anyone know anywhere i can go to download and review some sample trading models and strategy ideas. im learning C++ and financial modelling but im not sure where to start?!?! i presume there must be standard basic models i could look at? Benninga's book arrived to me this morning so hopefully that will help, any thoughts would be greatly appreciated to get me going, thanks charlie

Trading is a wide subject - what type of trading and in what market. For example; spread trading, outright speculation, realtive return to bench mark trading, trading spreads in the futures markets, cross rate arbitrage in the currency markets - the list goes on and on...cheersadamPlease note: If a goose lays golden eggs - how many golden eggs is the goose worth ?

adamcox: If a goose lays golden eggs - how many golden eggs is the goose worth ? Assuming that the goose lays x eggs per month, we can simply PV all the eggs to arrive at the value of the goose.Using PV(egg) = x(t)*m*S/exp((r(t)-g(t))*t)Where m: Mass of egg in troy ounces.S: Spot price of gold per troy ounce.r(t): Interest Rate on cash with tenor tg(t): Interest Rate on Gold with tenor tt: Momemt of egg creation (distance in years)We can see that if eggs are produced in a linear manner (or any manner, as long as the rate of production does not display exponential or higher than exponential growth), we can arrive at a limit as t-->infinity, as we can treat the periodic flows of gold just like a perpetual bond. Assuming linear egg flows (with n eggs per year) and a flat term structure of R = r-g gives us:PV(Golden Goose) = Egg/(R/n)

Adjust for the life expectancy of the goose though ! Since there is only one golden goose how would we model this stochastic element in the equation ?adam

Like all fairy creatures, I would expect the golden goose to live forever.Regards.

fdax's assumption is also consistant with going concern concept of accounting.Cheers.

adam, do you have an answer on how to include the life expectancy of the goose? i would be curious to know. sounds much like the problem of insurance companies to find a "fair value" for their life insurance policies.