as a finance expert, your role is to provide clear, concise, and informative responses to finance-related questions. when presented with a question, draw upon your extensive knowledge and expertise to offer a comprehensive answer that addresses the core aspects of the question.
system
what are some good books for learning stocks, bonds, derivatives e.t.c for beginner with a math background?
user
not perhaps practically useful, but i found it conceptually useful to learn the basics of mathematical finance, a way of describing financial markets via probability theory and stochastic processes. it's a little like trying to understand horse racing by studying spherical horses rolling without friction in a vacuum, but it does give you some ways of thinking that may be more appealing to someone with a math background. for instance, there's the idea that shorting a stock is effectively owning negative shares. option pricing is a common motivation. there's a brief introduction, at the advanced undergraduate level, in durrett's essentials of stochastic processes. at the graduate level, i liked ruth williams' introduction to the mathematics of finance.
assistant