Jean Galea

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Commission-Free Stock Trading for European Investors

One of the major expenses with stock and bond investing is the fact that brokers take a commission or charge you every time you buy or sell securities. In the United States, we’ve already seen the rise of Robin Hood, which enables investors to buy and sell stocks for free. Europeans, on the other hand, have so far been stuck with the traditional stock brokers.

Luckily, this disparity is ending soon due to the rise of Freetrade, a zero-fee share dealing online platform that will be open to UK-based investors first, and will then be opening up to all European investors. They have already captured more than 14,000 users even before they launched, which just goes to show how much interest there is out there. You can also sign up to be one of the first users, it’s completely free.

Have you heard that old adage, “there is no such thing as a free lunch”? Surely, there is a catch with these free trading websites, right? Well, not really…

Today, securities are dematerialised in virtually all countries; they exist electronically, as 0s and 1s in the central securities depository. The internet and technologies based on it have made the clearing and execution of trades cost a fraction of what they used to. The US market and certain types of investors (e.g. institutional) benefit from that already.

Old school online brokers in the UK make a lot of profit. To put their profitability in context, Marks and Spencer’s net profit margin is 1.09%. EasyJet’s is 5.4%, while HSBC’s is at 3.84%. Facebook’s is a super high 41.03%. Meanwhile, the same ratio for Interactive Brokers and Hargreaves Lansdown is 39.99% and 52.81% respectively. Yes, HL is more profitable than FB. 😲

If we want to go deeper, it’s not just the trading commissions. Stockbrokers have various revenue streams. Still, guess whom that revenue “streams” from? *shakes fist in air*

What we can understand therefore is that there is a lot of room for cost-reduction for clients, and the stock brokers would still be profitable. Hence what Freetrade will do is offer a freemium services, where the basic buying and selling of stocks will be free, while there will be additional premium services that will support the business.

I’m really looking forward to the launching of this platform and have of course already signed up to be one of the first users.

Grab your invite for Freetrade

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Here’s How a Professional Padel Player’s Daily Routine Looks Like

Ever wondered how a padel professional splits his day? There is no one better to follow than the world champion for 14 years, Fernando Belasteguin.

In the video below, he shares his typical timetable:

07:15 – 08:00 Wake up & Breakfast

08:30 – 10:30 Physical Training

11:00 – 13:00 Padel Training, followed by stretching

13:30 -14:00 Back at home, lunch, siesta and the rest of the day with the kids

22:30 Bedtime

Interesting, he also emphasizes how important it is for him to get a good night’s sleep every single day. During the year when his first son was born, he was waking up during the night due to the baby’s crying, and he started to suffer from various injuries. Doctors advised him to wear ear plugs and that resulted in him getting much better sleep and less injuries. Of course, he also thanks his wife who is 100% supportive of his profession and takes care of the kids herself at night so that he can get a good night’s rest.

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Affiliate Income and EU MOSS VAT Treatment/Rules

A common question among affiliates in Europe concerns the VAT MOSS rules and how they apply to affiliate income.

If you are a business providing affiliate marketing services to another European registered company that has a VAT number, there is no change. Since both are companies and both have a VAT number, there is no VAT charged in this B2B transaction.

The major doubt arises when you have companies or freelancers who are below the threshold for VAT registration in countries like the UK, so they don’t have a VAT number. If you are providing affiliate services to these companies or freelancers, you will need to charge VAT to them.

This can be quite annoying as many affiliate systems automatically pay affiliates every month, and they don’t have functionality for MOSS VAT built-in. So what you will need to do is inform the company that you will be issuing a monthly invoice to them with the VAT added on top of the referral income they owe you. They should not have any problem with this arrangement since that is what the law necessitates. If you don’t invoice them and obtain payment, you will be liable to pay the VAT yourself, which is not a good situation.

Now the second question relates to what VAT rate to use when charging advertisers. The answer is that you should use the VAT rate of the country where the advertiser is based. Hence we are using the MOSS VAT rules because affiliate income is classified as an automated digital service.

Hence if you are a Spanish affiliate for a UK-based product seller, and this UK seller does not have a VAT number, you need to charge him UK VAT at the end of the month when you obtain your affiliate payout. Then, you will need to declare the amount collected on your MOSS statement.

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Computers, Consoles, Games and They How Shaped My Future

Note: Originally published in August 2016, republishing to cover the PlayStation 4 in September 2017.

Since early on in my childhood, I’ve had electronic toys and computers to play with. My parents were very avant-garde in this area, although none of them had any involvement in the technology sector. As I’m never short on ideas and interests to pursue, I’ve lately decided to dedicate one theme for side projects each month. This month’s project was gaming and retro computing.

The first step was to look back in my archives and try to remember all the computer games I played as well as the systems I owned over the years. Digging in my drawers and cupboards I managed to unearth most of them; luckily the vast majority are still in excellent condition.

Each machine or device I found took me on a trip back in time and I couldn’t resist switching them back on after so many years and spending some time on each. It’s amazing how skills can lie dormant in us for many years but can then be re-activated instantly once the appropriate trigger is pressed. As I switched on each console or game, all the commands and history of each game rushed back into my mind and it was like no time had passed at all. Pretty powerful and amazing stuff indeed.

That got me into a deeper mood as I reflected on the influence that these games and devices had on me while I was growing up. I’d say the most intensive of my gaming days was between the ages of 6-13.

To give some context I’m going to proceed in listing the various devices I used or had access to, as well as some of the best games for each. This is going to be a personal post but perhaps it will also rekindle some fond memories of others in my age group.

[Read more…]

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How to Get Unlimited WiFi on Time-restricted Connections

Picture this: you arrive at an awesome cafeteria and decide to sit down and do some work on your laptop. You buy a nice croissant and coffee and immediately connect your laptop to the WiFi connection.

After 25 minutes you finish your snack and start working, but alas, your session only lasts 5 minutes before the WiFi disconnects and you are notified that there is a 30 minute limit to the connection. There goes your work session!

How can we bypass this restriction?

All you need to do if you’re using an Apple laptop is to download a free application called LinkLiar. This application enables you to generate random MAC addresses and that will prevent the WiFi network for identifying you between sessions. Every time you generate a new MAC address using LinkLiar, you are effectively seen as a new user and given another 30 minutes (or whatever the time restriction is) to enjoy free WiFi.

This is a great tool to use in airports, where it is very common to have time restricted free WiFi, but it can also be used in cafes and restaurants or other areas with time restricted WiFi.

Of course, use your common sense and make sure that you are not disrupting other people by using this technique. It’s pretty harmless in airports, but hogging a table in a busy restaurant during lunchtime is not respectful. 

Jean Galea

Online Entrepreneur. Global Citizen. Padel Player.
Founder of WP Mayor & WP RSS Aggregator.

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