Finance

Capital Markets, Financial Management, and Investment Management

Frank J. Fabozzi, Pamela Peterson Drake

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9780470486153
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Betriebswirtschaft
• Subtopic: Finanzwesen

FINANCE

Financial managers and investment professionals need a solid foundation in finance principles and applications in order to make the best decisions in today's ever-changing financial world. Written by the experienced author team of Frank Fabozzi and Pamela Peterson Drake, Finance examines the essential elements of this discipline and makes them understandable to a wide array of individuals, from seasoned professionals looking to fine-tune their financial skills to newcomers seeking genuine guidance through the dynamic world of finance.

Divided into four comprehensive parts, this reliable resource opens with an informative introduction to the basic tools of investing and financing decision-making—financial mathematics and financial analysis (Part I). From here, you'll become familiar with the fundamentals of capital market theory, including financial markets, financial intermediaries, and regulators of financial activities (Part II). You'll also gain a better understanding of interest rates, bond and stock valuation, asset pricing theory, and derivative instruments in this section.

Part III moves on to detail decision-making within a business enterprise. Topics touched upon here include capital budgeting—that is, whether or not to invest in specific long-lived projects—and capital structure. Management of current assets and risk management are also addressed.

By covering the basics of investment decision-making, Part IV skillfully wraps up this accessible overview of finance. Beginning with the determination of an investment objective, this part proceeds to demonstrate portfolio theory and performance evaluation, and also takes the time to outline techniques for managing equity and bond portfolios as well as discuss the best ways to use derivatives in the portfolio management process.

Filled with in-depth insights and practical advice, Finance puts this field in perspective. And while a lot of ground is covered in this book, this information will help you appreciate and understand the complex financial issues that today's companies and investors constantly face.

PART One

Background

CHAPTER 1

What is Finance?

Finance is the application of economic principles to decision-making that involves the allocation of money under conditions of uncertainty. Investors allocate their funds among financial assets in order to accomplish their objectives, and businesses and governments raise funds by issuing claims against themselves that are invested. Finance provides the framework for making decisions as to how those funds should be obtained and then invested. It is the financial system that provides the platform by which funds are transferred from those entities that have funds to invest to those entities that need funds to invest.

The theoretical foundations for finance draw from the field of economics and, for this reason, finance is often referred to as financial economics . The tools used in financial decision-making, however, draw from many areas outside of economics: financial accounting, mathematics, probability theory, statistical theory, and psychology. In Chapters 2 and 3, we cover the mathematics of finance as well as the basics of financial analysis that we use throughout this book. We need to understand the former topic in order to determine the value of an investment, the yield on an investment, and the cost of funds. The key concept is the time value of money, a simple mathematical concept that allows financial decision-makers to translate future cash flows to a value in the present, translate a value today into a value at some future point in time, and calculate the yield on an investment. The time-value-of-money mathematics allows an evaluation and comparison of investments and financing arrangements. Financial analysis involves the selection, evaluation, and interpretation of financial data and other pertinent information to assist in evaluating the operating performance and financial condition of a company. These tools include financial ratio analysis, cash flow analysis, and quantitative analysis.

It is generally agreed that the field of finance has three specialty areas:

• Capital markets and capital market theory

• Financial management

• Investment management

We cover these three areas in this book in Parts Two, Three, and Four of this book. In this chapter, we provide an overview of these three specialty areas and a description of the coverage of the chapters in the three parts of the book.

CAPITAL MARKETS AND CAPITAL MARKET THEORY

The specialty field of capital markets and capital market theory focuses on the study of the financial system, the structure of interest rates, and the pricing of risky assets.

The financial system of an economy consists of three components: (1) financial markets; (2) financial intermediaries; and (3) financial regulators. For this reason, we refer to this specialty area as financial markets and institutions. In Chapter 4, we discuss the three components of the financial system and the role that each plays. We begin the chapter by defining financial assets, their economic function, and the difference between debt and equity financial instruments. We then explain the different ways to classify financial markets: internal versus external markets, capital markets versus money markets, cash versus derivative markets, primary versus secondary markets, private placement versus public markets, order driven versus quote driven markets, and exchange-traded versus over-the-counter markets. We also explain what is meant by market efficiency and the different forms of market efficiency (weak, semi-strong, and strong forms). In the discussion of financial regulators, we discuss changes in the regulatory system in response to the problems in the credit markets in 2008. We discuss the major market players (that is, households, governments, nonfinancial corporations, depository institutions, insurance companies, asset management firms, investment banks, nonprofit organizations, and foreign investors), as well as the importance of financial intermediaries.

We describe the level and structure of interest rates in Chapter 5. We begin this chapter with two economic theories that each seek to explain the determination of the level of interest rates: the loanable funds theory and the liquidity preference theory. We then review the Federal Reserve System and the role of monetary policy. As we point out, there is not one interest rate in an economy; rather, there is a structure of interest rates. We explain that the factors that affect interest rates in different sectors of the debt market, with a major focus on the term structure of interest rates (i.e., the relationship between interest rate and the maturity of debt instrument of the same credit quality).

As we explain in Chapter 6, derivative instruments play an important role in finance because they offer financial managers and investors the opportunity to cost effectively control their exposure to different types of risk. The two basic derivative contracts are futures/forward contracts and options contracts. As we demonstrate, swaps and caps/floors are economically equivalent to a package of these two basic contracts. In this chapter, we explain the basic features of derivative instruments and how they are priced. We detail the well-known Black-Scholes option pricing model in the appendix of this chapter. We wait until later chapters, however, to describe how they are employed in financial management and investment management.

Valuation is the process of determining the fair value of a financial asset. We explain the basics of valuation and illustrate these through examples in Chapter 7. The fundamental principle of valuation is that the value of any financial asset is the present value of the expected cash flows. Thus, the valuation of a financial asset involves (1) estimating the expected cash flows; (2) determining the appropriate interest rate or interest rates that should be used to discount the cash flows; and (3) calculating the present value of the expected cash flows using the interest rate or interest rates. In this chapter, we apply many of the financial mathematics principles that we explained in Chapter 2. We apply the valuation process to the valuation of common stocks and bonds in Chapter 7 given an assumed discount rate.

In Chapter 8, we discuss asset pricing models. The purpose of such models is to provide the appropriate discount rate or required interest rate that should be used in valuation. We present two asset pricing models in this chapter: the capital asset pricing models and the arbitrage pricing theory.

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

Financial management, sometimes called business finance, is the specialty area of finance concerned with financial decision-making within a business entity. Often, we refer to financial management as corporate finance. However, the principles of financial management also apply to other forms of business and to government entities. Moreover, not all non-government business enterprises are corporations. Financial managers are primarily concerned with investment decisions and financing decisions within business organizations, whether that organization is a sole proprietorship, a partnership, a limited liability company, a corporation, or a governmental entity.

In Chapter 9, we provide an overview of financial management. Investment decisions are concerned with the use of funds—the buying, holding, or selling of all types of assets: Should a business purchase a new machine? Should a business introduce a new product line? Sell the old production facility? Acquire another business? Build a manufacturing plan? Maintain a higher level of inventory? Financing decisions are concerned with the procuring of funds that can be used for long-term investing and financing day-to-day operations. Should financial managers use profits raised through the firms’ revenues or distribute those profits to the owners? Shoul...