Tag Archives: investor

Not so ‘evil’: Finance study makes case for hedging

The overuse of financial contracts known as derivatives – which were designed to help companies hedge against risk – was widely blamed for triggering the economic crisis of 2008. None other than Warren Buffet has attacked derivatives as “time bombs – both for the parties that deal in them and the economic system.”

But now, for the first time, researchers have found that hedging can increase firm value. (more…)

Read More

Employees at ‘Green’ Companies are Significantly more Productive, Study Finds

Bucking the idea that environmentalism hurts economic performance, a new UCLA-led study has found that companies that voluntarily adopt international “green” practices and standards have employees who are 16 percent more productive than the average.

Professor Magali Delmas, an environmental economist at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and the UCLA Anderson School of Management, and Sanja Pekovic from France’s University Paris–Dauphine are the first to study how a firm’s environmental commitment affects its productivity.

Their findings are published online Sept. 10 in the Journal of Organizational Behavior. (more…)

Read More

Beliefs Drive Investors More than Preferences, Study Finds

COLUMBUS, Ohio – If experts thought they knew anything about individual investors, it was this: their emotions lead them to sell winning stocks too soon and hold on to losers too long.

But new research casts doubt on this widely held theory that individual investors’ decisions are driven mainly by their feelings toward losses and gains. In an innovative study, researchers found evidence that individual investors’ decisions are primarily motivated by their beliefs about a stock’s future. (more…)

Read More

When to Rein in the Stock Market

EAST LANSING, Mich. — The stock market should be regulated only during times of extraordinary financial disruptions when speculators can destroy healthy businesses, according to a new study led by a Michigan State University scholar.

The study, in the Journal of Financial Economics, is one of the first to suggest when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should get involved in the market.

The answer: rarely. The SEC should step in only when outside financial disruptions make it impossible for large shareholders to fend off “short sellers” – or speculators betting a company’s stock value will decrease, said Naveen Khanna, finance professor in MSU’s Broad College of Business. (more…)

Read More

Negotiating Better Mortgage Rates

Many of the best real estate investors in the world will tell you that the best real estate deals are often done during times of economic volatility. The most current recession is no exception to this rule.

Savvy real estate investors are able to negotiate much better mortgage rates for themselves in the wake of the Great Recession than they would ever have been able to do in more stable economic times. If you are looking for a home or investment property, heed the opportunity that you have with historically low interest rates and loaning institutions that are looking to quickly get rid of all of the properties on their books.

However, banks are still out to make a profit and they will not give away the information that you need to get yourself better deals. Below are a few techniques that you can use to negotiate yourself the absolute best mortgage rate that a loaning institution is willing to give. (more…)

Read More

Startup Success

T3D goes beyond Hen Hatch, places among top collegiate startups worldwide

T3D Nanotech, LLC, a high technology startup company spun off from patent pending nanotech research at the University of Delaware, was recently awarded $1,000 in UD’s Hen Hatch competition. But that award was preceded by another honor: selection to participate in the 2012 Rice Business Plan Competition (RBPC).

As the world’s largest and richest business plan competition, the RBPC supports the creation of new startup companies and brings together business and engineering students from the world’s top educational institutions with successful venture capital investors, entrepreneurs and business leaders.

Out of a pool of 1,600 applicants, T3D gained entry to the top 2.6 percent of just 42 teams invited to compete for more than $1.5 million in prizes. (more…)

Read More