Quantitative Methods for Finance and Investments ensures that readers come away from reading it with a reasonable degree of comfort and proficiency in applying elementary mathematics to several types of financial analysis. All of the methodology in this book is geared toward the development, implementation, and analysis of financial models to solve financial problems.

Table of Contents:
Preface Acknowledgments 1 Introduction and Overview 1 1.1 The importance of mathematics in finance 1 1.2 Mathematical and computer modeling in finance 2 1.3 Money, securities, and markets 3 1.4 Time value, risk, arbitrage, and pricing 5 1.5 The organization of this book 6 2 A Review of Elementary Mathematics: Functions and Operations 7 2.1 Introduction 7 2.2 Variables, equations, and inequalities 7 2.3 Exponents 8 Application 2.1: Interest and future value 9 2.4 The order of arithmetic operations and the rules of algebra 10 Application 2.2: Initial deposit amounts 11 2.5 The number e 11 2.6 Logarithms 12 Application 2.3: The time needed to double your money 13 2.7 Subscripts 14 2.8 Summations 14 Application 2.4: Mean values 15 2.9 Double summations 16 2.10 Products 17 Application 2.5: Geometric means 17 Application 2.6: The term structure of interest rates 18 2.11 Factorial products 19 Application 2.7: Deriving the number e 19 2.12 Permutations and combinations 20 Exercises 21 Appendix 2.A An introduction to the Excel™ spreadsheet 23 3 A Review of Elementary Mathematics: Algebra and Solving Equations 25 3.1 Algebraic manipulations 25 Application 3.1: Purchase power parity 27 Application 3.2: Finding break-even production levels 28 Application 3.3: Solving for spot and forward interest rates 29 3.2 The quadratic formula 29 Application 3.4: Finding break-even production levels 30 Application 3.5: Finding the perfectly hedged portfolio 31 3.3 Solving systems of equations that contain multiple variables 32 Application 3.6: Pricing factors 35 Application 3.7: External financing needs 35 3.4 Geometric expansions 38 Application 3.8: Money multipliers 40 3.5 Functions and graphs 41 Application 3.9: Utility of wealth 43 Exercises 44 Appendix 3.A Solving systems of equations on a spreadsheet 48 4 The Time Value of Money 51 4.1 Introduction and future value 51 4.2 Simple interest 51 4.3 Compound interest 52 4.4 Fractional period compounding of interest 53 Application 4.1: APY and bank account comparisons 55 4.5 Continuous compounding of interest 56 4.6 Annuity future values 57 Application 4.2: Planning for retirement 59 4.7 Discounting and present value 60 4.8 The present value of a series of cash flows 61 4.9 Annuity present values 62 Application 4.3: Planning for Retirement, Part Ii 64 Application 4.4: Valuing a bond 64 4.10 Amortization 65 Application 4.5: Determining the mortgage payment 66 4.11 Perpetuity models 67 4.12 Single-stage growth models 68 Application 4.6: Stock valuation models 70 4.13 Multiple-stage growth models 72 Exercises 73 Appendix 4.A Time value spreadsheet applications 77 5 Return, Risk, and Co-movement 79 5.1 Return on investment 79 Application 5.1: Fund performance 81 5.2 Geometric mean return on investment 82 Application 5.2: Fund Performance, Part Ii 83 5.3 Internal rate of return 84 5.4 Bond yields 87 5.5 An introduction to risk 88 5.6 Expected return 88 5.7 Variance and standard deviation 89 5.8 Historical variance and standard deviation 91 5.9 Covariance 93 5.10 The coefficient of correlation and the coefficient of determination 94 Exercises 95 Appendix 5.A Return and risk spreadsheet applications 99 6 Elementary Portfolio Mathematics 103 6.1 An introduction to portfolio analysis 103 6.2 Portfolio return 103 6.3 Portfolio variance 104 6.4 Diversification and efficiency 106 6.5 The market portfolio and beta 110 6.6 Deriving the portfolio variance expression 111 Exercises 113 7 Elements of Matrix Mathematics 115 7.1 An introduction to matrices 115 Application 7.1: Portfolio mathematics 116 7.2 Matrix arithmetic 117 Application 7.2: Portfolio Mathematics, Part Ii 120 Application 7.3: Put–call parity 121 7.3 Inverting matrices 123 7.4 Solving systems of equations 125 Application 7.4: External funding requirements 126 Application 7.5: Coupon bonds and deriving yield curves 127 Application 7.6: Arbitrage with riskless bonds 130 Application 7.7: Fixed income portfolio dedication 131 Application 7.8: Binomial option pricing 132 7.5 Spanning the state space 133 Application 7.9: Using options to span the state space 136 Exercises 137 Appendix 7.A Matrix mathematics on a spreadsheet 142 8 Differential Calculus 145 8.1 Functions and limits 145 Application 8.1: The natural log 146 8.2 Slopes, derivatives, maxima, and minima 147 8.3 Derivatives of polynomials 149 Application 8.2: Marginal utility 151 Application 8.3: Duration and immunization 153 Application 8.4: Portfolio risk and diversification 156 8.4 Partial and total derivatives 157 8.5 The chain rule, product rule, and quotient rule 158 Application 8.5: Plotting the Capital Market Line 159 8.6 Logarithmic and exponential functions 165 8.7 Taylor series expansions 166 Application 8.6: Convexity and immunization 167 Exercises 172 Appendix 8.A Derivatives of polynomials 176 Appendix 8.B A table of rules for finding derivatives 177 Appendix 8.C Portfolio risk minimization on a spreadsheet 178 9 Integral Calculus 180 9.1 Antidifferentiation and the indefinite integral 180 9.2 Riemann sums 181 9.3 Definite integrals and areas 185 Application 9.1: Cumulative densities 186 Application 9.2: Expected value and variance 188 Application 9.3: Valuing continuous dividend payments 189 Application 9.4: Expected option values 191 9.4 Differential equations 191 Application 9.5: Security returns in continuous time 193 Application 9.6: Annuities and growing annuities 194 Exercises 195 Appendix 9.A Rules for finding integrals 198 Appendix 9.B Riemann sums on a spreadsheet 199 10 Elements of Options Mathematics 203 10.1 An introduction to stock options 203 10.2 Binomial option pricing: one time period 205 10.3 Binomial option pricing: multiple time periods 207 10.4 The Black–Scholes option pricing model 210 10.5 Puts and valuation 212 10.6 Black–Scholes model sensitivities 213 10.7 Estimating implied volatilities 215 Exercises 219 References 222 Appendix A Solutions to Exercises 224 Appendix B The z-Table 266 Appendix C Notation 267 Appendix D Glossary 270 Index 274