Throughout my career in financial services as an author, educator, and sales executive, and president of a broker dealer, I continue to be amazed by the lack of understanding that the average person has about the evolution of our global capital markets ecosystem. This condition, if left unchecked, can easily become untenable and dangerous in our highly regulated, hyperconnected, tech‐saturated world. This book—the first of its kind post–Financial Crisis—will serve as an antidote to this condition. I have assembled the right team—practitioners, academics, and economists—to present clearly in these pages the fundamentals necessary for both professionals and nonprofessionals to learn about what makes up our capital markets ecosystem.

Gary Strumeyer