Options Trading Tutorial

About how much would it cost to develop a software for stock options trading? About how much would it cost to develop software that could make about 1000 calculations per second, grab dynamic information from the web or another trading platform, and trade derivatives of stocks through a brokerage by itself? Thank you. These answers are of little help. An estimate from someone that knows about software would be ideal. Thank you.

Options Trading. How can I find out what options are trading for in the Canadian Stock market? How can I find out what options are trading for in the Canadian Stock market? Is there a website that provides this information free of charge? If not, what is a good website that does not charge much for this info?

Can I buy or sell stock options for Party Poker's stock? I'm interested in Options trading with respect to Party Poker in anticipation of the repeal of the safe port act, but I can't find any information on an options market for PRTY. Do British Options on this stock even exist?

Question about Volume in trading Options, stocks,Futures? Hello Everbody, Can anyone please tell me what is the Good amount of volume (Minimum) to do Day trading for the following: a.Options Trading b.Futures Trading c.Straight stock trading. Please answer my question clearly.Also, if you feel like you need to provide any additioanl information or advice or suggestion for the question i asked, Please write that also.I appreciate your help. Have a Good day Guys. Thank You.

Question about stock options...? As an example Visa closed today at 75.63. Now a May 45 Call option is selling for 31.00. Let say we bought this contract at 10.00 My question is if you sold your contract today(not exercised, but sold) what would have been your cost to buy the option and what would be your total profit? Please remember we are not exercising the option, but selling the contract. I am trying to gain some information on options trading, thanks. thanks both very much!

I'm looking for a good software for charts to stock trading? also is anyone there who can give any information on this company technitrader, they seems to me serius people the teach you hou to trade stock and options

Requirements of volume in options, futures trading? Hello Everbody, Can anyone please tell me what is the Good amount of volume (Minimum) to do Day trading for the following: a.Options Trading( Min Volume or Min Open Interest or Min whatever?) b.Futures Trading ( " Same as above ") c.Straight stock trading.(Min Volume) Please answer my question clearly.Also, if you feel like you need to provide any additioanl information or advice or suggestion for the question i asked, Please write that also.I appreciate your help. Have a Good day Guys. Thank You.

How to trade in indian stock market from home? I would like to trade shares in indian stock markets (bse or nse) but don't have enough information to start going. What is the minimum amount that should be invested to trade online(directly). I just joined in a job of 15k. So I would like to know what all options I have in stock trading? Any kind of help is welcome.

I trade futures n options my stock broking sold my stocks with out any prior intimation can i sue them? my stock broking company (networth) sold my stocks with out prior information or intimation and with out asking cheque for maring call they just sold my stocks can i take legal action against them

i trade futures n options my stock broking sold my stocks with out any prior intimation can i sue them? my stock broking company (networth) sold my stocks with out prior information or intimation and with out asking cheque for maring call they just sold my stocks can i take legal action against them

Info on options trading? I'm relatively new to the stock market and I have heard quite a bit about options trading. Can anybody shed some information on the risks as well as the viability of options trading in turning a profit? Also, could someone please enlighten me as to what "gives the buyer the right—but not the obligation—to buy or to sell a particular asset" means Thanks for the links Al. Malica, from what you said it seems like options trading is an easy money maker. Could you explain some of the possible risks and how easily one could make money with them

Has Wall Street ever closed option trading on you? This happened to me see details.? I had some very good (hint, hint) information for a put option on a fourtune 100 company. at .38 per share with with a 14 day window to exercise on a $60/share stock with a $1.00 line. I'm not a trading wizard so excuse me if my lingo is a little off. I immeadiately went to certify with which was once Water House Securities to qualify for this type of trading. I kept a low profile and invested with caution. I bought 50 contracts and made a killing (you do the math) because the stock opened at $12 under. I again (2) quaters later tried to do the same thing thing. However, I found out that I owned 75% of the put options on this stock word wide I was scared that the S.E.C. would investigate. Once again the stock opened at $11.00/share under, instead of investagating they closed Option Trading until the stock stablized. I still made $3.38/share at closing and took the money and ran, but to this day I still bothers me that they could do something like that. Is this leagal on their part? Ryan S. Welcome to the real world. I have hope's for you son. (Remember this statement as long as you live.) In 20 years you're going too view everything you know about the real world in a different perspective.

Criteria for approval of Online options trading? Currently I have a brokerage account with E*Trade, but I am restricted to only buying/selling stocks and selling covered calls. I was wondering why all online brokers don't allow people to buy puts/ calls from the start since the maximum the investor can lose is the premium (defined risk). Right now I'm a college student so I don't have a constant stream of income but I am willing to speculate with the money I do have. I also feel I have a higher level of understanding regarding options compared to other traders (I can calculate option price using BS formula, simulate stock prices via lognormal distribution, know the put-call parity, etc. since I'm studying for the actuarial exams). MY main question is: what do you think are the minimum requirements to have options trading enabled on an account. All the questions on the form have to do with what your current income is, you net worth, liquid net worth, etc. The most information about opions it asks is: have you traded options before? I feel like this is a pretty stupid way to get approval...

Help! Employee stock options - do I own them now? Hi there, I am new to shares and trading. Through my employer, I was eligible for stock options and the time has come to exercise (buy) the stock options. I'm leaving my employer soon (next week), and would like to check whether or not I currently own the shares. I have a few questions so please bear with me! 1. Can someone tell me what my portfolio means? 2. Based on the the information shown in my portfolio, does this mean I already own the stock options? 3. If I don't own the stock options, what action do I need to take to own the stock options? I'd like to do this before I leave my employer. ================================= My portfolio shows me the following: Action: Trade / Calculator Grant date: 01/01/10 Number: 123456 Type: Nonqual Status: Accepted Price: $4.50 Granted: 200 Exercisable: 200 Pending: 0 Estimated Market value: $xxxx ==============================

Would this be insider trading? Trading stocks or options on consumer credit card information before it is made public information.

i wolud like to change information w/ jachm69? i read that you trade stocks, im looking for some information on how can i learn trading stocks or options. did you go to any scholl t or you learn by yorself. if you want to contact me my email popisusa@hotmail.com

Can any one give an idea about "Writing Covered Calls On indian Stocks"? I am praveen from India.now i am started to study option trading.but i dont have enough books related to it.i dont know a good website which gave information about option trading in indian stock.so pleace give an idea about Writing Covered Calls On indian Stocks.

Where can I find an advisor for a career in options trading? I think I would like to have my next career be as a self employed options trader. After a 14 year career in the Engineering and IT world I moved last year into a career in finance, specifically as a commercial lending officer for a large credit union ($1.5B.) My education career started in Engineering (including 19 hours of Calculus and linear algebra) but my actual undergrad is a BBA. My IT education includes 4 advanced self taught certifications. I started investing in CD's, stocks and bonds in 1990, added covered call options in 2000 and long call options in 2005. Even though I had never worked in the finance field, my amateur interest in the financial markets is great enough that senior management asks me my opinion on current issues and trends because of my constant exposure. As part of my job requirement I will be starting an MBA in September and my course of study is up to me as long as I am working on the graduate degree. Due to my pre-existing interest, heavy coursework in finance, securities and financial math would not be unusual. For political reasons I have to stay in this job for 4 years but I effectively have the opportunity, means and permission to rebuild myself with an eye toward starting on a career in the world of options should I so desire. I know that during my studies I could ask the professors and advisors about this but I would much rather find someone who is actually doing this to help me structure my courses and studies (formal and self taught) so that while I am being paid to learn I can be learning the things to help me most. As some here have seen (and answered my questions) I have at least some understanding of options trading. I have found what I think it an effective day trading strategy but it has the significant problems of being unable to scale and requiring constant attention to prevent being on the wrong side of a trend. I need to really learn to do spreads and other long term positions so I can make thousands on a longer term position instead of the $100 per round trip in 15 minutes I target today and not have to watch every minute move from 9:30 to 4:00 all day worrying about missing an instantaneous buying or selling opportunity. I would very much appreciate it if somebody who has had success in the area of options investing can help me to learn what I need to learn to have the mental tools and experience to be able to seek a career in this arena or barring direct help, help me to find someone who can guide me on this. I don't think I am asking for a lot of someone's time but I certainly think it can't hurt to ask for some help rather than waste money on books or seminars flailing about trying to find that one needle in the haystack of information otherwise uselss to me. Feel free to contact me directly should you be so inclined. Thanks in advance for any help provided.

Can anyone tell me the difference between Equity, Option trades and Margin rates? I am really new to stock and shares. I would like to get started and would like to know how to go about it. I would also like to know a reliable place to look for which stocks we can buy and in what quantity. Useful information about best stock picks Groups where you can get information What is the cheapest and best way to trade stocks I am really new to this and would like any guidance and help.

Are people who have priviliged previewing access to calendar event data allowed to trade stocks or options? The idea that they would be allowed seems highly unethical, and of course, if they were to share actual data with acquaintances, that would be insider trading violation(s), would it not? Does the law treat these circumstances as such? Is there a priviliged element of our society that gets this information when the rest of us don't and can trade on a sure thing? I mean if I know that crude supply data will be low for a given day's reporting to the public, I can buy oil commodities or buy a large oil stock and be guaranteed at least a commensurate rise or lower in my profits accordingly in that commodity or stock. Other goods and services would also apply. So do we have people running our economy, subject to privilige of (not what you would call knowledge...implying that they surmised something from data) but from the actual data that others have calculated that I pay my taxes to collect the data and calculate, and that these people are using their unfair advantage to make money

selling options on S&P stock index futures? Part 2? I'm not doing it myself, I'm allocating 20% of an ira to a company ( Argus Capital Management) that does. Heard of them? or their ilk? For a rank amateur, I have been an EXTREMELY successful predatory investor in the past (28%apr/3yrs) but it's time to take a break from stock/mutual fund trading and a flat market and see if I can get some decent returns letting other people do the thinking, as well as moving into different arenas. I appreciate everyone's accurate and well thought out answers. I'm impressed with the quality and information you have all provided.

For those of you who trade currency and commodities, are they just as risky as options on stocks? Seems as though a lot of this market is pretty rigged now. The information highway is getting sparse with regards to news about a stock until after the big boys have made their moves.

Where can I find a fairly user friendly stock trading site? I have tried Etrade and it just doesn't work well at all. Under the symbol search window I typed the letter f and clicked the option for "the words starts with" and it cam up with a an empty list, well I know that ford starts with an f so at least ford should have come on the list, but there was nothing, so i called customer service and they didn't know what do to either. I have over 30 years experience working with computer / internet and computer information systems, so it's not that I am inept, it's more the site builder wasn't and end user and didn't put much thought into it. So i need a site that works, when i type in a word it gives me what I need.

Planning for long term investments (10+ yrs) can invest monthly $100 to $300. Need suggestions to pick stocks? Need details on how to analyse and select the stock. Which stock broker is good (prefer online trading option). Please provide information on this. Any good books you recommend on stock pick/stock analysing techniques will help.

I'm 17 and want to start a hedge fund can someone help with more information, not investors? hi, I'm 17 yrs old, and i live in CA. i want to start a hedge fund, and i been doing some background research on hedge funds and how it works. my question is can i start this fund? and is there a age limit on people that can start a hedge fund? and i have a H-2 Visa and no Green card. next question is do i have enough back bone to manage a small fund? In Late July my dad opened a brokerage account under his name with a thousand dollars in it and i been trading stocks and options with it and since i don't have margin my broker won't let me short any stocks, so i have to buy stocks to make money. After three weeks of trading i have made a 9.2% return after all expenses have been subtracted. My brokers commission is around 10 dollars, so every time i open and close a trade i lose 2% just on commission. 3rd question is how much are my expenses going to be, and can i get some help from a bank like JP Morgan Chase or Bank Of America or Morgan Stanley? I know that the start up cost is going to be hundreds of thousands of dollars, and in order to pay for all these expense i need investors (Duh). how can i get a hold of these banks or even their CEO? i know that they have a busy life, is any way that i can reach them? wither its email or phone or their work address? thanks you for reading this and helping me.

Resume: How should I format these bullets with dates? How to structure the dates are what I'm unsure about. For example, I was thinking of dating them at the beginning, but I think listing it by date takes away from my skills as the focus, and I also thought about putting the dates in parentheses, but I want to emphasize the (ongoing). The section is on a sub-list on my skills, which works well with my current formatting. Financial Markets Eleven months individual market education, February 2008 – present One month experience trading stock options, July 2008 Five months experience trading the foreign exchange markets, August 2008 – present (ongoing) More information is available on request Please tell me why I should do it a certain way. Thanks! :)

LYG Call Options vs news article question? Ok.. so a couple days ago I purchased April '10 call options for LYG with a strike price of $5.00 at $1.21 each. Today this news article came out: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/cde5a970-cb09-11de-97e0-00144feabdc0.html I have a degree in Finance and have been in corporate finance for the past 10 years, but my knowledge of the secuirties markets is limited to what I picked up in college (along with google searches and wikipedia). The article confuses me. It seems (according to the article) that the share value is going to go way down very soon and everyone knows it, yet there has been little impact in the past few days on the stock trading price. Has the stock trading price already met the expected value in light of information in the article above? Seems to me after reading the article that the shares could very soon be close to worthless... but I'm not sure I'm reading it correctly. Would anyone please explain the article to me as you would to a 5 year old, and tell me whether or not I'd be an idiot to hold onto my option contracts any longer?

basic equity options question(s)? im looking into trading options (buying calls) and have a few questions.... lets assume the following; yahoo stock price right now; 32.00 yahoo may 37.50 calls are currently trading at 0.05/0.10 Implied volatility: 36.39 Time value: 0.15 Days to expiration: 32 now lets say i think yahoos stock price will go to 36.00 before the option expires. i do not plan to excercise the option...i just want to buy the call and sell it when the price of the underlying increase. a.) i can buy 100 calls for $1000, correct? b.) is there anyway, given the information i have provided (impled vol, days to expiration, time value), to determine what the price of the options will be if yahoo's stock price goes to say, 36.00? c.) if i cannot answer (b.), then lets assume the options rise in value to $0.50 i can then sell my 1000 calls for $50,000??? is that correct? (seems like a very dramatic movement) many thanks

Is it safe to send this information to an investment broker? I'm signing up with optionsxpress.ca to trade in stocks and options and was wondering if it was safe. This is the first time I've done this, and I want to make sure I'm not getting duped or putting myself at risk. They are asking for the following: 1) A deposit check ($1000) 2) A photocopy of my driver's license (front and back) 3) My SIN # (Canadian equivalent of Social Security number?) And all the other typical pieces of information: name, address, phone number, date of birth, etc. I'd be mailing this info by Fedex. Anyone see any problems?

Who bought stock 'puts' from Bear and Stearns before the stock fell and sold it making over 200 million? The putative conspirators, whose name or names have not been made public, pulled off their heist with ease. They bought a bunch of what Wall Street calls "puts." A put is a piece of paper guaranteeing its owner the right to sell 100 shares of stock at a stated price within a specified period of time. In the case of this bank job, the period of time was as little as five days. With Bear Stearns stock selling at over $60 a share, somebody bought the right to sell almost 6 million shares at $30 a share. To make money on these puts, the price of Bear Stearns stock would have to lose more than half its value fast. In fact, in the days immediately after the unknown person or persons bought all those puts, Bears Stearns stock dropped like a duck shot out of the sky, to a price of $10 a share or less. The persons behind the scheme then bought Bear Stearns shares at $10 or less and exercised the puts, thereby selling them for $30 and pocketing the difference. How could someone know that in a matter of days the fifth-largest trading house on Wall Street would see the value of its stock drop to next to nothing? Then with the price of stock still above $50, somebody bought puts giving them the right to sell the stock at five dollars a share--which is about what you would expect to be the price of the shares of a company in bankruptcy. Matsumoto quotes one broker as saying, "When you buy $5 strikes [puts] when the stock is trading over $50, you either have to be manipulating, or you have to have insider information." Another broker quoted in his report remarked, "Nobody in their right mind would buy that put unless you knew what was going down." The timing of the purchase of the puts screams out that a well-placed person inside Bear Stearns was telling someone on the outside of the firm's increasing confusion and division. At a crucial moment when rumors were rife on Wall Street that Bear Stearns customers would not be able to withdraw their money, the stock market was hit by a large number of orders to sell Bear Stearns stock. That augmented the force of the rumors of insolvency already working to depress the price, even as panicky customers fell over one another getting their money out. There are too many disastrous coincidences here to be explained just by bad luck. The name of the bearer of this bad luck remains hidden. A spokeswoman for the Chicago Board of Options Exchange, where the puts were bought, has refused to tell Bloomberg the name.

Question about options, puts and calls ? I'm trying to understand how this type of information affects the stock and projected pricing. Thanks. Options, puts and calls is still rather a mystery to me, and I'm wanting to learn more about how it all works and affects the market. " Option traders piled straight into calls expiring in January as they bought strikes 17.5 through 22.5. Calls at the February 20 and 22.5 strikes were also bought. Once again implied volatility stood pat and is trading at 82%. Ok, to clarify, does buying strikes mean they're buying the option to purchase the stock at 22? If so, they're betting it will go up correct?

How do I find stocks that are going straight to the basement in the short term? I trade options and I'm trying to create a system to find the very worst stocks to play with. The ones nobody wants that are doomed to get killed. How do you spot these terrible stocks? Where do you get information from?

Are puts considered private when protecting a drastic stock price? Heard Ameritrade handled the put options, but I can't find any mention of it at their SPY financial page. Someone has pulled a bin Laden trade and has made nearly one billion dollars in puts for the SPY. I'm trying to find out more about this put that was made on the SPY. Google " bin Laden trade put 4.5 billion " . 4.5 billion dollars will be made by September 21st, 2007, if the puts don't expire first and if something causes the markets to drop by 30 to 60 percent. Terrorism threat/extortion? China drop-kicking US dollars for the $10 billion they lost in sub-prime loans? US Gov being blackmailed? You can read about it at this forum http://www.tickerforum.org/cgi-ticker/akcs-www?post=4669 The last pages of the forum holds the best information. Are puts considered confidential or are they posted on the 'Net somewhere? Been looking for several days and can't find the information.

As an individual, retail investor how would I go about buying the bonds of WCI Communities? Or for that matter, how do I buy the bonds of any company whose stock is publicly traded? And, how do I find out information on those bonds, such as price, covenants, the options on the bond, whether they are senior or subordinated, whether they are tied to collateral? Is there a place where this information is publicly available so that retail investors can do their research before deciding whether to invest in such bonds?

Does this answer show another reason why it is not good to get involved with "Intellectual equals? "And yet my experience is the opposite. I have an MS in Information Science, while my husband has a BS in the same subject. My sister has an MBA and is a CPA, her husband has an Associates degree in TV production. I know one couple where he has an MS in Telecommunication and she has an MS in Information Science. Another couple where he's a lawyer and she has an MA in Literature. My manager is an MBA married to an MBA, and his wife is looking at starting her doctorate soon". Why would I want to date or marry a woman who is obsessed with furthering her tertiary qualifications? It means the woman will be boring and focused on her studies and qualifications. I have a masters in finance, am a financial adviser and trade stocks/options and other securities privately. I will have made my first $million by the age of 30 and will not stop there. Doing a PhD in finance is at the bottom of my priority list.

Best resources RE: learning about investing? I'm looking into putting some money into the market and I'd like to do it myself. Not looking for anything particular just yet, so everything is on the table. Long term, short term, stocks, bonds, options, say trading, etc, etc. I'm mainly looking for book titles, but if there are some (non-scam) websites that would work too. College level textbooks are fine, I'll work my way up to that. Just show me the most informative, and/or most helpful information you know of. Thanks

Where's a good place to invest right now? Stocks, bonds, options, mutual funds, commodities, IPOs, metals? My objective is high growth so I'm willing to take higher than average risk but not ridiculous risk. Liquidity is key so I won't do Private Placements and I avoid the volatility of thinly traded Penny Stocks. I am a seasoned finance professional with a master's in finance and a broker's license I've not used in years and have merely been out of the market for a while. So this is really a call for more of an update on what's hot out there now as I certainly intend to do my research. Yahoo! Answers can be one source for research information in that we may have a few experts capable of extending some good advice, or personal investors with some tips on what's been working for them in this current financial environment. I've held diversified portfolios of stocks where some of my winners hit doubles or triples. You can't count on that happening every time but boy, do you remember when your picks did. Looking for a double right now if you know of any candidates. Will trade on margin You know, you ask a serious and valid question here on Yahoo! Answers and why do some responders immediately feel this is an invitation to try to invalidate the Asker's question with some "topper" they think they can make, noting the world is coming to an end (so they say) by global warming, so don't even think about something as silly as investing in anything as doomed as world financial markets because you need to be burrowing like a mole and hiding from the impending Hell that is lurking. Please, for those with rational advice versus the Chicken Littles of the world who want to proclaim "The SKY is falling!", I would appreciate a serious response.

9/11 Questions? Why do so many people here always respond to questions about 9/11 as a "conspiracy theory" ? is the mantra taught by FOX? FTW - October 9, 2001 – Although uniformly ignored by the mainstream U.S. media, there is abundant and clear evidence that a number of transactions in financial markets indicated specific (criminal) foreknowledge of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the case of at least one of these trades -- which has left a $2.5 million prize unclaimed -- the firm used to place the “put options” on United Airlines stock was, until 1998, managed by the man who is now in the number three Executive Director position at the Central Intelligence Agency. Between September 6 and 7, the Chicago Board Options Exchange saw purchases of 4,744 put options on United Airlines, but only 396 call options… Assuming that 4,000 of the options were bought by people with advance knowledge of the imminent attacks, these “insiders” would have profited by almost $5 million. - On September 10, 4,516 put options on American Airlines were bought on the Chicago exchange, compared to only 748 calls. Again, there was no news at that point to justify this imbalance;… Again, assuming that 4,000 of these options trades represent “insiders,” they would represent a gain of about $4 million. - [The levels of put options purchased above were more than six times higher than normal.] - No similar trading in other airlines occurred on the Chicago exchange in the days immediately preceding Black Tuesday. - Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., which occupied 22 floors of the World Trade Center, saw 2,157 of its October $45 put options bought in the three trading days before Black Tuesday; this compares to an average of 27 contracts per day before September 6. Morgan Stanley’s share price fell from $48.90 to $42.50 in the aftermath of the attacks. Assuming that 2,000 of these options contracts were bought based upon knowledge of the approaching attacks, their purchasers could have profited by at least $1.2 million. Merrill Lynch & Co., with headquarters near the Twin Towers, saw 12,215 October $45 put options bought in the four trading days before the attacks; the previous average volume in those shares had been 252 contracts per day [a 1200% increase!]. When trading resumed, Merrill’s shares fell from $46.88 to $41.50; assuming that 11,000 option contracts were bought by “insiders,” their profit would have been about $5.5 million. - European regulators are examining trades in Germany’s Munich Re, Switzerland’s Swiss Re, and AXA of France, all major reinsurers with exposure to the Black Tuesday disaster. [FTW Note: AXA also owns more than 25% of American Airlines stock making the attacks a “double whammy” for them.] Someone had foreknowledge of the attacks. In the weeks leading up to 9/11 someone made a series of investments that would have paid off in huge profits because of the attacks. This is well documented and undisputed. This person specifically invested in the two airliners used in the attacks, anticipating windfall profits from any drop in the stock prices of these companies. This is solid evidence that at least one person in the United States had detailed information that something bad was going to happen to the specific airlines that were to be used in the attack. We have been told that the person who made these investments never claimed the profits. We are expected to believe that this explains why his or her identity is unavailable. This is absolutely untrue. This is not an instance in which someone was waiting to pick up a package at an airport locker. This is a case of a financial institution processing an investment transaction for an individual. This CAN NOT BE PERFORMED ANONYMOUSLY! The identity of this person who had foreknowledge of the attack is know and this person’s identity is being protected by our government and this is a fact! Period, end of story. WHO MADE THE INVESTMENT? Identify this person and you have someone who very probably had detailed foreknowledge of the events. The fact that the profits were never collected is even more suspicious and incriminating. The fact that the identity of this person remains unknown is even more suspicious. The only possible conclusion is that this person is known to the government and that his or her identity is being protected. There has been a clear and concerted cover up regarding the person who tried to profit from events he or she knew were coming. The people who could easily clear this up, but who chose to close any further investigation into the matter are not underlings. They are officials who answer directly to the President of the United States. Check. volleyballchick what exactly do you not agree with? the whole point is your goverment ,the FCC...knows who this person is and will not release it........what the hell do you not agree with? didn,t you read all of this?

Is Market America a legitimate business? My parents might get into this deal, and i'm doing some research. From everything i've read, its a pyramid scam. from what i heard at the meeting, it's NOT a pyramid deal, but instead a vertical climb. However, what really concerns me is that this "company" doesn't have a stock system....no symbol, no trade, nothing. and supposedly they have all these deals with top companies (Google, Nike, Yahoo, etc.) but no trade options. I was just wondering if anybody has some UNBIASED information on this company. Thanks, Mike

Wants to Invest in Stock Market? Hi, Friends I want to start investment in Stock market in short & Long term (both) depending upon market fluctuations Want to start trading Online Which option is best for me - through HDFC securities, ICICI direct.com, Or from Brokers like Sharekhan, Fortis I'm concerned abt. Commission rate they charge us for buying & Selling, Which has less Commission/brokerage rate. please give me detail information, i'm new in this & have keen interest in it. how Do i start & what next step i wud have to opt. for ?? Thanx in Advance :) Best Regards, Pankaj Kumar

Is this compensation package considered insider trading? Say I work for a PUBLICALLY traded company, such as the MacDonald's Corporation. I am a regional manager, who is in charge of managing 10 MacDonald's restaurants, which bring in 10 million dollars in profits to the company annually, and the ten MacDonald's are worth about 200 million to the corporation (it's stock). One day, I decide that I want to be compensated more than I currently am being, so I come up with a compensation package idea for myself. Here's how it goes- I give MacDonald's corporation 5 million dollars of my own money, then, I state that I will improve the net profit of my sector by innovating to improve efficiency, cut costs, and improve revenue, and that after do so, (adding lasting value to my sector), when the financial reports/ business valuations for my sector show that I have added value to the restaurants under my management (say I increase the profitability by 50 percent, 5 million dollars annually, 100 million dollars increase in worth), that I would get 25 percent of the increase(50 million dollars), by means of a note payable by the MacDonald's corporation to myself. However, after I sign the contract, if the net worth of my sector is to go below what it currently is at during the time when the contract's stipulation are carried out, then I would lose a significant portion of the 5 million dollars I had put into buying the contract (which is very similar to call-options, but is only a negotiation between myself and the corporation). I'M thinking that this WOULD be considered insider trading because of the fact that, before signing the contract and handing over the 5 million dollars, I may have insider knowledge of how I think my region is going to do next quarter. Lets say before I sign the contract, I think that my region will be making more money next quarter, because of factors unrelated to my plans to make my sector more profitable ( say I have "insider knowledge" that several of my units [restaurants] will be acquired by some sort of conglomerate firm, thus causing me to believe the worth of my sector will skyrocket ). By entering into this contract, then, which would ultimately end up in ME getting capital (in the form of the note payable) from MacDonald's corporation, the shareholders would lose a slight bit of value because the shareholders would lose a tiiiiiiny sliver of their stocks gain( due to the acquisition by the conglomerate), which they wouldn't have lost had I not entered into the contract, and not been awarded 25 million? Basically, I could be charged with knowing that the stocks price was going to go up, thus gaining capital from the corporation via insider information, even if I was entering the contract only because I though I would make the sectors worth go up through adding value (again, via entrepreneurial innovation) to my sector? If this is considered insider trading, would it be illegal if I were to have this type of compensation while employed at a company which is privately owned, such as Kaiser? Thanks!

Is there a way for the average investor to make $ in the stock market? I just started investing in stocks this year and am finding the maze of details and information about investing methods overwhelming. I'm also sensing that those who make careers of this are in a much better position to know how to trade, whether using options, calls, puts, etc. I signed up for a number of newsletters from professionals who then try to sell me their services, claiming they have inside information that can make a lot of money. They charge anywhere from $100 to $6,000. for their "inside information", and while I'm sure they know much more than I do I'm wondering what the rewards vs. risk is if I decide to use their recommendations.

You have finally saved $10,000 and are ready for your first investment.? You have the three following alternatives for investing that money: A CBS bond with a par value of $1,000, an interest rate of 7.625 percent, and a maturity of 10 years The bond is selling for $986. Alabama Power Company preferred stock with a $50 par value and a dividend of $2.8125 per 61 year. The stock is currently trading at $39 per share. Emerson Electric common stock that is selling for $80 with a par value of $5. This stock recently paid a $2.50 dividend, and the firm's earnings per share have increased from $2.40 to $4.48 in the past 5 years. An equivalent amount of growth in the dividend is expected. Your required rates of return for these investments are 6 percent for the bond, 7 percent for the preferred stock, and 15 percent for the common stock. Using this information, answer the following questions: a. Calculate the value of each investment based on your required rate of return. b. Which investment would you select? Why? c. Assume Emerson Electrics managers expect an earnings downturn and a resulting decreases in growth of 3 percent. How does this affect your answers to parts 1 and 2? d. What required rates of return would make you indifferent to all three options? I am just confused on how to get the EPS. I think once I understand that part, I will get it for the common stock. As for the bond, the excel function is not working.

Looking for Online Brokers? Can someone recommend an online broker? Looking to trade stocks and level four options transactions. If you make a recommendation, what do you like/ dislike about broker? Fee cost information is also greatly appreciated.

Stock Market Learning Curve: Where does it end? I have been researching the stock market for close to an average of 3 hours a day for two months. Everything from basics to technical analysis to fundamental analysis to options, strategy, and all the infinite sub-divisions of each of those categories. Every night, I go to sleep with the feeling that I learned more than I usually do in a year. Eventually, although I constantly have to push it back, i want to begin doing studies before I trade (which will also take a few months itself I'm sure). I want to start this period when the amount of new information I learn from research is finally less than what I can learn from studies. I know it is a really abstract question, but anyone have any estimates on how long this will take, or how long this took for you?

Democrats: Do you still believe Goldman Sachs aren't crooks? They spent $1 billion to elect Barack Obama and it appears he has paid them back in full. From James Keller at RealClearMarkets: The Goldman Sachs Heist (Goldman Sachs was Obama's largest campaign contributor) The Goldman Sachs-AIG scandal may be worse than we think. Former New York Fed President and current Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is being castigated for paying off AIG's counterparties - Goldman foremost among them - 100 cents on the dollar and then keeping these payments secret. But it seems likely that Goldman actually got much more than 100%. What is worse, Goldman may have received this windfall by trading on information that was deliberately withheld from the public. A brief recap of the Goldman-AIG story is necessary. Goldman has revealed that it had $20 billion in trades on with AIG, where it had bought protection on various toxic assets from AIG. Goldman believed this translated into $10 billion of risk to AIG, meaning that the mortgage assets might be worth as little as 50%. Against this $10 billion of AIG risk, Goldman had $7.5 billion in collateral from AIG. The rest of the risk, $2.5 billion, was hedged with Credit Default Swaps, whereby Goldman bought protection on AIG from a variety of highly rated banks. Goldman felt it was well-hedged, thus the repeated claim that it was not at risk if AIG defaulted. The result of all this hedging was that a crisis at AIG would become a crisis at whatever banks Goldman had used to hedge its AIG exposure. Through its purchase of protection on toxic assets from AIG, and subsequent purchase of protection on AIG, Goldman created a situation whereby its risk to AIG became systemic risk. Unfortunately for Goldman's critics, this is all fair play. If Goldman's purchase of AIG protection from other banks created a doomsday scenario, it was someone else's problem. Many on Wall Street have realized that being perfectly correlated with the end-of-the-world usually works out just fine. Thus far in the story, none of the facts are really in dispute. One can criticize Goldman for creating a scenario where the only way it could fail was if the whole world imploded, but we might also commend the firm for its good risk management. Therefore, the criticism of Geithner for "giving away the store" is overly harsh. Geithner had limited options. Through its swaps with AIG, Goldman had the power to start the chain of events that would destroy AIG. And through its hedges, GS had the power to ensure that this failure would reverberate through the rest of the banking system. It was a form of financial mutually assured destruction. Therefore Goldman's unyielding position was that it intended to collect from AIG 100% of what it was owed. Bet is to you, Mr. Geithner. It is easy to hope that a New York Fed president would have had a bit more fortitude to play out the next turn of the cards. But we should not be surprised that Geithner blinked, folded, and paid the bill in full. The Fed's decision to keep these payments secret is less defensible. If this were the end of the story, one would have no recourse but to grit and maybe buy stock in Goldman Sachs. But the story does not quite end there. The bigger story, still unexplored by regulators and Goldman's critics, concerns that $2.5 billion in protection Goldman had acquired before the crisis hit. What became of those hedges? What did Goldman Sachs do with its AIG protection? Goldman spokesman Lucas van Praag made a disingenuous case in a letter to the Wall Street Journal last April. He implied that nothing much became of the hedges: "In order to collect under a credit default swap, there has to be an event of default. No event of default means no payout." Goldman would have us believe that since AIG did not default, the CDSs expired and vanished forever. This is not quite right. A company can avoid default, but one can make a lot of money selling protection on the company when everybody else thinks they are going to default. That is especially true if one has been involved in meetings with the Fed where the subject of the meetings was how to avoid such a default. A good trader buys protection when a company seems very safe, and sells it when the company seems very risky. It is not appropriate for a trader to sell protection when he has non-public information that the risks have diminished, that the government has unequivocally committed to saving this company. When did Goldman sell its $2.5 billion of AIG protection? Goldman representatives have said that the protection was sold in the six months following the September 15, 2008 bailout loan. This is problematic. That is so because the details of the bailout were not released until March 15 of last year, when the famous AIG counterparty payments at last became public. This suggests that Goldman sold its protection to counterparties that knew materially less about the actual risk of AIG than Goldman did. Remember that this bailout w Remember that this bailout was specifically designed to avoid an AIG default, the event that forces Credit Default Swaps to be triggered. Goldman, in frequent conversations with Paulson and Geithner, knew that the government had just committed $85 billion to avoid exactly this outcome. The rest of the world, purposely kept in the dark, saw the risk of an AIG failure as imminent. In fact, on September 21, 2008 then-Treasury Secretary Paulson went on Meet the Press and explained that the $85 billion bailout loan would "allow the government to liquidate this company." Paulson may have been speaking loosely, but in the specific language of Credit Default Swaps a government "liquidation" is a Credit Event akin to bankruptcy and would "trigger" these swaps. This is why, immediately after the bailout was announced, the cost of protecting AIG risk skyrocketed. It rose to more than 40% of the amount hedged; meaning that Goldman, which had $2.5 billion in hedges, would have been sitting on ov It rose to more than 40% of the amount hedged; meaning that Goldman, which had $2.5 billion in hedges, would have been sitting on over a $1 billion profit. Not bad, even for Goldman. The government had just met their collateral calls, their risk to AIG was gone, and their hedges were in the money by $1 billion. What to do now? The right thing is to not sell the protection until the full details of the bailout are in the public domain. To wait until you have no material, non-public information. It appears Goldman did not wait until after March to sell its protection. Yet Goldman has denied making a windfall gain on AIG. AIG CDS protection ended the second quarter of 2008 at about 200 basis points. From September 15, 2008 to March 15, 2009 AIG CDS never closed below 400 basis points. It is hard to see how Goldman could not have had a windfall. Depending on when Goldman sold this protection, the gain could have been as much as $1.5 billion. This would mean that while most of AIG's This would mean that while most of AIG's counterparties got 100 cents on the dollar, Goldman actually got far more. Criticism of Geithner seems appropriate. Paying counterparties 100 cents on the dollar was unnecessary. Keeping the whole thing a secret was indefensible. Allowing windfall profits was unconscionable. But the Fed's behavior may not be the worst element of this episode. Frankly, it is hard to see how, in having sold its AIG protection before March 2009, that Goldman Sachs can avoid the appearance that these trades were improper. Over a year on, we still await a clear explanation of how much the firm made from this protection and how its subsequent sale can be justified when Goldman had information that the federal government was deliberately keeping from the public.

Show all your work? Show all your work * An increase in which of the following would increase the price of a call option on common stock, ceteris paribus? 1. Stock Price 2. Stock Price Volatility 3. Interest Rates 4. Exercise Price 1. II only 2. II and IV only 3. I, II and III only 4. I, III and IV only 5. I, II, III and IV * * Which of the following is true? 1. Forward contracts have no default risk 2. Future contracts require an initial margin requirement to be paid 3. Forward contracts are marked to market daily 4. Forward contract buyers and sellers do not know who the counterparty is 5. Future contracts are only traded over the counter * * You have agreed to deliver the underlying commodity in 90 days. Today the underlying commodity price rises and you get a margin call. You must have: 1. A long position in a future contract 2. A short position in a future contract 3. Sold a forward contract 4. Purchased a forward contract 5. Purchased a call option on a future contract * * You find the following current quote for the June T-Bond contract: $100,000; Pts 32nd, of 100%. Open High Low Settle Open Interest 89-16 89-16 88-22 88-28 45,348 You went long in the contract at the open. Which of the following is/are true? 1. By the end of the day your margin account would be increased 2. 45,348 contracts were traded that day 3. You agreed to deliver in June $100,000 face value T-Bonds in exchange for $88,875. 4. You agreed to purchase in June, $100,000 face value T-Bonds in exchange for $89,500. 1. I, II and III only 2. I, II and IV only 3. I and III only 4. I and IV only 5. IV only * * A speculator may write a call option on stock with an exercise price of $15 and earn a $3 premium if they though: 1. The stock price would stay at or above $15 2. The stock volatility would increase 3. The stock price would rise above $18 4. The stock price would stay at or below $18 5. Both A and B could be true * * The higher the exercise price, the________the value of a put and the_______the value of a call. 1. Higher; higher 2. Lower; lower 3. Higher; lower 4. Lower; higher * A stock has a spot price of $35. Its May options are about to expire. One of its puts is worth $5 and one of its calls is worth $5. The exercise price of the put must be________and the exercise price of the call must be__________. 1. 30; 40 2. 35; 35 3. 40; 30 4. 25; 45 5. One can't tell from the information given * Suppose a stock is priced at $50. You are bullish on the stock and re considering March calls with an exercise price of $45 and $55 respectively. The 45 call is priced at $8.50 and the 55 call is quoted at $2.75. What should you consider in deciding which to purchase if you do not plan on exercising prior to maturity? Be specific.

Can one buy shares in Dow Jones or S&P? I am curious about day trading and wondered if I can actually buy shares of S&P or Dow? I realize we can but Index mutual funds but is there a way of actual buying stocks of the index? Perhaps futures or options are the way to play the index? Any suggestions between futures or options? Advantages or disadvantages? I am seeking this information for a family member who is now living overseas and wants to play the US market index. Thank you.

About NSE nifty... Is there any brokerage house that does not block span margin for option writing in nse.? Request help from those who trade in Indian Stock market NSE... I want to get information whether any brokerage house permit writing out options without blocking the span margin..For example... To write one lot of nifty options at the strike level one would need about 35000 rupees to be blocked... I want to see is there any brokerage house that would block some amount ( say one or two lakhs ) and permit me to write as many options till the market fluctuations cross over the limit....

Are you aware of all this? Regarding the 911 story not adding up? I'm not interested in people insulting me because they haven't researched this information for themselves so don't bother calling me a nutcase. I am curious to know if you people who believe the official story are aware of all of this 100% factual evidence. And if so, how can you explain any of these questions below? 1) Unexploded Thermate chips in the dust? 2) Iron Spheres in the dust(signature of an explosion)? 3)Free fall collaspe of building 7? 4)Melted steel at the base of all 3 buildings? 5)Cutter charges seen in the video of the collaspes? 6)Eye witness testimony regarding explosions ignored by the 911 commission and the NIST report? 7)Norad intercepted 63 off course airliners in 2000 with 100% success rate, 911 missed 4? 8)Foreknowledge regarding planes used as weapons, then lying saying they couldn't have planned for it? 10)Insider trading with put options put on american and united airlines(Millions were made from there stocks falling)? 11)First it was all Bin Laden, now his not even wanted for the crimes of 911? 12)At least 6 of the 19 hijackers are still alive today, yet the fbi has not updated the list of suspects? I posted this question in here because it seems the most popular. Thanks for your time! Eliza's Oozing Echo Chamber- wow! whos the crazy one... lol.

Have you seen any of the newer evidence? Regarding the 911 story not adding up? I'm not interested in people insulting me because they haven't researched this information for themselves so don't bother calling me a nutcase. I am curious to know if you people who believe the official story are aware of all of this 100% factual evidence. And if so, how can you explain any of these questions below? 1) Unexploded Thermate chips in the dust? 2) Iron Spheres in the dust(signature of an explosion)? 3)Free fall collaspe of building 7? 4)Melted steel at the base of all 3 buildings? 5)Cutter charges seen in the video of the collaspes? 6)Eye witness testimony regarding explosions ignored by the 911 commission and the NIST report? 7)Norad intercepted 63 off course airliners in 2000 with 100% success rate, 911 missed 4? 8)Foreknowledge regarding planes used as weapons, then lying saying they couldn't have planned for it? 10)Insider trading with put options put on american and united airlines(Millions were made from there stocks falling)? 11)First it was all Bin Laden, now his not even wanted for the crimes of 911? 12)At least 6 of the 19 hijackers are still alive today, yet the fbi has not updated the list of suspects? I posted this question in here because it seems the most popular. Thanks for your time!

The accounting definition of income is:? Question No: 1 - Please choose one The accounting definition of income is: Income = Current Assets Current Liabilities Income = Fixed Assets Current Assets Income = Revenues Current Liabilities Income = Revenues Expenses Question No: 2 - Please choose one What would be the capital spending for an organization who has purchased fixed assets of Rs. 200,000 and sold fixed assets of Rs. 45,000? Rs. 245,000 Rs. 200,000 Rs. 155,000 Rs. 45,000 Question No: 3 - Please choose one Selected information from SNT Company's accounting records is as follows: o Cash paid to retired common shares Rs. 15,000 o Proceeds from issuance of preferred shares Rs. 20,000 o Cash dividends paid Rs. 8,000 o Proceeds from sale of equipment Rs. 25,000 On its cash flow statement for the year, SNT Company should report net cash flow from financing activities as: Rs. 3,000 net cash inflow Rs. 3,000 net cash outflow Rs. 8,000 net cash inflow Rs. 8,000 net cash inflow Question No: 4 - Please choose one SNT Company has a current ratio of 3:2. Current Liabilities reported by the company are Rs. 30,000. What would be the Net Working Capital for the company? Rs. 45,000 Rs. 15,000 ( Rs. 45,000) ( Rs. 15,000) Question No: 5 - Please choose one Which of the following would not improve the current ratio? Borrow short-term to finance additional fixed assets Issue long-term debt to buy inventory Sell common stock to reduce current liabilities Sell fixed assets to reduce accounts payable Question No: 6 - Please choose one Which of the following are incorporated into the calculation of the Du-Pont Identity? I. Return on assets II. Equity Multiplier III. Total Assets Turnover IV. Profit Margin I, II, and III only I, III, and IV only II, III and IV only I, II, III, and IV Question No: 7 - Please choose one The concepts of present value and future value are: Directly related to each other Not related to each other Proportionately related to each other Inversely related to each other Question No: 8 - Please choose one Which of the following is a special case of annuity, where the stream of cash flows continues forever? Special Annuity Ordinary Annuity Annuity Due Perpetuity Question No: 9 - Please choose one Which of the following is an unsecured bond for which no specific pledge of property is made? Mortgage Debenture Collateral Note Payable Question No: 10 - Please choose one Which of the following type of return refers to the percentage change in the amount of money you have? Nominal return Real return Inflation return None of the given option Question No: 11 - Please choose one When real rate is _____, all interest rates will tend to be _____. Low; higher High; lower High; higher None of the given options Question No: 12 - Please choose one Which of the following is the extra yield that investors demand on a taxable bond as a compensation for the unfavorable tax treatment? Interest rate risk premium Inflation risk premium Default risk premium Taxability premium Question No: 13 - Please choose one In which type of the market, previously issued securities are traded among investors ? Primary Market Secondary Market Tertiary Market None of the given options Question No: 14 - Please choose one Place the following items in the proper order of completion regarding the capital budgeting process. (I) Perform a post-audit for completed projects; (II) Generate project proposals; (III) Estimate appropriate cash flows; (IV) Select value-maximizing projects; (V) Evaluate projects. II, V, III, IV, and I III, II, V, IV, and I II, III, V, IV, and I II, III, IV, V, and I Question No: 15 - Please choose one An investment will be ___________ if the IRR doesn t exceeds the required return and ___________ otherwise. Accepted; rejected Accepted; accepted Rejected; rejected Rejected; accepted Question No: 16 - Please choose one IRR and NPV rules always lead to identical decisions as long as : Cash flows are conventional Cash flows are independent Cash flows are both conventional and independent None of the given options Question No: 17 - Please choose one A project whose acceptance does not prevent or require the acceptance of one or more alternative projects is referred to as : A mutually exclusive project An independent project A dependent project A contingent project Question No: 18 - Please choose one Finding Net Present Value comes under which type of capital budgeting criteria ? Discounted Cash Flow Criteria Accounting Criteria Payback Criteria None of the given options Question No: 19 - Please choose one ___________ Cost is an outlay that has already occurred and hence is not affected by the decision under consideration. Sunk Opportunity Fixed Variable Question No: 20 - Please choose one Which of the following is the overall return the firm must earn on its existing assets to main

Whats a good option for a CHEAP fairly fast car (Used) and moderately reliable? *****Note: Alot of information, try to atleast read most of it****** Hello all, I have once again been looking around on the internet (again) for some nice cheap cars I may be able to buy in the near (or far) future. I currently drive a 04 Hyundai Tiburon GT, it is really lacking on the performance side of things, but its appearance is utterly flawless (aside from some minor scratches and paint chips from rocks). It has been a good car, but I know it won't last forever, plus as stated its fairly slow so I would either like a 2nd car or to replace it all together. The tiburon is a V6 172hp 130ish ft lb torque low output car. 2 door, leather seats with a moon roof, Infinity sound system, 15' scraped rims (previous owner couldn't drive), and plastic interior. I am going through out this tiburon rundown so you understand it IS a good car, but for the next one I want something better. Now for my living area and activities. As for location, I live in a small town in West Virginia (no, i'm not a hillbilly, but there all around), and as I suppose most people know WV is known as "The Mountain State." This is a literal statement, out roads are 85% narrow winding paths converted from old Wagon roads (what my father has Always told me). Weather conditions vary during the year, from desert drought, to floods, ending in blizzards. Myself, I rarely do anything other than go to college come home and occasionally go around to the few stores with my friend, thats car-related activities, and a job most likley by the time I actually get the new used car. My main wants for a car are a high output motor with decent horsepower, very responsive controlls, nice torque for a nice gas-to-engine feel, and it has to be an okay car stock AKA runs nice with no aftermarkets, although I may add some eventually. Appearance isn't very concerning to me, but there's a point that won't be passed. The cars uses will be ofcorse the average every day erands and trips, along with possibly some racing if they open a track up, if its built for it maybe some off-road rally racing, if it AWD/RWD maybe some offroad drifting. Plus just going over the speed limit to show off to myself, no-one else than me. It needs to seat atleast 2, which is done by pretty much every car. My main car wants: 06/08 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 06/08 Subaru Impreza WRX STi 03+ Nissan 350z (any base) Cars I DO NOT WANT: Another Tiburon or anything Hyundai Civic, I know there popular, but I really dislike them Cobalt (I literally loath these) Ford Focus Most other things are fine. As stated earlier, it needs to be fast, faster than my tiburon (134 max, 0-60 in 7 second, that really isn't good) and about the same control. Gas milage isn't much of a concern, just stay around the 18mpg mine does (or better). Chances are I will get multiple people recommending Mustang's, in all honesty I wish I got one instead of my tiburon, my friend has a base model one, he likes it but claims it is extremly hard to control on sharp curves. Now, if you have managed to make it this far I am surprised, it is finally time for a price range. Now, as a price range I cannot be extremly accurate since I do not know when I will/if I will get a car at all. What I expect would have to be -5k if I don't trade my tiburon, 12-14k if I do trade. I look through the "Auto Trader" sales paper that is distributed occasionally, there's a few cars for 1000-3000 that aren't bad, so possibilities are all around me. Thanks greatly to everyone, KingTirant Whats everyones thoughts on a Honda Accord EX coupe? I "like" them, they are obviously dependant being made by honda (200k miles usually). What would be a good price for a 94-02 one in fair/good condition, and how much would it cost to replace some of the frame, front with an acura integra (front lights and bumper), and a rear light swap with either the 02 model (if i cant get an 02) or something that resembles a skyline (matches the front integra). I know the integra front is possible as I have seen it done, but it may be expensive. My main dealings are with the great debate, Import vs. American. I know Imports look better, but they tend to cost more to get up to specs, as with the 2 main americans (camaro/stang) there expensive to ensure. Most of the cars I like from japan are hard to find 350z, 240sx, STi, Evo, etc, and they aren't cheap to get either (350's held its base price for along time). I was thinking of myself and my friend to both get a mustang gt 98+ and have our own little deck-it-out contest. Supercharger, new heads&cams, custom exhaust, and a salem kit for me (maybe cobra fin). Currently i'm paying around $160 per month on insurance, thats pretty much everything on it other than natural disasters (if its ment to be struck by lightning, so be it). I'm thinking it won't spike to over 250 per month with w/e I get aslong as its resonable (no cobra/lambo/ferrari/porche/supra etc.)

Tax reporting on covered call? In 2008, I sold covered call through TD Ameritrade which didn't get assigned, so I didn't have to give my stocks. Ameritrade sent 2008 consolidated forms 1099, but it didn't report sell of call to IRS. It has following information in "Supplemental Reporting Section". ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This section contains valuable tax reporting information that is not provided to the IRS. Date Description Information Quantity Amount 05/05/08 XYZ CALL SEP 25 Sell Trade 3 212.75 09/22/08 XYZ CALL SEP 25 Removal of 3 0.00 option due to expiration ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I also sold similar covered call through E*Trade which didn't get assigned. However, neither E*Trade reported it to IRS (I think so), not it reported to me. There is no information about covered call at all in E*Trade's consolidated forms. Here are my questions: 1- Is it a mistake that TD Ameritrade and E*Trade didn't report to IRS? 2- If it not reported, am I not supposed to pay any tax on the money I received by selling covered call? 3- If Ameritrate and E*Trade didn't report, how will IRS know if and how much money I make through covered call especially which expired worthless? Is it completely on trust basis?

Question about Volume in trading Options, stocks,Futures? Hello Everbody, Can anyone please tell me what is the Good amount of volume (Minimum) to do Day trading for the following: a.Options Trading b.Futures Trading c.Straight stock trading. Please answer my question clearly.Also, if you feel like you need to provide any additioanl information or advice or suggestion for the question i asked, Please write that also.I appreciate your help. Have a Good day Guys. Thank You.

Question about Volume in trading Options, stocks,Futures? Hello Everbody, Can anyone please tell me what is the Good amount of volume (Minimum) to do Day trading for the following: a.Options Trading( Min Volume or Min Open Interest or Min whatever?) b.Futures Trading ( " Same ") c.Straight stock trading.(Min Volume) Please answer my question clearly.Also, if you feel like you need to provide any additioanl information or advice or suggestion for the question i asked, Please write that also.I appreciate your help. Have a Good day Guys. Thank You.

Requirements of volume in options, futures trading? Hello Everbody, Can anyone please tell me what is the Good amount of volume (Minimum) to do Day trading for the following: a.Options Trading( Min Volume or Min Open Interest or Min whatever?) b.Futures Trading ( " Same as above ") c.Straight stock trading.(Min Volume) Please answer my question clearly.Also, if you feel like you need to provide any additioanl information or advice or suggestion for the question i asked, Please write that also.I appreciate your help. Have a Good day Guys. Thank You.

Who's your daddy? Answer's at the drugstore (What Do you Think?? About That. )? 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Answer's at the drugstore Pharmacy chain markets DNA paternity tests in 30 states nationwide Pierre-philippe Marcou / AFP - Getty Images file New at-home DNA paternity tests require samples of cells swabbed from the cheeks of the child, the alleged father and, ideally, the mother. View related photos Video Who's your daddy? DIY paternity test debuts March 27: A new type of at-home medical test can reveal a child’s paternity. But is it a good idea? NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports. Today show Most popular • Most viewed • Top rated • Most e-mailed Giada De Laurentiis has a baby girl! Kathie Lee Gifford returns to morning TV Meet the losers of the Joy Fit Club Two popular cholesterol drugs may not work Obama, McCain forged oh-so-fleeting alliance Most viewed on msnbc.com A twist of fate Amateurs solve mysteries of the unnamed dead Families write about shared tragedy Solar farms to rise on California rooftops Photos: Mistaken identity Most viewed on msnbc.com Two popular cholesterol drugs may not work Giada De Laurentiis has a baby girl! White House unveils financial-rules overhaul Kathie Lee Gifford returns to morning TV Woman stuck to toilet remains hospitalized Most viewed on msnbc.com By JoNel Aleccia Health writer MSNBC updated 8:36 a.m. ET, Thurs., March. 27, 2008 JoNel Aleccia Health writer -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- • E-mail After two decades, Sean Reid of Surrey, British Columbia, discovered that he had a son. Fred Turley of Des Plaines, Ill., learned he didn’t have a daughter. And Wendy Lieb of Lewis Center, Ohio, made certain she wasn’t going to be a grandmother quite yet. In all three situations, crucial genetic information altered the lives of the people involved. And in each case, it came not from a doctor or other medical source, but from a $29.99 kit on a drugstore shelf. Reid, Turley and Lieb are among more than 800 customers who responded to the first wave of marketing for do-it-yourself DNA paternity tests sold as Identigene by Sorenson Genomics of Salt Lake City. Story continues below ↓ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- advertisement -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sales in three western states — Washington, Oregon and California — were so brisk last fall that Rite Aid Corp. expanded the product this week to some 4,300 stores in 30 states across the country. “The running joke is that we’re the Maury Povich family,” said Reid, 37, who confirmed years of speculation about a former girlfriend’s son with a kit purchased at a Bellingham, Wash., store. “But why not do it privately? We did this as discreetly, as efficiently and as cost-effectively as possible.” For users like Reid, the tests provide easier answers to one of life’s crucial questions — Who’s your daddy? — said Douglas Fogg, chief operating officer of Identigene. “Everyone is purchasing the tests because they’re curious,” said Fogg, who expects to sell at least 52,000 tests this year. “They’re looking to establish questions about their own child or their own paternity.” But for genetics experts, drugstore marketing of DNA testing raises questions of accuracy and ethics. “From our perspective, direct-to-consumer genetic tests raise all the same issues for lax government oversight, potentially misleading or false advertising and the potential for making profound medical decisions on the basis of poorly interpreted or understood results,” said Rick Borchelt, a spokesman for the Genetics and Public Policy Center at Johns Hopkins University. At the very least, the kits have the potential to complicate the lives of the people who use them, legal experts cautioned. “We all need to take a step back and realize that this is different than many tests that you take,” said R. Alta Charo, a professor of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “This is a life-changing moment.” DNA tests join other diagnostic tools The paternity kits have taken their place on store shelves next to other diagnostic tests that don’t rely on DNA, including those for pregnancy, HIV and blood sugar, said Michael S. Watson, executive director of the American College of Medical Genetics. Unlike genetic tests for health conditions, tests that use DNA to determine paternity are fairly simple to provide and fairly easy to interpret, said Watson. They're subject to limited oversight, however, with no review required by the Food and Drug Administration and no certification required under the federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments, or CLIA. The Identigene kit includes swabs for collecting cell samples from the inside of the cheeks of the child and the alleged father. Collection of the mother’s cells is optional, but strongly recommended to strengthen the results. The swabs are packaged and mailed to the Sorenson laboratory in Salt Lake City where they’re analyzed. Cast your vote Are at-home DNA paternity tests a good idea? The Sorenson lab is accredited by the AABB, the agency formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks. Results are reported online, by phone or by mail in three to five business days. They come back as a probability figure that verifies paternity with 98 percent to 99 percent accuracy, Watson said. Total cost is about $150, including the price of the kit and a $119 laboratory processing fee. For another $200, users can purchase validated tests that meet legal requirements for determining paternity, Fogg said. Court use questionable But Susan Crockin, a lawyer who specializes in reproductive technology, said consumers shouldn’t count on the tests standing up in court. Video Who's your daddy? DIY paternity test debuts March 27: A new type of at-home medical test can reveal a child’s paternity. But is it a good idea? NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports. Today show “The jury’s still very much out on these tests in terms of reliability and establishing a chain of custody,” said Crockin, a consultant for the Johns Hopkins public policy center. Most of the users who have been buying the kits — which have gone on sale for as low as $17.99 — don’t plan to use the results to resolve legal issues, Fogg acknowledged. Instead, most are looking to answer social questions. And that's where the complexity comes in. Because the cell samples are taken in private, there’s the potential for fraud and deception, noted Charo, the ethics expert. “I can imagine rather peculiar circumstances in which somebody has a swab taken without their knowledge,” she said. “It raises questions about informed consent.” Even when people do consent, the results can be unsettling. Watson estimates that between 5 percent and 10 percent of genetic tests he's conducted show a child is not related to the presumed father. “It could break up families,” Watson said. “Some will be broken because that was the goal. Others will be broken up and that wasn't the goal.” But people who’ve used the at-home tests swear by the ease, the accuracy — and the results. After 20 years, a mystery solved For Reid, the paternity test opened the door to a new extended family. He’d always wondered whether the baby born to a former girlfriend was his, even though she insisted the child was fathered by another man. When the girlfriend contacted Reid on Facebook last summer, the pictures she sent of her oldest son raised the question anew. “My wife, said ‘Oh my, that’s you,’” said Reid, a nurse. Internet research pointed Reid to the Identigene test, which was cheaper and more convenient than other options. With cooperation from his former girlfriend and her son, they all took the tests, with results that altered everyone’s lives. “Our newest son has a family he never knew he had including grandparents, aunts, and three younger brothers who are all very excited to meet him,” Reid said. For Fred Turley, 55, the DNA test confirmed what his companion had told him: the 4-year-old girl he helped care for was not his. The news was disappointing, but clear, he said. “The bottom line is, I don’t have to live with the uncertainty about her being my daughter and wind up in a fight just to find out,” Turley said. “This won’t change how I feel about the girl. It will just remove what had become a major concern.” For Wendy Lieb, 41, the DNA test restored her 20-year-old son’s future. He’d already quit college, taken a job and assumed the responsibilities of pending parenthood after a girl he had sex with at a party claimed she was pregnant with his child. Click for related content Comprehensive sex ed may cut teen birth rate Baby boys more likely to die than girls 1 in 4 teen girls has at least one STD ‘He just didn't look like my son at all.’ Lieb said she was proud of her son’s response, but perplexed after the baby, a boy, was born. “He just didn’t look like my son at all,” Lieb said. “And we have fairly strong genes.” A trip to the drugstore and 10 days later, the answer was clear: her son was not the father. “I thought it would have required thousands of dollars and a trip to the doctor,” she said. Lieb is relieved for her own child, of course, but also for everyone involved. As difficult as the situation has been, she said, it will be easier for them to adjust now, rather than years later. The test may raise ethical questions, she said, but it also provides the peace of mind that comes with answers. “I think it’s a lot more ethical for you to find out the truth,” she said. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23814032?GT1=43001

WHY DOES MOTHER OF FLIGHT 77 VICTIM BELIEVE FLIGHT 77 DID NOT HIT THE PENTAGON? So what happened to flight 77? A Grieving Mother Wonders What Really Happened on 9/11 by Marion Kminek, mother of Mari-Rae Sopper, who was killed on American Airlines Flight 77 on September 11, 2001. Flight 77 was the only hijacked plane that could not be tracked by radar the whole way as it lost radar contact near the Ohio/Kentucky border. So by this fact, Flight 77 could have gone anywhere since it's transponder was turned off and as some people claim only the military could track it and thereby staying perfectly hidden from all radar of the civil authorities. Some people might think that it's absurd that a large aircraft such as a Boeing 757 could be flown somewhere else without anybody noticing. However, this is exactly what happened to a similar Boeing aircraft in Africa... A senior U.S. official confirms that the government of Angola has reported a missing Boeing 727 aircraft. The plane apparently departed from Angola several days ago on a flight to Burkina Faso, in northwestern Africa, but it never made it to its destination, and its whereabouts are unknown, this official said." -CNN (05/30/03) On September 11, 2001, our daughter had her life cut short at the age of 35. After practicing law in the Navy JAG Corps and then with a corporate law firm in Washington, D.C., she accepted her dream job to become the head women’s gymnastics coach at UCSB. Her condo was up for sale, the movers had picked up her furniture, her car had been shipped, and then she boarded American Airlines Flight 77 to begin her new life. As we approach the fifth anniversary of her death, more and more unanswered questions have surfaced regarding the events of 9/11. Here are just a few of the questions that bother me most: When President Bush learned of the second plane hitting the South Tower, he seemed puzzled, but not particularly upset or surprised. He continued reading to the children. The Secret Service is trained to act quickly and decisively to protect the president why did they let him remain in a public place for more than seven minutes when our country was allegedly under attack? According to radar data, American Airlines (AA) 77 was flying at 400 mph at 9:35 a.m. and passed over the Pentagon at 7,000 feet. The plane then made a very difficult high-speed descending turn in a downward spiral, dropping 7,000 feet in two-and-a-half minutes. How could the terrorists have done this difficult turn when their flight instructors have stated they were incompetent as pilots of even a small plane? Pictures of the Pentagon after the impact show an entry hole much too small for a 757 to have crashed into the building. How can that be? A C-130 military cargo plane that “happened” to be flying near the Pentagon was asked by air traffic control if he could see AA 77 and report its position. The same pilot later also “happened” to be in the same area as United Airlines Flight 93, and was asked to give 93’s position. Isn’t this a strange coincidence? On September 13, 2001, in violation of a domestic flight ban, three Saudi royal family members flew to Kentucky in a private Lear jet from a private Raytheon hangar in Tampa, Florida. This flight took place several hours after a private meeting between President Bush and Prince Bandar, Saudi ambassador to the U.S. Tampa International Airport officials, former secretary of state Colin Powell, and former White House anti-terror adviser Richard Clarke all confirmed this information. Between September 14 and 19, about 140 Saudis - including 24 members of the bin Laden family were evacuated to Saudi Arabia. For two years, this violation of the domestic flight ban was denied by the Federal Aviation Administration, FBI, and White House. Those evacuated include: the son of the Saudi defense minister, the latter of whom allegedly contributed at least $6 million since 1994 to four charities that financed Al Qaeda; Khalil bin Laden, who has been investigated by the Brazilian government for possible terrorist connections; Abdullah bin Laden, the U.S. director of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, a Muslim charity accused of funding terrorism; and Akberali Moawalla, who owned a joint bank account with Osama bin Laden from which there was a transfer of more than $250 million in 2000. MSNBC has reported that members of the Saudi royal family met frequently with Osama bin Laden both before and after 9/11. Why were these people allowed by our government to leave our country after 9/11? Just prior to 9/11, there was unusual stock activity related to short-selling and put options, which are both high-risk bets that a stock’s value will depreciate. Early in September 2001, there was a 40 percent increase in short-selling of American and United Airlines stock on the New York Stock Exchange. On September 10, trading ratios on United Airlines were 25 times greater than normal on the Pacific Exchange. The firm used to buy many of the put optio If it seems too crazy to believe that anyone in our country could have been involved in the 9/11 attacks, please consider Operation Northwoods. On May 1, 2001, ABC News reported the following: “In the early 1960s, America’s top military leaders reportedly drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba. Code-named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly included the possible assassination of Cuban émigrés, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities! The plans were developed as ways to trick the American public and the international community into supporting a war to oust Cuba’s then new leader, communist Fidel Castro. … The plans had the written approval of all of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and were presented to President Kennedy’s defense secretary, Robert McNamara, in March 1962. http://www.bestandworst.com/v/102940.htm Cake or e....? Tell that to her grieving parents and they will tell you that YOU are in fact the cancer. No cure for you though. Because yours is a cancer of the soul. Tedward is just another shameless 15 dollar an hour shill, a lie mercenary who can't get a proper job. May the deaths of all those innocent US citizens be on his and his ilk's conscience, though I doubt they have any.

What do you think of the 1000 characters limit? Global impact McDonald's has become emblematic of globalization, sometimes referred as the "McDonaldization" of society. The Economist magazine uses the "Big Mac Index": the comparison of a Big Mac's cost in various world currencies can be used to informally judge these currencies' purchasing power parity. Because McDonald's is closely identified with American culture and lifestyle, its international business expansion has been termed[by who?] part of Americanization and American cultural imperialism. McDonald's is a perpetual target of various and often conflicting anti-globalization protests worldwide. The brand is known informally as "Mickey D's" (in the US and Canada), "Macky D's" (in the UK), "McDo" (in France, Quebec, the Philippines, and the Kansai region of Japan), "Maccer's" (in Ireland), "Maccas" (in New Zealand and Australia) or "de Mac" (in the Netherlands). Thomas Friedman once said that no country with a McDonald's had gone to war with another.[8] However, the "Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention" is not strictly true. Careful historians point to the 1989 United States invasion of Panama, when NATO bombed Serbia in 1999, and the 2006 Lebanon War as exceptions. Some observers have suggested that the company should be given credit for increasing the standard of service in markets that it enters. A group of anthropologists in a study entitled Golden Arches East (Stanford University Press, 1998, edited by James L. Watson) looked at the impact McDonald's had on East Asia, and Hong Kong in particular. When it opened in Hong Kong in 1975, McDonald's was the first restaurant to consistently offer clean restrooms, driving customers to demand the same of other restaurants and institutions. In East Asia in particular, McDonald's have become a symbol for the desire to embrace Western cultural norms. McDonald's have recently taken to partnering up with Sinopec, China's second largest oil company, in the People's Republic of China, as it begins to take advantage of China's growing use of personal vehicles by opening numerous drive-thru restaurants. [9] In addition to its effect on business standards, McDonald's has also been instrumental in changing local customs. By popularizing the idea of a quick restaurant meal, Watson's study suggests, McDonald's led to the easing or elimination of various taboos, such as eating while walking in Japan.[dubious – discuss] CriticismPotted plants at a McDonald's. The company has been a target of criticism practically since its inception. Since the mid-1990s this protest has taken the form of an anti-globalization movement as documented in Naomi Klein's manifesto No Logo. McDonald's restaurants have been the targets of protests, peaceful and otherwise, by environmental, anti-globalization and animal rights activists. The company has used a litigious approach to protecting its business interests. This conflict, and the company's approach to resolving it, was epitomized in the early 1990s by what came to be known as the McLibel case. Two British activists, David Morris and Helen Steel, distributed leaflets entitled What's wrong with McDonald's? on the streets of London. McDonald's wrote to Steel and Morris demanding they desist and apologize, and, when they refused, sued them for libel. The trial lasted more than two years. The company's advertising techniques and business practices were scrutinized in the High Court of Justice in London and reported extensively in the press, who saw the case as a David and Goliath battle (under UK law, legal aid could not be granted for a defamation suit, so Steel and Morris did most of their own legal casework while McDonald's was represented by an extensive legal team). In June 1997, the judge ruled in favor of McDonald's, awarding the company £60,000 damages, which was later reduced to £40,000 by the Court of Appeal. The amount was low because the judge ruled that some of the claims made by Morris and Steel had been proved, including that McDonald's exploited children in its advertising, was anti-trade union and indirectly exploited and caused suffering to animals. Steel and Morris announced they had no intention of ever paying, and the company later confirmed it would not be pursuing the money. Steel and Morris later successfully challenged UK libel law in the European Court, arguing that it was an infringement of the right to free speech. The British Government was forced to re-write the legislation as a result. In 2005, a film by Ken Loach was made about the court case. In 2001, Eric Schlosser's book Fast Food Nation included criticism of McDonald's' business practices. Among the critiques are allegations that McDonald's (along with other companies within the fast-food industry) uses its political influence to increase their own profits at the expense of people's health and the social conditions of its workers. The book also brings into question McDonald's advertisement techniques where it targets children. While the book does mention other fast-food chains, it focuses primarily on McDonald's. In 2002, vegetarian groups, largely Hindu, successfully sued McDonald's for misrepresenting their French fries as vegetarian.[10] Even after the discontinuation of frying the French fries in beef tallow in 1990, the French fries still had beef extract added to them. The French fries sold in the U.S. still contain beef and animal flavoring. McDonald's biscuits also contain beef flavoring along with animal flavoring. Also in 2004, Morgan Spurlock's documentary film Super Size Me said that McDonald's food was contributing to the epidemic of obesity in society, and failing to provide nutritional information about its food for its customers. For 30 days Spurlock ate nothing but McDonald's (supersizing whenever asked). He ate everything on the menu at least once and continued to eat after he was full. At the same time he consciously attempted to get little or no exercise. By the end of the month he had gained 24.5 pounds (11.11 kg), was moody and had less interest in sex. Others have disputed Spurlock's claims (see below). After the film was shown at the Sundance Film Festival, but before its cinematic release, McDonald's stated it was phasing out its Supersize meal option and would begin offering several healthier menu items, though no link to the film was cited in this decision. However, while the healthier menu items have appeared, the Supersize meal option still remains available at some locations. The company also began a practice of putting nutritional information for all menu items in light grey small print on the reverse of their tray liners. It is currently phasing in nutritional labeling in clear black print on the actual packaging of its food items. Anthony Bourdain on his show, No Reservations, has criticised McDonald's among other fast-food restaurants for its culinary blandness. Legal challenge over trans fats In September 2002, McDonald’s announced it was voluntarily reducing the trans fat content of its cooking oil by February 2003. Because of operational problems, the oil was not changed on time. In the ensuing lawsuits, plaintiffs claimed that McDonald’s didn't do enough to inform the public that the oil was not changed. The bantransfat.com website contains testimonials from people, one claims she thought the oil was low in trans fat, and she said, "that is why I have been eating there every week..." In a settlement agreement, bantransfat.com said "While there is a difference of opinion regarding whether McDonald’s gave effective notice to its customers that the oil was not changed, McDonald’s deserves recognition and credit for having achieved a reduction in the trans fat levels ... and for working diligently over the last two years to test additional cooking oils." Nevertheless, bantransfat.com demanded monetary damages. Settlement of the lawsuit brought by BanTransFats.com and one private party requires McDonald’s spend up to $1.5 million to publish notices on the status of its trans fat initiative. McDonald’s will also donate $7 million to the American Heart Association for public education about trans fat. [3]. The settlement also requires some money be paid directly to bantransfat.com. The California Superior Court for Marin County has entered an order preliminarily approving the settlement. Supporters of McDonald's point out that the company is successful because it meets the needs of customers and adapts to its customers wants. In response to public pressure, McDonald's has sought to include more healthy choices in its menu and has introduced a new slogan to its recruitment posters: "Not bad for a McJob". (The word McJob, first attested in the mid-1980s[11] and later popularized by Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland in his book Generation X, has become a buzz word for low-paid, unskilled work with few prospects or benefits and little security.) McDonald's disputes the idea that its restaurant jobs have no prospects, noting that its CEO, Jim Skinner, started working at the company as a regular restaurant employee, and that 20 of its top 50 managers began work as regular crew members. [12] In 2007, the company launched an advertising campaign with the slogan "Would you like a career with that?" on Irish television, outlining that their jobs have many prospects. In a bid to tap into growing consumer interest in the provenance of food, the fast-food chain recently switched its supply of both coffee beans and milk. UK chief executive Steve Easterbrook said: “British consumers are increasingly interested in the quality, sourcing and ethics of the food and drink they buy". McDonald's coffee is now brewed from beans taken from stocks that have been certified by the conservation group the Rainforest Alliance. Similarly, milk supplies used for its hot drinks and milkshakes have been switched to organic sources which could account for 5% of the UK's organic milk output[13]. In other cases, the firm has shown itself ready to adjust its business practices. When the public became concerned that product packaging was environmentally damaging, McDonald's started a joint project with Friends of the Earth to eliminate the use of polystyrene containers, only in the United States, and to reduce the amount of waste produced. Throughout the McLibel trial, senior representatives of the firm said they were merely trying to protect its image from undue and unfounded attack. With regard to its numerous and often controversial copyright and trademark actions, McDonald's lawyers say they are simply protecting the company's intellectual property. Super Size Me has been characterized as a non-scientific publicity stunt. The subject of the film consumes massive quantities of McDonald's food, to the point of being sickened by it. Eating on an hourly schedule and, as part of his rules, eating additional quantities each time a McDonald's worker says the word "supersize," the subject gains weight. Following the release of the film Super Size Me, some people reported they had experienced no weight gain and suffered no ill effect by eating only at McDonald's for a month, but choosing menu items more judiciously and exercising frequently.Minimize Me Merab Morgan, a North Carolina woman, was even able to lose weight.Woman loses 33 lb on McDonald's diet She claimed that the transparency of nutritional information made it easy to control her daily caloric intake. Global impact McDonald's has become emblematic of globalization, sometimes referred as the "McDonaldization" of society. The Economist magazine uses the "Big Mac Index": the comparison of a Big Mac's cost in various world currencies can be used to informally judge these currencies' purchasing power parity. Because McDonald's is closely identified with American culture and lifestyle, its international business expansion has been termed[by who?] part of Americanization and American cultural imperialism. McDonald's is a perpetual target of various and often conflicting anti-globalization protests worldwide. The brand is known informally as "Mickey D's" (in the US and Canada), "Macky D's" (in the UK), "McDo" (in France, Quebec, the Philippines, and the Kansai region of Japan), "Maccer's" (in Ireland), "Maccas" (in New Zealand and Australia) or "de Mac" (in the Netherlands). Thomas Friedman once said that no country with a McDonald's had gone to war with another.[8] However, the "Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention" is not strictly true. Careful historians point to the 1989 United States invasion of Panama, when NATO bombed Serbia in 1999, and the 2006 Lebanon War as exceptions. Some observers have suggested that the company should be given credit for increasing the standard of service in markets that it enters. A group of anthropologists in a study entitled Golden Arches East (Stanford University Press, 1998, edited by James L. Watson) looked at the impact McDonald's had on East Asia, and Hong Kong in particular. When it opened in Hong Kong in 1975, McDonald's was the first restaurant to consistently offer clean restrooms, driving customers to demand the same of other restaurants and institutions. In East Asia in particular, McDonald's have become a symbol for the desire to embrace Western cultural norms. McDonald's have recently taken to partnering up with Sinopec, China's second largest oil company, in the People's Republic of China, as it begins to take advantage of China's growing use of personal vehicles by opening numerous drive-thru restaurants. [9] In addition to its effect on business standards, McDonald's has also been instrumental in changing local customs. By popularizing the idea of a quick restaurant meal, Watson's study suggests, McDonald's led to the easing or elimination of various taboos, such as eating while walking in Japan.[dubious – discuss] CriticismPotted plants at a McDonald's. The company has been a target of criticism practically since its inception. Since the mid-1990s this protest has taken the form of an anti-globalization movement as documented in Naomi Klein's manifesto No Logo. McDonald's restaurants have been the targets of protests, peaceful and otherwise, by environmental, anti-globalization and animal rights activists. The company has used a litigious approach to protecting its business interests. This conflict, and the company's approach to resolving it, was epitomized in the early 1990s by what came to be known as the McLibel case. Two British activists, David Morris and Helen Steel, distributed leaflets entitled What's wrong with McDonald's? on the streets of London. McDonald's wrote to Steel and Morris demanding they desist and apologize, and, when they refused, sued them for libel. The trial lasted more than two years. The company's advertising techniques and business practices were scrutinized in the High Court of Justice in London and reported extensively in the press, who saw the case as a David and Goliath battle (under UK law, legal aid could not be granted for a defamation suit, so Steel and Morris did most of their own legal casework while McDonald's was represented by an extensive legal team). In June 1997, the judge ruled in favor of McDonald's, awarding the company £60,000 damages, which was later reduced to £40,000 by the Court of Appeal. The amount was low because the judge ruled that some of the claims made by Morris and Steel had been proved, including that McDonald's exploited children in its advertising, was anti-trade union and indirectly exploited and caused suffering to animals. Steel and Morris announced they had no intention of ever paying, and the company later confirmed it would not be pursuing the money. Steel and Morris later successfully challenged UK libel law in the European Court, arguing that it was an infringement of the right to free speech. The British Government was forced to re-write the legislation as a result. In 2005, a film by Ken Loach was made about the court case. In 2001, Eric Schlosser's book Fast Food Nation included criticism of McDonald's' business practices. Among the critiques are allegations that McDonald's (along with other companies within the fast-food industry) uses its political influence to increase their own profits at the expense of people's health and the social conditions of its workers. The book also brings into question McDonald's advertisement techniques where it targets children. While the book does mention other fast-food chains, it focuses primarily on McDonald's. In 2002, vegetarian groups, largely Hindu, successfully sued McDonald's for misrepresenting their French fries as vegetarian.[10] Even after the discontinuation of frying the French fries in beef tallow in 1990, the French fries still had beef extract added to them. The French fries sold in the U.S. still contain beef and animal flavoring. McDonald's biscuits also contain beef flavoring along with animal flavoring. Also in 2004, Morgan Spurlock's documentary film Super Size Me said that McDonald's food was contributing to the epidemic of obesity in society, and failing to provide nutritional information about its food for its customers. For 30 days Spurlock ate nothing but McDonald's (supersizing whenever asked). He ate everything on the menu at least once and continued to eat after he was full. At the same time he consciously attempted to get little or no exercise. By the end of the month he had gained 24.5 pounds (11.11 kg), was moody and had less interest in sex. Others have disputed Spurlock's claims (see below). After the film was shown at the Sundance Film Festival, but before its cinematic release, McDonald's stated it was phasing out its Supersize meal option and would begin offering several healthier menu items, though no link to the film was cited in this decision. However, while the healthier menu items have appeared, the Supersize meal option still remains available at some locations. The company also began a practice of putting nutritional information for all menu items in light grey small print on the reverse of their tray liners. It is currently phasing in nutritional labeling in clear black print on the actual packaging of its food items. Anthony Bourdain on his show, No Reservations, has criticised McDonald's among other fast-food restaurants for its culinary blandness. Legal challenge over trans fats In September 2002, McDonald’s announced it was voluntarily reducing the trans fat content of its cooking oil by February 2003. Because of operational problems, the oil was not changed on time. In the ensuing lawsuits, plaintiffs claimed that McDonald’s didn't do enough to inform the public that the oil was not changed. The bantransfat.com website contains testimonials from people, one claims she thought the oil was low in trans fat, and she said, "that is why I have been eating there every week..." In a settlement agreement, bantransfat.com said "While there is a difference of opinion regarding whether McDonald’s gave effective notice to its customers that the oil was not changed, McDonald’s deserves recognition and credit for having achieved a reduction in the trans fat levels ... and for working diligently over the last two years to test additional cooking oils." Nevertheless, bantransfat.com demanded monetary damages. Settlement of the lawsuit brought by BanTransFats.com and one private party requires McDonald’s spend up to $1.5 million to publish notices on the status of its trans fat initiative. McDonald’s will also donate $7 million to the American Heart Association for public education about trans fat. [3]. The settlement also requires some money be paid directly to bantransfat.com. The California Superior Court for Marin County has entered an order preliminarily approving the settlement. Supporters of McDonald's point out that the company is successful because it meets the needs of customers and adapts to its customers wants. In response to public pressure, McDonald's has sought to include more healthy choices in its menu and has introduced a new slogan to its recruitment posters: "Not bad for a McJob". (The word McJob, first attested in the mid-1980s[11] and later popularized by Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland in his book Generation X, has become a buzz word for low-paid, unskilled work with few prospects or benefits and little security.) McDonald's disputes the idea that its restaurant jobs have no prospects, noting that its CEO, Jim Skinner, started working at the company as a regular restaurant employee, and that 20 of its top 50 managers began work as regular crew members. [12] In 2007, the company launched an advertising campaign with the slogan "Would you like a career with that?" on Irish television, outlining that their jobs have many prospects. In a bid to tap into growing consumer interest in the provenance of food, the fast-food chain recently switched its supply of both coffee beans and milk. UK chief executive Steve Easterbrook said: “British consumers are increasingly interested in the quality, sourcing and ethics of the food and drink they buy". McDonald's coffee is now brewed from beans taken from stocks that have been certified by the conservation group the Rainforest Alliance. Similarly, milk supplies used for its hot drinks and milkshakes have been switched to organic sources which could account for 5% of the UK's organic milk output[13]. In other cases, the firm has shown itself ready to adjust its business practices. When the public became concerned that product packaging was environmentally damaging, McDonald's started a joint project with Friends of the Earth to eliminate the use of polystyrene containers, only in the United States, and to reduce the amount of waste produced. Throughout the McLibel trial, senior representatives of the firm said they were merely trying to protect its image from undue and unfounded attack. With regard to its numerous and often controversial copyright and trademark actions, McDonald's lawyers say they are simply protecting the company's intellectual property. Super Size Me has been characterized as a non-scientific publicity stunt. The subject of the film consumes massive quantities of McDonald's food, to the point of being sickened by it. Eating on an hourly schedule and, as part of his rules, eating additional quantities each time a McDonald's worker says the word "supersize," the subject gains weight. Following the release of the film Super Size Me, some people reported they had experienced no weight gain and suffered no ill effect by eating only at McDonald's for a month, but choosing menu items more judiciously and exercising frequently.Minimize Me Merab Morgan, a North Carolina woman, was even able to lose weight.Woman loses 33 lb on McDonald's diet She claimed that the transparency of nutritional information made it easy to control her daily caloric intake. Global impact McDonald's has become emblematic of globalization, sometimes referred as the "McDonaldization" of society. The Economist magazine uses the "Big Mac Index": the comparison of a Big Mac's cost in various world currencies can be used to informally judge these currencies' purchasing power parity. Because McDonald's is closely identified with American culture and lifestyle, its international business expansion has been termed[by who?] part of Americanization and American cultural imperialism. McDonald's is a perpetual target of various and often conflicting anti-globalization protests worldwide. The brand is known informally as "Mickey D's" (in the US and Canada), "Macky D's" (in the UK), "McDo" (in France, Quebec, the Philippines, and the Kansai region of Japan), "Maccer's" (in Ireland), "Maccas" (in New Zealand and Australia) or "de Mac" (in the Netherlands). Thomas Friedman once said that no country with a McDonald's had gone to war with another.[8] However, the "Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention" is not strictly true. Careful historians point to the 1989 United States invasion of Panama, when NATO bombed Serbia in 1999, and the 2006 Lebanon War as exceptions. Some observers have suggested that the company should be given credit for increasing the standard of service in markets that it enters. A group of anthropologists in a study entitled Golden Arches East (Stanford University Press, 1998, edited by James L. Watson) looked at the impact McDonald's had on East Asia, and Hong Kong in particular. When it opened in Hong Kong in 1975, McDonald's was the first restaurant to consistently offer clean restrooms, driving customers to demand the same of other restaurants and institutions. In East Asia in particular, McDonald's have become a symbol for the desire to embrace Western cultural norms. McDonald's have recently taken to partnering up with Sinopec, China's second largest oil company, in the People's Republic of China, as it begins to take advantage of China's growing use of personal vehicles by opening numerous drive-thru restaurants. [9] In addition to its effect on business standards, McDonald's has also been instrumental in changing local customs. By popularizing the idea of a quick restaurant meal, Watson's study suggests, McDonald's led to the easing or elimination of various taboos, such as eating while walking in Japan.[dubious – discuss] CriticismPotted plants at a McDonald's. The company has been a target of criticism practically since its inception. Since the mid-1990s this protest has taken the form of an anti-globalization movement as documented in Naomi Klein's manifesto No Logo. McDonald's restaurants have been the targets of protests, peaceful and otherwise, by environmental, anti-globalization and animal rights activists. The company has used a litigious approach to protecting its business interests. This conflict, and the company's approach to resolving it, was epitomized in the early 1990s by what came to be known as the McLibel case. Two British activists, David Morris and Helen Steel, distributed leaflets entitled What's wrong with McDonald's? on the streets of London. McDonald's wrote to Steel and Morris demanding they desist and apologize, and, when they refused, sued them for libel. The trial lasted more than two years. The company's advertising techniques and business practices were scrutinized in the High Court of Justice in London and reported extensively in the press, who saw the case as a David and Goliath battle (under UK law, legal aid could not be granted for a defamation suit, so Steel and Morris did most of their own legal casework while McDonald's was represented by an extensive legal team). In June 1997, the judge ruled in favor of McDonald's, awarding the company £60,000 damages, which was later reduced to £40,000 by the Court of Appeal. The amount was low because the judge ruled that some of the claims made by Morris and Steel had been proved, including that McDonald's exploited children in its advertising, was anti-trade union and indirectly exploited and caused suffering to animals. Steel and Morris announced they had no intention of ever paying, and the company later confirmed it would not be pursuing the money. Steel and Morris later successfully challenged UK libel law in the European Court, arguing that it was an infringement of the right to free speech. The British Government was forced to re-write the legislation as a result. In 2005, a film by Ken Loach was made about the court case. In 2001, Eric Schlosser's book Fast Food Nation included criticism of McDonald's' business practices. Among the critiques are allegations that McDonald's (along with other companies within the fast-food industry) uses its political influence to increase their own profits at the expense of people's health and the social conditions of its workers. The book also brings into question McDonald's advertisement techniques where it targets children. While the book does mention other fast-food chains, it focuses primarily on McDonald's. In 2002, vegetarian groups, largely Hindu, successfully sued McDonald's for misrepresenting their French fries as vegetarian.[10] Even after the discontinuation of frying the French fries in beef tallow in 1990, the French fries still had beef extract added to them. The French fries sold in the U.S. still contain beef and animal flavoring. McDonald's biscuits also contain beef flavoring along with animal flavoring. Also in 2004, Morgan Spurlock's documentary film Super Size Me said that McDonald's food was contributing to the epidemic of obesity in society, and failing to provide nutritional information about its food for its customers. For 30 days Spurlock ate nothing but McDonald's (supersizing whenever asked). He ate everything on the menu at least once and continued to eat after he was full. At the same time he consciously attempted to get little or no exercise. By the end of the month he had gained 24.5 pounds (11.11 kg), was moody and had less interest in sex. Others have disputed Spurlock's claims (see below). After the film was shown at the Sundance Film Festival, but before its cinematic release, McDonald's stated it was phasing out its Supersize meal option and would begin offering several healthier menu items, though no link to the film was cited in this decision. However, while the healthier menu items have appeared, the Supersize meal option still remains available at some locations. The company also began a practice of putting nutritional information for all menu items in light grey small print on the reverse of their tray liners. It is currently phasing in nutritional labeling in clear black print on the actual packaging of its food items. Anthony Bourdain on his show, No Reservations, has criticised McDonald's among other fast-food restaurants for its culinary blandness. Legal challenge over trans fats In September 2002, McDonald’s announced it was voluntarily reducing the trans fat content of its cooking oil by February 2003. Because of operational problems, the oil was not changed on time. In the ensuing lawsuits, plaintiffs claimed that McDonald’s didn't do enough to inform the public that the oil was not changed. The bantransfat.com website contains testimonials from people, one claims she thought the oil was low in trans fat, and she said, "that is why I have been eating there every week..." In a settlement agreement, bantransfat.com said "While there is a difference of opinion regarding whether McDonald’s gave effective notice to its customers that the oil was not changed, McDonald’s deserves recognition and credit for having achieved a reduction in the trans fat levels ... and for working diligently over the last two years to test additional cooking oils." Nevertheless, bantransfat.com demanded monetary damages. Settlement of the lawsuit brought by BanTransFats.com and one private party requires McDonald’s spend up to $1.5 million to publish notices on the status of its trans fat initiative. McDonald’s will also donate $7 million to the American Heart Association for public education about trans fat. [3]. The settlement also requires some money be paid directly to bantransfat.com. The California Superior Court for Marin County has entered an order preliminarily approving the settlement. Supporters of McDonald's point out that the company is successful because it meets the needs of customers and adapts to its customers wants. In response to public pressure, McDonald's has sought to include more healthy choices in its menu and has introduced a new slogan to its recruitment posters: "Not bad for a McJob". (The word McJob, first attested in the mid-1980s[11] and later popularized by Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland in his book Generation X, has become a buzz word for low-paid, unskilled work with few prospects or benefits and little security.) McDonald's disputes the idea that its restaurant jobs have no prospects, noting that its CEO, Jim Skinner, started working at the company as a regular restaurant employee, and that 20 of its top 50 managers began work as regular crew members. [12] In 2007, the company launched an advertising campaign with the slogan "Would you like a career with that?" on Irish television, outlining that their jobs have many prospects. In a bid to tap into growing consumer interest in the provenance of food, the fast-food chain recently switched its supply of both coffee beans and milk. UK chief executive Steve Easterbrook said: “British consumers are increasingly interested in the quality, sourcing and ethics of the food and drink they buy". McDonald's coffee is now brewed from beans taken from stocks that have been certified by the conservation group the Rainforest Alliance. Similarly, milk supplies used for its hot drinks and milkshakes have been switched to organic sources which could account for 5% of the UK's organic milk output[13]. In other cases, the firm has shown itself ready to adjust its business practices. When the public became concerned that product packaging was environmentally damaging, McDonald's started a joint project with Friends of the Earth to eliminate the use of polystyrene containers, only in the United States, and to reduce the amount of waste produced. Throughout the McLibel trial, senior representatives of the firm said they were merely trying to protect its image from undue and unfounded attack. With regard to its numerous and often controversial copyright and trademark actions, McDonald's lawyers say they are simply protecting the company's intellectual property. Super Size Me has been characterized as a non-scientific publicity stunt. The subject of the film consumes massive quantities of McDonald's food, to the point of being sickened by it. Eating on an hourly schedule and, as part of his rules, eating additional quantities each time a McDonald's worker says the word "supersize," the subject gains weight. Following the release of the film Super Size Me, some people reported they had experienced no weight gain and suffered no ill effect by eating only at McDonald's for a month, but choosing menu items more judiciously and exercising frequently.Minimize Me Merab Morgan, a North Carolina woman, was even able to lose weight.Woman loses 33 lb on McDonald's diet She claimed that the transparency of nutritional information made it easy to control her daily caloric intake. Global impact McDonald's has become emblematic of globalization, sometimes referred as the "McDonaldization" of society. The Economist magazine uses the "Big Mac Index": the comparison of a Big Mac's cost in various world currencies can be used to informally judge these currencies' purchasing power parity. Because McDonald's is closely identified with American culture and lifestyle, its international business expansion has been termed[by who?] part of Americanization and American cultural imperialism. McDonald's is a perpetual target of various and often conflicting anti-globalization protests worldwide. The brand is known informally as "Mickey D's" (in the US and Canada), "Macky D's" (in the UK), "McDo" (in France, Quebec, the Philippines, and the Kansai region of Japan), "Maccer's" (in Ireland), "Maccas" (in New Zealand and Australia) or "de Mac" (in the Netherlands). Thomas Friedman once said that no country with a McDonald's had gone to war with another.[8] However, the "Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention" is not strictly true. Careful historians point to the 1989 United States invasion of Panama, when NATO bombed Serbia in 1999, and the 2006 Lebanon War as exceptions. Some observers have suggested that the company should be given credit for increasing the standard of service in markets that it enters. A group of anthropologists in a study entitled Golden Arches East (Stanford University Press, 1998, edited by James L. Watson) looked at the impact McDonald's had on East Asia, and Hong Kong in particular. When it opened in Hong Kong in 1975, McDonald's was the first restaurant to consistently offer clean restrooms, driving customers to demand the same of other restaurants and institutions. In East Asia in particular, McDonald's have become a symbol for the desire to embrace Western cultural norms. McDonald's have recently taken to partnering up with Sinopec, China's second largest oil company, in the People's Republic of China, as it begins to take advantage of China's growing use of personal vehicles by opening numerous drive-thru restaurants. [9] In addition to its effect on business standards, McDonald's has also been instrumental in changing local customs. By popularizing the idea of a quick restaurant meal, Watson's study suggests, McDonald's led to the easing or elimination of various taboos, such as eating while walking in Japan.[dubious – discuss] CriticismPotted plants at a McDonald's. The company has been a target of criticism practically since its inception. Since the mid-1990s this protest has taken the form of an anti-globalization movement as documented in Naomi Klein's manifesto No Logo. McDonald's restaurants have been the targets of protests, peaceful and otherwise, by environmental, anti-globalization and animal rights activists. The company has used a litigious approach to protecting its business interests. This conflict, and the company's approach to resolving it, was epitomized in the early 1990s by what came to be known as the McLibel case. Two British activists, David Morris and Helen Steel, distributed leaflets entitled What's wrong with McDonald's? on the streets of London. McDonald's wrote to Steel and Morris demanding they desist and apologize, and, when they refused, sued them for libel. The trial lasted more than two years. The company's advertising techniques and business practices were scrutinized in the High Court of Justice in London and reported extensively in the press, who saw the case as a David and Goliath battle (under UK law, legal aid could not be granted for a defamation suit, so Steel and Morris did most of their own legal casework while McDonald's was represented by an extensive legal team). In June 1997, the judge ruled in favor of McDonald's, awarding the company £60,000 damages, which was later reduced to £40,000 by the Court of Appeal. The amount was low because the judge ruled that some of the claims made by Morris and Steel had been proved, including that McDonald's exploited children in its advertising, was anti-trade union and indirectly exploited and caused suffering to animals. Steel and Morris announced they had no intention of ever paying, and the company later confirmed it would not be pursuing the money. Steel and Morris later successfully challenged UK libel law in the European Court, arguing that it was an infringement of the right to free speech. The British Government was forced to re-write the legislation as a result. In 2005, a film by Ken Loach was made about the court case. In 2001, Eric Schlosser's book Fast Food Nation included criticism of McDonald's' business practices. Among the critiques are allegations that McDonald's (along with other companies within the fast-food industry) uses its political influence to increase their own profits at the expense of people's health and the social conditions of its workers. The book also brings into question McDonald's advertisement techniques where it targets children. While the book does mention other fast-food chains, it focuses primarily on McDonald's. In 2002, vegetarian groups, largely Hindu, successfully sued McDonald's for misrepresenting their French fries as vegetarian.[10] Even after the discontinuation of frying the French fries in beef tallow in 1990, the French fries still had beef extract added to them. The French fries sold in the U.S. still contain beef and animal flavoring. McDonald's biscuits also contain beef flavoring along with animal flavoring. Also in 2004, Morgan Spurlock's documentary film Super Size Me said that McDonald's food was contributing to the epidemic of obesity in society, and failing to provide nutritional information about its food for its customers. For 30 days Spurlock ate nothing but McDonald's (supersizing whenever asked). He ate everything on the menu at least once and continued to eat after he was full. At the same time he consciously attempted to get little or no exercise. By the end of the month he had gained 24.5 pounds (11.11 kg), was moody and had less interest in sex. Others have disputed Spurlock's claims (see below). After the film was shown at the Sundance Film Festival, but before its cinematic release, McDonald's stated it was phasing out its Supersize meal option and would begin offering several healthier menu items, though no link to the film was cited in this decision. However, while the healthier menu items have appeared, the Supersize meal option still remains available at some locations. The company also began a practice of putting nutritional information for all menu items in light grey small print on the reverse of their tray liners. It is currently phasing in nutritional labeling in clear black print on the actual packaging of its food items. Anthony Bourdain on his show, No Reservations, has criticised McDonald's among other fast-food restaurants for its culinary blandness. Legal challenge over trans fats In September 2002, McDonald’s announced it was voluntarily reducing the trans fat content of its cooking oil by February 2003. Because of operational problems, the oil was not changed on time. In the ensuing lawsuits, plaintiffs claimed that McDonald’s didn't do enough to inform the public that the oil was not changed. The bantransfat.com website contains testimonials from people, one claims she thought the oil was low in trans fat, and she said, "that is why I have been eating there every week..." In a settlement agreement, bantransfat.com said "While there is a difference of opinion regarding whether McDonald’s gave effective notice to its customers that the oil was not changed, McDonald’s deserves recognition and credit for having achieved a reduction in the trans fat levels ... and for working diligently over the last two years to test additional cooking oils." Nevertheless, bantransfat.com demanded monetary damages. Settlement of the lawsuit brought by BanTransFats.com and one private party requires McDonald’s spend up to $1.5 million to publish notices on the status of its trans fat initiative. McDonald’s will also donate $7 million to the American Heart Association for public education about trans fat. [3]. The settlement also requires some money be paid directly to bantransfat.com. The California Superior Court for Marin County has entered an order preliminarily approving the settlement. Supporters of McDonald's point out that the company is successful because it meets the needs of customers and adapts to its customers wants. In response to public pressure, McDonald's has sought to include more healthy choices in its menu and has introduced a new slogan to its recruitment posters: "Not bad for a McJob". (The word McJob, first attested in the mid-1980s[11] and later popularized by Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland in his book Generation X, has become a buzz word for low-paid, unskilled work with few prospects or benefits and little security.) McDonald's disputes the idea that its restaurant jobs have no prospects, noting that its CEO, Jim Skinner, started working at the company as a regular restaurant employee, and that 20 of its top 50 managers began work as regular crew members. [12] In 2007, the company launched an advertising campaign with the slogan "Would you like a career with that?" on Irish television, outlining that their jobs have many prospects. In a bid to tap into growing consumer interest in the provenance of food, the fast-food chain recently switched its supply of both coffee beans and milk. UK chief executive Steve Easterbrook said: “British consumers are increasingly interested in the quality, sourcing and ethics of the food and drink they buy". McDonald's coffee is now brewed from beans taken from stocks that have been certified by the conservation group the Rainforest Alliance. Similarly, milk supplies used for its hot drinks and milkshakes have been switched to organic sources which could account for 5% of the UK's organic milk output[13]. In other cases, the firm has shown itself ready to adjust its business practices. When the public became concerned that product packaging was environmentally damaging, McDonald's started a joint project with Friends of the Earth to eliminate the use of polystyrene containers, only in the United States, and to reduce the amount of waste produced. Throughout the McLibel trial, senior representatives of the firm said they were merely trying to protect its image from undue and unfounded attack. With regard to its numerous and often controversial copyright and trademark actions, McDonald's lawyers say they are simply protecting the company's intellectual property. Super Size Me has been characterized as a non-scientific publicity stunt. The subject of the film consumes massive quantities of McDonald's food, to the point of being sickened by it. Eating on an hourly schedule and, as part of his rules, eating additional quantities each time a McDonald's worker says the word "supersize," the subject gains weight. Following the release of the film Super Size Me, some people reported they had experienced no weight gain and suffered no ill effect by eating only at McDonald's for a month, but choosing menu items more judiciously and exercising frequently.Minimize Me Merab Morgan, a North Carolina woman, was even able to lose weight.Woman loses 33 lb on McDonald's diet She claimed that the transparency of nutritional information made it easy to control her daily caloric intake. Global impact McDonald's has become emblematic of globalization, sometimes referred as the "McDonaldization" of society. The Economist magazine uses the "Big Mac Index": the comparison of a Big Mac's cost in various world currencies can be used to informally judge these currencies' purchasing power parity. Because McDonald's is closely identified with American culture and lifestyle, its international business expansion has been termed[by who?] part of Americanization and American cultural imperialism. McDonald's is a perpetual target of various and often conflicting anti-globalization protests worldwide. The brand is known informally as "Mickey D's" (in the US and Canada), "Macky D's" (in the UK), "McDo" (in France, Quebec, the Philippines, and the Kansai region of Japan), "Maccer's" (in Ireland), "Maccas" (in New Zealand and Australia) or "de Mac" (in the Netherlands). Thomas Friedman once said that no country with a McDonald's had gone to war with another.[8] However, the "Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention" is not strictly true. Careful historians point to the 1989 United States invasion of Panama, when NATO bombed Serbia in 1999, and the 2006 Lebanon War as exceptions. Some observers have suggested that the company should be given credit for increasing the standard of service in markets that it enters. A group of anthropologists in a study entitled Golden Arches East (Stanford University Press, 1998, edited by James L. Watson) looked at the impact McDonald's had on East Asia, and Hong Kong in particular. When it opened in Hong Kong in 1975, McDonald's was the first restaurant to consistently offer clean restrooms, driving customers to demand the same of other restaurants and institutions. In East Asia in particular, McDonald's have become a symbol for the desire to embrace Western cultural norms. McDonald's have recently taken to partnering up with Sinopec, China's second largest oil company, in the People's Republic of China, as it begins to take advantage of China's growing use of personal vehicles by opening numerous drive-thru restaurants. [9] In addition to its effect on business standards, McDonald's has also been instrumental in changing local customs. By popularizing the idea of a quick restaurant meal, Watson's study suggests, McDonald's led to the easing or elimination of various taboos, such as eating while walking in Japan.[dubious – discuss] CriticismPotted plants at a McDonald's. The company has been a target of criticism practically since its inception. Since the mid-1990s this protest has taken the form of an anti-globalization movement as documented in Naomi Klein's manifesto No Logo. McDonald's restaurants have been the targets of protests, peaceful and otherwise, by environmental, anti-globalization and animal rights activists. The company has used a litigious approach to protecting its business interests. This conflict, and the company's approach to resolving it, was epitomized in the early 1990s by what came to be known as the McLibel case. Two British activists, David Morris and Helen Steel, distributed leaflets entitled What's wrong with McDonald's? on the streets of London. McDonald's wrote to Steel and Morris demanding they desist and apologize, and, when they refused, sued them for libel. The trial lasted more than two years. The company's advertising techniques and business practices were scrutinized in the High Court of Justice in London and reported extensively in the press, who saw the case as a David and Goliath battle (under UK law, legal aid could not be granted for a defamation suit, so Steel and Morris did most of their own legal casework while McDonald's was represented by an extensive legal team). In June 1997, the judge ruled in favor of McDonald's, awarding the company £60,000 damages, which was later reduced to £40,000 by the Court of Appeal. The amount was low because the judge ruled that some of the claims made by Morris and Steel had been proved, including that McDonald's exploited children in its advertising, was anti-trade union and indirectly exploited and caused suffering to animals. Steel and Morris announced they had no intention of ever paying, and the company later confirmed it would not be pursuing the money. Steel and Morris later successfully challenged UK libel law in the European Court, arguing that it was an infringement of the right to free speech. The British Government was forced to re-write the legislation as a result. In 2005, a film by Ken Loach was made about the court case. In 2001, Eric Schlosser's book Fast Food Nation included criticism of McDonald's' business practices. Among the critiques are allegations that McDonald's (along with other companies within the fast-food industry) uses its political influence to increase their own profits at the expense of people's health and the social conditions of its workers. The book also brings into question McDonald's advertisement techniques where it targets children. While the book does mention other fast-food chains, it focuses primarily on McDonald's. In 2002, vegetarian groups, largely Hindu, successfully sued McDonald's for misrepresenting their French fries as vegetarian.[10] Even after the discontinuation of frying the French fries in beef tallow in 1990, the French fries still had beef extract added to them. The French fries sold in the U.S. still contain beef and animal flavoring. McDonald's biscuits also contain beef flavoring along with animal flavoring. Also in 2004, Morgan Spurlock's documentary film Super Size Me said that McDonald's food was contributing to the epidemic of obesity in society, and failing to provide nutritional information about its food for its customers. For 30 days Spurlock ate nothing but McDonald's (supersizing whenever asked). He ate everything on the menu at least once and continued to eat after he was full. At the same time he consciously attempted to get little or no exercise. By the end of the month he had gained 24.5 pounds (11.11 kg), was moody and had less interest in sex. Others have disputed Spurlock's claims (see below). After the film was shown at the Sundance Film Festival, but before its cinematic release, McDonald's stated it was phasing out its Supersize meal option and would begin offering several healthier menu items, though no link to the film was cited in this decision. However, while the healthier menu items have appeared, the Supersize meal option still remains available at some locations. The company also began a practice of putting nutritional information for all menu items in light grey small print on the reverse of their tray liners. It is currently phasing in nutritional labeling in clear black print on the actual packaging of its food items. Anthony Bourdain on his show, No Reservations, has criticised McDonald's among other fast-food restaurants for its culinary blandness. Legal challenge over trans fats In September 2002, McDonald’s announced it was voluntarily reducing the trans fat content of its cooking oil by February 2003. Because of operational problems, the oil was not changed on time. In the ensuing lawsuits, plaintiffs claimed that McDonald’s didn't do enough to inform the public that the oil was not changed. The bantransfat.com website contains testimonials from people, one claims she thought the oil was low in trans fat, and she said, "that is why I have been eating there every week..." In a settlement agreement, bantransfat.com said "While there is a difference of opinion regarding whether McDonald’s gave effective notice to its customers that the oil was not changed, McDonald’s deserves recognition and credit for having achieved a reduction in the trans fat levels ... and for working diligently over the last two years to test additional cooking oils." Nevertheless, bantransfat.com demanded monetary damages. Settlement of the lawsuit brought by BanTransFats.com and one private party requires McDonald’s spend up to $1.5 million to publish notices on the status of its trans fat initiative. McDonald’s will also donate $7 million to the American Heart Association for public education about trans fat. [3]. The settlement also requires some money be paid directly to bantransfat.com. The California Superior Court for Marin County has entered an order preliminarily approving the settlement. Supporters of McDonald's point out that the company is successful because it meets the needs of customers and adapts to its customers wants. In response to public pressure, McDonald's has sought to include more healthy choices in its menu and has introduced a new slogan to its recruitment posters: "Not bad for a McJob". (The word McJob, first attested in the mid-1980s[11] and later popularized by Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland in his book Generation X, has become a buzz word for low-paid, unskilled work with few prospects or benefits and little security.) McDonald's disputes the idea that its restaurant jobs have no prospects, noting that its CEO, Jim Skinner, started working at the company as a regular restaurant employee, and that 20 of its top 50 managers began work as regular crew members. [12] In 2007, the company launched an advertising campaign with the slogan "Would you like a career with that?" on Irish television, outlining that their jobs have many prospects. In a bid to tap into growing consumer interest in the provenance of food, the fast-food chain recently switched its supply of both coffee beans and milk. UK chief executive Steve Easterbrook said: “British consumers are increasingly interested in the quality, sourcing and ethics of the food and drink they buy". McDonald's coffee is now brewed from beans taken from stocks that have been certified by the conservation group the Rainforest Alliance. Similarly, milk supplies used for its hot drinks and milkshakes have been switched to organic sources which could account for 5% of the UK's organic milk output[13]. In other cases, the firm has shown itself ready to adjust its business practices. When the public became concerned that product packaging was environmentally damaging, McDonald's started a joint project with Friends of the Earth to eliminate the use of polystyrene containers, only in the United States, and to reduce the amount of waste produced. Throughout the McLibel trial, senior representatives of the firm said they were merely trying to protect its image from undue and unfounded attack. With regard to its numerous and often controversial copyright and trademark actions, McDonald's lawyers say they are simply protecting the company's intellectual property. Super Size Me has been characterized as a non-scientific publicity stunt. The subject of the film consumes massive quantities of McDonald's food, to the point of being sickened by it. Eating on an hourly schedule and, as part of his rules, eating additional quantities each time a McDonald's worker says the word "supersize," the subject gains weight. Following the release of the film Super Size Me, some people reported they had experienced no weight gain and suffered no ill effect by eating only at McDonald's for a month, but choosing menu items more judiciously and exercising frequently.Minimize Me Merab Morgan, a North Carolina woman, was even able to lose weight.Woman loses 33 lb on McDonald's diet She claimed that the transparency of nutritional information made it easy to control her daily caloric intake.

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