..The image I am going for is that of something valuable and desirable, marred by minor but annoying defects. I am quite sure of the book's merits: comparing it with Fabozzi and Tuckman - I haven't read Choudhury's books - I consider it by far the most remarkable, a must-have and a keeper. The book's advantages are:

1. Broader coverage. The won't-find-elsewhere chapters are on yield-curve interpolation, PCA-aided multi-factor hedging, and FI strategies.

2. Wealth of examples, which alone makes it the best choice for a student.

3. Extensive bibliography. A typical chapter comes with 10-20 references including journals from JFI and JPM to JF and RFS.

About midway, the book starts talking about derivatives, and sags. Examples and references continue, formulas begin in earnest, but effective explanation does not follow. On this topic, the book faces numerous and strong competition, and comes behind.

The main problem is that the authors never hired an editor. 'Modelizations' aside, it's disappointing to see ambiguous/misleading language, or find errors in 'rules'. An editor might spot such wrinkles, or advise the authors to beef up some of the chapters (the one on performance evaluation, for example), trim or drop others, or curb the Scare-the-MBA Formula Fest in the derivatives part. I look forward to 2nd edition.

..The image I am going for is that of something valuable and desirable, marred by minor but annoying defects. I am quite sure of the book's merits: comparing it with Fabozzi and Tuckman - I haven't had a chance to read Mourad Choudhury's books - I consider it by far the most remarkable, a must-have and a keeper. The book's advantages are:

1. Broader coverage. The won't-find-elsewhere chapters are on yield-curve interpolation, PCA-aided multi-factor hedging, and FI strategies.

2. Wealth of examples, which alone makes it the best choice for a student.

3. Extensive bibliography. A typical chapter comes with 10-20 references including journals from JFI and JPM to JF and RFS.

About midway, the book starts talking about derivatives, and sags. Examples and references continue, formulas begin in earnest, but effective explanation does not follow. On this topic, the book faces numerous and strong competition, and comes behind.

The main problem is that the authors never hired an editor. 'Modelizations' aside, it's disappointing to see ambiguous/misleading language, or find errors in 'rules'. An editor might spot such wrinkles, or advise the authors to beef up some of the chapters (the one on performance evaluation, for example), trim or drop others, or curb the Scare-the-MBA Formula Fest in the derivatives part. I look forward to 2nd edition.

..The image I am going for is that of something valuable and desirable, marred by minor but annoying defects. I am quite sure of the book's merits: comparing it with Fabozzi and Tuckman - I haven't had a chance to read Mourad Choudhury's books - I consider it by far the most remarkable, a must-have and a keeper. The book's advantages are:

1. Broader coverage. The won't-find-elsewhere chapters are on yield-curve interpolation, PCA-aided multi-factor hedging, and FI strategies.

2. Wealth of examples, which alone makes it the best choice for a student.

3. Extensive bibliography. A typical chapter comes with 10-20 references including journals from JFI and JPM to JF and RFS.

About midway, the book starts talking about derivatives, and sags. Examples and references continue, formulas begin in earnest, but effective explanation does not follow: one feels that the math is meant to compensate for a lack of good text. I can understand a wish to be comprehensive, but would take Hull (not to mention a few more advanced textbooks) over that third of the book.

The main problem is that the authors did not hire an editor. (Not that Wiley Finance has any of its own). It's disappointing to see ambiguous and misleading statements, or find an error in a 'rule'. An editor might spot such wrinkles, or advise the authors to beef up some of the chapters (the one on performance evaluation, for example), trim or drop others, or curb the Scare-the-MBA Formula Fest in the derivatives part. I look forward to 2nd edition.

..The image I am going for is that of something valuable and desirable, marred by minor but annoying defects. I am quite sure of the book's merits: comparing it with Fabozzi and Tuckman - I haven't had a chance to read Mourad Choudhury's books - I consider it by far the most remarkable, a must-have and a keeper.

The book's advantages are:

1. Broader coverage. The won't-find-elsewhere chapters are on yield-curve interpolation, PCA-aided multi-factor hedging, and FI strategies.

2. Wealth of examples, which alone makes it the best choice for a student.

3. Extensive bibliography. A typical chapter comes with 10-20 references including journals from JFI and JPM to JF and RFS.

About midway, the book starts talking about derivatives, and sags. Examples and references continue, formulas begin in earnest, but effective explanation does not follow: one feels that the math is meant to compensate for a lack of good text. I can understand a wish to be comprehensive, but would prefer Hull (not to mention a few more advanced textbooks) over that third of the book.

The main problem is that Martellini et al. never hired an editor. (Not that Wiley Finance has any of its own). It's disappointing to see ambiguous and misleading statements, or find an error in a purported 'rule'. An editor might spot such wrinkles, or advise the authors to beef up some of the chapters (the one on performance evaluation, for example), trim or drop others, or curb the Scare-the-MBA Formula Fest in the derivatives part. Let's hope 2nd edition will be better.

..The image I am going for with this metaphor is that of something intrinsically highly valuable and desirable, marred by minor but annoying defects. I am quite sure of the book's merits: comparing it with (decent but bloated) Fabozzi and (concise and smart) Tuckman - I haven't had a chance to read Mourad Choudhury's books - I consider it by far the most remarkable, a must-have and a keeper.

The book's advantages are:

1. Broader coverage. The won't-find-elsewhere chapters are on yield-curve interpolation, PCA-aided multi-factor hedging, and FI strategies.

2. Wealth of examples, which alone makes it the best choice for a student.

3. Extensive bibliography. A typical chapter comes with 10-20 references including 'practitioner journals' such as JFI or JPM, and occasionally JF and RFS.

About midway, the book starts talking about derivatives, and sags. Examples and references continue, formulas begin in earnest, but effective explanation does not follow: one feels that the math is meant to compensate for a lack of good text. I can understand a wish to be comprehensive, but would prefer Hull (not to mention a few more advanced textbooks) over that third of the book.

The main negative, however, is that Martellini et al. never hired an editor. (As you may know, Wiley Finance does not have editors on its payroll either). I am perfectly fine with imperfect English ('modelization'), but quickie definitions and ambiguous/misleading statements are irksome. It's disappointing to (not just once) find an error in a purported 'rule', or see non-linear least squares confused with OLS. An editor might spot such wrinkles, or advise the authors to beef up some of the chapters (the one on performance evaluation, for example), trimming others, or curb the Scare-the-MBA Formula Fest in the derivatives part. Hopefully, 2nd edition will be better.

Although I believe that a physics background is much helpful in understanding economy and finance rather than a mathematics background, I think a good knowledge of mathematics can make the financial concepts in this book be clearer to the reader more than the authors present. In other words, some finance persons are written this book yet the mathematics they use mean more in finance for mathematicians than its authors. Unfortunately in this book, the interpretation of mathematics in finance is much less than given by the authors, yet should be much more.

Finally a fixed income book to rival the Fabozzi syndicate. The primary advantage of this book is that the pedagogy is integrated and progressively builds understanding in the same manner as my best professors taught. It is a book of tools that, if mastered, will render an effective fixed income toolbox suitable for mid-level fixed income positions.


An aside on the math in the book . . .
Fixed income is a necessarily quantitative asset class. For example, duration and convexity are first and second derivatives of equations. However, to use duration and convexity you only need a modicum of algebra. Calculus and linear algebra will certainly lead to a deaper understanding of the topics, but it will not diminish usefulness if you lack the maths.

Imagine purchasing a book in french with the english translation on the facing page. Is the value of the book diminished because it includes my non-native french? In my opinion, no. Any [CFA, FRM, PRMIA, MBA student, finance/economics u-grad] has the chops to master the content in this book.

Finally a fixed income book to rival the Fabozzi syndicate. The primary advantage of this book is that the pedagogy is integrated and progressively builds understanding in the same manner as my best professors taught. It is a book of tools that, if mastered, will render an effective fixed income toolbox suitable for mid-level fixed income positions.


An aside on the math in the book . . .
Fixed income is a necessarily quantitative asset class. For example, duration and convexity are first and second derivatives of equations. However, to use duration and convexity you only need a modicum of algebra. Calculus and linear algebra will certainly lead to a deaper understanding of the topics, but it will not diminish usefulness if you lack the maths.

Imagine purchasing a book in french with the english translation on the facing page. Is the value of the book diminished because it includes my non-native french? In my opinion, no. Any [CFA, FRM, PRMIA, MBA student, finance/economics u-grad] has the chops to master the content in this book.

I thought this book would be a comprehensive survey of fixed income securities. I guess I shouldn't put so much faith in book titles. The book was more like a study in archaic mathmatics.

After the first few chapters of everyday overview, the author feels compelled to burst into nebulous formulas and esoteric notation in a hyperactive manner much to breathless to bother with explaining anything.

Good for those who have doctoral degrees in math; bad for anyone else.

I thought this book would be a comprehensive survey of fixed income securities. I guess I shouldn't put so much faith in book titles. The book was more like a study in archaic mathmatics.

After the first few chapters of everyday overview, the author feels compelled to burst into nebulous formulas and esoteric notation in a hyperactive manner much to breathless to bother with explaining anything.

Good for those who have doctoral degrees in math; bad for anyone else.

This book is for people proficient with mathematics. It is concise and well-written. I have read many other fixed-income books by Fabozzi and others and that are vague and wordy. This one, however, is practical, to the point and yet academically solid. I wish I had come over this book earlier! This book will once and for all learn you that duration of a bond is the investment horizon such that investor with that horizon will not care if interest rates drop or rice as long as changes are small. You will also learn that you need a three-factor model to price bonds. I especially enjoyed Chapter 7 on passive investment strategies. This chapter actually gives you an optimization model for bond index tracking. Chapter 8 on active investment strategies describes market timing strategies like the butterfly strategy. All chapters have references listed at the end. This is very useful if you want to study some topics in detail. I highly recommend this book.

This book is for people proficient with mathematics. It is concise and well-written. I have read many other fixed-income books by Fabozzi and others and that are vague and wordy. This one, however, is practical, to the point and yet academically solid. I wish I had come over this book earlier! This book will once and for all learn you that duration of a bond is the investment horizon such that investor with that horizon will not care if interest rates drop or rice as long as changes are small. You will also learn that you need a three-factor model to price bonds. I especially enjoyed Chapter 7 on passive investment strategies. This chapter actually gives you an optimization model for bond index tracking. Chapter 8 on active investment strategies describes market timing strategies like the butterfly strategy. All chapters have references listed at the end. This is very useful if you want to study some topics in detail. I highly recommend this book.

The book starts with very basic introduction to fixed income and then suddenly from chapter 6 turns into some kind of math textbook. Who is the target market of this book? Definitely not practitioners. To use this book you need to have an excellent knowledge of probability theory, econometrics, calculus and you need to have a good theoretical degree in either finance or economics. The trouble is, of course, that those who have this knowledge do not read such book. Instead they read the actual academic journals. I did my BCom and my MSc in Finance and I am currently studying for my CFA level 3 and I currently work as a Fixed Income Strategist so I would consider myself as at least "average" in terms of my education and knowledge of fixed income markets and I can tell you that I can not understand more than half of what is in that book, and I don't want to either. Most of those "rocket-science" term-structure models are useless anyway.

So if the book is not for practitioners then maybe it is for students? Well, I think any professor would have to be nuts to torture students with such a poorly written book. There are so many other, more useful and better written books.

Please do not waste your money.

The book starts with very basic introduction to fixed income and then suddenly from chapter 6 turns into some kind of math textbook. Who is the target market of this book? Definitely not practitioners. To use this book you need to have an excellent knowledge of probability theory, econometrics, calculus and you need to have a good theoretical degree in either finance or economics. The trouble is, of course, that those who have this knowledge do not read such book. Instead they read the actual academic journals. I did my BCom and my MSc in Finance and I am currently studying for my CFA level 3 and I currently work as a Fixed Income Strategist so I would consider myself as at least "average" in terms of my education and knowledge of fixed income markets and I can tell you that I can not understand more than half of what is in that book, and I don't want to either. Most of those "rocket-science" term-structure models are useless anyway.

So if the book is not for practitioners then maybe it is for students? Well, I think any professor would have to be nuts to torture students with such a poorly written book. There are so many other, more useful and better written books.

Please do not waste your money.

This book blows anything by Fabozzi away. But I suppose that isn't saying much so let me be clearer: this book is worth it. There is no padding here (like some of Fabozzi's books), and there is no superficial treatment here (like most of Fabozzi's books). This is a clear, well-ordered, logical, useful, practical, interesting, well written, and above all, helpful book. It covers bonds very well, the term structure of interest rates and various theories very well, hedging duration thoroughly, investment strategies well, and swaps and futures in a helpful (but by no means comprehensive) way. It also covers interest rate modeling and assumptions with particular attention to credit spreads (but again, as an introduction, not a comprehensive treatment). The lightest chapter is on securtized products (MBS, ABS, CAT bonds, etc.), but those sub-fields are best left to specialized texts (which hopefully these authors will write and address with better clarity than you-know-who). Unlike a lot of books I have purchased on fixed-income for school, teaching, and work, this one is definitely worth it. I highly recommend it as a through introduction to a broad range of fixed income instruments, but also recommend that folks looking for specifics in sub fields (high yield, distressed, asset-backed, structured products, etc.) turn to more specialized texts. I now recommend this text to my students over others available covering the same material.

Without any financial background, I have learned all details of fixed income securities. The book is accessible to reader and easy to grasp without any previous introductory texts. All theory is backed up by number of exercises - after every chapter. If you really want to learn by practical approach and avoid dry theory and confusing explanation by the rest of so called classic books for securities, this is the book for you.

This is an outstanding textbook that is worth every penny I spent on it. It has everything you need for an MBA in finance course on fixed-income securities.
This book is the only one on the subject that has several worked out examples and end of chapter problems and solutions. That is very useful if you want to master the subject. You will encounter plenty of practice opportunities.
All the other books-Tuckman, Fabozzi, Sundaresan, and the rest-while they make good reference books to have on your shelf, they are very poor textbooks to learn from.
If you want to master fixed-income securities, you need to have this textbook.

Thank you,