Background
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My math background is strong by CS standards, probably normal by mathematica standards. (i.e. familiarity with real analysis, linear algebra, managed to read the proof of the prime number theorem :-) )

The goal here is NOT to start a hedge fund of sorts; it's mainly to pick up the basics of financial / stock market background (but it's much more fun when I'm playing with real data / writing programs rather than just reading a textbook.)

I want to play around with learning the basics of finance (and writing some serious code in Mathematica).

Ideally, I want to "learn by doing" -- i.e. rather than just read textbook formulas, I would like to:

* play with real world stock data
* implement the various definitions / algorithms / functions and see how they work

Looking around, the best I have found is this book:

Computational Financial Mathematics using MATHEMATICA®: Optimal Trading in Stocks and Options

Seems like the most highly recommended

However, since I'm clueless, I would like to get some feedback (and suggestions for other resources to use for learning.)

Thanks!