Econophysics of Stock and other Markets

Successful or not we all (have to?) go to various markets and participate in their activities. Yet solittle is understoodabout their functionings. E orts to model various markets are now substantial. Econophysicists have also come up recently with several innovative models and their analyses. This book is a proceedings of the International Workshop on \Eco- physics of StockMarkets and Minority Games heldinKolkataduringFeb- ary 14-17 2006 under the auspices of the Centre for Applied Mathem- ics and Computational Science Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics Kolkata. This is the second event in the Econophys-Kolkata series of meetings; the Econophys-Kolkata I was held in March 2005 (Proceedings: Econophysics of Wealth Distributions published in the same New Economic Windows series by Springer Milan in 2005). We understand from the enthusiastic response of the participants that the one-day trip to the Sunderbans (Tiger Reserve; a world heritage point) along with the lecture-sessions on the vessel had been hugely enjoyable and successful. The concluding session had again very lively discussions on the workshop topics as well as on econophysics in general i- tiated by J. Barkley Rosser Matteo Marsili Rosario Mantegna and Robin Stinchcombe (Chair). We plan to hold the next meeting in this series on \Econophysics and Sociophysics: Debates on Complexity Issues in Economics and Sociology early next year. We are very happy that several leading economists and physicists engaged intheserecentdevelopmentsintheeconophysicsofmarkets theiranalysisand modellingcouldcomeandparticipate.