Search results for: quantitative trading
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 3596

Search results for: quantitative trading

3536 The Effect of Green Power Trading Mechanism on Interregional Power Generation and Transmission in China

Authors: Yan-Shen Yang, Bai-Chen Xie

Abstract:

Background and significance of the study: Both green power trading schemes and interregional power transmission are effective ways to increase green power absorption and achieve renewable power development goals. China accelerates the construction of interregional power transmission lines and the green power market. A critical issue focusing on the close interaction between these two approaches arises, which can heavily affect the green power quota allocation and renewable power development. Existing studies have not discussed this issue adequately, so it is urgent to figure out their relationship to achieve a suitable power market design and a more reasonable power grid construction.Basic methodologies: We develop an equilibrium model of the power market in China to analyze the coupling effect of these two approaches as well as their influence on power generation and interregional transmission in China. Our model considers both the Tradable green certificate (TGC) and green power market, which consists of producers, consumers in the market, and an independent system operator (ISO) minimizing the total system cost. Our equilibrium model includes the decision optimization process of each participant. To reformulate the models presented as a single-level one, we replace the producer, consumer, ISO, and market equilibrium problems with their Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions, which is further reformulated as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) and solved in Gurobi solver. Major findings: The result shows that: (1) the green power market can significantly promote renewable power absorption while the TGC market provides a more flexible way for green power trading. (2) The phenomena of inefficient occupation and no available transmission lines appear simultaneously. The existing interregional transmission lines cannot fully meet the demand for wind and solar PV power trading in some areas while the situation is vice versa in other areas. (3) Synchronous implementation of green power and TGC trading mechanism can benefit the development of green power as well as interregional power transmission. (4) The green power transaction exacerbates the unfair distribution of carbon emissions. The Carbon Gini Coefficient is up to 0.323 under the green power market which shows a high Carbon inequality. The eastern coastal region will benefit the most due to its huge demand for external power.

Keywords: green power market, tradable green certificate, interregional power transmission, power market equilibrium model

Procedia PDF Downloads 92
3535 A Comparative Synopsis of the Enforcement of Market Abuse Prohibition in Australia and South Africa

Authors: Howard Chitimira

Abstract:

In Australia, the market abuse prohibition is generally well accepted by the investing and non-investing public as well as by the government. This co-operative and co-ordinated approach on the part of all the relevant stakeholders has to date given rise to an increased awareness and commendable combating of market abuse activities in the Australian corporations, companies, and securities markets. It is against this background that this article seeks to comparatively explore the general enforcement approaches that are employed to combat market abuse (insider trading and market manipulation) activity in Australia and South Africa. In relation to this, the role of selected enforcement authorities and possible enforcement methods which may be learnt from both the Australian and South African experiences will be isolated where necessary for consideration by such authorities, especially, in the South African market abuse regulatory framework.

Keywords: insider trading, market abuse, market manipulation, regulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 270
3534 Climate Change Impacts, Vulnerability, and Adaptation among Rural Households in Ethiopia

Authors: Birtukan Atinkut Asmare

Abstract:

Climate change disproportionately affects many Africans who heavily rely on climate-exposed sectors such as rain-fed agriculture and fishing, rendering them highly vulnerable. Gender plays a significant role, as men and women experience unequal impacts and vulnerabilities due to gender norms, labor divisions, resource access, and power dynamics. Drawing on an integrated framework, this study sheds light on the gendered impacts of climate change on household’s livelihood, their vulnerability, and adaptation in rural Ethiopia's Lake Tana Basin. This study utilized mixed research methods, integrating diverse qualitative techniques such as focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and field observations, along with quantitative data gathered through household surveys. The findings reveal that women-headed households were more vulnerable to climate change than male-headed households. Flood was the major climate-induced hazards in the area that threatened the lives and livelihoods of households. In response to climate change, households undertook different adaptation measures such as agroforestry practices, crop diversification, seasonal migration, petty trading, charcoal and fuel wood sales. However, the adaptation strategies were slightly varied based on the gender of the household head. Women-headed households specifically engaged in fuelwood collection and selling and petty trading activities. The main constraints for adaptation were limited access to technologies, extension services, information, and financial services. Therefore, this research urges attention from research, policy, and advisory services on rural households who are trying to survive in the face of climate change.

Keywords: agriculture, climate change impacts, ethiopia, gender

Procedia PDF Downloads 28
3533 Supplier Selection by Considering Cost and Reliability

Authors: K. -H. Yang

Abstract:

Supplier selection problem is one of the important issues of supply chain problems. Two categories of methodologies include qualitative and quantitative approaches which can be applied to supplier selection problems. However, due to the complexities of the problem and lacking of reliable and quantitative data, qualitative approaches are more than quantitative approaches. This study considers operational cost and supplier’s reliability factor and solves the problem by using a quantitative approach. A mixed integer programming model is the primary analytic tool. Analyses of different scenarios with variable cost and reliability structures show that the effectiveness of this approach to the supplier selection problem.

Keywords: mixed integer programming, quantitative approach, supplier’s reliability, supplier selection

Procedia PDF Downloads 344
3532 Performance Analysis of Hierarchical Agglomerative Clustering in a Wireless Sensor Network Using Quantitative Data

Authors: Tapan Jain, Davender Singh Saini

Abstract:

Clustering is a useful mechanism in wireless sensor networks which helps to cope with scalability and data transmission problems. The basic aim of our research work is to provide efficient clustering using Hierarchical agglomerative clustering (HAC). If the distance between the sensing nodes is calculated using their location then it’s quantitative HAC. This paper compares the various agglomerative clustering techniques applied in a wireless sensor network using the quantitative data. The simulations are done in MATLAB and the comparisons are made between the different protocols using dendrograms.

Keywords: routing, hierarchical clustering, agglomerative, quantitative, wireless sensor network

Procedia PDF Downloads 560
3531 Blockchain for the Monitoring and Reporting of Carbon Emission Trading: A Case Study on Its Possible Implementation in the Danish Energy Industry

Authors: Nkechi V. Osuji

Abstract:

The use of blockchain to address the issue of climate change is increasingly a discourse among countries, industries, and stakeholders. For a long time, the European Union (EU) has been combating the issue of climate action in industries through sustainability programs. One of such programs is the EU monitoring reporting and verification (MRV) program of the EU ETS. However, the system has some key challenges and areas for improvement, which makes it inefficient. The main objective of the research is to look at how blockchain can be used to improve the inefficiency of the EU ETS program for the Danish energy industry with a focus on its monitoring and reporting framework. Applying empirical data from 13 semi-structured expert interviews, three case studies, and literature reviews, three outcomes are presented in the study. The first is on the current conditions and challenges of monitoring and reporting CO₂ emission trading. The second is putting into consideration if blockchain is the right fit to solve these challenges and how. The third stage looks at the factors that might affect the implementation of such a system and provides recommendations to mitigate these challenges. The first stage of the findings reveals that the monitoring and reporting of CO₂ emissions is a mandatory requirement by law for all energy operators under the EU ETS program. However, most energy operators are non-compliant with the program in reality, which creates a gap and causes challenges in the monitoring and reporting of CO₂ emission trading. Other challenges the study found out are the lack of transparency, lack of standardization in CO₂ accounting, and the issue of double-counting in the current system. The second stage of the research was guided by three case studies and requirement engineering (RE) to explore these identified challenges and if blockchain is the right fit to address them. This stage of the research addressed the main research question: how can blockchain be used for monitoring and reporting CO₂ emission trading in the energy industry. Through analysis of the study data, the researcher developed a conceptual private permissioned Hyperledger blockchain and elucidated on how it can address the identified challenges. Particularly, the smart contract of blockchain was highlighted as a key feature. This is because of its ability to automate, be immutable, and digitally enforce negotiations without a middleman. These characteristics are unique in solving the issue of compliance, transparency, standardization, and double counting identified. The third stage of the research presents technological constraints and a high level of stakeholder collaboration as major factors that might affect the implementation of the proposed system. The proposed conceptual model requires high-level integration with other technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine learning. Therefore, the study encourages future research in these areas. This is because blockchain is continually evolving its technology capabilities. As such, it remains a topic of interest in research and development for addressing climate change. Such a study is a good contribution to creating sustainable practices to solve the global climate issue.

Keywords: blockchain, carbon emission trading, European Union emission trading system, monitoring and reporting

Procedia PDF Downloads 102
3530 Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach for Trading Automation in The Stock Market

Authors: Taylan Kabbani, Ekrem Duman

Abstract:

The design of adaptive systems that take advantage of financial markets while reducing the risk can bring more stagnant wealth into the global market. However, most efforts made to generate successful deals in trading financial assets rely on Supervised Learning (SL), which suffered from various limitations. Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) offers to solve these drawbacks of SL approaches by combining the financial assets price "prediction" step and the "allocation" step of the portfolio in one unified process to produce fully autonomous systems capable of interacting with its environment to make optimal decisions through trial and error. In this paper, a continuous action space approach is adopted to give the trading agent the ability to gradually adjust the portfolio's positions with each time step (dynamically re-allocate investments), resulting in better agent-environment interaction and faster convergence of the learning process. In addition, the approach supports the managing of a portfolio with several assets instead of a single one. This work represents a novel DRL model to generate profitable trades in the stock market, effectively overcoming the limitations of supervised learning approaches. We formulate the trading problem, or what is referred to as The Agent Environment as Partially observed Markov Decision Process (POMDP) model, considering the constraints imposed by the stock market, such as liquidity and transaction costs. More specifically, we design an environment that simulates the real-world trading process by augmenting the state representation with ten different technical indicators and sentiment analysis of news articles for each stock. We then solve the formulated POMDP problem using the Twin Delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (TD3) algorithm, which can learn policies in high-dimensional and continuous action spaces like those typically found in the stock market environment. From the point of view of stock market forecasting and the intelligent decision-making mechanism, this paper demonstrates the superiority of deep reinforcement learning in financial markets over other types of machine learning such as supervised learning and proves its credibility and advantages of strategic decision-making.

Keywords: the stock market, deep reinforcement learning, MDP, twin delayed deep deterministic policy gradient, sentiment analysis, technical indicators, autonomous agent

Procedia PDF Downloads 148
3529 Prediction of Dubai Financial Market Stocks Movement Using K-Nearest Neighbor and Support Vector Regression

Authors: Abdulla D. Alblooshi

Abstract:

The stock market is a representation of human behavior and psychology, such as fear, greed, and discipline. Those are manifested in the form of price movements during the trading sessions. Therefore, predicting the stock movement and prices is a challenging effort. However, those trading sessions produce a large amount of data that can be utilized to train an AI agent for the purpose of predicting the stock movement. Predicting the stock market price action will be advantageous. In this paper, the stock movement data of three DFM listed stocks are studied using historical price movements and technical indicators value and used to train an agent using KNN and SVM methods to predict the future price movement. MATLAB Toolbox and a simple script is written to process and classify the information and output the prediction. It will also compare the different learning methods and parameters s using metrics like RMSE, MAE, and R².

Keywords: KNN, ANN, style, SVM, stocks, technical indicators, RSI, MACD, moving averages, RMSE, MAE

Procedia PDF Downloads 140
3528 Vietnamese Trade Ceramics from the 14th Century to the 17th Century through Materials

Authors: Ngo the Bach

Abstract:

Vietnam is one of not many Asian countries that have a long-standing and famous tradition of pottery production. Vietnam is also one of three countries including China, Vietnam, and Japan developed strongly the export of ceramics to other countries. In recent decades, the studies of Vietnamese and foreign scholars on Vietnamese trade ceramics as well as Vietnamese foreign trade was initially recorded. The aim of this article is to introduce an overview of the findings situation and research results; the development of Vietnam ceramics and the Vietnamese history of maritime trade with Asian ceramics from the 14th century to the 17th century. Given that, the author systematized materials; carried out the synthetic and analysis for research results of Vietnamese and foreign researchers until now on Vietnamese export ceramics on the basis of the historical sources, archaeological findings discovered from relics in the tombs, relics of residence, relics of trading port inland, and the ancient shipwreck sank in the Asian countries.

Keywords: Vietnamese ceramics, trading, maritime, international

Procedia PDF Downloads 235
3527 Quantitative Characterization of Single Orifice Hydraulic Flat Spray Nozzle

Authors: Y. C. Khoo, W. T. Lai

Abstract:

The single orifice hydraulic flat spray nozzle was evaluated with two global imaging techniques to characterize various aspects of the resulting spray. The two techniques were high resolution flow visualization and Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). A CCD camera with 29 million pixels was used to capture shadowgraph images to realize ligament formation and collapse as well as droplet interaction. Quantitative analysis was performed to give the sizing information of the droplets and ligaments. This camera was then applied with a PIV system to evaluate the overall velocity field of the spray, from nozzle exit to droplet discharge. PIV images were further post-processed to determine the inclusion angle of the spray. The results from those investigations provided significant quantitative understanding of the spray structure. Based on the quantitative results, detailed understanding of the spray behavior was achieved.

Keywords: spray, flow visualization, PIV, shadowgraph, quantitative sizing, velocity field

Procedia PDF Downloads 356
3526 Enabling Quantitative Urban Sustainability Assessment with Big Data

Authors: Changfeng Fu

Abstract:

Sustainable urban development has been widely accepted a common sense in the modern urban planning and design. However, the measurement and assessment of urban sustainability, especially the quantitative assessment have been always an issue obsessing planning and design professionals. This paper will present an on-going research on the principles and technologies to develop a quantitative urban sustainability assessment principles and techniques which aim to integrate indicators, geospatial and geo-reference data, and assessment techniques together into a mechanism. It is based on the principles and techniques of geospatial analysis with GIS and statistical analysis methods. The decision-making technologies and methods such as AHP and SMART are also adopted to address overall assessment conclusions. The possible interfaces and presentation of data and quantitative assessment results are also described. This research is based on the knowledge, situations and data sources of UK, but it is potentially adaptable to other countries or regions. The implementation potentials of the mechanism are also discussed.

Keywords: urban sustainability assessment, quantitative analysis, sustainability indicator, geospatial data, big data

Procedia PDF Downloads 330
3525 A Historical Overview of the General Implementation of the European Union Market Abuse Directive in the United Kingdom before the Brexit and Its Future Implications

Authors: Howard Chitimira

Abstract:

The European Union (EU) was probably the first body to establish multinational anti-market abuse laws aimed at enhancing the detection and curbing of cross-border market abuse activities in its member states. Put differently, the EU Insider Dealing Directive was adopted in 1989 and was the first law that harmonised the insider trading ban among the EU member states. Thereafter, the European Union Directive on Insider Dealing and Market Manipulation (EU Market Abuse Directive) was adopted in a bid to improve and effectively discourage all the forms of market abuse in the EU’s securities and financial markets. However, the EU Market Abuse Directive had its own gaps and flaws. In light of this, the Market Abuse Regulation and the Criminal Sanctions for Market Abuse Directive were enacted to repeal and replace the EU Market Abuse Directive in 2016. The article examines the adequacy of the EU Market Abuse Directive and its implementation in the United Kingdom (UK) prior to the British exit (Brexit). This is done to investigate the possible implications of the Brexit referendum outcome of 23 June 2016 on the future regulation of market abuse in the UK.

Keywords: market abuse, insider trading, market manipulation, European Union, United Kingdom

Procedia PDF Downloads 218
3524 Water Quality Trading with Equitable Total Maximum Daily Loads

Authors: S. Jamshidi, E. Feizi Ashtiani, M. Ardestani, A. Feizi Ashtiani

Abstract:

Waste load allocation (WLA) strategies usually intend to find economical policies for water resource management. Water quality trading (WQT) is an approach that uses discharge permit market to reduce total environmental protection costs. This primarily requires assigning discharge limits known as total maximum daily loads (TMDLs). These are determined by monitoring organizations with respect to the receiving water quality and remediation capabilities. The purpose of this study is to compare two approaches of TMDL assignment for WQT policy in small catchment area of Haraz River, in north of Iran. At first, TMDLs are assigned uniformly for the whole point sources to keep the concentrations of BOD and dissolved oxygen (DO) at the standard level at checkpoint (terminus point). This was simply simulated and controlled by Qual2kw software. In the second scenario, TMDLs are assigned using multi objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) method in which the environmental violation at river basin and total treatment costs are minimized simultaneously. In both scenarios, the equity index and the WLA based on trading discharge permits (TDP) are calculated. The comparative results showed that using economically optimized TMDLs (2nd scenario) has slightly more cost savings rather than uniform TMDL approach (1st scenario). The former annually costs about 1 M$ while the latter is 1.15 M$. WQT can decrease these annual costs to 0.9 and 1.1 M$, respectively. In other word, these approaches may save 35 and 45% economically in comparison with command and control policy. It means that using multi objective decision support systems (DSS) may find more economical WLA, however its outcome is not necessarily significant in comparison with uniform TMDLs. This may be due to the similar impact factors of dischargers in small catchments. Conversely, using uniform TMDLs for WQT brings more equity that makes stakeholders not feel that much envious of difference between TMDL and WQT allocation. In addition, for this case, determination of TMDLs uniformly would be much easier for monitoring. Consequently, uniform TMDL for TDP market is recommended as a sustainable approach. However, economical TMDLs can be used for larger watersheds.

Keywords: waste load allocation (WLA), water quality trading (WQT), total maximum daily loads (TMDLs), Haraz River, multi objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO), equity

Procedia PDF Downloads 371
3523 Signaling Theory: An Investigation on the Informativeness of Dividends and Earnings Announcements

Authors: Faustina Masocha, Vusani Moyo

Abstract:

For decades, dividend announcements have been presumed to contain important signals about the future prospects of companies. Similarly, the same has been presumed about management earnings announcements. Despite both dividend and earnings announcements being considered informative, a number of researchers questioned their credibility and found both to contain short-term signals. Pertaining to dividend announcements, some authors argued that although they might contain important information that can result in changes in share prices, which consequently results in the accumulation of abnormal returns, their degree of informativeness is less compared to other signaling tools such as earnings announcements. Yet, this claim in favor has been refuted by other researchers who found the effect of earnings to be transitory and of little value to shareholders as indicated by the little abnormal returns earned during the period surrounding earnings announcements. Considering the above, it is apparent that both dividends and earnings have been hypothesized to have a signaling impact. This prompts one to question which between these two signaling tools is more informative. To answer this question, two follow-up questions were asked. The first question sought to determine the event which results in the most effect on share prices, while the second question focused on the event that influenced trading volume the most. To answer the first question and evaluate the effect that each of these events had on share prices, an event study methodology was employed on a sample made up of the top 10 JSE-listed companies for data collected from 2012 to 2019 to determine if shareholders gained abnormal returns (ARs) during announcement dates. The event that resulted in the most persistent and highest amount of ARs was considered to be more informative. Looking at the second follow-up question, an investigation was conducted to determine if either dividends or earnings announcements influenced trading patterns, resulting in abnormal trading volumes (ATV) around announcement time. The event that resulted in the most ATV was considered more informative. Using an estimation period of 20 days and an event window of 21 days, and hypothesis testing, it was found that announcements pertaining to the increase of earnings resulted in the most ARs, Cumulative Abnormal Returns (CARs) and had a lasting effect in comparison to dividend announcements whose effect lasted until day +3. This solidifies some empirical arguments that the signaling effect of dividends has become diminishing. It was also found that when reported earnings declined in comparison to the previous period, there was an increase in trading volume, resulting in ATV. Although dividend announcements did result in abnormal returns, they were lesser than those acquired during earnings announcements which refutes a number of theoretical and empirical arguments that found dividends to be more informative than earnings announcements.

Keywords: dividend signaling, event study methodology, information content of earnings, signaling theory

Procedia PDF Downloads 135
3522 Frequent-Pattern Tree Algorithm Application to S&P and Equity Indexes

Authors: E. Younsi, H. Andriamboavonjy, A. David, S. Dokou, B. Lemrabet

Abstract:

Software and time optimization are very important factors in financial markets, which are competitive fields, and emergence of new computer tools further stresses the challenge. In this context, any improvement of technical indicators which generate a buy or sell signal is a major issue. Thus, many tools have been created to make them more effective. This worry about efficiency has been leading in present paper to seek best (and most innovative) way giving largest improvement in these indicators. The approach consists in attaching a signature to frequent market configurations by application of frequent patterns extraction method which is here most appropriate to optimize investment strategies. The goal of proposed trading algorithm is to find most accurate signatures using back testing procedure applied to technical indicators for improving their performance. The problem is then to determine the signatures which, combined with an indicator, outperform this indicator alone. To do this, the FP-Tree algorithm has been preferred, as it appears to be the most efficient algorithm to perform this task.

Keywords: quantitative analysis, back-testing, computational models, apriori algorithm, pattern recognition, data mining, FP-tree

Procedia PDF Downloads 333
3521 Qualitative and Quantitative Case Study Research Method on Social Science: Accounting Perspective

Authors: Bubaker F. Shareia

Abstract:

The main aim of this paper is to set the parameters within which the study is to be conducted, specifically justifying the use of qualitative research, informed by theory. This paper argues that the social world is subjective in nature and may be accessed through the interpretive approach provided by the people involved in the context of the study. The paper defines and distinguishes between qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, explores Burrell and Morgan's framework for social research, and presents the study's adopted methodology and methods, with the rationale for these choices.

Keywords: accounting, methodologies, qualitative, quantitative research

Procedia PDF Downloads 208
3520 Marketing Mixed Factors Affecting on Commercial Transactions Expectations through Social Networks

Authors: Ladaporn Pithuk

Abstract:

This study aims to investigate the marketing mixed factors that affecting on expectations about commercial transactions through social networks. The research method will using quantitative research, data was collected by questionnaires to person have experience access to trading over the internet for 400 sample by purposive sampling method. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistic including percentage, mean, standard deviation and using quality function deployment for hypothesis testing. Finding the most significant interrelationship between marketing mixed factors and commercial transactions expectations through social networks are product and place the relationship of five ties product and place (location) is involved in almost all will make the site a model that meets the needs of the user visit. In terms of price, the promotion, privacy, personalization and providing a process technical. This will make operations more efficient, reduce confusion, duplication, delays in data transmission, including the creation of different elements in products and services.

Keywords: commercial transactions expectations, marketing mixed factors, social networks, consumer behavior

Procedia PDF Downloads 202
3519 Evaluating Performance of Value at Risk Models for the MENA Islamic Stock Market Portfolios

Authors: Abderrazek Ben Maatoug, Ibrahim Fatnassi, Wassim Ben Ayed

Abstract:

In this paper we investigate the issue of market risk quantification for Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Islamic market equity. We use Value-at-Risk (VaR) as a measure of potential risk in Islamic stock market, for long and short position, based on Riskmetrics model and the conditional parametric ARCH class model volatility with normal, student and skewed student distribution. The sample consist of daily data for the 2006-2014 of 11 Islamic stock markets indices. We conduct Kupiec and Engle and Manganelli tests to evaluate the performance for each model. The main finding of our empirical results show that (i) the superior performance of VaR models based on the Student and skewed Student distribution, for the significance level of α=1% , for all Islamic stock market indices, and for both long and short trading positions (ii) Risk Metrics model, and VaR model based on conditional volatility with normal distribution provides the best accurate VaR estimations for both long and short trading positions for a significance level of α=5%.

Keywords: value-at-risk, risk management, islamic finance, GARCH models

Procedia PDF Downloads 555
3518 The Effectiveness of Environmental Policy Instruments for Promoting Renewable Energy Consumption: Command-and-Control Policies versus Market-Based Policies

Authors: Mahmoud Hassan

Abstract:

Understanding the impact of market- and non-market-based environmental policy instruments on renewable energy consumption (REC) is crucial for the design and choice of policy packages. This study aims to empirically investigate the effect of environmental policy stringency index (EPS) and its components on REC in 27 OECD countries over the period from 1990 to 2015, and then use the results to identify what the appropriate environmental policy mix should look like. By relying on the two-step system GMM estimator, we provide evidence that increasing environmental policy stringency as a whole promotes renewable energy consumption in these 27 developed economies. Moreover, policymakers are able, through the market- and non-market-based environmental policy instruments, to increase the use of renewable energy. However, not all of these instruments are effective for achieving this goal. The results indicate that R&D subsidies and trading schemes have a positive and significant impact on REC, while taxes, feed-in tariff and emission standards have not a significant effect. Furthermore, R&D subsidies are more effective than trading schemes for stimulating the use of clean energy. These findings proved to be robust across the three alternative panel techniques used.

Keywords: environmental policy stringency, renewable energy consumption, two-step system-GMM estimation, linear dynamic panel data model

Procedia PDF Downloads 151
3517 The Positive Impact of COVID-19 on the Level of Investments of U.S. Retail Investors: Evidence from a Quantitative Online Survey and Ordered Probit Analysis

Authors: Corina E. Niculaescu, Ivan Sangiorgi, Adrian R. Bell

Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic has been life-changing in many aspects of people’s daily and social lives, but has it also changed attitudes towards investments? This paper explores the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on retail investors’ levels of investments in the U.S. during the first COVID-19 wave in summer 2020. This is an unprecedented health crisis, which could lead to changes in investment behavior, including irrational behavior in retail investors. As such, this study aims to inform policymakers of what happened to investment decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic so that they can protect retail investors during extreme events like a global health crisis. The study aims to answer two research questions. First, was the level of investments affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and if so, why? Second, how were investments affected by retail investors’ personal experience with COVID-19? The research analysis is based on primary survey data collected on the Amazon Mechanical Turk platform from a representative sample of U.S. respondents. Responses were collected between the 15th of July and 28th of August 2020 from 1,148 U.S. retail investors who hold mutual fund investments and a savings account. The research explores whether being affected by COVID-19, change in the level of savings, and risk capacity can explain the change in the level of investments by using regression analysis. The dependent variable is changed in investments measured as decrease, no change, and increase. For this reason, the methodology used is ordered probit regression models. The results show that retail investors in the U.S. increased their investments during the first wave of COVID-19, which is unexpected as investors are usually more cautious in crisis times. Moreover, the study finds that those who were affected personally by COVID-19 (e.g., tested positive) were more likely to increase their investments, which is irrational behavior and contradicts expectations. An increase in the level of savings and risk capacity was also associated with increased investments. Overall, the findings show that having personal experience with a health crisis can have an impact on one’s investment decisions as well. Those findings are important for both retail investors and policymakers, especially now that online trading platforms have made trading easily accessible to everyone. There are risks and potential irrational behaviors associated with investment decisions during times of crisis, and it is important that retail investors are aware of them before making financial decisions.

Keywords: COVID-19, financial decision-making, health crisis retail investors, survey

Procedia PDF Downloads 160
3516 Empowering Rural Women Entrepreneurs via Microcredit

Authors: Salwana Hassan, Rashidah Abdul Rahman

Abstract:

Poverty in rural Malaysia remains unresolved and contribute 7.8% to the whole poverty figure in Malaysia. Among the rural folks, 50% is women. Thus, women, as the significant human capital to fight the long lost battle of poverty , is indispensable. This will also serve as an equal opportunity for women to play active and positive roles to develop the society that has been the tasks for men all this while. More importantly rural women folks have the potential to offer better quality of life for their family by providing extra income and monetary support whenever their husbands are not able to work. The reality in this, however, cannot be solved easily as there are many factors that stand in the way and prevent the resolutions to be observed.In this regard, this paper describes a model that has been used to resolve such issues in rural Malaysia. The model utilizes a synergetic effort between an academic institution, an NGO that govern the rural women folks and a private trading company that sell the finished product. The project was conducted in rural area of Selangor and has been in operations since the end of 2013. It shows positive outcome and could be used in other rural areas of Malaysia. The project captures the influence of the NGO programs upon rural women entrepreneurship and how a private trading company can facilitate to help develop a community. As a result the project reveals that self-income generating activities by entrepreneurship are the important contributing factor to empowering rural women folks in Malaysia.

Keywords: poverty, empowerment, rural, entrepreneurship, community

Procedia PDF Downloads 357
3515 A Semi-supervised Classification Approach for Trend Following Investment Strategy

Authors: Rodrigo Arnaldo Scarpel

Abstract:

Trend following is a widely accepted investment strategy that adopts a rule-based trading mechanism that rather than striving to predict market direction or on information gathering to decide when to buy and when to sell a stock. Thus, in trend following one must respond to market’s movements that has recently happen and what is currently happening, rather than on what will happen. Optimally, in trend following strategy, is to catch a bull market at its early stage, ride the trend, and liquidate the position at the first evidence of the subsequent bear market. For applying the trend following strategy one needs to find the trend and identify trade signals. In order to avoid false signals, i.e., identify fluctuations of short, mid and long terms and to separate noise from real changes in the trend, most academic works rely on moving averages and other technical analysis indicators, such as the moving average convergence divergence (MACD) and the relative strength index (RSI) to uncover intelligible stock trading rules following trend following strategy philosophy. Recently, some works has applied machine learning techniques for trade rules discovery. In those works, the process of rule construction is based on evolutionary learning which aims to adapt the rules to the current environment and searches for the global optimum rules in the search space. In this work, instead of focusing on the usage of machine learning techniques for creating trading rules, a time series trend classification employing a semi-supervised approach was used to early identify both the beginning and the end of upward and downward trends. Such classification model can be employed to identify trade signals and the decision-making procedure is that if an up-trend (down-trend) is identified, a buy (sell) signal is generated. Semi-supervised learning is used for model training when only part of the data is labeled and Semi-supervised classification aims to train a classifier from both the labeled and unlabeled data, such that it is better than the supervised classifier trained only on the labeled data. For illustrating the proposed approach, it was employed daily trade information, including the open, high, low and closing values and volume from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2022, of the São Paulo Exchange Composite index (IBOVESPA). Through this time period it was visually identified consistent changes in price, upwards or downwards, for assigning labels and leaving the rest of the days (when there is not a consistent change in price) unlabeled. For training the classification model, a pseudo-label semi-supervised learning strategy was used employing different technical analysis indicators. In this learning strategy, the core is to use unlabeled data to generate a pseudo-label for supervised training. For evaluating the achieved results, it was considered the annualized return and excess return, the Sortino and the Sharpe indicators. Through the evaluated time period, the obtained results were very consistent and can be considered promising for generating the intended trading signals.

Keywords: evolutionary learning, semi-supervised classification, time series data, trading signals generation

Procedia PDF Downloads 50
3514 Quantitative Phase Imaging System Based on a Three-Lens Common-Path Interferometer

Authors: Alexander Machikhin, Olga Polschikova, Vitold Pozhar, Alina Ramazanova

Abstract:

White-light quantitative phase imaging is an effective technique for achieving sub-nanometer phase sensitivity. Highly stable interferometers based on common-path geometry have been developed in recent years to solve this task. Some of these methods also apply multispectral approach. The purpose of this research is to suggest a simple and effective interferometer for such systems. We developed a three-lens common-path interferometer, which can be used for quantitative phase imaging with or without multispectral modality. The lens system consists of two components, the first one of which is a compound lens, consisting of two lenses. A pinhole is placed between the components. The lens-in-lens approach enables effective light transmission and high stability of the interferometer. The multispectrality is easily implemented by placing a tunable filter in front of the interferometer. In our work, we used an acousto-optical tunable filter. Some design considerations are discussed and multispectral quantitative phase retrieval is demonstrated.

Keywords: acousto-optical tunable filter, common-path interferometry, digital holography, multispectral quantitative phase imaging

Procedia PDF Downloads 280
3513 Modeling the Philippine Stock Exchange Index Closing Value Using Artificial Neural Network

Authors: Frankie Burgos, Emely Munar, Conrado Basa

Abstract:

This paper aimed at developing an artificial neural network (ANN) model specifically for the Philippine Stock Exchange index closing value. The inputs to the ANN are US Dollar and Philippine Peso(USD-PHP) exchange rate, GDP growth of the country, quarterly inflation rate, 10-year bond yield, credit rating of the country, previous open, high, low, close values and volume of trade of the Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi), gold price of the previous day, National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ), Standard and Poor’s 500 (S & P 500) and the iShares MSCI Philippines ETF (EPHE) previous closing value. The target is composed of the closing value of the PSEi during the 627 trading days from November 3, 2011, to May 30, 2014. MATLAB’s Neural Network toolbox was employed to create, train and simulate the network using multi-layer feed forward neural network with back-propagation algorithm. The results satisfactorily show that the neural network developed has the ability to model the PSEi, which is affected by both internal and external economic factors. It was found out that the inputs used are the main factors that influence the movement of the PSEi closing value.

Keywords: artificial neural networks, artificial intelligence, philippine stocks exchange index, stocks trading

Procedia PDF Downloads 264
3512 Comparative Economic Analysis of Floating Photovoltaic Systems Using a Synthesis Approach

Authors: Ching-Feng Chen

Abstract:

The floating photovoltaic (FPV) system highlights economic benefits and energy performance to carbon dioxide (CO₂) discharges. Due to land resource scarcity and many negligent water territories, such as reservoirs, dams, and lakes in Japan and Taiwan, both countries are actively developing FPV and responding to the pricing of the emissions trading systems (ETS). This paper performs a case study through a synthesis approach to compare the economic indicators between the FPVs of Taiwan’s Agongdian Reservoir and Japan’s Yamakura Dam. The research results show that the metrics of the system capacity, installation costs, bank interest rates, and ETS and Electricity Bills affect FPV operating gains. In the post-Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) phase, investing in FPV in Japan is more profitable than in Taiwan. The former’s positive net present value (NPV), eminent internal rate of return (IRR) (11.6%), and benefit-cost ratio (BCR) above 1 (2.0) at the discount rate of 10% indicate that investing the FPV in Japan is more favorable than in Taiwan. In addition, the breakeven point is modest (about 61.3%.). The presented methodology in the study helps investors evaluate schemes’ pros and cons and determine whether a decision is beneficial while funding PV or FPV projects.

Keywords: carbon border adjustment mechanism, floating photovoltaic, emissions trading systems, net present value, internal rate of return, benefit-cost ratio

Procedia PDF Downloads 45
3511 The Study of Thai Consumer Behavior toward Buying Goods on the Internet

Authors: Pichamon Chansuchai

Abstract:

The study of Thai consumer behavior toward buying goods on the Internet is a survey research. The five-level rating scale and open-ended questionnaire are applied for this research procedure, which has more than 400 random sampling of Thai people aged between 15-40 years old. The summary findings are: The analysis of respondents profile were female 55.3% and male 44.8% , 35.3% aged between 20-30 years old, had been employed 29.5% with average income up to 11,000 baht/month 50.2% and expenditure more than 11,000 baht per month 29.3%. The internet usage behavior of respondents mostly found that objectives of the internet usage are: 1) Communication 93.3% 2) the categories of websites usage was trading 42.8% 3) The marketing mix effected to trading behavior via internet which can be analyzed in term of marketing factor as following: Product focused on product quality was the most influenced factor with average value 4.75. The cheaper price than overview market was the most effect factor to internet shopping with mean value 4.53. The average value 4.67 of the available place that could reduce spending time for shopping. The effective promotion of the buy 1 get 1 was the stimulus factor for internet shopping with mean value 4.60. For hypothesis testing, the different sex has relationship with buying decision. It presented that male and female have vary purchasing decision via internet with value of significant difference 0.05. Furthermore, the variety occupations of respondents related to the use of selected type of website. It also found that the vary of personal occupation effected to the type of website selection dissimilar with value of significant difference 0.05.

Keywords: behavior, internet, consumer, goods

Procedia PDF Downloads 219
3510 Supply Chain Coordination under Carbon Trading Mechanism in Case of Conflict

Authors: Fuqiang Wang, Jun Liu, Liyan Cai

Abstract:

This paper investigates the coordination of the conflicting two-stage low carbon supply chain consisting of upstream and downstream manufacturers. The conflict means that the upstream manufacturer takes action for carbon emissions reduction under carbon trading mechanism while the downstream manufacturer’s production cost rises. It assumes for the Stackelberg game that the upstream manufacturer plays as a leader and the downstream manufacturer does as a follower. Four kinds of the situation of decentralized decision making, centralized decision-making, the production cost sharing contract and the carbon emissions reduction revenue sharing contract under decentralized decision making are considered. The backward induction approach is adopted to solve the game. The results show that the more intense the conflict is, the lower the efficiency of carbon emissions reduction and the higher the retail price is. The optimal investment of the decentralized supply chain under the two contracts is unchanged and still lower than that of the centralized supply chain. Both the production cost sharing contract and the carbon emissions reduction revenue sharing contract cannot coordinate the supply chain, because that the sharing cost or carbon emissions reduction sharing revenue will transfer through the wholesale price mechanism. As a result, it requires more complicated contract forms to coordinate such a supply chain.

Keywords: cap-and-trade mechanism, carbon emissions reduction, conflict, supply chain coordination

Procedia PDF Downloads 300
3509 Impact of Regulation on Trading in Financial Derivatives in Europe

Authors: H. Florianová, J. Nešleha

Abstract:

Financial derivatives are considered to be risky investment instruments which could possibly bring another financial crisis. As prevention, European Union and its member states have released new legal acts adjusting this area of law in recent years. There have been several cases in history of capital markets worldwide where it was shown that legislature may affect behavior of subjects on capital markets. In our paper we analyze main events on selected European stock exchanges in order to apply them on three chosen markets - Czech capital market represented by Prague Stock Exchange, German capital market represented by Deutsche Börse and Polish capital market represented by Warsaw Stock Exchange. We follow time series of development of the sum of listed derivatives on these three stock exchanges in order to evaluate popularity of those exchanges. Afterwards we compare newly listed derivatives in relation to the speed of development of these exchanges. We also make a comparison between trends in derivatives and shares development. We explain how a legal regulation may affect situation on capital markets. If the regulation is too strict, potential investors or traders are not willing to undertake it and move to other markets. On the other hand, if the regulation is too vague, trading scandals occur and the market is not reliable from the prospect of potential investors or issuers. We see that making the regulation stricter usually discourages subjects to stay on the market immediately although making the regulation vaguer to interest more subjects is usually much slower process.

Keywords: capital markets, financial derivatives, investors' behavior, regulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 240
3508 Consumer Behavior Towards Online Shopping in Kuwait: A Quantitative Analysis

Authors: Mitra Arami

Abstract:

The main objective of this paper is to identify the factors that influence Kuwaiti consumers’ behavior towards online shopping. A survey was conducted among B2C e-commerce customers using a structured self-administered questionnaire. The findings of this study show that B2C e-commerce customer behavior in Kuwait is strongly influenced by customer entertainment but weakly influenced by customer trust. While the overall research project involves exploratory research using mixed methods, the focus of this paper is on a quantitative analysis of responses obtained from a survey of Kuwaiti customers, with the design of the questionnaire instrument being based on the findings of a qualitative analysis. The main findings of the analysis include a list of key factors that affect Kuwait online shoppers, and quantitative indications of the relative strengths of the various relationships. This study provides a basis for further research and more in depth studies to find the scope of online shopping in Kuwait especially, the influence of hedonic and utilitarian motivations on user engagement.

Keywords: e-commerce, online shopping, customer behavior, quantitative analysis, Kuwait

Procedia PDF Downloads 336
3507 Procedure to Use Quantitative Bone-Specific SPECT/CT in North Karelia Central Hospital

Authors: L. Korpinen, P. Taskinen, P. Rautio

Abstract:

This study aimed to describe procedures that we developed to use in the quantitative, bone-specific SPECT/CT at our hospital. Our procedures included the following questions for choosing imaging protocols, which were based on a clinical doctor's referral: (1) Is she/he a cancer patient or not? (2) Are there any indications of inflammatory rheumatoid arthritis? We performed about 1,106 skeletal scintigraphies over two years. About 394 patients were studied with quantitative bone-specific single-photon emission computed tomography/computerized tomography (SPECT/CT) (i.e., about 36% of all bone scintigraphies). Approximately 64% of the patients were studied using the conventional Anterior-Posterior/Posterior-Anterior imaging. Our procedure has improved efficiency and decreased cycle times.

Keywords: skeletal scintigraphy, SPECT/CT, imaging, procedure

Procedia PDF Downloads 127