Personal Finance and Money Management

So you’ve just gone out and looked at approximately 285 houses, finally deciding on that perfect place. Now comes what’s arguably the hardest part of the home buying process, which is getting financing for the thing. Of course, you can just avoid this whole process completely by paying cash for the house, but who has a quarter million dollars just hanging around? And that’s just for a cheap place. Unless you’re planning on saving for a long time before buying that house, you’ll have to get a mortgage on it.

When it comes to getting a mortgage, there are two choices. You can either go to your local loans officer, who represents just the bank they work for. Or, alternatively, you can go with a mortgage broker, which is a liaison between you and a finance company. Which shou

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With a history of strong capital growth and relatively high-yields, the big four banks have been so attractive to Australian investors that these shares are likely to account for a significant portion of their portfolios. However, following recent volatility and potential low growth in the coming months, it is worth exploring strategies that allow investors to hedge these assets until the markets return to stability.

Derivatives are a popular way to hedge existing share positions, and two such derivatives are options and CFDs.

Hedging with options

An option gives the holder the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an underlying asset at a future date at a certain price, known as the strike price.

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