The rise of an asset management professional : Farrukh Kazmi

Farrukh Kazmi or the climb of an investment professional? We offer a wide range of financial services to individuals and business owners. We believe you will be better able to identify your goals and make sound decisions to help reach them by A&S providing our financial information. Please call us if you have any questions about our firm or the range of Investment services we provide. Our firm has a relationship with a variety of financial services companies, so if we don’t have a product or service, we know a group that does. One of the many benefits of working with A&S Asset Management is our ability to provide clear, easily understood explanations of financial markets, financial ideas, and where you fit within them. The personalized program that we can provide is a road map to working toward a more secure financial future.

A cash bank deposit is the simplest, most easily understandable investment asset—and the safest. Not only does it give investors precise knowledge of the interest they’ll earn, but it also guarantees they’ll get their capital back. On the downside, the interest earned from cash stored away in a savings account seldom beats inflation and loses around 2% a year. Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have become quite popular since their introduction back in the mid-1990s. ETFs are similar to mutual funds, but they trade throughout the day, on a stock exchange, just like shares of stock. Unlike mutual funds, which are valued at the end of each trading day, ETF values fluctuate intra-day.

Whether it is the tensions in the Middle East, Africa or elsewhere, it is becoming increasingly obvious that political and economic uncertainty is another reality of our modern economic environment. For this reason, investors typically look at gold as a safe haven during times of political and economic uncertainty. Why is this? Well, history is full of collapsing empires, political coups, and the collapse of currencies. During such times, investors who held gold were able to successfully protect their wealth and, in some cases, even use the commodity to escape from all of the turmoil. Consequently, whenever there are news events that hint at some type of global economic uncertainty, investors will often buy gold as a safe haven.

Farrukh Kazmi is the founder of A&S Asset Management, I am committed to helping people achieve financial freedom by bringing Wall Street experience to the local investor.

Financial advisors may work in independent practices or part of a firm or financial institution. All advisors who work with the public must have a current Series 65 License. The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) is a good place to start your search for help. A fee-based structure can be hourly, project, retainer or a flat ongoing amount that is derived from the percentage of assets being managed; usually, the greater the assets, the lower the percentage. Commission-based means the advisor charges a straight commission every time a transaction occurs or a financial product is purchased.

An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a collection of securities—such as stocks—that tracks an underlying index. The best-known example is the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY), which tracks the S&P 500 Index. ETFs can contain many types of investments, including stocks, commodities, bonds, or a mixture of investment types. An exchange-traded fund is a marketable security, meaning it has an associated price that allows it to be easily bought and sold. An ETF is called an exchange-traded fund since it’s traded on an exchange just like stocks. The price of an ETF’s shares will change throughout the trading day as the shares are bought and sold on the market. This is unlike mutual funds, which are not traded on an exchange, and trade only once per day after the markets close.

All of our brokerage accounts are held and available for viewing at National Financial Services, a Fidelity Investments Company. Registered Representative of and securities offered through Berthel Fisher & Company Financial Services, Inc. (BFCFS). Member FINRA/SIPC. A&S Asset Management and BFCFS are independent entities. Find more information at Farrukh Kazmi.

Much of the supply of gold in the market since the 1990s has come from sales of gold bullion from the vaults of global central banks. This selling by global central banks slowed greatly in 2008. At the same time, production of new gold from mines had been declining since 2000. According to BullionVault.com, annual gold-mining output fell from 2,573 metric tons in 2000 to 2,444 metric tons in 2007 (however, according to Goldsheetlinks.com, gold saw a rebound in production with output hitting nearly 2,700 metric tons in 2011.) It can take from five to 10 years to bring a new mine into production. As a general rule, reduction in the supply of gold increases gold prices.