FT Guide to Bond and Money Markets

PREFACE

Everybody’s life is touched by financial markets. This was painfully brought home to us when markets built on badly thought-through finance collapsed, triggering the long recession in 2008. Millions were thrown out of work, wages were cut, governments went bust and interest rates were slashed. Clearly we all need to have some acquaintance with what these financial instruments are and how these markets work.

This book is a simple, easy-to-follow guide to bond and money markets, which assumes no prior knowledge of finance. The emphasis is on gaining an understanding of the underlying concepts in the first half of the book, the importance of these markets and ideas in the practical world of finance. Later I introduce those elements of quantitative ...