Financial Modeling, 3rd Edition | 
| Author: Simon Benninga
Publisher: The MIT Press
Category: Book
List Price: $85.00
Buy New: $58.65
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Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 5310
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 3
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1168
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.8
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 7.1 x 1.8
ISBN: 0262026287
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.015118
EAN: 9780262026284
ASIN: 0262026287
Publication Date: February 29, 2008
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Product Description
Too often, finance courses stop short of making a connection between textbook finance and the problems of real-world business. Financial Modeling bridges this gap between theory and practice by providing a nuts-and-bolts guide to solving common financial models with spreadsheets. Simon Benninga takes the reader step by step through each model, showing how it can be solved using Microsoft Excel.
The long-awaited third edition of this standard text maintains the "cookbook" features and Excel dependence that have made the first and second editions so popular. It also offers significant new material, with new chapters covering such topics as bank valuation, the Black-Litterman approach to portfolio optimization, Monte Carlo methods and their applications to option pricing, and using array functions and formulas. Other chapters, including those on basic financial calculations, portfolio models, calculating the variance-covariance matrix, and generating random numbers, have been revised, with many offering substantially new and improved material. Other areas covered include financial statement modeling, leasing, standard portfolio problems, value at risk (VaR), real options, duration and immunization, and term structure modeling. Technical chapters treat such topics as data tables, matrices, the Gauss-Seidel method, and tips for using Excel. The last section of the text covers the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) techniques needed for the book. The accompanying CD contains Excel worksheets and solutions to end-of-chapter exercises.
Praise for the previous editions:
"Benninga has a clear writing style and uses numerous illustrations, which make this book one of the best texts on using Excel for finance that I've seen."
--Ed McCarthy, Ticker Magazine
"The author describes this as a 'cookbook' and that is a good analogy.... Its breadth is extensive, covering simple present valuing and cost of capital ... to the likes of real options and early exercise of American-style options.... A worthwhile acquisition."
--Paul Dentskevitch, Risk Magazine
"Financial Modeling is highly-recommended to readers who are interested in an introduction to basic, traditional approaches to financial modeling and analysis, as well as to those who want to learn more about applying spreadsheet software to financial analysis."
--Edward Weiss, Journal of Computational Intelligence in Finance
"Financial Modeling belongs on the desk of every finance professional. Its no-nonsense, hands-on approach makes it an indispensable tool."
--Hal R. Varian, Dean, School of Information Management and Systems, University of California, Berkeley
"This is applied finance theory for the professional at its best. As a student, I and countless others learnt the intricacies of Lotus and financial theory from Professor Benninga's first bookaNumerical Techniques in Finance. Now, as a professional, I do not have to 're-invent the wheel' in Excel. An invaluable guide. A must for all financial analysts."
--Vikas Nath, Global Strategist, Emerging Equity Markets, Union Bank of Switzerland, London
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 So many typos... May 23, 2008
0 out of 5 found this review helpful
First, this book has lots of typos. This creates problems for me when I enter VBA codes into modules.
Second, it does not have the necessary coverage of some topics. The usual thing you will notice is "A full treatment of .. is beyond our scope". This would not be a problem but then you see homework exercises based on something that was "beyond the scope".
 Financial Modeling Text April 23, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book itself serves its purpose - a recommended text. The staff in my department makes full use of it. The delivery timeliness was also satisfactory and package was excellent - no dent or scratches.
Quick Tip April 12, 2008
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Rather then comment extensively on the content of the book (as others have done rather well), I felt like I would pass this tip (which I wish I had known to prevent frustration). I feel that anyone without a working knowledge of Visual Basic, and manuevering around Excel should obtain the skill set with the well written technical sections. I would suggest starting with part VI introduction to Visual Basic (chapters 36-41) then moving on to Technical Consideration (chapters 29-35) and THEN moving onto the substantial matter of the first 4 parts. This will help keep you from getting frustrated while interacting with the software and allow you to focus on the concepts. Again this is only for individuals without a working knowledge of the platforms, if you do possess those skills then the above recommendation is a moot point.
Benninga's Financial Modelin, 3e April 5, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Professor Benninga's texts have consistently demonstrated an uncommon ease engaging the reader - well versed in not only theory and application, but also in the classroom, Benninga seems to anticipate student questions - providing thoughtful end-of-chapter questions and answers. Specifically, the Third Edition of "Financial Modeling" presents the theory and application of the Black-Litterman (BL) model - a lot of "well regarded" texts only show the naive construction of the non-augmented covariance matrix - which provides little competitive advantage to the portfolio manager or researcher - while BL is non-trivial and though proxies for the views necessary to form a posterior covariance matrix are often tricky to obtain, the BL model is necessary to incorporate the views of the researcher or portfolio manager and for any modern portfolio theory treatment - the application of this theory in Excel is a priceless exercise. Additionally, his addition of the chapter 4, "Building a Financial Model" thoroughly addresses financial statement modeling and its related issues - the tracking of assumptions and the examination of their feasibility with a sensitivity analysis. Finally, his treatment of Monte Carlo methods, Option Greeks, Bank valuation and event studies are unparalleled - a lot of good econometric texts treat event studies but usually, the student has no way of seeing its full implementation - Benninga's excel implementation just brings clarity. Generally, Benninga's texts are gems for not only self-study (the included CD allows you to follow along with the text) but also for MBA/MS students requiring a clear exposition of theory and application.
Financial Modeling, 3rd Edition
Best quantiative finance book,ever! March 13, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
The best quantitative finance book ever written! Dr. Benninga does a remarkable job of simplifying very complex subject matter. His Excel and VBA examples are easy to understand and presented very logically. I am not a programmer and have never used VBA, yet I was able to pick up the coding logic very quickly. You don't have to be a quatitative expert to read the book and like it. He writes in a "user friendly" fashion and the book covers plenty of fascinating subjects. Modern finance is mankind's greatest invention and Dr. Benninga's book makes it all understandable.
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