The physics of Wall Street [electronic resource] : a brief history of predicting the unpredictable / James Owen Weatherall.
Weatherall, James Owen.
2013
HG4910 .W357 2013eb
Available Online

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Title The physics of Wall Street [electronic resource] : a brief history of predicting the unpredictable / James Owen Weatherall.
Author Weatherall, James Owen.
ISBN 9780547618296 (electronic bk.)
0547317271
9780547317274
Publication Details Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.
Language English
Description 1 online resource (xviii, 286 p.)
Call Number HG4910 .W357 2013eb
Summary While many of the mathematicians and software engineers on Wall Street failed when their abstractions turned ugly in practice, a special breed of physicists has a much deeper history of revolutionizing finance. From fin-de-siècle Paris to Rat Pack-era Las Vegas, from wartime government labs to Yippie communes on the Pacific coast, Weatherall shows how physicists successfully brought their science to bear on some of the thorniest problems in economics, from options pricing to bubbles. The 2008 crisis was partly a failure of mathematical modeling, but even more, it was a failure of some very sophisticated financial institutions to think like physicists. Models--whether in science or finance--have limitations; they break down under certain conditions. And in 2008, sophisticated models fell into the hands of people who didn't understand their purpose, and didn't care. It was a catastrophic misuse of science. The solution, however, is not to give up on models; it's to make them better. Weatherall reveals the people and ideas on the cusp of a new era in finance. This book is riveting history that will change how we think about our economic future.--From publisher description.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references (p. [250]-268) and index.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description Description based on print version record.
Available in Other Form Physics of Wall Street.
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