Product Description

This book is designed to start with simple examples that progressively develop the reader's confidence to take on more complex tasks. There is very little theoretical discussion about computer science, operations research algorithms, mathematics, or finance. The thrust of the book is to teach the reader to break complex tasks down into simple tasks. It then looks to implement those simple tasks into VBA code using a critical subset of the features of the language.

The tentative contents is: (1) Why? What? Who? Where? and How? (2) Common Sense (3) Securitizing A Loan Portfolio (4) Understanding the Excel Waterfall (5) Designing the VBA Model (6) Laying the Model Groundwork (7) Recorded Macros: A First Look at the VBA Language (8) Writing Menus: An Introduction to Data, Ranges, Arrays, and Objects (9) Controlling the Flow of the Model (10) Building Messaging Capabilities (11) Designing the Model’s Reports (12) Main Program and Menus (13) Writing the Collateral Selection Code (14) Calculating the Cash Flows (15) Running the Waterfall: Producing Initial Results (16) Debugging the Model (17) Validating the Model (18) Running the Model (19) Building Additional Capabilities (20) Documentation of the Model (21) Managing the Growth of the Model (22) Building Portfolio Monitoring Model (23) Valuation Techniques: How do we Determine Price? (24) Challenging Times For the Deal (25) Parting Admonitions

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #169085 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 744 pages

From the Inside Flap

An introductory work to structured modeling in Visual Basic Application (VBA), A Fast-Track to Structured Finance Modeling, Monitoring, and Valuation: Jump Start VBA provides you with a concise, immediate, and practical guide to developing a meaningful level of modeling expertise on problems in structured finance. Designed to allow you to cross from the pure Excel world to the much more powerful and flexible world of VBA/Excel, this straightforward book is built around a structured finance case study in asset-based securitization.

Starting with basic examples that progressively develop your confidence to take on more complicated tasks, this book teaches you how to break complex tasks down into simple tasks and then implement them into VBA code using a critical subset of the features of the language. This hands-on, step-by-step guide features coverage of:

• General modeling concepts

• The Cash Flow Waterfall in Excel code

• Organizing and creating VBA modules to hold your model code

• Generating VBA code from recorded macros, and how to simplify and extract it for use in your model

• Efficiently using VBA statements to control the flow of the model

• How to use template files for efficient and flexible report writing

• Writing a collateral selection and reporting capability into your model

• How to generate collateral cash flows on a loan-by-loan, period-by-period basis

• Calculation optimization applied to collateral cash flow amortization

• How to use the VBA debugger to detect and correct different types of errors

• How to use the completed model to structure and size a finance deal

• Modifying the model to allow multiple scenario runs

• Protecting and evolving the model so it continues to create value for the business unit

• How to add additional reporting and analytical features to the existing model

• How to convert the structuring model into a monitoring and valuation model

• Allowing for the use of monthly empirical performance information

• Use of the monitoring and valuation model to track the performance of the deal

• Valuing the deal based on its performance, market conditions, and rating criteria

Accompanied by an online resource containing a complete working model and all the data and files professionals need to run it, A Fast-Track to Structured Finance Modeling, Monitoring, and Valuation: Jump Start VBA is the only book written for the complete novice, enhancing your ability to break complex, seemingly insoluble problems down into a set of manageable tasks, through the use of VBA.

From the Back Cover
A straightforward, how-to guide to the fundamentals of finance modeling

"This book is a complete, all-in-one toolkit for structured finance modeling with Excel VBA, written by a veteran of a leading Wall Street investment bank who is also a VBA instructor. Whether you are new to structured finance or a seasoned professional, you will find here all you need to model even the most complex structured finance transactions. The book and accompanying web site provide the theory, the organization, and the code itself that take you step-by-step through the entire process, right up to the tasks market participants are most focused on today: valuation and monitoring. In addition to the nuts and bolts, you will find explanations and insights that only an experienced structured finance banker can provide. This book is the definitive resource that will raise you above the competition in modeling structured finance transactions."
—Carol Childers, Director, Global Markets, Citigroup

"Learning VBA is a daunting undertaking, add to that the challenge and complexity of structured cash flows, and the task can become overwhelming. This book provides a great step-by-step approach to overcoming this hurdle. It is extremely easy to read and offers a deliverables checklist for each chapter to ensure all concepts have been understood before moving on. The reader comes away with not only a sense of the utility and flexibility of VBA but also a sense of the factors that play into structuring cash flows. Concepts that are extremely pertinent in today's market environment include the performance of collateral, pricing of securities, and impact of the economic environment on the cash flows available to investors and all interested parties."
—Kimberly Brown, Analyst, Commercial Real Estate, Citigroup

"Bill is extraordinarily methodical in real life, with a very wide view of life. This shows in his book. Rather than rush through the ins and outs of code, he emphasizes what is needed, why it is needed, and how it is used. This makes the book much more than just a book on financial models, and closer to a book on how to be a financial professional."
—Omar Haneff, Vice President, Proteus Technologies LLC

About the Author

William Preinitz is a Managing Director with Citigroup Global Markets' Global Special Situations Group. He oversees new business origination-structured finance issuance, serv-icing operations, rating agency relationships, credit wrap providers, investors, analytical development, internal risk control, audit activities, hedging, and residual arbitrage activities.

Customer Reviews

Good knowledge, though a bit misleading
I purchased this book having already a working knowledge of Visual Basic. I wanted basically what the title suggested, a fast track into the interconnected world of VBA and Finance. First, a note to those who are thinking about buying this: You will have to put time into this book. You cannot just sit on your bed and casually read it from cover to cover. The web site and this book go hand-in-hand together, and even if you ignore that portion (not recommended), you will need to have Excel open through some of the chapters or you will not get much out of it. Therefore, this book is for those who are dedicated to really learning how financial modeling works, and not just for people who want to read up on VBA code.

Pros: What everyone is saying: This guy knows what he's doing and what he's talking about. He provides great background information in the first three chapters. As a person with programming background, the pace felt really slow in the first couple of chapters as he walks you through the concepts. He also provides information about the nature of the project you will be working on. Overall, the pacing feels off, but if you're patient you won't find this a problem.

Cons: Those who fancy ourselves programmers remember our first lesson: the "Hello World" example. It was basically to introduce us to very elementary code. This is exactly what he does starting around chapter 7. He tells you to do something small and insignificant so you get a feel for how macros work and a glimpse at the resulting code. However, he then ramps up the difficulty by "cleaning" up the code. Here he starts slapping on and stripping syntax in such a way that someone who has little background in programming would get lost. This is by no means game-breaking but even I sometimes found myself staring at the "revised" code for a good 10-15 minutes trying to figure out what exactly he did. The statement he makes that this book was intended for those who know nothing of VBA is therefore misleading; he introduces a lot of syntax and code without truly explaining their nature. Again, to someone with some background in programming this is just a small nuisance you can work around. To someone that knows nothing, this is a serious hurdle. Another minor issue is that the book contains several typos. Not huge, but a lot of these typos are ridiculous mistakes that should easily have been caught by any editor.

In conclusion, this is a great book if you have a working knowledge of programming. Otherwise, you may get lost in the moments where he just spits language at you without explaining them. Beginners can probably turn to Power Programming to start off.

Structured Finance For The Rest Of Us
Whether you're a seasoned veteran of the financial markets or a curious student looking to find out what all the fuss is down on Wall Street, "A Fast Track to Structured Finance" has something for you.

This book offers a very detailed approach to managing and analyzing the securitization process utilizing Excel and Visual Basic. What makes this book brilliant is its careful balance of the author's industry knowledge, well designed Excel templates and concise Visual Basic coding.

Bill opens up the book with a discussion of the securitization process. Here we get our first glimpse at his expertise is this subject. During this discussion he details how the integration of VBA and Excel will help streamline the analyst and management of the deal. Interspersed throughout the book are tidbits of history, personal experiences and humor that add to a very entertaining read.

Don't let the size of the book scare you. It's filled with numerous screen shots and code samples that add clarity. And as a bonus, the spreadsheet and code examples can be found on the Wiley website. The Visual Basic coding is incredibly well documented and is portable. You'll find yourself looking for opportunities to apply his unique strategies to your own projects. There are many tips he offers the novice programmer to help ensure that their code is easy to read and understand in the future. This is especially important when you come back to your code months later and wonder why you wrote that "if" statement.

(For those advanced Excel VBA users, check out the code in chapter 13 where Bill discusses the "Ineligible Collateral Report". Very cool.)

Bill also deserves credit for his integration of Excel spreadsheets with Visual Basic.
No longer will you have the fear of, "there's too much data, I need a database".
Bill proves it can all be done in Excel.

Well written, detailed, filled with examples and fun to read. "Where can I find a book on Structured Finance like that?" Look no further...

This is that book.

A Comprehensive Guide
I cannot emphasize enough the thoroughness of this book. The process involved in building and maintaining a model can be quite intensive. The author walks you through every detail while keeping the core objective ever in focus.

While the author explicitly states that this book is primarily a text in modeling and not in financial structuring methodology, I found the chapter on securitization (Chapter 3) to be exceptionally...thorough. The chapter contains a broad, detailed overview of all the elements involved in a securitization. This is important because the reader needs an understanding of the overall process in order to continue with model building in the following chapters.

This book contains a lot of useful information; it is a comprehensive step-by-step guide to modeling.