Derivative-security

This book is both enjoyable and informative. I will find time to read it again.

I have just read the first three chapters and it looks like I'll finish it soon. Key Financial Instruments is the only readable book on derivatives that I have come across.

incredibly well written - like JK Rowling of Harry Potter and Michael Lewis of Liar's Poker combined

This wonderful book and its companion book "Financial Engineering: Derivatives and Risk Management" have been on the markets more than one year, but still didn't draw sufficient attention from the readers in either academic or practical world. FinMath.com didn't add any of them on its bestseller list, and there's no single reader's review on Amazon.com.
I have both books for a while and like them very much. I consider them as the hidden jewels of quantitative finance books. This book definitely beats the "Investments" by Bodie, Kane and Marcus, and its companion book does the same thing to John Hull's "Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives". If you can find any of them in the bookstore you patronize frequently, I bet you will take it/them to home the same day. Both are published by John Wiley, but priced as [inexpensively] as computer books on mass markets. In addition, the supporting Website has related Excel, GAUSS and PowerPoint files for downloading. The PowerPoint slides have professional quality. The only thing I don't like is the GAUSS program code on the books. I can't imagine anybody would take time to learn GAUSS just for those 2 books, and never understand why the authors didn't give VBA or pseudo code for majority's interest.
Both are written as textbooks, but contain lot of useful information on practical consideration, such as "The market maker Buys the Base currency at the Bid rate - which is the 'low'figure(usually the figure which comes first in the quote)".

This book explains and illustrates (with real world examples) how to estimate the value of financial instruments that are traded on listed securitues exchanges, as well as some that are not actively traded. The book provides valuable demonstrations of how wide range practical sources of information can be used to compute prices for commercial mortgages, private-placement bonds, mortgage-backed securities, derivatives, joint ventures, and other financial instruments. Casabona and Traficanti also provide 340 slides that expedite learning...

A useful guide for both the accounting and financial professionals who must tackle valuation on a regular basis. Casabona and Traficanti explain the basics of pricing various types of fixed income securities, equity securities, and the whole gamut of derivatives. I was particularly impressed by the fact that Casabona and Traficanti do not limit themselves to publicly traded instruments; instead, they consider both the public and the nonpublic (i.e., private) markets for securities. The book is well thought out, well organized, and easy to follow . . . I can easily see it becoming a primary resource for the accounting profession and for Boards of Directors of both issuing institutions and of the investment companies that represent the target investment market for many of the instruments discussed.

This guide provides an extremely clear introduction to derivatives, including futures, options and swaps. The book's heavy use of charts and other graphics, and friendly layout, makes it especially easy to follow. Though it provides only basic information about strategy and pricing, it does clearly outline the risk profiles of several common derivatives trades. This book won't help you master the Black-Scholes option pricing formula, but it will give you a solid understanding of how derivatives work. Overall, a very good introduction.

I used this book to teach a Financial Mathematics course, and found its explanations to be generally clear and good. However, part of the reason the text seems so clear is that it doesn't explain much of what's really going on. It covers the right material, but not really in such a way that the reader can then go on to apply the knowledge gained.This is evidenced by the complete (and almost unforgiveable) lack of exercises in the book. It is very easy to feel you understand this sort of material, only to be completely lost when you actually have to solve a problem. Neftci will not help in this regard. I understand that it is difficult to create good exercises, but their absence almost makes me wonder if Neftci realized he was not explaining things in enough detail to let the student actually work with the knowledge. Exercises are the only way to really learn this subject.A basic problem with all these texts is that, try as they might, they cannot impart true understanding unless the student can grasp real analysis at, say, an undergraduate level typically reached by students at a good engineering school. This text tries to avoid the problem by failing to mention any of the analysis...that's not likely to work.

I've read Hull, Wilmott and Baxter books but definitely like this book better - particularly for entry (but not easy) level derivative math. Can't say much since English is not my first language. But if you want to learn about Derivative Math and don't have strong background in Math (I'm a Porfolio Manager and have pretty good background in Calculus, Differential Equation, Econometrics) this book is certainly worth considering. I give 4 stars due to the lack of practice problems.

Students of derivative pricing techniques are often in a dilemma: Coming from their MBA or undergrad course, they have just build a "brealy-myers" type of intuition on options. Moving towards Hull then allows a deeper understanding. But any serious (eg PhD, Wall Street Analyst) student of derivatives needs to undertstand the math behind modern derivatives pricing. Essentially, this research divides into two streams: Solving Partial differential equations and developing equivalent Martingales. Without a rigorous pre-education (Maths, Physics), most students fail to understand (let alone learn to use) these methods. Nefci is the only book that does not assume lots of prior knowledge, as compared to Merton (1992) or Duffie (who is so bold to write "for mathematical preparation little beyong undergraduate analysis...is assumed" -ask PhD Students how easy this book reads! The answer is its tough!!). In Short, Neftci's book is a true blessing for all "normal" people. Can't wait to get the second edition!

If you are a student just taken up a course in derivatives or risk management you should have this book. if you find john hull more technical, you have Don Chance who covers options and other derivatives in a greater detail and in more words. everything you want to know about how banks etc have risk mangaement systems in place and market risk instruments is here.

in case you want a greater coverage of options and pricing options, you should definatly take a look at Black Scholes and Beyond by Neil Chriss, a work of art.

This is an excellent book for non finance majors who would like to grasp the physical concepts behind different derivatives products traded in the OTC markets. The book is ideal for a preperation read for all aspiring to take Financial Engineering / Derivatives as majors in graduate programs.

If you are interested in the basic concepts governing derivatives without getting into the mathematics of it then this is the ideal book. I recommend this book for any one who is contemplating taking Derivatives as an advanced level course. The book would give a solid foundation to the concepts of risk management.

I am a graduate who majored in finance working as a financial analyst. Well, what I should say of this book is that it tells you how the mechanism works in the whole derivatives world in terms of trading and pricing in a comprehensive manner. As a corporate finance and banking finance expert who has recently got interest in the field of derivative securities this book turns out to be a good starting point in understanding derivatives. However, if you want to know more about in this field, you should also spend time on other textbooks and read academic papers. Furthermore, one had better take some empirical exercises especially on derivative pricing by using computer programmes. (A good comprehensive and easy to follow text is Simon Benninga's Financial Modelling with Excel) Also a good statistical and econometric background would be helpful in understanding derivatives. What I find as a shortcoming in this book is that it doesn't provide answers to the end of chapter questions nor does it supply a computer aid material (a disk whatever) even though it is mentioned in the book.