Hedging is an essential part of everyday communication. It is a discourse strategy which is used to reduce commitment to the force or truth of an utterance to achieve an appropriate pragmatic effect. In recent years hedges have therefore attracted increased attention in Pragmatics and Applied Linguistics, with studies approaching the concept of hedging from various perspectives, such as speech act - and politeness theory, genre-specific investigations, interactional pragmatics, and studies of vague language. The present volume provides an up-to-date overview of current research on the topic by bringing together studies from a variety of fields. The contributions span a range of different languages, investigate the use of hedges in different communicative settings and text types, and consider all levels of linguistic analysis from prosody to morphology, syntax and semantics. What unites the different studies in this volume is a corpus-based approach, in which various theoretical concepts and categories are applied to, and tested against, actual language data. This allows for patterns of use to be uncovered which have previously gone unnoticed and provides valuable insights for the adjustment and fine-tuning of existing categories. The usage-based approach of the investigations therefore offers new theoretical and descriptive perspectives on the context-dependent nature and multifunctionality of hedges.

Hedging is an essential part of everyday communication. It is a discourse strategy which is used to reduce commitment to the force or truth of an utterance to achieve an appropriate pragmatic effect. This title provides an overview of research on the topic by bringing together studies from a variety of fields.

Describes both financial and physical hedging strategies and programs applicable to almost any industry. Shows how to use hedging strategies to capitalize on market volatility, while minimizing the effects of unfavorable market swings. Addresses theories of hedging and cross-hedging, cash-and-carry or ``repo'' programs, the ``perfect hedge,'' and the hedging paradox and also offers comparative approaches supported by examples.

The challenges currently facing particIpants m competitive electricity markets are unique and staggering: unprecedented price volatility, a crippling lack of historical market data on which to test new modeling approaches, and a continuously changing regulatory structure. Meeting these challenges will require the knowledge and experience of both the engineering and finance communities. Yet the two communities continue to largely ignore each other. The finance community believes that engineering models are too detailed and complex to be practically applicable in the fast changing market environment. Engineers counter that the finance models are merely statistical regressions, lacking the necessary structure to capture the true dynamic properties of complex power systems. While both views have merit, neither group has by themselves been able to produce effective tools for meeting industry challenges. The goal of this book is to convey the fundamental differences between electricity and other traded commodities, and the impact these differences have on valuation, hedging and operational decisions made by market participants. The optimization problems associated with these decisions are formulated in the context of the market realities of today's power industry, including a lack of liquidity on forward and options markets, limited availability of historical data, and constantly changing regulatory structures.

Identify and understand the risks facing your portfolio, how to quantify them, and the best tools to hedge them This book scrutinizes the various risks confronting a portfolio, equips the reader with the tools necessary to identify and understand these risks, and discusses the best ways to hedge them. The book does not require a specialized mathematical foundation, and so will appeal to both the generalist and specialist alike. For the generalist, who may not have a deep knowledge of mathematics, the book illustrates, through the copious use of examples, how to identify risks that can sometimes be hidden, and provides practical examples of quantifying and hedging exposures. For the specialist, the authors provide a detailed discussion of the mathematical foundations of risk management, and draw on their experience of hedging complex multi-asset class portfolios, providing practical advice and insights. Provides a clear description of the risks faced by managers with equity, fixed income, commodity, credit and foreign exchange exposures Elaborates methods of quantifying these risks Discusses the various tools available for hedging, and how to choose optimal hedging instruments Illuminates hidden risks such as counterparty, operational, human behavior and model risks, and expounds the importance and instability of model assumptions, such as market correlations, and their attendant dangers Explains in clear yet effective terms the language of quantitative finance and enables a non-quantitative investment professional to communicate effectively with professional risk managers, "quants", clients and others Providing thorough coverage of asset modeling, hedging principles, hedging instruments, and practical portfolio management, Hedging Market Exposures helps portfolio managers, bankers, transactors and finance and accounting executives understand the risks their business faces and the ways to quantify and control them.

One of the fastest growing investment sectors ever seen, hedge funds are considered by many to be exotic and inaccessible. This book provides an intensive learning experience, defining hedge funds, explaining hedge fund strategies while offering both qualitative and quantitative tools that investors need to access these types of funds. Topics not usually covered in discussions of hedge funds are included, such as a theoretical discussion of each hedge fund strategy followed by trading examples provided by successful hedge fund managers.