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Bond Portfolio Optimization

1 The tools of modern portfolio theory are in general use in the equity markets, either in the form of portfolio optimization software or as an accepted frame- 2 work in which the asset managers think about stock selection. In the ?xed income market on the other hand, these tools seem irrelevant or inapplicable. Bond portfolios are nowadays mainly managed by a comparison of portfolio 3 4 risk measures vis ¶a vis a benchmark. The portfolio manager’s views about the future evolution of the term structure of interest rates translate th- selves directly into a positioning relative to his benchmark, taking the risks of these deviations from the benchmark into account only in a very crude 5 fashion, i.e. without really quantifying them probabilistically. This is quite surprising since sophisticated models for the evolution of interest rates are commonly used for interest rate derivatives pricing and the derivation of ?xed 6 income risk measures.

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Catalogue of risks : Natural, technical, social and health risks

The book clearly shows the interdependence of risk measures. Safety and risks cannot be discussed only by looking at specific problems, since increasing safety in individual fields might lead to a decrease of safety over the entire society.

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Aspects of Mathematical Finance

Considering the stupendous gain in importance, in the banking and insurance industries since the early 1990’s, of mathematical methodology, especially probabilistic methodology, it was a very natural idea for the French "Académie des Sciences" to propose a series of public lectures, accessible to an educated audience, to promote a wider understanding for some of the fundamental ideas, techniques and new tools of the financial industries. These lectures were given at the "Académie des Sciences" in Paris by internationally renowned experts in mathematical finance, and later written up for this volume which develops, in simple yet rigorous terms, some challenging topics such as risk measures, the notion of arbitrage, dynamic models involving fundamental stochastic processes like Brownian motion and Lévy processes.

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