Journal of Computational Finance

Cornelis W. Oosterlee
Utrecht University

Christoph Reisinger
University of Oxford

It is with great pleasure that we present the second of two special issues of The Journal of Computational Finance on the occasion of Professor Peter Forsyth’s 70th birthday, celebrated during the ICCF24 Conference in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in early April 2024. Peter’s birthday was marked on the afternoon of Wednesday, April 3rd, in the company of friends, colleagues and collaborators, and it coincided with his retirement from the University of Waterloo. It was a fitting moment to reflect on Peter’s substantial contributions to our field and his long-standing influence on the computational finance community.

Peter was editor of The Journal of Computational Finance from 2008 to 2013. We have selected the papers in these two issues, contributed by his friends and colleagues worldwide, to reflect both the breadth of topics and the high standards that Peter championed throughout his career. They represent contributions to machine learning in stochastic optimal control, partial differential equations in finance, option valuation and risk management, underpinned by careful discretization and robust numerical solution methods.

Peter’s own work has consistently demonstrated a fine balance between rigorous theoretical development, practical numerical implementation and a clear appreciation of the financial application in focus. It is a hallmark of his research style that has inspired many and has set a standard for computational finance research.

We thank the contributors for their thoughtful and innovative papers, which capture the spirit of Peter’s approach and his commitment to advancing computational methods in finance. We also extend our gratitude to the ICCF24 organizing committee for creating a welcoming and stimulating environment in Amsterdam, which allowed us to celebrate Peter and his career in the best possible setting.

We hope that readers will find this special issue both enjoyable and inspiring.