The upsurge of an investment professional : Farrukh Kazmi? We offer a wide range of financial services to individuals and business owners. We believe you will be better able to identify your goals and make sound decisions to help reach them by A&S providing our financial information. Please call us if you have any questions about our firm or the range of Investment services we provide. Our firm has a relationship with a variety of financial services companies, so if we don’t have a product or service, we know a group that does. One of the many benefits of working with A&S Asset Management is our ability to provide clear, easily understood explanations of financial markets, financial ideas, and where you fit within them. The personalized program that we can provide is a road map to working toward a more secure financial future.
A cash bank deposit is the simplest, most easily understandable investment asset—and the safest. Not only does it give investors precise knowledge of the interest they’ll earn, but it also guarantees they’ll get their capital back. On the downside, the interest earned from cash stored away in a savings account seldom beats inflation and loses around 2% a year. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have become quite popular since their introduction back in the mid-1990s. ETFs are similar to mutual funds, but they trade throughout the day, on a stock exchange, just like shares of stock. Unlike mutual funds, which are valued at the end of each trading day, ETF values fluctuate intra-day.
That said, gold trounced the S&P 500 in the 10-year period from November 2002 to October 2012, with a total price appreciation of 441.5%, or 18.4% annually. The S&P 500, on the other hand, appreciated by 58% over this period. The point here is that gold is not always a good investment. The best time to invest in almost any asset is when there is negative sentiment and the asset is inexpensive, providing substantial upside potential when it returns to favor, as indicated above.
Farrukh Kazmi is the founder of A&S Asset Management, I am committed to helping people achieve financial freedom by bringing Wall Street experience to the local investor.
Many people seek out professional financial advice from a professional, but with so many options to choose from it may seem overwhelming to find an advisor. First, determine what level of advice and service you require and how much autonomy you’d like to give away to a professional. Look for professional certifications and designations after an advisor’s name, such as CFA, CFP, or CIMA. Determine the fee structure you’re most comfortable with – fee-only, commission-based, or based on assets managed. Ask for referrals and then run a background check on the advisors that you narrow down such as from FINRA’s free BrokerCheck service.
An ETF can own hundreds or thousands of stocks across various industries, or it could be isolated to one particular industry or sector. Some funds focus on only U.S. offerings, while others have a global outlook. For example, banking-focused ETFs would contain stocks of various banks across the industry. Bond ETFs might include government bonds, corporate bonds, and state and local bonds—called municipal bonds. Industry ETFs track a particular industry such as technology, banking, or the oil and gas sector. Commodity ETFs invest in commodities including crude oil or gold. Currency ETFs invest in foreign currencies such as the Euro or Canadian dollar. Inverse ETFs attempt to earn gains from stock declines by shorting stocks. Shorting is selling a stock, expecting a decline in value, and repurchasing it at a lower price.
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Much of the supply of gold in the market since the 1990s has come from sales of gold bullion from the vaults of global central banks. This selling by global central banks slowed greatly in 2008. At the same time, production of new gold from mines had been declining since 2000. According to BullionVault.com, annual gold-mining output fell from 2,573 metric tons in 2000 to 2,444 metric tons in 2007 (however, according to Goldsheetlinks.com, gold saw a rebound in production with output hitting nearly 2,700 metric tons in 2011.) It can take from five to 10 years to bring a new mine into production. As a general rule, reduction in the supply of gold increases gold prices.