20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A very welcome work on a neglected field, Sep 19 2005
By Bachelier ""1004"" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Commodities and Commodity Derivatives: Modeling and Pricing for Agriculturals, Metals and Energy (Hardcover)
As a former agricultural futures trader who has now moved on to credit, this book was a welcome addition to my bookshelf, as it brings a contemporary voice to the field which has been long overdue. The previous best work was the CBOT's own "Commodities Trading Manual," which has been outdated for a decade. Before the arrival of Helyette Geman's "Commodities and Commodity Derivatives : Modeling and Pricing for Agriculturals, Metals and Energy" the current state-of-the-art for pricing models and information feeds for commodity derivatives was sadly dispersed across journals, often obscure ones. Now increasing attention is being paid to diversified portfolios containing commodity exposure in addition to classic investment vehicles. Along with hedge funds, who naturally seek "under priced" volatility, portfolio managers today must therefore have a command of a wider knowledge base of investment opportunities. This work is therefore, indispensable.
The weakest element of the work is Nassim Taleb's introduction, for which commercial interests and pedagogic considerations no doubt combined.
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not good, Jun 27 2007
By grouchy - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Commodities and Commodity Derivatives: Modeling and Pricing for Agriculturals, Metals and Energy (Hardcover)
Having done some work in commodities, and more recently in commodities derivatives, I was looking forward to reading this book. Helyette Geman has an excellent reputation in both the academic "ivory tower" and the practitioner "real world". While the book definitely attempts to cover a large and hereto unmet demand, it does not deliver a coherent, consistent and careful analysis of the commodities markets.
In offering an introductory overview of commodities spot and futures markets, the book does a decent job. Chapters 1 - 6 are probably the best chapters in the book and reflect the good understanding and thought leadership of the author. These chapters would have benefited from some careful linguistic editing. Frequently, the text reads French although the book is written in English; this linguistic dissonance is at times frustrating.
The last eight chapters are quite uneven. Each chapter is supposed to describe and introduce a commodity market, such as ags, metals, energy, etc, but few of the chapters are able to fully penetrate the material. The chapters and the material in these chapters are uneven, often bordering to the somewhat disorganized, and occasionally challenging to follow a logical flow in the exposition. Granted, the mathematics are there and they are correct for the most time (some steps in chapter 12 only make sense when you switch around the notation, which can be annoying). The chapter on gas markets is somewhat confusing and the treatment of electricity markets is very uneven. The two better chapters in the second half of the book - on metals and oil - are not written by prof Geman.
Is this a useful book? Notwithstanding the problems, it is a useful book as long as the reader and user recognizes its limitations.
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent introduction to many aspects of commodities, Jan 3 2007
By Bezalel Bar-Eli "building software solutions ... - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Commodities and Commodity Derivatives: Modeling and Pricing for Agriculturals, Metals and Energy (Hardcover)
As I had background in equity and credit derivatives I found the book to be an excellent introduction to commodities as it covers many aspects that I currently support at Barclays Capital as a technologist; the mathematical notations are not complicated and you can always dig deeper then the book. Definitly a book in your reference library.
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