The Financial Modelers' Manifesto is a document that outlines best practices and principles for financial modeling, particularly in Excel. It was created by a community of financial modelers who sought to improve the quality and consistency of financial models in practice. The manifesto emphasizes clarity, transparency, and accuracy in financial modeling and aims to guide modelers in creating models that are not only functional but also easy to understand and maintain.
The Motzkin-Taussky theorem is a result in the field of linear algebra and matrix theory, particularly in the context of the properties of certain matrices. It addresses the determinants of matrices that are dominated by certain types of comparisons among their entries. Specifically, the theorem states that if \( A \) is an \( m \times n \) matrix that is non-negative (i.e.
Forward volatility refers to the expected volatility of an asset's return over a future period, as implied by the pricing of options or other derivatives. It is an essential concept in finance, particularly in options pricing models. ### Key Points of Forward Volatility: 1. **Forward Contracts vs. Spot Contracts:** Forward volatility is related to the idea of forward contracts, which are agreements to buy or sell an asset at a future date at a price agreed upon today.
A frictionless market is an idealized concept in economics and finance where there are no transaction costs, taxes, barriers, or other impediments to trading. In such a market, buyers and sellers can exchange goods and services freely and efficiently. Here are some key features of a frictionless market: 1. **No Transaction Costs**: There are no fees associated with buying or selling assets, such as brokerage fees or commissions.
The Heath–Jarrow–Morton (HJM) framework is a mathematical model used in finance to describe the evolution of interest rates over time. It is particularly useful for modeling the entire term structure of interest rates, which refers to the relationship between interest rates of different maturities. The HJM framework was developed by David Heath, Robert Jarrow, and Andrew Morton in the early 1990s.
Holding Period Return (HPR) is a measure of the total return on an investment over the period it is held. It considers both the income generated by the investment (such as dividends or interest) and any capital gains or losses realized during the holding period. HPR can be expressed as a percentage and is useful for investors to evaluate the performance of their investments over a specific timeframe.
Indifference price refers to the price at which an individual or an entity is indifferent between holding an asset and not holding it, meaning that the individual derives the same level of utility or satisfaction from both options. In a financial context, this concept is often applied to situations involving risky assets. For example, an investor might determine an indifference price for a stock based on their risk preferences, expected returns, and overall portfolio construction.
Over-the-counter (OTC) in finance refers to the process of trading financial instruments directly between two parties without a central exchange or broker. OTC trading can involve various assets, including stocks, bonds, commodities, and derivatives. Key characteristics of OTC trading include: 1. **Decentralization**: Unlike exchange-traded securities, OTC securities are not listed on formal exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or NASDAQ. Trades are executed directly between parties, often facilitated by dealers.
Optimal stopping is a decision-making problem in probability theory and statistics, where one must decide the best time to take a particular action in order to maximize an expected reward or minimize a cost. The key challenge in optimal stopping is that the decision-maker often does not know the future values of the processes involved, making it necessary to make choices based on partial information.
Time-weighted return (TWR) is a method of measuring the performance of an investment portfolio that eliminates the impact of cash flows (deposits and withdrawals) made during the investment period. This makes it particularly useful for evaluating the performance of an investment manager, as it reflects the manager's ability to generate returns independent of the timing of cash flows. The time-weighted return is calculated by breaking down the investment period into sub-periods, typically corresponding to the dates when cash flows occur.
Kill stealing, often abbreviated as "ks," is a term commonly used in multiplayer online games, particularly in role-playing games (RPGs) and first-person shooters (FPS). It refers to the act of a player dealing the final blow to an enemy or monster that another player was already fighting or had significantly weakened. This can lead to frustration, as it deprives the original player of the kill, its associated rewards (like experience points or loot), and can potentially disrupt teamwork.
Realized variance is a statistical measure used to quantify the variability of asset returns over a specified period, typically applied in the context of financial markets. It is calculated by using high-frequency data, such as minute-by-minute or daily returns, to provide a more accurate estimate of the variance of an asset's returns.
In economics, "regular distribution" isn't a commonly used term like "normal distribution" or "log-normal distribution," which refer to specific statistical distributions used to model data in various contexts. However, it may refer to the general concept of "regular" in the context of how resources, income, or wealth are distributed among individuals or groups in an economy. Often, regular distribution may be sought in discussions about equity and fairness in economic systems.
A **self-financing portfolio** is a concept in finance and investment that refers to a portfolio of assets in which any changes in the portfolio's composition are financed entirely through the portfolio's own changes in value, rather than through external cash flows (such as additional investments or withdrawals). In other words, a self-financing portfolio does not require any external funding to maintain or adjust its positions.
The shadow rate is a concept used in economics and finance to describe an implicit interest rate that reflects the monetary policy stance when traditional policy tools, like the nominal interest rate, reach their lower bound (often close to zero). In such situations, central banks may find it challenging to stimulate the economy solely through standard interest rate adjustments, leading to the implementation of unconventional monetary policies, such as quantitative easing or forward guidance.
A short-rate model is a type of interest rate model used primarily in finance to describe the evolution of interest rates over time. In these models, the "short rate" refers to the interest rate for a very short time period, typically treated as a single period (like one day) or the instantaneous interest rate. The key feature of short-rate models is that they focus on modeling this single rate rather than the entire yield curve or longer-term rates directly.
Mathematical puzzles are problems or riddles that require mathematical reasoning, logic, and often creative thinking to solve. They can range from simple arithmetic questions to complex problems involving advanced concepts in mathematics. Mathematical puzzles are designed to challenge the solver and can often be solved using various techniques and approaches, including algebra, geometry, number theory, combinatorics, and more.
Pinned article: Introduction to the OurBigBook Project
Welcome to the OurBigBook Project! Our goal is to create the perfect publishing platform for STEM subjects, and get university-level students to write the best free STEM tutorials ever.
Everyone is welcome to create an account and play with the site: ourbigbook.com/go/register. We belive that students themselves can write amazing tutorials, but teachers are welcome too. You can write about anything you want, it doesn't have to be STEM or even educational. Silly test content is very welcome and you won't be penalized in any way. Just keep it legal!
Intro to OurBigBook
. Source. We have two killer features:
- topics: topics group articles by different users with the same title, e.g. here is the topic for the "Fundamental Theorem of Calculus" ourbigbook.com/go/topic/fundamental-theorem-of-calculusArticles of different users are sorted by upvote within each article page. This feature is a bit like:
- a Wikipedia where each user can have their own version of each article
- a Q&A website like Stack Overflow, where multiple people can give their views on a given topic, and the best ones are sorted by upvote. Except you don't need to wait for someone to ask first, and any topic goes, no matter how narrow or broad
This feature makes it possible for readers to find better explanations of any topic created by other writers. And it allows writers to create an explanation in a place that readers might actually find it.Figure 1. Screenshot of the "Derivative" topic page. View it live at: ourbigbook.com/go/topic/derivativeVideo 2. OurBigBook Web topics demo. Source. - local editing: you can store all your personal knowledge base content locally in a plaintext markup format that can be edited locally and published either:This way you can be sure that even if OurBigBook.com were to go down one day (which we have no plans to do as it is quite cheap to host!), your content will still be perfectly readable as a static site.
- to OurBigBook.com to get awesome multi-user features like topics and likes
- as HTML files to a static website, which you can host yourself for free on many external providers like GitHub Pages, and remain in full control
Figure 3. Visual Studio Code extension installation.Figure 4. Visual Studio Code extension tree navigation.Figure 5. Web editor. You can also edit articles on the Web editor without installing anything locally.Video 3. Edit locally and publish demo. Source. This shows editing OurBigBook Markup and publishing it using the Visual Studio Code extension.Video 4. OurBigBook Visual Studio Code extension editing and navigation demo. Source. - Infinitely deep tables of contents:
All our software is open source and hosted at: github.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook
Further documentation can be found at: docs.ourbigbook.com
Feel free to reach our to us for any help or suggestions: docs.ourbigbook.com/#contact





