Contents
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Foundations of Financial Management
Rationale
Finance studies and addresses the ways in which individuals, businesses and organizations raise, allocate and use monetary resources over time, taking into account the risks entailed in their projects. The term finance may thus incorporate any of the following:
- The study of money and other assets
- The management and control of those assets
- Profiling and managing project risks
- As a verb, "to finance" is to provide funds for business.
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- Funding, a synonym of financing
- There are also over 250 other finance articles in Wikipedia. See list of finance topics.
- Important publications in finance
- Forex
- Wharton Finance Knowledge Project - aimed to offer free access to finance knowledge for students, teachers, and self-learners.
- Financial-Guide.net Financial educational content on investment strategies, asset allocation and financial terminology.
- For material covering three areas in finance - corporate finance, valuation and investment management, see Prof. Aswath
- Damodaran
- For links to finance web sites, grouped by topic see Web Sites for Discerning Finance Students, Prof. John M. Wachowicz-
- For the introductory finance web site at the University of Arizona, studyfinance.com
- For introductory articles covering mathematical finance see quantnotes
- For introductory articles, a full glossary and links to resources on behavioural finance see the BF gallery
- For free English - Spanish financial glossaries see English to Spanish Dictionary of Finance Terms and Spanish to English Dictionary of
- For a Financial Glossary Wiki see Reuters Financial Glossary
Learning Objectives and Outcomes
This is a non-taught unit designed for self-directed study by those intending to enhance their professional or managerial competence, knowledge, understanding, and skills in business finance.
Knowledge
After
completing the module, student will:
1. Demonstrate knowledge of the concepts of financial management
2. Discuss, explain and apply the principles the financial markets and interest rates.
3. Understand the financial statements and performance
4. Understand the principles of valuation
and characteristics of bonds and stock
5. Understand the the meaning and measurement of risk and return
6. Understand the risks in the international finance
7. Explain the firm's dividend policy and internal financing
8. Understand the importance of working capital management
Skills
After completing the course, student will be able to:
1. Apply the financial planning process in the practice
2. Evaluate
a firm's financial performance
3. Apply forecasting, planning, and budgeting principles in practice
4. Determining an appropriate financing mix for a firm
Today's Videos
- Connect with us on http://www.youtube.com/finntrack
- Google's Playlists
Teaching and Learning Resources
An Introduction to the Foundations of Financial Management - The Ties That Bind
Corporate Finance is a specific area of finance dealing with the financial decisions corporations make and the tools as well as analyses used to make these decisions. The primary goal of Corporate finance is to enhance corporate value, without taking excessive financial risks.
The discipline may be divided among long-term and short-term decisions and techniques. Capital investment decisions comprise the long-term choices about which projects receive investment, whether to finance that investment with equity or debt, and when or whether to pay dividends to shareholders. Short-term corporate finance decisions are called working capital management and deal with the balance of current assets and current liabilities; the focus here is on managing cash, inventories, and short-term borrowing and lending (e.g., the credit terms extended to customers). The time frames, and the goal of the discipline, are interrelated: value is enhanced when return on capital, a function of working capital management, exceeds cost of capital, a function of previous capital investment decisions. Corporate finance is closely related to managerial finance, which is slightly broader in scope, describing the financial techniques available to all forms of business enterprise, corporate or not.
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General
- Corporate Finance page, Prof. Aswath Damodaran, Stern School of Business, New York University
- Global Financial Management page, Prof. Campbell R. Harvey, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
- Finance Lectures (.exe format), Peter Ekman, CEU Business School
- Studyfinance.com, University of Arizona
- Web Sites for Discerning Finance Students, Prof. John Wachowicz at the University of Tennessee.
- FM Worksheets excel in Financial Management By Matt Evans
Valuation and Capital Budgeting
- Valuation, Prof. Aswath Damodaran
- Equity Valuation, Prof. Campbell R. Harvey
- Investment Decisions and Capital Budgeting, Prof. Campbell R. Harvey
- Capital Budgeting, Studyfinance.com
- Common challenges in capital budgeting, Investment Analysts Society of South Africa
Capital Structure
- Capital Structure, Prof. Aswath Damodaran
- Dividend Policy, Prof. Aswath Damodaran
- Capital Structure and Payout Policies, Prof. Campbell R. Harvey
- Dividend Policy, Studyfinance.com
Working Capital Management
- Working Capital Management, Studyfinance.com
- Working Capital Works, investopedia.com
- Counting the Benefits of Working Capital Management, businessfinancemag.com
Real options
- Identifying real options Prof. Campbell R. Harvey
- Applications of option pricing theory to equity valuation Prof. Aswath Damodaran
- How Do You Assess The Value of A Company's "Real Options"?, Prof. Alfred Rappaport Columbia University & Michael Mauboussin
- Real Options Tutorial, Prof. Marco Dias, PUC-Rio
- A Real Options Resource, MoneyScience.org
- An introduction to real options, Investment Analysts Society of South Africa
Decision Tree Analysis
- Decision Tree Analysis, mindtools.com
- Decision Tree Primer, Prof. Craig W. Kirkwood Arizona State University
Financial risk management
Related Professional Qualification
The Financial Markets and Interest Rates
Tutorials
Readings
In economics, a Financial Market is a mechanism which allows people to trade money for securities or commodities such as gold or other precious metals. In general, any commodity market might be considered to be a financial market, if the usual purpose of traders is not the immediate consumption of the commodity, but rather as a means of delaying or accelerating consumption over time. Financial markets are affected by forces of supply and demand, and allocate resources over time through a price mechanism such as the interest rate. Typically financial markets use a market making or a bid and ask process. Both general markets, where many commodities are traded and specialised markets (where only one commodity is traded) exist. Markets work by placing many interested sellers in one "place", thus making them easier to find for prospective buyers. An economy which relies primarily on interactions between buyers and sellers to allocate resources is known as a market economy in contrast either to a command economy or to a non-market economy that is based, such as a gift economy. |
Click on Countries/Regions or Search by Country here |
In Finance, Financial markets facilitate:
- The raising of capital (in the capital markets);
- The transfer of risk (in the derivatives markets); and
- International trade (in the currency markets).
They are used to match those who want capital to those who have it.
Typically a borrower issues a receipt to the lender promising to pay back the capital. These receipts are securities which may be freely bought or sold. In return for lending money to the borrower, the lender will expect some compensation in the form of interest or dividends.
- Definition
- Types of financial markets
- Raising capital
- Derivative products
- Currency markets
- Analysis of financial markets
- Financial markets in popular culture
- Financial instrument
- Stock investor
- JessX java Experimental Simulated Stock Exchange
- References
Interest is the 'rent' paid to borrow money. The lender receives a compensation for deferring his own consumption. The original amount lent is called the 'principal', and the percentage of the principal which is paid/payable over a period of time (usually one year) is the "interest rate".
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Understanding Financial Statements and Cash Flows
Tutorials
- Understanding Financial Statements and Cash Flows
- Financial Statements: An Overview
- The Balance Sheet
- Income Statement and Statement of Stockholders' Equity
- Statement of Cash Flows
- A Guide to Earnings and Financial Reporting Quality
- The Analysis of Financial Statements
Readings
Financial Statements (or financial reports) are a record of a business' financial flows and levels.
The big four statements are :
Balance sheet which describes a company's assets and liabilities.
Income statement which describes a company's income and expenses.
Cash flow statement which describes how corporate operating, investment, and financing activities have affected the company's cash position.
Statement of retained earnings which describes changes to shareholders equity (for example a payment of dividend).
Because these statements are often complex an extensive set of Notes to the Financial Statements and management discussion and analysis is usually included. The notes will typically describe each item on the Balance Sheet and Income statement in further detail. In many cases the notes are much longer than the financial statement they are elucidating. If a company has extraordinary items that affect the balance sheet or the shareholders equity position it will usually include a Other Comprehensive Income Statement, which describes the adjustments to made. Examples of Other Comprehensive Income include revaluation of corporate assets away from their stated cost, as well as accruals for liabilities. Today most governments require publicly-traded companies to issue, and issue in a certain way, annual financial statements. Some governments, such as the United Kingdom government, require all companies to publish annual financial statements, although smaller companies only need publish them in abbreviated form. |
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- Government Financial statements
- History
- Financial condition
- Promotion
- Audit
- System
- Standards and regulation
Evaluating a Firm's Financial Performance
Tutorials
Readings
Financial Performance: Rise of the Digital CFO
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In 1992, Robert S. Kaplan and David Norton introduced the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), a concept for measuring a company's activities in terms of its vision and strategies. It gives managers a comprehensive view of the performance of a business. It is a strategic management system that forces managers to focus on the important performance metrics that drive success. It balances a financial perspective with customer, internal process, and learning & growth perspectives. The system consists of four processes: 1. Translating the vision into operational goals; 2. Communicate the vision and link it to individual performance; 3. Business planning; 4. Feedback and learning and adjusting the strategy accordingly. |
The scorecard seeks to measure a business from the following perspectives:
Financial perspective - measures reflecting financial performance, for example number of debtors, cash flow or return on investment. The financial performance of an organization is fundamental to its success. Even non-profit organizations must make the books balance. Financial figures suffer from two major drawbacks:
1. They are historical. Whilst they tell us what has happened to the organization they may not tell us what is currently happening, or be a good indicator of future performance.
2. It is common for the current market value of an organization to exceed the market value of its assets. Tobin's-q measures the ratio of the value of a company's assets to its market value. The excess value can be thought of as intangible assets. These figures are not measured by normal financial reporting.
Customer perspective - measures having a direct impact on customers, for example time taken to process a phone call, results of customer surveys, number of complaints or competitive rankings.
Business process perspective - measures reflecting the performance of key business processes, for example the time spent prospecting, number of units that required rework or process cost.
Learning and growth perspective - measures describing the company's learning curve -- for example, number of employee suggestions or total hours spent on staff training.
The specific measures within each of the perspectives will be chosen to reflect the drivers of the particular business. The method can facilitate the separation of strategic policymaking from the implementation, so that organisational goals can be broken into task oriented objectives which can be managed by front-line staff. It can also help detect correlation between activities. For example, we might find that the internal business objective of implementing a new telephone system can help the customer objective of reducing response time to telephone calls, leading to increased sales from repeat business.
In many senses, the objectives chosen are leading indicators of future performance. Effort we make today is reflected in the future profits of the company. In this way, current expenditure can be viewed as investment in the future of the company.
- Public sector Balanced Scorecard
- Purpose of the Balanced Scorecard
- Evolution of the Balanced Scorecard
- Strategic management
- Chief Performance Officer
- Strategy map
- Business Dashboard
- Enterprise Dashboard
- Executive Dashboard
- References
Financial Forecasting, Planning, and Budgeting
Tutorials
Readings
A key element of planning is financial planning. Most businesses will need to borrow to set-up and this will mean developing a financial plan. This will probably be required by most lenders before they will decide whether to lend to you. In this section we look at how you can go about preparing a financial plan - from calculating break-even output, through to the preparation of cash flow forecasts and projected balance sheets and profit and loss accounts. Follow the links below to look in more detail at each of the steps necessary to prepare a financial plan.
Step 1 - Break-even - how many of your product will you need to sell before you break-even?
Step 2 - Cash flow forecasting - a vital element of a financial plan is the development of a cash flow forecast. This can help identify how much money you may need to borrow and more importantly - when you may need it.
Step 3 - Financial statements - you will also need to produce a projected balance sheet and profit and loss account to show the expected financial performance of your business. How do you go about producing these and what are they?
There is a business planning case study that you may like to have a go at when you have looked through each of these sections.
Forecasting is the process of making predictions of events that will happen in the future.
Budget generally refers to a list of all planned expenses and revenues. A budget is an important concept in microeconomics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs between two or more goods.
The Time Value of Money
Tutorials
Readings
The Time Value of Money (TVM) is a necessary concept of finance that allows us to equate
1. (PV) the value of a dollar now to a future dollar : the value of a discount bond.
2. (FV) the value of a future dollar to a dollar now : value of your credit card debt if you don't pay up.
3. (PVPA) the value now of a perpetual annuity : the value of a bond, where you recover the principle at the end of its term, so it can be reinvested in perpetuity.
4. (PVA) the value of a dollar now to a (annuity) stream of future payments : how much mortgage you can afford.
5. (FVA) the value of a future dollar to a stream of payments (annuity) in between : the value of your portfolio after a lifetime of saving.
The premise is that you prefer to receive money today, rather than the same amount in the future, all else equal. As a result, you demand interest, paid either along the way or at the end. The interest compensates you for the time in which the money could be put to productive use, the risk of default, and the risk of inflation.
Time Value of Money from studyfinance.com at the University of Arizona |
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Valuation and Characteristics of Bonds. Valuation and Characteristics of Stock.
Tutorials
Readings
Within finance, a Bond is a debt security, in which the issuer owes the holders a debt and is obliged to repay the principal and interest (the coupon). Other stipulations may also be attached to the bond issue, such as the obligation for the issuer to provide certain information to the bond holder, or limitations on the behaviour of the issuer. Bonds are generally issued for a fixed term (the maturity) longer than one year.
A bond is just a loan, but in the form of a security, although terminology used is rather different. The issuer is equivalent to the borrower, the bond holder to the lender, and the coupon to the interest. Bonds enable the issuer to finance long-term investments with external funds.
Debt securities with a maturity shorter than one year are typically bills. Certificates of deposit (CDs) or commercial paper are considered money market instruments.
Traditionally, the U.S. Treasury uses the word bond only for their issues with a maturity longer than ten years, and calls issues between one and ten year notes. Elsewhere in the market this distinction has disappeared, and both bonds and notes are used irrespective of the maturity. Market participants use bonds normally for large issues offered to a wide public, and notes rather for smaller issues originally sold to a limited number of investors. There are no clear demarcations.
Bonds and stocks are both securities, but the difference is that stock holders own a part of the issuing company (have an equity stake), whereas bond holders are in essence lenders to the issuer. Also bonds usually have a defined term, or maturity, after which the bond is redeemed whereas stocks may be outstanding indefinitely. An exception is a consol bond, which is a perpetuity, a bond with no maturity.
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In financial markets, stock is the capital raised by a corporation through the issuance and distribution of shares.
A person or organization which holds shares of stocks is called a shareholder. The aggregate value of a corporation's issued shares is its market capitalization.
In the United Kingdom, the word stock refers to a completely different financial instrument - the bond. It can also refer more widely to all kinds of marketable securities. The term "share" still means the stock issued by a corporation, however.
The oldest share in the world, issued by the Dutch East India Company VOC, 1606. Move
Over, Adam Smith: The Visible Hand of Uncle Sam (View
as HTML) Report |
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The Meaning and Measurement of Risk and Return
Tutorials
Readings
The principle that potential return rises with an increase in risk. Low levels of uncertainty (low risk) are associated with low potential returns, whereas high levels of uncertainty (high risk) are associated with high potential returns. In other words, the risk-return tradeoff says that invested money can render higher profits only if it is subject to the possibility of being lost. Because of the risk-return tradeoff, you must be aware of your personal risk tolerance when choosing investments for your portfolio. Taking on some risk is the price of achieving returns; therefore, if you want to make money, you can't cut out all risk. The goal instead is to find an appropriate balance - one that generates some profit, but still allows you to sleep at night. |
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Determining Risk And The Risk Pyramid Many investors do not understand how to determine the level of risk their individual portfolios should bear.
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Modern Portfolio Theory: An Overview See why investors today still follow this set of principles to reduce risk and increase returns through diversification.
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The Capital Asset Pricing Model: An Overview CAPM helps you determine what return you deserve for putting your money at risk.
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Achieving Optimal Asset Allocation Minimizing risk while maximizing return is any investor's prime goal, and the right mix of securities is the key.
- Models of Risk and Return
Capital-Budgeting
Tutorials
Readings
Capital Budgeting is the planning process used to determine a firm's long term investments such as new machinery, replacement machinery, new plants, new products, and research and development project.
Many formal methods are used in capital budgeting, including discounted cash flow techniques such as net present value, internal rate of return, Modified Internal Rate of Return and equivalent annuity method, using the incremental cash flows from each potential investment, or project. Techniques based on accounting earnings and accounting rules are sometimes used - though economists consider this to be improper - such as the accounting rate of return, and "return on investment." Simplified and hybrid methods are used as well, such as payback period and discounted payback period.
- Discounted Payback Period Calculator
- Studyfinance.com University of Arizona
- Valuation, Prof. Aswath Damodaran
- Finance lectures CEU Business School
- Investment Decisions and Capital Budgeting, Prof. Campbell R. Harvey
The Cost of Capital
Tutorials
Readings
The Cost of Capital for a firm is a weighted sum of the cost of equity and the cost of debt (see the financing decision). Firms finance their operations by three mechanisms: issuing stock (equity), issuing debt (borrowing from a bank is equivalent for this purpose) (those two are external financing), and reinvesting prior earnings (internal financing).
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Determining the Financing Mix
Tutorials
Readings
Capital
Structure refers to the way a corporation finances itself through some combination of equity
sales, equity
options, bonds,
and loans. Optimal capital structure refers to the particular
combination that minimizes the cost of capital while maximizing
the stock price.
Is there an optimal capital structure, one that allows a corporation to get the most bang for its bucks? If so, what is that structure and on what factors does it depend? These are important questions for the discipline of financial economics.
Dividend Policy and Internal Financing
Tutorials
Readings
The Dividend Decision, in Corporate finance, is a decision made by the directors of a company. It relates to the amount and timing of any cash payments made to the company's stockholders. The decision is an important one for the firm as it may influence its capital structure and stock price. In addition, the decision may determine the amount of taxation that stockholders pay.
There are three main factors that may influence a firm's dividend decision:
- Free-cash flow
- Dividend clienteles
- Information signalling
- Capital Structure, Prof. Aswath Damodaran
- Dividend Policy, Prof. Aswath Damodaran
- Capital Structure and Payout Policies, Prof. Campbell R. Harvey
- Dividend Policy, Studyfinance.com
Introduction to Working Capital Management
Tutorials
Readings
Working Capital is a valuation metric that is calculated as current assets minus current liabilities. Working capital is also known as operating capital. A most important value, it represents the amount of day-by-day operating liquidity available to a business. A company can be endowed with assets and profitability, but short of liquidity if these assets cannot readily be converted into cash. See Working capital management, under Corporate Finance.
Current assets and current liabilities include three accounts which are of special importance. These accounts represent the areas of the business where managers have the most direct impact:
- accounts receivable (current asset)
- inventory (current assets), and
- accounts payable (current liability)
In addition, the current (payable within 12 months) portion of debt is critical, because it represents a short-term claim to current assets. Common types of short-term debt are bank loans and lines of credit.
Decisions relating to working capital and short term financing are referred to as working capital management. These involve managing the relationship between a firm's short-term assets and its short-term liabilities. The goal of Working capital management is to ensure that the firm is able to continue its operations and that it has sufficient cash flow to satisfy both maturing short-term debt and upcoming operational expenses.
By definition, Working capital management entails short term decisions - generally, relating to the next one year period - which are "reversible". These decisions are therefore not taken on the same basis as Capital Investment Decisions (NPV or related, as above) rather they will be based on cash flows and / or profitability.
1. One measure of cash flow is provided by the cash conversion cycle - the net number of days from the outlay of cash for raw material to receiving payment from the customer. As a management tool, this metric makes explicit the inter-relatedness of decisions relating to inventories, accounts receivable and payable, and cash. Because this number effectively corresponds to the time that the firm's cash is tied up in operations and unavailable for other activities, management generally aims at a low net count.
2. In this context, the most useful measure of profitability is Return on capital (ROC). The result is shown as a percentage, determined by dividing relevant income for the 12 months by capital employed; Return on equity (ROE) shows this result for the firm's shareholders. Firm value is enhanced when, and if, the return on capital, which results from working capital management, exceeds the cost of capital, which results from capital investment decisions as above. ROC measures are therefore useful as a management tool, in that they link short-term policy with long-term decision making. See Economic value added (EVA).
Guided by the above criteria, management will use a combination of policies and techniques for the management of working capital. These require managing the current assets - generally cash and cash equivalents, inventories and debtors. There are also a variety of short term financing options which are considered.
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1. cash management – identify the cash balance which allows for the business to meet day to day expenses, but reduces cash holding costs 2. inventory management - identify the level of inventory which allows for uninterrupted production but reduces the investment in raw materials and hence increases cash flow; see Supply chain management; Just In Time (JIT); Economic order quantity (EOQ). 3. debtors management - identify the appropriate credit policy, i.e. credit terms which will attract customers, such that any impact on cash flows and the cash conversion cycle will be offset by increased revenue and hence Return on Capital (or vice versa); see Discounts and allowances. 4. short term financing - inventory is ideally financed by credit granted by the supplier; dependent on the cash conversion cycle, it may be necessary to utilize a bank loan (or overdraft), or to "convert debtors to cash" through "factoring". |
A market is considered deeply liquid if there are ready and willing buyers and sellers in large quantities. This is related to a deep market, where orders can not strongly influence prices.
The liquidity of a product can be measured as how often it's bought and sold. For stocks this is known as the volume of trades ([1]).
Often investments in liquid markets such as the stock exchange are considered to be more desirable than investments that are considered relatively illiquid, like real estate. This is because the forced sale or purchase of an item in an illiquid market may be at a disadvantageous price. Because assets that have liquid secondary markets are more advantageous to their owners, buyers of such assets are willing to pay a higher price for the asset than for comparable assets without a liquid secondary market.
This liquidity discount is the reduced promised yield or expected return for such assets, like the difference between newly issued U.S. Treasury bonds compared to off-the-run Treasuries with the same term remaining until maturity. Buyers know that other investors are not willing to buy off-the-run so the newly issued bonds have a lower yield and higher price.
Speculators and market makers contribute to the liquidity of a market. One of the usual objections to a Tobin tax is precisely that it will discourage speculation on currencies, which will lessen the liquidity of foreign exchange markets, increasing their volatility. It is for this reason that market makers and professional traders are exempted in the UK from the 0.5% ad valorem tax on share purchases.
The risk of illiquidity need not apply only to individual investments: whole portfolios are subject to liquidity risk. Financial institutions and asset managers that oversee portfolios are subject to what is called "structural" and "contingent" liquidity risk. Structural liquidity risk, sometimes called funding liquidity risk, is the risk associated with funding asset portfolios in the normal course of business. Contingent liquidity risk is the risk associated with finding additional funds or replacing maturing liabilities under potential, future stressed market conditions.
When a central bank tries to influence the liquidity (supply) of money, this process is known as open market operations.
In business, merchants often have liquidation sales, in which inventories are sold at discount to raise cash or to get rid of inventory more quickly.
In banking, liquidity is the ability to meet obligations when they come due without incurring unacceptable losses. Managing liquidity is a daily process requiring bankers to monitor and project cash flows to ensure adequate liquidity is maintained. Maintaining a balance between short-term assets and short-term liabilities is critical. Deposit accounts provide the bulk of funding (liabilities) in traditional commercial banks, and the loan portfolio represents the bulk of assets. The investment portfolio represents a smaller portion of assets, and serves as the primary source of liquidity. Investment securities can be liquidated to satisfy deposit withdrawals and increased loan demand. Banks have several additional options for generating liquidity, such as selling loans, borrowing from other banks, borrowing from a Central bank, such as the US Federal Reserve bank, and raising additional capital. In a worst case scenario, depositors may demand their funds when the bank is unable to generate adequate cash without incurring substantial financial losses. Most banks are subject to legally-mandated reserve requirements intended to help banks avoid liquidity crises.
International Business Finance
Tutorials
Readings
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is defined as a long term investment by a foreign direct investor in an enterprise resident in an economy other than that in which the foreign direct investor is based. The FDI relationship, consists of a parent enterprise and a foreign affiliate which together form a transnational corporation (TNC). In order to qualify as FDI the investment must afford the parent enterprise control over its foreign affiliate. The UN defines control in this case as owning 10% or more of the ordinary shares or voting power of an incorporated firm or its equivalent for an unincorporated firm.
In the years after the Second World War global FDI was dominated by the United States, as much of the world recovered from the destruction wrought by the conflict. The U.S. accounted for around three-quarters of new FDI (including reinvested profits) between 1945 and 1960. Since that time FDI has spread to become a truly global phenomenon, no longer the exclusive preserve of OECD countries. FDI has grown in importance in the global economy with FDI stocks now constituting over 20% of global GDP. In the last few years, the emerging market countries such as China and India have become the most favoured destinations for FDI and investor confidence in these countries has soared. As per the FDI Confidence Index compiled by A.T. Kearney for 2005, China and India hold the first and second position respectively, whereas United States has slipped to the third position.
The Investment Promotion Network (IPAnet), a portal site providing access to information and analysis for companies seeking to invest in developing countries (Operated by the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency of the World Bank Group)
OECD work on international investment
World Investment Report (UNCTAD)
FDI: A lead driver for Sustainable Development? (Earth Summit 2002)
World Bank archived online discussion: "Do Changing FDI Trends Require Governments to Adopt New Promotion Strategies?"
The International Services Trade Information Agency (ISTIA) (Geneva, Switzerland) provides FDI statistical capacity building services to developing country governments, as a part of greater services trade-related statistics work.
The Foreign Exchange (Currency or Forex or FX) market exists wherever one currency is traded for another. It is by far the largest market in the world, in terms of cash value traded, and includes trading between large banks, central banks, currency speculators, multinational corporations, governments, and other financial markets and institutions. The trade happening in the forex markets across the globe currently exceeds $1.9 trillion/day (on average). Retail traders (small speculators) are a small part of this market. They may only participate indirectly through brokers or banks and may be targets of forex scams.
- Benchmark Currency Rates
- CFTC Commission Advisory Customer fraud Protection Federal Reserve daily update Federal Reserve Bank of New York Foreign Exchange
- Financial Times - currency market data
Recommended Texts
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Financial
Management, 2/e
Check the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop. |
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Foundations
of Finance,
Check the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop.
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Understanding
Financial Statements Lyn Fraser, Aileen Ormiston Jun
2006, Paperback, 304 pages Check
the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop. |
Resources
Case Studies/Annual Reports
Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC, SEHK: 4335), founded in 1968 as Integrated Electronics Corporation and based in Santa Clara, California, USA, is the world's largest semiconductor company. Intel is best known for its PC microprocessors, where it maintains roughly 80% market share. Intel also makes motherboard chipsets, network cards and other networking ICs, flash memory, embedded processors, and other devices related to communications and computing. Intel's core competency is based not only in its chip design capability but in its world class manufacturing operation; the company is at the leading edge of advanced process technology and also has advanced research projects in all aspects of semiconductor manufacturing, including MEMS.
- List of Intel Pentium 4 microprocessors
- List of Intel Pentium D microprocessors
- List of Intel Celeron microprocessors
- List of Intel Pentium M microprocessors
- List of Intel Xeon microprocessors
- List of Intel Core microprocessors
- List of Intel Core 2 microprocessors
- Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
- Comparison of NVIDIA Graphics Processing Units
- Comparison of ATI Graphics Processing Units
- Intel Science Talent Search
- List of Intel microprocessors
- List of Intel chipsets
- ASCI Red supercomputer
- Justin Rattner
- References
Eastman
Kodak Company (NYSE: EK)
is an American multinational public
company producing photographic materials and equipment. Long known for its wide range of photographic
film products, Kodak has focused in recent years on three
main businesses: digital photography, health imaging, and
printing.
