Derivatives Demystified: A Step-by-Step Guide to Forwards, Futures, Swaps and Options (The Wiley Finance Series) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is a really good introduction to derivative products. I have tried a lot of other books in this field and ended up thinking that they were far too complicated and obscure. This book is written in a very clear and simple way, and finally I have a real understanding of what is going on in derivative products, a subject I need to understand for my job in banking.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Derivatives Demystified: A Step-by-Step Guide to Forwards, Futures, Swaps and Options (The Wiley Finance Series)

The book is a step-by-step guide to derivative products. By distilling the complex mathematics and theory that underlie the subject, Chisholm explains derivative products in straightforward terms, focusing on applications and intuitive explanations wherever possible. Case studies and examples of how the products are used to solve real-world problems, as well as an extensive glossary and material on the latest derivative products make this book a must have for anyone working with derivative products.

Click here for more information about Derivatives Demystified: A Step-by-Step Guide to Forwards, Futures, Swaps and Options (The Wiley Finance Series)

Read More...

Wall Street Meat: My Narrow Escape from the Stock Market Grinder Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I rarely rate a book with 5 stars but this book richly deserves it for in succinct breadth and witty storytelling. In his wild expose, WALL STREET MEAT, Andy Kessler gives the reader a behind-the-scenes view of the antics of some of Wall Street's giants. The subtitle tells it all: Grubman, Quattrone, Meeker and Blodgett and Andy Kessler's relationships and experiences with each. To those even somewhat familiar with the SEC action of April 28, 2003, these names will stand out. MEAT tells us more, much more.
Andy Kessler began his career as an electrical engineer designing microchips at Bell Labs. By some strange quirk of fate (or brainless move by a headhunter), he was thrown into the world of a Wall Street analyst. Kessler has seen more than most; his Wall Street career began before the infamous "Black Monday" crash (October 19, 1987) and spanned into the beginning of the Internet Bubble. During that time, Kessler met and worked with the individuals now being targeted for prosecution for their "exuberant" activities. Kessler went at it elbow-to-elbow with Jack Grubman while at PaineWebber (Grubman eventually moved on to Salomon Smith Barney); with Frank Quattrone (and Mary Meeker...truly a bit player here) while at Morgan Stanley (Quattrone eventually moved to Deutsche Bank and then to CSFB); and became well acquainted with Henry Blodgett AFTER Kessler turned in his analyst hat for that of a venture capitalist.
Kessler goes to great lengths to inform the reader of the trials and tribulations of the Wall Street analyst in the 80's and most of the 90's. The difficulties and reticence he would feel each time he would put a "Buy" or "Sell" recommendation on a company are richly described as gnashing of teeth and firestorms. In this age, an analyst had to defend each recommendation as the Street's skepticism "appeared" to demand it. Conversely, as the Internet phenomenon hit the scenes, the code of the analyst changed from one of cautious recommendation to one of mindless, obtuse "dartthrowing." Although he provides us with many gems, Kessler recounts one poignant conversation with Blogett wherin Blodgett posits: "You've got to understand. If I stop recommending a stock, and the shares keep going up, there is hell to pay. Brokers call you up and yell at you for missing more of the upside. Bankers yell at you for messing up their relationships. There is just too much risk in not recommending these stocks." A perfect example of the mindset and excesses bringing Wall Street to its knees. In another conversation, now considered germane and somewhat paradoxical (given the chronology of events), Kessler recounts Quattrone's tutelage of the invisible "Chinese Wall." This "Wall" is a conceptual separation of research and investment banking designed to prevent insider information passing from bankers to analysts. Ironically, the breaching of this "Wall" was one of the acts eventually bringing Quattrone down.
Kessler uses MEAT as part biography, part expose, and part satire...and does all three exceedingly well. To say this is just another "tell-all" book about Wall Street would be a great injustice. Kessler was there, Kessler is smart, Kessler was lucky. Above all, Kessler is hilarious. The combination makes this book an extremely enjoyable read, one most will appreciate and most importantly, learn from. A very good read, indeed.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Wall Street Meat: My Narrow Escape from the Stock Market Grinder

Get 15% OFF

Click here for more information about Wall Street Meat: My Narrow Escape from the Stock Market Grinder

Read More...

Interest Rate Markets: A Practical Approach to Fixed Income (Wiley Trading) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Interest rate markets is a different book than many published for the rates space as it focuses on intuition. Unlike many rates books on the market, the aim is not to price complex securities, but rather to understand and forecast the movement of liquid rate products such as Treasuries, mortgages and swaps. There are very few equations in the book and the emphasis is on a logical thought process to forming views on rates.
The book starts out with an introduction to the wide range of liquid products traded in the rates space including bonds, swaps, and futures. Once the basics of these products have been described, basic frameworks around taking views on the outright direction of rates is described. This includes both very long term factors as well as short term data releases. After the basic framework is outlined, common types of rates trades are discussed which allow traders to express more specific views. Examples include swap spreads and carry trades which are not discussed frequently in other books. In addition to trades related to underlying securities, the book addresses interest rate options and their place in a rate portfolio. Finally, practical hedging strategies are expanded upon including pros and cons of using empirical methods such as regression.
Overall, I believe this book would be useful to anyone trying to gain a more intuitive understanding of interest rates and fulfills a needed niche in the space of fixed income books which tend to be either very model intensive or very basic in their discussion.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Interest Rate Markets: A Practical Approach to Fixed Income (Wiley Trading)

How to build a framework for forecasting interest rate market movements
With trillions of dollars worth of trades conducted every year in everything from U.S. Treasury bonds to mortgage-backed securities, the U.S. interest rate market is one of the largest fixed income markets in the world.
Interest Rate Markets: A Practical Approach to Fixed Income details the typical quantitative tools used to analyze rates markets; the range of fixed income products on the cash side; interest rate movements; and, the derivatives side of the business.
Emphasizes the importance of hedging and quantitatively managing risks inherent in interest rate trades
Details the common trades which can be used by investors to take views on interest rates in an efficient manner, the methods used to accurately set up these trades, as well as common pitfalls and risks?providing examples from previous market stress events such as 2008
Includes exclusive access to the Interest Rate Markets Web site which includes commonly used calculations and trade construction methods

Interest Rate Markets helps readers to understand the structural nature of the rates markets and to develop a framework for thinking about these markets intuitively, rather than focusing on mathematical models

Get 37% OFF

Click here for more information about Interest Rate Markets: A Practical Approach to Fixed Income (Wiley Trading)

Read More...

Vault Career Guide to Investment Banking (Vault Career Library) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This guide provides a general overview of the investment banking industry - all the divisions and opportunities, positions available, salaries, hours, etc. I recommend it to anyone who wants a very honest and straightfoward description of I-banking. This book is great for sparking interest, but further investigation in desired fields is necessary. Aside from the numerous typos and poor editing, the guide has served me well.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Vault Career Guide to Investment Banking (Vault Career Library)

Click here for more information about Vault Career Guide to Investment Banking (Vault Career Library)

Read More...

An Introduction to International Capital Markets: Products, Strategies, Participants (The Wiley Finance Series) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)It is actually a good introduction to capital markets. An interesting book for those students who are entering to this complex industry and knowledge field. Dr. Chisholm develops carefully every subjet in an excelent work.

Click Here to see more reviews about: An Introduction to International Capital Markets: Products, Strategies, Participants (The Wiley Finance Series)

Fully revised and updated from the hugely popular first edition, this book is an accessible and convenient one-volume introduction to international capital markets, ideal for those entering or planning to enter investment banking or asset management. As well as serving as an invaluable reference tool for professionals already working in the industry looking to extend their knowledge base it will also benefit all those working in trading, sales and support roles.

Describing how the key products and markets work, who the principle participants are and their overall goals and objectives, Andrew Chisholm provides a thorough overview of the global capital markets. The book covers a wide range of equity, debt, foreign exchange and credit instruments as well as the principal derivative products. In a step-by-step fashion, making extensive use of real world cases and examples, it explains money markets, foreign exchange, bond markets, cash equity markets, equity valuation techniques, swaps, forwards, futures, credit derivatives, options, option risk management and convertible bonds. An extensive glossary also explains concisely many of the ‘jargon' expressions used in the financial markets.

Boasting an international focus, examples are drawn from major international markets around the world. It makes extensive use of numerical examples and case studies to help explain a wide range of cash and derivative products used in the capital markets business. It covers both debt and equity products and includes new material on credit products such as collateralized debt obligations and credit derivative structures; equity fundamental analysis, portfolio theory and convertible bonds. Market data has been fully updated from the first edition and recent events such as the ‘credit crisis' are discussed.

Get 49% OFF

Click here for more information about An Introduction to International Capital Markets: Products, Strategies, Participants (The Wiley Finance Series)

Read More...

The Trade Lifecycle: Behind the Scenes of the Trading Process (The Wiley Finance Series) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Having worked with Robert in the past I purchased this book more as an act of solidarity than because I felt it would have any real relevance for me but I couldn't have been more wrong.
After contracting in investment banking for my entire career, latterly as a senior software developer, I had always struggled with the fact that I was offered little guidance as to the instruments with which I was expected to work and the processes with which my work integrated; after reading Robert's book I can safely say my accumulated experience of 14 years in finance has finally been given a voice.
Robert has managed to condense a lifetime of expertise and study into an eminently readable introduction into the frequently oblique world of investment banking as viewed from the perspective of an individual trade; from asset class descriptions in layman's terms to discussions of the Greeks to an all-encompassing perspective on the multitude of potential risks engendered in a trading environment this book has provided me with a perspective that all my years in banking singularly failed to do.
Although of less relevance to me as it covered ground with which I was already comfortable I have to also mention the chapters on IT and system development which should be required reading for any Luddite business types who harbour the illusion that code writes itself.
Highly recommended.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Trade Lifecycle: Behind the Scenes of the Trading Process (The Wiley Finance Series)

Get 34% OFF

Click here for more information about The Trade Lifecycle: Behind the Scenes of the Trading Process (The Wiley Finance Series)

Read More...

When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)A somewhat didactic narrative history of the hedge fund Long Term Capital Management. Nicholas Dunbar covers the same subject in his book "Inventing Money." Both books present a blizzard of details about who did what and when. Too much detail. The general reader would better served by a medium sized article. Nevertheless if you're a finance buff interested in the nitty-gritty then read both books. Dunbar has a physics background and his book is more technical, while Lowenstein comes from journalism and his narrative flows better.
LCTM began operating in 1994, set up by John Meriwether formally head of the bond-arbitrage group at Solomon Brothers. He put together a star-studded cast that included three (1997) Nobel prize winners in economics. Their basic strategy was something called convergence arbitrage. In essence this strategy says buy two bonds that you think will track one another. Go long on the cheap one and short on the other; you make money if the spread narrows. In theory you are protected from changing prices as long as the two vary in the same way. To make the big bucks LCTM was after they took a gigantic number of highly leveraged arbitrage positions all over the world. To get high leverage you borrow for the position, like buying a stock on margin. LCTM got really high leverage by avoiding something called the "haircut," which is an extra margin of collateral banks usually demand, but forgave LCTM. Why would banks they do such a thing? Because they were blinded by the glitter of the cast, and in some cases the banks themselves were investors in LCTM. By 1997 convergence arbitrage opportunities in bonds began to dry up, everyone was doing it. So LCTM applied their strategy to stocks. Find two stocks that will track on another and go long and short with borrowed money. This is not easy. Stocks are less amenable to mathematical analysis than bonds, and after all these were the bond guys from Solomon, they were out of their depth. You might ask how can you borrow most of your stock position when the Federal Reserve requires 50% margin (Regulation T). Answer: don't really buy the stocks, instead buy derivative contracts that simulate stocks, an end run around Regulation T. Even with all this leverage LCTM would claim that the fund was no more risky than the stock market, meaning a stock index. In 1998 the markets went against LCTM, with the "flight to quality" (US government bonds) as investors panicked. The fund suffered from what reliability engineers call "common mode error." Spreads got wider not narrower across the board, and LCTM's capital base began to shrink as their positions lost money. At a certain point they would have to start liquidating positions, and the market impact of such large scale selling would cascade across their portfolio. The fund would "blow up."
The above gives a flavor of the material Lowenstein provides, only in much greater detail. If that's what you want, buy the book. Is this a tale of human folly or just plain bad luck? Answering that question is not easy, one needs to grasp a large amount of technical finance theory, and understand what happened in the particular case of LCTM. This book will help.

Click Here to see more reviews about: When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management

Get 36% OFF

Click here for more information about When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management

Read More...

Understanding Wall Street, Fifth Edition Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I thought that the book was well written and very easy to understand. Provides a good historical background of Wall Street and how the markets got started. If I didn't read this book before watching the movie "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps", then I wouldn't understand the meaning behind the Dutch tulip craze that Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) discusses in the dialogue.
Five stars for helping the reader understand Wall Street! Recommended for anyone just starting out in the market.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Understanding Wall Street, Fifth Edition

Get 32% OFF

Click here for more information about Understanding Wall Street, Fifth Edition

Read More...