A new standpoint on financial time series, without the use of any mathematical model and of probabilistic tools, yields not only a rigorous approach of trends and volatility, but also efficient calculations which were already successfully applied in automatic control and in signal processing. It...

The Cartier-Perrin theorem, which was published in 1995 and is expressed in the language of nonstandard analysis, permits, for the first time perhaps, a clear-cut mathematical definition of the volatility of a financial asset. It yields as a byproduct a new understanding of the means of returns,...