Basic knowledge of undergraduate-level mathematics is necessary. However, no advanced mathematical degree is required to decipher how the financial industry uses time series modeling to solve problems. Functional knowledge of SAS is desirable but isn't mandatory.

SAS University Edition is free software that is used throughout the book. Download details can be found at https://www.sas.com/en_gb/software/university-edition.html.

You can download the example code files for this book from your account at www.packtpub.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit www.packtpub.com/support and register to have the files emailed directly to you.

You can download the code files by following these steps:

1. Log in or register at www.packtpub.com.
2. Select the SUPPORT tab.
3. Click on Code Downloads & Errata.
4. Enter the name of the book in the Search box and follow the onscreen instructions.

Once the file is downloaded, please make sure that you unzip or extract the folder using the latest version of:

• WinRAR/7-Zip for Windows
• Zipeg/iZip/UnRarX for Mac
• 7-Zip/PeaZip for Linux

The code bundle for the book is also hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/SAS-for-Finance. In case there's an update to the code, it will be updated on the existing GitHub repository.

We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: http://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/PacktPublishing/SASforFinance_ColorImages.pdf.

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "The variables tall and grade have different values for height and scores in a test."

A block of code is set as follows:

data matrix (drop = lhand1 lhand2); 
set stage2 (drop = id); 
if product1 ne product2; 
if product1 ne product3; 
if product2 ne product3; 
combo=compress(product1||product2||product3); 
lhand1=scan(combo,1); 
lhand2=scan(combo,2); 
lhand=compress(lhand1||"|"||lhand2); 
run;