This book provides an innovative, integrated, and methodical approach to understanding complex financial models, integrating topics usually presented separately into a comprehensive whole. The book brings together financial models and high-level mathematics, reviewing the mathematical background necessary for understanding these models organically and in context. It begins with underlying assumptions and progresses logically through increasingly complex models to operative conclusions. Readers who have mastered the material will gain the tools needed to put theory into practice and incorporate financial models into real-life investment, financial, and business scenarios. Modern finance’s most bothersome shortcoming is that the two basic models for building an optimal investment portfolio, Markowitz’s mean-variance model and Sharpe and Treynor’s Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), fall short when we try to apply them using Excel Solver. This book explores these two models in detail, and for the first time in a textbook the Black-Litterman model for building an optimal portfolio constructed from a small number of assets (developed at Goldman Sachs) is thoroughly presented. The model’s integration of personal views and its application using Excel templates are demonstrated. The book also offers innovative presentations of the Modigliani–Miller model and the Consumption-Based Capital Asset Pricing Model (CCAPM). Problems at the end of each chapter invite the reader to put the models into immediate use. Fundamental Models in Financial Theory is suitable for classroom use or as a reference for finance practitioners.

The second edition of this authoritative textbook continues the tradition of providing clear and concise descriptions of the new and classic concepts in financial theory. The authors keep the theory accessible by requiring very little mathematical background. First edition published by Prentice-Hall in 2001- ISBN 0130174467. The second edition includes new structure emphasizing the distinction between the equilibrium and the arbitrage perspectives on valuation and pricing, as well as a new chapter on asset management for the long term investor. "This book does admirably what it sets out to do - provide a bridge between MBA-level finance texts and PhD-level texts.... many books claim to require little prior mathematical training, but this one actually does so. This book may be a good one for Ph.D students outside finance who need some basic training in financial theory or for those looking for a more user-friendly introduction to advanced theory. The exercises are very good." --Ian Gow, Student, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University Completely updated edition of classic textbook that fills a gap between MBA level texts and PHD level texts Focuses on clear explanations of key concepts and requires limited mathematical prerequisites Updates includes new structure emphasizing the distinction between the equilibrium and the arbitrage perspectives on valuation and pricing, as well as a new chapter on asset management for the long term investor

Based on courses developed by the author over several years, this book provides access to a broad area of research that is not available in separate articles or books of readings. Topics covered include the meaning and measurement of risk, general single-period portfolio problems, mean-variance analysis and the Capital Asset Pricing Model, the Arbitrage Pricing Theory, complete markets, multiperiod portfolio problems and the Intertemporal Capital Asset Pricing Model, the Black-Scholes option pricing model and contingent claims analysis, 'risk-neutral' pricing with Martingales, Modigliani-Miller and the capital structure of the firm, interest rates and the term structure, and others.

This work, now in a thoroughly revised second edition, presents the economic foundations of financial markets theory from a mathematically rigorous standpoint and offers a self-contained critical discussion based on empirical results. It is the only textbook on the subject to include more than two hundred exercises, with detailed solutions to selected exercises. Financial Markets Theory covers classical asset pricing theory in great detail, including utility theory, equilibrium theory, portfolio selection, mean-variance portfolio theory, CAPM, CCAPM, APT, and the Modigliani-Miller theorem. Starting from an analysis of the empirical evidence on the theory, the authors provide a discussion of the relevant literature, pointing out the main advances in classical asset pricing theory and the new approaches designed to address asset pricing puzzles and open problems (e.g., behavioral finance). Later chapters in the book contain more advanced material, including on the role of information in financial markets, non-classical preferences, noise traders and market microstructure. This textbook is aimed at graduate students in mathematical finance and financial economics, but also serves as a useful reference for practitioners working in insurance, banking, investment funds and financial consultancy. Introducing necessary tools from microeconomic theory, this book is highly accessible and completely self-contained. Advance praise for the second edition: "Financial Markets Theory is comprehensive, rigorous, and yet highly accessible. With their second edition, Barucci and Fontana have set an even higher standard!"Darrell Duffie, Dean Witter Distinguished Professor of Finance, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University "This comprehensive book is a great self-contained source for studying most major theoretical aspects of financial economics. What makes the book particularly useful is that it provides a lot of intuition, detailed discussions of empirical implications, a very thorough survey of the related literature, and many completely solved exercises. The second edition covers more ground and provides many more proofs, and it will be a handy addition to the library of every student or researcher in the field."Jaksa Cvitanic, Richard N. Merkin Professor of Mathematical Finance, Caltech "The second edition of Financial Markets Theory by Barucci and Fontana is a superb achievement that knits together all aspects of modern finance theory, including financial markets microstructure, in a consistent and self-contained framework. Many exercises, together with their detailed solutions, make this book indispensable for serious students in finance."Michel Crouhy, Head of Research and Development, NATIXIS

This classic textbook in the field, now completely revised and updated, provides a bridge between theory and practice. Appropriate for the second course in Finance for MBA students and the first course in Finance for doctoral students, the text prepares students for the complex world of modern financial scholarship and practice. It presents a unified treatment of finance combining theory, empirical evidence and applications.

China is now the second largest economy in the world, with an increasingly efficient and open financial system. Many firms, agents and financial institutions have realized the potential in making money in China. Financial Theory: Perspectives from China serves as a timely textbook providing a unique introduction to economics theory, with a focus on money, banking and financial systems, through examples based mainly on China's financial practices. It contains up-to-date developments of theory and practices, as well as various interesting stories on China's financial system. Topics such as financial institutions, capital markets, debt securities markets, mutual fund markets, money markets, foreign exchange and financial derivative markets are discussed in depth. Financial theories are supplemented with illustrations from China's money supply mechanism and monetary policy system, China's financial regulatory and supervision system, as well as China's financial system and how it has liberalized and opened up to the rest of the world. Readers will find detailed examinations of financial theories, exemplified and reinforced by the inclusion of different financial cases and phenomena, each intriguing in their own right. This book provides readers with a deeper understanding of China's financial practices, providing vital knowledge for investing in China and engaging businesses there. Undergraduate students in economics and finance and those keen on becoming a player in China's financial markets will no doubt find this volume useful and necessary.

The book presents models for the pricing of financial assets such as stocks, bonds, and options. The models are formulated and analyzed using concepts and techniques from mathematics and probability theory. It presents important classic models and some recent 'state-of-the-art' models that outperform the classics.

An in-depth look at how to account for the human complexities at the heart of today’s financial system Our economy may have recovered from the Great Recession—but not our economics. The End of Theory discusses why the human condition and the radical uncertainty of our world renders the standard economic model—and the theory behind it—useless for dealing with financial crises. What model should replace it? None. At least not any version we’ve been using for the past two hundred years. Richard Bookstaber argues for a new approach called agent-based economics, one that takes as a starting point the fact that we are humans, not the optimizing automatons that standard economics assumes we are. Sweeping aside the historic failure of twentieth-century economics, The End of Theory offers a novel perspective and more realistic framework to help prevent today's financial system from blowing up again.

​This book presents both theory of financial data analytics, as well as comprehensive insights into the application of financial data analytics techniques in real financial world situations. It offers solutions on how to logically analyze the enormous amount of structured and unstructured data generated every moment in the finance sector. This data can be used by companies, organizations, and investors to create strategies, as the finance sector rapidly moves towards data-driven optimization. This book provides an efficient resource, addressing all applications of data analytics in the finance sector. International experts from around the globe cover the most important subjects in finance, including data processing, knowledge management, machine learning models, data modeling, visualization, optimization for financial problems, financial econometrics, financial time series analysis, project management, and decision making. The authors provide empirical evidence as examples of specific topics. By combining both applications and theory, the book offers a holistic approach. Therefore, it is a must-read for researchers and scholars of financial economics and finance, as well as practitioners interested in a better understanding of financial data analytics.

Financial modelling Theory, Implementation and Practice with MATLAB Source Jörg Kienitz and Daniel Wetterau Financial Modelling - Theory, Implementation and Practice with MATLAB Source is a unique combination of quantitative techniques, the application to financial problems and programming using Matlab. The book enables the reader to model, design and implement a wide range of financial models for derivatives pricing and asset allocation, providing practitioners with complete financial modelling workflow, from model choice, deriving prices and Greeks using (semi-) analytic and simulation techniques, and calibration even for exotic options. The book is split into three parts. The first part considers financial markets in general and looks at the complex models needed to handle observed structures, reviewing models based on diffusions including stochastic-local volatility models and (pure) jump processes. It shows the possible risk-neutral densities, implied volatility surfaces, option pricing and typical paths for a variety of models including SABR, Heston, Bates, Bates-Hull-White, Displaced-Heston, or stochastic volatility versions of Variance Gamma, respectively Normal Inverse Gaussian models and finally, multi-dimensional models. The stochastic-local-volatility Libor market model with time-dependent parameters is considered and as an application how to price and risk-manage CMS spread products is demonstrated. The second part of the book deals with numerical methods which enables the reader to use the models of the first part for pricing and risk management, covering methods based on direct integration and Fourier transforms, and detailing the implementation of the COS, CONV, Carr-Madan method or Fourier-Space-Time Stepping. This is applied to pricing of European, Bermudan and exotic options as well as the calculation of the Greeks. The Monte Carlo simulation technique is outlined and bridge sampling is discussed in a Gaussian setting and for Lévy processes. Computation of Greeks is covered using likelihood ratio methods and adjoint techniques. A chapter on state-of-the-art optimization algorithms rounds up the toolkit for applying advanced mathematical models to financial problems and the last chapter in this section of the book also serves as an introduction to model risk. The third part is devoted to the usage of Matlab, introducing the software package by describing the basic functions applied for financial engineering. The programming is approached from an object-oriented perspective with examples to propose a framework for calibration, hedging and the adjoint method for calculating Greeks in a Libor market model. Source code used for producing the results and analysing the models is provided on the author's dedicated website, http://www.mathworks.de/matlabcentral/fileexchange/authors/246981.