Rating: 
Summary: Is this a joke?
Review: "Cost of capitol"? The U.S. Capitol or the Rhode Island state capitol? Geez, I didn't know you'd need advanced finance models to do that.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent!! (but DOES have some minor errors)
Review: The 2nd ed. of Financial Modeling by Simon Benninga (of the Wharton School, U Penn) and Benjamin Czaczkes is an EXCELLENT introduction to: (1) applied finance, (2) utilizing Excel as both a learning tool as well as a practical tool for finance, and (3) to some extent, computational finance. I HIGHLY recommend this book. However ... CONTRARY to the the reader from London ... this book DOES have some minor errors (and they are errors even to those who ARE DEFINITELY familiar with Excel and VBA). Most of the errors are dealt with on Prof. Benninga's website ...There are some additional errors ... mostly VBA code in the latter chapters of the book (those chapters are devoted to a VBA tutorial) ... but these errors are relatively easy to debug. At any rate, the VBA code on the accompanying CD-ROM seem to be without error. In spite of that cautionary note, to reiterate, this is an EXCELLENT book for students, academics, and practitioners. I especially found the Excel and VBA tutorial (sans the minor errors already noted) to be useful for teaching, learning, and application.
Rating:
Summary: An absolutely wonderful book!!!
Review: An INSEAD MBA, I have spent quite a while researching the Institute's library and looking for a good-quality book on valuations and financial modeling. I have found Simon Benninga's book is an absolutely wonderful source of information on financial mathematics, portfolio theory, corporate finance, and related Excel applications applied in modeling and forecasting. Having paged through many a book on the subject, I can honestly state that this one is, probably, the best available in the market. Hope my comment was helpful. Regards, Luria.
Rating:
Summary: Practical Excel Models
Review: As a practioner of financial modeling, I was used to building financial models with SAS, Stata and Matlab, so when I was first asked by my new boss to start using Excel, I checked out this book. Unfortunately, it's grossly inadequate. The worst part is there are full of errors, encompassing typos in the Excel spreadsheets and technical inaccuracies. The coverage of a lot of topics is also quite superficial, for example, the chapters on calculating the efficient frontier ignore the important question of utility. (That is, the author maximizes wealth instead of utility.) In trying to cover a lot of ground in finance, from leasing to VaR to options, the book ends up doing nothing well, and the effort in presenting some theory before showing how it's implemented in Excel is laudable but ultimately laughable because much of the theory is presented quite poorly. In the end, you may find some value in understanding at a general level how to translate theory into Excel, esp. if you are new to the application.
Rating: 
Summary: Too many errors and inadequacies
Review: As a practioner of financial modeling, I was used to building financial models with SAS, Stata and Matlab, so when I was first asked by my new boss to start using Excel, I checked out this book. Unfortunately, it's grossly inadequate. The worst part is there are full of errors, encompassing typos in the Excel spreadsheets and technical inaccuracies. The coverage of a lot of topics is also quite superficial, for example, the chapters on calculating the efficient frontier ignore the important question of utility. (That is, the author maximizes wealth instead of utility.) In trying to cover a lot of ground in finance, from leasing to VaR to options, the book ends up doing nothing well, and the effort in presenting some theory before showing how it's implemented in Excel is laudable but ultimately laughable because much of the theory is presented quite poorly. In the end, you may find some value in understanding at a general level how to translate theory into Excel, esp. if you are new to the application.
Rating:
Summary: Used to create client specialized applications
Review: As a solutions company you look for books that will help you boost your bottom line. Books that will tell you how to do something that will save you time and why its an efficient method. This book has been a very useful resource for when deciding how to create our clients specialized applications. Therefore this book was a very good investment for our company and I recommend it to others seeking this particular knowledge.
Eric...
Rating:
Summary: helpful in my career
Review: As Financial software Developer, I confess here many times I recorded this book models using EXCEL Macros,then after iditing it i use it in my own Applications,seven months ago i gave my 97 edition to my brother,now i regret
Rating:
Summary: Is this a joke?
Review: Benninga successfully bridges academic formulas and real-life scenarios in this admittedly fairly expensive book. However, given the wealth of information and immediate applicability I definitely think it's worth the money. Most importantly, by compiling all the major (and some lesser known) formulas as well as their associated VBA code into one book, this is certainly going to be part of my office library.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Post MBA Book
Review: Benninga successfully bridges academic formulas and real-life scenarios in this admittedly fairly expensive book. However, given the wealth of information and immediate applicability I definitely think it's worth the money. Most importantly, by compiling all the major (and some lesser known) formulas as well as their associated VBA code into one book, this is certainly going to be part of my office library.
Rating:
Summary: Highly beneficial to all skill levels.
Review: Both of Benninga's books are very well-written such that readers of all backgrounds and skill levels find value. I highly recommend "FM" to anyone who wants to improve upon his modeling performance. It's expescially a "must" for students of finance and those who work in financial services. Keep FM close to your desk. It will come in handy.
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