Fundamentals of Futures and Options Markets (5th Edition) (Prentice Hall Finance) [Hardcover]

John C. Hull (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0131445650 | ISBN-13: 978-0131445659 | Publication Date: July 11, 2004 | Edition: 5

For undergraduate and graduate courses in business and economics, focusing on courses in options and futures. Updated and revised to reflect the most current information, this introduction to futures and options markets is ideal for those with a limited background in mathematics. Based on Hull's Options, Futures and Other Derivatives, one of the best-selling books on Wall Street and in the college market, this text presents an accessible and student-friendly overview of the topic without the use of calculus. Packed with numerical examples and accounts of real-life situations, the Fifth Edition effectively guides students through the material while helping them prepare for the working world.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Again, John Hull has done a great job revising and updating this best-selling book. Changes in the fifth edition include:

• A new chapter on credit derivatives (Chapter 21).
• New! Business Snapshots highlight real-world situations and relevant issues.
• The first six chapters have been -reorganized to better meet the needs of students and .instructors.
• A new release of the Excel-based software, DerivaGem, is included with each text.

A useful Solutions Manual/Study Guide, which includes the worked-out answers to the "Questions and Problems" sections of each chapter, can be purchased separately (ISBN: 0-13-144570-7).

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

I was originally persuaded to write this book by colleagues who liked my other book Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives, but found the material a little too advanced for their students. Fundamentals of Futures and Options Markets covers much of the same ground as Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives, but in a way that readers who have had limited training in mathematics find easier to understand. One important difference between the two books is that there is no calculus in the present book. Fundamentals is suitable for undergraduate and graduate elective courses offered by business, economics, and other faculties. In addition, many practitioners who want to improve their understanding of futures and options markets will find the book useful.

Instructors can use this book in many different ways. Some may choose to cover only the first eleven chapters, finishing with binomial trees. For those who want to do more, there are many different sequences in which the material in Chapters 12 to 23 can be covered. From Chapter 16 onward, each chapter has been designed so that it is independent of the others and can be included in or omitted from a course without causing problems. I would recommend finishing a course with Chapter 23, which students always find interesting and entertaining.

What's New in This Edition

1. There is a new chapter on credit derivatives (Chapter 21).
2. The opening six chapters have been replaced by seven chapters that cover forward, futures, and swap contracts in a more student-friendly way. The chapter on hedging using futures has been moved to Chapter 3. Chapter 4 is now devoted to understanding how interest rates are calculated and used. Chapter 5 covers the determination of futures and forward prices. Chapter 6 deals with interest rate futures and Chapter 7 covers swaps.
3. Forty descriptions of real-world situations and interesting issues, referred to as Business Snapshots, illustrate points being made in the text.
4. There is a new release of DerivaGem (version 1.51), which includes Excel functions and examples of how they can be used.
5. The sequencing of Chapters 15 to 18 has been changed to better meet the needs of students and instructors.
6. The "Introduction to Binomial Trees" chapter has been extended to provide a more complete coverage of binomial trees in one place relatively early in the book.
7. For readers unfamiliar with the exponential and logarithm functions, an explanatory appendix has been added to Chapter 4.
8. The Solutions Manual has been expanded to become a Solutions Manual and Study Guide.
9. There have been two changes to the mathematical notation.
10. New end-of-chapter problems have been added.

The book (including end-of-chapter references) has been fully updated. Many changes have been made to improve the presentation of material.

Software

DerivaGem version 1.51 is included with this book. This consists of two Excel applications: the Options Calculator and the Applications Builder. The Options Calculator consists of the software in the previous release (with minor improvements including the unlocking of worksheets). The Applications Builder consists of a number of Excel functions from which users can build their own applications. It includes a number of sample applications and enables students to explore the properties of options and numerical procedures more easily. It also allows more interesting assignments to be designed.

The software is described more fully at the end of the book. Updates to the software can be downloaded from my website:

http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/~hull

Slides

Several hundred PowerPoint slides are available from my website. Instructors adopting the book for their courses are welcome to adapt the slides to meet their own needs.

Answers to End-of-Chapter Problems

At the end of each chapter (except the last) there are seven quiz questions that students can use to provide a quick test of their understanding of the key concepts. The answers to these are given at the end of the book. There are also over 270 Questions and Problems at the ends of chapters. Answers to these and advice for readers on how each chapter of the book should be studied are in the Solutions Manual and Study Guide (ISBN 0-13144570-7), which is published by Prentice Hall. In addition, there are about one hundred Assignment Questions at the ends of chapters. Solutions to these are in the Instructor's Manual, which is available from Prentice Hall only to adopting instructors.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 576 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 5 edition (July 11, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0131445650
• ISBN-13: 978-0131445659
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #335,688 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not worth the Time and the Money, May 1, 2005

By 

P.C. "Popcorn" (Taiwan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fundamentals of Futures and Options Markets (5th Edition) (Prentice Hall Finance) (Hardcover)

I am a student who happens to have read both John Hull's 'Options, Futures and Other Derivatives' and his 'Fundamentals'. To say that 'Options, Futures and Other Derivatives' is a good book is a great understatement, and can even be considered an insult. Yet, this book, which is targeted at readers who are not as acquainted with derivatives fails to impress. Through out the book you can feel how John Hull struggles to explain things in a simple manner. Sadly, his efforts have failed, and this is most evident when my fellow classmates had a hard time understanding the materials starting from Swaps. When we reached the section on options pricing, the book lacks the rigorous math that is needed for students to fully appreciate the beauty of deriving things like Black-Scholes. Overall, if you are a beginner, go straight to 'Options, Futures, and Derivatives'. This book is not worth wasting time over.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars why are we still playing these games in 2007?, November 7, 2007

By 

A. Johnson (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fundamentals of Futures and Options Markets and Derivagem Package (6th Edition) (Hardcover)

By games I mean the fact that the answers to about a third of the questions are found in a solutions manual that, last time I looked (in early Sept '07), was unavailable for purchase. The answers to another third of the questions are not to be found anywhere. The answers to the last third of the questions are in the book--but these questions are not very interesting or challenging. Why must we play this game? Why not just put all the answers in the back of the book? (I know, I know: it's all about the money, etc. But still . . .)

As for the content of the book, I'm told that this isn't Hull's authoritative book (that would be 'Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives'). I feel like a sucker for having bought it. Is it good to make your customer's feel like suckers, Mr. Hull?

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book!, June 10, 2002

By 

Juan Carlos Serino (Austin, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fundamentals of Futures and Options Markets (4th Edition) (Hardcover)

I needed to understand everything I could about Futures and Options in a short time and this book was perfect for that purpose. The introduction about futures and options is great and the content in general is very easy to understand and follow. I really liked the examples and the way the author explained each topic. However, I have to confess that maybe my engineering background helped me to understand the math behind, but I believe that even if you don't have much mathematical knowledge you can follow the book.

A big plus of this book is that it contains a chapter about Value at Risk and one focused more on more recent types of derivatives contracts (e.g., energy, weather, etc.).

In general, I think that with this book you could cover more ground more quickly than with other books.