Diana: A Tribute to the People's Princess

Customer Reviews:

This is an excellent book for everyone........1999-03-11

This book has been in my collection since its publication and has been read many times. It's still difficult to believe that this beautiful, young princess is no longer on her earthly sojourn but has moved on to a much better place.

The forward is written by The Reverend Tony Lloyd who is The Executive Director of The Leprosy Mission. The following quote is taken from the foreward on page 11: "Leprosy may not be mentally and physically damaging, but it is often erroneously seen as a curse from the gods, and the 'victims' then become outcasts. Since Diana herself was the frequent victim of pain and anguish, she had a special empathy for those who suffered in the same way. It is not a coincidence that five of her six remaining charities are associated with stigma.

"She was charismatic, witty, and, above all, a womain of extraordinary compassion. This was demonstrated both in the limelight and, more often, when there were no cameras or reporters present." So many times, one tends not to read the preface or the forward of a book and, often, valuable information can be gleaned from these. I, for one, feel that the last sentence of the above quote is crucial since there are still may people who think that Diana did everything in full view of cameras.

If one collects books on Diana, this book is a must. There is not any new material, there are several pictures not seen before; however, as with all books, it is presented in a different format and style. One is taken through Diana's life as a toddler, as a small girl, as a teenager, as an adult, and lastly, through her funeral service and to her final resting place on the small oval island at Althrop - her ancestral home.

Following are three quotations of Diana's: "I shall get married when I am sure that I am in love, so that we will never be divorced," said by Diana as a small girl - page 15. On page 30, "I thought I was the luckiest girl in the world when I looked at Charles through my veil. I had tremendous hope in my heart." On page 72, "I think the biggest disease this world suffers from in this day and age is the disease of people feeling unloved, and I know that I can give love for a minute, for half an hour; for a day, for a month, but I can give. I'm very happy to do that and I want to do that."

This is a great, but sad tribute to the late Diana, Princess of Wales. This book contains many beautiful pictures in color and a few in black and white. This book is a must for anyone who collect books on Diana, Princess of Wales.

A must-have for Diana book collectors!!.......1999-02-06

Just when you think that you've read all there is about the late POW, along comes this well-written volume. It wasn't just the same old text with a few changes of words to make you think it was all new. I really found this book refreshing in content. One of the best coverages of the funeral I've read to date! Also pictures that I had not seen previously--and I have an embarrassingly large collection of them! However, while you're waiting for this book at Amazon.com to be released, I purchased mine at Waldenbooks on the clearance table for $2.99. I was shocked to see such a great book at such a steal, it's definatly worth the asking price here!

This is a very excellent tribute to Diana........1998-05-15

I have a few books about Diana, but this one, A Tribute to the People's Princess, I found to be very excellent. It shows Diana in many pictures in her different roles in life:Princess of Wales, mother, wife and humanitarian. I recommend everyone who wants to learn more about Princess Diana, to read this book, you'll be glad you did.

This book was excellent it had some different photos.......1998-04-02

I have many books on Diana and was pleased to see this one come out. It has nice colourful pictures of her and some different poses. Highly recommend it.

This is one great book!.......1997-11-22

This is an awsome book on Lady Diana. It has TONS of pictures. I enjoyed it ALOT!!

Diana, Princess of Wales, 1961-97: A Tribute in Photographs (Diana Princess of Wales)

Average customer rating:

Beautiful pictures

Diana, Princess of Wales, 1961-97: A Tribute in Photographs (Diana Princess of Wales)

Manufacturer: Michael O'Mara Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Portraits | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Irish | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Travel Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Diana, Princess of Wales: A Tribute
Diana: A Tribute in Photographs
Diana
Diana: The Portrait
The Bodyguard's Story: Diana, the Crash, and the Sole Survivor

ASIN: 1854793276

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful pictures.......2000-05-01

This book is very well designed with all its colored pictures that are just so beautiful. Please visit angelfire.com/journal/grahamw to see my sale of this book.

The Commemorative Tribute Diana the People's Princess

Average customer rating:

The Commemorative Tribute Diana the People's Princess
Nicholas Owen
Manufacturer: The Reader's Digest Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MKJSI8

Average customer rating:

Diana Princess of Wales 1961-1997.
Tribute. People Weekly
Manufacturer: Time, Inc. Fall 1997
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000S61TOM

Average customer rating:

Diana Princess of Wales Tribute
People Magazine
Manufacturer: Time, Inc. 1997
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000UBQ558

DIANA THE PEOPLE'S PRINCESS A Commemorative Tribute

Average customer rating:

DIANA THE PEOPLE'S PRINCESS A Commemorative Tribute

Manufacturer: Reader's Digest
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GWZNKE

Average customer rating:

Diana The People's Princess. A Commemorative Tribute
Nicholas Owen
Manufacturer: Hodder & Stoughton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0733608655

Diana. A Tribute to the People's Princess.

Average customer rating:

Diana. A Tribute to the People's Princess.
Peter Donnelly
Manufacturer: London Courage Books 1997.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000P7AOYU

Diana: People's Princess: The ITN Tribute

Average customer rating:

Diana: People's Princess: The ITN Tribute
Nicholas Owen
Manufacturer: Carlton Books Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

People Weekly Tribute - Diana Princess of Wales 1961-1997

Average customer rating:

People Weekly Tribute - Diana Princess of Wales 1961-1997

Manufacturer: McAniff
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000SQU2M2

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Food Processing, published by Putman Media, Inc. on August 1, 1997. The length of the article is 599 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: Ingredient price fluctuation is a business risk that food manufacturers need to manage well because of its potential impact on the bottom line. Ingredients should not be priced or purchased without a risk management plan or some form of price protection. Risk management tools that can be used include long-term purchase agreements and futures and options contracts. The long futures and the long call strategies are discussed.

Citation Details
Title: Lowering the boom on ingredient costs: how to manage price risk with futures and options contracts.
Publication: Food Processing (Magazine/Journal)
Date: August 1, 1997
Publisher: Putman Media, Inc.
Volume: v58 Issue: n8 Page: p52(1)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

On September 30, 1955, a budding movie star who had just completed a rigorous schedule that included three films, set out on a trip to participate in a sports-car race in Salinas, California. James Dean never made it to his destination. Instead, Dean's silver Porsche 550 Spyder was hit head-on by another motorist. Dean, the actor from Fairmount, Indiana, had died. Dean, the legend, was born. Even today, fans of the actor make annual pilgrimages to Dean's Indiana grave site.

In this third volume of the Indiana Historical Society Press's Indiana Biography Series, Wes D. Gehring, a noted authority on film, takes a fresh look at Dean's life, exploring the actor's early days growing up on his beloved aunt and uncle's farm in Fairmount to his struggle for success as an actor in television and on Broadway to his meteoric rise to fame in Hollywood. The biography also features a foreword written by Conrad Lane, Ball State University professor emeriti and a longtime film essayist.

For too long, Gehring argues, Dean has been totally confused with the troubled teenager he played in the movies, most powerfully in the classic Rebel Without a Cause (1955). The real Dean was a hardworking actor equipped with a clear agenda for success. The biography examines how Dean consciously posed as an angst-ridden youth. "Indeed," notes Gehring, "it was easily his greatest and most sustained acting job."

In addition, the book highlights the key influence Indiana played on Dean's life. Instead of a meaningless stop on his road to success, the state, especially the tight-knit community of Fairmount, offered the budding star sustained encouragement and support through good times and bad. Readers will also discover Dean's comic ability among friends and family, including his always popular imitations of such fellow acting greats as Charlie Chaplin and Marlon Brando.

Customer Reviews:

easy read, but very biased.......2006-02-19

Wes Gehring's 'Rebel With a Cause' bio on James Dean is a tastefully designed little book which initially gives the impression of a serious, well-sourced and in-depth study of the actor's life. However, looks are decieving, and while it does have its good points and a very attractive package, many of Gehring's conclusions are heavily biased and woefully uninformed. I bought this dignified, intellectual- looking book at Fairmount, Indiana's Rebel, Rebel shop, but was not able to read the jacket flap notes due to it being shrink wrapped. Later, I was able to meet Gehring and his wife on the front lawn of the Fairmount Historical Museum as they were in the middle of a book signing session. A nice, soft-spoken man, Gehring graciously unwrapped my book, signed it and enthusiastically answered my query regarding how his bio is different from all previous books on Dean. His reply was the same as what I would later encounter at length in the book: that being his central thesis of James Dean being a highly calculating and ambitious actor who cleverly "posed as the angst- ridden adolescent and played it to the hilt". And that's only the beginning of Gehring's frantic, right- wing deluge of conservative rationalizing as he tries to systematically debunk all previous biographers who've written about Jimmy being a troubled and moody rebel. Gehring gets carried away with his use of phrases like "angst- ridden" and "troubled, tortured youth", his worst remark being the crowing Eureka- type declaration of what he believes is a much needed "moratorium on all things angst- ridden in future literature on Dean!" Generally, this treatment of Dean's life reads like a highly agendized and conservative take that shrinks in horror and indignation from all the realities of Jimmy's short, tumultuous life. The basic conclusion I had after reading this book was: ALL THESE PREVIOUS BOOKS ON DEAN CAN"T BE WRONG, and that, unfortunately, is what Gehring is asking us to believe. Although extememly well sourced and researched, it appears that this aspect only served to give the book crediblity and to flesh out the back pages with an appearance of dogged, fair research. Another terribly misinformed gaff in the text is Gehring's dismissal of a central thesis of Val Holley's excellent Dean bio, James Dean: The Biography; that being Holley falling back on "simple sentimentality" what with his conclusion that Dean's career accomplishments were brought about because of, not in spite of, his emotional and psychological disposition. Gehring could not be more wrong. The self destructive artist is a well documented phenomenon, and Dean was one. There is FAR too much evidence and solid, first hand anecdotes, across numerous reliable sources, that vividly illustrates that James Dean WAS, without question, an immensely wounded and reckless person with ALL manner of unrest inside. What is odd and perplexing about Gehring's take on Dean is how he tries to take some issues to the very edge of what is accurate, such as his condemnation of the callous Winton Dean, but then backs away with a polite "everybody has their reasons", regarding Winton's sending young Jimmy back to Indiana in the wake of his mother's untimely death. Far too much credence is given to Dizzy Sheridan's spurious "memoir" of her life with Dean, a historian's nightmare as to chronology and imagined conversations/scenarios. And how Gehring can know that Dean "savored" the humiliating setbacks at UCLA is beyond this reader. Again, there's too much evidence to the contrary that Dean was nowhere near that technically minded or somehow removed emotionally from the immediate day-to-day sufferings and deprivations of his early days. I don't know how any author with a clear view of the whole subject can actually structure a whole book around such flimsy theories; case in point would be Gehring's latching onto the anecdote pertaining to Dean's friend Karen Sharpe, which implies that Jimmy was a calculating poseur.
Gehring makes a mountain out of a mole hill with this single anecdote. That's to say nothing of the staggering amount of material found in his book that was clearly lifted from Holley's 'far superior '95 book; in some cases it is properly credited, but in others it's not. One of the few people that Dean was close to in Indiana was the elusive school teacher, Bette McPherson,but she is omitted from Gehring's white bread, conservative tale, while the close relationship with the Rev. James DeWeerd is neatly and annoyingly tidied up. Just because The Rev. lived with his aged mother and served on the school board doesn't mean he could not have been gay and sexually predatory with teenage boys in Fairmount, including Dean. Gehring rightfully dismisses Paul Alexander's outrageously sensationalized nonsense of a bio, but he does nothing to explain why the Jack Rupp quote about DeWeerd's homosexuality is a "misleading embellishment". However, Gehring IS right on target about Dean being essentially spoiled by his small town successes and by the big- hearted Winslows. He was, indeed, the 'big fish in a small pond'. Also, it cannot be questioned that Jimmy was better off returning to Indiana in the wake of his mother's death; with an indifferent, distant father like Winton, what choice did the rest of the family have? In the end, Gehring's strange, good-looking, biased tome is worth having, but ONLY for the serious Dean student who wants to take in the WHOLE picture and scope of James Dean literature. Beyond that Wes Gehring presents yet another 11th hour ploy by the family, (whether they were directly involved or not), and the conservative right of Dean circles, to clean up and "sanitize" Dean's story. If you're serious, approach with caution, because this is the other side of the coin from Alexander and Hyams. There is worthwhile stuff and worthLESS stuff between these covers. Paul Waters

James Dean.......2006-01-27

"James Dean: Rebel With A Cause" is about the life of James Dean. It starts off with the day he died in a car accident at the age of 24 and then rewinds back to the day he was born. It goes through his Indiana roots and his time in California, from his Broadway debut to his star-making role. We knew him as Cal Trask, a unloved son in "East of East", Jim Stark, an angst-ridden teen in "Rebel Without A Cause", and Jett Rink, the contemporary cowboy in "Giant". I liked the book becuase I like learning about new people. The only thing I didn't like was that there were a lot of words I didn't understand. But that didn't stop it from being a good book about an amazing actor.

Disappointing, not up to the author's usual work.......2005-08-28

Wes Gehring is capable of writing a good biography, as he did for Red Skelton, but this book adds nothing to the James Dean oeuvre. Most disappointing of all is the author's ill-conceived attempt to deny that James Dean was gay or bisexual. Gehring goes to frankly ridiculous lengths to deny the now-well-known fact that Dean was not heterosexual. When the author refuses to recognize such a central, basic fact of a person, how can he write a useful, believable biography of him?

Readers seeking a biography of James Dean would be better served by books such as "James Dean" by George Perry, which has been authorized by the Dean family. The definitive biography of Dean has yet to be written, I believe, but in the meantime, the George Perry book is fine. "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" is also worth a look, though those who refuse to believe that anyone they like is gay will no doubt close their hearts and minds to that one. Some pointless, unfounded prejudices die hard in some people, it seems.

James Dean remains an important cultural icon worldwide, and it is my hope that a better biography will be written one day. Since he died so young, this is a difficult project. But you can definitely by-pass the Wes Gehring attempt.

Average customer rating:

James Dean: Rebel with a Cause.
James]. Gehring, Wes D. [DEAN
Manufacturer: Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UG7L74

Labyrinth of Madness (AD&D Fantasy Roleplaying Adventure)
Average customer rating:

Depends on Players' style...

Reality takes a holiday

If you can make it here...

Madness is Right, Down right crazy.

An adventure of a lifetime

Labyrinth of Madness (AD&D Fantasy Roleplaying Adventure)
Monte Cook
Manufacturer: TSR Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0786903309

Customer Reviews:

Depends on Players' style..........2002-04-17

True, its a good module. But the players must lean towards puzzle solving/mystery style. The group i ran it with at the time were not mystery-puzzle fans and i had to abort when frustration levels got high...

Reality takes a holiday.......2002-01-04

Hmm, not the worst I have seen from TSR but not up to other company's standards. Simply put, this module has some great detail, some great ideas and certainly is dangerous. I might use some rooms for my own campaign. But the whole...blech! So it might be good source material to make your own stuff up.

Haven't we gotten past these sort of irrealistic dungeons? How do the monsters live next to each other? How was it created? So many leaps of reality where the GM can only answer, "Um, er..magic. That's how." Usually players get sick of that explanation real quick as they have trouble immersing themselves in the world if they don't understand it.

Even if these aren't concerns of yours, another quibble is so many reviewers impressed by "tough" modules. Big deal! It is pretty damn easy to make a tough module that kills characters. To do it logically where the player realizes his mistakes is another story. Most of the traps are impossible for the players to avoid.

Some redeeming qualities but as a whole, hard to swallow.

If you can make it here..........2001-11-14

As a rule my adventures involve a great deal of puzzles to challenge my players, and much action to keep their interests in slower periods. When this adventure originally came out, my group could not conquer it. Now as the DM, this adventure is one of the ultimate tests for the player's party. While it doesn't have the grand history of the established dungeons, this simple yet frustrating crawl is simply great fun. If your party can survive here, it is reasonable to predict that they can tackle the likes of vicious dungeons such as the legendary Undermountain without failure. The independence of this adventure from a setting makes it possible in virtually any setting in some form. With work the translation to 3rd Edition makes it even more cruel. Evil Genius at work on this one.

Madness is Right, Down right crazy........2000-06-30

LoM is one of the best modules to enter into my collection of fine AD&D modules. This module is sure to have your characters screaming in the night years after they leave...(if they survive). And what would you expect from a module with an introduction that reads:"This warning will not be reapeated again: This is a dangerous and difficult adventure". While the writers avoided the rediculous "save vs. death every breath, or an army of Pit Fiends and a Terrasque in every room." they didn't hold back on the kill-o-meter. I found the tactics brain racking and the monsters hideous. TSR did their job in this one with necessary backtracking and an evil omni-presence twisting everything you see. All I can say about this module is: Frightning.

An adventure of a lifetime.......2000-02-24

One of the toughest, most well-engineered modules ever constructed. LOM will test your party for both party communication and problem solving. I recommend anyone with guts to check out this module (if you can find it somewhere first). It's truly worth the expenditure and searching so don't give up on it. Oh, if you have a personal connection with your character, DO NOT bring them in here! They WILL most certainly die at least once in this module :)

LABYRINTH OF MADNESS - Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Average customer rating:

LABYRINTH OF MADNESS - Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

Manufacturer: TSR INC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KS1YJI

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Comic Book: Labyrinth of Madness

Average customer rating:

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Comic Book: Labyrinth of Madness
Mike Baron
Manufacturer: TSR
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Comic
ASIN: B000WBNSNS

Product Description

A complete AD&D story.

ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY - Volume 83, number 2 - February Feb 1984: The Victim; Full Moon Madness; Getting Burned; Did You Tell Daddy; The Labyrinth of Life; Diana's Gifts; The Second Letter; Her Voice on the Phone Was Magic; Project Mushroom; The Book Clue

Average customer rating:

ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY - Volume 83, number 2 - February Feb 1984: The Victim; Full Moon Madness; Getting Burned; Did You Tell Daddy; The Labyrinth of Life; Diana's Gifts; The Second Letter; Her Voice on the Phone Was Magic; Project Mushroom; The Book Clue
Eleanor (editor) (P. D. James; Joe Gores; Ralph L. Wahlstrom; Peter Lovesey; James Powell; Jeffry Scott; Jack Ritchie; William Bankier; Julie Smith; James Holding; Kathryn Gottlieb; Judson Philips; Jean Bowden; Edward D. Hoch) Sullivan
Manufacturer: Davis Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Convertible Arbitrage: Insights and Techniques for Successful Hedging
Average customer rating:

Requires a very, very careful approach....

good but cryptic

An Excellent Primer on the subject

Do it yourself: no need for this book

Not the best book

Convertible Arbitrage: Insights and Techniques for Successful Hedging
Nick P. Calamos
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Investing | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Business Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
All Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books
Business & Investing | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Quantitative Trading Strategies (The Irwin Trader's Edge Series)

Real Estate Investment Trusts: Structure, Performance, and Investment Opportunities (Financial Management Association Survey and Synthesis Series)

The Venture Capital Cycle, 2nd Edition

Beyond the J Curve: Managing a Portfolio of Venture Capital and Private Equity Funds (The Wiley Finance Series)

Handbook of Alternative Assets (Frank J. Fabozzi Series)

ASIN: 0471423610

Book Description

Minimize risk and maximize profits with convertible arbitrage
Convertible arbitrage involves purchasing a portfolio of convertible securities-generally convertible bonds-and hedging a portion of the equity risk by selling short the underlying common stock. This increasingly popular strategy, which is especially useful during times of market volatility, allows individuals to increase their returns while decreasing their risks. Convertible Arbitrage offers a thorough explanation of this unique investment strategy. Filled with in-depth insights from an expert in the field, this comprehensive guide explores a wide range of convertible topics. Readers will be introduced to a variety of models for convertible analysis, "the Greeks," as well as the full range of hedges, including titled and leveraged hedges, as well as swaps, nontraditional hedges, and option hedging. They will also gain a firm understanding of alternative convertible structures, the use of foreign convertibles in hedging, risk management at the portfolio level, and trading and hedging risks. Convertible Arbitrage eliminates any confusion by clearly differentiating convertible arbitrage strategy from other hedging techniques such as long-short equity, merger and acquisition arbitrage, and fixed-income arbitrage.
Nick Calamos (Naperville, IL) oversees research and portfolio management for Calamos Asset Management, Inc. Since 1983 his experience has centered on convertible securities investment. He received his undergraduate degree in economics from Southern Illinois University and an MS in finance from Northern Illinois University.

Download Description

Customer Reviews:

Requires a very, very careful approach...........2007-05-18

This is no book for beginners, as I have a background in economics, econometrics, and trading, but I find the prose jumps over and casually breezes past assumptions, leaving me thinking I must have missed something. In almost each sentence and paragraph you have to absorb and absorb and keeping trying to figure out the author's angles on what he means. Currently I am on pages 139-140, and I find impatience when encountering one-time blithe statements like "In practice, some slight additions to the short position on the way up will lock in some gains and avoid a hedge ratio that is extremely low relative to the delta." Or, "The hedge ratio on a leveraged bullish tilt position should generally be slightly more than the hedge ratio on the un-levered bullish tilt position to reduce some of the added volatility in the return." The syntax while trying to be plain language, loses the reader. I keep asking what exactly is "generally be slightly more than the hedge ratio" mean in the context of a portfolio; and do you own one each of the levered and unlevered to reduce volatility, and if not how can I be so confident my hedge ratio is thus adjusted properly if the volatility is well, volatile? It is like he writes to impress, which is not a bad thing by itself. It's clear he's having a good time. But if read aloud at a conference of CEO's, I can envision them nodding their heads and furrowing their sagacious brows without actually a full understanding of what is said.

So the prose is dense. But it eventually "sounds" right to the ear if read over a couple times quickly, but still loaded with very subtle ideas watered down into plain words which can makes me stop and pause to consider each idea as if it were some kind of rosetta stone to the prior material. At the same time it gets me to pause and think, which is an upside and rewards patience. But it's getting harder to gauge at this chapter how much progress I have made or not made, but I optimistically press on. I keep it hand so I can have more chances to peek inside this mysterious veil of conv arb. and learn something new and interesting.

It would be helpful to have more specific details where a natural question of 'why?' occurs if asked by a reader. From my own perspective, formulas would be far more compact and precise in conveying these ideas. English studies or philosophy enthusiasts may find it an enjoyable challenge to discern the Da Vinci-code like meanings.

good but cryptic.......2006-09-19

i studied from this book for the CAIA exam. while it presented some very fascinating approaches and ideas for me, keeping in mind i am not a practising arbitrageur yet, it was very poorly edited and written in general.

every book starts with an assumption about the level of sophistication the reader. this book seems to assume different levels in different chapters and even paragraphs. the chapter on equity valuation is written for kids (lose the chapter, nick) and the ones on hedging techniques doesn't even bother to list assumptions behind complex positions.

the author uses the most confusing notations. e.g. Nu-1, literally typed out like that, which is supposed to represent a variable with subscript u-1. geez - whatever happened to computer typesettng with actual subscripts, and why use the same notation for different variables in different formulae? at least he could have used Nu-1 and Mu-1. I spent a lot of time making sense out of this one and assumed he was referring to Nu minus 1!

basically, if the same ideas were carefully thought out and presented by better editing and writing (and typesetting!), this would be an enjoyable book. as it stands, its a torture to go through. such wonderful ideas and such poor presentation. this one went out the door too early.

An Excellent Primer on the subject.......2006-08-23

As a technologist charged with implementing a convertible arbitrage fund, this book was incredibly helpful. By reading it, I learned enough about the strategy and how it works to have intelligent conversations with portfolio managers and analysts and understand what needs to be done to make it work. The book covers the Greeks and why they matter, and gives explanations of the strategies that are easily understood, but whose details are laid out in sufficient depth that the layperson might not be able absorb them all the first time through.

The books doesn't, and really can't, get into issues relating to data providers, prime brokers, and other execution-related topics. Yet it does cover almost every permutation of the strategy that you might find currently being implemented by a CA fund.

Overall, I think that this book provides an excellent grounding in the strategy, is a very engaging read, and will be a good reference as your understanding of the subject grows.

In closing, let me say this: The chapter on the Greeks alone justifies the purchase of this book. I have received questions from people wanting to know how I gained such depth of understanding in convertible/capital structure arbitrage so quickly, and I do not hesitate to hand them this book. (Well, maybe there is some hesitation.)

Do it yourself: no need for this book.......2005-10-07

I have not read this book,but if you are really serious about arbitrage you should be able to write a program, that simulates the Black-Sholes model using discrete mathematics and random walk.

In short, you should be able to, from first principles, derive all you need to know about arbitrage.

But for those of you that prefer canned solutions, this book is OK I suppose.

Not the best book.......2005-05-16

To successfully employ convertible arbitrage, you need to value convertible bonds (CBs) correctly to be able to find underpriced CBs to buy, and then you need to know the number (delta) of stocks to short sell to hedge your position. How do you do this? The book correctly tells you that a binomial method must be used, but it spends only 10 pages or so on this matter! And even if you are proficient with binomial valuation, this description is quite poor and confusing. Most important though, the book does NOT cover the more complex attributes of convertible bonds (such as call and put provisions) that are very common. How can you expect to find underpriced CBs if you don't value them properly? If you truly want to learn convertible arbitrage, I instead recommend the book "Pricing convertible bonds" by Kevin Connolly who carefully explains all the things you need to know about the valuation of CBs, so that even if you have never heard about binomial trees you will still understand it (he also supplies a disc with excel files).

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books