Product Description

IT professionals need business knowledge in today's fast-paced financial landscape to deploy and maintain business-critical systems. This book gives the IT professional an insight into the business world of investment banking. It contains 12 chapters that cover: a description of business divisions for full-service and boutique investment banks; trends in investment banking; overview of the asset classes; the trading life cycle and how it maps to the software development life cycle; an overview of the systems from notable vendors that are used for trading, risk management and compliance; a description of the major players in the industry; and skills demanded by employers. The authors have carefully selected topics for discussion that ensure a wide coverage of the business knowledge required to get readers up to speed with the exciting business of investment banking. "Business Knowledge for IT in Investment Banking" is an invaluable handbook for professionals working in investment banking and crossovers. It is targeted at IT professionals such as: Project Managers; Application developers; Development Managers; Test Managers; Business Analysts; Data Analysts; Systems Analysts; Test Analysts; Support Analysts; Database Administrators; and HR staff responsible for IT recruitment. Post graduate and under graduate students in Information Technology - related degree courses will also find this book useful. This is the first publication in the "Bizle Professional" series. It is also the first of its kind that addresses the misalignment of IT and business and contains region-specific content.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34107 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 152 pages

Review
This small book is a literary goldmine of information. The first in a series of publications in the Bizle Professional series aimed at bridging the knowledge gap between the IT professional and the business community.A website is in preparation for the series and the first page is at http://www.bizle.biz. From my review of the book it most certainly fulfils its aim as far as investment banking is concerned.Even for those not seeking to extend their IT career into the finance sector this is a superb little reference guide. In terms that even I can understand it describes the structure of today's money markets, the language of banking, what the different types of investment and dealing are all about and how the major players stack up against each other.The second half of the book examines the major developments in IT in support of the banking sector - Sarbanes Oxley, Basel2, MiFID, IAS39 (look it up!) and so on. It reviews the principal software suites available and then maps the software development lifecycle against the business processes that IT supports.The book has nuggets of 'gold' throughout and I learnt a lot. For instance, there is a piece describing the treatment of the decimal point in foreign exchange currency transactions, a description of MDDL (Market Data Definition Language), FpML (Financial products Markup Language) and something called the RTCE or Reuters Tick Capture Engine - a device for analysing market data. A helpful Glossary of Terms completes the book.Even if you just want a book that de-mystifies the world of investment banking you could not do better than this. For the IT professional I would say it is a must. For those moving into the sector it is a superb primer, for the rest of us in IT it adds to our knowledge and enhances our understanding of the particular challenges of this increasingly important market.Alan Pollard FBCS CITP**********************************************************************This is the maiden publication in the Business Knowledge and IT Professional series. It is an unusual book which aims to bridge the perceived gap in business knowledge between IT professionals and the business community. Each chapter is clearly introduced which enables the reader to easily target particular areas of interest.The book is aimed inter alias at software developers, development managers, managers working in investment banks, database administrators, business analysts, postgraduate and undergraduate students. This is a wide audience, with very different needs and backgrounds. If the text's aims are met it will be a significant achievement indeed.The initial chapters spend time developing the background of investment banking. This is really unavoidable in a conversion-type text such as this. Topics such as asset classes, the business environment, trends in investment banking, foreign exchanges and the trading life cycle are addressed in turn. The latter chapter being significant, as this forms a major link to the later chapters. The style is lucid and easily accessible. The content however is rather introductory and the interested reader will need to follow up the concepts introduced in more weightier volumes. Nonetheless, the content is extremely useful and will serve as a helpful quick reference point.The remaining chapters address the IT perspective, beginning with common systems used in the investment banking industry together with helpful selection criteria. The systems considered include for example Calypso, SAP for Banking and Fidessa. A brief summary of these and others is provided. The next chapter is very important, for here the link is made between the Systems Development Life Cycle and the Trading Life Cycle--this is given a solid overview but is very task orientated and too brief. Next, project types and data types are identified with a glossary of terms following. The text closes with a look at some methodologies and a checklist of skills requirements for those interested in connecting the areas of IT and investment banking effectively.This is an ambitious text and almost inevitably "falls between two stools". Its content is useful but not advanced. What it does well is to introduce concepts clearly and link IT needs effectively. It is packed with useful information, ranging from where the major World Stock Market indexes are located, defining hedge funds, credit ratings, derivative lists to foreign exchange transactions on the business side, and from defining middleware, the software development life-cycle, data testing to selected methodologies on the IT side. For the interested reader there is a fairly comprehensive reference list and a set useful websites to support study in greater depth. Where the book really does succeed is in introducing a lot of new ideas quickly, in a clear and ordered style. The linking of IT and investment banking is also relatively successful, but given that it is IT professionals who will supposedly be reading it, this side could have been more ambitious.It is a text that will be particularly appropriate for the busy IT manager wishing to get a quick insight into the investment banking sector. It is not really a postgraduate text although some conversion courses might find it helpful. It would certainly be of interest to undergraduate business students who are not majoring in banking and finance. MBA and also Masters' in Business Information Technology students might find it useful too, given that it offers easily accessible background information and will suit the conversion nature of many of these courses.Overall, this is a well-written book which is well worth reading. However, it should be borne in mind that the text is designed as a handbook and is not technical, so further reading is essential to do justice to the principal.Stuart J. Fitz-Gerald,Kingston Business School, Kingston University, Surrey KT2 7LB, UK *********************************************************************Coming soon .www.bizle.biz, the definitive online networking portal dedicated to the alignment of IT and business across industry sectors. Features to include news, chartrooms, articles, job board and much more.For more information please contact us on info@bizle.biz

Customer Reviews

Overpromises and underdelivers
I ordered this book immediately I saw it, as I thought it would fill a real gap in the marketplace. But I was disappointed that too often my own low-to-intermediate knowledge of the investment banking world was not enhanced much by the book, and in some cases I even felt I knew a little more than the writer (very worrying).
The first 76 pages conveys general business knowledge about investment banking that I strongly suspect is covered better in mainstream investment banking books.
The next 30 pages talks about systems aspects of investment banking, and I think this part will be of some interest to the target audience, though even this part looks as though a good editor is needed. There are several pages devoted to software development lifecycle issues (not interesting) but half a page devoted to quants and related systems issues.
Then the remainder of this shortish book reverts to a mix of knowledge that is readily available and in better form elsehwere: PRINCE 2, Rapid Application Development, general investment banking terminology, lists of recruitment agents and websites.
Occasionally the book will evoke a smile: "Front Office [is] widely deemed as having the highest-calibre employees in terms of intellectual and/or interpersonal capital, and Back Office the least." H'mmm!
To summarize, there may be a complete handbook on this subject waiting to be written, but without a very fundamental overhaul this is not it. I am giving it two stars only on the basis that so little else is available on the subject that its middle 30 pages surely merit some recognition.

Very dissapointing
First point to note, there is no author name signed on this book ( Essvale Corporation Limited ... ??? ) not a good sign but I decided to try it anyway.
It is quite thin, took me 3 hours to read from start to finish and I must say didnt get me any wiser.
The book uses all the buzzwords and terms one expect to find but does not elaborate on any of those. The IT related part gives no real information and feels it is there just to justify what the book title say.
Most of the diagrams and some of the content is citing other resources ( Acknowledging the writers )

My impression is that the publishers of this book recognized a niche in the market, namely IT and the financial world, but didnt bother to do any serious work on their books... besides selling them.

I am aware this review is quite harsh - but as I stand, well deserved!

Total scam
I bought this book about a year ago and, within 30 minutes of opening it, realised I'd been conned. I could write a better book myself in a week, which I'm sure is about as long as it took the 'authors' to cut and paste the content from Wikipedia.

After finishing the book, which took about two hours, I did intend to sell it on Amazon to some other poor soul just to minimise my losses but my conscience got the better of me.

The other reviewers who have given this book a glowing praise are, without any doubt, associated with the production of this book. "Groundbreaking", "Outstanding", "This is a world first and a must have". Come on!