I was just scanning a list of some of our newest books and ebooks and noticed several of the most recent batch touch on finance topics.  I thought that mini-trend merited a short post...

As many of you may know, we're in the midst of an amazing speaker series here at SFU on Big Data: the President's Dream Colloquium on Engaging Big Data has already brought us three speakers since January, with another event at our Surrey campus this  afternoon (In

As some of you may recall, last year we started a subscription to CARMA: an annual program established to provide university faculty, graduate students, and other researchers with advanced training in research methods and data analysis.

As I write this, there are just 8 days and 5 hours left until the 2016 Oscars begin.  (Well, the red carpet portion, anyhow, which I'm told is just as important as the suspense, satire, and speeches of the actual ceremony.)  Although, technically I guess they've already begun if you consider the fact that a

Some welcome news from the folks behind WRDS, our interface for many financial/accounting datasets such as Compustat, CRSP, TAQ, and I/B/E/S: they've created Classroom Tools by WRDS.

Their description:

WRDS is pleased to announce the launch of WRDS Classroom, a valuable addition to WRDS that brings the power of our flagship platform to the classroom. 

Imagine for a second that our world was remarkably static.

No new products or services would ever be created, largely because no new consumer demands ever arose. Demographics & desires... demand & supply -- all unchanging.  Companies wouldn't be competing with each other through new ways of advertising, innovative distribution systems, and improved production methods, so they'd all have settled into whatever slice of market share they'd captured back in the days when things were more dynamic.

In such a world, incumbent companies in any given industry would, I suspect, be very hard to push aside. New companies and new solutions would be rare, if not nonexistent.

I picture a friendly sort of guidebook that will help me with the key information I need as I start to navigate my way through a new field, sort of like the dog-eared travel guides I carried during my global backpacking days.

Hold that image in your mind as you consider the value of our new online collection of...

<Read on for details.. and links!>

We can't study, discuss, or understand anything until we agree on what to call it and how to define it.

I realize that may seem a trite truism, but the foundations of many of the most complex concepts are often formed of such simple principles. 

<Bear with me... I'm going somewhere with this...> 

Does a fish truly understand the water in which it swims?  

If H₂0 pervades the entire world of Gary the Guppy from the day he's born to the day he, well, turns belly up, does he ever consciously think about it at all?