It's no secret that the housing market isn't fairing well at this time. Understandably, this is beginning to cause problems for those in the fields associated with the buying and selling of property.
Recently Capital One announced that they would be closing their wholesale mortgage-origination unit, GreenPoint. Overall, almost 2,000 positions will be eliminated before the end of the year. With 30 offices throughout the country, this news will effect individuals in many different cities. There will be an eventual loss of 125 Dallas jobs alone, a vast majority of which will occur before December, according to a company spokeswoman. A small number of these individuals will remain for a while longer to aid in transition.
GreenPoint employees have been given a 60 day notice, which will hopefully assist in diminishing the number of Dallas area individuals who will be claiming unemployment benefits. GreenPoint will also be offering severance packages and retraining assistance to all full-time employees effected by the companies closing to help then find jobs in Dallas or other areas.
The company's CEO, Rich Fairbank, said the company's closing was necessary due to the fact that “investors' demand for these mortgages has diminished and, to the extent that there is demand, pricing has decreased.” He went on to say that “while GreenPoint does have limited 'forward flow' arrangements committing certain buyers to purchase a portion of GreenPoint's future production for a period of time, these arrangements are insufficient to support the business in light of current market conditions.
For those who will soon lose their jobs at the Dallas branch of GreenPoint, finding a new position as quickly as possible is extremely important. Although severance packages and a 60 day notice may assist in cushioning the blow, one should focus on getting their resume in to a decent number of companies as quickly as possible. In many instances, HR departments can take some time before beginning to line up interviews. By starting now, one have less down time between employers. This will also allow one more time to consider their options so that they are more likely to acquire a higher quality job.
Portable Alpha -- What It Is, Where to Get It, and How to Use It
So much is being written about the emergence of “Quantitative Funds” and why this type of investment is becoming popular among both individual and professional investors. Eleanor Laise, in her Wall Street Journal article titled “Stock-Picker Jobs Going to Computers” wrote that “investors are attracted to quant funds for their non-emotional, disciplined method of investing. It is a well known fact amongst investment professionals that “investor psychology” is the most difficult variable for anyone to manage.
Our fear and greed most often get in the way of good judgment and a well thought out investment strategy.” One method of developing a quantitative portfolio includes adding alpha to the investment screening process. Although the idea of alpha is thought to be complicated and only for the technically inclined, it’s available for any investor and now easier than ever to utilize. With this strategy readily accessible, it makes sense to build a portfolio of long-term investments and then augment the return by actively trading a portion of the portfolio using technical analysis and portfolio management.
The real question is not if it can be done, but how can it done. Specifically, how does an investor, be it individual or professional, utilize the power of portable alpha? Before the “how to” can be understood, one must appreciate what alpha is and what investments are available that make utilizing portable alpha easy.
What is Portable Alpha?
According to Lawrence C. Strauss, in his Barron’s Online article titled “Does Low Volatility Mean Lower Returns” alpha “the money-management industry’s buzzword du jour refers to the measure of a stock’s performance beyond what the market provides. But how to calculate Alpha and more importantly how to compare various investment alternatives simultaneously using the same definition of Alpha has been a difficult problem for investors to solve.” Alpha, in its purest sense, is the measure of a fund or portfolio's risk-adjusted return relative to the market. A positive alpha value, such as 1.0, means that the fund or portfolio outperformed the market by 1.0%. The higher the alpha value, the more incremental gain is awarded for actively managing the investment by choosing securities that outperform the market, as compared to merely accepting the market return.
Portable alpha is “portable” because it can be applied across various asset classes. If a manager or individual investor increases a portfolio’s risk-adjusted return relative to the market (alpha) by investing in securities that have little or no correlation with the market, then that manager has created portable alpha. Portable alpha is a powerful investment tool because it can provide investors with greater diversification in their portfolios, lower risks and greater total returns as compared to conventional asset allocation.
There are other varieties of alpha, but in all cases a positive alpha value indicates that the fund or portfolio manager has "beaten the market" through fund or stock selection. Alpha Advisor Service, LLC uses a weighted alpha factor which places more emphasis on recent price movement as opposed to past activity. The purpose of doing so is to pinpoint stocks and funds whose positive momentum is building rather than those that have reached the peak of their uptrend.
Investments That Facilitate Using Portable Alpha Applying portable alpha to your portfolio can be accomplished by using trade-friendly investment funds provided by ProFunds, Rydex or Fidelity. These companies provide a wide variety of mutual fund selections, including index, sector, bond, precious metals, and international, which can be traded frequently, most without penalty, early trading fee or commission. Some of these companies offer funds designed for hedging strategies. Or for the slightly more aggressive, a few of these companies provide leveraged funds which are designed to outperform their benchmark index through the use of leverage. Exchange Traded Funds, which come in as many styles as mutual funds, also provide an easily-accessible tool for adding alpha to a portfolio.
Many analytical sources provide statistical profiles of investments, most of which are mathematically accurate. The predominant short coming in these tools is that they do not consistently analyze all alternatives. Bond investments will be measured using benchmarks unique to bonds while small cap stocks will be measured against the Russell 2000 etc. To select the best investments, using a level playing field by which to measure portfolio returns is the most attractive.
Sidenote: Checkout quant jobs at Canary Wharf Jobs.com.
How to Utilize Portable Alpha The first step towards utilizing portable alpha involves developing an asset allocation strategy specifically tailored to personal investment objective, risk tolerance and time horizon. Determine how much of the portfolio should be strategically allocated to specific asset classes such as stocks, bonds, sectors, international investments, precious metals and cash. Assign a percentage of investment dollars to each class, and then prepare to fill in the asset class with an appropriate selection of investments.
To select the best investments for each asset class, rank the investments by alpha score from highest to lowest. Then pick the top one or two options for investment within each asset class. Put in place a trailing stop loss on each investment at a reasonable level and watch its performance. If the price violates your watch level, sell the investment and replace it with the next most highly ranked alternative from its class. If no alternatives are available with a positive alpha, hold those dollars in cash until such time as a candidate presents itself. Don’t invest those dollars in another asset class; hold them until a candidate in the particular class becomes available.
This approach satisfies the buy and hold dogma that is unfortunately so engrained in the minds of today’s investors. It supplies adequate diversification while at the same time providing a level of return that’s in line with market expectations. Hopefully, by this point recent market activity has convinced most investors that the idea of buying a stock or fund and holding it indefinitely is no longer the optimal investment strategy. Human nature has a tendency to result in buying and selling at the worst possible moments, minimizing gains and maximizing losses. That’s why the development and implementation of a disciplined investment strategy is so advantageous to today’s investors.
Taking this approach one step further and evolving from a strategic allocation to a tactical or dynamic allocation is the easiest way to generate excess investment returns within a buy and hold strategy. Tactical allocation is predicated on the belief that not all asset classes perform in the same manner and that investment cycles do exist. With so many index funds and ETF’s that mimic the performance of market indices and style-box investments, analyzing the alpha scores of these investments is the quickest way to determine where to increase or decrease a portfolio’s allocations.
Today, with so many internet-based trading platforms available through brokerage firms and banks with minimum fees and almost no trading commissions, active personal investing makes more sense then ever. Affordable high-speed internet connectivity, computers, cell phones and internet brokerage accounts coupled with powerful mathematical statistics such as portable alpha are negating any excuses for experiencing unacceptable investment returns.
by Justin Lenarcic Alpha Advisor Service, LLC is designed specifically for those investors seeking to utilize portable alpha. Our twice-weekly newsletters analyze over 1700 securities including stock, ETF, and mutual fund investments ranking those with the highest alpha values. To further aid investors, we provide "Buy Recommendations" and "Sell-Limit Watches" in addition to five model portfolios. If you're interested in portable alpha and want to incorporate it into your investment portfolio, try our 30-Day FREE Trial and see for yourself how easy and rewarding it can be.
Deciding to relocate for London jobs can be very stressful, especially for those from the states. Between locating a new apartment/house, organizing the shipment of one's belongings, and a myriad of other concerns one barely has time to prepare for their new position. Thankfully companies exist to assist in making such a move stress-free as possible.
One such company is Premier Relocation Management, which offers both private and corporate reallocations. Relocating for a London job can be much easier if one has assistance in finding a place to call home. Premier Relocation Management and similar companies offer both assistance in locating homes and apartments for sale or lease.
Familiarizing one's self and family to the new area would usually take a decent amount of time. To aid in the Premier Relocation Management offers an orientation program which usually takes about a day to complete. This service helps to orientate one in several different areas that include; area familiarization, British customs and common practices, family support systems and how transportation systems in the UK work. Even though both Americans and citizens of the United Kingdom both speak English, the lingo can differ greatly. Because of this Premier Relocation Management also offers information on the cultural and language differences one can expect to encounter.
Another thing that might cause stress for parents who are relocating to London for career related reason is the education of their children. This company offers educational counseling to make the transferring of schools less stressful. They offer information on what students will be required to take and can provide a list of area schools and will even set up interviews for concerned parents.
Premier Relocation Management offers several other services for those relocating for jobs in London. They are able to handle the check-in of one's household items if they are unable to be present. Their consultants can also assist one in finding a new family doctor, obtaining parking permits and setting up a bank account.
Premier Relocation Management's website also offers a variety of links to help those in need on their resource page. This information ranges from basic facts about school systems to what one needs to know when transporting the family pet to a new continent.
An internship can easily set one's career on the right track. By gaining valuable working experience while in college, many students have found themselves able to find better employment post-graduation. The difficultly comes in finding the right kind of internship to fit one's goals and deciding between one's options.
Before looking for internships one should outline their interest and professional goals. One should also be aware of the amount of time they will be able to commit to the position. Many internships require that one work a certain number of hours a week. If one can not fulfill that criteria, then that options should be eliminated from their list.
Getting outside input can also make the decision easier. After outlining one's career goals, it is a good idea to schedule an appointment with an academic adviser. These individuals are extremely knowledgeable in their chosen fields and are often know about options that one might not have considered. If one already has a list of they are considering, an adviser will most likely be able to say which would look best when listed on a resume.
In your job search, it is extremely important to remember to start searching early. There are countless number of students all looking for positions and therefore the good ones get snatched up quickly. One should also apply for more than one position. This way one will have a better pool of options from which to pick. Additionally, with background checks becoming more and more of an issue, make sure your digital footprint is clean.
A source that can help one come up with companies to apply for internships with is The Princeton Review's Best Entry-Level Jobs. A large majority of the companies listed offer internships to students. According to the writers, Rob Lieber and Tom Meltzer, the businesses listed were chosen because The Princeton Review “wanted to find places where people were happy, engaged with their work, nicely compensated, well positioned for advancement, getting great preparation for graduate school or benefiting from any combination of these things.” Many of the companies listed in the 2008 edition often recruit their interns after they have finished their education.
According to the states' Employment Security Commission, there were 10,700 South Carolina jobs lost in the month of June. Between the loss of jobs and the addition of 200,000 individuals searching for positions, the state's unemployment rate rose to 5.5 percent. Thankfully this did not increase the National statistics, which remain steady at 4.5 percent.
Due to this increase the state currently has the fifth highest number of people not working. Five of the states counties had jobless rates over 10 percent, the worst being Marlboro county where 11.8 percent of the population was unable to find work. Horry and Lexington had the lowest percent of individuals searching employment. The month's data showed that only 4.1 percent of residents were without work.
Approximately 13,100 South Carolina jobs were done away with by the government, due to the cut back of employees usually seen with the end of the school year. With summer being tourist season, the leisure and hospitality industries were able to offset some of this by adding new positions. Nevertheless, there currently not enough South Carolina jobs to go around.
According to the State's Commission “this is normal for this time of year. Our labor market continues to strengthen, and we expect the jobless rate to trend downward for the remainder of the year.”
The Palmetto state is also struggling with an unproductive manufacturing industry. Within the last year alone there have been over 10,000 jobs lost in South Carolina as this sector continues to struggle. Individuals trained in this area of expertise seem to be running out of employment options.
In Orangeburg county, there will soon be forty new positions available in the field as the Okonite Company expands. Still, with so many people searching for similar South Carolina jobs, this will most likely do little to lower the unemployment rate.
Loss of jobs aside, the Commission says that the statistics are actually good news as they show improvement from years prior. When compared to the data from June 2006, it was found that 33,100 more individuals held on to their South Carolina jobs than before. Although the state's unemployment rate may seem high, it also indicates progress from the previous year's 6.5 percent of individuals who were without jobs.
Individuals without jobs in South Carolina will most likely find relief in the months to come. For the time being, contacting temp agencies should be considered. Those who live near the border of North Carolina or Georgia might also want to look for employment in those neighboring cities.
Recently San Francisco was made the home base for Virgin America airlines. According to the city's mayor, Gavin Newsom, “San Francisco is proud to have Virgin America as its home-town airline. This new airline means new jobs, new business revenues and new choices for passengers. Everybody wins, and we salute Virgin America.” Already Virgin has added 500 new San Francisco jobs and the company estimates that it will eventually employ anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 individuals.
Due to the prospect of promising employment for businesses like Virgin and other growing companies, many individuals consider relocating to the San Francisco every year. With so many things to handled, moving can be a stressful experience. Aside from finding a new workplace, one must also find a place to live, learn the layout of a new city and take care of a myriad of other issues that arise. Researching the area via the internet can assist in lowering the levels of uneasy associated with such an endeavor.
It's no secret that the real value of a dollar depends on where you try to spend it. San Francisco has one of the countries highest cost of living, which means that housing costs and other expenses may seem steep compared to what one might be used to. Thankfully, this is usually set off by higher salaries. To determine the difference in expenses where one currently lives compared to the San Francisco area one should use a web site with a cost of living calculator. More information on this topic is also available on the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce website.
This website also offers a wide variety of other useful information on relocation related topics ranging from utilities to recreation. By providing so much information in one central location, the the city has made is easier for one to move to the area in pursuit of new jobs in San Francisco.
For those who are interested in relocation, but do not currently have a San Francisco job lined up for them there is information on the fastest growing industries and business in the area. One will also find a link listing the top companies to work for in the city. By analyzing this information one can make a more informed decision and come to a conclusion about the likelihood of finding a new position post-move.
