Domestic and Community Violence Essay Example for Free

Domestic and Community Violence Essay Domestic abuse and child abuse cases have been on the rise in the recent past causing child and human rights activists to seek for ways of containing the situation. Previous studies have concluded that the cases of child abuse and domestic violence have risen in America and the world at large because of poor approaches used to contain them. In addition, the shocking news that more than 1,200 children die each year due to child abuse and a good percentage of them are girls less than 16years is worrying both parents and teachers. The rise in violence prevalence has been attributed to; poor child upbringing, poverty, modernization, lack of knowledge and neglect because studies have proved that abused ‘children’ will abuse their children in future etc (Nocav and Bourbonnais, 2002) The following issues indicate different stories; First, the U. S Advisory Board on Child Abuse has suggested that both child abuse and domestic violence may be the single major precursor to the main fatalities in the country hence the seriousness of the matter. This has come at a time when a survey conducted early this year found out that school age children who witness and exhibit violence of any form not only in their families but also in the churches, towns or schools suffer from problems such as; anxiety, depression and violence towards their peers. This calls for urgent strategies to prevent and address them at once. The best of them is the use of teachers to counsel the abused children, report suspected cases or take any necessary action that will be suitable. Teachers and domestic violence initiative program It has been noticed that more and more cases of child and domestic violence go unnoticed because of stigmatization or fear of retaliation especially by children. The main solution according to this program is to use the interactive ability of our teachers in schools to strictly follow any cases of suspected child abuse either directed to the child or to the parents. Children are very talkative especially with good interaction with their teachers are golden opportunities that can be used to assist those fighting the vice to get access to unreported cases. The objective of this program is to improve system and community responses of abuse of children and their families. All people today face the challenge of developing enhanced policies and programs to meet the increased need for curbing child abuse cases. This program will therefore ensure that members of the community respond immediately to allegations of child and women abuse. This report will deal with a program suitable for teachers in our schools to be in the front line in preventing domestic violence in our society. (Lupton and Power, 2002) The program considers the motivational tactics of getting teachers interact with their children outside the classroom and that they get the opportunity of knowing the problems children undergo while in class. It is obvious that children’s performance while in class reduce especially for abused children. In this program, teachers especially those teachers who teach children in lower grade classes will be taken through training sessions on how to interact more effectively with their students in class. The training sessions will also include learning the signs of domestically abused of sexually abused children The program will involve the utilization of services from survivors and activists who will keep the tracers well informed and properly equipped with the skills to handle, report and discuss cases of violence through the children. In that case, the children will be able to inform their teachers that their parents were quarrelling last night, they were raped last week or even misused over the weekend. These and other reporting tactics will be fundamental in helping the police to further investigate the allegations. As long as they will be funds to help schools identify troubled and troubled children at an early stage, it will be possible to rectify any impacts that might have been created by the abuses children go through. This program will therefore go a long way in boosting reconciliation and cutting incidences of crime and violence in our schools and society. When children are troubled and very disruptive in schools and at home, that is a sign of warning that children are either not being taken care of or they are experiencing some bad habits at home. It is then that teachers, parents and counselors come to look for causes of the wearied behaviors. The program described above will help in ensuring that such kind of strategies is achieved. (Nocav and Bourbonnais, 2002) Conclusion Teachers have a role to play in eradication domestic violence and child abuse in our society. They can do so by creating close interactions with their students who will then reveal what happens behind the curtains either to themselves or the house-help or any of their parents. Since the teachers will be given the opportunity to learn more about social and domestic violence, then it will be possible to change social and institutional norms that perpetuate family violence in the future. Together with other domestic violence programs, child welfare agencies and community organizers everybody can take part in forming effective collaborations and build partnership that will at the long run promote safe and health families. References Nocav, S. and Bourbonnais, C. (2002): No Room of Her Own. A Literature Review on â€Å"Women and Homelessness† CMHC Ottawa Lupton, R and Power, A. (2002): Social Exclusion Neighborhoods. In Understanding Social Exclusion† Hills J, Le Grand J. Piachaud D. Edn pp. 118- 140: Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Domestic and Community Violence Essay Example for Free

Domestic and Community Violence Essay Domestic abuse and child abuse cases have been on the rise in the recent past causing child and human rights activists to seek for ways of containing the situation. Previous studies have concluded that the cases of child abuse and domestic violence have risen in America and the world at large because of poor approaches used to contain them. In addition, the shocking news that more than 1,200 children die each year due to child abuse and a good percentage of them are girls less than 16years is worrying both parents and teachers. The rise in violence prevalence has been attributed to; poor child upbringing, poverty, modernization, lack of knowledge and neglect because studies have proved that abused ‘children’ will abuse their children in future etc (Nocav and Bourbonnais, 2002) The following issues indicate different stories; First, the U. S Advisory Board on Child Abuse has suggested that both child abuse and domestic violence may be the single major precursor to the main fatalities in the country hence the seriousness of the matter. This has come at a time when a survey conducted early this year found out that school age children who witness and exhibit violence of any form not only in their families but also in the churches, towns or schools suffer from problems such as; anxiety, depression and violence towards their peers. This calls for urgent strategies to prevent and address them at once. The best of them is the use of teachers to counsel the abused children, report suspected cases or take any necessary action that will be suitable. Teachers and domestic violence initiative program It has been noticed that more and more cases of child and domestic violence go unnoticed because of stigmatization or fear of retaliation especially by children. The main solution according to this program is to use the interactive ability of our teachers in schools to strictly follow any cases of suspected child abuse either directed to the child or to the parents. Children are very talkative especially with good interaction with their teachers are golden opportunities that can be used to assist those fighting the vice to get access to unreported cases. The objective of this program is to improve system and community responses of abuse of children and their families. All people today face the challenge of developing enhanced policies and programs to meet the increased need for curbing child abuse cases. This program will therefore ensure that members of the community respond immediately to allegations of child and women abuse. This report will deal with a program suitable for teachers in our schools to be in the front line in preventing domestic violence in our society. (Lupton and Power, 2002) The program considers the motivational tactics of getting teachers interact with their children outside the classroom and that they get the opportunity of knowing the problems children undergo while in class. It is obvious that children’s performance while in class reduce especially for abused children. In this program, teachers especially those teachers who teach children in lower grade classes will be taken through training sessions on how to interact more effectively with their students in class. The training sessions will also include learning the signs of domestically abused of sexually abused children The program will involve the utilization of services from survivors and activists who will keep the tracers well informed and properly equipped with the skills to handle, report and discuss cases of violence through the children. In that case, the children will be able to inform their teachers that their parents were quarrelling last night, they were raped last week or even misused over the weekend. These and other reporting tactics will be fundamental in helping the police to further investigate the allegations. As long as they will be funds to help schools identify troubled and troubled children at an early stage, it will be possible to rectify any impacts that might have been created by the abuses children go through. This program will therefore go a long way in boosting reconciliation and cutting incidences of crime and violence in our schools and society. When children are troubled and very disruptive in schools and at home, that is a sign of warning that children are either not being taken care of or they are experiencing some bad habits at home. It is then that teachers, parents and counselors come to look for causes of the wearied behaviors. The program described above will help in ensuring that such kind of strategies is achieved. (Nocav and Bourbonnais, 2002) Conclusion Teachers have a role to play in eradication domestic violence and child abuse in our society. They can do so by creating close interactions with their students who will then reveal what happens behind the curtains either to themselves or the house-help or any of their parents. Since the teachers will be given the opportunity to learn more about social and domestic violence, then it will be possible to change social and institutional norms that perpetuate family violence in the future. Together with other domestic violence programs, child welfare agencies and community organizers everybody can take part in forming effective collaborations and build partnership that will at the long run promote safe and health families. References Nocav, S. and Bourbonnais, C. (2002): No Room of Her Own. A Literature Review on â€Å"Women and Homelessness† CMHC Ottawa Lupton, R and Power, A. (2002): Social Exclusion Neighborhoods. In Understanding Social Exclusion† Hills J, Le Grand J. Piachaud D. Edn pp. 118- 140: Oxford: Oxford University Press.

The Uses And Misuses Of Derivatives Finance Essay

The Uses And Misuses Of Derivatives Finance Essay Hedge funds are pools of investment that invest in almost any opportunity in any market where they foresee impressive gains at reduced risk. Hedging refers to implementing strategies that manage or protect against an identified risk exposure. They take leveraged positions in publically traded equity, debt, foreign exchange and derivatives. The primary aim of most hedge funds is to reduce volatility and risk while attempting to preserve capital and deliver positive returns under all market conditions (Friedland., 2008). Derivatives provide institutions the opportunity to break financial risks into smaller components and then to buy or sell those components to manage risk. Hedge funds hold a number of assets; they use derivatives to protect against the adverse price movement of these assets. Hedge funds play more of the role of speculators than of hedgers. They use derivatives when buying and selling assets and by putting long-short positions, they seek to hedge themselves against broad market moves while profiting from changes in the relative value of the instruments they go long or short. Hedge funds offer a variety of unique strategies to utilize when investing in hedge funds, these are called hedging techniques. These include Market Neutral Strategies, Event Drive / Special Situations Strategies, Long Short, Global Macro, Sector and Country, Dynamic Strategies, Funds of Funds, Funds of Funds of Funds etc. (http://www.global-derivatives.com) Market Neutral Strategies are used in Market Neutral Funds. They tend to take positions which offset each other through both a long and short position simultaneously to reduce their risk exposure. These strategies include Long Short and Convertible Arbitrage. Long-Short methodology attempts to reduce market risk by taking both long and short positions in the market. This can be done by taking a long position in undervalued assed and a short position in overvalued ones. In these funds, it is anticipated that the undervalued assets will increase in value than any losses incurred from the overvalued assets, or vice versa. Convertible arbitrage is a relatively more complex strategy. In this convertible securities such as convertible bonds which can be converted into normal shares or bonds are bought, to take advantage of any price discrepancies between the convertible security and that of the exchangeable underlying. A position can be taken for buying convertible security or selling the underlying asset to realise any difference in prices. (http://www.global-derivatives.com) Event Driven / Special Situations Strategies intend to make profit from events related to particular companies. Event Driven funds take a bet that something in the future will happen which will affect the company and its assets in a particular way. These funds include Distressed Securities and Merger/ Risk Arbitrage; these securities include debt and equity of companies undergoing reorganization or bankruptcy, it is hoped that companies will recover and increase in value. These securities have very low value and can be given to the management of a company during the restructuring process. Merger/Risk Arbitrage funds tend to analyze companies which are potential takeover or merger targets by taking two positions. An example of it would be to buy the stocks of a company that is being acquired with hope that its prices will rise and to sell stocks of the company that is acquiring, in anticipation that its value might fall. (http://www.global-derivatives.com) Long Short is another strategy which includes buying and selling a security based on the sentiments in the market or of a company. It includes short selling, long, and growth fund. Short selling occurs when a person anticipates that the price will fall in future and sells a stock which it does not possess, through borrowing. If the price really falls in future, they buy the lot from the market at a lower price and return it to the one they borrowed from earlier at lower price, thus making a profit. Long is another strategy in hedge funds, it is a fixed income instrument that benefits from the rise in the price of the held asset. They often utilize leveraged positions to maximize returns. Global Macro is an economics based strategy which intends to benefit from shifts in global economic conditions such as inflation, interest rates and other macro-economic factors; a common example of it is the use of interest rate derivatives for speculative purposes, they give profit from economic movements within particular countries. Sector and Country strategies include sector funds and emerging markets. Sector funds are hedge funds that specialize within a particular industry for example technology, textile etc. these investments consist of long or short positions in stock, debt, or even derivatives on the stocks. Emerging markets include funds that emphasize on emerging markets with less-developed economies and aim to profit from market growth which influence the securities positively. Securities in these hedge funds include sovereign debt or corporate securities with the anticipation that their prices will rise with economic growth. Dynamic strategies include elements such as market timings and opportunistic. Strategy of market timing involves the right timing of the market. It includes making profit based on the correct timing of investments across markets by moving between various asset classes depending upon the view of the manager regarding the market environment. Opportunistic strategy involves switching across asset classes, they use a number of strategies mentioned above depending upon the managers discretion, and the reason for switching strategies is to make the most profit. (http://www.global-derivatives.com) Funds of funds is the strategy of hedge funds to invest in other hedge funds in order to diversify the risk and exposure. The success of these funds depends upon the managers way of handling the funds rather than the performance of the actual investments. Funds of funds of funds or F3s is a new concept to hedge the risk exposure in terms of investments by reducing the volatility of the funds itself. They are good for high risk-averse investors willing to invest in the hedge funds industry. (http://www.global-derivatives.com) Amaranth Advisors LLC (Amaranth) Formation and Background Amaranth comprises of Amaranth LLC and Amaranth Advisors LLC. It was founded by Nick Maounis (Maounis) in 2000 as a multi-strategy hedge fund with a special focus on convertible arbitrage (selling (short) equity stocks and at the same time buying (long) convertibles of the same company creating a delta neutral portfolio), with its headquarter in Greenwich, Connecticut and with approximately $600 million in capital. Maounis experience was in managing a number of various arbitrage accounts in the US, Japan, Europe and Canada. The aim was to make profits from the small discrepancies in prices of stocks and bonds, through its structure of three principal funds Amaranth Partners LLC, Amaranth Capital Partners LLC, and Amaranth International Limited and the 27 investment professionals. It sought to employ a group of arbitrage trading strategies particularly featuring convertible bonds, stocks of merging companies and utilities. However, Over the years, the trading activity of Amaranth ex panded into merger arbitrage (making a riskless profit by purchasing individual stocks of two merging companies and selling them together), leveraged loans (loans given/extended to individuals or companies that already have large debts on their books), blank-check companies (developing companies) ,volatility trading arbitrage (buying or selling an option on an underlying instrument and selling or buying a varying percentage of the underlying instrument this to gain from the difference between the implied volatility of an option and forecasted future probable volatility of the corresponding underlying instrument), long/short equity, and energy trading. (ICMR, 2010) Strategy As noted above, at the time of formations and throughout its term, the firm emphasized that it was a multi-strategy hedge fund, but as it could be noted in the aftermaths that most of the firms investments and losses were in natural gas derivatives. Amaranths basic strategy comprised of trading in the Natural Gas market; the firm took a long position in winters, with hope that the prices will rise, especially when the demand for natural gas exceeds the supply and storage capacity due to the cold season. Its winter months were November, December, January, February and March. Amaranth used to take a short position in summers when it anticipated that the prices will fall. Part of its strategy also included taking short position in April and long position in March. Moreover, another strategy was to purchase call options on winter months and put options on non-winter months. Amaranth used to bet that natural gas prices will rise, and the spreads in March and April prices will rise as well. Nature of Natural Gas Market By nature, the natural gas market is very risky and volatile. Majorly because there is a commercial need for the commodity. This situation creates a need for an institution to control its supply and storage. In America, there has been inadequate storage capacity of natural gas for peak the winter season demand. Therefore the price of natural gas is higher in winters; firstly due high demand and secondly due to increase the incentives to store natural gas. These factors raise the prices of winter natural gas contracts to an all time high level. Apart from that, the market of natural gas is also volatile because the natural gas production in America is lower than the rise in the demand for natural gas. U.S. Natural Gas markets are shielded from the global energy factors because a very small amount of US natural gas need are met by imports of Liquid Natural Gas (LNG). Commodities trades require less margin money (collateral) than other markets. On the main exchanges, trades post 10 percent of their positions value, whereas in the stock market, 50 percent is common. (Davis, Sender, Zuckerman, 2006). After gaining credit from banks, it is very easy for commodity hedge funds to get highly leveraged quickly. Traders of natural gas have a number of options. The largest exchange for trading natural gas is the NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange) which has standardized futures contracts up to few delivery months up to 5 years that are traded on the exchange. Traders can also use ICE (Intercontinental Exchange) which is an over-the-counter market for trading natural gas futures contracts. There has been a lot of debate if hedge funds have an impact on energy trading. According to Gary Gensler (a former Goldman Sachs banker and treasury department official and chairman of the Commodity Futures and Trading Commission (CFTC) the chief regulator for energy futures energy trading said I believe that excessive speculation in commodity futures can cause sudden or unreasonable fluctuations or unwarranted changes in commodity prices,. He also expressed his opinion that the rapid growth of commodity index funds and increased hedge fund allocation to commodity assets contributed to the bubble in commodity prices. (Delamaide, Jan 11, 2010) Performance The founders original expertise was in convertible bonds (Till, 2006). The firm later specialized in leveraged loans, blank-check companies and in energy trading. Till June 30th 2006, energy trades accounted for about half of the funds capital and generated about 75% of their profits. (Till, 2006) In 2002 Amaranth started trading with JP Morgan Chase, in energy commodity trading. The winters of 2003 were exceptionally cold and lasted till February, this raised the prices of natural gas manifolds, and this in turn gave huge profits to Amaranth due to its long position in winters. By 2004-5 Amaranth shifted most of its investments into energy trading. The company used to make huge profits from placing spread trades and placing bullish bets on energy in 2005. In the same year America was severely hit by Hurricane Katrina, which adversely impacted it natural gas and oil production and refining capacity. This raised the price of natural gas and Amaranth reaped huge profits out of it. The accounts of Amaranth LLC showed robust performance by the company since its inception. The compound annual return for the period September 2000-November 2005 according to media reports was 14.72 net of all costs. (Gupta Kazemi) The chart below shows Amaranths returns till May 2005. The chart compares the Amaranths returns against CISDM Equal Weighted Hedge Fund Index and CISDM Convertible Arbitrage Index. Amaranth had gained a noteworthy position in May 2005, in CISDM Equal Weighted Hedge Fund Index. The chart show the volatility Amaranth was facing in May 2005, this volatility had brought high returns in the past but things then started taking the turn towards the wrong side. Amaranths returns; source: (Gupta Kazemi) NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange) noticed Amaranths considerable open interest of 51% in Aug 2006 in September natural gas futures contract, which would expire at the end of the month. NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange) brought its concerns into notice to Amaranth. Amaranth not only reduced their September but also Octobers positions, as per the directions of NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange). Alongside Amaranth increased their positions in October and September positions under ICE contracts, thus escalating their overall positions in natural gas. (Gupta Kazemi) According to US Securities and Exchange Commission filings, investors in Amaranths funds included a number of Wall Street banks including Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse Group and Deutsche Bank AG. (Burton Leising, 2006) Amaranth was marketing energy and commodities fund to open in December 2006 of about $5 billion. The fund was to be managed by Hunter and Jeff Baired, co-head of Amaranths Global energy and commodities business. But unfortunately the events that followed didnt allow it to happen. (Burton Leising, 2006) Collapse and Beyond Amaranth used to bet that natural gas prices will rise, and the spreads in March and April prices will rise as well. However in 2006, so did not happen and gas prices began to decline due to rising inventories leaving Amaranth on the wrong side of the market trend and consequently reducing its portfolio value of $9.2 billion by less than half. Headed by Brian Hunter, it seemed that Amaranth had not anticipated the rise in the natural gas storage capacity, and the weather pattern bringing a warmer winter. It was in a weeks time that Amaranth lost 65% of its $9.2 billion assets. On September 14 alone, the fund lost $681 million from its natural gas exposure. On September 20th 2006, Amaranth sold its entire energy trading portfolio in a flurry to J.P. Morgan Chase and Citadel Investment Group. It did so at significant discounts to the portfolios then mark-to-market value. (Till, 2006) At the time of liquidation of Amaranth, the spread on gas future declined. The spread on positions held by Amaranth were $2.85 in late August, but after the liquidation had reached below $0.75. (MORGENSON ANDERSON, September 20, 2006). This indicates the lower price expectations in both the bid and ask price for every $1 invested in Amaranths holdings. When Amaranth Advisors LLC announced that it had suffered losses just as big as LTCMs, markets did not respond for Amaranth the way as they did for LTCM (Long Term Capital Management). New York Fed did not hold summit meeting for a bailout plan; but JP. Morgan Co. and Merrill Lynch Co started selling off Amaranths portfolio of natural gas futures. The co-founder of Energy Hedge Fund Centre (which tracks 520 energy funds) said, There is not systematic risk. The market can absorb this. (Mufson, 2006). The reasons for such a reaction were that, firstly Amaranth (although was doing rash trading) but borrowed less heavily and had less leverage than LTCM (Long Term Capital Management); secondly its positions were smaller and focused in natural gas futures. LTCM s failure threatened the stability of banks, whereas Amaranths failure only hurt imprudent investors in the natural gas market who hadnt done any research before investing. Amaranths co-founder and chief executive, Nicholas Maounis, said in his letter to investors that the fund was aggressively reducing our natural gas exposure to meet payments to creditors. The said that there was large scale fluctuations in the value of the fund, which was up sharply in August, would be down 35 percent for the year after the sell-off. Later Maounis said that the conditions in the natural gas market deteriorated and market liquidity dried up so quickly that the fund was unable to unwind its energy positions. He said it became clear that we couldnt trade out of it. Amaranth had no choice but to sell its positions at a huge loss because the fund was faced with margin calls and couldnt borrow anymore because of the liquidity problem that emerged once news of its losses hit the market. Maounis apologized to the institutional investors, pension funds and wealthy individuals who lost money as a result of the bad trades. He said We feel bad about losing our money. We feel even worse about losing your money. (CBC-News, 2006) Officially at Amaranth desperately tried to sell the fund to Citigroup. But despite the extensive talks and negotiations, Citigroup decided to walk away from making any deal. (Taulli, Sep 29th 2006 ) On July 25, 2007, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charged Amaranth and head energy trader Brian Hunter with Attempted Manipulation of the Price of Natural Gas Futures including making false statements to the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has also charged Amaranth and its traders with market manipulation. Amaranth filed a lawsuit against JP Morgan claiming US$ 1 billion in damages, on the grounds that the bank interfered in the companys work to make a deal with Goldman Sachs and Citadel Investments. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) later announced a settlement with Amaranths defendants. However Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) did not withdraw its charges on Amaranth and on August 12, 2009, the federal court ordered Amaranth to pay a $7.5 million civil monetary penalty. The court also enjoins Amaranth from violating the anti-manipulation provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act. (Release, 2009) Amaranth then sued Touradji and his employees (Touradji Capital Management LP), by filing a complaint on September 18, 2006 in New York Supreme court in Manhattan, seeking at least $350 million for claims including breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets. Amaranth says that Touradji Capital Management LP breached two contracts agreed to in September 2006 regarding the transfer and purchase of Amaranths base-metals portfolio. According to the official documents, Touradji Capital Management LP used the information to recover profits obtained by defendants through improper trading practices and misuse of plaintiffs propriety and confidential information. Maounis, through a spokesman, refused to comment on the Touradji Capital Management LP suit (Chanjaroen, 2006). However in September 2009, Amaranth withdrew the summon it filed against Touradji Capital Management. Neither of the parties made a payment of any kind due to the withdrawal of notice. After the fall of Amaranth, Goldman Sachs was quick to come into action, and struck a deal to take over hedge fund manager of Amaranth Advisor LLCs lease at Greenwich America. Goldman occupied about 124,000 square feet at the property, which had served at Amaranths headquarters before the company was wound up in September. Amaranths lease was to expire in at the end of 2015 and had a rate of about $35 per square foot. (Ambroz, April 10, 2007) Internal control or Management of Amaranth Maouniss original expertise was in convertible bonds. In mid 2004 Maounis hired Brian Hunter (Hunter) an energy trader who was working for Deutshe Bank energy trading desk. Calgary-based Hunter was Amaranths head energy trader, who was given a free hand to trade the commodity market, due to his past experience of taking huge positions and making huge profits in the natural gas market. Maounis was impressed that Hunters made hundreds of millions of dollars (around 1 billion) for the firm in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina sent natural gas prices soaring, made the 32-year-old Canadian a co-head of commodities trading. Maounis let Hunter increase the size of his natural gas positions so that they became more than half of the entire firms exposure. This was against Amaranths claim of maintaining a multi-strategy fund. Before Hunters arrival, all commodities positions made up about 20 percent of Amaranths portfolio with natural gas having roughly 7 percent share. Amaranths partners had a confidence built on past success and they thought that they had a fool-proof strategy (taking long position in winters and short in summers); the company had reaped huge profits in 2002-2005 from this strategy. Amaranths website said moving nimbly and effectively within an ever-changing investment landscape and said that its employees possess fearlessness with respect to complexity, learning, as well as invention, and continuously strive for perfection. Maounis, said he had chosen the companys name, which means unfading in Greek. According to the wall street journal, Brian Hunters had so much success in trading natural gas futures, or bets, on the future prices of the commodity, that Amaranth allowed him to work from his home in Calgary, where he drove a Ferrari in summer and a Bentley in winters. (Hedge fund: a gamble too far, 2006, September 20). Analysts estimate that in order to fund his positions, Hunter was borrowing $8 for every $1 of Amaranths own funds. When the bet went in his favour, he could pay back the debt and keep the rest of the profit for Amaranth. As the bets started to go against him September 2006, his borrowing amplified his losses. (Hedge fund: a gamble too far, 2006, September 20). It is commonly believed that hedge funds improve the efficiency of the financial markets by introducing liquidity and innovation (Hedge fund: a gamble too far, 2006, September 20). However Amaranths collapse shows that the hedge fund managers earn for their lavish salaries only and not for the investors who have put up their earnings and savings in their funds. Operational risk is the risk associated with the internal management of the company and the probability of making wrong decisions that might harm the performance of the firm. Amaranth seemed to be suffering highly from operational risk. Hunters had a target of making $2 billion for the year at the end of August 2006. Analysts comment of such a target that Hunters must have had an unconsciously large position for this market, One of the biggest players in the energy markets, such as Goldman Sachs Group, would take up positions less than a tenth as big as Hunters, traders said. Hunter was involved in rash trading in the market as his positions were often twice as big as the next biggest. It is also said that in Amaranth, there was an exclusive risk manager for every trading book, who sat with the risk takers on the trading desk. (http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Finance/Collapse-Amaranth%20Advisors-Case%20Studies.htm#Risk_Management)The risk managers were well qualified and had advance degrees. Paul Touradji, founder and managing partner of Touradji Capital Management, said was obvious about risk control and not about commodities. Touradji admitted that he exited the natural gas market for a year because Amaranth had entered the market, comparing its presence with that of well-financed poker player sitting down with poorer players and making big bets. I cant think of a right counterstrategy other than to say, I am going to be at the bar until youre done, Touradji said. (http://www.hedgefundintelligence.com/Event.aspx?ProductID=7035ElementID=4983, 2006) Problems Diversification is the key element of all investment portfolios. It reduces the unsystematic risk of instability in any part of the economy. Amaranth specialized in the natural gas industry so much that it failed to realise that if it took any incorrect venture at any point in time, it would not have to face severe consequences. This is counted as a factor of poor risk management. One of the biggest issues with hedge funds is that there is lack of transparency for investors and they have no idea as to what the fund is doing with their money. Most hedge funds make money with the performance fees that are generated when the fund achieves larger gains; the bigger the gains the larger the fees for the hedge funds. If the funds stays still or falls, the performance fee is exactly the same. This type of fee structure can force hedge fund traders to implement exceedingly risky strategies. Much of the blame for what happened to Amaranth is being put on Brian Hunters, although he had a strategy, experience and understanding in the natural gas market; which worked well with various weather shocks, but the fund manager failed to take into account the rise in storage capacity of natural gas. The arrival of a relatively warm winter did not raise the demand of natural gas as much as in the previous years. These factors did not increase the price of natural gas as much, thus creating problems for Amaranth which has a long position. Amaranth was operating on a high leverage. As told earlier, Amaranth was operating on an 8:1 of debt to equity ratio. This amplified the credit problems for Amaranth because once it started facing liquidity problems; it ran out of cash to maintain its cash flows. After its collapse but before liquidating, Amaranth placed restrictions on its investors to withdraw holdings of cash. That is, they were allowed to withdraw for certain number of days but were required to submit the amount before the end of the term because inability to do so resulted in a penalty. Investors were not allowed their savings beyond 7.5% of their savings. (MORGENSON ANDERSON, September 20, 2006). The bankruptcy of funds causes damage to a number of individuals and companies that have their stake with them. In the Case of Amaranth, Morgan Stanley, invested $126 million, or about 5 percent, of its $2.3 billion funds of hedge funds in Amaranth. Even New York Fed Governor Timothy F. Geithner warned that hedge fund failures could hurt market participants other than those investors and lenders who have chosen to do business directly with those funds. (Mufson, 2006). This is because the instability created in the market (because of the bankruptcy of the company and the loss of a lot of people) can result in a systemic risk, which influences other sectors as well. It is commonly said that Amaranths systems did not measure risks correctly and did not take steps that would reduce the risk. The risk models that were employed by hedge funds use historic data, but the natural gas markets in 2006 were more volatile than any other year since 2001, making models less useful. A managing director of Lyster Watson Co, an advisory firm that invests in hedge funds for clients but not with Amaranth said, It was a total failure of risk control to put your entire business at risk and not seem to know it. They were more leveraged than they realised. (Davis, Sender, Zuckerman, 2006). Lessons to be learnt Derivatives as we know are risky sources of investments, and there a number of lessons that one can learn from the incident of Amaranth. Before making an investment (esp. in sector fund) it is important to analyze the performance of the sector relating to the profits and losses, during the past few years. A monthly sector analysis reveals that a -24% monthly loss is normal and the monthly volatility of the energy strategies was around 12% (Till, 2006), therefore due consideration should be made by investors before investing in such an industry. The second factor that fund managers should consider is of marketability or liquidity, which is the ease with which the contracts can be sold into the market again. The exchange traded futures market of natural gas contracts is way smaller than the over-the-counter natural gas positions. This should put the question in investors minds that in case the market of natural gas declines so how will they sell their contracts and liquidate their position. The strategy of Amaranth did not include an exit strategy. The following case of MotherRock also proves this point. Before the fall of Amaranth, on August 2, 2006 MotherRock, a natural-gas-oriented hedge fund had announced that it was shutting down, its losses had reached up to $300 million; it had made a wrong short position and was therefore forced to liquidate due to mounting losses. This should have sent alarming bell to the investors in Amaranth to secure their position in the market and they make sure that the dont face liquidity risk in near future (liquidity risk explained later). All successful investors have an exit strategy as part of their main strategy; liquidity is one of the four core factors to consider when investing in the market, these factors are risk, return, liquidity and maturity. Liquidity risk includes the risk that liabilities cannot be met when they fall due and can only be met at an uneconomic price. This risk can be accounted for by widening the bid/offer spread. An institution might lose liquidity if its credit ratings fall, it experiences sudden unexpected cash outflows or some other event that causes the counterparties to avoid trading with or lending to the institution. A firm can also be exposed to liquidity risk if markets on which it depends are subject to loss of liquidity. Liquidity risk tends to compound other risks. If a trading organization has a position in an illiquid asset, its limited ability to liquidate that position at short notice will compound its market risk. Suppose a firm has offsetting cash flows with two different parties on a given day. If the counterparty that owes it a payment defaults, the firm will have to raise cash from other sources to make its payment. Should it be unable to make its payment, it will default too. Here liquidity risk is compounding credit risk. A position can be hedged against market risk, through diversification of the portfolio by including assets with different unsystemic risks, but still has liquidity risk. Amaranths investments were high-risk funds that lacked liquidity due to the nature of the natural gas futures market. They did not have any counter party to take their position under a week, when they needed it most. One reason that can explain this liquidity problem is that the counter parties had already locked their position in the forward contracts relating to production or storage. It seemed that due to their past experience, of success in assuming long position in winters and short position in summers, Amaranth failed to anticipate the liquidity risk they were getting into by being unable to find a counter party. (Till, 2006). This was the job of the funds risks managers to employ scenario analysis based on this past events. Taking all the factors mentioned above proves that Amaranth was taking immense risk with respect to liquidity. Amaranth was giving the natural gas comodity market a service by providing liquidity to the participants who cou

The Things They Carried Essay -- Literary Analysis, History

Joy Kogawa and Tim O’Brien: two authors that have wielded their mastery of the English language to yield literary masterpieces that reflect not only their own struggles, but the hardships of multitudes around them. In her acclaimed Obasan, Joy Kogawa illustrates the intense discrimination that was faced by Japanese-Canadians during World War 2, and provides many reflective anecdotes to give the reader some insight on her personal situation. Tim O’Brien accomplishes basically the same goal in The Things They Carried by giving the reader many brief stories about his time in the Vietnam War. These two books- though incredibly different on the surface - share a plethora of themes and symbology, as well as many similar events. They do not, however, emphasize or present these ideas in the same way. Each of these authors has a unique way of incorporating their own themes or values into their writing, which gives the reader an entirely different view of what may be happeni ng. The brain is an amazing thing. It allows us to think, blink, walk and talk; it enables us to run, hide, seek, and stride; but most importantly, it allows us to remember. Neither literary work takes a firm stance on their opinion of memories, as both have many different characters with many different opinions. Naomi views and even loosely mirrors Obasan’s opinions on memory; that the past be left to the past and the future will bear what is to come (65 Kogawa). This â€Å"Ashes to Ashes† stance is mirrored by Rat Kiley in The Things They Carried (SparkNotes Editors). Though Obasan has a much tougher exterior and is able to keep her composure, they are both haunted by cruel memories that they are trying to suppress. Rat, however, doesn’t have as much luck as ... ...n previously expected. Things aren’t always what they seem; a concept that applies to the characters themselves. Obasan is more than just a wrinkled old lady, just as Rat Kiley is more than just an infantry soldier. Don’t judge a book by its cover, and don’t jump to conclusions; everyone is different. Take some time to find out and get to know someone, and you might just be surprised by The Things They Carried. Works Cited SparkNotes Editors. â€Å"SparkNote on Obasan.† SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2007. Web. 22 Feb. 2012. SparkNotes Editors. â€Å"SparkNote on The Things They Carried.† SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2002. Web. 22 Feb. 2012. Kogawa, Joy. Obasan. 1981. New York: First Anchor, 1994. Print. The Purdue OWL. Purdue U Writing Lab, 2010. Web. Feb. 22 2012. O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1990. Print.

Susan Glaspells Trifles - Some Observations :: Trifles Essays

Trifles I would like to make three major points. Major #1: Since this is the first play we’ve read, the stage direction really caught my eye and I tended to consider it very seriously in determining the meaning of the work. The most obvious direction, which the essay by Parrish discusses, is that neither Mr. nor Mrs. Wright ever appear in the play, and Glaspell was the first to use this type of direction (which was later recognized as uniquely her own.) Other important examples of the play’s direction (not spoken lines) are: ( ... she is disturbed now and looks fearfully about as she enters.) (Stops, his face twitches.) In a manner of returning to familiar things.) Glaspell uses this direction several times. (Silence; then as if struck by a happy thought and relieved to get back to everyday things.) (Mrs. Hale glances in a covert way at Mrs. Peters.) (Pulling herself back.) this is an emotional direction, not a physical one Glaspell’s decision to present "Trifles" as a play instead of its short story original form (titled :"A Jury of Her Peers) gives the reader an opportunity to "see" the action better than usual, and therefore get a clearer understanding of the author’s meaning. Major #2: What is the significance of "preserves?" I see the literal meaning, but what is Glaspell saying about a woman’s act of preserving things? The action in the play keeps going back to this jar of preserves (example: if the jar gets too cold, it breaks; preserves make a sticky mess; they don’t want to let Minnie know the jars broke and are not preserved.) Major #3: Does anyone know about quilting? I’m looking for more specific information on knotting vs. quilting? I think Glaspell is using this craft (and it is a way of expression like writing and painting) very subtly to get her message across, but I don't have enough information to see it, although I do see the significance of knotting and the knot around Mr. Wright’s neck that killed him. Can anyone help? Parrish writes in her essay that Glaspell wrote and produced many plays, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1931. It is interesting and meaningful to read drama because it finds yet another way for women to find and express their voices. Parrish states that Glaspell’s writing focused on women’s "desire for equality and acknowledgement in a "man’s world.

Computers :: essays research papers

Computers Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd. Today, with home computers and modems becoming faster and cheaper, the home front is on the break of a new frontier of on line information and data processing. The Internet, the ARPANET (Advanced Research Programs Agency Network) spinoff is a channel of uninterrupted information interchange. It allows people to connect to large computer databases that can store valuable information on goods and services. The Internet is quickly becoming a tool for vast data interchange for more than twenty million Americans. New tools are allowing Internet presence an easier task. As did the gold miners set out to California on carriages to stake their claim in the gold rush, business and entrepreneurs are rushing to stake their claim on the information superhighway through Gopher sites, World-Wide Web sites, and electronic mailing lists. This article explains how businesses and entrepreneurs are setting up information services on the Internet that allows users to browse through picture catalogues, specification lists, and up to the minute reports. Ever since Sears Roebuck created the first pictorial catalogue, the idea has fascinated US that merchandises could be selected and ordered in our leisure time. Like any cataloging system, references make it easy to find what user seeks. Since its inception, The Internet has been refining its search tools. Being able to find products through many catalogues is what make the Internet shine in information retrieval. This helps the consumer find merchandise that they might other wise probably cannot find. The World Wide Web allows users to find information on goods and services, pictures of products, samples of music (Used by record Companies), short videos showing the product or service, and samples of programs. Although a consumer cannot order directly from the Web site, the business will often give a Voice telephone number or an order form that costumer can print out and send out through the mail. Although web sites have the magazine like appeal, storing large amounts of textual data is often difficult. Gopher (like go-for) is set up like a filing cabinet to allow the user more flexibility in retrieval. Gopher is similar to the white/yellow pages in the way information is retrieved word for word. They are also a lot cheaper and easier to set up which allows small business an easy way to set up shop. Consumers can find reviews, tech-info, and other bits and pieces of information. Each person who uses the Internet has an identification that sets them apart from everyone else. Often called handles (from the old short wave radio days). Electronic mail addresses allow information exchange from user to user.

Develop positive relationships Essay

Learning Outcome 1 : Be able to develop positive relationships with children and young people. 1.1. . Explain why positive relationships with children and young people are important and how these are built and maintained. Developing a positive relationships with children and young people is extremely important as it could impact hugely on their learning, development confidence and skills learnt as they grow. Nurseries and schools have allocated key workers assigned to develop a bond, care for the childs welfare and liaise closely with parents of the child. Children and young people thrive in all stages of learning and development if a positive relationships are in place and maintained. Children and young people need to feel comfortable with the people around them and one another. This will build confidence and encourage them to try new areas of learning at every stage of their development. If relationships between parents, care providers are positive the child will feel secure and can easily separate from parents when needed. Children are more likely to want to participate and enjoy activities if the feel happy and safe in their environment. Positive relationships also alleviate to some degree negative/unwanted behavior, as caregivers are more likely to recognise the initial signs and meet the child’s needs prior to any adverse behavior. Verbal communication between child and adult will also help the child develop language skills and the confidence to express themselves. Practitioners/care providers should try to recognise a child’s needs by their emotions/facial expressions. Knowing the child well – their interests/likes and dislikes will enable the practitioner to responding to its needs and emotions, plan for the child’s future developmental needs and build strong positive relationships. 1.2. . Demonstrate how to listen to and build relationships with children and young people. When building relationships with children we first need to get to know them – how they like to communicate – this may be through facial expressions, body language and gestures especially in the very young. They need to feel  confident and secure within that relationship. When trying to build relationships practitioners need to be consistent and fair – listening to the child and understanding the message they are trying to portray. Children need to know their feelings are important and their needs will be taken into consideration. Practitioners should ensure that their own emotions/feelings (having a bad day/quite and withdrawn) are not transferred on to the child. Building good relationships with parents is important as they too need to feel that they and their children are being treated fairly within the setting and that everything that can be done is being done to assist their child. Being able to identify and sort out conflicts and disagreements fairly and calmly will develop trust between adult and child and will teach the child how to respond to future disagreements with other children. Respect and courtesy should be shown to children and young people at all times to that they may in turn learn how to develop these skills when interacting with others. Practitioners can being to teach children from a very young age how to respect other people (feelings and emotions)/their belongings/teach good manners and how to act in an appropriate way. If children are spoken to warmly, encouraged and shown respect they will in turn develop these skills for themselves. Valuing and respecting individuality will help children to develop their own strengths, talents and attitudes and be accepting of another childs individuality. Allowing children to explore their individuality will show that we respect and are comfortable with their differences and encourage them to try new activities/skills which they may also enjoy. Show that we all accept and encourage individuality in people. To feel secure children need to know that they can rely on their care providers. We should therefore honor all promises and commitments made. Forgetting a promise or changing our mind may cause a child to distrust or become wary of adults. They may feel let down or disappointed. Keeping a check on the way we interact with young people, monitoring their reactions to us will indicate if we need to change our approach or way of teaching. Some children are sensitive, some outspoken and confident etc. Once we know the child we should then adapt our approach accordingly. Maintaining confidentially is extremely important when working with children and young people. Children need to know that they are valued and respected and that if they have worries or concerns they can talk with an adult confidentially. However, circumstances where abuse/neglect have taken place or are suspected, care providers have a duty to report the situation to the appropriate person thereby protecting the child. Documents/reports should be kept locked away. Permission should be sought prior to photographs/information being shared. Personal information regarding a child or young person should not be discussed /given out unless requested by professionals or appropriate authorities. Parents also need to feel that their information or conversations will be treated with respect and confidentiality. Consideration should be given to how care providers speak and give direction to children and young people. Responses should be appropriately given so the child does not feel intimidated or ordered. Children should always feel protected and secure in their environment. 1.3. . Evaluate own effectiveness in building relationships with children or young people. I believe I am able to build positive relationships with children and young people. With younger children, having a calm and gentle manor, making eye contact (at the childs level), expressing concern when needed will begin to form a positive relationships. When possible new children arriving at my setting are offered one to one time so that a strong initial relationship can begin to develop. Spending time with them alone, showing an interest in their skills/activities, encouraging and playing with them whilst trying to form a special bond with the child will help them to see me as a person  they can trust and someone who cares about them. Babies need physical contact to build a relationship – cuddling and talking gently to will reassure and settle . Babies will often cry as they need to be comforted, others may need some kind of interaction for a while. Getting to know the baby, understanding its body language and responding to its needs will help form and build a trusting r elationship. With older children I believe taking an interest in their abilities and skills, talking about their hobbies, listening to them, praising and giving encouragement, showing approval enables me to build strong relationships. Learning Outcome 2 : Be able to build positive relationships with people involved in the care of children and young people. 2.1. . Explain why positive relationships with people involved in the care of children and young people are important. Positive relationships are important because personal information has to be shared regarding the childs education and well-being. Good communication is essential to allow various carers/agenices/schools etc to communicate and pass on accurate information. It allows a childs care to be consistent, identifies needs, monitors the childs progress and ideas and skills can be shared regarding the child. It also shows the parent that professionals and carers alike are all working towards the development and well being of their child. 2.2. . Demonstrate how to build positive relationships with people involved in the care of children and young people. To ensure that positive relationships are maintained all parties concerned regarding the development and needs of a child should be invited to comment, offer advice, make suggestions and pass on information to plan for the immediate and future needs of the child. There are various ways that all parties who have an interest in the child can be kept in the loop – on-line communication, meetings , telephone, written reports etc. Sharing and  recording information is fundamental to a childs progress and to ensure all needs are met. Parents hold valuable information regarding their child so should be kept informed of decisions made regarding their childs emotional and educational development. – their opinion sought and be allowed to contribute in the decision process. Parents should be invited along to meetings, regularly updated and be given the opportunity to talk with all parties involved in their childs welfare. Confidentiality should be remembered at all times.