The definitive source of information on all topics related to investment valuation tools and techniques

Valuation is at the heart of any investment decision, whether that decision is buy, sell or hold. But the pricing of many assets has become a more complex task in modern markets, especially after the recent financial crisis. In order to be successful at this endeavor, you must have a firm understanding of the proper valuation techniques. One valuation book stands out as withstanding the test of time among students of financial markets and investors, Aswath Damodaran's"Investment Valuation."

Now completely revised and updated to reflect changing market conditions, this third edition comprehensively introduces students and investment professionals to the range of valuation models available and how to chose the right model for any given asset valuation scenario. This edition includes valuation techniques for a whole host of real options, start-up firms, unconventional assets, distressed companies and private equity, and real estate. All examples have been updated and new material has been added.An expansion of ancillaries include updated online databases, spreadsheets, and other educational support toolsFully revised to incorporate valuation lessons learned from the last five years, from the market crisis and emerging markets to new types of equity investmentsRevised examples of company valuations such as companies from Eastern Europe and Africa, which stress the global nature of modern valuationAuthor Aswath Damodaran is regarded as one of the best educators and thinkers on the topic of investment valuation"

This indispensable guide is a must read for students wishing to gain a better understanding of investment valuation and its methods. With it, you can take the insights and advice of a recognized authority on the valuation process and immediately put them to work for you.

Prosper from the profitable opportunities of the next financial market super boom

In 1976, Yale Hirsch predicted a fifteen-year super boom--a move in the stock market of 500% or more. His forecast proved accurate as the market rose and continued upward, eventually posting growth over 1,000% just before the tech crash in 2000. In "Super Boom," Jeffrey Hirsch, President of the Hirsch Organization and Editor in Chief of the "Stock Trader's Almanac," unveils the next market expansion. Building on his father's research from 1976, Hirsch has discovered that meteoric rises in stock indices are due to specific catalysts predominantly outside of the financial markets.

History has a way of repeating itself, especially in the financial markets. The American economy, and subsequently the world economy, has always existed in a cycle of boom and bust: gold, grain, oil, technology, and most recently, real estate, have all bubbled and popped. The key to investing profitably is spotting macroeconomic historical trends and positioning to reap the benefits. Step-by-step, Hirsch puts together the pieces of this puzzle by revealing the central drivers of a super boom.Examines how new cultural paradigm-shifting technologies, as well as peace between major wars, could fuel a super boomDiscusses how the massive injection of money by the government, in response to the global financial crisis and the Great Recession, as well as wartime spending, will eventually create an inflationary environmentThe data and research found here is based on historical information and the boom-and-bust cycle of the past century

As markets and economies struggle over the next several years, remember to keep your eye on the future and get ready for the coming super boom and the next 500% move in the market. With this book as your guide, you'll benefit from the insights that only Jeffrey Hirsch can provide.

Most investment books try to assess the attractiveness of a stock price by estimating the value of the company. Expectations Investing provides a powerful and insightful alternative to identifying gaps between price and value. Michael J. Mauboussin and Alfred Rappaport suggest that an investor start with a known quantity, the stock price, and ask what it implies for future financial results. After showing how to read expectations, Mauboussin and Rappaport provide a guide to rigorous strategic and financial analysis to help investors assess the likelihood of revisions to these expectations. Their framework traces value creation from the triggers that shape a company's performance to the impact on the value drivers. This allows a practitioner of expectations investing to determine whether a stock is an attractive buy or sell candidate. Investors who read this book will be able to evaluate stocks of companies in any sector or geography more effectively than those who use the standard approaches of most investors. Managers can use the book's principles to devise, adjust, and communicate their company's strategy in light of shareholder expectations. This revised and updated edition reflects the many changes in accounting and the business landscape since the book was first published and provides a wealth of new examples and case studies.

Financial market volatility plays a crucial role in financial decision making, as volatility forecasts are important input parameters in areas such as option pricing, hedging strategies, portfolio allocation and Value-at-Risk calculations. The fact that financial innovations arrive at an ever-increasing rate has motivated both academic researchers and practitioners and advances in this field have been considerable. The use of Stochastic Volatility (SV) models is one of the latest developments in this area. Empirical Studies on Volatility in International Stock Markets describes the existing techniques for the measurement and estimation of volatility in international stock markets with emphasis on the SV model and its empirical application. Eugenie Hol develops various extensions of the SV model, which allow for additional variables in both the mean and the variance equation. In addition, the forecasting performance of SV models is compared not only to that of the well-established GARCH model but also to implied volatility and so-called realised volatility models which are based on intraday volatility measures.
The intended readers are financial professionals who seek to obtain more accurate volatility forecasts and wish to gain insight about state-of-the-art volatility modelling techniques and their empirical value, and academic researchers and students who are interested in financial market volatility and want to obtain an updated overview of the various methods available in this area.

This book is about strategic asset allocation for institutional investors. It is an edited series of papers, from respected academics worldwide, on the latest developments in portfolio management, including new scientific articles that help to identify new trends. These expert studies can effectively improve the risk and return characteristics of your investment portfolio.

This volume includes papers on topics related to efficiency issues in U.S. and European equity and options markets, as well as the productive efficiency of various types of depository financial institutions. In the capital market context, the book highlights the provisions of efficient trading services in the capital markets and the role of market size, concentration, quality, governance and automation of trading. In the banking perspectives, the volume presents topics related to market integration, dynamic models of bank production, regulatory closure rules for banking firms, risk based insurance premiums in banking, and the economics of the research and development in private firms.

In recent years portfolio optimization and construction methodologies have become an increasingly critical ingredient of asset and fund management, while at the same time portfolio risk assessment has become an essential ingredient in risk management, and this trend will only accelerate in the coming years. Unfortunately there is a large gap between the limited treatment of portfolio construction methods that are presented in most university courses with relatively little hands-on experience and limited computing tools, and the rich and varied aspects of portfolio construction that are used in practice in the finance industry. Current practice demands the use of modern methods of portfolio construction that go well beyond the classical Markowitz mean-variance optimality theory and require the use of powerful scalable numerical optimization methods. This book fills the gap between current university instruction and current industry practice by providing a comprehensive computationally-oriented treatment of modern portfolio optimization and construction methods. The computational aspect of the book is based on extensive use of S-PlusA(R), the S+NuOPTa"[ optimization module, the S-Plus Robust Library and the S]Bayesa"[ Library, along with about 100 S-Plus scripts and some CRSPA(R) sample data sets of stock returns. A special time-limited version of the S-Plus software is available to purchasers of this book.

a oeFor money managers and investment professionals in the field, optimization is truly a can of worms rather left un-opened, until now! Here lies a thorough explanation of almost all possibilities one can think of for portfolio optimization, complete with error estimationtechniques and explanation of when non-normality plays a part. A highly recommended and practical handbook for the consummate professional and student alike!a

Steven P. Greiner, Ph.D., Chief Large Cap Quant & Fundamental Research Manager, Harris Investment Management

a oeThe authors take a huge step in the long struggle to establish applied post-modern portfolio theory. The optimization and statistical techniques generalize the normal linear model to include robustness, non-normality, and semi-conjugate Bayesian analysis via MCMC. The techniques are very clearly demonstrated by the extensive use and tight integration of S-Plus software. Their book should be an enormous help to students and practitioners trying to move beyond traditional modern portfolio theory.a

Peter Knez, CIO, Global Head of Fixed Income, Barclays Global Investors

a oeWith regard to static portfolio optimization, the book gives a good survey on the development from the basic Markowitz approach to state of the art models and is in particular valuable for direct use in practice or for lectures combined with practical exercises.a

Short Book Reviews of the International Statistical Institute, December 2005

Infrastructure drives economic growth, jobs, quality of life, health and welfare, but public mechanisms for delivering infrastructure services face particular challenges of efficiency and politicized decision making. Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), if well designed and implemented, can provide Governments with more efficient, more effective, better managed, more transparent and more competitive sources of infrastructure services, financed through new sources of funding.

Stock market manipulation is detrimental to traders and corporations, causes unnecessary price fluctuations, and only benefits financial criminals. The research presented here determines an appropriate model to help identify stocks witnessing activities that are indicative of potential manipulation through three separate but related studies. In Developing an Effective Model for Detecting Trade-Based Market Manipulation, classifiers based on three different techniques namely discriminant analysis, a composite classifier based on Artificial Neural Network and Genetic Algorithm and support Vector Machines is proposed. The proposed models help investigators, with varying degree of accuracy, to arrive at a shortlist of securities which could be subject to further detailed investigation to detect the type and nature of the manipulation, if any. Following a fluid outline, Developing an Effective Model for Detecting Trade-Based Market Manipulation, introduces the topic, explores the aims and scopes of the research, before delving into the data and modelling to explore their application to the stock market to detect price manipulation.

From the complexity of today's business world and its daily transactions has come a proliferation of new accounting standards. The Financial Accounting Standards Board has weighed in with its own pronouncements on the issues, but are they truly comprehensible and applicable? Riahi-Belkaoui explores these questions clearly, with numerous illustrations of the accounting techniques embedded in them, and offers interpretations designed to help accounting professionals deal with these problems in their work. Scholars, researchers, and students in the academic community will also find his analyses helpful and compelling.

Value-creation in Middle Market Private Equity by John A. Lanier holistically examines the ecosystem relationships between middle market private equity firms and their portfolio companies. Small business is the job creating engine in the US economy, and consequently is a prime target market for private equity investment. Indeed, private equity backs over six of each 100 private sector jobs. Both the small businesses in which private equity firms invest, and the private equity firms making the investments, face inter- and intra-company fiduciary leadership challenges while implementing formulated strategy. The architecture of each private equity firm-portfolio company relationship must be uniquely crafted to capitalize on the projected return on investment that is memorialized in the investment thesis. Given the leveraged capital structure of portfolio companies, the cost of a misstep is problematic. Individual private equity professionals are typically members of multiple investment teams for the firm. Not only may each investment team have its own unique leadership style, but its diverse members have to assimilate styles for each team in which they participate relative to a specific portfolio company. Acquisitions and their subsequent integrations add exponential complexity for both private equity investment and portfolio company leadership teams; indeed, cultural integration ranks among the most chronic acquisition obstacles. Accordingly, the stakeholders of private equity transactions do well to embrace leadership best practices in applying value-creation toolbox best practices. The perspectives of both the private equity investment team and the portfolio company leadership team are within the scope of these chapters.

The flow of capital to Third World countries in recent years has been less than expected for realizing their growth objectives. As a consequence, efforts have been redoubled to attract capital in the form of direct investment. The World Bank has proposed the establishment of a multilateral guarantee scheme, encompassing as many investing and host countries as possible, to reduce the risks associated with overseas investment.The authors analyze and comment on the necessity and suitability of the World Bank proposal. They examine earlier proposals for setting up multi lateral guarantee schemes and the reasons for their failure, develop an eco nomic frame of reference for analyzing the new proposal, describe and examine the World Bank plan, and present alternatives to it. They pay particular attention to two major assumptions of the plan: that additional foreign investment capital for developing countries could be mobilized on a large scale if the investment risks were reduced, and that existing national insurance schemes display shortcomings that could be avoided in a multilateral system.

This study provides a timely and useful benchmark for analysis of the effects of the recently negotiated North American Free Trade Agreement on investment flows. It also presents a unified history of foreign investment in Canada, Mexico, and the United States over the twentieth century, stressing interactions among these countries and their changing policies towards inward and outward investment. Twomey analyzes economic theories of foreign investment from the perspectives of neoclassical economics and political science and places them in the context of the ongoing debate over neo-protectionist policies and the role of the United States in the global economy.

Investing for a Lifetime is designed to make saving and investing understandable to the investor. Wharton Professor Richard C. Marston, 2014 recipient of the Investment Management Consultants Association s prestigious Matthew R. McArthur Award, guides an investor through the main investment decisions throughout a lifetime. Investing for a Lifetime shows: * how younger investors can set savings goals * how both younger and older investors can choose investment portfolios to achieve these goals * how investors can sustain spending once reaching retirement. Younger and older investors alike should understand savings goals that will provide enough income to sustain spending in retirement. They should devise rates of saving that allow them to reach their goals by the time of retirement. Though retirement is often the main goal of investing, it s not the only one. Marston discusses how funding a child s education or saving for a down payment for a home affects overall saving. Sensible investing is also necessary for savings goals to be realized. Investing need not be complicated, but Marston explains that a diversified portfolio should include a mix of different types of U.S. stocks, foreign stocks, real estate as well as bonds. He describes each of these asset classes and shows how they fit in an investor s portfolio. He shows how investors can monitor the performance of their portfolios by establishing benchmarks for each asset class to judge how well their investments are doing. He focuses particular attention on those investors nearing retirement. In today s low interest rate environment, he discusses whether it is possible to fund retirement from interest and dividends alone. He shows how savings combined with Social Security can fund retirement spending. And he asks how the New Normal of lower returns might force investors to save more than in past decades, and to spend less in retirement than in the past. Investing for a Lifetime is for investors who want to understand more about the savings and investment process, particularly those who worry about whether their retirement savings will last a lifetime.

The most salient feature of security returns is uncertainty. The purpose of the book is to provide systematically a quantitative method for analyzing return and risk of a portfolio investment in di?erent kinds of uncertainty and present the ways for striking a balance between investment return and risk such that an optimal portfolio can be obtained. In classical portfolio theory, security returns were assumed to be random variables, and probability theory was the main mathematical tool for h- dling uncertainty in the past. However, the world is complex and uncertainty is varied. Randomnessis nottheonly typeofuncertaintyinreality, especially when human factors are included. Security market, one of the most complex marketsintheworld, containsalmostallkindsofuncertainty. Thesecurity- turns are sensitive to various factors including economic, social, political and very importantly, people's psychological factors. Therefore, other than strict probability method, scholars have proposed some other approaches including imprecise probability, possibility, and interval set methods, etc., to deal with uncertaintyinportfolioselectionsince1990's. Inthisbook, wewantto addto thetools existingin sciencesomenewandunorthodoxapproachesforanal- ing uncertainty of portfolio returns. When security returns are fuzzy, we use credibility which has self-duality property as the basic measure and employ credibilitytheorytohelpmakeselectiondecisionsuchthatthedecisionresult will be consistent with the laws of contradiction and excluded middle. Being awarethat one tool is not enough for solving complex practical problems, we further employ uncertain measure and uncertainty theory to help select an optimal portfolio when security returns behave neither randomly nor fuzzily. One core of portfolio selection is to ?nd a quantitative risk de?nition of a portfolio investment.

October 19th 1987 was a day of huge change for the global finance industry. On this day the stock market crashed, the Nobel Prize winning Black-Scholes formula failed and volatility smiles were born, and on this day Elie Ayache began his career, on the trading floor of the French Futures and Options Exchange.

Experts everywhere sought to find a model for this event, and ways to simulate it in order to avoid a recurrence in the future, but the one thing that struck Elie that day was the belief that what actually happened on 19th October 1987 is simply non reproducible outside 19th October 1987 - you cannot reduce it to a chain of causes and effects, or even to a random generator, that can then be reproduced or represented in a theoretical framework.

"The Blank Swan" is Elie's highly original treatise on the financial markets - presenting a totally revolutionary rethinking of derivative pricing and technology. It is not a diatribe against Nassim Taleb's "The Black Swan," but criticises the whole background or framework of predictable and unpredictable events - white and black swans alike -, i.e. the very category of prediction.

In this revolutionary book, Elie redefines the components of the technology needed to price and trade derivatives. Most importantly, and drawing on a long tradition of philosophy of the event from Henri Bergson to Gilles Deleuze, to Alain Badiou, and on a recent brand of philosophy of contingency, embodied by the speculative materialism of Quentin Meillassoux, Elie redefines the market itself against the common perceptions of orthodox financial theory, general equilibrium theory and the sociology of finance.

This book will change the way that we think about derivatives and approach the market. If anything derivatives should be renamed "contingent claims," where contingency is now absolute and no longer derivative, and the market is just its medium. The book also establishes the missing link between quantitative modelling (no longer dependent on probability theory but on a novel brand of mathematics which Elie calls the "mathematics of price") and the reality of the market.

An interactive guide to successfully trading in today's markets

"Mastering the Art of Equity Trading Through Simulation" is a guidebook to interactive computer trading simulation designed to provide participants with hands-on experience in making tactical decisions and implementing them in different market environments-from continuous order drive markets to call auction markets, and from dealer markets to dark liquidity pools.

By showing traders how to operate in these different markets, this reliable resource quickly reveals a good deal about what trading involves and how market design impacts trading decisions.Provides a virtual platform that gives users hands-on experience in making tactical trading decisionsShows exactly how prices are established in the marketplaceTeaches how the structure of a marketplace influences participant decisions

Learning to trade through study is like learning about a roller coaster ride verbally. You may get the idea of going up and down and around curves, but will lack the actual experience. "Mastering the Art of Equity Trading Through Simulation" will get you as close as possible to the markets-without actually going in them-and prepare you to profit once you're really there.

THE LIFE-CHANGING PERSONAL FINANCE BESTSELLER THAT SHOWS YOU HOW TO MAKE MONEY FROM YOUR MONEY - NOW IN A REVISED 3RD EDITION. 'Opinionated and always packed with information' Mirror Discover the money secret understood by virtually every rich person in history. Turn hundreds into millions through the power of compound interest. HOW TO OWN THE WORLD shows you that: * No one is better placed than you to make the most of your money. * You can do better than many finance professionals. * Making money from your money is easier than you think. * You can make far more from your money than you ever thought possible. * You can make more from your money than you can from your job. * All this is possible no matter how much you currently earn. * It's easier today than ever. * It's time to start now. It is entirely realistic for you to control your wealth, make a lot of money, and become financially free as a result. HOW TO OWN THE WORLD shows you how. With just a little knowledge you can turn your financial fortunes around and change your life. 'For anyone who wants to understand how to best use the tools available in the modern world to learn about becoming a successful investor' Metro 'If you want just one book on investment from the cacophony, you couldn't do much better' Michael Mainelli, Economics Professor 'Without doubt the best book I have read in the last five years...' Emma Kane, CEO of Newgate Communications

This book comprises an edited series of papers about risk management and the latest developments in the field. Covering topics such as Stochastic Volatility, Risk Dynamics, Weather Derivatives and Portfolio Diversification, this book will have broad international appeal. It is highly relevany for optimal portfolio allocation for both private and institutional investors worldwide.

This compilation integrates various new contributions to the growing "real options" literature. Recent developments in the valuation of capital investment opportunities seen as real options (e.g. to defer, expand, abandon, or switch use) have provided the tools and unlocked the possibilities to revolutionize the field of capital budgeting. The resulting insights, strategies, and techniques enable quantifying the thus far elusive elements of managerial flexibility and various strategic interactions. In an uncertain and constantly changing world marketplace, managerial operating flexibility and strategic adaptability are vital to successfully capitalize on favorable future investment opportunities or limit losses from adverse market developments. This book presents various models and operating strategies, and a variety of applications ranging from acquisitions and divestitures, to natural resource development and pollution compliance. The book's contributions are divided into five parts, covering sections on real options and alternative valuation paradigms for capital investment analysis; on the analysis of general exchange or switching options, and interdependencies among multiple such options; on strategic acquisitions, infrastructure, and foreign investment options; on mean reversion/ alternative formulations in natural resource investments, shipping, and start-up ventures; and on other applications in pollution compliance, land development, flexible manufacturing, and financial default options. Both academic and practitioner interest in these developments is unusually high. The book can serve as supplementary material for the academic market, e.g., in advanced finance courses inoption pricing or capital budgeting, in doctoral seminars, and as a library resource. It may also be of interest to the professional market (e.g. corporate planners and finance executives in the oil, pharmaceutical, auto and a variety of other industries), academics from related areas (e.g. decision analysts or economists), as well as to international readers (academics, doctoral students, and professionals).

An intuitive and eye-opening guide to halal investing In Halal Investing for Beginners: How to Start, Grow and Scale Your Halal Investment Portfolio, a team of Oxford-educated Islamic finance gurus deliver a one-of-a-kind investing roadmap for Muslims who want to watch their savings grow while abiding by Islamic law. You’ll learn to distinguish between halal and haram investment products, get key strategies for saving on your taxes, learn to build a variety of portfolios, and more. In the book, the authors introduce and explain the wide variety of investment products available to investors who wish to restrict their financial activity to that which is consistent with Shariah law, including asset categories like equities, gold, art, start-ups, and even property. You’ll also find: Advice for every stage of life, including how to go halal for the first time, how to write an Islamic will, and how to build a halal pension Portfolio construction guidance for every risk tolerance, from high-growth to low risk Explanations of the important difference between “ethical” and “ESG” investment products and halal investments An essential resource for Muslims who seek to invest while remaining true to their faith and values, Halal Investing for Beginners is the intuitive and easy-to-follow investment tutorial that everyday Muslims have been waiting for.

Both quantitative and qualitative analysis is used to review China's stock market in a book containing the latest research on China's IPO market, the 2006-07 market bubble, the development of institutional investors, the stock index futures market, stock sector performance, corporate governance of listed firms and China's growth enterprise market.