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Sugar is not a grain, or a meat commodity – it is regarded as a soft commodity in much the same way as lumber, cocoa, coffee, orange juice and cotton are. Sugar is primarily traded on the ICE exchange (Intercontinental Exchange) and it has the following ticker symbol: SB. However, sugar is also traded on other exchanges around the world, including the Zhengzou Commodity Exchange (CZCE), the National Commodity Exchange Limited (NCEL), the Brazilian Mercantile and Futures Exchange (BF&M), the National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), and the Kansai Commodities Exchange (KEX).

Each contract size for sugar is 50 long tonnes or 112,000 pounds. Sugar is delivered in raw sugar cane with 96° of polarization. Sugar contracts are traded in the following months: January, March, May, July and October from Monday through Friday 2:30 am through 3:15 pm Eastern Standard Time. The price of sugar is quoted at $0.0001 cents per pound, and the tick size is 0.01. Traders must meet specific margin requirements to trade sugar as this determines how much outlay is needed for each contract size.

For example a hypothetical sugar futures contract could take the following format: SB15F@13.12 means that the Sugar Contract for 2015 January is trading at $0.1312 per pound. This is precisely the type of format that a sugar trader would purchase a contract. When you are ready to trade sugar contracts on the ICE, the margin requirement is 12%. In the preceding example, the contract size of 112,000 pounds of sugar would cost a trader $14,672. With a 12% margin upfront, the amount needed to make the trade is $1,760.64.

Understanding How Profits are generated with Sugar

For every $0.0001 move in the price of sugar, the total price move for the contract is $11.20. Profits in sugar contracts are easily determined by the difference between the exit price and the contract price. The result is then simply multiplied by $11.20. Presently, the price of sugar is $11.57. The price of sugar is near its 5 year low figure, since it was trading close to $35 in 2011. The price of sugar has consistently declined over the past five years. Prior to the 2011 sugar price surge, trading sugar was well beneath $30, and in fact between late 2006 and 2008 was hovering around the $10 range.

Sugar is primarily available in the form of honey, Maple syrup, sugar beet and sugar cane. Its distinctive characteristic is that it is sweet and this carbohydrate is an instant pick me up by being able to generate rapid energy for the user. The refined form of sugar is white sugar and it comes from sugar beets and sugar cane. Some 78% of global production in sugar comes from sugar cane. This is why it is imperative to follow news updates regarding weather phenomena that impact upon sugarcane production. Shortages of sugar cane lead to price rises in sugar, depending of course on demand and sugar inventories.

The world’s major producers of sugar include Brazil and India, followed by the European Union. What is particularly interesting about this particular commodity is that the majority of sugar is consumed in the country of its production. This is in stark contrast to many other agricultural commodities such as wheat, corn, soy beans, red meat etc. Many countries export the vast majority of their agricultural produce and soft commodities.

Determinants of the Sugar Price

Depending on which country or region we were talking about, demand for sugar will vary considerably. Western societies are moving away from sugar-saturated diets, in favour of sugar substituted diets. This trend is likely to continue as concerns grow about the impact of consuming too much sugar on the general health and well-being of society.

Sugar substitutes are now widely used across the US and Canada, with Europe close in tow. Some of the most pressing concerns with regards to sugar consumption are obesity, diabetes, tooth decay and the like. Even with declining preferences for sugar, the US remains a major consumer of world sugar.

The price of sugar is not free of market manipulation. In the US and many other countries, there are measures in place to protect producers by maintaining artificially high prices. This has the effect of causing consumers to look at alternatives. For example, many food companies are now turning to corn syrup as a substitute sugar. There are growing calls from sugar beet producers and sugar cane producers for a free-market system vis-a-vis sugar prices.

Of course an important determinant of the price of sugar is the quantity of sugar beets and sugar cane. As mentioned, the more abundant these commodities are, the lower the sugar price will be, all things being equal. Adverse weather has a detrimental effect on the production of these crops. Things like frost damage, excessive rains and flooding, droughts and other negative weather phenomena reduce the crop supply and raise the price of sugar on the markets.

It is clear that tariffs and subsidies are widely used to prop up the sugar markets around the world. Nobody knows quite what the real price of sugar should be, since there is so much artificial maintenance of market prices. In truth, the price of sugar may well be substantially less than what it presently is, but the clearest indicators yet of the price of sugar are likely found in things like export numbers, domestic consumption and society’s changing attitudes towards processed sugar.

Take a seat

The stock market can be a confusing place for a newbie. While it’s true that you learn as you go along, you need to come into trading having some basic knowledge of how the market runs and how to play it. At the very least, you should be able to define some common terms so that your investment portfolio manager doesn’t have to speak in a certain way to you…if you get what I mean.

So this is a simple guide into first time investing with all the fancy terminology and great tips. You certainly won’t become a billionaire by sticking to this simple guide but you certainly won’t lose your hard-earned money, and that’s a pretty good deal, right?

Basic terminology

Stocks and funds are not the same thing. A stock is a share in a company that you can buy, hold and sell in the market or privately. A mutual fund consist individual investors buying into different companies together. It is managed by a team of professionals.

If you don’t want to manage your investment, then a mutual fund may be the way to go but then you could also hire a certified financial planner to manage your individual stocks, at a cost of course.

Trading and investing are also slightly different terms. Trading refers to the actual and frequent buying and selling of stocks or funds. Investing, on the other hand, has to do with a long-term approach so the movement of stocks or funds is not as frequent.

Have a plan

No one has money to waste in stocks so you need to have a clear plan going in. You need a CEO and a CFO for the planning and budgeting respectively. This doesn’t mean you should hire people. The point here is to emphasize the need for a vision and a plan as well as a budget and more importantly a reserve fund, in cash, to take care of any emergencies. The reserve fund will help you not have to sell the investment before time, or worse, get into more debt.

Get the capital

Part of plan is to know what you are going to invest i.e. where the cash is coming from. Saving may take too long to make the kind of investment you are thinking about so consider using your 401(K). Most employers have it and it’s pretty easy to have it as your investment capital. Some companies even have ‘classes’ over lunch explaining how it works and would even match your investment dollar for dollar. If you start early, you could have the retirement of your dreams!

Set up a brokerage account

You will need to get a brokerage account with a credible, licensed firm that will conduct your trading and manage your account for you. This is not for free of course, so you will be funding this account. The money will be in the cash portion of the account and used to settle orders. Stocks bought and commissions are debited from this cash, while stocks sold, interest and dividends are credit here as well (which you can withdraw).

Now you’re ready to start the business of buying and selling; and that’s a whole other class. Good luck!

Real estate investing can provide benefits of monthly cash flow, equity growth, appreciation. Many investors believe that you have to have sufficient money to invest in a property. However it’s always not the case. In some situations, the investor avoiding any further complications and abundant money goes for full cash payment for the property. A clever group would choose conventional mortgage where 20% down payment is required which may extend to 25-30% according to the property dealers in Delhi. The rest is paid through house loans where a minimum interest rate is charged. The mortgage loans can be from banks, from brokers or from credit unions. Though in most of the cases the real estate brokers in Delhi acquire the money from some other governmental institution or any other source but the bank or the credit unions can provide the entire sum from their own pocket and hence are called portfolio lenders. Their loans are more flexible to the investor. Another option for financing in a real estate investment is through hard money i.e. money obtained from any private institution or individuals. This money can be obtained without any income verification and credit history checking but it costs a higher interest on loans and high fees for obtaining the loan. The hard money can be obtained within days and thus if there is immediate requirement of cash inflow, hard lenders are the only option available to the investors.

A few property dealers in Delhi are Anushree Realtors, Absolute Solutions, North India Realty and Atul Mishra and associates. A limited number of specifically designed shops lying next to the bustling Noida metro station are provided by the real estate brokers in Delhi. These air conditioned shops of different sizes are collaborated to form a mall in future where all types of goods would be available. This mall would have certain advantages such as Radisson hotel, Golf course and Kalindi Kunj Bridge in the near vicinity.

The Narang Property dealers in Delhi provide access to certain properties for the customers. A property located in Vikaspuri has 3 bedroom apartment costing about 1 crore. There are 3 bathrooms and 2 balconies with Rs 8,900 per square feet. Another property shown by the real estate brokers in Delhi is the 2BHK flat in Vikaspuri costing 65 lakhs with 2 bathrooms but no balcony.

The real estate brokers in Delhi provide access to buyers in the Gulshan Bellina in sector 16 of greater Noida. 2BHK apartments with 1100square feet of total carpet area available at a price of 35 lakhs whereas 3BHK flats with carpet area extending from 1300 to 1750 square feet at a price of 42 to 52 lakhs. The general amenities available are jogging park, basketball court, kids play area, Aerobic centre; massage room, unisex parlour (AC), and wheel chairs for sick or disabled member of the co-operative. The best facility is its 24*7 security customer care centre team guarding the house.

In a sharp contrast with your domestic bank accounts, your offshore banking service will provide you with the option of choosing currencies to be held in your accounts. It’s really a valuable feature for all your offshore accounts as it provides you with the option of maintaining funds in a different currency than your domestic one. It’s of great help when the domestic currency is likely to get depreciated. It’s important for you to identify the factors that drive exchange rates. You must also understand the effects of maintaining your account with various currencies. Your deposits may yield considerable interest when you pick certain currencies for holding currencies. It might even contribute towards foreign tax liability. Depending on exchange rates and fee structure, you might need to bear the expense of exchanging currencies for making withdrawals and deposits.

Depositing with your Offshore Bank

International wire transfers are very effective in funding offshore bank accounts. Systems that make it easier for you to perform free electronic fund transfers through domestic banks prevent international money transfers. Sending or receiving funds compel you to pay your banks for international wire transfers. In comparison, it seems much simpler to opt for a wire transfer. Banks charge different amounts for wire transfers; that’s why it’s important for you to check out various deals. You have only a few good alternatives. Jurisdictions in foreign countries don’t allow you to accept domestic checks. It’s not a practical idea to carry funds on your own.

Withdrawing from your Offshore Account

In order to turn their services more convenient to users, a number of options to withdraw funds have been introduced by offshore banks. You may be allowed to access funds worldwide by any offshore banking concern that provides you with an ATM or debit card. You might need to bear a certain amount as fees for using international ATMs. That’s why it is essential for you to check out fees before opting for this method. These fees may even be minimized when you withdraw bigger amounts of cash for a single time.

Checking accounts are even allowed by a few offshore banks. A good number of customers don’t prefer this method as it demands a high degree of confidentiality. When you draw checks on foreign accounts, you may experience certain problems regarding their acceptance at foreign outlets.

You may consider using two accounts simultaneously – one could be your domestic account and the other one could be the offshore one. Offshore banking funds worth higher amounts can thus be transferred to your domestic account, so that you may access them easily. By following this method, you may actually ensure more security and privacy besides availing the convenience of services offered by local banks.

Generally it is hard to upgrade from a 1 BHK apartment to a higher BHK apartment but these days due to availability of real estate portals and real estate agents you can easily look for a 2 BHK apartment. Upgrading takes up a lot of energy and gives lot of stress and tension. These types of situations only come up at certain times in life and people are totally clueless about it. Modifying your house ordinarily happens when your family is extended or when you need more room for your storage or simply when you have some extra money to splurge on yourself and your family. Going from a 1 BHK to a 2 BHK will mostly be double the expenditure than the first one. As we all can imagine by the name only that from 1 Bedroom to 2 bedrooms you will have more space to keep all your things but there will be a rise in the costs that will take to maintain the house or the additional room. If you are in the search for a 2 BHK flat for rent in Kolkata or any other city then you can easily look for one on the real estate portal.

Here are some of the things that will increase your cost if you upgrade from a 1 BHK to 2 BHK:

• Cost of the house: if you are buying a new house completely then that’s going to cost you double just because you are asking for an additional room. The rates for 2 BHK apartments are nearly touching the sky because of the high demand for them. Hence it extremely hard to find a good 2 BHK for rent in Kolkata or 2 BHK on rent in Mumbai. The other reason being that these cities come off as the prime cities and hence you will have difficulty finding apartments but if you keep a careful eye on the apartments and all the changes in the city then you are sure to succeed.

• Maintenance: it doesn’t matter if you have a servant who does all your house work or if you do it yourself, the efforts to maintain a 2 BHK house is going to be enormous and hence even if you don’t have a house servant you will eventually have one. The home servants/maids ask for more money when there are more rooms in the houses and hence the salary that you paid to your previous servant won’t be what you will be paying to your new one. Moreover doing a normal pest control of your house and other things will also cost you more.

• Security: now that you have 2 rooms the security of the second room will be an additional cost for you. If you believe in fitting CCTV cameras at your place or just normal safety measure then you will pay extra for that.

• Decorating the room: decorating the room and adding furniture to the room is sure to be an additional cost to you. Also looking after the extra room will be asking for some money.

Hence if you are planning to upgrade to a 2 BHK house then be sure that you know all this points and you take decision only after evaluating and thinking over each and every point. If the upgrading is done with lot of thought then you might be able to eliminate some cost. Hence purchasing a permanent house try living in a 2 BHK flat for rent in Kolkata.