Finance and Financial Management Commons^™

Misi At A Glimpse: January 1 To December 31, 2010, College Of Management, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Financial Services Forum Publications

According to the Index, investors were generally cautious in 2010 (approximately half the trading days); however, investor sentiment ranged from highly risk-averse to highly risk seeking, with scores distributed almost evenly across all the categories. Investor sentiment had peaked in February, reached a low in the end of May. It was on an upward trajectory towards the end of the year, and was almost near its February high.

Mass Business Report, College Of Management, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Financial Services Forum Publications

Welcome to the College of Management, UMass Boston, Financial Services Forum’s Spring 2010 report on the Massachusetts economy. The spotlight of this report is the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate (FIRE) sector in Massachusetts.

Managing Exchange Rates, Arindam Bandopadhyaya, Giorgio Gotti, Qian Lu

Financial Services Forum Publications

The collapse of the fixed exchange rate system established under the Bretton Woods Agreement ushered in fluctuating exchange rate regimes. Although extreme volatility is managed by monetary authorities, fluctuations in exchange rates present unique challenges to the manager of a multinational corporation (MNC). This chapter reviews various types of exchange rate regimes and discusses the types of risk an MNC faces due to exchange rate fluctuations. Special attention is paid to how these risks are measured and ways in which they are hedged using available financial market instruments. The chapter also discusses exchange rate forecasting models that are frequently used.

Mass Business Report, College Of Management, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Financial Services Forum Publications

Welcome to the College of Management, UMASS – Boston, Financial Services Forum’s Fall 2009 report on the Massachusetts economy. The Forum is a source of current information and commentary about critical issues facing the industries in Boston and at the national level, as well as the health of financial services in general.

The State Of New England: Economic Slowdown And Recovery After The Dotcom Bust, Arindam Bandopadhyaya, College Of Management, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Financial Services Forum Publications

What follows is an analysis of the key macroeconomic trends in the six New England states. Using data publicly available in 2007, we examine trends in GDP growth, population, personal income and unemployment rate in each state. We provide a breakdown of each state by GDP category and provide an overall weighting by super sectors.

Measures Of Investor Sentiment: Who Wins The Horse Race?, Arindam Bandopadhyaya

Financial Services Forum Publications

Traditional research on asset pricing has focused on firm-specific and economywide factors that affect asset prices. Recently, the finance literature has turned to noneconomic factors such as investor sentiment as possible determinants of asset prices. Some researchers (e.g., Eichengreen and Mody, 1998) suggest that a change in one set of asset prices may change investor sentiment, thus triggering changes in a seemingly unrelated set of asset prices, especially in the short run, giving rise to pure contagion. Fisher and Statman (2000) and Baker and Wurgler (2006) have also recognized that investor sentiment may be an important component of the market …

A Survey Of Demographics And Performance In The Hedge Fund Industry, Arindam Bandopadhyaya, James L. Grant

Financial Services Forum Publications

We investigate hedge fund demographics using data from the Alternative Asset Center (AAC) and then hedge fund performance over the twelve years since inception of the Credit Suisse/Tremont Hedge Fund Indices (HFI, 1994-2005). We find that hedge funds are largely domiciled “offshore” while hedge-fund managers are located primarily in the United States, particularly New York, California, Illinois, Connecticut and Florida. We find that the annualized performance of hedge funds as an “asset class” is about the same as that of U.S. equities (S&P 500). That being said, the real benefit of hedge funds lies in risk management as the volatility …

Estimating The Required Return In A World Of Heightened Uncertainty: Emphasizing The Equity Risk Premium, James L. Grant, James A. Albate, Chris Rowberry

Financial Services Forum Publications

Heightened uncertainty over the past five years--due to the bursting of the NASDAQ bubble, the recession of 2001, the September 11th attacks, accounting scandals, and the oil shocks of 2005--has brought new challenges for securities analysts and portfolio managers. This observation is particularly relevant for fundamental equity managers using price relative and/or discounted cash flow (DCF) models. While correctly worrying about values of cash flow input (dividends, free cash flow, economic earnings) to DCF models, portfolio managers must be especially aware of risk factors that impact the required return or discount rate, and relatedly, market valuation multiples. This discount rate …

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act Of 2002 And Its Effects On American Business, Lara Bergen

Financial Services Forum Publications

In the wake of the 2001-2002 Arthur Andersen accounting scandal and collapse of Enron and WorldCom, the government, the investors and the American public demanded corporate reforms to prevent similar future occurrences. Viewed to be largely a result of failed or poor governance, insufficient disclosure practices, and a lack of satisfactory internal controls, in 2002 Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act seeking to set standards and guarantee the accuracy of financial reports.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (known as SARBOX or SOX) sought to address these concerns through making executives responsible for company accounting statements, redefining the relationships between corporations and their auditors, …

Measuring Investor Sentiment In Equity Markets, Arindam Bandopadhyaya, Anne Leah Jones

Financial Services Forum Publications

Recently, investor sentiment has become the focus of many studies on asset pricing. Research has demonstrated that changes in investor sentiment may trigger changes in asset prices, and that investor sentiment may be an important component of the market pricing process. Some authors suggest that shifts in investor sentiment may in some instances better explain short-term movement in asset prices than any other set of fundamental factors. In this paper we develop an Equity Market Sentiment Index from publicly available data, and we then demonstrate how this measure can be used in a stock market setting by studying the price …

U. S. Competitiveness In The Global Financial Services Industry, Lawrence G. Franko

Financial Services Forum Publications

The World Trade Center Towers: they were the headquarters of Morgan Stanley, one of the world’s leading investment banks, and of Cantor Fitzgerald, the world’s leading trader of U.S. government bonds. They were also the work location of 9,000 Merrill Lynch employees. The Citicorp Building. The Prudential Tower. The New York Stock Exchange. These actual and recently uncovered potential terrorist targets in the United States are financial services companies and organizations. Add to them the threats to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and one could conclude that seven out of ten terrorists prefer financial services.

This focus …

Down But Not Out: The Future Of The Financial Services Industry, Arindam Bandopadhyaya, Miranda Detzler, Mohsin Habib

Financial Services Forum Publications

The financial services industry is a key sector of the U.S. economy. It is a noteworthy contributor to the overall gross domestic product and is an important component of the gross state product for many states. With the downturn in the economy at the beginning of this decade and the accompanying declines in stock market values, the industry has been hit hard. Asset management firms have experienced sharp decreases in their assets under management; banks and insurance companies have had to refocus their operations and have become increasingly vulnerable to acquisition. As evidence grows stronger that it is unlikely that …