The Investment Industry for IT Practitioners: An Introductory Guide

Giving IT professionals in financial services firms a rounded and comprehensive grounding in their knowledge of their industry, this book offers a primer on the major financial instruments, transactions, and processes. It offers a sound knowledge of the principles of good IT management in the industry.

The book gives the IT professional a clear understanding of equities, bonds, currencies, listed derivatives and OTC derivatives. It explains transactions in those instruments and the requirements of business systems that process these transactions. Transactions covered include (inter-alia) agency and principal purchases and sales, loans and deposits, repos and reverse repos, stock loans, and also the Sharia-compliant ‘Islamic’ transactions that may be used as alternatives to interest bearing transactions.

Andrew Bradford gives an introduction to how investment firms are regulated. He offers an understanding of the STP (Straight-through-Processing) concept following the trade cycle from order through to execution through pre-settlement to final settlement and covers basic accounting procedures for the transactions. The book conveys the basic principles of good IT management in the investment industry.