Customer Reviews

Mastering Financial Calculations: A Step-by-Step Guide to the Mathematics of Financial Market Instruments (Financial Times Series)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am using the most recent edition (1999, ISBN027362587X) of this excellent book published by FT Prentice Hall.

This book is a concise and informative guide to the concepts and mechanics (maths) and application of financial instruments.

The author has managed to cover the wide area of financial instruments and business maths in the most concise and informative manner possible.

The added bonus of this book is that it could have been "unintentionally" written as a companion with HP financial calculator-the HP12c and the HP19BII.

New & existing owners of the HP12c, would find this book to be an excellent and indispensible guide and practice workbook.

Working through the examples in the book with my HP12c has helped me familarise with the RPN mode/logic of performing financial maths at the same time as I apply my understanding of the underlying concepts to the exercise questions and illustrative examples.

I am impressed that the author had even included detailed key strokes of both the HP 12c and 19BII calculators with each illustrated examples and answers to practice questions as well! Although there is afew minor errors but the overall effort is great efforts and attention to details.

This book is really true to its name, I would certainly recommend Mr Steiner's excellent work and effort to anyone who needs a refresher or an introductory course into financial instruments for both work and study.

Judging by the author's excellent effort, it would be difficult for the author himself to improve on his own work unless there are major new developments in the subject matter or if the author wishes to cover more complex and specialist areas.

A five star+ effort in my humble opinion.

This is by far the most comprehensive, easy to understand book regarding financial math I have come across in over 15 years as a Wall Street IT professional. From calculating simple interest to pricing interest rate and currency swaps to option payout diagrams this book has it all. All calculations are clearly laid out with real examples, sample questions and hints. A must have for novices and pros.

As a liberal arts major who was not a math pro but had an interest in learning the tools of finance, this book was a dream come true. It explains every calculation simply and without any technical (and incomprehensible) jargon found in many textbooks. It includes examples, hints, and a glossary of important financial concepts. If you are willing to learn, then this book is for you. A good reference tool for even pros. A bit expensive but NOT sorry to have bought it.

It would be hard to overstate the clarity and comprehensiveness of the content. Similarly, it would be hard to overstate the shoddiness of the printing. It looks like it was run off on a third rate copier, so badly printed that some of the equations are impossible to read as they are printed on a gray background. Fortunately, the equations are reprinted in an appendix.

I had read comments on the poor print quality of this book but you have to see it to believe how bad it really is. There is no excuse for this product, it is completely unacceptable. Every single page is poor quality in addition every odd page is extremely faint and hard to read especially when the text gets very small as with fractions in formulas. The beauty of online shopping for retailers is the inconvenience of returning items especially if you are ordering from Canada to a US address just across the border. This book would have vanished from the shelves long ago if it were sold only in bookstores. I can only hope that by adding my review I will help to quell this type of nonsense. I really want to trust the publishers Amazon carries and concern myself with the content not the print quality in reading reviews. Isn't Prentice Hall a name you can trust, I suppose not.

If you work in the financial world and more especially in the IT department, you'll LOVE this book: clear, concise, lots of examples!

This book at this price is a bad & cheap photocopy --- some pages are of such poor copy quality that its hard to read --no fun to read and study it at all - other than that its grossly overrated for content and presentation

One of the best titles you can get about pricing swaps and simple options and many other money market stuff. A lot of excersises with solutions. I dont know how this book isnt a best-seller yet.

This book is a concise and informative guide to the concepts and mechanics (maths) and application of financial instruments.

Step by step instructions are given for the HP 12c.

This book is excellent for learning how to do financial mathematics. It covers the topic from a global perspective, looking at the conventions in different markets in the world such as Australia, UK, France, Germany, Japan, US etc. and shows you how to convert calculations among different market conventions. A truly global book and quite clearly explained!!! Makes a great teaching tool and an excellent reference tool.