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Category Archives: Financial & Investment Services
Examining the Growth Potential of Coffee in India and China
By Mayank Tripathi, Strategic Services China and India, the two most populous countries in the world, have traditionally been tea drinkers. In 2011, their per capita annual coffee consumption was a mere 25 and 80 grams, compared to 12.3 kg … Read More…
Monetary Transmission: The Bank of Japan’s Weakest Link
By Ankit Mittal, Quantitative Research This is our second post on Japan’s new economic project. The newly appointed Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda shocked the market by announcing the “massive” monetary easing at his first policy meeting on … Read More…
Diverging Trends – Risk Appetite and Commodity Markets
This is the seventh installment of The Smart Cube’s monthly Risk Appetite Index (TSC RAI) blog series. A curious phenomenon is currently playing out in the global markets. Improving macroeconomic outlook and continuation of QE by the Fed ideally support … Read More…
Currency Wars – A New Paradigm in the Global Economy
Recent efforts by the Japanese government to weaken the Yen, in order to revive the domestic economy have led authorities in South Korea, Russia, Norway, China, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Sweden and some Eurozone countries to raise … Read More…
The Smart Cube Risk Appetite Index – Laggards Take a Leap
This is the fifth installment of The Smart Cube’s monthly Risk Appetite Index (TSC RAI) blog series. Something is stirring in the markets! There are steady though cautious movements taking place. People have now started talking about the … Read More…
The Smart Cube Risk Appetite Index – Preparing for the Equity Turnaround
This is the fourth installment of The Smart Cube’s monthly Risk Appetite Index (TSC RAI) blog series. 2012 was the year of fixed income. Global bond fund sales were close to the €200 billion mark and the European bond fund … Read More…
Betting on Abe-nomics?
The Liberal Democratic Party, led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has come to power with a bold economic agenda. They want the Bank of Japan (BOJ) to reverse the appreciation of the yen and bring the country out of the … Read More…
Crowdfunding: An Alternate Financing Model?
Crowdfunding (CF) can become an alternate medium of financing for those who have been refused financing from banks or venture capitalists. CF, also referred to as ‘peer-to-peer lending (P2P),’ is a method of raising funds from different people through the … Read More…
The Smart Cube Risk Appetite Index – The Tale of Two Asset Classes: Equity and Fixed Income
This is the third installment of The Smart Cube’s monthly Risk Appetite Index (TSC RAI) blog series. For the first time in more than 50 years, UK pension funds hold more bonds than equities. In fact, many fund managers are … Read More…
The Smart Cube Risk Appetite Index – Tactical Investing
This is the second installment of The Smart Cube’s monthly Risk Appetite Index (TSC RAI) blog series. The current macroeconomic environment—dominated by low yields and tail-risk concerns (US fiscal cliff, Euro crisis and China slowdown)—has challenged investors of all types. While … Read More…
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies: Key Parameters Investors Should Assess at Various Investment Phases
Hedge funds and institutional investors have been investing in numerous vehicles that are unavailable to retail investors, such as private equity investment options. Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) is an option that allows all secondary market investors to participate in … Read More…
Is the Manufacturing Sourcing Model Changing?
Emerging markets in Southeast Asia, South America, and Eastern Europe have become attractive manufacturing locations for many industries, primarily because of their cheap labor and FDI- friendly environment. Additionally, governments in these fast-growing markets have encouraged the emergence and growth … Read More…
The Outlook for the Brazilian Real
Recent oil discoveries, the hosting of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, as well as improved sovereign ratings from credit agencies, have firmly placed Brazil as a ‘must-have’ investment in every emerging market focused portfolio. However, investor interest … Read More…
Understanding the Recent Growth in Food Prices
The last year has seen an all too familiar pattern of food price hikes, not dissimilar to what we experienced back in 2007-2008. The 2008 food price hikes were driven by several factors, including high oil prices and the increasing … Read More…
Delinquency Modeling Using Survival Analysis
For financial services organizations in the business of lending, understanding which customers should be granted a particular loan, and, importantly, how much, has been a central question that not just drives their profitability, but, as we have seen in the … Read More…
Precious Metals – The Outlook for Silver and Gold
“The ultimate asset bubble.” This is how George Soros described gold last year, even as his fund took sizable long positions in the precious metal. Why not take advantage of rising values (so long as the bubble doesn’t burst), particularly … Read More…
The Cloud and Corporate Computing Capacity
A lot has been written about ‘cloud computing’ as the next megatrend that is set to change the IT landscape. Cloud computing is defined as a system where scalable and elastic IT capabilities (both hardware and software) are provided as … Read More…
Nuclear Energy in Germany
Nuclear energy has been heralded by many as one of the most important solutions to the growing energy demands of the world, particularly given concerns regarding increasing greenhouse gas emissions and the rising price of oil. The popularity of nuclear … Read More…
Understanding the Concept of Market Basket Analysis
Retailing today is nothing if not a hypercompetitive industry. A complex & rapidly changing landscape, stiff competition, and ever more demanding customers are pushing progressive retailers to rethink how they operate. Their responses have included strategies of scale (consolidation, growth, … Read More…