Heather Tarbert

Technical analysis versus market efficiency - a genetic programming approach

In the paper the authors maintain that the prevalence of technical analysis in professional investment argues that such techniques should perhaps be taken more seriously by academics. The new technique of genetic programming is used to investigate a long time series of price data for a quoted property investment company, to discern whether there are any patterns in the data which could be used for technical trading purposes. A successful buy rule is found which generates returns in excess of what would be expected from the best-fitting null time-series model. Nevertheless, this turns out to be a more sophisticated variant of the buy and hold rule, which the authors term timing specific buy and hold. Although the rule does outperform simple buy and hold, it really does not provide sufficient grounds for the rejection of the efficient market hypothesis, though it does suggest that further investigation of the specific conditions of applicability of the EMH may be appropriate.

Preferences, constraints and work-lifestyle choices: The case of female Scottish chartered accountants

Purpose - Men and women are now being admitted to membership of the major UK professional accountancy bodies in approximately equal numbers. This trend has focused attention on the ways in which professional accountants combine careers and family life, particularly when women have children. Recognising the limitations inherent in the widely-used term “work-life balance” that polarises life and work, this paper instead seeks to consider the “work-lifestyle choices” made by female accountants. Work-lifestyle choices refer to the ways in which people place different emphases on the work and private spheres, according to their individual circumstances. Feminist researchers have argued that womens work-lifestyle choices have been limited by structural constraints. Over the past decade, a newer argument, preference theory, has emerged, suggesting that womens choices owe less to inequalities in the workplace and more to the preferences of individuals, particularly, but not exclusively, women. The purpose of this paper is to explore the work-lifestyle choices made by female members of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), in terms of both structural constraints and preferences, in order to present a more holistic understanding of the work-lifestyle choices made by this particular group of well-educated, middle-class women. Design/methodology/approach - The paper combines feminist theory and preference theory in the context of the results of a questionnaire survey of female members of ICAS and 14 interviews with female members of ICAS. Findings - The responses of these accountants suggest that, while structural constraints are evident, many work-lifestyle choices were driven by a desire to spend more time with children, and by womens perceptions of their mothering role. Most women, while recognising the opportunities forgone, were nonetheless happy with the choices that they had made. Originality/value - The paper contributes to the literature by examining the voices of female accountants in order to explore how perceived gender roles impact on career decisions and work-lifestyle choices.

Risk adjusted returns from technical trading: a genetic programming approach

In this study, Genetic Programming is used to generate technical trading rules. These are assessed in terms of their basic returns and their risk adjusted returns. It is found that while the basic returns are impressive by comparison with buy and hold, they do not outperform buy and hold after risk-adjustment.

Continuing Professional Development Activities of UK Accountants in Public Practice

Abstract Continuing professional development (CPD) is the educational and developmental work and learning that professionals undertake after they have qualified as members of their professional body. International Education Standard (IES 7), issued by the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) in May 2004, called on all professional accountants to develop and maintain competence that is relevant and appropriate for their work and their professional responsibilities. In order to comply with IES 7, ACCA and ICAEW implemented new policies for CPD effective from 1 January 2005, and CIMA and ICAS from 1 January 2006. Prior to these changes, CPD, which had originally been regarded purely as implicit within a professional accountants ethical responsibilities, had come to be more regulated following legislative changes in the late 1980s. This is the first academic study to investigate the actual CPD activities of accountants in public practice in the UK. The questionnaire survey revealed that approximately 80% of members in public practice of ACCA, CIMA, ICAEW and ICAS engaged in levels of CPD that complied with the guidance in place before the new rules were introduced in 2005/06. The most frequently reported CPD activities were technical reading and course attendance. ACCA members have a broadly similar requirement under the new ACCA CPD policy. Most ACCA members in practice would continue to comply with the new policy requirements if their level of participation in CPD activities remains unchanged. However, up to 20% of such accountants are likely not to be compliant unless their participation increases. CIMA, ICAEW and ICAS have adopted a new approach to CPD based on outputs rather than inputs. These new requirements are also discussed.

Do the financial statements of intangible-intensive companies hold less information content for investors?

This study uses the event study method to compare the information content of annual accounting releases in sectors that differ in respect of the proportion of market value that may be attributed to intangibles. The results demonstrate that there are differences between industrial sectors in the share price reaction to accounting events and that this reaction appears to be much less significant in sectors where the investment in intangible assets is relatively high.

The application of the self-organizing map, the k-means algorithm and the multi-layer perceptron to the detection of technical trading patterns

A number of neural network techniques, namely multi-layer perceptron, k-means algorithm and the self-organizing map are applied to the detection of technical trading patterns within stock markets. We do not find exploitable information content and it is concluded that there are no significant patterns in any of the data analysed.

An empirical study of the impact of financial reporting disclosures on UK investment trusts

While an extensive literature exists on the market impact of accounting disclosures, there is little prior work on the market impact of accounting disclosures on investment trusts within the UK. The prior literature that exists suggests an absence of information content. This paper investigates whether financial statements for investment trusts contain information content over the period of the annual reporting cycle. The results indicate that the preliminary earning report (PER) and annual general meeting (AGM) contain information content in this setting. In addition, the results demonstrate a clear size effect with stronger market reaction in the case of smaller investment trusts.