The third edition of this popular introduction to the classical underpinnings of the mathematics behind finance continues to combine sound mathematical principles with economic applications. Concentrating on the probabilistic theory of continuous arbitrage pricing of financial derivatives, including stochastic optimal control theory and Merton's fund separation theory, the book is designed for graduate students and combines necessary mathematical background with a solid economic focus. It includes a solved example for every new technique presented, contains numerous exercises, and suggests further reading in each chapter. In this substantially extended new edition Bjork has added separate and complete chapters on the martingale approach to optimal investment problems, optimal stopping theory with applications to American options, and positive interest models and their connection to potential theory and stochastic discount factors. More advanced areas of study are clearly marked to help students and teachers use the book as it suits their needs.

Arbitrage Theory provides the foundation for the pricing of financial derivatives and has become indispensable in both financial theory and financial practice. This textbook offers a rigorous and comprehensive introduction to the mathematics of arbitrage pricing in a discrete-time, finite-state economy in which a finite number of securities are traded. In a first step, various versions of the Fundamental Theorem of Asset Pricing, i.e., characterizations of when a market does not admit arbitrage opportunities, are proved. The book then focuses on incomplete markets where the main concern is to obtain a precise description of the set of “market-consistent” prices for nontraded financial contracts, i.e. the set of prices at which such contracts could be transacted between rational agents. Both European-type and American-type contracts are considered. A distinguishing feature of this book is its emphasis on market-consistent prices and a systematic description of pricing rules, also at intermediate dates. The benefits of this approach are most evident in the treatment of American options, which is novel in terms of both the presentation and the scope, while also presenting new results. The focus on discrete-time, finite-state models makes it possible to cover all relevant topics while requiring only a moderate mathematical background on the part of the reader. The book will appeal to mathematical finance and financial economics students seeking an elementary but rigorous introduction to the subject; mathematics and physics students looking for an opportunity to get acquainted with a modern applied topic; and mathematicians, physicists and quantitatively inclined economists working or planning to work in the financial industry.

The present 'Introductory Lectures on Arbitrage-based Financial Asset Pricing' are a first attempt to give a comprehensive presentation of Arbitrage Theory in a discrete time framework (by the way: all the re sults given in these lectures apply to a continuous time framework but, probably, in continuous time we could achieve stronger results - of course at the price of stronger assumptions). It has been turned out in the last few years that capital market theory as derived and evolved from the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) in the middle sixties, can, to an astonishing extent, be based on arbitrage arguments only, rather than on mean-variance preferences of investors. On the other hand, ar bitrage arguments provided access to a wider range of results which could not be obtained by standard CAPM-methods, e. g. the valuation of contingent claims (derivative assets) Dr the_ investigation of futures prices. To some extent the presentation will loosely follow historical lines. A selected set of capital asset pricing models will be derived according to their historical progress and their increasing complexity as well. It will be seen that they all share common structural properties. After having made this observation the presentation will become an axiomatical one: it will be stated in precise terms what arbitrage is about and what the consequences are if markets do not allow for risk-free arbitrage opportunities. The presentation will partly be accompanied by an illus trating example: two-state option pricing.

This book consists of two essays on new approaches for the Arbitrage Pricing Theory and the Present Value Model, and one essay on cross-sectional correlations in panel data. The new approaches are designed to study a large number of securities over time. They can be employed by security analysts to discover market anomalies without assuming observable factors or constant risk premium. The book shows how these two approaches can be used to determine how many systematic factors affect the U.S. stock market.

Proof of the "Fundamental Theorem of Asset Pricing" in its general form by Delbaen and Schachermayer was a milestone in the history of modern mathematical finance and now forms the cornerstone of this book. Puts into book format a series of major results due mostly to the authors of this book. Embeds highest-level research results into a treatment amenable to graduate students, with introductory, explanatory background. Awaited in the quantitative finance community.

The fourth edition of this widely used textbook on pricing and hedging of financial derivatives now also includes dynamic equilibrium theory and continues to combine sound mathematical principles with economic applications. Concentrating on the probabilistic theory of continuous time arbitrage pricing of financial derivatives, including stochastic optimal control theory and optimal stopping theory, Arbitrage Theory in Continuous Time is designed for graduate students in economics and mathematics, and combines the necessary mathematical background with a solid economic focus. It includes a solved example for every new technique presented, contains numerous exercises, and suggests further reading in each chapter. All concepts and ideas are discussed, not only from a mathematics point of view, but with lots of intuitive economic arguments. In the substantially extended fourth edition Tomas Bjork has added completely new chapters on incomplete markets, treating such topics as the Esscher transform, the minimal martingale measure, f-divergences, optimal investment theory for incomplete markets, and good deal bounds. This edition includes an entirely new section presenting dynamic equilibrium theory, covering unit net supply endowments models and the Cox-Ingersoll-Ross equilibrium factor model. Providing two full treatments of arbitrage theory-the classical delta hedging approach and the modern martingale approach-this book is written so that these approaches can be studied independently of each other, thus providing the less mathematically-oriented reader with a self-contained introduction to arbitrage theory and equilibrium theory, while at the same time allowing the more advanced student to see the full theory in action. This textbook is a natural choice for graduate students and advanced undergraduates studying finance and an invaluable introduction to mathematical finance for mathematicians and professionals in the market.