Homework 4 gives you practice on bond valuation and yield calculations.  It is due before you leave for Thanksgiving break.  If you use Excel (or Google docs) to do the assignment, you can email the spreadsheet to me at kahlgrim@ilstu.edu.

The final Financial Management Association (FMA) meeting of the Fall 2009 semester will be held next Monday, November 9, at 7:00 P.M. in 357 College of Business Building. The speaker will be Mr. Gary Ash, President and CEO of First Farm Credit Services. He hopes to bring along a younger analyst, as well. Mr. Ash holds a BS degree in Finance, and has many years of experience in the farm lending area. The speaker(s) will discuss agricultural finance, a specialized field that has long been an important part of the financial marketplace. They will also describe their professional backgrounds and offer advice on career planning. We will also provide a final update on the November 13 field trip. All members, and those who want to join FMA or obtain further information, are encouraged to attend. Pizza will be served at 6:00 or so in room 234 COB for those who want to come early and talk informally with the speakers and fellow ISU Finance students. If you think you might want to join, come meet the officers and learn more about FMA.

See the attached for an upcoming meeting about studying abroad.

Someone asked in class today which questions from the review sheet are included on the second exam.  Again, it is anything with short sales (with margin) and anything with indexes.  This includes the following questions from Chapter 4 from the first review sheet: 17-20, 27-28.

The next Financial Management Association (FMA) meeting will be held this coming Monday, October 19, at 7:00 P.M. in 357 College of Business Building. The speakers will be Ms. Aimee Hale and Mr. Robert Lewis, both from branch operations with National City Bank. Aimee is a 2002 ISU College of Business graduate who became the youngest vice president ever in the huge National City organization's history. Robert is a 2008 ISU Finance graduate who was recently promoted to the #2 spot at a large branch in Champaign. The speakers will describe their professional backgrounds, discuss their work in the rapidly changing retail banking environment, and offer advice on career planning. We will also provide an update on field trip plans (trip is scheduled for Friday, November 13, so mark your calendars!). All members, and those who want to join FMA or obtain further information, are encouraged to attend. Pizza will be served at 6:00 or so in room 234 COB for those who want to come early and talk informally with the speakers and fellow ISU Finance students. If you think you might want to join, come meet the officers and learn more about FMA.

After the market closes today, you can start finalizing the client reports, which are now due Monday, October 19th.  After the market is closed, you will need the closing prices for all of your stocks (available in many different places).  Try to get started early on the client reports so that if you run into some difficulties, you can stop by and see me.

Note that past transactions are available on the Virtual Stock Exchange web site.  However, you should note that trades are only remembered for the last 40 days.  Therefore, when you put in information for the SECOND client report, some trades may not be available.  Be sure to track all of your trades for the Market Watch assignment.

Check out comments made by the Fed's Vice Chair regarding "slack" in the economy - not a good story for growth.

The next regular Financial Management Association meeting will be held on Monday, September 28, at 7:30 P.M. in 139 College of Business Building. The speakers will be a panel of ISU Finance students who completed recent internships with companies in the local area or their home communities. They will describe how they got their internships, discuss what they did and what they learned in their work activities, and offer advice to others who are interested in doing internships. Pizza will be served at 6:30 or so in room 234 COB for those who want to come early and talk informally with the panelists and other fellow ISU Finance students. If you think you might want to join, come meet the officers and learn more about FMA.

On Wednesday, October 7 at 6:30pm, there will be an informational meeting about studying abroad in room 366 COB.  See the announcement for more info.

First, don't forget that you can have a 3" x 5" notecard to write whatever you want - formulas, definitions, examples, graphs... whatever.  Any thing bigger than 3" x 5" gets cuts down to size!!

Second, the exam will NOT cover market indexes which is at the end of Chapter 4.  Therefore, no price weighted or value weighted stuff - it will be on the second exam. 

Third, last minute office hours will be right before the exam - from 11am - 12:30pm.  If you can't make that time and would like to see me, please set up an appointment by emailing me.