The VIX has become a popular volatility index that is based on a weighted average of Samp;amp;P 500 options that straddle a 30-day maturity. This manner of calculating the VIX emerged in September of 2003 and is documented with an example by the CBOE. In this paper, the calculation of the VIX is...

Headlines from featured stories in Business Week, Fortune, and Forbes were collected for a 20-year period to determine whether positive stories are associated with superior future performance and negative stories are associated with inferior future performance for the featured company....

Pro forma analysis is often performed with the idea that a firm's cash flows are cyclic. Yet, after forecasting cash flows following a cyclic pattern, the remaining cash flows are calculated using a constant growth perpetuity calculation as a quot;terminal valuequot;. Such a calculation for the...

Altman's Z-score is introduced in an Excel framework to produce a quick calculation of the Z-score with actual financial data available through the Internet. The lesson plan developed is easily introduced with topics concerning ratio analysis, financial risk, bond rating changes, and bankruptcy....

Sensitivity analysis is a very common exercise performed with the forecasting of project cash flows. In this paper, a duration-type measure is generated that provides a single number for the assessment of the project cash flows relative to changes in the discount rate (or adjusted for changes in...