How I Became a Quant: Insights from 25 of Wall Street's Elite [Hardcover]

Richard R. Lindsey (Editor), Barry Schachter (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 9, 2007

Praise for How I Became a Quant

"Led by two top-notch quants, Richard R. Lindsey and Barry Schachter, How I Became a Quant details the quirky world of quantitative analysis through stories told by some of today's most successful quants. For anyone who might have thought otherwise, there are engaging personalities behind all that number crunching!"
--Ira Kawaller, Kawaller & Co. and the Kawaller Fund

"A fun and fascinating read. This book tells the story of how academics, physicists, mathematicians, and other scientists became professional investors managing billions."
--David A. Krell, President and CEO, International Securities Exchange

"How I Became a Quant should be must reading for all students with a quantitative aptitude. It provides fascinating examples of the dynamic career opportunities potentially open to anyone with the skills and passion for quantitative analysis."
--Roy D. Henriksson, Chief Investment Officer, Advanced Portfolio Management

"Quants"--those who design and implement mathematical models for the pricing of derivatives, assessment of risk, or prediction of market movements--are the backbone of today's investment industry. As the greater volatility of current financial markets has driven investors to seek shelter from increasing uncertainty, the quant revolution has given people the opportunity to avoid unwanted financial risk by literally trading it away, or more specifically, paying someone else to take on the unwanted risk.

How I Became a Quant reveals the faces behind the quant revolution, offering you?the?chance to learn firsthand what it's like to be a?quant today. In this fascinating collection of Wall Street war stories, more than two dozen quants detail their roots, roles, and contributions, explaining what they do and how they do it, as well as outlining the sometimes unexpected paths they have followed from the halls of academia to the front lines of an investment revolution.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

The "quants"——Wall Street's disciples of quantitative analysis——have become the mar-ket's new superstars. Their mathematical models are now the basis for such financial market innovations as exotic derivatives, structured investment products, quantitative trading strategies, and portfolio selection.

What brought about this path-breaking investment revolution? Some cite the beginning of trading in exchange-listed equity options in 1973, while others credit the arrival of desktop computing around 1980. But perhaps the most important factor was the dramatic increase in the volatility of prices. It was this aversion to increasing uncertainty experienced by financial market participants——real, living, breathing people—that led to the quant revolution. So who are these people who develop the mathematical models that create new ways to allow people to modify their exposure to risk? How do they do what they do? Where did they come from? In How I Became a Quant, you will find firsthand accounts direct from the people who were swept into, and then helped fashion, today's "quant-driven," dynamic world of finance.

More than two dozen quants tell their stories here and detail the varying paths they have followed——often from university graduate departments of physics, math-ematics, and engineering——to Wall Street. Peter Carr, head of Quantitative Financial Research at Bloomberg, tells of his progression from cornering the local paper delivery market as a boy in Toronto to teaching at Cornell to ultimately helping Bloomberg start up its quant group. Leslie Rahl, President of Capital Market Risk Advisors, describes how she excelled in math and science as a girl, went on to MIT——so as not to be seen as "weird," as she thought might happen at other schools——and joined Citibank at a time when they had only two women VPs in the entire worldwide organization. Andrew Weisman, Managing Director of Merrill Lynch, reveals an academic background that began with study of the classics——Plato to Popper, Beowulf to Virginia Woolf, and oddly enough, swimming lessons.

These unlikely superstars of Wall Street now provide the intellectual horsepower to fulfill the dream of unlimited ability to manage risks through trading financial instruments. These are the stories behind their careers.

From the Back Cover

Praise for How I Became a Quant

"Led by two top-notch quants, Richard R. Lindsey and Barry Schachter, How I Became a Quant details the quirky world of quantitative analysis through stories told by some of today's most successful quants. For anyone who might have thought otherwise, there are engaging personalities behind all that number crunching!"
——Ira Kawaller, Kawaller & Co. and the Kawaller Fund

"A fun and fascinating read. This book tells the story of how academics, physicists, mathematicians, and other scientists became professional investors managing billions."
——David A. Krell, President and CEO, International Securities Exchange

"How I Became a Quant should be must reading for all students with a quantitative aptitude. It provides fascinating examples of the dynamic career opportunities potentially open to anyone with the skills and passion for quantitative analysis."
——Roy D. Henriksson, Chief Investment Officer, Advanced Portfolio Management

"Quants"——those who design and implement mathematical models for the pricing of derivatives, assessment of risk, or prediction of market movements——are the backbone of today's investment industry. As the greater volatility of current financial markets has driven investors to seek shelter from increasing uncertainty, the quant revolution has given people the opportunity to avoid unwanted financial risk by literally trading it away, or more specifically, paying someone else to take on the unwanted risk.

How I Became a Quant reveals the faces behind the quant revolution, offering you?the?chance to learn firsthand what it's like to be a?quant today. In this fascinating collection of Wall Street war stories, more than two dozen quants detail their roots, roles, and contributions, explaining what they do and how they do it, as well as outlining the sometimes unexpected paths they have followed from the halls of academia to the front lines of an investment revolution.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 386 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (July 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470050624
• ISBN-13: 978-0470050620
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #554,826 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars See how quants have changed the world!, July 29, 2007

By 

Yin Luo (New York, US) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How I Became a Quant: Insights from 25 of Wall Street's Elite (Hardcover)

Although people may argue why this and that person was not on the Wall Street's quant elite list, I'd say that the authors picked an amazing list of 25 quants, representing quantitative equity portfolio management, market microstructure, derivatives pricing, and risk management. Yes, as you may not be aware of, there are two types of quants, one in quantitative equity/market microstructure and one in derivatives pricing/risk management. They are somewhat related, but use very different tools. The former is less well known until early 2000s (the boom of market neutral hedge funds) and the latter is overly covered in academic programs since late 1990s.

It's very interesting and inspiring to learn how these 25 quants became quants. Many with physics/math background came to finance, due to the cut of funding in hard science after the cold war. Many people became quants because of "accident". Few people came to this world because they had wanted to do quant finance from the beginning. Of course, it's all different now. Smart and ambitious university students aim at quant finance from day one. There are also many graduate computation finance/financial engineering/math finance programs to choose from, so you don't have to go through a lengthy PhD program.

Life is highly path dependent (as many of the 25 quants said in the book). Choose your career careful, but more importantly, choose something that you really enjoy (and hopefully, also something you are really good at) - this is one of the key messages in the book. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone with a keen interest in joining the quant finance world.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Stories, Sloppy Editing, November 6, 2007

By 

Jim Kucharczyk (New Canaan, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How I Became a Quant: Insights from 25 of Wall Street's Elite (Hardcover)

A collection of first person narratives from some of the leaders of the quant revolution in financial markets over the last 3 decades. Some of the story telling seemed perfunctory, but in other cases it was downright inspiring. Most provide insight into the workings of Wall Street and the more exotic instruments and strategies in play in today's markets, and as such were of value to this non-professional reader.

Poor editing became annoying; words were not only misspelled, they were actually missing and had to be inferred from context.

Emmanuel Derman's "My Life as a Quant" provides only one story and not 25, but it is told with deep personal insight and a sense of humor. It also provides more technical discussion of a number of the important financial models developed and utilized in the market since the 1980s. For those interested in understanding how a hard scientist transitions from academia into finance, I would recommend it as a much better starting place than "How I Became a Quant."

My Life as a Quant: Reflections on Physics and Finance

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Many good & useful, some useless chapters, November 10, 2007

By 

MartinD "Martin" (London, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How I Became a Quant: Insights from 25 of Wall Street's Elite (Hardcover)

It seems almost every chapter is a variation on this answer to the question:

i) You don't become a "quant", because nobody can really defin what that is, but thanks for asking
ii) I got where I am today through skill, work, and (lots of) luck
iii) here's my well-polished story
iv) story

Still, it's a good read, mostly. Many chapters are interesting for the further reading they suggest, or questions they raise.