Customer Reviews

An Introduction To Derivatives And Risk Management

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a wonderful book to have on your shelf for any finance major looking for an understanding of options, futures, and other types of contracts sold in the OTC and exchange markets. The text is fairly easy to follow and provides good examples to help students understand the theories behind option and future markets.

However, I do not feel that this book is for just anyone. Without some financial background I think that this book can be difficult to follow. It is hard to understand the mathmatics behind the theories presented in the text. The diskette is also somewhat disappointing as an aid for understanding the material. The disk only gives Excel generated financial models that you find in the book such as the Black-Shcoles pricing model.

With a good professor, this is a wonderful aid in constructing a foundation for option investing and pricing. And even giving some of its downfalls I would still recommend buying this book.

If you are a student just taken up a course in derivatives or risk management you should have this book. if you find john hull more technical, you have Don Chance who covers options and other derivatives in a greater detail and in more words. everything you want to know about how banks etc have risk mangaement systems in place and market risk instruments is here.

in case you want a greater coverage of options and pricing options, you should definatly take a look at Black Scholes and Beyond by Neil Chriss, a work of art.

This is an excellent book for non finance majors who would like to grasp the physical concepts behind different derivatives products traded in the OTC markets. The book is ideal for a preperation read for all aspiring to take Financial Engineering / Derivatives as majors in graduate programs.

If you are interested in the basic concepts governing derivatives without getting into the mathematics of it then this is the ideal book. I recommend this book for any one who is contemplating taking Derivatives as an advanced level course. The book would give a solid foundation to the concepts of risk management.

It was the text book I needed in good shape and at a good price(cheaper than the bookstore). What more could I ask for?

A compelling text for those interested in the confusing world of derivatives and trading of same. Does a great job of simplifying an extremely complex topic by cutting the topics into bite sized pieces that can be studied and rehashed easily until understood completely. I am not too sure I would tackle this topic alone (unless highly experienced already) but I was fortunate to have a fantastic instructor to accompany the text and learned enormous amounts of material in a single semester.

Saved a whole lot of money by buying this book online as opposed to the university store. no complaints at all

Dr. Chance did a excellent job in carefully introducing the concept and outline of derivatives markets to students with basic business school training. I used the 4th edition in my undergraduate course couple years ago, and built up a solid conceptual understanding in this field. The newest version still keep its pleasant style and contain some thing more about risk management.
This book offers the best introduction to undergraduate business school students or MBA student who need not to work with financial derivatives much.
But for those non-business students wants get into mathematical finance industry, to buy a book only for concept intro may not a economy choice. Refer this book if you find the first half in Hull's "Option, futures and other derivatives" not clear enough.

This book is not for the derivatives practitioner, rather it is for the for the general business practitioner who doesn't want to sound stupid at the board meting. This book should not be used to teach even the most basic of derivatives classes. This book will give you a general understanding of the terminology and BASIC logic of derivatives. The mathematics and logic behind derivatives is not simple and should not be omitted from a derivatives book. Do yourself a favor and learn the math and logic, and the fundamentals of derivatives, concurrently. I would venture to guess that if enough people apply that which they learn from this book, and only that which they learn from this book, the economy will be in for a major disaster.

I dislike Don Chance both as a person and as a writer. I find him arrogant and intolerable and that bleeds through into his writing. So, yes, I am biased.
I highly recommend instead that you seek out John Hull, a much better author, he has two books; one for undergrad and another for grad (which is the 'bible' on this subject).