How Culture affects Anthropology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

How Culture affects Anthropology - Essay Example Culture and society are different notions. If culture is a system of learned behavior perceptions and patterns, society is a group of interacting beings.   So animals also have societies. Though it is one of the prerogatives of human societies the ability to interact directly or indirectly with each other.   And one human society is distinguished from another one in terms of shared traditions and expectations.Despite the difference between human societies and cultures, they are closely interrelated because culture is created and transmitted to others in a society.   Cultures are not the product of separate individuals.   They are the permanently developing products of people interacting with each other.   Cultural patterns such as language and politics are useless except if they are not engaged in the interaction of people.   If you were the only human on earth, language or government would of no effect (Bernard, 1998, p. 14).The notion "culture" can be interpreted many d ifferent ways.   Some understand it as an opportunity to insight into a high-quality literature, art, music. Each science has its own understanding of culture. Cultural dimensions of logic, values and aesthetics are indeed of a great concern for philosophers. Social workers and people concerned themselves with the practical problems of minority groups also use this notion as a part of their stock in trade. Important research in medicine and in nutrition is oriented in cultural terms. On the other hand for anthropologists the notion "culture".... Cultures are not the product of separate individuals. They are the permanently developing products of people interacting with each other. Cultural patterns such as language and politics are useless except if they are not engaged in the interaction of people. If you were the only human on earth, language or government would of no effect (Bernard, 1998, p. 14). The notion "culture" can be interpreted many different ways. Some understand it as an opportunity to insight into a high-quality literature, art, music. Each science has its own understanding of culture. Cultural dimensions of logic, values and aesthetics are indeed of a great concern for philosophers. Social workers and people concerned themselves with the practical problems of minority groups also use this notion as a part of their stock in trade. Important research in medicine and in nutrition is oriented in cultural terms. On the other hand for anthropologists the notion "culture" generally means the full range of learned human behavior patterns (Bernard, 1998, p. 27). The term was first used in this meaning by the English anthropologist Edward B. Tylor. He defined culture as a complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society. Of course, it is possessed and created not only by men but by women as well. The decisive term in this definition is "acquired." This underlines the feature that, as humans, we are not born with culture itself, but with the ability for culture. That is what we learn it, through our interactions and communication with other people in general. We practice the fundamental constituent of this learning in our childhood,

Viruses vs. Windows Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Viruses vs. Windows - Essay Example I would also turn on the windows update option in order to receive security updates for his/her windows. I would recommend my neighbor to install an antivirus application and update it on a regular basis. I would not recommend him/her to use a free version of the above-mentioned antivirus applications because they are sometimes unable to deal with dangerous viruses. Licensed applications provide reliable security to the files stored in any machine. I would recommend my neighbor to use Avast antivirus application because it has eight effective real-time shields that protect the system from viruses, as well as consumes fewer system resources as compared to other antivirus applications. My last recommendation for him/her would be to avoid opening junk emails and suspicious internet links because they are likely to contain viruses. Both of these antivirus applications run very well on the Windows XP. I would also turn on the windows update option in order to receive security updates for his/her windows. I would recommend my neighbor to install an antivirus application and update it on a regular basis. I would not recommend him/her to use a free version of the above-mentioned antivirus applications because they are sometimes unable to deal with dangerous viruses. Licensed applications provide reliable security to the files stored in any machine.

Analysis Of Hedge Fund Performances

Analysis Of Hedge Fund Performances 1. INTRODUTION: Hedge funds are actively managed portfolios that hold positions in publicly traded securities. Gaurav S. Amin and Harry M. Kat (2000) stated on their report that A hedge fund is typically defined as a pooled investment vehicle that is privately organized, administrated by professional investment managers, and not widely available to the public? It charges both a performance fee and a management fee. It allows a flexible investment for a small number of large investors (usually the minimum investment is $1 million) can use high risk techniques. Nowadays it is very clear that in the matter of alternative investment mutual fund is not performing well. As a high absolute returns and typically have features such as hurdle rates and incentive fees with high watermark provision hedge fund gives a better align to the interests of managers and investors. Moreover mutual funds typically use a long-only buy-and-hold type strategy on standard asset classes, which help to capture risk premia asso ciate with equity risk, interest rate risk, default risk etc. However, they are not very helpful in capturing risk premia associate with dynamic trading strategies. That is why hedge fund comes into the picture. This is the year of 2009, which takes the greatest history of the world in the following century. In the year of 2008 the world saw the greatest fall down of the world economy. Lots of people missing their jobs, lots of company were stopped. The world economy faced the highest losses in the history. These all factors are showing only one way to makeover from that greatest downfall that is hedging. 3The last couple of decades have witnessed a rapidly growing in the hedge funds. Relative to traditional investment portfolios hedge funds exhibit some unique characteristics; they are flexible with respect to the types of securities they hold and the type of the position they take. 1 Agarwal, V. and Naik, N. (2000). Multi-period performance persistence analysis of hedge fund s?. The journal of financial and quantitative analysis. Vol. 35, No,3. PP-327. 2 Agarwal, V. and Naik, N. (2004). Risks and portfolio decisions involving hedge funds?. The review of financial studies, Vol. 17, No.1. PP-64. 3 Journal of banking and finance 32(2008) 741-753- Hedge Fund Pricing and Model Uncertainty? by Spyridan D. Vrontos, Ioannis D. Vrontos, Daniel Giomouridies. 4The number of FOHFs increase by 40% between 2001 and 2003, and now comprised almost two third of the $650 billion invested in the USAs hedge fund market. Due to its nature it is difficult to estimate the current size of hedge fund industry. 5Van Hedge Fund Advisors estimates that by the end of 1998 there were 5380 hedge fund managing $311 in capital, with between $800 billion and $1 trillion in total assets, which indicates the higher number of recent new entries. So far, hedge fund is based on American phenomena. About 90% hedge fund managers are based in the US, 9% in Europe and 1% in Asia and elsewhere. Now a days around 5883 hedge funds are trading around the world. (*Barclay Hedge database) 4 Financial times, 29th October, 2003. www.vanhedge.com http://www.barclayhedge.com/products/hedge-fund-directory.html 1.1 Categories of Hedge fund investment objectives: Event Driven: Distressed securities- manager focuses on securities of companies in reorganization and bankruptcy, ranging from senior secured debt to the common stock of the company. Risk arbitrage- manager simultaneously buys stock in a company being acquired and sells stock in its acquirers. Global: International- manager pays attention to economic change around the world (except the United States) but more bottom-up oriented in that managers tend to be stock-pickers in markets they like. Uses index derivatives to a much lesser extent than macro managers. Emerging- Manager invests in less mature financial markets of the world, e.g. Hong Kong, Singapore, Pakistan, India. Because shorting is not permitted in many emerging markets, managers must go to cash or other markets when valuations make being long unattractive. Regional- Manager focuses on specific regions of the world, example- Latin America, Asia, and Europe. Global macro: Opportunistic trading manager that profits from changes in global economies typically based in major interest rate shifts. Uses leverage and derivatives. Market neutral: Long/short stocks- half long/half short. Manager attempts to lock-out or neutralize market risk. Convertible arbitrage- Manager goes long convertible securities and shorts the underlying equities. Stock index arbitrage- Manager buys a basket of stocks and sells short stock index futures, or the reverse. Fixed income arbitrage- Manager buys T-bonds and sells short index futures or the reverse. Short sales: Manager takes a position that stock prices will go down. Used as a hedge for long only portfolios and by those who feel market is approaching a bearish trend. U.S Opportunistic: Value â€Å" Manager focuses on assets, cash flow, book value, out-of-favor stocks. Growth â€Å" Manager invests in growth stocks, revenues, earnings, and growth potential are keys. Short term â€Å" Manager holds positions for a short time frame. Fund of fund: Capital is allocated among a number of hedge funds, providing investors with access to managers they might not be able to discover or evaluate in their own. Usually has a lower minimum than a hedge fund. Source: Carl Ackermann, Richard McEnally, and David Ravenscraft, The performance of hedge funds: Risk, Return and Incentives,? Journal of finance 54, no.3 (June 1999) figure 1, page-843. Reproduced from a hedge fund database firm named Managed Account Report (MAR) Inc, and distributed through LaPorte Asset Allocation System. 2. Literature review: Despite the increasing interest and recent development, few studies have been carried out on hedge funds comparing to other investment tools like mutual funds. An analysis of Hedge Fund performance 1984-2000? by Capocci Daniel using one of the greatest hedge fund database ever used on his working paper (2796 individual funds including 801 dissolved), to investigate hedge funds performance using various asset-pricing models, including an extension from of Carharts (1997) model combined with Fama and French (1998), Agarwal and Naik (2000) models that take into account the fact that some hedge funds invest in emerging market bond. At the end they found that their model does a better job describing hedge funds behaviour. That appears particularly good for the Event Driven, Global Macro, US Opportunistic, Equity non-Hedge and Sector funds. Since the early 1990s, when around 2000 hedge funds were managing assets totalling capital of $60 billion, the subsequent growth in the number and asset base of hedge funds has never really been refuted. The industry only suffered from a relative slowdown in 1998, but since then has enjoyed a renewed vitality with an estimated total of 10,000funds managing more than a trillion US dollars by the end of 2006. The growing trend of the sector remained remarkably sustained during the stock market collapse that started in March 2000, when the NASDAQ composite Index reached an all-time high of 5,132 and finished three years later with a floor level of 1,253. In the meantime, the global met asset value (NAV) of hedge funds continued to grow at a steady rate of 10.6% (Van Hedge Funds Advisors International, 2002), contrasting with a decrease of 2.7% in the worldwide mutual fund industry ( Investment Company Institute, 2003). In 2001, Capocci and Hubner(2004) estimated that there were 6,000 he dge fund managing around $400 billion. In 2007, Capocci, Duquenne and Hubner (2007) estimated that there were 10,000 hedge funds managing around $1 trillion. This is a growth of 11% in the number of funds and 26% in assets over six years (6PhD thesis paper by Daniel P.J. Capocci). Other studies from practitioners Hennessee (1994), and Oberuc (1994) also showed an evidence of superior performance in the case of hedge funds. Ackernann and Al. (1999) and Liang (1999) who compared the performance of hedge funds to mutual funds and several indices, found that hedge funds constantly obtained better performance than mutual funds. Their performance was not better than the performance of the market indices considered. They also indicated that the returns in hedge funds were more unstable than both the returns of mutual funds and those of market indices. According to Brown and Al. (1997) hedge funds showing good performance in the first part of the year reduce the volatility of their portfolio in the second half of the year (Capocci Daniel- An analysis of hedge fund performance 1984-2000). Taking all these results into account hedge funds seems a good investment tool. 6 PhD thesis paper by Daniel P.J. Capocci. Electronic copy available at: http//ssrn.com/abstract=1008319. 3. Research design and Methodology: In this section I would like to describe the empirical methodology to be used to measure the performance of hedge fund as well as the performance of FTSE 100 and SP 500. My aim is to identify which will give the better return for an investor. To investigate hedge funds performance and performance of FTSE 100 and SP 500 my study will follow some models like 4-factor model from of Carharts (1997) model, the 3-factor model from Fama and French (1993) models, the Sharpe ratio (1966) and Jensens alpha (1968) and CAPM. I divide my research into three sections. First section will analyse the performance of hedge funds, FTSE 100 and SP 500. This section sets out the models of performance measurement I will use. Second section will made correlation between Hedge fund vs. FTSE 100 and Hedge fund vs. SP 500 to find out the better portfolio. Third section will exposes a discussion as well as a description of my database and finally concludes the paper. 3.1. Performance measure models: The 4-factor model from Carhart (1997) Carharts (1997) 4-factor model is an extension of the Fama and French (1993) factor model. It not only takes into account the size of the firms, the book to market ratio, but there is an additional factor for the momentum effect. Grinblatt, Titman and Wermers (1995) define this effect as buying stocks that were past winners and selling past losers. This model is estimated with the following regressions: Rpt-Rft=ÃŽÂ ±p+ÃŽÂ ²pi (Rmt â€Å"Rft) + ÃŽÂ ²p2 SMBt +ÃŽÂ ²p3 HMLt + ÃŽÂ ²p4 PR1YRt + ept t= 1,2,,T Where SMBt= the factor mimicking portfolios for size; HMLt= the factor mimicking portfolio for book to market equity; PR1YRt= the factor mimicking portfolio for the momentum effect7 7 for a description of the construction of PR1YR see Carhart (1997). As stressed by Daniel et al. (1997), this model, which is effectively a four factor Jensen measure, assumes that betas with respect to the returns of four zero investment factor mimicking portfolios, are appropriate measures of multidimensional systematic risk. According to this model, in the absence of stock selection or timing abilities, the expected return for a fund is the sum of the risk free return and the products of the betas with the factor risk premium, which are simply the expected returns of each of these zero investment portfolios. The Carhart (1997) approach identifies a matching passive portfolio return for each fund return. This passive return, which is subtracted from the fund return to generate ÃŽÂ ±p, is a weighted average of the returns of the Carhart factor portfolios and the return of a one month T-bill (Capocci Daniel 2001, Journal- European Private Bankers, Nov, 2001). The 3-factor model from Fama and French (1993): Fama and French (1993) 3 factor model is estimated from an expected form of the CAPM regression. It takes the size and the book to market ratio of the firm into account. It uses the time series approach from Black, Jensen, and Scholles (1972) in the sense that the monthly returns on stocks are regressed on the returns to a market portfolio of stocks and mimicking portfolios for size and book to market. It is estimated from the following extension of the CAPM regression: Rpt-Rft=ÃŽÂ ±p+ÃŽÂ ²pi (Rmt â€Å"Rft) + ÃŽÂ ²p2 SMBt +ÃŽÂ ²p3 HMLt + ept t= 1,2,,T Where, SMBt= the factor mimicking portfolios for size, and HMLt= the factor mimicking portfolio for book to market equity. SMLt which comes from small minus big meant to mimic the risk factor in returns related to size, and HMLt which comes from high minus low meant to mimic the risk factor in returns related to book to market equity8. HML (respectively SMB) is neutral relative to the size effect (respectively to the book to market). This means that these factors do a good job isolating the firm-specific components of returns (Fama and French 1993, 1995, 1996 and 2000). 8 See Fama and French (1993) for a precise description of the construction of SMBt and HMLt. The Sharp Ratio (1966): The Sharp ratios (1966) calculate the ratio of the average excess return and the return standard deviation of the fund that is being evaluated. As such it measures the excess return per unit of risk. Assuming all asset returns to be normally distributed, the CAPM tells us that in equilibrium the highest attainable Sharpe ratio is that of the market index. In more general terms, the market indexs sharp ratio represents the set of return distributions that is obtained when statically combining the market index with cash. With the market index being highly diversified, these distributions offer the highest achievable expected return for every possible standard deviation (Gaurav S. Amin and Harry M.Kat (2002), Hedge fund performance 1990-2000). Jensens Alpha (1968): Jensens alpha was introduced in Jensen (1968) and equals the intercept of the regression: (Rh-Rf)= ÃŽÂ ± + ÃŽÂ ² (Ri- Rf) + eh, Where Rh is the fund return, Rf is the risk free rate and Ri is the total return on the market index. Like the Sharpe ratio, Jensens alpha is rooted in the CAPM. According to the CAPM, in equilibrium all (portfolios of) assets with the same beta will offer the same expected return, any positive deviation therefore indicates superior performance (Gaurav S. Amin and Harry M.Kat (2002), Hedge fund performance 1990-2000). Capital Asset Pricing Model: The first performance model that will be used is a capital asset pricing based single index model (CAPM). This model developed by Sharpe (1964) and Linter (1965) is the oldest performance evaluation model. Its formula is the following: Rpt â€Å" Rft = ÃŽÂ ±p + ÃŽÂ ²p (Rmt-Rft) + ept t= 1,2,, T Where, Rpt= return of fund p in month t, Rft= risk free return on month t, Rmt= return of the market portfolio on month t, ept= the error term, ÃŽÂ ±p and ÃŽÂ ²p= the intercept and the slope of the regression estimated. The intercept of this equation, ÃŽÂ ±p commonly called Jensens alpha (1968) is usually interpreted as a measure of out or under performance relative to the market proxy used. There are several extension of this model have been developed like- the Breeden (1979) intertemporal CAPM or the Ferson and Schadt (1996) CAPM that allows time variation in the expected returns and the risk (Capocci Daniel 2001, An analysis of hedge fund performance 1984- 2000). 4. Data Preparation: For data preparation my first step will be to collect the monthly data of the hedge fund index, FTSE 100 and SP 500. For my data collection I will use some sources like- Credit Suisse/ Tremont Hedge Fund Index (CSTHFI hereafter) which is an appropriate representative of the entire hedge fund industry, there are three biggest database of hedge fund in the world these are Managed Account Reports (MAR), Hedge Fund Research, Inc (HFR) and TASS Management (TASS). These databases were the most used in academic and commercial hedge fund studies. For the FTSE 100 and SP 500 I will use yahoo finance. 4.1. Bias in Hedge fund data: According to Ackermann et al. (1999) and to Fung and Hsieh (2000), two upward biases exist in the case of hedge funds. They do not exist in the case of mutual funds, and they both have an opposite impact to the survivorship bias. Survivorship bias is an important issue in mutual funds performance studies (see Carhart and al. 2000). This bias is present when a database contains only funds that have data for the whole period studies. In this case, there is a risk of overestimating the mean performance because the funds that would have ceased to exist because of their bad performance would not be taken into account. The two upward biases exist because, since hedge funds are not allowed to advertise, they consider inclusion in a database primarily as a marketing tool. The first phenomenon stressed by Ackermann and al. (1999) and called the self-selection bias is present because funds that realize good performance have less incentive to report their performance to data providers in order to attract new investors. The second point called instant history bias or backfilled bias (Fung and Hsieh 2000) occurs because after inclusion a funds performance history is backfilled. This may cause an upward bias because funds with less satisfactory performance history are less likely to apply for inclusion than funds with good performance history (Capocci Daniel 2001, An analysis of hedge fund performance 1984- 2000). To avoid these biases I will try to take all funds both living and dissolved into account. Once I have collected all the data that I need I will use SPSS to test the correlation between my two benchmarks FTSE 100 and SP 500. 5. Contingency Plan: To make my research effective I made a well constructed plan. I have drafted a project plan (Appendix A) with scheduled dates for when I intend to complete sections for submission. After completing my final exam I will jump in to this field. Advises from previous students who completed their dissertation, I made my project plan flexible to keep some things in mind like supervisors holiday and any unforeseen events such as my illness. I will try to keep a good communication with my supervisor for checking that I am in right track. I plan to make some formal meetings with my supervisor to discuss my progress and I will try to inform him about the state of my work. It is hard to spending too much time over one task and going off track, I hope I will manage this if there is no rush at the very last minute. Another worry is the collecting and analysing the data, that is why I plan to collect the data early June once I have finished my research design. If I face any kind of difficulties I will inform him and make a cut-off point where I should stop searching the board data and start my own primary data. As I do all SPSS classes and briefly touched about this, I think it will be easy to analyze the data but I need to increase a bit of use of control on it by practicing more. So I will set aside time for collecting data and practice more SPSS for regression analysis. I hope if all these go well, I will make my dissertation very effectively. Analysis Of Hedge Fund Performances Analysis Of Hedge Fund Performances 1. INTRODUTION: Hedge funds are actively managed portfolios that hold positions in publicly traded securities. Gaurav S. Amin and Harry M. Kat (2000) stated on their report that A hedge fund is typically defined as a pooled investment vehicle that is privately organized, administrated by professional investment managers, and not widely available to the public? It charges both a performance fee and a management fee. It allows a flexible investment for a small number of large investors (usually the minimum investment is $1 million) can use high risk techniques. Nowadays it is very clear that in the matter of alternative investment mutual fund is not performing well. As a high absolute returns and typically have features such as hurdle rates and incentive fees with high watermark provision hedge fund gives a better align to the interests of managers and investors. Moreover mutual funds typically use a long-only buy-and-hold type strategy on standard asset classes, which help to capture risk premia asso ciate with equity risk, interest rate risk, default risk etc. However, they are not very helpful in capturing risk premia associate with dynamic trading strategies. That is why hedge fund comes into the picture. This is the year of 2009, which takes the greatest history of the world in the following century. In the year of 2008 the world saw the greatest fall down of the world economy. Lots of people missing their jobs, lots of company were stopped. The world economy faced the highest losses in the history. These all factors are showing only one way to makeover from that greatest downfall that is hedging. 3The last couple of decades have witnessed a rapidly growing in the hedge funds. Relative to traditional investment portfolios hedge funds exhibit some unique characteristics; they are flexible with respect to the types of securities they hold and the type of the position they take. 1 Agarwal, V. and Naik, N. (2000). Multi-period performance persistence analysis of hedge fund s?. The journal of financial and quantitative analysis. Vol. 35, No,3. PP-327. 2 Agarwal, V. and Naik, N. (2004). Risks and portfolio decisions involving hedge funds?. The review of financial studies, Vol. 17, No.1. PP-64. 3 Journal of banking and finance 32(2008) 741-753- Hedge Fund Pricing and Model Uncertainty? by Spyridan D. Vrontos, Ioannis D. Vrontos, Daniel Giomouridies. 4The number of FOHFs increase by 40% between 2001 and 2003, and now comprised almost two third of the $650 billion invested in the USAs hedge fund market. Due to its nature it is difficult to estimate the current size of hedge fund industry. 5Van Hedge Fund Advisors estimates that by the end of 1998 there were 5380 hedge fund managing $311 in capital, with between $800 billion and $1 trillion in total assets, which indicates the higher number of recent new entries. So far, hedge fund is based on American phenomena. About 90% hedge fund managers are based in the US, 9% in Europe and 1% in Asia and elsewhere. Now a days around 5883 hedge funds are trading around the world. (*Barclay Hedge database) 4 Financial times, 29th October, 2003. www.vanhedge.com http://www.barclayhedge.com/products/hedge-fund-directory.html 1.1 Categories of Hedge fund investment objectives: Event Driven: Distressed securities- manager focuses on securities of companies in reorganization and bankruptcy, ranging from senior secured debt to the common stock of the company. Risk arbitrage- manager simultaneously buys stock in a company being acquired and sells stock in its acquirers. Global: International- manager pays attention to economic change around the world (except the United States) but more bottom-up oriented in that managers tend to be stock-pickers in markets they like. Uses index derivatives to a much lesser extent than macro managers. Emerging- Manager invests in less mature financial markets of the world, e.g. Hong Kong, Singapore, Pakistan, India. Because shorting is not permitted in many emerging markets, managers must go to cash or other markets when valuations make being long unattractive. Regional- Manager focuses on specific regions of the world, example- Latin America, Asia, and Europe. Global macro: Opportunistic trading manager that profits from changes in global economies typically based in major interest rate shifts. Uses leverage and derivatives. Market neutral: Long/short stocks- half long/half short. Manager attempts to lock-out or neutralize market risk. Convertible arbitrage- Manager goes long convertible securities and shorts the underlying equities. Stock index arbitrage- Manager buys a basket of stocks and sells short stock index futures, or the reverse. Fixed income arbitrage- Manager buys T-bonds and sells short index futures or the reverse. Short sales: Manager takes a position that stock prices will go down. Used as a hedge for long only portfolios and by those who feel market is approaching a bearish trend. U.S Opportunistic: Value â€Å" Manager focuses on assets, cash flow, book value, out-of-favor stocks. Growth â€Å" Manager invests in growth stocks, revenues, earnings, and growth potential are keys. Short term â€Å" Manager holds positions for a short time frame. Fund of fund: Capital is allocated among a number of hedge funds, providing investors with access to managers they might not be able to discover or evaluate in their own. Usually has a lower minimum than a hedge fund. Source: Carl Ackermann, Richard McEnally, and David Ravenscraft, The performance of hedge funds: Risk, Return and Incentives,? Journal of finance 54, no.3 (June 1999) figure 1, page-843. Reproduced from a hedge fund database firm named Managed Account Report (MAR) Inc, and distributed through LaPorte Asset Allocation System. 2. Literature review: Despite the increasing interest and recent development, few studies have been carried out on hedge funds comparing to other investment tools like mutual funds. An analysis of Hedge Fund performance 1984-2000? by Capocci Daniel using one of the greatest hedge fund database ever used on his working paper (2796 individual funds including 801 dissolved), to investigate hedge funds performance using various asset-pricing models, including an extension from of Carharts (1997) model combined with Fama and French (1998), Agarwal and Naik (2000) models that take into account the fact that some hedge funds invest in emerging market bond. At the end they found that their model does a better job describing hedge funds behaviour. That appears particularly good for the Event Driven, Global Macro, US Opportunistic, Equity non-Hedge and Sector funds. Since the early 1990s, when around 2000 hedge funds were managing assets totalling capital of $60 billion, the subsequent growth in the number and asset base of hedge funds has never really been refuted. The industry only suffered from a relative slowdown in 1998, but since then has enjoyed a renewed vitality with an estimated total of 10,000funds managing more than a trillion US dollars by the end of 2006. The growing trend of the sector remained remarkably sustained during the stock market collapse that started in March 2000, when the NASDAQ composite Index reached an all-time high of 5,132 and finished three years later with a floor level of 1,253. In the meantime, the global met asset value (NAV) of hedge funds continued to grow at a steady rate of 10.6% (Van Hedge Funds Advisors International, 2002), contrasting with a decrease of 2.7% in the worldwide mutual fund industry ( Investment Company Institute, 2003). In 2001, Capocci and Hubner(2004) estimated that there were 6,000 he dge fund managing around $400 billion. In 2007, Capocci, Duquenne and Hubner (2007) estimated that there were 10,000 hedge funds managing around $1 trillion. This is a growth of 11% in the number of funds and 26% in assets over six years (6PhD thesis paper by Daniel P.J. Capocci). Other studies from practitioners Hennessee (1994), and Oberuc (1994) also showed an evidence of superior performance in the case of hedge funds. Ackernann and Al. (1999) and Liang (1999) who compared the performance of hedge funds to mutual funds and several indices, found that hedge funds constantly obtained better performance than mutual funds. Their performance was not better than the performance of the market indices considered. They also indicated that the returns in hedge funds were more unstable than both the returns of mutual funds and those of market indices. According to Brown and Al. (1997) hedge funds showing good performance in the first part of the year reduce the volatility of their portfolio in the second half of the year (Capocci Daniel- An analysis of hedge fund performance 1984-2000). Taking all these results into account hedge funds seems a good investment tool. 6 PhD thesis paper by Daniel P.J. Capocci. Electronic copy available at: http//ssrn.com/abstract=1008319. 3. Research design and Methodology: In this section I would like to describe the empirical methodology to be used to measure the performance of hedge fund as well as the performance of FTSE 100 and SP 500. My aim is to identify which will give the better return for an investor. To investigate hedge funds performance and performance of FTSE 100 and SP 500 my study will follow some models like 4-factor model from of Carharts (1997) model, the 3-factor model from Fama and French (1993) models, the Sharpe ratio (1966) and Jensens alpha (1968) and CAPM. I divide my research into three sections. First section will analyse the performance of hedge funds, FTSE 100 and SP 500. This section sets out the models of performance measurement I will use. Second section will made correlation between Hedge fund vs. FTSE 100 and Hedge fund vs. SP 500 to find out the better portfolio. Third section will exposes a discussion as well as a description of my database and finally concludes the paper. 3.1. Performance measure models: The 4-factor model from Carhart (1997) Carharts (1997) 4-factor model is an extension of the Fama and French (1993) factor model. It not only takes into account the size of the firms, the book to market ratio, but there is an additional factor for the momentum effect. Grinblatt, Titman and Wermers (1995) define this effect as buying stocks that were past winners and selling past losers. This model is estimated with the following regressions: Rpt-Rft=ÃŽÂ ±p+ÃŽÂ ²pi (Rmt â€Å"Rft) + ÃŽÂ ²p2 SMBt +ÃŽÂ ²p3 HMLt + ÃŽÂ ²p4 PR1YRt + ept t= 1,2,,T Where SMBt= the factor mimicking portfolios for size; HMLt= the factor mimicking portfolio for book to market equity; PR1YRt= the factor mimicking portfolio for the momentum effect7 7 for a description of the construction of PR1YR see Carhart (1997). As stressed by Daniel et al. (1997), this model, which is effectively a four factor Jensen measure, assumes that betas with respect to the returns of four zero investment factor mimicking portfolios, are appropriate measures of multidimensional systematic risk. According to this model, in the absence of stock selection or timing abilities, the expected return for a fund is the sum of the risk free return and the products of the betas with the factor risk premium, which are simply the expected returns of each of these zero investment portfolios. The Carhart (1997) approach identifies a matching passive portfolio return for each fund return. This passive return, which is subtracted from the fund return to generate ÃŽÂ ±p, is a weighted average of the returns of the Carhart factor portfolios and the return of a one month T-bill (Capocci Daniel 2001, Journal- European Private Bankers, Nov, 2001). The 3-factor model from Fama and French (1993): Fama and French (1993) 3 factor model is estimated from an expected form of the CAPM regression. It takes the size and the book to market ratio of the firm into account. It uses the time series approach from Black, Jensen, and Scholles (1972) in the sense that the monthly returns on stocks are regressed on the returns to a market portfolio of stocks and mimicking portfolios for size and book to market. It is estimated from the following extension of the CAPM regression: Rpt-Rft=ÃŽÂ ±p+ÃŽÂ ²pi (Rmt â€Å"Rft) + ÃŽÂ ²p2 SMBt +ÃŽÂ ²p3 HMLt + ept t= 1,2,,T Where, SMBt= the factor mimicking portfolios for size, and HMLt= the factor mimicking portfolio for book to market equity. SMLt which comes from small minus big meant to mimic the risk factor in returns related to size, and HMLt which comes from high minus low meant to mimic the risk factor in returns related to book to market equity8. HML (respectively SMB) is neutral relative to the size effect (respectively to the book to market). This means that these factors do a good job isolating the firm-specific components of returns (Fama and French 1993, 1995, 1996 and 2000). 8 See Fama and French (1993) for a precise description of the construction of SMBt and HMLt. The Sharp Ratio (1966): The Sharp ratios (1966) calculate the ratio of the average excess return and the return standard deviation of the fund that is being evaluated. As such it measures the excess return per unit of risk. Assuming all asset returns to be normally distributed, the CAPM tells us that in equilibrium the highest attainable Sharpe ratio is that of the market index. In more general terms, the market indexs sharp ratio represents the set of return distributions that is obtained when statically combining the market index with cash. With the market index being highly diversified, these distributions offer the highest achievable expected return for every possible standard deviation (Gaurav S. Amin and Harry M.Kat (2002), Hedge fund performance 1990-2000). Jensens Alpha (1968): Jensens alpha was introduced in Jensen (1968) and equals the intercept of the regression: (Rh-Rf)= ÃŽÂ ± + ÃŽÂ ² (Ri- Rf) + eh, Where Rh is the fund return, Rf is the risk free rate and Ri is the total return on the market index. Like the Sharpe ratio, Jensens alpha is rooted in the CAPM. According to the CAPM, in equilibrium all (portfolios of) assets with the same beta will offer the same expected return, any positive deviation therefore indicates superior performance (Gaurav S. Amin and Harry M.Kat (2002), Hedge fund performance 1990-2000). Capital Asset Pricing Model: The first performance model that will be used is a capital asset pricing based single index model (CAPM). This model developed by Sharpe (1964) and Linter (1965) is the oldest performance evaluation model. Its formula is the following: Rpt â€Å" Rft = ÃŽÂ ±p + ÃŽÂ ²p (Rmt-Rft) + ept t= 1,2,, T Where, Rpt= return of fund p in month t, Rft= risk free return on month t, Rmt= return of the market portfolio on month t, ept= the error term, ÃŽÂ ±p and ÃŽÂ ²p= the intercept and the slope of the regression estimated. The intercept of this equation, ÃŽÂ ±p commonly called Jensens alpha (1968) is usually interpreted as a measure of out or under performance relative to the market proxy used. There are several extension of this model have been developed like- the Breeden (1979) intertemporal CAPM or the Ferson and Schadt (1996) CAPM that allows time variation in the expected returns and the risk (Capocci Daniel 2001, An analysis of hedge fund performance 1984- 2000). 4. Data Preparation: For data preparation my first step will be to collect the monthly data of the hedge fund index, FTSE 100 and SP 500. For my data collection I will use some sources like- Credit Suisse/ Tremont Hedge Fund Index (CSTHFI hereafter) which is an appropriate representative of the entire hedge fund industry, there are three biggest database of hedge fund in the world these are Managed Account Reports (MAR), Hedge Fund Research, Inc (HFR) and TASS Management (TASS). These databases were the most used in academic and commercial hedge fund studies. For the FTSE 100 and SP 500 I will use yahoo finance. 4.1. Bias in Hedge fund data: According to Ackermann et al. (1999) and to Fung and Hsieh (2000), two upward biases exist in the case of hedge funds. They do not exist in the case of mutual funds, and they both have an opposite impact to the survivorship bias. Survivorship bias is an important issue in mutual funds performance studies (see Carhart and al. 2000). This bias is present when a database contains only funds that have data for the whole period studies. In this case, there is a risk of overestimating the mean performance because the funds that would have ceased to exist because of their bad performance would not be taken into account. The two upward biases exist because, since hedge funds are not allowed to advertise, they consider inclusion in a database primarily as a marketing tool. The first phenomenon stressed by Ackermann and al. (1999) and called the self-selection bias is present because funds that realize good performance have less incentive to report their performance to data providers in order to attract new investors. The second point called instant history bias or backfilled bias (Fung and Hsieh 2000) occurs because after inclusion a funds performance history is backfilled. This may cause an upward bias because funds with less satisfactory performance history are less likely to apply for inclusion than funds with good performance history (Capocci Daniel 2001, An analysis of hedge fund performance 1984- 2000). To avoid these biases I will try to take all funds both living and dissolved into account. Once I have collected all the data that I need I will use SPSS to test the correlation between my two benchmarks FTSE 100 and SP 500. 5. Contingency Plan: To make my research effective I made a well constructed plan. I have drafted a project plan (Appendix A) with scheduled dates for when I intend to complete sections for submission. After completing my final exam I will jump in to this field. Advises from previous students who completed their dissertation, I made my project plan flexible to keep some things in mind like supervisors holiday and any unforeseen events such as my illness. I will try to keep a good communication with my supervisor for checking that I am in right track. I plan to make some formal meetings with my supervisor to discuss my progress and I will try to inform him about the state of my work. It is hard to spending too much time over one task and going off track, I hope I will manage this if there is no rush at the very last minute. Another worry is the collecting and analysing the data, that is why I plan to collect the data early June once I have finished my research design. If I face any kind of difficulties I will inform him and make a cut-off point where I should stop searching the board data and start my own primary data. As I do all SPSS classes and briefly touched about this, I think it will be easy to analyze the data but I need to increase a bit of use of control on it by practicing more. So I will set aside time for collecting data and practice more SPSS for regression analysis. I hope if all these go well, I will make my dissertation very effectively.

King Louis XIV: A Disastrous Ruler Essay -- European History Essays

King Louis XIV: A Disastrous Ruler It is often debated whether or not the reign of King Louis XIV had a positive or negative effect on France. Although there were improvements during his reign in transportation, culture, and national defense, there were far more negative aspects. He depleted the national treasury with his liberal spending on personal luxuries and massive monuments. His extreme fear of the loss of power led to poor decision making, which caused the court to be of lower quality. King Louis XIV’s disastrous rule brought about a series of effects that influenced the French Revolution in the following century. King Louis XIV's 72 year reign was incredibly influential in shaping French history. King Louis XIV’s childhood was traumatic because of â€Å"La Fronde† which was a noble rebellion against the monarchy. This experience taught King Louis XIV to distrust the nobles. It was for this reason that he eventually excluded nobility from the council and surrounded himself with loyal ministers whom he could control. He also separated the aristocracy from the people of France by moving the court to the Palace of Versailles. One of the most notable of King Louis XIV’s decisions was that he refused to appoint another Prime Minister after the death of Prime Minister Mazarin. Every decision, from the declaration of war to the approval of a passport, went through him personally. During his reign as king, France participated in several wars including the War of Devolution, in Anglo-Dutch War, and the War of the Spanish Succession. Another major action he took was the proclamation of the Edict of Fontainebleau, which revoked the Edict of Nantes, imposing religious uniformity through Catholi... ...roblems and turned a great number of people against the monarchy. These events lead to the resentment that was another key factor in beginning the French Revolution. The end of King Louis XIV’s rule was especially disastrous. After the death of his advisor Colbert, King Louis XIV made even more horrible and costly decisions. He further enlarged the military and entered into many wars in which he lost a great deal of her newly acquired territories and increased the national debt even more. In short, the reign of King Louis XIV had a disastrous impact on France. His liberal spending, appointing of easily controlled people to court, revoking the freedom of religion, and poor decision making sparked the economic burdens and resentment of the aristocracy that were major factors in the French Revolution and the eventual downfall of the French monarchy.

McGraw-Hill Financial Performance

It is reported that there was an 8.6% increase in the earnings per share to $2.40 for the year 2006 that due to the increase in the revenue by 4.2% amounting to $6.3 billion.   Another successful year for the McGraw-Hill, but before that, let’s take a look on the past few years where the evaluation on this research must focus. The net income of the McGraw-Hill for the year 2003 is $687.7 million.   During 2004, the net income had reached to an amount of $755.8 million, a 9.9% increase from the previous year.   In addition to this, the company’s revenue increased by 7.4% amounting to $5.3 billion. In accordance with the Emerging Issues Task Force Issue 00-10, â€Å"Accounting for Shipping and Handling Fees Costs†, the corporation had made reclassification of the revenues resulting to an increase in the revenue of $62.5 million and $62.5 million during the year 2004 and 2003 respectively. There is an increased of 14.3% in the McGraw-Hill revenue during 2005 which had reached about $6 billion.   Together with it is the increase in the net income of 11.7% reaching to an amount of $844.3 million and also an increase in the earnings per share of 12.8%.   The company had also returned an amount greater than $924 million to the shareholders prior to the increase of 14.4% compared to as before of 4.9%. Pearson PLC Financial Performance In the year 2003, changes in the company’s portfolios had made revenue to increase by  £89 million and  £24 million on the profit.   However, due to the movements of currency, there is  £181 million reduction on the revenues and  £27 million on the profits. During the year 2004, the revenues of the Pearson PLC had decreased by  £302 million and  £51 million on the profits due to the currency movements that happened that time.   However, the changes in the portfolio had made an increase of  £41 million on the revenues but still the profit dropped down by  £8 million. However, the movements of the currency in 2005 had made a positive effect on the Pearson PLC.   Regarding the continuing business basis, there is an increase in the sails by  £46 million and the profit had also increased by  £12 million.   In addition to this, the portfolio changes also made the sales to increase by  £29 million and profits by  £9 million. Also during the year 2005, the fastest growth of sales happened in comparison on the past five years of the corporation.   The sales increased by 9%.   There is also a 22% increase in the profit amounting to  £509 million and with the margins going up to 12.4%.   There is also an increase of more than 33% in the operating cash flow of Pearson and more than 50% on the free cash flow, reaching to an amount of  £431 million. These results to the most cash generated in Pearson that ever happened before.   The biggest contributor on these success is the –education- having sale of up to 12% generating an amount of  £2.66 billion and making the profit to go up by 22% to the amount of  £348 million. McGraw-Hill Stock Performance A 10% increase was approved by the Board of Directors of the McGraw-Hill Companies on the Corporation’s common stock regular quarterly cash dividend.   It was the 32nd of the consecutive increase in the annual dividend of the Corporation’s common stock. In 2004, an amount of $630 million was returned by the McGraw-Hill Companies to their shareholder.   There was a 50% increase on the dividend payments compared to the previous year (2003).   There is a new annualized rate amounting to $1.32 per share brought by the Corporation’s increase by 3 cents to 33 cents per share in the regularly quarterly dividend on the common stock.   There was a history of continued increase in the McGraw-Hill dividends for 32 consecutive years.   Also, during this year, the acquisition of the 5 million shares of its repurchase range happened on the Corporation. There was an increase of a 10.3% average on the McGraw-Hill Companies annualized total return over the past 5 years. In 2005, the expanded stock repurchase program continued for 45 million shares which is far greater than the outlook of the Corporation on 2004 of between three to five million shares.   In addition to this, it has been a 33 consecutive years of an increase in the dividend.   Since 1974, a 10.3% had been the average compound annual growth rate. Pearson Stock Performance The shareholders had approved the amount of 17 pence per ordinary share as a final dividend in 2005 and the he total dividend had reached the amount of 27 pence (adding the already paid interim dividend).   There is an increase from the previous year dividend from 25.4 pence (2004). In 2004, an adjustment of up to 5% amounting to 30 pence (57.6 cents) per share occurred and also there was an increase on the dividends by 5%. In 2003, a dividend per share amounts to 24.2 pence or 43.3 cents.   The price of the share at this year is  £5.72 and  £6.25 on the following year (2004) and on 2005, the share price is  £6.52. Stock Performance Analysis In 2004, the stock performance of the McGraw-Hill dramatically increased from 17.8% of return putting it on its peak having a record giving a 32.9% in return to the shareholders.   However, it has not been good during the year 2005 due to the currency movement thus dropping down to 14.4%.   However, it was a disaster for Pearson PLC’s stock to be performing to the down low having its percent of return down to its lowest return of 1.5%.   The stock performance trend from 2003 until 2005 has been continuously going down.   Currency movement and the changed company portfolio didn’t make a resistance for the company at these times. Long-Term Commitment Until 2005, McGraw-Hill Companies had succeeded and made the constant average return on investments through dividends of 10.3% for 33 consecutive years since 1974.   By simply looking at these numbers, the possibility of McGraw-Hill to a long-term commitment would bring up more success to the Corporation. Pearson had been facing trouble in their past years before 2003.   Those years have been tough for the Corporation.   But their claim is they had made three of their companies, namely education, business information and consumer publishing to becoming world leaders. These happenings made them to think of two things; making their operations efficient and selling of better products and services compared to their competitors.   This strategy made them sold more than  £250 million worth of products and services through combining of two or more parts of Pearson, both working together.   The results of this had reduced costs, increased revenues, assets, and working capitals that will continue planning on a long-term commitment. McGraw-Hill. (2007). The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.: Financial Statement.  Ã‚   Retrieved March 10, 2007, from http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/results/statemnt.aspx?Symbol=MHP&lstStatement=Balance&stmtView=Ann PLC, P. (2007). Financial Statement.  Ã‚   Retrieved March 10, 2007, from http://finance.google.com/finance?fstype=ci&cid=664805      

Nursing Practice and Profession Abstract

AbstractNurses committed to the interpersonal caring hold themselves accountable for the human well being of patients entrusted to their health care. Being accountable means being attentive and responsive to the health care needs of individual patient. It means that my concern for the patient transcends whatever happens during my shift, and that I ensure continuity of care when I leave the patient. In today’s highly fragmented system of care, patients often find themselves unable to point to any one care giver who knows the overall situation and is capable and willing to coordinate the efforts of the healthcare team. Being responsive and responsible earns a patient’s trust that â€Å"all will be well† as the healthcare needs are addressed. This will be the central them of this paper in the quest of establish the nurse’s accountabilities in evaluating or implementing change.Nurses who are sensitive to the legal dimensions of practice are careful to develop a strong sense of both ethical and legal accountability. Competent practice is a nurses’ best legal safeguard. When working to develop ethical and legal accountabilities, nurses must recognize that both deficiencies and or excesses of responsible caring are problematic.Although it is reasonable to hold oneself accountable for promoting the human well being of the patients, nurses can err by setting unrealistic standards of responsiveness and responsibility for themselves. Prudence is always necessary to balance responsible self care with care for others. Inexperienced nurses might feel totally responsible for effecting patient outcomes beyond their control and become frustrated and sad when unable to produce the desired outcome Conversations about what is reasonable to hold ourselves and others accountable for are always helpful.Each employing institution or agency providing nursing service has an obligation to establish a process for reporting and handling practices by indiv idual or by health care systems that jeopardizes a patient’s health or safety. The American Nurses Association code of Ethics obligates nurses to report professional conduct that is incompetent, unethical or illegal. For nurses, incompetent practice in measured by nursing standards, unethical practice is evaluated in light of the professional codes of ethics, while illegal practice is identified in terms of violation of federal legislations and laws.Nurses must respect the accountability and responsibility inherent in their roles.   They have the moral obligations in the provision of nursing care, hence they collaborate with other health care providers in providing comprehensive health care, recognizing the perspective and expertise of each member.   Nurses have a moral right to refuse to participate in procedures that may violate their own personal moral conscience since they are entitled to conscientious objection. They must keep all information obtained in a profession al capacity confidential and employ professional judgment in sharing this information on a need to know basis. Nurses are expected to protect individuals under their care against lack of privacy by confining their verbal communications only to appropriate personnel; settings, and to professional purposes. They are obliged to adhere to practice that limits access to personal records to appropriate personnel.They must value the promotion of a social as well as economic environment that supports and sustains health and well-being. It includes the involvement in the detection of ill effects of the environment on the health of the patient as well as the ill effects of human activities to the natural environment. They must acknowledge that the social environment in which the patient inhabits has an impact on health. Nurses must respect the rights of individuals to make informed choices in relation to their care. They have this responsibility to inform individuals about the care available to them, and the choice to accept or reject that care.   If the person is not able to speak for themselves, nurses must ensure the availability of someone to represent them. It is vital to respect the decisions made concerning the individual’s care.Standards of care are one measure of quality.   Quality nursing care provides care by qualified individuals. Likewise, the individual needs, values, and culture of the patient relative to the provision of nursing care is important to be respected and considered hence it should not be compromised for reasons of ethnicity, gender, spiritual values, disability, age, economic, social or health status, or any other grounds.   Respect for an individual’s needs includes recognition of the individual’s place in a family and the community. It is due to this reason that others should be included in the provision of care, most significantly the family members. Respect for needs, beliefs and values includes culturally sensi tive care, and the need for comfort, dignity, privacy and alleviation of pain and anxiety as much as possible.â€Å"Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a problem solving approach to clinical practice that integrates the conscientious use of best evidence in combination with a clinician’s expertise as well as patient preferences and values to make decisions about the type of care that is provided† (Melnyk, 2004). Quality of care outcomes refers to accuracy and relevance demonstrated by the decisions concerning the need for medical and surgical intervention. Evidence of appropriateness in healthcare is necessary to improve health outcomes, balance costs, provide guidance to physicians and meet the need of the new informed health consumer. Appropriateness is unlike effectiveness since the later refers to the degree in which an intervention achieves the objectives set (Muir Gray, 1997). One criterion of appropriateness is that of necessity.As technology and improved methods o f care has advanced, access to appropriate interventions should likewise improve. Today some interventions are still limited such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in rural communities and since access to this technology is limited, a criterion of necessity is used to determine who is able to access and how quickly. Therefore although use of MRI may be appropriate in diagnostics, it may be underused. Advancements in technology, interventions and clinical research will provide updated evidence which in turn would affect ratings of appropriateness (Muir Gray, 1997). Clinical guideline statements are developed from evidence to assist healthcare practitioners in making appropriate health interventions (Woolf, Grol, Hutchinson, Eccles & Grimshaw, 1999).The clinical guideline may be a general statement or concise instruction on which diagnostic test to order or how best to treat a specific condition. The purpose of clinical guidelines is as a tool for making decisions that will result i n more consistent and efficient care. Guidelines are not rules nor are they mandatory. The benefits of clinical guidelines include: Improved health outcomes; Increased beneficial/appropriate care; Consistency of care; Improved patient information; Ability to positively influence policy; Provide direction to health care practitioners;ReferencesAgency of Healthcare Research and Quality. (n.d.). Outcomes research fact sheet. [Online].Available: https://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/clinicians-providers/guidelines-recommendations/index.htmlBrook, R.H. (1994). Appropriateness: The next frontier. [Online]. Available:http://www.bmj.com/content/308/6923/218.full?ijkey=t7GNbMJu0NIhAFitch, K., Bernstien, S. J., Aguilar, M. D., Burand, B., LaCalle, J. R., Lazaro, P. van het Loo,McDonnell, J., Vader, J. P., & Kahan, J. P. (2001). The RAND/UCLA appropriatenessmethod user’s manual. [Online]. Available:http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1269.html?John A. Hartford Foundation. (n.d.). [Online]. Available: http://www.johnahartford.org/Muir Gray, J.A. (1997). Evidence-based healthcare: How to make health policy and managementdecisions, New York: Churchill Livingstone.Woolf, S. H., Grol, R., Hutchinson, A., Eccles, M., & Grimshaw, J. (1999). Clinical guidelines:Potential benefits, limitations and harms of clinical guidelines. [Online]. Available:http://www.bmj.com/content/318/7182/527.full

Analyzing Ethical Behavior Paper Essays

Analyzing Ethical Behavior Paper Essays Analyzing Ethical Behavior Paper Essay Analyzing Ethical Behavior Paper Essay Ethics codes are retreated to help maintain a satisfactory level of ethical behavior within a business or organization and to help companies function more successfully (Mallow, Barnes, Bowers, Landwards, 2013, p. 101). Codes of ethics are broken numerous amounts of times in the business world. When these codes are broken, it can lead to multiple complications and scandals for corporations. Two examples of scandal and fraud in the business world are Bernard Lawrence Maddox and ENRON. Bernie Maddox Analysis Bernard Lawrence Maddox was the chairman for an investment securities firm that he founded in 1960. He was convicted of fraud in 2008 when he admitted that his business was, in fact, the largest Opinion scheme in history. Approximately $20 billion of, so-called, investments had dissipated (Kramer Ward, 2009, p. 27). In the case of Bernie Maddox, there were several investigations and red flags that appeared throughout each investigation. For instance, the fact that Maddox hardly ever encountered a down or slow month even in inconsistent markets raised quite a few suspicions. During the time of investigation, Bernie Maddox also confessed to operating a pyramid chem. as well as using a particular investment strategy called, split-strike conversion. This investment strategy entails buying and selling different sorts of options to reduce volatility (The Maddox affair:, 2008, Para. 7). Bernie Maddox is extremely smart and sneaky in a sense that he manipulated several people into investing in his Opinion scheme. Maddox took millions of dollars from huge corporations and companies. The fact that Madams company had never truly experienced a downfall should have been a major red flag to those who had invested in the company. Maddox portrayed his Opinion scheme in a way where people liked what they heard, liked what they saw, and therefore, invested immediately into the company without doing any further research. Maddox is a master manipulator, and his lack of ethics caused people to lose nearly their entire life savings. Although Bernie Maddox may have been the mastermind behind this scheme, he is not the only one to blame. There were multiple people working under Maddox. The code of ethics, or lack thereof, really shows here because if someone working in the company had any knowledge of what was going on in regards to the Opinion chem., he or she should have had the courage and honesty to go to someone of higher authority and report what Maddox was doing. If someone had any code of ethics or integrity, he or she should have thought about the lives that Madams Opinion scheme was affecting, and the illegal activity should have been reported immediately. Due to the lack of a code of ethics, multiple people lost a great amount of money by investing in Madams Opinion scheme. Bernie Maddox has an incredibly selfish view Of ethics and corporate responsibility towards his stakeholders. All that was on his mind at the time of the scheme was getting more money and being wealthy. He didnt care who he was affecting in a negative way, just as long as he benefited in the end; which is ironic since he ended up in prison with a 150-year sentence. ENRON Analysis ENRON Corporation was an energy and services company located in Texas. It went bankrupt in December of 2001 due to a planned accounting fraud. This accounting fraud led to several questions and concerns, not only about ENRON, but also about the accounting and financial companies working for ENRON. ENRON lied about its profits and stands accused of a range of shady dealings, including concealing debts so they didnt show up in the companys accounts (Enron Scandal at-a-glance, 2002, Para. 3). ENRON had close ties to the White House, therefore creating political implications as well. The lack of ethical standards for ENRON is obvious in this scandal. Executives and employees of the corporation were sneaky liars. They manipulated financial reports and accounts to make it appear as if the company was in good standing when it really wasnt. ENRON Corporation has a manipulative, unethical view on ethics and corporate responsibility. Because the corporation lied about numerous things regarding the finances and accounting, this implies that there was a huge lack of ethics within the company. The fact that executives and employees were okay with lying about so many records leads people to believe that the entire ENRON Corporation was set on a lie. ENRON, as well as accounting and financing companies, betrayed the trust Of several people because Of this scandal. Conclusion In sum, both the Bernie Maddox scandal and the ENRON scandal lacked a retain code of ethics and, as a result, both corporations no longer exist in the business world and executives and employees at each of these corporations faced life long consequences.