On the Mathematics and Economic Assumptions of Continuous-Time Models (Classic Reprint) - Tapa blanda

Merton, Robert C.

 
9781333775865: On the Mathematics and Economic Assumptions of Continuous-Time Models (Classic Reprint)

Sinopsis

Bridge between math and market reality for continuous-time finance

This work explains how elementary probability underpins the mathematical tools used in continuous-time models and the economic assumptions they reflect. It shows why continuous trading is an abstraction, when it can be a good approximation, and how market structure and time scales shape price dynamics and decision making. The book aims to connect theory with real‑world trading and pricing insights.

Readers will see how price changes can be modeled as a sequence of market structures, how martingales arise from unanticipated returns, and how Ito’s calculus provides practical methods for portfolio choice and option pricing. It covers diffusion processes, jump (Poisson) components, and how these elements combine into a flexible framework for analyzing prices and risks in securities markets.




  • How continuous-time models relate to discrete trading and why the time scale matters

  • Foundations like martingales, Ito’s Lemma, and the separation of diffusion and jump components

  • Practical implications for intertemporal portfolios, pricing, and risk assessment

  • Guidance on when normality assumptions are convenient and what they actually imply



Ideal for readers of financial economics and quantitative finance seeking a clear, mathematically grounded view of continuous-time models and their economic underpinnings.

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Reseña del editor

Excerpt from On the Mathematics and Economic Assumptions of Continuous-Time Models

The second component of cost is that the mathematical tools required for the formal manipulations used to derive the continuous-time equations are somewhat specialized and, therefore, may not be familiar. For example, the sample paths for stochastic variables generated by diffusion processes, while continuous, are almost nowhere differentiable in the usual sense, and therefore a more general type of differential equation is required to ex press the dynamics of such processes. While there is a substantial mathematics literature on these generalized stochastic equations,g/ the derivations, although elegant, are often cryptic and difficult to follow. Moreover, these derivations provide little insight into the relationships between the formal amathematical assumptions and the corresponding economic assumptions. Hence, this paper attempts to bridge this gap by using only elementary probability methods to derive the basic mathematical theorems required for continuous time analysis and as part of the derivations to make explicit the economic assumptions implicitly imbedded in the mathematical assumptions.

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