Investment-decisions

This book is an excellent book on the application of Neural networks to the financial world. This is a collection of articles for the knowledgeable in the area of finacial investments and Neural Networks. With this in mind this book constitutes an excellent reference book to any graduate course in any finance dept to apply intelligent decision making to financial estimates and investments. It is a reference book for all those out there who are thinking about doing research in this area. Both authors have written lots of publications in the area and that is a plus. Even though this book is getting to be little bit old, a new book coming out by the by the same first author and the same company seems to be an updated review on the subject and promises to become a reference too. Excellent refence!

The editor of this book, Lenos Trigeorgis, earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University, and has since that published several articles in distinguished journals on one of his favourite research subjects - real options. By using basic option pricing principles in capital investments, a practicing manager as well as an academic can develop financial models that handle stochastic information, for instance oil prices. The capital investment theories explained in this book is the greatest breakthrough in capital investments since the 60's. The widely accepted DCF-method should partly be replaced by Option Pricing Models, OPM, as this is the first method that can handle volatility and uncertainty in a theoretically consistent way. Several academics are finding this difficult to accept - the old "truth" doesn't hold is a volatile environment! If you believe in Discounted Cash Flow analysis - you MUST read this book! If you want to stay ahead of your competitors, you SHOULD read THIS comprehensive book on capital investments! It may require a lot more maths that any other books on the subject, as the book is rather theoretical with several real life examples. Most of the 20 authors have a background in maths as well as economics, something preferrable but not necessary for the reader of this excellent book. The book could be recommended for MBA and PhD students. Niklas Uddstrom (niklas.uddstrom@mandatum.fi)

Here's a no-nonsense book that will blow away the clouds that block your vision of your company's future. It opens with an explanation of forecasting and planning, then explores a variety of methods. And last, the meat of the book, 100 pages on forecasting everything from sales to (ouch!) bankruptcy. This book is for the person wanting dependable results and willing to work to get them

This book pulls together much of the current thinking on using Risk Assessment techniques for Strategic Investment decisions. The book is easy to follow enhanced by useful graphics. However, the book is very expensive and the quality of the publishing does not live up to the cost.

Serious students of long-term growth investing will find this book a good guide. Co-authored by the Chairman of the National Association of Investors Corp. (NAIC), Taking Control of Your Financial Future details the approach to the market that organization recommends for investment clubs to follow, using NAIC's tools (the Stock Selection Guide, Comparison Guide and others). A chapter of the book is devoted to starting a club, but the majority of its chapters are focused detailing NAIC's stock investing methodology. I wouldn't call this title "beach reading," but it is an excellent textbook, offering a more complete picture of the same approach to the market offered by the Beardstown Ladies in their own book.

Investment Under Undertainty by Avinash Dixit and Robert Pindyck has been an important book in the 1990's because it introduced a relatively new subject to a new and eager audience when there was little else available outside of original research papers. Many of us are grateful to the authors for this introduction. However, newcomers should be aware that they omit large and crucial details of implementation [example: chapter 4, section 1H, pages 110-112 including the graphs on page 111: a newcomer will be lost; if you wait until the appendix to chapter 10, on numerical solution, then you may or may not note the printing errors]. The book is not for the faint-hearted beginner; even the simplest material, such as valuation of a perpetuity (see Corporate Finance by Brealey & Myers - very easy) occurs in a form which the beginner or skim-reading manager might not readily recognise (chapter 5, secion 1A, pages 138-139); but then this book is not for them.

See also Real Options by Lenos Trigeorgis, who writes as if he keenly wants you to have fast access to his subject. For someone writing purely on the mathematical finance aspects, read anything by Paul Wilmott, who is clearly both clever and an exceptional educator

A lifetime book, a must for people interested in the modern "real options approach". Thorough and very didatic book, the maths level is far easier than Duffie's books, for instance. Requires differential calculus but at undergraduated engineering level. Previous knowledge of stochastic calculus and optimization under uncertainty are not required because there are two excellent chapters where the authors explain these tools in a concise format. For serious students, researchers and practitioners in capital budgeting, financial economics and investment theory. Comprehensive industrial applications models of practical importance, with several numerical results throughout charts and tables, makes this book valuable for capital budgeting consultants. In textbook format, for people interested in a deep understanding of the models, not only in rules of the thumb or ease advices. The best choice for graduated level courses, but some chapters also can be used for MBA courses, at least as complementary text. A born classic book!

Let me say that this is not a book for those looking for investment advice or get-rich-quick schemes. It is also not a book for those who think that an MBA and an HP12C are all you need to understand the basic theory behind investments, options, etc.

It is a mathematical subject...and to those with a good mathematical background, the book is remarkably well-organized and easy to understand. I found this book to be very helpful in my research.

Actually, I'd give it 3.5 stars. Excellent exposition and developement of material. However, there are quite a few typo's that would throw the reader with less math off the trail (and possibly some with good math). Good coverage of different types of cases, underlying math, real world appications and properties of solutions. Personally, I would have preferred all the rigorous material (including math proofs) in the one book rather than making statements and referring to seminal real options papers very often. Some credit is due here, however, as there are some proofs in appendices at the end of each chapter - I think these could have gone into a little more detail and depth - (I say this only because there isn't the vast library of books on this subject that exists for more mature disciplines - guess I was looking for a more comprehensive reference.) I have read Trigeorgis' other books so this was not an introduction. Liked the book, learnt a lot and am applying it to real life projects, however had to learn a fair bit on my own too.

This book gives you the latest update on what's going on in real options theory. Brilliant throughout, but its really too hard mathematically to be of much value for someone who's not a math-person. I found the chapter on the Antamina mine to be immensely interesting. It was originally used as a case study on options theory at Harvard and shows you how these academics went about valuing a peruvian mine. It's a very valuable chapter because it is focused on the practical side of real options theory. The chapter on "Rules of thumb for capital budgeting" didn't make much sense at all to me. The rest of the chapters are no easy read, but if you feel up to it mathematically, you're going to find this a very interesting book. If your not that much into mathematics, I think it's going to leave you rather frustrated. This book cannot have been meant as a guide for practitioners, it's more of a field day for academics, that's my impression at least.

OK, I admit the year has not ended yet, but that doesn't mean you mus not read this: now! This book is co-edited by Trigeorgis, one of the most proeminent author in the area. It deals with all the new developements on real options. It's objective is to give the researcher or student a key to enter the world of real options. Contributions are worldwide, mainly by people with a strong mathematical background. This makes it sometime difficult to understand for more management focused readers. However the book by the quality of the writting and the new ideas it brings, keeps you awake like a thriller. To be own by any person who want's to know about the future (nearly present) of corporate finance.

This book is possibly the worst textbook I have ever read. The notation is unwieldy, the explanations are unclear and there is very little to help your intuition. This, by the way, is not because of the mathematical or technical content which goes no deeper than introductory stochastic calculus and control. Even if it were a good text, however, it would urgently need revising. The material is rooted firmly in the 70's and 80's with almost no emphasis whatsover on the martinagle represntation of asset prices.

The books presents traditional finance economics. It is a very good and a classical book. But it is not easy to read because of its terrible, old-fashioned notation and writing.

It is plenty of examples and gives a very good intuition. So I'd say it is good because it teaches traditional finance since the beginning in a way one can understand finance and the underlying math.

Clearly, the book needs a revision to put it into the modern language of financial economics as well as to add the results (and models) that have been published in papers in the last 20 years.

As I said, without a revision, reading the book is not enough to allow one to understand modern papers published in the field. As a result, after reading it you will not be able to say you know finance. But without knowing what the book is about, you will not be also able to say you know finance. Of course you can consult other sources, but even with the terrible notation, it is a pleasure to read, for instance, chapter 2 (Arbitrage), chapter 4 (mean-variance portfolio analysis) or chapter 11 (discrete-time intertemporal portfolio selection).

Ingersoll has done an exceptional job of presenting the theory of financial economics, from risk and stochastic dominance to dynamic portfolio optimization and continuous-time finance. The mathematics is clear and concise. The economic intuition shines through.

This book is very good for the beginner. It has explained the terminology of finance in easy to understand langauge.If you are looking for the detailed finance calculation then this book is not enough. You need to have advanced level book. This book is not useful for the students who are studying in USA as it addresses the UK's finanicial market and stock exchange.

I did buy this book when I studied at Leeds Met Uni. It was very helpful to learn for the exam in Financial Management. And I am using it still right now in Germany. English is the world language and so I am going to try to read as much as I can in English.

Pike & Neale are lecturers in Bradford close to Leeds. They wrote this book in an easy way to understand what is about Corporate Finance. I think it will be very helpful for me when I am going to start my job in the auditing with Ernst & Young.

I really hoped that this book would explain the use of derivatives (a financial risk management tool) is a simple way, but alas, it was still too highbrow for a layperson like me. Perhaps I should have paid more attention in math class, but I still don't really understand how, when, or why to use them. However, I will persevere and find a book that can explain the use of derivatives in a more pedestrian manner. Thanks!

I loved this book. It was full of information that came alive. This book takes a dry, complex topic, and makes it exciting. It is a must read!!!