Customer Reviews

Risk Management and Derivatives

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

 

 

Do not buy this book. It's one of the most poorly written book i've ever read. The author likes to use long winded sentenses to explain simple concepts and he does a piss poor job at it. In addition, this book lack quality example problems to help you learn the concepts. When there are examples, they are deeply burried in text rather than clearly shown in a designated area. Imagine an algebra or calculus book with examples explained in text rather than numbers. (.i.e two plus two equals four ... as opposed to 2+2=4) This is how bad this book is. This book is not worth the money. The only way that it's worth the price I paid is if I get a chance to throw it that the author.

If anyone out there know of a well written risk management book, please let me know. I'd greatly appreciate it.

This book was assigned reading for an MBA course I took in risk management. It is horrible. As mentioned in an earlier review, the author explains the fundamental equations and ensuing examples all in words, almost as if it were meant to be an audio book. I have a PhD in one of the physical sciences and usually tear through and get a lot out of finance books. Not this one.

The table of contents makes this text look wonderful. In reality, this book is sad - although every chapter is about something important, it wastes 50 pages to ramble about something that could be covered succintly in half that. The organization of relevant maths is also extremely disappointing. I suspect one of the glowing reviews was by someone who hasn't actually read it - it sounds more like publisher's marketing.
I expected far more.

I am an MBA student and my class requires the use of this book (Risk Management and Derivatives, Stulz, 2003).
I completely agree with other's negative comments regarding this book. Equations are written within a paragraph rather than separated out to clarify. The text is written purely on theory - even the "real world" examples are relatively impossible to understand.
My professor, after reviewing the assigned exercises from the book, canceled all future assignments noting that the wording of the problems and the text were so confusing that they were almost impossible to work. My professor noted that he refuses to teach this class again until the school uses a different textbook.
This book has made a relatively difficult subject impossible to learn.

Mike

The book has almost no straight forward examples. While the concepts are presented well, the mathematics are described very poorly. In addition the end of chapter problems force you to make many assumptions, causing many a long night.

I am taking this course at my MBA school "Financial Risk Management". got to say, this book is so ugly dry of illustration and exhibits .. u just feel terribly sick when you start reading it and honestly don't know why they have not assign some other good books available out there. please, if you want this subject for fun reading or something like that, do not approach this one.

I am an MBA student and had to purchase this book for my risk management course. I was not impressed by the book. The text is not clear, it lacks enough examples and clarifications to reinforce the concept for someone new to this field. I certainly don't recommend this book for someone new to this field

I have encountered feelings about this book. I liked that it relates corporate finance topics with risk management, giving a better picture of how finance should be understood. I definitely agree that it is full of very valuable insights that increase our knowledge and understanding of finance and risk management. Some of my impressions about the book are:

-The book is sometimes easy to follow, but many times it is very difficult to follow.
-Many difficult parts to follow were unnecessarily complicated by the author.
-Many times the book didn't follow clearly an idea, as if each following sentence or paragraph was written by different people with something different in his mind each.
-Many times it used several lines and paragraphs to explain something simple that could be stated in one sentence.
-Some topics were explained very clearly but others were dreadfully explained.
-Some numeric examples were clear and some were very difficult to follow

My opinion is that you should look for another book on the subject; unfortunately I cannot give an advice about an alternative book.

Anyway, before reading this book you should have a good understanding about the CAPM, derivatives (futures, forwards, options), and basic probability.

This book could become a great book if the author took the time to improve its readability and coherence, because it has very valuable knowledge embedded in it.

This is one of the best books I ever had. Being able to understand every detail is not easy , but the author does a great job in bringing mathematical concepts with an application perspectives

Risk Management and Derivatives by Rene Stulz is a pioneering book into the need, value, and how to of corporate risk management. Rene Stulz is one of the leaders in this area of finance and has researched and studied it over many years, he is one of the leading experts in the understanding and managing of firm risk. The book motivates the subject by presenting existing and new arguments for the use of risk management by corporations. The book is designed to prepare current and future managers and executives for the world and value of derivatives. To assist the reader, learning objectives are presented at the beginning of each chapter. Many books approach the subject in a very technical or overly simplistic method to the use of derivatives to manage a firms risk, this book gives enough detail for a good understanding and use of derivatives for managing a firm's risk but is not to technical for the non-derivatives expert. All necessary quantitative background is provided in the book.

The book begins by discussing derivatives and how they are used to manage risks. It then goes on to look at the value of risk management from the investor as well as the firms viewpoint. The book then examines the basic derivatives tools used for managing risk, including forwards, futures and options. To help the manager in the use of these instruments the book uses many real world examples and discusses the identification and measurement of exposures. To help the reader understand the use and value of the most commonly used derivatives instruments, the author discusses their use and even explains the pricing of options using the Black-Scholes as well as the binomial pricing models. There is even a chapter on interest rate risk, which is the must common risk that is hedged. In the last several chapters of the book, the author goes beyond the basics and discusses more advanced risk management tools and instruments along with a chapter on swaps, which is a fast growing and flexible tool for hedging interest and exchange rate risks. The book concludes with an extensive discussion of the practice of risk management that examines the recent academic studies and predictions of the future of this valuable and growing field.

If you are interested in risk management or are a manager that is interested in increasing firm value and reducing risk, then this is a must read. This book is the state of the art in this exciting area of finance and is written by one of its leading pioneers.