Customer Reviews
Loads of information, and very easy to read... - By: Wannabe quant, 27 Aug 2008 
I now know a lot more about the workings of the City, including how banks really work. This book has also helped me to understand a lot of the jargonin the Financial Times. It's a very enjoyable read - the author uses simple analogies to explain some of the concepts, making it a lot quicker to learn them than from a textbook.
Whether it's "all" depends on who "you" are - but excellent for most outsiders and debutantes - By: Mr. Nicholas J Robertson, 02 May 2008 Chris Stoakes trained as a solicitor at Freshfields ( one of the "magic circle" City law firms), was marketing partnersin a medium-sized City firm, & is now Head of Legal Training at Lovells (another very big one). In this the 2008/09 second edition, which seems to have been updated following the event of the "credit crunch"in early 2008 (references to sub-prime mortgages, for example), he provides an overview, a context & an often humorous analogy for just about every financial transactionin "the City", including the insurance market. The book is based on a series of training sessions that he has delivered over the years.
I came at this as a reasonably well informed outsider (I have never workedin the City of London, & probably never will) & found this is an excellent book to improve on my broad understanding of the financial markets. Whether it would be right for you will depend on how sophisticated your current understanding is. Stoakes places his book as follows: he starts by saying "I've had to cut corners, leave things out & tell a few fibsin the interests of getting the message across quickly & simply". At the end, under "Where Next?" he recommends The Economist's books on The City, Wall Street & "The Financial Markets" - written by Richard Roberts & Marc Levinson respectively - as "the next step up". He also gives specific recommendations for particular areas, such as Finance & banking, Investment Banking, Commercial banking, Economics, Risk etc.
If you want to be able to differentiate senior debt from junior or subordinated debt, know the principle of mezzanine debt, understand the difference between a merchant & an investment bank, or understand the difference between LIBOR & the base rate, this is the book for you. For my own purposes I see little need to delve deeper, although I may well read Stoakes' other book, "All you need to know about Commercial Awareness"in due course.
Good read - By: JS, 17 Oct 2007 This book is laid outin a very legible format for most users. It gives a good idea to the reader of what is out therein the financial markets. Would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants a flavour of things.
Chris has shown us the cards, what we need to do now is learn how to play them.
Informative, easy to digest, and, above all, interesting! - By: Emma Peterson, 13 Jun 2007 I came across this book when I was just starting outin the City & it helped me immensely. The author's conversational tone makes for a great read, & the book really does pack everything you need to know into 224 relaxed pages. I had a muddled understanding of how everything connectedin the financial market, but this book completely demystified everything. I can now converse with City types about derivatives, hedge funds & securitisation without breaking a sweat!
I would highly recommend it to anyone workingin the City - from newbies who are starting out & need to know what all the unfamiliar jargon means, to those who've been at it for a while but need to brush up or clarify something. This book will answer all the questions you were too embarrassed to ask without being patronising or going all 'boring textbook' on you.
Definitely a must-read.
Helpful and non confusing - By: James Burgess, 04 Jan 2007 This book is great for those just about to headin to the city to work, those thinking about doing so but are scared or even people that have beenin there for a while & need to brush up.
It answers so many questions that you'd feel embarassed to ask & does so delightfully - it's written simply & not like a textbook, it's actually enjoyable to read & you won't want to put it down.
However I would recommend looking elsewhere for a better price, I got mine on ebay for £9 inc. delivery!
