For undergraduate and graduate courses in corporate finance, financial management, and financial economics. Financial Economics is an introductory text intended for use in the first finance course. It has a broader scope and a greater emphasis on general principles than most other introductory level texts in finance, which typically focus exclusively on corporate finance. This text encompasses all the subfields of finance -- corporate finance, investments and financial markets and institutions -- covering the general principles to provide students with an appreciation of the whole discipline's subject matter. This book seeks to explain finance through its functions rather than its institutions, concentrating on the three pillars of finance: optimization over time, asset valuation, and risk management.