The Concepts and Practice of Mathematical Finance

Second edition of successful text providing the working knowledge needed to become a good quantitative analyst.

An ideal introduction for those starting out as practitioners of mathematical finance, this book provides a clear understanding of the intuition behind derivatives pricing, how models are implemented, and how they are used and adapted in practice. Strengths and weaknesses of different models, e.g. Black–Scholes, stochastic volatility, jump-diffusion and variance gamma, are examined. Both the theory and the implementation of the industry-standard LIBOR market model are considered in detail. Each pricing problem is approached using multiple techniques including the well-known PDE and martingale approaches. This second edition contains many more worked examples and over 200 exercises with detailed solutions. Extensive appendices provide a guide to jargon, a recap of the elements of probability theory, and a collection of computer projects. The author brings to this book a blend of practical experience and rigorous mathematical background and supplies here the working knowledge needed to become a good quantitative analyst.

Preface; Acknowledgements; 1. Risk; 2. Pricing methodologies and arbitrage; 3. Trees and option pricing; 4. Practicalities; 5. The Ito calculus; 6. Risk neutrality and martingale measures; 7. The practical pricing of a European option; 8. Continuous barrier options; 9. Multi-look exotic options; 10. Static replication; 11. Multiple sources of risk; 12. Options with early exercise features; 13. Interest rate derivatives; 14. The pricing of exotic interest rate derivatives; 15. Incomplete markets and jump-diffusion processes; 16. Stochastic volatility; 17. Variance gamma models; 18. Smile dynamics and the pricing of exotic options; Appendix A. Financial and mathematical jargon; Appendix B. Computer projects; Appendix C. Elements of probability theory; Appendix D. Hints and answers to exercises; Bibliography; Index.

Second edition of successful text providing the working knowledge needed to become a good quantitative analyst. An ideal introduction to mathematical finance, readers will gain a clear understanding of the intuition behind derivatives pricing, how models are implemented, and how they are used and adapted in practice.

Mark S. Joshi is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Actuarial Studies at the University of Melbourne. He has wide experience of teaching courses in financial mathematics and has previously held posts at the University of Cambridge and at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Risk Management. In February 2004 he was appointed Head of Quantitative Research Centre (QUARC) at RBS. He is the author of two books and numerous papers on both financial and pure mathematics, and has been an invited speaker at many international conferences.