Synopses & Reviews

Now, Understanding Swaps provides an optimal entry point for financial professionals seeking to master the conceptual and practical intricacies of this complex, highly profitable field. Designed for swap market beginners and experienced pros alike, this practical primer first explains what swaps are and how and why they are traded, then profiles the principal international swaps players. In clear, simple English, it then demonstrates how swaps are priced and quoted, how markets are made by swap dealers and brokers, and how to follow new capital and documentation requirements. For maximum utility, Understanding Swaps breaks down interest rate, currency, commodity, and equity swaps into their essential components. Then, using excellent examples and easy-to-follow diagrams, it graphically illustrates how to combine a number of basic swaps and related instruments to build complex financial structures that can be used to:

• Convert a commercial paper rollover strategy into a fixed debt rate
• Hedge exchange rate risk by converting a floating commodity price in one currency to a fixed price in another
• Convert a financial obligation denominated in one currency into an obligation denominated in any other currency
• Arbitrate capital markets by exploiting subtle price and interest rate discrepancies

Brimming with case studies that show how to compare both the pricing of swaps offered by different swaps dealers and the all-in-one of swap alternatives to other financing and/or available risk management opportunities, Understanding Swaps delivers the practical, hands-on information today’s financial pros need to get up to speed in this new high-volume, high-profit industry.

Understanding Swaps details the complete world of swaps: the basics (interest rate and currency swaps), the vogue (equity and commodity swaps), and the future (macroeconomic swaps). Indeed, Understanding Swaps is the book I would recommend to someone for a comprehensive and very readable primer on swaps. ?Carolyn Jackson First Vice President Banque Indosuez

From plain vanilla swaps to swaptions to circus swaps?here?s the most comprehensive, practical introduction to the global world of swaps Understanding Swaps Financial personnel, corporate treasurers and professional cash managers seeking a practical, hands-on introduction to swaps?sophisticated financial instruments used globally to control interest payments, manage debt, and enhance investment portfolios?need look no further than Understanding Swaps.

Jack Marshall and Ken Kapner have done a superb job of providing a complete, easy-to-read primer to derivative products. Using clear language and concise examples, it lays out the world of swaps for the practitioner, student, accountant, lawyer or regulator. ?Robert J. Schwartz EUP and Chief Operating Officer Mitsubishi Capital Markets, Inc.

Marshall and Kapner have produced an exceptionally cogent description and analysis of the swaps market along with its essential technical and theoretical underpinnings. This book should be number one on the reading list for any student or practitioner of contemporary financial techniques. ?J. Michael Payte Senior Managing Director Bear Sterns & Co. Inc.

Understanding Swaps details the complete world of swaps: the basics (interest rate and currency swaps), the vogue (equity and commodity swaps), and the future (macroeconomic swaps). Indeed, Understanding Swaps is the book I would recommend to someone for a comprehensive and very readable primer on swaps. ?Carolyn Jackson First Vice President Banque Indosuez

About the Author

JOHN F. MARSHALL is Senior Partner of Marshall & Associates, a New York-based financial engineering and consulting firm. He is widely known for his introduction of new swap derivatives and widely used futures portfolio models. He is a professor of finance at St. John?s University, and serves as Executive Director of the International Association of Financial Engineers. He is the author of Financial Engineering: A Guide to the Development and Use of Derivative Products and coauthor, along with Kenneth Kapner, of The Swaps Handbook: Swaps and Related Risk Management Instrument .

KENNETH R. KAPNER is Treasury Training Manager for The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited. A frequent user of swaps for the hedging of his bank?s positions, he has extensive trading experience in both the foreign exchange and money markets.