Finance in a Nutshell
A No-nonsense Companion to the
Tools & Techniques of Finance

By Javier Estrada
Financial Times / Pearson Education
November 2005
ISBN: 0273675400
777 Pages, 6 ¾" x 9 ½"
$34.99 Paper Original

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Many executives have long forgotten key financial concepts. Many others never learned them properly. Most of them have neither the time nor the motivation to dig into two or three 500-page books. This book is a portable financial toolkit, solves all three problems in 30 short and easy-to-read chapters full of real-world examples.

We offer 3 books in this space that have different offerings and sit well together... a closer look: Handbook of Corporate Finance, the complete definitive guide. Executive Corporate Finance, a focused look at increasing shareholder value and now Finance in a Nutshell, a short, sharp, funny, very readable guide for business people and MBA's.

Contents
Section 1. RISK AND RETURN
" Returns (I): Basic Issues
" Returns (II): Arithmetic v. Geometric Mean Returns
" Risk (I): Total Risk
" Risk (II): Diversification
" Risk (III): Systematic Risk, the CAPM, and the Cost of Capital
" Risk (IV): Downside Risk
" Risk-Adjusted Returns
" Risk and Return in the Long Run Section 2. VALUATION
" Bonds (I): The Yield to Maturity
" Bonds (II): Default Risk and Market Risk
" Bonds (III): Duration and Convexity
" Stocks (I): The Dividend Discount Model
" Stocks (II): The (Discounted Cash Flows) WACC Model
" Stocks (III): The (Discounted Cash Flows) APV Model
" Stocks (IV): Reverse Valuation
" Stocks (V): Relative Valuation with Financial Ratios
Section 3. OTHER IMPORTANT TOPICS
" Terminal Wealth
" Corporate Value Creation
" Real Options
" Behavioral Finance
" Options
" Futures
" Currencies
" Hedging
Section 4. BACKGROUND TOPICS
" Basic Statistics
" Normality
" Non-normality
" Regression Analysis
" NPV and IRR
" Expected Utility and Mean -Variance Behavior

Features
" The author regularly gives talks, seminars, and courses for executives and is very aware of their lack of understanding (or their inability to remember) simple but key financial concepts and tools. He is continually asked to recommend a simple book that helps them to refresh key financial concepts and tools.
" Self-contained: Other than some elementary algebra, no other previous knowledge will be necessary to understand the concepts discussed.
" Comprehensive: It will contain most or all topics, concepts, and tools that executives can easily forget, find hard to understand, and/or would like to know more about.
" Simple and easy to read: Many well-educated executives have all but forgotten their finance and are regularly put off by books that are far more academic than they need. This book will be written in a simple and conversational style.
" Concise with short chapters throughout: This is critical as many executives are put off by long books or never ending chapters.
" Essential elementary theory and many real-world examples. All concepts and tools will be illustrated with catchy and factual examples.
" Excel: Spreadsheets have become an inseparable part of working in Finance and this book will show readers how to use Excel to simplify their work.
" Test Yourself: problems with worked numerical solutions throughout.


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