Majority vs Plurality

While this may be useful for all classes, it is EXACTLY what we were talking about when Chris Kinslow was lecturing!

Company News | Reuters.com:

"Bank of America Corp. (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) shareholders, rejecting management's recommendation, on Wednesday voted to urge the No. 2 U.S. bank to require that directors be elected by majority vote.

At the bank's annual meeting near its Charlotte, North Carolina, headquarters, holders of 56 percent of Bank of America shares said the board of directors should begin a process to amend its certificate of incorporation or by-laws to require a majority vote.

and:

"Bank of America had urged that shareholders turn down the proposal. It said the current system, under which directors are elected by plurality"

"cheat sheet"

Just a reminder: for all my classes I have the same policy for finals:

* you are allowed a cheat sheet (front and back 8.5 inch by 11 inch paper)
* you can bring "present value tables" if you so desire, but you have to have created them yourself (excel) and they cannot be copied from a book.

quick comments on the MBA 610 cases for the 5 week course

Since we did not make teams for this week, let;s push it back to next week. We will talk about it in class on Friday.

Thanks!

Financial derivatives

Derivatives lecture from 5 week MBA 610 class

Intro to takeovers and mergers

Takeovers and mergers get much news coverage. In htis class we covered what they are and why firms do them.

Democrat & Chronicle: Essays

Did you see this?

Democrat & Chronicle: Essays: "Fans won't balk if Bills raise admission

Rodney J. Paul
(April 19, 2006) — The Buffalo Bills simply need to raise ticket prices."

Questions on cases

I have been asked several times about what is required for the cases. I am a bit reluctant to say spscifically since it will limit your creativity, but...


What exactly are you looking for for these cases? The one page write up consists of??????

well hard to say since I am not really sure....the one page memo (for when you are not presenting) is easy--must be on one page (single spaced, so maybe 2-3 paragraphs plus some questions--one paragraph summary, one paragrapgh main points of paper...then some questions you might ask the groups...so it all fits on one page....

The papers for the presentation are obviously more challenging...give me a QUICK recap (i would say less than a page), then discuss main point(s) of the case and give recomendation (and show why if possible using financial theory/numbers)...that is the fun part :) It should be less than 10 pages. Ideally 6-8. Be sure to cite things as necessary (I really do not care what format is used to cite things).

Hope this helps!

Audio: Introduction to Corporate Governance

A first look at corporate governance. From MBA 610. A discussion that looks at why shareholders elect Board members, a look at conflicts, and a QUICK look at the 1990s.

Audio: Derivatives Recap

About an hour long recap of financial derivatives.

A spreadsheet to show the importance of saving

As Graduation nears, many people begin to think about their own finances. I hope this spreadsheet serves as a reminder why you should save as soon as possible.


ThinkFree Office requires Java-runtime. Visit trouble shooting page

Teams for 610

The groups by class are as follows:

Monday Class
1 McBride Ian
1 Richardson Sean
1 Gonzalez Jon

2 Haggerty Brian
2 Sluga Dave
2 Oleyourryk Dan

3 Babcock Adam
3 Rizzolo Mark
3 Cronmiller Matt
3 Spagnolo Julie

4 Wright Melissa
4 Pope Kelly
4 Pirdy Cassie
4 Onuffer Jolie

5 DiMario Anthony
5 Kane James
5 Sidney-Simth Brian

6 Post Matthew
6 Lindsay Brian
6 Gallo Jeff


Tuesday Class

1Fisher Lorrie
1Halpany Mike
1Werner Scott

2 Orlando Sam
2 Owens Brad
2 Kuhn John

3 Hallen Kevin
3 Rosati Nick
3 Pilcher Brian

4 Matt Mike
4 Jones Lyndsay
4 Doyle Pat

5 Fuller Karen
5 Soble Corinne
5 Mahler Rebecca

6 Conklin Tim
6 Batesky Adam
6 Eyde Sean

Introduction Comparison

WNY INDEX

Capital structure III

The wrap-up on Capital Structure. What else impacts it, pecking order, tradeoff, hybrid theory, etc. From MBA 610 HIII

Capital Structure II

Second of three parts of MBA 610 Lecture

Capital Structure I

Capital Structure I-audio of MBA 610 HIII

Market Efficiency Audio

Market Efficiency from MBA 610 HIII

Dealbook - Mergers, Acquisitions, Venture Capital, Hedge Funds - New York Times

Want to keep up with the business world for class or to prep prior to an interview? I would highly recommend the NY Times Deal Book. It comes as a once a day newsletter or as a blog. Either way, great coverage!

Dealbook - Mergers, Acquisitions, Venture Capital, Hedge Funds - New York Times: "Top DealBook Headlines"

Audio of Derivatives lecture

Derivatives should not scare people, yet they often do? Why? They are unknown. So listen to the notes on forwards, futures, and options. From MBA 610

How much to take from the blogs?

I was asked again about how much you are responsible for when it comes to the blogs.

The short version, try to get the main point(s) of the articles that are listed. YOU DO NOT NEED to read them all!!! If you get one or two things from each article that is related to your class, then I am happy and in the long run, you will learn much more than if you try to cram all of your learning into just the semester. Remember finance is fun! I expect many of you will be reading the blog long after you left class/school.

Here is a part of my response to the student who emailed me:

"Think of the blog as a course packet of largely optional readings...they are often interesting and can be used to get concrete examples of something we will be talking about in class.

The exception to this is if we actually do talk about a paper etc in class, then you should at least look at it...a test generally has 5% or so from the blog...so not a major concern...

and for all papers, just read to get the top two or three points...you definitely do not need to print everything out!

hope this helps..."

Calculators you should be familiar with

Numa has several calulators that you should be familiar with. We used the option pricing one in 610, but each of these are relevant for both 610 and 422.


NumaWeb : DERIVATIVES : Convertible Bond Calculator
NumaWeb: DERIVATIVES: Option Calculator

For all of their calculators check here.


Note, these not only help build understanding of how derivatives work, but alsomake great test questions! ;)

where is the podcast?

Somehow I deleted the link to the podcast, so here it is again. I will put it back on the 610 pages soon.

CAPM Notes

Notes from MBA 610 on CAPM (Saturday after Lunch)--2+ hours

A first look at returns

A beginning look at Returns..from Just before Lunch on Saturday of Week One in a 5 week version of MBA 610

More On CAPM

Here is the link to the CAPM papers (In particular Fama's) that we spoke of at the end of class on Saturday.
http://financeclass.blogspot.com/2005/01/two-capm-articles-of-interest-for-610.html

Links used for MBA 610 5 week class

Here are some of the links we used for the class on Friday and SAturday that were not on the MBA 610 page.

Types of Bonds--sorry the page looks so bad!

The Bond pricing example (with Duration)
The historical returns for S&P

Discussion of the Dow and its divisor