What Makes A Good Accountant?

Firstly, a good accountant will not just do the work that you ask them to do; a good accountant will go above and beyond that. For example, instead of just processing your financial statements, a good accountant will give you proactive advice regarding growing your business, or cutting back on a specific sector which is costing you more money than necessary, and even helping you determine your ROI. A good accountant will also provide a 'benchmarking' service - where they compare your business to another business in the same sector as yours - to show you how you can improve your business.
Basically, a good accountant will add value to your business, be it through saving you money, making you money, or even introducing you to some of their other clients; either through a networking event, or even just passing on names and numbers.
A good accountant will also always be available to give you advice. They will also not charge you for this service. A lot of accountants these days still charge by the hour; even for a 2 minute phone conversation!! A good accountant will also be working on your behalf 100% of the time.

A good accountant will tell you exactly when your paperwork needs to be in to avoid any fines, and, as long as you have fulfilled your part of the deal, will also take responsibility where due if you do incur fines. They will also notify you of any important deadlines, and even meet these on your behalf.
And finally, a good accountant will offer you advice on tax savings and business growth, even when you do not ask for it. The good accountant will take the initiative and help you wherever he/she can.

 Simply, and perhaps surprisingly put, economics is the study of scarcity. Resources are limited, and every society wants to figure out how to allocate its resources for maximum benefit. The field of economics serves in large part to help answer this resource allocation question. Economists study topics such as:

• How prices and quantities of items are determined in market economies
• How much value markets create for society
• How taxes and regulation affect economic value
• Why some goods and services are under-supplied in a market economy
• How firms compete and maximize profit
• How households decide what to consume, how much to save, and how much to work (or, more generally, how people respond to incentives)
• Why some economies grow faster than others
• What effect monetary and fiscal policy has on economic well-being
• How interest rates are determined

In order to fully understand what economics is, it’s important to also understand a bit about what economics isn’t. For example, economics and finance are related but separate fields, and it’s not an economist’s job to tell people what stocks and bonds they should be investing in. It is, on the other hand, an economist’s job to understand the relationship between interest rates and bond prices. In a similar fashion, many of the topics discussed in The Economist deal with politics and current events and are not specifically economic-related, despite the title of the publication.
Understanding what economists do and don’t study is important, since sometimes economists are called on to answer questions that they are not technically qualified to analyze, and this can have unsatisfactory results.

 When the stock market is showing its volatility, whether predominately up or down, it is easy to offer reasons the market is wrong.
A number of pundits and predictors make a decent living telling investors why the market is too high or too low.
They proffer that the market is overbought or oversold for this obvious reason or that less obvious reason.
The impression is these sages can set the market straight and get it on the right track.

They Are Wrong

There’s only one problem: These folks are always wrong. They may have significant data to support their position, including reams of historical charts and comparisons.
Here’s the problem with these pontifications restated: The market is always right.
No matter what you or anyone else thinks is should be, the market doesn’t really care. The market prices assets every minute of every day the markets are open and it is never wrong.
Here’s why: The price of anything, whether stocks, bonds or bananas is what a willing seller and a willing buyer agree on - no more and no less.

Price and Value

It is important to not confuse value and price. A stock may be valued much higher or lower than the price it sells for. However, that doesn’t necessarily change the price.
Value is a subjective term, while price is absolute.
This doesn’t mean investors should abandon their determinations of value, in fact, just the opposite.
It’s a safe bet that value investors are among the most successful over the long term (think Warren Buffett).
Value investors attempt to identify stocks that are being priced below the company’s value. We often say the market is incorrectly pricing these assets, but that is wrong.

Correct Way

The more correct way to describe the activities of value investors is they attempt to find assets trading below the true value of the company. Their strategy is to buy and hold the asset until market pricing rises to reflect the true value.
This does not mean the market was wrong in pricing the stock lower than what the investor believes is the true value.
It simply means that at that moment and given all the other factors that drive stock prices, this is what a willing seller and willing buyer agreed upon.
As we all know in volatile markets, that price may change second to second.
Investors are not particularly concerned with these fluctuations other than finding a window to jump in and buy.

Influence Price

There are many factors that influence stock prices. As crazy as it seems at times, the market is always right in finding that price where buyer and seller meet. Indeed, this is the primary function of any market: bringing buyers and sellers together. What price they agree upon is of no concern to the market.
Don’t confuse price and value. Traders (people who frequently buy and sell assets are only concerned with price.
However, investors with a long-term perspective are more interested in the value of the asset and if they can buy it at a discount.