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Data Update 4 for 2021: The Hurdle Rate Question!

Musings on Markets

What is a hurdle rate for a business? In this post, I will start by looking at the role that hurdle rates play in running a business, with the consequences of setting them too high or too low, and then look at the fundamentals that should cause hurdle rates to vary across companies. What is a hurdle rate?

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Data Update 3 for 2021: Currencies, Commodities, Collectibles and Cryptos

Musings on Markets

In this post, I will take a look at these other markets, starting with a way of dividing investments into assets, commodities, currencies and collectibles that I find useful in thinking about what I can (and cannot) do in those markets, and then reviewing how these markets performed during 2020. Currencies : A currency serves three functions.

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Data Update 4 for 2024: Danger and Opportunity - Bringing Risk into the Equation!

Musings on Markets

In particular, there are wide variations in how risk is measured, and once measured, across companies and countries, and those variations can lead to differences in expected returns and hurdle rates, central to both corporate finance and investing judgments. What's coming?

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Risk = Danger + Opportunity!

CFO News Room

In my last point on inflation, I noted that a currency with higher inflation can be expected to depreciate over time against a currency with lower inflation. That expected devaluation in the high-inflation currency is not risk, though, since it can and should be incorporated into your forecasts.

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In Search of Safe Havens: The Trust Deficit and Risk-free Investments!

Musings on Markets

I was reminded of that paper a few weeks ago, when Fitch downgraded the US, from AAA to AA+, a relatively minor shift, but one with significant psychological consequences for investors in the largest economy in the world, whose currency still dominates global transactions. and the reverse will occur, when risk-free rates drop.

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Data Update 4 for 2022: Risk = Danger + Opportunity!

Musings on Markets

In my last point on inflation, I noted that a currency with higher inflation can be expected to depreciate over time against a currency with lower inflation. That expected devaluation in the high-inflation currency is not risk, though, since it can and should be incorporated into your forecasts.

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Data Update 1 for 2021: A (Data) Look Back at a Most Forgettable Year (2020)!

Musings on Markets

First, all value numbers (like market capitalization, debt or revenues) that I aggregate or average will be converted into US dollars to ensure currency consistency. First, all value numbers (like market capitalization, debt or revenues) that I aggregate or average will be converted into US dollars to ensure currency consistency.