Efficient Market Theory and Behavioural Finance Essay -- Business, Glo

The behaviour of markets and investors, the decision making in the market place and the dynamics of demand and supply in any given market cannot be determined with a hundred percent accuracy. However master minds in the past have designed various techniques and theories that help investors make a particular buying decision, or to make choices logically. These theories and techniques help today’s investors to peep into the future and make almost immaculate predictions regarding the future behaviour of the market and the ongoing trends. A lay man night view the decision making of an investor as being solely based upon speculation but in reality every move that an investor makes today in the market place is backed up by sound calculation and theories. Two of the most talked about and essential theories or concepts that are related to the market dynamics and that will be discussed at length in this assignment are Efficient Market Theory and Behavioural Finance. Efficient Market Theory suggests that in every financial market the flow of information is very efficient and this is reflected in the price of the share at which it is being traded. As we know that the price of the share floating in a market is not only dependent upon the company name printed and the information about the company in the balance sheet and other financial statements available to the public (Baghestani, H., 2009). In fact government and political stability, inflation, interest rates, treasury bills and several more factors determine the price at which any particular share is sold or bought at. Information about all these factors is always available to every investor in the market, be it the buyer or the seller. Moreover this information is available in an effi... ...ormation regarding the dynamics of the market and if this holds true then a financial market can never collapse. However in real world we face event like that of the 2007 global financial crisis that decelerated the global economic progress a great deal and once prosperous economies like the US ended up finding themselves in a state of panic where the poverty rose above all the previous levels and unemployment hiked to intolerable levels. Furthermore, the interest rates in the United States fell to a dreadful 1% during this crisis leading to falling savings in its economy. Hence we can conclude that Efficient Market Theory presents a weak argument to define market place dynamics. However if a combination of Efficient Market Theory and Behavioural Finance is utilized to predict market place dynamics then this would be defined as an efficient and effective approach.

Character and Fate Essay

In the book â€Å"The Mayor of Casterbridge† written by Thomas Hardy, the character Michael Henchard experiences a dramatic rise to grace and even more dramatic fall from it. He tries to demonstrate how fateful coincidences, character, and temperament act together in life to determine the outcome of a person’s life. Fate plays a very important part in â€Å"The Mayor of Casterbridge†. Thomas Hardy uses the plot of the novel relies on number of coincidences. The key initial event in the novel is the arrival of Newson at the furmity tent as Henchard sells his wife. Farfrae â€Å"who might possibly have passed by without stopping† arrives in Casterbridge, just as Henchard is being criticized for the quality of his corn. Henchard brings his fate upon himself for after much persuasion he convinces Farfrae to stay and employs him which is an ironic twist of fate as one day it will be Farfrae who employs Henchard. Henchard, as a magistrate, is in the court on the day when the furmity woman is on trial. This event like so many others is a fateful coincidence that changes Henchard’s life forever. The cruel timings of fate occur many times throughout the novel, right up to the closing chapter when Elizabeth-Jane goes to see Henchard half an hour after he has died. Even the weather seems to be fatefully against Henchard. Henchard’s plans for the holiday are ruined by rain. Henchard jealous of Farfrae decides to ruin him financially. Henchard is not thinking clearly based on weather prophet’s predictions for rain and encouraged by Jopp, he buys all the grain in Casterbridge. Unfortunately for him, the weather improves and the grain prices fall. As a result, Henchard is ruined by fate and his own foolishness. The weather in contrast aids Farfrae who makes lot of money where Hardy mentions â€Å"Meanwhile Donald Farfrae prospered†¦..a large heap of gold, where a little one had been†. Here, Hardy tries to demonstrate the fate and character both acts together against Henchard which results his downfall. However, Hardy also tries to emphasize that it is not just fate that causes  his downfall. It’s also because of his character and temperament which lead to his downfall. From the first chapter Henchard’s rashness and impulsive character is visible throughout the whole book. He behaves impulsively when he sells his wife, when he dismisses Jopp and misbehave Abel Whittle. Hardy portrays him as a victim of impulsivity. He is man who is ruled by feelings, not thought and he acts on emotions. Hardy also characterize Henchard as a person who possesses very bad judgment and has a tendency to make the wrong decision, for example believing in Farfrae or selling his wife. The decisions he makes are normally spontaneous and irresponsible. Hardy also characterizes Henchard as a short-tempered person which is one of his character responsible for his own downfall. This temper causes him to overreact and lose control. Hardy writes â€Å"cried Henchard in a savage undertone†. This temper initiate Jopp into seeking revenge against Henchard. Henchard describes his trade with Farfrae as â€Å"a tussle of fair buying and selling.† When he loses his temper because Farfrae’s business is succeeding, whereas Henchard’s is declining, Henchard then says, we’ll â€Å"grind him into the ground – starve him out †¦ snuff him out†. Henchard is also very determined and proud man. It is because of this that he refuses to take a room in Farfrae’s house or to claim back his furniture. In many ways he is almost too proud which makes his own downfall seem much worse to him. Clearly, these characteristics contributed to his downfall. When things are going wrong for Henchard he does not act, he accepts the situations silently, at that time Hardy writes â€Å"I am to suffer I perceive†. Even if he had a good character, his ill luck could led to his destruction. If he had a different character, fate might still worked against him. Hardy tries to say that what happens has to happen because of fate and no one can stop that. He writes â€Å"Susan, Farfrae, Lucetta, Elizabeth–all had gone from him, one after one, either by his fault or by his misfortune†. Although, through out the novel, Thomas Hardy demonstrates the life of man who is suffered by his ill fate and character, he also portrays the life of  self-made man who rose from hay trusser to mayor. Despite his many faults, he must does have some admirable qualities. Henchard stay away from alcohol for twenty-one years as a form of self-punishment. When he became bankrupt, he face his creditors instead of ran away from them. Here one of his creditor remarks â€Å"I have never met a debtor who behaved more fairly†. When Henchard’s life crashes around him he accepts the situation and returns to being a simple hay-trusser. This is a very admirable attitude. Examples throughout the book also show Henchard to be gentle, courageous, hardworking, kind and fair but in many cases a very unlucky man. Finally, it is a fine distinction between fate and character and they are very often intertwined. Fate and character coexist in the novel. They are dependent on each other. It is a combination of character and destiny that cause Henchard’s downfall. After twenty-one years Henchard walks back along the same path he travelled many years before. Still alone and with nothing to show for all his pain and suffering. He makes mistakes but experiences great suffering as a result. He dies a lonely isolated man, a warning to us all, of defect in character and ill-fate.

How to Declare and Initialize Constant Arrays in Delphi

In Delphi, the versatile web-programming language,  arrays allow a developer to refer to a series of variables by the same name and to use a number—an index—to tell them apart. In most scenarios, you declare an array as a variable, which allows  for array elements to be changed at run-time. However, sometimes you need to declare a constant array—a read-only array. You cannot change the value of a constant or a read-only variable. Therefore, while declaring a constant array, you must also initialize it. Example Declaration of Three Constant Arrays This code example declares and initializes three constant arrays, named Days, CursorMode, and Items. Days is a string array of six elements. Days[1] returns the Mon string.CursorMode is an  array of two elements, whereby declaration CursorMode[false] crHourGlass and CursorMode crSQLWait. cr* constants can be used to change the current screen cursor.Items defines an array of three TShopItem  records. type   Ã‚   TShopItem record   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Name : string;   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Price : currency;   Ã‚   end; const   Ã‚   Days : array[0..6] of string   Ã‚   (   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Thu, Fri, Sat   Ã‚   ) ;   Ã‚   CursorMode : array[boolean] of TCursor   Ã‚   (   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   crHourGlass, crSQLWait   Ã‚   ) ;   Ã‚   Items : array[1..3] of TShopItem   Ã‚   (   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   (Name : Clock; Price : 20.99),   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   (Name : Pencil; Price : 15.75),   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   (Name : Board; Price : 42.96)   Ã‚   ) ; Trying to assign a value for an item in a constant array raises the Left side cannot be assigned to compile time error. For example, the following code does not successfully execute: Items[1].Name : Watch; //will not compile