What Is Financial Mathematics?
Some people interested in mathematics have curiosity about how mathematics is used in finance, and perhaps even have an eye toward a career in quantitative finance. Others are already pursuing a career in finance and the capital markets, and have an interest in learning more of the underlying mathematics. All around the world Financial Mathematics and Financial Engineering programs are appearing, filling a growing educational need, and the umbrella organization for these programs is the International Association of Financial Engineers (http://www.iafe.org/home.php). The proliferation of financial mathematics was the subject of a Wall Street Journal article ("Wall Street Warms To Finance Degree With Focus on Math", 14 November 2006), by Ronald Alsop. It was also the cover story of the 23 January 2007 issue of Business Week. The subject matter was a main focus of a one-quarter program entitled "Quantitative Modeling in Finance and Econometrics" held in Spring 2004 at the Institute for Mathematics and Its Applications, see http://www.ima.umn.edu/complex/#spring .
