Current PhD. Student Considering the Switch to Quant.

[bigbadwolf]

Whatever happened to string theory? It was *very* hot a few years ago.

It was horseshit from the outset.

 

[TehRaio]

speaking of, what do people in here think of econophysics? anybody familiar? I know it's basically a sub discipline of quantitative finance. Online economists seem not to fond of physicists taking this approach into economics/finance research. What about the people in Quantitative finance, what are they saying about it?

 

[Daniel Duffy]

It was horseshit from the outset.

I agree. Speaking of, I visited my alma mater ~ 1999 during the Celtic Tiger boom. It seemed as if the whole maths department had become string theorists. Awful. It is never good to mix physics and maths departments.
Hamilton and Stokes would turn in their graves.

 

[bigbadwolf]

speaking of, what do people in here think of econophysics? anybody familiar? I know it's basically a sub discipline of quantitative finance. Online economists seem not to fond of physicists taking this approach into economics/finance research. What about the people in Quantitative finance, what are they saying about it?

More horseshit. At least so far. Speaking of which, quant finance is not a science in any sense of the word -- except for some eclectic borrowing from math and computer programming for the purpose of making some money in the current economic setup. As this fossil fuel era of ours draws to a close, so will quant finance.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

More horseshit. At least so far. Speaking of which, quant finance is not a science in any sense of the word -- except for some eclectic borrowing from math and computer programming for the purpose of making some money in the current economic setup. As this fossil fuel era of ours draws to a close, so will quant finance.

Physics is not economics, nor vice versa.

 

[ShowMeTheLight]

As this fossil fuel era of ours draws to a close, so will quant finance.

Perhaps thats like saying religion will cease to exist as humanity exits the caveman/fossil fuel era. However, what if people have a fundamental, irrational need to try to beat the market? After all, thousands of years later, there is still a vibrant market for fortune tellers and even Indian witch doctors (e.g. can be found in NYC today).

 

[bigbadwolf]

Perhaps thats like saying religion will cease to exist as humanity exits the caveman/fossil fuel era. However, what if people have a fundamental, irrational need to try to beat the market? After all, thousands of years later, there is still a vibrant market for fortune tellers and even Indian witch doctors (e.g. can be found in NYC today).

There's an interesting discussion at Doomstead Diner on what will happen to finance when the grid goes down. Quant finance depends on the power of electronic exchanges. Paper-based exchanges effectively mean the end of quant finance. Markets will continue -- but HFT and stochastic calculus will be out.

Speaking of fortune tellers, it's not easy to find a good tarot card reader. Fortune telling is also a skill.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

More horseshit. At least so far. Speaking of which, quant finance is not a science in any sense of the word -- except for some eclectic borrowing from math and computer programming for the purpose of making some money in the current economic setup. As this fossil fuel era of ours draws to a close, so will quant finance.

Quant fracking?

 

[Jordan Platts]

* Software engineering / design.

The last is kind of hard to get without experience. How do you know what kinds of designs are bad unless you've screwed it up.

Indeed. Aka experience.

Ideally, (IMO) you develop a prototype, throw the BS code away (twice). 3rd time is super.

One small issue; manager thinks s/w product is ready to ship when '42' is outputted.

This is my life. The amount I have learned by writing the same functionality in a less bug prone, overall more robust way is much more than I learned from the one class I took in my undergrad.

 

[Daniel Duffy]

This is my life. The amount I have learned by writing the same functionality in a less bug prone, overall more robust way is much more than I learned from the one class I took in my undergrad.

In university we work with complete information and scoped problems. In industry it's like "here's a problem, fix it asap".