How To Read The Financial Pages (Fifth Edition) by Michael Brett

Strapline – “Understand the jargon of the financial world: a simple guide to the way money works”. Simple?!!!??!?!? Well I guess you could call it that but he sure does go into each and everything with a magnifying glass and almost everything he reveals has a history, which he shares in detail. And also helps understand things better. At the end of every chapter he also has Internet Pointers with websites to view the right pages. Then at the end of the book he’s also got more websites and not to forget the kinda jargon you could come across and what it really means. Dude goes into the following subjects by chapter.

1 – First principles: Market and interest rates. Returns and investments. What a market is. How the prices rise or fall. Interest rates and currencies. Debt and equity.

2 – Money flows and the money men: Saving institutions, banking, money markets, euromarkets, stock exchange.

3 – Companies and their accounts: Usual balance sheet, profit loss and cash flow statements, where the money comes from, gearing, tax, etc.

4 – Investment ratios: Gearing, shares, dividends, yield, P.E. ratio, assets and liabilities.

5 – Refining the figurework: Goodwill, debt, diluting earnings and assets, provisions, shareholders, preference shares, warrants, reserves, etc.

6 – Equities and the stock exchange: Self-explanatory. Big Bang history and changes after. Computer systems. Bull and Bear markets.

7 – What moves share prices (a) In ‘normal’ times: Bull and bear markets. How shares are re-rated. When interest rates change. Press announcements. Press recommendations. Marketmaker’s manoeuvres. Chartist influences. Interest rate and currency movements. Weight of money argument. Politics, sentiment and takeovers.

7 – What moves share prices (b) In the crash of ’87: Self explanatory.

8 – Stock market launches: Type of launch. Who is raising the money. Pricing. Underwriting. Pre-paid shares. New-issue fraud.

9 – Issuing more shares – and buying shares back: Cum-rights and ex-rights. Different methods, rights and rules. Scrip issue.

10 – Bidders, victims and lawmakers: Who benefits from takeovers and takeover mechanics. Offers, rules, conditions to be met, bid timetable. The U.S. scene. Leverage and level playing fields. The Guinness affair.

11 – Venture capital and leveraged buy-outs: Self explanatory. Funding process. Trusts and schemes.

12 – Pay, perks and reverse capitalism: How the reverse capitalism package works. Corporate governance and disclosure. Who monitors the managers. Where the press homes in. How far will the pay explosion go. These guys get paid crazy dough yo… all I’m saying is Golden Handshakes!?!?!?!?

13 – Government bonds and company bonds: News that moves prices. Technical influences. Types of security. Life of a stock. How price are quoted. Calculating interest yield. How tax affects the returns. Interest rates. Cum and ex-dividend. Indices. New issues. Strips. Bonds.

14 – Banks, borrowers and bad debts: Funds. Borrowed and shareholders money. Creation process. Rescues, recycling, lifeboats, reconstructions. Banking crisis and cycles.

15 – The money markets: Functions. Bank influences. Treasury bills, certificates of deposit. Hedging.

16 – Foreign exchange and the euro: Market forces. Swings in market sentiment. Measuring currencies. Fundamentals. Wicked history of how they introduced the euro. Forward markets and hedging. Forex markets.

17 – International money (The euro markets): Syndicated loans. Euro bonds. Eurocommercial paper. Euroequities. Interest rate currency swaps. Borrowers ranking. Tombstones. Press coverage.

18 – Financial derivatives and commodities: Betting side of derivatives. Insurance aspect. Evolution of forward markets. Futures markets. Dangers. Betting on market fall. Options. Hedgers and speculators. Commodity markets.

19 – Insurance and Lloyd’s after the troubles: The story of Lloyd’s broken down. Syndicate structure, scandals and regulation, reinsurance, litigation, etc.

20 – Commercial property and market crashes: Properties, freehold, leasehold, valuation, finance for developers, companies, unitised property, indices, performance, crash in early 90’s, etc.

21 – Savings, pooled investments and tax shelters: Life insurance, pensions, mortgages, investment trusts, tax shelters, etc.

22 – Supervising the City: Statutory vs. non-statutory supervision. British regulation, compensation arrangements. Etc.

23 – Print and Internet (the financial pages): How to find what where and links and stuff like that.

– How to read between the lines: Self explanatory.

– Glossary and Index.

Big up Poonam for the book.