Management-accounting

If you are a practicioner, skip this book. Even academics will find this rehash (and outright clone) of better material a waste of time.

The focus comes from the insurance perpective and covers a niche in risk management that other books do not cover.

Finance professional and professor Christopher L. Culp tells all, that is, all about alternate risk transfer (ART) products. Culp discusses corporate finance in detail, covering different types of capital. He sets out the risk control and capital structure functions of various classical and alternative risk transfer steps, such as derivatives targeted at market and credit risk, asset divestiture, insurance and reinsurance. Don't even go here if you aren't already familiar with (or studying) the sophisticated basics of finance, since this is highly technical reading, including numerous formulas, charts and graphs describing financial theories and processes. But if you are an expert, we from getAbstract congratulate you on finding your way to Culp, who aimed his book at the already-savvy: corporate treasurers, financial officers and those who participate in capital markets and the reinsurance industry.

Another trading book? Yuk, you may think, having sampled at least some of the trading-book deluge pumped out by the American publishing industry in the last 12 months. But unlike so many of these that pander to the desire to become rich through trading, R.E. McMaster's The Art of the Trade is time and money well spent. The book's main thesis is that while market opportunities are unlimited, a trader's time, energy, financial and above all, psychological capital are very limited. In 10 chapters, McMaster tells about the similarities and differences between trading and gambling - the biggest difference being different kinds of risk - managing risk with money management; treating trading as a business; the methodology, consistency, mentality and emotions of trades; self mastery; and in the last chapter, McMaster puts it all together. His expectations are clear and easy to follow. Overall, The Art of the Trade is well worth reading carefully. It will go a long way in helping traders preserve their psychological capital.

We all know that R.E. McMaster is a genius when it comes to trading. However, what I found interesting about The Art Of The Trade was that you could substitute the word 'business' for 'trade' and the book became a fantastic business primer. I've already used several ideas from the book in my business.

I have almost finished "The Art of the Trade." You know, it really is a GREAT book! I sincerely mean that. It is measured and extremely judicious. It is wonderful... I bought a copy for my father-in-law and sent it to him.

Roger Gibson's book on Asset Allocation has always been the best basic book on the subject written for use by investment advisors. It is well-balanced between the technical issues and the emotional/psychological issues faced by clients. It is a book that challenges much of the "conventional wisdom" of the industry. Spending a few hours to read this book will be repaid many times over.

I found this books very useful. I've been trying to find an intelligent investing style. Read things like "The Intelligent Investor" by Graham and "A Random Walk Down Wall St." by Malkiel and found them dry and somewhat inaccessible. I much prefered Evans and Malkiel's "Earn More (Sleep Better) : The Index Fund Solution" (cheesy title) and Bernstein's "The Intelligent Asset Allocator". Both small and intelligible books. The only problem is they seemed to state the solution to a problem I didn't know. That's where Gibson's "Asset Allocation" I think fits in. It describes what the problem is when trying to invest well. He makes very good arguments on what you can expect and what you'll have to understand. Things that Berstein and Malkiel go into more depth but Gibson gives you the big picture. I started looking for the solution to a problem and found that the last piece I need was to know what the problem was. Gibson's book reads fast and it is interesting. It's well illustrated and is a great jump off point to all sort of other books.

If you read just one book on investing, this is the book.

Gibson explains the principals of modern portfolio theory in a clear logical fashion.

Excellent.

When we are entering into a new activity based costing project, it is mandatory for the whole team to read this book and obtain the lessons learned in one of those implementations explained.