Computationally-intensive tools play an increasingly important role in financial decisions. Many financial problems-ranging from asset allocation to risk management and from option pricing to model calibration-can be efficiently handled using modern computational techniques. Numerical Methods and Optimization in Finance presents such computational techniques, with an emphasis on simulation and optimization, particularly so-called heuristics. This book treats quantitative analysis as an essentially computational discipline in which applications are put into software form and tested empirically. This revised edition includes two new chapters, a self-contained tutorial on implementing and using heuristics, and an explanation of software used for testing portfolio-selection models. Postgraduate students, researchers in programs on quantitative and computational finance, and practitioners in banks and other financial companies can benefit from this second edition of Numerical Methods and Optimization in Finance.

An introduction to the theory and practice of financial simulation and optimization In recent years, there has been a notable increase in the use of simulation and optimization methods in the financial industry. Applications include portfolio allocation, risk management, pricing, and capital budgeting under uncertainty. This accessible guide provides an introduction to the simulation and optimization techniques most widely used in finance, while at the same time offering background on the financial concepts in these applications. In addition, it clarifies difficult concepts in traditional models of uncertainty in finance, and teaches you how to build models with software. It does this by reviewing current simulation and optimization methodology-along with available software-and proceeds with portfolio risk management, modeling of random processes, pricing of financial derivatives, and real options applications. Contains a unique combination of finance theory and rigorous mathematical modeling emphasizing a hands-on approach through implementation with software Highlights not only classical applications, but also more recent developments, such as pricing of mortgage-backed securities Includes models and code in both spreadsheet-based software (@RISK, Solver, Evolver, VBA) and mathematical modeling software (MATLAB) Filled with in-depth insights and practical advice, Simulation and Optimization Modeling in Finance offers essential guidance on some of the most important topics in financial management.

Some recent developments in the mathematics of optimization, including the concepts of invexity and quasimax, have not yet been applied to models of economic growth, and to finance and investment. Their applications to these areas are shown in this book.

This is an advanced guide to optimal stopping and control, focusing on advanced Monte Carlo simulation and its application to finance. Written for quantitative finance practitioners and researchers in academia, the book looks at the classical simulation based algorithms before introducing some of the new, cutting edge approaches under development.

With the advance of new computing technology, simulation is becoming very popular for designing large, complex and stochastic engineering systems, since closed-form analytical solutions generally do not exist for such problems. However, the added flexibility of simulation often creates models that are computationally intractable. Moreover, to obtain a sound statistical estimate at a specified level of confidence, a large number of simulation runs (or replications) is usually required for each design alternative. If the number of design alternatives is large, the total simulation cost can be very expensive. Stochastic Simulation Optimization addresses the pertinent efficiency issue via smart allocation of computing resource in the simulation experiments for optimization, and aims to provide academic researchers and industrial practitioners with a comprehensive coverage of OCBA approach for stochastic simulation optimization. Starting with an intuitive explanation of computing budget allocation and a discussion of its impact on optimization performance, a series of OCBA approaches developed for various problems are then presented, from the selection of the best design to optimization with multiple objectives. Finally, this book discusses the potential extension of OCBA notion to different applications such as data envelopment analysis, experiments of design and rare-event simulation.

The Handbook of Simulation Optimization presents an overview of the state of the art of simulation optimization, providing a survey of the most well-established approaches for optimizing stochastic simulation models and a sampling of recent research advances in theory and methodology. Leading contributors cover such topics as discrete optimization via simulation, ranking and selection, efficient simulation budget allocation, random search methods, response surface methodology, stochastic gradient estimation, stochastic approximation, sample average approximation, stochastic constraints, variance reduction techniques, model-based stochastic search methods and Markov decision processes. This single volume should serve as a reference for those already in the field and as a means for those new to the field for understanding and applying the main approaches. The intended audience includes researchers, practitioners and graduate students in the business/engineering fields of operations research, management science, operations management and stochastic control, as well as in economics/finance and computer science.

Simulation has become a tool difficult to substitute in many scientific areas like manufacturing, medicine, telecommunications, games, etc. Finance is one of such areas where simulation is a commonly used tool; for example, we can find Monte Carlo simulation in many financial applications like market risk analysis, portfolio optimization, credit risk related applications, etc. Simulation in Computational Finance and Economics: Tools and Emerging Applications presents a thorough collection of works, covering several rich and highly productive areas of research including Risk Management, Agent-Based Simulation, and Payment Methods and Systems, topics that have found new motivations after the strong recession experienced in the last few years. Despite the fact that simulation is widely accepted as a prominent tool, dealing with a simulation-based project requires specific management abilities of the researchers. Economic researchers will find an excellent reference to introduce them to the computational simulation models. The works presented in this book can be used as an inspiration for economic researchers interested in creating their own computational models in their respective fields.

Developed from the author’s course on Monte Carlo simulation at Brown University, Monte Carlo Simulation with Applications to Finance provides a self-contained introduction to Monte Carlo methods in financial engineering. It is suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students taking a one-semester course or for practitioners in the financial industry. The author first presents the necessary mathematical tools for simulation, arbitrary free option pricing, and the basic implementation of Monte Carlo schemes. He then describes variance reduction techniques, including control variates, stratification, conditioning, importance sampling, and cross-entropy. The text concludes with stochastic calculus and the simulation of diffusion processes. Only requiring some familiarity with probability and statistics, the book keeps much of the mathematics at an informal level and avoids technical measure-theoretic jargon to provide a practical understanding of the basics. It includes a large number of examples as well as MATLAB® coding exercises that are designed in a progressive manner so that no prior experience with MATLAB is needed.

Teach Your Students How to Become Successful Working Quants Quantitative Finance: A Simulation-Based Introduction Using Excel provides an introduction to financial mathematics for students in applied mathematics, financial engineering, actuarial science, and business administration. The text not only enables students to practice with the basic techniques of financial mathematics, but it also helps them gain significant intuition about what the techniques mean, how they work, and what happens when they stop working. After introducing risk, return, decision making under uncertainty, and traditional discounted cash flow project analysis, the book covers mortgages, bonds, and annuities using a blend of Excel simulation and difference equation or algebraic formalism. It then looks at how interest rate markets work and how to model bond prices before addressing mean variance portfolio optimization, the capital asset pricing model, options, and value at risk (VaR). The author next focuses on binomial model tools for pricing options and the analysis of discrete random walks. He also introduces stochastic calculus in a nonrigorous way and explains how to simulate geometric Brownian motion. The text proceeds to thoroughly discuss options pricing, mostly in continuous time. It concludes with chapters on stochastic models of the yield curve and incomplete markets using simple discrete models. Accessible to students with a relatively modest level of mathematical background, this book will guide your students in becoming successful quants. It uses both hand calculations and Excel spreadsheets to analyze plenty of examples from simple bond portfolios. The spreadsheets are available on the book’s CRC Press web page.