Category Archives: CeMAP and DiPFA Training

Some pointers for IFS DipFA Exam (date 17/01/13)

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IFS DipFA Exam (date 17/01/13)

Some pointers…

The Fact Find presents us with a scenario for a Mr & Mrs Barlow.  As usual, the IFS Exam Fact Find details a client scenario most practising advisers would find hard to recognise…a young family with significant equity, decent liquid assets, and a high income to boot!  Most advisers can only dream of having working clients able to afford to pay regular premiums of £1,000 per month gross into their personal pension (Mr Barlow)!

However, the scenario is of course not necessarily meant to be representative of real life, it is actually there to test your knowledge, and crucially, the application of that knowledge to the client’s circumstances and the suitability of your advice.  So, as usual, let’s not get hung up over how realistic or not the scenario is.

This blog summarises some of the key issues students will need to consider for this exam, and some pointers about specific parts of the IFS DipFA Study Folders that students may find useful to review and refresh themselves of in addition to other study – this blog is not a comprehensive guide to the exam but should get you started.

In this scenario, students of course need to understand the basics around taxation – Income Tax, National Insurance, and Capital Gains Tax.  Anyone not fully clued up on these basics for both employed and self employed clients should immediately head to the IFS Study Folders (issued by the IFS when they started the DipFA course), and look up Topic 2 and Topic 3 in the Taxation folder.

Additionally, in preparation for one of our courses, some specific areas to consider for further study are;

  • Defined Benefit (final salary) schemes, in Retirement Topic 5.3.2
  • Tax efficient saving and investing, in Investments Topic 12
  • Interest Only Mortgages, can be found in Section 10 of the CEMAP Module 2 Revision Notes (available from the IFS website under your log in)
  • Protection Planning, in Protection Topic 9
  • Clients attitude to Risk, in Investments Topic 14.2.1
  • Retirement Planning Topic 7

This is most definitely not a comprehensive list, and of course don’t forget, anything in the syllabus can be considered relevant for the exam.  The amendments on the day can cover any issue covered in the Study Folders, or related to these areas.  Students would be well advised to at least review the sections of the Study Folders for areas of advice they are not familiar with prior to the exam itself.

Further support can be found by booking attendance at one of Futuretrend’s DipFA Factfind courses, or on the remote support option.

Paul Davis, Dip. PFS, Futuretrend Tutor.

What’s going on here at FutureTrend Training Academy

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We are Educating People on “Making Money with Dividends“

          part of our Stocks, Shares and Investments Training 
 

One of the ways you make money with stocks is by investing in companies that pay dividends.

Dividends are profits the company distributes to shareholders. The companies don’t do this out of the kindness of their hearts – this is what a company is all about; making money for the owners. Dividends usually don’t represent all of a company’s profits. The company retains some portion for future use – in acquisitions or to retire debt, for example.

Most companies pay dividends in the form of cash, although you may hear of occasions when a company uses stock instead. Many investors are attracted to stocks with a good history of paying dividends.

The company’s board of directors sets the dividend at a quarterly meeting. It is important to note that they are under no obligation to pay a dividend. If the company is hurting financially or the board is concerned about future prospects, it can forego the dividend.

The board sets the dividend rate at a per share basis. For example, the board may declare a quarterly dividend of $0.50 per share. This means if you own 100 shares of stock, you will get a check for $50 for that quarter.

Dividends come is two types: fixed and variable. Dividends that pay at a fixed rate go to owners of preferred stock, while variable dividends go to common stock holders.

Dividends offer investors another way to make money, especially if your goal is current income. Many investors find that buying and holding companies with a good history of paying dividends makes good sense for financial goals.

If you would like to learn more in detail then sign up for our new Stock, Shares & Investments course today. Course starts on Saturday 29th March 2014 and now offers a complete practical guided training into trading Spread Betting or CFD’s

Welcome to the world of 21st century Financial Trading Technology

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Most people who begin learning Forex & Commodities or Stock & Shares usually have one question on their mind: what’s the difference between trading strategies and is there a way to learn just one strategy and apply that?

While there are many reasons, today I will only touch upon a basic factor – one that is common between most individual traders. Since markets evolve from time to time, similarly circumstances also vary from trader to trader based upon his/her unique personal preferences. These different factors may be in terms of risk, time, capital, knowledge & education, experience and sometimes even technology.  While I was browsing TE, I came across a simple description of what I’m discussing here, Day Trading vs Swing Trading Click to View. These are one of few trading techniques you will learn in our course.  Hope you enjoy this!

Do not forget to click on the picture below for a future announcement….

Learn Trading Strategies and Trading SystemEveryday our students learn more and more from our advance trading courses (Forex & Commodities Trading) and gain considerable knowledge and expertise on how to trade markets systematically and consistently. The Second part of Forex and Commodities course emphasizes on trading strategies and trading systems to help establish trading rules, methodical approach, risks over rewards, technical and fundamental discipline, old-school(wall street) trading techniques and learning industries latest innovations and getting hands on experience on most advance trading technologies.

A backdrop to what I am discussing here is best illustrated in my upcoming webinar on Trading Financial Markets with 21st century style.  Many of you may or may not be aware of the phenomenon called High Frequency Trading(HFT)- for those who do not know about HFT may also be unaware of Cross Atlantic Fiber-optic cables stretching from Long Island to the UK aka ‘QuanTA‘.

HFT aka Algorithmic or Automated Trading involves the use of computer software which is instructed by a set of configurable algorithms as and when to buy and/or sell products in an electronic marketplace. Considerations can include price, quantities, timing etc. Presently Financial Markets and all its application are evolving; however the question is whether many of us in future will like these changes? Frankly, I’m still not sure myself! But I must admit I do seek its benefits and at the same time recognize it as a potential threat at the minimal capital investor. I will be demonstrating a Two-part webinar on trading GOLD & SILVER using automated trading system. I will be presenting Algorithmic based strategies that my trading system promptly captures and informs me about.  These trading alerts can be traded manually or can be automated to be executed on their own.

The World Money Show London 2012 @ Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre

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Invite

Priority Code for FREE Registration: 029045
REGISTER FREE HERE

 

This is great opportunity for all our successful students who have completed their training with us here at FutureTrend to meet top industry participants and join in discussion with some of its panels speakers.

Also, dates for our upcoming November/December classes are now finalized. Please refer to FutureTrend website for Forex & Commodities and Stocks and Share course dates

38 STEPS TO BECOMING A TRADER

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1. We accumulate information—buying books, going to seminars, attending courses and researching.
2. We begin to trade with our “new” knowledge.
3. We consistently “donate” and then realize that we may need more knowledge or information.
4. We accumulate more information.
5. We switch the currencies or commodities we are currently following.
6. We go back into the market and trade with our “updated” knowledge.
7. We get “beat up” again and begin to lose some of our confidence. Fear starts setting in.
8. We start to listen to “outside news” and to other traders.
9. We go back into the market and continue to “donate.”
10. We switch currencies and commodities again.
11. We search for more information.
12. We go back into the market and start to see a little progress.
13. We get “overconfident,” and the market humbles us.
14. We start to understand that trading successfully is going to take more time and more knowledge than we anticipated. Most people will give up at this point, as they realize work is involved.
15. We get serious and start concentrating on learning a “real” methodology.
16. We trade our methodology with some success but realize that something is missing.
17. We begin to understand the need for having rules to apply our methodology.
18. We take a sabbatical from trading to develop and research our trading rules.
19. We start trading again, this time with rules, and find some success, but overall, we still hesitate when we execute.
20. We add, subtract, and modify rules as we see a need to be more proficient with our rules.
21. We feel we are very close to crossing that threshold of successful trading.
22. We start to take responsibility for our trading results as we understand that our success is in us, not the methodology.
23. We continue to trade and become more proficient with our methodology and our rules.
24. As we trade, we still have a tendency to violate our rules, and our results are still erratic.
25. We know we are close.
26. We go back and research our rules.
27. We build the confidence in our rules and go back into the market and trade.
28. Our trading results are getting better, but we are still hesitating in executing our rules.
29. We now see the importance of following our rules as we see the results of our trades when we don’t follow the rules.
30. We begin to see that our lack of success is within us (a lack of discipline in following the rules because of some kind of fear), and we begin to work on knowing ourselves better.
31. We continue to trade, and the market teaches us more and more about ourselves.
32. We master our methodology and our trading rules.
33. We begin to consistently make money.
34. We get a little overconfident, and the market humbles us.
35. We continue to learn our lessons.
36. We stop thinking and allow our rules to trade for us (trading becomes boring but successful), and our trading account continues to grow as we increase our contract size.
37. We are making more money than we ever dreamed possible.
38. We go on with our lives and accomplish many of the goals we had always dreamed of and in return now we are able to help others.

WHERE WILL THE NEW IDEAS IN FX COME FROM IN 2013?

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Bloomberg’s FX12 London Summit
Join me at Bloomberg’s City Gate House for a key gathering of industry leaders, senior executives and top decision makers from across the global FX community to discuss the latest trends, news, strategies, risk management techniques and more.

FEATURING A Q&A WITH:
Jim O’Neill: Chairman, Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM)

Click the link below for details about the Bloomberg’s FX12 Summit in London on 16 October 2012 at 3:00pm: REGISTER Hurry!!! Seat are limited.

Invitation Via,

Umar Dar
FX, Stocks, Futures & Commodities Trainer at Future Trend Training Academy

It’s been quite a while!

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Yes. It’s been a while since our last blog.
This always happens at this time of the year.
The new academic year means new syllabuses.
New courses added to the portfolio.
New material to be written.
New trainers to induct.
And so we have had our hands completely full.
Pressure is beginning to ease so you can expect that normal blogging duty will resume soon.

New things to look out for…

CeMAP 2012/13 Academic year material now completed. So for those looking to do CeMAP distance learning can rest assured we will only be sending them current material.

DipFA Coursework and FactFind Training has been going very well. We’ve been closely monitoring the success rates of our students and can only recollect a few that have not passed! We have our new tutor , Paul, to thank for that! He really cares about the students and provides them with a lot of aftercare support. The rave reviews he has been getting are extremely well deserved.

Stocks, Shares and Investments courses and our Day Trading Forex programme has been running smoothly under the management of Umar. He has brought a very practical slant to the courses and his post course mentoring is just first class. It’s no wonder people are queueing up to join his classes.

We’ve also been working hard on a Business Analysis course which is scheduled to kick off October 28th. For this we have recruited the services of a very senior Business Analyst at Amazon. We get so many Software Testing Analysts looking for a career progression route…and for most – this is it!

Our Software Testing Essentials course has had some new additions to it. We’ve added an extra day on to the course thereby incorporating Test automation into the programme.

We now have beginners to advanced WordPress courses ranging from the basics (using WordPress.com) to intermediate and advanced levels using wordpress.org and all the benefits of flexibility to looking at how to build your own themes and understanding the php code that allows you to customise your wordpress site even more.

We are also trialling the ACA qualification for those looking to gain Adobe accreditation in either Photoshop or Dreamweaver.
A goal for the Adobe Certified Associate certification is to address the real world, entry-level skill expectations for web communication, rich media communication, and visual communication.

This certification is a credential that validates entry-level skills needed to plan, design, build, and maintain effective communications by using different forms of digital media.

The qualification is open to anyone who takes our Adobe Photoshop Next Step Course and Adobe Dreamweaver Next Step course.

So as you can see there’s lot’s to look forward to at Futuretrend this academic year.

An approach to doing DipFA coursework assignment…that really doesn’t work!

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When we sign up for qualifications like DipFA which take about 9 months to complete we have every intention of getting stuck in, working our hardest to get through it in flying colours and progress on to a career as a financial advisor. However, life and it’s various curveballs get in the way and somehow, despite our best intentions reality can be very different from how we pictured it.

Last minute Larry labours over his courseworkStage One – 12 weeks from deadlin

I have just received my coursework from the IFS. A massive manual to read! I flicked through a few pages… interesting? – not! Anyway I have plenty of time to get this assignment done. I’m back to back with office work at the moment. I really don’t need to worry about it.

Stage Two – 8 Weeks from deadline

Hmmm, maybe I should get started on my paper, but not right now. I just don’t feel like reading that boring manual right now. I have so little time to myself. I’ll get started later. I don’t need to worry.

Stage Three – 4 Weeks from deadline

Wow, I didn’t realize that this assignment was due so soon. I’m just going to finish watching Eastenders and then I’ll get started on reading that huuuge manual… but then…ah, there’s also Jason’s party happening. Well, one needs a social life too! I’ll start reading the manual tomorrow. I’ve still got time.

Stage Four – 2 Weeks from deadline

I have read the manual twice now. There are still many things I don’t understand but I don’t need to worry about it. I’ve written a few paragraphs. I still have plenty of time to get the work done, especially if I burn the midnight oil in the next few days. Who needs sleep anyway? I spent most of my time propping up the student union bar whilst at Uni but still got a 2.1 I’ll be fine.

Stage Five – A few days before deadline

OMG… I have so much work to do! Why didn’t I do this earlier? All I want to do is go to sleep, but I’m never going to get all of this work done. This is ridiculous; why does the IFS DipFA Coursework require us to produce so much information and yet there’s so little time to get it done?

Stage Six – Right after deadline

I cannot believe I got all that work done. I will never ever, ever, ever procrastinate again. That was not worth all that stress, and now I’m so tired I’m not sure I even did a good job on that paper. Next time I’m going to get started right away. I will be a better student.

Stage Seven – Two months later

I’ve just received my DipFA Factfind exam material. I’ll get started later. I have plenty of time anyway; the exam is not due for four more weeks.

Restart stage one.

If you are taking the DipFa qualification we hope this person doesn’t resemble you. Working in a frenzied and hurried fashion at the last minute is not the best approach for scoring maximum points. Ultimately, it could mean a fail and the possibility of having to do it again. and that’s a scenario best avoided.

What to Look for in a Mortgage Advisor

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The purchase of a home represents, by far, the largest single investment that most of us make during our lifetimes. Most of us, similarly, require a mortgage loan in order to make that purchase, and the importance of accurate, impartial mortgage advice cannot, therefore, be underestimated. Individual mortgage brokers, or the companies that they represent, must be authorised by – and therefore bound by the rules and regulations of – the Financial Services Authority (FSA). They must, for example, provide you with so-called `Keyfacts` documents, which clearly illustrate the main points of any service or product that they may offer you.

Types of Mortgage Advisors

Independent mortgage advisors are divided into two categories,  `Independent Mortgage Advisor`and Tied Mortgage Advisor`. These descriptions are, unfortunately, rather similar so, for clarification, the former offers independent advice on the whole of the market, including protection insurance; this can be useful if you need advice on other products relevant to your property purchase. A Tied Mortgage Advisor, on the other hand, offers advice on mortgage products but is  limited in the number of lenders, and products that they can offer. Any such affiliations should be made clear to you in the `Keyfacts` document relating to mortgage services, so make sure that you are aware of the range of products on offer.

Mortgage advice, inevitably, costs money, but there a number of different ways in which you can pay a mortgage advisor, or broker. for example, most will  offer you option of paying him, or her, by fee, rather than commission, in order to avoid bias on his, or her, part towards one mortgage product over another. Commission – a fee paid by a lender in return for selling a specific product – is, of course, another alternative, and a combination of part fee, part fee commission, may also be possible.

Qualifications & Experience

Mortgage advisors should be suitably qualified, in the eyes of the FSA, which means that they should have undertaken recognised qualifications, such as the `Certificate in Mortgage Advice and Practice` (CeMAP® ) and the `Certificate and Diploma in Financial Planning`, from the `Chartered Insurance Institute` (CII), before being allowed to offer advice. If you need to check the qualifications or a mortgage advisor – and the advice that he, or she, is authorised to offer – the FSA operate a consumer telephone helpline.

In addition to `paper` qualifications, experience in the industry – for example, counselling, or advising, individual consumers on their own, specific, financial needs – is also important. Don`t be afraid to ask an advisor for whom, or for how long, he, or she, has worked in the industry, and how his, or her, experience relates to his, or her, current job. Any mortgage advisor worth their salt will happily discuss these details with you, as well as leading you through the myriad of fixed rate, variable rate and flexible mortgage products available.