Modelling Techniques for Financial Markets and Bank Management


Book Description

Shown is the application of up-to-date techniques for measuring efficiency, information imperfection and predictability in financial markets. Moreover, trading strategies in commodity future markets, models for the evolution of interest rates and postoptimality analysis in portfolio management are given. A couple of conceptual papers on modelling preference relations are also included.







Financial Modeling and Valuation


Book Description

Written by the Founder and CEO of the prestigious New York School of Finance, this book schools you in the fundamental tools for accurately assessing the soundness of a stock investment. Built around a full-length case study of Wal-Mart, it shows you how to perform an in-depth analysis of that company's financial standing, walking you through all the steps of developing a sophisticated financial model as done by professional Wall Street analysts. You will construct a full scale financial model and valuation step-by-step as you page through the book. When we ran this analysis in January of 2012, we estimated the stock was undervalued. Since the first run of the analysis, the stock has increased 35 percent. Re-evaluating Wal-Mart 9months later, we will step through the techniques utilized by Wall Street analysts to build models on and properly value business entities. Step-by-step financial modeling - taught using downloadable Wall Street models, you will construct the model step by step as you page through the book. Hot keys and explicit Excel instructions aid even the novice excel modeler. Model built complete with Income Statement, Cash Flow Statement, Balance Sheet, Balance Sheet Balancing Techniques, Depreciation Schedule (complete with accelerating depreciation and deferring taxes), working capital schedule, debt schedule, handling circular references, and automatic debt pay downs. Illustrative concepts including detailing model flows help aid in conceptual understanding. Concepts are reiterated and honed, perfect for a novice yet detailed enough for a professional. Model built direct from Wal-Mart public filings, searching through notes, performing research, and illustrating techniques to formulate projections. Includes in-depth coverage of valuation techniques commonly used by Wall Street professionals. Illustrative comparable company analyses - built the right way, direct from historical financials, calculating LTM (Last Twelve Month) data, calendarization, and properly smoothing EBITDA and Net Income. Precedent transactions analysis - detailing how to extract proper metrics from relevant proxy statements Discounted cash flow analysis - simplifying and illustrating how a DCF is utilized, how unlevered free cash flow is derived, and the meaning of weighted average cost of capital (WACC) Step-by-step we will come up with a valuation on Wal-Mart Chapter end questions, practice models, additional case studies and common interview questions (found in the companion website) help solidify the techniques honed in the book; ideal for universities or business students looking to break into the investment banking field.




How Markets Fail


Book Description

How did we get to where we are? John Cassidy shows that the roots of our most recent financial failure lie not with individuals, but with an idea - the idea that markets are inherently rational. He gives us the big picture behind the financial headlines, tracing the rise and fall of free market ideology from Adam Smith to Milton Friedman and Alan Greenspan. Full of wit, sense and, above all, a deeper understanding, How Markets Fail argues for the end of 'utopian' economics, and the beginning of a pragmatic, reality-based way of thinking. A very good history of economic thought Economist How Markets Fail offers a brilliant intellectual framework . . . fine work New York Times An essential, grittily intellectual, yet compelling guide to the financial debacle of 2009 Geordie Greig, Evening Standard A powerful argument . . . Cassidy makes a compelling case that a return to hands-off economics would be a disaster BusinessWeek This book is a well constructed, thoughtful and cogent account of how capitalism evolved to its current form Telegraph Books of the Year recommendation John Cassidy ... describe[s] that mix of insight and madness that brought the world's system to its knees FT, Book of the Year recommendation Anyone who enjoys a good read can safely embark on this tour with Cassidy as their guide . . . Like his colleague Malcolm Gladwell [at the New Yorker], Cassidy is able to lead us with beguiling lucidity through unfamiliar territory New Statesman John Cassidy has covered economics and finance at The New Yorker magazine since 1995, writing on topics ranging from Alan Greenspan to the Iraqi oil industry and English journalism. He is also now a Contributing Editor at Portfolio where he writes the monthly Economics column. Two of his articles have been nominated for National Magazine Awards: an essay on Karl Marx, which appeared in October, 1997, and an account of the death of the British weapons scientist David Kelly, which was published in December, 2003. He has previously written for Sunday Times in as well as the New York Post, where he edited the Business section and then served as the deputy editor. In 2002, Cassidy published his first book, Dot.Con. He lives in New York.




The Oxford Handbook of Computational Economics and Finance


Book Description

The Oxford Handbook of Computational Economics and Finance provides a survey of both the foundations of and recent advances in the frontiers of analysis and action. It is both historically and interdisciplinarily rich and also tightly connected to the rise of digital society. It begins with the conventional view of computational economics, including recent algorithmic development in computing rational expectations, volatility, and general equilibrium. It then moves from traditional computing in economics and finance to recent developments in natural computing, including applications of nature-inspired intelligence, genetic programming, swarm intelligence, and fuzzy logic. Also examined are recent developments of network and agent-based computing in economics. How these approaches are applied is examined in chapters on such subjects as trading robots and automated markets. The last part deals with the epistemology of simulation in its trinity form with the integration of simulation, computation, and dynamics. Distinctive is the focus on natural computationalism and the examination of the implications of intelligent machines for the future of computational economics and finance. Not merely individual robots, but whole integrated systems are extending their "immigration" to the world of Homo sapiens, or symbiogenesis.




Technology Shocks


Book Description

Radical technological changes (so-called "technology shocks") frequently disrupt the competitive market structure. New entrants appear, industries need to be redefined, incumbents lose their positions or vanish completely. Fast moving industries - like the often quoted example of the semiconductor industry - have preferably been analyzed for these phenomena. But do the findings hold for industries with longer development cycles like the global machine tool industry? Here, multivariate analysis is used to find out what management needs to focus on in order to lead companies through the technology shocks. The research for this book builds on in-depth interviews with 100 experts and decision makers from the machine tool industry involved in technology shocks and statistical analysis of detailed quantitative surveys collected from 58 companies. In several instances the results challenge classical teaching of technology management. Adrian J. Slywotzky - US top selling business author and one of the most distinguished intellectual leaders in business - comments: "In Technology Shocks, Heinrich Arnold develops a very useful model for analyzing technology shocks, and for focusing on those factors that will enable a company to navigate through these shocks successfully, and repeatedly. Although this work is focused on technology, its thinking has useful implications beyond technology shocks. It provides ideas that managers can use to protect their firms when they are faced with any type of discontinuity, technology-based or not".




Project Scheduling with Time Windows


Book Description

Project Scheduling is concerned with the allocation of scarce resources over time. The rich optimisation models with time windows that are treated in this book cover a multitude of practical decision problems arising in diverse application areas such as construction engineering or make-to-order production planning. The book shows how Constraint Propagation techniques from Artificial Intelligence can be successfully combined with Operations Research methods for developing powerful exact and heuristic solution algorithms for a very general class of scheduling problems. Example applications demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.




Organisation and Work Beyond 2000


Book Description

The fifth International Telework Workshop was held in Stockholm in the fall of 2000. The conference was attended by almost 100 participants from all continents of the world. It therefore covered a broad range of subjects relating to Telework. Its success was in some part due to the work of the program committee composed of Birger Rapp (General Chairman), Maarten Botterman, Geoff Dick, Gil Gordon, Ursula Huws, Paul Jackson, Peter Johnston, Patricia L. Mokhtarian, Victor de Pous, Lars Qvotrup, Wendy Spinks and Reirna Suomi. After the conference we decided to write a book on the theme "Organization and the future after 2000". Many of the participants as well as others were invited to contribute a chapter of about ten pages. The resulting book of almost 400 pages therefore provides a comprehensive overview of ongoing research in the field of Telework. Birger Rapp and Paul Jackson edited the book. The intended audience for this book spans disciplinary and professional boundaries. It primarily relates to the disciplines of Business and Management Studies, Information Management, E-commerce and E-business. In a broader sense, it relates to Sociology, Media Studies and Economics.




Current Topics in Quantitative Finance


Book Description

The present volume collects a selection of revised papers which were presented at the 21st Euro Working Group on Financial Modelling Meeting, held in Venice (Italy), on October 29-31, 1997. The Working Group was founded in September 1986 in Lisbon with the objective of providing an international forum for the exchange of information and experience; encouraging research and interaction be tween financial economic theory and practice of financial decision mak ing, as well as circulating information among universities and financial institutions throughout Europe. The attendance to the Meeting was large and highly qualified. More than 80 participants, coming from 20 different Countries debated on 5 invited lectures and 40 communications in regular sessions. The sessions were located at the Island of San Servolo, on the Venetian lagoon, just in front of the Doges Palace. San Servolo Island is a natural oasis, in the midst of a unique urban setting, offering great relaxation in a peaceful park and a panoramic view of Venice. The friendly atmosphere added great benefit to the formal and informal discussions among the participants, -which is typical of E.W.G.F.M. Meetings. It is interesting to consider the story of the Meeting. The previous locations were held at Cyprus, Crete and Dubrovnik - former mile stones of the Venitian Republic influence on the Mediterranean Sea. Therefore, that this Meeting should be harboured in the heart of the Republic itself (namely, the Saint Mark basin), was only a matter of consequence.




Interorganisational Standards


Book Description

Standards play crucial roles in many different aspects of today’s economy. They can define meanings of semantics, product interfaces, process steps, or performance levels. Interorganisational standards are specifications that define business-related semantics and processes, which are made accessible to other organisations’ information systems. While modular organisation forms such as supply chain networks demand such standards for higher flexibility, XML-based Web Services offer a relatively new technological platform to develop such standards. The development of comprehensive interorganisational standards, however, is far from being completed. This book thus answers the questions, how interorganisational standards are developed and how different actors should get involved in it. The author uses actor-network theory to conduct two in-depth case studies on ebXML and RosettaNet. While researchers will find new explanations for the development of interorganisational standards, managers and executives will benefit from the strategic implications this book discusses.