ROE, ROA and Leverage (Update)

Sometimes I don't see alternative ways of writing expressions until after the fact. So this will just be a brief modification of a previous post: Relating ROE with ROA and Leverage.

Option Returns - Empirical Results

Previously, I looked at what we'd expect call and put options would be if we assumed that stock returns follow a normal distribution (see the Expected Return of a Call Option and Put Option).

My findings indicated that the underlying assumptions of the Black-Scholes pricing model are inconsistent with the mean-variance view of risk. This was not an empirical result, mind you. Empirically, I've yet to find a single set of financial data that was normally distributed. It was a theoretical result; the theory is inconsistent with a mean-variance view of risk and return.

Today I'll be looking at some odd empirical results. I wanted to see what actual returns actually looked like. As it turns out, they're even worse than what the theory predicts.

On Counting (Exploring Operational Definitions Part III)

For the first two parts in this series see:

Exploring Operational Definitions: Part I
Exploring Operational Definitions: Part II - Distance

Perhaps the "simplest" procedure that most folks have learned is the technique(s) of counting. What I would like to explore is that there are a variety of techniques that we call counting. In some cases they build on one another. In other cases, they are techniques which give "approximate" solutions.

Of course not all societies count things (see here). Nonetheless, I suspect that many of our "intuitions" about mathematics ultimately stem from our earlier experience with counting. Our attachment to such intuitions will somewhat determine how willing we are able to accept alternative definitions and techniques for counting. Today I'll explore a few of these definitions.

Financial Mathematics: Statistics - Moments

In statistics, there are a variety of calculations referred to as moments. We'll be discussing three types of moments: Raw Moments, Central Moments and Standardized Moments.

Some Comments on the Quantity Theory of Money

As I mentioned in my previous post - Inflation - Why the official numbers are wrong! - I pointed out that the general theory for which inflation is based upon implies that the "price level" is a vector but measures of inflation represent this as a scalar. Today I want to explore how that complicates the picture for the Quantity Theory of Money.