An Exploratory Statistical Analysis of NASDAQ Provided Trade Data

Since Benoit Mandelbrot\u27s discovery of the fractal nature of financial price series, the quantitative analysis of financial markets has been an area of increasing interest for scientists, traders, and regulators. Further, major technological advances over this time have facilitated not only financial innovations, but also the computational ability to analyze and model markets. The stylized facts are qualitative statistical signatures of financial market data that hold true across different stocks and over many different timescales. In pursuit of a mechanistic understanding of markets, we look to accurately quantify such statistics. With this quantification, we can test computational market models against the stylized facts and run controlled experiments. This requires both discovery of new stylized facts, and a persistent testing of old stylized facts on new data. Using NASDAQ provided data covering the years 2008-2009, we analyze the trades of 120 stocks. An analysis of the stylized facts guides our exploration of the data, where our results corroborate other findings in the existing body of literature. In addition, we search for statistical indicators of market instability in our data sets. We find promising areas for further study, and obtain three key results. Throughout our sample data, high frequency trading plays a larger role in rapid price changes of all sizes than would be randomly expected, but plays a smaller role than usual during rapid price changes of large magnitude. Our analysis also yields further evidence of the long term persistence in the autocorrelations of signed order flow, as well as evidence of long range dependence in price returns

Pachystigmus Hellén, 1927 : a substitute name for Noserus Foerster, 1863 (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), not Noserus LeConte, 1862 (Coleoptera: Zopheridae)

By establishing the date of its first publication, Noserus Foerster, 1863 (Hymenoptera, Braconidae) is shown to be a junior primary homonym of Noserus LeConte, 1862 (Coleoptera, Zopheridae). The substitute name for Noserus Foerster is that of its subjective synonym, Pachystigmus Hellén, 1927 [type species: Pachystigmus nitidulus Hellén, 1927]. Other described species in the genus are: Pachystigmus facialis (Foerster, 1863) New Combination; P. similis (Szépligeti, 1896) New Combination, P. nitidulus Hellén, 1927, P. gigas (Tobias, 1964)New Combination, P. occipitalis (Belokobylskij, 1986) New Combination, P. olgensis (Belokobylskij, 1994) New Combination, and P. sculpturator (Belokobylskij, 1999) New Combination

Keeping the State’s secrets: Ireland’s road from ‘official’ secrets to freedom of information

The introduction of the Freedom of Information act in Ireland in 1997 was a profound change for a state, a civil service and political system far more comfortable with official secrets. It has had a transformational effect on relations between citizen and the state, and has been useful for journalists despite many challenges. After its introduction it was then amended, with high costs and limitations imposed. It has subsequently been amended again to restore much of its previous powers

The Political Lobby System

At the heart of the political system in Ireland, inside Leinster House, is a small groQp of journalists who cover politics. They are the political correspondents. They have a privileged position, their own rooms, access to politicians in their place of work, access to government ministers and regular briefings from the government press secretary and from the press officers of the other political parties. It is these few journalists, working together, who write the first story on any event, who decide what to cover and how stories should be covered. It is to these journalists that the government press secretary goes following a cabinet meeting to give them what he wants them to hear, all off the record. Ori radio and television, in the morning and evening newspapers, his words will appear as a \u27government source\u27, a \u27source close to the government\u27; or more obliquely, \u27indications are\u27 or \u27it would seem that the government intends\u27. At times, the words of the Government press secretary, a civil servant, have appeared as a source speaking for a political party. What is most important is that what is said can often be denied by the Taoiseach or government ministers, if they do not like the reaction

How Journalism Became a Profession

Newspaper developed in Ireland as a political press, with each publication clearly identified with particular political groupings. However, for reasons of economics journalism itself developed a professional paradign, that stressed impartiality, so allowing journalists to move from publication to publication regardless of the politics or religion of the journalist. Newspapers and journalists also helped develop a civil society that contributed to the eventual democratic nature of the Irish state, following independence

Death in Every Paragraph: Journalism & The Great Irish Famine

It is a truism to say that the Great Irish Famine of 1845 to 1852 brought enormous changes to Ireland. The impact of massive emigration, death and suffering of so many people changed Ireland and marks the separation from the 18th century from modernity. It was also a period of change for the press, whose journalists had to find ways to tell the story of the famine. This work, using the three Cork newspapers as its case study, argues that the methods developed in the late 1840s laid down the basis for disaster coverage to this day

The Great Irish Famine and the Development of Journalism

The Great Irish Famine (1845 to 1852) took place just as major changes were taking place in the media. The coverage by Irish and international of the Famine had an influence on the media that shaped how catastrophes will be covered for the next century or more

Childrens\u27 Rights or Journalists\u27 Ethics

The coverage of issues concerning children and childhood has become increasingly prominent and journalists now have access to any number of sets of guidelines. Within academia there is a growing body of scholarly literature concerning journalism, the media, and coverage of children. This activity has been mainly in the context of children’s rights. UNICEF, has been successful in highlighting the UNCRC and the role of journalists and the media in making the Convention work. DIT, and the author, has been working with UNICEF, since 2006, in developing a syllabus for journalism schools. So far 27 universities from Turkey to Central Asia have adopted it. It is now being adapted to Africa. The project objective was to embed the concept of children’s rights among students of journalism through using specially designed material for journalism schools. This, it was hoped, would mean a qualitative improvement in the coverage of issues surrounding childhood. The project has raised a number of important questions relating to the role of journalists. Do such projects compromise journalists by making them, in this instance, supporters of UNICEF and the Convention on the Rights of the Child? If journalists are encouraged to question and be sceptical, are we suggesting UNICEF be exempt? Children have a right to have their story heard, to be included in any analysis of society. The actions of governments who have signed the convention should be scrutinized and journalists should be aware of the contested nature of the concept of children’s rights. A reliance on the contested area of rights introduces a legalistic framework, which can threaten freedom of speech and the press. If coverage of children, and ensuring they are heard, is good journalism, and if there is a need to debate children’s rights itself, what is the best way to do this? These are the questions to explored in this paper