Indeed, the students admitted to the Baruch MFE Program are required to read the primer and do all the exercises before the refresher courses starts in mid-July. The course itself starts with a test where questions similar to the problems in the book are asked. New material is then taught while reviewing the topics from the book as well.

QuoteOriginally posted by: dstefanIndeed, the students admitted to the Baruch MFE Program are required to read the primer and do all the exercises before the refresher courses starts in mid-July. The course itself starts with a test where questions similar to the problems in the book are asked. New material is then taught while reviewing the topics from the book as well.Just received the book. It's real useful, formulae and methods in one _not_too_many_pages book (280). It touches on nearly all kind of mathematics that you need as a preparation for other works, which in general do not discuss these topics.Well done. I will recommend it to my own maths students as well.

An Errata current as of November 2010 can be found here

QuoteOriginally posted by: CuchulainnJust received the book. It's real useful, formulae and methods in one _not_too_many_pages book (280). It touches on nearly all kind of mathematics that you need as a preparation for other works, which in general do not discuss these topics.Well done. I will recommend it to my own maths students as well.what are the missing topics ?

QuoteOriginally posted by: ExSanQuoteOriginally posted by: CuchulainnJust received the book. It's real useful, formulae and methods in one _not_too_many_pages book (280). It touches on nearly all kind of mathematics that you need as a preparation for other works, which in general do not discuss these topics.Well done. I will recommend it to my own maths students as well.what are the missing topics ?Having ready-made numerical solutions to support the theory is very useful as you wil use or write code to implement these algorithms. The numerical analysis books from the 60's/70s' are worth it (publsher Dover) and the Schaum books are very useful because they give just enough theory and have lots of examples. The acid test to determine whether you know the maths and numerics is that your code gives the same results as the maths/numerics. In the past, one did it with pencil and pape; now's it also in software which when you think about it is really the same. I wonder if someone has coded up Dan's book?

QuoteOriginally posted by: CuchulainnI wonder if someone has coded up Dan's book?Every student who took refresher seminars based on the book prior to entering the program (in the summer, or in the Pre-MFE Program at Baruch College) coded everything up.The codes are straightforward to implement (based on the pseudocodes from the book, which have no typos ). It is also a good way to begin implementing codes in C++, if one never had C++ before.This year, we will require the students admitted to the Baruch MFE Program to implement the codes before coming to the summer refresher seminar, so there is more time to use them for various applications, rather than coding them up.

Second Editions of A Primer for the Mathematics of Financial Engineering and Solutions Manual - A Primer for the Mathematics of Financial Engineering by Dan Stefanica were published in March 2011. The first editions, published in 2008, have over 4,000 copies in print.________________________________________________________________________Title: A Primer for the Mathematics of Financial Engineering, Second EditionAuthor: Dan StefanicaSoftcover: 352 pagesPublisher: Financial Engineering PressList Price: $62 Table of Contents and Sample sections are available here________________________________________________________________________Title: Solutions Manual: A Primer for the Mathematics of Financial Engineering, Second EditionSoftcover: 280 pagesPublisher: Financial Engineering PressList Price: $40Sample sections are available here______________________________________________________________Reviews for "A Primer for the Mathematics of Financial Engineering", First Edition:One of the hottest degrees on today's campus is a Masters in Financial Engineering. Whether you need to retrieve hallowed memories or just want to familiarize yourself with the mathematics underlying this degree, this unique book offers a terrific return on investment.Peter CarrGlobal Head of Modeling, Morgan Stanley; Director of the Masters Program in Mathematical Finance, Courant Institute, NYUThis is the book I always recommend to people who ask about their mathematics before doing an MFE, and a few people could do with reading it after as well.Dominic ConnorDirector, P&D Quantitative Recruitment________________________________________________________________________NEW TOPICS: Dollar duration, Dollar convexity, DV01; the effect of parallel shifts in the yield curve to changes in bond yields; bond portfolio immunization; arbitraging the Put-Call parity; percentage vs. log returns for individual assets and portfolios; optimum investment portfolios: maximum return portfolios and minimum variance portfolios; the numerical precision of finite difference approximations of the Greeks.New or expanded sections: new chapter on solving nonlinear problems; expanded Lagrange multipliers sections; streamlined Taylor series and Taylor expansion sections; Mathematical Appendix at the end of the book.Financial applications (selected): Put-Call parity, bond mathematics, numerical computation of bond yields, Black-Scholes model, numerical estimation for Greeks, implied volatility, yield curves bootstrappingMathematical topics (selected): numerical approximation of definite integrals; Taylor approximations and Taylor series expansions; finite difference approximations; Stirling's formula, polar coordinates; numerical methods for solving one dimensional problems; Newton's method for higher dimensional problems

I looked through the new edition and the author pretty much summarized the new, expanded and re-organized topics. Of course the typos from the first edition have been fixed.I think this is an excellent book for those wanting to get the basic elements of the mathematics [not so much the probability] behind financial mathematics. I would compare this book in finance to "Fundamental Methods of Mathematical Economics" by Alpha Chiang which for generations was the standard first book for mathematical economics. Professor Stefanica's book will probably have that place for finance. In writing a book that covers two topics---finance and mathematics----it can be difficult to do justice to both. I think this book does so. Having a solution book is a blessing to students [with the usual caveat "really try to find the answer AND solution method" before consulting] without having to post notices on Wilmott for years to try to find solutions. That makes it very useful for people doing self-study or refreshing their knowledge.I would mention another book for those wanting a next step after professor Stefanica's book, "Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences" Mary Boas. There is of course no finance and little physics in fact which is good since the student is not having to deal with two things at once---yet where the methods apply is clear.