Mean-Variance Analysis in Portfolio Choice and Capital Markets

Book Description

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 general model have become widely known, both in academia and among managers of large institutional portfolios, the characteristics of the general solution were not presented in finance books for students at any level. And although the results of the general solution are used in a few advanced portfolio optimization programs, the solution to the general problem should not be seen merely as a computing procedure. It is a body of propositions and formulas concerning the shapes and properties of mean-variance efficient sets with implications for financial theory and practice beyond those of widely known cases. The purpose of the present book, originally published in 1987, is to present a comprehensive and accessible account of the general mean-variance portfolio analysis, and to illustrate its usefulness in the practice of portfolio management and the theory of capital markets. The portfolio selection program in Part IV of the 1987 edition has been updated and contains exercises and solutions.

Customer Reviews:

Not for the faint of heart.......2005-05-26

The bible on mean-variance optimization for portfolio selection. If you need to know the nuts and bolts of how to do MVO, this book has it. But be prepared to wade through some fairly advanced math. Theoretically, anyone with college Calculus and Matrix Operations should be able to make it through the math. But I can tell you from personal experience, it's pretty rough going. The text is written for mathematicians, so unless one is very comfortable with some fairly advanced matrix work, it can be very hard to follow what's going on.

Peter Todd provides an implementation of Dr. Markowitz's algorithm in VBA. If you are a programmer, be prepared: The code was also written by a mathematician for mathematicians. If you don't understand the math behind the algorithm, you probably won't be able to decipher the code. And the code is complex enough that I doubt it could be copied by rote.

With all that said, this really is an incredible book. It is ideal for a team comprised of a mathematician and a programmer who need to write an application to do MVO. We are using it as our primary reference in creating an 'efficient frontier' optimizer for use in investment software.

Book Description

The water and power industries, including the most capital-intensive producers of goods and services in our economy, are exposed to financial risks of staggering proportions. With projects that are routinely large and require long-term planning, and with demand and supply often highly volatile, costs regularly defy prediction. Still, there has been little explicit analysis of financial risk in the water and power industries. In this work, C. Vaughan Jones provides a comprehensive discussion of financial risk and risk analysis for these utilities. Writing in clear, straightforward language, he explores the application of risk analysis to construction projects, rate-setting and price effects, and customer characteristics. In developing a method for evaluating risk, Jones brings together material from business, engineering, economics, demography, probability theory, computer simulation, and policy studies. The materials are organized around risk factors affecting costs and revenues, and support a practical analysis with spreadsheet and simulation examples. Separate chapters present findings relating to the variability of construction costs, customer demand, and population growth. Together with qualitative information about risks, these chapters offer suggestions about quantitative representation of relevant patterns of variability of key risk sources. The techniques are integrated in simulation models dealing with contract risk, the evaluation of sinking funds and amortization schedules, and long-run capacity planning. The concluding chapters summarize major findings, consider issues of reliability and validation, and discuss the way in which this analysis can be applied to a variety of infrastructure investments. Finance and investment professionals and students in business and finance studies will find this work to be a useful reference tool. For public and academic libraries, it will represent a valuable addition to their collections.

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Henry Hill Goodell: The story of his life, with letters and a few of his addresses
Calvin Stebbins
Manufacturer: Riverside Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Agricultural Sciences | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006AGAMQ

Book Description

The Craft of Presentations provides a score of examples from contemporary and historical scientific presentations to show clearly what makes an oral presentation effective. It considers presentations made to persuade an audience to adopt some course of action (such as funding a proposal) as well as presentations made to communicate information, and it considers these from four perspectives: speech, structure, visual aids, and delivery. In keeping with technological innovations, it discusses computer-based projections and slide shows as well as overhead projections. In particular, it discusses ways of organizing graphics and text in projected images and of using layout and design to present the information efficiently and effectively. Unlike other books that discuss technical presentations, this book anchors its advice in the experiences of scientists and engineers, including such successful presenters as Robert Oppenheimer, Richard Feynman, Niels Bohr, and Rita Levi-Montalcini, as well as currently active laboratory directors, scientists, and engineers. In addition to examining successful presentations, Alley also discusses the errors that cause many scientific presentations to flounder, providing a list of ten critical errors to avoid. The insights and tools in this book will guide readers to deliver outstanding presentations.

Praise for Michael Alley's The Craft of Presentations: “Alley has revamped the way our research center makes presentations particularly the way we design our presentation slides.” (Daniel J. Inman, Director Center for Intelligent Material Systems)

“This book fills a void by illustrating key issues and difficulties in oral presentations with the experiences of others.” (Christene Moore, Communication Instructor University of Texas at Austin)

Customer Reviews:

excellent book.......2007-09-17

The book was excellent pointing out errors that as a presenter one may overlook and yet they determine the quality of your presentation

a little chatty but quite interesting to read.......2007-09-03

I've been thinking about how to improve students' scientific presentation and find this book very useful. The author occasionally slips in quite a few interesting stories of some famous scientists. Quite an enjoyable reading experience.

Great way to structure presentations.......2007-07-23

This book suggests ways to go beyond the "stock" powerpoint style presentation scheme of titles and bullets to create better presentations. What do I mean by better? Basically, the goal is to create a more narrative presenation. Rather than a presentation of lists of facts, a good scientific presentation also tells a story, and at the same time elucidates a finding in clear detail.

Getting someone to think or create a presentation in this way is a difficult thing to teach, and so the book takes a conversational tone and has plenty of examples and counter examples. It also discusses the various expectations of author, audience, and other politicos who might be in the room, and suggests ways to meet those expectations. I recently put the tactics to good use, for instance, I had picutres of the actual elements of the apparatus over schematic as I spoke about them. It was very effective, and kept the audience engaged.

Bottom line, I recommend this book if you want to improve your style or if you are nervous about starting out in the world of scientific presentation. It also helps with confidence to know you've worked hard on improving your style, your audience will appreciate it as well.

Scientific Presentation review.......2007-01-04

It gave me advice on traps to avoid in presentations. I just need to make good practice of them.

A personal account with interesting anecdotes.......2006-07-05

Although this is a little old fashioned in its style and content (particularly the photos and graphic style), I was sufficiently engaged with the content and anecdotes to read it right through in one evening. I learnt some new facts and had an insight into the style and ideas of someone who approaches fine lectures and presentations with great care. This made it worthwhile. It is a delightful change not to be assaulted by ego or self assurance. There is one irritating characteristic of style - the repeated use of "granted".

The Craft of Scientific Presentations: Critical Steps to Succeed and Critical Errors to Avoid.(Book Reviews): An article from: Technical Communication

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The Craft of Scientific Presentations: Critical Steps to Succeed and Critical Errors to Avoid.(Book Reviews): An article from: Technical Communication
David L. Armbruster
Manufacturer: Society for Technical Communication
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Technical Communication, published by Society for Technical Communication on February 1, 2004. The length of the article is 823 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Craft of Scientific Presentations: Critical Steps to Succeed and Critical Errors to Avoid.(Book Reviews)
Author: David L. Armbruster
Publication: Technical Communication (Refereed)
Date: February 1, 2004
Publisher: Society for Technical Communication
Volume: 51 Issue: 1 Page: 131(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Book Description

This state-of-the-art book consists of up to date contributions from leading European researchers and practitioners centred on Soil-Structure Interaction problems. The Boundary Element Method is used as an appropriate solution technique for these problems involving complex geometries, and often unbounded media. For non-linear problems the Boundary Element Method is used in conjunction with the Finite Element Method. Other topics are treated, such as Fracture Mechanics, from which advanced methods may be taken for future use in Earthquake Engineering.
Overall, the book provides an authoritative guide to the literature on the subject covered and is expected to be an invaluable tool for practising engineers, students and scholars in the fields of Structural, Geotechnical and Earthquake Engineering. Engineers and students may readily locate the materials or methods available for the solution of their particular problem while scholars may discover methods previously not considered for the particular application being considered. The book should also be of interest to the larger community of applied mathematicians and software developers in seeing a field where the Boundary Element Method can provide a wealth of relevant and efficient solutions. Finally the book can be used as a starting point for research and for the investigation of unsolved problems in Soil-Structure and Fluids-Structure-Soil Interaction, particularly non-linear coupled problems which could be advantageously approached by means of Boundary Element Methods.

Boundary integral equation analysis for a class of earth-structure interaction problems: Final report

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Boundary integral equation analysis for a class of earth-structure interaction problems: Final report
Frank J Rizzo
Manufacturer: Dept. of Engineering Mechanics, College of Engineering, University of Kentucky
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B000728K4O

User's guide for the incremental construction, soil-structure interaction program SOILSTRUCT with far-field boundary elements (Technical report)

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User's guide for the incremental construction, soil-structure interaction program SOILSTRUCT with far-field boundary elements (Technical report)
T Kuppusamy
Manufacturer: U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Book Description

An in-depth look at the state of the art of in situ

real-time monitoring and analysis of thin films

With thin film deposition becoming increasingly critical in the production of advanced electronic and optical devices, scientists and engineers working in this area are looking for in situ, real-time, structure-specific analytical tools for characterizing phenomena occurring at surfaces and interfaces during thin film growth. This volume brings together contributed chapters from experts in the field, covering proven methods for in situ real-time analysis of technologically important materials such as multicomponent oxides in different environments. Background information and extensive references to the current literature are also provided. Readers will gain a thorough understanding of the growth processes and become acquainted with both emerging and more established methods that can be adapted for in situ characterization. Methods and their most useful applications include:
* Low-energy time-of-flight ion scattering and direct recoil spectroscopy (TOF-ISRAS) for studying multicomponent oxide film growth processes
* Reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) for determining the nature of chemical reactions at film surfaces
* Spectrometric ellipsometry (SE) for use in the analysis of semiconductors and other multicomponent materials
* Reflectance spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy for monitoring epitaxial growth processes
* X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy for studying surface and interface structures
* And other cost-effective techniques for industrial application

Amazon.com

A tremendous compendium of computer humor, failed ad campaigns, very embarrassing gossip, and inside stories and techniques:

a hard-drive manufacturer that filled its warehouse with boxes full of bricks so investors would think business was good. The ruse worked... for awhile;
how to spy on competitors at trade shows;
canonical interview questions at companies like Microsoft;

and hundreds of pages of great bathroom reading for any serious geek, nerd, or wannabe.

The publisher, IDG Books

PC Roadkill offers hilarious yet often twisted anecdotes of industry brainiacs and wizards, as well as the inside scoop on product packaging, techie lingo, computer guru foods, the mouse's background (not Mickey), and much, much more.

Customer Reviews:

Simply Inspiring.......1999-03-14

I absolutely loved this book. The included stories and easter eggs in software are great. I really like the pictures of shirts handed out at some conventions that are pretty funny. In short, the book rules and its worth it if you work in this computer industry. Even if your a word processor you'll find this book funny! (Joke!)

A book I keep picking up just to browse..........1998-09-13

I love this book. I've reread it several times since I bought it. The stories are hilarious, the behind-the-scenes information fascinating, and it's fun to reminisce over products of days gone by. The book is sitting in my lap...I came to Amazon.com hoping to find a sequel...if you've been around computers for a few years, you must buy this book!

Funny history of the computer industry.......1998-06-29

Overall, I enjoyed an inside look at the history of how the computer industry got where it is today. Only a techno geek would like this book though. Luckily I happen to be one!

A truly funny book about the inside of the PC industry.......1997-04-02

This was one of the funniest books that I have ever read. It describes what really happens in the computer industry. From swimming in Lake BillG at Microsoft, (named after Bill Gate's e-mail address, BillG@microsoft.com) to the numerous hilarous code names and then final products (for example Marvel was a code name for The Microsoft Network, but after a threatening note from Marvel Comics, Microsoft changed it). If you really want to laugh, have a good time, and see what really happens inside the computer industry, this is the book to read.

PC's Hall of Shame (er, Fame...).......1996-10-03

Reading this book (which I did in an afternoon, as I'm sure you also will), I was amazed to realize that, in about twenty years, we built not only a personal computer industry, but a true folklore, complete with tales for all kinds of subjects! Those of us old enough to remember will find the book deeply nostalgic. And all you "new kids on the block" will be amused at some of the things we used to consider "state-of-the-art"... Anyway, very, very funny (the old ads alone are worth the price of the book). A Must Buy!!!

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