Like many university professors, I enjoy teaching and search for the right book for each course I teach. In 2001 when I developed a course in financial mathematics for undergraduate mathematics majors, I felt that no existing book combined the right mathematical, statistical, economic, and financial elements for students at Millersville University. After teaching the course, cobbling together lecture notes from a number of different sources, all of which presented some but not all things well, I decided to write my own textbook. The ultimate goal was to have it published so that it would be available to students and professors everywhere. I was very fortunate to find a publisher (World Scientific Publishing) willing to take a chance on a first-time author. The book in question An Undergraduate Introduction to Financial Mathematics, J. Robert Buchanan, World Scientific Publishing Company, Hackensack, NJ, USA, appeared in 2006. The second, third, and fourth editions appeared in 2008, 2012,and 2022 respectively. Students should make every effort to complete the textbook exercises on their owm and afterward may wish to compare their results to the students' solution manual. The first and second editions are now out of stock. At the risk of sounding like a advertisement for WSPC, I want to say that all the people I dealt with there were exceptionally professional and it was a pleasure to work them.
I am thankful to all the readers of the first, second, and third editions who took the time to send me comments and pointers to errors and typos in the third edition. If you would like to purchase a copy of this book please check the publisher's website. The text is also available from online book retailers such as amazon.com and in e-book format from iTunes.
I am pleased with the messages of encouragement and other comments that readers and reviewers of the book have sent to me. I hope that people looking for a gentle introduction to the mathematics of financial engineering will find the book useful. In return readers can help improve the fourth edition by sending me any suggestions, corrections, or other ideas for improvement. Corrections to the text are especially valuable. If you believe you have spotted an error, please send me a description of the error (including its precise location in the book) and I will update the list of errata for the fourth edition.
Instructors teaching from my textbook may wish to use a set of PDF files I have created for each chapter for use in the classroom. Please contact me with any corrections of comments on them. A zip file archive of the entire collection is also available. Links to individual chapters are below.