Myron Scholes

Myron Samuel Scholes (/ʃoʊlz/; born July 1, 1941) is a Canadian-American financial economist. In 1997 he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for a method to determine the value of derivatives. The model provides a conceptual framework for valuing options, such as calls or puts, and is referred to as the Black–Scholes model. Together with fellow Nobel prize winner Robert C. Merton he founded the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management which dramatically collapsed in 1998.

Biography

Early life and education

Myron Scholes was born to a Jewish family on July 1, 1941 in Timmins, Ontario, where his family had moved during the Great Depression. In 1951 the family moved to Hamilton, Ontario. Scholes was a good student although fighting with impaired vision starting with his teens until finally getting an operation when he was twenty-six. Through his family, he became interested in economics early, as he helped with his uncles' businesses and his parents helped him open an account for investing in the stock market while he was in high school.