A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing, Ninth Edition

A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing, Ninth Edition
Average customer rating:

Quarterlife Finance says, "A Classic that Every Investor Should Read"

not a fan.

Excellent Message. Sweeps some exceptions (particularly those noted herein) under the rug.

Best guide ever

Still the Best

A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing, Ninth Edition
Burton G. Malkiel
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns (Little Book Big Profits)

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The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need

One Up On Wall Street : How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money In The Market

ASIN: 0393062457

Book Description

The million-copy bestseller, revised and updated with new investment strategies for retirement and the most current research into behavioral finance.

Updated with a new chapter that draws on behavioral finance, the field that studies the psychology of investment decisions, here is the best-selling, authoritative, and gimmick-free guide to investing. Burton Malkiel evaluates the full range of investment opportunities, from stocks, bonds, and money markets to real estate investment trusts and insurance, home ownership, and tangible assets such as gold and collectibles. This edition includes new strategies for rearranging your portfolio for retirement, along with the book's classic life-cycle guide to investing, which matches the needs of investors in any age bracket. A Random Walk Down Wall Street long ago established itself as a must-read, the first book to purchase before starting a portfolio. So whether you want to brief yourself on the ways of the market before talking to a broker or follow Malkiel's easy steps to managing your own portfolio, this book remains the best investing guide money can buy.

Customer Reviews:

Quarterlife Finance says, "A Classic that Every Investor Should Read".......2007-10-03

I recently finished reading the 9th edition of Burton Malkiel's classic text A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing, Ninth Edition. First published in 1973, this book is a classic text that deserves a place on any investor's bookshelf.

Malkiel presents two possible security valuation models - one based on a firm foundation of value and one based on finding a "greater fool" to sell your speculative buys to. He analyzes the history of investment bubbles from the Dutch tulip mania some two hundred years ago all the way through the tech stock bubble of the late 1990s. He discusses fundamental analysis of stocks and thoroughly trashes technical analysis. Finally, Malkiel presents a strategy that virtually guarantees that your investments will keep pace with the market with minimal investment of time.

I enjoyed and recommend this book for several reasons. First and foremost, it blows the whistle on many common "beat the market" strategies, including all manner of technical analysis. As a relatively young investor, I was always intimidated by the chartist strategies (moving averages, buy points, etc) but after reading Malkiel there is no cause for fear. Those strategies simply do not work.

Moreover, I found the book to be an easy read relative to many texts on investment. While he covers different types of stock analysis, modern portfolio theory, the efficient market hypothesis, and asset allocation in detail, the book is not weighted down with too much heavy terminology. His writing style, use of historical anecdotes, and ability to challenge your beliefs again and again keeps you riveted to the book.

Finally, I believe that the strategies presented in the book are clear, concise, and can be employed by anyone to their immense gain. Too many people pay for poor investment advice, make mistakes by chasing gains and paying for active portfolio management, or even pay absurd 12b-1 fees on underperforming mutual fund investments. By reading this book and taking Malkiel's advice to heart, I believe that just about anyone can end up with more dollars in hand.

On the other hand, the book does delve into financial topics that may be intimidating for someone completely new to the investment world. The basic message (buy and hold a well-diversified portfolio of extremely low-cost index funds) could be expressed much more succinctly. However, I wouldn't change a thing with this book...just be prepared for a wild ride that challenges everything you thought you knew about investing.

not a fan........2007-10-03

This book was not what it was trumped up to be, as far as I am concerned. It's a gloomy, negative, pessimistic, unending drivel of known and common sense information and data presented in a much more complicated manner that they are in real life. After reading this book you may be inclined to start taking anti-depressants and definitely stay away from the stock and other securities markets. Weeooogh!!

Excellent Message. Sweeps some exceptions (particularly those noted herein) under the rug........2007-10-02

Particularly in a day and age where mutual funds are often touting themselves on the television, this book has an excellent, largely unbiased message for the average investor: buy low cost index funds and stay in them for the long haul.

The book is exceptionally well written, covering most of the lessons of an introductory to intermediate finance course in a very accessible format (i.e. all the right *ideas* without the confusing math). He utilizes dozens of powerful examples and good data to show that his basic premise, despite now being 30 years old, is sound. Due to its theoretical strength and accessible style, this book could be of particular value to Undergrad Business and MBA students who find the professor's academic approach to an Introductory Finance course confusing. Get the big picture here, making the math just that much easier to follow. (5 stars for making difficult financial concepts readable and interesting)

Despite my strong recommendation for both his message and style, the book does have some drawbacks. Number one is that he has clearly taken a side on the issue and has thrown impartiality to the wind. Regularly, the author depends on "transaction costs" (the cost to trade) to ensure that a trading strategy cannot beat his preferred portfolio (implying that it would have succeeded without the transaction costs). This "sweeps under the rug" several clear counter-examples to the basic efficient market thesis in order to reinforce his index-investment message. While I understand his reasoning for doing so -- a desire not to encourage investment in high cost funds or heaven forbid day trading -- it does lead to some skepticism about his willingness to admit any possibility that his thesis has weaknesses. To that end, I would discourage readers who are familiar with CAPM and efficient-markets from reading the book (2 stars as a brush up).

In the end, however, I think the message is sound. Rather than cite trading costs, I think the message can effectively be said another way: If you spent 5h a day investigating stocks, what are the odds that you can beat a professional manager? If a manager has a staff of 20 that invest 8h per day investigating stocks, what are the odds that they're going to beat the whole financial services industry? If the whole industry is taking advantage of every opportunity to profit from small deviations, and you're going to pay a manager most if not all of that profit anyway, investing in an index basically gets you the benefit of thousands of mutual funds and investment bankers without the cost of any of them (or of your time to do research).

With qualifications to the highly technical reader, who should pass on the book, I can't, in good conscience, fail to give this book 5 stars for a profoundly valuable message targeted at the individual investor.

Best guide ever.......2007-10-02

A good informative writing on the handling of your finances in regards to investing. I found it to be quite basic but I have been investing since a club in the 1960's. It still gave me a lot of information and ideas that I knew a little or nothing on. I would recommend it highly to any and all that wish to have anything in the future for their retirement.

Still the Best.......2007-09-10

I first read this book in its seventh edition. I was great then. I recently purchased the ninth edition as a "refresher." It's still a great book and the one I recommend to prospective clients or other investors prone to believe all of the active management garbage out there. Burton Malkiel does a masterful job of dismantling all of the Wall Street hype and laying out investing in a simple, straight-forward, and long-term approach.

If you read this book and still believe in the Wall Street gurus then you're hopeless. And, you deserve every bit of the bad advice you're following.

Average customer rating:

Excellent book in time series
No complaints.
Absolutely Excellent (for what it is)
Awesome book for TS
A review of Time Series Analysis

Time Series Analysis
James Douglas Hamilton
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Econometrics | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

The Econometrics of Financial Markets
Econometrics
Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data
Analysis of Financial Time Series, 2nd Edition (Wiley Series in Probability and Statistics)
Applied Econometric Time Series (Wiley Series in Probability and Mathematical Statistics)

ASIN: 0691042896

Book Description

The last decade has brought dramatic changes in the way that researchers analyze economic and financial time series. This book synthesizes these recent advances and makes them accessible to first-year graduate students. James Hamilton provides the first adequate text-book treatments of important innovations such as vector autoregressions, generalized method of moments, the economic and statistical consequences of unit roots, time-varying variances, and nonlinear time series models. In addition, he presents basic tools for analyzing dynamic systems (including linear representations, autocovariance generating functions, spectral analysis, and the Kalman filter) in a way that integrates economic theory with the practical difficulties of analyzing and interpreting real-world data. Time Series Analysis fills an important need for a textbook that integrates economic theory, econometrics, and new results.

The book is intended to provide students and researchers with a self-contained survey of time series analysis. It starts from first principles and should be readily accessible to any beginning graduate student, while it is also intended to serve as a reference book for researchers.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent book in time series.......2007-06-29

I don't think there is another book out ther that would outperform this book in time series econometrics. A must have if you are a graduate student in economics.

No complaints. .......2007-02-14

No complaints. I received the book before deadline and book is same as descrition. 100% recomended seller

Absolutely Excellent (for what it is).......2007-02-06

Hamilton is often dubbed, "too hard to understand." That may be true, but actually it seems to be much more reasonable and readable than other econometrics texts I have attempted to read.

I would definitely not start out into econometrics with this book though. You probably will not be able to appreciate how good this book is until you have tried to read something as atrocious as Greene.

As is typical with almost every upper level econometrics book, it assumes you have a wide mathematical and statistical knowledge base that you may or may not have. I would not recommend it as a beginning graduate econometrics book but it is a great reintroduction to time series methods. I will say that I haven't found a single book yet in intermediate econometrics that I felt was written clearly or concisely.

Still, overall, this has been by far the best among the worst and I would highly recommend reading it to anyone who is beginning to study time series econometrics in some detail.

Awesome book for TS.......2006-03-06

If you are thinking of mastering TS this is the book to start with. Do not get intimidated however with all the symbols and notations, the author does a pretty good job explaining each and every equation. A seperate book is needed for application eg RATs handbook by Enders.

A review of Time Series Analysis.......2005-08-05

The book provides a good overview of the analysis of time series and it also gives a good treatise of the economitric background of the use of estimation methods.

The Mathematics of Financial Derivatives: A Student Introduction

Average customer rating:

Good Buy
Okay but not an introduction
Introduction to partial differential equations in finance
A good introduction to the PDE approach
waste of time

The Mathematics of Financial Derivatives: A Student Introduction
Paul Wilmott , Sam Howison , and Jeff Dewynne
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Options, Futures and Other Derivatives (6th Edition)
Stochastic Calculus for Finance II: Continuous-Time Models (Springer Finance)
Introduction to the Mathematics of Financial Derivatives
Financial Calculus : An Introduction to Derivative Pricing
Stochastic Calculus for Finance I: The Binomial Asset Pricing Model (Springer Finance)

ASIN: 0521497892

Book Description

Finance is one of the fastest growing areas in the modern banking and corporate world. This, together with the sophistication of modern financial products, provides a rapidly growing impetus for new mathematical models and modern mathematical methods. Indeed, the area is an expanding source for novel and relevant "real-world" mathematics. In this book, the authors describe the modeling of financial derivative products from an applied mathematician's viewpoint, from modeling to analysis to elementary computation. The authors present a unified approach to modeling derivative products as partial differential equations, using numerical solutions where appropriate. The authors assume some mathematical background, but provide clear explanations for material beyond elementary calculus, probability, and algebra. This volume will become the standard introduction for advanced undergraduate students to this exciting new field.

Customer Reviews:

Good Buy.......2007-08-29

maps one to one with many chapters in Hull. more elaborate derivations than Hull. Fixed income area treatment is very slim though. Good Buy for the Price.

Okay but not an introduction.......2006-07-31

If you want an introduction, read another book like Hull. If you want to learn how to apply Partial Differential Equations (PDEs) approach to finance then it is a useful book. However, it is better to read an elementary PDEs book before reading this book. At least, learn how to solve parabolic PDEs analytically because the technical notes in the book would not help much.

Introduction to partial differential equations in finance.......2005-10-13

This book treats only the partial differential equations
in Finance and how to treat them using Finite Differences
and Tree. For this purpose it is very well written and
understandable. A very good beginning for student. Even
undergraduate.

Now after reading it you should understand the martingales reading the baxter and how to implement Monte Carlo using, for example Glasserman (see my reviews)

A good introduction to the PDE approach.......2005-10-10

Contrary to what many readers believe, this book explains the pricing of derivatives much better than Hull. Hull gives an overview of the mechanics and properties of the derivative pricing industry, along with its pricing methodologies, and this book provides an in depth method to one of the pricing methods.

Financial derivatives can be priced by a wide range of methodologies, among some the elegant equivalent martingale measure approach (or risk-neutral pricing), replication, multinomial tree approximation, Monte Carlo simulation, partial differential equations etc etc.

This book gives an excellent introduction, and an insight to the PDE approach. Although being a big fan of the Girsanov-change-of-measure method myself, these analytical methods often fail in the valuation of highly complex derivatives like the exotics. Pricing americans prove to be hard and inefficient too, even with simulation and the risk-neutral approach.

This is where PDE methods come in. Since most derivatives (or term structures) have a PDE describing its evolution, solving the PDE seems to be a good (or sometimes the best) way, no matter how complex the derivative can get. PDEs on the other hand, have very robust and easy methods for solving. Therefore, this book brings the reader through basic PDE solving methods, analytical solutions, techniques for fast and efficient numerical approximations as well as rigorous technical explanations for some of the mathematics of partial differential equations (which arise in the financial industry).

The authors are famous for their research in the field of Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and this book continues to be a classic for undergraduates in mathematics in Oxford. If you want to have an overview of the pde approach to option valuation, without the hassle of learning up Radon-Nikodým and martingales, I highly recommend this book!

waste of time.......2005-03-10

This book is very bad, lacks almost everything you can think of, but if you don't know any better you probably won't care. It certainly needs to be supplemented by a respectable book if you want to learn derivatives (c.f. Hull's textbook, for example), and on the other hand, the math isn't rigorous at all, so you'll need a book on stochastic calculus (e.g. Michael Steele's, actually there are tons of better books out there, it's not hard to find better).

Probability: The Science of Uncertainty with Applications to Investments, Insurance, and Engineering

Average customer rating:

Good for self-study
I use this book almost every day
Excellent for SOA exam P
A hard book to digest
Not a good learning book

Probability: The Science of Uncertainty with Applications to Investments, Insurance, and Engineering
Michael A. Bean
Manufacturer: Brooks Cole
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0534366031

Book Description

Bean's PROBABILITY: THE SCIENCE OF UNCERTAINTY WITH APPLICATIONS TO INVESTMENTS, INSURANCE, AND ENGINEERING is an 'applied' book that will be of interest to instructors teaching probability in mathematics departments of operations research, statistics, actuarial science, management science, and decision science. Comprehensive, easy to read and comprehend, and current, the book uses investment, insurance, and engineering applications throughout as a unifying theme.

Customer Reviews:

Good for self-study.......2007-04-03

I used this textbook as my main study material for the SOA/CAS P/1 exam. I found it to be well-written and understandable. I have some background in calculus and probability (long-forgotten college courses). I'm hanging on to it for future reference. It's actually possible to learn the material from the book all on your own. All in all, one of the better textbooks out there.

I use this book almost every day.......2006-07-21

I appreciate that many people will be buying this because it has been endorsed by the Society of Actuaries. My review is for those who aren't being compelled to use the book in exam prep. I find "The Science of Uncertainty" to be the most consistently useful of the statistics texts in my office. The examples are clear, it has the right equations, and it's well organized.

Some people here are complaining of inaccuracies but they provide no examples and, frankly, I've never noticed a problem.

I like that authors provided an appendix explaining how to manipulate the distributions they discuss in the book using Mathematica. This was not new to me, but I can imagine it would save others some headaches.

Excellent for SOA exam P.......2005-05-26

I used this book to study for SOA exam P and loved it! If you already have some background in statistics and probability, this is the book to go. It will fill in the blanks left by your average school textbook and give you the nesessary coverage of the exam material.

A hard book to digest.......2005-01-18

As a statistics graduate, I found it hard to understand this book. There are not many friendly examples to help the readers to understand the concepts, even with the help of solution manual. There are some mistakes too.

Not a good learning book.......2003-03-02

Some gaffes in this book, I don't think the author has any real understanding. He even messes up the definition of expectation, and it doesn't get more elementary than that. There are many better probability books out there, don't choose this one.

Arbitrage Theory in Continuous Time (Oxford Finance)

Average customer rating:

Nicely Prepared Intermediate-Level Treatment
intuitive introduction to option pricing
Hell, I should have rated it 5 stars!
Good introductory book
An FE Bible

Arbitrage Theory in Continuous Time (Oxford Finance)
Tomas Bjork
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Stochastic Calculus for Finance II: Continuous-Time Models (Springer Finance)
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Heard on the Street: Quantitative Questions from Wall Street Job Interviews
Options, Futures and Other Derivatives (6th Edition)

ASIN: 0199271267

Book Description

The second edition of this popular introduction to the classical underpinnings of the mathematics behind finance continues to combine sound mathematical principles with economic applications. Concentrating on the probabilistic theory of continuous arbitrage pricing of financial derivatives, including stochastic optimal control theory and Merton's fund separation theory, the book is designed for graduate students and combines necessary mathematical background with a solid economic focus. It includes a solved example for every new technique presented, contains numerous exercises, and suggests further reading in each chapter. In this substantially extended new edition Bjork has added separate and complete chapters on measure theory, probability theory, Girsanov transformations, LIBOR and swap market models, and martingale representations, providing two full treatments of arbitrage pricing: the classical delta-hedging and the modern martingales. More advanced areas of study are clearly marked to help students and teachers use the book as it suits their needs.

Customer Reviews:

Nicely Prepared Intermediate-Level Treatment.......2005-05-06

The author has put together an excellent text that will take readers of an elementary text like Hull's "Options, Futures and Other Derivatives" to the next level. In the author's treatment, the power of stochastic calculus is brought to bear on the options pricing problem from the point of view of modern martingale theory, if not the complete mathematical rigor needed to establish all the results.

The text contains 26 chapters and 3 appendices. There is simply too much here to give a blow-by-blow account. So I'll try to hit the highlights.

The author gives intuitive definitions of some of the more heavy concepts from measure theory/Lebesgue integration, measure-theoretic probability theory and basic stochastic analysis. For the rigor, one need only look to the appendices, but the treatment is intuitive enough that can still follow along with only the occasionally glance to the back of the book.

Readers of Hull's text will find the first couple of chapters quite familiar, but starting in Chapter 4, stochastic integrals are (somewhat) formally introduced, along with the multi-dimensional version of Ito's change of variable rule. This is not overkill as the development of multi-factor term structure models later in the book benefits from this early development.
We note that these formulas are stated without proof, although they are motivated intuitively.

In the next chapter, stochastic differential equations are introduced and the Feynman-Kac representation is established as a nice application of Ito's rule. The chapter winds up with an intuitive treatment of Kolmogorov's forward & backward equations.

For the remainder of the first half of the text, readers of Hull will feel themselves in quite familiar territory, as the author develops the solution for the options pricing problem, studies the Greek letters and establishes parity using the now classical approach.

The second half of the text delves into martingale methods for mathematical finance. As a consequence, the sophistication level jumps considerably. The reader is well-advised to get the basic analytical toolkit in hand before delving too far into the second half of the book. I recommend Rudin's "Real and Complex Analysis" 3rd edition.

Heavy machinery is pulled in from functional analysis to establish the first and second fundamental theorems of mathematical finance. Without some basic understanding of Hilbert and Banach space theory, the reader will understand very little of this treatment.

The next highlight is the Girsanov Theorem. The author actual provides a proof in the scalar case, and presents (without proof) the Novikov condition to test when the Girsanov transformation is indeed a martingale (so the theorem holds). As a nice application, the Black-Scholes theory is revisted and re-established via these martingale results.

Another highlight is the study of the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman model for stochastic control, along with a small catalogue of cases under which the HJB equations can be solved. As a nice application, Merton's mutual fund theorem is established.

The last several chapters of the book deal with martingale methods for term structure models. There is a nice survey and study of the 1-factor short rate models before loading up and doing the k-factor model framework of Heath-Jarrow-Morton.
The martingale setting makes for a very rigorous treatment.

The book ends with a really nice treatment of the Libor Market and Swap Market Models. Pure finance students may feel that the mathematics at the end unnecessarily overwhelms the intuition, but students of mathematical finance will appreciate the analytical treatment and may even feel inspired to implement their own LMM.

There are a ton of terrific exercises at the end of each chapter. The exercises really solidify the understanding of the presentation and they make great technical interview questions as well.

intuitive introduction to option pricing.......2004-11-10

I agree with several reviewers above that the book is written in a style very helpful for students to understand the material.

It doesn't contain a lot of small details of financial markets like Hull's book, but the approach is very systematic. The derivations of formula for Barrier options is a nice example, Hull only lists a set of formula. The focus is on the theory, not on the practice. (No numerical method in the book). Bjork's book is very valuable for a student with very good math skills but want to learn the reasoning style for option pricing. It is a quick and enjoyable read.

A huge plus side of the book is to describe strategy before writing down all the proofs. This helps greatly. It can be contrasted with Duffie's book "Dynamic Asset Pricing Theory", which is written like a dry math book (well, I have to admit that Duffie's book is not an intro book)

Only thing I can think of that can be improved is typo in the book, too many wrong formula, especially in the second half of the book, luckily enough, they are obviously wrong so that one can still understand the topics. I also find that using SEK and mentioning street name of Britain are amusing for a student in U.S.

Hell, I should have rated it 5 stars!.......2002-05-26

If you're going to be introduced to Derivatives pricing and Quantitative finance in continuous time, you need some basics in probability theory, an elementary introduction to stochastic calculus and you need "bjork". It tells you the equation and how to understand it.

It's the best source for a complete understanding of the basics of arbitrage free pricing in continuous time; whether it's in complete or incomplete markets.

The best feature of this book is how the author invariably provides an "intuitive interpretation or explanation" to convey critical concepts. {Things like market price of risk in the context of interest rate modelling, change of measure etc...}

Why I rated the book 4 instead of 5?
I will not forgive "Tomas bjork" not to have covered the Libor Market Model; it's "THE" model and therefore should be covered in great details by any book of this calibre. A new edition of this book with the libor market model is needed.
Having said that, the coverage he gives to the popular short rate models is worth every read!

Guy,
Msc Financial Engineering at ISMA Center, Reading - UK.

Good introductory book.......2002-05-25

It is a good book to read as an introduction to the field. The author is successful in conveying the intuition behind the models instead of striving for complete mathematical rigor. I recommend this book if you want to quickly get acquainted with derivatives pricing but are a bit afraid of the higher math seen in other books.

An FE Bible.......2001-11-08

The central text for IOE 552(financial Engineering I) at the University of Michigan. Halfway through the course and I really understand the application of Ito's Lemma and the Feynman-Kac stochastic representation theorem. This book has just the right mixture of narative story telling, and mathematical rigor. The derivations are accessible to those with a semester of advanced calculus and a semester of probability. Over and over, Bjork shows that the secret of success in Financial Engineering is "RAIL" which stands for the "Relentless Application of Ito's Lemma".

Introduction to Modern Portfolio Optimization with NuOPT, S-PLUS and S+Bayes

Average customer rating:

If your copy did not include the web registration code...
Customer Service
Excellent academic treatise a little less useful for practitioners.
great reference

Introduction to Modern Portfolio Optimization with NuOPT, S-PLUS and S+Bayes
Bernd Scherer , and R. Douglas Martin
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Quantitative Equity Portfolio Management (McGraw-Hill Library of Investment and Finance)

Accessories:

Monte Carlo Methods in Financial Engineering (Stochastic Modelling and Applied Probability)
Interest Rate Models - Theory and Practice: With Smile, Inflation and Credit (Springer Finance)
Mathematics for Finance: An Introduction to Financial Engineering (Springer Undergraduate Mathematics Series)

ASIN: 0387210164

Book Description

In recent years portfolio optimization and construction methodologies have become an increasingly critical ingredient of asset and fund management, while at the same time portfolio risk assessment has become an essential ingredient in risk management, and this trend will only accelerate in the coming years. Unfortunately there is a large gap between the limited treatment of portfolio construction methods that are presented in most university courses with relatively little hands-on experience and limited computing tools, and the rich and varied aspects of portfolio construction that are used in practice in the finance industry. Current practice demands the use of modern methods of portfolio construction that go well beyond the classical Markowitz mean-variance optimality theory and require the use of powerful scalable numerical optimization methods. This book fills the gap between current university instruction and current industry practice by providing a comprehensive computationally-oriented treatment of modern portfolio optimization and construction methods. The computational aspect of the book is based on extensive use of S-Plus®, the S+NuOPT™ optimization module, the S-Plus Robust Library and the S+Bayes™ Library, along with about 100 S-Plus scripts and some CRSP® sample data sets of stock returns. A special time-limited version of the S-Plus software is available to purchasers of this book.

“For money managers and investment professionals in the field, optimization is truly a can of worms rather left un-opened, until now! Here lies a thorough explanation of almost all possibilities one can think of for portfolio optimization, complete with error estimation techniques and explanation of when non-normality plays a part. A highly recommended and practical handbook for the consummate professional and student alike!”

Steven P. Greiner, Ph.D., Chief Large Cap Quant & Fundamental Research Manager, Harris Investment Management

“The authors take a huge step in the long struggle to establish applied post-modern portfolio theory. The optimization and statistical techniques generalize the normal linear model to include robustness, non-normality, and semi-conjugate Bayesian analysis via MCMC. The techniques are very clearly demonstrated by the extensive use and tight integration of S-Plus software. Their book should be an enormous help to students and practitioners trying to move beyond traditional modern portfolio theory.”

Peter Knez, CIO, Global Head of Fixed Income, Barclays Global Investors

“With regard to static portfolio optimization, the book gives a good survey on the development from the basic Markowitz approach to state of the art models and is in particular valuable for direct use in practice or for lectures combined with practical exercises.”

Short Book Reviews of the International Statistical Institute, December 2005

Customer Reviews:

If your copy did not include the web registration code..........2007-05-12

Some copies (especially used copies) of this book don't include the web registration key sticker. If you need it, you can contact Insightful Technical Support (keys at insightful dot com) to get a registration key and password.

Customer Service.......2007-03-28

I have got a very good and prompt service and response from Amazon for the book ordered.

Excellent academic treatise a little less useful for practitioners........2007-01-28

I will admit to being torn between four and five stars for this book. I ultimately deduct a star because of: the lack of any sign of the promised web registration key for downloading the 150 day trial software and data, the heavy use of NuOPT where vanilla S/R code would have been sufficient and possibly even easier to understand, and the frequent use by the authors of providing symbolic solutions from Scherer's 2000 book on optimization where implementation is "left as an excercise".

The book dispenses with traditional Markowitz mean-variance optimization in the first chapter, and then moves on to many other methods of optimization for different types of portfolios, asset classes, and investor utility functions. All of this is excellent, comprising the broadest treatment in a single title that I am aware of.

The book makes heavy use of NuOPT, an add-on package for S-Plus from Insightful, and the SIMPLE linear programming included with NuOPT. I was disappointed that the authors make no effort to work problems without NuOPT, even when simplex or other methods would solve the problems presented in more elegant manner.

I was most disappointed that the authors often leave implementation to the reader. Every chapter has "Exercises" at the end. This is fine. I don't think it is fine to discuss the symbolic solution of a problem (like several of the scenario optimization methods discussed in Chapter 5), and then leave as an excercise the implementation of those portfolio solutions in S-PLUS, SIMPLE, or NuOPT. Nearly every chapter has a significant section, usually lifted largely from Scherer's 2000 book, that suffers from this deficiency. It is almost as if the publishers were pushing for a draft, and the authors went through and "left as exercises" whatever they didn't have tested code for.

All my negatives left to the side, this is still the best treatment you'll find in a single title on many issues of portfolio optimization under varying conditions today. Buy this book if you work in portfolio optimization with S-Plus or R.

great reference.......2005-09-09

The best book on this subject. It provides both an excellent up-to-date overview of the relevant literature and an application-oriented perspective. The chapter on robust estimation is outstanding.

Structured Credit Portfolio Analysis, Baskets and CDOs (Chapman & Hall/Crc Financial Mathematics Series)

Average customer rating:

Disappointing
Structured Credit Portfolio Analysis, Baskets and CDOs

Structured Credit Portfolio Analysis, Baskets and CDOs (Chapman & Hall/Crc Financial Mathematics Series)
Christian Bluhm , and Ludger Overbeck
Manufacturer: Chapman & Hall/CRC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

Modeling Structured Finance Cash Flows with Microsoft Excel: A Step-by-Step Guide.Book & CD-ROM
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ASIN: 1584886471

Book Description

The financial industry is swamped by credit products whose economic performance is linked to the performance of some underlying portfolio of credit-risky instruments, like loans, bonds, swaps, or asset-backed securities. Financial institutions continuously use these products for tailor-made long and short positions in credit risks. Based on a steadily growing market, there is a high demand for concepts and techniques applicable to the evaluation of structured credit products. Written from the perspective of practitioners who apply mathematical concepts to structured credit products, Structured Credit Portfolio Analysis, Baskets & CDOs starts with a brief wrap-up on basic concepts of credit risk modeling and then quickly moves on to more advanced topics such as the modeling and evaluation of basket products, credit-linked notes referenced to credit portfolios, collateralized debt obligations, and index tranches. The text is written in a self-contained style so readers with a basic understanding of probability will have no difficulties following it. In addition, many examples and calculations have been included to keep the discussion close to business applications. Practitioners as well as academics will find ideas and tools in the book that they can use for their daily work.

Customer Reviews:

Disappointing.......2007-09-13

I had to return this book. There are other books on credit derivatives and CDOs that are much better. This book deals with an important subject but in a very poor way.

Structured Credit Portfolio Analysis, Baskets and CDOs.......2007-06-01

Excellent book on structured credit. However, the authors could have placed more explicit numerical examples. Perhaps a new version could be updated with more explicit numerical examples?
Good book to read cover to cover.

Risk and Asset Allocation (Springer Finance)

Average customer rating:

Not for the faint-hearted

Risk and Asset Allocation (Springer Finance)
Attilio Meucci
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Options, Futures and Other Derivatives (6th Edition)

Accessories:

The Linear Algebra - A Beginning Graduate Student Ought to Know (Texts in the Mathematical Sciences)
Applied Linear Algebra and Matrix Analysis (Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics)

ASIN: 3540222138

Book Description

This encyclopedic, detailed exposition spans all the steps of one-period allocation from the foundations to the most advanced developments.

Multivariate estimation methods are analyzed in depth, including non-parametric, maximum-likelihood under non-normal hypotheses, shrinkage, robust, and very general Bayesian techniques. Evaluation methods such as stochastic dominance, expected utility, value at risk and coherent measures are thoroughly discussed in a unified setting and applied in a variety of contexts, including prospect theory, total return and benchmark allocation.

Portfolio optimization is presented with emphasis on estimation risk, which is tackled by means of Bayesian, resampling and robust optimization techniques.

All the statistical and mathematical tools, such as copulas, location-dispersion ellipsoids, matrix-variate distributions, cone programming, are introduced from the basics. Comprehension is supported by a large number of figures and examples, as well as real trading and asset management case studies.

At symmys.com the reader will find freely downloadable complementary materials: the Exercise Book; a set of thoroughly documented MATLAB ^® applications; and the Technical Appendices with all the proofs. More materials and complete reviews can also be found at symmys.com.

Customer Reviews:

Not for the faint-hearted.......2007-01-31

A great book if you have a strong mathematical background. But the question of asset allocation is bedevilled by mathematics which is too strong to support the weak data supplied by the markets in which we invest.

Unless this weak data is properly integrated into the asset allocation process, an area which Meucci spends too little time on, then the users of quantitative procedures will continue to be disappointed.

Average customer rating:

It ain't bad, it ain't great, it ain't complete, but it ain't wrong....
for Quants only
Good book
An advanced approach to math methods behind finance
CD does not work

Monte Carlo Methods in Finance
Peter Jaeckel
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Options, Futures and Other Derivatives (6th Edition)

ASIN: 047149741X

Book Description

An invaluable resource for quantitative analysts who need to run models that assist in option pricing and risk management. This concise, practical hands on guide to Monte Carlo simulation introduces standard and advanced methods to the increasing complexity of derivatives portfolios. Ranging from pricing more complex derivatives, such as American and Asian options, to measuring Value at Risk, or modelling complex market dynamics, simulation is the only method general enough to capture the complexity and Monte Carlo simulation is the best pricing and risk management method available.
The book is packed with numerous examples using real world data and is supplied with a CD to aid in the use of the examples.

Customer Reviews:

It ain't bad, it ain't great, it ain't complete, but it ain't wrong...........2007-03-27

What this book is:
1) Dated. PJ wrote this book in 2002, using thoughts and techniques applicable to a Pentium 4 Xeon world (2001). In 2002 folks often ran option book position MC simulations *overnight.*
* Also, GOOGLE Scholar wasn't out yet....if you wanted to collect all the papers and abstracts on MC methods in 2002 you had to talk to a librarian.
2) Basic. Well, now it is basic....but when it first came out it was sharply focused on finance and it was three years ahead of Glasserman's book.
3) This book is okay for what it is, which is a topical outline, some lecture notes introducing a reasonably well math trained audience to MC and finance. In 2001 MC was a cutting edge new thing. People forget what 2001 was like: Heck, one bank was flogging that it had a 200 node binomial model programmed in Excel available for customer use on an *appointment* basis. That was the state of things at the time.
What this book is not:

1) a cookbook. There is no "cut and paste" code in here. In 2001-2 believe it or not code was made by the sweat of your brow and was considered highly proprietary. Okay so in 2007 we just cobble together Franken-code and debug, but that wasn't the way it was in 2002. There weren't "Numerical Recipes in [code flavour of the month] sites. And folks were fired for showing code ot other people.
2) It won't teach you math. You are supposed to have learned a lot of the stuff this assumes you know.
3) It won't teach you programming in [pick your language] or its step-daughters.
4) Complete. This is expanded lecture notes. Is every low discrepancy method covered? (and all its weird names) No. Is every Greek covered and every possible expression? No. Is every application covered? Hmmm, still looking for that hybrid bond model in here.....not even in the index.
5) A replacement for work. This is a "topics in" and "helpful directions" and "friendly discussion" book. It does not solve your problem on your platform for your goals. It also won't wipe your rear end, buy you beers, tuck you in at night, or let you call it "Rosie." As in Rosie fingers and Harry palm.

So what is this book good for? Well, it is a not too bad a primer, it builds your vocabulary and helps your conceptualization of goals and purposes, and if you move on to Glasserman your comprehension will be much higher, although I'm not sure he covers that much more that much better.

But if you come from a science or math background that has used MC for other purposes, and you know programming, you can probably figure out most of what PJ covers on your own.

for Quants only.......2003-06-24

if you're a quant, you might really love this book

if you're a person who wants to have a "basic" understanding how to use MC for consulting or product pricing with examples, you got the wrong book (not mentioning that your maths must be pretty good).

if you're looking for an Excel example on how to price some basic options, i highly recommend Jackson & Staunton or Wilmott.

Good book.......2003-05-27

This book is pretty good as it covers lots of different areas of Monte Carlo simulation and some of the newer stuffs, such as copulae, etc. The math presentation is brief but to the point as application of the mathematics to Monte Carlo methods is the emphasis. Intuitive ideas behind the formula is explained pretty well as it tells you where certain formula can be used for. It would be helpful to have taken an advanced course in Monte Carlo methods in Finance to appreciate the book. I would personally suggest Glasserman's course at Columbia U. Prof Glasserman is also writing a book on the subject that he uses for lecture notes now. It would turn out to be an even better book to read.

An advanced approach to math methods behind finance.......2002-09-19

Very interesting and well written book reviewing more advanced mathematical concepts which might be relevant for finance engineering - not limited to Monte Carlo methods. The author seems to have a firm background in theoretical physics. Definitely not for simpletons.

CD does not work.......2002-08-29

It is a book for mathematics lovers not financial oriented profesionals. I would not recomend this book for those looking to gain more practical knowledge on this subject.

Quantitative Equity Portfolio Management: Modern Techniques and Applications (Chapman & Hall/Crc Financial Mathematics Series)

Average customer rating:

Quantitative Equity Portfolio Management: Modern Techniques and Applications (Chapman & Hall/Crc Financial Mathematics Series)
Edward E. Qian , Ronald H. Hua , and Eric H. Sorensen
Manufacturer: Chapman & Hall/CRC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Quantitative Equity Portfolio Management (McGraw-Hill Library of Investment and Finance)
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ASIN: 1584885580

Book Description

Quantitative equity portfolio management combines theories and advanced techniques from several disciplines, including financial economics, accounting, mathematics, and operational research. While many texts are devoted to these disciplines, few deal with quantitative equity investing in a systematic and mathematical framework that is suitable for quantitative investment students. Providing a solid foundation in the subject, Quantitative Equity Portfolio Management: Modern Techniques and Applications presents a self-contained overview and a detailed mathematical treatment of various topics. From the theoretical basis of behavior finance to recently developed techniques, the authors review quantitative investment strategies and factors that are commonly used in practice, including value, momentum, and quality, accompanied by their academic origins. They present advanced techniques and applications in return forecasting models, risk management, portfolio construction, and portfolio implementation that include examples such as optimal multi-factor models, contextual and nonlinear models, factor timing techniques, portfolio turnover control, Monte Carlo valuation of firm values, and optimal trading. In many cases, the text frames related problems in mathematical terms and illustrates the mathematical concepts and solutions with numerical and empirical examples. Ideal for students in computational and quantitative finance programs, Quantitative Equity Portfolio Management serves as a guide to combat many common modeling issues and provides a rich understanding of portfolio management using mathematical analysis.

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