FINA 581 Quantitative Methods for Finance
Fall 2002

Instructor: Dr. Jin E. Zhang, Assistant Professor
Department of Finance, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Tel: (852) 2358 8367(o), Fax: (852) 2358 1749, Email: jinzhang@ust.hk, http://home.ust.hk/~jinzhang/ust/QMF.html

Course Description

This course provides students with the quantitative techniques used in finance field. It covers calculus, linear algebra, ordinary differential equation, partial differential equation, statistics, probability, stochastic calculus and their applications in option pricing and interest rate derivatives.

Each meeting consists of two parts. The first part is on finance, the second part is on mathematics. We will review elementary algebra, calculus and linear Algebra, then learn some more advanced mathematics. All the mathematics will be motivated with finance examples.

Prerequisite

Nil.

Course Grade

The final grade is based on a Final exam (40%) and Coursework (60%). The coursework is composed by three assignments, which will be distributed in week 3, 6 and 11, and due one or two weeks after.

Final Exam will be on 14 December, 2002, 8:30-11:30am, Room 2464.

Course Topics

Class meets at Room 3006, Lift 3, 3/F, every Saturday morning 9:00-12:35, with 15-minute break in the middle.

WeekDate Finance Mathematics
1 7 Sept 2002 Introduction: The relation between mathematics and finance, a few successful mathematical models in finance, a list of useful mathematics in finance.
Option pricing: Definition of an Option, Black-Scholes formula to price a European call option, The defintion of cumulative normal distribution function and its properties.
Elementary Algebra: Number systems, Multiplication and factorization, Fraction.
2 14 Sept 2002 Black-Scholes formula: European call, Dimension analysis, How to remember the formula, Put-call parity, Formula for a European put. Elementary Algebra: Root, Ratio, Inequality, Determinant, System of linear equations, Quadratic equation with one unknown, cubic and quartic equations with one unknown, Progression, Exponent, Logarithm.
3 21 Sept 2002 The Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. No class. Assignment 1: Read a Journal of Finance paper talking about Fischer Black written by Nobel prize laureates Merton and Scholes. Write a reading report (at least 3 A4 pages). The report is due in class next week.None
4 28 Sept 2002 Review of a few properties of cumulative normal distribution function, Black-Scholes formula for a European call, Asymptotic analysis, Geometric picture of a call price, Put-call parity, Formula for a European put, Geometric picture of a put price, Greeks. Calculus: a few basic functions, Limit, The limit for e, Differentiation.
5 5 Oct 2002 Deriving Delta, Theta from Black-Scholes formula Calculus: Differentiation of multi-variable function, Mean value theorem, Taylor's formula, Integration, Rules, Indefinite integration, Definite integration.
6 12 Oct 2002 Modeling the random behavior of stock price, Assignment 2 is due in class in two weeks Stochastic Calculus: Brownian motion and its properties, Understanding Ito's Lemma, (dB_t)^2=dt +O((dt)^2), Expectation of the power of Brownian motion, Expectation of exponential of Brownian motion.
7 19 Oct 2002 Binomial tree method, risk-neutral probability. Stochastic Calculus in Finance: Probability triple, \sigma algebra, filtration, adapted process, random variable, martingale.
8 26 Oct 2002 Risk-neutral valuation formula, derive Black-Scholes formula for European call and put. Martingale, Probability density function of normal and lognormal random numbers.
9 2 Nov 2002 Deriving Black-Scholes equation, Forward price transform, Price-moneyness transformation, Green's function for standard heat equation. Partial Differential Equation (PDE), heat equation with variable coefficient, Delta function, Green's function.
10 9 Nov 2002 Solving standard heat equation with a particular initial condition. Solution to Black-Scholes PDE. Lecture notes on option pricing Solving PDE
11 16 Nov 2002 Exotic options, Assignment 3 is due in class in two weeks. More on PDE
12 23 Nov 2002 Interest rate modeling Solving ODE
13 30 Nov 2002 Vasicek model Ornstein Uhlenbeck process
14 7 Dec 2002 Review Summary

Reference books

  1. Wilmott, P., 2001, Paul Wilmott Introduces Quantitative Finance, John Wiley & Sons.
  2. Harris, J. W., and Stocker, H., 1998, Handbook of Mathematics and Computational Science, Springer.