Ancestry of Aaron Rodgers

Hitler s Influence On The World War II - 1690 Words

Adolf Hitler was a very impressive man in some people’s eyes, but his life took one major roller coaster before he gained the power that he had. As a young child Hitler seemed to not want to join the military, but once he, did he found a path leading to his future. Hitler worked his way through the war and seemed to start gaining power. Once Hitler was at the top, he started to terminate people by sending them to concentration camps scattered around the country, quickly killing thousands. Hitler’s great power, massive number of soldiers, and unwillingly hate for the Jewish race, caused one of the biggest world crisis’s throughout the world war’s. The people of Poland and many surrounding countries seemed scared of Hitler’s great power, but†¦show more content†¦As Hitler s life got more attention â€Å"he ran for president against three other candidates†(Gottfried, Ted). Hitler gained a lot of support for running, and he knew that he had the Nazis behind him. Once Hitler came into some real power, Hitler’s â€Å"final solution† was underway and no one could stop him. One of the main factors in Hitler’s rise to power was the Economic Depression of 1929. â€Å"After the Wall Street crash, the U.S. called in its loans to Germany, which increased both poverty and unemployment levels†. The government did not know how to change this situation, this made the public angry knowing they had no real solutions. During the depression, political trends become extremist and so the Nazis flourished, Hitler offered himself as a strong leader to look up to. â€Å"The depression gave Hitler the edge he needed to gain ninety-five seats in the Reichstag and ultimately progress from the leader of a minority party to the Dictator of the Third Reich†. Once Hitler showed how he could gain more power than he needed, he used some of his techniques to scare the people into doing something they did not really want to do. Hitler was a very smart man, who could see around the world and find problems in another country that he can use to aid himself in a m ore powerful direction. Hitler was starting to gain a lot of power, and was becoming stronger and stronger, it seems as if no one knew the best way to stop him. â€Å"On January 30, 1933, Hitler

His/145 Native American Civil Rights Free Essays

Native American Civil Rights HIS/145 Native American Civil Rights Native Americans were the people of the land before English settlers claimed the United States as it is today. Throughout time they have been mistreated by white people and forced to be Americanized. Their culture has almost died with their people, and to this day their rights can be challenged as unjustified. We will write a custom essay sample on His/145 Native American Civil Rights or any similar topic only for you Order Now Before the 1960’s, Native Americans were pretty much ignored by other groups of ethnicity, especially the whites. However, postwar of Vietnam sparked the American youth to protest politics, and Native Americans stood up for their civil rights as American people. In 1961, around sixty seven tribes made up of over four hundred tribal members, met up in Chicago to find new ways of bringing all Native American tribes together to address wrongs of their people. They wanted the right to choose their own way of life. Before Native Americans were seen as savages, the red men who killed attacked innocent white men. But one result of the movement was a change in the way popular culture saw Native Americans. By the 1970’s films that once portrayed Indians as such savages, stopped. Some Indian activists persuaded some white schools to change the demeaning reference of Native Americans, such as Dartmouth College that once called their team the â€Å"Indians†. In 1968, a young militant group of Native Americans established A. I. M. which stands for American Indian Movement. It supporters were those of urban areas but eventually established on reservations. â€Å"In 1968 Congress passed the Indian Civil Rights Act, which recognized the legitimacy of tribal laws within the reservations. But leaders of AIM and other insurgent groups were not satisfied and turned increasingly to direct action. In 1968, Indian fisherman clashed with Washington State officials on the Columbia River and in Puget Sound, where Indians claimed that treaties gave them the exclusive right to fish. The Following year, members of several tribes made a symbolic protest by occupying the abandoned federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay and claiming the site â€Å"by right of discovery. † (Brinkley, page 841-842 012) In the 1970 the president had promised increased tribal self-determination and another increase in federal aid for Native Americans but protests were still continuing. One of the most celebrated protests happened February 1973 at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. This was the site of the 1890 massacre of the Sioux Indians murdered in cold blood by American federal troops. AIM occupied and seized the town of Wounded Knee for about two months, demanding changes in their administration and asking the government to honor their treaty obligations that were said to be forgotten. Only one Indian was killed during this protest and another one wounded. The Indian civil rights movement, like most other civil rights movements of their times did not win full justice and equality for their people. The principal goal to some Native Americans was to defend, and protect their rights as Native Americans. As to other Native Americans it was equality. Native Americans wanted to win a place in society as an equal to all groups that made up Americans. However, there is no single Indian culture or tradition in America, so the movement to unite all Native American tribes failed. The Indian civil rights movement, for all the limitations it had endured, did accomplish winning a series of brand new legal rights and protections, which gave them a much stronger position in the twentieth century. (Brinkley, 2012 page 842) (Brinkley, 2012) Native Americans were typically unhealthy, ignored, and discriminated against as savage humans for many years. In the 1960’s, the fact that young adults were protesting for their rights as civilians led Native Americans to fight for their own rights as well. They were awarded federal aid and their tribal laws on their reservations were awarded to their people, which basically means federal law has no say when it comes to any legal decisions made on an Indian reservation, where once before they did have a say. Native Americans today have ways to bring in money to tribes, such as Casinos, and are not treated as savages as they once were before the 1960’s in American culture. Reference Brinkley, A. (2012). American History. Connecting with the Past, Fourteenth Edition (14th Ed. ). Not Sure: McGraw-Hill Company. How to cite His/145 Native American Civil Rights, Papers

New Dynamics in Marketing

Question: Discuss about the New Dynamics in Marketing. Answer: Introduction With rapid globalization and increased competition across the world organizations have started improving their qualities as well as services to maintain their existing customers along with gaining more new customers. Relationship marketing or modern marketing is the new phenomenon which is adapting to the needs of worldwide development of the business (Egan, 2008) . Modern marketing is emerging as fast catching trend that assists the company to manage long-term relationships with their participants for example the suppliers, competitors, employees, customers as well as others that impact the business. However traditional marketing theories as well as practices have always focussed on attracting new customers for the purpose of making the sales (Harwood et al., 2008). This report will also analyse the shift of traditional marketing form just being customer centric to modern marketing that involves building long term relationships with stakeholders that involves customers as well. Difference between Traditional Marketing and Modern Marketing Traditional marketing is quite different from modern or societal marketing and the major difference can be seen in the scope of their message. The major factor in current scenario is whether societal interests are part of marketing strategies or not. However, it has been found that modern marketers do not have any issues or problems with the traditional marketing concepts. In case of some organizations for example the computer and electronics retailer TigerDirect , they have started updating their titles from just being traditional ones , to the marketing titles that also describe their functions as well as roles in the new era of marketing (Oracle, 2012). Factors Causing the Shift of Traditional Marketing towards Modern Marketing Due to information explosion with the rise of internet and rapid globalization, the markets are turning out to be highly competitive across the globe. Thus it becomes all the more crucial to develop as well as maintain long-term commercial relationships with not just the customers but also with the service providers, economic partners, financial partners etc., at varied levels of marketing channels in this broad business environment(Christopher et al., 1991). The modern marketing developed through three stages which includes - the production era, the sales era as well as the era of the marketing concept. During the production era the major cause of shift towards modern marketing came from the Industrial Revolution. With the introduction of machinery along with steam power that replaced the manual labour , products were being produced in huge quantities and large scale distribution was required this gave rise to modern marketing. Further globalization of the markets and advent of tech nology in the form of mobile phones, tablets and laptops required that the companies should connect with the customers in real-time (Benady, 2014). Some other reasons that have brought this shift in marketing from traditional to modern marketing are: customers really do not want to be disturbed or interrupted, moreover there are no more mass channels. It has become very hard to reach buyers mainly the young and etch-savvy ones using traditional marketing channels as well as media outlets (Mukerjee, 2009). On the other hand various new technologies like mobile and broadband have combined with social computing and have developed a Cambrian Explosion where experiments are done with marketing channels as well as media. This kind of fragmentation has lead to diminishing effect of traditional marketing and has simultaneously helped in creating better opportunities to connect with the customers in new ways using modern marketing channels. Moreover marketing cannot nowadays get away by simp ly standing not accountable like traditional marketing. The new modern marketing channels like Pay per Click (PPC or search engine marketing) have resulted in increased expectations for making marketing much more accountable (Rahnama Beiki, 2013). The money does not get wastes like it gets in traditional marketing channels like television etc. Factors Impacting Marketing (PESTEL Analysis) PESTEL is the well known acronym which is used in marketing planning and helps in reviewing the broader forces which are also referred to as macroenvironment that help in shaping the business. PESTEL analysis the topmost marketing model which is being used in digital marketing or the modern marketing. HMV, a famous UK music retailer, for years together ignored the PESTEL factors and failed to address the sociological effect of Internet, mainly the factor of online retailing. This lead to the drop in sales of the company and the emerging organizations like Spotify and Napster , offered the download services as well as music streaming, thus made HMV totally redundant in current markets (Jones, 2002). Political Factors: The political environment has a strong impact on the marketing decisions and thus impacts traditional marketing. The political environment comprises of pressure groups, laws or the governmental agencies which either limit or cast impact on the organizations in the society (Rahnama Beiki, 2013). Legislations that impact business across the globe have also enhanced in the past few years. There are laws that include fair trade practices, product safety, truth advertising, pricing, packing labelling etc. Many nations have gone far and wide than US and have passed strong consumerism legislations. For example in Norway many forms of sales promotions , contests, trading stamps as well as premiums are banned and considered inappropriate or supposed to be unfair methods of promoting products (Lehtisaari, 2015). European countries have strict pollution laws imposed by governments and that is why companies like Toyota have started manufacturing hybrid vehicles to conform to those laws. Social Factors : The study of demography is very crucial factor which the modern marketers use for modern marketing , as it covers people and in turn it is these people who make-up the markets. The growth of population is happening at an explosive rate and it is estimated that it will exceed 7.9 billion by the year 2025 (Lehtisaari, 2015). This major rise in population brings both challenges as well as opportunities in traditional marketing. The modern marketing therefore needs to keep a closer track on the demographic developments as well as trends happening in the markets. The track of demographic changes needs to be kept both locally at home as well as globally so that proper marketing strategies can be designed. That is how social factors impact traditional marketing. Sustainable marketing is critical part of modern marketing for example Tobacco companies need to mention statutory warning on each and every cigarette packet and they can sell them to specific target groups only or oversell them. Economic Factors: The economic environment that impacts the marketers includes various factors that also affect the spending patterns as well as purchasing powers of consumers. All the countries have different levels as well as distribution of income. Like the industrial economies offer better marketing opportunities while agriculture based economies offer just few marketing opportunities. The modern marketers should also keep a close watch on the average income along with income distribution patterns for effective marketing as these social factors also impact marketing in critical way (Pondicherry University, 2014). For example giant retail supermarket chains Tesco achieve success in the markets by offering cheaper alternatives as compared to the local supermarkets and it also needs to introduce local produce in their range of products. Environmental Factors: The environmental factors cover the natural environment or resources that are required as inputs by the marketers or get affected by the various marketing activities. Thus it is important that the marketers should be quite aware of the several trends occurring in the natural environment around them. There is rising shortage of raw materials because of air and water pollution and exploitation of natural resources by organizations. Many organizations manufacturing products from scare resources need to keep a check on how they manage and use non-renewable resources. The environment is also getting destroyed because of severe pollution caused by industries that dispose nuclear and chemical wastes and this negatively impacts the natural environment. The third trend is more intervention by government in the management of natural resources. This also impacts the marketing decisions of the companies (Pondicherry University, 2014). For example Starbucks adopts environme nt friendly approach by following corporate social responsibility while sourcing coffee beans for its entire coffee range and promotes ethical behaviour in the African region while sourcing coffee from suppliers. Conclusion In current scenario the emphasis can be clearly seen as the modern marketing is trying to create long term relationships with customers so that they can be retained for long term through long-lasting relationships with stakeholders. The conversations that happen in real-time with people by the brands while they interact through websites or apps has clearly brought major changes in the traditional marketing and shift towards modern trends of marketing. The areas of traditional marketing that have changed due to digital or modern marketing are speed, reach of campaigns as well as their relevance. Political factors like the rules and regulations concerning marketing of products have been more descriptive and these factors also seriously impact the marketing and causing shift of traditional marketing towards modern marketing which considers and takes cares of all the necessary legislations regarding marketing. Modern marketers have tools that help in easily keeping track of the changing family structures, age, educational characteristics, population diversity as well as geographic population shifts and this has lead to the shift of marketing from traditional one towards modern marketing. It is very important for the modern marketers to pay close attention the key trends as well as the spending patterns of the consumers not just within then nation but also in the world across markets. Thus it can be said that various environment related trends like rise in pollution, decrease in non-renewable resources etc. is also causing the shift of traditional marketing towards modern marketing. This is why there are new dynamic of marketing which is bringing about major changes in being a successful marketer by adopting the modern marketing trends. Bibliography Benady, D., 2014. How technology is changing marketing. The Guardian, 24 September. Christopher, M., Payne, A. Ballantyne, D., 1991. Relationship marketing - bringing quality, customer service and marketing together. Oxford: John WIley SOns. Egan, J., 2008. Relationship marketing. Exploring relational strategies in marketing. London: Pearson Education. Harwood, T., Garry, T. Broderick, A., 2008. Relationship marketing. Perspectives, dimensions and contexts. London: Mcgraw Hill. Jones, A., 2002. The press in transition. A comparative study of Nicaragua, South Africa, Jordan, and Russia. Hamburg: DUI. Lehtisaari, K., 2015. Market and POlitical Factors and the Russian Media. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Mukerjee, H.S., 2009. Industrial Marketing. Excel Books. Oracle, 2012. Making the shift : How great marketers are changing thier focus from the campaign to the customer. [Online] Available at: https://www.oracle.com/partners/en/products/cloud-solutions/oracle-marketing-cloud-hub/customer-centric-marketing-2539859.pdf [Accessed 12 October 2016]. Pondicherry University, 2014. Global Marketing management. [Online] Available at: https://www.pondiuni.edu.in/storage/dde/downloads/ibiii_gmm.pdf [Accessed 20 Oct 2016]. Rahnama, R. Beiki, A., 2013. MODERN MARKETING, CONCEPTS AND CHALLENGES. Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review , 2(6).

Siemens Electric Motor Works Essay Example

Siemens Electric Motor Works Paper Ten years ago our electric motor business was in real trouble. Low labor rates allowed the Eastern Bloc countries to sell standard motors at prices we were unable to match. We had become the high-cost producer in the industry. Consequently, we decided to change our strategy and become a specialty motor producer. Once we adopted our new strategy, we discovered that while our existing cost system was adequate for costing standard motors, it was giving us inaccurate information when we used it to cost specialty motors. Mr. Karl-Heinz Lottes—Director of Business Operations, EMW SIEMENS CORPORATION Headquartered in Munich, Siemens AG, a producer of electrical and electronic products, was one of the world’s largest corporations. Revenues totaled 51 billion deutschmarks (DM) in 1987, with roughly half this amount representing sales outside of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Siemens organization was split into seven major groups and five corporate divisions. The largest group, Energy and Automation, accounted for 24 percent of total revenues. Low wattage alternating current (A/C) motors were produced at the Electric Motor Works (EMW), which was part of the Manufacturing Industries Division of the Energy and Automation Group. High wattage motors were produced at another facility. THE ELECTRIC MOTOR WORKS Located in the small town of Bad Neustadt, the original Siemens EMW plant was built in 1939 to manufacture refrigerator motors for â€Å"Volkskuhlschraenke† (people’s refrigerators). Less than a year later, Mr. Siemens decided to halt the production of refrigerator motors and began to produce electric motors for other applications. We will write a custom essay sample on Siemens Electric Motor Works specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Siemens Electric Motor Works specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Siemens Electric Motor Works specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer At the end of World War II, the Bad Neustadt plant was the only Siemens factory in West Germany capable of producing electric motors. All the other Siemens production facilities had been completely destroyed or seized by Eastern Bloc countries. After an aggressive rebuilding program, Bad Neudstadt emerged as the firm’s primary producer of electric motors. Through the 1970s, WMW produced about 200 different types of standard motors, at a total annual volume of about 230,000 motors. Standard motors accounted for 80 percent of sales volume—the remaining 20 percent were customized motors. The production process was characterized by relatively long runs of a single type of motor. Because identical motors were used by a wide range of customers, standard motors were inventoried and shipped as orders were received. Production of standard A/C motors was extremely competitive. The key to success was to reduce costs so that the firm could price aggressively while making a profit. Despite a major expansion and automation program begun in 1974, by the early 1980s it had become obvious that the lower labor rates of the Eastern Bloc competitors gave them an insurmountable cost advantage. CHANGE IN STRATEGY An extensive study of EMW’s production capabilities and the market for electric motors indicated that EMW was in a position to become a profitable producer of low-volume, customized A/C motors. To help implement this strategy, the Bad Neustadt plant was enlarged and dedicated to the manufacture of A/C motors with power ratings ranging from 0. 06 to 18. 5 kilowatts. These motors supported a number of applications including automation engineering, machine tools, plastic processing, and paper and printing machines. For the new strategy to succeed, EMW needed to be able to manufacture efficiently a large variety of motors in small production runs. Between 1985 and 1988, EMW spent DM50 million a year to replace almost every machine on the shop floor and thereby create a production environment that could support its new strategy. By 1987, the production process was highly automated with numerically controlled machines, flexible machining centers, and robotically fed production processes used throughout the factory. Large-volume common components were manufactured using the appropriate automated equipment, whereas very low-volume components might be made in manual processes. Where possible, flexible manufacturing was used to produce small-volume specialty components. While a normal annual production volume for common components might be 100,000 units, a single component could have up to 10,000 custom variations that might have to be produced one at a time. To design a custom motor, modifications were made to a standard motor design. The process involved determining where standard components would not be used. These standard components were replaced by custom components that provided the functionality required by the customer. By 1987, the EMW strategy seemed to be successful. Of a total of 65,625 orders accepted, 90 percent were for custom motors. A total of 630,000 motors was produced (see Exhibit 1). Including all customized variations, Siemens EMW produced about 10,000 unique products that collectively required 30,000 different special components. Exhibit 1 Distribution of Orders Accepted for Production in 1987 Number of Motors3% 630,0009%99 motors44% 52,80014%20-99 motors31% 157,50026%5-19 motors13% 75,60048%2-4 motors7% 31,5001 motor5% Number of Orders65,625 CHANGE IN THE CALCULATION OF PRODUCT COSTS Beginning in 1926, EMW had used a product costing system. This system assigned material and labor costs directly to the products and divided overhead costs into three categories: material related, production related, and support related. Material-related overhead included costs associate d with material acquisition, and was allocated to products based on their direct materials cost. Production-related overhead was directly traced into production cost centers, and was allocated to products using either direct labor-hours or machine-hours, but not both. For more manually intensive machine classes, direct labor-hours was used; for machines whose operation required few direct labor-hours, machine-hours was used. In 1987, EMW used 600 cost centers, one per machine type. Support-related overhead was allocated to products based on the sum of direct material and direct labor costs, material overhead, and production overhead. The breakdown of each cost category as a percent of total costs was as follows: Percent of Total CostsBurden Rate Direct material29% Direct labor10 Material overhead25. 7% of material cost Production overhead33(600 different rates) Support-related overhead2635. 4% of manufacturing cost Two years after the change in strategy, problems with the traditional cost system became apparent. Management’s concern with the traditional cost system was its inability to capture the relation between the increased support costs and the change in product mix. Under the traditional system, support costs were allocated to each motor based on its consumption of direct materials, direct labor, and either direct labor-hours or machine-hours. Management felt that most support costs were more closely related to the number of orders received or the number of internal factory orders for the customized components required by a specific model of motor. As shown in Exhibit 1, 74 percent of the orders accepted for production by EMW after the change in strategy were for fewer than five motors. This simultaneous increase in the number of orders and reduction in the average number of motors per order increased the load on the production support departments. An analysis of the way work was generated by orders in the shipping and handling, order processing, technical analysis of incoming orders, billing, and product costing departments indicated that the same resources were required to process an order for one motor as an order for 100 units of that motor. The increase in the number of products with special options similarly caused the production scheduling, purchasing, packaging, product development, and design departments to expand. An analysis of the way work was generated by special components in these departments indicated that it was not the total number of special components (i. e. , unique part numbers) in each motor design that determined the work load. For example, processing an order of 50 units of a custom motor with a design requiring 10 special components per unit generated the same amount of work as processing an order of only one unit of a custom motor also requiring 10 special components. For either order, 10 special components had to be processed. In 1987, EMW processed 65,625 customer orders. The motors produced to fill these orders required that 325,000 different batches of special components be processed. In total, over a million units of special components were produced in 1987. An extensive study was undertaken to identify the support costs that management believed were driven by processing customer orders and processing internal factory orders for special components. Part of each of the following departments’ costs was allocated to two new overhead cost pools: ?Costs Related to Customer Order Processing Billing Order Receiving Product Costing and Bidding Shipping Costs Related to Processing Orders for Special Components Inventory Handling Product Costing and Bidding Product Development Purchasing Receiving Scheduling and Production Control Technical Analysis of Incoming Orders Once these costs were identified they were removed from the former support-related cost pool and assigned to two new cost pools. Exhibit 2 illustrates the formation of the two process-or iented cost pools for 1987. The first column presents total costs grouped by traditional costing system definitions. To move to process-oriented costing (PROKASTA ), DM6. 3 million as removed from the engineering costs and DM27 million from administrative costs; these DM33. 3 million of costs were then assigned to the new cost pools, DM13. 8 million to order-processing costs and DM19. 5 million to special components costs. Exhibit 2 1987 Reconciliation Traditional Cost System to Process-Oriented Systems (thousands) TraditionalTransferredProcess-Oriented MaterialDM105,000DM105,000 Material overhead6,0006,000 Labor36,00036,000 Labor or machine overhead120,000120,000 Manufacturing cost267,000(74%)*267,000(74%) Engineering costs12,000DM(6,300)5,700 Tooling costs22,500022,500 Administrative costs60,000(27,000)33,000 Support-related cost*94,500(26%)(33,300)(9%)61,200(17%) Customer order-processing13,80013,800 Special components processing19,50019,500 Total costDM361,500DM 0DM361,500 * Percent of total cost. With process-oriented costing, the cost of the base motor from which the customized product was derived and the cost of each custom component was calculated using the traditional cost system but with the new, smaller support-related cost pool (see Exhibit 3). The two new cost elements (customer order and special component order processing) were then added. EFFECT OF THE MODIFIED COST SYSTEM In 1987, EMW received close to DM1 billion in orders, but accepted only DM450 million. Production volume ran at 115 percent of rated capacity. The product cost information generated by the redesigned system played an integral role in helping EMW managers determine which orders were profitable and should be accepted. Mr. Karl-Heinz Lottes, Director of Business Operations, commented on the role of the new cost system in helping to establish the new strategy: Without the redesigned system, our new strategy would have failed. With the information generated by the process-oriented cost system we can identify those orders we want to accept. While some orders we lose to competitors, most we turn down because they are not profitable. Anyone who wants to understand the importance of the PROKASTA system simply has to look at the costs of some typical orders under the traditional system and PROKASTA. Exhibit 3 Unit Costs for Five Motor Models (DM) Modified Cost System ABCDE Cost of Base Motor (before assignments from two new cost pools) 304. 0 304. 0 304. 0 304. 0 304. 0 Cost of All Special Components* (before assignments from two new cost pools) 39. 6 79. 2 118. 8 198. 0 396. 0 No. of Different Types of Special Components per Motor123510 AssumptionsBase Motor CostSpecial Components Cost Materials9012. 0 Material overhead50. 7 Direct labor354. 5 Manufacturing overhead11715. 0 Manufacturing cost24732. 2 Support-related overhead (modified)577. 4 Unit cost (before assignments from two new cost pools)30439. 6 * For illustrative purposes, each different special component is assumed to cost DM39. 6 per unit. Questions: 1. Consider the five illustrative motor models in Exhibit 3. Under the former (traditional) system, what would the full cost of fulfilling an order for one unit of each model have been? What would have been the average cost per unit of each model if 10 units were ordered? 20 units? 100 units? What do your results suggest about the shortcomings of the old system with the new strategy? 2. Repeat the Question 1 calculations using the modified (PROKASTA) system. Have the shortcomings in the traditional system been addressed? 3. How significant are the differences in the average cost per unit between the modified system and the traditional system? Respond by examining the ratio of modified to traditional cost for each of the twenty model-type/order-quantity combinations. ) 4. Siemens’s former cost system had 602 cost pools; the modified system added only two additional pools, through which a relatively small portion of overhead (DM33. 3 million out of DM220. 5 million total overhead) was assigned. Explain why such an apparently modest elabor ation of an already complex cost system significantly changed the costs of certain model/quantity combinations. 5. Suggest how Siemens could further improve its system while at the same time reducing the total number of cost pools well below 604.

Building an Impressive Journalism Clip Portfolio

Building an Impressive Journalism Clip Portfolio If youre a journalism student youve probably already had a professor lecture you about the importance of creating a great clip portfolio in order to land a job in the news business. Heres what you need to know in order to do this.   What Are Clips? Clips are copies of your published articles. Most reporters save copies of every story theyve ever published, from high school onward. Why Do I Need Clips? To get a job in print or web journalism. Clips are often the deciding factor in whether a person is hired or not. What Is a Clip Portfolio? A collection of your best clips. You include them with your job application. Paper vs. Electronic Paper clips are simply photocopies of your stories as they appeared in print (see more below). But increasingly, editors may want to see online clip portfolios, which include a link to your articles. Many reporters now have their own websites or blogs where they include links to all their articles (see more below.) How Do I Decide Which Clips to Include in My Application? Obviously, include your strongest clips, the ones that are best-written and most thoroughly reported. Pick articles that have great ledes - editors love great ledes. Include the biggest stories youve covered, the ones that made the front page. Work in a little variety to show youre versatile and have covered both hard news stories and features. And obviously, include clips that are relevant to the job youre seeking. If youre applying for a sports writing job, include lots of sports stories. How Many Clips Should I Include in My Application? Opinions vary, but most editors say include no more than six clips in your application. If you throw in too many they simply wont get read. Remember, you want to draw attention to your best work. If you send too many clips your best ones might get lost in the shuffle. How Should I Present My Clip Portfolio? Paper: For traditional paper clips, editors generally prefer photocopies over original tearsheets. But make sure the photocopies are neat and legible. (Newspaper pages tend to photocopy on the dark side, so you may need to adjust the controls on your copier to make sure your copies are bright enough.) Once youve assembled the clips you want, put them together in a manila envelope along with your cover letter and resume. PDF files: Many newspapers, especially college papers, produce PDF versions of each issue. PDFs are a great way to save your clips. You store them on your computer and they never turn yellow or get torn. And they can be easily e-mailed as attachments. Online: Check with the editor who is going to be looking at your application. Some may accept e-mail attachments containing PDFs or screenshots of online stories or want the link to the webpage where the story appeared. As noted earlier, more and more reporters are creating online portfolios of their work. One Editor's Thoughts About Online Clips Rob Golub, local editor of the Journal Times in Racine, Wisconsin, says he often asks job applicants to simply send him a list of links to their online articles. The worst thing a job applicant can send? Jpeg files. Theyre hard to read, says Golub. But Golub says finding the right person is more important than the details of how someone applies. The main thing Im looking for is an amazing reporter who wants to come and do the right thing for us, he says. The truth is, Ill push through inconvenience to find that great human being. Most important: Check with the paper or website where youre applying, see how they want things done, and then do it that way.

The Stranger from Albrt Camus Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Stranger from Albrt Camus - Essay Example Firstly, there was no ethical compulsion on Meursault to kill that unknown person without any cause. In businesses, some companies often produce some unethical moves especially against their cutthroat competitors. Those tactics might not have any legal consequence but they are unethical nevertheless. Secondly, businesses do not believe in humanity or feelings for humanity. They carry out their businesses only to maximize the wealth of owners regardless of humanity being suffered simultaneously. In exactly the same way, the act of Meursault on her mother’s funeral demonstrates the lack of feelings for humanity. The relationship of Meursault has been quite absurd such that there is a justification or rational of doing any particular conduct. Even killing a person should have any particular reason. This shows that Meursault did not believe in existentialism as he thought that a human life does not have any purpose for existence. The existence of human is not necessary according to Meursault and he better thought of getting rid of the person by killing him, showing an absurd state of

Communication, Conflict, Negotiation and Leadership in Germany Research Paper

Communication, Conflict, Negotiation and Leadership in Germany - Research Paper Example The Hofstede Model identifies cultures based on five dimensions: power distance, masculinity/femininity, uncertainty avoidance, individualism/collectivism, and long-term/short-term orientation (Hofstede, 2001). The models' scores countries on a scale of 0 to 100 and there are comparisons made between and among countries. Hofstede initially made the scores during the 1970s but succeeding grades provided in recent years have proved that the grades are still valid. Additional 200 studies were further made to validate the indexes done by Hofstede. The model could be used in dealing with communication, negotiation, management, business, and marketing in the global scene (Hofstede, 2001). 2.1. Power Distance Power distance dimension refers to the belief of individuals in the lower echelon of the society that power is unequally distributed. Hofstede suggests that inequality is endorsed by the members instead of the leaders. Countries that scored high in power distance maintain all individua ls’ role in the society. In cultures with low power distance, roles have to be defined. Germany has a score of 35 in Hofstede’s power distance which is 36% below the world average and 14% below the U.S. score. The score shows Germany’s decentralized societies and flat organization structures. Most important, Germans are loyal to their employers and would not disclose company-related data to unauthorized groups or people (Workman, 2008). 2.2. Masculinity/Femininity In masculine societies, the important aspects are achievements and success while feminine societies focus on caring for other individuals. Masculine societies do not promote sharing of households between males and females. Also, feminine cultures show men’s involvement in shopping activities (Eurostat, 2002). Germany scored 66 points on masculinity, which is 32% higher than the world average and 6% higher than the U.S. Based on Hofstede’s scores; Germans do value earnings, advancement, mo ney, and recognition. Most Germans value success and their current state as the global performer have been sustained. 2.3. Uncertainty Avoidance The concept of uncertainty avoidance pertains to the reaction of people when dealing with ambiguities. Countries with high scores of uncertainty avoidance require established rules and structures. People in this culture are not open to changes and have low flexibility. Meanwhile, cultures with low uncertainty avoidance operate with few rules and are more open to opinions. Germany’s score in this dimension is 65 points which are 2% higher than the world average and 41% higher than the U.S. This indicates that Germans are less open to risks and are more concerned with security. Most important, Germans are disciplined and insists on strict conduct codes. 2.4. Individualism/Collectivism Individualistic cultures show individuals who focus on their own welfare and their immediate family members.

Reclaiming a social agenda Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Reclaiming a social agenda - Essay Example In this context of understanding one of the major considerations is the dichotomy between art and science. Whereas science functions to question existing paradigms in a generally progressive way, aesthetic practice â€Å"begins answer, by reinventing itself, by building upon a past principle and ethical relationship† (Mockbee, pg. 2). When one considers this approach in terms of activist practice it’s clear that the parallel is that social or community change can occur through the complete re-imagination of the status quo. One recommended example of this perspective is in considered in rural Alabama, where theorist Mockbee argues that a harmonious architecture that brings together both disenfranchised and wealthy must be implemented. In addition to the above-considered abstract intents of activist practice, there are a number of clear strategic examples that have emerged. From an overarching perspective, it’s noted that many semblances of, â€Å"communities in the process of creating and sustaining their cultural identities by designing and often rebuilding their own world† (Ward, pg. 56). In this context of understanding, it’s seen how the traditional artistic means of re-imagination have emerged and been implemented in communities that previously experienced significant blight and hardship. In terms of specific case examples, it’s noted that the Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development (PICCED) is one such emergence of strong activist architecture. When considering the weaknesses of activist practice, it’s clear that recent rejections of activist forms of architecture represent a significant concern. In this context of understanding, theorists have referred to what is known as the post-political concern. In characterizing this post-political turn it’s been noted that, â€Å"Not only have American architectural

Evaluating Derivatives Market in India

Evaluating Derivatives Market in India Introduction to Derivatives Market The emergence of the market for derivative products, most notably forwards, futures and options, can be traced back to the willingness of risk-averse economic agents to guard themselves against uncertainties arising out of fluctuations in asset prices. By their very nature, the financial markets are marked by a very high degree of volatility. Through the use of derivative products, it is possible to partially or fully transfer price risks by locking-in asset prices. As instruments of risk management, these generally do not influence the fluctuations in the underlying asset prices. However, by locking-in asset prices, derivative products minimize the impact of fluctuations in asset prices on the profitability and cash flow situation of risk-averse investors. Derivative products initially emerged, as hedging devices against fluctuations in commodity prices and commodity-linked derivatives remained the sole form of such products for almost three hundred years. The financial derivatives came into spotlight in post-1970 period due to growing instability in the financial markets. However, since their emergence, these products have become very popular and by 1990s, they accounted for about two-thirds of total transactions in derivative products. In recent years, the market for financial derivatives has grown tremendously both in terms of variety of instruments available, their complexity and also turnover. In the class of equity derivatives, futures and options on stock indices have gained more popularity than on individual stocks, especially among institutional investors, who are major users of index-linked derivatives. Even small investors find these useful due to high correlation of the popular indices with various portfolios and ease of use. The lower costs associated with index derivatives vies-versa derivative products based on individual securities is another reason for their growing use. The following factors have been driving the growth of financial derivatives: Increased volatility in asset prices in financial markets, Increased integration of national financial markets with the international markets, Marked improvement in communication facilities and sharp decline in their costs, SCOPE OF THE STUDY The study is limited to â€Å"Derivatives with special reference to futures and option in the Indian context and the Networth Stock Broking Ltd., data for this study is from 27-DEC -2007 to 31-JAN- 2008 which represent sample for the study. The study cant be said as totally perfect. This study is only a humble attempt at evaluating derivatives market in Indian context. The study is not based on the international perspective of derivatives markets, which exists in NASDAQ, CBOT etc. HYPOTHESIS The Market data that has been used to see whether the Break Even Point (BEP) calculated can be used has an indicator to the investor to maximize the returns on its investment. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1. To understand the concept of derivatives in a more appropriate way. 2. To study various trends in derivative market. 3. To understand the scope and growth of derivatives in India. 4. To study the role of derivatives in Indian financial market 5. To study in detail the role of the future and options. METHODOLOGY 1. Data Collection : For this study the date collected is of secondary nature, The data of the Nifty index have been collected from â€Å"Economic Times† and internet. The data collected for January contract and the date consist from period 27th December, 2007 to 31st January, 2008. 2. Analysis: The analysis consist of the tabulation of the data assessing the profitability positions of the futures buyer and seller and also option holder and the option writer, representing the data with s and making the interpretation using data. TIME PERIOD Data collected for analyzing this study is from 27-DEC 2007 to 31-JAN-2008. Time taken to complete this project is 45 days LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY The study is conducted in short period, due to which the study may not be detailed in all aspect. Lack of time on performing the project in detail study. Unavailability of software package which will help in calculation Lack of software knowledge to determine the correct future estimations. The data collected is completely restricted to 31st January, 2008; hence this analysis cannot be taken universal. CHAPTER II INTRODUCTION TO CAPITAL MARKET COMPANY PROFILE Introduction To Indian Capital Market Indias financial market began its transformation path in the early 1990s. The banking sector witnessed sweeping changes, including the elimination of interest rate controls, reductions in reserve and liquidity requirements and an overhaul in priority sector lending. Persistent efforts by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to put in place effective supervision and prudential norms since then have lifted the country closer to global standards. Around the same time, Indias capital markets also began to stage extensive changes. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) was established in 1992 with a mandate to protect investors and improvements into the microstructure of capital markets, while the repeal of the Controller of Capital Issues (CCI) in the same year removed the administrative controls over the pricing of new equity issues. Indias financial markets also began to embrace technology. Competition in the markets increased with the establishment of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in 1994, leading to a significant rise in the volume of transactions and to the emergence of new important instruments in financial intermediation. For over a century, Indias capital markets, which consist primarily of debt and equity markets, have increasingly played a significant role in mobilizing funds to meet public and private entities financing requirements. The advent of exchange-traded derivative instruments in 2000, such as options and futures, has enabled investors to better hedge their positions and reduce risks. In total, Indias debt and equity markets were equivalent to 130% of GDP at the end of 2005. This is an impressive stride, coming from just 75% in 1995, suggesting issuers growing confidence in market based financing. However, the size of the countrys capital markets relative to the United States, Malaysias and South Koreas remains low, implying a strong catch-up process for India. While some form of financial derivatives trading in India dates back to the 1870s, exchange traded derivative instruments started only in 2000. Then, stock index futures, with the Sensex 30 and the SP CNX Nifty indices as the underlying, began trading at the BSE and NSE. Since their inception, the basket of instruments has expanded and now features individual stock futures, and options for stock index and individual stocks. NATIONAL STOCK EXCHANGE (NSE) The National Stock Exchange of India Limited has genesis in the report of the High Powered Study Group on Establishment of New Stock Exchanges, which recommended promotion of a National Stock Exchange by financial institutions (FIs) to provide access to investors from all across the country on an equal footing. Based on the recommendations, NSE was promoted by leading Financial Institutions at the behest of the Government of India and was incorporated in November 1992 as a tax-paying company unlike other stock exchanges in the country. On its recognition as a stock exchange under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 in April 1993, NSE commenced operations in the Wholesale Debt Market (WDM) segment in June 1994. The Capital Market (Equities) segment commenced operations in November 1994 and operations in Derivatives segment commenced in June 2000. NSE Mission 1. NSEs mission is setting the agenda for change in the securities markets in India. The NSE was set-up with the main objectives of: 2. Establishing a nation-wide trading facility for equities, debt instruments and hybrids, 3. Ensuring equal access to investors all over the country through an appropriate communication network, 4. Providing a fair, efficient and transparent securities market to investors using electronic trading systems, 5. Enabling shorter settlement cycles and book entry settlements systems, and 6. Meeting the current international standards of securities markets. The standards set by NSE in terms of market practices and technologies have become industry benchmarks and are being emulated by other market participants. NSE is more than a mere market facilitator. Its that force which is guiding the industry towards new horizons and greater opportunities. Equity shares By investing in shares, investors basically buy the ownership right to the company. When the company makes profits, shareholders receive their share of the profits in the form of dividends. In addition, when company performs well and the future expectation from the company is very high, the price of the companys shares goes up in the market. This allows shareholders to sell shares at a profit, leading to capital gains. Investors can invest in shares either through primary market offerings or in the secondary market. The primary market has shown abnormal returns to investors who subscribed for the public issue and were allotted shares. Stock Exchange: In a stock exchange a person who wishes to sell his security is called a seller, and a person who is willing to buy the particular stock is called as the buyer. The rate of stock depends on the simple law of demand and supply. If the demand of shares of company x is greater than its supply then its price of its security increases. In Online Exchange the trading is done on a computer network. The sellers and buyers log on to the network and propose their bids. The system is designed in such ways that at any given instance, the buyers/sellers are bidding at the best prices. The transaction cycle for purchasing and selling shares online is depicted below: TRANSACTION CYCLE Role of Clearing House The clearing house of the exchange interposes itself between the buyer(the long position) and the seller (the short position).this mean clearing house becomes seller to buyer and the buyer to seller. Because the clearing house is obliged to perform on its side of each contract, it is the only party that can hurt if any trader fail to fulfill his obligation. The clearing house protects its interest by imposing margin requirements on traders. Ever since its inception in 1993, Networth Stock Broking Limited (NSBL) has sought to provide premium financial services and information, so that the power of investment is vested with the client. We equip those who invest with us to make intelligent investment decisions, providing them with the flexibility to either tap into our extensive knowledge and expertise, or make their own decisions. NSBL made its debut in to the financial world by servicing Institutional clients, and proved its high scalability of operations by growing exponentially over a short period of time. Now, powered by a top-notch research team and a network of experts, we provide an array of retail broking services across the globe spanning India, Middle East, Europe and America. Currently, we are a Depository participant at Central Depository Services India (CDSL) and aim to become one at National Securities Depository (NSDL) by the end of this quarter. Our strong support, technology-driven operations and busines s units of research, distribution and advisory coalesce to provide you with a one-stop solution to cater to all your broking and investment needs. Our customers have been participating in the booming commodities markets with our membership at Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) and National Commodity Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) through Networth Stock.Com Ltd. NSBL is a member of theNational Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE) andthe Bombay Stock Exchange Ltd (BSE)on the Capital Market and Derivatives (Futures Options) segment. It is also a listed company at theBSE. Corporate Overview †¢ Networth is a listed entity on the BSE since 1994 †¢ The company is professionally managed with experience of over a decade in broking and advisory services †¢ Networth is a member of BSE, NSE, MCX, NCDEX, AMFI, CDSL †¢ Current network in Southern and Western India with 107 branches and franchise. Presence in major metros and cities †¢ Empanelled with prominent domestic Mutual Funds, Insurance Companies, Banks, Financial Institutions and Foreign Financial Institutions. †¢ Strong experienced professional team †¢ 20000+ strong and growing client base †¢ Average daily broking turnover of around INR 1 billion †¢ AUM with Investment Advisory Services of around INR 3 billion Products and services Portfolio v Retail and institutional broking v Research for institutional and retail clients v Distribution of financial products v Corporate finance v Net trading v Depository services v Commodities Broking Infrastructure †¢ A corporate office and 3 divisional offices in CBD of Mumbai which houses state-of-the-art dealing room, research wing management and back offices. †¢ All of 107 branches and franchisees are fully wired and connected to hub at corporate office at Mumbai. Add on branches also will be wired and connected to central hub †¢ Web enabled connectivity and software in place for net trading. †¢ 60 operative IDs for dealing room †¢ State of the Art accounting and billing system, on line risk management system in place with 100% redundancy back up. †¢ In house technology back up team to ensure un-interrupted connectivity. Online Trading There is nothing more exhilarating, more daring and more rewarding than making the right trade at the right time. Welcome to our Internet trading platform which brings you a world class experience of online trading. Clicknetworth is a software application suite that offers comprehensive facilities so users can watch Market Prices while they trade. The application is highly integrated which enables the user to place orders in live environment. The user screen is fully customizable by the user to display information based upon his/her own preferences Trading Platform Networth offers advanced and convenient online trading facility with N-easy and N-swift which are completely safe and secure. N-easy: A Powerful and user friendly browser based platform ideally suited for Investors N-swift: An Advanced EXE based application suite that is ideally suited for Traders Features:- * Clients can trade in NSE Cash, NSE FO and BSE Cash. * Single screen order / trade entry as you can add NSE-Cash, Derivative BSE scripts in the same Market Watch. * Features such as Lock the Screen, TOP 20 by Most Active Volume, Value, Gainers, Losers, Market Movement and more will help you customise your trading platform according to your specific focus. * Facility for Online Funds Transfer. Your credit limit increases instantaneously on completion of a successful transfer. Total holdings with NSBL and NSBL CDSL DP (POA) can be viewed and delivery sale can also be made. * Needless to mention other standard features as Real-Time market data, live order status, Real time position updates etc. CHAPTER III REVIEW OF LITERATURE DEFINATION OF DERIVATIVE Derivative is a product whose value is derived from the value of one or more basic variables, called bases (underlying asset, index, or reference rate), in a contractual manner. There are two types of derivatives that are trades on NSE; namely Futures and Options. The underlying asset can be equity, forex, commodity or any other asset. For example, wheat farmers may wish to sell their harvest at a future date to eliminate the risk of a change in prices by that date. Such a transaction is an example of a derivative. The price of this derivative is driven by the spot price of wheat which is the â€Å"underlying†. In the Indian context the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 (SC(R) A) defines â€Å"equity derivative† to include A security derived from a debt instrument, share, loan whether secured or unsecured, risk instrument or contract for differences or any other form of security. A contract, which derives its value from the prices, or index of prices, of underlying securities.The key to understanding derivatives is the notion of a premium. Some derivatives are compared to insurance. Just as you pay an insurance company a premium in order to obtain some protection against a specific event, there are derivative products that have a payoff contingent upon the occurrence of some event for which you must pay a premium in advance. Example: When one buys a cash instrument, for example 100 shares of ABC Inc., the payoff is linear (disregarding the impact of dividends). If we buy the shares at Rs50 and the price appreciates to Rs75, we have made Rs2500 on a mark-to-market basis. If we buy the shares at Rs50 and the price depreciates to Rs25, we have lost Rs2500 on a mark-to-market basis. Instead of buying the shares in the cash market, we could have bought a 1 month call option on ABC stock with a strike price of Rs50, giving us the right but not the obligation to purchase ABC stock at Rs50 in 1 months time. Instead of immediately paying Rs5000 and receiving the stock, we might pay Rs700 today for this right. If ABC goes to Rs75 in 1 months time, we can exercise the option, buy the stock at the strike price and sell the stock in the open market, locking in a net profit of Rs1800. If the ABC stock price goes to Rs25, we have only lost the premium of Rs700. If ABC trades as high as Rs100 after we have bought the option but before it expires, we can sell the option in the market for a price of Rs5300. Classification of Derivatives Types of Derivatives The most commonly used derivatives contracts in NSE are ,FUTURES and OPTIONS which we shall discuss in detail later. Here we take a brief look at various derivatives contracts that have come to be used. Forwards: A forward contract is a customized contract between two entities, where settlement takes place on a specific date in the future at todays pre-agreed price. Futures: A futures contract is an agreement between two parties to buy or sell an asset at a certain time in the future at a certain price. Futures contracts are special types of forward contracts in the sense that the former are standardized exchange-traded contracts. Options: Options are of two types calls and puts. Calls give the buyer the right but not the obligation to buy a given quantity of the underlying asset, at a given price on or before a given future date. Puts give the buyer the right, but not the obligation to sell a given quantity of the underlying asset at a given price on or before a given date. Swaps: Swaps are private agreements between two parties to exchange cash flows in the future according to a prearranged formula. They can be regarded as portfolios of forward contracts. Warrants: Options generally have lives of upto one year, the majority of options traded on options exchanges having a maximum maturity of nine months. Longer-dated options are called warrants and are generally traded over-the-counter. LEAPS: The acronym LEAPS means Long-Term Equity Anticipation Securities. These are options having a maturity of upto three years. Baskets: Basket options are options on portfolios of underlying assets. The underlying asset is usually a moving average or a basket of assets. Equity index options are a form of basket options. Participants and Functions v Hedgers face risk associated with the price of an asset. They use futures or options markets to reduce or eliminate this risk. v Speculators wish to bet on future movements in the price of an asset. Futures and options contracts can give them an extra leverage; that is, they can increase both the potential gains and potential losses in a speculative venture. v Arbitrageurs are in business to take advantage of a discrepancy between prices in two different markets. If, for example, they see the futures price of an asset getting out of line with the cash price, they will take offsetting positions in the two markets to lock in a profit. The derivative market performs a number of economic functions. First, prices in an organized derivatives market reflect the perception of market participants about the future and lead the prices of underlying to the perceived future level. The prices of derivatives converge with the prices of the underlying at the expiration of derivative contract. Thus derivatives help in discovery of future as well as current prices. Second, the derivatives market helps to transfer risks from those who have them but may not like them to those who have appetite for them. Third, derivatives, due to their inherent nature, are linked to the underlying cash markets. With the introduction of derivatives, the underlying market witnesses higher trading volumes because of participation by more players who would not otherwise participate for lack of an arrangement to transfer risk. Fourth, speculative trades shift to a more controlled environment of derivatives market. In the absence of an organized derivati ves market, speculators trade in the underlying cash markets. Margining, monitoring and surveillance of the activities of various participants become extremely difficult in these kind of mixed markets. Fifth, an important incidental benefit that flows from derivatives trading is that it acts as a catalyst for new entrepreneurial activity. The derivatives have a history of attracting many bright, creative, well-educated people with an entrepreneurial attitude. They often energize others to create new businesses, new products and new employment opportunities, the benefit of which are immense. Sixth, derivatives markets help increase savings and investment in the long run. Transfer of risk enables market participants to expand their volume of activity. Derivatives thus promote economic development to the extent the later depends on the rate of savings and investment. The first stock index futures contract was traded at Kansas City Board of Trade. Currently the most popular index futures contract in the world is based on SP 500 index, traded on Chicago Mercantile Exchange. During the mid eighties, financial futures became the most active derivative instruments generating volumes many times more than the commodity futures. Index futures, futures on T-bills and Euro-Dollar futures are the three most popular futures contracts traded today. Other popular international exchanges that trade derivatives are LIFFE in England, DTB in Germany, SGX in Singapore, TIFFE in Japan, MATIF in France, etc. Indian Derivatives Market Starting from a controlled economy, India has moved towards a world where prices fluctuate every day. The introduction of risk management instruments in India gained momentum in the last few years due to liberalisation process and Reserve Bank of Indias (RBI) efforts in creating currency forward market. Derivatives are an integral part of liberalisation process to manage risk. NSE gauging the market requirements initiated the process of setting up derivative markets in India. In July 1999, derivatives trading commenced in India CHRONOLOGY OF INSTRUMENTS 1991 Liberalisation process initiated 14-Dec-1995 NSE asked SEBI for permission to trade index futures. 18-Nov-1996 SEBI setup L.C.Gupta Committee to draft a policy framework for index futures. 11-May-1998 L.C.Gupta Committee submitted report. 7-July-1999 RBI gave permission for OTC forward rate agreements (FRAs) and interest rate swaps. 24-May-2000 SIMEX chose Nifty for trading futures and options on an Indian index. 25-May-2000 SEBI gave permission to NSE and BSE to do index futures trading. 9-June-2000 Trading of BSE Sensex futures commenced at BSE. 12-June-2000 Trading of Nifty futures commenced at NSE. 25-Sep-2000 Nifty futures trading commenced at SGX. 2-June-2001 Individual Stock Options Derivatives SWAPS A contract between two parties, referred to as counter parties, to exchange two streams of payments for agreed period of time. The payments, commonly called legs or sides, are calculated based on the underlying notional using applicable rates. Swaps contracts also include other provisional specified by the counter parties. Swaps are not debt instrument to raise capital, but a tool used for financial management. Swaps are arranged in many different currencies and different periods of time. US$ swaps are most common followed by Japanese yen, sterling and Deutsche marks. The length of past swaps transacted has ranged from 2 to 25 years. Swaps Pricing: There are four major components of a swap price. v Benchmark price v Liquidity (availability of counter parties to offset the swap). v Transaction cost v Credit risk Benchmark Price:Swap rates are based on a series of benchmark instruments. They may be quoted as a spread over the yield on these benchmark instruments or on an absolute interest rate basis. In the Indian markets the common benchmarks are MIBOR, 14, 91, 182 364 day T-bills, CP rates and PLR rates. Liquidity: which is function of supply and demand, plays an important role in swaps pricing? This is also affected by the swap duration. It may be difficult to have counter parties for long duration swaps, specially so in India Transaction costs include the cost of hedging a swap. Transaction cost: Say in case of a bank, which has a floating obligation of 91 days T. Bill. Now in order to hedge the bank would go long on a 91 day T. Bill. For doing so the bank must obtain funds. The transaction cost would thus involve such a difference. Yield on 91 day T. Bill 9.5% Cost of fund (e.g.- Repo rate) 10% The transaction cost in this case would involve 0.5% Credit risk: Credit risk must also be built into the swap pricing. Based upon the credit rating of the counterparty a spread would have to be incorporated. Say for e.g. it would be 0.5% for an AAA rating. Introduction to Futures Future contract is the simplest of all financial assets. A future contract is just an agreement between two parties to buy and sell an asset at a fixed price in the future. Futures markets were originally designed to solve the problems of forward markets. Future contracts are managed through an organized future exchange Future contracts are a type of derivative security because the value of the contract is derived from an underlying instrument. The exchange specifies standard features of future contract to facilitate liquidity in the futures contracts. The net value of a future contract is zero because future contract represents a zero sum game between a buyer and a seller. Future contracts are standardized to facilitate convenience in trading and price reporting. A futures contract may be offset before maturity by taking opposite position which means that future trading can be closed by entering into equal into an equal and opposite transaction. Future contract must specify at least five terms of the contract and they are: 1) The identity of the underlying commodity or financial instrument. 2) The future contract size. 3) The future maturity date. 4) The delivery or settlement procedure. 5) The future price. TYPES OF FUTURES A commodity future is a future contract in a commodity like cocoa, aluminum etc. A financial future is a futures contract in a financial instrument like Treasury bill, currency or stock index. Futures contracts are: v Futures contracts are organized/ standardized contracts, which are traded on the exchanges. v These contracts, being standardized and traded on the exchanges are very liquid in nature. v In futures market, clearing corporation/ house provides the settlement guarantee. v Every futures contract is a forward contract traded on exchange and clearing corporation/house provides the settlement guarantee for trades. v Are of standard quantity; standard quality (in case of commodities). Have standard delivery time and place. What Does Future Trading Apply to Indian Stocks? Future trading is a type of investments which involves speculating on the prices of securities in the future. Securities traded in future contract can be a stock (Reliance India Limited, TISCO, etc), Stock Index (NSE Nifty Index), commodity (Gold, Silver, Agricultural Products, etc) Unlike stocks and bonds, when we involve in future trading then we do not buy or own anything but we speculate the future direction of the price in the security we are trading. Suppose we speculate on Stock Index (NSE Nifty index). If we speculate that the future price of Stock Index can go up in the future then we would buy a future contract. If we speculate that the future price of Stock Index can go down then we would sell a future contract. Futures Trading accounts A future exchange allows only exchange members to trade on the exchange floor. There are various things to know about future trading accounts. The first thing is that a margin is always required. A margin is the amount of money that we put up to control a future contract. http://www.tradingpicks.com/futures.htm How to Trade in SP CNX NIFTY Futures? http://www.nse-india.com/content/press/futidx_invguide.pdf Trading on CNX Nifty futures is just like trading in other security. Before buying or selling we use to predict the direction of the market and based on that prediction we buy or sell the index. A profit is made when the closing price on the expiration day is higher than the value at which we had bought the index. If we had predicted a bearish market, and had sold the index then we make a profit. Trading cycle for SP CNX Nifty Futures The trading cycle for SP CNX Nifty future contracts is 3 months. On the trading day a new contract is introduced. This contract will be introduced for three month duration. As a result there will be 3 contracts available for trading in the market ( i.e., first contract is in near month, second in mid month and third in far month duration) Example If Trading in NIFTY Starts from January 2002 then following chart gives us the beginning and expiry date of the contract. Contract/Month Expiry/Settlement January 2002 January 28th February 2002 February 20th March 2002 March 19th After January 28th, the first trading day will be on January 29th. Contract/Month Expiry/Settlement February 2002 February 24th March 2002 March 30th April 2002 April 20th To trade futures in NSE, traders have to open an account with a future brokerage firm known as Future Commission Merchant (FCM). FCM records the trades, monitors them and advice t Evaluating Derivatives Market in India Evaluating Derivatives Market in India Introduction to Derivatives Market The emergence of the market for derivative products, most notably forwards, futures and options, can be traced back to the willingness of risk-averse economic agents to guard themselves against uncertainties arising out of fluctuations in asset prices. By their very nature, the financial markets are marked by a very high degree of volatility. Through the use of derivative products, it is possible to partially or fully transfer price risks by locking-in asset prices. As instruments of risk management, these generally do not influence the fluctuations in the underlying asset prices. However, by locking-in asset prices, derivative products minimize the impact of fluctuations in asset prices on the profitability and cash flow situation of risk-averse investors. Derivative products initially emerged, as hedging devices against fluctuations in commodity prices and commodity-linked derivatives remained the sole form of such products for almost three hundred years. The financial derivatives came into spotlight in post-1970 period due to growing instability in the financial markets. However, since their emergence, these products have become very popular and by 1990s, they accounted for about two-thirds of total transactions in derivative products. In recent years, the market for financial derivatives has grown tremendously both in terms of variety of instruments available, their complexity and also turnover. In the class of equity derivatives, futures and options on stock indices have gained more popularity than on individual stocks, especially among institutional investors, who are major users of index-linked derivatives. Even small investors find these useful due to high correlation of the popular indices with various portfolios and ease of use. The lower costs associated with index derivatives vies-versa derivative products based on individual securities is another reason for their growing use. The following factors have been driving the growth of financial derivatives: Increased volatility in asset prices in financial markets, Increased integration of national financial markets with the international markets, Marked improvement in communication facilities and sharp decline in their costs, SCOPE OF THE STUDY The study is limited to â€Å"Derivatives with special reference to futures and option in the Indian context and the Networth Stock Broking Ltd., data for this study is from 27-DEC -2007 to 31-JAN- 2008 which represent sample for the study. The study cant be said as totally perfect. This study is only a humble attempt at evaluating derivatives market in Indian context. The study is not based on the international perspective of derivatives markets, which exists in NASDAQ, CBOT etc. HYPOTHESIS The Market data that has been used to see whether the Break Even Point (BEP) calculated can be used has an indicator to the investor to maximize the returns on its investment. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1. To understand the concept of derivatives in a more appropriate way. 2. To study various trends in derivative market. 3. To understand the scope and growth of derivatives in India. 4. To study the role of derivatives in Indian financial market 5. To study in detail the role of the future and options. METHODOLOGY 1. Data Collection : For this study the date collected is of secondary nature, The data of the Nifty index have been collected from â€Å"Economic Times† and internet. The data collected for January contract and the date consist from period 27th December, 2007 to 31st January, 2008. 2. Analysis: The analysis consist of the tabulation of the data assessing the profitability positions of the futures buyer and seller and also option holder and the option writer, representing the data with s and making the interpretation using data. TIME PERIOD Data collected for analyzing this study is from 27-DEC 2007 to 31-JAN-2008. Time taken to complete this project is 45 days LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY The study is conducted in short period, due to which the study may not be detailed in all aspect. Lack of time on performing the project in detail study. Unavailability of software package which will help in calculation Lack of software knowledge to determine the correct future estimations. The data collected is completely restricted to 31st January, 2008; hence this analysis cannot be taken universal. CHAPTER II INTRODUCTION TO CAPITAL MARKET COMPANY PROFILE Introduction To Indian Capital Market Indias financial market began its transformation path in the early 1990s. The banking sector witnessed sweeping changes, including the elimination of interest rate controls, reductions in reserve and liquidity requirements and an overhaul in priority sector lending. Persistent efforts by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to put in place effective supervision and prudential norms since then have lifted the country closer to global standards. Around the same time, Indias capital markets also began to stage extensive changes. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) was established in 1992 with a mandate to protect investors and improvements into the microstructure of capital markets, while the repeal of the Controller of Capital Issues (CCI) in the same year removed the administrative controls over the pricing of new equity issues. Indias financial markets also began to embrace technology. Competition in the markets increased with the establishment of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in 1994, leading to a significant rise in the volume of transactions and to the emergence of new important instruments in financial intermediation. For over a century, Indias capital markets, which consist primarily of debt and equity markets, have increasingly played a significant role in mobilizing funds to meet public and private entities financing requirements. The advent of exchange-traded derivative instruments in 2000, such as options and futures, has enabled investors to better hedge their positions and reduce risks. In total, Indias debt and equity markets were equivalent to 130% of GDP at the end of 2005. This is an impressive stride, coming from just 75% in 1995, suggesting issuers growing confidence in market based financing. However, the size of the countrys capital markets relative to the United States, Malaysias and South Koreas remains low, implying a strong catch-up process for India. While some form of financial derivatives trading in India dates back to the 1870s, exchange traded derivative instruments started only in 2000. Then, stock index futures, with the Sensex 30 and the SP CNX Nifty indices as the underlying, began trading at the BSE and NSE. Since their inception, the basket of instruments has expanded and now features individual stock futures, and options for stock index and individual stocks. NATIONAL STOCK EXCHANGE (NSE) The National Stock Exchange of India Limited has genesis in the report of the High Powered Study Group on Establishment of New Stock Exchanges, which recommended promotion of a National Stock Exchange by financial institutions (FIs) to provide access to investors from all across the country on an equal footing. Based on the recommendations, NSE was promoted by leading Financial Institutions at the behest of the Government of India and was incorporated in November 1992 as a tax-paying company unlike other stock exchanges in the country. On its recognition as a stock exchange under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 in April 1993, NSE commenced operations in the Wholesale Debt Market (WDM) segment in June 1994. The Capital Market (Equities) segment commenced operations in November 1994 and operations in Derivatives segment commenced in June 2000. NSE Mission 1. NSEs mission is setting the agenda for change in the securities markets in India. The NSE was set-up with the main objectives of: 2. Establishing a nation-wide trading facility for equities, debt instruments and hybrids, 3. Ensuring equal access to investors all over the country through an appropriate communication network, 4. Providing a fair, efficient and transparent securities market to investors using electronic trading systems, 5. Enabling shorter settlement cycles and book entry settlements systems, and 6. Meeting the current international standards of securities markets. The standards set by NSE in terms of market practices and technologies have become industry benchmarks and are being emulated by other market participants. NSE is more than a mere market facilitator. Its that force which is guiding the industry towards new horizons and greater opportunities. Equity shares By investing in shares, investors basically buy the ownership right to the company. When the company makes profits, shareholders receive their share of the profits in the form of dividends. In addition, when company performs well and the future expectation from the company is very high, the price of the companys shares goes up in the market. This allows shareholders to sell shares at a profit, leading to capital gains. Investors can invest in shares either through primary market offerings or in the secondary market. The primary market has shown abnormal returns to investors who subscribed for the public issue and were allotted shares. Stock Exchange: In a stock exchange a person who wishes to sell his security is called a seller, and a person who is willing to buy the particular stock is called as the buyer. The rate of stock depends on the simple law of demand and supply. If the demand of shares of company x is greater than its supply then its price of its security increases. In Online Exchange the trading is done on a computer network. The sellers and buyers log on to the network and propose their bids. The system is designed in such ways that at any given instance, the buyers/sellers are bidding at the best prices. The transaction cycle for purchasing and selling shares online is depicted below: TRANSACTION CYCLE Role of Clearing House The clearing house of the exchange interposes itself between the buyer(the long position) and the seller (the short position).this mean clearing house becomes seller to buyer and the buyer to seller. Because the clearing house is obliged to perform on its side of each contract, it is the only party that can hurt if any trader fail to fulfill his obligation. The clearing house protects its interest by imposing margin requirements on traders. Ever since its inception in 1993, Networth Stock Broking Limited (NSBL) has sought to provide premium financial services and information, so that the power of investment is vested with the client. We equip those who invest with us to make intelligent investment decisions, providing them with the flexibility to either tap into our extensive knowledge and expertise, or make their own decisions. NSBL made its debut in to the financial world by servicing Institutional clients, and proved its high scalability of operations by growing exponentially over a short period of time. Now, powered by a top-notch research team and a network of experts, we provide an array of retail broking services across the globe spanning India, Middle East, Europe and America. Currently, we are a Depository participant at Central Depository Services India (CDSL) and aim to become one at National Securities Depository (NSDL) by the end of this quarter. Our strong support, technology-driven operations and busines s units of research, distribution and advisory coalesce to provide you with a one-stop solution to cater to all your broking and investment needs. Our customers have been participating in the booming commodities markets with our membership at Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX) and National Commodity Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) through Networth Stock.Com Ltd. NSBL is a member of theNational Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE) andthe Bombay Stock Exchange Ltd (BSE)on the Capital Market and Derivatives (Futures Options) segment. It is also a listed company at theBSE. Corporate Overview †¢ Networth is a listed entity on the BSE since 1994 †¢ The company is professionally managed with experience of over a decade in broking and advisory services †¢ Networth is a member of BSE, NSE, MCX, NCDEX, AMFI, CDSL †¢ Current network in Southern and Western India with 107 branches and franchise. Presence in major metros and cities †¢ Empanelled with prominent domestic Mutual Funds, Insurance Companies, Banks, Financial Institutions and Foreign Financial Institutions. †¢ Strong experienced professional team †¢ 20000+ strong and growing client base †¢ Average daily broking turnover of around INR 1 billion †¢ AUM with Investment Advisory Services of around INR 3 billion Products and services Portfolio v Retail and institutional broking v Research for institutional and retail clients v Distribution of financial products v Corporate finance v Net trading v Depository services v Commodities Broking Infrastructure †¢ A corporate office and 3 divisional offices in CBD of Mumbai which houses state-of-the-art dealing room, research wing management and back offices. †¢ All of 107 branches and franchisees are fully wired and connected to hub at corporate office at Mumbai. Add on branches also will be wired and connected to central hub †¢ Web enabled connectivity and software in place for net trading. †¢ 60 operative IDs for dealing room †¢ State of the Art accounting and billing system, on line risk management system in place with 100% redundancy back up. †¢ In house technology back up team to ensure un-interrupted connectivity. Online Trading There is nothing more exhilarating, more daring and more rewarding than making the right trade at the right time. Welcome to our Internet trading platform which brings you a world class experience of online trading. Clicknetworth is a software application suite that offers comprehensive facilities so users can watch Market Prices while they trade. The application is highly integrated which enables the user to place orders in live environment. The user screen is fully customizable by the user to display information based upon his/her own preferences Trading Platform Networth offers advanced and convenient online trading facility with N-easy and N-swift which are completely safe and secure. N-easy: A Powerful and user friendly browser based platform ideally suited for Investors N-swift: An Advanced EXE based application suite that is ideally suited for Traders Features:- * Clients can trade in NSE Cash, NSE FO and BSE Cash. * Single screen order / trade entry as you can add NSE-Cash, Derivative BSE scripts in the same Market Watch. * Features such as Lock the Screen, TOP 20 by Most Active Volume, Value, Gainers, Losers, Market Movement and more will help you customise your trading platform according to your specific focus. * Facility for Online Funds Transfer. Your credit limit increases instantaneously on completion of a successful transfer. Total holdings with NSBL and NSBL CDSL DP (POA) can be viewed and delivery sale can also be made. * Needless to mention other standard features as Real-Time market data, live order status, Real time position updates etc. CHAPTER III REVIEW OF LITERATURE DEFINATION OF DERIVATIVE Derivative is a product whose value is derived from the value of one or more basic variables, called bases (underlying asset, index, or reference rate), in a contractual manner. There are two types of derivatives that are trades on NSE; namely Futures and Options. The underlying asset can be equity, forex, commodity or any other asset. For example, wheat farmers may wish to sell their harvest at a future date to eliminate the risk of a change in prices by that date. Such a transaction is an example of a derivative. The price of this derivative is driven by the spot price of wheat which is the â€Å"underlying†. In the Indian context the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 (SC(R) A) defines â€Å"equity derivative† to include A security derived from a debt instrument, share, loan whether secured or unsecured, risk instrument or contract for differences or any other form of security. A contract, which derives its value from the prices, or index of prices, of underlying securities.The key to understanding derivatives is the notion of a premium. Some derivatives are compared to insurance. Just as you pay an insurance company a premium in order to obtain some protection against a specific event, there are derivative products that have a payoff contingent upon the occurrence of some event for which you must pay a premium in advance. Example: When one buys a cash instrument, for example 100 shares of ABC Inc., the payoff is linear (disregarding the impact of dividends). If we buy the shares at Rs50 and the price appreciates to Rs75, we have made Rs2500 on a mark-to-market basis. If we buy the shares at Rs50 and the price depreciates to Rs25, we have lost Rs2500 on a mark-to-market basis. Instead of buying the shares in the cash market, we could have bought a 1 month call option on ABC stock with a strike price of Rs50, giving us the right but not the obligation to purchase ABC stock at Rs50 in 1 months time. Instead of immediately paying Rs5000 and receiving the stock, we might pay Rs700 today for this right. If ABC goes to Rs75 in 1 months time, we can exercise the option, buy the stock at the strike price and sell the stock in the open market, locking in a net profit of Rs1800. If the ABC stock price goes to Rs25, we have only lost the premium of Rs700. If ABC trades as high as Rs100 after we have bought the option but before it expires, we can sell the option in the market for a price of Rs5300. Classification of Derivatives Types of Derivatives The most commonly used derivatives contracts in NSE are ,FUTURES and OPTIONS which we shall discuss in detail later. Here we take a brief look at various derivatives contracts that have come to be used. Forwards: A forward contract is a customized contract between two entities, where settlement takes place on a specific date in the future at todays pre-agreed price. Futures: A futures contract is an agreement between two parties to buy or sell an asset at a certain time in the future at a certain price. Futures contracts are special types of forward contracts in the sense that the former are standardized exchange-traded contracts. Options: Options are of two types calls and puts. Calls give the buyer the right but not the obligation to buy a given quantity of the underlying asset, at a given price on or before a given future date. Puts give the buyer the right, but not the obligation to sell a given quantity of the underlying asset at a given price on or before a given date. Swaps: Swaps are private agreements between two parties to exchange cash flows in the future according to a prearranged formula. They can be regarded as portfolios of forward contracts. Warrants: Options generally have lives of upto one year, the majority of options traded on options exchanges having a maximum maturity of nine months. Longer-dated options are called warrants and are generally traded over-the-counter. LEAPS: The acronym LEAPS means Long-Term Equity Anticipation Securities. These are options having a maturity of upto three years. Baskets: Basket options are options on portfolios of underlying assets. The underlying asset is usually a moving average or a basket of assets. Equity index options are a form of basket options. Participants and Functions v Hedgers face risk associated with the price of an asset. They use futures or options markets to reduce or eliminate this risk. v Speculators wish to bet on future movements in the price of an asset. Futures and options contracts can give them an extra leverage; that is, they can increase both the potential gains and potential losses in a speculative venture. v Arbitrageurs are in business to take advantage of a discrepancy between prices in two different markets. If, for example, they see the futures price of an asset getting out of line with the cash price, they will take offsetting positions in the two markets to lock in a profit. The derivative market performs a number of economic functions. First, prices in an organized derivatives market reflect the perception of market participants about the future and lead the prices of underlying to the perceived future level. The prices of derivatives converge with the prices of the underlying at the expiration of derivative contract. Thus derivatives help in discovery of future as well as current prices. Second, the derivatives market helps to transfer risks from those who have them but may not like them to those who have appetite for them. Third, derivatives, due to their inherent nature, are linked to the underlying cash markets. With the introduction of derivatives, the underlying market witnesses higher trading volumes because of participation by more players who would not otherwise participate for lack of an arrangement to transfer risk. Fourth, speculative trades shift to a more controlled environment of derivatives market. In the absence of an organized derivati ves market, speculators trade in the underlying cash markets. Margining, monitoring and surveillance of the activities of various participants become extremely difficult in these kind of mixed markets. Fifth, an important incidental benefit that flows from derivatives trading is that it acts as a catalyst for new entrepreneurial activity. The derivatives have a history of attracting many bright, creative, well-educated people with an entrepreneurial attitude. They often energize others to create new businesses, new products and new employment opportunities, the benefit of which are immense. Sixth, derivatives markets help increase savings and investment in the long run. Transfer of risk enables market participants to expand their volume of activity. Derivatives thus promote economic development to the extent the later depends on the rate of savings and investment. The first stock index futures contract was traded at Kansas City Board of Trade. Currently the most popular index futures contract in the world is based on SP 500 index, traded on Chicago Mercantile Exchange. During the mid eighties, financial futures became the most active derivative instruments generating volumes many times more than the commodity futures. Index futures, futures on T-bills and Euro-Dollar futures are the three most popular futures contracts traded today. Other popular international exchanges that trade derivatives are LIFFE in England, DTB in Germany, SGX in Singapore, TIFFE in Japan, MATIF in France, etc. Indian Derivatives Market Starting from a controlled economy, India has moved towards a world where prices fluctuate every day. The introduction of risk management instruments in India gained momentum in the last few years due to liberalisation process and Reserve Bank of Indias (RBI) efforts in creating currency forward market. Derivatives are an integral part of liberalisation process to manage risk. NSE gauging the market requirements initiated the process of setting up derivative markets in India. In July 1999, derivatives trading commenced in India CHRONOLOGY OF INSTRUMENTS 1991 Liberalisation process initiated 14-Dec-1995 NSE asked SEBI for permission to trade index futures. 18-Nov-1996 SEBI setup L.C.Gupta Committee to draft a policy framework for index futures. 11-May-1998 L.C.Gupta Committee submitted report. 7-July-1999 RBI gave permission for OTC forward rate agreements (FRAs) and interest rate swaps. 24-May-2000 SIMEX chose Nifty for trading futures and options on an Indian index. 25-May-2000 SEBI gave permission to NSE and BSE to do index futures trading. 9-June-2000 Trading of BSE Sensex futures commenced at BSE. 12-June-2000 Trading of Nifty futures commenced at NSE. 25-Sep-2000 Nifty futures trading commenced at SGX. 2-June-2001 Individual Stock Options Derivatives SWAPS A contract between two parties, referred to as counter parties, to exchange two streams of payments for agreed period of time. The payments, commonly called legs or sides, are calculated based on the underlying notional using applicable rates. Swaps contracts also include other provisional specified by the counter parties. Swaps are not debt instrument to raise capital, but a tool used for financial management. Swaps are arranged in many different currencies and different periods of time. US$ swaps are most common followed by Japanese yen, sterling and Deutsche marks. The length of past swaps transacted has ranged from 2 to 25 years. Swaps Pricing: There are four major components of a swap price. v Benchmark price v Liquidity (availability of counter parties to offset the swap). v Transaction cost v Credit risk Benchmark Price:Swap rates are based on a series of benchmark instruments. They may be quoted as a spread over the yield on these benchmark instruments or on an absolute interest rate basis. In the Indian markets the common benchmarks are MIBOR, 14, 91, 182 364 day T-bills, CP rates and PLR rates. Liquidity: which is function of supply and demand, plays an important role in swaps pricing? This is also affected by the swap duration. It may be difficult to have counter parties for long duration swaps, specially so in India Transaction costs include the cost of hedging a swap. Transaction cost: Say in case of a bank, which has a floating obligation of 91 days T. Bill. Now in order to hedge the bank would go long on a 91 day T. Bill. For doing so the bank must obtain funds. The transaction cost would thus involve such a difference. Yield on 91 day T. Bill 9.5% Cost of fund (e.g.- Repo rate) 10% The transaction cost in this case would involve 0.5% Credit risk: Credit risk must also be built into the swap pricing. Based upon the credit rating of the counterparty a spread would have to be incorporated. Say for e.g. it would be 0.5% for an AAA rating. Introduction to Futures Future contract is the simplest of all financial assets. A future contract is just an agreement between two parties to buy and sell an asset at a fixed price in the future. Futures markets were originally designed to solve the problems of forward markets. Future contracts are managed through an organized future exchange Future contracts are a type of derivative security because the value of the contract is derived from an underlying instrument. The exchange specifies standard features of future contract to facilitate liquidity in the futures contracts. The net value of a future contract is zero because future contract represents a zero sum game between a buyer and a seller. Future contracts are standardized to facilitate convenience in trading and price reporting. A futures contract may be offset before maturity by taking opposite position which means that future trading can be closed by entering into equal into an equal and opposite transaction. Future contract must specify at least five terms of the contract and they are: 1) The identity of the underlying commodity or financial instrument. 2) The future contract size. 3) The future maturity date. 4) The delivery or settlement procedure. 5) The future price. TYPES OF FUTURES A commodity future is a future contract in a commodity like cocoa, aluminum etc. A financial future is a futures contract in a financial instrument like Treasury bill, currency or stock index. Futures contracts are: v Futures contracts are organized/ standardized contracts, which are traded on the exchanges. v These contracts, being standardized and traded on the exchanges are very liquid in nature. v In futures market, clearing corporation/ house provides the settlement guarantee. v Every futures contract is a forward contract traded on exchange and clearing corporation/house provides the settlement guarantee for trades. v Are of standard quantity; standard quality (in case of commodities). Have standard delivery time and place. What Does Future Trading Apply to Indian Stocks? Future trading is a type of investments which involves speculating on the prices of securities in the future. Securities traded in future contract can be a stock (Reliance India Limited, TISCO, etc), Stock Index (NSE Nifty Index), commodity (Gold, Silver, Agricultural Products, etc) Unlike stocks and bonds, when we involve in future trading then we do not buy or own anything but we speculate the future direction of the price in the security we are trading. Suppose we speculate on Stock Index (NSE Nifty index). If we speculate that the future price of Stock Index can go up in the future then we would buy a future contract. If we speculate that the future price of Stock Index can go down then we would sell a future contract. Futures Trading accounts A future exchange allows only exchange members to trade on the exchange floor. There are various things to know about future trading accounts. The first thing is that a margin is always required. A margin is the amount of money that we put up to control a future contract. http://www.tradingpicks.com/futures.htm How to Trade in SP CNX NIFTY Futures? http://www.nse-india.com/content/press/futidx_invguide.pdf Trading on CNX Nifty futures is just like trading in other security. Before buying or selling we use to predict the direction of the market and based on that prediction we buy or sell the index. A profit is made when the closing price on the expiration day is higher than the value at which we had bought the index. If we had predicted a bearish market, and had sold the index then we make a profit. Trading cycle for SP CNX Nifty Futures The trading cycle for SP CNX Nifty future contracts is 3 months. On the trading day a new contract is introduced. This contract will be introduced for three month duration. As a result there will be 3 contracts available for trading in the market ( i.e., first contract is in near month, second in mid month and third in far month duration) Example If Trading in NIFTY Starts from January 2002 then following chart gives us the beginning and expiry date of the contract. Contract/Month Expiry/Settlement January 2002 January 28th February 2002 February 20th March 2002 March 19th After January 28th, the first trading day will be on January 29th. Contract/Month Expiry/Settlement February 2002 February 24th March 2002 March 30th April 2002 April 20th To trade futures in NSE, traders have to open an account with a future brokerage firm known as Future Commission Merchant (FCM). FCM records the trades, monitors them and advice t