This book is based on A Trading Desk's View of Market Quality, a conference hosted by the Zicklin School of Business on April 30, 2002. The text includes the edited transcripts of each panel as well as separate presentations by two distinguished industry officials, Joel Steinmetz, who at the time was Senior Vice President, Equities, Instinet Corporation, and Laura Unger, formerly Acting Chairperson and Commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This book is not simply a historical record of the conference. It is also an exposition of the complex issues raised by the industry experts and speakers in attendance. Therefore, we introduced new material from foll- up interviews with many of the panelists so that the final result would be a more valuable document. Our intention was to examine the discussions with a critical eye, then modify or expand various sections to reflect contemporary conditions. In addition, we have included a paper by Ozenbas, Schwartz and Wood (see Chapter 8, page 151) that provides further analysis on the connection between market quality and intra-day 1 volatility that was noted several times during the conference. During the production process, we worked with the panelists, and took pains not to put words in their mouths. They have all approved the final draft of the manuscript, and we thank them for their assistance and patience.

Your Essential Guide to Quantitative Hedge Fund Investing provides a conceptual framework for understanding effective hedge fund investment strategies. The book offers a mathematically rigorous exploration of different topics, framed in an easy to digest set of examples and analogies, including stories from some legendary hedge fund investors. Readers will be guided from the historical to the cutting edge, while building a framework of understanding that encompasses it all. Features Filled with novel examples and analogies from within and beyond the world of finance Suitable for practitioners and graduate-level students with a passion for understanding the complexities that lie behind the raw mechanics of quantitative hedge fund investment A unique insight from an author with experience of both the practical and academic spheres.

Forestland investment has surged in the past few decades as a result of land ownership change in the forestry industry. Timberland investment and management organizations and real estate investment trusts have bought up land and resources that were divested by vertically integrated forest products companies. This book provides a seminal coverage of this seismic shift in the industry, exploring the philosophy, driving factors, valuation, theory, research, implementation, practice, and effects of forestland investment. Across 15 chapters the book reviews the history of forestland investment; discusses the optimal forest rotation; explains timberland appraisal; examines the return drivers of forestland; analyzes timberland index construction methods and results; prices timberland assets; reviews financial and real options; investigates real option values in forestland management; evaluates timber harvest contracts; examines new opportunities in the emerging woody bioenergy market; and eventually offers prospects on forestland investment in the future. It also discusses how forest carbon can be used as a nature-based climate solution. This book is essential reading for forestry business students and scholars, as well as practitioners and policymakers in the industry.

For all but the most credit-worthy companies, it is more efficient to finance large pools of assets that have predictable behavioral characteristics through non-standard arrangements. These off-balance sheet structures allow credit exposures to be tailored to investor risk, asset class, and an ever-increasing diversity of idiosyncratic needs on the part of issuers and investors. The discipline that addresses these structures, which is called structured finance or securitization, is almost twenty years old, and has become a pervasive element of modern financial management. Yet, it has not been systematically covered in a textbook designed for both the school and workplace contexts. The Elements of Structured Finance, the text version of a program of instruction in structured finance that the authors have offered at NYU and Hong Kong University, as well as in private training programs and consultancies, fills this void spectacularly. Raynes and Rutledge, two very highly regarded teachers and consultants in the field, bring clarity and logic to an inherently complex and frightening area of finance, using their extensive experience working with many of the top Wall Street securities houses. The book begins with the relatively simple concepts of static valuation models and the benchmark pool, and takes the reader through the more esoteric features of dynamic risk analysis, thus serving as both an introduction for the beginner and a helpful reference for the professional. In addition to participants in structured finance programs, this book will appeal to structured finance analysts and managers at banks, asset management companies, insurance companies, and a wide variety of other corporations.

This book illustrates the application of the economic concept of stochastic dominance to option markets and presents an alternative option pricing paradigm to the prevailing no arbitrage simultaneous equilibrium in the frictionless underlying and option markets. This new methodology was developed primarily by the author, working independently or jointly with other co-authors, over the course of more than thirty years. Among others, it yields the fundamental Black-Scholes-Merton option value when markets are complete, presents a new approach to the pricing of rare event risk, and uncovers option mispricing that leads to tradeable strategies in the presence of transaction costs. In the latter case it shows how a utility-maximizing investor trading in the market and a riskless bond, subject to proportional transaction costs, can increase his/her expected utility by overlaying a zero-net-cost portfolio of options bought at their ask price and written at their bid price, irrespective of the specific form of the utility function. The book contains a unified presentation of these methods and results, making it a highly readable supplement for educators and sophisticated professionals working in the popular field of option pricing. It also features a foreword by George Constantinides, the Leo Melamed Professor of Finance at the Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, USA, who was a co-author in several parts of the book.

Some of the most successful and well-known hedge funds have long profited from a trading strategy that applies macroeconomic views to global markets: global macro. Pioneered by hedge fund managers such as George Soros and Julian Robertson, this strategy has led to enormous profits. By placing directional bets on liquid assets, it is particularly suited for trending markets.

In Macro Trading and Investment Strategies: Macroeconomic Arbitrage in Global Markets, Gabriel Burstein defines and rigorously analyzes this investment style. He then proposes macro arbitrage as an original alternative to trading subjective macroeconomic views at times when markets are either trending or are extremely volatile, lacking direction, and in crisis, such as during the Asian, Russian, and Latin American economic and financial collapses of the late 1990s. Macro arbitrage is introduced as a new, lower-risk, long/short macro strategy that is based on detecting objective macroeconomic mispricings in global markets. Burstein shows how this trading strategy works in stock market sector spreads (food retailers/general retailers, banks/utilities), stock index spreads (Italy/Spain, Sweden/Finland), and with the European Monetary Union (EMU) ahead of its 1999 single-currency final stage.

In Macro Trading and Investment Strategies, Burstein presents, with examples, the framework for traditional global macro strategies, then shows how to use macroeconomic mispricings in global financial markets to design innovative global macroeconomic arbitrage strategies for trading and investing.

Macro Trading and Investment Strategies is the first thorough examination of one of the most proficient and enigmatic trading strategies in use today—global—macro. More importantly, it introduces an innovative strategy to this popular hedge fund investment style—global macroeconomic arbitrage.

Dr. Burstein, an ex-Goldman Sachs macro proprietary trader who now heads a hedge funds-dedicated equity sales group at Daiwa Europe, proposes a new global macro strategy that is nondirectional and more objective. The classic global macro strategy utilizes macroeconomic information to anticipate market direction through subjective views. As a result, global macro has a strong subjective-directional component. Based on objective mispricings of macroeconomic information in stock market index and stock sector index spreads, a new long/short arbitrage strategy is presented here that capitalizes on the correction of objective macroeconomic mispricings. These macro arbitrage strategies are evaluated and tested in volatile markets such as the "domino effect" of the global financial crises of 1997-1998 that led to a hedge fund crisis. In fact, the book shows how global financial crises create strong macro arbitrage opportunities while also being a catalyst for correcting preexistent macro mispricings.

Macro Trading and Investment Strategies: Macroeconomic Arbitrage in Global Markets presents a new and compelling trading and investment strategy. Written in a clear and concise style, it includes definitions and carefully tested trading examples.Packed with revealing trading case studies, examples, explanations, and definitions, this comprehensive work covers:

• Global directional macro, long/short macro, and macroeconomic arbitrage trading and investment strategies
• Causes of macroeconomic mispricings in markets; tackling secondary macroeconomic variables in trades
• The importance of technical timing in macro arbitrage
• Volatility of macro arbitrage strategies versus volatility of relative-value strategies
• Mispricing opportunities due to the effect of the Asian crisis on global markets
• Macro arbitrage of the EMU convergence mispricing in equity markets
• Mispricings of retail sales, GDP, industrial production, interest rates, and exchange rates in stock markets

In-depth and timely, Macro Trading and Investment Strategies covers an area of intense interest to today's trading and investment community and shows new opportunities. It is invaluable reading for those seeking new ways to tackle today's volatile global markets.

The growing interest in investment in Latin America - particularly in commodities production and real estate development - has increased the use of trusts as investment vehicles throughout Latin America. Written for the English-speaking practitioner, the book covers Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela and provides a practical, clear, and thorough explanation of trusts as legal vehicles for investment in Latin American countries. Trusts in Latin America provides a comprehensive, comparative review of statutes, case law, and examples of trusts in Latin America, and also highlights differences between these countries and common-law systems.

This book is mainly devoted to finite difference numerical methods for solving partial differential equations (PDEs) models of pricing a wide variety of financial derivative securities. With this objective, the book is divided into two main parts. In the first part, after an introduction concerning the basics on derivative securities, the authors explain how to establish the adequate PDE boundary value problems for different sets of derivative products (vanilla and exotic options, and interest rate derivatives). For many option problems, the analytic solutions are also derived with details. The second part is devoted to explaining and analyzing the application of finite differences techniques to the financial models stated in the first part of the book. For this, the authors recall some basics on finite difference methods, initial boundary value problems, and (having in view financial products with early exercise feature) linear complementarity and free boundary problems. In each chapter, the techniques related to these mathematical and numerical subjects are applied to a wide variety of financial products. This is a textbook for graduate students following a mathematical finance program as well as a valuable reference for those researchers working in numerical methods in financial derivatives. For this new edition, the book has been updated throughout with many new problems added. More details about numerical methods for some options, for example, Asian options with discrete sampling, are provided and the proof of solution-uniqueness of derivative security problems and the complete stability analysis of numerical methods for two-dimensional problems are added. Review of first edition: "...the book is highly well designed and structured as a textbook for graduate students following a mathematical finance program, which includes Black-Scholes dynamic hedging methodology to price financial derivatives. Also, it is a very valuable reference for those researchers working in numerical methods in financial derivatives, either with a more financial or mathematical background." -- MATHEMATICAL REVIEWS

This book tells the story of how the convergence between corporate sustainability and sustainable investing is now becoming a major force driving systemic market changes. The idea and practice of corporate sustainability is no longer a niche movement. Investors are increasingly paying attention to sustainability factors in their analysis and decision-making, thus reinforcing market transformation. In this book, high-level practitioners and academic thought leaders, including contributions from John Ruggie, Fiona Reynolds, Johan Rockstroem, and Paul Polman, explain the forces behind these developments. The contributors highlight (a) that systemic market change is influenced by various contextual factors that impact how sustainable investing is perceived and practiced; (b) that the integration of ESG factors in investment decisions is impacting markets on a large scale and hence changes practices of major market players (e.g. pension funds); and (c) that technology and the increasing datafication of sustainability act as further accelerators of such change. The book goes beyond standard economic theory approaches to sustainable investing and emphasizes that capitalism founded on more real-world (complex) economics and cooperation can strengthen ESG integration. Aimed at both investment professionals and academics, this book gives the reader access to more practitioner-relevant information and it also discusses implementation issues. The reader will gain insights into how "mainstream" financial actors relate to sustainable investing.

Regardless of your trading methods, and no matter what markets you're involved in, there is a Commitments of Traders (COT) report that you should be reviewing every week. Nobody understands this better than Stephen Briese, an industry-leading expert on COT data. And now, with "The Commitments of Traders Bible, " Briese reveals how to use the predictive power of COT data--and accurately interpret it--in order to analyze market movements and achieve investment success.

Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) are among the most complex of all financial instruments. Analysis of MBS requires blending empirical analysis of borrower behavior with mathematical modeling of interest rates and home prices. Over the past 25 years, Davidson and Levin have been at the leading edge of MBS valuation and risk analysis. Mortgage Valuation Models: Embedded Options, Risk and Uncertainty is a detailed description of the sophisticated theories and advanced methods that the authors employ in real-world analysis of mortgage backed securities. Issues such as complexity, borrower options, uncertainty, and model risk play a central role in their approach to valuation of MBS. The book describes methods for modeling prepayments and defaults of borrowers. It explores closed form, backward induction and Monte Carlo valuation using the Option-Adjusted-Spread (OAS) approach, explains the origin of OAS and its relationship to model uncertainty. With reference to the classical CAPM and APT, the book advocates extending the concept of risk-neutrality to modeling home prices and borrower options, well beyond interest rates. The coverage spans the range of mortgage products from loans, TBA (to be announced) pass-through securities to subordinate tranches of subprime-mortgage securitizations and describes valuation methods for both agency and non-agency MBS including pricing new loans; Davidson and Levin put forth new approaches to prudent risk measurement, ranking, and decomposition that can help guide traders and risk managers. It reveals quantitative causes of the 2007-09 financial crisis and provides insights into the future of the US housing finance system and mortgage modeling. Despite the advances in mortgage modeling and valuation, this remains an ever-evolving field. Mortgage Valuation Models will serve as a foundation for the future development of models for mortgage-backed securities.

A collection of papers on the determinants and consequences of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the real and financial sectors of industrial countries. The text sheds new light on the determinants of FDI, in particular the role of governmental incentives. Another main topic is the role of FDI in the east European accession countries. It provides insights into the question of whether EU enlargement will have consequences for capital flows into those countries. Since the start of European monetary union, the discussion on cross-border mergers in the European banking industry has intensified. The final part of the book contains contributions to this debate.

Look to the stars for a whole new approach to market cycle forecasting

"A Trader's Guide to Financial Astrology" is the definitive guide to trading market cycles based on astrological data. Written by a highly-respected technical analyst, this book makes the connection between the movements of planets and the volatility of the market. Readers can draw upon one hundred years of historical data as they learn how to spot correlations from the past, and refer to planetary and lunar data for the next five years as they shape their own strategy. The book covers the principles of astrological forecasting as applied to the financial markets, explaining what to watch for and how to interpret planetary and lunar activity, plus expert insight on everyday practical application.

A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta determined that the U.S. stock markets tend to be negatively affected by geomagnetic storms, and the Royal Bank of Scotland demonstrated that a trading system based on the phases of the moon would have outperformed the market. "A Trader's Guide to Financial Astrology" shows traders how to tap into the planetary forces that influence market activity. Readers will: Learn how planetary and lunar movements relate to the financial marketsDraw upon 100 years of historic correlations and five years of forecast dataForecast long-term and short-term activity based on planetary relationships and lunar movementEnter the markets at key turning points, using price patterns and other tools

When integrated with technical trading patterns, astrology can be an effective way of shifting perspective and approaching the market differently. For traders who have always wanted to know what to do when Mercury is in retrograde or the moon is new, "A Trader's Guide to Financial Astrology" provides information and insight from a leading market educator.

Sixty-one percent of Canadians between the ages of 45 and 64 don't have a formal financial strategy. In The BAPKIN Plan, author and financial planner Gerard Hassprovides simple yet effective guidance for creating a financial plan to help you save, invest, and plan for retirement.

The BAPKIN Plan presents an easy-to-remember framework and explains the basic steps you can use to simplify and improve your life and your financial wellbeing. Offering checklists to help you organize your journey, this reference tool can guide you to a better understandingof what your financial adviser or planner is recommending--including the positive and negative features of potential investments. You'll learn how to

- develop a commitment to setting simple goals and to following a simple plan based on common sense;- commit to strategies to live within your means;- draft a statement of net worth and revisit it every year;- protect yourself with an emergency fund, line of credit, and insurances;- protect your loved ones by having life insurance coverage, a will, and powers of attorney;- understand how you are taxed and the importance of seeking professional help;- develop a personal pension plan strategy based on your life stage;- institute a disciplined investment strategy that will suit your objectives;and- work with the adviser who is a professional--not a salesman.

Communicating a wealth of information, Hass provides advice to help move you forward in your financial empowerment.

Make your money work for you with sound commercial real estate investment strategies If you're looking for more detailed advice on the commercial real estate market than, "Buy low, sell high," you've come to the right place. Commercial Real Estate Investing For Dummies is where you can find the smart, straightforward, and accurate info you need to get your start--or grow your portfolio--in commercial real estate. You'll learn foundational strategies, tips, and tricks for investing in all sorts of commercial properties, from apartments to shopping malls. You'll also get rock-solid advice on: How to get started in commercial real estate investing, even if you've never tried it before How to work with business and investment partners and protect your own interests with contracts Financing your investments with a variety of instruments and taking advantage of legal tax opportunities Growing wealth by investing in real estate is a strategy as old as money itself. Do yourself a favor and get in on the action with this straightforward and up-to-date guide!

Raise your trading game by incorporating lessons from outside the financial markets In The Complete Trading System: How to Develop a Mindset, Maximize Profitability, and Own Your Market Success, veteran trading strategist Casey Stubbs delivers a comprehensive and holistic guide to making money in the financial markets. In the book, the author presents an insightful framework for focusing your entire lifestyle on the art of trading and for harmonizing the different components of your trading strategy. You’ll learn to set the foundations for successful trading and develop your mindset into one that’s capable of dominating the markets. You’ll also discover: A deep understanding of how markets move and what that says about what’s going on behind the scenes Leverage momentum to find accurate and powerful entries and exploit market flow and key levels to get an edge on bank traders Use candlestick and chart patterns to obtain confirmation and improve confidence in your trades An essential resource for market participants and day traders, The Complete Trading System is a singular and incisive roadmap to improving your risk-adjusted returns in the financial markets.

Supercharge options analytics and hedging using the power of Python Derivatives Analytics with Python shows you how to implement market-consistent valuation and hedging approaches using advanced financial models, efficient numerical techniques, and the powerful capabilities of the Python programming language. This unique guide offers detailed explanations of all theory, methods, and processes, giving you the background and tools necessary to value stock index options from a sound foundation. You'll find and use self-contained Python scripts and modules and learn how to apply Python to advanced data and derivatives analytics as you benefit from the 5,000+ lines of code that are provided to help you reproduce the results and graphics presented. Coverage includes market data analysis, risk-neutral valuation, Monte Carlo simulation, model calibration, valuation, and dynamic hedging, with models that exhibit stochastic volatility, jump components, stochastic short rates, and more. The companion website features all code and IPython Notebooks for immediate execution and automation. Python is gaining ground in the derivatives analytics space, allowing institutions to quickly and efficiently deliver portfolio, trading, and risk management results. This book is the finance professional's guide to exploiting Python's capabilities for efficient and performing derivatives analytics. * Reproduce major stylized facts of equity and options markets yourself * Apply Fourier transform techniques and advanced Monte Carlo pricing * Calibrate advanced option pricing models to market data * Integrate advanced models and numeric methods to dynamically hedge options Recent developments in the Python ecosystem enable analysts to implement analytics tasks as performing as with C or C++, but using only about one-tenth of the code or even less. Derivatives Analytics with Python Data Analysis, Models, Simulation, Calibration and Hedging shows you what you need to know to supercharge your derivatives and risk analytics efforts.

For undergraduate courses in derivatives, options and futures, financial engineering, financial mathematics, and risk management. A reader-friendly book with an abundance of numerical and real-life examples. Based on Hull's Options, Futures and Other Derivatives, Fundamentals of Futures and Options Markets presents an accessible and student-friendly overview of the topic without the use of calculus. Packed with numerical examples and accounts of real-life situations, this text effectively guides students through the material while helping them prepare for the working world.

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.

Praise for Investment Management

"A compelling analysis of the challenges of investment management, and why investment management firms require innovation to succeed."
--Blake Grossman, CEO, Barclays Global Investors

"Great investment managers understand that positioning portfolios for clients should not be an act of conformity, but rather a constant journey of shifting fundamentals and opinion. Wayne and Ralph bring this fact to life by addressing some of the key challenges to serious investment thinking, using top-level researchers in their respective fields. For those investment managers and clients who want to go beyond the ordinary."
--Jeff Diermeier, former CEO of CFA Institute and retired CIO of UBS Global Asset Management

"The essays in this book provide an invaluable reference point of serious readings for money managers. The works provide the analyst with the most recent scholarship in a single book, presenting ideas and philosophy that will lead me back to its various sections time and time again."
--Kenneth S. Hackel, CFA, President, CT Capital LLC

"The crash of 2007-2009 brought a harsh conclusion to a quarter of a century of unprecedented growth and prosperity for the investment management industry, which faces no less a task than reinventing itself. Rieves' and Wagner's contribution to the way forward couldn't be timelier."
--Richard Ennis, Principal, Ennis Knupp + Associates

"This book uniformly focuses on the best practices to which investment management professionals should commit. I highly recommend this book to investment managers, sales people, and trustees of pensions, endowments, trusts, and mutual funds."
--Jack Clark Francis, PhD, Professor of Economics and Finance, Bernard Baruch College

Federal Reserve monetary policy has a profound effect on the U.S. economy and consequently on investments. This unique book combines the institutional approach to monetary policy with the theories and principles involved in applying that knowledge to investing. Although there are many books on the Federal Reserve and a myriad of books on investing, this synthesis of institutional, theoretical, and practical applications is unique to the marketplace.

In part I, Laura Nowak reviews the political origins of the Federal Reserve and follows its growth into the powerful arbiter of U.S. economic policy today. The actual conduct and effects of monetary policy are then explained with an eye toward identifying changes in policy that can be applied to the investment world. In part II, the effects of monetary policies on stock and bond markets and on particular industires are discussed, followed by a description of the investment instruments that will be impacted by different policies. In conclusion, Nowak offers a chapter of suggestions for hedging against changes in monetary policy and another chapter describing the tools that can be used for this purpose. The book will be useful to investment professionals who are intimately involved in their own specialty but who want and need to understand how the system works so they can improve their performance and advise their clients with more knowledge and authority.

The book presents a comprehensive and incisive analysis of Structural transformation which is among the most relevant and crucial themes of contemporary economics. Structural transformation is the edifice that is the basis of the next phase of economic transformation. The book demonstrates that structural transformation cannot be shoe horned into a single point formula, it is not merely about achieving a double-digit growth rate, nor it is achieved by an overarching emphasis on rapid technological advancement. Based on empirical evidence pertinent to developed and developing nations and present imperatives the book provides a comprehensive elucidation that structural transformation will be profoundly determined by the empirics of investment, Innovation and Institutions.