The Essential Financial Toolkit
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Finance But Were Afraid to Ask
This book is designed to help executives and students get to grips with
some of the basic financial tools, quickly and easily.
Whether you have never been exposed to finance at all, have learned some but
not properly, or just need to refresh your memory, this engaging little book will soon
have you up to speed with the fundamental concepts, enabling you to confidently apply them
or go on to study them at a more advanced level.
The ten, easy-to-read chapters are presented in a Question and Answer format, following
the dialogue between a 'Witty Professor' and an 'Insightful Student'. The Student asks all
the burning questions on your behalf and the friendly explanations are intended to make
you feel as if you have the instructor right there in front of you.
No prior knowledge of finance is necessary in order to enjoy and benefit from this book -
as long as you more or less remember your high-school mathematics you'll be fine. The
short chapters are jargon-free. The essential tools and concepts are fully illustrated
with real data from real-world examples.
JAVIER ESTRADA Professor of Finance at IESE Business School,
Spain. His areas of specialization are portfolio management, wealth management,
investments, equity markets, and emerging markets. He is also a wealth management advisor
at Sports Global Consulting, where he advises professional athletes on their investments.
Tool 1: Returns
Tool 2: Mean Returns
Tool 3: Risk: Standard Deviation and Beta
Tool 4: Diversification and Correlation
Tool 5: Required Returns and the CAPM
Tool 6: Downside risk
Tool 7: Risk-Adjusted Returns
Tool 8: NPV and IRR
Tool 9: Multiples
Tool 10: Bonds
Appendix: Some Useful Excel Commands
200 pages, Paperback