Mina Mar Group

Mutual funds is professionally managed company that collects money from many investors to purchase different types of securities such as stocks and bonds. Those combined holdings make fund's portfolio.Shareholders buy shares, parts of portfolio's value and participate proportionally in fund's gains and losses. Money managers allocate assets and try to produce gains for investors. Portfolios are managed differently in accordance with investment goals formulated in prospectus. Because funds invest in huge number of securities, its price of share is called net asset value (NAV) which is calculated by dividing total value of securities on the fund by total amount of shares outstanding. Price is settled at the end of the trading day so it doesn't fluctuate during market hours like regular stock. There is more types of mutual funds that are  classified according to the kind of securities that they invest in, investment goals and type of return they seek. Equity f...

Crowdfunding continues to grow globaly. Total crowdfunding raised worldwide from 2014 to 2016 is $2.1 billion while in 2016 in US total crowdfunding raised was $738.9 billion. The crowdfunding industry is projected to grow over $300 billion by 2025. North America remains the largest crowdfunding market, having raised $17.1 billion in 2017. Asia with fast growing market is catching up with $10.54 billion raised the same year, while the Europe is in the third place with $6.48 billion. Cro wdfunding can be used as afree marketing tool. Crowdfunding paltforms make new projects easily discoverable giving exposure to a lot of new people on the platform. In addition, most platforms incorporate social media makin it easier to share and spread the message via facebook, twitter and other platforms. Also, media often picks up on the popular projectes, providing them with more publicity. People with limited resources can test their product by using the crowdfunding platform to do pre-sal...

Often when you read the business section of newspaper or when you are doing research about particular company on the stock market you come across different ratios. There is so many of them so if you are not accredit investors there is a chance that zou sometimes get confused but these metric are actually helpful if zou know how to interpret them. Bascically they measure quantitive assesments commonly used for comparing and tracking performance. That is why are so widely used by analysts in assesing performance and investing recomendation and by company's mangement also. Depending on the goal of analysts he will choose from range of available data to build metric suitable for that same goal. Company's executive and project managers have differenet goals so they will use different metrics, while the first will concentrate on corporate finance the other will focus on strategec projects. Following the previous article on due diligence we will primarily focus on the positio...

Due diligence is defined as investigation or audit that reasonable business and person undertakes before potential investment or before entering an agreement to confirm all facts. Most investor are doing research before buying a security but due diligence can be done by a seller who investigates buyer's capability to complete the purchase. After the Securities Act of 1933 due diligence become common practice in United States when brokers and dealers became responsible for disclosing all relevant information about securities they were selling or they will otherwise be accountable and liable for prosecution. This put brokers into sensitive position where they could be unfairly prosecuted. In response creators of the Act set rule that says if broker performed due diligence when investigating companies whose securities they are going to sell and disclose that information to the public they are not held accountable. Not only prospective investors perform due diligence but also ...

Many small-cap and micro-cap companies are in a need of additional capital. Obtaining funding can be tricky and it is best to have someone experiences to advise you about financing proposals. Many of the offers can seem legit at first sight but if you look deeper they are just  camouflaged toxic financing contracts. The real question is what is toxic financing and how you can recognize it? Toxic financing can be defined as convertible debt or preferred stock that allows financier to receive unlimited number of common shares by converting their debt. This type of debt has low chance that it will be repaid because it carries an interest rate that company usually cannot repay. Financier uses this situation to convert debt or preferred shares to common shares and sell them on the market. Formulas that are used for conversion in toxic financing  is structured so there is no downside limit on the price for converted shares. It gives discount to the marke...

Selling restricted or control shares is not an easy task. Securities and Exchange Commission has enforced Rule 144 that set conditions under which restricted, unregistered and control shares can be sold or resold. This type of sale is very close to interest of the issuing company so SEC demands that those type of securities be registered. Under Securities Act of 1933 all securities must either be registered with SEC or be exempt from registration requirements. Rule 144 provides exemption that allows the resale of unregistered securities in public stock market if a number of conditions are met. Even if you meet requirements transfer agents needs to remove the restrictive  legend so the sale will be possible. Investor usually acquire those types of shares through private placement or stock benefit plans offered by their employee. Restricted stock are nontransferable shares of ownership in a corporation, usually issued as a compensation, stock benefits plan, in exchange for pr...

Warrants are similar to options but there are few key differences. Warrants are derivatives that give the right but not the obligation to the holder to buy or sell security before expiration date. The price at which underlying security can be bought is called strike price and should be bought before an expiration date. Like option there are call warrants that give holder the right to buy a security and pit warrants that give the right to sell security. Underlying securities are commonly equity but they can also be currencies, commodities and other financial instruments. Warrants are issued directly by the company and not the third party. Investors can write options but they can't write warrants. Finding and trading warrants is also more difficult because they usually trade on over-the-counter market and not stock exchanges. If they however trade on exchange they have a thicker of an underlying stock but with letter W attached at the end of the ticker. Warrants are dilutive...

In short, option gives the buyer the right but not the obligation to buy or sell an underlying asset at a set price during the life of the contract. They are considered financial derivative namely derivative is a financial instrument with a price that is based on an underlying asset. In other words price of the option derives its value from the underlying assets that can be futures, commodities, currencies, securities or indexes. Usually they are purchased through online or retail broker. We will discuss stock options where underlying asset is stock. For example option on stock ABC gives option holder the right to buy or sell ABC stock at a strike price up until expiration date. In this case underlying asset is ABC stock because the price of the option is based on the stock price. Writing an option refers to investment contract in which fee is paid for the right to buy or sell shares at a predetermined future date. The fee paid depends on several factors like current price...

The Pink Open Market as a part of OTC Markets Group provides platform for trading wide range of equities, which include penny stocks, shell companies, foreign issuers with limited information and companies not willing or able to provide information to investors. Since there is limited information available and limited regulatory oversight Pink market is considered to be of high risk.  Depending on level of disclosure companies are divided in three tiers as current information, limited information or no information. To qualify as a current information company have to make disclosure  available, in accordance with one of the following reporting standards: SEC reporting standard, U.S. reporting standard, international or alternative reporting standard. In the first two cases company has to be in compliance with SEC and Bank Regulator reporting requirements. Companies trading on Qualified Foreign Exchange  use international reporting standard. Other companies m...

Simple definition of short selling  is the sale of an asset that the seller has borrowed in order to profit later from  fall in the price of the asset. In other words trader sells securities at one price and buys it back at a lower price making gain in the price difference. in this article we are referring to stock although you ca short any instrument or asset, bonds, commodities, currencies, etc. There is usually certain amount of speculation that causes traders to short sell or the need to protect oneself against loss on investment by balancing transaction. Basically there are two basic types of investors, buy-and-hold investors and  day traders. The first hold their portfolio stocks for the long term expecting to see significant rise in price over time which will result in gains. Other category of investors trade on the short term basis. Unlike investors that go long and wait for stock price to build up traders buy stock that will possibly fall in price....

Over-the-counter may refer to OTC market or process of trading securities that are not listed on some of major exchanges. On OTC market securities are traded via broker dealers who quote the stock unlike exchanges which function as auction market. Companies that can't meet listing requirements of major exchanges usually because they are too small and volatile or they don't want to be subjected to strict regulations and requirements of exchange trade on OTC market as so called unlisted securities. Over-the-counter market is decentralized market, without physical location. Broker dealers who are regulated by Financial Regulatory Agency (FINRA) act as market makers by quoting the prices but it is possible that transaction can happened between two parties without others knowing information about price. This makes market less transparent alongside fewer regulatory requirements. Stocks trading on OTC are considered to bear additional risk, especially default risk but it is ...

A ticker or stock symbol is an abbreviation or an acronym that uniquely identifies securities of particular company on particular stock market. It consists of letters, numbers or both in a combination that is unique for every company. The term ticker itself came from the sound made by ticker tape machine that transmitted stock price information over telegraphic lines. They were supposed to be short to minimize the number of character printed on the ticker tape and to make them easy to recognize for traders and investors. Company's ticker may change due to various reasons, reflecting a merger, name change of a company or if the company trades on multiple exchanges worldwide. US modern letter only ticker symbol was developed by Standard&Poor to bring national standard to investing, Companies trading on New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) usually have three letter ticker symbol while Nasdaq ones usually have four letter stock symbol. In July 2007 Securities and ...

Stock split or forward stock split is a corporate action where board of directors decides to issue more shares by dividing existing outstanding shares into multiple shares defined by the predetermined ratio. Most common ratios are 2 for 1 or 3 for one where investors for every share they own get two or three shares respectively. Likewise, price will be divided accordingly. If for example you originally owned 100 shares, each worth $15 in 2 for 2 split you will receive 200 shares  each worth $7.5 and in situation where 3 for 1 split is done it will be 300 shares with $5 price per share. As you can see no real value is added and market capitalization is the same just like with reverse stock split. Companies do this for various reasons. Some stock price can reach astonishing level and company's official might want to lower the price to make it more appealing to small retail investors. Some argue that there is a psychological effect which makes owning more stock at a low...

Reverse stock split reduces number of outstanding shares in a predetermined ratio. It is also known as stock consolidation, share rollback or stock merger because two or more shares are merged into one more valuable share.  Reverse split is considered to be a corporate action, meaning action that is affecting share price and needs to be approved by the company's board of directors and possibly by voting shareholders. Company can even get additional letter D to its ticker signifying that it is going through reverse split. Number of total outstanding shares, which includes shares currently held by all shareholders, including institutional investors and restricted shares, is usually divided with 5 or 10 getting ratio one for five or one for ten but it can be as little as one to two or big as one to hundred. For example if you have 100 shares worth $1 each so you have $100 worth of shares. if a company is going for one for then reverse split, you will receive ten shares, each...

Public companies often have two tier corporate organisation which consist of board of directors who protect shareholders interest and senior management who is responsible for day-to day operations and profitability of the company, including chief executive officer (CEO), chief operation officer (COO) and chief financial officer (CFO). When management is doing a good job business operations should run smoothly but as you probably know that is not always the case. In time of turmoil company can seek professional help in form of consultancy or more often by hiring an interim management whose job is to manage a company during a transition or crisis. Interim management is modern troubleshooting management techniques that started in the mid to late 1970s gaining a momentum during the decades to come. Even though it bears similarity with management consultancy, interim management can deliver more effective solution in less time. In simple t...

Not all stocks fulfill listing requirements for major stock exchanges like Nasdaq and NYSE but they trade on over the counter market (OTC). Even though many believe penny stock trade less than a $1 per share, Securities and Exchange Commission defines them as a securities issued by small-cap and micro-cap companies that trade under a $5 price. Because of their low price penny stocks are often logical beginning for new investors. What this means is that you can buy thousands of shares of various companies without investing significant financial means. You may even hear from some investors that they joined "one million club" owning million shares of the same company trading on OTC. With such big numbers of shares, price raise of even few cents can bring nice gains for investor. Some may be attracted to penny stock because they are dreaming of big profits, buying shares for couple of cents and selling them for millions. Even though penny stocks can be lucrative there ar...

Investing is a great way to grow wealth. The key is to minimize the cost and maximize the return but you will have to keep a few things in mind. Doesn't matter if you have a couple of thousands or a hundred dollars you can always find a way to invest your money, from big blue chip to companies to investing in retirement plan available at your work. First of all you need to determine what is your investment style and choose the right broker accordingly. If you are individual type and you want to explore the market and pick the stock that you like than online or discount broker might be the right for you. Once considered exception online brokers are now the norm. Considered as simple order takers they are the least expensive professionals licensed to buy stock on your behalf. You will be charged on per-transaction or per-share basis. Communication takes place over the phone or via internet. Broker tech support allows you buy and sell stock instantly through your account. The...

Mergers requires at least two companies consolidating. After board of directors approve combination they seek shareholders approval if merger has material impact on either company. Result is that acquired company becomes the part of acquiring company. Stockholders may receive stock, cash or combination of the both. In stock for stock agreement between companies they agree to exchange shares on set ratio where post merger price will depend on the market condition and assessment of new companies chances for success. In cash for stock deal acquiring company agrees to pay certain amount for every share of the target company and in response price of the stock will usually rise while the price of acquiring company slightly falls. On the other hand reverse merger is more type of acquisition because one private company buys a public shells company in order to circumvent costly, lengthy and complicated process of initial private offering (IPO). After the exchang...

Bonds is one of the three main asset classes besides stock (equity) and cash equivalents. Bond is considered fixed income security where bond issuer is in debt to the bond holder and is obliged to pay him an interest. It can be understood as a form of a loan where holder of the bond is creditor, issuer of the bond is borrower and coupon is interest that he pays. Issuers of the bonds are companies, municipalities, states and governments which used funds obtained through bonds to finance long term investments and current expenditures. Bondholders are debt holders that have priority over stockholders but are ranked behind secured creditors in case of insolvency. Bonds have maturity date when the principal is due to be paid and interest rate that can be fixed or variable. Principal is face value of the bond, actual amount that is on the bond which will be paid to the holder at the maturity date. Fixed rates remain the same through the set period while variable rates fluctuate o...