The (Mis)Behaviour of Markets : A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin and Reward – 9781846682629

This international bestseller, which foreshadowed a market crash, explains why it could happen again if we don’t act now. Fractal geometry is the mathematics of roughness: how to reduce the outline of a jagged leaf or static in a computer connection to a few simple mathematical properties. With his fractal tools, Mandelbrot has got to the bottom of how financial markets really work.

He finds they have a shifting sense of time and wild behaviour that makes them volatile, dangerous – and beautiful. In his models, the complex gyrations of the FTSE 100 and exchange rates can be reduced to straightforward formulae that yield a much more accurate description of the risks involved.