Business Decision Making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Business Decision Making - Essay Example It has done extensive market analysis and has been able to put measures of probability on the happening of each of the outcomes. However, these are subjective estimates as there is no past data to rely on. What decision the management of MPL finally takes depends a lot on whether they are risk-averse, risk-neutral or risk-loving. That would decide whether they opt for Maximax, Maximin or Minimax course of action (Jones 2004). Effectiveness of Decision Making Structure Decision making by a business organization is largely dependent on the structure of the decision making body. In a sole proprietorship organization, all decisions are taken by a single person. Hence, the entire decision making process is fast without any time consuming meetings and exchange of opinions. But, such decisions could also be incorrect at times as there are usually no inputs from other people. However, in organizations that have more than one owner, decision making is done through interactions between managin g partners and quite obviously decision making takes a far longer time than it takes in single owner scenarios. But, one must realize that though it is more time consuming, any decision making process that involves more than one person is better than a single person taking decisions. This is simply because while such decisions are taken, several, often differing, perspectives are considered and this aids in arriving at a more balanced decision (Cyert and March 1992). In case of MPL the decision making process is fairly inclusive and democratic in nature. Other than Lee Corbusier and Frank Lloyd, managers of three separate divisions meet once every month to discuss company strategy, market trends and receive departmental reports. This allows managers to micromanage their individual... The author begins with the description of the decision-making model of the company. The author thinks that decision-making by a business organization is largely dependent on the structure of the decision-making body. In a sole proprietorship organization, all decisions are taken by a single person. Hence, the entire decision-making process is fast without any time-consuming meetings and exchange of opinions. But, such decisions could also be incorrect at times as there are usually no inputs from other people. However, in organizations that have more than one owner, decision making is done through interactions between managing partners and quite obviously decision making takes a far longer time than it takes in single owner scenarios. But, one must realize that though it is more time consuming, any decision-making process that involves more than one person is better than a single person taking decisions. This is simply because while such decisions are taken, several, often differing, perspectives are considered and this aids in arriving at a more balanced decision (Cyert and March 1992). In the case of MPL, the decision-making process is fairly inclusive and democratic in nature. Other than Lee Corbusier and Frank Lloyd, managers of three separate divisions meet once every month to discuss company strategy, market trends and receive departmental reports. This allows managers to micromanage their individual departments while corporate decisions are taken by the management team.

The Use of Multi-word Units (MWU) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Use of Multi-word Units (MWU) - Essay Example I will employ key sequence analysis to reveal the significantly overused or underused MWUs by Taiwanese learners. In addition, this analysis will explore the extent to which use of MWUs developed over time. Time in consideration is the one-year intercultural exposure of Taiwanese with their British peers. The aim is to analyze the MWUs used by Taiwanese students to examine their approximation to those sequences used by native speakers of English. Previous section proved that use of MWUs is often linked to particular conditions of use. It also established three central functions of communication could be achieved: social interaction, necessary topics, and discourse devices (see Biber et al., 2004; Nattinger & DeCarrico, 1992; Schmitt & Carter, 2004; Wray & Perkins, 2000). Nevertheless, it is evident that the use of MWUs in different communication modes is different with reference to the functional types, as shown in Table 12 and Figure 1. Concerning MWUs for social interaction, they are extremely common across different datasets. In this study, large amount of conventionalized language is typically attached to them for different speech acts in social interaction. For instance thanks for the to express politeness, it would be to comply with a request, I can’t wait to express personal intension, would you like to provide an offer and an amount of other related usage. Moreover, an increase of the use of MWUs for social interaction can be observed in online communication (BATICC-O) to face-to-face interaction (BATICC-F), occupying approximately 38%, and 54% of the top 50 MWUs respectively. It is likely that the young learners focused more on social interaction when they meet face-to-face. On the other hand, in online communication they focus on number of topics related to the two different languages, cultures and countries. About MWUs serving the function of necessary topics, it can be seen from Table 12 that overall they are particularly common in online

The Uses And Misuses Of Derivatives Finance Essay

The Uses And Misuses Of Derivatives Finance Essay Hedge funds are pools of investment that invest in almost any opportunity in any market where they foresee impressive gains at reduced risk. Hedging refers to implementing strategies that manage or protect against an identified risk exposure. They take leveraged positions in publically traded equity, debt, foreign exchange and derivatives. The primary aim of most hedge funds is to reduce volatility and risk while attempting to preserve capital and deliver positive returns under all market conditions (Friedland., 2008). Derivatives provide institutions the opportunity to break financial risks into smaller components and then to buy or sell those components to manage risk. Hedge funds hold a number of assets; they use derivatives to protect against the adverse price movement of these assets. Hedge funds play more of the role of speculators than of hedgers. They use derivatives when buying and selling assets and by putting long-short positions, they seek to hedge themselves against broad market moves while profiting from changes in the relative value of the instruments they go long or short. Hedge funds offer a variety of unique strategies to utilize when investing in hedge funds, these are called hedging techniques. These include Market Neutral Strategies, Event Drive / Special Situations Strategies, Long Short, Global Macro, Sector and Country, Dynamic Strategies, Funds of Funds, Funds of Funds of Funds etc. (http://www.global-derivatives.com) Market Neutral Strategies are used in Market Neutral Funds. They tend to take positions which offset each other through both a long and short position simultaneously to reduce their risk exposure. These strategies include Long Short and Convertible Arbitrage. Long-Short methodology attempts to reduce market risk by taking both long and short positions in the market. This can be done by taking a long position in undervalued assed and a short position in overvalued ones. In these funds, it is anticipated that the undervalued assets will increase in value than any losses incurred from the overvalued assets, or vice versa. Convertible arbitrage is a relatively more complex strategy. In this convertible securities such as convertible bonds which can be converted into normal shares or bonds are bought, to take advantage of any price discrepancies between the convertible security and that of the exchangeable underlying. A position can be taken for buying convertible security or selling the underlying asset to realise any difference in prices. (http://www.global-derivatives.com) Event Driven / Special Situations Strategies intend to make profit from events related to particular companies. Event Driven funds take a bet that something in the future will happen which will affect the company and its assets in a particular way. These funds include Distressed Securities and Merger/ Risk Arbitrage; these securities include debt and equity of companies undergoing reorganization or bankruptcy, it is hoped that companies will recover and increase in value. These securities have very low value and can be given to the management of a company during the restructuring process. Merger/Risk Arbitrage funds tend to analyze companies which are potential takeover or merger targets by taking two positions. An example of it would be to buy the stocks of a company that is being acquired with hope that its prices will rise and to sell stocks of the company that is acquiring, in anticipation that its value might fall. (http://www.global-derivatives.com) Long Short is another strategy which includes buying and selling a security based on the sentiments in the market or of a company. It includes short selling, long, and growth fund. Short selling occurs when a person anticipates that the price will fall in future and sells a stock which it does not possess, through borrowing. If the price really falls in future, they buy the lot from the market at a lower price and return it to the one they borrowed from earlier at lower price, thus making a profit. Long is another strategy in hedge funds, it is a fixed income instrument that benefits from the rise in the price of the held asset. They often utilize leveraged positions to maximize returns. Global Macro is an economics based strategy which intends to benefit from shifts in global economic conditions such as inflation, interest rates and other macro-economic factors; a common example of it is the use of interest rate derivatives for speculative purposes, they give profit from economic movements within particular countries. Sector and Country strategies include sector funds and emerging markets. Sector funds are hedge funds that specialize within a particular industry for example technology, textile etc. these investments consist of long or short positions in stock, debt, or even derivatives on the stocks. Emerging markets include funds that emphasize on emerging markets with less-developed economies and aim to profit from market growth which influence the securities positively. Securities in these hedge funds include sovereign debt or corporate securities with the anticipation that their prices will rise with economic growth. Dynamic strategies include elements such as market timings and opportunistic. Strategy of market timing involves the right timing of the market. It includes making profit based on the correct timing of investments across markets by moving between various asset classes depending upon the view of the manager regarding the market environment. Opportunistic strategy involves switching across asset classes, they use a number of strategies mentioned above depending upon the managers discretion, and the reason for switching strategies is to make the most profit. (http://www.global-derivatives.com) Funds of funds is the strategy of hedge funds to invest in other hedge funds in order to diversify the risk and exposure. The success of these funds depends upon the managers way of handling the funds rather than the performance of the actual investments. Funds of funds of funds or F3s is a new concept to hedge the risk exposure in terms of investments by reducing the volatility of the funds itself. They are good for high risk-averse investors willing to invest in the hedge funds industry. (http://www.global-derivatives.com) Amaranth Advisors LLC (Amaranth) Formation and Background Amaranth comprises of Amaranth LLC and Amaranth Advisors LLC. It was founded by Nick Maounis (Maounis) in 2000 as a multi-strategy hedge fund with a special focus on convertible arbitrage (selling (short) equity stocks and at the same time buying (long) convertibles of the same company creating a delta neutral portfolio), with its headquarter in Greenwich, Connecticut and with approximately $600 million in capital. Maounis experience was in managing a number of various arbitrage accounts in the US, Japan, Europe and Canada. The aim was to make profits from the small discrepancies in prices of stocks and bonds, through its structure of three principal funds Amaranth Partners LLC, Amaranth Capital Partners LLC, and Amaranth International Limited and the 27 investment professionals. It sought to employ a group of arbitrage trading strategies particularly featuring convertible bonds, stocks of merging companies and utilities. However, Over the years, the trading activity of Amaranth ex panded into merger arbitrage (making a riskless profit by purchasing individual stocks of two merging companies and selling them together), leveraged loans (loans given/extended to individuals or companies that already have large debts on their books), blank-check companies (developing companies) ,volatility trading arbitrage (buying or selling an option on an underlying instrument and selling or buying a varying percentage of the underlying instrument this to gain from the difference between the implied volatility of an option and forecasted future probable volatility of the corresponding underlying instrument), long/short equity, and energy trading. (ICMR, 2010) Strategy As noted above, at the time of formations and throughout its term, the firm emphasized that it was a multi-strategy hedge fund, but as it could be noted in the aftermaths that most of the firms investments and losses were in natural gas derivatives. Amaranths basic strategy comprised of trading in the Natural Gas market; the firm took a long position in winters, with hope that the prices will rise, especially when the demand for natural gas exceeds the supply and storage capacity due to the cold season. Its winter months were November, December, January, February and March. Amaranth used to take a short position in summers when it anticipated that the prices will fall. Part of its strategy also included taking short position in April and long position in March. Moreover, another strategy was to purchase call options on winter months and put options on non-winter months. Amaranth used to bet that natural gas prices will rise, and the spreads in March and April prices will rise as well. Nature of Natural Gas Market By nature, the natural gas market is very risky and volatile. Majorly because there is a commercial need for the commodity. This situation creates a need for an institution to control its supply and storage. In America, there has been inadequate storage capacity of natural gas for peak the winter season demand. Therefore the price of natural gas is higher in winters; firstly due high demand and secondly due to increase the incentives to store natural gas. These factors raise the prices of winter natural gas contracts to an all time high level. Apart from that, the market of natural gas is also volatile because the natural gas production in America is lower than the rise in the demand for natural gas. U.S. Natural Gas markets are shielded from the global energy factors because a very small amount of US natural gas need are met by imports of Liquid Natural Gas (LNG). Commodities trades require less margin money (collateral) than other markets. On the main exchanges, trades post 10 percent of their positions value, whereas in the stock market, 50 percent is common. (Davis, Sender, Zuckerman, 2006). After gaining credit from banks, it is very easy for commodity hedge funds to get highly leveraged quickly. Traders of natural gas have a number of options. The largest exchange for trading natural gas is the NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange) which has standardized futures contracts up to few delivery months up to 5 years that are traded on the exchange. Traders can also use ICE (Intercontinental Exchange) which is an over-the-counter market for trading natural gas futures contracts. There has been a lot of debate if hedge funds have an impact on energy trading. According to Gary Gensler (a former Goldman Sachs banker and treasury department official and chairman of the Commodity Futures and Trading Commission (CFTC) the chief regulator for energy futures energy trading said I believe that excessive speculation in commodity futures can cause sudden or unreasonable fluctuations or unwarranted changes in commodity prices,. He also expressed his opinion that the rapid growth of commodity index funds and increased hedge fund allocation to commodity assets contributed to the bubble in commodity prices. (Delamaide, Jan 11, 2010) Performance The founders original expertise was in convertible bonds (Till, 2006). The firm later specialized in leveraged loans, blank-check companies and in energy trading. Till June 30th 2006, energy trades accounted for about half of the funds capital and generated about 75% of their profits. (Till, 2006) In 2002 Amaranth started trading with JP Morgan Chase, in energy commodity trading. The winters of 2003 were exceptionally cold and lasted till February, this raised the prices of natural gas manifolds, and this in turn gave huge profits to Amaranth due to its long position in winters. By 2004-5 Amaranth shifted most of its investments into energy trading. The company used to make huge profits from placing spread trades and placing bullish bets on energy in 2005. In the same year America was severely hit by Hurricane Katrina, which adversely impacted it natural gas and oil production and refining capacity. This raised the price of natural gas and Amaranth reaped huge profits out of it. The accounts of Amaranth LLC showed robust performance by the company since its inception. The compound annual return for the period September 2000-November 2005 according to media reports was 14.72 net of all costs. (Gupta Kazemi) The chart below shows Amaranths returns till May 2005. The chart compares the Amaranths returns against CISDM Equal Weighted Hedge Fund Index and CISDM Convertible Arbitrage Index. Amaranth had gained a noteworthy position in May 2005, in CISDM Equal Weighted Hedge Fund Index. The chart show the volatility Amaranth was facing in May 2005, this volatility had brought high returns in the past but things then started taking the turn towards the wrong side. Amaranths returns; source: (Gupta Kazemi) NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange) noticed Amaranths considerable open interest of 51% in Aug 2006 in September natural gas futures contract, which would expire at the end of the month. NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange) brought its concerns into notice to Amaranth. Amaranth not only reduced their September but also Octobers positions, as per the directions of NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange). Alongside Amaranth increased their positions in October and September positions under ICE contracts, thus escalating their overall positions in natural gas. (Gupta Kazemi) According to US Securities and Exchange Commission filings, investors in Amaranths funds included a number of Wall Street banks including Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse Group and Deutsche Bank AG. (Burton Leising, 2006) Amaranth was marketing energy and commodities fund to open in December 2006 of about $5 billion. The fund was to be managed by Hunter and Jeff Baired, co-head of Amaranths Global energy and commodities business. But unfortunately the events that followed didnt allow it to happen. (Burton Leising, 2006) Collapse and Beyond Amaranth used to bet that natural gas prices will rise, and the spreads in March and April prices will rise as well. However in 2006, so did not happen and gas prices began to decline due to rising inventories leaving Amaranth on the wrong side of the market trend and consequently reducing its portfolio value of $9.2 billion by less than half. Headed by Brian Hunter, it seemed that Amaranth had not anticipated the rise in the natural gas storage capacity, and the weather pattern bringing a warmer winter. It was in a weeks time that Amaranth lost 65% of its $9.2 billion assets. On September 14 alone, the fund lost $681 million from its natural gas exposure. On September 20th 2006, Amaranth sold its entire energy trading portfolio in a flurry to J.P. Morgan Chase and Citadel Investment Group. It did so at significant discounts to the portfolios then mark-to-market value. (Till, 2006) At the time of liquidation of Amaranth, the spread on gas future declined. The spread on positions held by Amaranth were $2.85 in late August, but after the liquidation had reached below $0.75. (MORGENSON ANDERSON, September 20, 2006). This indicates the lower price expectations in both the bid and ask price for every $1 invested in Amaranths holdings. When Amaranth Advisors LLC announced that it had suffered losses just as big as LTCMs, markets did not respond for Amaranth the way as they did for LTCM (Long Term Capital Management). New York Fed did not hold summit meeting for a bailout plan; but JP. Morgan Co. and Merrill Lynch Co started selling off Amaranths portfolio of natural gas futures. The co-founder of Energy Hedge Fund Centre (which tracks 520 energy funds) said, There is not systematic risk. The market can absorb this. (Mufson, 2006). The reasons for such a reaction were that, firstly Amaranth (although was doing rash trading) but borrowed less heavily and had less leverage than LTCM (Long Term Capital Management); secondly its positions were smaller and focused in natural gas futures. LTCM s failure threatened the stability of banks, whereas Amaranths failure only hurt imprudent investors in the natural gas market who hadnt done any research before investing. Amaranths co-founder and chief executive, Nicholas Maounis, said in his letter to investors that the fund was aggressively reducing our natural gas exposure to meet payments to creditors. The said that there was large scale fluctuations in the value of the fund, which was up sharply in August, would be down 35 percent for the year after the sell-off. Later Maounis said that the conditions in the natural gas market deteriorated and market liquidity dried up so quickly that the fund was unable to unwind its energy positions. He said it became clear that we couldnt trade out of it. Amaranth had no choice but to sell its positions at a huge loss because the fund was faced with margin calls and couldnt borrow anymore because of the liquidity problem that emerged once news of its losses hit the market. Maounis apologized to the institutional investors, pension funds and wealthy individuals who lost money as a result of the bad trades. He said We feel bad about losing our money. We feel even worse about losing your money. (CBC-News, 2006) Officially at Amaranth desperately tried to sell the fund to Citigroup. But despite the extensive talks and negotiations, Citigroup decided to walk away from making any deal. (Taulli, Sep 29th 2006 ) On July 25, 2007, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charged Amaranth and head energy trader Brian Hunter with Attempted Manipulation of the Price of Natural Gas Futures including making false statements to the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has also charged Amaranth and its traders with market manipulation. Amaranth filed a lawsuit against JP Morgan claiming US$ 1 billion in damages, on the grounds that the bank interfered in the companys work to make a deal with Goldman Sachs and Citadel Investments. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) later announced a settlement with Amaranths defendants. However Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) did not withdraw its charges on Amaranth and on August 12, 2009, the federal court ordered Amaranth to pay a $7.5 million civil monetary penalty. The court also enjoins Amaranth from violating the anti-manipulation provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act. (Release, 2009) Amaranth then sued Touradji and his employees (Touradji Capital Management LP), by filing a complaint on September 18, 2006 in New York Supreme court in Manhattan, seeking at least $350 million for claims including breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets. Amaranth says that Touradji Capital Management LP breached two contracts agreed to in September 2006 regarding the transfer and purchase of Amaranths base-metals portfolio. According to the official documents, Touradji Capital Management LP used the information to recover profits obtained by defendants through improper trading practices and misuse of plaintiffs propriety and confidential information. Maounis, through a spokesman, refused to comment on the Touradji Capital Management LP suit (Chanjaroen, 2006). However in September 2009, Amaranth withdrew the summon it filed against Touradji Capital Management. Neither of the parties made a payment of any kind due to the withdrawal of notice. After the fall of Amaranth, Goldman Sachs was quick to come into action, and struck a deal to take over hedge fund manager of Amaranth Advisor LLCs lease at Greenwich America. Goldman occupied about 124,000 square feet at the property, which had served at Amaranths headquarters before the company was wound up in September. Amaranths lease was to expire in at the end of 2015 and had a rate of about $35 per square foot. (Ambroz, April 10, 2007) Internal control or Management of Amaranth Maouniss original expertise was in convertible bonds. In mid 2004 Maounis hired Brian Hunter (Hunter) an energy trader who was working for Deutshe Bank energy trading desk. Calgary-based Hunter was Amaranths head energy trader, who was given a free hand to trade the commodity market, due to his past experience of taking huge positions and making huge profits in the natural gas market. Maounis was impressed that Hunters made hundreds of millions of dollars (around 1 billion) for the firm in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina sent natural gas prices soaring, made the 32-year-old Canadian a co-head of commodities trading. Maounis let Hunter increase the size of his natural gas positions so that they became more than half of the entire firms exposure. This was against Amaranths claim of maintaining a multi-strategy fund. Before Hunters arrival, all commodities positions made up about 20 percent of Amaranths portfolio with natural gas having roughly 7 percent share. Amaranths partners had a confidence built on past success and they thought that they had a fool-proof strategy (taking long position in winters and short in summers); the company had reaped huge profits in 2002-2005 from this strategy. Amaranths website said moving nimbly and effectively within an ever-changing investment landscape and said that its employees possess fearlessness with respect to complexity, learning, as well as invention, and continuously strive for perfection. Maounis, said he had chosen the companys name, which means unfading in Greek. According to the wall street journal, Brian Hunters had so much success in trading natural gas futures, or bets, on the future prices of the commodity, that Amaranth allowed him to work from his home in Calgary, where he drove a Ferrari in summer and a Bentley in winters. (Hedge fund: a gamble too far, 2006, September 20). Analysts estimate that in order to fund his positions, Hunter was borrowing $8 for every $1 of Amaranths own funds. When the bet went in his favour, he could pay back the debt and keep the rest of the profit for Amaranth. As the bets started to go against him September 2006, his borrowing amplified his losses. (Hedge fund: a gamble too far, 2006, September 20). It is commonly believed that hedge funds improve the efficiency of the financial markets by introducing liquidity and innovation (Hedge fund: a gamble too far, 2006, September 20). However Amaranths collapse shows that the hedge fund managers earn for their lavish salaries only and not for the investors who have put up their earnings and savings in their funds. Operational risk is the risk associated with the internal management of the company and the probability of making wrong decisions that might harm the performance of the firm. Amaranth seemed to be suffering highly from operational risk. Hunters had a target of making $2 billion for the year at the end of August 2006. Analysts comment of such a target that Hunters must have had an unconsciously large position for this market, One of the biggest players in the energy markets, such as Goldman Sachs Group, would take up positions less than a tenth as big as Hunters, traders said. Hunter was involved in rash trading in the market as his positions were often twice as big as the next biggest. It is also said that in Amaranth, there was an exclusive risk manager for every trading book, who sat with the risk takers on the trading desk. (http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Finance/Collapse-Amaranth%20Advisors-Case%20Studies.htm#Risk_Management)The risk managers were well qualified and had advance degrees. Paul Touradji, founder and managing partner of Touradji Capital Management, said was obvious about risk control and not about commodities. Touradji admitted that he exited the natural gas market for a year because Amaranth had entered the market, comparing its presence with that of well-financed poker player sitting down with poorer players and making big bets. I cant think of a right counterstrategy other than to say, I am going to be at the bar until youre done, Touradji said. (http://www.hedgefundintelligence.com/Event.aspx?ProductID=7035ElementID=4983, 2006) Problems Diversification is the key element of all investment portfolios. It reduces the unsystematic risk of instability in any part of the economy. Amaranth specialized in the natural gas industry so much that it failed to realise that if it took any incorrect venture at any point in time, it would not have to face severe consequences. This is counted as a factor of poor risk management. One of the biggest issues with hedge funds is that there is lack of transparency for investors and they have no idea as to what the fund is doing with their money. Most hedge funds make money with the performance fees that are generated when the fund achieves larger gains; the bigger the gains the larger the fees for the hedge funds. If the funds stays still or falls, the performance fee is exactly the same. This type of fee structure can force hedge fund traders to implement exceedingly risky strategies. Much of the blame for what happened to Amaranth is being put on Brian Hunters, although he had a strategy, experience and understanding in the natural gas market; which worked well with various weather shocks, but the fund manager failed to take into account the rise in storage capacity of natural gas. The arrival of a relatively warm winter did not raise the demand of natural gas as much as in the previous years. These factors did not increase the price of natural gas as much, thus creating problems for Amaranth which has a long position. Amaranth was operating on a high leverage. As told earlier, Amaranth was operating on an 8:1 of debt to equity ratio. This amplified the credit problems for Amaranth because once it started facing liquidity problems; it ran out of cash to maintain its cash flows. After its collapse but before liquidating, Amaranth placed restrictions on its investors to withdraw holdings of cash. That is, they were allowed to withdraw for certain number of days but were required to submit the amount before the end of the term because inability to do so resulted in a penalty. Investors were not allowed their savings beyond 7.5% of their savings. (MORGENSON ANDERSON, September 20, 2006). The bankruptcy of funds causes damage to a number of individuals and companies that have their stake with them. In the Case of Amaranth, Morgan Stanley, invested $126 million, or about 5 percent, of its $2.3 billion funds of hedge funds in Amaranth. Even New York Fed Governor Timothy F. Geithner warned that hedge fund failures could hurt market participants other than those investors and lenders who have chosen to do business directly with those funds. (Mufson, 2006). This is because the instability created in the market (because of the bankruptcy of the company and the loss of a lot of people) can result in a systemic risk, which influences other sectors as well. It is commonly said that Amaranths systems did not measure risks correctly and did not take steps that would reduce the risk. The risk models that were employed by hedge funds use historic data, but the natural gas markets in 2006 were more volatile than any other year since 2001, making models less useful. A managing director of Lyster Watson Co, an advisory firm that invests in hedge funds for clients but not with Amaranth said, It was a total failure of risk control to put your entire business at risk and not seem to know it. They were more leveraged than they realised. (Davis, Sender, Zuckerman, 2006). Lessons to be learnt Derivatives as we know are risky sources of investments, and there a number of lessons that one can learn from the incident of Amaranth. Before making an investment (esp. in sector fund) it is important to analyze the performance of the sector relating to the profits and losses, during the past few years. A monthly sector analysis reveals that a -24% monthly loss is normal and the monthly volatility of the energy strategies was around 12% (Till, 2006), therefore due consideration should be made by investors before investing in such an industry. The second factor that fund managers should consider is of marketability or liquidity, which is the ease with which the contracts can be sold into the market again. The exchange traded futures market of natural gas contracts is way smaller than the over-the-counter natural gas positions. This should put the question in investors minds that in case the market of natural gas declines so how will they sell their contracts and liquidate their position. The strategy of Amaranth did not include an exit strategy. The following case of MotherRock also proves this point. Before the fall of Amaranth, on August 2, 2006 MotherRock, a natural-gas-oriented hedge fund had announced that it was shutting down, its losses had reached up to $300 million; it had made a wrong short position and was therefore forced to liquidate due to mounting losses. This should have sent alarming bell to the investors in Amaranth to secure their position in the market and they make sure that the dont face liquidity risk in near future (liquidity risk explained later). All successful investors have an exit strategy as part of their main strategy; liquidity is one of the four core factors to consider when investing in the market, these factors are risk, return, liquidity and maturity. Liquidity risk includes the risk that liabilities cannot be met when they fall due and can only be met at an uneconomic price. This risk can be accounted for by widening the bid/offer spread. An institution might lose liquidity if its credit ratings fall, it experiences sudden unexpected cash outflows or some other event that causes the counterparties to avoid trading with or lending to the institution. A firm can also be exposed to liquidity risk if markets on which it depends are subject to loss of liquidity. Liquidity risk tends to compound other risks. If a trading organization has a position in an illiquid asset, its limited ability to liquidate that position at short notice will compound its market risk. Suppose a firm has offsetting cash flows with two different parties on a given day. If the counterparty that owes it a payment defaults, the firm will have to raise cash from other sources to make its payment. Should it be unable to make its payment, it will default too. Here liquidity risk is compounding credit risk. A position can be hedged against market risk, through diversification of the portfolio by including assets with different unsystemic risks, but still has liquidity risk. Amaranths investments were high-risk funds that lacked liquidity due to the nature of the natural gas futures market. They did not have any counter party to take their position under a week, when they needed it most. One reason that can explain this liquidity problem is that the counter parties had already locked their position in the forward contracts relating to production or storage. It seemed that due to their past experience, of success in assuming long position in winters and short position in summers, Amaranth failed to anticipate the liquidity risk they were getting into by being unable to find a counter party. (Till, 2006). This was the job of the funds risks managers to employ scenario analysis based on this past events. Taking all the factors mentioned above proves that Amaranth was taking immense risk with respect to liquidity. Amaranth was giving the natural gas comodity market a service by providing liquidity to the participants who cou

Sociology Evaluation of Method

One good aspect that my method had was that it allowed me to collect very in depth data, people were able to open up to me as it was unstructured interviews, I did have a problem with this though, as I didn't have prepared questions it was hard to compare my participants points of views afterwards and by talking so in depth about a sensitive subject like divorce things could get out of hand, one of my participants even began to cry as she became very emotional. The location to do my interviews in were varied, some were good and some were bad, one of them I had to do in my room and privacy was hard to come by. In my opinion my results are unreliable, but I believe that when talking to people about something as private as this, results will always be this as people feel awkward and don't want a stranger, or somebody from outside of the family to know their business. The participants I believe were the correct ones to interview and had enough experience and met with my criteria, the problem which I found though was that I hadn't interviewed enough; I only interviewed one of each that I wanted. I.e. ONE married couple, ONE cohabiting couple etc. If I had interviewed more people my results would have been more representative, I hadn't thought of this until after. The sampling method I used I thought was appropriate; people knew that they could confide in me and no problems arose with this. If I were to repeat this project I would defiantly change my method, I would do structured interviews as I believe that for my content and analysis it would be a lot easier to compare and that it is also possible to get in depth data this way. I would also interview more people. Evaluation of findings In relation of my first aim, to find out whether divorce on the increase is really seen as a negative aspect of today's society I found that people do take divorce less seriously than before but they don't give it less importance, I know this because nearly all of the couples I interviewed seemed slightly scared of divorce but would mostly consider it, I have found that, on contrary to my beliefs people don't rush into marriages and just get divorced when they find that marriage isn't what they expected, couples nowadays tend to cohabit first so that when they do get divorced they know it is the right thing to do, and the only way out. They cohabit to test their relationship, in order to avoid divorce. Some couples do not marry because of the threat of divorce. I found that people who are more religious see divorce as a problem. I also found that people feel divorce can affect mental health, respondents stated that divorce is not good for your health. The reasons given for the rise of divorce including the fact that marriages are now based of love rather than expectations and the changing role of women. In relation to my second aim, to find out the main reason for more divorces I found that most people believe that it is due to women having more independence, less sexism. This was the one and only thing that all my participants had in common. My findings were similar to previous studies in this area such as Robert Chester who found that nuclear families would never stop existing; he found that families would just change their forms. By having divorces this is what happens, children don't just stop having one of their parents, they still have both, the way in which families tend to be perceived just changes, cohabiting couples are on the up and so is divorce. People see divorce as something negative and positive at the same time, it affects you in both ways and people realise this, they also know that divorce can give them a second start in life when most of their hope is gone. What was interesting about my project was that I was able to research on something that causes hundreds and thousands of people heartbreak and depression everyday but is also seen as normal, I learnt a lot from doing this project, I used to think that people were just careless and got married and divorced as if it doesn't mean a thing, I've found that this is not the case, although more people are getting divorced it doesn't mean that more people are getting married, people stand up for themselves more nowadays, and despite my previous beliefs people DO see divorce as a problem, but also as something positive. By doing this project I have learnt a lot.

The Secret of Homework That No One Is Discussing

The Secret of Homework That No One Is Discussing Ideas, Formulas and Shortcuts for Homework Prior to beginning an assignment, determine how long it should take to finish the assignment. When you're prepared to start homework, it's smart to specify a time limit, ideally with a warning bell. So take some time to speak to your child and see whether you're able to understand their resistance to homework assignments. The info they need to finish their homework is simply a modem away. The Upside to Homework For instance, you might simply check your son's or daughter's desk and the printer to make certain no assignments are getting left behind. Each teacher is extraordinarily trained and can help with just about any subject, employing a number of methods. Some educationists of the opinion that homework shouldn't be given to students. Setting homework does not have any true value unless the teacher has a normal review approach. Rumors, Lies and Homework Fortunately, not everybod y agrees. If you're behind on your homework, particularly if you've missed a good deal of sick days, communicating with your teachers is essential! These tips should help to make homework time less stressful for you as well as your parents! In any case, you don't need to know all the answers. The Nuiances of Homework You don't need to be concerned about whether your spouse is on the edge of asking you for a divorce. In a couple of cases both parents are deployed at precisely the same moment. A parent on deployment could be gone for around a year at one time. Figure out if your kid can turn in homework the very same way for each class. If you suspect your kid is getting excessive homework because of the teacher's poor classroom performance. Homework Frustration-If your son or daughter is having difficulty with any subject and they've attended all classes, it's imperative to talk to the teacher. Some children take part in scouting. The Homework Chronicles If a twenty minute assignment isn't further along after an hour, there is something which you child isn't receiving. The perfect purpose is to establish a workable time frame your family members can live with. A wholesome snack shouldn't be the extent of a complete meal. In case the kid is doing the homework immediately following the close of the school day, have a wholesome snack available. Alice finds them confusing since they ask riddles to which there is not any answer and pretend there is no room for her whereas there is. After a time you'll have developed the practice of getting your homework done at the very same time and place. Based on your children's independence, you might want to be sitting at the table too, or simply walking past the room periodically. The kitchen table isn't only for dinner, anymore. The Basics of Homework Learning is an excellent privilege which shouldn't be marred by parents who don't need to manage homework. School homework is the exact last thing they would like to do. Practice homework would be assignments like math issues, chemical equations or flashcards that offer additional practice in a particular skill. Keep in mind, homework folders are ONLY for completed homework that's prepared to be turned in! Clean up after you're finished with your homework. In the end one ought to define homework. Just keep in mind that homework is for your son or daughter, not you. The objective is to make learning fun. Some of us will feel dissatisfied with you, and you'll feel frustrated once you give up doing certain things you want. Children that are easily distracted may discover the excitement and stimulus of their bedroom toys too tricky to ignore. Finding out how to craft professional emails is a skill you are able to take with you in the so-called real world. Find out the length of time the teacher expects homework to take and receive the teacher's buy in to quit working after a set period of time. You may be taken aback at how frequently students obtain their professor's name wrong. You are going to want to speak with your teacher when possible. Teachers are starting to question the wo rth of homework increasingly more. What the In-Crowd Won't Tell You About Homework Just like any program with children, you might want to adapt or change a few things to fit the demands of your program. You must know your priorities. If your kid is turning school work projects which are suspiciously well written, well you know what's going on. A child with bad memory, attention, and focus is going to have a challenging time taking down assignments, bringing home the appropriate books, and keeping an eye on deadlines. Let your kid's teachers know about the strategies you're using and request ideas for working with each other to help your son or daughter make progress. Many adults never learn to manage their priorities and have a tough time keeping a great balance in their lives. Have your son or daughter use their learning experience to finish every one of the assignments. At CollegeAmerica, our instructors understand the value of prioritizing time and setting goals as a component of the academic practice. It is crucial to set a routine for your little one. Figure out where the difficulty lies and what your little one can do in order to boost understanding. So the next time that you want to complain about your children's teacher sending all of that darn homework home, thank them for giving you the opportunity to have unparalleled influence in your youngster's life. If your child absolutely hates doing their homework, take some time to try to understand just what the issue is.

The, The Greatest Threat Of Public Confidence - 1950 Words

Jimmy Rizzo Mr. Kotlewski Period 3 13 January 2017 The Latter Amendments Essay Draft As Ruth Bader Ginsburg once said, â€Å"The greatest threat to public confidence in elections in this case is the prospect of enforcing a purposefully discriminatory law, one that likely imposes an unconstitutional poll tax and risks denying the right to vote to hundreds of thousands of eligible voters† (Ruth Bader Ginsburg Quote). To elaborate, the Twenty Fourth Amendment forbids any government from making voters pay poll tax, money, or a fee to vote in any election. This opens up the right to vote to many more American citizens of any ethnicity or gender. To justify, a poll tax was a tax that was simply just paid for living in a taxed area, but became very†¦show more content†¦Toombs was known for his unfair practices to the African races, and usually if a white person could not afford to pay their poll tax, he was also known to â€Å"buy their vote† and pay the tax for them. Months after the Civil War ended, some Constitutio nal amendments were passed helping black rights and giving them the freedom to vote. Southerners were afraid of all this new political power towards the Negroes, so they did whatever they could to limit that power, and made it nearly impossible for Negroes to vote with the new laws they passed. With the Ku Klux Klan being formed and more discriminatory acts to interfere with black voting rights, it was not until the civil rights movements of the 1950’s and 1960’s until the amendment was finally brought up, almost a century later. During the Ku Klux Klan era, southerners passed laws to limit the power of African Americans, otherwise known as black codes. They did whatever they could to limit the black’s freedom, even with such small things like requiring them to use a different water fountain or, even bigger, forcing them to pay an unreasonable poll tax to vote. With the rise of civil rights acts though, it became harder and harder to limit their power, and in t he middle of 1962 when Congress proposed the amendment to require no fee to vote, southerners knew that this was more of the beginning of racial movements and equal rights to all.Show MoreRelatedInterned or Imprisoned1358 Words   |  5 Pagesbusinesses. Japanese immigrants were called Issei, and second-generation Japanese Americans were called Nisei. When Japanese and American tensions rose before the start of WWII, some government officials viewed the Japanese on the West Coast as a threat to the United States security. The government created lists to sort Japanese Americans depending on their risk and disloyalty. On December 7, 1941 when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, high-risk Japanese Americans were immediately questioned andRead MoreEssay about Enron Case637 Words   |  3 Pages1. 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The Ethics Of Enron And Worldcom - 1821 Words

The desire for money, power, and praise can lead some top executives to participate in unethical behavior to satisfy these needs. Some businesses simply fabricate their financials while others invent fake companies to inflate their asset’s value and profitability. Both situations are attempts to increase their earnings as much as possible for top executives own interests. The two most well-known and fairly recent instances of major accounting scandals include Enron and WorldCom. How did Enron, once one of the five largest audit and accountancy partnerships in the world, and WorldCom, once the United States’ second largest long distance telephone company, both end in bankruptcy just one year after the other? By exploring the history, scandal, and aftermath of Enron and WorldCom, comparing the two business’ malpractice, understanding the ethical issues involved, considering the historical context of the scandal which includes the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and my opinion regarding the effect, it will become clear how these once successful businesses ended with criminal charges. Enron Corporation was an American energy and service company based in Houston, Texas. In 1985, Kenneth Lay merged two natural gas pipeline companies, InterNorth and Houston Natural Gas to form Enron. This new company eventually had 36,000 miles of pipe stretching across the United States and into Canada, making it the second largest pipeline network in the United States. By 1992, Enron became theShow MoreRelatedEnron and Worldcom Case Study1225 Words   |  5 PagesEnron and WorldCom Case Study This report is based on the demise of Enron Corporation and WorldCom. Both the firms are demised due to the ethical lapses. 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The second section will be the actà ¢â‚¬â„¢s regulations for the management, externalRead MoreFraud : The Perfect Fraud Storm1420 Words   |  6 PagesFinancial Statement Fraud Option #2 The perfect fraud storm occurred between the years 2000 and 2002 involving two of the largest energy and telecom corporations in the United States: Enron and WorldCom. It was determined that both organizations fraudulently overstated assets, created assets from expenses or overstated revenues, costing investors billions of dollars and resulting in both organizations declaring bankruptcy (Albrecht, Albrecht, Albrecht Zimbelman, 2012). Nine factors contributedRead MoreA Case Of Accounting Fraud1555 Words   |  7 PagesAnother major case of accounting fraud driven by the desire to build and protect one’s personal financial condition is the WorldCom debacle. Bernie Ebbers had to show continually growing net worth in order to avoid margin calls on his own WorldCom stock that he had pledged to secure loans. 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The segment of Enron’s operations that got them into difficulties had several parts. They published misleading financial reports. They could not meet their bridge financing commitment with Barclay Bank because outside investors were not found. Because of this, they restated activities of JEDI and Chewco SPEs so they could be retroactively consolidated into Enron’s accounts. The SPEsRead MoreThe, Greed, And Hubris Of Action1236 Words   |  5 Pagescorrupts absolutely†. There were three specific corporate scandals that led to failed confidence in the financial sector and the subsequent legislation known as Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 which attempted to address this malfeasance: Enron, WorldCom, and Arthur Andersen. Enron Notably, the most widely recognized scandal of all time because it led to a systemic lack of trust in corporations and the financial markets in general. Enron’s fraud was twofold; it included complex financial maneuvering through