Book Description
This consumer-oriented textbook addresses the principles of risk management without skimping on the discussion of insurance. It summarizes the nature of pure risk on the individual and on society and illustrates how insurance can be used to deal with the problems posed by such risk. Mirroring the diverse experience of its authors, the text is equally effective in presenting the principles of insurance theory and offering how-to advice to students. Throughout, the main emphasis is on the insurance product and the use of insurance within the risk management framework. The traditional fields of life insurance, health insurance, property and liability insurance, and social insurance are treated in terms of their relationship to the wide range of insurable risks to which the individual and the business firm are exposed.
Customer Reviews:
Very Good.......2007-01-18
I thought it would be a sleeper,but quite the contrary..I wish I would have read this book 20 years ago.
How Do I Write a Review about an Insurance Book?.......2003-03-04
Well, I guess I can try to review this book from the only perspective I read it from: that of a student. I had to read it for my CFP class on Insurance, and, as an introduction to most forms of insurance, it explains the forms in a very methodical and systematic way; it was very easy to follow and tough to get completely lost.
Honestly, I was never really fascinated with insurance. My life-licensing class was 24 hours of classroom time spread out over one weekend, so maybe that has created some insurance-related intellectual scars. The sections on Life Insurance and the basic components of any insurance contract and the whole insurance process were already familiar to me, so I found those sections incredibly uninteresting. The other forms of insurance were much more interesting and gave me a great foundation for other insurance studies I've done since.
The prose of the book, too, flows extremely well. In fact, I usually just lightly read passages explaining computations and formulas because I come back later to review them in-depth; however, while reading this book, I actually felt I fully understood most of the computations even while I read (which almost never happens because most formula-explaining reads much like Kant's "Metaphysics of Morals").
Just one closing point... I guess you'd have to be either Insurance Commissioner or a professor of insurance to be really interested in this material, but the authors write in a way that allows even the average CFP or insurance student to come away from the book with a good sense of how insurance works and where it fits into an individual's financial plan.
Book Description
This book focuses on problem-solving from managerial, consumer, and societal perspectives. It emphasizes both the business managerial aspects of risk management and insurance and the numerous consumer applications of the concept of risk management and insurance transaction. Specific chapter topics include insurance Regulation and contracts, basic property and liability insurance contracts, homeowners insurance, the personal auto policy, professional financial planning, life insurance policies, annuities, medical expense and disability insurance, standard life insurance contract provisions and options, commercial property insurance, general and special liability insurance, employee benefits, social security, and unemployment and workers' compensation insurance. For use by individuals in insurance occupations, and by those preparing for the certified financial planner board.
Customer Reviews:
Introduction to Risk Management and Insurance.......2007-01-09
Excellent reference book and very descriptive definitions of insurance concepts
A good book.......2006-11-10
For an entry level class on insurance this is a good book to start with.
Should be required reading for Undergrad Business.......2006-07-18
Definitely worth reading, even if not required for a class. A very accessible introduction to the field of Risk Management along with useful, practical information about the kinds of insurance contracts that will be encountered by consumers and businesses alike.
This, and introductory business law should be taught to all undergraduate b-school students. A great book, much better and more useful than a certain black-and-yellow book about insurance that you might be tempted to order.
5 Stars
Awesome Text!.......2003-05-12
This book is user-friendly, and students really like it. The only thing they don't like is the price, but, every intro text like this is over $100 these days. I really love this text for teaching my introductory classes.
The best introduction to a complicated subject available........1997-09-05
Extremely well written, many current examples and court cases, raises important social aspects of the insurance transaction. Covers issues important to consumers expecially frequently purchased insurance contracts
Average customer rating:
- Great for the novice Risk Manager
- This book is a must read for all mid-level and executive level managers
- Remarkably Succinct Coverage of a Hot New Topic
- A well written and thought out book on Risk Management
- A Must Read for Risk Management
|
Enterprise Risk Management: From Incentives to Controls
James Lam
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
| Agricultural
| Commercial Policy
| Comparative
| Consolidation & Merger
| Cooperatives
| Debt & Deficits
| Development & Growth
| Econometrics
| Economic Conditions
| Economic History
| Economic Policy & Development
| Exports & Imports
| Free Enterprise
| Inflation
| International
| Labor & Industrial Relations
| Macroeconomics
| Microeconomics
| Money & Monetary Policy
| Natural Resources
| Privatization
| Public Finance
| Statistics
| Sustainable Development
| Theory
| Unemployment
| Urban & Regional
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Accounting
| Industries & Professions
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Management
| Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Risk Assessment
| Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Entrepreneurship
| Small Business & Entrepreneurship
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Accounting
| Accounting & Finance
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Finance
| Accounting & Finance
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
All Amazon Upgrade
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
Business & Investing
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
Professional & Technical
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Business & Investing
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Professional
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Making Enterprise Risk Management Pay Off: How Leading Companies Implement Risk Management
-
Simple Tools and Techniques for Enterprise Risk Management (The Wiley Finance Series)
-
The Essentials of Risk Management
-
Fundamentals of Private Pensions
-
Actuarial Aspects of Individual Life Insurance and Annuity Contracts
ASIN: 0471430005 |
Book Description
Enterprise risk management is a complex yet critical issue that all companies must deal with as they head into the twenty-first century. It empowers you to balance risks with rewards as well as people with processes. But to master the numerous aspects of enterprise risk management, you must first realize that this approach is not only driven by sound theory but also by sound practice. No one knows this better than risk management expert James Lam. In Enterprise Risk Management: From Incentives to Controls, Lam distills twenty years' worth of experience in this field to give you a clear understanding of both the art and science of enterprise risk management.
Organized into four comprehensive sections, Enterprise Risk Management offers in-depth insights, practical advice, and real world case studies that explore every aspect of this important field.
- Section I: Risk Management in Context lays a solid foundation for understanding the role of enterprise risk management in today’s business environment.
- Section II: The Enterprise Risk Management Framework offers an executive education on the business rationale for integrating risk management processes.
- Section III: Risk Management Applications discusses the applications of risk management in two dimensions–functions and industries.
- Section IV: A Look to the Future rounds out this comprehensive discussion of enterprise risk management by examining emerging topics in risk management with respect to people and technology.
JAMES LAM is President of James Lam & Associates, an independent risk advisory firm. Before starting his own firm, Lam was founder and president of ERisk and partner of Oliver, Wyman & Company. In 1997, as chief risk officer at Fidelity Investments, he was named the first-ever Financial Risk Manager of the Year by the Global Association of Risk Professionals. Prior to Fidelity, he was chief risk officer of Capital Markets Services, Inc., a GE Capital Company. Lam graduated with honors from Baruch College and received his MBA from UCLA. He is also currently an Adjunct Professor of Finance at Babson College.
Customer Reviews:
Great for the novice Risk Manager.......2006-07-27
If you are a budding Risk Manager/ Officer or are considering a career move towards Risk Management, this book is a good high-level illustration of what the major sleeves of Risk Management has to offer.
For the experienced risk professional, this is a bit too fundamental.
This book is a must read for all mid-level and executive level managers.......2005-09-21
James Lam has written a remarkably clear and relevant portrayal of how [enterprise] risk management can be used to deliver real value in any business.
During the past year, I developed a course for the Executive MBA program at Villanova University. After reviewing several books on the subject, I chose this one because of its clear and comprehensive coverage of the subject matter.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone with a serious interest in understanding risk management from a holistic perspective. This includes risk professionals as well as those involved in line and staff functions.
Remarkably Succinct Coverage of a Hot New Topic.......2005-02-04
You bought Jorion, Pearson, and Hull; you slammed headfirst into the quantitative quagmire of risk management, and you may even have passed the Financial Risk Manager exam, sponsored by the Global Association of Risk Professionals, but are you prepared to become your company's "Risk Champion?" Can you explain to laymen why loss distributions are not normal? Can you illustrate the "sweet spot" in the profit/risk tradeoff? If you aren't quite there yet, pick up James Lam's new book, Enterprise Risk Management, From Incentives to Controls. It's a book you can read on the five hour flight from New York to Los Angeles, and its melodies will linger in your memory. This book has changed the way I communicate with people both in and outside the risk management profession. Read it with a highlighter in your hand, and keep the book within easy reach.
A well written and thought out book on Risk Management.......2004-10-05
This book provides practical and insightful look at risk management and how it can benefit companies. Reading and understanding this book should be a pre-requisite for any person going to take on management position.
A Must Read for Risk Management.......2004-08-23
This book is not only about the theory of enterprise risk management, but also a summary of the author¡¯s experience in practicing risk management for more than twenty years. And what is more, there are several case studies that are deeply analyzed in the book. It is because of this that I think it is an excellent work on enterprise risk management. In addition, it is interesting that the Balance of the Yin and Yang in the Chinese traditional philosophy is applied as Lesson 7 by the author. It is a must read for all business managers and students who want to pursue a career in risk management.
Book Description
Learn about today's hottest new risk management tools
One of the hottest areas of finance today, alternative risk transfer, or ART, refers to the use of various insurance products to manage market, credit, operational, legal, environmental, and other forms of risk. As the capital and insurance markets continue to converge, the number and complexity of new risk-defraying insurance products available to corporations, brokerages, money managers and other financial professionals will continue to grow. Expert Christopher L. Culp uses case studies of recent ART transactions used by risk managers to put the field into perspective for financial professionals and to acquaint them with the various types of risk control products now available. In addition he explores, in-depth, the links between ART, derivatives and bank-arranged risk financing, and he explains the key differences between classic insurance products and financial guarantees, risk financing, bundled layering, and other ART forms.
Customer Reviews:
For Useless Academics.......2004-04-03
If you are a practicioner, skip this book. Even academics will find this rehash (and outright clone) of better material a waste of time.
Packed with Knowledge!.......2002-11-12
Finance professional and professor Christopher L. Culp tells all, that is, all about alternate risk transfer (ART) products. Culp discusses corporate finance in detail, covering different types of capital. He sets out the risk control and capital structure functions of various classical and alternative risk transfer steps, such as derivatives targeted at market and credit risk, asset divestiture, insurance and reinsurance. Don't even go here if you aren't already familiar with (or studying) the sophisticated basics of finance, since this is highly technical reading, including numerous formulas, charts and graphs describing financial theories and processes. But if you are an expert, we from getAbstract congratulate you on finding your way to Culp, who aimed his book at the already-savvy: corporate treasurers, financial officers and those who participate in capital markets and the reinsurance industry.
Book Description
Principles of Risk Management and Insurance focuses primarily on the consumers of insurance, and the text blends basic risk management and insurance principles with consumer considerations. Praised for its depth and breadth of coverage, the Tenth Edition provides even more flexibility in its organization by giving an overview of the insurance industry first, before discussing specific plans.
Basic Concepts in Risk Management and Insurance: Risk in Our Society; Insurance and Risk; Introduction to Risk Management; Advanced Topics in Risk Management;
The Private Insurance Industry: Types of Insurers and Marketing Systems; Insurance Company Operations; Financial Operations of Insurers; Government Regulation of Insurance;
Legal Principles in Risk and Insurance: Fundamental Legal Principles; Analysis of Insurance Contracts;
Life and Health Risks: Life Insurance; Life Insurance Contractual Provisions; Buying Life Insurance; Annuities and Individual Retirement Accounts; Individual Health Insurance Coverages; Employee Benefits: Group Health Insurance; Employee Benefits: Retirement Plans; Social Insurance;
Personal Property and Liability Risks
: The Liability Risk; Homeowners Insurance, Section I; Homeowners Insurance, Section II; Auto Insurance; Auto Insurance and Society; Other Property and Liability Insurance Coverages;
Commercial Property and Liability Risks: Commercial Property Insurance; Commercial Liability Insurance; Crime Insurance and Surety Bonds.
For all readers interested in risk management and insurance.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Guide / Overview of Insurance for CFP .......2006-11-05
As part of an overall CFP class, provided an excellent overview of Insurance and Risk management. After buying insurance for many years, I now know what I'm getting
Average customer rating:
- Against The Gods, a highly recommended book for MBA
- So Close to Wonderful
- Unpretentious and pleasant
- Are you risk-seeker or risk-averse?
- A remarkable rational attitude against rational Gods
|
Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk
Peter L. Bernstein
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Popular Economics
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Accounting
| Industries & Professions
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Insurance
| Industries & Professions
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Risk Management
| Insurance
| Industries & Professions
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Management
| Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Risk Assessment
| Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Philosophy
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
| Aesthetics
| Analytic Philosophy
| Ancient
| Consciousness & Thought
| Criticism
| Eastern
| Epistemology
| Ethics & Morality
| Free Will & Determinism
| General
| Good & Evil
| Greek & Roman
| History & Surveys
| History, 17th & 18th Century
| Islamic
| Logic & Language
| Medieval Thought
| Metaphysics
| Methodology
| Modern
| Modern Renaissance
| Movements
| Ontology
| Philosophy of Religion
| Political
| Reference
| Religious
| Science
| Social Philosophy
| Theism
Statistics
| Applied
| Mathematics
| Professional Science
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Accounting
| Accounting & Finance
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Finance
| Accounting & Finance
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
All Amazon Upgrade
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
Business & Investing
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
Nonfiction
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
Professional & Technical
| Amazon Upgrade
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
-
When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management
-
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
-
A Random Walk Down Wall Street: Completely Revised and Updated Edition
-
Capital Ideas Evolving
ASIN: 0471295639 |
Amazon.com
With the stock market breaking records almost daily, leaving longtime market analysts shaking their heads and revising their forecasts, a study of the concept of risk seems quite timely. Peter Bernstein has written a comprehensive history of man's efforts to understand risk and probability, beginning with early gamblers in ancient Greece, continuing through the 17th-century French mathematicians Pascal and Fermat and up to modern chaos theory. Along the way he demonstrates that understanding risk underlies everything from game theory to bridge-building to winemaking.
Book Description
A Business Week, New York Times Business, and USA Today Bestseller
"Ambitious and readable . . . an engaging introduction to the oddsmakers, whom Bernstein regards as true humanists helping to release mankind from the choke holds of superstition and fatalism." -The New York Times
"An extraordinarily entertaining and informative book." -The Wall Street Journal
"A lively panoramic book . . . Against the Gods sets up an ambitious premise and then delivers on it." -Business Week
"Deserves to be, and surely will be, widely read." -The Economist
"[A] challenging book, one that may change forever the way people think about the world." -Worth
"No one else could have written a book of such central importance with so much charm and excitement." -Robert Heilbroner author, The Worldly Philosophers
"With his wonderful knowledge of the history and current manifestations of risk, Peter Bernstein brings us Against the Gods. Nothing like it will come out of the financial world this year or ever. I speak carefully: no one should miss it." -John Kenneth Galbraith Professor of Economics Emeritus, Harvard University
In this unique exploration of the role of risk in our society, Peter Bernstein argues that the notion of bringing risk under control is one of the central ideas that distinguishes modern times from the distant past. Against the Gods chronicles the remarkable intellectual adventure that liberated humanity from oracles and soothsayers by means of the powerful tools of risk management that are available to us today.
"An extremely readable history of risk." -Barron's
"Fascinating . . . this challenging volume will help you understand the uncertainties that every investor must face." -Money
"A singular achievement." -Times Literary Supplement
"There's a growing market for savants who can render the recondite intelligibly-witness Stephen Jay Gould (natural history), Oliver Sacks (disease), Richard Dawkins (heredity), James Gleick (physics), Paul Krugman (economics)-and Bernstein would mingle well in their company." -The Australian
Customer Reviews:
Against The Gods, a highly recommended book for MBA.......2007-09-18
The reason that I bought this book was because it was highly recommended by the teachers at my MBA class.
They were not kidding, from head to toe its very good and kept my attention till the end. It has been of great help to me. Aside the history content it helps you to think on how to mitigate risk and how improve the opportunities.
So Close to Wonderful.......2007-08-14
Bernstein does an adequate job bringing the concepts together, but this is not a page-turner. I found myself reading on for the promise of insight, and he offers some, but the writing is a bit dull.
Unpretentious and pleasant.......2007-07-10
Bernstein is an interesting writer since he is the consummate finance insider- a practioner, regulator and academic. This range helps and harms the book - in his efforts to render the history of risk, he delves into anecdotal caricatures while amusing definitely smack of basis risk with the underlying ideas that are provocative enough! I found the behavioural finance and derivatives section to be rather basic but then realised the book was written in 1996. It's a pleasant read but a more pragmatic introduction to probability is the infinitely witty Cartoon Guide to Statistics.
Are you risk-seeker or risk-averse?.......2007-07-01
According to this book you are both, it only depends on the point of view that is presented. I enjoy the book from the beginning to end, especially the last three chapters. The history and analysis of rational behavior is enlightening, to anyone who has ever thought about the process of decision.
A remarkable rational attitude against rational Gods.......2007-05-16
2 crucial ponits in this book:
1.Sociological: Bernstein describes how risk was first imagined as an essentially modern cultural form and significantly operationalized in early mercantile capitalist shipping, where individual losses in rapidly expanding global trade become large enough to encourage their socialization in insurance arranegemnts. This book implies some viable if crude forms measurement and scaling of risk. In his narrative, risk was there waiting to be discovered, carrying its own intrinsic meaning, which the visionaries, through their heroic powers of access to msteries of Nature, were able to reveal to men of commerce and others who could then drive the economic, cultural and technological revolution of modernity. We can note from this account of risk how an implicit normative framework`and a claim of control are advanced as defining features of this new state`of enlightenment. It is this scientific risk discourse which gives total control`of `the future at the service of the present', the implication being that risk`analysis identifies and domesticates all significant future consequences of the`relevant actions. In this way ignorance and unanticipated consequences - lack`of control - lying beyond the reach of existing scientific knowledge, thus`potentially embarrassing in future to risk assessment, are seamlessly deleted.`Risk is thus assumed to define the full sphere of conceivable meaning for considering`new technologies and their implications, and science reveals this`independent meaning. (Reference, Wynne:Reflexivity inside out?)
2. Historical: While it is apparent to historians that both Khayyam and Kharazmi were Persian thinkers, the author in keen to be selective inattentive to this fact such that he argues the system of numbers were imported from Arab world to West whereas it was firstly introduced to Arabs at the time Persia was invaded by them. Hence the author's historic mind-set starts from 12th Century while long before which is 500 B.C. risk used to be engineered among Persians. (Reference, Channel History-Engineering an Empire: Persia)
Book Description
Risk Intelligence gives executives and business managers a simple mental model and simple tools to manage these risks. According to the author's model, risks fall into two categories: knowable and therefore learnable, and unknowable and therefore difficult to prepare for.
The book not only shows readers how to analyse their knowable risks but helps them to appreciate the quality and utility of their own analysis. As it turns out, some people have a higher risk IQ than others and therefore analyse and manage risks more effectively. This book helps people of all risk aptitudes to assess and improve their risk IQs.
Customer Reviews:
Risk Intelligence is enthusiastically recommended for business leaders .......2006-11-05
Written by David Apgar, a managing director of the Corporate Executive Board best-practices research organization which serves senior executives at over 2,500 institutions worldwide, Risk Intelligence: Learning To Manage What We Don't Know openly challenges the common presumption that risk management and related business judgments is a matter solely for technical specialists. Risk Intelligence teaches the reader how to distinguish learnable risks from random risks in business decisions, how to score one's own risk intelligence, how to conduct a solid risk strategy audit, how to build networks that can adapt dynamically to risk, and much more. Written in plain terms with clear examples, Risk Intelligence is enthusiastically recommended for business leaders seeking to sharpen their flexibility and adaptability when confronting unknown threats.
Highly recommended.......2006-09-19
Apgar's focus on learnable risks offers some very useful frameworks for applying risk management concepts to a real-word competitive business environment.
Excellent new perspective on risk.......2006-09-08
This is a fantastic book with powerful insight about the failing of portfolio theory when it comes to understanding and managing business risks. Apgar offers wonderful examples to illustrate how business risks are actually learnable and he creates a framework for preparing yourself to be good at learning about and mitigating risk.
This would be a very good book for seminars on risk management at the college level or in exec education programs at corporations.
Book Description
Value-at-risk (VaR) is a measure of market risk that has been widely adopted since the mid-1990s for use on trading floors. This is the first advanced book published on VaR. It describes how to design, implement, and use scalable production VaR measures on actual trading floors. It takes readers from the basics of VaR to the most advanced techniques, many of which have never been published in book form.
Practical, detailed examples are drawn from markets around the world, including: Euro deposits, Pacific Basin equities, physical coffees, and North American natural gas.
Real-world challenges relating to market data, portfolio mappings, multicollinearity, and intra-horizon events are addressed in detail. Exercises reinforce concepts and walk readers step-by-step through computations.
Sophisticated techniques are fully disclosed, including: quadratic ("delta-gamma") methods for nonlinear portfolios, variance reduction (control variates and stratified sampling) for Monte Carlo VaR measures, principal component remappings, techniques to "fix" estimated covariance matrices that are not positive-definite, the Cornish-Fisher expansion, and orthogonal GARCH.
* First advanced text on Value-at-Risk
* Practical, detailed examples drawn from markets around the world
* Exercises reinforce concepts and walk readers step-by-step through computations
Customer Reviews:
The Bible.......2006-03-30
I work in finance as a software developer. I had done some work with risk management and had read Jorion's book and Butler's. When I had to do my own VaR implementation, a colleague recommended Holton's book. It is amazing. The level of domain expertise is above anything else out there. It is sophisticated and well written. I thought I knew about VaR before reading Holton, but I didn't really. Now I know about VaR.
I noticed that someone has been posting negative reviews of the book here on Amazon. Those reviews are blatantly dishonest. I assume they are posted by a jealous competing author.
Holton is the bible.
Not helpful.......2005-06-27
This book looks good only at first sight. However, try and solve the exercises and you see there is more to VaR than the author wants us to believe. This book is too incoherent to be of any use. Just take a look at the index: A lot of things are introduced but are never used again later in the book. This makes me wonder why they were introduced at all. Some examples from the index: Hessian, GARCH, Markov process, etc.
The biggest fault however in my opinion is the treatment of Monte Carlo, the most essential tool for VaR calculation: Condensed in roughly 30 pages compared to roughly 110 pages for mathematical preliminaries and probability cannot cater to the same audience.
A good book on VaR.......2005-06-25
A good book on VaR, but finally lost its charming. Incomplete and solved cases in a pathetic manner. Theory: 80%, Practice: 10%, pathetic exercises 10%. This book doesn?t reflect its complete main purpose: theory and practice. I would choose mastering Value at Risk by Cormac Butler and Value At Risk by Jorion. My rate is 2 stars. Do it again. Don?t forget solved cases in spreadsheets.
A Smart Book.......2005-06-08
There are plenty of elementary books on VaR. This is an exception. It is a smart book for practitioners. It covers practicalities such as data cleaning, day counts and modeling intra-horizon events. It explains cutting-edge theory such as quadratic VaR, variance reduction techniques and holdings remappings. It introduces all the mathematics you need to know.
The prerequisites are modest -- about the same as for John Hull's book "Futures, Options and Other Derivatives." Holton does use some more advanced concepts, such as the Cornish-Fisher expansion or moment generating functions. He explains all of these before using them. Actually, he goes out of his way to make the mathematics accessible, devoting several chapters to explaining essential concepts. There are chapters on probability, statistics, the Monte Carlo Method, etc. Later in the book, whenever technical concepts come up, you will find an accompanying reference to an explanation in one of the earlier mathematics chapters. In this regard, the book is wonderfully self contained!
The author does make extensive use of matrix notation. This may take some getting used to if your background in linear algebra is limited, but it is worth it. Formulas that would be extremely complicated become simple when expressed with matrices. The author's notation is intuitive and used consistently throughout the book. If you see a symbol on page 10, it is going to mean exactly the same thing on page 310.
If you are serious about value-at-risk, this is the book to read.
no words needed - just buy it!.......2005-01-18
the ultimate resource for VAR theory and practice.
excellent writing, math and all.
don't spend time and money elsewere, just buy it!!
Book Description
Risk management is no longer confined solely to risk management specialists. Stakeholders ranging from employees to investors must understand how to quantify the tradeoffs of risk against the potential return. The failure to understand the essential nature of risk can have devastating consequences.
Globally renowned risk and corporate governance experts Michel Crouhy, Dan Galai, and Robert Mark have updated and streamlined their bestselling professional reference Risk Management to introduce you to the world of risk management without requiring you to know the intricate formulas and mathematical details.
The Essentials of Risk Management is the first book to make even the most sophisticated risk management approaches simultaneously accessible to both risk and non risk professionals. It will help you to:
- Increase the transparency of your risk management program to satisfy shareholders, employees, regulators, and other important constituencies
- Keep on top of the continuing evolution of best-practice risk policies and methodologies and associated risk infrastructures
- Implement and efficiently communicate an organization-wide Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) approach that encompasses market, credit, liquidity, operational, legal and regulatory, business, strategic and reputation risks
- Navigate thorny areas including risk policies, risk methodologies, economic capital, regulatory capital, performance measurement, asset-liability management, and more
- Efficiently allocate limited corporate resources to comply with the new generation of risk regulation and corporate governance regulation
As a non-risk professional or board member, you are being called on more than ever before to make sophisticated assessments of your organization's risk exposures as well as play a critical role in its formal risk management process. The Essentials of Risk Management tells you what you need to know to succeed in this challenging new environment.
Customer Reviews:
Good Introduction.......2007-08-01
I would highly recommend this book to the begginer/budding Risk Manager
For the experienced risk professional, this is a bit too fundamental.
An excellent introduction.......2006-07-11
This book provides an introduction to the field of risk management for readers who do not yet want to get deeply involved in the mathematical formalism that is typically used. The authors wrote the book so that it is "accessible to everyone", and they have done a fine job. Those readers who need a more quantitative treatment will have to consult another book or the vast research literature on the subject. Risk management, as they see it, is an attempt to estimate both the `expected' losses and the `unexpected' losses, and being able to differentiate between these two concepts goes to the core of the subject. Thus the book emphasizes the "intuition" behind risk management, and not the formalism. However, one must not conclude from this that "intuition" and "formalism" are distinct, and the belief that they are has resulted in a lot of confusion (and financial losses) in recent years. The authors clearly do not believe that they are, but have merely emphasized "intuition" from a pedagogical point of view.
The authors classify risk into eight categories, namely market, credit, liquidity, operational, legal and regulatory, business, strategic, and reputation risk. Financial risk, as they see it, is composed of two of these, namely market and credit risk. Their discussion of corporate risk management is very interesting, in that it begins with the observation first made almost forty years ago that the value of a firm is not altered solely by financial transactions. This is due to their assumption of the perfect market hypothesis, which effectively suppresses the ability of the firm to gain significant advantages over an individual investor. Therefore with this assumption a firm should not concern itself with risks outside of the ones that all other firms face. This is an interesting conclusion, particularly in the context of using hedging via derivatives, as it implies that it cannot compete with ordinary self-insurance, due to the presence of transaction costs. The authors discuss in fair detail why the perfect market assumption is faulty, and therefore why managing risk with hedging is a viable strategy.
The regulatory environment, particularly in the banking industry, has enormous ramifications for risk management, as the authors discuss in the book. This is due in part to the Basel Accords of 1988 and 1996, and Basel II which is due to be in place at the end of 2007. The Basel accords are essentially a standardization for capital reserves, defining a `assets-to-capital' multiple and a `risk-based capital' ratio. The authors review the 1988 Accord and discuss the elementary relationships involved, including the `Cooke ratio' and how to obtain the credit equivalent for the off-balance-sheet exposures. They also discuss the reasons for the 1996 amendment, which essentially were the result of the new trading activities that banks were indulging themselves in. It would have been interesting if the authors had included a (historical) discussion on the efficacy of the Basel Accords in suppressing banking failures. They do mention the fiasco with Barings Bank, claiming that its demise would have been adverted if it were prohibited from racking up huge exchange-traded futures positions. This is certainly true, but any regulation needs to be validated by historical data, to the extent that this is possible, and this requires of course tracking of the financial institutions that are under the umbrella of the regulation. In this regard though, the authors do view bank regulation as a `research lab' for risk management, implying that they are aware of the need for validation of any regulations that are actually put in place. It will be fascinating therefore to see the impact of the new Basel II accords when they become active, and indeed observe, if possible, any `regulatory arbitrage' that occurs. This also brings up the question of how to assess the quality of the risk management strategies of a particular financial institution. The authors spend a little time discussing this, with one of them referring to a method analogous to credit scoring.
No book on risk management could be complete without discussion of academic research on the topic, for the reason that much of this research has found practical application and has greatly influenced portfolio management and risk valuation. The authors review four theoretical models, namely modern portfolio theory, the capital asset pricing model, the Black-Scholes option-pricing model, and the Modigliani-Miller theory of corporate finance. Even though the discussions are very short, one has to admire the authors' ability to avoid complicated mathematics in discussing all of these theories without sacrificing clarity. The more mathematically-mature reader may perhaps be annoyed with the omission of mathematical formalism, but a natural question that might arise for such a reader is whether or not risk can indeed be put in a general axiomatic framework that will encompass all of its different manifestations, such as credit risk, operational risk, etc. Such a framework would allow a complete mathematical characterization of risk, and would allow various general and quantitative statements to be made about it.
Due to the extent of mortgage portfolios in the United States at the present time, and due to the sensitive dependence of their values on interest rates, the authors spend a fair amount of time discussing interest-rate risk and how to hedge it with derivatives. Thus they speak of the `sensitivity' of financial instruments to certain risk factors, and study the case of fixed-income products via the `DV01' risk measure, which is the change in value of a security after a change in interest rate of 1 basis point. This measure gives a `first-order' approximation to the change in yield, but the authors show how to obtain a `second-order' approximation using the `convexity' adjustment.
For complex portfolios, the most popular method for risk management has been the value-at-risk or VAR, and so it is not surprising that the authors devote an entire chapter to it in the book. The authors view it as a more sophisticated method because of its ability to deal with volatilities and correlations. However, they point out that its efficacy is restricted to relatively short time scales and under `normal' market conditions. The fiasco at LTCM (Long Term Capital Management) is discussed as an example of the failure of VAR to measure risk over long time scales and under abnormal market conditions. They do not however give any detailed evidence for this claim, but a perusal of the research literature (surprisingly rather slim) reveals that LTCM made "major" errors in terms of their risk management, if viewed from the standpoint of VAR. This still leaves open the question as to whether it made "major" errors from the standpoint of some other method for measuring and evaluating risk that is possibly radically different from VAR.
A Non-Mathematical Approach.......2006-04-19
The essense of investing is that increased risk should be compensated for by increased return. The problem lies in measuring and thus managing risk. Measuring risk is in the same category as predicting the future. The future is uncertain, the best guesses fail as bad weather, oil embargoes, or any of a whole list of other incidents change the situation.
Risk management isn't simply a matter of avoiding risk. It is instead a matter of identifying it, measuring it, appreciating its consequences and then taking actions accordingly. Insurance is perhaps the best example.
If a hundred sailing ships go out and 90 return, spreading the risk among all hundred ships compensates for the loss of the ten. And Lloyds is born.
During recent years several techniques have been developed to measure risk. This book discusses them in a non-mathematical way that can be used by both risk and non-risk professionals. In essence it brings sophisticated techniques to be accessible to a wide audience.
Book Description
John C. Hull’s Financial Risk Management text is the only text to take risk management theory and explain it in a âthis is how you do itâ manner for practical application in today’s real world.
We found that most professors are looking for a book that contains up to date information, and is written for application in the real work environment. Hull’s text offers students the ability to gain knowledge that will stay with them beyond college and be useful in the real world.
Based on one of the most popular MBA courses at University of Toronto entitled âFinancial Risk Managementâ, this text focuses on the ways banks and other financial institutions measure market, credit and operational risk. John C. Hull, author of the book âOptions, Futures, and Other Derivativesâ which became the standard reference text for traders, wrote âRisk Management and Financial Institutionsâ for use in instruction as well as trade. The practical nature of the book lends itself to a âthis is how you do itâ presentation style that includes excellent account of the new Basel II regulatory requirements for banks effective in 2007.
Customer Reviews:
Good book, bad binding.......2006-12-25
This book is similar to "Options Futures and Other Derivatives", John Hull's big book, but it does have roughly 40-50% new banking material. At least half is recycled from Hull's other book, which is a better book, in my opinion.
I don't know if this price justifies 50% recycled content. And the math is notably simple. The material on copulas might make it into a future edition of Hull's other book, but banking topics like Basel, operational risk, economic capital, etc. probably will not.
My main complaint is that the hardcover version of this book seems very cheaply made -- over the course of one semester, the binding broke on every one of roughly 20 copies in our class, and pages were falling out all over. I have a beat-up copy of Hull's other book, and the binding is still fine.
Good but............2006-11-10
This is a good one, nut I am a little disappointing about the material
which is most covered in Hull's "Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives"
Except some idea about "Copula"!
Books:
- Generative Social Science: Studies in Agent-Based Computational Modeling (Princeton Studies in Complexity)
- Getting Started in Project Management (Getting Started In.....)
- Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance
- Go Put Your Strengths to Work: 6 Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance
- Gold Trading Boot Camp: How to Master the Basics and Become a Successful Commodities Investor
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- The Survivors Club
- The Company of Strangers
- Leading Residential Landscape Professionals
- Picasso Linoleum Cuts
- Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved
- The Art of Classroom Management: Building Equitable Learning Communitites, Second Edition
- Super Sand Castle Saturday
- Brandscaping: Worlds of Experience in Retail Design
- Period Rooms in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Six Easy Pieces: Easy Rawlins Stories
Tools & Techniques of Financial Planning (Tools and Techniques of Financial Planning) (Tools and Techniques of Financial Planning)
Investments: An Introduction (with Thomson ONE - Business School Edition and Stock-Trak Coupon)
Tools & Techniques of Employee Benefit And Retirement Planning: Tools & Techniques Of Employee (Tools and Techniques of Employee Benefit and Retirement ... of Employee Benefit and Retirement Planning)
Time & Money, 8th Edition
Prentice Hall's Federal Taxation 2007: Individuals (20th Edition) (Prentice Hall's Federal Taxation Individuals)
