Is media just noise? The link between media factors and stock performance

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY Interest towards media analytics has increased significantly by both practitioners and academia alike. The hot topic is whether or not qualitative texts contain information relevant to stock financials, and if they do, whether the impact can be used to earn abnormal returns. In order to answer this, we study the impact media factors have on financial metrics in a novel specification that combines all the major media factors in a holistic media model. To transform qualitative texts information into a "sentiment score", we develop a new methodology to estimate sentiment more accurately than currently prevailing methods. DATA AND METHODOLOGY Our study focuses on the S&P 100 constituents between the time period of 2006 and 2011. As a source of qualitative texts, we use major news publications and earnings announcements retrieved from LexisNexis -database using a web scraper program developed for the purpose of this study. We retrieve the financials data for our study using Thomson Reuters Datastream -database. In order to estimate investor sentiment, we employ both the customary word count, as well as our novel Linearized Phrase-Structure -methodology. For word count, we test the Harvard Psychological -dictionary and a finance-specific dictionary by Loughran and McDonald (2011). As our data is panel in nature, we analyze the correlations in our error terms in line with Petersen (2009), first without clustering and then clustering by firm and by time. We find time-effect in our error terms, and therefore employ a Fama-Macbeth (1973) methodology with clustering done in quarters. To mitigate a methodological choice driving our results, we run our specifications with a multitude of alternative specifications. RESULTS We find that Linearized Phrase-Structure (LPS) outperforms the predominant naïve word count methodology. Also, we find that if employing word counts, researchers should employ context dependent dictionaries, such as Loughran and McDonald's (2011). In terms of our main variables, we find that the existing media factors are not mutually exclusive, and impact financial metrics in chorus. Alas, we do not find statistically significant relationship between sentiment and abnormal returns. However, we find a relationship between aggregate market news volume and abnormal returns, and also between sentiment and abnormal volatility. We infer that our findings support limited attention -theory, and provide evidence against market efficiency

StarFire RTG -korjauspalvelun ja C-Nav-paikannuslaitteiston testaus Merenkulkulaitoksella

Työn aiheena on StarFire RTG -paikannusjärjestelmän käyttöönottotestaus Merenkulkulaitoksella. Työn tavoitteena oli selvittää StarFire RTG -korjauspalvelun ja C-Nav-paikannuslaitteiston toimivuus ja soveltuvuus Merenkulkulaitoksen merenmittauskäyttöön. Käytännön testimittausten lisäksi tarkoituksena oli selvittää StarFire RTG:n toimintaperiaate ja järjestelmärakenne. Teoriaosuus laadittiin StarFire RTG:n kehittämiseen ja markkinointiin osallistuneiden yritysten ja järjestöjen dokumenttien pohjalta. Selvitystyö oli työlästä, koska lisenssisyistä yritykset käyttävät samoista käsitteistä eri nimityksiä, eivätkä selitä suoraan yritysten välisiä kytköksiä StarFire RTG -järjestelmään. Maastotestausta varten laadittiin toimintasuunnitelma, mutta sitä jouduttiin pelkistämään mittauksissa esiintyneiden häiriöiden ja laiterikkojen vuoksi. Testauspaikoista kolme sijaitsi Helsingissä ja neljäs Turussa monikeilainalus Airistolla. Tulokset osoittavat, että StarFire RTG:n avulla on mahdollista saavuttaa desimetriluokan mittaustarkkuus hyvissä olosuhteissa, mutta että antenni myös hyvin herkkä ulkoisille häiriölähteille. Kolmessa neljästä testauspaikasta kohdattiin häiriölähteitä, jotka heikensivät antennin kykyä havaita L2-signaalia ja siten laskivat mittauksissa käytettyjen satelliittien määrää. Pahimmillaan häiriöt estivät mittauksen kokonaan. StarFire RTG:n ja C-Nav-laitteiston testaus tulee jatkumaan mittausaluksilla seuraavalla mittauskaudella 2009.The aim of this thesis was to test and find out whether StarFire RTG correction service and C-Nav positioning equipment would match the requirements set for Finnish Maritime Administrations sea surveying operations. Second purpose was to describe and document the operating principle and structure of StarFire RTG. The theory part is based of documents written by different companies and parties behind the developement and marketing of the StarFire RTG system. Different companies call the StarFire RTG and its operational concepts by different terms, because of various licenses and trademarks involved. Also, the companies did not usually mention the roles of other companies connected with StarFire RTG in their documents. A plan was formed to conduct the test surveying. However, due to various problems with testing equipment and mere ill-fortune, the testing was mostly performed in Helsinki city area. In addition, a brief test was carried out on the multibeam ship Airisto. The results of the surveys show that StarFire RTG has big potential when decimeter class surveying accuracy is needed. However, the system was unrealiable at most of the testing sites. At most sites there were problems with unidentified interference sources, which weakened the antennas’ ability to track the L2-signal. When L2-signal was weak, the C-Nav equipment would use less satellites in the position solution than it actually could have used. At its worst, the L2-signal interference made the surveying impossible. The testing of StarFire RTG and C-Nav equipment will be continued during the next surveying season on 2009

ESC – European Sales Competition

Sales students from all a round of Europe and Asia, sweet smiles, and new connections. One sales case and everyone are talking about it. You can feel the excitement in air. This is European sales competition. This year the competition is held in Nijmegen, Netherlands, 18-20 of May by HAN University of Applied Sciences after two years of online competitions. In the competition, competitors are put in groups in different rooms, and everyone are giving their sales pits on their own time. The room has judges and a buyer. Every group’s best competitor goes to the next round until they hit the final round, and someone wins the competition. But right now, we are focusing on last year’s buyers and their thoughts. We decided to do our research by interviews. We connected 7 past buyers from ESC from different starting points and interviewed them via Teams. We made a battery of questions, with that and spontaneous questions we got the right answers for the article. With the gathered information we were able to do our research of how acting as buyer in international sales competitions improve internationalization competences and write an article of it