Commodity Prices and Markets


Book Description

Fluctuations of commodity prices, most notably of oil, capture considerable attention and have been tied to important economic effects. This book advances our understanding of the consequences of these fluctuations, providing both general analysis and a particular focus on the countries of the Pacific Rim.




International Financial Markets


Book Description




Discovering Prices


Book Description

Traditional economic theory studies idealized markets in which prices alone can guide efficient allocation, with no need for central organization. Such models build from Adam Smith’s famous concept of an invisible hand, which guides markets and renders regulation or interference largely unnecessary. Yet for many markets, prices alone are not enough to guide feasible and efficient outcomes, and regulation alone is not enough, either. Consider air traffic control at major airports. While prices could encourage airlines to take off and land at less congested times, prices alone do just part of the job; an air traffic control system is still indispensable to avoid disastrous consequences. With just an air traffic controller, however, limited resources can be wasted or poorly used. What’s needed in this and many other real-world cases is an auction system that can effectively reveal prices while still maintaining enough direct control to ensure that complex constraints are satisfied. In Discovering Prices, Paul Milgrom—the world’s most frequently cited academic expert on auction design—describes how auctions can be used to discover prices and guide efficient resource allocations, even when resources are diverse, constraints are critical, and market-clearing prices may not even exist. Economists have long understood that externalities and market power both necessitate market organization. In this book, Milgrom introduces complex constraints as another reason for market design. Both lively and technical, Milgrom roots his new theories in real-world examples (including the ambitious U.S. incentive auction of radio frequencies, whose design he led) and provides economists with crucial new tools for dealing with the world’s growing complex resource-allocation problems.




Prices in Financial Markets


Book Description

This book offers a unified treatment of selected topics in the theory of financial markets. Starting with discrete time models, Dothan introduces discrete time stochastic calculus and discrete martingale methods of intuitive simplicity to characterize attainability, completeness, pricing, and the relationship between risk and return in financial markets. Subsequently, he uses the intuition developed in conjunction with the discrete time theory to introduce continuous time calculus for continuous, jump, and mixed continuous-jump processes, and to deal with attainability, completeness, pricing, and the relationship between risk and return in general continuous time models. Throughout, the exposition of the continuous time theory emphasizes the analogies between discrete time and continuous time methods and results. The book includes many examples, applications to the pricing of options and other derivative securities, and an extensive discussion of the Black-Scholes model and its most general theoretical extension.




Trades, Quotes and Prices


Book Description

The widespread availability of high-quality, high-frequency data has revolutionised the study of financial markets. By describing not only asset prices, but also market participants' actions and interactions, this wealth of information offers a new window into the inner workings of the financial ecosystem. In this original text, the authors discuss empirical facts of financial markets and introduce a wide range of models, from the micro-scale mechanics of individual order arrivals to the emergent, macro-scale issues of market stability. Throughout this journey, data is king. All discussions are firmly rooted in the empirical behaviour of real stocks, and all models are calibrated and evaluated using recent data from Nasdaq. By confronting theory with empirical facts, this book for practitioners, researchers and advanced students provides a fresh, new, and often surprising perspective on topics as diverse as optimal trading, price impact, the fragile nature of liquidity, and even the reasons why people trade at all.




Investors and Markets


Book Description

"Nobel Prize-winning financial economist William Sharpe shows that investment professionals cannot make good portfolio choices unless they understand the determinants of asset prices." -- Provided by publisher.




Electricity Markets


Book Description

Understand the electricity market, its policies and how they drive prices, emissions, and security, with this comprehensive cross-disciplinary book. Author Chris Harris includes technical and quantitative arguments so you can confidently construct pricing models based on the various fluctuations that occur. Whether you?re a trader or an analyst, this book will enable you to make informed decisions about this volatile industry.




Price Wars


Book Description

A fascinating, groundbreaking exposé of how commodity traders in New York and London have destabilized societies all over the world, leaving the most vulnerable at the mercy of hunger, chaos, and war. • With a new Afterword for the ebook. For Rupert Russell, the Brexit vote was only the latest shock in a decade full of them: the unstoppable war in Syria, huge migrant flows into Europe, beheadings in Iraq, children placed in cages on the U.S. border. In Price Wars, he sets out on a worldwide journey to investigate what caused the wave of chaos that consumed the world in the 2010s. Russell travels to Tunisia, Iraq, Venezuela, Ukraine, East Africa, and Central America and discovers that unrest in all these places was triggered by dramatic and mysterious swings in the price of essential commodities. Deregulation of the commodities markets means that food prices can shoot up even in years of abundant harvests, causing hunger and protest. Oil prices and real-estate values can surge even when supplies are normal, enriching and emboldening dictators. It is this instability--fueled by banks and hedge funds in faraway New York and London--that has toppled regimes and unsettled the West. Price Wars is a fascinating, original, and groundbreaking exposé of the power of the commodities markets to disrupt the world.




Chaos and Order in the Capital Markets


Book Description

The latest developments in chaos theory - from an industry expert Chaos and Order in the Capital Markets was the first book to introduce and popularize chaos as it applies to finance. It has since become the classic source on the topic. This new edition is completely updated to include the latest ripples in chaos theory with new chapters that tie in today's hot innovations, such as fuzzy logic, neural nets, and artificial intelligence. Critical praise for Peters and the first edition of Chaos and Order in the Capital Markets "The bible of market chaologists." - BusinessWeek "Ed Peters has written a first-class summary suitable for any investment professional or skilled investor." - Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities "It ranks among the most provocative financial books of the past few years. Reading this book will provide a generous payback for the time and mental energy expended." - Financial Analysts Journal This second edition of Chaos and Order in the Capital Markets brings the topic completely up to date with timely examples from today's markets and descriptions of the latest wave of technology, including genetic algorithms, wavelets, and complexity theory. Chaos and Order in the Capital Markets was the very first book to explore and popularize chaos theory as it applies to finance. It has since become the industry standard, and is regarded as the definitive source to which analysts, investors, and traders turn for a comprehensive overview of chaos theory. Now, this invaluable reference - touted by BusinessWeek as "the bible of market chaologists" - has been updated and revised to bring you the latest developments in the field. Mainstream capital market theory is based on efficient market assumptions, even though the markets themselves exhibit characteristics that are symptomatic of nonlinear dynamic systems. As it explores - and validates - this nonlinear nature, Chaos and Order repudiates the "random walk" theory and econometrics. It shifts the focus away from the concept of efficient markets toward a more general view of the forces underlying the capital market system. Presenting new analytical techniques, as well as reexamining methods that have been in use for the past forty years, Chaos and Order offers a thorough examination of chaos theory and fractals as applied to investments and economics. This new edition includes timely examples from today's markets and descriptions of cutting-edge technologies-genetic algorithms, wavelets, complexity theory-and hot innovations, such as fuzzy logic and artificial intelligence. Beyond the history of current capital market theory, Chaos and Order covers the crucial characteristics of fractals, the analysis of fractal time series through rescaled range analysis (R/S), the specifics of fractal statistics, and the definition and analysis of chaotic systems. It offers an in-depth exploration of: * Random walks and efficient markets - the development of the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) and modern portfolio theory * The linear paradigm - why it has failed * Nonlinear dynamic systems - phase space, the Henon Map, Lyapunov exponents * Applying chaos and nonlinear methods - neural networks, genetic algorithms * Dynamical analysis of time series - reconstructing a phase space, the fractal dimension Tonis Vaga's Coherent Market Hypothesis - the theory of social imitation, control parameters, Vaga's implementations Plus, Chaos and Order now contains a Windows-compatible disk including data sets for running analyses described in the appendices. Written by a leading expert in the field, Chaos and Order in the Capital Markets has all the information you need for a complete, up-to-date look at chaos theory. This latest edition will undoubtedly prove to be as invaluable as the first.




The Little Book of Stock Market Profits


Book Description

A timely guide to making the best investment strategies even better A wide variety of strategies have been identified over the years, which purportedly outperform the stock market. Some of these include buying undervalued stocks while others rely on technical analysis techniques. It's fair to say no one method is fool proof and most go through both up and down periods. The challenge for an investor is picking the right method at the right time. The Little Book of Stock Market Profits shows you how to achieve this elusive goal and make the most of your time in today's markets. Written by Mitch Zacks, Senior Portfolio Manager of Zacks Investment Management, this latest title in the Little Book series reveals stock market strategies that really work and then shows you how they can be made even better. It skillfully highlights earnings-based investing strategies, the hallmark of the Zacks process, but it also identifies strategies based on valuations, seasonal patterns and price momentum. Specifically, the book: Identifies stock market investment strategies that work, those that don't, and what it takes for an individual investor to truly succeed in today's dynamic market Discusses how the performance of each strategy examined can be improved by combining into them into a multifactor approach Gives investors a clear path to integrating the best investment strategies of all time into their own personal portfolio Investing can be difficult, but with the right strategies you can improve your overall performance. The Little book of Stock Market Profits will show you how.