"Inquisitive statisticians may find this book an interesting read in which to put their theories and epistemology to the test." (Journal of American Statistics, 2008)
"In summary, this book is a "must have" for professionals and researchers who employ numerical methods in economic and financial modeling. The amount and quality of the material that the author offers is so generous that readers are likely to benefit from it even if they are not interested in some of the specific applications presented." (Interfaces, June 2008)
"…a broad and enjoyable introduction to computational finance." (Journal of the American Statistical Association, December 2007)
"...written in such a lucid way that it provides great pleasure in reading...excellent for students...of great value to practitioners who are new to the field." (MAA Reviews, November 23, 2006)
I am using this as a secondary reference for a half-semester Matlab and Optimization course and it has been invaluable. The writing is crystal clear, the examples and code are pretty close to perfect for every section. The author writes in a very intuitive fashion and of the sections I have covered I don't think I have been lost or confused once, which in this field is uncommon.
This is not really an introductory book for finance and if you read the preface, Brandimarte does explain that the book complements and does not replace more specific texts. I have been seen most of the material in this book covered in at least a cursory fashion in my Financial Engineering program and it makes a difference, so I would recommend that you are familiar with the material covered in Hull's "Options, Futures and Other Derivatives" or Neftci's "Principles of Financial Engineering" and Neftci's "Introduction to the Mathematics of Financial Derivatives" or similar texts.
You also won't be able to get away without having at least some intermediate level linear algebra. You don't have know it well but concept such as conditioning, LU and cholesky factorization should ring a bell. On the other hand some topics such as optimization I feel are covered very solidly. I am using "Optimization Methods in Finance" by Cornuejols and Tutuncu and although it is a great book I have to say that the examples in Brandimarte's book are much better and more intuitively explained, although clearly not in the same detail.
My only gripe with the book is that he tends to use code from the toolboxes, which can be inconvenient if you are student and only have the student version at home. Most of the time he builds the code from scratch but he uses toolbox code enough that it is annoying.
I own the first edition, which is half the size of this one. I enjoyed that book, but I had always hoped that it a provide a more in depth analysis. Well it appears my wishes have been answered. Paolo Brandimarte has expanded on his original outstanding work producing a rare book that can be used for self-study and which also provides practical exercises. It really is amazing how he has been able to touch on so many topics without sacrificing content in the process. The writing is lucid and the Matlab examples well-conceived. Anyone desiring to obtain a greater knowledge in the field of finance would be well-served in picking up this fine title. Of course, the book loses much of its impact if the reader does not have a copy of Matlab.
This book certainly is one of THE good books in Finance. I liked the way the author has provided the literature in Finance together with the math behind it. I have been reading other books on the same topic, most of which are crammed with equations without enough details and explanations. This book certainly attempts to fill that gap. (Ignore some of the typos though).
My request to the author...Please write another book, and this time, solely on mathematical Finance and please keep the same style (if not better) than you used in this book. The book (and the author) really helps to not only understand but also enjoy this field by reading books written in such styles.
This is a great book if you want to be a quant or are interested in using mathematical methods for finance purposes. There are not many good books in this field and this one is definitely one of the few good ones out there.
However, this book is not for people with little background in math.
The book earns 4 stars for how it combines what has been out there for some time with Matlab functionality. What one would have appreciated though is something about all the new stuff that has evolved in the last few years (e.g. credit risk, etc.)
Product Details :
Hardcover: 696 pages
Publisher: Wiley-Interscience; 2 edition (October 6, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0471745030
ISBN-13: 978-0471745037
Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.6 x 9.5 inches
More Details about Numerical Methods in Finance and Economics: A MATLAB-Based Introduction Statistics in Practice 2nd editon
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