What is a Rolling Budget? why is it prepared? explain the procedure of its prepaation?

A rolling budget is a forward looking budget. Its constantly looking n-periods into the future. Rolling budgets are being adopted because it forces us to constantly look to the future and revise our estimates. The failure of traditional fiscal year budgeting is that as we progress through the fiscal year the number of periods in the budget decrease and make it harder to assess future prospects of the company. Typically you can still prepare a rolling budget the same way as you do a regular budget. A lot of companies use software packages like Cognos Planning or Hyperion to build their budgets. The idea being that today we'd have a plan for Jan - Dec 31, 2008. Come Feb 1st, we'd drop the January budget and develop a plan for Jan 2009. So our new budget cycle runs Feb 1, 2008 to Jan 31, 2009.
What Does Arbitrage Mean? The simultaneous purchase and sale of an asset in order to profit from a difference in the price. It is a trade that profits by exploiting price differences of identical or similar financial instruments, on different markets or in different forms. Arbitrage exists as a result of market inefficiencies; it provides a mechanism to ensure prices do not deviate substantially from fair value for long periods of time.

In economics and finance, arbitrage (IPA: /rbtr/) is the practice of taking advantage of a price difference between two or more markets: striking a combination of matching deals that capitalize upon the imbalance, the profit being the difference between the market prices. When used by academics, an arbitrage is a transaction that involves no negative cash flow at any probabilistic or temporal state and a positive cash flow in at least one state; in simple terms, it is the possibility of a risk-free profit at zero cost. Modigliani Miller (MM) Hypothesis The Modigliani Miller hypothesis is identical with the net operating Income approach. Modigliani and Miller argued that, in the absence of taxes the cost of capital and the value of the firm are not affected by the changes in capital structure. In other words, capital structure decisions are irrelevant and value of the firm is independent of debt equity mix. Basic Propositions M - M Hypothesis can be explained in terms of two propositions of Modigliani and Miller. They are : i. The overall cost of capital (KO) and the value of the firm are independent of the capital structure. The total market value of the firm is given by capitalising the expected net operating income by the rate appropriate for that risk class.

ii. The financial risk increases with more debt content in the capital structure. As a result cost of equity (Ke) increases in a manner to offset exactly the low cost advantage of debt. Hence, overall cost of capital remains the same. Assumptions of the MM Approach 1. There is a perfect capital market. Capital markets are perfect when i) investors are free to buy and sell securities, ii) they can borrow funds without restriction at the same terms as the firms do, iii) they behave rationally, iv) they are well informed, and v) there are no transaction costs. 2. Firms can be classified into homogeneous risk classes. All the firms in the same risk class will have the same degree of financial risk. 3. All investors have the same expectation of a firms net operating income (EBIT). 4. The dividend payout ratio is 100%, which means there are no retained earnings. 5. There are no corporate taxes. This assumption has been removed later. Preposition I According to M M, for the firms in the same risk class, the total market value is independent of capital structure and is determined by capitalising net operating income by the rate appropriate to that risk class. Proposition I can be expressed as follows: ooK NO I K X V = S +D = =

Where, V = the market value of the firm S = the market value of equity D = the market value of debt

According the proposition I the average cost of capital is not affected by degree of leverage and is determined as follows:

V X K o=

According to M M, the average cost of capital is constant as shown in the following Fiure. Y Arbitrage Process According to M M, two firms identical in all respects except their capital structure, cannot have different market values or different cost of capital. In case, these firms have different market values, the arbitrage will take place and equilibrium in market values is restored in no time. Arbitrage process refers to switching of investment from one firm to another. When

market values are different, the investors will try to take advantage of it by selling their securities with high market price and buying the securities with low market price. The use of debt by the investors is known as personal leverage or home made leverage. Because of this arbitrage process, the market price of securities in higher valued market will come down and the market price of securities in the lower valued market will go up, and this switching process is continued until the equilibrium is established in the market values. So, M M, argue that there is no possibility of different market values for identical firms. Reverse Working Of Arbitrage Process Arbitrage process also works in the reverse direction. Leverage has neither advantage nor disadvantage. If an unlevered firm (with no debt capital) has higher market value than a levered firm (with debt capital) arbitrage process works in reverse direction. Investors will try to switch their investments from unlevered firm to levered firm so that equilibrium is established in no time. Thus, M M proved in terms of their proposition I that the value of the firm is not affected by debt-equity mix.