Ebook: Understanding Credit Derivatives and Related Instruments (Academic Press Advanced Finance)

I am a financial engineering graduate student with professional experience in corporate and structured finance. I first read this book before I knew anything about the subject and found it very accessible. This is not a technical introduction to credit derivatives, nor will it be particularly useful to quants (other than perhaps as a quick reference to a couple concepts), however this book does an admirable job of explaining and linking the world of CD practice with academic theory. For anyone who doesn't have a derivatives background, but is able to understand mid-level mathematical concepts, this book is very good. It is clear, concise and is a great place to start for an introduction to CD that is not overly pedantic and offers motivation for further inquiry into the area.

If you are looking for a more technical and comprehensive book on credit modeling (which forms the basis of most CD valuation) then I recommend Jeff Bohn's "Active Credit Portfolio Management in Practice" which has in depth discussions about many of the issues in Bonfim's book as well as much more.

Nonetheless, having read and purchased many books on CD this one is one of the best due to its brevity, concision and practical robustness.