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In Search of Safe Havens: The Trust Deficit and Risk-free Investments!

Musings on Markets

In every introductory finance class, you begin with the notion of a risk-free investment, and the rate on that investment becomes the base on which you build, to get to expected returns on risky assets and investments. What is a risk free investment? Why does the risk-free rate matter?

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Data Update 3 for 2023: Inflation and Interest Rates

Musings on Markets

If 2022 was an unsettling year for equities, as I noted in my second data post, it was an even more tumultuous year for the bond market. The rise in rates transmitted to corporate bond market rates, with a concurrent rise in default spreads exacerbating the damage to investors.

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Fixed Income Research: The Overlooked Younger Brother of Equity Research?

Brian DeChesare

While everyone seems to know about equity research and trading stocks, fixed income research gets far less attention. Equity Research vs. Fixed Income Research Common Myths What Do You Do as a Fixed Income Research Analyst or Associate? a credit rating vs. an investment recommendation). closer to the work at a quant fund ).

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Data Update 2 for 2023: A Rocky Year for Equities!

Musings on Markets

While there are many events during 2022, some political and some economic, that one can point to as the reason for poor stock returns, it is undeniable that inflation was the driving force behind the market correction. Actual Returns Your returns on equities come in one of two forms. Stocks: The What? at the start of that year.

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Top 5 Accounting Issues to Master to Avoid Snags in SPAC IPOs

ThomsonReuters

Use of Special purpose acquisition (SPAC) vehicles have spiked over the past year because private equity and venture capital firms have excess cash they need to put to work, accounting practitioners said mid-June. These standards require companies to assess whether the warrants should be equity or liability classified.

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Data Update 4 for 2022: Risk = Danger + Opportunity!

Musings on Markets

Geographical Risk Beta measure the macro risk exposure of the businesses that a company operates in, but they are blunt instruments, incapable of capturing either country risk (from operating in the riskiest parts of the world) or discrete risk (from default, nationalization or other events that truncate a company's life).

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Inflation and Investing: False Alarm or Fair Warning?

Musings on Markets

Looking at US equities, the S&P 500 is up about 11% and the NASDAQ about 5%, from start of the year levels, and the underperformance of the latter has led to a wave of stories about whether this is start of the long awaited comeback of value stocks, after a decade of lagging growth stocks.