Louis Bachelier's Theory of Speculation: The Origins of Modern Finance
"Mark Davis and Alison Etheridge have done a splendid job in translating the Bachelier thesis, thus making it accessible to a wide audience. Apart from the thesis itself, they provide the reader with institutional information, a biography of Bachelier, and a short history of the development of stochastic analysis and mathematical finance. The result is a nice slim volume that will certainly be on the bookshelves of everyone interested in the subject."--Tomas Björk, Professor of Mathematical Finance, Stockholm School of Economics"This gem of a book will please many readers, including students and researchers in economics, finance, mathematics, and physics. Beyond presenting an annotated translation of Bachelier's original thesis, it also provides a historical overview of the key scientific developments in various fields related to the concepts Bachelier introduced. It reads very well and offers great insight into the historical developments of probability and mathematical finance."--Paul Embrechts, ETH Zurich, coauthor ofQuantitative Risk Management"Louis Bachelier's thesis is a seminal work, and to have it readily accessible will be a most valuable contribution to the field. This book represents a timely look back at the scientific origins of the enormously important modern-day finance industry."--Chris Rogers, University of Cambridge, coauthor ofDiffusions, Markov Processes and Martingales, Volumes 1 and 2