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Diamonds as an Alternative Investment

In: Business and Management

Submitted By dgoldobina
Words 19903
Pages 80
| Are diamonds investor’s best friend? | Study on polished diamonds as an alternative investment. | | Presented by:Daria GoldobinaStudent number:080006193Supervised by:Anh L. TranIn partial fulfilment of the:BSc Business Studies, Cass Business SchoolDate:24th March 2011I certify that I have complied with the guidelines on plagiarism outlined in the Course Handbook in the production of this dissertation and that it is my own, unaided work.Signature:__________________________________________ | |

This work is dedicated to the memory of my beloved grandfather Ivan Smolin.
He was a sweet, kind and sensitive man who devoted his life to studying precious stones and metals.
He enriched my life with passion to beauty.

If God wanted us to bend over he'd put diamonds on the floor
Joan Rivers

Contents Acknowledgements 3

Executive summary 7

I Introduction 10 Ground for discussion 10 Objectives 10 Methodology 11

II Literature review and hypothesis development 12 Overview 12 Introduction 12 History of diamonds 12 Industry structure 13 DeBeers cartel 15 Diamond valuation 16 Diamond valuation process 16 Determinants of diamond prices 18 Diamond as an investment 19 Types of investment 19 Problems associated with investing in diamonds 20 Benefits associated with investing in diamonds 20 Alternatives to investing in diamonds 23 Hypothesis development 25

III Methodology 26 Data collection 26 Primary research 26 Secondary research 27 Methodology 28 Descriptive statistics 28 Regression analysis 28 Variables 29 Limitations and assumptions 30

IV Analysis and results 32 Interview results 32 Summary statistics 36 Explanation of variables 36 Descriptive statistics 38 Correlation 44 Regression analysis 46

V Conclusions and recommendations 49

References 52

Appendix 56

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