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Congratulations, Alain!!! \\:D/

Bush subprime plan limited but a step forward CNNMoney.com Bush subprime plan limited but a step forward Thursday December 6, 6:03 pm ET By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer The Bush administration unveiled a foreclosure relief plan Thursday that the White House said could help 1.2...

Most likely tax payers' money or more bonds :)

By the way, a while ago I read that they did not want to cut the rate more because of the possibility of inflation. Any news about "inflation vs. rate cut" topic?

That is very true :) It would be interesting to hear what presidential candidates have to say about mortgates :)

You might want to stress your CFA exams when you write your essay, make sure to point out your long-lasting interest in finance that has allowed you to pass CFA exams. Many GRE books are good, just make sure you do a lot of problems in Math and practice the Verbal part as well.

The point was to make Wall Street happy :) and create a feeling that things might be getting better in the future.

I don't think your profile is that terrible for you not to apply to the top programs. As others suggested, apply to other programs (as many as you can).

Well, about Columbia and NYU. Check admission stats from these programs. 2.88/3.08 GPA and 750 on Quant GRE won't help you get there. Even 800 on Quant GRE won't guarantee admission, but 750 is a way too low.

Very interesting :) I don't picture running a HF as a side project, especially if you are right out of school. Of course, it is great to in terms of money they want to give and the opportunity, but what if you lose, say, 50% the next year :)

Mortgage Rate Freeze Reached Thursday December 6, 1:54 pm ET By Martin Crutsinger, AP Economics Writer Deal Reached With Mortgage Industry for 5-Year Rate Freeze WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush announced on Thursday a plan to freeze interest rates for five years for hundreds of...

As Andy said, 60K is a bit expensive. But maybe they will expand in the future.

I checked thier curriculum -- more or less -- standard set of typical courses: Derivatives, Probability, Stochastic Calculus, Stochastic Processes, electives in PDEs, Numerical Analysis, Time Series, Fixed Income. However, I did not see any C++ or programming of any kind, no courses in Risk...

I wonder how you came up with these numbers :) especially NYU 20% vs. Columbia 95% :)

Strange question :) I don't know what "lower and upper bound" is in this case :) I can give the probability of P(X<=2) = 0.2381.

I ckecked the link for the AF program. For the most part, it corresponds to a Masters in Finance program in the US. For example, Baruch has an MSF program where they study Corporate Finance, Investment Analysis, Options, International Finance, Fixed Income, Entrepreneurial Finance, and many...

In that case, I'm wondering, who gets to work in Front Office in Singapore.

Andy, one correction :D, there no snow in New York and I don't think there will be any for the next few weeks :) by the way, compared to Moscow, New York is much warmer :)

Welcome to Quantnet! and best of luck! :)

I used this book at CMU.

I have collected course descriptions for the two programs above. But before I post my comparison, maybe we can also compare other programs as well. By "comparison" I mean description of the areas that programs span. For example, both programs have stochastic modeling component, but other...

I'm not on the market to look for a full-time job yet. By "harder" I meant the general job search process of FE's and, say, BioStat's. You listed "Can't find a good job, thinking of switching" as one of the possible reasons for changing careers :) FE is more competitive than BioStats or...

Are those your reasons? :) In my case, it is all simple. Financial Math and Stats are the growing areas where I can apply my knowledge. In terms of job search, it is actually the opposite. It is harder for me to find a job in Finance than in some other area of Math and Stats. For example...

Just like I said in another thread, finance ain't less stressfull than IT :)

Yes, Columbia's MFE is a one-year program. The other program can also be completed in one year.

Great idea! I used to have a library of papers on credit derivatives when I was taking that class at CMU. I wished there was a resource what could explain those complicated formulas :) Now I mainly use Wikipedia, since it contains most of the definitions we encounter in finance.

Interesting question. I was under the impression that finance is more stressful than IT, in general. In finance, the most interesting and challenging positions are those where you get to develop something that makes money, and that is very stressful :) because if you are wrong, then the...

Actually, there is one plus of not having discussion boards. If you get stuck on a problem and have no one to ask, you try a million ways to solve it. By following those million ways, you inevitably read some extra material, learn other things that you would not learn if you were given a hint...

Sam, that is excellent! I wish everyone's boss would be like that :) Actually, my boss was also supporting me in getting an MS degree. She had let me shift my schedule so I could leave work at 4:30pm to get to school on time for 6pm class. My commute was 1h 15min. It is nothing compared to my...

Any 4 year CUNY school is a good choice. They all should offer core undergrad math courses. Personally, I would prefer something close to home.

I will check the individual course contents and report later :) It might be a good idea to do this kind of comparison of the top N programs. It is interesting to observe that Baruch has a couple of unique [required] courses not featured among the requirements at Columbia :)

Side by Side comparison of the two Columbia programs

Very funny :) the whole lecture on subprime mortgage crisis :)

Registration block is the least of the problems :) As was pointed out before, the system does not know you are taking the prerequisite for a next-semester class, so it blocks you. Kindly email Cathy and let her know your situation.

Thats exactly what I was going to say :) Only a few schools require Math GRE. I don't think Baruch requires Math GRE, so submit your application without Math GRE, but make sure you do it before the deadline.

Very nice :) How does your boss feel about you leaving the company? He basically is helping you find another job and leave the company. I have a feeling that in a few years, 50% of degrees, especially in business, will be awarded online.

Sam, I'm just wondering, how do you take exams at Columbia? :)

Shakti, now I see :) One of the things you can do is check departmental websites of each school you want to apply to and find professors with interests similar to yours. Usually, professors have homepages where they list their interests along with publications, and some publications are...

No, MIT was not one of them, neither was Columbia :) I was talking about Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Florida, both of which I happened to attend. CMU tapes all of their lectures in Computational Finance program. The University of Florida tapes some of its lectures; they...

I am assuming you are talking about Dr. Steve Shreve :) I did a Math certificate at CMU's Computational Finance program, and was planning to do a Finance certificate but decided not to due to high costs (now it is about $6000/semester). Check the courses offered by the programs and see what...

Ph.D. is not just finding a topic for a publication-level paper. In the first few years you will be taking classes. Later on you will need to find an advisor who works in the area that interests you. He or she will help you find a topic. I don't think you can just come up with your own topic...

Definitely choose Columbia over Stevens if no other options are available. Also, carefully check the courses they offer. Do a degree at Columbia but keep an eye on Stevens. Maybe Stevens will let you take one course if it is not offered at Columbia.

Well :) if they say you can send General without sending Subject, then that is seems to be the case :)

No :) I'm talking about the Math GRE test, not the Quant portion of the General GRE. I took GRE Math long time ago, and when I send my scores to schools, I get a report in the mail; that report has all my GRE schores - General and Math - I have taken in the past. So I'm wondering if the schools...

I was under the impression that ETS sends all your GRE scores if you request them to be sent to schools. But maybe I'm wrong.

Very interesting :) I can understand negative prices, but "reverse direction flow"? :D I haven't heard of this before, and nothing like this was mentioned in my undergrad Physics course :)

From Yahoo! Finance:

James, Welcome to Quantnet! Do you consider any of Columbia's programs?

As one of my Stats professors likes to say "depends on who's paying the bill " :) BB can become BBB or B :) Havent GS made money on this? If so, their models (or people's reasoning) worked. So they were able to predict the outcome. What is it that they knew that everybody else missed?

It is not just because of its high oil production but because you need to know the right people who know the right people who help you make an oil company your own :) without investing much in it :)

The best place on earth to trade energy is Russia :) They make money out of nothing :)

I agree with Andy. Top 5 CHE and Great GPA (in CHE) is much better than unknown future of a Financial Engineer, where there are many obstacles starting with not so easy to get into good schools and ending with huge competition for those high paying jobs. If I remember correctly, the person...

I wonder why would any school have a program specifically in commodities? :) It is my understanding that schools try to diversify their offerings so satisfy the needs of most people.

With so many places, it is hard to keep track of them. I might have profile on facebook but don't visit the site very often. I only visit Quantnet and a Russian website :)

I agree, you don't need a degree to be a trader. I've heard about many Forex training programs where they teach you certain things to become a trader. They claim anyone can do it :) Another question is what makes you not being able to be a trader :) and here is where personality comes into...

Take as many programming/C++ classes as you can, at least, one, better two. The entry level coures are almost the same at every school. There are differences between schools offering MFE related degrees. Besides schools' reputations, they also differ in courses offered. You need to check...

Andy, awesome theme!!! I've made it my default theme :) very nice when I'll wake up in the middle of the night to check the forum :D

Gus, how could you! :D

Abhishek, Welcome to Quantnet :)

I don't know much about placement of Poly's FE graduates. I don't even know if their FE program is actively involved in job placement. What I know for a fact is that Poly's Career Service office has been doing a great job in placing undergrads.

As I heard from graduates of the Polytechnic's FE program, their program is a bit disorganized and does not give as much math and CS as other similar programs. They don't have strong courses in Stochastics, PDEs, Programming, Statistics - a must haves of an FE program. They mostly have courses...

Why don't you go for an MBA? MBA is usually for people who are looking for managerial positions and are less quantitatively oriented. I am not sure whether you can get a managerial position with MS in Finance.

Yes! In fact, everybody has a chance. The sronger your credentials, the higher your chances are. Make sure you apply for next Fall.

If everyone follows his lead, there might be huge demand for MFEs in the future. There is one thing I'm curious about. Given that Quant-oriented people have various skills, I wonder what the distribution of the skills is and what is the demand for each skill. By "skills" I mean knowledge of...

But isn't sales more on the MBA side?

It is obviously clear what our rankings would be on this forum :) In any case, since most of the schools on your list have similar characteristics of quality education and job placement, you should concentrate on your personal interests. Schools have different courses, and even the same...

Happy Birthday!!!

I took SAT a million years ago :) I don't remember how I did, but it was definitely worse than my GRE :) Actually, there was time when I could not solve math problems because I could not read English :) For example, I remember I could not solve the following problem in high school "a die is...

I could not believe it when I read the news earlier today.

I tried Ubuntu once, but uninstalled after one day. I guess I'm so used to Windows. By the way, I installed Vista as a 2nd system on my Notebook. So far it works fine, looks like they've fixed a few bugs.

Too bad I don't speak Chinese :)

Best of Luck :)

Take an intro finance course if possible, or read a book on introductory finance. That way you will know what is going on in finance :)

Sony to launch cheaper PlayStation 3 Sony to launch cheaper PlayStation 3 http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN1732325620071018?sp=true

As it was pointed out above, the number of applications increases every year. I think this is due to the increasig popularity of Financial Engineering and Fianancial Mathematics. More and more people hear about it, and more apply :) Obviously, not everyone who wants to get an MFE is qualified...

Stochastic Modeling/Processes, by the way, is a very important part of Electrical/Systems Engineering :) So if you understand it, you are half way through FE :)

Check the 3rd post in this thread :)

Acually, Electrical Engineering is one of the possible backgrounds to enter into Financial Industry :) I always think of Dr. Shreve who has a Masters in EE. This is because electrical engineers know/study stochastic/signal processing that come useful in Finance. You can do one of two things...

UCSB is one of only a few schools that offer PhD in Financial Math. We should add it to our list of schools that offer PhD in the area :) You are very fortunate to study at UCSB. I think the person who got me interested in Financial Math got his PhD from UCSB. Regarding work experience. I...

Check the wiki page, the link is in the top right corner. It has info on related programs. Regarding 30% of fresh grad. I think 30% is not a small number and you can perfectly be one of them. Actually, many students get their BS and get jobs and then realize that they are interested in...

Are we talking about the University of California at Santa Barbara? :)

Is that the good old Brickbreaker that I'm thinking about? :)

As I read somewhere, this might have caused Monday's drop in indices.

Thats exactly what I did :)

Where are you from, anyway? :) Sweden? :)

Bloomberg says $80 billion :) Oct. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. will announce as soon as tomorrow that they are establishing a fund of about $80 billion aimed at reviving the asset-backed commercial paper market, said people familiar with the...

Welcome to Quantnet :) what do you think about getting into Financial Engineering after you graduate?

I honestly have no idea :) An application is considered as a whole and they will evaluate you based on whether they think you can succeed in the MFE program. And how you get evaluated is unknown to us.

Happy Happy Birthday :)

As a side note: comparing GPAs from different countries is difficult. While it is possible in some countries to get 95% of A's, in others 50% A's and 50% B's is quite a good thing to have :)

This is very true. First of all, it is personality that matters. You can be whoever you are or not be :) and become a trader just because you have the skills.

Yes, for certain "trading positions" you definitely need an MFE. :) My post was addressing the question "what can you do with MF?", and one of the things you can do is being a trader. In addition, there are many positions in various organizations that require financial skills. So if you have...

Veeeeryyy nice :) so many things I'm missing while being a student :D Need to find a job and get this ASAP :) :D

Nice :) Is that the newest they have from Blackberries?

CQF is more for industry professionals. I want to increase my academic knowledge, and then, maybe, apply what I learn.

Gus, thanks a lot for the link! $3,500 is not very expensive if it is for 1 whole semester. I used to pay around $5,000 at CMU (two minis $2,500 each). In light of these costs, I just love the fact that Baruch charges much less :) even out-state tuition.

I was looking for the online version of the program but could not find it, could you please post a link? :) I'm thinking about taking a course at Columbia, and it would be great if it is offered online.

Good question. I don't know the answer but can give my opinion. MS in Finance is not much different from BS in Finance. You need to take courses like Intro to Finance, Corporate Finance, Investment Analysis, International Finance, etc. Also, Finance MBA take almost all courses that MS in...

Joe, why do you say they are boring? :) I'm thinking about moving to Kew Gardens or Forest Hills because LIRR trains stop there.

Well... you can live in NYC and find a job on Long Island. My friend lives in Brooklyn and works in Port Washington :) he drives both ways, maybe half the time he sits in traffic but at least it is some driving experience :) So not all is lost for you :D

Looks like you've hedged your bets everywhere :)

The one on the left :) looks very much like those guards that I saw guarding the Royal Palace in Copenhagen, Denmark :)

The Official Site of The Arizona Diamondbacks: Homepage :D I found them. I had a chance to go to a game once, but did not.

My two programmer friends gave me a lecture on API yesterday :) I might be joing your company of Alg. Traders soon :) Just need to have some free time and figure out a couple of things.

Well, I've heard of Arizona's Diamondbacks :) is that baseball? :)

Putin is rather good :) because other people who want to be presidents are not good :) Vodka is also OK, I can survive without it :) Mafia is a different question. Actually, it is not mafia but the system that does not protect you if you are making money. So if you are making an extra $$$...

Google answer from top sources: 2006 info: Vietnam's technology market is worth US$800 million today... The country is also Asia's second fastest-growing economy. Last year, Vietnam's economy grew at 8.4 percent, behind China's 10.2 percent. Top Tech Index 2006 - ZDNet Asia VIETNAM...

4TB?? ?????? ???? :) Work + School + Blue-Ray + Quantnet = No Sleep? :) About USNews. I don't know. I have a feeling that if they wanted to do it, they would be working on it right now. We can probably ask them if they plan on having FE category.

Andy, by the way, where are you from? :) In my case, I'm not sure whether I will be able to move back to Russia even if they pay me enough :) Russia is just so different from the US in many aspects of life, not just money. For example, you need to get used to being harrassed evey day of your...

Andy, am I getting a feeling that you are turning away from Quantnet and to Blue-ray movies? :D

I don't know the statistics on this one, but there should be people with no experience working in hedge funds. They obviously don't become managing directors but can certainly be of some help in other areas.

MBA might be good to work as an executive or a top manager. But as the articles suggest, you don't really need an MBA for a hedge fund :) I think you rather need an MFE :)

Something similar exists at CMU, MBA/MSCF. But I don't know why would students pursue dual degrees like that.

Welcome to Quantnet :) if you have any questions, just ask.

I agree with Joe, location does matter a lot. I lived in Florida, but did not like it very much. And I will have to really like something about the company if I were to go back to Florida to live and work there. Also, depending on your preference, you can rent an apartment in Queens or...

Very interesting, indeed :) I'm sure all of us have a story to tell :)

I'll ask around, one of my friends lives alone but he works till late at night.

I knew about Quantnet from the beginning. My join date of Feb 2005 is probably when I registered in the forum to participate in Risk Management class discussions.

Oh, I see, the big kid Andy :)

Yesterday I found out that even TIAA-CREF -- a pension fund -- has quants. Looks like every reputable finance company has quants :)

Linear Algebra is the easiest. You do, indeed, need if for the program, but only numerical aspects of it. Things like how to reduce matrix, how to find LU and Cholesky decompositions, determinant, eigenvalues, multiplication of matrices, inverses etc. I am not sure whether you need to know...

All these numbers are insane :) Of course, $85 in NM and NY are different things. A lot depends on your lifestyle. The biggest difference is probably in Real Estate :) Check how much it would cost you to buy/rent a similar house in NYC. Also, find the numbers for Albuquerque, then just use a...

Yes, 100%. Take Partial Differential Equations, and, if possible, take the Ordinary as well. You need to make sure you know 1) Calculus, 2) C++, 3) PDE, 4) Probability

From what you said, getting into an FE program is definitely a way to go! Best of luck :) CS and Math is one of the best mixes (if not the best) for FE.

I am sure there is a reason for this. I am also sure the Program Director Dan Stefanica has planned everything for many years ahead. And if increasing class size is in his plans, the program will grow in size on the day he planned :)

Andy, is that you? :)

It is difficult to quantify "how hard" :) A lot depends on your background. For some, math is a piece of cake, some might find it very challenging. The same can be said about C++ or finance. But overall it is fairly challenging, giving you enough to be busy :)

Cristian, welcome to QuantNet :) hope you like it around here!

Woody :) +10 , 5 of which for the banana guy :)

Very interesting :) thanks for sharing! Now I know where to go if things don't work out for me in Finance :)

And another one is : Help from TAs This one proves to be crucial in certain cases.

Andy, I thought you don't have access to the forum from work :D

Very cool :) I was doing something similar at CMU. In addition to class time, they also have online lectures so that you don't really need to come to class. At that time I was enrolled at Baruch and CMU simultaneously, and online lectures helped me to concentrate more on Baruch during the week...

Which one is that? I know they have something online, but I was not sure that it is called MFE. :)

Good question :) To make the chat rooms more active we need at least a few people to be online at the same time, which is not easy.

(1) is not easy to get either. there are couple of excellent courses that are offered only by a few schools and nowhere else.

But there is really no way to find out how good the environment is without actually enrolling in a program. Baruch is a nice exception :)

Definitely retake GRE regardless of the school you are applying to.

I never tried any of those restaurants (in more than 4 years of my studies) :) should stop by next time I come to Baruch :)

This one needs some thought. 1) Course Selection - There are courses that I would like to take, and it is very desirable to have them offered. 2a) Faculty Expertise - Teaching faculty need to be experts in areas that they teach (for example, professor teaching probability needs to be an expert...

Why don't you pick a topic that is closely related to insurance? Something from the area of insuring debt. For example, CDS - Credit Default Swap.

Happy Birthday!!! :)

A few years ago, outcome could be very different depending on where you go. By outcome I mean job placement and the quality of knowledge. A few years ago, these two were different for different schools. But now, many schools catch up in terms of what they offer, key subjects -- stochastic...

That is very cool :) If I was a programmer, I would probably program games :)

Baruch is definitely THE Best School in the World in terms of \(\frac{OUTCOME}{COST OF STUDY}\)

I think some schools do care, at least, thats what I was told. There should be statistics on schools' websites showing average, min, max age of incoming students. Baruch does not care, as far as I know. And that is very good.

In my case, FE is an area where I can use my quantitative skills and do something useful. 20 or so years ago I would want to be an Operations Researcher or a Statistician :) Actually, I am one, but with applications towards FE. Its just 20 years ago I would be definitely working either in...

First of all, there are many schools that you can apply to. Apply to all "levels", i.e., top ones, mid-level, and safety schools. - Study for GRE and score high. - Get into the finance industry if possible, find a job as close as possible to what FE people are doing. - Take relevant courses...

Actually, there are many international students in the US. It is just the US are open to students from all over the world. So we can even think in terms of world population proportions :) When I was in Florida doing statistics, we had 1 person from Chile, 1 from Mexico, 1 from Philippines, 2...

Steve, were you the one behind Windows 95/98 etc? :D

I have a feeling that part of the answer to this question is that schools in China, India, Russia, and Ukraine (that you did not mention) are very good in terms of mathematics and computer science. So applicants from the above countries are very competitive. And I can add that, in general, an...

It is hard to say, especially because a lot of applicants have backgrounds similar to yours. Plus some actually have MS in CS, and there are people with PhDs applying as well, and if you add applicants with Wall Street experience... the applicant pool is getting stronger and stronger every year.

Microsoft Correcting Calculation Error in Excel 2007 By Vivek Shankar Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp., the world's biggest software maker, is working to correct multiplication errors in Excel 2007, the latest version of the most popular spreadsheet program. Excel gives the wrong...

By the they, are there any thoughts about having a course in SAS/S-Plus? Half semester in SAS, half in S-Plus. Part of the course could be devoted to learning SAS and databases, which seems to be a very important.

I was browsing jobs at Wachovia the other day, and found that most of their jobs are in Charlotte, NC. What do you think about Charlotte? At one time, I was told that there are many banks in Charlotte, and it is a sort of financial city like NYC but smaller.

Yes, they do have branches in NY, but only a few ones. I was looking for one after I had left Florida and found just one or two branches in Manhattan. On the other hand, there are many Citibank, Chase, Washington Mutual and other banks around. So I was not sure how strong they are in terms of...

There was a time in my life when I could appear in a movie :) but was cut out after the scene was filmed :) my guess is that I could not properly handle the dog that I saw for the first time.

By the way, I wanted to ask how people came across financial engineering (after studying something else)? Should I start a new thread? :)

Alain, I think what you said makes sense :) After all those years of medical schools, money spent, and sleepless nights people don't want to start over. Plus, as you said, if a person makes enough money, and, I add, if he/she likes the field, there is no point of switching :)

Baruch MFE is definitely not a safety school anymore. Actually, two years ago it was not a safety school either :) my friend was rejected a few years ago, but I know he is smart and knows a lot.

Welcome! :) If there is anything in particular or even in general that you would like to know, just ask :) By the way, since you undergrad is in CS, you can consider yourself on the way to being a quant.

Andy, do you know how "big" are Bank of America and Wachovia? I had never heard of Wachovia until I came to Florida :) and was under the impression that is is more like a local bank. Is it in their power to buy a part of Bear?

It looks like we have almost all majors covered :D Anybody from a medical field? :) Nurses, doctors, dentistis? :)

SAS is very powerful in terms that you can do virtually everything. Although, it might not be the most efficient way :) I would vote for SAS, but keep an eye on S-Plus as well. Actually, we could try to compare SAS and S-Plus, rather than SAS and Matlab, since, in my opinion, SAS and Matlab are...

Yes, CS and Math seem to be the optimal backgrounds for FE. The only thing is... most CS people don't really want to go to FE. Most of the people who I know to have CS background are not willing to do Finance. They are comfortable doing what they are doing. One person is doing MBA at NYU...

I am very curious about the ratio of students in MFE who had previous exposure to finance to those who had non-finance background prior to joining MFE :)

Australian Dollar Approaches 18-Year High; Yield Premium Widens Australian Dollar Approaches 18-Year High; Yield Premium Widens By Chris Young Sept. 27 (Bloomberg) -- The Australian dollar rose to near an 18-year high as the yield premium investors earn for holding the nation's bonds...

$1.45 by year-end? No way !

Dollar Trades Near Record Low Versus Euro Before New Home Sales By Kosuke Goto Sept. 27 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar traded near an all-time low against the euro on speculation a U.S. housing report will bolster the Federal Reserve's case for cutting interest rates. The U.S. currency is...

I was not aware of the fact that there were history and art majors in MFE :)

Kind of similar to what I'm doing now, but I went from Math to Stats and OR, and, of course, FE :)

TOEFL is a very dark subject :) It all depends on a school policy. Do as Andy suggested :) There are schools that ask to even take a speak test even if a person graduated from a US high school. So taking TOEFL is not a huge problem :)

If someone figures out how to use stochastic processes in portfolio theory and make money :) that will be a success.

I know one stock broker, he only has a BS in something like Finance from ASU :) and is very happy.

BS in Mathematics :)

If you want to be a broker or someone in this area, BA in Finance is enough :)

Mostly, in MFE we study Stochastic Processes with regard to options, interest rate derivatives, credit derivatives etc.

I am not familiar with Technical Analysis. Regarding Stochastic Processes, I have a book "Stochastic Portfolio Theory", haven't read it yet, but the title suggests that there are many applications of Stochasticity to portoflio theory.

You will be able to do stock analysis after FE. Just not every kind, only top level :)

MS in Finance is more general in terms of that you learn how things work: markets, exchanges, corporations etc, and learn how to do elementary things. MS in FE is concentrated more around how to do complicated things with help of math, computers etc.

I think there should be a way. With 4 cards on the table, we are left with 48 in the deck for the friend to guess from. If we agree on seniority of the cards (dimonds => hearts => spades => clubs), we can use the 4 cards on the table as fixed letters A, B, C, D. There are 24 permutations of...

Andy, why is that? One of my friends has an option of getting a company paid phone, but in return he has to be on call :) Sounds unrealistic but thats what I was told.

Russian multimillionaires are a separate story. You need to really know every individual to be certain that his wealth is not part of "USSR cake" that collapsed in 1991. And we will never know all the details about these people :)

I think you've summarized everything there is to say about fin aid for MFE :) As I understand, the only way to finance grad school education (other than grants, loans and scholarships) is through TAs, RAs, GAs and Fellowships. There are a few TAs in the program, but I'm not sure who they are...

Even the Canadian Dollar is traiding almost 1 to 1. Where is all of this going?

Dollar Falls to All-Time Low Versus Euro on Fed Rate Outlook Dollar Falls to All-Time Low Versus Euro on Fed Rate Outlook By Min Zeng Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar fell to a record low against the euro and touched the weakest since 1976 versus the Canadian dollar on speculation the...

China's Yuan Must Rise Faster, U.S.'s McCormick Says China's Yuan Must Rise Faster, U.S.'s McCormick Says By Bernard Lo and Li Yanping Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Treasury Undersecretary David McCormick said China needs to let the yuan rise faster, after a 10 percent appreciation in the...

China is a hidden treasure to me :) I don't know anything about them. But from what I've heard they are growing at a speed of light.

This makes me very proud of my MFE degree :)

October 19th is an excellent date :) marked it down, enough time to get the book as well.

By the way. If you had your own hedge fund, how much money would you like to manage? $10 Million, $100 Million, $1 Billion, $10 Billion or more? :) I think big numbers are difficult to handle.

So many interesting stories :) It is time to think about having own company :)

We might be interested in studying the population to see how bad things can go before different people start selling. Or any other situation where the same thing happens to many people and we want to observe what they do. Based on that, we can see what most people would do in a certain...

Game theory is something different. It is still based on mathematical models. I'm talking more along the lines of psychology. For example, various stress situations and how different people react to them and what decisions do they make.

No, I'm not a quant yet :) I'm trying to get a PhD after MFE (there was a discussion about it elsewhere in the forum). As far as the statistics go for those who graduate and looking for jobs, it has been 100% or a little less in the past. So not only those in the 90th percentile find jobs, but...

Yes, something like this :)

Not to flood this thread with unrelevant info, I've posted an article in my Blog on Mourinho exit from Chelsea.

I would like to think that we all are quants here or quants to be :)

That is exactly the point :) if only we could predict the human factor. I've heard of something called "behavioral finance", a discipline that studies how people make decisions.

A talk would be very interesting :) looking forwart to it.