Among the group of physics honors students huddled in 1957 on a Colorado mountain watching Sputnik bisect the heavens, one young scientist was destined, three short years later, to become a key player in America s own top-secret spy satellite program. One of our era s most prolific mathematicians, Karl Gustafson was given just two weeks to write the first US spy satellite s software. The project would fundamentally alter America s Cold War strategy, and this autobiographical account of a remarkable academic life spent in the top flight tells this fascinating inside story for the first time.

Gustafson takes you from his early pioneering work in computing, through fascinating encounters with Nobel laureates and Fields medalists, to his current observations on mathematics, science and life. He tells of brushes with death, being struck by lightning, and the beautiful women who have been a part of his journey."

An accessible guide that outlines the key elements of an effective financial plan

From Larry Swedroe, the author of the bestselling series of "The Only Guide" investment books, with Kevin Grogan and Tiya Lim comes a step-by-step handbook that shows you how to develop a winning personal investment strategy and reveals what it takes to make that strategy part of your overall financial plan. "The Only Guide You'll Ever Need for the Right Financial Plan" focuses on the "art" of investing and gives you the information you need to create a strategy that is tailor-made for your particular situation.

Designed for savvy investors and professional advisors, this book offers the vital information needed for developing and implementing an overall strategic financial plan. In this essential resource, Swedroe outlines the basics in asset allocation and other investment planning concepts.Addresses how you can design an investment policy statement and an individual asset allocation planExamines how to maintain your portfolio's risk profile in the most cost-effective and tax-efficient mannerOffers insights on integrating risk management and estate planning issues into your plan

"The Only Guide You'll Ever Need for the Right Financial Plan" offers a handy tool to help you make more informed and prudent decisions that will go a long way to ensure a secure financial future.

Become a more strategic and successful investor by identifying the biases impacting your decision making. In Behavioral Finance and Your Portfolio, acclaimed investment advisor and author Michael M. Pompian delivers an insightful and thorough guide to countering the negative effect of cognitive and behavioral biases on your financial decisions. You'll learn about the "Big Five" behavioral biases and how they're reducing your returns and leading to unwanted and unnecessary costs in your portfolio. Designed for investors who are serious about maximizing their gains, in this book you'll discover how to: Take control of your decision-making--even when challenging markets push greed and fear to intolerable levels Reflect on how to make investment decisions using data-backed and substantiated information instead of emotion and bias Counter deep-seated biases like loss aversion, hindsight and overconfidence with self-awareness and hard facts Identify your personal investment psychology profile, which you can use to inform your future financial decision making Behavioral Finance and Your Portfolio was created for individual investors, but will also earn a place in the libraries of financial advisors, planners and portfolio managers who are determined to counteract the less principled and data-driven aspects of their decision making.

Thomas A. Fetherston explores the financial markets in the 6th volume of Advances in Pacific Basin Financial Markets.

The stochastic calculus of variations of Paul Malliavin (1925 - 2010), known today as the Malliavin Calculus, has found many applications, within and beyond the core mathematical discipline. Stochastic analysis provides a fruitful interpretation of this calculus, particularly as described by David Nualart and the scores of mathematicians he influences and with whom he collaborates. Many of these, including leading stochastic analysts and junior researchers, presented their cutting-edge research at an international conference in honor of David Nualart's career, on March 19-21, 2011, at the University of Kansas, USA. These scholars and other top-level mathematicians have kindly contributed research articles for this refereed volume.

Stochastic instantaneous volatility models such as Heston, SABR or SV-LMM have mostly been developed to control the shape and joint dynamics of the implied volatility surface. In principle, they are well suited for pricing and hedging vanilla and exotic options, for relative value strategies or for risk management. In practice however, most SV models lack a closed form valuation for European options. This book presents the recently developed Asymptotic Chaos Expansions methodology (ACE) which addresses that issue. Indeed its generic algorithm provides, for any regular SV model, the pure asymptotes at any order for both the static and dynamic maps of the implied volatility surface. Furthermore, ACE is programmable and can complement other approximation methods. Hence it allows a systematic approach to designing, parameterising, calibrating and exploiting SV models, typically for Vega hedging or American Monte-Carlo.

"Asymptotic Chaos Expansions in Finance" illustrates the ACE approach for single underlyings (such as a stock price or FX rate), baskets (indexes, spreads) and term structure models (especially SV-HJM and SV-LMM). It also establishes fundamental links between the Wiener chaos of the instantaneous volatility and the small-time asymptotic structure of the stochastic implied volatility framework. It is addressed primarily to financial mathematics researchers and graduate students, interested in stochastic volatility, asymptotics or market models. Moreover, as it contains many self-contained approximation results, it will be useful to practitioners modelling the shape of the smile and its evolution.

Toward the late 1990s, several research groups independently began developing new, related theories in mathematical finance. These theories did away with the standard stochastic geometric diffusion "Samuelson" market model (also known as the Black-Scholes model because it is used in that most famous theory), instead opting for models that allowed minimax approaches to complement or replace stochastic methods. Among the most fruitful models were those utilizing game-theoretic tools and the so-called interval market model. Over time, these models have slowly but steadily gained influence in the financial community, providing a useful alternative to classical methods. A self-contained monograph, The Interval Market Model in Mathematical Finance: Game-Theoretic Methods assembles some of the most important results, old and new, in this area of research. Written by seven of the most prominent pioneers of the interval market model and game-theoretic finance, the work provides a detailed account of several closely related modeling techniques for an array of problems in mathematical economics. The book is divided into five parts, which successively address topics including: * probability-free Black-Scholes theory; * fair-price interval of an option; * representation formulas and fast algorithms for option pricing; * rainbow options; * tychastic approach of mathematical finance based upon viability theory. This book provides a welcome addition to the literature, complementing myriad titles on the market that take a classical approach to mathematical finance. It is a worthwhile resource for researchers in applied mathematics and quantitative finance, and has also been written in a manner accessible to financially-inclined readers with a limited technical background.

How could Finance benefit from AI? How can AI techniques provide an edge? Moving well beyond simply speeding up computation, this book tackles AI for Finance from a range of perspectives including business, technology, research, and students. Covering aspects like algorithms, big data, and machine learning, this book answers these and many other questions.

A lot of economic problems can formulated as constrained optimizations and equilibration of their solutions. Various mathematical theories have been supplying economists with indispensable machineries for these problems arising in economic theory. Conversely, mathematicians have been stimulated by various mathematical difficulties raised by economic theories. The series is designed to bring together those mathematicians who were seriously interested in getting new challenging stimuli from economic theories with those economists who are seeking for effective mathematical tools for their researchers. Members of the editorial board of this series consists of following prominent economists and mathematicians: Managing Editors: S. Kusuoka (Univ. Tokyo), T. Maruyama (Keio Univ.) Editors: R. Anderson (U.C.Berkeley), C. Castaing (Univ. Montpellier), F. H. Clarke (Univ. Lyon I), G. Debreu (U.C. Berkeleyer), E. Dierker (Univ. Vienna), D. Duffie (Stanford Univ.), L.C. Evans (U.C. Berkeley), T. Fujimoto (Okayama Univ.), J. -M. Grandmont (CREST-CNRS), N. Hirano (Yokohama National Univ.), L. Hurwicz (Univ. of Minnesota), T. Ichiishi (Ohio State Univ.), A. Ioffe (Israel Institute of Technology), S. Iwamoto (Kyushu Univ.), K. Kamiya (Univ. Tokyo), K. Kawamata (Keio Univ.), N. Kikuchi (Keio Univ.), H. Matano (Univ. Tokyo), K. Nishimura (Kyoto Univ.), M. K. Richter (Univ. Minnesota), Y. Takahashi (Kyoto Univ.), M. Valadier (Univ. Montpellier II), M. Yano (Keio Univ).

The role of asymmetric information in allocation of resources, together with the associated information-revelation process, has long been a central focus of economic research. While the bulk of the literature addresses these is sues within the framework of principal-agent relationship, which essentially reduces the problem to the sole principal's (the sole Stackelberg leader's) optimization problem subject to the agents' (the Stackelberg followers') re sponses, there are recent attempts to extend analysis to other economic setups characterized by different relationships among decision-makers. A notable strand of such attempts is the core analysis of incomplete in formation. Here, there is no Stackelberg-type relationship, and more impor tantly the players can talk to each other for coordinated choice of strategies. See, e.g., Wilson (1978) for a pioneering work; Yannelis (1991) for formula tion of feasibility of a strategy as its measurability; Ichiishi and Idzik (1996) for introduction of Bayesian incentive-compatibility to this strand; Ichiishi, Idzik and Zhao (1994) for information revelation (that is, endogenous deter mination of updated information structures); Ichiishi and Radner (1997) and Ichiishi and Sertel (1998) for studies of a specific model of Chandler's firm in multidivisional form for sharper results; and Vohra (1999) for a recent work. It is a common postulate in these works that every player takes part in design of a mechanism and also in execution of the signed contract."

Discover an insightful new text covering advanced problems in real property valuation In Advanced Issues in Property Valuation, real estate valuation experts and authors Hans Lind and Bo Nordlund provide a deep understanding of the concepts, theories, methods and controversies in property valuation. The book introduces readers to controversies and discussions in real estate valuation, including the relevance of market value for valuation for lending purposes, how uncertainty in property valuations should be interpreted, and the relationship between market value and fair value in financial reporting. Readers will also benefit from the inclusion of: A thorough introduction to the concepts, theories, methods and problems in real estate property valuation An exploration of the relevance of market value for valuation for lending purposes A practical discussion of how uncertainty in property valuations should be interpreted A concise treatment of the relationship between market value and fair value in financial reporting An examination of how concerns about sustainability and other structural changes can affect property valuation Perfect for graduate level students in courses involving valuation or real estate, Advanced Issues in Property Valuation is also an excellent resource for real estate practitioners who wish to update and deepen their knowledge about property valuation.

A lot of economic problems can be formulated as constrained optimizations and equilibration of their solutions. Various mathematical theories have been supplying economists with indispensable machineries for these problems arising in economic theory. Conversely, mathematicians have been stimulated by various mathematical difficulties raised by economic theories. The series is designed to bring together those mathematicians who are seriously interested in getting new challenging stimuli from economic theories with those economists who are seeking effective mathematical tools for their research. The editorial board of this series comprises the following prominent economists and mathematicians: Managing Editors: S. Kusuoka (Univ. Tokyo), T. Maruyama (Keio Univ.). Editors: R. Anderson (U.C. Berkeley), C. Castaing (Univ. Montpellier), F.H. Clarke (Univ. Lyon I), G. Debreu (U.C. Berkeley), E. Dierker (Univ. Vienna), D. Duffie (Stanford Univ.), L.C. Evans (U.C. Berkeley), T. Fujimoto (Okayama Univ.), J.-M. Grandmont (CREST-CNRS), N. Hirano (Yokohama National Univ.), L. Hurwicz (Univ. of Minnesota), T. Ichiishi (Ohio State Univ.), A. Ioffe (Israel Institute of Technology), S. Iwamoto (Kyushu Univ.), K. Kamiya (Univ. Tokyo), K. Kawamata (Keio Univ.), N. Kikuchi (Keio Univ.), H. Matano (Univ. Tokyo), K. Nishimura (Kyoto Univ.), M.K. Richter (Univ. Minnesota), Y. Takahashi (Kyoto Univ.), M. Valadier (Univ. Montpellier II), A. Yamaguti (Kyoto Univ./Ryukoku Univ.), M. Yano (Keio Univ.).

In "Coherent Stress Testing: A Bayesian Approach," industry expert Riccardo Rebonato presents a groundbreaking new approach to this important but often undervalued part of the risk management toolkit.

Based on the author's extensive work, research and presentations in the area, the book fills a gap in quantitative risk management by introducing a new and very intuitively appealing approach to stress testing based on expert judgement and Bayesian networks. It constitutes a radical departure from the traditional statistical methodologies based on Economic Capital or Extreme-Value-Theory approaches.

The book is split into four parts. Part I looks at stress testing and at its role in modern risk management. It discusses the distinctions between risk and uncertainty, the different types of probability that are used in risk management today and for which tasks they are best used. Stress testing is positioned as a bridge between the statistical areas where VaR can be effective and the domain of total Keynesian uncertainty. Part II lays down the quantitative foundations for the concepts described in the rest of the book. Part III takes readers through the application of the tools discussed in part II, and introduces two different systematic approaches to obtaining a coherent stress testing output that can satisfy the needs of industry users and regulators. In part IV the author addresses more practical questions such as embedding the suggestions of the book into a viable governance structure.

This is a collection of Harald Cramer's extensive works on number theory, probability, mathematical statistics and insurance mathematics. Many of these are not easily found nowadays in their original sources, for instance his pioneering works on risk theory published in jubilee volumes of the Skandia Insurance Company in 1930 and 1955. Despite their age, these eminent examples of Cramer's expository style remain highly readable. Cramer (Stockholm 1893-1985) was one of the "fathers" of modern mathematical statistics. His famous book on the subject is still an important reference. His statistical papers included here were seminal to the subsequent development of the subject. The collection includes a complete bibliography of Cramer's work.

For successful innovation in business the responsible managers need a consistent view of the individual processes as well as an assessment of key projects in all phases of the development. Generating new ideas, fast examination of its feasibility requires skilled methods for evaluation of these ideas, plans and especially costs and revenues. Business models, calculation methods and some assessments of certain options are presented by the authors. The ability to identify risks and appropriate responses to misperceptions are important milestones in the innovation process. From analysis of problems to the introduction of market-ready solutions, legal requirements, business demands and risk management systems are discussed. Concepts promoting uniform, binding rules for ratings in the innovation process are treated. The identification of target pricing, target costing and litigation, the evaluation of the solution to calculate risk aspects as tasks in financial management and innovation controlling are part of the content. The authors demonstrate that any innovation in different industries requires a strategic and financial project management. Monetary assessment of the individual processes, a detailed patent portfolio and accounts management for innovation processes are of enormous importance. The book is completed by applications of the Berlin Balanced Scorecard Concept with practical examples from the innovation projects in pharmaceutical and technical business.

Die Inhalte dieses Werkes reichen von bilanztheoretischen Grundlagen uber die Elemente des Jahresabschlusses bis hin zur Jahresabschlusspolitik und den Analysemoglichkeiten in bezug auf den Jahresabschluss aus der Sicht eines externen Beobachters. Viele Ubersichten und Schaubilder sowie zahlreiche Ubungsaufgaben und Fallstudien pragen das Werk in seiner didaktischen Ausrichtung. Aus dem Inhalt: Begriffe, Aufgaben, Bestandteile und Arten von Rechnungsabschlussen. Rechtliche Grundlagen zur Erstellung von Handelsbilanzen. Gliederung und Inhalte der Jahresabschlussrechnungen. Bewertung im Jahresabschluss. Grundzuge der Jahresbschlusspolitik. Analyse des Jahresabschlusses."

IT Governance is finally getting the Board's and top management's attention. The value that IT needs to return and the associated risks that need to be managed, have become so important in many industries that enterprise survival depends on it. Information integrity is a significant part of the IT Governance challenge. Among other things, this conference will explore how Information Integrity contributes to the overall control and governance frameworks that enterprises need to put in place for IT to deliver business value and for corporate officers to be comfortable about the IT risks the enterprise faces. The goals for this international working conference are to find answers to the following questions: * what precisely do business managers need in order to have confidence in the integrity of their information systems and their data; * what is the status quo of research and development in this area; * where are the gaps between business needs on the one hand and research I development on the other; what needs to be done to bridge these gaps. The contributions have been divided in the following sections: * Refereed papers. These are papers that have been selected through a blind refereeing process by an international programme committee. * Invited papers. Well known experts present practice and research papers upon invitation by the programme committee. * Tutorial. Two papers describe the background, status quo and future development of CobiT as well as a case of an implementation of Co biT.

In this fully updated book, options trading innovator George Fontanills arms you with the knowledge and skills youneed to unleash the phenomenal power of your computer to become a successful online options trader. Following a concise review of the basics of online trading--including hardware and software requirements and essential online resources--Fontanills cuts to the chase with step-by-step coverage of proven managed risk option trading strategies. Specifically designed for online traders, these tested off-floor techniques provide you with a sure-fire method for consistently building up your trading account. Drawing upon his years as a leading international options educator, Fontanills makes it easy for you to master online options trading by walking you through a series of hypothetical trades that demonstrate how to compute the maximum risk, maximum profit, breakevens, and exit alternatives for each strategy. "Trade Options Online" also includes a comprehensive guide to fundamental and technical analysis methodologies, a detailed list of the best financial resources, websites analyzed from the point of view of an online options trader, and a review of the most popular online brokerages. "Trade Options Online" is your complete guide to earning a living and making a killing as an online options trader.

Integrity and Internal Control in Information Systems V represents a continuation of the dialogue between researchers, information security specialists, internal control specialists and the business community. The objectives of this dialogue are: -To present methods and techniques that will help business achieve the desired level of integrity in information systems and data; -To present the results of research that may be used in the near future to increase the level of integrity or help management maintain the desired level of integrity; -To investigate the shortcomings in the technologies presently in use, shortcomings that require attention in order to protect the integrity of systems in general. The book contains a collection of papers from the Fifth International Working Conference on Integrity and Internal Control in Information Systems (IICIS), sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and held in Bonn, Germany in November 2002.

Wie funktioniert eigentlich eine BArse und vor allem: Wie kann ich sie als Otto Normalverbraucher nutzen, um mein Erspartes zu vermehren? Dr. Christine BortenlAnger, GeschAftsfA1/4hrender Vorstand des Deutschen Aktieninstituts, und Ulrich Kirstein, Pressereferent der Bayerische BArse AG, erklAren in diesem Buch Grundlegendes zu Angebot und Nachfrage an der BArse und stellen die unterschiedlichen Anlageformen vor: Aktien, Derivate, Zertifikate, festverzinsliche Wertpapiere, Fonds & Co. Sie zeigen, wo Sie sich die nAtigen Informationen beschaffen kAnnen, um eine kluge Anlagestrategie zu entwickeln, die je nach Risikobereitschaft ganz unterschiedlich aussehen kann.

This sixth volume in the series Integrity and Internal Control in Information Systems is a state-of-the-art collection of papers in the area of integrity within information systems and the relationship between integrity in information systems and the overall internal control systems that are established in organizations to support corporate governance codes. Integrity and Internal Control in Information Systems VI represents a continuation of the dialogue between information security specialists, internal control specialists and the business community. The objectives of this dialogue are: To present methods and techniques that will help business achieve the desired level of integrity in information systems and data; To present the results of research that may in future be used to increase the level of integrity or help management maintain the desired level of integrity; To investigate the shortcomings in the technologies presently in use, shortcomings that require attention in order to protect the integrity of systems in general.The book contains a collection of papers from the Sixth International Working Conference on Integrity and Internal Control in Information Systems (IICIS), sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and held in Lausanne, Switzerland in November 2003. It will be essential reading for academics and practitioners in computer science, information technology, business informatics, accountancy and IT-auditing.

This book deals with the numerical analysis and efficient numerical treatment of high-dimensional integrals using sparse grids and other dimension-wise integration techniques with applications to finance and insurance. The book focuses on providing insights into the interplay between coordinate transformations, effective dimensions and the convergence behaviour of sparse grid methods. The techniques, derivations and algorithms are illustrated by many examples, figures and code segments. Numerical experiments with applications from finance and insurance show that the approaches presented in this book can be faster and more accurate than (quasi-) Monte Carlo methods, even for integrands with hundreds of dimensions.

Foundations in Accountancy (FIA) awards are entry-level, core-skill focused qualifications from ACCA. They provide flexible options for students and employers, and as an ACCA Approved Content Provider, BPP Learning Media s suite of study tools will provide you with all the accurate and up-to-date material you need for exam success.

Separation of signal from noise is the most fundamental problem in data analysis, arising in such fields as: signal processing, econometrics, actuarial science, and geostatistics. This book introduces the local regression method in univariate and multivariate settings, with extensions to local likelihood and density estimation. Practical information is also included on how to implement these methods in the programs S-PLUS and LOCFIT.

Implementing Management Innovations: Lessons Learned from Activity Based Costing in the U.S. Automobile Industry is the result of a long-term study of the implementation of activity based costing (ABC) inside two of America's largest automobile companies. The research advances our theoretical and practical understanding of the implementation of management innovations by tracing the evolution of ABC from the corporate level down to its eventual rollout at the plants. Another distinguishing feature of the study is the blend of field research methods and hypothesis testing to determine the factors that led to implementation success for managers and ABC development teams. Many of the findings of the study have implications for the implementation of other types of management innovations.