Description: Patent laws are different in many countries, and inventors are sometimes at a loss to understand which basic requirements should be satisfied if an invention is to be granted a patent. This is particularly true for inventions implemented on a computer. While roughly a third of all applications (and granted patents) relate, in one way or another, to a computer, applications where the innovation mainly resides in software or in a business method are treated differently by the major patent offices in the US (USPTO), Japan (JPO), and Europe (EPO).

Description: This book considers themes, evidence and ideas relating to the prospects for regional leadership in East Asia, with particular reference to China and Japan assuming `regional leader actor' roles. Key issues discussed by the list of distinguished contributors include:

Description: This primer on the analysis of hedge funds offers investors a more quantitative understanding of this topic, providing a complete guide to portfolio techniques, asset allocation, performance measurement and product selection in the alternative investment world.
Hedge funds are the fastest growing sector of the financial industry, and yet the least understood, by market professionals.
Examines and popularises the results of several quantitative studies that have so far been confirmed within academic circles.
Written by a highly regarded and impartial financial practitioner and academic, this will provide an excellent follow-on to Hedge Funds: Myths & Limits (Wiley 2002).

Description: A comprehensive guide to the burgeoning hedge fund industry

Intended as a comprehensive reference for investors and fund and portfolio managers, Handbook of Hedge Funds combines new material with updated information from Francois-Serge L’habitant’s two other successful hedge fund books. This book features up-to-date regulatory and historical information, new case studies and trade examples, detailed analyses of investment strategies, discussions of hedge fund indices and databases, and tips on portfolio construction.

Description: Robert Whaley has more than twenty-five years of experience in the world of finance, and with this book he shares his hard-won knowledge in the field of derivatives with you. Divided into ten information-packed parts, Derivatives shows you how this financial tool can be used in practice to create risk management, valuation, and investment solutions that are appropriate for a variety of market situations.

Description: Liquidity risk is the risk of loss arising from an inability to quickly realize asset value or obtain funding and can be damaging if not properly considered or actively managed. Lack of liquidity can lead to large losses in asset/liability portfolios and off balance sheet activities and in extreme cases can trigger financial distress and insolvency. Liquidity Risk is a comprehensive treatment of the topic focusing on the nature of the risk, problems that arise in asset and funding liquidity and mechanisms that can be developed to monitor, measure and control such risks.

Description: Written by a renowned corporate financial advisor, this timely guide offers a comprehensive treatment of derivative financial instruments, fully covering bonds, interest swaps, options, futures, Forex, and more. The author explains the strategic use of derivatives, their place in portfolio management, hedging, and the importance of managing risk.

Description: For better or worse, most of us have at least one of the 720 million little plastic cards that are used each year to complete $860 billion worth of purchases at 15 million incredibly varied merchant locations throughout the world. This is a far cry from the humble beginnings of these myriad credit, debit, and charge cards, which just a few decades ago were generally a perk offered only to elite customers for the acquisition of fine meals, hotel rooms, department-store goods, and oil-company products.

Description: For decades the semiconductor industry has been a driver of global economic growth and social change. Semiconductors, particularly the microchips essential to most electronic devices, have transformed computing, communications, entertainment, and industry. In Chips and Change, Clair Brown and Greg Linden trace the industry over more than twenty years through eight technical and competitive crises that forced it to adapt in order to continue its exponential rate of improved chip performance. The industry's changes have in turn shifted the basis on which firms hold or gain global competitive advantage.

Description: The pricing of derivative instruments has always been a highly complex and time-consuming activity. Advances in technology, however, have enabled much quicker and more accurate pricing through mathematical rather than analytical models. In this book, the author bridges the divide between finance and mathematics by applying this proven mathematical technique to the financial markets. Utilising practical examples, the author systematically describes the processes involved in a manner accessible to those without a deep understanding of mathematics.
* Explains little understood techniques that will assist in the accurate more speedy pricing of options
* Centres on the practical application of these useful techniques
* Offers a detailed and comprehensive account of the methods involved and is the first to explore the application of these particular techniques to the financial markets