It is a detailed primer on today's most sophisticated and controversial trading technique. Unfair ...brilliant ...illegal ...inevitable. High-frequency trading has been described in many different ways, but one thing is for sure - it has transformed investing as we know it. "All About High-Frequency Trading" examines the practice of deploying advanced computer algorithms to read and interpret market activity, make trades, and pull in huge profits - all within milliseconds. Whatever your level of investing expertise, you'll gain valuable insight from "All About High-Frequency Trading's" sober, objective explanations of: the markets in which high-frequency traders operate; how high-frequency traders profit from mispriced securities; statistical and algorithmic strategies used by high-frequency traders; technology and techniques for building a high frequency trading system; and, the ongoing debate over the benefits, risks, and ever-evolving future of high-frequency trading.
Everything You Need to Know, including: the internal configuration of a high-frequency trading system; comparisons of benefits and drawbacks, as well as analyses of inherent risks; who profits from high-frequency trading - and how they do it. Michael Durbin is an author and financial technology consultant specializing in the high-frequency trading of derivatives. He has taught at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School. Durbin lives near Washington, DC.

All about Derivatives

by Michael Durbin

Published 14 September 2005

The answer to trading profit growth lies in derivatives. All About Derivatives explains the major derivatives and their key features of each; vital mechanical issues such as storage, settle- ment, valuation, and payoff; and common types of risk and how to effectively hedge against them. Michael Durbin is known as a derivatives trader and manager for one of the world's largest, most high-profile hedge funds.


EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT DERIVATIVES

All About Derivatives, Second Edition, presents the complex subject of financial derivatives with a clarity and coherence you won’t find in other books. Using real-world examples and simple language, it lucidly illustrates what derivatives are and why they are so powerful. This second edition of All About Derivatives provides a rock-solid foundation on:

  • The most common contracts available to you in today's market
  • Key concepts such as cost of carry, settlement, valuation, and payoff
  • Proven methods for establishing fair value
  • How leverage can work for you--and against you
  • The various derivative contracts traded today, including forwards, futures, swaps, and options
  • Pricing methods and mathematics for determining fair value
  • Hedging strategies for managing and reducing different types of risk

INCLUDES A BRAND-NEW CHAPTER ON THE ROLEDERIVATIVES PLAYED IN THE 2008 FINANCIAL MELTDOWN