Create an Account
username: password:
 
  MemeStreams Logo

For Wall Street's Math Brains, Miscalculations

search

possibly noteworthy
Picture of possibly noteworthy
My Blog
My Profile
My Audience
My Sources
Send Me a Message

sponsored links

possibly noteworthy's topics
Arts
Business
Games
Health and Wellness
Home and Garden
Miscellaneous
  Humor
Current Events
  War on Terrorism
Recreation
Local Information
  Food
Science
Society
  International Relations
  Politics and Law
   Intellectual Property
  Military
Sports
Technology
  Military Technology
  High Tech Developments

support us

Get MemeStreams Stuff!


 
For Wall Street's Math Brains, Miscalculations
Topic: Business 11:50 am EDT, Aug 25, 2007

Nerd, meet Black Swan. Swan, meet Math Nerd.

They are the powerful, cerebral and offstage actors of Wall Street. They are the math geniuses of the quant funds.

Their complex and sophisticated mathematical models replace instinct. They try to turn historical trends into predictive science, using elegant mathematics seemingly above the comprehension of your average 401(k) participant or Wall Street fund manager.

Instead of veteran, market-savvy traders waving fistfuls of sell slips, the elite quant funds employ Nobel nerds with math PhDs, often divorced from the real world.

But the 387-point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average Aug. 9 and the continuing turmoil in the markets, in part attributed to massive sell-offs by the quant funds, have tarnished some of the quants' glimmering intellectual credentials and shown that, when push comes to shove, they can rush toward the exits as fast as a novice investor.

... The press-shy Simons would not comment for this article, and a Renaissance spokesman could not be reached for a comment.

For Wall Street's Math Brains, Miscalculations



 
 
Powered By Industrial Memetics
RSS2.0