Financial Analysis

Some industries like healthcare and utilities are naturally recession-proof. However, if you operate in more cyclical sectors, there is a range of initiatives that you can implement to make your business more resilient to economic shocks.

Recession-proof industries either provide an absolute necessity that consumers will always keep purchasing, or have characteristics that are conducive to experiencing increased demand in downturns.

Stock options are widely used in public and private markets, both as malleable trading tools and for employee compensation. Yet many do not understand the components behind how they are priced. This guide discusses what drives the behavior of call and put options and how they can be deployed within portfolio management.

Finding out your return on investment from a project can become a subjective process with the myriad of returns measures and formulas that exist. This overview provides a breakdown and explanation of how to calculate return on investment, looking at what type of return you need to measure and how to arrive at an answer. With further guidance on how to use returns data to guide objective decision making.

Did you know that, in 2016, $60 billion was invested in art, which was comparable to the exit proceeds from venture capital investing? This article sheds light on the opaque world of art investments and whether it’s a realistic choice for inclusion in portfolios. The article covers types of art as well as how investments are valued and return performance relative to other assets.

The attention on international payments tends to center around innovations appearing in the developed world. But what about developing countries? This article addresses what contributes to volatility and illiquidity in emerging market currencies, and how they can stabilize to become more flexible.

The fitness industry is large, growing steadily and rapidly evolving. Since the 1980s, health club locations and memberships have more than tripled to 36,000 and 57 million, respectively. Yet, over the past decade, 35% of its customer base has shifted away from incumbent brands. This article analyzes some of the shifts in the fitness industry that are illustrative of broader economic issues and highlights interesting implications for other consumer-facing businesses.

Retail investors have had a rough year. The SPDR S&P Retail ETF has underperformed the S&P 500 by nearly 30 percentage points. From eCommerce shifts to higher gas prices, there are plenty of arguments to be made against retail. Yet, there are a couple reasons to be jolly heading into the holiday season that few are talking about. In this article, Elizabeth Hanano, CFA suggests that low expectations combined with lesser-known tailwinds indicate it may be time to dip a toe back into the retail pond.

Equity analysts often leave out an important source of wisdom when analyzing companies—the annual shareholder letter. This article intends to elucidate the purpose and traits of good shareholder letters based on an analysis of the 601 companies in the S&P SmallCap 600 Index. The article will also direct readers to some of the best lesser-known shareholder letters to put on their annual reading list.