Write your own declaration of Findependence + MORE Jul 4th

Many investors know that a put option gives them the right to sell a stock at a specified price within a set period, while a call option provides the right to purchase shares at a specified price, also within a set period.
Some investors, however, may not realize that these financial instruments have a variety of applications. They can use options to potentially optimize returns on capital, for example, and to help protect their assets from volatility that has become commonplace in the global economy.
Individual and institutional investors can protect their investments and enhance opportunities for growth with a wide range of risk-management products available through Montréal Exchange (MX), Canada’s only financial derivatives exchange. MX offers options on 281 equities listed on TSX as well as currency options and options on TSX-listed exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
Investors who don’t want to trade directly in options can buy shares in several ETFs whose managers sell calls against a portfolio of securities…

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Companies across all sectors need investment to grow their operations and bring their businesses to a new level. In some cases, private equity (PE) firms invest in promising companies that they grow or lever up to optimize their financial performance and enhance their opportunities to create value. To recover their investment and generate returns for their own investors, PE firms may take the companies public.
With the recent strength in the equity market, PE firms have been increasingly looking to the Canadian public markets to monetize their holdings. In fact, the deal volume in Canada’s private equity markets in 2013 was back to pre-recession volume levels in 2007, and the country’s private equity environment in 2014 looks promising.
In October of 2013, for example, Kohlberg Management VI, LLC, the largest shareholder in Performance Sports Group Ltd. (PSG:TSX), sold 3.2 million common shares of the company at $12.15 a share to a syndicate of underwriters co-led by RBC Capital Markets and Paradigm Capital Inc…

In honour of America’s July 4th celebrations, I thought I’d devote this blog to helping retirement savers prepare their personal “Declaration of Findependence.”
The other day at Forbes.com senior writer Richard Eisenberg devoted a piece to this theme, and cited my own recent experience in finally living the life I describe in my book, Findependence Day. Findependence, of course, is merely a short-hand description of the phrase financial independence. Findependence day is the day in the future when you believe that income from all sources—including investments, pensions, rental income, business income, royalties–will exceed income from the single source most of us call a “job.”
So, without further ado. It’s up to you to fill in the blanks to reflect your personal circumstances:
Declaration of Findependence for ________ (your name here)
1.)  Based on my current age of __, I believe I should aim for  the __ day of the __ month in the year 20__. This happens to be the year I turn __…

Lumenpulse lights up the Canadian IPO market
From Amherst, Massachusetts, to Sölvesborg, Sweden, a Canadian company called Lumenpulse Inc. (TSX:LMP) has applied its advanced technology to keeping darkness at bay in innovative ways.
Lumenpulse incorporated LED technology into the Sölvesborg Bridge in Sweden. Photo: Olof Thiel
With more than 225 employees in three countries, Lumenpulse works with architects, electrical engineers and lighting designers to develop specification light-emitting diode, or LED, lighting for commercial, institutional and urban applications.
In April 2014, Lumenpulse raised $100 million in an initial public offering on TSX, about 33% more than the company had originally targeted.
“We appreciate the strong interest from investors and the confidence our new shareholders have shown in our company,” says founder and CEO François-Xavier Souvay. “[Our IPO] is an extremely important step towards our goal of becoming a world leader in high-performance and sustainable specification-grade LED lighting solutions…