A better world

It may sometimes seem that the world is shallow and petty and focused only on meaningless, superficial concerns. Yet you can choose to live in a better world.
Look at the world in a positive light, and suddenly you've made it a better place. Act on the possibilities that you see, and you give real substance to your positive vision.
By directing your own awareness toward those possibilities, and by acting on them, you make them more vibrant, more visible and more compelling.
By working to improve your own attitude and your own life, you become a living example for all the world to see.

Cut the cables

The energy you spend defending your limitations keeps those limitations solidly in place. But what if you put that energy into something else?
The effort you spend convincing others of your excuses, makes those excuses more real and more burdensome to you. Imagine, instead, simply letting them go.
There is a way to cut those cables. For it is you who has put most of them in place.
Focus your mind, your energy, your spirit, your feelings and emotions on the most joyful and fulfilling scenario you can imagine. Suddenly and profoundly, your reality begins to change.

Everyone can win

Improve your interactions with the people around you by raising your expectations of them. Genuinely respect the diverse opinions and perspectives of others, and you will gain their respect as well.
Keep confrontation as your very last resort rather than your first approach. Set the tone by being respectful and pleasant, and you'll find yourself getting much accomplished.
Just because people disagree with you does not make them your enemies. Take the time to listen, and you might even learn something of real value from them.
With such an approach, everyone can win.

Picture yourself

Think of yourself not in terms of your problems. Instead, identify yourself with your most promising possibilities.
Think of yourself not in terms of your regrets or disappointments. Instead, consider all the valuable and useful lessons you've learned.
The way you picture yourself has a powerful effect on the reality of your life. And you can picture yourself any way you choose.
Picture yourself expressing the best that is within you. Picture yourself living fully, loving sincerely, giving gladly, and bringing unique value to each moment.

The message in this day

What is today telling you? Instead of feeling that you must fight against the events and developments of this day, decide to carefully listen.
Imagine that there's a message in each circumstance that comes your way. Proceed as if you're receiving valuable information that can make a real difference in your life and in your world.
Instead of becoming completely consumed by what's happening, take a moment to consider why. Then go one step further and look at ways you can make use of the new knowledge that is coming your way.
The challenges that arrive, the joys you experience, the disappointments, the discoveries, and the seemingly random happenings all add up to something. Let go of the need to instantly jump to shallow conclusions about each little thing, and seek to know the whole picture.
Choose to see the message that today is bringing. And you'll find in it real treasure.

Bring your vision to life

To change your reality, first change your perceptions. To bring something into your world, first bring it fully to life within yourself.
Go beyond merely thinking about what you would like to do, or be, or create. Go ahead and experience it in detail with all that you are.
Make it real within you, and you'll begin to make it real in the world around you. Know without a doubt that it is, and it will begin to be.
Bring your vision to life on the stage of your awareness. And the positive energy you focus upon it will surely make it real.

Now that you've arrived

It is now officially here. The opportunity of this day has finally arrived.
It's not exactly what you expected. In many ways, though, it is even better than you could have ever imagined.
It will take some effort, to be sure. After all, any opportunity that has real value will also have its share of obstacles to be overcome.
Fortunately, you have what it takes. And with your knowledge, your experience, your focus, commitment and determination, you can turn the opportunity of this day into the reality of achievement.

Keep going

When you've reached the goal you've chosen for yourself, set your sights on an even higher objective. And keep going.
When things have not worked out the way you planned, learn the valuable lessons that the experience has to offer. And keep going.
When others seek to block your every effort, raise yourself up to where you can clearly see beyond their petty, shortsighted attempts. And keep going.
Whatever may come or go or happen or fail to happen, there is always a way, some way or another, to keep going.

Hedging Importance

It may appear that companies in which individual investors place money do not have exposures to financial prices. After reading this article, the reader should have some notion of how dangerous a misconception that can be.
The single most important point to take away from this material is that financial risk management is critical to the survival of any non-financial corporation. Investors who have real money at risk must understand the exposures facing the firms in which they invest, they must know the extent of risk management at these companies and they must be able to distinguish between good risk management programs and bad ones. Without this knowledge, they may be in for some ugly surprises.

Hedging objectives

The final part of this article will introduce briefly the notion of hedging objectives. Each of these will be discussed in articles to follow.
Earlier, we noted that a hedge is a financial instrument whose sensitivity to a particular financial price offsets the sensitivity of the firm's core business to that price. Straightaway, we can see that there are a number of issues that present themselves.
First, what is the hedging objective of the firm?
Some of the best-articulated hedging programs in the corporate world will choose the reduction in the variability of corporate income as an appropriate target. This is consistent with the notion that an investor purchases the stock of the company in order to take advantage of their core business expertise.
Other companies just believe that engaging in a forward outright transaction to hedge each of their cross-border cash flows in foreign exchange is sufficient to deem themselves hedged. Yet, they are exposing their companies to untold potential opportunity losses. And this could impact their relative performance pejoratively.
Second, what is the firm's exposure to financial price risk?
It is important to measure and to have on a daily basis some notion of the firm's potential liability from financial price risk. Financial institutions whose core business is the management and acceptance of financial price risk have whole departments devoted to the independent measurement and quantification of their exposures. It is no less critical for a company with billions of dollars of internationally driven revenue to do so.
There are three types of risk for every particular financial price to which the firm is exposed.
Transactional risks reflect the pejorative impact of fluctuations in financial prices on the cash flows that come from purchases or sales. This is the kind of risk we described in our example of the pulp-and-paper company concerned about their US$10 million contract. Or, we could describe the funding problem of the company as a transactional risk. How do they borrow money? How do they hedge the value of a loan they have taken once it is on the books?
Translation risks describe the changes in the value of a foreign asset due to changes in financial prices, such as the foreign exchange rate.
Economic exposure refers to the impact of fluctuations in financial prices on the core business of the firm. If developing markets economies devalue sharply while retaining their high technology manufacturing infrastructure, what effect will this have on an Ottawa-based chip manufacturer that only has sales in Canada? If it means that these countries will flood the market with cheap chips in a desperate effort to obtain hard currency, it could mean that the domestic manufacturer is in serious jeopardy.
Third, what are the various hedging instruments available to the corporate Treasurer and how do they behave in different pricing environments?
When is it best to use which instrument is the question the corporate Treasurer must answer. The difference between a mediocre corporate Treasury and an excellent one is their ability to operate within the context of their shareholder-delineated limits and choose the optimal hedging structure for a particular exposure and economic environment. Not every structure will work well in every environment. The corporate Treasury should be able to tailor the exposure using derivatives so that it fits the preferences and the view of the senior management and the board of directors.

The hedging problem

The core problem when deciding upon a hedging policy is to strike a balance between uncertainty and the risk of opportunity loss. It is in the establishment of balance that we must consider the risk aversion, the preferences, of the shareholders. Make no mistake about it. Setting hedging policy is a strategic decision, the success or failure of which can make or break a firm.
Consider the example of the Canadian pulp-and-paper company from before, 75% of whose product is sold in US dollars to customers located all over the world. The US dollar here is called the price of determination because all sales of pulp-and-paper are denominated in US dollars.
They close a deal for US$10 million worth of product and they know that in one month's time they will receive payment into their US dollar accounts. However, they understand that from the inception of the contract which binds them to have receivables in US dollars in one month's time they are exposed to changes in the rate of exchange for the Canadian dollar against the US dollar.
Immediately, they are faced with a problem. As a Canadian company, they will have to repatriate those US dollars at some point because they have decided that foreign exchange risk is not something that they are prepared to carry as it is deemed it to be peripheral to their core business.
The problem has two dimensions: uncertainty and opportunity.
If they do not hedge the transaction in any way, they do not know with any certainty at what rate of exchange they can exchange the US$10 million when it is delivered. It could be at a better rate or at a worse rate than the rate prevailing currently for exchange of that amount in one month's time.
Let's call the prevailing spot rate, for argument's sake, 1.5300 and the prevailing one month forward outright rate at which they could hedge themselves 1.5310.
If they do enter into a forward contract in which they obligate themselves to buy Canadian dollars and sell US dollars for delivery on the same date as the delivery date on their pulp-and-paper contract, they have removed this uncertainty. They know without any question at what rate this exchange will be. It will be 1.5310.
But, they have now taken on infinite risk of opportunity loss. If the Canadian dollar weakens because of some unforeseen event and in one month's time the prevailing spot rate turns out to be 1.5600, then they have foregone 290,000 Canadian dollars. This is their opportunity loss.
Are there instruments that address both certainty and opportunity loss? Fortunately, there are. They are called derivatives or derivative products. Most financial institutions make markets in a panoply of risk management solutions involving derivative products. Some of them come as stand-alone solutions and others are presented as packages or combinations.
A derivative product is a financial instrument whose price depends indirectly on the behaviour of a financial price.
For example, the price of a foreign exchange option on the Canadian dollar in which our company had the right but not the obligation to buy Canadian dollars and sell US dollars at a pre-set strike price will vary on a day-to-day basis with the movement in the Canadian dollar/US dollar exchange rate. If the Canadian dollar gets stronger, the Canadian dollar call becomes more valuable. If the Canadian dollar gets weaker, the Canadian dollar becomes less valuable.
Instead of entering into a forward contract to buy Canadian dollars, the pulp-and-paper company could purchase a Canadian dollar call struck at 1.5310 for a premium from one of its financial institution counterparties. Doing so reduces their certainty about the rate at which they will repatriate the US dollars but it limits their worst case in exchange for allowing them to enjoy potential opportunity gains, again conditioned by the premium they have paid.
Derivatives just like any other economic mechanism are best thought of in terms of tradeoffs. The tradeoffs here are between uncertainty and opportunity loss.
However, a Canadian dollar call is only one of the possible risk management solutions to this problem. There are dozens of possible instruments, each of which has a differing tradeoff between uncertainty and opportunity loss, that the pulp-and-paper company could use to manage this exposure to changes in the exchange rate.
The key to hedging is to decide which of these solutions to choose. Hedging is not just about putting on a forward contract. Hedging is about making the best possible decision, integrating the firm's level of sophistication, systems and the preferences of their shareholders.
Future articles will discuss in depth the nature of some of these alternative solutions and the ways in which firms approach these other instruments.

What is hedging?

This article will give a brief overview of the different ways in which firms approach this financial price risk and it will introduce the rationale for using derivative products. While there has been a great deal of negative attention paid to derivatives in the mainstream press, the opportunities they provide make derivatives a necessary part of the future of any corporation. Future articles in this series will identify the benefits and drawbacks of individual derivatives structures and explain some of the breakdowns in the application of derivatives by corporate end-users.
One reason why companies attempt to hedge these price changes is because they are risks that are peripheral to the central business in which they operate. For example, an investor buys the stock of a pulp-and-paper company in order to gain from its management of a pulp-and-paper business. She does not buy the stock in order to take advantage of a falling Canadian dollar, knowing that the company exports over 75% of its product to overseas markets. This is the insurance argument in favour of hedging. Similarly, companies are expected to take out insurance against their exposure to the effects of theft or fire.
By hedging, in the general sense, we can imagine the company entering into a transaction whose sensitivity to movements in financial prices offsets the sensitivity of their core business to such changes. As we shall see in this article and the ones that follow, hedging is not a simple exercise nor is it a concept that is easy to pin down. Hedging objectives vary widely from firm to firm, even though it appears to be a fairly standard problem, on the face of it. And the spectrum of hedging instruments available to the corporate Treasurer is becoming more complex every day.
Another reason for hedging the exposure of the firm to its financial price risk is to improve or maintain the competitiveness of the firm. Companies do not exist in isolation. They compete with other domestic companies in their sector and with companies located in other countries that produce similar goods for sale in the global marketplace. Again, a pulp-and-paper company based in Canada has competitors located across the country and in any other country with significant pulp-and-paper industries, such as the Scandinavian countries.
Companies that are the most sophisticated in this field recognize that the financial risks that are produced by their businesses present a powerful opportunity to add to their bottom line while prudently positioning the firm so that it is not pejoratively affected by movements in these prices. This level of sophistication depends on the firm's experience, personnel and management approach. It will also depend on their competitors. If there are five companies in a particular sector and three of them engage in a comprehensive financial risk management program, then that places substantial pressure on the more passive companies to become more advanced in risk management or face the possibility of being priced out of some important markets. Firms that have good risk management programs can use this stability to reduce their cost of funding or to lower their prices in markets that are deemed to be strategic and essential to the future progress of their companies.
Most importantly, hedging is contingent on the preferences of the firm's shareholders. There are companies whose shareholders refuse to take anything that appears to be financial price risk while there are other companies whose shareholders have a more worldly view of such things. It is easy to imagine two companies operating in the same sector with the same exposure to fluctuations in financial prices that conduct completely different policy, purely by virtue of the differences in their shareholders' attitude towards risk.

The authentic you

Life's most beautiful and fulfilling moments are the most sincere and authentic ones. When you are being yourself, that is when you are at your best.
Others may claim to be experts in this field or that. Remember, though, that you are the expert when it comes to your own life.
Listen to the longings of your heart. Pay attention to that little voice inside of you.
For that voice knows you well. It knows what you can accomplish, what brings you joy, and what things you most highly value.
When something feels right, that's a reliable sign that it is. Choose to live each moment as the authentic person you are, and from those moments you will create much real and lasting richness

Needs and worries

What if half the things you thought you needed, you didn't really need at all? Imagine the freedom of letting them go.
What if half the things that worry you so much were really no cause for concern? Think of how much more positive and productive you could be.
Some of your needs and your worries have some basis in reality. Yet they can easily become blown far out of proportion by your thinking.
You can choose to put them in their place. You can choose to simply let them fall away and to put your energy into those things that truly matter.
This is a great day to begin living with positive, creative intention. This is a great day to go beyond the limitations that your mind has previously convinced you to accept.
Open your eyes to the abundance that is yours. Focus more energy on your best possibilities and bring your own special joy to life

A positive light

Every fear you feel is coming from you. All your thoughts of negativity are being created in your own mind.
And because of that, you can be free of them. For it is you who ultimately decides where your mind will go and what it will hold.
Your thoughts are not caused by anything outside of you. They are the result of the way you've chosen to respond to life.
If your thoughts seem to be holding you prisoner, remember that those thoughts are of your own choosing. You can always, at any time, make a different choice.
Simply imagine being free of your fears, and suddenly that's precisely where you are. Fill your mind with positive, empowering thoughts and you'll quickly crowd out the thoughts that bring you down.
Reality is as it is, and you can choose to see it in any light you wish. Cast a positive light on life, and you'll connect yourself with real success

Ready for now

You are ready for now, and now is ready for you. Now is when you can think, and act, and experience.
Now is your moment to live, and to fully express the beautiful and unique person you are. Now is when you can know joy, and love, effectiveness and fulfillment.
This moment has come to you in exactly the way that it is, with opportunities, disappointments, possibilities, pains, beauty and challenge. Choose to accept and embrace it fully, for everything in this moment is a part of the magnificence of life.
Now is when you can take those opportunities and use them to create value. Now is when you can face the challenges and transform them into achievements.
There is a purpose within you that has stayed alive just so it can be expressed right now. Listen to that purpose, feel its richness and the genuine joy that it offers, and follow where it leads.
The whole of your universe is powerfully focused on now. Go ahead and bring to life the best of the possibilities that have now arrived.

Take an active role

There is no scarcity, only the perception of it. Abundance is the true nature of life.
Life is abundant, but that doesn't mean it is free of effort or responsibility. On the contrary, effort and responsibility play key roles in making life's abundance real and accessible.
Your life is incredibly rich, but that doesn't mean you can be lazy and complacent about it. It means that you have something truly valuable to sustain, to express and to continue nurturing.
Take an active role in life and you will make it great. There are always countless opportunities for worthwhile effort and responsibility, commitment and competence.
Life has so very much to offer. Offer yourself fully to life, and you'll surely experience its magnificent abundance.

Clause 49-O ....

Did you know that there is a system in our constitution, as per the 1969 act, in section "49-O" that a person can go to the polling booth, confirm his identity, get his finger marked and convey the presiding election officer that he doesn't want to vote for anyone! Yes such a feature is available, but obviously these seemingly notorious leaders have never disclosed it. this is called 49-O... Why should you go and say "i vote for nobody"? ... because, in a ward, if a candidate wins, say by xxx votes, and that particular ward has received 49-O votes more than xxx, then that polling will be cancelled and will have to be re-polled. Not only that, but the candidature of the contestants will be removed and he cannot contest the re-polling, since people had already expressed their decision on him. This would bring fear into parties and hence look for genuine candidates for their parties for election. This would change the way, of our whole political system... it is seemingly surprising why, and election commission has not revealed this feature to the public .... please spread this news ... Seems to be a wonderful weapon against corrupt parties in India ... show your power, expressing your desire not to vote for anybody, is even more powerful than voting... so don't miss your chance. So either vote, or vote not to vote (vote 49-O). Pass this info on all your Indian Friends/Citizens.....