The Management of Equity Investments

The Art Of Investing: Golden Rules Of Investing Introduction; Asset Classes of Investing; Investors, Speculators, Risk and Return; Savings Down the Drain- The Eurotunnel Fiasco; Understand the Difference Between Investing, Trading and Speculating; Caveat Emptor and Human Nature; A Golden Rule for Private Investors, but Not Necessarily for All Professionals; Income, Growth and Control of Exposure; The Landscape Where Professional Asset Managers and Private Investors Meet Introduction; Investments Through Private Banking; Betting on the Challenger and Learning to Diversify; Increasing the Visibility of One's Investments; The 5 Percent Rule About Assets at Risk; Challenges Faced with Pension Funds; Are Mutual Funds a Good Alternative?; Capital Markets and Their Players: Capital Markets and the Securities Industry Introduction; Securities and Their Legal Protection; Investment Banking and Underwriting; Investment Bankers and Primary Dealers; Correspondent Banks; The Globalized Securities Market; Risk of Global Contagion; The Trading of Equities Introduction; Equities, Stock Exchanges and Over-the-Counter Operations; Basic Facts About Equities: Common and Preferred Stock; Convertible Bonds Defined; The Funding Competition Between Capital Markets and Commercial Banks; Stock Markets and Equity Prices; Stock Market Indices: Dow Jones, S&P and Nasdaq; European Market Indices; Regulation and Operation of the Exchanges Introduction; Role of a Regulatory Authority; Self Regulation by the Exchanges and Conflicts of Interest; Role of Specialists in a Stock Exchange; Bid, Ask, Large Blocks and the Third Market; Cash and Margin Accounts; Short Sales and Reverse/Forward Splits; Performance Criteria and Quoted Equities: Technical and Fundamental Analysis Introduction; Fundamental Analysis Defined; Technical Analysis Defined; Theory Behind the Art of Charting; The Nuts and Bolts of Charting; Financial Analysis and Future Price of a Commodity; Learning How to Detect and Analyze Market Trends; The Role of Rocket Scientists; Quantitative Criteria for Equity PerformanceIntroduction; An Equity's Valuation and need for Stress Tests; Equity as an Option and Dividend Discount Model; Earnings per Share and Creative Accounting Solutions; Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization; Price/Earnings Ratio and Its Challenges; Using Return on Equity as a Guide; Appendix: The Tobin Q-Ratio; Transparency in Financial Statements and Reputational Risk Introduction; Goals of Transparent Financial Reporting; Transparency and Role of an Audit Committee; Transparency and Corporate Governance; Forward-Looking Statements; Virtual Balance Sheets and Risk Management; Compliance to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act; Appendix: The European Union's Version of Sarbanes-Oxley Act;A Private Investor's Self-Protection Introduction; Investing in large Caps vs. Small Caps; A Prudent Policy for Investors: Equities vs. Bonds; Data Analysis at the Core of the Investor's Homework; Investors Should Always Consider the Contrarians' Advice; Value Stocks, Growth Stocks, and Intrinsic Value; Importance of the Investment Horizon; Factors Affecting Return on Investment; Execution Risk and Damage ControlInvestors' Responsibility in Risk Management Introduction; Risk Management Requires a Lot of Homework; The Importance of Rigorous Risk Management Standards; Investors Should Never Hesitate to Cut Losses; Damage Control Through Limits and Profit Targets; Flexibility is One of the Investor's Best Friends; Using Mathematical Tools and Appreciating they Are Not Fail-Safe; Independent Equity Research and Risk Management Introduction; The Bottleneck Is at the Top of the Bottle; Legal Risk in Equity Research and Analysis; Quality of Corporate Governance Affects Investors and the Companies Themselves; Can Independent Research Be an Effective Solution?; Very Often, Analysts Pickings are Mediocre; Buy-Side Asymmetries in the Experts Advice; Volatility, Liquidity, Leverage, and Their Impact on Investments Introduction; Volatility, Volume of Transactions, and Volatility Index; The Concept of Implied Volatility and Its use; Solvency and Liquidity Feed Upon One-Another; Liquidity Management and Risk Control; Risks Associated with Multiply-Connect Leverage; Methods for Judging Quoted Equities Introduction; Rethinking the Metrics Which We Use; New Measures for Judging Equity Performance; Business Risk and Brand Name; A New Method for Measuring Business Risk; Fair Value Accounting and its Impact on Equities; Globalization Increases the Complexity of Evaluating Equity Performance; Case Studies in Investments Case Studies on Equity Values Introduction; Risk management, Damage Control and Hedging; Two Technology Companies: Cisco Systems and IBM; Aftermath of the Investors Appetite for Internet Stocks; Old Established Companies, Too, Can be Highly Volatile; Equity Values of Service Firms also Plunge; Parmalat: A Case Study on Leveraging Corporate Assets Introduction; Parmalat as a Speculative Hedge Fund; A Birdseye View of Parmalat's Scam; Taxpayers, Investors, and the Control of Malfeasance; Mr. Fixit and the Challenges of a Turnaround; It is Not Easy to Get Out of Bankruptcy Unscathed; The Banks of Parmalat; Conflicts of Interest and Reputational Risk; Management's Accountability.