2 percent of the Caltech class

A friend of mine who runs a derivatives desk made job offers to 2 percent of the Caltech class of 2006. That's only 4 people, but still a pretty high percentage! 3 have accepted, the other went to a well-known software company. It makes me wonder how many kids who otherwise would have gone on to grad school (e.g., in engineering, math or physics) are heading right into finance these days. Smart move, if you ask me :-)

Most of my colleagues still don't take the theory of modern finance seriously at all. Even researchers who work on complex systems (modeling traffic, sandpiles, networks, ants, etc.) show surprisingly little interest. I guess the future belongs to the young!