0_Wizard
I have always wanted to work in finance or the study of investments.
Finance is a field that deals with the study of investments.
chosen_Finance_0
Finance
chosen_topic_0_Finance
Oddworld Inhabitants
Oddworld Inhabitants Inc. is an American video game developer founded in 1994 by special-effects and computer-animation veterans Sherry McKenna and Lorne Lanning. The company is primarily known for the incomplete "Oddworld Quintology", a series of award-winning video games about the fictional planet of Oddworld and its native creatures. The series debuted with "" in 1997 and continued with "" in 2001 but the studio has also developed standalone titles "" in 1998 and "" in 2005. Oddworld Inhabitants took a break from game development for a time following the release of "Stranger's Wrath", even though it had already begun preliminary work on its next Oddworld title, "The Brutal Ballad of Fangus Klot".
Islamic banking and finance
Islamic banking or Islamic finance () or sharia-compliant finance is banking or financing activity that complies with sharia (Islamic law) and its practical application through the development of Islamic economics. Some of the modes of Islamic banking/finance include "Mudarabah" (Profit sharing and loss bearing), "Wadiah" (safekeeping), "Musharaka" (joint venture), "Murabahah" (cost plus), and "Ijar" (leasing). Sharia prohibits "riba", or usury, defined as interest paid on all loans of money (although some Muslims dispute whether there is a consensus that interest is equivalent to "riba"). Investment in businesses that provide goods or services considered contrary to Islamic principles (e.g.
Panama Papers
The Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents that detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. The documents, some dating back to the 1970s, were created by, and taken from, Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, and were leaked in 2015 by an anonymous source. The documents contain personal financial information about wealthy individuals and public officials that had previously been kept private. While offshore business entities are legal (see Offshore Magic Circle), reporters found that some of the Mossack Fonseca shell corporations were used for illegal purposes, including fraud, tax evasion, and evading international sanctions.
The War I Always Wanted
The War I Always Wanted (2007) is a nonfiction war memoir by Brandon Friedman. The story details Friedman's experiences in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq between 2001 and 2004, roughly tracing his metamorphosis from a young, eager cadet into a disillusioned-but-wiser adult and veteran. The book received favorable reviews upon publication and within three years had been named one of the best memoirs of the past decade by media outlets like the "Military Times" and "Daily Kos". Spanning the course of three years, Friedman tells his story through a combination of present action and flashbacks. In all, he covers events in Afghanistan (including his experience in Operation Anaconda in March 2002), the 2003 invasion of Iraq and his time in Baghdad, the beginning of the insurgency in northern Iraq during the latter half of 2003, and his re-adjustment upon returning home in 2004.
Venture capital
Venture capital (VC) is a type of private equity, a form of financing that is provided by firms or funds to small, early-stage, emerging firms that are deemed to have high growth potential, or which have demonstrated high growth (in terms of number of employees, annual revenue, or both). Venture capital firms or funds invest in these early-stage companies in exchange for equity, or an ownership stake, in the companies they invest in. Venture capitalists take on the risk of financing risky start-ups in the hopes that some of the firms they support will become successful. The start-ups are usually based on an innovative technology or business model and they are usually from the high technology industries, such as information technology (IT), clean technology or biotechnology.
History of private equity and venture capital
The history of private equity and venture capital and the development of these asset classes has occurred through a series of boom and bust cycles since the middle of the 20th century. Within the broader private equity industry, two distinct sub-industries, leveraged buyouts and venture capital experienced growth along parallel, although interrelated tracks. Since the origins of the modern private equity industry in 1946, there have been four major epochs marked by three boom and bust cycles. The early history of private equity—from 1946 through 1981—was characterized by relatively small volumes of private equity investment, rudimentary firm organizations and limited awareness of and familiarity with the private equity industry.
Subprime mortgage crisis
The United States (U.S.) subprime mortgage crisis was a nationwide banking emergency, occurring between 2007-2010, which contributed to the U.S. recession of December 2007 – June 2009. It was triggered by a large decline in home prices after the collapse of a housing bubble, leading to mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures and the devaluation of housing-related securities. Declines in residential investment preceded the recession and were followed by reductions in household spending and then business investment. Spending reductions were more significant in areas with a combination of high household debt and larger housing price declines.
1_Apprentice
Oh really? What interests you about investing?
0_Wizard
I would like to be a stock broker.  Some people call finance the study of investments.
Finance is a field that deals with the study of investments.
chosen_Finance_0
Finance
chosen_topic_0_Finance
Stock
The stock (also capital stock) of a corporation is constituted of the equity stock of its owners. A single share of the stock represents fractional ownership of the corporation in proportion to the total number of shares. In liquidation, the stock represents the residual assets of the company that would be due to stockholders after discharge of all senior claims such as secured and unsecured debt. Stockholders' equity cannot be withdrawn from the company in a way that is intended to be detrimental to the company's creditors. The shares together form stock. The stock of a corporation is partitioned into shares, the total of which are stated at the time of business formation.
Short (finance)
In finance, short selling (also known as shorting or going short) is the practice of selling securities or other financial instruments that are not currently owned (usually borrowed), and subsequently repurchasing them ("covering"). In the event of an interim price decline, the short seller profits, since the cost of (re)purchase is less than the proceeds received upon the initial (short) sale. Conversely, the short position closes out at a loss if the price of a shorted instrument rises prior to repurchase. Potential loss on a short sale is theoretically unlimited, as there is no theoretical limit to a rise in the price of the instrument.
Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (, , commonly referred to as Dodd–Frank) was signed into United States federal law by President Barack Obama on July 21, 2010. Passed as a response to the financial crisis of 2007–2008, it brought the most significant changes to financial regulation in the United States since the regulatory reform that followed the Great Depression. It made changes in the American financial regulatory environment that affected all federal financial regulatory agencies and almost every part of the nation's financial services industry. The law was initially proposed by the Obama administration in June 2009, when the White House sent a series of proposed bills to Congress.
Islamic finance products, services and contracts
Banking or banking activity that complies with sharia (Islamic law) — known as Islamic banking and finance, or sharia compliant finance — has its own products, services and contracts that differ from conventional banking. Some of these include "Mudharabah" (profit sharing), "Wadiah" (safekeeping), "Musharakah" (joint venture), "Murabahah" (cost plus finance), "Ijar" (leasing), "Hawala" (an international fund transfer system), "Takaful" (Islamic insurance), and "Sukuk" (Islamic bonds). Sharia prohibits "riba", or usury, defined as interest paid on all loans of money (although some Muslims dispute whether there is a consensus that interest is equivalent to "riba").
Citigroup
Citigroup Inc. or Citi (stylized as citi and pronounced like "city") is an American multinational investment banking and financial services corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomerate Travelers Group in 1998; however, Travelers was spun off from the company in 2002. Citigroup now owns Citicorp, holding company for Citibank, and several international subsidiaries. Citigroup ranks 4th on the list of largest banks in the United States by assets and is one of the Big Four banks in the United States, alongside JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo.
Kotak Securities
Kotak Securities Limited, a subsidiary of Kotak Mahindra Bank, is the stock broking and distribution arm of the Kotak Mahindra Group. It is a corporate member of both the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India. Kotak Securities was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Mumbai, India. Kotak Securities Limited is a financial services company. Its major business comes from stock brokerage service for investors and traders. The stock broker offers services such as share trading, derivatives trading, mutual funds, IPO, Exchange Traded Funds, Currency Derivatives, Tax Free bonds, portfolio management, Stock Lending and Borrowing and Interest Rate Futures.
Net capital rule
The uniform net capital rule is a rule created by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") in 1975 to regulate directly the ability of broker-dealers to meet their financial obligations to customers and other creditors. Broker-dealers are companies that trade securities for customers (i.e., brokers) and for their own accounts (i.e., dealers). The rule requires those firms to value their securities at market prices and to apply to those values a haircut (i.e., a discount) based on each security's risk characteristics. The haircut values of securities are used to compute the liquidation value of a broker-dealer's assets to determine whether the broker-dealer holds enough liquid assets to pay all its non-subordinated liabilities and to still retain a "cushion" of required liquid assets (i.e., the "net capital" requirement) to ensure payment of all obligations owed to customers if there is a delay in liquidating the assets.
1_Apprentice
The study of investments, huh? Can you really study that? Isn't the stock market pretty volatile in that there really isn't any way to predict it?
0_Wizard
The stock market no, but finance is similar to the field of insurance. Finance involves sturdying assets and liabilities taking into account risk.  You need to analyze companies to be a stock broker.
It includes the dynamics of assets and liabilities over time under conditions of different degrees of uncertainty and risk.
chosen_Finance_0
Finance
chosen_topic_0_Finance
Subprime mortgage crisis solutions debate
The Subprime mortgage crisis solutions debate discusses various actions and proposals by economists, government officials, journalists, and business leaders to address the subprime mortgage crisis and broader financial crisis of 2007–08. The debate concerns both immediate responses to the ongoing subprime mortgage crisis, as well as long-term reforms to the global financial system. During 2008-2009, solutions focused on support for ailing financial institutions and economies. During 2010, debate continued regarding the nature of reform. Key points include: the split-up of large banks; whether depository banks and investment banks should be separated; whether banks should be able to make risky trades on their own accounts; how to wind-down large investment banks and other non-depository financial institutions without taxpayer impact; the extent of financial cushions that each institution should maintain (leverage restrictions); the creation of a consumer protection agency for financial products; and how to regulate derivatives.
Subprime mortgage crisis
The United States (U.S.) subprime mortgage crisis was a nationwide banking emergency, occurring between 2007-2010, which contributed to the U.S. recession of December 2007 – June 2009. It was triggered by a large decline in home prices after the collapse of a housing bubble, leading to mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures and the devaluation of housing-related securities. Declines in residential investment preceded the recession and were followed by reductions in household spending and then business investment. Spending reductions were more significant in areas with a combination of high household debt and larger housing price declines.
Causes of the Great Recession
Many factors directly and indirectly caused the Great Recession (which started in 2007 with the US subprime mortgage crisis), with experts and economists placing different weights on particular causes. Major causes of the initial subprime mortgage crisis and following recession include: International trade imbalances and lax lending standards contributing to high levels of developed country household debt and real-estate bubbles that have since burst; U.S. government housing policies; and limited regulation of non-depository financial institutions. Once the recession began, various responses were attempted with different degrees of success.
Stock market
A stock market, equity market or share market is the aggregation of buyers and sellers (a loose network of economic transactions, not a physical facility or discrete entity) of stocks (also called shares), which represent ownership claims on businesses; these may include "securities" listed on a public stock exchange as well as those only traded privately. Examples of the latter include shares of private companies which are sold to investors through equity crowdfunding platforms. Stock exchanges list shares of common equity as well as other security types, e.g. corporate bonds and convertible bonds.
Financial crisis of 2007–2008
The financial crisis of 2007–2008, also known as the global financial crisis and the 2008 financial crisis, is considered by many economists to have been the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It began in 2007 with a crisis in the subprime mortgage market in the US, and developed into a full-blown international banking crisis with the collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008. Excessive risk-taking by banks such as Lehman Brothers helped to magnify the financial impact globally. Massive bail-outs of financial institutions and other palliative monetary and fiscal policies were employed to prevent a possible collapse of the world financial system.
Net capital rule
The uniform net capital rule is a rule created by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") in 1975 to regulate directly the ability of broker-dealers to meet their financial obligations to customers and other creditors. Broker-dealers are companies that trade securities for customers (i.e., brokers) and for their own accounts (i.e., dealers). The rule requires those firms to value their securities at market prices and to apply to those values a haircut (i.e., a discount) based on each security's risk characteristics. The haircut values of securities are used to compute the liquidation value of a broker-dealer's assets to determine whether the broker-dealer holds enough liquid assets to pay all its non-subordinated liabilities and to still retain a "cushion" of required liquid assets (i.e., the "net capital" requirement) to ensure payment of all obligations owed to customers if there is a delay in liquidating the assets.
United Kingdom insolvency law
United Kingdom insolvency law regulates companies in the United Kingdom which are unable to repay their debts. While UK bankruptcy law concerns the rules for natural persons, the term insolvency is generally used for companies formed under the Companies Act 2006. "Insolvency" means being unable to pay debts. Since the Cork Report of 1982, the modern policy of UK insolvency law has been to attempt to rescue a company that is in difficulty, to minimise losses and fairly distribute the burdens between the community, employees, creditors and other stakeholders that result from enterprise failure. If a company cannot be saved it is "liquidated", so that the assets are sold off to repay creditors according to their priority.
1_Apprentice
Oh I see, so finance would probably be useful in a business setting, right? I'd assume big companies would pay a lot to find someone proficient in finance.
0_Wizard
They might, just as they might hire an outside economist to study the economy.  Finance has been called the study of money management.  Is this starting to get a little clearer?
Finance can also be defined as the science of money management.
chosen_Finance_0
Finance
chosen_topic_0_Finance
Islamic banking and finance
Islamic banking or Islamic finance () or sharia-compliant finance is banking or financing activity that complies with sharia (Islamic law) and its practical application through the development of Islamic economics. Some of the modes of Islamic banking/finance include "Mudarabah" (Profit sharing and loss bearing), "Wadiah" (safekeeping), "Musharaka" (joint venture), "Murabahah" (cost plus), and "Ijar" (leasing). Sharia prohibits "riba", or usury, defined as interest paid on all loans of money (although some Muslims dispute whether there is a consensus that interest is equivalent to "riba"). Investment in businesses that provide goods or services considered contrary to Islamic principles (e.g.
History of economic thought
The history of economic thought deals with different thinkers and theories in the subject that became political economy and economics, from the ancient world to the present day. It encompasses many disparate schools of economic thought. Ancient Greek writers such as the philosopher Aristotle examined ideas about the art of wealth acquisition, and questioned whether property is best left in private or public hands. In the Middle Ages, scholasticists such as Thomas Aquinas argued that it was a moral obligation of businesses to sell goods at a just price  In the Western world, economics was not a separate discipline, but part of philosophy until the 18th–19th century Industrial Revolution and the 19th century Great Divergence, which accelerated economic growth.
Microfinance
Micro finance initially had a limited definition - the provision of microloans to poor entrepreneurs and small businesses lacking access to banking and related services. The two main mechanisms for the delivery of financial services to such clients were: (1) relationship-based banking for individual entrepreneurs and small businesses; and (2) group-based models, where several entrepreneurs come together to apply for loans and other services as a group. Over time, microfinance has emerged as a larger movement whose object is "a world in which as everyone, especially the poor and socially marginalized people and households have access to a wide range of affordable, high quality financial products and services, including not just credit but also savings, insurance, payment services, and fund transfers."
Executive compensation in the United States
In the United States, the compensation of company executives is distinguished by the forms it takes and its dramatic rise over the past three decades and wide-ranging criticism leveled against it. In the past three decades in America executive compensation or pay has risen dramatically beyond what can be explained by changes in firm size, performance, and industry classification. It is the highest in the world in both absolute terms and relative to median salary in the US. It has been criticized not only as excessive, but also for "rewarding failure"—including massive drops in stock price, and much of the national growth in income inequality.
Subprime mortgage crisis
The United States (U.S.) subprime mortgage crisis was a nationwide banking emergency, occurring between 2007-2010, which contributed to the U.S. recession of December 2007 – June 2009. It was triggered by a large decline in home prices after the collapse of a housing bubble, leading to mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures and the devaluation of housing-related securities. Declines in residential investment preceded the recession and were followed by reductions in household spending and then business investment. Spending reductions were more significant in areas with a combination of high household debt and larger housing price declines.
Causes of the Great Recession
Many factors directly and indirectly caused the Great Recession (which started in 2007 with the US subprime mortgage crisis), with experts and economists placing different weights on particular causes. Major causes of the initial subprime mortgage crisis and following recession include: International trade imbalances and lax lending standards contributing to high levels of developed country household debt and real-estate bubbles that have since burst; U.S. government housing policies; and limited regulation of non-depository financial institutions. Once the recession began, various responses were attempted with different degrees of success.
Teaching English as a second or foreign language
Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) refers to teaching the English language to students with different first languages. TEFL can occur either within the state school system or more privately, at a language school or with a tutor. TEFL can also take place in an English-speaking country for people who have immigrated there (either temporarily for school or work, or permanently). TEFL teachers may be native or non-native speakers of English. Other acronyms for TEFL are TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language), TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), and ESL (English as a second language, a term typically used in English-speaking countries, and more often referring to the learning than the teaching).
1_Apprentice
Oh definitely, I'm learning some new things today about finance, that's for sure. Which branch of financing would you like to be a part of?
0_Wizard
I would like to be a stock broker.  Just as in Finance, stock brokers aim to price assets based on risk level and probable return.  Stock = asset.
Finance aims to price assets based on their risk level and their expected rate of return.
chosen_Finance_0
Finance
chosen_topic_0_Finance
Short (finance)
In finance, short selling (also known as shorting or going short) is the practice of selling securities or other financial instruments that are not currently owned (usually borrowed), and subsequently repurchasing them ("covering"). In the event of an interim price decline, the short seller profits, since the cost of (re)purchase is less than the proceeds received upon the initial (short) sale. Conversely, the short position closes out at a loss if the price of a shorted instrument rises prior to repurchase. Potential loss on a short sale is theoretically unlimited, as there is no theoretical limit to a rise in the price of the instrument.
Modern portfolio theory
Modern portfolio theory (MPT), or mean-variance analysis, is a mathematical framework for assembling a portfolio of assets such that the expected return is maximized for a given level of risk, defined as variance. Its key insight is that an asset's risk and return should not be assessed by itself, but by how it contributes to a portfolio's overall risk and return. Economist Harry Markowitz introduced MPT in a 1952 essay, for which he was later awarded a Nobel Prize in economics. MPT assumes that investors are risk averse, meaning that given two portfolios that offer the same expected return, investors will prefer the less risky one.
Net capital rule
The uniform net capital rule is a rule created by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") in 1975 to regulate directly the ability of broker-dealers to meet their financial obligations to customers and other creditors. Broker-dealers are companies that trade securities for customers (i.e., brokers) and for their own accounts (i.e., dealers). The rule requires those firms to value their securities at market prices and to apply to those values a haircut (i.e., a discount) based on each security's risk characteristics. The haircut values of securities are used to compute the liquidation value of a broker-dealer's assets to determine whether the broker-dealer holds enough liquid assets to pay all its non-subordinated liabilities and to still retain a "cushion" of required liquid assets (i.e., the "net capital" requirement) to ensure payment of all obligations owed to customers if there is a delay in liquidating the assets.
Causes of the Great Recession
Many factors directly and indirectly caused the Great Recession (which started in 2007 with the US subprime mortgage crisis), with experts and economists placing different weights on particular causes. Major causes of the initial subprime mortgage crisis and following recession include: International trade imbalances and lax lending standards contributing to high levels of developed country household debt and real-estate bubbles that have since burst; U.S. government housing policies; and limited regulation of non-depository financial institutions. Once the recession began, various responses were attempted with different degrees of success.
Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (, , commonly referred to as Dodd–Frank) was signed into United States federal law by President Barack Obama on July 21, 2010. Passed as a response to the financial crisis of 2007–2008, it brought the most significant changes to financial regulation in the United States since the regulatory reform that followed the Great Depression. It made changes in the American financial regulatory environment that affected all federal financial regulatory agencies and almost every part of the nation's financial services industry. The law was initially proposed by the Obama administration in June 2009, when the White House sent a series of proposed bills to Congress.
Financial crisis of 2007–2008
The financial crisis of 2007–2008, also known as the global financial crisis and the 2008 financial crisis, is considered by many economists to have been the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It began in 2007 with a crisis in the subprime mortgage market in the US, and developed into a full-blown international banking crisis with the collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008. Excessive risk-taking by banks such as Lehman Brothers helped to magnify the financial impact globally. Massive bail-outs of financial institutions and other palliative monetary and fiscal policies were employed to prevent a possible collapse of the world financial system.
Hedge fund
A hedge fund is an investment fund that pools capital from accredited individuals or institutional investors and invests in a variety of assets, often with complex portfolio-construction and risk-management techniques. It is administered by a professional investment management firm, and often structured as a limited partnership, limited liability company, or similar vehicle. Hedge funds are generally distinct from mutual funds, as their use of leverage is not capped by regulators, and distinct from private equity funds, as the majority of hedge funds invest in relatively liquid assets. The term "hedge fund" originated from the paired long and short positions that the first of these funds used to hedge market risk.
1_Apprentice
Oh I see, like Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie The Wolf On Walstreet, right? Or something entirely different?