Handbook of Hybrid Instruments: Convertible Bonds, Preferred Shares, Lyons, Elks, Decs and Other Mandatory Convertible Notes (with CD-ROM)

Book Description

Hybrid instruments - essentially bonds with an equity component - are found in a multitude of guises. This generic heading encompasses a seemingly endless array of finance instruments, including convertible bonds, mandatory convertibles, reverse convertibles, preferred shares, ELKS, DECS and LYONs, Within each one of these instruments are found a wide range of variations and features. These include reset, negative pledge, screw and forced conversion clauses, as well as step up coupons, call schedules, call options with soft and hard protection, etc,

The range of possibilities can seem bewildering, but it is this very flexibility which proves a huge attraction for investors, issuers and financial institutions. On the sell side companies issue these securities and corporate service departments advise on the type of options to include in them. On the buy side, investment managers seek to build portfolios with limited risk exposure using these securities and hedge funds utilize arbitrage opportunities between the convertible bond and the common share.

The opportunities are endless but the seemingly labyrinthine complexities can prove daunting. The Handbook of Hybrid Instruments helps steer a clear path through the maze. Izzy Nelken has drawn together a team of experts to provide in-depth analysis of many o key issues that both sellers and buyers require in order to operate effectively and profitably.

A general introduction is followed by specific information on key clauses and variations, valuation methods, the impact on a firm's value following the public issuance of convertibles, details on when an issuer should call a convertible and the impact of these provisions on the price, the difficult requirement of input data to make sense of the models, indexes and reset convertibles. Finally, a highly useful glossary is provided of all the key terms used in this field.

An analytical CD is also provided with the book, containing sample software of ConvB++. This combines complex state of the art models with a simple, user-friendly interface to assess fair values prices and to hedge parameters of hybrid instruments.

The Handbook of Hybrid Instruments is an indispensable explanatory and analytical tool for all professionals looking for the latest thinking on convertibles from some of the world's leading experts

Customer Reviews:

Don't Buy This Book! Unless reading the obvious is needed........2002-02-28

This book is completely useless. From the view of a quant, the author merely states the highlights/features of various structured derivative products as described in the prospectus. This information is readily available on FreeEdgar. No insights are offered what so ever. His typical description of the valuation method consists of "Merrill has developed a model similar to ours[the author's]... The model takes into account volatility, interest rate, ..." And that's it.
On the topic of whether the issuer should early call, Mr. Nelken's "conclusions" range from calling when the market price is below call price, to at call price, to above call price, and finally to way above call price. This is done through summarizations of other researchers' reports. Again, no opinions or analysis; merely book reports.
And finally, the not-advertised-as-demo CD-ROM is as useful as a coaster on a camping trip. There's no user guide for operating instructions. Not that it is necessary since most functions are disabled in the demo. But there are links to files I don't have.

Book Description

What can managers do every day to get more and better work from people while giving them the flexibility they need?

The answer lies in HOT Management—the breakthrough set of management techniques, skills, best practices and habits of the most effective supervisory managers in today's extremely demanding workplace.

This pocket guide clearly and concisely spells out what you need to do to become a HOT manager. The author's message is simple, yet powerful: Make high performance the only option. Be a hands-on manager. And spend lots of time with employees spelling out expectations and clarifying standards.

If you think it's getting harder and harder to manage people, this pocket guide's for you.

HOT Management contains vital lessons any manager at any level can practice to increase productivity, quality, and morale—and, in turn, improve retention.

Discover how you can rely on HOT management strategies to:

Drive performance through negotiation and coaching
Gain power by positioning yourself as being able to do more for people
Engage direct reports in ongoing coaching dialogues about performance, goals and deadlines
Hold each person accountable, every day

Rich with examples from real-life work situations, HOT Management is the source of concrete techniques managers striving to get the best out of people need.

Book Description

Astronomer Joseph Silk explores the Universe from its beginnings to its ultimate fate. He demonstrates how cosmologists study cosmic fossils and relics from the distant past to construct theories of the birth, evolution and future of the Universe. Stars, galaxies, dark matter and dark energy are described, as successive chapters detail the evolution of the Universe from a fraction of a microsecond after the Big Bang. Silk describes how physicists apply theories of subatomic particles to recreate the first moments of the Big Bang, and how astronomers chart the vast depths of space to glimpse how the most distant galaxies formed. He gives an account of the search for dark matter and the dark energy that will determine the ultimate fate of the Universe. Joseph Silk is the Savilian Professor of Astronomy and Head of the Astrophysics Department at the University of Oxford. He was previously Professor of Astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. He holds a BA in Mathematics from Clare College, Cambridge, and a PhD in Astronomy from Harvard University. Silk is the author, or co-author, of many books, including The Left Hand of Creation (Basic Books, 1994) and A Short History of the Universe (WH Freeman, 1997). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the American Physical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Customer Reviews:

Short History Leaves Universe Unknown.......2006-01-06

Oxford astronomer Joseph Silk bravely attempts to explicate modern cosmology in only 241 pages. He enlightens us with not only with the fundamental conclusions and uncertainties but also with the cleaver experiments and calculation that inform them. From cosmic microwave background and the expanding universe to dark matter and galaxy formation, Silk does not ask the reader to take his word for it; he presents the experimental data, interpretations, and conjectures pertaining to all the critical aspects of our universe's history.

After an introduction, Silk plunges into astronomical nitty-gritty, describing more than ten methodologically similar techniques for determining cosmic distances. The distances of stars and galaxies coupled with their velocities implies an expanding universe of approximately known age. This approximation precariously dated the universe as younger than some solar system rocks. However, the universe aged with increasingly accurate measurements. The alternative theory of steady state cosmology was no longer needed and was finally debunked by the discovery of cosmic microwave radiation, the Big Bang theory's unmistakable fingerprint.

This microwave radiation, independent of direction and originating from deep space, is the relic of the exceedingly hot first few hundred thousand years following the big bang. The radiation has cooled to -270? C over the past 15 billion years but remains detectable. With the big bang theory firmly supported, the challenge of explaining the first moment of universe looms large as the theories of physics collapse during the first 10-43 s of the universe.

In his prologue, Silk sets out to make a modern description of the Big Bang theory truly accessible to the lay cosmologist, enabling an appreciation (but not a justification) of theological interpretations of cosmology. Not to disappoint, Silk finally throws a bone to the religiously inclined reader in the fourth chapter:

"The Big Bang was an act of creation. Was it a singular, unique event, or is creation of matter a natural occurrence? And what existed before this event? Was the universe created out of nothing? To better understand how to answer these questions, it is necessary to consider what is meant by, or more precisely a vacuum."

Heisenberg's uncertainty principle predicts continuously appearing and vanishing particles even in a perfect vacuum. The quantum appearance of paired matter in the strong electric field of the early universe created fluctuations in energy density and is thereby responsible for the macro structure of the universe and perhaps even the creation of the universe itself. The difficulty in describing the first moments of our universe lies in the failure of modern physics at extreme conditions. While electromagnetic, weak nuclear, and strong nuclear forces coalesce according to quantum theory at such small distances and high energy, our theory of gravity fails. To address this issue Silk moves quickly from mini-black holes to superstring theory to inflationary expansion finally arriving at the anthropic principle, a G-d send for the readers who are looking for Him. Even the best theories allow for so many possible scenarios that the only way to arrive at the universe we observe is to require the possibility of human existence. But by the next chapter we are back where we began:

"Creation is the essence of the Big Bang theory. We can delegate creation of space and time to the pundits of metaphysics, theology. And even quantum gravity. In this field it is difficult to separate fact from fiction, and faith from fantasy, since any conclusions are far removed from the domain of experimental, testable, or even fully self-consistent physics."

At present, cosmology is but a tease.

After further proofs of the Big Bang theory, the reader encounters technical and detailed explanations of dark matter, the still-mysterious dark energy, black holes and finally the formation of galaxies. However, the book fails to make cosmology "truly accessible." Although not even a lay cosmologist, I majored in chemistry, studied quantum mechanics, and dabbled in string theory. Yet only after rereading convoluted sentences and arduous paragraphs did I have a faint idea of what is flying in space. I gave up on sentences such as:

"More precisely, space is accelerating, albeit at a very slow rate that corresponds to a cosmological constant which is equivalent to a mass density for the vacuum energy that amounts to about two-thirds of the critical value for recollapsing the universe."

Perhaps precise, but not exactly bedtime reading. Cutesy poetics sprinkled haphazardly among tortuous sentences highlight the arduous style rather than aid comprehension.

Silk vacillates between assuming scientific knowledge like photons unifying electricity and magnetism into a single force and explaining well-known concepts like the Doppler effect at length. He introduces complex ideas with their obscure names, leaving me in a vacuum of understanding, only to describe them in a subsequent sentence, paragraph, or even chapter. Even the somewhat helpful diagrams are not fully explained. Certain usages may be awkward or unintelligible for non-British readers; who knew unity plus unity equals two?

The ambitious task of explaining modern cosmology in some detail for the layman fails despite its admirable ambition. In such a short book, focusing of the details of discovery leaves little room for fully describing the ramifications. Perhaps if I read slower and repeatedly some of the concepts would have sunk in, but I have the distinct impression that these ideas could have been expressed lucidly. Those already familiar with the concepts may benefit from a succinct and organized overview of modern cosmology, but the novice should look elsewhere.

Book Description

From the apparently simple adaptation of a text into film, theatre or a new literary work, to the more complex appropriation of style or meaning, it is arguable that all texts are somehow connected to a network of existing texts and art forms.

Adaptation and Appropriation explores:
· multiple definitions and practices of adaptation and appropriation
· the cultural and aesthetic politics behind the impulse to adapt
· diverse ways in which contemporary literature and film adapt, revise and reimagine other works of art
· the impact on adaptation and appropriation of theoretical movements, including structuralism, post-structuralism, postcolonialism, postmodernism, feminism and gender studies
· the appropriation across time and across cultures of specific canonical texts, but also of literary archetypes such as myth or fairy tale.

Ranging across genres and harnessing concepts from fields as diverse as musicology and the natural sciences, this volume brings clarity to the complex debates around adaptation and appropriation, offering a much-needed resource for those studying literature, film or culture.

Britain Colonized: Hollywood's Appropriation of British Literature

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Britain Colonized: Hollywood's Appropriation of British Literature
Jennifer M. Jeffers
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Adaptations | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Industry | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Media Studies | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Writing | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1403972761
Release Date: 2006-07-20

Book Description

This study explores the most popular, and hence most enduring, forms of Hollywood's invention of Britain through the adaptation of its literature.Utilizing Jacque Derrida's Margins of Philosophy and various texts by Gilles Deleuze, as well as Deleuze's work with Felix Guattari, this text identifies the phenomena portending the future of British and Anglophone literary and cultural studies as a group of citations appropriated for American ends.

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The Appropriation of Shakespeare

Manufacturer: Prentice-Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Novel Shakespeares: Twentieth-Century Women Novelists and Appropriation

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Interesting perspective of the re-visioning of Shakespeare

Novel Shakespeares: Twentieth-Century Women Novelists and Appropriation
Julie Sanders
Manufacturer: Manchester University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Women Writers & Feminist Theory | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Women Writers | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0719058163

Book Description

Much recent contemporary fiction by women has appropratied themes and plot structures found in Shakespearean drama; Novel Shakespeare is an innovative study of a number of these texts. Environmental theory, the Hollywood and Bollywood film industries, detective fiction, children's literature, and the politics of postcolonialsim, are examined. Offering stimulating critical analyses for students of Shakespeare, contemporary fiction, and gender studies, this work provides a pertinent introduction to the emergent genre of appropriation.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting perspective of the re-visioning of Shakespeare.......2004-11-05

The female authors and the texts that Julie Sanders focuses on are repeated over and over on the cover of Novel Shakespeares, and the image of the Bard is shaded a different color, yet still using the women's names to create the image. Within the text, Sanders attempts (and succeeds) to bring to light the positive manner women have "appropriated" Shakespeare by "engaging in this parallel process of textual takeover and adaptation-the rendering of apposite or appropriate, as it were, of Shakespearean drama in a new context" (3). It isn't just the appropriation of Shakespeare that Sanders focuses on, but also the importance of intertextuality within any text which makes a meaningful and lasting impact upon its readers. Sanders chose to focus on eight central female authors who have appropriated Shakespeare in a similar positive manner, all the while intertwining those women's texts along with various other authors and texts, to communicate the important message offered in re-visioning and appropriating Shakespeare.
In her introduction Sanders chooses to address the many definitions of the word "appropriation" to show the evolving perspective in order to familiarize the reader with the varying degrees of appropriation. Rather than showing the purely negative connotation the idea of appropriation can invoke ("annex or arrogate"), Sanders focuses on the positive affiliation with the word that she gears her arguments towards: seeing appropriation as "a greater sense of setting something apart from its original purpose" (2). Using the female perspective in female texts, Sanders has a plethora to pull from to prove that "by opting for an alternative genre to that of their male-authored dramatic precursors, they assert the innovative and creative aspect of their work" (4). Rather than seeing these authors as borrowing from the master writer only to change his words slightly, Sanders encourages readers to see the subtle ways women authors have chosen to write their re-visions of Shakespeare. Sanders points out the positive outcome these women's texts have had, and will continue to have upon the literary community in re-viewing Shakespeare and giving voiceless characters a voice within their texts.
To join together a very different and diverse group of authors and texts Sanders focuses on the larger whole that appropriation represents. Instead of limiting her study to one particular genre or one particularly repeated appropriated text, Sanders uses a wide variety from across cultural borders to continue to emphasize the importance intertextuality plays in compelling re-workings of Shakespeare. Throughout the text the reader is shown the common ground: "a linking theme in all the chapters in this study is the refusal and positive deconstruction of moral and literary absolutes by these women writers" (11). Rather than focus on the obvious and distinct differences in the texts, Sanders chose to illuminate vital similarities between texts to make connections deeper than obvious connections to Shakespeare.
Shakespearean plots and subtexts are known throughout reading communities in some form or fashion, and Sanders points out that authors from Barbara Trapido (Juggling), to Leslie Forbes (Bombay Ice), to Marina Warner (Indigo), to Jane Smiley (A Thousand Acres), in the small measures their appropriations allow readers who already have some form of opinion/stance on Shakespeare's original works allow for connections and growth in re-viewing texts in a new light. Not just in their re-vision of Shakespeare, but also in the way they incorporate other texts into their texts, creating intensely rich pieces of art. These authors use pieces of what is familiar to them, and to others, in order to rework and illuminate a new vision of texts.
Sanders points to several linking themes which appear and reappear in women's appropriations of Shakespeare. Twins, the carnivalesque, family/lack of family, magic, and individual character growth/loss are all themes which run throughout Shakespeare's works as well as throughout the authors Sanders spotlights. Within these commonalities, certain repeating plays are repeatedly appropriated-King Lear and The Tempest are the two most predominantly found within this text. Due to the silent female characters and non-existent mothers, it is an obvious connection Sanders draws from to bring her vision to the texts she studies.
I found that the texts Sanders chose to focus her attention on fascinating and enjoyed the journey embarked upon in the exploring of different approaches to appropriating Shakespeare. Sanders used authors from different cultures who told different stories on very basic levels, but made her case in vying for a commonality. However, I do feel that her point could have been as effective (if not more so) if she would have used slightly fewer texts to emphasize her point in regards to the important role that intertextuality plays in these key appropriations of Shakespeare. Reading, re-reading, and then re-reading again to keep straight which text Sanders was actually focusing on, be it the focal author of the chapter, or another text that author wrote, or the text that was written by someone else that was like another book by someone else in this other book, was highly frustrating when I really wanted to learn and gather as much information as possible about the key authors I thought Sanders was solely going to focus on.
While it would have been nearly impossible for Sanders to focus on every single woman author who has ever appropriated Shakespeare, Michelle Cliff's being left out of the discussion seems remarkable considering Sanders seems to draw from every single kind of text imaginable during her discussions. While a casual mention may have been thought to be enough, for all the stretches made in layering texts to find a common ground, Sanders would have been well off to include the Carib artist for her appropriations in her novels Abeng and No Telephone to Heaven. That being said, Sanders' text opens readers up to a wealth of texts, ideas, conventions, and conversations occurring in the textual community concerning the manipulating and adapting of Shakespeare's texts. In confining her argument to eight specific authors and their significant texts, Sanders appeals to readers across critical borders to emphasize the wealth which lies within intertextuality. This book would be a great addition to any lovers of Shakespeare, gender theorists, or for any lovers of great writing. This text can facilitate a new vision and voice for reading appropriations of Shakespeare, while exposing readers to a variety of texts which may not normally be associated "with" Shakespeare.

Shakespeare and Appropriation (Accents on Shakespeare)

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Shakespeare and Appropriation (Accents on Shakespeare)

Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

History | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Adaptations | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Writing | Reference | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0415207266

Book Description

Shakespeare and Appropriation is a fascinating collection of original and previously unpublished essays that shows how writers' efforts to intimate, compete with, contradict, and reproduce Shakespeare keep him in the cultural conversation. The contributors analyze the methods and motives of Shakespearean appropriation by looking at a wide range of works and people.
Contributors include: James Andreas, Caroline Cakebread, Richard Finkelstein, Terence Hawkes, Ivo Kamps, Matt Kozusko, Laurie Osborne, Robert Sawyer, Jyotsna Singh, Lisa S. Starks, Georgianna Ziegler, Gary L. Taylor.

Download Description

This fascinating collection of original essays show how writer's efforts to intimate, contradict, compete with, and reproduce Shakespeare keep him in the cultural conversation.

The Shakespeare Trade: Performances and Appropriations (New Cultural Studies Series)

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The Shakespeare Trade: Performances and Appropriations (New Cultural Studies Series)
Barbara Hodgdon
Manufacturer: University of Pennsylvania Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Victorian Appropriations of Shakespeare: George Eliot, A. C. Swinburne, Robert Browning, and Charles Dickens

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Sawyer doesn't disappoint with his new book

Victorian Appropriations of Shakespeare: George Eliot, A. C. Swinburne, Robert Browning, and Charles Dickens
Robert Sawyer
Manufacturer: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Criticism | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0838639704

Customer Reviews:

Sawyer doesn't disappoint with his new book.......2004-01-30

This book stands as a valuable resource for studies on Shakespeare as well as Eliot, Swinburne, Browning and Dickens. Sawyer's examples of how these authors borrowed from and used Shakespeare provides a new versatility of Shakespeare's works that has largely gone unnoticed. Many strong assertions are made and each one is supported by a firm foundation of research and knowledge. It is necessary, however, to have an understanding of each of these authors. Without this familiarity, the book tends to be a difficult read.

World-Wide Shakespeares Local Appropriations in Film and Performance

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World-Wide Shakespeares Local Appropriations in Film and Performance
Sonia Massai
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Adaptations | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0415324556

Book Description

World-Wide Shakespeares brings together an international team of leading scholars in order to explore the appropriation of Shakespeare's plays in film and performance around the world. In particular, the book explores the ways in which adapters and directors have put Shakespeare into dialogue with local traditions and contexts.
The contributors look in turn at "local" Shakespeares for local, national and international audiences, covering a range of English and foreign appropriations that challenge geographical and cultural oppositions between "center" and "periphery," "big-time" and "small-time" Shakespeares. Their specialist knowledges of local cultures and traditions make the range of appropriations newly accessible-and newly fascinating-for world-wide readers. Drawing upon debates around the global/local dimensions of cultural production and on Pierre Bourdieu's notion of the "cultural field," the contributors together demonstrate a significant new approach to intercultural appropriations of Shakespeare.
Responding to a surge of critical interest in the poetics and politics of appropriation, World-Wide Shakespeares represents a valuable resource for those interested in the afterlife of Shakespeare in film and performance, within and beyond Anglophone cultural centers.

From Middleton and Rowley's Changeling to Sam Shepard's Bodyguard: A Contemporary Appropriation of a Renaissance Drama (Studies in Comparative Literature)

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From Middleton and Rowley's Changeling to Sam Shepard's Bodyguard: A Contemporary Appropriation of a Renaissance Drama (Studies in Comparative Literature)
Johan Callens
Manufacturer: Edwin Mellen Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

United States | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Classical & Early | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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Adaptations | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Screenplays | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0773486534

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Adaptation and Appropriation

Manufacturer: ROUTLEDGE
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GVVMEQ

Book Description

BUBBAVILLE is a dangerous place.

The guy who washes cars carries a .38. A crazy war veteran walks the streets at night while ladies of the evening do their business in a coal mine. High school boys peek in windows. Frustrated men dance in women's underwear while the milkman's wife cheats on him.

In Bubbaville things are as bad as they immediately appear and nothing fits. There is not a Christmas parade or Veteran's Day picnic. People are desperate, disparate, and disjointed like the wife who beats her husband to take his truck and the bank manager who buries his wife under the tennis court on a night in spring.

The closest a stranger should get to Bubbaville are the pages of this book.

Customer Reviews:

Bubbaville:Seventeen Stories.......2004-03-10

One can recognize some of the characters in Bubbaville because all small places have at least one of them. The small-town police, the occasional redneck, the uneducated, and mostly males in groups discussing women can easily be recognized. The way the men stereotype women is probably a universal theme. There is a story for everyone in this book.

The Color of the Less Attractive.......2004-02-28

The Color of the Less Attractive
Other writers of Appalachian literature - other citizens of Appalachia - will probably react negatively to the title of this book. It smacks of stereotype, the image that many who love the region deplore. Where, they ask, are the stable, productive, respectable people who live next door, who raise honorable kids, who go to church and contribute to the United Way campaign, who support trustworthy politicians?
These people do not inhabit Bubbaville, or at least, while they may be resident in every Appalachian community, they are certainly in the minority in Clarke's book.
Even so, the characters in Bubbaville ring true. Exaggerated, perhaps, but true. There are Little Daddy's Grills and Quik Serv Markets in almost every town. The car dealer, the banker, the cosmetologist - yes, we recognize them and their businesses. Many of the situations in Bubbaville are also all too familiar - violence, sex, drugs, and just plain stupidity.
The book is replete with down-home talk, much of it colorful and authentic. Clarke knows the language of the region, and for the most part he uses it well. For example, the description of the town drunk (or one of them): "Every person in town knew that Dallas Rainwater couldn't stand on his feet long enough to hit anybody," and on the same page (51) the statement made by Chief about grocery-owner Snabb: "Something crawled inside that man and died."
On the other hand, some of the writing seems labored; e.g., ". . . He felt like a one-man AIDS colony to whom the man who serviced his Oldsmobile and the cashier at the grocery did not offer condolences." (127)
Those who are not disturbed by the stereotyping of many of the characters and several of the incidents will find Bubbaville entertaining. Many readers will definitely smile and say, "Hey, that's the way it is!" Clarke has, indeed, captured the color and shape of the less attractive profile of Appalachia.
Barbara Smith
Alderson-Broaddus College

Philippi, West Virginia

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