Bearish options strategies are employed when the options trader expects the underlying stock price to move downwards. It is necessary to assess how low the stock price can go and the timeframe in which the decline will happen in order to select the optimum trading strategy.
The most bearish of options trading strategies is the simple put buying strategy utilised by most novice options traders.
In most cases, stock prices seldom make steep downward moves. Moderately bearish options traders usually set a target price for the expected decline and utilise bear spreads to reduce risk. While maximum profit is capped for these strategies, they usually cost less to employ. The bear call spread and the bear put spread are common examples of moderately bearish strategies.
Mildly bearish trading strategies are options strategies that make money as long as the underlying stock price does not go up on options expiration date. These strategies usually provide a small upside protection as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Options_Trading
ETF wraps are gaining market share for a host of reasons, including the fact that they are generally much less expensive than comparable mutual fund portfolios. An article published by Dow Jones Newswires earlier this year, "ETFs Are Moving Into The Spotlight" by Tara Siegel Bernard, cited the expense ratio for the average domestic stock ETF at 36 basis points, compared with 88 basis points for the average domestic stock index fund. Yes, ETF wraps charge an additional layer of fees to cover trading, administration, and so forth, but so do mutual fund wrap programs. When the wrap fee is factored out, the cost difference comes down to the expense ratios of the underlying investments, and the ETFs really shine.
ETF wraps also have greater trading flexibility than their mutual fund cousins. Unlike mutual funds, which trade once per day, ETFs offer the flexibility of intraday trading. If the markets are rising or falling, investors can make real-time decisions regarding the disposition of their portfolios. While this may not be a significant advantage to longer-term ETF wrap investors, it can be a huge bonus for more active investors who constantly trade in and out of their ETF holdings.
On the tax efficiency front, ETFs are also superior to mutual funds. New investors do not inherit embedded capital gains, and large redemptions are handled with in-kind distributions of the underlying securities, so the bulk of an investor's capital gains tax liability is deferred until the investor sells his or her holdings. (See An Inside Look At ETF Construction for more information about ETFs and tax efficiency.)
A less tangible - but psychologically attractive - benefit of investing in ETFs (and, by association, ETF wraps) is the fact that ETFs remain untainted by the scandals that have affected the financial services industry in general and the mutual fund companies in particular. Adding to this psychological comfort level is the inherent transparency of ETF portfolios - investors always know exactly what is in the portfolio. This is not the case with mutual funds, which only report holdings on a periodic basis.
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/mutualfund/05/ETFwrap.asp
In business, the term Operational Risk Management (ORM) is the oversight of many forms of day-to-day operational risk including the risk of loss resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes, people and systems, or from external events. Operational risk does not include market risk or credit risk.
Benefits of ORM
Reduction of operational loss.
Lower compliance/auditing costs.
Early detection of unlawful activities.
Reduced exposure to future risks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operational_risk_management
For more than a decade, Peter Zandstra has been working at the University of Toronto to rev up the production of stem cells and their descendants. The raw materials are adult blood stem cells and embryonic stem cells. The end products are blood and heart cells – lots of them. Enough mouse heart cells that they form beating tissue.
To do this, he has been applying engineering principles to stem cell research – work that has just earned him recognition by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The society will induct him as a Fellow during its Annual Conference, being held in Boston from February 14 to 18.
Starting with computer models of stem cell growth and differentiation (the process by which a stem cell matures into its final form), Zandstra has moved on to develop more sophisticated culture methods that fine-tune the microenvironments to guide the generation of the different cells types that make up the mature cells in our tissues: heart cells for the heart or blood cells for blood.
"If you describe something mathematically, you have a much better understanding of it than if you just observe it," he says. "And it's also a powerful way to test many different hypotheses in silico before going into the lab and doing the much more difficult experiments in vitro."
Dr. Zandstra, the Canada Research Chair in Stem Cell Bioengineering, also held a prestigious NSERC Steacie Fellowship. The Steacie prize - which goes to six select Canadian professors annually – allowed Zandstra to extend his work from mouse to man.
“There's only so much we can do with mouse cells,” notes Dr. Zandstra. “Now if we can also figure out how to get human embryonic stem cells to differentiate on command to generate functional adult-like cells, you can begin to think about the kinds of medical conditions you could treat with them.” -Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
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