Customer Reviews

Derivatives: A Comprehensive Resource for Options, Futures, Interest Rate Swaps, and Mortgage Securities (Financial Management Association Survey & Synthesis Series)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is an excellent resource for beginning and intermediate level fund managers who want to understand the derivatives to be able to use them in risk hedging and income maximization.

The book is excellently organized in four sections and each section is self sufficient. Each of the sections begin with basics, illustrates the concepts with example, introduces the mathematics of pricing and methodology of hedginag of risks

Every section has also a nice subsection on terminology and definitions.

The book is an excellent attempt to explain a highly technical and complex subject.The section on Interest Rate swaps is outstanding. A must read for all corporate money managers and a must addition to all financial libraries.

I am completely satisfied with this book. He knows how to design derivatives and make them work. This book does a remarkable job of explaining the theory and practice of derivative securities.

I found the book very useful in practice. It gave you a lot of details.

This book lacks any real depth on the subject, though it does illustrate the basic concepts of each type of instrument.

Reading this it is hard to understand who the reader is that author is targeting. I keep reading the foreward and front flap and I keep thinking this is written simply to jump on the derivative's book craze.

For traders and hardcore investors this is useless. It is not very instructional, so finance students are out.

So it brings me to the retail investment advisor or corporate manager who wants a reference so they understand enough to listen to a conversation about the subject. It is so they don't have to pretend they heard the terms before when in a meeting. They still won't really understand, but at least they will know the definitions of the terms being discussed, and feel better about themselves.

So as a sort of a dictionary or desk reference for the layperson, I guess this is okay. But for a serious finance professional this is worthless.

I found Arditti's writing to be simply attrocious. What the marketplace needs is a clear, concise guide to instrument structure and valuation, and Mr. Arditti writes in circles. As an example, his chapter on option pricing refers to "using the methods used previously in this chapter" without referring to how to apply these to the method just introduced. The method just introduced was explained using numbers that were presumably fabricated, but lord only knows, because the author can't be bothered to specify how his example was structured.

In trying to explain things simply, the author fails to explain anything clearly. "Derivatives" is an extreme disappointment. As a reference, this book may have some use, but if you're looking to learn something from it, stear clear.