California State University, San Bernardino CSUSB ScholarWorks Theses Digitization Project John M. Pfau Library 1994 Chaos and the stock market Brent M. Monte Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project Part of the Applied Mathematics Commons Recommended Citation Monte, Brent M., "Chaos and the stock market" (1994). Theses Digitization Project. 860. https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd-project/860 This Project is brought to you for free and open access by the John M. Pfau Library at CSUSB ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses Digitization Project by an authorized administrator of CSUSB ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. CHAOS AND THE STOCK MARKET A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California State University, San Bernardino. In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Art in Mathematics by Brent M. Monte June 1994 CHAOS AND THE STOCK MARKET A Thesis Presented tp the Faculty of California State University, San Bernardino by Brent M. Monte June 1994 Approved by: ffi //s ^ Dr. JfJbhn Sarli, Chair, Mathematxcs Date' Joseph Chaye^ Dr. Charles Stanton Dr. J. Terry Hallett ABSTRACT It has long been felt that the stock market behaved in a completely random manner. However, a relatively new branch of mathematics called "Chaos Theory" purports that there are systems which may appear random, but are in fact highly structured. These systems are deemed "chaotic." Based on the work done by Edgar Peters, it will be shown that the Dow Jones Industrial Average, one of the primary indices of the New York Stock Exchange, exhibits the characteristics of a chaotic system.