Rating: 
Summary: THE BEST OF THE BEST !!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: Do you want to undersatnd the Financial Instruments? Do you want to be a participant in the Financial Markets? Read it, understand it, love it. It's all in there, you don't need nothing else. EXCELLENT BOOK
Rating: 
Summary: good & bad points
Review: I appreciate that the answers to the problems are in the back of this book. The problems were pretty hard for me. Some problems seemed ambiguous though - like #3 on pg 122. "A sum of $100 is placed into a fund at the beginning of every other year for eight years. If the fund balance at the end of eight years is $520, find the rate of simple interest earned by the fund." Am I supposed to consider deposits to occur at years (1,3,5,7) or years (0,2,4,8)? It's frustrating, but I don't really mind because these issues might come up in real life.
Rating: 
Summary: 10 pages of notations... when you only need 1.
Review: I believe most of the readers of this book are studying for the actuarial course 2 exam. I am pretty strong in math myself, and I was truly amazed how poorly the author presented the ideas. 10+ pages of notations introduced in the book and an innumerable number of formulas derived based on those notations defined. Ended up I checked out another book called "Mathematics of Finance" by Cissell published in 1973 (thank Eduardo for his suggestion). The fact is, only 3 basic techniques and a handful of 10 formulas or so are sufficient to tackle the exam. The rest is to work on more practice questions. I am writing this review to warn those of you who are having a hard time studying this book. There is a much better choice out there, even it is a 30-year-old book. Just skipped those irrevelant sections such as calculating without a calculator etc, and you will save 100+ bucks from buying this book. I am giving it a 2-star instead of 1 for the "accuracy" presented in the book.
Rating:
Summary: 10 pages of notations... when you only need 1.
Review: I believe most of the readers of this book are studying for the actuarial course 2 exam. I am pretty strong in math myself, and I was truly amazed how poorly the author presented the ideas. 10+ pages of notations introduced in the book and an innumerable number of formulas derived based on those notations defined. Ended up I checked out another book called "Mathematics of Finance" by Cissell published in 1973 (thank Eduardo for his suggestion). The fact is, only 3 basic techniques and a handful of 10 formulas or so are sufficient to tackle the exam. The rest is to work on more practice questions. I am writing this review to warn those of you who are having a hard time studying this book. There is a much better choice out there, even it is a 30-year-old book. Just skipped those irrevelant sections such as calculating without a calculator etc, and you will save 100+ bucks from buying this book. I am giving it a 2-star instead of 1 for the "accuracy" presented in the book.
Rating: 
Summary: One and Two hundred level examples, 500-600 level exercises
Review: I too am using this book for a class (graduate level credit). I find it extremely frustrating to perfectly understand the examples given (too few in my opinion) only to find the exercises have gone off in totally different directions with one, two and sometimes three twists and turns thrown in to complicate matters. Exercises need to lead you to the complications, not begin with them.
Rating:
Summary: Just Awful
Review: I'm a third-year undergraduate who has loved and excelled at mathematics my whole life. We're talking mostly A's and some B's all through an honors high school program and through advanced multivariable calculus in college. I've decided to pursue actuarial work, and this fall I enrolled in a course called "Theory Of Interest," which is the introductory course for this subject at my university. The sole textbook for this course was (surprise) Kellison's "Theory Of Interest." For starters, let's make perfectly clear that the pure math involved here is easy as pie. Anyone at this level should be able to do it in their sleep before they've even cracked open the book; arithmetic, algebra, and a smidge of some very basic and easy calculus. So this subject is all about learning the definitions and procedures and applying them to problem solving. That said, I have never, ever, EVER had anything close to this much trouble with a mathematics course in my life, simply because I could not understand this textbook. As a highly detailed and analytical person, I rely heavily on the textbook to learn any subject. I expect to be taught the subject in a clear, comprehensive, logically sequenced manner, free of ambiguity and clutter. I expect to be given challenging problems free of ambiguity and confusing language. I expect the preceding chapter to prepare me for those problems. This is the biggest train wreck of a math book I have ever read. Ambiguities abound. He convolutedly waxes poetic on inconsequential "observations" for PAGES (you can sense him giving himself a huge pat on the back for his scholarly flights of fancy) while leaving you frustrated to tears trying to find and decode basic explanations and definitions. I'd say that at least 40% of the problems have MAJOR ambiguities that make them literally impossible to know what he's asking (a previous reviewer gave a good example). You have to guess what he's asking and proceed from there. The combination of poor, confusing discourse followed by ambiguous, confusing problems is a potent 1-2 punch that will seriously discourage even the best of students. My college professor actually called this book, and I quote, "revolting." (Why does he continue to use it for his class? You'll have to ask him; I myself have no idea.) Bottom line, don't even think about trying to learn this subject from this textbook unless a college course requires you to do so. Find the Cissell (I tracked down a copy halfway through my course and it helped immensely) and/or the Actex guides instead and/or ANYTHING else you can get your hands on. There's simply got to be a better way to learn the subject than this.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book...
Review: Kellison's book is an appraisal industry standard. and is highly recommended for use by others who want to know how interest rates are calculated. For students who need supplementary material, I would recommend a good mathematics of finance textbook such as the later editions by Cissell, et al. or Simpson, et al. both titled, amazingly, Mathematics of Finance. Another excellent book of a less academic nature is Carrington, The Book of Interest and Money. For those who would understand both the maths and the calculator keystrokes, try the best book ever written (opinionated, aren't I) on this subject: Greynolds, et al. Financial Analysis Using Calculators: Time Value of Money. This book was published in 1980 by McGraw-Hill, but hasn't been superceded, to my knowledge, by anything better. Also, a must read in connection with this subject is regulation Z of the Truth-in-Lending Act. Study these materials and you will never have the wool pulled over your eyes by your friendly local banker, real estate broker, car finance company, loan shark, or rent-to-own furniture dealer. In fact, you'll know much more than they do and will be able to catch their mistakes (and they make them).
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book...
Review: Kellison's book is an appraisal industry standard. and is highly recommended for use by others who want to know how interest rates are calculated. For students who need supplementary material, I would recommend a good mathematics of finance textbook such as the later editions by Cissell, et al. or Simpson, et al. both titled, amazingly, Mathematics of Finance. Another excellent book of a less academic nature is Carrington, The Book of Interest and Money. For those who would understand both the maths and the calculator keystrokes, try the best book ever written (opinionated, aren't I) on this subject: Greynolds, et al. Financial Analysis Using Calculators: Time Value of Money. This book was published in 1980 by McGraw-Hill, but hasn't been superceded, to my knowledge, by anything better. Also, a must read in connection with this subject is regulation Z of the Truth-in-Lending Act. Study these materials and you will never have the wool pulled over your eyes by your friendly local banker, real estate broker, car finance company, loan shark, or rent-to-own furniture dealer. In fact, you'll know much more than they do and will be able to catch their mistakes (and they make them).
Rating: 
Summary: good review of the subject, excellent examples
Review: the book gives you a rather good overview of the subject of interest rate calculations, although there are to many (unneccesary) formula's in the text, which makes it rather an academic book on the other hand there are many excellent problems so you can use the book in the class room there is one serious mistake; the financial calculator is not even mentioned
Rating:
Summary: So So
Review: The book sells for astronomical price because SOA chooses it. It's simple and standard material and there's about half a million people in this country who qualifies to write. Unless somebody else pays for you, go for another book, or a simple study notes will do.
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