Measuring Bank Performance

Bank has different business than other company. They are selling and buying money. Therefore, measuring bank performance is different from measuring other company. Things you should know when checking bank performance are:
1. Return on Equity (ROE) and Return on Asset (ROA). Just like other company, you can check these financial ratios to find out whether they are giving enough return or not. Always compare your finding with equal bank in size and business.
2. Net Interest Margin (NIM), measures how large is the spread between interest revenues and interest cost. Find banks with high NIM.
3. Loan to Deposit Ratio (LDR), measures how much loan have the bank gave compared to the deposit it receives. Higher LDR means that the bank is good at distributing the deposit it receives through loan. Loan is the source of income for the bank. More loans given usually mean more revenue.
4. Non Performing Loan (NPL) is loans that are not paid. High NPL means that many of its loans are not paid, causing lower interest revenue. These troubled loans can be handled through making loan-loss provision.
5. Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) is capital requirements for facing bank’s credit, market, and operational risk. According to Basel II, the CAR must be no lower than 8%.

Stock investing basic

Stock

Stock is a an ownership of a company. A person or organization that holds at least a partial share of stock is called a shareholder. The aggregate value of a corporation's issued shares is called market capitalization (number of issued share * stock price).

Common stock and prefered stock
Common stock, also referred to as common or ordinary shares, are the most usual and commonly held form of stock in a corporation. The other type of shares that the public can hold in a corporation is known as prefered stock. Common stock typically has voting rights in corporate decision matters, though perhaps different rights from preferred stock. Dividends (profit sharing) paid to the stockholders must be paid to preferred shares before being paid to common stock shareholders. Preferred stock have priority over common stock in the distribution of dividends and assets. Most preferred shares provide no votings right in corporate decision matters.

Why company sell stock

The owners of a company may want additional capital within the company, so they sell stock.

Stock Trading
A stock exhange is an organization that provides a marketplace for either physical or virtual trading stocks, bonds and warrants and other financial products where investors may buy and sell shares of a wide range of companies. Investor will buy stocks from stock brokers.
A stock broker is a qualified and regulated professional who buys and sells shares and other securities through market makers on behalf of investors. Before you invest in stock, you must before choose your stock broker who act as the “middleman” between you and the company you want to invest. Choosing your stock broker is an important task before you invest in stock. Choosing the wrong broker can lower your return or even wipe out your returns because of their commission. Besides commission, there are also other important things to consider, like their service.You should choose your stock broker based on your condition, like how much money do you have, what kind of instrument do you want to play with, how frequent do you trade, and how much help do you need. Buy looking at those condition you should be able to choose your stock broker. If you do not need help, don’t go with the broker which charge high commission but with good market research and excellent advice. If you need a lot of advice and lots of money, choose the broker who has full service like market research, advice, and rumors.