Market Risk Analysis, Quantitative Methods in Finance

Quantitative Methods for Finance and Investments ensures that readers come away from reading it with a reasonable degree of comfort and proficiency in applying elementary mathematics to several types of financial analysis. All of the methodology in this book is geared toward the development, implementation, and analysis of financial models to solve financial problems.

This book presents a cogent description of the main methodologies used in derivatives pricing. Starting with a summary of the elements of Stochastic Calculus, Quantitative Methods in Derivatives Pricing develops the fundamental tools of financial engineering, such as scenario generation, simulation for European instruments, simulation for American instruments, and finite differences in an intuitive and practical manner, with an abundance of practical examples and case studies. Intended primarily as an introductory graduate textbook in computational finance, this book will also serve as a reference for practitioners seeking basic information on alternative pricing methodologies. Domingo Tavella is President of Octanti Associates, a consulting firm in risk management and financial systems design. He is the founder and chief editor of the Journal of Computational Finance and has pioneered the application of advanced numerical techniques in pricing and risk analysis in the financial and insurance industries. Tavella coauthored Pricing Financial Instruments: The Finite Difference Method. He holds a PhD in aeronautical engineering from Stanford University and an MBA in finance from the University of California at Berkeley.

Written by leading market risk academic, Professor Carol Alexander, Value-at-Risk Models forms part four of the Market Risk Analysis four volume set. Building on the three previous volumes this book provides by far the most comprehensive, rigorous and detailed treatment of market VaR models. It rests on the basic knowledge of financial mathematics and statistics gained from Volume I, of factor models, principal component analysis, statistical models of volatility and correlation and copulas from Volume II and, from Volume III, knowledge of pricing and hedging financial instruments and of mapping portfolios of similar instruments to risk factors. A unifying characteristic of the series is the pedagogical approach to practical examples that are relevant to market risk analysis in practice. All together, the Market Risk Analysis four volume set illustrates virtually every concept or formula with a practical, numerical example or a longer, empirical case study. Across all four volumes there are approximately 300 numerical and empirical examples, 400 graphs and figures and 30 case studies many of which are contained in interactive Excel spreadsheets available from the the accompanying CD-ROM . Empirical examples and case studies specific to this volume include: Parametric linear value at risk (VaR)models: normal, Student t and normal mixture and their expected tail loss (ETL); New formulae for VaR based on autocorrelated returns; Historical simulation VaR models: how to scale historical VaR and volatility adjusted historical VaR; Monte Carlo simulation VaR models based on multivariate normal and Student t distributions, and based on copulas; Examples and case studies of numerous applications to interest rate sensitive, equity, commodity and international portfolios; Decomposition of systematic VaR of large portfolios into standard alone and marginal VaR components; Backtesting and the assessment of risk model risk; Hypothetical factor push and historical stress tests, and stress testing based on VaR and ETL.

Getting agreement between finance theory and finance practice is important like never before. In the last decade the derivatives business has grown to a staggering size, such that the outstanding notional of all contracts is now many multiples of the underlying world economy. No longer are derivatives for helping people control and manage their financial risks from other business and industries, no, it seems that the people are toiling away in the fields to keep the derivatives market afloat! (Apologies for the mixed metaphor!) If you work in derivatives, risk, development, trading, etc. you'd better know what you are doing, there's now a big responsibility on your shoulders. In this second edition of Frequently Asked Questions in Quantitative Finance I continue in my mission to pull quant finance up from the dumbed-down depths, and to drag it back down to earth from the super-sophisticated stratosphere. Readers of my work and blogs will know that I think both extremes are dangerous. Quant finance should inhabit the middle ground, the mathematics sweet spot, where the models are robust and understandable, and easy to mend. …And that's what this book is about. This book contains important FAQs and answers that cover both theory and practice. There are sections on how to derive Black-Scholes (a dozen different ways!), the popular models, equations, formulae and probability distributions, critical essays, brainteasers, and the commonest quant mistakes. The quant mistakes section alone is worth trillions of dollars! I hope you enjoy this book, and that it shows you how interesting this important subject can be. And I hope you'll join me and others in this industry on the discussion forum on wilmott.com. See you there!” FAQQF2…including key models, important formulae, popular contracts, essays and opinions, a history of quantitative finance, sundry lists, the commonest mistakes in quant finance, brainteasers, plenty of straight-talking, the Modellers' Manifesto and lots more.

A well-balanced and accessible introduction to the elementary quantitative methods and Microsoft® Office Excel® applications used to guide business decision making Featuring quantitative techniques essential for modeling modern business situations, Introduction to Quantitative Methods in Business: With Applications Using Microsoft® Office Excel® provides guidance to assessing real-world data sets using Excel. The book presents a balanced approach to the mathematical tools and techniques with applications used in the areas of business, finance, economics, marketing, and operations. The authors begin by establishing a solid foundation of basic mathematics and statistics before moving on to more advanced concepts. The first part of the book starts by developing basic quantitative techniques such as arithmetic operations, functions and graphs, and elementary differentiations (rates of change), and integration. After a review of these techniques, the second part details both linear and nonlinear models of business activity. Extensively classroom-tested, Introduction to Quantitative Methods in Business: With Applications Using Microsoft® Office Excel® also includes: Numerous examples and practice problems that emphasize real-world business quantitative techniques and applications Excel-based computer software routines that explore calculations for an assortment of tasks, including graphing, formula usage, solving equations, and data analysis End-of-chapter sections detailing the Excel applications and techniques used to address data and solutions using large data sets A companion website that includes chapter summaries, Excel data sets, sample exams and quizzes, lecture slides, and an Instructors’ Solutions Manual Introduction to Quantitative Methods in Business: With Applications Using Microsoft® Office Excel® is an excellent textbook for undergraduate-level courses on quantitative methods in business, economics, finance, marketing, operations, and statistics. The book is also an ideal reference for readers with little or no quantitative background who require a better understanding of basic mathematical and statistical concepts used in economics and business. Bharat Kolluri, Ph.D., is Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics, Finance, and Insurance at the University of Hartford. A member of the American Economics Association, his research interests include econometrics, business statistics, quantitative decision making, applied macroeconomics, applied microeconomics, and corporate finance. Michael J. Panik, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Economics, Finance, and Insurance at the University of Hartford. He has served as a consultant to the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles as well as to a variety of health care organizations. In addition, Dr. Panik is the author of numerous books, including Growth Curve Modeling: Theory and Applications and Statistical Inference: A Short Course, both published by Wiley. Rao N. Singamsetti, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Economics, Finance, and Insurance at the University of Hartford. A member of the American Economics Association, his research interests include the status of war on poverty in the United States since the 1960s and forecasting foreign exchange rates using econometric methods.

This book is a detailed and step-by-step introduction to the mathematical foundations of ordinary and partial differential equations, their approximation by the finite difference method and applications to computational finance. The book is structured so that it can be read by beginners, novices and expert users. Part A Mathematical Foundation for One-Factor Problems Chapters 1 to 7 introduce the mathematical and numerical analysis concepts that are needed to understand the finite difference method and its application to computational finance. Part B Mathematical Foundation for Two-Factor Problems Chapters 8 to 13 discuss a number of rigorous mathematical techniques relating to elliptic and parabolic partial differential equations in two space variables. In particular, we develop strategies to preprocess and modify a PDE before we approximate it by the finite difference method, thus avoiding ad-hoc and heuristic tricks. Part C The Foundations of the Finite Difference Method (FDM) Chapters 14 to 17 introduce the mathematical background to the finite difference method for initial boundary value problems for parabolic PDEs. It encapsulates all the background information to construct stable and accurate finite difference schemes. Part D Advanced Finite Difference Schemes for Two-Factor Problems Chapters 18 to 22 introduce a number of modern finite difference methods to approximate the solution of two factor partial differential equations. This is the only book we know of that discusses these methods in any detail. Part E Test Cases in Computational Finance Chapters 23 to 26 are concerned with applications based on previous chapters. We discuss finite difference schemes for a wide range of one-factor and two-factor problems. This book is suitable as an entry-level introduction as well as a detailed treatment of modern methods as used by industry quants and MSc/MFE students in finance. The topics have applications to numerical analysis, science and engineering. More on computational finance and the author’s online courses, see www.datasim.nl.

As health care organization leaders use data more consistently in decision making, it is important they understand the quantitative methods that help convert data to information. Quantitative Methods in Health Care Management provides important insights into the various quantitative methods, detailing many different problems and their solutions. It contains numerous helpful exhibits and graphics that explain and demonstrate the methods presented. It also provides a readable narrative for the manager who wants a high-level refresher on quantitative methods.”

Written by leading market risk academic, Professor Carol Alexander, Practical Financial Econometrics forms part two of the Market Risk Analysis four volume set. It introduces the econometric techniques that are commonly applied to finance with a critical and selective exposition, emphasising the areas of econometrics, such as GARCH, cointegration and copulas that are required for resolving problems in market risk analysis. The book covers material for a one-semester graduate course in applied financial econometrics in a very pedagogical fashion as each time a concept is introduced an empirical example is given, and whenever possible this is illustrated with an Excel spreadsheet. All together, the Market Risk Analysis four volume set illustrates virtually every concept or formula with a practical, numerical example or a longer, empirical case study. Across all four volumes there are approximately 300 numerical and empirical examples, 400 graphs and figures and 30 case studies many of which are contained in interactive Excel spreadsheets available from the the accompanying CD-ROM . Empirical examples and case studies specific to this volume include: Factor analysis with orthogonal regressions and using principal component factors; Estimation of symmetric and asymmetric, normal and Student t GARCH and E-GARCH parameters; Normal, Student t, Gumbel, Clayton, normal mixture copula densities, and simulations from these copulas with application to VaR and portfolio optimization; Principal component analysis of yield curves with applications to portfolio immunization and asset/liability management; Simulation of normal mixture and Markov switching GARCH returns; Cointegration based index tracking and pairs trading, with error correction and impulse response modelling; Markov switching regression models (Eviews code); GARCH term structure forecasting with volatility targeting; Non-linear quantile regressions with applications to hedging.

The latest tools and techniques for pricing and risk management This book introduces readers to the use of copula functions to represent the dynamics of financial assets and risk factors, integrated temporal and cross-section applications. The first part of the book will briefly introduce the standard the theory of copula functions, before examining the link between copulas and Markov processes. It will then introduce new techniques to design Markov processes that are suited to represent the dynamics of market risk factors and their co-movement, providing techniques to both estimate and simulate such dynamics. The second part of the book will show readers how to apply these methods to the evaluation of pricing of multivariate derivative contracts in the equity and credit markets. It will then move on to explore the applications of joint temporal and cross-section aggregation to the problem of risk integration.

Paul Wilmott writes, "Quantitative finance is the most fascinating and rewarding real-world application of mathematics. It is fascinating because of the speed at which the subject develops, the new products and the new models which we have to understand. And it is rewarding because anyone can make a fundamental breakthrough. "Having worked in this field for many years, I have come to appreciate the importance of getting the right balance between mathematics and intuition. Too little maths and you won't be able to make much progress, too much maths and you'll be held back by technicalities. I imagine, but expect I will never know for certain, that getting the right level of maths is like having the right equipment to climb Mount Everest; too little and you won't make the first base camp, too much and you'll collapse in a heap before the top. "Whenever I write about or teach this subject I also aim to get the right mix of theory and practice. Finance is not a hard science like physics, so you have to accept the limitations of the models. But nor is it a very soft science, so without those models you would be at a disadvantage compared with those better equipped. I believe this adds to the fascination of the subject. «This FAQs book looks at some of the most important aspects of financial engineering, and considers them from both theoretical and practical points of view. I hope that you will see that finance is just as much fun in practice as in theory, and if you are reading this book to help you with your job interviews, good luck! Let me know how you get on!»