Professor Ian Giddy's

Finance Resources on the Web

Stern
Ian Giddy 
 Articles & Papers Global Financial Markets Int'l Financial Management Corporate Finance Financial Markets Foundations of Finance Seminars On-Line Courses For Instructors Contact Ian Giddy
General Finance and The Economy
Bloomberg Business News  A sampling of its influential financial reporting, as well as market information and continuously updated market movements. CNN Finance Headline financial news and markets: keep up with what's going on in the world of finance.
Briefings & Indicators Economic indicators and market briefings on the U.S. and global economy from Bank of America. Yardeni's Economics Network Economic forecasts and analysis. Well worth a visit.
Investment FAQ Good explanations about some frequently asked finance terms and questions. Bluffer's Guide to Finance & Investing Tongue-in-cheek guide for sounding like you know what you're talking about.
Yale Macro-Economic FAIRMODEL Ray Fair has created an on-line working model of the U.S. economy to predict changes in fundamentals for policy purposes Michigan RSQE Forecasts Forecasts from the Uinversity of Michigan Seminar on Quantitative Economics
Journal of Finance links A long list of links to a huge number of websites. Designed for academics, useful to many others.  Some of these sites are great, some not so good, some dead. Economic Analysis from Morgan Stanley Well-reputed economists offer this investment bank's analysis and predictions 
WWW Virtual Library in Finance Another great list of links from Ohio State's finance department Yahoo Finance Yahoo's finance and investment section.
Resources for Economists Extensive list of links to governmental and other sources of economic information SMG's Glossary of Financial Terms One of the best of its kind
Financial Encyclopedia More than you want! But if an acronym puzzles you... Kiwi Club A comprehensive guide to finance-related Web sites
Financial Markets 
The Bridge Summary of world financial market conditions New York Stock Exchange Primary U.S. stock market.  Information on the stocks that are sold on this exchange can be found here.
Bonds Online Explanations and market data on U.S. Treasurys and other bonds NASDAQ U.S. over-the-counter stock market.  Information on the stocks that are available on this exchange can be found here.
Stock-Trak For those who want the chance to test out their investment strategies without losing their shirts, this company provides, for a fee, the ability to "paper trade" a portfolio. Chicago Mercantile Exchange U.S. futures market on which futures and futures-options on the S&P 500, the U.S. Bond Market and other markets can be found.
Wall Street Net Searchable data on U.S. equity and international bond filings.  Chicago Board Options Exchange U.S. options market on which individual stock and stock-index options can be found.
SchwabNOW! One can sign up to receive Schwab's company research information, or electronic trading. IPO Central Data on recent and upcoming initial public stock offerings 
Financial Data Finder A bibliography of potential sources of financial data. Market Places and Quotations Links to many of the world's major stock exchanges, as well as a number of the quote vendors in stocks and other securities.
Company, Fund and Investment Research 
The Motley Fool Well regarded tutorials for new investors, analyses of investing strategies and twice daily news wraps on markets Morningstar Net Fund-oriented information service from Morningstar. It offers news and commentary on several investment strategies and mutual funds.
Data Broadcasting Corp. Online A mix of free and subscription info including stock charts, quotes and news from its own markets-focused editorial staff. Fortune 500 A compilation of the annual reports from companies who are members of the "Fortune 500".
Fidelity Investments: Research Information on a number of funds (both from fidelity and from others) available from Fidelity Investments. Microsoft Investor Microsoft's investor information page -- free. Has links to information on all of the companies that it covers.
Recommendations /Corporate information on Individual Companies Zacks offers company reports for a number of U.S. companies, free of charge. Bloomberg: Corporate Directory Search A search engine for doing research on individual companies (using Hoover's data) for investment purposes.
Ibbotson Research Ibbotson is one of the best sources of long-term information on the financial markets. This site offers good links. BARRA:  Beta estimation process A description of an alternative manner by which stock betas can be calculated.  This method uses fundamental data from the company to adjust the historical beta and was created by Barr Rosenberg (founder of BARRA, Inc.)
SEC EDGAR Database  Holds filings for all SEC registered, domestic companies, the most authoritative sources of company information. Country Ratings from Moodys A listing of the sovereign debt ratings on a number of countries' debt markets.  ALso available is a description of these assessments, and what such a rating means.
Fitch-IBCA Ratings Fitch IBCA  is offering all of its credit-research reports, commentaries and rating information free through its Web site.  Corporate Ratings from S&P A description of the manner by which Standard and Poors makes its ratings assessments of companies and investment funds, as well as bonds, derivatives, and sovereign country debt.
Money Favorites: Top Websites for Financial Information on the Net A short list of links to a few good websites that could be useful in doing investment research. Deloitte & Touche Peerscape Useful charts and tools including company benchmarking and shareholder value analysis
Ohio State Investment News  Links to a number of news services covering a wide range of investment related topics. OSU investors' links A short but well-organized list from a reliable source
Corporate Finance
Corporate Finance Professor Damodaran of the Stern School of Business: Corporate Finance Lectures. Private Placements A discussion of the usage of private placements as a financing tool for corporate funding.
CALPERS on  corporate governance. California Public Employee Retirment System's (one of the largest pension funds in the U.S.) policy statement regarding corporate governance. Corporate Finance Newsletter A newsletter entirely focussed on the issues surrounding corporate finance. 
Capital Structure  Lecture from Prof Harvey of Duke Fuqua Business School on corporate capital structure and dividend payout decisions. Changing Patterms in Business Financing An article by Professor Tim Opler of Ohio State University on the changing issues related to corporate financing decisions (debt vs. equity) through time.
CFO Pay Issues One of the most talked about issues in Corporate Finance of late is the issue of CEO pay.  This is a Fortune Magazine article about the issue. Capital Budgeting: Real Options Approach A useful method of evaluating investment proposals, particularly in natural resources
Measure for Measure An article on EVA and related measures of corporate performance Asset Securitization Why do industrial firms use the asset-backed securities market to finance operations?
Risk Management 
Risk Management Article Risk Management article from Deloitte and Touche discussing the use of Risk Management Techniques for Corporate Finance Risk Management Archives An archive of risk management articles from the last several years.  Practicle examples of risk management practices being used by financial organizations.
Derivative Disclosure  An analysis of the impact of the new disclosure requirements of the SEC for transactions involving derivatives. J.P. Morgan's RiskMetrics J.P. Morgan's Riskmetrics is a widely available source of risk data and documentation.  The "technical document" available on this page is a good description of the Value-at-Risk methodologies that the investment banks are using at present. 
Financial Risk Management An overview of the practice of financial risk management. VaR Bibliography Value-at-Risk is one of the more popular ways to define risk these days.  This is a listing of articles critiquing the VaR technique(s).
Derivatives Risk Management The usage of derivatives in a portfolio offers a number of risk management opportunities.  The risks that can / cannot be managed by derivatives is discussed, as well as the risks inherent in derivatives usage. Derivatives Analytics This page offers links to a large number of the state-of-the-art in derivatives analytics technology.
Contingency Analysis An in-depth analysis of financial risk management.  What it means, how it can be accomplished, and its limitations... Derivatives Calculators The pricing of many derivatives involves complex mathematical formulas.  These calculators can be used to do many of the required calculations more quickly and easily.
RiskMetrics Reuters has made a large number of datasets available for usage in risk management.  Their datasets are formated to work with J.P. Morgan's Riskmetrics. The Integrator Performs Integral Calculus.  Useful for many financial calculations.
FinancialCAD A "Knowledge Base" offering definitions and formulas for many important derivatives Derivatives Tutorials  Introductory tutorials on derivatives -- a succinct beginner's guide
International Finance
Global Markets Information available on a number of global markets, international news and other data available on international stock markets. European Interest Rates Interest Rate discussion for the European Monetary Union.
Spot & Forward Currency Rates  Current exchange rates International Use of Derivatives Usage of derivative contracts in international investments.
Monthly Foreign Exchagne Outlook An outlook at the likely changes in reltive values of major global currencies relative to one another. Currencies of the World Current information on a large number of the world's currencies (both in terms of exchange rates, as well as symbols and types of currency management regimes -- floating vs. fixed).
The World Bank At A Glance A review of how the World Bank, an international development agency, performs its mission. Bloomberg: World Equity Markets Real-time world equity market update from Bloomberg.  A large number of markets are available within Bloomberg's group of webpages.
The Emerging Markets Companion Very current information on the emerging markets.  Includes both news and price information on these markets. Brady Bond Rates Current prices available for the Brady Bond debt market (a type of emerging market debt).
CNN:  World Markets Daily performance from a number of the major world capital markets made available by CNN-fn. Bloomberg: World Government Interest Rates Real-time world interest rate update from Bloomberg.  A large number of markets are available within Bloomberg's group of webpages.
ING Euro desk Extensive Q&A on the Euro International Treasurer Articles on current issues in international financial management
Newspapers & Magazines 
Financial Times The U.K.'s daily financial newspaper.  Best known for its focus on  international investment, banking and corporate issues. Euromoney Excellent articles on up-to-date topics in the global money and capital markets
NYT - Financial Index Althopugh this is "registration only" access, the New York Times is one of the best sources of financial news around (particularly on a daily basis). And registration is free. Interactive Wall Street Journal This is the U.S. financial newspaper.  It covers Wall Street in-depth every day.  Its focus is almost exclusively on the financial markets, so for a broader view of the news, the NYT is often better.
The Economist A weekly magazine on the international economy.  This is a good source for more in-depth analysis of current political, business and financial issues. Barron's This newspaper often has some very good insight into the markets.  It comes out on a weekly basis, and many of the major market analysts often discuss their market calls in this newspaper.
Worth Magazine Another magazine of financial information. Business Week A weekly magazine focused primarily on the corporate side of finance, as well as general economic commentary.
Fortune A magazine focused primarily on the corporate side of finance.  It offers good analysis of the performance of corporations versus their competition. Forbes A magazine focused primarily on the corporate side of finance.  It offers good analysis of the performance of corporations versus their competition.
Money Magazine Another magazine of financial information. U.S.A. Today USA Today covers the national news in a much more broad way than either of the New York newspapers (plus its more colorful...).
Bloomberg Personal Another magazine of financial information, from Bloomberg, Inc. Journal of Finance This magazine is focused much more specifically on academic research regarding the financial markets.
Working papers in Finance and Economics For some more in-depth analysis of investment issues, these working papers are the work in progress for the faculty of a number of major University finance programs. Journal of Financial Economics This magazine is focused much more specifically on academic research regarding the finance and economics.
Governmental Resources 
Federal Reserve Board The federal reserve board is responsible for ensuring adequate functioning of the U.S. banking system, establishing the country's monetary policy, and other monetary functions. Securities and Exchange Commisstion The SEC ensures that companies who issue stocks in the United States adequately inform the investing public regarding the financial position of the firm.
Department of Treasury The department of the treasury is responsible for financing the U.S. government, as well as other financial functions on a federal level. National Association of Securities Dealers The NASD is a self-regulating body that is responsible for ensuring that securities brokers and dealers follow an ethical and legal course of action in their work. 
Internal Revenue Service I think we all know what the IRS is responsible for... Commodities and Futures Trading Commission The CFTC is a governmental body which ensures that individuals that invest in futures and commodities markets in the U.S. are adequately informed of the risks inherent in deriviatives transactions.
FRB: Statistical Releases Releases from the Federal Reserve Board.  Mostly U.S. Economic data. FRB: Historical Interest Rate Data The Federal Reserve keeps track of interest rates over the last several decades, and these data are available for downloading (free!)
NBER Online Data Both historical and present information (data) on the macro-economy.  The NBER database is the most often cited source for macro-economic indicators Ted Bos' Series Time series and charts of economic data compiled from various official sources compiled by Ted Bos of University of Alabama
Financial Associations
AIMR The Association for Investment Management and Research is responsible for administering the Chartered Financial Analyst Program, and for trying to create more standardized industry performance reporting. IAFE The International Association of Financial Engineers is a global group that is responsible for ensuring that their members are kept up-to-date on the lastest in financial derivative innovations.
CFP The Certified Financial Planner program is for those individuals interested in becoming personal financial advisors. GARP The Global Association of Risk Professionals administers the Financial Risk Manager certification program.  It is a newly-formed group that is attempting to ensure risk management professionals are properly trained and have a good enough knowledge-base for the job. 
On-Line Learning 
Damodaran Online NYU's Professor Damodaran has placed some of his Class information on the internet Global Tactical Asset Allocation A class on international investments from Duke University.
Finance Web This site offers links to a number of academic papers, as well as other resources useful to financial academics. Investment Theory Nobel Prize Winner William Sharpe's latest investment work is an on-line book / class on investment theory.  This is one of the better discussion of Modern Portfolio Theory available (on the web or elsewhere).
Introduction to Options For those interested in using derivatives to create portfolios, this is a beginner's course on the subject. Professor Bill Sharpe's Investment Class Bill Sharpe, the creator of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) has an on-line investments book / class.
CAPM A general discussion of the Capital Asset Pricing Model, that is used in many areas of finance. WWWFinance An MBA level finance course from Duke University.  This course focuses on investments, corporate finance and international financial issues.
On-Line Courses Links to a large number of Web-based courses from other Finance Departments; not all kept up to date. CME courses On-line courses on futures from the Chicago mercantile Exchange

Go to Giddy's Web Portal  Contact Ian Giddy at ian.giddy@nyu.edu