This book represents an excellent companion to other books on securitization such as "Salomon Smith Barney Guide to Mortgage-Backed and Asset-Backed Securities" by Lakhbir Hayre (an edited book) and "A Primer on Securitization" by Leon Kendall and Michael Fishman (also an edited book). All three books are important additions to a firm's collection, but the Davidson et al book stands out as an excellent teaching tool.

One of the more difficult tasks facing a law firm is trying to acquaint the various partners and staff with the complexities of this field. This book enables interested parties to understand these complex issues through the use of illustrations and exercises.

I highly recommend this book to anyone in the legal profession interested in a better understanding of this complex but fascinating area.

Most books in the area of MBS and ABS are collections of nonintegrated writings (such as by Fabozzi). This book provides a book that flows as a book should flow. I have ordered copies for each of the traders in my group since I believe it to be the best teaching aid for this subject.

The international chapters could be improved somewhat, but I am positive that any shortcomings will be corrected in a subsequent edition. But the chapters still contain valuable information about international markets that are important to people entering this area.

In summary, this is an excellent book for those wishing to learn about securitization and the valuation of securitized products such as MBS and ABS. Keep up the good work!

What this book doesn't do: This book is not an encyclopedia. It does not contain every type of securitized product in the world. If you are interested in the encyclopedia approach, there are better choices.

What this book does do: If you decide to read the book carefully, you will learn how to analyze securitized products. The strength of the book is mortgage-backed security analysis (both residential and commercial). It does an excellent job at describing the underlying collateral and how the underlying collateral influences the performance of the security.

Our firm has its own prepayment and delinquency models, but we use the Andrew Davidson company prepayment models in conjunction with Derivative Solutions. It is nice to have a book that explains mortgage prepayments by the firm that actually generates the prepayment models that we use. Also, it is great to understand the interplay between prepayments and interest rate processes.

A problem that I have with the book is that I got it a couple of weeks ago and everyone keeps borrowing it. I recommend that the publisher issue a softbound version at a lower price point so my fellow traders will be encouraged to buy their own copies.