Must have app – Feelca B&W

Feelca B&W  released on October 14, 2016,  by IDEAMP Co., Ltd. on the AppStore is a beautiful app that helps create beautiful black and white pictures. The app is very easy to use and has a beautiful UX design.

The app developer has created this app so users can be able to take beautiful pictures like the famous photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson by choosing between one of the two exposures offered: 24 or 36.

I have been using the app since the release date. I don’t regret the 1.39$ CAD I paid. In fact, I personally believe they should charge more for the app.

I recommend every iOS user to download the app, especially if you are interested in photography.

Here are some pictures I took with the app.

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Book Review: Investment 101 by Michele Cagan​

Investing 101 by Michelle Cagan is a book for the newcomer in the vast world of investing.

The book accomplishes on what it sets out to accomplish by giving a good overview of every branch in investment such as stock, bonds, ETFs, Mutual funds, currency commodity trading and real estate.

The author, Michele Cagan, has worked in several fields involving money such as financial planner, accountant, and tax advisor. She also wrote several books on personal finance and business.

I very much liked the book. I had some knowledge about investing prior but reading the book probably gave me a better understanding than the average person. I was still able to learn a lot which is never a bad thing. I have expanded my knowledge about the stock market and learned about new ways to invest especially in the bonds market.

The book has a dry and academic tone but is very easy to understand and not boring at least for me and the author doesn’t implement fancy words. It is written for the new learner with no or very little knowledge about personal finance.

I enjoyed the last two chapter where the author writes about how a person can build a profitable portfolio built according to the person’s needs. I also loved the chapter where the author introduces successful investors and gives their advice to the reader. Finally, I loved the part where the author gives an exercise where you can learn about your risk tolerance which is an important aspect of investing.

I did not enjoy parts where the author talked about mutual funds, currency, and commodity trading because I have no interest in this type of investment.

Event though I did not enjoy some parts of the book, I would change nothing about it. I believe that every part is important because every person has different ways to invest and all of them are important even if all these branches are not meant for everyone.

I would recommend this book to everyone because I truly believe everyone should learn the basics of investing.

Automate aspect of your life with IFTTT

The new App Icon

IFTTT is a free internet service created in 2010 that helps automate aspects of your life without doing the same boring step every time. I have been using IFTTT for a couple of years, it saved me time and helped me do things that I forget in my day to day life.

IFTTT is an abbreviation of “If This Then That”. A couple of days ago, IFTTT updated their app with a beautiful design, new app icon which is much better, simple and beautiful.The update brought the redesign of the Recipes (connected 2 services together)but with way more things to do. They are called Applets, it is easy to use ,manage, add new service and discover new Applets.

To add a new Applets, it is quite simple, you can search already made Applets or create your own.

To create a new Applets you just need to follow this simple step:

Firstly, go to the My Applets tabs on your iOS device ( I believe it is the same for Android devices) and tap the plus sign to the right top corner.

Secondly, by tapping you are granted with the “If This Then That” statement. For this example, I will create an Applets for if I post a new article for this website to tweet the URL. By tapping “this” I will choose the service WordPress and click on any new post.

Finally, I will click on “that” and chose Twitter and then tap post a tweet and then tap on the finish button and know I will never need to tweet the URL of any new post on this website. The app will do it for me and no need to worry no more.

One of the most useful Applets for me is the weather Applets.It sends me a notification every day at 7am for the weather. This is a quite simple Applets. There are Applets that will send you a notification on your phone if it will rain so that you don’t forget to bring an umbrella. No worry to open the weather app again to see the weather or to see if it will rain or not.

Another useful Applet for me is the Stock Applet. With the new update, I don’t need to open my stock app to see the closing price of the stock that I follow. No more waiting for the Stock app to open load and then see the closing price of a stock that I follow. With this Applet, I do nothing and I get the notification on my phone.

For me, IFTTT app is a must and everyone should install it. It will help with day to day use and for the things that need a particular step that you forget to do or don’t want to do.

Best game – Mekorama

Mekorama is not only the best puzzle game on iOS, it is the best game on any mobile device that I have used. The app is extremely well done with beautiful animation and the gameplay is awesome. Mekorame is better than Monument Valley, which is an awesome puzzle game, for a couple of reasons. The game has more levels than Monument Valley. You can import levels created by other people from the web and you can create your own level.

I love how the creator has implanted the in-app purchases. The game is free on the AppStore and the Google Play. Though, if you want to support the creator, which you should because it is the best game on any handheld device, you can pay what you want by choosing one of the six prices that are offered. This in-app purchases also unlocks hits for all 50 levels that are build in the game.

Mekorama will be a game that will stay on my home screen for a long time and I am curious what Martin Magni‘s next project will be.

Bombardier, my second experience in the stock market

After a major loss with my first experience in the stock market, I was in the search for a company that I knew how they make their money in general. I have decided on the 11th of November to buy 100 shares of Bombardier (BBD-B.TO).Bombardier is an aerospace and transportation company. Their headquarter is in Montreal, Quebec.

Before I bought any stock of Bombardier, I knew they were struggling as a company with the C Series Jet. Despite this, I had an optimistic view about the company and it is a quite popular company with a big impact in history here in Quebec.

Source: Bombardier

As time passed, my stake at Bombardier grew, I had 850 shares at one point in time. Last week, I sold 750 of my shares with a positive return, to diversify my portfolio. So my investments are not settled only to one company. If it was not the diversification of my portfolio I would’ve never sold my shares for a long time because I believe it is a good long term investment. I also think the company will perform better with the help of the government of Quebec who Invested $1 billion to help the company and from Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec‘s help.

Bombardier stocks decline when Boeing won the contracte against Bombardier.

Boeing stocks raise upon the winning of the contract.

 

With this investment, I have learned that airplane companies quite depend on airline companies. If an airplane manufacturer wins a contract against its competition, the stock of the airplanes manufacturers will rise. For example, on January 21st, the news came that Boeing (BA) won a contract against Bombardier for United Airlines with a decline of Bombardier’s stock by around 16% and Boeing stock increase by 5%. I think that airline companies influence quite a lot for airplane manufactured companies. Every time, when Bombardier loses a contract their stock decreases especially when their C Series Jet is involved.

Compared to my first encounter with the stock market, I was very satisfied with the purchase of Bombardier’s stock and I hope it will stay in my portfolio for a long time. I also hope Bombardier will perform better so the company gets out of any struggle and participate to the growth of the economy of Quebec and Canada. During this week,  I have increased my steak in Bombardier.

Stock App – Yahoo! Finance

After using several Stock apps for the couples of months, I found Yahoo! Finance to be the best stock app in the App Store. Yahoo! Finance is better than Stock Tracker which is one of the top stock market apps on the App Store. Yahoo! Finance has a better design than Stock Tracker which is ugly and a better design than Apple own stock app, by the way, iOS native stocks app is powered by Yahoo! Finance. Yahoo! Finance is also better than Stock Touch which is a paid app in the App Store because it takes less time to get the information of a company compared to Stock Touch.

The app is divided into three sections. The first one is watchlist where you can track the stock price of companies that are in the NYSE and NASDAQ in real time and the price of a company listed on the TSX with a delay of a couple of minutes. I don’t know if there is a delay for the other major stock exchanges in the app. You can also add in this section you hold in the app to track your daily gains and your total gains. To add your holding it’s quite simple, just up the price you paid, the numbers of share you own and your trade date.You can also have different watch lists and you can rename them whatever you want to be more efficient. Under the watchlist table, there is news about all companies you follow.

Every company that is listed have their own page with a graph to see the price through time, the company history and all the information such as previously closed, open, low, high, market cap and mush more. They also have a newsfeed for the company coming from different media companies.

In the news section, you have news aggregating from differents website such as Yahoo! Finance, Reuters, Business Insider, CNBS, The Motley Fool and mush more. I don’t personally use this part of the app because I read the news about the company I follow on the page or in the watchlist section. You kind also find adds thought the app where they are news section. They are not that annoying compared to other stock apps.

In the market section, there is 3 sections for all the major market (US, Europe, Asia) and an overview of all the market moves, top gainers, top losers, bonds, currencies, commodities, mutual fund and EFTs for all tree market. In this compartment, I come to see mostly the market movers, top gainers, top losers.

Yahoo! Finance is the best stock app because it has a beautiful design with beautiful graphs, animation, a nice font. Yahoo! Finance compare to other app has a life it has colors! It makes you want’s to check the stock market more often. It is easier to use, it has less crap than the competition. Yahoo! Finance, is the best app in the App Store. The only thing that I would like to change is to bring the real-time price for companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

My first experience in the stock market

My first stock purchase was on November 9th 2015. I was in my school cafeteria during my break. I have just gotten my Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) from the bank and I was able to buy and sell stock. I was sitting in the back of the cafeteria surfing the web when my friend came and sat with me. He told me that he and his brother (who has more experience than me) bought a couple of hundred shares of a company. I asked what was the company and he told me Nobilis Health Corp. (NHC.TO). He started to compliment the company by telling me that the company had potential to make money and it was a good investment. After listening about the benefits of owning NHC.TO stocks, I decided to do as they did because, compared to me, his brother had more experience in the stock market. Therefore, I decided to buy 35 shares at 5,02$ a share of NHC.TO. It was all that I could afford at the time. I did not do any research and I had no information about the company. Until now, I thought Nobilis was a pharmaceutical company. During the writing of this post, I googled and learned that it is not a pharmaceutical company, but a medical company that owns and manages ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) and surgical hospitals in the United States. After two weeks of owning the stock, I decided to sell the shares of the company at about 48 % less than my book value because I had no idea how the company made money. Plus, the prices of the shares were constantly falling everyday. Until the April 14th, the price never came back at 5,02$.

After this experience, I decided that I will not invest in the healthcare sector because I have no knowledge about it. I told myself to do my own research about every company and to learn how they makes money. I promised myself to invest in a company that I use or that I am familiar with. Therefore, I will be investing for medium to long term results instead of short team results.

Welcome

Hi everyone, this is my first post. See you soon!