Assignment 4. Scan the following abstract and unscramble the words and collocations printed in bold

Most stocks are traded on 1. schexange, which are places where buyers and sellers meet and decide on a price. Some exchanges are physical locations where transactions are carried out on a trading floor. You've probably seen pictures of a trading floor, in which traders are wildly throwing their arms up, waving, yelling, and signaling to each other. The other type of exchange is 2. tualvir, composed of a network of computers where trades are made 3. onelectrllyica.

The purpose of a stock market is to 4. cilifatate the exchange of securities between buyers and sellers, reducing the risks of investing. Just imagine how difficult it would be to sell shares if you had to call around the neighborhood trying to find a buyer. Really, a stock market is nothing more than a super-sophisticated farmers' market linking buyers and sellers.

Stock prices change every day as a result of 5. tekram cesfor. By this we mean that share prices change because of supply and demand. If more people want to buy a stock (demand) than sell it (supply), then the price moves up. Conversely, if more people wanted to sell a stock than buy it, there would be greater supply than demand, and the price would fall.

Understanding supply and demand is easy. What is difficult to 6. hendcompre is what makes people like a particular stock and dislike another stock. This comes down to figuring out what news is positive for a company and what news is negative. There are many answers to this problem and just about any investor you ask has their own ideas and strategies.

The most important factor that affects the value of a company is its 7. gsearnin. They are the profit a company makes, and in the long run no company can survive without them. It makes sense when you think about it. If a company never makes money, it isn't going to stay in business. Public companies are required to report their earnings four times a year (once each quarter). Wall Street watches with 8. dibar attionten at these times, which are referred to as 9. gsearnin sonssea. The reason behind this is that analysts base their future value of a company on their earnings projection. If a company's results surprise (are better than expected), the price jumps up. If a company's results disappoint (are worse than expected), then the price will fall.

So, why do stock prices change? The best answer is that nobody really knows for sure. Some believe that it isn't possible to predict how stock prices will change, while others think that by drawing charts and looking at past 10. cepri mentsvemo, you can determine when to buy and sell. The only thing we do know is that stocks are 11. tilealov and can change in price extremely rapidly.

(Source: http://www.investopedia.com)

Assignment 5. Watch “Wall Street” (directed by O.Stone, starring M.Douglas, C.Sheen, D.Hannah et al.) and get ready to participate in the film discussion.

Assignment 6. Working in pairs, answer the following questions.

1.What is Bud's job in the beginning of the film? Describe the duties of his position? What aspects of his work are shown in the film?
2. What are the values of Bud's father? How does Bud feel about them? Why?
3. What is the business philosophy of Gordon Gekko? How is Bud seduced by Gordon's world?
4. How do Gordon and Bud conspire to make money? What is "insider trading?" Why is this method of making money considered wrong? Explain.
5. While in his beautiful new apartment, why does Bud ask himself, "Who am I?"
6. What is the message of this movie? Do you agree or disagree with it, and why?

7. What is your reaction to how Bud treated his old buddy (the one who tried to entice him early on with "Knicks and chicks") when he came calling in Bud's new office with a request to play racquetball?
8. What is the role of unions in this film?
9. What was Bud Fox's three point plan for Blue Star? Was it a good one? How do you know? Who do you think should decide if he should be allowed to put it into play?
10. Bud asks Gekko "How much is enough? How much money do you really need or want." Is Gekko too greedy? If he makes more money, does that mean there will be just that much left for other people?
11. Daryl Hannah (Darien Taylor, the "girlfriend") says, "If you mess with Gekko, he'll break you. If I did, he'd make sure I'd never get another interior decorating job in my life. He'd do it just like that (snap of fingers)!" Reaction?

12. How did Bud Fox get his insider information about:

a. Blue Star
b. Teldar Paper
c. Fairchild food
d. Cromwell? Steel (the company in Erie, PA)
e. Borker Electronics

Is there any moral or economic difference in these cases? Should this lead to any legal difference? Is this latter question a matter of normative or positive economic analysis?

Assignment 7. Explain what the following terms and collocations mean (most of them are mentioned in the film; others can be found in a dictionary of economics).

Assignment 8. Note the good and bad (killer, terminator, blow 'em away, trench warfare) adjectives used to describe markets, trade, enterprise, commercial activity, etc. What’s their function?

Assignment 9. How would you evaluate the following statements? On what occasion were they mentioned in the film?

a. the break up value is twice the market price; therefore, let's gut (sell off and break up) the company.
b. he stole that pharmaceutical company right out from under me (made by the "raider" Larry Wildman with regard to Gordon Gekko).
c. Gordon Gekko. "I made $800,000 on that real estate deal which took me a year to consummate; now, that's a day's pay."
d. insider trading ought to be illegal.
e. I could have modernized the plant with the extra money you cost me to buy the company.
f. a garage sale of Blue Star.

Here are some Gekko-isms to evaluate:

a. "What's worth doing is worth doing for money."
b. "I create nothing. I own."
c. "Greed is good."
d. "Sell it all. What the hell, I'll only make $10 million." (instead of the $70 million he had expected).
e. Here's a Bud Fox-ism (at the end of the movie, when he has reformed, and embraced the anti-market philosophy: "I'll create, instead of living off of buying and selling (others' creations)." Reaction?

Assignment 10. Fill in the blanks in Gekko’s speech.

1. Well, ladies and gentlemen, we're not here to indulge in fantasy, but in political and economic reality. America, America has become a second-rate power. Its _____are at nightmare proportions.

2. Now, in the days of _____, when our country was a top industrial power, there was accountability to the stockholder. The Carnegies, the Mellons, the men that built this great industrial empire, made sure of it because it was their money at stake. Today, management has no stake in the company!

3. In the last seven deals that I've been involved with, there were 2.5 million _____ who have made a _____ profit of 12 billion dollars. Thank you.

4. Greed, in all of its forms − greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge − has marked the _____of mankind.

The "Greed" Speech of Gekko at the annual meeting of Cromwell Steel is often considered the highlight of the entire film. What does this speech have to do with the Berle and Means hypothesis (that corporate management is becoming a power unto its own, with no checks and balances in the capitalist system able to withstand them)?