Financial Terms Glossary: WHAT IS AN OPTION?

Financial Terms Glossary: WHAT IS AN OPTION?

Corporate Finance
An option, in finance, is a contract between two parties that gives the buyer the possibility, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an underlying asset at a specific price on a future date. The underlying asset can be of different types, some examples are: Equity Forex Commodities Bond Index The specific price at which the buyer has the right to buy or sell the underlying asset is called "strike price." (K). There are two main types of options: 1. Call Option: A call option gives the buyer the possibility to buy the underlying asset at the strike price at a future date. This type of option is preferred if you have upward expectations of the underlying security. 2. Put Option: A put option gives the buyer the possibility…
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SP rises $2.72 locking in 4 weeks straight of gain, as Nvidia delays H20 chip to 2024

Daily in Portfolio Management
Nov 24th, 2023 - Today’s indices performances: Nasdaq closed at 14,250.85 (-0.11%), S&P 500 at 4,559.34 (+0.06%) and Dow Jones at 35,390.15 (+0,33%).  Portfolio holding Nvidia (NVDA) (0.215 units @ $462.20) shares fell 1.93% today after international news organization Reuters reported that they will delay to Q1 2024 the launch of their new AI chip H20, that was developed to be sold to Chinese companies while complying with US export restrictions. H20 is being delayed due to issues server manufacturers are having in integrating the chip, as Reuters's source said. The delay could have negative consequences for Nvidia’s performances in the Chinese market, and local competitors such as Huawei may take advantage of the situation. Nvidia is working on two other chips to comply with US export rules: L20 and…
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Introduction to the stock market

Introduction to the stock market

Educational in Portfolio Management
WHAT IS A STOCK? A stock (or share) is a share in the ownership of a company, which means that every shareholder has ownership of the company in proportion to his share.  If the company is a listed company, its shares are sold in the stock market. The stock market is the place where shares of public companies are bought and sold by retail and institutional investors. If you have shares of a corporation, you can participate to shareholders meetings and vote, receive dividends (if the company distributes them), and you can sell the shares to somebody else. Stocks change their value over time, and this is caused not only by the company’s performance, but also from other factors such as global market trends, central bank decisions on interest rates,…
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Comapnies lower expectations as negative macro data is unveiled

Daily in Portfolio Management
Nov 23rd, 2023 - Today the New York Stock Exchange is closed, as it is Thanksgiving Optimism towards Black Friday, happening this week, is decreasing as retailers cast doubt on holiday spending. Many companies reduced their outlooks or forecast after dynamics of a slowdown in spending came to light. There’s a widespread sense of uncertainty in consumer spending, after months of persistent inflation, which cast an overwhelming feeling of volatility and lack of confidence in consumer markets. This comes around just at the beginning of holiday spending, which in the last years saw an incredible growth following expansionary fiscal and monetary policies. (G.Fonrouge)In the last couple of days the drama surrounding OpenAI and the departure and return of Sam Altan have been in the headlines of all news’ outlets. This…
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The new millennium’s crises: 2001 vs 2009

The new millennium’s crises: 2001 vs 2009

Markets
The increase in interest rates, inflation and the consequent stagnation of the economy are all current issues, which, especially in this period of economic slowdown, causes concern. It is not the first time that the world economy has experienced a period of recession: there are numerous cases in economic history. This article will focus on the two crises of the new millennium: the 2001 and 2008 crises, also known as the Dot-Com bubble burst recession and the Great Recession. The former, the Dot-Com bubble crisis, is a stock market phenomenon that took place in the late 90s, was fueled by the rise of internet-based businesses identifiable by their ".com" domain addresses. The start of the New Economy began when Netscape, a company that introduced the first commercial web browsers, went…
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Yield rates continue falling, as Investors grow optimistic about Fed being done rising rates

Daily in Portfolio Management
Nov 22nd, 2023 - On Wednesday, Dow Jones gained 0.53%. The S&P 500 climbed 0.41%. Nasdaq composite increased by 0.46%. Yield rates fell to the lowest level since September! On Wednesday morning, the yield on the 10-year Treasury dropped to 4.369%. Later on, it bounced back and was last trading at 4.433%. The investors remained optimistic about FED not raising the interest rates in December. However, the FED indicated that they are decisive on keeping the restrictive monetary policy, which means that a rate cut is not expected any time soon.  One of our Portfolio holdings, NVIDIA (NVDA) (0.215 @467.57) reported their quarterly earnings which beat Wall Street’s expectations. They announced $4.02 earnings per share compared to expected $3.37. They also topped revenue expectations with  $18.12 billion announced vs $16.18…
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Types of valuation methods

Types of valuation methods

Educational in Portfolio Management
As our second educational article, the portfolio management division decided to introduce the topic of value analysis. There are many ways to analyze the value of a company; some serve the purpose of obtaining a figure representing the total value of a firm, whilst others are purely for the use of traders and retail investors, like us. Today, we will look into three different types of analysis: discounted cash flow modeling (a.k.a. DCF), comparative analysis and then fundamental analysis.  Discounted Cash Flow Modelling: Discounted Cash Flow models are used to value companies based on how much cash they will generate in the foreseeable future. The basic assumption of this model is that a dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow, meaning that the forecasted cash flows (a.k.a. FCF)…
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Portfolio holding rises following newly signed contract

Daily in Portfolio Management
Nov 21st, 2023 - One of the main news related to the US defense sector today is the 27 million dollars  contract, signed by the joint venture Bell-Boeing (TXT/BA), according to which the two  companies will provide platform engineering assistance during the development of the V-22  aircraft in Texas and Pennsylvania. Thanks to this important agreement, Boeing’s stock price  rose by 1.05% tuesday. A 3.6% growth was recorded by Metallic Minerals Corp. (MMG) shares. This change in price was mainly due to an important project carried out by the company: acquiring the Khoemacau copper mine and its previous owners, Cuprous Capital Ltd., for a total of $2 bln This investment is coherent with the increasing importance that MMG, whose main shareholder is China Minmetals, is giving to copper's future world…
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The upheaval at OpenAI and Mastercard’s effort against Cryptocurrency fraud

Daily in Portfolio Management
Nov 20th, 2023 - The world of artificial intelligence looks very different today, indeed, after the extraordinary upheaval at OpenAI of the weekend, Microsoft (MSFT), the OpenAI’s biggest investor, announced on Sunday night that it would have hired Mr. Altman, the former CEO of the AI giant, to run a new advanced research lab. Microsoft late-night announcement restored its stock price, which had dropped after Friday’s news: Altman’s hiring can be considered as a major win for Microsoft and should lead to further gains for stock. The massive shakeup of the weekend affected Nvidia (NVDA)(0.215 units @ $462.20) as well since OpenAI and Microsoft are both big buyers of Nvidia’s GPUs but the company continues showing strength with a further accomplishment: it will keep selling their chips to the Chinese…
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Sam Altman’s possible return, Inflation Concerns, and AI Advancements.

Daily in Portfolio Management
Nov 19th, 2023 - Sam Altman this morning unexpectedly published on twitter: “I am so back.” Hinting at a possible return, following the news that a day after OpenAI’s board of directors fired him, in a shock development, Investors in OpenAI are considering a countercoup to reinstate the former CEO. Venture capital firms, in collaboration with Microsoft (MSFT) and OpenAI employees, are exploring strategies such as a mass revolt by senior researchers, withholding cloud computing credits, and potential lawsuits to pressure the current management.   The Federal Reserve’s battle against inflation might not be over, despite market optimism. Susan Collins, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, expressed caution in an interview with CNBC, diverging from traders who anticipate a reduction in the benchmark interest rate. Collins stressed the need…
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