Product Description

Managing Financial Risk is the most authoritative and comprehensive primer ever published for financial professionals who must understand and successfully use derivaties. The previous edition of this professional financial classic sold over 18,000 copies and emerged as a leading training tool in the derivatives industry. The book covers derivative products from the most basic to the most complex and explains how derivatives are used by each major player in the market: dealers, financial firms, and corporations. In addition, the book includes short contributions from a variety of experts from leading companies such as Citibank, J.P. Morgan, British Petroleum, and Ciba-Geigy. Completely updated to include new material on new products such as commodity swaps and credit swaps, this edition will cover every aspect of the derivatives marketplace with insight and authority.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #373131 in Books
• Published on: 1998-06-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 620 pages

From the Back Cover
The established leading authority in Risk Management--completely updated. For years, financial executives and risk managers have recognized Charles Smithson's Managing Financial Risk as the authoritative source for comprehensive coverage of risk management products. While other books may touch on specific strategies and products, Managing Financial Risk stands alone in exploring derivaties and risk management from all angles, providing trusted guidance to both the sell and the buy sides. Managing Financial Risk, 3rd Edition, updates and expands this indispensable resource. Combining a comprehensive explanation of forwards, futures, swaps, options, and hybrid securities with the latest technologies for effectively managing financial risk, this authoritative and insightful edition now includes: a look at recent innovations in the risk management marketplace, including electricity derivatives and featuring credit derivatives--the newest of the risk management products; explanation of implementing a risk management program; new coverage on the effective use of risk management by institutional investors and financial institutions; an expanded discussion of the way a dealer measures and manages the credit and market risk associated with derivatives--a discussion that includes a clear expositon of "value-at-risk."

About the Author
Charles Smithson is a managing director and head of the CIBC School of Financial Products. In addition to his work in the private sector, Mr. Smithson has held positions in academe and the U.S. Government. He served as a member of the Working Group for the widely recognized Groups of Thirty Derivatives Project and currently serves on the boards of directors of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) and the International Association of Financial Engineers. Mr. Smithson has written articles for academic journals on subjects ranging from labor market discrimination to product liability to financial engineering. His other books include The Doomsday Myth, Managerial Economics, The Economics of Mineral Extraction, and The Handbook of Financial Engineering.

Customer Reviews

Great "Big Picture" book on Financial Risk
We used this book in an MBA Financial Risk course. I think it' a fantastic book for everyone who want to get a big picutre of derivatives applied to financial risk management. It's a great basic book in order to proceed futher studies in topics like Value at Risk. Smithson amd Smith done a great job in covering many subjects in one book. You learn about the basics of derivatives, numerical methods, engineering products, and handling risk for financial and non financial companies.

Caveat Emptor
I also use this book as part of the Masters course in Sydney and I cannot remember the last time I picked it up to read as I have better things to do with my time than try and work through the glaring errors in formulae, graphs and general commentary. The presentation is verbose and circumlocutory and to add to the frustration often wrong. I feel obliged to warn potential buyers not to make the same mistake that I have. Gallitz on Financial Engineering is a far more interesting and accurate text and for the rigours of applied financial maths Mastering financial calculations teaches you more in 200 pages than Smithson could in a lifetime of trying to improve on this first edition. If anyone would like my copy of Smithson I'm happy to give it away for fear further sales may encourage McGraw Hill to continue publishing the book.

Very much better than some people might think!
For those of you who may not be aware, Charles Smithson is the "father" of the building-block approach to making derivatives understandable, showing a linked, family-tree approach, rather than each explaining each one separately with no clear connections. He is both a top practitioner with many years of senior-level experience, as well as an academic for more theoretical work.

I am amazed at some of the negative reviews. I can only think that is because there aren't enough partial differential equations and complex pricing/hedging models (there really aren't any, but that doesn't make this a simplistic book). I also teach finance at the Masters level, as well as teaching practical applications of derivatives to various bank clients.

In my oppinion, this is the single best book on derivatives for non-specialists that I have seen (and I have seen most of the derivatives books around). Even people on the trading floor would benefit from the clear forest-for-the-trees approach. This is not an easy book, though it doesn't require any more than school algebra (with the exeption of one chapter on option pricing, contributed by Cliff Smith and, even there, the calculus could be skipped over lightly). This book will give the reader a very good understanding of the most important aspects of derivatives and their applications. This is something that is often woefully lacking in banks, where the focus is on the minutiae of quantitative models, treated almost as an exercise in math, without a very clear understanding of the finance that the math is there to model. The treatment is broad and balanced, from pure product knowledge to issuer applications to investor applications and to banks managing their own market risk. This breadth is very rare in derivatives books.

My only criticisms are that there are some mistakes (as in most technical books that are not textbooks, benefiting from the review of many students, if you look hard enough for them) and there is insufficient emphasis now on credit derivatives and the management of credit risk, though I feel sure Charles Smithson will address that in the next edition - he has written a separate book "Credit Portfolio Management."

Perhaps someone should take up the offer of a free copy from a previous reviewer - a real "free lunch." I highly recommend this book to relative beginners, as well as to experienced practitioners who want more breadth.