The (Mis)Behaviour of Markets: A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin and Reward

Benoit B. Mandelbrot · Richard L. Hudson

Oct 2010 · Profile Books

About this ebook

This international bestseller, which foreshadowed a market crash, explains why it could happen again if we don't act now. Fractal geometry is the mathematics of roughness: how to reduce the outline of a jagged leaf or static in a computer connection to a few simple mathematical properties. With his fractal tools, Mandelbrot has got to the bottom of how financial markets really work. He finds they have a shifting sense of time and wild behaviour that makes them volatile, dangerous - and beautiful. In his models, the complex gyrations of the FTSE 100 and exchange rates can be reduced to straightforward formulae that yield a much more accurate description of the risks involved.

About the author

Benoit Mandelbrot is Sterling Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Yale University. Richard L. Hudson is a former managing editor of Wall Street Journal Europe.