Book Description
You have more information at hand about your business environment than ever before. But are you using it to “out-think” your rivals? If not, you may be missing out on a potent competitive tool.
In Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning , Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris argue that the frontier for using data to make decisions has shifted dramatically. Certain high-performing enterprises are now building their competitive strategies around data-driven insights that in turn generate impressive business results. Their secret weapon? Analytics: sophisticated quantitative and statistical analysis and predictive modeling.
Exemplars of analytics are using new tools to identify their most profitable customers and offer them the right price, to accelerate product innovation, to optimize supply chains, and to identify the true drivers of financial performance. A wealth of examples—from organizations as diverse as Amazon, Barclay’s, Capital One, Harrah’s, Procter & Gamble, Wachovia, and the Boston Red Sox—illuminate how to leverage the power of analytics.
Customer Reviews:
Covers the basics of both the what-is and the how-to of fact-based decision making.......2007-10-04
Mark Twain once said something to the effect that it isn't what you don't know that gets you into trouble, it's what you know for certain that isn't so that will get you. Too many businesses are run on assumptions, guesses, and inertia. What we are doing now worked in the past so lets keep doing it. Shareholders lose a lot of money when their businesses are run with that kind of thinking.
This book is about fact-based decision making. It is really more of an introduction to the subject than a detailed text, but it is still quite useful for those wanting to learn the basics of the subject. The first five chapters discuss what analytics are, how you compete using them, and the growth path from wondering what an analytic competitor is through the fives steps to becoming one. They also discuss what it means when using internal data that you completely control, and what it means when you do it using data you control and supplier or customer data that you do not control.
The last four chapters take on the practical side of implementing a road map to becoming an analytic competitor. I particularly enjoyed the chapter emphasizing that all your plans will fail if you don't have the right people. Systems alone won't do it. The next chapter discusses the kinds of systems you need. The last chapter discusses the future of analytics.
For the right audience, this is a fascinating book. The stories about businesses succeeding by using analytics or getting themselves into serious trouble by ignoring them are all good and entertaining. Be careful, though. Some of the stories talk about instances (such as the Red Sox losing the World Series by letting the pitcher go beyond his statistical maximum pitching range) rather than trends and large numbers of events. Statistics don't work on instances. That is, at any given moment a coin might come up heads or tails. Just because there have been ten heads flips in a row does not mean you should take less than 50-50 odds on the next flip. It is still 50-50. That pitcher might have won, might have lost that game and it would have become part of the statistical information. However, for the stats to become powerful, you would have to be able to make a strong prediction over a series of games that he pitched. That is, if he goes beyond X pitches in 10 games he will lose about 8 of them. That means he still wins two (or one or three) and you don't know when in the series the wins will come.
The idea that very small observations can be exploited for big advantage is very important in today's ever more competitive business climate. For example Harrah's learned that moving the odds on slot machines one-tenth of one percent in their favor did not affect customer play at all, but netted them at extra $80 million (company wide). Marriott's hotel management system improves hotel performance by a couple percent. Remember that these improvements incur little cost, so most of the improvement flows quickly to the bottom line.
I thought that might get your attention. Read it so you can learn and profit from it.
Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI
A limited introduction to business analytics.......2007-09-21
MY RATING SYSTEM:
* - if you have to chose between torture and reading this book, then you might want to consider reading the book - although it depends on just how severe the torture would be.
** - if you've lost your job and have quite a bit of free time on your hands, and don't have anything else better to do, then you might want to consider reading this book; don't expect to learn much or really be entertained. It will however, help you pass the time until your death.
*** - meh...I'm indifferent. Reading this book will not alter your life in any significant way, yet it is not so horrendously dreadful that your taking the time to read it will be a complete waste of time.
**** - Good book to great book zone here. You should probably read this book if you have some spare time. This book could be interesting, entertaining, or informative.
***** - Outstanding book! Make time to read this book - you'll learn or be entertained or intrigued. The book might even be good enough to provide original or helpful insights into the world that we live in.
REVIEW:
Competing on Analytics serves as an interesting, albeit limited, introduction to the concept of using complex data collection, management, and analysis techniques to gain a competitive edge in business.
For me, the book served as a useful introduction, but fell far short of satisfying the objectives I had in mind when I first came across it. What I was expecting was a book that provide a detailed guide to developing and implementing an analytical approach to business decision making. While early on the authors acknowledge the limitations of the book, I found what followed to be less than satisfying.
The book contained a variety of examples of companies that were using analytical techniques to improve the quality of business decision making, and discussed a variety of business areas in which companies might want to adopt such analytical techniques but failed to present comprehensive case studies that would provide real guidance to readers. I would have liked to have been led through a few cases, from a diverse set of industries, where the authors describe what information was collected and why, how the information was manipulated, analyzed and presented, and how the entire analytics process was influenced by and/or influenced the company's strategy and performance. Instead, the book left me with the impression that I need to go out an hire a consulting firm to lead me through the development of an analytics program.
One of the most ironic components of the book was that while it touted the use of analytical techniques and objective analysis to motivate business decision making, it's argument was largely based on anecdotal evidence of a handful of companies that have adopted analytical approaches.
Good Overview of Business Analytics.......2007-09-20
Technology & the easy with which information spreads has rendered many products and services easily replicable. Companies need to compete on the basis of something their competitors can't recreate. What companies don't have ready access to is each other's data, i.e., on customers, suppliers, & processes. What companies do with this data is what can set them apart from competitors.
Davenport & Harris describe how data is transformed into competitive advantage by discussing the types of information used in analytics, the stages of becoming a more analytic corporation, and many examples of companies who have applied analytics to successful operations. Problems encountered down the road to becoming more analytical were similar to those described in another recent book on the criticality of enterprise data, Information Revolution by Davis, Miller, & Russell.
This book contains no numeric formulas or specific procedures for using analytics, but it is an excellent as an overall survey of business analytics as used today.
Who Is The Audience.......2007-08-30
This book is meant for those who make things happen and need to gain a fresh perspective. It is not meant for those who know a lot but can't make things happen yet keep looking for more information, while criticizing a good effort, which without doubt could have been better.
Great Subject/Weak Effort.......2007-08-26
Not a lot of meat to this topic other than the obvious. Not very exciting stuff.
Book Description
ASW's Introduction to Management Science: A Quantitative Approach to Decision Making provides thorough, application-oriented coverage in a very readable writing style. This is the leading text on the market. Simply put, it's a classic! The problem-scenario approach introduces quantitative procedures through situations that include both problem formulation and technique application. The extensive linear programming coverage includes problem formulation, computer solution, and practical application. The text covers transportation, assignment, and the integer programming extension of linear programming, as well as advanced topics like waiting line models, simulation, and decision analysis. A large selection of problems includes self-test problems with complete solutions and case problems. Excel spreadsheet appendices are included as well.
Customer Reviews:
Good program with textbook.......2007-08-22
I had to use this text for a sophmore level management science course. While the book is extensively detailed, it is written for graduate school level course work. The program that comes with the text is much more useful for the undergrad student tackling business statistics.
Graduate Students Guide.......2006-03-10
This book is an essential guide for every graduate student. It makes mathematical and technical concepts of management science understandable and useful.
Good college textbook.......2006-02-25
This book provides thorough explanations, good tables, graphs, examples and self-test questions with most of the answers in the back of the book.
katz.......2005-04-19
Trust Me. This is the only book that you'll need to get started started in this area. The authors have done an excellent job in producing such a work, that takes care to explain all the details of management science.
I used this text for my professional exams (CIMA) and the it was great. All the chapters in this book are cleanly written to take that I doesn't leave anything unexplained. However, the following chapters are the ones that I like the most in this book:
1. Introduction to LP
2. LP: Sensitivity Analysis: Amazing work here.
3. LP Applications: formulation of problems in this chapter may be bit difficult at first, but keep reading and you'll learn and appreciate the work that the authors have put in.
4. LP - Simplex Method: My favorite chapter. Is highly readable. This one chapter alone is worth the book.
5. LP - Simplex Sensitivity.
6. Integer LP
7. Project Scheduling - Great, well written chapter, another favorite of mine.
8. Decision Analysis - Good but the problems are repetative.
9. Markov Process - An introduction only, but the application of markov process to accounts receivable anlaysis is very useful for anyone wondering about the applications of markov processes.
Overall a great book that is worth its price.
Book Description
This worldwide best-selling business statistics text teaches students how to apply statistics to real business problems through the author's unique three-step approach to problem solving. Students learn to IDENTIFY the right technique by focusing on the problem objective and data type. They then learn to COMPUTE the statistics either by hand, using Excel, or using MINITAB. Finally, they INTERPRET the results in the context of the problem. Keller's approach enhances student comprehension as well as practical skills. The book offers maximum flexibility to instructors wishing to teach concepts by hand or with the computer, or by using both hand and computer methods.
Customer Reviews:
Not so good!.......2005-12-10
Now in my second statistics course, I have a great base in statistics. This book seems to confuse everything that i've already learned. I would recommend using The Basic Practice of Statistics over this book anyday.
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.
Book Description
Well-suited for the non-statistician, this applications-oriented introduction to multivariate analysis focuses on the fundamental concepts that affect the use of specific techniques rather than the mathematical derivation of the technique.
Provides an overview of several techniques and approaches that are available to analysts today — e.g., data warehousing and data mining, neural networks and resampling/bootstrapping. Chapters are organized to provide
a practical, logical progression of the phases of analysis and to
group similar types of techniques applicable to most situations.
Customer Reviews:
Best general Multivariate stats book.......2007-06-07
This is without question THE BEST introduction to Multivariate Statistics book currently available. It is designed for the user of the techniques, not someone who wants to examine the math underlying the techniques. I have created a collection of the various editions of this book and I have all of them going from the 1st edition to the current one. Personally I really likely the 2nd and 3rd editions but the current one is also very good. Whether you are interested in Exploratory Factor Analysis, Multiple Regression Analysis, Discriminant Analysis [I think that there should have been more on classification analysis in this section], Logistic regression, multivariate analysis of variance, conjoint analysis, cluster analysis, multidimensional scaling, Confirmatory Factor Analysis or Structural Equation Modeling, this book provides a good broad overview as to how to use and interpret the techniques. The key terms for each technique are defined clearly technique by technique. Having taught faculty how to teach multivariate statistics this is the book that I chose to use. It is important to remember that it is BROAD overview and if you are going to do serious analyses that you'd likely want to get additional books about the specific technique or techniques that you are going to use.
Probably the best advanced stats book ever written...GOD bless the authors!.......2007-05-12
Over the course of my undergrad, grad, and post grad, I have read a variety of statistics books. Without a doubt, Hair's Multivariate Data Analysis is THE BEST book of them all. Here is a brief outline of the awesome features of the book:
1. The book itself is very well organized - chapter order and the order within each chapter helps the reader in knowing what is coming next and provides a sense of direction. I think this is a very important feature for any book to have especially when the topics are complex and are discussed over 800 odd pages.
2. The HBAT data set that comes along with the book (or that is provided by the instructor of the course depending on the version of the book you purchase) is really a very good resource. All multivariate techniques in the book can be carried out using this data set. The data set is clearly explained at the end of the first chapter.
3. Tables of examples, the 'Rules of thumb" after each important concept discussion prove invaluable. This is akin to the managerial implication written at the end of lenghty academic articles. This is almost like saying - Here is the deal folks.....Much precise than the summary section, in bullet points, these rules of thumb acts as quick referece that captures the content of the discussion.
4. From chapter 4 onwards till the very end of the book, each chapter is divided into two halves - the first half is the concept dicsussion - in detail, with examples and in very simple and understandable language. The second half is the illustration of the discussed concept through a very elaborate example using the HBAT data set. This arrangement not only helps the reader in better understanding the complex concepts, but also allows the reader to get their hands dirty by actually working out.
5. Keywords at the begining of each chapter provides a list of all the 'jargon' that would be used in that chapter. This list provides a detail definition of each term. Many times while reading the chapter, you would come across a confusing term and in those times the keyword list can prove invaluable.
All in all, this is an invaluable book. If you are a taking stats and you have not read this book, you are missing something. In spite of all the above great things, the best feature of this book is the writing style. I have not come across a book that explains concepts is such easy to understand language but at the same time not over simplifying the subject matter.
My advanced stats became enjoyable because of this book. Really may GOD bless these authors for writing this book!!
Sure it's good, and a good price by the pund too!.......2005-10-26
A pretty good overview and a lot of in-depth material on Multivariate data analysis. Not quite a bed time read though.
I recommend this book as part of your analytical library.
If you liked this book, another good book on multivariate data analysis you may want to check out as well is Sharma, S.; Applied Multivariate Techniques, New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1996.
If you want something easier to read/more practical, and you prefer SPSS over SAS you may want to check out either `Discovering Statistics using SPSS for Windows' by Andy Field, or probably even better/simpler `SPSS Survival Manual' by Pallant.
Tom Anderson
Anderson Analytics, LLC
(...)
Good for a second stats course & reference.......2005-08-03
We used this book for our Stats 2 course in grad school, and although our professor was good enough to eclipse Hair, et al. (he had written his own Stats text), I am most pleased at how much mileage I have drawn from Hair, et al. in the years since I took the course. In my subsequent career, reviewers have often sent me back to Hair, et al. when they have questions about something I'm doing with a data analysis, so it has become an invaluable reference for that reason alone.
The chapters on structural equation modeling, MANOVA, and factor analysis are particularly useful and well-written. I recommend this book without reservations for graduate students and others who work with advanced statistics as part of their daily work.
simple but great!!.......2005-06-02
I used this book as a reference on the topics while I was working on a research project at the university. Because the book does not use complex mathematics to explain the multivariate statistics, it is easy for social sciences students to understand. Each chapter starts with an overview, step-by step procedures and ends with an example from the data set that is used throughout the book.
In addition to the common topics in multivariate, the book also includes the new analysis techniques as CHAID, neural network, and data mining.
Book Description
This book reflects more than 25 years of author involvement with business math education and the business community. The focus of this edition is on linking mathematics with real business practices in real businesses—giving readers a better appreciation for and understanding of the concepts that are vital in the business world.
The book is filled with chapter-opening scenarios, chapter-ending case studies, cases, boxed features, and exercise sets. It is organized in workbook format and opens with chapters on basic math. Coverage includes banking, business statistics, trade and cash discounts, markups and markdowns, payroll, consumer credit, mortgages, insurance, taxes, and stocks and bonds.
For entrepreneurs and anyone interested in personal finance.
Book Description
An Easy To Read Introduction To The Theory Of Change Management That Focuses On What Works. --This text refers to the paperback edition of this title
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Primer.......2007-09-13
For those that are just beginning their quest of appreciative inquiry - this is a great primer. Good text to share with employees prior to the beginning of a organization orientation.
Raises an interesting idea.......2007-05-12
This book was a required text for one of my graduate school classes. The refreshing thing about it is that it's a quick read and very easy to understand. Hammond raises the very interesting idea that instead of looking at problems from a "how do we remedy our weaknesses" standpoint, she offers that we should capitalize on our strengths. We should figure out what we do well, and then work through our strengths to improve our performance and organizational environment. That's really as far as you need to go with this book. Hammond's explanation of her theory is extremely common sense. If you're still unsure how her theory could be applied in or impact the workplace, perhaps you should read this book. Otherwise, you could probably just use your imagination.
Straight to the point.......2006-03-20
I bought this book on a recommendation of a lecturer at a recent conference. He said that this was the first book to buy if one wants to learn about AI. He was right. The author is straight to the point. The material is easy to digest. The examples are applicable. Because of this book, I can immediately put AI to use in developing better teams and groups.
Quantifiable Appreciation.......2006-02-21
Recently, I attended a monthly meeting for professional coaches where the speaker made a presentation on Appreciative Inquiry. He passed around many books on the subject as he continued his talk. I was impressed enough with Sue Hammond's Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry to go right home and order it. I am not usually one who cares for national bestsellers, but in this case... I can see why. It is a valuable tool for any coach, mentor or anyone in life who seeks a better, clearer understanding of how to appreciate life, work, people, everything really. Learning to appreciate makes a quantifiable difference in your life and times.
Hammond writes with an easy style, touching on most aspects of positive thinking and behaviors that can and will make a difference immediately in whatever you do and how you work with family, friends, co-workers.
The focus is on "what is working?" not what is the problem. To me, it's a much better place to start, automatically gives us a leg-up to feel good about something that is already positive.
Highly recommended!
Thank you Sue Hammond.
Pie Dumas - Author & Life Coach
Helps Create Possibilities.......2005-09-10
I use this book in my coaching business. The book is a great source of usable information that can be easily understood. Hammond includes tips that can help shift one's thinking in a positive way. If we could all operate in the manner she describes we would be better leaders (at any level).
Book Description
Valuable software, realistic examples, and fascinating topics . . . everything you need to master the most widely used management science techniques using Microsoft® Excel™ is right here! Learning to make decisions in today's business world takes training and experience. Cliff Ragsdale--the respected innovator in the field of management science--is an outstanding guide to help you learn the skills you need, use Microsoft Excel for Windows to implement those skills, and gain the confidence to apply what you learn to real business situations. SPREADSHEET MODELING AND DECISION ANALYSIS gives you step-by-step instructions and annotated screen shots to make examples easy to follow. Plus, interesting sections called The World of Management Science show you how each topic has been applied in a real company.
Customer Reviews:
A Good Book for Finance/IT majors.......2007-09-17
This book does what it sets out to do: teach spreadsheet modeling. I'm only on the third chapter, but the author does a good job including step by step instructions on how to create winning models. The author is also very easy to understand. So if you're going to be doing optimization and modeling in your work, I highly recommend this book.
Great book, and includes @RISK.......2007-08-06
Ragsdale really makes spreadsheet modeling accessible to real-world business situations. It was a great asset to my MBA coursework. As a student, it came with a free student version of @RISK risk analysis software as well.
Good practical text.......2006-11-12
A good book for those studying decision making techniques or as a reference for managers looking to upgrade their skills
Decision analysis.......2006-11-02
Excellent book; I am considering it as a textbook for a Managerial Sciences course. The examples are clear and real increasing the interest of the students.
Good book , worth to read.......2006-02-17
This book is designated as the textbook for our master's level management modeling class. The author concerntrated on the application of Microsoft Solver to solve various of optimazation problems that we freqently faced in the real business opreations. Overall, this is good book for entry-level management modeling study.
Book Description
Bestselling author Salih Neftci presents a fresh, original, informative, and up-to-date introduction to financial engineering. The book offers clear links between intuition and underlying mathematics and an outstanding mixture of market insights and mathematical materials. Also included are end-of-chapter exercises and case studies.
In a market characterized by the existence of large pools of liquid funds willing to go anywhere, anytime in search of a few points of advantage, there are new risks. Lacking experience with these new risks, firms, governmental entities, and other investors have been surprised by unexpected and often disastrous financial losses. Managers and analysts seeking to employ these new instruments and strategies to make pricing, hedging, trading, and portfolio management decisions require a mature understanding of theoretical finance and sophisticated mathematical and computer modeling skills.
Important and useful because it analyzes financial assets and derivatives from the financial engineering perspective, this book offers a different approach than the existing finance literature in financial asset and derivative analysis. Seeking not to introduce financial instruments but instead to describe the methods of synthetically creating assets in static and in dynamic environments and to show how to use them, his book complements all currently available textbooks. It emphasizes developing methods that can be used in order to solve risk management, taxation, regulation, and above all, pricing problems.
This perspective forms the basis of practical risk management. It will be useful for anyone learning about practical elements of financial engineering.
* Exercises and case studies at end of each chapter and on-line Solutions Manual provided
* Explains issues involved in day-to-day life of traders, using language other than mathematics
* Careful and concise analysis of the LIBOR market model and of volatility engineering problems
Customer Reviews:
great book.......2007-05-07
Prof. Neftci gave one of our mandatory course - Financial Engineering, in HEC Lausanne. This book is the reference book for this course. His lecture is great, a lot of jokes and funny stories as well as insights about financial engineering. However, I find out that the book is even better than his lecture.
Simply a must own for anyone with any use for Quant Finance.......2006-08-26
Neftci is one of those rare authors who can begin at the begining, explain his major point and logic without excessive jargon or short-cuts, and do so without sacrificing depth and substance.
In a field were the readable texts are for MBAs or elementary practioneers or for the initiated members of the priesthood, here is one of a few handful of authors (Wilmott and Joshi as well) that are both clear and serious, rigorous and accessible, insightful and a plerasure to read.
I can't praise this book too highly!.......2005-12-09
As someone who teaches derivatives to practitioners and in a Masters program, I can't praise this book too highly. It is clear, comprehensive and, most importantly, concentrates on practical applications. I was particularly pleased with the chapter on repo, which is usually underestimated in importance, without requiring a whole, specialist book.
For someone with a fundamental, but non-quantitative background in financial markets (MBA or CFA level), this is the ideal place to go next before more specialised and quantitative books. The advantage of having studied this book first will be to have a clear picture of the forest for the trees.
My only (small) criticism is that the book would have been even better if it had included a chapter (or two) on the multi-tranche asset backed security structure followed by cash and then synthetic CDOs. I do hope that might be rectified in the next edition.
Bravo!
This is one of the top books on quantitative finance.......2005-11-22
I am a student of Prof Neftci in the Applied Math for Finance MS program at Baruch College. He is a great teacher and has written this wonderful book. This is the text book for the Calibration course he teaches at baruch.
The best thing about it is in the practical approach it is written with. It tries to explain the finance as interpreted by practioners like traders...the engineering of finance rather than the science of it. Knowledge of basic parobability thoery, martingales, PDE and some stochastic calculus is assumed. The book itself has less emphasis on mathematical rigour but there are plenty of other references for that.
The strength of this book is in its practical utility in understanding the market and the rational behind the products that exist in it and the priciples of pricing and hedging those.
Chapter 11 on the Fundamental Asset prcing theory is a gem and is the workhorse for pricing many of the products like swaps or swaptions.
Great!.......2005-11-20
A wonderful book with a great didactic approach! Very clear but never mundane. The best introduction to the field so far. It's only drawback is the sometimes slightly unintuitive notation.
Books:
- Computational Statistics Handbook with MATLAB
- Discrete Mathematics with Applications
- Elliptic Curves: Number Theory and Cryptography (Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications)
- Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Sharks and Other Sea Monsters
- Essential Cell Biology, Second Edition
- Finite Math with Applications (9th Edition)
- Finite Mathematics and Calculus with Applications (7th Edition) (Lial/Greenwell/Ritchey Series)
- Finite Mathematics and Its Applications
- Finite Mathematics for the Managerial, Life, and Social Sciences (with CD-ROM and Printed Access Card iLrn Tutorial, vMentor 1-Semester)
- Flow Measurement Engineering Handbook
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains
- A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life
- Walking Towards Walden: A Pilgrimage in Search of Place
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- The Tiger's Way: A U.S. Private's Best Chance for Survival
- Adaptive Information: Improving Business Through Semantic Interoperability, Grid Computing, and Ente
- Wild Birds Nest: Poems from the Irish
- Life Of Her Most Gracious Majesty The Queen volume 1
- The Tobin Tax: Coping with Financial Volatility
- The Sea Wolf: The Life of Admiral Cochrane
Strategy & Competition
| Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
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Five Minds for the Future
Risk Intelligence: Learning to Manage What We Don't Know
Know-How: The 8 Skills That Separate People Who Perform from Those Who Don't
Payback: Reaping the Rewards of Innovation
The Strategy Paradox: Why committing to success leads to failure (and what to do about it)
