Mathematical-tools

Aha! Gotcha is filled with very different types of puzzles than aha! Insight, which has many problems to solve. This book just presents many fun paradoxes that make you use your head, and while some of them are problems you have to take some time to solve, most are short paradoxical situations that you can think about for a short while and then go on the next page. It is easy to read, and Gardner again shows his skill in explaining interesting phenomena in a clear and interesting way. All the problems are good exercises on logical thinking and introduces various concepts of mathematics and statistics without seeming like you're studying. It is insightful enough for adults, but I think children would be able to understand these concepts too if they are interested.

This amazingly useful book presents the concept of paradoxes in a comfortable, light format that makes it easily presentable to children in addition to the fun cartoon drawings that accompany every paradox. Simple explanations allow enough depth to encourage further explanation of the topic. In addition, it is helpful for writing reports about paradoxes.

Those who have read any of Martin Gardner's famous books know that he is the master at explaining difficult concepts in witty and precise language. This book is no exception! It's a great book to buy for children AND adults alike.

I encourage readers of this to purchase "Aha, Insight!" by the same author, and his "The (first,second,etc...) scientific american book of mathematical puzzles and diversions"

It's basically a collection of dumbed-down review articles on modern fixed income. There's not as much in here on option pricing as I would have wished, and if you consider yourself a reasonable technical person who's seen any fixed income trading before, it's not going to be that helpful to you.

It's a nice SUMMARY of the literature available for those who don't have the time to read it all first-hand. Since my primary interest is more towards equity exotics, the book was more than satisfactory for me. I'd say the target audience is non-fixed income exotics traders, quants without much background in fixed income, and academics.

The best article in the book is probably the one written by Das. He's one of my favorite authors and his chapter in this book is no exception.

My main complaint is that many portions of the book INSIST on using econometric models and pricing kernels rather than the DiffEq framework. For that reason, I like Paul Wilmott's presentaion of the math a little better. I find myself constantly referring back to "Derivatives" and translating what the guys in this book are trying to say.

As with most books in the field, it is also very poor at describing the implementation of the models presented.