Bill Willams PhD Some of you might find some of his books interesting. I read #3 a few years ago. http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?sea...srank&mysubmitbutton1.x=0&mysubmitbutton1.y=0 Nutsneal
It sucks. There are no good books on the subject from a traders perspective. You have to read the physics, mathematics literature, and then come up with creative ways of applying it... The one that (sort of) is reasonable is: http://www.amazon.com/Profiting-Cha..._bbs_sr_1/102-2412249-7410508?ie=UTF8&s=books But it won't get you anywhere (profitable trading) unless you understand the relations to game theory. nitro
Yes, I agree, this is very interesting. There are many (often emotive) discussions of the relevance of academic learning in mathematics and science to trading, but rarely if ever is game theory mentioned. And yet, on the face of it, this has the most obvious applicability. Any good references on game theory on the web, as it might apply to trading? The only thing I've looked into is the (iterated) Prisoner's Dilemma, which gave me some ideas about money management.
your friend may have had a personal "revelation" but it is hardly a revelation that markets act chaotically, and that chaos theory and complexity theory can help understand markets dozens of papers, etc. have been written on this topic for about as long as chaos theory has been around, people have applied it to the market. ditto game theory
I am reading this book, but be warned that while this is an undergraduate text, it is not necessarily easy reading if you don't have an appropritate background: http://www.amazon.com/Game-Theory-I...ef=sr_1_1/002-3763588-5864841?ie=UTF8&s=books The key to the whole thing to me boils down to understanding mixed strategies, infinite ones probably, Nash Equilibrium (NE) and when games can be in quasi-NE. Remember, this is all useful in predictive trading. There are probably much much easier ways to make money in the markets with simple strategies that require nothing more than addition subtraction mathematics, or even just traditional technical analysis, etc, or with strategies that are not predictive strategies like market making. nitro
"but rarely if ever is game theory mentioned. " r u kidding me? game theory is CONSTANTLY mentioned in regards to trading. numerous seminars, books, etc. mention it. threads here have mentioned it (including posts by me) ,etc. game theory is a hyoooge part of understanding risk and money management even traders that are not specifically educated about game theory, are using it - they just don't recognize it as such, or call it that. you can't play in any sort of probability game, without incorporating game theory, whether you do it knowingly or not
nitro: Thanks for the reference. My background is in Maths/Physics (Bachelors Maths, Masters Physics) so I am comfortable with undergrad texts. Though I take your warning about this not being easy. To those who said I was wrong to claim game theory is not mentioned: OK. I was referring to forums like this, as well as quant forums like Wilmott (hmm might do a search there). Game theory might be mentioned but I haven't seen anyone concretely point out how it might be used. That things like Nash Equilibrium are studied by the pros in institutions I have no doubt, but I have no contact with that world.