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modern portfolio theory essay
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modern portfolio theory essay
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Portfolio Theory and Banks
Over the years competition in the financial industry has been very high. Banks have been competing harder over market shares and profits. These firms have of late been facing a very unique challenge; how to extract high levels of profit while still maintaining their foundations as lending institutions. Lending is not a very profitable business, the risk of default coupled with the competition driving down market prices have made lending a less attractive enterprise. Therefore some banks are trying to concentrate on their more profitable activities (i.e. advisories, debt and equity sales, mergers and acquisitions). But to be able to extract this sort of business requires banks to engage in loans. Without loans customers have no incentive to do business with them, since one of their primary needs is to finance their commercial activities through debt. Portfolio theory gives these lending institutions a tool to minimize the risks and hazards of lending.
Portfolio theory was first published by Fischer Black and Myron Scholes in 1973. This model provided banks with a strategy on how to diversify their loans and investments. Before this, banks had no real investment strategy and their only option was to obtain as much collateral as possible and make default an unattractive option. Portfolio Theory allows companies or investors to diversify their investment so to minimize risk and maximize gain. The principle behind the Black – Scholes model is to diversify your equity so that your lowest risk bond produces the same risk as your highest risk investment. When your investments have reached this equilibrium, then risk minimization has been achieved.[1]
[1] www.kmv.com/Knowledge_Base/public/general/white
/Portfolio_Management_of_default_Risk.pdf
What is the Black - Scholes model? The model also called portfolio theory works under the following assumptions: 1) Price of the underlier is lognormally distributed 2) No transaction costs 3) Markets trade continuously 4) Risk-free rate is constant and the same for all maturities.[1] The model was first used for simple put and call options and now has been expanded for use with other financial instruments. This model is a mathematical model and certain variables are needed for the formula to work. These variables are the stock price, exercise price, time to maturity, volatility, and price of a discount bond that matures when the option does.
Farm life of the 1930s was really hard for all the farmers. They did lots to get through the 1930s without starving. In York county they didn’t indoor bathrooms, light or, heat unlike the people who lived in the towns of the 1930s.(Reinhardt n. pag.) to feed there family’s many raised their own food like chicken which gave them eggs, cows which also gave them beef and milk to drink. They grew vegetables for there from there garden. (Reinhardt n. pag.)Which families didn’t do it alone they had help from there neighbors to help them along the way.
On the day of October 29, 1929 the Great Depression had begun. This was due to the worth of the New York stock market falling intensely. The Great Depression was a time when Canadians suffered extraordinary levels of poverty due to unemployment. It shaped Canadian’s political views, and also their views about their country and role of the government. Canadians joined together in various new political parties, labor groups and other organizations that represented detailed regional, economic or political interest. Canadians scrambled through the crisis with a makeshift blend of private and public charity. Private Citizens in wealthier provinces recognized the dilemma of Saskatchewan and sent hundreds of carloads of fruit, vegetables and clothing westward. This showed that Canada is a crew of kind and supportive individuals.
The prime minister at that time, Mackenzie King, was unprepared to deal with the crisis at hand. His thoughts were that the depression was only a fluke, and that given time, the economy would prosper once more. King never answered the pleas for aid by his citizens, and told ...
In order to analyze Ally, I will be evaluating its balance sheet and performance ratios over the period from June 2006 to June 2013. This will show the progression of the bank throughout the 2008-2009 financial crisis. I will compare Ally’s financial data to the whole US banking industry as a way to analyze the banks risk and performance over that period. Factors such as profitability, credit risk, capital adequacy, liquidity risk, interest rate risk, market risk, ad off balance sheet exposures will all be evaluated.
On a global scale, the United States is a relatively wealthy country of advanced industrialization. Unfortunately, the healthcare system is among the costliest, spending close to 18% of gross domestic product (GDP) towards funding healthcare (2011). No universal healthcare coverage is currently available. United States healthcare is currently funded through private, federal, state, and local sources. Coverage is provided privately and through the government and military. Nearly 85% of the U.S. population is covered to some extent, leaving a population of close to 48 million without any type of health insurance. Cost is the primary reason for lack of insurance and individuals foregoing medical care and use of prescription medications.
As stated earlier, managers are constantly faced with uncertainty, which is something many economic models do not account for. In microeconomics for instance, theory assumes that the competitive firm knows the price at which it will sell the product it produces. However, from the decision to produce, to the time of production and to the actual sale there might be a delay. Therefore the price of the product at the time of selling might differ substantially from what was expected (Markowitz. , 1991). According to Markowitz, this uncertainty cannot be dismissed, simply because if managers and investors could predict the future, they would place all their money on one investment – the one with the highest return. With this in mind, Markowitz developed portfolio theory, in which he proves the value of diversification as it reduces uncertainty.
The Dow Theory was established from a series of Wall Street Journal editorials authored by Charles H. Dow from 1900 until the time of his death in 1902. Today, even after 110 years they remain the foundation of what we know today as technical analysis. Dow never published his complete theory, but several of his followers compiled his works and that has come to be known as "The Dow Theory”.
The Great Depression was a period, which seemed to go out of control. The crashing of the stock markets left most Canadians unemployed and in debt, prairie farmers suffered immensely with the inability to produce valuable crops, and the Canadian Government and World War II became influential factors in the ending of the Great Depression.
”Families, tribes, dusted out, tractored out. Car-loads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless — restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do — to lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cut — anything, any burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land. “
The Great Depression was not just a little event in history, hence the word “great”, but a major economical setback that would change Canada, and the world, forever. The word “great” may not mean the same thing it does now; an example of this is the ‘Great’ War. These events were not ‘good’ or ‘accomplishing’ in any way, quite the opposite, but in those times it most likely meant ‘big’. What made it big are many factors, both in the 20’s and 30’s, which can be categorized into three main points: economics, politics and society. With all these events, compressed into ten years, this period of economic hardship of the 1930’s truly deserves the title the “Great Depression”.
The CAPM first began in 1952 by Harry Markowitz and his paper rigorously described the aspect of portfolio risks. A portfolio risk is when a stockholder or an investor invests in so many assets so that the rate of a risky turnover is spread amongst the assets to reduce the percentage of loss returned on the assets. For example, Mr. A buys 10 different assets from different companies so that if asset A from Alek corporations fail, Mr. A can still get returns from the 9 other assets, hence his risk and loss has been shared amongst his invested assets.
National health systems are assessed by the extent to which expenditure and actions in public health and medical care contributes to the crucial social goals of improving health, increasing access to quality healthcare, reducing health disparities, protecting citizens from penury due to medical e...
Since the 60s, government budgets have been influenced by the need to finance healthcare especially the cost of Medicare and Medicaid benefits. According to CMS’ National Health Expenditure Projections , total health care expenditures have grown by an average of 2.5 percentage points faster per year than the nation‘s Gross Domestic Product. For about 60 percent of workers who receive some form of health care coverage from their employers, the cost of their health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses have increased significantly faster than their own wages; and between 1999 and 2008, both average health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs for deductibles, co-payments for medications, and co-insura...
The Dow Theory was established from a series of Wall Street Journal editorials authored by Charles H. Dow from 1900 until the time of his death in 1902. Today, even after 110 years they remain the foundation of what we know today as technical analysis. Dow never published his complete theory, but several of his followers compiled his works and that has come to be known as "The Dow Theory”.
Financial theories are the building blocks of today's corporate world. "The basic building blocks of finance theory lay the foundation for many modern tools used in areas such asset pricing and investment. Many of these theoretical concepts such as general equilibrium analysis, information economics and theory of contracts are firmly rooted in classical Microeconomics" (Oaktree, 2005)