Finance...most glamorous subject, profession, domain and what not...the study of tricks with money or what is popularly or pristinely termed as investment banking, has to have big bucks..after all one is playing with big money and that too that of others..winning some and losing some....Therefore we come to define rather think of the subject of finance as one which deals with money...Ways and means of making money.
However a very interesting paradox is you cant make money from anything or nothing...To make money you got to have money.now where do you get that money from...Before this leads to the usual chicken and the egg scenario let us focus on the subject- as the typical MBA would say-..Money...What is money after all?? One would think what a stupid question was that...It actually isnt...Come to think of it money is nothing but a notional value that one attaches...symbolized by the currency today and barter in the ancient days...Akin to a dot in geometry where it is a symbol which addresses the notion of a point..coming back to the subject, money has now led us to currency as we have to have a material object to represent....But what is a currency or very simply what does a 100-rupee note mean...Contrary to the general opinion it actually doesnt mean Rs 100...It is actually a promissory note by the governor of the RBI saying that he is liable to pay the holder Rs 100...so when we give a 100 rupee note to say a shopkeeper we actually transfer the liability to him. the conclusion- we all are behind wealth which in itself is a notion...
In fact nothing in finance is material...depreciation, cost of capital, net present value, you name it you can see...a subject that has evolved to be the most strategic one in the present times is one which is completely immaterialistic...
Possibly that is why people chase it...a mirage worth chasing all your life...finance...the subject..more you delve into it...more you theorize...more complex it becomes...
As always nature plays a game of quidproquo...you develop theories make more money and more complex it becomes for you to make more money....but the subject the notion lingers on....providing academic bliss to some and mystery to others....prosperity to some misery to others ( again notional mind you)....you give some you take some
