Customer Reviews

Quantitative Methods For Investment Analysis

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

 

 

I have purchased this book because it was recommended reading for the CFA program.
Unfortunately, this book has really disappointed me. The author explains nothing but general statistics but attempts to add an "investment dimension" to his explanations. The writing style is anything but educational. The output is a unstructured, complicated and uncomprehensive text with examples that only add to your confusion. In many of the passages you get lost and don't understand what the author is trying to get across to you or where he is leading. The author frequently jumps from one topic to another and skips important information, not to mention the numerous printing errors in the text. I found myself struggling on one of the passages half an hour, when I finally decided to look up the same topic in the statistics book in the library. It explained everything in a matter of seconds.
Think twice before buying this book. Get ANY introductory business statistics text (e.g. Statistics for Management and Economics by Gerald Keller) - they ALL cover the SAME topics in a MUCH more understandable way.

This book does not do a good job in explaining the basic concepts of Statistics and how to apply it for quantitative analysis of Investments. The only reason why this book sells is that it is part of the recommended texts for the CFA program and the authors are part of the AIMR board. I am pursing the CFA charter as well as my masters in Economics and I would suggest the book "Introductory Statistics" by Thomas H. Wonnacott, Ronald J. Wonnacott which does an awesome job in explaining the basic concepts of Statistics. You would understand WHY we do such and such instead of memorizing formulae.

This text is a great improvement over the material the CFA program used in the mid-90s. Since it is intended to provide a survey of basic statistics and their applications in finance, it would be wrong to expect a deep treatise on any one subject. There are many real world applications used to describe the concepts tackled in this book. The learning outcomes listed at the beginning of each chapter provide a road map for the reader so that all salient points will be absorbed.

Will this book be the only one you will need to become a quantitative analyst? No, but it is a great starting point. If you are desiring more depth perhaps a review of the abstracts on the AIMR website would lead you more involved, scholarly efforts.

I read this book in preperation for my CFA exam. I found it very useful. It covers most of the quantitative methods you need in finance. The explanations are very good. The book has plenty of solved exercises on every topic.

There is a large body of knowledge related to quantitative analysis, and I really love how quickly this book manages to convey so much of it to the reader. The authors rapidly build on knowledge in the chapter text, allowing you to learn quickly. They also provide boxed examples and end-of-chapter practice problems for those readers needing to carefully review particular topics.

You'll find yourself speeding through concepts like discounting, distributions, hypothesis testing, and much more as you read through the pages. I'm a little embarrassed to say that before reading this book I often created computer simulations to assess a distribution of outcomes - simply because I never learned the math that would allow me to find my answers quickly on a calculator. Today I retreat to computer simulations much less often, and have reaped large dividends on saved time and resources.

Whether you are working to obtain the CFA designation, or are simply looking for a terrific desk resource for quantitative analysis, I recommend this book to you.

A more complete list of topics covered:
Discounting and rates of return
Statistics, probabilities, and distributions
Estimation and hypothesis testing
Regression analysis
Portfolio analysis

Given that the 2001 First edition is selling for $30 less used than the 2004 Second edition, is there a big difference between the 2 editions. Should I just save myself $30 and buy the first edition?

I randomly selected "3 stars" b/c I had to. I have no review of this book.

Thanks.