Book excerpt: This is an elementary, up-to-date text and reference book in global finance. It has been especially designed for beginning students in economics and finance, and also for self-study by anyone with a knowledge of secondary school algebra and an interest in finance and financial markets. The subjects taken up in some details are stocks (shares), bonds, interest rates and derivatives, particularly futures, options, and swaps. There are also chapters on exchange rates and banking, and readers are provided with an elementary introduction to risk and uncertainty. The book is also an easily read supplement to more technical presentations, in that it introduces all categories of readers to real world financial markets.