Paul Wilmott Introduces Quantitative Finance
By Paul Wilmott
* Publisher: Wiley
* Number Of Pages: 544
* Publication Date: 2001-06-01
* ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0471498629
* ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780471498629
* Binding: Paperback
Product Description:
In this updated student edition, Paul Wilmott updates and extends his earlier classic, Derivatives: The Theory and Practice of Financial Engineering. Included on CD are numerous Bloomberg screen dumps to illustrate, in real terms, the points raised in the book, along with essential Visual basic code, spreadsheet explanations of the models, and the reproduction of term sheets and option classification tables. The author presents all the current financial theories in a manner designed to make them easy to understand and implement.
Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.
Summary: Paul Willmot Introduces Quantitative Finance
Rating: 5
It's great!!! I'm so happy, the book is so easy to read and understand it, I think it is the best book of derivates, it's better than Hull, it's highly recommendly if you are studying finance
Summary: Amazing book for breaking into Quantitative Finance
Rating: 5
Even with a solid corporate finance background, it is difficult to break into quantitative finance. This book is an excellent bridge. Paul Wilmott in a gifted writer, who can make complex concepts easy to understand. I was also very impressed by the fact that Paul includes his personal email address in the book. When I had a problem with the CD, which is included with the book, I wrote to Paul. He promptly replied and directed the publisher to send me a new CD.
Summary: An accessable introduction to a vast field of inquiry
Rating: 4
An "Introduction" to anything is going to alienate half the readers. Why? Well, of necessity it is going to compress large topics, simply summarize complex topics, and leave whole swaths of material untouched. Most complaint reviews here fall roughly in to one or more of those buckets.
Let' face some facts: finance is a huge field of inquiry; mathematics is a huge field of inquiry; practical execution is a huge topic in itself (see the offerings of excellent books on Excel (Walkenbach, Benninga) and C++ (Joshi) and VBA (pick one)). An introduction of the intersections of these topics is no small area of inquiry. I stress using AMAZON's "look inside" feature for a table of contents rather than repeat the litany of topics, but major issues like risk, random, returns, and standard methods are all covered in a fine first approximation.
So how well does Paul Wilmott do? The answer is not bad. This is a great first book to use with folks crossing over to quantitative finance from other areas (Theology in my case), or for folks who will work and talk with quants but not be one themselves. It will probably appear frustratingly simple to math or engineering majors, but this is an *introduction* and believe me, the heavy lifting comes latter.
As a teaching text, the lack of exercises is a frustrating, but the CDROM has lots of fun spreadsheets with simple built in macros that make practical lecturing a breeze.
Wilmott's style is light, and he does make some logical leaps that can look sloppy but are transparently obvious to folks like him (trained in math), but it is often difficult to know what others don't know and explain without over explaining. Any author has to pick where to compress explanations and no one is going to be completely pleased with all of where Wilmott squeezes. Still, with a minimum bit of extra effort (you are sitting at a computer reading this, and Google Scholar is about two clicks away) anything that isn't clear can be found in an expanded technical address at Wolfram or other helpful sites.
This book is also a great filter. My students who complain it is too easy I move quickly along. Those who still don't get it I steer towards careers in financial sales, those that are lulled into a false sense of power I hand them Shreve to invoke humble silence.
In short, this is an admirable work for its purpose: an *introduction* to a vast, complex, and growing field. The perfect book to discover the field while drinking a beer. Just don't let the beer talk you into thinking you've mastered the subject with this book alone, and you'll be fine.
Summary: Good Informal Intro to Financial Math
Rating: 5
Doesn't require post-graduate college courses (if you've ever done calculus and simple statistics, you're in, but you can get by with less). Definitely keeps it light and fun while pouring lots of info into your brainpan.
One caution, which Paul Wilmott points out: the "Stochastic Calculus" is different in some significant ways from the usual "Calculus" you take--Ito's Lemma looks downright wrong to the "Calculus" crowd!
http://ifile.it/lfckvz9/0471498629.zip
