With players in the National Football League (NFL) making what seems to be the most money out of any entry-level position, it might come as a shock to many people to hear that so many players end up in financial distress afterwards. Sports Illustrated has put this number at 78% of players filing for bankruptcy or are in serious financial trouble within only two years of leaving the league (Torre). The problems that the players run into are their short careers, which average 3 ½ years, their poor financial decisions and their very optimistic approach to life. The 3 ½ years means that they should approach their employment as more of a lottery winning than a long term career. With so much income, the players might want to take out large mortgages and could be in trouble. They would believe that they would be the exception and not the rule for this because they are constantly succeeding as well. The players should set up a budget to fix this. They should defer the maximum amount of compensation possible and invest most of the rest. The athletes should have enough still to have a comfortable few years in the NFL. The football players should also be smart and get a college degree while they can for free.

This thesis uses synthetically created variance swaps on VIX futures to quantify the variance risk premium in VIX options. The results of this methodology suggest that the average premium is -3.26%, meaning that the realized variance on VIX futures is on average less than the variance implied by the swap rate. This premium does not vary with time or the level of the swap rate as much as premiums in other asset classes. A negative risk premium should mean that VIX option strategies that are net credit should be profitable. This thesis tests two simple net credit strategies with puts and calls, and finds that the call strategy is profitable while the put strategy is not.

Over the Past two and a half years banks have failed at the fastest pace since the Great Depression. These rapidly mounting bank failures have rekindled a debate surrounding the use of fair value accounting, with many arguing that fair value has exacerbated the severity of the recent financial crisis through asset devaluation and the forced sale of assets in an effort to meet capital requirements. This paper seeks to test if an entity’s exposure to fair value which includes assets available-for-sale, trading assets, and loans held-for-sale as a percent of total assets increases the probability of bank failure through testing different prediction models of bank failure that use ratios generated from publicly available Call Report data. Two models are generated from these ratios, one to determine the significance of an entity’s fair value exposure in predicting risk of failure, and the other to determine if a better model can be generated in the absence of the Fair Value Exposure/Total Assets ratio. The first model shows that Fair Value Exposure/Total Assets is a statistically significant ratio, and that the model employing Fair Value Exposure/Total Assets has greater bank failure predictive power than the second model that excludes this ratio. Contrary to expectations, the study determines that greater fair value exposure actually decreases a bank’s risk of failure, rather than increases it. A number of possibilities as to why this may be are presented in the conclusion of the paper.

The purpose of this study was to determine what the critical factors are to an airline’s financial turmoil, leading ultimately to a bankruptcy filing. Over the past decade, the airline industries’ performance has been dismal, leading to 20 bankruptcy filings. As competition increases, it is crucial for airlines to know which core business areas are essential to success. This paper identifies 8 specific industry metrics that are used to compare airlines, revealing where certain airlines falter and others shine. Some of these metrics are later applied to a case study examining Trans World Airlines (TWA) and American Airlines (AA), highlighting the factors leading to TWA’s bankruptcy filing during the same time period American Airlines remained profitable. The results show that the labor inefficiency, operating inefficiencies, unsuccessful fuel hedging programs, and high long-term debt are critical factors leading to an airlines bankruptcy. Four recommendations for airlines are provided, namely: 1.) The cross-utilization of employees, 2.) Maintain Cost Discipline, 3.) Focus on Breakeven Load Factor, and 4.) Do not neglect the intangibles such as brand reputation.

I examine investors’ reaction to the announcement of mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry from 2002 to 2008. Over this period, investors anticipate the announcements, as demonstrated by the fact that the cumulative abnormal returns are not statistically significant. In addition, I test to determine the effect of excess capacity on investors’ reactions. From 2002 to 2004, investors do not recognize acquisitions as a response to excess capacity, as the excess capacity measures utilized have no effect on the size of the cumulative abnormal return. From 2005 to 2008, however, excess capacity measures have a positive effect on cumulative abnormal return, indicating that investors started to recognize the threat of excess capacity and acquisitions as a response to that threat.

Little research has been done into implied correlations, and the small literature grows even smaller when referring to currency options. The existing literature has established that implied correlation is a good if not the best forecaster of future realized correlation, and that this ability to forecast is not necessarily universal. This paper will establish that the forecasting ability of implied correlations in currency options varies across currency pairs, thus proving that not all implied correlations are created equal. Using two different proxies for the quality of the forecaster, the paper attempts to explain which characteristics of an option on a currency pair affect the variation in forecasting ability.

This paper analyzes the performance of Indian banks over the period of the last ten years. It uses the CAMEL Framework to determine the performance of public and private banks in India. The paper also conducts an empirical analysis to determine the share price performance of Indian banks relative to the share price performance of banks in Hong Kong, Europe and the US. This paper finds that private banks perform better than public banks overall based on the CAMEL Framework. In addition it also finds that the Indian banks share price performance is dependent on the share price performance of Hong Kong and European banks, and it has a significant positive relationship with the overall Hong Kong stock market, and this relationship strengthens after 2007. On the whole, this paper seeks to offer as comprehensive a perspective as possible upon the conduct, structure and performance of the banking industry of India.

On a brisk fall night in Detroit, after watching the San Francisco Giants celebrate the 2012 World Series championship live, baseball agent, Michael Moye, hailed a cab for the airport – the post season had ended and free agency was underway. Moye, who had years of experience managing players, knew that this off-season would be different from the rest. He was heading to Westlake, Texas, to meet his star client, outfielder Josh Hamilton, who had entered free agency after five years with the Texas Rangers.

The objective of this study is to establish whether companies that utilise their resources more efficiently present specific characteristics in their financial profile, and whether on the basis of these characteristics a classification model can be constructed that includes, alongside resource utilisation measures, predictors related to other financial dimensions calculated from published information. The- research proceeds by examining the factors influencing companies' performance, and the reliabilty of published accounts. Discriminant analysis is chosen as the most appropriate technique of analysis. Its applications in the field of financial analysis are discussed -and an examination of the discriminant analysis technique is undertaken. For reasons of comparability and access to a large quantity of information, the analytical part of the study is based on data extracted from a computer readable tape provided by Extel Statistical Services Ltd. It starts by describing the financial variables to be used later on in the study, and proposing a classification framework that would be of assistance in identifying the financial dimensions of importance in relation to the problem under investigation. A discriminant model that correctly classifies 85 per cent of the companies is then constructed. It includes, besides measures of resources utilisation, measures of financial levarage, working capital management, cash position and stability of past performance. The-part of the analysis on the identification of potential well performing companies indicates that, although specific characteristics can be noticed up to five year before, it is only possible to construct a classification model with sufficient accuracy one year before a high level of performance is actually reached. Finally, an index of financial performance based on normal approximations of the z-score distributions from the model used to identify well performing companies is suggested and an assessment of the structural change experienced by companies rising from a less well to a well performaing status is presented.

This dissertation offers insight into the organizational lives of small and new not-for-profits. The first essay used three different estimation strategies to model the role of revenue type in the growth in young and small not-for-profits. We find that increases in the percentage of a not-for-profit’s revenue portfolio going to dues, indirect support, or non-mission income will suppress growth and that there is no “optimal” model across subsectors. The second essay uses over twenty years of panel data to predict which factors indicate the impending recovery of a financially vulnerable small and young nonprofit. Support for hypotheses based in the literature is mixed, but the key insight is that nonprofits need to save if they want to get healthy: bringing in revenues is not enough. Finally, the third essay uses a qualitative approach on young and new mental health not-for-profits in the state of New York. Using comparative case studies, this study analyzes the internal and external factors surrounding the demise of small and young mental health nonprofits. This study finds support for several of the potential causes of nonprofit demise in a newly proposed typology.