This book analyzes the legal system for the protection of retail investors under the European Union law of investment services. It identifies the regulatory leitmotiv driving the EU lawmaker and ascertains whether and to what extent such a system is self-sufficient, using a set of EU-made and EU-enforced rules that is essentially different and autonomous from the domestic legal orders. In this regard, the book takes a double perspective: comparative and intra-firm. Given the federal dimension of the US legal system and, thus, the "role-model" it plays vis-a-vis the EU, the book compares the two systems. To fully highlight the existing gaps and measure how self-sufficient the EU system is against its American counterpart, the Union/Federal level as such is analyzed - i.e., detached from the national (in EU terms) and State (in US terms) level. Regulating Investor Protection under EU Law also showcases the unique intra-firm perspective from a European investment firm and analyzes how EU-produced public-law rules become a set of compliance requirements for investment services providers. This "within-the-firm" angle gauges the self-sufficiency of the EU system of retail investor protection from the standpoint of an EU-regulated entity. The book is intended for both compliance professionals and academic scholars interested in this topic while also including illustrative sections intended to provide a broader regulatory view for less-experienced readers.

In an organized and organic way, this book covers all the possible theoretical and empirical facets of delisting, adding to the well-developed literature on IPOs. IPO and delisting are strictly related; the reasons for delisting may be found in the loss of the incentives that drove the firm to the public market in the past. However, the book presents unique motivations not directly related to the IPO decision. This book covers what the existing literature has not in focusing on specific aspects such as market liquidity and microstructure, listing costs, market for corporate control, corporate governance issues and so on. Of interest to academics and students, this contribution puts all pieces in order and finds a thread that can link each theory to the others.

This volume investigates the use of mortgages in the European countryside between the thirteenth and eighteenth centuries. A mortgage allowed a loan to be secured with land or other property, and the practice has been linked to the transformation of the agrarian economy that paved the way for modern economic growth. Historians have viewed the mortgage both positively and negatively: on the one hand, it provided borrowers with opportunities for investment in agriculture; but equally, it exposed them to the risk of losing their mortgaged property. The case studies presented in this volume reveal the variety of forms that the mortgage took, and show how an intricate balance was struck between the interests of the borrower looking for funds, and those of the lender looking for security. It is argued that the character of mortgage law, and the nature of rights in land in operation in any given the place and period, determined the degree to which mortgages were employed. Over time, developments in these factors allowed increasing numbers of peasants to use mortgages more freely, and with a decreasing risk of expropriation. This volume will be appealing to academics and researchers interested in financial history, rural credit and debt, and the economic history of agrarian communities.

This book, unique in its composition, reviews the academic empirical literature on how CDSs actually work in practice, including during distressed times of market crises. It also discusses the mechanics of single-name and index CDSs, the theoretical costs and benefits of CDSs, as well as comprehensively summarizes the empirical evidence on important aspects of these instruments of risk transfer. Full-time academics, researchers at financial institutions, and students will benefit from the dispassionate and comprehensive summary of the academic literature; they can read this book instead of identifying, collecting, and reading the hundreds of academic articles on the important subject of credit risk transfer using derivatives and benefit from the synthesis of the literature provided.

Revenues from commodities are extremely important for Latin America and the Caribbean, yet there is very little literature on the structure of these industries and on the various ways in which the state obtains commodity revenues. This book aims to understand the trade-off between the degree of taxation overall, the profitability of the relevant industry and the amount of investment and subsequent production in the region, as well as the relevance of institutions in the performance of the sector. This volume focuses on economic efficiency: where Latin America stands in terms of the current tax system for the extractive sector; how policies have changed in this regard; and how policies may be improved. The Economics of Natural Resources in Latin America is timely, since this new era of lower and volatile prices and possible reconfiguration of investment flows poses a challenge to natural resource tax systems in the world. The argument of the book will be made by a collection of papers around the issue of tax efficiency in the region and concludes with chapters on institutions and the role of transparency. This book shows that there are varieties of experiences in resource taxation and management of revenues in Latin America that could be used to shape policy interventions in other regions. This variety is not only related to their diverse impact on welfare, but also on the policy challenges faced by the countries in the region. This volume is well suited for those who study and find interest in development economics, political economy and public finance, as well as policy

This book explores the microstructure of carbon markets and the pricing of carbon financial instruments generally. It provides a critical microstructure analysis of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS), and also examines the theoretical and related market design issues affecting emissions trading schemes. Individual chapters analyse how intraday pricing evolves in carbon markets, the price impact of block trades in carbon financial instruments and their determinants, short and long-term liquidity effects in carbon markets, and the links between carbon market liquidity and efficiency. The aforementioned issues are explored using case studies of two major trading platforms operating within the EU-ETS. The book concludes by focusing on future policy and regulatory challenges in carbon markets, especially with respect to addressing pricing volatility challenges.

This book provides a preliminary attempt to understand the impact investors' preferences and characteristics. It offers an empirical insight of the main features characterizing social risk of Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) and explores the correlation existing between social risk and financial return. It assesses case studies of social impact investment architectures and their legal and operational limits. It also analyzes new trends in social impact measurement, focusing on the Spanish and Swedish experiences. The book concludes with a road map of priorities and policy strategy for social impact investments development.

This book analyzes the verification of empirical asset pricing models when returns of securities are projected onto a set of presumed (or observed) factors. Particular emphasis is placed on the verification of essential factors and features for asset returns through model search approaches, in which non-diversifiability and statistical inferences are considered. The discussion reemphasizes the necessity of maintaining a dichotomy between the nondiversifiable pricing kernels and the individual components of stock returns when empirical asset pricing models are of interest. In particular, the model search approach (with this dichotomy emphasized) for empirical model selection of asset pricing is applied to discover the pricing kernels of asset returns.

This compelling book examines the price-based revolution in investing, showing how research over recent decades has reinvented technical analysis. The authors discuss the major groups of price-based strategies, considering their theoretical motivation, individual and combined implementation, and back-tested results when applied to investment across country stock markets. Containing a comprehensive sample of performance data, taken from 24 major developed markets around the world and ranging over the last 25 years, the authors construct practical portfolios and display their performance-ensuring the book is not only academically rigorous, but practically applicable too. This is a highly useful volume that will be of relevance to researchers and students working in the field of price-based investing, as well as individual investors, fund pickers, market analysts, fund managers, pension fund consultants, hedge fund portfolio managers, endowment chief investment officers, futures traders, and family office investors.

The current international investment law system is insufficiently compatible with sustainable development. To better address sustainable development concerns associated with transnational investment activities, international investment agreements should be made more compatible with sustainable development. Integrating Sustainable Development in International Investment Law presents an important systematic study of the issue of sustainable development in the international investment law system, using conceptual, normative and governance perspectives to explore the challenges and possible solutions for making international investment law more compatible with sustainable development. Chi suggests that to effectively address the sustainable development concerns associated with transnational investment activities, the international investment agreements system should be reformed. Such reform should feature redesigning the provisions of the agreements, improving the structure of international investment agreements, strengthening the function of soft law, engaging non-state actors and enhancing the dispute settlement mechanism. The book is primarily aimed at national and international treaty and policy-makers, lawyers and scholars. It is also suitable for graduate students studying international law and policy-making.

This Palgrave Pivot aims to examine the bourgeoning relationship between the Principles for Responsible Investment and the Credit Rating Industry. Since May of 2016, when the partnership was initially publicised, the PRI have endeavoured to incorporate Credit Rating Agencies into its initiative via its 'ESG in Credit Ratings Initiative', and have been working diligently to find, and create common ground between Credit Rating Agencies and Institutional Investors seeking to be more forward-looking in their investment approaches. However, in recent years the 'Big Two' Credit Rating Agencies - Standard & Poor's and Moody's - have finally received record fines for their conduct in the run-up to the Financial Crisis. There is a need, then, to examine the incorporation of the Credit Rating Agencies into such a progressive initiative. To achieve this objective, this book examines the field of 'responsible investing', the credit rating industry, and the power dynamic that exists between the rating industry, investors, and the PRI (via its 'Initiative').

Welcome to the new space economy... Space is open for business! The dawn of a new space race led by private sector entrepreneurs is upon us thanks to the USA Space Act 2015 and technology advances like SpaceX rockets, which have greatly reduced the cost of space flight. For the first time in history, the advances in both technical and legal infrastructure have opened up exciting opportunities that are already driving the commercial exploration of deep space commodities, Space tourism with Virgin Galactic, and the serious planning for the colonisation of our Moon and Mars. Tom James, a leading commodity and energy market practitioner and author, has brought together top professionals in academia, astropolitics, space engineering, and space law to explore the exciting opportunities and challenges businesses face in the new off-planet economy. With quadrillions of dollars of mineral wealth and frozen water within our reach, the stakes may be high, but so are the rewards. So pack your bags, fasten your oxygen mask and let's get ready to boldly take business where business has not gone before...

In light of demographic change and the growing problems of traditional old-age security systems, this book discusses two essential instruments in connection with privately providing for old-age security: (1) savings in private pension schemes and (2) building up equity for home-ownership. Further, it assesses the relationship between the two instruments and offers a unique overview of the latest market developments. In order to represent the profound differences between the individual member states of the EU, this book features six country-specific studies - covering Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom - that provide detailed insights into the complexity of local private pension schemes, mortgage markets, and housing markets. Lastly, the book discusses public policies and fiscal incentives intended to better integrate residential property with private pensions. It will appeal to both, private households seeking to build up old-age security, as well as policy makers interested in providing secure pension schemes.

This is the first book to introduce the major quantitative tools in risk management taking financial investments and logistics planning as the background: optimization and stochastic programming. Contained here are the fundamentals of portfolio selection theory from the point of view of risk control, and methods for risk control with new and popular risk measures such as VaR (Value-at-Risk) and CVaR (Conditional VaR). The book also introduces a new theory for risk management in more general investment situations such as flexible investment decisions, providing an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the interrelations between these fields of research. Basic concepts of stochastic programming are introduced, and their applications to risk management in inventory distribution and network design are covered as well. Illustrated by carefully chosen examples and supported by extensive data analyses, this book is highly recommended to readers who seek an in-depth and up-to-date integrated overview of the ever-expanding theoretical and quantitative fields of risk management in financial investment and logistics planning.

This book covers each step in the asset allocation process, addressing as many of the relevant questions as possible along the way. How can we formulate expectations about long-term returns? How relevant are valuations? What are the challenges to optimizing the portfolio? Can factor investing add value and, if so, how can it be implemented? Which are the key performance drivers for each asset class, and what determines how they are correlated? How can we apply insights about the business cycle to tactical asset allocation? The book is aimed at finance professionals and others looking for a coherent framework for decision-making in asset allocation, both at the strategic and tactical level. It stresses analysis rather than pre-conceived ideas about investments, and it draws on both empirical research and practical experience to give the reader as strong a background as possible.

The book highlights the rise of Bitcoin, which is based on blockchain technology, and some of the many types of coins and tokens that emerged thereafter. Although Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have made national and international news with their dramatic rise and decline in value, nevertheless the underlying technology is being adopted by both industry and governments, which have noted the benefits of speed, cost efficiency, and protection from hacking. Based on numerous downloaded articles, laws, cases, and other materials, the book discusses the digital transformation, the types of cryptocurrencies, key actors, and the benefits and risks. It also addresses legal issues of digital technology and the evolving U.S. federal regulation. The varying treatment by individual U.S. states is reviewed together with attempts by organizations to arrive at a uniform regulatory regime. Both civil and criminal prosecutions are highlighted with an examination of the major cases that have arisen. Whether and how to tax cryptocurrency transactions both in the U.S. and internationally are analyzed, and ends with a speculative narrative of future developments.

Since the financial crisis, everyone is more aware of the need to be financially literate. This book covers a wide range of topics and assures the reader that understanding of one's money script and more particularly making changes (if necessary) would result in more effective and responsible managing and handling of one's financial affairs. It is a misnomer that graduates of tertiary education are financially literate or are qualified to make financial decisions. In fact, they are particularly vulnerable in making poor financial decisions as many students do not undertake courses in financial education and they therefore have limited financial knowledge. Training in financial literacy through university-based financial education programs is one method of addressing personal finances and financial stress among students. This book presents the key components of financial education designed to address the growing concerns associated with high levels of debt, abuse of credit cards, home ownership, savings and investments, risk management, and retirement. The chapters on entrepreneurship and business planning provide a roadmap for successful new ventures. The book is an excellent resource for students, those interested in developing or enhancing their understanding of money matters and financial wellbeing, and trainers involved in financial education, counseling, and planning.

This book analyzes the tension between the host state's commitment to provide regulatory stability for foreign investors - which is a tool for attracting FDI and generating economic growth - and its evolving non-economic commitments towards its citizens with regard to environmental protection and social welfare. The main thesis is that the 'stabilization clause/regulatory power antinomy,' as it appears in many cases, contradicts the content and rationale of sustainable development, a concept that is increasingly prevalent in national and international law and which aims at the integration and balancing of economic, environmental, and social development. To reconcile this antinomy at the decision-making and dispute settlement levels, the book employs a 'constructive sustainable development approach,' which is based on the integration and reconciliation imperatives of the concept of sustainable development as well as on the application of principles of law such as non-discrimination, public purpose, due process, proportionality, and more generally, good governance and rule of law. It subsequently re-conceptualizes stabilization clauses in terms of their design (ex-ante) and interpretation (ex-post), yielding stability to the benefit of foreign investors, while also mitigating their negative effects on the host state's power to regulate.

This book covers the latest advances in the theory and practice of public investment management. It includes the most up-to-date developments in the implementation of public asset management - including multiple contributions on portfolio allocation in varying interest-rate and credit-risk environments. Other highlights include implementation, performance attribution and governance issues surrounding reserves management, portfolio construction techniques appropriate for public investors and an in-depth discussion of the challenges to achieving international diversification.

This book is the first to directly address Asia's new rich with an easy-to-follow guide to investment and the world of global finance. There are currently approximately 15 million high net worth households in the world today, a number that is growing by 900,000 new millionaires in the world each year. Many of the Asian new rich, however, lack even basic information about investment strategies and how to put their wealth to work. With rich experience in the private sector, Bruce Von Cannon makes it seem easy in this enjoyable and readable new book.

WINNER, Business: Personal Finance/Investing, 2015 USA Best Book Awards FINALIST, Business: Reference, 2015 USA Best Book Awards Investor Behavior provides readers with a comprehensive understanding and the latest research in the area of behavioral finance and investor decision making. Blending contributions from noted academics and experienced practitioners, this 30-chapter book will provide investment professionals with insights on how to understand and manage client behavior; a framework for interpreting financial market activity; and an in-depth understanding of this important new field of investment research. The book should also be of interest to academics, investors, and students. The book will cover the major principles of investor psychology, including heuristics, bounded rationality, regret theory, mental accounting, framing, prospect theory, and loss aversion. Specific sections of the book will delve into the role of personality traits, financial therapy, retirement planning, financial coaching, and emotions in investment decisions. Other topics covered include risk perception and tolerance, asset allocation decisions under inertia and inattention bias; evidenced based financial planning, motivation and satisfaction, behavioral investment management, and neurofinance. Contributions will delve into the behavioral underpinnings of various trading and investment topics including trader psychology, stock momentum, earnings surprises, and anomalies. The final chapters of the book examine new research on socially responsible investing, mutual funds, and real estate investing from a behavioral perspective. Empirical evidence and current literature about each type of investment issue are featured. Cited research studies are presented in a straightforward manner focusing on the comprehension of study findings, rather than on the details of mathematical frameworks.

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO HISTORY'S GREATEST EVER INVESTORSThere's never been a better time to be an ordinary investor. With more opportunities, lower costs and a more level playing field than ever before, the individual really can go head to head with the professionals. But there remains one big difference between Wall Street (or the Square Mile) and the individual investor: technique and experience. Superinvestors provides both in a new way. Based on MoneyWeek's popular 'Great Investors in History' column, it takes an in-depth look at 20 of the best investors in the last 200 years and shows the reader how to copy them.These investors have been picked for a variety of criteria, including their investing excellence, the different ways in which they made money - and, above all, for what they can teach individual investors. Investors representing a wide range of investment styles are included, ranging from David Ricardo, who made a fortune by correctly predicting the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo, to the patient value-orientated approach of Warren Buffett.The book also looks at some of the innovators, including John Bogle's development of index funds as a low-cost way of getting exposure to the market and David Harding's data-driven approach that aims to avoid human emotion. The book then looks at each of the investors' careers in depth. This includes their background, the strategies that they used to beat their peers and an honest evaluation of their success, using a special star ranking system. Naturally, the main focus is on their best investments. However, sometimes failures can be extremely instructive - and the book looks at those investments that didn't quite go to plan. Finally, each chapter concludes by detailing the lessons that ordinary investors can learn from them.Superinvestors is a treasure trove of success stories, cautionary tales, legendary stock picks and world-beating strategies that will fascinate and inspire investors of every level.

It's a fair bet that most of what you think you know about oil prices is wrong. Despite the massive price fluctuations of the past decade, the received wisdom on the subject has remained fundamentally unchanged since the 1970s. When asked, most people - including politicians, financial analysts and pundits - will respond with a tired litany of reasons ranging from increased Chinese and Indian competition for diminishing resources and tensions in the Middle East, to manipulation by OPEC and exorbitant petrol taxes in the EU. Yet the facts belie these explanations. For instance, what really happened in late 2008 when, in just a few weeks, oil prices plummeted from $144 dollars to $37 dollars a barrel? Did Chinese and Indian demand suddenly dry up? Did Middle East conflicts magically resolve themselves? Did OPEC flood the market with crude? In each case the answer is a definitive no - quite the opposite in fact.

Industry expert Salvatore Carollo explains that the truth behind today's increasingly volatile oil market is that over the past two decades oil prices have come untethered from all classical notions of supply and demand and have transcended any country's, consortium's, cartel's, or corporate entity's powers to control them. At play is a subtler, more complex game than most analysts realise (or are unwilling to admit to), a very dangerous game involving runaway financial speculation, self-defeating government policymaking and a concerted disinvestment in refinery capacity among the oil majors.

In "Understanding Oil Prices" Carollo identifies the key players in this dangerous game, exploring their competing interests and motivations, their moves and countermoves. Beginning with the1976 oil embargo and moving through the 1986 Chernobyl incident, the implementation of the US Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, and the precipitous expansion of the oil futures market since the turn of the century, he traces the vast structural changes which have occurred within the oil industry over the past four decades, identifying their economic, social and geopolitical drivers, and analysing their fallout in the global economy. He explores the oil industry's decision to scale down refining capacity in the face of increasing demand and the effects of global shortages of petrol, diesel, jet fuel, fuel oil, chemical feedstocks, lubricants and other essential finished products, and describes how, beginning in the year 2000, the oil futures market detached itself almost completely from the crude market, leading to the assetization of oil, and the crippling impact reckless speculation in oil futures has had on the global economy. Finally he proposes new, more sophisticated models that economists and financial analysts can use to make sense of today's oil market, while offering industry leaders and government policymakers prescriptions for stabilising the market to ensure a relatively steady flow of affordable oil.

A concise, authoritative guide to understanding the complex, oft misunderstood oil markets, "Understanding Oil Prices" is an important resource for energy market participants, commodity traders and investors, as well as business journalists and government policymakers alike.

This textbook is designed as a core text for finance courses that cover market investments, portfolio formation, and the management of investment portfolios. As such, the text seeks to convey insight and actual wisdom as to the nature of these activities. When combined with a commitment to thinking independently, the text offers the student a rigorous preparation for entry to the funds management industry. The text is presented in three parts. In Part A, the text introduces the fundamental techniques of investment analysis: a "bottom-up" and "top-down" analysis of the firm aimed at an evaluation of the underlying share as a "buy", "hold", or a "sell" recommendation. Part B offers the reader an intuitive grasp of the nature of investment growth, both across time and across assets. Part C introduces the reader to the technicalities of portfolio construction and portfolio management. The text concludes with an assessment of the funds management industry. The text builds in step-by-step stages with Illustrative Examples that consolidate the student's progress and understanding through each chapter. Each of parts A, B, and C (above) has sufficient material to justify a separate course. If the student has exposure to a more foundational course in finance, Parts A and B can be covered as a single course. If from other courses, the student is familiar with the essence of Parts A and B and with statistical concepts, the text can be covered as a single course. The text can therefore be presented readily at either an undergraduate or postgraduate level at a pace appropriate to the student's prior exposure to the concepts.

An innovative approach to applying Elliott Wave Principle

By convention, most Elliott Wave Principle (EWP) practitioners focus on individual market price movement. Connie Brown has a global reputation of developing analysis that focuses on the integration of global markets. In a two book series you will be taken through the steps to master the global cash flows of today's financial markets. The approach found in this first book differs from the traditional view of EWP because it shows you how geometry and the use of simple boxes drawn within a trend will guide you away from the common complaint of subjectivity, thereby making smarter trades of higher probability. While EWP can be a challenging topic, the structure of this book eases you into the analysis principles.

With "Mastering Elliott Wave Principle" you are guided step-by-step through the learning phases of Elliott Wave analysis and then your understanding is further challenged through self-examination. The preliminary coaching unravels common misunderstandings that sabotage the beginner. You will discover how price swings and waves are not the same. Elements of balance and proportion are mathematical concepts taught through geometry and not subjective. These basic skills establish a foundation that allow beginners to understand what to expect from their level of skill. There are three distinct levels of skill that all masters of the EWP have learned. Now there is a series to guide your understanding at each skill level so you can develop a working knowledge of how to define market positions around the world in short or long term time horizons. Bring your biases, bring your past concerns and discover how this breakthrough and original approach to teaching the Wave Principle can help you.Traders, from beginners to advanced, can use this book to become proficient in the Elliott Wave PrincipleContains practice charts to compare your understanding and skill level with follow-up discussions of how you may have differed based on the results from twenty years of coaching