I read and then reread Peter Jackel's book on Monte Carlo methods in finance, hoping to get more out of it with the extra readings. Alas, this was not the case - you can only squeeze so much juice out of a dry orange. This book looks and feels like a brain dump of a brainiac who hasn't got the ability or time to teach the foundations of the subject to his readers well. After all, if you're going to publish a book, surely you want to take a little pride in your work and what others think of it and get out of it. Very little peer review (if none at all), a rushed effort with I'm-too-good-to-really-care-about-my-readers kind of attitude were the main impressions I got out of reading this book. There are no real short cuts to learning the fairly sophisticated mathematical techniques that comprise the Monte Carlo method and the option pricing and hedging that they are being applied to. Math and engineering books on the technique, as well as papers on MC methods may be your best bet here if your aim is to really learn, understand and apply the subject with any level of confidence.



This lack of quality must also be a reflection on the publishers Wiley Finance, and I have all but given up on them running quality control on their finance books that they publish. They definitely need reminding that quality should not be sacrificed to quantity if they are to remain a viable going concern. I can only suggest that they employ qualified proof-readers in their quality control section on finance. It is this cavalier attitude to finance that got us into the mess we are now in. What does it matter if reputation doesn't matter?