To even to most junior quant, this book would be content free. What's more, he promises the revolutionary new Calamos valuation method (now, not even Nobel prize winners name their theories after themselves, they let other people do it for them, so already, suspicion) but again, nothing, just some snapshots from the screen of his software. The book blurb is misleading, it actually promises the method, not just an advert for it. Do not buy this book, you will learn nothing.

Upon reading this book I realized what I was missing from my portfolio. Investing in convertible over the past 3 years has enabled me to keep my head above water since the market peaked back in 2000. My portfolio was only down 4% in 2001 and 5% in 2002 because of the addition of converts.

The table of contents and size of this book suggests a real winner, perhaps even a Graham & Dodd treatment of the convertibles arena. The wonder is how such a long-winded tome can leave the convertibles student so wanting. The book's problem is probably the author's conflicted intentions: "Do I want my readers to go out and find some nice convertible bonds, or do I want them to pay me to go find them some nice convertible bonds?" Guess who gets short shrift?

The introduction to convertibles section is reasonably well written. But the analysis and strategy sections of the book are suspiciously hazy. I say " suspiciously " because the book's author delivers just enough information so one might be comfortable handing over portfolio management to the author's investment management firm, but not nearly enough to implement a portfolio for oneself. Even Calamos' simple price model is insufficiently described.

Thus, after a windy, winding road of nearly 400 pages, CONVERTIBLE SECURITIES reads as a mediocre introduction to convertibles imbedded within an advertisement for the Calamos firm (for which I had to pay $65!).

This book's jacket promises "The Latest Instruments, Portfolio Strategies, and Valuation Analysis." A pretty tall order which, not surprisingly, this book does not deliver, in my humble opinion.

I found the analytical sections particularly incomplete and essentially unusable.

Convertible securities combine the appeal of simplicity with the opportunity for serious quantitative analysis. When this book deals with the simple ideas, it does ok. When it ventures into quant-land, I found the short-comings unbearable.

I am sorry to have such a negative opinion. Perhaps other, more enlightened, readers will find redeeming attributes in this book that excaped me.

Calamos begins by describing the convertible securities markets underpinnings, both historically and fundamentally. Then, the reader's understanding is developed through dissecting many common convertible securities' structures, when and why they came to market, and their benefits to investors, their issuers, and the investment bankers that brought them to market.

To close, Calamos identifies the issues with investing in convertibles including those concerning: pricing, liquidity (retail vs. institutional), hedging strategies (when so desired by the investor), some discussion of portfolio mixes, and comparisons to major market and custom indices to demonstrate convertible security market performance.

This book was a tremendous help as fundamental underpinning for my own education into convertible securities. The pricing models for the components of convertible securities were alone worth the purchase of the book. Comparing and contrasting the several convertible securities discussed also went a long way to understanding their drawbacks and strengths.

Personally, I felt that the opportunity to expand the book further exists in a couple of areas. First, the convertible hedging strategies were my highest interest in obtaining the book, but I felt that they were left with a shorter than necessary analysis. Only one or two real-life examples were given, and the decision-making criteria of a hedging strategy vs. bond's (relative) price seemed to need more expanded discussion.

Second, the descriptions of the marketplace for these securities was left only at a high-level. In defense of the marketplace description, it's clearly an institutional, dealer-driven market that would probably require another edition to describe that market's inner workings. Perhaps that's a worthy follow-up, Mr. Calamos. "The Mechanics of the Institutional Convertible Securities Markets"??

BUY this book. Calamos' years of experience are clearly demonstrated within the chapters. This is not one of those meritless, sham investment books so often written solely to benefit the author. This is a quality educational tool and long-term reference.