MARKET MAP GUIDE
Understand these data
Learn what each market indicator means, why it matters, how to read a move and what it can affect next.
From reading a number to explaining the whole market
A complete guided path: instruments, quotes, rates, bonds, currencies, credit, commodities, volatility, macro and portfolio decisions. Work through the diagrams and calculations, then validate each chapter with an explanation-backed question. Plan several study sessions; every example is illustrative, not live market data.
What a market actually does
Follow money, ownership and risk from an issuer to an investor.
Read a quote without confusing units
Separate level, change, return, yield and observation date.
Bonds, yields and duration
Explain the inverse price–yield relation and calculate a rate sensitivity.
Read the whole yield curve
Distinguish inversion, steepening, flattening and the forces behind them.
Equities: earnings, multiples and indices
Separate a business improvement from a change in the price paid for it.
Currencies and cross-border returns
Read pair direction, exchange arithmetic and the distinction between hedging and prediction.
Credit: default, spreads and refinancing
Separate government-rate risk from corporate credit risk.
Commodities: physical markets and financial prices
Distinguish supply shocks, demand shocks and futures returns.
Volatility, VIX and options
Understand uncertainty without confusing it with a directional forecast.
Read an economic release like an analyst
Distinguish the reported level, the surprise, revisions and transmission.
Turn market knowledge into portfolio discipline
Connect risk, diversification, position size and attribution.
Final case: build a cross-asset market brief
Integrate observation, arithmetic, mechanisms, alternative scenarios and a clear conclusion.
What you should be able to do at the end
- Read prices, returns, rates and dates without mixing units.
- Calculate basis points, curve slopes, bond sensitivity, FX conversion and portfolio contributions.
- Connect news to conditional cross-asset scenarios and test competing explanations.
- Write a reasoned market brief and identify exactly what remains uncertain.