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Investment banking knowledge for IT professionals June 9, 2007

Posted by James Webster in : finance , trackback

Update: you might be interested in watching my presentation, “The Why, Who, What, and Where of Financial Markets”.

As an IT professional I have been focused on the domain of capital markets and investment banking for a few years now. I am a very strong believer that many practictioners of IT, particularly software developers, do their careers a disservice by not taking on a greater interest in the business domains in which they work. On the other hand if you are a consultant moving around a range of different business worlds; retail, insurance, investment banking, primary industries; then it can be hard to pick up a deep understanding of any particular vertical.

A colleague had a relatively new book,
Business Knowledge for IT in Investment Banking, on his desk this week. I flipped through it and it looks like a great introduction to the sometimes bizarre world of capital markets. Compared with other similar titles it is brief but importantly it is not intimidating. Promisingly the authors are suggesting that this will be the first book in a series focused on various verticals. In the future might we see Business Knowledge for IT in Retail, Business Knowledge for IT in Insurance or Business Knowledge for IT in Mining? I certainly hope so.

For a greater understanding of finance I also recommend Valdez’s An Introduction to Global Financial Markets. For a more advanced analysis of the behaviour of market participants Harris’ Trading and Exchanges: Market Microstructure for Practitioners cannot be beaten.

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