Physics and finance/ Volker Ziemann

Includes index

Introduction -- Concepts of finance -- Portfolio theory and CAPM -- Stochastic processes -- Black-Scholes differential equation -- The Greeks and risk management -- Regression models and hypothesis testing -- Time series -- Bubbles crashes fat tails and Levy-stable distributions -- Quantum finance and path integrals -- Optimal control theory -- Cryptocurrencies -- Solutions for selected exercises

This book introduces physics students to concepts and methods of finance. Despite being perceived as quite distant from physics, finance shares a number of common methods and ideas, usually related to noise and uncertainties. Juxtaposing the key methods to applications in both physics and finance articulates both differences and common features, this gives students a deeper understanding of the underlying ideas. Moreover, they acquire a number of useful mathematical and computational tools, such as stochastic differential equations, path integrals, Monte-Carlo methods, and basic cryptology. Each chapter ends with a set of carefully designed exercises enabling readers to test their comprehension.