The post-communist European countries have faced enormous political and economic problems in attempting the transformation to a market oriented economy through two of the most important channels influencing this process--privatization and foreign investments. Focusing on Russia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Poland, the authors examine the trends toward privatization and the problems facing the countries economic managers and foreign investors. They explore what can be done to increase foreign direct and equity investment given the political risks involved in the economic transformation. Scholars and students of international economics, international trade, Russian and Eastern European studies, and government and international agencies should find this study on the relationship between privatization and foreign investment informative and useful.

This book reconsiders the role of nobility as influential economic players and provides new insights into the business activities of noblemen in Europe and Asia during the nineteenth century thus offering up opportunities for comparison in an age of economic expansion and globalisation. What was the contribution of the nobility to the economy? Can we consider noblemen to have been endowed with an entrepreneurial spirit? Research shows that far from being passive, throughout the century the European nobility were widely involved in business, carried on innovations, refined management strategies, and diversified their investments from agriculture to transport, industry and finance. Both in Europe and Asia businesses were embedded in social networks and personal relationships. In modern Japan after the Meiji Restoration - the unique case in Asia where a Western-style nobility was created - business, trust, personal connections and aristocratic marriages were intertwined and Japanese noblemen, especially the richer ones, acted as promoters of industrialisation, even though their role was certainly limited in time and space. This volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers in the fields of economics, management, political science, sociology, public management and history. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Business History.

This book offers an updated primer on the valuation of digital intangibles, a trending class of immaterial assets. Startups like successful unicorns, as well as consolidated firms desperately working to re-engineer their business models, are now trying to go digital and to reap higher returns by exploiting new intangibles. This book is innovative in its design and concept since it tackles a frontier topic with an original methodology, combining academic rigor with practical insights. Evaluation issues are increasingly based on an analytical comprehension of augmented business models and virtual function analysis, nurtured by real-time big data. The impact of digitalization on scalable business models is the main competitive advantage factor of the BigTechs and other Unicorns, representing a target for startups and the reengineering of traditional firms. The transition from the Internet to the metaverse represents the last frontier, showing how 3D virtual and augmented reality impacts social networking. The second edition of this book updates the contents of the first edition while comprehensively introduces these innovative topics--such as the metaverse, cloud storage, multi-sided digital platforms, ESG-compliance, and value co-creation patterns of digitized stakeholders--and demonstrates how best practices can be applied to specific asset appraisals, making it of interest to researchers, students, and practitioners alike.

The book presents applications of stochastic calculus to derivative security pricing and interest rate modelling. By focusing more on the financial intuition of the applications rather than the mathematical formalities, the book provides the essential knowledge and understanding of fundamental concepts of stochastic finance, and how to implement them to develop pricing models for derivatives as well as to model spot and forward interest rates. Furthermore an extensive overview of the associated literature is presented and its relevance and applicability are discussed. Most of the key concepts are covered including Ito's Lemma, martingales, Girsanov's theorem, Brownian motion, jump processes, stochastic volatility, American feature and binomial trees. The book is beneficial to higher-degree research students, academics and practitioners as it provides the elementary theoretical tools to apply the techniques of stochastic finance in research or industrial problems in the field.

Contemporary Studies in Economic and Financial Analysis provides further insights to postcrisis developments in the global economic and financial environment. Our hope is that the assembled papers will offer clear insights into the complex financial arrangements that now link emerging and developed financial markets in the current economic environment, outlining a multidisciplinary research agenda for the field.

Trusts cross borders. When they do,real difficulties may arise. Will the understanding of what a trust is be different in a foreign state? Will the rights, powers and duties of the trustee and settlor be the same? What rights will the beneficiary be able to assert? To what extent will the trust assets be safe from the claims of creditors, forced heirs, or third parties? Which legal system will be applied to the trust? Within what limits? What if the trust needs to be recognised in a state which does not have the institution of the trust in its domestic law? The Hague Trusts Convention, enacted into English law by the Recognition of Trusts Act 1987, seeks to ameliorate the situation by providing harmonised choice of law rules for "trusts created voluntarily and evidenced in writing." It also provides for the recognition of trusts in Contracting States. Those Contracting States should recognise the trust, even if they do not have the institution in their domestic law. This book is the first published in England to devote itself to a detailed analysis of the Convention. It is aimed at academics and practitioners; at private international lawyers and at trust lawyers. Frequent reference is made to the position in civil law states (especially in the Contracting States of Italy and the Netherlands) and in other trust states, both offshore and onshore. The Hague Trusts Convention deals with the operation of the trust itself. It does not deal with the preliminary steps needed to create a trust. These preliminary matters raise highly complex and uncharted choice of law issues. Detailed discussion of these matters is also provided, and appropriate solutions suggested.

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.

Mergers & acquisitions are an essential instrument of strategic corporate management for companies of all sizes. The success of an M&A project highly depends on an optimal transaction preparation, fast execution and the experience of all parties involved. Due to numerous endogenous and exogenous influences, no two M&A transactions are alike at the detailed level. This book is designed as a practical M&A guide for students and professionals alike. In addition to dealing with important basics of mergers & acquisitions, the focus is on a structured and in-depth examination of the individual process steps of a typical company sale. At various points in this book, specific differences between a company sale of medium-sized companies (mid-caps) and large companies (large-caps) are discussed in detail.

Latin America has been a complex laboratory for the development of international investment law. While some governments and non-state actors have remained true to the Latin American tradition of resistance towards the international investment law regime, other governments and actors have sought to accommodate said regime in the region. Consequently, a profusion of theories and doctrines, too often embedded in clashing narratives, has emerged. In Latin America, the practice of international investment law is the vivid amalgamation of the practice of governments sometimes resisting and sometimes welcoming mainstream approaches; the practice of lawyers assisting foreign investors from outside and within the region; and the practice of civil society, indigenous peoples and other actors in their struggle for human rights and sustainable development. Latin America and international investment law describes the complex roles that governments have played vis-a-vis foreign investors and investments; the refreshing but clashing forces that international organizations, corporations, civil society, and indigenous peoples have brought to the field; and the contribution that Latin America has made to the development of the theory and practice of international investment law, notably in fields in which the Latin American experience has been traumatic: human rights and sustainable development. Latin American scholars have been contributing to the theory of international investment law for over a century; resting on the shoulders of true giants, this volume aims at pushing this contribution a little further. -- .

The new global climate of free enterprise has brought with it a proliferation of offshore financial centers that presumably have important roles to play in the emergent global economy. The air of secrecy that appears to pervade the activities of offshore financial centers may well slant or obscure any real understanding of the functions of such centers. The authors investigate the role of major international accounting firms and their services in the processes of business facilitation in the locations that host these centers. By focusing the investigation upon the role of the accounting firms in offshore financial centers, the authors gain a better grasp of the real or potential impacts of the firms in the global economy and in the jurisdictions that host them. Not only do the authors provide a detailed assessment of what the major accounting firms are actually doing in the centers, but they point out what attributes are needed by jurisdictions hoping to succeed as offshore financial centers. The centers included are Antigua, Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, the Seychelles, Singapore, and Vanuatu.

The authors describe the legal and institutional environments facing business operations in general and the accounting firms in particular in offshore financial centers. By studying these operations, it should show what they are doing in terms of facilitating the international activities that flow through such centers. It should also add to the understanding of the potential that offshore activities have as vehicles for development in small emerging economies. This study should be of interest to a wide range of business disciplines, as well as governmental agencies in advanced and emerging nations, international agencies such as regional development banks, and accountants and the international financial community.

Demystify stock charts so you can up your investing game Candlestick Charting For Dummies is here to show you that candlestick charts are not just for Wall Street traders. Everyday investors like you can make sense of all those little lines and boxes, with just a little friendly Dummies training. We'll show you where to find these charts (online or in your favorite investing app), what they mean, and how to dig out valuable information. Then, you'll be ready to buy and sell with newfound stock market savvy. Candlestick Charting For Dummies helps you build a foundation of investing knowledge and lingo (bullish? bearish? What is a candlestick, anyway?), then shows you the chart-reading ropes with relevant and easy-to-understand examples. It covers the latest investing technology, cryptocurrency, and today's somewhat-less-predictable market environment. Get a refresher on stock market terminology and investing basics Discover how easy it is to understand price history and movement with candlestick charts Identify the best times to buy and sell securities, including stocks and crypto Learn from real life examples so you can invest with greater confidence and success This is the Dummies guide for beginner and intermediate investors who want to make smarter decisions with a better understanding of how to read candlestick charts.

In 1982, the Dow hovered below 1000. Then, the market rose and rapidly gained speed until it peaked above 11,000. Noted journalist and financial reporter Maggie Mahar has written the first book on the remarkable bull market that began in 1982 and ended just in the early 2000s. For almost two decades, a colorful cast of characters such as Abby Joseph Cohen, Mary Meeker, Henry Blodget, and Alan Greenspan came to dominate the market news.

This inside look at that 17-year cycle of growth, built upon interviews and unparalleled access to the most important analysts, market observers, and fund managers who eagerly tell the tales of excesses, presents the period with a historical perspective and explains what really happened and why.

The digital transformation of finance and banking enables traditional services to be delivered in a more effective and efficient way but, at the same time, presents crucial issues such as fast growing new asset classes, new currencies, datafication and data privacy, algorithmization of law and regulation and, last but not least, new models of financial crime. This book approaches the evolution of digital finance from a business perspective and in a holistic way, providing cutting-edge knowledge of how the digital financial system works in its three main domains: banking, insurance and capital markets. It offers a bird's eye view of the major issues and developments in these individual sectors. The book begins by examining the wider framework of the subsequent analysis and over the next three parts, discusses the opportunities, risks and challenges facing the digitalization of these individual financial subsectors, highlighting the similarities and differences in their digitalization agenda, as well as the existing linkages and dependencies among them. The book clarifies the strategic issues facing the development of digital finance in these major subsectors over the coming years. The book has three key messages: that digital transformation changes fundamentally the way financial businesses operate; that individual trades have their own digitalization agenda; and that the State with its regulatory power and central banking and money has a particularly important role to play. It will be of interest to scholars, students and researchers of finance and banking, as well as policymakers wishing to understand the values and limitations of new forms of digital money.

The Definitive Guide to Valuing Hard-to-Value Companies: Fully Revised for Today's Financial Markets Valuing money-making companies that have long histories and established business models is straightforward. It is when you encounter difficult-to-value companies that you feel the urge to go over to the dark side of valuation-where you abandon first principles and create new metrics. Aswath Damodaran looks at a range of these companies, from start-ups in new businesses to distressed companies, from banks facing regulatory turmoil to commodity firms, and from emerging market upstarts to multinationals that spread across geographies and businesses. With each grouping, he helps you examine the call of the dark side and its practices and frameworks to value these firms. To answer these questions, Aswath looks at companies across the life cycle and in different markets, from Uber and Shake Shack at one end of the spectrum to Vale, Royal Dutch, and United Technologies at the other end. In the process, you learn how to Deal with "abnormally low" and negative risk-free rates in valuation Adapt to dynamic and changing risk premiums Value young companies that are disrupting existing businesses Analyze commodity and cyclical companies across cycles Value a company as the sum of its parts or as an aggregation of its users/subscribers and customers Determine the difference between pricing and valuation, and why some investments can only be priced

This practical guide on the theory and practice of Investor Relations combines the art and science of marketing, financial analysis and financial communications in a single source. It offers expert advice and helpful tips to be used in real business life by corporate executives, financial analysts, students, and anyone competing for capital.

Everyone faces big questions when it comes to money: questions about saving, investing, and whether you're getting it right with your finances. Unfortunately, many of the answers provided by the financial industry have been based on belief and conjecture rather than data and evidence-until now. In Just Keep Buying, hugely popular finance blogger Nick Maggiulli crunches the numbers to answer the biggest questions in personal finance and investing, while providing you with proven ways to build your wealth right away. You will learn why you need to save less than you think; why saving up cash to buy market dips isn't a good idea; how to survive (and thrive) during a market crash; and much more. By following the strategies revealed here, you can act smarter and live richer each and every day. It's time to take the next step in your wealth-building journey. It's time to Just Keep Buying.

Join TikTok star Michela Allocca (@BreakYourBudget) for a crash course in everything personal finance.   When Michela was working her first job in finance, she had an epiphany: even those working with money professionally can have no idea how to budget, invest, and spend once they get home! By the time she reached her mid-20s, she was on a mission to help friends and colleagues who wanted to do better with their own money. In Own Your Money, Michela shares all the tools she used to manage, save, invest, and set a routine that enabled her to save hundreds of thousands of dollars in less than a decade of professional—and freelance—work. You’ll find chapters that address:   Budgeting: Don’t make it a dreaded B-word! Learn about various strategies including 50/30/20, zero-based, and 3-bucket budgets. How to save: It’s all about being SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound). How to spend money: That’s right, a plan for spending is important too! With a quick analysis of values and priorities, you can spend without feeling guilt—yes, even on fancy coffee. Investing: Learn the difference between 401ks and IRAs, investment types from index funds to target date funds, and relate it all back to core concepts in investing (like diversification). Jobs and careers: If your dream job doesn’t exist, join the club! Learn how to find satisfaction through the tasks you want to do, networking, and career pivots. Increase your earning potential: Set yourself up for a raise/promotion, negotiate a job offer, and figure out if a side hustle is right for you. With illustrations, helpful charts and graphics, and templates to help you plan, this is a book that’s meant to partner with you to achieve your financial goals.

Control of an impartial balance between risks and returns has become important for investors, and having a combination of financial instruments within a portfolio is an advantage. Portfolio management has thus become very important for reaching a resolution in high-risk investment opportunities and addressing the risk-reward tradeoff by maximizing returns and minimizing risks within a given investment period for a variety of assets. Metaheuristic Approaches to Portfolio Optimization is an essential reference source that examines the proper selection of financial instruments in a financial portfolio management scenario in terms of metaheuristic approaches. It also explores common measures used for the evaluation of risks/returns of portfolios in real-life situations. Featuring research on topics such as closed-end funds, asset allocation, and risk-return paradigm, this book is ideally designed for investors, financial professionals, money managers, accountants, students, professionals, and researchers.

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.

Become a savvy trader and make money in both up and down markets.

These days, the market is volatile, and you need to know how to ride the waves and navigate the changing tides. Trading For Dummies is for investors in search of a clear guide to trading stocks in any type of market. Inside, you'll get sample stock charts, position trading tips and techniques, and fresh ways to analyze trends and indicators. Learn how to make smart decisions by identifying the stocks, bonds, funds, and commodities that will net you the maximum gain. Assume more risk, reap more benefits, build a more aggressive portfolio, and enjoy the greater gains that come with short- and medium-term trading methods.

• Learn about due diligence, key indicator analysis, and reading market trends
• Trade successfully in downward market trends and during recessions
• Use the latest tools to create your own charts and make smart decisions
• Profit from ETFs, bonds, and commodities, along with good old-fashioned stocks

This is a perfect Dummies guide for experienced and novice traders and investors seeking the most-up-to-date information on trading wisely in any market.

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