Derivatives are an integral part of modern financial markets. Simply stated, a derivative instrument is a contract between two entities that specifies the values, dates, notional amounts and other conditions under which the transaction between them is to take place (usually at a future date). Derivates play an important role in streamlining economic activity, as…
Category: Business
Walmart: the relationship between HRM, business performance and employee welfare in the organisation
What do you understand by the term ‘employee welfare’? Employee welfare refers to the array of benefits (either monetary or as services) salaried employees are entitled to during their term of association with a company. Usually employee welfare measures include contributions to the pension fund, health insurance coverage, offering stock options, providing paid leave, etc….
What is “good” marketing?
The concept of marketing products and services in a consumer market is often seen as ethically dubious by media analysts. On a broader perspective, the inherently weak moral imperative of capitalist culture makes this outcome inevitable. As a result, marketing strategies have attracted much flak and condemnation from the judicious sections of society. There is…
Criticism of Efficient Market Hypothesis
“When the price of a stock can be influenced by a “herd” on Wall Street with prices set at the margin by the most emotional person, or the greediest person, or the most depressed person, it is hard to argue that the market always prices rational…in fact market prices are frequently nonsensical.” The Efficient Market…
Article summary: Beware Those ‘Beta Traps by Ben Levisohn
The article chosen for this exercise is titled ‘Beware Those ‘Beta Traps’’. Written by Ben Levisohn, it appeared in the Wall Street Journal on 29th October, 2011. The article cautions investors about the dangers of those stocks whose prices tend to behave with high volatility. The volatility of a stock’s price movement is mathematically represented…
Growth of home theaters, new delivery mechanisms, and alternative viewing devices
With the flourishing of the Internet and vast improvements in network bandwidth capabilities, films produced in Hollywood have also been marketed and distributed through these channels. In the article in question, which was published in www.wired.com in June 2005, George Lucas was talking about a fundamental shift in movie consumption patterns. The film industry in…
What kind of event marketing might a wholesaler use to promote business?
A wholesaler can adopt a range of marketing tactics to promote its services. Event marketing is an especially useful idea to exploit market opportunity. Event marketing involves a list of activities that enhance brand visibility and brand identification for target consumers (in this case select retailers). Event marketing by wholesalers is usually a ‘push’ tactic,…
Rating Your Dimensional Data Warehouse
The article titled Rating Your Dimensional Data Warehouse is a concise piece of scholarship that outlines the key metrics in evaluating a Data Warehouse. Data Warehouse as a data storage concept and decision making aid has evolved a lot over the past two decades. Yet, no robust set of metrics were developed to analyse and…
Six Sigma: An Overview
It was the engineers of Motorola, who in the 1980s began to conceive of a project to drastically improve the organization’s quality monitoring processes. They believed that traditional methods employed so far, which measured manufacturing errors per thousand product units, were not sufficient. As a result they improvised the method to measure manufacturing defects per…
Distinction between Money and Capital markets
The total sum of funds represented by the financial markets can be classified under different segments, based on the characteristics of financial claims being traded and the imperatives of different participants. At a broad level, the financial system can be classified under money markets and capital markets. There are quite a few differences between the…