Author: Clifford S. Ang
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030641554
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 465
Book Description
This advanced undergraduate/graduate textbook teaches students in finance and economics how to use R to analyse financial data and implement financial models. It demonstrates how to take publically available data and manipulate, implement models and generate outputs typical for particular analyses. A wide spectrum of timely and practical issues in financial modelling are covered including return and risk measurement, portfolio management, option pricing and fixed income analysis. This new edition updates and expands upon the existing material providing updated examples and new chapters on equities, simulation and trading strategies, including machine learnings techniques. Select data sets are available online.
Analyzing Financial Data and Implementing Financial Models Using R
Author: Clifford S. Ang
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030641554
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 465
Book Description
This advanced undergraduate/graduate textbook teaches students in finance and economics how to use R to analyse financial data and implement financial models. It demonstrates how to take publically available data and manipulate, implement models and generate outputs typical for particular analyses. A wide spectrum of timely and practical issues in financial modelling are covered including return and risk measurement, portfolio management, option pricing and fixed income analysis. This new edition updates and expands upon the existing material providing updated examples and new chapters on equities, simulation and trading strategies, including machine learnings techniques. Select data sets are available online.
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030641554
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 465
Book Description
This advanced undergraduate/graduate textbook teaches students in finance and economics how to use R to analyse financial data and implement financial models. It demonstrates how to take publically available data and manipulate, implement models and generate outputs typical for particular analyses. A wide spectrum of timely and practical issues in financial modelling are covered including return and risk measurement, portfolio management, option pricing and fixed income analysis. This new edition updates and expands upon the existing material providing updated examples and new chapters on equities, simulation and trading strategies, including machine learnings techniques. Select data sets are available online.
An Introduction to Analysis of Financial Data with R
Author: Ruey S. Tsay
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119013461
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 388
Book Description
A complete set of statistical tools for beginning financial analysts from a leading authority Written by one of the leading experts on the topic, An Introduction to Analysis of Financial Data with R explores basic concepts of visualization of financial data. Through a fundamental balance between theory and applications, the book supplies readers with an accessible approach to financial econometric models and their applications to real-world empirical research. The author supplies a hands-on introduction to the analysis of financial data using the freely available R software package and case studies to illustrate actual implementations of the discussed methods. The book begins with the basics of financial data, discussing their summary statistics and related visualization methods. Subsequent chapters explore basic time series analysis and simple econometric models for business, finance, and economics as well as related topics including: Linear time series analysis, with coverage of exponential smoothing for forecasting and methods for model comparison Different approaches to calculating asset volatility and various volatility models High-frequency financial data and simple models for price changes, trading intensity, and realized volatility Quantitative methods for risk management, including value at risk and conditional value at risk Econometric and statistical methods for risk assessment based on extreme value theory and quantile regression Throughout the book, the visual nature of the topic is showcased through graphical representations in R, and two detailed case studies demonstrate the relevance of statistics in finance. A related website features additional data sets and R scripts so readers can create their own simulations and test their comprehension of the presented techniques. An Introduction to Analysis of Financial Data with R is an excellent book for introductory courses on time series and business statistics at the upper-undergraduate and graduate level. The book is also an excellent resource for researchers and practitioners in the fields of business, finance, and economics who would like to enhance their understanding of financial data and today's financial markets.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119013461
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 388
Book Description
A complete set of statistical tools for beginning financial analysts from a leading authority Written by one of the leading experts on the topic, An Introduction to Analysis of Financial Data with R explores basic concepts of visualization of financial data. Through a fundamental balance between theory and applications, the book supplies readers with an accessible approach to financial econometric models and their applications to real-world empirical research. The author supplies a hands-on introduction to the analysis of financial data using the freely available R software package and case studies to illustrate actual implementations of the discussed methods. The book begins with the basics of financial data, discussing their summary statistics and related visualization methods. Subsequent chapters explore basic time series analysis and simple econometric models for business, finance, and economics as well as related topics including: Linear time series analysis, with coverage of exponential smoothing for forecasting and methods for model comparison Different approaches to calculating asset volatility and various volatility models High-frequency financial data and simple models for price changes, trading intensity, and realized volatility Quantitative methods for risk management, including value at risk and conditional value at risk Econometric and statistical methods for risk assessment based on extreme value theory and quantile regression Throughout the book, the visual nature of the topic is showcased through graphical representations in R, and two detailed case studies demonstrate the relevance of statistics in finance. A related website features additional data sets and R scripts so readers can create their own simulations and test their comprehension of the presented techniques. An Introduction to Analysis of Financial Data with R is an excellent book for introductory courses on time series and business statistics at the upper-undergraduate and graduate level. The book is also an excellent resource for researchers and practitioners in the fields of business, finance, and economics who would like to enhance their understanding of financial data and today's financial markets.
Statistical Analysis of Financial Data in R
Author: René Carmona
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461487889
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 595
Book Description
Although there are many books on mathematical finance, few deal with the statistical aspects of modern data analysis as applied to financial problems. This textbook fills this gap by addressing some of the most challenging issues facing financial engineers. It shows how sophisticated mathematics and modern statistical techniques can be used in the solutions of concrete financial problems. Concerns of risk management are addressed by the study of extreme values, the fitting of distributions with heavy tails, the computation of values at risk (VaR), and other measures of risk. Principal component analysis (PCA), smoothing, and regression techniques are applied to the construction of yield and forward curves. Time series analysis is applied to the study of temperature options and nonparametric estimation. Nonlinear filtering is applied to Monte Carlo simulations, option pricing and earnings prediction. This textbook is intended for undergraduate students majoring in financial engineering, or graduate students in a Master in finance or MBA program. It is sprinkled with practical examples using market data, and each chapter ends with exercises. Practical examples are solved in the R computing environment. They illustrate problems occurring in the commodity, energy and weather markets, as well as the fixed income, equity and credit markets. The examples, experiments and problem sets are based on the library Rsafd developed for the purpose of the text. The book should help quantitative analysts learn and implement advanced statistical concepts. Also, it will be valuable for researchers wishing to gain experience with financial data, implement and test mathematical theories, and address practical issues that are often ignored or underestimated in academic curricula. This is the new, fully-revised edition to the book Statistical Analysis of Financial Data in S-Plus. René Carmona is the Paul M. Wythes '55 Professor of Engineering and Finance at Princeton University in the department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering, and Director of Graduate Studies of the Bendheim Center for Finance. His publications include over one hundred articles and eight books in probability and statistics. He was elected Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics in 1984, and of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics in 2010. He is on the editorial board of several peer-reviewed journals and book series. Professor Carmona has developed computer programs for teaching statistics and research in signal analysis and financial engineering. He has worked for many years on energy, the commodity markets and more recently in environmental economics, and he is recognized as a leading researcher and expert in these areas.
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461487889
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 595
Book Description
Although there are many books on mathematical finance, few deal with the statistical aspects of modern data analysis as applied to financial problems. This textbook fills this gap by addressing some of the most challenging issues facing financial engineers. It shows how sophisticated mathematics and modern statistical techniques can be used in the solutions of concrete financial problems. Concerns of risk management are addressed by the study of extreme values, the fitting of distributions with heavy tails, the computation of values at risk (VaR), and other measures of risk. Principal component analysis (PCA), smoothing, and regression techniques are applied to the construction of yield and forward curves. Time series analysis is applied to the study of temperature options and nonparametric estimation. Nonlinear filtering is applied to Monte Carlo simulations, option pricing and earnings prediction. This textbook is intended for undergraduate students majoring in financial engineering, or graduate students in a Master in finance or MBA program. It is sprinkled with practical examples using market data, and each chapter ends with exercises. Practical examples are solved in the R computing environment. They illustrate problems occurring in the commodity, energy and weather markets, as well as the fixed income, equity and credit markets. The examples, experiments and problem sets are based on the library Rsafd developed for the purpose of the text. The book should help quantitative analysts learn and implement advanced statistical concepts. Also, it will be valuable for researchers wishing to gain experience with financial data, implement and test mathematical theories, and address practical issues that are often ignored or underestimated in academic curricula. This is the new, fully-revised edition to the book Statistical Analysis of Financial Data in S-Plus. René Carmona is the Paul M. Wythes '55 Professor of Engineering and Finance at Princeton University in the department of Operations Research and Financial Engineering, and Director of Graduate Studies of the Bendheim Center for Finance. His publications include over one hundred articles and eight books in probability and statistics. He was elected Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics in 1984, and of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics in 2010. He is on the editorial board of several peer-reviewed journals and book series. Professor Carmona has developed computer programs for teaching statistics and research in signal analysis and financial engineering. He has worked for many years on energy, the commodity markets and more recently in environmental economics, and he is recognized as a leading researcher and expert in these areas.
Reproducible Finance with R
Author: Jonathan K. Regenstein, Jr.
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1351052608
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 248
Book Description
Reproducible Finance with R: Code Flows and Shiny Apps for Portfolio Analysis is a unique introduction to data science for investment management that explores the three major R/finance coding paradigms, emphasizes data visualization, and explains how to build a cohesive suite of functioning Shiny applications. The full source code, asset price data and live Shiny applications are available at reproduciblefinance.com. The ideal reader works in finance or wants to work in finance and has a desire to learn R code and Shiny through simple, yet practical real-world examples. The book begins with the first step in data science: importing and wrangling data, which in the investment context means importing asset prices, converting to returns, and constructing a portfolio. The next section covers risk and tackles descriptive statistics such as standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis, and their rolling histories. The third section focuses on portfolio theory, analyzing the Sharpe Ratio, CAPM, and Fama French models. The book concludes with applications for finding individual asset contribution to risk and for running Monte Carlo simulations. For each of these tasks, the three major coding paradigms are explored and the work is wrapped into interactive Shiny dashboards.
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1351052608
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 248
Book Description
Reproducible Finance with R: Code Flows and Shiny Apps for Portfolio Analysis is a unique introduction to data science for investment management that explores the three major R/finance coding paradigms, emphasizes data visualization, and explains how to build a cohesive suite of functioning Shiny applications. The full source code, asset price data and live Shiny applications are available at reproduciblefinance.com. The ideal reader works in finance or wants to work in finance and has a desire to learn R code and Shiny through simple, yet practical real-world examples. The book begins with the first step in data science: importing and wrangling data, which in the investment context means importing asset prices, converting to returns, and constructing a portfolio. The next section covers risk and tackles descriptive statistics such as standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis, and their rolling histories. The third section focuses on portfolio theory, analyzing the Sharpe Ratio, CAPM, and Fama French models. The book concludes with applications for finding individual asset contribution to risk and for running Monte Carlo simulations. For each of these tasks, the three major coding paradigms are explored and the work is wrapped into interactive Shiny dashboards.
Introduction to Statistical Methods for Financial Models
Author: Thomas A Severini
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1351981900
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 698
Book Description
This book provides an introduction to the use of statistical concepts and methods to model and analyze financial data. The ten chapters of the book fall naturally into three sections. Chapters 1 to 3 cover some basic concepts of finance, focusing on the properties of returns on an asset. Chapters 4 through 6 cover aspects of portfolio theory and the methods of estimation needed to implement that theory. The remainder of the book, Chapters 7 through 10, discusses several models for financial data, along with the implications of those models for portfolio theory and for understanding the properties of return data. The audience for the book is students majoring in Statistics and Economics as well as in quantitative fields such as Mathematics and Engineering. Readers are assumed to have some background in statistical methods along with courses in multivariate calculus and linear algebra.
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1351981900
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 698
Book Description
This book provides an introduction to the use of statistical concepts and methods to model and analyze financial data. The ten chapters of the book fall naturally into three sections. Chapters 1 to 3 cover some basic concepts of finance, focusing on the properties of returns on an asset. Chapters 4 through 6 cover aspects of portfolio theory and the methods of estimation needed to implement that theory. The remainder of the book, Chapters 7 through 10, discusses several models for financial data, along with the implications of those models for portfolio theory and for understanding the properties of return data. The audience for the book is students majoring in Statistics and Economics as well as in quantitative fields such as Mathematics and Engineering. Readers are assumed to have some background in statistical methods along with courses in multivariate calculus and linear algebra.
Financial Analytics with R
Author: Mark J. Bennett
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107150752
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 397
Book Description
Financial Analytics with R sharpens readers' skills in time-series, forecasting, portfolio selection, covariance clustering, prediction, and derivative securities.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107150752
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 397
Book Description
Financial Analytics with R sharpens readers' skills in time-series, forecasting, portfolio selection, covariance clustering, prediction, and derivative securities.
Financial Risk Forecasting
Author: Jon Danielsson
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119977118
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 307
Book Description
Financial Risk Forecasting is a complete introduction to practical quantitative risk management, with a focus on market risk. Derived from the authors teaching notes and years spent training practitioners in risk management techniques, it brings together the three key disciplines of finance, statistics and modeling (programming), to provide a thorough grounding in risk management techniques. Written by renowned risk expert Jon Danielsson, the book begins with an introduction to financial markets and market prices, volatility clusters, fat tails and nonlinear dependence. It then goes on to present volatility forecasting with both univatiate and multivatiate methods, discussing the various methods used by industry, with a special focus on the GARCH family of models. The evaluation of the quality of forecasts is discussed in detail. Next, the main concepts in risk and models to forecast risk are discussed, especially volatility, value-at-risk and expected shortfall. The focus is both on risk in basic assets such as stocks and foreign exchange, but also calculations of risk in bonds and options, with analytical methods such as delta-normal VaR and duration-normal VaR and Monte Carlo simulation. The book then moves on to the evaluation of risk models with methods like backtesting, followed by a discussion on stress testing. The book concludes by focussing on the forecasting of risk in very large and uncommon events with extreme value theory and considering the underlying assumptions behind almost every risk model in practical use – that risk is exogenous – and what happens when those assumptions are violated. Every method presented brings together theoretical discussion and derivation of key equations and a discussion of issues in practical implementation. Each method is implemented in both MATLAB and R, two of the most commonly used mathematical programming languages for risk forecasting with which the reader can implement the models illustrated in the book. The book includes four appendices. The first introduces basic concepts in statistics and financial time series referred to throughout the book. The second and third introduce R and MATLAB, providing a discussion of the basic implementation of the software packages. And the final looks at the concept of maximum likelihood, especially issues in implementation and testing. The book is accompanied by a website - www.financialriskforecasting.com – which features downloadable code as used in the book.
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119977118
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 307
Book Description
Financial Risk Forecasting is a complete introduction to practical quantitative risk management, with a focus on market risk. Derived from the authors teaching notes and years spent training practitioners in risk management techniques, it brings together the three key disciplines of finance, statistics and modeling (programming), to provide a thorough grounding in risk management techniques. Written by renowned risk expert Jon Danielsson, the book begins with an introduction to financial markets and market prices, volatility clusters, fat tails and nonlinear dependence. It then goes on to present volatility forecasting with both univatiate and multivatiate methods, discussing the various methods used by industry, with a special focus on the GARCH family of models. The evaluation of the quality of forecasts is discussed in detail. Next, the main concepts in risk and models to forecast risk are discussed, especially volatility, value-at-risk and expected shortfall. The focus is both on risk in basic assets such as stocks and foreign exchange, but also calculations of risk in bonds and options, with analytical methods such as delta-normal VaR and duration-normal VaR and Monte Carlo simulation. The book then moves on to the evaluation of risk models with methods like backtesting, followed by a discussion on stress testing. The book concludes by focussing on the forecasting of risk in very large and uncommon events with extreme value theory and considering the underlying assumptions behind almost every risk model in practical use – that risk is exogenous – and what happens when those assumptions are violated. Every method presented brings together theoretical discussion and derivation of key equations and a discussion of issues in practical implementation. Each method is implemented in both MATLAB and R, two of the most commonly used mathematical programming languages for risk forecasting with which the reader can implement the models illustrated in the book. The book includes four appendices. The first introduces basic concepts in statistics and financial time series referred to throughout the book. The second and third introduce R and MATLAB, providing a discussion of the basic implementation of the software packages. And the final looks at the concept of maximum likelihood, especially issues in implementation and testing. The book is accompanied by a website - www.financialriskforecasting.com – which features downloadable code as used in the book.
Financial Modeling, fifth edition
Author: Simon Benninga
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262368242
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 1049
Book Description
A substantially updated new edition of the essential text on financial modeling, with revised material, new data, and implementations shown in Excel, R, and Python. Financial Modeling has become the gold-standard text in its field, an essential guide for students, researchers, and practitioners that provides the computational tools needed for modeling finance fundamentals. This fifth edition has been substantially updated but maintains the straightforward, hands-on approach, with an optimal mix of explanation and implementation, that made the previous editions so popular. Using detailed Excel spreadsheets, it explains basic and advanced models in the areas of corporate finance, portfolio management, options, and bonds. This new edition offers revised material on valuation, second-order and third-order Greeks for options, value at risk (VaR), Monte Carlo methods, and implementation in R. The examples and implementation use up-to-date and relevant data. Parts I to V cover corporate finance topics, bond and yield curve models, portfolio theory, options and derivatives, and Monte Carlo methods and their implementation in finance. Parts VI and VII treat technical topics, with part VI covering Excel and R issues and part VII (now on the book’s auxiliary website) covering Excel’s programming language, Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), and Python implementations. Knowledge of technical chapters on VBA and R is not necessary for understanding the material in the first five parts. The book is suitable for use in advanced finance classes that emphasize the need to combine modeling skills with a deeper knowledge of the underlying financial models.
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262368242
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 1049
Book Description
A substantially updated new edition of the essential text on financial modeling, with revised material, new data, and implementations shown in Excel, R, and Python. Financial Modeling has become the gold-standard text in its field, an essential guide for students, researchers, and practitioners that provides the computational tools needed for modeling finance fundamentals. This fifth edition has been substantially updated but maintains the straightforward, hands-on approach, with an optimal mix of explanation and implementation, that made the previous editions so popular. Using detailed Excel spreadsheets, it explains basic and advanced models in the areas of corporate finance, portfolio management, options, and bonds. This new edition offers revised material on valuation, second-order and third-order Greeks for options, value at risk (VaR), Monte Carlo methods, and implementation in R. The examples and implementation use up-to-date and relevant data. Parts I to V cover corporate finance topics, bond and yield curve models, portfolio theory, options and derivatives, and Monte Carlo methods and their implementation in finance. Parts VI and VII treat technical topics, with part VI covering Excel and R issues and part VII (now on the book’s auxiliary website) covering Excel’s programming language, Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), and Python implementations. Knowledge of technical chapters on VBA and R is not necessary for understanding the material in the first five parts. The book is suitable for use in advanced finance classes that emphasize the need to combine modeling skills with a deeper knowledge of the underlying financial models.
Modeling Financial Time Series with S-PLUS
Author: Eric Zivot
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387217630
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 632
Book Description
The field of financial econometrics has exploded over the last decade This book represents an integration of theory, methods, and examples using the S-PLUS statistical modeling language and the S+FinMetrics module to facilitate the practice of financial econometrics. This is the first book to show the power of S-PLUS for the analysis of time series data. It is written for researchers and practitioners in the finance industry, academic researchers in economics and finance, and advanced MBA and graduate students in economics and finance. Readers are assumed to have a basic knowledge of S-PLUS and a solid grounding in basic statistics and time series concepts. This Second Edition is updated to cover S+FinMetrics 2.0 and includes new chapters on copulas, nonlinear regime switching models, continuous-time financial models, generalized method of moments, semi-nonparametric conditional density models, and the efficient method of moments. Eric Zivot is an associate professor and Gary Waterman Distinguished Scholar in the Economics Department, and adjunct associate professor of finance in the Business School at the University of Washington. He regularly teaches courses on econometric theory, financial econometrics and time series econometrics, and is the recipient of the Henry T. Buechel Award for Outstanding Teaching. He is an associate editor of Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics and Econometrics. He has published papers in the leading econometrics journals, including Econometrica, Econometric Theory, the Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, Journal of Econometrics, and the Review of Economics and Statistics. Jiahui Wang is an employee of Ronin Capital LLC. He received a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Washington in 1997. He has published in leading econometrics journals such as Econometrica and Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, and is the Principal Investigator of National Science Foundation SBIR grants. In 2002 Dr. Wang was selected as one of the "2000 Outstanding Scholars of the 21st Century" by International Biographical Centre.
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387217630
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 632
Book Description
The field of financial econometrics has exploded over the last decade This book represents an integration of theory, methods, and examples using the S-PLUS statistical modeling language and the S+FinMetrics module to facilitate the practice of financial econometrics. This is the first book to show the power of S-PLUS for the analysis of time series data. It is written for researchers and practitioners in the finance industry, academic researchers in economics and finance, and advanced MBA and graduate students in economics and finance. Readers are assumed to have a basic knowledge of S-PLUS and a solid grounding in basic statistics and time series concepts. This Second Edition is updated to cover S+FinMetrics 2.0 and includes new chapters on copulas, nonlinear regime switching models, continuous-time financial models, generalized method of moments, semi-nonparametric conditional density models, and the efficient method of moments. Eric Zivot is an associate professor and Gary Waterman Distinguished Scholar in the Economics Department, and adjunct associate professor of finance in the Business School at the University of Washington. He regularly teaches courses on econometric theory, financial econometrics and time series econometrics, and is the recipient of the Henry T. Buechel Award for Outstanding Teaching. He is an associate editor of Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics and Econometrics. He has published papers in the leading econometrics journals, including Econometrica, Econometric Theory, the Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, Journal of Econometrics, and the Review of Economics and Statistics. Jiahui Wang is an employee of Ronin Capital LLC. He received a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Washington in 1997. He has published in leading econometrics journals such as Econometrica and Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, and is the Principal Investigator of National Science Foundation SBIR grants. In 2002 Dr. Wang was selected as one of the "2000 Outstanding Scholars of the 21st Century" by International Biographical Centre.
Computational Finance and Financial Econometrics
Author: Eric Zivot
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 9781498775779
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 500
Book Description
This book presents mathematical, programming and statistical tools used in the real world analysis and modeling of financial data. The tools are used to model asset returns, measure risk, and construct optimized portfolios using the open source R programming language and Microsoft Excel. The author explains how to build probability models for asset returns, to apply statistical techniques to evaluate if asset returns are normally distributed, to use Monte Carlo simulation and bootstrapping techniques to evaluate statistical models, and to use optimization methods to construct efficient portfolios.
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 9781498775779
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 500
Book Description
This book presents mathematical, programming and statistical tools used in the real world analysis and modeling of financial data. The tools are used to model asset returns, measure risk, and construct optimized portfolios using the open source R programming language and Microsoft Excel. The author explains how to build probability models for asset returns, to apply statistical techniques to evaluate if asset returns are normally distributed, to use Monte Carlo simulation and bootstrapping techniques to evaluate statistical models, and to use optimization methods to construct efficient portfolios.