8. Forex.

The Foreign Exchange Markets, where people buy and sell foreign currency, also known as the "Forex", is the largest financial market in the world.

Currencies are traded in pairs, for example Euro/US Dollar or US Dollar/Japanese Yen.

Foreign money held by a government to support its own currency. About 5% of daily turnover is from companies and governments that buy or sell products and services in a foreign country or must convert profits made in foreign into their domestic currency. The other 95% is trading for profit, or speculation.

For speculators, the best trading opportunities are with the most commonly traded currencies, called "the Majors". Today, more than 85% of all daily transactions involve trading of the Majors, which include the US Dollar, Japanese Yen, Euro, British Pound, Swiss Franc, Canadian Dollar and Australian Dollar.

Forex trading begins each day in Sydney, and moves around the globe. It's a 24-hour market, and investors can respond to currency fluctuations caused by economic, social and political events at the time they occur - day or night.

The Forex market is considered an over the counter (OTC) or interbank market, because transactions are conducted between two counterparts over the telephone or via an electronic network.

9. Countertrade

Countertrade means exchanging goods or services which are paid for, in whole or part, with other goods or services, rather than with money. A monetary valuation can however be used in counter trade for accounting purposes.

Countertrade also occurs when countries have not sufficient hard currency, or when other types of market trade are impossible.

In any real economy, bartering occurs all the time, even if it is not the main means to purchase goods and services. The volume of countertrade is growing. A large part of countertrade has involved sales of military equipment.

More than 80 countries nowadays regularly use or require countertrade exchanges. Officials of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) organization claimed that countertrade accounts for around 5% of the world trade, but some researches even consider it to be closer to 30%.

10. Types of businesses.

Businesses determine much of how the economy operates. Main types of business in nowadays economic world are sole proprietorships, partnerships, public and private limited companies (corporations in the USA), and cooperatives.

Many entrepreneurs start their own business as sole proprietorships. A sole proprietorship is a one –owner business. The advantages of sole proprietorships: they are easy to organize, decisions can be made quickly, owners receive all profits. But sometimes a sole proprietor may have difficult problems in starting a business, because one person has limited resources to start and operate a business.

A sole proprietorship also must deal with the problem of unlimited liability. If the business fails, the owner must pay the debts and his personal property can be taken to pay the debts.

To increase their chances of success entrepreneurs choose partnership, it is an association of two or more people in order to run a business. Partnerships are easy to organize, decisions can be made quickly, profits are shared with only a few people. Owners are responsible for success or failure of the business and they have equal authority in management.

Liability is unlimited. Partnerships also have limits life. If one partner dies, the business must be dissolved.

The majority of businesses are limited companies (US - corporations), in which investors are only liable for the amount of capital they have invested. If a limited company goes bankrupt, its assets do not cover the debts, they remain unpaid.

Often one person does not have enough money to start a business. Combining the resources of a number of people and forming a corporation is a way to raise the large amount of money needed.

Advantages: a corporation has limited liability, so if the corporation goes bankrupt , the stockholders lose only the value of their stock. Corporations have the ability to raise very large amounts of money and they use this money to change models, replace equipment, and build new factories. Also they can raise money by selling bonds and stocks. Corporation has an unlimited life and ownership transfer is easy.

But there are some disadvantages: complex forms must be filed with the state or federal government, a corporation's profits are subject to double taxation, in corporations with many owners or stockholders the individual share of profits in the form of dividends is small, a corporation's owners do not directly control the business.

A cooperative is an organization that is owned or managed by the people by the people who use its services or by the people who work there.

11. Private company: the structure of the authorized capital, Risk of a takeover. (Harper&Grant ltd. overcomes the risk of a take-over and ensures the favorable redistribution of the share capital).

A private company can be formed by two or more people. They sign a Memorandum of Association, stating the number of shares they agree to take.

The authorised capital consists of market value of all the shares issued.

If any person owns 51 per cent of the shares he would have a controlling interest, and would be in a good position to take over the firm.

H&G is a private company. The balance of power was upset after Ambrose Harper’s death. Wentworths, a large and successful firm, owning 10 per cent of H&G shares, had an opportunity of baying some of the shares belonging to Harper. If Wentworths owned 51 per cent of the shares they would be in a good position to take over H&G, making it a fully owned subsidiary.

Hector Grant and Peter Wiles' mother has 20% of the capital each. Ambrose Harper - 50 %, 10% in the hands of Wentworth. Hector Grant does not want Alfred Wentworth to own the controlling interest of the shares. He raised a personal short-term loan to outvote Wentworth.