Barclays PLC on Tuesday reported a fourth quarter profit of 6.9 billion pounds ($10.8 billion), more than eight times larger than a year earlier, due to gains on the sale of its Global Investors unit to a private equity company. The result compared to a net profit of 824 million pounds a year earlier and boosted the full-year profit to 9.4 billion pounds, more than double the previous year’s 4.4 billion pounds. The fourth-quarter surge reflected a pretax gain of 5.3 billion pounds from the sale of Barclays Global Investors to BlackRock Inc. The sale and a revenue boost from the acquisition of Lehman Brothers U.S. operations in September 2008 compensated for a difficult year in the bank’s traditional retail operations. Full year profit from continuing operations fell from 3.8 billion pounds in 2008 to 2.6 billion pounds last year. Income was up 34 percent to 31 billion pounds, the bank said. “With or without the sale of…

It’s the 16th – the day we’ve all been waiting for is finally here! The Forex Robot World Cup is finally letting us get the robots today! Look, maybe they are limited and there’s no way that I’m going to chance missing out… The Forex Robot World Cup ! I haven’t been a part of anything this incredible for years.And, by the way, if you’ve been keeping up to date with their competition and the video they released for Fusion-V 1.1a yesterday (354.56% in 19 DAYS!), I have no idea why you’re still reading this! Here’s where you’ll find it: ==> Visit Official Forex Robot World Cup Website If you really have no idea what’s going on then you might want to pay attention here because you don’t have a lot of time. Let me just put it this way… Every now and then, once every so often, you…

There’s tough competition for forex trading these days and that is something that cannot be denied. People are choosing to try forex even if they are just doing it on a part time basis. The reason for this is that forex can prove to be a very profitable business if you take the time to learn it and get yourself familiar with the trade. However, forex trading can be very demanding especially once all the markets have already opened. It may be tough to keep track of everything in a manual manner especially since you also have to analyze if you are making the right decisions when it comes to buying and selling different values. This is where automated forex trading comes in. Automated forex trading helps lighten up the burden of scanning the different markets for the best values in trade. It works in a systematic manner so that…

Cashing a 401k because you need money now will hurt you in the future. If you have a way around doing this you should seriously consider your options. If your retirement plan is the only way for you to obtain money you can look at ways around withdrawing money directly. Some plans allow you to take out loans from the account. There are always limits on this, it can usually be up to 50% of the account total, or $50,000, whichever is less. You have to repay this money within five years, but the interest rates are always very low and the interest you pay goes directly into your retirement plan. If you don’t manage to repay all of the money within the five year limit then whatever balance you still have left is treated as though you directly withdrew it in the first place, and you will be charged…

F irst Uranium Corp. FIU-T says it lost $14.4-million (U.S.) in its third quarter. That compares to a profit of $1.3-million in the year-ago period. The Toronto-based gold and uranium miner says in a statement released early Tuesday its losses are mostly due to corporate expenses of $8.1-million and a foreign exchange loss of $7.4-million. First Uranium also says that global market turbulence had an impact over the company’s finances. Earlier this month, an RBC Dominion Securities analyst said First Uranium could find itself insolvent unless it gets $100-million to $150-million in new funding to cover financing plans that fell through due to the withdrawal of a key government approval. First Uranium had said it will suspend expansion plans after South African government officials revoked an environmental authorization for its Mine Waste Solutions operation and, in the process, disrupted…

R oyal Dutch Shell Plc RDS.B-N said it was overhauling its pay practices for top management, including a pay freeze for its chief executive, Peter Voser, and a limit on bonuses, after a shareholder revolt last year. The head of Shell’s remuneration committee said salaries for Mr. Voser and chief financial officer Simon Henry, which are 20 per cent lower than their predecessors’, were being frozen until 2011. Directors will not, this year, be allowed to award management bonuses if they fail to meet pre-agreed targets. Top management received bonuses for 2008, despite not hitting targets, prompting 60 per cent of Shell investors who voted, to oppose the 2008 remuneration report. Hans Wijers, chairman of Shell’s Remuneration Committee told investors in a letter, a copy of which was published on Shell’s web site on Tuesday, that he wanted to “demonstrate appropriate restraint in the current economic environment”. Investors in…

D eutsche Bank has extended a sliding pay scale so at least a quarter of all bonuses above €100,000 ($136,100 U.S.) are deferred, two people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The deferral rate will increase as bonuses rise, so that senior bankers are likely to have 50 to 70 per cent of their total payment deferred, the people said, and the marginal deferral rate will rise to as much as 90 per cent. When Deutsche Bank reported its results on Feb. 4, it said it had rejigged its payment policy to meet regulatory guidelines, but did not give a threshold for deferrals. Deutsche said then that deferred compensation would be three-quarters in stock and a quarter in cash, vesting over 3-3/4 years and 3 years respectively, with no payouts in the first year. It also expanded a clawback program that previously only covered a smaller set of senior staff to…