The Misbehavior of Markets: A Fractal View of Financial Turbulence: A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin, and Reward

Mathematical superstar and inventor of fractal geometry, Benoit Mandelbrot, has spent the past forty years studying the underlying mathematics of space and natural patterns. What many of his followers don't realize is that he has also been watching patterns of market change. In The (Mis)Behavior of Markets, Mandelbrot joins with science journalist and former Wall Street Journal editor Richard L. Hudson to reveal what a fractal view of the world of finance looks like. The result is a revolutionary reevaluation of the standard tools and models of modern financial theory. Markets, we learn, are far riskier than we have wanted to believe. From the gyrations of IBM's stock price and the Dow, to cotton trading, and the dollar-Euro exchange rate--Mandelbrot shows that the world of finance can be understood in more accurate, and volatile, terms than the tired theories of yesteryear. The ability to simplify the complex has made Mandelbrot one of the century's most influential mathematicians. With The (Mis)Behavior of Markets, he puts the tools of higher mathematics into the hands of every person involved with markets, from financial analysts to economists to 401(k) holders. Markets will never be seen as "safe bets" again.

Mathematical superstar and inventor of fractal geometry, Benoit Mandelbrot, has spent the past forty years studying the underlying mathematics of space and natural patterns. What many of his followers don't realize is that he has also been watching patterns of market change. In The (Mis)Behavior of Markets, Mandelbrot joins with science journalist and former Wall Street Journal editor Richard L. Hudson to reveal what a fractal view of the world of finance looks like. The result is a revolutionary reevaluation of the standard tools and models of modern financial theory. Markets, we learn, are far riskier than we have wanted to believe. From the gyrations of IBM's stock price and the Dow, to cotton trading, and the dollar-Euro exchange rate—Mandelbrot shows that the world of finance can be understood in more accurate, and volatile, terms than the tired theories of yesteryear.The ability to simplify the complex has made Mandelbrot one of the century's most influential mathematicians. With The (Mis)Behavior of Markets, he puts the tools of higher mathematics into the hands of every person involved with markets, from financial analysts to economists to 401(k) holders. Markets will never be seen as "safe bets" again.

A groundbreaking mathematician presents a new model for understanding financial marketsBenoit B. Mandelbrot is world-famous for inventing fractal geometry, making mathematical sense of a fact everybody knows but that geometers from Euclid on down had never assimilated: Clouds are not round, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not smooth. To these insights we can now add another example: Markets are not the safe bet your broker may claim.Mandelbrot, with co-author Richard L. Hudson, shows how the dominant way of thinking about the behavior of markets--a set of mathematical assumptions a century old and still learned by every MBA and financier in the world--simply does not work. He uses fractal geometry to propose a new, more accurate way of describing market behavior. From the gyrations of the Dow to the dollar-euro exchange rate, Mandlebrot shows how to understand the volatility of markets in far more accurate terms than the failed theories that have repeatedly brought the financial system to the brink of disaster. The result is no less than the foundation for a new science of finance. "Together with Richard L. Hudson, Benoit Mandelbrot turns a fractal eye to the behavior of financial markets and overturns the "random walk" theory that is the underpinning of all contemporary financial analysis. Markets, we learn, are far riskier than we have wanted to believe." "The ability to simplify the complex has made Mandelbrot one of the century's most influential mathematicians. With his fractal models, the (mis)behavior of the world's markets - from the gyrations of IMB's stock price and the Dow, to cotton trading, and the dollar-Euro exchange rate - can be understood in more accurate terms than the tired theories of yesteryear." "The (Mis)Behavior of Markets is a reevaluation of the standard tools and models of modern financial theory. Mandelbrot's fresh insights explode the false assumptions that have caused millions of investors, traders, and managers to underestimate the real risk, of the market."--Jacket The (Mis)Behavior of Markets is a revolutionary reevaluation of the standard tools and models of modern financial theory. Mathematical superstar and inventor of fractal geometry Benoit Mandelbrot joins with science journalist and former Wall Street Journal editor Richard L. Hudson, to reveal what a fractal view of the world of finance looks like. The markets, we learn, are far riskier than we have wanted to believe. From the gyrations of IBM's stock price and the Dow, to cotton trading, and the dollar-Euro exchange rate-Mandelbrot shows that the world of finance can be understood in more accurate, and volatile, terms than the tired theories of yesteryear. IN THE SUMMER OF 1998, the improbable happened.