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Day: March 16, 2020

What is the Difference Between Financial Mathematics, Financial Analysis and Financial Economics?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

The terms financial mathematics and financial economics are often interchanged and thought of as the same discipline. Financial analysis is a different discipline all-together that uses elements from financial mathematics and financial economics in doing an in-depth analysis of the targeted firm regarding its financial sustainability.

Let’s compare and see how they differ.

What is Financial Mathematics?

Financial mathematics can be understood as the field that is concerned with mathematical applications in finance. Solving financial problems using mathematical methods is the main focus of financial mathematics. Financial mathematics is alternatively termed as quantitative finance and computational finance.

The major applications of quantitative mathematics are in the field of securities valuation, risk management, and portfolio structuring, etc. by financial institutions like investment banks, hedge funds, and insurance companies. Financial mathematics also plays a crucial role in commodities-based industries.

The valuation of various financial instruments requires mathematical modelling of financial markets.

What is Financial Analysis?

Financial analysis can be defined as the process of evaluating a business or a project using different techniques such as ratio analysis that helps to ascertain the suitability and viability of the business. Major applications of financial analysis are in evaluating economic trends, building financial policy, etc.

The results obtained after a rigorous financial analysis help different stakeholders in decision making. Internally conducted financial analysis helps managers to make an informed decision or study successful historical trends. Financial analysis is further classified into two parts -fundamental analysis and technical analysis, let’s delve into the details of both the techniques.

Fundamental Analysis

Fundamental analysis uses the approach of evaluating securities and conducting financial analysis by measuring the intrinsic value of the security. Fundamental analysis takes a more comprehensive view of the organisation and considers different factors such as economic conditions, industry outlook, management of the company, etc. It also evaluates the company on account of assets, liabilities, expenses, income generated, etc.

Technical Analysis

Technical analysis is different from the fundamental analysis technique for evaluating the viability of the company. It has only two inputs in the whole evaluation method. The two elements of this technique are stock prices and volume. It assumes that stock prices reflect other important fundamentals of the company. This method uses stock charts and other tools to predict the future trends of the stock.

What is Financial Economics?

Financial economics is a discipline in economics that is concerned with the analysis of the use and distribution of resources in the market. It studies how different factors such as opportunity cost, risk, time, etc. play a crucial role in creating incentives or disincentives for any specific decision.

It involves employing complex financial models to test the variables influencing a particular decision. Rational consumer behaviour is an important and common assumption with these models. Microeconomics, econometrics and basic accounting concepts form the pillar of this discipline of economics. Financial economics requires a basic understanding of the concept of probability and statistics.

Comparing the three

Now that we have individually learned about all three disciplines the difference is very evident. Let’s compare how they differ from each other, starting with the comparison between financial mathematics and financial analysis.

Financial mathematics is a field of applied mathematics that is concerned with the financial markets whereas financial analysis is the assessment of different elements that paints a picture of the functioning of the business which will help different stakeholders in informed decision making.

Financial economics is heavily concentrated on two aspects of finance, asset pricing and corporate finance. The role of a financial economist requires collecting and analysing statistical data using different sampling and econometric techniques.

What is the Next Big Thing in Fintech?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

Breaking down the evolution

Have you ever wondered what would be the case if money wasn’t into the picture? To simplify even further imagine a world where the banking and finance industry is alien to people. Well, it was the case when money wasn’t used as a medium of exchange. The barter economy was running the whole game, exchanging goods for goods and finding people who needed them. It was a lot more complicated than it sounds.

It’s hard to imagine a time like the barter economy when we are sending money through smartphones using the Fintech companies.

When money was introduced as a medium of exchange, it simplified a lot of things that were no less than chaos earlier. From providing a unit of measurement to assigning a standard value for goods and services there was a lot that money solved. But there was still a whole lot that could be done with money as a medium of exchange.

Realizing the potential of this ultimate exchange medium, the bank started leveraging on the multiplier effect of money; there was no end to this revolution of wealth creation and wealth management. As we progressed further and became more technically advanced, technology was leveraged to create Fintech companies, an amalgamation of finance and technology that helped solved the loopholes of traditional banking methods.

Popular trends in Fintech

All the major economies which were earlier cash-oriented are going cashless; this observation is enough to say that the Fintech industry is thriving in the contemporary landscape. The introduction of the internet totally changed the game for almost every industry and the banking & finance industry were no exception to this chain of progressive evolution.

A few decades ago it was just a thought and now it has been the norm. The deep internet penetration and introduction of smartphones have paved the way for success for companies in the Fintech industry. The next big thing in the Fintech industry seems more in favor of digitisation and automation of financial services. The Fintech industry has been limitless so far, let’s look into some prominent developments within this sector that will come out as a game-changer.

Digital Lending Portals

There are companies in the Fintech domain whose main goal is to bring more transparency and convenience in the whole lending process. To minimize the cost of the loan and make it available for even the poorest individual has been the mission for these companies. All of this on a digital portal that can be accessed through your smartphones and laptops, it has been never this easy to get credit from the banks.

Robo-Advisors

The future is all about automation; it has been rightly proved with this big thing in the Fintech circle. No, it’s not a sci-fi movie; robots are here to guide humans on their investment decision. These cutting edge technologies use algorithms to find the best investment solutions for individuals and businesses. It covers all aspects of your investments; from rebalancing to asset allocation you can trust your Robo-advisor for maximizing your investment returns.

RegTech

Leveraging technology to solve regulatory challenges for financial institutions is what RegTech is all about. It’s a combination of the words ‘regulatory’ and ‘technology’. When you are dealing with financial products and services the risks are endless, RegTech is here to save you by mitigating the risks and providing solutions to challenges using technology.

Conclusion

The next big thing in the Fintech industry is not about payment solutions using smartphones but it takes into consideration the broader set of challenges like financial inclusion, regulatory barriers for businesses, credit for the remotest consumer, etc. There is a major scope for companies that are willing to solve these set of challenges.

7 Tips to Create a Killer On-boarding Training Programs!

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

How do onboarding programs help?

The most important resource for any company is its labor force, the human resource we are talking about. What’s challenging in today’s scenario is finding the best talent from a pool of workforce, someone who will be a good fit for the firm given its culture and work environment.  Higher employee turnover ratio not only reflects badly on the firm but also drains profitability and revenue.

Firms in the 21st century have learned from their past mistakes and most of them have an outstanding onboarding program for the newcomers to make them feel more connected to the mission of the organization and their individual role in achieving the objectives. Let’s dive a little deeper into how the onboarding programs help the newcomers.

First and foremost, a robust onboarding program created by the company helps to increase the employee retention rate by providing them insightful information into the job they’ll be performing and the means to excel. Also, it helps to create a sense of belongingness for the employee and they are more likely to stick around for a longer period.

How to create effective onboarding programs?

Now that we know how onboarding programs help the firm in multiple ways, let’s talk about how we can create an effective onboarding program. Research studies have concluded that employee performance can be improved by up to 12% with a robust onboarding plan in place. Here are a few tips on how to create an effective onboarding program.

Creating a cross-departmental team for the onboarding process

Employees from different departments like HR, IT, Management, etc. can be included in the onboarding team. This will provide the employee with a holistic view of the company and also help the employee with a point of contact in every department.  Also, keeping a co-worker from the team can help the new recruit with understanding the day to day of the organization more effectively.

Communicating the firm’s expectation from the new hires

Communication is the key while hiring new talent; it helps with providing the new candidates with a benchmark as to what they’ll need to achieve the given objectives. It will also help the manager and the employee to evaluate the progress and take necessary measures to improve productivity.

Breaking the ice with team members

Planning an activity that’ll help the new candidate to gel-up and socialize with the team is paramount in the onboarding process. This not only helps with creating a positive work environment but also with developing a sense of belongingness for the new employee.

A proactive approach to the onboarding process

Maintaining communication with the new employee between the period of their hiring and their first day at the company is very crucial. People get anxious about their first day at the company, keeping in touch before their first day will create an inclusive environment for the newcomer.

Reminding the Hiring Manager

The hiring manager has a huge role to play when it comes to the success of a newcomer. Reminding the hiring manager to prepare for the first day of the candidate is a crucial step in the onboarding process. A reminder email to the hiring manager should focus on multiple aspects such as roles and responsibilities, buddy system, scheduled check-ins, etc. to be set up before the first day of the newcomer.

Giving access through QR codes

Using QR codes to provide the newcomers with important information such as training materials, company information, individual objectives, etc. can be an effective way to start the day instead of mailing a bunch of PDFs and handing out hard copies for sharing information.

Taking feedback from the newcomers

Newcomers not only bring new ideas but also have a different perspective on things. Taking feedback from the recruits as to how their onboarding experience was and what can be done to improve that experience is significant in designing better training programs for the future.

For more details, you can also visit – https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/4821209/admin

Posted in COE

Why a Business Analyst is Important?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

Business analysts (BA) can boost the productivity of project crews and this is, at times, ignored. While the development crew prepares the technical solutions, BAs offer insights, answer questions, remove hindrances and make sure that the technical solution is working well to cater to the expectations of stakeholders.

Business analysts not only bring immense value to every division that is a part of a project but also to the clientele. But having said that, people do ask about these values, and so these are some of the factors that highlight the importance of business analysts.

Curbing Overall Project Investment

Business analysts are essential in a company as they aid in curbing capital expenses (CAPEX) and operational expenses (OPEX). Even though it might look like the company is spending more cash as they would have to recruit and pay business analysts, yet eventually, BAs can help reduce the overall expenditure on the project they are contributing to. In a way, they help slash the project expenditure by eliminating the need for further re-work.

Consider this, when developers begin coding for a business runner, things might not go as expected and they might have to perform a re-check. In other words, anything that starts simple can scale up in its complexity level after customers’ requirements come in and you will see yourselves redoing the components you initially began your project with.

Business analysts, thus, can help address this rework as they are aware of the demands of business users and know how to convey them to the developers. This ward off project delays which can cost a fortune to organizations.

Secondly, it requires a considerable amount of effort for companies to discover the objectives of the project. This translates to regular meetings, which not only bother their bank accounts but also is a time-intensive affair.

This is when business analysts come in to play; they form a sound decision-making model; remind others about any suggestion they have made earlier and bridge those communication loopholes between various divisions contributing to the project. BAs would avoid myriads of meetings from taking place, which would ease off the burden on business expenses.

Improving the Odds of Potential Margins

Enhancing the value of projects can aid improve the possibilities of getting outsized returns as they are becoming more robust. Having the development crew create an array of, let’s say, 50 tasks that need to be achieved and sorting them by the domain of the system can result in further problems in the project as they might not have been sorted by value.

You might be giving priority to those things which actually are not that important by doing this. Not driving attention to prioritization leads to the devaluation of your project. Prioritization is among the crucial skills companies would desire in business analysts. With BAs in your organization to address the project requisites, the value of your project would scale up and, in turn, ensure potential margins.

Filling Communication Gaps

Having a well-experienced business analyst can be really beneficial for developers as they are solely focused on coding. Else, it would hamper the productivity if they interact with business users and understand their lengthy requirements in time-consuming meetings.

Developers would like to create a solution before going through the entire list of requirements that are essential for a project and, at times, this activity is not much appreciated by business users. As such, it creates inconvenience and confusion among business users and can negatively affect the overall project.

But BAs understand the stuff the developers have to go through to gill the loophole between technical and business requirements. Even though developers are highly capable to collaborate with business runners, it can lead to delays in projects and revamp because of the miscommunication.

Business analysts, hence, will bring value to organizations as they know technical as well as business demands. Moreover, they can communicate with developers as well as business users to make sure that there is no more any project delay.

 

What Is A Data Scientist’s Career Path?

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

The Data Career trajectory is probably the hottest career option you can do right now. As Glassdoor’s latest report shows, the $ 108,000 base salary is not only attractive to job seekers, but the Data Science career also boasts 4.2 out of 5.

Data Science Pipeline

A data science project is a whole process. It is important to understand this fact to get out of the labyrinth of data science.

Data science is not magic!

Embarking on a series of steps systematically first, the project goals are reached. Have you identified attractive business issues or market opportunities? You need to clarify what your company is trying to help you gain a competitive edge.

Next, you need to know where to collect data, plan resources, and coordinate people to do their job. The third part is data preparation. You must clear the data and investigate it carefully. The association begins to appear and the sample and the variable are corrected. The next step is to create, validate, evaluate and improve the form.

Finally, you need to communicate your team experience in the data science process. The data must be compelling and compelling. In the final reporting stage, visualization is essential to telling the complete story.

What did you learn?

At Imarticus Learning, the role of the data science team is not exclusive technology. Programming and statistics are essential to the basic steps in the Data Science Training, but contextual skills are essential to the planning and reporting stages. 

A role in data science

In fact, the role of data scientists is a common part of many different fields. Data scientists are highly capable professionals who have a big picture and are a data programmer, statistician, and a good storyteller.

However, the data science team counts people with different roles, all of whom contribute in different ways. If your career path in the data world is your ultimate goal, there are many ways to reach it.

For example, as an analyst, your data science career will be involved in day-to-day tasks that focus on data collection, database structure, modeling and execution, trend analysis, recommendations, and storytelling. Business intelligence (BI) analysts, on the other hand, should be able to see the trend and get an overview and state of the business unit in the market.

BI analysts usually have experience in business, management, economics or similar fields. However, you should also “interact with data”. BI analysts process a great deal of information and spend most of their time analyzing and illustrating data collected from multiple sources.

Are you fascinated by marketing issues? Marketing analysts are a special kind of data analyst. However, their main competency is associated with analyzing customer activities data with the help of special programs and not involved in programming or machine learning.

Data Science at Work

Data science training equips you with the skills for suggesting smart solutions for performing machine learning for beer and food molecules. Preparing beer with the right molecules to match the most popular meal ingredients on the market will be fun and make money. Imagine the perfect mix of top-selling beers like burgers and tikka masala!