Futures, Options and Swaps (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: quanto note, plain vanilla currency swap, bear floater, New York, United States, Dow Jones (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Bob Kolb's Futures, Options, and Swaps is the best college textbook I have ever reviewed in my 25-year teaching career. In my opinion, every finance professor and practitioner should have a copy because it breaks new ground on several fronts. This book is self-contained and combines theory with practice. It is solidly grounded in modern derivative theory and yet has strong ties to the real world of financial derivatives." Suk H. Kim, University of Detroit Mercy

"This edition, with its outstanding balance of theory and application along with its thorough coverage of relevant institutional arrangements, provides students at all levels with an excellent understanding of these markets. The accompanying OPTION! software is a powerful teaching aide for the pricing of various option and swaps products." Gerry Gay, Georgia State University

Product Description

Futures, Options and Swaps is the American Institute of Management Research's recommended text for students preparing for the Chartered Financial Analyst exam. It is an ideal text for students in finance or economics/finance programs who have completed one semester of investments at either the undergraduate or post-graduate level.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 824 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; 3rd Bk&Dk edition (August 10, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631214992
• ISBN-13: 978-0631214991
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.7 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #909,322 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear interesting read for both the layman and expert., July 3, 1999

By	jvdi "jvdi" (Fort Lauderdale, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Futures, Options, and Swaps (Hardcover)

This is the only non-AIMR text that is required reading for all three CFA exams. I feel the Dr. Kolb's strength is laying out the basic tenents of finance for the layman. He also includes advanced formulas in the latter part of the book if you want to get deeper.Certain other authors of finance and accounting texts seem more interested in impressing their readers with their acumen in the field. In this book you don't have to read a paragraph 3 times to get the basic gist of what he is trying to say. It is very plain and straightforward. If only more academics would write in this manner. My main problem with this book is I found it so interesting I wandered off the required reading sections for the CFA test too much.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Much better than many realize, September 19, 2005

By	Bachelier "Husband, Father, Catholic, Finance... (Ile de France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Futures, Options and Swaps 4e +CD (Hardcover)

Let's face it: the big Kahuna in this space is Hull's 6th Edition of "Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives" (I actually prefer the 5th Edition), which is frequently referred to as "The Bible" by financial quants. Paul Wilmott's two volume "Quantitative Finance" also has a solid following, in addition to growing appreciation for Mark Joshi's "The Concepts and Practice of Mathematical Finance." Robert Kolb's "Futures, Options, and Swaps" therefore is often confined to an "also-ran" and treated as unserious because of its inclusion in the CFA curriculum. This is unfair, and for most undergraduate and MBA students who are not destined for derivatives dealing desks, and even many who are, Kolb is the better volume.

Critics of Hull frequently cite that he is dry and technical to the point of somnolence. For Wilmott the opposite is the case. Critics hold his tone is flippant and that he glosses over major dimensions. My own view is these harsh reactions to these fine authors are exaggerations, but do have some evidence to support their expression. This, as a professor, leads me to the conclusion that for many students the author's tone is a major factor in their successful engagement with a fundamental teaching text.

This leads me to Kolb's excellent works. Many undergraduate and some MBA students of derivatives use "Hull lite" ("Fundamentals of Futures and Options Markets"), but I encourage the wider adoption and use of Kolb's "Futures, Options, and Swaps." Kolb is superior to Hull for tone, accessibility, lucidity, and utility. Where Hull reaches for a completist coverage of obscure pricing models, Kolb's coverage is instead complete in a practical sense, while not abandoning treatment of less well-known options and their pricing models. Kolb's clarity is commendable, and never dry. Kolb does not gloss over or ignore difficult topics, and his style is never pedantic or superficial.

This text does, however, contain any number of horrible errors and editing snafus that frustrate the reader. The errata sheet from the publisher does little to ameliorate the pain from these howlers. One wonders how a book can contain so many errors in such a competitive field. But it is fairly easily explained: because of Kolb's adoption by the CFA curriculum, there is a floor of near guaranteed sales that creates a non-competitive economic rent.

I particularly recommend Kolb over Hull and Wilmott for those students whose background is not mathematics, engineering, or hard sciences. While the book is technical, it is not written in near-code geek speak. For my MBA students who are "poets" rather than "rocket scientists" Kolb wins as hands down favorite. Hull remains excellent for experts, PhD students, technicians, and pricing specialists, however, Kolb certainly deserves wider respect and use by the majority of students of derivatives. In short, while flawed, Kolb is an excellent and accessible work. I recommend the wide adoption of Kolb's "Futures, Options, and Swaps," and in fact, all his other works, for most students of finance.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive book on Derivatives, April 12, 2000

By	Franco Arda (London UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Got many books on derivatives, but Kolb's is my favourite one. He covers the topic in a slightly less quantitative way than Hull does and goes straight to all the different derivatives while avoiding any further explanations like Ito's Lemma etc. I especially liked the part on swaps with many examples like flavoured swaps or equity swaps. Nevertheless, if you're looking for a good software, than I would recommend The Complete Guide to Option Pricing Formulas (build on Excel VBA).