My name is Konstantin Kontor. I am Director and Professor of Finance at the American Institute of Business and Economics in Moscow. And now I am offering to you my course in capital markets, the opening course of the specialization understanding more than finance. Why are we starting with this course? Well, first of all, there's something personal to that. This is my favorite course in the financial series. And it is because it allows us to use the most simplistic methodology and arithmetic and clear logic and plain common sense to cope with the most advanced topics that are key in modern financial markets. Now, the story of capital markets is the story of private information and problems caused by it. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the overall development of this capital markets around the globe and over hundreds of years has been the eternal fight between the market participants and the problems caused by private information. And on this path, we see the very important things and we start to feel the motives, incentives and major drivers of behavior of market participants. We study the financial institutions, banks, insurance companies, investment banks and others not in terms of what exactly they do but rather why they do so and why they are instrumental in making these markets more efficient. There is another big challenge right now because we live in the world of advanced technology, modern communications, social media and others, and it seems to be the case that there is so much information available that this idea of private information no longer exists. This is a dangerous illusion, and I explain why it is so. And we see that oftentimes by taking a step back and seeing what happened a couple of decades or even a hundred years ago is very helpful in understanding what's around us right now. We are all the participants of capital markets and oftentimes against our willingness to do so. And in this area, we face powerful players with a lot more advancement, a lot more money and a lot more instruments in their hands, and it is the understanding of the key topics of this course that makes us more equipped, more protected if you will against these potentially dangerous players and allows us to benefit from the understanding of capital markets and make some money on that. And finally, as always, we have to keep in mind that this course contributes not only to the careers in finance and business but as no other course in this specialization, it allows you to make right decisions in your private life. This is really important because the same incentives and signals, they go well beyond the scope of the financial markets. So with great pleasure, I invite you all to this journey of the field of private information, and I wish you good luck.