The Bitch Ditch

Justin Gibbs and James Miles are a couple of guys the wine industry hates to love.

The London International Vintners Exchange, an Internet- and phone-based wine investment news exchange they launched nine years ago, has injected some transparency into the infamously opaque fine wine market. For a fee, merchants can buy and sell wines at fair, market-dictated prices — a move that has encouraged a few investment funds to get into the game. Prices have soared since Liv-Ex launched, in part due to Asian-led demand. Ten years ago, a case of the Bordeaux red Lafite 1982 was worth 2,450 pounds ($3,946); today it’s worth 25,000 pounds ($40,250).

Liv-Ex resembles an old-fashioned stock market with a commodities-exchange twist: Its 240 member merchants and funds can buy and sell wines–sometimes “en primeur,” still-in-barrel wines that are effectively a wine future–though the buyer always takes delivery, anonymously via the phone or Web, paying a commission of 2% to 3% for each trade. The trades are settled with Liv-Ex, which receives the wines at its 2,500 square foot warehouse, checks their condition and authenticity and ships them. There aren’t any restrictions on what wine the merchants can trade, though around 40% of the business happens on wines from the top five chateaus, Haut Brion, Lafite Rothschild, Mouton Rothschild, Margaux and Latour.

It’s still a tiny business. Operating in a spacious office in the leafy London suburb of Clapham, Liv-Ex only conducts some 2.5% of the $3 billion of sales done by the global wine industry annually, from around 1% of the market in 2000. But it’s starting to have impact. The Liv-Ex 100 Fine Wine Index–comprised of a select list of wines that have scored 95-plus points out of 100 by leading critics–is used by wine funds to value the collection of wines in their fund. So far in 2009, wines appear to be outperforming stocks. The Liv-Ex 100 Fine Wine index (reported monthly) was up 4.6% at the end of June, from the start of the year, while the S&P 500 was still down 1.3% over that period.

The system isn’t as efficient as it could be, admit Gibbs and Miles. Though Liv-Ex’s storage system for the wine traded is a step up on what they started with - thanks to a freight business they bought two years ago. The problem is that the wines aren’t kept permanently in the warehouse but shipped from seller to buyer. The result? A crate destined for a neighboring merchant in Bordeaux could end up going all the way to Britain and back again.

The Price: On a manually raised system, you always have the possibility that you may enter an incorrect price, so you do open yourself up to potentially losing money in this way if it is not spotted in time. Coming back again to our fully comprehensive system, the selling price is usually entered independently, either as part of the inventory program, (where you are selling standard products or services), or through the sale order processing module if it is a bespoke product or service; either way, the sales price is raised beforehand and independently of the sales invoice. It is still possible of course for an incorrect sales price to be entered, purely because of human error; as they say: to err is human. But the comprehensive systems have the ability, and the routines, to run reports showing cost of sales and profit or margin reports. This is the mechanism that has been included to act as a “failsafe” to pick up any anomalies.

Value extensions: This is one of the biggest problem areas of manual systems. The price extensions, (whereby the unit price for the product or service is multiplied by the quantity supplied), are calculated remotely, usually on a calculator or sometimes even in the operator’s head. It is very easy to tap in a quantity of 10 instead of 100 for example, and the error may never be discovered. This cannot happen with the comprehensive electronic business system software package. The quantity of the product or service that is to be supplied is entered when the sales order is entered into the sales order processing module. This then generates all subsequent paperwork including the picking lists (order to stores or warehouse), the delivery note, and of course the sales invoice.

General Sales Tax: Once again, with a manual system this is something that has to be calculated remotely and then transcribed to the invoice, creating an opportunity for errors to creep in. With the comprehensive package, or any electronic invoicing solution, the general sales tax is set as a default according to your state regulations. Look at WebDoc for further information about electronic invoicing.

One of the most distressful financial nightmares is bad credit. People who have negative credit generally look to get out of it by engaging the services of an independent agency. Even so, with the innumerable number of similer agencies all providing their own range of services, it can get confusing to go after the most viable choice. And the fact that these companies make it sound perplexed does not contribute to the issue by a lot. Along with that is the difficulty of obtaining a loan with the current global economic position; banks now ask for exceedingly high credit ratings prior to approving a loan on good terms. If you happen to be one of those people whose financial standing has been damaged because of bad credit, then fast credit repair is what you need. Remember, that you do not need to have specialized knowledge on fast credit repair. You can get out of that depressing credit rating without necessarily having to employ the services of a third party and pay expensive service charges.

Consistent use of credit cards is one of the main reasons for bad credit. Avoid using a credit card where it’s not necessary. And if possible, try to arrange a monthly limit on your credit card, so you don’t end up spending more than your limit. This is one of the strategies used for fast credit repair and will help keep your credit card expenses low. Furthermore, close any other unneeded credit accounts. They may not accumulate any visible charges, their visual existence on your credit reports can harm your total score. You’ll find out that fast credit repair is not really unmanageable!

People generally tend to disregard the easier strategies to fast credit repair. They do not deal with the problem themselves. Instead, they hire costly services. These services are almost identical. They go through the credit reports of the person and draw up a decision which is based on their findings. This task is not mind boggling, and something that can easily be achieved by the person himself. Thus, people are better off doing the simple things themselves, rather than paying high charges to get them done elsewhere. Because, towards the end of the day, pulling yourself out of bad credit is something you need to accomplish yourself, and not the business you’ve engaged the services of.

Asset management is the management of a company’s assets by a team dedicated entirely for this purpose. The company’s assets, apart from its capital portfolios, also involve its infrastructure, plant, property, and human resources.

Now, consider a scenario in which these assets have to be managed manually. These will involve some disadvantages. First of all, the chances of human error increase, not to mention the consumption of the time of the professionals involved. This in turn means waste of resources and also the resulting inefficiencies that slow down business returns.

The answer to this problem lies in asset management software. The software is designed to keep a track of the company’s assets, provide for analysis, and thereby prove an effective tool in managing a company’s resources. In other words, asset management software helps to keep track, monitor and analyze business processes and resources. It automates the work processes that were previously manually done. This, in turn, helps to speed up the work and minimize errors.

Another advantage is that people who are involved in manual file management can be diverted to more productive work. Also, skilled professionals will save time in searching for required data. This results in the optimum utilization of resources, thereby adding to the productivity of the company.

As said, asset management involves the management of all assets in a company by a professional team. Now, to manage these assets, the team first of all needs to know what the assets of a company are. This is where the role of the asset management software comes in.

The software can keep a track of an asset. This includes its initial purchase value, running costs, service costs, depreciated value, and upgrades. The team can then use this information to assess the present value of the asset. The information can also help the company charge individual departments for the usage of that asset. The current value and condition of an asset can also help the procurement department of a company in that the people can decide whether the asset is in a usable condition, needs upgrades, or needs to be replaced altogether.

Asset management software is an effective tool for a company to manage its assets, analyze data and arrive at business decisions. The asset data is placed in a central easy to access repositories. The individual departments can access it through the company’s intranet. The accurate data, accessed at a click of the mouse, can lead to more effective decisions and also a better management of a company’s assets.

Asset Management provides detailed information about asset management, asset management software, asset management systems, and more. Asset Management is affiliated with Highest CD Rates.

We have demonstrated that vertical spreads have intrinsic value,
and that we can roughly determine their value by comparing stock
price to strike prices. There is another relationship that can
help investors determine value. That is the relationship that
exists between corresponding vertical spreads.

When we use the term corresponding we mean the same month, the
same strikes in the same stock. The only difference is between
calls and puts. For example, the XYZ Sept. 30 - 35 vertical call
spreads’ corresponding spread would be the XYZ Sept. 30 - 35
vertical put spread. Similarly, the ABC June 70 - 80 put
spreads’ corresponding spread would be the ABC June 70 -80 call
spread.

The importance of understanding the relationship of
corresponding vertical spreads is that the sum of a vertical
call spread and its corresponding vertical put spread is going
to be equal to the difference between the two strikes.

If the April 30 - 35 call spread trades at $2.00, then the April
30 - 35 put spread will be worth $3.00. Let’s review this. The
difference of the two strikes is $5.00 and the cost of the call
spread is $2.00. That means the cost of the put spread will be
$3.00. The chart below is a floor trader’s pricing sheet that
shows where individual options are trading and what they are
worth based on each trader’s individual inputs.

From this we can calculate the price of any spread. Pick any
vertical spread. Now, calculate the value of a vertical call
spread or a vertical put spread. Once you’ve done that,
calculate the value of its corresponding vertical spread. Add
the two spreads together and see if that sum is equal to the
difference between the two strikes. Perform the calculations
several times on different vertical spreads. Try it on $5, $10
and even $15 spreads.

It is not necessary to understand the rationale for why this
works at this time. It will be covered in a future Options
University release. For now, it is important to understand that
these spreads are related and the price of one can help you
calculate the price of the other.

Ever wondered what is a mutual fund? A mutual fund is a pool of money run by a professional or group of professionals called the “investment adviser.”

A mutual fund is a company that pools money from many investors and invests the money in stocks, bonds, short-term money-market instruments, other securities or assets, or some combination of these investments. The combined holdings the mutual fund owns are known as its portfolio. Each share represents an investor’s proportionate ownership of the fund’s holdings and the income those holdings generate.

Because it is sometimes hard for investors to become experts on various businesses for example, what are the best steel, automobile, or telephone companies, investors often depend on professionals who are trained to investigate companies and recommend companies that are likely to succeed.

In a managed mutual fund, after investigating the prospects of many companies, the fund’s investment adviser will pick the stocks or bonds of companies and put them into a fund. Investors can buy shares of the fund, and their shares rise or fall in value as the values of the stocks and bonds in the fund rise and fall.

Investors may typically pay a fee when they buy or sell their shares in the fund, and those fees in part pay the salaries and expenses of the professionals who manage the fund.

Even small fees can and do add up and eat into a significant chunk of the returns a mutual fund is likely to produce, so you need to look carefully at how much a fund costs and think about how much it will cost you over the amount of time you plan to own its shares. If two funds are similar in every way except that one charges a higher fee than the other, you’ll make more money by choosing the fund with the lower annual costs.

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. So don’t be dazzled by last year’s high returns. But past performance can help you assess a fund’s volatility over time.

Making any sort of investment involved a certain amount of risk so it is always wise to seek the advice of a professional before making any decisions.

You may freely reprint this article provided the author’s biography remains intact:

John Mussi is the founder of Direct Online Loans who help UK homeowners find the best available loans via the http://www.directonlineloans.co.uk website.

On the back of record highs for gold, copper and nickel, the Australian stock market has overcome concerns about higher oil prices, consumer debt and real estate slowdown.

The Australian iShare ETF (EWA) started the year slowly as international fund flows pulled back but has rebounded nicely up 9.69% in the last 30 days and 13.55% for the year.

The perception that Australia is nothing but a commodity and China play is wrongheaded. The Australian economy is well diversified with 5% of GDP attributed to mining, 5% to tourism and 80% to services. It also represents the third largest stock market in the region and is a leading regional financial center.

While labor rigidities and the growth of government could slow down Australia’s juggernaut economy, it is taking some measures to address these issues. It recently enacted a $17 billion cut in personal income taxes over three years and the independent central bank is raising rates. The leadership has also introduced a package of “radical” labor reforms which if enacted would also be a big plus. The aim is to give employers more flexibility and to bring labor negotiations down to the local level. The measures would increase probationary period for new employees from 3 to 6 months, exempt businesses with less than 100 employees from unfair dismissal laws and favor individual contracts over collective bargaining. All of these measures will be fought by the Labor Party and trade unions.
The market is not especially expensive - 12-month forward p/e ratio is about 16x, in line with average over past three years and below high of 18x. However, keep in mind that this low multiple is based on forward and aggressive forecasts of corporate profits.

The Australian iShare (EWA) is an excellent play on continued Australian growth. Its largest exposure is to the banking sector followed by the materials area. BHP Billiton, Ltd. (BHP) is its largest holding at 12.6% and it has also reached a record high this week. The company is the largest mining company in the world, has a larger market capitalization than Coca-Cola Company and earned $6.5 billion in profits in fiscal 2005. BHP the company recently announced plans to return some $2 billion to shareholders in the form of stock buybacks. It also increased its dividend by 30%.

Unlike past boom and bust cycles, companies like BHP are trying hard to avoid the risks of overexpansion and overcapacity. The consolidation in commodities has resulted in just a few companies controlling the bulk of trade in minerals such as iron ore. BHP’s advantage over rival Rio Tinto is that it has oil and gas operations benefiting from higher prices.
The MSCI All Country Index weights Australia at just 2.27%, I suggest that you consider doubling this allocation for your own global portfolio

Delfeld has 20 years of global investment experience including stints in Hong Kong, Sydney and Tokyo and served on the Executive Board of the Asian Development Bank in Manila. He was also a consultant to the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. Congress on international investing and is a columnist on global investing for Forbes Asia magazine.

For more information about Chartwell’s ETF investor advisory services, please go to http://chartwelladvisor.com/etf_investing.html or call Carl Delfeld direct at
(719) 264-1503.