Derivative-security

I have used an earlier edition of this book to get some background for academic work. Very thorough and very clear.

This is a very comprehensive book that covers information about both the cash and futures markets for treasury instruments. There are sufficient graphs, tables and formulas to aid one's understanding of the subject. This book would be quite suitable for a course in Banking and Investment. However, it may not be of much use to a "speculator". It can be compared to a manual that tells you how the inside of a car works describing all its vary components. But not the real driving instructions which is another course manual by itself. In short, this is a very good book for its target audience.

I work in the business and I have read and struggled through a lot of books on options and other derivatives. This one stands out as a true gem. It is practical, yet thorough. It is accessible to the interested layman, but it doesn't condescend or skimp on key concepts. The questions at the end of each chapter allow you to solidify the concepts explained in the chapters without spending your whole weekend on them. The software that comes with it lets you play with the concepts in real time until you grasp them intuitively, not just theoretically: concepts such as the "greeks"--delta, gamma, theta, and vega, hedging, the relationship between options and the underlying instruments, and so on. Don't be misled by the reasonable price. (Books in this genre usually start at over $50.) You can slog through a lot of options books and log a lot of hours, but I'll be you get more out of this per minute invested than any other book on options.

This is an account which does not delve enough into the psychology of Nick Leeson personally (as opposed to traders generally) to be interesting, and is too apologetic for the management debacle that was Barings. Skip it. Nick's disingenous account is better. Lefevre's story of about stock operators is better still

Unlike the previous reviewer, I found the book to be a captivating and educational read! The plot held my attention throughout the book, even through the technical descriptions of how investment futures work. I felt that the book was a balanced blend of story and analysis. If you want more than a superficial account of the Barings debacle, this is a good book for you.

It is true that this author focuses as much on the role of management in the fall of Barings as on Nick Leeson's role in it, which is fine. It is an opinion that she substantiates somewhat persuasively throughout the book. The reader gets the sense that Nick was just an opportunist who took advantage of a glaring management weakness at Barings. (The author will not be able to persuade you, however, that Nick is just a good guy who slipped. He's scum. I think the author was too lenient with him.) But through her account of Baring Bank's mismanagement of its Futures division, the author provides a very useful lesson for senior management out there.

give clear excel examples on how to implement swap calculation.

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!

Whilst I have only read the first 100 pages or so of Favell's book so far, my impression is very favourable. This is simply an excellent book that finds the perfect middle ground between academic texts and introductory works, both of which usually leave out practical market issues such as day count conventions, business day adjustments, rounding rules, interpolation concerns, available market data etc

As a quant working for financial software company finding the detailed information required to write documentation to drive software development is often difficult. This book supplies the level of detail needed, and also contains excellent descriptions of different pricing methodologies for interest rate swaps.

Later chatpers on risk management and pricing of other derivatives look equally impressive, and I look forward to reading them.

This is the best book on swaps that I seen so far; a definite improvement on Das in my opinion.

This book is probably useful as a reference for practitioners. (Or was useful -- as another reviewer points out, much material is dated.) As a text or learning tool it is not particularly good. While I understand that my disppointment was probably from a misunderstanding of the books target, in the sections that I have read, the author sometimes suffers from failing to see the forest for the trees.

Good source of basic information, but not much on hedging which is key. Also, information is somewhat outdated. Good to have for a reference book on daycounts, basic structures, etc.

This is a very comprehensive book on this subject. Covers all the aspects of Swaps and related issues. Although, some isues like BIS guidelines are changed since the last publication of this book, it gives good idea of the regulatory and taxation issues of swaps & other related derivatives. This book can be used as a reference in this field. (not for first time reader of this topic)