Month: January 2015

Papal Visit Philippines 2015 Special: Catholic Based Investing, Anyone?

This is a post, part of a series, to commemorate the Pope’s visit to the Philippines on January 15-19 2015.

 

Faith based investing, anyone?

Religion and religious leaders can influence their followers which businesses and investments to support, and which investments to avoid. Many often associate religious based investing with Shariah investments for Muslims. There are even Shariah-based stock market indices for Shariah compliant companies.

There are also many Catholics who try to abide by the teachings of the Catholic Church in their investment decisions. This is the reason for the existence of Catholicism compliant investment funds. These funds usually implement negative screens in order to avoid companies that have activities that go against the Church’s teachings. These funds may also choose to invest in companies that promotes or has a long track record of compliance with Catholic teachings. Continue reading Papal Visit Philippines 2015 Special: Catholic Based Investing, Anyone?

Papal Visit Philippines 2015 Special: The ATM with Latin Instructions

 

This is a post, part of a series, to commemorate the Pope’s visit to the Philippines on January 15-19 2015.

 

Latin may be a dead language, but it is still the official language of the Holy See. This is probably why an ATM in the Vatican City has Latin instructions.

Vatican Bank’s ATM instructions in Latin. Google Translate may come in handy at this point. Image by Seth Schoen

Insertio scidulam quaeso ut faciundam cognoscas rationem. Google translates it as “I ask you to do so by way of insertion of a card”. What it really means is “Insert your card for the account to be recognized.”

The Pope is Coming!

The Pope is coming to the Philippines on January 15-19. You might be thinking what the Pope’s visit to the Philippines has to do with investment in finance. Nothing really, except for the fact that it will be holiday during the Pope’s visit. Trading, banking and business activities will be limited.

 

The Pope’s Visit. Original image from papalvisit.ph

 

FinanceMD will be posting Pope related investment information during the Papal visit.

Investment Sayings and Quotes — Explained

For my post, I have to qualify the investment “quotes” as sayings since quotes in investments are more likely to refer to prices.

Many people like to read quotes/sayings since these are inspiring, enlightening, motivating ideas which are condensed into something short, witty, enigmatic and catchy. Sometimes though, the quotes may be too enigmatic that interpretations may be necessary. Here is what this post (which will be a part of a series) is for.

 

Investment Quote:

“In investing, what is comfortable is rarely profitable.” – Robert Arnott

 

What the quote probably means:

In investing, there is such a thing as the risk-return tradeoff. The higher the risk, the higher the potential return. Taking risks takes someone away from his comfort zone. An investor taking low risks will less likely earn big.

 

Who’s Fracking What?

Wonder why gas prices are low nowadays?

It seems Fracking has a lot to do with this phenomenon.

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is the process of extracting natural gas from shale rock layers deep within the earth. Read more about Fracking at  http://www.what-is-fracking.com/.

 

This is how they Frack. Image from www.biggerpieforum.org

The Fracking revolution in the United States has been cited as the cause of lower crude oil prices in 2014. See the graphs from the Motley Fool website.

However, in 2015, these low prices may eventually put pressures on Fracking as firms struggle with lower profitability. It seems that Fracking is becoming a victim of its own success.

 

Health and Finance – Financial Fitness Run 2015

I describe myself as a doctor who dabbles in investments.

This activity combines my two passions.

Financial Fitness Run on February 22, 2015

 

If you’re interested, all the information you need is in the image. I’m thinking about joining myself.

Read more about it here.

Reality or Myth? – An Investment Banker’s Lifestyle

Do you think an investment banker lives like this?

I found this on Instagram. I assume that an investment banker will be too busy to take pictures of his possessions and post them, but not for this guy who projects an image of one. Honestly, I think he uses too many hashtags.

The Investment Banker’s Lifestyle?

 

If you want to see more of his version of the investment banker’s lifestyle. Check out his Instagram page.