An Introduction to Global Financial Markets (Macmillan Business)

This book gives a good summary of several important concepts related to the financial markets. It is a truly introductory level book but it is highly recommended if you are looking for a complete overview to fill up the gaps in your basic knowledge. Highly readable, even for people without a formal background in economoy but with a basic practical knowledge of the financial markets. One negative point concerns paragraphs where the history of certain concepts is described or where practical examples are given, applying to different countries in the world : these are often too elaborated without any clear added value. This book is also recommended by 'The Economist' magazine.

When an engineering student completely unfamiliar with economics can use this book to prepare a comprehensive collection of lectures for a large group of Ph.D.-level students in Beijing during the transcontinental flight, it is obvious that this book is extremely capable of teaching. Read the news article:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/02/19/nchina19.xml & sSheet=/news/2004/02/19/ixnewstop.htmlHowever, that makes you question the complexity of the profession and the necessity of the professors teaching it, because if someone can effectively become an expert one a plane trip, it can't be that complicated. That, or Mr. Valdez is a genius who knows how to take something enormously complex and transform it into something incredibly simple.

Although the book by Valdez is truly introductory it does give a good overview of financial markets. It is a pity that Black and Scholes' model or binomial trees are mentioned as too difficult. Different option strategies are mentioned but not explained. One or two graphs would have made it a lot clearer, but as the writer indicates on several occasions, that is outside the scope of this book. For a more thorough understanding of financial markets this book is a good introduction but not enough to really get a good idea.