Customer Reviews

Comprehensive - By: Ian Ballantyne, 30 Sep 2008
I just read the book - cover to cover. It is very comprehensive & readable however I have a few gripes:

1. It reads like a book that has "evolved" & is somewhat "lumpy". Some bits are bang up-to-date - others are not; some bits are international some are very US domestic focussed; some bits are amazingly simple (does anyone not know what a direct debit is?) others are highly complex (efficient frontiers & linear programming).

2. The authors should acknowledge that not all CFOs are female & to use "she"in place of "he" whenever they refer to senior decision-makersin fictional companies is both unnecessary & patronising. Feminists will tell you, you've got this wrong - you could easily have used more neutral language (instead of he or she use "they" for example).

3. "Forecasted" is a very clumsy word (on almost every page) - doesn't everyone just say "forecast"?

4. Text refers to "blue lines" on the graphs which are always "black lines" - by the 9th edition you'd think you could have sorted that out!

More technically specific gripes:
1. I believe there are occasions when it makes sense to exercise American options early if you can't short the stock (eg US government has just banned short sellingin financial stocks).
2. p649 high yield spreads declined as investors "scurried to the safe haven of high-quality debt" - forgive me but I for one can't work that out!
3. p 788 IOSC is the wrong acronmy for IOSCO (typo?).
4. Swaps are poorly explained. They derived from the arbitrages between international bond markets - which explains how they are structured.
5. The book refers only to the interest calculation basis of actual/360 which is only usedin US. It is confusing to only mention this basis & not go on to refer to 30/360 (bond basis) or actual/365 as usedin most international markets. In fact, there is a whole section on cash amangement that needs to be reviewed,in my opinion, to make it international & fit with the rest of the book.

Overall, I think it is a good textbook & sound primer - but someone needs a re-edit to freshen it up. The good news is that the Credit Cruch provides that opportunity to take a fresh look at the whole thing & highlight liquidity issues!