Archive for August 2008
Actuate and Strategy Focused Business Solutions Deliver Leading Performance Management Solutions for Healthcare Industry
San Mateo, Calif., – August 19, 2008 – Actuate Corporation (NASDAQ: ACTU), the leader in delivering Rich Internet Applications Without Limits™, announced today that it is working with Strategy Focused Business Solutions, a firm providing strategic planning, business performance management and improvement consulting, to deliver robust, end-to-end Performance Management solutions for the healthcare industry. Through the use of an effective Performance Management solution such as that provided by Actuate and Strategy Focused Business Solutions, healthcare organizations can focus tight resources toward the areas that matter most to achieving their aims. By linking operational data in critical areas such as patient services, clinical excellence and environment to the organization’s own strategic objectives, managers and employees can track improvements in line with corporate targets.
With hospitals and other healthcare providers facing increasing pressure from higher patient expectations, industry regulators and insurance providers, healthcare organizations must create an effective performance management solution to manage critical issues. In a constantly evolving healthcare environment driven by financial and human resource constraints, organizations are seeking new ways to manage their performance in order to stay ahead of the curve and are looking for a proven solution that can be delivered quickly and reliably.
Strategy Focused Business Solutions underpins its strategic planning and business performance management consulting with expertise in process improvement, change management and strategy-focused initiatives. Familiarity with Actuate came from their experience implementing the Actuate Performancesoft Suite to deliver a comprehensive performance management solution to Bridgepoint Health. A University of Toronto community affiliated teaching hospital, Bridgepoint Health is deploying the Actuate Performancesoft Suite to implement its new performance management strategy. This includes applying the Balanced Scorecard approach to manage its organization more effectively in line with new strategic objectives around service delivery and operational efficiency.
“Our mutual customers will achieve tremendous results by adding Strategy Focused Business Solutions’ analytical skills and industry experience to the Rich Internet Application visualization capabilities of the Actuate Performancesoft Suite,” said Daniel Kube, VP Marketing and Alliances. “We have seen growth in performance management initiatives in healthcare, and we are confident that the industry and domain expertise from Strategy Focused Business Solutions will add value to the performance management programs of our new and existing customers. We look forward to working with Strategy Focused Business Solutions to promote the Actuate Performancesoft Suite in the healthcare and rehabilitation industries.”
“Both of our firms are dedicated to helping organizations implement a customized Performance Management approach that will help them achieve their business objectives and build a strategy-focused organization,” said Sandy Richardson, Managing Consultant, Strategy Focused Business Solutions. “With a proven relationship and end-to-end performance management solution already in place, we are looking forward to working with Actuate to help companies in healthcare and other business sectors achieve quantifiable results in performance improvement.”
For more information on Actuate and Strategy Focused Business Solutions visit:
http://www.actuate.com/strategy-focused-business-solutions
To learn more about Actuate’s solutions for Healthcare, visit: http://www.actuate.com/solutions/for-your-industry/healthcare-providers.
About Strategy Focused Business Solutions
Strategy Focused Business Solutions Inc., is a specialty consulting firm that provides strategic planning, Performance Management framework, and business Performance Management and improvement consulting to organizations, strategic business units, and functional teams in all business sectors. More information can be found at http://www.sfo-consulting.com.
Taskforce iT Consulting Inc
Taskforce iT Consulting, Inc. was founded in 1998 in Los Angeles, California. The company specializes in Murex Implementations, Upgrades and Integration-Projects. Recent implementations include Bankgesellschaft, ABN AMRO, Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS), Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Bear Stearns, SAC and Credit Suisse where Taskforce worked on behalf of Murex Paris, Murex North America and various consulting companies (Excelian, Accenture, …). Taskforce operates world-wide. The Murex User Group is the leading community of Murex Users world-wide and was founded by Taskforce’s CEO Markus Linke. Taskforce is also the main sponsor of the Murex User Group.
Unlike many other companies who would try to attract search engines with statements like the below we actually do work hands on with the listed technologies:
“Murex is one of the market leading trading and risk management platforms used by investment banks, corporate treasuries, asset managers and hedge funds.
As a specialised Murex Consultancy have found a continuous need for qualified Murex consultants and have an extensive database which includes Programme Managers / Programme Directors, Murex Project Managers, Murex Business Analysts, Murex API Developers and Murex Support Analysts / System Administrators both as freelance contractors and permanent members of staff.
We recognise each of our candidates / clients as individual and aim to fully understand each version of Murex whether it’s Murex Mx.3, Murex Asset Manager, Murex MXG2000, Murex MXRates, Murex Currency+ or MX Equity.
We have comprehensive knowledge of Murex Mx.3 / Murex MX G2000 product coverage including Treasury (Foreign Exchange and Money Markets), Derivatives (Interest Rate, Macroeconomic, Equity, Credit and FX), Fixed Income (Bonds, Repos, MBS and ABS), and Commodities.
We also have solid knowledge of specific Murex technical skills required such as the Murex Flex API, Murfi, OLK, Murex VaR, MReports, Datamart, Actuate, MDCS, Simulation API, STB, Murex Limits Controller (MLC), MxML as well as the more generic development skills such as Java / J2EE, XML, .NET, Oracle, Sybase, Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, HP-UX, Linux and Microsoft Windows.
We can provide services required in supporting, upgrading or implementing all front to back office Murex modules at greenfield or existing project sites located in Europe, Asia Pacific and North America.”
What is a sponsor?
As a sponsor of the Murex User Group you can present your company to the group (in the consulting-area and at our regular meetings) and post jobs in the matchmaking section of the group. Contact Markus for details and fees.
SIBOS 2008
When: Mon Sep 15, 2008 to Fri Sep 19, 2008
Where: Vienna, Austria
Event Description: Murex will be exhibiting at Sibos 2008, taking place this year on 15-19 September in Vienna, Austria.
BlueCrest Capital Management live on MX.3 for Credit Derivatives
Paris – February 26th, 2008
Murex announced today that BlueCrest Capital Management, a leading European hedge fund manager with $ 13 bn under management, is now live on MX.3 for its Multi Strategy Credit Master Fund, a new Structured Credit hedge fund activity.
Farid Amellal, Co-Head of the Multi Strategy Credit Master Fund, from BlueCrest Capital Management said ” We are pleased to partner with Murex on this new fund. The success of this first implementation has provided us with the platform to quickly build up the business and support our trading across the full range of credit products.”
” BlueCrest is a major player in the European hedge fund industry and we are proud to partner with them on this new fund, implemented in record time of 3 months including development of interfaces to prime brokers, market data providers and to the fund administrator.” added Maroun Edde, Managing partner at Murex.
Options, Futures and other Derivatives
Product Description
KEY BENEFIT: Updated and revised to reflect the most current information, this introduction to futures and options markets is ideal for those with a limited background in mathematics.
KEY TOPICS: Based on Hull’s Options, Futures and Other Derivatives, one of the best-selling books on Wall Street, this book presents an accessible overview of the topic without the use of calculus. Packed with numerical samples and accounts of real-life situations, the Fifth Edition effectively guides readers through the material while providing them with a host of tangible examples.
MARKET: For professionals with a career in futures and options markets, financial engineering and/or risk management.
The publisher, Prentice Hall Business Publishing
Widely-adopted for its comprehensive coverage, exceptionally clear explanations of difficult material, and avoidance of nonessential math, this text bridges the gap between the theory and practice of derivatives, and helps students develop a solid working knowledge of how derivatives can be analyzed. It deals with a wide range of derivative products and provides complete coverage of key analytical material. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the Inside Flap
Preface
This book is appropriate for graduate and advanced undergraduate elective courses in business, economics, and financial engineering. It is also suitable for practitioners who want to acquire a working knowledge of how derivatives can be analyzed.
One of the key decisions that must be made by an author who is writing in the area of derivatives concerns the use of mathematics. If the level of mathematical sophistication is too high, the material is likely to be inaccessible to many students and practitioners. If it is too low, some important issues will inevitably be treated in a rather superficial way. In this book, great care has been taken in the use of mathematics. Nonessential mathematical material has been either eliminated or included in end-of-chapter appendices. Concepts that are likely to be new to many readers have been explained carefully, and many numerical examples have been included.
This book provides a unifying approach to the valuation of all derivatives – not just futures and options. The book assumes that the reader has taken an introductory course in finance and an introductory course in probability and statistics. No prior knowledge of options, futures contracts, swaps, and so on is assumed. It is not therefore necessary for students to take an elective course in investments prior to taking a course based on this book. Changes in This Edition
This edition contains more material than the third edition. The material in the third edition has been updated and its presentation has been improved in a number of places. The major changes include:
1. A new chapter (chapter 14) has been included on value at risk.
2. A new chapter (chapter 15) has been included on estimating volatilities and correlations. GARCH models are covered in much more detail than in the third edition.
3. Chapter 19 contains much new material and explains the role played by martingales and measures in the valuation of derivatives.
4. Chapter 20 on the standard market models for valuing interest rate derivatives has been revised. It now uses the material in chapter 19 to provide a more complete discussion of the models for valuing bond options, caps, and swap options.
5. There are now two chapters on equilibrium and no-arbitrage models of the term structure (chapters 21 and 22). Chapter 21 covers equilibrium models and one-factor no-arbitrage models of the short rate. Chapter 22 covers two-factor models of the short rate, the HIM model, and the LIBOR market (BGM) model.
6. Chapter 4 on Interest Rates and Duration has been rewritten to make the material clearer and more relevant.
7. Chapter 23 on Credit Risk has been rewritten to reflect developments in this important area.
8. More material has been added on volatility smiles and volatility skews (chapter 17).
9. The sequencing of the material has been changed slightly. Volatility smiles and alternatives to Black-Scholes now appear before the chapter on exotic options, which in turn appears before the material on interest rate derivatives.
10. The notation has been improved and simplified. So and Fo are used to denote the asset price and the forward price today (that is, at time zero) and the cumbersome “T – t” no longer appears in most parts of the book.
11. A glossary of terms has been included.
12. Many new problems and questions have been added. Software
New Excel-based software, DerivaGem, is included with the book. This software is a big improvement over the software included with previous editions. It has been carefully designed to complement the material in the text. Users can calculate options prices, imply volatilities, and calculate Greek letters for European options, American options, exotic options, and interest rate derivatives. Interest rate derivatives can be valued either using Black’s model or a no-arbitrage model. The software can be used to display binomial trees (see for example Figure 16.3 and Figure 21.11) and provide many different charts showing the impact of different variables on either option prices or the Greek letters.
The software is described more fully at the end of the book. Updates to the software can be downloaded from my Web site (mgmt.utoronto.ca/-hull). Slides
Several hundred PowerPoint slides can be downloaded from my Web site. The slides now use only standard fonts. Instructors can adapt the slides to meet their own needs. Answers to Questions
Solutions to the end-of-chapter problems in the first three editions were available only in the Instructor’s Manual. Over the years many people have asked me to make the solutions more generally available. I have hesitated to do this because it would prevent instructors from using the problems as assignment questions.
In this edition I have dealt with this issue by dividing the end-of-chapter problems into two groups: “Questions and Problems” and “Assignment Questions”. There are over 450 Questions and Problems and solutions to these are in a book Options, Futures, & Other Derivatives: Solutions Manual, which is published by Prentice Hall. There are about 80 Assignment Questions. Solutions to these are available only in the Instructor’s Manual. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the Back Cover
One of the exciting developments in finance over the last 20 years has been the growth of derivatives markets. In many situations, both hedgers and speculators find it more attractive to trade a derivative on an asset than to trade the asset itself. Some derivatives are traded on exchanges. Others are traded by financial institutions, fund managers, and corporations in the over-the-counter market, or added to new issues of debt and equity securities. Much of this book is concerned with the valuation of derivatives. The aim is to present a unifying framework within all derivatives-not just options or futures-can be valued. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
It is sometimes hard for me to believe that the first edition of this book was only 330 pages and 13 chapters long! There have been many developments in derivatives markets over the last 15 years and the book has grown to keep up with them. The fifth edition has seven new chapters that cover new derivatives instruments and recent research advances.
Like earlier editions, the book serves several markets. It is appropriate for graduate courses in business, economics, and financial engineering. It can be used on advanced undergraduate courses when students have good quantitative skills. Also, many practitioners who want to acquire a working knowledge of how derivatives can be analyzed find the book useful.
One of the key decisions that must be made by an author who is writing in the area of derivatives concerns the use of mathematics. If the level of mathematical sophistication is too high, the material is likely to be inaccessible to many students and practitioners. If it is too low, some important issues will inevitably be treated in a rather superficial way. I have tried to be particularly careful about the way I use both mathematics and notation in the book. Nonessential mathematical material has been either eliminated or included in end-of-chapter appendices. Concepts that are likely to be new to many readers have been explained carefully, and many numerical examples have been included.
The book covers both derivatives markets and risk management. It assumes that the reader has taken an introductory course in finance and an introductory course in probability and statistics. No prior knowledge of options, futures contracts, swaps, and so on is assumed. It is not therefore necessary for students to take an elective course in investments prior to taking a course based on this book. There are many different ways the book can be used in the classroom. Instructors teaching a first course in derivatives may wish to spend most time on the first half of the book. Instructors teaching a more advanced course will find that many different combinations of the chapters in the second half of the book can be used. I find that the material in Chapters 29 and 30 works well at the end of either an introductory or an advanced course.
What’s New?
Material has been updated and improved throughout the book. The changes in this edition include:
1. A new chapter on the use of futures for hedging (Chapter 4). Part of this material was previously in Chapters 2 and 3. The change results in the first three chapters being less intense and allows hedging to be covered in more depth.
2. A new chapter on models and numerical procedures (Chapter 20). Much of this material is new, but some has been transferred from the chapter on exotic options in the fourth edition.
3. A new chapter on swaps (Chapter 25). This gives the reader an appreciation of the range of nonstandard swap products that are traded in the over-the-counter market and discusses how they can be valued.
4. There is an extra chapter on credit risk. Chapter 26 discusses the measurement of credit risk and credit value at risk while Chapter 27 covers credit derivatives.
5. There is a new chapter on real options (Chapter 28). There is a new chapter on insurance, weather, and energy derivatives (Chapter 29).
6. There is a new chapter on derivatives mishaps and what we can learn from them (Chapter 30).
7. The chapter on martingales and measures has been improved so that the material flows better (Chapter 21).
8. The chapter on value at risk has been rewritten so that it provides a better balance between the historical simulation approach and the model-building approach (Chapter 16).
9. The chapter on volatility smiles has been improved and appears earlier in the book. (Chapter 15).
10. The coverage of the LIBOR market model has been expanded (Chapter 24).
11. One or two changes have been made to the notation. The most significant is that the strike price is now denoted by K rather than X.
12. Many new end-of-chapter problems have been added.
Software
A new version of DerivaGem (Version 1.50) is released with this book. This consists of two Excel applications: the Options Calculator and the Applications Builder. The Options Calculator consists of the software in the previous release (with minor improvements). The Applications Builder consists of a number of Excel functions from which users can build their own applications. It includes a number of sample applications and enables students to explore the properties of options and numerical procedures more easily. It also allows more interesting assignments to be designed.
The software is described more fully at the end of the book. Updates to the software can be downloaded from my website: http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/~hull
Slides
Several hundred PowerPoint slides can be downloaded from my website. Instructors who adopt the text are welcome to adapt the slides to meet their own needs.
Answers to Questions
As in the fourth edition, end-of-chapter problems are divided into two groups: “Questions and Problems” and “Assignment Questions”. Solutions to the Questions and Problems are in Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives: Solutions Manual, which is published by Prentice Hall and can be purchased by students. Solutions to Assignment Questions are available only in the Instructors Manual.
How can I access the Wiki?
We are using Jira Studio for our Wiki. It is a great tool and very useful!
The Murex User Group-space does not have much content, because you can choose if in which area you publish your content, either your project-specific space (where only your team has access) or the public space.
For various reasons most people prefer to use it as a tool to manage your own data where nobody else has access.
If you would like to have paid access please contact us. We buy this service for $50/user per month and you can have your account for the same. Unlike Jira Studio there is no requirement to have a minimum number of users. Check the features on http://www.jira.com, it offers much more than just a Wiki.
How can I contribute to this website?
You need to register and contact us if you would like to contribute to this website. We will then upgrade your account and you have a new menu item “Write a post”. Please always populate “Tags”, “Categories” and if applicable “WP Geo Location” for every post. Of course we expect you to think about copyrights for every post!
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