Stockmarkets have soared and slumped, highlighting the risks of different kinds of investments. Everyone wants to buy low and sell high – and get a healthy stream of income in between. But it is not easy to do so. Any strategy for investment requires an essential level of knowledge that goes beyond the basics. This clear and lively guide explains the complexities and jargon of the investment world with entries that stretch from A to Z and cover such products, concepts and terms as:

Advance-decline line, Arbitrage, Bear squeeze,Bottom fishing, Capital asset pricing model, Covariance, Dead cat bounce, Dow theory, Efficient frontier, Equity risk premium, Fibonacci numbers, Floating rate note, Golden cross, Hedge ratio, Indifference curve, Japanese candlesticks, Kondratief cycle,Mark to market, Noise trader, Odd-lot theory, Portfolio theory, Price-to-book ratio, Qualitative analysis, Random walk. Security analysis, Straddle, Tobin's Q, Trading collar, Unsystematic risk, Yield gap, Zero coupon bond.

It also includes appendices on the performance of different stock markets over time, bond returns, leading equity markets, investment formulas and recommended reading.

Philip Ryland