No comments about Statistical Models and Methods for Financial Markets (Springer Texts in Statistics).

5 comments about The Change Monster: The Human Forces that Fuel or Foil Corporate Transformation and Change.

1. The change monster made me aware of the stages of change in a company: Stagnation,
   Preparation, Implementation, and Fruition. Ms Duck seems to be an excellent consultant from the stories I read. The book seems oriented towards Human Resources types as the title suggests. My background is Information Technology consulting, so I found I related too only a few of her stories. I would say her stories were interesting and demonstrated how companies move through change stages arriving at fruition. Ms Duck reminences on her experience and draws important conclusions and abstractions from her experiences. Some of her experiences seemed familar while a larger portion were not as concrete. I could see how large organizations profit from her holositic view of change.

   I'm sure her wisdom should not dismissed. I've read Jack Welch's books and reflected on the quantifiable and scientific approach to change and can see objective change can appeal rationally; however, Ms Duck seems to have produced change through insight and dramatic effects a vast range of companies and types. She seems to have a gift for perception and insight into the inner dynamics of the people that make change happen in a company. Duck hand holds her clients through change stages and comforts them by imparting wisdom that allows her client to see a "better way". This "better way" seems to have dynamic impacts on the production of the company. Once the barriers are removed the company matures and reaches fruition.




2. Many organizations change. Most try and plan it. Many fail. Many mergers and acquisitions fail to deliver as expected. Why?
   Author Jeanie Daniel Duck cites the human element-how changing the corporate environment makes people feel. The author presents a five-stage framework for dealing with change called the "change curve." This change curve is designed for understanding and managing the human element of the change process. The five-stage process is as follows:
   
   · Stage 1: Stagnation. This is the time that the organization can be depressed or demoralized. There is a general slowness, difficulty in making decisions, and a general lack of motivation.
   · Stage 2: Preparation. Leaders of the change must accomplish the aligning and energizing of management around the corporate strategy and vision; articulating and detailing the plan; and generating a healthy dissatisfaction with the ways things are allowing for a genuine appreciation for change to come from within the workforce
   · Stage 3: Implementation. Here the leader's ability to manage the expectations, experience and energy of the company is critical to the success of the implementation. The author recommends four methods to start this phase: test and deploy, build behavior first, use attraction to convert, and plan replication.
   · Stage 4: Determination. This phase, marked with conflicts, clashes, failures, and minor successes, is only as successful as the degree to which top management stays involved and focused.
   · Stage 5: Fruition. This stage is when the change is in place. This is a time to reward employees for their hard work. The company needs to move forward to avoid re-entering a period of stagnation.



3. All of us know how difficult results to initiate and moreover to undertake a true renovation of settled mental maps and old paradigms. As a matter of fact most of Managements pretend to reorder their organizational environment without primarily, undertaking an inner transformation.
   
   This is an admirable and conspicuous essay what offers relevant clues and clever indications to undertake this breathtaking but fundamental attitude mental state. The essence of a continuous transformation implies a vital renovation ` s impulse from within ourselves.
   
   An indispensable consult text in your personal library.



4. This book is great! It is easy to read and understand. It really helps you with the changes you might need to make in your organization and figure out why people act the way they do. This will prepare you for these reactions and how to handle them.



5. the book came in a timely manner. i have not had time to read any of it yet but will get to it on my next day off.

3 comments about An Introduction to Copulas (Springer Series in Statistics).

1. This is a great introduction to the area for those already possessing good mathematical ability and knowledge of distribution theory. All the seminal theorems and references are in here and the reader would be wise to check them out. Well written and communicated, didn't find any typo's. Enjoyed it. This area is fast growing in the area of mathematical finance.



2. I just got this book, so I can't comment on the contents yet. However, I feel quite ripped off, because this is the previous edition. The hardcover, which is only $20 more is a new second edition, while the paperback is from 1999.



3. This is the second edition of THE book on copulas; there are others, eg Joe, and Drouet and Kotz, but this is the best reference work I know of on this topic. The second edition does not frankly have a huge amount of new content; the most obvious is the very useful set of scatterplots used to illustrate the appearance of copulas. This I think shows up some properties like symmetry better than equations could do. If I had purchased the first edition, I probably wouldn't feel it had been worth upgrading---it depends on how deeply you are `into' this topic. On the other hand it's reassuring that there hasn't been a lot of recent work we didn't know about!
   
   I thoroughly recommend this book, and, if I meet the author, I shall reckon that he owes me a drink.

5 comments about Advanced Econometrics.

1. I strongly recommend this book as a textbook for this subject. After reading and using this book, I gained a solid knowledge of econometrics.



2. Both comprehensive and well-structured this book proves indispensable for anyone delving into the realms of econometrics. Starting from classical least squares the author guides the reader to time series analysis, gls, nonlinear simultaneous equations models up to qr and tobit models. If formulas are a necessary condition for a good study book in econometrics, the clear language of this book fulfills the sufficient condition for any book in this category.



3. This is THE bible for understanding most empirical econ papers out there. I wished I had found it earlier.



4. This book is justly considered a classic. It has been around for many years, and with some reasons. It provides a very rigorous treatment of many fundamental concepts in cross-section econometrics, such as linear and non-linear models, M-estimation, maximum likelihood, limited dependend variable models. It also has one of the best and more rigorous yet accessible treatments of basic asymptotic theory (the examples and countexamples in this section are uncommonly good). Amemiya is very very rigorous, and this a book where typos and sloppiness do now dwell. Overall, it is not an easy read, though, unless you have a very strong math/stat background, or you are genius. One thing I always liked about this book, indeed, is the very honest title, ADVANCED econometrics, not "Introduction" to econometrics. This book is mostly used as part of the reading list in second-year PhD courses in cross-sectional econometrics. I don't think it would be a good choice for a first year course. But if econometrics is a serious component of your professional life you will be happy to have Amemiya around, and you will keep reaching for it, once in a while. It is a bit too techinical, difficult, and dry to be my ideal textbook, but it is outstanding nonetheless. I find the chapters on asymptotic theory and limited dependent variables particularly well written. On the minus side, it is now a relatively old book, and you will find here many obsolete technical tools, as well as the absence of many important and modern techniques. In particular, note that you will NOT find anything here about nonparametric and semiparametric techniques, panel data, time series. There are many (very short) empirical applications scattered around the book, but most of them are (necessarily, given the publication year) very very obsolete.
   Overall, still a great book highly recommended for people who are into advanced econometrics. But if you want an introduction to cross-section econometrics, you may want to look at other textbooks such as Greene, Ruud, Davidson-McKinnon, Hayashi (more time-series oriented) and especially the "graduate" Wooldridge (Econometric Analysis of Cross-Section and Panel Data), which in my humble opinion is currently the very best option around.
   P.S. Harvard University Press also has merit of printing Amemiya on top-quality paper and choosing a very nice format for the book. It's a pleasure to browse its pages!



5. An excellent solid GRADUATE level classic econometrics book. At this level, it is very hard to find other books having the same quality as this one. Surely one of the best in the market. Enjoy!!!

5 comments about Introduction to Econometrics.

1. An excellent guide to someone starting out on an econometrics courese at university level. It really cuts through all the mathematical jargon that is usually found in books of this type and leaves the reader with a real understanding of the subject.



2. a clear introduction to econometrics without use of advanced mathematics.



3. My Amazon.co.uk review:
   
   Whether or not you are an undergraduate at the LSE taking the introductory course on Econometrics (the author of the book is the lecturer of that course at the LSE), this book will be of interest to you if you'd like an introduction to Econometrics. It takes you from a very basic understanding of statistics right through to how to deal with non-stationary time series. In between it covers topics such as simple and multiple regression, problems with multicollinearity and misspecifications (e.g. omitted variable bias), heteroscedasticity, proxy variables and instrumental variables, simultaenous equation bias and time series. The book also gives you a basic understanding of how to use logit and probit analysis when fitting binary choice models. After having read the book you should be able to understand violations of Gauss-Markov conditions and know how to deal with them.
   Dougherty has succeeded to make this book easy to understand for any undergraduate seeking knowledge in this topic. I find the detailed worked examples especially helpful for when it comes to solving practical problems for which the book mainly considers the use of Stata and EView. The book also has a lot of exercises that help enhance the student's understanding of the topics. Additionally, Dougherty has compiled a course guide that among other things also goes through some of the exercises in the book. The course guide can be found on his webpage at the LSE in addition to all slide shows corresponding to the chapters of the book. Together with these additional course materials, the book makes the topics very easy to understand and cope with for students and should help them do well in their courses on Econometrics. This is really one of a kind and an extremely useful basis for further studies in Econometrics!!



4. Although I have taken numerous courses in statistics, I have sometimes struggled to fully understand some of the key concepts in Econometrics. I finally decided to start from the beginning, and I read this book cover to cover. This text has made a world of difference for me as I am now able to pick up the standard Econometrics texts (Maddala, Woolridge, Greene, etc) and better understand more complex models. Another advantage of this text is that Dougherty uses Stata output and offers explanations on interpreting the output. This is a must read for anyone wanting a straightforward presentation of basic Econometrics.



5. Clear and complete, often shedding light on nuanced details left unexplained elsewhere, this book is masterfully written. In the past I've found statistics and numerical methods to be nauseatingly dull but this book is interesting and keeps your attention.

4 comments about The Statistical Mechanics of Financial Markets (Theoretical and Mathematical Physics).

1. Very useful book, particularly in what concerns alternative L-Stable distributions. True, not too versed in financial theory but I'd rather see the author erring on the side of more physics than mathematical economics. As an author I don't ask much from books, just to deliver what they indend. This one does.

   Clear historical description of Einstein/Bachelier. Hopefully one day we will call derivatives pricing the Bachelier valuation.

   The book in short provides an excellent perspective on the statistical approach to asset price dynamics. Very clear and to the point.

   Nassim Nicholas Taleb




2. This book was my first thorough introduction to this field and I have found it thoroughly enjoyable. The comparisions between the tools of Physics and Finance along with the presentation of empirical data was highly stimulating. The economic terms were presented with lucidity and conciseness and the use of relevant examples in both Physics and Finance made it an easy read. Also of great value was it comparisons of standard economic theory with various tools within Physics.
   
   This book also provides a very complete Bibliography where one can find classical and neoclassical economic texts and further references and directions in this relatively new field. I highly reccomend it to any Physicist looking to go into Finance or just as a good read and also to (neo) classical econonomists and financial engineers alike.
   
   I also deeply appreciated the respect it showed to economists and its straightforward, non preachy manner that many Physicists are often guilty of!
   
   Thanks



3. I am a physics grad student thinking about switching to finance. This book is a good start on that path.



4. There is a great review online titled, "Statistical Phynance" by another author. It's on the American Scientist website. That is a great review.
   
   I am an investment consultant but my undergrad work was physics and math (I also have a finance mba and have passed a few actuarial exams). I will admit I was a top student in both disciplines (math and physics) at very selective school, and Voit's exploration is not for the easily deterred. I'm sure most people who read this book are much smarter than me--after all, it's a physics text--but I make these comments to be helpful to those wandering over from other disciplines. I only wish I had the time to delve deeply into the subject matter, because that is what this text deserves. As it is, I can read it as an essay and rely on my background in statistics/physics/probability/finance for the intuition required to understand the author's analysis and conclusions--to an extent.
   
   This book has me excited about the possible practical applications in my work; to be frank, I think it's revolutionary. But that's just me coming from my little corner of the world.

5 comments about Arbitrage Theory in Continuous Time (Oxford Finance Series).

1. The central text for IOE 552(financial Engineering I) at the University of Michigan. Halfway through the course and I really understand the application of Ito's Lemma and the Feynman-Kac stochastic representation theorem. This book has just the right mixture of narative story telling, and mathematical rigor. The derivations are accessible to those with a semester of advanced calculus and a semester of probability. Over and over, Bjork shows that the secret of success in Financial Engineering is "RAIL" which stands for the "Relentless Application of Ito's Lemma".



2. It is a good book to read as an introduction to the field. The author is successful in conveying the intuition behind the models instead of striving for complete mathematical rigor. I recommend this book if you want to quickly get acquainted with derivatives pricing but are a bit afraid of the higher math seen in other books.



3. If you're going to be introduced to Derivatives pricing and Quantitative finance in continuous time, you need some basics in probability theory, an elementary introduction to stochastic calculus and you need "bjork". It tells you the equation and how to understand it.

   It's the best source for a complete understanding of the basics of arbitrage free pricing in continuous time; whether it's in complete or incomplete markets.

   The best feature of this book is how the author invariably provides an "intuitive interpretation or explanation" to convey critical concepts. {Things like market price of risk in the context of interest rate modelling, change of measure etc...}

   Why I rated the book 4 instead of 5?
   I will not forgive "Tomas bjork" not to have covered the Libor Market Model; it's "THE" model and therefore should be covered in great details by any book of this calibre. A new edition of this book with the libor market model is needed.
   Having said that, the coverage he gives to the popular short rate models is worth every read!

   Guy,
   Msc Financial Engineering at ISMA Center, Reading - UK.




4. I agree with several reviewers above that the book is written in a style very helpful for students to understand the material.
   
   It doesn't contain a lot of small details of financial markets like Hull's book, but the approach is very systematic. The derivations of formula for Barrier options is a nice example, Hull only lists a set of formula. The focus is on the theory, not on the practice. (No numerical method in the book). Bjork's book is very valuable for a student with very good math skills but want to learn the reasoning style for option pricing. It is a quick and enjoyable read.
   
   A huge plus side of the book is to describe strategy before writing down all the proofs. This helps greatly. It can be contrasted with Duffie's book "Dynamic Asset Pricing Theory", which is written like a dry math book (well, I have to admit that Duffie's book is not an intro book)
   
   Only thing I can think of that can be improved is typo in the book, too many wrong formula, especially in the second half of the book, luckily enough, they are obviously wrong so that one can still understand the topics. I also find that using SEK and mentioning street name of Britain are amusing for a student in U.S.



5. The author has put together an excellent text that will take readers of an elementary text like Hull's Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives to the next level. In the author's treatment, the power of stochastic calculus is brought to bear on the options pricing problem from the point of view of modern martingale theory, if not the complete mathematical rigor needed to establish all the results.
   
   The text contains 26 chapters and 3 appendices. There is simply too much here to give a blow-by-blow account. So I'll try to hit the highlights.
   
   The author gives intuitive definitions of some of the more heavy concepts from measure theory/Lebesgue integration, measure-theoretic probability theory and basic stochastic analysis. For the rigor, one need only look to the appendices, but the treatment is intuitive enough that can still follow along with only the occasionally glance to the back of the book.
   
   Readers of Hull's text will find the first couple of chapters quite familiar, but starting in Chapter 4, stochastic integrals are (somewhat) formally introduced, along with the multi-dimensional version of Ito's change of variable rule. This is not overkill as the development of multi-factor term structure models later in the book benefits from this early development.
   We note that these formulas are stated without proof, although they are motivated intuitively.
   
   In the next chapter, stochastic differential equations are introduced and the Feynman-Kac representation is established as a nice application of Ito's rule. The chapter winds up with an intuitive treatment of Kolmogorov's forward & backward equations.
   
   For the remainder of the first half of the text, readers of Hull will feel themselves in quite familiar territory, as the author develops the solution for the options pricing problem, studies the Greek letters and establishes parity using the now classical approach.
   
   The second half of the text delves into martingale methods for mathematical finance. As a consequence, the sophistication level jumps considerably. The reader is well-advised to get the basic analytical toolkit in hand before delving too far into the second half of the book. I recommend Rudin's Real and Complex Analysis.
   
   Heavy machinery is pulled in from functional analysis to establish the first and second fundamental theorems of mathematical finance. Without some basic understanding of Hilbert and Banach space theory, the reader will understand very little of this treatment. A good reference for this is Rudin's Functional Analysis
   
   The next highlight is the Girsanov Theorem. The author actual provides a proof in the scalar case, and presents (without proof) the Novikov condition to test when the Girsanov transformation is indeed a martingale (so the theorem holds). As a nice application, the Black-Scholes theory is revisted and re-established via these martingale results.
   
   Another highlight is the study of the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman model for stochastic control, along with a small catalogue of cases under which the HJB equations can be solved. As a nice application, Merton's mutual fund theorem is established.
   
   The last several chapters of the book deal with martingale methods for term structure models. There is a nice survey and study of the 1-factor short rate models before loading up and doing the k-factor model framework of Heath-Jarrow-Morton.
   The martingale setting makes for a very rigorous treatment.
   
   The book ends with a really nice treatment of the Libor Market and Swap Market Models. Pure finance students may feel that the mathematics at the end unnecessarily overwhelms the intuition, but students of mathematical finance will appreciate the analytical treatment and may even feel inspired to implement their own LMM.
   
   There are a ton of terrific exercises at the end of each chapter. The exercises really solidify the understanding of the presentation and they make great technical interview questions as well.

5 comments about Statistics for Management and Economics (with CD-ROM and InfoTrac ).

1. Now in my second statistics course, I have a great base in statistics. This book seems to confuse everything that i've already learned. I would recommend using The Basic Practice of Statistics over this book anyday.



2. I found this item by searching "Audio Books" It says it is an Audio CD. I wanted something to listen to in the car.
   
   The one I was shipped was a CD-ROM which was the free CD-ROM to accompany a text book. It will not play in a cd player so I don't see that it qualifies as an "Audio CD" much less an "audio book".
   
   The seller agreed to refund 80% of the purchase price and no postage or handling.
   
   You be the judge.



3. I learn a lot from this book. The examples and illustration helped me easily understand the concepts.



4. poop, i didn't need the book because my prof. didn't specify which edition i needed. it turns out the first day of class she tells us we need the 8th edition.



5. the textbook was exactly how it was described and the textbook was shipped very quickly. Great seller!

5 comments about Lottery Numbers.

1. Well done Harry Schneider. Your lottery book and software are very impressive. Simple design and layout with effective easily understood results. Saw your comments on the opening screen of the software and closing comments in the book. It's if I had written them myself - brilliant! You have put in a lot of work to produce your book and software and it will certainly meet all my own needs. On the one hand I am depressed that I had not written this book and software myself but on the other hand I don't have to go through all the work and headaches that you have gone through developing it. The pro's are what all gamers want:- Handy sized book - not too onerous; Small file to download; simple design; no gimmicks; No reading through pile of other peoples' winning anecdotes - gives me the impression that I'll be telling my own winning story! Does the job exactly as designed very effectively; very fast; extremely powerful filters; a pleasure to read and use. As I said before - WELL DONE HARRY!



2. No nonsense, brilliant and fascinating. Gives me an appetite for more. The best book I have ever read on the subject. Harry's software is fantastic too. It is a real eye-opener.
   A MUST read for any serious lottery player.



3. I enjoyed this book very much and read it in about 2.5 hours. Written by a programmer-mathematician, I learned how to improve the odds of winning by using a well-tested checklist which helps you reduce & eliminate silly mistakes and redundancies when creating your number sets. I'm using this book as a foundation because I also realize that intuition and developing your own gaming style is also a part of winning, as well as other variables.

   And one of the biggest challenges is keeping organized. Simplicity works best. I generally create my draws, check them, fill out a lottery number form, check it, then submit it.

   My gaming style, to date, includes numerous ways of generating draws and I've won small pots from working a mathematical approach, using Quick Picks, and following my hunches which led me to picking 4 out 6 numbers once. Besides winning money, playing the lottery is fun if you want to improve your math skills. I don't play more than $2-$4 a week (sometimes less, or on occasions, a bit more). Sometimes I get pools started.




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1 comments about Probability and Statistics for Engineering and the Sciences, Enhanced Review Edition.

1. The product was in good condition and reached the house in good time. Thank you.