Financial Economics: Making Sense of Information in Financial Markets (Financial Times Series)

In the last 20 years there has been a revolution in the way financial economists understand the financial market place. The announcement that the 1990 Nobel prize for Economics had been awarded to three financial economists acknowledged that financial economics is now a subject in its own right and needs to be studied as such. Financial Economics brings this science out of the realms of academia and into the hands of those that can most use it. This fusion of economics, finance and statistics now enables investors to gain a true understanding of how the markets behave and how to perfect their trading strategies. The book demystifies financial economics in a manner that will provide you with a thorough understanding that can be immediately put into practice without overwhelming you with the trivial. It looks at what exactly financial economics is, its founding fathers and their theories, its role in the valuation of financial assets and recent developments in the field. Chapters within the book also investigate more closely modern portfolio theory, capital market theory, behavioural finance, bubbleology, some puzzles in financial markets and the relationship between derivatives markets and financial economics. Financial Economics is essential reading for dealers, analysts, newcomers to the financial markets, and finance professionals across the board who need to maintain their edge at the forefront of developments in financial markets.

Successful trading, speculating or simply making informed decisions about financial markets means it is essential to have a firm grasp of economics. Financial market behavior revolves around economic concepts, however the majority of economic textbooks do not tell the full story.

To fully understand the behavior of financial markets it is essential to have a model that enables new information to be absorbed and analyzed with some predictive implications. That model is provided by the business cycle. 'Economics for Financial Markets' takes the reader from the basics of financial market valuation to a more sophisticated understanding of the actions that traders take which ultimately drives the volatility in the financial markets. The author shows traders, investment managers, risk managers and finance professionals how to distil the flow of information and show what needs to be concentrated on, covering topics such as: * Why are financial markets subject to economic fashions? * How has the New Economy changed financial market behavior? * Does the creation of the euro fundamentally change the behavior of the currency markets?