In the past decades asset intensive companies have witnessed a number of regulatory changes and especially industry is facing ever increasing competitiveness. To overcome these challenges different asset management methods have been developed aimed to improve the asset life cycle. Especially the design phase and operation and maintenance phase have seen a rise in tools and methods. Smarter design can lead to improved operation. Likewise, improved operation and maintenance leads to lower replacement costs and may provide the basis for better design. This book brings together and coherently presents the current state of the art in asset management research and practice in Europe from a life cycle perspective. Each chapter focuses on specific parts of this life cycle and explains how the methods and techniques described are connected and how they improve the asset life cycle, thus treating this important subject from a unique perspective.

The financial sector is the talk of the global village. This book highlights that, before asserting that the institutions of the financial sector deserve to be regulated, one should consider that these very institutions are themselves the discreet regulators of the markets where their activity takes place.

The Business of Giving reviews current thinking and surveys the key techniques any philanthropist or grantmaker should adopt. It also outlines a generic social investment process that can be utilized for all philanthropic or grantmaking programmes. Essential reading for all engaged in or with an interest in philanthropy or civil society in general.

The banking industry extensively lobbied against Basel III and governments have been keen to delay its full implementation. Chorafas' latest book takes a well-rounded approach on Basel III's strengths and weaknesses and explains how, without deep restructuring of the global banking industry, (like Basel II) Basel III will fail.

The easy money that flowed through the banking system prior to 2008 fueled a boom in buy-outs. Now it is gone, how will the private equity industry reinvent itself? A series of interviews with some of the most respected and innovative firms, give rare insights to the strategies that will drive this secretive sector over the next economic cycle.

The recent crisis in financial markets has seen a gradual erosion of risk-free asset classes. In equity markets the credit risk has reached a critical level in valuation. Here a new cost of equity method for private companies is presented based on the pricing of junior subordinated notes. Global business cases are illustrated to support this.

The impressive growth of trade and investments between China and Latin America has attracted the attention of the business world and policy makers. This book analyses the business of the main players at the country/region and company levels in the context of globalization and growing importance of emerging markets in the world economy.

This book provides authoritative academic and professional insights into the strategies of Chinese Foreign Direct Investments in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. Distinguished authors from across the world will make a contribution to the growing literature on OFDI (outward foreign direct investment) from China.

"Private Equity in Poland" focuses on the evolution of private equity in Poland. Poland represents the most developed private equity industry in Central and Eastern Europe and is one of the leaders in emerging markets worldwide. There is a growing interest in private equity in emerging markets around the world which has been fuelled by the extraordinary economic growth, attractive investment opportunities, exciting exit choices, and handsome returns; Poland is one of these markets. The development of private equity in Poland may serve as a blueprint for other emerging market countries like India and China.

No one ever said pension scheme trusteeship was easy. Indeed, this is particularly true with regard to the investment aspects of trusteeship, with its many nuances and often mystifying jargon and terminology. Trustees must strive to improve upon their skill, expertise and organisational effectiveness in determining and monitoring a scheme's investment strategy, because simplicity in many aspects of trusteeship and investment are continually giving way to increased complexity. Written by two renowned and highly experienced industry practitioners, with a mission to advance trustees' investment knowledge and to provide them with the necessary confidence and competence to adopt an advanced level of investment governance for their scheme, The Trustee Guide to Investment is a uniquely and refreshingly objective and practical guide to the ever expanding range of markets, investments, tools and techniques to which pension scheme trustees are increasingly exposed by their fund managers and advisers.

Financial market behavior and key trading strategies-illuminated by interviews with top hedge fund experts Efficiently Inefficient describes the key trading strategies used by hedge funds and demystifies the secret world of active investing. Leading financial economist Lasse Heje Pedersen combines the latest research with real-world examples to show how certain tactics make money-and why they sometimes don't. He explores equity strategies, macro strategies, and arbitrage strategies, and fundamental tools for portfolio choice, risk management, equity valuation, and yield curve trading. The book also features interviews with leading hedge fund managers: Lee Ainslie, Cliff Asness, Jim Chanos, Ken Griffin, David Harding, John Paulson, Myron Scholes, and George Soros. Efficiently Inefficient reveals how financial markets really work.

John Bollinger is a giant in today’s trading community. His Bollinger Bands sharpen the sensitivity of fixed indicators, allowing them to more precisely reflect a market’s volatility. By more accurately indicating the existing market environment, they are seen by many as today’s standard—and most reliable—tool for plotting expected price action.

Now, in Bollinger on Bollinger Bands, Bollinger himself explains how to use this extraordinary technique to compare price and indicator action and make sound, sensible, and profitable trading decisions.

Concise, straightforward, and filled with instructive charts and graphs, this remarkable book will be essential reading for all serious traders, regardless of market. Bollinger includes his simple system for implementation, and techniques for combining bands and indicators.

In the face of the recent financial crisis there is increased focus on long-term investment strategies. This is particularly true for institutional investors who manage our retirement savings. Simultaneously there is increased demand that financial assets be invested with an understanding of long-term environmental and social sustainability. Responsible investing provides a long-term sustainable investment strategy that values environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in investment decision-making. Responsible Investing has always had a broad mandate. Put simply, it is a long-term sustainable investment strategy that seeks to reduce risk in investment portfolios through managing ESG issues in today 's corporations. The Next Generation of Responsible Investment explores this topic in an edited volume intended for those with an interest in finance and business.

While there may be a consensus in the industry that hedge funds clones will bring better liquidity and lower fees, it is still debatable whether replication products should serve as a complement in the hedge fund allocation decision or as a replacement. This book offers the reader valuable insights into the thinking behind hedge fund replication.

C++ is one of the best languages for the development of financial engineering and instrument pricing applications. It has several features that allow developers to write robust, flexible and extensible software systems. It is an ANSI/ISO standard, fully object?oriented and interfaces with many third?party applications. It has support for templates and generic programming, massive reusability using templates (?write once?) and support for legacy C applications.This book applies C++ to the design and implementation of classes, libraries and latest applications for option and derivative pricing models. The new edition follows the same structure as used in the first edition but is completely updated to reflect current practice and the numerous new developments that have taken place in computational finance over the past 5 years. It features over 50% new material including brand new code libraries supplied by Boost C++ (a repository for free peer-reviewed portable C++ source libraries), more extensive examples than used in the first edition, as well as calibration techniques that will bring readers right up to date with the latest programming technology. It supports the latest pricing and numerical techniques quants use as well as parallel and multithreading applications.Using the most up to date models and code it employs modern software engineering techniques to produce industrial?strength applications: ? ?Using the Standard Template Library (STL) in finance ?Creating your own template classes and functions ?Reusable data structures for vectors, matrices and tensors ?Classes for numerical analysis (numerical linear algebra ?) ?Solving the Black Scholes equations, exact and approximate solutions ?Implementing the Finite Difference Method in C++ ?Integration with the ?Gang of Four? Design Patterns ?Interfacing with Excel (output and Add?Ins) ?Financial engineering and XML ?Cash flow and yield curves With the forthcoming launch of C++0x there has never been a better time for a revised edition to this C++ classic.The book is accompanied by a CD ROM which includes the most up to date source code so readers can implement all models immediately.

CAPITAL IDEAS

Capital Ideas traces the origins of modern Wall Street, from the pioneering work of early scholars and the development of new theories in risk, valuation, and investment returns, to the actual implementation of these theories in the real world of investment management. Starting with the French mathema-tician Louis Bachelier--who wrote about the unpredictability of stock prices in the early 1900s--Bernstein brings to life a variety of brilliant academics who have contributed to modern investment theory over the years: Harry Markowitz, who wrote about optimizing the tradeoff between risk and reward William Sharpe, who shook the pillars of the investment establishment by asserting that the market cannot be beaten Fischer Black, Myron Scholes, and Robert Merton, who paved the way for the creation of financial derivatives and new ways of controlling risk Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller, who extolled the central role of arbitrage in determining the value of securities

Filled with in-depth insights and timeless advice, Capital Ideas reveals how the unique contributions of these talented individuals profoundly changed the practice of investment management as we know it today.

This book is written for quantitative finance professionals, students, educators, and mathematically inclined individual investors. It is about some of the latest developments in pricing, hedging, and investing in incomplete markets. With regard to pricing, two frameworks are fully elaborated: neutral and indifference pricing. With regard to hedging, the most conservative and relaxed hedging formulas are derived. With regard to investing, the neutral pricing methodology is also considered as a tool for connecting market asset prices with optimal positions in such assets.

SrdjanD.Stojanovic isProfessor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at University of Cincinnati (USA) and Professor in the Center for Financial Engineering at Suzhou University (China)."

"The financial crisis focused unprecedented attention on ethics in investment banking. This book develops an ethical framework to assess and manage investment banking ethics and provides a guide to high profile concerns as well as day to day ethical challenges"--

In recent years, metals have been among the safest and most lucrative investments around, but they are not entirely risk free. Before you begin investing or trading in metals, you need authoritative information and proven investment strategies. You need "Precious Metal Investing For Dummies."

This straightforward guide eases you into the precious metals market with sound advice on trading and owning these profitable investments, including gold, silver, platinum, and uranium, as well as high-demand base metals such as zinc and copper. You'll learn how to research their market performance and choose among an array of proven trading plans and strategies. Plus, you'll get savvy advice on how to choose a broker, buy stocks and futures that involve metals, maximize your investment return, and minimize your risk. Discover how to: Evaluate the different metalsAdd metals to your portfolioDecide whether you're an investor or a traderIdentify your metal-investment goalsWeigh the risks and benefits of metals investingBuy physical metalsUse technical analysis to evaluate opportunitiesMake long-term investments in precious metalsDiversify your metals investmentsAnalyze base-metals companiesPurchase numismatic coinsAdd metals to your mutual fund or ETF portfolioUnderstand how politics effects metals prices

Metals can be an important and valuable addition to any investment portfolio or retirement plan. Make the most out of your investment with "Precious Metal Investing For Dummies."

The guide technicians turn to for answers--tuned up to provide an advantage in today's global economy The face of investing has significantly changed in the 30 years since this book's first publication, but one essential component of the markets has not--human behavior. Whether you're trading cornerstone commodities or innovative investment products, observing how investors responded to past events through technical analysis is your key to forecasting when to buy and sell in the future. This fully updated fifth edition shows you how to maximize your profits in today's complex markets by tailoring your application of this powerful tool. Tens of thousands of individual and professional investors have used the guidance in this book to grow their wealth by understanding, interpreting, and forecasting significant moves in both individual stocks and entire markets. This new edition streamlines its time-honored, profit-driven approach, while updating every chapter with new examples, tables, charts, and comments that reflect the real-world situations you encounter in everyday trading. Required reading among many professionals, this authoritative resource now features: Brand-new chapters that analyze and explain secular trends with unique technical indicators that measure investor confidence, as well as an introduction to Pring's new Special K indicator Expanded coverage on the profit-making opportunities ETFs create in international markets, sectors, and commodities Practical advice for avoiding false, contratrend signals that may arise in short-term time spans Additional material on price patterns, candlestick charts, relative strength, momentum, sentiment indicators, and global stock markets Properly reading and balancing the variety of indicators used in technical analysis is an art, and no other book better illustrates the repeatable steps you need to take to master it. When used with patience and discipline, Technical Analysis Explained, Fifth Edition, will make you a better decision maker and increase your chances of greater profits.

To fully function in today's global real estate industry, students and professionals increasingly need to understand how to implement essential and cutting-edge quantitative techniques. This book presents an easy-to-read guide to applying quantitative analysis in real estate aimed at non-cognate undergraduate and masters students, and meets the requirements of modern professional practice. Through case studies and examples illustrating applications using data sourced from dedicated real estate information providers and major firms in the industry, the book provides an introduction to the foundations underlying statistical data analysis, common data manipulations and understanding descriptive statistics, before gradually building up to more advanced quantitative analysis, modelling and forecasting of real estate markets. Our examples and case studies within the chapters have been specifically compiled for this book and explicitly designed to help the reader acquire a better understanding of the quantitative methods addressed in each chapter. Our objective is to equip readers with the skills needed to confidently carry out their own quantitative analysis and be able to interpret empirical results from academic work and practitioner studies in the field of real estate and in other asset classes. Both undergraduate and masters level students, as well as real estate analysts in the professions, will find this book to be essential reading.

This book provides comprehensive coverage on the key issues of Chinese investment in the Australian minerals industry. It offers unique insights into the entry process, the management of Chinese investments, and their success factors and lessons learnt as being impacted upon by the entangling of political, economic, social and competitive forces.

A comprehensive guide to the burgeoning hedge fund industry

Intended as a comprehensive reference for investors and fund and portfolio managers, Handbook of Hedge Funds combines new material with updated information from Francois-Serge L'habitant's two other successful hedge fund books. This book features up-to-date regulatory and historical information, new case studies and trade examples, detailed analyses of investment strategies, discussions of hedge fund indices and databases, and tips on portfolio construction.

Francois-Serge L'habitant (Geneva, Switzerland) is the Head of Investment Research at Kedge Capital. He is Professor of Finance at the University of Lausanne and at EDHEC Business School, as well as the author of five books, including "Hedge Funds: Quantitative Insights" (0-470-85667-X) and "Hedge Funds: Myths & Limits" (0-470-84477-9), both from Wiley.

Tuckett argues that most economists' explanations of the financial crisis miss its essence; they ignore critical components of human psychology. He offers a deeper understanding of financial market behaviour and investment processes by recognizing the role played by unconscious needs and fears in all investment activity.

Adrian Renner provides a unique perspective on how stockholders react if companies move towards a carbon-conscious future. A multi-country event study approach was used to analyze stock market reactions of the largest 500 companies globally.