Modern Portfolio Theory and Investment Analysis
Author: Edwin J. Elton, Martin J. Gruber, Stephen J. Brown, William N. Goetzmann
List Price: $101.95
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ISBN: 0471238546
Publisher: Wiley Text Books (26 July, 2002)
Sales Rank: 278,005
Average Customer Rating: 4.6 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 4 out of 5
Classic but not Modern
I very much enjoyed this book, but could only give it four stars because it is a bit out of date regarding some of the instruments of the capital markets. For instance, credit derivatives and total return swaps are used to round out and diversiry bond portfolios especially in structured finance. Tavakoli has written an excellent book on these products: "Credit Derivatives" (Second Edition). These are off balance-sheet products that are a form of financing. Tavakoli also talks about other types of financing which reduce portfolio concentration risk.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Excellent theoretical background
This was one of the texts I had to read for one of my MBA classes. It provides an excellent theoretical background in finance and the theories that link finance to macro and micro economics. It is not very practical however. Not much in the book can be applied. It is a must, however, for any serious student of finance. The coverage of option models is a little light, however. I highly recommend that people have a background in calculus, differential equations, probability theory, and linear algebra before reading this book.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Excellent coverage, friendly lingo
For a textbook, this is written in a reader-friendly style. You can almost see the author at the blackboard explaining the concepts AND math in plain English. And yet, very little handwaving at all. On the other hand, this may also present special readability challenges: you may find yourself constantly flipping between text and tables to follow the discussion.From a pedagogical point-of-view, some of the developments might have been more intuitively presented. For example, the chapter on option-pricing theory should mention the expected-value interpretation. Over all, however, this text does very well on this score.
I particularly liked the survey of empirical studies at the end of each major concept, that discusses the imperfections that other researchers have looked into, and their findings.
This is one of the core reference texts I keep on my desk.
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