New Video: Macaulay Duration is a Decreasing Function of the Coupon Rate r

Wow! One-hundred and sixty-six videos on financial mathematics for actuaries?!?! Yes! This has been an almost two-year YouTube project so far. Here’s the video that I posted earlier today, about an advanced topic called Macaulay duration. You’ll want to make sure you’ve learned a lot about present values and bonds before you tackle this subject.

And here is the playlist for the entire series on financial mathematics problem solving.

Will this series be ending soon? I think so, relatively-speaking at least: perhaps in another 20-30 videos. Being on sabbatical in the spring of 2019, I think I should be able to finish them by the end of the spring semester, maybe even sooner. There is only one more main topic to cover after I do a few more videos on Macaulay and modified duration, though that final main topic is pretty challenging — asset-liability matching and immunization.

This has been a labor of love for me. God has given me so much joy in problem-solving and in sharing important conceptual insights with others, and I thank Him for the opportunity to do so. Those who have watched many of my videos also know of my passion for using Wolfram Mathematica, both as a computational problem-solving tool and also as a way to bring mathematics to life: for the sake of understanding, communication, and beauty.

Will I ever make even more videos on even more advanced topics in financial mathematics? God-willing, someday I will (James 4:15). For the moment, I have other things I hope to do. One priority is to start making videos to help people prepare for actuarial exam 1/P (on probability). In the last year or so I also started video series on proofs in real analysis and challenge problems in multivariable calculus. I would like to continue with those videos as well in the coming year. Finally, I also need to finish my “big-picture” lecture series on financial mathematics. So far, they have covered chapters 1-4 from Broverman’s textbook.

Some of my readers may know that I often videotape my lectures to students at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. I do plan to do more of that in the future, though I’m not sure when. Again, I’m on sabbatical right now. I also have a fairly heavy load with a new course prep this coming fall of 2019, so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do it then. I’m hoping at some point to videotape my (calculus-based) probability and statistics course, my calculus 1 course, and my linear algebra course. I also want to re-do lecture series I have done on (non-calculus-based) business statistics and on calculus 2.

Finally, I would like to construct short courses that are offered online to anyone in the world. I’m not sure what platform I will use yet, but I hope to get my first course or two up this year. Probably my first courses will be related to real analysis and financial mathematics, since those things are the main focus of this blog at the moment.

And of course, the blog will be something I work on a lot. Many of my posts, as they have been so far, will be about real analysis and financial mathematics. But I want to write posts about the other topics mentioned above too, as well as differential equations.

As mentioned in my first blog post on January 3, 2019, I also hope to do some things related to the content of my favorite mathematics YouTube channel, 3Blue1Brown.

I hope you all enjoy these things and use them to make your personal and professional lives richer. God bless!