Benefits or Advantages of Investing in Mutual Funds

Mutual fund is an investment vehicle that pools together funds from investors to purchase stocks, bonds or other securities. An investor can participate in the mutual fund by buying the units of the fund. Each unit is backed by a diversified pool of assets, where the funds have been invested. A closed-end fund has a fixed number of units outstanding. It is open for a specific period. During that period investors can buy it. The initial offer period is terminated at the end of the pre-determined period. The closed-end schemes are listed in the stock exchanges. The investor can trade the units in the stock markets just like other securities. The prices may be either quoted at a premium or discount. In the open-end schemes, units are sold and bought continuously. The investors can directly approach the fund managers to buy or sell the units. The price of the unit Continue reading

Foreign Exchange Restrictions

Although the direct intervention methods referred to have influenced many exchange rates, they do not fully serve the needs of countries with a continuous shortage of foreign exchange. To supplement the direct measures many countries adopted a number of foreign exchange restrictions. Most countries have employed foreign exchange restrictions from time to time. Developing countries especially have found restrictions necessary to secure compliance with their development plans. An exchange restriction plan implies that the government restricts the uses to which the available supply of exchange shall be put. Foreign exchange may be allocated specially for the payment of import bills, interest on foreign loans, and on other specific purposes. Sometimes the restrictions prevent the use of exchange for trade with a given (unfriendly) country. In the latter case the purpose may be political, but the basic reason for most foreign exchange restrictions is the shortage of foreign exchange sufficient to Continue reading

Reverse Merger – Meaning and Example

Normally, a small company merges with large company or a sick company with healthy company. However in some cases, reverse merger is done. When a healthy company merges with a sick or a small company is called reverse merger. This may be for various reasons. Some reasons for reverse merger are: The transferee company is a sick company and has carry forward losses and transferor Company is profit making company. If transferor Company merges with the sick transferee company, it gets advantage of setting off carry forward losses without any conditions. If sick company merges with healthy company, many restrictions are applicable for allowing set off. The transferee company may be listed company. In such case, if transferor Company merges with the listed company, it gets advantages of listed company, without following strict norms of listing of stock exchanges. In such cases, it is provided that on date of merger, Continue reading

International Commodity Exchanges

Recent years have witnessed a steep rise in the creation of the commodity exchanges along with a consistent expansion of the existing ones. The United States, Japan, United Kingdom, Brazil, Australia, Singapore are homes to leading commodity futures exchanges in the world. Worlds Major Commodity Exchanges 1. The New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) The New York Mercantile Exchange is the world’s biggest exchange for trading in physical commodity futures. It is the primary trading forum for energy products and precious metals. The     Exchange has been in existence for 132 years and performs trades through two divisions, the NYMEX divisions, which deals in energy and platinum and the COMEX division which trades in all the other metals. A major contribution of the Exchange has been to develop and launch energy futures and options contract in 1978 to facilitate price transparency and risk management in this key market. Exchange has Continue reading

What is Departmentalization?

Departmentalization is the grouping of activities and responsibilities by  sub-units  of the organization. These  sub-units  are called departments. The division of labor or degree of departmentalization is driven by the need for specialization whether by process or purpose within an organization. The most common way of process departmentalization is the division of the firm into business functions, such as purchasing, manufacturing, sales, accounting, etc. Departmentalization specifies how employees and their activities are grouped together. It is a fundamental strategy for coordinating organizational activities, because it influences organizational behavior in the following ways: Departmentalization establishes the chain of command – the system of common supervision among positions and units within the organization. It frames the membership of formal work teams and typically determines which positions and units must share resources. Thus, departmentalization establishes interdependencies among employees and subunits. Departmentalization focuses people around common mental models or ways of thinking, such as Continue reading

The Role of the Management Accountant in Organizations

A management accountant’s duty is to provide information to users who are part of the organization from various levels. However, different levels of management has different information needs. Thus, a management accountant has to tailor the information for them. The first step that should be taken before the management accountant provides any type of information is that he should be clear and understand the company vision as the top, middle and bottom management of an organization. The top-level management is responsible for the long term strategic plan with strategic decisions for about 5 to 10 years time. Therefore the top management will create a mission, which will consist of a more specific goal that unifies company’s efforts. So, the management accountant should prepare budgets for top management accountant to decide which projects have to undertaken to achieve the company’s goals. Budget is a strategic plan that details the action that Continue reading