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NYU's Damodaran, tops on the list What makes an outstanding business-school professor? Ask a few MBA students, and you might get a dozen answers, a dozen criteria, and many examples.  Many will say the best professors are those who teach with passion, energy and excitement. The subject matter--whether it's first-year corporate finance or the mechanics of an intermediate-accounting course--comes alive. Those are the professors who present the principles of debit-credit accounting or the equations of Black-Scholes in a spirited way--as if they discover gold time and again. Many will say the best are those who share details, memories and stories of having been on the front lines of business, those who were involved in heavyweight corporate strategy, major acquisitions and tense negotiations. They might be adjunct professors who can convey decades of experience within the outlines of a core course. They may have spent years on Wall Street, in boardrooms, or in Europe or Asia in...

In a bull market, the market ignores bad news. In a bear market, the market reacted on bad new, not-so bad news, all kinds of news! In March 2009, the beginning of a bull, people refered to any rallies as bear rallies. They were in a terrible bear trend and couldn't believe the bear was over, so when there were some rallies, they called it the bear rallies! Now, I see similar reaction here in August 2011, we have enjoyed a superb bull run for over 2 years, and suddenly the sign of the fear struck and we are now wondering is this still a bull? Whever investors start to have this thought and as their thoughts get stronger and stronger, these thoughts will menifest through self-fufilling which weaken the bull and finally give way to the bear! By human nature, we always find ourselves in the state of denial and thinking that we are still in the same old condition as before. But evidence showed that even if we are in the bear trend, we won't realise untill several months later when ...

Uncertainty. It drives equity markets insane, causing them to swoop, surge, nose-dive and rumble upward, only to swoop and surge again. Investors can't figure out whether to ignore, reallocate, hold or sell. Speculators and high-frequency traders find ways to thrive, often spurring markets toward a  plunge and or meddling to make them bounce like ping-pong balls. Such is the way it has been in this August of market turbulence. It has felt too much like autumn, 2008. At financial institutions--especially at large banks, investment firms or trading houses--uncertainty in the marketplace leads to a degree of certainty in-house.  When markets bounce all over the place and when ongoing threats to a reviving economy slow it down, there are predictable, certain patterns within banks' walls. Examples? 1.  When markets turn downward or signal a downturn of any kind, even if momentary, financial institutions "circle the wagons." They assume worst-...

In the recent stock crash, he DJI had an unprecedented wild ride initiated on August 4th a crash of 512 points (4%)due to a downgrade of its long term debt by Standard and Poors. On August 8th, DJI shed another 635 points (5.5%) but on August 9th, DJI had a big jump of 430 points (4%), however, on August 10th DJI swung negatively by 562 (5%)points due to rumours that a French Bank might be in financial distress. As predicted, the next day a big swing to the positive side by adding 424 (4%)points. In 6 trading days, 5 days had more than 400 points (or 4%) move! That was unprecedented and it definitely affected the stock markets around the world. Our KLCI had a sharp fall but compared to the regional markets, as usual, we dropped the least. But still, the damage was done to our stock market technically, as our KLCI is now trading below 200 day moving average, it could signify the beginning of a long term bear. By long term bear I mean 9 months - 1.5 yrs based on the past trends. Currentl...

Summer reading lists.  Everybody tends to have a list of books they want to read, they need to read, or they prefer to read, when the days and weeks before Labor Day mean half-hearted attempts to focus on work or dreamy moments of a planned vacation. In finance the past few years, there has been an explosion of published accounts of the financial crisis. Just when we think there is nothing else to report or analyze as it relates to the collapse of Lehman, Bear Stearns or AIG, out comes another 300-pager. Then comes the summer of 2011. Just when we thought it might be safe to escape for vacation and tote copies of what's on our reading list (in duffel bags or imbedded in a Kindle), the circus of Washington becomes more frenzied. And the markets behave as if it's 2008 all over again. A summer reading list at a time like this? With the daily chaos of global markets, political fisticuffs over sovereign debt levels, S&P punishing politicians and the U.S.'s lackluster ...

A Carnegie Mellon quintet of MBAs faced challenging competition from teams from USC and Michigan, but managed to emerge as the winner of the Executive Leadership Council 's (ELC) annual business-case competition in Alexandria, Va. in May.  (See http://www.elcinfo.com/ .) The USC and Michigan teams followed in second and third place, respectively. Exxon Mobil and ELC sponsored the annual competition. ELC has presided over the competition since 2002. This year the topic was energy and the reduction of greenhouse gases. Students from top business schools were asked to present a detailed business strategy outlining America's transition to lower greenhouse gas by 2030 in the most cost-effective way. Carnegie Mellon's winning team from the Tepper School earned over $35,000 in scholarships.  The team from Tepper, a Consortium school, included recent Consortium graduate Jacob Garcia .  Other team members included J esse Alleyne, Ian Buggs, Felix Amoruwa, and Richard Burgess . ...