A new model being developed by an Australian National University mathematician could boost profits while limiting exposure in the trade of options, among the most lucrative but also the riskiest financial securities.

Postgraduate student Priya Dev is developing a model based on probability theory for pricing options -- deals giving the investor the right to buy or sell a stock, bond or other underlying security at a set price within a set time. "If our model is efficient, it will be highly valuable to industry," she says.

Dev is one of the many mathematicians who have worked in the highly charged environment of trading rooms, where they are known as 'the rocket scientists'. "I decided to come back to the ANU as it has top class probability theorists," she says