Mastering Financial Mathematics in Microsoft Excel: A Practical Guide for Business Calculations [Paperback]

Alastair Day (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0273688669 | ISBN-13: 978-0273688662 | Publication Date: September 18, 2005 | Edition: First Edition

Provides financial managers, finance professionals and finance students with a quick, easy and practical guide to using Excel for financial mathematics.

• Financial mathematics can be applied more quickly and easily in Excel than any other package, there is therefore demand for a book in this field.
• Will improve financial managers’ abilities with Excel and provide them with solutions to their financial problems.
• Highly practical : includes a library of templates, exercises and solutions as an illustration of the methods.
• Part of the highly respected and recognised Mastering series.
• Positioning: Will use simpler models to illustrate the formulas and methodology than Mastering Financial Modelling and Mastering Risk Modelling.
• Benchmark: 1. Mastering Financial Calculations (Steiner). Similar book, but for professionals in financial markets, and with less emphasis on Excel.
• Benchmark 2. Paul Wilmott’s Quantitative Finances (Wiley) is in this space but is a high-level academic text and is less practical and easy to absorb. The exercises and solutions in ours will significantly cut down learning time. Ours also focuses wholly on Excel, which is a standard for all financial managers and students, this is what they want and need to know.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Tools enabling managers to carry out financial calculations have evolved in the last 20 years from tables through calculators to programs on PCs and personal organisers. Today, the majority of those in finance have Excel on their desks and increasingly on their laptops or pocket computers.

Mastering Financial Mathematics in Microsoft Excel provides a comprehensive set of tools and methods to apply Excel to solving mathematical problems. Alastair Day clearly explains the basic calculations for mathematical finance backed up with simple templates for further use and development, together with numerous examples and exercises.

Providing an explanation of key financial formulas and subject areas, the book includes a CD which:

·    allows you to work step-by-step through each of the chapters and examples

·    shows the use of formulas using straight-forward Excel templates

·    introduces examples and exercises for extension work

·    provides a menu of basic templates for further development

·    enables you to practise, develop and improve your efficiency and competence with Excel

Mastering Financial Mathematics in Microsoft Excel  will be invaluable in helping improve your Excel skills and understand the underlying financial concepts.

About the Author

Alastair Day has worked in the finance industry for 20 years in treasury and marketing functions. In 1990 he established Systematic Finance as a consultancy and financial lessor concentrating on the computer and communications industries. Alastair has a degree in Economics and German from London University, an MBA from the Open University Business School, and is an associate lecturer in corporate finance with the OUBS. He is the successful author of several books including Mastering financial Modelling, Mastering Risk Modelling and The Financial Director's Guide to Purchasing Leasing published by the Financial Times Prentice Hall and a range of software products. In addition, he develops and presents public and in-house courses on a range of topics including financial modelling, leasing, credit and cash flow analysis, and other corporate finance topics.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: FT Press; First Edition edition (September 18, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0273688669
• ISBN-13: 978-0273688662
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,170,956 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Poorly done, October 3, 2005

By 

Avid Learner (NY, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mastering Financial Mathematics in Microsoft Excel: A Practical Guide for Business Calculations (Paperback)

I was looking for a book that would help me brush up on my financial math and this does not do the job. Day does a poor job of explaining the material, and furthermore, his CD is poorly done. He does not enter most of the formulas, but rather he hard coats his numbers. This makes it just about impossible to follow what he is talking about in his book as the reader must somehow come up with the formulas that he is describing on his own. Day does a great job of protecting his models from being copied as no one would want to recreate the formulas he is using, but in doing so, he prevents the reader from learning. If you are looking for a good book on financial mathematics, this is not it.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A reference book rather than teaching guide, February 27, 2006

By 

California reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mastering Financial Mathematics in Microsoft Excel: A Practical Guide for Business Calculations (Paperback)

I have an MBA in Managerial Economics and was looking for a review in financial math w/ Excel illustrations. I purchased this book and returned it because it is poorly written and/or a reference book for someone who already knows the material rather than a teaching guide. Another book which appears more suitable for my purposes is 'Finance Guide With Formulated Solutions for Excel' by Roger Bennitt.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars financial math using excel, October 2, 2007

By 

R. McGee "Financial Economist" (Phoenix, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mastering Financial Mathematics in Microsoft Excel: A Practical Guide for Business Calculations (Paperback)

Book does and excellent job in showing how to apply financial formulas in excel. It is not a textbook in financial math and assumes you already know or have access to other sources explaining the math. The book covers basic interest, NPV, IRR, bond calculations and stripping, floating rate securities,swaps,forwards,futures,foreign exchange,option pricing,valuation methods,leasing and basic statistics.

The book does a good job of outlining each concept before explaining how it is used in excel. The author's major contribution is showing how to organize the model layout so that inputs, calculations and model outputs can be easily seen and changed saving time and decreasing model errors.