Saturday, February 22, 2020

Money Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Money Management - Essay Example Investing with exchange traded funds ETFs is an easy way to ensure diversification in any portfolio involving stock, bonds and commodities without having to invest in the individual shares, bonds and commodities themselves. They enable investors to access sectors that would not be available to individual investors (Morningstar 2014b). This takes some of the hassle out of investing. I am very adventurous and I tend to have a liking for the sea. Therefore, my aim is to own a yacht within the next seven (7) years. In order to achieve this specific goal I will be making some medium to long term investments so that I can make a substantial deposit on a new yacht in five (5) to seven (7) years time. The yacht is expected to cost in the range of  £300,000 to  £500,000 by the time I get to the point where I am able to make a substantial down payment. My risk tolerance is medium and so I am willing to take a moderate level of risk in order to achieve a favourable return on my investment. Costa (2011) indicates that the returns that I would achieve are proportional to the risk taken and so I expect moderate returns. My risk profile is consistent with a balanced profile. A balanced allocation has between 0% and 25% cash; 40% to 70% bonds; and 30% to 60% stocks (Costa 2011). This portfolio is characterised by limited risk; however, it can still obtain good returns because of the proportion of stocks that it contains. It is also consistent with the time horizon that I have in mind, which is five to seven years. I have a total of  £50,000 to invest and this will be invested in accordance with the guidelines provided in relation to a balanced risk profile (See Costa 2011). However, I would also like to include a commodity related ETF involving physical gold which is one of the best ways of maintaining asset value. The majority of my investment will take place through the use of exchange traded funds (ETFs). An ETF is an investment

Thursday, February 6, 2020

Electronic Arts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Electronic Arts - Essay Example The EA has a significant market share of sports and hero-based video games. The Electronic Art's core competence is its ability to develop high-quality sports and feature games and offer a fascinating gaming experience to the kids, teens, and young adults in many countries around the world. Concentration: Although there are relatively few large competitors in the worldwide video game industry, it is still a heavily saturated market. The high fixed costs of developing a new game lead to increasing competition among the game programmers for the additional unit sales. Product Differentiation: Attributable to EA's efforts to diversify its products from other video games, it has been able to gain a competitive advantage over its competitors. They have a few areas in which true product differentiation exists - graphics, price, use of celebrities and licensed themes etc. Cost Conditions: due to the short product life and low customer price sensitivity the economies of scale do not have significant impact on the industry performance. Nevetherless, the learning curve effects are present. There is little threat of entry from companies outside of the video games market, however, within the market there is possible threat from manufacturers not yet fully established in the video games (i.e. manufacturers of game consoles), and even then there are significant barriers. Capital Requirements There are moderate capital requirements associated with entering the video games market as supplies can be outsourced and no major investment into R&D and equipment is needed. Access to Channels of Distribution The channel of distribution is another barrier to entry. This has to due to the fact that the retail channels are already saturated with a variety of competing products from established brands. In addition, there may be preference for distributors to sell products with higher margins or greater marketability and volume, making entry difficult. Threat of Substitutes/Complements Buyer propensity to substitute: There are very few other forms of entertainment that can be considered as direct substitutes for video games. However, within the video games market segment there are a number of substitutes because each manufacturer offers their own product range and the customers rarely have high brand loyalty. Complements: video games constitute a complementary good themselves with regard to the game consoles. Although the demand for them can not be considered purely derived, the video games market capacity does depend on the spread of the gaming devices. Bargaining Power of Buyers Price Sensitivity: the end customer perceives price as an indicator of quality and, therefore, is often price insensitive within certain price range. Concentration: Size of the end customer (i.e. consumer) is small and size of one purchase is small, so the end customer itself lacks the bargaining power. However, the wholesale distributors and retailers are bigger in size and their purchases have impact on the total amount of purchases, so they have also more