Customer Reviews

The Money Market

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

 

 

The reviewer below seems a bit churlish attacking Marcia Stigum's excellent work after her death, but it is a transparent and futile effort. Marcia Stigum's book outlines timeless principles in the repo and money markets that travel well across borders. If one understands the equations so beautifully explained by the late Ms. Stigum, one can go anywhere in the world and competently perform.

It seems the review below comes from a pseudonym e-mail address - perhaps from one of the authors mentioned - who would list his own e-mail address on a public internet forum? It's odd that for one of the authors below, there is a comparison with Marcia Stigum's book and his book on one of his titles on Amazon.

It appears by deduction that Mr. Choudrhy (alias Gagan Singh) is responsible for all of the one-star reviews below. It seems he feels that any commercially successful book with titles similar to his releases are over-rated, for beginners, or offer nothing new and deserve multiple negative reviews. Fair and balanced is not in the mindset.

Ms. Stigum's excellent work on the dynamics of the U.S. money markets that can be used for analogies to the global money markets is appreciated by financial experts the world over. Believe the positive reviews and don't miss an opportunity to read a find work on the financial markets.

Believe every positive review. This book is absolutely amazing. It captures in one place information that is usually trapped in people's heads or is very manual and ad-hoc. This is a lay-of-the-land book, but with alot of detail. Definitely get it - use it like a desk reference.

The recent negative attacks on The Money Market are curious in light of the fact that Dr. Stigum passed away in August, 2003. I think that certain people are trying to promote a book and know that Dr. Stigum can no longer defend her work. How tacky.

The Money Market is still the most authoritative book on the subject and is written in plain English that any layperson can understand.

I was inspired to purchase this book after a well-known Risk Management website said that the 2002 edition was out. (They have fixed this little error on their website.) It's a great book for stories to tell your clients and I am sure it was a great source when it came out, but the most current edition is 13 years old! It is very hard for me to read this when I am constantly thinking that every description of some aspect of the money market may be outdated. I feel that booksellers and reviewers who fail to mention this when they praise this volume are doing a disservice, unless they know for a fact that the money markets have not changed.

This is a outstanding book in two ways: quantity and
quality. At well over 1000 pages, the amount and detail
of information might seem overwhelming. But Dr. Stegum
is one of those very rare authors who is able to write
clearly and engagingly about a technical subject. In
fact you can start reading this book at any chapter and
you will be captivated. The writing is very down-to-
earth. There are plenty of examples to clarify the
technical discussion as well as anecdotes and
explanations of street jargon and culture. This book
was written back in 1989. Finance is a rapidly
evolving industry and inevitably, some bits of the of
the book are dated. I highly recommend this book
because it is still informative and very enjoyable.

This book has been considered an "industry standard" for some time but is now woefully inadequate. It is written in very un-technical fashion that would make it good only for beginners, and does not cover the latest developments. It is also far too US-centric, for people such as myself who trade non-USD assets out of the US, it is useless.

A much better buy is "The Global Money Markets" by Fabozzi, Mann and Choudhry, at the same price but much better value-for-money and covers more markets. gagansingh935@hotmail.com

If you want to know the ins and outs of the short term credit market in the US, buy this book. Nothing else I have seen on this or similiar topics even comes close. The securities industry could really use books of like depth covering the workings of the stock and futures markets.

Primarily organized by product, this book is very long because it systematically covers off virtually every dimension of the money market (the fed, eurodollars, repo, MTN's, BA's, etc.), delving into the history of each instrument, why it is used, who trades it, how it is priced, and so on.

Despite being relentlessly detailed and obviously exhaustively researched, this book is easy to read. I am not a money market/investments freak or anything but I to this day will pick it up and read (or reread) a chapter on the way home just out of interest.

On the other hand, you probably do have to have some innate interest in financial instruments to appreciate this book. Certainly, if you are new to the field, or looking for tips on how to make trading profits in this market, this book is probably not for you. But if you are interested in the trading and settlement operations of the money market, it sure is.

Someday I think it would be fun to write a book of my own and I could honestly aspire to no higher goal than the quality of this book.

I repeat my professional remarks on the book below, which are nothing to do with a personal attack on the author but simply my view of the book, which I am entitled to air. A person who would leave his email address on a forum such as this is someone who is not afraid of making his views known and stands by them, unlike the reveiwer below who hides behind anonymity and whose opinions are therefore not really worth bothering with. Gagan Singh, New York, NY

This book provides a comprehensive overview of various money markets.

The reviewers that have written that this book is out of date are absolutely right. However, I had many other problems with the book even when the last edition was relatively new.

If you know nothing about money and financial markets, you will learn something. But if already understand these markets, you will be confounded by the mountains impossible-to-verify anecdotes and the many passages that are extremely vague. Apparently, what collection casual comments from a few people out of thousands of market participants constitutes hard research. At least the data that is easy to come by is in there.

This is fairly easy to read, but at the same time horribly written in places. I felt that the task the author assigned herself was just too overwhelming at times, and her skill and attention frequently faltered. Better to leave parts out, however, than to fill them in with mediocrity and innaccuracy.

If you are completely clueless about this sort of stuff, you probably ought to buy this book. But these days, you will find more than enough -- and more complete -- information by simply doing a web search.