tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post115576583272152396..comments2024-01-13T18:57:18.243-05:00Comments on Information Processing: Portrait of a quant IISteve Hsuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02428333897272913660noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-1158504752507534362006-09-17T10:52:00.000-04:002006-09-17T10:52:00.000-04:00Professor Hsu,Surely with your large web of math c...Professor Hsu,<BR/>Surely with your large web of math contacts, you can come up with some information as to what securities and methods Simons uses in his math models? Any info at all, no matter how vague, would be useful.<BR/>HenryAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-1155843525339184762006-08-17T15:38:00.000-04:002006-08-17T15:38:00.000-04:00MFA:Chinese Fields medalists won't be new ... only...MFA:<BR/><BR/>Chinese Fields medalists won't be new ... only that they live and work in China rather than emigrating as with S-T. Yau.Sethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16486234948199900568noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-1155838664203718452006-08-17T14:17:00.000-04:002006-08-17T14:17:00.000-04:00Steve,Thanks for posting the caricature, as I was ...Steve,<BR/>Thanks for posting the caricature, as I was unaware of the "flat-front vogue" in dress pants. Now I can avoid it more carefully.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-1155838350190627142006-08-17T14:12:00.000-04:002006-08-17T14:12:00.000-04:00MFA and Anonymous: Ha! you are both very perceptiv...MFA and Anonymous: Ha! you are both very perceptive. To the journalist, Excel models and 800 SATs are impressive, but not to the cognoscenti :-) (Actually, Excel is used a lot, but real coding in finance is done in C++. I think 800 on the current SAT is the modal score at Caltech these days.)<BR/><BR/>MFA, I think I posted an article some time ago (NYTimes) which mentioned that the top traders Steve Hsuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02428333897272913660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-1155837509977517402006-08-17T13:58:00.000-04:002006-08-17T13:58:00.000-04:00Businessweek is more interested in selling magazin...Businessweek is more interested in selling magazines than accurately representing reality. An 800 math SAT is something that probably sounds very impressive to your typical Businessweek reader, but at the level we're talking about here looking at SAT scores would be like looking at a candidate's report cards from elementary school. I think that half of my class at Caltech had 800 math SATs, andAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-1155836130533187352006-08-17T13:35:00.000-04:002006-08-17T13:35:00.000-04:00A few comments:* Although many top math,CS, physic...A few comments:<BR/><BR/>* Although many top math,CS, physics students end up working as quants, I still think the very best still stay in academia. That does not mean anyone who gets to stay in the academia are better than those who left(often that is not the case, actually). I just don't see the work being as interesting to the geniuses. <BR/><BR/>I don't see Perelman or anyone who is a "Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-1155771285447584012006-08-16T19:34:00.000-04:002006-08-16T19:34:00.000-04:00Umm... there is no maximum value for math ability ...Umm... there is no maximum value for math ability (the normal distribution has a long tail :-)<BR/><BR/>Now, the question is whether returns to math ability are diminishing, or perhaps increasing nonlinearly :-) In the case of Perelman and the Fields medal, I think they are clearly monotonically increasing...<BR/><BR/>In the case of finance, it is quite likely that after a while it is some Steve Hsuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02428333897272913660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5880610.post-1155769975792358492006-08-16T19:12:00.000-04:002006-08-16T19:12:00.000-04:00Given a field of applicants with essentially perfe...Given a field of applicants with essentially perfect quantitative skills, I wonder when assets like communication skills, or something even less "quantitative", begin to take on value to the interviewer/company. At some point, sheer analytical brain power is no longer your limiting factor.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com