How to Understand the Financial Pages: A Guide to Money and the Jargon

How to Understand the Financial Pages provides comprehensive coverage of newspapers and magazines, and also financial websites, stockbrokers’ research and company reports. The handy A-Z format enables the reader to look up entries quickly and easily. Essential terms and concepts are explained in non-technical English, and it is extensively cross-referenced. A valuable reference tool for any private investor, it is international in scope and includes references to the use of technical analysis in internet trading, the development of hedge funds and other alternative investments, and the growth of financial services regulation and compliance – something other guides often omit.

Introduction:

A lot of people who read a newspaper tend to skim over the financial pages under the mistaken impression that they are difficult. They lose out in more ways than they realise. The financial pages are a mirror not just of business and the economy but also of how the world works. Financial markets reflect, and help to forecast, almost anything that happens, from politics in Europe to presidential elections in the United States. They serve as a barometer of sentiment. But finance still has a reputation for being a little dull. The explanations in this book will, I trust, destroy this myth.

You will most likely be reading the financial pages for personal interest, but also perhaps to help prepare for an examination, as part of your work, or simply to broaden your understanding of the news headlines, which are so often linked with financial events. If you are an investor, the financial press can make an important contribution to your success. Whether you are a beginner to financial markets or have some knowledge already, this book is designed to help you. This second edition reflects the latest developments in financial products, trading and regulation. It covers the UK but also some of Europe and the United States.

You may read Part 1 independently. It guides you through the financial pages of The Times, in print and online. Your priority will be to understand the share price tables and related data, and you may then progress from there. Part 2 provides the next stage. It is an A–Z of how money works and the jargon. Cross-references appear throughout this text and are designed to help you to browse, although, if you prefer, you may read whole sections sequentially. You may follow up with the appendices, which list financial websites and further reading.

Even if you do not have a maths GCSE to your name, this book shows you still how to interpret the accounting figures and ratios that enable you to value companies listed on the stock market. Once you have the basics, which are not hard to acquire, you will understand the financial news and comment much better. You will discover how to interpret economic indicators and the charts.

Since the first edition of this book, financial media have expanded and web-based outlets include some quite sophisticated blogging. Corporate websites have become more informative and user-friendly. There are free newspapers, including one with a specialist City focus. This book helps you to sort the wheat from the chaff. If you find it coloured with a little of a journalist’s cynicism, that is no bad thing. The financial pages are my world and I have worked with them for more than two decades. If this little guide kick-starts you into reading them with greater interest and understanding, it will have achieved its purpose.

Contents:

– Part 1: Your guide to the financial pages

• How to understand the share price tables
• More about shares
• Beyond the stock market
• The economy, money markets and personal finance

– Part 2: Your A–Z guide to money and the jargon

• A – Analysts in the stock market
• B – Bonds and fixed income
• C – Charts, patterns and reversal signals
• D – Derivatives
• E – Equities and stock picking
• F – Fiscal and tax
• G – Global economy and foreign exchange
• H – Hedging, short selling and hedge funds
• I – Insurance and pensions
• J – Jollies and freebies
• K – Key technical indicators
• L – Loss control and money management
• M – Money markets
• N – Numbers, accounting and capital adequacy
• O – Operating ethics and corporate governance
• P – Personal finance and property
• Q – Quotations, share issues and capital markets
• R – Regulation and compliance
• S – Securities exchanges, markets, clearing and settlement
• T – Trading and takeovers
• U – Unit trusts and similar
• V – Volume and open interest
• W – Waves, cycles, trends and Dow
• X – Exclusions
• Y – Your portfolio and the cost of capital
• Z – Z terminology

How to Understand the Financial Pages: A Guide to Money and the Jargon By Alexander Davidson pdf