Nov
16
Companies that provide invoice discounting services allow businesses to release an agreed percentage of cash from their accounts receivable in advance of the debtor settling the account. This is similar to the role played by factoring companies, except that in the case of invoice discounting the lenders do not take on a credit management role. Therefore businesses must make their own in-house arrangements to chase debtors, and also bear any risk associated with bad debts. Obtaining insurance against bad debts is usually recommended.
Advantages of Invoice Discounting
When businesses are owed money, they may know (or hope) that it will be received eventually, however in the meantime they do not have access to funds they have already earned. With cash flow being such an important part of a healthy business lifecycle, the delay in receiving income can cause major problems, and may even hamper survival. Invoice discounting services can actively negate cash flow pressures, leading to the creation of a business environment in which growth can take place. Typically, a lender will offer a business up to 90% of the value of assigned invoices to creditworthy debtors in advance, the remaining 10% – less any fees or other charges, such as interest – being paid when the funds are actually received.
The invoice discounting process will not affect customer relations, which is an important consideration for many businesses considering this route. Often companies offering invoice discounting services do so under a confidential arrangement, so that customers never know that an external lender is involved at all. This makes it easier for businesses to offer ‘standard’ credit terms of between 30 and 90 days, whilst still benefiting from financial advances to ease cash flow.
Nov
13
If anyone is tiring of a nine to five existence and craving the flexibility that working from home can provide, then joining the ever growing band of currency trading individuals could be the way forward.
The advent of the internet has seen a boom in the number of people entering what is the most liquid and constantly available market in the world. With no centralised hub, the market simply follows the sun and remains open for 24 hours a day. The advantage here is that you can keep the day job until you become established and test out your Forex currency trading skills in the evenings.
The spare time approach is probably the way most people get into Forex trading, as a complete novice is unlikely to make immediate killings of a George Soros nature. That said, the very low cost of entry means that an enthusiast has the opportunity to make some decent money on the side with the prospect of setting the foundations for a complete home-based business of the future.
So what are the minimum requirements? Not much at all is the answer. A computer with internet access and an account with one of the many Forex brokers advertising their services on the web is about all. Of course, the broker account will need to have some funds deposited in it, but not nearly as much as a lot of people might imagine.
A Forex account with £1,000 in it will allow trades of up to 200 times that level to be carried out. This “margin trading” mechanism gives low entry traders the ability to do bigger deals whilst at the same time providing the broker with security for any losses.
Nobody can be expected to waltz straight into Forex and buy and sell without proper training and broker sites can provide the necessary guidance. Many will have demo account facilities allowing for virtual trading where strategies and systems can be tested without financial risk. A lot of them will also have guides to demystify the intricacies of things like Forex charts.
Full time or spare time, the choice of a good broker and a willingness to learn should ensure new entrants get the best Forex experience in the comfort of their own home.
Nov
9
Forex Trading
This is a financial trading process which involves the buying and selling of foreign currencies to make a profit. The profits are built gradually as the exchange rates vary in the trader’s favour. Depending on the parts of the world you trade in and the times of day, as well as the exchange rates in that country at any given time, the process can be very successful and lucrative. There are several online trading platforms that can be used to trade forex and these work differently to the traditional methods of the Stock Exchange Pit where you have to be present to trade. Online trading platforms provide statistics and data that indicate market trends allowing you to make an informed decision whether to buy or sell. CitiFX Pro is one of these platforms and there are many CitiFX Pro reviews around to show that this is a successful platform to use.
CitiFX Pro
CitiFX Pro is one of the many forex trading platforms that are available for traders to choose from. The difference with this is that it is one of the more established and lucrative platforms available at the moment. It provides a platform for individual traders as well as co-operations and has many benefits that others do not. For example, they provide access to over 130 currencies. Most of the platforms available provide only the liquid currencies, which come with the least risk. Some may see this as a valuable asset but there may be profitable markets within the higher risk currencies and CitiFX Pro provides access to trading of those. They also offer advice from expert traders including the analysis of charts and highlighting upcoming trends with access to Autochartist. This platform comes with many more benefits such as its ability to trade in over 60 countries. This means that it can trade in any country where the market is favourable, and in addition it can trade at any time of day, which means it can catch the favourable trends in different time zones and make more profits this way.
Nov
8
Cash flow is crucial to the smooth running of a business. The yearly profit reports can be a good indicator of performance but the truth is that a company has to operate every day of the year and this means that money must be available at all times for paying employees, investing in stock and assets, and covering all overheads. In many businesses, cash does not come in totally smoothly every day or week in a uniform fashion and instead big payments tend to come in clusters with large gaps in between. This can affect industries such as manufacturing, construction, or even fast paced financial companies where ready availability of cash can make or break a tricky deal.
Invoice financing is a tried and tested method that has been in existence since the late Middle Ages and has a strong history of smoothing out cash flow. It has its origins as a method for traders to keep running in between shippings of goods, as there was often a very long time between payments. The tradition of invoice financing as an alternative to loans has continued to this day.
Invoice factoring uses the outstanding debts on a sales ledger to provide cash for a company. The financing company agrees to pay the business a certain percentage of the value of the debts, often up to 90 per cent. In return, the company takes control of the ledger and chases up the debts from the clients, receiving the full value and thus earning a profit. In addition, some factoring companies offer a financial processing service whereby they process the sales books. This can be extremely helpful for smaller companies who do not have their own established administration departments.
Financing using invoices is a relatively safe method since only outstanding payments can be used to create ready cash. In the case of invoice factoring, it can even help to improve profits by reducing accounting overheads. The downside is that clients will deal with the factoring company for payments, possibly altering client-business relations. For a service that does not involve this, use invoice discounting.
Nov
5
One of the most common questions, when it comes to trading forex, is how much it costs. While everyone is familiar with the actual trade investment, there are other costs required to trade forex. The cost to start trading varies, based upon the broker or platform you use.
Five Types of Costs
The five most common types of costs to trade forex include commissions, slippage, spread, platform fees and expenses. Brokers earn their money by charging a commission on trades. They are eager for you to profit, as they receive a set percentage of each successful trade. Some also charge a flat rate based upon how much you trade.
Slippage refers to the changes in rates when you decide to buy. While a quote price may be one thing, by the time you choose to buy or sell, the rate could change. The difference is called the slippage and varies based on the price change.
The difference between the asking price and the bid is called the spread. The larger the spread, the more you stand to lose or gain.
The final two expenses vary. Some brokers charge a platform fee, which may be a single time, monthly or yearly. Other expenses include any software you buy, forex training materials and subscriptions to forex services.
Nov
2
All companies require funds in order to buy assets, pay employees and pay for any contract work they need. Even the most basic business has start up costs at some point, whether it be for advertising space in a newspaper, buying in raw material from abroad or the equipment needed to process orders. Therefore, it is very important for anyone looking to start up a business to be aware of the different types of business financing.
The first type of business finance that most people will be familiar with is a business loan. Business loans are taken out from banks specifically for use in a business and depend on the bank’s trust in your company’s value. Business loans have interest added to the repayment and the loan must be repaid to the bank on or before a certain agreed date. The second type of financing is from investors. This type of financing does not have to be repaid but the investor and the business agree upon a percentage of profits to be paid to the investor. Investments are usually made after the initial set up period.
Oct
29
The history of currency trading is fascinating and the market’s peaks and troughs are often the cause or result of economic crisis somewhere in the world.
Before the days of Forex brokers and day trading, the value of a particular currency was backed by gold until the conflicts of the 20th century depleted reserves. The mighty US economy then stepped in, and under the Bretton Woods Agreement the dollar became the standard against which other currencies would be converted.
The weight of this burden was unsustainable and in 1971 President Nixon declared that the US could no longer cover all of the foreign held dollars with gold. The question then for world leaders was whether or not to float.
Floating exchange rates create real market conditions of course, with values affected by the simple economic rules of supply and demand. By 1976 most of the world had accepted this and so the road to constantly fluctuating exchange rates and the associated opportunities to make or lose money through Forex currency trading took another step forward.
Although still a while away from what we know today, the stage was set and the coming decades would see the telex and long distance telephone calls replaced by systems allowing Forex brokers and traders to do deals in split seconds.
Oct
25
Simply the Best
The retail trading platform, CitFX Pro, has won an award for margin forex trading. In the United Kingdom, the magazine ‘Profit & Loss’ announced that the platform was their ‘Reader’s Choice’ in the category of ‘Digital Markets Awards’. The magazine’s readership follows the derivatives and currency markets worldwide.
The magazine’s subscribers were asked to choose winners in 14 key categories, including best service provider, best broker and best bank. In all, more than 10,000 votes were cast. This award is in addition to several others won by Citi in the bank provider class. No less than six awards were made, including the ‘Best Retail FX Platform’.
City Forex representatives believed that the magazine’s readers recognised the continued efforts the company has made to introduce the most comprehensive research, best pricing and superior technology to the more expert individual traders in the forex market, as well as to smaller and middle sized institutions.
Support and Service
Citi Forex offers its clients service around the clock, using committed specialists who are trained to cater for both administrative and trading requirements. This superior quality service is personalised, a feature very much appreciated by traders.
Pricing
With the declared goal of bringing equitable and fair pricing to all its clients, Citi Forex enjoys a reputation for promoting best practices, which have been developed over decades of forex trading.
Top-Level Trading Platform
With CitiFX Pro, clients hold one account and have access to four platforms. They can trade whenever and wherever they happen to be via programs specifically designed for mobile phone, web, desktop and MetaTrader 4 use.
Oct
24
Invoice factoring will enable around 80 percent of the money on the company’s debtors list to be released up to 60 days before it is actually due for payment by its customers. This article is intended to explain some of the benefits of invoice factoring.
The first benefit is that you gain almost instant access to money you have already earned, without having to wait for the invoice to become payable and subsequently having to chase the customer for it. By borrowing the money you can keep cash flowing consistently through your business, which will keep it financially healthy.
Secondly, you can usually borrow as much or as little as you need, depending on your company’s specific needs. Of course, the maximum available is dependent on the amount owed on the debtors list. You could choose to borrow less than this; the actual amount is down to you.
The third benefit of invoice factoring is that you do not need to waste time and money on credit control, chasing money owed from customers over the telephone or via email. This frees you and your employees get on with more important core tasks, such as increasing sales and growing the company.
A final great thing about invoice factoring is that absolutely no other assets are required in order to secure the funding. Invoice factoring gives you easier access to cash than approaching your bank and asking for a traditional loan.
Oct
21
With technical analysis, you can determine how currencies have performed historically and then make predictions about how your trade is going to go based upon those factors. With fundamental analysis, you can study a particular country’s health and its impact on currency strength; the more stable a currency’s country, the more stable that currency is likely to be.
Is one type of analysis better than the other? There are some purists who prefer one rather than the other. Generally, however, most investors use a combination of both technical and fundamental analysis to help them get the most accurate picture of how well a particular currency is going to perform. This will ensure your trades are based on sound principles, rather than pure guesswork.
It is important to remember that, as with any type of analysis, you are looking for objective information to base your trades on. Forex trading can operate somewhat intuitively, but you will want to focus on a forex system whereby you use objective information to plan and execute trades, which helps ensure you stay out of the emotion of the moment. If you do not have an objective system in place that utilises data to help you plan when you are going to get in and out of your trades, it may be difficult to operate effectively. The ability to analyse objective information and then apply it to your trading strategy will facilitate success.
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