Book Description
The 2nd edition of this successful book has several new features. The calibration discussion of the basic LIBOR market model has been enriched considerably, with an analysis of the impact of the swaptions interpolation technique and of the exogenous instantaneous correlation on the calibration outputs. A discussion of historical estimation of the instantaneous correlation matrix and of rank reduction has been added, and a LIBOR-model consistent swaption-volatility interpolation technique has been introduced.
The old sections devoted to the smile issue in the LIBOR market model have been enlarged into several new chapters. New sections on local-volatility dynamics, and on stochastic volatility models have been added, with a thorough treatment of the recently developed uncertain-volatility approach. Examples of calibrations to real market data are now considered.
The fast-growing interest for hybrid products has led to new chapters. A special focus here is devoted to the pricing of inflation-linked derivatives.
The three final new chapters of this second edition are devoted to credit. Since Credit Derivatives are increasingly fundamental, and since in the reduced-form modeling framework much of the technique involved is analogous to interest-rate modeling, Credit Derivatives -- mostly Credit Default Swaps (CDS), CDS Options and Constant Maturity CDS - are discussed, building on the basic short rate-models and market models introduced earlier for the default-free market. Counterparty risk in interest rate payoff valuation is also considered, motivated by the recent Basel II framework developments.
Customer Reviews:
Best book on interest rate models.......2002-12-14
This is the best book available on interest rate models. Very detailed. Much more focused and readable than Rebonato's book. More pragmatic and explicit than Musiela and Rutkowski. Not as theoretical as Hunt and Kennedy. James and Webber also looks very good, but I'm not that familiar with it. All other books have only bits and pieces on interest rates.
The best book I have read on the subject.......2002-05-06
With all the due respect to the other authors I would say that if one is interested in a good theoretical book whihc is also good on the implementation side then the book of Brigo and Mercurion is definetly the best book I have ever read on the subject.
Anyone interested in implementing the LMM/BGM/MSS model in practice is well advised to read it.
I would just say that this is certainly a must have in the field.
New stuff and nice overview: hard to beat!.......2002-01-17
In the late nineties I went through Brigo's innovative work on stochastic nonlinear filtering with differential geometry techniques. I was favorably impressed by results and style, particularly in his dissertation and in his 'geometry in present day science' very readable overview. Interesting results are found and nicely told with accurate - but not pointlessly complicated - advanced mathematics for the problems at hand, I reasoned.
I've followed a similar path from control to finance, and having worked with interest rate models, I couldn't help but order this Brigo-Mercurio book. I had high expectations 'cause these two guys are working in a bank on the real thing.
Sure enough I'm not disappointed.
1-factor models are handled with great care, a ton of formulas and recipes are given. I've never seen this kind of analysis of pricing with Gaussian 1-f models. The new upgrade of the CIR model is interesting and accurate. "CIR++" is now my favorite 1-f model. I like the treatment of lognormal 1-f models and the explanation of Monte Carlo and trees -- the flow-chart for Bermudan swaptions is crystal clear! Plots of market implied structures and volatility calibration are useful additions.
The chapter on 2-f extensions has one of the best discussions on volatility, and two tons of useful formulas/recipes. Two dimensional trees!
The HJM chapter size is OK. I agree - the useful models embedded in HJM are short rate models and market models.
Market models - these three chapters alone are worth the book. You'll find yourself nodding as you read the guided tour. They make it look easy all the time. The exposition is focused, clear, intuitive, detailed. There's also new stuff, just check the calibration discussion! Smile modeling begins with a brilliant tour and ends with Brigo-Mercurio's new approach - the mixing dynamics - deserving a whole chapter if expanded.
The detailed explanation on products is a much welcome original addition. Cross currency derivatives!
Quotes - as in Brigo's old work - are a pleasant diversion while reading. The 500 and more pages are a treat given the competitive price.
Still there's room for improvements - more "CIR2++"! Something on 3-f models. Historical estimation of the correlation matrix and low-rank optimized approximations. Expand smile modeling! More hedging. Something on structured products. Cross currency libor model. chapter 9 - other interest rate models - sounds out of place and can be suppressed for other things.
This book rings true and has useful teachings for students, academics and practitioners. Although it requires some background in stochastic calculus, it's hard to beat on the pricing front. Kudos to Brigo and Mercurio! It only harms there aren't enough books like this.
Nicely written overview of interest rate models.......2001-12-15
This recent book, written by two Italian "quants" Mercurio & Brigo, gives a nice and accessible overview of interest rate models which is a compromise between the practitioner viewpoint, expressed for ex. in Rebonato's book "Interet Rate option models"
and the theoretical viewpoint such as the one in Musiela & Rutkowski.
The authors, themselves PhDs in quantitative finance/ applied maths, wrote this book while working as quants in an Italian bank and this first hand contact with the market gave them a
practical view on the subject which markes this book very interesting.
The book contains a "rational" catalogue of models used in practice ( as opposed to models which are impossible to implement!).
In contrast with academic books on interest rate modeling which deal with HJM formulation, there is a lot of emphasis here on LIBOR and Swap market models
(BGM -Jamshidian models) which reflects the current market practice. This is a positive point since there are not many books with details on implementing and using these "market models".
Part II: Interest rate models in practice is particularly useful because it deals with implementation and calibration which, as any practitioner knows, are important and usually delicate issues.
However calibration issues are dealt with somewhat lightly, especially recent developments on modeling cap/swaption smiles
are not included here.
This book can also be used for a graduate level/PhD course on interest rate models.
There are a lot of numerical examples in the book and mathematics is kept to the necessary level while keeping the
approach both rigorous and understandable.
Overall, it is one of the best books written on the subject.
I highly recommend it to PhD students, quants and researchers interested in this field.
Well written and useful book.......2001-11-04
In my humble opinion, this is the best book on Interest Rate modeling out there. The writing style is clear and focused and the appendices are fantastic. The book is rigorous but someone with some background in Stochastic Calculus will find it easy to follow. If you need refresher, dont worry the authors have you covered, see the appendix on Stochastic Calculus. Not an introductory book. Very exciting book.
Customer Reviews:
Justin London did it again.......2007-07-19
I highlight two points:
1. The inclusion of Matlab and Excel code in almost all topics of the book.
2. All the content is new and more advanced, there is no recovered topics of his previous book.
Offers prebuilt code for immediate use.......2007-06-29
This book offers prebuilt, modifiable code that you can use for energy, power, weather and many other derivatives applications. The download process is fast and easy. For those who use Matlab, C++, or Excel, there is no competition. A great book with unique content and code.
Excellent resource for coding derivatives.......2007-06-16
This book was my ultimate go-to resource on several financial engineering projects (on the buy side). It covers many different derivatives and provides example MatLab and C++ code that is easy to modify and extend.
The instructions for setup and downloading the code could be more clear, perhaps on a CD.
State of the art derivative modeling book.......2007-04-10
Great book. But the code downloading process is a bit weird. Don't know why they just attach a CD.
Describes the Modelling Procedure and Gives the Code.......2007-02-08
Derivatives are not simple things. It almost seems that complexity was a design goal when they were being set up. In order to determine their real value either today or in the future you almost have to model them on a computer.
This book covers dozens of different types of derivatives, including the common ones and some of the new even more esoteric ones. It talks about the structure of the derivative, and then presents models of them. The models are presented in the most common modelling 'languages' in use today. There is a lot of code involved, but there is not a CD included with the book. Instead, an access code providing a one time download for the code. Note, a one time download. Be sure and save the code quickly and on several media. This procedure allows the models to be updated as needed without regard to the time it takes for the book to move from being written to being published, but if you have a disk crash....
The biggest things this book provides are: first, you get to see what an expert in the field has done, and second, you get the code to run his models on your system, and of course you can modify them if you find some other aspect suits your needs better.
This is a new book, first printed in December 2006, so it is current with the derivatives being marketing at that time.
Book Description
The credit derivatives market is booming and, for the first time, expanding into the banking sector which previously has had very little exposure to quantitative modeling. This phenomenon has forced a large number of professionals to confront this issue for the first time. Credit Derivatives Pricing Models provides an extremely comprehensive overview of the most current areas in credit risk modeling as applied to the pricing of credit derivatives. As one of the first books to uniquely focus on pricing, this title is also an excellent complement to other books on the application of credit derivatives. Based on proven techniques that have been tested time and again, this comprehensive resource provides readers with the knowledge and guidance to effectively use credit derivatives pricing models. Filled with relevant examples that are applied to real-world pricing problems, Credit Derivatives Pricing Models paves a clear path for a better understanding of this complex issue.
Dr. Philipp J. Schönbucher is a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, and has degrees in mathematics from Oxford University and a PhD in economics from Bonn University. He has taught various training courses organized by ICM and CIFT, and lectured at risk conferences for practitioners on credit derivatives pricing, credit risk modeling, and implementation.
Customer Reviews:
read this before going for it.......2007-04-25
The book covers the basics of credit risk modeling and derivative pricing (both structural and intensity type of models), explained in a clear style with enough detail to enable implementation (a rarity in financial literature!). Basics of the theory of stochastic processes and risk-neutral pricing are also covered. Calibration methods for the models are clearly explained. Due to the limited scope, some topics are given only cursory coverage (Copula function methods, role of interest-rates models etc.), but even then, enough references are provided. A very useful, concisely written tome!
Very bad presentation. I was bored to death before I finished the first 20 pages.......2007-04-16
The author should rewrite this book. The presentation and organisation are terrible. Often you will see formulas come out without an explanation.
Would definitely not recommend it.
Grab any papers wrote by the market-practitioners, you will find they are much easier for you to understand the concepts of various credit derivatives models than the book could.
BTW, I wrote a negative review in amazon.co.uk, but was deleted twice.
Great but Incomplete Tech for Quantitative Credit Traders / Analysts.......2006-12-06
Schonbucher's book has major strengths:
1) the bredth and un-biased approach to a broard range of methods for pricing and identifying (pseudo-)arbitrage opportunities including approaches based on reduced form / intensity models, structural/statistical/Merton-like models, and credit rating based approachs to modeling and trading credit.
2) The emphasis on implementation issues -- issues and problems bootstrapping and fitting credit curves, impact of product and market specific risk premium in credit spread than inflated market-implied default probabilities -- is very good and his chapters on modeling market-implied recovery assumptions and recovery modeling are also very good.
The major drawbacks are that is
1) It is sufficiently mathematical, but not strong enough in explaining the mathematics, such that anyone who can undedrstand the book probably already has a good handle on the space.
2) It spends a good deal of time on interesting but only marginally relevant modeling approachs (like the credit rating discussions and modeling counter-party risk) but misses key opportunities (like cash-cds convexity and basis trading) that many need for their day jobs.
3) Recent innovations like recovery products, loan and preferred CDS, and greater liquidity in basket and coorelation products either post-date the text or are not covered well enough to be of practical use.
That said, it is still one of the two four and five texts I have seen in the space (if you are considering the book also look at Geoff Chaplin's excellent text. Many people rave about Credit Derivatives by George C. Chacko et al. but I haven't yet read this, so don't have an opinion other than people I have high regard for like the book a lot.)
excellent book but hard to understand.......2006-11-11
The book is written by a Professor in a insightful way.
The reader needs to be well prepared in knowledge, and be ready for frustration.
Excellent intermediate book.......2005-10-20
The book is a look at credit risk through the glasses of mathematics, and is not a beginner's book. It is a bit dry in the beginning, yet after that I discovered lots of valuable intuitive explanations. While it does require a certain level of probability knowledge, the author walks you through most necessary steps for the presented models. The book covers almost everything needed for an intermediate course on credit modelling. The lack of numerical implementation menthods took the last star.
Customer Reviews:
Great book for beginners!.......2007-09-02
This is a very good introductory book. The authors go into explaining the details of the various derivatives in depth and give concrete numerical examples how they can be priced. However only elementary pricing techniques are considered -- a practitioner will not find much use of them.
I am giving the book 4 stars because the book contains many typos and errors which can be quite confusing to a beginner (e.g. mislabeled graphs). With four authors on the cover they could have done a better job at this.
Distracting typos.......2007-06-20
Decent and accessible read, but has many typographical errors. I mean guys, this is a text book, show your readers some respect by doing adequate proof reading. 1 example:
Fig 3-15, page 99 y axis should be default prob., not credit spread as labeled.
My copy is poorly published.......2007-06-11
For the first 150 pages, I thought this was a useful product. Not too deeply mathematical and clearly written. I would have given it 4 stars.
Then I noticed that it jumped from page 150 to 189. And repeated some pages after 180 again later in the book. Useless.
Should be mandatory reading for all financial practitioners.......2006-11-11
During the course of the last several years, I have had only a passing knowledge of credit derivatives. I have encountered the subject on occasion, but in little more depth than something equivalent to reading, "Credit derivatives are an important component of the modern economy." This book certainly reaches the level expounded in the title, namely being an excellent primer on what they are and the important role they play.
The first chapter explains exactly what credit derivatives are. Using mathematical modeling techniques, an accurate estimate is made of the true credit risk based on the likelihood of partial or total default. This allows the holder of a debt to sell it to someone willing to assume the debt for a price that both agree is reasonable. The seller then gets immediate payment and the buyer has enough margin to make a profit.
After credit derivatives are defined and examples given, precise definitions of credit and credit risk are given. Very sophisticated mathematics is used in the models that describe how the values are derived. Probability theory is also used in the computations, as most of the results are based on the likelihood that the debtor will repay the debt.
This book is not easy to read as you need a significant background in microeconomics and must be able to read and understand formulas. However, it is well worth the effort to read and understand it. Credit derivatives are a very important tool that can be used to generate significant capital quickly, reduce your credit risk or to make significant profits. Like nearly everything else, none of this is possible without the knowledge necessary to do it right. This book will provide that knowledge; I learned a lot while reading it.
A Primer to Bring we Older Folk up to the Current MBA lLevel.......2006-11-02
A key to evaluating this book is in the sub-title. It is a primer on the new field of evaluating credit. And the good thing is that it remains true to this primer concept throughout the book.
Derivatives are among the newest of the financial instruments. They are far removed from the old traditional stocks and bonds, so even though this is a primer, don't expect to get by without learning a whole lot of new terms and acronyms. Here is discussion on total return swaps, credit spread options, credit linked notes, CDSs and CDOs. (See what I mean.)
The intended audience for the book is the financial practitioner, either on the buying or the selling side. The subjects are covered in as basic a sense as possible without getting so simple or so complex as to be useless. As the book says: 'Simple, yet rigorous explanations: no credit derivatives experience necessary.' I'd add though that you'd best have some credit experience and be knowledgable with the various debt instruments that back derivatives. This is one of those subjects that the young folk coming out of MBA school are likely to have studied. We older folk have to use books like this one just to keep up with them.
Book Description
The Third Edition of Credit Derivatives is a complete reference work offering comprehensive information on credit derivative products, applications, pricing/valuation approaches, documentation issues and accounting/taxation aspects of such transactions.
Previous editions have consisted of a number of chapters written by the author and a collection of papers from leading market practitioners. This edition departs from the previous format -- all chapters have been written by the author, Satyajit Das.
Key areas of new and enhanced coverage include:
- Inclusion of latest developments in documentation (the 2003 Credit Derivative Definitions and market developments such as Master Confirmations).
- Description of developments in structured credit products, including portfolio products, up-front credit default swaps, quanto credit default swaps, credit swaptions, zero recovery credit default swaps, first-to-default swaps/ N
th -to-default swaps, and many more.
- Increased coverage of credit linked notes including repackaging structures.
- Detailed discussion of the collateralized debt obligations (CDO) market, including CDO structures, pricing and valuation, rating methodology, CDO variations, single tranche CDOs, hedging of CDO tranches, behavior of CDO tranche (equity, mezzanine, senior and super senior) investments.
- Increased coverage of pricing of credit default swaps (including models and valuation approaches) and discussion of cash-synthetic basis and its causes and behavior.
- Coverage of E2C (equity to credit) hedging.
- Detailed examples of applications of credit derivatives by different market participants.
- Discussion of trading in credit derivatives including more complex trading strategies such as basis trading and capital structure arbitrage trades.
- Updated coverage of regulatory framework for credit derivatives.
- Updated discussion of market structures, developments and prospects.
Order your copy of this comprehensive work today.
Book Description
Understanding Credit Derivatives offers a comprehensive introduction to the credit derivatives market. Rather than presenting a highly technical exploration of the subject, it offers intuitive and rigorous summaries of the major subjects and the principal perspectives associated with them. The centerpiece is pricing and valuation issues, especially discussions of different valuation tools and their use in credit models.
* Offers a broad overview of this growing field
* Discusses all the main types of credit derivatives
* Provides back-of-the-book summary of statistics and fixed-income mathematics
Download Description
Understanding Credit Derivatives offers a comprehensive introduction to the credit derivatives market. Rather than presenting a highly technical exploration of the subject, it offers intuitive and rigorous summaries of the major subjects and the principal perspectives associated with them. The centerpiece is pricing and valuation issues, especially discussions of different valuation tools and their use in credit models.
Customer Reviews:
Outstanding review.......2007-08-15
This book is very well thought and written. For a beginner in the credit market this book is an excellent approach. Its a grt read and I am truely satisfied.
Credit Derivative -- Primer.......2007-05-11
A very good introduction to credit derivatives at the level of
"J.C.Hull - Options, Futures...", as remarked by a reviewer.
This book is also at the level of, but better than the recent text
"Credit Derivatives - A primer on credit risk..." by Chacko et al.
The chapters are short (less than 10 pages mostly),
well organized, clear, gives a good overview, just enough mathematics
and simple numerical examples to fix ideas.
1. Part 1 is chapter 1 to 3, introducing credit derivative (CD) market
and uses of CD.
2. Part 2 is chapter 4 to 14, each describing a type of CD.
Each chapter describing that CD is organized as
a. How does it work ?
b. Common uses.
c. Valuation
d. Variations of the basic structure
3. Part 3 is chapter 15 to 18, describing basic elements of credit risk
modeling like valuing defaultable bonds, CDS premium to hazard rates,
structural/reduced form modeling etc.
4. Part 4 is chapter 19 to 23, addressing valuations of portfolio credit
risk (baskets default swaps, portfolio swaps, CDO's ..)
5. Part 5 is chapter 24 & 25 giving CD documentation/regulatory issues.
Understanding Credit Derivatives.......2006-11-10
This book provides an outstanding overview of credit derivatives. Additionally, Antulio Bomfim is able to convey information about a complex product in a manner that is easily understood by the reader.
Book Description
The Structured Credit Handbook is a comprehensive introduction to all types of credit-linked financial instruments. This book provides state-of-the-art primers on single tranche collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), collateralized loan obligations (CLOs), credit derivatives (such as credit default swaps and swaptions), and iBoxx indexes. Filled with in-depth insight and expert advice, The Structured Credit Handbook covers all aspects of the synthetic arbitrage CDO market, including new instruments such as CDO2. Readers will also gain a firm understanding of the investment rationale, risks, and rewards associated with CDO investments through this valuable resource.
The exploding use of credit derivatives and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) has transformed the world of credit, creating an $18 trillion market almost overnight and resulting in innumerable investment and career opportunities globally. The Structured Credit Handbook provides the reader with a comprehensive and clear roadmap to today's new credit landscape. The full spectrum of structured credit products, from single-name CDS to CDOs, is explained in a simple, clear fashion that is free from the financial jargon and mathematical complexity which characterize many other derivative texts. The handbook begins with an in-depth explanation of the building blocks of the structured credit markets, single-name default swaps and indexes, and it culminates with complex products such as credit options, synthetic tranches, CDOs based on bank loans and asset-backed securities, and CDO-squareds.
Written by experienced practitioners who have participated in this market since its infancy, each of the thirteen chapters introduces and analyzes a new product and explains its practical applications. A rich set of real-life case studies illustrate the application of each product in a concrete market setting. The book may be used in a semester-long course on structured credit as part of a business or finance curriculum. Whether you are a market professional, a university student or faculty member, or simply a financially savvy layperson, look no further for an up-to-date and thorough introduction to this rapidly growing and exciting field.
Dr. Arvind Rajan, Managing Director, Citigroup Global Markets, is engaged in proprietary trading of Structured Credit products, and until recently, was global head of Structured Credit Research and Strategy at Citigroup. Glen McDermott (New York, NY) is Director of Fixed Income Sales and the former head of CDO Research at Citigroup Global Markets Inc. Ratul Roy is head of CDO Strategy for Citigroup Global Markets and has spent the prior nine years in structuring or analyzing CDOs and other structured credit products.
Customer Reviews:
A very helpful handbook for those interested in this rather specialized topic.......2007-03-13
You may have heard of swaps, swaptions, collateralized debt obligations, and a myriad other credit structures. For most folks, even when they hear the terms, they have no idea what these contracts are and wouldn't know where to turn to get a reliable and understandable explanation. This book is a good place to start for those interested in these kinds of obligations.
It may well be that your company wants you to look at laying off default risk on some large contracts, or that you want to add or take away some risk from your investment portfolio to insure against loss or to add the possibility of greater return. For these kinds of activities (and many others), this book is a great place to begin learning about what these things are, how they work, and how they are used.
Each of the thirteen chapters takes on a different type of product, explains what it is, its characteristics, some of the variations of the contract, and usually a case study showing the practical application of the product. Each chapter has a different mix of authors who are specialists in that particular product, so the information is solid. They are all written clearly, which is an achievement for what is often considered an arcane subject.
The chapters are: PART ONE - INDEX and SINGLE NAME PRODUCTS: An Introduction offering A Roadmap of the New World of Structured Credit, A Primer on Credit Default Swaps, Credit Default Swaptions, Constant Maturity Credit Default Swaps, Credit Derivatives Indexes, and The Added Dimensions of Credit - A Guide to Relative Value Trading.
PART TWO: PORTFOLIO CREDIT DERIVATIVES: Single Tranche CDOs (CDO= Collateralized Debt Obligation), Trading Credit Tranches - Taking Default Correlation out of the Black Box, and Understanding CDO-Squareds, CPPI - Leveraging and Deleveraging Credit.
PART THREE: COLLATERALIZED DEBT OBLIGATIONS: Collateralized Loan Obligations, ABS CDOs, CDO Equity, and Commercial Real Estate CDOs.
The authors all work for Citigroup, so it is likely that their terminology and view has some bias towards the way their company does things, but it is still a step further than the generalized and brief discussions on the topic I had in my MBA program. This book could be used as a text in such a course or additional reading for the interested student or general reader who has a fascination for this specialized subject.
There are also chapter endnotes, a glossary, and index. Each chapter makes good use of charts, graphs, and tables that aid understanding but do not get in the way.
Product Description
The growth of the credit derviatives market has produced a liquid market in credit default swaps across the credit curve, and this liquidity has led many investors to access both the credit derivative and cash bond markets to meet their investment requirements.
This book investigates the close relationship between the synthetic and cash markets in credit, which manifests itself in the credit default swap basis. Choudhry covers the factors that drive the basis, implications for market participants, the CDS index basis, and trading the basis.
Credit market investors and traders as well as anyone with an interest in the global debt markets will find this insightful and rewarding.
THIS BOOK QUALIFIES FOR 7 PD CREDITS UNDER THE GUIDELINES OF THE CFA INSTITUTE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM.
Customer Reviews:
This book could be boiled down to an article........2007-03-27
The book is 195 pages total. The first 60 pages explain what CDS, z-spread, and asset swap spread are. While this is useful information, chances are, if you are buying a book about CDS basis, you will already know this stuff. And if you dont, wikipedia or any other online source can concisely explain it.
The last 50 pages includes definitions and appendicies. In between, you get a lot of repetitive information. Every chapter starts out with a 2-3 page summary of what you just read.
Chapter 3 is really the only useful part of the book - it outlines the 10 or so factors that drive basis. I certainly learned a lot here but it was in the course of 10 pages or so.
The final chapter talks about "trading the basis." I was disappointed to read that they are simply telling you how to execute the trade...ie, buy $10MM notional, sell X, hedge with futures. It really doesnt help with idea generation which is what I was hoping to see.
Very Useful For Practitioners.......2007-01-27
Choudhry lays out the relationship between cash and synthetic fixed income instruments: 1) for cash bonds, the different ways to measure the cash flows, swapping fixed to floating, using ASW, I spread, Z spread, etc., and the pro's and con's of each measurement. 2) For CDS, there is a brief primer on the CDS product structure, and discussion of CDS pricing methodology (both mathematically and in layman's terms). He then lays out techniques for hedging and basis trading and presents examples. There is discussion of market supply/demand influences.
The emphasis is hands-on usability for the practitioner. He presents examples using the Bloomberg & some spreadsheets. Although several approaches to CDS pricing theory are presented (including some math that I'm not knowledgable enough to evaluate), CDS theory is not explored or debated in great detail. This level of theory is not the primary focus of the book. The book is NOT targeted to heavy duty quants or theoreticians.
There are a couple areas where I would have appreciated a bit more diligence. Choudhry himself points out one example where the values in the printed Bloomberg screen differ slightly from the book's text (couldn't they have updated one or the other before going to print?). In another case, I was unsure about the consistency of treatment in different parts of the book regarding one of the spread measurements. In this case I will probably buy one of his other books where the issue is examined in greater detail.
Overall, I found this book VERY useful and well worth reading.
Book Description
Fully revised and updated
Here is the only comprehensive source that explains the various instruments in the market, their economic value, how to document trades, and more. This new edition includes enhanced treatment of U.S. and worldwide regulatory issues, and new product structures.
"If you want to know more about credit derivatives--and these days an increasing number of people do--then you should read this book."
--Merton H. Miller, winner, Nobel Prize in Economics, 1990
"Tavakoli brings extraordinary insight and clarity to this fascinating financial evolution . . ."--Carl V. Schuman, Manager, Credit Derivatives, West LB New York
Janet M. Tavakoli (Chicago, IL) is Vice President of the Chicago branch of Bank of America, where she directs the company's overall marketing of global derivatives and manages its CreditMetrics initiative.
Customer Reviews:
Great Book.......2007-03-31
Great book for introduction of CDS and other structured products. I work in risk and this book helped clarify several things.
a practical guide.......2006-10-31
This is a good book about how credit risk derivatives are handled in the daily practice of a big international bank. Although the author clearly knows her math the book contains hardly any formula. Since I am a model builder and most clients of our treasury consultancy firm are medium seize companies there initially was a misfit. However this book is a very good antidote for people putting too much faith in mathematical models. I can not help being one of them. I liked the down to earth approach very much. In the end I learned a lot more than I thought I would.
Recommendation from a Credit Derivatives Trader.......2005-10-15
This is my fourth purchase; this one is for a new analyst I hired. I have read Janet Tavakoli's book as well as all of the current literature on credit derivatives. This book is one of the best books on derivatives I have read in terms of style of writing and content (I'm not after the mathematics on finance; there are plenty of those). I am a current successful credit derivatives trader.
Good collection.......2005-03-27
I am a Fin Math student and by now a Google search expert. I do have this book from my library and it requires patience .
Personally I would keep it that way borrow from a library and read free research on the net with more math. It is a good buy for a practioner who needs to refer various structures and market structure in one place. The author has definetely put in effort to collate all her years of market experience.
Derivatives Sales view:.......2004-03-24
POSITIVE POINTS: Best indepth book on Credit Derivatives. Very readable. Explains very nicely why this derivatives are so important for banks. Non technical.
NEGATIVE POINTS: Focus on banks with only a little chapter on Credit Derivatives as investment products. No explanation how those derivatives are priced (but hey, there are loads of technical books)
Book Description
Structured Products Volume 2 consists of 5 Parts and 21 Chapters covering equity derivatives (including equity swaps/options, convertible securities and equity linked notes) , commodity derivatives (including energy, metal and agricultural derivatives), credit derivatives (including credit linked notes/collateralised debt obligations ("CDOs")), new derivative markets (including inflation linked derivatives and notes, insurance derivatives, weather derivatives, property, bandwidth/telephone minutes, macro-economic index and emission/environmental derivatives ) and tax based applications of derivatives. It also covers the structure and evolution of derivative markets including electronic trading markets and the origins, evolution and prospects for derivative markets.
EQUITY LINKED STRUCTURES
1 Equity Derivatives - Equity Futures; Equity Options/Warrants & Equity Swaps
2. Convertible Securities
3. Structured Convertible Securities
4. Equity Linked Notes
5. Equity Derivatives - Investor Applications
6. Equity Capital Management - Corporate Finance Applications of Equity Derivatives
COMMODITY LINKED STRUCTURES
7. Commodity Derivatives - Commodity Futures/Options, Commodity Swaps and Commodity Linked Notes
8. Commodity Derivatives - Energy (Oil, Natural Gas and Electricity) Markets
9. Commodity Derivatives - Metal Markets
10. Commodity Derivatives - Agricultural and Other Markets
CREDIT DERVIATIVES
11. Credit Derivative Products
12. Credit Linked Notes/Collateralised Debt Obligations
13. Credit Derivatives/Default Risk - Pricing and Modelling
14. Credit Derivatives - Applications/Markets
NEW MARKETS
15. Inflation Indexed Notes and Derivatives.
16. Alternative Risk Transfer/Insurance Derivatives
17. Weather Derivatives
18. New Markets - Property; Bandwidth; Macro-Economic and Environmental Derivatives
19. Tax and Structured Derivatives Transactions
EVOLUTION OF DERIVATIVES MARKETS
20. Electronic Markets and Derivatives Trading
21. Financial Derivatives - Evolution and Prospects
Books:
- Interest Rate Models - Theory and Practice: With Smile, Inflation and Credit (Springer Finance)
- International Building Code 2003 (International Building Code)
- Introduction to Management Science
- Introduction to the Mathematics of Financial Derivatives
- Long/Short Market Dynamics: Trading Strategies for Today's Markets (Wiley Trading)
- Managing a Consumer Lending Business
- Marketing Research: An Aid to Decision Making
- Martingale Methods in Financial Modelling (Stochastic Modelling and Applied Probability)
- Mastering the Trade (McGraw-Hill Trader's Edge)
- Mathematics for Finance: An Introduction to Financial Engineering (Springer Undergraduate Mathematics Series)
Books Index
Books Home
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- The Feminine Mystique
- Tiffany's Palm Beach
- The Singing Sands
- Fantasy Architecture: 1500-2036
- The California Pop-Up Book
- The Tail of the Tip-Off
General
| Popular Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
The Volatility Surface: A Practitioner's Guide (Wiley Finance)
Monte Carlo Methods in Financial Engineering (Stochastic Modelling and Applied Probability)
Volatility and Correlation: The Perfect Hedger and the Fox (Wiley Finance)
Stochastic Calculus for Finance II: Continuous-Time Models (Springer Finance)
Modern Pricing of Interest-Rate Derivatives: The LIBOR Market Model and Beyond
Mathematics for Finance: An Introduction to Financial Engineering (Springer Undergraduate Mathematics Series)
