Visual Quantitative Finance: A New Look at Option Pricing, Risk Management, and Structured Securities

1. Introduction

Visual quantitative finance is a different take on the mathematics of investing. It emphasizes an intuitive view of risk and the interrelationships of option pricing, risk management, and structured securities. This chapter begins with an overview of current investment trends that serve as the backdrop for the material covered in the book. The trends include shifts in investor attitudes and the emergence of new investment alternatives being driven by the application of quantitative finance.

I also talk about the personal “discovery” that motivated me to write this book. Like most people involved in asset management, I have struggled often with two things: (1) how to dampen some of the stock market volatility—and losses—that have ...