They are just four letters on an electronic ticker tape, but FTSE has become a byword for money, power, influence and - crucially, after numerous financial crises - trust.

They are just four letters on an electronic ticker tape, but FTSE has become a byword for money, power, influence and - crucially, after numerous financial crises - trust.

How this organisation, FTSE International, brought order to the financial system over several decades, is a story of how capitalism globalized and a data revolution transformed the investment industry. It is a story of how a team of innovators seized an opportunity to build a business that today leads its field and guides the fortunes of an astonishing $16 trillion of funds. It is a story that Mark Makepeace, founding Chief Executive of FTSE International, knows better than anybody.

FTSE is a ringside seat on some of the biggest deals and biggest personalities in business and global politics, chronicling how the FTSE 100 was born, behind-the-scenes rows with chief executives of some of the world's largest companies, political in-fighting, diplomatic incidents, and the ferocious dealmaking that followed over 35 years of market boom and bust.