The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing: A Guide to Growing More Profitably (4th Edition) (Pie)

Customer Reviews:

The very best pricing manual.......2007-09-23

I bought a second copy of this book after loaning it to too many people to know who had had it last.

The book is not light reading, is highly technical and has more than a little math to comprehend. But, it is worth it.

The strategic thinking is very focused.

If you are stuck on how to price your product or how to combat price competition, read this book.

Looking for guidance/framework on how to price our products ..........2007-03-08

We have the challenge of taking new products and services to the marketplace and really were looking form some guidance on a place to start. The area we are working in is really developing a new market as well. So we were wondering "What Price do we place on these product and services?"

We could not afford the experts on pricing (aka Strategic Pricing Group now part of The Monitor Group). And were looking for a place to start. All research including reviews from Amazon pointed us to start with this book. To myself and our endeavor, it the first 3 weeks of owning the book, I have read several chapters multiple times and the foundation framework on pricing is shares has already proven to be worth many times the price of the book.

On top of it, it is easy to read. Thanks to the people who took the time to make this book.

Great Book.......2007-02-18

This book is a great guide to the topic of pricing. I'm an MBA student and I believe students as well as professionals can benefit from reading this book. It contains structures and frameworks to work out a tailored pricing strategy and they all make sense. Lots of good examples from business practice illustrate the application of the theories.
The book is relatively quantitative for a marketing book, which I find great because there is no argumentation based on psychology and belief, but on quantifiable parameters - one can see the consulting practice of the authors.
What the book pretty much lacks is a citing of new academic research studies of the topics discussed. There are extensive references, however.
All in all a great book to newcomers in pricing as well as experienced pricers.

Excellant........2007-02-11

This is one of the best books in pricing. My Pricing professor recommended that I buy this and said that marketing managers regularly refer to this book in practice. This is a great buy.

The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing: A Guide to Growing More Profitably (4th Edition) .......2007-02-06

Worth buying it. Good and useful material.

Interest Rate Models - Theory and Practice: With Smile, Inflation and Credit (Springer Finance)

Average customer rating:

Best book on interest rate models
The best book I have read on the subject
New stuff and nice overview: hard to beat!
Nicely written overview of interest rate models
Well written and useful book

Interest Rate Models - Theory and Practice: With Smile, Inflation and Credit (Springer Finance)
Damiano Brigo , and Fabio Mercurio
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

The Volatility Surface: A Practitioner's Guide (Wiley Finance)
Monte Carlo Methods in Financial Engineering (Stochastic Modelling and Applied Probability)
Volatility and Correlation: The Perfect Hedger and the Fox (Wiley Finance)
Stochastic Calculus for Finance II: Continuous-Time Models (Springer Finance)
Modern Pricing of Interest-Rate Derivatives: The LIBOR Market Model and Beyond

Accessories:

Mathematics for Finance: An Introduction to Financial Engineering (Springer Undergraduate Mathematics Series)
Monte Carlo Methods in Financial Engineering (Stochastic Modelling and Applied Probability)

ASIN: 3540221492

Book Description

The 2nd edition of this successful book has several new features. The calibration discussion of the basic LIBOR market model has been enriched considerably, with an analysis of the impact of the swaptions interpolation technique and of the exogenous instantaneous correlation on the calibration outputs. A discussion of historical estimation of the instantaneous correlation matrix and of rank reduction has been added, and a LIBOR-model consistent swaption-volatility interpolation technique has been introduced.

The old sections devoted to the smile issue in the LIBOR market model have been enlarged into several new chapters. New sections on local-volatility dynamics, and on stochastic volatility models have been added, with a thorough treatment of the recently developed uncertain-volatility approach. Examples of calibrations to real market data are now considered.

The fast-growing interest for hybrid products has led to new chapters. A special focus here is devoted to the pricing of inflation-linked derivatives.

The three final new chapters of this second edition are devoted to credit. Since Credit Derivatives are increasingly fundamental, and since in the reduced-form modeling framework much of the technique involved is analogous to interest-rate modeling, Credit Derivatives -- mostly Credit Default Swaps (CDS), CDS Options and Constant Maturity CDS - are discussed, building on the basic short rate-models and market models introduced earlier for the default-free market. Counterparty risk in interest rate payoff valuation is also considered, motivated by the recent Basel II framework developments.

Customer Reviews:

Best book on interest rate models.......2002-12-14

This is the best book available on interest rate models. Very detailed. Much more focused and readable than Rebonato's book. More pragmatic and explicit than Musiela and Rutkowski. Not as theoretical as Hunt and Kennedy. James and Webber also looks very good, but I'm not that familiar with it. All other books have only bits and pieces on interest rates.

The best book I have read on the subject.......2002-05-06

With all the due respect to the other authors I would say that if one is interested in a good theoretical book whihc is also good on the implementation side then the book of Brigo and Mercurion is definetly the best book I have ever read on the subject.

Anyone interested in implementing the LMM/BGM/MSS model in practice is well advised to read it.

I would just say that this is certainly a must have in the field.

New stuff and nice overview: hard to beat!.......2002-01-17

In the late nineties I went through Brigo's innovative work on stochastic nonlinear filtering with differential geometry techniques. I was favorably impressed by results and style, particularly in his dissertation and in his 'geometry in present day science' very readable overview. Interesting results are found and nicely told with accurate - but not pointlessly complicated - advanced mathematics for the problems at hand, I reasoned.

I've followed a similar path from control to finance, and having worked with interest rate models, I couldn't help but order this Brigo-Mercurio book. I had high expectations 'cause these two guys are working in a bank on the real thing.

Sure enough I'm not disappointed.

1-factor models are handled with great care, a ton of formulas and recipes are given. I've never seen this kind of analysis of pricing with Gaussian 1-f models. The new upgrade of the CIR model is interesting and accurate. "CIR++" is now my favorite 1-f model. I like the treatment of lognormal 1-f models and the explanation of Monte Carlo and trees -- the flow-chart for Bermudan swaptions is crystal clear! Plots of market implied structures and volatility calibration are useful additions.

The chapter on 2-f extensions has one of the best discussions on volatility, and two tons of useful formulas/recipes. Two dimensional trees!

The HJM chapter size is OK. I agree - the useful models embedded in HJM are short rate models and market models.

Market models - these three chapters alone are worth the book. You'll find yourself nodding as you read the guided tour. They make it look easy all the time. The exposition is focused, clear, intuitive, detailed. There's also new stuff, just check the calibration discussion! Smile modeling begins with a brilliant tour and ends with Brigo-Mercurio's new approach - the mixing dynamics - deserving a whole chapter if expanded.

The detailed explanation on products is a much welcome original addition. Cross currency derivatives!

Quotes - as in Brigo's old work - are a pleasant diversion while reading. The 500 and more pages are a treat given the competitive price.

Still there's room for improvements - more "CIR2++"! Something on 3-f models. Historical estimation of the correlation matrix and low-rank optimized approximations. Expand smile modeling! More hedging. Something on structured products. Cross currency libor model. chapter 9 - other interest rate models - sounds out of place and can be suppressed for other things.

This book rings true and has useful teachings for students, academics and practitioners. Although it requires some background in stochastic calculus, it's hard to beat on the pricing front. Kudos to Brigo and Mercurio! It only harms there aren't enough books like this.

Nicely written overview of interest rate models.......2001-12-15

This recent book, written by two Italian "quants" Mercurio & Brigo, gives a nice and accessible overview of interest rate models which is a compromise between the practitioner viewpoint, expressed for ex. in Rebonato's book "Interet Rate option models"
and the theoretical viewpoint such as the one in Musiela & Rutkowski.
The authors, themselves PhDs in quantitative finance/ applied maths, wrote this book while working as quants in an Italian bank and this first hand contact with the market gave them a
practical view on the subject which markes this book very interesting.

The book contains a "rational" catalogue of models used in practice ( as opposed to models which are impossible to implement!).

In contrast with academic books on interest rate modeling which deal with HJM formulation, there is a lot of emphasis here on LIBOR and Swap market models
(BGM -Jamshidian models) which reflects the current market practice. This is a positive point since there are not many books with details on implementing and using these "market models".

Part II: Interest rate models in practice is particularly useful because it deals with implementation and calibration which, as any practitioner knows, are important and usually delicate issues.
However calibration issues are dealt with somewhat lightly, especially recent developments on modeling cap/swaption smiles
are not included here.

This book can also be used for a graduate level/PhD course on interest rate models.

There are a lot of numerical examples in the book and mathematics is kept to the necessary level while keeping the
approach both rigorous and understandable.

Overall, it is one of the best books written on the subject.
I highly recommend it to PhD students, quants and researchers interested in this field.

Well written and useful book.......2001-11-04

In my humble opinion, this is the best book on Interest Rate modeling out there. The writing style is clear and focused and the appendices are fantastic. The book is rigorous but someone with some background in Stochastic Calculus will find it easy to follow. If you need refresher, dont worry the authors have you covered, see the appendix on Stochastic Calculus. Not an introductory book. Very exciting book.

Market Models: A Guide to Financial Data Analysis

Average customer rating:

Very shallow
Comprehensive, lack in depth and poor organization
Worth the money
Nice book
Nice book

Market Models: A Guide to Financial Data Analysis
Carol Alexander
Manufacturer: Wiley
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Similar Items:

Analysis of Financial Time Series, 2nd Edition (Wiley Series in Probability and Statistics)
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Optimal Trading Strategies: Quantitative Approaches for Managing Market Impact and Trading Risk

ASIN: 0471899755

Book Description

Market Models provides an authoritative and up-to-date treatment of the use of market data to develop models for financial analysis. Written by a leading figure in the field of financial data analysis, this book is the first of its kind to address the vital techniques required for model selection and development. Model developers are faced with many decisions, about the pricing, the data, the statistical methodology and the calibration and testing of the model prior to implementation. It is important to make the right choices and Carol Alexander's clear exposition provides valuable insights at every stage.

In each of the 13 Chapters, Market Models presents real world illustrations to motivate theoretical developments. The accompanying CD contains spreadsheets with data and programs; this enables you to implement and adapt many of the examples. The pricing of options using normal mixture density functions to model returns; the use of Monte Carlo simulation to calculate the VaR of an options portfolio; modifying the covariance VaR to allow for fat-tailed P&L distributions; the calculation of implied, EWMA and 'historic' volatilities; GARCH volatility term structure forecasting; principal components analysis; and many more are all included.

Carol Alexander brings many new insights to the pricing and hedging of options with her understanding of volatility and correlation, and the uncertainty which surrounds these key determinants of option portfolio risk. Modelling the market risk of portfolios is covered where the main focus is on a linear algebraic approach; the covariance matrix and principal component analysis are developed as key tools for the analysis of financial systems. The traditional time series econometric approach is also explained with coverage ranging from the application cointegration to long-short equity hedge funds, to high-frequency data prediction using neural networks and nearest neighbour algorithms.

Throughout this text the emphasis is on understanding concepts and implementing solutions. It has been designed to be accessible to a very wide audience: the coverage is comprehensive and complete and the technical appendix makes the book largely self-contained.

Market Models: A Guide to Financial Data Analysis is the ideal reference for all those involved in market risk measurement, quantitative trading and investment analysis.

Customer Reviews:

Very shallow.......2005-03-11

You can google in 10 minutes more relevant information than this book is able to provide. It's OK if you need to pick up some terminology and get a rough idea of what it all means before an interview. Totally useless if you need it for work.

Comprehensive, lack in depth and poor organization.......2005-01-23

For a starter, this book does offer a broad spectrum of subjects, volatility/variance measurement, PCAs, Factor Models, Time Series analysis, high frequency data modeling, etc, at the expense of rigor and depth.

Desipite the academic pedigree the author enjoys and the educational career she had, the book is rather poorly organized from a pedagogical point of view. She seems to have a tendency to refer to expressions, notions, ideas, data which appear much later than where the reference takes place. This makes first-timers cringe as they go through the chapters as they are laid out. It reads much like some published papers got dumbed down, and bundled together.

If you are looking for comprehensive introduction, without the gory details of mathematical mumblejumble, this book might be of help. But it may not be used as a reference book, for its organization and for its lack of rigor.

Worth the money.......2003-08-28

If you are looking for detailed rigorous mathematical development then look elsewhere, that is not the reason to purchase this book. It is targeted towards application and there it excels. I have not seen any other book on this topic that so effectively presents a level-headed applied approach that keeps the basic assumptions of the models firmly in sight.
What tool fits when is nicely discussed.

Nice book.......2003-06-21

I will consider this book as a good introduction to different ways to analyze market data (covering mainly equity but do touch on fixed income as well as currency). I would emphasize that the book model the market more from an empirical point of view. The author gives a good description of the GARCH model as well as PCA analysis. Being a fixed income derivatives trading, I find both sections particularly useful for real world trading. The risk modeling section should expand into topics other than VAR such as coherent risk measures which are more useful. The co-integration section is a must for any traders who want to trade mean-reversion or stats arbitrage.

Nice book.......2003-06-21

Book Description

Implementing Derivatives Models Les Clewlow and Chris Strickland Derivatives markets, particularly the over-the-counter market in complex or exotic options, are continuing to expand rapidly on a global scale, However, the availability of information regarding the theory and applications of the numerical techniques required to succeed in these markets is limited. This lack of information is extremely damaging to all kinds of financial institutions and consequently there is enormous demand for a source of sound numerical methods for pricing and hedging. Implementing Derivatives Models answers this demand, providing comprehensive coverage of practical pricing and hedging techniques for complex options. Highly accessible to practitioners seeking the latest methods and uses of models, including
* The Binomial Method
* Trinomial Trees and Finite Difference Methods
* Monte Carlo Simulation
* Implied Trees and Exotic Options
* Option Pricing, Hedging and Numerical Techniques for Pricing Interest Rate Derivatives
* Term Structure Consistent Short Rate Models
* The Heath, Jarrow and Morton Model
Implementing Derivatives Models is also a potent resource for financial academics who need to implement, compare, and empirically estimate the behaviour of various option pricing models. Finance/Investment

Customer Reviews:

Best book of implementing IR option models.......2007-09-18

Best book of implementing IR option models that I found while I was writing my masters thesis. It has full algorithms for most of the models presented and also simulations of the results. This book complemented with Interest-Rate Option Models: Understanding, Analysing, and Using Models for Exotic Interest-Rate Options (Wiley Series in Financial Engineering)is a good set to IR Option background.

Great book.......2007-01-31

Learnt a great deal from this book. I bought this because I had to learn some stuff for work, on a project. The book helped me learn the concept easily and understand the content.

good introduction.......2006-02-14

Very good introduction or summary for the most basic models that are used in the industry. However, it is not very detailed for more complicated models.

You can do it but you do not understand.......2005-10-11

This books is very valuable for equities derivatives. In particular the implementations are very clear even if it is only sketch and not real implementations.

Unfortunately it does not explain the real points behind (martingale, risk neutral). So you know how to do it but you do not know why you do it. For this you should read the Baxter.

Another bad point is that the interest rate derivatives are covered just for the single factor rate models and the HJM model and not the LIBOR-Market model which is the most useful model.

Fills a gap, but needs polish.......1999-10-13

Even more than Wilmott's book, C&S's book gets into the details of pricing derivatives. The choice of topics is truly excellent, and the copious source code included is a superb move. I am currently using this book (and others) to teach a class in Financial Programming.On the other hand, errors are frustratingly frequent. Not so much in the source code, but in the prose. It would be nice to see a floppy disk of code come with the book, a la Hull. There are no exercises in the text, which I consider to be an egregious error, because exercises are really the only way to learn the material.C&S try to make finite difference schemes seem less intimidating by expressing them in terms of probabilities (to stress the link between trees and more general lattices). This works OK for explicit schemes, but for the more important implicit and Crank Nicolson schemes is weird and unnatural. It fails to give the reader any clue as to how to do finite differencing on his own. (Their odd changes of variables don't help, either.) Wilmott's treatment of the subject of finite differencing is far superior.

Average customer rating:

Invested more than ten dollars?
bring a lunch...
Want to be smarter?
Excellent Book! A must read!
Rational Analysis

Irrational Exuberance: Second Edition
Robert J. Shiller
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The New Financial Order: Risk in the 21st Century
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The (Mis) Behavior of Markets: A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin And Reward

ASIN: 0691123357

Amazon.com

Sequels often disappoint when compared to their predecessors, but author Robert Shiller has proved the exception to the rule with his second edition of Irrational Exuberance. When the original book released in 2000, Shiller's prescient analysis of bubble-like market behavior provided perspective on the painful meltdown of stock-price valuations that subsequently occurred. Five years later, the Yale professor's bearish predictions about real-estate valuations are enough to give any savvy investor or homebuyer pause.

Shiller is one of several well-known economists and pundits who've begun a running dialogue in the last few years around the drawbacks of unchecked free markets. Few writers, though, dissect the phenomenon of bubble behavior as clearly and thoroughly as Shiller does. As with the first edition of his book, Shiller begins this one with reams of quantitative data around the late 1990s stock-market runup. This new edition adds data on real-estate price trends in the early 2000s, and points out the striking parallels between the earlier stock-market boom and bust, and current trends with housing prices in the United States. Shiller actually believes the two phenomena are related; as investors lost confidence in the stock market and moved their money into real estate, one asset class fell while the other rose. According to Shiller's analysis, the pattern is destined to repeat itself.

Aside from the initial data, the real strength of Irrational Exuberance is the straightforward, almost clinical way in which it explains why things happen as they do. The book walks readers through structural reasons for market bubbles, then ventures into "softer" analyses which professional economists less confident than Shiller would be scared to touch. It examines cultural factors behind market bubbles, such as hype-mongering news media, and psychological factors, such as herd behavior.

Another improvement in this latest edition of Shiller's book is his inclusion of more personal commentary, and he mentions the influence that his wife, herself a clinical psychologist, has had on his intellectual development and his view of psychological impacts on economic behavior. Other personal insights from Shiller center on experiences he had while touring and lecturing around the first book, and some of the most interesting passages are those in which he describes common questions or feedback from his audience, and what he thought in reaction--but didn't voice while on his tour.

In the end, Shiller closes his book with an intriguing set of policy proposals. He argues for a revamping of the U.S. social security system, a new system of house-price insurance for homeowners, and risk reduction through portfolio diversification. Fans of the brainy academic will note with approval that Shiller practices what he preaches: he has begun trying to implement some of his ideas in the real world through two private consulting firms he has founded, Macro Securities Research and Macro Financial. The hope is if Shiller's as correct with this second book as he was with his first, readers will all learn something from these new companies. --Peter Han

Book Description

In this timely and prescient update of his celebrated 2000 bestseller Irrational Exuberance, Robert J. Shiller returns to the topic that gained him international fame: market volatility. Shiller breaks new ground in this second edition by laying out in even clearer and starker terms the market excesses that continue to destabilize the economy and disrupt our lives.

Having predicted the stock market collapse that began just one month after the first edition was published, he now expands the book to cover other markets that have become volatile, particularly the recently red-hot housing market. He includes a full chapter on domestic and international housing prices in historical perspective.

Shiller amasses impressive evidence to support his argument that the recent housing market boom bears many similarities to the stock market bubble of the late 1990s, and may eventually be followed by declining home prices for years to come. After stocks plummeted when the bubble burst in 2000, investors moved their money into housing. This precipitated the inflated real estate prices not only in America, but around the world, Shiller maintains. Hence, irrational exuberance did not disappear-it merely reappeared in other settings.

Building on the original edition, Shiller draws out the psychological origins of volatility in financial markets, this time folding real estate into his analysis. He broadens the evidence that investing in capital markets of all kinds in the modern free-market economy is inherently unstable-subject to the profoundly human influences captured in Alan Greenspan's now-famous phrase, "irrational exuberance."

The ultimate solution to this troubling condition, he maintains, would involve better-designed public institutions such as a revamped social security system, new forms of insurance to protect people's incomes and homes, and a broader array of investment options. As was true of its predecessor, the second edition of Irrational Exuberance is destined to be widely read, discussed, and debated.

Download Description

In this bold and potentially urgent volume, Robert J. Shiller, a respected expert on market volatility, offers an unconventional interpretation of recent U.S. stock market highs and shows that Alan Greenspan's term "irrational exuberance" is a good description of the mood behind the market. He warns that poorer performance may be in the offing and tells us how we--as a country and individually--can respond.

Shiller credits an unprecedented confluence of events with driving stocks to uncharted heights. He analyzes the structural and psychological factors that explain why the Dow Jones Industrial Average tripled between 1994 and 1999, a level of growth not reflected in any other sector of the economy. In contrast to many analysts, Shiller stresses circumstances that alter investors' perceptions of the market.

Customer Reviews:

Invested more than ten dollars?.......2007-07-19

If you have Invested more than ten dollars in the share market or real estate than you should read this book.

bring a lunch..........2007-03-27

This book has good info in it but man, does it get long. I read lots of analytical info with interest, but this book was very very slow for me, especially in the middle and later chapters.

The good news is that the first couple of chapters make it worthwhile. It does present some very important and valid concepts. The easily-bored reader could read the first few chapters and the last chapter, learn a lot of good info, and not miss much in the long middle chapters.

JD

Want to be smarter?.......2007-03-25

read the book.

It will open your eyes to the 'truths' of wall street.

Excellent Book! A must read!.......2007-01-03

This is an excellent book! It may seem dry at times with alot of statistics, but overall it provides a good insights into the field of behavioral finance.

Rational Analysis.......2006-10-10

I read the second edition of this book since it is enlarged with the study of the housing market. The phenomenon of bubbles and negative bubbles or collapses is described extremely well by means of statistical data of markets for over a century and a half. The raw data is adjusted to inflation to give a realistic perspective of the trends and patterns. Bubbles seem to be occurring at regular intervals typically based on the "new era" story and everyone believes at least during the heady days that good times are here to stay. But as shown by proven evidence of the past, no bubble has sustained itself permanently and good reason prevails sooner or later. When this happens, the bloated bubble collapses and the hangover is terrible. The story so far is quite simple. But what makes this book so interesting is the depth of research and the manner in which the phenomenon is studied and explained.

The combination of mass psychology and market prices is at the core of this book. For bubbles to happen, information flow is the key. Media plays a significant role in disseminating information and bubbles seem to have originated in recorded history after the advent of the print media. In recent times electronic media particularly the television and the internet play a significant role in speeding up bubble formation and also the reversals. Media needs a storyline and this story needs to be continued to retain customers on a daily basis. Stock market is the ideal place that offers an opportunity to try one's luck if a casino is far away. Backed by on-line dedicated news channels and internet trading, well, it is not surprising that we have day traders in herds. In such situations fundamentals like industry analysis and P/E ratios take a backseat as explained by the author. Historical averages are breached and a euphoria of "once in a life time opportunity" prevails. What happens to the Efficient Markets Theory in such situations?. Since this theory says that markets are perfectly priced based on all publicly available information there cannot be a situation of either under pricing or over pricing. This book perfectly challenges the efficiency and accuracy of this theory.

It is unfortunate that substantial amounts of investments meant to be otherwise risk free sources of income, pension funds for example, are getting diverted into risky markets. Here the author has come out with a list of some sound proposals to protect hard earned life long savings of innocent citizens who are exposed to the irrationality of markets.

The bubble in the housing market is also discussed well. Housing seems to be isolated bubbles occurring in specific regions and not a global phenomenon. But nevertheless the damage can be the same. The party of low interest rate regime seems to be over and a spike in mortgage rates is sure to be the needle that will prick right through this big speculative bubble.

What goes up has to come down ! But once you start reading this book, it is difficult to put it down. Intellectually stimulating and bound to be economically rewarding.

Technical Analysis from A to Z, 2nd Edition

Average customer rating:

Technical tool encyclopedia
Good perspective on technical analysis.
Not only Technical Analysis...
Good Reference, but weak on advice.
Dictionary with concise commentary and examples

Technical Analysis from A to Z, 2nd Edition
Steven B. Achelis
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0071363483

Book Description

Millions of traders participating in today’s financial markets have shot interest and involvement in technical analysis to an all-time high. This updated edition of Technical Analysis from A to Z combines a detailed explanation of what technical analysis is and how it works with overviews, interpretations, calculations, and examples of over 135 technical indicators—and how they perform under actual market conditions. Enhanced with more details to make it easier to use and understand, this book reflects the latest research findings and advances. A complete summary of major indicators that can be used in any market, it covers:
• Every trading tool from the Absolute Breadth Index to the Zig Zag
• Indicators include Arms Index, Dow Theory, and Elliott Wave Theory
• Over 35 new indicators

Customer Reviews:

Technical tool encyclopedia.......2007-06-10

If you are looking for a technical tool reference book for your investing/trading library this is the one. This book covers (in alphabetical order) every trading tool I am aware of including the O' Neal CAN SLIM method, trend lines, volume, stochastics, Williams %R, every kind of moving average, candlestick charting, decline/advance, oscillators and just about everything else you will run across in trading stocks. The author gives an overview of the indicator, the interpretation, an example, then shows how to calculate it with the mathematical formulas used and a table for reference. I read this book from cover to cover and learned a great deal. I believe it is a must have for beginners if you are serious about using technical tools to time your trades correctly at proper buy points.

Good perspective on technical analysis........2007-05-25

Steven Achelis does a pretty decent job of showing what the stock market really is: just a big jumble of numbers completely determined by human emotion. And because pretty much anything involving human emotion is cyclical, it also becomes somewhat predictable.

This book presents an excellent selection of technical indicators that do a number of different things. It also presents formulas for most of the indicators.

Not only Technical Analysis..........2007-04-30

... but also a well written understanding of the mathematical models that make them work. If you trade with indicators, you need this book along with "Pring".

Good Reference, but weak on advice........2007-02-01

As the title says, this covers technical analysis (the analysis of securities based on price patterns) from A to Z, that is to say all the various approaches are covered alphabetically. Everything is covered but not in extensive detail. Each approach is covered in terms of an overview of the approach, an interpretation of the approach, and an example (generally with suitable graphs). No attempt is made to inject the author's preferences or any statistical analysis of the effectiveness of the approach. As such, this is more of a dictionary than a book on investment advice. This is not to say that dictionaries are useless, they are very useful, but they are not the same as a book on how to write. This book will tell you what the particular system is, not whether it is any good. Also, there are many variations of most of the systems and many different values for the parameters used by the systems, so other references will be required if you actually want to apply any of these approaches. The reader should be forewarned, however, that Technical Analysis is only one approach to the market. Many believe that this approach is little more than tealeaf reading and they rely on the analysis of the fundamentals of the balance sheet of the company and its prospects for future growth.

Dictionary with concise commentary and examples.......2006-12-17

Extremely pleased with the purchase and reading experience. The book covers everything I know about and much more that I didn't. I was able to make oscillators, from the explanations given, on excel and was able to make the charts. The Chande Momentum Oscillator is an added, and needed, tool for my analysis for investment. I bought this book because it was the one called out in the Yahoo charts trying to explain the Stoch Oscillator; which, I wanted to understand, and now do.

Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach, Sixth Edition

Average customer rating:

Great Book
terrible economics book
Fantastic Textbook
Good Ec Book
Very confusing

Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach, Sixth Edition
Hal R. Varian
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0393978303

Book Description

Unrivaled in its unique combination of analytical rigor and accessibility, Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach has garnered one of the broadest adoption lists in the market. Now appearing in its Sixth Edition, Professor Varian's hallmark text is better than ever, featuring new treatments of game theory and competitive strategy, and a variety of new illustrative examples. Modern, authoritative, and above all crafted by an outstanding teacher and scholar, Intermediate Microeconomics, Sixth Edition will expand students' analytic powers and strengthen their understanding of microeconomics.

Customer Reviews:

Great Book.......2007-08-26

Great book. Very useful. I have the textbook still in shrink wrap, and the workbook that goes along with it. I want to part with it. Sctops140 at aol dot com for details. I purchased it for a microeconomics class at Beloit College. The workbook helps understand the concepts explained in the textbook.

terrible economics book.......2007-02-23

As many others have noted it contains very few numerical examples. I didnt have the workbook so maybe that would have helped, but so far this book is completely useless. I wouldnt recommend this unless you really love the pure formulas an no examples. If its required i guess its better than nothing

Fantastic Textbook.......2007-01-10

We used this textbook in my intermediate micro class at Cornell University, and I have to say, it is quite possibly the best textbook I've had. I'm more of a math person myself, and this book did a wonderful job of fleshing out the concepts with mathematical examples. Definitely recommended!

Good Ec Book.......2006-12-13

This is the standard intro-level economics textbook at Harvard, and it is well written. Covers all expected topics to good depth, with excellent examples. A reasonably suitable book for reading, and a simply useful textbook. Recommended.

Very confusing.......2006-12-04

I have use this book for my undergraduate class. It is too confusing to understand anything I read.

A Survival Guide to the Stress of Organizational Change

Average customer rating:

Concise
Pragmatic Reality
Senior managers will love it, but employees will hate it

A Survival Guide to the Stress of Organizational Change
Price Pritchett , and Ron Pound
Manufacturer: Pritchett Publishing Company
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Binding: Paperback

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Firing Up Commitment During Organizational Change: A Handbook for Managers
The Employee Handbook for Organizational Change
Team Reconstruction: Building a High Performance Work Group During Change
Culture Shift: The Employee Handbook for Changing Corporate Culture
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ASIN: 0944002161

Book Description

Shows employees how they can avoid 15 basic mistakes that create major stress in the workplace. By all accounts, the pace of business will continue to accelerate in the years to come, and for many that means more stress-stress which will almost certainly affect job performance and satisfaction. This easy-to-read handbook explains the sources of stress and provides practical, usable tips for reducing it.

Customer Reviews:

Concise.......2003-03-18

I've been on both sides of reorganizations, and this book does HELP. It was especially very good advice when I was younger and just beginning to experience the change that all organizations must go through. I held on to my copy and still look at it now and then to remind myself that I shouldn't fight change, but take it as it comes and make the most of it.

Pragmatic Reality.......2003-01-31

I am an employee who appreciates reality. This book espouses the importance of personal accountability...for how we work, how we live, how we feel.

The challenge is in doing something right that does not come naturally; proactive rather than reactive. This book made me feel good about how much control I actually do have.

Following the axioms presented will help you step over some tripwires in the minefield of a work-a-day world in the throes of change.

Senior managers will love it, but employees will hate it.......2001-03-25

The tone and messages of the book are such that they will serve to demotivate, rather than inspire, employees. For example:

Message #1: You (the reader) are not senior management. Throughout the book, senior management is described as "the people at the top" and "they." The book immediately sets up a distinction between these two groups - top management, which is moving the company along in response to outside changes, and employees, who are resisting change at every turn.

Message #2: Change is scary, unrelenting, and you (the average person) are naturally not going to like it. And if you weren't scared about change going into the book, you will be after you read it. One of the opening paragraphs reads: "And if today's stress and tension aren't enough to create problems, all a person has to do is consider what the future holds. One close look at what's in store should be enough to worry anyone."

Message #3: You (the reader) are an idiot, and you will persistently resist change unless you wise up to the tips in this book. The book outlines 15 mistakes people usually make in dealing with change. It doesn't offer 15 good ideas for preventing stress due to change, but instead focuses on 15 things you'll probably do wrong unless, of course, you read this book.

On the whole, this book is too simplistic and supplies only minimal rationale for why an employee should change. If you want to get employees to be more open to change, to put their heart into their job, to be more supportive of the company's overall direction, then give them a book that will inspire them. Give them tips for how to be a happier person, both on the job and at home. Talk to them in a positive tone and not a negative one, as this book does. There are many books out there that can accomplish these goals, just not this one.

The Coming Economic Collapse: How You Can Thrive When Oil Costs $200 a Barrel
Average customer rating:

Hits the Mark

Predictions so far spot on target . . . .

Great Book!

Peak oil from an investor view

Ok already, we know you have written The Oil Factor

The Coming Economic Collapse: How You Can Thrive When Oil Costs $200 a Barrel
Stephen Leeb , and Glen Strathy
Manufacturer: Business Plus
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy

The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century

The Oil Factor: Protect Yourself and Profit from the Coming Energy Crisis

A Thousand Barrels a Second: The Coming Oil Break Point and the Challenges Facing an Energy Dependent World

PowerDown: Options And Actions For A Post-Carbon World

ASIN: 0446579785

Book Description

Stephen Leeb shows how hard times can be a boon for smart investors. As the world faces an energy crisis of unprecedented scope, renowed economist Stephen Leeb shows how surging oil prices will contribute to an economic collapse. With meticulous research and analysis, Leeb shows that due to strong competition from India and China, prices could soon double, a cost for which most countries and investors are ill-prepared. Now, in this groundbreaking book, Leeb not only shows how this crisis will affect consumers, but how savvy investing can turn these dire times into financial gain.

Customer Reviews:

Hits the Mark.......2007-10-04

I found Leeb's book to be well reasoned and devoid of the hysteria so common to books forecasting problems for the dollar and the US economy. The worst thing about this book is the title because the 'economic collapse' phrase may cause many to think it's written by a crank. That is certainly not true.

Leeb ties in the rising price of oil with America's debt problems and shows what options remain for the Federal Reserve and the government. It's not that complicated. They have to inflate because a deep recession would crush an economy so burdened with public and private debt. We already saw this after the 2001 stock crash. They cut rates to near zero and doubled the national debt in 7 years rather than suffer a cleansing recession. The feds know how bad it could get. America can't afford to risk a recession due to all the debt and leverage in every part of the system.

In 2007, the situation has become much worse because now we have an imploding housing market and a falling dollar. Interestingly, Leeb stated in the book that he didn't think housing would crash. He figured the feds would inflate at all costs to prevent it from happening because a housing collapse is far worse than a stock market crash. He may yet be right, but home prices are surely falling right now. So, what will the government do - double the national debt again?

Look at it this way. If the economy continues to grow then demand for oil will grow and we'll hit supply constraints and higher prices much faster. That means inflation. If the economy slows due to housing or oil or slowing consumption, then the feds will have to inflate to prevent a deflation. No matter how you look at the problem, it seems the news will be bad for the dollar. Faced with the facts and inflationary scenarios Leeb presents, I think a reasonable person would want to own some gold.

Leeb's portfolio suggestions are a bit extreme for me and I'd balance them a bit. However, he's been right so far. This is a very good book in all respects.

Predictions so far spot on target . . . . .......2007-10-01

I've read and re-read this book over the last year and have to say that Leeb's predictions have been very, very good. In fact, much, much better than my advisors and their research departments in the financial services industry. Oil service stocks such as Schlumberger, National Oilwells Varco and Transocean have been fantastic performers over the last three years and continue to rise despite a mediocre market. Resource companies such as Freeport Mcmorran, Teck Cominco and CVRD continue to rise. Russia & Venezuala are nationalizing their oil industries. Iran's nuclear ambitions are partly because they are running out of energy to feed their growing population. Gold is now over $750 an ounce! The US dollar continues a steady decline against other world currencies. The US Federal Reserve has lowered rates by 1/2 a percent because they know how vulnerable and debt laden US households are with the housing decline. In other words, inflation is the only solution to the fix the US is in. The war on Iraq and the War on Terror has sucked up precious resources and requires the govt. to print more money. The Fed is in a real bind right now and they are following the course predicted by Leeb. If the Fed had raised rates or kept them the same, then I would say Leeb might have been wrong. Large cap Chindian stocks such as Procter & Gamble are doing well as are infrastructure plays such as Chicago Bridge & Iron (mentioned by Leeb) and Foster Wheeler. Oil is now over $81 a barrel and rising. US Small Cap stocks are not doing well - my US small cap fund has preformed dismally. At the same time, financial advisors continue to be in denial of the new reality. Hats off to Mr. Leeb: I'm making money thanks to his thoughtful advice. As a Canadian seeing our dollar now at par with the $US for the first time since 1976, the price of our grain rising 40% in one year (partly due to ethanol production) and the crazy rush of resources into our tar sands, I can tell you that Mr. Leeb has hit the target with his book and predictions.

Great Book!.......2007-09-21

The information listed is in line with everything else I've read. Great presentation and full of facts. I enjoyed reading it.

Peak oil from an investor view.......2007-09-03

Author Stephen Leeb recounts the anarchy, chaos and immense suffering that followed in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita and suggests this may be in our future in a broader way if and when the oil flow that largely supports our wealth creation is abruptly decreased. The "new world" that could emerge might be one of greatly reduced complexity. Systems like clean water/sewers, computing power, organized transporation and large-scale production, medicine and chemical-supported/mechanized farming could diminish into a more localized, much less resource-intensive - and even Amish-like subsistance.

In any issue like "peak oil," a multi-faceted view is needed to grasp the deep truths. This book reveals some of the same scenarios layed out by other authors concerning the forecased economic disaster looming ahead - but brings some additional perspectives from the world of investments. One can tell reading several of the sections that the suthor indeed is an investment professional and not an environmental sustainability guru. Where other books on peak oil (Hubbart's Peak, 1000 Barrels a Second) are loaded full of technical graphs, Leeb's account here is loaded with investment advice on how to prosper if/when such a downfall insues (his advice bsaed on the 70's oil crisis: buy gold, real estate, oil company stock and China/India investments).

Of surprize to many readers will be almost no mention whatsoever of ecological issues related to oil like climate change or other eco impacts. In fact, where the author finally gets around to mentioning global warming, much to his credit he brings out a potent reality rarely mentioned in the peak oil discussion: petro-chemicals and their essential products will also potentially plummet severely. These are the plastics, resins, asphalt, polymers, films, PVC pipes and other essential products we take for granted.

In the end, Mr. Leeb seems somewhat hopeful (unlike others) that technology - if applied quickly and with an Appolo-like lazar focus - might save the day. He is bullish on wind power, a renewable that is closest to competing now with fossil fuel power. But, many others state the case for a more sustainable world based on new, totally reimagined ways of doing things much better than the author here.

In short, if you are concerned with how your portfolio should change if oil starts climbing over $100/barrel, this is a decent book to inform. Otherwise, for a broader view on impacts of peak oil and the other critical issues facing civilization, Lester Brown's "Plan B - Rescuing a Planet under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble" is a compelling choice.

Ok already, we know you have written The Oil Factor .......2007-08-31

It is an interesting and well written book. My only gripe was that it seemed that every other sentence mentions, "...in my other book, The Oil Factor...." This just got plain annoying.

Investors and Markets: Portfolio Choices, Asset Prices, and Investment Advice (Princeton Lectures in Finance)

Average customer rating:

good new book for good price
Important read for professional investors
"Normative Issues in a Positive Context"

Investors and Markets: Portfolio Choices, Asset Prices, and Investment Advice (Princeton Lectures in Finance)
William F. Sharpe
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0691128421

Book Description

In Investors and Markets, Nobel Prize-winning financial economist William Sharpe shows that investment professionals cannot make good portfolio choices unless they understand the determinants of asset prices. But until now asset-price analysis has largely been inaccessible to everyone except PhDs in financial economics. In this book, Sharpe changes that by setting out his state-of-the-art approach to asset pricing in a nonmathematical form that will be comprehensible to a broad range of investment professionals, including investment advisors, money managers, and financial analysts. Bridging the gap between the best financial theory and investment practice, Investors and Markets will help investment professionals make better portfolio choices by being smarter about asset prices.

Based on Sharpe's Princeton Lectures in Finance, Investors and Markets presents a method of analyzing asset prices that accounts for the real behavior of investors. Sharpe makes this technique accessible through a new, one-of-a-kind computer program (available for free on his Web site, at http://www.stanford.edu/~wfsharpe/apsim/index.html) that enables users to create virtual markets, setting the starting conditions and then allowing trading until equilibrium is reached and trading stops. Program users can then analyze the final portfolios and asset prices, see expected returns, and measure risk.

In addition to popularizing the most sophisticated form of asset-price analysis, Investors and Markets summarizes much of Sharpe's most important previous work and reflects a lifetime of thinking about investing by one of the leading minds in financial economics. Any serious investment professional will benefit from Sharpe's unique insights.

Customer Reviews:

good new book for good price.......2007-09-06

good new book for good price. of all the books on the subject, this is by far the easiest to read.

Important read for professional investors.......2007-08-23

An important, relatively recent book by William Sharpe, a Nobel Prize winning economist and Stanford business prof. Not for the rank-and-file investor; but much useful information for pros and teachers of finance. Last chapter contains a summary of very useful advice suitable for anyone who invests in stocks.

"Normative Issues in a Positive Context".......2006-12-05

William Sharpe, who really needs no introduction, has made major contributions to some of the most influential discoveries in financial economics. From his parsimonious diagonal model which simplified the use of Markowitz' normative (prescribing how investors should behave) mean/variance approach to portfolio choice to the positive (describing how investors actually behave) Capital Asset Pricing Model, Professor Sharpe clearly approaches -- even from his earliest investigations - financial economics from a pragmatic perspective. Of course that work contributed to his selection in 1990 as a co-recipient (along with Harry Markowitz and Merton Miller) of The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

In addition to his academic pursuits, Professor Sharpe has also been commercially successful, as a RAND economist, and as President, Chairman and/or Director of several enterprises related to investments. Of course, practitioners may know him best for his famous "reward-to-variability" ratio which we all know as the Sharpe ratio. Professor Sharpe has also made important fundamental contributions to options valuation, asset allocation implementation, and returns-based style analysis.

His pioneering books are standard text assignments for both undergraduate and graduate students of finance; these include Portfolio Theory and Capital Markets (McGraw-Hill, 1970 and 2000), Asset Allocation Tools (Scientific Press, 1987), Fundamentals of Investments (with Gordon J. Alexander and Jeffrey Bailey, Prentice-Hall, 2000), Investments (with Gordon J. Alexander and Jeffrey Bailey, Prentice-Hall, 1999). Now we are fortunate as an industry to have Professor Sharpe's latest book, Investors and Markets: Portfolio Choices, Asset Prices and Investment Advice (Princeton University Press, 2007), available.

Investors and Markets is the culmination of a series of three lectures Professor Sharpe gave at Princeton University in May, 2004. The lectures, titled "Asset Prices and Portfolio Choice" are designed to help individual investors make good saving and investment decisions, and Professor Sharpe is the first author I have seen to treat both asset pricing and portfolio choice as a single subject in an attempt to do so. The book is also a nice departure from the well-worn mean/variance framework (which places restrictions on beliefs), relying instead on the state/preference approach (which places restrictions instead on tastes) originally developed by Kenneth Arrow and Gerard Debreu. Although it relies on a discrete-time formulation, one advantage of the state/space framework is that it accommodates both consumption preferences and production outputs. Because there are (literally) an infinite number of future states of the world, closed-form derivations are nearly impossible and simulation is required in this context if we are to achieve equilibrium. To do so, Professor Sharpe built a simulation program called APSIM (Asset Pricing and Portfolio Choice Simulator), which was not available a couple of years ago when the lectures happened but since then he has made freely available on his website, [...].

Professor Sharpe's original Princeton Lectures are organized into 1) Equilibrium, in a single-period setting with homogeneity of investor expectations, 2) Diversity, in a setting where investors have heterogeneous expectations, and 3) Protection, a world in which investors have access to spanning instruments such as principal-protected notes. This is also largely the sequence of the book, which is organized into discussions of equilibrium, preferences and prices in chapters 1-4, which basically comprise Lecture 1; positions (reflecting preferences), and predictions (reflecting disagreement among investors) in chapters five and six, material primarily from Lecture 2, and protection and advice in chapters seven and eight, which is composed mainly of material from Lectures 2 and 3. The book concludes with four simple recommendations for personal investment: diversify as broadly as possible; economize on unnecessary costs; incorporate the circumstances and preferences of the individual client in the portfolio decision; and contextualize portfolio choice vis-à-vis asset pricing, keeping in mind the distinction between investing versus betting, desire for principal protection, and the potential trading impact of the investor when he or she eventually requires liquidity.

In Investors and Markets, Professor Sharpe is "primarily concerned with helping individual investors make good saving and investment decisions - usually with the assistance of professionals such as financial planners, mutual fund managers, advisory services, and personal asset managers." Although this book may prove tough going for the layperson, all professionals in the asset management industry would do well by their clients to buy, read and re-read it ... the clients will certainly benefit.

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