Rating: 
Summary: The best intro book ever!
Review: Students of derivative pricing techniques are often in a dilemma: Coming from their MBA or undergrad course, they have just build a "brealy-myers" type of intuition on options. Moving towards Hull then allows a deeper understanding. But any serious (eg PhD, Wall Street Analyst) student of derivatives needs to undertstand the math behind modern derivatives pricing. Essentially, this research divides into two streams: Solving Partial differential equations and developing equivalent Martingales. Without a rigorous pre-education (Maths, Physics), most students fail to understand (let alone learn to use) these methods. Nefci is the only book that does not assume lots of prior knowledge, as compared to Merton (1992) or Duffie (who is so bold to write "for mathematical preparation little beyong undergraduate analysis...is assumed" -ask PhD Students how easy this book reads! The answer is its tough!!). In Short, Neftci's book is a true blessing for all "normal" people. Can't wait to get the second edition!
Rating:
Summary: The best intro book ever!
Review: Students of derivative pricing techniques are often in a dilemma: Coming from their MBA or undergrad course, they have just build a "brealy-myers" type of intuition on options. Moving towards Hull then allows a deeper understanding. But any serious (eg PhD, Wall Street Analyst) student of derivatives needs to undertstand the math behind modern derivatives pricing. Essentially, this research divides into two streams: Solving Partial differential equations and developing equivalent Martingales. Without a rigorous pre-education (Maths, Physics), most students fail to understand (let alone learn to use) these methods. Nefci is the only book that does not assume lots of prior knowledge, as compared to Merton (1992) or Duffie (who is so bold to write "for mathematical preparation little beyong undergraduate analysis...is assumed" -ask PhD Students how easy this book reads! The answer is its tough!!). In Short, Neftci's book is a true blessing for all "normal" people. Can't wait to get the second edition!
Rating:
Summary: The only accessible for a beginner
Review: The book by Neftci is the only really accessible and fairly complete treatment of the maths of fin. derivatives. The style is non-rigorous and somewhat loose, but it suits the approach taken. Start your study of derivative mathematics from here and you will be less likely to get frustrated. Thanks Salih for a very good book!
Rating: 
Summary: useless
Review: The book is an unfortunate attempt at demonstrating the absurd point that the mathematical techniques of financial derivatives can be made accessible to the layman in almost layman's terms. The true problem with the book as with any course in any field is that when the learning curve is too shallow, the reader gets discouraged by his slow progress. Ever tried to learn a difficult language by practicing one hour a week? Forget it. There is no problem with the layman attempting to get the hang of this sort of material, but proper learning to master it, necessarily entails a greater effort than what is pretended in the book. Altogether I find that this book is as useless, as it is tedious as it is a waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent for introducing students on finance
Review: The book present a easy to learn and abrangent overview of financial calculus. It is great for people who wants to learn basic financial calculus without a previous knowledge. But if you are not a practioner or wants to use the knowledge in research fields you must to read another advanced books with this one. Excellent for its propose.
Rating:
Summary: A very lousy book
Review: The book quickly deterioates after the first 3 chapters. Quasi-mathematical non-intuitive statements are made with absolutely no proof. Presentation of materials is totally disorganized with concepts being used and then introduced in later chapters. Examples do not correspond to concepts presented. Exercises to enforce understanding are totally lacking. I am very disappointed by this book.
Rating:
Summary: new material on normalization
Review: The first edition of Neftci's book became an instant classic in the world of the users and developers of derivatives models. Now Neftci has obliged us again, adding seven new chapters on recent and more complex material in this fast-changing field of applied mathematics. The new material focuses on normalization -- the technique of obtaining pricing equations for ratios of asset prices instead of for the prices themselves. Normalization is a very powerful tool for grapplig with dynamic situations. And as it happens one of its applications is to martingales, the relation of an asset price to the passage of time. Normalizing a martingale proves to be, in Neftci's words, "quite useful in pricing interest sensitive derivative instruments." Obviously not a book for the mathematically faint of heart, but the title provides sufficient warning! If this is the kind of book you want, then this book is the one of the kind you will need.
Rating:
Summary: A book on Ito calculus
Review: This book can be used for a course in Ito calculus in addition to a financial mathematics class. Every quant should own this book.
Rating:
Summary: Good topic list... bad notation.
Review: This book covers a nice set of topics but, as if frequently found in this area, the notation is awful, the ideas all messed up and the demonstrations very weak and lots of hand waving.
Rating:
Summary: The starting point for derivative math
Review: This book is an outstanding introduction to the math needed to price derivatives. IMO, if you cannot get through this book, it will be almost impossible to get through any other mathematically oriented derivatives book. Neftci's writing is simply outstanding. You can visually see how the theory works.
| 
