Financial Modelling in Practice: A Concise Guide for Intermediate and Advanced Level (The Wiley Finance Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)Michael Rees succeeds to a large extent in his endeavor of writing a text that addresses the financial modeling process instead of Excel functionality, financial theory, or mathematical models. To his credit, Rees has put together a large number of useful modeling examples in the CD-ROM that is sold with the text. Rees' book assumes that readers have at least an intermediate knowledge of both statistical and financial concepts.
After reviewing select Excel functions and tools relevant to financial modeling, Rees gives his audience of modelers many practical tips about how to design, structure, and build models that are relevant, accurate, and easily understandable. Whoever has experience with models will probably agree with Rees when he writes that the majority of models built are in practice of mediocre quality. Someone other than the author of the model will often experience several challenges in dealing with the model at hand, i.e., too much time spent on understanding the model, complexity of the auditing and validating processes, hard to share with others, over-reliance on the original modeler to maintain or use it, lack of clarity of objectives, and presence of errors and implicit assumptions.
Rees then goes into the modeling of financial statements that is often required in the world of corporate finance for forecasting profit and cash, assessing financing requirements, analyzing credit risk and valuation, etc. This chapter is a little gem. It contains many practical tips. Once again, readers will be reminded that there is not always 100% agreement on the definition of some financial concepts.
Rees then uses Palisade Corporation's add-ins @RISK and PrecisionTree for many modeling examples in the two chapters that he dedicates to risk modeling and real option modeling, respectively. Having some understanding of both statistical and financial concepts is particularly important here to benefit from reading both chapters. Probably, many readers with an advanced knowledge of Excel 2007 will regret that the above-mentioned functionality that Palisade Corporation offers has not yet been systematically integrated into at least Microsoft Office Professional.
Finally, Rees discusses the use of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) in a range of practical financial modeling situations. Rees points out that many otherwise competent modelers never learn VBA. For this reason, Rees makes the assumption that his audience is not very familiar with VBA. Rees shows how macros, i.e., subroutines and user-defined functions, can be used in a variety of modeling contexts.
In conclusion, Rees has made a valuable contribution to the field of financial modeling. The CD-ROM that is sold with the text plays a key role in achieving this objective.


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Financial Modelling in Practice: A Concise Guide for Intermediate and Advanced Level is a practical, comprehensive and in-depth guide to financial modelling designed to cover the modelling issues that are relevant to facilitate the construction of robust and readily understandable models.
Based on the authors extensive experience of building models in business and finance, and of training others how to do so this book starts with a review of Excel functions that are generally most relevant for building intermediate and advanced level models (such as Lookup functions, database and statistical functions and so on). It then discusses the principles involved in designing, structuring and building relevant, accurate and readily understandable models (including the use of sensitivity analysis techniques) before covering key application areas, such as the modelling of financial statements, of cash flow valuation, risk analysis, options and real options. Finally, the topic of financial modelling using VBA is treated. Practical examples are used throughout and model examples are included in the attached CD-ROM.
Aimed at intermediate and advanced level modellers in Excel who wish to extend and consolidate their knowledge, this book is focused, practical, and application-driven, facilitating knowledge to build or audit a much wider range of financial models.
Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

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Excel Modeling and Estimation in Investments Review

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(More customer reviews)Craig W. Holden's "Excel Modeling in Investments" came as an excellent surprise to me when I received a faculty review copy from the publisher. I have long used Simon Benninga's competing text "Financial Modeling in Excel" to teach undergraduate and graduate financial modeling courses, however, I seriously am considering switching to Holden's EMinI. Holden correctly emphasizes discounting a bond's value on various yield curves, rather than a linear or fixed discount rate as in Benninga. Holden has some flaws, his layouts for binomial pricing models are inefficient for adapting to trinomial converging tree models, for example, but Holden is the only serious rival to Benninga in coverage of the major topics of modeling. Holden covers bonds, duration, convexity, portfolio optimization, financial planning, and the leading option pricing models. In addition, he covers cost of carry in the context of spot and futures prices, and interest rate parity. Holden does not cover Value at Risk, cheapest to deliver bonds, and has little on Visual Basic. However he does cover the Vasicek and Cox-Ingersoll-Ross interest rate models more thoroughly than Benninga. Holden's flaws are many: there is no index, and this is a text that cries out for one. Similarly, the footnotes are inadequate, and a broad "Further Reading" and bibliography should be here. Holden also suffers from being written as a companion text to popular finance textbooks such as Bodie Kane and Marcus, however, one always has the impression that the author was looking more to maximizing the market share of the text than really selecting the best chapters. We can only hope that Holden follows the better angels of his nature and includes more detail and chapters, perhaps on Monte Carlo simulation, VaR, and VBA programming. The CD-Rom, while helpful, is a little light, but this is the author's intention for he wishes students to build their own models from scratch.
In summary, I heartily recommend this book coupled with Benninga's more detailed "Financial Modeling in Excel" and find the practical emphasis indispensable for those working with or using a theoretical text such as Bodie Kane and Marcus. For those students that want careers in finance, this book is fundamental, primary, and necessary, for it emphasizes practical skills you will be executing everyday at a much higher level in a bank or asset management firm. Master these skills and models now before beginning your career and the acceleration of your promotions responsibilities will exceed those of your peers quickly.

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Excel Modeling &_Estimation in Corporate Finance (2008 publication) Review

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(More customer reviews)I am a huge fan of this book for several reasons. First, I believe that Professor Holden is absolutely right in trying to move finance from a calculator driven study to spreadsheets. Everyone uses spreadsheets in their work, NOT calculators. So, it is not only useful to use spreadsheets, but to learn how to build them.
Another very nice thing about this book is that it uses plain vanilla Excel. You don't need any special add-ins. This allows the user to understand what Excel on its own is capable of (and that is quite a bit). It also means the student doesn't have to buy anything more than this book to get everything the author intended.
I also like the way he takes the student along. You build the first spreadsheet with the steps he provides, and then you modify that to make the second, and then the third, and so on. You get to see the increasingly powerful things one can do with Excel. The graphs he has one build also help because it allows you to change different values and immediately see how it changes the graph. This is immensely important in helping the student develop intuitions about how the changing of this or that number affects the topic of the spreadsheet.
This book on corporate finance begins with the time value of money, a basic concept, but one that seems to elude any number of people. Part 2 takes the student into the valuation of bonds and stocks. You also get to build a yield curve (very useful) and US yield curve dynamics. Part 3 is Capital Budgeting and this means Project Net Present Value (NPV), Cost-Reducing Project, Break-Even Analysis, Adjusted Present Value, Flows to Equity, and WACC.
Part 4 takes on topics of financial planning such as Corporate Financial Planning, the Du Pont System of Ratio Analysis, and Life-Cycle Financial Planning. The last part, Part 5 deals with options and corporate finance. You get to build spreadsheets for Binomial Option Pricing, Black Scholes Option Pricing, Debt and Equity Valuation, and Real Options.
While the book uses the Brigham text notation, the accompanying CD has several important chapters with the Brealy, Keown, Ross, and Van Horne notation systems. The CD also supplies databases and problems to solve using the spreadsheets. The author also has a website for additional info and updates.
Terrific book for finance classes or as a supplement to your own study.

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Corporate Valuation Modeling: A Step-by-Step Guide (Wiley Finance) Review

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(More customer reviews)There are many different variations on the basic DCF valuation model. Every bank has one, every business school has one, and everyone modifies it for their own purposes.
Keith's book offers some distinct advantages: (1) It actually walks you through the steps of building the model, instead of simply typing the inputs into one. This will ensure you understand it, but it might take some time to build it. (The full model is included for people who want to skip the typing). (2) Secondly, it is a "full blown" model and not a simplified version of one. While the first is common, and the second is common, the combination is (in my experience) uncommon.
More interestingly, (3) this model is more advanced than most of the others out there. The primary improvement is he has more "checks and balances" thrown in. The model has little checks that make sure cash ties through, that the extra cash pays off the debt, that capital expenditures are accounted for and that their depreciation pours through the income statement etc. This is invaluable. It does make it complicated, and sometimes I had circular references that were hard to fix, but this just forced me to deal with what was really going on in the model.
All in all, nicely done.

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A critical guide to corporate valuation modeling
Valuation is at the heart of everything that Wall Street does. Every day, millions of transactions to purchase or sell companies take place based on prices created by the activities of all market participants. In this book, author Keith Allman provides you with a core model to value companies.
Corporate Valuation Modeling takes you step-by-step through the process of creating a powerful corporate valuation model. Each chapter skillfully discusses the theory of the concept, followed by Model Builder instructions that inform you of every step necessary to create the template model. Many chapters also include a validation section that shows techniques and implementations that you can employ to make sure the model is working properly.
Walks you through the full process of constructing a fully dynamic corporate valuation model
A Tool Box section at the end of each chapter assists readers who may be less skilled in Excel techniques and functions

Complete with a companion CD-ROM that contains constructed models, this book is an essential guide to understanding the intricacies of corporate valuation modeling.
Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

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Financial Modeling - 2nd Edition: Includes CD Review

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(More customer reviews)I have used Simon Benninga's "Financial Modeling with Excel" for five years to teach undergraduate computational finance [...]. My thinking remains that my students have been well served by this textbook.
The inadequacies that limit my assessment to four stars and need to be addressed in the third edition are: 1) frustrating errors in the text and models, for which the errata sheet and corrected models (available at: [...] only improve, but do not heal. My students find new, undocumented, errors each semester. 2) the data sets and examples are getting, frankly, a little old. It is the year 2005 as I write this, but the data sets and examples end in 1999, a year in which my current students were in high school. 3) the models, while excellent as introductions to the field, are now at the point of being fundamental, rather than exemplary. This is not Prof. Benninga's fault, but as the other reviews from professionals here attest, Excel modeling has advanced in all fields (option pricing, financial statements, portfolio optimization, bond metrics, etc). When this volume was introduced, it was adequate for helping MBA and Master of Science in Finance students build essential modeling skills. Sadly, it now is only appropriate for raw beginners or undergraduates. A new text with a larger scope that addresses advances in the fields is called for. 4) While it is a subject in itself, the book is seriously hindered by not introducing basic Monte Carlo simulation in Excel. 5) No information on downloading data from BLOOMBERG, REUTERS, and other historical and market data providers. It would add to the scope of the text, but 6) fitting DCF models to yield curves also would be welcome.
Even with these criticisms, Benninga's Financial Modeling remains the best book in the field for what it seeks to accomplish. It covers the major topics of finance that are appropriately addressed with models: financial statement, firm valuation and credit metrics, portfolio construction, fixed income metrics, option pricing, etc. Benninga's FM also compares favorably with his two nearest competitors.
Powel and Baker's "The Art of Spreadsheet Modeling" is a two pronged monster: it seeks to be a meta-level theoretical work on spreadsheet modeling, and then introduces modeling Monte Carlo simulation as a fundamental component of Excel (a student edition of CrystalBall is included in the text, and is the only reason to buy this book). The gap between the two is a Grand Canyon's worth of knowledge space that this text does not fill in and nearly ignores. The student who uses only Powel and Baker is ill served; whereas if he uses Benninga, he knows how, why, when and what to model. Consider Powel & Baker as sketches of a concept car with simulated wind tunnel runs, whereas Benninga shows how to build your own kit car and drive it around. Powel and Baker's concept car is beautiful, advanced, gracious, but doesn't exist and doesn't run; Benninga's kit car is like a Lotus Super Seven: simple, runs, is a blast to drive, but is dangerous in heavy traffic and you would not want to go on a 1,000 mile journey with it (i.e. or build a DCF model for the Goldman Sachs LBO team with only Benninga).
Chandan Sengupta's "Financial Modeling Using Excel and VBA" is the only book that comes close to Benninga, and I recommend it as another perspective for my students who want to continue with financial modeling. However, Sengupta's work is flawed on two counts: 1) it is clear throughout that he had read Benninga, and 2) he dropped much of Benninga's content in favor of adding wordy explanatory paragraphs to soften the blow of the fact that modeling is mathematically and technically both boring and intense work. With those criticisms in mind, his work still has neater, leaner, more compressed models with updated contemporary detail.
There are three other books, Scott Proctor's "Building Financial Models with Microsoft Excel: A Guide for Business Professionals," which focuses on building vanilla financial statements, as does John Tjia "Building Financial Models." Mary Jackson & Mike Staunton's "Advanced Modeling in Finance using Excel and VBA" is also now dated and seriously flawed and limited in scope), however it is the next step following Benninga.
For those working in top-tier banks, the internal training and modeling documents, and examples built by colleagues, will likely surpass by light years what is offered in these books. And so for beginners, Benninga remains the the best choice and first step, until something better comes along, or Benninga himself produces a new edition.

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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®. In this sense, this is a finance "cookbook," providing recipes with lists of ingredients and instructions.Areas covered include computation of corporate finance problems, standard portfolio problems, option pricing and applications, and duration and immunization. The second edition contains six new chapters covering financial calculations, cost of capital, value at risk (VaR), real options, early exercise boundaries, and term structure modeling. A new technical chapter contains a potpourri of tips for using Excel®.Although the reader should know enough about Excel™ to set up a simple spreadsheet, the author explains advanced Excel® techniques used in the book. The book includes chapters dealing with random number generation, data tables, matrix manipulation, and VBA programming. It also comes with a CD-ROM containing Excel® worksheets and solutions to end-of-chapter exercises.

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