Reading and Understanding the Financial Times

This engaging and practical guide selects topical Financial Times articles with recurrent themes and provides engaging analysis, unravelling the key points and explaining the financial and economic data. This book will enable you to engage with corporate finance in any context; be it at work, on the television, in radio reports or on the internet.

Structured around 11 key topics in finance, ranging from classical exposition of financial markets and institutions through to current issues surrounding private equity, risk management and hedge funds, each chapter sets the scene and analyses the chosen articles. Particular attention is paid to detailed explanation of key terminology (crucial for when you need to file that urgent report at work or look into reviewing your mortgage).

Reading and Understanding the Financial Timesleaves you to ponder your findings and research further with self review questions andsuggested data and web-based activities on the book’s website so that next time you read the Financial Times you will be able to do your own analysis.

After graduating with a degree in Economics and MSc from the London School of Economics, Kevin Boakes started his working life on the bond trading desk at Greenwell Montagu Gilt-edged, which is now part of HSBC Investment Bank. As their Chief UK Economist he was responsible for giving on the spot advice to bond traders as soon as economic stories hit the news screens. He has regularly contributed articles to newspapers including the Times, Observer and Guardian and appeared on the BBC’s Money Programme and the Financial World Tonight. In the late 1980s he decided to make a radical career change and left the City to join Kingston University, initially in the Economics Department, and then at Kingston Business School where he is currently a Senior Lecturer in the School of Accounting and Finance. He teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Finance and International Financial Markets. In addition to his academic work he has run numerous economics and financial training courses for various Investment Banks.