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Manage risk in the markets and in life.

No question that there is volatility in the markets right now. Too much volatility can lead to an increase in stress, especially if your trading involves holding positions longer than 5 minutes. Stress is part of the business so we have to adapt to it, both physically and mentally, or fade away. For some it is easier than others to find an activity to unwind and release some stress. Hitting the batting cages, taking in a movie, attending a sporting event, going for a jog or simply reading a good book are some examples.

I’d argue that those who have a difficult time taking a break from the trading world and thus the accompanying stress are also poor managers of risk. Having risk in the market is a given. Not having discipline to manage that risk is where they fail. We’ve all had that gut feeling that X is going to happen and a loss will occur, it’s part of the business. Those that take that loss, learn from it and move on are those that are able to escape the markets when needed.

Those that choose to not manage risk in the market fail to manage risk in life. Instead of taking the edge off at the local watering hole they stay there ’til last call, neglecting other duties in life. Instead of spending the weekends with family and friends to recharge they pore over charts, financial statements and twitter looking for the next holy grail. Always chasing, never catching.

Advantages & Disadvantages of EBITDA

The Advantages of EBITDA

Although there is no silver bullet metric in financial statement analysis, nevertheless there are numerous benefits to using EBITDA. Here are a few:

  • Operational Comparability:  As implied above, EBITDA allows comparability across a wide swath of companies. Accounting standards provide leniency in the application of financial statements, therefore using EBITDA allows apples-to-apples comparisons and relieves accounting discrepancies on items such as depreciation, tax rates, and financing choice.
  • Cash Flow Proxy:Since the income statement traditionally is the financial statement of choice, EBITDA can be easily derived from this statement and provides a simple proxy for cash generation in the absence of other data.
  • Debt Coverage Ratios:In many lender contracts, certain debt provisions require specific levels of income cushion above the required interest expense payments. Evaluating EBITDA coverage ratios across companies assists analysts in determining which businesses are more likely to default on their debt obligations.

The Disadvantages of EBITDA (more…)