Recommending Books for Purchase (Bulletin 36 - June 2019): Finance

Price: $ 125/-

Each new chapter of the Second Edition covers an aspect of the fixed income market that has become relevant to investors but is not covered at an advanced level in existing textbooks. This is material that is pertinent to the investment decisions but is not freely available to those not originating the products. Professor Choudhry's method is to place ideas into contexts in order to keep them from becoming too theoretical. While the level of mathematical sophistication is both high and specialized, he includes a brief introduction to the key mathematical concepts.  This is a book on the financial markets, not mathematics, and he provides few derivations and fewer proofs. He draws on both his personal experience as well as his own research to bring together subjects of practical importance to bond market investors and analysts.

Price: £ 60/-

Technical analysis points out that the best source of information to beat the market is the price itself. Introducing readers to technical analysis in a more succinct and practical way, Ramlall focuses on the key aspects, benefits, drawbacks, and the main tools of technical analysis. Chart Patterns, Point & Figure, Stochastics, Sentiment indicators, Elliot Wave Theory, RSI, R, Candlesticks and more are covered, including both the concepts and the practical applications. Also including programming technical analysis tools, this book is a valuable tool for both researchers and practitioners.

Price: $ 29.95/-

Investors are tempted daily by misleading or incomplete information. They may make a lucky bet, realize a sizable profit, and find themselves full of confidence. Their next high-stakes gamble might backfire, not only hitting them in the balance sheet but also taking a mental and emotional toll. Even veteran investors can be caught off guard: a news item may suddenly cause havoc for an industry they've invested in; crowd mentality among fellow investors may skew the market; a CEO may turn out to be unprepared to effectively guide a company. How can one stay focused in such a volatile profession? If you can't trust your past successes to plan and predict, how can you avoid risky situations in the future? In Big Money Thinks Small, veteran fund manager Joel Tillinghast shows investors how to avoid making these mistakes. He offers a set of simple but crucial steps to successful investing, including: · Know yourself, how you arrive at decisions, and how you might be susceptible to self-deception. · Make decisions based on your own expertise, and do not invest in what you don't understand. · Select only trustworthy and capable colleagues and collaborators. · Learn how to identify and avoid investments with inherent flaws. · Always search for bargains, and never forget that the first responsibility of an investor is to identify mispriced stocks. Patience and methodical planning will pay far greater dividends than flashy investments. Tillinghast teaches readers how to learn from their mistakes--and his own, giving investors the tools to ask the right questions in any situation and to think objectively and generatively about portfolio management.

Price: $ 45/-

Continuous-Time Models in Corporate Finance synthesizes four decades of research to show how stochastic calculus can be used in corporate finance. Combining mathematical rigor with economic intuition, Santiago Moreno-Bromberg and Jean-Charles Rochet analyze corporate decisions such as dividend distribution, the issuance of securities, and capital structure and default. They pay particular attention to financial intermediaries, including banks and insurance companies. The authors begin by recalling the ways that option-pricing techniques can be employed for the pricing of corporate debt and equity. They then present the dynamic model of the trade-off between taxes and bankruptcy costs and derive implications for optimal capital structure. The core chapter introduces the workhorse liquidity-management model--where liquidity and risk management decisions are made in order to minimize the costs of external finance. This model is used to study corporate finance decisions and specific features of banks and insurance companies. The book concludes by presenting the dynamic agency model, where financial frictions stem from the lack of interest alignment between a firm's manager and its financiers. The appendix contains an overview of the main mathematical tools used throughout the book. Requiring some familiarity with stochastic calculus methods, Continuous-Time Models in Corporate Finance will be useful for students, researchers, and professionals who want to develop dynamic models of firms' financial decisions.

Price: € 54.99/-

This book discusses the concepts, types, models, and patterns of crowdfunding to provide a comprehensive portrait of this newly developed market-based financial tool. In addition, it examines a number of economic theories to help readers understand the proliferation of crowdfunding, reviews empirical works to find gaps in the literature, and outlines future research directions. A unique feature of this book is that it discusses Japan's crowdfunding approach, which is somewhat different from that of the Western countries, by highlighting a specific crowdfunding platform (Music Securities) and a crowdfund-backed firm (SABAR restaurant). Further, it explores the suitability of Japan's crowdfunding approach for addressing the financial needs of SMEs in developing countries,using Bangladesh as a representative case. Finally, the book identifies some lessons learned from crowd funding so as to advance research into this phenomenon, and to make it efficient and sustainable. As such, the book will benefit novices, academics, researchers, and policymakers interested in crowdfunding technology. 

Price: € 114.99/-

This book provides a comprehensive overview of funding arrangements for explicit deposit insurance schemes. Responding to international guidelines and best practice, it discusses policy decisions and operational challenges which deposit insurers face in the financial management of ex-ante deposit insurance funds. Numerous examples are provided, and solutions offered on sources and uses of funds, focusing on target and optimal funding.  Coverage includes: the role that modern deposit insurance schemes play in ensuring financial stability how to design the main deposit insurance features in order to maximize compliance with international standards the different types of funding and financial planning for deposit insurance methods for setting the target fund size level optimal deposit insurance funding challenges faced by the European Union members following new deposit insurance and bank resolution directives. The book concludes by providing a comprehensive overview of funding issues and recommendations for deposit insurance schemes in the European Union.

Price: £ 68.99/-

This book examines the dynamic relationship and volatility spillovers between crude oil prices, exchange rates and stock markets of emerging economies. Although considerable literature on relationship between exchange rates and stock markets as well as affiliation between oil prices and stock markets is available, unfortunately very little research has been conducted to analyze the volatility spillovers and dynamic relationship between crude oil prices, exchange rates and stock markets of India covering pre-recession, recession and post-recession period. More particularly, a clear research gap has been found in analyzing the volatility spillovers between above three variables in respect of India irrespective of the importance of oil prices and exchange rates as essential parameters for economic recovery and growth of the capital markets. Furthermore, the stock returns volatility is partly explained by volatility in crude oil prices and exchange rates. The volatility in stock markets is partly due to foreign interference that persuades a correlation with international markets through crude oil prices and exchange rates. Hence, a new publication on this topic is needed at this time.

Price: € 109.99/-

The book presents a comprehensive view of the Indian equity markets over the past two decades (1994-2014). Equity markets constitute the most important segment of stock exchanges; in fact, the status of equity returns is, by and large, considered as a barometer of the state of a country's economy. Returns earned by the equity investors on their funds invested in equity markets have become a decisive factor in the growth of such markets. In this context, the book discusses all the major aspects of equity returns and also conducts a dis-aggregative analysis based on underlying factors like age, size, ownership structure, industry affiliation/sector, among others, to explain the factors affecting returns and risk. While on the one hand the study ascertains the market rates of return (earned) on equities from the investors' perspective (by including both the capital gains and the dividend income), it also shows how to compute the rates of returns on equities from the corporate perspective (that is, rate of return earned on equity funds). It further assesses the required/expected rate of return and examines the volatility in stock returns, with a focus on its behaviour during the period of the study. It deepens investors' understanding of equity investment, helping them to make more-informed investments. While of interest to the investor community, this book also contributes significantly to the existing literature on market returns and is a valuable reference resource for academics, researchers and market participants, financial institutions and other intermediaries, regulators and policy makers.

Price: € 44.99/-

This book presents an ethical theory for financial transactions that underpins the stability of modern economies. It combines elements from history, ethics, economics and mathematics to show how these combined can be used to develop a pragmatic theory of financial markets. Written in three sections; section one examines the co-evolution of finance and mathematics in an ethical context by focusing on three periods: pre-Socratic Greece, Western Europe in the thirteenth century and North-western Europe in the seventeenth century to demonstrate how the historical development of markets and finance were critical in the development of European ideas of science and democracy. Section two interprets the evidence presented in section one to provide examples of the norms reciprocity, sincerity and charity and introduce the pragmatic theory. Section three uses the pragmatic theory to interpret recent financial crises, address emergent phenomena and relate the theory to alternative contemporary theories of markets. Presenting a unique synthesis of mathematical and behavioural approaches to finance this book provides explicit ethical guidance that will be of interest to academics and practitioners alike.

Price: $ 130/-

Finance Mathematics is devoted to financial markets both with discrete and continuous time, exploring how to make the transition from discrete to continuous time in option pricing. This book features a detailed dynamic model of financial markets with discrete time, for application in real-world environments, along with Martingale measures and martingale criterion and the proven absence of arbitrage. With a focus on portfolio optimization, fair pricing, investment risk, and self-finance, the authors provide numerical methods for solutions and practical financial models, enabling you to solve problems both from mathematical and from financial point of view.

Price: $ 45/-

"Derivatives markets are an important and growing segment of financial markets and play an important role in the management of risk.This invaluable set of lecture notes is meant to be used in conjunction with a standard textbook on derivatives in an advanced undergraduate or MBA elective course on futures, forwards, swaps, options, corporate securities, and credit default swaps. It covers the foundations of derivatives pricing in arbitrage-free markets, develops the methodology of risk-neutral valuation, and discusses hedging and the management of risk."

Price: € 114.99/-

This book examines the adverse effects of complexity, information asymmetries, transaction costs, and uncertainty on investors' decision making. It suggests mitigating those effects using appropriate and matching signals, and analyzes a sample of 903 German startups to quantitatively highlight the distinct financing patterns and characteristics of high-tech startups. It then investigates the reasons for these patterns on the basis of a qualitative study that includes 34 interviews with investors and entrepreneurs in the US and Germany and an international expert panel. Lastly, it presents a framework that matches complexity factors with appropriate productive signals. 

Price: £ 49.99/-

Foundations of Real Estate Financial Modelling, Second Edition is specifically designed to provide the scalable basis of pro forma modelling for real estate projects. The book introduces students and professionals to the basics of real estate finance theory prior to providing a step-by-step guide for financial real estate model construction using Excel. The book introduces an innovative new financial metric, P(Gain), which quantifies the probability of a Return of Capital and answers the most basic question for investing, "What is the probability I get my money back?".¿ This new second edition has been fully revised and expanded. The book is separated into three functional units: (1) Real Estate Valuation Basics, Theory and Skills, (2) Real Estate Pro Forma Modelling, (3) Real Estate Pro Forma (Enhancements). New and enhanced Chapters cover:¿ Interest rates Amortization Single- and multi-family unit Development module Rent roll module Waterfall (equity bifurcation) Hotel, retail/office and townhouse. ¿ In addition, this new edition includes problem sets and solutions at the end of each chapter as well as case studies underpinning the chapter topics. Further chapters are dedicated to risk quantification and include scenario, stochastic and Monte Carlo simulations, equity waterfalls, and adding U.S. GAAP financial statements to existing real estate pro forma models. This book is the ideal textbook for a Real Estate Finance class, providing the theoretical basis of real estate finance as well as valuable modelling skills for the workplace. This book provides individuals with a step-by-step instruction on how to construct a real estate financial model starting with a new spreadsheet. The resultant model is portable, scalable, and modular. A companion website provides the pro forma models to readers as a reference for their own constructed models.

Price: € 109.99/-

This book, dedicated to Winfried Stute on the occasion of his 70th birthday, presents a unique collection of contributions by leading experts in statistics, stochastic processes, mathematical finance and insurance. The individual chapters cover a wide variety of topics ranging from nonparametric estimation, regression modelling and asymptotic bounds for estimators, to shot-noise processes in finance, option pricing and volatility modelling. The book also features review articles, e.g. on survival analysis.

Price: € 49.99/-

This book describes a new pattern discovery approach based on the combination among rules between Perceptually Important Points (PIPs) and the Symbolic Aggregate approximation (SAX) representation optimized by Genetic Algorithm (GA). The proposed approach was tested with real data from S&P500 index and all the results obtained outperform the Buy&Hold strategy. Three different case studies are presented by the authors.

Price: $ 39.95/-

The InsurTech Book aggregates industry expertise in a single volume. The reader will learn about key developments in the industry and obtain insights of cutting edge practitioners whether entrepreneurs, investors, or advisors in the analytics, data analysis, data mining and actuarial space.

Price: £ 76.99/-

Crowdfunding as an entrepreneurial phenomenon substitutes traditional sources of finance (banks, financial markets, governments) for the crowd. Socially and economically, it is challenging the traditional boundaries that have been set for centuries between industry, the financial sector, and the public. Though its basic principle cannot be considered as a radical innovation, crowdfunding as a rapidly growing practice calls for renewed management, legal, and governance patterns. Descriptive inquiries on "how to do it" are multiplying but crowdfunding remains a fuzzy subject for research and reflexivity. This book gathers the best recent research outcomes on the managerial and social impact of this new practice. The need for theory is three-fold, for both scholars and practitioners. Positive theory is needed to understand how projects are organised, how (and why) they may succeed or fail and how governments consider this new practice and try to regulate it. Normative theory can provide templates and "recipes" to develop projects, and provide advice on which models are more efficient. Finally, critical theory is needed to consider the social and economic impact of crowdfunding.

Price: £ 60/-

Investment Behaviourexplores the relationship between competingdemographic factors, personal awareness and perceived attitudes to risk inshaping the behaviour of individual investors in the stock market. Arup KumarSarkar and Tarak Nath Sahu analyse the suitability of using Behavioural Financetheories in understanding investor behaviour across developed, developing andunder-developed country contexts and in all types of stock markets. Across anin-depth study, the authors examine differing variables impacting on behaviour,give an overview of the empirical and theoretical literature, and also provide ananalysis of the empirical findings of their investigation. The book promotes agreater understanding the psychological foundations of human behaviour infinancial markets to facilitate the formulation of more individual-centeredfinancial policy.

Price: £ 105/-

Following the recent global financial crisis there is a growing interest in alternative finance ¿ and microfinance in particular ¿ as new instruments for providing financial services in a socially responsible way or as an alternative to traditional banking. Nonetheless, correspondingly there is also a lack of clarity about how to regulate alternative financial methods particularly in light of the financial crisis¿ lessons on regulatory failure and shadow banking¿s risks. This book considers microfinance from a legal and regulatory perspective. Microfinance is the provision of a wide range of financial services, particularly credit but also remittances, savings, to low-income people or financially excluded people. It combines a business structure with social inspiration, often resorts to technological innovations to lower costs (Fintech: e.g. crowdfunding and mobile banking) and merges with traditional local experiences (e.g. financial cooperatives and Islamic finance), this further complicating the regulatory picture. The book describes some of the unique dimensions of microfinance and the difficulties that this can cause for regulators, through a comparative analysis of selected European Union (EU) countries¿ regimes. The focus is in fact on the EU legal framework, with some references to certain developing world experiences where relevant. The book assesses the impact and validity of current financial regulation principles and rules, in light of the most recent developments and trends in financial regulation in the wake of the financial crisis and compares microfinance with traditional banking. The book puts forward policy recommendations for regulators and policy makers to help address the challenges and opportunities offered by microfinance.

Price: $ 65/-

Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) can be effective tools for national resources revenue management. These state-owned investments, funded by commodity exports, foreign exchange reserves, or other national assets, are adaptable to the challenges posed by financial shocks and have been successfully employed in an increasing number of countries. The number of SWFs continues to grow, with the largest funds managing trillions of dollars in assets among them. However, given the significant variations among SWFs, it can be difficult to compare funds that differ in size, scope, and mandate. This book provides a sorely needed practical look at how these funds work--and how they should work. The New Frontiers of Sovereign Investment combines the insights and experience of academic economists and practitioners from several funds to survey a diverse financial landscape and establish the challenging topical questions facing a broad range of SWFs today: Should they serve both economic development and financial returns, and how? Will responsible investment enhance long-term returns? How can fiscal rules for SWFs be improved to meet emerging economic challenges? The book considers these questions as they apply to both long-established and newer SWFs. Featuring contributions from sovereign wealth practitioners from Alberta's AIMCo, the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, as well as analysis by scholars at the forefront of sovereign investment, this volume provides timely and much-needed information on these rapidly evolving institutions.

Price: € 109.99/-

This book presents new approaches to fixed income modeling and portfolio management techniques. Taking into account the latest mathematical and econometric developments in finance, it analyzes the hedging securities and structured instruments that are offered by banks, since recent research in the field of fixed incomes and financial markets has raised awareness for changes in market risk management strategies. The book offers a valuable resource for all researchers and practitioners interested in the theory behind fixed income instruments, and in their applications in financial portfolio management.

Price: $ 139.95/-

This book examines the applications of nonparametric prediction methods in portfolio selection. The first chapter introduces basic financial assets and is useful for people with a background solely in mathematics and statistics. Next, the book is divided into four main parts: statistical finance, risk management, portfolio management, and pricing of securities. Part I on statistical finance introduces basic concepts, techniques, and methods, such as univariate data analysis, multivariate data analysis, time series analysis, and prediction. Part II covers volatility prediction and quantile estimation. Next, Part III on portfolio management examines basic concepts of portfolio theory, performance measurement, Markowitz portfolios, dynamic portfolio selection, and option portfolios. Finally, Part IV on pricing of securities discusses principles of asset pricing, Black-Scholes pricing and hedging, quadratic pricing and hedging, as well as interest rate derivatives. Throughout the book, the author emphasizes economic significance more than statistical significance. For example, there is more emphasis on the Sharpe ratios of portfolios, than on the predictability of asset returns in terms of the mean squared prediction error. This book contains a strong graphical component. The author applies various visualization techniques to present the results and to describe the methods.

Price: $ 40/-

Many investors believe that success in investing is either luck or clairvoyance. In Rational Investing, finance professor Hugues Langlois and asset manager Jacques Lussier present the current state of asset management and clarify the conundrum of luck versus skill. The core of Rational Investing is a framework for smart investing built around three performance drivers: balancing exposure to risk factors, efficiently diversifying bad luck, and taking advantage of relative mispricings in financial markets. With clear examples from model multi-asset-class portfolios, Langlois and Lussier show how to implement performance drivers like institutional investors with access to extensive resources, as well as nonprofessional investors who are constrained to small-scale transactions. There are few investment products, whether traditional or alternative, discretionary or systematic, fundamental or quantitative, whose performance cannot be analyzed through this framework. Langlois and Lussier illuminate the structure of financial markets and the mechanics of sustainable investing so any investor can become a rational player, from the nonprofessional investor with a basic knowledge of statistics all the way to seasoned investment professionals wishing to challenge their understanding of the asset management industry.

Price: £ 90/-

Academic finance research has shown that emerging markets still suffer from a myriad of risks such as credit, operational, market, legal and exchange rate risks. The onset of the subprime crisis 2007, the global financial crisis 2008-2009, and the Eurozone public debt crisis since the end of 2009 has brought to the light a number of emerging markets facing tumbling currencies, rising inflation, slowing growth, heavy dependence on foreign capital, and high levels of vulnerability to external shocks due to increased market integration. This context calls for not only a reconsideration of recent risk assessment models and risk management practices, but also the improvement and innovation of these models and practices. Factors such as liquidity, tail dependence, comovement, contagion, and timescale interactions have thus to be part of an integrated risk assessment and management framework. This book addresses three main dimensions of risk management in emerging markets: 1) the effectiveness of risk management practices; 2) current issues and challenges in risk assessment and modelling in emerging market countries; 3) the responses of emerging markets to the recent financial crises and the design of risk management models.

Price: € 49.99/-

This book summarizes recent advances in applying saddlepoint approximation methods to financial engineering. It addresses pricing exotic financial derivatives and calculating risk contributions to Value-at-Risk and Expected Shortfall in credit portfolios under various default correlation models. These standard problems involve the computation of tail probabilities and tail expectations of the corresponding underlying state variables.  The text offers in a single source most of the saddlepoint approximation results in financial engineering, with different sets of ready-to-use approximation formulas. Much of this material may otherwise only be found in original research publications. The exposition and style are made rigorous by providing formal proofs of most of the results. Starting with a presentation of the derivation of a variety of saddlepoint approximation formulas in different contexts, this book will help new researchers to learn the fine technicalities of the topic. It will also be valuable to quantitative analysts in financial institutions who strive for effective valuation of prices of exotic financial derivatives and risk positions of portfolios of risky instruments.  

Price: $ 75/-

A comprehensive overview of the theory of stochastic processes and its connections to asset pricing, accompanied by some concrete applications. This book presents a self-contained, comprehensive, and yet concise and condensed overview of the theory and methods of probability, integration, stochastic processes, optimal control, and their connections to the principles of asset pricing. The book is broader in scope than other introductory-level graduate texts on the subject, requires fewer prerequisites, and covers the relevant material at greater depth, mainly without rigorous technical proofs. The book brings to an introductory level certain concepts and topics that are usually found in advanced research monographs on stochastic processes and asset pricing, and it attempts to establish greater clarity on the connections between these two fields. The book begins with measure-theoretic probability and integration, and then develops the classical tools of stochastic calculus, including stochastic calculus with jumps and Lévy processes. For asset pricing, the book begins with a brief overview of risk preferences and general equilibrium in incomplete finite endowment economies, followed by the classical asset pricing setup in continuous time. The goal is to present a coherent single overview. For example, the text introduces discrete-time martingales as a consequence of market equilibrium considerations and connects them to the stochastic discount factors before offering a general definition. It covers concrete option pricing models (including stochastic volatility, exchange options, and the exercise of American options), Merton's investment-consumption problem, and several other applications. The book includes more than 450 exercises (with detailed hints). Appendixes cover analysis and topology and computer code related to the practical applications discussed in the text.

Price: € 44/-

Orthodox macroeconomics is founded on microeconomics. Heterodox economists either reject micro foundations or experiment with behavioural relationships without paying attention to the principles that generate them. The book takes off from Michal Kalecki¿s aphorism about economics being a science that confused stocks and flows. Kalecki was famous for presiding over a marriage between Marx and Keynes and all three figure prominently in the volume. However, the first part of the title is a homage to Wynne Godley who pioneered stock-flow-consistent modeling in our times. The authors exploit lagged values of variables emerging from the definitions. Lags also emerge in so-called stock-flow norms connecting the aggregates. Some moving and shaking of identities and a difference or differential equation emerges. The requirements for stability of the dynamic systems are illuminating and the reader can stop at structure and history with the first half of the book. The conversation with orthodoxy begins with the second part. The equivalent equation systems of the first part throw up different pairs of characters whose happiness must be maximised over time. The price to pay through the solution process is the confrontation with many ugly expressions but the explicit calculations are undertaken repeatedly only to reassure students through drillwork that tedium is not the same as difficulty. The payoffs are that variable transitions in capitalism (the second part of the title) are captured from a small clutch of identities. The movements from backward agriculture to capitalism, from `golden age¿ capitalism to `financialization¿, are modeled. A separate chapter is devoted to Europe. The policy prescriptions of heterodox economics do not compare with the richness of critique and positive analysis. `Positive¿ and `normative¿ are one in this work, the combination of stock-flow norms along with `forgotten¿ policy variables like the tax rate promising order and stability to economies.

Price: € 79.99/-

This book, now in its second edition, provides an in-depth overview of all segments of the structured finance business, with particular reference to market trends, deal characteristics and deal structuring. The goal is to assist readers in gaining a clear understanding of the common features of structured finance transactions. The process of deal structuring for each type of transaction is carefully analyzed, with extensively updated chapters on asset securitization, project finance, structured leasing transactions and leveraged acquisitions. In the new edition, particular attention is paid to novel areas of intervention, such as public-private partnerships and non-performing loans in the resolution of bank restructuring. Although the subject of much criticism, structured finance, when used properly, offers an effective solution to the credit crunch that many European countries are suffering and is also a way to revive a single capital market for debt instruments. Readers will find this book to be an illuminating guide to the business and to the best market practices in organizing transactions. It will be of value for BSc and MSc finance students, professionals and consultants alike.

Price: £ 56.99/-

This book gives a scientific and systematic approach to trading in emerging stock markets. As professional traders do not trade purely on the basis of the economic fundamentals, but also take into account market movements generated by other factors (noise trading), knowledge of technical analysis is important to anyone who would like to participate successfully in the stock market. Second, the existence of a skew towards reliance on fundamental analysis at longer horizons suggests that models based on economic considerations will be more important on the long run. Third, the existence of a skew towards reliance on technical analysis at shorter horizons suggests that models based on short term considerations (noise) will be more important in the short term. The present book gives a base for practitioners as well as students to learn the tricks of the trade through examples and case studies.

Price: $ 39.95/-

The WEALTHTECH Book aggregates industry expertise in a single volume. The reader will learn about key developments in the industry and obtain insights of cutting edge practitioners whether entrepreneurs, investors, or advisors in the analytics, data analysis, data mining and actuarial space.