What is a Foreign Exchange Gain and Loss? Most companies or businesses deal in various currencies due to the nature of their operations. It may include transacting with foreign suppliers or customers, overseas operations, foreign investments, etc. Usually, companies incur a gain or loss on each transaction due to variations …

In a previous post, we highlighted an article that showed how useful accounting numbers are. In this post, we will present a concrete example of an application of accounting numbers in portfolio management. Reference showed that the Price-to-Earnings ratio is a mean-reverting process, and it can be accurately estimated …

What are Mortgage-Backed Securities? Mortgage-backed securities (MBS) are financial instruments that have similar characteristics as bonds. These securities use mortgages or a collection of mortgages as collateral. Like other financial instruments, MBS also gets traded in the market. Mortgage-backed securities are a type of asset-backed securities and allow investors to …

What are Credit Default Swaps? A credit default swap (CDS) is a financial instrument that allows investors to exchange their credit risk with another party. It is a type of swap, which is a financial derivative. Credit default swaps require one party to acquire a CDS from another party. It …

What are Preference Shares? Preference shares, also known as preferred stock, are a type of stock that companies issue. Under some specific circumstances, the shares will get preferential treatment over ordinary or common shares. These circumstances may include the distribution of dividends or compensation in case the underlying company liquidates. …

What is an Embedded Derivative? An embedded derivative is a part of a financial instrument that modifies its cash flows by tying it to an underlying asset. Usually, derivatives are separate financial instruments that are independent. However, embedded derivatives are a part of a financial contract. This contract, which holds …

Accounting numbers are prevalent in financial reporting, business valuation, and investment management. They’re so frequently used that the practitioners rarely asked pragmatic questions such as: are they useful, do they account for some meaningful risks, can they be used to price assets. A recent article attempts to bring some …

Risk represents the probability that the actual results differ from the expected results. Entities, including individuals, companies, organizations, and other bodies, face risk in their transactions. It also includes the possibility that losses occur for these entities. When transacting in financial markets, facing risks is inevitable. However, there are various …

What are Generally Accepted Accounting Principles? Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) represent a set of accounting standards, rules, and principles issued by the Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB). GAAP is one of the two prevalent accounting standards used throughout the world, the other being IFRS. While IFRS has a worldwide …

Businesses and companies follow various accounting standards to prepare and present their financial statements. These standards regulate how companies account for transactions. Some countries may have their specific standards. However, most of these companies use variations of international standards already developed by standardized bodies. When it comes to international accounting …