Lunchtime Links: Quants aren't dead yet

23 December 2008

1 minute read

Financial services firms may not be as hungry for mathematical geniuses as they were 24 months ago, but nor are they consigning them to a life of theoretical physics. According to Reuters quants are still required by hedge funds and banks who want to factor previously unidentified risks into their models. Emanuel Derman, course director of the financial engineering programme at Columbia University says they've had to tweak the curriculum to take into consideration the fact that human beings don't always do what you expect. "You have to understand that you are dealing with people and markets," he told Reuters. Psychologists may be the next hot thing for 2009.

Banker voodoo dolls on sale in Iceland (Bloomberg).

Corporate finance execs wanted soon in Malaysia (DealBook).

Axe hangs over banking jobs in Asia (Reuters).

Arpad Busson: "We are living in a privileged manner, but that could disappear."

(The Times).

Peter Kraus collects $25m bonus at Merrill, and then resigns (Wall Street Journal).

Hedge fund slashing partners (Wall Street Journal).

Barclays Wealth hires from Merrill to grow its emerging markets business (Financial News).

Boris Johnson: "Is it economically beneficial to give chutney for Christmas?" (Telegraph).

AUTHOReFinancialCareers UK

Insider Comment

Pe
Peirre
25 December 2008
NJ, The average UKer who contributes to a pension won't be guaranteed a good return! People think they're going to retire with money and that those on benefits who aren't prepared to work are headed towards an unhappy retirement.
Why do people work?
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UB
UBSguy
24 December 2008
"The economy needs a complete transformation and science has to come back to power."
This has been already happening for the last 60 years in a country called the United States of America. Sure the Wall Street financiers screwed the US economy now, but I can't think of any other country in the world where science plays such a important role in the economy.
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DC
DCB
24 December 2008
NJ,
Actually agri is almost certainly the best performing real estate sector in the last 12 months
Reply
NJ
NJ
24 December 2008
what a hell. The cream of the society studies science and fine arts because there is no meaning in studying finance. its a useless subject. In the last 25 to 30 years, the world has become a complete capitalist based economy and because of that people working in banks got the total control of the world. There were literally deciding the future of the world. the result is a disauster. This is the result of below average people of the society controlling the world. All of you need to look at the fundamentals.
An average guy in UK has to work all his life to buy a house, which is nothing but a piece of wood. Is this sustainable? There was a similar demand for agriculture land in the previous century. who is buying agricultural land now?
The economy needs a complete transformation and science has to come back to power. All of you need to remember that the whole westren world developped only because of science and technology and not because of complex financial instruments.
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DC
DCB
24 December 2008
BC, of course you need models to price derivatives, and we'll never escape models, but at the route of our problems was the believe that credit risk can be modelled; it cannot be.
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