In 1952, Harry Markowitz published -Portfolio Selection,- a paper which revolutionized modern investment theory and practice. The paper proposed that, in selecting investments, the investor should consider both expected return and variability of return on the portfolio as a whole. Portfolios that minimized variance for a given expected return were demonstrated to be the most efficient. Markowitz formulated the full solution of the general mean-variance efficient set problem in 1956 and presented it in the appendix to his 1959 book, Portfolio Selection. Though certain special cases of the...

Bruce Jacobs sifts through the history of modern finance, from the efficient market hypothesis to behavioral psychology and chaos theory, to determine the cause of recent market crashes.

• Includes a Foreword from Nobel Laureate Harry M. Markowitz.
  
• Showcases the expertise of an author who identified and predicted the causes of 1987, 1997 and 1998 crashes.
  
• Explains the risks of little-understood option replication.
  
• Offers chapter summaries, appendices and a glossary.

Harry M Markowitz received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1990 for his pioneering work in portfolio theory. He also received the von Neumann Prize from the Institute of Management Science and the Operations Research Institute of America in 1989 for his work in portfolio theory, sparse matrices and the SIMSCRIPT computer language. While Dr Markowitz is well-known for his work on portfolio theory, his work on sparse matrices remains an essential part of linear optimization calculations. In addition, he designed and developed SIMSCRIPT - a computer programming language. SIMSCRIPT has been...

Harry M Markowitz received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1990 for his pioneering work in portfolio theory. He also received the von Neumann Prize from the Institute of Management Science and the Operations Research Institute of America in 1989 for his work in portfolio theory, sparse matrices and the SIMSCRIPT computer language. While Dr Markowitz is well-known for his work on portfolio theory, his work on sparse matrices remains an essential part of linear optimization calculations. In addition, he designed and developed SIMSCRIPT — a computer programming language. SIMSCRIPT has...