MARGIN CALL (3PM Eastern)!!!

"Here's how it works. Let's say you purchase $20,000 worth of securities by borrowing $10,000 from your brokerage and paying $10,000 yourself. If the market value of the securities drops to $15,000, the equity in your account falls to $5,000 ($15,000 - $10,000 = $5,000). Assuming a maintenance requirement of 25%, you must have $3,750 in equity in your account (25% of $15,000 = $3,750). Thus, you're fine in this situation as the $5,000 worth of equity in your account is greater than the maintenance margin of $3,750. But let's assume the maintenance requirement of your brokerage is 40% instead of 25%. In this case, your equity of $5,000 is less than the maintenance margin of $6,000 (40% of $15,000 = $6,000). As a result, the brokerage may issue you a margin call.

If for any reason you do not meet a margin call, the brokerage has the right to sell your securities to increase your account equity until you are above the maintenance margin. Even scarier is the fact that your broker may not be required to consult you before selling! Under most margin agreements, a firm can sell your securities without waiting for you to meet the margin call. You can't even control which stock is sold to cover the margin call.

Because of this, it is imperative that you read your brokerage's margin agreement very carefully before investing. This agreement explains the terms and conditions of the margin account, including: how interest is calculated, your responsibilities for repaying the loan and how the securities you purchase serve as collateral for the loan."


( http://www.investopedia.com/university/margin/margin2.asp#ixzz41HXuAkLZ )

What's an answer without the question?

"Goals, dreams, and accomplishments require thought to achieve greatness. What's an answer without the question?"

--- Iceberg Gem ---  







"Questions ignite imaginations, avert catastrophes, and reveal unexpected paths to brighter destinations. The right questions don’t allow people to remain passive. They require reflection, followed by action."

http://www.inc.com/magazine/201404/leigh-buchanan/100-questions-business-leaders-should-ask.html







"A beautiful question reframes an issue and forces you to look at it in a different way. It challenges assumptions and is really ambitious. Often, these questions begin with the phrase "How might we..." They have a magnetic quality that makes people want to answer them, to talk about them, to work on them. They make the imagination race. The Polaroid camera came out of a 3-year-old girl's asking, "Why do we have to wait for the picture?" That's a beautiful question.

What if we could map the DNA of music?
Innovation: Pandora

Why can't everyone accept credit cards?
Innovation: Square

Why aren't football players urinating more?
Innovation: Gatorade "

Companies generally reward people for coming up with answers. How do you motivate employees to ask questions?

It has to start with leaders asking questions themselves. That's a difficult adjustment, because a lot of leaders are trained to think, People look to me for answers. If I start asking questions, it will shake their confidence. But great leaders do ask questions, and as long as they are interesting and ambitious, people don't get freaked out.

So it starts with the leader and flows downward to create a culture of inquiry, where people feel they can ask questions without necessarily knowing the answer. It drives me crazy when bosses say, "If you are going to bring a problem to me, you'd better have solutions." Great questions don't get answered in 10 minutes. They may take six months. You want people to bring you those great questions, and maybe the whole company ends up working on them."

http://www.inc.com/magazine/201403/leigh-buchanan/questions-drive-innovation.html