“In a telling story of science and politics, Vince and Sasha provide a glimpse of a hopeful future for market regulation. In 1998, they conceived a model to help regulators predict the consequences of proposed new “decimalization” rules for our markets. Pooh-poohed as “politically naïve”, their work was ignored. Eight years later, overwhelming evidence points to its uncanny prescience. Their short book is a “must read” for every thoughtful market regulator, those who question if America is ceding its role as the world's financial market to others, and all who delight in the progress of science.”
former Chairman of the NASDAQ Stock Market and former CFO of Microsoft
“I watched Vince Darley and Sasha Outkin develop and mature the agent based model of the NASDAQ stock market in our company, BiosGroup, in 1998. The model was carefully crafted and, as noted by the then President of NASDAQ, offered the first quantitative insights into the expected consequences of regulatory change, here for “decimalization rules” for the market. What Darley and Outkin have accomplished foretells an entire new era using agent based models in business, government, the military, and other domains. This book is a critical read for a very wide range of readers attempting to understand the emergent behavior of complex systems that only agent based models can capture. These new tools will prove essential in ways we cannot yet know.”
Founder of BiosGroup and Director of Institute of Biocomplexity and Informatics
The University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada