Financial markets have been around ever since people started trading crops with each other. They take many different forms and operate in many different ways. But all of them, whether highly organised, like the New York Stock Exchange, or highly informal, like money-changers in Africa, serve the same basic functions, which range from providing a way of setting prices and valuing assets, through raising capital or investing it, to managing exposure to risk. That financial markets now exercise enormous influence over modern life comes as no news, but although people speak glibly of "Wall Street" or "the bond market"or "the currency markets", the meanings they attach to these phrases are often vague and usually out of date. This book explains why the different financial markets exist, how they work and who trades in them, and it gives a run down of the factors that affect prices and rates. There is no better reference than this fully revised and updated fourth edition of the Guide to Financial Markets