The Economist Guide to Financial Markets

Extensively revised to reflect the dramatic shifts and consolidation of the financial markets, the seventh edition of this highly regarded book provides a clear and incisive guide to a complex world that even those who work in it often find hard to understand.
With chapters on the markets that deal with money, foreign exchange, equities, bonds, commodities, financial futures, options and other derivatives, it looks at why these markets exist, how they work and who trades in them, and it gives a run-down of the factors that affect prices and rates.
Business history is littered with disasters that occurred because people involved their firms with financial instruments they didn't properly understand. If they had had this book they might have avoided their mistakes. For anyone wishing to understand financial markets, there is no better guide.