by Michael Durbin
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Product Description
The answer to trading profit growth lies in derivatives. All About Derivatives explains the major derivatives and their key features of each; vital mechanical issues such as storage, settle- ment, valuation, and payoff; and common types of risk and how to effectively hedge against them. Michael Durbin is known as a derivatives trader and manager for one of the world’s largest, most high-profile hedge funds.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 All About Derivatives, 2008-12-14
With respect to the content, I would rate this book as one of the best books on derivatives. However, throughout this book, I found so many typos and logical inconsistences that made me wonder whether the original reviewer of the book properly did proof-reading at all, despite the rather superior presentations on derivatives by the author.
Some serious problems are found on the last paragaph of page 77:
Example 1: ".. at a time when the U.S. dollar was much stronger against the Euro than it is today. Back then (meaning 'at that time when dollar was stronger) you could buy fewer Euros per dollar than you can today"
--> should have been 'more' not 'fewer'
Example 2: (regarding using terms "long" and "short" on the same page) it would have been much better if he had indicated the relevant underlier. First time, apparently he was talking about dollar being such an underlier, then he shifted to Euro being an underlier in another example--which made it extremely difficult to follow his logic
Example 3: (irrelavant example) when saying ".. property decline in Euro term" in the nineth sentence from the bottom on the same page, he must have meant either (a) the value of the property in Euro terms deceased or (b) Euro got stronger in the context of the Euro-USD. If he meant (a), then the example is not crucially important--which causes unnecessary confusion for the reader (I would recommend that he use parentheses); if he meant (b), then the example is logically contradictory--which I am sure another reader can easily verify for himself by reading the same page two or three times
I found this kind of problems prevalent throughout his book. One thing good about it is that I became very alert during the reading so as to analyze his reasonings more thoroughly, though ... but only after spending so much time and having so much frustration.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 The Book is OK, But Not That Great., 2008-09-04
I picked up this book for two reasons. I wanted to learn what derivatives are, and I wanted to learn about the math around them. At first glance, in the bookstore, it looked like this book would meet my needs. Now, I have to say that this the first book I ever read about derivatives and have nothing to compare it to.
The first few chapters do a good job explaining what derivatives are and how they are used, thought I found the chapter on swaps somewhat confusing despite reading that chapter twice. However, I found the conversational nature of his writing, and the frequent drift into sidebar discussions, quite distracting. The chapters on pricing derivatives were a worse.
In the pricing chapters I found the basic explanations ok, but there are a number of errors and typos that make those chapters confusing. The author also changes terminology occasionally and that is a little confusing. At one point I emailed the author asking about things I found confusing the response I got was to go and look at the errata list on his web site. I found I had to read the section on the Black-Scholes model backwards because the second half of that section gave me what I needed to understand the first half.
I found the explanation of the math most frustrating. The equations use symbols to mean something different than I would expect based on how those symbols are used in math and science texts. For example, he uses Greek delta to mean "amount of" instead of "change in." Now, perhaps this is the standard usage in the financial field, but that isn't explained very well. In many cases the author does not explain what the terms in the equations are, where their values come from, or what they are measuring. This would go a long way in helping the reader to understand the math better.
In summary, like my headline says, the book is ok, but not that great. Perhaps other books on the subject are very bad, but I would advise reviewing other texts for a bit before buying this one.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 All About Derivatives - Book and Delivery Review, 2008-07-10
The book was received in the exact condition as described and was delivered expeditiously. I am very satisfied with the book and the timely delivery.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Very good beginner book to derivatives, 2007-08-23
I would definitely recommend this book for a reader who is looking for some ground work to be laid within the world of derivatives. Durbin gives a simple introduction into the many different types of derivatives; however he will delve into the math behind some derivatives; if the reader is not interested he will let you know which mathematics heavy sections you can skip. I would read another book written by Michael Durbin.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Wow!, 2007-07-17
I am a newbie in the world of financial mathematics and needed to learn the concepts related to derivatives. I was told to read Hull's book, but I ended stuck in some of the early chapters because of the definitions apparently aimed at someone who already has had a background course in Finance.
Using online resources didnt help that much, and I was getting rather desparate. Then I landed on this one and all my worries are disolving away as I read this extremely helpful book.
OK there are passages where the author feels we might be terrified of mathematical formalism, but I wont hold it against him.
I am no longer stuck in a Hull.
This book is a joy.
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