After the virus COVID-19 hit America, the Fed Chairman Jerome Powell took on unprecedented measures to stimulate the economy, including lowering interest rates to 0% — meaning banks can get quite literally free money. In addition to that, the government also sent out $1200 “stimulus checks”. After over 6 months of stimulus, what has been the effect? One of the most notable impacts of the stimulus is the effect it has had on the stock market. All of the major stock indexes have not only returned to pre-covid levels, but are above pre-covid levels. While nobody knows for sure why this has ..read more

Tesla, a stock (in)famous for its crazy swings up and down in short spans of time, is up over 500% in the past six months, and is up 200% in the past three months. With a P/E ratio of 849, many investors are wondering: what has been pushing the stock to astronomical prices and then causing it to collapse? Often, all within weeks or even days. The Stock’s History Since going public in 2010 Tesla has been infamous for being a very volatile stock. In the past year Tesla’s stock has gone from $230 in August of 2019 to almost $1000 in February, then it dropped back down to around $320 a ..read more

The Trump Administration has rolled back many environmental protections in an effort to allow companies to maximize profits. But with ever increasingly eco-conscious consumers and proposed regulations, the question should be asked: is it more profitable to be Eco-friendly? Regulation Since his inauguration, the Trump Administration has rolled back 68 laws put in place to protect the environment, with another 32 planned to also be rolled back (nytimes.com) . On the other side of the political aisle, a new type of regulation has been proposed: carbon caps. Rather than taxing the output of ..read more

Mortgage backed securities, or MBS. The infamous villain from the 2008 financial crisis that was mentioned in countless congressional hearings and even featured in the 2014 movie The Big Short. But what is a Mortgage backed security? Were they really responsible for the economic meltdown? History Of Mortgage Backed Securities Up until the creation of mortgage backed securities, when a bank made a loan to someone, the bank assumed all the risk. But in 1968 a trader at Solomon Brothers named Lew Ranieri, realized that banks could repackage up mortgages and sell them to investors at a discount ..read more

Soar Payments was launched in 2015 with the goal of providing industry-leading solutions in the high risk merchant account space. Since then, Soar Payments has expanded to offer payments and credit card processing solutions to mid risk and low risk merchants, too. These businesses include those owned by Soar Payments friends and family, as well as hardworking entrepreneurs and business owners across the nation. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, the sales and support teams do indeed deliver that “Texas Hospitality” you’ve heard so much about! Cowboy boots are optional, but highly encouraged, at ..read more

How could an accounting rule cause the great recession? In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, many were looking for places to point the blame and say “THAT was the reason our economy was in turmoil!” What they came to realize was that although the crash was a very complicated issue, and that the economy crashed for a variety of reasons, there are a few things that are credited for causing and worsening the crisis, like: subprime mortgages, credit default swaps, and an accounting method known as “fair value accounting”. While it may seem surprising that a simple method of accounting h ..read more

Exchange Transfer Funds (ETFs) and Mutual Funds are words that are sometimes used interchangeably. However, these two asset types are radically different and appeal to different types of investors. Let’s first start with why ETFs and Mutual Funds may be used interchangeably. The two are similar in their basic functionality as both pool an investors money and use that to purchase investments. That is where their similarities end. ETFs and Mutual funds differ in three ways: 1. The way they are managed, 2. Their composition and 3. How often you can trade them. Differences in Management: A m ..read more

In 1934 congress passed what is known as the “Securities Exchange Act of 1934”. The act among other things, created the SEC and laid the foundation for insider trading laws under Section 10b. This gives the SEC the power to prosecute fraud in the stock market, which includes insider trading. Every so often there is a high profile insider trading case in the news, from hedge fund manager Steve Cohen, or currently, congressional insider trading (which wasn’t made illegal until 2012). With insider trading in the news, I think the question should be asked: should insider trading even be illeg ..read more

The Lone survivor amidst this storm Technology companies can offer a wide range of services. Some companies such as Apple and Lenovo offer their technologies in the form of hardware such as personal computers and mobile devices. Other companies such as Microsoft offer technologies in the form of software’s such as Operating Systems or Web Browsers. In the case of hardware focused technology companies, they will find their supply chains disrupted due lock downs around the globe. This can come in the form of their manufacturers no longer producing the goods, retailers and distributers no lo ..read more

Intro to Covered calls What is a Covered call ? A covered call is a transaction in the financial market in which the investor selling call options owns the equivalent amount of the underlying security. In order to execute this transaction an investor holding a long position in an asset then writes (sells) call options on the same asset to generate an income stream. In order to understand what a covered call is we need to know what a call option is. A call option is a financial contract that gives the option buyer the right but not the obligation to buy a bond, stock, commodity ..read more