Readers of this journal whose main interest lies in the Management Sciences will be fascinated by the contents of this book which won the UK's Financial Times Best Business book of the year. It is also a “must read” book for cyberneticians who believe that mathematical approaches to problems can pay high dividends? Often this approach can pick out patterns that we would so easily have ignored. This has become a mathematical study of financial prediction and there are new concepts to consider.
To do this we need to look at the traditional ways in which we predicted the future trends in financial markets. Several methods have been used and include using capital‐asset pricing models, portfolio theory, etc. Because of the nature of the ever changing trading markets the innovative “Multifractual approach” was used. Financial multifractuals approach attempts to analyse and understand the patterns that emerge from market data. Benoit Mandelbrot has already written about this some two decades ago and the Mandelbrot Curve came into our vocabulary.
Whilst this book provides an excellent narrative and makes for enjoyable reading there was a feeling throughout that we needed more guidance into the study of fractuals both technically and mathematically. There, perhaps lies the opportunity for another book on the basics and one that helps in the understanding and use of fractual theories. Creating fractuals, we are told, is a rewarding activity in its own right and nowadays our computer systems are well capable of helping us to do so.
One aspect of the book that provokes our attention and interest is the way in which the authors have woven into the text the experiences of the Mandelbrot family in formulating and pursuing the goal of understanding the trading‐markets.
The book is undoubtedly worth reading and in many ways provides us with many important facets of the lives of a family of researchers who are determined to use mathematics to understand the ever‐changing financial markets.
