The City and, beyond that, the landscape of our entire financial system is dominated by institutional investment. Corporate empires rise, fall or change hands on the tide of institutional opinion. Today the influence of these institutions is such that they have, in many ways, become the City, the heart of a pulsating expectation machine. Based on 24 years' experience, The City: Inside the Great Expectation Machine is a compelling guide to what really makes the City tick, taking you inside the equity market and explaining its structure, dynamics and behavior. The book describes how the seperate but inter-related elements that make up 'The Machine' fit together and work with each other to exert such a grip on the corporate sector. It tackles the broad issues that surround the City and provides an enlightening analysis of the current institutional investment scene, answering such questions as: * How did the City achieve the status it now has? * How do the big investment institutions exercise their control over British industry? * What motivates institutional fund managers and how do they make their decisions? * What do investment analysts actually do and why are they paid so much? With genuinely fresh and original insights into the closed and closely connected worlds of institutional investment and investment banking. The City: Inside the Great Expectation Machine illustrates how these institutions dominate the London Stock Exchange and how they impact on the City, industry and the private investor