The main techniques and sectors of the financial industry

An entity whose income exceeds its expenditure can lend or invest the excess income. On the other hand, an entity whose income is less than its expenditure can raise capital by borrowing or selling equity claims, decreasing its expenses, or increasing its income. The lender can find a borrower, a financial intermediary such as a bank, or buy notes or bonds in the bond market. The lender receives interest, the borrower pays a higher interest than the lender receives, and the financial intermediary pockets the difference.

A bank aggregates the activities of many borrowers and lenders. A bank accepts deposits from lenders, on which it pays the interest. The bank then lends these deposits to borrowers. Banks allow borrowers and lenders, of different sizes, to coordinate their activity. Banks are thus compensators of money flows in space.

A specific example of corporate finance is the sale of stock by a company to institutional investors like investment banks, who in turn generally sell it to the public. The stock gives whoever owns it part ownership in that company. If you buy one share of XYZ Inc, and they have 100 shares outstanding (held by investors), you are 1/100 owner of that company. Of course, in return for the stock, the company receives cash, which it uses to expand its business; this process is known as "equity financing". Equity financing mixed with the sale of bonds (or any other debt financing) is called the company's capital structure.

Finance is used by individuals (personal finance), by governments (public finance), by businesses (corporate finance), as well as by a wide variety of organizations including schools and non-profit organizations. In general, the goals of each of the above activities are achieved through the use of appropriate financial instruments and methodologies, with consideration to their institutional setting.

Finance is one of the most important aspects of business management. Without proper financial planning a new enterprise is unlikely to be successful. Managing money (a liquid asset) is essential to ensure a secure future, both for the individual and an organization.

Finance

              The field of finance refers to the concepts of time, money and risk and how they are interrelated. Banks are the main facilitators of funding through the provision of credit, although private equity, mutual funds, hedge funds, and other organizations have become important. Financial assets, known as investments, are financially managed with careful attention to financial risk management to control financial risk. Financial instrumentsallow many forms of securitized assets to be traded on securities exchanges such as stock exchanges, including debt such as bonds as well as equity in publicly-traded corporations.

The main techniques and sectors of the financial industry:

An entity whose income exceeds its expenditure can lend or invest the excess income. On the other hand, an entity whose income is less than its expenditure can raise capital by borrowing or selling equity claims, decreasing its expenses, or increasing its income. The lender can find a borrower, a financial intermediary such as a bank, or buy notes or bonds in the bond market. The lender receives interest, the borrower pays a higher interest than the lender receives, and the financial intermediary pockets the difference.

A bank aggregates the activities of many borrowers and lenders. A bank accepts deposits from lenders, on which it pays the interest. The bank then lends these deposits to borrowers. Banks allow borrowers and lenders, of different sizes, to coordinate their activity. Banks are thus compensators of money flows in space.

A specific example of corporate finance is the sale of stock by a company to institutional investors like investment banks, who in turn generally sell it to the public. The stock gives whoever owns it part ownership in that company. If you buy one share of XYZ Inc, and they have 100 shares outstanding (held by investors), you are 1/100 owner of that company. Of course, in return for the stock, the company receives cash, which it uses to expand its business; this process is known as "equity financing". Equity financing mixed with the sale of bonds (or any other debt financing) is called the company's capital structure.

Finance is used by individuals (personal finance), by governments (public finance), by businesses (corporate finance), as well as by a wide variety of organizations including schools and non-profit organizations. In general, the goals of each of the above activities are achieved through the use of appropriate financial instruments and methodologies, with consideration to their institutional setting.

Personal finance:

Questions in personal finance revolve around

• How much money will be needed by an individual (or by a family), and when?
• Where will this money come from, and how?
• How can people protect themselves against unforeseen personal events, as well as those in the external economy?
• How can family assets best be transferred across generations (bequests and inheritance)?
• How does tax policy (tax subsidies or penalties) affect personal financial decisions?
• How does credit affect an individual's financial standing?
• How can one plan for a secure financial future in an environment of economic instability?

Personal financial decisions may involve paying for education, financing durable goods such as real estate and cars, buying insurance, e.g. health and property insurance, investing and saving for retirement.

Personal financial decisions may also involve paying for a loan, or debt obligations.

Corporate finance:

Managerial or corporate finance is the task of providing the funds for a corporation's activities. For small business, this is referred to as SME finance. It generally involves balancing risk and profitability, while attempting to maximize an entity's wealth and the value of its stock.

Long term funds are provided by ownership equity and long-term credit, often in the form of bonds. The balance between these forms the company's capital structure. Short-term funding or working capital is mostly provided by banks extending a line of credit.

Another business decision concerning finance is investment, or fund management. An investment is an acquisition of an asset in the hope that it will maintain or increase its value. In investment management – in choosing a portfolio – one has to decide what, how much and when to invest. To do this, a company must:

• Identify relevant objectives and constraints: institution or individual goals, time horizon, risk aversion and tax considerations;
• Identify the appropriate strategy: active v. passive – hedging strategy
• Measure the portfolio performance

Financial management is duplicate with the financial function of the Accounting profession. However, financial accounting is more concerned with the reporting of historical financial information, while the financial decision is directed toward the future of the firm.

Phillips and Swarovski, jeweled gadgets

Phillips and Swarovski, jeweled gadgets 

Swarovski crystals are everywhere. You can find them in an unaccountable number of products, from watches to clothes. 

Phillips got this trend and now you can also find them in a line of jeweled gadgets, named Active Crystals. 

To begin with, there are four models of thumb drives with the crystals and two models of ear phones. 

Heart Ware and Heart Beat are USB thumb drivers designed to be used as pendants, Lock In and Lock Out are designed to be used in key chains (or even in a bracelet), they come in 1Gb models and are user password protected. 

The line also has silver ear phones, both in-ear and ear-hook models. 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aurora Lamp

Melbourne’s Ruby Studio recently launched the Aurora Lamp, made from 60 identical laser cut pieces of acrylic that represent the letter ‘j’. Each layer is slightly twisted, ensuring that there is visual movement throughout the piece. Designed by John Hoogendoorn, the Aurora lamp takes an energy saving globe bulb and recently won Best Lighting Design at Fringe Furniture, part of the Fringe Festival in Melbourne.

Transparent Concrete

New Architecture in Concrete, translucent blocks and photo-engraved building fronts to revolutionary materials that promise to change the rules of construction as we know them today.

Finger Mouse

A mouse - so small that it'll work while it is tied to your finger.




With the movement of just your fingers, you can easily control the cursor. The 800 DPI Optical finger mouse from Logisys virtually works on any surface (say good bye to mouse pad) except the reflective glass surface - common with any optical mouse.

Point the cursor with your index finger while your thumb to control the left button ( lower button), right button ( upper button) and scroll wheel.

Strap it on your finger and start using it.

Laptop of 2010: Wild Predictions

How slow and old can a laptop be to still be usable today? Well, an ancient Pentium II laptop running Windows 98 will be enough for internet browsing, Word and Excel, music and movies – and that is pretty much all that most of us ever need.

Yet, we don’t see Pentium II laptops anymore, even though they are cheaper than a lightbulb. People prefer new, expensive laptops with built in things like fingerprint security or webcams, even though they keep the laptop at home and still work with the same old Excel sheets, and never turn the webcam on.

And this is the only way it can be in our consumerism-obsessed society, and cheap laptops that we use today will similarly look old and cost nothing in two years from now. What, then, will new laptops of 2010 be like? We came up with a list of 5 new features that we think will become standard in each laptop very soon.

1. Solid state harddrive, or SSD: It is already happening now, with new Apple Macbook Air laptop being sold with a choice of traditional HDD or new SSD harddrive. It is smaller, harder to damage, it takes less energy as there are no movable parts and it should also be cheaper to produce, once the market is saturated..





2. Wireless USB: Also already a reality, with Dell already selling its new XPS M1330 laptop with an option of wireless USB being built in. This means fewer cables, and fewer cables can only be a good thing.





3. 3G/HSDPA wireless broadband card: Internet anywhere, anytime? Oh yes, please. Understandably, it becomes more and more popular as the prices of mobile broadband fall each month. Most major laptop manufacturers are including them with new laptops already.





4. External CD/DVD drive: This one is not as straightforward as the previous three, since people still use CDs and watch DVD movies. Yet, CDs are big, subject to scratches and they need to be spinned, which needs energy and produces heat. There are two things that can kill a CD- the continuing rise of online downloads and the price of flash memory falling below the price of a blank CD. If this happens, nothing will save a CD from a place on a museum shelf, right next to the tape cassette.





5. New body shape: With solid state harddrive and no CD drive, new laptops can afford to become much thinner. There will be no movable parts, and together with new low energy processors this will help consume less energy and produce less heat, reducing the need and size of cooling pipes and fans. Laptop shape will change forever to a slimmer, lighter one, and old laptops will suddenly become as elegant as 19th century typewriters.





This is of course just a wild prediction and, like all predictions, will most likely differ from the real thing. You are welcome to disagree, any feedback on the list will be greatly appreciated.

Intel 4004: World's First Microprocessor (1971)

In November, 1971, a company called Intel publicly introduced the world's first single chip microprocessor, the Intel 4004 invented by Intel engineers Federico Faggin, Ted Hoff, and Stan Mazor. After the invention of integrated circuits revolutionized computer design, the only place to go was down -- in size that is.
The Intel 4004 chip took the integrated circuit down one step further by placing all the parts that made a computer think (i.e. central processing unit, memory, input and output controls) on one small chip. Programming intelligence into inanimate objects had now become possible.

Nomophobia: Fear of Being Out of Mobile Phone Contact

How do you feel when your phone has no network coverage? Can you turn off your mobile for a whole day? Whether you have run out of credit or battery, lose your phone or are in an area with no reception, being phoneless can bring on a panicky symptom in our 24/7 culture, described as "Nomophobia".

Road Cells: Energy Generated By Cars

The friction and heat generated by cars on the road adds up to a lot of wasted energy. Scientists have toyed with the idea of special absorbent cells that could harness all that energy for reuse. The only problem is a lack of feasibility: retrofitting roads with special cells is unlikely when our crumbling infrastructure is already in such a state of disrepair. And the wear-and-tear dilemma has yet to be resolved.