Modern financial markets offer the real world's best approximation to the idealized price auction market envisioned in economic theory. Nevertheless, as the increasingly exquisite and detailed financial data demonstrate, financial markets often fail to behave as they should if trading were truly...

The role of the stock market in the recent global financial crisis has led many to question the way in which the modern international financial system operates. This highly topical book offers important insights into the stock market, contrasting the speculative explanation of stock market...