The CFA Institute has announced that all 2021 exams will continue to reflect the official 2020 curriculum. Wiley's 11th Hour Final Review Guide for 2020 Level II CFA Exam compacts all readings tested on the 2020 CFA exam into one portable volume. Organized in order, this best-selling guide has helped thousands of candidates from over one-hundred countries pass the CFA exam. Designed to boil it all down to the crucial concepts, formulas and rules, this guide ensures candidates are familiar with the most important testable information. It's difficult to go over multiple books in the last few weeks before the exam, so Wiley's 11th Hour Review Guide does the work for you--condensing each reading down to two- to five pages. Enter the exam room with confidence and reinforce your knowledge and preparation! This comprehensive guide complements Wiley's CFA Study Guides sold separately but may be used with any review course. An effective, efficient study guide, this book prepares you to reach the next level in your career. The Eleventh Hour Review book is simply brilliant. Virtually every sentence it contains is testable--it's an absolute must-have for every Level I candidate. --Ameer, UK The eleventh hour guide was a great help. --Konrad, South Africa I used your eleventh hour guide and mock exams for the last bit of my studying and greatly enjoyed your material. Out of all of the exam prep material, I thought [yours] was the best. --Thomas, USA Thanks to the team for writing the most intelligent Chartered Financial Analyst material I have seen to date. The eleventh hour guide is absolute genius and proving very valuable at this stage of the revision process. --Doug, UK

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 and interviews with top hedge fund managers to show how certain trading strategies make money--and why they sometimes don't. Pedersen views markets as neither perfectly efficient nor completely inefficient. Rather, they are inefficient enough that money managers can be compensated for their costs through the profits of their trading strategies and efficient enough that the profits after costs do not encourage additional active investing. Understanding how to trade in this efficiently inefficient market provides a new, engaging way to learn finance. Pedersen analyzes how the market price of stocks and bonds can differ from the model price, leading to new perspectives on the relationship between trading results and finance theory. He explores several different areas in depth--fundamental tools for investment management, equity strategies, macro strategies, and arbitrage strategies--and he looks at such diverse topics as portfolio choice, risk management, equity valuation, and yield curve logic. The book's strategies are illuminated further by 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 effectively demonstrates how financial markets really work. Free problem sets are available online at http://www.lhpedersen.com

In answer to the intense development of new financial products and the increasing complexity of portfolio management theory, Portfolio Optimization and Performance Analysis offers a solid grounding in modern portfolio theory. The book presents both standard and novel results on the axiomatics of the individual choice in an uncertain framework, contains a precise overview of standard portfolio optimization, provides a review of the main results for static and dynamic cases, and shows how theoretical results can be applied to practical and operational portfolio optimization. Divided into four sections that mirror the book's aims, this resource first describes the fundamental results of decision theory, including utility maximization and risk measure minimization. Covering both active and passive portfolio management, the second part discusses standard portfolio optimization and performance measures. The book subsequently introduces dynamic portfolio optimization based on stochastic control and martingale theory. It also outlines portfolio optimization with market frictions, such as incompleteness, transaction costs, labor income, and random time horizon. The final section applies theoretical results to practical portfolio optimization, including structured portfolio management. It details portfolio insurance methods as well as performance measures for alternative investments, such as hedge funds. Taking into account the different features of portfolio management theory, this book promotes a thorough understanding for students and professionals in the field.

This comprehensive reference delivers a toolkit for harvesting market rewards from a wide range of investments. Written by a world-renowned industry expert, the reference discusses how to forecast returns under different parameters. Expected returns of major asset classes, investment strategies, and the effects of underlying risk factors such as growth, inflation, liquidity, and different risk perspectives, are also explained. Judging expected returns requires balancing historical returns with both theoretical considerations and current market conditions. "Expected Returns" provides extensive empirical evidence, surveys of risk-based and behavioral theories, and practical insights.

In the ten years since the first edition of this book was published, Ichimoku charting, or Cloud charting, has gone from the sole preserve of Japanese traders to being used by traders worldwide. This widespread adoption of the technique can be traced at least in part to this book, since it was the first to introduce the technique to the world outside Japan. Candlestick charts play an important role in technical analysis worldwide. This book covers the history of candlestick charts - explaining the context in which they developed. It then moves on to explain how in the 1930s a journalist, with the pseudonym Ichimoku Sanjin, started refining candlestick analysis by adding a series of moving averages. The book explains in detail how to construct Cloud charts and how to interpret them. A chapter is devoted to the advanced analysis of Cloud charts, with an in-depth study of the Three Principles: Wave Principle, Price Target and Timespan Principle. The book is illustrated throughout with numerous examples of Cloud chart analysis. Brand new to this second edition are the author's thoughts from a further decade of using the technique and new trading examples.

The coming financial apocalypse and what government and individuals can do to insulate themselves against the worst shocks In this controversial book a noted adherent of Austrian School of Economics theories advances the thesis that the United States is fast approaching the end stage of the biggest asset bubble in history. He describes how the bursting of the bubble will cause a massive interest rate shock that will send the US consumer economy and the US government pumped up by massive Treasury debt into bankruptcy, an event that will send shockwaves throughout the global economy. Michael Pento examines how policies followed by both the Federal Reserve and private industry have contributed to the impending interest rate disaster and highlights the similarities between the US and European debt crisis. But the book isn't all doom and gloom. Pento also provides well-reasoned solutions that, government, industry and individuals can take to insulate themselves against the coming crisis. * Paints an alarmingly vivid picture of the massive interest rate shock which soon will send consumers and the government into bankruptcy * Backed by a wealth of historical and economic data, Pento explains how the bubble was created and what the U.S. can do to mitigate the impending crisis * Provides investors with sound strategies for protecting themselves and their assets against the coming financial apocalypse * Explains why retirees, in particular, will be at risk as real estate prices decline, pensions weaken, and the bond bubble bursts

"The Switzerland Business and Investment Handbook" covers all key aspects of conducting business, investing and living in Switzerland. It is a unique reference manual featuring over thirty separate chapters, each of them concise and to the point, providing the information that really matters. Besides an introduction to Switzerland's historical, political, social and economic framework, this book covers the Swiss legal system, company and contract law, intellectual property law, personal and corporate taxation, VAT, international tax aspects, real estate, residence, the social security and pension system, Swiss annuities and life insurance, corporate and private banking, and other important subjects. Overview tables, useful checklists, portraits of the Swiss cantons, a bibliography, a comprehensive facts and figures section, as well as a clearly organized address section, make the handbook user-friendly and practice-oriented. This book is aimed at: company executives who wish to have a clear overview of the legal, tax and economic framework in Switzerland; investors and entrepreneurs interested in investing and doing business in Switzerland; tax and legal advisors, business consultants and fiduciaries; and, english-speakers living, working or doing business in Switzerland.

This major book extends Michal Kalecki's investment cycle analysis into an integrated dynamic model of how levels of confidence experienced by entrepreneurs affect their decisions to invest. The long-term, expensive and uncertain nature of investment projects inhibits decision makers' confidence, making it susceptible to a wide range of factors. Incorporating behavioural and evolutionary analysis into a Kaleckian investment model, Jerry Courvisanos develops the concept of susceptibility which provides the foundation for an improved understanding of the empirically observed cyclical instability of capital accumulation. Historically based empirical patterns of cyclical manufacturing investment in capitalist economies are identified and related to how the nature of susceptibility alters over time. These alterations are shown to create different investment cycle patterns over evolving periods of economic development. Drawing on this susceptibility cycle model, Jerry Courvisanos shows how corporate and governmental strategic planners can better design policies to mitigate the instability that investment exhibits. The result could be to diminish the aggravating effect that investment instability has on business cycles and employment in capitalist economies.

The dismal truth about hedge funds and how investors can get a greater share of the profits

Shocking but true: if all the money that's ever been invested in hedge funds had been in treasury bills, the results would have been twice as good.

Although hedge fund managers have earned some great fortunes, investors as a group have done quite poorly, particularly in recent years. Plagued by high fees, complex legal structures, poor disclosure, and return chasing, investors confront surprisingly meager results. Drawing on an insider's view of industry growth during the 1990s, a time when hedge fund investors did well in part because there were relatively few of them, "The Hedge Fund Mirage" chronicles the early days of hedge fund investing before institutions got into the game and goes on to describe the seeding business, a specialized area in which investors provide venture capital-type funding to promising but undiscovered hedge funds. Today's investors need to do better, and this book highlights the many subtle and not-so-subtle ways that the returns and risks are biased in favor of the hedge fund manager, and how investors and allocators can redress the imbalance.The surprising frequency of fraud, highlighted with several examples that the author was able to avoid through solid due diligence, industry contacts, and some luckWhy new and emerging hedge fund managers are where generally better returns are to be found, because most capital invested is steered towards apparently safer but less profitable large, established funds rather than smaller managers that evoke the more profitable 1990s

Hedge fund investors have had it hard in recent years, but "The Hedge Fund Mirage" is here to change that, by turning the tables on conventional wisdom and putting the hedge fund investor back on top.

Rich Dad's Prophecy answers the question on every working person's mind: "Will I ever be able to retire?" Be forewarned. With the recent volatility of the stock market and the upheavals in corporate America, millions of workers are watching their life savings melt away in front of their eyes. 401(k) plans are no longer a guaranteed fast track to a secure retirement, but what are the alternatives? Robert Kiyosaki's rich dad foresaw these unfortunate events more than two decades ago. His prophecy was that these retirement programs would cause one of the biggest stock market crashes in history...a crash that is still coming. Rich Dad's Prophecy will show you how retirement financing will affect all of us, regardless of our age or where we live. Be prepared. This book will do more than convince you of the coming stock market crash. It will show you how to build your own personal financial ark that will make sure you not only weather the storm but profit from it. And profit well. Rich Dad's Prophecy will teach you... * How the fears, dreams, and actions of millions of baby boomers will control the economic future * Why the old advice "Buy, hold, and diversify" can lead to financial disaster * How another stock market boom is on the horizon before the big bust-and when rich dad predicts it will happen * How to stay afloat amid the turbulent waters ahead-discover rich dad's favorite investments. "This is not a gloom and doom book. It is really a gloom and boom book. My rich dad would say such things as, 'Every time a law changes, the future changes.' For those who are vigilant and prepared for the changes coming, the future is very bright." -from the Introduction.

Integral Urbanism is an ambitious and forward-looking theory of urbanism that offers a new model of urban life. Nan Ellin's model stands as an antidote to the pervasive problems engendered by modern and postmodern urban planning and architecture: sprawl, anomie, a pervasive culture - and architecture - of fear in cities, and a disregard for environmental issues. Instead of the reactive and escapist tendencies characterizing so much contemporary urban development, Ellin champions an 'integral' approach that reverses the fragmentation of our landscapes and lives through proactive design solutions.

In the wake of the recent financial crisis, many will agree that it is time for a fresh approach to portfolio management. "The Complete Guide to Portfolio Construction and Management" provides practical investment advice for building a robust, diversified portfolio.

Written by a high-profile investment adviser, this book reveals a practical portfolio management framework and new approach to portfolio construction based on four key market forces: macro, fundamental, technical, and behavioural. It is an insight that takes the focus off numbers, looking instead at the role of risk and behavior in finance.

As we have seen with the recent finance meltdown, traditional portfolio management techniques are flawed. Investors need to understand those flaws and learn how to incorporate risk management and behavioral finance into their asset management strategies.

With a foreword by industry leader Francois-Serge L'habitant, this is your one-stop guide, with new ways for you to manage, grow and preserve your investment portfolio, even in uncertain markets.

The 'boom' in foreign direct investment (FDI) since the mid-1980s, continues to be paramount in policy interest. This book reviews the literature on the nature of FDI and reports the recent results on the performance of FDI plants in order to show the implications for regional economic development. It presents new evidence on the nature and performance of these plants, using a unique dataset that has been constructed and rigorously analyzed by applying econometric techniques. The role of FDI in economic development has long been poorly understood and this book contributes to improving understanding, and is of direct policy relevance. An examination is made of the generation, theory and location of FDI, as well as its implications for regional and national development. In addition to this, analysis is made of the issues at the project and plant levels, related to investment, employment and firm survival.

The follies of finance have threatened the stability of the global economy, and the world of finance has become increasingly complex and sophisticated, but also greedy, cynical and self-interested. The Long and the Short of It provides a guide to the complexities of modern finance and explains how to put your finances in the only hands you can confidently trust - your own. In this new, wholly updated edition of The Long and the Short of It, you will learn everything you need to be your own investment manager. You will recognise your investment options, the institutions that try to sell them, and how to distinguish between fact and fiction in what companies say. You will discover the principles of sound investment and the research that supports these principles. Crucially, you will learn a practical investment strategy and how to implement it. Leading economist and hugely successful investor John Kay uses his academic credentials and practical experience to lay out the key principles of investment with characteristic clarity and dry humour. This is the only book about finance and investment anyone needs, and the one book they must have.

Quality. We all make judgments about it every day. Yet articulating a clear definition of quality in an investing context is challenging. This book addresses the challenge, and distills years of practical investing experience into a definitive account of this under-explored investment philosophy. Finance theory has it that abnormal outcomes do not persist, that exceptional performance will soon enough become average performance. Quality investing involves seeking companies with the right attributes to overcome these forces of mean reversion and, crucially, owning these outstanding companies for the long term. This book pinpoints and explains the characteristics that increase the probability of a company prospering over time - as well as those that hinder such chances. Throughout, a series of fascinating real-life case studies illustrate the traits that signify quality, as well as some that flatter to deceive. The authors' firm, AKO Capital, has a strong track record of finding and investing in quality companies - helping it deliver a compound annual growth rate more than double that of the market since inception.Quality Investing sheds light on the investment philosophy, processes and tough lessons that have contributed to this consistent outperformance.

As today's preeminent doomsday investor Mark Spitznagel describes his "Daoist" and "roundabout" investment approach, "one gains by losing and loses by gaining." This is "Austrian Investing," an archetypal, counterintuitive, and proven approach, gleaned from the 150-year-old Austrian School of economics, that is both timeless and exceedingly timely.

In "The Dao of Capital," hedge fund manager and tail-hedging pioneer Mark Spitznagel--with one of the top returns on capital of the financial crisis, as well as over a career--takes us on a gripping, circuitous journey from the Chicago trading pits, over the coniferous boreal forests and canonical strategists from Warring States China to Napoleonic Europe to burgeoning industrial America, to the great economic thinkers of late 19th century Austria. We arrive at his central investment methodology of "Austrian Investing," where victory comes not from waging the immediate decisive battle, but rather from the "roundabout" approach of seeking the intermediate positional advantage (what he calls "shi"), of aiming at the indirect means rather than directly at the ends. The monumental challenge is in seeing time differently, in a whole new "intertemporal" dimension, one that is so contrary to our wiring.

Spitznagel is the first to condense the theories of Ludwig von Mises and his Austrian School of economics into a cohesive and--as Spitznagel has shown--highly effective investment methodology. From identifying the monetary distortions and non-randomness of stock market routs (Spitznagel's bread and butter) to scorned highly-productive assets, in Ron Paul's words from the foreword, Spitznagel "brings Austrian economics from the ivory tower to the investment portfolio."

"The Dao of Capital" provides a rare and accessible look through the lens of one of today's great investors to discover a profound harmony with the market process--a harmony that is so essential today.

In Money Masters of Our Time, John Train once again displays his ability to explain clearly the strategies, experience, and human qualities of those money masters who have stood the test of time as well as newer ones. He brings together experts who represent various investment "schools" -- growth, value, technology, emerging markets, specialty companies, micro-caps, turnarounds, top down, bottom up, and others—clarifying their similarities and differences and showing how diverse methods and techniques work.

Whether contrasting the long-term approach of Warren Buffett with the "relentless pursuit" style of Peter Lynch or distilling the principles of market timing or expounding a list of investment "don'ts," John Train makes the collective wisdom of the greatest, most successful investors available to all, professional and amateur alike.

Get a handle on option spreads to hike profit and squash loss The Complete Book of Option Spreads and Combinations is the definitive educational resource and reference guide for using option spreads and other common sense option strategies. This useful guide shows readers how to select the right strategy for their market outlook and risk/reward comfort level by describing the inner workings of each strategy and how they are affected by underlying market movements, implied volatility, and time decay. Even more importantly, readers will understand where each strategy performs well, and the market conditions where each should be avoided. Once the proper strategy is selected, readers will learn how to identify the best options to use based on "moneyness" and time to expiration. The companion website features tools including an option pricing tool and implied volatility calculator to help all traders implement these concepts effectively. There are many different types of spreads, and while less risky than other option strategies in general, they are more complex, with more variables to monitor. This guide serves as a handbook for the trader wanting to exploit options to the greatest possible benefit. * Generate monthly income by selling covered strangles * Use call spreads to recover from a losing stock position * Protect an existing stock position using put diagonals * Discover the best strategies for directional market plays Option spreads are a great tool for traders who would rather be an option seller but who need to limit their risk. The Complete Book of Option Spreads and Combinations identifies those strategies that benefit from option erosion but that limit risk. If managed properly, spreads can provide both novice and experienced investors with the potential for a large return while limiting risk. Electronic trading platforms and reduced brokerage commissions have increased option spread trading, which should occupy a spot in every savvy investor's toolkit. Comprehensive and authoritative, The Complete Book of Option Spreads and Combinations provides a valuable manual and lasting reference.

PRAISE FOR HEDGEHOGGING

"Barton Biggs writes about markets with grater style, clarity, and insight than any other observer of the Wall Street scene. his new book, Hedgehogging, entertains immensely even as it provides countless valuable lessons regarding hedge funds and the investment world they inhabit." - David F. Swensen, Chief Investment Officer, Yale University

"Since the glory days of the tech bubble, investing has become a perilous enterprise. Not the least for those running money in the proliferating hedge fund business. In hedgehogging, Biggs offers a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes at the personalities and egos making decisions about the enormous sums being dumped en masse into these funds. This book is great, It's full of personal anecdotes and critical insights from an insider's insider. You should not even consider giving money to anyone on Wall Street ever again until you've read this book." - Addison Wiggin, Agora Financial LLC, author of the New York Times bestseller The Demise of the Dollar, and coauthor of Empire of Debt

Rare is the Opportunity to chat with a legendary figure and hear the unvarnished truth about what really goes on behind the scenes. Hedgehogging represents just such an opportunity, allowing you to step inside the world of Wall Street with Barton Biggs as he discusses investing in general, hedge funds in particular, and how he has learned to find and profit from the best moneymaking opportunities in an eat-what-you-kill, cutthroat investment world.

The FX options market represents one of the most liquid and strongly competitive markets in the world, and features many technical subtleties that can seriously harm the uninformed and unaware trader.

This book is a unique guide to running an FX options book from the market maker perspective. Striking a balance between mathematical rigour and market practice and written by experienced practitioner Antonio Castagna, the book shows readers how to correctly build an entire volatility surface from the market prices of the main structures.

Starting with the basic conventions related to the main FX deals and the basic traded structures of FX options, the book gradually introduces the main tools to cope with the FX volatility risk. It then goes on to review the main concepts of option pricing theory and their application within a Black-Scholes economy and a stochastic volatility environment. The book also introduces models that can be implemented to price and manage FX options before examining the effects of volatility on the profits and losses arising from the hedging activity.

Coverage includes: how the Black-Scholes model is used in professional trading activitythe most suitable stochastic volatility modelssources of profit and loss from the Delta and volatility hedging activityfundamental concepts of smile hedgingmajor market approaches and variations of the Vanna-Volga methodvolatility-related Greeks in the Black-Scholes modelpricing of plain vanilla options, digital options, barrier options and the less well known exotic optionstools for monitoring the main risks of an FX options' book

The book is accompanied by a CD Rom featuring models in VBA, demonstrating many of the approaches described in the book.

This textbook helps students truly understand how to apply the principles behind corporate finance in a real world context from both a firm and investor perspective. In its second edition, this text focuses on traditional theory applied to a holistic and realistic business case study, written as a novel set in current times so that all readers can relate. As such, this textbook offers readers both a quantitative and qualitative perspective on topics such as capital budgeting, time value of money, corporate risk, and capital structure. The sections are laid out to mirror the financial decision process, making it easier for readers to grasp the idea of the corporate financial life cycle. New topics such as socially responsible investing and private capital markets are also incorporated into this edition. Finally, PowerPoint slides, answer keys and data sets are available online for instructors.