Business Commons^™

Trading In The Australian Stockmarket Using Artificial Neural Networks, Bruce Vanstone

Bruce Vanstone

This thesis focuses on training and testing neural networks for use within stockmarket trading systems. It creates and follows a well defined methodology for developing and benchmarking trading systems which contain neural networks.

Four neural networks and consequently four trading systems are presented within this thesis. The neural networks are trained using all fundamental or all technical variables, and are trained on different segments of the Australian stockmarket, namely all ordinary shares, and the S&P/ASX200 constituents.

Three of the four trading systems containing neural networks significantly outperform the respective buy-and-hold returns for their segments of the market, demonstrating that neural …

Credit Risk Management: A Survey Of Practices, Ali M. Fatemi, Iraj Fooladi

Ali M Fatemi

Purpose – Proposes to investigate the current practices of credit risk management by the largest US-based financial institutions. Owing to the increasing variety in the types of counterparties and the ever-expanding variety in the forms of obligations, credit risk management has jumped to the forefront of risk management activities carried out by firms in the financial services industry. This study is designed to shed light on the current practices of these firms. Design/methodology/approach – A short questionnaire, containing seven questions, was mailed to each of the top 100 banking firms headquartered in the USA. Findings – It was found that …

Corporate International Diversification: Evidence From Canada, Ali M. Fatemi, Iraj Fooladi

Ali M Fatemi

This paper investigates the impact of corporate international diversification on the shareholders of Canadian firms. The results indicate that, within the context of Canada, multinationals outperform their purely domestic counterparts. Specifically, we find that the shareholders of Canadian multinationals earn significantly higher abnormal returns. This holds true despite the finding that these shareholders are also exposed to a higher degree of systematic risk. Further, these results indicate that both the abnormal returns and the degree of systematic risk are increasing functions of the degree of international involvement.

Aggregate Consumption Spending, The Stock Market, And Asymmetric Error Correction, Lonnie K. Stevans

Lonnie K. Stevans

In this study, we show how changes in wealth resulting from unanticipated changes in the value of equity holdings begin a process whereby households alter consumption growth in order to close the gap between actual and target spending. Because of changing uncertainty or equity price volatility over the stock market cycle, we found the time path of this adjustment to exhibit near random walk behavior during stock market downturns. Conversely, during “boom” periods, e.g. when the value of equities held by households was greater than the threshold, the growth in consumer spending was quick to eliminate the disparity between actual …

Wealth Creation And Managerial Pay: Mva And Eva As Determinants Of Executive Compensation, Ali M. Fatemi, Anand S. Desai, Jeffrey P. Katz

Ali M Fatemi

Designing effective compensation contracts has become increasingly complex due to the globalization of the executive work force and the multitude of incentive schemes. We examine the relationships between managerial pay and firm performance among domestic and global firms using economic value added (EVA) and market value added (MVA) to assess wealth creation. Our work suggests that top managers in domestic- and globally focused firms are not only incented to increase EVA, but also rewarded for past additions to MVA. The results of our research suggest that managers of highly globalized firms tend to be paid at higher levels, reflecting the …

Demand Reduction And Inefficiency In Multi-Unit Auctions, Peter Cramton, Lawrence M. Ausubel

Peter Cramton

Auctions typically involve the sale of many related goods. Treasury, spectrum and electricity auctions are examples. In auctions where bidders pay the market-clearing price for items won, large bidders have an incentive to reduce demand in order to pay less for their winnings. This incentive creates an inefficiency in multiple-item auctions. Large bidders reduce demand for additional items and so sometimes lose to smaller bidders with lower values. We demonstrate this inefficiency in an auction model which allows interdependent values. We also establish that the ranking of the uniform-price and pay-as-bid auctions is ambiguous in both revenue and efficiency terms. …

Corporate Risk Management: Costs And Benefits, Ali M. Fatemi, Carl Luft

Ali M Fatemi

This paper establishes a framework within which the costs and the benefits of corporate risk management decisions can be analyzed. The most important conclusion is that risk management strategies should be pursued to enhance shareholder value. Although systematic hedging of all variation in the net cashflows may be in the best interest of the management, such behavior is inconsistent with maximizing firm and shareholder value. The extant empirical evidence cited is supportive of the notion that the strongest motive for risk management behavior is the avoidance of financial distress. However, there are offsetting costs to consider as well. The existence …

Single Minded? : Implementing Common Financial Systems, Mark E. Pickering

Mark E Pickering

As companies grow via acquisition they collect a variety of separate and often quite diverse financial systems belonging to the newly acquired companies. While there is a substantial cost to implementing a common financial system across the merged group. Is that cost outweighed by the benefits of a single system? This article uses a case study to highlight options for different degrees of finance system commonality, potential benefits of each option and a framework for analysing the appropriate level of commonality.

Auctioning Securities, Peter Cramton, Lawrence M. Ausubel

Peter Cramton

Treasury debt and other divisible securities are traditionally sold in either a pay-your-bid (discriminatory) auction or a uniform-price auction. We compare these auction formats with a Vickrey auction and also with two ascending-bid auctions. The Vickrey auction and the alternative ascending-bid auction (Ausubel 1996) have important theoretical advantages for sellers. In a setting without private information, these auctions achieve the maximal revenue as a unique equilibrium in dominant strategies. In contrast, the pay-your-bid, uniform-price, and standard ascending-bid auction admit a multiplicity of equilibria that yield low revenues for the seller. We show how these results extend to a setting where …

Auctions And Takeovers, Peter Cramton

Peter Cramton

Under Delaware law (the predominant corporate law in the US), when a potential acquirer makes a serious bid for a target, the target's board of directors is required to act as would "auctioneers charged with getting the best price for the stock-holders at a sale of the company." (Revlon v. MacAndrews & Forbes, 173). The target's board may not use defensive tactics that destroy the auction process and must attempt to seek higher bids. Similarly, the Williams Act requires takeover bids to remain open for at least 20 business days on the grounds that the delay facilitates auctions. This preference …

The Performance Of Initial Public Offerings In The Biotechnology Industry, Todd A. Finkle, Dan French

Todd A Finkle

An Examination Of Initial Public Offerings In The “High Flying” Internet Industry, Todd A. Finkle, Dan French

Todd A Finkle

Relational Investing And Agency Theory, Peter Cramton, Ian Ayres

Peter Cramton

This Article analyzes how, and when, corporate governance could be improved by utilizing "relational investing." The term relational investing is just coming into vogue and there does not yet seem to be a consensus on what it means. Although the term has been trumpeted on the cover of Business Week, before the Conference on Relational Investing at Columbia University, relatively little legal writing had been published on the subject. For the purposes of this Article, we define relational investing to encompass commitments to buy and hold significant blocks of a corporation's stock. And it is particularly important that the relational …

Activity Of Small Businesses In Nebraska, Todd A. Finkle, Raymond Marquardt, Allen Klose

Todd A Finkle

Using Auction Theory To Inform Takeover Regulation, Peter Cramton, Alan Schwartz

Peter Cramton

This paper focuses on certain mechanisms that govern the sale of corporate assets. Under Delaware law, when a potential acquirer makes a serious bid for a target, the target’s Board of Directors is required to act as would "auctioneers charged with getting the best price for the stock-holders at a sale of the company.’’ The Delaware courts’ preference for auctions follows from two premises. First, a firm’s managers should maximize the value of their shareholders’ investment in the company. Second, auctions maximize shareholder returns. The two premises together imply that a target’s board should conduct an auction when at least …

The Leverage Problem In The Valuation Of Privately Held Firms, Thomas D. Berry, John Houston

Thomas D Berry

No abstract provided.