Eaton Canyon Nature Center in California Pasadena Essay

Eaton Canyon Nature Center in California Pasadena - Essay Example Fascinating displays, live animals, offices, classrooms, an auditorium, restrooms, and an information desk/gift shop at the entrance Tourists can purchase shirts, hats, post cards, rock samples, books, hand and finger puppets, hummingbird feeders, and much more. The Mt. Wilson Toll Road and a bridge across the canyon were built for hikers and bicyclists. There are horse stables at the base of the Eaton Canyon Natural Area Nature Center, Natural Park is like a spectrum of lush green foliage through which cuts the gurgling Eaton Canyon Stream located at the base of Mt. Wilson. Although Mount Wilson is over 5,700 feet high, there is a large group of mountain peaks, which rise to more than 9,000 feet, including Mount Baldy and Mount Baden-Powell. The beautiful San Gabriel Mountains are having are having a rugged steep slopes, ridges and deep canyons. There are five miles of nature trails, an equestrian trail, creeks and a waterfall. Some of the rock types found at this place has been dated at well over two billion years old. Thanks to Kate Lain for her research a lot of history is known now about the place. Eaton Canyon originally called "El Precipicio" by the Spanish settlers because of its steep gorges; it is now named after Judge Benjamin Eaton, who built the first Fair Oaks Ranch House in 1865 not far from Eaton Creek. Judge Eaton was the first to use irrigation from the creek to grow grapes on the slopes. In the year1912, summer cabin sites in the Angeles National Forest are made available for lease to the public; later cabins are built on the Eaton Canyon Tract in upper Eaton Canyon .The Canyon was nearly completely burned in the 1993 fire. Afterward, the vegetation in the Canyon was seeded again. Biotic communities Botanically, Eaton Canyon is interesting natural place and imbibes very lush and has beautiful displays of local flora and fauna. It is naturally rich in plants due to thePage 3 usually abundant water and wide wash. The vegetation in the canyon depends on the low water flows and groundwater. There are more than fifty species of plants and wide variety of animals in the canyon. Poison oak is one of the more common plants in the park. Numerous reptiles, amphibians and fish are found in the park. Twenty types of mammals, including mule deer, bobcats, coyote, fox and mountain lion, over one hundred fifty species of birds, including hawks, vultures, owls, heron, pelican and eagles are in this natural park. Some birds and lizards hide in underground burrows, under rocks, in trees, are fairly easy to spot by the visitors. This flora are also scattered outside the planted areas of Eaton Canyon, which includes the area around the Nature Center. Most taxas are found in Lower Eaton Canyon, from Eaton Canyon Park north to

Management, Motivation, & Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Management, Motivation, & Leadership - Essay Example They then employ every strategy in pursuance of the target (McGrath, 2011). Eagles know and stick to their moral principles. An eagle will never feed on dead meat, however, hungry it is. Great leaders know and stick to their principles irrespective of the prevailing circumstances. Honesty to oneself and others is a virtue for any successful leader (McGrath, 2011). The eagle family is one of a kind where the male has to persuade the female well enough before they can mate. This may involve building nests that the female has to approve and to be patient enough to the teasing of the female eagle. As a leader, you need to develop persuasion skills so that you can withstand the competition in the market. Sometimes, as a leader you have to go extra mile to win the trust of your followers or partners when trying to cut a business deal (McGrath, 2011). The eagle character is to use challenges to its advantage. For instance, when there is a storm and every other bird is hiding the eagle uses the storm to rise higher. This character is an important principle for any successful leader. When something unexpected happens to alter your plan, and then a great leader seeks for an opportunity in the challenge t achieve greater dreams (McGrath, 2011). A female eagle makes decision based on trust that is developed over time. She tests teases the male with twigs to test his commitment before mating. A great leader makes a decision after thorough search of relevant information and evaluation of probable risks involved (McGrath, 2011). An eagle coaches the eaglets to fly by either throwing them out of the nest or taking them to heights, release them and then follow them to catch them before they can fall to the ground. A good leader should be able to model others for future leadership (McGrath, 2011). Both the male and female eagles participate in the building of a nest where the female lays eggs. The female lays eggs and protects them while the male builds a

Application to Modern Investment Theory to EMH

Application to Modern Investment Theory to EMH The modern investment theory and its application on the efficient markets hypothesis 1. Introduction The Modern investment theory and its application is predicated on the Efficient Markets Hypothesis (EMH), assumption that markets fully and instantaneously integrate all available information into market prices. Underlying this comprehensive idea is the assumption that market participants are perfectly rational, and always act in self-interest, making optimal decisions. These assumptions have been challenged. It is difficult to tip over the neo classical convention that has yielded such insights as portfolio optimization, Capital Asset Pricing Model, Arbitrage Pricing Theory and Cox Ingersoll-Ross theory of the term structure of interest rates, all of which are predicated on the EMH[2] rather than downside risks[3]. The theory of behavioral finance is opposite to the traditional theory of Finance and deals with human emotions, sentiments, conditions, biases on collective as well as individual basis. Behavior finance theory is helpful in explaining past practices of investors and dete rmining the false performance of the investors. Behavioral finance is a concept of finance which deals with finances incorporating findings from psychology and sociology. It is reviewed that behavioral finance is generally based on individual behavior and financial market outcomes. There are many models explaining behavioral finance that explains investors behavior or market irregularities where rational models fail to provide adequate information. Investors do not expect such research to provide a method to make lots of money from inefficient financial markets quickly. According to Shiller (2001) Behavioral finance has basically emerged from the theories of psychology, sociology and anthropology where implications of these theories appear to be significant for efficient market hypothesis, that is based on the positive notion that people behave rationally, maximize their utility. It is found that in efficient market the principle of rational behavior is not always correct. Thus, the idea of analyzing other model of human behavior has come up. Gervais (2001) further explains the concept where he says that people like to relate to the stock market as a person having different moods, this person can be bad-tempered or high-spirited and can overreact one day or make amends the next. This person indicates human behavior which is unpredictable and behaves differently in different situations. Lately many researchers have suggested the idea that psychological analysis of investors may be very helpful in understanding financial markets better. To do so it is important to understand behavioral finance presenting the concept of traditional theory overestimating rationality of investors, their biases in decisions casting a cumulative impact on asset prices. To many researchers the study of behavior in finance appeared to be a revolution. As it transforms peoples mentality and perception about markets and factors that influence the markets. The paradigm is shifting. People are continuing to walk across the border from the traditional to the behavioral camp. Gervais (2001, pp.2). On the contrary some people believe that may be its too early to call it a revolution. Gervais (2001) states that Fama in (1970) argued that behavioral finance has not really shown an impact on world prices, and that model contradict each other on different point of times. Giving very less account to behaviorist explanations of trends and the irregularities anomaly ( is any occurrence or object that is strange, unusual, or unique) also argued that in order to locate patterns the data mining techniques are much helpful. Other researchers have also criticized the idea that behavioral finance models tend to replace the traditional models of market functions. Some weaknesses in this area, explained by Gervais (2001)are that generally overreaction and under reaction are major causes of market behavior. In these cases People take the behavior that seems to be easy for a particular study regardless of the fact that whether these biases are either primary factor of economic forces or not. Secondly, lack of trained and expert people. The field does not have enough trained professionals both in psychology or finance fields and therefore as a result the models presented by researchers are improvised. Gervais (2001) also focused on individual behavior impacting asset prices and explained that this field of behavioral finance is currently in its developmental stage, in its way of development it is facing a lot of disagreement which itself is a productive one. He points out that if we apply the conceptual models of behavioral finance to the corporate finance, it can majorly pay off. If money managers are incorrectly rational, means they are probably not evaluating their investment strategies correctly. They might take wrong decisions in their capital structure decisions. It has been found that quite a few people foresee behavioral finance displacing the age old Efficient Markets theory. On the contrary underlying assumption that investors and managers are completely rational makes insightful sense to many people. 2. Traditional Finance and Empirical Evidence Fung, (2006) claimed that Post Keynesian theory has criticized mainstream economic theory for using statistical methods to model the world in which histori ­cal market data cannot provide, In recent years, two different lines of research experimental economics and behavioral finance have pro ­duced results that are at odds with the predictions of mainstream finan ­cial theory. This paper argues that it is beneficial to the development of good financial theory for Post Keynesian economists to engage in an exchange of ideas with the practitioners of these two lines of research. The difference of opinion originated when experimental economics and behavioral finance understood the difference between agents rationality in theory and in real world. Both had a same point of view regarding Post Keynesian economists where both of them refused to assume Post Keynesian economists assumption of economic actors being always rational by maximizing expected utility. Instead of assuming ration al economic ac ­tors who always act consistently, they often tap into insights provided by psychology to try to explain economic behavior. The use of psychol ­ogy can be traced back to Keynes, and, in fact, some of the papers in experimental economics and behavioral finance take a remark of Keynes on the psychology of economic actors as an inspiration for designing empirical tests of economic behavior. Indeed, some of these papers rec ­ognize that we live in an uncertain world, and they examine the heuris ­tics, or rules of thumb, that economic actors develop to guide their behavior in face of uncertainty. When Keynes made his remark in 1936 (the original publication date of the General Theory), there was not yet an efficient market hypothesis. But in 1970 Fama published his pioneering paper on efficient markets. In it, he defined an efficient market as a market in which prices always fully reflect available information. Traditional theory assumes that agents are rational an d the law of one price holds that is a perfect scenario. Where the law of One price[5]. And agents rationality explains the behavior of investor Professional and Individual which is generally inconsistent with rationality or future predictions. If a market achieves a perfect scenario where agents are rational and law of one price holds then the market is efficient. With the availability of large amount of information, form of market changes. It is unlikely that market prices contain all private information. The presence of noise traders (traders, trading randomly and not based on information). Researches show that stock returns are typically unpredictable based on past returns where as future returns are predictable to some extent. According to Glaser et al. (2003) Few examples from the past literature explains the problem of irrationality which occurs because of naive diversification, behavior influenced by framing, the tendency of investors of committing systematic errors while ev aluating public information. Lately it has been found that investors` attitude towards the riskiness of a stock in future and the individual interpretation may explain the higher level trading volume, which itself is a vast topic for insight. A problem of perception exist in the investors actions that stocks have a higher risk adjusted returns than bonds. Another issue with the investors is that these investors either care about a stock portfolio or just about the value of each single security in their portfolio and thus ignore correlations. The concept of ownership society[6] has been promoted in the recent years where people can take better care of their own lives and be better citizen too if they are both owner of financial assets and homeowners. As Shiller (2006) suggested that in order to improve lives of less advantaged people in our society is to teach them how to be capitalist, In order to put ownership society in its right perspective, behavioral finance is needed to be und erstood. The concept of ownership society seems very attractive when people appear to make profits from their investments. Behavioral finance is also very helpful in understanding and justifying government involvement in investing decisions of individuals. The failure of millions of people to save properly for their future is also a core focus of behavioral finance. According to Glaser et al. (2003) there are two approaches towards behavioral finance, where both tend to have same goals. The goals tend to explain observed prices, market trading volume and Last but not the least is the individual behavior better than traditional finance models. Belief Based Model: Psychology (Individual Behavior) Incorporates into Model Market prices and Transaction Volume. It includes findings such as Overconfidence, Biased Self- Attrition, and Conservatism and Representativeness. Preference Based Model: Rational Friction or from psychology Find explanations, Market detects irregularities and individual behavior. It incorporates Prospect Theory[7], House money effect and other forms of mental accounting. Behavioral Finance and Rational debate: the article by Heaton and Rosenberg (2004) highlights the debate between the rational and behavioral model over testability and predictive success. And it was found that neither of them actually offers either of these measures of success. The rational approach uses a particular type of rationalization methodology; which goes on to form the basis of behavior finance predictions. A closer look into the rational finance model goes on to show that it employs ex post rationalizations of observed price behaviors. This allows them greater flexibility when offering explanations for economic anomalies. On the other hand the behavior paradigm criticizes rationalizations as having no concrete role in predicting prices accurately, t hat utility functions, information sets and transaction costs cannot be `rationalized. Ironically they also reject the rational finances explanatory power which plays an essential role in the limits of arbitrage, which actually makes behavioral finance possible. Heaton Rosenberg (2004) presented Milton Friedmans theory that laid the basis of positive economics. His methodology focused on how to make a particular prediction; it is irrelevant whether a particular assumption is rational or irrational. According to this methodology, the rational finance model relies on a limited assumption space since all assumptions that are supposedly not rational have been eliminated. This is one of the major reasons behind the little success in rational finance predictions. Despite the minimal results, adherents of this model have criticized the behavioral model as lacking quantifiable predictions that are based on mathematical models. Rational finance has targeted a more important aspect in the structure of economy, i.e. Investor uncertainty, which further cause financial anomalies. In explaining these assertions, the behavioral approach emphasizes importance of taking limits in arbitrage. Further his methodological approach falls into the category `instru mentalism[8], which basically states that theories are tools for predictions and used to draw inferences. Whether an assumption is realistic or rational is of no value to an instrumentalist. By narrowing what may or may not be possible, one will inevitably eliminate certain strategies or behaviors which might in fact go on to maximize utility or profits based on their uniqueness. An assumption could be irrational even in the long run, but it is continuously revised and refined to make it into something useful. In opposition to this, many individuals have said that behaviouralists are not bound by any constraints thus making their explanations systematically irrational. Heaton Rosenberg (2004) further explains the concept of Rubinstein that how when everyone fails to explain a particular anomaly, suddenly a behavioral aspect to it will come up, because that can be based on completely abstract irrational assumptions. To support rationality, he came up with two arguments. Firstly he w ent on to say that an irrational strategy that is profitable, will only attract copy cat firms or traders into the market. This is supported when a closer look is given towards limits to arbitrage. Secondly through the process of evolution, irrational decisions will eventually be eliminated in the long run. The major achievements characterized of the rational finance paradigm consist of the following: the principle of no arbitrage; market efficiency, the net present value decision rule, and derivatives valuation techniques; Markowitzs (1952) mean-variance framework; event studies; multifactor models such as the APT, ICAPM, and the Consumption CAPM. Despite the number of top achievements that supporters of the rational model claim, the paradigm fails to answer some of the most basic financial economic questions such as `What is the cost of capital for this firm? or `What is its optimal capital structure?; simply because of their self imposed constraints. So far this makes it seem lik e rational finance and behavioral finance are mutually exclusive. Contrary to this, they are actually interdependent, and overlap in several areas. Take for instance the concept of mispricing when there is no arbitrage. Behavior finance on the other hand suggests that this may not be the case; irrational assumptions in the market will still lead to mispricing. Further even though certain arbitrageurs may be able to identify irrationality induced mispricing, because of the imperfect market information, they are unable to convince investors of its existence. Over here, the rational model is accepting the existence of anomalies which are affected both through the factors of risk and chance; therefore coinciding with the perspective of behavioral finance. Two instances are clear examples of how rationalization is an important limit of arbitrage: i) the build-up and blow-up of the internet bubble; and ii) the superiority of value equity strategies. If we focus on the latter, we are able to see behavioral finance literature that highlights the superiority of such strategies in the ability of analysts to extrapolate results for investors. This is possible when rationalization is taken as a limit to arbitrage. Similarly these strategies may also limit arbitrage against mispricing, through the great risk associated with stocks. In explaining most anomalies it is essential that analysts first conclude whether pricing is rational or not. To prove their hypothesis that irrationality induced mispricing exists; behaviouralists may find it easier if they accepted the role of rationalization in limits of arbitrage. Slow information diffusion and short-sales constraints are other factors which explain mispricing. However these factors alone cannot form the basis of a strong and concrete explanation that will clarify pricing across firms and also across time. Those supporting the rational paradigm attack behavioral finance adherents in that their predictions for the financial markets have been made on irrational assumptions; that are not supported by concrete mathematical or scientific models. In their view the lack of concrete discipline in the methodology adopted in behavior finance leads to the lack of testing in their forecasts. On the other hand the rational model is criticized for its lack of success in financial predictions. The behaviouralists claim that this limitation exists because the supporters of rational finance dismiss aspects of the economic market simply because it may not fall into explainable rational behavior. Both perspectives claim to align themselves with respect to the goals of `testability and `predictions, while at the same time continue to offer evidence against the other model. In reality however, rather than being exclusively mutual both paradigms assist one another in making their predictions. Ray (2006) examines a new genre of behavioral markets prediction markets and their remarkable a bility to aggregate inside and expert information from around the world in order to accurately predict all types of economic and financial variables. To date it is said that the prediction markets are the most accurately efficient markets as they prove to show all three forms of market efficiency (weak, semi-strong, and strong), in contrast to regulated markets. Prediction markets are also said to be decision markets. It initially evolved in 1988 with the first online betting market the Iowa Electronic Market. These online markets have proven their predictions accurately since the time they came into being. To be precise these prediction markets are behavioral markets with powerful statistical components that are able to predict the most likely values of future financial variables, variances around such values, and their correlations with other future financial variables. Ray (2006) says that being unregulated, prediction markets are highly effective at flushing out and thereafter a ggregating relevant information including inside and expert information regarding a particular event, globally extracting such information from savvy bettors who are eager to profit from their inside and expert information. These sorts of prediction markets have become so popular that now a days major companies use such behavioral markets to accurately forecast sales, earnings, product success, and many other financial and economic variables. The foremost tool for these markets is the wisdom of crowd. In order to accurately predict financial and economical variables he presented few conditions as a prerequisite, which included mainly having a variety of opinions, with no herd behavior, should be able to use their knowledge according to the information available with them and last but not the least is the fact that prediction markets expectations are not self fulfilling prophecies. Prediction markets are a new genre of behavioral markets that continually reveal the thinking of confid ent insiders by suggesting them to profit from their inside and expert information. The subjective evidence with a few statistical evidences corroborates the impressive ability of these markets to predict financial events of all types. The phenomenon exists from ages and effectively proves its performance especially in worlds financial markets. The demonstrated accuracy of predictions in these markets can be of significant utility to traders, financial analysts, behavioral analysts, and many others intending to forecast and analyze financial data. A persons tendency to make errors is known as cognitive bias. These errors are based on the cognitive factors that include statistical judgments, social attribution and memory being common to all the humans in the world. Cognitive bias is the tendency of intelligent, well-informed people to consistently do the wrong thing. Crowell (1994, pp. 1). The reason behind this cognitive bias is that the Human brain is made for interpersonal relationships and not for processing statistics. He discussed the frailty of forecasts. Generally it is said that the world is divided into two groups: People forecasting positively and people forecasting negatively. These forecasts exaggerate the reliability of their forecasts and trace it to the illusion of validity which exists even when the illusionary character is recognized. Fisher and Statman, (2000) discussed five cognitive bias, underlying the illusion of validity that are Overconfidence, Confirmation, Representativeness, Anchoring, and Hindsight. Shiller (2002) discusses, that irrational behavior may disappear with more learning and a much more structured situation. History proves it that many of cognitive biases in human judgment value uncertainly will change; they may be convinced if given proper instructions, on the part-experience of irrational behavior. The three most common themes of behavioral finance are as follows: Heuristics, Framing and Market Inefficiencies. People when decide on the basis of the rules of thumb regardless of rationalizing suffer from Heuristics. Some forms of Heuristics are: Prospect theory, Loss Aversion, Status quo Bias, Gamblers Fallacy[9], Self-serving bias and lastly Money illusion. Framing is basically a problem of decision making where the decision is based on the point where there is difference in how the case is presented to the decision maker. Cognitive framing, Mental accounting and Anchoring are the common forms of Framing 3. Market Inefficiencies As observed, that market outcomes are totally opposite to rational expectations and efficient market hypothesis where mispricing, irrational decision making and return anomalies are examples of it. Fung (2006) introduced three forms of market efficiency earlier presented by Fama in 1970. In the weak form, the information set con ­tains only historical prices. In the semi strong form, information set contains all publicly available information. In the strong form, the infor ­mation contains not only all publicly available information but also insider information not available to the public. This definition of efficient mar ­kets is too general to be testable empirically. To make the model testable, he proposed a process of price formation known as the expected re ­turn or fair game efficient markets model. In this model, when investors form expectations of security prices, they fully utilize all the information that is fully reflected in those prices. It is called a fair game model, because using only the information that is fully reflected in security prices, no trading system can have expected profits or returns in excess of equi ­librium expected profits or returns. These terms have been described as specific market anomaly from a behavioral point of view. Anomaly (economic behavior) Disposition effect Endowment effect Inequity aversion Intertemporal consumption Present-biased preferences Momentum investing Greed and fear Herd behavior Anomalies (market prices and returns) Efficiency wage hypothesis Limits to arbitrage Dividend puzzle Equity premium puzzle Behavioral Economic Models are restricted to a certain observed market anomaly and it adjusts the neo classical models by explaining the phenomenon of Heuristics and framing to the decision makers. It is usually said that economics get along with in the neo classical framework, with just one restriction of the assumption of rationality. Loix et. Al (2005) in their paper Orientation towards Finances explains the individual financial management behavior, people dealing with their financial means. They have analyzed the Non-specific financial behavior as already we see extensive research on the specific finance behavior such as saving, taxation, gambling and amassing debt, and gave a lot of importance to stock market, investors and households. The analysis of general public`s behavior was done, where an ordinary man is not sure and simply act according to the guesses over their money related issues. It was also found that people interested in economic and financial matters are much more active in collecting specific information than general public, stating that financial behavior of household is an important relevant topic that needs to be discussed in much more details. Household financial management is similar to the financial management. The construct of orientation towards finances was developed where the individual ORTO FIN focuses on competencies (interest and skills). Having stronger money attitude is an indication of stronger orientation towards finances and much more effective competencies. Therefore we expect some relevance and similarity between corporate and household management behavior as both require organizing, forecasting, planning and control. Loix et. al (2005) analyzed general publics behavior in basically dividing them into two groups, Financial Information and Personal financial planning. Also explaining some practical and theoretical gaps in the area of psychology of money usage, they concluded that ORTOFIN (Orientation towards finance) indicates the involvement of individuals in managing their finances. Proving out the point that active interest in financial information and an urge to plan expenses are two main factors. A stronger ORTFIN indicates: greater use of debit accounts, higher savings account, wide variety of investments, greater awareness of ones financial Intimate knowledge of the details of ones savings/deposit accounts obsessed by money, higher achievement and power in monetary terms, Further age is also inversely proportional. Shiller, (2006) in his article talked about the co-evolution of neo-classical and behavior finance that in 1937 when A. Samuelsson one of the great economists wrote about people m aximizing the present value of utility subject to a present value. Another judgment he realized was time being consistent human behavior where if at any time t, 0 4. Investing and Cognitive Bias Money Managers and Money management is a very popular phenomenon. The performance in a stock market is measured at daily basis and waiting for a highly subjective annual review of ones performance by ones superior. Market grades you on a daily basis. The smarter one is, more confident one becomes of ones ability to succeed; clients support them by trusting them that eventually helps their careers. But the truth is that few money managers put in sufficient amount of time and effort to figure out what works and develop a set of investment principles to guide their investment decisions Browne (2000). Further he discussed the importance of asset allocation and risk aversion, in order to understand why we do what we do regardless of whether it is rational or not. General public opts for money Managers to deal with their finances and these managers are categorized in three ways: Value Managers, Growth Managers and Market Neutral Managers. The vast majority of money managers are categorized as either value managers or growth managers although a third category, market neutral managers, is gaining popularity these days and may soon rival the so-called strategies of value and growth. Some investment management firms even are being cautious by offering all styles of investments. What too few money managers do is analyze the fundamental financial characteristics of portfolios that produce long-term market beating results, and develop a set of investment principles that are based on those findings. Difference of opinion on the definition of value is the problem. The reasons for this are two-fold, one being the practical reality of managing large sums of money, and other related to behavior. As the assets under management of an advisor grow, universe of potential stocks shrinks. Analyzing why individual and professional investors do not change their behavior even when they face empirical evidence, suggests that their decisions are less than optimal. An answer to this questio n is said to be that being a contrarian may simply be too risky for the average individual or professional. If a person is wrong on collective basis, where everyone else also had made a mistake, the consequences professionally and for ones own self-esteem are far less damaging than if a person is wrong alone. The herd instinct allows for comfort of safety in numbers. The other reason is that individuals try to behave same way and do not tend to change courses of action if they are happy. If the results are not too painful individuals can be happy with sub-optimal results. Moreover, individuals who tend to be unhappy make changes often and eventually end up being just as unhappy in their new circumstances. According to traditional view of investment management, fundamental forces drive markets, however many other investment firms are consider being active and basing their working on their experienced Judgment. It is also believed that Judgmental overrides value and fundamental forces of markets can be lethal as well as a cause of financial disappointment. Historically it has been found that people override at wrong times and in most cases would be better off sticking to their investment disciplines and the reason to this behavior is the cognitive bias. According to Crowell (1994) and many other researchers, stocks of small companies with low price/book ratios provide excess returns. Therefore, given a choice among small cheap stocks and large high priced stocks, prominent investors (financial analysts, senior company executives and company directors) will certainly prefer small cheap ones. But the fact is opposite to this situation where these prominent investors would opt for large high priced ones and so suffer from cognitive bias and further regret. The assumptions made by Crowell (1994, pp.2) were that Long term investment value should be negatively correlated with size since small stocks provide superior returns. Long term Investment value should have a negative correlation with Price/book since low Price/Book stocks provide superior returns. Whereas the results Crowell`s survey were contrary stating that Long Term Investment had a positive correlation with size and with Price/Book stocks. Crowell further stated that according to Shefrin and Statman, prominent investors overestimate the probability that a good company is a good stock, relying on the representative heuristics, concluding that superior companies make superior stocks. Discussing the concept of regrets, aversion to regret is different from aversion to risk; Regret is acute when an individual must take responsibility for the final outcome. Aversion to regret leads to a preference for stocks of good companies. The choice of the stocks of bad companies involves more personal responsibility and higher probability of regret. Therefore, two major Cognitive errors appear: We have a double cognitive error: good company always makes good stock (representativeness), and involves less responsibility(Less aversion to regret). (Crowell, 1994,pp.3) The Anti Cognitive bias actions would be admitting to your owned stocks, admitting earlier investment mistakes. Further, taking the responsibility for actions to improve their performance in future. The reasons for all the available discip Application to Modern Investment Theory to EMH Application to Modern Investment Theory to EMH The modern investment theory and its application on the efficient markets hypothesis 1. Introduction The Modern investment theory and its application is predicated on the Efficient Markets Hypothesis (EMH), assumption that markets fully and instantaneously integrate all available information into market prices. Underlying this comprehensive idea is the assumption that market participants are perfectly rational, and always act in self-interest, making optimal decisions. These assumptions have been challenged. It is difficult to tip over the neo classical convention that has yielded such insights as portfolio optimization, Capital Asset Pricing Model, Arbitrage Pricing Theory and Cox Ingersoll-Ross theory of the term structure of interest rates, all of which are predicated on the EMH[2] rather than downside risks[3]. The theory of behavioral finance is opposite to the traditional theory of Finance and deals with human emotions, sentiments, conditions, biases on collective as well as individual basis. Behavior finance theory is helpful in explaining past practices of investors and dete rmining the false performance of the investors. Behavioral finance is a concept of finance which deals with finances incorporating findings from psychology and sociology. It is reviewed that behavioral finance is generally based on individual behavior and financial market outcomes. There are many models explaining behavioral finance that explains investors behavior or market irregularities where rational models fail to provide adequate information. Investors do not expect such research to provide a method to make lots of money from inefficient financial markets quickly. According to Shiller (2001) Behavioral finance has basically emerged from the theories of psychology, sociology and anthropology where implications of these theories appear to be significant for efficient market hypothesis, that is based on the positive notion that people behave rationally, maximize their utility. It is found that in efficient market the principle of rational behavior is not always correct. Thus, the idea of analyzing other model of human behavior has come up. Gervais (2001) further explains the concept where he says that people like to relate to the stock market as a person having different moods, this person can be bad-tempered or high-spirited and can overreact one day or make amends the next. This person indicates human behavior which is unpredictable and behaves differently in different situations. Lately many researchers have suggested the idea that psychological analysis of investors may be very helpful in understanding financial markets better. To do so it is important to understand behavioral finance presenting the concept of traditional theory overestimating rationality of investors, their biases in decisions casting a cumulative impact on asset prices. To many researchers the study of behavior in finance appeared to be a revolution. As it transforms peoples mentality and perception about markets and factors that influence the markets. The paradigm is shifting. People are continuing to walk across the border from the traditional to the behavioral camp. Gervais (2001, pp.2). On the contrary some people believe that may be its too early to call it a revolution. Gervais (2001) states that Fama in (1970) argued that behavioral finance has not really shown an impact on world prices, and that model contradict each other on different point of times. Giving very less account to behaviorist explanations of trends and the irregularities anomaly ( is any occurrence or object that is strange, unusual, or unique) also argued that in order to locate patterns the data mining techniques are much helpful. Other researchers have also criticized the idea that behavioral finance models tend to replace the traditional models of market functions. Some weaknesses in this area, explained by Gervais (2001)are that generally overreaction and under reaction are major causes of market behavior. In these cases People take the behavior that seems to be easy for a particular study regardless of the fact that whether these biases are either primary factor of economic forces or not. Secondly, lack of trained and expert people. The field does not have enough trained professionals both in psychology or finance fields and therefore as a result the models presented by researchers are improvised. Gervais (2001) also focused on individual behavior impacting asset prices and explained that this field of behavioral finance is currently in its developmental stage, in its way of development it is facing a lot of disagreement which itself is a productive one. He points out that if we apply the conceptual models of behavioral finance to the corporate finance, it can majorly pay off. If money managers are incorrectly rational, means they are probably not evaluating their investment strategies correctly. They might take wrong decisions in their capital structure decisions. It has been found that quite a few people foresee behavioral finance displacing the age old Efficient Markets theory. On the contrary underlying assumption that investors and managers are completely rational makes insightful sense to many people. 2. Traditional Finance and Empirical Evidence Fung, (2006) claimed that Post Keynesian theory has criticized mainstream economic theory for using statistical methods to model the world in which histori ­cal market data cannot provide, In recent years, two different lines of research experimental economics and behavioral finance have pro ­duced results that are at odds with the predictions of mainstream finan ­cial theory. This paper argues that it is beneficial to the development of good financial theory for Post Keynesian economists to engage in an exchange of ideas with the practitioners of these two lines of research. The difference of opinion originated when experimental economics and behavioral finance understood the difference between agents rationality in theory and in real world. Both had a same point of view regarding Post Keynesian economists where both of them refused to assume Post Keynesian economists assumption of economic actors being always rational by maximizing expected utility. Instead of assuming ration al economic ac ­tors who always act consistently, they often tap into insights provided by psychology to try to explain economic behavior. The use of psychol ­ogy can be traced back to Keynes, and, in fact, some of the papers in experimental economics and behavioral finance take a remark of Keynes on the psychology of economic actors as an inspiration for designing empirical tests of economic behavior. Indeed, some of these papers rec ­ognize that we live in an uncertain world, and they examine the heuris ­tics, or rules of thumb, that economic actors develop to guide their behavior in face of uncertainty. When Keynes made his remark in 1936 (the original publication date of the General Theory), there was not yet an efficient market hypothesis. But in 1970 Fama published his pioneering paper on efficient markets. In it, he defined an efficient market as a market in which prices always fully reflect available information. Traditional theory assumes that agents are rational an d the law of one price holds that is a perfect scenario. Where the law of One price[5]. And agents rationality explains the behavior of investor Professional and Individual which is generally inconsistent with rationality or future predictions. If a market achieves a perfect scenario where agents are rational and law of one price holds then the market is efficient. With the availability of large amount of information, form of market changes. It is unlikely that market prices contain all private information. The presence of noise traders (traders, trading randomly and not based on information). Researches show that stock returns are typically unpredictable based on past returns where as future returns are predictable to some extent. According to Glaser et al. (2003) Few examples from the past literature explains the problem of irrationality which occurs because of naive diversification, behavior influenced by framing, the tendency of investors of committing systematic errors while ev aluating public information. Lately it has been found that investors` attitude towards the riskiness of a stock in future and the individual interpretation may explain the higher level trading volume, which itself is a vast topic for insight. A problem of perception exist in the investors actions that stocks have a higher risk adjusted returns than bonds. Another issue with the investors is that these investors either care about a stock portfolio or just about the value of each single security in their portfolio and thus ignore correlations. The concept of ownership society[6] has been promoted in the recent years where people can take better care of their own lives and be better citizen too if they are both owner of financial assets and homeowners. As Shiller (2006) suggested that in order to improve lives of less advantaged people in our society is to teach them how to be capitalist, In order to put ownership society in its right perspective, behavioral finance is needed to be und erstood. The concept of ownership society seems very attractive when people appear to make profits from their investments. Behavioral finance is also very helpful in understanding and justifying government involvement in investing decisions of individuals. The failure of millions of people to save properly for their future is also a core focus of behavioral finance. According to Glaser et al. (2003) there are two approaches towards behavioral finance, where both tend to have same goals. The goals tend to explain observed prices, market trading volume and Last but not the least is the individual behavior better than traditional finance models. Belief Based Model: Psychology (Individual Behavior) Incorporates into Model Market prices and Transaction Volume. It includes findings such as Overconfidence, Biased Self- Attrition, and Conservatism and Representativeness. Preference Based Model: Rational Friction or from psychology Find explanations, Market detects irregularities and individual behavior. It incorporates Prospect Theory[7], House money effect and other forms of mental accounting. Behavioral Finance and Rational debate: the article by Heaton and Rosenberg (2004) highlights the debate between the rational and behavioral model over testability and predictive success. And it was found that neither of them actually offers either of these measures of success. The rational approach uses a particular type of rationalization methodology; which goes on to form the basis of behavior finance predictions. A closer look into the rational finance model goes on to show that it employs ex post rationalizations of observed price behaviors. This allows them greater flexibility when offering explanations for economic anomalies. On the other hand the behavior paradigm criticizes rationalizations as having no concrete role in predicting prices accurately, t hat utility functions, information sets and transaction costs cannot be `rationalized. Ironically they also reject the rational finances explanatory power which plays an essential role in the limits of arbitrage, which actually makes behavioral finance possible. Heaton Rosenberg (2004) presented Milton Friedmans theory that laid the basis of positive economics. His methodology focused on how to make a particular prediction; it is irrelevant whether a particular assumption is rational or irrational. According to this methodology, the rational finance model relies on a limited assumption space since all assumptions that are supposedly not rational have been eliminated. This is one of the major reasons behind the little success in rational finance predictions. Despite the minimal results, adherents of this model have criticized the behavioral model as lacking quantifiable predictions that are based on mathematical models. Rational finance has targeted a more important aspect in the structure of economy, i.e. Investor uncertainty, which further cause financial anomalies. In explaining these assertions, the behavioral approach emphasizes importance of taking limits in arbitrage. Further his methodological approach falls into the category `instru mentalism[8], which basically states that theories are tools for predictions and used to draw inferences. Whether an assumption is realistic or rational is of no value to an instrumentalist. By narrowing what may or may not be possible, one will inevitably eliminate certain strategies or behaviors which might in fact go on to maximize utility or profits based on their uniqueness. An assumption could be irrational even in the long run, but it is continuously revised and refined to make it into something useful. In opposition to this, many individuals have said that behaviouralists are not bound by any constraints thus making their explanations systematically irrational. Heaton Rosenberg (2004) further explains the concept of Rubinstein that how when everyone fails to explain a particular anomaly, suddenly a behavioral aspect to it will come up, because that can be based on completely abstract irrational assumptions. To support rationality, he came up with two arguments. Firstly he w ent on to say that an irrational strategy that is profitable, will only attract copy cat firms or traders into the market. This is supported when a closer look is given towards limits to arbitrage. Secondly through the process of evolution, irrational decisions will eventually be eliminated in the long run. The major achievements characterized of the rational finance paradigm consist of the following: the principle of no arbitrage; market efficiency, the net present value decision rule, and derivatives valuation techniques; Markowitzs (1952) mean-variance framework; event studies; multifactor models such as the APT, ICAPM, and the Consumption CAPM. Despite the number of top achievements that supporters of the rational model claim, the paradigm fails to answer some of the most basic financial economic questions such as `What is the cost of capital for this firm? or `What is its optimal capital structure?; simply because of their self imposed constraints. So far this makes it seem lik e rational finance and behavioral finance are mutually exclusive. Contrary to this, they are actually interdependent, and overlap in several areas. Take for instance the concept of mispricing when there is no arbitrage. Behavior finance on the other hand suggests that this may not be the case; irrational assumptions in the market will still lead to mispricing. Further even though certain arbitrageurs may be able to identify irrationality induced mispricing, because of the imperfect market information, they are unable to convince investors of its existence. Over here, the rational model is accepting the existence of anomalies which are affected both through the factors of risk and chance; therefore coinciding with the perspective of behavioral finance. Two instances are clear examples of how rationalization is an important limit of arbitrage: i) the build-up and blow-up of the internet bubble; and ii) the superiority of value equity strategies. If we focus on the latter, we are able to see behavioral finance literature that highlights the superiority of such strategies in the ability of analysts to extrapolate results for investors. This is possible when rationalization is taken as a limit to arbitrage. Similarly these strategies may also limit arbitrage against mispricing, through the great risk associated with stocks. In explaining most anomalies it is essential that analysts first conclude whether pricing is rational or not. To prove their hypothesis that irrationality induced mispricing exists; behaviouralists may find it easier if they accepted the role of rationalization in limits of arbitrage. Slow information diffusion and short-sales constraints are other factors which explain mispricing. However these factors alone cannot form the basis of a strong and concrete explanation that will clarify pricing across firms and also across time. Those supporting the rational paradigm attack behavioral finance adherents in that their predictions for the financial markets have been made on irrational assumptions; that are not supported by concrete mathematical or scientific models. In their view the lack of concrete discipline in the methodology adopted in behavior finance leads to the lack of testing in their forecasts. On the other hand the rational model is criticized for its lack of success in financial predictions. The behaviouralists claim that this limitation exists because the supporters of rational finance dismiss aspects of the economic market simply because it may not fall into explainable rational behavior. Both perspectives claim to align themselves with respect to the goals of `testability and `predictions, while at the same time continue to offer evidence against the other model. In reality however, rather than being exclusively mutual both paradigms assist one another in making their predictions. Ray (2006) examines a new genre of behavioral markets prediction markets and their remarkable a bility to aggregate inside and expert information from around the world in order to accurately predict all types of economic and financial variables. To date it is said that the prediction markets are the most accurately efficient markets as they prove to show all three forms of market efficiency (weak, semi-strong, and strong), in contrast to regulated markets. Prediction markets are also said to be decision markets. It initially evolved in 1988 with the first online betting market the Iowa Electronic Market. These online markets have proven their predictions accurately since the time they came into being. To be precise these prediction markets are behavioral markets with powerful statistical components that are able to predict the most likely values of future financial variables, variances around such values, and their correlations with other future financial variables. Ray (2006) says that being unregulated, prediction markets are highly effective at flushing out and thereafter a ggregating relevant information including inside and expert information regarding a particular event, globally extracting such information from savvy bettors who are eager to profit from their inside and expert information. These sorts of prediction markets have become so popular that now a days major companies use such behavioral markets to accurately forecast sales, earnings, product success, and many other financial and economic variables. The foremost tool for these markets is the wisdom of crowd. In order to accurately predict financial and economical variables he presented few conditions as a prerequisite, which included mainly having a variety of opinions, with no herd behavior, should be able to use their knowledge according to the information available with them and last but not the least is the fact that prediction markets expectations are not self fulfilling prophecies. Prediction markets are a new genre of behavioral markets that continually reveal the thinking of confid ent insiders by suggesting them to profit from their inside and expert information. The subjective evidence with a few statistical evidences corroborates the impressive ability of these markets to predict financial events of all types. The phenomenon exists from ages and effectively proves its performance especially in worlds financial markets. The demonstrated accuracy of predictions in these markets can be of significant utility to traders, financial analysts, behavioral analysts, and many others intending to forecast and analyze financial data. A persons tendency to make errors is known as cognitive bias. These errors are based on the cognitive factors that include statistical judgments, social attribution and memory being common to all the humans in the world. Cognitive bias is the tendency of intelligent, well-informed people to consistently do the wrong thing. Crowell (1994, pp. 1). The reason behind this cognitive bias is that the Human brain is made for interpersonal relationships and not for processing statistics. He discussed the frailty of forecasts. Generally it is said that the world is divided into two groups: People forecasting positively and people forecasting negatively. These forecasts exaggerate the reliability of their forecasts and trace it to the illusion of validity which exists even when the illusionary character is recognized. Fisher and Statman, (2000) discussed five cognitive bias, underlying the illusion of validity that are Overconfidence, Confirmation, Representativeness, Anchoring, and Hindsight. Shiller (2002) discusses, that irrational behavior may disappear with more learning and a much more structured situation. History proves it that many of cognitive biases in human judgment value uncertainly will change; they may be convinced if given proper instructions, on the part-experience of irrational behavior. The three most common themes of behavioral finance are as follows: Heuristics, Framing and Market Inefficiencies. People when decide on the basis of the rules of thumb regardless of rationalizing suffer from Heuristics. Some forms of Heuristics are: Prospect theory, Loss Aversion, Status quo Bias, Gamblers Fallacy[9], Self-serving bias and lastly Money illusion. Framing is basically a problem of decision making where the decision is based on the point where there is difference in how the case is presented to the decision maker. Cognitive framing, Mental accounting and Anchoring are the common forms of Framing 3. Market Inefficiencies As observed, that market outcomes are totally opposite to rational expectations and efficient market hypothesis where mispricing, irrational decision making and return anomalies are examples of it. Fung (2006) introduced three forms of market efficiency earlier presented by Fama in 1970. In the weak form, the information set con ­tains only historical prices. In the semi strong form, information set contains all publicly available information. In the strong form, the infor ­mation contains not only all publicly available information but also insider information not available to the public. This definition of efficient mar ­kets is too general to be testable empirically. To make the model testable, he proposed a process of price formation known as the expected re ­turn or fair game efficient markets model. In this model, when investors form expectations of security prices, they fully utilize all the information that is fully reflected in those prices. It is called a fair game model, because using only the information that is fully reflected in security prices, no trading system can have expected profits or returns in excess of equi ­librium expected profits or returns. These terms have been described as specific market anomaly from a behavioral point of view. Anomaly (economic behavior) Disposition effect Endowment effect Inequity aversion Intertemporal consumption Present-biased preferences Momentum investing Greed and fear Herd behavior Anomalies (market prices and returns) Efficiency wage hypothesis Limits to arbitrage Dividend puzzle Equity premium puzzle Behavioral Economic Models are restricted to a certain observed market anomaly and it adjusts the neo classical models by explaining the phenomenon of Heuristics and framing to the decision makers. It is usually said that economics get along with in the neo classical framework, with just one restriction of the assumption of rationality. Loix et. Al (2005) in their paper Orientation towards Finances explains the individual financial management behavior, people dealing with their financial means. They have analyzed the Non-specific financial behavior as already we see extensive research on the specific finance behavior such as saving, taxation, gambling and amassing debt, and gave a lot of importance to stock market, investors and households. The analysis of general public`s behavior was done, where an ordinary man is not sure and simply act according to the guesses over their money related issues. It was also found that people interested in economic and financial matters are much more active in collecting specific information than general public, stating that financial behavior of household is an important relevant topic that needs to be discussed in much more details. Household financial management is similar to the financial management. The construct of orientation towards finances was developed where the individual ORTO FIN focuses on competencies (interest and skills). Having stronger money attitude is an indication of stronger orientation towards finances and much more effective competencies. Therefore we expect some relevance and similarity between corporate and household management behavior as both require organizing, forecasting, planning and control. Loix et. al (2005) analyzed general publics behavior in basically dividing them into two groups, Financial Information and Personal financial planning. Also explaining some practical and theoretical gaps in the area of psychology of money usage, they concluded that ORTOFIN (Orientation towards finance) indicates the involvement of individuals in managing their finances. Proving out the point that active interest in financial information and an urge to plan expenses are two main factors. A stronger ORTFIN indicates: greater use of debit accounts, higher savings account, wide variety of investments, greater awareness of ones financial Intimate knowledge of the details of ones savings/deposit accounts obsessed by money, higher achievement and power in monetary terms, Further age is also inversely proportional. Shiller, (2006) in his article talked about the co-evolution of neo-classical and behavior finance that in 1937 when A. Samuelsson one of the great economists wrote about people m aximizing the present value of utility subject to a present value. Another judgment he realized was time being consistent human behavior where if at any time t, 0 4. Investing and Cognitive Bias Money Managers and Money management is a very popular phenomenon. The performance in a stock market is measured at daily basis and waiting for a highly subjective annual review of ones performance by ones superior. Market grades you on a daily basis. The smarter one is, more confident one becomes of ones ability to succeed; clients support them by trusting them that eventually helps their careers. But the truth is that few money managers put in sufficient amount of time and effort to figure out what works and develop a set of investment principles to guide their investment decisions Browne (2000). Further he discussed the importance of asset allocation and risk aversion, in order to understand why we do what we do regardless of whether it is rational or not. General public opts for money Managers to deal with their finances and these managers are categorized in three ways: Value Managers, Growth Managers and Market Neutral Managers. The vast majority of money managers are categorized as either value managers or growth managers although a third category, market neutral managers, is gaining popularity these days and may soon rival the so-called strategies of value and growth. Some investment management firms even are being cautious by offering all styles of investments. What too few money managers do is analyze the fundamental financial characteristics of portfolios that produce long-term market beating results, and develop a set of investment principles that are based on those findings. Difference of opinion on the definition of value is the problem. The reasons for this are two-fold, one being the practical reality of managing large sums of money, and other related to behavior. As the assets under management of an advisor grow, universe of potential stocks shrinks. Analyzing why individual and professional investors do not change their behavior even when they face empirical evidence, suggests that their decisions are less than optimal. An answer to this questio n is said to be that being a contrarian may simply be too risky for the average individual or professional. If a person is wrong on collective basis, where everyone else also had made a mistake, the consequences professionally and for ones own self-esteem are far less damaging than if a person is wrong alone. The herd instinct allows for comfort of safety in numbers. The other reason is that individuals try to behave same way and do not tend to change courses of action if they are happy. If the results are not too painful individuals can be happy with sub-optimal results. Moreover, individuals who tend to be unhappy make changes often and eventually end up being just as unhappy in their new circumstances. According to traditional view of investment management, fundamental forces drive markets, however many other investment firms are consider being active and basing their working on their experienced Judgment. It is also believed that Judgmental overrides value and fundamental forces of markets can be lethal as well as a cause of financial disappointment. Historically it has been found that people override at wrong times and in most cases would be better off sticking to their investment disciplines and the reason to this behavior is the cognitive bias. According to Crowell (1994) and many other researchers, stocks of small companies with low price/book ratios provide excess returns. Therefore, given a choice among small cheap stocks and large high priced stocks, prominent investors (financial analysts, senior company executives and company directors) will certainly prefer small cheap ones. But the fact is opposite to this situation where these prominent investors would opt for large high priced ones and so suffer from cognitive bias and further regret. The assumptions made by Crowell (1994, pp.2) were that Long term investment value should be negatively correlated with size since small stocks provide superior returns. Long term Investment value should have a negative correlation with Price/book since low Price/Book stocks provide superior returns. Whereas the results Crowell`s survey were contrary stating that Long Term Investment had a positive correlation with size and with Price/Book stocks. Crowell further stated that according to Shefrin and Statman, prominent investors overestimate the probability that a good company is a good stock, relying on the representative heuristics, concluding that superior companies make superior stocks. Discussing the concept of regrets, aversion to regret is different from aversion to risk; Regret is acute when an individual must take responsibility for the final outcome. Aversion to regret leads to a preference for stocks of good companies. The choice of the stocks of bad companies involves more personal responsibility and higher probability of regret. Therefore, two major Cognitive errors appear: We have a double cognitive error: good company always makes good stock (representativeness), and involves less responsibility(Less aversion to regret). (Crowell, 1994,pp.3) The Anti Cognitive bias actions would be admitting to your owned stocks, admitting earlier investment mistakes. Further, taking the responsibility for actions to improve their performance in future. The reasons for all the available discip

The novel, Silas Marner by George Eliot :: English Literature

The novel, Silas Marner by George Eliot Silas Marner The novel, Silas Marner by George Eliot is a prime example of a tale which enlists the use of the literary archetype of the quest. Silas Marner is a lonely man who lives in the town of Raveloe with nothing but his hard-earned gold to console him. His call comes unexpectedly when a man by the name of Dunstan Cass steals the money. This marks the point where Marner sets out on his quest to find the gold. The protagonist’s other in the novel is in the form of Dunstan’s older brother, Godfrey Cass. While Silas and Godfrey are complete opposites on many levels, they are ultimately the same person. Godfrey is a man still in his youth, who has been blessed with a luxurious lifestyle, whereas Silas is portrayed as a miserly old man. Differences in social class aside, both Silas and Godfrey are lonely; a product of their own actions. Godfrey is lonely because he chooses not to tell Nancy of his secret marriage, and Silas is alone because he chooses not to associate with the townsfolk. That is, until he is called upon to do so with the theft of his gold. Silas is aided by his adopted daughter Eppie, who acts as the helper, or guide. Silas’s journey is both physical and psychological. At first, Silas sets out to discover who it is that has stolen his money, and means to get it back, and has no intention of punishing the thief. It is evident that this is not the quest the author has in mind for him. Through the journey of raising Eppie, George Eliot has Marner discover true happiness, even though it is not what he set out for in the first place. Even though, through the events that transpire, Marner is able to get back his stolen money, in the end, he is able to obtain a treasure far greater than the gold he anticipated, that is, happiness with another person. At the conclusion of the novel, Silas Marner is a man who has transformed from a cold-hearted and lonely person, to one who has found love and acceptance in another. One of the major themes George Eliot employs is that of the individual versus society. Throughout the novel, Silas is contrasted to the community in which he is situated. In Lantern Yard, Silas is excommunicated because the rest of his church does not believe in his innocence, and in Raveloe, Silas is seen as a crazy witch doctor of sorts. Most people feel it is safe to stay away from him, and Silas

Culture and Prime Time Television Essay

â€Å"Cultural studies is a critical approach that focuses attention on the role of the media as a principal means by which ideology is introduced and reinforced within contemporary culture. One of the central tenets of cultural studies is that the media promote the dominant ideology of a culture† (Silverblatt, 98). Primetime television, programming on television that airs between the hours of 7-10 p. m. central standard time, is one of the outlets that culture uses to deliver values; therefore, some of the shows that air on primetime television are a true reflection of dominant ideology/culture. Cultural studies and media literacy theories help to explain how this is evident in the messages delivered through many of the shows that air on primetime television. A few reality shows that reflect the dominant American culture/ideology are Keeping up with the Kardashians, America’s Next Top Model, and Run’s House. Keeping up with the Kardashians is an American reality television show that airs on primetime television. It documents the lives of the Kardashians and the Jenners. The Kardashians include Kim, Kourtney, Khloe, and Robert. They are the children of the late Robert Kardashian. The Jenners include Bruce, Kylie, Kendall, and Kris. Bruce and Kris Jenner are the parents of this blended family. Keeping up with the Kardashians became a major hit from inception. The show offers its audience the opportunity to learn more about the Kardashians. The show reveals secrets about the family that the audience wouldn’t otherwise know. For instance, it allowed the audience to learn details about scandals that took place in some of the Kardashians’ lives before they became famous. In addition, the show offers its audience the opportunity to share the family’s rise to fame. While Kim Kardashian is the most popular person on the show, many of her siblings are beginning to share the spotlight as a result of being on the show. â€Å"The imposition of an ideology within a culture is referred to as hegemony. Critical theorists like Stuart Hall argue that the worldviews presented through the media do not merely reflect or reinforce culture but in fact shape thinking by promoting the dominant ideology of a culture†(Silverblatt, 99). While keeping up with the Kardashians was more than likely created as a means of making money for both the producers and the family, the show probably has more of an effect on society than it believes that is does. On the current season of the show, Kourtney Kardashian is trying to get pregnant with her second child by Scott Disick, her first son’s father. Because Kourtney is famous and she and Scott are not married, the audience may begin to think that it is okay to have kids out of wedlock. This type of behavior seems to be becoming a dominant ideology. While this type of behavior occurs in our society, it was never accepted as freely as it is now. On another note, the shows does offer the conquer worldview where â€Å"striving for success is often portrayed as a test of personal resolve, requiring discipline, sacrifice, and commitment† (Silverblatt, 111). On Keeping up with the Kardashians, Kris, Kim, Kourtney, and Khloe work very hard to be successful. They are very disciplined, committed, and driven for success. They sacrifice having relationships and time with family to pursue their dreams. This is not a dominant ideology in our culture. While hard work, commitment, and discipline equal success in American culture, not too many people will sacrifice being away from their families, especially their husbands for success. Keeping up with the Kardashians can also be viewed as a contest worldview. This means that the show suggests through the characters’ actions that â€Å"success is a sport, in which people compete against one another† (Silverblatt, 111). On the most recent episode of Keeping up with the Kardashians, Kim becomes very competitive to a point where she bets Kourtney $10,000 to play her in a game of chess. This bet was raised after Kim had already lost the first game of chess and had to become Kourtney’s maid for a day. As stated on the show, Kim’s drive to be the best, even in here career, makes her a very competitive person. On top of being very competitive, she is also a soar loser. She uses her gains as a way to measure her success against her sisters’ success. The contest worldview reminds me of the American phrase, â€Å"keeping up with the Jones. † Some people live to be like someone else and to have just as much or more than the next person. Keeping up with the Kardashians, as the name implies seems to think that society wants to be on their level in terms of success and fame. In a society and culture were possessions and wealth tend to define you, there is no wonder why the show is a huge hit. Unfortunately this is a part of the American culture; however, it is not a dominant ideology. America’s Next Top Model is another popular reality television show that airs on primetime television. The show was the first show of its kind that offered teenagers and young women the opportunity to compete on national television to become America’s Next Top Model. The show was a huge success from inception and quickly became one of the highest rated shows on network television that appealed to a wide audience of females ranging from age 18-34. By inviting America into the lives of beautiful models, the modeling industry, and beauty and fashion, America’s Next Top Model entered the market as a force to be reckoned with. While America’s Next Top Model emerged as a reflection of American culture, in many ways it also began to shape American culture. It became America’s new trendsetter, beauty expert, modeling mentor, and entertainment. Each season of America’s Next Top Model offers its audience 9-13 episodes with 10-14 contestants competing for the title of America’s Next Top Model. A contestant is eliminated on each episode of the show, which steepens the competition as the season progresses. To provide the audience with a more realistic feel for the industry, America’s Next Top Model offers drastic makeovers, personal life experiences of the contestants, gruesome challenges, traveling ventures, and extravagant living arrangements. Beauty is a huge part of the show as implied by the title of the show, but talent along with ambition plays a major role as well. According to Silverblatt, â€Å"the personal values of the media communicator are interwoven with membership in a number of subcultures based upon gender, ethical/racial identity, stage of life, and class which operate according to separate value systems. In order to identify a value system operating in a media production, it is of paramount importance to define its culture† (Silverblatt, 109). It is evident that America’s Next Top Model shares an American culture. Not only does the producer, Tyra Banks, share this same American culture, but she also shares other subcultures with her audience, which includes gender, stages of life, and race. Analyzing characters is a strategy that Silverblatt addresses as a way to identify the value system operating within media presentations. â€Å"Heroes and Heroines embody those qualities that society considers admirable. Heroes generally prevail in media entertainment programming because they embody the values that are esteemed within the culture† (Silverblatt, 109). Both Tyra Banks and the contestants of America’s Next Top Model signify beauty and talent, which are qualities that most women would love to have. These girls signify what our culture defines as model material and thus a reflection of a dominant ideology. They are tall, slim, have flawless skin, and are beautiful. These are qualities that some of the audience may either possess or admire in the contestants. â€Å"Successful media figures are in control, free to determine their own fates† (Silverblatt, 111). The contestants on the show are determined to be unique, to stand out from the crowd, and to win the title. They know that their fate on the show and for their life thereafter depends on their determination to win. These are roles that are shared by most Americans. American culture suggests that fate is in the hands of the beholder; therefore, this aspect of the show is a reflection of a dominant ideology. This implies that whatever happens in life is the sole responsibility of the individual and that success comes with being confident and in control. Run’s House is yet another American reality television show that airs on primetime television. The show introduces America to Reverend Run, also known as Run DMC, as a minister, his family, and his family life. Run’s House focuses on Reverend Run as provides parenting to his family of five children which range in age from age 8 to 21 with his loving wife, Justine. Viewers get a see Reverend Run in action as this hands-on, very involved, hip-hop gone minister dad negotiates everyday parenting challenges from the birds and the bees to helping with homework. Run’s House is a perfect example of American culture as we know it. This family of seven that consists of five children and a mother and father in the home prays together, eats together, and participate in family activities and trips together. While the children of the show still get in trouble for misbehaving or getting bad grades, they respect their parents. They seem to honor the values that they are taught and work hard to keep their parents proud. On one particular episode of the show, the audience learned that Vanessa and Angela were still virgins at age 18 and 21. In this same episode, the girls mention that they are going to wait until they are married before they engage in sexual activities. This is a lesson that is taught to many, but carried out by fewer. While this seems to be far from the norm in current day society, his aspect of the show could shape culture and have a huge impact on the younger audience who admire Angela and Vanessa. Run’s House seems to fit the Physical Ideal worldview which means that the family is admired because of the role that they play in this society. Reverend Run and his family seem to still be grounded with â€Å"old fashion† values in a society and culture where that seems to be fading, temptations are ever increasing, and infidelity is accepted. Some families no longer eat at the table together; nevertheless, pray together. In addition, some children are being raised in single family homes where the mother works most of the time. Living in a home where there are two parents that have vested interest in their children’s lives and that seem to be happy makes this family a physical ideal that most people would admire and would love to have. â€Å"Cultural studies and media literacy theories help to identify dominant ideology in media which includes primetime television† (Silverblatt, 98). The three reality television shows listed above are either deeply embedded in American culture or either shape it. For the most part, Keeping up with the Kardashians and America’s Next Top Model for the most part are both a true reflection of the contemporary dominant ideology. Run’s House on the other hand is s reflection of the modern ideology. The role that Reverend Run’s family plays in this society is more similar to Leave it to Beaver which aired in the 70’s and was very appropriate for that time. While the show had high ratings, it is not the norm compared to other reality television shows that air on primetime television.

Adrenaline Air Sports

The greatest percentage of first time customers Is college students, Just Like he town of Blackburn, with a population of 40,000 people plus about 25,000 enrolled college students. Greensboro, North Carolina Is about 80 miles South of Janesville and most of the students don't return for a second dive because of the cost. Only 3 percent of the skydivers return to stay In the sport. Since first time divers have the highest margin, ;RSI important to get these divers to stay In the sport.There are two main competitors for AS in the same area about 120 miles Northeast of Janesville that must compete for the population in Ranked. These two companies are more advantaged because they offer more availability, larger and aster planes, and charger more in fees. They are both open year round on the weekends and are open at least 4 days during the high season. AS only has two competitors to beat, which is a plus, considering their strengths. But the scenery that AS has to offer is more beautiful than the scenery of the other two companies.Internal factors that affect AS is employee schedules. Most of the employees for AS are part-time workers, including the owner, Bill Cockerel. Bill and is employees are only available to work the weekends they are scheduled to work during the open season. Bill works another Job and the earliest he can be at AS is at pm on Fridays. There is only one cameraman, which means only one person, per film, per flight. Videos are given only on Sundays, and with new student reservations on Mondays, those videos arena received until the following Sunday.There are currently two Cessna 182 planes, which take longer to reach higher altitudes. The maximum height for AS is 10,000 feet. The Cessna planes hold up to four parachutists at one time. During the high season, this becomes a problem because AS only has four parachutes in its possession; two tandems and two accelerate free-fall parachutes. By analyzing this case, I found It necessary for AS to do tw o things. First they can keep the Cessna planes they already have and extend their work days to Fridays and Mondays to make more available times to customers.Since this Is a second Job for most of the employees, Including the owner, more employees will be needed or longer shift hours for the employees that are already there. A new, larger plane wouldn't be necessary In this action because there will be more time available to work the flights. The second option for AS would be to purchase a larger plan that revives a faster turnaround time, reach higher altitudes, and hold more passengers. In doing this, AS will need to be a full-time company, with extended weekends In the high season.The profit margin and hourly rates will increase if this is implemented. IT one AT ten Cessna are solo , ten money can De uses to lighten ten cost AT ten new plane. AS will need to raise their prices and do heavy advertisement to fill passenger slots on the planes. Although the first option allows the c ompany to grow at a slower pace, I think the second option is sounder for the company. AS should become full-time and add mom of the serious skydivers as employees.With more employees and an extended weekend, an increase for fees is necessary. The demand for skydiving with the company is at good standing. AS needs to make it available to accommodate those potential customers. Adding at least one more camera would be a great step because the video helps with advertising the company's services. Finding more first time jumpers and creating a program which allows them to return is the key to generating the income that is needed. Once they've Jumped two or three times, the chances of them returning are high.