Customer Reviews

Investments

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book has a tremendous amount of valuable information for those of us who want to understand what investments are actually about. There is a lot more to it than the simple bromides peddled in the popular press and media. Yet, when you get some basic concepts down, they become easier to understand and evaluate. The popular press is misleading in its oversimplification and silly statements (like "no one is buying today").

I want to praise this edition's organization. Since it is a text designed for use by students, the fifth edition I used is organized most helpfully. Each chapter has an overview and there are concept check questions at key points of the text that help you assess if you really understood the information you just read. The main points are restated in a concise summary at the end of each chapter and you can review the key terms to make sure you are absorbing the vocabulary.

There are valuable websites listed along the way for additional and related information. The authors and publisher also provide a website with materials including spreadsheets directly related to this book. The part of the site with online quizzes has a few typos and scoring errors, and that should be fixed, but the online materials are generally ok.

The chapter problems are another matter. Some are really projects and should be separated, I feel, from the study questions. They are good to do if you have the time and will certainly help your learning, but they can take some time to work through.

Some of the questions are very simple and are really a quick concept check and they seem out of place when placed along side the "projects". One VERY NICE feature of the questions is the inclusion of sample CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) exam questions. This is very useful for those of us thinking about preparing for that process.

It is also worth getting the Solutions Manual. ISBN 0-07-233921-7. Don't by a mismatched solutions manual! As you work through the problems, especially the "projects" it is nice to see how these problems are handled by the authors.

I've owned an edition of this book since 1993 when I took an Investments class as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania. Throughout my career, my return to graduate school, and my pursuit of my CFA charter, I have used and seen others using this book,

This book is an introductory textbook on investments. To get a deeper understanding about the research that developed the theories and the ongoing debates in academia (e.g. APT, efficient markets hypothesis, behavioral finance), I would suggest reading some of the authors/researchers referenced in the book. Despite this limitation, this is an excellent starting point. The book begins with basic introduction of financial markets and instruments, develops the basic finance toolbox (e.g. basic statistical tools - mean, variance; discounted cash flow), and applies them in a portfolio setting. From this base, it goes on to introduce the most basic financial concepts such as beta, CAPM, diversification, efficient frontier, CAL, etc. These are all the basic tools that are used in portfolio contruction and management. The book extends itself by introducing additional concepts such as derivatives (e.g. futures, options, swaps) which can alter the charateristics of portfolios. As other reviewers have noted and I will agree, these topics are only in a cursory fashion, and I recommend further study on these topics through other texts or papers.

Overall, this is a must read (at least as a starting point) for anyone interested in developing knowledge about portfolio theory. For example, this book would be very helpful for anyone who would like to understand with a more critical eye what the commentators/analysts on CNBC or at the brokerage firms are trying to recommend for their own portfolios.

Similar choice of topics as William Sharpe's book with the same title, but somewhat less technical and detailed. Discussion is streamlined in the interests of clarity. Some readers might regard the authors as having "dumbed down" the material, but this is an illusion born of clear writing. Any of the topics can of course be treated with much more depth, but this would be a mistake in an introductory broad-brush treatment of the subject.

I used this book to help me prepare for the CFA examination. The book presents a wide spectrum of investment information in a easy to understand manner. The authors provide many examples to assist the reader in understanding many complicated investment concepts. I would say that this book is geared to someone already in the industry or for an individual that wishes to enter the industry or become a serious investor. I recommend this book highly without any reservations.

The authors of this book have produced a work that offers enough detail to give you a reliable intuition about investment opportunities, and offering a comprehensive explanation about investment theory. I found the book invaluable and absolutely worth its weight in gold. It is, however, not for the faint of heart, or anyone with zero mathematical background. While the math is far from being difficult or esoteric, you have to know what a summation is. Any precalculus background is sufficient. In addition, you have to want a comprehensive explanation that leaves no gaps. If you are looking for a short read, Malkiel's A Random Walk Down Wall Street is an excellent choice. This is a TEXT BOOK, which is, by definition, supposed to be detailed.

If one is willing to look aside from the dry substandard humor of the author, they will find one of the best written textbooks around in any subject. Taken as a given that some of this material is mathematically and analytically intensive, I cannot say that this entire book is easy reading. However, you will find that the authors due an excellent job explaining and demonstrating difficult concepts. They also provide a variety of real life examples to supplement their explanations, that help to provide context for some of the seemingly abstract concepts. Moreover, they extensively make use of Microsoft Excel is demonstrating how to perform some complicated aspects of security analysis in a way that is easily reproducible to the reader.

First, let it be said that there seems to be no decent book on Investment Theory out there, and that, in that sense, this one might be slightly better than others on the market...

Yet, reading most of the book for an Investment course, I found it to be unnecessarily wordy, often VERY repetitive, and unclear about the basic conceptual ideas behind the theory.

Most of the problems stem from the fact that the mathematics used is overly simplistic, and that no effort is made to focus on clear ideas. Instead of presenting the CAPM and APT models by formally setting the conceptual framework, stating the assumptions, introducing proper mathematical tools to tackle the development, and coming back to highlight key concepts, the book tries to circumvent any slightly difficult area by providing an endless string of confused explanations. The CAPM and APT models are not easy to REALLY grasp and although the book provided me with some "quick-fix" tools and basic definitions to address practical problems, it did not give me any insight into the underlying concepts and ideas. And without that, there is no real and lasting understanding...

The book is definitely not for readers looking for a mathematically formal coverage of the topic and might be better suited to Business students seeking a very basic introduction. But even then, I am not sure that a 700+ pages book of muddled diatribes is appropriate...

The book by Bodie et al is unquestionably, the best introduction to Investment Theory available today. Please note that there is an emphasis on the word introduction, because there is much that can be covered after the book ends. This book provides a springboard from which the student can take off in different directions viz. Derivatives, Risk Management, Portfolio Management etc.

The language is simple, and there are no mathematical demons in the book. The Concept Check questions are extremely valuable and should be attempted before the reader delves into the equally challenging exercises at the end of the chapters. The book starts with an introduction to the different types of markets and financial instruments present today, and then moves into investments, risk etc. The book touches upon a number of topics including bonds, financial statement analysis, security valuation, derivatives and hedging. Like other multipurpose book, it does not go in-depth into any of these, but provides the reader a brief introduction to each of them for help in further studies. It does dwell a lot on portfolio theories which are described in detail, with numerous examples. The chapter-ending exercises are graded with easier questions in the beginning, and extremely challenging ones in the end.

All in all, a great book!

This book is well organized, but you better have a solid calc and stats theory background. The newest edition has more chapters. Book is more wordy than concise.

Anyone embarking upon a study of investments should begin with this book. From an explanation of market structure to intuitive analyses of all core concepts in investments (like Markowitz Theory, CAPM, Black-Scholes, Fixed Income concepts), this book has everything. Newer editions of the book also have very good instructions on how to implement the tools in MS-Excel. Obviously, this book is not meant for those pursuing a PhD. Rather it is meant for MBAs and aspiring CFAs who want to learn and implement investment tools and analysis.