Customer Reviews

Stochastic Calculus for Finance I: The Binomial Asset Pricing Model (Springer Finance)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It would be hard to overstate my enthusiasm for this text and its companion volume. In field that is too frequently represented by poorly thought out drafts rushed to market or by advanced mathematical treatments that are not easily understood by individuals more focused on practice, Shreve's texts stand out by being both rigorous and accessible with well thought out examples and exercises.

This particular volume, covering binomial models, covers advanced concepts in a discrete setting. For some it will represent a waste of time and those individuals are best advised to skip to Volume II. However, many intelligent students who are not so comfortable with abstract mathematics will find this a simple and concrete exposition that can serve as a bridge to more advanced theory.

I am always a fan of books that can simplify advanced concepts instead of drowning the reader in rigour. Shreve's introduction to probablistic asset pricing is gentle, covering basic stochastic processes, the concepts behind derivative pricing and hedging, as well as setting up the reader for subsequent readings. It's one of those books that you come back to when you are stuck with a problem from a conceptual point of view because things are explained in the book at an intuitive level.
All in all, a good foundation book or reference for starting quants.

I think the reviewer below who gave it one star seems biased and has an attitude. I would invite this reviewer to right a book half as good as this book. Personally, for me this book explained a lot of materials without having to master the more advanced measure theory and probability concepts. As a first introduction to the stocahstic calculus applications in finance, I highly recommend this book. And yes, I was always a big fan of Shreve's lecture notes on the net. They are the best.

This book is great to start understanding stochastic calculus with immediate application to pricing derivatives. To make everything simpler, all is explained on a discrete basis. This helps a lot to understand the subject and prepares the reader for the second course in which everything is converted into continues basis.

It also helps very much to understand how to price a derivative through portfolio that replicates it (Non-arbitrage principle).

This book is great book about theory. Using a simple binomial tree as asset evolution model, all key notions are introduced. Neutral-risk probabilities come up in a simple, natural way, and I never found such a clear explanation of the the change of measure and its meaning in finances. Examples help to understand every ussue.

The only case in which you should not buy it: if you are looking for real-market instruments and techniques.

This book seemed to strike the perfect balance between going through the necessary math and getting the points across without pushing the non-PhD reader overboard. This is a great book for semi-mathematical types who practice in finance, or for mathematicians who are looking to understand the basics of finance. I, being the former, enjoyed having the concepts of stochastic calculus and martingale theory being presented in the absolute simplest of fashions.

I find their main example of the Binomial option pricing, using starting $4, interest rate 1/4, u=2, d=1/2, with the risk neutral probablities p=q=1/2 unrealistic, confusing, and hard to see as a practical example. I had trouble relating this to a true example. The Binomial Option Pricing Model, found in PDF form at [...]is a much better explanation and excellent compliment to this book. It uses an actual $50 stock and $55 call option as an example, and prices it, showing how the up and down parameters are derived, and more realistic interest and risk probabilies.

Shreve's book is an excellent introduction to basic options pricing. He not only deals with plain vanilla options, but also shows how the binomial model can be used to to value exotic options. Each chapter has exercises which not only apply what is taught but force you to think and ensure that you really understand it.

Little more than basic algebra is required to understand the text, making it very accessible. His expositions of topics such as martingales, markov processes, etc. are very good. The text can be dense, though--there's a great deal of information.

In short, if you want an introduction of how options can be priced without the partial differential equations in the Black-Scholes model, this is an excellent choice.

I found this book to be a very interesting and fun read. A very helpful introduction to binomimal models and basic stopping time principals. It also provides a great refresher to Martingale principals. If you are having trouble with Shreve's volume II then have a look at this book first.

I agree that most concepts are clearly explained....emphasis on *most*. OK, I'll nitpick. And I admit I'm nitpicking. For example, the proof of Jensen's inequality (which he oddly dives into without defining convex functions), is rather non-intuitive, and seems to be more an appeal to the accompanying picture rather than a proof. The proof given under the Wikipedia entry for "Jensen's Inequality" is much clearer, and makes much more sense, at least to my way of thinking. Other than the occassional gaffe such as this, it is a highly readable, informative, and dare I say enjoyable text!