Financial markets are fascinating but successful investing is not easy.
Investments span an asset risk spectrum from risk-free at one extreme to their riskier counterparts at the other, with the returns on offer reflecting the potential gain or loss from bearing risk. Current negative real long-term interest rates encourage the hunt for returns better than those available to depositors. While the future looms as unknowable as ever, IN SEARCH OF RETURNS will help you to:
- Evaluate the relationship between ‘expected’ risk and returns in financial decision-making;
- Understand different investment asset classes and investment strategies;
- Appreciate the influence of cognitive biases in asset pricing and investment behaviour.
According to the author, John Looby:
‘Listening to the historian James Renshaw describe meeting many people with a vague but unexplored interest in Ancient Rome, it struck me that a growing number seemed to have a vague but unexplored interest in Financial Markets. Renshaw responded with the wonderful book: In Search of the Romans, where he introduces key areas of the Roman world to the curious but non-expert reader. As he describes it, to reach the Everest of expertise on Ancient Rome, the reader must first get to base camp.
In the Spring of 2021, I wrote IN SEARCH OF RETURNS: MAKING SENSE OF FINANCIAL MARKETS as a guide to those seeking base camp in understanding financial markets. In the wake of war, inflation and a radically different monetary regime, I believe an updated edition is now timely. Despite the recent rise in official interest rates, Irish deposit rates remain negligible and deposit balances remain bloated. It’s time to re-consider how such savings might be invested. I hope you find this updated edition helpful.
