The Most User Unfriendly Systems We Have

It’s about half a month that my iNet banking is not working, reason being I changed my password. Now nor old, neither new password works, and above all, there’s no option password retrieval. I kept on searching any way out for so many days, and finally called the bank.

I was thinking they will probably reset it for me, but , there’s no such option and I’ll have to go personally to get a new iNet account if I want, otherwise forget about it!

It always makes me sad when I see such user unfriendly systems. Such systems may also exist in west as well, but the ratio is very very low. From a simple static site giving insurance quotes to a complex payment system, i.e. PayPal, everything seems giving a real user experience. I don’t mean to say that all of our systems are user friendly, but banks are the major cases, and they must be too easy to use and extremely user friendly. And the dilemma of our internet banking is that, 50% of internet users don’t use net banking because of the complex systems.

And I Learnt A Little About Turtle Trading

Lately I happened to read about turtle trading, and thought it has to do something with animals or so. As it was something new to me being away from what I studied in academics for quite a long time, I really couldn’t figure it out at first instance. Well, found it lately, and it revealed a totally different story. It’s some two decades or so back that a famous trader Richard Dennis moved from $2,000 to $200. Later he taught his strategies to some fourteen people whom he gave his money also to trade and called them turtles.

I’m not sure, or didn’t find any clue why he called them turtles probably using the opposite word for the rapid growth in accounts. Anyways, coming back to the point, his turtles earned $175 or so millions in just five years! One of his original turtle I found some details about on net is Russell Sands, who also helps people to learn Managed Futures Trading Account and of course earn out of it as well. There’s a lot more stuff there, but generally what he targets is:

• Help people know about the balanced trade
• Understanding the forex system
• Using the strategies more practically.

There may be more deep down things, but this is what I got!

Deferred & Variable Annuities

Some days back, I happened to have a short online conversation with an old student of mine. He asked me about the annuity rates and the difference between fixed deferred annuities and variable deffered annuities. I was in a hurry so couldn’t explain him in detail and just gave outline. Today, I’ve 10 minutes so thought to write it down and post on blog, so that some others may also benefit from it.

Well, first to know what is the Deferred Annuity. It may work as banks’ certificates of deposit whereby the the buyer is offered a safe interest rate of return on their money, or to stock index funds or other stock funds, where the growth of the account is dependent upon the performance of the market.One thing common in all deferred annuities is that any increase in account values is not taxed until those gains are withdrawn. Better known as tax-deferred growth.

Now fixed Annuities offer some sort of guaranteed rate of return over the life of the contract, but may also be not completely fixed, instead a guaranteed minimum rate. This is the safest way, but the rate of return is of course not high. On the other hand, varianle annuities allow money to be invested in separate accounts, it’s very similar to mutual funds. Some variable concerns also allow a minimum guaranteed rate, bringing down the risk factor, but it’s still there with high rate of return.

Outgrowth Of Consumer Financing: Positive or Negative!

Many of the people do criticize the commercialization of banking services, i.e. especially the consumer financing holding that they’ve led the people to spend more and more on useless things, but if we see from increasing consumption leading to increased production and GDP point of view, the economies have really grown. Though the macro economy has got most of this growth, but the ease and comfort at users’ end, i.e. from credit card debt relief to car financing and house financing it’s served the people on micro level.

It’s no doubt an endless debate, but the growing economies of the world have outshown the concept of supply according to the consumers’ demand. In this contest, Pakistani economy has also seen the outgrown macro economy in the past few years, and this growth has served the people to a specific extent as well. Yes, there lies a negative aspect, as nothing in the world is 100% complete so is the case with this growth and development. This negative aspect is the uncontrolled poverty and inflation.

Well, these are the challenges for the forthcoming rulership on one hand and for the economy experts on other. Let’s see how can we improve or at least can do just a cut above.

Emergency In Stock Market: Annuities, Shares & Investors

I’d probably have my say on this issue right after the imposition of emergency in the country, but the banned media and unavailability of authentic information didn’t let me do so. One of the successes that Musharraf government claims to be credited for is the outgrown stock market that has broken almost all the records. It’s fact that the growth in stock market influenced the masses, letting individuals from all spheres to invest and have an eye on financial concerns, i.e. stock, annuities, shares etc. and that was a plus point for the economy as a whole and for corporate and manufacturing sector in particular.

The records are broken once again, but the only difference by this time is the negative impact of emergency on the market. According to the newspaper stories, KSE 100 index lost 635.80 points while KSE 30 index lost 819.35 points. In numbers market recorded a grand loss of 4.07 trillion rupees, and out of 378 registered companies 317 closed in red. Now, what a common man can think of at this time is to get back the possible amount of money, and of course for big investors it’s a matter of great concern.

Not insisting to believe what I say, but it’s sure that the imposition of emergency situation in the country by Musharraf government has impinged on its only success, i.e. the outgrown stock market.