Beninnga's modeling book is a superior product for its intended audience: beginning to intermediate Excel users. I just used for one of my graduate courses in Finance at Florida International University, and it was spot on for what we needed. I knew exactly what to do on a financial calculator but not how to set those applications up in Excel. Beninnga's chapters cover many of the applications you'll see out there in the real-world. As a added bonus, he includes the CD, so you'll have the exact spreadsheets he uses in the chapters. Keep in mind that being able to read those actual commands/text in the cells give you all the necessary building blocks to enhance your knowledge. No matter what any textbook teaches, you still need your own "intellectual horsepower" and financial acumen to make Excel spreadsheets. To his credit, Beninnga has openly stepped up and posted an errata sheet for the known errors and you'll need to download those. Taken on whole, I salute Benninga for being the pioneer in bringing Finance to Excel applications and I'm eagerly awaiting his 3rd edition. If you're a Finance guy looking to learn finance in Excel, then this a "5-star" gotta have!

It's kind of a drag, especially for a book of this type, that there are so many errors in both the text AND in the provided source code. Some of the code has clearly never been tested as published, since it actually doesn't run. Uninitialized variables, incorrect derivation of (calculus) derivatives, function names used as variables within the same function (causes infinite recursion crash on some systems), etc., etc., etc. All of these errors that I found in a single chapter have not been published in the book's extensive errata, so presumably have not been found yet. If something doesn't check out in this book, don't blame yourself, check another reference to verify the correct calculation method.

Is an excelent book to learn and undertand how to creat financial models in excel.

I strongly recomend it.

Romer iragorri

Beninnga states things very clearly.
And the sophistication is great.
No matter what level you are in, it's good for you.
And these knowledge are really useful in real world!
I mean,I'm really gonna keep this book for myself after I finish the degree.

The book has great practical value. It also applies to those who wish to implement financial models in other computing environment than Excel.

Very good on giving an introduction on many modeling techniques.
Exceptionally recommended for the new babe.

All students of finance must have one, It's great, If I'd have had it when I was student oh, I'd save a lot of time, now I'm teacher of finance and I recomend all my students to buy it.

This textbook is a wonderful introduction to financial modeling. The sections covering fixed income and option modeling give the reader a sense of how to translate financial theory into practice. As a participant in the financial markets and employee of a private investment firm, I find this book to be a resourceful reference tool.

The book arrived on time and in the condition as it was advertised.

Simon Benninga's Financial Modeling covers a wide range of topics in varying degrees of depth. Much of what investment banking analysts or associates would need to know is contained in chapter 3, Financial Statement Modeling and Chapter 4, Using Financial Statement Models for Valuation. However, the lack of depth in these chapters would leave the reader grossly unprepared for real-world modeling tasks.

Typical transaction models (i.e. acquisition, LBO) have many dependencies that are driven by selectable scenarios. A working model gets rather complex and ultimately turns into a debugging exercise. With various assumptions modules (operating, working capital, transaction scenarios etc.) contained within the model, a great deal of thought has to be placed on structure. At the same time, attention to detail and presentation are very important.

Unfortunately, it would be very difficult to teach the step-by-step process of creating a fully functional model in a textbook. Hence, the most suitable training occurs in company-provided courses or for-profit training organizations. The latter are expensive and only located in NYC as far as I know. One exception is Deal Maven, which is an e-Learning course that covers transaction models in detail. Expect to spend over a thousand dollars though. In all cases, it will take 60 - 80 hours of instruction if you already have excellent Excel skills.

If you are attempting to get somewhat proficient with modeling *before* entering analyst or associate training, it might be helpful to study a handful of chapters in this book. If you need to hit the ground running, seek banking training on Craigslist in NYC or use an online program such as DealMaven.

As a university teacher of strategic corporate finance and optimal investment, I have watched the financial industry analytics transcend hand calculation with financial calculators to financial modeling with spreadsheet software. Depending on whether the financial specialty is in corporate or banking/brokerage, the job skills requirement can range from corporate cost control to optimal portfolio design. Thus, modeling skills services both company research and financial planning.

Whenever I travel in my business, this reference book goes with me; additionally, in both Russia and Germany, it was the book used by the corresponding McKinsey consultants. If you are comfortable with financial principles, purchase this book. If, however, you need to review financial fundamentals, then first purchase Dr. Benninga's textbook, Principles of Finance with Excel (see my review).

Statement: Learning this skill will keep you from selling electronic appliances at a discount retailer, cold calling for a debt shop, or writing contracts on leased vehicles, as your first "out-of-college" job. If you are already out of college, learning this skill might keep you from being stuck in a dead-end position.

INVESTMENTS:
The study of equity and capital markets is fundamental to anyone specializing in finance. Potential development from studying this book is the possibly dramatic extension to your financial skill set by adding the ability to analyze and then model optimal investment portfolios using Excel. Most analyses in business will be completed using spreadsheets, or other software, and not by hand calculation. In fact, much of your time as a financial specialist, in any capacity, will be building spreadsheets to solve complex financial problems. The sequence of spreadsheets used in investments analytics have become increasingly sophisticated: From complex financial models in asset valuation to detailed derivative payoff structures. With the skills developed in studying advanced business analysis techniques in Dr. Benninga's textbooks, investors, and advisors, can locate efficiently run companies to be included in optimally diversified portfolios.

In watching the financial industry analytics transcend hand calculation with financial calculators to financial modeling with spreadsheet software, I have repeatedly witnessed students with financial modeling skills obtain jobs that are typically reserved for specialists holding advanced degrees or having multiple years of experience. Both brokerages and banks in the investment side of the financial industry are increasing requiring knowledge and skills in designing optimal portfolio design. Put simply, it is the ability to strategically design a "real time" investor's portfolio that is driving the demand for Excel modeling skills by financial firms. In order to design optimal portfolios, skills in corporate financial modeling are necessary. The ability to recognize well run companies is the ability to compile a diversified and optimal portfolio: The company seeks tools to help run operations and financing efficiently, and the investor seeks tools to help find efficiently managed companies. While most company's financial models are designed based on revenue analytics, the investor's model is a portfolio consisting of the various potentially profitable investments. For investors, the stocks being held in the investor's portfolio will be those of efficient companies exhibiting the investment characteristics required by the investor. From the business viewpoint, those who truly gain from knowing these analysis techniques are the businesspeople that use them to run efficient companies; from the investment viewpoint, those who truly gain are the individuals who use the tools to find those efficiently managed companies worthy of investment. It is important to realize that the skills needed by an investor are no different from the skills needed by good managers. When evaluating a company for investment, an investor will often use the same models that business executives use in their financial and operational management and forecasting. Once an individual learns how to analyze and value cash flows, the viewpoint can be either that of a business evaluating a potential project, or an individual evaluating a potential investment. The point in all of this, with either company financial planning, or investment planning, making the needed modifications to a changing, and rapidly more global, world in Excel is easy.

In using Dr. Benninga's books, you can expand beyond the capital market basics in your financial knowledge to include spreadsheet modeling; furthermore, in this process, develop highly marketable financial modeling skills that will boost your ability to advance your career.

As a university teacher of strategic corporate finance and optimal investment, I have watched the financial industry analytics transcend hand calculation with financial calculators to financial modeling with spreadsheet software. Depending on whether the financial specialty is in corporate or banking/brokerage, the job skills requirement can range from corporate cost control to optimal portfolio design. Thus, modeling skills services both company research and financial planning.

Whenever I travel in my business, this reference book goes with me; additionally, in both Russia and Germany, it was the book used by the corresponding McKinsey consultants. If you are comfortable with financial principles, purchase this book. If, however, you need to review financial fundamentals, then first purchase Dr. Benninga's textbook, Principles of Finance with Excel (see my review).

Statement: Learning this skill will keep you from selling electronic appliances at a discount retailer, cold calling for a debt shop, or writing contracts on leased vehicles, as your first "out-of-college" job. If you are already out of college, learning this skill might keep you from being stuck in a dead-end position.

INVESTMENTS:
The study of equity and capital markets is fundamental to anyone specializing in finance. Potential development from studying this book is the possibly dramatic extension to your financial skill set by adding the ability to analyze and then model optimal investment portfolios using Excel. Most analyses in business will be completed using spreadsheets, or other software, and not by hand calculation. In fact, much of your time as a financial specialist, in any capacity, will be building spreadsheets to solve complex financial problems. The sequence of spreadsheets used in investments analytics have become increasingly sophisticated: From complex financial models in asset valuation to detailed derivative payoff structures. With the skills developed in studying advanced business analysis techniques in Dr. Benninga's textbooks, investors, and advisors, can locate efficiently run companies to be included in optimally diversified portfolios.

In watching the financial industry analytics transcend hand calculation with financial calculators to financial modeling with spreadsheet software, I have repeatedly witnessed students with financial modeling skills obtain jobs that are typically reserved for specialists holding advanced degrees or having multiple years of experience. Both brokerages and banks in the investment side of the financial industry are increasing requiring knowledge and skills in designing optimal portfolio design. Put simply, it is the ability to strategically design a "real time" investor's portfolio that is driving the demand for Excel modeling skills by financial firms. In order to design optimal portfolios, skills in corporate financial modeling are necessary. The ability to recognize well run companies is the ability to compile a diversified and optimal portfolio: The company seeks tools to help run operations and financing efficiently, and the investor seeks tools to help find efficiently managed companies. While most company's financial models are designed based on revenue analytics, the investor's model is a portfolio consisting of the various potentially profitable investments. For investors, the stocks being held in the investor's portfolio will be those of efficient companies exhibiting the investment characteristics required by the investor. From the business viewpoint, those who truly gain from knowing these analysis techniques are the businesspeople that use them to run efficient companies; from the investment viewpoint, those who truly gain are the individuals who use the tools to find those efficiently managed companies worthy of investment. It is important to realize that the skills needed by an investor are no different from the skills needed by good managers. When evaluating a company for investment, an investor will often use the same models that business executives use in their financial and operational management and forecasting. Once an individual learns how to analyze and value cash flows, the viewpoint can be either that of a business evaluating a potential project, or an individual evaluating a potential investment. The point in all of this, with either company financial planning, or investment planning, making the needed modifications to a changing, and rapidly more global, world in Excel is easy.

In using Dr. Benninga's books, you can expand beyond the capital market basics in your financial knowledge to include spreadsheet modeling; furthermore, in this process, develop highly marketable financial modeling skills that will boost your ability to advance your career.

Amazing, these kind of tools are basic for anyone interested in a financial career. Its an excellent book, an it is easy to read and very dynamic and useful

This is a quite useful handbook for its easy understanding excel sheets and graphs demonstration. The CD-Rom attached is very helpful for practicing financial modeling problems.

This book is really excellent given that it explores many practical aspects of finance that usually are missing in financial courses. Learning to solve financial models with Excel will results very useful in order to understand both theory and practice.

I have used Simon Benninga's "Financial Modeling with Excel" for four years to teach undergraduate computational finance (http://www.ac.aup.fr/a30791/site/BA420site/coursesite.html). My thinking remains that my students have been well served by this textbook.

The inadequacies that limit my assessment to four stars and need to be addressed in the third edition are: 1) frustrating errors in the text and models, for which the errata sheet and corrected models (available at: http://finance.wharton.upenn.edu/~benninga/) only improve, but do not heal. My students find new, undocumented, errors each semester. 2) the data sets and examples are getting, frankly, a little old. It is the year 2005 as I write this, but the data sets and examples end in 1999, a year in which my current students were in high school. 3) the models, while excellent as introductions to the field, are now at the point of being fundamental, rather than exemplary. This is not Prof. Benninga's fault, but as the other reviews from professionals here attest, Excel modeling has advanced in all fields (option pricing, financial statements, portfolio optimization, bond metrics, etc). When this volume was introduced, it was adequate for helping MBA and Master of Science in Finance students build essential modeling skills. Sadly, it now is only appropriate for raw beginners or undergraduates. A new text with a larger scope that addresses advances in the fields is called for. 4) While it is a subject in itself, the book is seriously hindered by not introducing basic Monte Carlo simulation in Excel. 5) No information on downloading data from BLOOMBERG, REUTERS, and other historical and market data providers. It would add to the scope of the text, but 6) fitting DCF models to yield curves also would be welcome.

Even with these criticisms, Benninga's Financial Modeling remains the best book in the field for what it seeks to accomplish. It covers the major topics of finance that are appropriately addressed with models: financial statement, firm valuation and credit metrics, portfolio construction, fixed income metrics, option pricing, etc. Benninga's FM also compares favorably with his two nearest competitors.

Powel and Baker's "The Art of Spreadsheet Modeling" is a two pronged monster: it seeks to be a meta-level theoretical work on spreadsheet modeling, and then introduces modeling Monte Carlo simulation as a fundamental component of Excel (a student edition of CrystalBall is included in the text, and is the only reason to buy this book). The gap between the two is a Grand Canyon's worth of knowledge space that this text does not fill in and nearly ignores. The student who uses only Powel and Baker is ill served; whereas if he uses Benninga, he knows how, why, when and what to model. Consider Powel & Baker as sketches of a concept car with simulated wind tunnel runs, whereas Benninga shows how to build your own kit car and drive it around. Powel and Baker's concept car is beautiful, advanced, gracious, but doesn't exist and doesn't run; Benninga's kit car is like a Lotus Super Seven: simple, runs, is a blast to drive, but is dangerous in heavy traffic and you would not want to go on a 1,000 mile journey with it (i.e. or build a DCF model for the Goldman Sachs LBO team with only Benninga).

Chandan Sengupta's "Financial Modeling Using Excel and VBA" is the only book that comes close to Benninga, and I recommend it as another perspective for my students who want to continue with financial modeling. However, Sengupta's work is flawed on two counts: 1) it is clear throughout that he had read Benninga, and 2) he dropped much of Benninga's content in favor of adding wordy explanatory paragraphs to soften the blow of the fact that modeling is mathematically and technically both boring and intense work. With those criticisms in mind, his work still has neater, leaner, more compressed models with updated contemporary detail.

There are three other books, Scott Proctor's "Building Financial Models with Microsoft Excel: A Guide for Business Professionals," which focuses on building vanilla financial statements, as does John Tjia "Building Financial Models." Mary Jackson & Mike Staunton's "Advanced Modeling in Finance using Excel and VBA" is also now dated and seriously flawed and limited in scope), however it is the next step following Benninga.

For those working in top-tier banks, the internal training and modeling documents, and examples built by colleagues, will likely surpass by light years what is offered in these books. And so for beginners, Benninga remains the the best choice and first step, until something better comes along, or Benninga himself produces a new edition.

Just a simple word.

BEST Financial Modeling by Excel !!!


Level: Amateur -> Intermediate

I have used this book and recommended to others. It is certainly one of the best books on financial modelling, especially if you are a novice in modeling. It gives step by step clear techniques for various problems. It is very easy to read, with excellent examples. Hope you can enjoy this book as much as I have.

Great intro to financial modeling, excellent text for undergrad finance and MBA students. Learn core financial topics and Excel simultaneously. Takes financial theory and applies it in excel with real "nuts and bolts" applications. Includes a CD with all the speadheets on it which is alone worth the price. No advanced math or statistics needed, although it would help the reader. Perhaps too basic for a student/graduate Ph.D. in Economics/Finance or M.S. in Financial Engineering.

If you need to build a working valuation model, calculate the risk of a portfolio with 100+ securities, or figure out what return you might expect to get from a portfolio of high-yield bonds, then you'll find Simon Beninga's "Financial Modeling" merits far more than five stars: this is one book that is indispensable.

One of the biggest problems I ran into during my MBA program was the way my professors taught Corporate Finance. I had great profs, true, but they were teaching theoretical concepts from theoretical textbooks. Sure, you learned the basics: CAPM, net present value, basic options and futures, Arbitrage Pricing Theory, VAR and TEV, but I have always maintained that the best way of learning a subject---particularly corporate finance---is by getting your hands dirty and digging into the guts of the material.

Since Corporate Finance, off-balance sheet instruments aside, isn't very dirty, the best way to get a hands-on practical approach in terms of Capital Structure, the appropriate discount rate to use in pricing an asset, risk, and optimal debt and dividends is to program in Excel and Visual Basic. The problem is that many top finance texts don't offer supplemental material to translate the theoretical concepts into actual valuation and spreadsheet models, which any financial analyst will contend is the life-blood of the industry.

With that in mind, Simon Beninga's "Financial Modelling" is a kind of "Joy of Cooking" for initiate investment bankers, corporate financiers, controllers, analysts, and anyone who wants to use core Corporate Finance concepts in the real world. Beninga goes through the standard laundry list of Corporate Finance text topics---from the optimal risky portfolio to the term structure of interest rates---and shows you how to translate these concepts into workable spreadsheet models that can illustrate, illuminate, and get to the heart of a problem.

If you're a new MBA or financial analyst, you'll find much to love in Beninga's approach, and by pairing the newly expanded 2nd edition up with a top theoretical finance textbook (Ross, Westerfield et al.'s "Corporate Finance" is a fine example) you'll get the most out of your MBA program and have a solid foundation for building Excel and Visual Basic financial models that work.

I liken "Financial Modeling" to a cookbook, in that Beninga provides all the ingredients necessary to the model at hand: he begins with a sprinkling of theory, whether it's modeling a bond portfolio's immunization, calculating the cost of capital, estimating a portfolio's Beta with no short-selling, or pricing put and call options using both the binomial theorem and Black-Scholes. His writing is spare, terse, and to the point, but I have learned more about advanced corporate finance theory through Beninga's marvellously pithy writing and copious Excel examples than I have in reading ten 'top of the list' finance books.

In addition to nicely expanded sections on options (including portfolio insurance) and leasing (including the technically sophisticated subject of leveraged leasing, which requires Excel to comprehend), Beninga concludes his sprightly little tome with a section on getting the most out of Excel (useful little shortcuts that a financial analyst will need but may not have heard of) and a nice little introductory primer on programming in Visual Basic.

"Financial Modeling" is an absolute essential if you're going to make Corporate Finance your profession. For an equally elegant and practical treatment of building discounted cash flow models for businesses, the reader would be advised to pick up Beninga's "Corporate Finance", which, while not equally oriented in spreadsheet modeling, is one of the most terse, accessible, and reasonably technically sophisticated Corp-Fin books on the market today.

The simplicity and transparency of many of these models inspires me to give this book five stars. I am an expert modeller and find it useful to have an excel version of many of the more complex models as a cross-check and as a quick desk-top reference. People are often amazed at how quickly I can produce a ball park indication in which the handle is always correct. This book is a must for advanced model builders. If one can't produce a close answer in Excel, one may have to review the fundamentals before embarking on an advanced - and time consuming - model project.

The only shortcoming is in the fastest growing new products in the credit derivatives world, but the methods in this book can be adapted. Tavakoli provides product descriptions in another excellent resource "Credit Derivatives".

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.

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.

This book is very practical in terms of its success with integrating excel skills that are used every day by finance professionals.

I was very impressed with the layout of the book, which makes it an easy read--at least until you get to more advanced topics that come later in the book.

I would have given a perfect rating of 5 stars if all the end of chapter answers to the questions at the end of each chapter were included with the CDROM. Instead you only get a few answers to selected end of chapter questions.

I've allways looked for a really applied book about modeling (in finance and economics). this book answers to all my questions. It shows simply how to program all that complex formulas you had in your university books that you have never could use in professional life.
I think this book is, at present the best of its type.

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...

This is a very good book in showing the reader how to utilize and manipulate Excel for financial problem solving and modeling applications. If you are looking for a book that will show you how to build a leverage buy-out or m&a model from scratch, your expectations are way too high. What this book shows you is how to build those types of models by showing you how to model and use various Excel functions to build the various subsections of those types of complicated models and link them all together. I highly recommend this book to MBA students who are career changers and are looking to enter corporate finance or consulting careers where quantative Excel usage is part of the job. This book shows you how to get the most out of Excel, which is a very user friendly software package. The book comes with a CD-ROM which has examples as utilized in the book and homework problems which are good and can be somewhat hard which forces you to learn Excel for financial applications. If you are a quick learner and highly motivated, you will get a lot out of this book. Nothing is to be feared. It is all to be mastered. By buying this book and working out the Excel problems and exercises on my own, my confidence level with Excel and my own modeling skills has shot up. Given what I have learned from this book, i consider the price to be a bargain. This is very much a learning by doing book. You will get a lot out of it.

This book--first assigned as a text in my MBA program--continues to aid me in my work. I refer to it often, and my co-workers are constantly borrowing it. The enclosed CD includes all the
models and the problem solutions. It's the best finance reference I own and the most useful finance book that I used at business school.

I highly recommend this book to any aspiring financial analyst. It is definitely worth it, even at the list price.

Want to master the fundamentals of basic finance using Excel? then this is one of the few books on the market that really meet this need. Want to set up more advanced mathmatics modeling? well as the introduction of this explains, this book is more like a cookbook: it lists the required basic ingredients and the culinary process but if you want to spice the dish (financial model) up, it is up to the individuals to dig out those advanced formulas from the financial trade journals and apply them to the models.

I first saw the first edition of this book in my college library. took it home and was EXCITED. I was looking for a practical book that would show me the intricacies of Excel for setting up financial models and this was like a god-sent. Like one of the other reviewers said, this book combined basic finance, Excel functions, and VBA programming. To add practicality to this book, Professor Benninga even showed how to download financial data from the internet. Granted it is rather basic, but it adds to the usability of his book, making it a well-round book.

The best parts are end-of-the chapter exercises. Solutions are provided in the accompanying CD-ROM. See how many ways can you solve the same problem.

Professor Benninga always outlines the assumptions and explains the parameters of each model. We should remember that in many instances, unrealistic assumptions lead to way-of-the mark numbers, rendering the whole modeling process and its calculations useless.

Want to become a advanced-level financial modeler? then master the fundamentals first! this book gets you started.

P.S. I also highly recommend to anyone just starting with Excel modeling to read William J. Orvis's Excel for Scientists and Engineers. It is a bit outdated but still highly useful for its chapters on curve fitting, VBA programming and raw data manipulation.

This is is spectacularly effective guide to basic financial modelling using Excel and VBA. Far too many financial textbooks confine themselves to theory without giving the student any guidelines on how to put what they have learned into practice - a startling omission in what is a pre-eminently practical field. Benninga has attempted to fill that gap, and he succeeds brilliantly. Using very clear language and a step-by-step approach, he teaches the reader how to actually construct for himself or herself a series of different financial models that are immediately applicable in the real world. There are sections on corporate finance (cash flow) models, basic portfolio models (CAPM applications) and a really good one on option pricing models that has saved my bacon on more than one occasion! Other sections cover topics such as fixed income and Excel/VBA issues. In conclusion, this is a very impressive text, complete with usable models on CD-ROM, that can take you from novice to mid-level quant in a few weeks!

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.

Finally a book for the Finance Specialist using Excel. Fantastic explanation of every step, starting at the very beginning of each topic.

I Corporate Finance Models Basic Financial Calculations, Calculation of Cost of Capital, Financial Statement Modeling, Using Financial Statement Models for Valuation, The Financial Analysis of Leasing, The Financial Analysis of Leveraged Leases. Great basics from which you can build your own models, improvements etc.

II Portfolio Models Calculating the Variance-Covariance Matrix, No Short Sale Restriction, Estimating Beta & SML, Short Sale Restriction, VAR. Basic topics in PM, and less used on Excel in the professional world. But, very exciting to gain thorough understanding by doing it on Excel.

III Option Pricing Models My topic. Binomial Model, LogNorm Distribution, B&S Model, Portfolio Insurance, Real Options, Early Excercising. Again, great excerise to do it on Excel for learning purposes. Nice intro on Real Options using Binomial Model, but not my beloved B&S.

IV Bonds and Duration Duration, Immunisation, Modelling the Term Structure, Calculating Default expec.adj. Bond Returns, Cheapest to Deliver. Cannot comment to this topic.

V Technical Considerations Random Numbers, Data Tables, Matrices, The Gauss-Seidel Method, Excel Functions, Some Excel Hints. Matrices explained on Excel! Never seen that before. The rest almost replaces a single Excel Handbook.

VI Introduction to Visual Basic for Applications

User-defined Functions with VBA for Applications, Types and Loops, Macros and User Interaction, Arrays, Objects. The basics of VBA that help you to master many VBA problems.

Fantastic work Simon Benninga!

Check: http://finance.wharton.upenn.edu/~benninga/home.html

I want to see the table of contents of this book. If it is possible e-mail it to me .

Thanks ....

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

This book is good for refreshing your finance concepts. It simply describes how to use excel to calculate existing finance concepts and models, which should not be new to people who ever take finance courses. Not really useful for people searching for advanced financial knowledge. Some minor errors can still be found in the second edition.

Thank you for your very excellent text on financial analysis. I found the writing excellent and the examples very useful in developing models. I will be using the specific subjects of "Financial Statement Modeling", "Valuation Analysis" and "Lease Analysis" in my practice. I congratulate you on a well written and documented book. I would very much like further discussion on the calculation of terminal value in chapter 2, page 30....Again, thank you for a most excellent tool. I will continue to use this text in my future work.

Steve Schroder

This is a great book for any one who wants to grasp the basics of financial modelling. If you have the proper pre-requisites for this book, then, "this is all she wrote".

The reviewer from Brazil should infact write his own book on Financial Modeling with the help of an editor, not an auditor!!!

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.

Since I bought this book, I've been able to develop much more sophisticated financial models. There's a lot of really useful info in this book: corporate, portfolio, options, bonds, and more.

It's not only the modeling skills for corporate models which are helpful; I've also for the first time been able to figure out the literature on portfolio and option modeling.

Thank you, Simon Benninga, for writing such a good book!

I am an budget and forecast analyst and consider this book a waste of money for professionals. The author approaches the topics like cash flow and cost analysis as if the reader were a freshmen student. I was disappointed because the book is not what it claims to be. At the cash flow analysis, the author worries about how to show that the depreciation should be added to the profit after tax. Anybody who works in the field knows that. Then, the author goes to the spreadsheets. They are so simple that anyone could do the same on a piece of paper and still be faster. I felt I spent US$60 for nothing.

Fascinating work. Should be used in a course at your local B-school. Sit down, read it and enjoy, you may learn something that you will use one day.

I am a business analyst. This book doesn't have models that I have used in the business world. The example models are very basic in form and execution. There is no way that I would show the CFO these models. There are a few interesting pages. I will keep the book on my shelf for a reference.

I received the book as a gift, last week. And I have been using it eversince.

And i agree that there ARE errors, though. But if you're familiar with Excel, you can easily detect it (at least SOME of it).

A definite MUST-HAVE for serious analysts who want to get things done conveniently.

Very useful in my Risk management job

from Seoul, Kore

Simon Benninga's book is fantastic! Before reading it, there was a great deal about the financial world that was a complete mystery to me. In spite of being proficient in Excel and VBA, Mr. Benninga still managed to show me things I didn't know. My only complaint was the mistakes which arose occasionally as I worked through the examples; but, these were few and for the most part easily fixed. I look forward to reading his other book!

I recently got Benninga's book on financial modeling. I think it is a great book! For once, someone has taken the time to write a book that takes financial theory out of the classroom and follows it directly in a simple path to useful applications. Unfortunately all too many academic authors fail to take their work the final step and thus much of it can never be fully applied.

I went through many of the exercises and did not find any errors or mistakes. I suspect that those readers commenting on mistakes lack certain basic Excel skills (necessary for this book).

If you're interested in financial modeling, or want to sharpen your finance skills, this is the book to get.

This book provides detailed analyses and examples, and was a great review of all the things I've learned in business school. It's also invaluable in strengthening Excel spreadsheet skills. It is so good, I wish I could rate it even higher--but the mistakes were too many to overlook! It was hard to follow the exercises when the published spreadsheets didn't reflect the inputs. Very frustrating.

Still, it's a great guide to have on my bookshelf.

Outstanding book. Without the need for VBA, this book allows you to run effective financial spreadsheets. It goes from simple pro-forma statements to binomial option pricing theory.

With Damodaran's "On valuation," it is the most practical book in finance.

Working through this book reinforced everything I learned in my MBA. The use of Excel makes models easy to visualize. The most valuable finance and Excel book I own.

The book tackles some pretty sophisticated topics and tries to present them in a simple, logical manner. However, there are a large number of errors and inconsistencies that make some of the examples difficult to follow.