". . . shining clarity and enviable originality" --Peter L. Bernstein, author of Against the Gods "Mark Kritzman presents the reader with an entertaining way of learning some serious finance." --Harry Markowitz, Nobel Prize Recipient, 1990, Economic Sciences President, Harry Markowitz Company Six challenging questions . . . six entertaining solutions, profound yet straightforward, and relevant to the everyday challenge of investing and investment management. Puzzles of Finance takes on today's most persistently challenging financial questions and, through clever examples and just plain logic, helps you move beyond those questions to arrive at a deeper understanding of finance and the daily management of money. From Siegel's Paradox ("Is it possible to profit from asymmetry of exchange rate changes?") to questions of option value ("Why is the value of an option unaffected by the underlying asset's expected return?"), Puzzles of Finance goes beyond vague theoretical suppositions to supply practical, concrete solutions that investors and money managers can benefit from every day. While the intellectually curious will be drawn to Puzzles of Finance, it is the day-to-day finance professional who will derive the most benefit from this remarkable book. In clear, concise language-with more than a touch of humor-renowned author and financial professional Mark Kritzman simplifies six of today's most perplexing financial riddles. Along the way, he presents a finance primer as practical as it is profound, as illuminating as it is entertaining. Kritzman artfully explores the relationship of such seemingly disparate fields as botany and thermodynamics to options. These proofs propel Puzzles of Finance forward with the pace of a novel. An easy-to-understand primer on financial concepts and quantitative methods combined with a technical glossary ensures that no concept is misunderstood. The result is an unprecedented book that will change the way you view finance and investing. When you invest your time in reading Puzzles of Finance, you will uncover some of the most probing and insightful lessons in financial literature today. For updates on new and bestselling Wiley Finance books: wiley.com/wbns Critical Praise for Puzzles of Finance ". . . an extraordinary combination of the elements of finance, commonsense wisdom, sparkling humor, shining clarity, and enviable originality. This is a potent blend by any standard of measurement. Long time Kritzman watchers, however, would anticipate nothing less." --Peter L. Bernstein, Author, Against the Gods "A modest, lively, clever, little book. Kritzman's puzzles range from party tidbits to the profound, and each is presented with a bit of history, a lot of insight, and just the right measure of wit. While he may not have intended it to be more than a collection of interesting conundrums, Kritzman has actually created a wonderful introduction to finance for the uninitiated with challenges for even the most sophisticated." --Stephen A. Ross, Franco Modigliani Professor of Finance and Economics, Sloan School, MIT; Co-Chairman, Roll and Ross Asset Management Corp. "Some people do crosswords. Mark Kritzman does financial puzzles and his explications amuse and instruct. Financial theory has never been this much fun."-Jack R. Meyer, President, Harvard Management Company "Puzzles of Finance should be a joy to finance mavens and even their friends! Perhaps all students of the field should be required to solve these six puzzles; they go to the heart of the intuitions for essential contributions, such as the pricing of options, the meaning of efficient diversification, and the definition of risk." --Kenneth A. Froot, Andre R. Jakurski Professor of Business Administration and Director of Research, Harvard Business School

The book offers a succinct overview of the technical components of blockchain networks, also known as distributed digital ledger networks. Written from an academic perspective, it surveys ongoing research challenges as well as existing literature. Several chapters illustrate how the mathematical tools of game theory and algorithmic mechanism design can be applied to the analysis, design, and improvement of blockchain network protocols. Using an engineering perspective, insights are provided into how the economic interests of different types of participants shape the behaviors of blockchain systems. Readers are thus provided with a paradigm for developing blockchain consensus protocols and distributed economic mechanisms that regulate the interactions of system participants, thus leading to desired cooperative behaviors in the form of system equilibria. This book will be a vital resource for students and scholars of this budding field.

Provide students in grades K-2 with a clear understanding of government and politics while teaching the voting process and democracy concepts. Teachers will appreciate the flexibility of the lessons, activities, and interactive opportunities that integrate key literacy skills and overall knowledge of the election process through engaging activities that include analyzing and evaluating primary sources, participating in a mock election, making connections between paired fiction and nonfiction texts, and solving engaging mazes and puzzles. Encourage civic discourse with this essential social studies resource!

Constraint programming is the fruit of several decades of research carried out in mathematical logic, automated deduction, operations research and arti?cial intelligence. The tools and programming languages arising from this research ?eldhaveenjoyedrealsuccessintheindustrialworldastheycontributetosolving hard combinatorial problems in diverse domains such as production planning, communication networks, robotics and bioinformatics. This volume contains the extended and reviewed versions of a selection of papers presented at the Joint ERCIM/CoLogNET International Workshop on Constraint Solving and Constraint Logic Programming (CSCLP2003), which was held from June 30 to July 2, 2003. The venue chosen for the seventh edition of this annual workshop was the Computer and Automation Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA SZTAKI) in Budapest, Hungary. This institute is one of the 20 members of the Working Group on Constraints of the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM). For many participants this workshop provided the ?rst opportunity to visit their ERCIM partner in Budapest. CoLogNET is the European-funded network of excellence dedicated to s- porting and enhancing cooperation and research on all areas of computational logic, and continues the work done previously by the Compulog Net. In part- ular, the aim of the logic and constraint logic programming area of CoLogNET is to foster and support all research activities related to logic programming and constraint logic programming. The editors would like to take the opportunity and thank all the authors who submitted papers to this volume, as well as the reviewers for their helpful work.

100 Ideas for Primary Teachers: Numeracy Difficulties and Dyscalculia provides specially-designed games and activities to help build firm foundations in basic number concepts. All the ideas have been tried-and-tested in specialist and mainstream schools and are designed to encourage children to talk about numbers in a natural way using everyday contexts. The book begins with a focus on counting skills, before moving on to place value structure, multiplication and division. As well as teaching key facts, the ideas in this book will develop pupils' understanding so that they become flexible thinkers who can use numbers to solve a variety of mathematical problems. The ideas require minimum preparation and resources, and are perfect for use in mainstream and specialist classrooms, individual tuition sessions or as homework assignments.