Previous article discussed a model where dealers quote bid and ask prices that deviate from the fundamental value of the asset in order to offset the adverse selection costs that arise in the case of asymmetric information. We therefore assumed risk neutrality, so that dealers would be concerned only with adverse selection costs. In real markets, however, dealers also act as mandatory liquidity suppliers and are obliged to quote prices continuously. This means they will frequently hold undesired portfolio positions that do not lie on their efficient frontier. The costs that dealers must sustain for holding undesired positions – called ‘inventory costs’ – are another determinant of the bid–ask spread. In fact, through opposite changes in the bid–ask quotations, dealers can encourage transactions by their customers that will rebalance their portfolio. Clearly, in this context, it is crucial to assume that dealers are risk-averse, since only the riskaverse are concerned about the possible losses due to future adverse price changes.

Inventory models assign an important role to market-makers who offer the opportunity to trade at all times and therefore act as immediacy providers. The initial modelling approach (Garman, 1976) to the market-makers’ control problem assumes that their objective is to avoid bankruptcy (the ‘ruin problem’), which could be caused by the uncertainty induced by the arrival of non-synchronous buy and sell orders. As O’Hara (1995) suggests, this approach is not realistic since it assumes that a dealer quotes his prices only at the beginning of the trading game, so his inventory plays no role in the decision.

Your early market search and preliminary patent search are both types of research for which the only cost is some of your time and they are important educational phases in the development of your invention. Your first step will be to check out every store in your local area where such an item as you envision might be offered for sale. If, for example, your idea is for a new type of kitchen gadget, you will certainly want to check the kitchen specialty stores. But, you will also want to check any and every store that sells kitchen gadgets. This means that you might find yourself looking in stores such as Wal-Mart, Target, your local grocery store, the hardware store, the corner convenience store, the department stores at the mall and even the stores that specialize in unusual items, such as Brookstone or Sharper Image. You will need to be creative in thinking of all of the places where an item such as the one you envision might be offered for sale.

In many communities across the country there are local branches of the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE). This organization is a completely free mentoring program that is made up of retired executives who succeeded in their careers and who are now willing to share their knowledge and expertise, absolutely free of charge, with those who are attempting to follow in their footsteps. Each SCORE office is as different as the individuals who make it up. You may find the exact person who can answer your questions, give you direction and save you from making costly mistakes. Utilize their generosity. To locate your nearest SCORE facility, go into a search engine such as Google, and type SCORE. This will bring up a number of links to guide you to your local office.

Here, you will find a cornucopia of places where products in the category you are searching are being sold. The same stores that you have just visited will likely have links on the Internet. So, why bother to go out to the stores in the first place? Because you want to actually see the similar products that are on store shelves. And, you want to gather the information that you can get from the product labels. If you should find a product that is offered for the same purpose as your idea, you can inspect it closely to see if your idea is an improvement on that product. Also, retailers do not usually have every product that is in their stores on their websites, so it is important to make sure that you do not overlook something by failing to make that trip to the store.

Individuals often make and sell products on the Internet that are offered nowhere else. If you neglect to do a good Internet search, you will miss this prior art. What is prior art?

If an active patent covers a product, you cannot legally make and sell it.

If that patent has expired, that product is said to be in the public domain and is now available to anyone to make and sell.

A product that has never been patented but has been offered for sale to the public is also said to be in the public domain and can never be patented.

All of the above examples are prior art; products that have already been presented to the public and cannot now be patent protected. One of the first things the examiners at the patent office will do when they begin with your application is to initiate a thorough search for prior art. If you failed to find these products but they were found in subsequent searches related to your patenting efforts, your patent would be rejected and you would have spent your money and your time in vain. It pays to be meticulous in your Internet  searching.

Considering the importance of dynamic credit risk modeling, the analysis of the relationship between the two major indicators for credit risk, that is default rates and credit spreads, and the business cycle is central for the understanding of the risks associated with investing in corporate bonds. Especially investors that tend to hold securities to maturity, investing in high yield, or running structured portfolios are concerned about avoiding defaults. While default rates generally are a function of the credit cycle outlined above, their current level is not necessarily reflected in credit spreads. In order to judge the attractiveness of the current spreads, one need to not only forecast the future direction of default rates, but also to see whether they are sufficient to cover potential future losses. The sensitivity of the corporate bond market to economic downturns depends particularly on the distribution of the credit quality of the issuers and on the ratio of cyclical companies to noncyclical companies.