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The EU is moving towards the full implementation of the Investment Services Directive (ISD). Indeed, in some Member States, implementation has been or will be complemented by further changes to the domestic legal framework in order to cater more effectively for increased competition among financial institutions and markets. This book analyzes these developments from a legal and economic perspective and includes papers written by academics and practitioners from Europe and the US. Some papers examine critical aspects of the ISD from a comparative viewpoint, in particular considering whether further harmonization would be appropriate. Special attention is paid to the regulation of financial exchanges in the new competitive arena and to the need for co-operation between supervisors. The volume is aimed at all those involved in European securities and derivatives markets in either a legal or economic capacity. It will be of interest to banking and financial lawyers, financial economists, regulators, exchanges and intermediaries.

A fascinating discussion of the role played by fear in financial market panics. Professor Read demonstrates, in easy-to-understand terms, that rising market fear portends to major financial declines. He explains the science and the economics of fear and shows that the financial market has learned how to capitalize on investor or economic fear

Mastering Attribution in Finance is a comprehensive guide to how attribution is used in equity and fixed income markets. Attribution in finance is a key investment and asset management process used in managed funds. A managed fund uses appropriate financial tools to make sure that the fund's value is maintained or increased. Attribution tools are used to analyse why a portfolio's performance differs from a benchmark. The difference between the portfolio return and the benchmark return is known as the active return. As with all Mastering titles, this book is written by an expert in the field. It will show you how to: Understand how attribution is used in equity and fixed income markets Improve your knowledge of the mathematics used in performance and attribution Assess in greater detail the effects top-down attribution and attribution on specific types of fixed income security Broaden your awareness of performance and return

Cross-border transactions involve a variety of financial operations, including arbitrage, hedging, speculation, financing, and investment. These inter-related operations give rise to foreign exchange exposure and affect the overall financial performance of multinational firms. The book aims to provide an integrated treatment of multinational financial operations, whilst taking into account some real- world complexities such as bid/offer spreads, transaction costs, capital rationing, and market imperfections.

The Financial Markets of the Future is concerned with e-business as it applies to financial institutions who operate within these markets. It presents a strategic overview of the impact and implications of technology in these markets. The model identifies two primary inter-related technological causes of change and the elegance and simplicity of the model and format provide a means to evaluate developments in the financial markets. Aimed at all high level financial practitioners evaluating the application of e-business and in particularly to banks on the sell-side in their capacities as securities dealers.

This practical book serves as a comprehensive guide to quantitative portfolio optimization, asset allocation, and risk management. Providing an accessible yet rigorous approach to investment management, it gradually introduces ever more advanced quantitative tools for these areas. Using extensive examples, this book guides the reader from basic return and risk analysis, all the way through to portfolio optimization and risk characterization, and finally on to fully fledged quantitative asset allocation and risk management. It employs such tools as enhanced modern portfolio theory using Monte Carlo simulation and advanced return distribution analysis, analysis of marginal contributions to absolute and active portfolio risk, Value-at-Risk and Extreme Value Theory.

Portfolio Management with Heuristic Optimization consist of two parts. The first part (Foundations) deals with the foundations of portfolio optimization, its assumptions, approaches and the limitations when "traditional" optimization techniques are to be applied. In addition, the basic concepts of several heuristic optimization techniques are presented along with examples of how to implement them for financial optimization problems. The second part (Applications and Contributions) consists of five chapters, covering different problems in financial optimization: the effects of (linear, proportional and combined) transaction costs together with integer constraints and limitations on the initital endowment to be invested; the diversification in small portfolios; the effect of cardinality constraints on the Markowitz efficient line; the effects (and hidden risks) of Value-at-Risk when used the relevant risk constraint; the problem factor selection for the Arbitrage Pricing Theory.

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.

Predicting the future for financial gain is a difficult, sometimes profitable activity. The focus of this book is the application of biologically inspired algorithms (BIAs) to financial modelling.

In a detailed introduction, the authors explain computer trading on financial markets and the difficulties faced in financial market modelling. Then Part I provides a thorough guide to the various bioinspired methodologies neural networks, evolutionary computing (particularly genetic algorithms and grammatical evolution), particle swarm and ant colony optimization, and immune systems. Part II brings the reader through the development of market trading systems. Finally, Part III examines real-world case studies where BIA methodologies are employed to construct trading systems in equity and foreign exchange markets, and for the prediction of corporate bond ratings and corporate failures.

The book was written for those in the finance community who want to apply BIAs in financial modelling, and for computer scientists who want an introduction to this growing application domain."

From long, first-hand experience as president of his own financial advertising agency, Alec Benn offers a unique, inside look at America's investment community, at a time of changes so profound that their impact and implications are still with us. Based not on public relations handouts (although he himself has written them) but on frank, revealing talks with people who actually participated in the events of those tumultuous seven years, on official oral histories (hitherto concealed), and on his own keen observations, Benn shows how those events and changes really occurred. He reveals that The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was in far greater peril of collapse in 1970 than anyone, except a few insiders, has ever known. He exposes how many of the most significant changes ever to affect investors really came about. And he provides new insights into the people who caused, influenced, or sometimes opposed the reforms we now take for granted, as well as into the impact of historical figures such as Richard Nixon and Ross Perot. Informative, entertaining, and impeccably researched and documented, Benn's book gives us new information to help evaluate the investment world of today, and to appreciate how dangerous it was at another time, a time that some say appears uncomfortably familiar.

Among the many topics Benn examines in depth is the creation of the Securities Investors Protection Corporation, the agency that insures against loss of the cash and securities left by investors in their brokers' hands. He shows how stock brokers' commissions came to be competitive and low, instead of fixed and high (a special benefit for today's day traders), and how members of The New York Stock Exchange became able to sell shares in their firms to the general public, opening a bountiful source of permanent capital. He goes on to cover the creation of the Central Certificate System, which led to a dramatic increase in trading volume later, and how the NYSE was reorganized, benefiting not only members but investors as well. Benn also explores how NYSE member firms became authorized to sell annuities and other insurance products, in itself a billion-dollar business. Finally, in an especially telling chapter, he discusses how and why discrimination on Wall Street based on class, religion, race, and gender declined (and by inference, why in some places it still lingers.)

In spite of the robust development of venture capital that has occurred over the last three decades, returns from venture capital have been declining. This book focuses on a simple question: why? The answer lies in the context of multiple deformations that have occurred throughout the venture capital process. The book critically assesses the ways in which interactions between different stakeholders in the venture capital ecosystem change (or "deform") venture capital, decreasing its value. Klonowski also reveals that venture capital actually has few benefits-and some outright disadvantages-for entrepreneurs, and it can create a self-perpetuating cycle of investment and loss for the entire venture capital industry. This is especially true as corporate governance and compensation structures may create significant misalignments, incongruities, and conflicts of interest between general and limited partners.

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.

The papers in this volume cover three major areas of International Business: Developments in Theory, The Foreign Market Servicing Strategies of Multinational Firms and Asia-Pacific Issues. The theory section examines the internationalisation process, the role of management in international business theory, approaches to Japanese foreign direct investment and the contrast between the approach taken to international business by internalisation theorists and that of international strategic management. The choices between exporting, foreign licensing of technology and direct investment abroad are examined in Part II. The foreign market servicing decisions are examined both at the level of the firm and in aggregate at the level of an economy (the UK). The impact of these decisions on competitiveness is evaluated and the role of international joint ventures is examined for the case of the UK. The final section examines current issues in the Asia-Pacific economies. The impact of the Single European Market on Pacific Futures and Government-Business relations (Japan versus UK) are the focus of attention and the taxation implications of joint ventures in China are examined in detail.

A core text for one semester courses in Financial Institutions and Markets. A comprehensive exploration of the world's financial markets and institutions. Foundations of Financial Markets and Institutions, offers a comprehensive exploration of the revolutionary developments occurring in the world's financial markets and institutions -i.e., innovation, globalization, and deregulation-with a focus on the actual practices of financial institutions, investors, and financial instruments. This edition incorporates and addresses the vast amount of changes that have recently occurred in financial institutions and markets around the world.

Anyone who wants to understand stock market cycles and develop a focused, thoughtful, and solidly grounded valuation approach to the stock market must read this book. Bolten explains the causes and patterns of the cycles and identifies the causes of stock price changes. He identifies the sources of risks in the stock market and in individual stocks. Also covered is how the interaction of expected return and risk creates stock market cycles. Bolten talks about the industry sectors most likely to be profitable investments in each stage of the stock market cycles, while identifying the stock market bubble and sinkhole warning signs. The role of the Federal Reserve in each stage of the stock market cycle is also discussed.

All the categories of risk are identified and explained while no specific risk is left undiscussed. The underlying causes for long-term stock price trends and cycles are highlighted. The book is useful in many areas including stock analysis, portfolio management, cost of equity capital, financing strategies, business valuations and spotting profit opportunities caused by general economic and specific company changes.

A comprehensive, updated guide to dividend investing that shows how to obtain double-digit returns with ease. Dividends are responsible for 44% of the S&P 500's returns over the last 80 years. Today they present an excellent opportunity, especially with investors who have been burned in the dot com and housing meltdowns, desperate for sensible and less risky ways to make their money grow. Designed to show investors how they can achieve double-digit average annualized returns over the long-term, Get Rich with Dividends, Third Edition: A Proven System for Earning Double-Digit Returns is the book you'll need to get started making money in any market. The beauty of dividend investing is that it's extremely easy to understand and takes up almost none of the investor's time. The investor doesn't have to constantly watch over their investments, and can focus on other things, secure in the knowledge that the system is working and they are accumulating wealth or generating the income they need on a quarterly or even monthly basis. Using the author's proprietary 10-11-12 System, investors can achieve average annual returns of 12% or more, if they know which stocks to invest in and how to do so - even with below average growth in the share price. Dividend investments are easy to set up and require little to no maintenance, and this book shows you how to do it. A method so easy to use, you'll want to teach your children how to do it early, setting them up for financial independence and avoiding the problems that plagued many investors over the past decade Full of expert advice from a 15-year veteran of equity markets. By showing investors how to find and invest in these unique but conservative and proven stocks, Get Rich with Dividends, Third Edition is the only book on dividend investing you'll ever need.