Case Study - LTCM-Long-Term Capital Management

Here is the LTCM case we spoke of in class.

Heather Densmore: Landing That Internship

Given all of our discussion on internships, here is some outside validation of their importance.
From Business Week:
Heather Densmore: Landing That Internship: "My main goal for the summer was to learn as much as possible about the real-estate investment industry and, fortunately for me, it seemed that Invesco was equally intent on this and provided numerous learning opportunities"

Class announcements

The test for Fin 301 is Thursday Nov. 17, 2005 in Plassman 200 at 6:30PM
The test for Fin 401 is Monday Nov. 21, 2005 in Plassman 200 at 6:30 PM

* Office hours will be canceled On Wednesday.

* Please come to class with questions for the review session.

New Podcasts of class notes (not review, full length) are now online.

Office hours on Wed.

Office hours on Wed (10/25/05) will be pushed back about 30minutes. I can not make it until just after 2PM I will stay longer by 30 minutes as well.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

From Career Services

Wed 7:00 pm info session for internship with DB.

also

The following employer has been added to the On-campus Recruiting schedule.

(Please submit résumés to the Career Center by noon on the due date.)

Buffamante, Whipple, Buttafaro CPA -- Accountant -- Accounting majors

Résumés due: Oct. 26

REMINDER -- Résumé Due Dates:

Oct. 25 -- Manning & Napier -- Financial Analyst; Intern -- Finance, Accounting majors

Upcoming Event:

JobQuest 2005

WNY Regional Career Fair

Tuesday, Nov. 1

3 - 6 p.m.

HSBC Arena, Buffalo, NY

Pre-register with the Career Center, by Oct. 27, if you'd like to attend this job/internship fair and be entered in a prize drawing! All SBU students are invited to attend this upcoming event. (Additional details can be obtained by stopping in room 216 RC.)

New Podcasts are up

Podcasts for each class were just uploaded. Not sure why the 401 is not showing up right now, but it says it tis there.

From Career services

The timing for this is excellent since no one has class!

"On-campus Recruiting Orientation

Wednesday, October 19

12:30 - 1:15 p.m.

Room 216 RC

Students who wish to participate in the recruiting process this Fall are encourage to attend this additional On-campus Recruiting Orientation being offered Wednesday, Oct. 19, in the Career Center. Attendance at this presentation will help you become informed about, and eligible for, upcoming, on-campus interview opportunities coordinated by the Career Center. "

Finance 301 Excel project #2

Your next excel project is to apply what we have learned in a corporate finance setting and apply it to our personal life.

So you will need to project out earnings, expenses, savings, and investments over the rest of your life.

This is not a project you want to wait until the last minute! It is Due Nov. 11th. I put an example (not a particularly explemary one, but an example none the less) on the 301 mainpage.

As a starting point, you will have to project out your earnings. Be sure to document where your numbers come from. This will involve some outside research.

For instance, why you think your stating salary is whatever you state it to be. Roberthalf.com may be a starting point in this. Similarly, for all expense items. For instance, if you plan on living in San Francisco or NYC do not tell me you think you will live on $400 a month rent.

Social Security income and expenses can be found online, but expect the taxs to go up and teh income to go down.

For investments, you will need to break it down into taxable and non taxable retirement accounts. And also realize your return is dependent on allocation, so Iwill need to see both. And again, do not make unrealistic assumptions such as I will invest in CDs and earn 7% above inflation.

The project is about 2/3rds excel. You will also have to give a write up of key assumptions, what could go right or wrong (i.e. what you should be worrying about financially) and what you can do to protect yourself. Finally it should contain a section on what you learned from the project. Total write up should be less than 4 pages (double spaced) plus one page of sources.

Again, it is due November 11th. Submission on both paper and electronically.

Grades

I will be submitting your Midterm grades this week (by Wednesday).
Just as a reminder, participation counts. So to those of you who find Friday classes optional or who just sit there and do not take notes etc, your grade will likely be lower than you expect. I guess that is why we have mid term grades: they allow us time to address our problem areas.


Finance 301

I will email you the excel portion of your grade AFTER class on Monday.

Also you will get your tests back in class on Monday

Finance 401

There is a 75% chance of getting test back on Tuesday.

Finance 301 rooms

Wednesday (optional!)
PLASSMAN 200
Review class 7:20 to 8:20PM

Thursday
PLASSMAN 200
Test 6:30 to 8:30

Finance 401 suggested problems

For Finance 401 some suggested problems


Chapter 4:
Quiz questions are good (and should be fairly easy) Pay pareticular attention to 1,2,7,8,10,12
Practice problems: 1,3,4,7

Chapter 5
Quiz questions 1-4
Practice questions 1,3, 5

Chapter 6
Quiz questions: 1, 5, 7
Practice questions: 16, 17, 19

Chapter 10
Quiz questions: 1-4
Problems: 1, 2, 10

Have fun!

Internship Panel Discussion

From the Notice Board:

Five students who recently interned will be sharing their thoughts and ideas about their experiences on Tuesday, Oct. 4 at 6:30 p.m. in the Murphy Auditorium (sections A&B). Each student will briefly discuss his/her internship experiences and provide essential information about internships. There will also be a question and answer period. Refreshments will be served.

Defnitely a good use of your time!

CollegeJournal | News & Trends

Good news for all students, but particularly MBAs! From WSJ:

CollegeJournal | News & Trends:

"Financial-services and management-consulting companies, the traditional drivers of M.B.A. hiring, flocked back to campuses during the 2004-2005 school year, dangling richer paychecks and signing bonuses. And companies that hadn't retrenched as much as banks and consultants also stepped up hiring, leading to the most robust recruiting season since the severe downturn began in 2001.

'The recovery seems to be solid,' says Maury Hanigan, a New York consultant who works with companies on their campus recruiting programs. 'Companies are no longer as tentative as they set up fall interview schedules at business schools; they feel confident they will need more people by the time students graduate.'"

Free Money Finance: College Majors that Boost Your Paycheck

Free Money Finance is a blog I read regularly. They have an interesting piece on various careers:
Free Money Finance: College Majors that Boost Your Paycheck:

"Masaniello said engineering, technology and financial services will continue to be hot field"

Finance 301 project

Given the questions I have been receiving as well as those I have not (i.e. in class when I asked on Friday) it seems like some people are either having some problems with the project or are putting it off.

To answer some of the questions, I just put together a podcast that should answer your questions. (think of it as "office hours to go").

I would also suggest that you follow the examples that are provided on the 301 page. These examples include using multiple tabs on the excel file. Something which you probably want to do. Moreover, be sure that everything is in equation form, and and just typed in.

Remember we want to be able to quickly and easily change assumptions.

Specific questions people have had:

* assume all sales for Nike are credit sales
* it is OK to use "sales" and "revenue" as the same thing
* failure to do any sensitivity analysis will probably be a letter grade difference
* think about how realistic your assumptions are. Why?


Good luck! and RELAX :)

Just a reminder

I forgot to mention, the new podcast is up.

also today is a presentation at 2:30 for D&T. A former student is putting it on and she has been hiriung SBU grads, so if you are looking for work next year, here is a good chance!

What we will probably be doing in MS

I spoke to this person yesterday. Whether we are doing it Gulfort, Biloxi, or elsewhere is not known yet. But take a look at his pictures and you will get an idea of what to expect.

He was working with HandsonUSA.

Also here are some more pictures from Dana

If you are on the fence, take a look. I am sure you will want to go!

Finance 301

* If you have any questions on finding cashflows, I would recommend the Smart Solutions Animation on the text's website for chapter 2.

* Similarly, the animation for ROE comparison and the Dupont ROE analysis are both good and recommended.

* Remember the assignment is due this coming Friday (not Monday as it was originally scheduled.

*And as a reminder, this class does meet on Friday. Rest assured, there will DEFINITELY be test coverage from today's class. For the parts that were not in the book (particularly Adelphia, I would suggest this Powerpoint presentation that Carol Fischer and I made a few years ago.

* I will try to have the podcast available to you by Sunday evening. Unfortunately I have to go to a wedding tomorrow afternoon (Saturday)and I doubt I will have an opportunity to do the podcast prior to leaving for the wedding.

Assorted topics

* The quiz for 401 will be at the end of class

* I had a couple of questions on internships. I would HIGHLY recommend them I am not saying they are required (and they only count for finance majors as a general business elective) BUT from the standpoint of getting a job and gaining experience, they are invaluable.

* Now that I know most of your first names, I realize there is a great temptation to leave name tags down, but I still think they help class flow and if there are multiple people with the same first name, and you are actively participating, you want to make sure I get the right one :) so short version? please continue to use name tags. (as an aside, if you do not, I will know who is not reading this blog ;) )

* It looks like there will be room for the finance club gulf coast trip. If you were unable to attend the meeting last night and still want to go, see me or one of the club officers.

Finance 401 class codes

Yeah! :) finally got class codes...so quizes will start on Thursday.

for the 1:00 pm class: M14040A425
for the 2:30 pm class" L14043L461

to register go to einstruction.com's student login

if you want to learn more about the system itself, it can be found at einstruction.com