Financial Mangement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Financial Mangement - Essay Example electronic stock market. "With approximately 3,300 companies, the NASDAQ lists more companies and, on average, trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market" (NASDAQ, 2006, n/p). Therefore, the AMEX is a tangible physical entity, it occupies its own building and has physically designated space for trading - trading floor; has specifically designated members and an elected governing body. On the contrary, the NASDAQ, which means National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System, is a nebulous, intangible organization built up around the computerized system. The American Stock Exchange, according to its own definition, is "an auction market where prices for a diverse array of products - stocks, options, exchange traded funds (ETFs) and structured products - are determined by public bids to buy and offers to sell". The major characteristics of the trading process at the AMEX include: centralization of the order flow on the trading floor, priority given to the public orders, and execution of the orders by price and time sequence regardless of size or source. (AMEX, 2006, n/p). Like the AMEX, the NASDAQ operates as an auction market, but it has its own peculiarities: no physical trading floor is available and the orders flow goes solely through the automated quotation system. Additionally, unlike the AMEX specialists the NASDAQ dealers often maintain an inventory of the stocks that are traded less frequently. The AMEX system includes specialists, registered traders and floor dealers: "Trading in every Amex security is overseen by a specialist stationed on the trading floor . . . Specialists serve as facilitators, employing their extensive knowledge of the market in a security to bring together buyers and sellers, and helping them trade directly with each other. This skill is particularly important when large blocks of securities are brought to the floor" (AMEX, 2006, n/p). On the contrary, at the NASDAQ over-the-counter market trading in a particular security is not concentrated in the hands of the one particular specialist, and there is no monopoly, as the result. Any of the dealers interested in trading in this security can handle the orders on it. Trading at the AMEX can be performed in two ways: the orders can be processed either automatically, or manually. The automatic processing uses various systems as follows: "Member firms may route orders directly to the Exchange's trading floor through the Common Message Switch (CMS). After performing specific validation checks, CMS routes the orders to the Amex Order File (AOF), which retains order details and directs orders to the New Equity Trading System (NETS), Amex Options Display Book (AODB), Automatic Execution (Auto-Ex), or the firm's floor broker through the Booth Automated Routing System (BARS)" (AMEX, 2006, n/p). The orders may also be submitted manually by phone call to the broker or with help of a member firm's proprietary application: "In both cases, immediately upon receipt, the floor broker will "systematize" the order by entering it into the Amex Order File using the order entry feature of the Booth Automated Routing System (BARS) terminal. Once "systematized" these orders may be printed and

Sustainability Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 3

Sustainability - Assignment Example Wood is a natural resource which can exist freely or by the influence of human activities. In Italy, there is a greater increasing demand for wood, which has seen the resource being sort for from other countries. Basically, wood is used in Italy for various purposes including electrical power generation, co-fire with coal, and heating in homes, commercial enterprises and institution. This project is aimed at ensuring that wood becomes a sustainable resource in Italy through good and ethical uses and business practices. It will also look at some of the corporate social responsibilities that the businesses and companies of Italy can involve in, in-order to make wood a sustainable resource for the future generations. The project will also touch on the effects of wood to the environment and how such can be controlled to enable the achievement of a sustainable wood condition in Italy. Wood is a natural resource that grows naturally, but can also be domesticated. Wood grows to make a forest, where the forest is now formed by a group of wood. The natural resource is used for various purposes including the use as fuel as well as the use as a building material, electricity generation, heating up rooms and so many other uses. In Italy, wood has always been used for such purposes as mentioned above. The use of wood has been seen to be on a higher increase, beginning from the traditional uses of wood in Italy. Traditionally, wood was used to make furniture, construct structures such as houses and to make sculptors (Bob, 2011: pg. 1-4). During this period, there were a lot of trees that would provide the particular types of wood that were needed for such purposes. People never used to scramble for the resource due to its sufficient availability and occurrence in the land. Considering that the population was not so high and there was plenty of