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, PRE FAC E
The first edition of Fundamentals was published 30 years ago. Since then, the body
of financial knowledge has expanded mightily, and this led us to continually add
to the book. As Fundamentals got larger and larger, we heard more and more often
that it was difficult to cover the entire book in a single term. Therefore, we asked
our students and other professors for advice. Some said that we shouldn’t worry
about the book’s size, because a larger, more complete book gives professors flexi-
bility in designing their courses, is a better reference for students after they have
completed the course, and allows interested students to read chapters not covered
in class on their own. Others disagreed, arguing that, as textbooks get larger, it
becomes increasingly difficult for professors to develop a manageable syllabus,
and it also forces students to buy a larger, more expensive text than they want or
need. In the end, we concluded that both arguments have merit, so we decided to
write a concise version for those who think a smaller, more concise textbook would
better suit their needs.
When we first created Concise, we debated between streamlining the book by
covering all the topics but in less depth versus covering fewer topics but maintain-
ing the depth and rigor of Fundamentals. We chose to retain the depth and level
while eliminating some less essential topics. While the omitted topics are interest-
ing and important, they are not critically important, and finance majors will study
these topics later in their advanced courses.
STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK
Our target audience is undergraduate students taking their first, and often only,
finance course. Some will decide to major in finance and go on to take courses in
investments, money and capital markets, and advanced corporate finance. Others
will choose marketing, management, or some other nonfinance major. Still others
will major in areas other than business and are taking finance and a few other
business courses to gain information that will help them in law, real estate, or
other fields.
Our challenge was to provide a book that serves all of these audiences well.
Our conclusion was that we should focus on the core principles of finance, i.e., on
basic topics such as the time value of money, risk analysis, and valuation. More-
over, we concluded that we should address these topics from two points of view:
(1) as an investor seeking to make intelligent investment choices and (2) as a busi-
ness manager trying to maximize the value of his or her firm’s stock. Note that
both investors and managers need to know the same set of principles, so the core
topics are important to students regardless of what they choose to do after they
finish the course.
In setting up the structure of the book, we first listed the core topics in finance
with which virtually everyone should be familiar. Included here are an overview
of financial markets, methods used to estimate the cash flows that determine
assets’ values, the time value of money, the determinants of interest rates, the
basics of risk analysis, and the basics of bond and stock valuation procedures.
We cover these core topics in the first nine chapters. Next, since most students in
the course will probably work for a business firm, we wanted to show them how
the core ideas are implemented in practice. Therefore, in the remainder of the book
we discuss cost of capital, capital budgeting, capital structure, dividend policy,
working capital management, financial forecasting, and international operations.
iii
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