Normality of stock returns with event time clocks

We introduce a different way to measure time using event clocks, with which we can observe a normal distribution of intraday stock returns. Most finance studies employ a ‘default’ time measurement that uses a calendar clock. Cumulative evidence from prior literature shows that returns with a calendar clock follow a distribution with an excess kurtosis and a heavier tail, relative to a normal distribution. We examine the distribution of intraday stock returns using different clocks. We find that returns do not follow a normal distribution with a traditional calendar clock, but do follow a normal distribution when event clocks are applied.     

《美少女特攻队》：通往自由的路

在幻与梦的边缘,现实是虚无缥缈的,如同通往自由的路。迈克尔.贝执导的《变形金刚》系列和以詹姆斯.卡梅隆精心烹制的《阿凡达》为代表作的技术军团,将电影艺术带到了一个更加精湛的制作空间;此后,克里斯托弗.诺兰又用＂梦＂堆积起《盗梦空间》,     

会计师事务所办理工商登记应了解的法定时效

目前,我国的会计师事务所实行工商登记制度,有限责任事务所按照《公司登记管理条例》办理登记,合伙会计师事务所按照《合伙企业登记管理办法》办理登记.事务所在设立、合并、分立、变更、解散、清算、注销、设立分支机构的过程中,应当了解有关法定时效,严格按照有关法规的规定办理工商登记手续,以免遭遇法律纠纷和法律制裁.     

加息：紧缩货币政策挥出第二拳

2007年12月20日傍晚,央行宣布,为贯彻从紧的货币政策,从次日起上调金融机构人民币存贷款基准利率,这是央行2007年内第六次加息,也是中央经济工作会议确定从紧的货币政策之后,央行挥出的又一紧缩之拳,此时距央行年内第十次上调存款准备金率仅间隔12天。     

Phasing out the GSEs

We develop a new model of the mortgage market that emphasizes the role of the financial sector and the government. Risk tolerant savers act as intermediaries between risk averse depositors and impatient borrowers. Both borrowers and intermediaries can default. The government provides both mortgage guarantees and deposit insurance. Underpriced government mortgage guarantees lead to more and riskier mortgage originations and higher financial sector leverage. Mortgage crises occasionally turn into financial crises and government bailouts due to the fragility of the intermediaries’ balance sheets. Foreclosure crises beget fiscal uncertainty, further disrupting the optimal allocation of risk in the economy. Increasing the price of the mortgage guarantee “crowds in” the private sector, reduces financial fragility, leads to fewer but safer mortgages, lowers house prices, and raises mortgage and risk-free interest rates. Due to a more robust financial sector and less fiscal uncertainty, consumption smoothing improves and foreclosure rates fall. While borrowers are nearly indifferent to a world with or without mortgage guarantees, savers are substantially better off. While aggregate welfare increases, so does wealth inequality.     

中国银行业:警惕潜在的"疫情"

目前,SARS危机对我国经济的实质影响尚难定论,但是乐观态度不在少数.从金融的角度来看,我们应该清醒地认识到,SARS危机带来了增加我国金融风险的压力.虽然在短期内SARS可能产生的不利影响尚未在经济领域全面体现出来,对金融领域的冲击也将会出现滞后的反应,但是,积极防范金融风险却是十分必要的.     

Assessing business risk: The case of Premier Punch, Inc

The recently issued Statement on Auditing Standards No. 109, Understanding the Entity and Its Environment and Assessing the Risks of Material Misstatement, emphasizes the need for auditors to understand the client’s business and environment, particularly the client’s business risk [American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) (2006a), understanding the entity and its environment and assessing the risks of material misstatement, Statement on Auditing Standards No. 109. New York, NY: AICPA]. However, the manner in which auditors obtain such an understanding, especially an auditor’s assessment of a client’s business risk, is often challenging for students because they lack the business experience necessary to perform such an assessment. This case provides students with an opportunity to assess business risk in a realistic context that includes evidence beyond the content of the financial statements. Company information is provided via a webpage (www.premierpunch.com) with content similar to that of an actual investor relations site. Students must evaluate the information presented in the company’s annual report, press releases and other sources, and consider the impact of that information on several facets of business risk. Students also perform an analytical review of the company’s financial statements and synthesize the case information into a professional memo containing their assessment of business risk.     

Breaking out of the innovation box

In most companies, investments in innovation follow a boom-bust cycle. For a time, the cash flows. Then, as the economy sours or companies rethink their priorities, the taps go dry. But when research budgets are slashed, the strong projects are often abandoned along with the weak ones. Promising initiatives are cut off just when they are about to bear fruit. Expensive labs are closed; partnership agreements costing millions in legal fees are thrown away. When disruptive changes in the competitive landscape come, companies are caught flat-footed. Sustainable innovation requires a new approach: Instead of being largely isolated projects, innovation initiatives need to gain access to the insights and capabilities of other companies. To be protected from the ax of short-term cost reductions and the faddishness born of easy money, the initiatives must become part of the ongoing commerce that takes place among companies. But how can businesses traffic in such sensitive information without giving their competitors an advantage? The answer, the author contends, lies in a practice that's been common since the Middle Ages: the use of independent intermediaries to facilitate the exchange of sensitive information among companies without revealing the principals' identities or motives and without otherwise compromising their interests. Executive search firms, for example, allow job seekers to remain anonymous during the early stages of a search, and they protect businesses from disclosing their hiring plans to rivals. A network of innovation intermediaries would be in a unique position to visualize new opportunities synthesized from insights and technologies provided by several companies--ideas that might never occur to businesses working on their own.     

走出"审计悖论"

“审计悖论”的说法在一定程度上揭示了人们面对政府收支不规范而呈现的复杂而矛盾的心态。在财政运行格局的转变和公共财政制度的建设过程中,不仅会发生新老规范之间的碰撞,而且,也要经历一个逐步接受、遵从新规范的适应期。只有不断的发现新问题,才能不断的建立新规范;只有不断的用新制度规范旧行为,才能不断的以加快公共财政制度建设的实质行动来推动政府收支行为的规范化进程。     

Nonlinearities in stochastic clocks: trades and volume as subordinators of electronic markets

This paper discusses the possibility of recovering normality of asset returns through a stochastic time change, where the appropriate economic time is determined through a simple parametric function of the cumulative number of trades and/or the cumulative volume. The existing literature argues that the re-centred cumulative number of trades could be used as the appropriate stochastic clock of the market under which asset returns are virtually Gaussian. Using tick-data for FTSE-100 futures, we show that normality is not always recovered by conditioning on the re-centred number of trades. However, it can be shown that simply extending the approach to a nonlinear function can provide a better stochastic clock of the market.     

开拓保险学研究的新视野--论保险企业管理学的学科定位

保险企业管理学是保险学与管理学交叉而形成的一门边缘性、综合性的应用学科。保险学和管理学都是保险企业管理学的母学科；保险企业管理学既是保险学的分支学科，又是管理学的分支学科。重视保险企业管理理论的研究具有十分重要的现实意义和理论意义。     

Contracting out in the national health service

Considerable publicity has been given to moves to contract out part of local government services. Though the benefits of doing this have not yet been proven, it is worth asking whether health authorities should follow suit.     

走出消费信贷发展的困境

使消费信贷摆脱目前的困境，要加强新型消费观念的宣传，更新商业银行经营观念，健全社会保障机制，提高居民消费信贷承受能力，完善消费信贷风险防范及运营机制，拓展农村消费市场。     

Taking the stress out of stressful conversations.

Stressful conversations are unavoidable in life. In business, they can run the gamut from firing a subordinate to, curiously enough, receiving praise. But whatever the context, stressful conversations carry a heavy emotional load. Indeed, stressful conversations cause such anxiety that most people simply avoid them. Yet it can be extremely costly to dodge issues, appease difficult people, and smooth over antagonisms; avoidance usually only worsens a problem or a relationship. Using vivid examples of the three basic stressful conversations that people bump up against most often in the workplace, the author explains how managers can improve those interactions unilaterally. To begin with, they should approach the situations with greater self-awareness. Awareness building is not about endless self-analysis; much of it simply involves making tacit knowledge about oneself more explicit. It is important for those who are vulnerable to hostility, for example, to know how they react to it. Do they clam up or do they retaliate? Knowing how you react in a stressful situation will teach you a lot about your trouble areas and can help you master stressful situations. The author also recommends rehearsing difficult conversations in advance to fine-tune your phrasing and tone. And the best way to keep from being thrown off balance by difficult conversations that crop up unexpectedly is to develop a few hip-pocket phrases that you can pull out on the spot. We all know from past experience what kinds of conversations and people we handle badly. The trick is to have prepared conversational tactics to address those situations.     

我国推行资产证券化的障碍分析

一、何谓资产证券化 资产证券化(Asset Backed Securitization,ABS)是指将缺乏流动性,但能够产生稳定、可预见的现金流收入的资产,转换成在金融市场可以出售和流通的证券的行为.适宜进行证券化的不良资产至少必须具备如下条件:(1)资产缺乏流动性但能够在未来产生可预测的稳定的现金流量;(2)本息偿还能够分摊于整个资产的存续期;(3)资产的抵押物具有较高的变现价值或其对债务人的效用很高;(4)资产具有标准化和高质量的合同条款.     

投资海外：敢问路在何方？

一场突如其来的次贷危机，打破了很多人的“美国梦”。多年以来，投资美国市场，尤其是美国债券市场，一直是各国投资机构获得不菲投资回报的金牌定律，但是，步入后次贷危机时代，人们发现，是梦总会有醒来的一天，世界终归是多元化的世界，市场始终还是多渠道的市场，除了美国，我们还有很多选择。     

警惕企业上市中的猫腻

首次公开发行对于任何一家企业来说都是首次,因此,那些从未经历上市的企业在IPO面前往往是眼前一抹黑。殊不知,在上市的华丽外衣下,有时潜伏着形形色色的猫腻。     

寻找提振消费内需的次优方案

真正健康、自然的增长方式,只能由“真实”且“自然”的需求所驱动、促成,而非名义需求。此“真实”需求无疑应指民众收入增加而自然激发的消费需求、更新换代（所谓消费升级）需求,此“民众”决非仅指金字塔顶端那极小一部分富豪阶层,更应包括最最普通之平民.