By John Kay

Published by Erasmus Press, 20th January 2009

£11.99 (Paperback)

A self-contained guide to finance and investment

for normally intelligent people who are not in the industry

• Explains what happened in the credit crunch and how control mechanisms failed

• A survival manual for anyone who still has money to spare

• Includes full glossary of financial jargon

From a world-leading economist and professor at the London School of Economics with twenty-five years experience of financial institutions - learn everything you need to be your own investment manager. Recognise your investment options, and the businesses that will try to sell them to you. Understand the principles of sound investment and the research that supports these principles.

The Long and Short of It provides a guide to the complexities of the modern financial system. It describes the sophisticated innovations of the modern financial system. It explains how twice in the last decade – in the new economy bubble and the credit crunch and current financial crises – the follies of finance have threatened the stability of the world economy. It describes an environment that is complex and sophisticated, but greedy, cynical and self-interested.

Since much of your portfolio will be in stocks and shares, this book describes why some companies succeed and others fail, and how to distinguish fact and fiction in what companies tell you. It explains many meanings people attach to the term risk; the tools professionals use to analyse risk and the different tools you need to manage risk for yourself. You will learn a practical investment strategy and how to implement it.

This book explains how to put your portfolio in the only hands you can confidently trust – your own.

About the author

John Kay has held chairs at the London Business School and Oxford University and is now a visiting professor at the London School of Economics. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He established, built and sold a successful economic consulting business and has been a director of numerous financial institutions, including Halifax plc and several investment companies. He writes a weekly column in the Financial Times. For more than twenty years he has been an Investment Officer at St John’s College, Oxford’s wealthiest. He lives in London, Oxfordshire and the South of France and many of his ideas are worked out during long walks in the mountains behind the French Riviera.