This guide to the operation of buying stocks and shares has been updated to include additional information on the effects of the "Big Bang" and the stock market crash of 1987, and to describe financial changes which have taken place in the City of London. The author examines the role of the institutional investors, the giant pension funds and the banks in their money-raising capacity, and looks at the impact of new technology on the buying and selling of stocks and shares both for the public and private investor.