A book which reveals the people and ideas on the cusp of a new era in finance.

A young scholar tells the story of the physicists and mathematicians who created the models that have become the basis of modern finance and argues that these models are the "solution" to--not the source of--our current economic woes.

This book introduces physics students to concepts and methods of finance. Despite being perceived as quite distant from physics, finance shares a number of common methods and ideas, usually related to noise and uncertainties. Juxtaposing the key methods to applications in both physics and finance articulates both differences and common features, this gives students a deeper understanding of the underlying ideas. Moreover, they acquire a number of useful mathematical and computational tools, such as stochastic differential equations, path integrals, Monte-Carlo methods, and basic cryptology. Each chapter ends with a set of carefully designed exercises enabling readers to test their comprehension.

In My Life as a Quant, Emanuel Derman relives his exciting journey as one of the first high-energy particle physicists to migrate to Wall Street. Page by page, Derman details his adventures in this field—analyzing the incompatible personas of traders and quants, and discussing the dissimilar nature of knowledge in physics and finance. Throughout this tale, he also reflects on the appropriate way to apply the refined methods of physics to the hurly-burly world of markets.

Understanding modern physics doesn’t have to be confusing and hard What if there was an intuitive way to understand how nature fundamentally works? What if there was a book that allowed you to see the whole picture and not just tiny parts of it? Thoughts like this are the reason that Physics from Finance now exists. What will you learn from this book? Get to know all fundamental interactions —Grasp how we can describe electromagnetic interactions, weak interactions, strong interactions and gravity using the same key ideas.Learn how to describe modern physics mathematically — Understand the meaning and origin of the Einstein equation, Maxwell’s equations, and the Schrödinger equation.Develop an intuitive understanding of key concepts — Read how we can understand abstract ideas like Gauge Symmetry, Internal Spaces, Gauge Fields, Connections and Curvature using a simple toy model of the financial market.Get an understanding you can be proud of — Learn why fiber bundles and group theory provide a unified framework for all modern theories of physics. Physics from Finance is the most reader-friendly book on the geometry of modern physics ever written. Here’s why. First of all, it's is nothing like a formal university lecture. Instead, it’s like a casual conservation with a more experienced student. This also means that nothing is assumed to be “obvious” or “easy to see”.Each chapter, each section, and each page focusses solely on the goal to help you understand. Nothing is introduced without a thorough motivation and it is always clear where each formula comes from.The book contains no fluff since unnecessary content quickly leads to confusion. Instead, it ruthlessly focusses on the fundamentals and makes sure you’ll understand them in detail. The primary focus on the readers’ needs is also visible in dozens of small features that you won’t find in any other textbook In total, the book contains more than 100 illustrations that help you understand the most important concepts visually.Whenever a concept is used which was already introduced previously, there is a short sidenote that reminds you where it was first introduced and often recites the main points. In addition, helpful diagrams make sure you won’t get lost.

One of the newest and most controversial approaches to financial pricing. In Physics of Finance the author applies the methods of theoretical physics to financial economics to develop an altogether original method for pricing financial assets that steps outside the equilibrium paradigm in finance. In Physics of Finance, basic assumptions underlying equilibrium pricing are re-examined, the risk factors hidden in the implications of equilibrium theory and the potential profit in unstable markets are discussed and gauge modelling is introduced.

A careful examination of the interaction between physics and finance. It takes a look at the 100-year-long history of co-operation between the two fields and goes on to provide new research results on capital markets - taken from the field of statistical physics. The random walk model, well known in physics, is one good example of where the two disciplines meet. In the world of finance it is the basic model upon which the Black-Scholes theory of option pricing and hedging has been built. The underlying assumptions are discussed using empirical financial data and analogies to physical models such as fluid flows, turbulence, or superdiffusion. On this basis, new theories of derivative pricing and risk control can be formulated.

Options have been traded for hundreds of years, but investment decisions were based on gut feelings until the Nobel Prize -- winning discovery of the Black-Scholes options pricing model in 1973 ushered in the era of the "quants." Wall Street would never be the same. In Pricing the Future, financial economist George G. Szpiro tells the fascinating stories of the pioneers of mathematical finance who conducted the search for the elusive options pricing formula. From the broker's assistant who published the first mathematical explanation of financial markets to Albert Einstein and other scientists who looked for a way to explain the movement of atoms and molecules, Pricing the Future retraces the historical and intellectual developments that ultimately led to the widespread use of mathematical models to drive investment strategies on Wall Street.

With more and more physicists and physics students exploring the possibility of utilizing their advanced math skills for a career in the finance industry, this much-needed book quickly introduces them to fundamental and advanced finance principles and methods. Quantitative Finance for Physicists provides a short, straightforward introduction for those who already have a background in physics. Find out how fractals, scaling, chaos, and other physics concepts are useful in analyzing financial time series. Learn about key topics in quantitative finance such as option pricing, portfolio management, and risk measurement. This book provides the basic knowledge in finance required to enable readers with physics backgrounds to move successfully into the financial industry. - Short, self-contained book for physicists to master basic concepts and quantitative methods of finance - Growing field—many physicists are moving into finance positions because of the high-level math required - Draws on the author's own experience as a physicist who moved into a financial analyst position

Provides graduate students and practitioners in physics and economics with a better understanding of stochastic processes.