The Business Of Finance Thread!

A Universe Of Knowledge

We pride ourselves as an alternative financial media outlet operated and maintained by a team of passionate individuals.

We have close to 8 years of experience in the global financial markets, a valuable asset in the current zeitgeist. With our practical experience trading and investing in the global markets, a refined grasp on economic, financial, and monetary theories, we have firm desire to condense these into palatable bite-sized snippets for all to appreciate.

Founded in 2014, Business Of Finance is still relatively young and is slowly establishing itself to be a prominent voice in the crowded sphere of financial journalism, on top of growing to become a revered and reputable provider of trading signals.

Our authors never shy from voicing their opinions on sometimes controversial subjects, giving readers a variant perspective that is not often seen in mass media and the press.

This thread is primarily for the purpose of keeping the Forex Factory community up to date and informed of global financial, trading, investing, business and popular events through our lens as experienced and successful traders, writers and budding entrepreneurs. Do voice your support and/or feedback to us by replying to us below, or dropping us a message through our site!

We welcome you.

The Business Of Finance Team
businessoffinance.com

We kick things off with one of our most popular pieces, Treating Trading Like A Business.

Trading, especially for the retail trader, isn't usually an easy thing. Most traders fail to make any significant return on their investment, with most losing close to or all of their initial capital! Failures are a dime a dozen in this business.

So what separates the successful, consistently profitable traders from those who don't make it?

Are you having a clear mind when you trade?
Do you maintain a trading journal? (including one on this forum!)
Do you have a PLAN when you trade?
Do you treat TRADING like a BUSINESS, and not as a hobby or plaything?

These are serious questions to ask of any aspiring trader.

We answer your questions, all here:
http://www.businessoffinance.com/tra...ike-a-business

A little snippet from the article...

"When we first started Business Of Finance, it was Our Mission to help traders get better in trading, amongst others. Trading isn't a novelty in and by itself, but when viewed and treated as a Business, it becomes clear why so many fail at it. Most traders (we're using the term loosely here) have and will probably never see trading in this light. We strongly believe that being a successful trader is founded on 20% technical skills, and 80% on mentality and psychology."


"Once you start treating trading like a business, and not like a casual hobby akin to golfing during the weekends, you'll start to see big changes in many areas of your life and not just trading itself. Trading is a business and one that needs to be treated like one. Below are some tips you can do to help you treat your trading like a business..."

AT THE MARKETS OPEN:

The Canadian dollar is down some 130 pips against the greenback following today's no deal in Doha where OPEC members failed to strike an agreement to freeze production. We are bracing for more losses once liquidity comes online.

Saudi equities are sliding on Sunday trading after no deal. Expect major volatility in crude prices, and maybe risk markets when global markets open in a few hours.

For those of you who have been wondering more about our trading portfolio, here's an article that breaks down one of our largest trades won in our portfolio ever. More than 4500 pips made on ONE trade - incredible by any means.

4,700 pips won on a single trade. That's right. Striking when the iron is hot, is what exactly we have been doing. For the last couple of weeks, we've bagged a couple of decent trades; pretty damn good trades actually, if we spared you the modesty. We won some 1,300 pips on USDTRY, are riding on about 3,300 pips on USDNOK, and today booked a huge winner on USDZAR - a currency pair most retail traders probably never even heard of until now.

Click below to find out how we did it:
http://www.businessoffinance.com/tra...ar-profits-big

Click below for more information on our Premium Signals Service (includes FREE Trial!)
http://www.businessoffinance.com/premium-signals

Premium Signals Track Record:
http://www.businessoffinance.com/pre...s/track-record

How oil markets destroyed the shorts this week...
‪#‎Forex‬ ‪#‎Stocks‬ ‪#‎Oil‬ ‪#‎Investing‬ ‪#‎Trading‬

This week's ECB meeting brought no changes in rates but the official start to the bank's CSPP (Corporate Sector Purchase Program) where as we said before, the ECB will monetize corporate bonds as part of QE. The markets are in a mess following this event.
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More proof of technically driven markets. Let's see if 2100 will be here to stay on the S&P 500.

Gold and silver, especially silver, have been rallying extraordinarily hard these few days along side many other commodities. Just now, the futures markets saw a big sale of gold contracts which led to a sudden and vicious drop in prices. The effect this had on the gold/silver ratio is as shown. Volatility cuts both ways. Are you on the correct side of this rally?

U.S. initial claims fell to a nearly 45-year low last week as it printed 247,000 on expectations of a 263,000 estimate. If we relied solely on this data point, the Fed should have hiked interest rates a long while ago as all seems to be great and getting even better.

Stops runs everywhere during yesterday's trading.

Commodities plunged deeply yesterday so here's the visual of it. The reason they plunged was because of China hiking margin requirements on commodity contracts traded on local markets.

Today's story in FX is of course the massive weakness in the yen. USDJPY (and most other yen crosses) is up nearly 200 pips on the day. The driver? Some rumor that the venerable BoJ will unleash the ultimate form of monetary policy easing via a "helicopter drop", i.e. handing out money directly to businesses and consumers so they hopefully spend their way out of Japan's 3-decade long deflationary spiral cum liquidity trap. If history is any guide, this rumor/actuality will likely be an epic farce.

Our latest article on work, success and life!

http://www.businessoffinance.com/lif...24/loving-work

As some of you may have realized by now, we are not just traders. Our work and content consistently reflect that fact. We aim to build a great life inside and outside of trading and business.

This is our latest, fresh hot-off-the-press personal primer on work.

Having a great work ethic is critical to success in life in just about any endeavor, including trading and investing.

Through this piece, we hope to inspire everyone to work hard to achieve your goals, like we did and are still doing.

Cheers!

Short exercpt:

"Work. The four lettered word all successful people empathize with. It's something most of us hate, or at least we can't wait to end the oh-so-mundane "work week" in time for the weekends. Work is such a dichotomous thing. It conveys to each of us varying platitudes that are both somewhat similar and different all at once.

What I'm trying to get across is the meaning of work and how it relates to success. I love work, and life really isn't life without work. Work means productivity, forward progress, and growth. Work is everything to me. In my eyes, work is fun and enjoyable. It has to be. How else can I love work otherwise?

Being both the Founder Business Of Finance, and a self-directed retail Trader and Portfolio Manager, there is always so much to do, so much to work on. Responsibilities are aplenty but so is the sense of acomplishment when something gets done well."

READ: http://www.businessoffinance.com/lif...24/loving-work

Free time is the enemy of progress

Work ethic is everything to me. Every hour that isn't productive is time wasted. Don't confuse needed rest time with free time. Free time as in times when you're shrouded with boredom, dying to kill time. Like lying around in bed flicking through your phone on social media or watching videos for hours straight with absolutely no attention spent on the things that really matter. Or worse still, you assume the things that need work have already been settled. Really? Do you have that little things to do in life?

I mean let's face it, even the busiest most driven people have times when they feel jaded. But it rarely happens. And when it happens to them, it's usually for family or social time. If you find youself having way too much free time on a daily basis, then something is truly wrong with your life. Tragically wrong.

Free time is really the enemy of progress. To progress in life, you need to be active. You need to be always doing something. Something productive, something that adds value in anyway to your life. Be it working a day job to accumulate savings, learning a new skateboard trick just because you so love the sport, or working on an idea with your mates hoping that it one day reaches incubation stage.

Read more: http://www.businessoffinance.com/lif...uccess-in-life

Quick roundup of our thoughts and focuses for this week:

FULL ARTICLE HERE: http://www.businessoffinance.com/sni...-fed-this-week

The news that the Doha oil output freeze meeting had failed hit markets at the Asian open. Commodity currencies fell as another news item was gaining traction in the energy sector — Kuwait oil workers had entered an oil strike, which for all intents and purposes had a bigger impact on oil prices, a reduction in crude output which even Doha participants said was not in the cards.

Efforts from Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia to return to the negotiating table have kept the price of oil stable even though there has been few signs that the black gold glut is set to decrease anytime soon.

If last week was an oil dominated one, traders can expect this week to be central bank dominated. The key event will fall on Wednesday as the U.S. Fed will make its third interest rate decision in 2016. Volatility in the currency markets has toned down from last week, after a major slump in the yen on the heels of renewed expectations that the Bank of Japan will ease more aggressively during its next policy meeting.

Read on here: http://www.businessoffinance.com/sni...-fed-this-week

#‎Apple‬ disappoints in second quarter earnings as top and bottom line misses forecasts, guides lower than estimated.

The full details:

Q2 EPS of $1.90, missing expectations of $2.00 on revenue of $50.56bn which not only plunged by 13% from ayear ago, but also significantly missed expectations of $52bn. The biggest driver for this was both the sequential and annual plunge in ‪#‎China‬ sales, which dropped to $12.5bn from $16.8bn a year ago.

And while Apple beat expectations on iPhone sales, selling 51.2mn units in the quarter, above the 50.7mn expected, if still 16% lower than a year ago, it did so on both a lower than expected margin of 39.4%, and lower iPhone ASPs (average sale price), which dropped to $641.80 below the $651 estimate.

Perhaps the most grim of all was the company's guidance for 3Q16 revenues which was absolutely abysmal, and now sees only sales of $41-$43bn, well below not only the median estimate of $47.35bn but below the lowest sellside estimate of $43.95bn!

The fruit has indeed lost its mojo, lost its shine, and most importantly lost its lure amongst investors worldwide.
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#‎Business‬ ‪#‎Tech‬ ‪#‎Google‬ ‪#‎Facebook‬ ‪#‎Investing‬ ‪#‎Stocks‬ ‪#‎Trading‬ ‪#‎iPhone‬

Total carnage in ‪#‎AAPL‬ as ‪#‎Apple‬ misses all three earnings, revenues, and guidance. The stock is down more than 8% after hours, dragging NASDAQ futures much lower. Steve Jobs must be rolling in his grave!

‪#‎Business‬ ‪#‎Tech‬ ‪#‎Google‬ ‪#‎Facebook‬ ‪#‎Investing‬ ‪#‎Stocks‬ ‪#‎Trading‬ ‪#‎iPhone‬

The full visual of the ‪#‎Apple‬'s financial and sales history broken down into quarterly and annual revenues, product sales for each past earnings call, and sales across geographical regions...

Refer to our full narrative 2 posts earlier for the entire story on the just released earnings report.

‪#‎Business‬ ‪#‎Tech‬ ‪#‎Google‬ ‪#‎Facebook‬ ‪#‎Investing‬ ‪#‎Stocks‬ ‪#‎Trading‬ ‪#‎iPhone‬