Investment management

The goal of investment management is to achieve the investor’s required rate of return by putting assets to their most productive use. The return should compensate the investor for the time during which the funds are committed, the expected rate of inflation and the uncertainty of the future financial benefits anticipated from the investment. Investment management is a concise, yet comprehensive introduction to investment analysis and portfolio management, specifically in the South African context.

Investment management provides a broad framework and a thorough network of guidelines for the investment management student. It focuses on investment in financial assets such as shares and bonds, and explains both fundamental and technical analysis. It investigates portfolio management and how derivative instruments such as futures, options and swaps may be used for this purpose. A chapter is devoted to the foreign exchange market and its management, and a new chapter dealing with the governance of investment management has been added. With self-assessment questions at the end of each chapter, it prepares undergraduates for postgraduate study and is written with the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA® ) Level I learning outcomes in mind.

Investment management is aimed at undergraduate investment management students.

Johan Marx (editor) is a professor in financial and investment management at the University of South Africa (Unisa). He is the author of five financial management publications, and has presented and published numerous articles. He has a keen interest in financial markets.

Johan de Beer lectured at Unisa before joining the University of Pretoria as a senior lecturer in investments and derivatives. He has since immigrated to Canada. He is a CFA charter holder and completed his MCom on the topic of single stock futures. His particular field of interest is derivatives and technical analysis.

Raphael Mpofu is a professor and the deputy executive dean of the College of Economic and Management Sciences at Unisa. His research interests include financing small businesses and personal investments in emerging market economies.

Henry Mynhardt is head of the School of Business and Economics at Southern Business School (SBS). He has vast experience in securities trading and has a keen interest in fixed interest securities as well as corporate governance, risk and compliance management.