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Books on the History and Development of Financial Models and Derivatives

Article Quant Q&A · Author: Zappa
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Summary

This short exchange recommends books for readers seeking a practitioner-oriented history of modern finance and the ideas that shaped current markets. The questioner values accounts that explain the origins of influential concepts and provide context for understanding them, rather than introductory popular treatments.

The suggestions include a study of how financial models shape markets, along with books on trading history and derivatives. These are recommendations rather than summaries or evaluations of the books, and the exchange supplies no detailed evidence about their content, technical level, or suitability for a particular reader. Its value is as a small starting list for further exploration of finance’s intellectual and professional history.

Key ideas

  • Historical accounts can add context to influential financial ideas.
  • One recommendation examines how financial models shape markets.
  • Other suggestions cover trading and the derivatives industry.
  • The exchange provides titles but little detail for assessing their content or level.

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Multi-assetDerivatives pricingOptions
Full text
# Books on technical history of finance


# Books on technical history of finance












I am looking for recommendations about books on history of (modern) finance. Possibly written by finance people, quantitative, not divulgative but aimed at practitioners that want to better understand how we got where we are today in terms of ideas.

Any time I hear someone sharing a story behind a famous idea it feels like it adds context, and helps better understand the idea itself. Stories are fun too, of course.

Thank you very much for any suggestions.

## Answer by Enrico Schumann (score 2, accepted)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/83946

I liked An Engine, not a Camera:

```
@BOOK{,
  title     = {An engine, not a camera: {H}ow financial models shape markets},
  publisher = {{MIT} Press},
  year      = 2006,
  author    = {Donald A. MacKenzie},
  address   = {Cambridge, Mass.},
  doi       = {10.7551/mitpress/9780262134606.001.0001}
}
```

## Answer by Dimitri Vulis (score 0)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/83945

A couple of random history-like picks.

Espen Gaarder Haug. Wall Street Short Stories: Economic Warfare, Corruption and Greed.

Satyajit Das. Traders, Guns & Money: Knowns And Unknowns in the Dazzling World of Derivatives

Shown in full with attribution under the source's licence. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 (Stack Exchange)

This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.