BBC Business Headlines

Goldman Sachs fined £20m by FSA
Wall Street banking giant Goldman Sachs is fined £20m by the UK's financial watchdog, the BBC learns.

Rig firms hit back at BP report
Contractors who worked for BP on the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon oil rig criticise the company's report into the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Shoppers turning to card payments
The number of cash machines in the UK has fallen and withdrawals have dropped as shoppers turn to cards, figures show.

Empty shops highlighting 'divide'
The number of shops closing in Britain is slowing but a north-south divide has emerged, a survey by retail analysts the Local Data Company suggests.

US economic growth 'decelerating'
US economic growth showed "widespread signs of deceleration" in August, says the Federal Reserve's Beige Book.


Search Books:

Join our mailing list:

Business Blogs

NY Times Economix

Nearly 5 Jobless Workers Per Opening in July
That's a better ratio than what the economy showed earlier this year, but it still shows persistent softness in the United States labor market.

The Thoughtful Roar of the Housing Bears
Bloggers expand on the case for gloom in the real-estate market.

What We're Reading: Lying Pants
Links from around the Web.

New York State Still Has Highest Unionization Rate
A new report looks at the organized labor in the Empire State and around the country, and how its size and composition have changed over the years.


Paul Krugman
Japanese Demography
Where have all the workers gone?Read more...




Buy the Book


The Intelligent Portfolio: Practical Wisdom on Personal Investing from Financial Engines
by Christopher L. Jones & William F. Sharpe

Published by Wiley

Read Excerpt
Listen to podcast interview:
The key to good investment decisions is making informed choices. And while you cannot predict the future, it is possible to create investment strategies that can maximize your chances of success. In The Intelligent Portfolio, author Christopher Jones shows you how this can be accomplished.

Written with the thoughtful investor in mind, The Intelligent Portfolio draws upon the extensive insights of Jones and Financial Engines -- a leading provider of investment advisory and management services founded by Nobel Prize-winning economist William F. Sharpe -- to reveal the time-tested institutional investing techniques that individuals can use to help improve their investment performance. Throughout these pages, Financial Engines' Chief Investment Officer, Christopher Jones, uses state-of-the-art simulation and optimization methods to demonstrate the often-surprising results of applying modern financial economics to personal investment decisions. By illustrating the realistic range of possible investment outcomes, Jones skillfully reveals how the decisions you make today can impact your financial future.

Challenging conventional wisdom that often leads both novice and experienced investors astray, The Intelligent Portfolio builds from basic intuition on how financial markets function to practical tips on evaluating investment trade-offs and real-world advice on selecting investments to better reach your goals.

Along the way, you'll be introduced to the proven principles -- a mix of common sense and counterintuitive concepts -- that will put you in a better position to succeed, including:
  • Recognizing the link between risk and reward
  • Leveraging the wisdom of the market
  • Minimizing losses due to investment fees
  • Avoiding the risks of stock picking
  • Selecting funds using relevant forward-looking criteria
  • Understanding how to realistically fund financial goals
  • Interesting tax-efficiently
  • And much more . . .
In addition to the information outlined throughout this book, you'll also receive a fee waiver for a one-year investment advisory account at Financial Engines.com, so that you may apply what you've learned here to your own investment endeavors.

Through simple explanations of powerful investment ideas and real-world examples that bring them to life, The Intelligent Portfolio reveals what you need to know when making personal investment decisions. With this book as your guide, you'll quickly discover how you can effectively implement the strategies that institutional investors have known for decades -- helping you achieve a brighter financial future.

pub date: 2008-06-09 | hardcover | 9780470228043