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Economics Search Economics EconomicsAll You Need to Know About the City 2009/2010: Who Does What and Why in London's Financial Markets (All You Need to Know Guides)
Longtail Publishing Limited Search Longtail Publishing Limited by Christopher Stoakes Search Christopher Stoakes
Customer Reviews:
Excellent if you are starting out..
I bought this book along with another book on derivatives - I'm a developer with little previous experience of the finance markets, but thought this author warranted the effort of my adding a review.
I found this book really useful to get an overview of what happens in the city (and why). Now I can move on to other books which detail actual financial products with an understanding of the bigger picture.
What I really like about this book is the fact that the examples are simple enough to grasp the concept, and that the information given in each chapter builds on previous chapters, so you can see where a concept fits in to the 'workings' of the city.
As a developer who doesn't know the ins and outs of finance, but needs to have an overview in order to his job, this book was fantastic.
Excellent book regardless of previous knowledge on the subject
I already had a good knowledge of the financial systems, but wanted a book that would provide me a complete insight into all areas of the financial world. I have read many academic style books over the years and this is by far the best.
The authors style is clear and very easy to read. He explains things in a very simple way to digest and understand without dumbing down content.
Overall a fantastic easy to read guide to the intricacies of the financial city and the types of people and businesses that operate within it.
Loads of information, and very easy to read...
I now know a lot more about the workings of the City, including how banks really work. This book has also helped me to understand a lot of the jargon in the Financial Times. It's a very enjoyable read - the author uses simple analogies to explain some of the concepts, making it a lot quicker to learn them than from a textbook.
Whether it's "all" depends on who "you" are - but excellent for most outsiders and debutantes
Chris Stoakes trained as a solicitor at Freshfields ( one of the "magic circle" City law firms), was marketing partners in a medium-sized City firm, and is now Head of Legal Training at Lovells (another very big one). In this the 2008/09 second edition, which seems to have been updated following the event of the "credit crunch" in early 2008 (references to sub-prime mortgages, for example), he provides an overview, a context and an often humorous analogy for just about every financial transaction in "the City", including the insurance market. The book is based on a series of training sessions that he has delivered over the years.
I came at this as a reasonably well informed outsider (I have never worked in the City of London, and probably never will) and found this is an excellent book to improve on my broad understanding of the financial markets. Whether it would be right for you will depend on how sophisticated your current understanding is. Stoakes places his book as follows: he starts by saying "I've had to cut corners, leave things out and tell a few fibs in the interests of getting the message across quickly and simply". At the end, under "Where Next?" he recommends The Economist's books on The City, Wall Street and "The Financial Markets" - written by Richard Roberts and Marc Levinson respectively - as "the next step up". He also gives specific recommendations for particular areas, such as Finance & banking, Investment Banking, Commercial banking, Economics, Risk etc.
If you want to be able to differentiate senior debt from junior or subordinated debt, know the principle of mezzanine debt, understand the difference between a merchant and an investment bank, or understand the difference between LIBOR and the base rate, this is the book for you. For my own purposes I see little need to delve deeper, although I may well read Stoakes' other book, "All you need to know about Commercial Awareness" in due course.
Good read
This book is laid out in a very legible format for most users. It gives a good idea to the reader of what is out there in the financial markets. Would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants a flavour of things.
Chris has shown us the cards, what we need to do now is learn how to play them.
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