The volume features chapters of theoretical and practical relevance clarifying recent advances in the associated applied field from different standpoints, relying on similar valuation problems and, as mentioned, facilitating a mutual and beneficial methodological and theoretical knowledge transfer. The distinctive aspects of the volume can be summarized as follows:

• Strong benchmarking philosophy, with contributors explicitly asked to underline current limits and desirable developments in their areas.
  
• Theoretical contributions, aimed at advancing the state-of-the-art in the given domain with a clear potential for applications
  
• The inclusion of an algorithmic-computational discussion of issues arising on similar valuation problems across different methods.
  
• Variety of applications: rarely is itpossible within a single volume to consider and analyze different, and possibly competing, alternative optimization techniques applied to well-identified financial valuation problems.
  
• Clear definition of the current state-of-the-art in each methodological and applied area to facilitate future research directions.