Another Article Accepted!

Seems like I'm on a roll lately (it's a slow roll, but a roll nonetheless). I just heard from a coauthor that a small paper of ours just got accepted. It's at a lower-tier journal, but at least we placed it somewhere (articles are like orphans - if they keep trying, they eventually find homes). The coauthor is a former student of mine who's done pretty well for himself - he started at a lower tier school and has published well over a dozen articles in four years (mostly at lower-tier journals, but one at a top-tier journal in a related discipline and several at just-below top-tier level).

A couple of years ago, my research was just beginning to fire on all cylinders when the Unknown Son was diagnosed with cancer. Then (not surprisingly) I got almost nothing out for the next three years (I was just looking, and there's gap in my vita that's exactly three years long). But over the last year and a half, I've gotten three publications and four other papers under review. It's not an earth-shattering output, and I'd certainly like to be publishing in better-quality journals. But since I was mostly cleaning out my backlog (and some of the ideas had gone stale while The Boy was sick), I'll take it.

At the school I'm at, quality is valued but numbers count too (after all, one definition of a Dean is "a person who can count but can't read").

Now I have some cover to work on longer-term projects that have a decent chance at higher-quality journals. I was just looking at my research file and I currently have four projects under way, and hope to finish 2-3 of then by December. If I do, and I get one or two more publications by the next fall, I should have a pretty good shot at tenure.

And since the Unknown Wife has told me in no uncertain terms that we're NOT moving again, I have a lot of incentive.

Like they say down South, "If Momma Ain't Happy, Ain't NOBODY Happy!"

The Unknown Son Takes His First Karate Class

We've been meaning to do it for some time, but we finally got around to it - the Unknown Son finally took his first Karate classes. We figured that it would help his strength, coordination and balance, and give him something of his own to do that's not shared by his sister.

In addition, he's a very small, smart kid (about 5th percentile in height and weight and 95th percentile in reading and math). So that means he'll probably eventually have to deal with bullies. I know this from experience, since I had a boy in my 3rd grade class that would literally kick by but halfway home on a regular basis. That's not a figure of speech - he live halfway between the school and my house, and would often "escort" me as far as his house. Every few steps, he'd plant a boot in my butt.

But anyway, U.S. had a great time. The first class was a private one with an instructor, and he was great. He made U.S. do some exercises, a few punches and kicks, a lot of jumping and physical activity, and gave him a basic orientation top the school and how classes worked. It was cute seeing him learn how to stand at attention and bow correctly (all with a lot of enthusiastic shouts of "Yes Sir!" and "No Sir").

The school (dojo) is one of the largest in the Northeast, and has over 300 kids enrolled, all who come twice a week. So, it should be good not only for the physical training and self-defense aspects but also for the friends he'll make. There are probably 30-40 kids in U.S.'s elementary school who go there, so he'll have a lot of reinforcement (not to mention well-trained friends if he ever needs a helping hand).

And he looked so proud with his white belt (the "beginner's" belt). He's excited at the prospect of possibly being able to test for the next level (the "yellow") belt in only a few months.

Stay tuned.

It's a Nice Day, So A Quarter Of My Class Is A.W.O.L.

It's a beautiful Friday here at Unknown University - it rained last night, and today is clear and sunny and about 80 degrees. So of course, 11 of my 45 students were absent from my investments class (they had a quiz Wednesday, so they figured "Why not? It's not like he'll give us a quiz!"

I try to have my students give me feed back every week or so on what they're enjoying (or not) in the class, and what they think I can improve on (or am already doing well). In addition, I ask them what topics in the course are giving them the most difficulty or causing the most confusion.

A lot of people think it's way overboard, but it only takes a couple of minutes, and often gives very valuable feedback. I don't report on ALL the feedback, but only address the few issues that are mentioned by multiple people. After all, if one student mentions it, it could be just a personal preference, but if 5 mention it, it's likely a problem. This time around, a couple of them though I spent too much time giving them grief for being late or absent. And they had a point - why lecture the people who are there about the importance of being there?

So, I told them that I agreed with them wholeheartedly . And since so many were absent, everyone who had signed the attendance sheet that day (I'd already collected it) got 5 points added to their most recent quiz score. In addition, they should mention this with a big smile to the eleven students who'd missed the class.

What can I say? I'm an applause whore at times. It had been a long week, and it's not like the missing students can complain about it to the Dean "Um - Dr. Unknown didn't give bonus points to all the students - only the ones who showed up for class."

It'd probably make his day.

Good Early Results

I've been working for the last few months on a project that uses five (count em, five) different databases. It's taken me a couple of months to line up all the data (I usually end up doing the initial "data grinding" on these types of projects, since I like doing SAS work). We finally got initial some results, and they look pretty good - everything we expected to be statistically significant, was.

So, I can relax a bit now - all that time didn't go to waste. So I think I'll go celebrate with a long bike ride.

A Website On Game Theory

Like most people with graduate level training in economics, I've had a fairly good exposure to game theory. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, game theory analyzes situations where an individual's actions affect not only their own welfare (i.e. their "payoffs"), but also the payoffs to others with whom they are interacting. The graph above illustrates probably the most well know game-theoretic scenario, known as the Prisoner's Dilemma.

The picture comes from Robert Schenk's site, CyberEconomics. He has a nice section on game theory that's both factually correct and easily understandable here.

Enjoy.

The Class Continues

A pretty easy teaching day today - my investments class gets a fairly long quiz, and we begin coverage of mutual funds, ETFs, Hedge funds, and such.

This quiz should give me a better idea whether their [performance on the first quiz was representative or not. If it was, the size of the herd may end up shrinking as we lose a few slow antelopes.

There are a couple of students in my class that probably should consider bailing out. That may sound harsh, but if a student is sufficiently far behind it's sometimes best if they drop - the effort they have to expend to catch up can end up really hurting their performance in other classes, and they also end up drastically slowing down the class they're behind in.

That having been said, I don't think they're at the point of no return yet. But they are rapidly approaching it.

So maybe I'll actually get some research done. The only problem is that I thatched and reseeded my lawn (or what passes for it) this weekend. That (and the generall pollen conditions) here near Unknown University have really made my allergies kick in. So, to the extent I can work with a case of "baloon head", I may get some work done on the revise and resubmit that's been sitting on my desk all week.

And They Say Accounting Doesn't Make Sense

As a person who's trained primarily in finance, accounting rules sometimes look like they were designed by Monty Python. Here's the latest installment - your company's credit rating drops, so the market value of your liabilities fall. As a result, you show a profit. This is what happened to some Wall Street firms recently. Read the whole story here. IMO, the best line in the article is:

But Moody’s Investors Service said buyers should beware of gains booked when brokers mark down their own debt liabilities. “Moody’s does not consider such gains to be high-quality, core earnings,” it said in a report issued Friday.

Ya think?

This is why we make all our Finance students take four accounting classes before they graduate. That way, they'll see these things often enough that they won't break out laughing.

This Reminds Me - I Need To Talk With My Graduate Assistant

I think my grad assistant needs tighter controls.

My Students Are NOT Off To A Good Start

This semester I tried something a bit different in my security analysis class. Since the finance principles (i.e. required core finance) class is a prerequisite for this one, I always assumed that they had at least a fair grasp of the basics (like time value, using their financial calculator, constant dividend growth valuation, and so on). This time, the first day of class, I announced that they'd get a quiz at the beginning of the second week on "the basics). I figured this would serve two purposes: It would give me (and them) a better idea as to what they retain from their previous classes. And just as important, since it counted toward their grade, it would give them an incentive to review the material at the beginning of class. The questions I said I'd give them included:

• A couple of questions on time value (PV of a lump sum, PV of an annuity, find the interest rate on the FV of an annuity)
  
• A constant dividend growth stock valuation problem
• A non-constant dividend growth valuation problem
• An NPV problem
• An IRR problem
• A CAPM question
• A basic question on financial statements

The results were eye-opening, and not exactly in a good way. Although the questions were pretty basic (except for the non-constant dividend growth problem), the average score was about 65, and only 3 out of the 45 students got a perfect score. Let's just say that it was a less than stellar grasp of the material. So, I told them that those who got less than 80% have a LOT of catching up to do.

After all, if they don't understand the basics, they surely won't get the more advanced material. And I simply don't have the time to review everything they're supposed to know from the class they supposedly already passed. After all, they ARE mostly finance majors.

At least I didn't teach the principles class, so I get to grouse about those who did...
It should be interesting. I think the herd may be losing a few slow antelopes shortly.

A Good Day, and A Good Ride

This was a good day - I went into the office around 11:00, finished a paper to send to a conference and then finished my PowerPoint slides for the next week's classes.

Then I went on a 22 mile bike ride. It was a bit windy, but other than that,conditions were just about perfect for a long ride - mostly flat terrain with just enough gently rolling hills to make it interesting, and a temperature of 64 degrees. It was so nice that I actually ended up holding a faster pace for the 22 mile ride than I usually do for my 16 mile course. I even passed one of my students on the road. I wonder how he felt getting smoked by a teacher more than twice his age?

Hey - I may be carrying about 15 extra pounds, but my legs and cardio are both in pretty good shape. O.K - enough bragging...

Now, it's time to read a bit to the Unknown Son before bed (Unknown Daughter is at a friend's house). The kids just watched Lemony Snicketts, so now he's reading the books (he just got the first two from the library). I particularly like them because they use some pretty complicated words, but follow them with an explanation in an aside). So, they're great not just for the story itself but also for feeding the lad's inner nerd.