Fractals and Scaling in Finance

Set in the early 1960s at IBM's research facility, the narrative highlights the innovative environment fostered by brilliant minds, particularly Benoit Mandelbrot. His unconventional ideas challenged traditional mathematical concepts, emphasizing the significance of distributions with infinite second moments. This perspective paved the way for the development of fractals, suggesting that complex aspects of the physical world could be understood through models with fractional dimensions. The account reflects both personal interactions and groundbreaking intellectual exchanges among prominent researchers.