Customer Reviews

Louis Bachelier's Theory of Speculation: The Origins of Modern Finance

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Finally, a worthy title, a worthy edition and binding, and worthy translation of the forgotten paper that transformed the world of finance long after its genius author had passed from this mortal coil. Louis Bachelier's "The Theory of Speculation" was previously only available in French (online at NUMDAM, under Théorie de la spéculation. Annales scientifiques de l'École Normale Supérieure) and in English in the obscure 1971 book "The Random Character of the Stock Market" edited by MIT's Paul Cootner.

Davis and Etheridge's commentary and background and helpful timeline are all welcome, but a thorough biography of Bachelier and his sad life remains to be written. The index is adequate for such a slender volume.

This is an excellent book on the origins of computational finance. It discusses the academic beginnings in the early twentieth century. Finance is a strange subject that is hard to study because people are usually not too willing to share their discoveries- they would rather make massive profits off of them! This book discusses Bachelier's incredible thesis on several levels. He has some very interesting stochastic analysis, but more importantly he discovered a method for the valuation of options- the basis of modern finance.