This book provides simple introduction to quantitative finance for students and junior quants who want to approach the typical industry problems with practical but rigorous ambition. It shows a simple link between theoretical technicalities and practical solutions. Mathematical aspects are discussed from a practitioner perspective, with a deep focus on practical implications, favoring the intuition and the imagination. In addition, the new post-crisis paradigms, like multi-curves, x-value adjustments (xVA) and Counterparty Credit Risk are also discussed in a very simple framework. Finally, real world data and numerical simulations are compared in order to provide a reader with a simple and handy insight on the actual model performances.

This book stresses the psychological perspective in explaining financial behavior. Traditionally, financial behaviors such as saving, spending, and investing have been explained using demographic and economic factors such as income and product pricing. The consequence of this way of thinking is that financial institutions view their clients mostly from the perspective of their income. By taking a psychological approach, this book stresses the perspective of consumers confronted with a quickly changing financial world: the changing of financial offers and products (savings, investments, loans), the changing of payment methods (from cash to cheques, cards and mobile payments), the accessibility and temptation of goods, and the changing of insurance and pension systems. The Psychology of Financial Consumer Behavior provides insight into the thought processes of consumers in a variety of financial topics. Coverage includes perceptions of wealth, the pleasure or pain of spending, cashless transactions, saving and investing, loans, planning for the future, taxes, and financial education. The book holds appeal for researchers, professionals, and students in economics, psychology, economic psychology, marketing and consumer science, or anyone interested in financial behaviors.

Finance Capital Today is shortlisted for the The Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize 2017. Finance Capital Today presents a rich new analysis of the specific features of contemporary capitalism, notably its truly global nature and its financialisation, calling on Marxist analyses of the concentration, centralisation and globalisation of capital and Marx's theory of interest-bearing and fictitious capital. Chesnais shows how financial globalisation and the exponential growth of financial assets have developed alongside the globalisation of productive capital, paying special attention to the contemporary operations of transnational corporations and global oligopoly. He argues that the macroeconomic perspective is one in which large amounts of capital are looking for profitable investment in a setting of underlying overproduction and low profits. The outcome will be low global growth, repeated financial shocks and the growing interconnection between the environmental and economic crises.

Informal finance consists of nonbank financing activities, whether conducted through family and friends, local money houses, or other types of financial associations. It has provided much-needed financing to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in particular, in the face of a tightly constrained and overburdened formal banking system. Unable to obtain a bank loan, firms have relied upon individuals and informal organizations outside of the banking system to obtain financing for their ventures or working capital (operating funds). Presently there is a scarcity of information on informal finance in China and it is expected to have a significant impact upon GDP and money supply.
This book, with contributions from leading scholars, describes the evolution, characteristics, and variation of informal finance in China from American and Chinese perspectives. Literature by Jiang Shuxia, Jiang Xuzhao, and Li Jianjun has heretofore been available only in Chinese, while work by Kellee Tsai, Jianwen Liao, Harold Welsch, David Pistrui, and Sara Hsu has been available in English. For the first time, they come together to discuss informal financing and its many aspects.
Most of the essays are based upon original survey research conducted locally, as this type of data is not normally collected by the government. The papers pioneer the description and analysis of the nuances of informal finance from several perspectives; the authors look at the social, cultural, political, and economic causes of informal finance, its many variations, and its economic, personal, and political ramifications.

The first major global economic contraction of the 21st century, or the 'Great Recession', as it is more commonly known, began in December of 2007, and would prove to be one of the most catastrophic economic events in postmodern history. The bursting of the American housing bubble and the subprime mortgage crisis that followed are widely attributed as being the primary causes for this economic downturn.The content of this book presents an in-depth analysis of several of the leading causes of the subprime crisis, as well as the subsequent measures that were used to contain a widespread economic recession. It is the aim of this book to provide adequate information and tools for readers to gain insight on how we can prevent the same mistakes from happening again. This analysis also explores an interesting question when considering public policy; was the economic disaster, that ensued, caused by overzealous consumers who borrowed more than they could afford, or was it caused by institutional entities that gambled away the American economy?

When author and operational excellence consultant Menno R. van Dijk joined ING Domestic Bank in the Netherlands, the company had already been using the Lean system a few years. But van Dijk felt something was missing-the fun factor: experiments, improvements, a supportive management style, and teamwork. He wasn't seeing the sense of invigoration and renewal that comes when employees on the shop floor experience the improvement brought on by a Lean implementation.

He went to work and created a new approach-Super7-that took the Lean system in financial services to the next level. It radically reduced customer waiting times with less management and more responsibility on the shop floor. In Super7 Operations, he discusses Super7 in detail-how it was developed, what it does for customers, how it changes culture on the shop floor, and how it affects employees and managers. He explains its benefits, which include

flexible capacity to cope with fluctuating demand-no inventory, no waiting;

small, autonomous teams committed to getting the job done for their customers;

output management and delegated responsibilities; and

continuous improvement of performance without the need for tight controls.

Including case studies, this guide provides valuable tips and tricks for implementing Super7 in an organization that is looking for ways to improve their customers' experience.

Financial Stability Issues: The Case of East Asia draws on a wide range of relevant material, including exploration of international standards and "best practices" in banking and finance, the experience of the U.S. and the U.K. in planning and implementing reform measures, and the theoretical literature respecting financial crises and what causes them. In this context, the specific reforms applied in the four Asian countries under consideration, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand are discussed in detail, with "lessons to be learned" about crisis detection, containment, and prevention. During the course of the analysis, the author reveals fundamental policy areas where meaningful and effective reform can take place. Financial Stability Issues: The Case of East Asia offers numerous practical applications at the same time as it strikes a rich vein of theory in the field. Its fresh, sensible approach will be greatly appreciated, not only by academic theorists, but by hardheaded business people, policymakers, and regulators as well.

The goal of Angel Financing is to get deals funded by providing useful, research-grounded, relevant, practical information to investors, entrepreneurs, and intermediaries.

This area of investment is the "pre-IPO," characterized by private placement transactions primarily equity in nature. Entrepreneurs must understand the problem, face the challenge, and possess the skills necessary to address the problem. Because their resources, time, and training are limited, entrepreneurs must understand the private placement, a unique process that demands a capitalization strategy.

Most importantly, entrepreneurs must embrace the investor perspective. In this one-of-a-kind book, Angel Financing provides a strategy that works. Hundreds of people have used the principles detailed in this book to raise millions of dollars.

The value of the angel investor, after all, can no longer be denied: Angel capital is the primary source of capital for early-stage deals. This fact alone accounts for the plethora of matching networks, seminars, and venture forums on the subject. Although the huge contribution of the angel capital market in creating jobs, expanding the tax base, and increasing our global competitiveness through technological innovation is well known, little is understood about the angel equity market and how deals really get done.

Moreover, over the last ten years, the authors have built the largest angel database in North America and interviewed thousands of investors about the nature of the pre-IPO investment process. Through their proprietary research and their comprehensive development of a typology of investors, the reader will not only be better positioned to identify and qualify investors, but will also be better sensitized to prepare the documents and the sales strategy to close their deals.

In Angel Financing, the angel investors tell their stories in their own words. The reader learns in depth about the forces that create this investment opportunity in high-risk investing. The reader journeys through the investors’ hedging strategies, risk assessments, syndication orientation, financial return expectations, deal structuring preferences, monitoring investments, harvesting returns, and realistic exit strategies.

What’s more, many investors themselves do not understand the valuation process involved in "blue sky" deals where there are no historical financials available. The valuation process is an art form in early-stage investing and for the first time it is candidly reviewed.

Even more important is the due diligence process. Angel Financing answers the most basic questions that sometimes even investors are too embarrassed to ask. So for straight talk on how to make money in this market, get the insights of the successful investors who have made millions.

In the United States, two million investors possess the discretionary net worth necessary to invest in pre-IPO private placements. Why is it that only 250,000 to 300,000 are active each year? The reason is that these investors–while interested–do not understand the process, do not understand how to find the deal, do not know how to determine which deal justifies their efforts, and do not know how to develop a hedging strategy.

Whether you are a dreamer, dream maker, or providing services to either, Angel Financing is the ultimate practical reference guide to add to your professional business development library.

GERALD A. BENJAMIN is Senior Managing Partner of International Capital Resources, a capital sourcing firm headquartered in San Francisco, California. He is the founder of the largest database of angel investors in the United States and developed the largest investor-entrepreneur matching network in North America. Mr. Benjamin is publisher of the Private Equity Review, the Executive Director of the Northern California Venture Forum, and Executive Director of the Angel Capital Summit (the largest annual angel capital conference in the United States). He is also a founding partner in Angel Lake Capital Partners, an early-stage venture capital fund specializing in medical, telecommunications, Internet and high-tech manuals.

Get the money your start-up business needs

"Finally, two experienced fundraising advisors demystify the process for entrepreneurs and individual investors. This should be required reading for ALL start-up companies because an outside capital investment is paramount to their existence." – Lori King CEO and Founder NVST.COM, Inc.

"Angel Financing presents an innovative capitalization strategy that works. Based on extensive academic research and filled with practical advice, it is an invaluable resource for all participants in the early-stage capital formation process." – E. Jeffrey Lyons Managing Director Marquette Consulting Group, Inc.

"I think Angel Financing must be read by all those looking to raise capital. It is also a great resource for those angel investors with little experience but the desire to get involved with early- stage companies." – George A. Mathews President Southwest Capital Resources, Inc.

"Angel Financing is the most comprehensive guide for private investments that I have seen. A must-read for angels and entrepreneurs!" – Jerry E. White Business Founder, Owner, and Chairman/CEO ICR Licensee

From TikTok star and Your (favorite) Rich BFF Vivian Tu, the definitive book on personal finance for a new generation.

When Vivian Tu started working on Wall Street fresh from undergrad, all she knew was that she was making more money than she had ever seen in her life. But it wasn’t until she found a mentor of her own on the trading floor that she began to understand what wealthy people knew intuitively—the secrets to beating the proverbial financial game that has, for too long, been male, pale, and stale.

Building on the lessons she learned on Wall Street about money and the markets, Vivian now offers her best personal finance tips and tricks to readers of all ages and demographics, so that anyone can get rich, whether you grew up knowing the rules to the game or not. Vivian will be your mentor, dispensing fresh, no-BS advice on how to think like a rich person and create smart money habits.

Throughout the pages of Rich AF,Vivian will break down her best recommendations to help you:

• Maximize your earnings to get more out of your 9-to-5
• Understand the differences between savings accounts, and where you should keep your money
• Identify the tax strategies and (legal) loopholes you need to retire in style
• Overcome investing fears to secure wealth for generations and much more!

Rich AF will equip readers with the tools and knowledge to not only understand the financial landscape, but to build a financial strategy of their own. And with Your Rich BFF at your side, you’ll be able to start your financial journey already in an affluent mindset, making the most of your money and growing your wealth for years to come.

This work examines both the UK and international regulation, as well as the case law and legislation affecting a wide spectrum of modern financial techniques. Within the scope of those financial techniques are the broad range of instruments, structures and contracts deployed by global financial markets in relation to corporate customers, sovereign entities and other public sector bodies. The essays in this collection are concerned with the nature of the modernity of financial products like derivatives, and the particularly acute challenge that they pose both to the control of financial markets by private law and by established means of regulation. Much of the book focuses on derivatives as exemplars of this broader context. The authors analyze practical and theoretical issues as diverse as credit derivatives, dematerialized securities, the ISDA EMU protocol, and the OTC derivatives market, as well as the regulation of financial products, the economics of financial techniques, and the international regulatory framework. They examine issues of private law, including the legal implications of immobilization and dematerialization in collateral transactions, seller liability in credit derivatives markets and fraud. The essays examine the benefits and shortcomings of various legal mechanisms and methods of financial regulation, and suggest new approaches to the questions facing the law of international finance. The essays in this book arose out of the W.G. Hart workshop on Transnational Corporate Finance and the Challenge to the Law held at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies in London in 1998.

A successful financial planner is someone who does more than just crunch numbers and present an annual investment plan to clients. There is a psychological component to effective client care as well as to issues involving clients’ overall financial well-being. People skills, as well as financial planning skills, are necessary to build a successful financial planning business. This comprehensive guide teaches both new and veteran financial professionals how to relate to their clients in meaningful ways, thus growing their business by increasing the long-term retention of those clients. Offered here are insights into such issues as how to determine which clients to accept, how to propose a plan clients can use, how to tread carefully in family situations, how to develop sensitivity and communications skills, and how to work with the media and recognize the importance of building your business one lasting relationship at a time.

Karen Caplan Altfest, PhD, CFP (New York, NY), is Vice President of L. J. Altfest & Co., a financial planning and investment management firm. She is also the Director of the Financial Planning and Investments Program at the New School.

What distinguishes this book from other texts on mathematical finance is the use of both probabilistic and PDEs tools to price derivatives for both constant and stochastic volatility models, by which the reader has the advantage of computing explicitly a large number of prices for European, American and Asian derivatives.The book presents continuous time models for financial markets, starting from classical models such as Black-Scholes and evolving towards the most popular models today such as Heston and VAR.A key feature of the textbook is the large number of exercises, mostly solved, which are designed to help the reader to understand the material.The book is based on the author's lectures on topics on computational finance for senior and graduate students, delivered in USA (Princeton University and EMU), Taiwan and Kuwait. The prerequisites are an introductory course in stochastic calculus, as well as the usual calculus sequence.The book is addressed to undergraduate and graduate students in Masters of Finance programs as well as to those who wish to become more efficient in their practical applications.Topics covered:

Since 2007, the repeated financial crises around the world have brought to the headlines financial practices and models considered to fuel the economic instabilities. Deep Dive into Financial Models: Modeling Risk and Uncertainty comes handy in demystifying the underlying quantitative finance concepts. With a limited use of mathematical formalism, the book explains thoroughly the models, their hypotheses, principles and other building blocks. A particular care is given to model limitations and their misuse for investment strategies, asset pricing, or risk management. Its reader-friendly nature provides readers with a head start in quantitative finance.

What's the secret to passing the SAFE Mortgage Loan Originator National Exam? If you answered "memorizing all the questions and answers you can find," you're wrong. You'll have a much better chance of passing the loan originator exam if you understand the material. "The SAFE Mortgage Loan Originator National Exam Study Guide - Second Edition" explains the required information and contains links to additional material. Prepare Yourself for a New Career This updated and enhanced loan originator exam manual includes the latest rulings by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Other topics include: Federal Mortgage-Related Laws SAFE Act Introduction to Mortgage Lending General Mortgage Knowledge Basic Concepts of Mortgage Financing The Loan Application Underwriting, Closing and the Secondary Market Ethics and Fraud Mortgage Terminology There are quizzes throughout the book and two practice final exams to help you test your knowledge; in total, there are more than 400 questions and answers. The author was a licensed mortgage broker for seven years and passed the national exam on her first attempt. Scroll to the top of the page and select the Buy button to get started on your new career.

The Complete Debt Relief Manual is the definitive guide to paying off and eliminating any kind of debt. Written from a procedure writer's perspective, it will guide you, with detailed steps, sample letters, and checklists, through the processes of budgeting, deciding the best way to pay off debts, negotiating settlements with credit card companies or the IRS without getting scammed by debt settlement or consolidation companies, dealing with debt collector calls and hassles, handling or avoiding lawsuits, determining whether or not to declare bankruptcy and how to avoid it, and repairing your credit and improving your credit score. Foreclosure is not dealt with due to its specialized nature and the risks involved of tackling it without an attorney. Born from the author's painful lessons learned and personal experience, The Compete Debt Relief Manual is a treasure of accurate and effective procedures to guide your every step on your journey to debt freedom.

This book provides researchers and scholars with a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of earnings management theory and literature. While it raises new questions for future research, the book can be also helpful to other parties who rely on financial reporting in making decisions like regulators, policy makers, shareholders, investors, and gatekeepers e.g., auditors and analysts. The book summarizes the existing literature and provides insight into new areas of research such as the differences between earnings management, fraud, earnings quality, impression management, and expectation management; the trade-off between earnings management activities; the special measures of earnings management; and the classification of earnings management motives based on a comprehensive theoretical framework.

Decision-makers in business and economics face a staggering array of problems. For example, managers of growing firms have to decide when to expand their business, governments have to decide whether to undertake large infrastructure investments, and managers of oil firms must decide how rapidly to deplete their reserves. While these problems seem quite diverse, they all share many important features. In each case, the decision-maker must choose when to take a particular action that will be potentially impossible to reverse, and the consequences of taking (or not taking) that action are uncertain. Also, the timing and nature of these actions directly affect the cash flows generated by the entities they manage. This book explains how techniques originally developed to price financial derivatives can be used to analyze real-world decisions, and provides the tools necessary to put them into practice.
The real options analysis approach to decision-making is built on strong theoretical foundations, and is widely discussed in practitioner literature, but often only at a fairly intuitive level. What practitioners need-and what this book delivers-is a structured approach to systematically applying real options analysis to the wide variety of problems they will meet in business and economics.
Real Options in Theory and Practice focuses on building up a general approach to solving real options problems from the ground up. Rather than aiming to build a "black box" to solve a small set of standardized real options problems, it describes the building blocks of any successful real options analysis and shows how they can be assembled in a way that is appropriate to the problem being analyzed. And for all of the numerical examples in the book, there is an accompanying CD that contains spreadsheets ready to use on the wide variety of applications the book brings into the picture. For both practitioners and academics, Real Options in Theory and Practice will serve as an authoritative and invaluable resource for those looking for effective and practical solutions to complex, real-life problems.

Microfinance investment funds are a recent development that will grow in importance. These funds expand the range of opportunities for financing microfinance institutions, enabling them to offer greater outreach and diversity of products for microentrepreneurs and small businesses. Microfinance now spans the range of finance, from the most simple enterprise to the complexity of capital markets. KfW actively promotes microfinance investment funds and other activities that facilitate the growth of microfinance. This book is an expression of KfW's role as information broker and trend setter. The authors who contributed to this collection offer a comprehensive range of perspectives and themes related to microfinance investment and its promotion.

This book provides an effective antidote to the small business owner's frustration with government, demonstrating how to cut through regulations, red tape, and political corruption. Even as the American economy has slumped and every institution-private, municipal, and federal-strives to cut costs, government continues to grow more complex, intrusive, and expensive. Small businesses already bear a disproportionate share of regulatory costs and suffer more than large competitors when corruption distorts local markets. This situation will soon get worse: looming federal health care as well as environmental and financial mandates will push vast new oversight responsibilities into the states-and onto businesses' backs. Amy H. Handlin applies her 20 years' experience in state government and politics to provide this practical, results-oriented guide that teaches how to successfully navigate the jungle of overlapping federal, state, and municipal rules-skills that will become more essential as regulations balloon. Readers will learn how government works, get insight into the mindset of bureaucrats and politicians, and discover specific, nuts-and-bolts strategies for dealing with even the most unwelcoming, recalcitrant, or even dishonest officials. Provides model advocacy materials Includes end-of-chapter summaries that reinforce key concepts Presents vignettes dubbed "Tales from the Dark Side" that portray the worst in government bungling and help reinforce points in the text Contains a glossary clarifying common bureaucratic and political jargon