• By Serge Narkevich

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).

• By Serge Narkevich

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.

• By Serge Narkevich

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.

• By Rachel Snowden

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.

• By Rachel Snowden

Exchange-traded funds have recently become an increasingly popular financial instrument used by both private investors and institutional investors. Let's look at what an exchange-traded fund is and how it works.

• By Lena Shadrina

Of particular interest to investors, shareholders and creditors of any company is the return on capital. Return on equity is calculated using special coefficients. There are three basic return on equity ratios. Let's look at how they are calculated and how to interpret the results.

• By Lena Shadrina

Return on sales can be analyzed using three basic ratios, such as Gross Profit Margin, Operating Profit Margin (Return on Sales), and Net Profit Margin. Each of these ratios reflects the share of profit in revenue, after deducting certain catheories of costs from revenue.