The (Mis)behavior of Markets: A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin and Reward - Hardcover

Hudson, Richard L.; Mandelbrot, Benoit B.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0465043550 ISBN 13: 9780465043552

Publisher: Basic Books, 2004

Synopsis

From the inventor of fractal geometry, a revolutionary new theory that overturns our understanding of how markets work. Benoit B. Mandelbrot, one of the century's most influential mathematicians, is world-famous for making mathematical sense of a fact everybody knows but that geometers from Euclid on down had never assimilated: Clouds are not round, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not smooth. To these classic lines we can now add another example: Markets are not the safe bet your broker may claim. In his first book for a general audience, Mandelbrot, with co-author Richard L. Hudson, shows how the dominant way of thinking about the behavior of markets-a set of mathematical assumptions a century old and still learned by every MBA and financier in the world-simply does not work.As he did for the physical world in his classic , Mandelbrot here uses fractal geometry to propose a new, more accurate way of describing market behavior. The complex gyrations of IBM's stock price and the dollar-euro exchange rate can now be reduced to straightforward formulae that yield a far better model of how risky they are. With his fractal tools, Mandelbrot has gotten to the bottom of how financ

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Review

"Everyone knows that every so often the markets experience swings of mood, when prices jump in a flurry of trading. But classical market theory says they shouldn't.... Mandelbrot, the mathematician who discovered fractals, argues that we don't have to abandon the notion of randomness to create a model of the markets that more accurately reflects their reality."

Book Description

Benoit Mandelbrot, father of fractal geometry, revolutionised our understanding of the models of modern financial theory. This new edition includes material on the current market crisis, calling for an end to the tunnel vision of our bankers whose over-confidence in their understanding of markets ended in catastrophe.

Edition details

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0465043550
• ISBN 13: 9780465043552
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 352