The Trade Lifecycle: Behind the Scenes of the Trading Process, 2nd Edition

Foreword to the Second Edition

Since the book was first published in 2010, many changes have been occurring to trading. The most significant is in the field of regulation. Investment banks and other financial institutions are now subject to more regulations which cut deep into the way they are allowed to operate. This is both on a macro level affecting the way they are structured and on a micro level in how individual trades are executed and processed. Thus a section of the second edition is devoted to regulation.

Feedback from the first edition included a desire of the readership to know more about asset classes – this chapter has been expanded.

A common confusion is the difference between asset classes and financial products. A chapter of the book seeks to remove this confusion and further the understanding of how products behave by ‘following the money’, that is examining the cashflows of several commonly traded products.

Quantitative analysts play a vital role in finance but are little known and understood. A chapter is therefore devoted to shedding some light on this business function.

In training courses based on the book, I have frequently been asked what working in capital markets and on trading floors is really like. This edition tries to give the reader a flavour of these experiences including real life case studies.

Finally, I have in the course of my career come to the realisation that one of the greatest impediments to delivering successful IT projects is a phenomenon ...