Michael Steele Department of Statistics, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Title: A streetwise gambler goes to Wall Street.
The most famous formula in mathematical finance is the Black-Scholes formula. In this talk we'll go over the "story" behind this formula --- what it is, why it works (when it does), and some curious features about the way it has influenced our world. There are no financial prerequisites, but it helps to prefer more money over less. The mathematical prerequisites are also modest, but it will be most informative to people who already have an intuitive understanding of the mean and variance of a random quantity.
