Reasons Why Many New Online Casinos Go Bankrupt

March 6, 2021

The online gambling sector is getting bigger as more people are choosing to play casino games on the internet. In 2018, the American Gaming Association estimated that there are already around 2800 gambling sites. AS more people switch to online gambling, this number will continue to grow in the coming years.

While it’s always fun to discover new online casinos, it’s not that easy for these operators to be successful nowadays. Competition is tight and the more online casinos pop out, the harder it is to retain customers and gain new players.

Running an online casino is like any other business. It also carries a great risk and this is why this business needs to be well thought of. Planning is crucial and ensuring that you offer the best service is key to survive the industry. When it comes to online casinos, however, the main reason why they could fail is the lack of customers.

Mismanagement Could Lead to Bankruptcy

Any business will require proper and efficient management to thrive. A great vision is necessary and so is strong financial planning. The casino owner plays a big part in how his or her casino business would do and if the owner lacks the necessary skills, the business will likely fail.

The right skills and talents should also be put into use for a new casino business to thrive. A strong and creative marketing strategy is important. There are so many other online casinos out there that your new business needs to stand out. When it comes to this, casinos would usually resort to offering generous promos and bonuses.

What Online Casinos Should Consider to Avoid Bankruptcy

The main objective of online casinos is to get new customers. There are a few ways to get the attention of new players and here are some of them.

Legal Operations

Don’t even consider opening a casino if you’re not going to do things the right way. Illegal operations will simply get you in trouble. If you’re lucky and you go unnoticed, it’s still impossible to get as many customers as you desire. Online casino review sites are so easy to access nowadays and unhappy customers are always willing to share their experiences.

Make sure that you are operating with a casino license from jurisdictions like Curacao, Malta, Gibraltar, the United Kingdom, and many more. Do not offer your services in countries where online casinos are not allowed to avoid getting in any trouble.

Choosing the Right Casino Software

Whenever people go online to play real money games, what they will most likely look for is the game selection that an online casino offers. What’s attractive to these players is a good selection of casino games. Whether it’s poker, roulette, blackjack, or slots, the more quality games a casino offers, the more likely a player would settle with them.

Some of the most popular casino software providers are NetEnt, Playtech, Dragonfish, Novomatic, Evolution Gaming, and Yggdrasil Gaming. A casino may partner up with multiple software providers. This just means that they will have more to offer if they do this.

The right software provider will always depend on what you want to offer on your website. Ask yourself if you want to focus on slot machine games or games that accept cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Cardano, and many more.

Visual Image is Still Important

Aesthetics matter and so is the look of your casino. Branding will always play an important role in getting the name of your casino out there. A great logo, an aesthetically pleasing website, and the overall look of your brand will always appeal to casino players.

It will be hard to compete with the popular online casinos out there if your casino site looks plain and boring. Las Vegas is such a lively place and this is something that you should mirror on your website. This is also a great way for people to take your website seriously.

Offering the Most Convenient Payment Options

Many people now prefer playing online because it is convenient. Part of convenience is ensuring that the gaming experience of your customers is pretty much effortless. This is why offering the most convenient payment methods is important.

Some of the most commonly used online payment options today are the use of credit or debit cards, digital or e-wallets, and cryptocurrencies. The majority of online gamblers prefer instant transactions and it’s best to make sure that you have what many of them are looking for.

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ClickTrades – Our Impression on ETF CFD Trading with the Broker

March 6, 2021

The higher interest in stocks combined with the need for enhanced liquidity and accurate pricing is pushing retail traders towards trading instruments such as ETFs (Exchange-Traded Funds). Also, since for the past year there has been higher volatility across the board, trading CFDs on ETFs represents a viable option for those wanting to take advantage of both sides of the market in the short term.

About ClickTrades

ClickTrades is a CFD brokerage operated by KW Investments Limited, currently offering access to a broad range of trading instruments, including a diverse list of CFDs based on the largest ETFs in the world.

Trading with ClickTrades comes in hand with numerous benefits, including the fact that the brand is regulated by the Seychelles Financial Services Authority (FSA), and at the same time, a competitive and optimized trading ecosystem where different traders can find the right tools.

The main goal of the company is to offer the ultimate trading experience, supporting traders in their strategies and trading decisions via market news and analysis, or other educational resources updated based on the latest market conditions.

Trading Conditions

Diversified trading conditions are granted by ClickTrades using two different platforms – ClickTrades WebTrader and Metatrader 5 – solutions that are currently used by a large section of the trading community. ClickTrades WebTrader is a proprietary platform, offering access to all 2,100 CFDs currently supported by the broker, as well as several reputed third-party tools, directly integrated into it.

Also, each trader will need to choose one of three account type options (Essential, Original, Signature), gaining access to different features. All customers get to enjoy 24/5 customer support, demo trading conditions, daily analyst recommendations, full access to a video library, and a dedicated account representative.

Funding an account with ClickTrades can be done using wire transfers, credit/debit card payments, as well as several popular e-wallets like Skrill or Neteller.

Trade ETF CFDs

Although the broker’s asset coverage includes 2,100 instruments, ranging from FX, stocks, indices, bonds, commodities, and cryptocurrencies, this review will put an emphasis on the ClickTrades ETFs CFDs section.

That is where traders can find DIA, SDOW, DSD, XLE, XLF, AGQ, and other popular ETFs, having the ability to trade both on rising or falling prices, using flexible leverage, 0% commission, competitive spreads, and fast execution.

ClickTrades covers CFDs on ETFs from various sectors (tech, energy, industrials, S&P500, consumer staples, etc.), offering a wide range of opportunities for traders that have different trading objectives.

Insight into the ETF Market

Trading CFDs on ETFs had been increasingly popular since after the 2008 financial crisis, as an increasing number of market participants wanted to gain a more diversified exposure, without having to buy a handful of individuals stocks or pay high trading costs.

Once the COVID-19 pandemic started, increased stock market volatility led to larger intra-day price moves in ETFs as well, creating short-term trading opportunities. QQQ (the popular tech ETF), SPY (helping investors gain exposure on the S&P 500), or XLF (financial sector ETF) are now among the most active, and all of them are covered by ClickTrades.

Summary

Based on all the competitive trading conditions for CFDs on ETFs, ClickTrades is proving to be a reliable broker to work with at a time when there is increased interest in such instruments. The combination of powerful trading software, tight trading costs, diverse educational resources, and fast execution is what has been attracting customers for the past several years. ClickTrades is constantly upgrading its offer each time it finds appropriate, making sure traders get to benefit from optimal trading conditions.

Risk Warning: The materials appearing in this document are not written by ClickTrades but by an independent third party and should not in any way be construed, either explicitly or implicitly, directly or indirectly, as investment advice or a recommendation or suggestion of an investment strategy concerning a financial instrument, in any manner whatsoever. Trading CFDs involves a significant risk of loss.

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Jonathan Bloomberg, Sanjay Sen on BloombergSen’s guiding investment principles for any market

March 6, 2021

“An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis, promises safety of principal and an adequate return. Operations not meeting these requirements are speculative.” – Benjamin Graham

So says Benjamin Graham, one of the pioneers of the investment profession and Warren Buffett’s professor at Columbia University.

Following on that theme, BloombergSen has been managing money for investors since 2008, but traces its roots back to legendary Bay Street financier, Lawrence Bloomberg, who is Chairman of the firm. Lawrence, who sold his investment dealer to National Bank for over $700 million in 1999, along with co-founders Jonathan Bloomberg and Sanjay Sen, have almost 100 years of investment experience between them.

The World Financial Review sat down (virtually) with Lawrence, Jonathan and Sanjay to get their advice on investing in the current, very uncertain, environment.

“We are bottom-up, concentrated, long-term value investors,” says CEO, Jonathan Bloomberg. “We buy only our best ideas, and only when they are cheap, and do not diversify just for the sake of diversification. When we buy a stock, we consider ourselves to be purchasing a fractional share of a business, not a piece of paper that trades or a quote on a computer screen.”

Lawrence Bloomberg added, “When you hold fewer securities, each one is a more significant proportion of the portfolio, which allows you to reduce risk while boosting your return potential. It reduces risk, in our view, because taking larger positions requires the companies to jump over a much higher bar and forces you to know each company better. The potential return is greater because your money is concentrated in your best ideas.”

“Our investment approach and principles are the same regardless of what’s going on in the world,” says Chief Investment Officer, Sanjay Sen. “We believe if you follow a few key tenets, they can guide your investment decisions through any market.”

So what are these guiding principles? Here’s a summary from my discussion with the three professionals:

First, invest in businesses that possess strong balance sheets, wide profit margins and earnings that are less sensitive to economic activity. Such businesses usually sell products that are more non-discretionary in nature, are purchased with high and recurring frequency and have a limited number of substitutes. A slower growth economy carries a greater risk of negative shocks, and when such shocks occur, the stock prices of these types of businesses may be volatile but their earning power should remain intact.

Second, focus on return on invested capital. Though the BloombergSen portfolio’s earnings yield is high, on average, its holdings pay out only a portion of their earnings in dividends. So it is critical to determine management’s incentives, philosophy and track record in allocating excess capital. While investors seem to love receiving dividends, where company management has utilized retained earnings for buybacks or acquisitions, they may create more value for shareholders than they would by simply paying out all of their income in the form of dividends.

Finally, invest in companies that produce abundant free cash flow. From a defensive standpoint, these businesses continue to do well when banks and capital markets become jittery because they are not at the behest of either. In a slow growth economy, they have a major advantage in that they can use their free cash flow to augment their organic earnings growth through acquisitions and share buybacks and are better positioned to increase their market share. Many of BloombergSen’s holdings have made highly accretive acquisitions in the last few years.

Lawrence summarized all the above with a metaphor: “when you get on a plane, you may experience some turbulence, but most of us stay calm and always reach the final destination. Our approach to investing is to seek the best planes with the best pilots and to ignore the turbulence along the way – which is very hard for most investors to do.”

“As business owners, we realize that time is required to build and realize value. We remain confident that buying cheap, staying focused on a limited number of companies, being patient and approaching investing as a business owner rather than a speculator will yield solid long-term results,” concluded Jonathan Bloomberg.

If you follow the principles BloombergSen’s partners have described, we think you will have a better chance of reaching your investment destination…you might even make it into first class!

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Reasons why start-ups should consider outsourcing

March 4, 2021

By Genc Emini

Outsourcing ensures that your hard tasks are handled by a specialist and he will do it efficiently. It would help the companies save money, distribute individual tasks to experts, save resources, and increase the variety. Here we will tell you the reasons why companies should outsource.

It is key for growing your business process. It will allow your start-up to save money and free up vital members of your team to focus on their business procedures and the most appropriate for the management process. It is never cheap to run a start-up.

Why Start-ups Should Outsource?

Companies outsource for many reasons—the main reason being faster business growth. Outsourcing permits you to focus on your core business activities.

Below are the top 6 reasons why start-ups should consider outsourcing and how it is beneficial to grow your business.

1. Cost-effective

Obvious. Hiring an in-house worker to do work for your company is costly. You would also need to pay for additional expenses, office rooms, staff training, and much more besides your salaries. If you outsource parts of your company to a contractor that offers outsourcing services, you will only have to pay a fixed sum defined by the contract. This way of doing businesses is called drop servicing.

2. Getting Specific-Skill

Businesses hire workers who are specialists in a specific field. Therefore, if you want to outsource the payroll to a company, you will be confident that the people involved with your payroll are informative in all aspects of making payroll. Even though you do not perform specific projects, they are performed in a high-quality manner.

3. Outsourcing is Time- Sever

The relationship between cost and time is great for many outsourcing companies. With time, they are sensitive without sacrificing the quality of work. Since outsourcing company already has the sense of time and costs balances, on or before the set time of performance work will be delivered. This is highly efficient compared to employing an in-house worker who costs whether a task is accomplished or not on the budget.

4. More flexibility

When you have an outsourcing individual completed some of your company’s tasks. You will have more time and space to focus on your fundamental tasks. It will allow you to be more flexible and multipurpose; it gives you the time to research new ways to build and grow your business, work with clients and partners, and grow your business embellishment.

Outsourcing will also permit you to representative more imperative tasks to your workforces. So, they can concentrate on what they are good at and organized the work to achieve your business goals.

5. Outsourcing depends on worldwide skills.

Employees of multinational outsourcing enterprises consider the work to be a skill. They practice fulfilling these responsibilities with efficiency. Many individuals had the potential to do anything in a globally competitive way. You can be confident that the quality of your company’s skills is in the global arena when you outsource your projects. This facilitates to explore new talents.

6. Promotes business focus

Our final note on outscoring is the benefit that outsourcing can bring your business in terms of growth. Outsourcing permits you to grow your business. If you choose to outsource, you would be willing to try to strategize and concentrate on sharing, marketing, and growth for your company’s development.

Outsourcing provides more space in the brain to develop innovative ideas to compete with companies in this field. You can still do this while maintaining top performance on your company’s professional staff and choosing the right to outsource service that combines you with multiple other services like payroll, invoicing, and human resources.

7. Outline all expectations.

From the start, you should provide a full job description that will explain exactly what you expect. This suggests you have to know what you want, and only for the project what success will be.

Be very careful and leave absolutely no space, neither interpreting nor giving rise to doubt at all. They may mistakenly have to make the missing appeal any moment the contractor has to decide to order action, so then need additional work to fix it.

When you make a concise statement of what you think it will certainly highlight your goals. It was advised that the contractor understand what is valuable to you to ensure that they gave the time and attention to finish their job correctly.

8. Focus on your own work.

Keep in mind, when you hire an outsourcing service. You would want to have full control of what is happening. But if you insist on the contractors micromanage, you’re going to waste everyone’s time.

For questions, be available, ask for promotion reports, if necessary, and provide details about the positive and negative results of the job accomplished. Since you invest in reliable outsourcing service in it, trust them to perform their job. You need to look for a new contractor if it shows to be distrustful or dishonest, or you lose confidence in them at any point. Try not to use your resources on supporting others who are unable to work as you required.

Conclusion

All who works for an organization wants more of all success. So that they achieve the objectives they establish. Business owners do everything within their control. But, at times, it can be challenging to grow your start-up from scratch. Individuals experience that it takes several things to create a company, and it is not just expending cash, creating a plan, and then managing. A growing business is far more than only plans and procedures. So, we can say if we are looking to relieve you and your people from troublesome tasks. The answer is outsourcing.

There is no doubt that if you want to grow your business globally, outsource it.

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About the Author

Genc Emini is a Marketing Specialist in SEO with more than 5-years of experience, He works for KS Outsourcing. Genc is passionate about traveling, photography and reading. Genc can speak Albanian, English, Italian and Turkish.

Playing Casino Games with Cryptocurrencies

March 4, 2021

There are now several vendors and websites that allow us to buy products and services with cryptocurrencies. A lot of them operate in the gaming and gambling industries. In fact, online casinos were among the first to accept such payment methods and even created their own coins for purposes of playing.

Safety First

There could be many reasons why one would want to start playing casino games with cryptocurrencies. Security is one of the big ones. When making a deposit with virtual coins, the transaction is encrypted and verified at various points on the network. There is a solid record of the transaction on the public ledger, making it difficult for unethical operators to take off with your money.

There are good and bad traditional casinos, and the same can also be said for so-called Bitcoin casinos. While cryptocurrency markets might be susceptible to hacks, they’re mostly limited to crypto exchanges. Due to their decentralized nature, Bitcoin casinos could be perceived as safer than traditional ones. The private keys used in digital cash operations are exceptionally lengthy, making them very hard to crack.

Picking the Best Provider

Before entering the world of casino entertainment, it’s always good to learn a thing or two about the games you want to play. It’s even more important, perhaps, to develop your knowledge of Bitcoin casinos before you start to play.

Most beginners look for opportunities to try out casino games with no deposit. Naturally, several similar bonuses and promotions are also available with those platforms that primarily operate using cryptocurrencies.

While the use of cryptos is becoming more widespread, a majority of providers still rely on traditional currencies for deposits and withdrawals. There are also those providers who only accept digital cash, as well as those that accept a wide variety of payment methods.

Regardless of the currencies in question, an essential part of picking the best provider is the quality and variety of available games. After all, you should be able to play what you want.

Another thing to consider is mobile compatibility. The good news is that mobile compatibility is now a standard across the gaming world. However, this is not always a given when it comes to crypto casinos. Additionally, if you’re looking to play games over the long term, it’s advisable to make sure there is both a decent loyalty program in place and reliable customer service.

Starting to Play

For obvious reasons, Bitcoin casinos operate in a different way than fiat currency casinos.

One of the first things you’ll need to do is choose a digital wallet, which will enable you to make deposits and withdrawals at multiple cryptocurrency gaming platforms from a single account. There are many reputable eWallets to choose from. When you do register with one, you’ll also receive a digital address tied to the account, so it’s important not to lose that number.

Then, there is a question of filling the wallet with coins. You can purchase your preferred cryptocurrency using traditional payment methods like your debit or credit card. Afterwards, you can go to a reputable casino platform that accepts your coin of choice and make real money deposits.

There is so much you can do with cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology in general. Gaming and financial transactions are just the tip of the iceberg. Nevertheless, playing casino games and placing bets on sporting events can be very enjoyable, as long as we play responsibly.

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Emotional Overwhelm: Getting Out of It

March 4, 2021

By Kate Skurat

Our lives are made up of a whirlwind of emotions: some good, some bad, and some that are downright overwhelming. Everyone aspires for the good alone, but negative emotions are unavoidable.

If someone cuts you off in traffic or in line at the supermarket, or even if you face rudeness from a salesperson — everything can trigger a wave of negative emotions and spoil your day.

Most people can deal with negative emotions arising from the pressures of daily life easily. However, extended stress from factors such as a decrease of income or the death of a loved one, as has been witnessed by many people this past year, can lead to feeling overwhelmed by our emotions.

How Emotional Overwhelm Arises

What is emotional overwhelm? Emotional overwhelm occurs when there is a disproportionate response to stressful situations in a person’s life. An argument with a loved one, or say, a misplaced wallet can have a person on a downward spiral for days or weeks.

Negative emotions may arise from singular events in our day-to-day lives. However, emotional overwhelm caused by prolonged periods of stress may be triggered by specific events or factors such as:

High-pressure environments at home, school, or work
Working or studying for prolonged periods with little to no rest
Financial distress or loss of income
Living with a chronic condition or illness
Perfectionism and trying to live up to standards that don’t match our own
Loneliness
Poor self-care
Significant life changes, for example, moving to a new school, town, or a divorce
Memories and traumatic life experiences

These factors can work in multiple combinations, thus aggravating the impacts of emotional overwhelm.

There are also tell-tale signs of emotional overwhelm which we delve into further in the next section.

How to Tell If You Are Emotionally Overwhelmed

For many people, the line between emotional overwhelm and typical emotional reactions to negative stressors isn’t always clear. However, a quick self-diagnosis of one’s typical behavior, or a conversation with a friend or loved one may reveal emotional overwhelm.

The usual tell-tale signs of emotional overwhelm include:

Being constantly fatigued
Getting easily agitated, upset, or frustrated by small or relatively insignificant things
Sleeping too much or barely sleeping at all
Not enjoying the things you used to, for example, going to the gym
Become more withdrawn from family, friends, and colleagues
Lack of motivation, increased procrastination, and putting off important things
Feelings of unhappiness even in typical “feel good” situations

These are the typical signs to keep in mind when it comes to manifesting emotional overwhelm. The degree and severity of manifestation may vary from person to person.

If you don’t know what to do when feeling overwhelmed, reading an article such as this is always a good place to start.

Persistent Emotional Overwhelm — How to Tell If You or a Loved One Is Afflicted

Emotional overwhelm that isn’t dealt with can transform into something much harder to deal with, for instance, depression or anxiety.

Drugs and alcohol may soon turn into a problem if someone is using them to deal with emotional overwhelm. Severe cases of emotional overwhelm may degenerate into social withdrawal, declining physical and mental health, and lack of self-care.

You can deal with the impacts of short-term emotional overwhelm following some of the techniques we outline below.

However, for persistent emotional overwhelm, the person should get help in any way, shape, or form. As an example, one can try online therapy.

When you see a friend or loved one becomes very withdrawn or suddenly spending too much or too little time in their usual activities, it may be a sign that all isn’t well.

How to Stop Feeling Overwhelmed: 6 Things That You Can Try

If you are dealing with emotional overwhelm, there are several simple techniques that you can try.

See It Through Someone Else’s Lens

This might sound like the worst idea right now, especially if the only thing that you feel like doing is locking up yourself in your room. However, think about it from another person’s perspective.

If your friend or family member was going through the same thing, you’d like them to talk to someone, for instance, yourself.

Different people have different things that may make them tank into emotional overwhelm. What is clear is that we often only see things through our perspective. When you talk to someone else, for example, an e-therapist you may see options that you didn’t see first.

Coping through emotional overwhelm may cloud our judgment that we may not see clearly. In the end, a counselor is just a friend who sees the finer perspective of things.

Write Your Feelings Down

Journaling your thoughts down is not only a therapeutic approach, but it may also make for a pretty great life story. The tunneling effect of sifting through your thoughts and writing them down makes you calmer and more objective.

Think about what’s important and what you have to fight for. Your family, your career, your spirituality, your health are all things you shouldn’t lose because of a moment in time.

Writing these things that matter down helps you see a lot clearer.

Take a Break from Your Usual Schedule

Sometimes going away for a while helps. It may be an environment that you can’t keep up with, whether at school, work, or home. It may be a tight schedule that has beaten you down.

It may be the feeling that time isn’t on your side. Our environments play a huge role in shaping our emotions and outlook, therefore always keep change in mind. Taking online therapy should also improve your routine.

Your Physical Routine Matters

One of the main signs that someone may be suffering from emotional overwhelm is that of excessive fatigue. Fatigue itself may be deemed as a physical attribute. However, it all but starts in the mind.

Emotional overwhelm on its part will make most people slack or unable to do their usual tasks. Someone who was once masterclass at the gym may not turn up at all. Suddenly, things that you were able to do with minimal effort seem like a mountain to move.

Try reminding yourself that you can do it and have done it before. That this is just a phase that you will conquer.

Never Stop Rooting for Yourself

You are your biggest fan, and you should always remember that. Keep telling yourself that everything will be fine and that you will make it safely to the other side. Meditate on happier times, your accomplishments, successes, past failures, and how much you have learned along the way.

Emotional overwhelm may sometimes make someone completely withdrawn and the only voices that they hear are their own. In these periods the person may become isolated and buried around a mountain of thoughts.

When emotional overwhelm reaches such a point, the person may be in depression. Talking to an e-therapist in confidence is a great place to start.

Reflect on Something That Eases Your Thoughts

People have various mindfulness practices they turn to, even when they aren’t necessarily under emotional overwhelm. For some, yoga and meditation really work.

Think about your ideal serene place and what you would be doing there, free from all thoughts, worries, and anxieties. Get your mind to a place where you can see things rationally and relax knowing that you are still strong.

Recalibrating yourself in this way is useful because you not only get to beat your emotional overwhelm, you also create a new chapter of yourself.

A Counselor Is Always in a Call, Text, Email, Or Video-Call Away

When you’re feeling overwhelmed and cannot bear the pressure anymore, a professional such as a licensed counselor is recommended.

E-therapy has become a much sought-after solution in light of recent global events. Not only is it affordable, but it is also safer when it comes to social distancing. And Calmerry is a great place to start.

Start dealing with your emotional overwhelm today!

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About the Author

Kate Skurat has a B.S. in Psychology and an M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University and has been working in healthcare since 2017. She mainly treated depression, anxiety, eating disorders, trauma, grief, identity, relationship, and adjustment issues. Her clinical experience is focused on individual and group counseling.

Best Tech Stocks That You Can Buy Today

March 4, 2021

When it comes to publicly traded companies on Wall Street, there are all kinds of niches out there. Perhaps one of the most dynamic types of stock available on the market today would be these technology stocks. They not only have plenty of good ideas, but they normally don’t require a massive storefront or an extremely large amount of floor space. It can be very easy to find a good winner on your hands, but like everything else in life you still need to do your homework. Thus, here are some tech stocks that are poised to have a big year in 2021:

Facebook

Yes, even though Facebook has been around for over a decade now, it is still a buy. There are several reasons for this current development, including the fact that there was a 22 percent year-on-year growth in their advertising revenue in the third quarter. The advertising demand continues to be very strong, so Facebook executives expect that they will continue to have strong growth during the fourth quarter. Of course, one of the things that could weigh on the stock price of Facebook would be an antitrust lawsuit based on the company’s acquisition of other social networking platforms such as Instagram and WhatsApp in 2012 and 2014, respectively. However, Facebook believes they will prevail in the FTC suit simply because the FTC let the acquisition go through at the time they were purchased. Furthermore, out of 43 stock analysts, 38 expect Facebook’s price to rise, 4 recommend that you simply hold the stock, and one analyst feels that the price will go down.

Google

About the only way to answer the question of whether Google is a buy in 2021 is to say “yes and no.” Yes, Google is a buy because it is a massive business that will continue to grow. However, much like many other businesses during 2020, Google had a difficult year due to COVID. They too have an antitrust lawsuit against them as well. According to Money Morning, “Google is in serious trouble. The company’s already been sued by the European Commission (EC) for everything U.S. regulators and states are going after it for; it lost on every front in Europe” However, there is reason for hope and there are several facts that would make this a buy.

First of all, there are many experts that believe that Google will rebound from the COVID-related assault they encountered and come back better than ever. Secondly, another reason Google is one of the best tech stocks to buy right now is because they are heavily in many new start-ups such as a self-driving car company and a life-sciences firm.

Zuora

Chances are that Zuora is a company that you have not heard of. However, this is a venture that has been plugged into a new and growing industry, that of subscription-based electronic services. It doesn’t matter whether it is a subscription to Microsoft Office Suite, Amazon Prime, or Netflix, there are plenty of options out there for software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies like Zuora. This company in particular already has software companies such as Zendesk, DocuSign, and Zoom Video Communications as their clients; they are definitely poised to continue growing.

These are just a few of the fantastic tech stocks that you as an investor can get in on today!

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How Data Science is Transforming the Financial Services Industry

March 3, 2021

Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are all the rage now, but their magic wouldn’t exist without the power of Data Science behind the curtains. The Data Science experts from Waverley Software are happy to provide us with some insight into the interconnection between the fields, and how the FinTech industry can benefit from the study and analysis of Big Data.

Since Data Science is all about information and figures, we suggest taking a look at some numbers, for starters. In 2016, Forrester predicted that by the year 2020, insight–driven businesses will be collectively worth $1.2 trillion. Statista’s big data statistics estimated that by 2023 the big data industry will be worth $77 billion. A study, “The Business Impact of Data Intelligent Management” held by Forrester Consulting, surveyed more than 900 analysts in 2020 to find out that data-centered organizations are 58% more likely to exceed their revenue goals.

So how exactly does Data Science work and what makes it that effective in helping businesses, particularly in finance?

What is Data Science?

Despite the fact that it’s often perceived merely as a more advanced, computerized version of statistics and is expected to provide the target users with nice and bright graphs and charts, Data Science is something more than that. Data Science is a complex field that appeared at the intersection of mathematics, statistics, computer science, information science, data analysis, and domain knowledge. The below Venn diagram reflects the interrelation of these disciplines in framing into a new specialization.

The aim of Data Science is to extract unobvious knowledge and value from large sets of structured and unstructured data. The use of Data Science for business lies in creating impact by finding solutions to specific problems. Depending on the company needs, the work of a Data Scientist results in informational insights, a data product, or product recommendations.

Data Science for FinTech

As estimated by Forbes, more than 150 zettabytes (150 trillion gigabytes) of data will need analysis by 2025. Out of these, the amount of data that the financial industry and the banking sector generate every second is overwhelming: just between 2016 and 2020 the numbers increased by 700%. Surprisingly, statistics say that a mere 29% of financial industry companies readily adopt AI&BI solutions.

Advantages of Data Science for Financial Industry

Despite this low adoption rate, the applications of Data Science in fintech and banking can yield particularly beneficial results:

Enhancing security. As cyber attackers and financial crimes are still on the rise, financial organizations are only getting under more risk of exposing their customer sensitive data. Also, due to imposed regulations (such as Basel III, FRTB, MiFID II, AML/KYC, FATCA), financial institutions are obliged to disclose a good deal of information to regulatory bodies. Emerging authentication methods are another source of data to be processed. These are great prerequisites for benefitting from the data analytics and predictive patterns Data Science can bring.

Tracking and predictions on user behavior. Financial organizations can utilize a myriad of channels for interacting with customers and collecting user data. Having the information about their customers’ browsing history, geo-location, interactions timing, interests and preferences, companies can better know and understand the needs of their existing and potential clients.
Optimization of internal operations. A good way to reduce operational costs without losses and improve processes is to bring in analytics and automation. Data Science gives you the chance to easily make use of all the insider data you collect and store anyway, identify their value and potential through data valuation, and skyrocket your business efficiency with some awesome insights.
Getting advantage over the competition. In the era of Big Data, this is just not enough to have and store it, it’s important to learn how to use the information you own. With wide access to shared information today, you can even collect and analyze your competitors’ data to learn lessons from.

Data Science Applications in FinTech

The Data Science use cases in the financial sector are also numerous.

First of all, finance and banking have a huge commercial component and function in the same way as other businesses do in order to reach a profit – launch sales and marketing campaigns, generate leads, communicate with customers, find their pain points, try to deliver value and so on.

More Efficient Marketing and Sales

Target the right set of customers: with Data Science, you can leverage your collected data to discover similar spending or behavioral patterns and segment your audience.
Identify the best channel (or a mix of channels) for your next marketing campaign, analyse direct feedback and user journeys to take lessons for building a better marketing strategy, spot influential customers and engage them as brand ambassadors, etc.
Predict the products or services customers are most likely to be interested in by looking at your historical or test data. As a result, you will be able to choose the most effective sales strategy, boost cross-selling effort, or correctly apply dynamic pricing.

Personalized Customer Relationships

Collect relevant data to create accurate user profiles from a ton of available personal information about users you can get from multiple interaction channels.
Examine the customer information you have at hand to provide customized offers. Show care and match each client’s current needs. Predict further communication steps, forecast and prevent customer churn rate with logistic regression analysis method.
Improve customer support by utilizing Data Science and automating data presentation to a support specialist while they are communicating with the customer. Don’t forget this is a great way to augment their capabilities but it cannot become a substitution for a live person.
Use the power of Data Science and ML algorithms to automatically collect and examine customer feedback. Listen to your customers and you might arrive at valuable conclusions.

Apart from commerce-oriented activities, fintech businesses deal with large amounts of valuable information and manage enormous sums of money, so they continuously stand the risk of attracting criminals. Thus, fraud detection and protection of sensitive user data should be the top concern of any financial institution that cares for its customers’ well–being and own reputation.

Reliable Cyber Security

Track user behavior and identify suspicious behavior patterns, then notify users and security managers of possible threats. Among such suspicious behavior patterns might be multiple accounts with similar information opened within a short term, unusually high transactions, or unusually frequent purchases of popular items.
Use Data Science and smart security algorithms to collect and analyse data coming from your security perimeter. Amplify your cyber security with physical security measures at the facilities, and you will be able to collect even more data to process and use for security purposes.

Effective Risk Management

Analyse the available data about the object of investment as well as other relevant information to calculate a risk score for a particular investment. Based on this score, bank consultants can draw more precise conclusions and provide data–backed advice.
Look into the loan requester’s historical transaction data or credit history to evaluate their potential to pay back the loan. As a result, make informed and unbiased decisions as to the credit issue.

In addition to the above factors, smoothly running internal operations and processes play an integral role in the functioning of any organization. The finance and banking sector also heavily depends on the currency market, economic situation in the region and the world, various regulatory initiatives, and even political events. Data analytics is helpful in digesting this huge amount of constantly changing information and fluctuating figures.

Real–time and predictive analytics

Real–time analytics helps financial institutions draw timely insights from the current organization’s internal state of affairs as well as ground important operational decisions on fresh external financial data: currency exchange rates, stock market news, new investments, etc.
Predictive analytics uses historical and current internal and external data to forecast potential risks or prospects. As a result, the organization leaders have more information for building a business development strategy, polishing processes, implementing new promising approaches and eradicating old inefficient ones, for example.

Conclusion

Considering the increasing digitalization of our day-to-day interactions, it’s no wonder that every individual is becoming an active producer and consumer of huge amounts of data. Internet banking and financial applications are no exception: they make the lives of people and businesses easier by streamlining payments, money transfers, and asset management. Data Science reaches every industry domain that is intensively dealing with data and provides us with even more opportunities due to the power of computing and artificial intelligence. Grabbing this chance is no more a luxury but a need to survive and flourish in this world of data.

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After the pandemic, supply chain companies are recognizing a gap between planning and execution

March 3, 2021

By Dan Blacharski

US-based and Western industries are being hit with a dose of reality as they begin to recover from pandemic-driven slowdowns while simultaneously preparing for a post-pandemic surge. At the same time, one of the biggest challenges is in re-evaluating the global supply chain which was thrown into disarray as a result of global shutdowns, unavailable shipping and some suppliers going out of business completely. The pandemic brought to light the inherent vulnerability many companies faced in having an extended supplier ecosystem into which companies often have limited visibility. As a result, the gap that has always existed between planning and execution has become even more visible – and solving that gap has become urgent for companies as they emerge from their pandemic-driven malaise and begin to assess the damage.

Vast amounts of supply chain data exist, but too often companies fail to take full advantage of it so long as operations are functioning. But the disruptions faced over the past year have made it clear that companies need to better understand the data they have on hand, and they need ready and real-time access to that data in order to respond to unexpected disruptions. Most importantly, companies are only beginning to get a firm grasp on what really happened and how the pandemic disrupted their operations, and have come to understand that a significant gap exists between planning and execution.

This gap is not new. It existed before the pandemic, but solving it has become a matter of urgency. “Remaining competitive even during an unexpected global disruption requires, more than anything, the ability to understand from minute to minute what factors are affecting your supply chain,” said Ganesh Gandhieswaran, CEO of ConverSight.ai, an AI-driven, natural language platform that delivers immediate intelligence to decision-makers at all levels. “We saw during the pandemic just how quickly global supply chains can be affected by factors out of our control. Understanding those changes in context and in real time – and being able to respond quickly – in many cases made the difference for those companies which continued to thrive during this past year’s disruption.”

The biggest sustainable contributing factor to competitiveness is the underlying decision intelligence technology that Gandhieswaran describes, and a real-time focus that closes the gap between planning and execution. It is that technology, delivering decision support and predictive analytics in real time, which will position US based industries to effectively compete in the global market.

Big and bold points to a need for deeper insights and analytics

A rebalancing of global supply chains in a new blended onshore/offshore strategy that de-focuses single-region supply chain strategies will help companies lower risk and better withstand future disruptions like the COVID pandemic.

A post-pandemic surge in consumer spending and demand, coupled with new domestic infrastructure projects and a shift towards closer-to-home sourcing, will bring new opportunities for companies, but this will also impact the need for information and decision support technologies. “We have long understood that the need for supply chain intelligence and intentional visibility is critical when building a global supply chain with potentially hundreds of partners in both domestic and overseas locations,” said Gandhieswaran. “But that decision support and insight will be even more critical with supply chains closer to home, because when they do come home, it will be coupled with a new level of transformation at every level of the operation, from manufacturing to transportation.”

That may seem counter-intuitive at first. One might think that with a supply chain closer to home, visibility would be inherently better and intelligence would be easier to come by, but the opposite will be true. This is because to balance the labor arbitrage advantage they would otherwise have through an extended supply chain based on best-cost sourcing in China, Southeast Asia and other low-wage destinations, companies will need to turn to newer technologies like additive manufacturing, robotics, and 5G-enabled Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT); and on the transportation front, driverless car networks or even more ambitious, high-speed rail. This enhanced level of technology was of course, already moving forward, but onshoring of the supply chain will tip the scales towards ubiquitous use.

That advanced technology generates data, and lots of it. We were already facing a state of data overload and significant challenges to derive useful information out of it, and just as traditional data intelligence tools were beginning to solve the problem, the volume of data is now about to exponentially increase yet again.

Data is the currency of business

“We have already long since reached the point at which data is the currency of business,” said Gandhieswaran. “We understand that information, more than anything else, is what drives commerce forward, and we now find ourselves at yet another tipping point. The rapid advancement of sophisticated technologies that will drive the newly rebalanced supply chains of industry will take the already accelerated pace of data overload and take it even further. Navigating and understanding that data will require AI-based, natural language interfaces to make sense of it all.”

With the rapid increase in industrial data about to be unleashed, there is an even greater need for agility and responsiveness to supply chain changes, and this will require a new approach to data, analytics and decision intelligence. According to Gandhieswaran, ConverSight.ai’s natural language industrial interface, personified in the form of an AI business assistant called “Athena,” enables this level of responsiveness with a decision intelligence platform capable of abstracting multiple structured and unstructured data sources, conducting deep analysis and delivering insights and recommendations in real time.

“One of the most innovative aspects of the technology is that it allows decision-makers to take an unscripted path to discovery,” said Gandhieswaran. “It’s one thing for a data analyst to draw on data to tease out patterns they suspected were already there, but the AI component, real-time nature and contextual, conversational techniques take data science to the next level in delivering insights that are more actionable, more useful and more proactive than were previously possible through standard data analytics tools.”

Data is indeed the currency of business and is what will drive the success of industrial policy on a national scale. The flow of data will increase, and quickly, as manufacturers and supply chain partners leverage new technologies. Global competitive success requires several things – a competitive and flexible supply chain, and increasing sophistication in manufacturing and distribution technologies. The final component of success is being able to understand that this will result in a new rapid increase in data, and that understanding that data will require us to take advantage of newly emerging natural-language, real-time data analytics.

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About the Author

Dan Blacharski is an author, consultant and industry observer who frequently writes about global affairs, next-generation technology and industry. He lives in South Bend, Indiana with his wife and inspiration Charoenkwan, and their Boston Terrier Ling Ba.

Financial Wellness: Your Roadmap to Financial Wellbeing

March 3, 2021

These days, being financially sound can be a trial, especially for those with children or other families to care for. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t comfortably prepare for retirement while also taking care of your daily financial needs and obligations. However, some often find it beneficial to work with a professional financial wellness expert to ensure that they’re well off and on their way toward meeting their goals for retirement.

That’s why these days many companies offer financial wellness benefits in addition to traditional benefits like pensions and healthcare. Let’s take a look at some of the ways implementing a workplace financial wellness program can benefit your organization.

1. Increased Employee Morale

An employee that’s financially stable has much less to worry about; they’re less stressed and can focus on their job. That’s why financial wellness programs in the workplace can easily improve employee satisfaction. Your staff will have the savings they need to go on holidays and plan for retirement.

2. Improved Employee Retention

Having a high employee turnover rate isn’t only costly for your company, it can really drag down morale. But as mentioned above, your employees will be much more pleased with someone to turn to for financial advice, thus helping you keep your staff more long term and truly build a great team.

3. Better Talent

Offering financial wellness programs as a part of your employee benefits package will attract much better talent to your organization. It’s no secret that these days, millennials and other young professionals are interested in companies that offer the most attractive benefits and chances for them to start saving ASAP. So adding a wealth management and employee financial wellness aspect to your benefits will ultimately provide you with better candidates when expanding your team.

4. Less Absenteeism

A few of the things that come along with financial instability include stress, anxiety, depression, and a host of other things that can cause not only mental but physical health problems. That’s why it’s important to provide employees with the financial wellness advice and insight they need. It will keep them healthier, happier, and in the office more often than not.

5. Increased Financial Employee Benefits

With the right wellness plan, you can offer some great benefits to your employees they wouldn’t be able to have access to otherwise, such as assistance for paying off student loan debts, and more flexible paydays if you offer them. Additionally, they’ll be privy to their own personalized financial advice programs that will give them more in-depth insight into their spending habits, and how to make the most use out of their paycheck.

Before You Go…

Before you go, we wanted to remind you that not only does offering financial wellness benefits to employees make them happier and healthier, it will also make them proud to work for your company. Showing them you care will help improve your company’s overall perception and, in turn, build trust in your brand and boost your reputation.

Demonstrating that your organization not only cares about dollars and cents, but also the people who’ve helped it become strong and successful illustrates that you have a great corporate culture, one that will endure for many years to come.

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