Capital Ideas Evolving

By Peter L. Bernstein
Published by Wiley June 2007

• Capital Ideas traces the origins of modern Wall Street, from the pioneering work of early scholars, the development of new theories of  risk, valuation, and investment returns by the next generation of scholars,  to the actual implementation of these theories in the real world of investment management.

• Starting with the French mathematician Louis Bachelier who wrote the unpredictability of stock prices in early 1900s, Bernstein brings to life a variety of brilliant academics who contributed to modern investment theory. 
• The characters include Harry Markowitz who wrote about optimizing the trade-off between risk and reward.  William Sharpe who shook the pillars of the investment establishment by asserting that the market cannot be beaten.  Fisher Black, Myron Scholes, and Robert Merton, who paved the way for the creation of financial derivatives and new ways of controlling risk.  And Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller who extolled the central role of arbritrage in determining the value of securities. 
• Bernstein shows how the contributions of each individual built upon each other and led to the development of a unified theory of market behavior, investment returns, and risk management.  Most importantly, Bernstein explains how academic theory was translated into practice and profoundly changed the practice of investment management. 

About the author
One of the foremost financial writers of his generation, Peter L. Bernstein has a unique ability to synthesize intellectual history and economics with both the theoretical and real world of investment management.  He is author of the best-selling Capital Ideas, Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk and The Power of Gold: The History of an Obsession, as well as five other books.  He is president of Peter L. Bernstein, Inc., an investment consultant firm he founded in 1973 after many years of managing billions of dollars in individual and institutional portfolios.  He is the founding editor of the Journal of Investment Management.  He has lectured widely throughout the U.S. and abroad and has received the highest honors from his peers in the investment profession.

ISBN; 978-0-471-73173-3;  Hardback;  £19.99/€24.00

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