"The market never ceases to befuddle and beguile. These twovenerable works are fixtures on the short lists for most valuablebooks on the securities markets, and investors continue to cherishthem." -From the Introduction by Martin S. Fridson ManagingDirector, Merrill Lynch & Co. Author of InvestmentIllusions Exploring the sometimes hilarious, sometimes devastating impact ofcrowd behavior and trading trickery on the financial markets, thisbook brilliantly combines two all-time investment classics.Extraordinary Popular Delusions and Confusión de Confusionestake us from Tulipmania in 1634-when tulips actually traded at ahigher price than gold-to the South Sea "bubble" of 1720, andbeyond. Securities analyst and author Martin Fridson guides you ona quirky, entertaining, and intriguing journey back throughtime. Chosen by the Financial Times as Two of the Ten Best Books EverWritten on Investment Critical Praise . . . "This is the most important book ever written about crowdpsychology and, by extension, about financial markets. A seriousstudent of the markets and even anyone interested in the extremesof human behavior should read this book!" -Ron Insana, CNBC "In combining 'Extraordinary' with 'Confusion,' the result is notextraordinary confusion. Instead, with clarity, the book sears intomodern investor minds the dangers of following the crowd." -GregHeberlein, The Seattle Times "You will see between its staid lines (written in ye olde Englishand as ponderable as Buddha's navel) that, despite what the mediasays, nothing really important has changed in the financial marketsin centuries." -Kenneth L. Fisher, Forbes

Stock markets are not efficient, returns are incommensurate with risk, investors are irrational, bubbles and crashes recur regularly, analysts are usually wrong, economists even more so, luck is mostly mistaken for skill, myths and misconceptions abound and most of the industry participants are simply noise generators. This is even more true for emerging markets. South Africa can be termed a developed emerging market and is the newest member of the BRICS group. The Effective Investor is the first book to deal specifically with investing in the South African stock market, filling a surprising gap given the widespread interest that has been shown in South Africa as an emerging market and the gateway to the resource-rich African continent. Understanding the South African market provides insight into the paths that emerging and frontier markets will follow in future. While the investment lessons from the South African market outlined in this book are universal, understanding some of its peculiarities is also important. For example, some insight into the behaviour of the currency, the rand, is clearly critical in terms of any investment in this market, as well as in providing some understanding of other volatile emerging market currencies, as well as because it is often treated as the most liquid proxy for these currencies, particularly during upheavals. Similarly, the techniques highlighted in the book for dealing with volatility are applicable to similar markets elsewhere. South Africa is also an attractive market in its own right. It has been the third-best performing stock market in the world since 1900, and has weathered the great financial crisis with flying colors. The book provides readers with the findings of leading-edge research conducted into the South African stock market, the results of which are normally reserved for professional institutions and is written by a practicing, top-rated investment professional. The book also has guest contributions from some of South Africa's most astute professional analysts and fund managers on their specific areas of expertise, providing exceptional insight into current investment thinking. The Effective Investor is essential reading for every potential, novice or professional investor and investment adviser in emerging markets who wants to understand the most important principles of the South African stock market to ensure successful investing.

The world's agenda of international cooperation has changed. The conventional concerns of foreign affairs, international trade, and development assistance, are increasingly sharing the political center stage with a new set of issues. These include trans-border concerns such as global financial stability and market efficiency, risk of global climate change, bio-diversity conservation, control of resurgent and new communicable diseases, food safety, cyber crime and e-commerce, control of drug trafficking, and international terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. Globalization and increasing porosity of national borders have been key driving forces that have led to growing interdependence and interlocking of the public domains--and therefore, public policy concerns--of countries, governments, private businesses, civil society, and people at large. Thus, new and different issues are now occupying top places on national policy agendas, and consequently, on the agendas of international negotiating forums. The policy approaches to global challenges are also changing. A proliferation and diversification of international cooperation efforts include focus on financing arrangements. Financing of international cooperation in most instances is a haphazard and non-transparent process and often seems to run parallel to international negotiations. There are many unfunded mandates and many-non-mandatory funds. To agree on and to achieve international economic goals, we need to understand how financing of international cooperation efforts actually works. Our understanding is hampered by two gaps: 1) lack of an integrated and cohesive theoretical framework; 2) lack of consolidated empirical and operational knowledge in the form of a comprehensive inventory of past, current and possible future (i.e. currently deliberated) financing mechanisms. This book reduces these two gaps and provides a guide to improve our ability to finance international cooperation.

In 1908, Vinzenz Bronzin, a professor of mathematics at the Accademia di Commercio e Nautica in Trieste, published a booklet in German entitled Theorie der Prämiengeschäfte (Theory of Premium Contracts) which is an old type of option contract. Almost like Bachelier’s now famous dissertation (1900), the work seems to have been forgotten shortly after it was published. However, almost every element of modern option pricing can be found in Bronzin’s book. He derives option prices for an illustrative set of distributions, including the Normal. - This volume includes a reprint of the original German text, a translation, as well as an appreciation of Bronzin's work from various perspectives (economics, history of finance, sociology, economic history) including some details about the professional life and circumstances of the author. The book brings Bronzin's early work to light again and adds an almost forgotten piece of research to the theory of option pricing.

The stock market globalization process has produced historic changes in the structure of stock markets, the effects of which are evident throughout the world. Despite these transformations, there are relatively few sources examining the connections between the globalization process currently underway and previous periods of stock market globalization. This seminal volume fills that gap. The chapters in the first section look to previous globalization periods through the lens of the corporate economy, valuing equities and managed funds. Further chapters address current issues such as the social closure of the exchange, demutualization and mergers and acquisitions as well as cross-listing and liquidity. The final chapters consider the regulatory challenges posed by stock market globalization. These include the pressures on regulators from rent-seeking stock market participants, the demise of exchange trading floors and Latin America's stock market. Timely, multi-disciplinary and practical, this informative Handbook will be an essential reference for students and scholars of economics, finance and accounting, finance professionals and security market regulators.

Financial regulation can fail when it is needed the most. The dynamics of asset price bubbles weaken financial regulation just as financial markets begin to overheat and the risk of crisis spikes. At the same time, the failure of financial regulations adds further fuel to a bubble. This book examines the interaction of bubbles and financial regulation. It explores the ways in which bubbles lead to the failure of financial regulation by outlining five dynamics, which it collectively labels the "Regulatory Instability Hypothesis." . The book concludes by outlining approaches to make financial regulation more resilient to these dynamics that undermine law.

The end of the Cold War put the planet on a new track, abruptly replacing the familiar world of bipolarity, red phones, and intercontinental ballistic missiles with the strange new world of the Internet, e-commerce, and Palm Pilots. The "New World Order" was defined by a U.S.-led war against Iraq, bloody ethnic strife in Bosnia and Rwanda, and religious turmoil in Central Asia. This evolving global system, however, overlooked the powerful role of credit, which functions as a critical building block for developing greater national and individual wealth. This volume examines the evolution of credit in the Western world and its relationship to power. Spanning several centuries of human endeavor. it focuses on Western Europe and the United States and also considers how the Western system became the global credit system. Six major themes run throughout: (1) the direct relationship between credit and power; (2) different kinds of political power promote different kinds of economic behavior; (3) various societal and cultural groups were often more successful in mingling credit and political power; (4) the Western credit system evolved in tandem with the development of the nation-state; (5) historically, there has been a pattern of financial crises; (6) credit spread from being the privilege of the wealthy and powerful to being available to vast numbers. MacDonald and Gastmann have broken history into five periods, ranging from early pre-modern, defining the earliest references to banking and credit as exemplified by the Code of Hammurabi, circa 1726 BC, through the Roman Empire with its creation of money and growing use of credit in trade, the barbarian invasions of the 11th century which led to a breakdown in credit networks in the West, through the establishment of the Italian city-states, to the modern period which incorporates the rise of credit in the Low Countries in the 1500s and extends through the rise of London and New York as the major international credit hubs.

In this updated second edition, well-known investment author Hagstrom explores basic and fundamental investing concepts in a range of fields outside of economics, including physics, biology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, and literature.

QFINANCE: The Ultimate Resource (4th edition) offers both practical and thought-provoking articles for the finance practitioner, written by leading experts from the markets and academia. The coverage is expansive and in-depth, with key themes which include balance sheets and cash flow, regulation, investment, governance, reputation management, and Islamic finance encompassed in over 250 best practice and thought leadership articles. This edition will also comprise key perspectives on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors -- essential for understanding the long-term sustainability of a company, whether you are an investor or a corporate strategist. Also included: Checklists: more than 250 practical guides and solutions to daily financial challenges; Finance Information Sources: 200+ pages spanning 65 finance areas; International Financial Information: up-to-date country and industry data; Management Library: over 130 summaries of the most popular finance titles; Finance Thinkers: 50 biographies covering their work and life; Quotations and Dictionary.

This book aims to cover the following general topics: development and assessment of theories for evaluating commodity risk; the role of derivative securities in managing commodity risk; and, an assessment of the actual management of commodity risk in specific situations. The primary contribution of the book is the explicit development of the often overlooked connection between risk management and speculation. The central theme is to demonstrate that commodity risk management decisions require an in depth understanding of speculative strategies. To this end, this book aims to provide a unified treatment of important concepts and techniques that are useful in applying derivative securities in the management of risk arising in commodity markets.