The process of identification, analysis and either acceptance or mitigation of uncertainty in investment decision-making. Essentially, risk management occurs anytime an investor or fund manager analyzes and attempts to quantify the potential for losses in an investment and then takes the appropriate action (or inaction) given their investment objectives and risk tolerance. Inadequate risk management can result in severe consequences for companies as well as individuals. For example, the recession that began in 2008 was largely caused by the loose credit risk management of financial firms. Simply put, risk management is a two-step process - determining what risks exist in an investment and then handling those risks in a way best-suited to your investment objectives. Risk management occurs everywhere in the financial world. It occurs when an investor buys low-risk government bonds over more risky corporate debt, when a fund manager hedges their currency exposure with currency derivatives and when a bank performs a credit check on an individual before issuing them a personal line of credit.
A description of an investor who, when faced with two investments with a similar expected return (but different risks), will prefer the one with the lower risk. A risk-averse investor dislikes risk, and therefore will stay away from adding high-risk stocks or investments to their portfolio and in turn will often lose out on higher rates of return. Investors looking for "safer" investments will generally stick to index funds and government bonds, which generally have lower returns.
In the securities market, a transaction made in a desperate attempt to recover previous losses. The term was coined with the idea that if a trader fails in his or her attempt to recover previous losses, he or she would have to hop on a plane to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, in order to escape from creditors.
When a trader who is facing financial or legal troubles hedges his or her position in an investment with a ticket to a tropical location (such as Rio de Janeiro). The idea behind the Rio hedge is that if the investment goes bad (either legally or through financial loss) the investor will use the ticket to escape. The Rio hedge is a joke in the investment community regarding the risks involved in trading. A traditional hedge will protect against potential financial risks associated with an investment. The Rio hedge pokes fun at protecting against risks, such as getting caught by the authorities, lenders, or owners of the funds under management.
A protection-based transfer of assets from one destination to another, usually through the use of offshore accounting. A ring fence is meant to protect the assets from inclusion in an investor's calculable net worth or to lower tax consequences. Moves to ring fence an asset are often called "ring fence trades". There are many legal options available in many countries to ring fence assets, although many have caps that are set at a percentage of one's net worth. The main motivation for moving assets (or capital) into a ring fence is to free it from undue restrictions, tax burdens or other country-specific laws. Property or assets held outside a nation's jurisdiction cannot have claims brought on them, so they become "untouchable" by the investor's home country.
The movement of high-level employees from public sector jobs to private sector jobs and vice versa. The idea is that there is a revolving door between the two sectors as many legislators and regulators become consultants for the industries they once regulated and some private industry heads receive government appointments that relate to their former private posts. Some half-hearted attempts have been made to close the revolving door, but most of these have simply meant a one- to two-year waiting period before a former public servant can work in the industry he or she was involved in. The argument for having a revolving door is that having specialists within private lobby groups and running public departments ensures a higher quality of information when making regulatory decisions. Opponents point to the many, many opportunities for conflicts of interest.
An industry metric used to evaluate companies in the hotel and lodging industries. RevPOR is used in conjunction with, or in place of, the more standard revenue per available room (RevPAR) statistic. RevPAR is calculated by taking the RevPOR value and multiplying it by the occupancy rate. RevPOR may also be expressed as "total RevPOR", which includes not only the room rate itself, but also any extra services such as room service, laundry services and in-room movie viewing, among others. For many hotel operators, the total revenue received per room can be much more than the per-day "boilerplate" rate, and is a more full expression of how much the company is receiving per customer. RevPOR is used by analysts to determine the total revenue and profit potential of a company; occupancy rates will rise and fall with the general and local economy, but RevPOR is a metric that stands independent of how full the hotel is at any point in time.
A performance metric in the hotel industry, which is calculated by multiplying a hotel's average daily room rate (ADR) by its occupancy rate. It may also be calculated by dividing a hotel's total guestroom revenue by the room count and the number of days in the period being measured. Keep in mind that RevPAR does not take into account revenue from other hotel services, such as restaurants, spas, golf courses, marinas, casinos etc.