Victory Investment

Archive for November, 2010

Over the years, because many of my students approach me with questions about careers in Investment Banking, I’ve written down a few stock answers. Here are my notes:

An investment banker is someone who works or is connected with an investment house. Such investment houses or companies are often called investment houses, brokerage houses, underwriters, or simply investment banks. Many investment bankers are employees, but others may function as agents or independent contractors.

Most investment bankers who are sales representatives (stock brokers) are licensed individuals and must pass a background investigation and several exams to obtain the required licenses. Having satisfied the requirements, the candidates become “registered representatives,” and may then buy and sell securities through the organized markets.

The body that supervises both investment banks and registered representatives is the NASD (National Association of Securities Dealers).

Investment banks raise money for the Government, institutions, individuals worldwide, and public corporations by arranging the sale of securities (stocks, bonds, and derivatives) to the public in the primary market. After an initial public offering (IPO), the purchase and sale of securities take place in the secondary markets.

Professional services offered by investment banks:

Lacking the expertise to raise capital on their own or through organized securities markets (NYSE, OTC, Nasdaq, or the American Stock Exchange), the corporation must rely on investment banks. Therefore, they contract these banks so that they can design and negotiate the company’s best strategy and to recommend the sale of either bonds (debt) or stock (equity).

The bank’s resident staff includes a legal department that makes sure all Government regulations are complied with and all the necessary documentation properly gathered and printed. An important aspect of this expertise is the research called “Due Diligence,” which certifies that a checklist of material facts have been scrutinized to protect investors, the bank, and the company that is issuing the securities.

For small corporations seeking finance, the investment banks will require a retainer, which varies from house to house, but usually around ,000. Since each deal is different and unique, the corporate controller must shop around to get a good idea as to what a reasonable fee may be.

With the deal settled, the investment bank proceeds to get the issue out. Initially they will prepare the Private Placement Memorandum (PPM) which contains a blueprint for marketing the issue.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A)

Investment bankers also handle mergers and acquisitions and corporate restructurings. This is a very lucrative field for many investment bankers. By bringing together companies and either merging them or acquiring them (and letting them work independently), investment banks foster the growth of successful companies. Some companies achieve growth and earnings through mergers and acquisitions rather than through the operations of their main line of business. Take for example, General Electric. Investors no longer think of GE as a manufacturing electronics company, but as a conglomerate and finance company. Not only do investment banks bring together companies to form a larger company, but they also break them up into smaller companies, spinoffs, or carve-outs. In either case, the banks will make money.

Brokerage and proprietary trading

Proprietary Investing refers to the management of portfolios of high-yield bonds, leveraged loans and other publicly traded securities. The management teams use intense credit research and relative value analysis.  The “prop desk” handles the trades of stocks, bonds, options, commodities, swaps, and other derivatives.

Different strategies are employed for different clients. For example, less aggressive techniques and risk will be employed in the management of pension funds. Likewise, not-for-profit institutions will restrict the trading to safer techniques.

Although investment banks are viewed as businesses which assist other business and institutions in raising money in the capital markets, in fact they also do lots of trading for their own accounts. Part of their daily activities involve: index arbitrage, statistical arbitrage, merger arbitrage, and volatility arbitrage.

Management services and other services

Given their huge pool of skilled and talented employees, they can develop detailed plans for businesses to be successful.

Entire departments and managers specialize in industry sectors such as pharmaceutical, health, wind energy, etc. They develop divisional performance measurement: cost, revenue, profit, and investment and expense centers that determine which method is likely to be the most efficient for each client.

Not only do they design and develop strategies for senior executives to manage the cultures within their organizations, but also they recommend equity compensation instruments (stock options).   

For those corporations that are image-conscious, investment banks offer ‘corporate social responsibility’ programs that can enhance the company’s reputation and goodwill.

Students

Many of my students often ask me, can I start with a commercial bank and then transfer to an investment house? Yes. This happens all the time. But, human resources, and division heads in investment banks tend to look down on applicants with commercial bank experience. The action, they feel, is in investment banks. Another question that comes up: what college majors are preferred for investment banking? The answer is: finance, accounting, and economics. Yet, I’ve met successful investment bankers who majored in liberal arts. In fact, a friend of mine majored in French Literature. The ultimate major that is required is: intelligence, coupled with a flair for numbers, and excellent communication skills.

We hear the term “investment bank” on a daily basis. Investment banks are vilified for their role in the financial crisis and criticized for the profits they reap and the large compensation packages for their employees. But many people have no idea what an investment bank is or what it does. Let’s take a look at the role investment banks play in the financial services industry and the economy at large.

So what is an investment bank? First of all, investment banks are very different than the commercial banks we are all familiar with. They do not take deposits like the retail bank on the corner. Instead, investment banks primarily assist in the buying, selling and issuing of securities — that is stocks, bonds and similar financial instruments.

Investment banks assist companies and institutions on “buy side” and “sell side” activities. The buy side refers to the advising of institutions concerned with buying assets and securities. Entities that engage in buy side activities include private equity funds, mutual funds, hedge funds, pension funds and proprietary trading desks. The sell side refers to a broad range of activities, including broking and dealing securities, investment banking, advisory functions and investment research.

The core functions of an investment bank include investment banking — otherwise known as corporate finance — sales and trading and research. Some larger investment banks also perform other services like investment management or merchant banking, but let’s take a closer look at the core three.

Investment banking can be a confusing term because many people use it to refer to any activities performed by an investment bank. More specifically, though, investment banking refers to assisting companies with raising capital and giving advice on mergers and acquisitions.

The corporate finance or investment banking department of an investment bank is the group that works with a company to put together an initial public offering (IPO). Or, if a company already has public stock outstanding, they might put together a follow-on offering, which is simply an additional issuance of stock shares. The corporate finance department can also help companies raise capital through private placements, which often involve securing capital from private equity groups.

Should the ownership of a company seek to sell the entire enterprise, the corporate finance department can also advise on M&A transactions. They can help identify potential buyers and negotiate a sale of the entire company. Likewise, if a company is in the market for acquiring other enterprises, this group can advise on acquisitions.

Another service that the corporate finance department of an investment bank might offer is the delivery of fairness opinions. In a fairness opinion, an investment bank will perform an analysis of a potential acquisition and render an opinion as to whether a reasonable price is being offered for the target company.

Sales and trading is perhaps the primary service that an investment bank can offer. There are often two major divisions within sales and trading — institutional and retail. The institutional division buys and sells financial products for institutional clients such as mutual funds, pension funds, etc. The retail division buys and sells financial products for retail investors. Stock brokers fall into this area.

The sales and trading department of an investment bank engages in market making. Market making involves buying and selling financial instruments in order to make an incremental profit on each trade.

Sales and trading can also engage in proprietary trading. Proprietary trading involves a special group of traders who do not work with clients. These traders take on “principal risk”, which involves buying or selling a product and does not hedge his total exposure. By managing the amount of risk on its balance sheet, an investment bank can maximize its profitability.

An investment bank’s sales and trading department also interacts with the corporate finance department on the issuance of IPOs and follow-on offerings. It is the sales and trading department that builds a book for a particular stock by calling up institutional and retail investors to judge the interest for the offering. They then price the initial sales value on the day of the offering and begin selling the new shares to their clients.

Depending on the size of an offering or the desired mix of investors for the offering, several investment banks may be involved in issuing shares to the public. This group of banks constitute the syndicate and are responsible for selling the shares involved in the offering.

The research department of an investment bank is staffed by research analysts. These are the people who often appear on business news programs and talk about the performance of a particular company or stock. The role of the research department is to analyze companies and writes research reports that discuss their performance potential. These reports often include a “buy” or “sell” recommendation.

The research department on its own does not generate a lot of income. What it does do is influence trading volume, which results in more fees for sales and trading. When a research analyst changes his or her recommendation on a stock, many investors will then act on that recommendation and the sales and trading team earns more in trading fees.

There exists, however, a conflict of interest between research and other parts on the investment bank. If an investment bank were about to issue new shares of stock for a company, for example, the research analyst could put out a strong recommendation for the stock just prior to the offering, and the bank could get a better price and potential earn more fees.

Likewise, if the proprietary trading division wanted to boost the return on their holdings, they could have research analysts recommend some of the stock they held as a buy. There are a number of areas where the research department could be used to mislead investors and earn more profit for the investment bank.

To circumvent these conflicts of interests, regulators have insisted that investment banks implement a “Chinese wall” in their firms. The Chinese wall keeps information about the investment bank’s corporate finance and sales and trading activities from passing through to the research department.

A Chinese wall also exists between the corporate finance and sales and trading divisions because many corporate finance activities involve non-public information that could be used to profitably execute trading strategies.

Without investment banks, companies would have a much more difficult time with raising capital. Likewise, the general public would have a hard time investing their money in anything other than a savings deposit.

Without investment banks, only very large institutions or very wealthy individuals would be able to structure the same financial transactions that occur every day with an investment bank.

In short, investment banks drastically speed up the flow of capital throughout the economy and allow businesses — and our savings — to grow more quickly. As complicated as all these activities may seem, they only scratch the surface of all the intricacies of an investment bank.

But the next time you hear that some investment bank advised on the sale of a company or generated several billing dollars in trading fees, at least you’ll have an idea of what they’re talking about.

 

A Gold and Silver company and business idea that’s time has come.

It’s becoming common knowledge today that gold and silver are the best investmet that can be made today. This is especially true in economic times we’re in today. Many pension plans are at risk, gold and silver are not.

Companies are now getting started with supplemental plans after having a look and seeing the benifits. The workers will love seeing their investments spike and know their money (real money) is secure.

We are living in crazy times right now and everything needs to given a second look. Moving money around to more secure and better investments is something that has to be considered a priority, it’s a good business idea.

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What we’re really talking about here is a private currency, this at a time when the whole world is losing faith in their dollars, ones crashing while the other gold and silver gain in value. Traditional ways of thinking and doing don’t work anymore and what’s worse will be coming to an end.

Companies that are now doing business with KB Gold are loving it, some were skeptical at first but then they started to see the security and beauty of having an account set up. Experts all agree there is a gold rush on right now and the prices are going to spike.

Setting up contracts with KB Gold as soon as possible is highly recommended as this window of opportunity is not going to be open for long.

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As practice shows, long-termed financing of programs doesn’t take place spontaneously, but it means analyzing and control of current activities of the enterprises. For satisfaction of such requests, unfortunately, not every enterprise appeared to be ready. There, where all these requests are satisfied, banks become active participants in processing plans of strategy and financial provision of investment activities of the enterprises.

A special attention is required by such direction of the activities of commercial banks, as project financing is, which, to our mind, requires administration and financial support from the government, we mean the condition, that for effective salvation of investment problems it is necessary to create finance-industrial groups, and holding unions, which, in its turn, represents initial form of forming thick financial capital at the market and confluence of bank capital to the industrial one.1 This will give rise to the growth of investment volume in the economy and growth of effectiveness of capital investments. Of course, creation of such unions will be actually supported by commercial banks, but this is interrupted by such condition, that groups created today provide this activity in unregistered form and nobody is interested in their registration. This is supported by incomplete logistic, slow development rates of the institute of private property, interruptions in realization of agrarian reforms, provision of accounting calculations of financial structures in incomplete form and existence of separate statements working opposite to the creation of holding unions in the low about industry. All mentioned above may be solved immediately, by processing special low about investment activity and on the basis of its setting by the parliament in a short period of time.

It must be mentioned, that there are enough conditions for widening financial investments in the economy from the bank side because of the existence of free cash means. It is important, that these financial resources were influxed and to create a system of rational organization of purposeful usage, which must be expressed by processing of the investment policy. Here an important meaning belongs to the investment policy and correct definition of tactics.

It is also to be mentioned, that commercial banks have numbers of problems while realization of their investment activities, which prevent their normal functioning. We mean the banks, working on financing investment projects, in fact, represent only one unit in the system of private institutions. We consider following to be preventing conditions of their activities:

· Existence of marketing center of the investment projects, a coordinating organ in the country scale, which would play a function of regulator in the financial provision of the investment projecting;

· Unacceptability o the information about position of a potential borrower or investment institution;

· Refusal of creation of deposit web;

· Low level of development of the investment funds existed today;

· Absence of state investment bank, total specific organ of financing investment activity and, consequently, spontaneous distribution of the functions of investment banks working abroad under the conditions of market economics among Georgian commercial banks.

It must be also mentioned, that there are many economical factors, which may influence negatively upon realization of investment processed by the banks and nobody can define beforehand nontransiency of expected risk danger of these factors. Herewith, widening of working sphere in the investment activity of commercial banks objectively requires: giving more independence and rights to the commercial banks, growth of effectiveness of long-term investments and growth of incomes, relatively with those received from short-term financial operations, fastening of this process, ll kinds of supports from the side of the government and finally, further statement of trustfulness and firmness of the activities of banking system.

Necessity of the mentioned reforms is conditioned by the position of financial market of the country. New institutions, as mentioned in the works of D. Nort – the laureate of Nobel Premium, are formed in the case when the society sees the possibility of making profit, which is impossible during active institutional system. Maximal investment activities of banks are possible during many-fielded system o a financial market. This is a result of logical development of competition, as it solves problems of optimal usage of financial resources. Exactly this many-fielded character reduces and stops crisis in the country.

Many-fielded character of the banking system is characteristic to the most part of developed countries (the USA, countries of western Europe, Japan) and also for the countries having transitional economics, which applied for firm economical growth in the last decimal (China, Poland, Brazil and others). Exactly this many fielded banking system gives possibilities for using various types and forms of financial service in economics by credit department.

In this system the state creates various mechanisms of artificial reduction of competition among financial organizations. An evident example of this is separation of credit institutions into commercial and investment-credit institutions in the USA, also reduction of the bans of countries in the sphere of realization of many year credit investments and separation of state bank into separate category.

It must also be mentioned, that according to the development and improvement of the economy in the future, perhaps, such activities may not be needed, but under the conditions of transitive economics their importance may not be specially noticed. It is natural, that many-fielded financial sector is formed only under the equal conditions of competition, as there is reason-resulted, reverse-influencing relation. Mentioned relation between many-fielded financial sector and competition is expressed by that it helps creation of advantage regime for the investment activity being in the position of an embryo and its further development.

According to the many-fielded principle of the financial market, the state must work out such a system of regulating investment activity, which guarantees “peaceful” coexistence of various financial institutions notwithstanding their size and specialization. Banks of every category must “act” in their marketing “sphere”, while regulation of banks of different levels from the state is stated according to the rules of regulation. Privately, to our mind, it is important to point out and regulate activity spheres of those banks, which use a capital of governmental organs. Under the conditions of many-fielded system of a financial market competition carries “fair” character and this is why such system is much firmer. Privately, in case of many-fielded system, under the conditions of concrete fight, while financing concrete state programs by forming a system of specialized state banks usage of state resources is possible more effectively. In this case objective usage of lobbing of state resources from the side of commercial banks is not allowed. For example, in Germany realization of state projects of ecological, agrarian, building and other fields are provided by specialized commercial banks. There are specialized credits in the banking system of other developed countries (Japan, Italy, France and so on) too. Such practice significantly reduces danger of incorrect usage of state resources under the conditions of competition fight.

One of the most important factors, which degrade effective development of real sector of the economy, is the irrelevance of the needed financial capital for the regional services. Basic volume of financial resources from the enterprises is accumulated in the center. Such situation is in a way justified for the state, but it is absolutely insoluble in relation with the private companies.

According to the various estimations, regional banks control not more, than 20-30% of inflow of financial resources of the regional enterprise, and this seriously degrades development of the local banks and enterprises. Thus, for solving problems about lack of resources for crediting real sector of a small economics of regional banks, question related with it, must be discussed in relation with outflow of financial resources from the region. Solving of these problems by administrative activities is impossible, processing of appropriate economical activities is needed. We mean the condition, that together with the growth of the share of local budgetary tax income, it is important to define responsibilities of the budgets of municipal creations in the development of regional economics. Thus, financial federalism is that necessary condition, which guarantees, from one side, formation of balanced market of financial service, and, from nother, further development of the investment activities on the basis of appropriate legislative base.

Creation of equal conditions for the competition under the conditions of financial federalism will naturally lead us to the formation of many-fielded system of the financial market. Such process also gives rise to the creation of thick financial centers on the basis of the existed and newly formed banks. Thus, development of regional banks within the bounds of the conception of banking industry development, gives rise to the growth of financial potential o regional economics. At the modern stage conditions of development of bank branch sphere are being widened more and more. Today banks mostly provide sources of basic financial capital inflow in the way of “region-center”, after transition to the real federalism many-fielded banks transform into the banks providing sources for financial capital outflow among the regions.

It also must be mentioned, that it is important to grow the importance of banking business, which must be expressed by forming town and country credit relations, mutual crediting and insurance societies, and loan-constructing associations. All these must be foreseen in Georgia in the process of banking system development and, accordingly, an adequate logistic must be prepared for advantage conditions for development of small and middle banking businesses, because formation of effective financial system in the regional scale is absolutely impossible. Therewith, if we take into account the fact, that the investment portfolio in the structure of joint assets of Georgian commercial banks did not overcome 1% for the first of January of 1999, and 4% for the first of January of 2005, this speaks for the tendencies of growing portfolio investments.

Globalization and internationalization of the world’s industrial relations gives rise to the growth of the role of foreign investments, as financing investment activities.

Foreign investments are hose capital resources, which are taken out of one country and invest abroad in this or that industrial activity, for the purpose of making industrial profit or receiving percents. Foreign investments may be realized in various forms. While analyzing this form we can use distinguished methods of approach for classification of the investments, which men their separation from each-other according to the objects, purposes, terms of investments, forms of property on the investment resources, risks and other signs. Herewith, the necessity of specific of foreign investments defines statement of number of classification features for the investments of this type.

State investments are those resources of state budget, which are directed abroad by decision of the government or inter governmental organizations. These resources may have the face of state resources, credits, grants ot support.

Private (nongovernmental) investments are resources of private investors placed into those objects, which are placed out of the bounds of given country.

They call combined investments joint placement abroad of the resources of the private investors and the government.

Industrial investments are direct or indirect ones placed into the business of this or that type for taking some rights for making profit of dividend kind. Loan investments are related with the distribution of resources under the loan condition, for the purpose of receiving percent.

While analyzing foreign investments, apportioning of straight, portfolio and other investments is of a great importance. Movement of foreign investments according to the international currency funds and methodology of the countries’ taxation balances are reflected in this section.

 As shown in the chapters above, “investments” conceptually express long-term placement of the capital of solid quantity for the purpose of making profit. According to the Georgian low “about support and guarantees of the investment activities” investment is considered to be the valuable of every property and intellectual kind or the right, which is invested for the purpose of making possible profit and is used in the industrial activities provided on the Georgian territory. It may lean upon as inner (inside country), so outer (foreign) sources.

Here a great attention is paid to the investment surrounding (climate), which means real conditions existed in the country for the investments. It defines intensive attraction or declining foreign capital for the long-term investments. I.e. according to the concrete condition, investment surrounding may be as advantage, so in advantage, which is foreseen by every investor before making concrete step. Fundamental analyzing of the investment climate existed in the country and foreseeing risk factors are the basic goal f every investor.

Thus, it is definitely difficult to say, is present situation in Georgia good or bad. It would be more correct if we say that there are as advantage (stimulating), so preventing conditions in the country.

Foreign investments in Georgia are prevented by constitution, by the low “about support and guarantees of the investment activities” and by two-side agreement about investment encouragement and protection. Today Georgia has signed agreements with more then 23 countries about mutual support and protection and with 111 countries – about avoiding two-side taxation.

Legislative foundations and guarantees of their protection of realization of local and foreign investments in Georgia are defined by the low about guarantees and support of the investment activities, according to which foreign and local investors use equal rights. Privately, while realization of investment and industrial activities rights and guarantees of the foreign investors must not be less then those of the local juridical and physical persons.

According to the same low, physical and juridical person, also international organization, which provide investments in Georgia are considered to be the subject of the investment activity.

It must be mentioned, that after paying taxation and compulsory payments, a foreign investor gains right for unreduced repatriation abroad of the profit received from investments and other cash resources, and this may reduced only on the basis of the low – according to the court decision in case of bankrupting, crime or not fulfillment of civil obligations. Herewith, foreign investor has right to take abroad the property being under his/her property.

Georgian low “about supporting and guarantees of the investment activity” foresees as preventing and reductions in the sphere of providing investments, also the guarantee of protecting them, which means untouchable character of the investments and compensation in case of taking away investments within the bounds of the mentioned low. The compensation, which is given to the investor in case of taking investments off him/her, must conform to the real market value of the taken investments for that moment, when the taken off takes place. The compensation must be granted without any hamper and it must concern that loss of the investor from the moment of taking off till paying of the compensation mount.

It must be mentioned, that a new legislative act, which somehow worsens conditions of investments stated by this low, isn’t spread on already realized investments, ten years after its setting. In such case the investor realizes his/her activity according to the actual low until the new one is put down to the action.

A quarrel between foreign investor and state organ, if the method of its decision is not defined by dual agreement, is solved at Georgian court or in the international center of the investment quarrel. In the case, if the quarrel is not discussed in the international center of investment quarrel, the foreign investors have right to apply for the additional institute of the center or any other international arbitrageur organ, which is founded according to the rules set by the arbitrageur and international agreements of the commission of international trade low of the United Nations. Arbitrageur court of international trade palate in Georgia functions from December 11, in 2000.

According to the statistical showing, the most attractive sectors for the foreign investors were production of oil and gas, energetic, telecommunications and food industry according to the statistic showings during last years. Among largest investors there are such companies as (USA), which has invested more then 30 million US dollars into Georgian oil production; – 40 million US dollars of investments in telecommunication; (France) – with the investments in alcohol production; (USA) – investments in distribution and generation of electro power.

By comparing showings we learn, that according to the hydro energetic potential, Georgia significantly overcomes such countries rich in the so-called “White Coal”, as France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Romania and others. Though practically, less then 15% of real possibilities are used, and this gives large perspectives to the foreign investments in Georgia.

The fact is to be mentioned, that the foreign companies are interested in the process of privatization of state property, which is one of the most important part of the realized economical reform in Georgia. The fact, that foreign capital is invested in more then 100 Georgian companies proves this.

For influxing foreign capital into Georgia a positive surrounding is created by the existence of advantage conditions for development of such reduced fields, as oil production, black and colored metallurgy, separate kinds of mechanical engineering, mountain chemical industry, bottling of fresh and mineral water, production of building and decorating materials, tea, wine, fruit, citrus, wool, tobacco, industry of their refining and others.

Though foreign companies provide capital investments into these fields, for example, in agrarian and food industries, but it is provided in a very little quantity.

Among those factors, which give rise to the disadvantage climate for influxing foreign investments in Georgia following are to be mentioned:

· Political strain and not quite seldom facts of lobbing business with unacceptable methods by the representatives of executive and legislative government, this takes away the basis of healthy competition as in common, so among the investors;

· Violation of the territorial integrity of the country, ethno conflicts, Not controlling of Abkhazia and South Alania (Smachablo), difficulties with protecting state boards, which spreads widely the door to contraband and prevents growth of risk factors of  influxing of as native, so foreign investments;

· From the beginning of 90s of last year, analogue to the countries of post soviet space, sharp economical, financial, energetic, food, ecological and other crises developed in Georgia for not ordinal conditions, gave rise to the backwardness of our country’s economy for some decimals. It would be enough to say, that a level of whole European product consisted only 36.8% in 1999, compared with 1991. This was the lowest showing in whole post Soviet space. Such destroying of economical functioning, evidently, reduces requests on foreign investments and significantly restricted their influxing;

For the purpose of statement of the level of spreading negative occasions mentioned above and processing appropriate recommendations World Bank and European bank of reconstruction and development provided joint research, where they learned 22 countries having transitional economics. According to these researches they made a conclusion, that a showing of “state obedience” (of corrupting, taking into hands) in these countries consists average 21%. It must be mentioned, that same showing consists 24% in Georgia. What about average level of administrative corruption, it reaches up to 3%, while in Georgia – 4.3%.Iit is natural, that created situation fears foreign investors and prevents influxing of their capital in a large quantity in our countries.

According to the experience of last years, giving state guarantees to the foreign investments is more difficult. Though, if it were easy to achieve, it would not be enough for the foundation, as Georgian state doesn’t stand on the firm positions, for making n investor sure in stability of the country. For comparing let’s discuss investment surrounding of Czech Republic, privately, that part, according to which investment logistic of the country foresees from April 1998 such scheme of advantages, which concerns taxation, custom and those of definite regions, also, grants for creation working places and so on . According to the mentioned analyze following is cleared out, that equal priorities in using advantages are given as to the foreign investors, so to the local ones. At the same time, if we pay attention to the showing of inflow of straight foreign investments into Czech Republic by years, we’ll see, that after the quantity of straight foreign investments had been reduced in 1997 (1300 billion USD) relatively to 1996 (1428 billion USD), in 1998 it was doubled and consisted 2720 billion USD, and in 1999 equaled to 5108 billion USD. One of the stimulating factors of the mentioned progress must be considered involving a system of advantages activated in Czech Republic from 1998.

Unfortunately, there is not a firm system of foreign investments and insurance yet in Georgia, which would significantly help the process of making investment surrounding healthy and inflow of a large amount of investments from abroad.

Factors preventing development of the country economy – significantly wide scales of shadow economics and corruption, so-called distribution of influence spheres by clans, setting of a barrier in this or that spheres of business especially prevent, from one side, development of local business and, from another – influxing of large-scale international investments.

Thus, a lot of problems (complex of problems) are formed in the process of attracting and using of foreign investments, and they are regulated by

Whole logistic regulating foreign investments may be grouped in the following way:

1.  special norms;

2.  total civil norms;

3.  norms of international agreement.

in the first place belong special logistic and its following acts of quite large quantity.

regulates and conditions relations of foreign capital and enterprises participating with numerous counteragents. We mean various kinds of agreements, questions of representation, researching questions and so on. Thus, civil logistic is used in the case, when regulation of the activities of foreign investors is not provided with the special one, for its tight direction.

is the part of the country’s legislative system. International agreement gains special importance during international economical relations. Activation of the mentioned norm is basically spread on attracting and usage of foreign investments; following legislative acts belong to this sphere:

Dual agreements of foreign investments are discussed in this sphere as additional guarantees of the norms foreseen in national lows. Capital exporting countries and their investors consider that protection of foreign investment is more effectively solved in the way of inter-protection and encouragement of investments.

Such agreement usually defines sources of income – profit and property, which is taxed in the country It is being set, which incomes (profit) and property may be taxed in the country – with some reductions and what source of incomes may be set free from taxations;

From those international conventions, which regulate relations related with the investments, two are important – Seoul Convention about stating many-sided agencies of protecting investment guaranties (1985) and Washington Convention about solving quarrels (1965).

Involving of many-sided system of investment guarantees was outrun by creation and development of state system of insuring capital export in the developed countries.

Before making decision about placement of sources by the foreign investor, one of the important conditions is – guarantees of security and protection of capital investments in that country, where investments are inflown, the state takes obligations – to guarantee protecting of foreign property, guarantee of rights and interests of the foreign investor, guarantee privacy of realization of investment activity of the country territory. Thus, under the conditions of strict competition, state forms as much liberal regime for foreign investors as possible.

Difficulties of definite kind are expressed today in the developing countries and, accordingly, in Georgia in the affair of attracting foreign capital and its effective usage. We my name following reasons for this:

· Regulation of the activities of foreign investors is getting difficult with the absence of stabile legislative base;

· Worsening of material position of the most part of the country population gives rise o the growth of social tension;

· There still are criminal and corruption in some sectors of industrial activities;

· Inappropriate level of infrastructure development; also of transport, communications, system of telecommunication, hotel services, roads and so on;

· High level of unsteadiness of total politics, privately, instability of logistic and court system;

· Absence of joint state investment policy in the business of attracting foreign investments;

· Rich and comparatively cheap resort and tourist resources;

· A large inner undeveloped market;

· Richest reserves of mineral and curing waters;

· Comparatively cheap qualified labor  force;

· Quite high staff of marketing development, which can master new technologies of production successfully and fast;

· Absence of serious competition by Georgian producers;

· Current process of privatization and possibilities of foreign investors in it;

· Possibility for making high profit very fast.

Thus, we can make a conclusion that, compared with the countries of Western Europe, notwithstanding large economical backwardness, Georgia can develop total investment activity comparatively faster, with the help of correct and effective usage of native and foreign investments.

 

Real member of the Academy of Economical Sciences of Georgia and New-York Academy of Science, Doctor of Economics, Professor

Last year skyrocketed 70% within just a few months. Many investors today believe silver will continue to rise due to debt issues and a struggling economy. Some believe silver could even hit 0 before 2014. If you are thinking about investing in silver, this recent pullback may be the best opportunity you will have for a while. After all, silver has performed much better than the stock market indexes over these past few years and any return is better than going into the negative. So the question is, what is causing the to rise?

A big reason is the industrial demand. Silver is used in many different products and usually can’t be recycled. In 1900 there was appropriately 11.5 billion ounces of refined silver in the world. In 1990, that number had dropped to approx. 2.2 billion ounces. Currently, there is less than 250 billion ounces of refined silver in the world. The cause behind this is that silver mined today has already been prepaid for by companies to use in electronics, RFID’s, etc. Also, many of the big producers of precious metals like China have discontinued the exporting of silver because their stockpiles are running low.

As the supply decreases, investment demand has been increasing rapidly. This has caused the huge increase in silver prices per ounce. Back in 2007, silver prices hovered around per ounce. As we start the summer of 2011, it is about per ounce. Some big name analysts have predicted silver to hit before the end of the year. After that, there is no telling how high it will go. The price of silver has been on the rise for the past 30+ years, with only three major dips. You have better odds making money with silver than you do investing in stocks. As we saw in 2008 big companies can go bankrupt real fast and then their stocks are worth pennies.

Sometimes it can be hard to pick an investment that will guarantee to make you money. Silver is one of those options, if you hold onto it long enough you will make a profit. Silver will always be needed for electronics and other household goods and as the supply continues to decrease the prices can only go up. It is very easy to invest in silver with many online retailers and other local options. Get in today if before silver prices per ounce go even higher. If the economy continues to struggle and the dollar continues to weaken you will be glad you did.

As an investor, it call comes down to this: Who do you trust to give you investment advice you can count on and profit from? Do you trust reporters and journalists that are telling you what happened yesterday? Do you trust stock brokers that make their money when you buy stocks they recommend? Investment advice today needs to unbiased and independent. You should only pay for the investment advice you use and you shouldn’t buy that advice from someone who makes money off your trades. That’s what Profit Confidential is all about. Daily we reach hundreds of thousands of investors providing them unbiased investment advice from a stable of financial gurus with proven track records. Together, our editors have over one hundred years of investing experience…providing investment advice and analysis our readers have come to count on day after day.

Markets have hit a barrier in the near term. The charts are concerning, as the NASDAQ, DOW, and S&P 500 are all trading just below their respective key 50-day moving averages on neutral Relative Strength. The near-term technical view for the NASDAQ and S&P 500 are bearish. The key U.S. indices are again underperforming the Chinese Shanghai Composite Index (SCI) this year. The SCI is up 5.02% this year, well above the key U.S. indices.

So, before you get too ambitious and begin to chase stocks higher after dips, let me give you a piece of investment advice.

The key to successful stock picking is to understand the concept of risk management as an essential element to investing success. The reason why I want to discuss risk management is my sense that there are some of you who probably fail to incorporate some sort of risk-management strategy. If you do, that’s fantastic and you are probably sleeping well at night. If you have been delinquent in this area, be careful.

I have been involved in the markets for over 20 years. After reading the strategies of some of the world’s best traders, a commonality surfaces: the most important tenet in trading is preserving your investable capital via the use of risk management. The last thing you want to happen to you is to trade sloppily and lose your tradable capital. Instead of being a player in the exciting world of trading, you would be relegated to watching from the sidelines. But guess what? You can avoid this by following some simple strategies.

When the price of a stock trends higher, you should always think about a potential exit strategy. This does not mean liquidating profitable trades, but rather protecting your unrealized gains.

If you have a price target for your stock, you can sell the stock when it reaches that target. Alternatively, if the gains are significant, you can take profits on a portion of the position and let the remaining portion ride. For instance, if a stock rises by 100%, you can liquidate 50% of the position and let the remaining half ride. Under this simple strategy, you realize some profits, but at the same time create a zero-cost trade, as you have already recouped your initial investment. You can view the remaining half as your risk capital.

Even with the stock market up near pre-September 2008 levels, sound stock market investing advice is never a waste of time. The Schannep Timing Indicator and TheDowTheory stock market investing advice newsletter always provide timely information, no matter what the markets are doing. A subscription to The Dow Theory Newsletter nets you stock market investing advice you won’t find anywhere else online.

Jack Schannep, the author of The Dow Theory Newsletter has had a long and illustrious career offering practical stock market investing advice. His military beginnings at West Point, his career as an aviator and academic instructor in the Air Force gave him the knowledge and discipline he brought to his second successful career as a stock broker with Dean Witter in Phoenix Arizona. His interest in stock market timing and the famous Dow theorist, Robert Rhea, motivated him to study the markets, and offer stock market investing advice based on specific timing factors, and the principles laid out in the original Dow Theory. Schannep’s stock market investing advice has a large and diverse following, and he keeps writing out newsletters, even well into his retirement.

The Schannep Timing Indicator stock market investing advice believes certain factors must exist in order for conditions to dictate a bull or bear market. Stock market investing advice will always tell the investor that trends must be recognized and investigated, rather than taking advantage of market highs and lows. Trend information is much more valuable stock market investing advice because it teaches the investor to ride out the bull and staying out of bear markets, rather than jumping in or jumping out too quickly. Schannep believes his time at Dean Witter – now Morgan Stanley – gave him the insight to offer stock market investing advice, because Dean Witter believed, “Timing – knowing when to buy and when to sell – is one of the most important factors in any investment decision.” Combining data made available in the late 1960s, with the original Dow theories dating back to the early 20th century, Schannep has been able to accurately forecast market activity, making his stock market investing advice some of the most valuable information available to investors.

Stock market investing advice comes at you from all different places. Today, you no longer get it from just The Wall Street Journal. Television, the Internet, and all sorts of alternative outlets offer stock market investing advice, but much of it is not accurate. When you take proven theories, and combine them with decades of experience, you get stock market investing advice that’s worth its weight in gold. A man like Jack Schannep does not have tricks up his sleeves; only hard work, knowledge, and in-depth study of prevailing market factors can create the kind of stock market investing advice that will work for all types of investors. You don’t have to be a financial industry insider to benefit from Schannep’s stock market investing advice; he makes it available to everyone, online.

To learn how to get your hands on Jack Schannep’s stock market investing advice, please visit Thedowtheory. Subscribe to Schannep’s newsletter, and learn how to make investing work for you, without any tricks or shortcuts.

Investment funds are a popular method of individual investing, for the reason that they offer the small investor a way to sidestep his or her low-capital status, and take advantage of the power of a large fund. An investment fund is a large company that pools the resources of many individual investors, giving them access to many more and different stocks, bonds, and other securities than they would otherwise have been able to invest in. The three types of investment funds are the open-end mutual funds, unit investment trusts, and closed-end funds. Each of these types of funds has advantages for investors with different objectives.

Mutual funds are one type of open-end fund, open-end meaning that even after the fund is launched, investors can still pool their money in the fund, and new shares can be created as time goes on to allow these investors a share in the fund. These funds, which can invest in most types of securities, have an advantage over closed-end funds in that their value is exactly equal to their NAV (net asset value): this means that an investor will get shares in the fund worth exactly the amount he invests. Closed-end funds do not have this guarantee.

On the other hand, an open-end fund can become associated with higher costs of maintenance, since creating new shares is not free; also, it is much less stable and more susceptible to the effects of a market panic. This is due to the fact that investors in a mutual fund are free to sell as they see fit, and if too many do so, the manager of the fund is left making necessarily poor selling decisions to raise money, thus diminishing the value of the fund. A unit investment trust is also an open-end fund, but it differs from a mutual fund in that the fund runs for a specified amount of time and has a fixed portfolio, meaning that the manager cannot buy or sell securities different from those the fund began with.

Closed-end funds are another popular type of investment fund. Unlike open-end funds, they launch with a specific number of shares that cannot be increased or decreased during the fund’s run. If a shareholder in a closed-end fund wishes to sell, he or she does not sell directly back to the fund, but instead must sell to another individual buyer. Its shares usually sell at a premium (higher than market price) or at a discount (lower than market price), since the NAV fluctuates more easily. Closed-end funds have other advantages, too: they can be traded at any time of the day instead of only at the closing market price, and closed-ended fund managers may own unlisted securities. While closed-ended funds are more susceptible to market crashes, their stability lies in the fact that they are much more likely to bounce back in the aftermath, thus rewarding those who keep their shares in a crisis.

The three types of investment funds, open-end, UITs, and closed-end funds, all offer their unique features that are not necessarily better or worse for the small-time investor. Each investor must choose which structure he or she feels most comfortable with, and invest there.

We all know that going green is good to Mother Nature. It’s good to conserve energy and help save the dying planet. Yes, the planet is slowly dying because of our deeds. Men have been polluting the atmosphere like never before and cutting trees that are extremely important for ecological balance. If things are continue to go awry, scientists predict that in a few decades there will be a catastrophic change in climate which may lead to warmer climate, unpredictable weather etc.

Men don’t seem to care about all things they do, but keep on doing it. It’s only in the last couple of decades, the awareness about why we have to go green and conserve energy to save the earth from any damage. To this end many companies are launching green products to their customers in a bid to promote energy conservation and environmentalism. It’s good to produce, market and use renewable products so that they are not wasted once they are used. Renewable products can be recycled and used many times.

The advantage of using green products don’t only lie on their renewability; they also provide more value to the buyer. Renewable products are often cheap to produce and hence cheaper in the market. They don’t pose any threat to the environment and not poisonous. Most of the green products are bio-degradable meaning, they will naturally get degraded and won’t just sit on land field for thousands of years.

These days, more and more number of people are aware of the fact that using green products and conserving energy is the only way to a safer planet apart from planting more number of trees. Now finding green products is very much easier than it used to be. A decade ago when less number of people were interested in green products, it was difficult for one to find green products. But these days almost everything is becoming green, even financial products are in green.

Banks and financial companies are competing to attract their green customers by providing green credit cards, green mutual funds, green investments options green investment bonds etc. In financial world, the list even extends to green real estate, green tax rebates, green investment loans, green funds, green franchises and much more. Green investments is become the hot topic of the day. May companies are trying to attract more green customers by providing opportunities in green investments.

There are millions of green activists that are only interested in buying or investing in green products. It’s good that companies are also providing them with the opportunity to invest in green products by offering discounts which will encourage non-conservationists to adopt greenism.

 

If you tell people that you play the market, they’re likely to respond in one of two ways – either they want you to give them investment advice, or they think that they’re experts and they want to give you investment advice.

Today, investment advice is everywhere, but investors should beware – free investment advice is usually worth exactly what you pay for it – nothing!

Using a Stock Broker for Investment Advice

All too often, stock brokers are trained salespeople, more so than trained financial professionals. Before you act on any investment advice from a stock broker, make sure you understand how the broker is paid. Do you pay him a fee specifically to give you investment advice?

If so, does he have any other incentives to advise you to buy a certain stock or financial product? Stock brokers are legally required to disclose any conflicts of interest when giving investment advice, so make sure you ask.

Or, if you’re not paying your broker specifically for investment advice, you need to ask him if he receives a higher commission from the product he’s recommending you buy than from other, comparable products.

Using CNBC for Investment Advice

CNBC is a 24-hour business news channel, and throughout the course of day, dozens of stock market pundits appear on screen to give investment advice. To disclose all possible conflicts of interest, CNBC displays an on-screen graphic detailing if the pundit owns any of the investments he’s advising you buy, or if his family or firm do.

However, the biggest risk in using CNBC for recommendations is that much of the investment advice is distilled into minute sound bytes. This results in an incomplete picture, in which you may not fully understand the pros and cons of a given stock or other investment vehicle.

Using Magazines for Investment Advice

There are numerous magazines that dispense investment advice. The best among them are probably SmartMoney and Forbes.

SmartMoney is geared towards somewhat less sophisticated investors, however, Wall Street pros can read and enjoy the publication without it insulting their intelligence. The good news is that SmartMoney offers in-depth profiles of many stocks and other investments in each issue.

It is also faithfully honest about its best and worst picks, and it routinely reviews how its investment selections have performed over the past year.

Forbes is slightly different type of publication, with a somewhat more affluent and conservative audience. While SmartMoney is geared towards upper middle class investors with a few hundred grand in their 401k’s, Forbes is more for the executive-level investor with a few hundred grand in annual contributions to the Republican Party.

This does not mean, however, that Forbes is not a good publication. It does devote a full 1/3 of its pages to investment advice, and while its investments articles are not as in-depth as SmartMoney’s, they are well-written and concise – and sometimes that’s just as good.

Using the Internet for Investment Advice

There are numerous online sources of investment advice. Yahoo! Finance publishes articles and relays analyst opinion. TheStreet.com has many premium products that give comprehensive recommendations. But easily the most famous website for investment advice is MorningStar (morningstar.com).

MorningStar is best known for its mutual fund reviews, but it also publishes research reports on individual stocks. However, MorningStar has come under increased pressure lately as many of its picks have failed to pan out.

MorningStar assigns stocks ratings of one to five stars, and critics charge that the company will give a bad stock a good rating, and then as the share price falls, MorningStar upgrades the stock – saying it’s fallen too far and is now a great bargain.

The problem? The stock sometimes continues to fall. In the case of certain stocks like Microsoft (MSFT) and eBay (EBAY), MorningStar may soon have to create a sixth star to give them as they continue to plummet in value.

The message is – beware of all investment advice. Get your recommendations from multiple sources, always check the advisor’s track record, and be wary of any potential conflicts of interest. And the next time your brother-in-law tries to give you some investment advice, refer back to the first paragraph of this article.