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Finding Your Passion: The Easy Guide to Your Dream Career
by Marcy MorrisonFinding Your Passion is a powerful, yet easy-to-use book by Marcy Morrison, Career Strategist and Owner of Careers With Wings (www.careerswithwings.com). This fun and whimsical book will help and guide the reader to develop wings for their career and get on the fast track to finding their dream job via identifying their passions and strengths; empowering them with tools to market and sell themselves; strengthening their ability to trust their gut/believe in themselves; learning how to network; developing a support team; enhancing their current job; and creating a personalized plan for success.
Finding Your Research Voice: Story Telling and Theatre Skills for Bringing Your Presentation to Life
by Melanie Dreyer-Lude Itai CohenLearning to tell a compelling research story can have a significant impact on your career. It can make you stand out at professional conferences, on the job market, or during an ideal networking opportunity. It is easy to tell a research story badly. It takes time and effort to learn to tell a research story well. This compact and engaging volume presents a series of techniques followed by theatre-inspired, field tested exercises that will help you improve your research presentations. Once you’ve learned how to create a dynamic live performance of your research story, you may find that this professional obligation is no longer something to dread, and may even become a highlight of your research experience.
Finding Your True North
by Bill George Andrew Mclean Nick CraigBased on Bill George's bestselling book True North, this personal guide offers leaders a comprehensive method for identifying their unique "True North." The book offers methods for personal reflection and includes targeted exercises that help leaders hone in on the purpose of their leadership and developing their authentic leadership skills.
Finding a Different Kind of Normal: Misadventures with Asperger Syndrome
by Donna Williams Jeanette PurkisJeanette Purkis spent her early life reacting violently against her feelings of embarrassment, anger and confusion about her 'difference' from other people. She was unaware until well into adulthood that everything she found difficult, including her lack of success in forming relationships, could be a result of having Asperger Syndrome. Used to being a misfit from a very young age, Jeanette found that being a member of a group in which she had a label - Jeanette the Communist; Jeanette, Enemy of the State; Jeanette the convict; Jeanette the drug addict - gave her a sense of order she could depend on, particularly in prison, where each day had a set routine and the inmates accepted her because of her rebel attitude. Finally diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome at the age of 20, the author only began to accept her diagnosis some years later when she felt for the first time that she might learn to cope with being herself. Jeanette's remarkable life and her journey towards finding a different kind of normal is compelling and inspiring reading for people with autism spectrum disorders, and those living or working with them.
Finding and Evaluating the Opportunity: Is It Real and Large Enough?
by Richard LueckeEntrepreneurial people are always generating ideas for potential businesses. But how can they sift through these ideas and recognize the few that represent true business opportunities? This chapter lists the five characteristics of a genuine opportunity, explores where to look for such opportunities, and defines the process of evaluating them--all essential steps to establishing profitable new ventures.
Finding the Career that Fits You: The Companion Workbook to Your Career in Changing Times
by Larry Burkett Lee EllisJob security is a thing of the past. In a time when companies are laying off thousands of people and 60 to 80 percent of employees are not satisfied with their jobs, many people are wondering if there is such a thing as job security and whether they can actually enjoy their work. After all, if you spend most of your waking hours doing something, you at least should like it. According to Lee Ellis and Larry Burkett, you can find the career that fits you. You can enjoy your work. It's just a matter of assessing who you are, knowing your strengths and interests, and discovering the kind of work that will utilize those talents. In this new edition of Finding the Career That Fits You, you will discover the person God made you to be through insightful looks at your personality, skills, life values, and vocational interests. All statistics and resources have been updated and the latest information on using the Internet in your job search has been added. Ellis and Burkett will walk you through the job-search process and give you the confidence you need to start or change your career - and your life!
Finding the Career that Fits You: The Companion Workbook to Your Career in Changing Times
by Larry Burkett Lee EllisJob security is a thing of the past. In a time when companies are laying off thousands of people and 60 to 80 percent of employees are not satisfied with their jobs, many people are wondering if there is such a thing as job security and whether they can actually enjoy their work. After all, if you spend most of your waking hours doing something, you at least should like it. According to Lee Ellis and Larry Burkett, you can find the career that fits you. You can enjoy your work. It's just a matter of assessing who you are, knowing your strengths and interests, and discovering the kind of work that will utilize those talents. In this new edition of Finding the Career That Fits You, you will discover the person God made you to be through insightful looks at your personality, skills, life values, and vocational interests. All statistics and resources have been updated and the latest information on using the Internet in your job search has been added. Ellis and Burkett will walk you through the job-search process and give you the confidence you need to start or change your career - and your life!
Finding the Courage to Lead
by James M. Kouzes Barry Z. PosnerLeadership doesn't happen without courage. In fact, leadership might be defined as "courage in action." But the truth is that courage is poorly understood and not what you typically think. In their second original short format work, Finding the Courage to Lead, James Kouzes and Barry Posner offer a perspective on what ordinary leaders say about what courage is to them, and what their courageous experiences mean for the daily practice of leadership.Courage is one of those big, bold words. It has the reputation of being something way out there on the edges of human experience, commonly associated with superhuman feats, life-and-death struggles, and overcoming impossible odds. It gives rise to images of daring feats of bravery and nerves of steel. It has such a mystique about it that many think the concept doesn't apply to them. But, when you look beyond the headlines, you find out that this account of courage is certainly not the whole story.There is very little relevant discussion of courage in the leadership literature. For all the talk about how leaders need to be courageous, there is next to nothing written about what it really means for leadership. Grounded in award-winning original research and rich with insight, Finding the Courage to Lead is valuable for leaders at any level to understand how courage shapes our leadership potential on and off the job, and is required reading for any fans of Kouzes & Posner's work.
Finding the Future of Digital Book Publishing
by James L. Mcquivey Jeremy GreenfieldFinding the Future of Digital Book Publishing - Interviews With 19 Innovative Ebook Business Leaders is Digital Book World's first ebook. In interviews with 19 innovative ebook business leaders, Digital Book World's editorial director Jeremy Greenfield draws out how these professionals are leading the digital transition and shaping the future of publishing. You'll learn how these leaders are organizing their teams, pioneering new forms of content, and gathering and responding to data.The digital publishing community is passionate, engaged and international, and Digital Book World's mission is to provide a forum for the community to gather, share hard-won insights, present innovative challenges, and pool its collective intelligence for the benefit of all its members.
Finding the Future: Your Next Move--Sensing Change and Staying Ahead of the Innovation Curve
by Harvard Business Review PressThe innovation S-curve often has dire consequences for leading companies that fail to transition from one generation of technology to the next wave of game-changing technology, finding themselves strategically outmaneuvered. Many of these former leaders ride their S-curves into decline and obsolescence. So what can companies and their leaders do to dodge the bullet of change and get onto a new S-curve with future potential? This chapter attempts to answer that question. This chapter was originally published as chapter 9 of "Harvard Business Essentials: The Innovator's Toolkit."
Finding the Money: An Overview of Infrastructure Finance Challenges and Opportunities
by Rosabeth Moss Kanter Daniel FoxThis overview describes how the United States funds and finances infrastructure investment to maintain its economic competitiveness. It considers the roles of taxpayers, users, government allocators and lenders, and private investors in the infrastructure funding system and shows that there are creative tools that can be used. It focuses on five major areas: the problematic state of fuel taxes; the increasing promise of user fees; innovations in debt financing; the challenges of privatization; and the promise (and challenges) of public-private partnerships, with particular attention to a model project in Miami, the Port Tunnel. The overview concludes with a call for cross-sector coalitions to develop strategies with long-term impact goals and short-term visible improvements for users.
Finding the Next Steve Jobs
by Gene Stone Nolan BushnellIn Silicon Valley legend Nolan Bushnells first book, he explains how to find and hire employees who have the potential to be the next Steve Jobs. Nolan Bushnell founded the groundbreaking gaming company Atari in 1972, and two years later employed Steve Jobs, as well as many other creatives over the course of his five decades in business. Here Bushnell explains how to find, hire, and nurture the people who could turn your company into the next Atari or the next Apple. Bushnells advice is constantly counter-intuitive, surprising, and atypical. When looking for employees, ignore credentials. Hire the obnoxious (in limited numbers). Demand a list of favorite books. Ask unanswerable questions. Comb through tweets. Just because youve hired creatives doesnt mean youll keep them. Once you have them, isolate them. Celebrate their failures. Encourage ADHD. Ply them with toys. Encourage them to make decisions by throwing dice. Invent haphazard holidays. Let them sleep. The business world is changing faster than ever, and every day your company faces new complications and difficulties. The only way to resolve these issues is to have a staff of wildly creative people who live as much in the future as the present, who thrive on being different, and whose ideas will guarantee that your company will prosper when other companies fail. Bio: About the Authors Nolan Bushnell is the founder of video game company Atari, Chuck E. Cheese-the first restaurant to integrate gaming into its entertainment model-as well as twenty-five other companies. Bushnell has been inducted into the Video Game Hall of Fame and the Consumer Electronics Association Hall of Fame, received the BAFTA Fellowship, and was named one of Newsweeks "50 Men Who Changed America. " Hes a frequent subject of media coverage and was prominently featured in Walter Isaacsons best selling book, Steve Jobs. Gene Stone, a former book, magazine, and newspaper editor for such companies as the Los Angeles Times, Esquire, Harcourt Brace, and Simon & Schuster, has ghostwritten thirty books (many of which were New York Times bestsellers) for a wide range of people in many different fields. Stone has also written numerous titles under his own name, including The Secrets of People Who Never Get Sick, which has been translated into more than twenty languages; the New York Times bestseller Forks Over Knives; and The Watch, the definitive book on the wristwatch. Editorial Reviews: "The man who helped give a generation the game of Pong now gives a new generation a series of pongs for their careers. Nolan Bushnells book is a spirited and insightful road map for anyone trying to navigate the new world of work. " -- Daniel H. Pink, author of To Sell Is Human and Drive "Nolan is a genius, and a generous one, too. Like most geniuses who share their secrets, his secrets are simple, and available to anyone with the guts to listen. " -- Seth Godin, Author, The Icarus Deception
Finding the Platform in Your Product
by Elizabeth J. Altman Andrei HagiuFive of the 10 most valuable companies in the world today--Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft--derive much of their worth from their multisided platforms, which facilitate interactions or transactions between parties. Many MSPs are more valuable than companies in the same industries that provide only products or services: For instance, Airbnb is now worth more than Marriott, the world's largest hotel chain. However, companies that weren't born as platform businesses rarely realize that they can--at least partially--turn their offerings into one, say the authors. And even if they do realize it, they often wander in the dark searching for a strategy to achieve this transformation. In this article, Hagiu and Altman provide a framework for doing so. They lay out four specific ways in which products and services can be turned into platforms and examine the strategic advantages and pitfalls of each: (1) opening the door to third parties; (2) connecting customers; (3) connecting products to connect customers; and (4) becoming a supplier to a multisided platform. These ideas can be used by physical as well as online businesses.
Finding the Supermodel in You: The Insider?s Guide to Teen Modeling
by Claudia Mason Carole WhiteDiscover your inner confidence and how to navigate the exciting world of modeling--whether or not you become a model. Regardless of your weight, health, size, religion or nationality, author Claudia Mason believes there is a supermodel in all of us. Discovered at age thirteen, Mason has lived through the journey from unknown to supermodel and shares with us here her wealth of knowledge. Though teens may hate to admit it, they are still in the earliest stages of adulthood and need guidance--especially if their guardians are clueless to the inner workings of the entertainment industry. Modeling is a demanding career that places tremendous pressure on a young person to perform well, look perfect, and win the job and good graces of the adults around them. Scary stuff for teens, as well as for their parents. So who to turn to? Whom to trust? Where to go? It’s here where Mason lends her invaluable advice and expertise. Join her as she opens the doors of the industry to you and provides you with the tools you’ll need to safely thrive in this fast-paced industry. Mason starts with tips for getting into the business and goes on to explain the necessary role of chaperones for models under eighteen. Learn how to become assertive and work with agents and bookers, and how to manage your money from your newfound success. Mason also touches on more serious issues by discussing how to navigate a work place that so often intersects with the world of "sex, drugs, and rock 'n’ roll. ” Discover advice for helping your teen stay true to themselves and come out ahead. And finally learn about what to expect after the too-short window for modeling closes and also about ways to build a brand that lasts. Through Mason’s The Insider’s Guide to Teen Modeling and Finding the Supermodel in YOU, teens will learn how to be happy, confident models who can survive the frontlines of fashion. The expertise Mason passes along to would-be models is equally relevant for all teens, as well as adults.
Finding the Sweet Spot: The Natural Entrepreneur's Guide to Responsible, Sustainable, Joyful Work
by Dave Pollard""Now what am I going to do?" is a question many people ask-and leave unanswered-at critical potential turning points in their careers. Perhaps you're a new graduate, but instead of lining up for a boring entry-level job at a big corporation, you wish you could start your own sustainable and responsible business. Or maybe you've been stuck in a job you hate for a few years, but you still dream of doing the thing you love and that you're actually good at. Or maybe you're a boomer and you're ready for a second career, a personal venture that will represent a total change from what you've spent most of your work life doing. Whatever your situation, this is the book to help you get started. Finding the Sweet Spot explains how sustainable, responsible, and joyful natural enterprises differ from most jobs, and it provides the framework for building your own natural enterprise. You'll learn how to find partners who will help make your venture successful, how to do world-class market research, how to innovate, how to build resilience into your enterprise, and how to avoid the land mines that sink so many small businesses. Most importantly, you'll learn how to find the "sweet spot" where your gifts, your passions, and your purpose intersect. And make no mistake: our world needs your talent. The current economic system and the educational system that feeds into it have let us down and are destroying our planet. We need a blossoming of natural enterprises-connected, collaborating, and supporting ventures-to form a dynamic new natural economy. Is such a thing possible? Inventor, entrepreneur, and humanist Buckminster Fuller said: "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. " Finding the Sweet Spot presents a new model. Use it to find the work you were meant to do, thereby helping to create the world we're meant to live-and make a living-in. "
Finding the next Starbucks
by Michael Moe"The stocks that generate the most spectacular return are small companies that become big companies. My objective is to identify and invest in what I call the stars of tomorrow-the fastest growing, most innovative companies in the world. "Michael Moe was one of the first research analysts to identify Starbucks as a huge opportunity following its IPO in 1992, when its market cap was $220 million. Today, its market cap is $23 billion. Lucky? Maybe a little. Art or science? Both. For more than fifteen years Moe has made great calls on many other stocks, earning a reputation as one of today's most insightful market experts. Now, in his first book, Moe shows how winners like Dell, eBay, and Home Depot could have been spotted in their start-up phase and how you can find Wall Street's future giants. He forecasts the areas with the greatest potential for growth, including peer-to- peer networking, nanotechnology, and alternative energy. And he explains his four Ps of future superstars: great people, leading product, huge potential, and predictability. Ironically, while the opportunities for outsized returns for investors lie in identifying early-stage growth companies, large investment banks are driven by the economics of trading volume and therefore generally ignore the stars of tomorrow. If you are looking to invest in tomorrow's winners it's unlikely you will find them by reading Wall Street research. Mainly, Wall Street is focused on reporting on companies everybody already knows about. Coincidentally, to identify and invest in tomorrow's stars, you are unlikely to be battling Wall Street's finest-they aren't there. Throughout the book Moe includes interviews with some of the biggest names in business-from Howard Schultz and Bill Campbell to Vinod Khosla and Michael Milken-who reveal their own insights into how they discover the stars of tomorrow. For Wall Street insiders and individual investors alike, Finding the Next Starbucksis an indispensable guide to spotting growth opportunities.
Fine Art Publicity: The Complete Guide for Galleries and Artists
by Susan AbbottThis savvy resource helps artists and art professionals generate the publicity that keeps their artwork and business in the public spotlight. Provided are practical tools for attracting the media's attention and building bridges between artists, their galleries, and collectors, and between museums and their audiences. This new edition provides the latest word on new art markets; how to research the Internet, build a Website, and launch e-mail publicity campaigns.
Fine Art and High Finance
by Clare McandrewArt and finance coalesce in the elite world of fine art collecting and investing. Investors and collectors can't protect and profit from their collections without grappling with a range of complex issues like risk, insurance, restoration, and conservation. They require intimate knowledge not only of art but also of finance.Clare McAndrew and a highly qualified team of contributors explain the most difficult financial matters facing art investors. Key topics include:Appraisal and valuationArt as loan collateralSecuritization and taxationInvesting in art fundsInsuranceThe black-market art tradeClare McAndrew has a PhD in economics and is the author of The Art Economy. She is considered a leading expert on the economics of art ownership.
Finerman's Rules: Secrets I'd Only Tell My Daughters About Business and Life
by Karen FinermanKaren Finerman likes to tell people she was raised Calvinist. Or as her mother used to say, "I buy my girls Calvin Klein clothes... Then when they graduate from college, they have to figure out how to pay for them themselves." In order to keep herself in Calvin, Karen went to work on Wall Street. As a woman working in finance she noticed numerous ways that she and her female colleagues sabotaged themselves both professionally and personally. Why were her friends unable to bring the same logic they applied at work to personal decisions? Why did they often let personal baggage undermine them in the office in a way that her male colleagues never did? A classic illustration is that women tend to Poll (Do I look good in these shoes?) rather than Decide, often giving too much weight to the input from a random stranger rather than rely on their own gut. Covering three major topics (Career, Money, Love), Finerman's Rules serves up unvarnished advice about getting ahead in your career, overcoming failure, meeting your ideal mate, and navigating the [cut "cons" add "challenges"] of work-life balance. Most importantly, she offers the reader a crash course in taking control of her financial destiny. Or as Karen puts it, "You wouldn't let a man tell you where to live, how to vote, or what to wear. Then tell me why 80 percent of women have a man in charge of their money?"
Finger Lakes Wine Country (Images of America)
by Sarah ThompsonFor more than 150 years, Finger Lakes Wine Country has played a major role in American wine history. At its heart are the four deepest Finger Lakes, part of a group of 11 long, narrow lakes in central New York. There, nestled among Canandaigua, Keuka, Seneca, and Cayuga Lakes, farmers began planting vineyards in the 1830s. In 1860, the Pleasant Valley Wine Company became America's first bonded winery, turning Keuka Lake into a busy shipping hub for fresh grapes and award-winning champagnes. Other wineries soon followed, as did railroads and basket factories. Early 20th century business was good until Prohibition forced wineries to reinvent themselves. In the 1950s and 1960s, innovators like Charles Fournier, Dr. Konstantin Frank, and Walter S. Taylor experimented with hybrid and European vinifera grape varieties. But by the 1970s, local grape growers faced extinction; it would take a grassroots movement and landmark legislation in 1976 to bring about a Finger Lakes wine renaissance.
Fingerprints: Analysis and Understanding the Science
by Mark R. Hawthorne Sharon L. Plotkin Bracey-Ann DouglasFingerprints: Analysis and Understanding the Science, Second Edition is a thorough update of Mark Hawthorne’s classic written by two professionals with combined experience not only in crime scene investigations but also as court-recognized experts in latent print examination. Designed as a concise text to cover the fundamental techniques and principles of obtaining and analyzing latent fingerprint evidence, the book is laid out and written in an easy to understand format for those front-line professionals collecting and analyzing fingerprint evidence. Over time, the degree of sophistication and education on fingerprints and friction ridge analysis has increased. Ultimately, through scientific study by pioneers in the field, the composition of friction skin soon became evident: that it could be used as a unique identifier of individuals. Now, fingerprints and footprints as unique identifiers—and their use in criminal cases—have become commonplace and an essential component of criminal investigation with most cases involving some component of fingerprint evidence. Divided into two parts, the book begins with the basics of analysis, providing a brief history, systematic methods of identification, fingerprint pattern types and their associated terminologies and current classifications. The second part of the book discusses the identification and presentation of evidence in the courtroom, demonstrating both the traditional, manual method of lifting prints and the newer techniques for automated and live scans. Coverage provides instruction on searching and developing latent prints, storage, and comparison of prints. New to this edition are updated techniques on collecting and preserving fingerprint evidence—including packaging and maintaining chain of custody. More detailed documentation processes, and additional chemical and lifting techniques, are described including use of light sources, latent backing cards and lifting material, casting material, ten print cards, and the enhancement of prints in blood. A discussion of laboratory equipment and comparison tools, the addition of photography techniques, and recent courtroom challenges to fingerprint evidence is also presented. Fingerprints, Second Edition will provide a hands-on, fresh look at the most commonly utilized evidence found at crime scenes: fingerprints. The book will provide law enforcement, crime scene personnel and students just such an opportunity to easily understand and grasp the concepts, and relevant issues, associated with friction skin and fingerprint evidence.
Finish Big
by Bo Burlingham"No two exit experiences are exactly alike. Some people wind up happy with the process and satisfied with the way it turned out while others look back on it as a nightmare. The question I hope to answer in this book is why. What did the people with 'good' exits do differently from those who'd had 'bad' exits?"When pioneering business journalist and Inc. magazine editor at large Bo Burlingham wrote Small Giants, it became an instant classic for its original take on a common business problem--how to handle the pressure to grow.Now Burlingham is back to tackle an even more common problem--how to exit your company well. Sooner or later, all entrepreneurs leave their businesses and all businesses get sold, given away, or liquidated. Whatever your preferred outcome, you need to start planning for it while you still have time and options. The beautiful part is that if you start early enough, the process will lead you to build a better, stronger, more resilient company, as well as one with a higher market value. Unfortunately, most owners don't start early enough--and pay a steep price for their procrastination.Burlingham interviewed dozens of entrepreneurs across a range of industries and identified eight key factors that determine whether owners are happy after leaving their businesses. His book showcases the insights, exit plans, and cautionary tales of entrepreneurs such as Ray Pagano: founder of a leading manufacturer of housings for security cameras. He turned down a bid for his company and instead changed his management style, resulting in a subsequent sale for four times the original offer. Bill Niman: founder of the iconic Niman Ranch, which revolutionized the meat industry. He learned about unhappy exits when he was forced to sell to private equity investors, leaving him with nothing to show for his thirty-five years in business. Gary Hirshberg: founder of organic yogurt pioneer Stonyfield Farm. He pulled off the nearly impossible task of finding a large company that would buy out his 275 small investors at a premium price while letting him retain complete control of the business.Through such stories, Burlingham offers an illuminating and inspirational guide to one of the most stressful, and yet potentially rewarding, processes business owners must go through. And he explores the emotional challenges they face at every step of the way.At the end of the day, owning a business is about more than selling goods and services. It's about making choices that shape your entire life, both professional and personal. Finish Big helps you figure out how to face your future with confidence and be able to someday look back on your journey with pride.
Finish First: Winning Changes Everything
by Scott Hamilton Allison FallonGo for the win! Achieve excellence and be better than you’ve ever been!In his years as a professional ice-skater, Olympic Gold Medalist Scott Hamilton learned to embrace the mind-set of working hard to “beat” the competition. But it seems competition has gotten a bad rap these days. We’ve bought into the belief that it is unfair to participants to rank performance. Yet competition is in fact a good thing because it’s about working toward excellence.Finish First is a wake-up call for business leaders, entrepreneurs, spouses, parents, and even students to stop settling for mediocre and begin to revitalize their intrinsic will to achieve excellence and go for the win. Most of us feel we were made for something more, but we’re often afraid to allow ourselves to be competitive because we think our finishing first might somehow rob others of their chance to shine. This book encourages the hidden potential, the champion within all of us, to come out—which eventually brings our family, marriage, career, business, and the world around us the greatest possible good.
Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done
by Jon AcuffYear after year, readers pulled me aside at events and said, “I’ve never had a problem starting. I’ve started a million things, but I never finish them. Why can’t I finish?According to studies, 92 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail. You’ve practically got a better shot at getting into Juilliard to become a ballerina than you do at finishing your goals. For years, I thought my problem was that I didn’t try hard enough. So I started getting up earlier. I drank enough energy drinks to kill a horse. I hired a life coach and ate more superfoods. Nothing worked, although I did develop a pretty nice eyelid tremor from all the caffeine. It was like my eye was waving at you, very, very quickly. Then, while leading a thirty-day online course to help people work on their goals, I learned something surprising: The most effective exercises were not those that pushed people to work harder. The ones that got people to the finish line did just the opposite— they took the pressure off. Why? Because the sneakiest obstacle to meeting your goals is not laziness, but perfectionism. We’re our own worst critics, and if it looks like we’re not going to do something right, we prefer not to do it at all. That’s why we’re most likely to quit on day two, “the day after perfect”—when our results almost always underperform our aspirations. The strategies in this book are counterintuitive and might feel like cheating. But they’re based on studies conducted by a university researcher with hundreds of participants. You might not guess that having more fun, eliminating your secret rules, and choosing something to bomb intentionally works. But the data says otherwise. People who have fun are 43 percent more successful! Imagine if your diet, guitar playing, or small business was 43 percent more successful just by following a few simple principles. If you’re tired of being a chronic starter and want to become a consistent finisher, you have two options: You can continue to beat yourself up and try harder, since this time that will work. Or you can give yourself the gift of done.
Finite Difference Methods in Financial Engineering
by Daniel J. DuffyThe world of quantitative finance (QF) is one of the fastest growing areas of research and its practical applications to derivatives pricing problem. Since the discovery of the famous Black-Scholes equation in the 1970's we have seen a surge in the number of models for a wide range of products such as plain and exotic options, interest rate derivatives, real options and many others. Gone are the days when it was possible to price these derivatives analytically. For most problems we must resort to some kind of approximate method.In this book we employ partial differential equations (PDE) to describe a range of one-factor and multi-factor derivatives products such as plain European and American options, multi-asset options, Asian options, interest rate options and real options. PDE techniques allow us to create a framework for modeling complex and interesting derivatives products. Having defined the PDE problem we then approximate it using the Finite Difference Method (FDM). This method has been used for many application areas such as fluid dynamics, heat transfer, semiconductor simulation and astrophysics, to name just a few. In this book we apply the same techniques to pricing real-life derivative products. We use both traditional (or well-known) methods as well as a number of advanced schemes that are making their way into the QF literature:Crank-Nicolson, exponentially fitted and higher-order schemes for one-factor and multi-factor optionsEarly exercise features and approximation using front-fixing, penalty and variational methodsModelling stochastic volatility models using Splitting methodsCritique of ADI and Crank-Nicolson schemes; when they work and when they don't workModelling jumps using Partial Integro Differential Equations (PIDE)Free and moving boundary value problems in QFIncluded with the book is a CD containing information on how to set up FDM algorithms, how to map these algorithms to C++ as well as several working programs for one-factor and two-factor models. We also provide source code so that you can customize the applications to suit your own needs.