Canadian Oil Sands Investments: FOCUS on a Controversial Energy Source

Rising energy demand and prices, particularly for oil, has led to a search for solutions to quell this increase. With the advent of the Oil Sands, we have stumbled upon an opportunity to increase Oil supplies and thus stabilize prices and satisfy demand. A large portion of the oil sands are located in Canada and this gives Canada an opportunity to improve its economy. Since the discovery, Canada has seen a vast influx in investment for the purpose of extracting these oil deposits. Using the University of Toronto's FOCUS model, which simulates the Canadian economy, this paper simulates and forecasts current and future trends in the Canadian economy that arise from this increase in investment. This paper breaks down the impacts on the various aspects of the Canadian economy and also analyzes many social issues that arise from the expansion of the oil sands, particularly the environmental issues. By doing so, one can analyze the current policies in place to deal with this expansion and revise them or create new policy which can prove more efficient in dealing with a potentially bubbling economy and the externalities that come from it.Oil Sands; Canada; Macroeconometrics; FOCUS model; Marcoeconomics; Econometrics; Energy; Oil;

Mutual Funds and Segregated Funds: A Comparison

Mutual Funds are the most common form of investment for the average household. They offer a fair amount of return for a limited amount of risk. Segregated Funds, which are, simply put, mutual funds with additional features, have grown in popularity as of late. It is something of great interest to understand the risks and returns of the fund types and better grasp the advantages and disadvantages to each. By selecting 5 mutual and segregated funds of similar investment patterns and breakdowns, and performing various statistical analyses on their prices and returns, this paper verifies which fund type would be best. VaR analysis and probability distribution modeling allows for this paper to demonstrate how to best model the results and, thus, putting forth the positives and negatives of each fund. In the end, one finds that the overall results show some inconclusiveness and calls for further study with additional factors. The differences, if any, are small and other factors, such as management/broker fees and taxes, could play a role. This paper gives important insight to what one can expect from these investment types and gives allows one to better comprehend the features of each, so that one can become a more informed and shrewd investor which can only be seen as a benefit

Canadian Oil Sands Investments: FOCUS on a Controversial Energy Source

Rising energy demand and prices, particularly for oil, has led to a search for solutions to quell this increase. With the advent of the Oil Sands, we have stumbled upon an opportunity to increase Oil supplies and thus stabilize prices and satisfy demand. A large portion of the oil sands are located in Canada and this gives Canada an opportunity to improve its economy. Since the discovery, Canada has seen a vast influx in investment for the purpose of extracting these oil deposits. Using the University of Toronto's FOCUS model, which simulates the Canadian economy, this paper simulates and forecasts current and future trends in the Canadian economy that arise from this increase in investment. This paper breaks down the impacts on the various aspects of the Canadian economy and also analyzes many social issues that arise from the expansion of the oil sands, particularly the environmental issues. By doing so, one can analyze the current policies in place to deal with this expansion and revise them or create new policy which can prove more efficient in dealing with a potentially bubbling economy and the externalities that come from it

Canadian Oil Sands Investments: FOCUS on a Controversial Energy Source

Rising energy demand and prices, particularly for oil, has led to a search for solutions to quell this increase. With the advent of the Oil Sands, we have stumbled upon an opportunity to increase Oil supplies and thus stabilize prices and satisfy demand. A large portion of the oil sands are located in Canada and this gives Canada an opportunity to improve its economy. Since the discovery, Canada has seen a vast influx in investment for the purpose of extracting these oil deposits. Using the University of Toronto's FOCUS model, which simulates the Canadian economy, this paper simulates and forecasts current and future trends in the Canadian economy that arise from this increase in investment. This paper breaks down the impacts on the various aspects of the Canadian economy and also analyzes many social issues that arise from the expansion of the oil sands, particularly the environmental issues. By doing so, one can analyze the current policies in place to deal with this expansion and revise them or create new policy which can prove more efficient in dealing with a potentially bubbling economy and the externalities that come from it

Mutual Funds and Segregated Funds: A Comparison

Mutual Funds are the most common form of investment for the average household. They offer a fair amount of return for a limited amount of risk. Segregated Funds, which are, simply put, mutual funds with additional features, have grown in popularity as of late. It is something of great interest to understand the risks and returns of the fund types and better grasp the advantages and disadvantages to each. By selecting 5 mutual and segregated funds of similar investment patterns and breakdowns, and performing various statistical analyses on their prices and returns, this paper verifies which fund type would be best. VaR analysis and probability distribution modeling allows for this paper to demonstrate how to best model the results and, thus, putting forth the positives and negatives of each fund. In the end, one finds that the overall results show some inconclusiveness and calls for further study with additional factors. The differences, if any, are small and other factors, such as management/broker fees and taxes, could play a role. This paper gives important insight to what one can expect from these investment types and gives allows one to better comprehend the features of each, so that one can become a more informed and shrewd investor which can only be seen as a benefit.Mutual Funds, Segregated Funds, VaR, risk, returns, investment, probability, distribution, fund, finance, statistical, econometrics, quantitative