Futures and Options Markets: An Introduction - Softcover

Colin Andre Carter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1577665538 ISBN 13: 9781577665533

Publisher: Waveland Pr Inc, 2007

Synopsis

As the world economy has shifted toward globalization, the importance of futures and options markets has grown dramatically; in turn, these markets have evolved to better serve the increasingly global economy. However, even with the trading volume expanding every year, futures and options contracts and markets remain poorly understood. Carter's text introduces readers to this dynamic, exciting subject in an accessible and lively way. Using a perspective grounded in economics rather than complex mathematics, he presents an integrated explanation of the market institutions, theory, and empirical evidence. The text begins with the fundamentals of commodity futures and, unlike other texts, continues on to extensively discuss financial futures and options markets, including currencies and equity indexes. Geared to the novice reader, mathematics and formulas are kept to a minimum, while numerous real-world examples explain how practitioners use futures and options markets. Whether interested in business, economics, or agricultural and applied economics, readers will appreciate futures and options markets as a thriving laboratory for discovering economic theory in action.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Futures and Options Markets: An Introduction provides the reader with an economic understanding of the development and operation of futures and options markets. Starting with the fundamentals of agricultural futures, the text advances the reader through the exciting development of financial futures and options, including currencies and equity indexes. Utilizing real-world examples, this text brings the markets to life by explaining how and why these markets function and how they are used to manage market risk.

Some features include:

• Separate chapters on fundamental and technical analysis
• Real-world examples, providing practical applications of the complicated theory of how futures and options markets perform
• Market efficiency section explaining the debate and provides empirical evidence from economic research
• Internet sites found throughout various chapters help the reader keep current with the markets
• Discussion problems and questions reinforcing concepts learned in each chapter
• A balanced coverage of material on both commodity and financial markets

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Futures and options markets are globally linked through round-the-clock computerized trading, and this booming derivatives industry has led the world economy in the recent globalization trend. This book highlights the economic role of futures and options markets in the new global economy and explains how these markets evolved to better serve a more integrated world economy. Starting from the fundamentals of commodity futures, this book advances the reader through the exciting development of financial futures and options, including currencies and equity indexes. The commodity contracts have historical significance and provide a foundation for understanding price formation in the most modern financial futures and options markets—the future of the industry. Using economics logic rather than complex mathematics, this book brings the futures and options markets to life by explaining how and why these markets function and how they are used to manage market risk and as speculative investments.

Futures and options markets are the epitome of the global competitive marketplace. I have been interested in futures and options markets for many years and I have studied and traded these markets with enthusiasm and respect for the splendor of the marketplace. Futures and options markets provide a wonderful laboratory to allow students to see economic theory in action. The markets swiftly react to world news events that serve as either a supply or demand shock. The importance of futures and options markets in the global economy has grown remarkably and the industry remains highly dynamic and exciting. Despite the economic importance of futures and options markets, there is a surprisingly high level of ignorance among the public and the media regarding the functioning and economic benefits of these markets. Myths abound regarding the riskiness and undesirability of trading futures and options contracts, yet the volume of trade on these markets continues to expand year after year. As a result of the growth in this industry, more and more universities are beginning to introduce courses on futures and options markets. With the writing of this book, I hope to make a contribution to furthering the understanding of these vital markets.

This book is written as a textbook for an upper level undergraduate course in futures and options markets taught in schools of business, economics, or agricultural and applied economics. Students in an MBA program are also a target audience, as are professional financial planners, and money managers. The objective of this book is to provide an economic understanding of the development and operation of futures and options markets. This book presents an integrated explanation of the market institutions, theory, and empirical evidence. It provides the reader with an intuitive explanation of the complicated nature of futures and options markets. The material in this book is presented in a way that is accessible to students with training in economics, mathematics, and statistics at the principles level. Mathematics and formulas are kept to a minimum in this book because it is meant to be introductory material.

I have attempted to make the material interesting and easy to understand. Numerous real-world examples are provided explaining how practitioners use futures and options markets. A section on market efficiency is included to explain the efficiency debate. An extensive listing of Internet sites is provided to allow students to keep current with the market and access real data. Discussion questions and problems are offered to stimulate students to think about the topics at hand and allow them to test their understanding of the material presented. In addition, each chapter has key references to academic literature that provides the more sophisticated reader with suggestions for more advanced reading.

This book has a distinctive blend of material relating to options, futures, commodities, and financials. It is more general than most futures and options textbooks-for instance, it gives equal treatment to commodities and financials. The chapters on fundamental and technical analysis are somewhat unique, as most textbooks on this topic do not have such chapters. The illustrative examples and text boxes are aimed to make the material user friendly to students who are new to this topic.

This book is designed for a one-semester course and students should easily be able to get through the entire book in one semester. Although the material is difficult in places and intellectually challenging, I hope you find it worth the effort.

Edition details

• Publisher: Waveland Pr Inc
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1577665538
• ISBN 13: 9781577665533
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336