Sales Management Project Report

We were tasked with interviewing the sales manager of a firm, in order to analyze the working of their sales department. We chose Atlas Honda as our company for this project and secured an interview with their sales manager, and questioned him in detail about the operational procedures of the sales department of Atlas Honda. This report contains his responses that shed light on the workings of Atlas Honda’s sales force, as well as our evaluation of their sales operations.Selected CompanyAtlas Honda is a joint venture between Atlas Group of Pakistan and Honda Motor Company of Japan. We chose Atlas Honda as it is the market leader of motorcycles in Pakistan, and thus conducts hefty sales of motorcycles every month, employing a number of effective sales techniques in order to make new customers and to retain old customers.When asked why he chose to pursue a career in sales, he expressed his gratification in working to achieve a target of sales against his competitors, the incenti ves offered for achieving more than the target, and the freedom and travel opportunities that only a sales job could provide. His philosophy regarding his sales career resides in giving a proper product to the customer for the money spent by him, and to create customer lifetime value and build long-term relationships with customers.InterviewQ1. How do you see the marketplace today-changes and trends? Ans. â€Å"In terms of motorbikes, there has not been much of a change in the market in reference to commuter bikes, hence little changes have been made to the existing CD70 model as it is still used as a simple commuter motorcycle. The CD125 model has received a deluxe edition, giving it a sporty look to appeal to more image conscious segment.The Pridor was introduced as a 100cc sporty bike, targeted at customers who wanted something in between the existing 70cc and 125cc motorcycles. The most significant change in the market has been the developing interest in sports bikes. To meet t his new growing  segment in the market, we have launched the Honda CBR150 and Honda CBR500 sports bikes. Atlas Honda closely observes market changes and trends and adjusts its product line accordingly.†Q2. How do you view the importance of cultural diversity in the marketplace? Ans. â€Å"Here in Pakistan when we talk about cultural diversity, it is not particularly significant in terms of commuter motorcycles, as customers looking for commuting motorcycles generally have the same needs such as low price and economical fuel consumption, making the difference in culture largely irrelevant. However, diversity in culture has led to a new market of customers who want high-performance sports and are willing to pay more, a market that we have tapped with the launch of the CBR150 and CBR500.†Q3. How do you define the role of sales support? How important are ethics? Ans. â€Å"Sales support forms an important part of the sales department here at Atlas Honda. They assist the salespersons by various means, such as market research, lead generation, making travel arrangements, scheduling meetings, sending out sales materials and review and reporting of sales. As for ethics, we have always believed in serving the customer in the best possible way so as to cultivate long-term relationships.†Q4. How do you expect sales force to follow a sales process? Ans. â€Å"The sales process followed consists of an initial contact, an approach where needs of the customer is evaluated, followed by a presentation or proposition, finalizing the sale, and lastly follow up. Salespersons are encouraged to close sales using minimum amount of resources and with minimum sales calls.†Q5. How do you organize the sales force-is it local or centralized? Ans. â€Å"Organization of sales force is localized, that is to say that it is decided upon by the regional sales managers, who assign the number of salespersons to specific areas based in the amount of current and poten tial customers.†Q6. How do you select salespersons when positions become vacant? Ans. â€Å"Our Human Resource department is responsible for hiring of new salespersons. They prepare a list of candidates and determine which candidates are most  suitable for the position through interviews. Salespersons with prior experience are naturally given preference, however we also take fresh graduates, in which case they undergo a short period of training before starting work.† Q7. How do you train new personnel? Train experienced salespersons?Ans. â€Å"Our training here is very strong because Atlas Group believes very strongly in development of human resources. The more effort is put into developing our human resources the more the company will grow. We generally avoid hiring people from the top universities. Instead, we take mediocre students who are willing to learn and work hard. In this company there is much to learn and we provide training for new employees. As for train ing experienced personnel, every year we send our employees to study at IBA and LUMS.Additionally, every year one person is selected to study at Harvard University. So training and development is constantly observed here. Here we have SAP system in our computers and for human resource we have HAY system. So every person is evaluated quarterly and then half yearly and then yearly. Then the company goes over their weaknesses and provides relevant training and coaching to overcome their limitations.†Q8. How do you select and interact with partners? Determine sales force size? Ans. â€Å"We have a system in which we divide Pakistan 7 regions. Every region has a head called Regional Manager. Then above him there is a National Manager. Then there is General Manager Marketing. Then Vice President Marketing. And then there is CEO. Every region has a geographical distribution in which there may be four or five territories according to that area. We make territories under the regions. In every territory under the Regional Managers there is a Head of Sales, a Head of Services and a Head of Parts.† Q9. How do you motivate the sales force? Use monetary and non-monetary incentives?Perceived success of these actions? Ans. â€Å"There is a monthly target which the salesperson has to achieve and upon achieving that target he gets an annual raise. We use a scale to classify how good a salesperson is at closing sales. If he is close to the target that means its fair. If he achieves his targets that means his is good. If he goes 10% above his target that means he is very good. If he goes beyond that then it means that he is outstanding.So basically there are four categories on which a salesperson is evaluated for the raise in his salary; fair, good,  very good, excellent. Additionally, the advantage for salespeople is that after a year or two there are foreign vacations awarded to them. They may win by achieving the most sales. They are sent to places like Europe, Brazil etc. They get extra money for it in addition to the vacation to enjoy and relax.†Q10. How do you reimburse the sales force for expenses?Ans. â€Å"Laws are defined here for the reimbursement of expenses. No one is allowed to interfere whether it may be Vice President or General Manager. The laws defined here are working on two systems. The first is called Management Executive Committee (MEC). Then there is Group Executive Committee (GEC). Only GEC has the right to change laws because only high profile members are allowed in it. So everything is defined.Every person has a grade wise allowance. Kilometers are standardized. Whether a General Manager uses it or may it be an ordinary sales representative. It is already defined that a particular amount per kilometer would be paid when travelled. If he has to stay overnight then there is hotel allowance. If there is no hotel then there is an independent allowance given to that person. So a healthy amount of incentives are gi ven and they are clearly defined and no one can misuse them.†Q11. How do you evaluate the sales force? Frequency and methods? Ans. â€Å"As I have mentioned we have got HAY system in which objectives are defined. They are evaluated on quarterly, half yearly and yearly basis. After three months an analysis is done on the objective to check whether that salesperson is achieving his target or not. We work on a PDCA format which is Plan Do Check Action. We see whether the targets are being achieved or not. If they are, then good.If not, then we examine targets are not being achieved. What were the problems faced and how can we counter them? This is PDCA. Every person’s job is defined. What he has to do, what he doesn’t, and his responsibilities. He knows the result that he has to produce after a year. Hence, salespersons are evaluated on their achievement of target sales.†Q12. How do you play a role in forecasting? What methods are utilized? Ans. â€Å"For fo recasting basically two methods are used. One of them is by using  historical growth data. We take the data of last three years, sum it up and forecast the market growth. Then there are assumptions and usage of alpha. Factors like history, assumption and the economy are always studied closely when forecasting.†Q13. How do you contribute to the firm’s strategies and annual planning? Ans. â€Å"As a sales manager, the forecasts that are generated by my department affect the company’s strategies and operations. For example, new strategies may need to be formulated when attempting to penetrate new markets, or when introducing new products into existing markets. Forecasts of sales also affect the company, for example if forecasts show an increase in sales, then more salespersons may need to be hired.†Q14. How do you utilize CRM and practice relationship marketing? Ans. â€Å"It has been almost 50 years since people are related to this company. By this you ca n imagine the worth of the company. Atlas Honda has worked hard to develop brand loyalty with its customers. We are providing our customers with services throughout Pakistan. There is hardly a single town where you cannot find a Honda service facility. Almost every city has got Honda’s sales dealerships. At this very moment there are 650 dealers across Pakistan. Then we have developed the 5S concept as opposed to the 3S concept.Normally companies provide only 3S that is Sales, Service and Spare parts. But in addition to that we also provide additional Second exchange which means you can trade in your old motorcycle for a new one. Then there is Safety. Then to satisfy the customers we have customer care department. There’s a telephonic department which takes care of the customers. We are going to introduce new CRM software next month. If you buy a motorcycle today all your information will be entered. Previous issues will also be displayed in it. You would be greeted by your name upon calling the department and your picture will also be shown.†Q15. How have you successfully managed portfolio of products? Ans. â€Å"We currently have 7 models in production. Everything is controlled by the General Manager. We have a very big setup. A very vast one. There are many things under the General Manager which are being monitored by different  people. We have a department of product planning. All the pros and cons of all models are discussed there. Then the marketing department is also related to them.They decide the best way to sell the product. There are no bookish systems here in this company as you study in the university. Many of the books and theories that you have studied, you won’t find them here. We have got a very straight system here. There’s only one channel of distribution. The company makes the product and then gives it to the dealer. There is no such thing as sales dealer or this and that dealer. More than 90% of the pla nning done here is successful.†EvaluationQ1. How effective is this sales manager? Ans. He is a very effective sales manager. He has effectively organized the sales force in such a way so that no territory is left out. He is vigilant about providing training to employees so that their skills may be developed and they are able to work to their full potential. He is a good leader and actively motivates his sales force to achieve their targets and instructs his sales force to foster long term relationships with their customers.Q2. Which of his/her activities are reflective of what you learned in class and what activities differ? Ans. He organized his sales force and divided the market into territories in order to use his sales force efficiently. He instructs his sales force to use CRM to better manage and service customers and to retain their information about previous purchases and problems for easy access. He gives great importance to training and developing his salespeople so t hat they may overcome any weaknesses. And he gives great importance to generating customer relationship value rather than just making a one-time sale to a customer.Q3. How do they differ and why do they differ? Ans. There is hardly anything among his activities as sales manager that differs from what we studied in class, as he has organized and developed his sales force very effectively, hardly leaving any room for improvement.

Ethical Dilema Essay

In this paper, I will discuss the ethical dilemma faced by a nurse who is caring for an eight month old patient, who reports with his mother to the emergency room with a suspicious fracture. The mother provides a plausible story, and the physician knows the family and does not suspect abuse. I will discuss the action I would take in order to provide the appropriate care for this patient. As a registered professional nurse, I feel the only approach to the case is to report the injury to Department of Family and Child’s Services (DFACS) for their investigation. When a report is made, DFACS will complete an investigation and make the ultimate decision if abuse or neglect was the cause of the injury. Each nurse has a duty to report all suspicious injuries to DFACS, regardless of her feelings on abuse or neglect. This is true even when the physician knows the family or does not suspect abuse. The nurse is responsible for her own actions. In order to provide the best quality of care for this patient, I would take the statement from the parent about how the patient was injured, and then talk to the physician to gather the physical finding, which may include x-ray reports after this information is gathered, I would report the case to the local DFACS. Anytime there is a suspicious injury regardless of the plausibility of the story, or if the physician knows the patient and does not suspect the parent, the DFACS case must be reported. The nurse in this situation has a duty to report this injury and let child services decide if the patient is in danger. I would perform a complete examination of the patient and communicate with the physician, in addition to noting any other signs of abuse, along with paying close attention for indicators of abuse. Indicators of abuse can warn healthcare providers to pay closer attention to situations that may indicate abuse or neglect and someti mes there are not indicators even though the child may be abused (Henderson, 2013). Three indicators of abuse or maltreatment include physical, child behavioral and parent behavioral indicators (Henderson, 2013). These indicators should not be considered in isolation but should be considered along with the child’s condition in the context with overall physical appearance and behavior; however, it is conceivable that a single indicator may be consistent with abuse or neglect (Henderson, 2013). Considerations of abuse are raised by injuries to both sides of the body and/or to soft tissues, injuries with a specific pattern or injuries that do not fit the explanation, delays in  presentation for care, and/or untreated injuries in multiple stages of healing (Henderson, 2013). It would be helpful to check the patient’s record for previous unexplained injuries or history of frequent visits to the emergency room or physician’s office. Any burns or patterns of bruising during the examination would warrant further investigation. Other signs of physical abuse I would monitor for include signs of pain where there is not visible injury and lack of reaction to pain. I would also note any emotional signs of physical abuse, which include passive, withdrawn or emotionless behavior, and fear when seeing parents. Any symptoms noted on exam should include this in the report to DFACS. Since the physical signs of abuse are often visible, most cases of abuse are recognized by a healthcare provider (Padera, 2009). These signs may be noted at routine appointments or while providing acute care. The ethical principle of non-maleficence and beneficence are addressed with this case. The ethical principle of non-maleficence helps to ensure that healthcare providers do not harm to their patients. If I did not report this case to DFACS for investigation and the abuse continued causing any harm to the patient, this would be an ethical violation of non-maleficence on the part of the nurse. The ethical principle of beneficence ensures that health care provider’s actions benefit the patient. By choosing to report this case to DFACS, my actions would benefit the patient and help ensure that the patient was no longer being abused. As a nurse, if I did not report this to DFACS for investigation, I would be in violation of the nurse practice act, and I could be held liable if the patient suffer more injuries or death at the hand of an abuser. My report of child abuse or neglect is confidential and immune from civil or criminal liability as long as the report is made in â€Å"good faith† and â€Å"without malice† (https://www.oag.state.tx.us/victims/childabuse.shtml). Provided these two conditions are met, as a nurse, I am immune from liability if they are asked to participate in any judicial proceedings resulting from the report (https://www.oag.state.tx.us/victims/childabuse.shtml). In conclusion, mandatory reporting can produce unanticipated and unwanted consequences (Buppert & Klein, 2008). Nurses may be concerned about reporting suspected abuse especially, when the investigation is completed, no abuse or risk to the patient is found (Buppert & Klein, 2008). Boards of Nursing rarely  discipline nurses for failure to report and nurses are covered with their nurse practice act when they make reports in â€Å"good† faith (Buppert & Klein, 2008). Given this information there is no reason not to report this mother to DFACS for investigation. References: Buppert, C. & Klein, T. (2008). Dilemmas in Mandatory Reporting for Nurses. Medscape. P. 4- 16. Henderson, K. L. (2013). Mandated reporting of child abuse: Considerations and guidelines for mental health counselors. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 35(4), 296-309. Padera, Connie. (2009). Nursing, Child Abuse, and the Law. 7(37). P. 122-126. When you suspect child abuse or neglect: A general guide. Retrieved from https://www.oag. state.tx.us/victims/childabuse.shtml

Attractions Of Jaipur Tourism Essay

Attractions Of Jaipur Tourism Essay Jaipur, ‘The Pink City’ is a major tourist centre of the country. The city is packed with many attractions like beautiful and glorious forts, world famous theatres, gorgeous temples and many more. As a tourist you will be awestruck with the beauty of the monuments in the city. Flamboyant and vivacious bazaars bustle with attractive stuff. Jaipur is legendary for its gemstone and gold jewelry work, fabrics, and ‘jutis or mozaries’ (traditional footwear) that possess quality are surely a cache for the shoppers. An opportunity to take along ‘the glory of the city’ as a souvenir of the visit is so amazing. You will wish to revisit the city to explore its beauty and intrigue to the fullest. Feel the grandeur of the Maharajas who lived in such magnificent forts and palaces Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II invoked the artisans from all over the world and facilitated them with all the things they required, to help in creating the exotic city of beautiful ar chitecture as Jaipur. Today, Jaipur is a hub for rich wedding destinations. Royal weddings are organized here. Exquisite destinations are specially designed for marriages, and offer an experience of one of its kind. Jaipur’s forts, monuments, and museums can be read about further. The temple of Sun God at Galta, Amber fort,Vidyadhar’s Garden, City palace, Sisodia Rani Palace, and Sanganer are some of the exquisite attractions that city comprises. AMBER FORT Distance from the city center: 10km Built in: 1592 Charges: Admission: Citizen INR 10/ Foreigner: INR 50 Photography charges: Citizen/foreigner: Rs 40/25 Video charges: Citizen/foreigner: Rs 100/150 but it includes all the three charges (entrance, still camera and video camera fee). Timings: 1000 to 1600 hours Specialty: Sheesh Mahal, Diwan-e-am CITY PALACE Distance from the city center: Situated at city center Built in: 19th century Charges: Indians Rs. 35.00 and for foreigners Rs.150.00 inclusive of entry to Jaiga rh fort Timings: 930 to 1645 hrs. Specialty: Temple, Chandra Mahal, Govind Devji, Diwan-e-am NAHARGARH FORT Distance from city center: 15 km Built in: 1734 Charges: Rs. 15 for Indians, Rs. 20 for Foreigners, 30/70 for Camera/Video Entrance Fees for Indian Citizen Rs. 10.00, Foreign Citizen Rs. 80.00, Indian Students Rs. 2.00, Vehicle Entrance Fees (Bus charges Rs. 100.00 Gypsy/Car/Jeep/Mini Bus Rs. 65.00 and Motorized two wheeler Rs.10.00 Timings: 1000 to 1700 hrs Specialty: Madhavendra Bhawan, city view from top of the fort. JAI GARH FORT Distance from the city center: 15 km Built in: 1726 Charges: Rs. 15.00 for Indians & Rs. 20.00 for foreigners Timings: 1000 to 1845 hrs Specialty: Collection of Ammunition, Worlds largest Canon FORTS The Maharajas and their royal families, the palaces where they lived are so exquisite that today, the city has become popular because of them. Initially, the foundation of the city was placed by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the founder and the ruler. Amber fort was designed keeping in view his desires. He established his kingdom powerfully which effected the augmentation of the city. However, Jaipur was born as a place for the growing population and was made the capital. The ruler planned the architecture of the city majorly considering the security of the city. The lavish palace for the residence of the king was built ‘The City Palace’ and the rest is history. The famous forts of the city have been enlightened further.

High Performers in Marketing and Advertising Majors Essay

High Performers in Marketing and Advertising Majors - Essay Example One of the more interesting findings of this study was the difference in perception of fellow classmates between high performing and low performing students. The article notes that â€Å"students with lower GPA (scores) reported higher satisfaction with fellow classmates than students with higher GAP (scores)† (Walsh & Woosley, 2013). In this case, it emerged that students with high performance in their GPA scores had varying perceptions compared to their low-performing peers. This raises a question as to whether this dissatisfaction among high-performing students has more to do with their view that low-performing students make them carry an extra burden in teamwork efforts, or that they simply do not appreciate their fellow classmates who have lower levels of performance (Walsh & Woosley, 2013). This might indicate that lecturers and other faculty members might have to pay more attention to how students are assigned to teams if they wish to retain high performing students.  Another interesting aspect of this study was that there was no significant difference between the perception of leadership/management skills and teamwork and effective communication between low and high-performing students, in terms of their overall perceptions of program quality. The authors indicate that this could be explained by the fact that â€Å"†¦students may be making similar progress and learning similar things† and that â€Å"high-performing students may underestimate their learning or that low-performing students may overestimate their learning†.

Analysing Media Output Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Analysing Media Output - Essay Example In effect, reliability of the study was affected. In another study where quantitative study was also used, the need for the researchers to rely solely on primary data prevented them from collecting secondary data that could answer statistical questions that the respondents in the primary research could not answer. Internal validity was therefore affected in the research. In effect, when the two approaches are combined, there is a better unification of the merits of undertaking content analysis than when only one of the approaches is used. 2. Media content can be used to map long-term social and cultural change. Discuss, mentioning the main challenges for this kind of research in your answer. Generally, the media is described as the eye of society, meaning that the media is an institution that is designated to reflecting on the happenings of society in a manner that entertains, educates and informs the populace (Machin, 2007). The media is also seen as a third party critic of society as the media is expected to belong to a line of argument that is devoid of subjective judgment but rather filled with objective criticism (Fairclough, 1995). Once the latter is done properly, the media should be referred to as an authoritative source for decision making on issues that affect society. Meanwhile, the media carries itself to the populace or audience through the content that it carries, and thus media content. If any reference is being made to the role of the media in society therefore, one could be referring directly to media content. In a recent study, it was identified that the media content has so much power when it comes to influencing social and cultural changes because of the generalized influence that the media has on the society (Riffe, Lacey and Fico, 1998). By this relation, it will be pointed out that society is made up of the social and cultural dynamics of people and so if media content can influence society, then it can easily influence social and cultura l change. There are indeed a number of ways that media content can influence social and cultural change but one of the commonest of these has been found to be the manner in which long term strategic changes are made based on media content. Through means and theories such as framing theory and agenda setting theory, the media can constantly use its content to champion certain key social and cultural issues that it deems as befitting for societal adherence. Once this happens, media content will be directed towards these issues that the media is seeking to champion. The ultimate effect of the application of such theories has also been that society comes to accept the issues that the media sets aboard (Humphrey, 2001). In effect for all long term social and cultural changes that are sought, the likelihood of inculcating the view points of the media content is higher. All the discussions above notwithstanding, there are a number of challenges that can met in

Offshoring (Offshore Outsourcing) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Offshoring (Offshore Outsourcing) - Essay Example Offshoring is gaining popularity because it allows organization to reduce their costs, develop an extended market reach, and improve efficiency and productivity of work at the same time (Masciarelli, 2011). Successfully implementing offshoring is a challenging task. It requires careful planning and monitoring. The first step is to plan which functions to outsource. This includes planning of critical functions, skill transfer and scalability. The next step is to evaluate a cost-benefit analysis. This is done to evaluate whether the benefits of the operation will outweigh the costs. Only is the benefits outweigh the costs, the next step should be taken. The next step is developing a project management team which would be responsible for the offshoring process. This includes the planning process, setting the timetable and hiring the necessary personnel for the job (Neelankavil and Rai, 2009). According to Ilan (2011) successful offshoring is dependent on finding the right model for opening up business operations in a different country. The most likely destination for offshoring activities today is China which offers a variety of incentives to businesses around the world including cheap labor and good

Watersheds Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Watersheds - Research Paper Example Mississippi river has watershed called Mississippi watershed which flows in the United States of America. The river emerges from the western part of Minnesota and flows southwards at 4,070 km/hr towards the delta of the Mississippi river. It has a number of tributaries that drains to approximately 31 states within the United States of America between the Appalachian Mountains and the rocky extending to the southern Canada region .The River Mississippi-according to the order of rivers-is positioned as the fourth longest and tenth largest river in the world (Carluer and De Marsily 87). Watersheds have since played a key role (Naiman 78) in various scientific studies on the impacts of anthropogenic and natural phenomenon on the quantity and quality of water. The effects of silviculture and agriculture have always been outlined basing on watersheds. Data to evaluate the effectiveness of various ecological regions on the basis of Watersheds have been used by researches in places such as C oweta .A number of people mind less to the safety and source of their drinking water implying little concern is put on domestic water channeled to their homes on the basis of treatment. In addition, prior awareness should be availed to people on treatment process the water they consume undergoes. Since water is life, clean water is paramount to every individual and issues concerning the degree to which water meant for consumption is cleaned should never be looked at with little respect. This view serves to limit the extent to which non-clean or un-treated water affects the livelihood/health of the parties concerned though many people have taken cleanliness of water/non-cleanliness of water at the expense of their health concerns for granted. This essay in particular will give an analysis of Mississippi watershed within Mississippi River with a goal of enlightening the society on the scientific process of water treatment and water resource forms within their reach. Carluer and De Mar sily (95) refer to a watershed as that specific area of land that drains into river, stream, lake or other types of water bodies. Watersheds can either be large or small. For instance a small stream located in neighborhood may consist of a watershed. The Mississippi watershed of the Mississippi river covers approximately 31 states which represent about two thirds of the North America (Naiman 78). Figure 1: Mississippi watershed in Mississippi river (Schertzer, 124) In this case take an example of a small stream located at the top of the mountains. The watershed of this specified stream will be constituted by few underground springs and precipitation runoffs resulting from the lands that are up above the stream. As a result the stream continually flows down the hill and drains far and wide to bigger water bodies which include larger rivers, lakes and streams before finally discharging into the oceans and seas which significantly posses watersheds that are larger. It is important Howe ver, to point out that all watersheds be it large or small have complex processes arising from the presence of chemical compounds that in a way or the other may impact on the quality of water being drawn and used by the human fraternity for various reasons and usages. Sivapalan (2266) argues that the human population does not only use water for their domestic needs i.e. cleaning, cooking and drinking but also for cleaning and draining their waste systems. To attain proper sanctity of water and good levels of hygiene, treatment plants, dams and pipes have to be put in place to safeguard the water before and after it is directed to the homes of people in the society and also to factor

Microbiology of conjunctiva Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Microbiology of conjunctiva - Essay Example Bacterial conjunctivitis is the most frequent ocular infection in the developed world accounting for up to 2% of annual consultations in primary care. 1,2,3 Although clinical course of bacterial conjunctivitis is often benign and self-limited 4, antibiotics has been shown to reduce the symptomatic period. 5,6 Antibiotic treatment may also limit spread of the causative bacterial strain that is frequently contagious and thus they may prevent epidemics.7 Choice of antibiotics is often empirical although the decision should be based on knowledge of common causative bacteria and their resistance profile. Emerging antimicrobial resistance and developing pattern of bacterial findings makes the choice of empiric treatment increasingly challenging. Diagnostic difficulties may lead to needless use of antibiotics 8,9 which may further stimulate resistance of bacteria even in extraocular sites. 10 Selection of antibiotics in treatment of bacterial infections in general must be adjusted according to prevailing bacterial properties. Worldwide emergence of multi-resistant bacteria, such as Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), is obvious. Activity of fluoroquinolones against some common ocular pathogens, for example, is also in jeopardy. 11 Bacterial findings in infants and older children have been well established and effectiveness of all local antibiotics has been demonstrated. 4, 12,4,13 Role of Streptococcus pneumoniae, for example, has also been documented in outbreak settings. 14 Distribution of bacterial isolates and differences in their resistance profile in conjunctivitis in different age categories of population, however, is not equally well characterized. The present study aims in defining distribution of pathogenic bacteria and their in vitro sensitivity in conjunctivitis amongst age groups. METHODS Patient population and conjunctival samples We analyzed data of consecutive 1139 conjunctival bacterial isolates

Narrative Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 3

Narrative - Essay Example I escorted her to the wardroom where she would stay for the time she would be at the hospital. She was hurt badly, had broken limbs and cuts in her body. The first thing to come out of her mouth was â€Å"take care of me, please† and I responded by saying â€Å"do not worry, you are in good hands.† This was the last conversation before she went unconscious. She was then taken to the theatre for several hours before she was put in intensive care unit. I spent about a month taking care of her. During this time, I helped her bath every day, dressed her and helped her feed and take her medication. She could not do this by herself. during this time she developed confidence in me and talked about her private life with me to relieve her stress. I told her, â€Å"whatever you want to share feel free because it will only be between me and you† and she responded by saying â€Å"Thank you, you really are helping me recover fast.† Sometimes she would ask me for certai n needs and I would advocate for her especially those that were to be provided by other personnel such as her therapist, dietician, activities director and the pharmacist. At one point her medicine had delayed and I had to have a conversation with the pharmacist. I Told him, â€Å"My patient has not received her medication, yet the bill is paid.† The pharmacist responded by saying, â€Å"sorry, I had forgotten.† I had to make it clear to him that patients medicine are not be joked with. I told him, â€Å"You ought to do your work or resign because patients cannot suffer because of your forgetfulness.† This ensured that my patient had her medicine in time always until the time when she was discharged. This aspect implies that the patients regard caregivers as their immediate representatives and as such, we should see to it that their views are well catered for during their stay (Reinhard & Young, 2009). My patient once narrated her experience at the hospital to me when she was a child, and it

Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 423

Assignment Example As much as this is a sad state, news organizations actually knew that the digital movement would come by some day and this should thus not appear shocking at all (Naquin, 2015). In that light, although news organizations may seek government’s help in making newspapers still viable, many are of the opinion that this will not be possible since they are now obsolete in nature (Naquin, 2015). In the course of gauging effectiveness or rather the impact of advertising campaigns over the internet, there are various challenges that managers face. One of the challenges is that the various digital channels possess different effectiveness and thus relying on one particular channel may give a false reflection of an advertisement’s impact (Fisher, 2012). Another challenge is that most marketers still rely upon the native metrics such as the click-through-rate or looking at page views over the internet to gauge success yet Agencies in the USA contend that such acts as the intent to buy or recalling of a brand are actually the most successful methods that one would use to gauge online success (Fisher, 2012). Therefore, if I were a manager I would rely upon sales metrics as the most efficient way of gauging efficiency of my campaigns and as well incorporate the traditional metrics so that I can have a 360 degree view of the performance (Fisher, 2012). Fisher, L. (2012).Quantifying Digital Brand Ad Effectiveness: Finding the Right Mix of Meaningful Metrics. e-Marketer.Retrieved from Naquin, C. (2015). â€Å"Newspapers: towards the end of the traditional  medium?† Culture Exchange. Retrieved from

Related Studies Foreign Essay Example for Free

Related Studies Foreign Essay Foreign Langer (Journal 2004 p. 76). The research team identified three types of teachers: 1. Effective teachers in effective schools; 2. Effective teachers in typical schools, and 3. Typical teachers in typical schools. In effective schools, students were â€Å"beating the odds† in test scores, and the effective teachers there found their work encouraged and sustained by a supportive school and district climate that: 1. Coordinates efforts to improve student achievement. 2. Fosters teachers participation in a variety of professional activities. 3. Creates instructional-improvement activities in ways that offer teacher a strong sense of agency. 4. Values commitment to the profession teaching. 5. Engenders caring toward students and colleagues, and 6. Fosters respect for learning as a normal part of life. Furthermore, the assumption in articles dealing with the teacher reflection is that analysis of needs, problems, change processes, feeling of efficacy, beliefs are all factors that contribute to teaches professional development, be it through enhanced cognitions or new or improved practices. Reflection is discussed and used in research in several ways. The studies in this decade centre primarily on reflection as an instrument for change and on the various ways in which reflection can be developed. A group of explicitly considers the contribution to reflection of narrative methods such as story telling (for example, about Professional Development School Experiences) and the construction of stories within professional development activities. (Breault, 2010), (Day and Leitch, 2001), (Doecke et al., 2000) and (Shank, 2006. Set in Lithuania Arl the U.S.A., the Article by Jurasaite-Harbison and Rex (2010) narrate two-year ethnographic study that looks at how teachers in three different types of schools perceive themselves as learners and how their school cultures create opportunities for teachers’ professional development. On the basis of their findings, the authors conclude that the most productive conditions for informal workplace learning is a teacher culture that encourages and values collaborative learning. Evidence shows that professional development has an impact on teachers’ beliefs and behaviors. Evidence also indicates that the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and their practice is not straightforward or simple; on the contrary, it is dialectic, â€Å"moving back and forth between change in belief and change in classroom practice† (Cobb, Wood, and Yackel, 1990; Frank et al., 1997; Thompson, 1992, in Nelson, 1999, p. 6) Wood and Bennett (2000) support this statement with the results of a study, in which a group of early childhood educators in England were helping to collect data concerning their theories of play and their relationship to practice. As a result, these educators changed their own theories or teaching practices, or even both. Similar results are reported by Kettel and Sellas (1996) in a study of the development of practical theory of student-teachers in Australia; by Kallestad and Olweus (1998) in a study involving Norwegian teachers, which shows that teachers’ professional preparation and development have a large impact on defining teachers’ goals for their students, and these goals in turn affect the teachers’ behavior in the classrooms and schools; and also by Youngs (2001). Following the examination of data assessing the effects of four different models of professional development (teachers’ networks, the use of consultants and inter-visitations, students’ assessments and school improvement plans) on teachers’ professional development and school capacity in different part of the U.S.A, Youngs found that all models generally strengthened teachers’ knowledge, skills and dispositions, and they had varied effects on other aspects of school capacity. Yet, there is still a need for more research to be done in this area. According to the latest literature, some studies have been carried out as a result of this initiative. For example, research reported by Baker and Smith (1999) identified the following characteristics of professional development as being the most effective in sustaining change in teachers: 1. A heavy emphasis on providing concrete, realistic and challenging goals; 2. Activities that include both technical and conceptual aspects of instructions; 3. Support from colleagues; 4. Frequent opportunities for teachers to witness the effects that their efforts have on students’ learning. As Ingersoll (2001) reports: â€Å"Requiring teachers to teachers to teach classes for which they have not been trained or educated harms teachers and students† (p.42). Ingersoll refers to data that show that most â€Å"out-of-field† teachers are more commonly found among first-time teachers, in low-income schools, small schools, and lower-achieving classes. Classes with â€Å"out-of-field† teachers usually generate lower student achievement. In her research, Little (2001) discovered that in restructuring schools, most of the â€Å"official time† devoted to professional development is based on the conception that professional development is a process of inspiration and goal setting where administrators have already set goals and objectives of change, and professional development activities are used to motivate teachers to strive to meet them. In summary, the professional development of teachers is a key factor in ensuring that reforms at any level are effective. Successful professional development opportunities for teachers’ have a significant positive effect on students’ performance and learning. Thus, when the goal is to increase students’ learning and to improve their performance, the professional development of teachers should be considered a key factor, and this at the time must feature as an element in a larger reform. Little (2001). Local Dr. Manila (2002) is a newly-installed principal of a public secondary school in Baguio City which ranked second to the last in the achievement test in the previous school year. As an initial step to make the school one of the best in the city she selected several teachers to undergo a professional development program that she designed, hoping to achieve the results she envisioned for the school. A year after the training, the principal expected a big improvement in the performance of their school. Unfortunately, there was no improvement in the schools’ making. It is important that you learn to decide on what training is best for and what training should come first. Professional development programs are more effective when the individual needs of teachers are taken into account. The conduct of needs assessment must consider the critical skills areas that are needed for successful performance. The strength and weaknesses of teachers in key areas that have been proven to impact directly on student achievement should be identified. In a related study entitled â€Å"Continuing Professional and Technical Education in the Philippines† by Divina Edralin, Ph.D., the author’s recommendations may also be considered in making Continuing Professional Education serves its intended purpose among professional organizations. These are: 1. Formation of a Unifying Human Resource Development Framework; 2. Review of Matrix on Continuing Education; 3. Greater access to education, training, and retraining; 4. Incentives for Professionals and Technical Workers; 5. Needs identification and assessment; 6. Effective integration of education and employment; 7. Active tripartite cooperation; and 8. Financing Scheme. Moreover, to keep Continuing Professional Education relevant to the professions, certain challenges have to be considered. Terso Tullao, Jr. 1999 (p. 32) underlines â€Å"the need to refocus CPE programs towards research, graduate education, inventions and publications†. He adds: â€Å"Professional organizations should have their own journals reviewed by national or international experts. They should also sponsor professional lectures where there distinguished members or outside experts are asked to discuss topics on their expertise. Similar to the quest of higher educational institutions to make research outputs of their professors published in international journals, professional organizations should encourage their members to publish in referred international journals. Ultimately, professionals must realize that they are the best â€Å"architects† of their personal professional development plans. They have to be more proactive and take the initiative in enhancing their competence and performance. According to Zenon Arthur S. Udani, Ph.D., 1995, on his study on â€Å"Continuing Professional Educations: Training and Developing Filipino Professionals Admist Globalization†, Professional updates which trigger build-up in knowledge and related skills more professionals to the next stage of competence-building. â€Å"As they realize that what they know and what they can do are no longer sufficient to be productive and effective professionals, competence-building becomes a more urgent concern. It calls not only for updates in professional school basic knowledge and skills, but also for education derived from pluralistic sources (continuing education for professions) found useful in assuming competence required by what professionals actually do for a living.† At the stage of competence-building, professionals, aided by their associations, would have identified their key areas of professional development and growth. Updating members of professionals associations on current issues in their field is unquestionally important. This appears to be the dominant thrust of the professional associations surveyed in this study. However, CPE in these professional associations must go beyond this stage. Competence-building and performance-enhancement must also be encouraged among the member of professional associations. Ultimately, it is the personal vision, professional drive, and sense of urgency of the individual members that would guarantee positive outcomes and improvements in professional competence and performance.

Ethnics Unit 3 DB Essay Example for Free

Ethnics Unit 3 DB Essay In the business and corporate world of the contemporary society, this is a dominant principle currently being applied and observed by the group of the employers as well as the employees. This principle is regarding the current biological and physiological condition of a certain employee and connection with the personal aspect of drug use. This principle is mainly that drug use is and should be regarded as personal information thus it is rightfully private in nature and that employers should only access it on a need-to-know basis or only in exceptionally cases.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The said statement is indeed logical and that it should be dominantly applied and observed in the corporate world especially the employer’s side. However, the said statement also expressively given also rights for he employers to know on exceptional cases.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Employers indeed are notably to be on the perspective of pursuing the interest of the business and the protection of its safety and stability. On this reason, the must require full comprehension regarding the background and condition of their employees as their need-to-know basis. However, drug use information should be held rightfully private if the said information has no connection and/or present or future influence on the condition of the employee and its ability. Other cases such as personal matters pertaining to the employee’s physical and medical condition should hold the drug use information of the said personnel to be accessible for the employers. In this aspect, if indeed the safety and medical condition of the employee is greatly affected by the drug use information of the employee and that the working condition and ability of the said individual is affected by the his or her history of drug use, then the employer should have the right to know the said information as included in the exceptional cases entailed in the previous statement. In addition, if the drug use information is generally therapeutical and medical in nature, then the information should be publicly disclosed to the employers for safety purposes. Bibliography    Humber, James M. (1992). Privacy in the Corporation. Business Ethics. Prometheus Books, New York. Pages 250-60.

Application to Modern Investment Theory to EMH

Application to Modern Investment Theory to EMH The modern investment theory and its application on the efficient markets hypothesis 1. Introduction The Modern investment theory and its application is predicated on the Efficient Markets Hypothesis (EMH), assumption that markets fully and instantaneously integrate all available information into market prices. Underlying this comprehensive idea is the assumption that market participants are perfectly rational, and always act in self-interest, making optimal decisions. These assumptions have been challenged. It is difficult to tip over the neo classical convention that has yielded such insights as portfolio optimization, Capital Asset Pricing Model, Arbitrage Pricing Theory and Cox Ingersoll-Ross theory of the term structure of interest rates, all of which are predicated on the EMH[2] rather than downside risks[3]. The theory of behavioral finance is opposite to the traditional theory of Finance and deals with human emotions, sentiments, conditions, biases on collective as well as individual basis. Behavior finance theory is helpful in explaining past practices of investors and dete rmining the false performance of the investors. Behavioral finance is a concept of finance which deals with finances incorporating findings from psychology and sociology. It is reviewed that behavioral finance is generally based on individual behavior and financial market outcomes. There are many models explaining behavioral finance that explains investors behavior or market irregularities where rational models fail to provide adequate information. Investors do not expect such research to provide a method to make lots of money from inefficient financial markets quickly. According to Shiller (2001) Behavioral finance has basically emerged from the theories of psychology, sociology and anthropology where implications of these theories appear to be significant for efficient market hypothesis, that is based on the positive notion that people behave rationally, maximize their utility. It is found that in efficient market the principle of rational behavior is not always correct. Thus, the idea of analyzing other model of human behavior has come up. Gervais (2001) further explains the concept where he says that people like to relate to the stock market as a person having different moods, this person can be bad-tempered or high-spirited and can overreact one day or make amends the next. This person indicates human behavior which is unpredictable and behaves differently in different situations. Lately many researchers have suggested the idea that psychological analysis of investors may be very helpful in understanding financial markets better. To do so it is important to understand behavioral finance presenting the concept of traditional theory overestimating rationality of investors, their biases in decisions casting a cumulative impact on asset prices. To many researchers the study of behavior in finance appeared to be a revolution. As it transforms peoples mentality and perception about markets and factors that influence the markets. The paradigm is shifting. People are continuing to walk across the border from the traditional to the behavioral camp. Gervais (2001, pp.2). On the contrary some people believe that may be its too early to call it a revolution. Gervais (2001) states that Fama in (1970) argued that behavioral finance has not really shown an impact on world prices, and that model contradict each other on different point of times. Giving very less account to behaviorist explanations of trends and the irregularities anomaly ( is any occurrence or object that is strange, unusual, or unique) also argued that in order to locate patterns the data mining techniques are much helpful. Other researchers have also criticized the idea that behavioral finance models tend to replace the traditional models of market functions. Some weaknesses in this area, explained by Gervais (2001)are that generally overreaction and under reaction are major causes of market behavior. In these cases People take the behavior that seems to be easy for a particular study regardless of the fact that whether these biases are either primary factor of economic forces or not. Secondly, lack of trained and expert people. The field does not have enough trained professionals both in psychology or finance fields and therefore as a result the models presented by researchers are improvised. Gervais (2001) also focused on individual behavior impacting asset prices and explained that this field of behavioral finance is currently in its developmental stage, in its way of development it is facing a lot of disagreement which itself is a productive one. He points out that if we apply the conceptual models of behavioral finance to the corporate finance, it can majorly pay off. If money managers are incorrectly rational, means they are probably not evaluating their investment strategies correctly. They might take wrong decisions in their capital structure decisions. It has been found that quite a few people foresee behavioral finance displacing the age old Efficient Markets theory. On the contrary underlying assumption that investors and managers are completely rational makes insightful sense to many people. 2. Traditional Finance and Empirical Evidence Fung, (2006) claimed that Post Keynesian theory has criticized mainstream economic theory for using statistical methods to model the world in which histori ­cal market data cannot provide, In recent years, two different lines of research experimental economics and behavioral finance have pro ­duced results that are at odds with the predictions of mainstream finan ­cial theory. This paper argues that it is beneficial to the development of good financial theory for Post Keynesian economists to engage in an exchange of ideas with the practitioners of these two lines of research. The difference of opinion originated when experimental economics and behavioral finance understood the difference between agents rationality in theory and in real world. Both had a same point of view regarding Post Keynesian economists where both of them refused to assume Post Keynesian economists assumption of economic actors being always rational by maximizing expected utility. Instead of assuming ration al economic ac ­tors who always act consistently, they often tap into insights provided by psychology to try to explain economic behavior. The use of psychol ­ogy can be traced back to Keynes, and, in fact, some of the papers in experimental economics and behavioral finance take a remark of Keynes on the psychology of economic actors as an inspiration for designing empirical tests of economic behavior. Indeed, some of these papers rec ­ognize that we live in an uncertain world, and they examine the heuris ­tics, or rules of thumb, that economic actors develop to guide their behavior in face of uncertainty. When Keynes made his remark in 1936 (the original publication date of the General Theory), there was not yet an efficient market hypothesis. But in 1970 Fama published his pioneering paper on efficient markets. In it, he defined an efficient market as a market in which prices always fully reflect available information. Traditional theory assumes that agents are rational an d the law of one price holds that is a perfect scenario. Where the law of One price[5]. And agents rationality explains the behavior of investor Professional and Individual which is generally inconsistent with rationality or future predictions. If a market achieves a perfect scenario where agents are rational and law of one price holds then the market is efficient. With the availability of large amount of information, form of market changes. It is unlikely that market prices contain all private information. The presence of noise traders (traders, trading randomly and not based on information). Researches show that stock returns are typically unpredictable based on past returns where as future returns are predictable to some extent. According to Glaser et al. (2003) Few examples from the past literature explains the problem of irrationality which occurs because of naive diversification, behavior influenced by framing, the tendency of investors of committing systematic errors while ev aluating public information. Lately it has been found that investors` attitude towards the riskiness of a stock in future and the individual interpretation may explain the higher level trading volume, which itself is a vast topic for insight. A problem of perception exist in the investors actions that stocks have a higher risk adjusted returns than bonds. Another issue with the investors is that these investors either care about a stock portfolio or just about the value of each single security in their portfolio and thus ignore correlations. The concept of ownership society[6] has been promoted in the recent years where people can take better care of their own lives and be better citizen too if they are both owner of financial assets and homeowners. As Shiller (2006) suggested that in order to improve lives of less advantaged people in our society is to teach them how to be capitalist, In order to put ownership society in its right perspective, behavioral finance is needed to be und erstood. The concept of ownership society seems very attractive when people appear to make profits from their investments. Behavioral finance is also very helpful in understanding and justifying government involvement in investing decisions of individuals. The failure of millions of people to save properly for their future is also a core focus of behavioral finance. According to Glaser et al. (2003) there are two approaches towards behavioral finance, where both tend to have same goals. The goals tend to explain observed prices, market trading volume and Last but not the least is the individual behavior better than traditional finance models. Belief Based Model: Psychology (Individual Behavior) Incorporates into Model Market prices and Transaction Volume. It includes findings such as Overconfidence, Biased Self- Attrition, and Conservatism and Representativeness. Preference Based Model: Rational Friction or from psychology Find explanations, Market detects irregularities and individual behavior. It incorporates Prospect Theory[7], House money effect and other forms of mental accounting. Behavioral Finance and Rational debate: the article by Heaton and Rosenberg (2004) highlights the debate between the rational and behavioral model over testability and predictive success. And it was found that neither of them actually offers either of these measures of success. The rational approach uses a particular type of rationalization methodology; which goes on to form the basis of behavior finance predictions. A closer look into the rational finance model goes on to show that it employs ex post rationalizations of observed price behaviors. This allows them greater flexibility when offering explanations for economic anomalies. On the other hand the behavior paradigm criticizes rationalizations as having no concrete role in predicting prices accurately, t hat utility functions, information sets and transaction costs cannot be `rationalized. Ironically they also reject the rational finances explanatory power which plays an essential role in the limits of arbitrage, which actually makes behavioral finance possible. Heaton Rosenberg (2004) presented Milton Friedmans theory that laid the basis of positive economics. His methodology focused on how to make a particular prediction; it is irrelevant whether a particular assumption is rational or irrational. According to this methodology, the rational finance model relies on a limited assumption space since all assumptions that are supposedly not rational have been eliminated. This is one of the major reasons behind the little success in rational finance predictions. Despite the minimal results, adherents of this model have criticized the behavioral model as lacking quantifiable predictions that are based on mathematical models. Rational finance has targeted a more important aspect in the structure of economy, i.e. Investor uncertainty, which further cause financial anomalies. In explaining these assertions, the behavioral approach emphasizes importance of taking limits in arbitrage. Further his methodological approach falls into the category `instru mentalism[8], which basically states that theories are tools for predictions and used to draw inferences. Whether an assumption is realistic or rational is of no value to an instrumentalist. By narrowing what may or may not be possible, one will inevitably eliminate certain strategies or behaviors which might in fact go on to maximize utility or profits based on their uniqueness. An assumption could be irrational even in the long run, but it is continuously revised and refined to make it into something useful. In opposition to this, many individuals have said that behaviouralists are not bound by any constraints thus making their explanations systematically irrational. Heaton Rosenberg (2004) further explains the concept of Rubinstein that how when everyone fails to explain a particular anomaly, suddenly a behavioral aspect to it will come up, because that can be based on completely abstract irrational assumptions. To support rationality, he came up with two arguments. Firstly he w ent on to say that an irrational strategy that is profitable, will only attract copy cat firms or traders into the market. This is supported when a closer look is given towards limits to arbitrage. Secondly through the process of evolution, irrational decisions will eventually be eliminated in the long run. The major achievements characterized of the rational finance paradigm consist of the following: the principle of no arbitrage; market efficiency, the net present value decision rule, and derivatives valuation techniques; Markowitzs (1952) mean-variance framework; event studies; multifactor models such as the APT, ICAPM, and the Consumption CAPM. Despite the number of top achievements that supporters of the rational model claim, the paradigm fails to answer some of the most basic financial economic questions such as `What is the cost of capital for this firm? or `What is its optimal capital structure?; simply because of their self imposed constraints. So far this makes it seem lik e rational finance and behavioral finance are mutually exclusive. Contrary to this, they are actually interdependent, and overlap in several areas. Take for instance the concept of mispricing when there is no arbitrage. Behavior finance on the other hand suggests that this may not be the case; irrational assumptions in the market will still lead to mispricing. Further even though certain arbitrageurs may be able to identify irrationality induced mispricing, because of the imperfect market information, they are unable to convince investors of its existence. Over here, the rational model is accepting the existence of anomalies which are affected both through the factors of risk and chance; therefore coinciding with the perspective of behavioral finance. Two instances are clear examples of how rationalization is an important limit of arbitrage: i) the build-up and blow-up of the internet bubble; and ii) the superiority of value equity strategies. If we focus on the latter, we are able to see behavioral finance literature that highlights the superiority of such strategies in the ability of analysts to extrapolate results for investors. This is possible when rationalization is taken as a limit to arbitrage. Similarly these strategies may also limit arbitrage against mispricing, through the great risk associated with stocks. In explaining most anomalies it is essential that analysts first conclude whether pricing is rational or not. To prove their hypothesis that irrationality induced mispricing exists; behaviouralists may find it easier if they accepted the role of rationalization in limits of arbitrage. Slow information diffusion and short-sales constraints are other factors which explain mispricing. However these factors alone cannot form the basis of a strong and concrete explanation that will clarify pricing across firms and also across time. Those supporting the rational paradigm attack behavioral finance adherents in that their predictions for the financial markets have been made on irrational assumptions; that are not supported by concrete mathematical or scientific models. In their view the lack of concrete discipline in the methodology adopted in behavior finance leads to the lack of testing in their forecasts. On the other hand the rational model is criticized for its lack of success in financial predictions. The behaviouralists claim that this limitation exists because the supporters of rational finance dismiss aspects of the economic market simply because it may not fall into explainable rational behavior. Both perspectives claim to align themselves with respect to the goals of `testability and `predictions, while at the same time continue to offer evidence against the other model. In reality however, rather than being exclusively mutual both paradigms assist one another in making their predictions. Ray (2006) examines a new genre of behavioral markets prediction markets and their remarkable a bility to aggregate inside and expert information from around the world in order to accurately predict all types of economic and financial variables. To date it is said that the prediction markets are the most accurately efficient markets as they prove to show all three forms of market efficiency (weak, semi-strong, and strong), in contrast to regulated markets. Prediction markets are also said to be decision markets. It initially evolved in 1988 with the first online betting market the Iowa Electronic Market. These online markets have proven their predictions accurately since the time they came into being. To be precise these prediction markets are behavioral markets with powerful statistical components that are able to predict the most likely values of future financial variables, variances around such values, and their correlations with other future financial variables. Ray (2006) says that being unregulated, prediction markets are highly effective at flushing out and thereafter a ggregating relevant information including inside and expert information regarding a particular event, globally extracting such information from savvy bettors who are eager to profit from their inside and expert information. These sorts of prediction markets have become so popular that now a days major companies use such behavioral markets to accurately forecast sales, earnings, product success, and many other financial and economic variables. The foremost tool for these markets is the wisdom of crowd. In order to accurately predict financial and economical variables he presented few conditions as a prerequisite, which included mainly having a variety of opinions, with no herd behavior, should be able to use their knowledge according to the information available with them and last but not the least is the fact that prediction markets expectations are not self fulfilling prophecies. Prediction markets are a new genre of behavioral markets that continually reveal the thinking of confid ent insiders by suggesting them to profit from their inside and expert information. The subjective evidence with a few statistical evidences corroborates the impressive ability of these markets to predict financial events of all types. The phenomenon exists from ages and effectively proves its performance especially in worlds financial markets. The demonstrated accuracy of predictions in these markets can be of significant utility to traders, financial analysts, behavioral analysts, and many others intending to forecast and analyze financial data. A persons tendency to make errors is known as cognitive bias. These errors are based on the cognitive factors that include statistical judgments, social attribution and memory being common to all the humans in the world. Cognitive bias is the tendency of intelligent, well-informed people to consistently do the wrong thing. Crowell (1994, pp. 1). The reason behind this cognitive bias is that the Human brain is made for interpersonal relationships and not for processing statistics. He discussed the frailty of forecasts. Generally it is said that the world is divided into two groups: People forecasting positively and people forecasting negatively. These forecasts exaggerate the reliability of their forecasts and trace it to the illusion of validity which exists even when the illusionary character is recognized. Fisher and Statman, (2000) discussed five cognitive bias, underlying the illusion of validity that are Overconfidence, Confirmation, Representativeness, Anchoring, and Hindsight. Shiller (2002) discusses, that irrational behavior may disappear with more learning and a much more structured situation. History proves it that many of cognitive biases in human judgment value uncertainly will change; they may be convinced if given proper instructions, on the part-experience of irrational behavior. The three most common themes of behavioral finance are as follows: Heuristics, Framing and Market Inefficiencies. People when decide on the basis of the rules of thumb regardless of rationalizing suffer from Heuristics. Some forms of Heuristics are: Prospect theory, Loss Aversion, Status quo Bias, Gamblers Fallacy[9], Self-serving bias and lastly Money illusion. Framing is basically a problem of decision making where the decision is based on the point where there is difference in how the case is presented to the decision maker. Cognitive framing, Mental accounting and Anchoring are the common forms of Framing 3. Market Inefficiencies As observed, that market outcomes are totally opposite to rational expectations and efficient market hypothesis where mispricing, irrational decision making and return anomalies are examples of it. Fung (2006) introduced three forms of market efficiency earlier presented by Fama in 1970. In the weak form, the information set con ­tains only historical prices. In the semi strong form, information set contains all publicly available information. In the strong form, the infor ­mation contains not only all publicly available information but also insider information not available to the public. This definition of efficient mar ­kets is too general to be testable empirically. To make the model testable, he proposed a process of price formation known as the expected re ­turn or fair game efficient markets model. In this model, when investors form expectations of security prices, they fully utilize all the information that is fully reflected in those prices. It is called a fair game model, because using only the information that is fully reflected in security prices, no trading system can have expected profits or returns in excess of equi ­librium expected profits or returns. These terms have been described as specific market anomaly from a behavioral point of view. Anomaly (economic behavior) Disposition effect Endowment effect Inequity aversion Intertemporal consumption Present-biased preferences Momentum investing Greed and fear Herd behavior Anomalies (market prices and returns) Efficiency wage hypothesis Limits to arbitrage Dividend puzzle Equity premium puzzle Behavioral Economic Models are restricted to a certain observed market anomaly and it adjusts the neo classical models by explaining the phenomenon of Heuristics and framing to the decision makers. It is usually said that economics get along with in the neo classical framework, with just one restriction of the assumption of rationality. Loix et. Al (2005) in their paper Orientation towards Finances explains the individual financial management behavior, people dealing with their financial means. They have analyzed the Non-specific financial behavior as already we see extensive research on the specific finance behavior such as saving, taxation, gambling and amassing debt, and gave a lot of importance to stock market, investors and households. The analysis of general public`s behavior was done, where an ordinary man is not sure and simply act according to the guesses over their money related issues. It was also found that people interested in economic and financial matters are much more active in collecting specific information than general public, stating that financial behavior of household is an important relevant topic that needs to be discussed in much more details. Household financial management is similar to the financial management. The construct of orientation towards finances was developed where the individual ORTO FIN focuses on competencies (interest and skills). Having stronger money attitude is an indication of stronger orientation towards finances and much more effective competencies. Therefore we expect some relevance and similarity between corporate and household management behavior as both require organizing, forecasting, planning and control. Loix et. al (2005) analyzed general publics behavior in basically dividing them into two groups, Financial Information and Personal financial planning. Also explaining some practical and theoretical gaps in the area of psychology of money usage, they concluded that ORTOFIN (Orientation towards finance) indicates the involvement of individuals in managing their finances. Proving out the point that active interest in financial information and an urge to plan expenses are two main factors. A stronger ORTFIN indicates: greater use of debit accounts, higher savings account, wide variety of investments, greater awareness of ones financial Intimate knowledge of the details of ones savings/deposit accounts obsessed by money, higher achievement and power in monetary terms, Further age is also inversely proportional. Shiller, (2006) in his article talked about the co-evolution of neo-classical and behavior finance that in 1937 when A. Samuelsson one of the great economists wrote about people m aximizing the present value of utility subject to a present value. Another judgment he realized was time being consistent human behavior where if at any time t, 0 4. Investing and Cognitive Bias Money Managers and Money management is a very popular phenomenon. The performance in a stock market is measured at daily basis and waiting for a highly subjective annual review of ones performance by ones superior. Market grades you on a daily basis. The smarter one is, more confident one becomes of ones ability to succeed; clients support them by trusting them that eventually helps their careers. But the truth is that few money managers put in sufficient amount of time and effort to figure out what works and develop a set of investment principles to guide their investment decisions Browne (2000). Further he discussed the importance of asset allocation and risk aversion, in order to understand why we do what we do regardless of whether it is rational or not. General public opts for money Managers to deal with their finances and these managers are categorized in three ways: Value Managers, Growth Managers and Market Neutral Managers. The vast majority of money managers are categorized as either value managers or growth managers although a third category, market neutral managers, is gaining popularity these days and may soon rival the so-called strategies of value and growth. Some investment management firms even are being cautious by offering all styles of investments. What too few money managers do is analyze the fundamental financial characteristics of portfolios that produce long-term market beating results, and develop a set of investment principles that are based on those findings. Difference of opinion on the definition of value is the problem. The reasons for this are two-fold, one being the practical reality of managing large sums of money, and other related to behavior. As the assets under management of an advisor grow, universe of potential stocks shrinks. Analyzing why individual and professional investors do not change their behavior even when they face empirical evidence, suggests that their decisions are less than optimal. An answer to this questio n is said to be that being a contrarian may simply be too risky for the average individual or professional. If a person is wrong on collective basis, where everyone else also had made a mistake, the consequences professionally and for ones own self-esteem are far less damaging than if a person is wrong alone. The herd instinct allows for comfort of safety in numbers. The other reason is that individuals try to behave same way and do not tend to change courses of action if they are happy. If the results are not too painful individuals can be happy with sub-optimal results. Moreover, individuals who tend to be unhappy make changes often and eventually end up being just as unhappy in their new circumstances. According to traditional view of investment management, fundamental forces drive markets, however many other investment firms are consider being active and basing their working on their experienced Judgment. It is also believed that Judgmental overrides value and fundamental forces of markets can be lethal as well as a cause of financial disappointment. Historically it has been found that people override at wrong times and in most cases would be better off sticking to their investment disciplines and the reason to this behavior is the cognitive bias. According to Crowell (1994) and many other researchers, stocks of small companies with low price/book ratios provide excess returns. Therefore, given a choice among small cheap stocks and large high priced stocks, prominent investors (financial analysts, senior company executives and company directors) will certainly prefer small cheap ones. But the fact is opposite to this situation where these prominent investors would opt for large high priced ones and so suffer from cognitive bias and further regret. The assumptions made by Crowell (1994, pp.2) were that Long term investment value should be negatively correlated with size since small stocks provide superior returns. Long term Investment value should have a negative correlation with Price/book since low Price/Book stocks provide superior returns. Whereas the results Crowell`s survey were contrary stating that Long Term Investment had a positive correlation with size and with Price/Book stocks. Crowell further stated that according to Shefrin and Statman, prominent investors overestimate the probability that a good company is a good stock, relying on the representative heuristics, concluding that superior companies make superior stocks. Discussing the concept of regrets, aversion to regret is different from aversion to risk; Regret is acute when an individual must take responsibility for the final outcome. Aversion to regret leads to a preference for stocks of good companies. The choice of the stocks of bad companies involves more personal responsibility and higher probability of regret. Therefore, two major Cognitive errors appear: We have a double cognitive error: good company always makes good stock (representativeness), and involves less responsibility(Less aversion to regret). (Crowell, 1994,pp.3) The Anti Cognitive bias actions would be admitting to your owned stocks, admitting earlier investment mistakes. Further, taking the responsibility for actions to improve their performance in future. The reasons for all the available discip Application to Modern Investment Theory to EMH Application to Modern Investment Theory to EMH The modern investment theory and its application on the efficient markets hypothesis 1. Introduction The Modern investment theory and its application is predicated on the Efficient Markets Hypothesis (EMH), assumption that markets fully and instantaneously integrate all available information into market prices. Underlying this comprehensive idea is the assumption that market participants are perfectly rational, and always act in self-interest, making optimal decisions. These assumptions have been challenged. It is difficult to tip over the neo classical convention that has yielded such insights as portfolio optimization, Capital Asset Pricing Model, Arbitrage Pricing Theory and Cox Ingersoll-Ross theory of the term structure of interest rates, all of which are predicated on the EMH[2] rather than downside risks[3]. The theory of behavioral finance is opposite to the traditional theory of Finance and deals with human emotions, sentiments, conditions, biases on collective as well as individual basis. Behavior finance theory is helpful in explaining past practices of investors and dete rmining the false performance of the investors. Behavioral finance is a concept of finance which deals with finances incorporating findings from psychology and sociology. It is reviewed that behavioral finance is generally based on individual behavior and financial market outcomes. There are many models explaining behavioral finance that explains investors behavior or market irregularities where rational models fail to provide adequate information. Investors do not expect such research to provide a method to make lots of money from inefficient financial markets quickly. According to Shiller (2001) Behavioral finance has basically emerged from the theories of psychology, sociology and anthropology where implications of these theories appear to be significant for efficient market hypothesis, that is based on the positive notion that people behave rationally, maximize their utility. It is found that in efficient market the principle of rational behavior is not always correct. Thus, the idea of analyzing other model of human behavior has come up. Gervais (2001) further explains the concept where he says that people like to relate to the stock market as a person having different moods, this person can be bad-tempered or high-spirited and can overreact one day or make amends the next. This person indicates human behavior which is unpredictable and behaves differently in different situations. Lately many researchers have suggested the idea that psychological analysis of investors may be very helpful in understanding financial markets better. To do so it is important to understand behavioral finance presenting the concept of traditional theory overestimating rationality of investors, their biases in decisions casting a cumulative impact on asset prices. To many researchers the study of behavior in finance appeared to be a revolution. As it transforms peoples mentality and perception about markets and factors that influence the markets. The paradigm is shifting. People are continuing to walk across the border from the traditional to the behavioral camp. Gervais (2001, pp.2). On the contrary some people believe that may be its too early to call it a revolution. Gervais (2001) states that Fama in (1970) argued that behavioral finance has not really shown an impact on world prices, and that model contradict each other on different point of times. Giving very less account to behaviorist explanations of trends and the irregularities anomaly ( is any occurrence or object that is strange, unusual, or unique) also argued that in order to locate patterns the data mining techniques are much helpful. Other researchers have also criticized the idea that behavioral finance models tend to replace the traditional models of market functions. Some weaknesses in this area, explained by Gervais (2001)are that generally overreaction and under reaction are major causes of market behavior. In these cases People take the behavior that seems to be easy for a particular study regardless of the fact that whether these biases are either primary factor of economic forces or not. Secondly, lack of trained and expert people. The field does not have enough trained professionals both in psychology or finance fields and therefore as a result the models presented by researchers are improvised. Gervais (2001) also focused on individual behavior impacting asset prices and explained that this field of behavioral finance is currently in its developmental stage, in its way of development it is facing a lot of disagreement which itself is a productive one. He points out that if we apply the conceptual models of behavioral finance to the corporate finance, it can majorly pay off. If money managers are incorrectly rational, means they are probably not evaluating their investment strategies correctly. They might take wrong decisions in their capital structure decisions. It has been found that quite a few people foresee behavioral finance displacing the age old Efficient Markets theory. On the contrary underlying assumption that investors and managers are completely rational makes insightful sense to many people. 2. Traditional Finance and Empirical Evidence Fung, (2006) claimed that Post Keynesian theory has criticized mainstream economic theory for using statistical methods to model the world in which histori ­cal market data cannot provide, In recent years, two different lines of research experimental economics and behavioral finance have pro ­duced results that are at odds with the predictions of mainstream finan ­cial theory. This paper argues that it is beneficial to the development of good financial theory for Post Keynesian economists to engage in an exchange of ideas with the practitioners of these two lines of research. The difference of opinion originated when experimental economics and behavioral finance understood the difference between agents rationality in theory and in real world. Both had a same point of view regarding Post Keynesian economists where both of them refused to assume Post Keynesian economists assumption of economic actors being always rational by maximizing expected utility. Instead of assuming ration al economic ac ­tors who always act consistently, they often tap into insights provided by psychology to try to explain economic behavior. The use of psychol ­ogy can be traced back to Keynes, and, in fact, some of the papers in experimental economics and behavioral finance take a remark of Keynes on the psychology of economic actors as an inspiration for designing empirical tests of economic behavior. Indeed, some of these papers rec ­ognize that we live in an uncertain world, and they examine the heuris ­tics, or rules of thumb, that economic actors develop to guide their behavior in face of uncertainty. When Keynes made his remark in 1936 (the original publication date of the General Theory), there was not yet an efficient market hypothesis. But in 1970 Fama published his pioneering paper on efficient markets. In it, he defined an efficient market as a market in which prices always fully reflect available information. Traditional theory assumes that agents are rational an d the law of one price holds that is a perfect scenario. Where the law of One price[5]. And agents rationality explains the behavior of investor Professional and Individual which is generally inconsistent with rationality or future predictions. If a market achieves a perfect scenario where agents are rational and law of one price holds then the market is efficient. With the availability of large amount of information, form of market changes. It is unlikely that market prices contain all private information. The presence of noise traders (traders, trading randomly and not based on information). Researches show that stock returns are typically unpredictable based on past returns where as future returns are predictable to some extent. According to Glaser et al. (2003) Few examples from the past literature explains the problem of irrationality which occurs because of naive diversification, behavior influenced by framing, the tendency of investors of committing systematic errors while ev aluating public information. Lately it has been found that investors` attitude towards the riskiness of a stock in future and the individual interpretation may explain the higher level trading volume, which itself is a vast topic for insight. A problem of perception exist in the investors actions that stocks have a higher risk adjusted returns than bonds. Another issue with the investors is that these investors either care about a stock portfolio or just about the value of each single security in their portfolio and thus ignore correlations. The concept of ownership society[6] has been promoted in the recent years where people can take better care of their own lives and be better citizen too if they are both owner of financial assets and homeowners. As Shiller (2006) suggested that in order to improve lives of less advantaged people in our society is to teach them how to be capitalist, In order to put ownership society in its right perspective, behavioral finance is needed to be und erstood. The concept of ownership society seems very attractive when people appear to make profits from their investments. Behavioral finance is also very helpful in understanding and justifying government involvement in investing decisions of individuals. The failure of millions of people to save properly for their future is also a core focus of behavioral finance. According to Glaser et al. (2003) there are two approaches towards behavioral finance, where both tend to have same goals. The goals tend to explain observed prices, market trading volume and Last but not the least is the individual behavior better than traditional finance models. Belief Based Model: Psychology (Individual Behavior) Incorporates into Model Market prices and Transaction Volume. It includes findings such as Overconfidence, Biased Self- Attrition, and Conservatism and Representativeness. Preference Based Model: Rational Friction or from psychology Find explanations, Market detects irregularities and individual behavior. It incorporates Prospect Theory[7], House money effect and other forms of mental accounting. Behavioral Finance and Rational debate: the article by Heaton and Rosenberg (2004) highlights the debate between the rational and behavioral model over testability and predictive success. And it was found that neither of them actually offers either of these measures of success. The rational approach uses a particular type of rationalization methodology; which goes on to form the basis of behavior finance predictions. A closer look into the rational finance model goes on to show that it employs ex post rationalizations of observed price behaviors. This allows them greater flexibility when offering explanations for economic anomalies. On the other hand the behavior paradigm criticizes rationalizations as having no concrete role in predicting prices accurately, t hat utility functions, information sets and transaction costs cannot be `rationalized. Ironically they also reject the rational finances explanatory power which plays an essential role in the limits of arbitrage, which actually makes behavioral finance possible. Heaton Rosenberg (2004) presented Milton Friedmans theory that laid the basis of positive economics. His methodology focused on how to make a particular prediction; it is irrelevant whether a particular assumption is rational or irrational. According to this methodology, the rational finance model relies on a limited assumption space since all assumptions that are supposedly not rational have been eliminated. This is one of the major reasons behind the little success in rational finance predictions. Despite the minimal results, adherents of this model have criticized the behavioral model as lacking quantifiable predictions that are based on mathematical models. Rational finance has targeted a more important aspect in the structure of economy, i.e. Investor uncertainty, which further cause financial anomalies. In explaining these assertions, the behavioral approach emphasizes importance of taking limits in arbitrage. Further his methodological approach falls into the category `instru mentalism[8], which basically states that theories are tools for predictions and used to draw inferences. Whether an assumption is realistic or rational is of no value to an instrumentalist. By narrowing what may or may not be possible, one will inevitably eliminate certain strategies or behaviors which might in fact go on to maximize utility or profits based on their uniqueness. An assumption could be irrational even in the long run, but it is continuously revised and refined to make it into something useful. In opposition to this, many individuals have said that behaviouralists are not bound by any constraints thus making their explanations systematically irrational. Heaton Rosenberg (2004) further explains the concept of Rubinstein that how when everyone fails to explain a particular anomaly, suddenly a behavioral aspect to it will come up, because that can be based on completely abstract irrational assumptions. To support rationality, he came up with two arguments. Firstly he w ent on to say that an irrational strategy that is profitable, will only attract copy cat firms or traders into the market. This is supported when a closer look is given towards limits to arbitrage. Secondly through the process of evolution, irrational decisions will eventually be eliminated in the long run. The major achievements characterized of the rational finance paradigm consist of the following: the principle of no arbitrage; market efficiency, the net present value decision rule, and derivatives valuation techniques; Markowitzs (1952) mean-variance framework; event studies; multifactor models such as the APT, ICAPM, and the Consumption CAPM. Despite the number of top achievements that supporters of the rational model claim, the paradigm fails to answer some of the most basic financial economic questions such as `What is the cost of capital for this firm? or `What is its optimal capital structure?; simply because of their self imposed constraints. So far this makes it seem lik e rational finance and behavioral finance are mutually exclusive. Contrary to this, they are actually interdependent, and overlap in several areas. Take for instance the concept of mispricing when there is no arbitrage. Behavior finance on the other hand suggests that this may not be the case; irrational assumptions in the market will still lead to mispricing. Further even though certain arbitrageurs may be able to identify irrationality induced mispricing, because of the imperfect market information, they are unable to convince investors of its existence. Over here, the rational model is accepting the existence of anomalies which are affected both through the factors of risk and chance; therefore coinciding with the perspective of behavioral finance. Two instances are clear examples of how rationalization is an important limit of arbitrage: i) the build-up and blow-up of the internet bubble; and ii) the superiority of value equity strategies. If we focus on the latter, we are able to see behavioral finance literature that highlights the superiority of such strategies in the ability of analysts to extrapolate results for investors. This is possible when rationalization is taken as a limit to arbitrage. Similarly these strategies may also limit arbitrage against mispricing, through the great risk associated with stocks. In explaining most anomalies it is essential that analysts first conclude whether pricing is rational or not. To prove their hypothesis that irrationality induced mispricing exists; behaviouralists may find it easier if they accepted the role of rationalization in limits of arbitrage. Slow information diffusion and short-sales constraints are other factors which explain mispricing. However these factors alone cannot form the basis of a strong and concrete explanation that will clarify pricing across firms and also across time. Those supporting the rational paradigm attack behavioral finance adherents in that their predictions for the financial markets have been made on irrational assumptions; that are not supported by concrete mathematical or scientific models. In their view the lack of concrete discipline in the methodology adopted in behavior finance leads to the lack of testing in their forecasts. On the other hand the rational model is criticized for its lack of success in financial predictions. The behaviouralists claim that this limitation exists because the supporters of rational finance dismiss aspects of the economic market simply because it may not fall into explainable rational behavior. Both perspectives claim to align themselves with respect to the goals of `testability and `predictions, while at the same time continue to offer evidence against the other model. In reality however, rather than being exclusively mutual both paradigms assist one another in making their predictions. Ray (2006) examines a new genre of behavioral markets prediction markets and their remarkable a bility to aggregate inside and expert information from around the world in order to accurately predict all types of economic and financial variables. To date it is said that the prediction markets are the most accurately efficient markets as they prove to show all three forms of market efficiency (weak, semi-strong, and strong), in contrast to regulated markets. Prediction markets are also said to be decision markets. It initially evolved in 1988 with the first online betting market the Iowa Electronic Market. These online markets have proven their predictions accurately since the time they came into being. To be precise these prediction markets are behavioral markets with powerful statistical components that are able to predict the most likely values of future financial variables, variances around such values, and their correlations with other future financial variables. Ray (2006) says that being unregulated, prediction markets are highly effective at flushing out and thereafter a ggregating relevant information including inside and expert information regarding a particular event, globally extracting such information from savvy bettors who are eager to profit from their inside and expert information. These sorts of prediction markets have become so popular that now a days major companies use such behavioral markets to accurately forecast sales, earnings, product success, and many other financial and economic variables. The foremost tool for these markets is the wisdom of crowd. In order to accurately predict financial and economical variables he presented few conditions as a prerequisite, which included mainly having a variety of opinions, with no herd behavior, should be able to use their knowledge according to the information available with them and last but not the least is the fact that prediction markets expectations are not self fulfilling prophecies. Prediction markets are a new genre of behavioral markets that continually reveal the thinking of confid ent insiders by suggesting them to profit from their inside and expert information. The subjective evidence with a few statistical evidences corroborates the impressive ability of these markets to predict financial events of all types. The phenomenon exists from ages and effectively proves its performance especially in worlds financial markets. The demonstrated accuracy of predictions in these markets can be of significant utility to traders, financial analysts, behavioral analysts, and many others intending to forecast and analyze financial data. A persons tendency to make errors is known as cognitive bias. These errors are based on the cognitive factors that include statistical judgments, social attribution and memory being common to all the humans in the world. Cognitive bias is the tendency of intelligent, well-informed people to consistently do the wrong thing. Crowell (1994, pp. 1). The reason behind this cognitive bias is that the Human brain is made for interpersonal relationships and not for processing statistics. He discussed the frailty of forecasts. Generally it is said that the world is divided into two groups: People forecasting positively and people forecasting negatively. These forecasts exaggerate the reliability of their forecasts and trace it to the illusion of validity which exists even when the illusionary character is recognized. Fisher and Statman, (2000) discussed five cognitive bias, underlying the illusion of validity that are Overconfidence, Confirmation, Representativeness, Anchoring, and Hindsight. Shiller (2002) discusses, that irrational behavior may disappear with more learning and a much more structured situation. History proves it that many of cognitive biases in human judgment value uncertainly will change; they may be convinced if given proper instructions, on the part-experience of irrational behavior. The three most common themes of behavioral finance are as follows: Heuristics, Framing and Market Inefficiencies. People when decide on the basis of the rules of thumb regardless of rationalizing suffer from Heuristics. Some forms of Heuristics are: Prospect theory, Loss Aversion, Status quo Bias, Gamblers Fallacy[9], Self-serving bias and lastly Money illusion. Framing is basically a problem of decision making where the decision is based on the point where there is difference in how the case is presented to the decision maker. Cognitive framing, Mental accounting and Anchoring are the common forms of Framing 3. Market Inefficiencies As observed, that market outcomes are totally opposite to rational expectations and efficient market hypothesis where mispricing, irrational decision making and return anomalies are examples of it. Fung (2006) introduced three forms of market efficiency earlier presented by Fama in 1970. In the weak form, the information set con ­tains only historical prices. In the semi strong form, information set contains all publicly available information. In the strong form, the infor ­mation contains not only all publicly available information but also insider information not available to the public. This definition of efficient mar ­kets is too general to be testable empirically. To make the model testable, he proposed a process of price formation known as the expected re ­turn or fair game efficient markets model. In this model, when investors form expectations of security prices, they fully utilize all the information that is fully reflected in those prices. It is called a fair game model, because using only the information that is fully reflected in security prices, no trading system can have expected profits or returns in excess of equi ­librium expected profits or returns. These terms have been described as specific market anomaly from a behavioral point of view. Anomaly (economic behavior) Disposition effect Endowment effect Inequity aversion Intertemporal consumption Present-biased preferences Momentum investing Greed and fear Herd behavior Anomalies (market prices and returns) Efficiency wage hypothesis Limits to arbitrage Dividend puzzle Equity premium puzzle Behavioral Economic Models are restricted to a certain observed market anomaly and it adjusts the neo classical models by explaining the phenomenon of Heuristics and framing to the decision makers. It is usually said that economics get along with in the neo classical framework, with just one restriction of the assumption of rationality. Loix et. Al (2005) in their paper Orientation towards Finances explains the individual financial management behavior, people dealing with their financial means. They have analyzed the Non-specific financial behavior as already we see extensive research on the specific finance behavior such as saving, taxation, gambling and amassing debt, and gave a lot of importance to stock market, investors and households. The analysis of general public`s behavior was done, where an ordinary man is not sure and simply act according to the guesses over their money related issues. It was also found that people interested in economic and financial matters are much more active in collecting specific information than general public, stating that financial behavior of household is an important relevant topic that needs to be discussed in much more details. Household financial management is similar to the financial management. The construct of orientation towards finances was developed where the individual ORTO FIN focuses on competencies (interest and skills). Having stronger money attitude is an indication of stronger orientation towards finances and much more effective competencies. Therefore we expect some relevance and similarity between corporate and household management behavior as both require organizing, forecasting, planning and control. Loix et. al (2005) analyzed general publics behavior in basically dividing them into two groups, Financial Information and Personal financial planning. Also explaining some practical and theoretical gaps in the area of psychology of money usage, they concluded that ORTOFIN (Orientation towards finance) indicates the involvement of individuals in managing their finances. Proving out the point that active interest in financial information and an urge to plan expenses are two main factors. A stronger ORTFIN indicates: greater use of debit accounts, higher savings account, wide variety of investments, greater awareness of ones financial Intimate knowledge of the details of ones savings/deposit accounts obsessed by money, higher achievement and power in monetary terms, Further age is also inversely proportional. Shiller, (2006) in his article talked about the co-evolution of neo-classical and behavior finance that in 1937 when A. Samuelsson one of the great economists wrote about people m aximizing the present value of utility subject to a present value. Another judgment he realized was time being consistent human behavior where if at any time t, 0 4. Investing and Cognitive Bias Money Managers and Money management is a very popular phenomenon. The performance in a stock market is measured at daily basis and waiting for a highly subjective annual review of ones performance by ones superior. Market grades you on a daily basis. The smarter one is, more confident one becomes of ones ability to succeed; clients support them by trusting them that eventually helps their careers. But the truth is that few money managers put in sufficient amount of time and effort to figure out what works and develop a set of investment principles to guide their investment decisions Browne (2000). Further he discussed the importance of asset allocation and risk aversion, in order to understand why we do what we do regardless of whether it is rational or not. General public opts for money Managers to deal with their finances and these managers are categorized in three ways: Value Managers, Growth Managers and Market Neutral Managers. The vast majority of money managers are categorized as either value managers or growth managers although a third category, market neutral managers, is gaining popularity these days and may soon rival the so-called strategies of value and growth. Some investment management firms even are being cautious by offering all styles of investments. What too few money managers do is analyze the fundamental financial characteristics of portfolios that produce long-term market beating results, and develop a set of investment principles that are based on those findings. Difference of opinion on the definition of value is the problem. The reasons for this are two-fold, one being the practical reality of managing large sums of money, and other related to behavior. As the assets under management of an advisor grow, universe of potential stocks shrinks. Analyzing why individual and professional investors do not change their behavior even when they face empirical evidence, suggests that their decisions are less than optimal. An answer to this questio n is said to be that being a contrarian may simply be too risky for the average individual or professional. If a person is wrong on collective basis, where everyone else also had made a mistake, the consequences professionally and for ones own self-esteem are far less damaging than if a person is wrong alone. The herd instinct allows for comfort of safety in numbers. The other reason is that individuals try to behave same way and do not tend to change courses of action if they are happy. If the results are not too painful individuals can be happy with sub-optimal results. Moreover, individuals who tend to be unhappy make changes often and eventually end up being just as unhappy in their new circumstances. According to traditional view of investment management, fundamental forces drive markets, however many other investment firms are consider being active and basing their working on their experienced Judgment. It is also believed that Judgmental overrides value and fundamental forces of markets can be lethal as well as a cause of financial disappointment. Historically it has been found that people override at wrong times and in most cases would be better off sticking to their investment disciplines and the reason to this behavior is the cognitive bias. According to Crowell (1994) and many other researchers, stocks of small companies with low price/book ratios provide excess returns. Therefore, given a choice among small cheap stocks and large high priced stocks, prominent investors (financial analysts, senior company executives and company directors) will certainly prefer small cheap ones. But the fact is opposite to this situation where these prominent investors would opt for large high priced ones and so suffer from cognitive bias and further regret. The assumptions made by Crowell (1994, pp.2) were that Long term investment value should be negatively correlated with size since small stocks provide superior returns. Long term Investment value should have a negative correlation with Price/book since low Price/Book stocks provide superior returns. Whereas the results Crowell`s survey were contrary stating that Long Term Investment had a positive correlation with size and with Price/Book stocks. Crowell further stated that according to Shefrin and Statman, prominent investors overestimate the probability that a good company is a good stock, relying on the representative heuristics, concluding that superior companies make superior stocks. Discussing the concept of regrets, aversion to regret is different from aversion to risk; Regret is acute when an individual must take responsibility for the final outcome. Aversion to regret leads to a preference for stocks of good companies. The choice of the stocks of bad companies involves more personal responsibility and higher probability of regret. Therefore, two major Cognitive errors appear: We have a double cognitive error: good company always makes good stock (representativeness), and involves less responsibility(Less aversion to regret). (Crowell, 1994,pp.3) The Anti Cognitive bias actions would be admitting to your owned stocks, admitting earlier investment mistakes. Further, taking the responsibility for actions to improve their performance in future. The reasons for all the available discip