Strategy Formulation

Yeo’s compete directly with one another at what is called the business level of strategic management. Competitors may be individual business units of a larger corporation or they may be stand- alone businesses. Because competition takes place at the business level, strategic management here is crucial to the overall success for Yeo’s . Accordingly, the concept of competitive advantage is both the focus of the three subsequent on strategy formulation. There is three parts that reflect the three major considerations in formulating a business- level strategy.The first part is to discuss alternative competitive advantages (Overall cost leadership, differentiation and focus group) and the strength and limitation of each. Yeo’s company has competitive advantage whenever it can attract customers and defend against competitive force better than its rivals. Successful competitive strategies usually involve building uniquely strong or distinctive edge over rivals. Some exa mple of distinctive competencies are superior technology and product features, better manufacturing technology and skills, superior sales and distribution capabilities and better customer service and convenience.Competitive strategy is about being different. It means deliberately choosing to perform activities differently or to perform different activities than rivals to deliver an unique mix of value. (Michael E. Porter). The essence of strategy lies in creating tomorrow competitive advantages faster than competitor mimic the one you possess today. (Gary Hamel & C. K. Prahalad). Overall cost leadership strategy The classic cost leadership strategy involves offering a no-frills product aimed at the most typical customer in a large target market.Anything to do with cost which related to money example raw material is cheap, workers salary is low facilities that Yeo’s can bite with the competitor. Because cost can usually be lowered as a product become more standardized, low-cos t manufacturing strive for long production runs and low- cost uniform packages. By targeting broadly defined markets with standard products, production technique can be used to create the greatest possible benefits from economies of scale and experience curve effect. Such as price sensitive customer do not mind about the price but customer care about the taste and uality like Maggie and Kraft. In this case Yeo’s should apply leadership strategy low- cost producers are protected from customer pressure to lower prices. Competitors cannot consistently price below what is known as their survival price, that which allow profit margins just adequate to maintain a business. The low- cost leader has a lower survival price than other competitor does, so customer will not be able to play one competing supplier against another to force prices below a level at which the cost leader can still make profit.Yeo’s would force less efficient suppliers out business, leaving the low-cost supplier with a monopoly. New entrants competing on the basic of price must face the low-cost leader without having the experience necessary to become efficient. Yeo’s company cumulative volume of production increase and the company gains experience in providing a particular good or service, production costs tend to decrease the experience curve effect. To the extent that experience affects costs in a particular industry, the low-cost leader is likely to have already moved far down its experience curve.New entrants lacking this experience will not enjoy a comparable cost reduction benefit and may be forced to enter market using some of the competitive advantages not related to low pricing. Holding the low-cost position may convince rivals not to enter a price war. Price wars can be ruinous to all competitor involved. Customer do not mind of the price whether is cheap or expensive, they only care about good quality and good taste which they trust on Yeo’s product. Diffe rentiation Differentiation strategies can help the company to differentiation their products offering by customizing product to suit consumer specific requirements.Appealing to broad cross- section of the market through offering differentiating features that make customer willing to pay premium price. Example quality, prestige, special features, service and convenience. Success with this type of strategy requires differentiation features that are hard or expensive for competitor to duplicate. Sustainable differentiation usually comes from advantages in core competencies, unique company resources or capabilities and superior management of value chain activities. Some condition that tend to favor differentiation strategies by Yeo’s company: * There are multiple ways to differentiate the product and ervice that buyers think have substantial value. * Buyers have different need or uses of the product and service * Product innovations and technological change are rapid and competit ion emphases the latest product features. Corporate Level Strategy In this aspect of strategy, we are concerned with broad decision about the total organization scope and direction. Basically, we consider what changes should be made in growth objective and strategy for achieving it, the lines of business we are in, and how these lines of business fit together.It is useful to think of three components of corporate strategy a) growth strategy b) portfolio strategy and c) parenting strategy. Growth strategy All growth strategies can be classified into one of two fundamental categories: concentration within existing industries or diversification into other line of business. When Yeo’s company current industries are attractive, have a good growth potential and do not face with serious threats, concentrating resources in the existing industries make good sense.Diversification tends to have a greater risk but is an appropriate option when a company current industries have little gro wth potential or are unattractive in other way. When an industry consolidates and becomes mature, unless there are other markets to seek, a company may have no choice for growth but diversification. Portfolio Analysis The experience curve is based on the concept that costs are a direct function of accumulated market share. Market share equates to profitability and cash flow.Market share equates to profitability and cash flow. Yeo’s company that successful in sub business unit and product lines will generate large cash flow as the sub business or products move toward maturity as contrasted to large cash requirement of sub business units and product lines in Yeo’s growth and development stages. As sub business units and products lines decline, cash flow will diminish and fade away. Effective utilization of cash flows and the nurturing of the most productive units requires management constant surveillance.The diversified company with multiple product lines has the opportu nity to balance cash flows and channel investment into the most promising areas of its portfolio. Diversified portfolio enables a company to control its internal allocation of resources. The ability to utilize tax losses from one units as an offset against a profitable one is an important advantages. Investing funds from a profitable maturing unit and product into the growing and cash- demanding part of Yeo’s, which show a tax loss, effectively lower the cost of the capital and provides an avenue for future growth through internally generated funds.The basis for portfolio analysis and the channeling of available investment funds into the most promising and productive units of the firms is based on the structure and philosophy of management. Its approach to control sub business unit and product lines, its attitude toward risk and growth and its interpretation of its life- cycle position are factors which have an impact on the effective use of portfolio management.Yeo’s which structure its diversified units into separate independent profit center entities with each area depending on its own resource may factors out the flexibility and advantages inherent in its diversification. Concentration on short-run profit and ignoring the potential growth sectors of the portfolio because of the initial lack of cash flow and profitability can lead to cash-draining in the defensive stage of the company Yeo’s life cycle and eventual movement into the decline. International strategy Mergers The threat of takeover was management of companies targeted for acquisition.The threat of takeover was more likely for companies which had low price and earnings ratios. The relatively low prices of the stock of Yeo’s company in relation to earning was attractive to aggressive expanding enterprises, particular the conglomerates. These predicated Yeo’s growth mainly on effecting financial synergy by trading the stock, which had high multiple of price to ear nings, for the stock of Yeo’s company with significantly lower price. Many effective strategies were developed by vulnerable companies to prevent unwanted takeover.Compatible mergers in such instances may provide an increase in the economies of scale and an increase in market share for the combined unit without the fear of cutthroat competition. The nature of the industry is an important factor determining the likelihood of acquisition and mergers. The mature industries which are generally dominated by large companies are less likely to have industry acquisitions and mergers. The new industries, which still lack dominant size in individual companies and are technologically oriented and most likely to have industry acquisitions and mergers.

Texting vs. Calling

â€Å"Texting vs. Calling† The evolution of cell phones has changed the world socially. The creation of cell phones began in the 1840s, but the first phone did not come out publically until 1977 (â€Å"Cell Phones†). Majority of people today could not go a day without their phones. Now that phones are more portable, lighter, smaller, and easier to use, more and more people are upgrading and getting newer phones. Since the 1990s, cell phones have added new features to expand the way we communicate with others.With the new cell phones today, a person can do more than just make phone calls, he or she can text, instant message, and send emails. The two most common forms of communication through a cell phone are making a phone call and texting. Despite the fact that texting and calling have many similarities, they have many differences. Texting is when a person types a short message on a cell phone and sends it to another person with a cell phone. Texting allows more conveni ence because it is a faster way to get in touch with someone.There are a lot of people who will not even call on their phones, but will respond to a text immediately. Texting is more private. When a person is in a public place, he or she will not disturb others and no one would know what his or her conversation is about. An individual can also send a picture through a text. For example, instead of describing an item over the phone, a person can send a picture. We can see many useful things that texting bring to us. While texting, we can think clearly before we intend to say something.Once a person says something while on the phone, it is out in the open and he or she cannot take it back. While texting give us some time to consider carefully before saying what we think. This can cause less drama and fights. It is also more difficult to start a conversation by calling every time. Sometimes, texting will be good for explaining or saying sorry. Having conversations can either push peopl e apart or bring people together. Depending on how a person says it and what kind of tone he or she uses, results in the way others may react.As if cell phones weren’t already pricey enough, the cost to have text messaging and calling features can put a dent in his or her pocket. That brings up another difference between texting and calling. Texting on the mobile phone is less costly than calling. Students and younger teenagers prefer paying for text messages rather than phone calls, especially when they’re low on money and do not have a job. Unless a person has unlimited texting, it can range from ten cents up to about twenty-five cents a message. Calling can be between one dollar to a dollar and twenty-five cents.It all depends on the phone plan he or she chooses, but the cost of calling is still more than the cost of text messaging. Even when researching the statistics of calling and texting, people can come to the conclusion that more cell phone users choose textin g over calling. More and more people agree that texting is more fun and easier than calling. All of this texting activity has come at the expense of voice. Last year, teens texted instead of calling because it was fun. Now, more teens consider texting faster and easier than calling.Voice activity has decreased fourteen percent among teens, who average 646 minutes talking on the phone per month. Many adults over the age of fifty-five, on the other hand, prefer to talk instead of text. It is said that they communicate by calling more than teens do. If it seems like American teens are texting all the time, it’s probably because on average they’re sending or receiving 3,339 texts a month. It’s amazing at how many people use texting more than calling, but sometimes calling can do more than texting can. Texting can be short and sweet; however, most people think calling is more meaningful.Someone can pick up the phone, and say, â€Å"I love you, mom† or â€Å"I will have dinner at home, Dad. † Just by hearing his or her voice, the parent will feel more satisfied compared to reading a text message. By calling, cell phone users can talk with their friends comfortably and transfer their emotions to their friends naturally. Although both have their own value, I believe that calling makes people closer than texting. Besides, people just call for 911. If they try texting a message to 911, it won’t quite work out like they thought. I will say that some messages you shouldn’t reply to.Some messages are sent just to deliver information that the receiver needs to complete a task or something simple as a greeting or a farewell. Also think about the elderly, they are not used to the new technology that the new mobile devices offer, so most likely text messaging will be out of the question for them. A lot of elderly people have bad vision and won’t quite understand the different options and menus that a new mobile device has to offer. The simple task of texting could take them up to thirty or more minutes, and I’m sure this will become very aggravating.Cell phones can be very distracting. Both texting and calling while driving are dangerous, but texting is absolutely unacceptable and more likely to cause accidents. Cell phone users have to look down at the phone to text and call. While making a phone call, it takes less time to dial a number than it does to type out a sentence. Texting causes drivers to focus more on what a text message says rather than worrying about driving. Phone calls require drivers to focus on the phone to dial a number, but it’s not nearly as distracting as texting.Overall, there are different aspects to look at when choosing whether to call or text, but both are great ways to communicate through a cell phone. A text or call can let people know they are being thought about and send out a bit of emotion. They both have many similarities and differences, but I believ e the differences overcome the similarities and are more important. Works Cited â€Å"Cell Phones. † Cell Phone History. N. p. , 2008. Web. 03 Oct. 2012. <http://cellphones. org/cell-phone-history. html>. Texting vs. Calling â€Å"Texting vs. Calling† The evolution of cell phones has changed the world socially. The creation of cell phones began in the 1840s, but the first phone did not come out publically until 1977 (â€Å"Cell Phones†). Majority of people today could not go a day without their phones. Now that phones are more portable, lighter, smaller, and easier to use, more and more people are upgrading and getting newer phones. Since the 1990s, cell phones have added new features to expand the way we communicate with others.With the new cell phones today, a person can do more than just make phone calls, he or she can text, instant message, and send emails. The two most common forms of communication through a cell phone are making a phone call and texting. Despite the fact that texting and calling have many similarities, they have many differences. Texting is when a person types a short message on a cell phone and sends it to another person with a cell phone. Texting allows more conveni ence because it is a faster way to get in touch with someone.There are a lot of people who will not even call on their phones, but will respond to a text immediately. Texting is more private. When a person is in a public place, he or she will not disturb others and no one would know what his or her conversation is about. An individual can also send a picture through a text. For example, instead of describing an item over the phone, a person can send a picture. We can see many useful things that texting bring to us. While texting, we can think clearly before we intend to say something.Once a person says something while on the phone, it is out in the open and he or she cannot take it back. While texting give us some time to consider carefully before saying what we think. This can cause less drama and fights. It is also more difficult to start a conversation by calling every time. Sometimes, texting will be good for explaining or saying sorry. Having conversations can either push peopl e apart or bring people together. Depending on how a person says it and what kind of tone he or she uses, results in the way others may react.As if cell phones weren’t already pricey enough, the cost to have text messaging and calling features can put a dent in his or her pocket. That brings up another difference between texting and calling. Texting on the mobile phone is less costly than calling. Students and younger teenagers prefer paying for text messages rather than phone calls, especially when they’re low on money and do not have a job. Unless a person has unlimited texting, it can range from ten cents up to about twenty-five cents a message. Calling can be between one dollar to a dollar and twenty-five cents.It all depends on the phone plan he or she chooses, but the cost of calling is still more than the cost of text messaging. Even when researching the statistics of calling and texting, people can come to the conclusion that more cell phone users choose textin g over calling. More and more people agree that texting is more fun and easier than calling. All of this texting activity has come at the expense of voice. Last year, teens texted instead of calling because it was fun. Now, more teens consider texting faster and easier than calling.Voice activity has decreased fourteen percent among teens, who average 646 minutes talking on the phone per month. Many adults over the age of fifty-five, on the other hand, prefer to talk instead of text. It is said that they communicate by calling more than teens do. If it seems like American teens are texting all the time, it’s probably because on average they’re sending or receiving 3,339 texts a month. It’s amazing at how many people use texting more than calling, but sometimes calling can do more than texting can. Texting can be short and sweet; however, most people think calling is more meaningful.Someone can pick up the phone, and say, â€Å"I love you, mom† or â€Å"I will have dinner at home, Dad. † Just by hearing his or her voice, the parent will feel more satisfied compared to reading a text message. By calling, cell phone users can talk with their friends comfortably and transfer their emotions to their friends naturally. Although both have their own value, I believe that calling makes people closer than texting. Besides, people just call for 911. If they try texting a message to 911, it won’t quite work out like they thought. I will say that some messages you shouldn’t reply to.Some messages are sent just to deliver information that the receiver needs to complete a task or something simple as a greeting or a farewell. Also think about the elderly, they are not used to the new technology that the new mobile devices offer, so most likely text messaging will be out of the question for them. A lot of elderly people have bad vision and won’t quite understand the different options and menus that a new mobile device has to offer. The simple task of texting could take them up to thirty or more minutes, and I’m sure this will become very aggravating.Cell phones can be very distracting. Both texting and calling while driving are dangerous, but texting is absolutely unacceptable and more likely to cause accidents. Cell phone users have to look down at the phone to text and call. While making a phone call, it takes less time to dial a number than it does to type out a sentence. Texting causes drivers to focus more on what a text message says rather than worrying about driving. Phone calls require drivers to focus on the phone to dial a number, but it’s not nearly as distracting as texting.Overall, there are different aspects to look at when choosing whether to call or text, but both are great ways to communicate through a cell phone. A text or call can let people know they are being thought about and send out a bit of emotion. They both have many similarities and differences, but I believ e the differences overcome the similarities and are more important. Works Cited â€Å"Cell Phones. † Cell Phone History. N. p. , 2008. Web. 03 Oct. 2012. <http://cellphones. org/cell-phone-history. html>.

Datastream User Guide

INFOSTREAM MAY/JUNE 2008 IN THIS ISSUE GROWTH IN US CONTENT Negotiate the world’s â€Å"info-noise† with Datastream’s expansive and reliable US-focused content. NEW VALUATION RATIOS RELEASED 14 new Datastream valuation ratios have been released, giving you a detailed overview of markets and sectors as well as enabling you to compare company to industry ratios.CONTENTS FEATURES Introducing Intelligent Information from Thomson Reuters Regional Focus – Growth in US Content PRODUCT ENHANCEMENT Functions, Units and Country Datatype Enhancements New Interface for Datastream Custom User-Created Indices in Development Coming Soon – Interactive Charting 1. Datastream Extranet Samples CONTENT ENHANCEMENT Equities and Equity Indices Update †¢ Global Update †¢ USA Update †¢ Middle East Update †¢ Asia Update I/B/E/S Global Aggregates Content Enhancement – Release of Additional Monthly History for Five Asian Indices Datastream Delivers Sought-after Commodity Information from Platts Metals Expansion Coverage Economics Round-up †¢ New Series †¢ Revisions and Methodology Changes †¢ Key Indicator Changes †¢ Interest Rates New Valuation Ratios Released in March Company Additions to Worldscope CONTRIBUTORS 3 4 12 14 16 20 20 23 25 25 27 28 29 31 31 34 35 35 36 39 41 FEATURES INTRODUCING INTELLIGENT INFORMATION FROM THOMSON REUTERS THOMSON DATASTREAM IS NOW PART OF THOMSON REUTERS. With operations in 93 countries, a market capitalisation in excess of $30 billion and 50,000 employees, Thomson Reuters has the resources and experience to serve our customers in the financial, media, legal, tax and accounting, scientific and healthcare markets.We hope you will see many positive changes from Thomson Reuters, starting with our new brand. One thing we do not intend to change, however, is our commitment to speed, accuracy, independence and freedom from bias, and our commitment to our customers, employees, shar eholders and other stakeholders. We aim to deliver on our promise to bring you intelligent information that provides knowledge to act. REGIONAL FOCUS – GROWTH IN US CONTENT AMERICA’S DATA OBESITY PROBLEM: SOLUTION – GO ON A DATASTREAM DIETNegotiate the world’s â€Å"info-noise† with Thomson Datastream’s expansive and reliable US-focused content. The US investment management industry is estimated to be worth over $30 trillion*. To support this financial leviathan, there is data in abundance available through a host of sources, including the Internet and any number of financial solutions, reports and delivery vehicles, so much so that the result for the end-user is a cacophony of â€Å"infonoise†.The author Neal Stephenson wrote that, â€Å"All information looks like noise until you break the code. † With Thomson Datastream, the US asset management industry has the ultimate code breaker. A modern-day Enigma machine. Thomson Datas tream, although international in its scope, allows unparalleled access to a landscape of historically deep, cross-asset and US-focused data, which is being continually expanded to address client needs and market developments.Sourced from such trusted third-party suppliers as Frank Russell, The Conference Board, MSCI and The University of Michigan Consumer Surveys, to name but a few, this US-orientated data can be placed alongside Thomson Datastream’s robust time series content (100 million series, including exclusive proprietary content) to better understand the performance of the US markets and construct investment strategies accordingly.INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008  Current market conditions are forcing the US investment community to work harder to â€Å"crack the code† and generate alpha. Thomson Datastream is the â€Å"codec† that allows them to achieve this, with the continual addition of North American-focused content. Recent addition s in Q1 2008 include Platts commodity pricing (see page 29) and increased coverage of US Corporate and Sovereign bonds.The Platts database is now available as a pass-through content set, and this market-leading data provides a vital insight for commodity-oriented investors in the USA, giving granular detail on the energy markets, allowing analysts of the energy sector, risk managers, commodity traders, asset managers and anyone wishing to diversify into commodities, the ability to view this valuable data, overlay the information against other factors and manipulate it within Thomson Datastream’s powerful charting and analytical capabilities. Furthermore, the recent addition of 14,000 US bonds significantly increasesUS fixed-income coverage to 43,000 securities for Government, Agency and Corporate bond issues. Within the economic sphere, Thomson Datastream allows access to crucial US-oriented sources to enable the investment management industry to analyse macro factors. For ex ample, US House prices, always a â€Å"hot topic†, are under even more scrutiny when placed within the current subprime context and wider economic conditions. Sources including the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the Mortgage Bankers Association and the S&P Case-Shiller indicators all give greater visibility into US economic health and direction.The chart below uses Shiller state-level data and compares house sales by major US cities. We can see that only in Charlotte, North Carolina, have house sales remained positive year on year, in 2007 albeit at a low 1. 75% level. The continuing crisis, and in particular the example of Bear Stearns, has highlighted the importance of having comprehensive cross-asset coverage available to the asset manager, with credit default swaps often cited. The CDS market is worth approximately $47 trillion and is demanding constant attention. Thomson Datastream carries a range of US-oriented CDS content, including aluable benchmarks for the USA such as the CDX. This index comprises the most liquid CDS contracts of US-based companies and acts as an indicator of the credit markets. The chart below shows clear negative correlation between the CDX index (North American swaps for investment-grade bonds) and the S&P Composite. INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008  These, and other CDX indices, measure debt-related derivatives, such as high-yield swaps, and enable US-focused asset managers to hedge their entire portfolios rather than trade each individual CDS per bond issue.Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once had Sherlock Holmes remark that, â€Å"It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. † Recently launched proprietary global CDS sector indices and the US-orientated suite, exclusive to Thomson Datastream, allow for greater tactical asset allocations across a portfolio, since the CDS market often captures market information faster than the equity markets. On the inclusion of this content, one Direc tor of Research at a US asset management firm commented, â€Å"The CDS indices are a great innovation. Can you provide us with the full global range? No-one else has this data. † Elementary my dear financial markets!The following example compares the US CDS banking sector against two US interest rate futures indicators. This analysis illustrates that the movement in the US Banking CDS sector anticipated the credit crisis by a little under two weeks, and shows the strong correlations (nine and ten-day lag against the sector respectively) that the futures have, compared to the sector. INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008  Other recently added proprietary Thomson Datastream content that lends itself to greater investigation and analysis of the US markets is the M&A series constructed from Thomson data.This content, overlaid against the CDS indices, can help give a clearer indication of the overall health of the M&A activity in the USA. With the credit crisis in Aug ust 2007, the number of completed deals that followed in September dropped and the spread in the CDX index correspondingly fell, as traders felt the deal market drying up. That relationship has broken down during the first quarter of 2008, which may be due to other economic factors. INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008  Thomson Datastream’s US-focused content is continually expanding.Across all asset classes, data is being added to ensure that the solution fits the high demands of the North American market, be it through the addition of macroeconomic indicators from such sources as S&P Case-Shiller, or through the display and access of quarterly fundamentals. And this investment is ongoing with soon-to-beadded US option coverage for the USA (S&P 500 and the Nasdaq) and Canada. Access to timely, comprehensive and accurate data is ever more important in a world where decisions have to be made fast.Thomson Datastream’s deep US coverage, across multiple asset classes, allows the US financial industry to cut through the â€Å"infonoise†, access vital must-have information and manipulate it with flexible analytical tools. In these current uncertain times, Thomson Datastream’s blend of reliable, multiple-asset, US content enables investors to make better, more-informed decisions and help avoid the pitfalls best summed up by an old Chinese proverb, which states, â€Å"To guess is cheap. To guess wrongly is expensive. † *Thomson Sharewatch. Based on the AUM from more than 4,000 US companies. INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008 THOMSON REUTERS 2008  PRODUCT ENHANCEMENT FUNCTIONS, UNITS AND COUNTRY DATATYPE ENHANCEMENTS The padding (PAD) function has been enhanced to enable values for missing intermediate data points to be derived via linear interpolation, so any missing (N/A) values within the time series will be calculated by linearly interpolating between the actual data values on either side. The format to use linear interpolatio n is PAD#(Expression, I). Example: To display the FTSE100 price high (PH) from December 2007 to January 2008 – there are N/A values for Christmas and New Year when the market is closed.Using the existing PAD function (without the I parameter) the N/A values are replaced by carrying forward the last actual value for the previous period. Whereas using the PAD function with the I parameter (last column below), the N/A values are replaced by values calculated by interpolating between the data either side, thereby producing a more uniform series. Code 20/12/2007 21/12/2007 24/12/2007 25/12/2007 26/12/2007 27/12/2007 28/12/2007 31/12/2007 01/01/2008 02/01/2008 03/01/2008 04/01/2008 07/01/2008 FTSE100(PH) 6367. 7 6451. 8 6485. 6 #N/A #N/A 6504. 1 6494 6480. #N/A 6512. 3 6487. 8 6534. 7 6376. 5 PAD#(FTSE100(PH)) 6367. 7 6451. 8 6485. 6 6485. 6 6485. 6 6504. 1 6494 6480. 2 6480. 2 6512. 3 6487. 8 6534. 7 6376. 5 PAD#(FTSE100(PH),I) 6367. 7 6451. 8 6485. 6 6491. 77 6497. 93 6504. 1 649 4 6480. 2 6496. 25 6512. 3 6487. 8 6534. 7 6376. 5 The continuous series (CSR) function has been enhanced, specifically for economic series, to allow quarterly series to be displayed at a monthly frequency using linear interpolated values, with a similar enhancement for annual series to be displayed at a quarterly or monthly frequency.The format to display interpolated values is CSR#(Series,M) or CSR#(Series,Q). Example: To display two quarterly series at a monthly frequency – United States GDP in real terms and the Eurozone 15 countries’ GDP in real terms. The actual quarterly data is: Code 15/05/2006 15/08/2006 15/11/2006 15/02/2007 15/05/2007 15/08/2007 15/11/2007 USGDP†¦D 11306. 7 11336. 7 11395. 5 11412. 6 11520. 1 11658. 9 11677. 1 EKGDP†¦D 1859. 84 1870. 18 1884. 62 1899. 5 1904. 74 1919. 03 1926. 38 Here, the US series is in billions of dollars at an annual rate, the Eurozone series is in billions of euros but not annualised.As the table below illustr ates, the CSR function without the M parameter simply repeats the quarterly value for each month of the quarter, but with the M parameter the data is presented in a more uniform way by interpolating between the quarterly numbers. For the United States series, the mid-quarter value of the monthly series is the same as the original quarterly series, whereas for the Eurozone series the mid-quarter value of the monthly series is one third of the original series. This is due to Eurozone GDP not being annualised, so the monthly numbers in the final column below represent the â€Å"best† estimate of actual GDP in that month.Code 15/07/2006 15/08/2006 15/09/2006 15/10/2006 15/11/2006 15/12/2006 15/01/2007 15/02/2007 15/03/2007 15/04/2007 15/05/2007 15/06/2007 15/07/2007 15/08/2007 15/09/2007 15/10/2007 15/11/2007 CSR#(USGDP†¦D) 11336. 7 11336. 7 11336. 7 11395. 5 11395. 5 11395. 5 11412. 6 11412. 6 11412. 6 11520. 1 11520. 1 11520. 1 11658. 9 11658. 9 11658. 9 11677. 1 11677. 1 CSR#(USGDP†¦D,M) CSR#(EKGDP†¦D) 11326. 7 11336. 7 11356. 3 11375. 9 11395. 5 11401. 2 11406. 9 11412. 6 11448. 4 11484. 3 11520. 1 11566. 4 11612. 6 11658. 9 11665 11671 11677. 1 1870. 18 1870. 18 1870. 18 1884. 62 1884. 2 1884. 62 1899. 5 1899. 5 1899. 5 1904. 74 1904. 74 1904. 74 1919. 03 1919. 03 1919. 03 1926. 38 1926. 38 CSR#(EKGDP†¦D,M) 622. 24 623. 39 625 626. 6 628. 21 629. 86 631. 52 633. 17 633. 75 634. 33 634. 91 636. 5 638. 09 639. 68 640. 49 641. 31 642. 13 The rules for calculating these values are as follows (these are dictated by the frequency conversion datatype (ECONV)): †¢ If ECONV = AVERAGE (example USGDP†¦D) – the actual quarterly number is placed in the mid-month of the quarter, and the intervening two months are linearly interpolated between the adjacent midquarter numbers. If ECONV = END POINT (example US64MGTLA – mortgage debt of the US financial sector), the actual quarterly number is placed in the last month of the qu arter, and then the intervening two months are linearly interpolated. †¢ If ECONV = SUM (example EKGDP†¦D), one third of the quarterly number is placed in the mid-month of each quarter, and the intervening two months are linearly interpolated between the mid-quarter numbers. INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 0 Annual series can be similarly represented at either a monthly or quarterly frequency using CSR#(series,M) or CSR#(series,Q). This new function allows a closer analysis of quarterly series on a monthly basis. For example if we correlate European Union total GDP (EXGDP†¦D) against United States GDP (USGDP†¦D), over the last ten years using a range of monthly lags, we find that the highest correlation, of 0. 99707, is with an 11-month lag of the US series.Note: These new parameters will be fully supported in a later version of the Advance interface – but can be used now either directly in AFO, or in the expression builder (where the mes sage that the parameter is unknown can be ignored). The economics magnitude (ESMAG) datatype, which displays the magnitude of the data as a number, eg 1000 for thousand, 1000000 for million, etc, has been enhanced so that it is now supported in Datastream expressions.This is useful for displaying a set of economic series data in the same units. In the example below, the total exports of visible goods for a selection of countries are displayed in millions of dollars for the year 2007 total. This is achieved by using the calendar year sum function CYS, converting all series to dollars using the tilde, multiplying by ESMAG and dividing by 1,000,000. In the analysis below the top three countries are (in order) Germany, China and United States.EXPORTS IN CURRENT PRICES TYPE AGEXPGDSA AUEXPGDSA CNEXPGDSB CHEXPGDSA FREXPGDSB BDEXPGDSB HKEXPGDSA INEXPGDSA IDEXPGDSA IREXPGDSA ITEXPGDSB JPEXPGDSB KOEXPGDSA MYEXPGDSA MXEXPGDSA NLEXPGDSA NZEXPGDSA NWEXPGDSA RSEXPGDSA SPEXPGDSA SAEXPGDSA ESEXPGD SA SDEXPGDSB SWEXPGDSA TWEXPGDSA THEXPGDSA UKEXPGDSA USEXPGDSB ESUNT US $ MILLION AUST $ MILLION CAN $ MILLION 100 MLN US$ EURO MILLIONS EURO BILLIONS HONG KONG MN$ IND RUPEE BLN US $ MILLION EURO THOUSANDS EURO MILLIONS YEN BILLION US $ MILLION RINGGIT MLN US $ MILLION EURO MILLIONS NZ$ MLN NRWGN KR MLN US $ MILLION SINGAPORE $’000 RAND MILLION EURO THOUSANDS SWEDISH KR MLN SWISS FRANC MLN TAIWAN $ MLN US $ MILLION ?MILLION US $ MILLION GEOGN ARGENTINA AUSTRALIA CANADA CHINA FRANCE GERMANY HONG KONG INDIA INDONESIA IRELAND ITALY JAPAN KOREA MALAYSIA MEXICO NETHERLANDS NEW ZEALAND NORWAY RUSSIAN FEDERATION SINGAPORE SOUTH AFRICA SPAIN SWEDEN SWITZERLAND TAIWAN THAILAND UNITED KINGDOM UNITED STATES X(ESMAG) 1000000 1000000 1000000 100000000 1000000 1000000000 1000000 1000000000 1000000 1000 1000000 1000000000 1000000 1000000 1000000 1000000 1000000 1000000 1000000 1000 1000000 1000 1000000 1000000 1000000 1000000 1000000 1000000 ESMAG EXPORTS-MILLIONS OF DOLLARS YEAR 200 CYS# (X~U$*XESMAG/1000)/1000 55933. 98 140975. 1 417035. 5 1217869 551328. 3 1330984 344676. 1 145260. 2 113953. 7 121504 491841 713111. 3 371489 176038. 3 272044 476323. 3 26946. 69 139232. 8 355176. 7 298876. 9 69661. 69 248555. 9 169700. 5 171465. 5 246181. 4 152480 436985. 3 1163314 INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 11Two new Country datatypes (GGISO and GGISN) have been introduced on Datastream: GGISO ISO Country Code GGISN ISIN Issuer Country The following table illustrates some examples: NAME ASM PACIFIC TECH C C LAND HOLDINGS CARNIVAL EADS (PAR) FRONTLINE GARMIN INVESCO MILLICOM INTL CELU SDB NWS HOLDINGS PARTNERRE PARTYGAMING QIAGEN (XET) RENAISSANCERE HDG ROYAL CARIBBEAN CRUISES ROYAL DUTCH SHELL A(LON) MNEM K:ASMP K:QPAK U:CCL F:EADS N:FRON @GRMN U:IVZ W:MICB K:PAPO U:PRE PRTY D:QIAX U:RNR U:RCL RDSA GEOGN HONG KONG HONG KONG UNITED STATES FRANCE NORWAY UNITED STATES UNITED STATES LUXEMBOURG HONG KONG UNITED STATES UNITED KINGDOM GERMANY UNITED STATES UNITED ST ATES NETHERLANDS GGISO HK HK US FR NO US US LU HK US GB DE US US NL GGISN KY BM PA NL BM KY BM SE BM BM GI NL BM LR GBNEW INTERFACE FOR DATASTREAM CUSTOM USER-CREATED INDICES IN DEVELOPMENT Datastream has provided facilities for creating your own custom indices for a number of years, through an integrated interface in Advance and Advance for Office (AFO) and a more comprehensive terminal interface. These indices are used extensively for evaluating different investment strategies and for use as portfolio benchmarks. We currently have in development a new Advance/AFO interface, offering a range of exciting features. These include support for an extended set of weighting methods (in addition to the current market value weighting method) – such as equal weighting, local currency, free float and using your own weights (as either a factor or a number of shares). INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 12 Index creation interface currently in developmentThe new interface w ill also facilitate the building and configuration of indices with more complex changes to their history, so in addition to supporting the importing of a set of constituents for a single point in time (either to use for the full index history, or to use going forward), these facilities will allow changes to constituents and weights at different dates to be imported directly from Excel – enabling an Excel range containing the complete history of constituent changes, reflecting either an investment strategy or specific stock selection, to be easily set up on Datastream. Equally, for indices already set up, the constituent history can be exported to Excel, and any changes made before being imported back to Datastream.We are also working on extending the set of datatypes that can be calculated for indices beyond the current list (price index, return index, market value, dividend yield and price earnings) – this will include the 15 new valuation measures that have recently been introduced for equities and Datastream equity indices. These include key measures such as sales, profits, debt, and a set of ratios such as return on equity and profit margin. Finally, in addition to supporting equities, the new interface will also support using other indices, and unit trusts as constituents. So, for example, you will be able to create a market value weighted index using thirdparty indices, Datastream indices or other custom user-created indices as their constituents. Further information will be made available via the Datastream Extranet when this new interface becomes available. INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 13 COMING SOON – INTERACTIVE CHARTING 1. 6The next release of Interactive Charting will be available soon to all users of Datastream Advance . 0 and will allow users to save their own user-created â€Å"styles† for charts. Preferences for fonts, colours, chart background and line styles can be defined, stored as a style a nd then applied to any chart in the user’s library. In addition, it will now be possible to set up custom colours and store these as part of your style. Set text style for your chart title, subtitle and legend: Set colour, thickness and style of the chart lines: Custom colours can also be defined: INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 1 Save the settings with a name of your choice: INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 1 DATASTREAM EXTRANET SAMPLESThe Datastream Samples page on the Extranet is a valuable source of content and functionality-related AFO tearsheets, that highlight the breadth and depth of content within the Datastream mainframe. Over the last few months, more models have been added, making access to existing and new content sets even easier. Some of the new sheets are detailed below, visit the Extranet site at: http://extranet. datastream. com/Free_Reports/AFO_SAMPLES. htm and look for the icon for more. Indices – Worldscope Inde x Valuations This new model displays a unique set of valuation datatypes for Datastream Global Equity Indices. Sourced from Worldscope and based on a trailing 12-month period if applicable, the datatypes include such popular items as EBITDA, Enterprise Value and CAPEX. INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 1Economics – Recession Bands Using the academic, two quarters of successive negative QOQ GDP growth, calculation of recession, this model allows users to select a country and overlay one of several pre-defined series such as Consumer Spending, Industrial Production and Unemployment rate figures. The chart period can be customised and a user-defined overlay series can also be utilised. INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 1 Options – Implied Volatility Surface Using Datastream’s extensive Options database, this model plots the implied volatility as a function of both the strike price and time to maturity. The resulting graph shows the implied volatility for all the options on a particular underlying series. INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 1Equities – Key Performance Indicators from Worldscope Effective 15 November 2007, Thomson Financial added Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the Hotel, Airline and Retail sectors. Initially for the Russell 3000 Index constituents, this model displays the current indicators for all qualifying constituents. INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 19 CONTENT ENHANCEMENT EQUITIES AND EQUITY INDICES UPDATE This month sees the release of additional valuation datatypes for the Russell indices. Changes to the way S&P constituent data is provided are effective from 1 June 2008 and customers are advised to read this carefully and take action if required. New Shariah indices are also available from S&P and FTSE.Read on for all the details. Global Update S&P Constituent Data – End-User Agreement Now Required for Access to Constituent-Level Dat a With effect from 1 June 2008, there is a change to the way constituent data for a number of S&P constituent families is provided on a number of Thomson products, such as Datastream, DDL, Datastream Advance in T1IM. From 1 June 2008, customers wishing to continue to access constituent datatypes such as constituent weights, number of shares and free-float data are required to have a direct end-user agreement with S&P. For each index family impacted by this change, a new module is available that provides access to the restricted datatypes.The names and identifiers of each security within each constituent list are not impacted by these changes and will remain unrestricted. This change is a result of S&P no longer licensing constituent-level index data for wholesale distribution through vendors to their clients. New modules created for each of the following index families impacted by this change: S&P US indices This includes the S&P 500, S&P MidCap 400, S&P SmallCap 600, S&P Composite 1500, S&P 1000, S&P 900, S&P 100, S&P REIT Composite, S&P Citigroup Style and all underlying sector, industry and style indices. S&P Australia This includes the S&P/ASX 50, S&P/ASX 100, S&P/ASX 200, S&P/ASX 300 and All Ordinaries Indices and all underlying sector, industry and style indices.S&P Global 1200 This includes the S&P Global 1200, S&P Europe 350, S&P/Topix 150, S&P/TSX60, S&P Asia 50 and S&P Latin America 40 and all underlying sector and industry indices. S&P/MIB This includes the S&P/MIB index. S&P/HKEx This includes the S&P/HKEx Hong Kong indices including the S&P/HKEx Composite index. S&P/Japan This includes the S&P Topix 150 index. Restricted Constituent List Datatypes From 1 June 200, the following datatypes are available only in the new modules. The restrictions also apply to these constituent datatypes provided for S&P historical constituent lists. Please note that not all datatypes are available or valid for all the S&P index families detailed above.A more detaile d list, along with all the constituent list mnemonics, is provided on the Datastream Extranet. The names and identifiers of each security within each constituent list are not impacted by these changes and remain unrestricted. DATATYPE WTIDX PIDX NSIDX FFIDX MVIDX CFIDX AFIDX CLS1 CLS1N CLS2 CLS2N CLS3 CLS3N CLS4 CLS4N DESCRIPTION CONSTITUENT WEIGHT PRICE OF EACH CONSTITUENT IN THE INDEX NUMBER OF SHARES INCLUDED IN THE INDEX FREE-FLOAT FACTOR OF EACH CONSTITUENT IN THE INDEX MARKET VALUE OF EACH CONSTITUENT IN THE INDEX CAPPING FACTOR ADJUSTMENT FACTOR GICS SECTOR CODE GICS SECTOR NAME GICS INDUSTRY GROUP CODE GICS INDUSTRY GROUP NAME GICS INDUSTRY CODE GICS INDUSTRY NAME GICS SUB-INDUSTRY CODE GICS SUB-INDUSTRY NAMEACTION REQUIRED In order to minimise the impact of these changes, it is advisable that you review as soon as possible if you wish to continue to access the above constituent list datatypes. If you do, you should contact S&P to discuss this or complete the form in the att ached notification and send it to S&P: http://extranet. datastream. com/data/Equity%20indices/ If you wish to discuss this directly with S&P, please contact one of the following: Americas: Maureen O’Shea EMEA: John Davies Asia: Angeline Choo ANZ: Guy Maguire Japan: Uchi Seiichiro Shariah Indices maureen_o’[email  protected] com +212 438 6174 [email  protected] com +44 (0)20 7176 8456 [email  protected] com +65 6239 6318 [email  protected] com +61 292 559 822 [email  protected] com +813 4550 8568 INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 21 A number of new Shariah indices are now available on Datastream. S&P Pan-Asia Shariah index The stocks for this index are drawn from the Asian country indices in the S&P/Citigroup Global Equity Index series, excluding Australia, Japan and New Zealand. Stocks for the universe must have at least US$ 1 billion in float-adjusted market capitalisation. The number of stocks, for Shariah screening purposes, is limited to t he top 15 from each country that exceeds the US$1 billion market capitalisation threshold.Each month a universe of stocks conforming to these criteria, selected once a year on 31 March, is screened for Shariah compliance to form this index. The countries eligible for inclusion in this index are China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. S&P Global and World Property Shariah index The S&P/Citigroup Global Property index represents and measures the investable universe of publicly traded property companies from developed and emerging markets. The constituents are companies engaged in a wide range of real estate related activities, such as property management, development, rental and investment.The component REIT stocks, in particular, include property trusts that invest in physical real estate assets and other pass-through vehicles. The S&P/Citigroup World Property Index is a subset of the Global Property Index and includes companies fr om the developed markets only. Each month a universe of stocks conforming to these criteria, selected once a year on 31 March, is screened for Shariah compliance to form these indices. INDEX NAME S&P PAN-ASIA SHARIAH $ S&P PAN-ASIA SHARIAH E S&P WORLD PROPERTY SHARIAH $ S&P WORLD PROPERTY SHARIAH E S&P GLOBAL PROPERTY SHARIAH $ S&P GLOBAL PROPERTY SHARIAH E MNEMONIC SPSHPA$ SPSHPAE SPWPRS$ SPWPRSE SPGPRS$ SPGPRSEDATATYPE PI, RI, NR, MV PI, RI, NR, MV PI, RI, NR, MV PI, RI, NR, MV PI, RI, NR, MV PI, RI, NR, MV START DATE 29/12/06 29/12/06 29/12/06 29/12/06 29/12/06 29/12/06 INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 22 FTSE Shariah Japan 100 $ index FTSE extended its FTSE Shariah Global Equity index family on 3 March 2008 with the release of the FTSE Shariah Japan 100 $ index. This index represents the performance of the 100 biggest Shariah-compliant companies by full market capitalisation, that are included in FTSE Japan index. The index is calculated in USD and history is av ailable from 3 March 2008. The index mnemonic is FSJP10$. Further information can be found on: http://www. ftse. om/Indices/FTSE_Shariah_Global_Equity_Index_Series/ Downloads/FTSE_Shariah_Japan_100_USD_Valuation. pdf USA Update Russell – Additional Datatypes for Benchmark Indices Thomson Reuters has released new datatypes for the Russell Benchmark indices. The new datatypes include price to book value (BP), price to cash flow (PC), price to sales (PS), return on equity (RE) and return on assets (AR), and complement the existing coverage of price earnings ratio (PE), dividend yield (DY) and market value (MY) for the same indices. Customers who have access to the existing Russell Standard or Russell Premier pass-through modules will be able to access the new datatypes. Click on this link for more details: http://extranet. datastream. om/data/Equity%20indices/documents/Russellreleasemessagev2. doc The valuation ratios are updated at approximately 09:00 GMT on every sixth busines s day of the following month. INDEX DESCRIPTION RUSSELL TOP 50 RUSSELL TOP 200 RUSSELL TOP 200 GROWTH RUSSELL TOP 200 VALUE RUSSELL 1000 RUSSELL 1000 GROWTH RUSSELL 1000 VALUE RUSSELL 2000 RUSSELL 2000 GROWTH RUSSELL 2000 VALUE RUSSELL 2500 INDEX MNEMONIC RRUST50 RRUS200 RRUS20G RRUS20V RRUSS1L RRUS1GR RRUS1VA RRUSS2L RRUS2GR RRUS2VA RRUS250 DATATYPES PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PCBASE DATE 30/01/1998 31/01/2002 29/12/1978 31/01/2002 31/03/1986 31/01/2002 31/03/1986 31/01/2002 29/12/1978 31/01/2002 29/12/1978 31/01/2002 29/12/1978 31/01/2002 29/12/1978 31/01/2002 29/12/1978 31/01/2002 29/12/1978 31/01/2002 29/12/1978 31/01/2002 INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 23 RUSSELL 2500 GROWTH RUSSELL 2500 VALUE RUSSELL 3000 RUSSELL 3000 GROWTH RUSSELL 3000 VALUE RUSSELL 3000E RUSSELL 3000E GROWTH RUSSELL 3000E V ALUE RUSSELL SMALL CAP COMPLETENESS RUSSELL SMALL CAP COMPLETENESS GROWTH RUSSELL SMALL CAP COMPLETENESS VALUE RUSSELL MIDCAP RUSSELL MIDCAP GROWTH RUSSELL MIDCAP VALUE RUSSELL MICROCAP RUSSELL MICROCAP GROWTH RUSSELL MICROCAP VALUE RRUS25G RRUS25V RRUSS3L RRUS3GR RRUS3VA RR3000E RR30GRE RR30VAE RRS3XSD RRS3GXD RRS3VXD RRUSMID RRUSMIG RRUSMIV RRUSMIC RRUSMGR RRUSMVAPS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC PS, RE, BP, AR PC 31/03/1986 31/01/2002 31/03/1986 31/01/2002 29/12/1978 31/01/2002 30/03/1979 31/01/2002 30/03/1979 31/01/2002 30/06/2005 30/06/2005 30/06/2006 30/06/2006 30/06/2006 30/06/2006 31/12/1979 31/01/2002 31/12/1979 31/01/2002 31/12/1979 31/01/2002 29/12/1978 31/01/2002 31/03/1986 31/01/2002 31/03/1986 31/01/2002 30/06/2005 30/0 6/2005 30/06/2006 30/06/2006 30/06/2006 30/06/2006Global Property Research Two new indices from Global Property Research are now available on Datastream. History is available from 28 March 2008. INDEX NAME GPR 250 PSI CHINA GPR 250 PSI CHINA E GPR 250 PSI CHINA $ GPR 250 REIT CHINA GPR 250 REIT CHINA E GPR 250 REIT CHINA $ MNEMONIC GPR2CHL GPR2CHE GPR2CH$ GPRRCHL GPRRCHE GPRRCH$ DATATYPE PI, RI, MV, DY, NE PI, RI, MV, DY, NE PI, RI, MV, DY, NE PI, RI, MV, DY, NE PI, RI, MV, DY, NE PI, RI, MV, DY, NE INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 2 Middle East Update Jordan – Additional Equity Datatypes Thomson Reuters has released additional Jordan unadjusted price datatypes on Datastream from 18 March 2008.The additional equity datatypes are: †¢ Unadjusted price ask (UPA) †¢ Unadjusted price bid (UPB) †¢ Unadjusted price high (UPH) †¢ Unadjusted price low (UPL) †¢ Unadjusted price open (UPO) †¢ Unadjusted trade volume (UVO) The Jordan stocks currently covered on Datastream can be found in the list FJORD. The prices are updated at approximately 12:30 GMT. Asia Update Thailand – Additional Datatypes Market value (MV) is now available for all Thailand Stock Exchange indices. History is available from 25 December 2007. In addition to the MV data, other datatypes are also now available for the Thai Industry Group Indices – these are: PE, BP, DY, MV, VO and VA. History is available from 25 December 2007.Thailand Benchmark and Sector Indices INDEX NAME BANGKOK SET BANGKOK SET 50 BANGKOK SET 100 THAILAND MAI THAILAND SE AGRIBUSINESS THAILAND SE FOOD AND BEVERAGE THAILAND SE FASHION THAILAND SE HOME & OFFICE PRODUCTS THAILAND SE PERSONAL PRODUCTS & PHARMACEUTICALS THAILAND SE BANKING THAILAND SE FINANCE AND SECURITIES THAILAND SE INSURANCE THAILAND SE AUTOMOTIVE THAILAND SE INDUSTRIAL MATERIALS & MACHINERY THAILAND SE PACKAGING THAILAND SE PAPER & PRINTING MATERIALS THAILAND SE PETROCHEMICALS & CHEMICALS THAILAND SE CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS THAILAND SE PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT THAILAND SE ENERGY & UTILITIES THAILAND SE MINING THAILAND SE COMMERCE THAILAND SE HEALTH CARE SERVICES THAILAND SE MEDIA & PUBLISHING THAILAND SE PROFESSIONAL SERVICES THAILAND SE TOURISM & LEISURE THAILAND SE TRANSPORTATION & LOGISTICS THAILAND SE ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS THAILAND SE INFORMATION & COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY MNEMONIC BNGKSET BNGKS50 BNGK100 BNGKMAI BNGKAGR BNGKFDI BNGKFHN BNGKHHG BNGKPPH BNGKBNK BNGKFIN BNGKINS BNGKAUT BNGKIMM BNGKPAK BNGKPPM BNGKPET BNGKCTR BNGKPDV BNGKENG BNGKMIN BNGKCOM BNGKHCS BNGKENR BNGKPFS BNGKHOT BNGKTLO BNGKELC BNGKCMM DATATYPE MV MV MV MV MV MV MV MV MV MV MV MV MV MV MV MV MV MV MV MV MV MV MV MV MV MV MV MV MV INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 2 Thailand Industry Group IndicesINDEX NAME THAILAND SE AGRO & FOOD INDUSTRY THAILAND SE CONSUMER PRODUCTS THAILAND SE FINANCIALS THAILAND SE INDUSTRIALS THAILAND SE PROPERTY & CONSTRUCTION THAILAND SE RESOURCES THAILAND SE SER VICES THAILAND SE TECHNOLOGY MNEMONIC BNGKAGF BNGKCON BNGKFNI BNGKIND BNGKPRO BNGKRES BNGKSER BNGKTEK DATATYPE PE, BP, DY, MV, VO, VA PE, BP, DY, MV, VO, VA PE, BP, DY, MV, VO, VA PE, BP, DY, MV, VO, VA PE, BP, DY, MV, VO, VA PE, BP, DY, MV, VO, VA PE, BP, DY, MV, VO, VA PE, BP, DY, MV, VO, VA INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 2 I/B/E/S GLOBAL AGGREGATES CONTENT ENHANCEMENT – RELEASE OF ADDITIONAL MONTHLY HISTORY FOR FIVE ASIAN INDICES Thomson Reuters has released additional monthly history for five major indices in Asia to I/B/E/S Global Aggregates.Previously going back only one year, monthly history for these indices now goes as far back as January 2005, with weekly history back to January 2006 – providing even more value-added content. The five series are: COUNTRY TAIWAN TAIWAN TAIWAN MALAYSIA MALAYSIA IGA INDEX NAME TAIWAN SE WEIGHTED TAIEX TSEC TAIWAN 50 TSEC TAIWAN MIDCAP 100 KUALA LUMPUR COMPOSITE INDEX (KLCI) KUALA LUMPUR SE EMAS IGA IDENTIFIER TAIEX TSEC50 TSECMID KLCI KLEMAS DATASTREAM MNEMONIC @:TAIEX @:TASEC5 @:TAMID1 @:MYKLCI @:MYEMAS This additional history was made available with the March 2008 monthly run. For further information or assistance, please contact content. [email  protected] com or your local Thomson Datastream customer service or account team. INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 2DATASTREAM DELIVERS SOUGHT-AFTER COMMODITY INFORMATION FROM PLATTS Market watchers know that commodities are now in their fifth year of a bull run, with many hitting their all-time high price over the last year or so and drawing the attention of hedge funds, investment houses and others looking to increase their portfolio weightings in this asset class. Now Thomson Datastream clients can access end-of-day commodity price assessments by way of the industry-leading Platts Dispatch product, to help them reduce risk as they make key trading decisions, value positions and analyse data. †¢ Platts, a division o f McGraw-Hill, provides industry-standard commodity price assessments that are critical elements used to settle short- and long-term OTC contracts worldwide. Renowned for their energy commodity coverage, Platts pricings help industry specialists understand commodity price trends and developments. Available on a pass-through basis, Platts Dispatch over Thomson Datastream delivers end-of-day price assessments, third-party data, and an historical database of more than 25,000 commodity time series, many with several decades of data. †¢ Platts commodities data spans: oil and shipping; petrochemicals; metals; electricity and gas; coal and emissions; data via American Petroleum Institute Statistics; and Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts’ prices. †¢ Overall, the content is available through 129 data categories, which can be chosen individually or grouped into packages, and may contain one or more of the following data attributes: high, low, bid, ask, mid-price, close and volume.Frequency of series ranges from daily, weekly, monthly or infrequently – priced when an event occurs. †¢ Clients subscribing to Platts content through Thomson Datastream will be able to use its existing functionality and integrate this content with other available leading Thomson Datastream content sets. All clients must maintain a direct agreement, which must be in place with Platts prior to the client being entitled to its data. More information on the data and how clients can obtain an agreement for it can be found on: http://extranet. datastream. com/data/Commodities/Index. htm INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 2 METALS EXPANSION COVERAGEThomson Reuters has expanded Datastream’s metal coverage with an additional 00 new time series, covering Asian metal spot prices with a distinct focus on the Chinese market and the inclusion of steel price indices and other steel-related products. Customers can now access CRU Steel price ind ices for semi-finished and finished carbon steel products, known to be the most widely used benchmarks in the world steel industry. Complementing these indices are SteelHome’s China Steel price indices. In additional to steel indices, Chinese metal prices from local steelmakers with the following characteristics are now available: †¢ Stainless steel †¢ Coke/coal †¢ Iron ore †¢ Pig iron/scrap †¢ Wire rod/rebar †¢ Medium plates †¢ CR/HR †¢ Section †¢ Ferro-alloy/non-ferrous INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 29Further expansion with a focus on Asian metal prices is now available for the following categories: †¢ Base metals †¢ Minor metals †¢ Rare earths †¢ Ferro-alloys †¢ Refractories †¢ Iron and steel Chinese Base Metals Comparison INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 30 ECONOMICS ROUND-UP New Series More than 3,000 series have recently been added to the Economics database, w ith particular emphasis on more detail in key coverage areas such as international trade. Some of the highlights are summarised below, with links given to the relevant Content Updates on the Datastream Extranet, where more information and series listings are available. Trade Detail for Turkey More than 300 commodity trade series are now available for Turkey, as sourced from the Turkish Statistical Institute.Import and export coverage is given by three different classification schemes: Broad Economic Categories, International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC) and Standard International Trade Classification (SITC). Also added were trade by country series. All data is monthly, most with start dates from January 1996. (See Content Updates #2780, 2791, 2794 and 2819. ) Trade detail has also been recently added for France and Brazil. See the table below. Confidence Surveys for Indonesia Series from the Bank of Indonesia’s surveys on business and consumer expectations have b een released on Thomson Datastream. The new data includes information about business conditions during the current quarter, as well as expectations for the following quarter, by industry. Concepts covered are business activities, selling prices and usage of labour. 2772) The consumer survey is headlined with three indices – Consumer Confidence Index (CCI), Current Economic Condition Index (CECI) and the Consumer Expectation Index (CEI). Also available are price expectations of major commodities in three and six months’ time, consumption plans and appraisal of economic conditions. (2769) In the News †¢ US Housing House purchase price indices, produced by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), are now available. Data is reported for the US total and nine Census divisions on a quarterly basis. (2824) †¢ Energy in China Series detailing consumption of energy fuels and electricity by industry have been added.The statistics are annual, as repor ted by National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS). (2775) The table overleaf itemises the new data releases that have been made over the last two months. The table provides access links to the original Content Update announcements on the Research Extranet, where more information is given, including series lists – just click on the description in the first column, which is a hyperlink. Also provided are Navigator citations and links – referring to locations in Thomson Datastream Navigator, Explorer for Economics, where the relevant series are shown. INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 31 New Series by Region # Series Content Navigator Location Added Update #See Explorer for Economics> National Sources 129 6 7 18 7 16 5 15 54 40 2867 2880 2847 2837 2833 2835 2853 2879 2796 2824 Brazil > External Sector > Imports and Exports > Trade by Commodity Brazil > External Sector > International Reserves Brazil > Money and Finance > Money Supply Chile > Key Indicato rs Chile > External Sector > External Investment & Debt Chile > Government Sector > Government Surplus/Deficit Chile > External Sector > International Reserves Colombia > Industry Sector > Housing and Construction Detail United States > Money & Finance > Banking (MFIs) > FDIC Quarterly Banking Profile United States > Industry Sector > Housing & Construction Detail > OFHEO House Price Index AmericasBrazilian External Trade by Commodity Brazilian International Reserve Assets Brazilian Money Supply Components Chilean Consumer Credit and Bank Lending Chilean External Debt Chilean Government Accounts Chilean Official Reserves Colombian Housing Construction by Cities US FDIC Quarterly Banking Profile US OFHEO Purchase-Only House Price Indices Asia Chinese Energy Series Indonesian Business Survey series Indonesian Consumer Confidence Survey Indonesian Retail Sales Survey series Japanese Lease Series 73 104 83 16 15 2775 2772 2769 2774 2844 See Explorer for Economics > National Sources Chin a > Industry Sector > Other Industry detail > Energy Indonesia > Surveys & Cyclical Indexes > Business Surveys Indonesia > Surveys & Cyclical Indexes > Consumer Surveys Indonesia > Surveys & Cyclical Indexes > Retail Sales Survey Japan – Premium Service > Industry Sector > Other Industry Detail > Machinery & Equipment > Equipment Leasing & PurchasesJapanese Motor Vehicle Imports Japanese Treasury Funds Receipts & Payments Balances with the Private Sector Malaysian Bank Lending Malaysian Foreign Reserves Malaysian Manufacturing Sales Value New Zealand Manufacturing Survey series Thailand Non-Performing Loans 11 29 2763 2770 Japan – Premium Service > Industry Sector > Automobiles & Transport Detail > Vehicle Imports Japan – Premium Service > Government Sector > Treasury Funds Balance of Receipts & Payments with the Private Sector 25 6 1 48 16 2825 2797 2839 2785 2832 Malaysia > Money & Finance > Banking (MFIs) Malaysia > Money & Finance > International Reserves > Monthly series Malaysia > Industry Sector> Industrial Production > Manufacturing Production and Sales New Zealand > Industry Sector > Sales, Orders, Inventories Thailand > Money & Finance > Banking (MFIs) > Non-Performing Loans EuropeAustria Producer Price Index Austrian Labour Market Austrian Wholesale, Retail Trade and Services Bulgarian National Accounts Danish Gross Fixed Capital Formation Finnish Gross Fixed Capital Formation – Construction French External Trade Statistics by Commodity & Area Netherlands Government Sector series Netherlands Seasonally Adjusted Quarterly Industrial Production Series Portuguese Employment and Industrial Sales Turnover Portuguese Government Revenue and Expenditure Romanian Consumer Price Index Romanian Wages and Earnings Slovak National Accounts Spanish International Reserves United Kingdom Detailed Index of Production 63 23 14 315 49 6 165 2873 2802 2852 2779 2789 2877 2857 35 39 90 8 12 20 298 35 12 2812 2868 2850 2859 2818 2826 2861 2810 2790See Explorer for Economics > National Sources Austria > Prices > Producer Prices Austria > Labour Market > Employment & Hours Austria > Industry Sector > Sales, Orders, Inventories > Retail Sales and other lists Bulgaria > National Accounts > GDP by industry Denmark > National Accounts > Investment/Capital Formation various lists Finland > National Accounts > Investment/Capital Formation France > External Sector > Imports & Exports > Trade by Commodity various lists Netherlands > Government Sector Netherlands > Industry Sector > Industrial Production & Utilisation > Production Indices SA Portugal > Labour Market > Employment & Hours and Wages & Earnings Portugal > Industry Sector > Sales, Orders, Inventories Portugal > Government Sector > Government Surplus/Deficit Romania > Prices > Consumer Prices Romania > Labour Market > Wages & Earnings Slovakia > National Accounts > GDP by Expenditure Spain > External Sector > International Reserves United Kingdom > Industry Sector > Indu strial Production & Utilisation > Main Indicators > Seasonally Adjusted and Not Seasonally Adjusted INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 32 New Series by Region # Series Content Navigator Location Added Update #See Explorer for Economics > International Sources – History 230 2754 European Commission > Business and Consumer Surveys various lists Eurozone European Commission Aggregate Series for Eurozone 15 #5 – Business & Consumer Surveys ECB Aggregate Series for Eurozone 15 #6 – Prices and Labour Market ECB Aggregate Series for Eurozone 15 #7 – Retail Sales 10 2855 15 2845 European Central Bank > ECB Monthly Bulletin > Prices, Output, Demand and Labour Markets > Labour Market and HICP, Other Prices and Costs European Central Bank > ECB Monthly Bulletin > Prices, Output, Demand and Labour Markets > Output and Demand Middle East & AfricaEgyptian Foreign Direct Investment by Area Egyptian Remittances Israel Wages and Employee Posts Israeli Natio nal Accounts South Africa Energy Statistics Turkish Foreign Trade by Commodity (Broad Economic Categories) Turkish Foreign Trade by Commodity (ISIC Classification) Turkish Foreign Trade by Commodity (SITC) Turkish Foreign Trade by Country 77 152 45 2791 2794 2819 31 21 99 198 10 42 2860 2838 2764 2752 2854 2780 See Explorer for Economics > National Sources Egypt > External Sector > External Investment & Debt Egypt > Labour Market > Wages and Earnings Israel > Labour Market > Employment & Hours and Wages & Warnings Israel > National Accounts > GDP by Expenditure South Africa > Industry Sector > Other Industry Detail Turkey > External Sector > Imports & Exports > Trade by Commodity > Imports and ExportsTurkey > External Sector > Imports & Exports > Trade by Commodity > Imports and Exports Turkey > External Sector > Imports & Exports > Trade by Commodity > Imports and Exports Turkey > External Sector > Imports & Exports > Trade by Country International OECD Main Economic Indicators â⠂¬â€œ February 2008 24 2768 See Explorer for Economics > International Sources – History OECD Main Economic Indicators > Indicators for OECD Zones and Indicators for OECD NonMember Countries various lists OECD Main Economic Indicators – March 2008 8 2834 OECD Main Economic Indicators > Indicators for OECD Member Countries and Indicators for OECD Non-Member Countries various lists INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 33Revisions and Methodology Changes It has been a busy period, with revisions to US seasonally adjusted data and index rebasings in a number of markets. Other more substantive changes have been made to balance of payments and the trade-weighted exchange rate for Euroland, household interest rates for the UK, Flow of Funds and Household Economy Survey for Japan, and unemployment statistics for Denmark. The following table summarises the revisions that have taken place in the last two months. Please refer to the Content Update itself (hyperlinked from the table) for further information and mnemonics of affected series. Country Revised Data Content Update # Changes to Economic SeriesAustralia Austria Denmark Euroland Israel Italy Japan Australian Construction Work Done Revised Australian Labour Force Survey Revised Austrian Wages Rebased Danish Unemployment Methodology Changed ECB Effective Exchange Rates Redefined Eurozone Monthly Balance of Payments Changed Israeli Wages and Employment Data Revised Italian External Trade Index Rebased Japan Electronic Equipment Market Size and Demand Forecasts Changed Japan Flow of Funds Accounts Series Methodology Changed Rebased Japanese Household Economy Survey Partly Discontinued Japan Real & Nominal Effective Exchange Rates Redefined Philippines South Korea Philippine Industrial Production Indices Rebased Philippine Producer Price Indices Rebased South Korean Business Indicator Composite Indices Rebased South Korean Housing Purchase Price Index Rebased South Korean Industrial Producti on Rebased South Korean Manufacturing Production Rebased & Changed South Korean Retail Sales Rebased South Korean Service Industry Index Rebased Sweden Taiwan Thailand Turkey UK USA Swedish Retail Sales Index Rebased Taiwanese Price Indices Rebased Thai External Trade & Terms of Trade Index Rebased Turkish National Accounts Rebased UK Bank of England Household Interest Rates Changed US Industrial Production & Capacity Utilization Revised US Seasonally Adjusted Consumer Price Indices Revised US Seasonally Adjusted Existing Home Sales Revised US Seasonally Adjusted Pending Home Sales Revised US Seasonally Adjusted Producer Price Indices Revised US Seasonally Adjusted Unemployment Insurance Claims Revised US Wholesale Trade: Sales and Inventories Revised 2792 2848 2827 2842 2760 2820 2759 2858 2849 2869 2878 2846 2757 2876 2821 2805 2799 2811 2813 2809 2806 2800 2767 2828 2836 2864 2882 2762 2784 2804 2781 2871 2872 INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 3 Key Indicator Cha nges The Economics team continues to review Key Indicator selections for each market, in order to add more, ensure the best selection and bring more consistency across countries. See below for recent additions and hyperlinks to relevant Content Updates, where more information is given. Key Indicator ChangeAustria Consumer Credit Added Austria International Reserves Selection Changed Austria Producer Prices Selection Changed Chilean Consumer Credit and Bank Lending Added Israeli Employment and Wages Selection Changed Polish Producer Price Index Resourced Romanian Producer Price Index Now on Fixed Base Swedish Business Confidence Indicators Selection Changed Thai Bank Loans Series Added Mnemonics OECRDCONA OERESERVA OEPROPRCF CLCRDCONA & CLBANKLPA POPROPRCF RMPROPRCF SDCNFBUSR & SDCNFBUSQ THBNKLONA Content Update # 2822 2807 2843 2837 2766 2793 2798 2773 ISWAGES. E, ISWAGMANF & ISEMPALLG 2758 Interest Rates Repo Rates for Thailand Four bilateral repurchase rates, as released by the Ba nk of Thailand, are now available. The series are weighted average rates with 1, 7, 14 and 30-day terms.The Bilateral Repurchase Operation is conducted through appointed Bilateral Primary Dealers and helps in stimulating the private repurchase market. Repurchase transactions are used by the bank to temporarily add or drain reserves available in the banking system. Mnemonics are as follows: Description THAILAND BILATERAL REPO RATE 1 DAY THAILAND BILATERAL REPO RATE 7 DAY THAILAND BILATERAL REPO RATE 14 DAY THAILAND BILATERAL REPO RATE 30 DAY DS Mnemonic THBRP1D THBRP7D THBRP2W THBRP1M Datatype IR IR IR IR INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 3 NEW VALUATION RATIOS RELEASED IN MARCH March saw the release of 1 new valuation ratios on Thomson Datastream.These ratios are calculated on the equity level as well as the industry, sector, country and regional levels of the Datastream Indices, and allow a great number of data comparisons to highlight trends which previously woul d have needed compilation of data before use. In brief, these ratios are based on the Worldscope database items and using wherever possible the latest interim data on a 12-month trailing basis. The full methodology is described in the following link on the Extranet: http://extranet. datastream. com/data/Equities/documents/DatastreamGlobalEquityIndicesvaluationdatatypes-rulesvs4final. pdf INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 3 So what can we do with these ratios?You can compare a company to its industry, locally and regionally, as is illustrated here using Return on Equity. About Martek Biosciences Corporation Founded in 1985, the group’s principal activity is to develop, manufacture and sell naturally produced products derived from micro-algae, fungi and other microbes. The group’s products and services include speciality, nutritional oils for infant formula, nutritional supplements and food ingredients to promote mental and cardiovascular health, fluores cent markers for diagnostics, rapid miniaturised screening and gene and protein detection. Its ROE is compared here with the US Food & the World Food industries.You can also †¦make sector comparisons across different regions of the world using the regional-level aggregates Here we have compared the Capital Expenditure of the Pharmaceutical industry in various regions: Europe, USA, Far East and World. Capital expenditure for USA and Europe represents almost 90% of the capex spent in that industry worldwide, and it’s interesting to see how the drop in US relative capex has been totally mirrored by an increase in Europe’s importance in this domain. INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 3 †¦or look at a particular sector in a different light, using here the Interest coverage ratio to illustrate the Turkish Telecom Sector and its ability to repay debt Interest charge coverage, also called interest coverage ratio, is defined by EBIT divided by the inte rest expense for each period.It indicates the ability of the company (or in this case the sector) to repay its debt using the income generated by the business. Levels above 3 are considered having a strong ability to repay debt, while businesses whose ratio drops below 1. 5 (red line on the chart) are considered risky. It’s interesting to show how the sector market index started picking up once the interest coverage ratio moved above 3 towards the end of 2004. This is also when the sector was open to competition. New licences were granted to 16 suppliers of data transmission services in fixed telephony. Further steps towards liberalisation and breaking up of the monopoly were taken in 2005/06 by the sale of Turk Telekom.Vodafone repurchased Telsim, the second largest mobile phone operator. The Turkish telecommunications network continued to grow, currently ranked the 13th largest market in the world and fifth in Europe. INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 3 COM PANY ADDITIONS TO WORLDSCOPE During February and March over 00 companies were added to the Worldscope Database. These additions included 112 US Companies and a continuing expansion of coverage of Middle Eastern markets. Also, Nigeria was added to our country coverage. Worldscope’s total coverage at 8th April 2008 consisted of 56,448 companies, 36,508 of which were active companies. 10,172 of these companies are Limited data set companies (8,064 active).COUNTRY ARGENTINA AUSTRALIA AUSTRIA BAHRAIN BELGIUM BERMUDA BRAZIL CANADA CAYMAN ISLANDS CHILE CHINA COLOMBIA CZECH REPUBLIC DENMARK EGYPT ESTONIA FINLAND FRANCE GERMANY GREECE HONG KONG HUNGARY ICELAND INDIA INDONESIA IRELAND ISRAEL ITALY JAPAN JORDAN KOREA (SOUTH) KUWAIT LITHUANIA LUXEMBOURG MALAYSIA MEXICO MOROCCO NETHERLANDS TOTAL 0 FEB 200 113 2490 203 35 286 82 602 2524 28 261 1903 54 82 330 59 7 238 1657 1550 401 1168 46 19 2102 401 158 225 525 4816 30 1154 87 3 68 1208 227 26 408 COMPANIES ADDED FEB-MAR 200 5 25 1 5 5 1 2 15 2 3 50 0 1 0 3 0 0 13 4 0 4 5 0 26 8 0 2 6 37 5 17 9 0 0 4 2 0 1 ACTIVE  APR 200 86 1912 105 40 148 76 386 1598 22 218 1895 35 20 170 55 7 138 866 1052 288 1022 29 17 2023 359 79 186 295 3971 35 974 96 3 46 1002 132 24 212 INACTIVE  APR 200 32 603 99 0 143 7 218 941 8 46 58 19 63 160 7 0 100 804 502 113 150 22 2 105 50 79 41 236 882 0 197 0 0 22 210 97 2 197 TOTAL  APR 200 118 2515 204 40 291 83 604 2539 30 264 1953 54 83 330 62 7 238 1670 1554 401 1172 51 19 2128 409 158 227 531 4853 35 1171 96 3 68 1212 229 26 409 INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 39NEW ZEALAND NIGERIA NORWAY PAKISTAN PERU PHILIPPINES POLAND PORTUGAL QATAR RUSSIAN FEDERATION SAUDI ARABIA SINGAPORE SLOVAKIA SLOVENIA SOUTH AFRICA SPAIN SRI LANKA SWEDEN SWITZERLAND TAIWAN THAILAND TURKEY UNITED ARAB EMIRATES UNITED KINGDOM UNITED STATES VENEZUELA VIRGIN ISLANDS (BRITISH ZIMBABWE OVERALL TOTALS 202 0 409 152 103 263 263 144 35 123 55 772 25 11 843 316 34 607 437 1685 639 263 36 4563 181 92 50 13 30 1 3 5 5 2 13 2 21 1 1 33 24 9 0 1 20 5 2 6 1 35 5 0 13 23 112 0 0 4 0 114 5 193 130 86 241 246 60 36 141 79 647 10 12 370 150 32 330 275 1500 535 230 48 2298 9039 35 12 32 30 91 0 221 24 30 24 38 85 0 15 0 134 15 0 493 171 4 283 163 220 109 33 1 2288 9265 15 1 2 1990 205 5 414 154 116 265 284 145 36 156 79 781 25 12 863 321 36 613 438 1720 644 263 49 4586 18304 50 13 34  INFOSTREAM MAY/JUN 2008  © THOMSON REUTERS 2008 0 CONTRIBUTORS PRODUCT MANAGEMENT PAUL BACON DATAFEEDS paul. [email  protected] com +44 (0)20 7324 6873 JULIAN RICKARDS DATASTREAM ADVANCE, DSWINDOWS, DSDDE julian. [email  protected] com +44 (0)20 7336 1944 CASEY PEARCE DATASTREAM INTERACTIVE CHARTING casey. [email  protected] com +44 (0)20 7324 9359 IAN BROCKLEHURST THOMSON ONE INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS ian. [email  protected] com +44 (0)20 7324 8890 DAVID BERNARD THOMSON ONE INVESTMENT BANKING SOLUTIONS david. [email  protected] com +44 (0)20 7336 1930 STEVE KELLY THOMSON EXTEL SURVEYS steve. [email  protected] com +44 (0)20 7324 9200 CONTENT MANAGEMENTNICOLAS DE LAURENS CASTELET GLOBAL CONTENT SOLUTIONS nicolas. [email  protected] com +44 (0)20 7336 1950 STEPHEN CARTER COMPANY ACCOUNTS stephen. [email  protected] com +44 (0)29 2063 1943 ANNE SIEBER EQUITIES, EQUITY INDICES, FUNDS & 3RD-PARTY DATA anne. [email  protected] com +44 (0)20 7324 9741 JAMES BRIGHT I/B/E/S GLOBAL AGGREGATES ESTIMATES DATA james. [email  protected] com +44 (0)20 7324 9600 NELSON SALSINHA DERIVATIVES & COMMODITIES nelson. [email  protected] com +44 (0)20 7324 9455 MADELEINE DISARIO ECONOMICS madeleine. [email  protected] com +1 301 545 4255 TONY MCCORMACK FIXED INCOME tony. [email  protected] com +44 (0)20 7014 1232

Credit Scoring and Its Impact Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Credit Scoring and Its Impact - Essay Example It has an important influence on the interest rate incorporated to the borrowed money. With the significance of credit score, knowing it enables an individual to question the accuracy of the score, and as a result, negotiates the best rates with lenders. A credit score is purchased separately and is not a part of a consumer credit report. One may purchase a credit score from a consumer credit reporting agency, who can charge him/her with a reasonable fee.4 Credit scores are used other than determining whether a person will default on a loan or make late payments. Low credit scores are used by usurers in order to identify individuals whom they believe are likely to make claims on their insurance policies. An accurate credit score can enable interest rates be charged on loans and can make a difference on the availability and cost of insurance.5 Mathematics models are used in calculating credit score, which analyzes the creditworthiness of a person. The amount and types of debt that a person owes are considered by the models. The person's repayment history will then be analyzed alongside thousands of other consumers in the credit store. Important factors that determine a consumer's credit score are his/her previous payment behavior, the amount of money he/she owes, the length of time that he/she has held outstanding credit, the type of credit he/she uses, how much credit is available to him/her, and whether there are inquiries from prospective lenders in his/her file.6 The amount of available credit that a consumer is using is one of the most important factors in his credit score. When credit card companies do not report the credit limits on a consumer's account, the consumer's credit scores can be lower tan they should be. This is because most credit scoring systems substitute the highest balance for the missing credit lim it. Since it will appear that he is using all of his available credit, the borrower's credit score will become lower. Thus, it is important that consumers deal only with credit card companies that report credit limits on their accounts.7 Credit scores have varying meaning. The higher the score, the better the credit rating. Generally, a credit score can vary from 300-850, in which most scores fall within the range of 600 and 700. A sub-prime loan, which is a boundary between a standard loan and a higher cost loan, is generally tantamount to a credit score of 620. An easier time to obtain credit and a likewise ability to obtain it on better terms and at a lower cost is the implication of a higher credit score.8 The credit bureau and a model developer need to validate a model that will be utilized for credit scoring. Developers often perform additional validations on independent samples before releasing a model, in order to be assured of the model's predictive capability.9 Pincetich, et al10 suggests that in order that a credit bureau score may be used effectively, it is important that accounts are analyzed to determine how the score relates to a specific situation, such as delinquency or bankruptcy. Although the scoring logarithm remains the same, the performance related to each score may possibly vary according to user. Hence, a

Personal Statement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 29

Personal Statement - Essay Example Currently, Im a student at the Sheffield International College studying Business Law and social science foundation degree, in order to progress and enter the university to complete my undergraduate course in Law. It is my involvement with Law studies throughout the years, which has persuaded me to take up LLB for my undergraduate program. I am glad to mention that, during the end of my second year studies, when I was choosing the module for my final year, I got interested in Intellectual property studies. Moreover, my habit of reading newspapers and watching news channels has assisted me in knowing the global affairs and this, in turn, persuaded me to follow intellectual property studies. In his book, Macmillan (2008, pg.1) wrote: â€Å"A news paper tells about local and world news. It is also full of data and data is information†. The study on Intellectual property is a renowned one in today’s world and it is an essential study program for the current business world. Apart from my studies, I am proud to reveal that I have interned at two law firms in Oman and the UK. The first law firm was a leading one owned by Al Busaidi Mansoor Jamal and the second one was SNR Dentons in th e UK. I firmly believe that I am a right candidate to pursue Law studies, as I really have an eye for detail and also enjoy working on projects and assignments which are related to the current social issue of the today’s world. I am confident that my skill in handling evidence, debating and conducting arguments will enable be to successfully complete my law studies. I am ambitious and my confidence in my abilities will give me needed recognition in the selected field of work. As per Papadopoulou (2010), â€Å"being ambitious enables you to set goals in your career. You are not satisfied with simply doing what is asked of you. You are constantly on the lookout for

Reflection paper Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Reflection paper - Article Example In its pure form, which the author is quick to point out has not yet been discovered 'in nature', this form of authority rests on the individual's fitness to fulfill the legal obligations of the office he or she holds. This fitness is based on the person's specific training and demonstration of competence to carry out the duties of that office. Obedience is owed to that office and the legal elements it governs, but does not extend outside of this sphere in any way. The office itself is not a personal space for the individual filling it but is rather a space reserved for the carrying out of the legal duties of the position the person fills. Both in seeking redress and in issuing commands, the order of the established hierarchy is followed and each office within the hierarchy is filled with other individuals equally tested and deemed fit to fulfill the duties of that particular office. In theory, a hierarchy established on this pure form would run like clockwork, each individual acting within the boundaries of his or her office to which he or she is perfectly suited and trained and governed by clear laws of operation. Only the business of the office is conducted with little or no personal overlap of outside interests. To ensure all runs smoothly, there are set salaries for each of the positions within the hierarchy and all compensation is fulfilled in terms of money rather than 'in-kind' benefices. This is because benefices are difficult to quantify and often carry with them external, additional obligations. This type of authority, in an imperfect form, is found throughout the world almost every time you turn around. The republic of the United States is formed on such a system in which the President is elected to his office and appoints a number of supposedly qualified individuals to fill specific offices within his administration, each of which has their own set of obligations and responsibilities, their own hierarchical structure below them, and their own set o f laws to follow regarding how they conduct business. This is only an imperfect example, though, because it is not necessarily true that the electorate will vote for the most qualified candidate for President or that the elected President will place the most qualified candidates within the individual offices within his administration. Compensation for offices are frequently a mixture of salaries based on money and benefices consisting of favors, gifts, or other positive outcomes for the recipient. While behavior is ruled by law, there is often a great deal of politics occurring within this hierarchy, providing means by which laws are bent, broken, amended or over-ruled based upon a different system of obligation. Many of these same issues are also present in smaller organizations in which this form of authority is in place. These include corporations of all types as well as non-profit, philanthropic endeavors. Of course, in these smaller organizations, the rules can be bent to a gre ater or lesser degree simply because they are company policies rather than actual laws. In addition, the appointment of individuals to different offices can be based on things such as personal relationships or favors owed rather than actual fitness and training specific to the tasks of the office. In almost all systems of this sort, there is some reliance

Answer the questions in Bold Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Answer the questions in Bold - Essay Example Clinicians can gain recognition for quality care knowledge of conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. They may also take obtain acknowledgement of quality in other aspects of the profession, such as providing patient-centered, up-to-date practice. Employers can receive accreditation for quality health plan coverage, and a variety of care organizations (HMOs, diabetes care, promotion) can received extensive evaluations that are tailored to the quality standards associated with each area of the medical industry (Pawlson, & Lee, 2010). Patients/consumers are necessarily impacted by virtually every service provided by the NCQA, being the end users of the entire profession. While there are understandably no accreditation or recognition programs available for the public, there are materials and projects that are directly aimed at the general population. The NCQA works directly with the government at both state and federal levels to work toward providing the highest quality of health services throughout the country. In addition, there are a variety of educational resources available through the association that serves to inform the public of the many challenges and improvements associated with the delivery of health care. As should be expected from any organization concerned with quality, the NCQA is regularly and repeatedly evaluated. They use a standard formula of measurement, analysis, improvement, and continual repetition. This system is important for both regulation within the organization, and in the development of quality assurance programs. The measurements used to judge their own performance comes from a variety of national health care indicators. Given the scope of the NCQA, data from throughout the nation is valuable in the assessment process, and may come from a number of sources. The organization conducts its own

Zionism Overview Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Zionism Overview - Essay Example The essay "Zionism Overview" talks about the Zionism in terms of today and historical events and the importance of the Zionism for today Jews and the government of Israel. Zion is the biblical term used for Jerusalem as well as the Land of Israel. Jews have yearned to return to Zion ever since their exile from Zion almost 2000 years ago. This learning is embedded in the literature, rituals, culture, and prayers of the Jews. Contemporary Zionism evolved during the late half of the 19th century as a result of anti-Semitism in the Western Europe and Jews’ violent persecution in the Eastern Europe. â€Å"Modern Zionism fused the ancient Jewish biblical and historical ties to the ancestral homeland with the modern concept of nationalism into a vision of establishing a modern Jewish state in the land of Israel†. Theodor Herzl is the pioneer of modern Zionism. He consolidated the different aspects of Zionism into a structured political movement, thus drawing global attention toward the establishment of a Jewish state and motivating Jews to migrate to the land from all over the world. The way he saw Zionism reflects in this statement, â€Å"I believe that Zionism will not cease to be our ideal even after we come to settle in the land of our forefathers in Eretz Israel, for within the Zionist idea is contained the aspiration to moral and spiritual perfection†. Today, several decades have passed since the establishment of the Jewish state and Zionism serves as the leading nationalist movement for most of the Jews all over the world.

History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 14

History - Essay Example Germany had a strategy to win the war by starving the British. So on February 4, 1915, it issued a formal declaration, warning neutral ships to stay away from the British waters or risk being sunk. Wilson strongly challenged this declaration making it clear the US government would not tolerate sinking of any of its ships. Subsequently, on May 7th, 1915, German U-boat sank the British ship Lusitania, resulting in deaths of over 100 American citizens. President Wilson lodged strong protests to the German government, which claimed that the British ship was carrying arms and ammunitions. After several months of diplomatic efforts, in April 1916, President sent an ultimatum to the German government to stop its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. Germany complied and US entry to the Great war was put off. President Wilson was re-elected for having kept America out of war. However, in January 1917, frustrated by British naval blockade, Germany decided to reintroduce the policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. This resulted in the US severing all diplomatic ties with Germany. Also, the British intercepted the coded Zimmermann Telegram telegram sent by Germany to Mexico. In the telegram, Germany had proposed alliance with Mexico should America join the war. In return, Germany promised to help Mexico in back states of Arizona, Texas and New Mexico. When this telegram was made public in the United States there was a huge public outcry, eventually forcing President Wilson to declare war on Germany. In an address to the congress, President Wilson said that loss of civilian lives as a result of unrestricted submarine warfare was inhumane and unacceptable and hence left no choice for the US but to join the war. He said that war was against the German government, and not the German people who were not consulted in this war. He also made it clear he would only be declaring war against Germany and not with the other allies, at least for the

The intriguing, strong-willed female characters in traditional Chinese Term Paper

The intriguing, strong-willed female characters in traditional Chinese fiction and the prescriptive of womanly behavior - Term Paper Example In Confucianism man is the middle of the universe: man cannot stay alone, but with other humans. For humans, the greatest objective is personal pleasure. The necessary situation to accomplish pleasure is through serenity. To acquire serenity, Confucius found man made up of the five connections which are depending on really like and responsibilities. War has to be abolished; and the Great Oneness around the globe should be designed. In Han (220BCE-221CE) China, Confucianism was implemented as the official philosophy. Focusing balance achieved through controlled romantic relationships and ethical responsibilities. Confucianism prescribed a firm social structure with clearly defined tasks. Females were mostly limited to the sector of close relatives’ members. They were brought up to show difference to out-dated parents, constancy to spouses and commitment to kids. Females worked out authority and power only when they presumed the part of mothers and had produced kids. Trained in the domestic arts, women were also frustrated from public and government matters. At court women were limited to the inner legal courts as opposed to the outer legal courts where matters of the state were performed. Confucian offered medications for the way a woman ought to comport herself, emphasizing her proper behaviour in regards to her husband and her part in close relatives members. Although women were recognized as being vir tuous for their sagacity, intelligence and statecraft, it was within the inner legal courts or the inner sector of close relative’s members that ladies operated as active agents and worked out their benefits. Given that information, we can depict that Fei-yen was in violation of the Confucian code. She was completely disrespectful to her husband. In the Confucian code, the wife had to respect the marriage institution and shun away from fidelity, however Fei-yen insulted this institution by