The Complete Guide to Capital Markets for Quantitative Professionals (McGraw-Hill Library of Investment and Finance) (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: market data network, desk quants, bond analytics, Wall Street, New York, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The Complete Guide to Capital Markets for Quantitative Professionals is a comprehensive resource for readers with a background in science and technology who want to transfer their skills to the financial industry.

It is written in a clear, conversational style and requires no prior knowledge of either finance or financial analytics. The book begins by discussing the operation of the financial industry and the business models of different types of Wall Street firms, as well as the job roles those with technical backgrounds can fill in those firms. Then it describes the mechanics of how these firms make money trading the main financial markets (focusing on fixed income, but also covering equity, options and derivatives markets), and highlights the ways in which quantitative professionals can participate in this money-making process. The second half focuses on the main areas of Wall Street technology and explains how financial models and systems are created, implemented, and used in real life. This is one of the few books that offers a review of relevant literature and Internet resources.

About the Author

Alex Kuznetsov, Ph.D., is a theoretical physicist by training who has worked in financial technology since 1997 at several leading Wall Street firms including Goldman Sachs and Barclays Capital. He is currently a director in the proprietary trading technology at Credit Suisse.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 600 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (November 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071468293
• ISBN-13: 978-0071468299
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #144,589 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-have for anyone eyeing a Wall Street career., November 12, 2006

By	Aleksey Popelyukhin "Ph.D." (Stamford, CT USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Rarely a book with a title as ambitious as "Complete Guide" fulfills its promise. This book does. Big time.
It is written for quantitative professionals (current and prospective) and gives a bird-view account of all types of activities available to them in a typical Wall Street firm.
The author cleverly avoids pitfalls of the books of this genre. The book is general enough to cover various settings, but not too general to become useless. It is detailed enough to provide relevant information, but not too detailed to become a software manual or a textbook.
The text educates without being annoying and entertains without being lightweight.
Hopefully, readers will appreciate consistency and appropriateness of the book's style. The author avoids over-fragmentation and "bulletization": the book consists of 20 chapters without any further subdivisions. It makes for much smoother reading undistracted by unnecessary subheadings.
After finishing the book one can only marvel at the author's efficiency, wondering how he could cram so much useful and interesting information in just 600 pages.

Highly recommended.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST Read for technology, May 15, 2008

By	Ira Klotzko (Wall Street, NY, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It is crucial to the success of a technologist on Wall Street to have a fluent understanding of the traders they support: More focused feature sets are developed, faster communication with traders (they have about a 2-second attention span) and correct assumptions are made.

Unfortunately, working in technology tends to isolate oneself from the trading floor. This is not necessary. Although, there are plenty of classics out there (read Fabozzi), they don't target the technologist who hasn't grown up on the trading floor. They still don't answer the questions, "Why would you do that", "What's the purpose", "What's driving everything"

This book turns the whole model upside down. The author goes into a very detailed and interesting history of the markets first. Then goes into the main areas any financial group handles: Treasuries, Futures, Interest Rate, Agencies, Options, Corporates (We won't mention mortgage).

After reading just the Treasuries and Futures section, I IMMEDIATELY saw a difference in my ability to communicate with the desk. I was able to suggest alternative approaches concerning enhancements and features, understand when problems arose, plus I actually understood EVERYTHING the trader said.

If you work in technology, be it QA, Software Development or even technology management, this is a must read.

Best of all, it's a great read. I found myself looking forward to reading the book every single day.

Enjoy

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's about time!!!, October 4, 2007

By	Thomas Caddoo (Denver, NC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you are involved with the capital markets and investment banking world on the technology side, you really need to read this book. Don't let the title scare you. The author does a very good job of pointing out how the capital markets business works and how technology is a major influence to to the sucess of this capital markets business. This title should be a must read for all MBAs.