Guide to Financial Markets
$12.05
Guide to Financial Markets explains how financial markets channel capital, establish prices, and transfer risk. Marc Levinson examines foreign exchange, money markets, bonds, securitisation, international fixed income, equities, futures, and options within a connected account of the financial system.
The book follows an explanatory approach built around market participants, instrument structures, issuance, trading arrangements, and valuation. Examples, calculations, and statistical tables show how financial instruments operate and why borrowers, investors, intermediaries, and hedgers use them.
Its practical value lies in helping readers interpret the mechanics behind investment returns and financial exposures. Coverage includes exchange-rate influences, bond yields, asset-backed cash flows, equity financing, futures obligations, and option payoffs, connecting individual instruments to their economic purposes.
This edition provides a foundation for readers developing cross-market knowledge. Its statistics and institutional examples reflect the period covered by the book, principally through 2004–2005, making it useful for studying financial mechanisms and their historical context.
✅ What You’ll Learn
- Explain how markets support price discovery, capital raising, investment, and risk transfer.
- Distinguish foreign-exchange spot transactions, forwards, futures, and swaps.
- Identify how money-market instruments address short-term funding and liquidity needs.
- Interpret bond prices, yields, credit quality, and interest-rate exposure.
- Explain how securitisation transforms asset cash flows into tradable securities.
- Distinguish domestic and international fixed-income financing arrangements.
- Describe equity issuance, share trading, and stockmarket performance measures.
- Trace futures obligations and option payoffs to understand hedging and speculative exposures.
💡 Key Benefits
- Builds a coherent foundation across major financial markets.
- Provides vocabulary for reading financial reporting and instrument descriptions.
- Connects the financing needs of issuers with the objectives of investors.
- Makes complex instruments more accessible through examples and calculations.
- Supports further study of investment analysis, treasury operations, and derivatives.
👤 Who This Book Is For
- Beginner investors seeking an organised introduction to securities and financial markets.
- Intermediate traders broadening their understanding beyond a single asset class.
- Finance and business students studying capital markets, instruments, and institutions.
- Early-career finance professionals developing knowledge for banking, treasury, or investment-related roles.
📚 Table of Contents
- Why markets matter
- Foreign-exchange markets
- Money markets
- Bond markets
- Securitisation
- International fixed-income markets
- Equity markets
- Commodities and futures markets
- Options and derivatives markets
Guide to Financial Markets By Marc Levinson
| Author(s) | |
|---|---|
| Product Type | Ebook |
| Format | |
| Skill Level | Beginner to Intermediate |
| Pages | 257 |
| Publication Year | 2006 |
| Delivery | Instant Download |
7 reviews for Guide to Financial Markets
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Myles Caldwell (verified owner) –
Really tells you a lot of the workings of the various financial markets, especially conditions and changes after the crisis. As a young professional just getting my feet wet in studying financial markets (and with a more theoretical economics background) this has been pretty useful.
Evelynn Rios (verified owner) –
This was the very first book I read about financial market.
Before reading any actual books, I’ve been reading the Economist articles for years so I started from the Economist Guide to Financial Markets.
It turned out that the timing was about right. This book was for people without much knowledge about financial markets.
When you already know well about financial markets, this book may not be worth the investment (time).
Princeton Armstrong (verified owner) –
As someone who didn’t know what securities, dividends, or interest were whatsoever, this book went a bit over my head at first. Thus I would recommend that people with absolutely zero financial background read this book only after brushing up on the basics of financial markets. However, the book is extremely clear, engaging, and informative.
Also, one minor complaint: There isn’t much of a difference between the bold and regular versions of the font, which are used for headings and subheadings respectively, so sometimes it’s a little hard to figure out if you’re still in the same section, or if you’re now in a different section.
Kathryn O’Connor (verified owner) –
Easy to read book that describes in detail how financial markets work.
Presley Moreno (verified owner) –
Definitely liked the fact that every market has been covered in the book. Doesn’t leave you wondering about things like, “what’s a derivative?” Or “what is a futures market?” when you read them. It is however a bit complex for beginners.
Itzel Austin (verified owner) –
An excellent over view of the financial markets. I wish I had read this book, or one like it a long time ago.
Israel Beil (verified owner) –
This book is the probably the best introductory resource to a complex topic. Each chapter focusses on a particular kind of financial market, and they are written in a manner that enables the reader to choose how deeply they want to explore the market. For example, I wanted a simple working knowledge, and the first 5-6 pages of each chapter were sufficient to gain a high level understanding.