This paper focuses on the study of information in fleeting opportunities. An application example is the evaluation of business proposals by venture capitalists. The authors formulate the generic problem as a dynamic program where the decision maker can either accept a given deal directly, reject it directly, or seek further information on its potential and then decide whether to accept it or not. Results show well behaved characteristics of the optimal policy, deal flow value, and the value of information over time and capacity. It is presumed that the risk preference of the decision maker follows a linear or an exponential utility function. This approach is illustrated through several examples.
Good Approximation of Exponential Utility Function for Optimal Futures Hedging
