Product Description

Practical and interactive, the book contains worked examples throughout.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #126217 in Books
• Published on: 1997-07-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 280 pages

From the Back Cover

The easy hands-on guide to the math behind every key financial instrument and technique.

• Financial market arithmetic — starting with the absolute basics.
• Money and bond market calculations, zero-coupon rates, and yield curves.
• Foreign exchange calculations, interest rate and currency swaps, options pricing, volatility, sensitivity, and more.

Success in today's sophisticated financial markets depends on a firm understanding of key financial concepts and mathematical techniques. Mastering Financial Calculations explains them in a clear, comprehensive way — so even if your mathematical background is limited, you'll thoroughly grasp what you need to know.

Mastering Financial Calculations starts by introducing the fundamentals of financial market arithmetic, including the core concepts of discounting, net present value, effective yields, and cash flow analysis. Next, walk step-by-step through the essential calculations and financial techniques behind money markets and futures, zero-coupon analysis, interest rate and currency swaps, bonds, foreign exchange, options, and more. Making use of many worked examples and practical exercises, the book explains challenging concepts such as forward pricing, duration analysis, swap valuation, and option pricing - all with exceptional clarity.

Whether you are a trader, fund manager, corporate treasurer, programmer, accountant, risk manager, or market student, you'll gain the ability to manipulate and apply these techniques with speed and confidence.

About the Author

Robert Steiner is Managing Director of Markets International, Ltd., an independent company specializing in international financial training, and in consulting on foreign exchange with finance directors and treasurers of international companies. He is also author of Mastering Repo Markets.

Customer Reviews

Concise, informative & well communicated to intended readers
I am using the most recent edition (1999, ISBN027362587X) of this excellent book published by FT Prentice Hall.

This book is a concise and informative guide to the concepts and mechanics (maths) and application of financial instruments.

The author has managed to cover the wide area of financial instruments and business maths in the most concise and informative manner possible.

The added bonus of this book is that it could have been "unintentionally" written as a companion with HP financial calculator-the HP12c and the HP19BII.

New & existing owners of the HP12c, would find this book to be an excellent and indispensible guide and practice workbook.

Working through the examples in the book with my HP12c has helped me familarise with the RPN mode/logic of performing financial maths at the same time as I apply my understanding of the underlying concepts to the exercise questions and illustrative examples.

I am impressed that the author had even included detailed key strokes of both the HP 12c and 19BII calculators with each illustrated examples and answers to practice questions as well! Although there is afew minor errors but the overall effort is great efforts and attention to details.

This book is really true to its name, I would certainly recommend Mr Steiner's excellent work and effort to anyone who needs a refresher or an introductory course into financial instruments for both work and study.

Judging by the author's excellent effort, it would be difficult for the author himself to improve on his own work unless there are major new developments in the subject matter or if the author wishes to cover more complex and specialist areas.

A five star+ effort in my humble opinion.

Brilliant. A Definitive Work
This is by far the most comprehensive, easy to understand book regarding financial math I have come across in over 15 years as a Wall Street IT professional. From calculating simple interest to pricing interest rate and currency swaps to option payout diagrams this book has it all. All calculations are clearly laid out with real examples, sample questions and hints. A must have for novices and pros.

One of the best I've encountered
As a liberal arts major who was not a math pro but had an interest in learning the tools of finance, this book was a dream come true. It explains every calculation simply and without any technical (and incomprehensible) jargon found in many textbooks. It includes examples, hints, and a glossary of important financial concepts. If you are willing to learn, then this book is for you. A good reference tool for even pros. A bit expensive but NOT sorry to have bought it.