Louis Bachelier On the centenary of Th´eoriede la Sp´eculation Jean-Michel Courtault, Youri Kabanov, Bernard Bru, Pierre Crepel, Isabelle Lebon, Arnaud Le Marchand
To cite this version: Jean-Michel Courtault, Youri Kabanov, Bernard Bru, Pierre Crepel, Isabelle Lebon, et al.. Louis Bachelier On the centenary of Th´eoriede la Sp´eculation.Mathematical Finance, Wiley- Blackwell, 2000, 10 (3), pp.339-353.
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Louis Bachelier
On the centenary of Th eorie de la Sp eculation
J M Courtault Yu Kabanov
B Bru P Crep el I Leb on A Le Marchand
Centenary of mathematical nance
The date March should be considered as the birthdate of mathematical
nance on this day French p ostgraduate student Louis Bachelier successfully de
fended at Sorb onne his thesis Th eorie de la Sp eculation As a work of exceptional
merit strongly supp orted by Henri Poincar e Bachelier s sup ervisor it has been
published in Annales scienti ques de l Ecole Normale Sup erieure one of the most
in uential French scienti c journals This pioneering study on the analysis of the
sto ck and option markets contains several ideas of enormous value in b oth nance
and probability In particular the theory of Brownian motion one of the most im
portant mathematical discoveries of the twentieth century was initiated and used for
the mathematical mo deling of price movements and evaluation of contingent claims
in nancial markets
The thesis of Louis Bachelier together with his subsequent w orks in uenced
deeply the whole development of sto chastic calculus and mathematical nance As
a testimony of his great contribution the newly created international Bachelier
Finance So ciety is named after him The centenary of the famous thesis is widely
celebrated as a landmark event in the history of mo dern science On this o ccasion we
present to the reader s attention a brief account of our research on Louis Bachelier
In spite of his remarkable contributions he remained until recently in obscure
darkness as one of the most mysterious gures in mathematics of the twentieth
few facts ab out him could be found in the literature There is century Only a
enormous public interest in his scienti c biography which can be explained by the
amazingly fast development of mathematical nance in the last two decades together
with a deep er understanding of the fundamental role of Brownian motion
We b elieve that our short note brings some new light on Louis Bachelier a human
person a mathematician and a philosopher
Dates of biography
March Louis Jean Baptiste Alphonse Bachelier was b orn in Le Havre
Octob er Graduated from secondary scho ol at Caen
January Father s death
May Mother s death
He is the head of Bachelier ls
Military service
Student at Sorb onne
Octob er Bachelor in sciences at Sorb onne
July C