An unprecedented book on option pricing! For the first time, the basics on modern option pricing are explained ``from scratch'' using only minimal mathematics. Market practitioners and students alike will learn how and why the Black-Scholes equation works, and what other new methods have been developed that build on the success of Black-Shcoles. The Cox-Ross-Rubinstein binomial trees are discussed, as well as two recent theories of option pricing: the Derman-Kani theory on implied volatility trees and Mark Rubinstein's implied binomial trees. Black-Scholes and Beyond will not only help the reader gain a solid understanding of the Balck-Scholes formula, but will also bring the reader up to date by detailing current theoretical developments from Wall Street. Furthermore, the author expands upon existing research and adds his own new approaches to modern option pricing theory. Among the topics covered in Black-Scholes and Beyond: detailed discussions of pricing and hedging options; volatility smiles and how to price options ``in the presence of the smile''; complete explanation on pricing barrier options.

An unprecedented book on option pricing! For the first time, the basics on modern option pricing are explained ``from scratch'' using only minimal mathematics. Market practitioners and students alike will learn how and why the Black-Scholes equation works, and what other new methods have been developed that build on the success of Black-Shcoles. The Cox-Ross-Rubinstein binomial trees are discussed, as well as two recent theories of option pricing: the Derman-Kani theory on implied volatility trees and Mark Rubinstein's implied binomial trees. Black-Scholes and Beyond will not only help the reader gain a solid understanding of the Balck-Scholes formula, but will also bring the reader up to date by detailing current theoretical developments from Wall Street. Furthermore, the author expands upon existing research and adds his own new approaches to modern option pricing theory. Among the topics covered in Black-Scholes and Beyond: detailed discussions of pricing and hedging options; volatility smiles and how to price options ``in the presence of the smile''; complete explanation on pricing barrier options.

Options have been traded for hundreds of years, but investment decisions were based on gut feelings until the Nobel Prize -- winning discovery of the Black-Scholes options pricing model in 1973 ushered in the era of the "quants." Wall Street would never be the same. In Pricing the Future, financial economist George G. Szpiro tells the fascinating stories of the pioneers of mathematical finance who conducted the search for the elusive options pricing formula. From the broker's assistant who published the first mathematical explanation of financial markets to Albert Einstein and other scientists who looked for a way to explain the movement of atoms and molecules, Pricing the Future retraces the historical and intellectual developments that ultimately led to the widespread use of mathematical models to drive investment strategies on Wall Street.

THE AUTHOR: Dr. Crack studied PhD-level option pricing at MIT and Harvard Business School, taught undergraduate and MBA option pricing at Indiana University (winning many teaching awards), was an independent consultant to the New York Stock Exchange, worked as an asset management practitioner in London, and has traded options for over 15 years. This unique mixture of learning, teaching, consulting, practice, and trading is reflected in every page. SUMMARY OVERVIEW: This revised third edition of Basic Black-Scholes gives extremely clear explanations of Black-Scholes option pricing theory, and discusses direct applications of the theory to option trading. The presentation does not go far beyond basic Black-Scholes for three reasons: First, a novice need not go far beyond Black-Scholes to make money in the options markets; Second, all high-level option pricing theory is simply an extension of Black-Scholes; and Third, there already exist many books that look far beyond Black-Scholes without first laying the firm foundation given here. The trading advice does not go far beyond elementary call and put positions because more complex trades are simply combinations of these. WHAT MAKES THIS BOOK SPECIAL OR UNIQUE?: -It contains the basic intuition you need to trade options for the first time, or interview for an options job. -Honest advice about trading: there is no simple way to beat the markets, but if you have skill this advice can help make you money, and if you have no skill but still choose to trade, this advice can reduce your losses. -Full immersion treatment of transactions costs (T-costs). -Lessons from trading stated in simple terms. -Stylized facts about the markets (e.g., how to profit from reversals, when are T-costs highest/lowest during the trading day, implications of the market for corporate control, etc.). -How to apply (European-style) Black-Scholes pricing to the trading of (American-style) options. -Leverage through margin trading compared to leverage through options. -Black-Scholes option pricing code for the HP17B, HP19B, and HP12C. -Two downloadable spreadsheets. The first allows the user to forecast T-costs for option positions using simple models. The second allows the user to explore option sensitivities including the Greeks. -Practitioner Bloomberg Terminal screenshots to aid learning. -Simple discussion of continuously-compounded returns. -Introduction to "paratrading" (trading stocks side-by-side with options to generate additional profit). -Unique "regrets" treatment of early exercise decisions and trade-offs for American-style calls and puts. -Unique discussion of put-call parity and option pricing. -How to calculate Black-Scholes in your head in 10 seconds (also in Heard on The Street: Quantitative Questions from Wall Street Job Interviews). -Special attention to arithmetic Brownian motion with general pricing formulae and comparisons to Bachelier (1900) and Black-Scholes. -Careful attention to the impact of dividends in analytical American option pricing. -Dimensional analysis and the adequation formula (relating FX call and FX put prices through transformed Black-Scholes formulae). -Intuitive review of risk-neutral pricing/probabilities and how and why these are related to physical pricing/probabilities. -Careful distinction between the early Merton (non-risk-neutral) hedging-type argument and later Cox-Ross/Harrison-Kreps risk-neutral pricing -Simple discussion of Monte-Carlo methods in science and option pricing. -Simple interpretations of the Black-Scholes formula and PDE and implications for trading. -Careful discussion of conditional probabilities as they relate to Black-Scholes. -Intuitive treatment of high-level topics e.g., bond-numeraire interpretation of Black-Scholes (where N(d2) is P*(ITM)) versus the stock-numeraire interpretation (where N(d1) is P**(ITM)).

Presents inference and simulation of stochastic process in the field of model calibration for financial times series modelled by continuous time processes and numerical option pricing. Introduces the bases of probability theory and goes on to explain how to model financial times series with continuous models, how to calibrate them from discrete data and further covers option pricing with one or more underlying assets based on these models. Analysis and implementation of models goes beyond the standard Black and Scholes framework and includes Markov switching models, Lévy models and other models with jumps (e.g. the telegraph process); Topics other than option pricing include: volatility and covariation estimation, change point analysis, asymptotic expansion and classification of financial time series from a statistical viewpoint. The book features problems with solutions and examples. All the examples and R code are available as an additional R package, therefore all the examples can be reproduced.

THE AUTHOR: Dr. Crack studied PhD-level option pricing at MIT and Harvard Business School, taught undergraduate and MBA option pricing at Indiana University (winning many teaching awards), was an independent consultant to the New York Stock Exchange, worked as an asset management practitioner in London, and has traded options for over 15 years. This unique mixture of learning, teaching, consulting, practice, and trading is reflected in every page. SUMMARY OVERVIEW: This revised fourth edition of Basic Black-Scholes gives extremely clear explanations of Black-Scholes option pricing theory, and discusses direct applications of the theory to option trading. The presentation does not go far beyond basic Black-Scholes for three reasons: First, a novice need not go far beyond Black-Scholes to make money in the options markets; Second, all high-level option pricing theory is simply an extension of Black-Scholes; and Third, there already exist many books that look far beyond Black-Scholes without first laying the firm foundation given here. The trading advice does not go far beyond elementary call and put positions because more complex trades are simply combinations of these. WHAT MAKES THIS BOOK SPECIAL OR UNIQUE?: -It contains the basic intuition you need to trade options for the first time, or interview for an options job. -Honest advice about trading: there is no simple way to beat the markets, but if you have skill this advice can help make you money, and if you have no skill but still choose to trade, this advice can reduce your losses. -Full immersion treatment of transactions costs (T-costs). -Lessons from trading stated in simple terms. -Stylized facts about the markets (e.g., how to profit from reversals, when are T-costs highest/lowest during the trading day, implications of the market for corporate control, etc.). -How to apply (European-style) Black-Scholes pricing to the trading of (American-style) options. -Leverage through margin trading compared to leverage through options. -Black-Scholes option pricing code for the HP17B, HP19B, and HP12C. -Two downloadable spreadsheets. The first allows the user to forecast T-costs for option positions using simple models. The second allows the user to explore option sensitivities including the Greeks. -Practitioner Bloomberg Terminal screenshots to aid learning. -Simple discussion of continuously-compounded returns. -Introduction to "paratrading" (trading stocks side-by-side with options to generate additional profit). -Unique "regrets" treatment of early exercise decisions and trade-offs for American-style calls and puts. -Unique discussion of put-call parity and option pricing. -How to calculate Black-Scholes in your head in 10 seconds (also in Heard on The Street: Quantitative Questions from Wall Street Job Interviews). -Special attention to arithmetic Brownian motion with general pricing formulae and comparisons to Bachelier (1900) and Black-Scholes. -Careful attention to the impact of dividends in analytical American option pricing. -Dimensional analysis and the adequation formula (relating FX call and FX put prices through transformed Black-Scholes formulae). -Intuitive review of risk-neutral pricing/probabilities and how and why these are related to physical pricing/probabilities. -Careful distinction between the early Merton (non-risk-neutral) hedging-type argument and later Cox-Ross/Harrison-Kreps risk-neutral pricing -Simple discussion of Monte-Carlo methods in science and option pricing. -Simple interpretations of the Black-Scholes formula and PDE and implications for trading. -Careful discussion of conditional probabilities as they relate to Black-Scholes. -Intuitive treatment of high-level topics e.g., bond-numeraire interpretation of Black-Scholes (where N(d2) is P*(ITM)) versus the stock-numeraire interpretation (where N(d1) is P**(ITM)).