Investment Science (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Traditionally, investment is defined as the current commitment of resources in order to achieve later benefits..." (more)
Key Phrases: spot rate curve, positive state prices, risk aversion principle, New York, Englewood Cliffs, Prentice Hall (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is the best single volume on investments ever written. It is one of the only books to cover both derivatives and portfolio optimization, and it does not get bogged down with unnecessary notation. It is a real page turner. For non-finance types looking for a serious, rigorous introduction to the subject, look no further."--Wayne Winston, Professor of Decision Sciences, Indiana University
"This book is well written, clear, and cohesive. There is not a single investment textbook that I am aware of that gives such in-depth and organized treatment of the topics chosen by this book. A distinguishing feature is that it gives you every single detail and tool that you would ever need to solve problems."--Raymond Kan, University of Toronto
"Investment Science is a wonderful textbook treatment of investment theory for the quantitatively-minded undergraduate or masters student. This book is typical of David Luenberger's uncanny way of simplifying complex technical material without loss of rigor. He divides and conquers the subject, starting with the basics of simple fixed-income securities, and building up to the valuation and hedging of derivative securities in a dynamic setting under uncertainty. There is a lovely interplay of arbitrage calculations, portfolio selection for individual investors, and market equilibrium. The book will be especially valuable for those entering the subject from other quantitative fields."--Darrell Duffie, Stanford University Graduate School of Business
"Options and continuous-time finance are important enough to warrant a whole course in MBA programs. David Luenberger's book makes continuous time finance accessible to any student who has mastered elementary calculus and probability theory, and motivates the subject by using it to solve a broad range of option-type problems relating to stock, bond, and commodity markets."--Jack Treynor, President, Treynor Capital Management, Inc.
"This textbook takes a refreshing approach to the science of investing. It is extremely well-written. Financial principles and ideas are laid out clearly and in an orderly fashion." -- Joseph Cherian, Department of Finance, School of Management, Boston University
"The book is very clearly written and introduces advanced concepts (e.g. duration and convexity of bonds) in relatively simple and intuitive ways early in the book. There are lots of carefully thought out examples to illustrate important points and applications of particular methodologies. Overall, the book does a great job of taking a reader who knows essentially nothing about finance from very basic concepts up through rather advanced valuation topics."--James E. Hodder, University of Wisconsin-Madison
"This text is a breakthrough in the organization of very important theory."--Lloyd Nirenberg, Director, Business Development, National Semiconductor Corp.
"This book provides great insights and practical approaches for anyone interested in the relation between markets and decisions. It is written in a unique and creative manner." --Nick V. Arvanitidis, CEO,IDEA GmbH., and Former CEO, Sequus Pharmaceuticals
"Luenberger's book is very informative and offers genuinely new insights into important investment problems."--Paul McEntire, Chairman, Skye Investment Advisors LLC
"Professor Luenberger's book, particularly Chapters 15 &16, lays the foundation for the analytic approach Enron takes when assessing and managing risk in its non-traded asset portfolio."--Andrea Vail, Vice President, Enron Capital Management

Product Description

Fueled in part by some extraordinary theoretical developments in finance, an explosive growth of information and computing technology, and the global expansion of investment activity, investment theory currently commands a high level of intellectual attention. Recent developments in the field are being infused into university classrooms, financial service organizations, business ventures, and into the awareness of many individual investors. Modern investment theory using the language of mathematics is now an essential aspect of academic and practitioner training.

Representing a true breakthrough in the organization of finance topics, Investment Science will be an indispensable tool in teaching modern investment theory. It presents sound fundamentals and shows how real problems can be solved with modern, yet simple, methods. David Luenberger gives thorough yet highly accessible mathematical coverage of the standard and recent topics of introductory investments: fixed-income securities, modern portfolio theory and capital asset pricing theory, derivatives (futures, options, and swaps), and innovations in optimal portfolio growth and valuation of multiperiod risky investments. Throughout the book, he uses mathematics to present essential ideas of investments and their applications in business practice. The creative use of binomial lattices to formulate and solve a wide variety of important finance problems is a special feature of the book.

In moving from fixed-income securities to derivatives, Luenberger increases naturally the level of mathematical sophistication, but never goes beyond algebra, elementary statistics/probability, and calculus. He includes appendices on probability and calculus at the end of the book for student reference. Creative examples and end-of-chapter exercises are also included to provide additional applications of principles given in the text.

Ideal for investment or investment management courses in finance, engineering economics, operations research, and management science departments, Investment Science has been successfully class-tested at Boston University, Stanford University, and the University of Strathclyde, Scotland, and used in several firms where knowledge of investment principles is essential. Executives, managers, financial analysts, and project engineers responsible for evaluation and structuring of investments will also find the book beneficial. The methods described are useful in almost every field, including high-technology, utilities, financial service organizations, and manufacturing companies.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; illustrated edition edition (July 3, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195108094
• ISBN-13: 978-0195108095
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #98,897 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very good introductory book, April 17, 1998

By	Giuseppe A. Paleologo "gappy" (Riverdale, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This textbook introduces the basics of asset pricing theory and portfolio optimization at a level suitable to advanced undergraduates. The mathematics seems to be just right for practitioners: no martingales, no girsanov theorem, but a complete treatment of binomial lattices and a semi-quantitative introduction to diffusion processes and to stochastic calculus. Problems are very well chosen. The organization of the text is standard, except for the last two chapters, related to optimal growth portfolio and to real options. Final remark: the book is excellent for self-study. I learnt the subject from Prof. Luenberger himself, and he was repeating each single word from the book, saying (as a disclaimer) that "it's not me copying the book... it's the book that copies what I said. After all, I wrote it." Needless to say, the class was excellent.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good but not excellent, March 14, 2007

By	jim (Davis, CA) - See all my reviews

This book serves very good introduction to mathematical finance. Particularly,
I enjoyed the discussion of bonds immunization, mean-variance theory, CAPM, APT.
It's most suitable for senior undergraduates or any junior graduate students.
But it doesn't deserve 5 star for the following reasons:

1) Most of the theories discussed so far in the book are TOO idealized and
over simplified. Financial data is dynamic and massive. In model quantitative/computational finance, the most important thing is to understand what the data says rather than what one thinks the data structure might be. With the book, one probably can only do some macroeconomic/very coarse analysis. Author should incorporate more data analysis evidence together with proposed theories.

2) The proof of ito's lemma is wrong(i.e. "Deltaz^2 --> deterministic as Deltat --> 0"). It's surprising since most books make the same mistake. It is the law of the large number contributes to the equality!(i.e. integration sense). The misunderstanding of the proof might lead to the misunderstanding of the hedging process.

3) In the commodity option pricing session, author demonstrated the use of futher market to price the option. This should be discussed further (i.e. black's model).

4) The volatility pumping session should be further researched. The explanation is
not satisfactory.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the few books I have purchased twice., September 9, 2003

By	"bridenou" (Honolulu, HI United States) - See all my reviews

This is the best book by far on the theory of finance. The book covers all the important fundamental concepts and develops them into practical models without going overboard and introducing every possible variation on the model. the style is both conversational and mathematical. It is replete with discussions about the material, but it doesnt gloss over the math. I took professor Luenbergers course at Stanford, and it piqued my interest in finance enough to pursue it professionally. (At the time, I was a masters student in electrical engineering.) I purchased several other books in finance. I dont even know where they are now, every time I have a question or need to build a new model, I go straight to Luenberger. This book is so good, I bought a second copy just as a backup, in case I lose my copy and the book goes out of print.