The Handbook of Fixed Income Securities (Hardcover)

by Frank Fabozzi (Author) "This chapter will explore some of the most important features of bonds, preferred stock, and mortgage-backed securities, and provide the reader with a taxonomy of..." (more)
Key Phrases: current dollar duration, target dollar duration, protective put buying strategy, United States, Federal Reserve, New York (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The world’s #1 fixed income book, now with 21 all-new chapters

The Handbook of Fixed Income Securities occupies the top spot as the most authoritative, widely read reference in the global fixed income marketplace. First published in 1983, this comprehensive survey of current knowledge features contributions from leading academics and practitioners and has carved out a niche that cannot and will not be equaled by any other single sourcebook.

Now, the thoroughly revised and updated seventh edition gives finance professionals the facts and formulas they need to compete in today’s transformed marketplace. It places increased emphasis on applications, electronic trading, and global portfolio management, and features new chapters on topics including:

• Eurobonds
• Emerging market debt
• Credit risk modeling
• Synthetics
• CDOs
• Transition management
• And many more

From the Back Cover

The world's most trusted fixed income resource for more than two decades, now substantially revised and updated

The Handbook of Fixed Income Securities is the investing industry's most authoritative, widely followed fixed income reference. Institutional and individual investors have learned to rely on the handbook for its scope and detail, along with the unquestioned global authority and expertise of its contributors.

This thoroughly revised seventh edition features updated facts and formulas for analyzing, valuing, and managing fixed income instruments and their derivatives in today's evolving marketplace, including:

• Types, features, and uses of fixed income securities
• Risks and risk control strategies
• Basics of fixed income analytics, from bond pricing to price volatility measures
• Binomial and Monte Carlo valuation methodologies
• Active and structured portfolio management strategies
• Interest rate and credit derivatives and their portfolio management applications
• Increased coverage of electronic trading, international portfolio management, mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities, collateralized debt obligations, and innovative fixed income applications

The Handbook of Fixed Income Securities, Seventh Edition, is the most all-inclusive, up-to-date source available for fixed income facts and analyses. Its valuable perspective and insights will help you enhance investment returns and avoid poor performance in the fixed income market.

Since 1983, through six previous editions, The Handbook of Fixed Income Securities has been the essential reference for institutional investors, portfolio managers, financial analysts, and virtually anyone requiring access to the latest, most authoritative information on the global fixed income marketplace. But an unprecedented number of new products and approaches has brought dramatic new opportunities and risks to that marketplace.

In the substantially revised seventh edition of this investment classic, leading fixed income authority Frank Fabozzi with the assistance of Steven Mann once again teams with the world's top fixed income experts to provide you with insights and details on contemporary fixed income vehicles and strategies. New and updated topics include:

• Bond primary and secondary markets

• Calculating investment returns

• Forward rates

• Eurobonds

• Emerging market debt

• Stable value investments

• Mortgages and mortgage-backed securities

• Agency mortgage pass-through securities

• Collateralized mortgage obligations

• Residential asset-backed securities

• Securities backed by credit card receivables

• Cash-collateralized debt obligations

• Synthetic CDOs

• Credit risk modeling

• Rating agency approach to structured finance

• Yield-curve analysis

• The market yield curve and fitting the term structure of interest rates

• Hedging interest-rate risk with term-structure factor models

• Quantitative management of benchmarked portfolios

• Financing positions in the bond market

• Transition management

• Credit derivatives

The Handbook of Fixed Income Securities, Seventh Edition, equips you with a comprehensive overview of all fixed income securities and strategies and continues to be the investment industry's most accessible and all-inclusive resource. Invaluable for its theoretical insights, unsurpassed in its hands-on guidance, and unequalled in the expertise and authority of its contributors, this concise, complete explanation of fixed income securities and applications delivers the data and knowledge investment professionals need and remains the one fixed income answer book to have within reach at all times.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 1500 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 7 edition (April 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071440992
• ISBN-13: 978-0071440998
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 2.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #38,643 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

95 of 101 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very broad in horizon, but lacks the depth, March 27, 2000

By	A. Gupta "amitnewyork" (New Delhi, INDIA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Handbook of Fixed Income Securities (Hardcover)

I used this book as a text for a graduate level "Fixed Income Analysis" course. This book covers almost all the fixed income financial instruments from plain vanilla bonds to interest rate derivatives. However, reading this book leaves the reader with a desire for more than just the peripheral knowledge, which is all this book offers.

Theoretically, this book justfies its being called a handbook, but on the mathematical front, it stands absolutely nowhere. There are little or no examples used in the text even though the author touches base on the advanced topics sometimes. Any fixed income practioner, including me, will tell you that ONE JUST CANNOT LEARN FIXED INCOME CONCEPTS WITHOUT GRASPING THE MATH BEHIND THEM, and this book scores poorly in the quantitative analysis. Fixed income securities are extremely sensitive to interest rate fluctuations, and hence, it would be only sensible to present atleast a few chapters trying to explore the concepts used in the modeling of interest rates. But this book doesn't do that. There is little quantitative discussion about duration and convexity, two of the most important risk-measurement tools for bonds.

Since it is called a handbook, I don't see any reason why the author should hold back advanced concepts from the readers. Conversely, since this book doesn't attempt to teach all the concepts to its readers, it should not be called a handbook. This problem is actually common to all the Fabozzi books. Either his math is weak, or he is just busy making money writing a handbook on every possible fixed income security. It's only a shame that a capable and learned individual like him should do such a sloppy job.

I would recommend books by Bruce Tuckman, Garbade, or Horne for more advanced and intelligent discussions on fixed income securities and interest rates rather than this book. One really need not waste money on this book. Theory on Fixed Income instruments is widely available from Federal Reserve publications, which are almost always free. Put your money only where it will produce fixed & positive returns - Fixed Income 101.

40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The sine qua non, August 3, 2001

By	"bibliomane01" (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Handbook of Fixed Income Securities, 6th Edition (Hardcover)

This book has been around for years and new editions are lapped up by fresh generations of bond geeks. You will find a copy on pretty much every fixed income desk in the industry (including mine). Why all the hoopla? Because there is simply no other book like it. Because it is simply the most comprehensive survey of the various fixed income markets in print. For a basic understanding of the structure and institutional aspects fixed income securities, Fabozzi is the inevitable first stop. All this being said, it is important to understand the book's weaknesses. There is relatively little depth in terms of analytics and if you want formulae you will have to look elsewhere. But for basic overviews, structural details and the orientation that is a precondition for deeper study, the Handbook is in a class by itelf.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but repetitive (collection of essays)., June 10, 2005

By	W. O. Smith (London, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book probably tells you everything you need to know about bonds. Certainly, I was asked four 'interview' questions about bonds the other day and I could answer all 4 confidently after reading just the opening chapters.

However the length of the book works against it. It's so huge, Fabozzi hasn't written it all himself, rather, he's relied on a number of authors to contribute chapters.

This results in an uneven flow. After a chapter 5, a fairly complex chapter covering things like calculating the yield-to-maturity by combining all of a bond's cashflows, comes chapter 6, covering such basics as how to calculate a percentage return if you invest x dollars and get back y dollars 1 year later!

Another problem is that the book's got so huge, Fabozzi's even forgotten what's in it. For example, repos are covered in pages 295-301, and pages 1048-1054. However, the coverage is almost identical, word-for-word. One is clearly just a slightly edited version of the other. Both chapters are written by Fabozzi and Steven V Mann. Perhaps Fabozzi, as editor, simply forgot that he included the information previously, and added it in again in a later edition. This kind of repetitivness just wastes the reader's time.