Week 7 DQ Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Week 7 DQ - Essay Example ‘Risk free rate of interest is the rate of interest on a debt instrument with no default, maturity or liquidity risk.’ (Melicher & Norton, 2011) By definition the portfolio of government bond has liquidity and interest rate risk due to the length of its maturity period but for long-term investments the Treasury bond reflects as a more logical default free holding period return for longer term investments. Treasury bill is the closet example of the riskless securities as they hold zero or very minimal liquidity and maturity risk. The $250,000 portfolio of Treasury bills is more risk free as compared to the Treasury bind portfolio of 30 years maturity. However, government these days have also defaulted in various parts of the world therefore, there is no complete risk free security in the practical sense. Securities other than the government bonds and treasury bills that are close to the riskless concept are the fixed accounts, certificates of deposits, inflation protected securities and indexed bonds

Segmentation and Introduction to Product Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Segmentation and Introduction to Product - Essay Example This is a category of the market that requires the color and the type of shapes that the product is associated with. It is star shaped and the unique shape is meant to attract children. Children respond better to such uniqueness that the product is known for. The cereal is manufactured from whole grain wheat and provides eight important vitamins and other essential minerals such as iron and calcium. These minerals help in growth which makes the product more suitable for children. The packaging of products determines the response they get from the market. In this case, the packaging has lots of cartoons which would draw attention from children. One other feature that makes this cereal favorable to women is the fact that it is chocolate flavored. The affinity women have for chocolate would draw their attention to notice this product when on a shopping spree. Consequently, as a product targeting women, Estreliats is bound to captivate the female

Standardisation of management consulting service Essay - 1

Standardisation of management consulting service - Essay Example Some of the challenges include organizational culture, organizational change, workforce diversity, discrimination, work stress etc. The study aims at explaining the various challenges. The various management styles are discussed and their advantages and disadvantages will be analyzed. Some challenges that will be addressed in the research include: When one wants to change an aspect of the culture of an organization one has to keep in consideration that this is a long term project. Corporate culture is something that is very hard to change and employees need time to get used to the new way of organizing. For companies with a very strong and specific culture it will be even harder to change. This is a huge challenge for management. Change has become a way of life for most organizations. Pressure from increasing competition, globalization, technological developments, and other forces has created an environment that rewards an organization that are capable of identifying trends and issues and responding quickly to them. Change is the only permanent thing in this world and when organizations change there are many forces of resistance against the change and culture is one of the important forces of resistance. HRM Techniques play a major role in changing the organizational culture. The major Interventions used in bringing a change include Human Processual, Techno structural, Socio technical systems and organization transformation. The various HRM Techniques include Action research, Organizational development, Sensitivity Training, Survey Feedback, Process Consultation, Team Building, Inter group development, Appreciative enquiry. The worlds increasing globalization requires more interaction among people from diverse cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds than ever before. People no longer live and work in an insular marketplace; they are now part of a worldwide economy with competition coming from nearly every continent. For this

Emily Dickinson Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Emily Dickinson - Essay Example The emphasis is on spontaneity, and the original. (Harvey, 1997). Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886), is one of most prolific and successful poets of the American Romantic Movement. Her work challenges the existing norms of that period, rejects convention, and establishes a new genre. The unique â€Å"order, unusual punctuation and spelling choices† of her poems reflect the new spirit of Romanticism (Poetry Foundation, 2012). The poetry of Emily Dickinson may be taken to be the epitome of American Romantic literature, with its focus on nature, individualism, and the exploration of faith. Dickinson’s nature poems make up a large part of her work. They deal with almost all aspects of nature: birds, animals, bees, flowers, grass, rain, forests, hills, the seasons, sunrise and sunset. Her poems throb with her love for Nature. It is evident that she finds great joy in her closeness with the natural world. The depth of her observation is incredible. The least minutiae of li fe is seen and explored by Dickinson and linked with her personal emotions. She simply thrills in nature’s beauty. At other times, she makes a connection between nature and human life. In her poem, â€Å"It Sifts From Leaden Sieves,† (Poets.org. 311), Dickinson is content to describe Nature’s beauty. She makes effective use of metaphor: the â€Å"leaden sieves† refer to overcast skies. ... The poet goes on to express her desire to be a part of nature, by offering the bird a crumb. But the bird is frightened of her advance, and flies away. Here, Dickinson shows that man cannot be a part of nature, unlike the bird, which unites with nature. The poet’s evident love for nature is one of the hallmarks of American Romantic literature. Another feature which marks Dickinson as a Romantic is her unbending individualism. Contrary to the social expectations regarding women of that period, Dickinson disliked housework and the â€Å"daily rounds of receiving and paying visits† (Poetry Foundation, 2012). In line with this pronounced individualism, Dickinson withdrew from public life. This is seen in the fact that, â€Å"By the 1860s, Dickinson lived in almost total physical isolation from the outside world† (Poets org. 2012). Her poems were largely a part of her private correspondence with friends, and were published only after her death. Most of her poems demon strate her own personal emotions. She sees the world around her through a personal lens. Dickinson’s poem, â€Å"I’m Nobody! Who Are You?† (Poets org. 260), demonstrates her alienation from society. She criticizes the people who belong to the pretentious public world, and is happy to be apart from them, in her own private identity. Dickinson holds the Romantic opinon, contrary to common thinking, that man’s closeness to nature is hindered by the effects of civilization. This is seen in her poem, â€Å"I Like to See it Lap the Miles,† (Poets org. 43), where she compares the train to a horse. She is critical of the industrial invasion of the natural world by the railroad. Dickinson’s subjective perception of the world is very much a feature of Romantic literature.

Standardisation of management consulting service Essay - 1

Standardisation of management consulting service - Essay Example Some of the challenges include organizational culture, organizational change, workforce diversity, discrimination, work stress etc. The study aims at explaining the various challenges. The various management styles are discussed and their advantages and disadvantages will be analyzed. Some challenges that will be addressed in the research include: When one wants to change an aspect of the culture of an organization one has to keep in consideration that this is a long term project. Corporate culture is something that is very hard to change and employees need time to get used to the new way of organizing. For companies with a very strong and specific culture it will be even harder to change. This is a huge challenge for management. Change has become a way of life for most organizations. Pressure from increasing competition, globalization, technological developments, and other forces has created an environment that rewards an organization that are capable of identifying trends and issues and responding quickly to them. Change is the only permanent thing in this world and when organizations change there are many forces of resistance against the change and culture is one of the important forces of resistance. HRM Techniques play a major role in changing the organizational culture. The major Interventions used in bringing a change include Human Processual, Techno structural, Socio technical systems and organization transformation. The various HRM Techniques include Action research, Organizational development, Sensitivity Training, Survey Feedback, Process Consultation, Team Building, Inter group development, Appreciative enquiry. The worlds increasing globalization requires more interaction among people from diverse cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds than ever before. People no longer live and work in an insular marketplace; they are now part of a worldwide economy with competition coming from nearly every continent. For this

Role of currency futures in risk management Essay

Role of currency futures in risk management - Essay Example Forward contracts have certain advantages over currency futures but their disadvantages cannot supersede the advantages provided by currency futures. Because of their standardized features and a high liquidity in the market, currency futures have gained widespread importance. Even with the advent of sophisticated derivative instruments such as options, yet the currency futures lie ahead of them because of the cost factors and their advantages in providing superior performances in covered hedges. Introduction In the contemporary world, currency risk management is gaining a widespread importance because of the globalization. Companies and individuals who are exposed to foreign exchange risk, which implies that either they have imports or exports which will cause their domestic purchasing power to decline by converting a foreign currency to a home currency will always aim to minimize this risk. These currency risks arise during certain conditions; when the firm or businesses have assets or liabilities which are expressed in terms of foreign currency. We can define foreign exchange risk more specifically as the risk faced due to fluctuating exchange rates. For instance, if a Malaysian businessman exports palm oil to one of the European countries and if he expects payments to be made in Euros, than he is exposed to considerable amount of foreign exchange risk if the Euro depreciates against the Malaysian Ringgit. In case if it happens, the Malaysian trader will get fewer amounts of Ringgits in exchange of Euros thus a successful business venture might turn out to a blunder because of poor risk management practices. The trade transactions are shelved between the countries as businesses are unwilling to bear foreign exchange risk. As the fear of foreign currency risk looms over the businesses, it can reduce its trade with these countries. But as the world has stepped ahead in the technological breakthroughs, so it has been able to develop financial tools which can hel p the traders to minimize the risk faced in the businesses. The derivatives market primarily consists of many instruments such as forwards, futures, swaps and options. The aim of this paper is to discuss about the role of currency futures and how they provide an advantage over other derivative instruments in managing foreign exchange risk. A currency futures contract is an agreement between two parties to buy a particular currency at a specific rate in the future. Future contracts are identical to forward contracts but they differ in a sense that they are traded on the exchange and are more liquid than forwards. Futures are liquid as they have a formal exchange like stocks where you can trade your legal contracts. Similarly, they are standardized contracts like shares and you can remove them from your portfolio in certain chunks. We can illustrate futures currency with the help of an example involving two parties who are exposed to foreign exchange risk. The party which is exposed t o the risk of an appreciation of value in a currency will buy futures to protect. These are usually parties who have revenues or exports and they feel that the value of their home currency appreciates making the currency in which the sales are denominated weak thus resulting in lower revenues. To hedge their position, they enter in to a futures contract and buy a certain amount of

English Essays Frankenstein

English Essays Frankenstein Why is Frankenstein considered a Gothic novel and Fathers and Sons and Great Expectations considered realist? Discuss in an essay of 2000 words with reference to Frankenstein and either Fathers and Sons or Great Expectations. Great Expectations and Frankenstein provide us with examples of the nineteenth century English novel frequently labeled realist and gothic respectively. This essay aims to discuss the characteristics that contribute to these labels and how far this sets the two novels apart. The realist novel is classified as such by its attempt to represent social types of the time and symbolize the community of a historical era by portraying particular individuals. Consequently, characters within the novel serve as examples of their particular social type. One of the aims of the realist novel was to bring life to history, to add a human viewpoint to a real historical situation. This means that the realist narrative focuses on the everyday concerns, thoughts and feelings of societys people. Not concerned solely with immediate feelings, the ambitions and desires of a person are also of great interest to the realist writer. As a result we are presented with a picture not just of how the world was, but how different social types imagined it to be. Great Expectations is set in early Victorian England at a time when great social changes were taking place. The Industrial Revolution of the late eighteenth and nineteenth century had transformed the social landscape, enabling capitalists and manufacturers to amass huge fortunes that would otherwise have been unattainable; social class was no longer a status dependent purely on birth. This is the dynamic environment into which Dickens places his protagonist, Pip. Pips sudden transformation from country laborer to city gentleman allows Dickens to commentate on the differences between social extremes. Pips decisions are constantly influenced by the strict rules and expectations that governed Victorian England at this time. The setting of the novel would have been familiar to its readership and certain aspects can clearly be linked to historical truth. For example, in 1841 there would have been three thousand civilian prisoners held aboard nine hulk ships anchored in English waters. It is reasonable to believe, therefore, that Magwitch could have escaped from a ship that found itself anchored off the Essex coast. The moral of the story is clear: social standing is a superficial and insufficient guide to character. Pip swiftly becomes driven by the fantasy of becoming a gentleman, and it is these great expectations that form the basic plot of the novel. As a result Dickens is able to satirise the very class system that he is a part of. The consequences of Pips actions allow us an insight into Dickens social ideals Pips life as a gentleman is no more satisfying or moral than his life as a country laborer. Indeed it is through Joe, Biddy and Magwitch that Pip learns that social and educational improvement are irrelevant to a persons true worth. Consequently, it must be noted that the realist novel is heavily influenced by the way that the realist novelist sees the world; Dickens focuses firmly on those in the community who have earned their status through commerce and as a result, the post-Industrial revolution class system portrayed largely ignores the nobility and aristocracy by birth. In thi s respect the realist novel can be read as more subjective social criticism and raises the issue of how reliable one author can be when it comes to presenting an objective view of the world. Characters in the novel naturally present us with conflicting views of society and it is left to Dickens to reconcile these ideas and present us with the answer, an answer that is heavily influenced by his own ideals. It can be argued that this technique over-simplifies social issues, in the words of Joe, one mans a blacksmith, and ones a whitesmith, and ones a goldsmith, and ones a coppersmith. Divisions among such must come, and must be met as they come. There seems to be little in between and each must be met as they are presented by Dickens. Other factors may also have come into play when producing this realist novel, particularly, the novels market. The content of Great Expectations would have been heavily influenced by the requirements of All the Year Round, one of the magazines for which Dickens wrote. Having just published a rather unsuccessful serial by another author, Dickens saw Great Expectations as a means of drawing in readers and getting the magazine back on track financially: an ironic influence considering the moral of the story which condemns the pursuit of financial and social gain. As mentioned previously, the setting of Great Expectations would have been familiar to its contemporary readers, allowing them to relate to characters. Setting is one factor that sets the realist novel apart from the gothic. The landscape presented in Frankenstein would have been wholly alien to readers of the time. Gothic novels tend to locate narratives in mysterious locations and this convention is clearly adhered to in Frankenstein, with action taking place in continental Europe and Arctic regions places it is unlikely Shelleys readers would have ever visited. In the same respect Victors experiments take place in an unknown setting as the majority of readers would have been unfamiliar with laboratories and scientific experiments. The use of strange and eerie settings succeeds in creating a mood of suspense and unsettling atmosphere, Who shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil as I dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the grave Another characteristic of the gothic novel is the use of the supernatural. Moers writes that, in Gothic writings fantasy predominates over reality, the strange over the commonplace, and the supernatural over the natural, with one definite authorial intent: to scare. Shelley uses the supernatural elements of raising the dead to frighten her readers. Through the eyes of Victor the monster is repulsive and altogether unnatural, shocking the reader out of reality, I suddenly beheld the figure of a man, at some distance, advancing toward me with superhuman speed. At a time of great scientific advancement this would have been a topical story that pushed the boundaries, presenting readers with a truly shocking idea removed from reality, but remotely possible. Not only is this topic unknown and mysterious, it is presented in such a macabre manner that terror consumes the reader. Victors decision to stop making a female monster is driven by fear that a race of devils would be propagated upon the earth who might make the very existence of the species of man a condition precarious and full of terror and this is the very feeling that has already been sparked in the reader during the creation of the first monster. The gothic tradition thrives on the sensational. In her essay on the Female Gothic, Moers argues that the gothic novel is primarily concerned with producing a physiological reaction, a story that chills the spine and curdles the blood. Victor himself experiences this bodily reaction induced by fear Sometimes my pulse beat so quickly and hardly that I felt the palpitation of every artery. In this respect, Shelleys novel clearly meets the criteria of the gothic traditions, illustrated by Lord Byron who is said to have run from the room screaming on first hearing the story of Frankenstein. Indeed, such sensationalist literature was highly sought after in this period and pandered to by such gothic fiction. These sensations are enhanced by the feeling of suspense that runs through Frankenstein, particularly from the moment the monster threatens Victor with the words, I will be with you on your wedding-night, a phrase that echoes through the novel from the moment it is spoken. Nature in the gothic novel is presented as sublime, a retreat from both physical and emotional strain. This is evident in Victors journey to the mountains to revive his spirits and the monsters joy when spring arrives. Nature is often used in conjunction with darkness to construe a feeling of foreboding or evil. This is the case as Victor creates the monster, an endeavor that forces him to shun daylight and lead a solitary life, the moon gazed on my midnight labours, while, with unrelaxed and breathless eagerness, I pursued nature to her hiding-places. As the novel progresses we would not expect life to be injected into the monster on any other night but a dreary night in November. Nature is used to a similar effect within Great Expectations where the mist that occurs on the nights when Pip visits Magwitch, The mist was heavier yet when I got out upon the marshes, and subsequently returns when he leaves for London, suggests that all will not run smoothly when he reaches the city. Through multiple narratives Shelley forces us to question our sympathies. In a Russian doll narrative style we are told the story of Frankenstein through Walton, who in turn tells the story of the monster, who in turn tells the story of Safie and the cottagers. However, it is not until halfway through the novel that we are subject to the monsters narrative and by this time we have already been influenced by Victors biased account of events. Consequently, we become aware of the complex nature of truth and the power of our own subjectivity. In the questions that are asked of us, supernatural becomes closer to natural than we may have first imagined. Although we are terrorized in true gothic fashion, we are simultaneously forced to question the source of this terror. Having said this, the complex narrative structure and the portrayal of the supernatural clearly invites more of a gothic reading. In his essay, Reading Frankenstein, Richard Allen points to narration as a signifier for narrative form, stating that Pips first person narrative makes his presentation in terms of what we might read as gothic excess in fact rather plausible, since it can also be understood as the product of a young imagination replete with the monsters and ogres of folk and fairy-tale tradition. The realist narrative directs us towards a more sensible and natural explanation, toning down what may be gothic content by presenting it from a realist perspective. This realist understanding of supernatural events can be identified in the reaction of the magistrate to whom Victor explains his story to, He had heard my story with that half kind of belief that is given to a tale of spirits and supernatural events. Both Dickens and Shelley draw from their own experiences in writing their respective novels. Dickens would have been extremely familiar with the city of London and the marshes surrounding Kent, and would also have experienced the law system, with his own father spending time in prison. Shelley was also frequently exposed to the ideas expressed in her novel, spending time with radical thinkers through her father and husband. Great Expectations may well be more openly realistic, but the subtext of Frankenstein connects to the natural more than a first reading may imply. There is a vast undercurrent of birth and abortion illustrated by a link that is often made between the creation of the monster and Marys loss of a child. Her journals explain that the baby died before it was given a name (just as Frankensteins monster remained nameless) and that she also experienced a vivid dream in which she was able to bring it back to life. It must be noted that neither novel can be classified by one single form. Great Expectations for example can also be read as a bildungsroman, another popular nineteenth century novel form which depicts growth and personal development by transition from childhood to adulthood. Much of the gothic novel also draws from the Romantic tradition, Shelleys portrayal of human feeling, compassions and discontent towards all that is commercial and inhuman is closely aligned with this movement. Walden observes this cross-over of genres, stating that what is especially interesting about Dickens writings is the degree to which they anticipate the continuing hybridity of genre expectations, a statement that can equally be applied to Shelley. Bibliography Frankenstein, Mary Shelley (Everymans Library, 1992) Great Expectations, Charles Dickens (Marshall Cavendish, 1986) The Endurance of Frankenstein: Essays on Mary Shelleys Novel, Edited by George Levine and U. C. Knoepflmacher (University of California Press, 1979) The Realist Novel, Edited by Dennis Walder (Routledge, 1995) http://intolerablehulks.com/intro.html