With the help of an investment counselor and other people that specialize in a wide variety of financial services, an investor can make sound business decisions that include the risk that an investment might not ever show a profit. The financial goals that the investor sets will have a lot to do with how much risk the investor is willing to take in their investment strategies.

Some financial investors are willing to add a start-up company to their investment portfolio. The investor is willing to risk the start-up capital in this business venture because they think the company has a good business plan and a unique product. Getting in on the ground floor of a start-up company and staying involved financially until the company goes public is a risk that will pay off handsomely one day.

Some real estate investors are willing to take risks simply because interest rates are low and the housing market is active. These investors will find foreclosure homes that are low-priced and are willing to take a risk on being able to repair them to a level where they can be sold at a considerable profit. The real estate investor is betting that the housing market will not go into a slump and that the house will sell quickly to give them a high return on their investment in a short period of time.  Read more

CEO George Adams of SSH Communications Security, Inc. will present how to identify and control daily operational risks and to build a comprehensive Operational Risk Management (ORM) plan at the 2008 Financial Services Technology Forum.

Operational Risk Management - The Big Security Picture

With enormous amounts of valuable corporate data concentrated in financial organizations’ information systems, IT managers must carefully control daily operational risks by implementing a comprehensive security model that addresses standard HR practices, as well as deploy and administer information security solutions throughout the IT infrastructure. George Adams will discuss how to build a comprehensive Operational Risk Management plan to prevent immense damages.

As CEO of SSH Communications Security, Inc., Mr. Adams is responsible for developing and executing strategies to build the company’s market position. With millions of users worldwide, the company’s Secure Shell application has become the de-facto standard for secure Internet logins.  Mr. Adams is also a member of the board of directors of the parent company in Finland. Prior to joining SSH, Mr. Adams was vice president of business development for Phoenix Technologies Ltd., where he led strategic initiatives in Internet-based remote management and support.  Mr. Adams has also previously held positions at Sun Microsystems, Intel, Analog Devices, and Motorola.  Read more

What kind of investor are you – cautious or aggressive, balanced or defensive?

Whether you are investing as part of a pension plan, investment ISA or simply buying stocks and shares, it’s vital that you have a ‘plan of attack’ to help guide your investment – an investment strategy in other words.

But what makes a sound investment strategy?

Good investments balance the risks associated with investing with the potential rewards gained from investing. How you choose to balance that risk will often determine the kinds of investments that are suitable to your own needs.

If you have a high tolerance for risk – and are hungry for the big rewards – you may consider yourself a more aggressive investor. Someone nearing retirement on the other hand may take a more defensive or cautious approach to help ensure a viable annual income in retirement.

Defensive Investors

Defensive investors are concerned with maintaining the value of their investments over time – i.e. not losing. As a consequence a defensive investment portfolio might include lower risk investments like commercial property and high quality bonds with returns similar in nature to high-interest High Street deposit accounts.  Read more

If you are doing an online investing, you must address a key principle – the investment risk assessment principle. If you want to achieve success in the online investing efforts and make sure to possess a portfolio that provides you with steady rewards, you must completely recognize the risks and check how they relate to your portfolio structure. In addition to looking for maximum rewards from the online investment you must do complete investment risk estimation. So many investors fail to identify or measure the risk involved, instead they look for the maximum rewards. This is one of the biggest faults on the part of both new and experienced investors. So while investing online, structure your portfolio around maximum amount of reward with the minimum amount of risk.

Although there is no fool proof to always make profits from online investing on the Internet yet certain steps can be taken to manage risks. First of all it is seen that many online investing opportunities follow a pyramid scheme. In this system it is seen that the people who invested first has an improved likelihood to earn more than the people who follow. Secondly online investing has risks associated with it, which are not found offline.  Read more

Introduction: Information, Risks, and Capital

Financial intermediation is a critical factor for growth and social inclusion. One of its core functions is to mobilize financial resources from surplus agents and channel them to those with deficits. It thus allows investor entrepreneurs to expand economic activity and employment opportunities. It also enables household consumers, micro- and small entrepreneurs to expand their own welfare and earnings opportunities, and seek to smooth their lifetime outlays. In all cases, financial intermediation drives economic growth and contributes to social inclusion, provided it is conducted in a sound and efficient way.[1]

A financial intermediary’s ability to process information on risks and returns of investment opportunities will have a bearing on the soundness and efficiency of its resource mobilization and reallocation function. Conventional financial services (CFSs) process information through institutions or markets, and have generally evolved from the former to the latter. In both cases, markets and agents provide alternative ways of processing information on risks and returns of investment opportunities. In the first form, the intermediary raises capital to set up business to collect generally liquid deposits from surplus agents and reallocates these resources, now in his trust, to ones with deficits in generally less liquid assets. In the second form, surplus agents buy directly financial assets that represent a debt of a deficit agent or an ownership share in its business. In either approach, both categories of agents engage in transactions on the basis of trust and of expectations about the degree of liquidity that would provide the option to re-contract at a reasonable cost.[2] In the case of banks, the trust can be seen as based on proprietary information. In the case of markets, the information is more commoditized and widely available.[3]  Read more