Visual Guide to Financial Markets

Visual Guide to Financial Markets Explores the Risk, Returns, and Relative Value for Investment Options

Financial markets are supposed to be complicated. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be as much money to go around and individual investors wouldn’t need to pay brokers and financial advisers as much to manage their nest eggs. The Bloomberg Financial Series Visual Guide to Financial Markets (Wiley; July 2012; $60.00; 978-1-1182-0423-8; Paperback; Ebook; Enhanced Ebook) makes them easier to understand.

This essential guide provides key information about the forces underlying market structure, instruments, and dynamics and the ways to capitalize on them. Written by Bloomberg Reporter-at-Large David Wilson, the book covers the three basic types of investments and the markets tied to them directly and indirectly: 

• Governments, which rely on money from investors to bridge gaps between spending and taxes. The bigger the budget deficit, the more borrowing they need to do.
• Companies, which raise funds to run and expand their business and enable owners to buy and sell their investments.
• Hard assets, which have a presence that goes beyond entries in computer databases or on scraps of paper. Gold, commodities, and real estate fall under this category.

Beginning with simple investments before moving on to more complex opportunities, the book emphasizes the three Rs of financial market investing: returns, risks, and relative value. There are discussions of interest and dividends, the forces that can work against investors, and the methods used to determine whether an asset is cheap, expensive, or fairly valued. Examining how these relate to each investment class, the book presents  information on bonds, stocks, derivatives, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and indexes.

Lavishly illustrated throughout with charts and other visual aids that highlight the concepts covered, the book features easy-to-reference learning aids, Bloomberg Terminal graphics, and full-color large-format charts. The enhanced ebook version brings the content to life via test-yourself quizzes, video tutorials, zoom-in capabilities, and pop-up content (features are subject to e-reader/tablet functionality).

Filled with practical information presented in a readily accessible, easy-to-use format, the Bloomberg Financial Series Visual Guide to Financial Markets is an indispensable guide to gaining insight into the often confusing world of financial markets.