DAILY PHOTO: First Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Roanoke
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Author Archives: B Gourley
BOOK: “Mathematical Finance: A Very Short Introduction” by Mark H. A. Davis
Mathematical Finance: A Very Short Introduction by Mark H.A. DavisMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher Site – OUP
This is Oxford University Press’s Very Short Introduction to the field of the “Quants,” individuals who apply mathematics to questions of how to value financial assets and assess risks. The book begins by laying out how banking and financial markets work, then discusses how interest rates are determined, and then explores the quantification of various risks faced by lenders. The book finishes by discussing how the 2008 financial crisis impacted the field and how it operates in the wake of that event. (The 2008 crisis was described in an intriguing fashion in the book and movie The Big Short. It basically resulted from deceptive grading of mortgage-backed securities such that investors who thought they had the ultimate default-proof asset in fact had assets that not only could collapse, but — in fact — were bound to.)
Even though this book is a concise introduction, it shouldn’t be confused for a simple guide. It is not only mathematically intense but also jargon dense. It’s not a complete waste for someone without any advanced mathematics and / or economics / finance background to read, but there will be large patches that will likely be lost on one. (And if you’re not at all used to reading scholarly writing, it may be excessively daunting.)
If you want a quick guide to the field of quantitative finance, and you have an understanding of the mathematical notation used in calculus and statistics, I’d recommend this book. If you are interested in the topic but aren’t at all mathematical, you might start elsewhere (the aforementioned, The Big Short, might be a good place.)
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PROMPT: Didn’t Need Sleep
Daily writing prompt
If you didn’t need sleep, what would you do with all the extra time?
I assume just a little more of all the things I already do, with a substantial amount of that time being spent in rest.
The thought, “If I didn’t have to rest I could do so much more” is one of modern life’s most cancerous modes of thinking.
Didn’t we all learn during the pandemic that when commutes and other travel / in-person time obligations go away, life fluidly swells to fill the void. Like having to learn Zoom, etc.
Life gives no free lunches, learn to live with it.
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PROMPT: Pet Peeves
In no particular order: farting on the escalator, eating rotisserie chicken during the opera, and the shouting of “fire” during a flash flood.
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DAILY PHOTO: Sundown at Lake Hartwell
Great Blue Heron [Haiku]
Land Ho! [Haiku]
thin strip of land
thickens the horizon,
tears to sailors’ eyes.
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DAILY PHOTO: Savannah River at Hartwell Dam
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DAILY PHOTO: Scenes from Butch Kennedy Trail
PROMPT: Favorite Animals
Never elevate your opinion of a particular animal above the rest. I used to think quite highly of monkeys, and then one — of the kleptomaniac variety — stole my sunglasses and mocked me from a high tree like a cowardly school bully.
Isn’t it enough to know that all animals are better than people.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 