Investment-bank

This book was useful, but I thought the Vault Reports Guide to Investment Banking was more detailed and provided an "insider" view of the firms. Plus for job seekers it has actual finance interview questions and answers.

This book is a good overview of the investment banking business, but it
is quite expensive. I would strongly recommend instead or in addition
the Vault Career Guide to Investment Banking.... The Vault guide includes more
detailed overviews of all the departments and functions of an investment
bank including corporate finance, M&A, sales, trading, private client
services, credit, etc. If you are a job seeker in investment banking
also try the Vault Guide to Finance Interviews, which contains actual
investment banking finance interview questions and answers and which I
found to be enormously valuable in my Wall Street job search.

I am currently studying at the INSEAD MBA, France. Looking for information about the investment banking industry, I have been browsing dozens of books on the subject, but very few helped me to see both the big picture and the details of how the industry works. Fiction like Liers' Poker or Barbarians at the Gate missed the technical points and presented a very blurry picture of what investment banking is about apart from psychological or philosophical concerns. At the same time, technical books like The Industry of Investment Banking were too broad in technicalities, but narrow in the cultural issues. As I was reading "Doing Deals," I found the best industry guide of its kind, the book that provides very detailed information how the internal functions are structured, how the deals are done, how bonuses are allocated, what management practices are in place, what cultural differences one should expect between firms and between different functions within companies, what is driving the people who work at investments banks, and what personal qualities and experiences are expected from potential applicants. In addition, the book gives a lot of detail in its description of the principal industry players and the differences in their strategies. While the Vault.com guide is an absolute must read for everyone, who considers investment banking for his future career, "Doing Deals" is a much more fundamental book. True, it does not provide a list of short answers to finance interview questions, therefore adjust your expectations. What it does, however, is that it gives a very thorough and detailed description of how the industry functions and a very competent and knowledgeable analysis of strategic specifics within banking firms. While the Vault.com guide is for everyone, this book is more targeted at a seriously-minded reader.

a banking book covers subjects ok for yester-decade

I have met Ingo Walters in 1988 when he gave a brilliant talk to hundreds of CEOs form the Banking Industry in Europe. Everyone was amazed at how brilliant Ingo was. He is an authentic expert in European and US Banking. In his book "Global Banking" any serious student or better yet Strategic Management Consultant can learn Operations, Strategy, IT, Treasury, and Risk Management from different parts of the world. Highly recommended for Upper Management and CEOs of Regional Banks who need a pathway to easily transition into being a World Player. Learn through this book what the Managing-Directors at McKinsey, Bain, BCG, etc., would tell you for over 1 million dollars.

A great book. Exciting to read, clearly written and full of practical insights into global banking. Discusses tenable strategies for financial firms world-wide and contains insights that are difficult to find anywhere else. The authors taught a course based on this book at INSEAD and the book retains the liveliness and rigor of that excellent course.

A must buy for anyone connected with or interested in the structure and strategies of global finance firms.

Wiley Investment Classics generally fall into two categories, tough and dreary reads full of information, and lively entertaining accounts which also educate. Unfortunately, Mr. Bagehot and Mr. Bernstein's text is the former. The book does an outstanding job of promoting the importance of a strong central banking system and the importance of strict credit control when combating financial crises. However, it does so amidst extremely repetitive and somewhat painful language. The authors provide outstanding quantitative and anecdotal evidence supporting their case, but they do so in such a way that makes the book a true labor to read.

This book would be very beneficial to anyone doing research on, or working for some kind of central banking organization. Otherwise, I would suggest looking to any of the other Wiley Investment Classics for a more interesting and educational read about finance.

Can a book about finance written in 1873 be helpful in a world with complex financial markets and plenty of information about how they work? The answer is yes. It is not that "Lombard Street" is a classic that one finds quoted many a time; the reader's interest should transcend historical inquiry or curiosity; "Lombard Street" should be read and revered by anyone interested in the underlying, abiding features of financial markets.

But what are those characteristics? Bagehot, then editor of The Economist, writes that credit centers on trust: "Credit means that a certain confidence is given, a certain trust reposed." And, banks always have on-demand liabilities that far exceed their readily available assets. In short, credit works on trust, and the system, in the absence of trust, can fall apart rapidly.

What follows from these premises is a careful examination of how the money market came about, what its uses are, how its operations are connected to trade and country's overall welfare, and, most importantly, how central banks can deal with financial crises. Written elegantly, "Lombard Street" is, at the same time, an introductory overview of the market and a trenchant analysis of its most salient features.

But what makes "Lombard Street" timeless is that it deals with finance in its human form. Bagehot talks about power, prestige and perception as much as he does about interest, discount, and credit. Trust is based on institutions and people: the human features of finance-trust, anxiety, mania, optimism-are timeless and apply to the financial markets of the nineteenth, twentieth, or twenty-first century. That is why "Lombard Street" is an ever useful introduction and guide.

Walter Bagehot was the first editor of the now world-famous Economist magazine, which has in many ways remained faithful to the liberal philosophy (in a European sense)of its founder. Lombard Street might be difficult to read at first, but as with Charles Dickens once you get used to the style the tale is riveting. And his advice on how a central bank, as the lender of last resort, should behave in the face of a banking crisis remains valid to this day.

As a former Morgan Stanley employee, I found this report was disappointing and out of date. A more useful report on Morgan is the Vault.com 2002 Guide to Morgan Stanley

I wonder why an ex-Morgan Stanley employee would bother buying a report on the company. Could it be that this person really works for Vault? hmm. I thought this guide was really useful, especially if you don't know anyone who works there and want to know what it's really like and how to best prep for your interview.

The investment banking industry has been so hard hit that I wondered if it was a good idea to even consider it coming out of my MBA program. But Morgan Stanley among others has always had a solid reputation on the Street, and so I remain undeterred in trying to get a job either there or at another comparable firm. This guide is a good one for someone with my goals. I am feeling much more up to the job of landing an internship there. I understand better now what it's going to take and what I'm going to get out of working at MS. I really enjoyed the read. It was clear and concise. It cut through all the fat and got right to the meat of the matter in what I'd say is just the right amount of pages. I certainly don't have the time or inclination to read a tome on MS--as i've seen other company guides floating out there do. Rather, I like that this guide boils it down and tells me just what I need to know.

Based on the title and description of this book, I bought it hoping to learn more about developing financial tools, specifically interest rate models, in Matlab. After working through most of the book, I have concluded that the use of the name "Matlab" in the title is misleading: it only means that Maple, the main tool of the book, may be accessed via the kernel of Matlab.

The book appears to be targeted primarily at undergraduates and MBA students, not practitioners in the field. Such an audience may have little interest (or need) in learning to develop code or the intricacies of the underlying mechanics of financial models, and for them, the book would no doubt be very helpful. The software that comes with the book includes a stripped down version of Maple, (which is nice, since you can't really use the book without it), and author-developed analytical tools. These tools support the goals of learning through the ability to quickly vary inputs and see the impact on the output, but as they are more or less a black-box, do not add much to one's independent ability to model new financial objects or extend existing ones.

The book includes the de rigueur definitions of typical financial instruments and explanations that facilitate understanding of these instruments (such as how to read and understand option data in newspapers, the mechanics of currency swaps and so on), but one really has to follow along with the Maple commands page by page to derive benefit. The fixed income section is very skimpy. It seems like the book is best suited as an extended set of lecture notes.

I like the book but would not recommend it to practioners looking for insight on tool development or to extend knowledge of cutting edge interest rate models (as these are not covered here). I would recommend it for newcomers to the field having mathematical or quantitative backgrounds who want a reasonably good introduction to financial instruments. It would also be useful as a companion text in master's programs in financial engineering or financial mathematics. Derivatives and Maple with training wheels.

The theory of financial derivates is now much easily understood by combining mathemtical models with the symbolic, numeric and visualization capabilities of a CAS such as Maple. The author made an excellent choice to select Maple (primarily) and Matlab. Maple is used extensively in many academic and industry settings, and its integration into the presentation of the materials makes the content come alive. Great addition, that (even) every mathematician should read! I highly recommend it.

For when life throws you that derivative that you just can't look up in some book...
This book provides the building blocks on both the practical and theoretical levels that one needs to price derivatives. The book provides an essential combination of three things: 1) clear explanations and examples of fundamental concepts, 2) a hands on approach to software and pricing algorithms, and 3) emphasis on graphic visualization in understanding the behavior of derivatives in general. While clearly a textbook for a Master's level course, from the point of view of a practitioner, this book has also become my first reference source at the office for those times when I can't just look up the answer, and have to resort to first principles.

The authors claim that some intro Calculus and Probablity is all that you'll to follow this book, but I disagree. The authors go into the derivation of the Vasicek model, et al, and if you want to follow along, you'd better know something about PDE and Ito's Lemma. Even having Calc I and Calc II under your belt won't be enough. I hate books that tell you you'll only need some rudimentary math skills, and the proceed to blow you way with concepts not covered by the level of math they think is necessary to grasp their book. Certain chapters can be read without extensive math knowledge, but to get the full value from this book you'll need more. That's why I gave it only 3 stars.

Although not easy reading this book should be a must for any banker or banker to be. The authors' approach to a term structure model is the most solid analysis of profitability planning in the banking industry. In bringing this approach van Deventer & Imai present a well written primer that leads the reader through fixed income mathematics, yield curve smoothing, duration, convexity, term structure models, risk-neutral instruments, derivatives, advanced hedging & risk measument techniques. This book requires some quantitative skills or great perseverance. Being past this hurdle any reader will find the authors approach an excellent contribution to the banking industry on its march towards Risk-adjusted Return on Capital

Chapters are written by different authors. So, they vary in depth and difficulty. Some chapters are very technical, some are easier to read. But, the content is always very solid. Studying this book will give you a strong overall knowledge of ALM.

This book can serve you as the authoritive summary of the traditional ALM issues and techniques. It doesn't only describe the concept we should consider, but also educate the details of the ALM tools. Though this book doesn't deal with hot issues such as VaR and stochastic term structure model, it contains the essential ALM theory and practical technique you must know before diving into the frontier of ALM.

This book well explains what is Value At Risk and the concept of risk management in banks. Business concepts are complete. The author gives a lot of weight in risk control.

However, he lacks to give detailed examples on how to calculate VAR, the mathematics/statistics behind. Spreadsheets are nice but not complete from the beginning to the end. Important statistical methods are described without enough detail leaving the concepts out the book's scope.

This is a good book for a financial engineer's library. I found the spreadsheet examples particularly useful.

This book covers the topic very well. It is clear and concise. Useful for anyone who wants an overview of risk management concepts. But if you are like me who understands better with lots of numbers and examples, this is not it.

A good book to tell you methodical risk analysis in the area of fincance and marketing. If more interpretaions of analysis results written there, I would have rated it as "5" stars.

The book is great in clear notation, real data examples as well as online solutions for readers with or without math background. It will be better to include some advanced theory such as Extreme Value Theory.

This is one of the most refreshing Quantitative Finance books that have come along in the last few years. This book has been a work in process from the author for at least four or five years.

Glyn Holton's mathematical background and experience as practising risk managemer and consultant is thoroughly reflected in character of this book. The notation is consistent and logical, the mathematical/theoretical presentation is rigorous but accessible to pretty much all the intermediate/advanced undergrad students.

The emphasis is on the methodological process of building a model rather than directly presenting the final product itself. This is in contrast to most of the Value-at-Risk books on the markets which up to this point, have been written mainly by academics (University professors) rather than practitioners.

Throughout the book, Mr. Holton keeps emphasizing the duality of VaR metrics in terms of the exposure and the uncertainty of its underlying portfolio. And using the conceptual differences of these two components of risk as starting point, the relevant mathematical, probabilistic, and statistical background material are presented. For the exposure component of risk, Holton presented the mathemcatical mapping procedure; while for the uncertainty component, the conditional distribution characteristization of the risk factors are thoroughly investigated. This 'Bottom-up' analytical approach breaks down the VaR metrics into its 'atomical' parts. From there the VaR measure is methodologically built from the ground up. As result all the VaR models are presented under a uniform theoretical umbrella. This is in contrast with a 'disjointed list of VaR models' approach taken by most of the available literature up to this point. The result is a book suitable for beginners and advanced practitioners alike. Well done Glyn.