The book introduces the key ideas behind practical nonlinear optimization. Computational finance an increasingly popular area of mathematics degree programs is combined here with the study of an important class of numerical techniques. The financial content of the book is designed to be relevant and interesting to specialists. However, this material which occupies about one-third of the text is also sufficiently accessible to allow the book to be used on optimization courses of a more general nature. The essentials of most currently popular algorithms are described, and their performance...