The new year is approaching fast, and that means many people are making resolutions for 2019. If you are looking to improve your financial status, you might want to consider including a financial resolution to your list. Resolutions are great as goals for the new year and can keep you on task when you want to make something happen. Whether you want to learn more about budgeting, interested in saving more for your retirement savings, or you are just getting started in investing, making it a resolution might be the best option you can make.

Saving a Portion of Your Income

Everyone has the best intentions and will say they want to save more money, but when you choose an actual amount, it’s more likely you will actually do it. We suggest you make a resolution to save 10 to 15% of your income every time you get paid. This doesn’t have to be a complicated process, either. You can choose to have an automatic transfer done each time you are paid, so the money goes into savings. You’d be surprised how easy it is to live off of 10% less and you’ll be set for emergencies in the future.

Check Your Credit Report Frequently

As you likely know, there was an information leak from Equifax this year, which should give you an idea of how important it is to monitor your credit score. While you can only get each credit report once a year from the major companies, there are plenty of other options. Sites like Credit Karma and Credit Sesame give you an idea of what your credit score is and you can access them as often as you like. We recommend checking on your score every three or four months just to make sure everything is in order.

Get Involved With Investing

If you’re just getting started in investing, it might seem a bit overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. All you have to do is set up your bank, so a certain amount goes into an investment account automatically. The reality is that bank sitting in your account earns very little and popping it into an investment account will grow your money for you. There are many options and some of them require only a small amount of cash to get started. You can work on your retirement savings or save for big purchases you have coming up.

Track All Your Expenses

There’s something about tracking your expenses that really opens your eyes. When you aren’t tracking, you have no idea how much you’re spending in a certain period on various items. There are free apps that can help you determine what you’re spending your money on, so you are more mindful about where your paycheck goes. This gives you a place to start if you need to cut a few things out of your budget to save money.

These are only a few options you have for making a financial new year’s resolution. Feel free to think about your specific needs and build a resolution all your own!

Although the origins of algorithmic trading can be traced back to the mid 1990s, for many individual traders, the practice is still shrouded in mystery. However, as markets change and become ever more data reliant, it seems that there’s no stopping the rise of algorithmic trading and its associated technologies. But what exactly is algorithmic trading and how does it work? Here, we take a quick look at the rise of the machines and how they might shape markets in the future.

What is Algorithmic Trading?

Put simply, algorithmic trading employs computers to process complex formulae designed to follow a specific set of instructions. These instructions are based on variables such as time, price, and volume among many others. For instance, you can write an algorithm that sells a specific stock if it ends in losses over 10 days or buy a stock if market liquidity increases over the same period. However, the overall aim of algorithmic trading is to execute high frequencies in lightening quick time—much quicker than any human might be able to. ­

There are currently hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of algorithms that are based around a broad range of data sets; and anyone, in fact, can author their own. This is perhaps why so much confusion surrounds this type of trading, with a seemingly unlimited scope for the buying and selling of orders. Historical data sets and statistical analysis are seen as particularly promising areas of algo trading, with formulae designed to ditch poor strategies automatically by making predictions based on previous market behavior.

Advantages of Algorithmic Trading

Some of the advantages of algorithmic trading are probably fairly obvious. Firstly, the reduced potential for human error, bias, or manipulation means that markets should, in theory, be more stable. Secondly, trades can be executed faster, more reliably, and at the best possible prices, with reduced transaction costs helping to sweeten the deal. Additionally, instant orders can be placed with high degrees of accuracy to give traders a better chance to execute at preferential levels.

Algorithmic Trading and Regulation

Among the less obvious benefits of algorithmic trading is its potential to provide the requisite proof of best execution. As market regulations become more comprehensive, and particularly in light of the MiFID II framework, the sell-side is obliged to provide more information than ever before. The data based nature of algorithmic trading makes this process easier by removing the human element and providing continual and accurate data to support choices made.

What Does this Mean for Individual Traders?

It is estimated that something like 70% of all trades are currently executed using algorithms—and it looks as though they are here to stay. It is also thought that algorithms will continue to grow in number and complexity, meaning that everyone within the industry should at least have a rudimentary understanding of how they work and the implications they bring. Whether learning to build your own, or simply selecting a few existing algorithms to become familiar with, it is important to be aware of their existence.

For anyone wishing to try their hand at algorithmic trading, then a broker neutral platform such as this will provide the right tools for the job. With an open architecture to create and deploy complex strategies and access to algorithms from brokers and other third parties, traders have the opportunity to study and experiment with algorithmic trading. Naturally, as with any type of trading, the goal is to make a profit but in the complex world of algo trading it is important to understand the fundamentals first and build a winning strategy from there.

Ramaphosa’s job isn’t an easy one, the current president of South Africa having to pick up from where Jacob Zuma left off in February of 2018, trying to gradually undo all past mistakes by committing the government to allow private investments. Some criticize the current president for holding meetings and summits where nothing really appears to get done, but a little patience should be granted in this case, especially considering that there are at least 10 companies willing to invest in the progress and development of the country, helping create new jobs in the process to aid resolve the issue of high unemployment stats.

As there was a great loss of credibility during the Zuma era, the country facing a severe image damage inflicted by the opaque and unpredictable government formed by the prior ruler. Thus, Ramaphosa has been facing a great challenge since the get-go under the form of credibility recovery. For this reason, summits and meetings are held often, the president trying to convince investors to drop a dime and aid the country’s development process go smoothly.

Companies have already pledged to invest

On the second day of the Investment Summit, 10 pledges had already been amassed. Rain Mobile commits R1 billion to build a new 5G network that would help improve the telecommunications sector considerably, while the Mara company is said to invest R1.5 billion towards the same sector, putting a bigger emphasis on creating more jobs to concomitantly help lower the unemployment rate as much as possible.

Ivanplats, a subsidiary of Ivanhoe Mines, is willing to invest R4.5 billion in the local economy, Sappi pledging R7.7 billion for the same purpose with the added intent of focusing on manufacture and textiles more. Naspers intends to invest R4.6 billion while setting up a tech innovation hub to create more jobs. Vedanta offered a staggering R21.4 billion for the metal industry, while Mercedes-Benz South Africa gave R10 billion and Mondi pledged R8 billion for the country. The biggest surprise yet came from Anglo American, a mining company that commits an R71.5 billion investment in the mining industry that spans over the next 5 years.

Up to this point, R134.1 billion have been raised and the good news keeps rolling in, a positive outlook on the country’s situation not seeming as impossible as it did the past years. As long as Ramaphosa will have a strong hold over government and not allow the internal situation to decay as his predecessor did, investors are bound to aid as they won’t fear losses, and South Africa will be on the right path to economic growth and development.

Oppressing developmental issues that Ramaphosa must tend to

Poor regulation of the energy, telecommunications, and water industries must be fixed under his presidency for him to regain credibility in the eyes of foreign investors. Evidently, when discussing these industries we must take into account the impact held on country inhabitants as some major issues emerge:

• People don’t have the same access to information and communication means as those in better-developed countries do, which harms a number of life quality aspects, education receiving the biggest blow.
• Water pollution is a major issue that has led to serious health detriments for inhabitants, thus decimating the number of people who are apt to work and who would have otherwise contributed to a more rapid development. At home sanitation doesn’t come as easily for inhabitants as it does in developed countries as earnings are significantly lower, so it is up to the state to fix this oppressing matter.
• There can be no real development without the energy department thriving as it is needed not only for life quality increase among the populous but for sustaining the rest of the industries that can help South Africa in its developmental process. As it basically stands at the core of all actions, energy is the department where Ramaphosa and the government must get most heavily involved.

What the future holds

Aware of how important Africa’s development is for Europe as well as the rest of the world, Chancellor Angela Merkel has personally urged companies to shift their focus towards this continent to back efforts in prosperity so that the people of the continent will finally enjoy the same luxuries as the rest of the world. With backing from one of the most respected political figures at the moment and Ramaphosa on the right track towards winning trust, the future seems brighter than ever for South Africa in particular.

The summit might have seemed a bit too pretentious to some as its showbiz style scene and the fanfare were indeed over the top, but this isn’t what we should take away from it. The vast audience that tended to the event, which was composed of approximately 1300 business and government leaders, was pleased with the outcome as pressing issues regarding the country’s reliability when it comes to investment were clarified, the president reassuring the business community that their properties and investments are now safer than ever and will remain this way.

In the event that even more businesses commit to aiding South Africa in its journey toward growth, people who live in unsanitary conditions, who are faced with pollution-induced health issues, who live in poverty, and who don’t have proper access to education will likely see an end to their troubles as not only will new jobs invade the market, but life expectancy and quality will grow as a result of industrial and economic growth.

Summary:

With South Africa’s economy struggling, the recent investment summit led by Cyril Ramaphosa was intended to revive economic growth in the region. Addressing the structural weaknesses in the economy and improving the investment framework could be the moves that will eventually lead to a fix, especially with the right external help.

The prevailing opinion about credit cards is that 7 in 10 Americans have at least one credit card— the largest number of the millennials’ demography could even own two credit cards. Beyond the obvious convenience that credit cards offer in making it easy to function in a cashless economy and access credit that you could pay off monthly, credit cards issuers offer a wide variety of perks and benefits designed to incentivize you to use their plastic over their competitors.

Some of the perks attached to credit cards are easy to understand, but many people still grapple with the concept of cash back rewards and some users still wonder if there’s a catch of sorts. This piece provides insight into four key points to understand about earning cash backs on credit cards.

1. Your card issuer is not necessarily at a loss with the cash backs

There’s no catch in cash backs, your credit card issuer is not trying to trick you into anything by offering a cash back, and the issuer technically doesn’t run at loss by offering a cashback reward. When you sign up for a credit card, the card issuer is guaranteed to make money off the interest payments you make on the credit consumed. The credit card issuer also makes more money in the form of the card interchange fees that it charges merchants when you buy stuff with your card. The card processing fee is typically 2% to 3% of the value of your transaction; hence, for every $100 charged to your credit card, the merchant actually gets $98 or $97 in the end.

When your credit card issuer offers a cashback rewards plan, it is only giving you a fraction of the interchange that it collects from the merchant. The credit card company is making a long-term play by offering you a cash back to ensure your loyalty to their brand.

2. You could have a flat rewards rate or rotating cash back categories

There are different types of cash back credit cards and the difference is based on how their rewards model is structured. Some cash-back rewards are structured along a flat rate such that you earn a specific percentage on all purchases. The key selling point of the flat rate rewards is its simplicity because you can make all purchases with a single card without any special calculations.

Some cash back rewards are structured to deliver cash backs on rotating bonus categories. For instance, you could get 3% cash backs at supermarkets, earn 1% cashbacks in gas stations, and earn 2% cash back in department stores – the percentage available however changes monthly or quarterly. Earning cash backs on bonus categories takes some deliberate calculation to maximize the cash backs but it offers more comparative returns that the flat fate model.

3. There are more than one ways to cash out your rewards

There are varying options for redeeming your cash back rewards depending on the kind of rewards. One of the most popular methods for redeeming cash back rewards is to use a statement credit to reduce the amount that you eventually pay back as your credit card bill. For instance, if you have earned $300 in cash backs over the last couple of months and your credit card bill comes in at $1500, you can choose to redeem the $300 on your statement so that you only pay back $1300 on your credit card bill. You can also redeem your cash backs rewards for a paper check or direct deposit into your bank account. Another option is to redeem your cash back rewards for gift cards which you can then use to buy products/services at eligible stores.

4. You might need to choose between a cash back or low APR

If you pay off your credit card balance each month, you’ll enjoy the full benefits of cashback rewards; however, if you tend to carry credit card debt, you might find out that you the temptation to get cash backs ultimately causes you to fall deeper into credit card debt. An interesting point to note is that credit card that have lower APRs typically don’t deliver a robust rewards program. The most promising and attractive rewards programs are usually seen in credit cards with higher APRs. Hence, you might need to think about what works best for your personal finances – a low APR or a competitive cashback rewards program.

The battle cry to cut the plastic, spend only cash, and never buy anything on credit has become increasingly louder over the last couple of years. There are far too many sad and unfortunate stories about how people fell into financial ruins because they overspent on their credit cards or didn’t manage late fees properly. However, the truth remains that credit cards bring an undeniable layer of convenience to financial transactions.

Credit cards are simply tools for accessing short-term loans for covering expenses so that you can pay off the bill at the end of the month technically without interest.  Many credit cards also offer a suite of interesting perks and benefits such as cashback rewards on qualifying orders. However, beyond the convenience and cashback rewards, there are many hidden benefits of using a credit card many users have missed over the years. Below are four benefits you may not know that a credit card offers you.

1.    Fraud prevention and protection

Cyber criminals are always roaming around the internet looking for vulnerabilities through which they can harvest people’s personal information and financial data. When data breaches happen, and your financial information is stolen, you may not even know until the bill arrives at the end of the month and you start seeing expenses you didn’t make. Many credit card companies have built customer profiling and risk prevention algorithms that know where and how much you are likely to shop. Hence, your credit card company is more likely to flag and halt a fraudulent transaction than a bank is likely to detect an unauthorized expense on your debit card.

Even when thieves succeed in charging expenses to you credit card, you can dispute the unauthorized expense and trust the charges to be reversed. The folks at Money Under 30 have graciously compiles a comprehensive list of credit cards that provide fraud protection perks. However, if an unauthorized charge goes through on your debit card, the bank is not likely to return the money to you until it has completed investigations.

2.    Extended warranty on qualifying purchases

When you buy stuff from retailers, they’ll most likely try to upsell you with extended warranty offers that prolongs your warranty for a fee. Hence, if the manufacturer’s warranty is for one year, an extended warranty cover for two years could still cover the costs of repairs or replacement if the device becomes faulty after the manufacturer’s warranty has expired. Interestingly, some credit card issuers will offer you extended warranty as a perk on electronics or home furnishing purchases charged to their cards. Of course, such purchases tend be capped at a certain amount across different categories; hence, you may want to contact your card issuer to find out about the specifics.

3.    Car rental insurance

Car rental collision insurance is probably one the simplest ways to lose money because you don’t think twice about how expensive it is – you’ll typically spend between $15 and $30 a day on auto rental insurance. If you charged the entire cost of your rental car to your credit card, you might be eligible to get free car rental insurance. Hence, you should take a moment to double check on the perks attached to your credit card before you allow to the car rental company to upsell insurance to you.

4.    Travel or missed-connection insurance

If you are a frequent flier and you have a travel-centric credit card, it might be a needless waste of funds buying travel insurance or missed-connection insurance when you travel. Your credit card will most likely offer complementary travel insurance that covers emergency medical situations, trip interruptions, lost/stolen baggage, flight delay, hotel/motel insurance or travel accident among others. Some of these elements of travel insurance when bought individually can cost you upwards of $500 – this is money that you could save if you take a moment to read the fine print or call your credit card issuer to know if they offer such perks.

5.    Price protection with refunds after price drop

Sometimes you’ll want into a store to buy stuff and go home feeling proud of your financial prudence only to walk into the store three weeks later and see the same item on sale at 40% off. If you paid with your debit card, you’ll only hate the fact that you bought the item too early and hope to catch a better deal next time. However, if you bought the item with your credit card, you might be able to get your credit card company to give you a refund of the difference between the old and new price up to a certain cap. In fact, many credit card issuers offer price protection refunds on qualifying items for up to $1000 in a calendar year for each account holder.

Sometimes to get better in any profession you have to monitor your work. And it has to be judged by you before anyone else notice what and how you are doing work. Thus you can improve all of your working technique from time to time. This is a good and really effective strategy to improve yourself in any working sectors or any jobs. And the plus point is, no one will be able to judge you for poor performance. In the trading business, the system is the same. Here you can also use this method to improve yourself. Though there is no one to judge your performance, you will still experience the effect of poor performance. So, why not improve yourself before performing badly? Today we are going to show you how you can monitor if you are trading well or bad.

Comparing winning and losing trades

Trading is a business and it acts like a business. Here you make an investment in your trading account. Then you deal with your products here which is known as trades. You start to trade by buying or selling. Then after some time, you close the trade doing the opposite of what you did earlier. And based on the change in pips, you get to make profit and loss. So, if you can count how many winning trades there is in your account and compare them with your losing ones, it might describe your performance all by itself.

Learning from your mistakes

Mistakes can be very useful if you can learn from it. Open a demo trading account and start to trade the market with the virtual dollar. It’s very obvious you will make mistake but try to learn from it. Majority of the rookie traders are overtrading the market and losing a significant portion of their investment. But if you overtrade the market it will be really hard to learn from your mistake. You need to focus on the long-term market trend and write the down the details of each trade execution. Stop thinking about securing big winners in this market. Set rational goal and trade the market with discipline. Never think you will be able to change your life within a day. Consider trading as a long-term plan to change your life.

Using risk to profit ratio

Another thing that you can use for monitoring your performance is the risk to profit ratio. It is for monitoring the performance on a particular trades or all individual trades. It is represented something like 1:1. It is the ration of what you have invested and what you are getting from a trade. If you are investing too much than making returns the ratio would be like 2:1. Or if you are making losses the ration would be something like 1:-1. If you’re doing ideal the ration would be 1:2 or 1:3. Expert’s results in most trades remain from 1:2 to 1:5. Combining multiple trade’s ratios, you can estimate your performance in each trades.

Observing your own strategy

Without any tool or data, you can justify your trading performance just by monitoring your trading strategy. If you are playing too aggressive, you will be making more random trades. And sometimes, the trades will be simultaneous. Your chart observation will be very frequent too, as your brain might not want to miss any chance. Worse than that, you will start micro-managing every plan of yours before trading. Then after opening a trade, you will start thinking about it. When you are worried about money, it won’t get out of your hard. Even after you have closed the trade, it can haunt you with emotional problems. As a result, you will again start getting too busy with your trading. But that is not the most appropriate thing for doing well in this business. If you can relax your senses, it will be the best for your career.

In the past investing and trading were things done pretty much solely by experts within the finance field and business moguls. Now it is actually possible for anyone with any sort of financial background, a decent amount of capital and internet access to become a trader and online trading is growing in popularity.

New traders will often enter the market with expectations of making large sums of money and they will quickly realise that trading isn’t a quick and easy way to get rich and often make many mistakes when starting out. It is very important to try and avoid making major mistakes, especially at the beginning as they could quite easily result in your whole bank getting wiped out. This is exactly why most respected trading platforms will have a section which covers the basics, so for example City Index explains CFD trading, forex and spread betting and even has Demo accounts to provide practical experience.

Some very important mistakes to avoid include not knowing when to stop, trading without enough preparation and training, failing to keep sufficient records of trades, not calculating the risk reward ratio correctly and believing you will see easy, large profits very quickly. It is also very important to not get too emotionally attached when trading, as this can result in reckless decisions being made.

There are a few things that can be done to make sure the risks of trading are kept to a minimum. Investing in the best equipment you can afford is vitally important and it is advisable to acquire a fast computer, stable internet connection and also the correct trading tools and platforms. It is also very wise to set yourself a stop-loss order to minimise the loss within each trade and therefore help to preserve capital. You can do this by setting a price with a broker in order to sell when a set price is reached, therefore limiting losses if the trade doesn’t go as hoped.

When starting out it would be wise to start off with small bets, until you feel totally comfortable with trading. It is also worth looking at trading on a margin, which means you are able to pay less than the cost of a full trade and then you will be able to enter into larger positions. This will mean you don’t need to bet money you can’t afford to lose that isn’t yours.

If you are going to start trading online, you need to view it as your own business and treat it as such. It is important to have a plan which sets out what you will trade, how you will trade and how much you would like to make and how much time you are willing to devote to do so. It is also very important to fully test everything listed in your plan on both historical data and a live market and then measured at regular intervals. This will help you to determine the style of trading you wish to take on, by figuring out which is best suited to the time you have available, your tolerance to risk and your expertise.

Security is one of the key aspects of any business activity over the Internet. It is a top priority for any online company that is serious about gaining a customer’s trust and a positive feedback. If your business is not able to protect itself on the Internet, it is not able to protect customers’ data as well.

Despite all the benefits the Internet has, it is the easiest and the cheapest way for hackers and scammers to reach private and corporate networks. In the age of mobile communication, online marketing, and mobile commerce, the issue of data security has become the topical one. You can’t fully focus on making money online if you’re not sure whether everything you’ve worked hard on can be stolen at any moment. What can you do? You can get a VPN. Don’t underestimate the importance a VPN has in the e-commerce world, especially in the countries with the most advanced economies like Canada or US. You can check bestvpnrating.com for some interesting facts about VPNs in Canada.

How VPNs Prevent Data Leaks

The first step for any e-commerce project is to make sure that work-related data is 100% protected online. Preparing for hacker attacks and prevention of massive data leaks are better than solving the actual cybersecurity problems.

Cybersecurity is a critical issue for any organization, no matter how small or big it is. All organizations have valuable information that can be easily used against them if their servers and networks are hacked. It is either business information or anything related to the property and finances that belong to the company. This kind of information can be sold on the black market by cyber criminals. That’s why keeping any business data on the network well protected is a must.

Why VPN?

You can read more info about the role of a VPN in a business following the link. But the most significant thing you should know is that it keeps your business and personal networks protected online. How does it work?

A VPN is software that creates a new network inside already existing one to carry the traffic through. Instead of allowing your devices to connect to the Internet directly, remote server receives the traffic first. Thus, the traffic goes back and forth through a VPN service, being fully encrypted at the same time. This means that no one except your devices can reach and read your traffic on the network. This is the effect that no antivirus program has.

A VPN is a multifunctional tool. It is used for:

• Data security (encryption technology);
• Online anonymity (hiding and replacing a real Internet Protocol address and geographical location);
• Unlimited Internet access (you get access to previously blocked content).

A VPN is a universal tool. No matter how old or new your online company is, you can always pick a service that suits your budget at the moment. For further instructions, check Bestvpnrating.com on how to check your devices and pick a service.