Estrada J. Finance in a Nutshell: A no-nonsense companion to the tools and techniques of finance

Pearson Education Limited, 2006. – 408 p. – ISBN: 0273675400, 9780273675402No other book is a comprehensive toolkit of financial issues, instructive, and so easy to read, all at the same time – this is an easy-to-read guide to the hard-to-understand stuff of business finance.
The author regularly gives talks, seminars, and courses for executives and is very aware of their lack of understanding (or their inability to remember) simple but key financial concepts and tools. He is continually asked to recommend a simple book that helps them to refresh key financial concepts and tools.
Self-contained: Other than some elementary algebra, no other previous knowledge will be necessary to understand the concepts discussed.
Comprehensive: It will contain most or all topics, concepts, and tools that executives can easily forget, find hard to understand, and/or would like to know more about.
Simple and easy to read: Many well-educated executives have all but forgotten their finance and are regularly put off by books that are far more academic than they need. This book will be written in a simple and conversational style.
Concise with short chapters throughout: This is critical as many executives are put off by long books or never ending chapters.
Essential elementary theory and many real-world examples. All concepts and tools will be illustrated with catchy and factual examples.
Excel: Spreadsheets have become an inseparable part of working in Finance and this book will show readers how to use Excel to simplify their work.
Test Yourself: problems with worked numerical solutions throughout.Risk and Return
Returns I: Basic concepts
Returns II: Mean returns
Risk I: Total risk
Risk and return I: Portfolios
Risk II: Diversification
Risk III: Systematic risk
Risk and return II: The CAPM and the cost of capital
Risk and return III: Alternatives to the CAPM
Risk IV: Downside risk
Risk and return IV: Risk-adjusted returns
Risk and return V: Optimal portfolios
Risk and return VI: The long run
Valuation
Stocks I: The dividend discount model
Stocks II: The WACC model
Stocks III: Other DCF models
Stocks IV: Reverse valuation
Stocks V: Relative valuation
Bonds I: Prices and yields
Bonds II: Default risk and market risk
Bonds III: Duration and convexity
Other Important Topics
NPV and IRR
Real options
Corporate value creation
Options
Futures and forwards
Currencies
Statistical Background
Stats I: Summary statistics
Stats II: Normality
Stats III: Non-normality
Stats IV: Regression analysis