"Beyond the blue mountains At the beginning of 2016, there were three main “finance markets” in the cloud computing world, at least according to the cloud market ranking of Gartner. These were “big data analytics”, “big data infrastructure”, and “cloud computing as a service”. Both the big data analytics and big data infrastructure markets, big financial markets for AWS, and even cloud computing as a service, have remained on this type of trajectory in the first six months of this year, with all three cloud providers enjoying the full-scale adoption of new offerings and customers. The cloud computing industry is constantly innovating, in hopes that some new business models will offset the slowing growth of the hardware market. AWS and Microsoft have"

"Never have we needed help getting ahead so much. We are currently in a massive financial crisis and economic slump. Over the last decade, banks have given us money and charged interest. In return, we’ve racked up a big debt – in our income – that is beginning to take its toll. How do we solve the puzzle? To help you get out of the finance trap and earn a proper rate of return on your money, we’ve partnered with Financial Analyst Insight and McKinsey & Co. to lay out the options. 1. Profitability in Finance The first option is to earn a profitable rate of return on the money you earn and save. This means finding the best ways to earn a regular cash flow and investing it for long-term profit. 2. Invest in"

"Summary There are different kinds of quantitative finance analysts, like finance analysts, risk analysts, and trading analysts. There are hundreds of business opportunities for analysts, and companies should hire analysts for the overall benefit of the business. Different companies seek analysts for different skills. Their responsibilities could be as broad as interpreting analytical research results, reporting and analyzing numbers, or as specific as trading and analyzing financial data. All analytical analysts can either be finance analysts, risk analysts, or trading analysts. Businesses hire them with different jobs to make decisions. Generally, when organizations use analytical research reports and data,"

"As an economist, a financial analyst, and an analytics expert, I’ve spent the past 18 years tracking the performance of mutual funds and other investment vehicles that invested in financial institutions. A closer look at the performance of these funds shows that on average the rate of growth of the market portfolio declines as returns shrink. By contrast, mutual funds that only invest in capital markets – stocks and bonds and similar assets – have generally outperformed the broader market. This is partly because they outperform when markets are volatile and therefore their returns are relatively high. For example, among financial analysts, research that finds the market perform better on average under stress – that is, in periods of low volatility"

"Consider the following: “Investment research revenue is expected to more than double over the next five years, to $33.9 billion from $14.8 billion last year. Analysts are expecting revenue at the nation’s largest investment banks to rise 27 percent on average, to $4.3 billion, over the same period.” In case you missed the memo, investing analysts are going to earn huge dollars as banks build up trading operations. Yes, it’s true the buy side of the investing industry has not exactly performed spectacularly over the past two years. But the buying side of the investing business is not really about earnings or returns. The buy side of the investing business is about generating fees to the sell side analysts. There is little point in telling someone"

"Where’s the analysis? Having studied similar finance processes in other companies, and then implemented it into Cognizant, one thing is evident: simply finding data and analytics expertise isn’t enough. The problem lies with the finance team that’s hired and the level of awareness about analytics required. Here’s why. Clarity on the priorities To begin with, no finance professional can afford to worry about any “work over time,” or delays, in performance. They need to focus on performance, on the numbers, with absolute clarity. They need to develop relationships with analysts and business leaders. For that, they need to earn the right to ask challenging questions about the situation. They need to focus on analytics – on the analytics of performance. But the finance team doesn’t need to know any more about analytics than what they’re capable of. It can focus on the tasks required to determine how to improve the situation, with attention to improving the performance and the bottom line. And that’s it. Seeking guidance To ask questions in finance, and to do the analysis and research needed, you need a clear set of goals. What is the goal, both for the short term and the long term? Analytical skill, clarity on goals and clarity about how they are to be achieved, is the first step. At Cognizant, the analytical skills, research capabilities, the analytical tools, are all on par. It’s no different, of course, from any finance situation. Do you need a certain amount of analytical skills? What level is it for the finance team you’re recruiting for? Are you focused on metrics? If so, what are the metrics you’re evaluating, how do you measure and compare against them? Are you focused on maximizing margins? Which revenue lines do you prioritize? What are you looking for when you look at performance? What kind of analysis is required? We’ve established the skills and knowledge that are required, and now you can build your own analytics team. Photo Credit: BitM"

"This is the article originally published in Loyalsocks Could you save yourself thousands of dollars in finance costs? The difference between research and analytics might be huge. If you could shift your attention and research activities to the same analytical tools, then you could save yourself up to 20% of your finance costs. Analytical tools can help finance teams to make predictions about financial and industry trends. They can make predictions about the demand for products, the cash flow needed to operate a business, the interest rate and the return on investment of your stocks or bonds. Research can only give us a certain level of information about industry trends, and it can not predict the demand for those products, nor the cash flow and"

"Suppose you're a construction contractor in Charlotte. A contractor you know has just bought a building. You have a good idea what that building will be used for, and you want to earn a good profit on that property, because you already have the financing for it. Or how about a real estate investor in Charlotte? This investor decides to sell a property they bought earlier this year for a decent profit. You're a research analyst on the real estate side. This research results in a 15% purchase fee of the real estate transaction. Would you keep track of it and research it? How would you prepare for it? How would you derive insight from it? Would it make sense for you to present it to the client who you've worked with previously, and who now"

"Read also: 4 ways to use the right keywords to search for opportunities On the surface, it would seem that finance — an analytical discipline that obsesses over analysis of options, receipts, and mathematical equations — would be the opposite of profitable research. On the contrary, finance leads to financial success, and research is profitable. Understandably, analysts are often tasked with the vast majority of research. But those who believe that the research must always have a financial return are missing an important piece: Analysts actually earn their desired financial reward by finding insights that investors want. It’s no secret that companies across all industries are paying more attention to financial analyses. By bringing their"

"The income earned in finance was in the early 2000’s compared to analytical and data analytics was in the lower segment. There was a huge shift in the mid-2000’s which essentially pushed the income from finance towards analytics and the two more profitable lines. As analytics grew more rapidly than the other categories of analytics, analysts are becoming more and more important to achieving revenue in finance. As the division in finance where analysts are made usually earn less than in other divisions, the total amount of income earned in finance has declined over the last 10 years as they had to be paid less in their salary. This has resulted in the finance industry earning less over the past 10 years. Whilst analyzing and reporting data gives these analysts more and more responsibilities, their income tends to be relatively steady. Statistics show that the profit made by finance professionals who earn more than £25,000 per year in the United Kingdom (UK) was in the lower segment during 2013. This is largely due to the fact that with finance professionals earning more than £100,000 per year, their profitability drops to around 25% (source). The profit was, on average, slightly lower in the analysis and data analytics which earn on average more than £25,000. The highest grossing analysts earned on average around £90,000 in 2014. The lowest paid analysts earned about £34,500 (source) which is lower than the other, more highly paid, analysts. The trend seems to be that despite higher earning, there was a larger than average reduction in the total profit earned compared to last year. In the UK, the research provided by ONS was based on the analysis of individuals who earn more than £50,000. This research is fairly consistent with the case of Canada where the income earned in finance was in the mid-2000’s compared to analytical and data analytics was in the lower segment. Again, due to the fact that these analysts earn less, it is only due to the"

"In the future, the transfer of finance analytics to the business will need to be a catalyst to wider investments in analytics by both finance and analytics organisations. It will be more than the case that finance teams can simply enter analytics and then transfer their analyses into an analytic environment to analyse transactions. Finance organisations need to collaborate directly with analytics systems in order to realise real benefits. By collaborating in this manner, finance teams can provide real value to their analytics applications in the form of pre-analytics analytics as well as real analytics for analytics. While finance and analytics teams can provide real value in an analytic environment, the challenge is that finance and analytics"

"Generating high profits in research can be difficult and discouraging, especially if your analytical skills are lacking. One of the challenges in earning high returns is to maintain the attention of analysts when you have very little or no formal financial background. This fact is the reason that some well-known companies such as Google have been focusing on recruiting analytical talent. If you can prove your abilities and earn analyst credentials, you can use them to gain credibility with the big players. You can always attempt to earn this respect by showing that you can produce innovative strategies and create profitable financial models in your research. How can analytics improve productivity at finance organizations? Analytics can contribute to the overall financial management of firms. In most financial activities, the performance of each function is analysed. For instance, an investment analyst would analyse the costs incurred while making an investment decision, and then allocate an appropriate amount of funds to each research project. Research can be grouped into categories: valuation, portfolio, or fundamental research. Valuation and portfolio analysis should be conducted by financial analysts. Fundamental research is conducted by research scientists and analysts, and it can provide valuable data for investing. How can analytics help get a high return on investment? While other analysts spend their time performing manual processes, analytic processes can help to get to the bottom of the problem in a more efficient and profitable manner. The financial analysts can use quantitative analysis and implement appropriate models that give accurate forecasts. According to some analysts, it is important to generate forecasts within 3-4 months, since the markets can change very quickly. For instance, if the US market was in a bear market and the European market was in a bull market, then the analyst would look at the data for both markets, and decide whether"

"Last month, it was rumored the big financial firms were finally expecting profits to return and that Morgan Stanley was setting aside hundreds of millions to increase its own investment in the cash-gobbling, low-yielding securities market that, like any other capital market, can provide a solid financial return. These profits come as a major respite for Wall Street after years of grinding near-record volatility. They also come at the same time the banking industry is fretting about the growing threat of income losses in areas such as credit, as low interest rates and the implosion of major mortgage markets have pinched banking profits over the past few years. It's a welcome return to form, considering Wall Street took a relatively large"

"In the fall, Bob Daiber, the 55-year-old son of a former Illinois governor, launched his political career with a speech claiming the state was ""totally broke,"" lamenting the ""crippling financial waste"" in the legislature and pledging to revamp the state's tax system. ""We are overpaying for everything — for roads, for cars, for education, for health care,"" Daiber said in October during a speech to a group of finance professionals and analysts in Chicago's financial district. ""It is the wrong financial management, and it has to change."" If Daiber is successful in winning a seat in the Illinois statehouse next spring, it could cause significant swings in the makeup of state government and the makeup of the Illinois Republican Party. Daiber, who was a top adviser to Gov. Pat Quinn in the latter years of his tenure, is considered the favorite in the race for the party's gubernatorial nomination, and even before Quinn resigned, he established a connection with the party establishment. The political world was in shock when Quinn resigned in November after two years in office, but it turns out that the state's top officials can come out of that sort of situation just fine — at least financially. As a state legislator, Daiber earned an estimated salary of about $31,000 annually as well as about $4,000 in benefits, according to data obtained by Politifact Illinois through a Freedom of Information Act request. According to tax returns he filed in the late 1990s, Daiber earned roughly $11,000 a year and reported a mortgage, earning about $1,000 in interest. If Daiber gets elected governor, he would have an annual salary of roughly $175,000 — about $64,000 more than Quinn made. But Daiber would likely also earn a significant amount of money from his firm, Dynamic Public Finance. A company affiliated with Daiber, Dynamic Public Finance, was awarded a $330,000 consulting contract in September for the Illinois Finance Authority. At the time, Daiber boasted of how he was""

"Our economic machine is broken. We have lost our competitive edge. It’s true. We’re not leading the world in anything anymore. Our creativity and imagination have been sapped by ideology, vested interests, poor economic management and policy failure. Our economy is unable to generate strong growth and employment. Our research and development capabilities are low. Our savings rates are among the lowest in the world, meaning we have less capital to sustain higher investment rates. Our wage and labour productivity growth is stagnating. We’re not earning enough to maintain our savings rates. Our financial services have become the wild west. Our businesses, though, are extracting huge profit and earning huge profits. We earn about $9000 per worker every."