The (Mis)behaviour of Markets: A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin and Reward (Paperback)

~ (Author), Richard L. Hudson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Surprisingly entertaining ... As the founder of fractal geometry and the discoverer of the Mandelbrot set Mandelbrot is acknowledged as the father of chaos theory ... he is, simply, very clever indeed.' Martin Baker, Sunday Telegraph 'The reader gets a clear picture of the history of finance theory ... the best financial read since Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Fooled by Randomness.' Philip Coggan, Financial Times 'One of the 20th century's most celebrated mathematicians ... devastating analysis.' Financial Times

Product Description

Fractal geometry is the mathematics of roughness: how to reduce the outline of a jagged leaf, a rocky coastline or a static in a computer connection to a few simple mathematical properties - to make the complex simple. With his fractal tools, Benoit Mandelbrot has got to the bottom of how financial markets really work. He finds they have a shifting sense of time, a unique dimension and a wild kind of behaviour that makes them volatile, dangerous - and also beautiful. In Mandelbrot's fractal models, the complex gyrations of IBM's stock price, the FTSE 100 cotton trading and exchange rates can be reduced to straightforward formulae that yield a much more accurate description of the risks involved.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Profile Books Ltd (July 21, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1861977905
• ISBN-13: 978-1861977908
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,474,660 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ignore at your peril, September 22, 2009

By	Jos Pols - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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This review is from: The (MIS)Behaviour of Markets: A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin, and Reward (Paperback)

Nutshell review - This book is excellent and should be read by anyone interested or involved in the financial markets. Mandelbrot is one of the world's great mathematicians who also has the ability to write so that his insights and work become accessible to non-mathematicians as well. He explains how current models of financial markets are flawed and based on assumptions and math that do not reflect reality. With the discovery and application of fractal geometry Mandelbrot shows us how the markets are far riskier than usually believed and every investor and analyst should take the time to become familiar with this area of market research. This is not a how-to-get-rich investing book but will instead (and more importantly) enlighten you to the dangers that abound - forewarned is forearmed.

Also see (1) The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable and (2) Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets both by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.