First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Charlie Munger, Berkshire Hathaway's visionary vice chairman and Warren Buffett's indispensable financial partner, has outperformed market indexes again and again, and he believes any investor can do the same. His notion of "elementary, worldly wisdom"-a set of interdisciplinary mental models involving economics, business, psychology, ethics, and management-allows him to keep his emotions out of his investments and avoid the common pitfalls of bad judgment. Munger's system has steered his investments for forty years and has guided generations of successful investors. This book presents the essential steps of Munger's investing strategy, condensed here for the first time from interviews, speeches, writings, and shareholder letters, and paired with commentary from fund managers, value investors, and business-case historians. Derived from Ben Graham's value-investing system, Munger's approach is straightforward enough that ordinary investors can apply it to their portfolios. This book is not simply about investing. It is about cultivating mental models for your whole life, but especially for your investments.

Quantitative Modeling of Derivative Securities demonstrates how to take the basic ideas of arbitrage theory and apply them - in a very concrete way - to the design and analysis of financial products. Based primarily (but not exclusively) on the analysis of derivatives, the book emphasizes relative-value and hedging ideas applied to different financial instruments. Using a "financial engineering approach," the theory is developed progressively, focusing on specific aspects of pricing and hedging and with problems that the technical analyst or trader has to consider in practice.

More than just an introductory text, the reader who has mastered the contents of this one book will have breached the gap separating the novice from the technical and research literature.

This book examines in detail the timely area of Japanese banking and investment activities in the United States, and offers a clear picture of both the causes of the recent growth of foreign investment activity and the consequences of this trend for American companies, households, and government agencies. Peter S. Rose argues that multiple factors have shaped the growing roles played by Japanese banks in the U.S. financial system and by Japanese investors in the U.S. economy, but remains optimistic that this is not necessarily a cause for alarm.

Rose provides a detailed look at nearly every aspect of Japan's involvement in the U.S. financial sector, as well as offering a useful overview of the banking and financial system of Japan. Among the causes of Japanese expansion that Rose discusses are the rapid appreciation of the Japanese yen in international markets, Japan's large trade surpluses with the U.S., the high personal savings rate of the Japanese, periodically depressed U.S. stock prices, and the low barriers to entry into most U.S. markets. Also fully detailed are the consequences of possible reductions in Japanese financial activity, which could be felt in the U.S. through higher domestic interest rates, a reduction in the creation of new jobs, rising unemployment, reduced availability of long-term capital, and a slackening in the growth of U.S. output. This unique work will be an important reference tool for professionals in the banking, finance, and securities industries, for public policy makers and bank regulatory agencies, and for students and researchers of international banking and finance.

The first book of its kind: a fascinating and entertaining examination of hedge funds today Shortlisted for the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award 'An enormously satisfying book: a gripping chronicle of the cutting edge of the financial markets and a fascinating perspective on what was going on in these shadowy institutions as the crash hit' Observer Wealthy, powerful, and potentially dangerous, hedge-find managers have emerged as the stars of twenty-first century capitalism. Based on unprecedented access to the industry, More Money Than God provides the first authoritative history of hedge funds. This is the inside story of their origins in the 1960s and 1970s, their explosive battles with central banks in the 1980s and 1990s, and finally their role in the financial crisis of 2007-9. Hedge funds reward risk takers, so they tend to attract larger-than-life personalities. Jim Simons began life as a code-breaker and mathematician, co-authoring a paper on theoretical geometry that led to breakthroughs in string theory. Ken Griffin started out trading convertible bonds from his Harvard dorm room. Paul Tudor Jones happily declared that a 1929-style crash would be 'total rock-and-roll' for him. Michael Steinhardt was capable of reducing underlings to sobs. 'All I want to do is kill myself,' one said. 'Can I watch?' Steinhardt responded. A saga of riches and rich egos, this is also a history of discovery. Drawing on insights from mathematics, economics and psychology to crack the mysteries of the market, hedge funds have transformed the world, spawning new markets in exotic financial instruments and rewriting the rules of capitalism. And while major banks, brokers, home lenders, insurers and money market funds failed or were bailed out during the crisis of 2007-9, the hedge-fund industry survived the test, proving that money can be successfully managed without taxpayer safety nets. Anybody pondering fixes to the financial system could usefully start here: the future of finance lies in the history of hedge funds.

This book is written for quantitative finance professionals, students, educators, and mathematically inclined individual investors. It is about some of the latest developments in pricing, hedging, and investing in incomplete markets. With regard to pricing, two frameworks are fully elaborated: neutral and indifference pricing. With regard to hedging, the most conservative and relaxed hedging formulas are derived. With regard to investing, the neutral pricing methodology is also considered as a tool for connecting market asset prices with optimal positions in such assets.

SrdjanD.Stojanovic isProfessor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at University of Cincinnati (USA) and Professor in the Center for Financial Engineering at Suzhou University (China)."

The Economic and Financial Impacts of the COVID-19 Crisis Around the World: Expect the Unexpected provides an informed, research-based in-depth understanding of the COVID-19 crisis, its impacts on households, nonfinancial firms, banks, and financial market participants, and the effectiveness of the reactions of governments and policymakers in the United States and around the world. It provides reflections and perspectives on the social costs and benefits of various policies undertaken and a toolkit of preventive measures to deal with crises beyond the COVID-19 crisis. Authors Allen N. Berger, Mustafa U. Karakaplan, and Raluca A. Roman apply their expertise to the research and data on the COVID-19 economic crisis as well as draw on their own rich research experience. They take a holistic approach that compares and contrasts this crisis with other economic and financial crises and assesses economic and financial behavior and government policies in the booms before crises and the aftermaths following them, as well as the crises themselves. They do all this with a keen eye on “Expecting the Unexpected” future crises, and policies that might anticipate them and provide better outcomes for society.

Genetic algorithms (GAs) are based on Darwin's theory of natural selection and survival of the fittest. They are designed to competently look for solutions to big and multifaceted problems. Genetic algorithms are wide groups of interrelated events with divided steps. Each step has dissimilarities, which leads to a broad range of connected actions. Genetic algorithms are used to improve trading systems, such as to optimize a trading rule or parameters of a predefined multiple indicator market trading system. Genetic Algorithms and Applications for Stock Trading Optimization is a complete reference source to genetic algorithms that explains how they might be used to find trading strategies, as well as their use in search and optimization. It covers the functions of genetic algorithms internally, computer implementation of pseudo-code of genetic algorithms in C++, technical analysis for stock market forecasting, and research outcomes that apply in the stock trading system. This book is ideal for computer scientists, IT specialists, data scientists, managers, executives, professionals, academicians, researchers, graduate-level programs, research programs, and post-graduate students of engineering and science.

"Trading Rules that Work" introduces you to twenty-eight essential rules that can be shaped to fit any trading approach--whether you're dealing in stocks, commodities, or currencies. Engaging and informative, "Trading Rules that Work" outlines the deeper psychology behind each of these accepted trading rules and provides you with a better understanding of how to make those rules work for you.

Recent turbulence in the financial markets has highlighted the need for diversified portfolios with lower correlations between the different investments. Life settlements meet this need, offering investors the prospect of high, stable returns, uncorrelated with the broader financial markets.

This book provides readers of all levels of experience with essential information on the process surrounding the acquisition and management of a portfolio of life settlements; the assessment, modelling and mitigation of the associated longevity, interest rate and credit risks; and practical approaches to financing and risk management structures. It begins with the history of life insurance and looks at how the need for new financing sources has led to the growth of the life settlements market in the United States.

The authors provide a detailed exploration of the mathematical formulae surrounding the generation of mortality curves, drawing a parallel between the tools deployed in the credit derivatives market and those available to model longevity risk. Structured products and securitisation techniques are introduced and explained, starting with simple vanilla products and models before illustrating some of the investment structures associated with life settlements. Capital market mechanisms available to assist the investor in limiting the risks associated with life settlement portfolios are outlined, as are opportunities to use life settlement portfolios to mitigate the risks of traditional capital markets. The last section of the book covers derivative products, either available now or under consideration, that will reduce or potentially eliminate longevity risks within life settlement portfolios. It then reviews hedging and risk management strategies and considers how to measure the effectiveness of risk mitigation.

Every consumer in a modern economy is indirectly exposed to the work of a price reporting agency (PRA) each time they fill up their car, take a flight or switch on a light, and yet the general public is completely unaware of the existence of PRAs. Firms like Platts, Argus and ICIS, which are referenced every day by commodity traders and which influence billions of dollars of trade, are totally unfamiliar to consumers. The Price Reporters: A Guide to PRAs and Commodity Benchmarks brings the mysterious world of price reporting out of the shadows for the first time, providing a comprehensive guide to the agencies that set the world's commodity prices. This book explains the importance of PRAs to the global commodities industry, highlighting why PRAs affect every consumer around the world. It introduces the individual PRAs, their history and the current state of play in the industry, and also presents the challenges that the PRA industry is facing now and in the future, in particular how regulation might impact on the PRAs, their relationships with commodity exchanges, and their likely direction. This is the first-ever guide to PRAs and is destined to become the standard reference work for anyone with an interest in commodity prices and the firms that set them.

With an insider's view of the mind of the master, Mary Buffett and David Clark have written a simple guide for reading financial statements from Buffett's successful perspective. They clearly outline Warren Buffett's strategies in a way that will appeal to newcomers and seasoned Buffettologists alike. Inspired by the seminal work of Buffett's mentor, Benjamin Graham, this book presents Buffett's interpretation of financial statements with anecdotes and quotes from the master investor himself. Destined to become a classic in the world of investment books, Warren Buffett and the Interpretation of Financial Statements is the perfect companion volume to The New Buffettology and The Tao of Warren Buffett.

Over the past several years, the field of international investing has been transformed by a host of new, state-of-the-art techniques. "Quantitative Investing for the Global Markets" is the definitive handbook for money and portfolio managers, research analysts, pension consultants, corporate treasurers, and other professionals seeking a competitive edge in the global investment marketplace. Topics include: international asset allocation; optimum diversification levels; style analysis and evaluation; market neutral strategies; global stock valuation; advanced strategies for hedging currency risk; international benchmarking; etc.

This collection of papers arises from two major international conferences on inward investment and regional development, and the role of accumulated capital in regional business development. The papers cover a wide spectrum of development and finance issues with the common theme that capital flows can have a substantial impact on regional development.

The Essentials of Social Finance provides an interesting, accessible overview of this fascinating ecosystem, blending insights from finance and social entrepreneurship. It highlights the key challenges facing social finance, while also showcasing its vast opportunities. Topics covered include microfinance, venture philanthropy, social impact bonds, crowdfunding, and impact measurement. Case studies are peppered throughout, and a balance of US, European, Asian, and Islamic perspectives are included. Each chapter contains learning objectives, discussion questions, and a list of key terms. There is also an appendix explaining key financial concepts for readers without a background in the subject, as well as downloadable PowerPoint slides to accompany each chapter. This will be a valuable text for students of finance, investment, social entrepreneurship, social innovation, and related areas. It will also be useful to researchers, professionals, and policy-makers interested in social finance.