Musings on Markets

FEBRUARY 8, 2025

In the first five posts, I have looked at the macro numbers that drive global markets, from interest rates to risk premiums, but it is not my preferred habitat. A key tool in both endeavors is a hurdle rate a rate of return that you determine as your required return for business and investment decisions.

Hurdle Rate 72

Hurdle Rate Valuation Corporate Finance Currencies 72

Musings on Markets

JANUARY 10, 2025

In corporate finance and investing, which are areas that I work in, I find myself doing double takes as I listen to politicians, market experts and economists making statements about company and market behavior that are fairy tales, and data is often my weapon for discerning the truth. Financing Flows 5. Beta & Risk 1.

Corporate Finance 119

Corporate Finance Valuation Finance Numbers 119

CFO News Room

JANUARY 20, 2023

That expected devaluation in the high-inflation currency is not risk, though, since it can and should be incorporated into your forecasts. If a firm is badly managed, and you expect it to remain badly managed, you can and should build in that expectation into your forecasts of that company’s earnings and value.

Hurdle Rate 130

Hurdle Rate Currencies Investments Corporate Finance 130

Musings on Markets

FEBRUARY 8, 2022

That expected devaluation in the high-inflation currency is not risk, though, since it can and should be incorporated into your forecasts. If a firm is badly managed, and you expect it to remain badly managed, you can and should build in that expectation into your forecasts of that company's earnings and value.

Hurdle Rate 95

Hurdle Rate Currencies Investments Corporate Finance 95

Musings on Markets

AUGUST 15, 2023

After the rating downgrade, my mailbox was inundated with questions of what this action meant for investing, in general, and for corporate finance and valuation practice, in particular, and this post is my attempt to answer them all with one post. Why does the risk-free rate matter? What is a risk free investment?

Investments 98

Investments Currencies Treasury Hurdle Rate 98

Musings on Markets

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

If you have taken a corporate finance class sometime in your past life are probably wondering how this approach reconciles with the Miller-Modigliani theorem, a key component of most corporate finance classes, which posits that there is no optimal debt ratio, and that the debt mix does not affect the value of a business.

Corporate Finance 52

Corporate Finance Finance Marketing Banking 52

Musings on Markets

JANUARY 9, 2021

The first is that I do not have a macro focus, and my interests in macro variables occur only in the context of corporate finance or valuation issues. I also report estimates of the default spreads based upon current yields on bonds in different ratings classes and the current riskfree rate.

Valuation 52

Valuation Currencies Numbers Corporate Finance 52