Dynamic Hedging: Managing Vanilla and Exotic Options (Wiley Finance) [Hardcover]

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471152803 | ISBN-13: 978-0471152804 | Publication Date: January 14, 1997 | Edition: 1

Dynamic Hedging is the definitive source on derivatives risk. It provides a real-world methodology for managing portfolios containing any nonlinear security. It presents risks from the vantage point of the option market maker and arbitrage operator. The only book about derivatives risk written by an experienced trader with theoretical training, it remolds option theory to fit the practitioner's environment. As a larger share of market exposure cannot be properly captured by mathematical models, noted option arbitrageur Nassim Taleb uniquely covers both on-model and off-model derivatives risks.

The author discusses, in plain English, vital issues, including:

• The generalized option, which encompasses all instruments with convex payoff, including a trader's potential bonus.
• The techniques for trading exotic options, including binary, barrier, multiasset, and Asian options, as well as methods to take into account the wrinkles of actual, non-bellshaped distributions.
• Market dynamics viewed from the practitioner's vantage point, including liquidity holes, portfolio insurance, squeezes, fat tails, volatility surface, GARCH, curve evolution, static option replication, correlation instability, Pareto-Levy, regime shifts, autocorrelation of price changes, and the severe flaws in the value at risk method.
• New tools to detect risks, such as higher moment analysis, topography exposure, and nonparametric techniques.
• The path dependence of all options hedged dynamically.

Dynamic Hedging is replete with helpful tools, market anecdotes, at-a-glance risk management rules distilling years of market lore, and important definitions. The book contains modules in which the fundamental mathematics of derivatives, such as the Brownian motion, Ito's lemma, the numeraire paradox, the Girsanov change of measure, and the Feynman-Kac solution are presented in intuitive practitioner's language.

Dynamic Hedging is an indispensable and definitive reference for market makers, academics, finance students, risk managers, and regulators.

The definitive book on options trading and risk management

"If pricing is a science and hedging is an art, Taleb is a virtuoso." -Bruno Dupire, Head of Swaps and Options Research, Paribas Capital Markets

"This is not merely the best book on how options trade, it is the only book." -Stan Jonas, Managing Director, FIMAT-Society GARCH

 "Dynamic Hedging bridges the gap between what the best traders know and what the best scholars can prove." -William Margrabe, President, The William Margrabe Group, Inc.

"The most comprehensive, insightful, intuitive work on the subject. It is instrumental for both beginning and experienced traders."-

"A tour de force. That rare find, a book of great practical and theoretical value. Taleb successfully bridges the gap between the academic and the real world. Interesting, provocative, well written. Each chapter worth a fortune to any current or prospective derivatives trader."-Victor Niederhoffer, Chairman, Niederhoffer Investments

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Written by a leading options trader and derivatives risk advisor to global banks and exchanges, this book provides a practical, real-world methodology for monitoring and managing all the risks associated with portfolio management. Fills a big gap in investment literature--the only book to share complex options trading strategies and advanced risk management methods with trading professionals.

From the Back Cover

Dynamic Hedging is the definitive source on derivatives risk. It provides a real-world methodology for managing portfolios containing any nonlinear security. It presents risks from the vantage point of the option market maker and arbitrage operator. The only book about derivatives risk written by an experienced trader with theoretical training, it remolds option theory to fit the practitioner's environment. As a larger share of market exposure cannot be properly captured by mathematical models, noted option arbitrageur Nassim Taleb uniquely covers both on-model and off-model derivatives risks.

The author discusses, in plain English, vital issues, including:

• The generalized option, which encompasses all instruments with convex payoff, including a trader's potential bonus.
• The techniques for trading exotic options, including binary, barrier, multiasset, and Asian options, as well as methods to take into account the wrinkles of actual, non-bellshaped distributions.
• Market dynamics viewed from the practitioner's vantage point, including liquidity holes, portfolio insurance, squeezes, fat tails, volatility surface, GARCH, curve evolution, static option replication, correlation instability, Pareto-Levy, regime shifts, autocorrelation of price changes, and the severe flaws in the value at risk method.
• New tools to detect risks, such as higher moment analysis, topography exposure, and nonparametric techniques.
• The path dependence of all options hedged dynamically

Dynamic Hedging is replete with helpful tools, market anecdotes, at-a-glance risk management rules distilling years of market lore, and important definitions. The book contains modules in which the fundamental mathematics of derivatives, such as the Brownian motion, Ito's lemma, the numeraire paradox, the Girsanov change of measure, and the Feynman-Kac solution are presented in intuitive practitioner's language.

Dynamic Hedging is an indispensable and definitive reference for market makers, academics, finance students, risk managers, and regulators.

The definitive book on options trading and risk management

"If pricing is a science and hedging is an art, Taleb is a virtuoso." —Bruno Dupire, Head of Swaps and Options Research, Paribas Capital Markets

"This is not merely the best book on how options trade, it is the only book." —Stan Jonas, Managing Director, FIMAT-Soci?t? G?n?rale

"Dynamic Hedging bridges the gap between what the best traders know and what the best scholars can prove." —William Margrabe, President, The William Margrabe Group, Inc.

"The most comprehensive, insightful, intuitive work on the subject. It is instrumental for both beginning and experienced traders."—

"A tour de force. That rare find, a book of great practical and theoretical value. Taleb successfully bridges the gap between the academic and the real world. Interesting, provocative, well written. Each chapter worth a fortune to any current or prospective derivatives trader."—Victor Niederhoffer, Chairman, Niederhoffer Investments

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 528 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (January 14, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471152803
• ISBN-13: 978-0471152804
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #198,843 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Nassim Nicholas Taleb has devoted his life to problems of luck, randomness, human error, probability, and the philosophy of knowledge. He led three careers, as a man of letters, businessman-trader-risk manager, and university professor.

Although he spends most of his time as a flâneur, meditating in cafés across the planet, he is currently Distinguished Professor at New York University's Polytechnic Institute. His books Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan have been published in 32 languages.


""Imagine someone with the erudition of Pico de la Mirandola, the skepticism of Montaigne, solid mathematical training, a restless globetrotter, polyglot, enjoyer of fine wines, specialist of financial derivatives, irrepressible reader, and irascible to the point of readily slapping a disciple." La Tribune (Paris)
A giant of Mediterranean thought ... Now the hottest thinker in the world", London Times

"The most prophetic voice of all" GQ

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Derivatives Theory meets Practice, March 7, 2004

By 

Christopher Hefele (Lawrenceville, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dynamic Hedging: Managing Vanilla and Exotic Options (Wiley Finance) (Hardcover)

This book provides a healthy dose of practical wisdom for options traders so that they don't blindly follow their mathematical models into oblivion. The author (Taleb) has a PhD in finance, but also has traded in the pits, he knows both theory and practice and where they diverge.

Taleb focuses on hedging, which is a trader's main task when running a large portfolio of options. Instead of using a flood of equations, Taleb relies on charts, graphs, and tables to make his points. Most of the equations & heavy mathematics are relegated to the appendix, presumably because quants (or software) will price the instruments. He covers the behavior of the Greeks (delta, gamma, vega, theta, etc.) for vanilla options as well as behavior of exotic options, and delves into the practicalities of volatility, hedging at discontinuities, and various other topics.

The book is very popular on trading desks, and although I found it pretty good, I didn't find it to be outstanding. Also, notably, the book does NOT cover credit & interest rate derivatives at all; hopefully this will be corrected in the next edition.

So if you need a book on the practicalities of hedging a portfolio of vanilla/exotic options, then get this book. On the other hand, if you want some basic options theory, or want to focus more in pricing, or need a basic introduction, look elsewhere (perhaps to Hull's or Wilmott's books).

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book for Traders, February 23, 2000

By 

Nigel N. (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dynamic Hedging: Managing Vanilla and Exotic Options (Wiley Finance) (Hardcover)

I would not recommend this book to build up an academic background but rather to develop an understanding and an intuition of how dynamic options are. As a hedge fund options trader this book has been very valuable to me to validate my own observations and where necessary to correct those observations, which at the time seemed correct, but which the author through market experience manages to convey the proper meaning. This book is not only factual but also provides you with the right frame of mind to think about options. I believe you can also use the author's experience to boost your own practical experience.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars novel, May 15, 2000

By 

Kevin Rosema - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dynamic Hedging: Managing Vanilla and Exotic Options (Wiley Finance) (Hardcover)

Yes, this book could use an editor - there are all sorts of errors everywhere. While it makes the reading pretty tough, I think this is really one of the most useful books on options around. It's a little like Campbell/Lo/MacKinlay's book on empirical finance, but with a more experienced and real-life perspective. It's a bit refreshing after all the copycat books on option pricing that still don't contribute much beyond what Hull has written. No question, top 5 in practical finance reading.