An Informal Introduction To Stochastic Calculus With Applications

Most branches of science involving random fluctuations can be approached by Stochastic Calculus. These include, but are not limited to, signal processing, noise filtering, stochastic control, optimal stopping, electrical circuits, financial markets, molecular chemistry, population dynamics, etc. All these applications assume a strong mathematical background, which in general takes a long time to develop. Stochastic Calculus is not an easy to grasp theory, and in general, requires acquaintance with the probability, analysis and measure theory.The goal of this book is to present Stochastic Calculus at an introductory level and not at its maximum mathematical detail. The author's goal was to capture as much as possible the spirit of elementary deterministic Calculus, at which students have been already exposed. This assumes a presentation that mimics similar properties of deterministic Calculus, which facilitates understanding of more complicated topics of Stochastic Calculus.The second edition contains several new features that improved the first edition both qualitatively and quantitatively. First, two more chapters have been added, Chapter 12 and Chapter 13, dealing with applications of stochastic processes in Electrochemistry and global optimization methods.This edition contains also a final chapter material containing fully solved review problems and provides solutions, or at least valuable hints, to all proposed problems. The present edition contains a total of about 250 exercises.This edition has also improved presentation from the first edition in several chapters, including new material.

This book presents a concise treatment of stochastic calculus and its applications. It gives a simple but rigorous treatment of the subject including a range of advanced topics, it is useful for practitioners who use advanced theoretical results. It covers advanced applications, such as models in mathematical finance, biology and engineering.Self-contained and unified in presentation, the book contains many solved examples and exercises. It may be used as a textbook by advanced undergraduates and graduate students in stochastic calculus and financial mathematics. It is also suitable for practitioners who wish to gain an understanding or working knowledge of the subject. For mathematicians, this book could be a first text on stochastic calculus; it is good companion to more advanced texts by a way of examples and exercises. For people from other fields, it provides a way to gain a working knowledge of stochastic calculus. It shows all readers the applications of stochastic calculus methods and takes readers to the technical level required in research and sophisticated modelling.This second edition contains a new chapter on bonds, interest rates and their options. New materials include more worked out examples in all chapters, best estimators, more results on change of time, change of measure, random measures, new results on exotic options, FX options, stochastic and implied volatility, models of the age-dependent branching process and the stochastic Lotka-Volterra model in biology, non-linear filtering in engineering and five new figures.Instructors can obtain slides of the text from the author.

"Most branches of science involving random fluctuations can be approached by Stochastic Calculus. These include, but are not limited to, signal processing, noise filtering, stochastic control, optimal stopping, electrical circuits, financial markets, molecular chemistry, population dynamics, etc. All these applications assume a strong mathematical background, which in general takes a long time to develop. Stochastic Calculus is not an easy to grasp theory, and in general, requires acquaintance with the probability, analysis and measure theory. The goal of this book is to present Stochastic Calculus at an introductory level and not at its maximum mathematical detail. The author's goal was to capture as much as possible the spirit of elementary deterministic Calculus, at which students have been already exposed. This assumes a presentation that mimics similar properties of deterministic Calculus, which facilitates understanding of more complicated topics of Stochastic Calculus. The second edition contains several new features that improved the first edition both qualitatively and quantitatively. First, two more chapters have been added, Chapter 12 and Chapter 13, dealing with applications of stochastic processes in Electrochemistry and global optimization methods. This edition contains also a final chapter material containing fully solved review problems and provides solutions, or at least valuable hints, to all proposed problems. The present edition contains a total of about 250 exercises. This edition has also improved presentation from the first edition in several chapters, including new material"--

This book presents a concise and rigorous treatment of stochastic calculus. It also gives its main applications in finance, biology and engineering. In finance, the stochastic calculus is applied to pricing options by no arbitrage. In biology, it is applied to populations' models, and in engineering it is applied to filter signal from noise. Not everything is proved, but enough proofs are given to make it a mathematically rigorous exposition.This book aims to present the theory of stochastic calculus and its applications to an audience which possesses only a basic knowledge of calculus and probability. It may be used as a textbook by graduate and advanced undergraduate students in stochastic processes, financial mathematics and engineering. It is also suitable for researchers to gain working knowledge of the subject. It contains many solved examples and exercises making it suitable for self study.In the book many of the concepts are introduced through worked-out examples, eventually leading to a complete, rigorous statement of the general result, and either a complete proof, a partial proof or a reference. Using such structure, the text will provide a mathematically literate reader with rapid introduction to the subject and its advanced applications. The book covers models in mathematical finance, biology and engineering. For mathematicians, this book can be used as a first text on stochastic calculus or as a companion to more rigorous texts by a way of examples and exercises./a

Stochastic calculus has important applications to mathematical finance. This book will appeal to practitioners and students who want an elementary introduction to these areas. From the reviews: "As the preface says, ‘This is a text with an attitude, and it is designed to reflect, wherever possible and appropriate, a prejudice for the concrete over the abstract’. This is also reflected in the style of writing which is unusually lively for a mathematics book." --ZENTRALBLATT MATH

These notes are based on a postgraduate course I gave on stochastic differential equations at Edinburgh University in the spring 1982. No previous knowledge about the subject was assumed, but the presen tation is based on some background in measure theory. There are several reasons why one should learn more about stochastic differential equations: They have a wide range of applica tions outside mathematics, there are many fruitful connections to other mathematical disciplines and the subject has a rapidly develop ing life of its own as a fascinating research field with many interesting unanswered questions. Unfortunately most of the literature about stochastic differential equations seems to place so much emphasis on rigor and complete ness that is scares many nonexperts away. These notes are an attempt to approach the subject from the nonexpert point of view: Not knowing anything (except rumours, maybe) about a subject to start with, what would I like to know first of all? My answer would be: 1) In what situations does the subject arise? 2) What are its essential features? 3) What are the applications and the connections to other fields? I would not be so interested in the proof of the most general case, but rather in an easier proof of a special case, which may give just as much of the basic idea in the argument. And I would be willing to believe some basic results without proof (at first stage, anyway) in order to have time for some more basic applications.

A comprehensive introduction to the core issues of stochastic differential equations and their effective application Introduction to Stochastic Differential Equations with Applications to Modelling in Biology and Finance offers a comprehensive examination to the most important issues of stochastic differential equations and their applications. The author — a noted expert in the field — includes myriad illustrative examples in modelling dynamical phenomena subject to randomness, mainly in biology, bioeconomics and finance, that clearly demonstrate the usefulness of stochastic differential equations in these and many other areas of science and technology. The text also features real-life situations with experimental data, thus covering topics such as Monte Carlo simulation and statistical issues of estimation, model choice and prediction. The book includes the basic theory of option pricing and its effective application using real-life. The important issue of which stochastic calculus, Itô or Stratonovich, should be used in applications is dealt with and the associated controversy resolved. Written to be accessible for both mathematically advanced readers and those with a basic understanding, the text offers a wealth of exercises and examples of application. This important volume: Contains a complete introduction to the basic issues of stochastic differential equations and their effective application Includes many examples in modelling, mainly from the biology and finance fields Shows how to: Translate the physical dynamical phenomenon to mathematical models and back, apply with real data, use the models to study different scenarios and understand the effect of human interventions Conveys the intuition behind the theoretical concepts Presents exercises that are designed to enhance understanding Offers a supporting website that features solutions to exercises and R code for algorithm implementation Written for use by graduate students, from the areas of application or from mathematics and statistics, as well as academics and professionals wishing to study or to apply these models, Introduction to Stochastic Differential Equations with Applications to Modelling in Biology and Finance is the authoritative guide to understanding the issues of stochastic differential equations and their application.