Financial Engineering With Finite Elements

The pricing of derivative instruments has always been a highly complex and time-consuming activity. Advances in technology, however, have enabled much quicker and more accurate pricing through mathematical rather than analytical models. In this book, the author bridges the divide between finance and mathematics by applying this proven mathematical technique to the financial markets. Utilising practical examples, the author systematically describes the processes involved in a manner accessible to those without a deep understanding of mathematics. * Explains little understood techniques that will assist in the accurate more speedy pricing of options * Centres on the practical application of these useful techniques * Offers a detailed and comprehensive account of the methods involved and is the first to explore the application of these particular techniques to the financial markets

The pricing of derivative instruments has always been a highly complex and time-consuming activity. Advances in technology, however, have enabled much quicker and more accurate pricing through mathematical rather than analytical models. In this book, the author bridges the divide between finance and mathematics by applying this proven mathematical technique to the financial markets. Utilising practical examples, the author systematically describes the processes involved in a manner accessible to those without a deep understanding of mathematics. * Explains little understood techniques that will assist in the accurate more speedy pricing of options * Centres on the practical application of these useful techniques * Offers a detailed and comprehensive account of the methods involved and is the first to explore the application of these particular techniques to the financial markets

The world of quantitative finance (QF) is one of the fastest growing areas of research and its practical applications to derivatives pricing problem. Since the discovery of the famous Black-Scholes equation in the 1970's we have seen a surge in the number of models for a wide range of products such as plain and exotic options, interest rate derivatives, real options and many others. Gone are the days when it was possible to price these derivatives analytically. For most problems we must resort to some kind of approximate method. In this book we employ partial differential equations (PDE) to describe a range of one-factor and multi-factor derivatives products such as plain European and American options, multi-asset options, Asian options, interest rate options and real options. PDE techniques allow us to create a framework for modeling complex and interesting derivatives products. Having defined the PDE problem we then approximate it using the Finite Difference Method (FDM). This method has been used for many application areas such as fluid dynamics, heat transfer, semiconductor simulation and astrophysics, to name just a few. In this book we apply the same techniques to pricing real-life derivative products. We use both traditional (or well-known) methods as well as a number of advanced schemes that are making their way into the QF literature: Crank-Nicolson, exponentially fitted and higher-order schemes for one-factor and multi-factor options Early exercise features and approximation using front-fixing, penalty and variational methods Modelling stochastic volatility models using Splitting methods Critique of ADI and Crank-Nicolson schemes; when they work and when they don't work Modelling jumps using Partial Integro Differential Equations (PIDE) Free and moving boundary value problems in QF Included with the book is a CD containing information on how to set up FDM algorithms, how to map these algorithms to C++ as well as several working programs for one-factor and two-factor models. We also provide source code so that you can customize the applications to suit your own needs.

The remarkable growth of financial markets over the past decades has been accompanied by an equally remarkable explosion in financial engineering, the interdisciplinary field focusing on applications of mathematical and statistical modeling and computational technology to problems in the financial services industry. The goals of financial engineering research are to develop empirically realistic stochastic models describing dynamics of financial risk variables, such as asset prices, foreign exchange rates, and interest rates, and to develop analytical, computational and statistical methods and tools to implement the models and employ them to design and evaluate financial products and processes to manage risk and to meet financial goals. This handbook describes the latest developments in this rapidly evolving field in the areas of modeling and pricing financial derivatives, building models of interest rates and credit risk, pricing and hedging in incomplete markets, risk management, and portfolio optimization. Leading researchers in each of these areas provide their perspective on the state of the art in terms of analysis, computation, and practical relevance. The authors describe essential results to date, fundamental methods and tools, as well as new views of the existing literature, opportunities, and challenges for future research.

Accompanying computer optical disc contains 'demos of commercial software, spreadsheets and code illustrating models and methods from the book, cutting-edge research articles..., data document and demo from CrashMetrics, the Value at Risk methodology'. (book)

This book introduces the reader to the C++ programming language and how to use it to write applications in quantitative finance (QF) and related areas. No previous knowledge of C or C++ is required -- experience with VBA, Matlab or other programming language is sufficient. The book adopts an incremental approach; starting from basic principles then moving on to advanced complex techniques and then to real-life applications in financial engineering. There are five major parts in the book: C++ fundamentals and object-oriented thinking in QF Advanced object-oriented features such as inheritance and polymorphism Template programming and the Standard Template Library (STL) An introduction to GOF design patterns and their applications in QF Applications The kinds of applications include binomial and trinomial methods, Monte Carlo simulation, advanced trees, partial differential equations and finite difference methods. This book includes a companion website with all source code and many useful C++ classes that you can use in your own applications. Examples, test cases and applications are directly relevant to QF. This book is the perfect companion to Daniel J. Duffy’s book Financial Instrument Pricing using C++ (Wiley 2004, 0470855096 / 9780470021620)