Holly A. Bell

This paper explores one option for the development of a theoretical approach to economic decision-making that goes beyond the mechanical-mathematical models based on the assumptions of rational self-interest and utility maximization. The proposed model incorporates facts, values, relationships, cooperation, learning, and other factors into economic decision-making and applies to both the micro- and macroeconomic levels. While the model is descriptive in nature, it has predictive potential to establish a menu of alternative outcomes or “opportunity sets.” The goal of this discussion is to move the language of economic decision-making away from the mid-nineteenth century language of science toward the concepts associated with the complex systems approach of the new science.

ABSTRACT This article argues that market prices in contemporary financial markets are driven by the value of information multiplied by a factor of the information’s velocity. These factors combined have the potential to explain several observed market phenomenon, including market volatility during economic crisis or recession, market bubbles, flash crashes, and short-run volatility combined with overreactions and over-corrections. The theory considers both micro and macroeconomic information, and questions the assumption that market prices always reflect intrinsic value alone. While microeconomic information is helpful in determining a security’s intrinsic value relative to other securities, macroeconomic information impacts the aggregate market. The result of our contemporary high-velocity information environment suggests our financial markets are becoming informationally hyperefficient and quasi-rational. This hyperefficiency has the potential to create short-run volatility on a scale not previously experienced.

Imagine how much better online education could be if more experienced faculty got involved. This article seeks to encourage experienced faculty to try online teaching by offering some course design tips that overcome some of their distance delivery objections.

This paper explores one option for the development of a theoretical approach to economic decision-making that goes beyond the mechanical-mathematical models based on the assumptions of rational self-interest and utility maximization. The proposed model incorporates facts, values, relationships, cooperation, learning, and other factors into economic decision-making and applies to both the micro-and macroeconomic levels. While the model is descriptive in nature, it has predictive potential to establish a menu of alternative outcomes or "opportunity sets". The goal of this discussion is to move the language of economic decision-making away from the mid-nineteenth century language of science toward the concepts associated with the complex systems approach of the 'new science'.

Efficient financial markets have often been assigned almost mystic qualities devoid of definable or describable organization. They have been described as being controlled by an invisible hand or as having non-ergodic qualities. However, if markets are at least informationally efficient, there must be an organizational structure within which markets operate. Without organization there would be chaos, not efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to explore the market from the perspective of organizational behavior. Two questions will be explored: 1) Are markets by definition and structure similar to organizations? (Markets as organizations), and 2) Do markets behave like organizations? (Markets as organizational metaphors).

High Frequency Trading (HFT) is a form of algorithmic trading where firms use high-speed market data and analytics to look for short term supply and demand trading opportunities that often are the product of predictable behavioral or mechanical characteristics of financial markets. Some opponents have argued that these practices create risk and require aggressive regulation. In a new paper, professor of business Holly A. Bell argues that HFT is already being effectively regulated by the market and its participants.

Traditional models of consumer decision-making are largely cognitive and sequential in nature. While there is some recognition of an emotional component in the decision-making process, traditional models assume emotions are sequential in nature with the most important emotion being the final one, negative emotions are bad and should be overcome, cognitive and affective processes and multiple emotions cannot exist simultaneously, and a dichotomy exists between satisfaction and emotion in consumer decision-making. This paper examines contemporary research that challenges traditional assumptions about the role of emotions in consumer decision-making and introduces the role of consumer emotional intelligence into the process. The discussion concludes with a look at the strategic and ethical implications for marketers.

Some people are concerned that existing market structure regulation and liquidity incentives have skewed financial markets in favor of algorithmic and high-frequency trading (HFT). This type of market activity involves the use of computer programs to automatically trade securities in financial markets. This is a problem, critics say, because it creates unfair informational asymmetries between different types of market participants and because it increases the risk of a “flash crash” — a sudden market downturn driven by computer-automated trading.According to these critics, additional regulation should be introduced to level the playing field. However, this approach neglects to recognize that problems with market fragmentation, price synchronization, information dissemination, and market technology long predate the advent of HFT. In fact, these problems have persisted for at least 40 years — despite repeated good-faith efforts to find regulatory solutions. What’s more, there is evide...

This research is designed to test the role reflecting on and sharing values plays in our individual decision-making schemas in a group. The research is based on evidence from the literature that values play a role in economic decision-making, can be formed and utilized either consciously or unconsciously, and impact microeconomic decision-making and ethics in organizations. The study found that when decision considerations were reframed in a values context the decision-making process became more quasi-rational, but the decisions participants made were as good or better than they were before values were introduced. In some cases decision-makers became less interested in personal considerations after decisions were framed in a values context. This is an important finding because traditional models of economic decision-making assume the decisionmaking process is always rational and decision-makers are always self-interested. There may also be some relationship between utilizing values ...

Some people are concerned that existing market structure regulation and liquidity incentives have skewed financial markets in favor of algorithmic and high-frequency trading (HFT). This increases the risk of a "flash crash" or other market disrupting event. The paper suggests one cooperative solution to ensure market integrity in a highly computerized marketplace

This article argues that market prices in contemporary financial markets are driven by the value of information multiplied by a factor of the information’s velocity. These factors combined have the potential to explain several observed market phenomenon, including market volatility during economic crisis or recession, market bubbles, flash crashes, and short-run volatility combined with overreactions and over-corrections. The theory considers both micro and macroeconomic information, and questions the assumption that market prices always reflect intrinsic value alone. While microeconomic information is helpful in determining a security’s intrinsic value relative to other securities, macroeconomic information impacts the aggregate market. The result of our contemporary high-velocity information environment suggests our financial markets are becoming informationally hyperefficient and quasi-rational. This hyperefficiency has the potential to create short-run volatility on a scale not previously experienced.

Efficient financial markets have often been assigned almost mystic qualities devoid of definable or describable organization. They’ve been described as being controlled by an invisible hand or as having non-ergodic qualities. However, if markets are at least informationally efficient, there must be an organizational structure within which markets operate. Without organization there would be chaos, not efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to explore the market from the perspective of organizational behavior. Two questions will be explored: 1) Are markets by definition and structure similar to organizations? (Markets as organizations), and 2) Do markets behave like organizations? (Markets as organizational metaphors) [Contact author for paper]

Traditional models of consumer decision-making are largely cognitive and sequential in nature. While there is some recognition of an emotional component in the decision-making process, traditional models assume emotions should be overcome, cognitive and affective processes and multiple emotions cannot exist simultaneously, and a dichotomy exists between satisfaction and emotion in consumer decision-making. This paper examines contemporary research that challenges traditional assumptions about the role of emotions in consumer decision-making and introduces the role of consumer emotional intelligence into the process. The discussion concludes with a look at the strategic and ethical implications for marketers.

This paper explores one option for the development of a theoretical approach to economic decision-making that goes beyond the mechanical-mathematical models based on the assumptions of rational self-interest and utility maximization. The proposed model incorporates facts, values, relationships, cooperation, learning, and other factors into economic decision-making and applies to both the micro- and macroeconomic levels. While the model is descriptive in nature, it has predictive potential to establish a menu of alternative outcomes or “opportunity sets”. The goal of this discussion is to move the language of economic decision-making away from the mid-nineteenth century language of science toward the concepts associated with the complex systems approach of the ‘new science’.

In 2001, Goldman Sachs coined the term BRICs (Wilson, Kelston, & Ahmed, 2010) to describe the four large developing countries of Brazil, Russia, India, and China that Goldman Sachs predict will overtake the G6 (US, Japan, UK, Germany, France, and Italy) in terms of GDP (in US$) by 2050 (Wilson & Purushothaman, 2003). The report established a set of four core factors that would create the conditions the BRIC countries would need for the predicted growth.

Since the election, stock prices have risen sharply on hopes that a wave of pro-growth policies under Donald J. Trump will drive up equity prices even further.

But Mr. Trump’s administration will soon face a trend that threatens to move the long-term benefits found in stock markets away from investors and toward exchanges.

Specifically, since the approval in June of the IEX Group to become a public exchange, a wave of new exchange proposals has emerged that may lead to an equity market geared to exchange revenue and not investor returns. (View article at URL above)

While there are several empirically demonstrated benefits of high-frequency trading, including improved liquidity and reduced transaction costs, the current arguments against HFT are largely qualitative in nature. With that in mind, what are the drivers behind global HFT regulation, and do they suggest a market failure attributable to HFT? (View article at URL above)

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich claims financial transaction taxes are simply sales taxes on Wall Street traders and won’t harm markets or cause capital to flee. Yet studies of FTTs in other countries show they harm Main Street and distort markets. (View article at URL above)

Since IEX submitted an application last year to the SEC to become a public stock exchange, a big debate has erupted about a seemingly small time frame — 350 microseconds.
IEX's proposed exchange would implement an intentional delay of 350 microseconds to incoming and outgoing information, except for a few select order types. (View article at URL above)

Prior to 1975, stocks often traded at different prices on different venues making it difficult for traders to find the best market prices. To resolve this problem, the SEC began its pursuit of a national market system, which has experienced several revisions over time. As market technology evolved, markets became increasingly automated and fragmented prompting the SEC to implement Regulation National Market System (Reg NMS) in 2005 to modernize and strengthen markets through improved dissemination of market information, reduced technical problems, and better price synchronization across exchanges. (View article at URL above)

As Alaska works to balance the state budget, one thing is certain: We will all have less money in our wallets. The scale of our deficit means we are likely to see both PFD reductions and new taxes. While the governor has proposed an income tax, a sales tax may a better alternative for Alaska. (View article at URL above)

Perched atop the New York Times best-seller list for hardcover nonfiction, a new book is igniting a firestorm of debate. Michael Lewis' "Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt" explores the relatively obscure phenomenon known as high-frequency trading (HFT), leading some to believe that the markets are rigged. But markets are not rigged, and Lewis' book itself actually demonstrates why. Despite widespread media attention, average investors should not be concerned about the HFT hullabaloo. (View article at URL above)

As our legislators gather in Juneau to consider Alaska's budget and how to bridge the billions of dollars of shortfall between state income and spending, there are a few key points I would like them to keep in mind. I have twice listened to presentations on the various budget proposals and have each time believed that the principle of Occam's razor was not being applied. (View article at URL above)

Ill-considered regulation regarding algorithmic trading will adversely affect the ability of legitimate market participants to contribute to liquidity, price discovery, narrow spreads, and low trading costs. The CFTC shares with market participants a growing interest in algorithmic trading and its potential effects on the markets. Rather than working with market participants cooperatively, the Commission proposes a prescriptive regime applicable to virtually any firm that trades in the futures (and swaps) markets. If finalized, this proposal will establish an approach dominated by enforcement that will chill firms’ willingness to work with the Commission to address emerging problems in the area. In addition, by opening firms’ source code to unlimited inspection by the Commission and others, the proposal creates dangerous vulnerabilities for an asset of utmost importance to trading firms.

Alaska finance professor and reluctant spy Kate Adams is back, but this time she’s in charge and determined to hunt down a self-proclaimed whistleblower code-named The Executive.

The intelligence community is reeling, as it appears the United States government’s most secret documents are being released onto the Dark Web, but many of the most damaging secrets aren’t even true. Unable to separate truth from fiction, public outrage is growing over actions governments around the world are being falsely accused of taking in the global war on terror. Still struggling with trauma from her previous mission, Kate Adams is pressed back into CIA service to infiltrate a radical anti-government group that may have ties to The Executive. Kate follows the trail to a 21st Century commune in England where, unlike their hippie predecessors, these collectivists have created their own illicit political, economic, and security counterculture on the Dark Web.

New clues emerge when the commune’s crypto-currency is stolen and Kate gives chase across the continent where she is forced to face the sinister realities of the people involved, while regaining her personal sense of self-control in a most unorthodox way.

Even  before  Michael  Lewis published  his  popular  and  controversial
book on high-frequency trading (HFT), traditional traders and regulators
were asking what they should do about this new evolution
in financial market trading technology in which traders use algorithms—
computerized trading programs—to automatically trade securities in
financial markets. But what exactly about high-
frequency trading do traders and regulators wish to see controlled, and can
these issues be regulated away? Or are there better, more market-based solutions to address the issues associated with evolving market technology? (View book at URL above)

Finance professor Kate Adams is reeling. After her husband’s unexplained death, she runs away to the remote Alaskan wilderness to catch her breath, get back on her feet, and complete her research sabbatical in peace.

But even at the ends of the earth, Kate can’t shake one nagging question: What was her husband working on before he died?

As Kate continues her research into unusual financial phenomena across the globe, a picture slowly starts to emerge, and suddenly, her husband’s death doesn’t look so accidental.

Together, Kate and Brad, a former flame and CIA officer, dig deeper into the mystery, and a global-scale financial conspiracy comes into focus.

Even with Brad watching her back, though, it doesn’t take long for Kate to be thrust into the middle of this high-stakes contest—and directly in harm’s way.

Kate will need all her wits to navigate this dangerous game. But the more she plays, the more she begins to realize something: even if she gets out of this alive, nothing in her life will ever be the same. (View book at URL above)