An Undergraduate Introduction to Financial Mathematics [Hardcover]

J. Robert Buchanan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 11, 2006 | ISBN-10: 9812566376 | ISBN-13: 978-9812566379

This textbook provides an introduction to financial mathematics and financial engineering for undergraduate students who have completed a three or four semester sequence of calculus courses. It introduces the theory of interest, random variables and probability, stochastic processes, arbitrage, option pricing, hedging, and portfolio optimization. The student progresses from knowing only elementary calculus to understanding the derivation and solution of the Black–Scholes partial differential equation and its solutions. This is one of the few books on the subject of financial mathematics which is accessible to undergraduates having only a thorough grounding in elementary calculus. It explains the subject matter without “hand waving” arguments and includes numerous examples. Every chapter concludes with a set of exercises which test the chapter’s concepts and fill in details of derivations.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 284 pages
• Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company (April 11, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9812566376
• ISBN-13: 978-9812566379
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,292,956 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars very nice introduction to the financial math, September 6, 2008

By 

Crni (Montenegro) - See all my reviews

This review is from: An Undergraduate Introduction to Financial Mathematics (Hardcover)

Having good math background, I found this book excellent as an introduction to the financial engineering field. I tried first with Mathematics for Finance: An Introduction to Financial Engineering (Springer Undergraduate Mathematics Series) book - while being very good book in itself, this one was based upon building an intuition for economics side of the story, which didn't worked very well for me. On the other side An Undergraduate Introduction to Financial Mathematics builds more upon pure math approach, which worked very well for me. But this is definitely not something to scare off readers that are not math inclined - all needed math is derived here, up to the very basic details. Armed with that understanding, I'm at the moment proceeding with Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives with Derivagem CD (7th Edition) (Prentice Hall Series in Finance) for more advanced insight, and so far it is going very well.

The other reviewer comment with regard to typos is unfortunately true for the first edition, but at the moment second edition seems to be in preparation (follow the link I provided above), so hopefully this will be fixed soon (and the author was maintaining up-to-data errata list on his page anyway). So - overall I would heartily recommend this book to anyone with solid math background looking for a first book to start getting acquainted with the field.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Poorly Written Book, July 28, 2007

By 

Steve J. Snyder "SJS" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: An Undergraduate Introduction to Financial Mathematics (Hardcover)

This book is rife with typographical and grammatical errors. The content is not terrible, but there are much better books out there if you're looking for an introduction to Financial Mathematics. Mark Joshi's books are far superior.