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Enterprise level Linux is provided primarily by RedHat. This includes the support and other belts and whistles around the core OS. For personal use, Ubuntu is the best option.

Both courses look good from description. I would choose STAT 341.

Except generic description, it would be nice to know what to expect. I am not considering the course for academic purpose, I care about the applied side ...

Did anyone take 9701? I would be very interested in the applied side of the course. A more generic question is around model calibration. Since this involves statistics/data mining, is there any class available in this direction? Statistics in Finance started with an excellent basis ...

My response was generic, not for a specific program. Some programs had limited programming prerequisites before 2006/2007. So you had a good chance to be admitted and to graduate. However, in this time, the market has become much more competitive. After you graduate you need to compete with a...

It depends what you consider "sufficiency". If sufficiency is a chance to be accepted, then it is correct. You can compensate in other areas. If sufficiency is a chance to complete the program, then it is correct in most cases. If you work hard during program to learn programming, then you will...

There are different PhD working in the industry as quants. The most common are: Physicists, Applied Mathematics, Statistics In these 3 broad sciences, there are smaller domains that are of higher interest at one moment.

I am not sure what you mean about Research Assistant (RA) helping towards OPT. OPT is an employment visa that is available no matter if the student has got a fellowship, RA or TA. In most cases RA helps the graduate student (Masters or more likely PhD) to cover some of the tuition. It is not a...

Good answer! In my opinion MFE programs have the potential to adapt quicker than MBA to changes in the environment. They start from a set of requirements (stochastic calculus, statistics, linear algebra etc). From this you can branch in different theoretical/practical directions. A model is...

This is a biased view of London job market. In the scope of immigration, I really don't see the flux of talent from New York/Chicago to London or else in Europe. The laws in most Europe are conservative, they don't have the experience of immigration compared to a country that was built on this...

The main risk is the actual loss of talent, not necessarily future competition. These people can work abroad for U.S. banks just as well. Especially since these banks are offering higher wages than the market. Rationally everyone agrees that protectionism is a high risk for every...

As Alain mentioned, this is something to mention to your SA. You can try to run a set of commands to see what is happening on the partition: df -k /apps If partitions are mounted locally, you can check for errors with iostat

Linux does have a steep learning curve. This is the reason why Windows will always be popular. Using vi or emacs is not so obvious first time. However, if you spend some time to check the actual syntax, you will find it your second nature. Command line features of UNIX are far superior to any...

Yeah, these are events to talk about with future generations. After the Great Depression, this is the most "spectacular" market period. And we are not done yet, with all optimism, it will take another few years to go back to a "routine". Perhaps we would never go back ...;)

It is a strong program that will offer you good chances of employment at the end. The program is a bit broad to be considered a pure MFE, however the faculty is good and they seem to have good career services. Related previous thread...

Adding to what Andy is mentioning, I believe NYU and CMU are also putting more focus on computational side. As for jobs, the idea is simple: very few jobs in quantitative finance field will not require in-depth knowledge of one OOP language (C++, Java)

It all depends what you consider as "a lot of international students". I can tell you that in an MFE program you will have less than a Computer Science PhD on average and more than an MBA. As an American you have a couple of advantages. First and foremost you are fluent in English. This is an...

Sounds interesting. I will try to go and check it out ...

You have a solid dictionary of birthdays Aditya :) Happy Birthday Matt! May you have a great year!

Happy Birthday!

Well, I am trying to get simple answers and nothing. It is based on an internal knowledge base. They state clearly that it does not search the web. If you cannot do that, then you will not be able to gather the information. Also if the target is only science, they might have some problems with...

Time should not be a criteria for choosing your education. This defines the start of your career, you want to make the best decisions. If you are in school 2, 3 years more than some of your peers, nothing is lost. Learn to cherish those times. Apply to the best programs (in your opinion) and...

Same here, except the music part :) All the applications from systems management (back-end infrastructure) with one exception are in UNIX (solaris 8/10 and linux Redhat). UNIX environment is dominant in all divisions except Investment Banking ...

A crisis is perfect time for some politicians to shine. It is good to point fingers at somebody else for a change. These days financial markets are the perfect target. You can demonize Wall Street and you will gain votes. The next step is to demonize the actual products. This "CDS stuff" is out...

Actually there are some economists and conservative politicians that state there is no need for individual income tax. The tax collections from corporations and other business can cover just fine an entire budget.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Vladimir. Another reason to party ... :dance::dance::dance::dance:

First you need to choose a direction. The degrees you are evaluating lead to different careers, require different skills etc. If you want to get some ideas of MFE, you can read many threads on this forum. There are also threads that relate to MBA vs MFE. You should read curriculum for some...

http://vnoel.wordpress.com/2008/05/03/bye-matlab-hello-python-thanks-sage/

"use strict" debate ... http://stackoverflow.com/questions/613364/is-there-a-need-for-a-use-strict-python-compiler http://pychecker.sourceforge.net/

They need to reveal a lot of things under the covers first :) More specifically, they need to have some papers accepted to AAI conference with the specific algorithms ... http://www.aaai.org/Conferences/conferences.php

Not so excited yet till I read some technical articles on the specific knowledge base:) Artificial intelligence and knowledge base languages have been developing in last 15 years. Starting from simple LISP to Bayesian networks and natural language processing, many people were excited with the...

Calculus and real analysis are separate fields. For simplicity you can consider real analysis to be part of statistics/probability. "formal maths (i.e. proofs and the likes)" is an interesting expression. Mathematics is based on proofs and by definition it is formal. In physics you can talk...

It is a good curriculum. Not sure how you can cover data structures and OOP in one class. This requires at least 2 classes. A class in algorithms is also needed to link together these concepts. Some items that are missing: 1. >2 classes of Calculus are needed to step into an Applied Math...

Happy Birthday Vadim!:dance:

The "tracks" included are pretty generic. From the formulation there are few similarities. I will relate them to "quant tracks" as name of the thread. Financial Markets and Corporate Finance - Corporate Finance is a direction for MBA students. It will include overview of the markets and...

Stats are nice, but more important is the type of jobs available At the moment, there is a higher chance of entry-level employment in pure development or actuarial position for example. So the question is how many of the jobs are quantitative ...

I concur. If you are fluent in other OOP languages (e.g. Java) then C++ can be learned up to a decent level on your own. If you don't have any background in programming, it is very difficult. Even if you understand some of syntax, you would not really understand what it means. Actually a...

I am so sad that I did not have the opportunity to be in one of his classes. "Principles of Financial Engineering" by Prof. Neftci is an excellent book that shows an outstanding professor. It would have been enlightening to listen to his lectures, focusing on essentials.

Good article. The main point for me is: hard skills required! It is good as a candidate to market himself/herself, to be aware of market conditions, to be a good team-player, to have best school brand etc. The question is really: what can you do on your own? Can you get a product + model and...

You have too many en grained misconceptions about Ivy League schools. It will take a while for bluechimp to change them :) The interesting part is this perception about "pure superiority of Ivy League" or that "Ivy League students are guaranteed to reach loftiest goals" is pretty common. Many...

Fully agree with your observations. Very good post.=D>

Adding to previous note, PhD for sciences are "financed" through research. So basically, quite a few programs would cover tuition (at least first 5 years). If your goal is purely academical in the area of scientific computing, then applied math or computer science PhD would give you the...

Happy Birthday Mose, Forza Fener! Hep Destek Tam Destek<big></big>;)

As Alain said, you need to think about a set of criteria important for you. Once you have a clear list, you can find a lot of info on quantnet about NY area universities.

So you remember my "red lobster" look after the Open last year. It was worth it :)

US Open is my favorite sporting event in NY area. Count me in.

No it is not, but it is a socialist society, controlled economy, limited productivity for the available potential;)

This is a current trend for large institutions, but not for all companies and more importantly not forever. Things may change a lot in 3-5 years. It is human nature to take current state, project it to the future and ignore the past completely. Or in other words, we should have some genetic...

I concur. I think PhD for such a position is over-qualification and may even show to have some skills that are not recommended as a trader :)

You need to do some research regarding the profile of each program. Even though all are in financial mathematics/engineering, there are significant differences. Next, you need to evaluate which of the program profiles fits best. The first place is to start talking to some current students and...

You need to do some research regarding the profile of each program. Even though all are in financial mathematics/engineering, there are significant differences. Next, you need to evaluate which of the program profiles fits best. The first place is to start talking to some current students and...

As you know, it is very hard to provide figures especially now. There is no centralized positions index for employers. It is just my estimate from talking to different people. I am sure that other users will have a different perception. Several areas are still active, however the competition is...

Things are pretty bad now, but not as much as Sanket or Eugene picture them :) There are still jobs out there. Market is worse than last year or 2 years ago, but the problem is with the actual decline rate. One thing is a smooth drop from 100 -> 20 in 5 years, another thing is a steep drop from...

The syllabus for all courses that you provided is interesting. As a preparation, I would choose Numerical Analysis I/II and Operations Research I

Calculus, Probability, some Algebra and programming are a requirement to survive in MFE program such as Baruch. Now you are really scaring the guy :)

Happy Birthday Andy! \\:D/\\:D/\\:D/ :partyman::partyman::partyman:

An emphasis on C++ like Baruch or CMU is fine. NYU's approach is just as good. Any MFE program will build on existent skills. Your inclination may be computational, pure math or financial strategy. I believe the market will have positions for all such backgrounds, so it is better to focus on...

Very unlikely to find this in mildly regulated OTC contracts. For standard contracts like CDS or vanilla swaps, there is nothing that can be done. The question is really if something should be done? As a tax-payer, I agree that you don't want to pay for bad decisions by AIG execs. On the other...

It would an interesting reverse trend. However from the article, the reasons for choosing CS are a bit weird. Attraction for dotcom, millionaire recipe will leave many people very dissapointed. In 6-7 years, the industry has matured a lot, some of the large corporations (e.g. Google, IBM) are...

There is no evidence to your statement. Just saying that GS had the highest balance and that Paulson was a CEO of GS is not sufficient. Other banks have "profited" too from surival of AIG. More importantly, these are not "stolen" money. This is poor strategy on AIG side. If the other banks have...

Correct. This is the only short-term difference. In a longer run, H1-B period accounts unofficially for green-card application. It is possible to apply for green-card as soon as OPT is done, however such a path is more difficult nowadays. A few years of H1-B before green-card is more common ..

Agree. Reputation is not sufficient especially for a MFE program. Skills, networking are much more important. Several quantnet threads can be found on criteria to compare MFE programs.

Comments are indead interesting. In some cases, I skip over the article and jump to comments :) I especially like this one ...

Quant is not a pure software developer. By definition a software developer will receive formal requirements, implement/test/debug. A quant will receive a broader problem. For instance: take data on a certain product, use different models, back test against historical data, adjust arguments and...

If you consider all Technology as "maintenance" jobs then I can partially agree. Otherwise, you are incorrect. Most Technology jobs are in software development/systems engineering. Wage is higher than average wage. I doubt that a regular American would rather work on average wage just to avoid...

The snippet you have included is fine. The problem is somewhere else. Another option can be that you are trying to access a location that was already deleted. This can be done if some destructor code is executed in an unexpected place. A couple of comments though (maybe it helps): 1. vector...

If you do a simple search on this forum you will find plenty of threads with detailed descriptions about quantitative finance work. Pricing financial instruments using stochastic/statistical models can be one broad definition. Technical analysis is a "black art", qualitative more than...

Bin-packing is NP-hard which means a brute force approach cannot be used to solve the problem. However this problem is a particular case since the requirement is not to find the actual combination of containers but rather the number of required stacks. My first guess would be to try a dynamic...

Some of dialogues are pretty good, especially the last one with Norwegian investors.

I don't know details about Putnam competition so I cannot comment here. I feel we are going in circles. Which problem are you pointing to? There is no algorithm taught in school that will be sufficient to solve ACM problems. In the best case, you may find a similarity with a problem from past...

The point is not valid and risky for U.S. in medium-term as many other people pointed on this thread. However, for sake of argument, let's assume everyone agrees that we need to ensure no American job is lost before a person with H1-B. I have argued here that financial sector holds a small...

I would have to disagree here. If the text of a problem is accessible to a large number of people that does not make it easy. Informatics contests are well-known to have this approach as opposed to Math or other sciences with more cryptic problems. Competition encompasses different research...

This is the top college level programming contest. In some way it is a continuation of Informatics International Olympiads. The main difference is that it is a team event rather than individual. The background required is not more than high-school olympiad: very strong graph theory and dynamic...

Just downloaded CodeLite, open source very nice, just 86M. Eclipse is primarily used for Java, but its design makes it flexible to any other language. As you said, it works under different OS, interface being the same. The major downside is a C++ debugger full of bugs :)

What is your opinion about Eclipse for C++ (CDT)?

"Chairman letter" portion is very interesting (20 pages). Style is certainly different than a corporate announcement :)

Nobody is immune. The quant will lose its job immediately even if he expressed concerns about using a model in some special market conditions. Furthermore, at this time, it is difficult to find another job. The quant did worked long hours. He is paid on results, not on some pyramid trend of the...

This is an opinion of the author, basically starting from a conclusion and trying to put down 1, 2 arguments. The arguments are significantly weaker than a 4.0 analytical section for GRE.:) The conclusions are skewed. Recruiters are actually saying there are a few places to work even now and...

I like Wilmott's article, but I would have a more aggressive reaction to Volcker's statements. It is the same black swan approach which is being pounded in the mind of the public. As a quant you build a model which is based on certain assumptions, you present them to decision makers and you...

Excellent job!

Interesting article Vadim. The whole debate is based on demagogues trying to get a better image for their constituents. The number of H1-B visas per entire work-force is minuscule. If we remove several IT companies, then we need to go to basis points ... If we focus on financial sector, we find...

Outsourcing management of TARP funds is questionable. However, if this would be chosen, Bank of New York Mellon is a good option, probably the most conservative, risk-averse bank on the street.

There is plenty of information about quant jobs on this forum. There are also some books about the life of quants. As Doug mentioned, investment research is outside of scope for a quant. That involves fundamental research (e.g. financial statement analysis). However, investment management (e.g...

Just read this post and I felt it needed an answer ... The ranking is not clear from the article. First of all, criteria is not specified. Then, what is the really the standing? Who is no 1, and who is no 8? Looking at the list, it seems like the name of the overall school is the main factor...

Also, you can check the master reading for MFE thread maintained by Andy. In the general section, you have some introduction level books. Personally I would start with "A primer for the Mathematics of Finance" by Dan Stefanica. Master reading list for MFE - Page 3 - QuantNetwork - Financial...

Many interesting issues with UNIX time, the essential time representation http://www.2038bug.com/

=D>Happy Birthday Eugene! Will try to join you tonight for some drinks ...

I believe this statement is important and more high figures should follow a similar approach. If nothing is said, Wall Street will be villified even more ...

Perl and all its flavors are very good for data analysis. They are basically built for parsing data, applying regular expressions, in one word: data mining. This task can be done also in C++, however it is more time-consuming. For example, in a few lines of Perl code, we can populate several...

In Europe the "protectionist" trend from 80s has shifted You are correct when refering to low-skilled workers that may be considered a burden in Italy or Spain. However, college graduates in engineering can move significantly easier than 10 years ago. Eastern European countries that have...

Of course it can happen in other areas. It is somewhat related to this trend: Senate approves restriction on foreign hires by banks receiving bailout - QuantNetwork - Financial Engineering Forum

Adding to what Doug mentioned, politicians seem to be out of touch with reality. U.S. was the "promise land" for many years, it attracted top professionals. However, in last 10 years, things have deteriorated. E.U. has opened its borders, most people from Europe prefer to choose the best...

Subjective probabilities are not relevant for pricing options. Risk neutral probabilities do not change unless volatiliy changes :)

In the short term (<5 years), yes I agree with your statement. In a longer term, hard to estimate. Other triggers/markets may activate. If we compare today with 2004, we can have an estimate of the possible growth for some markets in a short time period Not sure about this part :)

Reading these topics opened by bigbadwolf, it seems that he is looking for all options to prove finance is dead, even the concept of financial product. It is good to have all points of view, a contradiction is always more useful than a consensus. It forces people to think. And that is what the...

The article is one-sided trying to convince some angry American that they've lost their job because some foreigners took it. This is an old subject has a pragmatic solution: minimal cost, maximum value. It applies to any field from programming to engineering or financials. One of main U.S...

I understand your Dr. Doom approach :), but as you already seen, I am more conservative. A certain system worked for 20 years, produced wealth. That wealth converted into property, assets etc. Now, there is a crisis caused by certain excesses and deregulation. Does that dismiss the whole concept...

It was and it is! Some exceptions do not make a rule. If you read about some high executive, perhaps incompetent, that does not make everyone the same. For instance, trying to ostracize a set of prop trading quants, for a decision from one man is wrong. They are very smart people, could have...

Pretty much all MFE programs require GRE ...

You can start from program rankings and start doing research about the programs. You have plenty of information available online. For Computer Science for instance, any of the top 40 programs have strong research areas. Depending on your preference (from artificial intelligence and databases...

Some ideas for you ... Fine. One problem is that the function is linked to this class. Is function to compute r linked to your Black Scholes class or is it independent? Another problem is that each time you need to set a different function, you need to recompile everything and of course...

I would advise to apply to a serious grad-school program. It does not need to be MFE. It can be in Finance, Applied Math, Computer Science. The program needs to be a real challenge, prepare you for hard-work. If you want to pursue an MFE eventually, that is what you should expect. Also, don't...

Good start. After you understand a bit more about C++, the next step is to slowly incorporate design patterns. They will come as answers to something like ... How would you change the code if r or volatilty is a known function of time? How would you change the code if you want to add another...

Basically yes. However it is not an easy answer. All MFE programs are pretty short so time trade-off is difficult. C++ is not ignored intentionally, just that time may be considered more valuable in other areas. One proffessor may want to cover in significant detail a specific theory or...

My advice is to do more research. You can start reading this forum, talking to alumni or current students, attending sessions. MFE is a proffessional degree, different criteria from a purely academical Masters. Also, avoid mixing departments. Only thing that matters is the department which...

Ranking that you've provided is not relevant. A quantitative finance program is strong or not, based on its own curriculum/proffessors, placement record etc. Computer Science department is not linked to quant finance, same thing with engineering department. You have to do research on specific...

Good link. Check out also the 'Files' tab on this forum. It has just started, but my bet is that it will grow quickly ...

Losses are concentrated in a several areas. I am sure that many business units from Merrill were profitable. The problem is that in the current market conditions, many positions simply cannot be closed. So the write-downs are mounting steadily and it will go on for a while. In this time...

Exceptional work Andy! =D>=D>=D> Especially the Files section is very interesting. It will encourage information sharing. We can have threads dedicated for uploaded material. This is good stuff!:prayer:

The main thread of such articles is to take the following approach: 1. Show major financial problems 2. Relate them to a set of political decisions 3. Take the opposite view to the political decision 1 and 2 are fine in many cases, 3 is questionable or wrong. It's not black or white. If a law...

Article is good in certain parts (especially analyzing causes for the current crisis). However I don't like partisan articles. I don't like the idea of a "hidden persuasion". I want just facts and data not questionable interpretations. The article builds to the idea of public financial sector...

I found this thread by accident looking for a different topic. Interesting read. I think Andy's approach is the correct one. Let's assume you were accepted at all top 4 NY programs (NYU, CMU, Columbia, Baruch). This is a pretty common case. How do you decide? Well you build different...

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/are-facebook-friends-worth-their-weight-in-beef/

Be very careful Ilya. It is good that you are active on this forum, excited to learn and to keep up2date. However some restraint is always needed especially in a professional environment. This is not a chat room. As for data on Wilmott, try first 3 links on google with key 'wilmott'. If you...

The examples that you've provided are exceptions not the rule. Looking only at the top 10-20 personalities in the field will not say much since their paths are different than other quants. We are talking about building a strong resume not a stellar, world-class researcher.

How can experience count against FE? If it is not relevant, you don't mention it in your quantitative skills/experience section.

Correct, this may be rephrased a bit and put on a wiki as a general response to this question. There are many areas to implementation. It can be pure software design, it can be operating systems programming, it can be numerical programming, it can graphics, it can be networking programming, it...

Skipping over fallacious remarks about civil unrest, I am even questioning the relative impact of this depression for U.S. vs other countries. More specifically, I don't see any evidence of relative slowdown of U.S. vs other powers. China economy is slowing down more proportionally to U.S. due...

Baruch will evaluate each admission quickly and the process is pretty flexible. As a result, admission offers are sent before other universities in NY area. Some universities will send results middle of August. At Baruch, summer refresher courses are already done at that time ...

Dr. Carr is an exceptional proffesor, one of the few researchers and practitioners at same time. For me, he is the image of NYU Courant Program as well as Bloomberg Research. Listening to his lectures you get the feeling: "How come nobody thought about that. It makes absolute sense." There are...

A post that shows real student experience skipping the name of the school, proffessors, degree etc. All that is important, even essential for some fields. Quantitative finance program (or applied math ;) ) is really all about acquired skills. In my opinion, a quant needs to work equally in 3...

Interesting choice of video Shlomi :) Happy Hanukkah and have a good holiday season!

These "supervised or controlled market" opinions are nothing new. They just come more to the surface now in the middle of the crisis. Any journalist or economist has the satisfaction to say: "I told you so!" Few said this from 2003 to 2007 when securization was blooming. Personally I tend to...

Work experience is just one part of your application. First and foremost you need to take all advanced math courses and get high grades. Calculus, Linear Algebra and Probability are especially important. You need to have an inclination for Math. Next you need to have a good programming...

This is an interesting subject. I've read only a bit from the links on the thread. In graphics and hardware research GPGPU is a hot topic. Computing power is incredible, the "price" being to write parallel code. For option pricing (finite differences, trees etc) we would need to change the...

I do share some of your opinions and I do take everything with a grain of salt. However the main difference is a clear position. You say in one post that Math cannot be applied in finance, then you say you think current models should still be used up to a point, then you say that all areas of...

Many opinions ready to dismiss all current models. If a model is based on some wrong assumptions, you would think, you would correct the assumptions, change the model, monitor it better, adjust the risk. No, the solution that you are proposing is to burn all models. Ok. All are burned. We don't...

There are a few good programs on West Coast (e.g. Berkeley). Also San Francisco offers good oportunities as a financial center ...

For Calculus, try Stefanica's Math Primer book. For Linear Algebra, Strang's book can be a good starting point. For Probability and Stochastic Calculus, Shreve's book is the reference. Last 2 books are more theoretical, but still required.

For this reason, I find most of TV shows to be artificial. A set of people are repeating some stuff that they've learned by heart. They delve in precise/matematical areas with subjective measures, no evidence and no logic. Skipping the logic of opinions, all is built to make a big show: laugh...

I would refine the statement a bit. For graduate studies there are 2 base directions: 1. academic - research, PhD, focus on academia theory, all around strong foundation 2. proffesional - focus on practice, limited time, study only in directions that are useful in immediate work For academia...

Fair statement and it can be extended to many other jobs on Wall Street. Even "business support" areas like pure technology will involve long hours and work during week-ends. The environment is highly competitive. Other career paths can be summed up in a recipe, does not work for jobs where you...

Nobody is "putting effort" in quants. Quants have a set of skills for which they are remunerated. As long as an employee will provide a return significant larger than investment, he/she will be a valuable asset. So instead of proletary frustration, you would have to step back and think maybe...

Exactly! I had a few heated arguments about this item at work yesterday. I was trying to defend the quant team that did the modeling. The model is as good as the assumptions and more importantly the data that you feed. Any credit evaluation needs to be based on some historical or rating data...

From information you have provided here, MBA or a PhD in finance is more suitable. MFE is not directly related to fundamental analysis. If you feel it is interesting to price CDS or exotic options for example then this would be in the realm of financial engineering. Also the goal to work in...

This is a very risky direction. Fed has right to vote on compensation only as a shareholder. So they can decide bonuses for Fannie, Freddie, maybe even AIG. Also they can impose some restrictions on bonuses for highest executives. All fine so far. However forcing a low compensation pool is a...

Good blog entry, fully agree In U.S. there are a set of different exchanges, however this is not true in all countries (e.g. China, Brasil, Russia etc). For instance, in Romania, the clearing house was started by an institution reporting to Parliament. Then it slowly moved towards a more...

Nice article. I think regulators are baffled with the size of the CDS market and they cannot even decide where to start. If we look at the past, imposing an exchange/clearing house will not be beneficial. However, they can start a new clearing house and try to attract a few big players as...

A famous line related to the thread: "Don't try to catch the falling knife" If you are in the market at the moment and even after 70-80% drops, you still feel confident about the stock, you don't need to exit. However, you need to consider that investment lost completely. Basically consider...

And the roller-coaster continues, MS down around 18% ...

Same here. Quant skills will be useful in any financial services company. It is naive to say that all quants will be out of the job and everyone will analyze balance sheets, work in marketing or management. Maybe some job markets will be reduced (e.g. MBS) however others will expand (risk...

I agree with you that it is not fair, but do you think it is something new? Throughout history, in any country the bulk of power has been concentrated within hands of few people. From medieval to fascism to communism. Do they have unlimited power. Not unlimited but we don't really know the limit...

Your opinions are stronger in this panic mode. It is easy to shout SELL when everyone scrambles for the exits. Nothing special here. I am more conservative when it comes to private sector, perhaps since I have experienced communism also (especially through the life of my parents). First of...

Your responses follow the statements from Hull's book.

I am a part-time MFE started this year. Responses to your questions. ---- I am trying to decide if i want to apply for part-time or full-time admission to MFE programs. [Stefan] MFE at Baruch does not differentiate between full-time and part-time. Same admission criteria, same classes etc...

If you look at simple numbers, in order to replace fossil fuels, solar or wind is very, very far. Furthermore in the process for these alternative energy sources, you get to consume conventional source energy. I think the only direction for immediate replacement is: nuclear fission...

I agree with Doug's observations. It was a useful conference to attend even though it was related to equity entirely. My top 3: 1. Execution Risk - presentation closest to real implementation and with plenty of details. He was the only presenter who revealed some of the market-making...

Adding to Alain's comments, even back-office infrastructure is only partially out-sourced. I work in infrastructure, a lot of investments in India by Wall Street. Still the structure is centered around NY. The engineering and direct service comes primarily from NY or LN. The rest is some part of...

Outsourcing is not something as easy as you may think. It is true that Wall Street companies are global and they have offices in dozens of countries. However, outsourcing is a big challenge including back-office and middle-office technology. There are significant resources spent in training and...

With data from Weindong, registered last week through email.

This is another Black Monday, when everything seemed so clear yesterday... :cry:

I don't think americans outside of Wall Street understand the urgency of current condition. Credit market is essential for survival of the economy. You can continue without credit for 1, 2, 3 months. However if credit is frozen, companies will have very high cost to develop their main business...

I agree with you (though not too many will be on our side ;)) However everything changes. The fear is that a freeze in the credit market for 1 year or more will hit the economy. This will convert back to a hit for the financial sector. The boulder can start rolling ...

Things start moving quickly. Feels like 2 weeks ago, staring at the stock price (GS and MS down between 15-20% :-ss:-ss:-ss

Unfortunately you are correct. Many MFE programs will not have substance. This is different than masters in C.S. where the focus is academic so the background is not so volatile. Any computer science masters will have a part of design patterns/networking/OS which are stable knowledge base. They...

Thanks for the sites Andy. The second one looks interesting. In my "spare time" I will look around the information on wilmott ...

Ilya, As a current GS employee, I am sorry but Alain put it perfectly right: With current attitude you would not survive a few days at GS. There are many core values of GS culture (at least 14), meritocracy is essential however teamwork and credit is more important. I trust people that I work...

Yes, hedge funds that survived the crisis will thrive for next couple of years. They will attract more cash since the options are reduced. They can also hire competitive employees from IB ranks easier. Also, I believe that many hedge fund strategies will work just fine going forward (e.g...

I can understand the "angry tax-payer" approach. The cost is large as mentioned by everyone. However let's throw this plan aside. Does anyone in Washington have an answer to following questions: 1. What is the alternative? 2. Do you understand the reaction of the markets? 3. Do you have any...

Long-term greed is one of the most important trigger in capitalist system ...

Paulson has a proven record, same as Bloomberg or Mack. These are the people that should lead the country. These guys can understand global economy from theory and practice. These guys know how to talk to Chinese government, to a corporation, to a fund etc. They have an extraordinary work power...

This is the question on Wall Street. Hard to anticipate. I have mixed opinions in this space. The culture of the two companies is very strong in some way elitistic (pure meritocracy) so I think they will be pretty special banks. I see them more like financial services entities regulated by the...

The guy in red in the back was from the Czech group that was playing American Football. He makes the picture almost perfect.;) If I would have turned a bit to see the sign on the shirt: "Come and get it!" would have been perfect :) Anyway, overanalyzing ...

The comment is perfectly suited exactly for this reason. We were talking about last week, worries, gloomy discussion. It looks like a couple of guys pondering how they lost everything and ended up living in Hooverville :)

I love the comment with the bums =D>=D>=D>=D> Next time, will go business casual ...

I think in the end, the fear spreaded among short-sellers made the difference. Cuomo came out that he will chase all false short-selling. SEC said they will regulate it more and I think there is a rumor that short-selling practice will be similar to UK for financials. Huge relief here, at...

Exceptional jump for both GS and MS. MS jumped from 16 to 22 in less than 30 minutes ... 37.5%

Now all doomsday scenarios are coming into play. Everybody blaming the derivative OTC market. It is not fair since this market is not invented by IB, it was also based on needs of funds/investors/companies. It is easy to demonize Wall Street companies and side with taxpayer. However, in...

Things are moving very quickly. Panic is definitely dominant at this moment. Everybody looking for next victim. Everybody questioning Alt+A exposure. Things seem more dire than last year. I think a big challenge will be the orderly default of Lehman. Even if ISDA organized a special...

In the wake of default ... http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aNMh_8NRE6QM&refer=home http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aW2k6NiDhqJ0&refer=home

Just to be sure $99 applies also for part-time students in MFE?

It should be very interesting. I would be up to take a vacation day from work for this event. Is anyone else planning to attend? If we get a list of students, then I guess registration is simpler ...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a7f6sTM_KQ7s&refer=home

The retail revenue is a "safe" steady source of income. For this reason, ML has a strong position. They should be a bit safer with from liquidity issues. Furthermore, Thain is an exceptional CEO. He has cut the losses, sold a lot of subprime ballast (e.g. transaction with Lone Star). Overall the...

Doug is right. I think it is very difficult to get even an entry level position at the moment. Competition is fierce but more important, the companies reduced or stopped recruiting until storm weathers. This is a good time to be an observer and understand what solutions these companies are...

I agree with Alain and I work for GS. 'Happy camper' does not sound like something I would use related to work :)

It is an interesting rumor. Many other about Lehman. Anyway, something would need to be announced quickly (few days). I think it is an intense CDS speculation with those spread ;)

What do you think about current state? A simple starting point for the discussion: Contracts protecting $10 million of Lehman debt for one year cost 11 percent upfront and 5 percent a year, according to CMA prices at 8:50 a.m. in New York. That's up from 1,200 basis points at the close of...

I was just relaxing at home in Romania before starting 3rd year of college. I worked for about 2 months that summer at a software lab, so I had a vacation till October 1st. I turned on the TV to watch a Discovery documentary and switched by accident to a general station. Normally I would not...

After Doug's post, I browsed a bit through Shreve's "Methods of Mathematical Finance". I like it and I will read it in more detail, however it would be a bit more difficult as a starter. I would start with Math Primer from Stefanica. It gives a feel of option pricing and it starts from simple...

Just wanted to add that hist book is one of the best book I've read with this format. It describes all characters personally and motivates each action. It is like being a fly on the wall at LTCM ...

I signed up for Reuters 1 and 2 on Sep 20th from 1-5PM. They did not have another window available :-k Will see if I can fit everything in one day ...

It would be very interesting to get a feel of different algorithms. More specifically, as it was already mentioned, since risk is not part of the equation, a lot of instruments will be neglected. So, a lot of theoretical side would not be used to create the model. It would be also interesting...

Adding a few observations to Doug's point: 1. Baruch's class has mostly students that have worked in U.S. 2. Most of the students are over 26, very few are coming to this proffessional program immediately after undergrad studies. 3. All students had multiple chats with alumni, proffesors etc so...

So you see Buffet's approach as the only "fair/pure" investing? In that case, I don't really see the discussion on this forum :) There are many strategies that can yield a good profit. I don't see one being superior to another, especially since the risk of the strategy is hard to quantify...

I agree with Alain, I don't see anything of substance in the article either. 1. We don't have the metrics. Is it daily trading volume, is it yearly volume etc. 2. From algorithmic trading bucket, how much is pure automated trading, how much are trigger based transactions. To simplify, as you...

Assuming following: - you can start at $150K with a PhD - free PhD funded by university still PhD is not profitable only from financial perspective. You are "losing" 4 years at least after masters. Also, in those 4 years, the person with masters, has grown in wage. Starting from 100K, in 4...

I agree also with most of the posts here. From my own experience (and many other that I know), you should be 110% that you love doing research in that specific field. I have started a PhD in C.S., stopped at MS in the end, because I was not convinced about research. I enjoyed it sometimes...

I think you have a overly-simplified perspective on career. We focus only on trading here, of course MFE would not be suited for pure marketing or accounting position. First of all, if your goal is to work in trading and also make a lot of money then my response is simple: graduate level...

Most of strategies/models apply to large pools of money. With a few hundred K, the most "complex" thing you can do is to build a plain vanilla options portfolio. You can also hedge it statically and sporadically. From my point of view, I think everyone should look for their personal advantage...

Extraverted 1 Intuitive 12 Thinking 88 Judging 44

The medals are going to be a problem since Romania got just 2 so far (1 gold, 1 bronze);) Though I am willing to cover some drinks for the other countries. I will try to join you guys. Good idea Eugene=D> http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/medals;_ylt=Ao_EoFplhCoNAp2qhzC3fOQSv5V4

That is better ;) . Will analyze in-depth when I have a bit more time ...

Interesting requirements, pretty general. Since there is no precise setup, some of the quantitative side can be made generic. Basically, the teams can use all simplifying assuptions and get to some result that has an intuition. That would need to be understood by the "sales person". In the...

Fully agree. I doubt that all programs will instill the same model to all students. They will start from some assumptions and prove some theorethical results. However the space of assumptions is large, anything can be removed and trying to refine some properties. Simple example, a lot of...

In general I believe in specializing as opposed to a broad understanding without any real substance. In this case, from the quick summary of the competition, it is pure derivative pricing. I don't see how an MBA person can help here. The final result is a simplified model to simulate in some way...

8/10/08

8/3/08

In my opinion, Bear's demise is the most important financial event in the last 10 years. It is a bit higher than the LTCM fall. I guess in a few years, we will read a book similar to "When genius failed" about Bear ... By the way, how did you see the job market react to this displacement...