The Complete Guide to Option Pricing Formulas [Hardcover]

Espen Gaardner Haug (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1997

When pricing options in todayÕs fast-action markets, you need quick access to precise facts and market-tested information. The Complete Guide to Options Pricing Formulas is the only authoritative, comprehensive reference to make the necessary set of option pricing tools available in one place. This invaluable reference work, which includes valuable software and ready-to-use programming code to enhance your understanding of the options pricing models discussed and their practical implementations, also gives you a complete listing of key options formulas, all in a dictionary format for ease of use; commentary from derivatives expert and author Espen Gaarder Haug that explains key points in the most important and useful formulas; practitioner-oriented formulas, and highlights of the latest options pricing research from major institutions worldwide; and much more! Invaluable for both experienced users and those learning how to use the tools of valuation, The Complete Guide to Options Pricing Formulas is the first and only book to place all of the research and information you need at your fingertips with precise directions on maximizing its real-world value.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The first Sourcebook to Explain Every Important Option Pricing Formula. When pricing options in today's fast-action markets, experience and intuition are not longer enough. To protect your carefully planned positions, you need precise facts and tested information that has been proven time and again. The Complete Guide to Option Pricing Formulas is the first and only authoritative reference to contain every option pricing took you need, all in one handy volume: Black-Scholes, two asset binomial trees, implied trinomial trees, Vasiceck, exotics. Many important option pricing formulas are accompanied by computer code to assis in their use, understanding, and implementation. This invaluable, one-of-a-kind reference work gives you: a complete listing of key option formulas, all delivered in an easy-to-use dictionary format; Commentary that explains key points in the most important and useful formulas; Valuable software and ready-to-use programming code that enhances your understanding of option pricing models and their practical implementations; Practitioner-oriented formulas, and highlights of the latest option pricing research from major institutions worldwide; Pricing advances on commodity options like the Miltersen and Schwartz Model, exotic options such as extreme spread options and implied trinomial trees, and much more! Professionals who use options must have immediate access to reliable and complete option pricing formulas and information. The complete Guide to Option Pricing Formulas, an invaluable guide for both experienced users and those learning how to use the tools of valuation, is the first book to place all of the research and information you need at your fingertips. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Espen Gaarder Haug is a leading expert on derivatives theory and its practical implications. He has developed systems and tools for options and interest rate derivatives for the Chase Manhattan Bank Derivatives Research and Training Group (Europe), and also worked for several years in derivatives research and trading for Chemical Bank and Den Norske Bank. Haug is a greatly appreciated lecturer on derivatives in graduate finance programs and among practitioners. Further, he has published numerous articles on options in academic journals, including the Journal of Financial Engineering.

About the Author

Espen Gaarder Haug is a leading expert on derivatives theory and its practical implications. He has developed systems and tools for options and interest rate derivatives for the Chase Manhattan Bank Derivatives Research and Trading Group (Europe), and also worked for several years in derivatives research and trading for Chemical Bank and Dennorske Bank. Haug is a greatly appreciated lecturer on derivatives in graduate finance programs and among practitioners. Further, he has published numerous articles on options in academic journals, including the Journal of Financial Engineering.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 232 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (September 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786312408
• ISBN-13: 978-0786312405
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,007,250 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Nice idea, but MANY errors, July 27, 2004

By 

Steve (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Complete Guide to Option Pricing Formulas (Hardcover)

This book is the "standard" for providing straightforward code demonstrating various options pricing techniques, and perhaps deservedly so -- after all, it really doesn't have too many competitors in that niche. However, even in the course of the fairly straightforward applications I've had for this book (mostly simple equity Cox-Ross and Black-Scholes modeling), I've been shocked by the number of blatant mathematical errors (in the formulas for rho with distinct carry and risk-free rates, for instance). Clearly, the author and editors didn't bother to spend much time verifying that the formulas they cite are actually correct. (I'm actually shocked to see a fellow reviewer praise the "proofreading" -- I'm guessing he or she never actually had to use any of the formulas in this book!)

Bottom line -- if you're looking for a handy, compact reference of option pricing formulas, this is probably what you'll end up with. But be careful. It is SO frustrating to spend hours trying to figure out where you made a mistake in implementing one of these models, only to learn that you DIDN'T make a mistake -- the mistake was in your source. Consider yourself warned...

45 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Numerous technical mistakes, December 2, 2003

By 

Galileo Galilei (Frostbite Falls, MN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Guide to Option Pricing Formulas (Hardcover)

I have reviewed many of the formulas in several sections of this book and have found a number of mistakes. As a result, I can trust no formula from the book without reviewing the literature or some other source.

The author does not use consistent terminology throughout the book. Rather, the terminology of the original journal article is used for each pricing model. This makes referring to the articles convenient, but then you don't need the book if you're going to the source...

I have used few of the computer programs offered, but the ones that I have used have had terrible inefficiencies. For example, a bisectional iterative search was used, which is very simple to write but is also very inefficient. There are many other simple and more efficient alternatives.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A cookbook for the quantitative options trader, January 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Complete Guide to Option Pricing Formulas (Hardcover)

Have you ever wished someone took all the significant option formulas of the last 25 years and packed them into one volume? Is your calculus rusty? How about putting the formulas into Visual Basic so they can be employed directly in Microsoft Excel spreadsheets or Access databases. This is the main appeal of Option Pricing Formulas, which fills a void in current option literature. As option players became more computer literate an anthology of coded option theory was clearly needed.

The book covers everything from the tried and true Black Scholes and Cox/ Rubenstein formulas to the more exotic worlds of barrier and currency translated options. Software is included with the Visual Basic code as well as preprogrammed Excel files. Think of it as a cookbook for the technically oriented option trader.