In Memoriam

(1946 - 2026)

John, too, has passed away. I heard the news from Marco Salerno, who had received it from Alexandra MacKay.

I translated all his books into Italian: the last nine editions of Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives; the first seven editions of Fundamentals of Futures and Options Markets; all six editions of Risk Management and Financial Institutions; and all four editions of Machine Learning in Business: An Introduction to the World of Data Science.

After completing each translation, I would write to him and attach a file listing the typographical errors I had found. He would then update the errata on his website. On the last two occasions, he authorized me to publish the Italian editions of Risk Management and Machine Learning through KDP.

I learned a great deal from reading his books and studying the source code of DerivaGem, the software he had developed with Alan White  and made freely available on his website.

I first met John in person in 1991. He had come to Rome for the Second International Conference of the Centre for Research in Finance , which I had organized while working at the Istituto Mobiliare Italiano. John presented a paper entitled One-Factor Interest Rate Models and the Valuation of Interest Rate Derivative Securities.

We met again at Luiss in 2010, when he presented his paper Ratings Arbitrage and Structured Products. On that occasion, I also met Michelle and their sons, David and Peter.

We subsequently met again in Toronto during the Rotman International Trading Competitions organized, before Covid, by  Tom McCurdy with the help of Kevin Mak, Marco Salerno and Eric Kang. In 2015, when the LUISS Blue Team won the competition for the second consecutive year, Matteo Di Calisto made a video in which John appears from 0:17 to 0:22 and again from 1:27 to 1:41.

John, you leave a great void. In my view, you should have been awarded the Nobel Prize for everything you taught us. Thank you!