March 29, 1900, is considered by many to be the day mathematical finance was born. On that day a French doctoral student, Louis Bachelier, successfully defended his thesis "Theorie de la Speculation" at the Sorbonne. The jury, while noting that the topic was "far away from those usually considered by our candidates," appreciated its high degree of originality. This book provides a new translation, with commentary and background, of Bachelier's seminal work.

Bachelier's thesis is a remarkable document on two counts. In mathematical terms Bachelier's achievement was to introduce many of the concepts of what is now known as stochastic analysis. His purpose, however, was to give a theory for the valuation of financial options. He came up with a formula that is both correct on its own terms and surprisingly close to the Nobel Prize-winning solution to the option pricing problem by Fischer Black, Myron Scholes, and Robert Merton in 1973, the first decisive advance since 1900.

Aside from providing an accurate and accessible translation, this book traces the twin-track intellectual history of stochastic analysis and financial economics, starting with Bachelier in 1900 and ending in the 1980s when the theory of option pricing was substantially complete. The story is a curious one. The economic side of Bachelier's work was ignored until its rediscovery by financial economists more than fifty years later. The results were spectacular: within twenty-five years the whole theory was worked out, and a multibillion-dollar global industry of option trading had emerged."

This work reflects sixteen hours of lectures delivered by the author at the 2009 St Flour summer school in probability. It provides a rapid introduction to a range of mathematical models that have their origins in theoretical population genetics. The models fall into two classes: forwards in time models for the evolution of frequencies of different genetic types in a population; and backwards in time (coalescent) models that trace out the genealogical relationships between individuals in a sample from the population. Some, like the classical Wright-Fisher model, date right back to the origins of the subject. Others, like the multiple merger coalescents or the spatial Lambda-Fleming-Viot process are much more recent. All share a rich mathematical structure. Biological terms are explained, the models are carefully motivated and tools for their study are presented systematically.

This text is designed for first courses in financial calculus aimed at students with a good background in mathematics. Key concepts such as martingales and change of measure are introduced in the discrete time framework, allowing an accessible account of Brownian motion and stochastic calculus. The Black-Scholes pricing formula is first derived in the simplest financial context. Subsequent chapters are devoted to increasing the financial sophistication of the models and instruments. The final chapter introduces more advanced topics including stock price models with jumps, and stochastic volatility. A large number of exercises and examples illustrate how the methods and concepts can be applied to realistic financial questions.

Stochastic partial differential equations can be used in many areas of science to model complex systems that evolve over time. Their analysis is currently an area of much research interest. This book consists of papers given at the ICMS Edinburgh meeting held in 1994 on this topic, and it brings together some of the world's best known authorities on stochastic partial differential equations. Subjects covered include the stochastic Navier-Stokes equation, critical branching systems, population models, statistical dynamics, and ergodic properties of Markov semigroups. For all workers on stochastic partial differential equations this book will have much to offer.

This text is designed for first courses in financial calculus aimed at students with a good background in mathematics. Key concepts such as martingales and change of measure are introduced in the discrete time framework, allowing an accessible account of Brownian motion and stochastic calculus. The Black-Scholes pricing formula is first derived in the simplest financial context. Subsequent chapters are devoted to increasing the financial sophistication of the models and instruments. The final chapter introduces more advanced topics including stock price models with jumps, and stochastic volatility. A large number of exercises and examples illustrate how the methods and concepts can be applied to realistic financial questions.