Derivatives: A Comprehensive Resource for Options, Futures, Interest Rate Swaps, and Mortgage Securities (Financial Management Association Survey and Synthesis Series) (Hardcover)

by Fred D. Arditti (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
A derivative is an investment instrument such as a futures contract or an option and is so called because it is derived from a cash market. During the last decade, the growth of the derivatives market has been tremendous. Professional money managers use derivatives to help manage risk, but derivatives themselves are highly risky. Speculation in them brought about the collapse of Barings Bank and the bankruptcy of Orange County, California. Arditti is a professor of finance at Chicago's DePaul University and former chief economist at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. He provides detailed explanations of how each of the four major classes (identified in his title) of derivatives works and when and how each should be used. Arditti targets investment bankers, corporate treasurers, fund managers, financial advisers, apprentice traders, and business students; and he assumes the reader has a knowledge of investment valuation and pricing models and "the rules and conventions that define the markets." David Rouse

Product Description
Derivatives will become known as the comprehensive and definitive work on these financial instruments. "Arditti does a remarkable job explaining the theory and practice of derivative securities."--Harry M. Markowitz, Nobel Laureate for Economics, 1990.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 394 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business School Press (April 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0875845606
• ISBN-13: 978-0875845609
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #664,476 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars He knows how to design derivatives and make them work, July 28, 2003

By	Salil Talauliker (Kansas City, MO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am completely satisfied with this book. He knows how to design derivatives and make them work. This book does a remarkable job of explaining the theory and practice of derivative securities.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good Book for a practitioner, December 9, 2005

By	W. Chen "texan" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I found the book very useful in practice. It gave you a lot of details.

2.0 out of 5 stars Very poorly written, February 12, 2004

By	E. Filson (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I found Arditti's writing to be simply attrocious. What the marketplace needs is a clear, concise guide to instrument structure and valuation, and Mr. Arditti writes in circles. As an example, his chapter on option pricing refers to "using the methods used previously in this chapter" without referring to how to apply these to the method just introduced. The method just introduced was explained using numbers that were presumably fabricated, but lord only knows, because the author can't be bothered to specify how his example was structured.

In trying to explain things simply, the author fails to explain anything clearly. "Derivatives" is an extreme disappointment. As a reference, this book may have some use, but if you're looking to learn something from it, stear clear.