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# Merry Star Wars

I just watched the new Rogue One movie lastnight and subsequently like I always do after a movie I immediately wikipedia’d it, then read greater film watcher reviews to see if I missed out on something. An interesting review I came upon was Hulk smasher or something where one particular point I disagree with considerably. Apparently, as I read through the comments, I wasn’t the only one who disagreed.
— Spoiler–
The Hallway scene with Vader. The reviewer’s complaint was;

Too bad it’s after our climax has already occurred. It’s a sequence where we already know exactly what’s going to happen (the plans are going to get to Leia) and involves a bunch of faceless nobodies. This just turns into gore horror movie logic. Let’s show the “bad guy” character we indulgently like kicking ass! Which is why people clap and cheer, all as part of the most puerile reversing and misunderstanding of Vader-worship. To me, it’s the exact same kind of bastardization as the pun, but this time the betrayal is for indulgent bullshit. You can say this is an extreme opinion, but I am not backing down from this.

The reviews main critique is the lack of meaningful conclusion or wrap-up of Vader coming down and destroying everybody, or specifically our main characters. As a dramatic effect it would be way more interesting to see him destroy Rogue Ones main heros rather than the Red shirts. My suspicion is the author is somewhat young and missed the original showings of Star Wars. Vader is a guard dog. He’s the Emperors apprentice. He doesn’t run anything really.

Of course in the bureaucracy of the Imperium he’s pretty high up there. But infact Tarkin is higher in rank than him. Atleast in a Lizardperson kind of way. Officially yes, Unofficially no. Vader is the guy you send in as a heavy hand to get shit done now. The opening crawl in the beginning of a new hope shows nothing more than “rebel spies” stealing plans during a battle, more Red shirts. If we swing back to Rogue One, we’ll see our Spies were quite literally, just that.

Rogue’d in a hope to steal plans no-body believes are attainable..if they even exist. Vader is on the other side of the Galaxy, or well, brooding on a lava planet he himself got burnt to hell on. By the time the Fireworks start up, the rebel fleet is in full force bombarding Scarif.

Tarkin shows up in the Death Star once he hears the news and calls for Vader too. It’s obvious that Tarkin isn’t going to throw Vader down crush a handful of randos in desperation…Particularly because he decides to just obliterate their database. Does Vader even care about what goes on on that planet? Vader was called in to get rid of the Rebels right now. The fleet hanging around in orbit.

What makes Vader even more badass is the very fact he shows up personally on the main flagship to kill everyone with his own hands. We collectively in pop culture have this idea that Vader is the most hardcore badass there to complete some prophecy about balance to the force but was turned to the dark side. Which really, Maybe the prophecy was bringing balance to the dark side…If you all remember there were only a couple siths out there…and atleast 30 jedis…Maybe the Force is just bad at math and made a  Super Sayian Sith to bring balance?

Anyways, I segway. The point I’m getting at, Vader is a guard dog badass. But we just know his reputation as being a badass. We’ve never actually seen it. The Hallway scene indulges us in getting to see him wreck peoples respective shit. Shows the futility of the Rebels against the Imperium might and shows Vader is so scary. He’s some crazy religious fucker who personally boards spaceships and kills people with a laser sword and magic.

Shutter

$\mathrm{e}^{\sqrt{2}}$


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# Derivative of Softmax loss function

I am trying to wrap my head around back-propagation in a neural network with a Softmax classifier, which uses the Softmax function:

$$p_j = \frac{e^{o_j}}{\sum_k e^{o_k}}$$

This is used in a loss function of the form

$$L = -\sum_j y_j \log p_j,$$

where $o$ is a vector. I need the derivative of $L$ with respect to $o$. Now if my derivatives are right,

$$\frac{\partial p_j}{\partial o_i} = p_i(1 - p_i),\quad i = j$$

and

$$\frac{\partial p_j}{\partial o_i} = -p_i p_j,\quad i \neq j.$$

Using this result we obtain

\begin{eqnarray} \frac{\partial L}{\partial o_i} &=& - \left (y_i (1 - p_i) + \sum_{k\neq i}-p_k y_k \right )\\ &=&p_i y_i - y_i + \sum_{k\neq i} p_k y_k\\ &=& \left (\sum_i p_i y_i \right ) - y_i \end{eqnarray}

According to slides I'm using, however, the result should be

$$\frac{\partial L}{\partial o_i} = p_i - y_i.$$

Can someone please tell me where I'm going wrong?

• For others who end up here, this thread is about computing the derivative of the cross-entropy function, which is the cost function often used with a softmax layer (though the derivative of the cross-entropy function uses the derivative of the softmax, -p_k * y_k, in the equation above). Eli Bendersky has an awesome derivation of the softmax and its associated cost function here: eli.thegreenplace.net/2016/… – duhaime Jan 1 '18 at 17:52

Your derivatives $\large \frac{\partial p_j}{\partial o_i}$ are indeed correct, however there is an error when you differentiate the loss function $L$ with respect to $o_i$.
We have the following (where I have highlighted in $\color{red}{red}$ where you have gone wrong) $$\frac{\partial L}{\partial o_i}=-\sum_ky_k\frac{\partial \log p_k}{\partial o_i}=-\sum_ky_k\frac{1}{p_k}\frac{\partial p_k}{\partial o_i}\\=-y_i(1-p_i)-\sum_{k\neq i}y_k\frac{1}{p_k}({\color{red}{-p_kp_i}})\\=-y_i(1-p_i)+\sum_{k\neq i}y_k({\color{red}{p_i}})\\=-y_i+\color{blue}{y_ip_i+\sum_{k\neq i}y_k({p_i})}\\=\color{blue}{p_i\left(\sum_ky_k\right)}-y_i=p_i-y_i$$ given that $\sum_ky_k=1$ from the slides (as $y$ is a vector with only one non-zero element, which is $1$).
• @aceminer For the first line, the $y_k$ do not depend on $o_j$, so they are constants. This leads to $\frac{\partial L}{\partial o_i}=-\sum_k\color{red}{y_k}\frac{\partial \log p_k}{\partial o_i}$. Then, you use the differential identity $\frac{\partial \log{f(x)}}{\partial x}=\frac{1}{f(x)}\frac{\partial f(x)}{\partial x}$, leading to result $-\sum_ky_k\frac{1}{p_k}\frac{\partial p_k}{\partial o_i}$, at the end of the first line. For the second line, we use result $\frac{\partial p_j}{\partial o_i} = p_i(1 - p_i),\quad i = j$ and $\frac{\partial p_j}{\partial o_i} = -p_i p_j,\quad i \neq j$. – Alijah Ahmed Jun 4 '17 at 11:51

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# 0(x^2) ? and taylor series

1. Sep 22, 2007

### futurebird

1. The problem statement, all variables and given/known data

Use the real Taylor series formulae

$$e^{x} = 1 + x + O(x^{2})$$
$$cos x = 1 + O(x^{2})$$
$$sin x = x(1 + O(x^{2}))$$

where $$O(x^{2})$$ means we are omitting terms proportional to power $$x^{2}$$ (i.e., $$\lim_{x\rightarrow0} \frac{O(x^{2})}{x^{2}} = C$$ where C is a constant), to establish the following:

$$\lim_{z\rightarrow0}e^{z} - (1+z) = \lim_{r\rightarrow0} e^{rcos \theta}e^{ircos \theta} - (1 +r(cos \theta +isin \theta)) = 0$$

2. Relevant equations

I think most of them are in the problem.

3. The attempt at a solution

So, using the limit given in polar form above, I separated out the real and imaginary parts like this:

$$\lim_{r\rightarrow0} e^{rcos \theta}cos(rsin \theta) -1 - rcos \theta \;+\; i(\lim_{r\rightarrow0} e^{rcos \theta}sin(rsin \theta) - sin \theta)$$

I don't know how (or why) I should use this "$$O(x^{2})$$" thing to evaluate this limit. It seems to me that I ought to be able to find the limit now that I've moved i/ out of the way. Can you recommend any links to examples of using something like $$O(x^{2})$$ with a series to find a limit? What is grouping terms in a series in this way called?

Since, I know I need to use $$O(x^{2})$$ I tried to work with it a little:

Since,

$$e^{x} = 1 + x + \frac{x^{2}}{2!} + \frac{x^{3}}{3!} + ...$$

and

$$e^{x} = 1 + x + O(x^{2})$$

then

$$O(x^{2}) = \frac{x^{2}}{2!} + \frac{x^{3}}{3!}+ ...$$

$$O(x) = \frac{x}{2!} + \frac{x^{2}}{3!} + \frac{x^{3}}{4!} + ...$$

$$\displaystyle\sum_{j=0}^\infty \frac{x^{j+1}}{(j+2)!}$$

I don't know why that matters? $$O(x^{2})$$ Can't possibly be the same thing for each of the taylor series mentioned in the problem. What is $$O(x^{2})$$??? Is it a function?

I also tried taking the limit mentioned in the problem:

$$\lim_{x\rightarrow0} \frac{O(x^{2})}{x^{2}} = C$$

I got a different constant for $$e^{x}$$ , cos x and sin x... but, how do I relate all of this to evaluating the limit?

I'd (much) rather have a hint than a full solution. I want to work this out on my own, but it just isn't making sense at the moment. What should I read about to get ideas on how to proceed?

Last edited: Sep 22, 2007
2. Sep 22, 2007

### dynamicsolo

They're not looking for anything all that clever, really. If you start from

$$\lim_{z\rightarrow0}e^{z}$$ ,

replace z in the exponent with its polar form. Since you now have a sum in the exponent, rewrite the exponential as an appropriate product. You can now replace the various functions with their truncated approximations. [The $$O(x^{2})$$ symbol here represents all the terms where x has powers of 2 or higher, but since x << 1, these are very tiny, so we are just going to *neglect* them.] What does your *very* approximate form of e^z become?

3. Sep 22, 2007

### futurebird

I'm still lost on how to do this. $$O(x^{2})$$ has a different value for each of the taylor series. Or are you saying I can just ignore that? I don't really see how I can do that.

Why can't I just take the limits now that I have them in terms of real variables? I don't know **why** I'm being asked to use $$O(x^{2})$$.

4. Sep 22, 2007

### futurebird

This is what happens when I try to do the replacement. It just seems to make matters worse.

$$\lim_{r\rightarrow0} e^{rcos \theta}cos(rsin \theta) -1 - rcos \theta \;+\; i(\lim_{r\rightarrow0} e^{rcos \theta}sin(rsin \theta) - sin \theta)$$

$$\lim_{r\rightarrow0}(1+rcos \theta+O(r^{2}cos^{2}\theta)(1+rsin \theta +O(r^{2}sin^{2}\theta)) -1 - rcos \theta \;+\; i(\lim_{r\rightarrow0}(1+rcos \theta+O(r^{2}cos^{2}\theta)(rsin \theta(1+O(r^{2}sin^{2} \theta)) - sin \theta)$$

5. Sep 22, 2007

### Gib Z

What dynamic solo is saying that O(x^2) is just an error term in your approximation. So if you still have the constant and x terms, the error is only Cx^2, where C is some constant. When x is small, then x^2 is very small and becomes negligible.

This is all unnecessary anyway because for extremely small even the x term becomes negligible and 1 becomes the only term needed, either way the limit in non-polar form follows easily, why bother changing to polar.

6. Sep 22, 2007

### futurebird

**I think** it had to be changed to polar form so that the real and imaginary parts of the limit could be written without i in them? Maybe?

I wish I could see an example of en "error term" in action in a similar problem. The whole idea makes me really really queasy. It just seems wrong.

Thank you both for responding. I'll let you know if I ever work this out.

7. Sep 22, 2007

### dynamicsolo

You aren't being asked to use those terms; your instructor have chosen to treat the Taylor series as essentially linear approximations with an infinite set of terms added thereafter, all of which will be inconsequential as x-> 0 . (There are perhaps better ways to have written the description of this problem -- some instructors, in trying to be helpful, succeed mostly in making matters seems more complicated than they are...)

If those error terms are bothering you, try using the actual Taylor series for exp(x), cos(x), and sin(x) with, say, x = 0.001 and carry out the arithmetic for the first few terms. Then imagine repeating that for, say x = 10^-6 . This will illustrate why you can neglect/ignore/drop all the terms beyond the linear ones. Also, take a look at the results you get from a calculator (which *does* use several terms of the Taylor series in its firmware) for these functions for small positive values of x (don't forget that your input *must* be in radians!).

8. Sep 24, 2007

### futurebird

So, $$O(x^{2})$$ is just "the rest of the terms in the series" and nothing more than that?

Can I ask you if it's true that the limits of $$\frac{O(x^{2})}{x^{2}}$$ are $$\frac{1}{2}$$, $$-\frac{1}{2}$$ and $$-\frac{1}{6}$$ for $$e^{x}$$, cos x, and sin x respectively? Or am I still looking at $$O(x^{2})$$ in the wrong way?

Also, what is the significance of these limits?

9. Sep 24, 2007

### Gib Z

Yes.All you need to know is that O(x^2) means the rest of the terms with the same or larger exponent. So as x goes to zero as it does in the question, the error goes to 0, extremely fast as well!

The "Limits of..." are correct, but why are you diving by x^2? Its like saying, Ok the limit of x^2 as x goes to 0 is 0, but if we divide by x^2 it becomes 1, It doesn't matter! The error term goes to zero, thats what matters!

10. Sep 24, 2007

### futurebird

I took those limits becuse they were mentioned in the problem where it said:

$$\lim_{x\rightarrow0} \frac{O(x^{2})}{x^{2}} = C$$, where C is a constant.

I don't know why they said this. If they had said:

$$\lim_{x\rightarrow0} O(x^{2}) = 0$$

Well, that makes sense. Is :

$$\lim_{x\rightarrow0} \frac{O(x^{2})}{x^{2}} = C$$, where C is a constant.
an important step towards saying:

$$\lim_{x\rightarrow0} O(x^{2}) = 0$$?

11. Sep 24, 2007

### Gib Z

Well yes it is an important step because the first limit says that as x goes to 0, the error is only a finite number times x^2. We can conclude from that statement that the error goes to 0 as x goes to 0, since x^2 is also going to 0. C times 0 is 0 =]

12. Sep 24, 2007

### dynamicsolo

Yes, the limit for exp(x) would be 1/2 and the limit for cos(x) would be -1/2 , since the quadratic terms in the Taylor series for those functions are
(x^2)/2! and -(x^2)/2! . However, the limit for sin(x) would be 0 , because the quadratic term for *its* Taylor series is zero and the next non-zero term is -(x^3)/3! .

As GibZ says, this is really just a variant way of saying that the remaining (or residual) terms in the series have powers of x which are 2 or larger, so all of them will go to zero as x-> 0 .


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Question: Regarding Units

November 28 2011 by
false
Maple

1

Hi there

I have, for a while, been trying to find a way to force maple to display the unit im inputting.

Im studying to be an engineer, and for an example the unit i often would like displayed is kilonewtons per square metre (kN/m2).

Once i hit enter, maple converts it to Pa, which isnt really usable for me ...

The question is, is there any way to stop maple from doing the conversion in output... or, is there a way to add text that will just be displayed after the result.


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# Replacement costs add to OTC pricing upheaval

## Down the rabbit hole

As dealers have slid down the ratings spectrum in recent years, options the industry gave away for free when in better health have become painfully relevant, forcing banks to confront the latest in a long line of post-crisis pricing challenges – the replacement valuation adjustment (RVA). It may be a challenge too far.

“They’re horrible,” says the head of rates trading at one large European bank. “We have no idea how to price them or manage the risk associated with them. All I know is that if we get downgraded to a certain point and our counterparties choose to exercise the option, we are going to lose a lot of money.”

The question is how much. The options, known as downgrade triggers, allow a client to terminate a trade when a counterparty hits a certain rating level and also force that party to pay for a replacement – but banks have no way of knowing how much a new dealer might charge to enter into the trade. As a rule of thumb, one trader that has replaced other banks says a downgraded dealer might be gouged for up to 10% of a trade’s net present value.

This, of course, is the law of the jungle – and traders generally do not cry about that. What makes downgrade triggers different is the systemic risk they could present in markets where they are common, and where trading is concentrated in the hands of a small number of banks – parts of the inflation swap market, for example. Dealers and clients alike worry the downgrade of a large player in this space, and subsequent mass termination of contracts, could overwhelm the market’s ability to replace the risk.

In this scenario, traders warn the 10% rule of thumb goes out of the window – losses could be many times larger than expected. Sweeping downgrades for dealers as a whole could have a similar effect – forcing affected banks to pay their stronger peers to take on trades at a time when nobody wants to trade at all.

###### We have no idea how to price them or manage the risk associated with them

As a result, dealers are doing two things they would normally walk over hot coals to avoid – some are turning away business, and others are calling on regulators for help.

“If regulators are serious about systemic risk, then they should seriously look at not allowing these triggers to exist,” says one head of interest rate structuring at a European bank in London. “Calculating an RVA number will be meaningless as any number computed will be too low and wrong. There is not a lot you can do about it, especially in one-way or closed markets. It is much better to just forbid portfolio rating triggers in derivatives contracts – especially in dynamic portfolios – as they are a blunt source of systemic risk.”

Tim Blake, head of fixed-income department portfolio management at Credit Suisse in New York, says the bank no longer writes new business containing downgrade triggers. “We made the decision that we wanted to stay away from that kind of business. The risks can be unacceptable,” he says. And Credit Suisse is not alone. One other, smaller European dealer says it has the same policy, while at least three other banks claim to have imposed strict limits on the number of swaps they will accept with downgrade triggers.

But that means walking away from some significant clients, or even whole markets – and some banks are not willing to do that. Special-purpose vehicles (SPVs) used in securitisations are required by rating agencies to incorporate the triggers in any swaps they transact and, as a rule, traders say UK pension funds with liability driven investment (LDI) strategies also insist on downgrade triggers (Risk May 2012, pages 16–20). In addition, whatever policy banks adopt for new trades, they still have their old transactions to deal with – and are holding no specific regulatory capital against this exposure.

A typical swap contract with a downgrade trigger is structured so the option to terminate the swap can be exercised by the non-affected counterparty – the counterparty not downgraded – in the event a bank’s credit rating falls below a certain threshold. Typically, the trade is closed out at current market value – in many cases a new dealer steps into the trade – but the downgraded counterparty is responsible for footing the termination cost of the swap (see box, 1992 versus 2002 Isda close-outs).

From a pricing point of view, banks can put together a model that will assign a probability to their own downgrade, but accurately estimating the potential losses they will incur as a result is like picking a number out of the air, adding to the over-the-counter market’s fast-growing complexity, which is already causing some clients to complain that even plain-vanilla swaps cannot be fully explained to board members (see box, The red queen’s race).

When calculating RVA, the first obstacle is that – even after a dealer has fallen through the trigger level – its counterparty has a choice about whether and when to exercise. In the context of generalised distress, it may decide to stay put, reasoning there is little to be gained by looking for a new counterparty, or that doing so may take too long. It is a possibility that is easy to describe and to understand, but is far more difficult to model, banks say (Risk September 2011, pages 94–96).

The second issue is that most dealers believe there is a strong correlation between the risk of a bank’s own downgrade and the downgrade of the rest of the Street. A counterparty may be less likely to exercise the trigger if dealer ratings are all slipping, but if it does so the bank will be paying for a replacement trade in stressed conditions, which is likely to significantly inflate the bid-offer spread.

On uncollateralised trades, dealers fear the replacement cost would be even bigger. The pool of willing counterparties for these swaps has shrunk since the crisis, because of the higher funding and capital charges involved, and this could be exacerbated in the event of widespread downgrades. For collateralised trades, modelling is harder still because each bank quoting will do so on the basis of its own credit support annex – the industry standard document governing bilateral collateral posting, which determines what discount rate should be used.

Finally, RVA should take into account the possibility that the new trade will also incorporate a downgrade trigger and that quoting banks may want to insulate themselves by charging an RVA premium, and that this premium needs to reflect the same fact, and so on, in a dizzying, never-ending cascade of downgrades and replacement charges, each of which would be determined by the same incalculable risks that are contained in the first.

The bottom line is that termination costs can be high, but there is no way of confidently putting a number on them – RVA resides in the land of informed guesses, ballpark figures and back-of-the-envelope calculations. It’s not the kind of thing a dealer is generally happy to quote to a client or explain to a risk manager.

“On a trade with a mark-to-market value of, say, $100 million, a general rule is that firms will take you for$5 million–10 million, just because they can. And we’ve seen this done. We have replaced people, it’s an opportunity to profit,” says one derivatives trader at a European bank.

It can be more painful than that, too. Peter Shapiro, managing director at independent swap adviser Swap Financial, which advises governments, government agencies and non-profit organisations, says he has advised on close-outs in which local US government entities were holding heavily out-of-the-money swaps and the banks were paying to step in as replacements often quoted at steep discounts.

“We’ve seen banks get taken out at between a 10% to 20% discount from the mid-market of the trade – and sometimes much larger. That is substantial on trades with large mark-to-markets,” he says.

“Downgrade triggers are the ultimate gun-to-the-head pricing mechanism,” says Credit Suisse’s Blake. “At the point you are downgraded, you are a wounded animal and everyone knows it – the termination costs will soar and you will be killed, stuffed and mounted.”

All these issues are magnified in illiquid, concentrated markets – and a number of traders point to the long-dated, LDI-driven inflation swap market in the UK as a prime example. The market is dominated by five or six players, they say, and triggers are a common feature of these trades – so, if one of the bigger houses is downgraded, all hell could break loose.

“Rating triggers are, by their nature, wrong-way risk and are hard to quantify. But even more problematic is when these triggers are being used in a space where the underlying product flow is systemic. All banks will be same way round and a trigger will then catapult the bid-offer to unknown but most likely extreme levels – even more so when liquidity and capacity is also a constraint. Inflation and exotics markets are exposed to this kind of risk. We think this is a source of systemic risk. It is being used and pushed by pension funds and we are trying to dissuade the community from relying on these triggers,” says Guido Hebert, global head of rates structuring at HSBC in London.

The UK inflation swap market is intensely competitive, with bid-offer spreads typically between 2 and 4 basis points, traders say. But in stressed market conditions, the spreads can get as wide as 10bp, according to a trader at a large LDI manager. For a £10 billion inflation swap portfolio with an average maturity of 20 years and a £20 million sensitivity to a 1bp change in inflation – known as IE01 – this means paying the full bid-offer spread (5bp from mid-market) would result in a cost of £100 million.

“This is a big problem. A large inflation player could easily have £50 million IE01 out to pension schemes. That is massive risk to replace. You’re talking about a couple of years’ worth of market flow and many years of interbank flow. So the bid-offer is one thing, but the fact that it would also take so long even to be able to trade it is also a huge factor, as the bank is exposed to market moves in the meantime,” says the trader.

Market participants use Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to highlight the concern. The UK bank is widely seen as the dominant player in UK LDI inflation swaps, with a market share that other market participants estimate at 40% or more. If RBS is downgraded and is unable to take remedial action, the potential termination costs could make life dramatically worse for the bank, and cause the market to dislocate.

“If that happens, the market will turn upside down, the bank will haemorrhage, and the market moves will be scary. Nobody wants that situation,” says one inflation derivatives trader at a European bank.

RBS declined to comment. The UK Treasury, which manages the UK government’s stake in the bank, failed to respond to requests for comment by press time.

So, what are regulators doing about the risks posed by downgrade triggers? On the face of it, not a lot – but the issue has not gone unnoticed.

In 2010, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) published high-level principles for reducing reliance on credit rating agency ratings, which stated that market participants should not use ratings of counterparties as automatic triggers for large, discrete collateral calls in margin agreements. According to a source close to the FSB, the board includes in this principle triggers related to termination costs too, and the issue is still on the agenda.

“It is something that needs to be explored more, but it is a challenging area, and how one eliminates the mechanistic reliance on credit ratings in a bilateral contract is inherently tricky. It’s not as simple as saying the triggers are banned, but it is something that will continue to be pursued, and other methods will be considered,” says the source.

Other regulators are also aware of the issues – Denmark’s Finanstilsynet, for example, says it is monitoring the use of downgrade triggers. Two other regulators say privately they are also aware of the risk posed by the triggers, but refuse to comment further.

Randall Kroszner, a former governor of the Federal Reserve System, and Norman R Bobins professor of economics at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, believes downgrade triggers are systemically risky and should be a focus for regulators. “This was an issue I was concerned about when I was at the Fed. In principle, the contracts provide protection to the swap counterparty, which seems sensible. If the downgrades happen because of a system-wide event, however, these types of contracts can be destabilising, because all the major players can face simultaneous requirements to post extra collateral or to pay termination costs. This can result in a correlation of actions that can lead to fire-sales of assets and further downgrades. These contracts have the potential for negative systemic consequences, and regulators should be keeping a close eye on them,” he says.

Currently, the prudential framework only addresses some of the risks related to downgrade triggers. It does so through Basel III’s liquidity coverage ratio (LCR), which requires banks to hold enough highly liquid assets to cover expected outflows during a 30-day period of stress. Among the possible outflows, the LCR includes downgrade triggers embedded in financing transactions, derivatives and other contracts. Banks are expected to hold assets against outflows of collateral up to and including a three-notch downgrade, as well as early repayment of existing liabilities upon the bank’s downgrade by a recognised credit rating organisation.

This means the bank will be holding assets against collateral-posting liabilities, often incorporated in trades with SPVs at a higher rating level, so a downgrade beyond the first trigger forces a bigger collateral buffer to be provided while breaching the second triggers the replacement option. But this will not take into account the cost of terminating the trade.

There is no capital charge for these costs in the Basel capital framework. Nor do banks think there should be. “When it comes to unwinding or novating swaps, we go through typical trading steps and can end up trading above or below where we’ve marked the swap. I don’t think there is an argument to treat the swaps with downgrade triggers in a different way. However, to set capital aside for a potential mismatch between the novation price and the price it is booked at doesn’t really make sense, as otherwise you could argue there always is a risk, for any swap, that you’ll end up selling it at a price different from the one you marked it at due to market conditions. That is just profit and loss,” says the inflation trader at the European bank.

Other than not do the business, banks say the best way to protect themselves is to charge an RVA – which would insulate against loss while also discouraging counterparties from asking for downgrade triggers – and to cap the amount of these options they sell. But the bluntness of the estimate means many banks are unwilling to include a charge at all in case they end up as an outlier when competing for business.

“These are completely non-standard clauses. Banks will price them completely differently and some will not price them at all,” says Pedro Madeira, assistant treasurer at airport operator Heathrow Limited in London. “We have seen RVA on a seven-year cross-currency swap ranging from zero to over 40bp. Typically, those who price in the RVA and still intend to win trades will price RVA at around 5–15bp.”

Privately, banks say they are more likely to charge some kind of RVA for deals with SPVs because LDI business is so cut-throat. “It’s a highly competitive market – and if you’re the only one not willing to sign these agreements, you will lose business, and that is final,” says the head of interest rate trading at a European bank.

One LDI manager says he has never been charged an RVA in any of his swaps – but it’s not something he welcomes. “It just doesn’t happen, and I’m really surprised by that. These are real risks and I find it incredible that banks are allowed to not charge for it.”

Other LDI managers say getting rid of triggers may not be such a bad thing, as it is likely to improve the liquidity of swaps contracts and reduce systemic risk. “One aim of ours is to ensure we always have the best access to liquidity in our swaps portfolios and the presence of downgrade triggers makes the contracts less fungible – and therefore less liquid. If these were removed, the contracts could be much more fungible and easier to novate to another bank. We would potentially be able to manage the credit risk using other measures such as receiving independent amount,” says Simon Wilkinson, head of LDI funds at Legal & General Investment Management in London.

Other pension funds admit that if banks all started charging an RVA, they might abandon the triggers. Until that consensus emerges, though, dealers face a simple choice – tack on some kind of approximation and risk losing business, ignore it and risk losing money, or simply sit on the sidelines.

“If banks were to all start charging, I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t trade with these triggers, but they are still willing to give. Yes, sometimes it’s a bit of a bun fight, but as long as banks are willing to trade with them, our clients are going to opt for them – who wouldn’t? They’re still a free option,” says another derivatives trader at a large fund manager.

1992 versus 2002 Isda close-outs

The determination of the close-out amount for an additional termination event (ATE) – the clause that includes downgrade triggers – runs in similar fashion to an event of default under the International Swaps and Derivatives Association master agreement, but differs depending on which version of the agreement is used.

When there is an event of default, the non-defaulting counterparty typically controls the close-out process. Similarly, if an ATE based on a credit rating downgrade is exercised, the non-affected counterparty – the party that has not been downgraded – will run the process. “The non-affected party will be the one with the responsibility to calculate the close-out amount. The affected party doesn’t have any control over the process because it is in effect their default. To all intents and purposes, the process for closing out is the same as a default and the party that is not affected can treat it as an event of default,” says Allan Yip, partner at law firm Simmons & Simmons in London.

Under the 1992 master agreement, there are two methods for determining the close-out amount the non-affected counterparty can elect to use: market quotation and loss. Under the market quotation method, the non-affected party is required to solicit four firm quotes from recognised reference market-makers. If the non-affected party receives four quotes, it should knock off the highest and lowest, and average the middle two. If it receives three quotes, it should use the middle quote. The quotes should incorporate the full bid-offer spread, because the close-out amount is supposed to reflect what would be paid for a replacement transaction.

If the non-affected counterparty fails to obtain at least three quotes, it must revert to the loss method. This means the non-affected party is able to calculate the close-out on a subjective basis using a variety of different inputs including market quotes, internal models and indicative broker quotes.

Under the 2002 Isda master agreement, the process was revamped, and there is only a single valuation mechanism a non-affected counterparty can elect – the close-out amount. Under the approach, the determining party may consider either firm or indicative market quotations, which may take into account the creditworthiness of the determining party, and the terms of any relevant documentation, including credit support documentation between the determining party and the third party providing the quotation; information comprising relevant market data supplied by one or more third parties; and information from internal sources.

The red queen's race

At one point in Lewis Carroll’s hallucinatory stories about the adventures of an English schoolgirl, Alice, the bemused heroine finds herself running on the spot, but going nowhere. She is advised by a chess piece: “My dear, here we must run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that.”

Dealers find themselves in a similar situation. As happened to Alice, derivatives pricing has fallen down the rabbit hole – old certainties have been replaced by melting contradictions, and the industry now has to run just to stay in place.

“We sometimes joke that we have taken one of the simplest pricing concepts around – calculating the value of a swap by present valuing its future cashflows – and turned it into one of the most complicated pricing endeavours one could possibly find,” says a credit portfolio manager at one US bank.

The cause is the host of valuation adjustments that have become increasingly important in the post-crisis years. Where dealers used to price credit in an ad hoc way, ignoring funding costs because it was assumed that all banks could borrow near the risk-free rate, the biggest banks now have to focus vast resources on credit valuation adjustments (CVAs), funding valuation adjustments (FVAs), debit valuation adjustments and even cheapest-to-deliver valuation adjustments, in an effort to precisely quantify each and every pricing element of a trade (see pages 22–24).

Dealers say this is all necessary – they would be doing their shareholders a disservice if they were to ignore them. But the new-found complexity, allied with big disparities in approach from bank to bank, leaves customers struggling to understand and compare prices. It begs the question: is the quest for pricing perfection hurting the market?

“It has become extremely difficult to get to grips with banks’ pricing methodologies. No banks price these things the same – they all use the same terms but there is an appalling lack of standardisation among the methodologies. As a result, our job has certainly become harder,” says Pedro Madeira, London-based assistant treasurer at airport operator Heathrow Limited.

As banks have begun to incorporate credit and funding charges into swaps prices, so bid-offer spreads have exploded, especially in long-dated uncollateralised swaps, forcing corporates to engage with these complexities if they want to understand how to get a better deal.

But because of the lack of standardisation, some valuation adjustments – especially FVA – are proving a maze to navigate, even for sophisticated end-users. “The funding component is easy to get to grips with in theory, but the actual implementation is so diverse, that to compare prices across different banks becomes very difficult. How they come up with their funding curves is not standard. It’s very hard to get a handle on,” says Lars Eibeholm, treasurer of the Nordic Investment Bank in Helsinki.

The result is that it has become harder than ever to explain hedging costs to management and board members, says Heathrow’s Madeira. “It does make certain transactions much harder to explain internally. It is almost impossible, and that is a bad thing, because a portion of senior management has to accept the costs of these swaps without fully understanding how they are worked out,” he says.

As a result, some end-users are turning to advisers for help. “Companies that have frequent hedging programmes are usually able to get a grip on the pricing, as they deal with it on a daily basis. But many of our clients that do intermittent hedging or infrequent large deals are not going to know whether CVA or FVA is being charged or how the composition of the price has been achieved. It can be very difficult for these counterparties,” says Finula Cilliers, director of derivatives and hedging advisory at Rothschilds in London.

It’s not easy to know what the alternative is. Perhaps, in an ideal world, banks would agree on a standard approach to the newer elements of the pricing process – such as the choice of funding rate when calculating FVA, or the appropriate discounting curve to use when a counterparty has the option to post different types of collateral (Risk April 2013, pages 14–18). Consensus may emerge in time, but it feels a long way off to many market participants.

Still, dealers say there are no short cuts – and they insist the banks now have a better grasp of risk over the full life of derivatives trades. Pre-crisis, banks neglecting funding costs may have put on long-dated trades they thought looked profitable, only to realise years later the trades had in fact cost them dearly from a funding perspective, for example. The complexity is unfortunate but unavoidable, they say.

“The funding crisis taught market participants to focus on those issues and the industry is now more intelligent, thoughtful, focused and precise in that regard. Getting smarter about how to price and risk-manage funding is a rational response and in the best interest of the market, because pricing any risk appropriately helps encourage rational behaviour – and therefore helps reduce systemic risk,” says one head of product valuation at a US bank in New York.

But dealers also argue that while the adjustments are very complex, most end-users don’t need to understand each and every factor that goes into the pricing model – a basic grasp of the theory behind the different pricing components will suffice.

And some end-users tend to agree. “The reality is many of these pricing concepts have been around for years, and if someone can’t understand the principles behind these swaps, they shouldn’t be trading in the first place. But while the price is important, the actual nuts and bolts of the calculations of each individual element are not very relevant to the end-user,” says the head of one European sovereign debt management office.

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To access these options, along with all other subscription benefits, please contact [email protected] or view our subscription options here: http://subscriptions.risk.net/subscribe


text:
# Kelly Criterion in correlated stocks

I would like to ask if there exist any mathematical proof or model which addresses how the Kelly criterion can be applied to find portfolio weights when the stocks are correlated.

@BOOK{Luenberger1998,


text:
Settings: Tools, Extract Text - PDF Annotator Manual

# Settings: Tools, Extract Text

After selecting text from the original PDF document, the Extract Text context menu appears to perform various tasks with the selected text. You can define your own commands to appear in the context menu.

## Extract Text Commands

These commands appear in the context menu that opens after selecting text with the Extract Text tool.

You can edit Caption, Command and Parameters for each command.

The Caption will appear in the context menu.

The Command will execute when you click the entry in the Extract Text context menu. A command can either be a URL starting with http:// or https://, or a path to a locally installed program. If command is a program path, Parameters will be added to the command line when calling that program.

## Managing Commands

To add a new command, click the Plus symbol and enter Caption and Command. To remove a command, select the command and click the Minus symbol. To re-order commands, select a command and click the Up or Down button.

## Examples and Syntax

These commands usually come predefined with PDF Annotator.


text:
# Artin constant

The Artin constant is given by $$C_{\mathrm{Artin}} = \displaystyle\prod_{k=1}^{\infty} 1- \dfrac{1}{p_k(p_k-1)},$$ where $p_k$ denotes the $k$th prime number.


text:
# Some TeX Developments

Coding in the TeX world

## Writing a curriculum vitae in LaTeX: Part 4

I’ve looked over the last few days at some issues centring on writing a CV in LaTeX, first looking at the wider picture, then at creating a CV using custom macros and most recently at including a list of publications. To round things off, I’m going to create a short example: the source of my own CV cut down to a blog post. Before I do that, I’d point out that everyone’s CV is different, and while my approach makes sense for me it should be seen very much as something to pick up ideas from more than any form of template.

I’ll start as before by loading the article class and setting up some fonts. To allow a bit of flexibility, here I’ve made LuaLaTeX optional, so that the file can be processed, for example, using TeX4ht. As far as possible, the look will be the same with pdfLaTeX or LuaLaTeX (as I said earlier, I use LuaLaTeX for my CV as it makes some aspects of the real thing easier).

\documentclass[11pt]{article}

\usepackage{ifluatex}
\ifluatex
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont[Ligatures = TeX,Numbers = OldStyle]{TeX Gyre Pagella}
\setmonofont[Ligatures = TeX]{Inconsolata}
\else
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{tgpagella}
\usepackage{inconsolata}
\fi

The next phase is to load the rest of the support needed, with hyperref last as this is usually the best idea.

\usepackage{array,etaremune,geometry,fixltx2e,microtype,pifont}
\usepackage{ragged2e,titlesec,xcolor}
\usepackage{hyperref}

Setting up hyperref is easy, so that is done next.

\hypersetup
{
pdfauthor = Joseph Wright    ,
pdftitle  = Curriculum Vitae
}

Now there is some adjustment of the appearance. The page size is adjusted, and as I described in part 2 I set up a custom appearance for sections and subsections. I also miss out page numbers (which should not really be needed in a two page CV), and alter spacing a little.

\geometry
{
a4paper         ,
nofoot          ,
hmargin = 1.5cm ,
vmargin = 2cm
}

\titleformat{\section}{\Large\bfseries\sffamily}{}{0 em}
{%
\begingroup
\color{gray!30}%
\titleline{\leaders\hrule height 0.6 em\hfill\kern 0 pt\relax}%
\endgroup
\nobreak
\vspace{-1.2 em}%
\nobreak
}

\titleformat{\subsection}{\large\itshape}{}{0 em}{}

\renewcommand*\arraystretch{1.4}
\pagestyle{empty}
\frenchspacing

## Specialist macros

Now comes some custom code, first for publications as I described in part 3.

\newcommand*{\paper}[2]
{\item \href{http://dx.doi.org/#1}{\ignorespaces#2\unskip.}}
\newcommand*{\papertitle}[1]
{%
\begingroup
\ifluatex
\fi
\emph{#1}%
\endgroup
}

Next is the set up for the tabular nature of the CV. The text used here sets the width of the left-hand column, so may need to be adjusted to suite whatever is the widest thing you actually use!

\newlength{\sidewidth}
\newlength{\mainwidth}
\AtBeginDocument
{%
\settowidth{\sidewidth}{\textbf{Professional bodies}\hspace{0.75 em}}%
\setlength{\mainwidth}{\dimexpr\linewidth - \sidewidth\relax}%
}

Finally for the preamble, the macros which actually go into the body of the CV.

\newcommand*{\headline}[1]
{%
\hbox{%
\llap{\ding{72}\hspace*{0.2 em}}%
\textbf{#1}%
}%
}
\newenvironment{CVtable}
{%
\begin{tabular}
{@{}>{\bfseries}p{\sidewidth}@{}>{\RaggedRight}p{\mainwidth}@{}}%
}
{\end{tabular}}

## The document body

There is not so much you can say about the body of the CV! As described before, I start of with some general contact details.

\begin{document}

% Title block
\begin{raggedleft}
\textbf{Joseph Wright}    \\
School of Chemistry       \\
University of East Anglia \\
Norwich NR4 7TJ           \\
Tel.: 01603 592902        \\
Mobile: 0797 414 8180     \\
\href{mailto:joseph.wright@uea.ac.uk}
{\texttt{joseph.wright@uea.ac.uk}} \\
\end{raggedleft}

\begin{center}
\Huge\bfseries\sffamily
Joseph Alexander Wright
\end{center}

The first of several sections. Here, I’ve taken one which also has subsections, which work in the normal way.

\section{Employment history}

\subsection{Current position}

\begin{CVtable}
2008-- &
\headline{PDRA -- University of East Anglia} \par
Supervisor Prof.~C.~J.~Pickett \par
Studies on [Fe]- and [FeFe]-hydrogenase active sites mimics \par
Synthesis of novel ligands and model compounds \par
Mechanistic studies using stopped-flow UV and IR spectroscopies
\\
\end{CVtable}

\subsection{Previous positions}

\begin{CVtable}
2007--2008 &
\headline{Senior Demonstrator -- University of East Anglia} \par
Teaching degree level chemistry:
tutorials and laboratory classes \par
Preparation of M.~Chem.~third year practical course in
organic chemistry
\end{CVtable}

\dots

Several more sections would now follow, but I’ll leave this to the imagination.

\section{Academic history}

\dots

I find that it’s best to start a publication list on a new page, as I have quite a lot. In the UK, this list does not count as part of the general CV, so is allowed to go beyond two pages. As I said in part 3 of the series, it’s often useful to have this list as a separate file.

\newpage

\section{List of Publications}

\begin{etaremune}[start = 45] % Remember to adjust this
\paper{10.1021/ja2087536}{
\papertitle{Paramagnetic Bridging Hydrides of Relevance to Catalytic
Hydrogen Evolution at Metallosulfur Centers}, A.~Jablonskyt{\.e},
J.\,A.~Wright, S.\,A.~Fairhurst, J.\,N.\,T.~Peck, S.\,K.~Ibrahim,
V.\,S.~Oganesyan, and C.\,J.~Pickett, \emph{J.~Am. Chem. Soc.},
in press
}

\paper{10.1039/c1cc11320h}{
\papertitle{The role of CN and CO ligands in the vibrational relaxation
dynamics of model compounds of the [FeFe]-\break hydrogenase enzyme},
S.~Kaziannis, J.\,A.~Wright, M.~Candelaresi, R.~Kania, G.\,M.~Greetham,
A.\,W.~Parker, C.\,J.~Pickett and N.\,T.~Hunt
\emph{Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys.}, 2011, \textbf{13}, 10295--10305
}

\end{etaremune}

\dots

\end{document}

Written by Joseph Wright

November 8th, 2011 at 8:31 pm

Posted in General

Tagged with ,

## Writing a curriculum vitae in LaTeX: Part 3

I work in a university, so an important part of my CV is a list of my publications. In part 2, I described how I put together the bulk of my CV using some custom macros: here, I’ll focus on publications.

## BibTeX?

The obvious approach to setting up a publication list is to use a BibTeX database. I have all of my publications in one, so that does suggest itself as an easy way to go. As with the balance between pre-built styles and custom macros, I’ve decided that for a CV the task is sufficiently specialised that doing it by hand is actually easier. There are a few reasons.

Usually, you give your publications in date order, newest first. That won’t quite come out correctly if you simply order by year, so using BibTeX it’s best to \nocite the keys in the order you want. No big deal, but it does mean you can’t just dump them all in one go.

There are a couple of style differences between what I want in my CV and what I’d usually use in a publication. We chemists don’t normally include article titles in citations, but for a CV it makes sense to add these. At the same time, I like to add hyperlinks to my publications in my CV using the DOI system. These can both be added to a standard BibTeX style (indeed, my own biblatex-chem style already has a switch for titles), but of course it’s another thing to sort out.

The inclusion of article titles brings me to perhaps the biggest reason that I’m not using BibTeX for my CV. Chemistry titles tend to contain lots of awkward material, such as formulae, which are hard to line break well. So there is a bit of work to do by hand to get things looking right. If I only ever used the publication list in my CV, with one set of formatting rules, then that would be fine. However, I use it in a few ways, and so manually adjusting line breaks via BibTeX is more awkward than simply including the text directly.

## A little structure

While usually my publication list is part of my CV, I sometimes need it as a stand-alone document. So I have the list itself as a separate file, and \input it into the main CV source. So all I have to do for a stand-alone list of publications is write a short wrapper around the list (again as a separate file).

Whether you use BibTeX or not, you’ll need to do is set up a reverse-enumerated environment, so that the most recent publication has the highest number. I do that using the etaremune package, which provides a suitable environment. The package needs to know how many items to enumerate, so either two LaTeX runs or a known starting value are needed. As I work by hand, I go with the latter approach

\begin{etaremune}[start  = 45] % Update when you add a publication
...
\end{etaremune}

It’s then just a question of filling in the items. I use a couple of custom macros for this. First, to let me quickly wrap up each entire item in a hyperlink, I define

\newcommand*{\paper}[2]{%
% Standard style
\item \href{http://dx.doi.org/#1}{\ignorespaces#2\unskip.}
% Including DOI
%\item \href{http://dx.doi.org/#1}
%  {\ignorespaces#2\unskip.\\\textsc{doi}: \texttt{#1}}
}

which takes the text as #1 and the DOI as #2. As you can see from the comments, this lets me quickly decide whether I want to include the DOI in the printed output or to just use it to create a link.

The second custom macro is one for the paper title

\newcommand*{\papertitle}[1]{%
\begingroup
\emph{#1}%
\endgroup
}

There are a couple of reasons for having a macro here. The first is that lining numbers seem to work better in chemical formulae than lower case ones do: of course this is my opinion! The second reason is that it makes it easy to quickly omit the title entirely if I need a short version of the publication list.

## Putting it all together

I’ve covered a few different ideas for creating a CV in LaTeX. Each one is I hope pretty simple, and as I’ve said most people want a CV that’s in a style they have chosen. But it’s always nice to have something complete to start from. So in the final part of this short series, I’ll put the various ideas together into an example.

Written by Joseph Wright

November 7th, 2011 at 9:18 am

Posted in General

Tagged with ,

## Writing a curriculum vitae in LaTeX: Part 2

In part 1, I looked at some general ideas about writing CVs, and said that my approach is to ‘roll my own’ format based on the standard article class. Here, I want to look at the process in a bit more detail. Most of this is about using LaTeX, and so the ideas I use apply to many other cases.

I make use of quite a few packages to get the appearance as I want. Rather than list all of them at once, I’ll take about the effects I’m aiming for, and include the package names as I go.

## Setting up the appearance

Starting from the article class, the first thing to address is the overall appearance of the CV. The standard Computers Modern font is well designed, but I guess says ‘LaTeX’ in a may that many people don’t want for a CV. With the availability of XeTeX and LuaTeX, using system fonts is easy (using fontspec, of course), and that’s particularly useful if like me you have some non-Latin characters that you’d like to include in the CV but keep visually ‘matching’ everything else.  For me, LuaTeX turns out to be a better choice than XeTeX (I want fully-functional microtypography as it helps with typesetting chemical names), so my CV starts off with

% !TeX program = LuaLaTeX
\documentclass[11pt,draft]{article}

% Font set up
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont[Ligatures = TeX,Numbers = OldStyle]{TeX Gyre Pagella}
\setmonofont[Ligatures = TeX]{Inconsolata}

Here, as well as loading the fonts I like, I’ve set up to use lower case (old style) numbers as recommend by Bringhurst. I’ve also included a ‘magic’ comment to let my editor know to use LuaLaTeX. You might wonder about the draft option: I’ll come back to that later.

As I say, I want microtypography set up, so do

\usepackage[final]{microtype}

(Using the final option here will override the draft one set for the document class.)

That sets up the fonts, but what about page layout? Well, the standard here is to use the geometry package

\usepackage[a4paper,nohead,nofoot,hmargin=1.5cm,vmargin=2cm]{geometry}

I have pretty small margins, as for a CV this seems to make the most sense. I’m also not going to use a header or footer (so set \pagestyle{empty}), and so remove the space normally reserved for those.

Before looking at the content of the CV, I’ll mention hyperlinks as these come up throughout. My CV usually gets sent electronically, and I want to be able to include links for my e-mail address and publications. So I have

\usepackage[final]{hyperref}

\hypersetup
{
pdfauthor = Joseph Wright ,
pdftitle = Curriculum Vitae
}

at the end of my package-loading section. The hyperref package deals with the links, while the set up makes them blend in to the text and adds my name to the PDF information.

A very common way to start a CV is with basic contact details: what I’m going to call an ‘address block’. I do this very simply

\begin{document}

% Title block
\begin{raggedleft}
\textbf{Joseph Wright}    \\
School of Chemistry       \\
University of East Anglia \\
Norwich NR4 7TJ           \\
Tel.: 01603 592902        \\
Mobile: 0797 414 8180     \\
\href{mailto:joseph.wright@uea.ac.uk}
{\texttt{joseph.wright@uea.ac.uk}} \\
\end{raggedleft}

This therefore sits at the top of the first page, and comes out (to my mind) in a very pleasing style.

Also as part of the lead-off, it’s normal to have your name (never ‘Curriculum Vitae’), which again I do in a very straightforward way

\begin{center}
\Huge\bfseries\sffamily
Joseph Alexander Wright
\end{center}

## Sections and subsections

A CV needs several sections, for example ‘Employment history’, ‘Skills’ and so on. The standard LaTeX \section is the best choice of logical mark up for these, but the appearance is going to be wrong without adjustment. Taking some inspiration from the CurVe class, and using the abilities of titlesec and xcolor, the output can be customised to give something much more pleasing for a CV. I use

% Create some nice looking section dividers without too much fuss
\titleformat\section{\Large\bfseries\sffamily}{}{0 em}
{%
% This is put in _before_ the text so that an overlap is possible
\begingroup
\color{gray!30}%
\titleline{\leaders\hrule height 0.6 em\hfill\kern 0 pt\relax}%
\endgroup
\nobreak
\vspace{-1.2 em}%
\nobreak
}

which inserts a grey bar across the page, and places the name of the section (with no number) partially overlapping the bar.

For subsections, I go for a much lower visual impact

\titleformat{\subsection}{\large\itshape}{}{0 em}{}

which is enough to make them stand out from the body text, but keeps things flowing.

## The main body: lots of tables

The normal layout for the body of a CV is to use something based on a table, with ‘entries’ on the left and ‘information’ on the right. This can be done in lots of ways, but the approach I take is to set up a fixed column width in the preamble, then apply this to all of the CV. That requires a bit of set up

% Semi-automatically set up the table width
\newlength\sidewidth
\newlength\mainwidth
\AtBeginDocument{%
\settowidth\sidewidth{\textbf{Professional bodies}\hspace{0.75 em}}%
\setlength\mainwidth{\dimexpr\linewidth - \sidewidth\relax}%
}

Here, I’m setting two lengths to control the tables, with the only hard-coded part being the text I use to set the left-hand side width. I use the longest entry I’m going to use: in my case this is ‘Professional bodies’.

I then need the tables themselves. As they are all the same, it makes sense to set them up as a new kind of environment

\newenvironment{CVtable}
{%
\begin{tabular}
{@{}>{\bfseries}p{\sidewidth}@{}>{\RaggedRight}p{\mainwidth}@{}}%
}
{\end{tabular}}

(this uses the array package). I also \renewcommand*\arraystretch{1.4}, as this spreads the tables out a bit and I think makes things look less crowded.

The new environment is then used for each (sub)section, and contains the body of the CV, for example

\section{Employment history}

\subsection{Current position}

\begin{CVtable}
2008-- &
\headline{PDRA -- University of East Anglia} \par
Supervisor Prof.~C.~J.~Pickett \par
Studies on [Fe]- and [FeFe]-hydrogenase active sites mimics \par
Synthesis of novel ligands and model compounds \par
Mechanistic studies using stopped-flow UV and IR spectroscopies
\\
\end{CVtable}

\subsection{Previous positions}

\begin{CVtable}
2007--2008 &
\headline{Senior Demonstrator -- University of East Anglia} \par
Teaching degree level chemistry:
tutorials and laboratory classes \par
Preparation of M.~Chem.~third year practical course in
organic chemistry
\\

2005--2008 &
\headline{PDRA -- University of East Anglia} \par
Supervisor Prof.~M.~Bochmann \par
Use of zirconium phosphonates as heterogeneous catalyst supports \par
Synthesis of novel ligand systems for early transition metals
\\

2003--2004 &
\headline{PDRA -- University of Southampton} \par
Supervisor Dr A.\,A.~Danopoulos \par
Synthesis of novel N-heterocyclic carbene complexes \par
Catalytic testing on novel systems
\\
\end{CVtable}

You’ll notice the \headline macro here: it’s another formatting shortcut. It’s for making effectively subsubsections within my CV table, and is defined as

\newcommand*\headline[1]{%
\hbox{%
\llap{\ding{72}\hspace*{0.2 em}}%
\textbf{#1}%
}%
}

making use of the pifont package to provide a nice-looking star for each entry. You’ll see in the above example that I use it for things like marking up each job I’ve had in the table of employment history.

## Other refinements

As I mentioned in part 1, one of the advantages of using LaTeX is that you can store information in your CV as comments. That might be as simple as commenting-out lines that you want to miss out for a particular job, but you might also want to deal with longer optional sections. The comment package is ideal for this, as it lets you mark up sections for inclusion or exclusion in a pretty rapid way.

I mentioned earlier that I set the draft option for my CV, then override it on a package-by-package basis. The reason is that this will always include bars for overfull boxes: useful as you want to check for these.

In the academic area, a list of publications is an important part of a CV (it’s probably the most important part, actually). I’ve got a few things to say about that area, but this post is already long enough, so it will wait for the next part!

Written by Joseph Wright

November 6th, 2011 at 12:08 pm

Posted in General

Tagged with ,

## Writing a curriculum vitae in LaTeX: Part 1

Writing a curriculum vitae (what Americans would call a résumé) is something that most of us have to do when applying for jobs. LaTeX users will naturally want to do this using LaTeX. Beyond the technical detail, there’s also the question of the wider requirements for a CV: while these are not LaTeX-related, they do form an important part of the process. So here I’d like to look first at the big picture, and then at some of the LaTeX approaches available.

## What is a CV?

Before we look at writing a CV, it’s important to be clear on what its for. Broadly, a CV is a condensed and (hopefully) easy-to-read summary of your qualifications and job experience. Most people want their CV to look good, but it’s important to remember that most employers have a tick list of items to find, and the look is probably of marginal importance in most cases. Of course, LaTeX users will still want to take the time to get a great visual result. (If you are applying for a job with a heavy dependence on visual design, then appearance may be the key!)

The other thing to bear in mind is that the requirements for a CV are dependent on the country and subject area you are in. Here in the UK, the normal advice is that a CV should only be two pages long. For academic jobs (like mine), a list of publications will often make the CV longer, while for industrial positions statements about your abilities, non-work activities and so forth are common. There’s also a strong feeling against having a photograph, both here in the UK and in the US, for equal opportunities reasons. On the other hand, several other countries have very different conventions, so before you start it’s important to check on what is needed.

Each job you apply for is different, and that means each CV you send of should be targeted to that job if possible. So while the basic structure will vary slowly, you should consider what to emphasise in each application. That’s an area where LaTeX’s ability to comment out lines can be a real bonus.

## Classes

As a CV is a specialist type of document, it’s no surprise that CTAN features a number of dedicated classes. I’m seen a few questions recently about moderncv, while in the past I used CurVe. In these and other cases, the idea is to use a mix of standard mark up and specialist macros to construct the output. In most cases, there is some form of tabular-like appearance generated along with the necessary headings and so on.

There are advantages and disadvantages to using one of these classes. Most obviously, someone else provides both the mechanisms you need and (hopefully) a good example to start from. The problem tends to be that altering the layout can be a bit awkward. As I said, while CV appearance may not actually be vital, most of us want to make our CV ‘personal’, which means altering the appearance.

## Roll-your-own

The alternative to using a pre-built class is to construct your CV yourself, setting up a structure that makes sense to you. Now, there is a bit of effort needed to do this, but it does allow you to decide on exactly how things will look. For my own CV, I used to use CurVe, but in the end decided this was actually making my life more, not less, complex. So the current source is based on the standard article, using some custom macros.

Most of what I’ve done in my CV is pretty simple, but it’s always nice to have documented examples. That would probably make this post a little too long, so I’ll return to look at the detail in my next post.

Written by Joseph Wright

November 5th, 2011 at 10:40 pm

Posted in General

Tagged with ,


text:
Ask Your Question

Revision history [back]

One approach is to use symbolic expressions instead of functions, e.g.

var('t')
r = vector([1, t])

An apparent downside is that this blurs the line between variables and symbolic constants which might also appear:

var('t,c')
r = vector([1, c*t])

However, many operations which are really operations on functions are implemented in Sage as operations on symbolic expressions, where the dependent variables are passed alongside the symbolic expression.

For example, to calculate the Jacobian:

sage: jacobian(r, [t])
[0]
[c]

One approach is to use symbolic expressions instead of functions, e.g.

var('t')
r = vector([1, t])

The addition example becomes slightly verbose (but certainty unambiguous):

r(t=1) + r(t=2)

An apparent downside is that this blurs the line between variables and symbolic constants which might also appear:

var('t,c')
r = vector([1, c*t])

However, many operations which are really operations on functions are implemented in Sage as operations on symbolic expressions, where the dependent variables are passed alongside the symbolic expression.

For example, to calculate the Jacobian:

sage: jacobian(r, [t])
[0]
[c]

One approach is to use symbolic expressions instead of functions, e.g.

var('t')
r = vector([1, t])

The addition example becomes slightly verbose (but certainty unambiguous):

r(t=1) + r(t=2)

An apparent downside is that this blurs the line between variables and symbolic constants which might also appear:

var('t,c')
r s = vector([1, c*t])

However, many operations which are really operations on functions are implemented in Sage as operations on symbolic expressions, where the dependent variables are passed alongside the symbolic expression.

For example, to calculate the Jacobian:

sage: jacobian(r, jacobian(s, [t])
[0]
[c]

One approach is to use symbolic expressions instead of functions, e.g.

var('t')
r = vector([1, t])

The addition example becomes slightly verbose (but certainty certainly unambiguous):

r(t=1) + r(t=2)

An apparent downside is that this blurs the line between variables and symbolic constants which might also appear:

var('t,c')
s = vector([1, c*t])

However, many operations which are really operations on functions are implemented in Sage as operations on symbolic expressions, where the dependent variables are passed alongside the symbolic expression.

For example, to calculate the Jacobian:

sage: jacobian(s, [t])
[0]
[c]


text:
# Bibliothèque

Musique » The Killers »

## Smile Like You Mean It

274 écoutes | Se rendre sur la page du titre

Titres (274)
Titre Album Durée Date
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 7 juin 2014, 16h44m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 13 mai 2014, 22h12m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 13 mai 2014, 22h12m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 30 jan. 2014, 2h23m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 30 jan. 2014, 2h23m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 14 déc. 2013, 6h01m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 26 nov. 2013, 3h36m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 10 oct. 2013, 9h40m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 5 oct. 2013, 4h05m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 7 août 2013, 3h56m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 23 jui. 2013, 20h34m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 13 jui. 2013, 1h53m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 13 jui. 2013, 1h53m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 13 jui. 2013, 1h53m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 22 juin 2013, 0h44m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 25 mai 2013, 2h18m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 25 mai 2013, 2h18m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 25 mai 2013, 2h18m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 25 mai 2013, 2h14m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 30 avr. 2013, 17h44m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 30 avr. 2013, 17h44m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 30 avr. 2013, 17h44m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 23 mars 2013, 20h13m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 23 mars 2013, 20h13m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 5 mars 2013, 2h11m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 17 fév. 2013, 21h02m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 17 fév. 2013, 2h11m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 fév. 2013, 23h04m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 31 déc. 2012, 13h14m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 31 déc. 2012, 12h01m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 31 déc. 2012, 1h42m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 17 déc. 2012, 22h03m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 11 déc. 2012, 4h12m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 18 nov. 2012, 15h54m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 9 nov. 2012, 21h32m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 8 nov. 2012, 22h06m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 7 nov. 2012, 7h04m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 6 nov. 2012, 5h00m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 8 sept. 2012, 22h44m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 4 sept. 2012, 7h50m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 5 août 2012, 8h28m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 21 juin 2012, 5h23m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 20 juin 2012, 21h28m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 10 juin 2012, 19h23m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 19 mai 2012, 12h27m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 31 mars 2012, 4h23m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 25 mars 2012, 13h07m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 19 mars 2012, 15h38m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 8 mars 2012, 6h54m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 5 mars 2012, 0h33m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 4 mars 2012, 17h49m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 28 fév. 2012, 3h41m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 17 jan. 2012, 4h53m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 16 jan. 2012, 2h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 1 déc. 2011, 13h22m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 1 déc. 2011, 9h55m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 4 nov. 2011, 18h41m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 23 oct. 2011, 21h46m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 23 oct. 2011, 20h05m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 18 oct. 2011, 23h29m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 10 oct. 2011, 0h13m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 3 oct. 2011, 3h14m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 18 sept. 2011, 4h52m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 1 sept. 2011, 16h11m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 25 août 2011, 3h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 12 août 2011, 18h06m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 7 août 2011, 22h21m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 6 août 2011, 22h33m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 jui. 2011, 3h43m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 3 jui. 2011, 1h09m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 26 juin 2011, 6h39m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 25 juin 2011, 23h06m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 22 juin 2011, 7h37m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 20 juin 2011, 14h59m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 14 juin 2011, 23h17m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 1 juin 2011, 5h52m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 25 mai 2011, 19h15m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 19 mai 2011, 7h07m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 18 mai 2011, 5h49m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 16 mai 2011, 16h13m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 13 mai 2011, 5h36m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 8 mai 2011, 21h40m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 6 mai 2011, 3h46m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 10 avr. 2011, 18h22m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 9 avr. 2011, 20h59m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 29 mars 2011, 0h23m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 22 mars 2011, 23h43m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 2 mars 2011, 22h22m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 25 fév. 2011, 6h00m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 19 nov. 2010, 6h25m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 18 nov. 2010, 8h25m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 18 nov. 2010, 6h05m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 nov. 2010, 0h09m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 14 nov. 2010, 23h47m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 14 nov. 2010, 19h46m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 14 nov. 2010, 18h58m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 10 nov. 2010, 5h47m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 8 nov. 2010, 6h54m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 23 août 2010, 19h32m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 23 août 2010, 16h42m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 avr. 2010, 23h13m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 6 avr. 2010, 5h03m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 22 mars 2010, 5h32m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 20 mars 2010, 5h02m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 7 jan. 2010, 3h53m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 déc. 2009, 7h01m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 9 déc. 2009, 7h01m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 29 nov. 2009, 17h56m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 29 nov. 2009, 17h14m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 12 nov. 2009, 10h19m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 12 nov. 2009, 6h25m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 11 nov. 2009, 6h36m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 11 nov. 2009, 5h00m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 28 oct. 2009, 2h02m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 18 oct. 2009, 3h13m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 17 oct. 2009, 20h25m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 17 oct. 2009, 6h02m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 7 oct. 2009, 22h05m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 27 sept. 2009, 21h48m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 6 sept. 2009, 21h04m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 31 jui. 2009, 5h07m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 31 jui. 2009, 2h18m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 23 jui. 2009, 0h34m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 22 jui. 2009, 19h47m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 22 jui. 2009, 19h30m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 18 jui. 2009, 7h02m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 18 jui. 2009, 4h56m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 5 jui. 2009, 22h16m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 14 juin 2009, 23h55m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 6 juin 2009, 23h12m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 30 avr. 2009, 4h20m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 30 avr. 2009, 3h21m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 26 avr. 2009, 0h57m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 22 mars 2009, 20h14m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 1 mars 2009, 0h21m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 26 fév. 2009, 21h55m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 22 fév. 2009, 4h05m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 20 fév. 2009, 3h33m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 10 fév. 2009, 1h33m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 10 fév. 2009, 0h53m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 9 fév. 2009, 4h07m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 8 fév. 2009, 23h53m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 29 jan. 2009, 22h43m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 26 jan. 2009, 20h27m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 23 jan. 2009, 6h58m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 14 jan. 2009, 23h51m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 2 jan. 2009, 7h17m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 31 déc. 2008, 6h27m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 30 déc. 2008, 5h30m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 29 déc. 2008, 22h30m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 29 déc. 2008, 21h58m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 29 déc. 2008, 21h05m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 26 déc. 2008, 6h24m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 24 déc. 2008, 22h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 22 déc. 2008, 3h51m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 18 déc. 2008, 3h13m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 17 déc. 2008, 23h04m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 17 déc. 2008, 19h42m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 17 déc. 2008, 18h23m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 17 déc. 2008, 0h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 16 déc. 2008, 22h13m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 16 déc. 2008, 8h35m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 16 déc. 2008, 8h19m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 16 déc. 2008, 6h57m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 16 déc. 2008, 6h48m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 16 déc. 2008, 5h31m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 16 déc. 2008, 5h27m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 16 déc. 2008, 5h23m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 16 déc. 2008, 2h59m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 16 déc. 2008, 2h43m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 16 déc. 2008, 2h28m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 16 déc. 2008, 2h19m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 16 déc. 2008, 0h31m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 déc. 2008, 21h20m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 déc. 2008, 19h12m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 déc. 2008, 18h47m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 14 déc. 2008, 2h23m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 14 déc. 2008, 1h03m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 13 déc. 2008, 23h56m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 13 déc. 2008, 23h40m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 13 déc. 2008, 18h40m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 13 déc. 2008, 18h24m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 13 déc. 2008, 17h45m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 13 déc. 2008, 1h12m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 12 déc. 2008, 8h40m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 10 déc. 2008, 21h20m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 10 déc. 2008, 20h24m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 10 déc. 2008, 19h41m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 10 déc. 2008, 19h21m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 7 déc. 2008, 5h33m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 29 nov. 2008, 1h03m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 28 nov. 2008, 19h17m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 25 nov. 2008, 16h56m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 8 nov. 2008, 22h46m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 3 nov. 2008, 3h23m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 19 oct. 2008, 0h51m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 17 oct. 2008, 20h03m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 17 oct. 2008, 6h04m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 16 oct. 2008, 17h57m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 8 oct. 2008, 23h40m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 29 sept. 2008, 4h00m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 28 sept. 2008, 20h05m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 28 sept. 2008, 17h47m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 28 sept. 2008, 7h13m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 28 sept. 2008, 6h53m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 28 sept. 2008, 5h58m
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Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 27 sept. 2008, 23h58m
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Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 7 sept. 2008, 23h15m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 7 sept. 2008, 6h05m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 6 sept. 2008, 23h40m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 3 sept. 2008, 23h35m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 2 sept. 2008, 18h29m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 8 août 2008, 22h47m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 24 jui. 2008, 6h32m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 22 jui. 2008, 22h12m
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Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 20 jui. 2008, 1h29m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 20 jui. 2008, 0h05m
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Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 19 jui. 2008, 22h47m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 18 jui. 2008, 3h31m
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Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 14 jui. 2008, 19h28m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 12 jui. 2008, 5h03m
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Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 2 jui. 2008, 15h52m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 28 juin 2008, 0h44m
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Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 14 juin 2008, 0h24m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 13 juin 2008, 0h58m
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Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 16 avr. 2008, 22h50m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 15 avr. 2008, 22h18m
Smile Like You Mean It
3:57 9 avr. 2008, 19h08m
Smile Like You Mean It 3:57 30 mars 2008, 22h34m


text:
# Sheer stupidity.

Status
Not open for further replies.

##### Banned

My wife got a JVC LCD TV LT-26X575 a few years ago from work in good condition with no stand or remote. We picked up a remote just so we could get it to work (controls won't let you do anything useful without the remote)

But the replacement cost on the stand from JVC is 150 dollars!
This is an early 720P LCD TV, only 26 inches.

A brand new 26 inch TV with stand cables remotes and everything is only 250 dollars....

I just don't get it.

#### Chippie

##### Member

A brand new 26 inch TV with stand cables remotes and everything is only 250 dollars....

I just don't get it.

But..is the new tv a JVC or else just some el cheapo brand name?

Do you need a stand for it?

##### Banned
That's what I said in the post didn't I? Why would you ask that?

#### Chippie

##### Member
That's what I said in the post didn't I? Why would you ask that?

Wow....ducks for cover....

Soz I commented on your post...

Sounds like you need help...

##### Banned
Umm... This is the ****-chat forum. All I was doing was griping that the replacement cost of just a stand was greater than 50% of the cost of a new TV. Didn't want help was just a gripe =) You asked a question that had already been answered in my original post. Didn't make sense.

The 26" TV is actually 5 inches shorter vertically than the 26" standard tube we have in our living room because of the aspect ratio difference so it's not worth spending any real money on it, I'd mainly like to use it as an auxiliary PC monitor at some point, at which point I'll just build a stand for it myself.

Last edited:

#### tcmtech

##### Banned
I thought this was going to be a thread on stupid people and the many things they do that make us wonder how why they manage to live and multiply at such alarming rates.

Turns out its just a 'getting ripped off by the manufacture' thread.

#### tcmtech

##### Banned
Have at it!

If you dont have anything nice to say come sit by me and we will compare stories!

##### Banned
Not hostile at all Chippie, it was as simple question. Why would you ask that? =) If I smile and joke does it sound less hostile? =)

I think we have enough threads in here like that already tcmtech, although someone really should spend the time to collect them all into one nice grouping. You've posted some doozies.

Last edited:

#### Chippie

##### Member
Not hostile at all Chippie, it was as simple question. Why would you ask that? =) If I smile and joke does it sound less hostile? =)
QUOTE]

Yes....

I find it all too easy to write something and press the enter key without reading what has been typed in...

There are times when I write, re-read and dont even bother to reply because of what I've written may offend or be taken in the wrong context...

##### Banned
Chippie...
"That's what I said didn't I?" is completely neutral question because I did say that =) "Why would you ask that?" was a simple question because your post didn't make sense. You can infer any emotional connotation to the words I used, believe me none was intended.

People will always take what you say in the wrong context eventually, as this thread seems to obviously show =) that's why I asked. All you can do is ask, but if you think I was being hostile, I can absolutely positively state that I had no intention of being hostile. Like TCM said, there's a lot of variety of people here, pretty much none of us think the same so if you perceive an emotional responce in something as simple as the words that go on here you have to get things clarified, there aren't any visual or audio clues as to intention like in real life.

#### tcmtech

##### Banned
being socially polite and reserved is very admirable. But unfortunately some times you just have to have a bit of a fit and toss some stuff around while getting up in someones business in order to get the proper service you expect!

I did the reserved and quiet thing for most of my life and got nothing for it. So I learned to be more outspoken and more thick skinned in regards to others comments and actions. I do get more of what I want in return now and dont feel bad for doing it either!

I've been through the same experience with getting replacement parts as you. It sucks and it unfair that you can buy something new for what a replacement part costs.
My printer cost $38 new and will print about 200 pages before the ink cartridges run out. The new cartridges cost around$45 for the set and will print about 200 pages also.

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#### JimB

##### Super Moderator
My wife got a JVC LCD TV LT-26X575 a few years ago from work in good condition with no stand or remote. We picked up a remote just so we could get it to work (controls won't let you do anything useful without the remote)
But the replacement cost on the stand from JVC is 150 dollars!

Chippie said:
Do you need a stand for it?

That's what I said in the post didn't I? Why would you ask that?

At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, no you did not.

You stated that the TV had no stand, and that the cost of a replacement stand was $150. It is IMPLIED that you need a stand, but you DID NOT STATE EXPLICITLY that you needed a stand. There is a difference. JimB #### Sceadwian ##### Banned Sanity check on thread 100633 please, sanity check on thread 100633. #### tcmtech ##### Banned Most Helpful Member Hey Sceadwian you ever get the feeling some people have nothing better to do than sit on a chat forum and nit pick stuff just to be jerks some days? You know you made it to the big time when you cant even have a good rant without getting run over for it! #### Roff ##### Well-Known Member If the TV is several years old, they won't be manufacturing the stand in volume. As we all know, price goes up as volume goes down (usually). One of the issues here is sensitivity to "tone of voice". The other may be that some people are a lot more literal than others. I read Sceadwian's original post, and I knew exactly what he meant. apparently, Chippie didn't. #### be80be ##### Well-Known Member Your tv is like a laptop I got some years back I needed the power supply they wanted more then what I paid for it I got it on ebay It was made for telephone repair men I gave$200.00 for it used and it came with out the power supply.
The supply cost something like \$159.00 for a new one I done some checking and a 12 volt DC wall wart worked just fine with it.
Looks like the ass that sold it to me would of said it didn't have one with it when he said it worked lol

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# Fractional Part of a Circle

A complete or whole circle is taken as 1 and parts of the circles are represented as fractions. For example, if a circle is divided into 8 equal parts, each of the parts represents the fraction 1/8. Three parts of such a circle would represent 3/8 and on.
Here we are dealing with a type of problems, where fractions representing certain parts in a circle are given and we are required to find the fraction representing the remaining unknown part of the circle. To solve such problems, we add up the fractions representing the fractional parts and then subtract the sum from 1, the whole circle. The result gives the fraction representing the unknown fractional part of the circle.

### Solution

Step 1:

First we find what total part of figure is shaded.

$\frac{1}{4}$ + $\frac{4}{7}$ = $\frac{7}{28}$ + $\frac{16}{28}$ = $\frac{(7+16)}{28}$ = $\frac{23}{28}$

Step 2:

To find the fraction of the figure that is unshaded we subtract the result we got ($\frac{23}{28}$) from 1.

1 − $\frac{23}{28}$ = $\frac{28}{28}$$\frac{23}{28} = \frac{(28−23}{28} = \frac{5}{28} So, the fraction of the figure that is unshaded is \frac{5}{28}. How much of the circle is shaded? Write your answer as a fraction in simplest form. ### Solution Step 1: First we figure out how much of the figure is unshaded. \frac{1}{5} + \frac{1}{3} = \frac{3}{15} + \frac{5}{15} = \frac{(3+5)}{15} = \frac{8}{15} Step 2: To find the fraction of the figure that is unshaded we subtract the result we got (\frac{8}{15}) from 1. 1 − \frac{8}{15} = \frac{15}{15}$$\frac{8}{15}$ = $\frac{(15−8)}{15}$ = $\frac{7}{15}$

So, the fraction of the figure that is shaded is $\frac{7}{15}$.