Fair Value of Financial Instruments

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2012

Fair Value Of Financial Instruments

Fair Value of Financial Instruments

6. Fair Value of Financial Instruments

ASC 825-10 defines fair value as the price that would be received from selling an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. When determining the fair value measurements for assets and liabilities required or permitted to be recorded at fair value, the Company considers the principal or most advantageous market in which it would transact and considers assumptions that market participants would use when pricing the asset or liability, such as inherent risk, transfer restrictions, and risk of nonperformance. ASC 825-10 establishes a fair value hierarchy that requires an entity to maximize the use of observable inputs and minimize the use of unobservable inputs when measuring fair value. ASC 825-10 establishes three levels of inputs that may be used to measure fair value:

Level 1 - Quoted prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities.

Level 2 - Observable inputs other than Level 1 prices such as quoted prices for similar assets or liabilities; quoted prices in markets with insufficient volume or infrequent transactions (less active markets); or model-derived valuations in which all significant inputs are observable or can be derived principally from or corroborated by observable market data for substantially the full term of the assets or liabilities.

Level 3 - Unobservable inputs to the valuation methodology that are significant to the measurement of fair value of assets or liabilities.

Vista International Technologies, Inc.

NOTES TO CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Three and six months ended June 30, 2012 and 2011

 (unaudited)

6. Fair Value of Financial Instruments (Continued)

To the extent that valuation is based on models or inputs that are less observable or unobservable in the market, the determination of fair value requires more judgment. In certain cases, the inputs used to measure fair value may fall into different levels of the fair value hierarchy. In such cases, for disclosure purposes, the level in the fair value hierarchy within which the fair value measurement is disclosed is determined based on the lowest level input that is significant to the fair value measurement.

Items recorded or measured at fair value on a recurring basis in the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements consisted of the following items as of June 30, 2012:

			Fair Value Measurements at June 30, 2012 using:
	June 30, 2012		Quoted Prices in Active Markets for Identical Assets (Level 1)		Significant Other Observable Inputs (Level 2)		Significant Unobservable Inputs (Level 3)
Liabilities:
Debt Derivative liabilities	$	42,069		-		-	$	42,069

The debt derivative liabilities are measured at fair value using quoted market prices and estimated volatility factors based on historical prices for the Company’s common stock and are classified within Level 3 of the valuation hierarchy.

The following table provides a summary of changes in fair value of the Company’s Level 3 financial liabilities as of June 30, 2012:

	Debt Derivative  Liability
Balance, January 1, 2012	$	74,192
Initial fair value of debt derivatives at note issuances		-
Mark-to-market at June 30, 2012:
- Embedded debt derivatives		(32,123	)
Balance, June 30, 2012	$	42,069
Net gain for the period included in earnings relating to the liabilities held at June 30, 2012	$	32,123