As PTI comes onto two years, I felt like making this post on account of seeing multiple people supporting PML-N for having an allegedly better economy for Pakistan, particularly with allegations present that PTI has done nothing for the economy. So here's a short list of some major achievements done by PTI in contrast to PML-N.

Stopping Pakistan from defaulting: The move to devalue the rupee was one done despite knowing the backlash that would be faced. Under Nawaz Sharif the rupee was artificially overvalued through loans and forex reserves, this meant Pakistan had no sustainable way for repaying those massive loans. Imran Khan on the other hand had to approach the IMF due to these overlaying maturing debts, lack of growth in exports under PMLN, decline in Foreign Direct Investment and an ever higher import bill. This was done at the cost of letting the rupee massively devalue against the dollar, however paved the path for economic stability as noted by the IMF.
Renewed focus on taxation: Easily the most controversial facet of the economic policy by PTI, but one that has shown merit and results. Overall, there has been a 40% increase in returns filers and a 17% revenue increase. This coupled with a massive austerity scheme, meant that the government has started an incline towards increasing it's revenues. While this hasn't been met with open arms, it presents a solution to the everpresent crisis that the Pakistan government has faced, in it's inability to increase it's revenues. Not only that, but the general taxation system was streamlined, making it easier for individuals to file taxes. Introductions of new apps and consolidating activities for the FBR were among the efforts as well. Moreover, businesses that were entitled to tax refunds are finally being granted them, under PMLN they were held onto so as to inflate collection numbers, however under PTI that has changed and it's not inflated. It is worth noting, that because of the covid-19 pandemic, the effect of the austerity schemes and feasibility have seriously dampened, and it's created a bigger problem for increasing revenue collection.
- However it is one that can be solved. The government succeeded, quite commendably, in revising the tax collection revenue which had been set unrealistically high by the IMF. What can also be recognised, were the 60% cuts in the Presidential house. Alongside a 58% decrease in Presidential secretariat for allowances for officers and staff, not to forget the decision to not increase government salaries for this fiscal year nor introduce new taxes. A bold but needed decision.
The account deficit: Arguably one of the biggest examples of progress has been in the reduction of the account deficit. Under PML-N the account deficit had carried forward, and increased to nearly $5 billion, but shrunk massively once PTI came into power. A total decrease of nearly 78% from the previous fiscal year. The lowest recorded from the previous 5 years. Even when looked at from the perspective of the account deficit in percentage of GDP; the general trend has been improving under PTI. Under PMLN the total account deficit as a % of GDP had grown to -5.4%, however under PTI it has shrunk to -1.1% of GDP in FY2020 and was -3.4% in 2019.
- It is worth noting, that some may criticise the overall decrease in the account deficit to be a result of the decrease in imports, and the increase in worker remittances, however this was indeed a result of the overall economic impact from the covid-19 pandemic. And that general trends support the notion of exports increasing and the account deficit decreasing in the second quarter of 2019.
Revitalisation of exports & balance of trade: The shift in policies towards increasing exports has been among the most vital, the growing negative balance of trade under PML-N finally stabilised under PTI. Although the recent spikes can be attributed to the global drop in imports because of covid-19, and the overall curtailing of imported goods. The export rates in Pakistan have shown a massive growth as well; going from negative growth to spontaneous positive growth. Nearly doubling in total export value, going from -5% growth in 2015 to +10% growth in 2019. Which are massive, and much-needed improvements. World bank data shows the rapid decline of Pakistani exports which occurred, as a % of GDP, which went from 13% in 2013 when PML-N came into power, to 8% in 2017 — a near 40% decrease in total exports from 2013-2017. To which we now once again notice the growth where the exports as % of GDP have increased to 10% in 2019 from 8% in 2017; recording an overall positive growth of 10%. These things all in all prove the export based benefits PTI has managed to bring in it's tenure, which sadly have seen a halt due to the effects of covid-19, yet the situation remains hopeful in the recovery. Especially given Pakistan is recording a trade surplus with Italy and other such examples.
Ease of Business: One thing that cannot be sidelined is the massive improval in the ease of business. While under PMLN, Pakistan massively decreased in it's EoB Iease of business) ranking, going from 110 to 136 to so on. Once Imran Khan came into power, Pakistan climbed the Ease of Business ranking, with a massive improvement of upto 28 spots. A huge increase over PMLN, where it had fallen by a total of 36 positions. For perspective. Currently Pakistan stands at 108th, as a result of easing tax collection, reducing corporate tax, introducing online one-stop shops which made the process of starting businesses considerably easier, and the overall ease in paying taxes through online processes.
Tourism: The reforms and measures taken to facilitate tourism in Pakistan were evidently among the most successful — Pakistan went from being sidelined to being amongst the worlds top destinations to visit. There were multiple reasons for this, the removal of the mandatory NOC, the initiative for online visas for upto 175 countries alongside visa-on-arrival for 50 countries were among the facilitating measures taken for tourism.
Foreign Direct Investment: What can be appreciated is the general reception of Pakistan's economic outlook, where FDI climbed by upto 137% within this fiscal year, gathering upto nearly $2.1 billion. Yet, once again — the pandemic will undoubtedly cause most countries to rethink their economic policies for now, and the overall FDI might see a downward trend with regards to global decrease in FDI. Despite, the increases in FDI are welcomed, especially considering total foreign investment rose 380 percent to $2.375 billion in July-March FY2020. Yet the sustainability of this remains to be seen.
Dealing with covid: Despite all odds, Pakistan has somehow managed to deal well with the pandemic. Coming out relatively alright, in perspective of countries such as India, Mexico, Italy, Brazil etc. The factor that plays out, is that despite being incredibly vulnerable, the country managed to pull through and has markedly reduced the impact of the virus. With regards to the economy, taking a bold risk of abating a complete lockdown, whilst met with criticism was once again a factor that showed competency. Keeping in mind that 51 million Pakistanis lived below the poverty line, and the adverse effect it would have on the economy. Pakistan managed to come through the economic contraction with only a -0.38% growth. Although the full effects are still not abated or understood, what's commendable is the fact that Pakistan under PTI has kept itself from an even worse situation. Whilst managing to keep covid under relative control. Especially given increases in exports despite the pandemic in countries such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Italy.

This is by no means a highly comprehensive list, just my opinion on some of the bigger achievements; saving the economy from defaulting, adopting tax reforms, tourism reforms, export reforms among them whilst managing covid and economic stability with relative success.
There are of course a multitude of other factors, successfully avoiding a blacklist from the FATF, macroeconomic reforms, attempts to strengthen the working class; ehsaas programs, Naya Pakistan housing schemes alongside other relief efforts. These are measures in accordance with curtailing the effect of increasing taxation and attempts to abate the economic slowdown that came as a result of forcing an increase in government revenue. Alongside the focus on multiple new hydroelectric dams, industrial cities, reduction of the PM office staff from 552 to 298, 10 billion tree project and an overall renewed interest in renewable energy and green Pakistan. The list is comprehensive.
Pakistan remains on a rocky path, it is not out of the woods yet. Covid-19 has seriously hampered the overall projections, and caused a worldwide economic contraction. Not only that, but there are criticisms that can be attributed to the government as well, as they are not without fault. However, the overall achievements of the government with regards to the economy do present hope for the long-term fiscal policy and development of Pakistan.

I Automated & Backtested ParallaxFX Strategy

THROW YOUR FD's in FDS

Factset: How You can Invest in Hedge Funds’ Biggest Investment
Tl;dr FactSet is the most undervalued widespread SaaS/IT solution stock that exists
If any of you have relevant experience or are friends with people in Investment Banking/other high finance, you know that Factset is the lifeblood of their financial analysis toolkit if and when it’s not Bloomberg, which isn’t even publicly traded. Factset has been around since 1978 and it’s considered a staple like Bloomberg in many wealth management firms, and it offers some of the easiest to access and understandable financial data so many newer firms focused less on trading are switching to Factset because it has a lot of the same data Bloomberg offers for half the cost. When it comes to modern financial data, Factset outcompetes Reuters and arguably Bloomberg as well due to their API services which makes Factset much more preferable for quantitative divisions of banks/hedge funds as API integration with Python/R is the most important factor for vast data lakes of financial data, this suggests Factset will be much more prepared for programming making its way into traditional finance fields. According to Factset, their mission for data delivery is to: “Integrate the data you need with your applications, web portals, and statistical packages. Whether you need market, company, or alternative data, FactSet flexible data delivery services give you normalized data through APIs and a direct delivery of local copies of standard data feeds. Our unique symbology links and aggregates a variety of content sources to ensure consistency, transparency, and data integrity across your business. Build financial models and power customized applications with FactSet APIs in our developer portal”. Their technical focus for their data delivery system alone should make it stand out compared to Bloomberg, whose UI is far more outdated and complex on top of not being as technically developed as Factset’s. Factset is the key provider of buy-side portfolio analysis for IBs, Hedge funds, and Private Equity firms, and it’s making its way into non-quantitative hedge funds as well because quantitative portfolio management makes automation of risk management and the application of portfolio theory so much easier, and to top it off, Factset’s scenario analysis and simulation is unique in its class. Factset also is able to automate trades based on individual manager risk tolerance and ML optimization for Forex trading as well. Not only does Factset provide solutions for financial companies, they are branching out to all corporations now and providing quantitative analytics for them in the areas of “corporate development, M&A, strategy, treasury, financial planning and analysis, and investor relations workflows”. Factset will eventually in my opinion reach out to Insurance Risk Management a lot more in the future as that’s a huge industry which has yet to see much automation of risk management yet, and with the field wide open, Factset will be the first to take advantage without a shadow of a doubt. So let’s dig into the company’s financials now:
Their latest 8k filing reported the following:
Revenue increased 2.6%, or $9.6 million, to $374.1 million compared with $364.5 million for the same period in fiscal 2019. The increase is primarily due to higher sales of analytics, content and technology solutions (CTS) and wealth management solutions.
Annual Subscription Value (ASV) plus professional services was $1.52 billion at May 31, 2020, compared with $1.45 billion at May 31, 2019. The organic growth rate, which excludes the effects of acquisitions, dispositions, and foreign currency movements, was 5.0%. The primary contributors to this growth rate were higher sales in FactSet's wealth and research workflow solutions and a price increase in the Company's international region
Adjusted operating margin improved to 35.5% compared with 34.0% in the prior year period primarily as a result of reduced employee-related operating expenses due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Diluted earnings per share (EPS) increased 11.0% to $2.63 compared with $2.37 for the same period in fiscal 2019.
Adjusted diluted EPS rose 9.2% to $2.86 compared with $2.62 in the prior year period primarily driven by an improvement in operating results.
The Company’s effective tax rate for the third quarter decreased to 15.0% compared with 18.6% a year ago, primarily due to an income tax expense in the prior year related to finalizing the Company's tax returns with no similar event for the three months ended May 31, 2020.
FactSet increased its quarterly dividend by $0.05 per share or 7% to $0.77 marking the fifteenth consecutive year the Company has increased dividends, highlighting its continued commitment to returning value to shareholders.
As you can see, there’s not much of a negative sign in sight here.
It makes sense considering how FactSet’s FCF has never slowed down:
https://preview.redd.it/frmtdk8e9hk51.png?width=276&format=png&auto=webp&s=1c0ff12539e0b2f9dbfda13d0565c5ce2b6f8f1a

https://preview.redd.it/6axdb6lh9hk51.png?width=593&format=png&auto=webp&s=9af1673272a5a2d8df28f60f4707e948a00e5ff1
FactSet’s annual subscriptions and professional services have made its way to foreign and developing markets, and many of them are opting for FactSet’s cheaper services to reduce costs and still get copious amounts of data and models to work with.
Here’s what FactSet had to say regarding its competitive position within the market of providing financial data in its last 10k: “Despite competing products and services, we enjoy high barriers to entry and believe it would be difficult for another vendor to quickly replicate the extensive databases we currently offer. Through our in-depth analytics and client service, we believe we can offer clients a more comprehensive solution with one of the broadest sets of functionalities, through a desktop or mobile user interface or through a standardized or bespoke data feed.” And FactSet is confident that their ML services cannot be replaced by anybody else in the industry either: “In addition, our applications, including our client support and service offerings, are entrenched in the workflow of many financial professionals given the downloading functions and portfolio analysis/screening capabilities offered. We are entrusted with significant amounts of our clients' own proprietary data, including portfolio holdings. As a result, our products have become central to our clients’ investment analysis and decision-making.” (https://last10k.com/sec-filings/fds#link_fullReport), if you read the full report and compare it to the most recent 8K, you’ll find that the real expenses this quarter were far lower than expected by the last 10k as there was a lower than expected tax rate and a 3% increase in expected operating margin from the expected figure as well. The company also reports a 90% customer retention rate over 15 years, so you know that they’re not lying when they say the clients need them for all sorts of financial data whether it’s for M&A or wealth management and Equity analysis:
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/factset.asp
https://preview.redd.it/yo71y6qj9hk51.png?width=355&format=png&auto=webp&s=a9414bdaa03c06114ca052304a26fae2773c3e45

FactSet also has remarkably good cash conversion considering it’s a subscription based company, a company structure which usually takes on too much leverage. Speaking of leverage, FDS had taken on a lot of leverage in 2015:

https://preview.redd.it/oxaa1wel9hk51.png?width=443&format=png&auto=webp&s=13d60d2518980360c403364f7150392ab83d07d7
So what’s that about? Why were FactSet’s long term debts at 0 and all of a sudden why’d the spike up? Well usually for a company that’s non-cyclical and has a well-established product (like FactSet) leverage can actually be good at amplifying returns, so FDS used this to their advantage and this was able to help the share’s price during 2015. Also, as you can see debt/ebitda is beginning a rapid decline anyway. This only adds to my theory that FactSet is trying to expand into new playing fields. FactSet obviously didn’t need the leverage to cover their normal costs, because they have always had consistently growing margins and revenue so the debt financing was only for the sake of financing growth. And this debt can be considered covered and paid off, considering the net income growth of 32% between 2018 and 2019 alone and the EPS growth of 33%
https://preview.redd.it/e4trju3p9hk51.png?width=387&format=png&auto=webp&s=6f6bee15f836c47e73121054ec60459f147d353e

EBITDA has virtually been exponential for FactSet for a while because of the bang-for-buck for their well-known product, but now as FactSet ventures into algorithmic trading and corporate development the scope for growth is broadly expanded.
https://preview.redd.it/yl7f58tr9hk51.png?width=489&format=png&auto=webp&s=68906b9ecbcf6d886393c4ff40f81bdecab9e9fd

P/E has declined in the past 2 years, making it a great time to buy.

https://preview.redd.it/4mqw3t4t9hk51.png?width=445&format=png&auto=webp&s=e8d719f4913883b044c4150f11b8732e14797b6d
Increasing ROE despite lowering of leverage post 2016
https://preview.redd.it/lt34avzu9hk51.png?width=441&format=png&auto=webp&s=f3742ed87cd1c2ccb7a3d3ee71ae8c7007313b2b

Mountains of cash have been piling up in the coffers increasing chances of increased dividends for shareholders (imo dividend is too low right now, but increasing it will tempt more investors into it), and on top of that in the last 10k a large buyback expansion program was implemented for $210m worth of shares, which shows how confident they are in the company itself.
https://preview.redd.it/fliirmpx9hk51.png?width=370&format=png&auto=webp&s=1216eddeadb4f84c8f4f48692a2f962ba2f1e848

SGA expense/Gross profit has been declining despite expansion of offices
I’m a bit concerned about the skin in the game leadership has in this company, since very few executives/board members have significant holdings in the company, but the CEO himself is a FactSet veteran, and knows his way around the company. On top of that, Bloomberg remains king for trading and the fixed income security market, and Reuters beats out FactSet here as well. If FactSet really wants to increase cash flow sources, the expansion into insurance and corp dev has to be successful.
Summary: FactSet has a lot of growth still left in its industry which is already fast-growing in and of itself, and it only has more potential at its current valuation. Earnings September 24th should be a massive beat due to investment banking demand and growth plus Hedge fund requirements for data and portfolio management hasn’t gone anywhere and has likely increased due to more market opportunities to buy-in.
Calls have shitty greeks, but if you're ballsy October 450s LOL, I'm holding shares
I’d say it’s a great long term investment, and it should at least be on your watchlist.

IS ____ AN MLM? SEARCH HERE. (MEGA THREAD)

For a quick, easier search - http://www.isthisanmlm.com/ has compiled this whole thread. Special thanks to u/SHIFTnSPACE. - This is now a part of the sidebar as a button widget!

What is an MLM?

Multi-level marketing (MLM), also called pyramid selling, network marketing, and referral marketing, is a marketing strategy for the sale of products or services where the revenue of the MLM company is derived from a non-salaried workforce selling the company's products/services, while the earnings of the participants are derived from a pyramid-shaped or binary compensation commission system.
THIS LIST MAY CONTAIN COMPANIES THAT HAVE PREVIOUSLY HAD MLM BRANCH BUT MAY NO LONGER HAVE ONE.
If you see a company and are not sure that it belongs on this list, please reach out. I have compiled this list from the sources listed at the bottom along with input from community members. This list may not be 100% accurate but the goal is to get it as close as possible.
31 - Bags
5Linx - Home & Business Services
Abby & Anna - Clothing
ACAN Pacific - Utilities
ACN - Utilities
ActiLabs - Skincare/Health
Adornable.U - Accessories
Advocare - Dietary Supplements
AeroGrow - Garden Tools
Agnes & Dora - Clothing
AIM Global - Nutritional Supplements
Akasuka (Japan) -
Alcone - Beauty
Alice's Table - Flower Arrangement Classes
All'asta - Home Goods
Allysian Sciences -
Aloe Vera of America (Young Living) - Nutritional Supplements
Aloette - Beauty
Alphay Int - Nutritional Supplements
AlureVe - Skincare/Health
Amare Global - Nutritional Supplements
Ambit - Utilities
Amelia James -
Ameo - Essential Oils
American Income Life - Financial
Amsoil - Motor Oil
Amway - Health/Beauty/Home Goods
Ann Summers - Product
Ann Summers (UK) - Adult Novelties
Anorak (UK) - Home Goods
Anran (China) -
Apollo (India) - Juice
Apriori - Skincare/Health
AquaSource UK - Nutritional Supplements
Arbonne - Skincare/Health
ARIIX - Water Purification
Arsoa Honsha (Japan) - Fitness/Weight Loss
Asea Global - Nutritional Supplements
Asirvia (shut down) - Marketing
Aspire/Digital Altitude - Marketing
ATC Coin - Crypto Currency
Athena's - Adult Novelties
Atomy - Skincare/Health
Ava Anderson -
Ava Rose - Clot
Avisae - Weight Loss
Avon - Beauty
b:hip Global - Health
Bachar Nutrition - Nutritional Supplements
Bamboo Pink - Jewelry
Barefoot Books - Books
Bath.Ologie - Bath Bombs
Beach Body - Fitness/Weight Loss Videos
BearCereju (Japan) - Cosmetics
BeautiControl -
Beauty Counter - Cosmetics
Beauty Society - Beauty
beCAUSE Cosmetics - Cosmetics
Become International (US & AUS) - Cosmetics
Bedroom Kandi - Adult Novelties
Beever (UK) - Hair Care
BelCorp (Latin America) - Cosmetics
Bellame - Skincare/Health
Bemer - Appliances
Better Way Design/Imports - Clothing
Biogreen Argentina -
BioPerformance - Automotive (Fuel Pills)
Bod-e Pro - Nutritional Supplements
Body by Vi/Visalus - Health
Body Shop at Home - Beauty
Boisset Collection - Wine
Boston Finney (shut down) -
Bounce Life/Network - Insurance
Bud Star (Canada) - CBD/THC Products
BurnLounge (shut down as pyramid scheme by FTC in 2012) -
Buskins - Clothing
Butterfly Beauty - Cosmetics
Cabi - Clothing
Cambridge Weight Plan/Diet - Dietary Supplements
CAN - Utilities
Captain Tortue - Clothing
Carico Int - Home Goods
Celebrating Home - Home Goods
Cellements - Skincare/Health
CEO Movement (Not MLM but scammy) -
Chalk Couture - Chalkboard Signs
Chalky & Co - Home Goods
Chandeal (Japan) - Clothing
Charle (Japan) - Clothing
Charlie's Project - Clothing
Chef's Toolbox (AUS) (Insolvency) - Kitchen Accessories
Cherish Natural Products -
Chloe & Isabel - Jewelry
Clever Container - Home Goods
Close to My Heart - Scrapbooking
Cloud 9 Parties - Adult Novelties
Cobra Group/Appco -
Cocoa Exchange - Food
Color by Amber - Jewelry
Color Happy -
Color Street - Nail Wraps
Colour Me Beautiful (UK) - Clothing
Compelling Creations - Jewelry
Conklin - Roofing
Cookie Lee (shut down) -
Cosway (Malaysia) - Health/Beauty/Home Goods
Country Scents - Product/Candles
Create Your Life - Health
Creative Memories - Scrapbooking
Credit Repair USA - Financial
Crunchi - Cosmetics
Cutco - Knives
CVSL - Multiple Companies
Daisy Blue Naturals - Personal Care
Damsel in Defense - Product/Self Defense
Darceys - Candles
David Lerner Associates, INC - Financial
Dazzle and Daze - Clothing
Deutsche vermögensberatung/Dvag (Germany) - Financial
Diana (Japan) -
Dione Cosmetics - Cosmetics
Direct Cellars/DC Nation - Wine
Discovery Toys - Educational Toys
Divvee/Nui -
Dot Dot Smile - Clothing
DoTERRA - Health/Oils
Du Northing Designs - Clothing
Dubli Network - Financial
Dudley Beauty - Cosmetics
DXN - Health/Beauty/Home Goods
Dynamic Essentials -
EcoWarehouse - Home Goods
Elepreneuer -
Elk River Soaps - Personal Care
Ella Tina - Clothing
Elli Kai - Clothing
Elvacity - Nutritional Supplements
EmGoldEx/Global Intergold -
Enagic/Kangen Water - Ionized Water
Endless Xpressions - Clothing/Accessories
Enersource Int - Nutritional Supplements
Enjo (AUS) - Cleaning Producs
Envy Jewelry - Jewelry
Epicure (Canada) - Food
Equinox International (dissolved in 2001) -
Ergo (Germany) - Insurance
Essante Organics -
Essential Bodywear - Clothing
European Grouping of Marketing Professionals/CEDIPAC SA (dissolved 1995) -
European Home Retail (dissolved 2007) -
Evanescence Network - Health
EVER Skincare - Skincare/Health
Evolution Travel - Product
EvolvHealth - Health
Faberlic (Russia) - Health/Beauty/Home Goods
Family First Life - Insurance
Family Heritage Insurance - Insurance
Fantasia - Adult Novelties
Fantasia (Canada) - Adult Novelties
Farmasi -
FES Connect - Financial
Fibi & Clo - Footwear
Fifth Ave Collection - Jewelry
First Fitness Nutrition - Dietary Supplements
Fit4Mom - Clothing
FITTEAM Global - Dietary Supplements
Flamingo Paperie - Art
Fleuresse -
FM World (UK) -
For Tails Only - Pet Supplies
Forever Living - Health/Oils
Forex Education (iMarkets Live branch) - Crypto
Forex Entourage - Financial
Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing (dissolved 2013) -
Four Oceans - Health
Fragant Jewels - Bathbombs
FreeLife - Nutritional Supplements
Frontrow -
Fuel Freedom Int - Automotive
Fund America (Bankrupt 1990) -
Gano Excel - Nutritional Supplements
GelMoment - Beauty
Gemstra - Jewelry
Genesis Pure - Nutritional Supplements
Global Legacy Initiative -
GoDesana - Pet
Gold Canyon - Product/Candles
Golden Days (China) - Health
Grace & Heart - Jewelry
Green HoriZen - CBD
Greeting Cake Company - Cake Kits
H2O At Home - Personal Care
Hale - CBD Oil
Hanky Panky Parties (Canada) - Adult Novelties
Happy Coffee - Coffee
Harvard Risk Management (Legal Shield) -
Hayward's Gourmet Popcorn - Food
HB Naturals - Health
He(L)o - Health
Healthy Peach - Dietary Supplements
Heavenly Chia - Food
Heka Corp - Fitness
Helo Wristbands - Health
HempWorx - Health
Herbalife - Health
Heritage Makers - Scrapbooking
Hinode - Cosmetics
Holiday Magic (shut down) -
Home Interiors - Home Goods
Honey - Beauty
Honey & Lace - Clothing
Hualin Biotech (China) - Health
iCoinPro - Crypto Currency
ID Life - Health
Igniting Passion (Canada) - Adult Novelties
iMarketsLive - Financial Trading Software
Immunotec - Health
Imperial Candles (UK) - Candles
In a Pikle - Bags
Income Advantage -
India Hicks - Product/Accessories
Infinitus - Health
Initials, Inc - Bags
Inkd Up Nails - Beauty
innov8tive nutrition - Nutritional Supplements
InteleTravel - Travel
Intimo (AUS/NZ) - Adult Novelties
Isagenix - Dietary Supplements
ItWorks! - Health
J. Elizabeth - Clothing
J. Hilburn - Clothing
J.R Watkins -
Jafra - Beauty
Jamberry - Beauty
Jamby - Clothing
Jamie at Home (shut down) -
Janice Collection - Home Goods
Java Momma - Coffee
Javita - Coffee
Jbloom - Jewelry
Jequiti - Cosmetics
Jerky Direct -
Jeunesse - Beauty
Jewel Kade (31) - Jewelry
Jewelscent - Product/Candles
JK Apparel (Canada) - Clothing
Jordan Essentials - Beauty
JoyMain (China) - Health
Joyome (Plexus) - Beauty
JuicePlus - Nutritional Supplements
Jump Natural - Health
Kaesar & Blair -
Kalaia - Skincare/Health
Kalo & Co - Pearl/Jewelry
Kangen Water -
Kannaway - CBD Oil
Karat Bars - Gold
Kaszazz - Scrapbooking
Keep Collective - Jewelry
Keep Me Safe - Cos
KETO (Pruvit) -
Keto Coffee - Coffee
Ketones - Health
Kirby - Vacuums
Kleeneze - Home Goods
Kobold (Vorwerk) -
Kyani - Health
Labella Baskets - Home Goods
Lady Godiva Beauty - Cosmetics
Lavylites - Beauty
L'BRI - Beauty
LeadUp Consulting -
Legal Shield - Legal Services
LegArt (Canada) - Leggings
Legend Age (China) -
Legging Army - Clothing
Legging Girl - Clothing
Lemongrass Spa - Beauty
LeReve (Canada) - Cosmetics
Le-Vel (Thrive) - Health
Lia Sophia (dissolved) - Jewelry
Life Abundance - Pet
LIFE Leadership - Financial
Life Tree World - Food
LifeBrook -
LifePlus (US/Germany) - Dietary Supplements
Life's Abundance - Pet Supplies
LifeVantage - Dietary Supplements
Lilla Rose - Jewelry
Limelife - Skincare/Health
Limu - Health
Limu - Nutritional Supplements
Linen World - Home Goods
Lion Crown -
Lipsense - Beauty
Liv International - Travel
Live Sore - Clothing
Longabeger Company - Baskets
Longrich (China) - Beauty
Lorraine Lee Linen - Home Goods
Love Winx - Adult Novelties
LR Beauty & Health - Beauty
LuLaRoe - Clothing
Lulu Ave - Jewelry
Luminess - Cosmetics
Lyconet/Lyoness -
Lyoness - Financial
M. Global (Jamberry) - Jewelry
M. Network - Nutritional Supplements
Maelle Beauty - Beauty
Magnabilities - Jewelry
Magnolia & Vine - Jewelry
Makeup Eraser - Cosmetics
Man Cave - Kitchen Accessories
Mannatech - Dietary Supplements
Mark. - Financial
Market America - Health/Beauty/Home Goods
Marly Ray - Pearl/Jewelry
Marvelous Mouse Travels - Travel
Mary & Martha - Home Goods
MaryKay - Beauty
Maskara - Beauty
Matilda Jane - Clothing
Max & Madeleine - Skincare/Health
Maxwell Clothing - Clothing
MCA - Financial
Medifast - Nutritional Supplements
Melaleuca - Health/Beauty/Home Goods
Metabolife (dissolved in 2005) -
MiA Bath and Body (Closed) -
mialisia - Jewelry
Miche EU - Accessories
Miki (Asia) - Nutritional Supplements
MOA Nutrition - Nutritional Supplements
Modere -
MojiLife - Essential Oils
Monat - Hair Care
MonaVie (went into foreclosure 2015) -
Morinda Bioactives - Personal Care/Dietary Supplements
Motives Cosmetics - Cosmetics
Multpure - Water
My Club 8 - CBD Oil
My Daily Choice - Nutritional Supplements
My LALA Leggings - Clothing
myEcon - Financial
National Safety Associates - Dietary Supplements
National Wealth Center - Education
Natura (Brazil) - Cosmetics
Nature Direct (AUS) - Essential Oils
Nature's Sunshine Products - Dietary Supplements
Neal's Yard Remedies Organic - Beauty
NeoLife - Dietary Supplements
Neora (Nerium) -
Nerium - Skincare/Health
NeVetica - Pet Supplies
New Era (China) - Nutritional Supplements
New U Life - Health
Neways - Personal Care
Nikken -
Noevir - Beauty
Nomades - Jewelry
Noonday Collection - Jewelry
Norwex - Cleaning Producs
Nouveau Riche (real estate investment college) (dissolved 2010 -
Nspire Network - Feminine Products
NuCerity - Skincare/Health
NuSkin - Tooth Paste/Personal Care
Nutriboom -
NXIVM - Financial
Nygard - Clothing
Omnilife - Dietary Supplements
One Hope Wine - Wine
Optavia - Health
Opulenza - Jewelry
Organo Gold - Coffee
Oriflame - Personal Care
Origami Owl - Jewelry
Our Hearts Desire - Jewelry
Paid 2 Save - Travel
Pampered Chef - Kitchen Accessories
Paparazzi - Jewelry
Paperly - Paper
Park Lane Jewelry - Jewelry
Party Girl - Candles
Party Lite - Candles
Party Time Mixes - Food
PartyLite - Candles
Passion Parties - Adult Novelties
Pawtree - Pet
Paycation - Travel
Peach - Clothing
Pearl Chic - Pearl/Jewelry
Peekaboo Beans - Clothing
Perfect (China) - Cosmetics
Perfectly Polished - Beauty
Perfectly Posh - Beauty
Personally Poetic - Jewelry
PHP - Insurance
Pierre Lang - Jewelry
Pink Zebra - Candles
Piphany - Clothing
PixieLane - Clothing
Plexus - Health
Plumeria Bath - Beauty
Plunder - Jewelry
PM International - Health
Pola (Japan) - Skincare/Health
Poofy Organics - Beauty
Powur - Solar Panels
Premier Designs - Jewelry
Premier Financial - Financial
PrimeMyBody - Health
Primerica - Financial
Princess House - Kitchen Accessories
ProDoula -
ProYoung - Health
Pruvit - Health
Pulse Cosmetics - Cosmetics
Pure Haven - Cosmetics
Pure Romance - Product
PureHaven - Home Goods
PUREly - Essential Oils
Purium - Health
Qnet - Nutritional Supplements
Quanjian Natural (China) - Food
RadiantlyYou -
Rain International - Health
Rainbow Vacuum - Vacuums
Real Time Pain Relief - Health
Red Aspen - Beauty
RED Safety - Security
Regal Home and Gifts - Home Goods
Reliv - Health
Reliv - Nutritional Supplements
Renatus Real Estate - Education
RevitalU - Coffee/Health
Riway - Deer Placenta
Robert Kiyosaki -
Rodan+Fields - Beauty
Roland (Vorwerk) -
Rolmex (China) - Kitchen Accessories
Royal Tongan Limu (dissolved in 2003) -
Royaltie Gens - Marketing
Ruby Ribbon - Clothing
Saba - Health/Beauty
Sabika Jewelry - Jewelry
SafeGirl Security - Self Defense
Salad Master - Home Goods
SARSO (India) -
Scentsy - Health/Oils
Schneider's Gourmet World - Food
Scout & Cellar - Wine
Seacret - Beauty
SendOutCards - Gift Cards
Senegence - Skincare/Health
Shakeology (BeachBody) - Dietary Supplements
Shaklee - Dietary Supplements
Shopping Sherlock -
Shrimp & Grits - Clothing
Signature Homestyles - Home Goods
Silpada - Jewelry
Silver Icing - Jewelry
Simple Man - Personal Care
Simply Success Elite -
SimplyFun Games - Education
Skinny Body at Home - Dietary Supplements
SkinSanity/Tomorrow's Leaf - Skincare/Health
Smart Circle -
Smartway -
Solavei (dissolved 2015)[ -
Solvei (bankrupt) -
Sophie Paris (France/Asia) - Clothing
South Hill Designs - Jewelry
Southern Living at Home - Home Goods
SouthWestern Advantage - Education
Sseko - Clothing
Stampin Up - Paper
Steam Energy - Utilities
Steeped Tea - Tea
Stella & Dot - Clothing
Stream Energy - Financial
Style Dots - Jewelry
Success University - Education
Sun Hope (China) -
Sunrider - Health/Beauty/Home Goods
Sunset Gourmet - Food
Sunshine Empire (dissolved 2009) -
Surge 365 - Travel
Sweet Legs - Clothing
Sweet Minerals - Beauty
Symmetry Financial Group - Insurance
Syntek Global - Automotive
T.O.P Marketing Group -
TAG Team Marketing -
Taisei/Green Planet/Kaikisui (Japan_ - Purifiers
Tara at Home - Home Goods
Tastefully Simple - Food
Tavala - Health
Tealightful - Tea
Team National - Financial
TeDivina - Tea
Telecom Plus (UK) - Utilities
Telexfree (bankrupt 2014) -
The Advert Platfrom - Crypto Currency
The Body Shop at Home - Beauty
The Landmark Forum - Health
The Super Affiliate Network - Marketing
Thermomix (Vorwerk) -
Thirty One - Bags
Thrive - Health
Thrive Life - Food
Tiber River Naturals - Beauty
TKO WorldWide -
Tocara (Canada) - Jewelry
Tom James - Clothing
Total Life Changes/TLC - Health
TouchStone Crystal - Jewelry
Touchstone Essentials - Dietary Supplements
Tracy Negoshian - Clothing
Trades of Hope - Jewelry
Tranont - Financial
Transformational Beauty - Cosmetics
Travel Evolution - Travel
Traveling Vineyard - Wine
TraVerus Global - Travel
TriVita - Nutritional Supplements
Tropic Skin Care - Skincare/Health
True Peak Revolution (Europe) -
Truvision Health - Health
TS-Life - Nutritional Supplements
Tupperware - Tupperware
Unicity - Health
United Sciences of America (dissolved in 1987) -
United Warehouse (UK) -
US Health Advisors -
Usana - Nutritional Supplements
Usborne - Books
Utility Warehouse (UK) - Utilities
Valentus - Dietary Supplements
Vantel - Product/Pearls
Vasayo - Health
VectoCutco - Knives
Vemma - Dietary Supplements
viaOneHope - Wine
ViBella - Jewelry
VIC Cosmetics -
Vida Divina - Tea
Vie at Home (closed) -
Virtuity Financial Group (World Financial Group) -
ViSalus (Body by VI) - Dietary Supplements
Vitality Extracts - Essential Oils
VivaMK - Cleaning Producs
Volo - Health
Vorwerk - Home Goods
Votre Belle Maison (UK) - Giftware
Voxxlife - Health
Wakaya Perfection - Health
WakeUpNow (dissolved 2015) -
Watkins Inc - Health/Home Goods
Wealthperx - Travel
Wikaniko - Home Goods
Wildtree - Food
Willing Beauty - Beauty
Winasun - Health
Wine Shop at Home - Wine
Wines for Humanity - Wine
Wink Naturals - Health
World Financial Group/Pinnacle Leadership Development - Financial
World Leadership Group (dissolved in 2008) -
World Ventures/Wealth Wave/TKO WorldWide - Travel
WoTaBu - Travel
XanGo/Ziji - Health
Xerveo - Dietary Supplements
Xoom Energy - Utilities
Xooma - Weight Loss
Xstream Travel - Travel
Xyngular - Health
Yanbal Int - Jewelry
Yandi (China) - Nutritional Supplements
Yelloow - Beauty
Yevo (closed) -
Yofoto (China) - Health
Yoli - Health
Yoonla -
YOR Health - Weight Loss
Young Living - Health
Youngevity -
Younique - Beauty
YTB International - Travel
Zepter -
Zija - Health
Zilis - Health
Zinzino (Scandanavia) -
Zrii - Skincare/Health
Zurvita - Health
Zyia - Clothing
Zyn - Travel
TOTAL COUNT = 594 This list will be continually updated (5/19/2020).
2018 Archived MLM Mega Thread

Sources: https://mlmtruth.org/2018/02/08/the-mlm-master-list/ , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_multi-level_marketing_companies Special thanks to u/Copacetic1515 (I could not stick your thread)

For income disclosure information: Updated 2019 Thread

Other Helpful Links: Discussion about World Financial Group

[Secret] Response to the Oil Embargo Part 2: Retaliation, Covert and Chaotic

While overt operations will play a role in the retaliation, some more covert ones are needed. For these more... illegal... operations, we will have to take a different approach.

North Korea: Cyberwar, Inc.
North Korea has a well-established cyberwar capability and has recently begun selling its services to third parties. One of those third parties is about to become us, and we're going to buy out the entire shop, consisting of thousands of highly trained North Korean hackers. Are they the best, no, of course not--they are, after all, still North Korean. They certainly aren't as good as what we have in-house, even though they're surprisingly skilled all things considered. But they're extra talent, and talent with no official connections to China, and that's what counts here.

At whatever exorbitant price that North Korea charges [we've budgeted up to $500 million, and they will get to keep whatever they steal] we're siccing every trained hacker they have on what we view as the mastermind behind these plots, the United Arab Emirates [M: Even though we don't know the contents of the closed diplo, it's not hard to come to that conclusion given that Saudi Arabia is in a civil war, the UAE leads the GCC which is leading the embargo, and it has rejected our peace offerings and stated that we are an existential threat--also, assaulting the UAE is likely to spook the other participants who are in a much more frail situation].

Attacks will aim to be diverse and encompass the entire spectrum, with one exception, which we will do. Chinese experts will provide advice and limited intelligence and cyber-reconnaissance, but will not openly involve themselves in the operations, taking especial care to ensure that they don't touch the code the North Koreans are working on. We will maintain only a very high-level management, leaving precise means, targets, and so on to the North Koreans.

In addition, we'll ask the North Koreans to recruit criminal hacker groups across the globe to join on to this effort, with the North Koreans receiving additional payouts for every other criminal hacking group they bring onboard that has been verified by Chinese intelligence as actually existing [we don't trust the North Koreans that much, especially when money is on the line].

Targets are the following, in order of priority:

UAE Foreign Exchange Reserves and Sovereign Wealth Fund:
By far the most valuable target on the list for North Korea, the UAE's forex reserves are worth about $100 billion, and the sovereign wealth funds of the Emirates are valued at as much as $1 trillion. North Korean hackers will launch an all-out assault aiming to steal as much of this money as possible, destroying it if they must but, we imagine, preferably transferring it to North Korean accounts. Attacks via SWIFT like those conducted by North Korea in 2015-16 are possible--those attacks amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. We doubt that North Korea will be able to steal that much of this pile, especially given the fact that the UAE has an army of ex-Western cyberwarriors of its own, but even a relatively small quantity would be a significant psychological injury and would degrade global trust in the UAE.

Vital Infrastructure:
North Korea will target key pieces of infrastructure in the UAE. In particular, they will target the following facilities and attempt to force them offline. Even though the individual attacks won't do much damage, the cumulative impact will scare the public, damage investor confidence, and drive money out of the UAE.

Dubai International Airport
All 8 desalination plants, the only source of potable water in the UAE [top target]
Dubai Metro
UAE High-speed rail [as this system uses Chinese software the North Koreans will happen to find a copy of the source code to work this one over]
Barakah Nuclear Power Plant [as this system uses South Korean software North Korea may have added experience with it]
Ruwais Refinery, capacity 400,000 barrels of oil per day, the largest in the UAE

Influential Figures And Government Officials:
North Korean hackers will also target the personal devices of government officials and influential figures in the UAE, especially politicians, military commanders, and media types. They will then leak anything remotely incriminating to the global media, possibly via Wikileaks or another such site of ill repute.

In addition, for particularly important government officials, North Korea will be commissioned to produce deepfakes with which it will flood social media. These will mostly focus on baseless conspiracy theories and personal slanders, for instance, catching a top official on mike confessing to being a devil-worshiper, or portraying a popular imam as being with Western prostitutes.

It is hoped that these operations will cause enough domestic trouble in the UAE that they will concede on the point of the oil embargo. If nothing else, though, they should keep the UAE distracted while we move elsewhere.

Summarizing some free trading idea resources I've been using

I've been following many free resources on youtube and twitter to generate trading ideas. Some of them are suspicious; some are more like boasting their wining trades but never post any losing trades. I see many people ask about trading ideas/resources, so I want to briefly share some resources I find useful.

Twitter resources:

@ TicTocTick

Instrument: Mostly SPX/SPY/ES
Technique: orderflow
Highlights: TicTocTick is amazingly good at levels, spotting sellers and buyers levels. Everyday he posts his plan for the next day of the following format: If open above X, long/short bias, target Y. If open below X, short/long bias, target Z. Intraday he sometimes send "warnings" of potential big sellers / buyers at certain level. His price target and long/short bias is often right in my experience. His levels are useful for day trades IMHO.
Notes: (1) even with his plan, one needs an actionable plan. (2) He sometimes delete his tweets. His day-by-day and intraday tweets are more actionable than his longer term view. (3) he sometimes tweets political and controversial non-stock related things.

Trade transparency: 0/5 (doesn't post any trades)
Live update in-time: 5/5 (updates very frequently)
Actionable trading plan: 1/5 (good at levels and price targets. need your own plan)
Live interaction: 0/5 (no interaction)
Educational: 2/5 (can learn the technique from other resources. TicTock doesn't teach you directly)

@ tradingwarz

Instrument: Mainly SPY/SPX/ES
Technique: candlestick patterns, Fib levels, support and resistance levels etc
Style: only day trading
Highlights: he diligently post daily plan and many educational resources, sometimes intraday updates. Had many good trades.
Notes: I haven't followed him long but so far so good. He also recently has educational youtube videos.

Trade transparency: X/5 (hard to measure)
Live update in-time: 2.5/5 (updates frequently)
Actionable trading plan: 3.5/5
Live interaction: X/5
Educational: 5/5 (youtube videos)

@ traderstewie

Instrument: Stocks
Technique: candlestick patterns, support and resistance levels, trendlines, channels etc
Style: swing trade, 5min chart to find entry
Highlights: decent probability for picking explosive stocks. I have learned a lot about different trading set-ups from the free blog post: http://theimpatienttrader.blogspot.com/
Trade transparency: 1/5 (posting winning trades afterwards. Sometimes discuss stocks on watch)

Live update in-time: 1/5
Actionable trading plan: 1/5
Live interaction: 0/5
Educational: 5+/5

Youtube resources:

Conquer trading and investing. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN2WmKUchJpIcS1MupY-BuA

Instrument: SPX/SPY, Forex, Cryptocurrency,, Gold and Silver.
Style: holding for a few hours for SPX/SPY, swing trade for all
Timeframe: 8H for analysis. Lower time frame for entry.
Trading frequency: 1-2 trades per week.
Highlights: For SPX, he rode the big drop down in March; rode the rally up, and rode some pullbacks down in April. Got chopped in May. Now he's positinoning long. He also did well in Gold and Silverthis month. He only uses candle sticks, support and resistance lines, trendlines, and sometimes true trend indicator. He doesn't use volume though.
Youtube style: 2 videos every trading day: (1) live at 9am ET for 1-2 hours and talk about his plan and market analysis. Sometimes he trades during the live session (enter / exit). (2) after market closes he summarizes the day, and talks about plans for the next day. (3) Every weekend he gives out his technical analysis for the next week.
What I like: His levels on the chart are very good. He is also very transparent about his trades no matter whether it's winning or losing. He also explains the general economic environment.

Trade transparency: 4/5 (not knowing trading size; but knowing entry/exit)
Real-time update: 2.5/5 (two times a day)
Actionable trading plan: 5/5
Live interaction: 3.5/5 (some interaction on youtube live; Jordan responses to youtube comments)
Educational: 4/5

Blaze Capital: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq0BCGckWWjrnV8YdYO24JA

Instrument: All the stocks except penny stocks
Style: day trade, swing trade options
Timeframe: all time frames. Mostly 5min, 1H, 1D, 1W, 1M.
Trading frequency: very frequent. multiple trades per day.
Highlights: Justin is very good at seeing through market maker manipulation and highly manipulated stocks. He often explained his plan and his outlook (especially in OPEX days) in his YouTube channel. The stocks on their weekly watchlist tend to do very well. He does live Q&A on youtube as well everyday where one can ask him to look at a chart.
Youtube style: Three videos by his team every trading day: (1) live at 9:30am ET; does 1-2 live scalping trades. Explains what he thinks of the market. (might discontinue) (2) at noon: summarizes what happened and what he sees is happening later in the day. Some of his trading plans. (3) 4:15pm ET: summarizes today and looking forward to the rest of the week. Videos (1) and (2) include live Q&A. I've asked many questions on youtube. Every weekend has two videos talking about plans for the next week.
What I like: The Q&A and Justin's outlook of the market, his team's stock pick.

Other notes:

The scalping trades in the morning is not very suitable for small accounts since they will trade for example 100 shares of BA (~160) to scalp a few dollars per share.
Even though the stocks on their weekly watchlist does well very, one still need to come up with an actionable plan. Very often say they recommend stock A on Sunday, and on Monday it already gaps up big. They sometimes do YOLO options -- big risk big rewards-- options can go to 0.
Besides the free content, everyone can get a free one-week trial for their paid membership, or a 2-week free trial by winning a lottery game on their youtube ( what I did) or knowing someone in their group and get a referral. What I like about the group: (i) very frequently updates each day on SPY and stocks on the watchlist. (ii) all their positions, Profit / Loss are very transparent. I learned a lot about how to manage trades by observing their live trades. (iii) There are many very experienced traders in the group posting their trading ideas, plans, entry/exit, and there are many live discussions. (iv) There's a "helpdesk" in the group where members' questions will be answered in minutes. I often ask about my trading plan, entries/ targets.

Trade transparency: 0/5 (free content: not knowing entry/exit nor position size); ^{5+/5 (membership}\*)*
Live update in-time: 3.5/5 (free content: three times a day); ^{5+/5 (membership}\*)*
Actionable trading plan: 2.5/5 (free content); ^{4/5 (membership}\*)*
Live interaction: 4/5 (free content); ^{5+/5 (membership}\*)*
Educational: 5/5

Other resources:

Shadow trader free newsletter

https://www.shadowtrader.net/newsletter-category/swing-trade

Instrument: stocks
Highlights: I follow their free Shadow trader swing newsletter, where every few days they post some trading ideas and analysis with actionable plan. Their twitter account will also real-time update their entry/exit and trade management.
What I like: I enjoyed learning what they look at to find a good set-up and how to manage a trade. They also have a spreadsheet tracking all their positions and profit/loss. All the winning/losing trades are transparent.
Notes: Because of the current market volatility, during certain weeks the swing trading performance is quite shaky. Profits (per 100K account with no more than 30K invested each time): 2020YTD: +9K, 2019: +6K; 2018: +30K; 2017: +3K; 2016: +2.5K; 2015: -1.8K.

Trade transparency: 5/5
Live update in-time: 5/5 (updates frequently)
Actionable trading plan: 5/5
Live interaction: 0/5 (newsletter and twitter alerts only)
Educational: 4.5/5 (the newsletter explains set-ups, what sectors they are looking at)

I've spent much time looking for free contents, and I like the ones above. Also looking forward to hearing about other good/bad resources. I might also update this post if there are enough interests. NFA

Forex Trading Systems (2015) - High Frequency Trading Programs Documentary

No, the British did not steal $45 trillion from India

This is an updated copy of the version on BadHistory. I plan to update it in accordance with the feedback I got.
I'd like to thank two people who will remain anonymous for helping me greatly with this post (you know who you are)
Three years ago a festschrift for Binay Bhushan Chaudhuri was published by Shubhra Chakrabarti, a history teacher at the University of Delhi and Utsa Patnaik, a Marxist economist who taught at JNU until 2010.
One of the essays in the festschirt by Utsa Patnaik was an attempt to quantify the "drain" undergone by India during British Rule. Her conclusion? Britain robbed India of $45 trillion (or £9.2 trillion) during their 200 or so years of rule. This figure was immensely popular, and got republished in several major news outlets (here, here, here, here (they get the number wrong) and more recently here), got a mention from the Minister of External Affairs & returns 29,100 results on Google. There's also plenty of references to it here on Reddit.
Patnaik is not the first to calculate such a figure. Angus Maddison thought it was £100 million, Simon Digby said £1 billion, Javier Estaban said £40 million see Roy (2019). The huge range of figures should set off some alarm bells.
So how did Patnaik calculate this (shockingly large) figure? Well, even though I don't have access to the festschrift, she conveniently has written an article detailing her methodology here. Let's have a look.

How exactly did the British manage to diddle us and drain our wealth’ ? was the question that Basudev Chatterjee (later editor of a volume in the Towards Freedom project) had posed to me 50 years ago when we were fellow-students abroad.

This is begging the question.

After decades of research I find that using India’s commodity export surplus as the measure and applying an interest rate of 5%, the total drain from 1765 to 1938, compounded up to 2016, comes to £9.2 trillion; since $4.86 exchanged for £1 those days, this sum equals about $45 trillion.

This is completely meaningless. To understand why it's meaningless consider India's annual coconut exports. These are almost certainly a surplus but the surplus in trade is countered by the other country buying the product (indeed, by definition, trade surpluses contribute to the GDP of a nation which hardly plays into intuitive conceptualisations of drain).
Furthermore, Dewey (2019) critiques the 5% interest rate.

She [Patnaik] consistently adopts statistical assumptions (such as compound interest at a rate of 5% per annum over centuries) that exaggerate the magnitude of the drain

Moving on:

The exact mechanism of drain, or transfers from India to Britain was quite simple.

Convenient.

Drain theory possessed the political merit of being easily grasped by a nation of peasants. [...] No other idea could arouse people than the thought that they were being taxed so that others in far off lands might live in comfort. [...] It was, therefore, inevitable that the drain theory became the main staple of nationalist political agitation during the Gandhian era.

- Chandra et al. (1989)

The key factor was Britain’s control over our taxation revenues combined with control over India’s financial gold and forex earnings from its booming commodity export surplus with the world. Simply put, Britain used locally raised rupee tax revenues to pay for its net import of goods, a highly abnormal use of budgetary funds not seen in any sovereign country.

The issue with figures like these is they all make certain methodological assumptions that are impossible to prove. From Roy in Frankema et al. (2019):

the "drain theory" of Indian poverty cannot be tested with evidence, for several reasons. First, it rests on the counterfactual that any money saved on account of factor payments abroad would translate into domestic investment, which can never be proved. Second, it rests on "the primitive notion that all payments to foreigners are "drain"", that is, on the assumption that these payments did not contribute to domestic national income to the equivalent extent (Kumar 1985, 384; see also Chaudhuri 1968). Again, this cannot be tested. [...] Fourth, while British officers serving India did receive salaries that were many times that of the average income in India, a paper using cross-country data shows that colonies with better paid officers were governed better (Jones 2013).

Indeed, drain theory rests on some very weak foundations. This, in of itself, should be enough to dismiss any of the other figures that get thrown out. Nonetheless, I felt it would be a useful exercise to continue exploring Patnaik's take on drain theory.

The East India Company from 1765 onwards allocated every year up to one-third of Indian budgetary revenues net of collection costs, to buy a large volume of goods for direct import into Britain, far in excess of that country’s own needs.

So what's going on here? Well Roy (2019) explains it better:

Colonial India ran an export surplus, which, together with foreign investment, was used to pay for services purchased from Britain. These payments included interest on public debt, salaries, and pensions paid to government offcers who had come from Britain, salaries of managers and engineers, guaranteed profts paid to railway companies, and repatriated business profts. How do we know that any of these payments involved paying too much? The answer is we do not.

So what was really happening is the government was paying its workers for services (as well as guaranteeing profits - to promote investment - something the GoI does today Dalal (2019), and promoting business in India), and those workers were remitting some of that money to Britain. This is hardly a drain (unless, of course, Indian diaspora around the world today are "draining" it). In some cases, the remittances would take the form of goods (as described) see Chaudhuri (1983):

It is obvious that these debit items were financed through the export surplus on merchandise account, and later, when railway construction started on a large scale in India, through capital import. Until 1833 the East India Company followed a cumbersome method in remitting the annual home charges. This was to purchase export commodities in India out of revenue, which were then shipped to London and the proceeds from their sale handed over to the home treasury.

While Roy's earlier point argues better paid officers governed better, it is honestly impossible to say what part of the repatriated export surplus was a drain, and what was not. However calling all of it a drain is definitely misguided.
It's worth noting that Patnaik seems to make no attempt to quantify the benefits of the Raj either, Dewey (2019)'s 2nd criticism:

she [Patnaik] consistently ignores research that would tend to cut the economic impact of the drain down to size, such as the work on the sources of investment during the industrial revolution (which shows that industrialisation was financed by the ploughed-back profits of industrialists) or the costs of empire school (which stresses the high price of imperial defence)

Since tropical goods were highly prized in other cold temperate countries which could never produce them, in effect these free goods represented international purchasing power for Britain which kept a part for its own use and re-exported the balance to other countries in Europe and North America against import of food grains, iron and other goods in which it was deficient.

Re-exports necessarily adds value to goods when the goods are processed and when the goods are transported. The country with the largest navy at the time would presumably be in very good stead to do the latter.

The British historians Phyllis Deane and WA Cole presented an incorrect estimate of Britain’s 18th-19th century trade volume, by leaving out re-exports completely. I found that by 1800 Britain’s total trade was 62% higher than their estimate, on applying the correct definition of trade including re-exports, that is used by the United Nations and by all other international organisations.

While interesting, and certainly expected for such an old book, re-exporting necessarily adds value to goods.

When the Crown took over from the Company, from 1861 a clever system was developed under which all of India’s financial gold and forex earnings from its fast-rising commodity export surplus with the world, was intercepted and appropriated by Britain. As before up to a third of India’s rising budgetary revenues was not spent domestically but was set aside as ‘expenditure abroad’.

So, what does this mean? Britain appropriated all of India's earnings, and then spent a third of it aboard? Not exactly. She is describing home charges see Roy (2019) again:

Some of the expenditures on defense and administration were made in sterling and went out of the country. This payment by the government was known as the Home Charges. For example, interest payment on loans raised to finance construction of railways and irrigation works, pensions paid to retired officers, and purchase of stores, were payments in sterling. [...] almost all money that the government paid abroad corresponded to the purchase of a service from abroad. [...] The balance of payments system that emerged after 1800 was based on standard business principles. India bought something and paid for it. State revenues were used to pay for wages of people hired abroad, pay for interest on loans raised abroad, and repatriation of profits on foreign investments coming into India. These were legitimate market transactions.

Indeed, if paying for what you buy is drain, then several billions of us are drained every day.

The Secretary of State for India in Council, based in London, invited foreign importers to deposit with him the payment (in gold, sterling and their own currencies) for their net imports from India, and these gold and forex payments disappeared into the yawning maw of the SoS’s account in the Bank of England.

It should be noted that India having two heads was beneficial, and encouraged investment per Roy (2019):

The fact that the India Office in London managed a part of the monetary system made India creditworthy, stabilized its currency, and encouraged foreign savers to put money into railways and private enterprise in India. Current research on the history of public debt shows that stable and large colonies found it easier to borrow abroad than independent economies because the investors trusted the guarantee of the colonist powers.

Against India’s net foreign earnings he issued bills, termed Council bills (CBs), to an equivalent rupee value. The rate (between gold-linked sterling and silver rupee) at which the bills were issued, was carefully adjusted to the last farthing, so that foreigners would never find it more profitable to ship financial gold as payment directly to Indians, compared to using the CB route. Foreign importers then sent the CBs by post or by telegraph to the export houses in India, that via the exchange banks were paid out of the budgeted provision of sums under ‘expenditure abroad’, and the exporters in turn paid the producers (peasants and artisans) from whom they sourced the goods.

Sunderland (2013) argues CBs had two main roles (and neither were part of a grand plot to keep gold out of India):

Council bills had two roles. They firstly promoted trade by handing the IO some control of the rate of exchange and allowing the exchange banks to remit funds to India and to hedge currency transaction risks. They also enabled the Indian government to transfer cash to England for the payment of its UK commitments.

The United Nations (1962) historical data for 1900 to 1960, show that for three decades up to 1928 (and very likely earlier too) India posted the second highest merchandise export surplus in the world, with USA in the first position. Not only were Indians deprived of every bit of the enormous international purchasing power they had earned over 175 years, even its rupee equivalent was not issued to them since not even the colonial government was credited with any part of India’s net gold and forex earnings against which it could issue rupees. The sleight-of-hand employed, namely ‘paying’ producers out of their own taxes, made India’s export surplus unrequited and constituted a tax-financed drain to the metropolis, as had been correctly pointed out by those highly insightful classical writers, Dadabhai Naoroji and RCDutt.

It doesn't appear that others appreciate their insight Roy (2019):

K. N. Chaudhuri rightly calls such practice ‘confused’ economics ‘coloured by political feelings’.

Surplus budgets to effect such heavy tax-financed transfers had a severe employment–reducing and income-deflating effect: mass consumption was squeezed in order to release export goods. Per capita annual foodgrains absorption in British India declined from 210 kg. during the period 1904-09, to 157 kg. during 1937-41, and to only 137 kg by 1946.

Dewey (1978) points out reliability issues with Indian agriculutural statistics, however this calorie decline persists to this day. Some of it is attributed to less food being consumed at home Smith (2015), a lower infectious disease burden Duh & Spears (2016) and diversified diets Vankatesh et al. (2016).

If even a part of its enormous foreign earnings had been credited to it and not entirely siphoned off, India could have imported modern technology to build up an industrial structure as Japan was doing.

This is, unfortunately, impossible to prove. Had the British not arrived in India, there is no clear indication that India would've united (this is arguably more plausible than the given counterfactual¹). Had the British not arrived in India, there is no clear indication India would not have been nuked in WW2, much like Japan. Had the British not arrived in India, there is no clear indication India would not have been invaded by lizard people, ~~much like Japan.~~ The list continues eternally.
Nevertheless, I will charitably examine the given counterfactual anyway. Did pre-colonial India have industrial potential? The answer is a resounding no.
From Gupta (1980):

This article starts from the premise that while economic categories - the extent of commodity production, wage labour, monetarisation of the economy, etc - should be the basis for any analysis of the production relations of pre-British India, it is the nature of class struggles arising out of particular class alignments that finally gives the decisive twist to social change. Arguing on this premise, and analysing the available evidence, this article concludes that there was little potential for industrial revolution before the British arrived in India because, whatever might have been the character of economic categories of that period, the class relations had not sufficiently matured to develop productive forces and the required class struggle for a 'revolution' to take place.

A view echoed in Raychaudhuri (1983):

Yet all of this did not amount to an economic situation comparable to that of western Europe on the eve of the industrial revolution. Her technology - in agriculture as well as manufacturers - had by and large been stagnant for centuries. [...] The weakness of the Indian economy in the mid-eighteenth century, as compared to pre-industrial Europe was not simply a matter of technology and commercial and industrial organization. No scientific or geographical revolution formed part of the eighteenth-century Indian's historical experience. [...] Spontaneous movement towards industrialisation is unlikely in such a situation.

So now we've established India did not have industrial potential, was India similar to Japan just before the Meiji era? The answer, yet again, unsurprisingly, is no. Japan's economic situation was not comparable to India's, which allowed for Japan to finance its revolution. From Yasuba (1986):

All in all, the Japanese standard of living may not have been much below the English standard of living before industrialization, and both of them may have been considerably higher than the Indian standard of living. We can no longer say that Japan started from a pathetically low economic level and achieved a rapid or even "miraculous" economic growth. Japan's per capita income was almost as high as in Western Europe before industrialization, and it was possible for Japan to produce surplus in the Meiji Period to finance private and public capital formation.

The circumstances that led to Meiji Japan were extremely unique. See Tomlinson (1985):

Most modern comparisons between India and Japan, written by either Indianists or Japanese specialists, stress instead that industrial growth in Meiji Japan was the product of unique features that were not reproducible elsewhere. [...] it is undoubtably true that Japan's progress to industrialization has been unique and unrepeatable

So there you have it. Unsubstantiated statistical assumptions, calling any number you can a drain & assuming a counterfactual for no good reason gets you this $45 trillion number. Hopefully that's enough to bury it in the ground.
^{1. Several authors have affirmed that Indian identity is a colonial artefact. For example see} ^{Rajan 1969}^:

^{Perhaps the single greatest and most enduring impact of British rule over India is that it created an Indian nation, in the modern political sense. After centuries of rule by different dynasties overparts of the Indian sub-continent, and after about 100 years of British rule, Indians ceased to be merely Bengalis, Maharashtrians,or Tamils, linguistically and culturally.}

^{or see} ^{Bryant 2000}^:

^{But then, it would be anachronistic to condemn eighteenth-century Indians, who served the British, as collaborators, when the notion of 'democratic' nationalism or of an Indian 'nation' did not then exist.} ^[...] ^{Indians who fought for them, differed from the Europeans in having a primary attachment to a non-belligerent religion, family and local chief, which was stronger than any identity they might have with a more remote prince or 'nation'.}

Bibliography

Chakrabarti, Shubra & Patnaik, Utsa (2018). Agrarian and other histories: Essays for Binay Bhushan Chaudhuri. Colombia University Press
Hickel, Jason (2018). How the British stole $45 trillion from India. The Guardian
Bhuyan, Aroonim & Sharma, Krishan (2019). The Great Loot: How the British stole $45 trillion from India. Indiapost
Monbiot, George (2020). English Landowners have stolen our rights. It is time to reclaim them. The Guardian
Tsjeng, Zing (2020). How Britain Stole $45 trillion from India with trains | Empires of Dirt. Vice
Chaudhury, Dipanjan (2019). British looted $45 trillion from India in today’s value: Jaishankar. The Economic Times
Roy, Tirthankar (2019). How British rule changed India's economy: The Paradox of the Raj. Palgrave Macmillan
Patnaik, Utsa (2018). How the British impoverished India. Hindustan Times
Tuovila, Alicia (2019). Expenditure method. Investopedia
Dewey, Clive (2019). Changing the guard: The dissolution of the nationalist–Marxist orthodoxy in the agrarian and agricultural history of India. The Indian Economic & Social History Review
Chandra, Bipan et al. (1989). India's Struggle for Independence, 1857-1947. Penguin Books
Frankema, Ewout & Booth, Anne (2019). Fiscal Capacity and the Colonial State in Asia and Africa, c. 1850-1960. Cambridge University Press
Dalal, Sucheta (2019). IL&FS Controversy: Centre is Paying Up on Sovereign Guarantees to ADB, KfW for Group's Loan. TheWire
Chaudhuri, K.N. (1983). X - Foreign Trade and Balance of Payments (1757–1947). Cambridge University Press
Sunderland, David (2013). Financing the Raj: The City of London and Colonial India, 1858-1940. Boydell Press
Dewey, Clive (1978). Patwari and Chaukidar: Subordinate officials and the reliability of India’s agricultural statistics. Athlone Press
Smith, Lisa (2015). The great Indian calorie debate: Explaining rising undernourishment during India’s rapid economic growth. Food Policy
Duh, Josephine & Spears, Dean (2016). Health and Hunger: Disease, Energy Needs, and the Indian Calorie Consumption Puzzle. The Economic Journal
Vankatesh, P. et al. (2016). Relationship between Food Production and Consumption Diversity in India – Empirical Evidences from Cross Section Analysis. Agricultural Economics Research Review
Gupta, Shaibal (1980). Potential of Industrial Revolution in Pre-British India. Economic and Political Weekly
Raychaudhuri, Tapan (1983). I - The mid-eighteenth-century background. Cambridge University Press
Yasuba, Yasukichi (1986). Standard of Living in Japan Before Industrialization: From what Level did Japan Begin? A Comment. The Journal of Economic History
Tomblinson, B.R. (1985). Writing History Sideways: Lessons for Indian Economic Historians from Meiji Japan. Cambridge University Press
Rajan, M.S. (1969). The Impact of British Rule in India. Journal of Contemporary History
Bryant, G.J. (2000). Indigenous Mercenaries in the Service of European Imperialists: The Case of the Sepoys in the Early British Indian Army, 1750-1800. War in History

Overview of China's forex policy swings, 2015+

Chance Me: CS Major

Reposting because I didn't get input last time.
Demographics: Indian. Male. From ProspeFrisco Texas. Middle/Upper class area. I would say my high school is very competitive.
Intended Major(s): Computer Science
ACT/SAT/SAT II: SAT: Have not taken a real test. I have taken three practice test all resulted 1440+. Prepping for 1500+, but consider my score to be a flat 1400 for now.
UW GPA and Rank: UW: 3.981 Rank: 12/979
Coursework:
Freshmen Year:
- Honors French 1 (Highest Level that year available to me )
- HonoGT Geometry (Highest Level that year available to me )
- Honors Computer Science 1
- Honors Biology (Highest Level that year available to me )
- AP Human (Highest Level that year available to me ) (4)
- Honors English 1 (Highest Level that year available to me )
- Outdoor Education (Required)
- Digital Art and Animation (Required)
Sophomore Year:
- Honors English 2 (Highest Level that year available to me )
- Honors French 2 (Highest Level that year available to me )
- AP Computer Science A (Highest Level that year available to me ) (5)
- AP Computer Science Principles (Highest Level that year available to me ) (4)
- AP World History (Highest Level that year available to me )
- AP Biology (Highest Level that year available to me ) (3) <-- Not sending this score
- Honors Chemistry (Highest Level that year available to me )
- Honors Algebra 2 (Highest Level that year available to me )
- Academic Level Architecture (Highest Level that year available to me )
Junior Year:
- AP English 3 (Highest Level that year available to me )
- Independent Studies in Video Games (AP Level but not AP) (Highest Level that year available to me )
- Honors UIL Math Prep
- Ap Physics 1 (Highest Level that year available to me ) (5)
- Academic Level US History
- AP Chemistry (Highest Level that year available to me ) (4)
- AP Environmental (Highest Level that year available to me ) (5)
- Honors Pre-Cal (Highest Level that year available to me )
Senior Year (will take upcoming year):
- Honors Computer Science 3 (Highest Level that year available to me )
- Honors Computer Science 2 (Highest Level that year available to me )
- AP English 4 (Highest Level that year available to me )
- AP Gov/Econ (Highest Level that year available to me )
- AP Physics C (Highest Level that year available to me )
- AP Calc BC (Highest Level that year available to me )
- AP Stats (Highest Level that year available to me )
- Still Deciding but not AP for sure.
Awards:
- Adobe Certified Associate - Visual Design using Adobe Photoshop CC2015
- Aloha Math Competition Certificate.
- UIL Math Competition Certificate.
- Multiple Student of the month award
Extracurriculars:

I am an intern at Visual Technologies LLC. I have helped in 4 projects regarding computer science for outside companies. This is one of my biggest achievements as a real company was willing to work with me and we ended up doing 4 projects together helping me grow every second of me working with them. After two successful projects with them, I was given some responsibilities such as following up with clients and other things. This gave me a sense of accomplishment because this would mean that they saw qualities in me that they would look for in a “normal aged” programmeconsultant.
2020 - I have worked for Cutco for about 3 months in which I have learned many skills for marketing. I have been promoted and over $3000 in sales. Other details mentioned earlier.
2019-2020- For UIL math we program our calculators to make tests easier for us. Last year I was one of the top coders for UIL math right after my seniors. I made programs that were complex. Although I didn't create many programs, I made programs that other programs were not able to create the year before because they were termed as “too hard”. Me being able to code those programs gave me the stance as a well-known programmer for UIL Math - an achievement in itself.
2016 - 2021 has offered free tutoring to many students who strive to be better but cannot afford fees. I have given at least 80 hours of free tutoring (not for school)
2020 - I have also worked for Ambit and have managed a successful team of over 50 members as I am a regional consultant for the company. I am in the top 10% of the company according to my boss, but I don't know whether this is true or not. I can certainly say that more than half of the people working do not make it to the level I am at. This company is an electricity company, and I have capitalized on selling our service to apartment complexes. I have also helped many high schoolers needing a job to find success in this business.
2020- I volunteered to make a system for the school called “Corona Tutors”. This is a platform where students can anonymously ask questions and receive answers from other students who want service hours. This fixes many problems: this eases the extreme dependence of teachers being online 24/7, this makes sure that students are getting their questions answered, this also allows students who want to help society. This is an official Prosper resource on their webpage which students can use at their will.
2017-2020- I have been a volunteer at ICNA Relief committed about 2 hours each week, and puts me right over 300 hours of community service. We as a group have made a rationing system where we try to fairly distribute goods and other goods as per people's needs. We help with anything from getting food to getting families a laptop for their kid's education.
My love for business goes very far. In 7th grade, fidget spinners were very popular and amazon took 3 months to ship them. This was perfect for a mini business, so I bought a fidget spinner directly through the supplier (AliExpress) and got my shipment. Not only did I retail them I also wholesale them in the mall to any store that was allowed to sell them. I came profitable from this business, but it was not the money that made this great, it was the contact I got through this business. - 2016
2020 - I resold brand new bikes with a high markup. One day scrolling through Facebook marketplace I realized that some bikes were being sold for almost 2x their price at Walmart. (During COVID) I simply contacted my contacts and was able to get about 200-250 brand new bikes. Since this was a very big investment I had five partners with me, and we marked them up according to market price a month later (150% return on investment)
2020 - When school ended, I started to get a lot of Forex trading ads, so I chose to take a look into what it was. Forex trading is a currency exchange and is highly risky. When I started to learn about it I started to see that there were groups called “signal groups”. These groups told you when to trade what and claimed that they have a 99% accuracy on their trades being profitable. Instead of trading, I chose to get in contact with famous traders and offer them a lucrative cut for simply sending a message in a group chat about what they are trading. For one month I tested the service and then put it into action for the public. The program kept working until all traders were able to work and then it was shut off making sure that more one was a loss.
2020 I have written a book/report that I have published it on Amazon. This report took me 200+ hours to make. As we learn in school, there is a rise in global warming, and it is our job to find alternative ways of fuel and stop the rise in global warming. I took an already done research - well in parts in college language- and made it into a more understandable report considering almost every aspect of the situation. I covered everything from the experimental design to how we can use the waste product in everyday life to how we can scale this project to how even a high schooler can make a difference by simply taking initiative and presenting this idea to their school. This report allowed me to take complex language and make it into an everyday language report. I showed my report to many people in the community and it was very satisfying to hear from their parents when they said “my son is going to present this idea to his school because they mostly have a lot of oil”. The report is about converting waste cooking oil to biodiesel.
2015 - 2020 - I have helped my mom in her business called “BLANK (don't want to say) Designs Collection”. Simply by watching her sell and trying it myself I acquired skills that I use to this day not only for business but simply for communicating. Currently, I am a social media and online sales handler for the company.
2018 - 2020 - I have been a part of Mu Alpha Theta for two year tutoring students for Math. Last year I was one of the top tutors for Mrs.Wood for algebra 2. I went there every time I did have an eagle time activity.
2020 - I recently joined the Science Honor society; we have helped the science fair in their activities.

Essays/LORs:
Essays, I have not started.
Letter of Rec: I have three incoming from my teachers. English/CounseloComputer Science/ Math (waiting for response)
Schools:
- MIT,
- Brown University
- Caltech
- Carnegie Mellon
- Columbia University
- Cornell University
- Duke University
- Georgia Institute
- Hamilton
- Harvard University
- Johns Hopkins University
- Princeton University
- Purdue University
- Rice University
- Stanford
- UMich
- UT Austin
- UT Dallas
- Texas A&M
- UC Berkley

Forex trading and belgian taxes

FDS DD

Factset: How You can Invest in Hedge Funds’ Biggest Investment
Tl;dr FactSet is the most undervalued widespread SaaS/IT solution stock that exists
If any of you have relevant experience or are friends with people in Investment Banking/other high finance, you know that Factset is the lifeblood of their financial analysis toolkit if and when it’s not Bloomberg, which isn’t even publicly traded. Factset has been around since 1978 and it’s considered a staple like Bloomberg in many wealth management firms, and it offers some of the easiest to access and understandable financial data so many newer firms focused less on trading are switching to Factset because it has a lot of the same data Bloomberg offers for half the cost. When it comes to modern financial data, Factset outcompetes Reuters and arguably Bloomberg as well due to their API services which makes Factset much more preferable for quantitative divisions of banks/hedge funds as API integration with Python/R is the most important factor for vast data lakes of financial data, this suggests Factset will be much more prepared for programming making its way into traditional finance fields. According to Factset, their mission for data delivery is to: “Integrate the data you need with your applications, web portals, and statistical packages. Whether you need market, company, or alternative data, FactSet flexible data delivery services give you normalized data through APIs and a direct delivery of local copies of standard data feeds. Our unique symbology links and aggregates a variety of content sources to ensure consistency, transparency, and data integrity across your business. Build financial models and power customized applications with FactSet APIs in our developer portal”. Their technical focus for their data delivery system alone should make it stand out compared to Bloomberg, whose UI is far more outdated and complex on top of not being as technically developed as Factset’s. Factset is the key provider of buy-side portfolio analysis for IBs, Hedge funds, and Private Equity firms, and it’s making its way into non-quantitative hedge funds as well because quantitative portfolio management makes automation of risk management and the application of portfolio theory so much easier, and to top it off, Factset’s scenario analysis and simulation is unique in its class. Factset also is able to automate trades based on individual manager risk tolerance and ML optimization for Forex trading as well. Not only does Factset provide solutions for financial companies, they are branching out to all corporations now and providing quantitative analytics for them in the areas of “corporate development, M&A, strategy, treasury, financial planning and analysis, and investor relations workflows”. Factset will eventually in my opinion reach out to Insurance Risk Management a lot more in the future as that’s a huge industry which has yet to see much automation of risk management yet, and with the field wide open, Factset will be the first to take advantage without a shadow of a doubt. So let’s dig into the company’s financials now:
Their latest 8k filing reported the following:
Revenue increased 2.6%, or $9.6 million, to $374.1 million compared with $364.5 million for the same period in fiscal 2019. The increase is primarily due to higher sales of analytics, content and technology solutions (CTS) and wealth management solutions.
Annual Subscription Value (ASV) plus professional services was $1.52 billion at May 31, 2020, compared with $1.45 billion at May 31, 2019. The organic growth rate, which excludes the effects of acquisitions, dispositions, and foreign currency movements, was 5.0%. The primary contributors to this growth rate were higher sales in FactSet's wealth and research workflow solutions and a price increase in the Company's international region
Adjusted operating margin improved to 35.5% compared with 34.0% in the prior year period primarily as a result of reduced employee-related operating expenses due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Diluted earnings per share (EPS) increased 11.0% to $2.63 compared with $2.37 for the same period in fiscal 2019.
Adjusted diluted EPS rose 9.2% to $2.86 compared with $2.62 in the prior year period primarily driven by an improvement in operating results.
The Company’s effective tax rate for the third quarter decreased to 15.0% compared with 18.6% a year ago, primarily due to an income tax expense in the prior year related to finalizing the Company's tax returns with no similar event for the three months ended May 31, 2020.
FactSet increased its quarterly dividend by $0.05 per share or 7% to $0.77 marking the fifteenth consecutive year the Company has increased dividends, highlighting its continued commitment to returning value to shareholders.
As you can see, there’s not much of a negative sign in sight here.
It makes sense considering how FactSet’s FCF has never slowed down

FactSet’s annual subscriptions and professional services have made its way to foreign and developing markets, and many of them are opting for FactSet’s cheaper services to reduce costs and still get copious amounts of data and models to work with.
Here’s what FactSet had to say regarding its competitive position within the market of providing financial data in its last 10k: “Despite competing products and services, we enjoy high barriers to entry and believe it would be difficult for another vendor to quickly replicate the extensive databases we currently offer. Through our in-depth analytics and client service, we believe we can offer clients a more comprehensive solution with one of the broadest sets of functionalities, through a desktop or mobile user interface or through a standardized or bespoke data feed.” And FactSet is confident that their ML services cannot be replaced by anybody else in the industry either: “In addition, our applications, including our client support and service offerings, are entrenched in the workflow of many financial professionals given the downloading functions and portfolio analysis/screening capabilities offered. We are entrusted with significant amounts of our clients' own proprietary data, including portfolio holdings. As a result, our products have become central to our clients’ investment analysis and decision-making.” (https://last10k.com/sec-filings/fds#link_fullReport), if you read the full report and compare it to the most recent 8K, you’ll find that the real expenses this quarter were far lower than expected by the last 10k as there was a lower than expected tax rate and a 3% increase in expected operating margin from the expected figure as well. The company also reports a 90% customer retention rate over 15 years, so you know that they’re not lying when they say the clients need them for all sorts of financial data whether it’s for M&A or wealth management and Equity analysis:
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/factset.asp
FactSet also has remarkably good cash conversion considering it’s a subscription based company, a company structure which usually takes on too much leverage. Speaking of leverage, FDS had taken on a lot of leverage in 2015:
So what’s that about? Why were FactSet’s long term debts at 0 and all of a sudden why’d the spike up? Well usually for a company that’s non-cyclical and has a well-established product (like FactSet) leverage can actually be good at amplifying returns, so FDS used this to their advantage and this was able to help the share’s price during 2015. Also, as you can see debt/ebitda is beginning a rapid decline anyway. This only adds to my theory that FactSet is trying to expand into new playing fields. FactSet obviously didn’t need the leverage to cover their normal costs, because they have always had consistently growing margins and revenue so the debt financing was only for the sake of financing growth. And this debt can be considered covered and paid off, considering the net income growth of 32% between 2018 and 2019 alone and the EPS growth of 33%
EBITDA has virtually been exponential for FactSet for a while because of the bang-for-buck for their well-known product, but now as FactSet ventures into algorithmic trading and corporate development the scope for growth is broadly expanded.
P/E has declined in the past 2 years, making it a great time to buy.
Increasing ROE despite lowering of leverage post 2016
Mountains of cash have been piling up in the coffers increasing chances of increased dividends for shareholders (imo dividend is too low right now, but increasing it will tempt more investors into it), and on top of that in the last 10k a large buyback expansion program was implemented for $210m worth of shares, which shows how confident they are in the company itself.
SGA expense/Gross profit has been declining despite expansion of offices
I’m a bit concerned about the skin in the game leadership has in this company, since very few executives/board members have significant holdings in the company, but the CEO himself is a FactSet veteran, and knows his way around the company. On top of that, Bloomberg remains king for trading and the fixed income security market, and Reuters beats out FactSet here as well. If FactSet really wants to increase cash flow sources, the expansion into insurance and corp dev has to be successful.
Summary: FactSet has a lot of growth still left in its industry which is already fast-growing in and of itself, and it only has more potential at its current valuation. Earnings September 24th should be a massive beat due to investment banking demand and growth plus Hedge fund requirements for data and portfolio management hasn’t gone anywhere and has likely increased due to more market opportunities to buy-in.
Calls have shitty greeks, but if you're ballsy October 450s LOL, I'm holding shares
I’d say it’s a great long term investment, and it should at least be on your watchlist.

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Forex Awards Winners 2015 — Forex Awards Announced Winners

Forex 2015 Forecast for Trading: Major Currency Pairs Prediction

Federal Reserve terminates 2015 forex enforcement action against Bank of America

Federal Reserve terminates 2015 forex enforcement action against Bank of America

[Business] - Federal Reserve terminates 2015 forex enforcement action against Bank of America

Federal Reserve terminates 2015 forex enforcement action against Bank of America

[Business] - Federal Reserve terminates 2015 forex enforcement action against Bank of America | REUTERS

OANN: Federal Reserve terminates 2015 forex enforcement action against Bank of America

@AlphaexCapital : NZDUSD tries to rebound off another year low (and lowest level since 2015) https://t.co/qTHbl99Kxx #forex #forextrading #investing

@AlphaexCapital : NZD/USD falls to its weakest level since September 2015 https://t.co/oQNGMp90Aq #forex #forextrading #investing

Is this too good to be true...? Forex? Have been working my tail off(student), and studying trading(part time)since 2015.

2 years of PTI with the economy

I Automated & Backtested ParallaxFX Strategy

THROW YOUR FD's in FDS

IS ____ AN MLM? SEARCH HERE. (MEGA THREAD)

For a quick, easier search - http://www.isthisanmlm.com/ has compiled this whole thread. Special thanks to u/SHIFTnSPACE. - This is now a part of the sidebar as a button widget!

What is an MLM?

[Secret] Response to the Oil Embargo Part 2: Retaliation, Covert and Chaotic

Summarizing some free trading idea resources I've been using

Forex Trading Systems (2015) - High Frequency Trading Programs Documentary

No, the British did not steal $45 trillion from India

Bibliography

Overview of China's forex policy swings, 2015+

Chance Me: CS Major

Forex trading and belgian taxes

FDS DD

forex scalping ea 2015