Personal Investing Advice

India’s Own Volatility Index NIFTY 50 VIX

What is volatility?

Volatility is the rate at which the price of a certain security moves. A security with high volatility has bigger fluctuations in price compared to a security with low volatility. The more quickly a price changes up and down, the more volatile it is. As such, volatility is often used as a measure of risk.

Basically, a stock is said to be more volatile if it has a larger difference in the change in prices as compared to a stock whose change in prices is not that large.

The volatility can be derived by looking at the changes in price of the stock for the past 30 days and calculating the standard deviation of the percentage changes in the price of the particular stock.

Volatility Index (VIX)

A volatility index is an index which measures the expected fluctuations in the price of a stock. The index is commonly known as the VIX or the fear index as a high VIX determines more volatility in the market and thus more fluctuation in stock prices.

In the United States, before the financial crisis, the highest point the VIX touched was 38 in August, 2008. Late in October of the same year, the VIX value shot through the roof and touched a staggering 89.53, surfacing concerns of the start of a global financial meltdown.

India launched its own NSE VIX in 2008 based on the benchmark Nifty 50 Option prices. It determines the fluctuation in prices of Nifty 50 stocks for the next 30 days. “The India VIX is a simple but useful tool in determining the overall volatility of the market. The index captures the implied volatility embedded in option prices. Not only is the volatility index used as an indicator of implied volatility of the market, various tradable products, such as futures and options contracts are available on the volatility index internationally,” said the NSE website.

The peak ever recorded on the NIFTY VIX was 85 in April 2008 and the lowest ever recorded was 16.7 in March, 2010. The lowest ever recording on the NSE VIX denoted the low volatility on the market where investors could assume low fluctuation.

Investors can use the volatility index and along with stock picking communities such http://www.moneyvidya.com, can expect to maximize returns and minimize losses.

Sunny Talreja, part of Indian Stock picking community, http://www.moneyvidya.com

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Understanding the Basics of Bonds

One often hears about the bond markets being the basis of interest rates going up or down, but few really understand what that means. In this article, we take a look at the basic processes involved.

When we talk about bonds, we are not talking about a certain British spy with a licensed to kill. Sadly, they aren’t even remotely as exciting. Instead, a bond is a certificate of debt issued by a government to raise money. In issuing the bond, the government promises to pay back the indicated amount on a certain date at a certain interest rate. It should be noted that corporations can also issue bonds, but we’ll stick with government offerings for the purpose of this article.

The term of a bond can range wildly. There are short term bonds that mature [are paid by the government] in a few months and long term bonds that don’t pay off for as long as 30 years. You can hold these bonds or you can actually trade them in bond markets that work on an auction basis somewhat similar to the stock market.

Buying bonds can be a bit confusing. Most short term government bonds are bought at a discount to the face value at the maturity date. What does this mean in practical terms? It means that you pay less money now for a bigger payoff later. Let’s say you want to buy a $1,000 bond that has a maturity date in one year. You would buy it for a discount set by the market, say $975. The government would then pay you $1,000 in one year.

Longer term bonds are set based by an auction. You can see how this works given the financial strife in Europe. Greece has a lot of debt that many bond investors feel impact its ability to pay its obligations. The only way investors will buy the bonds is if they get a better rate of return. Given this, Greece must pay a higher interest rate on its bonds to facilitate its debt.

Why would someone invest in government bonds? Notwithstanding the problems in Greece, bonds of this type are generally considered very safe. While a company like General Motors might fail, the going belief is a government is very unlikely to have such a problem. This notion is now under attack somewhat given the massive debt levels of countries like Greece, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, Portugal and, yes, the United States.

Thomas Ajava writes about financial planning for UFCAmerica.com where you can learn more about critical financial planning tools like inflation proof annuities.

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Understanding the Basics of Bonds

One often hears about the bond markets being the basis of interest rates going up or down, but few really understand what that means. In this article, we take a look at the basic processes involved.

When we talk about bonds, we are not talking about a certain British spy with a licensed to kill. Sadly, they aren’t even remotely as exciting. Instead, a bond is a certificate of debt issued by a government to raise money. In issuing the bond, the government promises to pay back the indicated amount on a certain date at a certain interest rate. It should be noted that corporations can also issue bonds, but we’ll stick with government offerings for the purpose of this article.

The term of a bond can range wildly. There are short term bonds that mature [are paid by the government] in a few months and long term bonds that don’t pay off for as long as 30 years. You can hold these bonds or you can actually trade them in bond markets that work on an auction basis somewhat similar to the stock market.

Buying bonds can be a bit confusing. Most short term government bonds are bought at a discount to the face value at the maturity date. What does this mean in practical terms? It means that you pay less money now for a bigger payoff later. Let’s say you want to buy a $1,000 bond that has a maturity date in one year. You would buy it for a discount set by the market, say $975. The government would then pay you $1,000 in one year.

Longer term bonds are set based by an auction. You can see how this works given the financial strife in Europe. Greece has a lot of debt that many bond investors feel impact its ability to pay its obligations. The only way investors will buy the bonds is if they get a better rate of return. Given this, Greece must pay a higher interest rate on its bonds to facilitate its debt.

Why would someone invest in government bonds? Notwithstanding the problems in Greece, bonds of this type are generally considered very safe. While a company like General Motors might fail, the going belief is a government is very unlikely to have such a problem. This notion is now under attack somewhat given the massive debt levels of countries like Greece, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, Portugal and, yes, the United States.

Thomas Ajava writes about financial planning for UFCAmerica.com where you can learn more about critical financial planning tools like inflation proof annuities.

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How to Track Your Time

Time tracking is a big problem for many of the people especially for those who are in the profession of freelancing or content writers. It is important to keep a record with time to fulfill the needs of your clients. Freelancing is coming up with a great urge in these days. The demand for them is increasing day by day. A good freelancer is always that who know how to keep track with his/her time. It is not an easy task to cope with. It needs some solid effort before you can able to keep a track with your time.

Freelancing becomes more difficult when you are a mobile freelancer. Mobile freelancer means that you have to work on more than on computers or multiple computers and you can be work from anywhere, you need not to stick to one place to do your work. In that case time tracking become even more difficult. But there is no need to worry; there are many web based time trackers available on internet. But always go for simple, easy to use and rather cheap time trackers.

Hereunder are given some of the best time tracker tools, but remember they are not free and best things are often never free.

Toggl (www.toggle.com)

It has a nice and simple interface and most importantly it is free. It is an efficient time management tool. It has both a web and a downloadable for version for windows user only. It is a helpful tool for freelancers that keep the exact track of your time.

It is very simple and slick interface. It is easy and fast to use. It is a web-based interface and can be used on nay browser or operating system.

It is a professional package. Harvest is web application so can be used from anywhere. It works well for teams, it contains project estimates and also some reports. It is also a paid application and you have to become the membership of harvest first. It has package plan from free to premium.

Cashboard is not as simple as the above three applications. A bit complex but comprehensive application. It has a perfect time tracking system, and also it includes; producing and tracking invoices, keeping track of accounts and clients, producing estimates, and much more.

It is quite an old interface as compared to above interfaces. But it is capable of doing its job well. It can be more useful if it is used with invoicing software. It is also a web based application.

Ya Timer (www.nbdtech.com)

Ya timer is a downloadable desktop application which is not available on web. It is the simplest of all and has a very simple interface with lot of options. It is best for basic needs. it has a interface with zoom option to help the users.

There are many Time trackers available over Internet but you should be very careful choosing the right Time Tracker that fulfills your needs.

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