Stocks and Stock Indexes
Number of Trading Days per Year
In option pricing, volatility modeling, and quantitative finance in general, you often need the number of trading days per year as a parameter for your model. Which number to choose? **Trading Days per Year in US Markets.** How many trading days per year are there in the US stock and option markets? The short answer is 252. In fact, the average number of trading days per year from 1990 to 2022 has [more ...]
Excel Reverse Date Problem and How to Fix It
When you work with time series in Excel and import data from sources which use different date format than your operating system, Excel sometimes loads the dates incorrectly. It may swap day and month or not recognize the expression as date and treat it as text. The first solution to try is the Text to Columns feature - it's quick and easy; it often works, but sometimes it doesn't. In such cases you [more ...]
Asset Classes: List, Characteristics, Asset Allocation
This page explains the concept of asset class and its use in asset allocation and portfolio management. We will discuss the characteristics of individual asset classes, such as risk, return, liquidity or correlations, and how they relate to economic cycle. **Asset Class Definition and Examples.** Asset class is a group of assets with similar characteristics, particularly in terms of risk, return, liquidity, [more ...]
Alternative Investments
**Alternative Investments Characteristics and Issues.** **Characteristics.** 7 Common Characteristics of Alternative Investments - The common characteristics are: diversity (there are many kinds of alternative investments), non-normal and non-linear returns (especially skewness of returns), low liquidity, difficult valuation, limited availability of good benchmarks, legal restrictions and limited availability [more ...]
SEC 13F: How to Get and Use 13F Filings
There is a place on the internet where you can get a detailed portfolio snapshot from the world's greatest traders, fund managers, and investors - regularly and for free. The place is US SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission). **How the 13F Holdings Report Looks.** According to Section 13(f) of the US Securities Exchange Act of 1934, all big institutional investment managers who exercise investment [more ...]
Wall Street Sayings and Trading Rules
This page is a collection of the most popular trading sayings, adages, quotes, and rules. While some of them remind us of useful habits, all the rules should be taken with a grain of salt. Most of them are right and profitable in some market conditions and wrong in others. You will also find some of the rules contradict each other. **Trading strategies.** **"Time in the market beats timing the market".** [more ...]