Financial Derivatives [Paperback]

Robert W. Kolb (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 11, 1993

This text is designed for investment professionals who have not previously dealt with derivatives, and for individual investors who are trying to get a basic understanding of these financial instruments. From the basics of futures, options and swaps, to option combinations such as straddles, strangles, bull, bear and butterfly spreads, the study aims to provide explanations of trading, pricing and the risk management implications of these investment instruments.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Written for financial managers who need to know how to protect company assets in today's volatile financial markets as well as for the individual investor seeking a basic understanding of these sophisticated financial instruments, Financial Derivatives explains in nontechnical terms how to use key tools such as swaps, options, and futures to manage many different kinds of risk--including bond defaults and adverse moves in interest rates, foreign exchange rates, and commodity and stock prices.

Packed with easy-to-follow illustrations, charts, and numerical examples, this comprehensive and practical guide clearly shows:

-How to use tested pricing models and strategies to take full advantage of all types of futures contracts from interest rate to treasury bond and stock index futures.

-How to properly value put and call options and employ options to hedge a company's investment portfolio or its position in a foreign currency

-How to use "plain vanilla" or more complex swaps transactions to protect against interest rate risk, reduce borrowing costs, or increase debt capacity

...plus how to apply the basic principles of financial engineering to create synthetic financial instruments tailored to a company's specific risk management needs.

From the Back Cover

Financial Derivatives- financial instruments whose value depends onm other basic instruments, such as stocks or bonds- have emerged as imporatnat risk-mangement tools in the corporate world. Financial Derivatives offers a broad overview of the different types of derivatives (futures, options on futures, and swaps), while focussing on the principles that determine market prices. This introduction presents financial derivatives as tools for managing risk in a corporate setting, rather than instruments of speculation. The approach reflects today's emergence of corporations and financial institutions as dominant forces in finacial derivative markets. A new chapter, Risk Management and Financial Engineering, reflects the maturation of financial engineering as a financial specialty and illustrates how financial engineers use derivatives to manage risk. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall Press; 1 edition (August 11, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130515590
• ISBN-13: 978-0130515599
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,296,102 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert W. Kolb

Kolb holds two Ph.D.s from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (philosophy 1974, finance 1978) and has been a finance professor at the University of Florida, Emory University, the University of Miami, the University of Colorado, and currently at Loyola University Chicago, where he holds the Considine Chair of Applied Ethics.

Kolb's recent writings include Understanding Futures Markets 6e, and Futures, Options, and Swaps 5e, co-authored with James A. Overdahl. Edited volumes include The Ethics of Executive Compensation, The Ethics of Genetic Commerce, Corporate Retirement Security: Social and Ethical Issues, Corporate Boards: Managers of Risk, Sources of Risk, and the Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society, a five-volume 1.5 million word work. Bob recently published Lessons from the Financial Crisis: Causes, Consequences, and Our Economic Future. Current projects include: Employee Stock Options: Financial, Social, and Ethical Issues and The Financial Crisis of Our Time, forthcoming from John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and Oxford University Press, respectively.

Bob also is the sponsoring editor for the Robert W. Kolb Series in Finance:

http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-397613.html

Also, visit Bob's web pages:

Academic and professional: http://www.RobertWKolb.com

Photographic: http://www.kolbphoto.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quick and Easy Guide, July 20, 2000

By 

Peter U. Malyshev (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Financial Derivatives (Paperback)

This is a quick and easy guide to understanding derivatives. Excellent as a brief reference quide. Would recommend to professionals working with these products.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sound introduction to derivatives, November 7, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Financial Derivatives, 3rd Edition (Hardcover)

An easy to understand text that establishes the fundamentals of financial derivatives such as futures, options, and swaps with an emphasis on risk management. Great for business students.

2 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars super book, fun to read, December 21, 2002

By 

"landonmkelsey" (Bisbee,AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Financial Derivatives, 3rd Edition (Hardcover)

Just entering the business from a EE background so I am reading this book to get down terminology and concepts before reading John C. Hull. At first "selling short" sounded like something shady.

This book is written in a friendly, interesting style.

Requires some math background (high school algebra) and basic knowledge of statistics (Gaussian distribution).
I have been verifying all calculations. For the asking, I have written some programs to automate interest rate calculations and Black-Scholes (...).

Next I'll write a program to do the work of 100000 stockbrokers in finding and executing arbitrage/reverse arbitrage opportunities.