Reviews (1)

Save your money.
If you are attracted by the name "How the foreign exchange market works" and want to know how, this is not the book to read. The text hard to understand and it does not give a clear explanation of the foreign exchange market. Take my word because you don't want to waste your time and your money. DO YOU? ... Read more

Book Description

Dramatic changes in the foreign exchange and money markets have considerably altered the way international business will be conducted in the new millennium. The advent of the Euro, the enormous growth of the swaps market, and the daily increase in the development of derivative instruments are at the forefront of this evolution. If you're an investor, corporate finance officer, or anyone seeking to gain the essential edge in the world's major financial markets, resources for sound, accessible, and timely information are more important than ever. This updated, totally revised, and expanded edition of finance expert Julian Walmsley's popular classic is the one book you'll need. Practical and easy-to-understand, this unique reference provides guidance on every important market around the world, including closely related money markets such as the commercial paper and Eurocommercial paper markets, national money markets, interest rate options markets, and numerous related instruments. You will also find state-of-the-art sections on:
* The Euro
* Swaps-the instrument with the fastest growing market of all time
* Money market calculations
* Foreign exchange calculations
* Derivatives
* Risk issues

From currency option markets to the "third generation" hedging products that combine forwards and options, The Foreign Exchange and Money Markets Guide, Second Edition, unites volumes of information in one single source-and demystifies the seemingly complex concepts facing investors today. Julian Walmsley is Managing Director of Askeaton Associates Ltd. and a Visiting Research Fellow at the International Securities Market Association Centre for Securities Research at the University of Reading, England. Previously, he was Chief Investment Officer for Mitsubishi Finance International and also Senior Investment Officer for Oil Insurance in Bermuda. He spent many years working with Barclays Bank's foreign exchange operations and their interest rate and currency swaps group in London and New York, and was a director in charge of swaps at the London subsidiary of National Bank of North Carolina (NCNB). His other books include New Financial Instruments and The Foreign Exchange Handbook (both published by Wiley), and Global Investing: Eurobonds and Alternatives. Mr. Walmsley earned his MA in economics at Cambridge University.

THE CLASSIC GUIDEBOOK COMPLETELY REVISED AND UPDATED FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM

Written by a well-known financial author and respected authority on international investing, trading, and risk management, this updated, totally revised, and expanded second edition of The Foreign Exchange and Money Markets Guide provides essential, easy-to-understand coverage of the considerable developments that have drastically reshaped the way international business will be conducted in the new millennium. From state-of-the-art sections on the dawn of the Euro, the rapidly growing swaps market, and the daily increase in derivative instruments, to money market and foreign exchange calculations and risk issues, this invaluable classic includes the most timely, accessible, and dependable information on every important market around the world. Here is the quintessential resource for institutional investors, bankers, pension fund managers, or anyone seeking to gain that crucial edge in the world's major financial markets. ... Read more

Book Description

From plain vanilla swaps to swaptions to circus swaps—heres the most comprehensive, practical introduction to the global world of swaps Understanding Swaps Financial personnel, corporate treasurers and professional cash managers seeking a practical, hands-on introduction to swaps—sophisticated financial instruments used globally to control interest payments, manage debt, and enhance investment portfolios—need look no further than Understanding Swaps.

"Jack Marshall and Ken Kapner have done a superb job of providing a complete, easy-to-read primer to derivative products. Using clear language and concise examples, it lays out the world of swaps for the practitioner, student, accountant, lawyer or regulator." —Robert J. Schwartz EUP and Chief Operating Officer Mitsubishi Capital Markets, Inc.

"Marshall and Kapner have produced an exceptionally cogent description and analysis of the swaps market along with its essential technical and theoretical underpinnings. This book should be number one on the reading list for any student or practitioner of contemporary financial techniques." —J. Michael Payte Senior Managing Director Bear Sterns & Co., Inc.

"Understanding Swaps details the complete world of swaps: the basics (interest rate and currency swaps), the vogue (equity and commodity swaps), and the future (macroeconomic swaps). Indeed, Understanding Swaps is the book I would recommend to someone for a comprehensive and very readable primer on swaps." —Carolyn Jackson First Vice President Banque Indosuez ... Read more

Book Description

These seventeen essays provide an accessible and thorough reference for understanding the role of exchange rates in the international monetary system since 1973, when the rates were allowed to float. The essays analyze such issues as exchange rate movements, exchange risk premia, investor expectations of exchange rates and behavior of exchange rates in different systems. Frankel's sound empirical treatment of exchange rate questions shows that it is possible to produce work that is interesting from a purely intellectual viewpoint while contributing to practical knowledge of the real world of international economics and finance.

The essays have been organized in a way that provides an introduction to the field of empirical international finance. Part I documents the steady reduction in barriers to international capital movement and leads logically to part II, which explains how exchange rates are determined. Both monetary and portfolio-based models are surveyed in part II, providing a clear transition to the topic of part III; the possible existence of an exchange risk premium. Part IV applies the tools discussed in earlier sections to explore various policy questions related to exchange rate expectations such as whether foreign exchange intervention matters and whether the European monetary system had become credible by 1991. Each part begins with a detailed introduction explaining not only the central issues of that section but also suggesting connections with other essays in the book.

Jeffrey A. Frankel is Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. ... Read more

Book Description

The increasingly integrated economies of East Asia -- China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand -- face the dilemma of how to achieve exchange-rate security in the absence of a unifying "Asian euro." The US dollar has become the region's dominant intraregional trading currency as well as the monetary anchor to which East Asian economies informally peg their currencies. In this timely and original analysis of the benefits and risks of an East Asian dollar standard, Ronald McKinnon takes issue with the conventional view that urges flexible exchange rates on financially fragile economies. He argues instead that East Asian countries should coordinate their policies to keep their exchange rates stable against the dollar.

McKinnon develops a conceptual framework to show where the conventional wisdom on exchange rates has gone wrong. Pressure on the "virtuous" high-saving dollar-creditor East Asian nations to appreciate their currencies leads to a "conflicted" choice between a possible deflationary slump if they do appreciate and threatened trade sanctions if they do not. Analyzing interactions among the East Asian economies, McKinnon explains the rationale, and the need, for greater exchange-rate security in the region, pointing to the soft-dollar pegs adopted by these nations as steps in the right direction. He suggests that the dollar standard in East Asia could be rationalized through collective action by national governments and considers the effect of American monetary and trade policies on the East Asian economy. ... Read more

Book Description

"The papers included in this collection reveal the breadth of Krugman's work in international monetary economics. . . . [This] is a book that anyone interested in international monetary economics can refer to repeatedly in the course of his or her career. As such, it ought not to gather dust on any bookshelf." -- Andreas Savides, The Journal of Economics

Currencies and Crises brings together Paul Krugman's work on international monetary economics from the late 1970s to the present, in an effort to make sense of a turbulent period that, in Krugman's words, "involved one surprise after another, most of them unpleasant." The eleven essays cover such key areas as the role of exchange rates in balance-of-payments adjustment policy, the role of speculation in the functioning of exchange-rate regimes, third world debt, and the construction of an international monetary system. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Currency Management- Very important for corporations
Paul is one of the famous personalities in the world of finance. Any person who has not heard of him has got no right to be in the field of finance. For most of the Fortune 500 corporation in US, about 70-80% of revenues is coming from abroad(read foreign currency). By reading this book one gets a real perspective on the latest things happening in the field of foreign currency. ... Read more

Book Description

Currency Forecasting, the most authoritative work on the subject, explains every major method and aspect of exchange rate forecasting, from purchasing power, parity and interest rate differentials to technical analysis. Inside you will find guidelines for reducing risk with forecasting strategies and techniques for combining forecasting strategies into a single, powerful method. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Currency Forecasting
This is a great book! Rosenberg has succeeded in making a dry and complicated topic, foreign exchange, both interesting and understandable. The chapter on intervention is especially timely and enlightening. Rosenberg is rated tops in his field by professional fx traders and portfolio managers, yet he has succeeded in writing a book that is both useful and interesting to both professionals and nonprofessionals. This is a must read for anyone involved in international markets. ... Read more

Book Description

Explains arbitrage, hedging, and speculation from the standpoint of a participant in the foreign exchange market--whether an individual trader or an institutional trader--who possesses analytical skill, economically sound judgment, and who has access to market data. In the foreign exchange market, arbitrage involves the simultaneous purchase and sale of a currency in different markets; the profit comes from the difference in the buying and selling prices. Hedging and speculation are opposing strategies for dealing with risk; hedging is a cover, and speculation is an assumption of risk. Authors also discuss futures, swaps, forward contracts, and other strategies. For financial scholars, students, analysts, and currency traders. ... Read more

Book Description

Historically, the fields of exchange-rate economics and microstructure finance have progressed independently of each other. Recent interaction, however, has given rise to a microstructure approach to exchange rates. This book focuses on the economics of financial information and how microstructure tools help to clarify the types of information most relevant to exchange rates.

The microstructure approach views exchange rates from the perspective of the trading room, the place where exchange rates are actually determined. Emphasizing information economics over institutional issues, the approach departs from three unrealistic assumptions common to previous approaches: that all information relevant to exchange rates is publicly available, that all market participants are alike in their goals or in how they view information, and that how trading is organized is inconsequential for exchange rates. The book shows how exchange-rate behavior previously thought to be particularly puzzling can be explained using the microstructure approach. It contains a combination of theoretical and empirical work. ... Read more

Book Description

The common sense view of "money" as a natural and unchanging economic fact is, in reality, a product of contemporary society. Indeed, ever since money was invented there has been fierce debate about its political, economic and ethical character, and a continued discourse, involving academics, political theorists and social reformers, on the best ways to create money, the most effective rules for governing its use, and even the potential benefits of its abolition.

Recent years have seen an increasingly powerful resurgence of interest in fundamentally changing national and global systems of currency and in controlling the monetary trends -- the booms and busts of the globalized economy -- that affect all aspects of our lives. Yet few realize that these objections have deep roots and a rich tradition.

"The Money Changers" is a unique collection of historical and contemporary thought on the nature of money, combining the political and polemical, the analytical and the visionary. It draws on a wealth of expertise and experience, from the impassioned treatises of reformers such as William Morris, via the mainstream economics of John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek, to the entrepreneurial insight of social activists such as Edgar Cahn and George Soros.

This book is a timely guide to the key ideas and ideologues in a fast-moving debate on our economic and social future and will prove informative, enlightening and entertaining for academics and general readers alike. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A fascinating wealth of economic insight
Compiled and edited by David Boyle (Senior Associate, New Economics Foundation, London, England), The Money Changers: Currency Reform From Aristotle To E-Cash is an anthology of expert essays by respected authors spanning a history of money ranging from 350 BC down to the modern day. Special focus is provided concerning the foibles, difficulties, and challenges facing currency systems. From the problems that arise from too much or too little money wreaking havoc on the economy, to the mind-boggling possibilities of electronic commerce and e-cach, The Money Changers is a fascinating wealth of economic insight, gleaned from great names through the centuries including J M Keynes, Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Jackson, Aristotle, Marco Polo, B F Skinner and much more. Highly recommended for both academia and non-specialist general readers with an interest in economics. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

This comprehensive book presents a systematic and practically oriented approach to mathematical modeling in finance, particularly in the foreign exchange context. It describes all the relevant aspects of financial engineering, including derivative pricing, in detail. The book is self-contained, with the necessary mathematical, economic, and trading background carefully explained. In addition to the lucid treatment of the standard material, it describes many original results.

The book can be used both as a text for students of financial engineering, and as a basic reference for risk managers, traders, and academics. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

State of the Art
I own pretty much all of the books on quantitative finance
and this one holds a cherished place on my bookshelf.
Anybody either working as a quant or with aspirations to become one should dust off some space on their bookshelf as well.
Anybody who does serious research in finance in either academia or industry already knows that it is somewhat rare for top researchers to pen books of any length. Time is at a premium and the payoff to publishing journal articles or to finishing off code is typically much greater than it is for writing books.

This is what distinguishes this book from its competitors.
The author is well known in financial circles as one of a handful of quants who is capable of meaningfully contributing new results to this fascinating field. The book contains many results which cannot be found elsewhere in the public domain.
Although the book title suggests that the results apply only to
foreign exchange, it is straightforward to adapt the results to

equities, commodities, and many other underlyings.

Wall Street is a very secretive place and it is not easy to get a glimpse of the kind of things that consume a quant's time.
I suspect that the only reason that this book was able to come to light is due to the acquisition of Banker's Trust, the author's former employer. Banker's was well known to be a fertile training ground for the best derivative minds and this book should prove to be a lasting legacy to that view.

An excellent addition to any quants library
Alexander Lipton Lifschitz has brought his extensive
experience and years of research in the most diverse areas
of applied mathematics as well as his experience
in the financial industry to bear in authoring this
very interesting book.

The range of this book is impressive.
Although the author chose to focus on currency
options, his book really is a treatise on
a wide spectrum of problems and methodologies
which any quant wishing to tackle the
sophisticated world of option pricing at a high level
must master.

The author demonstrates his mastery of
the arsenal of the classic applied mathematician,
asymptotic analysis, self-similarity, Laplace
and Fourier transform, and uses these to give an
incisive analysis of both standard topics
such as American options and more exotic topics
such as options on one currency with
barriers on the other currency, passport
options (for which he was a pioneer in developping
pricing tools) , asian options and much much more.

No, this is not as easy a read as Willmott's
books. Willmott's books were and remain
an important contribution with their
quick and intuitive explanation of a variety
of instruments. Lipton- Lifschitz's
book is more challenging and the reader will
have to pull up his sleeves on
occasions where the author, while dealing
with a case analogous to one just treated
says " the details are left to the reader".
But let's face it, if you work on Wall Street
or nearby, you'll have to tackle those details
alone at some point and Lipton-Lifschitz
gives you all you need to know to do
pull this off.

And. last but not least, let's not forget the price. At less than 50$ thisbook is a real bargain and for a first
printing, unusually free of typos or others
errors.

I highly recommend you buy this book now before the publisher
doubles the price.

A Book That Was Long Overdue
Most of the books on mathematical finance fall in one of the two domains. Some books are written for people who are new to the field and, as such, do not go deeply into the mathematical details that are crucial for implementing these methods in practice. The more advanced books are usually written by academic mathematicians and sometimes suffer from poor readability and lack of awareness of relevant problems. What many people are looking for is a detailed and readable description of how to apply the latest mathematical methods to solving the problems appearing in day-to-day work of derivatives desks. Such books are few and far between: that is why Alex Lipton's manuscript was so welcome.

As a quant in one of the Wall Street investment banks, I found this book a very valuable resource. Though written on a fairly high level, this book remains a readable and consistent exposition of latest methods of foreign exchange modeling. I particularly appreciated that the author does not skip steps in his derivations and gives out all those little practical details that are so important to people planning to use these methods in their work. The range of topics covered is fairly wide, with main emphasis on derivative pricing. I found the two chapters on path-dependent options to be particularly interesting and extensive. Some of the results included in the book came out of author's original work at Deutsche Bank. I also had an impression that some of his latest work was not included in the book, which is a pity.

All in all, an excellent book. Well worth the price. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Finally an option book to be proud of
Mr. Walker is clear and concise in his depiction of how the options markets work. He details various strategies and makes options investing understandable to those new to it.

In my 11 years as a futures investor, broker, and author, I have never seen someone with as much grasp of options investing as Mr.Walker and have the capability to explain it.

An excellent Book
Comprehensive, simple, full of examples - worth the money.

Anyone Can Understand !
Yes, As a beginner I can confidently say I know what option is, it's uses and the risk involve. The Author did not only explain the principle but gave practicable example everyone can relate to. All in simple and plain English, you don't need to have been to a school of economy to know what an option is. With the help of this book, I can't look stupid when others uses terminologies relating to option. Keep up the good work Joseph.

understandable explanation of why you care about options.
If i had to pick a book that explained the most about options to the layman in the clearest language in the fewest pages, this would be it.

a must read for anybody who wants to understand how to use options

Good introductory book with plenty of examples.
Good introductory book with plenty of examples. Good layout too. Many different options trading techniques are discussed, each with an indication of how risky it is. It even suggests leaving some of the more advanced techniques to the professionals, or more experienced traders - good advice. ... Read more

Book Description

The book examines the nature and extent of linkages in East Asia, in terms of trade and foreign investment, finance, labour, and consumption, investment and output ... Read more

Book Description

Are foreign exchange markets efficient? Are fundamentalsimportant for predicting exchange rate movements? What is thesignal-to-ratio of high frequency exchange rate changes? Is itpossible to define a measure of the equilibrium exchange rate that isuseful from an assessment perspective? The book is a selective survey of current thinking on key topics inexchange rate economics, supplemented throughout by new empiricalevidence. The focus is on the use of advanced econometric tools tofind answers to these and other questions which are important topractitioners, policy-makers and academic economists. In addition, thebook addresses more technical econometric considerations such as theimportance of the choice between single-equation and system-wideapproaches to modelling the exchange rate, and the reduced form versusstructural equation problems. Readers will gain both a comprehensive overview of the waymacroeconomists approach exchange rate modelling, and an understandingof how advanced techniques can help them explain and predict thebehavior of this crucial economic variable. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Guidance for modelling exchange rate
The book provides answers to the key issues on exchange rate modelling supported by empirical evidence.It gives a comprehensive overview of the econometrics technique used for modelling exchange rate from macroeconomicperspective.

It is an essential guidance for those readers generallyinterested in the topic and those practitians actually trying to model theexchange rate. ... Read more

Book Description

This book describes and evaluates the literature on exchange rate economics. It provides a wide-ranging survey of the different theories that attempt to explain the behavior of exchange rates, and outlines the salient institutional characteristics of the modern foreign exchange market in the context of an evolving international monetary system. An important feature of the book is its emphasis throughout on the main policy issues relating to the stabilization of exchange rates. The level of exposition is relatively nontechnical, and will be intelligible to undergraduate students. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A useful adictional tool for FX traders
Beyond the technical analisys, the FX trader must understand the macro movers of a country exchange rate. The economic movers are very important on the medium-long term investing. This book help you to understand those indicators. ... Read more

Book Description

In today's fast-changing global marketplace, many managers are not aware of the extent of their foreign exposure. Even a domestic business, operating entirely in its own currency, can be affected seriously by currency price moves that favor overseas competition. Foreign Exchange Handbook helps managers face the challenges posed by foreign currency exposure. Designed to meet an especially broad array of management needs, the book's topics range from the basic of identifying foreign exchange risk to the more sophisticated techniques used to implement hedging policy. In addition, it is organized in such a way that readers can pick and choose the topics that concern them, depending on their backgrounds and current needs, or read the entire book for a comprehensive overview of the subject. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Foreign Exchange Handbook
Is a very good introduction for a Foreign Exchange Market. Specially in futures markets ... Read more