Guide to Analysing Companies

Contents
Introduction
vi
The changing face of markets
1
A to Z
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Introduction
Essential Finance is one of a series of Economist books that
brings clarity to complicated areas of business, finance and
management. It is a guide to the increasingly complex world of
money, financial markets and the things that revolve around
them. It owes much to the entertaining and often irreverent
guides to banks, bankers and international finance written over
the years by Tim Hindle, a former finance editor and currently
business features editor of 
The Economist. 
An introductory essay examines the changing face of
markets: how stocks and bonds have become more important
as sources of finance for companies, how financial institutions
have expanded not just in size but also across borders and in the
kinds of business they do. The complexity of corporate deals
and the speed with which huge amounts of money are moved
today have undoubtedly increased the volatility of markets and
the risks for investors, risks that are at the same time made
worse and spread by the use of derivatives (futures, options
and the like). 
Following the essay is an extensive A to Z of terms widely
used by those in finance and banking. Often the terms have dif-
ferent meanings even for those within the same arcane world.
In this section words in small capitals usually indicate a
separate and sometimes related entry (although abbreviations
such as eu also appear in the same form). 
Nigel Gibson
March 2003
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