Frontiers in Finance Series – serie

Headed by Bernstein, the quantitative equity and equity derivatives strategies group at Merrill Lynch is noted for their proprietary research on market segmentation and style investing. In this book, he highlights the macroeconomic, microeconomic and expectational factors that can affect equity market segment performance. The first section focuses on the definition and identification of market segments and reviews the major equity market segments that concern today's institutional investors. Part two analyzes the historical result of each segment of style strategy within the context of the economic and expectational framework. Lastly, it describes current issues and problems in equity markets and their implications for pension plan sponsors.

In the beginning, there were four financial instruments: a bank deposit, a bill of exchange, a bond, and an equity. Today, as a result of a steady stream of financial innovations, the market landscape is far less sparse-and far more complex. To help you maneuver smoothly and profitably within this crowded and much-evolved arena, Julian Walmsley's New Financial Instruments has been thoroughly revised and expanded to include complete coverage of all the new financial instruments available to market practitioners. New Financial Instruments, Second Edition offers a clear, practical perspective on the shifts and changes behind today's dizzying proliferation of market tools and techniques. Its in-depth examination of both international and domestic markets probes the nature, causes, and consequences of financial innovation, as well as the ins and outs, advantages and disadvantages of the myriad products engendered by change. New Financial Instruments, Second Edition is a comprehensive, comparative guide offering concise descriptions of convertibles, warrants, preferred stocks, and other instruments. In addition, Walmsley's clear-eyed analysis distills the latest variations in areas such as barrier options, asset-backed securities, credit derivatives, structured notes, and equity derivatives. There's important information on the origin and methodology of each innovative technique, as well as essential details on the risks, rewards, and key considerations that must be understood before deciding on one instrument over another. New Financial Instruments, Second Edition takes you step-by-step through a wide range of procedures, revealing how to:* Analyze risk level and return* Use interest rates and currency swaps in synthetic securities* Value exotic options, weighing the risks they entail against the leverage they provide The book also addresses such key topics as:* Basic analytical tools-present value calculations, zero-coupon curves, modern portfolio theory, value at risk, continuous compounding* Securitization-transferable loan instruments, Eurocommercial paper, and asset-backed securities* Swaps-interest rate, currency, diff, zero coupon, asset, and equity* Options-barrier, binary, cliquet, ladder, rainbow, shout* Mortgage-backed securities-market development, superfloaters and inverse superfloaters, PAC bonds, reverse PACs and lockouts, TAC bonds Supported by extensive illustrations and working examples, this indispensable resource is a must for anyone seeking to understand and apply the latest financial innovations. A comprehensive guide to today's new financial instruments-what they are, how they work, and how you can profit from them Written by an expert practitioner in the field, this up-to-date, systematic guide takes you through the ins and outs, advantages and disadvantages, risks and rewards of today's sophisticated new financial tools and techniques. Now revised and expanded, New Financial Instruments has complete coverage of bonds, equities, warrants, and other traditional vehicles, as well as a comprehensive overview of the latest developments in asset- and mortgage-backed securities, credit and equity derivatives, convertibles, and preferred stocks. "With the flood of innovations we have seen in international finance in recent years there was a great need for a succinct, comprehensive survey of the field. New Financial Instruments fills that need admirably."-Professor Brian Scott-Quinn, ISMA Centre, University of Reading, U.K. (www.ismacentre.rdg.ac.uk) "For the practitioner to keep up with innovations across a wide range of markets is always difficult. This book will be a great help to those who need to bring themselves up to date with a great variety of markets."-John Langton, Chief Executive, International Securities Market Association, Zurich

Provides a modern analytical framework for assessing a company's true value Written by a true value investor known for his ability to buy undervalued companies and re-sell them at a substantial profit, Value Investing provides an analytical framework that evaluates the impact of real events-including restructuring, regulations, mergers and acquisitions, and other important factors-on a company's value. Well-known for his success with distressed corporations and value investing, author Martin Whitman wages a controversial attack on the modern financial practice of focusing on price movements and short-term trading. In Value Investing, Whitman identifies fundamental factors affecting the value of companies and entire markets from the ground up and takes value investing one step further by demonstrating how industry movement and public policy decisions can lead to greater returns. He also highlights the shortcomings of all the popularly applied analytical techniques.

Until now, market timing as it applies to successful investment decision-making has been an elusive, at times vague instrument. This book provides a clear, relevant model for using the business cycle as a tool for timing investments. At last, here is a clear framework for assessing returns at different stages of the business cycle, and for determining the timing relevance as it relates to stocks, bonds, mutual funds, other specific investments and general asset allocation. A solid and dynamic approach.

This comprehensive new book explains and clarifies the essential building blocks underlying the pricing and risk analysis of fixed-income securities and derivatives - using mathematics lightly, to make things easier, not harder. The emphasis throughout is on how-to-do, on building operational knowledge from the ground up. There are more than 300 examples and exhibits based on current market data. You will find essential information on:* The global money market* Foreign exchange transaction and foreign exchange derivatives* Bonds and zero coupon bonds - including a risk management-driven discussion of duration and convexity* Interest rate swaps, currency swaps, and exchange-traded futures* Stochastic models and option pricing* Stochastic models of the yield curve

Internationally recognized experts in the field introduce their "business excellence paradigm". In this book, two leading pension fund experts lay out a comprehensive plan for effective fund management. With the help of domestic and global case studies they critically assess current approaches to pension fund management and isolate what works and what doesn't using their unique critically acclaimed "run-it-like-a-business" model. Keith P. Ambachtsheer (Toronto, Canada) is principle at KPA Advisory Service, Inc., a pension fund management consulting firm. He runs The Ambachtsheer Letter and cofounded Cost Effective Measurement, Inc., which monitors the performance of 300 of the world's largest asset funds. D. Don Ezra (Toronto, Canada) is Director of European Consulting at Frank Russell Co. His previous books include The Struggle for Pension Fund Wealth.

Presenting the most advanced thinking on the topic, this book covers the latest valuation models and techniques. It addresses essential topics such as the subtleties of fixed-income mathematics, new approaches to modeling term structures, and the applications of fixed-income valuation on credit risk, mortgages, munis, and indexed bonds.

The Equity Risk Premium-the difference between the rate of return on common stock and the return on government securities-has been widely recognized as the key to forecasting future returns on the stock market. Though relatively simple in theory, understanding and making practical use of the equity risk premium concept has been dauntingly complex-until now. In The Equity Risk Premium, financial advisor, author, and scholar Bradford Cornell makes accessible for the first time an authoritative explanation of the equity risk premium and how it works in the real world. Step-by-step, his lucid, nontechnical presentation leads the reader to a new and more enlightened basis for making asset allocation choices. Cornell begins his analysis by looking at the equity risk premium in the light of stock market history. He examines the use of historical data in estimating future stock market performance, including the historical relationship between stock returns and risk premium, the impact of survival bias, and the effect of long-horizon stock and bond returns. Using the stock market boom of the 1990s as a case study, Cornell demonstrates what equity risk premium analysis can tell us about whether stock prices are high or low, whether the stock market itself may have changed, and whether indeed a new economic paradigm of higher earnings and dividend growth is now in place. Cornell analyzes forward-looking estimates of the equity risk premium through the lens of various competing approaches and assesses the relative merits of each. Among those scrutinized are the Discounted Cash Flow model, the Kaplan-Rubeck study, the Welch survey, and the Fama-French Aggregate IRR analysis. His insights on risk aversion theory, on the types of risk that have been rewarded over time, and on changing investor demographics all supply the sophisticated investor with important pieces of the risk premium puzzle. In his invaluable summing up of the equity risk premium and the long-run outlook for common stocks, Cornell weighs the evidence and assays the impact of a lower equity risk premium in the future-and its profound implications for investments, corporate decision making, and retirement planning. The product of years of serious analysis and hard-won insights, The Equity Risk Premium is essential reading for institutional investors, money managers, corporate financial officers, and all others who require a higher level of market analysis. "The Equity Risk Premium plays a critical role in legal and regulatory matters related to corporate finance. Along with the cost of debt, it is the most important determinant of a company's cost of capital. As such, it is an integral part of the decision-making process in corporate finance. For instance, whether or not a major acquisition makes sense can depend on the assumed value of the equity risk premium. In addition, the equity risk premium is an issue that regulatory bodies consider when they set fair rates of return for regulated companies. Cornell's book is an important contribution because it includes both an historical analysis of the equity risk premium and provides tools for forecasting reasonable levels of the risk premium in the years ahead."-Theodore N. Miller, Partner, Sidley & Austin. "Estimating how well stocks will do in the future from how well they have done in the past is like driving a car while looking in the rearview mirror. Brad Cornell provides us with an important forward-looking view in this easily understood guide to the equity risk premium and confounds the popular view that stocks will do well in the future because they have done well in the past."-Michael Brennan, Past President of the American Finance Association and Professor of Finance at the University of California at Los Angeles.

RISK MANAGEMENT APPROACHES FOR FIXED INCOME MARKETS"Golub-Tilman will, I believe, become an absolutely essential reference text for fixed income portfolio managers, traders, issuers, and scholars. It is comprehensive and clearly written. While rigorous, it is easy to understand because of its many practical examples."—Richard Roll, The Allstate Chair in Finance and Insurance, The Anderson School at UCLA, Past President, American Finance Association"Outstanding and unique! A thorough discussion of the theoretical underpinning of risk management combined with keen insights from a practitioner's perspective. This text will rank among the most essential readings for both market professionals and academics."—Gregory J. Parseghian, Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer, Freddie Mac"The most systematic and comprehensive overview of fixed income risk management."—Philippe Jorion, Professor of Finance, University of California-Irvine, Author, Value at Risk: The New Benchmark for Controlling Derivatives Risk"An inside look at approaches to fixed income risk management developed at a leading investment firm. The rigorous presentation covers both theoretical and practical considerations as well as their applications to portfolio management. Very interesting and highly recommended."—Charles W. Grant, Managing Director of Fixed Income, Virginia Retirement System"Few, if any, financial studies have managed to reconcile practical market experience and scientific discipline within such an original approach and with such elegance! An absolute must for anyone in the world of fixed income."—Michele Donegani, Head of Asset Allocation and Manager Selection, European Investment Managers (EIM)

Dramatic changes in the foreign exchange and money markets have considerably altered the way international business will be conducted in the new millennium. The advent of the Euro, the enormous growth of the swaps market, and the daily increase in the development of derivative instruments are at the forefront of this evolution. If you're an investor, corporate finance officer, or anyone seeking to gain the essential edge in the world's major financial markets, resources for sound, accessible, and timely information are more important than ever. This updated, totally revised, and expanded edition of finance expert Julian Walmsley's popular classic is the one book you'll need. Practical and easy-to-understand, this unique reference provides guidance on every important market around the world, including closely related money markets such as the commercial paper and Eurocommercial paper markets, national money markets, interest rate options markets, and numerous related instruments. You will also find state-of-the-art sections on:* The Euro* Swaps-the instrument with the fastest growing market of all time* Money market calculations* Foreign exchange calculations* Derivatives* Risk issuesFrom currency option markets to the "third generation" hedging products that combine forwards and options, The Foreign Exchange and Money Markets Guide, Second Edition, unites volumes of information in one single source-and demystifies the seemingly complex concepts facing investors today. Julian Walmsley is Managing Director of Askeaton Associates Ltd. and a Visiting Research Fellow at the International Securities Market Association Centre for Securities Research at the University of Reading, England. Previously, he was Chief Investment Officer for Mitsubishi Finance International and also Senior Investment Officer for Oil Insurance in Bermuda. He spent many years working with Barclays Bank's foreign exchange operations and their interest rate and currency swaps group in London and New York, and was a director in charge of swaps at the London subsidiary of National Bank of North Carolina (NCNB). His other books include New Financial Instruments and The Foreign Exchange Handbook (both published by Wiley), and Global Investing: Eurobonds and Alternatives. Mr. Walmsley earned his MA in economics at Cambridge University.THE CLASSIC GUIDEBOOK COMPLETELY REVISED AND UPDATED FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUMWritten by a well-known financial author and respected authority on international investing, trading, and risk management, this updated, totally revised, and expanded second edition of The Foreign Exchange and Money Markets Guide provides essential, easy-to-understand coverage of the considerable developments that have drastically reshaped the way international business will be conducted in the new millennium. From state-of-the-art sections on the dawn of the Euro, the rapidly growing swaps market, and the daily increase in derivative instruments, to money market and foreign exchange calculations and risk issues, this invaluable classic includes the most timely, accessible, and dependable information on every important market around the world. Here is the quintessential resource for institutional investors, bankers, pension fund managers, or anyone seeking to gain that crucial edge in the world's major financial markets.

The single most important topic in finance today is the art and science of credit risk management. Growing dissatisfaction with traditional credit risk measurement methods has combined with regulations imposed by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in 1993 to send numerous financial institutions in search of alternative "internal model" approaches to measuring the credit risk of a loan or portfolio of loans. This has led to a raging debate over whether internal models can replace regulatory models, and which areas of credit risk measurement and management are most amenable to internal models. Much of this highly technical debate, however, has been inaccessible to the interested practitioner, student, economist, or regulator-until now. In Credit Risk Measurement: New Approaches to Value at Risk and Other Paradigms, Anthony Saunders invites a wider audience into the debate. Simplifying many of the technical details and analytics surrounding internal models, he concentrates on their underlying economics and economic intuition. Professor Saunders examines the approaches of these new models to the evaluation of individual borrower credit risk, portfolio credit risk, and derivative contracts. The alternative models explored include:* Loans as options and the KMV model* The VAR approach: J. P. Morgan's CreditMetrics and other models* The macro simulation approach: the McKinsey and other models* The risk-neutral valuation approach: KPMG's Loan Analysis System (LAS) and other models* The insurance approach: mortality models and CSFP credit risk plus model* Back testing and stress testing credit risk models* RAROC models With its comprehensive coverage, summary, and comparison of new internal model approaches along with clear explanations of often complex material, Credit Risk Measurement is an indispensable resource for bankers, academics and students, economists, and regulators.

Provides a modern analytical framework for assessing a company's true value Written by a true value investor known for his ability to buy undervalued companies and re-sell them at a substantial profit, Value Investing provides an analytical framework that evaluates the impact of real events-including restructuring, regulations, mergers and acquisitions, and other important factors-on a company's value. Well-known for his success with distressed corporations and value investing, author Martin Whitman wages a controversial attack on the modern financial practice of focusing on price movements and short-term trading. In Value Investing, Whitman identifies fundamental factors affecting the value of companies and entire markets from the ground up and takes value investing one step further by demonstrating how industry movement and public policy decisions can lead to greater returns. He also highlights the shortcomings of all the popularly applied analytical techniques.

Fully updated to cover changing investment techniques and marketsCompletely revised and updated, this new edition provides a solid introduction to investment techniques and up-to-date financial theory and has been expanded to include discussions of derivatives, bonds and fixed interest, equity investment, as well as private client accounts. Written by two highly regarded authors, Investment Management provides a thorough grounding in current investment techniques in a form uniquely suited to the perspective of the fund manager and analyst. Readers will find enlightening and practical coverage of such topics as behavioral finance, assessing investment systems, creative accounting and bankruptcy, neglected and new stocks, arbitrage pricing theory, forecasting the economy, business cycle, valuation, emerging markets, and passive investment management.Stephen Lofthouse's career spanned both the academic and commercial investment worlds. He is a former Director of James Capel stockbrokers, now part of HSBC group, and Executive Chairman of James Capel FundManagers Ltd and James Capel Unit Trust Management Ltd.

Dynamic methods for interest rate risk pricing and hedging. Fixed-Income Securities provides a survey of modern methods forpricing and hedging fixed-income securities in the presence ofinterest rate risk. Modern theory of finance provides a wealth ofnew approaches to the important question of interest rate riskmanagement, and this book brings them together, in a comprehensiveand thorough treatment of the subject. Structured in an accessible manner, the authors begin by focusingon pricing and hedging certain cash flows, before moving on toconsider pricing and hedging uncertain cash flows. In addition tothe theoretical explanation, the authors provide numerousreal-world examples and applications throughout. This is the first book I have seen to carefully cover such a wideset of topics in both theoretical and applied fixed-incomemodelling, ranging from the use of market information to obtainyield curves, to the pricing and hedging of bonds and fixed-incomederivatives, to the currently active topic of defaultableyield-curve modelling. It will be particularly useful topractitioners.Darrell Duffie, Stanford University This is the most comprehensive theoretical treatment of thesubject I ve ever seen. Mark Rubinstein, Haas School of Business,University of California An excellent review of interest rate models and of the pricing andhedging principles in the fixed-income area.Oldrich Alfons Vasicek,KMV Corporation

This edited volume offers thorough coverage of the business of investment banking, including much inside information based on the extensive professional experience of the contributors. Comprising 32 chapters, covering every facet of investment banking, from its historical origins in the U.S. to the current high-dollar activity in mergers and acquisitions. Contributors are noted businessmen and academics from the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Japan. Chapters fall into eight sections: investment banking today, raising capital, transactional activities, specialized financial instruments, tax-exempt financing, broker activities, commercial banks and investment banking, and investment banking outside the United States. Raising capital is traditionally what investment banking is all about, and the Handbook explains who does it and how it's done.

One of the newest and most controversial approaches to financial pricing. In Physics of Finance the author applies the methods of theoretical physics to financial economics to develop an altogether original method for pricing financial assets that steps outside the equilibrium paradigm in finance.In Physics of Finance, basic assumptions underlying equilibrium pricing are re-examined, the risk factors hidden in the implications of equilibrium theory and the potential profit in unstable markets are discussed and gauge modelling is introduced.

The concept of profiting from trading volatility is not new, but is known to only a few players in the derivatives industry. Buying and Selling Volatility is the first book to explain this trading strategy in detail without using complex mathematics. Offering a new approach to the subject of options, seen purely from a volatility viewpoint, the author uses illustrations to clearly explain the connection between volatility and options. He explains how investors can profit from the volatility, or lack of volatility, of an option price regardless of whether the market rises or falls. Useful to both novice investors and professional traders, Buying and Selling Volatility also supplies the reader with a risk management software system that is comparable to those used commercially.

"Over the past two decades, the mathematically complex models of finance theory have had a direct and wide-ranging influence on finance practice. Nowhere is this conjoining of intrinsic intellectual interest with extrinsic application better exemplified than in derivative-security pricing. The backgrounds of the authors of Options, Futures and Exotic Derivatives fit perfectly this pattern of combining theory and practice and so does their book. The range and depth of subject matter show excellent taste for what is essential to know the field and what is relevant and important to its application in the financial world. In addition to its fine subject-defining, the book delivers on subject-content, with rigorous derivations presented in a clear, direct voice for the serious student, whether academic or practitioner. To the reader: Bon Appetit!" Robert C. Merton, Harvard Business School Long-Term Capital Management, L.P. "One of the merits of this book is that it is self-contained. It is both a textbook and a reference book. It covers the basics of the theory, as well as the techniques for valuation of many of the more exotic derivatives. It contains a detailed knowledge of the field. What is more, however, it is written with a deep understanding of the economics of finance." From the Foreword by Oldrich Alfons Vasicek "The authors have done an admirable job at distilling what is relevant in option research in one single volume. I wish I'd had the chance to read it before writing my own book." Nassim Taleb, veteran option arbitrageur and bestselling author of Dynamic Hedging: Managing Vanilla and Exotic Options "This is a delightful promenade in derivatives land. The book is encyclopaedic yet crisp and inspired. It is the story - told in equations - of the charms and spells of options and their underlying mathematics." Jamil Baz, Head of Financial Strategies, Lehman Brothers Europe Building steadily from the basic mathematical tools to the very latest techniques in exotic options, Options, Futures and Exotic Derivatives covers all aspects of the most innovative and rapidly developing area of international financial markets - the world of over-the-counter and tailor-made derivative asset pricing. Written by a globally renowned team of authors this book offers comprehensive coverage of exotic derivative assets and* Deals with numerous new forms of exotic options and option pricing* Provides detailed explanations of different models and numerical methods* Offers a deep understanding of the economics of financeWith questions and review sections throughout, Options, Futures and Exotic Derivatives provides a thorough introduction to a crucial and expanding area in the world of finance for both finance students and practitioners.

Finance/Investment Beyond Value at Risk The New Science of Risk Management A Comprehensive Guide to Value at Risk and Risk Management Risk management and measurement are now, without doubt, the hottest topics in the finance world. Today, quantifying risk management is not only a management tool - but is also used by regulators for banks and finance houses. Beyond Value at Risk provides a comprehensive guide to recent developments and existing approaches to VaR and risk management, going beyond traditional approaches to the subject and offering a new, far-reaching perspective on investment, hedging and portfolio decision-making. The key to this distinctive approach is a new decision rule - the 'Generalised Sharpe Rule', and its practical applications. Beyond Value at Risk provides the answers to key questions, including:* How to implement VaR and related systems in the real world* How to make vital investment decisions and estimate their effect* How to make hedging decisions* How to manage a portfolioIt offers financial professionals, academics and students comprehensive coverage of VaR both in theory and practice.