Reviews (1)

A great book for what it is....
...and that's a book about..well, about menu's. Not that exciting unless you're in (or about to be in) the biz.

I am, and found this book very helpful in reminding me what an important piece of attention real estate a menu is. From formatting to enhance sales of a particular food or beverage, to the design, paper weight, etc.

The book is compact, well written, and inexpensive (especially in relation to its value). I highly recommend.

Christian Hunter
Owner - Sevilla Restaurant, Santa Barbara California ... Read more

Book Description

This text makes accessible the most important methodological advances in bond evaluation from the past twenty years. With uncommon precision and a strong emphasis on the underlying economic fundamentals, Olivier de La Grandville presents a unified framework for understanding the basic tools of bond evaluation, including duration, convexity, and immunization.

Among the book's most valuable contributions is a general immunization theorem that can be used by practitioners to protect investors against any change in the structure of spot interest rates. Also of note is the detailed presentation of the Heath-Jarrow-Morton model and a discussion of its relationships with classical immunization schemes. Each chapter is followed by a series of questions, problem sets, and projects; detailed solutions to all of them appear at the end of the book. Although the treatment is thorough and rigorous, the presentation throughout the book is intuitive. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A 5-pager extended into a 150-pager
Why bother telling something in a long and cumbersome way, if you can say it straight? The authors of the book cover an important concept of the economic value to the customer and its application to sales/business strategy. However, the book will make anyone who received formal business education yawn. It lacks real-life examples AND IS OVERLY REPETITIVE. This could have been a nice and fresh magazine article, instead it turned into a stiff and boring hardcover book.

The ONLY way to sell
This book discusses VALUE. Value is not what you put INTO your products and services, it is what the customer GETS OUT. Three qualifiers of value are how much, how soon, and how sure--these are what the customer needs to know.

Value is applied to impact a customer's business--his profits. Profits come from the customer selling more and/or from reducing costs. Nothing else matters.

Four chapters summarize the value strategy: know your value, price your value, sell your value, and control your value. These chapters and this book are invaluable for getting away from selling on features and functions and, instead, competing on value.

This book is tremendous in its own right, and it is--or should be--the "prerequisite" for one of Hanan's other books, "Consultative Selling."

In summary, this is highly recommended for every company that sells products and/or services. ... Read more

Book Description

The health care industry differs from most other industries in that medical pricing is primarily administered by the government and private insurers and in that it uses several types of contracts. Providers may receive a fixed sum for all necessary services within a given period of time, for the necessary services to treat a given condition, or for each specific service. The industry is changing dramatically, offering many natural experiments to aid understanding of the economics of pricing for health care.

In Pricing the Priceless, Joseph Newhouse explains the different pricing systems and how they affect resource allocation and efficiency, focusing on the efficiency of pricing. He also discusses larger issues of equity, fair distribution of burden, and social justice. Although most of the examples are American-based, the same issues arise in all medical care financing and delivery systems, and the theories and models are general enough to apply to many institutional contexts. The topics include Medicare, managed care, the contemporary integration of health insurance and medical care, the management of moral hazard and stinting, uncertainty and risk aversion, the demand for health insurance, agency relationships, information disparities, regulation, and supply-side and demand-side selection. ... Read more

Book Description

One of the many striking applications of nonlinear technology in recent years, nonlinear pricing uses cutting-edge technology to identify and exploit patterns hidden within the seemingly helter-skelter rise and fall of daily stock prices. Nonlinear Pricing sheds much needed light on the principles behind this innovative view of reality and provides clear explanations of how it is employed to predict-at least partially-the unpredictable.

Beginning with an incisive introduction to the topic, May presents the roots of nonlinearity through the examples of calendrics, geometry, and music. He then illustrated the application and integration of various nonlinear technologies, including genetic algorithms, fuzzy logic, fractal imaging, and nonlinear dynamics, to such essentials as trading strategies, asset allocation, risk management, and derivative pricing and hedging. Along with practical methodologies and a wealth of real-world examples, this comprehensive resource contains a glossary of terms, a bibliography and in-depth information on:
* Fractal analysis-power law distributions, fractional Brownian motion, and their relationships
* The Hurst Exponent-the KAOS screen and its practical implementation
* Resonance-time domain versus frequency domain, Brownian motion, and the Gaussian distribution
* Advanced concepts-Soros's Reflexivity, non-equilibrium economics, kernel of theoretical nonlinear pricing, May's Law, resolution and resonance

Written by one of the few practitioners using this breakthrough methodology to trade the markets successfully, Nonlinear Pricing fills an important niche in investment literature. It is a must read for anyone seeking to understand-and capitalize on-twenty-first century financial economics.

CHRISTOPHER MAY (New York, NY) runs TLB Partners, LP, an onshore hedge fund and May Nonlinear US Equity Fund, an offshore fund. ... Read more

Reviews (20)

Completely Useless
Optimistically I bought this book expecting an insight into non-linear models of price behvaiour, maybe some thoughts I could use to flesh out my own experience - a peek into other approaches to managing price volatility perhaps. What I got was a rehash of technical analysis with a glaze of chaos theory. Don't bother.

Not worthy to present itself as a serious work
I expect that I am not the only reader to conclude that Christopher May has only a cursory grasp of nonlinearity. As a reader of philosophy and religion and a mathematician with research experience in nonlinear dynamics, I kept wondering when the "hand waving" and "name dropping" were going to yield to some cold, hard analysis or practical application.I might even have settled on a few unproved practical pricing applications!

To add insult to injury, this book was poorly edited: papers were discussed as if well-known, then introduced five paragraphs later; whole paragraphs were repeated several times, as if the book had been a series of independent pamphlets stapled together; anecdotal musings ran on for pages with no purpose apparent other than to impress the reader with the author's erudition; typographical errors peppered the few mathematical expressions.

I have similar complaints with Edgar Peters' books, but at least Peters understands nonlinearity sufficiently to have applied some famous techniques to problems in financial valuation. One can hardly escape the suspicion that Christopher May is a long-winded "poseur."

Ego trip with virtually no useful baggage
If you're looking for a good primer in fractal economics, do not waste your money, or worse, time with this book. You can get more information and less noise from E. Peters's "Chaos and Order in the Capital Markets". The most useful information you'll get from this book is a description of the Hurst exponent; the rest is, well...

I don't mind random musings with an articulate friend after dinner, but please don't do it in a pedagogical-sounding, inflated tome. Let the quotes describe themselves:

"... this chapter will present a challenge because it exists at a rarified level of understanding."

"I maintain, as any good scientist does, that the theory must fit the facts".

"The mathematics in this chapter may be complex to the financial economics professional" (I found the series summation as the most complex math in that chapter.)

Errors and carelessness are so prevalent, this book really brings down my opinion of the JW editors. Concepts of dependent and independent variables are mixed up, atrocious-looking graphs of normal and Levy distributions are shown, notations like "m2" are printed instead of "m(superscript)2" to mean m-squared, etc.

Most of the time is spent waxing philosophical connections among shallowly described concepts like Fourier transform, superstrings, the scriptures, Brownian motion, Socratic logic, etc. To be fair, if this sort of shooting-the-breeze provides a relaxing read for you, this book might fit the bill.

The author breathlessly describes "original concepts" like fixing risk for varying returns in security portfolios: this is already done with instruments like mortgage securities.

Perhaps the author's own quotation of Occam's Razor should have been heeded, "That which is not needed should not be included".

I did find the Bloomberg KAOS screen description on page 128 useful. If you use Bloomberg, you can also get that from the manuals.

Contains no substance or even one concrete idea
Very poor treatment of the topic. The author doesn't seem to know where the nonlinearity lies in "Nonlinear Pricing". He sees it "everywhere". One wonders whether he even knows the difference between a linear and a nonlinear function, and if so why he seems to thinkthat a Gaussian distribution pertains to "linear", and anythingelse to nonlinear. It is clear that his understanding of mathematics is atbest vague; unfortunately not even his concepts bear much merit."Genetic", "Fuzzy", "Non-equilibrium" aresimply used as buzzwords to create the air of beingmathematically-sophisticated (the mathematical community knows that"genetic algorithms" are essentially a characterization of"stabbing in the dark" in the absence of a better searchprocedure, or often, of knowledge). He even dares to toy with concepts fromphysics which he can't even start to fathom.

I see some readers fairlyimpressed with the book. If you don't have much understanding of math andthe fundamental sciences, you might be. But you'll also be left with nounderstanding at the end of the day ( you might attribute the lack ofunderstanding to your background in "humanities", but it willreally be because the book has no substance ).

With his writing style,the author could perhaps have given Deepak Chopra a run for his money hadhe concentrated more on the religious part and had he sounded less cocky.Only religion/metaphysics would marvel at theunsubstantiated rhetoric onefinds in this book. However, this is scientific ground he is attempting totread on.

Just read Mandelbrot's original book ...

Hand Waving and Puffery
The book can be summarized in 11 words: "Genetic fractal neural fuzzy chaotic nonlinear stuff good.Traditional finance bad."

There is no real information in the book.There are unsupported anecdotes and amyriad of quotes from non-financial sources.The lack of substance in thetext leads one to suspect that the author himself doesn't understand theunderlying mathematics himself.

For a better source, Chapter 12 ofEconometrics of Financial Markets by Campbell, Lo and MacKinlay has moreinformation on nonlinear modelling than the whole of this book (and it hasa couple hundred pages on traditional financial economics.) ... Read more

Book Description

Traditionally engineers devised communication services without reference to how they should be priced. In today's environment pricing is a very complex subject and in practice depends on many parameters of the actual market - including amount of traffic, architecture of the network, technology, and cost. The challenge is to provide a generic service model which accurately captures aspects such as quality and performance, and can be used to derive optimal pricing strategies.

Recent technology advances, combined with the deregulation of the telecommunication market and the proliferation of the internet, have created a highly competitive environment for communication service prividers. Pricing is no longer as simple as picking an appropriate model for a particular contract. There is a real need for a book that explains the provision of new services, the relation between pricing and resource allocation in networks; and the emergence of the internet and how to price it.
Pricing Communication Networks provides a framework of mathematical models for pricing these multidimensional contracts, and includes background in network services and contracts, network techonology, basic economics, and pricing strategy. It can be used by economists to fill in the gaps in their knowledge of network services and technology, and for engineers and operational researchers to gain the background in economics required to price communication services effectively.

• Provides a broad overview of network services and contracts
• Includes a primer on modern network technology and the economic concepts relevant to pricing and competition
• Includes discussion of mathematical models of traffic flow to help describe network capability and derive pricing strategies
• Includes coverage of specialist topics, such as regulation, multicasting, and auctions
• Illustrated throughout by detailed real examples
• Suitable for anyone with an understanding of basic calculus and probability

Primarily aimed at graduate students, researchers and practitioners from electrical engineering, computer science, economics and operations research Pricing Communication Networks will also appeal to telecomms engineers working in industry. ... Read more

Book Description

The Mathematics of Finance has become a hot topic ever since the discovery of the Black-Scholes option pricing formulas in 1973. Unfortunately, there are very few undergraduate textbooks in this area. This book is specifically written for advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate students in mathematics, finance or economics. With the exception of an optional chapter on the Capital Asset Pricing Model, the book concentrates on discrete derivative pricing models, culminating in a careful and complete derivation of the Black-Scholes option pricing formulas as a limiting case of the Cox-Ross-Rubinstein discrete model. The final chapter is devoted to American options.

The mathematics is not watered down but is appropriate for the intended audience. No measure theory is used and only a small amount of linear algebra is required. All necessary probability theory is developed throughout the book on a ... Read more

Book Description

A Behavioral Approach to Asset Pricing Theory examines the reigning assumptions of asset pricing theory and reconstructs them to incorporate findings from behavioral finance. It constructs a solid, intact structure that challenges classic assumptions and at the same time provides a strong theory and efficient empirical tools.

Building on the models developed by both traditional asset pricing theorists and behavioral asset pricing theorists, this book takes the discussion to the next step. The author provides a general behaviorally based intertemporal treatment of asset pricing theory that extends to the discussion of derivatives, fixed income securities, mean-variance efficient portfolios, and the market portfolio.

* The first book to focus completely on how behavioral finance principles affect asset pricing
* Hersh Shefrin is a recognized expert in behavioral finance
* Behavioral finance is a growth area in finance scholarship and moving more and more into practice ... Read more

Book Description

Summarizing market data developments, some inspired by statistical physics, this book explains how to better predict the actual behavior of financial markets with respect to asset allocation, derivative pricing and hedging, and risk control. Risk control and derivative pricing are major concerns to financial institutions. The need for adequate statistical tools to measure and anticipate amplitude of potential moves of financial markets is clearly expressed, in particular for derivative markets. Classical theories, however, are based on assumptions leading to systematic (sometimes dramatic) underestimation of risks. First edition Hb (2000): 0-521-78232-5 ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Fat tails and more
This text has a nice discussion of Levy distributions and (important!) discusses why the central limit theorem does not apply to the tails of a distribution in the limit of many independent random events. An exponential distribution is given as an example how the CLT fails. I was first happy to see a chapter devoted to portfolio selection, but the chapter (like most of the book) is very difficult to follow (I gave up on that chapter, unhappily, because it looked interesting). The notation could have been better (to be quite honest, the notation is horrible), and the arguments (many of which are original) could have been made sharper and clearer. For my taste, too many arguments in the text rely on uncontrolled approximations, with Gaussian results as special limiting cases. The chapters on options are original, introducing their idea of history-dependent strategies (however, to get a strategy other than the delta-hedge does not not require history-dependence, CAPM is an example), but the predictions too often go in the direction of showing how Gaussian returns can be retrieved in some limit (I find this the opposite of convincing!). For an introduction to options, the 1973 Black-Scholes paper is still the best (aside from the wrong claim that CAPM and the delta-hedge yield the same results). The argument in the introduction in favor of 'randomness' as the origin of macroscopic law left me as cold as a cucumber. On page 4 a density is called 'invariant' under change of variable whereas 'scalar' is the correct word (a common error in many texts on relativity). The explanation of Ito calculus is inventive but inadequate (see instead Baxter and Rennie for a correct and readable treatment, one the forms the basis for new research on local volatility). Also, utlility is once mentioned but never criticized. Had the book been more pedagogically written then one could well have used it as an introductory text, given the nice choice of topics discussed.

Reply to the previous reviewer
Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the previous reviewer prefered to remain anonymous. Otherwise, we would happily have argued with him privately. But his review contains so many erroneous and obnoxious statements that we feel we have to reply publicly, at least on the most important points.

a) After spending a full chapter (2) on empirical data and faithful models to describe them, we only price options using...the Brownian motion, says our reviewer (not even the Black-Scholes model, adds he). Well, either the reviewer has only casually browsed through our book, or this is total bad faith and disinformation. After discussing a general option pricing formula, we indeed illustrate it first (4.3.3) with the Black-Scholes model, then with Bachelier's (Brownian) model which, as we explain, is actually a better model for short term options. But the rest of the chapter is entirely devoted to non-Gaussian effects: a theory of the smile, its relation with kurtosis and long-ranged correlation in the volatility, and comparison with actual market smiles (4.3.4), and more importantly, the hedging strategies and residual risk (4.4), alternative hedging strategies for Value-at-Risk control (4.4.6), etc. The emphasis on risk, absent in the Black-Scholes world, is our main message, and partly justifies the title of our book.

b) "There is no statistical physics" in our book, moans the reviewer. Our aim was not to draw phoney analogies, but to present this field in the spirit of statistical physics, with what we feel is an interesting balance between intuition and rigour. (Many physicists feel stranded when reading standard mathematical finance books, where data is scarce, and rigour hides the inadequacies of the models). However, there are several genuine inputs from statistical physics, e.g. data processing, approximations, simple agent based models (2.8-9), functional derivatives to obtain optimal hedges (4.4), saddle point estimates of the Value at Risk for complex portfolios (5.4) and finally, Random Matrices that the reviewer finds unduly complex -- perhaps only because new to him. However, this is contained in "starred" section, indicating that it can be skipped at first reading, as many more advanced sections.

Two more details. We indeed sometimes consider independent random variables, sometimes only uncorrelated, hopefully not confusing the two. If the reviewer spotted incorrect statements, we would be grateful to him if we can correct them in further editions. Second, our book is not meant to provide ready to implement recipes but to present a different way of thinking about finance. Nevertheless, many of the ideas have already been implemented and are used by several (open minded?) financial institutions.

Can do more harm than good
This book is a supposedly new approach to financial modeling from the viewpoint of "statistical physics". In fact, it is far from being that. First, there is little or no content really related to statistical physics in it. Apart from the fact that random variables and stochastic processes are also used in physics, the only feature in common between statistical physics and this book is some notational similarities and a lack of rigour which, justified in the case where it is supplemented by physical intuition, leads here to numerous mistakes and sloppy reasoning.

The title, while promising, is quite arrogant: not only there is no "theory of financial risks" in the book but many of the main issues of risk management are not even mentioned: Value at Risk receives less than a page at the end, while hedging of exotic options is not even an issue.

Also, while the first part of the book insists on choosing the correct distribution for price returns, the chapter on options exclusively gives computations for the case of ...Brownian motion (not even exponential Brownian motion)! One is left wondering whether these fancy models presented in the first part were worth mentioning?

Another point is the readership of this book: given the notational complexity of the book and the analogies with physics, only a PhD in theoretical physics can possibly find this book readable. In fact, a finance student will find it too light on the finance side while a math-minded student will find it too sloppy and imprecise.

The surprisingly low level of mathematical rigour - one confuses regularly "uncorrelated" with "independence"- is nevertheless accompanied by an incredibly sophisticated set of tools such as random matrix theory, which are exotic even for professional researchers. Perhaps it would be better to spend more time explaining the concept of stochastic volatility or nonstationarity than rocketing the reader into unknown grounds...

I come to the conclusion that the aim of the book is more to impress the reader about the technical sophistication of the authors than to teach anything in a clear manner.

Although OK as a bedtime reader, this book certainly does not contain anything one can practically implement: in fact the presentation is so imprecise that one is lost in the successive and uncontroled approximations, not knowing at the end what is the algorithm proposed to solve a given problem.

superb - first ever book of its type in finance
Simply the best book written on mathematical finance. Bouchaud brings a physicist's clarity, insight and deft use of mathematical tools to finance. There has never been a better generalisation of the Black-Scholes hedging recipe. I know of no book where equal attention is paid to data and to the model used to describe it. Practical concerns are what drive the book from front to end.

Furthermore, Bouchaud writes superbly and elegantly, in sharp contrast to standard finance books, which are unrivalled for their pedantry. Mathematical finance was for years hijacked by individuals with no experience of, and interest in, real life modelling. We desperately need the insights and methods of applied science that an approach like Bouchaud's brings. A first in this field.

Summarises new advances in quantifying financial risk
'Econophysics' (the application of techniques developed in the physical sciences to economic, business and financial problems) has emerged as a newly active field of interdisciplinary research. 'Theory of Financial Risks' (written by two of the pioneers of this field) highlights very clearly the contribution that physicists can make to quantitative finance.

From the outset the point of view of the book is one of empirical observation (of the statistical properties of asset price dynamics) followed by the development of theories attempting to explain these results and enabling quantitative predictions to be made. This philosophy is reflected in the structure of the book. After a brief account of relevant mathematical concepts from probability theory the statistics of empirical financial data is analysed in detail. A key result from this analysis is the observation that the correlation matrix (measuring the correlation in asset price movements between pairs of assets) is dominated by measurement noise (which, as the authors observe, has serious consequences for the construction of optimal portfolios). Chapter 3 begins the core theme of the book with a discussion of measures of risk and the construction of optimal portfolios. A central result of this chapter is that minimisation of the variance of a portfolio may actually increase its Value-at-Risk.

The theme of improved measures of risk continues in chapters 4 and 5 which focus on futures and options. A new theory for measuring the risk in derivative pricing is presented. In the appropriate limit (continuous-time, Gaussian statistics) this model reproduces the central results of the Black-Scholes model - namely that one can construct a portfolio of options and assets such that the residual risk is identically equal to zero. However as the book has constantly highlighted, these market conditions are simply not observed in practice. Moreover the new theory presented allows one to calculate the residual risk which exists under more general and realistic market conditions (allowing the development of improved trading strategies).

In summary this book highlights very clearly many of the inadequacies of current financial theories and presents a number of new approaches, based upon concepts developed in statistical physics, to overcome these problems. It is to be recommended to both students of finance as well as to professional analysts as a good example of how an interdisciplinary approach to financial engineering may yield improved measures of risk. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

It could have been different
This book is mediocre. The layout is fine, quite attractive. But the contents are obvious. One can hardly believe that somebody needed to write a book about it. There is nearly no insight. Only common sense.
The writer is skilled, she could have made a much better book on a wider subject. But where she stands with this book, it is simply poor. You should read instead her other book which is very good: "Where Did the Money Go?".

The Other Reviewers Must Be FAMILY MEMBERS....
The book is not absolutely horrible.... its just so fundamentally basic as to be elementary. The principal message: add up all of your expenses along with how much you want to earn and simply make certain that you charge customers/clients more. Hummmm... food for thought. If you've ever taken a business class in high school (not to mention college, an MBA program, or have any business experience at all), this book is beneath you. Otherwise, the book has been well-written and well-illustrated. Grade: C-/D+

Funny reading, easy to understand, and super results!
I have been reading several books on the science/art of pricing products and services. I actually ordered this book by mistake. (Sorry Ellen!) The cover made me think it was too goofy, to "entry level" for me. After all, I have been in the consulting business for years. But, I could not put the book down. It took me less than a day to get through the book and the exercises Ms. Rohr included. The manner in which this book is written, a story of a lady interested in starting a business and talking with her business savvy friend, is fantastic. By the time I was done my jaw was on the floor. I was astonished to see the true cost of running my business laid out before me. Figuring out my "break-even point" was a real eye opener and has drastically affected the rates I now charge for my services. The value of this book to anyone struggling to effectively price their goods or services will far outway the cost. The information Ms. Rohr provides can be applied to any industry / business.

Five stars isn't enough For this book
I've been a self emplyed remodeling contractor for 10 years. I've read lots of business books. This one is, in my humble opinion, one of the best.

In "How Much Should I Charge" Ellen Rohr explains the folly of setting a price for your professional services based on the going rate (what others are charging for similar services).

Quoting business sage Frank Blau, she makes the point that being "Busy is easy. Profitability is difficult. And there is only one way to be profitable. Charge more for your services than it costs to create them."

Yeah, it's a basic point, but do you know what YOUR break-even cost per hour is? I didn't either, and that's a common problem in the service trades. If you don't know your costs of being in business, how can you determine a realistic price for your services? A price that allows you to get ahead, not just tread water.

In this book Ellen tells you how to create a selling price based on real numbers. She explains things like overhead and budgets and profit and billable hours and all of that. And the really commendable thing about it is that she manages to present all of this information in an entertaining, easy-to-read maner. There is a lot of rock solid common sense and fundamental business wisdom here and it's not boring or hard to follow like in so many other business books.

You can't read this book without being challenged to reevaluate the approach you take to pricing your services. For most service professionals, that's a reevaluation that is sorely needed.

In short, Ellen's excellent book tells you how to take control of your business; to get in the drivers seat and take it where you want it to go based on real costs of doing business, your own special talents as a service professional, and your own personal goals and dreams in life.

I'd like to share one particularly poignant passage from the book. It is profound. It is true. It's something I can relate to.

"Add up all the real costs of running a business. And charge a selling price that will cover all those costs plus generate a solid double-digit profit for the company. Don't sacrifice everything for the sake of keeping your prices low. Because, when you compromise yourself and your family's well being for the sake of your customer's wallet, something nasty happens. You start treating your customers like dirt.

When you make a great living doing the wonderful work that you do, somethiing marvelous happens; you treat your customers like gold! You thank them for providing you with such a nice living. You go out of your way to do nice things for them."

Some people will find what Ellen says about pricing to be provocative. Some will argue that her system can't work in their business or their area, or whatever. These are the people who equate "busy" with success,but who, despite their busyness never seem to get ahead financially like they would like (and should).

The fact is, Ellen's approach can and does work. I'll vouch for it. And I know there are successful service professionals all over the nation who will vouch for it. To succeed in business without a firm understanding and application of Ellen's pricing principles would be sheer luck.

I'll close with another quote from the book:

"Until YOU change, nothing will change for you"

Get the book. You'll be glad you did. ... Read more

Book Description

Volume 1 consists of 4 Parts divided into 16 Chapters covering the role and function of derivatives, basic derivative instruments [exchange traded products (futures and options on futures contracts) and over-the-counter products(forwards, options and swaps)], the pricing and valuation of derivative instruments, and derivative trading and portfolio management.

Volume 2 consists of 8 Parts and 18 Chapters covering risk management, market risk metodologies (including VAR and stress testing), credit risk in derivative transactions, other derivative trading risks (liquidity risk, model risk and operational risk), organizational aspects of risk management and operational aspects of derivative trading. The volume also covers  documentation/legal aspects of derivative transactions (including the ISDA documentary framework), accounting treatment (including FASB 133 and IAS 39 issues), taxation aspects and regulatory aspects of derivative trading affecting banks and securities dealers (including the Basel framework for capital to be held against credit and market risk).

Volume 3 consists of 4 Parts and 20 Chapters covering applications of derivatives, the creation of synthetic assets using derivatives (such as asset swaps, structured notes and repackaged assests), exotic options, and non-generic derivative structures used in interest rate and currency markets (including non-generic swaps, basis (floating-to-floating) swaps, swaptions (options on interest rate swaps), callable bonds, CMT products, IAR products, interest rate and currency structured products).

Volume 4 consists of 5 Parts and 21 Chapters covering equity derivatives (including equity swaps/options, convertible securities and equity linked notes), commodity derivatives (including energy, metal and agricultural derivatives), credit derivatives (including inflation linked derivatives and notes, insurance derivatives, weather derivatives, property, bandwidth.telephone minutes, macro-economic index and emission/environmental derivatives) and tax based applications of derivatives. It also covers the structure and evolution of derivative markets including electronic trading markets and the origins, evolution and prospects for derivative markets.  ... Read more

Book Description

Scientific knowledge and practical advice are combined in this book. Leading scientists present their latest research results in the area of product and price bundling, with respect to optimization as well as to behavioral bundling approaches. In addition the reader will learn how to implement bundling strategies and how to set up a bundling concept. He will find a thorough explanation of the value that bundling has for improving a company`s profit and sales. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Finally...a book even I can understand!
Nice piece of work. Very informative. Highlight is chapter 4 with tons (almost too much) of practical credit derivatives applications. The pricing chapter 5 starts well with explaining structural and reduced form models in a straightforward, simple way, but the first time passage models could have used more discussion. Risk management chapter 6, which also covers the impact of credit derivatives on OP risk, should be helpful for practitioners. The free pricing models on the Internet, especially the trinomial Hull-White and LMM model, are valuable from an educational and practical point of view.

Suited for MBA level
The book is an easy read on credit risk and credit derivatives. It is more informative than the Tavakoli or Nelken book and less theoretical than Schoenbucher or Duffie/Singleton. The many examples and problems, and the pricing models provided on the Internet make this book an excellent choice for an MBA program. ... Read more

Book Description

This digital document is an article from National Tax Journal, published by National Tax Association on December 1, 2004. The length of the article is 5739 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: While regulations on tax evasion via transfer pricing have been thoroughly explored in the literature, little is known about the effects of domestic tax policies under a Bilateral Advanced Price Agreement (hereafter BAPA) on production decisions of multinational companies. I show that, even if BAPAs prohibit income shifting through transfer pricing, inefficiencies arise via distorted production when markets across countries are interrelated through intra-firm trade of multinational companies. The analysis provides governments with useful guidance for how to coordinate tax agreements.

Citation Details
Title: Inefficiencies of Bilateral Advanced Pricing Agreements (BAPA) in taxing multinational companies.
Author: Akinori Tomohara
Publication: National Tax Journal (Refereed)
Date: December 1, 2004
Publisher: National Tax Association
Volume: 57Issue: 4Page: 782(13)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Bank Marketing, published by Bank Marketing Assn. on November 1, 2001. The length of the article is 723 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: What is Funds Transfer Pricing?(Brief Article)
Author: John J. Coffey
Publication: Bank Marketing (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 2001
Publisher: Bank Marketing Assn.
Volume: 33Issue: 9Page: 48

Article Type: Brief Article

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more