Understanding Investments

Book excerpt: "This revised and fully expanded edition of Understanding Investments continues to incorporate the elements of traditional investments textbooks but goes further in that the material is presented from an intuitive, practical point of view, and the supplementary material included in each chapter lends itself to both class discussion and further reading by students. It provides the essential tools to navigate the complex, global financial markets and instruments including relevant (and classic) academic research and market perspectives. The author has developed a number of the key innovative features of the book. One of the unique features is the inclusion of the economic angle, whereby each chapter includes a section dedicated to the economic analysis of that chapter's material. Additionally, all chapters contain sections on strategies that investors can apply in specific situations and the pros and cons of each are also discussed. The book provides further clarification of some of the concepts discussed in the previous edition, thereby offering a more detailed analysis and discussion, with more real-world examples. The author has added new, shorter text boxes, which he has labelled 'Market Flash' to highlight the use of, or changes in: current practices in the field; updates on strategies as applied by professionals; provision of useful information for an investor; updates on regulations; and anything else that might be relevant in discussing and applying a concept. This second edition also includes new sections on core issues in the investment space, such as alternative investments, disruptive technologies and future trends in investment management. This textbook is intended for undergraduate students majoring or minoring in finance and additionally for students in economics and related disciplines who wish to take an elective course in finance or investments"--