The Mathematics of Financial Derivatives and the Wall Street Crisis

Financial derivatives are contracts whose values are derived from the values of assets such as stocks. The derivative market grew into a massive bubble from about $100 trillion to $516 trillion between 2002 and 2007. What impact did the derivative market have on the Wall Street crisis? In this talk we discuss the mathematical theory of simple financial derivatives and look at the relationship between the derivative market and the stock market. We investigate the impact that the derivative market may have had on the Wall Street crisis. Roselyn Williams is an associate professor of mathematics at the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. Mathematics Department Undergraduate Colloquium and part of the Women in STEM Speakers Series.