An Introduction to Global Financial Markets

by Stephen Valdez

This textbook provides an accessible introduction to finance and financial markets around the world. Requiring no previous knowledge of the subject, the authors comprehensively cover a broad range of different types of banking, markets, foreign exchange and derivative products.  Incorporating recent events and current developments in finance, contemporary, international examples are used throughout to illustrate this fast-moving subject area. With Stephen Valdez’s decades of experience as a financial trainer and Philip Molyneux’s academic experience, they are the perfect team for this accessible and applied textbook. 

This textbook is core reading for second and third year undergraduate students studying modules in financial markets and institutions as part of business and management degree courses. In addition it is suitable for use on MBA finance courses.

 

Genres: Finance, Business, Economics, Nonfiction

552 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 31, 1997

Reviews

[Adrian]

An Introduction to Global Financial Markets is an essential read for Economics students, economics enthusiasts, or anyone who wishes to plug remaining gaps in their financial knowledge.
Coming from the multi-layered academic discipline of International Relations, I became increasingly aware of how important finance and economics figures into this, but with the many different areas to my study, I felt that the ground I had covered on the global economy was far from adequate. Furthermore, as a reader of The Economist and Financial Times, I am humbling enough to admit that I frequently encountered terms and procedures that I did not quite understand.
Global Financial Markets has more than plugged those gaps. Within this huge volume is contained every item you need to understand, from the bond markets, equity, derivatives, forex, and some other phenomena on the world scene, such as European Unity and the rise of China and India.
This is not a book to be read lightly, it is one which one should bookmark, take notes, or if using Kindle, make good use of the highlighting facility.
To be concise, an economics book that is not lacking in the slightest, and essential reading for Economics or Finance Undergrads, or anyone outside of the discipline who wishes to plug the gaps in their knowledge. After this book, there will be few gaps left to plug.

[Richard Kemp]

A great introductory text covering a wide array of financial products and their associated jargon. The diagrams leave a bit to be desired but the associated text is sufficiently well-written that diagrams are almost always superfluous anyway. The tone was pitched just right for me: someone who knew next to nothing about the topics concerned but still wanted them explained in a reasonable depth.

It's pretty dry throughout and not an especially enjoyable read, even for (what is essentially) a textbook, but I still didn't find it boring or difficult to progress through. I would definitely recommend it and will probably return to it in a few months just to re-read the excellent chapter summaries.

[Ashley]

For Advanced Financial Systems class. A good intro read (though slanted to the UK way of doing things). The chapters on the financial crisis were superb.

[Vashis Bundhoo]

good

[Mircea]

Good read for a starter in finance