Extra Credit Opportunity

For both the MBA 610 final (Regular and 5 week classes) and the 422 final, there will be an extra credit offer:

submit multiple choice problems (must have a through e as potential answers with correct answer marked and a quick explanation given).

If your problem is selected for the test, you

1. Get it right--or at least hopefully get it right ;)
2. Get 2 points added to your test.

You can submit as many questions as you want. (never cap an incentive based package :) )

JFQA Forthcoming Articles

JFQA Forthcoming Articles

It is too short for a FinanceProfessorblog entry, but given we just were talking about conditions for market efficiency this weekend,I figured I could put it here.

From an upcoming JFQA (Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis).

"Short Sale Constraints, Differences of Opinion, and Overvaluation
Rodney D. Boehme, Bartley R. Danielsen, and Sorin M. Sorescu
Miller (1977) hypothesizes that dispersion of investor opinion in the presence of short-sale constraints leads to stock price overvaluation. However, previous empirical tests of Miller’s hypothesis have examined the valuation effects of only one of these two necessary conditions. We examine the valuation effects of the interaction between differences of opinion and short sale constraints. We find robust evidence of significant overvaluation for stocks that are subject to both conditions simultaneously. Stocks are not systematically overvalued when either one of these two conditions is not met."

dates of MBA 610 finals

There has apparently been some misunderstanding of when tests are for the two on campus classes.

The final for the Monday class is Monday May 9th. The final for the Thursday class is TUESDAY May 10th.

Both tests are at normal class time.


The Hilbert final is the last Saturday starting at noon.

Finance 422 Assignment

Create a spreadsheet (excel or excel compatible) that uses the black Scholes formula to price call options.

From this also come up with the theoretical price for puts.

Once this is done, graph the various "greeks" (that is how the call price changes with the various variables.)


Due April 26, 2005

MBA 610 "teams"

Reposted with deletions...


Now that other issues have been settled (a post will follow tonight), I would like to make teh teams known.

The cases will done in week 14. Details are on the class website.

Monday Class

Team 1

Rust, Brodhead, Carucac, Fitzpatrick, Purdy

Team 2

Brtko, Brecht, DeVay, Krishnaswamy, DeHaven

Team 3

Gray, Walsh, Patenella, Arcangeli, Spaulding

Team 4

Cullen, Domboski, Neri, Phillips, Brown, Lucas

Team 5

Castenada, O’Rourke, Erickson, Tingley, Harper

Team 6

Bovee, Bradley, Fletcher, McElligot, Szymcanicz

Thursday Class

Team 1

Zimmer, Kistner, Monteleone, Stavish

Team 2

Overs, Benedict, Bilotta, Hollebeke

Team 3

Auteritano, Plants, Johnson, Reagan

Team 4

Haggerman, Shufran, Kapersky, Buttles

Team 5

Lulas, Bubbs, Gilmartin, Castro

Team 6

Warning, Denine, Tandle, Elliott

Update on the 610 test situation

First of all thank you for the many emails and instant messages that encouraged me to pursue this. While it is depressing that this situation has arisen, I am encouraged by the fact that so many of you are concerned about it and think that it is wrong.

Unfortunately the issue has not resolved itself. The parties did not come forward. So after further attempts to figure out how this could possibly have happened at random failed, I decided to fall back on statistics.

This afternoon we entered all of the multiple choice answers for everyone who took the same form as the questionable tests (and gee that was fun!--NOT). Once this was done, a correlation matrix was calculated. Because the scores are not normally distributed I will report the median rather than the mean. The median correlation was about a .27 with a standard error of about .07. The highest? Above a .96 on the exams in question. This more or less convinced me there is a problem.

After these calculations, I notified Dr. Peterson and Dean Fischer. We will meet soon to discuss the next steps in the process.

I will keep you informed.

Thanks for your patience on this important matter. Remember it is more important to get it right than to act quickly.

MBA 610 tests are corrected

Well they are done. :)

I will give you all of the details in class, but overall they were pretty good :)

I do have a few concerns however. Namely it was suggested to me that there may have been cheating on the exam.

Thus, a few comments:

1. I will "up the bounty" on evidence. There will now be a 200 point reward.
2. I am entering the actual answers of students to look for extremely high correlations of answers. However, just eyeballing it, it appears that there may be a problem with a couple of students.
3. If you turn yourself in, the punishment will be much less severe.

You have to understand, I do not want to believe that anyone cheated. My prior belief is that you are innocent. However, if I am able to prove that cheating occurred, then I will be left with no choice but to take it to the Dean and the VP of academic affairs. This will force you to retake the class (which will really screw up some of your job plans!).

So, if you did cheat, please come forward. I will be much less harsh on those who self-report.

(I learned that from the NCAA ;) )

MBA 610 Test Info

Ok, after hearing from a few of you I have decided that moving the exam would not be fair since some people have prior commitments the following week as well.

BUT before you all panic and there is an option!!! I will also offer the exam on Friday March 11th (as in 311) . This optional exam will be in Murphy Aud C from 12:31 to 3:11 (hey it must be a sign or something!).

This later time will be available for the Thursday and Monday class, HOWEVER, I will need a count before hand. Thus, if you plan on taking the test on the Friday, please notify me by noon on Monday 3/7/05. Otherwise I will assume you will be taking the exam with your class.

Also some students have requested more suggested problems to help prepare for the test following spring break:

13.6, 13.17, 13.20, 13.22
14.8, 14.4, 14.11
15.1, 15.10, 15.14, 15.17 15.21, 15.22
16.13, 16.6, 16.4, 16.8, 16.9
17.5, 17.6,

Also, take a look at the test page on financeprofessor.com:
http://www.financeprofessor.com/tests/testmainpage.html

Finally it was suggested to me that I offer a review session prior to break. Not wanting to stand in the way of students trying to learn more, I agreed. It will be at 12:30 to 1:30 on this FRIDAY (2/25/05) in Murphy C. If you are coming and are willing to take notes to put online, I am sure some of your classmates would appreciate it!

more comments on 610 class

This is TO EVERYONE in MBA 610

Whew. It appears the last blog entry did get people’s attention. While I will try to address several topics in this entry, the largest thing I want to stress is that I realize the majority of you are doing the work. Thus the last blog entry was not really aimed at you. This one is.

From the second I left class last Monday I began to think of how to say what I wanted to the class. I had much of the plan constructed before arriving home, but I wanted to sleep on it so as to not sound too harsh. Moreover, I then wanted to respond sooner but opted to wait until the whole class had a chance to see the original entry untempered by further explanation.

Why was I upset? It was not that the grades were poor. Sure I felt that you should have done better but I can live with an occasional poor performance. (and I do realize that it was Valentine’s Day and a Monday after Alumni Weekend neither of which should matter but both do). I was not even upset about people complaining about the workload. I know it is heavy. It is supposed to be. I have thick enough skin to take the criticism.

What did upset me was the fact that during the class more and more people seemed to be giving up. Essentially saying that they could not do it. This is totally false! I continue to have no doubt that you can all do this! And in fact many of you are doing it.

As you all know I love sports, so let’s talk sports for a second. The talent difference between a good team and a bad team is often very minor. What does separate the good from the bad is often attitude. It is the coach’s job to make sure that the athletes have a good attitude and are working towards a common goal.

Both good and bad attitudes are contagious. That is why some athletes with great potential are seen as “cancers” to teams. These players detract from the performances of those around them.
Classes are much like teams. When a few people give up it makes it easier and easier for others to do so as well. When one person develops the attitude that “we don’t want to do the readings”, others quickly adopt that attitude. That is why I was so upset when I saw the “I don’t care” attitude.

To those of you who think my standards (or demands) are too high, I respectfully disagree. Yes I understand that you are busy and have many demands on your time. I also realize that I might ask for more from you than other teachers, but that is because I am convinced that people who attend SBU deserve the best education that money can buy and I am equally convinced that with a bit more effort you can all amaze yourself with how much you can learn.

Many of you have paid in the vicinity of $120,000 for your SBU education. This is roughly the price of a house. Stop and think about that for a second If you were to buy a house, you would want everything to be perfect.

The same holds in the class room. You deserve the best possible education and to be held to the highest possible standards. For me to ignore the problems that were developing in class last Monday would have been paramount to me saying I don’t care and that you can not do the work.

Yes, my standards are challenging: I ask you to read a great deal; my tests are “not easy”; you have to read journal articles (at least at some level). Why? Because that is what top schools do and that is our competition.

Consider for a moment our text. We use the same text book as classes at many of the top schools in the nations. A list that includes Ohio State, Penn State, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Texas, and NYU to name a few. That is intentional. In the job market we will be held to the same standards as graduates of these fine programs. To hold you to lower standards in class is negligent.

A final thought: a coach/teacher is paid to get more out of the athlete/student than the person could alone. Almost by definition this means that I have to push you harder than you want to be pushed. In the short-run this is not much fun, but in the longer run it pays large dividends.

Ok? Let’s put last week’s class behind us (like a bad loss to a sports team) and take it as a learning experience. Going forward I ask that you work as hard as I know you can. And for my part, I will try to remember that even great teams lose an occasional game :) and this class has the potential to be a great team!



BTW I would like to thank the majority of you who took time to write. I will have more on that in a later post.

Monday's 610 comments

First of all I want to stress that this is not aimed at everyone in the class. Some of you did quite well (11 of 13 was the high) on the quiz and obviously are doing the readings. However it is equally obvious that yesterday's class left a great deal to be desired. From the quiz grades to the complaining, it may have been the first time in 4 years that I actually questioned my decision to teach at SBU and not a more research oriented university.

I will take the blame. Obviously I am not getting the point across to you that you have to do the readings and that it is not a blow off course. 12 of the 13 questions on the quiz were verbatim from the end of chapter ONLINE quizzes for the readings from this week and last. So you had access to all of the questions and answers prior to the quiz! And the performance was still that poor. I presume that the complaining (let us out of class, I do not want to do that much reading, etc) were just venting after a poor quiz, but I would appreciate you make any complaints to me priviately. Complaining in class is a quick way to turn others off to the topic as well.

However, my real concern is the quiz and not the complaints. I have a tough time concluding that you all are really doing the readings. (Well it is either that or that you really are part of a giant sandbag cartel ;) ).

Ok, so we chalk yesterday's class up to being the first time you used the clickers and the Monday after alumni weekend, and several of you were sick, tired, etc. However, what can we do moving forward? I do not want to cause panic, but I do want to warn you again that if the quizzes give you trouble, a test (which is much longer, covers MUCH more material, and has some questions that are more challenging) is going to be a bit more troubling.

I understand that all students want less work, but that is really not fair to those that do know the material to “dumb down” the class. Indeed it is not even fair to those of you who are asking for it. You deserve to be challenged. In the long run you want to be challenged.

Moreover, I am positive that you can all do this. It is not rocket science. You can do it! I mean it. I wish I could convince you of that. When I look out at the class, there are about 10 of you who are sitting with totally blank expressions, not taking notes, just sitting as if you have given up. That is totally the wrong attitude. You can do this! Indeed, many of you have done more than this in Finance 401. Or even Finance 301! And they are undergrad classes. So I know you can do it!

You are all paying a great deal for your MBA. It is my job to make that degree worth something and not just a repeat of what you had in 604 or undergrad classes. Obviously as an graduate course, it has to be more challenging than an undergrad course and as the final finance class this has to be more thorough than a introductory (604) class.

For my part went back and tried to clarify what you have to do for each class. I also want to remind you for the upteenth time that you do not have to read every word of every paper but that you only need to get the top two or three ideas from any paper. For that matter, right now I would be ecstatic if you get the top point from each reading!

Also a note to those of you are banking on "making it by" on the class curve, remember that the curve is not guaranteed. Indeed the syllabus says you need a 90% for an A. So, if I feel that you are not holding up your end of the bargain up--which will be in part evidenced by quiz grades, there will be no curve. You might want to reread that last sentence!

Just in case you think finance is not useful

Ok, so this is really simple, but I figured some of you might be interested...a real life use of finance...

done in Excel using PMT and PV functions.


looking at buying a car…four choices to pay for it

1. $500 rebate
2. 1.9% for 3 years
3. 2.9% for 4 years
4. 3.9% for 5 years

Analysis assumes a 6.22% interest rate is the opportunity cost of capital
this comes from the median rate for a new car, 20% down. (Not quite right, but close)
http://biz.yahoo.com/b/r/a.html

PV
choice 1 500


for all other choices, I assume a 20% downpayment of selling price (about 18,000)
that is borrow 14,400
downpymt of 3,600

choice 2: monthly rate = .019/12, 36 payments


($411.82) Payment
$13,492.84 PV of payments

PV of savings =14440-13,492.84 = 907.16

choice 3

($318.10) Payment
$13,486.73 PV of 48 payments

$913.27 PV of savings

choice 4

($264.55) payment
$13,611.78 PV of 60 payments

$788.22 PV of savings


So assuming the above is correct, it is choice 3...but given at least some positive Transaction Costs and desire to pay it earlier, I would probably recommend choice 2.

Fin 422 required reading on MVE frontier

I just found this. It is from a math professor at McMaster University. The paper is an excellent description of how to create a MVE frontier using Excel.

It may be a bit beyond what you are used to, but if you read it a few times, I am sure you can handle it.

Finance 422-tentative deadlines

ok, here is a preliminary outline for due dates etc. I am sure there are things I have left out but this can be our starting point.

Thursday (2/3/05) –We will also cover Chapter 6 and 7, so not as much time devoted to Index

1. Preliminary “prospectus” criteria for inclusion in index due, name of index, how it differs from other available indices
2. Website space needed—upload prospectus and excel file
   

Next Tuesday (2/8/05)—

1. list of all publicly traded WNY firms due. In class we will make group decision on questionable firms as to whether they meet criteria for inclusion.
2. List of what to include on website as well as how to design the page, ideas, FrontPage?, name etc.

By Thursday 2/10/05:

1. List of newspapers, business publications, radio stations with business shows—might want to keep the same county by county approach
2. Next version of “prospectus” due—should include a discussion of actual computation of the index, firms included, how often it will be updated, where it is available online etc.
3. Preliminary Web site

Tuesday 2/15/05—

1. Complete index—available only to class
2. Addresses and letter to be mailed to publications above
3. preliminary press release to PR dept.

Thursday 2/17/05—

1. Check backed data index to 2000 (further back if possible--but I have doubts)
2. Comparison of index to Business First index, any other local index, S&P, Dow, Nasdaq
3. directions as to how to update the index
4. Press release announcing index to faculty

Thursday 2/24/05—invite Drs. Peterson, Horan, Fischer, Sister Margaret? (OTH?, Buffalo News?) etc to class to show them??? Totally your call on this one. I really do not feel like getting dressed up, but if you want the recognition, we will schedule it.

—final version ready for mailing out to newspapers etc.

What I learned in class....

Research on memory and learning suggests that recall is enhanced by reviewing class material as soon after class as you can. Thus, you may be able to spend 5-10 minutes reviewing class notes right after class, but if you put it off until just before the test, the same recall may require several hours.

From personal experience I would suggest that this works even if it is only mentally. For instance, while going home from class, try to remember a few things that you learned in class (time commitment near zero). I think you will be amazed at how well it works!

Good luck!

Finance 422--from RIch

If you are in 610 you can ignore this.

Yes folks, Rich Miller has found a useful site for our project.


http://rin.buffalo.edu/_asp/econ/econ_coc.asp?county_name=wny

the link is a list of every chamber of commerce in WNY...

can you forward it to everyone in class?

GMAT

IF you still need to take the GMAT, this seems like a great opportunity!

A representative from Kaplan will be offering free practice GRE, GMAT and LSAT exams on the evening of Tuesday, February 15. The GMAT test will begin at 6:00 p.m., the LSAT at 6:15 p.m, and the GRE at 6:30 p.m. Tests will be about three hours in length. Interested individuals must pre-resgister with the Career Center by Friday, February 11.

Connie Whitcomb, DirectorThe Career Center

FInance lab times and location for spring semester

Please let your classes know that I will be available for help in either Finance or Economics on Tuesdays from 7-9pm and on Wednesdays from 6-9pm. I will be in the new S.I.M.M. room that is in the basement of the Reilly Center. It is the old student weight room or room 29. If anyone wants to get in contact with me please give them my email address and/or name.


Thanks,
Adam Babcock

Two CAPM articles of interest for 610

Thought these might help some for our discussion of CAPM. the yare from the April 2004 FinanceProfessor.com newsletter:

I love summary articles. They help make sense of the world and let us see the forest through the trees. Some of my favorites include the Harris and Raviv summary article on capital structure, Fama's paper that responds to Behavioral Finance Theories, and Cliff Smith's introduction to his book of readings in Corporate Finance. And now I have a favorite on the CAPM and other pricing models. While still officially a working paper, Fama and French give us an excellent recap of both current and past work in the field. My favorite line (and totally coincidentally the conclusion): "The CAPM, Like Markowitz' (1952, 1959) portfolio model on which it is built, is nevertheless a theoretical tour de force. We continue to teach the CAPM….but we also warn students that despite its seductive simplicity, the CAPM's empirical problems probably invalidate its use in applications." WOW! Well said. http://gsbwww.uchicago.edu/fac/finance/papers/capm%202004.pdf

Confused about the differing assumptions of pricing models? More than likely you know that the assumptions don't hold very well and you probably know much research has looked at how the assumptions matter. Fama and French now provide a framework to hopefully make sense of some of this confusion. In a working paper they show that investor tastes and expectations matter. For instance, when discussing the CAPM, they conclude that with differing expectations, there is little a priori reason to expect that the market portfolio is the tangency portfolio (and hence the market portfolio may or may not be mean variance efficient, which is a central tenant of CAPM). Additionally the authors use the concept of investor disagreement (and its impact on the market portfolio) to discuss a range of topics ranging from value investing, to stock picking, and mutual fund performance. Very interesting. Not sure how they do it. Great paper after Great paper! http://gsbwww.uchicago.edu/fac/finance/papers/assetprices2004b.pdf

class CD for 610

I had a student ask about the CD that came with text. Is it good? yes!

If you are looking for extra problems etc, I would highly recommend it.

Especially the quizzes that are there. Most of the material is also online, so you can get to it there, but the CD is much faster.

Decision on MBA 610 Revolution book

We are sticking with it. I think it is important enough that we stay with it. I would suggest you try to find it online if the bookstore does not get it.

The Revolution in Corporate Finance ISBN 1-40510-781-2

Amazon has it listed new for $61, used for $40. I owuld also suggest sharing :)

class codes for clickers

Class codes
MBA 610 -01 (monday class)- M8613B914
MBA 610 -02 (thursday class)-N8614B834
MBA 610 (hilbert class)-M8615C688

GO TO EINSTUCTION.COM TO REGISTER

Finance Club Meeting

The first meeting of the SBU Finance Club Meeting will be held
Wednesday night (1/19/05) at 7 pm in the SIMM room in the Reily Center (the old student weight room below the Post Office) to discuss the trip to Chicago.

If you want to go to Chicago but can not attend the meeting please Rich Miller (MILLERRA@sbu.edu) know as soon as possible.

If you are not a member of the club you really should join. It is open to all majors and I think it is one of the best clubs on campus. Just some of the activities we have planned for this semester include:

• the aforementioned Chicago Trip
• a fund raiser for a local boy who has a brain tumor (Tyler)
• working on a web site to teach business/economics/finance to those in the Middle East (largely Syria, Iran, and Iraq)
• a finance tutoring program
• a resume book

Contact Rich for more information:
(MILLERRA@sbu.edu)

CollegeJournal | News & Trends

Good news for those of you graduating with MBA's this year!!

CollegeJournal | News & Trends: "the recruiting climate is improving for M.B.A.s eyeing careers in consulting"

Tsunami relief funds

Well we talk about giving back in some classes, here is a chance.

Red Cross-Red Crescent - Make a donation At some level this is not the correct use of this blog, but on another level if it helps, I am willing to break the rules. This is getting posted on all of my blogs and on the FinanceProfessor.com website itself (later tonight).

After seeing the total destruction caused by the tsunami, I decided to end my week "vacation" from posting and post a link for people to donate. To say the destruction is horrific is an understatement. Money will not make bring back the lives (estimated now at almost 80,000 and maybe 100,000) but may help reduce some of the suffering and even prevent the feared epidemics that the deaths may cause.

CNN has complied a list of aid societies. If you do not want to give to the RedCross/Red Crescent, then pick another. But please give some :)

Additionally at our Allegany Store we will be accepting donations which will be forwarded to the RedCross/RedCrescent Society. Just tell any cashier or stop at the service desk.

Reason #100000 to not smoke

CollegeJournal | On the Job

"Gradually though, where employees smoke will become less of an issue, because in Omaha and seven other states, Union Pacific won't hire smokers.'

"While obesity, stress and muscular-skeletal problems like carpal-tunnel syndrome are all on the radar screen, companies are going after smoking with particular zeal. Union Pacific's policies still aren't commonplace, but the company is far from alone in its efforts to openly discourage smoking and encourage quitting.

Home-improvement retail chain Lowe's doesn't allow smoking on its corporate campus or anywhere on its store properties, including the parking lots. And while Union Pacific relies on the honor system to ferret out smokers during the hiring process (there's a question on the job application), Alaska Airlines has gone a step further, requiring potential hires to pass a nicotine test before they can come on board.

The reason for such attention: health and workplace experts know more about smoking today. "There's so much evidence about the impact of smoking on health and productivity," says Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health, in Washington, D.C. At the same time, "we also know more about how to help people quit than we did five years ago."

Grades are done and turned in :)

Just wanted to let both classes know I have turned in all of the grades and they should be available to you via http://my.sbu.edu (I think!).

Thanks again for a fun semester. I was very happy with the performance and improvement we saw.

keep in touch! jim

update on correcting

First the good news: the Finance 401 grades (both classes) are done and submitted electronically. :) but they took longer than expected.


The bad news: MBA 610 grades will not be done until tomorrow. SORRY!!! I am still working on the problems and essays. Virtually no way they will be done before midnight. I have several things to do between now and then. I will work tonight on them again. Hopefully early afternoon tomorrow.


will post class averages etc for both later...

time to run...

How is correcting going?

I have had a few students ask about grades. Short version, I hope to have grades done tonight.

I am done with the first section of 401. I just finished the essays and short problems from the second section. I have not done 610 yet, but given that there are only 16 students, I should be able to finish that this afternoon.

So, IF things go as planned, grades should be done this afternoon. Of course things never go as planned, but...lol...

Thanks for a fun semester!!! And Happy Holidays!!!

jim

401---What new chapters?

I was asked what new chapters are on the test.

The answer? Chapters 33, 34,35.

The first version of the test is done!

I would say it is easier but no one would believe me anyway.

It is fairly long of course.

Good luck!!!!

What business classes (finance classes) can teach us

I am always nervous about the first and last classes of the year. So I wanted to write out some notes for today’s class. When I began typing I just wanted to recap what the semester. But that has been done before. So I guess these are either the some of the notes to the last class or to the first graduation address. Or both!

Congratulations. You have made it. Ok, so maybe it is not graduation time yet, but you are getting there. And minimally you have made it through all but the final from this class.


So I started out with the intent to write about what finance teaches us about life in general. But then I decided to open it up even further. So this entry is what have we learned in the business classes and how can that be incorporated into our every day lives? Consider it your first graduation address.

Accounting: In accounting classes we learned the importance of having checks and balances. We learned how to read a balance sheet and that every event has positive and negative aspects (i.e. you debit some accounts, while crediting others).

Statistics: From Stats classes we learn that few things in life are certain. Therefore, the best we can do is to “play the percentages.” We also learn to make informed decisions.

Economics: Arguably economics is the most all encompassing of any of the classes we have taken. Indeed Finance is just applied economics. So to list everything we learned would take a long time, but a few of the key things we learned: Specialization makes society better off. Free trade makes both sides better off. People maximize their own utility. Things at the margin matter!

Management: Management classes tend to fall into one of two camps. One stresses the interpersonal skills necessary to be a manager. The other camp is more number based—the so-called management science. We learn much from each. From the former we are reminded that leaders are important and that how we interact matters. From the latter, we learn to be efficient, to look for ways to continually improve, and that by basing decisions on quantifiable things we can do things much better.

Marketing: We learned that it is not just what you know, but how you come across. We learned that reputation matters and that psychology is important.

Business Information Systems: In BIS we learned that you have to be technologically competent. We learned that systems are only as good as what you put into them and that systems are only as good as their weakest link.

Finance: Finance is in many ways the key holding all of this together. Finance, in the terminology of economists, finance helps to aggregate all that we have learned in other classes. But finance is even more than that. In finance, we learned

1. that compounding is very powerful. Let it work for you and not against you. This means to save early, save often, and save regularly.
2. that taxes and transaction costs matter. Therefore take advantage of tax advantaged investment accounts and watch excessive fees and trading costs.
3. that markets are pretty efficient (although maybe not perfectly so). This means that there is no free lunch so when things sound too good to be true, be skeptical.
4. that too much debt is a bad thing. Financial distress does not just happen to firms. Be careful about borrowing. Used correctly, debt is a great tool. Used incorrectly, it leads to many problems.
5. that governance matters. Just like by structuring contracts differently can influence a firms’ market value, so too our own governance influences our returns.
6. that luck sometimes is good and sometimes bad. Plan for the worse, but hope for the best!
7. that investment is important. So invest in your assets—all of your assets. Your assets include your investments (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc), tangible assets (real estate, baseball cards, car, etc), and intangible (reputation, goodwill, your friends, your health, your mind). What does this mean? It means that while you care for your bank balance, your real property, don’t forget your friends, your family, your health, and your reputation. Sure it may not always be fun—(driving to see a sick friend never is), but do it anyways! (see next item)
8. to think long term. Not only is most of a stock’s value derived from long term growth, so too is our value. The Enrons, the Worldcoms, and others forgot this. Sure you may have to pass up some things you want, but in the long run you will be glad you did! (indeed, drug addicts have some of the lowest discount rates known: they discount the future for short-term gains.)
9. Both diversification and specialization have their places. On one hand specialization allows us to be very good at something. However, in a constantly changing world, too much specialization can be very risky. Moreover, too much of anything will lead to staleness (and often is bad for your health too). So have varied interests, be willing to learn new things, and never stop learning.
10. that there are many ways increase utility. Money is not the only thing that makes people happy. People are REMMs and care about all things. More money is good, but so too are more free time, a better standard of living, and a clean conscience. How you draw your indifference curves is a personal decision.
    
    
    To these, I would also add the importance of

• staying confident—many of you sell yourselves short. Both collectively and individually. I am not sure if it is a function of going to a small school, or not. But you should not sell yourself short!!! IF YOU WANT IT TO BE, the education you get here is every bit as good as you could get at any school in the world. Too many of you use “it is too hard” or “no one else is doing it” or “I can’t do it” as an excuse. You can do it. You just have to want to do it!
• never get too worried about money. Yes, it is money. Yes, it matters, but only to a degree. I’ve seen too many people destroy themselves (physically and mentally) over money. Do not let it happen to you. This may mean some advanced planning and might mean you do not have the fanciest car, or the largest TV. But who cares? Along these lines, the best definition of wealth I have ever heard is Wealth = monetary wealth / wants.
• staying active. Both physically and mentally. It is way too easy to stop. Don’t stop! Learn something new every day. Read, risten, take classes. Do some physical activity every day. Run, bike, walk, you name it! But to quote Nike, JUST DO IT! You will be glad in the long run!
• having fun! Life is too short to not have fun! Find hobbies that you like doing. But also at work. Remember: Work should be enjoyable, not something you have to do!!! as Anthony Annuziado said in our class: find a job you love and you'll never have to work a day in yout life!
  
  See, I told you finance was everything :) Good luck and keep in touch!!! jim

Finals Times 401

On Thursday December 9th at 1:10 for the T,Th 11:30m class
Or
On Monday December 13th at 1:10 for the T,Th 10:00am class

The test will be in the classroom. You are allowed to bring in a cheat sheet front and back. Tomorrow in class there will be a sign up for those who wish to take it opposite their scheduled time.

The next time you are feeling sorry for yourself!

wow...

Kyle Maynard Official Website - Inspirational wrestler from Georgia Kyle Maynard

The next time you find yourself feeling down or sorry for yourself, check this site out...

He was on CNN (Larry King Show). Absolutely amazing!

http://www.kmaynard.com/index.html

answer key MBA 610

As promised: (BTW not sure why formating won't work)


1.c
2.d
3.a
4.b
5. throw out
6.c
7.a
8.c
9. d
10.a
11 e
12.e
13.d
14.b
15.d
16.a
17.c
18.b
19.c
20.a
21.d
22.d
23.e
24.b
25.b
26.a
27.c
28.a
29.e
30.a
31.b
32.c
33.a
34. c
35. c
36.d
37.d
38.c
39.c
40.c
41.a
42.c
43.b
44.e
45.a
46.c
47.c
48.b
49.b
50.d

51.b
52.a
53.c
54.a
55.b
56.c
57.b
58.c
59.c
60.c
61.d
62.b
63.c
64.c
65.d
66.be
67.c
68.e
69.d
70.d

Multiple Choice Answer Key Test 2

As Promised....

Multiple Choice
1.A	26.E	51.B
2.D	27. D	52.A
3.C	28.D	53.C
4.C	29.D	54.A
5.B	30.C	55.B
6.D	31.A	56.C
7.A	32.D	57.B
8.CE	33.C	58.C
9. A	34. B	59.C
10.C	35. A	60.C
11 B	36.D	61.*
12.D	37.D	62.D
13.DFE	38.C	63.C
14.B	39.C	64.B
15.C	40.C	65.E
16.C	41.A	66.A
17.D	42.C	67.B
18.B	43.B	68.C
19.D	44.E	69.A
20.AD	45.A	70.C
21.C	46.C
22.A	47.C
23.C	48.B
24.D	49.B
25.A	50.D

Importance of networking

CollegeJournal | Search Strategies: "Between Thanksgiving and New Year's provides the free time you need to start building a group of supporters and advisers -- your network-- that will help you with your upcoming job hunt "

The Wall Street Journals' College Journal has a good article on the importance of networking.

Some highlights:

"Although networking doesn't come naturally to everyone, it's a skill you'll use for the rest of your career, says Wayne Wallace, director of the University of Florida's career center in Gainesville. "It takes a little bit of work, and that's what differentiates the people who are willing to do it," he says"

"Lance Choy, director of Stanford University's career-development center. Typically, these are relatives, friends or people you know through friends. You will feel less awkward around them, and if you're nervous, they won't mind. Starting with them will help you be more polished for later meetings.
"Students have a sense of dread about networking," says Hoffman. But if you start by talking with people you already know, it'll come more easily, she adds....Choy suggests heading to the career center at your school to gather names of contacts from the alumni database. Most universities have programs connecting students with alumni who are willing to help with career issues. Career counselors can provide contact information."

The full article

CHECK TESTS

I have had a couple of people find math errors on the grading of the test...please please CHECK this!!!! Bring any errors to class and I will make necessary corrections.

The multiple choice answer key will be posted tomorrow.

Also look for an upcoming Finance Club meeting. Probably Friday at 12:30, but I will let you know for sure when I hear.

Free practice GMAT, GRE, MCAT, LSAT etc.

If you are thinking of attending Grad school, you will almost assuredly have to take the a standardized test for admission. Now through the magic of television (ok, so it has nothing to do with TV, but I have always wanted to say that), you can take a FREE practice test for many of these standardized tests.

So why not take a practice test over break?

You can also take practice LSAT, GREs, and MCATs.

http://college.wsj.com/exams/

CollegeJournal | On the Job

Students at smaller schools (like SBU) often feel they are at a disadvantage in the job market. The WSJ helps to refute that view.
CollegeJournal | On the Job: "Research suggests that attending a prestigious school doesn't make a person more likely to be successful professionally "

My take on this is simple: yes it may be harder getting the first job coming from a small school: you may have to knock on a few more doors and send out a few more resumes, but after that, it is performance that matters!

BTW I have said before and will say again, the quality of education you get at Bonaventure really is top notch. I have friends at many of the top ranked schools around the world and the material we cover in class is identical in many cases and often we are ahead of them! So be confident when you hit the job market!

BTW this comes from the CollegeJournal a part of WSJ.com

Extended lab hours

Given our test on Thursday (6pm) lab hours will be extended this week. I think they are going from 6 to 9 on Wed.

If you have any questions, contact either Adam or Chris

from Adam:

For all of you that are in Advanced Corporate Finance, Chris Zimmer and I will be down in the SIMM conference room in the basement of Reilly (room 29) from 7-9 tonight. We will be available to answer questions and help study.

Thank You,

Adam Babcock

Updates to Finance 401 and MBA 610 pages

I just made quite a few updates to the mainpages for class. More notes etc.


For instance, capital budgeting notes, what is a stock index, more on the pecking order etc.

I am sure you are all THRILLED beyond words :)

Just to keep you all in the loop, I have started making the test. I gave up on the Bills and decided I could make test questions and watch New England score at the same time. What an ugly game!

Capital Budgeting

Capital Budgeting


Overview: Capital budgeting is the process of deciding what projects to do. As such it is just a means of doing cost-benefit analysis.
There are many capital budgeting techniques that firms can use. These techniques do not always lead to the same accept-reject decision, so it is necessary to decide what a good capital budgeting technique looks like.
NPV is the best. It is the standard against which all methods are judged. Properly applied and understood, NPV is almost everything in finance!

• An ideal Capital Budget technique should:
  use cash flows and not earnings
  consider ALL relevant cash flows.
  account for the time value of money
  be able to correctly select among mutually exclusive projects.
  be have a consistent and easy to apply decision rule.
  if properly applied lead to higher shareholder value.
  be additive
  be relatively easy to explain
  
  Net Present Value (NPV)
  NPV is the best! It satisfies all of our criterion above. It is easy to use and will lead to increased shareholder wealth.
  
  NPV = PV benefits - PV Costs
  = Initial cost + PV(expected future cash flows)
  
  Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
  The discount rate that makes NPV equal to zero.
  See table 6.3 of Ross Westerfield and Jaffe
  If cash flows are not "normal" than problems: different IRR for every sign change.
  For investing :
  For "normal" cash flows: Accept the project if IRR > cost of capital on the project. Why? IRR> r is the same as NPV > 0.
  For financing:
  If cash inflow, followed by all negative, accept if IRR <>
• Modified IRR
  Way around the multiple IRR problem is to combine the cash flows until only one sign change exists. (i.e. take present values and add positive and negative together.
  
• Way around scales differences is to use incremental IRR. This involves finding the difference between the size of the two cash flows.
  
  
• Profitability Index
  for normal cash flows PI = PV benefits / initial cost
  (that is PV of cash flows after the first cash flow)/ initial cost
  Some firms also use NPV/Initial cost.
  
  Benefit: good is rationing
  Disadvantage: still have scale problems--solution: use incremental cash flows
  
• Payback:
  How many years it takes get the investment back.
  Example: project costs 1000, pays back 300 per year
  Payback = 3.33 years
  Problems: arbitrary cut-off, ignores all cash flows after payback, ignores time value of money, leads to short-term thinking
  Advantage: Easy!!! Managers like it.
  
  
• Discounted Payback
  same as Payback period, but use discounted cash flows in stead of regular cash flows.
  
  Average Accounting rate of return---possibly my least favorite method!
  Example: accept a project is average Return on Assets is greater than some hurdle rate.
  Does not use cash flows, does not consider time value of money, has arbitrary decision rule.
  Only good things, is that it uses data that is already available and often times pay of middle managers is tied to ROI or ROA.
  
  
  
  
  

So what is on the 401 test?

I have had a couple of people ask what is on the 401 exam.

So, as near as I can figure: Chapters 5,6,7,8,9, 13, 17,18,19

which seems like more than I thought we had done...but looking at the material I think that is what we have covered.

Oh and of course the Anthony Annuziado's lecture and anything else we covered (and yes the blog is considered coverage. :)

Pictures from NYC

Ok, a little less serious!

Here are some pictures from the Finance Club's trip to NYC.

Pictures are coutesy of Rich Miller. THanks!

Job Opportunity with Met Life

On Monday November 15, 2004 Eric Bach (a former SBU finance student (graduated in 2002)) will be back on campus talking about his job. He works for Metlife as a Business to Business Employee Benefits Sales Representative.

Do not let the title sales representative scare you away. Many small businesses can not afford to have corporate benefits departments. They thus outsource this task. Eric is their contact with Metlife.

His presentation is at 6:00 in the RC (career services is handling the details).

He works out of Rochester but they are hiring for many regions.
His email is ebach@metlife.com.
Send him your resume or just email him to ask about the job.


He asked me to pass the following along.

Business to Business Employee Benefits Sales Representative
Small Market Sales Division Description:
MetLife’s Small Market Sales is a division dedicated to serving the employee benefit needs of businesses with fewer than 500 employees – a rapidly growing segment of the market. MetLife SBC provides a range of quality products and services through insurance brokers and MetLife agents. A Small Market Sales Representative develops and maintains relationships with these producers, and helps them deliver MetLife products and services that meet the needs of their small business clients. This involves meeting with insurance brokers and MetLife agents to promote our products and services and create interest in having them propose offers of coverage(s) to their small business clients.

Position Requirements:
MetLife recognizes that sales and marketing abilities are unique talents. We are looking for energetic, self-motivated and outgoing graduates with a record of achievement in school or business who wish to develop their sales and marketing skills in a challenging and fast-paced environment. All majors with a BA or BS are welcome. Each sales representative will be expected to obtain their respective State Life & Health License, Series 6 & 63 and complete a Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA) program consisting of 2 exams, after they have started employment.

What MetLife has to offer:
MetLife's goal is to have 100 million customers by 2010. We'll get there by relying on the power of relationships, by expanding our already wide array of products and services, and by making the most of an enormously diverse and talented workforce to meet the challenges of an ever-changing marketplace. This means an array of career opportunities for you.

We understand that ever present is the quest for the balance between what you do for a living...and living itself. We understand that there is life beyond MetLife - have you met life today?

The position offers a base salary during the first year. After the first year, an incentive-based compensation formula is used. The Employee Benefits Sales Representative is compensated with a competitive bonus plan and expense accounts. In addition, the company provides a full range of benefits including life, medical, dental, disability, 401(k) and retirement plans.

Dedication and motivation, together with the numerous resources MetLife offers, are a perfect combination for rapid growth and advancement within MetLife’s Institutional Sales organization.

Sales Development Training/Planning Program
The Sales Development Training/Planning Program is an intensive 12 month training program that focuses on gaining MetLife Core Product Knowledge. Through a mix of both classroom and on-the-job training that you will experience in a sales office, you will learn a wide-range of products and services offered by the Institutional sales division. Participants will concentrate on learning the Group Insurance Industry, including Dental, Individual Disability, 401k, Short and Long Term Disability as well as various other products and sales processes. This dynamic program is full of interactive exercises including product training, Professional Selling Skills, role-plays - live and videotaped, enrollment meeting presentations, and participation in “one-on-one” classroom and Broker discussions.

The Sales Representative will also participate in a mentor program for 12-24 months, following training. This program will be a great support that will provide targeted, individualized training and coaching.

MetLife is an equal opportunity employer.

Looking for a job? Have something your employer wants!

As Chris Kinslow told us in the Deutsche Bank information session, the best way to get a job is to have something that your employer wants. One thing that many employers may soon be wanting is expertise in coping with the changes that may come about with Social Security Reform.

McKinsey Quarterly has an interesting article on what the changes will likely mean to financial institutions. (The article is a bit dated in the sense it was written a few years ago, but since the discussion on social security reform effectively stopped on 9-11-2001, the material is still relevant!)

I would highly recommend reading it if you work (or are going to be working) at a financial institution.

Fama paper

I'll put this on the class page (I thought it was there), but just to let you know, here is the Fama reading on who issues stock

http://www.financeprofessor.com/mba610/minilesson%20pecking%20order.html

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=429640

enjoy!!!! :)

Class code for those of you in my MBA 610 H-III class

The relevant info for the "clickers"....you will have to register at einstruction.com

Class Name: MBA610fall2004
Your Class Key: P5458Q316
SAVE THIS KEY NOW!

Yahoo! News - Feds: Obesity Raising Airline Fuel Costs

Yahoo! News - Feds: Obesity Raising Airline Fuel Costs

As if the airline industry did not have enough problems:

"America's growing waistlines are hurting the bottom lines of airline companies as the extra pounds on passengers are causing a drag on planes. Heavier fliers have created heftier fuel costs, according to the government study."

Not sure how we can include this, but I had to share it. I guess under forecasting? If you are on the staff that is forecasting the fuel needs of the airline, you also have to include whether the plane is full of heavy people.

Class notes from Anthony Annunziato's lecture

For those of you who missed the presentation of Anthony Annuziado, here are some of my notes on the presentation.

NOTE: they are my notes, and not in absolute order or in his exact words, but the meaning of his comments are the close to his as I could make them.


Todd Palmer introduced Anthony Annunziato as a 1971 Bonaventure graduate and a successful energy trader.

Anthony said that the key to trading is understanding Supply and Demand and the flow of capital.

People often do not understand economics. For instance in the late 1970s people thought oil would be over $100 a barrel. However, this would have forced people to give up eating had their oil consumption remained the same. Of course, high oil prices led to lower Quantity demanded and more supply.


On Corporate America:

Large firms are not creating jobs—on net (when you consider their takeovers of firms and subsequent layoffs of employees, it may be better to look for jobs in small and medium sized firms.

CEOs and management in general have an egotistical view of themselves; they do NOT add as much value as they think they do.

One definition of management: Management is there to protect the firm from a few.

He feels that this definition is all too often correct and has many implications. For instance: Many do not reward good ideas and hard work. Want you do not shake things up. This bureaucratic mentality leads to inefficiency and no growth.

To too many people, risk management is risk avoidance. Risk and return goes hand in hand. Especially problematic when lawyers get involved.


On Competition, the job market and other things:

We now live in a global world. Competition has increased. Must consider how do we add value?

America was build on risk taking and entrepreneurial spirit. We still are way ahead in this area. Not so much in other areas. We do have best college system and finance system, but acquiring intellectual capital is relatively cheap.

Competition for jobs will keep hourly wages down. Outsourcing etc is here to stay.

Saving and investing grows in importance as hourly wage drops. Let money work for you!

To paraphrase: a rising tide raises all ships, but when the tide is not rising, you have to take risks and paddle for yourself.

On Enron

Bad ethics and much pandering to Wall Street.

On the supposed deregulation of utilities

Deregulation is overstated. No one has real incentive to end regulation. For instance, regulators do not want to deregulate themselves out a job. Most utilities do not want to have to compete. In fact probably cannot compete…See airline industry. New carriers know business and compete, older carriers can not.

Consequently, we see in the press that there is deregulation, but in reality there is not as much as we may be led to believe.

California "Energy Crisis" caused by several factors. California refused to build new electric generating facilities. Demand increased. Prices charged were capped, but prices paid by utilities were not. When they needed energy and had to go into the market to buy it, prices were high (they had not hedged). This buy high, sell low problem led to many utilities rescinding on agreed upon contracts with government's blessing. This has led some firms to vow not to do business in California.

On Energy supply and alternative energies

Right now demand = supply. Problem many feel demand wil continue to grow at a rate that is faster than production can increase. Hence price rise. Which will slow demand.

currently no alternative fuel is economically efficient. Maybe 15-20 years down the road, but right now no Alternative fuel will have to be brought forward by entrepreneurs.

On Investing

People just out of college should try derivatives. Yes you may lose money since you do not know what you are doing, but you do not have that much to lose.

On taxes and government

Government's job is to keep people safe. Other than that smaller government is better.

Taxes in NYS are much higher than elsewhere. This is one reason why firms are leaving (have left).

People can spent their money better than governments. Government bureaucrats do not understand business, customer service, etc. Yet think they know how to put money to best use.


On Jobs

Always better to work on the revenue side than the expense side of a business because better job security.

"Find a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life."

He loves trading. It is a like a game. Objective score keeping and near instant gratification.

You can not be ruled based. Must continually grow. If doing the same thing, the same way as five years ago, you are in big trouble.

What is a Good day?

Dr. Palmer asked what a "good day or a bad day" was. TO this the answer was that he had made or lost $5 million in a day. But then went on to say a good day is most every day. A year ago he was paralyzed. Spent 17 weeks in the hospital. The experience of learning to move again makes him (and I think everyone present) appreciate what gifts simple things are (such as moving your arm or fingers or walking) and how awful they would be to lose. THese are things we often overlook until they are gone. Moral: take time to appreciate them now.

He concluded with the idea of being the best you can be. (without saying the exact words)

Pick something you like, and are good at, and have fun. To do otherwise is to waste and to waste is wrong an economic sin.

Life is too short to take advantage of people. Treat people fairly , help others, and reward others and we will all be fine.

Class ended at 12:42 to applause as we all thanked Mr. Annunziato for his time.

As Promised, the visual Correlation coefficient

Correlation coefficient Sorry this is late, I forgot about it to be honest with you.

It is very cool and shws how the eye is actually horrible at finding correlations.

http://noppa5.pc.helsinki.fi/koe/corr/cor7.html

Also it is a very good description of why using the wrong stat can lead to the wrong conclusion.

http://noppa5.pc.helsinki.fi/koe/corr/misint.html

Some observations on the Power industry

This is from a paper I did on the Springfield Power company. Depending on what is talked about tomorrow in class when we have Mr. Anthony Annunziato speak, this may or may not be useful.

However, even if it he does not speak on this, I think the recent history of the utility industry is really something everyone (and not just finance majors) should know about to uderstand some of the controversy about power shortages, outages, and regulation.

Sorry it is a bit long:



DEREGULATION AND THE UTILITY INDUSTRY

The electrical utility industry traditionally has been seen as a natural monopoly where high fixed costs serve as an economic barrier-to-entry that prevents more than one firm from being able to survive economically in any given market. Because monopolies have the ability to use their market power to earn abnormally high returns at the expense of their customers, utilities in many countries have been highly regulated. In the United States, this regulation was done on a state-by-state basis. Typically, it involved a regulatory board, which in consultation with the firm, users, and other citizen groups, set rates and approved large expenditures.
To avoid the restrictive, low-return environment of the regulated power business, many utility firms created unregulated subsidiaries through which the firm could run businesses outside the reach of state regulators. However, this type of organization occasionally proved problematic for shareholders. If the unregulated business did well, regulators might expect the earnings to be used in the regulated utility and thus reduce allowed rates in the regulated business. On the other hand, if the unregulated business did poorly, the regulators would not allow these costs to increase the utility rates. Thus, some analysts argued that shareholders were doomed to a “lose, lose” situation whenever regulated utilities diversified. Springfield Power was well acquainted with this cross subsidization problem. The firm had recently won a 3-2 decision whereby state regulators had ruled that the VirtualAmerica subsidiary was able to keep separate from the regulated SPU utility business the money it received from AT&T for allowing the use of its transmission towers.
To prevent this negative cross-subsidization problem, most utility industry officials favored ending regulation. In return for this concession, the utilities would end their monopolistic position and allow the free market to decide prices and dictate winners and losers. Starting in 1980, much of the global business world went through a U.S.-led deregulation wave that was built on the theory that allowing market forces to act would give market participants incentives to find better ways to lower costs and improve efficiency.
In the United States, utility deregulation was made possible by the Federal Energy Policy Act, a 1992 Federal law that forced utility companies to allow energy created by other firms to travel through each other’s distribution channels. This, in effect, created a national power grid that enabled the delivery of electrical energy across markets, and made possible the separation of energy creation and energy distribution. This separation ended the monopoly situation and, consequentially, the need for regulators to set prices. Once the infrastructure was in place, utility deregulation spread across the US.
While each state adopted its own rules governing deregulation, the general framework was that utility companies and state regulators would allow customers (first industrial customers and later retail customers) to shop around for power just as they did for long distance or other products or services. It was expected that this competition would improve incentives, lead to greater efficiencies, and lower costs. While many of the benefits of deregulation would take years to develop, a predictable short-run consequence of national deregulation would be more standardized prices. Additionally many environmental groups feared that price competition could lead to environmentally destructive behavior. As a result, consumer groups and environmental groups lined up to oppose the deregulation.
On the other hand, utility executives, large power users, and shareholders generally supported deregulation. The reasons varied, but each group felt that deregulation would improve its own position. For example, large users expected they would be able to negotiate better rates if there were multiple energy providers. Many executives reasoned that their importance would grow with the greater discretion that would come after deregulation. With this increased importance, managerial pay was expected to increase. Similarly, because of the increased flexibility, deregulation was seen as increasing firms’ cash flows and hence shareholder returns.
In 1997, the utility deregulation debate came to Springfield. Not surprisingly, SPU officials and large power users were the chief advocates while opposition consisted of grass-root groups who feared rising prices, environmental damages, possible employee job losses, and increased volatility of energy costs. After much last minute lobbying, Springfield’s pro-deregulation camp prevailed and the Electric Utility Customer Choice Act (Bill BS390) was pushed through both houses of the legislature in late April and signed by Governor Quimby in early May 1997. Under this new law, industry regulation would be phased out over the next 5 years with regulations on the residential market being the last to be dropped.

Is it the end of another anomaly?

It sounds like another anomaly is solved. SUre it has nothing to do with finance, but we talked about it in class the other day)...why did we talk about it? To suggest that anomalies are just things that we currently do not understand and that eventually today's anomlaies may well be solved.

"Gulf war syndrome may have been caused by exposure to the nerve gas sarin, according to reports.
The New Scientist journal has reported a leak of a US inquiry into the ill-health of veterans of the 1991 war.
The US Department of Veterans Affairs' Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses is due to publish its findings next week."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3979975.stm

Anthony Annunziato

Anthony Annunziato to speak to Finance 401 on November 4, 2004

Mr. Annunziato is President and trading principal of AAA Capital Management Inc. He began his involvement with commodity futures on the Chicago Board of Trade during the early 1970s. For over 20 years at Smith Barney (SB) and its predecessor firms, Mr. Annunziato has provided energy futures brokerage services to a wide range of commercial traders and individual investors. He began trading individual commodity accounts on a discretionary basis in 1984. Mr. Annunziato is presently a Senior Vice President of Investments, Commodity Futures Sales at SB. Since 1991 he has also operated privately held companies which make energy related investments with proprietary funds.

Mr. Annunziato graduated in 1971 from St. Bonaventure University with a BS in Business Management.

He has worked with

AAA Capital Management Inc. Houston, Texas (March 1997-Present)
Smith Barney Inc., Houston, Texas (January 1984-Present)
E.F. Hutton, Houston, Texas (July 1979 - December 1984)

I am sure you will find the presentation both interesting and informative.

Office hours, NYC trip, etc

Hi everyone...

A few announcements:

I have a meeting at 1:15-2:10 on Tuesday. I will have to miss the beginning of office hours. I will get back as soon as I can. I am sorry about it.

Because of the night exam, we will not be having class this Thursday (when the Finance Club is in NYC).

Now is the time to begin your job search for next year! Be sure to be actively looking. Have your resume completed and be watching career services for anouncements. Also posting it online can not hurt!

Make-up tests--new policy

new policy on Make-up exams

I am pretty sure the Dean was talking to me in this email!

(Barb O'Keefe is our secretary)

In the past, many of us have routinely left make-up exams with Barb O’Keefe to
administer to students at their convenience. While Barb is glad to provide that
assistance, our continued reduction in available free spaces in which to conduct
make-up exams has made the administration of unscheduled make-up exams
increasingly difficult.

To ease the burden on Barb, as well as to ensure that there are appropriate spaces available to our students to use for completing their examinations, I would like to request the following:

Please check with Barb before scheduling make-up exams that you would like her assistance in administering. Barb can then ensure that there is adequate space available at the scheduled times, or suggest other times in which space will be available. If make-up exams must be scheduled for more students than can be accommodated in the available space in Murphy at a single time, you may need to schedule a classroom for the exam, and make appropriate arrangements to proctor. Even if you are planning to administer a make-up exam yourself in one of the available spaces on the 2nd floor (e.g., the “printer room”), please be sure to check with Barb; she will keep a schedule of when that room is in use so that we can avoid scheduling conflicts.

what this means: no more take the test whenever...expect there to be a single time only. One solution may be to allow students who can not make a test (or the single makeup time) to add the points to the final.

Test will not be done in time for class

Sorry...I tried, but I am not going to make it on the tests...we will have to wait until Thursday...

Sorry.

jim

Pro forma assignment

due to popular request, the project will not be due until AFTER break (Tuesday)...

I hope this takes some pressure off for your tests etc.

jim