Customer Reviews

An Introduction to Stochastic Integration (Probability and its Applications)

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This book provides a very easy to read account of the development of the stochastic integral. While concentrating on integrators which are continuous local martingales, and thus lacking the full generality of treatment to be found in, for example Dellacherie
and Meyer, the basic constructions are all performed in a fashion which is readily extensible to the more general case. From a teaching point of view this is beneficial if the more general case is to be studied subsequently. Although the arguments can be considerably simplified for specific special cases (e.g. integration with respect to Brownian Motion only), it is useful to understand how the construction fits into the more general case, which also makes less of a discontinuity for the reader who is subsequently to study the general discontinuous theory!

The arguments are presented carefuly, for example all of the necesary conditions being checked explicitly in places where important theorems are to be applied, and there are none of the annoying statements which plague books on Stochastic Calculus along the lines "the reader can readily check", or "see problem 21.2.43" in the middle of proofs. Additionally very few lines are "skipped" in the proofs; while this does mean that they are lacking in brevity, it is strongly to be encouraged when a complex subject is presented to the novice. When the concepts are understood sufficiently well the reader can easily compile "brief" proofs on his own (as a form of revision), but working the other way round frequently, in my experience of supervising a similar course, leads to misapprehensions about the conditions for applying essential theorems.

This review is about the material quality of the printing in the copy I received. This is not about the content.

I have access to a real copy of this edition in the local library. It is the usual high quality hardcover: it has a matte cover with texture, beautifully bound; the paper inside is high-quality, very soft and slightly off-white; and the printing of the text is very sharp. The version I received from Amazon claimed to be exactly the same, but was very different:
- The hardcover was shiny, did not have texture, and had a natural tendency to bend strongly outwards, it even cannot stay opened if I leave it alone, it will close.
- The paper inside is whiter, horribly white, like standard printing A4 paper;
- The text printing looks like a cheap photocopy of the original. It don't even match a home laser printer. Some formulas are difficult to read. Moreover, some pages are not even centered.

It looks and feels like a cheap knock-off photocopy done in a garage. When I pay a lot of money for a hardcover edition I want the real thing, not a cheap knock-off. Authors should avoid their work being degraded with this cheap printing.