Book Description
The bestselling author of Pioneering Portfolio Management, the definitive template for institutional fund management, returns with a book that shows individual investors how to manage their financial assets.
In Unconventional Success, investment legend David F. Swensen offers incontrovertible evidence that the for-profit mutual-fund industry consistently fails the average investor. From excessive management fees to the frequent "churning" of portfolios, the relentless pursuit of profits by mutual-fund management companies harms individual clients. Perhaps most destructive of all are the hidden schemes that limit investor choice and reduce returns, including "pay-to-play" product-placement fees, stale-price trading scams, soft-dollar kickbacks, and 12b-1 distribution charges.
Even if investors manage to emerge unscathed from an encounter with the profit-seeking mutual-fund industry, individuals face the likelihood of self-inflicted pain. The common practice of selling losers and buying winners (and doing both too often) damages portfolio returns and increases tax liabilities, delivering a one-two punch to investor aspirations.
In short: Nearly insurmountable hurdles confront ordinary investors.
Swensen's solution? A contrarian investment alternative that promotes well-diversified, equity-oriented, "market-mimicking" portfolios that reward investors who exhibit the courage to stay the course. Swensen suggests implementing his nonconformist proposal with investor-friendly, not-for-profit investment companies such as Vanguard and TIAA-CREF. By avoiding actively managed funds and employing client-oriented mutual-fund managers, investors create the preconditions for investment success.
Bottom line? Unconventional Success provides the guidance and financial know-how for improving the personal investor's financial future.
Customer Reviews:
Investment to avoid-buying this book.......2007-09-02
While I have a lot of respect for Swensen's practical success with the endowment, his book has some great advice and some really poor advice. Swensen is to be commended for steering the investments from the '85 asset allocation to where it is today. It was visionary, courageous, very rewarding.
The author does a great job of advising investors to reduce exposure to US large cap equities, and the rationale behind it. He also makes a logical case for increasing exposure to various international equity and fixed income markets.
Where he goes astray, in my opinion, is by suggesting that investors look to index funds as a panacea for investing. While he and his team at Yale have found exceptional managers who bring value (above index returns, on a net of fee basis), he assumes that individual investors cannot. While few investors have the negotiating skill set he has (due to his Assets Under Management), individual investors who spend a few hours a month can find money managers via mutual funds that consistently outperform their peers and benchmarks.
Let me sum up his book for you: own a LOT more baskets to put your eggs in, than just the standard 5-6 you may have in your 401k, and invest in low cost index funds.
My suggestion: take the first bit of advice, and instead of low-cost index funds, find managers who consistently beat the indexes, and rebalance annually.
Oh, and borrow the book from the library instead of padding his wallet.
Its clear Mr. Swensen has never held the hand of an Individual Investor.......2007-07-21
I loved David Swensen's white paper about institutional portfolio construction; I liked his book on Pioneering Portfolio Management: An Unconventional Approach to Institutional Investment- with this book he stepped outside his area of expertise.
Among the rare few Investing Classics..........2007-04-26
This is a remarkably good book. Almost any investor will benefit from reading this book. Swensen distills a lot of wisdom into this volume touching on all aspects of Portfolio Policy. It would be rare for even very advanced investors to not gain a new insight or two from reading this book.
Having said that, I have a couple of issues with this book.
- Swensen's writing style is very labored. It was hard to read more than a few pages at a time. Not because the material was difficult, but because of his writing style.
- I am frankly puzzled by Swensen's glowing recommendation of Southeastern Asset Management (a Mutual Fund company that owns Longleaf Partners Funds). While Longleaf is a good fund outfit, I don't see how Longleaf is that much different from other, better Value style Mutual Fund companies out there. I don't see how Longleaf is any different from Dodge and Cox or Oakmark. I just don't see Longleaf being that special, so I am puzzled at Swensen's singling them out as exemplary. As I write this, Longleaf has one of the most expensive International Equity funds out there - with an Expense Ratio of 1.61%, compare that with an International Index Fund that you can buy at Vanguard for 25 basis points ! Charging almost 1.5%/year more in expenses will require some exceptional Active Management from Longleaf to generate returns, the odds are against investors in the active fund there.
A Standout Book!.......2007-03-29
This is an indispensable investment book in my opinion. Swensen clearly has an original and unique perspective on investing. There are plenty of books out there in favor of passive management, low costs, and asset-class investing. Here are some of the ideas and concepts he presents in this book that make him stand out from the crowd:
1. He believes treasuries are practically the only bonds worth considering for the individual investor. The chapter in which he discusses it is very interesting, and his arguments are compelling.
2. He is not a devout believer of efficient markets, and acknowledges that superior active performance can be attributed to skill. He explains that there are two games being played: short-term and long-term active management. Unfortunately, since most managers are pressured to have good annual, quarterly, or even monthly returns, they must think short-term, and are unable to invest for the longterm. The longterm game, consisting of far fewer players, is a completely different playing field.
3. He focuses an extraordinary amount of time on the profit-seeking behavior of mutual fund companies, and why they are detrimental to investors. Alignment of interests between shareholders and managers is a major theme in his book.
He suggests investors to construct a portfolio of passive, capitalization-weighted index funds (or ETF's), combined with treasuries and TIPS. Unlike Bogle and other pro-indexing gurus, Swensen seems to focus more on avoiding shareholder-unfriendliness than he is on the other benefits of index funds (style-purity, low costs, etc.). He also ignores Fama-French size and value factor loading, which is fine. There are other great books on portfolio design (William Bernstein is pretty much all you need to read on that subject).
My only complaint about the book is that he seems to enjoy reemphasizing points. Swensen will summarize his thoughts throughout the chapter, and one more time at the end of each chapter, and then a whole final chapter devoted to more summarizing. I think this book could have been 2/3rds the length with essentially the same content. However, that is a minor complaint, compared to the vast amount of knowledge I gained from reading the book. Highly recommended!
Interesting book, but not quite what I expected/wanted.......2007-03-15
Based on the title, the author's background, and the little I'd read about the book, I expected this to be mainly a 'how to' manual - how to best manage one's funds for maximum returns.
While there was some of that in the book, in fact the focus seemed more on castigating much of the financial industry for their misdeeds and greed. If you've read John Bogle's writings, you've seen some of this before, but Unconventional Success is perhaps even a bit more detailed and clear on the misalignment of interests between investors and financial products providers, and how that leads to the investors being taken for a ride in various ways.
So, there's a lot of "don't do this, don't buy that product"-type information in the book. As far as what he DOES recommend, he's relatively brief, and, IMO, doesn't go into enough detail. He advocates splitting your money among 6 major asset classes, and staying with low cost funds, mainly those offered by non-profit companies (Vanguard and TIAA-CREF). But there's not enough support for his statements that asset class X should be 15% of your portfolio and asset class Y should be some other percentage. He briefly discusses historical returns for asset classes and touches on some reasons why returns may differ going forward, but again, there's not much detail there.
Yale's endowment (which Swensen manages, very well) is known for unconventional investments (thus, perhaps, the book's title). But if you want to read about timber or other natural resources, or see much detail on why Yale's endowment is so successful, you won't find it here. Admittedly, many of the options available to Yale are not available to the common investor, or if they are, are so watered down with extra fees as to be unsuitable. Still, I was little disappointed about the lack of reference to his own investment strategies at Yale, which are the reason most of us have heard of him and the reason I bought the book.
One thing that was interesting to me was his analysis of why some indexes aren't well suited for use as a mutual fund benchmark. I have a significant slice of my portfolio in a fund that uses the Russell 2000 value index as a benchmark, and the Russell indexes are called out for criticism in the book. I will keep the criticisms in mind in planning future allocations/re-allocations.
Overall, it was an interesting read - I blew through it in one night. But it was not quite what I expected...
Customer Reviews:
got to me fast.......2007-04-11
The book is in new condition and got to me fast.
Textbook comes with excellent portfolio simulation -- OTIS.......2004-11-05
Contrary to what the Editorial Review above states, this textbook does NOT come with StockTrack. Fortunately, it comes with an excellent program -- OTIS, an Online Trading and Investment Simulator developed at Wharton, the world famous business school. The simulation program allows you to "buy" and "sell" a whole range of real securities, including stocks, bonds, mutual funds, EFTs and derivatives, so you can test out the investment concepts from the textbook. It's just like using a program like eTrade, except you don't use real money. You can test out your investment ideas, and the software tracks your portfolio value using real market data.
The Gitman/Joehnk textbook itself is a fine textbook for someone who has not studied investment theory before, and is ideal for personal investors who want a solid foundation in the essential concepts, tools, and latest technologies they need to be successful.
A "Must Have" book for beginning investors!.......2002-04-17
Time for me to upgrade to the Seventh Edition! I used Fundamentals of Investing, Fourth Edition around 10 years ago in a college course at WCTC in Waukesha, WI. My instructor was a V.P. at a major brokerage house. It was one of the best and most rewarding college courses I ever took. We covered the entire book in one semester.
As with any book, Fundamentals of Investing will please some and not others. This book lays the foundation for investing by covering topics such as stocks, bonds, insurance, and the like along with understanding the risks of each. This book is not a "get rich quick" self help book. You will not find "trendy ways" to invest, hence the title "Fundamentals of Investing."
This book is where I learned Time Value of Money (TVM). Before I learned of TVM and investing, my retirement plan consisted of the value of my home and social security. Now I am well on my way to achieving my goal; retiring as comfortable as or better than I live now. If there is any social security when I retire it will be a bonus.
On the whole, this book (including my 4th edition) is useful even as a reference to the investment process. I use it to refresh my understanding of the variety and types of securities. Others may disagree but this is my investment bible. It has paid for itself time and time again by reminding me of the basic "Fundamentals of Investing."
You can remove a lot of risks to investing if you read and understand those investments in "Fundamentals of Investing."
Definately a bad choice for students..........2002-02-12
This is your typical beginner book on investments. The book is separated into 6 categories, each category having 2 chapters apiece. These categories are, The Investment Environment, Important Conceptual Tools, Investing in Common Stock, Portfolio Management, and Derivative Securities. Although, one can see that the book seems to broken down nicely in each category, the examples illustrated in this book are very sketchy, and at times hard to follow.
What makes this book so difficult to follow is that at the end of each chapter, you are given a set of review questions to practice what you learned. This is very bad if your professor assigns the book, but doesn't use it. Now, this is the catch. There are NO answers for these review questions anywhere in this book. In fact, the only way one can possibly get these study question answers is if her or she is the professor. In order to do this, you have to login to the author's page as the "educator." Of course, students who buy this book for class, will only have student access which only enables them to see what they "need" to have learned from each chapter, and access to a small pc program that solves everything for you. A nice tool, but kind of pointless if you do not know what you are doing in the first place. Oh yea, did I mention you only have a 6 month subscription to this "service." I do not want to call it a service by any means, since its useless.
In short, if you are a student, or want to get the general ideas of investment, Do NOT buy this book, since you will never know if you are applying the principles that you learned from this book properly. I had no choice but to buy this book, but if you can avoid this book, please do, and save yourself a headache or two.
Fundamentals of Investing, 7th.......2002-02-09
Fundamentals of Investing leaves a good deal to be desired as a textbook for a first course on investments. It is too wordy, being nearly 700 pages in length (not including tables or the index), making it somewhat challenging to cover the entire book in a single college semester.
As with any book, Fundamentals of Investing has its good features and its bad features. The chapter on investment planning (chapter 3) is quite good as it gives the reader an understanding of the motivation for investing. Another good feature about the book is the treatment of the security analysis process and how the investor should approach the analysis of investments for inclusion in a portfolio.
However, the deficiencies of the book appear to outweigh its benefits. First, the authors appear to assume that the reader is already familiar with the concept of the time value of money (TVM). Since the TVM concept is vital in assessing the worth of an investment to an investor, a reader that is unfamiliar or not well versed in the TVM concept is likely not to fully understand how securities are valued. Second, many of the examples given in the book are not always of great help in assisting the reader in understanding the concepts that were presented. Finally, the problems at the end of each chapter do not seem to provide much of a challenge to the reader to apply the concepts that were covered in the chapter to reinforce what was supposed to have been learned.
On the whole, the book can be useful in introducing the reader to the investment process and in understanding the variety and value of different types of securities. But a reader who is less familiar with investing can do better than to buy this book.
Book Description
Fundamentals of Investments was written to: 1. Focus on students as investment managers, giving them information they can act on instead of concentrating on theories and research without the proper context. 2. Offer strong, consistent pedagogy, including a balanced, unified treatment of the main types of financial investments as mirrored in the investment world. 3. Organize topics in a way that makes them easy to apply--whether to a portfolio simulation or to real life--and support these topics with hands-on activities. The approach of this text reflects two central ideas. First, there is a consistent focus on the student as an individual investor or investments manager. Second, a consistent, unified treatment of the four basic types of financial instruments--stocks, bonds, options, and futures--focusing on their characteristics and features, their risks and returns, and the markets in which they trade.
Customer Reviews:
Investments.......2007-09-27
The book is written in a simple language. The author presented many real world examples. It is an excellent text-book!
Book Description
Fundamentals of International Business is a concise introduction to international business with special emphasis on the environmental and cultural issues facing global organizations. The distinguished author team's academic and practitioner experience both in business and government ensures a balance of research and practical insight. The text includes the latest trade data presented in easy to understand tables and graphs. Contemporary business situations and critical events are featured and discussed in each chapter-with special attention to the impact technology. Throughout the text every effort has been made to present complex ideas in an easy-to-understand language and format. The brief length, balance, and reader-friendly features make this an affordable and manageable choice.
Book Description
The tools and techniques needed to successfully launch and maintain a hedge fund
In The Fundamentals of Hedge Fund Management, both budding and established hedge fund managers will learn the fundamentals of building and maintaining a successful hedge fund business. Strachman presents the facts in an accessible and easy-to-use format that will empower readers to create a lasting fund that provides significant income for years to come. The Fundamentals of Hedge Fund Management provides information on everything from picking a lawyer to creating a fund's documents to determining what markets attract investors. Readers will glean valuable information from real-life experiences (both negative and positive) that have shaped and continue to guide many of today's leading and most respected funds.
Customer Reviews:
NY Hedge Fund.......2007-10-01
This book is fantastic for anyone thinking about launching a hedge fund. It provides a comprehensive blueprint of the formation and launch process; if you read it before meeting with service providers the process will be easier and you'll have a clearer understanding about where everyone fits into the larger picture.
What is more, DAS's comments on capital raising are spot on and should be read (multiple times) by every aspiring hedge fund manager so as to avoid being romanced by the "whiskey talk" of every prime broker's cap into team -- who will INcorrectly tell you that all you need is performance...hmmm, don't think so.
Incredible read. Succint and Informative.......2007-09-26
Dan Strachman has written THE blueprint for getting started in hedge funds. The guy who gave it one star doesn't know what he's missing. No one can TEACH running money. But if you know how, and you have drive, this book will lay the groundwork for getting started. Specifically, back office operations and how to garner assets are explained in detail, but not to the point where it bores the reader. Mr. Strachman specifically tells the readers that this is NOT a book on how to manage money. Or a book on strategy. He does however, give a look into the psyche of the people you want to grab for assets. Who they are, and more importantly, how they think. Once again, excellent read! Hats off. Two thumbs up, etc.
GREAT OVERVIEW.......2007-09-08
This book provides for an excellent overview of hedge fund industry. Does not cover specifics, but provides great list of sources where to find certain information.
Excellent Primer for Starting a Fund........2007-08-27
Daniel Strachman takes a difficult subject and makes it accessible. It is very clear his writing stems from real world experience and is not just an exercise in academics. If you want to have a fundamental understanding of the business side of the hedge fund industry, this is an excellent place to start. The asking price of the book is far offset by the value gained in the insights that Strachman shares. I believe Mr. Strachman's advice has helped to save me from some serious mistakes that would have doomed my fund.
What a waste of money.......2007-08-23
Save your money and get a better book on how to start up a business. This book is NOT about Hedge Funds in any depth. It is about the basics in starting a business. WOW, he should write a book on marketing. He got me to pay $57.00 for a "basic" how to start a business book!
Customer Reviews:
It was what I asked.......2006-02-28
It's ok and it arrived at the time I expected
a great book.......2006-02-27
This book is great, it is written in easy and understandable way... I just came out, so all the newest information on websites, market changes, etc, are available; if you do want to get the basics and more in investing I would recommend you getting this book...
Book Description
Fundamentals of Investments was written to: 1. Focus on students as investment managers, giving them information they can act on instead of concentrating on theories and research without the proper context. 2. Offer strong, consistent pedagogy, including a balanced, unified treatment of the main types of financial investments as mirrored in the investment world. 3. Organize topics in a way that makes them easy to apply--whether to a portfolio simulation or to real life--and support these topics with hands-on activities. The approach of this text reflects two central ideas. First, there is a consistent focus on the student as an individual investor or investments manager. Second, a consistent, unified treatment of the four basic types of financial instruments--stocks, bonds, options, and futures--focusing on their characteristics and features, their risks and returns, and the markets in which they trade.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book.......2007-01-23
This is a great investments textbook. Very easy to read and arranged in a readable format.
Don't waste your money.......2006-11-27
I was forced to buy this book for a finance class. I look forward to throwing it away. The explanations in this book are poor, and as a financial reference, this book is useless. I had better luck with Google. There are a lot of finance books out there that do a much better job covering the same topics in this book. Don't waste your money on this one.
This seller sucks!!!.......2006-09-21
This seller took a month to get me my book, never responded to my e-mails, and then sent me the wrong edition! Order at your own risk!!!
The worst financial textbook I have EVER seen.......2006-03-19
This book is the biggest waste of money that I have been forced to suffer through. The examples in each chapter are poorly written and are so much simpler than the actual "test questions" at the end of each chapter so as to be useless. Additionally, the selected answers in the back of the book seem to be wrong as often as they are right. You couldn't pay me enough to recommend this book to anyone.
Book Description
Applied Equity Analysis treats stock valuation as a practical, hands-on tool rather than a vague, theoretical exercise—and covers the entire valuation process from financial statement analysis through the final investment recommendation. Its integrated approach to valuation builds viable connections between a firm’s competitive situation and the ultimate behavior of its common stock. Techniques explained include EVA, newer hybrid valuation techniques, and relative multiple analysis.
Download Description
Applied Equity Analysis treats stock valuation as a practical, hands-on tool rather than a vague, theoretical exercise--and covers the entire valuation process from financial statement analysis through the final investment recommendation.
Customer Reviews:
great book for those in finance.......2006-06-20
This book is great if you're in the field of finance. This is not for the average consumer looking for investment advice. I've been in corporate financial planning and analyis for the past five years and always wondered how equity analysts built their models. This books will give you insight into their thinking and also give enough detail to build your own models. I would have rated it five stars if the book included a CD with his examples in Excel. The author does have website where you can download sample models.
for SELL-SIDE analysts only.......2006-01-14
I bought this book based on the strong reviews as a complement to Damodaran's classic on valuation, but felt disappointed.
To qualify my comments: First, I am not a sell-side analyst, and secondly, I haven't finished the book. After about 50 pages, I threw in the towel.
My first stylistic objection to the book is its low content density. There is tremendous repetition and examples are trotted out in excruciating detail, even where the conclusions are fairly obvious. For example, on p. 34: "At competitive equilibrium, the firm can identify no incremental investment opportunities likely to generate returns in excess of capital costs. Competitive equilibrium is often defined as a condition in which investment opportunities generate returns equal to capital costs, but existing investments continue to earn abnormal rates." To me these two sentences are already redundant. But in case you still didn't get it, further DOWN on the SAME PAGE: "...This situation is called economic equilibrium, or economic parity. What does equilibrium mean? When returns are forced down to capital costs, then economic rents and/or abnormal earnings disappear and no further incentive to enter the business exists".
But the most frequently repeated point of the first two chapters, is best summed up on p. 19: "As I say many times in the coming pages [and he's not kidding, there], equity analysis is not prophecy; it's opinion. It was never meant to be objective description, but it is strong advocacy." If you're the sell-side analyst, having to "dress up a pig" to help your firm gain some banking business, this book might offer some ideas. But where does this leave the consumer of such analysis? "It's the investor's job to 'diversify' by considering a variety of analysts' positions." (p.9)
I think better advice for the investor might be to learn how to perform sound analysis themselves. For that, I recommend Damodaran's book. I lost my faith in this book's intent to provide balanced (let alone predictive) analysis.
One of the Best.......2005-11-01
There are reams and reams of investment valuation books on the market -- that is obvious.
In my opinion, the three no one should be without are Applied Equity Analysis, Stephen Penman's monster tome "financial statements and...", and lastly, Aswath Damadoran's book, "investment valuation."
Most hyperventilating MBAs default to Damadoran; I really enjoy the simplicity behind Applied Equity Analysis.
Caution: Neither of the 3 are what you'd call "light reading."
If you have any money left, honorable mention goes to Cooke's "security analysis on wall street."
Probably the best.......2004-07-15
I've been looking for a practical step by step book on equity analysis from a practitioners viewpoint. This is it. Other books try to take shortcuts. This book does not take short-cuts, but neither is it bogged down with unncessary academic exercises. If you really want to understand how to do valuation and applied equity analysis I can't recommend any book more highly. It is head and shoulders above anything else out there. Penman's book (from Columbia Business School) is also good but it is a VERY serious and weighty book that probably should only be attacked after you have read this one. Get this book by English and you will not be sorry. I have spent way too much time reading hundreds of other books that weren't nearly as educational. Again, however, it is only for the serious investor.
Very readable, very insightful, and extremely practical.......2001-09-23
James English's "Applied Equity Analysis" is a how-to manual on evaluating stocks based on his 20 years of experience at JP Morgan. The book is very well-written and readable since the author employs plain english (no pun intended) to make his three major points: 1) accounting numbers--while by no means perfect--are excellent tools in evaluating stocks, 2) accounting-based stock valuation is superior to (but does not neccessarily supplant) cash flows, and 3) competition ensures that eye-popping financial performance doesn't last forever.
Contrary to another reviewer, English employs excellent examples to clarify and explain his points. Some examples: Gateway 2000's earnings history was used to explain how to find and interpret non-recurring items (NRI) on financial statements. Ratio analysis was demonstrated by looking at the PC industry in 1998. Emerson Electric was the company chosen to show why mature companies were still good buys. Many other examples abound, and English does a successful job in tying their relevance to his arguements.
But successful use of examples is not just the only strength of the book. The author also tackles a range of topics complete with insightful and clear discussions: the flaws of the Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH), Economic Value Added (EVA), financial statement analysis, fundamental analysis, etc.
A quick glance at the table of contents below gives you an idea of the scope of English's book. I highly recommend this book to not just Wall Street analysts, anyone who is interested in finding fundamental value in evaluating stocks instead of following the crowd.
Pt. 1 Getting Started
Ch. 1 A Day in the Life
Ch. 2 Fundamentals of Equity Valuation
Ch. 3 Strategy and Competition I: The Firm's External Environment
Ch. 4 Strategy and Competition II: The Firm's Internal Competitive Resources
Ch. 5 Fundamentals of Stock Behavior
Pt. 2 The Basic Tools
Ch. 6 Reading a Financial Statement: The Accuracy, Sustainability, and Predictability of Financial Information
Appendix 6-1 Gateway Financial Statements
Ch. 7 Reading a Financial Statement: the Composition of Returns
Appendix 7-1 Comparative Financial Analysis: Personal Computer Industry
Ch. 8 Reading a Financial Statement: Early-Stage Companies and Investment Capacity
Ch. 9 Reading a Financial Statement: Later-Stage Companies and the Transition to Maturity
Ch. 10 Economic Value Added: An Alternative to Traditional Analysis Techniques
Appendix 10-1 Gateway's Cost of Capital
Pt. 3 Financial Models
Ch. 11 Financial Modeling: Base Case Assumptions and Model Design
Appendix 11-1 Dell Computer Corporation Consolidated Statement of Income
Ch. 12 Financial Modeling: The Income Statement and Balance Sheet
Ch. 13 Financial Modeling: The Statement of Cash Flows
Pt. 4 Equity Valuation
Ch. 14 Valuation: Foundations and Fundamentals
Ch. 15 Combat Finance: Relative Methods and Companion Variable Models
Ch. 16 Hybrid Valuation Techniques
Ch. 17 The Quirky Price/Earnings Ratio
Ch. 18 Valuation of Speculative Stocks
Ch. 19 Equity Analysis and Business Combinations
Pt. 5 Getting It Down on Paper
Ch. 20 Financial Writing: Don't Bury the Lead
Bibliography
Index
Customer Reviews:
Not worth the Time and the Money.......2005-05-01
I am a student who happens to have read both John Hull's 'Options, Futures and Other Derivatives' and his 'Fundamentals'. To say that 'Options, Futures and Other Derivatives' is a good book is a great understatement, and can even be considered an insult. Yet, this book, which is targeted at readers who are not as acquainted with derivatives fails to impress. Through out the book you can feel how John Hull struggles to explain things in a simple manner. Sadly, his efforts have failed, and this is most evident when my fellow classmates had a hard time understanding the materials starting from Swaps. When we reached the section on options pricing, the book lacks the rigorous math that is needed for students to fully appreciate the beauty of deriving things like Black-Scholes. Overall, if you are a beginner, go straight to 'Options, Futures, and Derivatives'. This book is not worth wasting time over.
not worth the money.......2005-02-03
As promised this book contains no calculus.However it looks more like a formula sheet.There are some typos in some important parts.The intuitive explanations for some important topics are omitted or not well explained.Solutions manual is just a waste of time.Actually the book doesn't contain good questions at all.Despite the fact that it's one of the most used textbooks for the entry level in options and futures it's really not worth the money.One can find online lecture notes and do with them without having to pay that much money.
Great Book!.......2002-06-11
I needed to understand everything I could about Futures and Options in a short time and this book was perfect for that purpose. The introduction about futures and options is great and the content in general is very easy to understand and follow. I really liked the examples and the way the author explained each topic. However, I have to confess that maybe my engineering background helped me to understand the math behind, but I believe that even if you don't have much mathematical knowledge you can follow the book.
A big plus of this book is that it contains a chapter about Value at Risk and one focused more on more recent types of derivatives contracts (e.g., energy, weather, etc.).
In general, I think that with this book you could cover more ground more quickly than with other books.
Great Book!!.......2002-04-19
This book is a great introduction to options and futures, I do not have any university experience in mathematics and was able to follow nearly all that I have read so far. However, if you are not comfortable with substituting into equations and following equation derivations, maybe option/futures trading is not for you.
You better know your math.......2002-01-29
The book is a good book IF you know your math. It has been a while since I have done calculus and finance classes and needed to review other books in order to understand all the math. I laughed at the introduction when the author stated math is not needed. While this is partially true, it is because the author expects the reader to memorize his formulas and so omitts some of the steps of how the formulas come about. Do not try to do this book without help or even better yet, without the solution manual. It was a grueling class with more than 1/2 the class dropping it because the book was so hard to understand.
Book Description
Praise for the Classic Guide to the Bond Market
"This is simply the most comprehensive, useful look-it-up book on municipal bonds I've ever read (said with all due respect to The ABC of Municipal Bonds my dad wrote in 1937 when I was nine). Read Fundamentals cover to cover. I'm keeping mine in my briefcase, under my arm, at my fingertips. No accountant, financial advisor, attorney, new bond salesman, reporter, regulator, test-writer, cautious, suspicious first-time investor in municipal bonds, or dinner guest is ever going to catch me again with a question about municipal bonds I can't answer."-Jim Lebenthal, Chairman, Lebenthal & Co.
"Judy Wesalo Temel gives us the Rosetta stone of the municipal bond market, the key to unraveling the many mysteries of `muni's.' Her book, a fresh take on the old standard Fundamentals of Municipal Bonds, updates chapter and verse on everything from investing to underwriting, from over-the-counter to over-the-Internet. The style is clean, crisp, and as simple as this complex subject can be. Are you a novice who wonders how to invest in bonds? She lays out the basics. Examples are easy to follow-even the mathematical ones that are critical to explaining how municipal bonds work. At the same time, there is plenty of meat for the pros. Whether you need to start from square one and learn all about municipal bonds and how they work, or need a ready reference for specific technical questions you run across as a market professional, this book is for you."-Kathleen Hays, Economics Editor, Credit Markets Reporter, and "Bond Belle" CNBC
"This is a must-read for every scholar, banker, and public official concerned with local government finance in the United States. Judy Wesalo Temel has done the impossible: she has clearly and insightfully explained how we finance the development of the nation's vital public infrastructure. This is an important book, one that will be required reading for professionals responsible for planning, designing, and evaluating publicly financed projects-the health care, transportation, and educational facilities that all citizens rely upon. The bond market is an essential element in the life of local and state government, and this book makes it understandable to all Americans."-Mitchell Moss, Henry Hart Rice Professor of Urban Planning and Director, Taub Urban Research Center, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University
Customer Reviews:
A very well written book........2001-04-11
After a few years in waiting, I am glad to see that the Bond Market Association has released the 5th addition of The Fundamentals of Municiple Bonds. The author of this book did a great job capturing the signifigance of the municiple bond, and exaplining it clearly with graphs and charts. I highly recomend this book and give it a 5 star rating.
WOW!.......2001-03-02
This book was amazing. Not only was it a great read (I couldn't put it down) but I learned more about derivatives and muni bonds in this book than i could have in any classroom or read in any other book on bonds.
WOW!.......2001-03-02
This book was amazing. Not only was it a great read (I couldn't put it down) but it was also very informative. I learned more about derivatives in this book than I could have in any classroom or any other book on bonds.
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