An excellent basis for further study. Suitable even for readers with no mathematical background.

The De Gruyter Series in Probability and Stochastics is devoted to the publication of high-level monographs and specialized graduate texts in any branch of modern probability theory and stochastics, along with their numerous applications in other parts of mathematics, physics and informatics, in economics and finance, and in the life sciences. The aim of the series is to present recent research results in the form of authoritative and comprehensive works that will serve the probability and stochastics community as basis for further research. Editorial Board Itai Benjamini, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel Jean Bertoin, Universität Zürich, Switzerland Michel Ledoux, Université de Toulouse, France René L. Schilling, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany

Relying on the existence, in a complete market, of a pricing kernel, this book covers the pricing of assets, derivatives, and bonds in a discrete time, complete markets framework. It is primarily aimed at advanced Masters and PhD students in finance.-- Covers asset pricing in a single period model, deriving a simple complete market pricing model and using Stein's lemma to derive a version of the Capital Asset Pricing Model.-- Looks more deeply into some of the utility determinants of the pricing kernel, investigating in particular the effect of non-marketable background risks on the shape of the pricing kernel.-- Derives the prices of European-style contingent claims, in particular call options, in a one-period model; derives the Black-Scholes model assuming a lognormal distribution for the asset and a pricing kernel with constant elasticity, and emphasizes the idea of a risk-neutral valuation relationship between the price of a contingent claim on an asset and the underlying asset price.-- Extends the analysis to contingent claims on assets with non-lognormal distributions and considers the pricing of claims when risk-neutral valuation relationships do not exist.-- Expands the treatment of asset pricing to a multi-period economy, deriving prices in a rational expectations equilibrium.-- Uses the rational expectations framework to analyse the pricing of forward and futures contracts on assets and derivatives.-- Analyses the pricing of bonds given stochastic interest rates, and then uses this methodology to model the drift of forward rates, and as a special case the drift of the forward London Interbank Offer Rate in the LIBOR Market Model.

An excellent basis for further study. Suitable even for readers with no mathematical background.

This book explores the mathematics that underpins pricing models for derivative securities such as options, futures and swaps in modern markets. Models built upon the famous Black-Scholes theory require sophisticated mathematical tools drawn from modern stochastic calculus. However, many of the underlying ideas can be explained more simply within a discrete-time framework. This is developed extensively in this substantially revised second edition to motivate the technically more demanding continuous-time theory.

The purpose of this book is to provide a rigorous yet accessible introduction to the modern financial theory of security markets. The main subjects are derivatives and portfolio management. The book is intended to be used as a text by advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students. It is also likely to be useful to practicing financial engineers, portfolio manager, and actuaries who wish to acquire a fundamental understanding of financial theory. The book makes heavy use of mathematics, but not at an advanced level. Various mathematical concepts are developed as needed, and computational examples are emphasized.

"This book explains in simple settings the fundamental ideas of financial market modelling and derivative pricing, using the no-arbitrage principle. Relatively elementary mathematics leads to powerful notions and techniques - such as viability, completeness, self-financing and replicating strategies, arbitrage and equivalent martingale measures - which are directly applicable in practice. The general methods are applied in detail to pricing and hedging European and American options within the Cox-Ross-Rubinstein (CRR) binomial tree model. A simple approach to discrete interest rate models is included, which, though elementary, has some novel features. All proofs are written in a user-friendly manner, with each step carefully explained and following a natural flow of thought. In this way the student learns how to tackle new problems"--