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Ponzi Schemes
A Ponzi scheme (, ) is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are coming from legitimate business activity (e.g., product sales or successful investments), and they remain unaware that other investors are the source of funds. A Ponzi scheme can maintain the illusion of a sustainable business as long as new investors contribute new funds, and as long as most of the investors do not demand full repayment and still believe in the non-existent assets they are purported to own. Some of the first recorded incidents to meet the modern definition of the Ponzi scheme were carried out from 1869 to 1872 by Adele Spitzeder in Germany and by Sarah Howe in the United States in the 1880s through the "Ladies' Deposit". Howe offered a solely female clientele an 8% monthly interest rate and then stole the money that the women h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Ponzi
Charles Ponzi (, ; born Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi; March 3, 1882 – January 15, 1949) was an Italian swindler and con artist who operated in the U.S. and Canada. His aliases included ''Charles Ponci'', ''Carlo'', and ''Charles P. Bianchi''. Born and raised in Italy, he became known in the early 1920s as a swindler in North America for his money-making scheme. He promised clients a 50% profit within 45 days or 100% profit within 90 days, by buying discounted postal reply coupons in other countries and redeeming them at face value in the U.S. as a form of arbitrage. In reality, Ponzi was paying earlier investors using the investments of later investors. While this type of fraudulent investment scheme was not invented by Ponzi, it became so identified with him that it now is referred to as a "Ponzi scheme". His scheme ran for over a year before it collapsed, costing his "investors" $20 million. Ponzi may have been inspired by the scheme of William F. Miller ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Flag (idiom)
The term ''red flag'' could mean either a literal flag used for signaling or, as a metaphor, a sign of some particular problem requiring attention. Background The term and the expression "to raise the red flag" come from various usages of real flags throughout history. A red flag is frequently flown by armed forces to warn the public of live fire exercises in progress, and is sometimes flown by ships carrying munitions (in this context it is actually the flag for the letter B in the international maritime signal flag alphabet, a red swallow-tailed flag). In many countries a red flag is flown to signify that an outdoor shooting range is in use. The United States Air Force refers to its largest annual exercise as Red Flag operation. Red flags are used for various signals in team sailing races (see Racing Rules of Sailing). A red flag warning is a signal of high wildfire danger, and a red flag on the beach warns of dangerous water conditions (double red flags indicate beach c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Offshore Investment
Offshore investment is the keeping of money in a jurisdiction other than one's country of residence. Offshore jurisdictions are used to pay less tax in many countries by large and small-scale investors. Poorly regulated offshore domiciles have served historically as havens for tax evasion, money laundering, or to conceal or protect illegally acquired money from law enforcement in the investor's country. However, the modern, well-regulated offshore centres allow legitimate investors to take advantage of higher rates of return or lower rates of tax on that return offered by operating via such domiciles. The advantage to offshore investment is that such operations are both legal and less costly than those offered in the investor's country—or "onshore". Locations favored by investors for low rates of tax are known as offshore financial centers or (sometimes) tax havens. Payment of less tax is the driving force behind most 'offshore' activity. Due to the use of offshore centers, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
High-yield Investment Program
A high-yield investment program (HYIP) is a type of Ponzi scheme, an investment scam that promises unsustainably high return on investment by paying previous investors with the money invested by new investors. Mechanics Operators generally set up a website offering an "investment program" which promises very high returns, such as 1% per day (3678% APY when returns are compounded every day), disclosing little or no detail about the underlying management, location, or other aspects of how money is to be invested. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has said that "these fraudulent schemes involve the purported issuance, trading, or use of so-called 'prime' bank, 'prime' European bank or 'prime' world bank financial instruments, or other 'high yield investment programs.' (HYIP's) The fraud artists … seek to mislead investors by suggesting that well regarded and financially sound institutions participate in these bogus programs." In 2010, the Financial Industry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Futures Contract
In finance, a futures contract (sometimes called a futures) is a standardized legal contract to buy or sell something at a predetermined price for delivery at a specified time in the future, between parties not yet known to each other. The asset transacted is usually a commodity or financial instrument. The predetermined price of the contract is known as the ''forward price''. The specified time in the future when delivery and payment occur is known as the ''delivery date''. Because it derives its value from the value of the underlying asset, a futures contract is a derivative. Contracts are traded at futures exchanges, which act as a marketplace between buyers and sellers. The buyer of a contract is said to be the long position holder and the selling party is said to be the short position holder. As both parties risk their counter-party reneging if the price goes against them, the contract may involve both parties lodging as security a margin of the value of the contract with a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hedge (finance)
A hedge is an investment position intended to offset potential losses or gains that may be incurred by a companion investment. A hedge can be constructed from many types of financial instruments, including stocks, exchange-traded funds, insurance, forward contracts, swaps, options, gambles, many types of over-the-counter and derivative products, and futures contracts. Public futures markets were established in the 19th century to allow transparent, standardized, and efficient hedging of agricultural commodity prices; they have since expanded to include futures contracts for hedging the values of energy, precious metals, foreign currency, and interest rate fluctuations. Etymology Hedging is the practice of taking a position in one market to offset and balance against the risk adopted by assuming a position in a contrary or opposing market or investment. The word hedge is from Old English ''hecg'', originally any fence, living or artificial. The first known use of the word ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rollover (finance)
Rolling a contract is an investment concept meaning trading out of a standard contract and then buying the contract with next longest maturity, so as to maintain a position with constant maturity. Motivation One may roll a contract because one has a special preference for a specific maturity—for example, the five-year CDS rate of a given name—or because a given on-the-run security is more liquid than off-the-run securities. Examples While holding US Treasuries, one may wish to hold only the most recently issued security of a given maturity, the so-called on-the-run security. Thus, if one has purchased the on-the-run 30-year treasury and a new 30-year auction occurs, one may sell the old treasury, which is now off-the-run, and purchase the new on-the-run treasury. There is generally very high trading activity on these dates, as contracts whose maturity falls on them are rolled. Index roll congestion When an index has a published policy for rolling its contracts, such as on a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maturity Date
Maturity or immaturity may refer to: * Adulthood or age of majority * Maturity model ** Capability Maturity Model, in software engineering, a model representing the degree of formality and optimization of processes in an organization * Developmental age, the age of an embryo as measured from the point of fertilization * Mature technology, a technology has been in use and development for long enough that most of its initial problems have been overcome * Maturity (finance), indicating the final date for payment of principal and interest * Maturity (geology), rock, source rock, and hydrocarbon generation * Maturity (psychological), the attainment of one's final level of psychological functioning and the integration of their personality into an organized whole * Maturity (sedimentology), the proximity of a sedimentary deposit from its source * Sexual maturity, the stage when an organism can reproduce, though this is distinct from adulthood See also * Evolution * Maturation (disambiguat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Religious Radio
Religious broadcasting, sometimes referred to as faith-based broadcasts, is the dissemination of television and/or radio content that intentionally has religious ideas, religious experience, or religious practice as its core focus. In some countries, religious broadcasting developed primarily within the context of public service provision (as in the UK), whilst in others, it has been driven more by religious organisations themselves (as in the United States). Across Europe and in the US and Canada, religious broadcasting began in the earliest days of radio, usually with the transmission of religious worship, preaching or "talks". Over time, formats evolved to include a broad range of styles and approaches, including radio and television drama, documentary, and chat show formats, as well as more traditional devotional content. Today, many religious organizations record sermons and lectures, and have moved into distributing content on their own web-based IP channels. Religious br ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Network
A social network is a social structure made up of a set of social actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for analyzing the structure of whole social entities as well as a variety of theories explaining the patterns observed in these structures. The study of these structures uses social network analysis to identify local and global patterns, locate influential entities, and examine network dynamics. Social networks and the analysis of them is an inherently interdisciplinary academic field which emerged from social psychology, sociology, statistics, and graph theory. Georg Simmel authored early structural theories in sociology emphasizing the dynamics of triads and "web of group affiliations". Jacob Moreno is credited with developing the first sociograms in the 1930s to study interpersonal relationships. These approaches were mathematically formalize ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cold Call
Cold calling is the solicitation of business from potential customers who have had no prior contact with the salesperson conducting the call. It is an attempt to convince potential customers to purchase either the salesperson's product or service. Generally, it is referred as an over-the-phone process, making it a source of telemarketing, but can also be done in-person by door-to-door salespeople. Though cold calling can be used as a legitimate business tool, scammers can use cold calling as well. Evolution Cold calling has developed from a form of giving sales pitch using a script into a targeted communication tool. Salespeople call from a list of potential customers that fit certain parameters built to help increase the likelihood of a sale. This modern cold calling, sometimes called "warm calling", tries to "dig deeply to understand" the potential customer. Criticisms With the development of newer technology and the Internet, cold calling has gained some criticism. Jeffre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. The United States is also in free association with three Pacific Island sovereign states: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of over 333 million, it is the most populous country in the Americas and the third most populous in the world. The national capital of the United States is Washington, D.C. and its most populous city and principal financial center is New York City. Paleo-Americ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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