An Introduction to Matlab[RareAbyss]

Matlab is one of the most popular programs for quantitative analysis.

This book introduces you to the basics of Matlab without requiring any previous experience of programming.Through a series of easily followed examples, the book builds your knowledge step-by-step so that, at the end, you will master all the fundamentals of the program.

Topics include how to import data, mathematical operations, graphics, and programming. Special attention has been given to debugging techniques and how to find further help. Examples include linear regressions, solving equations, and numerical integration.

Content

- An Introduction to Matlab

Introduction
Preliminaries and a map of the book
- Features of Matlab

The Desktop
Some basics of using Matlab
The order of precedence
Some algebraic functions, special characters, and tips
The syntax of functions
Variables
Different types of variables
A note on interpretation and error messages
How Matlab “searches for meaning”
Matrices, vectors and scalars
Creating matrices
Addressing parts of matrices
Changing parts of a matrix
Some special commands for handling matrices
The Workspace Browser and the Variable Editor
More about matrices
Mathematical operations with matrices
Functions that operate element-by-element
Elementary mathematical functions that operate columnwise
Matrix algebra
Solving systems of linear equations
Finding linear regression coefficients
Importing and exporting data
The Current Folder
Problems with importing formatted data
Preparing data to import
Copy-and-paste importing
Importing using the Import Wizard
Importing using commands
Exporting to Excel files with commands
More about importing and exporting data
Graphics
Useful commands for two-dimensional plotting
Time series plotting
Plotting a function
Several graphs in one window and other types of graphs
Other two-dimensional graphs
Plotting tools
More about graphics
- Programming in Matlab

Scripts
The Editor
Writing a script
The search path
User interaction with the script
User defined functions
About the differences between scripts and user defined functions
More about functions
Flow control
Loops
Relational and logical operators
Conditional statements
More about flow control
Numerical analysis and curve fitting
Solving equations
Finding a function minimum point
Numerical integration
Curve fitting
More about numerical analysis
- Debugging and Help

Debugging
The Code Analyzer
Executing part of the code with F9
Using breakpoints
Checking programs for correct input
Use comments
More on debugging
Help
To find specific information on functions
To find general information
Online documentation from MathWorks
The internet
Appendix; Commands used in this book
Endnotes

About the Author

Krister Ahlersten has a PhD in Finance from the Stockholm School of Economics and work with quantitative analysis, asset pricing, and risk assessment in the banking industry.