Book review: Schweser's "Understanding Your Financial Calculator"

chibwack

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Well, I bought this book with my schwesernotes because (a) there was a lot of buttons on my BAII+Pro I didn’t know how to use, (b) I couldn’t find any reviews online to steer me away, and (c) Schweser has a good reputation so this book should be useful right? Well, unfortunately I can honestly say it’s not. If anybody out there is looking for a good guide for their calculator steer clear!
Before I got it, I already knew how to use the TVM functions, but that’s it really (no CF/NPV/IRR/Amort). So I got the book hoping to grasp primarily (a) Amort, (b) Data/Stat, (c) Bond, (d) Depr, (e) Breakeven and (f) Profit. Well boy was I disappointed!
Now that I’m through the thing, I’ve added some of (b) to my understanding (in that I can find the SD of a sample). As for amort, bond, depr., brkevn and profit, they went untouched throughout. Whats more, with for example Stat, I only learned to use “1-V” setting. No mention of what that means, or anything on the other 3 (4?) options in that menu. Even with bonds, there’s a section devoted to finding duration/etc, but they don’t use the BAII’s Bond calculator, they just use the arithmetic method and show you the keystrokes (X-X=X*X*X=X…..).
The textbook side of the book is mostly TVM functions- something most of us can figure out in about 5 minutes. The remainder is going over arithmetic concepts ie geometric mean, weighted averages, etc. Nothing specific to financial calculators, and therefore nothing that should be taking up space in the book imo. The last half of the book is a student workbook and PV tables. To give you an idea how elementary the content is, number one is literally “Calculate 93.2+46.5”.
That said, maybe the reason a lot of this wasn’t covered is because the BAII+ (non-pro) doesn’t have those functions, and I wouldn’t know as I only have the pro. But there’s a picture of the pro on the cover, so that shouldn’t be it.
So if you’re looking for a good guide to teach you your BAII+Pro, stay away. What I expected to list out all the different settings under each option with what they mean and how to use them, I got an introductory math textbook with a touch of finance. Instead just head over to http://www.atomiclearning.com/ti_ba2. Wish I’d have found that site before ordering, as it could have saved me almost a hundred bucks of entirely wasted money and had secret sauce instead.
 
Sorry pal.
This site is really good. Wish I knew it earlier too.
Learning BA II would have been easier.. however, I used a bunch of free youtube videos to learn it.
 
I have both the HP12C and the TI BAII+ but prefer to use the HP12C.
 
The book may not be good, but Schweser do have 2 videos in the CFA Video Library in the Online Instruction section which are quite useful. I’m not sure if these are available if you have not taken some from of video instruction.
 
sorry to hear that.
i didn’t know much about using the BAII plus pro, i wish i had come across the site u mentiond earlier.
i just used interenet sites to get what i wanted.
 
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