An excellent basis for further study. Suitable even for readers with no mathematical background.

"This book explains in simple settings the fundamental ideas of financial market modelling and derivative pricing, using the no-arbitrage principle. Relatively elementary mathematics leads to powerful notions and techniques - such as viability, completeness, self-financing and replicating strategies, arbitrage and equivalent martingale measures - which are directly applicable in practice. The general methods are applied in detail to pricing and hedging European and American options within the Cox-Ross-Rubinstein (CRR) binomial tree model. A simple approach to discrete interest rate models is included, which, though elementary, has some novel features. All proofs are written in a user-friendly manner, with each step carefully explained and following a natural flow of thought. In this way the student learns how to tackle new problems"--

An excellent basis for further study. Suitable even for readers with no mathematical background.

Financial market modeling is a prime example of a real-life application of probability theory and stochastics. This authoritative book discusses the discrete-time approximation and other qualitative properties of models of financial markets, like the Black-Scholes model and its generalizations, offering in this way rigorous insights on one of the most interesting applications of mathematics nowadays.

The De Gruyter Series in Probability and Stochastics is devoted to the publication of high-level monographs and specialized graduate texts in any branch of modern probability theory and stochastics, along with their numerous applications in other parts of mathematics, physics and informatics, in economics and finance, and in the life sciences. The aim of the series is to present recent research results in the form of authoritative and comprehensive works that will serve the probability and stochastics community as basis for further research. Editorial Board Itai Benjamini, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel Jean Bertoin, Universität Zürich, Switzerland Michel Ledoux, Université de Toulouse, France René L. Schilling, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany

The purpose of this book is to provide a rigorous yet accessible introduction to the modern financial theory of security markets. The main subjects are derivatives and portfolio management. The book is intended to be used as a text by advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students. It is also likely to be useful to practicing financial engineers, portfolio manager, and actuaries who wish to acquire a fundamental understanding of financial theory. The book makes heavy use of mathematics, but not at an advanced level. Various mathematical concepts are developed as needed, and computational examples are emphasized.

This book explores the mathematics that underpins pricing models for derivative securities such as options, futures and swaps in modern markets. Models built upon the famous Black-Scholes theory require sophisticated mathematical tools drawn from modern stochastic calculus. However, many of the underlying ideas can be explained more simply within a discrete-time framework. This is developed extensively in this substantially revised second edition to motivate the technically more demanding continuous-time theory.