you can make the maximum use of good time for trading and generate big profits with XFR Financial Ltd. Though Forex is a 24 hour market but trading in the favorable hours is crucial for a good trade.

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Finance

Hassle-Free Loan from Leading Banks

The present economy has been on the rise in most parts of the world. However, people have been striving for money for most of their expenses. As a result, they would resort to banks and financial institutions for their money needs. With the expenses on the rise in present day’s life, either people would have to curb their desires on various necessity items or they would break their bank balance to purchase those items. There has been an easy method for purchasing desired items or products without breaking your bank balance. You could resort to personal loan for taking care of your necessities.

Loan from Leading Banks

You would have the benefit of availing additional cash, which would fit to all your requirements. BPI Personal Loan has been popular with the people as a multi-purpose cash loan having no collateral requirement. You would be able to avail up to three times your monthly gross income. In addition, you would be given the option of affordable payment terms. The bank would also cater its customers with low interest rates. These have been hard to find in the present times, where most banks and financial institutions have been looking forward to drain every penny from your bank account on the pretext of interest rates.

On the other hand, the needy people would be catered with BDO Personal loan from the bank. This kind of loan would be able to take care of your immediate financial urgencies and requirements. You would be able to make the most of low interest rates offered by the bank. Moreover, the bank would be able to cater you with easy payment terms for a tension-free loan repayment. Above all, the hassle-free online application form would make it easy to avail loan from the bank in no time. You would enjoy dealing with the bank.

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Investment

How to invest your money

When you begin investing, it can be difficult to know how you should invest your money. You may be familiar with the idea of diversification, but you might not realize how to distribute your money between different assets. What constitutes a well-balanced and diversified portfolio is different for every investor, and is based on a person’s individual investment goals as well as their tolerance for risk.

Striking a balance between your desire for monetary gains and willingness to take on risk may be difficult, but it is the only way to make a portfolio that will bring you financial success.

invest your money

What should determine your asset allocation?

To understand how you should distribute your money between different assets, you’ll need to establish concrete goals for your investing strategy and create a timeframe for when you want to reach those goals. That will determine what types of assets you should invest in and how you should structure your portfolio.

Different asset allocations reflect different investment strategies. You can choose to be aggressive, and pursue rapid growth, or target long-term value with less-risky investments that build your wealth more gradually.

investing strategy

What assets go into each strategy?

The way that you change your portfolio’s diversification will be a reflection of your aggressive or conservative approach. A moderate portfolio will be around 50 percent stocks, and the remainder will be in cash and fixed income investments. The majority of the stocks in this type of portfolio will be from large companies that are generally more consistent than their smaller counterparts.

By contrast, an aggressive portfolio will be heavily tilted toward stocks instead of fixed income investments, and the stock portion of the portfolio will hold a higher percentage of smaller companies’ shares. Altogether, between 80 and 90 percent of this portfolio will be invested in stock markets.

Investment Accounts

The conservative investor stays away from risky stock investments. The vast majority of a conservative investor’s portfolio will be in fixed income and cash and cash investments. Whatever stocks this investor owns are probably from large companies that don’t fluctuate significantly when the market shifts.

How real estate fits in

Real estate is a rare asset, because it can benefit aggressive investors and conservative investors equally. Rental real estate investments provide freedom from the stock market and give investors access to a combination of long-term value growth through home appreciation and consistent cashflow from rental payments. No matter what the rest of your portfolio looks like, real estate investing is an ideal next step that can help you achieve your financial goals and protect you from stock market fluctuations.

Real estate is a rare asset

HomeUnion makes real estate investing simple, and provides investors with access to hundreds of prevetted rental properties in the best parts of the country for strong returns. Investors who use HomeUnion to reach their investment goals benefit from an in-house lender and provided tenant and property management that ensures the investment process will be smooth over the long term.

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Finance

Limiting Your Forex Losses

Forex is exciting, challenging, and thrilling, but that doesn’t negate one fundamental truth relating to it: it’s a dangerous game to play. Ideally suited to entrepreneurs, go-getters, and gamblers, it is a high risk, high reward venture, and it’s not for the faint of heart.

This doesn’t mean that you have to gamble everything that you have whenever you want to place a trade. Although you always run the possibility of losing the money you stake, the degree of risk that you take is entirely down to you. It is impossible to lose more than you have invested, and this means that there are lots of strategies to safeguard your assets and secure your success.

Forex Losses

If you’re in need of a little education, then here are a few methods that you might like to try…

Choose a Good Forex Broker 

Once of the most important safety nets that you can put in place is a good forex broker. Experienced investors understand how important this is, but their novice counterparts will often make a selection based on little more than their budget. A better way to approach the decision is by contemplating how much support you require, and carefully considering each brokers individual track record. Reputable names like OANDA tend to offer a good starting point, and will provide a steadying hand on the wheel to guide you through even the stormiest of waters.

Adopt the 15 Per Cent Rule 

Choosing the right team of people to support you is an excellent first step, but you’ll also need to assess your strategy, and make some changes where these are necessary. One of the most important methodologies to implement is the ‘15 per cent rule’. In the world of forex, you can only lose as much as you stake, and this means that gambling too much of your account total on a single trade is never a wise move. A better approach is to limit yourself to placing no more than 15 per cent on individual trades, however promising they appear. This way, should it all fall apart, you still have 75 per cent of your earnings to fall back on. After all, a minimal loss is recoverable; a larger one may not be.

Learn from Your Mistakes 

Although we all want to perfect our trading, small losses and early mistakes are inevitable. Even the most successful investors get it wrong sometimes, but the best way to limit your losses is to view this as a learning curve. Every time you make a trade, keep a note of it, whether it works or not. Then, come the weekend when the markets are closed, sit down and review your every move. Once you can identify the factors behind your losses, you can learn not to make the same mistakes again.

Apply our advice to your trading strategy today, and limit your forex losses.

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Finance

Find out more about invoice financing

There are many reputable companies that can help you if you need to unlock the value in unpaid invoices. Invoice discounting is a form of invoice financing that involves borrowing a large chunk of your invoice’s value until you have been paid. It involves you continuing to deal directly with your client rather than asking the financier to contact them. Perhaps you’ve sent an invoice and need to obtain at least most of the cash quickly so you can put it back into your operations, but you don’t want your client to know you’re working with a financier? Then invoice discounting could be ideal.

Tax Advisor

Is discounting right for you?

Invoice factoring is another form of invoice financing. In invoice factoring, you can essentially sell your invoice to a financier, who’ll then take over chasing up the invoice. You may have to give the financier a little more for factoring than discounting, but you will be saved from chasing up the payment yourself. If getting a financier involved won’t harm your relationship with a client, this may be the wisest option.

Financial reports analysis

An alternative to a bank loan

Whichever option you choose, you could have the money you need to grow your business within just 24 hours. Sometimes, companies realise they simply cannot wait for the due date for the money to enter their account, which is where these forms of lending can help. Invoice financing can be a welcome alternative to arranging a bank loan. Any dependable and trustworthy invoice financing company will be able to talk you through all their services so you can come to an informed decision over which one is right for you.

Payday Financial loans

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Finance

What to do with your Canadian Investment Accounts when moving to the U.S.

Individuals moving to the U.S. from Canada are having to contend with a new transition planning challenge that was not a concern in past years: an 0.80Canadian dollar (CAD).  When the CAD was valued above 0.90 or 0.95, many individuals naturally elected to convert their bank and Non-registered (taxable) investment account funds to U.S. dollars (USD) and move them to a U.S. bank or custodian.If you live in the U.S. and your living expenses are denominated in USD, having as much of your liquid net-worth in USDmakes sense.  Furthermore, converting and moving Canadian non-registered accounts to the U.S. simplifies tax and foreign account reporting requirements, provides for better investment opportunities, including those that are more tax efficient, and it helps simplify your financial and estate plan.

That said, with an 0.80 CAD, things become more complicated as most clients do not wish to convert funds at a 20% discount.  So, what are the options available to individuals or families that do not want to convert their non-registered accounts to USD?  And, what are some of the challenges associated with keeping investment accounts in CAD while residing as a U.S. tax resident?

Investment Accounts

Leaving your Canadian investment accounts in Canada

If you work with a Canadian financial advisor, the chances are they are not registered to provide investment or financial planning advice to a U.S. resident.  A financial advisor must always be licensed in the jurisdiction in which a client lives regardless of the clients’ citizenship or the country in which the assets reside.  Once you become a resident of the U.S. and you request your advisor update your mailing address on file to your new U.S. address (never leave your old Canadian address on file: see http://cardinalpointwealth.com/moving-to-the-u-s-dont-leave-your-canadian-investments-hanging/article), one of three things will likely happen:

1) Your advisor will inform you that they are no longer able to provide investment advisory services to your non-registered accounts and that you must work with someone who is

2) Your advisor will explain that you can keep your accounts on the platform but that they willfrozen and no further trading or rebalancing can take place

3) Your advisor will explain they are registered in the U.S. and can continue to oversee all investment management services in your accounts.

customers Expenses

As mentioned above, scenarios 1) and 2) are by far the most common outcomes as most Canadian advisors are not registered in the U.S.If you do have an advisor that fits scenario 3), make sure their servicesand expertise extends beyond providing investment management.  For example, when moving to/and or living in the U.S., clients are faced with a host of cross-border planning complexities. A true cross-border financial advisor will help construct an integrated Canada-U.S. cross-border financial plan that addresses tax and estate planning matters in addition the management of your investment assets.

If you ultimately do decide to leave your Canadian non-registered accounts in Canada under scenario 2) or 3), there are number of important points to consider:

  • You should not hold Canadian traded mutual funds or exchange traded funds (ETFs). Not only are they considered “not registered for sale” to U.S. residents but even more importantly, they will likely be considered a Passive Foreign Investment Company (PFIC). In short, this means that earnings and dividends distributed by your Canadian-based mutual funds and ETFs are not taxed the same way in the U.S. as they are in Canada, and this could result in unnecessarily high tax rates.

Selling Education

  • If your goal remains to ultimately convert these funds to USD when the exchange rate becomes more preferable, make sure the investment strategy put in place is accommodative to a future currency conversion. For example, make sure you are not locked into any investment products that must be held for a certain period of time.  Also, make sure yourinvestment accounts are not invested in volatile or speculative securities that are subject to sharp market swings.  It would be a missed opportunity if the exchange rate became attractive to convert your funds to USD but your CAD investment holdings were sitting at a loss because of poor market performance.
  • Canadian custodians do a poor job conforming to U.S. tax reporting requirements. For example, manyCanadian custodians do not prepare year-end tax reports that show long-term vs. short term capital gains which is a tax reporting requirement if you are a U.S. resident.  Further,many of the tax reporting forms Canadian custodians provide are denominated in CAD which means your accountant will have to convert all taxable and reportable transactions to USD when you file your annual U.S. tax returns.  This additional work by your accountant can increase the chances of errors occurring and lead to higher accounting and tax preparation cost.

Personal Finance

  • Make sure your advisor is managing your account under an investment mandate that reflects your S. tax residency and not under a mandate that is reflective of a Canadian tax resident. As mentioned earlier, as a U.S. tax resident, you are subjected to long term and short term capital gains rates.  If you sell an asset that has been held for one year or less, any profit you make is considered a short-term capital gain and taxed at your ordinary income rate (up to 39.6%).  If you sell an asset you have held greater than one year, any profit you make is considered a long-term capital gain and is typically taxed at a preferable rate (15% or 20%).  In Canada, there is no such thing as long or short term capital gain.  You just have one capital gains rate and Canadian portfolio managers are trained to oversee client accounts under this Canadian standard.

Also, there are different types of investment securities, such as Canadian preferred shares, that are attractive investments from a Canadian tax standpoint but not from a U.S. tax standpoint.  It is always in your best interest to confirm that the Canadian money manager or advisor can customize the management style of your portfolio to adhere to U.S. tax rules.

Personal Finance Tips

  • You will be subjected to extra foreign account reporting requirements by the IRS. Because these accounts are domiciled outside of the U.S., the IRS will require you to report specific information about them (account number, year-end value, highest market value in the tax year etc.) on a form called the FinCEN Report 114.  This increased reporting requirement is time consuming and will likely lead to increased tax preparation costs.

While leaving your CAD taxable or non-registered accounts in Canada once you become a U.S. resident can be done under limited scenarios it certainly is not ideal for many of the reasons outlined above.

Moving your Non-Registered Investment Account to the U.S.

While moving your CAD investment accounts to the U.S. will simplify financial and estate planning initiatives and streamline U.S. tax reporting, other challenges still exist. For one, most US.-based financial advisors will automatically want you to convert your CAD accounts to USD which of course goes against the goal to maintain your holdings in CAD.  The main reason a U.S.-based advisor will recommend you do this is because their firm or their firm’s custodian does not offer multi-currency accounts.  The only currency option they provide for investment is USD.  It is very common for investment firms to not offer CAD denominated accounts because there is little demand for them in the U.S.

Registered Investment Account

Those investment advisors that do confirm they offer multi-currency accounts that include CADmay not know the Canadian investment market well enough to construct an investment portfolio.  It is one thing to be able to open a CAD denominated account on behalf of a client but it’s another to be a financial advisor or portfolio manager with the knowledgebase and training to build Canadian-based investment portfolios using Canadian-traded securities. All too often clients are left holding their CAD investment account in cash because they cannot find a qualified U.S.-based investment manager to invest the assets.

The Cardinal Point Difference: Cross-border investment management

At Cardinal Point, we are a registered to provide investment management and financial planning services in both Canada and the U.S. without any restrictions or limitations.  For clients that have investment accounts in both countries (RRSPs, Non-registered, IRAs, 401ks, Trusts etc.), we are able to construct integrated cross-border investment portfolios customized to the clients’ risk tolerance, needs and goals.

investment management

If you are an individual living in/and or moving to the U.S., with CAD non-registered assets and you do not want to convert the funds to USD, our experienced Canada-U.S. portfolio management team has the ability to invest your accounts in CAD on a U.S. custodial platform. Partnering with Cardinal Point to oversee the management of your CAD non-registered accounts offers the following benefits:

  • Proper and customized U.S. tax reporting on CAD investment assets
  • Multi-currency investment accounts supported by an investment team that provides CAD and USD asset management services
  • Flexible foreign exchange services
  • Understanding of U.S. tax management strategies on CAD investment accounts
  • Additional cross-border financial, tax and estate planning expertise
  • Please contact Cardinal Point to discuss your cross-border investment management and financial planning complications.
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Finance

Five Financial Planning Tips for Business Owners

When it comes to your financial security, planning is essential. Without adequate planning, a great routine, and due diligence, you can’t really expect your business to be in a good place, financially speaking. Times have changed, and it’s now more difficult than ever to keep your business afloat. Competition is fierce, and industries are changing more rapidly than ever. It’s important to have a solid plan, and to execute that to near perfection.

Financial Planning

Use Financial Planning Software

Using cutting-edge financial planning software can help you to keep your cash flow balanced. Of course, if you’ve been to business school, you’ll know just how complicated business finance really is, and are probably very much aware of how much automated software could help. This kind of planning software helps you with its included modelling calculators that will make understanding your prospects as simple as pushing a button. This kind of software can also be extremely valuable when you’re trying to learn what ventures to pursue next as it can help you see which area of your business has the highest potential profit at a glance.

Financial Planning Software

Risk Management

As your business grows, so will the risk that it inherently faces. As you pursue new lines of business and new streams of income, you’re going to face new financial challenges, some of which will have greater financial risks than others. In order to mitigate this risk, you need to know how to assess it, and how to handle it. Knowing how much money you can invest in a particular area is an example of one piece of knowledge that will help you. Professional assistance is generally very helpful in this matter.

Risk Management

Managing Debt

Nearly every business will have to seek financial help from investors and banks. It’s crucial to know how much debt your business can afford to handle. This is an important part of effective risk management, and it may require expert advice to be managed properly. You may need to keep your other expenses low, or you may need to find cheap ways to bring in higher profits if your exposure ends up being too high.

Managing Debt

Hire a Financial Advisor and Tax Advisor

As a business owner, you may focus a lot of your time and energy on taking care of the needs of your business first, but you do need to think about your own finances as well. If you have not run a business before, you may not know how to properly manage your own finances when it comes to taking pay from your business. This is a delicate matter, especially when it comes to the tax liability of yourself and your company. Hiring professionals can be extremely helpful in managing taxes and other financial matters both for yourself personally, and for the business. Professional assistance can mean the difference between financial success and disaster. Unless you’re willing to be extremely diligent in learning how to manage this on your own, you’ll need help from a professional.

Tax Advisor

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Loans

How Pay day Loans Work In USA?

Payday loans are the quickest way to get rid of the financial crisis you might be in temporarily. Loans other than payday loans take a long time to get approved, and if you have bad credit, it might get rejected as well. However, you can easily get payday loans in USA, because these loans are of small amounts, and are meant for short period of time.

If you urgently need cash to meet some urgent financial obligation or emergency crisis, then applying for payday loans in USA is a good idea. These loans are approved almost instantly in the USA provided you meet the eligibility criteria, which are very simple. Once the loan is approved, the loan amount is disbursed to the borrower’s account almost always on the same day.

Pay Day Loans

What Is The Eligibility Criteria To Apply For Payday Loans?

To apply for payday loans in USA, one has to be above 18 years of age and must have a stable and steady job that is unchanged for the past six months or more. Also, the borrower must be the resident of the same address for over six months. The credit report, whether good or poor, does not affect the chances of getting payday loans in the USA, and thus, even if you have poor credit ratings, you can apply for and get payday loans without any hassles.

payday loans

Benefits Of Applying For Payday Loan

There are many benefits of applying for payday loan, and it varies from person to person and their situations that calls for applying for payday loan. Here are the few common benefits of applying for payday loan in USA –

  • It is available on the same day of application, ensuring that the person is able to meet their urgent financial obligation and crisis successfully.
  • It helps in paying utility bills or credit card dues before the due date crosses, which can increase the overall debt further by imposing fine, penalty and so on.
  • Payday loans can be really helpful during emergency medical crisis or when a person is looking to get their home or car repaired on an urgent basis.

Payday Financial loans

There are many different situations where payday loans can be really useful, and if you have exhausted all your cash, but yet need it urgently, going for payday loans in USA is an ideal option.

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