Rating: 
Summary: Above average introduction to math finance
Review: I do not know why people are against this book. The title clearly says "introduction". True, it does little to provide deep insights into financial modeling, but it does give a preliminary idea into the math involved, and does a good job of walking you into the subject gently. The layout is a little chaotic, but with a judicious choice of subjects, that will not be much of a problem. The problems are the worst part- half of them do not have any relevance considering the chapter in question, and some incorporate concepts which are not mentioned in the book.The book itself is clear and concise. The intuitive idea about measure and stochastic integral is very nice. Also, after going through this book you will be able to progress into the deeper math quite nicely. Its worthwhile buying this book..
Rating: 
Summary: BEST OF THE BEST !
Review: i followed Professor Neftci's courses in Lausanne and i must say that i'm a fan... i knew nothing about finance and i understood so many things with this guy ... and i'm waiting for the new edition ..... I WANT MORE !
Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: I greatly enjoyed the first edition of this book. It is a great introduction. It may be hard to believe but the second edition is even more useful. The vast number of practical and insightful problems have added a completely new dimension. Also, for interest rate derivatives, if you are a beginner, don't go anywhere else. First read this book. It should clarify several confusing points. The treatment of the main concepts in stochastic calculus on the other hand are to be enjoyed forever.
Rating:
Summary: On a Class by Itself for Clarity and Pedagogical Value
Review: I have voted my dollars for Mr. Neftci by buying the first and second editions of his introductory textbooks. This, despite some careless errors which I hope have been corrected. Why? Only because of his ability to integrate knowledge under a common theoretical umbrella. He does a wonderful job in explaining the evolution from traditional calculus and differential equations to their stochastic versions and to convey the latter's significance to practical matters of finance. In our age of much technical specialization and little knowledge integration, individuals such as him are highly valuable. Disciplines are becoming so specialized that most authors seem to have lost the capacity to adequately and usefully convey their expertise in non-esoteric and conciliatory terms, leading to confusion and to islands of technical scholasticism unable to communicate with other branches of knowledge, let alone with the "layman". I recommend this book to those who seek understanding of this interesting field and who reward authors not only for their knowledge, but for their seemingly forgotten pedagogical responsibility when deciding to write a book.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Good Starter Book
Review: I highly recommend this book. As someone with a pretty good math background who has read through other textbooks on modern finance and left with the uneasy feeling that I didn't really understand what was going on, Prof. Netftci's book was the first to give me an understanding of the big picture. Certainly it is short on details, but it is not meant to be a handbook--get that kind of information from something like Hull's book. I really like the way he puts in the simple version of the arbitrage theorem at the beginning, which in itself let me understand many pricing manipulations that had previously seemed like voodoo. Read this book and you'll be in a good position to decipher the rest of them.
Rating: 
Summary: Good explanations, with serious hand-waving
Review: I used this book to teach a Financial Mathematics course, and found its explanations to be generally clear and good. However, part of the reason the text seems so clear is that it doesn't explain much of what's really going on. It covers the right material, but not really in such a way that the reader can then go on to apply the knowledge gained.This is evidenced by the complete (and almost unforgiveable) lack of exercises in the book. It is very easy to feel you understand this sort of material, only to be completely lost when you actually have to solve a problem. Neftci will not help in this regard. I understand that it is difficult to create good exercises, but their absence almost makes me wonder if Neftci realized he was not explaining things in enough detail to let the student actually work with the knowledge. Exercises are the only way to really learn this subject.A basic problem with all these texts is that, try as they might, they cannot impart true understanding unless the student can grasp real analysis at, say, an undergraduate level typically reached by students at a good engineering school. This text tries to avoid the problem by failing to mention any of the analysis...that's not likely to work.
Rating: 
Summary: A good first draft not a useful text
Review: I used this text for a graduate course on financial derivatives in an applied mathematics program. The text generally made a good selection of the topics covered, but often key insights and proofs were missing. There were few useful examples and the end-of-chapter exercises were both too few in number and were not well thought out. The material could have been better organized and less meandering. A more compact and rigorous theoretical presentation surrounded and amplified by lots of good examples--including some involving numerical techniques--would have been both deeper and more accessible to students. As an instructor, I found the text was usable, but required me to add a great deal of my own material for the students. Finally, the index is just about useless, making it difficult to use this work as a reference.
Rating: 
Summary: I WANT MY MONEY BACK.
Review: I wonder how much Duffie and Hull were paid for their nice little comments. Was the first edition really that much better than the second? I'm ashamed to be seen with this book. This is absolutely the worst text I've ever read. Neftci writes like an eighth grader and the dearth of organization is appalling. I'm extremely [mad] this was a "required" text for a graduate stochastics in finance course. This book actually impedes the learning process. All copies of this book should be destroyed. PLEASE!! DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!!
Rating:
Summary: Good Book
Review: I've read Hull, Wilmott and Baxter books but definitely like this book better - particularly for entry (but not easy) level derivative math. Can't say much since English is not my first language. But if you want to learn about Derivative Math and don't have strong background in Math (I'm a Porfolio Manager and have pretty good background in Calculus, Differential Equation, Econometrics) this book is certainly worth considering. I give 4 stars due to the lack of practice problems.
Rating:
Summary: Look elsewhere
Review: It doesn't happen very often that a book disgusts me so much as to write word of warning for potential buyers. This is one of such rare occasions.
This book is for nobody. It is too unsound and out of touch (I am being kind) to be of any use for advanced practitioners, and too inaccurate and incomplete for the novice.
Here is a list of things I disliked about it: - Poor English.
- Bad teaching methodology: irritating forward references, unclear and ambiguous explanations, unnecessary and confusing repetitions, awfully structured.
- Lack of mathematical rigour: some theorems are presented as definitions, notation is inconsistent, at page 129 you can even read about a value that "converges to infinity", etc.
- Most exercises are impossible to solve after having read the relevant chapter (unless you have already read other/better introductory books). The solutions book is out of print.
- Plenty of conceptual errors. "What's the best place to start then?" This is a difficult question, and it very much depends on your background; my answer is "Not here".
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