Month: July 2025

|In: Investments|Last Updated:
Navigating Risk: Emerging Market Bond Funds vs. ETFs – Which is the Smarter Play?

Adding emerging market (EM) bonds to a fixed-income portfolio can boost yield, but it also introduces significant risk. The choice between an actively managed mutual fund and a passively managed Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) is crucial, as each vehicle manages and introduces different risks into this complex asset class.

1. 🌊 Liquidity and Trading Risk

The mechanics of trading introduce immediate risk differences. EM Bond ETFs offer high intra-day liquidity, meaning they can be bought and sold throughout the trading day. However, they carry tracking error risk: they can trade at a premium or discount to their Net Asset Value (NAV), especially during times of market volatility when the underlying bonds are hard to price.

EM Bond Mutual Funds are priced and traded only once a day at NAV. While this eliminates the premium/discount issue, their liquidity is lower. Critically, during severe market stress, funds may invoke …

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|In: Business Finance|Last Updated:
Building a Robust Financial Projection Model for Your Tech Startup: A Step-by-Step Guide

Securing funding and charting a clear path to profitability requires more than just a great idea—it demands a credible financial projection model. This 3-to-5-year plan translates your vision into actionable numbers, essential for both strategic planning and investor confidence. Here is a practical, four-step guide to building your model.

1. 📈 Revenue Modeling: The Engine

Your revenue model is the heart of the projection. For tech startups, especially SaaS, rely on unit economics rather than vague market sizing. This is the bottom-up approach, which is far more credible to investors than the top-down approach (simply claiming a small percentage of a large market).

Start by defining your key metrics:

  • Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR): The predictable monthly income.
  • Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): How much it costs to gain one paying customer.
  • Churn Rate: The percentage of customers who stop subscribing.

Your model should calculate revenue by projecting monthly customer …

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