Analytical Formal Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Analytical Formal Report - Essay Example The appropriate solution should be one that seems feasible, easy to implement, and should have long-term effects on the industry. After benchmarking the two possible solutions against the criteria previously mentioned, I recommend improving the dining experience by improving the customer service and general environment of the restaurants. This solution will attract more customers to the Chinese restaurants making the Chinese restaurant industry one of the most profitable hospitality industries of the United States. I hope you find this report helpful in regards to solving the problems of the Chinese restaurant industry of the United States. If you have any questions or comments regarding my recommendations, please feel free to contact me at email address or telephone number. Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to research this problem. Sincerely, Your name here PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS FOR THE CHINESE RESTAURANTS AROUND STATE COLLEGE       Prepared for: General Managers      Ã‚   Prepared by: Please write your name The Pennsylvania State University          August 03, 2013 Executive Summary Chinese restaurants around the State College are experiencing a major drop in their sales due to increase in competition. The main problem is that customers are particularly not happy with their service standards and the environment of the Chinese restaurants. This is adversely affecting the level of sales of the restaurants that forces them to target only Chinese clientele, which is a very small target market for the restaurants. A few dimensions of the problem are given below Increasing competition Disgruntle customers due to lack of good customers service and environment Focus on only Chinese student market which is small The criteria for the best solution included solving the above mentioned problems in a cost effective manner, as well as within a plausible timeframe. Two solutions to the problem were proposed in the report. The first solution was to improve the dining experience and customer service in order to attract customers. This included changing the interior, as well as the environment of the restaurant. The second solution was to enhance marketing channels of the restaurants using social media and word of mouth marketing. This solution was aimed at improving customer perception regarding Chinese restaurants around the State College. The solution that best fits the criteria is to improve the environment because it involves bringing operational level changes that can create a difference. The solution is also both cost effective and plausible. Table of Contents Executive Summary 4 Introduction 6 Proposed Solutions to the Problem 7 Improve the Level of Customer Satisfaction 7 Enhancing Marketing Efforts 8 Conclusions and Recommendations 10 References 11 Appendix II†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚ ¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.†¦...13 Introduction The restaurant industry of the United States of America has become extremely competitive because of the entry of many new players. The diversity of customer market in the US restaurant industry is significant and this is why many types of restaurants are in business offering different types of cuisine. Chinese cuisine is also highly sought after in the

The Mendelssohn Concerto in E Minor Essay Example for Free

The Mendelssohn Concerto in E Minor Essay â€Å"I would like to compose a violin concerto for next winter. One in E minor keeps running through my head, and the opening gives me no peace,† German composer Felix Mendelssohn wrote to his friend, violinist Ferdinand David, in 1838. Mendelssohn would seek to collaborate on his last orchestral work with David, revising it painstakingly until its premiere in Leipzig in 1845. The first movement of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 4, is considered a staple of the violin repertoire and an example piece of the romantic period. While Mendelssohn is widely recognized as a romantic who remained loyal mainly to traditional, classical forms, the technical demands of the soloist, the novel placement and qualities of the cadenza, and the features of the overall form illustrate both the novelty of the concerto and why it served as an example for later composers. The concerto is credited with being challenging but manageable in its technical demands of the soloist. While it contains many intricate techniques, it â€Å"plays well under the fingers,† undoubtedly because of Ferdinand David’s input. Because of this, it is widely used by violin instructors to introduce concerti to students. Its place as an introductory learning tool is held by Mendelssohn’s frequent use of octaves (rehearsal B and K) to lead the player to arrival points such as the high â€Å"B† after rehearsal B, seen in Example 1. Example 1: Varied use of octaves surrounding rehearsal B. The Classical style to which Mendelssohn remained loyal is characterized in technique by his use of ricochet bowing, first developed by Niccolo Paganini, in the chord section immediately following the cadenza after rehearsal letter O. While many of his strategies were common in the concerto’s time (including accent and tenuto articulations and virtuosic melodic lines), Mendelssohn departs from tradition in his treatment of the ricochet bowing technique. It is used to accompany an orchestra that reintroduces the theme after the cadenza; this is a reversal of the traditional role of having the soloist recapitulate the main idea. The Mendelssohn concerto is also novel in its treatment of the cadenza. The series of arpeggios in the ricochet bowing style before rehearsal P (or number 13) can be considered an extension of the traditional Classical cadenza played only by the soloist because these are continued after the orchestra re-enters (see Example 2). Example 2: The orchestra re-enters at rehearsal 13 as the soloist accompanies. Example 2: The orchestra re-enters at rehearsal 13 as the soloist accompanies. In the classical form, such as that used by Mozart in the first movement of his Violin Concerto in A major, KV 219, the cadenza is considered an entirely separate section from the orchestra. Also novel for the concerto’s time is Mendelssohn’s placement of the cadenza between the development and recapitulation sections, as opposed to its usual place at the end of the movement. Placement at the end can be found in Mozart’s concerto, as well as in the first movement of the Paganini Violin Concerto No. 1 (closed by only a short orchestra section). Another difference from the compositions of Mendelssohn’s predecessors and contemporaries is the fact that, in his careful editing, Mendelssohn wrote out the entire cadenza for the soloist; many classical composers intended for improvisation to be involved, either in keeping with their ideas or as completely new ideas. This tradition can be seen in the first movement of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 1; a cadenza later written by Fritz Kreisler is one of the most commonly performed for Beethoven’s first movement. Other formal features promote the concerto’s position as novel for its time. As a contrast to the traditional â€Å"double exposition† classical model, the violin enters at the start with a soaring melody after just two measures of orchestral introduction. The classical model normally contains a full exposition, with the orchestra introducing the main themes before the soloist enters. In effect, the orchestra and the soloist perform two separate expositions. Although the three movements of the concerto are written in the standard fast-slow-fast structure, distinctive from tradition was Mendelssohn’s decision to create a through-composed form, in which the three movements are connected, or played attacca. At the end of the first movement and into the second, the bassoon’s held note serves as a link between the two, a simple transition to a lyrical second movement. The technical and formal features of the violin concerto, as compared to Mendelssohn’s education in the classical form, illustrate that the work was innovative for its time. Mendelssohn’s collaboration with Ferdinand David demonstrates the work’s attention to technical detail. Mendelssohn’s careful editing is illustrated by the complete composition of the cadenza, as opposed to one intended for improvisation. The first movement’s novelty in technique and form also serves as an example as to why Mendelssohn was as inspiration to later composers such as Joseph Joachim and William Sterndale Bennett.

Why Do We Lose Hair Cultural Studies Essay

Why Do We Lose Hair Cultural Studies Essay On average people shed about 100 hairs a day. More than that can cause bold patches. Many men and women experiences hair loss at various stages in their lives. Hormonal changes, poor nutrition and scalp damage are few causes of the hair loss. Some reasons for hair loss are reversible and some are permanent. There are many treatments for hair loss. There are alternatives before turning to expensive hair transplant and medications. For those who are troubled by the problem of hair fall, there is a credible shampoo that can be used as an adjunct treatment for the purpose of stopping hair fall. Its known as the Progaine shampoo and has been especially formulated to be used with the much famous Rogaine hair fall control treatment. Progaine shampoo is designed for anyone suffering from hair loss and is using Rogaine to treat thinning hair. Progaine shampoo is designed for finer hair types , unlike most other products which can weigh the hair down. The specialist shampoo cleanses the scalp and removes environmental buildup for example chlorine and pollution) from the hair which are the main cause of hair loss. Penetrating right to the core from root to tip. The Progaine shampoo nourishing ingredients like wheat protein and keratin. Which are very good to cleans the scalp thoroughly and gently. Progaine shampoo can be used on thinner hair types with confidence unlike many other products, which will leave your hair bouncy and give them extra volume. It doesnt wilt them down like most other common shampoos. The finest ingredients are used to make the product. The shampoo is designed for both men and women and for all hair types. Upjohn the manufacturers of the shampoo do not claim that progaine alone will re grow hair. However it works well as a supplement to Rogaine and other topical hair loss treatments by getting your s calp clean and healthy for hair loss treatments to work. Rogaine and progaine treatments works most effectively on early stages of the hair loss but has had surprising effects even for those who have noticeable thinning. Many people who used Progaine shampoo said that along with Rogaine, the product really made a difference to their appearance and boosted their confidence. If you have hair loss or concern about thinning hair, choosing to add Rogaine and Progaine shampoo to your hair care regime could be life changing. The amazing product does not contain monoxidil. The unique formula of this product works in conjunction with Rogaine treatment to give the best chance possible for improved hair growth. People who combined the Rogaine treatment with progaine shampoo said they had noticeable results in as little as 4 to 6 weeks. The progaine shampoo is available in many selected stores and also online. What is conditioner and its benefits The term hair conditioner is vague. Hair conditioners fall into groups according to what you want to accomplish with your hair. People with thin hair need a specific kind of conditioner; people with thick, dry hair need another. A conditioner is something that will improve quality of another thing. For centuries oils have been used to condition human hair. These natural ingredients are still in use today, such as essential oils, jojoba oil. Modern hair conditioner was created at the turn of twentieth century when well known perfumer ED Pinaud presented a product he called brilliantine at the 1900 exposition universelle in paris. His product was meant to soften hair. Since the invention of Pinauds early product, modern science has advanced the hair conditioner industry. The best product now days are Progaine shampoo and conditioner. The product is best for its natural ingredients. Progaine shampoo and conditioner coats the cuticle of the hair itself so healthy, shiny and bouncy hair c an be obtained. There are six categories in conditioner. Moisturizers are concentrated with humectants. Humectants are compounds that attract and hold moisture into the hair. They may not contain botanicals or protein (they often do contain it). Reconstructors normally contain protein. Hydrolyzed human hair keratin protein is the best source because it contains 19 amino acids found in the hair. Human hair protein has a low molecular weight. This enables it to penetrate the hair shaft. The main purpose of a reconstructor is to strengthen the hair. Acidfiers the key word is acid. When a product carries pH of 2.5 to 3.5 it is normally termed as acidifier. The pH will compact the cuticle layer of the hair. The result is shiny, bouncy hair. Acidifiers do not weight the hair. They do create shine and add elasticity. Detanglers are acidifiers too. They close the cuticle of the hair, which cause tangles. Some shield the hair shaft with polymers (polymers are strings of molecules a chain). Thermal protectors safeguard the hair against heat. Using thermal protectors are one of the best things you can do to your hair if u blow dry, use curling irons, or hot rollers. They normally use heat absorbing polymers that distribute the heat. So your hair does not get heat damage. Glossers are cosmetic. Most glossers contain dimethicone or cyclomethicone (very light oils derived from silicone). Used in small amounts they reflect light. Also they are one of best products to control the frizzies. Hair loss can be devastating in its normal effects. People suffering from hair loss, lose confidence because of their appearance changes and feel unattractive. Premature hair loss can be blamed on a wide number of contributing factors. These incluse skin conditions, hormone levels, stress and poor health. There are number of treatments for hair loss and many products are developed to reduce the hair loss. One of the most popular products is progaine shampoo and conditioner. progaine shampoo and conditioner are aimed at people with thinning hair or premature hair loss who want to take good hair of their scalp. Progaine shampoo and conditioner do not contain minoxidil, and for this reason do not claim to make new growth of hair. Instead the philosophy behind it is a clean healthy scalp helps promote follicle rejuvenation providing an optimum environment for new hair growth. progaine shampoo and conditioner contain a range of ingredients which does help in nourishing the hair from inside and make the hair less likely to snap or break off all together. The vitamins in the product help in removing the environmental build up from scalp and cleans the hair very gently which results in stronger and long lasting hair. The proteins added to the product includes soy protein, wheat protein, keratin and jojoba seed oil. All these ingredients have been proven to have excellent effects of the appearance and quality if hair in shortest period of time. The products can be used and purchased together and separately. Progaine shampoo and conditioner is available online and in many selected stores and chemists. Volumizing products and its benefits Progaine volumizing shampoo is great for thin and fine hair.designed to cleanse and condition the hair. The product optomize and volumize your hair with progaine products. The ingrediants in the progaine volumizing shampoo are deionized water , sodium laureth sulfate , cocamidopropyl hydroxysultaine , polyquaternium-11 , glycol stearate , hydrolyzed wheat protein, cocamide MEA , guar hydroxypropyltrimonium chloride , steardimonium hydroxypropyl hydrolyzed wheart prote , panteneol , fragrance , iodopropnyl butylcarbamate , DMDM hydantion , wheat amino acids , cinnamidopropyl trimonium chloride. The product is especilly formulated to gently clean and thicken fine or thinning hair. It helps fighting againts weigh down hair. Most shampoo contains silicone which make the hair feel softer. However this silicone can often make the hair feel thinner. In addition , silicone can coat the scalp and this stops treatments from reaching the roots of the hair. The unique formula penetrates each hair as it strengthens from the inside out, providing each strand more volume. This is important factor as some build up such as DHT , a hormone , have been shown to cause hair loss , and inhabit new growth. Midly formulated, progaine volumizing shampoo contains a whole host of nurishing ingrediants which are known as to aid strengthen and condition the hair. The experts explains that using using ingrediants such as in progaine volumizing shampoo help to give strength the hair by penetrating deep to the core. Vitamins help feed he hair , making it shine with health and vitality. It is also safe to use on colour treated hair. The shampoo is desinged for both men and women. The reviews for progaine volumizing shampoo from the users show that results are eye oppening and amazing. This is true texturing shampoo that will raise the cuticles and give each atrand of hair some real texture so they ll get a little air between them and fluff up on your head, this is the shampoo you are lookin for. The users who were unconvinced by the product claims were impressed right from the first use. And which shows excellent results achieved by the manufacturers of the product. Progaine volumizing shampoo use 100% natural ingredients and is therefore very safe to use on any type of hair. The product is available online and in many selected stores in very reasonable and compatible price. Styling products and their benefits Progaine volumizing foam is styling product. It is excellent product for anyone wants to add more volume to their hair. It contains mousse like formula and is creamy and rich and most important gives extra volume where it is needed. It gives you great hold which makes styling your hair as u wish.it is suitable for both wet and dry hair. The hair looks clean and natural when progaine volumizing foam is applied. The ingredients are specially formulated for the thinning hair, not weighing it down or making it look dull or dry. All the bad ingreadents which can damage the sclap or irrate it are excluded, and ingredients suuch as weight protein and amino acids help to build hair strength. The product brings end to uninspired hair even if youre suffering hair loss or thinning hair problems. Progaine volumizing foam is a moisture rich mousse that builds adds volume and body to wavy hair with rich botanicals and vitamins. The pure selected and natural ingredients keep the hair in their healthy form for longer period of time. Regular use of the product also prevents from future hair lose and dull hair. Reviews for the progaine volumizing foam are in general very positive. Most users say the product give them more flexibility with the hair styles they could try and worked very well as a part of progaine range of hair treatments. The product is available to purchase online or in many selected stores. The price is very reasonable and affordable. The progaine volumizing foam gives you the styling hold you desire. This airy foam creates volume and control the hair. Adding staying power to style .The ingredients in the progaine volumizing foam are deionized water, acrylates copolymer, methacryloyl ethyl betaine, acrylates copolymer, cocotrimonium methosulfate, PEG-40 hydrogenated castor oil, PVP, dimethicone copolyol meadowfoamate, aminomethyl propanol, panthenyl hydroxypropyl steardimonium choloride, cocodimonium hydrolyzed hair keratin, panthenol, fragrance, DMDM hydantion, iodopropynyl butylcarbamate, hydrolyzed wheat protein, wheat amino acids, octyl mathoxycinnamate. Dandruff is another common problem in many peoples hair. Most people feel their head itchy; dont wear black because the dandruff shows. However it is not the same with new products in the market. Dandruff is one cosmetic inconvenience that can be overcome very easily with right treatment. There are many products available, so you could easily be able to overcome the problem. The dandruff may seem at first very easy to prevent with one of the anti dandruff shampoo, but the problem is actually much deeper than jus a flaky scalp. Some people think lack of cleanliness causes dandruff, but the truth is something else. Dandruff is a mild inflammation of the scalp causes flaking in the head. The flakes are visible most of the time its itchy or sore. Progaine shampoo 2 in 1 is treatment for hair with dandruff problems. Dandruff is most common problem. Dandruff responds very well to treatment but often reoccurs when the treatment is stopped. The old cells on the scalp are constantly renewing and the old ones are pushed to the surface. The main cause of dandruff is when the process of renewal speeds up twice the normal rate; hence the greater number of dead cells are shed. Dandruff is believed to be associated with an overgrowth of a fungus commonly found on the skin and scalp, called pityrosporum ovale. The reaction to the yeast causes the increased turnover and flaking, hence progaine shampoo 2 in 1 is the best treatment available. It stops the yeast reaction all together and also moisture the scalp to prevent dandruff problem all together. Dandruff scales usually occur as small, round, white patches on top of the head. It can occur anywhere in head. Dandruff is often known as dry scalp, but people with oily scalps tend to suffer the most. An oily scalp also supports the growth of P ovale. Dandruff is natural process, it cannot be eliminated. It can only be managed and controlled with progaine 2 in 1 shampoo. The cause of dandruff is usually due to the overworking of the sebaceous glands. These glands produce oil and help shed dead skin. In the case of a dandruff sufferer, the sebaceous glands are overactive, shedding more skin than usual. The condition gets better in summer and worse in winter but now with progaine 2 in 1 shampoo the condition can be better and under control whole year round. Progaine deep cleansing shampoo is in popular range. The shampoo is a mild formula of nutrients and vitamins, along with deep cleansing ingredients. It is especially aimed at resolving the problems like thinning hair, hair fall and deep cleansing. The scientist have spent many years in research to develop the product which will resolve people specific problems like to deal with hair which needs a more intense clean. Weak and thin hair can be weigh down by residues of other hair products, dirt, dust and pollution. Progaine deep cleansing shampoo lifts the unwanted build up of dust and dirt from the scalp which can have very negative effects on the growth of the hair leaves the hair very fresh feeling without stripping the hair natural protection. Progaine deep cleansing shampoo is gentle deep cleansing and nutrient to maximize healthy hair growth. All hair is prone to pollution progaine deep cleansing shampoo uses peppermint and rich nutrients, together creating a mildly astringent action to benefit the scalp. Progaine deep cleansing shampoo removes all the dirt and pollutants dulling down the hair style, refill hair with the moisture. Oily scalp is also bad for healthy hair therefore the shampoo removes excess oil from hair and scalp. It also prevents further damage to the hair. It uses all natural ingredients as all other progaine products. It contains no harmful or coating chemical preservatives. It also contain RNA and DNA. Progaine deep cleansing shampoo is the one to use when the sebaceous glands have produced more oil than is needed because of special all natural ingredients which help dry up the overactive glands. Daily shampoos are not harmful with progaine deep cleansing shampoo, but it would be advisable not to over stimulate the scalp by excessive rubbing, thus producing more oil. Progaine deep cleansing shampoo also penetrates damaged hair to strengthen and protect against additional damage. The shampoo works immediately, rinses cleanly and wont coat your hair. The result is shiny, soft full and manageable hair. It is also good for chemically treated hair. The PH balance is 4.5- 5.5 (the range of healthy hair and scalp) All the progaine products are available online and also in many stores around the country and worldwide. It is also available in many chemists all over the world. The prices are very compatible with all the similar range of products. There is website for the company that is www.progaineshampoo.org . The company welcomes the feedback from the customers. The website also explains how and where to buy progaine products.

Ukraine: Population crisis Essay -- essays research papers fc

Purcell Consulting Company is world’s foremost independent consulting company regarding policy issues for governments, and we are glad that you have chosen us in helping with your policies. As addressed in your personal statement, you are extremely concerned about your country’s population decline, and the years to come. This problem, distressing to say, is notably related to the way your government is governed, as well as other factors including health issues, and economics that puts a strain on the your population. In this assessment I will brief on specific reasons for your countries declining population, as well as sufficient solutions in solving this apprehensive problem.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  First I would first like to address health issues surrounding this problem. Ukraine, like many other Eastern European states generally have poor health conditions. Most Ukrainian citizens drink more alcohol, have bad nutrition, and visit doctors less frequently. As a result death comes quick, along with diseases, and lowered fertility rates (Jamestown). According to the 2001 Census, Ukraine registered a 6.1 percent decline in population. Dr. Oleh Wolowyna, a professor at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, also reports mortality rates in infants and adults have risen due to a poor health care system. The main reason behind an increase in infant death rates is due to an increase in â€Å"perinatal complications,† that arise from birth---low birth weight, poor-prenatal nutrition, birth/pregnancy problems, and pre mature birth---- of which are all related to a poor health care system. Adult mortality rates has also risen almost 60% due to a â€Å"circul atory diseases† --- stroke, heart attack, and high blood pressure (Jarosewich). Moreover, AIDS has contributed generously to Ukraine’s declining population. According to the UN, AIDS is growing faster in Ukraine than any other post-communist European country and is also growing faster then anywhere else outside Africa (Jamestown). The UN predicts that about 400,000 people are affected by AIDS of which almost to none will survive (FHI). Nevertheless, we must not be quick to blame your citizens for a poor health care system, or a declining population. We must concentrate on economics, and how it contributes heavily on your declining population. .  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Economics is a theory of business science... ...xample, women should know about the risks of malnutrition when carrying a child. She should know about the dangers, and risks of other substances that may harm the baby or herself; while men should learn about the health risks of high blood pressure, diabetes and other diseases. In addition, education about the HIV virus should be taught at schools and in the community, in terms of how to prevent from getting the virus, and how to treat it. By emphasizing proper nutrition and health care amongst men, women and children, Ukraine’s birth rate will exceed death rates, ensuring a steady increase in population.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In conclusion, you, the Ukrainian government, must create jobs, and educate your citizens about proper health care in order to increase your country’s population. If your government follows these simple guidelines, Purcell Consulting will guarantee your population to increase, and continue to grow for the ages to come. Works Cited Kuzio, Taras. The Jamestown Foundation. 4 Feb. 2003. 30 Mar. 2005 . Jarosewich, Irene. Ukraine's Population Suffers Dramatic Decline In Health. 24 Aug. 1997. 30 Mar. 2005 . Family Health International. 30 Mar. 2005 .

Aqr Delta Strategy Essay

DANIEL BERGSTRESSER LAUREN COHEN RANDOLPH COHEN CHRISTOPHER MALLOY AQR’s DELTA Strategy In the summer of 2011, the principals at AQR Capital Management met in their Greenwich, CT, office to decide how best to market their new DELTA strategy. After launching in the late summer of 2008, the DELTA strategy had compiled an excellent track record, but David Kabiller, a Founding Principal and the Head of Client Strategies at AQR, was frustrated that the fund had not grown faster in light of its exceptional performance. In Kabiller’s experience, the combination of a solid track record plus an innovative product usually led to explosive growth in assets under management (AUM), but that had not been the case so far with DELTA. The DELTA strategy was a product that offered investors exposure to a basket of nine major hedge fund strategies. The DELTA strategy was innovative in two ways. First, in terms of its structure, AQR implemented the underlying strategies using a well-defined investment process, with the goal of delivering exposure to a well-diversified portfolio of hedge fund strategies. Second, in terms of its fees, the new DELTA strategy charged relatively lower fees: 1 percent management fees plus 10 percent of performance over a cash hurdle (or, alternatively, a management fee of 2 percent only). This fee structure was low relative to the industry, where 2 percent management fees plus 20 percent of performance, often with no hurdle, was standard. These features, while distinct relative to other related â€Å"hedge fund replication† products, had yet to fully resonate with investors, and Kabiller needed to decide on a more effective marketing approach given the large number of competitors entering this space. AQR AQR was established in 1998 and headquartered in Greenwich, CT. The founding Principals of the firm included Clifford Asness, David Kabiller, Robert Krail, and John Liew, who had all worked together at Goldman Sachs Asset Management before leaving to start AQR. Asness, Krail, and Liew had all met in the Finance PhD program at the University of Chicago, where Asness’ dissertation had focused on momentum investing. AQR’s over 200 employees managed $24.0 Billion in assets. A large amount of these assets were invested in hedge fund strategies. Professors Daniel Bergstresser (HBS), Lauren Cohen (HBS), Randolph Cohen (MIT), and Christopher Malloy (HBS) prepared this case. HBS cases are developed solely as the basis for class discussion. Cases are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management. Copyright  © 2011, 2012 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-5457685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to www.hbsp.harvard.edu/educators. This publication may not be digitized, photocopied, or otherwise reproduced, posted, or transmitted, without the permission of Harvard Business School. 212-038 AQR’s DELTA Strategy Hedge funds Voor- en nadelen Hedge Fund: While open-end mutual funds had to register with the SEC, calculate and publish daily net asset values (NAVs), and provide investors with daily liquidity, hedge funds were not automatically regulated by the SEC and enjoyed as much flexibility as they could negotiate with their clients with respect to liquidity. In exchange for this light-touch regulation, hedge funds were restricted in their marketing: only high net worth and institutional investors could directly invest in these funds. Nevertheless, academic work had by the late 1990s established that hedge funds offered a risk exposure that was less correlated with broad market indexes than most mutual funds, and potentially offered high risk-adjusted returns. The performance of the hedge fund industry during the 2001-2002 recession was  particularly good; Exhibit 1 shows that while stock market indices (S&P and NASDAQ) fell dramatically during this period, broad hedge fund indices (e.g., DJCS_Hedge and HFRI_FW, which were designed to track the overall performance of the hedge fund industry) rose. In response to the perception that hedge funds truly offered outperformance, institutional money flowed into hedge funds during the late 1990s and 2000s, and the size of the industry grew rapidly. Exhibit 2 charts the growth in the number of funds and total AUM (assets under management) in the hedge fund industry since 1997. With this growth in assets and managers, questions began to surface about the role of hedge funds in a portfolio and whether there were other ways to capture those returns without being exposed to some of the negatives of hedge fund investing. Alternatives to hedge funds Although many investors were attracted to the possibility of obtaining high returns and/or low covariance with other investments in their portfolio, many still found hedge funds themselves to be unappealing. Among the reasons for their distaste were: a) illiquidity, b) minimum investment requirements, c) high fees, d) the difficulty of selecting the right hedge fund manager, e) the inability to gain access to high quality funds, and f) the lack of established benchmarks in the industry. Most hedge funds only allowed redemptions on certain dates – often at the end of each quarter. Additionally many funds had an initial lockup – that is, investors could not redeem from the fund for a set period after investing; the period was often one year though some funds had no lockup and others had locked up investors for as long as five years. Most funds also had a minimum investment size of at least $1 million. In addition, many investors found the fees charged by hedge funds, which often amounted to 2% of assets under management (some funds even charged the full cost of their operations to their funds, amounting to more than 2% management fees) plus an additional 20% of profits generated by the fund, to be excessive and hoped to obtain similar benefits at a lower cost. Some investors also found the idea of selecting a portfolio from the many thousands of available hedge funds to be an intimidating task, especially given the lack of transparency (both as to investment process and holdings) that was common among hedge fund managers. And of course even if  an investor could identify a set of funds that made up an attractive portfolio, the managers of those funds might not accept an investment at that time or from that investor. Finally, in contrast to the mutual fund industry, there was a lack of established benchmarks fo r hedge funds, making it difficult to assess skill versus luck and idiosyncratic versus systematic returns. While hedge fund indices existed, these were just peer groups, not true benchmarks, and were biased by a number of things, including style drift and survivorship bias. In response to these criticisms, alternative products were soon introduced into the marketplace. 2 AQR’s DELTA Strategy 212-038 Funds of Hedge Funds (FOFs) One popular alternative to direct hedge fund investing was the funds of hedge funds (FOFs) structure. FOFs aimed to take investors’ money and allocate it among a select group of hedge funds – sometimes among a small number (even in the single digits in some cases), and sometimes among hundreds of funds. onerous= burdensome/ heavy This approach solved a number of the issues facing hedge fund investors, especially those with modest capital. FOFs had less onerous liquidity rules than individual hedge funds, and FOFs were less likely to encounter liquidity problems than individual funds since they could obtain liquidity from a number of underlying funds. Still, FOFs were ultimately subject to the underlying liquidity (both with respect to liquidity terms and underlying holdings) of the funds they were investing in. In addition, a single minimum investment bought a portfolio of many funds, and an experienced and hopefully expert financial professional, or team of such professionals, selected the funds, and chose allocations among them that (presumably) produced a well-optimized portfolio. Finally, FOF managers  claimed that their experience and connections provided access to hard-to-enter funds. Thus FOFs presented an appealing package, and indeed close to half of all money invested in hedge funds came through F OFs. However, many investors were put off by FOF fees, which historically included an additional layer of fees often as high as half the level of hedge fund fees themselves (thus making total fees paid about 1.5 times higher than for direct investing). Multi-strategy Funds Another approach to obtaining an alternative-investment portfolio while avoiding some of the challenges of one-strategy-at-a-time creation was to invest in multi-strategy hedge funds. Such offerings were often made by large hedge fund firms that offered a variety of individual strategies. Investors might have the option to invest in a multi-strategy fund that allocated assets across the different silos within the firm. One major advantage of multi-strategy funds over FOFs was fees: multi-strategy funds typically did not charge an additional fee layer over and above the hedge fund fee (as FOFs did). Further, multi-strategy funds only charged performance fees when the total investment was in the money; whereas, in the case of FOFs and direct single strategy investments, an investor could be subject to performance fees even if the net, aggregate performance wasn’t positive. A second potential advantage of multi-strategy funds was in portfolio construction. Not only was the allocation among strategies performed by professionals, those professionals likely had a high level of insight and visibility into the opportunities available to the individual silo managers. Multi-strategy funds generally offered as good or better liquidity than individual-strategy funds, and of course there was no trouble gaining â€Å"access† to the underlying managers. Multi-strategy funds appeared to offer strong diversification, although in the famous case of the hedge fund Amaranth, investors thought they were investing in a diversified portfolio of strategies. However, extreme losses in one of the portfolio’s silos led to the loss of approximately 75% of total portfolio value. Consequently many investors felt they were not truly diversified if they had a large allocation to a multi-strategy fund, but this could be potentially mitigated through the right amount of transparency into the positions and  risks of the portfolio, or, of course, through diversification among several different multi-strategy funds, thereby minimizing single firm risk. silos= opslagplaatsen 3 212-038 AQR’s DELTA Strategy One potential concern with multi-strategy funds from the investor’s point of view was the question of portfolio manager quality. Although it was possible that a single firm could gather under one roof the very best managers in a variety of specialties, some investors found this implausible. Hedge fund replication Starting in 2006, a number of investment management firms also introduced â€Å"hedge fund replication† products. These strategies, implemented using liquid instruments, purported to give investors a ‘top-down’ exposure to the broad risk exposures of the hedge fund industry. These products could be viewed as an effort to provide ‘hedge fund beta,’ or the systematic part of hedge fund performance. The rationale for these products originated from studies of hedge fund returns that highlighted the idea that the line between ‘alpha’ and ‘beta,’ was potentially fluid. The alternative systematic exposures of hedge funds could be viewed as a kind of â€Å"exotic beta.† If hedge fund returns could be approximated with dynamically traded portfolios of liquid assets, then investors attracted to hedge fund returns, but potentially looking for a liquid or low-fee alternative to actual hedge funds could invest in a ‘hedge fun d replication’ product that attempted to mimic hedge fund returns using liquid assets. These top-down approaches aimed to use statistical methods to create a portfolio of liquid assets that had similar performance to hedge funds as a class. One top-down approach was to use linear regressions, or optimizations, to build a portfolio that had high correlations to historical hedge fund returns. An example of this  approach consisted of three steps. First one would obtain a long-run time series of returns on a diversified portfolio of hedge funds (e.g., the HFRI monthly hedge fund indices were commonly used). Then one would obtain returns on a large number of liquid investments-these could be indexes of stocks (e.g., S&P 500, MSCI EAFE, MSCI Emerging, Russell 2000, etc.), bonds (e.g., US 10-year government bonds), currencies (e.g., EUR-USD Spot Exchange Rate), etc. () Finally, one would use a standard statistical optimizer, or linear regression, to find the portfolio of liquid investments (either long or short and at weights implied by the statistical analysis) that most closely replicated the statistical characteristics of the hedge fund portfolio. Exhibit 3 presents the monthly returns from a set of indices that were commonly used for hedge fund replication purposes. 1 Specifically, the goal was to create a portfolio that historically moved as close to one for one with the hedge fund portfolio, so that it had high correlation with the hedge fund portfolio, and yet also matched other â€Å"statistical moments,† such as volatility, skewness, and kurtosis. Historically, and ideally on a forward-looking basis as well, this portfolio would fulfill a role in the diversified portfolio similar to the role that hedge funds would play. Exhibit 4 plots the recent return performance of a few commonly used hedge fund indices (e.g., DJCS_Hedge, HFRI_FW, and HFRX_Global), which represent composite indices of individual hedge funds and were designed to track the overall return performance of the industry; as well as a fund-ofhedge funds (FOF) index (HFRI_FOF) designed to track the overall return performance of funds of hedge funds. Exhibit 5 presents the return performance of four popular hedge fund replication index products, produced by Merrill Lynch, G oldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Credit Suisse. Exhibit 6 presents the return performance of the overall hedge fund indices alongside the performance of these hedge fund replication products. 1 This is an excerpt of the data. The full data series is in the Spreadsheet Supplement to the case. 4 AQR’s DELTA Strategy 212-038 AQR’s approach For years, the principals at AQR had been working on understanding the underlying nature of hedge fund returns and exploring the possibility of being able to capture them in a transparent, liquid and cost effective way. Thus, they were initially intrigued by the introduction of these hedge fund replication products, but very soon came to the conclusion that an entirely different approach to delivering exposure to the systematic risk factors of the hedge fund industry was needed. Whereas AQR’s competitors focused on the ‘top-down’ products described above, AQR focused on creating a ‘bottom-up’ approach that sought to deliver significant risk-adjusted returns instead of simply replicating an index by: capturing classical, liquid hedge fund strategies that were uncorrelated with traditional markets, implementing them at low cost, and then bundling these strategies into a wellconstructed single portfolio focusing on portfolio construction, risk management and trading. Origins of AQR’s approach The idea of direct, simplified implementation of core hedge fund strategies was hinted at by the pioneering work into merger arbitrage of Mark Mitchell and Todd Pulvino. Mitchell and Pulvino were both former academics (at Harvard Business School and the Kellogg School of Management, respectively) who subsequently teamed up with AQR in 2001. A simple merger arbitrage strategy, for example, worked as follows: after the announcement by Firm A of a desire to acquire Firm B, the merger arbitrageur made a purchase of the target Firm B shares while shorting the acquirer Firm A’s shares (if the acquisition was to be made in cash, the arbitrageur merely purchased Firm B shares without shorting Firm A). Typically upon the announcement of the merger, the price of the target shares would not rise all the way to the price that would be appropriate if the merger were sure to be completed. When Mitchell and Pulvino studied the merger arbitrage industry, they found that merger arbitrage strategies did deliver substantial risk-adjusted returns. Specifically, the expected returns of putting merger arbitrage  investments into place was high, and while the risk was higher than one might naturally have expected — because mergers tended to break up exactly at times of market stress, and therefore the merger arbitrage strategy had more beta, or market exposure, than might be presumed — nevertheless they found that even accounting for this risk, the performance of a naà ¯ve merger arbitrage strategy that invested in every deal was substantial. Mitchell and Pulvino also looked at the performance of actual merger arbitrage funds. A merger arbitrage fund would be expected to add alpha by correctly identifying which mergers were more or less likely to achieve completion than the market anticipated. So, for example, if the market pricing of a deal was such that the expected return would be zero if the merger was 90% likely to be completed, the merger arbitrageur’s job was to try to figure out whether in fact the merger was substantially more than 90% likely to go through, substantially less than 90%, or about 90%, and then invest only in those deals that were substantially more than 90% likely to go through. What Mitchell and Pulvino found was that merger arbitrage funds made money, but that they did not show an ability to forecast which mergers would close over and above the market’s ability. That is, the outperformance that merger arbitrageurs were generating was no greater than the outperformance that would be generated by a simple strategy that bought every target and shorted every bidder, particularly net of fees. 5 212-038 AQR’s DELTA Strategy This opened the door to a potential strategy for the replication of merger arbitrage: simply participate in every merger arbitrage deal that met a set of basic screens (e.g., size and liquidity). The benefit to investors would be a potentially more diversified portfolio of merger deals than would be obtained from a fund manager who only selected a subset of the deals, and also potentially far lower fees, because there was no need to pay an analyst  to determine which mergers were more or less likely to succeed. With this as a template, one could easily imagine a whole roster of potential hedge fund strategies that could be captured in a systematic way (e.g., long value stocks and short growth stocks, convertible arbitrage, carry trades, trend following trades and trades exploiting other wellknown empirical asset pricing anomalies). Since the early work into merger arbitrage, AQR had spent years researching these other classical hedge fund strategies that could be captured from the bottomup. Bottom-Up versus Top-Down AQR preferred their bottom-up approach for a variety of reasons. First, they felt that many hedge fund strategies earned returns for bearing a liquidity risk premium, which you could not earn by trading solely in liquid instruments as in the hedge fund replication methods. For example, in order to capture the returns from a convertible bond that traded at a discount to fair value because of a liquidity risk premium, you needed to own the convertible bond, not simply liquid assets that were correlated with the convertible bond. Second, since top-down methods aimed to maximize correlations with recent past hedge fund performance, these approaches were necessarily backwardlooking and based on what hedge funds were doing in the past. By contrast, if you ran the actual strategies, one could respond to market opportunities immediately. Finally and perhaps most importantly, AQR felt that the hedge fund indices upon which most top-down replication strategies were based had a variety of biases (e.g., survivorship bias), had too much exposure to traditional markets (i.e., equity and credit beta) and also tended to reflect the weights of the most popular strategies. Since these popular strategies were crowded with many trades, the expected returns on these strategies going forward were potentially lower. In short, while they shared the noble goals of top-down replication products (i.e., attempting to provide liquid, transparent exposure to hedge fund strategies at a lower fee), AQR felt that the approach had fundamental flaws or, as Cliff Asness put it in a speech in October 2007 on hedge fund replication, â€Å"Not Everything That Can Be Done Should Be Done.† AQR’s DELTA Strategy In late 2007, AQR decided to focus their years of research on capturing the classical hedge fund strategies in a systematic way from the bottom up by â€Å"creating our own product that would seek to deliver these strategies in a risk-balanced and efficiently implemented way.† AQR viewed their â€Å"DELTA† product as superior to the newly-introduced replication products that were being marketed as offering ‘hedge fund beta.’ In fact, AQR staff bristled at comparisons between the existing hedge fund replication products and their DELTA product. To ensure that AQR was taking a broad approach and to avoid being insular, they formed an external advisory committee made up of some very seasoned hedge fund investors to help guide the development of the product. The DELTA name was an acronym that reflected the product’s characteristics: ‘Dynamic, Economically Intuitive, Liquid, Transparent and Alternative.’ The portfolio was designed to be uncor related with the overall stock market, and would be diversified across nine broad strategy classes: a Fixed Income Relative Value strategy, a Managed Futures strategy, a Global Macro strategy, insular = bekrompen 6 AQR’s DELTA Strategy 212-038 an Emerging Markets strategy, a Long/Short equity strategy, a Dedicated Short Bias strategy, an Equity Market Neutral strategy, a Convertible Arbitrage strategy, and an Event Driven strategy. Performance AQR decided to go ahead with the creation of the DELTA strategy in the late summer of 2008. By October 1, 2008, the portfolio was fully invested and had begun to compile a track record. At the time, the staff at AQR had worried that this might be â€Å"the worst possible time to be launching a product designed to capture classical hedge fund strategies.† Nonetheless, the DELTA  portfolio performed well in the fourth quarter of 2008 immediately after its launch, an impressive feat given the turbulence in the market. Exhibit 7 charts the monthly performance of the DELTA strategy since inception. Exhibit 8 shows the raw monthly returns of the DELTA strategy, compared to the raw monthly returns of stock market indices (S&P and NASDAQ) and broad hedge fund indices (e.g., DJCS_Hedge and HFRI_FW, which were designed to track the overall performance of the hedge fund industry). Exhibit 8 also presents the â€Å"beta† of the DELTA strategy with respect to these various market and hedge fund indices, while Exhibit 9 graphs the cumulative return performance of the DELTA strategy relative to these indices. Marketing DELTA Although DELTA was off to a great start, Kabiller felt like it was underperforming its potential. By the summer of 2011, despite its excellent performance, growth in DELTA’s AUM had been modest. After giving it a lot of thought, Kabiller identified three primary challenges AQR faced in convincing investors to allocate capital to DELTA. First, many of his institutional clients had grown very comfortable selecting a set of hedge funds and paying them both management and performance fees. Exhibit 10 presents the recent annual returns of some of the largest U.S. hedge funds, many of whom had delivered stellar returns over time. Kabiller was convinced that one of DELTA’s major assets was its ability to deliver hedge fund returns with a significantly lower fee structure. But many of his institutional clients had difficulty assessing just how large an advantage this provided DELTA. For instance, if a client selected the two percent management fee with no performance fee struct ure, how much higher could they expect their after-fee returns to be? Given that performance fees were typically only paid on returns in excess of a cash hurdle, was a twenty percent performance fee really that costly to fund investors? Related considerations applied to investors that invested primarily through Funds of Hedge Funds. These investment vehicles typically added a layer of fees on top of the after-fee performance of their hedge fund investments – typically a one percent management fee and a ten percent performance fee. Due to DELTA’s multi-strategy investment approach, its after-fee performance should perhaps be benchmarked against those of fund-of-funds alternatives. Conveying to such investors the fee advantage of DELTA in simple terms – for instance, how much better their competitors’ pre-fee returns needed to be than those of DELTA to offset the fee differential – would go a long way in convincing them that DELTA was the superior approach. A second challenge in marketing DELTA was the emergence of the so-called hedge fund replication strategies. These strategies were almost the polar opposite of the fund-of-funds – they had modest fees and, because they replicated hedge fund returns using highly liquid indices, they faced little in the way of liquidity risk. Institutional investors interested in low-fee exposure to hedge fund returns found these products attractive, and Kabiller found it challenging to convey the advantages of the DELTA approach. His inclination was to focus on two key limitations of hedge fund replication. First, he felt they relied heavily on the historical relationship between hedge fund returns and major stock and bond market indices. To the extent that the relationship was not stable, 7 212-038 AQR’s DELTA Strategy or to the extent that a large fraction of hedge fund movements could not be captured by an appropriate combination of these indices, the replication approach would be limited in its ability to truly deliver in real time the actual returns being earned by the average hedge fund investor. Second, even if the strategy could replicate a large fraction of the monthly fluctuations in performance of the average hedge fund, Kabiller felt it was likely that a â€Å"top-down† approach would be limited in replicating the actual edge, or â€Å"alpha,† of the average hedge fund. Even if much of the risks to which hedge funds were exposed could be found in broad stock and bond market indices, it was unlikely that any of the informational or liquidity edges they possessed would appear in the returns of these indices. A final challenge Kabiller faced in the marketing of DELTA was its track record. Although it had outpaced the broad HFRI index since its inception in the fall of 2008, th e track record was still a fairly limited one. Moreover, since the central appeal of the product was its ability to match average hedge fund returns  with modest fees, the outperformance ironically posed something of a challenge for DELTA. Kabiller felt it would be critical to understand its source before determining whether it was an aberration or whether they possessed a sustainable edge relative to the index of hedge funds. As Kabiller looked out beyond his infinity pool and into the calm waters of the Long Island Sound, he worried that without a proper grasp of these issues, many rough sales meetings lay ahead for him and his DELTA team. 8 AQR’s DELTA Strategy 212-038 Exhibit 1 Cumulative Return Performance of Hedge Fund Indices versus Stock Market Indices, since 1996. Cumulative Return Performance of Hedge Fund Indices Versus Stock Market Indices 500 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 199601 199609 199705 199801 199809 199905 200001 200009 200105 200201 200209 200305 200401 200409 200505 200601 200609 200705 200801 200809 200905 201001 201009 201105 NASDAQ S&P_Index DJCS_Hedge HFRI_FW Source: Bloomberg. 9 212-038 AQR’s DELTA Strategy Exhibit 2 Total Number of Hedge Funds and Total AUM (Assets Under Management) for the Hedge Fund Industry, since 1997. Growth in Hedge Fund Industry (1997-2010) 12,000 $2,500.00 10,000 Number of Hedge Funds 8,000 $1,500.00 6,000 $1,000.00 4,000 $500.00 Hedge Fund AUM (in Billions $) $2,000.00 Number of Hedge Funds Hedge Fund AUM 2,000 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 $- Source: Created by casewriters using data from Hedge Fund Research, www.hedgefundresearch.com, accessed August 2011. 10 212-038 -11- Exhibit 3 Excerpt of Monthly Returns on Indices Commonly Used for Hedge Fund Replication (1996-2011). The full data series is contained in the Spreadsheet Supplement to the case MSCI EM 7.6% -0.6% 1.1% 5.2% 0.1% 0.9% -6.2% 2.6% 1.4% -1.4% 1.7% 1.0% †¦ -2.1% -1.4% 4.3% 0.8% -1.6% -1.9% -0.9% -7.3% -7.4% 9.1% -3.8% 0.0% 7.4% 3.9% 7.0% 6.2% -2.5% 0.5% 15.0% -0.5% 0.5% 10.9% -0.2% 1.0% 4.5% -8.7% -4.3% -8.8% -11.4% -5.4% -7.0% -1.3% -1.2% -3.5% -2.0% -2.5% -3.7% -1.1% -1.7% -2.0% 0.4% 0.1% 0.2% 0.4% -0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.1% -2.8% 2.0% 2.4% 2.6% 0.0% 3.0% -0.1% 0.5% 1.6% 2.4% -0.3% 5.4% 2.4% 3.4% 0.2% -0.1% -0.4% 0.0% 0.0% 1.6% 2.7% -0.7% 3.3% 5.7% 2.8% -2.0% 1.3% 2.0% 0.8% 4.0% -0.7% †¦ 4.0% 2.4% †¦ 7.6% -2.0% †¦ 0.8% 0.0% †¦ 2.8% -2.1% †¦ 4.6% -1.2% 3.7% -1.7% 5.6% 2.8% 0.9% 1.2% 2.2% 2.9% 0.9% 4.1% 0.4% 0.0% †¦ -0.7% -0.2% 1.1% 1.7% -0.9% -0.8% 0.6% -1.2% 1.4% 0.0% 1.0% 0.3% 0.0% 1.0% -4.9% 0.9% -4.2% -8.8% 5.7% 0.4% -4.4% 2.1% 0.8% 0.4% 0.4% 1.5% 0.0% -0.5% -0.3% -1.0% -1.4% 3.5% -1.2% 5.3% 3.9% 1.5% 2.6% 0.0% 0.2% -1.7% -0.6% 4.5% -1.4% -1.0% 2.8% 3.0% 1.8% 0.9% 1.0% -0.5% -0.2% -3.6% -1.1% -3.7% -0.3% 3.7% -0.2% 3.4% 0.9% 0.4% 5.1% MSCI EAFE RUSSELL 2000 S&P 500 US TREAS 2YR US TREAS 10YR CURRENCY HFRI HFRI FOF HFRI FW 1/31/1996 1.1% 2.7% 2.9% 2/29/1996 3/29/1996 2.8% 1.9% -0.6% 1.0% 1.2% 1.5% 4/30/1996 5/31/1996 5.3% 3.7% 3.1% 1.5% 4.0% 3.1% 6/28/1996 7/31/1996 8/30/1996 -0.7% -2.9% 2.6% 0.4% -1.9% 1.5% 0.2% -2.1% 2.3% 9/30/1996 10/31/1996 2.2% 1.6% 1.2% 1.6% 2.1% 1.0% 11/29/1996 12/31/1996 †¦ 1.7% 0.8% 2.3% 0.7% †¦ 2.1% 1.3% †¦ 1/31/2011 2/28/2011 0.4% 1.3% 0.1% 0.8% 0.4% 1.2% 3/31/2011 4/29/2011 0.5% 1.3% -0.1% 1.2% 0.1% 1.5% 5/31/2011 6/30/2011 7/29/2011 -1.3% -1.3% -0.3% -1.1% -1.3% 0.4% -1.2% -1.2% 0.2% 8/31/2011 9/30/2011 -4.9% -6.0% -2.6% -2.8% -3.2% -3.9% 10/31/2011 11/30/2011 12/30/2011 4.9% -2.0% -0.9% 1.1% -1.0% -0.4% 2.7% -1.3% -0.4% 1/31/2012 3.8% 1.9% 2.6% Source: Thomson Reuters Datastream. 212-038 AQR’s DELTA Strategy Exhibit 4 Cumulative Return Performance of Overall Hedge Fund Indices, since June 2007. Recent Performance of Hedge Fund Indices 120 110 100 DJCS_Hedge 90 80 70 60 200706 200708 200710 200712 200802 200804 200806 200808 200810 200812 200902 200904 200906 200908 200910 200912 201002 201004 201006 201008 201010 201012 201102 201104 201106 HFRI_FW HFRX_Global HFRI_FOF Source: Bloomberg. 12 AQR’s DELTA Strategy 212-038 Exhibit 5 Cumulative Return Performance of Hedge Fund Replication Indices, since June 2007. Recent Performance of Hedge Fund Replication Products 130 120 110 100 90 80 70 60 200706 200708 200710 200712 200802 200804 200806 200808 200810 200812 200902 200904 200906 200908 200910 200912 201002 201004 201006 201008 201010 201012 201102 201104 201106 ML GS JPM CS Source: Bloomberg. 13 212-038 AQR’s DELTA Strategy Exhibit 6 Comparison of Cumulative Return Performance of Overall Hedge Fund Indices versus Hedge Fund Replication Indices, since June 2007. Comparison of Recent Performance of Hedge Fund Indices Versus Hedge Fund Replication Products 130 120 110 100 90 80 70 60 200706 200708 200710 200712 200802 200804 200806 200808 200810 200812 200902 200904 200906 200908 200910 200912 201002 201004 201006 201008 201010 201012 201102 201104 201106 DJCS_Hedge HFRI_FW HFRX_Global HFRI_FOF ML GS JPM CS Source: Bloomberg. 14 AQR’s DELTA Strategy 212-038 Exhibit 7 Monthly Return Performance of AQR DELTA strategy, Since Inception. AQR DELTA Return Performance 5.00% 4.00% 3.00% 2.00% 1.00% 0.00% -1.00% -2.00% -3.00% -4.00% Source: Company documents. 15 212-038 AQR’s DELTA Strategy Exhibit 8 Monthly Return Performance (and Beta) of AQR DELTA strategy compared to Market Indices (S&P, NASDAQ) and Hedge Fund Indices (DJCS_Hedge, HFRI_FW), since October 2008. Date 200810 200811 200812 200901 200902 200903 200904 200905 200906 200907 200908 200909 200910 200911 200912 201001 201002 201003 201004 201005 201006 201007 201008 201009 201010 201011 201012 201101 201102 201103 201104 201105 Average DELTA 1.22% 1.72% 4.05% 2.79% -0.10% 2.32% 3.09% -0.35% 1.78% 1.93% 4.48% 2.70% -0.31% 0.96% 0.55% -0.66% -0.27% 2.23% 2.18% -3.37% 1.39% 1.62% 2.02% 3.33% 2.47% 1.03% 1.93% -0.41% -0.45% 0.92% 2.31% -0.84% 1.32% NASDAQ -17.73% -10.77% 2.70% -6.38% -6.68% 10.94% 12.35% 3.32% 3.42% 7.82% 1.54% 5.64% -3.64% 4.86% 5.81% -5.37% 4.23% 7.14% 2.64% -8.29% -6.55% 6.90% -6.24% 12.04% 5.86% -0.37% 6.19% 1.78% 3.04% -0.04% 3.32% -1.33% 1.19% 0.09 0.25 0.28 S&P_Index -16.94% -7.48% 0.78% -8.57% -10.99% 8.54% 9.39% 5.31% 0.02% 7.41% 3.36% 3.57% -1.98% 5.74% 1.78% -3.70% 2.85% 5.88% 1.48% -8.20% -5.39% 6.88% -4.74% 8.76% 3.69% -0.23% 6.53% 2.26% 3.20% -0.10% 2.85% -1.35% 0.64% 0.09 0.28 0.32 DJCS_Hedge -6.30% -4.15% -0.03% 1.09% -0.88% 0.65% 1.68% 4.06% 0.43% 2.54% 1.53% 3.04% 0.13% 2.11% 0.88% 0.17% 0.68% 2.22% 1.24% -2.76% -0.84% 1.59% 0.23% 3.43% 1.92% -0.18% 2.90% 0.69% 1.38% 0.12% 1.80% -0.96% 0.64% 0.25 HFRI_FW -6.84% -2.67% 0.15% -0.09% -1.21% 1.66% 3.60% 5.15% 0.25% 2.50% 1.30% 2.79% -0.20% 1.52% 1.28% -0.76% 0.66% 2.49% 1.19% -2.89% -0.95% 1.61% -0.13% 3.48% 2.14% 0.19% 2.95% 0.41% 1.23% 0.06% 1.45% -1.18% 0.66% 0.25 DELTA’s Beta with: DJCS_Hedge’s Beta with: HFRI_FW’s Beta with: Source: Company documents. 16 AQR’s DELTA Strategy 212-038 Exhibit 9 Cumulative Return Performance of AQR DELTA Strategy versus Market Indices (S&P and NASDAQ) and Hedge Fund Indices (DJCS_Hedge and HFRI_FW), since October 2008 Cumulative Return Performance of DELTA versus Market and Hedge Fund Indices 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 DELTA NASDAQ S&P_Index DJCS_Hedge HFRI_FW Source: Bloomberg and company documents. 17 212-038 -18- Exhibit 10 Annual Returns of Largest Hedge Funds (%) Fund Name Winton Futures USD Cls B Millennium International Ltd Transtrend DTP – Enhanced Risk (USD) The Genesis Emerging Mkts Invt Com A Aspect Diversified Programme Aurora Offshore Fund Ltd. Permal Macro Holdings Ltd USD A Canyon Value Realization Cayman Ltd A Permal Fixed Income Holdings NV USD A Absolute Alpha Fund PCC Diversified Caxton Global Investments Ltd GAM U.S. Institutional Trading K4D-10V Portfolio K4D-15V Portfolio Orbis Optimal (US$) Fund GAM Trading II USD Open Double Black Diamond Ltd (Carlson) GoldenTree High Yield Master Fund Ltd Bay Resource Partners Offshore Fund Ltd GAM U.S. Institutional Diversity Firm Name Winton Capital Management Millennium Intl. Management Transtrend BV Genesis Investment Management Aspect Capital Aurora Investment Management Permal Asset Management Canyon Capital Advisors Permal Asset Management Financial Risk Management Caxton Associates GAM Sterling Management Graham Capital Management Graham Capital Management Orbis Investment Management GAM Sterling Management Carlson Capital Goldentree Asset Management GMT Capital Corp GAM Sterling Management Size ($Bil) 9.89 8.84 8.38 6.70 5.71 5.56 5.35 5.21 4.51 4.47 4.40 3.57 3.54 3.54 3.43 3.09 2.98 2.65 2.45 2.43 2001 7.11 15.26 26.36 4.62 15.79 9.82 14.66 12.69 11.50 9.33 31.41 16.34 6.45 39.31 29.01 14.78 11.94 18.30 29.32 9.56 2002 18.34 9.61 26.26 -1.77 19.19 1.31 8.03 5.21 10.47 6.36 26.44 10.69 18.76 43.71 12.15 10.55 2.12 6.24 0.03 4.95 2003 27.75 10.89 8.48 61.98 20.59 13.58 12.56 21.87 17.59 8.07 8.09 14.74 8.46 21.60 10.84 14.49 7.62 31.42 23.24 14.60 2004 22.63 14.68 12.82 31.53 -7.72 8.15 4.86 13.56 9.37 4.06 9.97 3.55 5.56 -0.43 2.25 3.84 4.70 9.89 27.97 6.14 2005 9.73 11.31 5.99 37.86 12.01 9.47 10.65 8.35 7.69 7.00 8.03 4.98 -7.52 -16.97 8.60 4.80 5.08 13.35 30.95 10.48 2006 17.83 16.43 12.04 30.22 12.84 10.95 9.48 14.08 10.48 8.94 13.17 8.68 5.02 6.64 4.95 7.44 21.12 13.21 21.65 16.74 2007 17.97 10.99 22.38 31.68 8.18 13.14 8.90 7.52 8.42 16.33 1.06 9.48 11.62 16.57 6.98 7.93 15.96 4.60 19.84 7.76 2008 20.99 -3.04 29.38 -49.30 25.42 -21.69 -5.16 -28.36 -18.40 -23.02 12.96 7.57 21.82 35.67 -2.49 5.78 -12.40 -38.60 -20.88 -13.96 2009 -4.63 16.28 -11.27 90.44 -11.24 21.26 9.83 55.20 27.32 10.51 5.83 8.32 1.41 3.11 9.92 6.55 28.34 69.94 56.60 6.78 2010 14.46 13.22 14.89 25.06 15.36 7.31 6.38 13.46 10.40 5.36 11.42 7.80 2.46 4.58 -3.93 5.97 9.30 23.61 15.90 -1.14 2011 6.29 8.39 -8.65 -15.29 4.51 -6.01 -3.27 -4.66 -5.28 -2.06 -2.40 -2.32 -4.11 -2.67 -4.19 -2.79 Source: Morningstar Hedge Fund Database, accessed January 2012.

Amadeus Essay Example

Amadeus Essay Example Amadeus Essay Amadeus Essay Essay Topic: Amadeus Amadeus is a play which portrays the rivalry between Antonio Salieri, a famous composer, and Amadeus (Mozart). Salieri being jealous for Mozart’s talent declares war to God promising to destroy Mozart, his preferred creature, as he feels betrayed by God. Even though salieri achieved what he wished most, fame; he felt that this was also his punishment. When had been rubbed in fame to vomiting, it would be taken away from him and Mozart’s music would sound louder and louder through the world, so as to win his battle with God, he tried to convince the world that he poisoned Mozart, to be remembered for infamy at least.Retelling Act 1 Antonio Salieri a famous composer, being an old man, is sat in a wheelchair with his back to the audience. Feeling guilty cries out: Mozart! Pardon your assassin have mercy. The venticelli explain that when Mozart died thirty-two years ago, there was some talk about him being poisoned by Salieri. They wonder why Salieri would do such a thing and why he would confess it now. Salieri asks the audience to be his confessors. He admits his lifelong desire for fame, yet only in one especial way. Music! Absolute music music is God’s art.He longed to join all the composers who had celebrated his glory through the long Italian past. As a result, he implored God, let me be a composer in return, I will live with virtue and I will honor you with much music all the days of my life. God answered to him Go forth, Antonio. Serve Me and mankind, and you will be blessed, Salieri thanked him and promised, I am your servant for life. The very next day, a family friend suddenly appeared and took him to Vienna, where he studied music and soon became the court composer.Salieri decided, Clearly my bargain had been accepted. The same year the young prodigy Mozart was touring Europe. Salieri tells the audience, I present to you, for one performance only, my last composition, entitled The Death of Mozart, or, Did I Do It? Dedicated to posterity on this, the last night of my life. He then takes off his dressing gown and becomes a young man wearing the elegant clothes of a successful composer in the 1780s. The scene shifts to 1781 age of Emperor Joseph II and his court in Vienna. Salieri is thirty-one, a rolific composer to the Hapsburg court, and married to a respectable wife, Teresa. The venticelli, Salieri’s Little Winds, announce that Mozart will be giving a concert for the court. While Salieri sits in a chair eating sweets in the library at the Palace of Schoonbrunn, Constanze Weber, daughter of Mozart’s landlady, runs into the room squeaking like a mouse. Mozart follows her meowing like a cat. Mozart teases Constanze (Stanzi) with sexual innuendoes and bathroom humor and frequently emits an unforgettable giggle, piercing and infantile. His demeanor appalls Salieri.Later, when Mozart begins playing one of his compositions, Salieri responds with such delight that it makes him tremble. He runs out into the street and says gasping for life Addressing the audience he explains, it seemed to me that I had heard a voice of God. .. and it was the voice of an obscene child After the conceit, Salieri buries his fear in work and prays to God, asking Him, let Your voice enter me! When his Little Winds report that audiences seem unimpressed by Mozart’s performances, Salieri begins to think that the serenade he heard was an exception, an accident.Salieri com poses an extremely banal march in Mozart’s honor. When Mozart quickly transforms it into an exceptional piece of music, Salieri admits, was it then, so early, that I began to have thoughts of murder Mozart clashes with the emperor’s advisors over his choice of subject and music for his commissioned operas. He also has difficulty finding pupils. Against the wishes of his father, he and Constanze marry and the two live well beyond their means. When Constanze asks Salieri to help her husband get work, the composer sees this as an opportunity to take his revenge.He invites her to his apartment, where he plans to seduce her. After Salieri makes it clear that he will help Mozart if she grants him sexual favors, she at first resists, but soon starts to tease him. Salieri then throws her out, offended by her commonness and angry at his own considered descent into adultery and blackmail. When Salieri studies the manuscripts Constanze left behind, he hears the music in his head, acknowledging that they are the same sounds he had heard at the palace, the same crushed harmonies, glancing collisions, agonizing delights. The piece he had heard had been no accident.He admits, I was staring through the cage of those meticulous ink strokes at- an Absolute Beauty. As a result, he feels betrayed by God:I know my fate. Now for the first time I feel my emptiness as Adam felt his nakedness. You gave me the desire to serve you then saw to it the service was shameful in the ears of the server. You gave me the desire to praise you then made me mute. You put into me perception of the incomparable then ensured that I would know myself forever mediocre. MOZART! spiteful, sniggering, conceited, infantine Mozart im you have chosen to be your sole conduct. A bitter Salieri warns God, From this time we are enemies, you and I. I’ll not accept it from you, do you hear? you are the Enemy. I name Thee now and this I swear: to my last breath I shall block you on earth, as fa r as I am able. The scene shifts to the present, with the older Salieri promising to reveal to the audience the details of the war he fought with God through his preferred Creature, Mozart, in the waging of which, of course, the Creature had to be destroyed. Act 2 Back in the past, audiences are still not appreciating Mozart’s work.His resulting desperation is compounded when his father dies. In an effort to earn money, he writes The Magic Flute, something for ordinary German people Salieri suggests he include in his composition a focus on the Masons, the fraternal order of which both are members. While he composes The Magic Flute, Constanze leaves with the children and his health deteriorates. He is continually taunted by dreams of a figure in gray, who compels him to write a requiem Mass. When a member of the emperor’s court discovers that Mozart has exposed Masonic rituals in The Magic Flute, he is outraged.As a result, Mozart’s reputation and career are rui ned. Soon after, when Mozart dies, Salieri admits to feeling a mixture of relief and pity. In the present, Salieri explains: Slowly I understood the nature of God’s punishment. This was my sentence: I must endure thirty years of being called distinguished by people incapable of distinguishing and finally when my nose had been rubbed in fame to vomiting- it would be taken away from me. Mozart’s music sounded louder and louder through the world. And mine faded completely, till no one played it at all.Salieri admits he has attempted to convince the world that he poisoned Mozart, so that he will be remembered, if not in fame, then infamy, and so win his battle with God. He then cuts his throat. The venticelli tell the audience that Salieri’s efforts failed; he survived his attempted suicide and the public refused to believe he had murdered Mozart. The play ends with Salieri, in a gesture of benediction, telling the audience, mediocrities everywhere- now and to come- I absolve you all. Amen. He then folds his arms high across his own breast in a gesture of self-sanctification. main charactesAntonio Salieri: was a famous musician composer who envied the prodigy talents of Mozart. From his personality, we can say he is a selfish, manipulative person who desired to be famous although he considered himself to be mediocre. Wolfang Amadeus Mozart: was a famous musician composer with an innate talent. He wrote his first symphony at five, a concerto at four and a full opera at fourteen. He is described as a silly, giggly and nervous person who makes enemies easily. Constanze Weber: was the wife of Mozart, although she had a pretty singing voice, she wasn’t as well-known as her older sisters were.