1Introductory Overview

1
1Introductory Overview

• Course outline
• Brief introduction to by class
• Nature of content
• The content is, by and large, not very
  complicated, but the concepts may be novel.
• In some cases, the problem may be that you may
  have to discard some notions that are commonly
  regarded as intuitive.
• The subject is fundamentally numerical in nature,
  and so standard mathematics is widely used to
  obtain insights into the topic.

2
2Approach

• I intend to approach the course in two ways
• from a formal modeling orientation
• from a more practical orientation
• There is a lot of material to cover. The topic
  is massive, and many universities (e.g.,
  University of Pennsylvania) offer Ph.D degrees in
  Finance/Financial Economics/ Mathematical
  Finance. One could easily fill three courses
  with materials relevant to a working
  understanding of Commodity Markets.

3
3Approach, Contd

• My intent is to give a flavor of the subject. At
  times I will not be as rigorous in presentation
  as would be required to provide a complete
  comprehension of the topic in question.
• This is because time is short and the opportunity
  cost is not covering other materials that are
  also important.