Here I follow my two recent pieces on the capital goods statistic from the Manufacturers' Survey. What is the capital goods connection to the gross private domestic investments? I try to further develop my understanding of how capital goods data can be used to forecast and understand the behavior of US investments. For an excellent descriptive analysis of the recent capital goods trends please visit www.advisorperspectives.com (here).

In my previous article I reviewed the definitions of capital goods and related concepts (available here). Now it is time to elaborate on why capital goods data serve as an important economic indicator.

US Census Bureau has been providing the Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories, and Orders survey since 1957. Due to its monthly frequency and wide coverage, the report has become an invaluable source of statistical data for a plethora of users both in academia and business. While the data covers several aspects of business actions it is the New Orders part that is important for many forecasters. In particular, the new orders for capital goods serve as a crucial input for many researchers. So let's look closer and see why this happens.

Why do we need financial literacy? In fact, the answer to this question is obvious. We all know that any progress is based on knowledge, its development and use. It's the same with finance. Your financial progress is based on your financial knowledge, its development and the effective use of this knowledge.

As Albert Einstein said: “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. The one who understands this - earns, the one who does not understand - pays it". What is compound interest? “Difficult” does not mean that it is difficult to understand. Compound interest is the calculation of profit from an ever-growing capital, which takes into account both the originally invested amount and the interest on it accrued for previous periods.

Have you decided to start investing in securities? Opening a brokerage account is your first step. So, let's consider who brokers are, what a brokerage account is and how to open one. Private investors cannot directly work in the stock market. To get on it, you need to contact a broker and open a brokerage account. The brokers are a professional stock market participants who are licensed to conduct brokerage activities.