This book is an outgrowth of notes compiled by the author while teachingcourses for undergraduate and masters/MBA finance students at Washing-ton University in St. Louis and the Institut ffir
HShere Studien in Vienna. Atone time, a course in Options and Futures was considered an advanced financeelective, but now such a course is nearly mandatory for any finance major andis an
elective chosen by many non-finance majors as well. Moreover, studentsare exposed to derivative securities in courses on Investments, InternationalFinance, Risk Management, Investment Banking,
Fixed Income, etc. This ex-pansion of education in derivative securities mirrors the increased importanceof derivative securities in corporate finance and investment management.