5 ms·

Quantly: News for quants

148 points by kefeizhou 15y ago

ElliotH 15y ago
Does anyone have any suggested reading on learning about this sort of thing? It looks like a fascinating area but I can't figure out where to start.
- kefeizhou 15y ago
  If you're looking for an overarching guide to the finance industry - The Complete Guide to Capital Markets for Quantitative Professionals By Kuznetsov is a good book to start. This book explains the major financial markets, players and products, and what a technical/quantitative person could do there.
- dxbydt 15y ago
  0.http://www.quantnet.com/quantnet-best-selling-books-2010/ http://www.quantnet.com/quantnet-best-selling-books-2010/ ( you must start here ) 1. http://finmath.uchicago.edu/new/msfm/prospective/plan_reading.php http://finmath.uchicago.edu/new/msfm/prospective/plan_readin... ( i graduated last month from this pgm. if you have 50K$ and 9 months to spare, its not such a bad idea to apply. i believe 50% of graduating class found a quant job with max paycheck 165K & 20-100% sign-on bonus ( hope this isn't classified info :) If you are smart, just read Hull cover to cover and solve all the problems. I'm not so smart :( ) 2. GS reading list ( supposedly...I worked for GS for 5 years, didn't see anybody reading these things :)) http://www.quantnet.com/goldman-sachs-reading-list/ http://www.quantnet.com/goldman-sachs-reading-list/ 3. http://blogs.reuters.com/emanuelderman/ http://blogs.reuters.com/emanuelderman/ ( runs the columbia MFE pgm. his blog's super-informative ). 4. if you understand very little math, then start here instead of at 0. http://finmath.uchicago.edu/new/msfm/prospective/plan_preparation.php http://finmath.uchicago.edu/new/msfm/prospective/plan_prepar... 5. my favorite quant books: http://www.amazon.com/Numerical-Methods-Finance-Economics-MATLAB-Based/dp/0471745030 http://www.amazon.com/Numerical-Methods-Finance-Economics-MA... http://www.amazon.com/Primer-Mathematics-Financial-Engineering-Second/dp/0979757622/ref=pd_sim_b_6 http://www.amazon.com/Primer-Mathematics-Financial-Engineeri... steven leduc primers ( cliff notes linear algebra, GRE subject math ) - quick brushup before interviews 6. personal suggestion - take 6 months to figure out if this is right for you. open a 5k brokerage account. don't buy any stocks, but grow that 5k by pure derivative play ( butterflies, condors, ratio spreads ) in simple equities. that math is invaluable and not so hard. plus, the programming is not too hard either - just simple 2D graphics, a few threads & number crunching will spit out payoff diagrams you can understand.
  - eurohacker 15y ago
    what are the essential skills that every quant needs to have
  - dfc 15y ago
    The "you must start here" is nothing but a popularity list. It does not really speak to the quality of the titles. Can you recomend anything specific from the list to start with?
- SkyMarshal 15y ago
  http://wilmott.com/ http://wilmott.com/
- profquail 15y ago
  Check out QuantNet (http://www.quantnet.com http://www.quantnet.com), Wilmott (as SkyMarshal linked below) and Nuclear Phynance (http://www.nuclearphynance.com/ http://www.nuclearphynance.com/). AFAIK, they're the most active forums for quants and usually don't mind answering questions for beginners/students.
lhnz 15y ago
That didn't last very long. 12 points and now there's a proxy error...
- alexholehouse 15y ago
  Indeed
- ghotli 15y ago
  Quants can't scale, scalers can't quant. ;)
- veyron 15y ago
  It's been down the past few hours. They've been HN'd (or YC'd or w/e analogue to /. )
stevenj 15y ago
There's also Hacker News for business news: http://forlue.com http://forlue.com
- btcoal 15y ago
  Just from glancing at the first page, there does not seem to be a diveristy of sources there.
  - stevenj 15y ago
    It's getting better. Though, I'd love it if more people made submissions.
orenmazor 15y ago
I feel as though thanks to Veyron's blog, many of us have added this to our daily routines. yes I ordered trading and exchanges on amazon :)
- s1rech 15y ago
  which blog are you refering to? I don't seem to find anything by Veyron on Google
  - orenmazor 15y ago
    veyronb.wordpress.com
    - s1rech 15y ago
      oh that one, I didn't recognize the name. Thx
    - veyron 15y ago
      the name veyron was already taken, hence veyronb :)
      - orenmazor 15y ago
        I really hope that's because you own a bugatti.
        veyron 15y ago
        waiting list :/
        orenmazor 15y ago
        R8 to pass the days, I hope
dmragone 15y ago
Fascinating. Gotta love the HN format. Any sense of what the Quantly user base looks like? Geographic diversity and all that jazz would be interesting.
- traldan 15y ago
  This is from March 2011, from their last(?) newsletter: Who Reads Quantly? Based on our web server logs, here are the top firms accessing Quantly over the past six weeks. The firms are listed in order, most traffic first. I've highlighted some of the more hardcore quant outfits. Credit Suisse Group, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Toronto Dominion Bank, Citadel Investment Group, Cooperfund, JPMorgan Chase, Susquehanna Ireland Ltd, Barclays Capital, Cerebellum Capital, QCAP Management, Putnam Investments, Quantmetrics Ltd, Tradeworx, DRW Trading, Goldman Sachs Group, UBS, Timber Hill LLC, SAC Capital Advisors, GETCO, LLC, Light Box Capital, Morgan Stanley Group, WH Trading, Crabel Capital Management, Top universities accessing the site: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Columbia University, Claremont University Consortium, University of California, Los Angeles, Stanford University, University of Hawaii, Imperial College London, University of California at Berkeley, New York University, Santa Clara University, Carnegie Mellon University,
joeycfan 15y ago
Here's some news for quants - you are responsible for a disaster and one day will be held to account for it.
vii 15y ago
Quants in banks are generally not working high-frequency trading which this website seems to focus on, and which generally requires very limited modelling. Therefore HFT is often the province of IT teams, though quants may have some input. The role of quants tends to involve hedging, calibrating models, and sensitivities -- http://www.risk.net/type/technical-paper http://www.risk.net/type/technical-paper As a rule of thumb: it is quanty iff the word convex is employed. Interestingly, this can be abused by the uninitiated -- "Have you considered the convexity of the underlying?" etc. -- to pretend to a deeper, quantier knowledge than that possessed. Depending on the asset class there are more specific books but "Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives" by Hull is a good starting point.
veyron 15y ago
Quantly is woefully inactive: http://quant.ly/newest http://quant.ly/newest says the latest 3 posts (not counting the 3 that were posted after the HN post) were 1, 7, 18 days ago respectively.
AlfaWolph 15y ago
May the grace of nickb be with you.

148 points by kefeizhou 15y ago

Does anyone have any suggested reading on learning about this sort of thing? It looks like a fascinating area but I can't figure out where to start.

kefeizhou 15y ago
If you're looking for an overarching guide to the finance industry - The Complete Guide to Capital Markets for Quantitative Professionals By Kuznetsov is a good book to start. This book explains the major financial markets, players and products, and what a technical/quantitative person could do there.
dxbydt 15y ago
0.http://www.quantnet.com/quantnet-best-selling-books-2010/ http://www.quantnet.com/quantnet-best-selling-books-2010/ ( you must start here ) 1. http://finmath.uchicago.edu/new/msfm/prospective/plan_reading.php http://finmath.uchicago.edu/new/msfm/prospective/plan_readin... ( i graduated last month from this pgm. if you have 50K$ and 9 months to spare, its not such a bad idea to apply. i believe 50% of graduating class found a quant job with max paycheck 165K & 20-100% sign-on bonus ( hope this isn't classified info :) If you are smart, just read Hull cover to cover and solve all the problems. I'm not so smart :( ) 2. GS reading list ( supposedly...I worked for GS for 5 years, didn't see anybody reading these things :)) http://www.quantnet.com/goldman-sachs-reading-list/ http://www.quantnet.com/goldman-sachs-reading-list/ 3. http://blogs.reuters.com/emanuelderman/ http://blogs.reuters.com/emanuelderman/ ( runs the columbia MFE pgm. his blog's super-informative ). 4. if you understand very little math, then start here instead of at 0. http://finmath.uchicago.edu/new/msfm/prospective/plan_preparation.php http://finmath.uchicago.edu/new/msfm/prospective/plan_prepar... 5. my favorite quant books: http://www.amazon.com/Numerical-Methods-Finance-Economics-MATLAB-Based/dp/0471745030 http://www.amazon.com/Numerical-Methods-Finance-Economics-MA... http://www.amazon.com/Primer-Mathematics-Financial-Engineering-Second/dp/0979757622/ref=pd_sim_b_6 http://www.amazon.com/Primer-Mathematics-Financial-Engineeri... steven leduc primers ( cliff notes linear algebra, GRE subject math ) - quick brushup before interviews 6. personal suggestion - take 6 months to figure out if this is right for you. open a 5k brokerage account. don't buy any stocks, but grow that 5k by pure derivative play ( butterflies, condors, ratio spreads ) in simple equities. that math is invaluable and not so hard. plus, the programming is not too hard either - just simple 2D graphics, a few threads & number crunching will spit out payoff diagrams you can understand.
- eurohacker 15y ago
  what are the essential skills that every quant needs to have
- dfc 15y ago
  The "you must start here" is nothing but a popularity list. It does not really speak to the quality of the titles. Can you recomend anything specific from the list to start with?
SkyMarshal 15y ago
http://wilmott.com/ http://wilmott.com/
profquail 15y ago
Check out QuantNet (http://www.quantnet.com http://www.quantnet.com), Wilmott (as SkyMarshal linked below) and Nuclear Phynance (http://www.nuclearphynance.com/ http://www.nuclearphynance.com/). AFAIK, they're the most active forums for quants and usually don't mind answering questions for beginners/students.

lhnz 15y ago

That didn't last very long. 12 points and now there's a proxy error...

alexholehouse 15y ago
Indeed
ghotli 15y ago
Quants can't scale, scalers can't quant. ;)
veyron 15y ago
It's been down the past few hours. They've been HN'd (or YC'd or w/e analogue to /. )

stevenj 15y ago

There's also Hacker News for business news: http://forlue.com http://forlue.com

btcoal 15y ago
Just from glancing at the first page, there does not seem to be a diveristy of sources there.
- stevenj 15y ago
  It's getting better. Though, I'd love it if more people made submissions.

orenmazor 15y ago

I feel as though thanks to Veyron's blog, many of us have added this to our daily routines. yes I ordered trading and exchanges on amazon :)

s1rech 15y ago
which blog are you refering to? I don't seem to find anything by Veyron on Google
- orenmazor 15y ago
  veyronb.wordpress.com
  - s1rech 15y ago
    oh that one, I didn't recognize the name. Thx
  - veyron 15y ago
    the name veyron was already taken, hence veyronb :)
    - orenmazor 15y ago
      I really hope that's because you own a bugatti.
      - veyron 15y ago
        waiting list :/
        orenmazor 15y ago
        R8 to pass the days, I hope

dmragone 15y ago

Fascinating. Gotta love the HN format. Any sense of what the Quantly user base looks like? Geographic diversity and all that jazz would be interesting.

traldan 15y ago
This is from March 2011, from their last(?) newsletter: Who Reads Quantly? Based on our web server logs, here are the top firms accessing Quantly over the past six weeks. The firms are listed in order, most traffic first. I've highlighted some of the more hardcore quant outfits. Credit Suisse Group, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Toronto Dominion Bank, Citadel Investment Group, Cooperfund, JPMorgan Chase, Susquehanna Ireland Ltd, Barclays Capital, Cerebellum Capital, QCAP Management, Putnam Investments, Quantmetrics Ltd, Tradeworx, DRW Trading, Goldman Sachs Group, UBS, Timber Hill LLC, SAC Capital Advisors, GETCO, LLC, Light Box Capital, Morgan Stanley Group, WH Trading, Crabel Capital Management, Top universities accessing the site: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Columbia University, Claremont University Consortium, University of California, Los Angeles, Stanford University, University of Hawaii, Imperial College London, University of California at Berkeley, New York University, Santa Clara University, Carnegie Mellon University,

joeycfan 15y ago

Here's some news for quants - you are responsible for a disaster and one day will be held to account for it.

vii 15y ago

Quants in banks are generally not working high-frequency trading which this website seems to focus on, and which generally requires very limited modelling. Therefore HFT is often the province of IT teams, though quants may have some input. The role of quants tends to involve hedging, calibrating models, and sensitivities -- http://www.risk.net/type/technical-paper http://www.risk.net/type/technical-paper As a rule of thumb: it is quanty iff the word convex is employed. Interestingly, this can be abused by the uninitiated -- "Have you considered the convexity of the underlying?" etc. -- to pretend to a deeper, quantier knowledge than that possessed. Depending on the asset class there are more specific books but "Options, Futures, and Other Derivatives" by Hull is a good starting point.

veyron 15y ago

Quantly is woefully inactive: http://quant.ly/newest http://quant.ly/newest says the latest 3 posts (not counting the 3 that were posted after the HN post) were 1, 7, 18 days ago respectively.

AlfaWolph 15y ago

May the grace of nickb be with you.