The author's main goal in writing Understanding Investments is to present the classic theories and strategies in the field of finance in a new, intuitive, and practical way. This text offers context and grounding information to students truly looking, as the title indicates, to understand investments.
This textbook brings a number of innovative features to the field:
1. Presentation of material from the economics point of view, stressing the interpretation of concepts, rather than their mere memorization and mechanical application.
2. Shorter, more streamlined chapters, so instructors and students won't be distracted by superfluous detail, and can instead focus on the most relevant issues.
3. Fewer chapters than in current textbooks, so instructors can comfortably cover all material within a semester.
4. Boxes with 'International Focus' vignettes, discussions 'Applying Economic Analysis' to relevant topics, and featured 'Lessons from our Times', allowing students to gain a deeper understanding of the material and its relevant context and applications.
5. Sections in each chapter discussing different investment strategies and their pros and cons.
6. Questions that solicit students' critical thinking skills and problems that require their quantitative expertise to address real-life problems - rather than rote, mechanical questions that merely require regurgitation.
About the Author: Dr. Nikiforos T. Laopodis is a Finance and Economics Professor at Fairfield University, U.S. and at the Athens Laboratory of Business Administration at The American College of Greece, Greece. His areas of specialization are international finance and financial econometrics. He has taught at various Universities in the U.S. and in Greece and has been invited to give lectures to Universities and international organizations in Europe. He has published extensively in the fields of finance and financial economics focusing on interest rates, exchange rates, stock markets as well as monetary and fiscal policies. He is a regular member and contributor to professional organizations such as Financial Management Association and Eastern Finance Association.
