The Physics of Finance
James Owen Weatherall
The Physics of Finance
A young scholar tells the story of the physicists and mathematicians who created the models that have become the basis of modern finance and argues that these models are the "solution" to--not the source of--our current economic woes.
3.3 out of 5 based on 3 reviews
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Omniscore:
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| Classification |
Non-fiction |
| Genre |
Business, Finance & Law |
| Format |
Hardcover |
| Pages |
304 |
| RRP |
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| Date of Publication |
January 2013 |
| ISBN |
978-0547317274 |
| Publisher |
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |
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A young scholar tells the story of the physicists and mathematicians who created the models that have become the basis of modern finance and argues that these models are the "solution" to--not the source of--our current economic woes.
Reviews
The Financial Times
Clive Cookson
“I sympathise with the attitude that hard science is more part of the solution than the cause of financial instability. But I wish The Physics of Finance, enjoyable though it is, had provided more hard evidence to support that view.”
15/02/2013
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The Daily Telegraph
Tom Chivers
“There are certain codewords that warn that Here Be Pseudoscience, words like “neuro”, “nano”, or “quantum”: the “quantum healing powers” of some quackish health fad, or the “nano-components” of an overpriced hi-fi set. I was worried that the “physics of finance” might be similar, that Weatherall was purporting to tell us how to get rich quick by applying “insights” from relativity or string theory to the stock market. But instead it’s an informative and frequently fun look at the history of financial thinking, and its cross-pollination with physics.”
13/02/2013
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The New York Review of Books
Andrew Hacker
“What isn’t explained is whether melding physics with finance will bring more benefits for everyone, or only give an advantage to those who use the techniques—like high-speed trading, if you own a mainframe computer. We can agree there’s a lot of irrationality—not to say exuberance—in the investment world. But it’s not clear if Weatherall is saying that decisions based on Bernoulli will allocate capital more efficiently, and hence serve the commonweal. When physics enters medicine, as with MRIs, we can have a reasonable hope that patients will benefit as much as their doctors. But when quants were riding high on Wall Street, they were hired only to give their own firms an edge over the competition.”
10/01/2013
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