Behavioral Finance and Investor Types. Managing Behavior to Make Better Investment Decisions

"Pompian is handing you the magic book, the one that reveals your behavioral flaws and shows you how to avoid them. The tricks to success are here. Read and do not stop until you are one of very few magicians." —Arnold S. Wood, President and Chief Executive Officer, Martingale Asset Management Fear and greed drive markets, as well as good and bad investment decision-making. In Behavioral Finance and Wealth Management, financial expert Michael Pompian shows you, whether you're an investor or a financial advisor, how to make better investment decisions by employing behavioral finance research. Pompian takes a practical approach to the science of behavioral finance and puts it to use in the real world. He reveals 20 of the most prominent individual investor biases and helps you properly modify your asset allocation decisions based on the latest research on behavioral anomalies of individual investors.

User-friendly risk management tools, tips, and techniques for a less certain world Though a very high level of investor uncertainty, anxiety, and concern about risk now exists, the vast majority of investors do not genuinely understand investment risk-let alone how to effectively manage it. The «Risk-Wise» Investor offers a totally new, user-friendly, non-technical way to help you better understand and manage uncertainty and risk. This practical guide will help investors avoid many common pitfalls and make well informed, knowledge-based decisions when facing uncertainty and risk. It also shows how to implement a personalized, systematic risk management planning process that will allow you to manage the risks you face more effectively and improve the likelihood of achieving specific investment goals. Though traditional investment advice is based on taking the long view and diversifying portfolios, the information here shows how to incorporate additional risk management considerations into your plans. It also provides innovative insights that will help investors and their advisors better understand how to Gain a practical, user-friendly, knowledge based understanding of risk and risk management Better understand and manage financial uncertainty and rapid change Release life-risk management skills in the world of investments Become less anxious, more knowledgeable, realistic, and potentially more successful investors Learn a new «empowering» definition of risk to more effectively address risk and uncertainty Help reduce the likelihood and potential impact of negative surprises

A must-read book on the quantitative value investment strategy Warren Buffett and Ed Thorp represent two spectrums of investing: one value driven, one quantitative. Where they align is in their belief that the market is beatable. This book seeks to take the best aspects of value investing and quantitative investing as disciplines and apply them to a completely unique approach to stock selection. Such an approach has several advantages over pure value or pure quantitative investing. This new investing strategy framed by the book is known as quantitative value, a superior, market-beating method to investing in stocks. Quantitative Value provides practical insights into an investment strategy that links the fundamental value investing philosophy of Warren Buffett with the quantitative value approach of Ed Thorp. It skillfully combines the best of Buffett and Ed Thorp—weaving their investment philosophies into a winning, market-beating investment strategy. First book to outline quantitative value strategies as they are practiced by actual market practitioners of the discipline Melds the probabilities and statistics used by quants such as Ed Thorp with the fundamental approaches to value investing as practiced by Warren Buffett and other leading value investors A companion Website contains supplementary material that allows you to learn in a hands-on fashion long after closing the book If you're looking to make the most of your time in today's markets, look no further than Quantitative Value.

Achieve a new level of investing and trading success by defeating your worst enemy—yourself Successful trading relies on three vital skills: market analysis, money management, and decision-making. The first two are straightforward skills anyone can learn, but the third is much more difficult. Your ability to make the right decisions isn't based on hard facts, but psychological realities like your own temperament, your own biases, and the biases of other traders. In essence, you can only master the stock market when you master yourself first, and that starts with making the right decisions habitually. Think Like the Great Investors is organised into four distinct parts that show you how to understand your own temperament, the psychology of the market as a whole, your own biases and decision-making errors, and how to practically apply your understanding of these factors into your decision-making system. Written by highly respected investment teacher, speaker, and writer Colin Nicholson Ideal for both inexperienced traders who want to lower their risk as well as experienced traders who lack that one final piece in the trader's skillset For anyone looking for that final piece of the investing puzzle, the answer is right here. With Think Like the Great Investors, you'll leap beyond the final hurdle to super-successful investing . . . yourself.

This book uncovers the components of driving increased marketing effectiveness and can be applied to just about every industry and marketing challenge. It demystifies how marketers can significantly improve their measurement and management infrastructure in order to improve their return on marketing effectiveness and ROI. They will be able to significantly improve their tactical and strategic decision-making and finally be able to respond to John Wannamachers' «half of my advertising is wasted; I just don't know which half.» With this in hand, they will be able to avoid the budget cutting ax, become a critical component of corporate success and enhance their careers. Even in a crowded theoretical marketing environment there are three new concepts being introduced: 1. The Marketing Effectiveness Framework to help marketers talk the talk of marketing effectiveness within marketing and with the C-Suite. 2. The Marketing Effectiveness Continuum to help marketers understand the organizational issues and change management associated with delivering long lasting enhanced marketing effectiveness. 3. The Marketing Accountability Framework to help marketers begin to collect data that is meaningful to improving their marketing effectiveness and to become accountable for their results. It is one of the only marketing books covering the topic at a global level. It includes a great number of specific case studies from North America, Asia, Europe and Africa. The cases cover the following industries: Telecommunications, consumer packaged goods, home repair services, travel, utilities, software, restaurants, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and others. It can also be used to support marketing education at the university level. Whether the reader is a marketer, business analyst, C-level executive, this book will help them to understand the key issues surrounding the measurement of marketing effectiveness. More than that however, is how each of the concepts can be directly applied to their marketing environment. Each of the concepts are applied to the different types of businesses (business-to-business, OEM, consumer, NGO and others) so they can quickly make them actionable.

Today's investor is faced with a myriad of investment options and strategies. Whether you are seeking someone to manage your money or are a self-directed investor deciding to tackle the market on your own, the options can be overwhelming. In an easy-to-read and simple format, this book will dissect the strategies of some of Wall Street's most successful investment gurus and teach readers how to weed through the all of the choices to find a strategy that works for them. The model portfolio system that author John Reese developed turns each strategy into an actionable system, addressing many of the common mistakes that doom individual investors to market underperformance. This book will focus on the principles behind the author's multi-guru approach, showing how investors can combine the proven strategies of these legendary «gurus» into a disciplined investing system that has significantly outperformed the market. Gurus covered in the book are: Benjamin Graham; John Neff; David Dreman; Warren Buffett; Peter Lynch; Ken Fisher; Martin Zweig; James O'Shaughnessy; Joel Greenblatt; and Joseph Piotroski.

The market for infrastructure is vast and, contrary to popular belief, the range of potential infrastructure investments is extremely broad. An investor who does not have a sufficient overview and insight into the infrastructure market or an awareness of the suitable investment opportunities and the risks they entail, will find it difficult to select the right investments. This book is a comprehensive guide to the subject, bringing together the topics of infrastructure investments, project finance and public private partnerships (PPPs), equipping investors with the necessary theoretical knowledge and background information as well as practical examples in order to further their understanding of the key aspects of infrastructure investments. It answers questions such as: How is infrastructure defined? Which sectors are classified as infrastructure, how are they categorised, and what are the differences between them? Is infrastructure an asset class in its own right? If so, what are its characteristics? What are the fundamental options for investing in infrastructure? What is a good starting point for institutional investors? How should infrastructure funds be evaluated? What risks do they entail and how can these risks be identified and assessed? How should they be structured in order to best allocate these risks? The book discusses the differing objectives and expectations of the parties involved and the conditions required by public principals and investors in order to enable these groups to overcome the ?language problems? they largely encounter. In addition to background knowledge and information on the latest developments in the individual subject areas, the book also explains the methodology of project finance in detail, both for traditional project finance and in the PPP context, establishing the key differences to other forms of financing, guiding readers through the various phases of project analysis on a step-by-step basis using practical examples. Well structured infrastructure investments can serve to improve the risk-return profile of an investor?s overall portfolio on account of their long term and their low level of correlation with traditional asset classes. This book will assist investors in their understanding of infrastructure investments, leading to a better informed portfolio. «A comprehensive and well-written overview of many relevant topics in the infrastructure sector; a useful guide for everyone involved or interested in the infrastructure area.» Henk Huizing, Head of Infrastructure, PGGM «A comprehensive book that effectively marries the topics of infrastructure investing, project finance and PPPs as well as bridges the gap between the theoretical and the practical – the authors are to be commended on this work.» Marc S. Lipschultz, Global Head of Energy and Infrastructure, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. «Quite a book and one that should definitely be part of the toolkit of those who are interested in the Infrastructure asset class. Had this comprehensive work been available ten years ago, no doubt, one or two of us certainly would have done things differently. So, let's keep it closely at hand as a guide for the future that helps us deliver even better outcomes for all stakeholders and enables us to further develop the asset class.» Ron Boots, Senior Portfolio Manager – Co head Infrastructure Investments, APG All Pensions Group

Introduction to Islamic Banking and Finance is a succinct guide to the key characteristics of Islamic banking highlighting how these differ from conventional banking. This detailed book illustrates how Islamic banking is consistent with the Sharia'a, a key element of which is the prohibition on collecting and paying interest. This central religious precept appears to rule out most aspects of modern finance but it does allow money to be used for trading tangible assets and business, which can then generate a profit. Brian Kettell's book looks at all aspects of Islamic banking, including chapters on its creation and evolution through to detailed discussions of the issues involved in the Sharia'a contracts of Murabaha, Mudaraba, Musharaka, Ijara, Istisna'a, and Salam. Islamic insurance (Takaful) is also covered. Finally the book takes a look at Sharia'a law and Sharia'a boards, indicating the roles and responsibilities that come with membership. Islamic banks have been operating in places such as Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Dubai for some time. Conventional bankers have traditionally viewed the sector as a small, exotic niche but recent years have seen a dramatic surge in popularity. A number of Western investment banks have started working with Muslim clerics to create new ranges of financial products designed for devout Muslims, a large and growing market. Although estimates of the size of the Islamic finance industry vary greatly, everyone agrees that it is expanding rapidly and this is the perfect book for anyone looking to understand the industry.

Downsizing, outsourcing and the accelerating pace of change have led to project management becoming one of today's hottest disciplines. Project management is about managing ad hoc, one-off projects instead of ongoing operations. Effective project management delivers better ROI, better benefits realization. Focusing on diagnostics, tangible outcomes and solutions, The Success Healthcheck for IT Projects identifies 8 leading indicators of success, ranging from how the project is set-up, to it's ability to deliver results within the business. The book covers how to assess the likely success of the project using the current IT project portfolio track record and provides diagnostics for a specific project. It shares over 35 real life stories from projects in a direct, pacey conversational style. On the $10,000 project, these methods provide focus. In very large IT based transformation projects, these methods have saved up to $30,000,000 and improved benefits between 20-80%. This is for project team, project manager, portfolio managers, CIOs and the business executives who want business benefits to be realized. This books helps project sponsors and project managers deliver Predictable Accountable Results (PAR) from projects.