I'm pretty sure we have Wall street quants here, unless one of them offers a convincing argument that yes, they are well ahead of academia, I don't believe it.

I'm pretty sure we have Wall street quants here, unless one of them offers a convincing argument that yes, they are well ahead of academia, I don't believe it. In my anecdotal experience, the financial industry is light years behind most post-graduate level mathematicians and physicists. Finanical math is kind of scary for anyone who knows more math than the average banker.