Fundamentals of Fundamental Analysis

Lets talk a little bit about fundamental analysis. I will start with the different ways of valuing companies. There are three major ones.

1.Discounted Cash Flow Valuation

This method is simple. Before continuing, we need to talk about the concept of “Present Value”. It  is one of the most useful and widely used concepts in all of finance. Present Value is basically valuing future money in today’s terms. E.g. what is the value today of a $100 note you will get tomorrow? It will be around $90, assuming 10% interest rate. The idea behind it is this: $90 will be invested today at 10% and you will get a return of $9 which should roughly give you a $100 by tomorrow.

In the Discounted Cash Flow Valuation, we first find the future cash flows of a company in the future. Note that they are future cash flows and hence have to be estimated. Then, we find the Present Value of these future cash flows. This is done through ‘discounting’ the cash flows.

Discounting is just the opposite of what I did in the first paragraph. Instead of multiplying $90 by 10%, I can divide $100 by %10 to roughly give $90.

2.Relative Valuation

In this method, the value of a company is based on how other similar companies are priced. This can be done through ‘multiples’, ‘comparables’ etc

We usually need three things for this type of valuation:
-An identical or group of companies. For example, companies in the same sector or the same size in terms of earnings.

-Standardized price. We usually divide the equity price(share price) by a common variable such as book value or earnings.

-Control for differences. Finally, we try to control for the different variables that might affect the valuation.

Contingent Claim Valuation

This is the most complex(and most quantitative) model of the three. This involved using ‘options’, more specifically, ‘real options. I will be talking about options later when I start my Derivative Securities course in March.

For now, I will just say this method allows valuation of companies which would not have been possible without the use of options.

One major point about valuations through options is: Risk. Usually, the higher the risk, the lower the value of a company will be. This happens as people are usually risk averse and would rather invest in something which is more certain. However, using options, value of companies increase with risk! There is some food for thought to leave you with…

Practical Applications of Candlestick Charting:Reversal Patterns part 2

I will finish off the section on Reversal Patterns of candlestick charts with this post. Some people might wonder why am I focusing so much on candlestick charts whereas there are more important fundamental technical analysis concepts yet to learn. The reasons for that is:

1. Candlestick charts are extremely important. It can be quite hard to get ones head around reading the candlestick charts initially.
2. The other technical analysis concepts such as drawing resistance line are relatively easier.

So lets get done with it.

Harami

Harami is a two candle formation. There are two types as shown below.

Bullish Harami

Implication: bullish (prices will increase after this signal is seen)

Criteria:

1. First candle is black and second candle is white
2. End of a downtrend is a black candle
3. The second day opens higher than the close of the previous day and closes lower than the open of the prior day.( Basically, the second candle has to be ‘inside’ the first)

Signal Enhancements:

• The longer the candles are
• The higher the white candle closes up on the black candle

Bearish Harami

Everything is just the other way round to the Bullish Harami above.

Morning Star

This is a three candle formation.

Implication: bullish

There is a downtrend which ends with a long, black candle. The following day there is a gap down with a small, white candle signifying some indecision. Finally, there is a long, white candle indicating that the buyers have taken control and prices are going to increase.

Criteria:

1. There is a downtrend which ends with a black candle
2. First candle is black(continuing the current trend)and the second candle is short and white(indecision)
3. Third candle is a long, white candle which should be at least halfway up the black candle

Signal Enhancements:

• The longer the black and white candles are
• If there is a gap between the first day and the second day
• A gap before and after the ‘indecision’ day

Evening Star

It just the opposite of the Morning Star. Notice how the second candle doesn’t need to be a white candle. It can be a doji signifying indecision.

Kicker Signal

According to many traders, this is a powerful signal. It works well in both directions i.e. it can be both a bullish and a bearish signal. It is a two candle formation. The left image is a Bullish Kicker signal whereas the right image is a Bearish Kicker Signal.

Criteria:

1. The trend is not important. For example, for a Bullish Kicker signal, the share doesn’t need to be in a downtrend for the reversal to occur.
2. The first day’s open and the second day’s open are the same.

Signal Enhancements:

• The longer the candles
• Having a gap between the two candles

Caveat:

If the price gaps back the other way the next day, get out of the trade immediately

Inverted Hammers and Shooting Star

These patterns are just the other way round of the Hammers and Hanging Man we learnt in part 1. Again, this is a one candle formation.

Shooting Star

A good way to remember this signal is that the Japanese named this pattern as such because it looks like a shooting star falling from the sky with a tail trailing it.

Implication:bearish

Criteria:

1. Found at top of an uptrend
2. The following day should either be a black candle or a gap down with a lower close to confirm the signal
3. Upper shadow should be at least two times the length of the body
4. No/very small lower shadows

Signal Enhancements:

• The longer the upper shadow
• A gap up from previous days’ close
• Large volume on the day Shooting Star occurred

Inverted Hammer

Implication: bullish

Criteria:

1. Found at the bottom of a downtrend
2. The following day should be a white candle
3. Upper shadow should be at least two times the length of the body
4. No/very small lower shadows

Signal Enhancements:

• The longer the upper shadow
• A gap down from previous days’ close
• Large volume on the day the Inverted Hammer occurs

References:

Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques by Steve Nison

PROFITABLE CANDLESTICK TRADING: Pinpointing Market Opportunities to Maximize Profits by Stephen Bigalow

http://stockcharts.com/school/doku.php?id=chart_school:chart_analysis:introduction_to_candlesticks

Amartya Sen:An economist who didn’t live in the ivory tower

I thought I should switch gears a bit and talk about a personality. In this post, I will be talking about one of my role models Amartya Sen, a Bengali Nobel Laureate in Economics, instead of talking about technical analysis. Amartya Sen is an academic who focused for the largest part of his life on social problems such as famine unlike other economists. This is why I like him so much. He wasn’t bogged down by nitty-gritty mathematics and theoretical economics although he is very adept at that as well. He is an impressive person with 8 pages on Wikipedia! However, this isn’t going to be another article about his life, education, contributions etc. I will be focusing more on his ideas and how he thinks instead. This post will emphasize more his view points on different topics especially justice.

Being able to reason linked to morality

• Sen argues that clear headed reasoning leads to a better society.
• He thinks that there have been many instances of malevolent acts which are committed by people who are deluded on the subject.
• The example he uses is where a child harms an animal because s/he is not able to understand the pain of others.
• He concludes that there is a link between being anti social and inability to think clearly

The ‘Social Contract’ View of Justice

• This approach is dominant which Sen disagrees with
• One of his main arguments he makes is that by asking what a perfectly just society looks like is harmful because:
  -Justice is relative
  -It is not important for policy setting as we want to remove the injustices
  -We are able to get agreement on what are unjust rather than what a perfectly just society looks like. For example, we can all agree on abolishing slavery

• There is no perfectly just society as all societies will fail. Therefore, there is no such thing as a just and unjust i.e. there is no dividing line. Rather there is increasing and decreasing of justice. There are societies which are very unjust and others which are less unjust.

Limitations

• There can be only one precise combination of principles which assumes identifying uniquely a combination of ideal social institutions. However, no clear choice can be made.
•  Some injustices will be removed through reasoning. Reasoning can reduce the acceptability of principles. Then, among the acceptable principles, they will compete with each other and allow you to arrive at some decisions while others won’t. (This is the nature of the subject of justice)
• In this approach, only participants who are ‘part of the social contract’ have an influence in the public discourse to achieve or ask for justice. But the contract is based on a nation by nation basis usually which limits the discussion and participants only to citizens of a nation.

The ‘Social Choice Theory’ View of Justice

• Sen agrees and promotes this view of justice more.
• Sen says the theme of this view is that it argues to improve justice and remove injustice rather than asking what a perfectly just society looks like.

Achieving Justice

• Sen says that the idea that we are going to have one set of principles for justice which we can all agree on is not an appropriate way of thinking about justice. It depends on who gets the most benefit; not on priority or principle. In his book, Idea of Justice, he gives an example of three kids fighting over who should get a flute to illustrate this point.
• Justice has to be achieved among competing principles. Agreement will be reached not on the basis that the principle is not important but on the ‘magnitude of the principle’. Quantities and qualities may be taken into account.
• Sen gives two recommendations for achieving justice:

1. We cannot confine our interest to a nation by nation basis for understanding the demands for justice as it limits the discussion. The idea that we can follow each other (which is always a hard thing to do) within a country but never beyond that is the problem. It is not that cultures are very different, people themselves are very different!

2. We should try and avoid the trap of colloquialism. There is a possible danger of ignoring and neglecting possible counter arguments which would not have come up in the local/national regional debate. But these arguments are worth considering in an impartial manner.

Banking Regulations and GFC

• Sen also shows how the ‘Social Contract’ view is wrong as it assumes people will follow the ideal behavior we find through knowing the strategies to have ideal institutions. However, as we have seen people don’t necessarily follow this ideal behavior.
• Bankers’ behavior has not changed. It is regulation which has changed. There was no reason for the deregulation which has taken place since Reagan.
• Sen argues trillions of dollars were lost due to the financial instrument, Credit Default Swaps, insurances when there is catastrophic failure. They were not classified as insurance and were exempt them from insurance regulation. People didn’t understand them and this caused so much money to be lost.
• He also thinks the current incentive system is not good and has to be changed. There is need of more regulations to fix this.

Organizing society to achieve justice

• Sen does not take a relativist position and argues one culture can criticize another.
• He also thinks democracy (in john stuart mill sense where governance is by discussion) is central to achieving justice.

Theory of Evolution

Survival of homo sapiens(survival of the fittest) is not a normative theory. It is what happens in nature and Sen thinks we are inclined to go along with it and sometimes we don’t. People assume that if it emerges that another species is better suited than homo sapiens, then we will be completely sacrificed. However, Darwin is not a survivalist of any species and gives us very little clue about extinction of species. There is a lot to learn from Darwin but not just ethics since the conext is vague. An example is that we don’t exterminate disabled people. We take care of them instead which is a just thing to do.

Religion

• He doesn’t take a stance on religion as he cherry picks his principles from religions
• However, there are many arguments in religion which are important to pursue.
• He cites Akbar, the Muslim Indian Emperor, very often. Sen holds Akbar to a very high regard for his tolerance and his secular principles even though he was a religious person. There is a quote by Akbar which he likes a lot which shows his stance.
• Akbar’s quote: If there is a choice between reason and faith, you have to choose reason. Even if you denounce reason, you have to give some reason to denounce reason!

Globalization and the developing world

• Benefits of globalization are huge
• It is important to make sure they are equitably shared.
• There needs to be a removal of bias to sympathize on a human to human level of other peoples’ sufferings instead of patronizing them. This attitude is far more common than realized.
• Sen is currently trying to change the nature of globalization and its reach and cover.

One of the main concepts that Sen emphasized is this: it is important to recognize that a sense of injustice is the beginning of the exercise of reasoning to justice.

Practical Applications of Candlestick Charting:Reversal Patterns part 1

Now that we know what the basic patterns look like, we can go into particular patterns that appear. In this post, I will be going through the major reversal patterns. There are lots of other ones which I won’t cover as they are less important due to them appearing less frequently and the low probability associated with an actual reversal happening.

Reversal patterns suggest the current trend will switch(uptrend will become downtrend and downtrend will become uptrend). A trend reversal doesn’t usually take place over one day. It may be over weeks or months.

Note: It must be stressed; however, that memorization of these names of the signals is not required! The important thing to consider are the various attributes of the signals and be able to read current market psychology from the candles formed.

Doji

Dojis are neutral as neither buyers nor sellers have won in the session. They are formed whenever the body is very small compared to the shadows. The reason they are mentioned in this section of reversal patterns is because Dojis can tell us when the trend will stop and just move sideways. There are many types of Dojis but again it is not important to remember all the names.

If a Doji forms among other candlesticks with small bodies, it would not be considered important. However, a Doji that forms among candlesticks with long bodies, then that would be deemed significant.

Some of the signals mentioned below are a bit more complex and hence will be split up into implication, criteria and signal enhancements. Signal enhancements refer to the signals having a higher chance of a reversal in the trend.

Engulfing Patterns

Engulfing Patterns are a major reversal pattern. They are combinations of two candles of two opposite colored bodies.

Bullish Engulfing Pattern

Implication: Prices will increase (steeply)

Criteria:

1. First candle is black and the second candle is white
2. Forms after a downtrend which signifies end of a downtrend
3. White candle of the second day completely ‘engulfs’ the black body of the first day

Signal enhancements:

• A large body engulfing a small body shows there is significant buyer pressure which is causing prices to increase
• Large volume on the engulfing day increases the chances of a steep and rapid increase in price for a short time
• The engulfing body engulfs more than one previous body
• The engulfing body engulfs the body and the shadows of the previous day
• The greater the open gaps down from the previous close
• When the Engulfing Pattern occurs after a rapid price decrease, there will be less supply of stock to slow down the reversal move. The price will overshoot more than usual.

Bearish Engulfing Pattern

Implication: Prices will decrease (steeply)

Criteria:

1. First candle is white and the second candle is black
2. Forms after an uptrend which signifies the end of an uptrend
3. Black candle of the second day completely ‘engulfs’ the white body of the first day

Signal enhancements:

• A large body engulfing a small body shows there is significant seller pressure which is causing prices to decrease
• Large volume on the engulfing day increases the chances of a steep and rapid decrease in price for a short time
• The engulfing body engulfs more than one previous body
• The engulfing body engulfs the body and the shadows of the previous day
• The greater the open gaps up from the previous close
• When the Engulfing Pattern occurs after a rapid price increase, there will be less supply of stock to slow down the reversal move. The price will overshoot more than usual.

Hammers and Hanging Man

These are signals where candles have long tails above or below their bodies.  Hammer and Hanging Man look exactly the same except have different implications. There should be either a very short tail or none at all on one side of the body. Tail length is usually required to be two times the length of body

Hammers (Takuri)

Implication: bullish (prices will increase after this signal is seen)

Criteria:

1. Found at bottom of downtrend
2. Positive day is required the following day to confirm the signal
3. Lower shadow should be at least two times the length of the body
4. No/very small upper shadows

Signal Enhancements:

• The longer the lower shadow
• A gap down from previous day’s close
• Large volume on the day a Hammer occurred

Hanging Man

Implication: bearish (prices will decrease after this signal is seen)

Criteria:

1. Found at the top of an uptrend
2. Upper shadow should be at least two times the length of the body
3. No/very small upper shadow
4. Following day needs to be a black candle or gap down with a lower close

Signal Enhancements:

• The longer the lower shadow
• Gap up from previous day’s close
• Large volume on the day Hanging Man occurred

Piercing Pattern

Two candle formation; first is black (continuation of existing trend) and the second candle is formed by opening below the low of the previous day

Implication: Bullish

Criteria:

1. First candle is black and second candle is white
2. There has been a downtrend which ends with a long black candle
3. White candlestick’s open is below the previous candle’s close
4. The white candle closes more than halfway up the black candle (the white candle ‘pierces’ into the white candle)

Signal Enhancements:

• The longer the black and white candles are
• The greater the gap down from previous day’s close
• The higher the white candle closes into the black candle
• Large volume during the two trading days when the candles form

Dark Cloud Cover

Just the opposite of piercing pattern

Implication: Bearish

Criteria:

1. First candle is white and the second one is black
2. There has been an uptrend which ends with a long white candle
3. Black candlestick’s open is above the previous white candle’s close
4. The black candle closes more than halfway up the white candle

Signal Enhancements:

• The longer the white and the black candles are
• The higher the gap up from previous day’s close
• The lower the black candle closes into the white candle
• Large volume during the two trading days when the candles form

Note:If the day’s close is at or below the previous day’s open turns this pattern into a Bearish Engulfing Pattern

References:

Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques by Steve Nison

PROFITABLE CANDLESTICK TRADING: Pinpointing Market Opportunities to Maximize Profits by Stephen Bigalow

CHARTING SECRETS:Stop Reading Start Practising by Louise Bedford

http://www.informedtrades.com/4642-bearish-bullish-engulfing-patterns-how-trade-bullish-bearish-engulfing-candlesticks.html

Practical Applications of Candlestick Charting:Basic Patterns

Different Patterns

There are two things to look out for: Continuation patterns and Reversal patterns. In this post, I’ll be focusing on the basic patterns. Before I get into particular basic patterns, it is important to understand that everyone who trades should have a plan.

Ultimate Criteria for the Optimal Trading Program
• Proven and tested results.
• Easy to identify reversal indicators.
• Elimination of emotional decision-making aspects.

To come up with the optimal trading program, one needs to:

• Learn the signals.
• Evaluate the most profitable trades quickly.
• Learn what confirming indicators are the most effective.

Note: Candlestick patterns are short-term and usually effective for only 1 or 2 weeks, bullish or bearish confirmation should come within 1 to 3 days after the pattern.

The Basic Patterns

Long day

Definition: A large price move from open to close i.e. the day when the open and close prices are quite far from each other

Evaluation: The recent price action of a stock determines whether a long candle has been formed. Previous two or three weeks of trading should be a current representative sample of the price action

Signal: Depends whether body is black or white. If long and black, sellers are in control and hence bearish. Similarly, if long and white, it is bullish.

Comment:It doesn’t mean that the trade is long but just that the candle is relatively longer than the rest.

Short day

It is just the opposite of long day.

Black Marubozu

Definition: There are no shadows extending from either end of a black body

Evaluation: The open equals the high and the close equals the low.

Signal: Long black body with no shadows at either end signals bearish continuation or bearish reversal pattern. It is considered a weak indicator.

White Marubozu

Definition: There are no shadows extending from either end of a white body

Evaluation: The open equals the low and the close equals the high.

Signal: Long white body with no shadows at either end signals bullish continuation or bullish reversal pattern. It is a strong pattern because of the way it forms.

Closing Marubozu

Definition: There is no shadow extending from the closing end. The body can be either black or white.

Evaluation: A white body does not have a shadow at the top. A black body does not  have a shadow at the bottom.

Signal: In both cases, these are strong signals corresponding to the direction that they each represent.

Opening Marubozu

Definition: There is no shadow extending from open price end of the body.The body can be either black or white.

Evaluation: A white body doesn’t have a shadow at the bottom end and a black body doesn’t have a shadow at the top end.

Signal: In both cases, these are strong signals corresponding to the direction that they each represent.They are strong signals but not as strong as closing marubozu.

Comment: In Japanese, Marubozu means ‘close cut’ hence why there are no shadows.

Spinning Top

Definition: It is a small body with longer shadows at both ends

Evaluation: This shows that neither buyers nor sellers are in control due to indecision.

Signal: In a sideways market, the trend is neutral. However, in a trending or oscillating market, the next day’s trading will probably move in the direction of the opening price.

Doji

Definition: It is a candlestick where the open and close are the same(or nearly). The length of the upper and lower shadows can vary, and the resulting candlestick looks like, either, a cross, inverted cross, or plus sign.

Evaluation: It also shows indecision between buyers and sellers. Prices move above and below the opening level during the session, but close at or near the opening level.

Signal: In an uptrend, it is a signal that the buyers are losing conviction and hence there might be a bearish reversal. In a downtrend, it is a signal that sellers are losing conviction and hence there be a bullish reversal.

Comment: It is one of the most important signals. Always watch out for the Doji.

Note:

-Reversal patterns happen AFTER a directional move. For example, a bearish reversal pattern can happen in the following two ways. Price has been increasing and then it starts decreasing or price has been increasing and then it starts moving sideways.

References:

Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques by Steve Nison

PROFITABLE CANDLESTICK TRADING: Pinpointing Market Opportunities to Maximize Profits by Stephen Bigalow

http://www.vss2000.com/support/iChartPROc.asp

http://stockcharts.com/school/doku.php?id=chart_school:chart_analysis:candlestick_pattern_

Introduction to Candlestick Charts

What are the 4 most important and basic indicators for trading? You shouldn’t even think about it. Boom! Its open,close,high,low.

Candlestick charts, first introduced by Steve Nison in the late1980s, captures all 4 of those indicators in one diagram. I don’t understand why they are not common(or even taught) here in the west but in Japan, it is as common as the bar chart. Lets first get into some history before introducing it.

History:

Legend has it that Japanese rice traders developed candlestick charting over a 400-year period. Candlestick charts’ longevity shows how useful they are.

Kosaku Kato(1716-1803) was born in Sakata .He was adopted by Honma familu and became known as Sokuta Honma. He was the most respected rice trader in Japan and produced a lot of wealth for his family.

Although Honma did not initiate Candlestick analysis, his rules and philosophies give the technique credibility. He is the first known person to undertake pattern recognition.He had written 160 rules that became the cornerstone of Japanese candlestick analysis as well as the basis for Japanese investment disciplines.

So, What are candlestick charts?

Candlestick charts are a combination of a bar chart and line graph. Candlestick charts are a visual aid for decision making in stock,forex, commodity, and options trading. Candlestick charts can also improve Elliot Wave and Fibonacci analysis.

Here is an example:

Example of a candlestick chart

You should note the following:

• The box is the body of the candlestick
• Height is the range between the day’s open price and the day’s close price.
• If the Body is black, that means closing price was lower than opening price.
• If the Body is white, that means closing price is higher than the opening price.
• Lines above and below the body are called shadows. They represent the high and low prices reached during the trading day.

Two important things to remember about them are:

1. They can tells us the mood. There are many historical examples of how candlesticks have reflected greed and fear, exuberance and panic.
2. Candlestick signals are created by the change in investor sentiment.

For example, when the bar is white and high relative to other time periods, it means buyers are very bullish. The opposite is true for a black bar.Finally, it can also be based on volume instead of time.

Next, I will give a few examples and more practical applications to candlestick charting.

References:

Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques by Steve Nison

PROFITABLE CANDLESTICK TRADING: Pinpointing Market Opportunities to Maximize Profits by Stephen Bigalow

Its all about either Technical Analysis or Fundamental Analysis

Finance is a mysterious subject. It has a bit of everything from accounting to economics to psychology. The most attracting feature about it is, it is all about making money!(something the academics don’t believe in)

There have been movies made and thousands of books written about the mystery of the stock market. People have tried to understand it and try to make money from it for many years. These people range from a local self learning investor who has no knowledge in finance to big institutions using complex mathematical algorithms who are interested in finding about how the stock market works. As a result, a lot of research and techniques have been developed.

These techniques can be broadly classified into: Technical Analysis and Fundamental Analysis. Technical Analysis tries to predict future short term price movements. Note short term! It can’t be used for predicting which way the price will go for a share next month for example. Typically, a time frame of minutes or seconds is used. The argument for why Technical Analysis works is that in the short term, all the variables are fixed and hence why predictions can be made as opposed to long term predictions where there are so many variables to consider.(more on that in future posts)

Fundamental Analysis tries to predict long term future price movements. It takes into account all kinds of factors that may affect a company’s valuation i.e. share price. They can be things such as inflation rate, dividends and sales of the firm. Note that this is long term. People who use Fundamental Analysis usually predict future price movements for the next month or year. Fundamental Analysis is what intuitively most people should use as you are actually valuing companies and checking whether they are under-priced or not.

In conclusion, it is best to use both. Every technique and little bit of knowledg is useful. This is not to say to try and use everything you learn! One has to critically evaluate what is useful and what is not. For now, I am going to assume both are useful as it is riskier to think something is wrong(intuitively) without having much knowledge in it.

…Start of self-learning!

In my last three years, I haven’t learnt anything about technical or fundamental analysis. I remember there was only one slide in my Business Finance course on their definitions and the fact that they are used by analysts. Thats it!

Concepts such as Candlestick charting and Elliott Wave Principle didn’t even have a mention. Reading financial reports was something left to the accountants. We haven’t had prescribed readings of books such as “The Intelligent Investor” or “Liar’s Poker”.

I can understand that if one wants to learn fundamental analysis that they should take accounting courses. I have done two accounting courses.The problem with this approach is that the courses are too heavily focussed on the accounting procedure. There is just too much of debits and credits. There isn’t enough P/E ratios and diddly squat on using indicators. There isn’t enough analysis!

To be fair,I understand universities are there to provide academic financial concepts. Concepts that can be empirically tested.Concepts that involve models, such as the Capital Asset Pricing Model, where regressions can be used for example.

I guess it comes down to this. There is a key difference one should make between financial knowledge and trading.Don’t get me wrong. I have learnt a lot of useful things at university such as Bond evalutaions and Net Present Value.

At the end of the day, universities are there for you to get a job. They can’t teach someone how to trade!

End of university…

I remember being very excited in my first year of university as I enrolled into a finance course. It was called “Finance 1″.  Three years on, it is nearly the end of my university life and I am beginning to wonder how much finance I have actually learnt in the last three years.

Finance at university seems quite boring .To be honest, I learned a lot more economics, abstract financial models and advanced mathematics rather than the fun, exciting financial knowledge. I am keen to get back that ‘thirst’ for financial knowledge I used to have.

So I have decided to start a blog about my financial knowledge in general. This will hopefully help me increase my financial knowledge(and hopefully increase yours if you follow me!) and keep me upto date with current finance topics.