The Quantum Stock Market (And the Road Not Taken in Finance)

A new paradigm based on quantum probability that can model stock markets and price options—and also upends classical quantitative finance.

In The Quantum Stock Market, David Orrell combines theory and new empirical findings to argue for a new approach to finance based on quantum probability. The main finding, a property called q-variance, may be unique in finance in that it was discovered as the result of a prediction, affects financial markets in general, has no tunable parameter, and has important consequences for a range of topics including the pricing of financial options. The property, which somehow eluded detection for over a century, has been verified by experts in the field. And the fact that it is incompatible with classical finance—which is perhaps why it went undetected—suggests that the field must be reinvented.

The aim of this book is therefore nothing less than to initiate a paradigm shift in finance. As with any new work that challenges existing methods, the ideas have already received considerable pushback from a range of sources, including leaders in the field of finance, along with physicists skeptical of applying quantum probability outside its traditional domain. Written in an interdisciplinary style that mixes mathematical equations, data analysis, and informed comment on the field of finance, it should be read by anyone—including students, academics, and practitioners—who wants to be on the right side of a paradigm shift.