Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives (4th Edition) [Hardcover]

John C. Hull (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0130224448 | ISBN-13: 978-0130224446 | Publication Date: January 15, 2000 | Edition: 4 Har/Dsk

For undergraduate and graduate courses in Options and Futures, Financial Engineering and Risk Management, typically found in business, finance, economics and mathematics departments. Also suitable for practitioners who want to acquire a working knowledge of how derivatives can be analyzed.This best seller represents how academia and real-world practice have come together with a common respect and focus of theory and practice. It provides a unifying approach to the valuation of all derivatives--not just futures and options. It assumes that the reader has taken an introductory course in finance and an introductory course in probability and statistics. No prior knowledge of options, futures contracts, swaps, and so on is assumed.

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From the Inside Flap

Preface

This book is appropriate for graduate and advanced undergraduate elective courses in business, economics, and financial engineering. It is also suitable for practitioners who want to acquire a working knowledge of how derivatives can be analyzed.

One of the key decisions that must be made by an author who is writing in the area of derivatives concerns the use of mathematics. If the level of mathematical sophistication is too high, the material is likely to be inaccessible to many students and practitioners. If it is too low, some important issues will inevitably be treated in a rather superficial way. In this book, great care has been taken in the use of mathematics. Nonessential mathematical material has been either eliminated or included in end-of-chapter appendices. Concepts that are likely to be new to many readers have been explained carefully, and many numerical examples have been included.

This book provides a unifying approach to the valuation of all derivatives - not just futures and options. The book assumes that the reader has taken an introductory course in finance and an introductory course in probability and statistics. No prior knowledge of options, futures contracts, swaps, and so on is assumed. It is not therefore necessary for students to take an elective course in investments prior to taking a course based on this book. Changes in This Edition

This edition contains more material than the third edition. The material in the third edition has been updated and its presentation has been improved in a number of places. The major changes include:

1. A new chapter (chapter 14) has been included on value at risk.
2. A new chapter (chapter 15) has been included on estimating volatilities and correlations. GARCH models are covered in much more detail than in the third edition.
3. Chapter 19 contains much new material and explains the role played by martingales and measures in the valuation of derivatives.
4. Chapter 20 on the standard market models for valuing interest rate derivatives has been revised. It now uses the material in chapter 19 to provide a more complete discussion of the models for valuing bond options, caps, and swap options.
5. There are now two chapters on equilibrium and no-arbitrage models of the term structure (chapters 21 and 22). Chapter 21 covers equilibrium models and one-factor no-arbitrage models of the short rate. Chapter 22 covers two-factor models of the short rate, the HIM model, and the LIBOR market (BGM) model.
6. Chapter 4 on Interest Rates and Duration has been rewritten to make the material clearer and more relevant.
7. Chapter 23 on Credit Risk has been rewritten to reflect developments in this important area.
8. More material has been added on volatility smiles and volatility skews (chapter 17).
9. The sequencing of the material has been changed slightly. Volatility smiles and alternatives to Black-Scholes now appear before the chapter on exotic options, which in turn appears before the material on interest rate derivatives.
10. The notation has been improved and simplified. So and Fo are used to denote the asset price and the forward price today (that is, at time zero) and the cumbersome "T - t" no longer appears in most parts of the book.
11. A glossary of terms has been included.
12. Many new problems and questions have been added. Software

New Excel-based software, DerivaGem, is included with the book. This software is a big improvement over the software included with previous editions. It has been carefully designed to complement the material in the text. Users can calculate options prices, imply volatilities, and calculate Greek letters for European options, American options, exotic options, and interest rate derivatives. Interest rate derivatives can be valued either using Black's model or a no-arbitrage model. The software can be used to display binomial trees (see for example Figure 16.3 and Figure 21.11) and provide many different charts showing the impact of different variables on either option prices or the Greek letters.

The software is described more fully at the end of the book. Updates to the software can be downloaded from my Web site (mgmt.utoronto.ca/-hull). Slides

Several hundred PowerPoint slides can be downloaded from my Web site. The slides now use only standard fonts. Instructors can adapt the slides to meet their own needs. Answers to Questions

Solutions to the end-of-chapter problems in the first three editions were available only in the Instructor's Manual. Over the years many people have asked me to make the solutions more generally available. I have hesitated to do this because it would prevent instructors from using the problems as assignment questions.

In this edition I have dealt with this issue by dividing the end-of-chapter problems into two groups: "Questions and Problems" and "Assignment Questions". There are over 450 Questions and Problems and solutions to these are in a book Options, Futures, & Other Derivatives: Solutions Manual, which is published by Prentice Hall. There are about 80 Assignment Questions. Solutions to these are available only in the Instructor's Manual.

From the Back Cover

One of the exciting developments in finance over the last 20 years has been the growth of derivatives markets. In many situations, both hedgers and speculators find it more attractive to trade a derivative on an asset than to trade the asset itself. Some derivatives are traded on exchanges. Others are traded by financial institutions, fund managers, and corporations in the over-the-counter market, or added to new issues of debt and equity securities. Much of this book is concerned with the valuation of derivatives. The aim is to present a unifying framework within all derivatives-not just options or futures-can be valued.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 608 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 4 Har/Dsk edition (January 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0130224448
• ISBN-13: 978-0130224446
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #338,025 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The classic on derivatives., August 1, 2000

By 

Rick Zuma - See all my reviews

This review is from: Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives (4th Edition) (Hardcover)

This book has been the standard text for mathematicians, physicists, and engineers retooling for Wall Street. I agree with the praise of other reviewers - especially 'a reader' on September 20, 1996. This book is still a gem. For a full PDE approach I recommend "Option Pricing: Mathematical Models and Computations" by Wilmott, Dewynne, and Howison. For a good probability theory approach, I recommend "Financial Calculus" by Baxter and Rennie. One reservation on Hull's book - it will be difficult for many readers with economic/finance/MBA backgrounds not completely fluent in calculus.

76 of 95 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This bible contains errors, March 3, 2002

By 

Professor Joseph L. McCauley "Joseph L. McCauley" (Austria+Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives (4th Edition) (Hardcover)

First, my review refers to the 1997 3rd edition.

Since this book is regarded as the bible of derivatives (it was also my first introduction) I will leave it to others to praise it and concentrate instead on what's wrong with it. First and foremost, one cannot learn how correctly to formulate solutions to stochastic differential equations from this text: eqns. (10.7,8), e.g., are not correct for arbitrary returns but are valid only as approxmations for small returns (Hull leads the reader to believe the opposite). The problem is that Ito's lemma is only stated, not proven, and it's the proof that shows one how to formulate correctly the stochastic integral equations that Hull calls 'stochastic difference equations'. When volatility depends on returns and/or time, then the errors made from following Hull's oversimplified treatment become serious.

My first impression of Baxter & Rennie's 'Financial Calculus' was that it was unnecessary and a waste of money. My opinion reversed completely after realizing (under prodding by a physics colleague who's an expert on sde's) how badly Hull's approach to sde's really is. Also, the systematic derivation of Black-Scholes from the assumption of a replicating, self-financing strategy in B&R is very nice. As Feynman said, we don't really understand a result until we can derive it from many different viewpoints. The method is not really different in principle from the standard short derivation given in Hull, but it does provide a nice, clear example of what is meant by replication and self-financing in the terminology of Brownian motion/sde's.

23 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is still the best intro level book on derivatives., November 29, 2002

By 

"yin_luo" (Toronto, ON CANADA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives (4th Edition) (Hardcover)

I took Prof Hull's Advanced Risk Management class a few years ago with lecture notes. I also have the previous edition of this book, but I still bought this one. It took me three days to read the book cover-to-cover, and I have to say I still enjoy reading it very much. Assuming minimum math background (basic calculus and prob theory), Prof Hull introduced the world of derivatives, pricing, risk mgmt in plain English. By far, it's still the best introductory level book on derivatives, with balanced treatment of pde and risk-neutral valuation (not like Wilmott's book - almost 100% pde and ignoring risk-neutral altogether). For a bit more advanced reading, Neftci's Intro to Math of Derivatives is a good one. However, to have a complete picture of derivatives pricing, stochastic calculus (at the level of Karatzas & Shreve' Brownian Motion and Stochastic Calculus) is a must, which will instead need a fair exposure to real analysis, measure-theory level prob theory, and ode/pde. For readers who want some knowledge of derivatives but don't want to be quant, Hull's book pretty much tells you everything you ever want to know about derivatives.