Sunday, May 30, 2010

Swaps and Other Derivatives (With CD-ROM) (The Wiley Finance Series)

Swaps and Other Derivatives (With CD-ROM) (The Wiley Finance Series)
by: Richard Flavell
Swaps and Other Derivatives (With CD-ROM) (The Wiley Finance Series)
By Richard Flavell

Publisher: Wiley
Number Of Pages: 320
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0471495891
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780471495895


Product Description:
“Richard Flavell has a long association with the swap market from an academic and practitioner’s point of view. Swaps and Other Derivatives is a compendium of practical information on the valuation, pricing, trading and structuring of swaps. It will fulfill an important role as a reference source for the market.” Satyajit Das
Swaps and Other Derivatives is designed for financial professionals to understand, and ultimately to do themselves, how the vast bulk of OTC derivatives are used, structured, priced and hedged. Adopting a practical flavour throughout, the book describes how the pricing, valuation and risk management of generic OTC derivatives may be performed, in sufficient detail and with various alternatives, so that the approaches may be applied in practice. The book is supported by a full range of detailed spreadsheet models, which underpin all the tables, graphs and figures in the main text.
Swaps and Other Derivatives is ideal for risk managers, traders, financial engineers, product controllers and other professionals involved in the construction and management of OTC derivatives. In addition, it should be of interest to those involved in internal audit, risk control and IT within financial institutions. End users such as fund managers and corporate treasurers who use derivatives to manager their risk profiles should also find it of value.


Summary: Not for swaps newbies – hard to understand
Rating: 3
I’m relatively unfamiliar with swaps and after reading the introductory book
Derivatives Demystified: A Step-by-Step Guide to Forwards, Futures, Swaps and Options (The Wiley Finance Series)
I was hoping to gain more depth.
Reading Swaps and Other Derivatives, however, hurt my brain.
I believe the other reviewers that this is the best intermediate/advanced book on swaps. The other books I’ve seen are incomprehensible. At least this one I was able to understand by re-reading examples and reading other (online) resources to accompany this text. It reads like a university textbook. I read this book at a slow crawl.
The author’s prose is clear but be prepared for page after page of formulas and lengthy examples. However, if you’re learning how to do swap pricing, this may be what you need.
To give you an idea of what I’m referring to, here’s a formula from page 15:
” Ft/T = {[(1 rT * dT)/(1 rT * dt)] – 1}/(T – t) ”
This comes after an example of using that formula with values.
With the formulas in general, I could really have used a full explanation or a breakdown of what each variable means.
Swaps noobs should give this book a pass, you likely won’t understand it. If you need to do swap pricing (trading, quants, risk, IT), you’ll have to slug it out with this text because there isn’t a better swap pricing book around. If you’ve already got experience in swaps and are looking for depth, this likely will be a good book for you.


Summary: If you trade swaps, this is one book you have to have.
Rating: 5
This book fills a huge gap in linking a diverse number of products together. From cross currency swaps to swapping bond issues to floating structures, as well as optionality and fixed income risk management as it should be done. Swaps and other Derivatives is the culmination of Richard Flavell’s long and respected career in the markets, giving back to the reader exactly what you need to know..in a practical form. No heavy math, just good clean excel style pricing examples.

Summary: an excellent book for pricing swaps
Rating: 5
give clear excel examples on how to implement swap calculation.

Summary: Excellent field guide
Rating: 5
This is definitely the best book in the market for Swaps and related derivatives. The level of detail is extraordinary in comparision with other available books. Leaves very little gaps which means it is easy to apply the knowledge in practical situations.
Most books lean either towards the technical/quantitative side or the financial business side. Richard Flavell’s books is a much-needed well rounded book on the issue. Definitely a much better book than Satyajit Das/Fabozzi books.
I wish Richard Flavell would write more. If you’re buying one book on Swaps and related OTC derivatives, its got to be this one!
Free download links:

No comments:

Post a Comment