The Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) says it intends to introduce a new volatility index, also known as a fear index, which would gauge the level of skittishness in the market for listed Australian stocks.
According to the ASX, the index would be modelled on the Volatility Index which is quoted and traded on the Chicago Board Option Exchange, which is usually referred to as the VIX or fear gauge.
Like the VIX, the Australian volatility index will be constituted from a number of different 30 day call and put options, which will seek to poll the markets expectation of volatility for a 30 day period.
Australian Stock Exchange, Fear Index, Index, Stock Exchange
A sea change is under way in Americans’ debt habits: They are changing how they borrow, how they pay their loans, how they get out of debt and when they default.It used to be that smaller, revolving credit loans – like credit card debts – were the most likely to go unpaid. Now, it’s home equity loans that have the highest rates of default. The problem, reports the New York Times, is essentially crashing real estate values, which are driving people to walk away from their home equity loans. In 2009, lenders wrote off around $31 billion in home equity loans and lines of credit. So far this year, they’ve written off about $8 billion of such loans.The Times reports that creditors are rarely able to get more than 10 cents per dollar when they force borrowers to settle, if they can get anything at all. Read the full post
Loan, Loan Defaults
Historical inflation rates are not longer just a distant mirage that lays ahead. There is a real likelihood this can happen sooner than later. Wheat prices in 2010 have seen the fastest rise in price for over 50 years. This is just a hint at what we might expect in the future and indicates there is a coming shortage in agriculture very soon.
Historical inflation rates merely work in cycles, but leading studies suggest that another bubble could be forming. If this was to happen, the prices of food, perishables and other commodities would rise significantly.
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Historical Inflation, Historical Inflation Rates, Inflation Rates, Prices
With serious unemployment besetting the nation today, you may wonder where the demand for employees are. In fact, if you’re about ready to pack up and leave your town, you may be just as interested in finding out where the high paying jobs are. But before you do that, some research is in order. I actually stumbled upon some great charts from The Atlantic and the Creative Class. I hope they don’t mind it if I feature them here.
The first one is this chart based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics (or BLS), which shows how a particular geographical area compares to the national norm. The baseline here is 100.
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By YOUNG MONEY Staff
7 August 2010
A simple wave of an iPhone or a Droid might replace the old-fashioned swipe and sign ritual of credit cards, reports Bloomberg/BusinessWeek. AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile have reportedly partnered with Discover Financial Services – the fourth-biggest payment network after MasterCard, Visa and American Express – to transform smartphones into mobile payment systems.
Some early applications merging mobile phones with credit payments already exist, including a device that turns an iPhone into a credit card reader.
BusinessWeek was not able to elaborate on the technical details of the new system, which will apparently be tested in Atlanta and three other cities. Read the full post
Cards, Credit Cards
Home prices increased from April to May of this year by 1.3 percent, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index. The credit for this largely goes to the government’s home buyer tax credit, which expired at the end of April.
The general thought out there seems to be that the housing market has been bolstered by the tax credit–which was the point–and now will come tumbling down again. Maybe not, says University of Chicago economist Casey Mulligan. Even the home price index report points out that May is historically a strong month for home sales.
The Home Buyer Tax Credit was part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which passed in February of 2009. The tax
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