Professor Elam

Accounting & Investing Info for San Antonio A & M

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  • Professor Elam

    Recommended at a recent College Station Retreat…..

    Monday March 19, 2012

    Student Discuses Grades with Professor

  • Professor Elam

    Accounting Student of the Year

    Monday March 19, 2012

    Accounting Student of the Year

    Submit Your Application Now!

     

    Monday March 19, 2012

    It is  time  to select an annual Accounting Student of the Year. This is an award made via the San Antonio Society of Certified Public Accountants. The winner will be recognized at a luncheon at the Oak Hills Country Club in April. Other schools and their winners in the area will likewise be present and recognized.

    To be considered for the award, please submit a one page double spaced essay on why you should be selected. The entrants will be interviewed by a committee of accounting professors. Again to be selected you must submit your own one page essay to

    dennis.elam@tamusa.tamus.edu

    Past recipients include Arturo Villareal and Erika Martinez.

    The deadline is midnight  March 30, 2012

     

  • Professor Elam

    5th Year Accounting Student Scholarship

    Monday March 19, 2012

    The Texas State Board of Accoutancy has scholarship money available. This must be awarded this semester. Ther rules are as follows from the official State Board Site. Please contact myself or Dr. Richard Green if you believe you are eligible for the scholarship. Please read the requirements carefully.

    Fifth Year Accounting Student Scholarship Program

    Program Purpose

    To promote the professional and educational needs of the state; increase the number of highly trained and educated professional accountants available to serve the residents of this state; improve the state's business environment and encourage economic development and financial stability; and identify, recognize and support outstanding scholars who plan to pursue careers in accounting.

     

    Eligibility Requirements

    are classified as residents of Texas;

    Are enrolled at participating public or private, non-profit colleges and universities in Texas (including specified community colleges);

    Are enrolled at least half-time;

    Will have completed at least 120 hours of college course work (including at least 15 semester credit hours of accounting) at the beginning of the term in which the award is being made;

    Are making satisfactory academic progress;

    Have not already taken the CPA exam, but plan to take the CPA examination in the State of Texas and have submitted an Application of Intent to take the CPA Examination to the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy for the purpose of being granted a certificate of "Certified Public Accountant;"

    Register for the Selective Service or be exempt from this requirement, and

    Demonstrate financial need.

     

     

    Eligible Institutions

    The award may be used at participating public and private, non-profit colleges and universities in Texas, including specified community colleges.

     

    Award Amount

    Individuals may receive a scholarship for up to $5,000.

     

    Application Process

    Obtain a scholarship application from the Dean or Department of Accounting or College Financial Aid Office. Applications are processed through the financial aid office of your institution, although a representative of the School of Accounting or Dean of the Academic Department for Accounting must approve the selection of recipients.

     

    Additional Information

    Your eligibility for this program is determined by the financial aid office at your college. Funds may not be immediately available to you at the beginning of the semester. Contact your college financial aid office for additional information on eligibility of availability of funds.

     

    To read more about this program check out:

    The Public Accountancy Act, Chapter 901, Subchapter N, of the Occupations Code, and the TSBPA Board Rules, Chapter 520.

     

    Contact the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy!

  • Professor Elam

    Math Matters

    Monday March 19, 2012

    Don Johnson, the gambler not the actor, has taken three casinos- big time. He negotiated the odds in his favor.  This is a fascinating article. Winning in any game is a matter of playing when the odds favor your participation. My investment blog seeks to do this by entering the market when the vast majority of stocks have osted new lows. The idea is that the chance of further downside is minimized. 

    While statistics is a required class in business, frankly once you leave the statistics class you are not likely to hear much about it again. Most professors are not much more interested in stat than the students. After I walked out of my Stat 332 final exam at UT so many years ago, I don't recall anothe professor ever referring to the use of statistics. 

    As you will read in the article, that is not the cas for casinos. The first hour of  the movie Casino does  agood job of explaining how one runs a casino. In that movie, based ona true story, DeNiro plays a professional odds maker hired to run the casino. 

    As you read the article note that Johnson would only play once he negotiated the casinos into  a situation that favored his playing. 

    Whether you are running a computer company, a college, or a casino, or interviewing for a job,  the odds need to be in your favor. 

    This article is a must read. 

    The recent film, Moneyball, also features statistical analysis of the record of baseball players. A minor league manager discovered stats that would uncover statistically advantaged players. 

  • Professor Elam

    March 24 Trade Meeting

    Friday March 16, 2012

    The Master of Business Administration Association Texas A & M University- San Antonio invites you to an open panel discussion involving the process, practices and trends of importing to Texas and the US.   Hear from experts in the field on risks, barriers and recruitment practices to increase trade and sales. Presenters from companies such as Continental Green Produce will answer questions on the import/ export trade and international business practices, particularly in relation to perishable items. 

     

    The workshop is open to the public and will be held at the “Instituto Cultural de Mexico,” located at 600 Hemisphere Plaza, 78205.  The workshop will commence at 1:30 PM followed by time for networking with the presenters. Please view the attached flyer for more information

     

  • Professor Elam

    Hunger Games Melds with World Wide Negative Mood

    Hunger Games is expected to do $100 M its first weekend March 23. The story  features a female heroine clearly modeled on My Fair Lady as follows

    Screen shot 2012-03-15 at 11.55.38 AM

    teens fighting for survival in a government-controlled world that hosts annual televised games in which young participants are forced to kill their opponents.

    No wait I am thinking Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison in 1965, a  social mood high. 1965 as the end of an 18 year up cycle. My Fair Lady one year and the Sound of Music the nest were perfect exponents of positive social mood.

    While markets are up now, Hunger sounds more like 2008's The Dark Knight, The City Has no Hope.  While the movie is compared with the vampire saga Twilight, other than a female lead, it seems to me this is not the proper parallel at all. Similar parallels in plot would be

    The Most Dangerous Game

    The Running Man - this article lists several parallels, clearly I am not the first one to see the similarities

    Surviving the Game

    Alen

    The Prisoner

    The Good The Bad and the Ugly

    Surviving the Game was about a group of men that kidnap a homeless man to hunt him for sport. The plot is little different form Hunger Games. But, Surviving came out in 1994 when the mood was expansive and positive. Hunger on the other hand is an echo of 2008'sThe Dark Knight when the Joker relentlessly stalks an innocent city. Now vampires and  zombies are all over television, movies and books, so the time is right for this sort of story. World wide people are fighting back at governments from North Africa to Spain to Russian, where 100,000 recently took to the streets in zero degree weather to protest the government. 

    Alien in 1979 is another example of timing and social mood. The second oil embargo had hit, America was in a malaise according to no less than the President. The story of a lone woman, an orphan, and a cat fighting an unknown powerful force resonated with a public struggling with their own forces of oil embargoes and double digit inflation. The story on screen resonated with the mood. Bingo, a series was born. Aliens in 1982 was the all too rare example of a sequel as good as the original as Ripley has Marine backups but faces a horde or Aliens. 

    The Prisoner was another well timed epic of individual versus government. Debuting in 1967-67 it ushered in the long 1966-1982/4 bear market. It probably resonated with a nation increasingly uncomfortable being forced to fight the VIetnam War amid considerable protest. 

    1967's Good Bad Ugly, is really the same story. Three unlikely individuals search for buried treasure amidst a horrific civil war which would take some 636,000 lives. The Draft Riots depcited in Scorceses's Gangs of New York depicts people conscripted against their will to fight an unpopular war. 


    Hunger is coming to the screen at just about the same time Dark Knight hit debuted in 2008. Then the stock averages had moved higher and higher. But the mood was increasingly negative. Mood won the day as the markets plunged that fall. Hmm, could a social mood top be far off?

    Socionomics holds that exogenous mood determines societal events. Negative mood resultes in the stock market lows of last fall. Now mood has moved the opposite direction with some 90% of SPX stocks above their 50 day Moving Averages. In August-October that number was well less than 10%. Mood is ever changing and its consequences and effects are all around us. The trick to to get 

    'In the Mood' to take adbantage of such swings. 

     

     

  • Professor Elam

    SWTLC Schedule

    Thursday March 15, 2012

    We have numerous grad students scheduled for presentation Saturday March 31, 2012 at SWTLC.

    Students not scheduled can earn quiz grades by reviewing a presentationa and reporting on it in the discussion area of BB for their class.

    Click to access program_draft_march13.pdf

    This is the link to the schedule.

    Make you plans to attend now. Be sure to register for the conference as a presenter or attendee, no charge for TAMUSA students.

    http://swtlc.wordpress.com/registration/

  • Professor Elam

    Colbert on Greg Smith

    Thursday March 15, 2012

    Colbert on Greg Smith's mea culpa I mentioned yesterday.

    Smith of course only left after being disgusted for 12 years and making lots of money, he no doubt is headed for a hedge fund management job.

  • Professor Elam

    A Goldman Exec Exits, Reflecting on the Lack of Integrity

    Wednesday March 14, 2012

    In the movie Jerry Maguire, Tom Cruise plays a conflicted sports agent. He writes an essay that the client, not the firm's interest should be front and center. He loses his job as a result. 

    Today Greg Smith published a similar essay, in the New York Times no less. Be sure to click on the hyper link in the second paragraph to read the actual essay. 

    Smith notes that the firm refers to clients as Muppets. The idea is to use the clients to make as much money for GS as possible. It has been cyically observed that GS only has one client, Goldman. Now a firm exec has said so publicly.

    Some of the graduate students are preparing cases for SWTLC regarding ethical behavior at all levels. Here is Gordon Gecko on display, greed is good, and short term greed means putting the firm ahead of the client. This has always been the problem, who's the client. Is it the firm the underwriter takes public, the client who buys the offering, or the firm itself?  Bear Stearns and  Lehman, evaporated in this same climate as did Enron and Worldcom. Merrill Lynch was saved by a sale  one hour before Lehman collapsed. Yesterday the XLF index of banks soared as the FED anounced who made the cut and who did not. This is an interesting event as JP Morgan soars on news of a stock buy back. 

    Notice the reference to derivatives. We will be studying this later in Intermed Accounting.