The Portable Financial Analyst

Financial professionals are faced with increasingly technical topics that are theoretically complicated but practically necessary in determining the trade-off between risk and return. The Portable Financial Analyst, Second Edition is a unique collection of essays that address the heart of every analyst's and investor's dilemma: how to make decisions in the face of unknown forces and how to assert some control over the outcome Foreword: Time and Magic: What This Book Is About.

Preface.

Chapter 1. The Noble Prize.

Chapter 2. Uncertainty.

Chapter 3. Utility.

Chapter 4. Lognormality.

Chapter 5. Return and Risk.

Chapter 6. Higher Moments.

Chapter 7. Duration and Convexity.

Chapter 8. The Term Structure of Interest Rates.

Chapter 9. Serial Dependence.

Chapter 10. Time Diversification.

Chapter 11. Regressions.

Chapter 12. Factor Methods.

Chapter 13. Estimating Volatility: Part I.

Chapter 14. Estimating Volatility: Part II.

Chapter 15. Hypothesis Testing.

Chapter 16. Future Value and Risk of Loss.

Chapter 17. Event Studies.

Chapter 18. Simulation.

Chapter 19. Value at Risk.

Chapter 20. Optimization.

Chapter 21. Risk Budgets.

Chapter 22. Hedging.

Chapter 23. Opton Valuation and Replication.

Chapter 24. Commodity Futures Conracts.

Chapter 25. Currencies.

Glossary.

Notes.

Index.

MARK P. KRITZMAN is Managing Partner of Windham Capital Management Boston, a Senior Partner of State Street Associates, and Research Director of the AIMR Research Foundation. He also serves on the boards of the Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance and the International Securities Exchange, and on the editorial boards of Emerging Markets Review, Financial Analysts Journal, the Journal of Alternative Investments, the Journal of Asset Management, the Journal of Derivatives, and the Journal of Investment Management. Mr. Kritzman has written numerous articles for academic and professional journals and is the author of six books including Puzzles of Finance (Wiley).

To succeed in the world of finance you must have a solid understanding of the concepts and strategies used to perform proper investment analysis. Today, financial analysts are faced with increasingly technical topics that are theoretically complicated but practically necessary. To help you overcome these obstacles, financial expert Mark Kritzman has returned with a completely updated and expanded second edition of The Portable Financial Analyst.

The Portable Financial Analyst, Second Edition is a comprehensive collection of financial insight and advice that addresses the heart of every investor’s and analyst’s dilemma: how to make decisions in the face of unknown forces and how to assert some control over the outcome. Originally covered as columns in the Financial Analysts Journal, these self-contained chapters address often controversial and difficult quantitative topics without the technical jargon and mathematical symbolism that often permeate other writings. With a high degree of lucidity and impeccable logic, Kritzman shows you how to employ the tools of mathematics, statistics, and common sense when evaluating past results and projecting future performance.

Filled with in-depth insights and expert advice, this invaluable resource touches on a variety of financial topics that every financial practitioner must be familiar with, including:

• Uncertainty
• Higher moments
• Time diversification
• Hypothesis testing
• Future value and risk of loss
• Simulation
• Optimization
• Risk budgets
• Hedging
• Option valuation and replication
• And much more

Objective, practical, and essential, The Portable Financial Analyst, Second Edition covers the concepts, methodology, and strategies inherent to thorough and proper investment analysis. With this book as your guide you’ll learn how to make the right investment decisions as well as when to make them.