Tools For Computational Finance

Tools for Computational Finance offers a clear explanation of computational issues arising in financial mathematics. The new third edition is thoroughly revised and significantly extended, including an extensive new section on analytic methods, focused mainly on interpolation approach and quadratic approximation. Other new material is devoted to risk-neutrality, early-exercise curves, multidimensional Black-Scholes models, the integral representation of options and the derivation of the Black-Scholes equation. New figures, more exercises, and expanded background material make this guide a real must-to-have for everyone working in the world of financial engineering.

The fourth edition is thoroughly revised and extended. Major revisions concern topics like calibration, Monte Carlo Methods, American options, exotic options and Algorithms for Bermuda Options.

The disciplines of financial engineering and numerical computation differ greatly, however computational methods are used in a number of ways across the field of finance. It is the aim of this book to explain how such methods work in financial engineering; specifically the use of numerical methods as tools for computational finance. By concentrating on the field of option pricing, a core task of financial engineering and risk analysis, this book explores a wide range of computational tools in a coherent and focused manner and will be of use to the entire field of computational finance. Starting with an introductory chapter that presents the financial and stochastic background, the remainder of the book goes on to detail computational methods using both stochastic and deterministic approaches. Now in its fifth edition, Tools for Computational Finance has been significantly revised and contains: A new chapter on incomplete markets which links to new appendices on Viscosity solutions and the Dupire equation; Several new parts throughout the book such as that on the calculation of sensitivities (Sect. 3.7) and the introduction of penalty methods and their application to a two-factor model (Sect. 6.7) Additional material in the field of analytical methods including Kim’s integral representation and its computation Guidelines for comparing algorithms and judging their efficiency An extended chapter on finite elements that now includes a discussion of two-asset options Additional exercises, figures and references Written from the perspective of an applied mathematician, methods are introduced as tools within the book for immediate and straightforward application. A ‘learning by calculating’ approach is adopted throughout this book enabling readers to explore several areas of the financial world. Interdisciplinary in nature, this book will appeal to advanced undergraduate students in mathematics, engineering and other scientific disciplines as well as professionals in financial engineering.

What distinguishes this book from other texts on mathematical finance is the use of both probabilistic and PDEs tools to price derivatives for both constant and stochastic volatility models, by which the reader has the advantage of computing explicitly a large number of prices for European, American and Asian derivatives.The book presents continuous time models for financial markets, starting from classical models such as Black-Scholes and evolving towards the most popular models today such as Heston and VAR.A key feature of the textbook is the large number of exercises, mostly solved, which are designed to help the reader to understand the material.The book is based on the author's lectures on topics on computational finance for senior and graduate students, delivered in USA (Princeton University and EMU), Taiwan and Kuwait. The prerequisites are an introductory course in stochastic calculus, as well as the usual calculus sequence.The book is addressed to undergraduate and graduate students in Masters of Finance programs as well as to those who wish to become more efficient in their practical applications.Topics covered:

This volume provides practical solutions and introduces recent theoretical developments in risk management, pricing of credit derivatives, quantification of volatility and copula modeling. This third edition is devoted to modern risk analysis based on quantitative methods and textual analytics to meet the current challenges in banking and finance. It includes 14 new contributions and presents a comprehensive, state-of-the-art treatment of cutting-edge methods and topics, such as collateralized debt obligations, the high-frequency analysis of market liquidity, and realized volatility. The book is divided into three parts: Part 1 revisits important market risk issues, while Part 2 introduces novel concepts in credit risk and its management along with updated quantitative methods. The third part discusses the dynamics of risk management and includes risk analysis of energy markets and for cryptocurrencies. Digital assets, such as blockchain-based currencies, have become popular b ut are theoretically challenging when based on conventional methods. Among others, it introduces a modern text-mining method called dynamic topic modeling in detail and applies it to the message board of Bitcoins. The unique synthesis of theory and practice supported by computational tools is reflected not only in the selection of topics, but also in the fine balance of scientific contributions on practical implementation and theoretical concepts. This link between theory and practice offers theoreticians insights into considerations of applicability and, vice versa, provides practitioners convenient access to new techniques in quantitative finance. Hence the book will appeal both to researchers, including master and PhD students, and practitioners, such as financial engineers. The results presented in the book are fully reproducible and all quantlets needed for calculations are provided on an accompanying website. The Quantlet platform quantlet.de, quantlet.com, quantlet.org is an integrated QuantNet environment consisting of different types of statistics-related documents and program codes. Its goal is to promote reproducibility and offer a platform for sharing validated knowledge native to the social web. QuantNet and the corresponding Data-Driven Documents-based visualization allows readers to reproduce the tables, pictures and calculations inside this Springer book.

Simulation has become a tool difficult to substitute in many scientific areas like manufacturing, medicine, telecommunications, games, etc. Finance is one of such areas where simulation is a commonly used tool; for example, we can find Monte Carlo simulation in many financial applications like market risk analysis, portfolio optimization, credit risk related applications, etc. Simulation in Computational Finance and Economics: Tools and Emerging Applications presents a thorough collection of works, covering several rich and highly productive areas of research including Risk Management, Agent-Based Simulation, and Payment Methods and Systems, topics that have found new motivations after the strong recession experienced in the last few years. Despite the fact that simulation is widely accepted as a prominent tool, dealing with a simulation-based project requires specific management abilities of the researchers. Economic researchers will find an excellent reference to introduce them to the computational simulation models. The works presented in this book can be used as an inspiration for economic researchers interested in creating their own computational models in their respective fields.

Computational finance is increasingly important in the financial industry, as a necessary instrument for applying theoretical models to real-world challenges. Indeed, many models used in practice involve complex mathematical problems, for which an exact or a closed-form solution is not available. Consequently, we need to rely on computational techniques and specific numerical algorithms. This book combines theoretical concepts with practical implementation. Furthermore, the numerical solution of models is exploited, both to enhance the understanding of some mathematical and statistical notions, and to acquire sound programming skills in MATLAB®, which is useful for several other programming languages also. The material assumes the reader has a relatively limited knowledge of mathematics, probability, and statistics. Hence, the book contains a short description of the fundamental tools needed to address the two main fields of quantitative finance: portfolio selection and derivatives pricing. Both fields are developed here, with a particular emphasis on portfolio selection, where the author includes an overview of recent approaches. The book gradually takes the reader from a basic to medium level of expertise by using examples and exercises to simplify the understanding of complex models in finance, giving them the ability to place financial models in a computational setting. The book is ideal for courses focusing on quantitative finance, asset management, mathematical methods for economics and finance, investment banking, and corporate finance.